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Michelle Broomes

Janay: Delicately British Lingerie Debut

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Above: Contours Lingerie founder, Tia Lyn poses with her great grandfather's National cash register. "Tia Lyn’s true passion is for life ... Read More

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anti-vaccers want more studies but refuse to accept studies memeI frequently encounter people who state that, “I’m not anti-vaccine/GMO, I just think that we need more studies” or “we need more research before we take major action on climate change.” I have, however, noticed that whenever someone declares, “I’m not X” they usually end the statement with some pathetic justification for why they are in fact X, and that is definitely the case in this situation. The cry for more studies on vaccines, GMOs, etc. is nearly always hypocritical and stems from a willful ignorance about just how many studies there actually are. The reality is that topics like vaccines have been so well studied that they have achieved the status of settled science (please actually read the linked post before berating me over that term). So, the problem isn’t that there aren’t enough studies; rather, the problem is that people refuse to read or accept the hundreds of studies that we already have. To be fair, I have occasionally encountered people who asked for more studies out of honest ignorance rather than willful ignorance, and those people quickly retracted their statements once I directed them to the veritable mountain of published literature. That type of ignorance is fine. There is nothing wrong with not knowing something, then updating your view when presented with evidence, but in my experience, those people represent a tiny minority, and most of the people who demand more studies are doing so out of willful ignorance.

Note: Before I present some examples of this flawed excuse for denialism, I want to make it absolutely clear that I am not suggesting that we should be doing less research or should spend less funding on science. I am a scientist, and like most scientists, I spend a minimum of 60 hours a week collecting and analyzing data, writing papers, etc. So obviously I place a high value on scientific research, and I think that we need more of it. The amount that most governments invest in research is pathetic (granted, I’m clearly not objective on that issue). So, I’m not saying that we need less research, but I am saying that there are certain topics that have been so well studied that we should move on and focus our efforts on real questions.

The autism scare is the perfect embodiment of this situation. Anti-vaccine parents continue to insist that we need more research on the link between vaccines and autism, when the reality is that there is no link. Study, after study, after study, after study, after study has failed to find any link between vaccines and autism. In fact, we have dozens of these studies including a massive meta-analysis with over 1.2 million children which failed to find any significant difference in autism rates between the vaccinated and unvaccinated. That is one of the largest sample sizes that I have ever seen, and as a general rule, the larger the sample size, the more certain you can be of the result (I explained the evidence in more detail here).

Now, if you’re an anti-vaccer, you’re probably thinking, “fine, there are studies, but they were all paid for by Big Pharma,” but you’re wrong. Many of those studies (including the meta-analysis) had no conflicts of interest. Further, even a recent study that was funded by an anti-vaccine group failed to find any evidence that vaccines cause autism. Finally, you have to evaluate each paper individually and present actual evidence that they are biased/flawed. You can’t just blindly accuse all of them of being bought off.

In the spirit of openness and honesty, I will acknowledge that if you dig around, you can find a few studies which have suggested that vaccines cause autism, but these are nearly always poorly designed studies that are riddled with problems. Further, most of them are correlation studies that cannot establish causation,  and the few studies that actually made proper comparisons all had tiny sample sizes (you can find details about most of the papers here and here). Sometimes you get false results, just by chance, but the odds of that happening are much lower with larger sample sizes, and when numerous large studies all agree with each other (as is the case for vaccines) it would be absurd to reject them in favor of a handful of tiny, methodologically flawed studies.

My point in all of this is simply that the supposed link between vaccines and autism has been studied so many times by so many researchers that we are extremely confident that the link is imaginary and we should move on. Nevertheless, anti-vaccers continue to insist that we need more studies; therefore, every year more studies on vaccines and autism are conducted, but that’s absurd! We know that vaccines don’t cause autism, but we don’t fully understand what actually causes it (though genetics seem to be important), nor do we know how to cure it or even effectively treat it, not alone prevent it. That is what we should be studying. We should be trying to understand its real cause, and we should be looking for ways to actually help the people that have it rather than pouring money down the toilet looking for an answer that we already have, especially when the group that is demanding the studies is never going to accept the results of those studies. Are we really naive enough to think that study number 100 will convince them when the past 99 haven’t? If a sample size of 1.2 million isn’t enough to persuade you, than nothing will ever be good enough for you. That is why the claim that we need more studies is nearly always hypocritical. You can’t sincerely claim that there aren’t enough studies while simultaneously willfully ignoring all of the studies that we actually have.

Note: I want to be clear that there are many researchers studying the real causes of autism and potential treatments, but my point is that every year money and countless man hours get spent doing yet another study on vaccines and autism, and that time and money would be better spent elsewhere.

If we expand the situation beyond autism, we find the same pattern across vaccine issues. Anti-vaccers ardently insist that there aren’t enough studies despite the fact that there are literally thousands of studies. We’ve looked for relationships between vaccines and SIDS, (Hoffman et al. 1987; Griffin et al. 1988; Mitchell et al. 1995; Fleming et al. 2001; Vennemann et al. 2007a; Vennemann et al. 2007b), asthma (Kramarz et al. 2000; Offit and Hackett 2003Grabenhenrich et al. 2014), allergies (Koppen et al. 2004), general health (Schmitz et al. 2011), etc. You name it, we’ve done it. Vaccines are probably the most well studied topic in medical history, and if you claim that they haven’t been well studied, you are simply displaying your own ignorance.

To be clear, I obviously think that any new vaccines should be rigorously tested before being released to the general public (which they are, btw), and I have no problems with doing research on any novel concerns that arise if that there is good justification for them. However, it is a pointless waste of time and money to continue to study topics for which we already have very clear and well established answers. Further, you absolutely cannot justify opposing vaccines on the basis of a lack of studies because in reality, there is a plethora of studies.

Moving beyond vaccines, we find the exact same story for GMOs. In fact, I personally encounter this argument more often for GMOs than for vaccines. People tell me all the time that we need more research before eating or growing GMOs, but is it really true that they haven’t been properly studied? If you are one of the people who thinks that it is, then let me ask you this: how many studies would be enough to convince you? A few dozen? A few hundred? How about 1,700? Would that be enough? Because we have well over that. This review from 2013 examined 1,783 studies and failed to find any evidence that GMOs are dangerous for us or the environment. Say it with me: there are over 1,700 studies on the safety and environmental impacts of GMOs. Further, several hundred more studies have been conducted since that review, and they have consistently found that GMOs are no worse for us or the environment than traditional crops (in some cases they are better). So please, don’t sit there telling me that we need more studies unless you can also give me a logically and scientifically valid reason why you reject all of the 1,700+ studies that we have already done (you should also check out this massive review looking at the health of livestock before and after the introduction of GMO feed). Also, just to be clear, over half of those studies have no ties (financial or otherwise) to agricultural companies (details and sources here).

Finally, let’s look at climate change. On this topic, people are prone to claim that we don’t have enough evidence to warrant action, but that’s once again absurd. We have extremely clear evidence that we are causing it, and thousands of papers from numerous fields of study have confirmed the results. We carefully tested all of the known drivers of climate change, and no combination of natural factors can explain the current warming. The only way to explain the warming is to include our greenhouse gas emissions in the analyses (Meehl, et al. 2004; Wild et al. 2007; Lockwood and Frohlich 2007, 2008; Lean and Rind 2008; Foster and Rahmstorf 2011; Imbers et al. 2014). More details and sources here and here).

To be fair, it is true that we don’t know exactly how much we are causing it to change, or exactly what will happen in the future, and we should continue to study those topics; however, we have plenty of data to be extremely confident that our actions are causing the bulk of the current climate change, the changes will have negative consequences for us, and the changes will continue unless we modify our behavior. On those key points, there is no serious debate among scientists. So the claim that we should wait for more data before we take action is misguided and dangerous. Further, in my experience, this claim is nearly always made by people who completely deny climate change and will never accept the results of any study that opposes their preconceived views. So once again, the claim is disingenuous.

But what if…

At this point, inevitably, someone is getting ready to make a comment along the lines of, “but what if there are things that we missed? What if there is a problem with GMOs, vaccines, etc. that we haven’t found yet? Science isn’t perfect and it is arrogant to think that we know everything.”

I agree that science isn’t perfect, and if scientists actually claimed to know everything, I would agree that they were being arrogant, but they don’t claim to know everything. Rather, they simply make conclusions based on all available evidence, and when that body of evidence is extensive, those conclusions can be reached with a high degree of confidence. Look, it is always possible that we missed something. This is true for absolutely any technology that has ever been tested. As a result, it would always be possible to make this argument. No matter how many studies we’ve conducted, it is still possible that we missed something. Therefore, the only rational approach is to study something up to the point that we are as confident as we ever could be in the conclusion, and for things like the safety of vaccines and genetic engineering, we’re there. In fact, we crossed that line long ago.

Let me ask you this, if around 2,000 studies on GMOs isn’t enough, then what would be? How many studies does it take? There has to come a point at which you acknowledge that we have studied a topic so thoroughly that it is exceedingly unlikely that our conclusions are wrong, and if you ask me, that line occurs long before 2,000 studies.

This is especially true for things like vaccines and GMOs where the known benefits are great. We know, for example, that vaccines save millions of lives each year. So given that known benefit, it makes absolutely no sense to oppose them out of the slight possibility that we’ve missed some unknown danger. For things like climate change, the same concept applies, but the situation is somewhat reversed. In other words, all available evidence shows that the consequences of not acting will be dire, so saying that we shouldn’t take action because of the extremely slight chance that we are wrong is incredibly foolhardy.

In summary, do we need more studies on vaccines, GMOs, climate change, etc.? Yes, of course we do, but we need to be studying the things that are actually unknown rather than pandering to people who will never accept any study that disagrees with their biases and preconceptions. Replication is certainly important in science, and we should try to replicate any important results, but once a result has been consistently corroborated over and over again by numerous studies, we should move on. We should be focusing on how to improve vaccines and make vaccines for more diseases rather than producing yet another study on vaccine and autism. We need more research on making GMOs that provide vitamins and economic benefits to developing countries, and less research on whether or not the fundamental technology is safe. We should continue to study the climate, but we shouldn’t wait for future studies before taking action. In short, we should be studying new and marvelous things rather than repeating something that we have already done hundreds of times in the vain hope that people are actually reasonable and will be willing to change their views when presented with one more study.

Literature Cited

  • Anders et al. 2003. Association between thimerosal-containing vaccine and autism. JAMA 290:1763–1766.
  • Anders et al. 2004. Thimerosal exposure in infants and developmental disorders: a retrospective cohort study in the United Kingdom does not support a causal association. Pediatrics 114:584–591.
  • Destefano et al. 2004. Age at first measles-mumps-rubella vaccination in children with autism and school-matched control subjects: a population-based study in metropolitan Atlanta. Pediatrics 113:259–266.
  • Fleming et al. 2001. The UK accelerated immunization programme and sudden unexpected death in infancy: case-control study. BMJ 322:822.
  • Foster and Rahmstorf 2011. Global temperature evolution 1979–2010. Environmental Research Letters 7:011002.
  • Gadad et al. 2015. Administration of thimerosal-containing vaccines to infant rhesus macaques does not result in autism-like behavior or neuropathology. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science 112:12498–12503.
  • Grabenhenrich et al. 2014. Early-life determinants of asthma from birth to age 20 years: a German birth cohort study. Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology 133:979–988.
  • Griffin et al. 1988. Risk of sudden infant death syndrome after immunization with the Diphtheria–Tetanus–Pertussis vaccine. New England Journal of Medicine 319:618–623.
  • Hoffman et al. 1987. Diphtheria-Tetanus-Pertussis immunization and sudden infant death: results of the national institute of child health and human development cooperative epidemiological study of sudden infant death syndrome risk factors. Pediatrics 79:598–611.
  • Imbers et al. 2014. Sensitivity of climate change detection and attribution to the characterization of internal climate variability. Journal of Climate 27:3477–3491.
  • Jain et al. 2015. Autism occurrence by MMR vaccine status among US children with older siblings with and without autism. Journal of the American Medical Association 313:1534–1540.
  • Koppen at al. 2004. No epidemiological evidence for infant vaccinations to cause allergic disease. Vaccine 22:3375–3385.
  • Kramarz et al. 2000. Does influenza vaccination exacerbate asthma? Archives of Family Medicine 9:617–923.
  • Lean and Rind. 2008. How natural and anthropogenic influences alter global and regional surface temperatures: 1889 to 2006. Geophysical Research Letters 35:L18701.
  • Lockwood and Frohlich. 2007. Recently oppositely directed trends in solar climate forcings and the global mean surface air temperature. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 463:2447–2460.
  • Lockwood and Frohlich. 2008. Recently oppositely directed trends in solar climate forcings and the global mean surface air temperature. II. Different reconstructions of the total solar irradiance variation and dependence on response time scale. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 464:1367–1385.
  • Madsen et al. 2002. A population-based study of measles, mumps, and rubella vaccination and autism. New England Journal of Medicine 347:1477–1482.
  • Meehl, et al. 2004. Combinations of natural and anthropogenic forcings in the twentieth-century climate. Journal of Climate 17:3721–3727.
  • Mitchell et al. 1995. Immunisation and the sudden infant death syndrome. Archives of Disease in Childhood 73:498–501.
  • Nicolia et al. 2013. An overview of the last 10 years of genetically engineering research. Critical Reviews in Biotechnology 34:77–88.
  • Offit and Hackett. 2000. Addressing parents’ concerns: do vaccines cause allergic or autoimmune diseases? Pediatrics 111:653–659
  • Schmitz et al. 2011. Vaccination status and health in children and adolescents. Medicine 108:99–104.
  • Patz et al. 2005. Impact of regional climate change on human health. Nature 438:310–317.
  • Taylor et al. 2009. Autism and measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine: no epidemiological evidence for a causal association. Lancet 353: 2026–2029.
  • Taylor et al. 2014. Vaccines are not associated with autism: and evidence-based meta-analysis of case-control and cohort studies. Elsevier 32:3623–3629.
  • Van Eenennaam and Young. 2014. Prevalence and impacts of genetically engineered feedstuffs on livestock populations. Journal of Animal Science 92:4255–4278.
  • Vennemann et al. 2007a. Sudden infant death syndrome: No increased risk after immunisation. Vaccine 25:336–340.
  • Vennemann et al. 2007b. Do immunisations reduce the risk of SIDS? A meta-analysis. Vaccine 26:4875–4879.
  • Wild et al. 2007. Impact of global dimming and brightening on global warming. Geophysical Research Letters
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8 Responses to Do we need more studies on vaccines, GMOs, climate change, etc.?

  1. In the case of climate change, there is the additional motive, as well as justifying unwarranted rejection, that more research would mean more time before action. To quote “Yes Minister” from memory: the civil servant advising the Minister on how to avoid acting on a scientific report, says “Sayscientists disagree. Say more research is needed.” “But is it, and do they?” “Of course. Scientists *always* disagree and there is *always* a need for more research.”

    Liked by 1 person

  2. Reblogged this on Primate's Progress and commented:
    An undefeatable strategy for delaying or doubting. As Sir Humphrey As the Civil Servant Sir Humphrey advised Jim Hacker in Yes, Minister, when he wanted to evade taknig action about smoking, “Ssay the scientists disagree. Say there is a need for more research. Scientists always disagree with each other about something or other, and there is always a need for more research.”

  3. If the denier says that the science isn’t settled, and also wants to take away funding for research, how can the science ever be settled? Then again, consistency or intelligent thought are not their typical strong suits. Categorical denial, no matter the quantity or quality of evidence, is more their speed.

  4. Steve Brügge says:

    Another approach with the anti-vaccine crowd is to ask if they would want to go back to the early 1900s when millions and millions of children died from all the diseases for which we now have vaccines. In the case of smallpox, it’s not even given as a vaccine because it’s eradicated. What parent would choose polio over autism? The choice is obvious even if this imagined risk were real–vaccinate!

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Happy Monday

Several of my Facebook friends are participating in the 30 Days of Thanksgiving.  Each day you post one thing your thankful for.  I think I’m going to post one verse or group of verses from Psalms each day.  Check the new feature in the left-hand side bar.  (If you’re in a reader, drop by the website every now and then.)

Speaking of Thanksgiving – There is much disagreement among Christians over the celebration of Halloween.  There is some dispute over Christmas.  We should totally embrace Thanksgiving.  Expect a full length post on this soon.  We are not commanded to celebrate the birth of Christ.  (I’m not saying we shouldn’t, but more on that later.) We are expressly commanded to give thanks.

Power crews, utility trucks, National Guardsmen, TSA agents, water and a host of other people and supplies have gathered from all over the nation to assist in the recovery effort following Superstorm Sandy.  Christians, here is our chance to be the body of Christ.

Our church watched a video Sunday morning about Operation Christmas Child.  Even in a recession, we are the most prosperous and productive nation on earth.  About half of all people in the world live on less than $2 per day.  Sharing is caring.

Tomorrow is Election Day.  Pray for our nation and for all of our leaders.  Honor those in positions of authority.  God has established kings and kingdoms of this world, and ordained the events of history.  We are citizens and ambassadors of his coming Kingdom.  We are also citizens of this nation, and I find it offensive to suggest we should not participate in civil activities, namely voting.  I am an ordained minister and a teacher of American History.  To whom much is given, much shall be required.  American citizens have been given many material blessings, freedoms, liberties and responsibilities.  Vote.  Because you can is the reason you should.

Now, it’s not my place to tell you who to vote for.  But I sure enjoyed this:

Below is one more fall pic.  I’m going to transition from autumn pics to Thanksgiving style pics next week.  Have a Happy Monday.

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text:
Sharing time.  Saw the prompt liked it enough that I convinced AJ to post mine…  So first snippet don’t mind the grammar spelling and the inconsistencies it’s a very rough draft.

I followed with little resistance. Dorian opened his door and I was surprised to find it a stark difference from the rest of his living quarters. Where everything else was shades of gray, his bedroom was painted blue and everything else was bright and blue. The window let in sunlight. The rest of the house had been closed off to the sun. I stood staring in the doorway while Dorian went to the bathroom arond the corner. I could hear running water. I took a step inside. It was the first voluntary move I’d made. I smelled more cinamon and vanilla here than anywhere else in his house. I closed my eyes and took a slow deep breath.

I could feel the tension leaving with each breath. I opened my eyes and laid on my stomach across Dorian’s bed and I could smell Dorian all over the covering. I buried my face in the blue comfortor.

I felt Dorian sit down on the soft bed. I winced when he touched my back. “Garrett did this?”

I didn’t really know. I was doubting my sanity. “I don’t know.” It came out muffled and I had to turn my head to the side and I repeated myself. “I don’t know. I don’t know if he did it, or if he invaded my day dreams.” He’s never done that before.

Dorian nodded as he tenderly cared for the lashes across my back. Whatever he was putting on it stung and I could feel the increased crawling of my skin stiching itselft back together. I watched the man’s expression change as he applied the green looking salve to my back. Dorian asked, “You were day dreaming? About what?”

I could hear the hope in his voice and I looked over at him and he met my eyes. “Honestly. You. I was watching you walk away and thinking about … things”.

Dorian chuckled, “Things?”

“Do you really want me to spell it out, Dorian?” I sat up and turned towards him. His body was as close as humanly possibly to me without being in my lap.

Dorian felt uncomfortable or that’s the impression I got from the way he swallowed. I asked. “Do you want to know what I was thinking about, really Dorian?”

He nodded. I leaned in close and I could smell his perfect scent, the cinamon and vanilla were over top his scent but not. I could get lost in it. I whispered. “I was thinking about how much I wanted to kiss you. How much I wanted to see you naked. To touch your skin and feel your body against mine.”

Dorian’s breathing had increased and I could feel his warm breath against my neck. Dorian whispered. “I need to finish your back.” His voice sounded breathless and he didn’t really want to. But I pulled back and saw the lust in his eyes. He was fightin the temptation. I laid down on my stomach and let Dorian finish what he had started. His hands were delicate against my skin. I focused on each touch. My breath quickedn with each one. It wasn’t the intamacy I had been dreaming about since meeting him, but it was better – because it was free will and not about sex.

My back hurt less and the crawling had stopped. Dorian was wiping the excess salve from my back with a damp towel. When he was finished I felt the bed move and Dorian’s weight removed from the bed. I looked back at him and saw him unbuttoning his shirt. I turned around and sat up and watched him remove the button up shirt. As each button unfolded I saw the beginnings of a dark tattoo across his chest.

He wasn’t built like Jace or most other Venatori that I’d seen naked. I hadn’t really been with a scholarly type before. He had defined muscles everywhere but they were softer. The tattooo covered his chest and when he removed the shirt completely I saw it covered his arm from shoulder to just above his wrist. Dorian’s hand fled to his waist and I grabbed them and shook my head. “No.” I pulled him close to me between my legs and kissed his chest. “This is enough.” I licked and nibbled at his chest then looked up at him. “Is that okay?”

He nodded and pushed me backwards I crawled up higher on the bed and Dorian followed. His hot breathe against my skin. I pulled him to my lips and felt his soft lips against mine. He bit my lip softly and a moan escaped before I could stop it. Dorian’s mouth trailed along my chin and down to my ear and my throat. He used the perfect amount of tongue and teeth and I was putty in his hands. His hands were soft and gentle acrossed my body and I was in heaven touching the taunt soft skin of his back.

Dorian sat up abruptly and took my hands that had fallen to his thighs as he sat on my hips staring down at me. There was something primal in his eyes and it stirred things deep down inside. Dorian drew my hands above my head starting from my sides his hand caressing my skin. He pinned my hands there with both of his. His body on top of me. He kissed me deeply and I knew Dorian wanted to play rough. My mind started to panic. I wasn’t ready for that so soon after Garrett.

Dorian pulled back slightly and I managed to stutter out. “Yel..St..stop.”

Dorian sat up and let me go. I let my hands hang limp where he’d left them. “I’m sorry.”

Dorian got up and I followed him. “Dorian…Stop.”

He did and I pressed my body against his back wrapping my arms around his waist. “Just not today.”


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SF Shaker Face Tour

Bar Agricole

During my recent trip to San Francisco, I noticed all the bartenders shook the same way. I’m referring to how they shake cocktails, of course. In L.A. it seems everyone has their own personal style. There’s even a fun website devoted to “shaker faces.” And most recently, there was a New York Times article about the dangers of cocktail shaking. It was with then much surprise that I observed SF bartenders tended to bring the shaker near their ear. Adam at Blackbird explained to me he was listening to the ice and cocktails required about 20 shakes (more for egg white drinks).

Bar Agricole

The Scofflaw

On our first night in SF, we went to two bars; Bar Agricole and Beretta. Bar Agricole opened about a week after I was last in SF, last August. I had heard great things. The two cocktails I tried that night; Presidente and Bartender’s Choice (I was made a Scofflaw) were very balanced and well-crafted. The Presidente features Haitian rum, farmous curacao, grenadine and orange bitters. The Scofflaw is so named by those who “scoffed at the law” during the Prohibition. It was made with the requested bourbon. I loved the tulip shaped glass it was in and learned they were specially made for Bar Agricole.

Bar Agricole

355 11th Street
San Francisco, CA 94103
(415) 355-9400

Dolores Park Swizzle

On my last trip to SF, I wasn’t into any of the cocktail bars we went to except for Beretta. While I loved our bartender at the Occidental Cigar Club, I have to say the best drinks were probably at Beretta. And I did try the drinks at Bourbon & Branch and Rickhouse. We snagged seats at the bar and I decided to go easy with the Dolores Park Swizzle. It was light and too easy drinkin’. I was done in no time and decided to ask for a bartender’s choice.

Bourbon Greenpoint

I ended up with a variation of a Greenpoint. Usually made with rye, they substituted with my requested bourbon. The cocktail also featured Punt e Mas and yellow Chartreuse.

I commented that the tulip glasses were similar to the ones at Bar Agricole and was told by Ryan at Beretta that Thad (who co-created the cocktails at Bar Agricole) opened Beretta first.

1199 Valencia St
San Francisco, CA 94110
(415) 695-1199

Redwood Room at the Clift Hotel

On our second night in San Francisco, we went to Chez Panisse for dinner and by the time we got back to the city, we didn’t feel like wandering far. We decided to get drinks at our hotel bar, the Redwood Room at the Clift Hotel. Being really used to cocktailian bars, I didn’t quite know what to make of this Hollywood-lite lounge. I quickly got myself  a Jameson and soda and settled into an armchair where I watched the antics of scantily clad women and badged conventioneers, still resplendent in their polo shirts and khakis. Later, one of these conventioneers told me I was the most relaxed looking person the bar. Well, I suppose so since I wasn’t working and then I found out some of those scantily clad women were prostitutes and escorts. Yow!

I do have to say despite the bar shenanigans and intrusive comments from other bar patrons, the bartenders worked hard and efficiently to try to slake the thirst of the mostly oddball crowd.

Redwood Room at the Clift

495 Geary Street
San Francisco, CA 94102
(800) 406-6690

Pisco Punch at Comstock Saloon

Before dinner at Quince, we decided to get a drink at nearby Comstock Saloon. I had heard how much fun it was and the menu looked great. We were almost tempted to stay but it was very crowded. We did manage to worm our way on a couple of bar stools. I ordered a Pisco Punch to enjoy while listening to the ever-growing live band (it went from one musician to 3 by the time we left).

I really liked the look of this mining themed bar. It was definitely more intimate and cozy than the multi-leveled Rickhouse. My cocktails was piquant and a perfect way to begin the evening. I’ll have to come back the next time in SF to try the food.

Comstock Saloon

155 Columbus Avenue
San Francisco, CA 94133
(415) 617-0071

Blackbird Bar

Aged cocktails have been gaining in popularity. When I was in Portland, I went to Clyde Common where they aged their cocktails for a few months. I asked Blackbird how long they aged theirs and it ranged from 4-6 weeks in the barrel. Afterward, they remove the aged cocktails to glass bottles behind the bar because they found keeping the barrels on the bar to be clumsy.

The Northern Star

I started with the Northern Star (Bols Genever, Krogstad Aquavit, apricot liqueur, lemon and garnished with star anise) which was a warming drink even if it wasn’t actually a warm drink. The bar was busy Saturday night. It played mostly pop music but progressed to more rock by the end of the night and of course we closed out the bar. I was fascinated by the fastest bartender I’ve ever seen, Shawn of Blackbird. He was moving like a machine. Later I found out he worked at the ball park too and probably had to deal with mostly thirsty fans.

Bonnie & Clyde- aged cocktail

It came time to try the aged cocktail. I chose the Bonnie & Clyde. Made with High West silver whiskey, Dolin blanc, organic chamomile liqueur and baked apple bitters, this drink was very interesting. I would have to taste a freshly made one but this one didn’t seemed as “aged” as the one I had in Portland. There was still a certain snap and bite to this drink.

Market St. Manhattan

For my last cocktail in SF, I went with bartender’s choice and Adam made me Blackbird’s own Market St. Manhattan. With both rye and bourbon, this drink seemed more herbal to me and definitely up my alley.

I ended the SF Shaker Faces Tour in high spirits (bad pun intended) and ready to return to LA with a fresh thirst for wonderful cocktails. Now if only some bar here would do barrel-aged cocktails.

Blackbird Bar

2124 Market St
San Francisco, California 94114
(415) 503-0630


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Welcome to Moviehouse & Eatery Austin!

We love movies so much that we created a movie-going experience unlike any other. The best part about seeing a movie with us is the plush recliner that allows you to kick back and relax while enjoying your movie on a wall-to-wall screen. Not to mention our full-service kitchen and bar with a chef-prepared menu to order off of while you enjoy the latest blockbuster or romantic comedy. The Moviehouse & Eatery makes the movies better.

Be sure to like us on Facebook!

12 Strong

12 Strong tells the true story of the first Special Forces deployed to Afghanistan after 9/11. These Green Berets must work with the Afghan Northern Alliance to fight against the […]

The Post

Set in the 1970’s, The Post tells the story of The Washington Post and The New York Times reporters who released the Pentagon Papers, and ultimately exposed the Watergate Scandal. […]

Paddington 2

Happy living with the Brown family at Windsor Gardens, Paddington has become a well liked member of the community. When he sees the perfect gift for his 100 year old […]

Proud Mary

Mary is a hitwoman working for a crime family in Boston. Her life turned upside down when she meets a young boy who is orphaned during a job gone wrong. […]

Events at The Moviehouse

January 24 - February 28

Almost Oscars Series 2018

And the Oscar Goes To… Kick the new year off with us on Wednesday evenings for half-priced recliners featuring Oscar nominee films for best picture! The series will feature 5 total films made between 1980 and 2006. […]

Join us for a limited seating Last Jedi Fan event! The event will include a screening of the film, free bottomless popcorn, a trading card giveaway, and five minutes of extra content!! Reserve your recliner now! Buy […]

December 14 - December 17

Last Jedi Costume Contest

Join in on the fun during Star Wars premiere weekend! Costume Contest* Step 1: Reserve your recliner for The Last Jedi during premiere weekend. (Dec 14-17) Step 2: Dress up head-to-toe as your favorite Star Wars character. Step 3: Take a picture on […]


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FREE Summer Kids Camp!

FREE Summer Kids Camp is back! Join us every Tuesday morning from June 7th to August 23rd for a hand-picked family favorite! Tickets are given away starting at 9am on a first-come, first-serve basis.

June 7, Ice Age: The Meltdown
Ray Romano, John Leguizamo, & Denis Leary are back as Manny, Sid, and Diego! The three friends discover that the ice age is coming to an end, and join everybody for a journey to higher ground.

June 14, Annie
The beloved musical tale of a young orphan girl’s adventures in finding a family that will take her. Don’t miss out on the legendary Carol Burnett’s performance as Miss Hannigan!

June 21, The Lego Movie
An ordinary Lego construction worker (Chris Pratt) is recruited to stop an evil tyrant from gluing the Lego universe into eternal stasis.

June 28, Minions
Minions Stuart, Kevin, and Bob are recruited by Scarlet Overkill (Sandra Bullock), a super-villain who hatches a plot to take over the world.

July 5, Shrek 2
The King and Queen of Far Far Away (John Cleese & Julie Andrews) invite Princess Fiona and Shrek to dinner to celebrate their marriage. If only they knew the newlyweds were both ogres.

July 12, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2
Flint (Bill Hader) discovers that his food machine still operates and now creates mutant food beasts like living pickles, hungry tacodiles, shrimpanzees, and apple pie-thons. He and his friends must band together to save the world.

July 19, The Peanuts Movie
Snoopy embarks upon his greatest mission as he and his team take to the skies to pursue their arch-nemesis, while his best pal Charlie Brown begins his own epic quest back home to win the love of his life.

July 26, Hook
When Captain Hook (Dustin Hoffman) kidnaps his children, an adult Peter Pan (Robin Williams) must return to Neverland and reclaim his youthful spirit in order to challenge his old enemy.

August 2, Home
When Oh (Jim Parsons), a loveable misfit from another planet, lands on Earth and finds himself on the run from his own people, he forms an unlikely friendship with an adventurous girl named Tip (Rihanna) who is on a quest of her own.

August 9, Alvin and the Chipmunks
A struggling songwriter named Dave Seville finds success when he discovers a trio of singing chipmunks: Alvin, Simon, and Theodore.

August 16, Night at the Museum 2: Battle of the Smithsonian
Security guard Larry Daley (Ben Stiller) infiltrates the Smithsonian Institution in order to rescue Jedediah (Owen Wilson) and Octavius (Steve Coogan), who have been shipped to the museum by mistake.

August 23, Monsters vs. Aliens
Susan Murphy (Reese Witherspoon) is transformed into a giant after she is struck by a meteorite and becomes part of a team of monsters sent in by the U.S. government to defeat alien mastermind Gallaxhar (Rainn Wilson).

Events at The Moviehouse

January 24 - February 28

Almost Oscars Series 2018

And the Oscar Goes To… Kick the new year off with us on Wednesday evenings for half-priced recliners featuring Oscar nominee films for best picture! The series will feature 5 total films made between 1980 and 2006. […]

Join us for a limited seating Last Jedi Fan event! The event will include a screening of the film, free bottomless popcorn, a trading card giveaway, and five minutes of extra content!! Reserve your recliner now! Buy […]

Join in on the fun during Star Wars premiere weekend! Costume Contest* Step 1: Reserve your recliner for The Last Jedi during premiere weekend. (Dec 14-17) Step 2: Dress up head-to-toe as your favorite Star Wars character. Step 3: Take a picture on […]


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PayPal issues new regulations for Indian users

PayPal issues new regulations for Indian users

Barely a month after making changes to its policies in order to comply with Reserve Bank of India (RBI) guidelines, PayPal has sent out emails to all its Indian users ordering them to add a purpose code, Permanent Account Number (PAN) and an Indian Bank account to continue receiving export-related payments and withdraw money from their accounts.

According to the email, this is part of its ongoing effort to comply with the requirements set out by RBI.

How to add PAN/Account Details/Purpose code:

1. Log into your PayPal account.
2. You’ll find prompts on the top of your “My Account” page asking you to “Add” your PAN, purpose code and bank account
3. Click on the “Add” links and follow the instructions.

That aside, PayPal also urged Indian PayPal users to make sure they have a current and accurate postal address on their account by selecting “Profile” and “Add/Edit Street Address” to make the appropriate changes.

Read next: NZ plans broadband discount for over-65s to keep oldies part of the workforce


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Pitching Woes Continue In 9-6 Loss

Matt Albers got the loss. His 3rd.

The hitting has been good enough these past couple games. Its been the pitching thats holding us back. And that continued in yesterday’s game. Rich Hill got off to a good start, holding the Angels scoreless for the first 2 innings. And usually he starts off slow then finds a groove, but not this time. He gave up 3 runs in the 3rd, pitched a scoreless 4th, gave up 2 runs in the 5th, and could only get one out in the 6th before leaving with a runner on first base. Matt Albers came in for Hill and let the runner on first score, but he got out of the inning before any more damage was done. But I think Albers was tired, he has been pitching alot recently, because he walked the lead off batter in the 7th, gave up a double, then intentionally walked Vladimer Guerrero to load the bases. Chris Ray was brought in to try to get out of it but he walked the next 2 batters, giving the Angels an 8-6 lead. Mark Hendrickson came in and gave up a sacrifice fly to complete Albers line, but that was it. He pitched 2 perfect innings with 2 strikeouts.

The offense put up 6 runs on the board, but yet again none of those were in the late innings. Brian Roberts led off the game with his 8th homerun of the season. In the 3rd, Matt Wieters led off with a walk, Robert Andino reached on an error, and Brian Roberts hit his 28th double to score both runners. Roberts stole 3rd (his 17th) before being singled in by Nick Markakis. Andino hit a sacrifice fly in the 4th and Matt Wieters hit his 3rd homerun, a solo shot, in the 6th. All of Wieters homeruns have been opposite field shots, 2 from the left and now 1 from the right. Hes really starting to come on now. I think he’ll end up with a better OPS than Nolan Riemold at the end of the season, and thats no shot at Riemold because I think he’ll continue to be solid.

Player of the game: Matt Wieters (3-3, 2 R, RBI, BB, HR (3) (.277 AVG))

We continue our road trip tonight in Seattle with Brad Bergesen (5-2, 3.53) trying to right the ship against Jarrod Washburn (4-6, 3.36) for the Mariners.

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crema de apio y patata roja : cream of celery and red creamer potato : simple and bold!

I’ve made  this cream of celery and potato and I quite liked it. And it was also very quick to make! This is an easy recipe and it is also a basic preparation for many other similar dishes. I had extra celery in the fridge, and it was begging me to make something with it. I don’t have the ingredients for a bloody mary which I desperately need… but I do have some wonderful potatoes, so this was a no brainer! Keep in mind, celery has a very bold and bight flavor that doesn’t get too tamed by blanching so use wisely. A red cream potato is a wonderful little creation that yields a very white and creamy base for this simple and quick yet delicious starter!

Ingredients (Serves 4):

8 red creamer potatoes peeled and cut in rounds

2-3 celery stalks with the leaves, coarsely diced

1 medium shallot, coarsely diced

1 garlic, crushed

150 ml cream

panko bread crumbs

kosher salt and black pepper to taste

a few drops of chili sauce

The idea behind any creamy soup like this one is to create a starchy base using potatoes for example and flavor it with a vegetable of choice, cream can be added at the end of cooking for a smoother finish and better mouthfeel.  Start by boiling water in a sauce pan or pot. Get all your ingredients peeled and ready. Once the water is boiling, add the potatoes, celery, garlic and shallot to the pan. Make sure you only have enough water just to cover the ingredients. Why? because this water will be used in the final  soup and you don’t want to dilute the flavors in too much water and it has to be only enough water so that the amount of potatoes and the rest of the veggies is the right consistency after you blend it.

Once the potatoes are fork tender, remove from the heat and bring out your immersion blender or use a regular blender. I rather use the immersion blender, less things to clean in the end, and a lot safer to use. A regular blender is fine, but remember to allow the veggies some time to cool down before adding them to the blender. Make sure you have a good clean kitchen towel, fold it once, put the lid on the blender (including that bit that covers the small opening on the lid)  Place the towel over the lid, and with your hand press down on the lid and blend, pulse a few times to get the blending started. The hot content in the blender will release a ton of vapor and that’s why you need to cover it tightly and protect yourself  from hot spatter. Then blend until creamy. Add the heavy cream and incorporate. Taste and adjust seasoning.

To finish, brown some panko crumbs on a skillet, this will take about 4 minutes. Once they are nice and golden, remove skillet from the heat and get ready to garnish. Serve soup in medium size bowls and drizzle with some olive oil, sprinkle some crumbs, add a few drops of chili hot sauce and devour immediately. This soup will stay in the fridge for a few days, and frozen for months. I sometimes make a decent batch of it and store it in single serving plastic containers which I store in the freezer.

Simple and delicious! Hope you enjoyed this one! Until the next post!


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8 Euro Treasure

31 May

My first piece of furniture in France.

I love it!

3 Responses to “8 Euro Treasure”

  1. villy June 2, 2010 at 3:24 am #

    Oooh, it’s pretty! All you need is an apartment to go with it now.

  2. Poulette June 2, 2010 at 3:13 pm #

    Thanks Villy!

    I know, i need a matching apartment. I am renting a little studio for July and August so i have more time now, thank god…

    Still, i just want my own things now. My own place with my own things. I guess all in good time.

  3. villy June 3, 2010 at 2:54 pm #

    Well, I have my fingers crossed for you. I am going to arrive in September and imagine I will have the same conundrum. I don’t think I will find myself quite living in an Amelie style apartment just yet, but a girl can always dream!

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Why You’ll Never Eat Ramen Noodles, Gatorade Ever Again

NEW YORK (TRP) – It’s a disturbing YouTube video that’s not only raising eyebrows but destroying late-night past time traditions everywhere.

The video, produced by TEDxManhattan 2011 Fellow Stefani Bardin, shows us what happens – or rather what doesn’t happen – inside your body when you eat Top Ramen noodles and Gatorade versus when you eat non-processed, whole foods.

With the use of a tiny camera capsule called “M2A” (which stands for Mouth to Anus), the video documents the travel of the foods from… (yep, you guessed it) from consumption to the toilet.

The differences are shockingly disturbing and has undoubtedly prompted a rash of SMHs everywhere. Long story short: Your body has an extremely tough time breaking down the processed monsters that are Ramen and Gatorade. According to Blisstree.com blogger: :

The project looks at two subjects eating two similar meals: one composed of processed foods (gatorade, ramen, and gummi bears); the other of homemade versions (hibiscus drink, homemade broth with noodles and gummi bears made of juice). What happens to the foods is drastically different; possibly because, as Bardin puts it, Top Ramen is made to survive armageddon, while homemade noodles are made to be eaten.

Damn you science! Watch the video at your own discretion:

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Categories: News

Author:Andrew Ramos

I'm a reporter in New York. I talk to people. We have a blast.

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Archive for the ‘Sencha Animator’ Category

Hello World,

Well I’ve come to the end of my week long evaluation of Sencha Animator. Overall, I was pleased with what the tool was able to provide. It certainly delivers on what it promises … but no more. During my evaluation period I was able to create an decent prototype of a strategy game I am very fond of – Turn About. It’s based on the old 90’s game called Lights Out. I have created many versions of this game using many different languages including: PowerBuilder, Flash, Flex and Actionscript, Coldfusion, and Javascript. I use it to help me learn a new language or platform and discover its limitations. So first let’s look at the Pros:

It’s a great tool for creating visually compelling animated pages. I will never consider myself a designer but I can do wonders with clip art and photos. Having the ability to simply choose my images, position them on the canvas, and animate them by dragging, dropping, and updating parameters in the IDE was of great benefit. An animated page that took me two hours to construct (struggling with the CSS) took only 15 minutes in Sencha Animator.

It’s very easy for someone with a Flash animation background to pick it up and run with it. I spent years creating applications in Flash using Actionscript. I am very familiar with the timeline in Flash and was pleased to see it implemented in this tool as well.

If you are a designer with CSS experience then it’s easy to enhance your creation with custom CSS. Sencha Animator allows you to add your own CSS to your project. You can also export your project and it will create the HTML, CSS3, and Javasript source files. The resulting CSS is so clean that understanding and modifying the CSS is very easy.

If you are a developer with Javascript experience then it’s easy to extend the page interactions and behaviors with your own Javascript. I found that I needed to extend the functionality of my page beyond what Sencha Animator could provide. Fortunately the tool provides a way add your own Javascript code.

The product support is great with a decent supply of documentation and tutorials. The documentation for Sencha Animator looked complete. There are several tutorials (with source) on the site that will get you started.

It has limited functionality if you are an experienced Flash Developer/Designer. The “animation model” (for lack of a better term) used in Sencha Animator is scene-based. What that means is that your animation is grouped into one or more scenes.

All animation is a given scene is played when the scene is entered. The only way to prevent the scene from playing is by using custom Javascript code.

Although you can specify certain objects in the scene to play more than once there is no way to control the animation thru code. Once you are in a scene I found to easy way to start animating an object at a specified point. I had to write custom Javascript code and CSS to make that happen. But I had to be careful because any subsequent exports will overwrite any custom code I may have included.

Nor are you able to receive notifications during animation (such as a callback when the animation reaches 50%). I found a couple of libraries that helped report the frame state during animation but since the timeline is time-based I found it not to be 100% reliable.

Despite its limitations I am still pleased with Sencha Animator. Although I will never use Animator as a primary development tool (and I don’t think Sencha had that in mind as well) it will serve me well as a secondary development tool. I will certainly take advantage of Animator for any projects that require the placement and/or animation of images and objects. I can then include the resulting code into the larger project.

It also serves as an excellent tool to learn CSS transformations and animations by example which, is how I learn best.

Next up is Tiggzi! Tiggzi is a “Cloud-based HTML5, jQuery Mobile and Hybrid Mobile App Builder”. I took a look at this tool about a year ago when I was first evaluating tools to use for web-based mobile development. At the time I wasn’t impressed with its features and their subscription prices seem quite high for what they were offering (they do have a limited free plan). When I found appMobi (completely free at the time) my decision was made. Now I will come back to do a full TWO WEEK evaluation of Tiggzi. They seemed to have improved their features (including adding Window 8 support).

I will post the game app I created using Sencha Animator (including source) on a later date. I have two Hackathons and a contest that I am preparing for. If you would like for me to send you the game app just comment on this page.

Until Next Time World,


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Conspiracy Theories

Russian humorist and occasional liberal opposition activist Viktor Shenderovich sums up the topsy turvy “explanations” of the MH17 crash now being fed to the Russian public via mainstream media outlets and social networks:

So. On Washington’s instructions, to discredit the Donetsk Republic, a plane filled ahead of time with corpses was specially sent through an area occupied by militants and, as witnessed by a Spanish man, was shot down by two Ukrainian fighter planes, who took it for the Russian president’s plane. Have I forgotten anything?

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[CLOSED] Amazingly good lasagne in the Shanghai French Concession at House of Lasagne

25th June 2014 / Shanghai

Apologies for the lack of reviews lately. Part of the reason was because I haven’t really stumbled upon any good places that I have not reviewed before. Also, I’ve just finished a really hectic June work rush. That said, I have exciting things in stored for The Shanghai Kid Blog and more.

But today, we talk about lasagne.

I don’t usually blog about my weekday lunch experiences, because these are usually quick and dirty affairs snapped with my iphone under hideous lighting. But today, I make an exception, because it was really, really good. Just take note that photos were taken (rather poorly) with my iphone.

House of Lasagne is a hole in the wall located on Xiang Yang Lu, just past Fu Xin Lu. Smack in the French Concession district, and just a block away from the popular iAPM mall.

As the name suggests, they specialise in lasagne, a dish that many of us were first introduced to by the cartoon/comic, Garfield.

I particularly like these type of specialised restaurants that do mainly 1 dish, and do it well. The actual restaurant space is approximately 50 square metres, accommodating only about 10 tables.

They have lunch sets, which feature half portions together with a small caesar salad. A soft drink can be added for ¥10, which is fairly priced.

For today, I ordered the lasagne bolognese.

Our mini caesar salads were served shortly; Small in size, big on flavour. The caesar salad was expertly seasoned, just salty enough to balance with the fresh romaine lettuce, while not too rich on the dressing. Parmesan was sprinkled generously, along with herbed croutons, and real bacon bits. This was really perfect. The portion left me scraping up the final bits of bacon/lettuce, while not wanting for more, but instead anticipating the main course. 9/10

The lasagne took awhile to serve, probably at least 15minutes. Perfect time for everyone to stare mindlessly into their phones engage in meaningful conversation. The wait is a good sign, because it means the lasagne is likely to be assembled and baked on order.

When the lasagne did arrive, it came in a petite but neat package with a slice of garlic bread on the side. At first look I can see the beautiful mozzarella melted uniformly over the top. I could also see that the sauce and layering were all executed with precision. No sloppy joe lasagne here.

I managed to cut up the lasagne without toppling and destroying the entire tower, which was another good sign. On first taste, the red wine in the sauce was quite apparent. That said, it had been balanced and mellowed down, so it didn’t come across as sour. The sauce actually had quite a nice balance of tart, savoury and sweet flavours; Combined with the pasta and cheese, very comforting. Impressive. The mince was consistent and did not have any sinewy or tough bits. It didn’t taste very rich so I gather the meat used was mostly lean. The lasagne layers were slightly softer than al dente, which I’m not complaining about like a pasta snob, because I feel that an al dente lasagne would be too chewy. 9/10

The set lunch half portion costs ¥50, while a full portion costs ¥90. Pretty good value, considering the quality of the salad and lasagne. Half portion is enough for a male diner with restraint and definitely enough for a lady. Service was pleasant, but nothing outstanding.

I look forward to returning and try some of their other dishes, if not just repeat the caesar salad and lasagne experience, assuming it remains consistent.

PS: Their espresso is quite expensive at ¥25 / shot.

TSK Rating

Author: Fred Lin

Fred "The Shanghai Kid" Lin was born in Singapore, and grew up in a family of foodies and home-cooks. He moved to Shanghai in 2007 and fell in love with the city, eventually carving a self-made career out of digital media design and development. He founded The Shanghai Kid food blog in 2013, and opened an award-winning Singaporean restaurant in 2014, which won CityWeekend's Outstanding Southeast Asian restaurant of the year in 2016. In 2017, he decided to reboot, and shut down all his businesses in Shanghai before moving back to Singapore with his wife. Fred plans to immigrate to Melbourne in the near future.

House of Lasagne

House of Lasagne 174 Xiangyang Nan Lu, near Fuxing Zhong Lu 襄阳南路174号, 近复兴中路

French Concession

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Christian+Pilgrim+Groups+Travel+Holy+Island+LLRLn2FUUXMlPlease be careful. WAKE UP! I am a historic premillenialist like Charles Spurgeon but I am becoming aware of some troubling issues.

There are those of us who really care about the salvation of Israel who frown on recent ploys by some ministries to fund raise or make an end run play by Word of magic salesman to get people to go on tour in the Holy Land.

Ever get an offer for a free trip to Florida? Then when you go, they invite you to meetings to sell you time shares or condominiums?

All these religious networks and so called ministries are having pilgrimages to Israel and Jerusalem. The emphasis on the nation of Israel on television is replete in much preaching lately but their motives seem murky with all the spiritual vacation packages.

Recently, one major Christian satellite network has a new studio in Jerusalem and methinks this is their motive for Holy Land tours and there is a growing concern that they are knowingly or unknowingly exploiting those who are unlearned and ignorant.

It seems like they are selling spiritual time shares, religious condominiums or telling people they can get closer to God by going to Israel. One preacher is selling products and prayers at the wailing wall for $1000!

Is this not what the Roman Catholic church did with the city of Rome and what Islam does with Mecca? Are we now so powerless, so ignorant of the gospel of Christ we need pilgrimages and products that get us closer to God? Does this not show error and backsliddeness of these preachers and ministries?

Is not the church one new man, of believing, born again Jew and Gentile? Not two churches. Not two nations (Eph. 2:15; 1 Pet. 2:9).

Did not Jesus insist that we DO NOT need cities to travel to, trinkets or toys with which to pray, mountains in which we have retreats, to worship in temples or perform in ecclesiastical theaters? “Take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability.” (2 Peter 3:17).

Rather Jesus our Messiah taught that the worship of omnipresent God who is Spirit has arrived and that we worship the one true God in the power of his Holy Spirit and the Truth of the Gospel! For that is the worship our Heavenly Father wants!  (John 4:23-24).

©2015 Rev. Stephen S. Gibney, give credit where credit is due


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Click HERE for the High School SPARK Mentors application form.

Click HERE for the general SPARK Mentors application form.

We’re interactive. We’re community-driven.

How Does a Mentor Strengthen the Community?
The goal of the library is to provide a space to bring the people its serves together through learning, be it through books and resources, programming, or one another. Mentors, in wanting to share their talents and knowledge, enable other community members to grow as learners and as people.

Who Can be a Mentor?
To maximize The SPARK potential, we’re looking for local mentors who are students, specialists, or hobbyists who want to share their expertise or love of a hobby with students and/or adults through interactive programming.

What Will Mentors Do?
Mentors will be responsible for planning and executing hands-on programs based on their specialty. They’ll guide participants through the activities, answer questions, and provide a positive learning experience.

 Our areas of interest include, but are not limited to:

  • website programming
  • computer skills
  • graphic design
  • comic strip/graphic novel creation
  • HTML
  • Illustrator/Photoshop
  • writing/publishing
  • metal fabrication/casting
  • welding
  • moldmaking
  • jewelry/metalsmithing
  • flame/lampworking
  • knitting/crocheting
  • sewing
  • screenprinting
  • electronics/electrical
  • 3D printing
  • robotics
  • woodworking
  • carving/whittling
  • muralist
  • drawing
  • bicycle mechanics
  • gardening
  • sculpting
  • photography
  • videography
  • pottery/clay work

If you have any questions about becoming a mentor, please contact the library at 608-868-7462.


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Blog Archives

On Demand

On Demand

This afternoon I had a follow-up appointment at the doctor’s office. They needed to do a routine check-up and wanted a deposit. I had figured as much so I made sure not to leave my deposit at home before I left. I went to the restroom, readied the bottle and…nothing. No matter how much I concentrated there just wasn’t anything that was going to happen. After several minutes I meekly came out of the lavatory and explained the situation to the nurse. She then sent me to the staff vampire who had no such trouble sticking me with a big needle and taking my second deposit by force. I now have a cotton ball and medical tape covering a hole in my arm.

We live in an; “On Demand” world. We get and expect things instantaneously. The problem is sometimes life doesn’t work that way. We may demand expediency but delay and obstruction is what we’re given. If we decide to take what we need to wait on by force pain is often the what we receive instead of what we desire.

It does us good to wait, to not get what we want, to be told; “No!” It reminds us we aren’t all-powerful, possess full control, aren’t as able as we’d like to believe. Wisdom, and the lessons it uses in everyday life remind us who we are, who we aren’t and how to be at peace with both.

@BrianLoging (Twitter)

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US Commercial Service Assistance at WEFTEC

WEFTEC-2014-logo3We are pleased to announce the ShowTime program, conducted at WEFTEC 2014 by the U.S. Commercial Service of the U.S. Department of Commerce. WEFTEC is a participant of the 2014 International Buyer Program and exhibitors are offered free services from the U.S. Department of Commerce as part of the program.
Environment Specialists from U.S. Embassies and Consulates around the world will be at the show and available for one-on-one meetings with U.S. companies exhibiting at WEFTEC 2014.  These Commercial Specialists are your U.S. representatives and business advocates in their host countries. They can discuss the current market situation, export issues important to your firm, and export opportunities in their respective markets.  If you are already exporting, they are also available to work with you to find additional partners, new markets and/or increase your market share.
Countries participating in 2014*:
Saudi Arabia**
United Kingdom
Export-Import Bank
Small Business Administration
*Please note the list of countries participating is subject to change.
** Expected but not confirmed
Appointments will take place either at the exhibitor’s booth or in the Global Center at WEF Plaza in hall G.
Advance registration required:  These appointments are available on a first-come, first-served basis and the schedule fills up quickly. Companies that wish to participate must register in advance through the U.S. Department of Commerce ShowTime Program.  There is no fee for this service. The deadline to register is September 19, 2014.
To participate in these one-on-one meetings with in-country experts, please complete the registration form at the following link:
We will then forward your completed company profile to our country/industry Commercial Specialists from the countries you select.   Meetings will be held on September 29th, 30th and October 1st (You will receive your meeting schedule by Thursday, September 25, 2014). If you cannot personally attend, please make sure your export and/or international department(s) is aware of this value-added service.
For further information regarding Showtime appointments with U.S. Commercial Service, please contact: David Edmiston at, phone: (612) 348-1644.
More information about the Wisconsin Water Innovation Pavilion (Booth #4045) at WEFTEC 2014 can be found on the WEDC WEFTEC website.

About The Water Council

The Water Council, the only organization of its kind in the United States, was established in 2009 by Milwaukee-area businesses, education and government leaders. With more than 150 water technology companies in the Milwaukee area, the region’s water industry is a $10.5 billion dollar market and accounts for four percent of the world’s total water business. The non-profit organization is linking together global water technology companies, innovative water entrepreneurs, acclaimed academic research programs and, most importantly, some of the nation’s brightest and most energetic professionals. The Water Council is capturing the attention of the world and transforming the Milwaukee region into a World Water Hub for freshwater research, economic development and education. The Water Council is located in the Global Water Center at 247 W. Freshwater Way, Suite 500, Milwaukee, WI 53204.
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3 Headlines in 1 Week Show California’s Ambivalence Towards Water Restrictions

By Dean Amhaus, President & CEO, The Water Council

In four years the California Drought has become a background noise to the state and the country. Like a morning alarm set too quietly, the people of California have slept in, and they may now be too late.

 Lake Oroville Justin Sullivan / Getty Images. California Drought

Lake Oroville Justin Sullivan / Getty Images. California Drought

Last week, the LA Times published three articles within one week clearly demonstrating the drowsy nature of California in regards to their pressing water shortage.

Jay Famiglietti, a University of California, Irvine, prominent water scientist at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, released an Op-Ed piece on March 12 urging Californians to ration water use. Failure to implement serious rationing procedures could result in catastrophic events.

Famiglietti warned, “Right now the state has only about one year of water supply left in its reservoirs, and our strategic backup supply, groundwater, is rapidly disappearing.”

CAPaC9RUkAA9JYs.jpg-largeHeadline 1: California has about one year of water left. Will you ration now?

Headline 2: Southern California gets its first water coaster

Just six days after this eye opening call to action, LA Times announced, “Southern California gets its first water coaster.” Within the first paragraph stating “it’s about time.”

The water park will open this summer even though climate scientists have concluded a drought of this length and severity has not struck California for 1,200 years. Meaning a drought this fierce has not taken place since the climate warmed enough for the Vikings to sail to Greenland.

california_op_ed1Screen Shot 2015-03-20 at 1.35.21 PMDespite the announcement of the water coaster, Famiglietti’s Op-Ed piece has drastically heightened awareness of the drought in California and the United States by attaching hard numbers, a relatable perspective, and calling out water scarcity as a home-grown issue. On Thursday, March 19, California Governor, Jerry Brown, announced an emergency $1 billion drought package. This is an important step in developing procedures to cope with the extreme weather gripping the state, but as LA Times mentioned, “no matter how much longer California’s drought lingers, politicians don’t have the power to make it rain.”

Headline 3: California’s $1-billion emergency drought relief is a tiny drop in bucket

“This is a struggle,” stated Brown during a news conference. “Something we’re going to have to live with. For how long, we’re not sure.”

The sad fact is that these articles reinforce the tragic situation that there continues to be a denial or a disconnect between facts and desires.  Whether it is California, Texas or any place where there are water shortages, it is critical that we no longer live under the notion that we are living with an abundance of an essential resource or that “praying for rain” is the answer.  New technologies and new approaches such as the idea of “One Water” which will be the centerpiece of The Water Council’s Water Summit in June must be explored and implemented.  It is imperative for all of us to clearly understand that regardless of where we live and work our use and management of water has human, economic and security ramifications.

About The Water Council

The Water Council, the only organization of its kind in the United States, was established in 2009 by Milwaukee-area businesses, education and government leaders. With more than 150 water technology companies in the Milwaukee area, the region’s water industry is a $10.5 billion dollar market and accounts for four percent of the world’s total water business. The non-profit organization is linking together global water technology companies, innovative water entrepreneurs, acclaimed academic research programs and, most importantly, some of the nation’s brightest and most energetic professionals. The Water Council is capturing the attention of the world and transforming the Milwaukee region into a World Water Hub for freshwater research, economic development and education. The Water Council is located in the Global Water Center at 247 W. Freshwater Way, Suite 500, Milwaukee, WI 53204.
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Inside The Hauler with Sergio Pena

For the last couple years right as summer is about to officially get underway we have a few special guest come into town to visit a certain little play ground! That playground is Langley Speedway, and those special guest are the young, up and coming stars in the K&N Pro Series East series. 22 drivers were in town for the Visit Hampton VA 175 trying to knock Ben Rhodes off of his thrown. This year, with help from one of my sponsors, we were able to sit down with the driver of the #4 Rev Racing machine Sergio Pena.

Right off the bat I would like to thank Sergio for taking some time out of his day to chat with us, share some information about him and also learn a few little fun facts that some media outlets may not have time to dive into. Overall I loved the interview, I was a tad bit nervous as this was my first in person interview with someone in a traveling series! Sergio was great though, very open to answer any question! Put some thought into it and just didn’t give cookie cutter answers! He invited us back to his hauler so we could have some quite (hence the name of the interview). Just an overall great guy who truly loves to race!

Hope everyone enjoys our interview and I highly recommend following him on his various social media outlets and you can find links to those bellow!
Facebook-Logo-Cracked                                                                  Twitter-Cracked           instagram-logo

The Weekly Racer: When did you get started in racing?

Sergio Pena: I got started when I was seven years old in karts. Running road course karts, a lot different than what I’m doing now.

TWR: Tell us a little bit about your background in racing.

SP: I have raced road courses for pretty much my entire life. I moved from go karting to formula cars when I was 13, when I was 16 I moved moved to Late Models. Did only a couple races and moved to K&N the next year.

TWR: So from go karts to K&N all in a couple years?

SP: Pretty much yea! It all happened pretty fast. I was really young moving up the rank each year, you know trying to move up as early as possible to try and get as much experience every year.

TWR: So what made you want to start racing?

SP: My dad really. He’s from Columbia and he used to race dirt bikes in Columbia. So when I was little I got a little dirt bike, I never races it competitively though, but my dad and I would mess around in the back yard. I was going to end up hurting myself so we ended up taking the motor of the dirt bike and putting it on a go kart.

TWR: So taking the whole “big show” out of K&N, growing up what has been your favorite thing to race?

SP: I would have to say go karts man, go karts were just so fun! I think its just the most pure form of racing, everyone is pretty much equal, there is no real advantage from kart to kart and there is no saving anything either, its from lap one to the checkered flag as hard as you can go!

TWR: In your time on the K&N circuit what has been your favorite and least favorite track to go to?

SP: Least favorite, its hard to say because least favorite to drive and race is Bowman Gray just because I have yet to finish there. I have blown up or had a mechanical issue every year. But its also one of my favorites at the the same time because the atmosphere is so cool!

My favorite track to actually race at is New Hampshire, I love that place and we go there next so I am really excited for that. I think its really because of my road course background. Long fast straightaways like a road course then hard breaking into a flat turn which is very characteristic of a road course.

TWR: Little road course work transferring over to the oval side of things I see.

SP: You know all of my wins have been on pretty flat tracks so I really think my road course background has helped out with that.

TWR: What is one track that is on your bucket list to race at?

SP: Bucket list, oh man… Ever since I was little I wanted to race at Laguna Seca out in California. I would love to take a lap around Nuerburgring in Germany, that like a twenty four mile track its just awesome! Of course Daytona that would be awesome!

TWR: Which course, the road course or full circuit?

SP: Both! The 24 Hour and the 500 for sure!

TWR: Do you have any superstitions? Like you don’t use the color green, or where a certain article of clothing each race?

SP: Not really you know. The only thing weird that I have done my entire life really was put my left glove on first. I have no idea why I just always do.

TWR: How do you personally get ready for the race?

SP: You know I just really go with the schedule for the day. I get here early and help the guys unload. Help set everything up, jump in the car and practice, talk a little bit with my crew chief. To prepare for the race I talk to a lot of the drivers, just to get a feel for how their car is, just to get an idea on how there car is.

TWR: What do you typically do in your free time away from the track?

SP: My free time, I work out a lot! I am really into fitness and I think it helps out a lot here in racing. Really into photography and videography, I have this really awesome camera and make a lot of videos and stuff. I do a lot of pictures and videos for the late model guys. Anything out doors, I love long boarding, me and my roommates go out long boarding, we tend to hurt our selves anytime we go out but just anything outdoors!

Now lets have a little fun a get to know a new side of Sergio with a few questions from our popular Driver Series interviews!

SP3TWR: Its a hot day, your walking by an ice cream shop, what flavor do you order?

SP: Favorite ice cream is defiantly cold stone sweet cream… with brownies! Oh my gosh don’t even get me started! [Laughs]

TWR: Do you play any kind of video games?

SP: Yea! I play a lot of NASCAR The Game, me and my roommates will do a couple races almost every night before we go to bed!

TWR: Do you do any iRacing at all?

SP: I used to have iRacing, and being with Rev Racing we are sponsored by iRacing so we get an account, I actually need to get my account reactivated!

TWR: I actually just got started in that myself, do you feel that it really helps out as mush as they say it does?

SP: Oh for sure! Definitely! My teammate Jay Beasley he uses it a lot, I was actually over at his apartment the other day during our lunch break and we were actually practicing at Langley with the K&N car. You can’t get the actual real feeling, there is nothing like getting that actual feeling but its as close as you can get!

TWR: What is your favorite kind of food?

SP: I love Italian food, its probably my favorite. Actually Columbian food is really good too. I would say pizza! Or Chipotle… I eat Chipotle religiously!

TWR: You can go anywhere in the world, all expenses paid for you and just one guest. Where would you go, who would you bring and why?

SP: Oh my gosh this is a tough one! Where would I go, thats a good question… I would say I would want to go to Abu Dhabi. Its such a such an exotic country you know. They actually have an indoor ski resort so you can go snowboarding pretty much in the desert. Who would I take, thats a tough one… Yo know what I would take my dad, he has taken me everywhere racing so I would definitely take my dad!

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The Fox and the Hedgehog–How to build a lasting and Meaningful Career as a Generalist

Remember, if you try to build a career the same way everyone else does by being an expert in your field, it’s hard to imagine you’ll be in demand for senior corporate positions in the future. Don’t miss the following HBR article, entitled All Hail the Generalist by Vikram Mansharamani who is a Business Management expert and lecturer at Yale University. Here is a piece in the article to wet your interest:

“Approximately 2,700 years ago, the Greek poet Archilochus wrote that “The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing.” Isaiah Berlin’s 1953 essay “The Fox and the Hedgehog” contrasts hedgehogs that “relate everything to a single, central vision” with foxes who “pursue many ends connected…if at all, only in some de facto way.” It’s really a story of specialists vs. generalists. Don’t miss this important article on career changes and what corporations are looking for when hiring.

More tomorrow on thewick blog about how to start building a Generalist career portfolio.

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MNEK: “If Truth Be Told”

Pronounced EM-EN-EE-KAY, the monikered 16 year old Uzoechi Osisioma Emenike is son to a Scotland Yard detective and a professional cake baker, and a producer of amazing proportionsMNEK has worked on tracks for acts like Frankmusik, CocknBullKid, Duran Duran, Florrie, Diana Vickers and Tinie Tempah, and added his flavor to a whole swath of recent remixes.  His forthcoming single, “If Truth Be Told”, out November 17th from Moshi Moshi Records, is what caught my ear though, with its lady-angst driven anthem beats and corner tones that are guaranteed to wiggle waggle some body part of the rhythmically inclined population.

Catch the track, its remixed cousins and the video, all below.
If Truth Be Told by MNEK

If Truth Be Told (Dimitri Tikovoi Remix) by MNEK

If Truth Be Told (Manhattan Clique Remix) by MNEK

And since we’re in the spirit of honesty, the video for the November single is decidedly atrocious.  Perhaps I’m not seeing MNKE’s tongue placed firmly in his cheek, but in the industry and debut videos, first impressions matter.  When I hear the song, I see grand city night scenes.  When i see the video, my eyes hurt.  Still a great song though.

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If you liked the Oscar-nominated fracking exposé “Gasland” by Josh Fox, you’ll love the sequel Gasland, Part II, which is being broadcast on HBO Monday night.

I think it’s a better movie, more entertaining and even more compelling in making a case that we are headed on a bridge to nowhere — a metaphorical gangplank — with our hydraulic fracturing feeding frenzy.

Future generations living in a climate-ruined world will be stunned that we drilled hundreds of thousands of fracking and reinjection wells:

  • Even though we knew that fossil fuels destroy the climate and accelerate drought and water shortages;
  • Even though we knew that leaks of heat-trapping methane from fracking may well be vitiating much of the climate benefits of replacing coal with gas; and
  • Even though each fracked well consumes staggering amounts of water, much of which is rendered permanently unfit for human use and reinjected into the ground where it can taint even more ground water in the coming decades.

Perhaps you have been persuaded fracking is a good idea by the multi-million-dollar industry campaign for fracking and against Fox — which includes backing a counter-documentary by two anti-science filmmaker’s best known for a film smearing Al Gore. If so, I’d urge you to read the Propublica exposé in Scientific American, “Are Fracking Wastewater Wells Poisoning the Ground beneath Our Feet?

After fracking — injecting a generally toxic brew into the earth to release natural gas (or oil) — wastewater wells are used to reinject the resulting brine deep underground. Here’s the bad news:

There are more than 680,000 underground waste and injection wells nationwide, more than 150,000 of which shoot industrial fluids thousands of feet below the surface. Scientists and federal regulators acknowledge they do not know how many of the sites are leaking.

… in interviews, several key experts acknowledged that the idea that injection is safe rests on science that has not kept pace with reality, and on oversight that doesn’t always work.

“In 10 to 100 years we are going to find out that most of our groundwater is polluted,” said Mario Salazar, an engineer who worked for 25 years as a technical expert with the EPA’s underground injection program in Washington. “A lot of people are going to get sick, and a lot of people may die.”

A ProPublica review of well records, case histories and government summaries of more than 220,000 well inspections found that structural failures inside injection wells are routine. From late 2007 to late 2010, one well integrity violation was issued for every six deep injection wells examined — more than 17,000 violations nationally. More than 7,000 wells showed signs that their walls were leaking. Records also show wells are frequently operated in violation of safety regulations and under conditions that greatly increase the risk of fluid leakage and the threat of water contamination.

The documentary does explore the climate impacts of methane leaks from fracking (see below). And it also presents the clean energy solutions that we can use instead of fracking, such as the recent Stanford study that New York State can eliminate fossil fuels from its energy mix entirely by 2050.

But the film’s primary focus is the immediate impact on water and people:

Fox makes a very compelling case. As the New York Times TV reviewer explains, the movie “paints a convincing picture: homeowners at the mercy of the oil and gas industry wait while government agencies make tentative moves toward regulation that eventually come to nothing or are reversed.”

The review makes clear that while “there are questions, large and small, that can nag at you”:

Most of Mr. Fox’s material isn’t open to question, however. Recordings of a gas industry conference at which public relations managers are told to study the Army’s counterinsurgency manual — because “we are dealing with an insurgency” when it comes to protesters and angry homeowners — are both hilarious and horrifying. Mr. Fox’s account of the Pennsylvania government’s hiring of a private company to monitor fracking protesters, an episode not widely covered outside the state, is particularly valuable.

It’s hard to take issue with Mr. Fox’s resigned conclusion that economic and political forces will soon spread fracking around the world, no matter how harmful critics say it may be to the environment and our health.

I’m not entirely sure Fox is completely resigned to that conclusion. I was able to interview him last month and he is committed to spreading the word, fighting this fracked future, and pushing clean energy alternatives.

The movie also covers methane leakage in the context of global warming. Recent research continues to vindicate those who have warned that fracking has a high leakage rate of methane, which is up to 105 times as effective at trapping heat than CO2 over a 20-year period. See my January post, “Bridge To Nowhere? NOAA Confirms High Methane Leakage Rate Up To 9% From Gas Fields, Gutting Climate Benefit.” See also the the recent Christian science Monitor piece “Methane leaks of shale gas may undermine its climate benefits,” which explains “If methane leak rates are more than 3 percent of output, fracking of shale gas formations may be boosting greenhouse gas emissions rather than lowering them.”

What is so frustrating about the frenzy to frack is that even ignoring the leakage issue, we must stop building new fossil fuel infrastructure the middle of this decade to have a realistic chance of crossing climate tipping points that will ruin our children’s future.

To get beyond all the hand-waving analysis asserting “gas is better than coal for the climate,” you need a comprehensive energy and climate model — and an emissions or temperature target.

If your goal is 2°C or 3.6°F total warming, then we’ve just about finished building every hydrocarbon-burning power plant we can. That is the conclusion of two of the (very few) groups that have such models — the International Energy Agency and Climate Interactive, which has done climate and energy modeling for everyone from the State Department and the Chinese government.

Climate Interactive used their En-ROADS global energy model to explore “the goal of the Copenhagen Accord — to limit temperature increase to 2°C is still in reach.” They found:

Even if the world also has sustained success eliminating deforestation, reducing emissions of non-CO2 greenhouse gasses and improving energy efficiency, new investment in fossil fuel infrastructure can’t occur much beyond 2015 in order to maintain a 50% chance of limiting temperature increase to 2°C in 2100. Having a higher probability of achieving the 2°C goal or keeping these even odds of meeting the goal but delaying the end of the era of fossil fuel investment would require additional measures such as shutting down already-constructed fossil-fuel-using infrastructure before the end of its useful lifetime, further reducing energy demand, or achieving so called negative emissions, where CO2 is removed from the atmosphere and sequestered.

In this thought experiment using the global energy system model En-ROADS, there is no new investment in fossil fuel using infrastructure after 2015, but the long lifetime of the existing infrastructure means that fossil fuel use continues well into the century.

The concept of natural gas as a “bridge fuel” was pushed by the American Gas Association as far back as 1981. It’s the longest bridge in history!

Averting catastrophic warming means it makes little sense to invest tens of billions of dollars in gas infrastructure and gas-fired power plants over the next few years — unless you plan to shut it down within two decades.

This is very similar to the conclusion that the IEA reached with its energy model.

The IEA made clear that natural gas isn’t the “solution” if your goal is staying far from 7°F warming — see IEA’s “Golden Age of Gas Scenario” Leads to More Than 6°F Warming and Out-of-Control Climate Change. It must be noted that even that IEA gas scenario, which results in too much warning, assumes that not only does global oil consumption peak around 2020 — but so does coal! So if one or both of those peaks don’t happen — and they wouldn’t without a high price of carbon and aggressively clean energy deployment starting now — then the Golden Age of Gas is just the “devastating” scenario laid out in last years’s World Bank report, a “world marked by extreme heat-waves, declining global food stocks, loss of ecosystems and biodiversity, and life-threatening sea level rise.”

And remember, neither the IEA nor En-ROADS models the impact of methane leakage. Tragically, just about the time we wake up to the reality that fracking isn’t the solution to climate change, we’re probably going to wake up and find that we’ve poisoned billions of gallons of water — much of which will be in regions of the country that are turning into a permanent Dust Bowl thanks to climate change.

Or we could wake up now and start getting off fossil fuels immediately. A very good wake up call is Gasland, Part II. You can see it on HBO Monday.