text:
My Weekly Soundtrack 6/4

Welcome, my friends, to the Revis Edgewater Music Channel. In this week’s episode of My Weekly Soundtrack, we’ll be hearing music from a number of different bands, most of whom play instruments of some kind. What? They all play instruments? Who knew?

As always, don’t forget to go over to My Rabbit Hole Trips and check out Alice’s playlist. She’s 33 grams of awesome, so get on over there.

Anyways, to start off this episode, we have Thousand Mile Wish, by Finger Eleven.

Next up, we have So Cold, by Breaking Benjamin. I might have played this on a previous soundtrack, but I can’t remember and I don’t feel like looking back through them all.

Our next song comes from the masters of metal, Metallica. This song is called One.

Up next is the first song I ever heard from Godsmack, Whatever.

This song is Lightning Crashes, by Live. This song fuckin rules.

Lastly, we have Giving In by Adema.

There you go, folks, another episode of My Weekly Soundtrack. Until next time, this is your host, Revis Edgewater, hoping you enjoyed the music and wishing you a great week.

13 comments on “My Weekly Soundtrack 6/4

  1. El Guapo says:

    Some great tunes here!

  2. 1jaded1 says:

    m/ as alwwys. You did play So Cold but subconsciously you knew I wanted to hear it again. ;-). J.

  3. The entire set rocks! Love One and Lightning Crashes (especially as I watch the heat lightning out my window and wait for the rain and hail to move in. “I can feel it…”)

  4. This makes me almost sorry I haven’t liked a new band since 1979…

  5. The Hook says:

    Greta tones and beats, Revis!

Revis "......."

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: Logo

You are commenting using your account. Log Out / Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. Log Out / Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out / Change )

Google+ photo

You are commenting using your Google+ account. Log Out / Change )

Connecting to %s


Content-Type: application/http; msgtype=response

WARC-Identified-Payload-Type: text/html

WARC-Truncated: length

WARC-Type: response

text:
Leaving Istanbul

Drying Laundry

Last Thursday we cycled out of a grey and shiny Istanbul. It had been raining heavily, the road was slippery, and we we had wet feet within a few minutes. Leaving Istanbul was hard. We had spent the previous week hanging out with family and girlfriends, it was difficult to drag ourselves away and get moving again, the cold dirty spray from passing trucks did little to help. By nightfall we had failed to escape Istanbul’s urban sprawl and camped on the only dry land we could find, on the fringe of a petrol station forecourt.

Munching on excellent kebabs, and drinking the endless supply of tea plied by the forecourt attendants it began to sink in- we were on the last leg of our cycle. In a few days we’d be in the EU, in three months we’d be home- the adventure would be over. Somewhere in Turkey the world had changed, and it now seemed behind us. Somewhere along the way, possibly the cold and empty desert of Iran, or the icy passes of the Caucasus we had crossed a bridge, had left a dream and were cycling towards an achievement- and now it was time to start thinking about after. But enough of after for the moment.

Technically our last few days in Turkey were also our first in Europe, but in reality they were our last in Asia. Cycling towards Bulgaria I could feel it, the tea, the dancing with arms aloft, and all the fancy trim of the orient ebbing away. Curved crescents giving way to angular crosses, warm and unquestioning hospitality to reservation. Inshallah to cold rationality. All of this had been happening gradually, but there’s nothing like a border to evoke determinate perceptions where in reality blurry lines exist. Sometimes a line in the sand really helps bring things into focus, and the line in the sand between Bulgaria and Turkey was a bold reminder that most of this is adventure is now behind us and now each kilometre brings us closer to the familiar rather than propelling us into unfamiliar worlds.

Located at the nexus of several realms, where Europe, Asia, Arabia meet Turkey begs cliches and handy metaphors. All of them apt. It is a crossroad and a bridge, it is where the Occident and the Orient merge, its kebabs and beer, ordered roads and pragmatic Islam. For us its where the hard yards, the unknown and unusual begin to give way.

Turkey was good to us. The Turks possibly the warmest people I’ve encountered. They are excellent hosts, generous and undemanding, gregarious and outgoing. I’m sorry to have left.

Tea House

One thought on “Leaving Istanbul

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out / Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. Log Out / Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out / Change )

Google+ photo

You are commenting using your Google+ account. Log Out / Change )

Connecting to %s

warcinfo:
robots: classic
hostname: ip-10-146-51-29.ec2.internal
software: Nutch 1.6 (CC)
isPartOf: CC-MAIN-2018-13
operator: Common Crawl Admin
description: Wide crawl of the web for March 2018
publisher: Common Crawl
format: WARC File Format 1.0
conformsTo: http://bibnum.bnf.fr/WARC/WARC_ISO_28500_version1_latestdraft.pdf


WARC-Identified-Payload-Type: application/xhtml+xml

text:
Job Details
Apply Online
Send This Job to a Friend

Requisition Number 18-0051
Post Date 2/14/2018
Title Senior Coding Manager
City Lafayette
State CO
Description This job exists to: The purpose of this position is to provide senior leadership to the coding staff, department operations, ensure complete and correct documentation and coding to produce clean claim output. Responsible for providing effective leadership and overseeing the duties and functions of the Coding staff and ensuring that they are carried out with accuracy, timeliness and confidentiality to ensure Clinica’s full compliance with federal and state requirements.

• Manage Coding staff in a centralized billing environment fully integrated with the Clinica team. Assure that the values that a centralized system brings (networking, collaboration between front/back end staff) are maintained in this process. Assure clinical, operational and financial department expectations for this role are met in the integration plan.
o Assure billers are fully trained on the NextGen EPM and EHR systems, to maximize their ability to correctly review, process and code encounters.
o Act as a mentor and coach for certified CPC staff, to educate them in coding/auditing and provider education.
o Work with Billing Manager to assure front end processes support reimbursement team needs.
• Lead organization and oversee the use of updated and most specific procedure and diagnosis codes are utilized.
• Provides program development and facilitation of communication between providers, coders, and other members of the revenue cycle team.
• Build, maintain, and manage department and staff by use of Key Performance Indicator (KPI) and Benchmarking.
• Oversee charge entry functions in NextGen EPM environment to include management of upfront claim edits and assuring correct procedure and diagnosis codes are correctly maintained and added in the EPM system.
• Develop and manage coding education program for clinical and billing staff with Senior Coding Auditor and Educator.
• Responsible for assuring Coding Compliance Plan is followed thoroughly. This plan includes regular audits and reporting of clinical documentation audits, billing and coding staff audits, and billing claim audits to assure accuracy and compliance of Plan. Works with Clinical Leadership to identify and correct coding inaccuracies that fall outside of Plan requirements.
• Required to be knowledgeable and compliant with all laws and regulations that apply to your area of responsibility. Required to act in full cooperation with Compliance Officer and to uphold our Compliance Plan.
• Work with Finance Leadership staff to identify revenue opportunities that exist and participate in solutions to improve revenue when possible.
• Participate with IPN and CCHN leadership to assure CFHS needs are maintained and to network and contribute to the global FQHC environment.
• Provides excellent customer service to Clinica patients and our internal customers, to include all employees of CFHS.
• Provides weekly and monthly reporting as required.
• Provides project management functions for coding related projects.
• Build a strong partnership with the Billing Manager.
• Support the Corporate Compliance Officer in assuring compliance with federal, state, and company rules, regulations, policies etc.; with regard to billing processes.

• Maintain a safe work environment:
o Implement, review, apply and actively enforce the clinic’s safety policies.
o Support the safety program by actively looking for opportunities to improve safety practices and evaluate staff for safety practices and ergonomic issues.
o Discipline staff when safety policies are violated.
• Compliance:
o Knowledgeable of and compliant with laws and regulations governing area of responsibility.
o Responsible for reporting any potentially non-compliant conduct.
o Cooperate fully with our Compliance Officer in upholding our Compliance Plan.
• Performs other duties and responsibilities as requested.

• Manage and coach staff.
• Setting performance goals and benchmarks for coding staff.
• Initial and annual Performance Evaluations.
• Disciplinary action as needed.
• Leadership and modeling of Clinica values.

• Authority for hiring and day to day coaching of staff.
• Final authority for decisions to terminate the employment of a staff member.

Progress is reviewed quarterly and results are measured and formally evaluated annually.

A. Education / Experience

• Current CPC certification from accredited National Organization. (AAPC or AHIMA).
• Minimum 5 years of previous supervisory management experience.
• 3-5 years experience in Healthcare Management with knowledge of various payment programs and insurers.
• Proficiency in Medicare Part B, Medicaid programs, Managed Care models and third-party payer guidelines.
• Bachelor’s degree in Healthcare related field, Business Administration or applicable other degree preferred.
• ICD-10 certification preferred.

B. Knowledge, skills and abilities:

• Community Health Center office experience a plus
• Expertise in CPT, HCPCS, CDT, and ICD
• Advanced Microsoft Excel skills
• Knowledge of NextGen EHR and EPM
• Office skills including typing, accounting, 10 key entry, filing, computer usage required
• Good team building skills required.
• Good organization skills required.
• Ability to manage multiple projects
• Ability to delegate responsibility and authority to staff required.
• Good oral and written communications skills required.
• Ability to establish and monitor performance/production standards
• Bilingual: Spanish and English preferred.

Apply On-line
Send This Job to a Friend

An Equal Opportunity Employer


text:
(mostly) daily photoblog

Have you ever jumped off a dock into a lake?

Have you ever jumped off a dock into a lake with total abandon?  Actually, have you ever done anything with total abandon?  Ridden your bike so hard that your legs couldn’t keep up?  How about riding the scariest roller coaster that you can find?  What about jumping off a ten meter cliff (that’s 30 feet for my American friends)?  Or doing whatever it is completely freaks you out?  There is that moment that you know that you are no longer in control and whatever it is you’re doing has you, moves you.

There is that moment when you’re in the air and there is no way you can Wile E. Coyote yourself back to the dock.  Your heart is pounding and you’re not sure where you are.  You know there’s no ground under your feet but you haven’t hit the water yet.  You know it’s going to be cold, and it matters not that you’ve been in and out of that water four times already.  It.  Is.  Cold.

SPLASH!  and you’re in.  The splash, that respite from the summer heat, is over before you’ve registered it.  You’re gasping for air as you surface and your brain registered an excited blank.  Just the high-pitched eeeeeeeeeeeeee of adrenaline and cortisol hitting your system.  Then the cheering, from you and any friends who are there with you.

It is way too cold to jump off the dock at Cultus right now.  It’s freakin’ January in Canada.  You’d have to be challenged in a special way to want to do this now.  But that dock had me thinking about abandonment of all sensibilities.  I’m jonesing for Spring, I guess.

On a photo related note, I don’t know what happened this weekend in Cultus Lake, but the water went green.  Usually it is a deep blue, but Saturday the water was green.  This is not PhotoShop trickery.  I did not touch the color saturation levels.  The lake was green.  But enough about the color.

Comments are closed.


text:
Monday, 25 July 2011

Talents on the move

Local accountants attracted by foreign greener pastures

 KUALA LUMPUR: Despite unwavering interest in accountancy courses at universities and colleges, mid-tier accounting and auditing firms are finding it difficult to hire and retain their accountants.

The problem: the outflow of local talents to foreign “greener pastures”.

Baker Tilly International chief executive officer and president Geoff Barnes told StarBiz that something needs to be done about this, as “a strong audit profession underpins an economy with good corporate governance, a strong capital market and an economic environment that can cross borders.”

Barnes said the accounting profession has always demanded the brightest of people globally and that good firms have always had this “war for talent, because we are all looking for the best people”.

Barnes (left) and Heng stressing on the importance of retaining accounting talents.
Local member firm, Baker Tilly Monteiro Heng (BTMH) chief executive partner Heng Ji Keng said many Malaysian accounting graduates see better opportunities in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Singapore and Australia.

Heng added that many graduates left mainly due to the salary disparity. To counter this, he said firms needed assistance from the Government as “a word from the Government is better than a thousand words from practitioners”.

“We need to slowly bridge the gap between the salary we pay here and that offered in the countries attracting our talents. We need assistance from the regulators to impress upon clients that low fees also affect the quality of an auditing job,” Heng said.

A fresh graduate can earn up to RM100,000 per annum in China, around RM85,000 per annum in Singapore while Australian firms pay about RM160,000 per annum. Locally, they would earn about RM30,000 only.

SJ Grant Thornton (SJGT) managing partner Datuk Narendra Jasani said an estimated 500 accounting graduates out of 1,500 from local universities leave the country every year.

Both firms, BTMH and SJGT, said the Government could further benefit the country's accounting profession by liberalising immigration policies.

Heng said the many foreign students studying here could be a good source of accountants for local firms, provided the Government revises the related immigration restrictions.

“We must acknowledge their potential and train them to become qualified professional accountants,” he said.

Both Heng and Jasani suggested that the Government could look into giving foreign students a work permit of three to four years after their studies.

“To avoid disheartening our Malaysian accountants, a quota could be set for firms to employ no more than 20% foreign accountants,” Jasani further suggested.

Heng pointed out that another turn-off for young accountants to begin their career here is the difficulty in getting a licence to practise.

“The accountants have to go through about a decade of university education and training, topped off with a scrutinising interview that tests them on the technicalities of the industry before the Finance Ministry issues a licence,” Heng said.

Specifically, Malaysian accountants need three years for a university degree, three years of working experience, another three years of post-Malaysian Institute of Accountants membership and an interview to determine whether they would qualify for a licence. The tedious process and no guarantee of getting a licence to practise has become a deterrent to young accountants when embarking on their careers.

“We also have to change work procedures. One aspect is to change the audit methodolgy no more ticking and checking all the time but more thought-processing, overviews and comparative analysis which is more suited to the younger generation,” SGJT's Jasani said.

Grant Thorton International chief executive officer Ed Nusbaum said the rapid economic growth and expansion in the entire Asia-Pacific region has caused the shortage of talent.

“The demand is greater than the number of students graduating from universities and qualified experienced talent within the region. Whether you are talking about Malaysia, China or India, we need to attract people to the accounting profession,” he said, adding that dynamic firms also contributed to attracting young accountants.

“Being part of a growing organisation makes (one's career) interesting and employee retention is better because people see opportunities,” Nusbaum concluded.


text:
Wednesday, 21 September 2011

Changes in Malaysia's horizon; Keep the momentum up!

Changes in the nation’s horizon

Reflecting On The Law By Shad Saleem Faruqi

Whether by revocation by the King or annulment by Parliament, all emergency legislations will cease to exist six months after the end of an emergency proclamation.
An artist's portrayal of the Internal Security...Image via Wikipedia

THE Prime Minister’s surprise announcement that the Emergency will be lifted, that the Internal Security Act will be repealed, and that laws like the Printing Presses and Publications Act will be amended to constitutionalise and humanise them has fired everybody’s imagination, and at the same time raised apprehension among the defenders of the status quo.

One reader asked whether the Prime Minister consulted with, and obtained, the consent of the Cabinet before making these bold pronouncements.

No outsider can answer this accurately, but what can be pointed out is that in parliamentary democracies, prime ministers are known to launch bold initiatives on their own and to present their Cabinets and their countries with a fait accompli.

Clear examples are decisions on premature dissolution of Parliament and budget and foreign policy initiatives.

In 1956, Anthony Eden of Britain got his country embroiled in the disastrous Suez invasion, and informed his Cabinet only after British paratroopers had landed on Egyptian soil.

In a strictly legal way, the prime minister is not bound by the Cabinet; instead the Cabinet is bound by the direction he supplies.

Politics may, of course, encourage a consultative approach but all students of parliamentary government know that the prime minister is the sun around which the Cabinet revolves.

Individual ministers are bound under the doctrine of collective ministerial responsibility to support their prime minister or step down from office.

Another reader asked whether the Prime Minister’s announcement means that the Emergency is already lifted?  The answer is in the negative.

The Emergency is proclaimed by the King and either he must revoke his proclamation(s) or the two Houses must by resolution annul the proclamation(s).

If the King (acting on advice) revokes a proclamation, the revocation comes into effect immediately.

However, if the two Houses are to debate and vote on a resolution to annul, that process can be expected to take some weeks or months because the Dewan Negara will probably convene only after the Dewan Rakyat’s lengthy budget session beginning in October.

However, if immediate parliamentary action to annul the 1966, 1969 and 1977 proclamations is thought desirable, the two Houses can meet concurrently to draw to a close the 47-year saga of the existing post-independence Emergency.

Once a proclamation expires, whether by revocation by the King or annulment by Parliament through an Emergency Act of Parliament or a piece of subsidiary legislation under an emergency law, all emergency legislations will cease to exist six months after the proclamation.

If the Emergency ends, does the Internal Security Act (ISA) also cease to exist? The answer is in the negative.  The ISA is a law against subversion under Article 149.

It is independent of Article 150 and has a life of its own, no matter what happens to the Emergency.

If the ISA is repealed, will those detained under the ISA have to be released? Undoubtedly, yes.

If the basis of their detention is extinguished, the detention, too, ceases to be valid.

Even if there is a new law under Article 149 to deal with security or terrorism cases, that law cannot be backdated due to the prohibition of Article 7(1).

Of course, the detainees may face new prosecutions under the Penal Code or the new laws.
The rule of double jeopardy will not apply.

Will the Government have to pay compensation to all people detained under the ISA, including in previous years?

The answer is “no” because the legality of an act must be judged by the law at the time of the commission of the act and not by what happens afterwards.

How can the ISA be repealed? Does its repeal require the consent of the Conference of Rulers?

Under Article 149, any law against subversion may be passed or repealed by Parliament. A simple majority vote is sufficient. The consent of the Conference of Rulers is not needed.

From what we have heard, the ISA will be replaced by two laws on terrorism and national security.
Some cynics are saying that the move is therefore purely cosmetic and political.

The ISA may end but preventive detention may remain. I think we should hold our judgment on this issue till we see the substantive content of the proposed new laws.

I would give anxious consideration to the following issues:

> The concepts of terrorism and national security must be precisely and objectively defined and must not have any catch-all tendencies.

> There should be no exclusion of judicial review so that any abuse or misuse of power can be tested in the courts.

It is acceptable that on matters of security, the political executive must have a strong say without excluding the power of the courts to determine independently whether security was indeed involved or not.

> There must be some safeguards against political detentions.

> The power of the police to detain for purposes of investigation must be drastically reduced from the present 60 days to no more than three weeks.

> The Minister’s power, as at present, to order detention for two years and for such further periods as he deems necessary must be abolished.

Detentions on the orders of the Minister raise the unconscionable issue of accuser, adjudicator and executioner being combined. Some separation of powers and some check and balance is desirable.

Justice must not only be done but must be seen to be done.

> The power to try, to convict and to detain must be committed to a Special Security Court or Anti-Terrorism Court (or by whatever name called).

> Anxious consideration must be given to the composition of this Special Court which must arouse public confidence.

> The executive must accuse, the court must decide.

> Special procedural rules for security trials exist in many countries and must be examined.

Perhaps trials should be held in camera (without the public present).

Whatever the case, there must be fair due process. The accused must know the charge.

No incriminating evidence must be withheld from him and from the judge, as is possible at present.

The accused must be allowed to defend himself fully and fairly.

> The penalties and the maximum period of detention must be prescribed.

> Whether there should be no appeal in “security” and “terrorist” trials is a matter for further consideration.

We have many model legislations from many countries that we can emulate.

Whatever we follow must show fidelity to our own Constitution and to the primary instruments of international law.

> Shad Saleem Faruqi is Emeritus Professor of Law at UiTM and Visiting Professor at USM.

Keep the momentum up!

Question Time By P. Gunasegaram

The momentous changes proposed by the Prime Minister need to be pushed through with the utmost urgency for greater effect.

THE overwhelming support and acclaim from Malaysians over the proposals by the Prime Minister to repeal the Internal Security Act or ISA and lift all proclamations of emergency show just how unpopular these measures are among Malaysians.

Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak has read the signals right. But as important as these and other proposals are, the larger agenda is even more significant – to review and if necessary repeal and replace all laws which stand in the way of demo-cracy, legitimate free expression, and human and individual rights.

Two paragraphs from Najib’s speech last Thursday are worth re-quoting: “It is absolutely clear that the steps I just announced are none other than early initiatives of an organised and graceful political transformation. It stands as a crucial and much needed complement to the initiatives of economic transformation and public presentation which the government has outlined and implemented for over two years in the effort to pioneer a modern and progressive nation.

“…the Malaysia that we all dream of and are in the process of creating is a Malaysia that practises a functional and inclusive democracy where public peace and prosperity is preserved in accordance with the supremacy of the Constitution, rule of law and respect for basic human rights and individual rights.”

Two things are necessary to carry these reforms to its natural conclusion. The first is to keep the momentum generated up and without any delay implement what has been promised. Any delay and back-pedalling to cater to the interests of some sections of the community will have the effect of raising cynicism yet again.

The second is to look into all the other laws which need to be changed to allow Malaysians to exercise all their full rights as enshrined in the Federal Constitution without hindrance.

That means that all those laws that are in direct contradiction to the letter and spirit of the Constitution must go. The sooner they go, the better. There has to be demonstrable urgency over this matter.

Already there are some politicians who are saying that the amendments to make some of the major changes cannot be tabled at the forthcoming Parliament session and will have to be deferred to next year. That will be a wrong start.

The necessary repeals of the relevant legislation can be made and still passed by Parliament this year for implementation next year. By that time, other legislation such as a counter-terrorism Act to still allow detention without trial under special circumstances and under judicial review can be introduced.

That will have the effect of setting a timetable for the implementation of the proposed changes already announced so that no one will doubt that the Government is serious about implementing the promises.

Already, there is talk that some sections within the ruling party and some parts of the police force are opposed to the repeal of the ISA and the Banishment Act. But these people must not be permitted to stop – or even delay – the reform process set into motion by the Prime Minister.

Simultaneous with the rapid implementation of the announced measures is the necessity to do an urgent yet comprehensive review of existing laws to expand the public space and bring forth important issues to be debated maturely and openly – with no threat from any party.

The proposal to remove the yearly licensing requirement for publications including newspapers under the Printing Presses and Publications Act is a relief, but a small one. The Home Ministry still wields disproportionate power and has the right to stop publication at any time without there being any recourse to the courts.

For the full flowering of legitimate expression across the board, it will be necessary to repeal fully this Act. That of course does not mean we are free to publish whatever we want because we will still be subject to provisions of the law for defamation, sedition, secrecy and so on. There is still adequate check and balance.

Another piece of draconian legislation that needs to be reviewed is the Official Secrets Act (OSA). This Act was amended in the eighties to provide for mandatory jail sentence and gave the Government the right to determine what affected national security without review by the courts.

In practical terms, this has prevented many issues of great public interest such as toll agreements to come out into the open. In practical terms, the Government could classify the number of cups of coffee consumed in a departmental canteen as a secret and anyone who reported it could be convicted under the OSA and go to jail for a minimum one year.

New legislation should be worded such that it respects secrecy when it involves issues of national security, not cover up inefficiency, incompetence or breach of trust by the Government. That would help ensure a more accountable government.

One other Act which deserves mention is the University and University Colleges Act that prevents local students from taking part in political activities and being aligned to political parties. This is strange considering that many of our founding fathers were political activists from their student days.

They may be students but they are also adults and as adults should play their full role in society, including taking part in political activities. That is part and parcel of developing their maturity and making them better members of society in future.

There is no doubt many other pieces of legislation need to be reviewed and the task is momentous. However, momentous as it is, the momentum that has been created by the announcement of the proposals must not be lost. We must press on relentlessly.

Momentum is of the utmost importance for change to take place. We need to turn the wheels of transformation faster instead of slowing them down with all manner of unfounded excuses. Malaysia and Malaysians have to move forward and quickly.

> Managing editor P. Gunasegaram believes in the old axiom that change is the only constant.

Related posts:

Towards a brave new Malaysia, keep lobbying and pushing for change!

Winds of change blowing in Malaysia; Dawn of a new era?


text:
Saturday, 24 September 2011

NASA satellite falls back to Earth !

Dead satellite likely fell into Pacific Ocean--maybe

By: William Harwood, CNET

NASA's decommissioned 6.3-ton Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite, out of gas and out of control after two decades in space, plunged back into the atmosphere early Saturday, heating up, breaking apart, and presumably showering chunks of debris along a 500-mile-long Pacific Ocean impact zone.

U.S. Strategic Command radar tracking indicated re-entry would occur around 12:16 a.m. EDT (GMT-4) Saturday as the satellite was descending across the Pacific Ocean on a southwest-to-northeast trajectory approaching Canada's west coast. If re-entry occurred on or before the predicted time, any wreckage that survived atmospheric heating almost certainly fell into the Pacific Ocean.

NASA's derelict Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite fell to Earth Saturday, presumably into the Pacific Ocean west of Canada. But it's not yet a sure thing.

"Because we don't know where the re-entry point actually was, we don't know where the debris field might be," said Nicholas Johnson, chief orbital debris scientist at NASA's Johnson Space Center.

"If the re-entry point was at the (predicted time) of 04:16 GMT, then all that debris wound up in the Pacific Ocean. If the re-entry point occurred earlier than that, practically the entire pass before over water. So the only way debris could have probably reached land would be if the re-entry occurred after 04:16."

Johnson said amateur satellite watchers in the U.S. northwest and the Canadian southwest were "looking to observe UARS as it came over. Every one of those attempts came up negative. That would suggest that the re-entry did, in fact, occur before it reached the North American coast, which, again, would mean most of this debris fell into the Pacific."

But it's not yet certain and it's equally possible a delayed re-entry resulted in debris falling somewhere in northern Canada or elsewhere along the trajectory.

"We may never know," Johnson told reporters in an afternoon teleconference.

The centerpiece of a $750 million mission, the Upper Atmosphere Research satellite was launched from the shuttle Discovery at 12:23 a.m. EDT (GMT-4) on Sept. 15, 1991. The solar-powered satellite studied a wide variety of atmospheric phenomena, including the depletion of Earth's ozone layer 15 to 30 miles up.

The long-lived satellite was decommissioned in 2005, and one side of its orbit was lowered using the last of its fuel to hasten re-entry and minimize the chances of orbital collisions that could produce even more orbital debris. No more fuel was available for maneuvering and the satellite's re-entry was "uncontrolled."

As with all satellites in low-Earth orbit, UARS was a victim of atmospheric drag, the slow but steady reduction in velocity, and thus altitude, caused by flying through the tenuous extreme upper atmosphere at some five miles per second.

UARS' final trajectory as it neared the discernible atmosphere proved difficult to predict. The descent slowed somewhat Friday, presumably because the spacecraft's orientation changed. As the day wore on, the predicted impact time slipped from Friday afternoon to early Saturday.

Johnson said falling satellites typically begin breaking up at an altitude of around 50 miles. In the case of UARS, computer analysis indicated about 26 pieces of debris would survive to reach the surface, spread out along a 500-mile-long down-range footprint. Johnson said the heel of the footprint, the area where the lightest debris might fall, is typically 300 miles or so beyond the breakup point.

But so far, "we've got no reports of anyone seeing anything that we believe are credible," Johnson said.

Johnson told reporters last week he expected most of the satellite to burn up as it slammed into the dense lower atmosphere at more than 17,000 mph. But computer software used to analyze possible re-entry outcomes predicted 26 pieces of debris would survive to impact the surface, the largest weighing some 330 pounds. Impact velocities were expected to range from 30 mph to 240 mph.

"We looked at those 26 pieces and how big they are, and we've looked at the fact they can hit anywhere in the world between 57 north and 57 south, and we looked at what the population density of the world is," he said. "Numerically, it comes out to a chance of 1 in 3,200 that one person anywhere in the world might be struck by a piece of debris. Those are obviously very, very low odds that anybody's going to be impacted by this debris."

For comparison, some 42.5 tons of wreckage from the shuttle Columbia hit the ground in a footprint stretching from central Texas to Louisiana when the orbiter broke apart during re-entry in 2003. No one on the ground was injured and no significant property damage was reported.

The UARS satellite is deployed into orbit in 1992.
An astronaut picture of the UARS satellite being deployed in 1991.
Photograph courtesy NASA

An astronaut picture of the UARS satellite being deployed in 1991.
Photograph courtesy NASA

Defying predictions one last time, NASA's doomed UARS satellite dove through Earth's atmosphere late last night over the North Pacific Ocean, off the U.S. West Coast, the space agency says. (Also see "Space Debris: Five Unexpected Objects That Fell to Earth.")

As recently as Friday morning, U.S. officials had forecast that the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite, or UARS, would fall out of the sky in the late afternoon or early evening Friday, eastern time.
(See "NASA Satellite Falling Faster Due to Solar Activity.")

But the satellite shifted position as it tumbled toward the planet, forcing scientists to throw out their earlier time estimates.

NASA said early Saturday that UARS fell out of orbit sometime between 11:23 p.m. and 1:09 a.m. ET.
Amateur satellite trackers in places such as San Antonio, Texas, and northern Minnesota reported catching glimpses of UARS as it made its final, doomed circles around Earth.

Though the spacecraft plummeted over the Pacific, it's still not clear exactly where debris from the satellite has landed. Pieces of the satellite will be strung along a debris "footprint" stretching 500 miles (800 kilometers).

So far there are "no reports of any damage or injury," NASA said via Twitter close to midday Saturday.
Satellite Pieces Not For Sale

UARS, which weighed more than six tons, was lofted into orbit by the space shuttle Discovery in 1991. The craft recorded data on Earth's atmosphere until it was switched off in 2005.

Some 1,100 pounds (500 kilograms) of debris from the satellite were projected to survive the superheated descent through the atmosphere. The biggest intact piece, NASA said, would probably be a 300-pound (140-kilogram) chunk of the spacecraft's structure.

NASA warned the curious not to touch any pieces of the spacecraft that may have made it to the ground, because of the risk of sharp edges.

The space agency also tried to head off sales of UARS remnants on Internet auction sites such as eBay.
"Any pieces of UARS found are still the property of the country that made it," NASA warned via Twitter this morning. "You'll have to give 'em back to U.S."
Newscribe : get free news in real time

Lifeless satellite falls back to Earth

(China Daily)

Lifeless satellite falls back to Earth
Junk left from colliding satellites floats through space in this computer-generated image. NASA confirmed that two communication satellites from the United States and Russia collided 800 kilometers above northern Siberia on Sept 10. [Provided to China Daily]
NASA assures public that there is little chance of getting hit by debris

WASHINGTON - Fragments from an old 6-ton NASA satellite hurtled toward Earth on Friday, while the exact site of the crash-landing remained a mystery into the final hours.

The US space agency has stressed that the risk is "extremely small" that any of the 26 chunks that are expected to survive the fiery re-entry into Earth's atmosphere will hit one of the planet's seven billion people a one in 3,200 chance.

"Re-entry is possible sometime during the afternoon or early evening of Sept 23, Eastern Daylight Time," NASA said on its website on Thursday night.

That would be early morning Saturday Beijing time.

"It is still too early to predict the time and location of re-entry with any more certainty, but predictions will become more refined in the next 24 hours."

The influence of solar flares and the tumbling motion of the satellite make narrowing down the landing a particularly difficult task, experts said as the Internet lit up with rumors of where and when it would fall.

The US Department of Defense and NASA were busy tracking the debris and keeping all federal disaster agencies informed, a NASA spokeswoman said.

The Federal Aviation Administration issued a notice on Thursday to pilots and flight crews of the potential hazard and urged them to "report any observed falling space debris to the appropriate (air traffic control) facility and include position, altitude, time and direction of debris observed," CNN said.

The satellite was launched in 1991 and was designed to provide data for better understanding Earth's upper atmosphere and the effects of natural and human interactions on the atmosphere. The satellite was deactivated in 2005 as it ran out of fuel and was left orbiting Earth.

Orbital debris experts say space junk of this size from broken-down satellites and spent rockets tends to fall back to Earth about once a year, though this is the biggest NASA satellite to fall in three decades.

NASA's Skylab crashed into western Australia in 1979.

The surviving chunks of the tour-bus sized satellite will include titanium fuel tanks, beryllium housing and stainless steel batteries and wheel rims. The parts may weigh as little as one kg or as much as 158 kg, NASA said.

Orbital debris scientists say the pieces will fall somewhere between 57 north latitude and 57 south latitude, which covers most of the populated world.

The debris field is expected to span 800 square kilometers.

Pang Zhihao, a researcher from the Chinese Research Institute of Space Technology, told Xinhua that the crash could have been avoided had the satellite been put into a higher orbit, or manipulated to drop in the South Pacific when it had abundant fuel.

Lifeless satellite falls back to Earth
Pang said most spacecraft will incinerate upon re-entering Earth's atmosphere, and the debris will mostly likely fall into the ocean or hit an uninhabited area.

NASA has also said that in 50 years of space exploration no one has ever been confirmed injured by falling space junk.

The craft contains no fuel and so is not expected to explode on impact.

"No consideration ever was given to shooting it down," NASA spokeswoman Beth Dickey said.
NASA has warned anyone who comes across what they believe may be debris not to touch it but to contact authorities for assistance.

Space law professor Frans von der Dunk from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln's College of Law told AFP that the United States will likely have to pay damages to any country where the debris falls.

"The damage to be compensated is essentially without limit," von der Dunk said, referring to the 1972 Liability Convention to which the United States is one of 80 signatories.

"Damage here concerns 'loss of life, personal injury or other impairment of health; or loss of or damage to property of States or of persons, natural or juridical, or property of international intergovernmental organizations,'" he said, reading from the agreement.

However, the issue could get thornier if the debris causes damage in a country that is not part of the convention.

"The number of countries so far theoretically at risk is rather large, so there may be an issue if damage would be caused to a state not being party to the Liability Convention," he said.

Huge Tumbling Satellite Could Fall to Earth Over US Tonight or Saturday, NASA Says

 "The satellite's orientation or configuration apparently has changed, and that is now slowing its descent," NASA officials wrote in a morning status update today. "There is a low probability any debris that survives re-entry will land in the United States, but the possibility cannot be discounted because of this changing rate of descent." [Complete coverage of NASA's falling satellite]

NASA expects about 26 large pieces of the UARS spacecraft to survive re-entry through Earth's atmosphere and reach the planet's surface. The biggest piece should weigh about 300 pounds. The spacecraft is the largest NASA satellite to fall from space uncontrolled since 1979. [6 Biggest Spacecraft to Fall Uncontrolled From Space]

NASA officials have said the the chances that a piece of UARS debris hits and injures one of the nearly 7 billion people on the planet are about 1 in 3,200. However, the personal odds of you being struck by UARS satellite debris are actually about 1 in several trillion, NASA officials have said.

As of 10:30 a.m. EDT (1430 GMT) today, the UARS satellite was flying in an orbit of about 100 miles by 105 miles (160 kilometers by 170 km), and dropping.  NASA launched the UARS satellite in 1991 to study Earth's ozone layer and upper atmosphere. The satellite was decommissioned in 2005.

"Re-entry is expected late Friday, Sept. 23, or early Saturday, Sept. 24, Eastern Daylight Time," NASA officials wrote. "Solar activity is no longer the major factor in the satellite's rate of descent."

The sun has had an extremely active week, one that has included several solar flares. High solar activity can cause the Earth's atmosphere to heat and expand, which can increase drag on a low-flying satellite like UARS, making it fall faster.
Get a snapshot view of NASA's Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS), which will fall to Earth in 2011, in this infographic.
Get a snapshot view of NASA's Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS), which will fall to Earth in 2011, in this infographic.
CREDIT: Karl Tate, Contributor
 Newscribe : get free news in real time


text:
New video from South Wales pop punk band Man of the Hour

South Wales’s latest pop punkers, Man of the Hour, have unveiled the video to coincide with their latest single ‘A Modern Day Epic’.  The hard edged punks’ video displays their journey from starting out as a bedroom band, who have evolved into a force to be reckoned with, spilling out into the public domain. The video provides a visual festival to accompany the aural pleasure delivered from the gorgeous intricate details that’s weaved into the pop punk masterpiece, which is ‘A Modern Day Epic’.

Watch the video here:

If you’re fans of giants such as Blink 182Kids in Glass HousesNew Found Glory and Set Your Goals, then Man of the Hour are definitely worth checking out.  Earlier this week, ‘A Modern Day Epic’ was streamed exclusively at, which you can check out here.

Man of the Hour have been spun by DJs at Radio OneNation Radio and Amazing Radio, as well as a whole host of smaller stations across the nation.  The guys are set to play all across the South Wales over the next couple of month, so make sure you check them out, they’re brilliant digitally, but they offer an explosive performance live.

Man of the Hour have a variety of gigs coming up at the following venues:

Tour Dates

16th March @ Hobo’s, Bridgend

18th March @ The Full Moon, Cardiff

23rd March @ Le Pub, Newport

*NEW DATE ADDED* 6th April @ The Factory, Porth

7 July @ Dare Valley Ink n Iron, Michael Sobell sports centre, Aberdare

“I want to highlight Man of the Hour’s potential to become one of the next upcoming pop-punk newbies who will make it into the mainstream, so don’t take it personally, but, once that happens I can say “I told you so, you can even read my review up on AltSounds”. –

“this is a sterling piece of musicianship from a fledgling band with great promise. Itís a grower, for sure.” –

“I expect great things from them on the evidence of this track. A beautifully crafted and well produced, pop-punk-rock single.” –

Check out their website here

“Like” Man of the Hour on their official Facebook page here

Follow Man of the Hour on their official twitter here

  1. No trackbacks yet.

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: Logo

You are commenting using your account. Log Out / Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. Log Out / Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out / Change )

Google+ photo

You are commenting using your Google+ account. Log Out / Change )

Connecting to %s

%d bloggers like this:


text:
Not since 2008 have so many Oregon motorists died on Oregon Roadways over the 4th of July weekend. That year, 6 persons died on Oregon Road ways. Over the 2013 4th of July weekend, 5 people perished in Oregon motor vehicle crashes, according to Oregon State Police. Of course, this is devastating news for families affected. Those not directly affected may simply conclude that this 4th was just another dangerous holiday weekend.

A closer look reveals an important clue as to how we all might reduce our own risk of fatality on Oregon roads during holiday weekends. All deaths occurred the Friday of the holiday weekend. One viable theory for “Friday Fatality Phenomenon” : drivers in rush to get somewhere else on Friday after enjoying fireworks the day before. To reduce the chance of a serious motor vehicle accident this Labor Day weekend, consider not driving while every other Oregonian is also rushing out of town. Wait until traffic subsides.. don’t drive with the herd or at times when other drivers are more likely to be impaired. In 2013, 60 persons were arrested for drunken driving over the 4th weekend , compared with 21 in 2012.


text:
Hope Calls The Young

young peopleOne after another they crossed the stage to receive their Bibles and certificates, their anointing and/or baptism.

Twenty-four of them – young people grafted into the church through the sacraments and boldly proclaiming, “I want everyone to know I’m a Christian.”

Although I knew none of them personally, I watched with a lump in my throat and remembered the day when I, too, publicly declared I would follow this Jesus person and dedicate my life to him.

Did these young people feel that warm glow of gracious love? Their faces certainly shone with the joy of the moment and the end result of being courageous enough to give their souls back to their Creator.

After the service, I felt hope renewed as another generation of young people prepared to step into life with a purpose. These are the messengers of the coming Messiah, the generation that will usher in the King of kings.

They humbled me with their sweet testimonies, projected on the video screen as they talked about moms, dads and friends who persuaded them to consider Jesus.

They excited me as I thought about the opportunities they would have in such a technological world. How many friends might they bring to the Truth just by posting on Instagram, Twitter or Snapchat?

I envy these young ones with their lives ahead of them. While I could share some tips with them, they will learn well from their own experiences. They must walk this road in relationship with the best Mentor possible and listen to the divine whisper for their instructions.

Hope called me young, and what I saw last Sunday in my church spread into ripples of anticipation for what God will do through these young people.

I can hardly wait to see what happens.

©2016 RJ Thesman – Author of the Reverend G books http://amzn.to/1rXlCyh

The Encouragement of the Geese

Several years ago, during a time of great struggle, God sent the geese.

I was driving to work and fighting discouragement, when a flock of geese flew right over my truck. They were so beautiful, so fluid in their movement and so determined in their purpose – I felt encouraged.

geese flyingI knew that the same Creator who gave the geese the instinct to fly in a V, would also direct my life. Since then, every time I see geese, I praise God for his provisions and his direction.

And the geese keep appearing. On my way to an interview, geese waddle all over the lawn near the building where I meet the interviewer.

Driving all over Kansas City for speaking events, flocks of geese fly over me. Every time I drive to Oklahoma to see Mom in assisted living, geese pepper the sky. They remind me that God knows where I’m headed and He knows how to help me through it.

God keeps sending the geese.

One morning, I met a woman for a networking meeting. She gave me some ideas, but no definite answers. Later, as I drove to a luncheon appointment, I thought about the networking lead.  I wondered what God had in mind and if I should research more about the idea.

I turned into an access road and right in the middle of the road were four geese, leisurely waddling along the asphalt. They seemed in no hurry, but completely comfortable to let me wait for them. I laughed out loud.

“Thank you, God. Here are the geese once again – not at all frustrated because life is stressful. Just doing what they do best – waiting for a signal from you to fly.”

When life unravels with Alzheimers, illness or stress, ask God for encouragement and a sign that he has it all under control.

Maybe he’ll send you some geese.

©2013 RJ Thesman – “The Unraveling of Reverend G”http://amzn.to/11QATC1


text:
The highest court in Massachusetts has ruled that roadside drunk driving tests cannot be used as conclusive evidence that a driver was operating under the influence of marijuana.

Roadside Drunk Driving Tests

Massachusetts’ highest court on Tuesday said police officers would not be allowed to testify as to whether a person passed or failed a sobriety test or offer their own opinions about whether a driver was too high to drive.

Court said there is currently no reliable scientific test for marijuana impairment.

The judges also noted the effects of marijuana on its users are more complex than of alcohol and less obviously correlated to the amount consumed, making it difficult for untrained observers to know whether someone is high.

“Because the effects of marijuana may vary greatly from one individual to another, and those effects are as yet not commonly known,” the court said, “neither a police officer nor a lay witness who has not been qualified as an expert may offer an opinion as to whether a driver was under the influence of marijuana.”

however, police officers can still arrest drivers they suspect are high and describe in court how the drivers behaved during the roadside drunk driving tests. For example, an officer could tell a jury a driver was unable to walk in a straight line. But under the ruling, the officer could not describe the task as a “test” or say the driver “failed” it.

Similarly, an officer could tell a jury that a driver smelled strongly of marijuana and seemed confused but could not use such observations to conclude the driver was high.

The lack of such a test for marijuana has taken on greater significance in states such as Massachusetts that have legalized the recreational use of marijuana for adults, but where driving under the influence of pot remains a serious crime.

“While not all researchers agree, a significant amount of research has shown that consumption of marijuana can impair the ability to drive,” the court said in a unanimous decision. “There is ongoing disagreement among scientists, however, as to whether (field sobriety tests) are indicative of marijuana impairment.”

The defendant in the case is Thomas Gerhardt, who was stopped in Millbury in February 2013 by a State Police trooper for allegedly driving with his lights off, according to a statement of facts agreed to by both sides in the case.

The trooper testified that he saw smoke inside the vehicle and smelled marijuana and that Gerhardt acknowledged smoking about a gram of marijuana. Gerhardt was unable to properly do the “walk-and-turn” test, the trooper said, and struggled to stand on one foot.

The case has not yet gone to trial, amid legal wrangling over which evidence can be admitted.

Rebecca Jacobstein, Gerhardt’s attorney, called the ruling a victory over “junk science.”

“The big take-away here is that for the government to introduce something as science, it actually has to be science,” Jacobstein said.

The decision, she argued, does not make it harder for law enforcement to deter stoned driving.

“I look at this more as a protection of people’s right to have only meaningful and relevant evidence used against them,” she said.

A spokesman for Worcester County District Attorney Joseph D. Early Jr., whose office is prosecuting Gerhardt, said the decision “provides much-needed clarity regarding police testimony,” and prosecutors will use the court’s guidance in bringing the case to trial.

Walpole police Chief John Carmichael Jr., a spokesman for the Massachusetts Chiefs of Police Association, doesn’t expect the ruling to significantly change how officers conduct traffic stops.

“At the end of the day, officers are still going to rely on all their observations and the total circumstances of the stop, and base their arrests on probable cause,” Carmichael said. “We don’t think about conviction rates all the time; we think about public safety.”

Beyond standard sobriety tests, Carmichael said, officers carefully watch how a driver acts in general. He added he was relieved those observations will be still heard in court.

“We’re assessing demeanor, attitude, attention span, behavior — everything,” he said.

Carmichael called on the state Legislature to follow Colorado and Washington, two other states where recreational marijuana is legal, in establishing a blood concentration limit for THC, the main psychoactive ingredient in cannabis.

“Our law doesn’t have the teeth it needs,” he said.

Both states use a threshold of 5 nanograms of THC per milliliter of blood; in Washington any driver at or above that level is automatically considered impaired, while in Colorado those drivers can dispute their condition in court. However, some experts have questioned the validity of any law that specifies a particular blood concentration for impairment.

Jay Winsten, director of Harvard University’s Center for Health Communication and a pioneer of OUI awareness campaigns, praised the court for taking a “middle ground” approach.

“I think it was a wise, smart, and careful decision,” Winsten said. “It keeps field sobriety tests in the picture without allowing police officers to claim they constitute unequivocal evidence of marijuana intoxication, which would be suggesting something that goes beyond what’s currently known.”

“In the end,” he added, “it’s up to the common sense of jurors.”


text:
Another hopeful year

Alright.  New year, new attempt to post regularly.  I am striving to be more consistent with several things I enjoy this year:  writing and belly dancing.  Writing and dance are alike.  You take basic elements/moves and put them together to create something beautiful, something fun, something exquisitely personal that can be enjoyed beyond the personal.

Things I am doing to attain this consistency:  sending at least one submission a week and dancing three times a week.  (I will be reviewing the writing plan in April.)  I’ve also been attempting to get up early on my days off from my paying job to write for at least an hour.  That plan has not been working so well, as I have been losing time in the evenings and going to bed too late, which makes me too tired to get up when the alarm chimes at me.  Even when I endeavour to get to bed by a set time, the sand slips away and it is too late.  So I need to re-organize my evening routines, I suppose.

Anyway, here I am again on my blog, hoping to post the blog entries I think up as I wait for the bus after work or as I sew something fun or necessary for me or my loved ones.

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: Logo

You are commenting using your account. Log Out / Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. Log Out / Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out / Change )

Google+ photo

You are commenting using your Google+ account. Log Out / Change )

Connecting to %s


text:
The Part I Played in My Salvation

24 Jun

I have this high school memory: it was likely junior year, maybe a late morning in the fall – band class, and I was walking outside to the football field with some other marching band members. I was pontificating about Jesus – foolishness about how maybe he did exist and maybe he didn’t. Like I knew what I was talking about. I don’t remember the reaction of my small audience. I hope they thought I was an idiot.

It’s this scene that comes to mind when I sing the song, All I have is Christ…

I once was lost in darkest night
Yet thought I knew the way.
The sin that promised joy and life
Had led me to the grave.
I had no hope that You would own
A rebel to Your will.
And if You had not loved me first
I would refuse You still.

But as I ran my hell-bound race
Indifferent to the cost

You looked upon my helpless state
And led me to the cross.
And I beheld God’s love displayed
You suffered in my place
You bore the wrath reserved for me
Now all I know is grace.

There I was a rebel…helpless…hell-bound…mouthing blasphemies about the Savior…from the grave.

But God.

In his book, The Elements of Eloquence, author Mark Forsyth – though as far as I know not a believer – speaks glowingly of the beauty of Bible words. And Ephesians 2 is prime example – an arresting yet piteous look at our lot before Christ raised us up…

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience–among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ–by grace you have been saved. Ephesians 2:1-5 (ESV)

He did it. I played no part. That’s the message of the passage. My salvation was not a revival but a resurrection. I didn’t one day realize that I was in the grave and start digging my way out. I was not Peter’s mother-in-law; I was Lazarus. And so were you.

But God made us alive.

And that’s why they call it grace.

For tomorrow, Thursday, June 25th: Ephesians 3

Leave a comment

Posted by on June 24, 2015 in Uncategorized

Tags: , , , ,

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: Logo

You are commenting using your account. Log Out / Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. Log Out / Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out / Change )

Google+ photo

You are commenting using your Google+ account. Log Out / Change )

Connecting to %s

%d bloggers like this:


text:
The ongoing relevance of Rolls-Royce is built on an unrivalled dialogue between the marque and its patrons. The world’s leading luxury house has a profound understanding of the lifestyles enjoyed by its clientele, and attends some of the world’s most desired locations during the season to keep in close touch with them. After a highly successful summer in elite island hotspots Porto Cervo and Ibiza, as well as the French Riviera, Rolls-Royce has decamped to the slopes of Courchevel and St. Moritz to provide an elegant backdrop to its clients’ winter season.

The marque will grace both luxury Alpine resorts, inviting patrons to experience every expression of the brand. Alongside Dawn, Ghost and Wraith, Rolls-Royce will offer drive and chauffeur experiences in the multi award-winning New Phantom, which continues to be revered by the cognoscenti as “the best car in the world”. For those possessed with a darker, more restless spirit, Dawn Black Badge will make its European debut alongside Ghost Black Badge. With every possible concession to comfort and warmth considered, patrons will be encouraged to lower the roof of the Dawn drophead and survey Courchevel’s incredible vistas in the very finest style.

Julian Jenkins, Regional Director Europe, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, says, “On behalf of the team I am delighted to welcome guests to our luxury venues in these prestigious winter destinations as they enjoy their winter season. At the Home of Rolls-Royce, our aim is to ensure that our existing and prospective Rolls-Royce owners have the opportunity to experience our models at a time and place convenient to them. Our presence in the Alps for this extended period offers a unique opportunity to engage with Rolls-Royce.”

This year, the marque will return to the exquisite Le Lana Hotel from where guests will be able to drive, or be chauffered, in the entire Rolls-Royce range. Patrons will also be able to begin their Bespoke journey at a commissioning suite situated at the nearby Six Senses Residences. This extraordinary venue will also play host to lounge spaces in which clients can socialise and examine collectables curated by the brand. Supported by Rolls-Royce London and Rolls-Royce Monaco, representatives of the marque will be present during the key weeks of the European winter sports, 8th – 27th February.

St. Moritz
Concurrently, the marque will also be at the iconic Badrutt’s Palace Hotel in St. Moritz, remaining there up to the 28th February, coinciding with the town’s key social dates. An elegant lounge at Badrutt’s will function as a social hub for patrons before they depart for their Alpine experience in a Ghost, Wraith, Dawn or Black Badge motor car. Those who wish to arrive on the slopes in the ultimate style will of course be chauffeured to the bottom of the piste on request.

Find Out More


text:
You can never breathe
healing to your body
till you cut off
worries from your breath
though you’re weary at times
surely you can pull through

From: Rumi ” Dancing the Flame”
Translated by Nader Khalili

About Michaela

I am a wanderer and a wonderer, like you are. I love our journey and to walk in the company of friends – to learn, experience, share, laugh, cry and above all I simply love this marvelous, magical, mysterious life. I have no plan (cannot believe I am saying this) and my only intention is to be truthful to myself and others.
This entry was posted in All things Rumi. Bookmark the permalink.

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out / Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. Log Out / Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out / Change )

Google+ photo

You are commenting using your Google+ account. Log Out / Change )

Connecting to %s


text:
Devoxx 2010 impressions – day 2

My second and (unfortunately) last day at Devoxx i visited two completely different talks.

The first talk was about Cassandra, one of the many nosql databases that have emerged in the last years. Nosql was definitely one of the biggest topics on Devoxx. Four university slots were reserved for it. Apart from the Cassandra talk, there was a talk on Hadoop, MongoDB and HBase.

The second talk discussed two of the most used JavaScript libraries today, Prototype and jQuery.

Cassandra by Example

by Jonathan Ellis

Cassandra is one of the many nosql databases around. It offers scalability, reliability and high availability. It has good clustering and failover capabilities. It also integrates some Hadoop functionality for analyzing its datastore. Currently it has support for Pig and Hive. The scalability and reliability comes at price though. Cassandra doesn’t support ACID transactions and has only limited support for ad-hoc queries (hence the name nosql). This makes it especially suitable for very large internet applications where ACID isn’t that big a deal. Applications like Twitter and Facebook come to mind.

The idea behind Cassandra (and other nosql databases) is that IO should be optimized. Data closely related to each other is stored (often redundantly) close together on disk, thus significantly reducing IO overhead. Compared to relational databases, where scaling is accomplished predominantly by increasing cpus and memory, Cassandra scales by optimizing IO which comes at the cost of increased disk space. But since disk space had become relatively cheap these days, as compared to memory and processor units, this is a fair price to pay.

There is a another price to pay however. As mentioned, Cassandra stores a lot of data redundantly. Data related to a particular query eg. is stored in one row. This highly increases complexity. Since Cassandra doesn’t support referential integrity, so there’s no such thing as a cascaded delete for example, it’s up to the application (hence the programmer) to make sure that the stored data remains consistent with the datamodel. And as mentioned before there is limited support for ad-hoc querying

A good deal of the talk showed some examples on Cassandra’s shell client and Cassandra’s java api Hector. The examples were pretty complex, and coding against the API comes with a lot of boilerplating. Jonathan made and interesting comparison. He compared Hector with JDBC (for relational databases) and foresaw a JPA-like API in the near future. Now this would be really interesting from a JEE programmer point of view. JPA could abstract away the fact that you’re programming against a nosql database! All the examples Jonathan showed,  belonged to an online example Twitter-like application called Twissandra. The example project regarding Hector is called Twissjava.

At the end Jonathan mentioned some more advanced features of Cassandra

  • Batch insertions;
  • Secundary indexes, i.e. the ability to add indexes on additional columns in a row;
  • SuperColumns, which are basically maps of columns, used to denormalize data to avoid extra queries;
  • RipCord, a management suite for Cassandra;
  • JMX monitoring.

All in all, a very interesting talk. I’m definitely going to dive in in this topic in the near future.

And here’s a link to the slides.

Ajax Library Smack down: Prototype vs. jQuery

by Nathaniel Schutta

In the first half of his very inspiring talk Nathaniel Schutta compared two of the most used JavaScript libraries, i.e. Prototype and jQuery. Both have their pros and cons and which one is best suited for the job is mostly a matter of taste.

Both libraries offer a lot of the same goodies:

  • cross browser abstractions;
  • simplified AJAX;
  • CSS selectors;
  • event handling;
  • widgets, effects, animations;
  • javascript utilities.

Both have excellent online documentation available, are widely used, have good community support and are very small libraries.

Apart from the similarities, there are also a lot of differences between the two. According to Nathaniel Prototype has been developed from a programmer’s viewpoint (API centric), whereas jQuery is more focussed on HTML elements. Here’s a list of the pro’s and con’s.

Prototype pros:

  • adds useful functions to core elements (on very very large pages this can cause a significant memory footprint);
  • widgets and effects available via;
  • ruby flavored javascript;
  • widely used.

Prototype cons:

  • no minified version;
  • performance not always a priority;
  • pollutes the global namespace.

jQuery pros:

  • focussed on HTML elements;
  • doesn’t pollute global namespace;
  • dom traversal is a snap;
  • extensive array of plugins available.

jQuery cons:

  • parameter ordering in apis not alway intuitive;
  • plugins required for a variety of functionality;
  • some functions reassign this.

I’m definitely not an expert on using either one of these libraries but after Nathaniel compared both libraries i think jQuery has a slight advantage. This is because it had plugins in mind when it was first designed. There are a lot of plugin libraries available and you can pick the ones you need and omit the ones you don’t need. In Prototype you only have two options: with or without

In the second half of his talk he showed some nice examples on using jQuery. One of the points he made is that contrary to public opinion JavaScript isn’t that hard a language. And indeed all his examples where pretty simple. He also stressed the point that code should be self explanatory, so the name of a method for example is very important and should clearly and without any reason for debate state what the method actually does. And of course on more than one occasion he made a case that the question of using one of the open-source JavaScript libraries or not is a no-brainer.
All probably very open doors to most programmers, but still i honestly believe that in practice a lot of these rules are violated.

Here’s a link to the slides.


text:
House of Hades (Heroes of Olympus #04) by Rick Riordan Review

Phew!!! I’m pretty sure I forgot to breathe towards the end of the book. Talk about action-packed…

View Post

House of Hades (Heroes of Olympus #04) by Rick Riordan Review

9780141339191Phew!!! I’m pretty sure I forgot to breathe towards the end of the book. Talk about action-packed and high on tension, House of Hades scores on both accounts without losing out on character and plot development. I had been dying to get my paws on this ever since I finished The Mark of Athena and was more than a little worried that HOH might just disappoint (as a lot of other books have this year) and it smashed straight through those puny expectations and soared even higher!

At the end of Mark of Athena, Annabeth and Percy fell into Tartarus while the rest of the crew decided to sail to the House of Hades to close the Doors of Death. In House of Hades, the narrative shifts between the seven demigods mentioned in the prophecy: Annabeth, Percy, Jason, Piper, Hazel, Frank and finally Leo. On their way to the House of Hades, they meet arai, empousai, titans, strange cows, minor goddesses and their even more minor side-kicks, giants and a former titan called Bob, not-minor-goddesses and a whole lot more. In addition, the heroes each have a trial they have to face and pass if they are to eventually defeat Gaia.

It was almost as if Rick Riordan was high on adrenaline and steroids when he wrote House of Hades. There was something or the other happening all the time! The narrative ran at full-tilt throughout; it was frenetic, frantic, chaotic and desperate. Not once did it slow down to take a breather. And yet it never chafed. It was perfectly balanced. As a reader, I never once felt like I was losing out on important plot points because of the pace of the narrative. There were times when I wanted to stop reading (just so I could breathe) and at the same time skip ahead to find out how things had turned out. I really wanted to ration the reading so it would last longer and it seemed to be working and then the weekend came and it all went downhill, it was impossible to stop reading. So I stopped trying to stop. My only complaint with the split narrative was that it was very annoying when the narrative from one character suddenly switched to another. This was made even more painful because the chapters often ended with a cliffhanger and I would flip to the next chapter and find that it was from someone else’s point of view. It also broke the narrative flow and it took me some time to get used to it. Of course this was nothing new, Riordan followed the same format in all the previous Heroes of Olympus books but here, due to the pace of the book and also the stakes, it was a little more jarring.

Of the seven, Percy and Annabeth are hands-down, by far my favourites. I fell in love with these two in the Percy Jackson series and it is so awesome to see them grown up and so much more amazing than they were the first time around. It actually isn’t fair to the other characters in this series because they can’t possibly compete with these two; it’s a very uneven playing field. But thankfully, they don’t have to win a popularity contest in order to beat Gaia. I love how Percy and Annabeth have grown as independent individuals and how well they complement each other. They are perfectly attuned to each others’ strengths and weaknesses and each picks up the others’  slack.

SPOILER If anyone else had fallen into Tartarus, they would have had a much tougher time surviving and that’s not to say that it was a walk in the park for these two.

Nico was his usual sullen self but we finally find out the reason for his strange, detached behaviour and also why he left Camp Halfblood. But to be honest, by the time it was all revealed, I had already guessed. So it wasn’t that big a surprise.

Jason is probably my least favourite hero among the seven. There is something that doesn’t feel right about him. He’s tough to pin down. Even otherwise, he’s pretty boring and hasn’t got much of a personality. Very blah.

Piper had very little screen time in HOH, she only had about 3 chapters from her POV but even in them she managed to make an impression. I like her. She’s got spunk and spirit. It was especially satisfying to see her kicking Khione’s ass!

The most drastic improvement this time around was in Leo, Frank and Hazel. They were the most prominent characters in HOH after Percy and Annabeth. Hazel had so far been in the background, but not anymore. This time, she was front and centre and she was amazing. She managed to hold her own with adversaries who were much older and much more powerful.

I had never been a big fan of Frank’s, he was ok, easy to forget. In HOH, he went through a huge transformation as well. He grew into his powers and got better at controlling them. He finally seemed like the son of Ares/Mars.

Leo was the most fun in HOH. I loved his transformation most. We always knew that beneath all that joking around, he had some pretty serious stuff on his mind. He probably matured the most in this book. He was always sure of his capabilities but this time, he was surer of himself (as a demigod and his place among the seven) Plus, he’s a sweetheart. I really want him to get his happily ever after with you-know-who and no, I’m not talking about Hazel.

Reyna made an appearance as well as that toad-face Octavian. Seriously, why is he still alive??? I’m hoping he meets a very painful end in the final book. Reyna is one of those rare characters who you root for even though she’s hardly in the book and isn’t one of the main characters. It’s surprising how alike she and Annabeth are.

House of Hades is an excellent addition to the Heroes of Olympus series and a great book in itself. It is well written, has amazing characters and is chock-a-block full of action. It is seriously one of the most enjoyable books I have had the pleasure of reading in sometime. There were no wearisome love triangles, no needless drama and half-baked and artificially manufactured tension. It was an absolute pleasure to read House of Hades and while I can’t wait to see how the series ends, the wait will be easier because it did not end with a cliffhanger.

And here is some amazing news, Riordan released the title of the fifth and final book in the series at the end of the House of Hades, it is called The Blood of Olympus and is tentatively scheduled for a release in April 2014!!! Can’t wait!!

UPDATE: The release date for The Blood of Olympus is in October 2014.. Sorry for the mix up!

P.S. – I just want my Percy and Annabeth to get their happily ever after. Next up Leo with you-know-who and then everyone else. Ok, fine, I want all of them to be alive and happy but most especially Percy and Annabeth.

Endless Knight (The Arcana Chronicles #02) by Kresley Cole Review

phpEwV599ENDLESSKNIGHT_wrapEndless Knight was better than The Poison Princess but sadly, not by much. Some spoilers below.

This book was very eventful and there was plenty of action so there was a never dull moment. For the most part, the narrative flow was consistent and progressed well. It hit a bit of a snag after Evie reached Death’s stronghold, though it didn’t last too long. But there are also very few surprises, the plot was pretty predictable.

Evie has improved in certain aspects. At least, she was starting to stand up for herself and protecting herself instead of depending upon a male chauvinist (and budding alcoholic) pig. I was relieved to see this improvement. She was gaining more control of her powers which was nice. But for once I’d like to have a heroine who owns her powers instead of being scared/ashamed of them. The Empress’ powers are kick-ass but what does Evie do? She moans and complains about them. All that potential to kick major ass squandered!

In other aspects, she was still a glorious doormat. She spent most of this book pining for Jack. She was still in love with him even when he continued to treat her like crap and invaded her privacy multiple times and while she was outraged, this outrage, sadly did not last. She was more than happy to forgive him for whatever it is that he had done. It was nice to see her with Death though, their interaction was a lot more fun.

She finally found out that it was Jack who killed her mother and yes, she was devastated but again, by the end of the book, her resolve to stay away from Jack was waning. Mark my words, in the third book, once she and Death rescue Jack, he will only need to abuse her once and she will fling herself in his arms and all will be right in the world. I hate Jack so much and I’m fairly certain it’s unhealthy but I can’t help it, he’s one of the worst love interests I have ever come across (most of his rivals are the other male characters from Kresley’s Immortals After Dark series) And, he’s an alcoholic. I’m sorry, how is this a healthy relationship? All that’s left for him to do is to hit her and I’m sure in the next book, he’ll do just that and of course somehow it’ll be ok because he’s so in love with her and ‘she’s it for him’ (yaaay for you asshole!)

And then there was Death. He’s the reining champion (third time in a row) and in the beginning, it seemed that all he wanted to do was to kill Evie. We gradually realise that things are not as they initially appeared. We find out more about his shared history with Evie and what made him hate her so much. Don’t me wrong he was an still ass but a more interesting one. His character was more layered and had more depth. You might argue that since Death wanted to kill Evie, how could he possibly be better than Jack, yeah well, he was much much much better than pervy Jack. His character was more engaging, not to mention smarter and not an alcoholic.

The other characters were fine. Finn was fun though not as much as he was in the first book. I liked Selena and Lark, they were strong and had spirit. I found Matthew quite annoying this time around.

Endless Knight is fairly entertaining book if you’re willing to not look too deep. It will definitely grab hold of your attention and it’s a quick read so won’t take up a lot of time either. So if you’re looking for a quick read with an action-packed plot, this is just the thing for you.

Gravity Movie Review

Gravity is the newest offering from director Alfonso Cuaron starring George Clooney and Sandra Bullock. Clooney and Bullock are astronauts working on a space mission. When that mission goes horribly wrong, they find that they are the sole survivors. They have to survive in an extremely hostile environment with absolutely no supplies of any kind and depleting oxygen supplies. They decide to make their way to the Russian space station and from there back to Earth.

To say that the film is intense would be like saying that Vertigo is a decent film. It gives new meaning to the phrase ‘nail-biting-suspense’ and for once I was very grateful that there were no spoilers online. I had absolutely no clue whether they would survive their ordeal or not.

Gravity’s beginning lulls you into a false sense of security with Clooney’s easy-going banter with Houston and it’s not long before everything goes straight to hell. But it is the speed with which things go from bad to worse that is really staggering as well as horrifying. It’s impossible not to hyperventilate along with Bullock’s character as she spirals into the dark abyss.

Alfonso and Emmanuel Lubezki’s (director of photography) masterful use of long-takes gives the feeling that all of this is happening in real time and makes the film a whole lot more intense while also adding a sense of immediacy to their situation. The long-takes also let you really appreciate the action on screen. It firmly establishes the geography (of the various elements involved) so that even while the action is frenetic, it is never chaotic. It also did not induce a headache (considering that I saw this in Imax, that was a very real possibility.) Another great thing is that Gravity takes place entirely in space and there are no cross cuts between our protagonists and Houston, which is what a lot of other filmmakers would have probably done. It makes for an extremely lean and sparse narrative where nothing distracts the audience from the characters’ terrifying ordeal. And also avoids breaking the narrative flow.

It brought 2001, A Space Odyssey to mind, there was the same sense of impending doom and the absolute isolation of being in space. There is no escape and the no chance of a rescue. It is a terrifying, nightmarish scenario brought to life in vivid detail.

The acting by both Clooney and Bullock is good though there is nothing spectacular about it. The real star of this venture, however, is the director, Alfonso Cuaron. It is brilliantly directed and extremely well written with a very tight and precise screenplay. Cuaron had a vision and he stuck to it and added absolutely no frills. It was also a brave film to make with little or no sound. Although, my only complaint is that the background score often made it possible to predict that something awful was about to happen. It would’ve been better with no background score at all.

The 3D was a great device to highlight the vastness of space, its sheer magnitude was more than impressive. This is one film that has to been seen in 3D to fully appreciate its scope and scale. Watching it on the small screen would greatly diminish its impact. Very highly recommended. It is easily one of the best films this year and an absolute treat to watch.


text:
Neighbors rally against proposed golf course in Town of Wilson

WGBAPublished: July 21, 2017
Published: July 21, 2017

A proposed golf course has caused concerns over environmental impact and cost to taxpayers amongst neighbors in the Town of Wilson. The golf course, proposed by the Kohler Company, would be built on parts of Kohler-Andrae State Park. In order to do that, the Kohler Company is trying to annex parts of Wilson into Sheboygan.

Be the first to suggest a tag


text:
Breakfast of the Week

Blueberries, natural yogurt and muesli make for a healthy and delicious breakfast

Anyone that knows me will know that I adore breakfast (how can you not love a meal which in my eyes is basically desert that you don’t have to feel guilty about!?… Ok… just me then!!) and have a habit of eating ‘breakfast foods’ for every meal of the day. As well as being delicious, breakfast is also essential for kick starting your metabolism, boosting energy and ensuring that you don’t end up snacking later on in the day.

I am also big on trying to convert my non-breakfast eating friends to my way of thinking, which they obviously don’t find annoying at all… It always surprises me how many people don’t eat breakfast as I genuinely don’t think I would function without it!

Anyway, this blog seems like the perfect platform for me to share with the world (slash anyone who inadvertently stumbles upon this page) a few of my favourite healthy and nutritious breakfast meals. And if I manage to convince even one person to give up their breakfast skipping ways, I’ll have achieved my goal!

 1) Muesli, Natural Yogurt & Blueberries

One of my personal favourite healthy breakfast treats; blueberries, muesli and natural yogurt provide the perfect combination to keep me energised all morning after an early running session. This was definitely required this morning after my first 5k run since my weekend away reuniting with my university gang. As you can probably imagine, the weekend was spent largely drinking, being merry and consuming a whole lot of food… I’ll have to make sure this week’s training makes up for it!

Healthy breakfast: Natural yogurt, blueberries and muesli

One thought on “Breakfast of the Week

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: Logo

You are commenting using your account. Log Out / Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. Log Out / Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out / Change )

Google+ photo

You are commenting using your Google+ account. Log Out / Change )

Connecting to %s


text:
Posted by: maximos62 | September 28, 2010

A ride on Sydney’s only tram

Today I decided to try out the video quality on my iPhone4, so I videoed the trip on Sydney’s light rail system.

It’s a comfortable way to travel, but not yet carrying the volumes that trams did in the 1950s. What’s needed is a greater investment in tramway infrastructure.

As a series of first steps the NSW Government is extending the light rail network by almost 10km to Dulwich Hill in the Inner West and through the Sydney’s CBD. Major stimulants here are the Sydney City Council promoting trams, bicycles and a more pedestrian friendly city, along withe the Barangaroo Delivery Authority and developer Lend Lease.

In the government’s Metropolitan Transport Plan, the City and Barangaroo are to be connected by extending the light rail network. According to the plan:

• Barangaroo will be a key destination on a massively expanded $500 million light rail network from Dulwich Hill to Circular Quay.
• This light rail network will deliver 10,000 people an hour to the heart of the Barangaroo precinct
• It will run through the Western corridor of the CBD, linking the new development with Circular Quay, Haymarket and the Inner West and key tourist destinations.

Of course we need far more than this initiative.

After publishing I realised that someone else had shot a similar video of another part of the trip.

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: Logo

You are commenting using your account. Log Out / Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. Log Out / Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out / Change )

Google+ photo

You are commenting using your Google+ account. Log Out / Change )

Connecting to %s

%d bloggers like this:


text:
We Don’t Pour Concrete, But We Sure Love Brutalism.

casa_mach_luciano_kruk_dezeen_2364_hero3_852x479.0From the D.C. Metro to the campus at U.C. San Diego, there’s a lot to love about the architectural style known as “brutalism.” While we’re not big advocates for it along the residential corridors of San Francisco streets (with notable exceptions), every now and then we see something we like and need to share it.

via Concrete modern home stays cool for the summer in Argentina – Curbed


text:
Gay Marriage in Illinois; Adam Weinstein Great/Scathing Essay

Gay Marriage in Illinois

Illinois is dealing with many of the same issues regarding same sex marriage that we’re dealing with here in Pennsylvania. For the most part the issues are all about equality and I don’t think anyone pushing for same sex marriage to be legalized everywhere would dispute that as the main issue. Everything else is secondary. However, there are also other small things to consider like the gay dollar, the power of the gay dollar, and boosting a state’s economy.

Majority Leader Barbara Flynn Currie sent a letter to all House members earlier this month saying it’s time to approve legislation legalizing same-sex marriage. The letter follows a push in early September by Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak to lure Illinois’ gay couples to wed in Minnesota, which legalized same-sex marriage earlier this year. Attempts to approve legislation have stalled in Illinois; A measure passed the state’s Senate but the House sponsor didn’t call a vote because he said he didn’t have the votes.

“Illinois has been missing out on this economic opportunity long before Minneapolis’ mayor unleashed his advertising campaign in our state,” Currie wrote in the letter released Saturday.

I’ve posted about Illinois here on the blog before. Frankly, a good deal of the issue is coming down to money in an off-handed way. I heard a group of younger gay men talking about New Hope, PA, this weekend, where the mayor of New Hope refused to marry same sex couples recently, and they brushed off going to New Hope for the weekend without even thinking twice as a result of the mayor’s decision.

You can read more here.

Adam Weintstein Great/Scathing Essay

Adam Weinstein is a career writer and he has written pieces for publications I often link to here, like Mother Jones and the Village Voice. And he’s recently written what many are calling a scathing essay that slams those who think his generation is lacking something…for lack of a better way to phrase that. I actually tend to agree with him, and on all the points he makes.

Last weekend my baby had a fever, and we contemplated taking him to the ER, and my first thought was – had to be – “Oh God, that could wipe out our savings! Maybe he can just ride it out?” Our status in this Big Financial Game had sucked my basic humanity towards my child away for a minute. If I wish for something better, is that me simply being entitled and delusional?

I don’t know how anyone could even try to dispute that paragraph. If you can dispute it, you’re coming from a place of huge privilege and you should remain silent and thank your lucky stars. I don’t know many younger people who aren’t facing that very same issue. I even argued about this very same topic with Tony last week in the car on our way to a function. In the 1970’s when I was a little kid you could still go to the dentist and it was affordable. Or even the veterinarian. Nowadays one quick trip to the dentist or the vet and it’s the same as a down payment for a new car. I honestly don’t know how younger people are doing it these days.

You can read more here. It’s a great essay. From what I’ve seen in other places, he’s had over 700,000 hits.

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: Logo

You are commenting using your account. Log Out / Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. Log Out / Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out / Change )

Google+ photo

You are commenting using your Google+ account. Log Out / Change )

Connecting to %s