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Attention to Cognitive Load and Memory in the Workplace Could See Greater Attention to Detail in Work and Greater Job Satisfaction

“Every day I go home, I am simply mentally exhausted!”

“I get a headache by the end of the day, and come back the next day to do it again.”

“There just seem to be too many balls in the air at one time…something is going to have to drop.”

These statements are probably nothing new to most people who go to work at many workplaces around the globe.  The sheer amount of information being thrown at people today is atrocious.  Of course, it can be a positive thing when you think about how much more access that people have to information than they did even 10 – 15 years ago.  But what does this really do to us in the workplace?  How can our minds handle this information?  What are workplaces doing to mitigate some of the losses, and improve the successes?

In most cases unfortunately the answer is probably not much.  One of the fastest growing professions in the world right now is Industrial/Organizational Psychology (Cherry, 2011), and for very good reason.  As I have discussed before, companies work in the sense of “I need it yesterday” which is not always conducive to success and progress.  A better way to look at it may be, “Taking a little extra time to do things correctly today, could save a lot of time doing and fixing things later.”  So what do I mean by doing things correctly?

One of the first things that I believe is tremendously important is to refer to the findings by psychologist George Miller.  In a study published in the 1967 Psychology Review, Miller introduced the “Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two.”  The premise behind this study is that the human mind can only discern between, or remember, seven different things with a variance of two more or two less (depending on type of stimulus).  However, more importantly Miller discussed the concept of “chunking”.  Chunking is when you group information together to remember it easier.  This could be grouping together by meaning, or by association, but nonetheless chunks.  A book out of the University of Missouri (Cowan, N., Morey, C.C., & Chen, Z.) gives some great background and examples of this, as do most Psych 101 textbooks.   Take, for example: 19-98-19-99-20-00-20-01-20-02.  If you were to attempt to remember each of these chunks of data individually, you would have 10 individual chunks (19, 98, etc.).  Most people would find remembering that many chunks difficult.  For most of us though, our brain recognizes 1998-1999-2000-2001-2002, which would reduce down our number of chunks to only 5, and would allow us to remember these much easier.

This is a basic concept of psychology, and yet seems to be lost in the business world.  This seems especially true when it comes to developing training, creating communications, and otherwise disseminating other information and communications.  While an expectation may be that adults in the workplace can discover their own ways of chunking, a true commitment to the employees and the organization itself would say that it would benefit all involved to help this process along.  Imagine for just a moment the reduction in wasteful communications or other information delivery!  By reducing the amount of information (cognitive load) you increase the amount of information that can be stored in the working memory and thus the amount that can be more easily encoded to long-term memory.

Another concept that I believe is important, and that appears to have been hit upon by some organizations out there, is the idea of a physical and mental break.  This has some very serious implications in the workplace.  An article published by Dr. Rick Nauert on PsychCentral discusses research that shows “that even brief diversions from a task can dramatically improve one’s ability to focus on that task for prolonged periods.” (Nauert, 2011)  Essentially the research that Dr. Nauert refers to and discusses explains that you loose your attention to the task that you are working on because your mind becomes habituated to it in the same way that you stop noticing that you are wearing socks and shoes after a while.  Your body simply becomes accustomed to it, and so stops focusing on it.  The same thing is true when working on tasks at work.  Getting up from a task, or in some way diverting attention (at an appropriate time of course!) to something else for short periods can actually help you stay focused for longer.  By allowing for, and encouraging, breaks in work tasks organizations could see higher levels of quality in work, as well as happier, more satisfied, more productive workers with a lower burnout rate.

Hopefully as organizations around the world begin to see the need for change in the “this is the way we do things” mentality, I/O Psychologists (and those of us who are aspiring and working towards that goal) will be called in to action to identify, explain, and assist in correcting these types of issues, and to creating the best environment for workers and work.

Cherry, K. (2011, February 21). Kendra’s Psychology Blog. Retrieved February 21, 2011, from

Cowan, N., Morey, C.C., & Chen, Z. (in press).  The legend of the magical number seven.  In S. Della Sala (Ed.), Tall tales about the brain:  Things we think we know about the mind, but ain’t so.  Oxford University Press

Rick Nauert, P. (2011, February 9). Taking Breaks Found to Improve Attention. Retrieved February 21, 2011, from PsychCentral:

Other suggested reading:

Article by Nicholas Carr ( (scroll down to read) on Cognitive Load

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Topic Based Search Results – The Judas Effect

A shift toward topic modelling for search has been researched and documented over the past year and may prove valuable as a shift in major search engines algo’s toward providing more accurate results related to common understanding and trends. These results may lead to better result page listings for users, but will this decrease ad revenue for Google with increased organic CTR?

Topical Search ResultsTopical Models may be at a disadvantage as it may limit some queries within that topic. So, a query that could (or should) be cataloged in multiple topic directories will most likely lose (or gain) value in different segments. This would depend upon the distribution of that piece of content within each topics index. But, in theory, topical search should work better than traditional keyword frequency because of semantics within topics.

But here is an example from the Helsinki Institute for Information Technology abstract which shows how a linear ad mixture of different multi-nominals may work (shown to the right).

But Google describes topical search in a different way, “Systems and methods for returning results to a query based upon topic are disclosed herein. Aspects disclosed can be particularly useful when searching for videos or other media content for which associated textual information are generally relatively sparse compared to other types of content.”

Bill Slawski, Google Search patent expert, has contributed his interpretation and thoughts here and here. So is topical search in effect at this point?

While SERPs change depending on many variables, here is the “Judas” query from earlier this year:

Source: SEObytheSea
And here is a more recent one:

Topical Search
Notice any differences?

Not much has changed in the News section, pulling trends (Topical Based), however results related to wikipedia listings appear and can be attributed to a more Hyperlink-Induced Topic Search algorithm. The theory of linking externally to other authoritative hubs (and this having an effect on search results) has been around for over a decade and used within at points.

So, are topical search results being influenced by external linking to hub authorities? Can a site associate itself directly with specific “authority hubs” simply by linking therein?
If so, this would affect they way on-site content and keyword analysis is researched and produced. Seo’s must consider the topic in which they want their site (or page) to be scored within. Become an expert within that topic, craft copy related to that topic and link within those topics and only those topics. has taken great steps toward providing a sites Topical Trust with its Topical Trust Flow as seen below:

Topical Trust Search
However, this can also be related to, as Google describes, Topical Clustering of Results:

Search results clustering (SRC) is a challenging algorithmic problem that requires grouping together the results returned by one or more search engines in topically coherent clusters, and labeling the clusters with meaningful phrases describing the topics of the results included in them.
The problem with topical based search results are its exclusivity when considering terms in the query and ignoring similar terms.

About The Author

Todd Bailey 15 years of Internet marketing and digital strategy development experience. Most recently recognized by Search Engine Land with a nomination for Search Professional of the Year, inducted into the 40 Under 40 for Burlington, NJ (BCT), shortlisted for Best Consultant for the US Search Awards three times and recognized by SmartCEO Magazine (CMO) as one of Philadelphia’s leading executives. He is also a US Ambassador for Majestic (SEO).

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Reviewed by Mark Plummer

The build up to this album has been a tad unusual, and as a result, it comes with a lot of intrigue; this in turn creates the expectation that Cult will be a strong album. Perhaps this is a dangerous assumption to make, but when you have eleven consistently strong tracks and a kick-ass PR campaign, it’s worth the noise.

The massive drum opening of Big Cheese makes way for a gnarly guitar, dark and brooding, not even thirty seconds in and already there’s a sense of power of what’s to come; whilst the format is nothing revolutionary, the blistering solo followed by some subtle and nifty guitar work before the final chorus surely creates an opener to be proud of. The already previewed Time Has Come does hold certain amounts of surprise, showcasing a more major key slanted uplift over the aforementioned Big Cheese, yet this confidently highlights an affluent mix of old Bayside with that of what Cult is offering.

Indeed it continues this way as each track alternates, swinging like a pendulum between something gritty and dark, before giving the listener a more positive and lighter shift; the culmination of this would appear to be Pigsty, as it changes gear in the chorus before a charming solo followed by bold drum work on the toms and the odd bell hit. Here on in, the dynamics of Cult start to change, it’s like this release has been masterminded to slowly mature and grow on the mind. Transitive Property holds all the key ingredients of a massive rock ballad, whilst masquerading itself into the mainframe of the album; the chord changes are a little predictable due to this, but it holds its pros in the background music that is warm, inviting and ready to explode before a seemingly massive guitar solo.

Whilst in some ways, this is a pretty comfortable ride, Stuttering manages to stand out above the rest; the walking bass line is truly wonderful, whilst the organ in the pre-chorus carries on the plentiful surprise in what this track gives up for its listener. The unusual format that places a guitar solo after the first chorus is a great change of tact, it goes on to highlight just how much work the lead guitar is contributing through out not just this song, but the album on a whole.

As The Whitest Lie draws to a close, there’s a certain je ne sais qoui surrounding this album; Cult feels fresh, full of surprises, defiantly brilliant and manages to come across as seemingly fluid in its transition between those records that have come before it. But above all, it ends as strongly as it starts; put it on repeat and there’s no hesitation between tracks one and eleven, they flow effervescently from one to the other, molding a fantastically balanced release.

Bayside have not forgotten their roots, but at the same time have taken confident and bold steps forward, ultimately this is the release that it was built up to be and deserves nothing less than a round of applause.

4½ out of 5

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Gaussian Mixture Regression

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Gaussian Mixture Models (GMMs) for clustering and regression in Python.

Source code repository:

Estimate GMM from samples and sample from GMM:

from gmr import GMM

gmm = GMM(n_components=3, random_state=random_state)
X_sampled = gmm.sample(100)

For more details, see:

Install from PyPI:

sudo pip install gmr

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Welcome to Qireveal

…the South Puget Sound home for the education and practice of  Yi Ren® Qigong for health.

Yi Ren Qigong (authentic qi production, management and regulation) is a complementary medical self-practice. The practice includes gentle movement, a peaceful and meditative mind, conscious awareness and intention.

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QuarterLife Girl Gets Fit!

A New Chapter

Posted on: December 7, 2009

So many exciting things happened this weekend. Some good, some not-so-good….some have me in conflict. Either way, there was one highlight I’m excited to share!

Late last week Jen (Prior Fat Girl) asked if her readers wanted to read a book with her….the “Beck Diet for Life”. Normally I’m wary of any diet book that claims it’s “for life” (it’s GOT to be a marketing scheme, right?!) , but when she wrote some highlights the book claimed I was intrigued. It claimed that you will “ learn to think differently and overcome dieting pitfalls and sabotaging thoughts. Feel control in the most challenging situations – no matter what. Remain motivated to maintain weight loss for life”. My biggest problem is emotional eating, and sabotaging thoughts, so I thought this would be great for me.

So Saturday morning I head over to the library with my checkbook, paid my fines ($26, holy crap!) and then it occurred to me to see if they had the book. THEY DID! Two copies, at that! So I grabbed it and ran. (Not without legally checking it out though.)

I got home, and later that night started reading. And kept reading. And then read some more. I was hooked.

Now, they don’t lie when they say you need to commit yourself to doing what they say. Lots of the things seem a little cheesy to me, and I admit I must look like a pathetic loonie to others, but I need for this to work!

I’m going to go off on a tangent now, but I casually mentioned to the BF I was going to put myself through some Cognitive Therapy to get over my eating problems. (I didn’t want to tell him “I’m following the Beck Diet”, and cognitive therapy is pretty much the strategy they use to get you to control your habits as part of the plan.) His reaction really hurt me….he started lecturing about all I need to do is stop eating crap and eat healthy. Now, I’m pretty sure he didn’t mean any harm, but it’s so hard for me to talk about my stress eating and binging and whatnot to begin with….when he lashed out like that it made me feel like crap. Like I’m weak and useless for having these issues to begin with. I’m not an idiot, I know that if I just replaced the cheetos I keep binging on with carrots it wouldn’t be such a big deal. However, it doesn’t take away the fact that I need to comfort myself with food. Even if it’s not junk food I’m eating, I don’t want to have that issue. Lately I’ve been chewing through packs of gum as if I was a chain smoker (I’ve become a “chain chewer” again.) Sure, there’s less than 5 calories per piece, but a normal person wouldn’t have that urge, and THAT is what I need to fix.

(Now, if I could only relate that back to him without getting emotional and/or defensive.)

Oh, another tangent now. One of the things you have to do is weigh yourself every day, and only ONCE a day (it’s just a number!). So, I went to my parents house and picked up the scale. When I got home I stepped on, and got a REALLY bad wake-up call. I weighed in at 166 pounds. I hadn’t weighed that much since early 2008!!! Keep in mind I was weighing 157 when I moved back in August, and that was high. Ugh. I actually weighed myself the next day and it was down to 163.5, but still…..the “damage” had been done. (I’m not sure why I was so surprised…..my jeans haven’t been zipping, and I definitely look rounder.)

So yes, the Beck Diet…..right now I’m in Stage 1, which basically is just concentrating on monitoring your urges and whatnot. (I’m really over-simplifying this.) Already I’ve noticed a difference, I’ve even slipped up, but it’s ok. I deserve credit for taking the initiative and doing this on my own! (One of the tasks is to “give yourself credit”, hehe.) It’ll be at least a week before I move onto managing what I actually eat, but I’d say my hands are full at the moment.

I’ll probably be going into more detail as time goes on, but I thought I’d share the news!

2 Responses to "A New Chapter"

I know what you mean re the boyfriend thing. I’m a bit of an emotional eater myself and have been getting stressed about eating too much junk when I shouldn’t be, I’ve gained a few pounds and would like to lose them asap! When I mentioned it to my boyfriend, he kind of had the attitude of it isn’t that hard, just don’t eat junk anymore. As if it’s that easy! I think it must just be a guy thing, because he didn’t mean any harm either, he just doesn’t have any idea about what goes through our heads I guess. Hope you’re doing well with things! 🙂

I know what you mean about guys, they don’t get it…my husband told me once “so just don’t eat it” ….OMG…he had no clue as to what went on in my head and body…he now is so compassionate and shares my guilt and fear…I talked to him a lot about it, now he tries to help with positive encouragement. I am reading Martha Beck’s book..Four Day Win…strategies to re train my “famine brain” into “thinner peace”.
Hope it all comes together for us…

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Consumer Contracts – Dodgy Deals

Common legal problems older people can avoid.

This information is current at February 2015.

A consumer contract is entered into whenever a product or service is purchased. There are always potential problems you may encounter when entering into a consumer contract, so read on and find out how you can protect yourself particularly against unsolicited contracts.

Download a copy of this factsheet.


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The Crosstown Rivalry

Today is THE GAME. The only one that matters.  BCS be damned.  Super Bowl?  Feh!  Today is the USC vs. UCLA crosstown rivalry game.  Trojans against the Bruins.  The Cardinal and Gold Trojans have won 1o times in the last eleven meetings.  And though both teams have had less than stellar seasons this year,  this game is always intense.  Lance Kiffin the newish USC coach has a lot riding on this game for his first season as coach.  This is especially because the team is under NCAA sanctions and can’t go to a bowl. And his team has lost the last three games.  YIKES.  He needs to roll over the Bruins.

On the other hand the Bruins have had a less than inspiring season. They haven’t done well in Pac-10 play.  But there is always an excuse with the Bruins football program.  Bruins like to say “We’re a basketball school.”

Despite all this the game today matters. It always matters.  That is why the Crosstown Rivalry is still in place after so many years.

It should be fun. It always is fun!  And in the end even as emotions run high, fun is the mantra to remember.

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Jeremy Hunt Petition reaches 310,000

Watch Jeremy Hunt squirm as he listens to letters from junior doctors
Watch Jeremy Hunt squirm as he listens to letters from junior doctors

A petition which calls on the Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt to face a vote of “no confidence” has reached more 310,000 signatures.

The petition which was created by Graham Hillman centres on claims that Mr Hunt is “destroying all staff morale in the NHS & will cause recruitment issues”.

The momentum behind the signatures comes just days after Mr Hunt was widely criticised for his decision to “unilaterally” impose a new contract on junior doctors which redefines “anti-social” working hours.  However the British Medical Association (BMA) claims an “eleventh hour” offer has been made by the Government and the BMA’s chief negotiator Sir David Dalton will present the offer to their committee in the coming weeks.

Let us hope this offer is one that includes phasing in new contracts which tie into additional resources.

There is not a single person I have spoken to who does not think that the aspiration to 7 days is a good idea. The facts around 11,000 deaths at the weekend have not only been misrepresented but as I commented on before, Mr Hunt (whilst wearing an NHS badge) refused to deny that the deaths were the result of junior doctors not being available at the weekend.  This is a monstrous dereliction of actual facts which are far more complicated than Hunt alludes to.

NHS Strike

Even the NHS’s medical director Prof Sir Bruce Keogh distanced himself from the Health Secretary’s rhetoric by reiterating a view held by many in the healthcare profession that “the weekend effect” cannot be accurately used to measure how many people die avoidably on Saturday or Sunday.

There is no doubt that a move towards 7 days is a good idea and one that will benefit patients in the long run.  BUT if Jeremy Hunt thinks he can bully the health profession into providing a 7 day service by twisting their hours and taking even more from them then he is unbelievably naive.

I personally think that Jeremy Hunt is nothing more than a careerist and political opportunist, of the worst kind, who’s current motive is not to improve our health system but is, in fact, to get this supposed 7 day NHS up and running so he can sit grinning at the cabinet table pontificating about how he has delivered the Prime Minister’s promised  7 days manifesto pledge.

However, at what cost?  The NHS struggles with 5 days.  How can it cope with 7? This change is not being done by adding more resources – but by stretching and pulling the already tight service – to the point where it is already beginning to snap in some places. Jeremy Hunt is putting his political ambitions  ahead of patients and doctors and I think it is shameful.

Jeremy could have had us all on his side by saying that he wanted to create a 7 day service and he will start the process by launching a nationwide recruitment campaign for more doctors and nurses and other healthcare professionals to enable it to happen.  He could of engaged the public and professionals by being seen to do things the right way. However, he didn’t. He isn’t close enough to the Prime Minister or Chancellor to get the funds required.  So instead, he has been forced into spreading the jam over a much bigger piece of toast.  And guess what – there isn’t enough jam…and he knows it.

It is for this reason that I believe Jeremy Hunt is not worthy to continue in his role and why I signed the petition.

The petition can be found by clicking here….

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Picturing life

19 02 2009

Bogdan Goia (nu am verificat daca avem vreo legatura)

bits of photography

pieces of me

Stefan Dinu

a movie scenario

7 01 2009

what do you do when you find yourself in the dark? when life as you once knew it has ended? do you give up? do you suffocate yourself within the darkness, or do you find reasons to find a new normality?

a movie scenario? no, for many people this is real life. movie scenarios happen.

give it a thought and find out what normal means to you now, and how would you handle the and of normality as you know it.

if you reached an answer and that is different from suicide, than you are certainly aiming for success. your success. the success of living a normal life no matter what.


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Journal It….with a Bullet!!

If you are anything like me, you have the greatest intention to start a Diary or Journal, documenting certain events, thought patterns and research information.

You buy the book, get to about pge 4 and then put it down, never to be picked up again.

So, imagine my surprise when a friend tells me about Bullet Journaling. Bullet what???? I ask. “Yeah I have a few ‘journals‘ lying around i could put a bullet into”, thats for sure!!

Then, I got to see it!! Its like a Scrapbook with a purpose. Not just something you page through when its finally done, but you actually use it….all the time. how cool is that??

Typically for this journal, and true to its name, you document pretty much anything, but mainly task related using point form (or bullet form).

On the key page you list the various bullets you will be using and what they actually mean. Eg. Empty bullet is a task set, half coloured bullet means the task is in progress, bullet with a line though the middle stands for a task cancelled, etc.

The best part is the doodling. it brings out your creative side while jotting down those all important notes.

You can draw calender style entries or keep it simple by just listing with bullets.

basically, you can customise your journal…..airy fairy or lawyer style…

The possibilities are endless.

My daughter saw me jotting notes and using an array of new colour pens I bought to brighten up the heading. Being the stationery freak she is, i immediately caught her attention on the matter. She decided to start her own……AND i think you and I both know what was coming next…..”Mom! I need new colour pens for my Bulletin Journal!!” ha ha, too sweet it was. The Bullet thing took a bit of explaining at first but now I am proud to say she actually uses it….shes only 8!

She noted a whole page of things I usually nag about as she always (in my opinion, conveniently) ‘forgets’ to do them. Things like unpack her school lunch cooler, unpack her swimming bag, pack her things for the next day, etc. She suddenly has these all neatly listed in a little book……i dont think she realises the implications now….theres no excuses anymore, she has to actually do the stuff. So, unless she miraculously looses the book (which I am quite keen to permanently glue to the fridge to avoid this happening), things should get done around here and i MIGHT actually have an extra few minutes to drink my coffee while its still HOT.

Imagine that!!

In conclusion, the Bullet Journal seems to be the answer for all us airheads out there to bring a little order into our lives so we can enjoy all the time day dreaming instead of having those horrendous interuptive thoughts that we have forgotten something….that is unless you forget to journal it. Then there is just no hope!!

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During an appearance on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon, 2 Chainz‘ album cover for his upcoming project Based On A TRU Story 2: Me Time (often stylized as B.O.A.T.S. 2) was revealed. For Tity Boi‘s second solo album, he went the simplistic route once again, putting the close up on 2 Cuban link chains over a white background. Above get your first look at the album’s artwork, and continue on to watch 2 Chainz perform “Fed Watching” on Late Night.

Based On A TRU Story 2 is due out September 10th.

Source: MWP


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Altamont wind energy company to pay $2.5 million and replace turbines to reduce raptor deaths

By Denis Cuff
Contra Costa Times

The largest wind energy producer in the Altamont Pass area of eastern Alameda and Contra Costa counties has agreed to replace 2,400 wind turbines within four years and pay $2.5 million in a legal settlement to reduce deaths of eagles, hawks and other raptors hacked by turbine blades.

The settlement between NextEra Energy Resources, the state, and several environmental groups was announced Monday by the state Attorney General Jerry Brown.

One environmental leader praised the deal as a model for producing wind energy while minimizing the heavy toll the whirling turbine blades take on hundreds of raptors each year.

“We think that is a landmark agreement that balances the need for clean energy with protections for wildlife,” said Michael Lynes, conservation director for the Golden Gate Audubon Society. “This is an aggressive schedule for replacing turbines with new ones. It will go a long way toward reducing the kills in the Altamont area.”

The settlement resolves a debate about whether the company was making sufficient progress toward a previous legal pledge to reduce bird kills by 50 percent from 2007 to 2010.

“Rather than focus on the 50 percent debate, we agreed to get something in place that uses modern technology to increase protections for the birds,” Lynes said. “This does not resolve all the problems with avian mortalities, but it is a big step forward toward reducing them.”

New wind turbines are much larger and produce much more energy than old ones, reducing the number of blades that birds can fly into.

Under the deal, NextEra agreed to replace 2,400 of its turbines within four years. If it falls behind schedule, the company also pledges to shut down all its existing turbines no later than 2015.

The company also pledged to put the new turbines in environmentally friendly locations. Many turbines installed in the Altamont Pass in the 1970s and 1980s were placed in swales between ridges where golden eagles like to soar while looking for prey, biologists say.

The wind company said it would contribute $1.25 million to the California Energy Commission for research on reducing bird kills at Altamont Pass.

The wind company will give another $1.25 million to the East Bay Regional Park District and the Livermore Area Recreation and Park to improve and protect raptor habitat.

According to an 2004 state study, wind turbines at Altamont Pass kill an estimated 1,766 to 4,271 birds annually, including 880 to 1,330 raptors such as golden eagles, hawks, falcons and owls.

The Altamont Pass is a prime breeding and migratory area for raptors.

Read more here.

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You are currently browsing the monthly archive for June 2011.

Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo have already given their press conferences at E3 (Electronic Entertainment Expo) this year, and, as any self-respecting gamer should do, I’m going to reflect on all three of them.

Microsoft was the first to take the stage, early Monday morning. Well, early in California; I had time to hit the snooze button seven times, roll out of bed, make some coffee, browse the internet and leisurely mosey over to the IGN streaming site before noon hit, Eastern time.

Microsoft started out with an epic, ten minute demo of Modern Warfare 3 running on the Xbox 360 console (not without “proving” that it was in game due to a controller connection interruption). It showed some pretty cool cinematic, though it did seem that the game was reusing quite a few assets used in Modern Warfare 2. Regardless, the game is sure to be the same, action packed romp that it always is.

Then came the new Tomb Raider reboot, which had the new, less-but-also-somehow-more sexually attractive Laura Croft getting stabbed, beaten, bruised, punched, and battered all to hell as she made her way out of what looked like a sacrificial cave. It looked quite exciting, and this will be the first Tomb Raider game that I’m actually looking forward to, let alone feel excited for.

Cliff Bleszinski, later, came on stage, and, together with the help of Ice-T, beat a enthralling single player mission on Gears of War 3, taking place on a ship that was actively being eaten by a giant squid-octopus hybrid thing. Looks to be pretty fun and over the top, as is expected out of Gears of War games.

Then Microsoft started shoving Kinect shit games down our throats. 85% of the entire press conference was glitchy, buggy, boring and unintuitive Kinect games that didn’t interest me in the slightest. Come on, Microsoft, Kinect doesn’t work; quit trying to sell it like it does.

Of course, they also announced the Halo 1 remake, which is a completely remade and high-definition of the original game, single player and all. It will have online co-op and online multiplayer with the original maps and some new, updated ones. I didn’t get super excited about that, but hey, Halo is fun, and fun is good.

At the very end of the conference, Microsoft showed us a Halo 4 trailer that left of right where Halo 3 did; with Master Chief floating away in a space ship. It looks like it could be cool, but I worry about the series without Bungie behind the helm.

Overall, Microsoft showed off some cool, multiplatform games that were interesting, but the majority of the gamers were flat, cardboard Kinect games, and that just doesn’t interest me.

Grade: C-

Sony started off with something they really needed to do: an apology. And while that was a nice enough gesture, they didn’t really phrase it in a way that made much sense. Instead of “Hey, look, we’re sorry about everything”, the phrasing made it seem like “We’re sorry you couldn’t enjoy everything that we know you love and is awesome on the PSN”, which is sorta the same, but it comes off like an advertisement more than an apology.

Then we got to the real stuff. Uncharted 3, duh, looks awesome. And by awesome, I mean FUUUUUUUU insane. This is a series that gets worlds better every iteration, and considering the first one was a very good game, that speaks wonders about the quality of the stuff Naughty Dog puts out.

Resistance 3… is another Resistance, which is to say, “yawn”.

Then Sony went into something that I hold very dear to my heart; HD remakes of older games. I’m oh-so pumped for the Shadow of the Colossus and ICO remakes, but ovbiously I’m going to buy the Metal Gear Solid remakes as well.

The press conference was littered with games that supported the Move controller. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, the Move shows so much more promise than Kinect, but so far, I still haven’t seen anything that makes it a must own peripheral (which is why I don’t have one), and E3 didn’t do much to rectify that. Try again, Sony.

The new Sly Cooper game looks very nice. Having never played his games before, I’m tempted to go back and explore the older games to get ready for the new one.

But easily the biggest surprise of all of E3 (surprise, and nothing more) was the Playstation Vita. Weird, new age-y name aside, Sony showed quite a bit of games running on the console, all of which looked like console ports. I guess that’s not a bad thing, but at some point, you have to ask yourself “Wouldn’t I rather be playing this on my actual PS3 and my HDTV?” I think that is the main problem that the Vita is going to come across, but I digress, that is not the exciting news I was referring to. No, the biggest surprise out of E3 2011 was that the PS Vita would retail in America for 250$. 250$!!! People had been guestimating at over 300$ and into the 400$ range, and for Sony to pull a “Yeah, we’re the same price as Nintendo” just blew me away. I’m still having problems believing it. Nintendo has got some work cut out for them.

Overall, Sony was interesting, if not terribly exciting. The PS Vita was easily the best part of the show, but still, it just wasn’t all that fun.

Grade: B-

Nintendo started off their press conference with a real orchestra playing Zelda music at Miyamoto’s request. I mean really, how can anything top that? They can’t… they just can’t.

After some quick footage of Skyward sword and some announcements about more Zelda games coming to the Wii, 3DS and DSi, Nintendo moved right onto their newest console, the Wii U. And this is where things started moving downhill.

They announced the name. Then they showed us a controller with a screen. Then, as the audience scratched their heads, they started showing games using this new controller. There was no announcement of a new console, no pictures of any sort of new hardware. It was just this controller. No one could figure out what exactly it was. Was it an extension of the Wii? Was it a portal gaming console that connected with the Wii? It wasn’t until minutes passed that it finally clicked for a lot of people: There was a new console, but Nintendo wanted to focus on the controller as the new expereince. Well, cool, Nintendo, except you confused everyone watching and I’m sure there are still some people confused as to what the crap was going on.

So yeah. Wii 2. HD graphics. About as powerful as the current generation (2006 technology. Woo) with another gimmicky controller that no one will take full advantage of. Sure sounds like Nintendo!

Then they moved onto 3DS stuff, and as a game deprived 3DS owner, was a good change of pace. The showed us some gameplay of the new Mario game, the new Mario Kart, the remake of Star Fox 64 and some Ocarina of Time 3D footage. The coolest surprise was the return of Luigi’s Mansion, and boy did it look nice! That’s easily become my most anticipated 3DS game (aside from Ocarina, which comes out soon!).

And… that’s about it for Nintendo. Their 3DS showing was all nice and dandy, but I just had a problem with the way they presented the Wii U (WEEEEUUUUU). But still, they put on a much better show than Sony and Microsoft.

Grade: B

Nintendo is going to release their console before 2012; confirmed, E3 2011. It looks like new device, called the Wii U, will be more powerful than the 360 and PS3, which is pretty obvious, considering the 360 and PS3 aren’t getting any younger. This is a pretty exciting thought; having a new console in a little more than a year. But it also puts all three companies in a sticky situation.

Obviously, by releasing the Wii U a year or two earlier than when Sony and Microsoft are expected to release their new consoles (both who have repeatedly said they’re waiting until 2014), Nintendo will have a rather large head start in the next console wars. Nintendo will have the stronger console for nearly two years, and that means that 3rd party developers will (hopefully) develop 3rd party games that can only run on the new tech in the Wii U, and that will lower the sales of both the 360 and the PS3.

Because of this bold move, it seems unlikely that Sony and Microsoft will sit idly by and watch Nintendo suck in profit. Two years is a LONG time, and during that time, Nintendo will move millions of units and make billions of dollars in software sales, and all the while, they’ll be stealing possible sales from both Sony and Microsoft. Seems like the first logical thing for them to do would get that new Xbox and Playstation out as early as possible, but it’s  unlikely that either Microsoft or Sony are anywhere close to being ready to release their console next year (both of them, Microsoft mostly, are focused on Kinect and Move, so it’s unlikely that they have their full force working on a new console). That would put a hurried console release sometime in the later part of 2013, with a E3 2013 announcement, which would only put them a year behind the Wii U, and, as we’ve seen from the past, that’s an acceptable amount of time for consoles to be released apart without some serious backlash to either company.

This one year gap would also help Nintendo. As it stands, if the Wii U is released in 2012 and the new Sony and Microsoft consoles in 2014, that leaves a two year gap in technology that Sony and Microsoft will CERTAINLY fill. When 2014 rolls around, the PS4 and Xbox 1080 will be nearly double the power of the Wii U, and the consumers and developers will all have the same problem that we have in this generation: Nintendo is stuck with an underpowered machine. However, if Microsoft and Sony move their conoles up by a year, that only puts Nintendo one year behind in terms of technology, and there will be a lesser chance that the gap will be quite as big.

It’s hard to play so many guessing games right now when we have no solid dates on anything. But, drawing from the past, and how much companies like to make money, it only makes sense that Microsoft and Sony won’t like it when Nintendo profits for two extra years, and will want to prevent that from happening by moving their console launches to 2013.

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The Saturday Skinny: Are we Limiting Press Freedom in the Right Ways?

To round out my first weekly blog theme, I have chosen to prepare a short, contemplative post about the freedom of the press. Originally designed to protect traditional news outlets like daily papers, magazines, Television news broadcasts, and radio content from government censorship, the media if often referred to as the fourth branch of government, and in theory, serves a “watchdog” function to prevent government tyranny and to provide checks and balances against government corruption. With the media now rapidly expanding to include things like social media, entertainment, and a host of other publicly disseminated information, I want to take just a moment out of my Saturday morning to discuss the limits of press freedom. I do believe that there SHOULD be limits. I will even go so far as to say that the freedom of the press shouldn’t be a right, but is rather a privilege that can, and often is, abused. For that matter, I would even go so far as to say that we shouldn’t have Constitutional rights, but instead should have constitutional privileges. Rights are inalienable – privileges are not. For instance, if a convicted felon can lose his right to vote, then it really isn’t a right at all. It is a privilege to be lost. To draw the correlation, if the press does not fulfill its duty to serve the best interests of the people, then those members of the media should lose their “privilege” of free press. For the remainder of this post, I want to narrow my scope to discuss press freedom in the context of the entertainment industry. I don’t have to tell you that there are several restrictions on what entertainers can and cannot say on television, radio, and other mass mediums. But recently I’ve been asking myself the following question: Are we really censoring the right things? Below are three examples of how the U.S. entertainment industry is getting censorship wrong:

  1. Cursing – within my lifetime, I have noticed a significant relaxation in the about of “cursing” that appears to be acceptable to be included in cable and network entertainment prime time programming. There are still, however, some phrases that are censored in ways that are not only ineffective, but that just don’t make sense. For instance, if someone calls someone an “asshole” on television, the term is usually censored. But only half of it. “Ass” is completely acceptable, but when combined with the word “hole,” it seems to be problematic. So the solution to this problem? “Ass(bleep).” Not only is this completely ineffective, but it seems like the FCC is just a little (and by that I mean absurdly) misguided in what part of that phrase is the most offensive. Here’s another one for you: “God-damn it.” The solution to this inappropriate phrase? “(Bleep) Damn it.” Once again, anyone with a clue can fill in the blank, but more importantly than that, it seems like the concern is once again placed on the wrong part of this phrase.

  1. Nudity – America is ashamed of the human body. With very few exceptions (Kate Winslet’s single-breast exposure in Titantic being one of the more notable ones), most motion pictures that depict nudity other than a brief display of a person’s rear-end is automatically designated as Rated R. I bring this up not because I believe that NBC should start airing porn after America’s Got Talent, but because we remain over-sensitized to nudity while being under-sensitized to violence and “less graphic” forms of sexuality. A few years ago, a show appeared on a major network channel entitled “Swingtown.” It is about exactly what it sounds like: A group of neighbors who engaged in swinging – a lifestyle in which they have sex which each other’s spouses. There wasn’t any nudity that I recall, but there was plenty of moaning and glorification of promiscuity, which I argue is just as problematic for young viewers to be exposed to. More recently, shows such as “Mistresses” and “WifeSwap” seem to contribute to our society’s desensitization of sex more than any Playboy I’ve ever looked at.

  1. Violence – The media is saturated with it. One day when I was teaching a lecture on media law to some of my former students, I was explaining to them the legal difference between obscenity and indecency, two terms that refer exclusively to sexual content in the media. A student of mine raised her hand and asked the following question: “Why can something only be considered obscene or indecent if it sexual. What about the pictures of mutilated bodies that we see on the news and on the internet on a daily basis, and what about films and TV shows that feature more murders, tortures, and blood than you seen on the streets of Compton in a week?” I’m not usually caught off guard, but I was this time. I simply had to respond by saying “you make a great point.” And she did. The jury is still out whether media violence contributes to actual violence, but it seems like until more is known about media effects, we might be better off erring on the side of caution. We are, in my opinion, overly cautious about exposing our youth to sex and nudity, but much less concerned about exposing them to violence on the 6 o clock news and beyond.

If you like what I wrote, I encourage you to share this blog with your friends, colleagues, or anyone else who may find it interesting. If you don’t like what I write, then I INSIST that you comment, criticize, and put me in my place. Thanks for reading, and have a great weekend!

I am Whatever I Say I am: Gender Conformity at the SC DMV

While some people may not be fully aware of all that is protected by the First Amendment, I feel safe making the assumption that anyone reading this blog is intimately familiar with the Amendment’s protection of free speech. Taken literally, this means that that a person residing in the United States can say or write anything without being censored or prosecuted by the Federal Government. Anyone with at least some knowledge of constitutional law, however, will be quick to note that this right is not absolute. Restrictions have been placed upon this amendment through a series of Supreme Court rulings. I will speak on the legitimacy of a few of these restrictions later in the week, but for now I want to also point out that the Supreme Court’s interpretation of the first amendment has also EXPANDED the freedom of speech beyond written or spoken language to include symbolic gestures, the most famous of which is probably flag burning. Because symbolic speech has been deemed protected under the first amendment, the freedom of expression is, at least in the eyes of the law, synonymous with the freedom of speech. The expansion of the first amendment in this way has prompted a number of legal cases to test the limits of this expansion. As a matter of fact, I recently heard of a story in which a person driving on the highway flashed his brights to oncoming traffic to warn them of an impending speed trap. That driver was pulled over and charged with obstruction of justice. However, the driver pleaded not guilty on the ground that the law forbidding driver’s to warn others of police activity violated his first amendment rights, claiming that the act of flashing his brights should be protected as a form of symbolic speech. Admittedly, I do not know if and how this case turned out, but I share the story to prove that the meaning of the First Amendment remains highly contested in contemporary culture.

For today’s post, I want to explore the relationship between the First Amendment and a person’s identity. The inspiration for this post can be traced back to a news story I read last month about a South Carolina teen by the name of Chase Culpepper who was forced to remove “his” make-up before in order to have his driver’s license photo taken. You can read the entire story here.

Essentially, the DMV cited a policy that states that a driver’s license photo will not be taken if it determined that the person is wearing a disguise that could confuse law enforcement officers from properly identifying the individual. According to Culpepper, the DMV employee stated that he could not wear his makeup in the photograph because, since he is biologically dedicated as a male, he does not “look like a boy should.”

It doesn’t take much analytical work to realize the patently absurd nature of the DMV’s policy. The way their policy is articulated, it appears that their chief concern is that the individual in question is trying to obscure his identity in an effort to confuse law enforcement officials in the case that he gets pulled over or has any other run-in with the law which would make it necessary for the police to correctly identify “him.” There is just one problem with this justification. Culpepper regularly dresses in female clothing and wears make-up as part of his everyday appearance. With this being the case, it seems like making him “look like a boy” in his official ID while he normally presents as a female would actually INCREASE the difficulty of law enforcement to properly identify Culpepper. While one may not have much control over their biological sex (short of having a sex-change operation), it is important to remember that sex and gender are NOT the same thing. A person doesn’t choose which genitalia with which they are born – it is etched into their biological coding. However, gender is widely understood as a social construct, and as such, it constitutes an expression of how one chooses to identify.

It is at this point that I advance the following argument: Identity is not a static state of being. It is a fluid, performative expression of how an individual interprets who they are as a person at a given point in time. Tying a person’s identity to their biological profile, in my view, is extraordinarily problematic. Identity is fluid, and subject to change. To use a personal example, I have had black hair, blonde hair, brown hair, and a mohawk throughout my years of trying to decide who I want to be. I’ve had a shaved head, and I’ve had hair almost down to my shoulders. I’ve weighed 105 pounds at one point in my life, and 195 pounds at another. I don’t really look like I do in my Driver’s license photo. So if that is the case, then what is to stop DMV officials from demanding that you maintain a consistent physical appearance for the sake of easy identification?

Now the link between identity and the First Amendment may not be immediately clear, so let me explain. If a person is not allowed to express their identity, then I see no other way but to deem the actions of the South Carolina DMV as a violation of Culpepper’s First Amendment rights. Just because he has a penis does not in any way mean that he must abide by the gender norms associated with the male sex. He is free to construct his own gender, or to resist those constructions all together.

This isn’t to say, however, that there aren’t flaws in my logic. For instance, in my last post, I alluded to the fact that someone’s identity may not be a choice. For instance, it is very difficult for me to get on board with the notion that gays and lesbians choose their sexual identity. This case, however, is a little different. He does not claim to be a part of one gender category or the other. So it is expression of his identity that is at the center of the controversy. Whether or not his gender non-conformity is a choice or not is not really the issue at hand anyways. After we wade through all the bullshit, it is clear that the South Carolina DMV’s policy is not to prevent people from wearing “disguises,” but instead to impose an identity upon a person based on societal gender norms, effectively denying a person’s expression of their identity. It is an undeniably discriminatory policy, and I hereby petition the South Carolina DMV to allow Culpepper to retake his photograph by indentifying as “he” chooses.Thanks for reading, and don’t forget to comment!

Bible Thumping Below the Belt: The Case of Gordon College

This blog is designed to be controversial. I am not here to play nice. I am here to do what I have been scared to do for several years – to speak my mind, to provoke reactions, both positive, negative, and everywhere in between. I will never apologize for what I write, but I will not be dogmatic. Sometimes I will be right, and other times I will be wrong. I will probably change my mind on certain issues. If I wasn’t willing to be wrong or to be challenged in my beliefs, then I wouldn’t share them. I aim to be provocative – I want to cause arguments more than I want to win them. Why? Because I feel like leaving my mind open to change is the only way I will grow as a scholar, as a citizen, and as a person. With that being said, I view this blog as my contribution to the marketplace of ideas – for people to think about issues from my perspective as well as to react to those issues from their perspective. Therefore, this blog will only be successful if people react to it. So please, do not worry about offending me, because I’m not worried about offending you. I look forward to engaging in enlightening debates and dialogue with anyone who feels compelled to respond!
With that being said, I will go ahead and dive in head first with my first weekly theme: Contemporary Issues Concerning First Amendment Rights

The First Amendment of the Constitution guarantees to the U.S. people several freedoms. For today’s post, I focus on the freedom of religion in the wake of the recent Supreme Court case known popularly as the “Hobby Lobby” decision. This decision allows “closely held” faith-based companies to deny insurance coverage for contraceptive services and products to its employees on the grounds that such a requirement would infringe on that company’s religious freedom. This Supreme Court decision, which was decided along highly partisan lines, is proof that the “corporations are humans” doctrine is beginning to spiral out of control.
If this wasn’t bad enough, the implications of the Hobby Lobby decision has implications that are already starting to extend past restrictions on contraceptive coverage. In particular, Obama’s executive order that bans employers who receive federal funding from discriminating against people who identify as part of the LGBTQ community during the hiring process has come under intense scrutiny. As an educator and a former employee of a private, Christian University, I was particularly troubled when I found out that Gordon College, a private school near Boston, is seeking exemption from this executive order on the grounds that it violates the institution’s freedom of religion. Although most private institutions of higher learning do not receive federal funding and therefore are not subject to Obama’s executive order, Gordon College does receive funding due to a contract it has with federal government, and therefore would be prohibited from using a prospective employee’s sexual orientation as a basis for denying them employment.

This case obviously raises a host of issues. For starters, it has reignited the perennial debate over the separation of church and state. It also provides a locus for the ongoing debate over whether sexual orientation should be a protected population along with race, ethnicity, sex, national origin, and religion (which is ironic for reasons I will discuss in another post). While an investigation of these issues in the context of this case are certainly deserving of attention, I want to turn my focus to another aspect of this controversy: to the way that Gordon College President D. Michael Lindsay responded to the understandable backlash against his petition to exempt the college from the executive order. In a statement issued earlier in July, Lindsay made the following remarks which can be found on the Gordon College website. Here, I will quote just a couple of passages that appeared in bold print:

“Signing the letter was in keeping with our decades-old conviction that, as an explicitly Christian institution, Gordon should set the conduct expectations for members of our community. Nothing has changed in our position.”

In my mind, this statement alone is hard to argue with. I disagree with the notion that people who identify as gay, lesbian, or not “straight” should be excluded from participating in Christian-sanctioned institutions, but that is a matter of opinion. As a private institution, I do have to concede that Gordon College is well within their rights to create their own criteria for hiring its employees. There is just one catch – they shouldn’t expect to receive federal funding, as that would create a situation in which the government is forced to support an institution’s religious freedom at the expense of a citizens religious freedom. The freedom of religion, I argue, also entails the freedom FROM religion, or the freedom to not be Christian if that is one’s preference. The federal government should not support institutions which force its employees to conform to the character traits that are dictated by religious doctrine.

But Lindsay doesn’t stop there. Toward the end of his letter, he makes a rather puzzling statement:

“We have never barred categories of individuals from our campus and have no intention to do so now.”

So what exactly does this mean? If the GLBTQ community represents a “category” of individuals, then why does Lindsay feel compelled to seek the right to deny them employment in the first place?
The answer to this question comes in the following sentence:

“As long as a student, a faculty member, or a staff member supports and lives by our community covenant documents, they are welcome to study or work at Gordon.”

The rhetoric here is telling, and admittedly quite clever. It implies that “categories” of people pertain to a population’s identity. However, this quote seems to suggest that homosexuality is not an identity, but rather is a chosen behavior or lifestyle. Therefore, under Lindsay’s interpretation, he is not discriminating against the way someone “is,” but rather the way they choose to be.
For my part, I find this insinuation to be problematic. Even George H.W. Bush, when asked whether he thought homosexuality was a choice, responded by simply stating that he did not really know. And I don’t think there is a way to really ever answer that question. It is an issue that is between God and his people, and not for other person to decide. Christianity, to me, has always been about love and compassion – not about exclusion and discrimination.

Of course, there is much more to this case than what I have presented. For instance, why is it that homosexuality is singled out? What about unwed mothers, people who have pre-marital sex, or people who have used the Lord’s name in vain? These are issues for another day, but for now I want to conclude by exposing how Lindsay’s letter calls into question one of the major principles of the college’s mission that he set forth in his inaugural address, which is to “stretch the minds” of students. With Lindsay’s anti-gay attitude, it seems like he has already failed his own commitment.
Since the letter, the Mayor of Salem, Massachusetts ended Gordon College’s contract to manage the city’s Old Town Hall. I admire this action, but wish that Lindsay would have ended the contract himself instead of trying to have his cake and eat it too.


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Red Hat Summit 2017

S101993 - The hardest part of microservices is your data

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Session description

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One of the tenants of microservices, and a way to minimize dependencies, is that “a service should own its own database.” This is easier said than done. Why? Because: your data. In working with data in information systems for 5 decades, application developers have accepted the practice of using relational databases and relying on all of their safety guarantees. But, as we build services architectures that span more than one database by design (as with microservices), things get harder. How do we synchronize data across databases, especially heterogeneous data? Developing for the traditional enterprise, we have to build fast-changing systems that are surrounded by legacy systems with complicated domains like finance, insurance, and retail. So, how do we develop and reason about the boundaries in our system to reduce complexity in the domain?

In this session, we’ll explore these problems and see how domain driven design (DDD) helps grapple with the domain complexity. We’ll see how DDD concepts like entities and aggregates help us understand boundaries—based on use cases and how transactions are affected. With transactional boundaries, we can more carefully adjust our needs from the CAP theorem to scale out and achieve autonomous systems with eventual strictly ordered consistency. We’ll see how technologies like Apache Kafka, Apache Camel, and can help build the backbone for these types of systems. And finally, we’ll look at a working example that brings all of this together.

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Application development, Containers
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45 minutes
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Google is soon to become an even bigger player in digital advertising

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Google is one of the biggest names in digital marketing, but soon it will become even bigger. Right now it’s testing a new data management platform called DoubleClick Audience Center which will be a part of its DoubleClick suite of digital advertising tools for advertisers, publishers, and networks. This is just the latest in a series of new developments the search giant is making to bolster its position in this market place. Read more on B2BNN.

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Kenyan Sand Boa

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(21 Reviews)

Is this snake right for you?

Species group:

Other common names: Egyptian Sand Boa; East African Sand Boa

Scientific name: Gongylophis colubrinus

The basics:
The Kenyan Sand Boa differs greatly in lifestyle and appearance from the larger, more “typical” members of its family. Being quite docile, easily bred and modest in size, this fascinating snake is much sought after by reptile enthusiasts.

The Kenyan Sand Boa’s range extends from Libya and Egypt in northeastern Africa south and east to Tanzania, with unconfirmed reports of occurrences in Yemen. Two subspecies have been described. Arid, scrub-studded plains and semi-deserts are the preferred habitats.  Much of its time is spent below-ground, usually just beneath the surface with the head partially exposed.

Appearance / health:
Cylindrical in shape, the Kenyan Sand Boa averages 20 inches to three feet in length. The small dorsal scales appear “polished”, and are colored reddish-brown to nearly orange, or in various shades of tan. Dark blotches of differing sizes and shapes mark the back. As an adaptation to life spent below ground, the wedge shaped head serves as a “spade”.

This is a hardy species, with captive longevity sometimes exceeding 20 years. As with other species hailing from arid habitats, Sand Boas are susceptible to “blister disease” and other skin infections when kept on damp substrates.

Behavior / temperament:
Kenyan Sand Boas are often relatively calm in disposition, and may tolerate gentle handling. However, they are usually ill-at-ease when removed from their hiding spots, and the smooth, glossy scales render them difficult to control.  Sand boas have an ingrained feeding response that often causes them to strike if touched while buried, so take care when approaching your pet.

A single adult may be housed in a 20 gallon aquarium.  Kenyan Sand Boas must be provided course sand and smooth gravel in which to burrow. These secretive snakes will not thrive if forced to shelter in caves; body contact with sand is essential.  However, some will remain beneath a piece of glass laid atop the sand, and so may be easily observed.  The tank’s screen lid should be secured by cage clips. As Sand Boas rarely bask on the surface, a heat pad should be placed below the aquarium.  An incandescent bulb may be used to warm the air further if necessary. Ambient temperature: 78-85 F. Basking temperature: 90-95 F.

Sand Boas are highly-specialized ambush predators that wait below the sand for passing rodents, lizards and smaller snakes.  To assist in this hunting strategy, the eyes and nostrils are placed high on the head, which is left partially exposed. Captives will literally explode from the sand to snatch mice moved about with a feeding tong…very impressive, and always a shock to the uninitiated!  The jaws of the Kenyan Sand Boa are not well-suited to swallowing large meals.  Fuzzies and young mice are preferable to adult mice as a food source.  Youngsters should be fed once weekly, while adults do fine with a meal each 10-14 days.

A cooling-off period of 2 months at 75-77 F will often stimulate reproduction. Expectant females will spend considerable time basking above sub-tank heat pads or cables. The 6-25 young are born alive after a gestation period of 4 – 6 months.

Written by Frank Indiviglio

beautiful snakes, small size, great beginner snakes, gorgeous color, docile creature

time burrow, intestinal impaction, aggressive feeding response, fussy feeders

tunnels, new morphs, unique head shape, live births, shovellike nose, ambush predators

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Right Wing Fighter

Category: Big Business

The Money Seekers

There’s a certain class of people that think in terms of money. They don’t simply want money: they actually measure the world in money terms.

This is why there are people that:

  • Measure military power by military spending;
  • Measure people by how much they make.

This is one reason why there’s a class of people in America that want to continue free trade policies as a matter of basic philosophy: they measure America’s stature by how much money it has.

Never mind that money without production power can make a nation both rich and weak at the same time. Money, in essence, is the power to get others to do things. If you go to war with those others, for instance, then you have no power at all. You’ll be conquered because your money was worthless.

This is something Trump understands but many in politics don’t: a nation that can’t produce can’t remain independent. This is because money, though it gets people to do things, can’t force them to do things. You can buy them off if they want to be bought off. But you can’t make anyone do anything: you have no real power. It depends on the willingness of others.

In most cases in private life this works. We rarely have to force people to do things. But in the life of nations it’s different. China’s trade war with us, for instance, couldn’t be bought off even if we did have money to give them. They would choose the long game: destroy our manufacturing now, to make us utterly dependent later.

This is one reason why they’re continuing their race to the bottom. China is not in good economic condition. Much of their economy is based on government infrastructure projects. They are doing what the Amazon company is doing: running at a loss now, to hurt the competition. Once the competition is crippled, they can raise prices. China’s goal is to destroy the manufacturing competition on a national scale. Once they’ve done so, they can raise prices at will.

If this sounds strange, it has happened in the past. In the 1970s the oil-producing Arab nations raised oil prices enormously in order to dictate our foreign policy. To an extent they succeeded. That’s partly why they’re trying to ruin our domestic oil production now: if we are independent energy-wise, they lose an enormous amount of power in the world.

Let me come back to the money-thinekrs: their thinking isn’t acquired but natural. It’s an extension of who they are. This is one reason that there is such a financial aspect to American politics: there is a class of people that only measure the world in terms of money. As such, they measure national achievement by how much money the country has.

I have little doubt that protectionist policies would make America less wealthy overall. But that doesn’t concern me. Protectionism would mean we’re producing again. As such, we’d have more real power than we’ve had in decades. What’s the point of money, nationally speaking, other than to give us the power to live our lives and be safe and healthy? If it fails to do so, it has no purpose.

Theodore Roosevelt: A Brief Post

If you’ve read between the lines in my previous posts, you’ve seem that I have high regard for Theodore Roosevelt.

To most people these days, T.R. is either just a face on Mount Rushmore, a progressive, or a bit of a nut.

But there is more to him than that. He was a vigorous champion of the working man, for one. This in an era when the GOP, much like today, was dominated by big business. In fact, T.R. was not liked at all by the party bosses. The reason for this was that he was not a business minded politician like most other high level republicans. He had a genuine love and affection for every day Americans. That was something many high level republicans could not boast.

That sounds a lot like today, doesn’t it?

Anyhow, had the GOP leaders had their way, he would never have been president.

He was governor of New York at the time of the 1900 presidential election. He was very popular, and several high level republicans wanted to get him out of New York because they thought he was a threat. So they sought to jam him into the essentially powerless job of vice president.

This they managed to do, but only after a lot of wrangling. Roosevelt himself suspected what they were doing. But he was unsure about taking the job. After all, he’d have to run for reelection in two years. Maybe he’d lose the race, and would be dumped out of politics for good. Perhaps, he thought, it would be better to be VP for four years, than risk being a governor for only two. In any wise, he was  eventually  put on the ticket. He was a great asset on the campaign trail, since he was such a strenuous man. He willingly worked multiple campaign stops per day for weeks. This at a time when many presidential candidates didn’t actually campaign for their own election since it was considered beneath the office.

The McKinley-Roosevelt ticket won the election handily, and T.R. settled in for a long political slumber. Aside from breaking tie votes in the senate, and a few ceremonial roles, the vice president had almost nothing to do.

It was the hope of the GOP elite to neutralize Roosevelt by putting him into a useless job. They didn’t know, of course, that an anarchist would kill McKinley a few months after his reelection. This is how T.R. became president.

He was the first real populist president since Lincoln. He made his share of mistakes. But one of his great triumphs was to ease the tensions between labor and capital. Capital, frankly, had been abusing labor for years, especially in the mining industry. A coal strike early in his presidency threatened to chill the nation, for winter was coming on and we relied greatly on coal for heat.

After much wrangling with the mine owners and labor leaders, negotiations were made between the two sides and work commenced. There were future battles between the two sides. But these also were resolved in time.

One of the developing threats in those days was from communism. Marx’s ideas were spreading like wildfire. And they found a number of willing ears, since labor was so often abused in those days. One man that helped to make America less hospitable to communism was Theodore Roosevelt. By his practical leadership, he helped guide the nation to safer waters, both economically and socially.

Outsourcing is a particularly bad example of globalism. Sending our jobs to other countries to get things made cheaper is little more than a betrayal of our own citizens. How can they support themselves without jobs? How can the country be strong if it produces less and less each year? Yet business by and large doesn’t seem to mind, except some small businesses. To the bigger ones, it’s just about getting the bigger buck.

And why is this so? Did companies in the past sell out their own country’s workers for a better bottom line? Didn’t they feel any loyalty to their fellow citizens? To a greater extent they did. Of course there were globalists, even far in the past. But local business ties were stronger, say, a century ago. But nowadays, business is focused, again aside from smaller ones, on bigger bucks. They aren’t loyal to their own countrymen. This is a disgrace and a good reason why workers don’t tend to trust their employers as much as, say, the GOP does. The conduct of the Chamber of Commerce, which is basically a union for businesses, is telling.

The Chamber of Commerce is focused on more workers and less regulation. That’s why for several years now they’ve been considered an asset to a number of people on the right: some on the right are simply anti-government, and the Chamber’s anti-regulation goals line up pretty well. And since not a few on the right are mere anti-government ideologues, the fact that the Chamber also supports increased immigration and amnesty isn’t a deal breaker. This is because some on the right don’t recognize that the nation exists. They don’t see a country, they see an economy. Because of that, they have no loyalty to it.

But with the rise of Trump and what might be called the American Worker’s Revolution, the Chamber has been under increased attacks, as have big businesses that put profits ahead of their workers and countrymen. American workers are natively patriotic, and this is driving a wave of nationalism as they get reengaged in politics. The Democrats should beware: these are the same blue-collars that gave Reagan a landslide victory in ’80 and ’84. They’re setting up to do so again. This is also a warning and a call to action for GOP members of congress and of state governments. If they want to win at the ballot box, they’ve got to support pro-worker policies.

These policies include:

• No amnesty for illegals

• Decreasing legal immigration

• Cutting guest worker programs

Additionally, they should support commonsense worker education at the state level to get young workers and people who have lost their jobs ready for work. They should also actively encourage business to help with worker training for our native stock of citizens.

If the GOP were to become the worker’s party in America, they would have incredible success. As it is now, they squeeze by as the “Not Democrat” party. That’s why there’s no enthusiasm for the GOP. To be successful, they must embrace workers.


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acoustic heritageTim and Debbie Grim Yates have combined their lives, amazing talents and deep musical roots to forge one of the country’s most accomplished and entertaining musical groups on the scene today.

Acoustic Heritage is the culmination of several generations of singers and musicians who performed Old-Time and Bluegrass music while passing on the love of that unique Appalachian Mountain sound to the generations that followed after them.

Whether it’s the sound of Debbie’s amazing clawhammer banjo, her lively fiddle, Tim’s mesmerizing guitar or Jordan Rice’s flawless mandolin, the music of Acoustic Heritage always leaves an audience wanting to hear more!

For more info on Acoustic Heritage, please visit:

  • While we were never invited to those heady Parisian parties of the twenties and thirties – to hobnob with Hemingway and Gertrude Stein – the idea of such literary and artistic gatherings sounded appealing. Drop by at 4:00 for food and wine, music and conversation, perhaps a poetry reading or a short play, a book-signing, an exhibit of art or pottery, or an occasional film. Dinner, usually a four-course set menu, follows about 6:00.

    The Sunday Salons begin at 4:00 PM; hors d’oeuvre at 5:00 PM; more music and a four-course chef’s choice menu is served at 6:00 PM. $15 for entertainment and hors d’oeuvre, $45 for entertainment, hors d’oeuvre, and dinner.

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WPT XI Grand Prix de Paris: Day 3 Update

There are only 63 players remaining including many players who are very familiar with WPT success.

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