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Monday, September 19, 2016

Nick Kristof’s fallacious history lesson on refugees

Once again, last century’s Jewish refugees are used to plead for today’s mostly Muslim refugees. It was exactly a year ago that the Washington Post’s Ishaan Tharoor devoted several articles to this topic and eventually noted with great satisfaction that one of these articles “ended up being one of the most read articles on our Web site.” Now it is the New York Times’ (NYT) Nick Kristof who argues that “world leaders should reflect on” the failure to help Jews fleeing Nazi Germany during currently ongoing meetings in New York City about today’s refugee crisis. As Kristof grimly notes: “Without greater political will, this week’s meetings may be remembered as no better than the 1938 Evian Conference [where delegates from 32 countries made do with expressing sympathy for the plight of Jews without offering refuge], and history will be unforgiving.” Just a few weeks ago, Kristof declared “Anne Frank Today Is a Syrian Girl.”

Given Kristof’s attempts to revive this fallacious history lesson, it is useful to recall some of the responses to last year’s debate, most notably James Kirchick’s superb Tablet piece on “The Bad-Faith Analogy Between Syrian Refugees and Jews Fleeing Nazi Germany.”

While the comparison has also been embraced by some Holocaust survivors and their descendants as well as some Jewish leaders, anti-Israel activists were quick to do a really good job exposing the hypocrisy that helped this “history lesson” go viral. As I noted in a related blog post last year, I was actually alerted to the popularity of the comparison while monitoring the Twitter activity of notorious Israel-haters like Ali Abunimah and Max Blumenthal. Back then I argued:

“So when there is a debate about how to respond to the hundreds of thousands – projected soon to become millions – of mostly Muslim refugees and migrants fleeing war and poverty in their own countries, Abunimah and Blumenthal discover their sympathies for the Jewish refugees desperate to flee the Nazis in the 1930s and 1940s. The problem with this is that both Abunimah and Blumenthal are otherwise often busy promoting the 21st century version of the Nazi slogan ‘The Jews are our misfortune,’ which is: ‘The Jewish state is our misfortune.’
Obviously, if Israel had been established just ten years earlier, many of the Jews trying in vain to find refuge from the Nazis would have had a place to go to.”

This last point is still conveniently ignored by most of the people who are eager to transform the plight of Jews desperate to flee the Nazis into a “history lesson” that is useful for current political debates. But if one insists on using the fate of last century’s unfortunate Jewish refugees for the benefit of today’s refugees, the groups with the best claim would obviously be the Middle Eastern minorities who are fleeing murderous persecution by Muslim groups and states – notably the Yazidis as well as Middle Eastern Christians and Kurds.

Of course, such a distinction would be condemned as anti-Muslim bigotry, despite the fact that the Muslim refugees of today – very different from the Jewish refugees of last century – could seek refuge in many Muslim countries. Moreover, as I’ve noted previously, “the Muslim countries that are members of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) boast of having formed ‘the second largest inter-governmental organization after the United Nations’ with a ‘membership of 57 states spread over four continents.’  Supposedly, the OIC ‘is the collective voice of the Muslim world’ and is dedicated to ‘ensuring to safeguard and protect the interests of the Muslim world in the spirit of promoting international peace and harmony among various people of the world.’” Surely the OIC can be counted on to prevent Kristof’s nightmare scenario that “this week’s meetings may be remembered as no better than the 1938 Evian Conference”? I have no doubt that if there had been 57 Jewish states spread over four continents in 1938, every single Jew who fled the Nazis would have found refuge – including Anne Frank and her family.

Furthermore, notwithstanding the disdain of liberals like Kristof, not all people who oppose Muslim immigration are bigots. There is the inconvenient fact that most acts of terrorism in western countries are committed by Muslims, and as anyone who follows the news will know, particularly European countries are facing serious problems with the integration of Muslims. There are plenty of problems in France, and a British study published last spring showed “that large numbers of Muslims don’t want to integrate, that their views aren’t remotely enlightened, and that more than a few of them sympathise with terrorism.” There is also a “new era of anti-Semitic violence in Europe,” which, as Jeffrey Goldberg put it, is “different from previous ones” because “traditional Western patterns of anti-Semitic thought have now merged with a potent strain of Muslim Judeophobia. Violence against Jews in Western Europe today, according to those who track it, appears to come mainly from Muslims.”

Perhaps western liberals who scold their fellow citizens for bigotry against Muslim refugees and migrants would be able to make their case more effectively if they acknowledged that westerners have no monopoly on bigotry – indeed, there are many indications that this is one of the few areas where the Muslim world is well ahead.

A Pew survey published in 2004 found “that Christians get much lower ratings in predominantly Muslim countries than do Muslims in mostly Christian countries. Majorities in Morocco (73%), Pakistan (62%) and Turkey (52%) express negative views of Christians.” In 2011, another Pew survey showed similar results:

“Muslims in the predominantly Muslim countries surveyed are more likely to associate negative characteristics with Westerners than non-Muslims are to associate them with Muslims. For example, nearly nine-in-ten (89%) Jordanian Muslims use at least three of the six negative adjectives* tested to describe people in Western countries, as do majorities in Egypt (81%), Turkey (73%), the Palestinian territories (71%), Pakistan (67%) and Indonesia (63%); only in Lebanon is this not the case. In contrast, Spain is the only Western country surveyed where a majority (60%) of non-Muslims associate three or more negative characteristics with Muslims. At least three-in-ten non-Muslims in Britain (39%), the U.S. (35%) and France (30%) do not attribute any of the six negative characteristics tested to Muslims.”
* i.e. violent, greedy, fanatical, selfish, immoral, arrogant

Then there are the shocking sermons by preachers seething with hatred against the “Other” – Jews of course, but also Christians and the West in general – that can be heard fairly regularly at the Al-Aqsa mosque, which is supposedly Islam’s third-holiest site. Is it even imaginable that anything remotely comparable could be preached over and over again in a major church or cathedral in the West?
But what makes the attempts to use the plight of Jews fleeing the Nazis for today’s debate so upsetting is the genocidal Jew-hatred that is incited by Muslim preachers and leaders all over the world – whether it’s a senior Al-Azhar scholar in Egypt, an Australian Islamist, a Kuwaiti scholar, a Palestinian Sheikh, a Yemeni cleric, a British Islamist, or the “global mufti” Sheik Yusuf Qaradawi, who once told his estimated 40 million viewers on Al Jazeera that he hoped the next Hitler-style “punishment” of the Jews “will be at the hand of the believers.”

Two years ago Kristof acknowledged in a column that “Anti-Semitism runs deep in some Muslim countries today” – but there was of course a “but”: “for most of history, Muslims were more tolerant of Jews than Christians were.” Kristof also worried plenty about stoking anti-Muslim bigotry with this column and tried last year to make the case that, as one critic put it, “the Bible is full of bad stuff while the Qur’an has some good stuff.”

Given Kristof’s concerns about “political correctness,” one might have hoped that he would have been more hesitant to exploit the plight of last century’s Jewish refugees for the benefit of today’s refugees. To be sure, the reports and images from the violence and war in the Muslim Middle East are heartbreaking. But there are many ways to plead for the victims of the region’s carnage without invoking the cruel indifference that was shown to the Jews trying to flee the Nazis. After all, if “Anne Frank Today Is a Syrian Girl,” are the regimes and groups that make her “Anne Frank” – Assad, Hezbollah, Iran, Russia and the assorted Islamists fighting in Syria and elsewhere – the Nazis? I’m pretty sure that is a comparison Kristof wouldn’t like at all.

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posted in: Media Theory | 0

Hyperlinks as object videos

“There is no end to the game.” Playern

Play/Room is a library, a database, an art installation, a Youtube channel, a memory palace and an artist’s studio. Play/Room is a room-scale mixed reality installation in which every physical object is linked/related to a spherical video. The links are printed and attached to each object and can be inspected using a handheld screen. Each tag also has the title of the video printed below the code. When an object’s code is inspected by a player the associated spherical videos show up on screen. The view point can be changed both by moving the screen and swiping with one finger.

This is an example of mixed or hybrid reality, meaning partially simulated, two overlapping, as opposed to adjacent, places. The seam, the API, between these two poorly compatible worlds, being a 3 tap clunky code reader and a web based spherical video player.

Play/Room started with a simple idea: when the web is spatial, when we are used to navigating networked VR, where do my videos want to live? And over the course of its one month existence I got to watch 13 individual play-throughs and one 3 person multiplayer run.

Here’s everything I learned making, thinking, and researching about this project. First I will cover some current models for interacting with groups of content online, then with that context I will talk about the specifics of the structure of Play/Room covering the types of object/video relationships that appeared in the piece, types of interactions observed during playtesting including trace leaving and the effects of visible titles on player choice, and the three main places conflict and frustration arose for players. All the videos from the setup and playtesting phases can be seen on the Play/Room playlist.

The Past

Search, surf, feed and playlist

“This is nothing like links on a screen.” Playern

I am bored with search and surf, feed and playlist. So bored. Homogeny of interface styles is like literally the worst. Google, Baidu, Yahoo, Amazon, Wikipedia, and Qq are primarily search based at the start of interactions (google “red panda,” click on more images) then switch to surfing, whiling your way through different pages via direct hyperlinking (256 pictures of adorable red pandas later…). That was all there was before RSS: a search field and a link and a huge pile of bookmarks of places you have already been and know you need to get back to. Then came today’s giants: Facebook, Youtube, and Twitter. These behemoths have some of that old school search and link quality about them but also rely heavily on feeds, reverse chronological lists of available content derived from good old fashioned mail bags: newest on top. Feeds, first as rss feeds, developed online to give users seamless access to frequently updated content without having to check all their favorite sites individually. They meant you wouldn’t miss out on something great, cause FOMO am I right.

But that built in anxiety, the catered too fear of the missed opportunity, of being out of touch, of being left behind has led to a boredom of its own. I sit on the train everyday watching people swipe up, swipe up, swipe up, swipe up, swipe up, swipe up. Their feeds filled with tiny rectangular images and strips of text. A brief glimpse of an acquaintance’s birthday party, above a mood gif from a favorite band, above a new podcast episode listen request from a prominent new writer, above a new hashtag campaign, above a baby picture from a total stranger, above a musing from a celebrity, above a breaking news story that might be related to that hashtag from before, above a video from a producer you followed once but rarely watch and on and on. Each creeping up to the top of the little hand held screen then disappearing, slipping below the surface and out of sight. Depending on how many outputs you follow the pile often grows unmanageable and is being added to so quickly it is inexhaustible.

But you are always missing out on something. Get over it.

The one externally curated model currently in wide use today is the playlist. Collected by an artist or user generated, played sequentially or shuffled, playlists remove newness as the primary selection factor but still limit interaction to ordered lists.

So what comes after search and surf, feed and playlist? Same as what came before: Places.

Organizing physical stuff in physical places.

“How do places work again?” Me, just now.

Take books. Books are great. People love organizing books. They make information browseable and thus non-linear and then we stick them on bookshelves which increases the density of information even further and facilitates inter-book browsing.  Then we stick those in libraries: stacks of bookshelves, which are stacks of books. You can pull them down and read them and stick them back somewhere new and everything works great until you have lots and lots of books and everyone is putting them back all higgledy piggledy. Then we have to make up book putting back science like the Universal Decimal Classification. It is a fantastic organization system if your goals are consistency and coverage across all branches of human knowledge. Classes of knowledge are categorized by number with longer numbers being associated with rising specificity of the classification. Meaning 5 is Mathematics and Natural Science while 539.120.2 is Symmetries in Quantum Physics.

All of this spatial organizing increases the findableness of the books but also fixes them in static relationships to one another. This is kind of ok though because books are unfortunately already restricted by their utilitarian form. If I could make you books that bounced like a soccer ball, or yipped like a tiny dog on a short leash, or hung the air like a soap bubbles until you popped them and their pages coalesced from the shattered iridescent skin I would totally do that but alas the physical world is kinda a stickler for physics and consistency and shit. Libraries are fantastic homes for books. The strictness in spatial organization methods of books fits their form, but without that restriction how we organize space loosens up.

Object/video relationships

“Everything’s a ladleful of spacetime in here.” Playern

Now we have ourselves some context, back to Play/Room. While unplanned the object/video pairs conformed to four general categories. They are listed from the most concrete, realistic and recognizable to the most abstract and conceptual.

  • Literal: A plastic skull, a toy train car, a pink shawl and Tumblr hat, a laser cut wood mesh, all objects that were in the video they linked to. This was the most obvious type of connection.
  • Diagrammatic: The main example was a scale model of my house with tags positioned where the videos had actually been shot. It diagrammed a specific systematic, in this case geographical, relationship between the videos linked.
  • Representational: Similar to the diagrammatic if more metaphorical these objects included a pair of teddy bears that stored a pair of videos of my husband and I, a t-shirt from a conference where a group of videos were shot, printouts of gallery websites linked to videos of visiting those galleries etc. These objects represented what they contained but did not appear in the video directly nor diagram any systematic relationship between them.
  • Conceptual: Time intensive paper sculptures linked to time intensive capital A art videos. Flimsy paper sculptures linked to less time intensive partially successful video experiments. Crumpled print outs of video screenshots tossed in a waste paper basket linked to the the videos that were utter failures. This category focused on quality similarities across different mediums.

The combination of all these different types of object video relationships was part of what made Play/Room so flexible for lots of different kinds of exploration. Let’s talk about that next.

Modes of interaction

“I want to do chaos to it.” Playern

The most surprising thing about watching my playtesters was the sheer variety of approaches players had to the room. Turns out spacial arrangements are super flexible.

While watching videos players sat on the floor or the poof, knelt, stood, paced, laid on the floor, danced around, and even played along on the ukulele that linked to several music videos. Several players even set down the handheld and wandered the room on their own first. Stacking the paper sculptures in various piles, pouring out the trash, or putting on the clothes before engaging with the links. But it wasn’t just posture or trajectory that varied widely from player to player, organization methods were all over the place. One players took special care, after inspecting an object’s link, to line it up with the others she’d finished in a straight line beside her on the floor like her own physical playlist. Another simply spread things out haphazardly as he moved from object to object. One refused to move anything calling it meaningless, while the next tossed all seen object videos in a pile in the corner. Another player posed various still lives around the room with object videos she felt went together, the paper fish head with the skull, the glass and the bottle and the spoon and the toy train all together under the stool, the bears went the gallery print out. As the playtests proceeded I learned that the more visibly organized the room was the more players pieced delicately though the objects touching as little as possible while visibly messy arrangements gave players permission to contribute to the mess.

Players often multitasked, propping the handheld up next to them, occasionally swiping to a new viewpoint, while they left their hands wander: picking up and feeling various objects, playing with playdoh, putting hats on bears, balancing piles of sculptures, posing still lives of emoji cards and dishes and dresses and the screen itself. Making and playing in a relaxed unfocused multi-modal state. The objects gave tactile feedback to wandering fingers while eyes and ears were trained on a video environment. The ceramic island object, linked to a video tour of a friends studio called “Ken’s Ceramic Studio,” was particularly enticing for fingers with nothing to do while other senses were occupied. In this case the object and the video environment have a literal link and together give the player to simultaneous entry points to the same world.

Two players made a game of discovering hidden tags. The tag on the bottom of a glass, on a tucked away power outlet, and the inside of the stool leg were all particularly engaging to these players. Three of the players took selfies, some with the handheld itself and some with the spherical camera that was included as an object video. One highlight from the multi user test was that each user had their own handheld and they would each scan a different object then lay the screens on the floor, collaging them together, using swipe to navigate to different views.

The most consistent note from all the playtests was that players rarely choose to use the higher immersion clip on headset option, a Wearality sky, when watching videos. Though initially interested players quickly abandoned it once they realized it slowed down the already clunky process of scanning the tags. At least half the players did return to it once when they found a video they wanted to experience more immersively then set it aside again.

Despite all this variance two fuzzy categories did seemed to emerge: long watches of few videos vs short watchers of many. Where as long watchers tended to make up their own decision criteria for navigating from object to object short watchers tended to want more structure, more guidance for a “good” trajectory through the installation. I could see these players enjoying a guided tour if a similar piece was installed in a museum context.

Effect of titles

“Wait, they have titles?”Playern

Titles were an unexpectedly polarizing aspect of Play/Room. For one player in particular the titles more than the objects themselves caught his eye and led him to choose which tag to scan. However the exact opposite was true for at least 3 other players, each of whom commented during their playtest that they hadn’t even noticed that the tags had titles at all. In the case of the vidcon shirt which was plastered with many tags, the tag titled “Sausage legs at Vidcon” was the most often inspected by players.

For abstract and representational style links the titles helped players ground the objects. The title is a top down classifying force and informational guide and while they seemed to support object oriented discovery for those who do not easily engage with the object directly, in some cases however the presence of language seemed to completely override the communication being done by the objects themselves rendering the room just an awkward unordered list. But even with this down side, ultimately the titles contributed to interactive flexibility.

Leaving Traces

“I want to leave a thing in the world for others to find and I want to find secrets they leave for me.” Playern

Players wanted to contribute little notes or their own paper sculptures for others to find or to leave traces that would let another player know what a certain video had made them think of. These types of contributions work well in the lab but I am unsure how that behavior would change outside our little sheltered cove. Texted based online trace leaving quickly devolves into bullying and all manner of discrimination but there is evidence for harmless object based trace leaving in art contexts. Sarah Sze, an American artist who makes large scale installations from ordinary objects, spoke in a 2012 interview with PBS’s Art 21 that museum visitors often left small objects from their pockets, like paper clips and coins, in her installations. The left behind objects may have been anonymous and even entirely invisible to other visitors as not part of the original piece but people still felt compelled to leave them. I will be exploring socially constructive ways of engaging this impulse in future projects.

Failures and Frustrations

“When an object is not literally linked to the video I think I am missing something.” Playern

There were three main pain points for players: Play/Room didn’t effectively teach people how to play with it, some players were disconnected from touching or moving the objects at all, and despite my expectations, many players struggled with Play/Room’s lack of clear structure.

Let’s take these in turn.

Players were given very few instructions upon entering other than a brief tutorial on how to use the scanning software. This meant it was not obvious to players what was and was not allowed. Many of the objects seemed fragile and were thus not considered play objects. In a completely virtual environment players would likely explore knowing they couldn’t actually damage anything, but in a mixed reality context players have the understandable fear that they will do it wrong and cause some irreversible damage to clearly unique objects. I’m not sure this is avoidable unless I used only objects that can be easily replaced if damaged or if installed in a public context place all tags in plain view so nothing is actually touched in the process of viewing. But eww, all looking and no touching is just eww.

The second hurdle to seamless use several players mentioned centered around the meaning of moving an object. “I would move things around but it doesn’t seem to mean anything,” said one player who also later mentioned a desire to see his trajectory laid out behind him showing which he had already watched. To my consternation, this player did not see the ability to move things as equivalent to the desired functionality. This type of spacial arrangement may never work seamlessly for some players or it may just be an audience behavior that needs to be taught more directly. I don’t know yet.

Lastly about a third of players wanted more structure than was provided. This came in two forms. First, players who wanted all object video relationships to be the literal type, and second, players who wanted the organization of the room and the meaning of the videos to have an overarching cohesive narrative structure.  Dissatisfaction with the link types because of feelings of missing something was justified. Players who focused on literal type links were missing something. One player framed it like this: “With books, I can tell what I am about to read when I see the cover.” And while I disagree with the judging books by their covers I think it points to a framing problem that could be solved with different environmental expectation setting. If installed in an art museum for example players would likely be better primed for a spectrum of link types. It should be noted that for these players the model of my house was the most satisfying object to inspect.

The latter group were less frustrated by any individual link than the lack of underlying discoverable narrative. The games Her Story and Gone Home were both mentioned as what players expected Play/Room to be like. (Her Story is a game in which you sift through unordered library of old police interview video files to discover a sordid tale of your family’s past. Gone home is game in which you wander your families unoccupied house examining ordinary household objects to figure out what’s been going on since you left.) Sure, these players were happy to wander the room watching videos and examining objects, but they wanted it to all mean something, to have some clear purpose, something to give their explorations focus. This is a need I hadn’t even considered when building Play/Room. It was designed to be a growable libraryesk place but there’s no reason an installation structurally identical Play/Room couldn’t fulfil this itch. Layering time also would be a very effective use of Play/Room style linking. Immersive theatre perhaps in which actors currently inhabit the space at one point in time but the space lets you look backward and forward to other scenes that happen in the same space.

Now what?

“It gives you privileged access to a private space.” Playern

I’m starting to realize that spherical videos are somewhere between an thing and a place. Like globes spherical videos let you see context instead of cropped portions of the world dissected. So where should they live? Where would they feel at home? Somewhere you could touch them like globes, somewhere you could feel the ridges of their mountains. Metaphorically or whatever.

A place you feel comfortable picking things up, touching things, going slow, a place like home.  Clothes in the closet, pans in the cupboards, book on the shelves, and creative messes everywhere (at least at my house) with things most often or most recently used migrating naturally to the front. Being invited into someone’s home is super intimate. You learn something close and peculiar about the person by what’s in their space: a shelf packed with vintage perfume bottles, a collection of gregarious high heels, piles of board games or religious paraphernalia. Play/Room successfully imparted this kind of personality on the players. Many mentioned feeling like they were visiting my artist’s studio or even poking around inside of my brain. One player even described the Play/Room as a physical memory palace. Like going through your grandmother’s attic or dad’s self storage unit while they are still around to tell you the stories of the objects and your family with them: hand sewn quilts with butterflies motifs made by great great great etc grandmothers, chachkies bought on trips to faraway places, the last piece of unbroken crockery from a long lost set, each with a story to tell. This response was strongest with the most documentary style videos but while players could look back, dipping into a stream of my memories, the objects also activated their own.

“With objects thumbnails could totally remember which ones I’ve seen and which I haven’t.” Playern

All of this touching stuff and memory talk has got me thinking and reading more about embodied knowledge and how our bodies and their sensory motor capacities understand stuff and how we can make better mixed physical virtual interfaces for them. So that’s where I am headed in the next post. Check back soon!

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About Elfquest

Elfquest is the longest-running independent fantasy graphic novel series in the USA, with more than 15 million comics, graphic novels and other publications in print.

The story of Cutter, chief of the Wolfriders, and his quest to find others of their own kind on the World of Two Moons, Elfquest was first published in 1978 by creators Wendy and Richard Pini.

The latest cycle, The Final Quest, is being published by
Dark Horse Comics.

The Story

Get the latest Elfquest from Dark Horse Comics.
New to EQ? Catch up on the backstory with the free online comics archive or by the Complete Elfquest omnibus graphic novels from Dark Horse Comics. Also check out the timeline, the stories in chronological order, and our publication history.

The Characters

Meet the elves and their foes and friends in our Who’s Who. The Wolfriders number only 17 at the outset, but come to know hundreds of other elves, Trolls, Preservers and Humans as the quest unfolds. Meet the Sun Folk, the Gliders, the Go-Backs, the Wavedancers, the Rootless Ones, the Palace Dwellersthe Future Folk and more.

Warp Graphics

Meet Elfquest creators Wendy and Richard Pini and Final Quest colorist Sonny Strait.
Take an outdated (but still amusing) tour of Warp’s former offices in Poughkeepsie, New York.

Art, Music and Magic

Enjoy all sorts of oddball EQ-inspired fun (enough that even Rayek might stop scowling).
Homages in other books and comics
Fun tributes by other artists in Wendy’s Elf Book
back-of-the-comic funnies
A gallery of cover art
The early designs for Elfquest (And more!)
Character model sheets
Working sketches from the first EQ novel and first EQ portfolio
Some role-playing game art
The lyrics from an Elfquest-inspired album
And don’t miss the fan film Elfquest: A Fan Imagining
Create your own Elfquest Avatar
Take the Elfquest Tribe Sorting Quiz

The rest

Questions? Read the Elfquest FAQ.
Browse the complete archive of posts to the site.
Follow us on FacebookTwitter and Instagram.
Listen to the Elfquest Show Podcast.
Read older Wendywords and Matter of oPINIon editorials.
Order out of print books from our own online store.
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Elite Daily

Why 60 Years Of School Censorship Still Affects How We Think

Censorship in US schools didn't truly take off until the 1950s, when McCarthyism made textbooks like “A Primer for Americans: Introduction to the Principles of Being American for School Children” essential classroom tools.

But, the tools didn't stop there. The government also regulated free press, whitewashed material taught to students and restricted access to hundreds of books deemed to have pro-Communist content.

The motivation behind these initiatives, according to Eve Collyer Merritt, author of “The Extraordinary Injustice of McCarthy's America,” was to define for the American people what opinions were acceptable and unacceptable.

But, while McCarthyism's foothold in US high schools and colleges died decades ago, the precedent for censorship it set still exists and continues to impede learning.

In the past year, schools from Florida to Arizona have made headlines for their attempts to censor students and educational materials.

David Demers, a former journalism professor at Washington State University, for example, settled for $120,000 in early November in a lawsuit filed against the school, which he claimed violated his free-speech rights.

And, in Allendale, New Jersey, a school board is likely to pass a proposal, which would severely restrict the content of student publications after a local high school's newspaper ran a story about conflicts between administrators and a former superintendent.

In addition to the student unrest, backlog of coursework and removal of real world experience, these measures demonstrated another problem.

This problem, as Merritt suggested, is that administrators are selectively and narrowly deciding what information students can access, and thereby reinforce the idea that some opinions are more acceptable than others.

Simply put, some officials are trying to teach students what to think and what values to have, not how to use information to come to their own conclusions.

And, the scary thing is, there isn't much stopping them. Often, existing legislation even supports censorship, as is the case in Arizona.

A historically conservative state, Arizona has a law mandating public schools to teach students childbirth or adoption is preferable to abortion.

Consequently, the public school board in Gilbert, Arizona, voted in favor — a decision later reversed — of editing a chapter about birth control, drug-induced abortions and abstinence in the biology textbooks used in the area's high schools.

Course editing is also prominent in liberal states.

Just look at Jefferson County, Colorado, where hundreds of students walked out of their classrooms in late September to protest a county school board decision that removed all mentions of civil disobedience from Advanced Placement US curricula.

Censorship issues haven't always favored administrators and legislators, though. Several landmark Supreme Court decisions in the 1960s actually protected students’ right to free speech in school.

It wasn't until the late 1980s and cases like Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier, which concluded that administrators could regulate school-sponsored publications, that tides began to change.

The Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier ruling, coincidentally, is what allows that school board in Allendale to put in its proposal a guideline requiring all student publications to “foster a wholesome school spirit and support the best traditions of the school.”

Now, these examples shouldn't suggest that censorship is the only means through which students learn selective information.

Much like how a newspaper article has ingrained bias by what information the author chooses to include, a class has ingrained bias based on what chapters a teacher focuses on or what course guidelines state regulators set.

Nonetheless, existing laws and court decisions have had arguably the largest effect on censorship and selective learning in schools.

Precedents created in the past 20 to 30 years have set the stage for unobstructed intervention of student free speech, a trend many professionals fear is far from over.

A public records audit conducted by students at the University of Maryland earlier this year illustrates this. The audit looked at the monitoring of social media accounts for student athletes at public higher education institutions with NCAA Division I athletic programs.

It turns out 59 of the 83 schools polled, more than 70 percent, had some form of restriction on what student-athletes could post on the web.

With censorship proving to be a dynamic and powerful tool, the focus then shifts to how students and teachers can effectively combat censorship.

According to Jane Agee, author of “The Effects of Censorship on Experienced High School English Teachers,” one of the worst effects of censorship is that it silences people.

Fighting censorship, therefore, comes from speaking out against it, much like David Demers or the students and teachers in Jefferson County are doing today, and much like famous journalists and politicians did 60 years ago.

After all, McCarthyism wasn't a fad. It didn't end because censorship went out of style; it ended because enough people got tired of being told what to think and decided to take a stand.

Subscribe to Elite Daily's official newsletter, The Edge, for more stories you don't want to miss.

Jacob Bell

Jacob is a junior journalism and biology major at the University of Maryland and a content manager for Student Voice. Jacob also writes a science and tech blogger for The Diamondback, and as the features director for Stories Beneath the Shell.
Jacob is a junior journalism and biology major at the University of Maryland and a content manager for Student Voice. Jacob also writes a science and tech blogger for The Diamondback, and as the features director for Stories Beneath the Shell.

Barber Brings Vintage Haircuts To Malaysia


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Wednesday, September 17, 2014

Book Review: "Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns)" by Mindy Kaling [Birchbox Book Club August Pick]

For the purposes of this review, I'll admit, before reading this book I had no idea who Mindy Kaling was. Even when it came to name recognition, all I could muster up was that it was in someway connected to the term 'project' or 'experiment, and fell into the category of reality television (or so I assumed), information which as a general rule went directly to a lonely corner. That might not have been the wisest decision for someone who doubles as a TV critic (check out my reviews on WeGotThisCovered, but a) no one was paying me to watch/review her show, b) I have a strong distaste for reality shows, and c) I've never seen an episode of The Office (although it resonates with most of my generation) so her name and image were like a foreign language that I never had the please of  encountering before.

After reading "Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns)" penned by Mindy Kaling (who I now know is a writer from the highly acclaimed American version of The Office), I wish I had gotten on the bandwagon before it was actually a thing.

Kaling's book falls into the trendy memoir category. Oh, you haven't written one yet? Don't worry, there's still time. It's been a popular genre for a while now, but even after devouring a few dozen (some of my favorites having come from the only Purdue alumni I personally endorse, Jen Lancaster - GO IU!), I still enjoy a witty writer's take on life as long as it doesn't scream 'desperate for attention.' As a seasoned writer at this point, Kaling shares both her ups and downs in Hollywood, along with her rise to fame (err, fame-adjacent status?). Her anecdotes are mostly amusing, although there are a couple chapters that will probably only appeal to a niche group of readers - e.g. her favorite comedy moments. Now if she had listed her top ten teen drama moments, or scenes in action movies, or Twilight reference on network television, I would have been irrevocably hooked (Twilight reference intended).

[side note: I once wrote a riveting paper in grad school correlating the Disney channel and Twilight based on an unprecedented number of references spread throughout their programming]

Overall, I really enjoyed most of the chapters. I especially liked reading her take on growing up as an awkward minority on the East Coast. It had some personal appeal since I was the awkward white/Jewish girl growing up in inner-city Detroit that couldn't match but hoped desperately to blend in - which I managed to do better than my siblings, so #winning. But, there were also a lot of other things in Kaling's book that didn't hit me on a personal level (pretty much anything that didn't fall into the aforementioned categories, or relate to Los Angeles) and I still found wildly amusing in a very 'looking in from the outside' type of way.

In no particular order, here are some things that I learned from "Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns)" that I continue to find entertaining:
  • Gift bags at red carpet events that contain glitz, glamour, and galore (or anything actually worth having are a myth.
  • Steve Carell does NOT engage in idle gossip.
  • Someone will notice if you buy cupcakes four days in a row from the same designer cupcake boutique - and probably judge you.
  • Never judge a cover girl by the dress she's wearing on the cover - she might be sporting a swatch of canvas on the other side.
  • Most people it seems end up successful in Hollywood by some sort of uncanny luck.
  • Kirsten Dunst often plays the "ethereal weirdo" in romantic comedies.
  • Comedy writers are big on lists.
  • Mindy Kaling takes her selfies seriously.

You can pick up a copy of "Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns)" by Mindy Kaling here or on the Birchbox site.

Thank you very much to Birchbox for introducing me to Mindy Kaling, and very generously providing me with a copy of this book for review purposes. (And, no, they did not compensate me in any other way for this lovely review).

Stay tuned for my review of "Little Big Lies," the Birchbox Book Club September pick, which just arrived on my doorstep yesterday.


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Monday, December 29, 2008

Feeling Positive Today

Thanks to everyone who made me feel better about my low betas.  Especially militarywife who I got to meet last night for the first time.  Your positive vibes have done wonders for my psyche.  I don't know what I would do without this great community of women.  Thank you thank you thank you.

I went to a couple of different websites and they all show that my betas are adequate even though on the lower side.  So I am feeling much better about this pregnancy.  In fact as I write this I'm all crampy (which I hear is a good symptom) so I feel like that is a good sign that the baby is growing.  So  I think we'll be fine on Wednesday.  Everyone here feels good about the baby too.   We hadn't planned on announcing anything since we weren't sure.  But my Mother in law guessed that I was pregnant since I wasn't having any coffee (which is usually a staple for me).  We were sitting around chatting at the kitchen table and she was working on a sudoku puzzle.  She said "Betsy I just have to ask you something but I'm gonna write it down o.k."  So I was like what is this 9th grade.  When she scribbled  are you pregnant I was shocked.  I really didn't know how she could of guessed.  I answered maybe and explained why I wasn't too excited.  I was practically in tears but of course she was ecstatic.  She said the same thing you all said.  As long as it doubled that is good enough for her to think we are o.k.  I told her that she wasn't allowed to say anything to anyone else in the family.  But then the following day, my sister in law asked me if I was pregnant because she noticed I hadn't been drinking.  We have 3-4 types of wine on Christmas and usually I love to partake.  So I guess it was kind of obvious to anyone who paid any attention.  So we ended up telling her and my father in law.  It is killing me not to tell the grandparents though.  It would be wonderful to tell them in person.  But you guys know how it is.    Anyway I'm a little sad that we couldn't do something cute to tell them.  But there is still my parents.  They knew every last detail of the IVF stuff and are just waiting to hear from me.  I know they must be anxious.  So I will think of some cute way to tell them.  They live overseas so we have to tell them via skype.

Today is our last full day in Denver and we are going to hit the malls to see if we can get some other deals.  We are also going to my Brother in laws house to spend some quality time with our newborn nephew.  The next time we see him he'll look completely different so we wanna take in all the sweet new babyness now.  How exciting that he'll have a cousin so close in age.

Friday, December 26, 2008

Can nothing about this process be easy?

So I had beta number 2 today.  And it did double.  Thank God for that.  However my numbers are really low.  It is only 30.  That is not good.  I have a third beta scheduled for Wednesday when I get home.  But for now I'm still at my inlaws and everyone is driving me crazy because there is a newborn here and my mother in law and father in law are going gaga over our new nephew.  They have every right to.  And the kid is pretty darn cute.  But we can't announce our news because right now we still do not know if everything will be o.k.   This pregnancy at this point is not strong.  I'm praying hard that my baby decides to stick around for the long haul.  But you never know.

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Guess I'll have to change the title of this blog

Because I'm PREGNANT!!!! We found out yesterday as the on call RE called my cell phone with the news as we were headed out the door to the airport. I almost peed my pants. I tried to do a quick update from my iphone yesterday but couldn't figure out how to post. So here it is a day late. This is the best Christmas present I've ever gotten.

I have to do a second beta somewhere in Denver tomorrow. Hopefully we'll be able to find a lab corps here. Does anyone know of one?

Merry Christmas Girls and Happy Hannukah. I hope you all have a beautiful and blessed day today.

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Dear Stick and Attachy

I just wanted to let you know how happy daddy and I will be if you decided to stay with us.  We'll know tomorrow when I get my blood test and I am anxious to find out.  But deep down I feel like you are still with us.  That you are comfy cozy and growing strong.  We love you so much already.  Even it it is silly.  Even if you decided not to hang around.  We still love you.  We always will.

Sunday, December 21, 2008

My Silver Lining and 5dp5dt

So Andrea over at Bella and Her Fella gave me the Every Uterus Has a Silver Lining Award.  This award is supposed to be spread to blogs that make you smile.  I have so many that I would like to share this with.  So here are the awardees
Maria Luisa @The worms
Peachy at Peachy does IVF
Sweet Georgia at none in the oven

If you are visiting here from ICLW I highly recommend visiting the awardees.
Also for visitors I would like to give a some background and update.

I'm a fibroid survivor.  They are the main cause of my IF.  I've had 3 surgeries to remove the fibroids and scar tissues.  Now my uterus is free and clear and is hopefully housing a couple of beautiful embryos that we transferred on Tuesday via In Vitro Fertilization.  I have my beta on Wednesday.  And of course Wednesday is Christmas Eve.  And we are taking the test right before we get on a flight to visit my husbands family.  So this could be a really great Christmas or a really crummy one.   But I think it is going to happy.  I feel really positive that the baby/babies are snug and sticking around for the next 9 months.

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Step 5

So I'm sitting here a pregnant woman.  I mean, having embabies in utero =pregnant in my book.  My transfer was a success.  Two perfect blastocysts  (sticky mcstickerson and attachy) are now home.  I have a picture of them but DH took it with him when he left the clinic.  So I'll have to scan it in later to share.

So here is the low down.  I went in a met the acupuncturist for me pre-transfer treatment and as I was taking off the fertility socks
 I remembered that I hadn't filled my bladder.  Crap.  Luckily I was there early for the acupuncture so I was able to down a couple of glasses of water before acu and then one after.  This treatment was different than normal.  No needles in the belly and a few in the ears.  Those ones kind of hurt for a sec.  But I felt peaceful and my pulse was perfect after.  Then I was brought back to the transfer room and the tech attempted to find my uterus behind my quasi-full bladder.  Of course I had to drink some more.  But at least it wasn't too uncomfortable.  I waited around in the room drinking water and reading magazines.  I also whipped out my iphone and snapped this picture which makes my legs look wicked fat but, this is the view from the transfer chair.
 By the time K showed up I really started to feel the fullness of my bladder.  K had to drive in on his own since I didn't want him to have to wait for my acu treatments since he is really busy at work.  My RE was late due to a surgery and I got more and more uncomfortable as the clock ticked.  I gave up and had to pee some of it away.  The nurse told me to count to seven slowly and then stop.  Agony!
I know you don't want to read about my urine but I had to share since this was the hardest part of the day.
Of course my RE showed up just as I was leaving the bathroom.  Luckily there was still enough water in there to work with.  My RE got a clear shot of my cervix and uterus, inserted an empty practice catheter and we were good to go.  The lab worker came in and asked me my name and then how many embryos we were transferring and then went to the incubator to get them.   It was so cool seeing the real catheter go in and get in place to deliver Sticky and Attachy to their home.  K held my hand and we watched the little starry image show up on the screen.  The lab worker went to check the catheter to make sure both blasts made it out and we were so glad she did that because one was stuck in the catheter.  So we reinserted it and this time you could clearly see the little star fly into my uterus.  I wish I could have videotaped it.  My RE was so sweet.  She held my hand and wished me luck and went over all the post transfer/beta stuff with me.  Anyway, I then stayed put for 5 mins, and then K kissed me goodbye and left for a meeting.   And after peeing for about 5 minutes straight my acupuncturist came in for treatment #2.  I felt so peaceful and happy then.  I feel the same way now.

Friday, December 12, 2008

Step 4

So I had my Egg Retrieval yesterday.  Like my funky Christmas socks?
It turned out to be an emotional day.  The day started with the 40 minute drive to the headquarters of my RE clinic.  I usually go to one of the satellite offices that is about 10 minutes from my house.  Anyway, every bump and crack in the road was torture.  My ovaries were huge and oh so ready to be emptied.  Once we arrived at the RE clinic and I felt fine.  I was excited and happy to loose some of the bloat.  The nurses took K and I back to the surgery center.  It was so neat.  I was surprised to see a real surgery area hidden away in the back of the clinic.  I had always just thought that the door we went through was just another exam room.  Anyway, I changed into my gown, put on my hair net thingy, got my IV put in and as the meds started to flow the nurse reminded that my E2 was really high and that I had to watch out for hyperstimulation.  And I started to feel nauseous.  I never get nauseous.  I haven't thrown up in about 6 years.  Seriously.  Anyway I got scared and started to cry.  It was so pathetic.  I calmed down a bit and K got me to laugh about something or the other.  But then a new nurse came around to insert some antibiotics or something to the IV and started to mention the OHSS and I lost it.   I was just terrified.  My RE came over then and got me to calm down by telling me that she would be administering a special medicine to help with the fluid retention.  She always manages to calm me down. Have I mentioned how much I love my RE.

O.K. so anyway I kissed K goodbye and he went to do his part, I went to the surgery suite and asked my anesthesiologist where he got his degree and then I was out.  All I remember next is waking up in the other room and feeling o.k.  My RE came by my bed to tell me that we got 18 mature eggs, and 10 others.  So she was pleased.  And we were pleased.  They started to give me gatorade and saltines and made sure that I pee'd and then sent me on my way.

I slept the rest of the day until I was woken up by puppy Bailey.  He was so cute.  He came over to my side of the bed to check on me and decided it was crazy that I was in bed at dinner time.  So he started to bark at me like get up mom get up and play.  Of course I just stayed in bed.  So he jumped up on the bed and snuggled in next to me.  Bailey is not allowed on the bed!  He knows it and has never jumped up on the bed.  But I was so happy to have him there giving me doggie hugs that I just let him stay for a minute or two before scolding him and making him get down.

The last part of my uber exciting day was the PIO shot.  I was as scared of this as I was scared of developing OHSS.  For reals.  I have control issues and letting K stab me with a needle just isn't my thing.  But he was awesome.  And it didn't hurt at all.  He praised me for taking it like a trooper and massaged the oil in.  I was proud of him.

So that was that.  This morning my RE called me herself to inform me that 13 of my eggs fertilized.  13 embies.  13!  I'm thrilled with that number.  So now we wait to hear on Sunday whether we should come in for a 3 day transfer or whether things look good to wait for Tuesday 5 day transfer.  So today I feel happy.  More bloated.  But happy.  I am drinking only gatorade and just had a bunch of saltines.  I think I may have some miso soup for lunch.  That is salty right?

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Step 3

Trigger Shot.  I can't believe Egg Retrieval is so close. Thursday at 10:30 they go in and grab all these eggs.   It seems like just yesterday I started BCPs for all this.  ---Deep Breath---  I get more and more excited for Thursday as the day goes on.  My nurse called today with tons of instructions for what to do to prepare tomorrow night.  I have to take doxycycline and no food or drink after midnight.  We are supposed to arrive at the clinic  at 9:30 with picture i.d.s at hand.  I think the picture ID thing is funny.  But I guess it is to ensure that they mix the right sperm and eggs.  It is nice to know that they take precautions so we don't end up like some soap opera story where the woman gets inseminated with her enemy's egg that was mixed with her husbands sperm.  Yikes!  Still, bad things could happen.  What if they can't get any eggs?  What if none fertilize?  What if none divide?  I just want it to be Friday already so I know what is going on.  Better yet, can we just fast forward to beta day.

Monday, December 8, 2008

Speak out, Speak up

So Andrea at Bella and Her Fella was kind enough to give me this award for speaking up on the topic of infertility.  I am so honored to have been picked by such a great blogger.  Her journey has not been easy but she is navigating infertility like a champion.  And I know that ultimately she will win the battle.  I don't think I deserve this though.  Yes, I do talk about IF on my blog.  I do wear my infertility's common thread.  But I don't really talk about infertility.  I only just opened up about this to my immediate family.  And it is wonderful sharing with them.  My parents are just amazing.  They ask all the right questions and make me feel so supported.  And my brother cheers me on every time we talk.  However, I don't talk to my friends about this.  I sneak out of work to my appointments.  I still haven't talked to anyone in the waiting room at my RE clinic.  I don't speak out or speak up.  Not for real!  But I guess that isn't really the point.  I guess just talking about this at all (be it only online or for real) and sharing my battle in some capacity merits getting this award.  That being said I want to nominate some women who are also fighting IF and who I pray will win the battle.     I nominate  my TTTC sister Deb at Yes, I tried that too...
The Worms Inconceivable
Peachy Kate at Peachy does IVF
and Military Wife at militarywifealways

Saturday, December 6, 2008

And they just keep coming

Holy Moly.  My ovaries are on fire.  Todays count was 23 on the left and 12 on the right.  Luckily a bunch of them are the same size and the largest now are size 14.  My RE predicts that  my Embryo Retrieval will be Wednesday.  But since I have so many follies I am also producing a crap ton of estrogen.  So my E2 has been really high the past couple of days.  My RE changed up my meds (lowered the stims), and I have to go in daily for follie checks and blood draws.  This is to help ensure that I don't end up with ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome.   I'm not too scared of this because my RE seems to have things under control.  But you never know.
Today I have to add ganirelix which should help with the high estrogen levels.  And we are bumping up the stims again.  It sort of feels like I'm on a little roller coaster ride.

My husband went with me today for the scan and was amazed at my crazy big ovaries.  He kept doubting that I could really feel  anything from the follies but now believes me.  I'm so uncomfortable.  I'm really looking forward to my ER.

After the doctor appointment we went and checked out cars.  We've been arguing over what kind of car to get for over 6 months.  I like the rav4 and cx7.  I also like the outback.  My husband likes sports cars, but we already have an A4 and I really want something bigger.  But he just can't bite the bullet on a bigger car.  But now is a really good time to buy a car.  So we really feel like we have to make a decision.  Today we test drove the lexus hybrid smaller SUV.  I love it.  I don't know if my husband feels as sure about this as I do (he can never make a decision).  But I could go back and just buy that car tomorrow.  It suits our needs completely.  Lots of space in the rear for Bailey and hopefully a stroller.  Lots of leg room in the back and front.  Drives like a dream, good gas mileage, great maintenance package, and really great pricing (right now).  And I love that it is a hybrid.  I'm going to have to crack K on his hesitancy.

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

They Came

The follies that is.  At my stim check this morning my RE (she wanted to do the scan herself) found 10 on the left ovary which she was really excited about and said "I don't even care what is on the right.  This is great!!".  She did find 5-6 on the right ovary.  It felt good to see her get so excited.  So now I'm excited.  Now those follies have to just keep doing well and maturing.


text:
A Mother's Greatest Blessings Call Her Mom Embroidery Design

A Mother's Greatest Blessings Call Her Mom Embroidery Design

This product is electronically distributed.

This is such a great design for mom!  Perfect for Mother's Day or any day you want to honor mom!

Sizes: 2.5", 3", 3.5", 4", 4.5", 5", 6", 7", 8"

Sizes Included:   2.5", 3", 3.5", 4", 4.5", 5", 6", 7", 8"
Design Dimensions:    (2.5" x 2.49"), (3" x 2.99"), (3.5" x 3.48"), (4" x 3.98"), (4.5" x 4.48"), (5" x 4.98"), (6..01" x 5.98"), (7" x 6.97"), (8.01" x 7.97"
Stitch Count:    11894, 12595, 14940, 15460, 17304, 19406, 23824, 28426, 33038

While we do not offer our designs in .ART format, it has been confirmed by a Bernina representative that .EXP files can be opened and re-saved into .art format for Bernina machines to read. Again, we only offer this information as a resource for customers needing .art format. We cannot support files once they have been reformatted. Please note – these are digitized embroidery designs and monogram fonts. They are not patches that you sew on. You must have an embroidery machine to work with these files and a way to transfer the files from your computer to your embroidery machine - (usb, memory card, cd, etc.). With the monogram alphabets/fonts each letter is a separate design and you must layer or merge the designs together to create names or words. If the software that you are working with doesn't allow you to merge multiple designs together – you may need additional software to utilize these sets. We are happy to recommend software to use if needed. We DO NOT support files that have been saved into a format that is not offered and we cannot test. Designs that have been re-sized will not be supported. Re-sizing a file MAY compromise the integrity of the design. Due to the digital nature of our business, we do not offer refunds for designs received. All sales are final. If you have questions or concerns, please feel free to email us and we will work together to resolve any issues. We are the designers and manufacturers of the machine embroidery designs that we sell. All of our designs have been files with the US Copyright Office and are protected by copyright law. They may not be copied, traded, edited, shared or resold without written consent. Designs may be stitched on items for personal use or items for sale in limited quantities (75 items or less), however the actual designs files may not edited or be resold for profit. Detailed information is included with your order.

Embroidery Designs Copyright © Embroitique LLC. All rights reserved.


text:
Anthropogeography An`thro*po*ge*og"ra*phy, n. [Gr. ? man + geography.] The science of the human species as to geographical distribution and environment. Broadly, it includes industrial, commercial, and political geography, and that part of ethnology which deals with distribution and physical environment. -- {An`thro*po*ge*og"ra*pher}, n. -- {An`thro*po*ge`o*graph"ic*al}, a. [Webster 1913 Suppl.]

The Collaborative International Dictionary of English. 2000.

Look at other dictionaries:

  • anthropogeography — anthropogeographer, n. anthropogeographic /an threuh poh jee euh graf ik/, anthropogeographical, adj. /an threuh poh jee og reuh fee/, n. a branch of anthropology dealing with the geographical distribution of humankind and the relationship… …   Universalium

  • Semple, Ellen Churchill — ▪ American geographer born Jan. 8, 1863, Louisville, Ky. U.S. died May 8, 1932, West Palm Beach, Fla.       American geographer known for promoting the view that the physical environment determines human history and culture, an idea that provoked …   Universalium

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verb Etymology: origin unknown Date: 1681 intransitive verb 1. to go stealthily ; sneak 2. to evade the performance of an obligation transitive verb avoid, evade <
shirk one's duty
shirker noun

New Collegiate Dictionary. 2001.

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Shirk — (arabe شرك associé) se réfère en islam au seul péché, s il n est pas suivi d un repentir terrestre, impardonnable par Dieu. Il consiste à l association d autres dieux ou d autres êtres à Dieu, en leur accordant l honneur et l adoration qui ne… …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Shirk — Shirk, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Shirked}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Shirking}.] [Probably the same word as shark. See {Shark}, v. t.] 1. To procure by petty fraud and trickery; to obtain by mean solicitation. [1913 Webster] You that never heard the call of… …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • Shirk — * Shirk , to avoid work or other responsibilities because of laziness * Shirk (Islam), in Islam, the sin of idolatry or associating beings or things with Allah * Shirk break , a synonym for coffee break …   Wikipedia

  • shirk — [ʃə:k US ʃə:rk] v [I and T] [Date: 1600 1700; Origin: Perhaps from German schurke bad man ] to deliberately avoid doing something you should do, because you are lazy ▪ a salesman who was fired for shirking shirk your… …   Dictionary of contemporary English

  • shirk — [ ʃɜrk ] verb intransitive or transitive to avoid doing something difficult or avoid accepting responsibility for something: A good manager should never shirk difficult decisions. ╾ shirk|er noun count …   Usage of the words and phrases in modern English

  • Shirk — Shirk, v. i. 1. To live by shifts and fraud; to shark. [1913 Webster] 2. To evade an obligation; to avoid the performance of duty, as by running away. [1913 Webster] One of the cities shirked from the league. Byron. [1913 Webster] …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • Shirk — Shirk, n. One who lives by shifts and tricks; one who avoids the performance of duty or labor. [1913 Webster] …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • shirk — shirk·er; shirk; …   English syllables

  • shirk — ► VERB ▪ avoid or neglect (a duty or responsibility). DERIVATIVES shirker noun. ORIGIN from obsolete shirk «sponger», perhaps from German Schurke scoundrel …   English terms dictionary

  • shirk — I verb abstain, avoid, cheat, detrectare, dodge, duck, elude, escape from, evade, funk, ignore, keep away from, leave undone, malinger, neglect, quit, refuse, run from, shrink, shun, slink away, stay away, steer clear II index default, disobey,… …   Law dictionary

  • shirk — 1630s, to practice fraud or trickery, also a noun (1630s, now obs.) a disreputable parasite, perhaps from Ger. schurke scoundrel, rogue, knave, villain (see SHARK (Cf. shark)). Sense of evade one s work or duty first recorded 1785, originally in… …   Etymology dictionary

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Oral Surgery/trim gum to epose more tooth to hold crown

For 40 years I had a front crown over a broken off tooth. Worked good, but my teeth were never attractive.  When it came loose last time, a bit of the narrow length broke off too.  So now there is too little tooth structure to hold a new crown.  To avoid cost of a bridge and extracting adjacent teeth, DDS says may be possible to trim the gum to expose more tooth to anchor a crown.  (I do not show my top gums when I smile, so possible option).  Is this something only an oral surgeon should do, or general DDS?  Is this a bad idea, what can go wrong. Sounds scary to gut back gums.
An implant seems too costly, since would not look good as be next to crooked and chipped teeth.
Other option was a 6 tooth all porcelain bridge. But at age 62, I could never afford to replace it if it broke or gums reseded leaving a cap.  Since I clench my teeth it may not last past 5-7 years that is average. So that is why asking about an option to replace the one tooth with cutting back gum.
Thank you for reading all this.

Bob - If there are financial restrictions preventing extracting the tooth and making either a bridge or placing a dnetal implant, what your dentist proposes is the only option.  What he proposes is not a very good option, but it should be less expensive.  The problem is that with the gum cutting there is a chance of developing gum infections afterwards.

Long term results will be either a bridge or implant.

Oral Surgery

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Joel S. Teig, DMD, Diplomate ABOMS, retired

I am a board certified oral and maxillofacial surgeon available to answer questions related to tooth extractions, implant insertion, facial recontruction, facial and oral tumor removal, TMJ dysfunction and various successful treatments, including surgery if all else fails, and occlusal discrepancy requiring orthognathic or jaw surgery.

Board Certified Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon practicing for over 20 years. Assistant Clincal Professor at State University School of Dentistry.

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City of Florence Utilities - Residential Energy Efficiency Rebate Program (Alabama)

This is the approved revision of this page, as well as being the most recent.
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Last modified on May 24, 2011.

Financial Incentive Program

Place Alabama

Name City of Florence Utilities - Residential Energy Efficiency Rebate Program
Incentive Type Utility Rebate Program
Applicable Sector Residential
Eligible Technologies Water Heaters, Comprehensive Measures/Whole Building
Active Incentive No

Implementing Sector Utility
Energy Category Energy Efficiency Incentive Programs
Amount Energy efficient, new homes: 200

Electric Water Heater: 50

Equipment Requirements Energy efficient new homes: minimum HERS rating of 83

Water Heater: must be electric

Program Administrator Customer Service

References DSIRE[1]

City of Florence Utilities offers incentives for its residential customers to install new water heaters, and to build their homes to an overall efficiency standard.

Incentive Contact

Contact Name City of Florence Utilities
Department Customer Service

Address 110 W. College Street
Address 2 PO Box 98
Place Florence, Alabama
Zip/Postal Code 35631
Phone (256) 740-6055

  • Incentive and policy data are reviewed and approved by the N.C. Solar Center's DSIRE project staff.[1]

  1. 1.0 1.1  "Database of State Incentives for Renewables and Efficiency (DSIRE)"


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Current Magazine

As a Woman Claims 13-year Affair with Herman Cain, Republican Presidential Race Looks Like a Gingrich-Romney Showdown

Posted on the 29 November 2011 by Periscope @periscopepost

As a woman claims 13-year affair with Herman Cain, Republican presidential race looks like a Gingrich-Romney showdown

Herman Cain. Photo credit: Gage Skidmore,

Herman Cain’s run for the Republican presidential nomination is looking increasingly shaky after a woman came forward to claim she had a 13-year extramarital affair with the pizza magnate. Ginger White told Fox 5 Atlanta that her physical relationship with Cain ended shortly before his White House bid but that they are still friends. Cain has dismissed the allegation of an affair.

This latest claim comes after weeks of sexual harassment allegations against the presidential hopeful, all of which he has denied. One-time frontrunner Cain now trails rivals Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney in recent polls. So what does this mean for the GOP field?

Cain slipping. Even before the affair claim, Cain acknowledged that his chances of gaining the nomination were slipping, according to Brian Knowlton at The New York Times Caucus Blog, with the candidate blaming “false accusations and confusion about some of my positions” for his reversal of fortune. Joan Walsh slammed Cain at Salon for “trashing” the women who have accused him of sexual harassment on new website Cain Truth: “Cain will be sorry for his mockery; polls already show women voters turning against him,” she said.

“Here we go again. I didn’t do anything wrong,” said Herman Cain in response to Ginger White’s claim of a 13-year affair, reported The Washington Post.

Tipping point? Howard Kurtz suggested at The Daily Beast that the allegations of an extramarital relationship may prove the “tipping point” for Cain, and dismissed that Republican candidate’s claim that this sort of story isn’t relevant to his campaign. “If what White is saying is true, doesn’t it cast serious doubt on all of Cain’s other denials? And wouldn’t that, morality aside, leave him with a huge credibility gap?” asked Kurtz.

Romney needs Cain. According to Chris Cillizza on The Washington Post’s Fix Blog, the affair allegation may well be a “political death blow” for Cain – and this would hurt Romney. Cillizza argued that Romney has failed to win over large sections of Republican conservatives, and that these groups would turn to Gingrich if Cain dropped out of the race.

Romney v. Gingrich. Indeed, there are signs former House Speaker Gingrich already recognises this, as he has started speaking out against Romney, reported Ashley Killough for CNN: “Monday night marked the second time Gingrich went after Romney, having told a South Carolina radio station earlier in the day that his record was stronger and more consistent than that of his closest competitor in the race for the White House.”

GOP nomination up for grabs. Alex Altman assessed Gingrich’s chances at Time’s Swampland Blog, pointing out that the former House Speaker has nabbed an important endorsement from New Hampshire’s largest newspaper: “He has experience under pressure, a combative style that contrasts with Romney’s textbook prevent-defense campaign and an ability to present a case for his candidacy with force that others failed to muster.” But as the first Republican primary approaches, Altman said, the field remains “fluid”.

Not pleased. John LeBoutillier at Fox News was unimpressed at the prospect of a Romney-Ginrich match-up: “So the Republican race – in a year when President Obama is totally beatable — has come to this: Newt Gingrich, serial philanderer, liar, hypocrite, secret Rockefeller Republican, back-stabber and megalomaniac versus Mitt Romney, the Supreme Panderer, the man-with-no-principles, an utter phony,” he frothed.

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3 vallées liberté

Exclu web Image 3 vallées liberté 3 Vallées
Les Menuires
Abonnement 30
People number y
pass' length SEASON
Buying your ski pass, you can add the additional square snow. It is an insurance and assistance for skiing in the best conditions.http://carreneige.com

Ski all season

Your loyalty is rewarded by free days in the 3 Vallées,  follow your utilisation thanks to your internet account. Offer only available on the internet and subject to certain conditions,  this programme is aimed at people who ski between 8 and 25 non-consecutive days, during week-end and all season too. General subscription conditions on  www.skipass-st-martin-belleville.com, it has an annual cost of 30 Euros .


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Speak without fear in Honduras

On 24 June 2013, Anibal Barrow, 58, a popular anchor on Globo TV, one of Honduras's largest broadcasters, was pulled out of his car by armed men in the city of San Pedro Sula. His charred, mutilated remains were found on 10 July. Mr Barrow joined the list of 29 journalists assassinated in Honduras since 2009, interrupting a period in which the list of deaths had stabilized.

Savagery in attacks like these has profound effect not only on media community but on Honduran society as a whole. They create a climate of terror where silence becomes part of people’s survival strategy.

The journalist association of Honduras was planning to organize a round table to discuss the UN Plan of Action on the Safety of Journalists and the Issue of Impunity on 27 June but decided to cancel the activity to support the family of Mr Barrow in search efforts.

A prominent Honduran NGO “Comité por la Libre Expresión” (C-Libre) conducted debates on the UN Plan of Action as scheduled on 28 June in Tegucigalpa, even though C-Libre, too, has been following closely the investigation of Mr Barrow’s murder.

C-Libre gathered 34 media professionals including a journalist from the Globo media group where Mr Barrow worked, media directors, professional associations as well as representatives of the Secretariat of Justice and Human Rights of Honduras, the UN and international community. The debates were focused on analysis of the situation; the rule of law; safety measures and coordination mechanisms.

The round table noted that many Honduran media workers underestimate threats and minimize warning signs, instead of flagging them. In this regard, the round table recommended to develop:

  • a database of journalists and social communicators,
  • an awareness-raising media campaign on risks that journalists are facing,
  • protocols on security and media coverage, as well as mechanisms of self-protection and an “early warning system” for journalists,
  • a national platform for dialogue on freedom of expression as well as capacity-building in the area of investigative journalism, professional ethics, etc.

Participants underlined that these actions need the support of the state, civil society, agencies of international cooperation and the United Nations.

Other recommendations referred to on-going legislative initiatives, media ownership and trade union issues that have been causing controversy across media and political spectrum in Honduras. Participants of the round table agreed that differences affected the unity among journalists as regards safety issues.

Polarization of Honduran media prevents it from speaking with one voice against the killings despite the fact that the problem affects professionals across the spectrum.

UNESCO is working with partners at national, regional and international levels to keep the consultation process going about developing a unified and effective national action plan on journalist safety in which all parts of media and society put their differences aside in order to prevent further journalist assassinations from happening.


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Encyclopedia > Akan mythology

  Article Content

Akan mythology

The Akan[?] are ethnic group from western Africa.

Some of the most important mythological stories are called Anansasem[?] ("spider stories" also Nyankomsem[?] "words of a sky god"). These stories generally, but not always, revolve around Kwaku Ananse, a trickster-spider spirit.

The highest god is Brekyirihunuade[?] ("he who knows and sees everything").

See also: Akan (language)

All Wikipedia text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License

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February 10

... singer, comedian, vaudevillean (+ 1980) 1894 - Harold Macmillan, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (+ 1986) 1897 - John F. Enders[?], scientist, winner of th ...


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Encyclopedia > Opensource

  Article Content

Open source

Redirected from Opensource

Open-source computer software is software whose source code is either in the public domain or, more commonly, is copyrighted by one or more persons/entities but licensed to all according to an open source license. Such a license grants permission to use and redistribute the software, as well as to modify its source code and distribute modified versions, with at most minor restrictions (such as a requirement to preserve the authors' name and copyright statement in the code). The term open source in common usage may also refer to any software with publicly available source code, regardless of its license, but this usage provokes strong disapproval from the open source community.

Table of contents

"Open source" and "Free software"

In the strict definition, the term "open source" is distinct from "free software," and it should only be applied to software that meets the terms of the Open Source Definition (see also the Free Software Foundation's Free software definition). The decision to adopt the term "open source" was based partly on the confusion caused by the dual meaning of the word "free"; the FSF intended the word to mean "free speech, not free beer," but nevertheless, free software came to be associated with zero cost, a problem which was exacerbated by the fact that a great deal of it is, in fact, free of charge. It was hoped that the usage of the newer term "open source" would eliminate such ambiguity, and would also be easier to "market" to business users (who might mistakenly associate "free software" with anti-commercialism). Since its introduction, however, the "open source" label has been criticized for fostering an ambiguity of a different kind: that of confusing it for mere availability of the source, rather than the freedom to use, modify, and redistribute it.

The Free Software Definition is slightly more restrictive than the Open Source Definition; as a consequence of this, free software is open source, but open source software may or may not be "free." In practice, the amount of software released under a license that meets the open source definition, but which the FSF does not regard as free software, is quite small. (One of the few examples is the Apple Public Source License, which is considered open source but not free because it does not allow private modified versions.) For instance, software distributed under both the GPL and BSD licenses are considered both free and open source (the original BSD License had terms legally incompatible with the GPL, but this practical issue is a separate issue from its free-ness). Confusion about the distinctions between free and open source software is the source of some misunderstanding, particularly in the mass media, where the two are often applied interchangeably.

The open source movement

The open source movement is a large movement of programmers and other computer users to give easy access to computer software. It grew out of the Free software movement, and the line between the two is somewhat blurry. Mostly, the Free software movement is based upon political and philosophical ideals (sometimes referred as hacker culture), while open source proponents tend to focus on rather pragmatic matters. Both groups assert that this more open style of licensing allows for a superior software development process, and therefore that pursuing it is in line with rational self-interest. Free software advocates, however, would argue that "freedom" is a paramount merit that one should prefer (or at least weigh heavily) even in cases where proprietary software has some superior technical features.

Proponents of the open source development methodology claim that it is superior in a number of ways to the closed source method. Stability, reliability, and security are frequently cited as reasons to support open source. One successful application of the open source model is the Linux operating system, which is renowned for its stability and security characteristics. Among the works that explore and justify open source development is a series of works by Eric S. Raymond which includes The Cathedral and the Bazaar and Homesteading the Noosphere.

Open source advocates point out that as of the early 2000s, at least 90 percent of computer programmers are employed not to produce software for direct sale, but rather to design and customize software for other purposes, such as in-house applications. According to advocates, this statistic implies that the value of software lies primarily in its usefulness to the developer or developing organization, rather than in its potential sale value, and that consequently there is no compelling economical reason to keep source code secret from competitors.

Projects and Organizations

Companies Involved in Open Source Development

Examples of Open Source Licenses

For a more extensive list, see Open source license.

Examples of Open Source Software

For a more extensive list, see Open source software.

See also open content for non-programming open source projects.

See also: Closed source, Proprietary software, Halloween documents, Open Cola, SourceForge, GNU Savannah, Open Law project, Gift economy,

External links

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List of famous gay, lesbian or bisexual people

... of famous individuals is often subject to rumor simply because of a tabloid article. Some stars, especially those about whom rumors most often circulate, wish to maintain ...


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WATCH LIVE: Trump gives speech after primary victories

Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump is speaking to supporters after his primary victories on Tuesday.

The event is scheduled to begin at 9 p.m. Eastern.

Watch the event live in the video above.

If you haven’t checked out and liked our Facebook page, please go here and do so.

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The Bhagavad Gita is thousands of years old, yet its spiritual content holds so many of the truths of our spiritual journeys today.  A current translation of it is so powerful that just reading it will invoke deep and profound experiences of our universality.  I'm interviewing Jack Hawley, the author of "The Bhagavad Gita, A Walkthrough for Westerners".  We'll be talking about how powerful this book is and so inspirational in our everyday lives.

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The Silver Lining To Health

I think most of us are looking for an opportunity to assure us of better health. I'm interviewing Robert Scott Bell, an expert about the use and effectiveness of silver hydrosol. Few people realize how powerful this substance is to help fix many things in our system including neutralizing viruses and bacteria. It also goes after the underlying causes of autoimmune dieseases. Everyone should have a bottle of silver hydrosol in their house and they are often sold in our neighborhood health food stores. It's not the colloidal silver that some of us are familiar with. This is a more advanced form of silver.

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Rome en 2009 Ruban d' Honneur award winners
The European Business Awards have unveiled the companies and individuals selected to receive the prestigious Ruban d’Honneur in 2009.

Ninety-nine leading businesspeople and organisations made it onto the winners list, which recognises excellence and innovation in European enterprise.

read more
 Amsterdam Bank Polska Kasa Opieki SA Berlin Estonia Europe France Germany Ireland Rome Tallinn United Kingdom Warszawa Thu, 27 Nov 2008 13:06:22 +0000 Danielle Regan 800 at