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The Wombats Live @ The Loft in Lansing September 8, 2012

Band of Horses had just come through Detroit on a Tuesday and I missed them.   I just couldn’t make it.  I made a promise to myself that if a band comes through Detroit that I want to really see, I can’t let the opportunity slip.  Lo and behold, 89X plays Jump Into the Fog on August 12, 2012 and I couldn’t believe it, I had never heard The Wombats on the radio in Detroit before.  Then the DJ says The Wombats are coming to The Loft in Lansing on September 8.  Twat’s that?  Exsqueeze me?  Did you say The Wombats are going to be in Lansing September 8?

I immediately called my friend Coy because he’s always down for a good show.   Coy says he can come with me and things are looking good for a fun Saturday night.  I tell him I’ll take care of tickets.  Then after golf league and over beers, I ask Sean about Sept 8 as my backup because Sean’s always down too.  Sean has something going on that night and can’t be my backup, but he tells me that The Loft is a great place to see a show.

Coy was being coy and I had a feeling he was going to pull the chute on me.  It wasn’t long before I confirmed that Coy was indeed backing out of our plans.  This is a dilemma because I’m realizing I’m going to have to do this solo or it ain’t gonna happen.  My wife, bless her heart, said she would come with me and we could get a babysitter and all that shat, but I wasn’t going to drag her to a show that she wasn’t into.  I would not have fun if she was there against her will and if we had to move a mountain to find a babysitter.   But, because she’s the coolest wife ever, she had no problem watching the kids so I could make a solo run.  It felt super weird to go solo, and I’ve never gone to a show solo before, but I had just promised myself I wasn’t going to miss a band that I really wanted to see.  So what’s the big deal, hour drive there, watch a band, and be home by midnight-ish…  it was on like donkey kong,  I was going to Lansing to see The Wombats on a solo mission.  Schweetness.

The Loft was an endearing little venue.  Approaching The Loft on East Michigan Ave as the sun was setting was a visually pleasing little drive in from the freeway.  The State Capitol building was backlit by the sun, due west from The Loft’s entrance, and was framed with a pretty amber and blue sky.  Entering The Loft from the street, you immediately ascend a narrow 40 foot stairway which was the only entrance.  I remember thinking that this place would be a real motherfucker if there was ever a fire.  The ‘will call’ girl was at the top of the stairs.  After checking in with her, you make your way through a short hallway where there are bathrooms and then proceed into the main room which is about 100ft by 50ft.  There were brick walls with large iron framed pane glass windows all along the stage side of the rectangle room with hardwood floors.   The ceiling was about 15 feet.  Opposite the wall with the windows were two cavernous alcoves: one for serving drinks and playing billiards, and the other where they were selling tee shirts.

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David, Me, & PHP

Yesterday was a milestone event in my PHP programming career; I wrote my first PHP robot script.  It was a nerd triumph of sorts.  My friend David, who got me started on PHP about 3 years ago, once again helped me get to the next level.  He’s not really a PHP programmer per se, but he works data magic on spreadsheets and knows the PHP syntax well enough to pop data variables into PHP scripts brute force style.  We collaborated to create a straight up PHP brass tacks script that did some real work.  Which as it turns out, was a real epiphany for me.

Let me begin this story with an analogy about drywall and demolition.  When I had first set out to remodel our kitchen in our first house, I had never done drywall or demolition.  My father was an engineer, and most things we worked on together as father and son were precision in nature: rulers, pencils, straight lines, diagrams, graph paper, &c.  So I really didn’t know what I was getting into when it was time to demolish my old kitchen.  Luckily, I had my father-in-law coming over and this was his type of work, and I was about to learn from one of the best.

I woke up one spring morning and made myself breakfast in my kitchen for the last time.  My father-in-law shows up after breakfast with a couple of sledge hammers and some other tools.  He hands me one of the sledge hammers, takes a swing at a wall in my kitchen with the other and knocks the fuck out of it.  A little explosion of dust and debris came from the contact of that hammer against the wall.  That visual coupled with the loud THUD! noise made my goes wide.  I was thinking ‘what the fuck!?!? we’re just going to knock this motherfucker the fuck down!?!?’.   It was very liberating to swing that sledge hammer; it was intoxicating.  I got into a zone smashing walls, cabinets, old nasty range-tops, counter-tops, soffets, &c.  It all happened so fast.  The kitchen that I had just eaten breakfast in was gone before lunch time.  My kitchen was naked down to the studs and what used to be my kitchen was a scatter of debris in my backyard.  It was awesome.

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Arctic Monkeys in Detroit March 3, 2012

Arctic Monkeys - March 3, 2012 - Detroit - Joe Lewis ArenaA couple months back, my friend Sean tells me he’s getting tickets for Jane’s Addiction, Gomez, some other band I can’t remember, and for the Arctic Monkeys / Black Keys.  I told him I was in for sure on the Black Keys.   A couple weeks after that, I was talking to Sean again and told him I was pumped for the Black Keys coming up and I’d been listening to a lot of Arctic Monkeys as well.  He tells me “Remember I told you I never got tickets for that show”.  I had forgotten he told me that and I was bummed for a day or two and then asked him if it was still possible to get tickets.  It would be a shame to miss an opportunity to see two great bands at JLA.  Sean, as it happens, is the ticket acquisition master and within a day we had tickets on the floor.   My friend Eric also thought it would be a fun show and was able to get a ticket on the floor at the last minute too, nice.  So it was three of us, our crew was set, and we we’re on our way from northwest metro Detroit to downtown Detroit with a bunch of beers for some tailgate drinking.

When we got downtown, Sean didn’t have his ticket, he had left it on the coffee table which would be an hour & a half lost in the round trip to get it.  We had a crisis now and Sean thinks he can access a computer & printer at the Marriot.  Luckily, there are two Marriots downtown but the one in the GM building is out because the enormity of the Renaissance Center is like a giant maze from a scary movie, so we make for the one on East Jefferson.  Sean parks the car in front of the sign you see at the bottom of this post that says Private Property – NO PARKING – Violaters Will Be Towed.  When we got into the Marriot, we didn’t have a key to access the computer room.  We were able to find someone nice enough to let us in and within a minute, Sean was on stub-hub printing himself a new ticket.  Car is still there, we’re back in, on our way, crisis averted.

Every time I visit downtown I’m held in awe of the the beautiful buildings that reign from the 1920’s.  I had been snapping so many pictures it caused Sean to ask me if I had ever seen the inside of the Gaurdian Building.  I told him no.  I told him I felt like a tourist in my home town.  He said it was worth illegally parking one more time, which he did, and I ran inside to snap some more pictures that are attached at the bottom of this post.  The building is magnificent.   Detroit was once the Paris of the world and amidst so much decay you sometimes forget how beautiful some of its gems truly are; you’re for a moment caught awestruck at her marvel and beauty.  But we gotta get moving and get to the show.

We park at the structure by Cobo Joe’s on Congress to carb up which is a sweet place for a show at JLA because the elevator takes you straight down to the bar.  It’s awesome because you can basically take the elevator back to your car very easily when you leave the bar to attend to any last minute things you need to do.   That $10 parking pass is almost like having a sweet tailgating spot right next to Cobo Hall with an elevator to Cobo Joe’s doorstep.  So we eat, we leave the bar, quick trip back up to the car, and this is the kicker with regard to that parking location:  you can walk inside through Cobo Hall all the way to the river front when it’s butt-ass freezing outside.  You only have to walk one short block outside to JLA if you cut through Cobo Hall.  It’s the smart thing to do when visiting Joe Louis Arena.  It works for Red Wings games too.

Arctic Monkeys:

So we were a little behind schedule because of the ticket situation and a couple photo ops but we had built in enough cushion time to not miss any of the show.  We had to find the wrist-band chick so we could get our wrist-bands to get on the floor, grab another beer, and we were off.   We were watching center stage when I took this video of Suck It and See:

It’s a shame the audio quality was so poor on the video.  I charged up my old iphone 3GS for taking some vids and got some footage, but the audio was poor.  But, I still actually think the footage is decent and entertaining so I have watched it all a few times now.  The footage above is part of the song titled Suck It and See.  It sounded a lot better live, trust me.  These guys are in the pocket.   They have been jamming for a long time.  I remember when they were first introduced in the US, or when I first saw them anyway, was after the release of Whatever People Say I am, That’s What I’m Not.  It was MTV that was running the Arctic Monkeys hard.  If I’m remembering correctly, MTV was playing 24/7 footage of Arctic Monkeys in concert.  I remember them rocking pretty good back then, but MTV was over the top with the 24/7 shit and it ended up being good and bad for the band’s PR at the same time.  It’s like you’re getting sweet coverage, but by repeating it so much people resent the over-coverage and you take some downside because people feel force fed… corporations…  But, that was a long time ago anyway, and, like good bands do, they have persevered and continued to produce good music and sound/perform well live.  Here’s the tail end part of Suck It And See and the beginning of Library Pictures:

This next bit of footage still has poor audio but it’s by far my best footage of the Arctic Monkeys on the evening and it grew on me a little more after I watched it a couple times:

Because of the old beat up iphone 3GS, the sound quality is lacking, but if you were there live in JLA, it sounded really good.  In this video there is a little intro before RU Mine and then the lead singer, Alex Turner, gives a shout out to the drummer, Matt Helders, as the Rhythm Panther and exclaims “we know you love drummers Detroit” which is totally true.  And Matt Helders did steal the show a little.  He came out in American Flag pants and he totally rocked.  He reminded me of someone who would play middle linebacker or strong safety in football.  They were playing RU Mine for the first time live I think and it all sounded good.  At this point in the Arctic Monkeys setlist, from about RU Mine forward, the crowd was into it.  The crowd had still been filing in for the first couple of songs, but by the time they got to RU Mine it was pretty much a packed house and people had established their positions for the night.   Their next song was Brick by Brick and they still had This House Is A Circus, Still Take You Home, and When The Sun Goes Down left to play.  I think the setlist was well structured to bring out some big gun songs after we achieved the full weight of a packed JLA audience.

Overall, I would have to say Arctic Monkeys were awesome and I’m really glad they came to Detroit.  I’m thankful I was able to see this band live as I have liked their music over the past decade.  Their songs are pretty well interspersed in my Pandora stations and I find them to be very solid.  It’s a shame the 3GS had such shitty audio quality.  I still think my vid clip of RU Mine and Brick by Brick is a solid keeper and was my best Arctic Monkeys clip of the night.  I would have to say they rocked it and the crowd loved them.   It’s always nice when a band can bring it in the city of truth, because if you suck, you will get your shit handed to you.  The whole city of Detroit can be like the Apollo theater sometimes and it was nice to see everybody rockin.

Below are some pictures of the old train depot from the movie Transfomers, the inside of the Guardian Building, and some shots from the streets of Detroit.  Even with all the splendor of that beautiful Guardian Building, the picture of the old brown Cadillac with low tire pressure is one of my favorites.  The picture of the Renaissance Center with the moon is pretty cool too.  Another footnote is that I saw a picture of a couple of the guys from Arctic Monkeys with a Cadillac CTS-V that looked somehow connected to General Motors and that’s a sweet ride.  My friend Jeff has a Cadillac CTS-V and they’re super fast.

I’ll put the photos up later – come back and check them out later.  I also will try to write a quick post for Black Keys.  They were awesome.  I have some 4GS video of them and it’s better than 3GS video.

WordPress Blackbelt

I’m bestowing upon myself the rank of WordPress Blackbelt.  A couple years ago, I wrote a post about how to copy your WordPress installation from your internet server to your localhost server.  I was new to WordPress and had trouble with the simplest things.  A lot of people have posts and help on the internet, but when you’re new web development and you’re stuck on something – and I mean really stuck, and there’s no one to turn to, you have two choices: you can give up or you can persevere.  I keep choosing to persevere and I’m glad.  It has made me so much stronger and has given me so much confidence.

Two years later, I still have a lot to learn.   But, I have the basics down and I can survive in this jungle they call the internet.  I fear no hacker.  Two years ago, when someone said HTML, I said gesundheit.  Today I can tell you how to launch a WordPress site with secure table prefixing, protect your wp-config file with htaccess, firewall your site from malicious hackers, sniff out base64 injection hacks and find the IP address of the motherfucker who tried to jack you and block his ass.  I can tell you how to block proxy access from malbots that come to steal my shit and put them on the blacklist until they come back on their knees with an apology.  I feel like finally I can survive in this jungle of web development.

Even if you can get through my black belt defenses, I can re-spawn in under a half hour like a I didn’t miss a beat.  I can’t tell you what confidence that gives me.  It makes me feel so good to be writing this post [that no one will ever probably read].  It makes me feel like I can put some teeth behind my testament to a future client that your code is safe with me.

I got into this web development thing with one site in mind:  For two years, I’ve struggled to learn the most basic foundations of knowledge in PHP, MySQL, HTML, CSS, Apache Server / htaccess, Javascript, and WordPress.  I’ve been hacked via my ftp connection because someone hacked Comcast and sniffed out my ftp username and password.  I’ve been PHP injected into my own weak PHP code because of my weak SQL $_POST sanitzation skills.  I’ve had my WordPress installation compromised because I didn’t know how to lock down my wp-config and wp-admin/installation.php pages.  Each time I was proverbially knocked to the ground with no hand reaching down to me to help me back up.  But, I got back up.  I got back up a little stronger than I was before.

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Persian Letter Series: Letter 117 – Usbek to Rhedi, at Venice

This is the twenty first post in a series of posts examining excerpts from Charles Montesquieu’s book Persian Letters. Each post in this series examines a selected excerpt for study and discussion. The following is an excerpt from Letter 117:

Protestant countries ought to be, and are in reality, more populous than Catholic ones.  It follows, first, that revenue from taxes is higher, because it increases proportionately to the number of taxpayers; second that the land is better cultivated; third, that business is in a more flourishing state, because there are more people with their fortunes to make, and because, although their needs are greater, there are also more resources.  When the number of people is only enough for the cultivation of the land, trade inevitably collapses, and when there are only enough for the maintenance of trade, agriculture is inevitably ruined; which means that both decay together, since a man cannot engage in one except at the expense of another.

As for the Catholic countries, not only has agriculture been abandoned, but industriousness itself is harmful: it consists only in learning five or six words of a dead language.  As soon as a man has equipped himself in this way, he no longer needs to trouble about his career; in a monastery, he can have a quiet life which he would have sweated and labored to achieve in the outside world.

This is not all.  The dervishes have almost all the wealth of the nation in their hands.  They form a society of miser, constantly acquiring and never giving  back; they accumulate income all the time so as to build up capital.  All this wealth becomes paralyzed; it no longer circulates, and there is no more commercial, cultural or industrial activity.

There is not a single Protestant ruler who does not raise more taxes from his people than the pope from his subjects; yet the latter are poor, while the former live in opulence.  With them, commerce brings everything to life, while with the others monasticism carries death with it everywhere.

Comments on the excerpt above:

Montesquieu uses Catholicism and Protestantism to draw contrast between two starkly different socio-economic groups existing in 1718; roughly 200 years after the Reformation had begun.  At first glance, it might seem the author is implying religion itself is the sole reason for these socio-economic differences.  This is not, however, entirely true.  Montesquieu was the first to use structuralism, comparative models, and ideal types in his sociological analysis.  This means that he’s always making comparisons between things by taking *all things* into account.  A true sociologist, anthropologist, or economist will never look at things in black in white, he’ll try to, holistically, see *all things* in their full color and take into account the entire complexity of the situation.  Also, Montesquieu was a Catholic and he married a Protestant, so please don’t incorrectly assume he’s picking on Catholicism; he’s just making honest and objective observations of the world around him.

The reason one society has a flourishing economy and one society is failing has religion only as one component of a bigger equation.  The Catholic Church is not necessarily at fault for the socio-economic decay across their demesne, but the socio-economic dynamic across the Catholic demesne around the Mediterranean countries (Southern France, Spain, and Italy) does offer a well defined example of what happens when the society’s wealth is trapped by a few misers in power.  The bishops and deacons of the church had acquired such a disproportionate amount of wealth and power over the last fifteen centuries they had become corrupt.  The corruption of their actions was harder and harder to conceal.

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Persian Letter Series: Letter 115 – Usbek to Rhedi, at Venice

This is the twentieth post in a series of posts examining excerpts from Charles Montesquieu’s book Persian Letters. Each post in this series examines a selected excerpt for study and discussion. The following is an excerpt from Letter 115:

It was not the same with the Romans.  The republic used its slave population to incalculable advantage.  Each slave was given an allowance, which he had on the conditions imposed by his master:  he used it to work with, taking up whatever his own abilities suggested.  One would go in for banking, another for shipping, one became a retailer, another applied himself to a technical trade, or farmed out lands and improved them; but there was no one who failed to do everything he could to make a profit from his allowance, which both made him comfortable while he remained a slave, and assured him of freedom in the future: this made for a hard-working population and stimulated industrial and technical skills.

These slaves, who had become rich by hard work and application, were made freemen and became citizens.  The republic constantly renewed itself, allowing new families in as the old ones were destroyed.

In the following letters I shall perhaps take the opportunity to prove to you that the more men there are in a state, the more trade flourishes; the two things are interdependent and provide mutual stimulus.

If this is so, how great an increase there was bound to be in this huge number of slaves, always working hard!  Industriousness and affluence produced them, and they in turn produced affluence and industriousness.

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British East India Company FlagSlavery comes in many forms and invokes an array of thoughts amongst different people.  If you asked 100 people in America about their thoughts on slavery, you’d probably get 100 different accounts of what it means to them.  Many people in America might tell you about the British East India Company or the Dutch West India Company that were responsible for most of the slaves brought to North America, Central America, the Caribbean Islands, and South America because that’s what Americans relate to with regard to our geographic location and our short 235 year history as a nation.

Slavery, however, has been around since before recorded history began, is alive today, and probably will continue to exist into the future as we can see it.  Worldwide, there are more slaves today in 2011 than there have ever been in recorded history.  By percentage of people, slavery has diminished, but by sheer numbers, there are more slaves in the world today.  This post is not written to argue which slaves from what time period had it worse, its purpose is to talk about the economics of slavery and the morality of man.   In the passage above, Montesquieu is setting up for an entire discourse on the ills of slavery and this passage sets up his argument that men should be free from slavery for a healthier economy by way of a healthy society.

This particular Montesquieu excerpt brings to mind a movie called The Matrix which was written by Larry and Andy Wachowski.  Authors like the Wachowski brothers and Philip K. Dick are extraordinary presenters on the dynamics of human societies.  They are right brain artist/creative types and even though many people would not think of them as economists, their interpretations of socio-economic dynamics are absolutely fascinating regarding the interconnectivity between society and economy and the whole spectrum of variables between the two that affect one another.  The reason the machines in the movie created the Matrix was to give the people a purpose and a fabricated sense of freedom to choose their own destiny, which in turn kept the entire population working and prospering.  Whether you’d say these slaves had it bad off is a moral judgement that is moot to the machines, because to them, their system worked.  The working class of people, if happy and free, turned their labor into more prosperity for the society which is exactly what the machines wanted.  The people were only slaves depending on your frame of reference; in their own minds they were free.  Win win?

In The Matrix, there’s a scene where the protagonist is told that unbeknownst to him (at the 2:37 mark in the clip above) he’d been born into indentured servitude.   He had thought he was a free man through his entire life, but in reality he was nothing of the sort.  Not to go into too much detail about the movie here, but the point is that even though the protagonist was living what he thought was a normal life, he was slave.  He felt free: he had a name, he had a job, he earned money, and he lived his life to the best of his ability.  The society he lived in was functioning but there was a general malaise on the society and his psyche and he just couldn’t articulate what it was.

In this excerpt from letter #115, the slave wage Montesquieu’s referring to was called: peculium.  In Roman law, peculium was the master’s property, but used by the slave for his own enterprises; which were sometimes on a large scale.  So even though the slave operated in the society with capitalistic intentions, he was not even close to being part of the ruling class; and in fact never could be.  This interesting paradox can be confounding to tea-partiers, anti-capitalists, and conspiracy theorists alike; because, it is pretty easy to draw a parallel between the Roman slave class and the American middle class in that you’re free to make your own decisions on how to use your peculium as long as you bust your ass servicing your debt and the nation’s debt.  And, by the time you’re done paying off your debts, you’ll be free too.  But, you’re also a lot older and the most vibrant years of your life have passed you by.  It’s confounding to some when they come to realize they’ve been born into a caste that doesn’t have it as easy as another.  And, the only way to advance their caste is through the value creation that labor and ingenuity, the mother and father of wealth, can produce.

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Persian Letter Series: Letter 107 – Rica to Ibben, at Smyrna

This is the nineteenth post in a series of posts examining excerpts from Charles Montesquieu’s book Persian Letters. Each post in this series examines a selected excerpt for study and discussion. The following is an excerpt from Letter 107:

They say it is impossible to tell the character of Western kings until they have been subjected to two great ordeals, their mistress and their confessor.  It will not be long before we see both of them hard at work to seize control of the king’s mind; it will be a mighty struggle.  For under a young prince, these two powers are always rivals, though they are reconciled and join forces under an old one.  Under a young prince, the dervish has a hard time maintaining his position; the king’s strength is his weakness, while his adversary’s triumphs come from his strength and his weakness as well.

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The Two Towers - Wormtongue and KingTheoden

Louis XIV had ruled France with a firm belief in the divine right of kings.  As I write this today, Libya has just ousted Muammar Gadaffi after 42 years of rule and he’s most likely hiding like a rat in Surt, or somewhere between Tripoli and Benghazi awaiting exile or death.  Being 39, I have not seen any other leader of Libya in my life time.  By contrast, Louis XIV, ruled France for over 70 years!  His run as monarch is the longest ever recorded by a Western king.  Montesquieu had lived his entire life while France was under the rule of Louis XIV and would have known France in no other way than under the absolute rule of Louis XIV.

Louis XV, heir to the throne, was 5 years old when Loius XIV died and was 7 years old when this letter was written; his health was of concern.  Louis XV had no heir.  If he was to die, the possibility of war breaking out was very real.  This led to international intrigue and the Cellamare Conspiracy.  This is when this letter was written and it was a tumultuous time to be living in France.

When a seven year old boy is the ruler of the sovereign, there is always jockeying for power amongst the noble class of adults.  Humans covet power by nature and easily silence the voices of virtue and reason within themselves to obtain it.  Montesquieu, being a polymath and student of history, had seen this a thousand times in his studies.  It’s true that history is the best teacher when studying the human species; Montesquieu knew this and applied it with this passage.

I’m reminded of a couple things by this letter excerpt and the first is the Reverend Thomas Robert Malthus.  Malthus wrote the book Essay on the Principle of Population (published 1798 – 1826), which is a book you can read for free at  I hate to boil down a great thinkers’ thesis to a couple words or a catch phrase, but I happen to know a very wise friend who described Malthus’ thesis as this:  people are going to fuck.   The desire to procreate which leads to sexual intercourse is within the human species’ DNA and Malthus knew this.  My friend boiling down Malthus’ thesis to this one crude sentence should not detract from the brilliance of the man’s writings.  It is what it is and the truth is the truth; whether it would make you blush or snicker is irrelevant.

Another great writer that comes to mind regarding this excerpt is J.R.R. Tolkien.  Tolkien’s literature on man’s weakness toward coveting power is classic.  One of Tolkien’s characters in the book The Lord of the Rings was Wormtongue.  Wormtongue, if you didn’t know, was basically the regent to a king that had been put under a spell by a wizard.  The king would do whatever Wormtongue whispered into his ear.  There are so many countless examples of this consultant & king relationship in history that can be considered a metaphor for both Montesquieu and Tolkien to draw from and paint their ever so elegant prose.  Montesquieu has a way of putting this truth so succinctly as he anticipated it in France.  He’s not the first one to think of this or the last to think that he’s thought of it, he was just so skilled at seeing it and summing it up for us.

A young heir would be preyed upon through his formative years by both women and men competing for their share of the power they coveted so much.  Each would use every weapon in their arsenal to seize it.  The men would kiss ass and appeal to the king’s reason for their share of power and use every other advantage they could muster to compete for it.  And, the women would use the powerful influence of their sensuality and sexual allure to seduce the king’s attention in their direction just the same.  Eventually, a young king will select one top man and one top woman into his most intimate consul.  As Montesquieu says, a young king’s physical strength undermines the dervish’s position as his desire for the vagina makes the dervish more irrelevant.  The woman benefits from the king’s strength and weakness simultaneously.  I think Montesquieu was correct; the woman has the advantage in the battle for control of a young king’s mind.

And, although as Montesquieu points out, both the dervish and the mistress would reconcile forces under an older king, the powerful influence a woman holds over a man can always be considered the greatest regardless of a man’s age and should never be underestimated.

“In October 1838… I happened to read for amusement Malthus on Population… it at once struck me that under these circumstances favourable variations would tend to be preserved, and unfavourable ones to be destroyed. The result of this would be the formation of new species.”

— Nora Barlow 1958. The autobiography of Charles Darwin. p128

I think I may fairly make two postulata.

First, That food is necessary to the existence of man.

Secondly, That the passion between the sexes is necessary and will remain nearly in its present state.

These two laws, ever since we have had any knowledge of mankind, appear to have been fixed laws of our nature, and, as we have not hitherto seen any alteration in them, we have no right to conclude that they will ever cease to be what they now are, without an immediate act of power in that Being who first arranged the system of the universe, and for the advantage of his creatures, still executes, according to fixed laws, all its various operations.

— Reverend Thomas Robert Malthus, Essay on the Principle of Population

Persian Letter Series: Letter 98 – Usbek to Ibben, at Smyrna

This is the eighteenth post in a series of posts examining excerpts from Charles Montesquieu’s book Persian Letters. Each post in this series examines a selected excerpt for study and discussion. The following is an excerpt from Letter 98:

I find, Ibben, that Providence is to be admired for the manner in which it shares out wealth: if it had been granted only to good people, it would not have been possible to differentiate clearly enough between it and virtue, and its worthlessness would not have been fully appreciated.  But when you consider which people have accumulated the largest amounts of it, you come at last, through despising rich men, to despise riches.

Comments on the excerpt above:

Montesquieu's Château de la BrèdeI find this quote very insightful but must qualify it:  the Baron lived in a castle surrounded by a moat which was surrounded by acres of lush garden.  It’s a little easier to say this when you have nothing to worry about as far as financial concerns.  This does not make the statement less profound in that wealth comes not solely from material riches;  there is great wealth in a man’s virtue.  How could a man come to this thought if he truly did not own it?  Let’s face it, Montesquieu is one of the greatest sociological thinkers of all time.  The society and the economy are so interwoven, they’re like a Siamese twins that cannot be separated from each other without both of them dying.  Siamese twins is the best analogy I can think of for the complexities of society and economy living together as one being sharing the same organs.  It’s important to never think of society or economy in separate terms or in terms of black and white.  There are whole spectrums of color that overlap and connect to form one socio-economic science.

Let’s dig into this quote to see how Montesquieu can deliver so much information in so few words.  Since the beginning of time man has struggled to understand the complex degrees of morality and materiality.  Where does an increase in one encroach upon the other?  If you want heat, you need a furnace.  That’s not asking for more than you deserve because you cannot survive without heat, right?  Are you asking too much if you want a furnace?  Is that an immoral request made out of materiality?  I don’t think so.  This is reasonable.  But, when does your desire for a material possession in your life approach prodigality or avarice?  This is a question that is not so black and white. What is acceptable to the people in your sovereign, at your geo-coordinates, in your climate, in your season might not be acceptable elsewhere.

Here’s the point of the excerpt:  the distribution of richness in virtue is irrespective to the caste of the citizen.  In other words, it doesn’t matter if you’re born with a silver spoon in your mouth or you’re born into the proletariat, your chances of being a greedy asshole are just the same.  There are rich assholes and there are poor assholes.  And vice versa, by being born poor in material wealth does not mean that you cannot be endowed with a richness of virtue which is what truly creates wealth for your society.  In fact, wealth without virtue leads the society to poverty, and virtue irrespective of current wealth leads the society to future wealth.

Montesquieu is further singling out the most despicable kind of asshole:  the guy who just wants more when he stopped needing more a long time ago.  The guy that has so much in his material possession that he can’t possibly make use of all he has acquired, but he still wants more.  And through his increased power on the sovereign, he influences the law to inflict increasing hurt on castes beneath him in order to propel his own personal gain further.  When a guy has twelve houses, and can only live in one, he is paralyzing wealth that could be put to the good of society if it were employed.  What means naught to the miser, could employ two, or three, or four families potentially.  Whenever capital is paralyzed for whatever the reason, the two biggest reasons being greed and ignorance, it is to the bane of the economy and society.  This is an example of why the society and the economy are so intertwined.

The opportunity cost of the miser paralyzing wealth out of greed creates a loss of wealth to the miser’s own surrounding society even though he feels richer through his short sighted prism of avarice.  The miser is hurting his own society and his own wealth because of his greed.  He would actually be more wealthy if he could increase his empathy for his fellow man and release into society that wealth which could help others more than himself.  His return on investment is much higher when the people in the society are happier.  But, his greed blinds him into wanting more.  He turns a blind eye to the suffering of the people in his own country and isolates himself further by building fenced in communities, and attending only private institutions for his caste.  He loses sight of his fellow man and perhaps will never understand that his empathy could raise the tide for all boats including his own when it comes to virtue.  And that’s why virtue causes you to despise material wealth.

If the law of the sovereign cannot separate power from those who lack virtue, the law has failed the republic.  This is a tricky thing to accomplish and requires ingenuity of the law and diligence from the people.  The people in the society must educate themselves and read the legislation and demand to know who wrote it and demand it in human readable form.  If a lobby holds sway over the legislation stronger than the will of the people, virtue has been dealt a death blow and the republic cannot last.  If the society is indolent or ignorant to the point that the laws produced by the society do not seek to separate power from those who lack virtue, the society is on its way toward economic collapse just the same.  In simpler terms:  if greed wins, society loses, regardless of the ‘ism’ used to label the society.

Here are a couple of links to some spectacular photos of Montesquieu’s Château de la Brède:

World’s best photo’s of Montesquieu’s estate

Great aerial shot of Montesquieu’s chateau

Persian Letter Series: Letter 96 – The First Eunuch to Usbek, at Paris

This is the seventeenth post in a series of posts examining excerpts from Charles Montesquieu’s book Persian Letters. Each post in this series examines a selected excerpt for study and discussion. The following is an excerpt from Letter 96:

I am a connoisseur of women, the more so because they cannot catch me off my guard.  With me, the impulses of the emotions do not distract the eye.

I have never seen beauty so regular and perfect.  The brilliance of her eyes brings her face to life, and enhances the quality of a complexion which could eclipse all the splendours of Circassia.

Comments on the excerpt above:

Félix Auguste Clément (French, 1826-1888) – A Circassian Woman in the HaremWhat man has not thought he possesses the same skill as a eunuch in judging the beauty of a woman?  Who doesn’t love beautiful women?  Who doesn’t love their hair, their eyes, their fragrance, et al.  What guy wouldn’t want a whole harem of beautiful women to come home to and a first eunuch working hard to find more beautiful women while he was away?  I am, however, going to plead the 5th here before I say anything too incriminating with regard to my marriage and suffice it to say:  I love my wife and she is the most beautiful woman in the world.

It was, on another note, surprising to read Montesquieu’s perceptions of a eunuch’s thoughts.  Because eunuchs are so far removed from Western culture in 2011, the ignorant image I had in my head was quite different than Montesquieu’s perception.

Somehow, when you think of a man who has had his testicles removed, you think somehow that he’d be weak or not truly a man.  But if you compare a man to a dog and think of dogs that are with testicles and those that are neutered, you can perhaps more easily relate to the difference in their behavior.  It’s the closest analogy I can think of.  A dog that has his testicles is almost too aggressive and ornery if he doesn’t have the freedom to seek females.  Yet a neutered dog is not so preoccupied with those things that get him into trouble.  As humans, we fall in love with the dog whether he’s neutered or not, but the neutered dog seems to be much less trouble.  I’ve never met a eunuch, but maybe we’re not that much different than dogs in this regard.

Maybe this is where the saying comes from that males have a big brain and a little brain.  Sometimes, the little brain clouds the judgement of the big brain.  In a way, maybe we men would get in a lot less trouble if we were all neutered.

Ok, I don’t think there’s any way to cover this topic without getting in trouble with my words.  I wanted to talk about women and how much I enjoy the many shapes, sizes, eye colors, and hairdos they have, but there is no way for a married man to talk about the beauty of other women without finding trouble.  Read the book and you will find the letters from eunuchs and all the rest very interesting I’m sure.

Persian Letter Series: Letter 95 – Usbek to Rhedi, at Venice

This is the sixteenth post in a series of posts examining excerpts from Charles Montesquieu’s book Persian Letters. Each post in this series examines a selected excerpt for study and discussion. The following is an excerpt from Letter 95:

There are only two cases in which a war is just:  first, in order to resist the aggression of an enemy, and second, in order to help an ally who has been attacked.

…Conquest itself confers no rights.  If the population survives, conquest provides assurance that peace will be maintained and that amends will be made for the wrong that had been committed; and if the population is destroyed, or scattered, it is a monument to tyranny.

Men regard peace treaties with such veneration that they might almost be the voice of nature claiming its rights.  They are all in accordance with law if their provisions permit both nations to continue in existence; if not, the one which is threatened with extinction may try, since it is deprived of its natural defence by a treaty of peace, to defend itself in war.

For nature, which has established the different degrees of power and weakness among men, has also often made the weak equal to the powerful through the strength of their despair.

This, Rhedi, is what I call international law; this is the law of nations, or rather of reason.

Comments on the excerpt above:

Aristotle and his student, Plato.This is an example of a prelude to Of the Spirit of Laws.  The only laws written by men that can truly describe natural law are those written mathematically that can be proven mathematically.  Only a great advance in mathematics or physics can trickle itself down to advances in manmade common law or societal law.  Montesquieu, whose time followed the mathematical advances put forth by Newton, was able to make an advance in social science in Newton’s wake.  People like Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein only come around every century or two. They allow us to contemplate their mathematical genius and subsequently make a true step forward in social science.  For in the 18th century, it was reason and common sense that was used to fight tyranny and give birth to the United States of America.  The suffering of the people of France under the tyranny of Louis XIV gave a common purpose to the people to band together and use reason to fight tyranny in that country as well.  It was these free thinkers in the age of reason that helped the religiously persecuted people escape to America in the hopes that they could have freedom of religion.   This is why France and the United States were such strong allies in the latter part of the 18th century.

While I don’t agree with Karl Marx’s communistic solution to capitalism, it is certainly hard to see anything but genius in his case by case examples of the conflicts between the bourgeois and the proletariat.  As Montesquieu said, nature has established the different degrees of power amongst men.  As Marx has said, those differences among men that allow power to concentrate in the hands of the few are eventually undone by the proletariat’s loss of hope.  When a man is stripped of his natural human rights by the tyranny of other men, he has nothing to lose.  When he has nothing to lose and he is in the majority of the population, he will look to his fellow citizens for support and they will band together.  Together, they will always overcome the injustice of the ignoble men in power; even though the process may take generations.  I don’t believe anyone could argue Marx’s take on the bourgeois versus the proletariat in this regard.  This is how countries fracture into civil war.  This is how multiple countries that are oppressed by one country band together to fight the ignoble.

A good example of what I’m talking about today is Syria.  Today is August 14, 2011.  Damascus, which was once the intellectual capital of the world, has been oppressed by the Assad family for so many years.  The people of Syria have zero hope that they can live free from the tyranny of the Assad family.  When you’ve got nothing, you’ve got nothing to lose.  Why not give your life to fight for the cause of your freedom from tyranny?   This is nature at work, it’s happened again and again throughout the course of history; regardless of the ‘ism’ you may try to attach at the end of your description of the society.

We have had time to contemplate the mathematical leap forward that Einstein has given us.  What have we learned?  How have we moved forward?  Perhaps an advance will come one day to our kind that will give us the grace to relegate war to antiquity.  Simply, we need to understand when the natural separation of power amongst men has run amok and power has concentrated amongst too small a percentage of the population.  The key to this, I believe, is to follow the tenets of Montesquieu’s teachings and always look to separate power.  Man’s natural tendency is to covet power.  It is up to the law to separate power so that no one man or small group of men can have too much power.  Remember what Lord Acton taught us:  power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.   And, we all know, corruption in the highest halls of the sovereign leads to rebellion, revolt, and destruction of the republic.

. . . and further, it is part [of the nature of tyranny] to strive to see that all the affairs of the tyrant are secret, but that nothing is kept hidden of what any subject says or does, rather everywhere he will be spied upon . . . . Also it is part of these tyrannical measures to impoverish the nation so as to bolster the funds available for military defense, and so that the common citizens will be occupied with earning their livelihood and will have neither leisure nor opportunity to engage in conspiratorial acts . . . . Thus, the tyrant is inclined constantly to foment wars in order to preserve his own monopoly of power.

Aristotle, Politics bk v, xi (350 BCE)


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Pyrrolic licks them!

May 16, 2013

The stable's great strike rate with juveniles continued at Sandown on Wednesday when promising colt Pyrrolic recorded a convincing debut victory.

Always travelling well for Glen Boss, the home-bred for Dr Gregory Anderson put on display an excellent turn of foot to race away to an exciting three length win in the 1200m Catanach’s Jewellers Plate.

"He's a nice horse who I thought would run well," Michael Kent said, adding that he was concerned that the colt's "exuberance" would prove a hindrance.

"I was just hoping he would settle and he did - Glen got him into a lovely spot and he was never going to get beaten."

A pre-race trip to Sandown helped Pyrrolic Kent said - "he's been here and worked very well."

"I think he's a nice horse," he continued, "and he has improvement in him - he's very raw at the moment."

Due to head straight to the paddock in preparation for a spring campaign, Pyrrolic is a son of Teofilo of whom Kent is a fan - laying down $250,000 for one of his sons at the Melbourne Premier Sale a few months ago.

"I love the sire," he said. "I've bought a few of them and I think they all go well."

The second foal of the lightly raced Geelong winner Guillem, a Jeune mare also bred and raced by Dr Anderson, Pyrrolic is the third two-year-old from the stable to race this season - the others being Blue Diamond placegetter Godiva Rock and exciting filly The Huntress.

Guillem is a half-sister to Pyrrolic's stablemate McNulty who showed good staying promise during his recent campaign - finishing second in the VRC St Leger.


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McSilver Institute Celebrates Fifth Annual McSilver Awards

PUBLISHED ON June 6, 2017

Photo of Honorees

On Monday, May 22nd the McSilver Institute sponsored the fifth annual McSilver Awards, which recognized 5 extraordinary leaders transforming systems to tackle issues of structural poverty and oppression. The event was held at the NYU School of Law, Vanderbilt Hall, and marked the first McSilver Awards under the leadership of its new Director Dr. Michael A. Lindsey. The event was sponsored by The New York Women’s Foundation, Ghetto Film School, NYU School of Dentistry, the Clark-Fox Policy Institute, Beacon Health Options, Government Affairs and Community Engagement at NYU, New York Association of Psychiatric Rehabilitations Services and The Institute for Community Living.

In his opening remarks, Dr. Lindsey praised this year’s honorees as leaders of the resistance working to strengthen individuals and communities impacted by poverty through education, empowerment, and philanthropy. NYU Silver School of Social Work Interim Dean Dr. James Jaccard and NYU Trustee and McSilver Institute Founder Constance Silver also provided greetings and opening remarks. Special guests included: NYU Vice Provost Cybele Raver, NYU Trustee Phyllis Barasch, Taina Bien-Aimée, Marjorie Cadogan, Flores Forbes, Henry Greenridge, Joshua Laub, Nika Milbrun, Silda Palerm, Luc Severe, Jerika Richardson, Hon. Ronald Richter, Basil Smikle and 2016 McSilver Honoree, Sheena Wright, CEO of the United Way New York City.

During the program Dr. Michael Lindsey presented awards to:

David C. Banks, President and CEO of the Eagle Academy Foundation, whose work in education has been transformative in the lives of young men of color throughout New York City. The Eagle Academies were founded on the belief that excellence, both in character and scholarship, opens doors and provides a bridge to equality. Mr. Banks, whose vision was pivotal in establishing Eagle Academies in all five boroughs and Newark, accepted his award on behalf of the 3,000 young black men he has served through the Eagle Academy Foundation.

NYC City Councilmember Corey Johnson is known as a prolific legislator who has developed an outstanding reputation for his dedication to issues concerning affordable housing, homelessness, domestic violence and LGBTQ rights. During the awards program, Councilmember Johnson spoke passionately on the importance of activism and his motivation for running for office, which is centered on fighting on behalf of the city’s most vulnerable citizens.

Dr. Jelani Cobb, a Professor at Columbia University School of Journalism and an acclaimed writer and author who has written powerfully about the intersections of race and poverty, accepted his award on behalf of his late mother, who graduated from the Silver School with both a Bachelors and Masters in Social Work.

Ana Oliveira, President and CEO of the New York Women's Foundation, is often described as one of the most outstanding and impactful leaders New York City. In her remarks, Ms. Oliveira spoke movingly about the importance of philanthropy, activist philanthropists, and the concept of radical generosity.

Gary Parker, who is the former Deputy Director of the McSilver Institute, and currently serves as Associate Dean of External Affairs at the Brown School of Social Work at Washington University in St. Louis, Mr was presented with the Values of McSilver Award. He accepted the award on behalf of the amazing colleagues he worked with at the institute.


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Thursday, April 7, 2016

Recording: Benoît Pioulard

Artist: Benoît Pioulard

Song: unknown*

Recorded at Array Space (Wavelength 696: Don't Speak), March 25, 2016.

Benoît Pioulard - unknown

An interesting, if not completely successful, experiment socially-engineered by WL's Adam Bradley, this performance came with a prohibition against verbal communication not only during but in between the evening's sets. While that's appreciated as a means of enjoying the music without interruption, it actually felt rather oppressive when the musicians weren't playing — and, truth be told, rather than trying to muck about with the supplied cards and pencils for written communication, I simply withdrew into the company of my phone and felt rather isolated in a way that I could be any time at home. Far more discomfiting was the decision to not offer chairs, leaving a room of people milling about on their feet while absorbing some slowly-unfurling ambient music. I guess from my perspective, the thing that threw me off the most about this gig is that I find myself hanging out at Array Space fairly often, and to me it's the sort of place where no top-down rules are required to enjoy music in comfort and silence — adding the formal gimmick was just too much inorganic chemistry.

Seattle-based Thomas Meluch has been making music as Benoît Pioulard for more than a decade, including several releases on the esteemed Kranky label. His self-described lo-fi folk emerges both musically and visually as abstract ambiance, evoking hazy memories and half-submerged emotions. Employing bowed guitar and layers of loops, he seemed quite content to let his projections be the main visual focus during his set, performing while facing away from the crowd, and often kneeling on the floor. Egoless but rather absorbing stuff.

* The set was played as a continuous performance, but there were definite sections within that – I don't know of any of those count as formally-titled pieces. Please leave a comment if you can nail down a title for this!

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Genetic Counseling for Sex Chromosome Anomalies (SCAs) in Israel and Germany: Assessing Medical Risks According to the Importance of Fertility in Two Cultures

In this article, I report findings from a comparative study of Israeli and German genetic counselors. Specifically, it concerns counselors’ attitudes and risk assessments relating to prenatal diagnosis of sex chromosome anomalies (SCAs) such as Klinefelter and Turner syndromes. Data collected through in-depth interviews with counselors in both countries (N = 32) are presented, and the types of claims experts deploy in their personal and professional estimation of the risks involved in SCAs are analyzed. The article concludes by suggesting that the counselors rhetoric concerning SCAs, whose major manifestation is the future infertility of the unborn child as well as their estimations of the related risks, should be situated in a broader cultural context, that of local Israeli and German understandings of the importance of fertility, and not in their professional nondirective ethos. Hence, to understand the practice of genetic counselors in two late-modern societies, one must understand the unique relationship between the individual bodies of pregnant women and the body politics of their nations, a relationship mediated by the counselors, who are the bearers of knowledge and expertise in this field.


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FT’s Long Room Uses Velvet Rope Approach to Online Community

    by Roland Legrand
    November 5, 2009
    The Long Room is a private online club for financial professionals

    What determines a successful community? The number of unique visitors or page views? The number of comments?

    Those metrics can be important, but there are also qualitative aspects to consider. Are the discussions on your site respectful and insightful? Are members deriving value from the community? Or are you hosting flame wars that lack intelligence and decorum?

    The model is applicable elsewhere, whether we talk about cycling or tennis communities." - Paul Murphy

    In order to create a community of quality, perhaps it makes sense to cut down on quantity, and create an exclusive members-only structure. Few media companies have done a better job of building this kind of exclusive community than the Financial Times. Its Long Room was created as part of the paper’s FT Alphaville blog. The Long Room is an “exclusive comment and analysis arena, where finance professionals are invited to share their research and offer thoughts on the work of others.”

    In order to learn more about how the Long Room has created an exclusive community of value, I spoke with New York-based Alphaville editor Paul Murphy.

    Some Background and Context

    It’s important to first understand that Alphaville and the Financial Times are unique properties. The newspaper’s website, FT.com, has a frequency-based pay wall. This means you can read a set number of articles for free, but have to subscribe if you exceed that number.

    However, Alphaville is a free daily news and commentary service. Its mission is to give “financial market professionals the information they need, when they need it.” On a typical day, the blog gets between 40,000 and 50,000 unique visitors. It generates roughly 500,000 uniques per month.

    i-1f1c4bd44be0c7253384da09a93d32ae-paul murphy.gif

    Paul Murphy

    Alphaville was launched roughly three years ago. Murphy said the goal is to serve a community of “deep specialists in their respective areas. They know more than we journalists know.”

    In addition to the blog, Alphaville offers email newsletters, news alerts, and Markets Live, a kind of chat session where two journalists instant message each other about the financial markets. (The community can also add comments in real time.) Alphaville also regularly links to news and reporting generated by other media outlets.

    “We are a blog and we acknowledge that people are promiscuous,” Murphy said. “So we tell them what to read elsewhere if they have half an hour of spare time, and we tell them what they should read in the FT. Being financial professionals, it’s a navigational service. We allow them to sample.”

    The Long Room

    The Long Room exists as an extension of Alphaville. It is “an exclusive comment and analysis arena, where finance professionals are invited to share their research and offer thoughts on the work of others.” It is free to join, if you can get through the vetting process to be accepted.

    The Long Room was inspired by a famous restaurant in the City of London that was a favorite haunt of financial pundits and market movers during the 1980s. The online version of the Long Room aims to be as exclusive as the real-world place. The site says it clearly: “The Long Room is reserved for financial professionals and for people with a clear understanding of how financial markets and products work. Our members-only policy and application vetting process allow us to ensure that these criteria are met.”

    Indeed, when a colleague of mine applied for membership, he received a call from London informing him that he had been accepted. But they also told him that he could not report the discussions taking place in the Long Room. “What happens in the Long Room stays in the Long Room,” he was told.

    Murphy confirms the application process is taken seriously. In fact, he handles many applications personally. He said the Long Room’s exclusivity and careful vetting process have helped it reach the target group of financial experts and decision-makers: “I’m really impressed by the seniority of the people applying for the Long Room,” he said.

    Listening to the Community

    The Long Room is an example of how intimate knowledge of a community can lead to a compelling service. The Alphaville team discovered that there was a willingness among financial specialists to share ideas and research, and so they created a safe place that encouraged them to do so.

    “We simulated the way groups of financial professionals operate in the real world: in small email communities of 20 to 30 people,” Murphy said. “They are trading research and commentary, and we wanted this functionality [as part of the Long Room].”

    Murphy said the sharing of research and insight had to be done “in a walled garden in order to give them a certain comfort level.”

    The discussions inside the Long Room are organized using topic-specific “tables,” such as those dedicated to market strategy or finance 2.0. Members can apply to host a table. So far, Murphy said, everyone is getting along well. (He mentioned one case when a person was kicked out because they engaged in constant self-promotion.)

    Why it Works

    Alphaville has been profitable since its earliest days. “It’s a very light structure, especially compared to a newspaper, which typically requires a massive industrial process,” Murphy said. The Long Room also enables the Financial Times to gather important insight about its readers. This information helps the paper sell itself — and its special community — to advertisers.

    Alphaville also helps the Financial Times enhance its position as a hub for the financial community in London and beyond. This unique focus is a big factor in the structure and success of the Long Room. Financial professionals need timely and correct information, and so they can’t ignore the Financial Times (or the Wall Street Journal).

    But the question remains whether or not this kind of exclusive community could work at other newspapers and news organizations.

    For his part, Murphy has no doubt.

    “The model is applicable elsewhere, whether we talk about cycling or tennis communities,” he said.

    What’s your take on this “exclusive” strategy? Do you think it’s elitist, or that it introduces an element of civility in online interactions? Could this strategy be used by other media organizations? Finally, a last question for the MediaShift community: could this approach help media to survive financially?

    Roland Legrand is in charge of Internet and new media at Mediafin, the publisher of leading Belgian business newspapers De Tijd and L’Echo. He studied applied economics and philosophy. After a brief teaching experience, he became a financial journalist working for the Belgian wire service Belga and subsequently for Mediafin. He works in Brussels, and lives in Antwerp with his wife Liesbeth.

    Tagged: alphaville business newspapers financial times moderation online communities
    • Thank you very much for sharing your strategy here. It’s not every day that someone explains their firm’s approach and rationale, especially in the B2B financial space.

    • Stacey Hutton

      The Financial Times seems to be very forward thinking. They are also turning to crowdsourcing to find ideas for their next online campaign. They are offering $5000 to the person who can come up with the best idea to increase their online subscriptions. Here is a link to the page: http://www.ideabounty.com/latest

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Thursday, July 13, 2017

USA Residents, Medical Students Connecting the World Through Medicine

Joseph Cortopassi
Joseph Cortopassi, a rising second-year medical student at the University of South Alabama College of Medicine, vividly remembers finding a heart murmur in a patient during a check-up in a small village about three hours south of Dakar, Senegal. After discussing the man’s condition with him through the local translator, the man began speaking about his Muslim faith. “For the next 20 minutes or so, the provider I was working with and the man had an incredible conversation about one another’s faiths. Afterward, the man walked away very appreciative of us and the conversation he had,” Cortopassi said.

Cortopassi, along with other medical students from USA and residents from USA Health, recently returned from a 10-day mission trip where they served in remote villages outside of Dakar, Senegal. The students and residents did not have access to a hospital to work from, but rather saw patients in a makeshift, outdoor clinic that was set up in the village.

“When I think of the patients we saw, I think of just how limited our resources were,” said Amber Bowie, a rising first-year medical student at USA.

“It’s so amazing to see how people who get by with so little can be content with their lives,” added Dr. Ben Cason, a surgery resident at USA.

Dr. Cason and the other students and residents on the mission trip noticed how well people of different religions and cultures throughout Senegal came together. “Everyone in the area lived at peace with their neighbor despite differences in religion that so divide the rest of the world,” Dr. Cason said.

Erin Bouska, a rising second-year medical student at USA, was touched by the hospitality and kindness that was shown in Senegal. “The sense of community was remarkable, especially between the Christians and Muslims. We not only prayed with Muslims in clinic, but we also learned that Muslims and Christians are friends who live, dine and work together with one another,” she said. “The rest of the world would do well to follow their example.”

Travis Goodloe, a rising second-year medical student at USA, feels that the training he received at USA prepared him well for the trip as he was ready to provide a significant amount of care to patients that truly made a difference in their lives. “I feel fortunate to have the opportunity to receive my medical training at USA, but I have further realized that I have an obligation to pay this opportunity forward and use the skills I have learned to benefit others who are less fortunate,” he said.

Dr. Cason encourages any medical student and health care professional to get involved with mission projects. “From a humanitarian point of view, one is able to provide a needed service to a population that is unable to receive the service otherwise, and for me, it has been an opportunity to care for the sick and show them God’s love through my work,” he said.

Those who participated in the mission trip were happy to see USA’s reach across the world as students and residents worked to bring care to those who needed it most. “Our trip has the possibility of having a beneficial, yet short-term impact,” Bouska said. “However, to make the efforts of this trip long-lasting, we need the support of the USA Health community so that we can send medical teams back to these areas in the future."

“I think that as USA extends its outreach, it simultaneously serves to strengthen itself in all other facets, including right here in Mobile, because the mission of USA Health is being lived out as students like myself are able to foster our skills and bring them back to this community,” Goodloe said.

Cortopassi said that the mission trip helped remind him of his passion for helping people. “I know at times I personally find myself getting wrapped up in school and grades to the point where I lose focus on why I chose the field of medicine. I believe that mission trips remind us of why we chose this calling,” he said.

Bouska remembers going to sleep each night in Senegal after long days serving its communities while enjoying the view of starry African skies. “From the top of our sleeping quarters, we could clearly make out the Big Dipper, which of course led to multiple debates on the location of the constellations and different planets. It was the perfect way to unwind after a busy day, and I definitely miss it now that I’m home. It was a remarkable experience.”

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Saturday, 22 June 2013

For those of you read my last post about a disturbing project that had been created on Kickstarter, I just wanted to share some amazing news for you. We have won! Kickstarter has issued an apology (which you can read here) stating that they were wrong. They have also stated that they will be donating $25 000 to RAINN, which is an anti-sexual violence organization. The only bad news that I have to report is that the creator of the project on Kickstarter, Ken Hoinsky, has already received the over $16 000 in funding from the over 700 backers. But, as I said, this is still a victory. Kickstarter has discovered their mistake and don't plan on making it in the future. If any of you helped spread the word and reported the project, thank you. Everyone who brought Kickstarter's attention to what the content was and what the guide was truly about was immensely helpful.

I hope this never happens again, and if it does, the correct action is taken against it.

Quote of the day: It was always the view of my parents . . . that hot weather encouraged loose morals among young people. - Ian McEwan


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Friday, April 10, 2009

Freebie Friday!

Today is Freebie Friday!! Buy one print (excluding limited edition prints & originals) in my Etsy shop and get a 2nd one free. Freebie Fridays will be announced at least twice a month. The day of the week could change though. Stay tuned!

Just convo me or put in your "message to seller" the name of the free 2nd print that you want and I will send them both together.

Happy Freebie Friday! Have a good weekend!

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MEMS 2018WelcomeGeneral InfoProgramAuthors / AbstractsSponsors / ExhibitsRegistrationAbout BelfastContact

Technical Digest Manuscript Instructions:

Both Oral/Podium and Poster/Oral Authors are REQUIRED to submit a final manuscript for the Technical Digest

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Thursday, April 21, 2011

God's Love

Hello beautiful people!

It's a beautiful April day and I'm sitting on the sun porch meditating on a few things. Two passages of scripture were dropped in spirit this morning just sitting here and I just wanted to offer a little encouragement. I rarely do this but I'm transitioning into a new season in my life and am finding that God's love, grace, and His voice are the only things that are consistent and "sturdy" enough for me to lean and depend on. Sounds a little cliche but be that as it may, it's my truth. I guess I'm growin' a little. lol!!! Anyway, the next eleven months are sure to be taxing with me moving out of my apartment in a month, preparing to relocate next spring, going back to school and start a new chapter in my life, I've allowed myself to slip into worry and stress mode. For the past four months, I've found myself asking God almost everyday, "How am I going to do this?" If you look closely you'll see the error in my question. Mainly because I won't be doing anything. My level of trust has increased greatly since I've turned off the cell phone and the radio and the television and just listened. And of course, when God chooses to be "quiet" he always puts something in your way to get your attention. Which brings me to what I wanted to share with you all this morning.

First, I was led to Phillipians 4:6-7 (New Living Translation) - Don't worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God's peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus. And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise.

So just in case there's a worry wart out there (like me) who tends to look mostly at the impossibility of a situation or the negative things that seem to obscure the beauty of God's goodness..... this simply stated, is giving you the command to put the negative things out of your mind and think on all things lovely and beautiful. And what's more beautiful than God's love? (John 3:16) And by the way, His specialty is the impossible! Just FYI.

Lastly, I often find myself getting a little wrapped up in the idea of, "None of the things that I wanted to happen to by now have happened! When are you gonna do it for ME, God?" His answer?

Phillipians 1:6 (New Living Transaltion) And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.

My Pastor always says, "If God made you a promise, that deems you immortal until He completes it." Basically, all my Pastor is saying is it's impossible for God to lie or make you a promise and allow you to parish before He makes good on what He promised you. There's no way that He can place something in you and have it not fulfilled. His Word will never return to Him void. (Isaiah 55:11) Therefore, if He said it, He's obligated to do it. His words not mine! :-)

So as the events of this weekend get closer, don't meditate on the light bill, tuition, car notes, overdraft fees, or hurt feelings. Think on the beauty of God's love. Love in its purest and most unadulterated display. The ultimate sacrifice.

I love you guys and hope this little post offered some encouragement or eased a little stress (at least for today).

Be blessed!

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August 18, 2011

Still Drafting

well the sky was a dark navy
as in, darker than my grandfather's navy blue suit
the one he wore while he saw people die?
the stars in the sky were absent,
so the formality of the buttoned-up buttons
of his navy blue suit
was nothing like the casual heavens above me
the world was inappropriately silent, save for my thoughts
anyways, a deer was hit, right in front of me while driving.
all i saw though, was the result:
a beast, larger than you and me,
rolling and kicking as though it was a beetle
flipped onto its back
by some laughing child.

its eyes were wild and unnatural
caught in limbo, the deer used its spine to shuffle off to the side of the road
and i drove away.

that's what i had wanted to do
at that one funeral?
it's hard to think about how i didn't recognize that he's gone.
did he recognize that those people around him were going, too?
did he know?
or maybe it only just hit him,
years after the guilt had stopped fluctuating,
that he was dying, too,
and maybe joining all those people who saw him see them in his navy blue suit.

questioning methods of psychology

there's a world
that i visit every so often
you wouldn't know it
because only i can get there
i'll walk down the main street
and my shadows won't meet at my feet
but i think about what i see
past memories
shaded black
faded grey
they swarm into buildings
until a city looms up and swallows me whole
and i'm in the sewers again
where i see my future in this world
and i have to grab the ladder
and climb back out
an obnoxious process that,
usually, takes no more than four days.
so i'll see you all when i get back

July 27, 2011

I Know You've Already Read the Message, So What's Taking So Long?

The Beatles pump vibrations into my body
as I lay with my face smooshed into the velvety
turquoise of some pillow from Kohl's.
Purely offkey, I scream.
I have no rhythm, I have no melodic instinct.
The vibrations are on full force as the song switches to
You Don't Know Me and I think it's so mismatched from my own heartbeat
that my blood-pumps may be restarted
and I'll have a heart attack
and I'll never be able to respond
to that damn text message
that I still haven't gotten back.

June 24, 2011

Hobo Romance

I had been told that the 30th street station was basically across the street. In actuality, it was two blocks forward and three blocks left. While crossing a road, the sky decided I hadn’t been caught in the rain in a while. It opened its cloud and spewed down a river. The river must’ve had a dam somewhere up there though, because the rain only lasted two minutes. Finally, I pushed open the doors to the station. I followed the signs. I was 30 feet from the booth that would get me some tickets. “Boy you sure are a good lookin’ girl.” A man whose yellowed eye-whites circled earnest blue eyes had begun popping his feet down fast enough to keep up with my pace. He had come out of nowhere. “Are you single?” he asked of me. Immediately a swarm of metallic spiders crawled between my shoulder blades and nestled into the skin at the nape of my neck. My fingers, now turned to macaw feathers, instinctually slipped the cheap turquoise ring that I had bought for myself from my right hand to my left. “Yea, I’m actually married.” It was the spiders who whispered this voice through to the real world. Only belatedly did I add, “sorry.” He grinned and he bore it. His face was just about as wrinkled as the waves in his faded blonde hair. A lone metallic spider scurried into my nose. He smelt of grime, or at least the spider conversed with my eyes and concluded that the filth I could see under his fingernails would probably insinuate such a scent. I couldn’t stop smiling at this man. He seemed so nice, so genuine, so lonely, and yet so very chipper. I could see myself with this man. We could hang out in train stations, talking about what we could see. We could both never shower, and we could share secret smiling glances about the things that no one else would ever notice, because, really, we would be the only happy couple skulking around the train station. His brown jacket looked worn and comfortable. I know that he once was a young man, possibly handsome, probably happy. I awkwardly looked away; another spider had crawled into my socket and told me not to make eye contact. As the man’s feet issued quieter pops (distance does that to sound), he turned back and called out, “He’s a lucky one! You’re a real catch, and you’re gorgeous, too!” The metallic spiders melted away, as I realized that I was once again completely safe in being alone.

June 7, 2011

An unfinished painting and a photo from last summer:

Job Watering Plants

Life seeps in and then swells!
Life seeps in and then swells.
These plants are breathing.
Dirt, earth, brown must
musk, making me melt.
The mulch moves my emotions
back to finger-painting days.
The tomatoes are heady.
I want to mix their smell with
olives and snack on summers
spent in sixth grade.
The thyme is fresh.
Sequins of nature vibrate
and giggle; they know
I want to dance, too.
These fill my nose
but all I can think is,
dear customers,
stop stepping on the damn hose.


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News Releases

Meredith Corporation Boosts Mobile Platform Presence With Strategic Stake in Industry Leader The Hyperfactory
Accelerates Meredith Integrated Marketing's capabilities, consumer brand initiatives

DES MOINES, Iowa and NEW YORK, July 21 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Meredith Corporation (NYSE: MDP), one of America's leading media and marketing companies, today announced it has taken a strategic stake in The Hyperfactory, the oldest and most awarded independent mobile specialist. The investment will not have a material effect on Meredith's financial performance in fiscal 2010.

The investment enhances the services and capabilities of Meredith Integrated Marketing, the company's business-to-business unit that provides leading corporations and brands with custom print and online communications for their customers. It also accelerates Meredith's consumer brand efforts in the mobile space.

Privately owned and founded in 2001 by New Zealand brothers Geoffrey and Derek Handley, The Hyperfactory ( specializes in powering businesses and brands through the mobile medium with award winning, innovative and strategically creative initiatives. With a history of winning more industry accolades and recognition than any mobile agency worldwide, The Hyperfactory's clients include Coca-Cola, BlackBerry, L'Oreal, Vodafone, Disney and Kraft. The company, which employs more than 100 mobile technology and marketing experts, supports and delivers globally through its network of offices in Auckland, Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Hong Kong, Sydney and Hyderabad, India.

"Joining forces with The Hyperfactory provides Meredith Integrated Marketing with access to the fast-growing mobile category and complements our recent acquisitions in the digital marketing space," says Jack Griffin, President of the Meredith Publishing Group. "The Hyperfactory's capabilities fall directly in line with our strategic goals and present significant opportunities for our business-to-business engagements."

The investment further accelerates the transformation of Meredith Integrated Marketing into a comprehensive marketing services provider with robust capabilities. Since 2006, Meredith Integrated Marketing has added interactive marketing services firms O'Grady Meyers and Genex; viral marketing leader New Media Strategies; healthcare marketing communications specialists Big Communications; and database strategy and analytics experts Directive.

"Mobile is becoming a vital ingredient in integrated marketing campaigns, giving consumers access to brands at key decision points in the purchasing cycle for awareness, consideration and calls to action," says Wendy Riches, EVP, Meredith Publishing Group, who oversees Meredith Integrated Marketing. "The Hyperfactory is the ideal partner for us to help us better serve our partners who are recognizing and seeking to capitalize on this trend."

"Entering into an alliance with Meredith will accelerate our global growth at a pivotal stage for the mobile marketing industry," says Derek Handley, Co-founder & CEO, The Hyperfactory. "Being part of such a consortium of leading-edge thinkers will stimulate our own creative ideas, design and implementation capabilities, and also create opportunities for us to compete for a whole new tier of clients."

"This strategic move further expands Meredith's global footprint as well as our ability to serve our clients on this rapidly growing platform," says John Zieser, Meredith's Chief Development Officer. "We are continuously seeking out new opportunities to align with market leaders throughout the world."

The Hyperfactory was advised by Madison Alley Global Ventures on this transaction.

For more information, visit:

SOURCE Meredith Corporation

SOURCE: Meredith Corporation

Web site:

Key Media Contacts
Art Slusark
Liz Malone
Senior Publicist


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Chronic Lyme Disease Summit 3

Monday, January 2, 2017

Repost: HUGE NEWS: the latest billboard

Repost: HUGE NEWS: the latest billboard is a dream come true for a heartbroken family. The board honors baby Reid Engelhart, who lost his life to vaccines, in his hometown of Baton Rouge. It was his mother's dream to honor his life this way and hopefully save other babies the same fate.

"The doctor NEVER told me VACCINES could KILL my baby."

A huge heartfelt thanks to all who donated to help make baby Reid's billboard a reality -- it was a dream come true for his mother. We are continuing to raise money to keep the board up and running and to bring it to other areas of the country in hopes that less families will have to suffer the same unimaginable heartbreak.

We also launched a Sudden Infant Death info page on the website in Reid's honor. Learn more about SIDs here:

We are taking donations to bring this billboard to other cities in the US and spread even more awareness. #betheCHANGE #LearnTheRisk

To donate, go here:

To read baby Reid's story, go here:

Don't forget to like our Facebook page, check out the website, follow us on Twitter (@learntherisk) and join our FB group if you have questions: Learn The Risk

Enough is Enough

Make sure you are registered to watch the exclusive world-wide screening of the docu-series, Vaccines Revealed, FREE and online here for FREE viewing from January 10th-18th.

For decades Big Pharma has controlled and manipulated the media to keep certain truths hidden.

For example:

-Robert Kennedy Jr. just released a book about mercury and vaccines, all science based. He’s dear friends with Arianna Huffington and many in the media and still….he can’t get anyone to promote it.

-An actual whistleblower within the CDC came out less than a year ago and said he was “ordered to doctor” the results of the 2004 study that said autism wasn’t related to the MMR vaccine. It’s been covered up and media won’t cover the story.

Enough is enough.

How can you help?

Everything begins on January 10th. Watch and share the FREE online docu-series, “Vaccines Revealed” with a new episode every day from January 10th through the18th.

Real change will only come if we band together as concerned parents, health advocates and everyday heroes who are committed to exposing the truth and spreading the word.

We traveled the world with an award-winning documentary team and put together a magnificent Hollywood quality documentary series that will blow your socks off!

You won’t want to miss a single riveting episode.

Register here now

Remember, it begins on January 10th!

Affiliate Registration:

Help Us Expose the Alarming Truth by becoming an affiliate for your activist group.

Are you promoting to other potential affiliates?
Join us as an affiliate for the Vaccines Revealed 9-PART DOCU-SERIES!

* EARN 50% LIFETIME COMMISSION (Digital Products/Downloads)
* PLUS, earn an additional 10% commission on all 2nd tier sub-affiliate sales!
As an affiliate for every sale made on this unique program.

Become an affiliate right now!

* Educate your community — the most important bonus!
* Images, sample copy and videos provided
* 50% commission on each sale generated (you can purchase a summit from your own link, provided you didn't register to watch online from another affiliate, which is why we encourage affiliate registrations.)

No cost to register!

Parents hunger for this information. Experts risk their careers giving it.

We are delivering the highest quality production and information with the world’s leading experts and voices on dangers of vaccines.
Recent revelations that affect our lives and the lives of our children make this a must watch event.

Know someone who would make a fantastic affiliate? Use this link to send them directly to the affiliate registration form and if you would like to help others and PLEASE spread the word...

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Thank you so much for joining us!


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Chronic Lyme Disease Summit 3

Saturday, May 6, 2017

Boycott Party Animals!   This is just so fucking disgusting!  Ew!

They use euthanized animals that have the euthanasia drug in them and it winds up in pets. They have found tags from cats and dogs in canned food. They use cancerous tumors in pet food. Buy human grade only. Meaning give real food to your pets, if you can get them to eat it.

As kids, we always gave our scraps to our dogs and cats.  Breezy will eat real food like eggs, chieken liver, bone broth, etc...  Miracle is another story.  Can't get Miracle to eat real food, except cat food. Both will at least the Organix brand of cat food kibble.

This shit is just TOTAL disregard for God's creatures and all life on Earth.  This world just needs to end already.  :(

Markup of Prescription Drugs

From Julie Cresswell

Look at the markup of prescription drugs.
Is everyone okay with it being mafia run? No? Then, this is how you stop it....... Research and learn how eating the right foods, exercise, juicing, getting proper rest, being authentic, learning how to forgive, staying away from stress, saying no to the things you don't want to do, watch your alcohol intake, turn off the tv, limit your phone usage, and getting into nature, can turn your health around. Stop relying on the mafia to treat you. The cost is too high and does NOT serve you.

This is more than extreme mark up of pharma meds that millions of people pay in hopes to recover their health, but what most of them don't know is that they are buying meds that will either make them sicker and cause for them to die sooner than later.

In the latest Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, CDC researchers report that 33,091 of the 52,404 drug overdose deaths that occurred in the U.S. in 2015 involved an opioid, a category that includes the illegal drug heroin but also prescription painkillers like oxycodone and hydrocodone.


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Referenced Messianic Jewish Review Blog

The official blog of the Referenced Messianic Jewish Review. The Referenced Messianic Jewish Review studies the history, composition and theology of the Messianic Jewish movement.

Sunday, April 25, 2010

Messianic Protestantism

For years, I have been online with my website and blog stating that the Messianic movement is a form of Protestant Christianity. I found that the British Messianic Jewish Alliance agrees with me. The BMJA, the umbrella body of most Messianic congregations in the UK spells it out bluntly:

"The Messianic movement is a Protestant phenomenon. It does what all Protestant protest movements have done, but with a Hebrew accent."

In case you want to read more, here is the link to the article which is aptly titled, "The Messianic movement in the Protestant continuum." The quote comes from the right side of the page under "Messianic Protestantism."

Monday, April 12, 2010

They Are Not Details

While looking at this past week's Torah portion, Parashat Shmini, I was reminded of a past conversation with a Messianic missionary. The missionary presented Jesus as a sacrifice. I began to go over the laws of sacrifice from Leviticus, demonstrating how Jesus did not match sacrifical law. For instance, Jesus was not sacrificed by the High Priest at the Holy Temple. He was killed by the Romans away from the Temple. The missionary said to me that I was getting caught up in "details." I was infuriated at his statement. I told him, "they are laws, not details."

In Parashat Shmini, we read about the deaths of Nadav and Avihu, the two sons of Aaron. Their tale is told in Leviticus 10. They went and attempted to offer a "strange fire" to G-d, which G-d had not commanded and were killed for this transgression. Surely, we see here that laws are not "details." Nadav and Avihu did not follow the laws of G-d regarding offerings and subsequently died. Not so incidentally, sacrifice is a form of an offering.

The word in Hebrew that we use for Biblical law is "Mitzvah." The root of the word, "Tzav", means "command." The laws of the Bible are not trivial but are G-d's commandments. Each and every law is valuable. By definition, not a single one is a "detail" that can be brushed aside or ignored. Jesus' death could not have been a Biblical sacrifice since it did not follow the Biblical law of sacrifice. As we learn from Parashat Shmini, these laws are of the utmost importance. They are laws, not details.

Sunday, April 04, 2010

Do You Eat Jesus?

There is are two more key issues that Messianics miss when claiming that Jesus was a Passover sacrifice. Both of these issues can be found in the commandments regarding the Passover sacrifice in Deuteronomy 16: 5-7. First, as we seen in verse 5-6, the Passover sacrifice can only be offered at the place where G-d will "cause His name to dwell in." The place where G-d's name dwelt was the Holy Temple. Jesus was not killed at the Holy Temple. Second, in verse 7 we see the commandment to roast and eat the Passover sacrifice. Jesus died on the cross, where Romans sent to death people accused of crimes such as trying to overthrow the Roman empire. Jesus was not roasted nor eaten (nor would it have been permissible under Jewish law to eat a person). As such, we again see that according to the Bible, Jesus could never have been considered the Passover sacrifice.


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Report: Avatar, The Defiled and Eldrimner

Ever since the release of their fifth studio album, the Swedish melodic metallers from Avatar have been touring. This winter, the band started touring Europe with Eldrimner and The Defiled. Metal-Exposure visited the show in Amsterdam and did an interview with vocalist Johannes Eckerström, which you can read here.. Read the report!

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