liness to Americans cannot be overlooked. Washing was once considered a privilege of the upper class. However, as these books became more accessible, the growing middle class used them as a blueprint in their quest for gentility and upper-class status. The gospel of hygiene then trickled down to the lower classes and immigrants in the late 1800s, when reformers taught them the rudiments of cleanliness in order to improve their health and assimilate them into the American way of life.

Beginning in the middle of the 19th century, large cities across America undertook public works projects to build municipal water and sewer lines. These improvements in plumbing and sanitation necessitated that fixtures be attached to a maze of pipes. A separate room was now required to house these fixtures, making portable containers and accessories obsolete. As bathrooms were gradually added to homes, new innovations and inventions also offered a wide range of options, including pumping one's own shower.

Styles in bathroom décor also changed over time. At first, fixtures were fashioned in wood with elaborate marquetry to imitate furniture. Toward the end of the century, with the emphasis on hygiene reaching new heights and scientists preaching germ theory, the bathroom closely resembled a laboratory with white, washable porcelain surfaces. Color was later added to bathrooms as they became more commonplace to personalize and soften the earlier scientific feel. The ritual of personal hygiene was now entrenched in the routine of American life.

More Library Exhibitions...

All Rights Reserved<|endoftext|>Become a fan of Slashdot on Facebook

Forgot your password?

Comment Re:You want a whitelisting device. (Score 5, Interesting) 497

This is why Google Voice is awesome. You can whitelist or blacklist easily, without knowing anything advanced about phone systems. Thus it's almost impossible to be trolled or scammed this way at your actual Google number, and since that's the number you would give out, your number you actually forward to can be changed whenever necessary.

Comment Re:Guild Wars 2...if it fits your niche (Score 1) 555

"Off the grid" meaning remote areas the devs haven't carefully planned for you to visit. Places most players aren't expected to explore and never do.

SWG certainly had that. I'm guessing EQ and UO did as well, though I never played those. WoW did as well, though those were mostly areas accessible only by exploit. You could, however, visit the unfinished area under Stormwind without using an exploit.

Exploring areas I'm expected to just makes it almost meaningless for me. I at least want the illusion that my presence there was not really expected by anyone.

If you like having all the areas already explored with roadmaps and videos online to help you find them, GW2 exploration is great. There's literally nothing "off the grid" to explore though. It's all pre-planned jumping puzzles and vistas. Don't expect to find anything there isn't already a screenshot of somewhere online.

The exploration in GW2 actually really disappointed me, because it's all planned out for you.

Although as you point out, it's better than exploration was in WoW if you exclude areas you weren't supposed to be able to get to at all.

Of course, for me that's where the real exploration was in WoW. Old Ironforge, CoT during vanilla, finding an exploit that let us get all the way to the edge of the world, Mount Hyjal during vanilla.. it's been years, and I still distinctly remember doing all those things, how I did them, and who I did them with. Nothing memorable about exploring in GW2 for me.

Comment Re: Non-comprehensive list (Score 1) 555

Yeah, everyone always wants to argue that this or that game they really like isn't pay to win because pay to win is so bad.

If you can buy something with real money that gives you an actual competitive advantage that you can't get from normal online play, it's pay2win. Simple as that.

Not all F2P games are pay2win. I don't recall ever seeing any pay2win mechanics in STO, though I could be wrong. GW2 as a buy-to-play MMO is also good in that regard at least.

Comment Re:Non-comprehensive list (Score 1) 555

I did play Eve for a while, and it has the complexity I want. The thing that I just never could learn to like was the personal disconnect of always being in a spaceship (yes, I did see CQ, didn't mean much) and the actual gameplay of flying a ship just felt a little too simplistic and repetitive to me. Also, being the only player in anything larger than a frigate just felt wrong. Always wished they'd implemented ship stations something like what Artemis offers.

If there's anything I really miss from MMOs, it's doing world PvP with my Druid in WoW TBC.

Comment Re:WoW and GW2 (Score 1) 555

Completely agree about complexity. I can't stand the trends of over-simplifying things. I got in the ESO closed beta this weekend and barely made it a couple hours before getting bored. Barely lasted longer in NWO a couple months ago.

Even GW2 is disappointing. Half your skills are determined by your weapon, and often the different skills on the weapon don't even make sense together. It also didn't take long for players to narrow down one or two optimal builds for each class so you really can't even experiment there unless you really like to solo. After the original GW, it's such a regression. And getting rid of a dedicated healing class did them no favors. It devolves the gameplay into little more than DPS races. Everyone has a dodge ability to avoid damage, because they have to, because there's no one to heal them if they get hit. The personal heals only help with the odd splash damage here and there. So it's all just DPS and dodging. That's what you get when you make a pointed effort at removing the "trinity".

Comment Re:World of Warcraft (Score 1) 555

On the whole though, you'll have a hard case to make that TBC or vanilla was any fun though.

Vanilla and TBC were both lots of fun. Best years of the game. For me, TBC was the high point.

Not everyone plays MMOs just to run instances over and over as fast as possible for epics. Everything after TBC was downhill.

Comment Re:WoW, ESO (Score 1) 555

Auto-matchups for group runs have killed much social behavior that existed prior. Yes, waiting around town spamming trade for hours at a time wasn't very fun. But in a way, it forced socialization, it forced people to remember "ok, this guy is a pretty damn good tank, I'm going to put him on my friends list and we'll blast through shit together", it's just click a button, and wait. Once you're done, likelihood of you ever talking to anyone from that group ever again is practically nil.

That was what completely killed it for me. I play MMOs for the virtual world experience; I couldn't care less about instances other than running them a couple times for the experience of doing it.

The battlegrounds were bad enough, but arenas were one of the worst PvP ideas they implemented during the time I played (I quit early during Cata).

"Why should we subsidize intellectual curiosity?" -Ronald Reagan<|endoftext|>MyBB Central

Full Version: Paid subscription fee
Order Description: eSellerate - Witza Inc. order ST85387395

I paid for your subscription thing. When can I download?

Also thought Id mention it is a little screwy how the process works if you pay with paypal. If I was a rookie I probably wouldn't have followed thru just because it felt so different than a normal paypal transaction.
Why does my reputation thing have a minus??
lol, i've paid too , just wait till he finished ur transaction
You folks will get it soon guaranteed. Also you got a negative cause someone gave you a neg.
You will be upgraded today.<|endoftext|>Family Life: How to have fun with your toddler. Have fun with your child by playing active games. At this stage, you need to first provide a safe play environment for exploration. Incorporate activities that give your child the opportunity to choose between things. You should also try to incorporate physical activities such as throwing and catching a ball, chasing after bubbles, skipping and hopping while singing to her favorite song. One creative thing you can do is give your child an empty box.<|endoftext|>The Basics Of Around the net Levels

The web degree’s innovative includes made it a well known acquiring knowledge mode for quite busy professions to receive their level for work progression. The web based diploma software are progression fast as well as being a today’s studying styles and in addition the most advantageous options for classic course-based primarily acquiring knowledge. Just what are these characteristics that have the rewards that accomplished web education application a decision for numerous on the web learners?

Just let product review some crucial features of getting a college degree internet based:

1. Review Virtually any place

The internet qualification software applications permit the college student to learn from your own home or any place they enjoy if they get access to world-wide-web. This is actually the important features that the majority of on the internet school students view

liness to Americans cannot be overlooked. Washing was once considered a privilege of the upper class. However, as these books became more accessible, the growing middle class used them as a blueprint in their quest for gentility and upper-class status. The gospel of hygiene then trickled down to the lower classes and immigrants in the late 1800s, when reformers taught them the rudiments of cleanliness in order to improve their health and assimilate them into the American way of life.

Beginning in the middle of the 19th century, large cities across America undertook public works projects to build municipal water and sewer lines. These improvements in plumbing and sanitation necessitated that fixtures be attached to a maze of pipes. A separate room was now required to house these fixtures, making portable containers and accessories obsolete. As bathrooms were gradually added to homes, new innovations and inventions also offered a wide range of options, including pumping one's own shower.

Styles in bathroom décor also changed over time. At first, fixtures were fashioned in wood with elaborate marquetry to imitate furniture. Toward the end of the century, with the emphasis on hygiene reaching new heights and scientists preaching germ theory, the bathroom closely resembled a laboratory with white, washable porcelain surfaces. Color was later added to bathrooms as they became more commonplace to personalize and soften the earlier scientific feel. The ritual of personal hygiene was now entrenched in the routine of American life.

More Library Exhibitions...

All Rights Reserved<|endoftext|>Become a fan of Slashdot on Facebook

Forgot your password?

Comment Re:You want a whitelisting device. (Score 5, Interesting) 497

This is why Google Voice is awesome. You can whitelist or blacklist easily, without knowing anything advanced about phone systems. Thus it's almost impossible to be trolled or scammed this way at your actual Google number, and since that's the number you would give out, your number you actually forward to can be changed whenever necessary.

Comment Re:Guild Wars 2...if it fits your niche (Score 1) 555

"Off the grid" meaning remote areas the devs haven't carefully planned for you to visit. Places most players aren't expected to explore and never do.

SWG certainly had that. I'm guessing EQ and UO did as well, though I never played those. WoW did as well, though those were mostly areas accessible only by exploit. You could, however, visit the unfinished area under Stormwind without using an exploit.

Exploring areas I'm expected to just makes it almost meaningless for me. I at least want the illusion that my presence there was not really expected by anyone.

If you like having all the areas already explored with roadmaps and videos online to help you find them, GW2 exploration is great. There's literally nothing "off the grid" to explore though. It's all pre-planned jumping puzzles and vistas. Don't expect to find anything there isn't already a screenshot of somewhere online.

The exploration in GW2 actually really disappointed me, because it's all planned out for you.

Although as you point out, it's better than exploration was in WoW if you exclude areas you weren't supposed to be able to get to at all.

Of course, for me that's where the real exploration was in WoW. Old Ironforge, CoT during vanilla, finding an exploit that let us get all the way to the edge of the world, Mount Hyjal during vanilla.. it's been years, and I still distinctly remember doing all those things, how I did them, and who I did them with. Nothing memorable about exploring in GW2 for me.

Comment Re: Non-comprehensive list (Score 1) 555

Yeah, everyone always wants to argue that this or that game they really like isn't pay to win because pay to win is so bad.

If you can buy something with real money that gives you an actual competitive advantage that you can't get from normal online play, it's pay2win. Simple as that.

Not all F2P games are pay2win. I don't recall ever seeing any pay2win mechanics in STO, though I could be wrong. GW2 as a buy-to-play MMO is also good in that regard at least.

Comment Re:Non-comprehensive list (Score 1) 555

I did play Eve for a while, and it has the complexity I want. The thing that I just never could learn to like was the personal disconnect of always being in a spaceship (yes, I did see CQ, didn't mean much) and the actual gameplay of flying a ship just felt a little too simplistic and repetitive to me. Also, being the only player in anything larger than a frigate just felt wrong. Always wished they'd implemented ship stations something like what Artemis offers.

If there's anything I really miss from MMOs, it's doing world PvP with my Druid in WoW TBC.

Comment Re:WoW and GW2 (Score 1) 555

Completely agree about complexity. I can't stand the trends of over-simplifying things. I got in the ESO closed beta this weekend and barely made it a couple hours before getting bored. Barely lasted longer in NWO a couple months ago.

Even GW2 is disappointing. Half your skills are determined by your weapon, and often the different skills on the weapon don't even make sense together. It also didn't take long for players to narrow down one or two optimal builds for each class so you really can't even experiment there unless you really like to solo. After the original GW, it's such a regression. And getting rid of a dedicated healing class did them no favors. It devolves the gameplay into little more than DPS races. Everyone has a dodge ability to avoid damage, because they have to, because there's no one to heal them if they get hit. The personal heals only help with the odd splash damage here and there. So it's all just DPS and dodging. That's what you get when you make a pointed effort at removing the "trinity".

Comment Re:World of Warcraft (Score 1) 555

On the whole though, you'll have a hard case to make that TBC or vanilla was any fun though.

Vanilla and TBC were both lots of fun. Best years of the game. For me, TBC was the high point.

Not everyone plays MMOs just to run instances over and over as fast as possible for epics. Everything after TBC was downhill.

Comment Re:WoW, ESO (Score 1) 555

Auto-matchups for group runs have killed much social behavior that existed prior. Yes, waiting around town spamming trade for hours at a time wasn't very fun. But in a way, it forced socialization, it forced people to remember "ok, this guy is a pretty damn good tank, I'm going to put him on my friends list and we'll blast through shit together", it's just click a button, and wait. Once you're done, likelihood of you ever talking to anyone from that group ever again is practically nil.

That was what completely killed it for me. I play MMOs for the virtual world experience; I couldn't care less about instances other than running them a couple times for the experience of doing it.

The battlegrounds were bad enough, but arenas were one of the worst PvP ideas they implemented during the time I played (I quit early during Cata).

"Why should we subsidize intellectual curiosity?" -Ronald Reagan<|endoftext|>MyBB Central

Full Version: Paid subscription fee
Order Description: eSellerate - Witza Inc. order ST85387395

I paid for your subscription thing. When can I download?

Also thought Id mention it is a little screwy how the process works if you pay with paypal. If I was a rookie I probably wouldn't have followed thru just because it felt so different than a normal paypal transaction.
Why does my reputation thing have a minus??
lol, i've paid too , just wait till he finished ur transaction
You folks will get it soon guaranteed. Also you got a negative cause someone gave you a neg.
You will be upgraded today.<|endoftext|>The Basics Of Around the net Levels

The web degree’s innovative includes made it a well known acquiring knowledge mode for quite busy professions to receive their level for work progression. The web based diploma software are progression fast as well as being a today’s studying styles and in addition the most advantageous options for classic course-based primarily acquiring knowledge. Just what are these characteristics that have the rewards that accomplished web education application a decision for numerous on the web learners?

Just let product review some crucial features of getting a college degree internet based:

1. Review Virtually any place

The internet qualification software applications permit the college student to learn from your own home or any place they enjoy if they get access to world-wide-web. This is actually the important features that the majority of on the internet school students view it and opt to go for online diploma regimen as opposed to common university routine.

Some individuals subsequently, after getting started their effective whole life have a lot of commitments to look at caution: , toddlers educational background, home mortgage, auto loan repayment And and job It will become tougher to go back to school to acheive our School diplomas as stopping our most recent position is nearly unachievable and clutching your own lifestyle purely to just do it that have


Personal Care and Style: How to choose makeup primer. Choose a hydrating makeup primer if you have dry skin. If your skin begs for lotion after a shower, you definitely need to get a makeup primer for dry skin. A good, nourishing primer can take the place of your lotion, so you can hydrate your skin and prep it for makeup in one step. Look for primers with words like " hydrating, " " soothing, " or " replenishing. " Pick a mattifying primer if you have oily skin.<|endoftext|>-shift, one-down/four-up street bike to a right-shift, one-up/four-down race bike) and be instantly comfortable, having no problem making the transition. That amazed me, and caused me to believe me there was something intrinsically different between how his brain works and mine. It took me forever to be comfortable on my first right-side-shift bike (a BSA). After several months of riding it (exclusively, mind you) I still found myself trying to upshift by slipping my left boot under the brake lever.

  8. GenWaylaid says

    Or maybe “study finds that 30% of the population are crap at simulations.” I know that without the ability to balance and listen to the engine and the tires I would be a complete mess. My reflexes are good, but I can’t find the apex of a curve and remember what gear I’m in at the same time, and after years of riding that hasn’t gotten any better. I’m glad my brain stem’s good at riding, because everything above it is out to lunch.

  9. Art says

    A sample of 29 people? Doubtful this is even statistically significant enough to warrant funds for a further study, which is what most of these small sample tests are really about. Maybe the study authors should read Freakonomics before declaring genetics is the main cause of bad driving. I’d be willing to bet that with the proper instruction, even “genetically disadvantaged” drivers could be taught how to be sufficiently competent to not be a danger to others. Walking and speaking are also a very complex tasks, but pretty much everyone without major disabilities manages to figure these out. I won’t detail the left/right brain process/theories that allow humans to learn such tasks without “formal” teaching, but surely driving is no more complex than either walking or speaking.

    I am terrible at driving/navigating video games, and fail terribly even with something as realistic as Flight Simulator. (And I play guitar fairly well Guitar Hero is a mystery to me…) But does this matter given my real driving record of 35 years driving and 30 years riding with no at-fault collisions? And I managed to avoid all but a handful of the thousands of potential “accidents” I encountered on the street. Add in 8 years track riding without a single crash…

    I agree there are a small percentage of people who should never be issued licenses, but it is my observation this often has more to do with learning, cognitive or attitude issues rather than genetically determined capacities. There IS something to having a certain level of raw ability. Some of the smartest and most conscientious people I know who have held licenses for decades can’t (and never could) drive as well as my 17-year-old learner daughter. And they have the accident/ticket histories to match.

    Most of us will never win Gold at the Olympics or be on a World Series Champion team, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t participate in sports. The problem with driving is that incompetent drivers put others at significant risk. Combine incompetence with recklessness, poor work ethic (no inclination to continuously learn how to be a better driver) and a lack of situational awareness… BINGO… we have a dangerous driver.

    The driving instruction and testing regime needs to be able to identify people who have marginal ability. And no, the current fashion of graduated licenses and overly punitive speed and impaired penalties has not significantly lowered collision/fatality stats, so no joy there. Blaming some genetic “flaw” also won’t help anything besides insurance company profit margins.

  10. Hawk says

    I certainly can’t disagree with the fact that too much credence is being put on a very small study. At the same time, it begs more indepth investigation. We all have individual skills, as Paul points out. Some can be developed easily, others require much more effort and some are simply unattainable. No one was born being a concert pianist and, no matter how long I practised and studied, I doubt I’d ever master even the basic scales.

    When it comes to riding, driving, flying or any other such activity that requires those “special” skills, let’s look at MotoGP and F1. Almost every nationality and race of people are repesented in the riders/drivers. Aside from economic issues and, in no way am I suggesting anything “racist”, is there a genetic reason why some have never risen to the ranks of “the top ten?” I don’t know but I’d be interested to find out.

    The danger, as stu pointed out, is that statistics taken out of context could be used against us, like predisposing our driving abilities by insurance companies. I rather prefer our current system where we demonstrate our abilities to drive/ride within our personal limits ….. except, perhaps, when we get our first driver’s license and are considered a “crash looking for a place to happen.”

    Think of the money we could make if we only sold medical insurance to “healthy” people?

  11. Art says

    Sorry for the thread jack, but I think some important ideas have been put forward…
    @ Tashanomi and GenWayLaid- Your impressions are correct, riding properly should become as second nature as walking. You don’t consciously think about balancing, then lifting up each foot, putting it down, rolling from heel to toe, repeat for each step… You just “decide” where you want to walk to and the appropriate brain, neurological and muscle functions happen without conscious thought as to HOW we do it. We all forget how much practice it took us as infants is forgotten until something happens and we must re-learn how to walk. I’ve been told re-learning walking as an adult can be a very difficult, frustrating process. So why do we think learning to ride a bike or drive as adults should be easy or somehow “come naturally”.

    Learning the basic skills of riding, like most adult learning, is largely a left brain (logical. linear. verbal) exercise. Once the “basics” are sufficiently practiced, the right side and “muscle memory” (graphic, non-linear) takes over and you just “do it”. And each of us has to figure out for ourselves when we have had enough practice and can “trust” the right side of out brain to ‘just do it’. Put another way, if you are thinking about the mechanics of braking and countersteering while tipping into your favorite curve at 60 mph, you’re in trouble. You need to have practiced all the facets of turning at more manageable speeds long before that so they are nearly automatic, just like walking across the room.

    Again, sorry, back to bad drivers…

  12. says

    Ages ago I answered a Cycle World questionaire about safety and motorcycles, and put myself in the better 50 % of riders, though exclusively on account of my substantial riding experience. It has given me the ability to read traffic and foresee dangerous situations. Also, I am able to shift gears in corners, and can switch from foot clutch to Brit gear layout to Jap ditto without any trouble.

    Most riders I know have less experience than I have, but alas, most of them are better riders too. They cringe when they see me take yet another dumb line through a curve, or when I attack said curve at two-thirds the speed they’d be comfortable with. Then of course most of them have had more accidents than I have (5 in all, the last one 26 years ago; a dead branch fell from a tree and knocked me off), because the term ‘defensive driving’ is not part of their vocabulary.

    Methinks the 29-person survey probably is correct in suggesting that a certain percentage of drivers and riders are fairly inept at operating their vehicles. To what extent it makes them dangerous to themselves or to others in traffic, is a different matter.

  13. Dennis Grisez says

    I seem to be in the minority of opinion, and that’s probably because I am thinking about the last few percent of performance, not so much about just getting down the road safely. Of course most people can be trained to safely ride or drive successfully. And fortunately most people are rarely in a situation where exceptional skills are required. Despite the shockingly small sample size in the study, I still feel that this result confirms my suspicion that genetics, the way we’re wired, has a huge impact on whether we can ever hope to have the mastery of Rossi, Haga, Senna, Hamilton, etc.

    Given that: There are drivers who enter F1 seasons on the dollars they can bring to the team, not so much on their records. Those drivers are trained, motivated, provided with the best equipment, and still they can’t perform as well, at the limit, as their more talented competitors. Try as they may they can’t. And then it rains. And the differences really show.

    I think I’m a good performance rider and driver. I’m comfortable with sliding tires, late braking, catching mistakes, etc.

-shift, one-down/four-up street bike to a right-shift, one-up/four-down race bike) and be instantly comfortable, having no problem making the transition. That amazed me, and caused me to believe me there was something intrinsically different between how his brain works and mine. It took me forever to be comfortable on my first right-side-shift bike (a BSA). After several months of riding it (exclusively, mind you) I still found myself trying to upshift by slipping my left boot under the brake lever.

  8. GenWaylaid says

    Or maybe “study finds that 30% of the population are crap at simulations.” I know that without the ability to balance and listen to the engine and the tires I would be a complete mess. My reflexes are good, but I can’t find the apex of a curve and remember what gear I’m in at the same time, and after years of riding that hasn’t gotten any better. I’m glad my brain stem’s good at riding, because everything above it is out to lunch.

  9. Art says

    A sample of 29 people? Doubtful this is even statistically significant enough to warrant funds for a further study, which is what most of these small sample tests are really about. Maybe the study authors should read Freakonomics before declaring genetics is the main cause of bad driving. I’d be willing to bet that with the proper instruction, even “genetically disadvantaged” drivers could be taught how to be sufficiently competent to not be a danger to others. Walking and speaking are also a very complex tasks, but pretty much everyone without major disabilities manages to figure these out. I won’t detail the left/right brain process/theories that allow humans to learn such tasks without “formal” teaching, but surely driving is no more complex than either walking or speaking.

    I am terrible at driving/navigating video games, and fail terribly even with something as realistic as Flight Simulator. (And I play guitar fairly well Guitar Hero is a mystery to me…) But does this matter given my real driving record of 35 years driving and 30 years riding with no at-fault collisions? And I managed to avoid all but a handful of the thousands of potential “accidents” I encountered on the street. Add in 8 years track riding without a single crash…

    I agree there are a small percentage of people who should never be issued licenses, but it is my observation this often has more to do with learning, cognitive or attitude issues rather than genetically determined capacities. There IS something to having a certain level of raw ability. Some of the smartest and most conscientious people I know who have held licenses for decades can’t (and never could) drive as well as my 17-year-old learner daughter. And they have the accident/ticket histories to match.

    Most of us will never win Gold at the Olympics or be on a World Series Champion team, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t participate in sports. The problem with driving is that incompetent drivers put others at significant risk. Combine incompetence with recklessness, poor work ethic (no inclination to continuously learn how to be a better driver) and a lack of situational awareness… BINGO… we have a dangerous driver.

    The driving instruction and testing regime needs to be able to identify people who have marginal ability. And no, the current fashion of graduated licenses and overly punitive speed and impaired penalties has not significantly lowered collision/fatality stats, so no joy there. Blaming some genetic “flaw” also won’t help anything besides insurance company profit margins.

  10. Hawk says

    I certainly can’t disagree with the fact that too much credence is being put on a very small study. At the same time, it begs more indepth investigation. We all have individual skills, as Paul points out. Some can be developed easily, others require much more effort and some are simply unattainable. No one was born being a concert pianist and, no matter how long I practised and studied, I doubt I’d ever master even the basic scales.

    When it comes to riding, driving, flying or any other such activity that requires those “special” skills, let’s look at MotoGP and F1. Almost every nationality and race of people are repesented in the riders/drivers. Aside from economic issues and, in no way am I suggesting anything “racist”, is there a genetic reason why some have never risen to the ranks of “the top ten?” I don’t know but I’d be interested to find out.

    The danger, as stu pointed out, is that statistics taken out of context could be used against us, like predisposing our driving abilities by insurance companies. I rather prefer our current system where we demonstrate our abilities to drive/ride within our personal limits ….. except, perhaps, when we get our first driver’s license and are considered a “crash looking for a place to happen.”

    Think of the money we could make if we only sold medical insurance to “healthy” people?

  11. Art says

    Sorry for the thread jack, but I think some important ideas have been put forward…
    @ Tashanomi and GenWayLaid- Your impressions are correct, riding properly should become as second nature as walking. You don’t consciously think about balancing, then lifting up each foot, putting it down, rolling from heel to toe, repeat for each step… You just “decide” where you want to walk to and the appropriate brain, neurological and muscle functions happen without conscious thought as to HOW we do it. We all forget how much practice it took us as infants is forgotten until something happens and we must re-learn how to walk. I’ve been told re-learning walking as an adult can be a very difficult, frustrating process. So why do we think learning to ride a bike or drive as adults should be easy or somehow “come naturally”.

    Learning the basic skills of riding, like most adult learning, is largely a left brain (logical. linear. verbal) exercise. Once the “basics” are sufficiently practiced, the right side and “muscle memory” (graphic, non-linear) takes over and you just “do it”. And each of us has to figure out for ourselves when we have had enough practice and can “trust” the right side of out brain to ‘just do it’. Put another way, if you are thinking about the mechanics of braking and countersteering while tipping into your favorite curve at 60 mph, you’re in trouble. You need to have practiced all the facets of turning at more manageable speeds long before that so they are nearly automatic, just like walking across the room.

    Again, sorry, back to bad drivers…

  12. says

    Ages ago I answered a Cycle World questionaire about safety and motorcycles, and put myself in the better 50 % of riders, though exclusively on account of my substantial riding experience. It has given me the ability to read traffic and foresee dangerous situations. Also, I am able to shift gears in corners, and can switch from foot clutch to Brit gear layout to Jap ditto without any trouble.

    Most riders I know have less experience than I have, but alas, most of them are better riders too. They cringe when they see me take yet another dumb line through a curve, or when I attack said curve at two-thirds the speed they’d be comfortable with. Then of course most of them have had more accidents than I have (5 in all, the last one 26 years ago; a dead branch fell from a tree and knocked me off), because the term ‘defensive driving’ is not part of their vocabulary.

    Methinks the 29-person survey probably is correct in suggesting that a certain percentage of drivers and riders are fairly inept at operating their vehicles. To what extent it makes them dangerous to themselves or to others in traffic, is a different matter.

  13. Dennis Grisez says

    I seem to be in the minority of opinion, and that’s probably because I am thinking about the last few percent of performance, not so much about just getting down the road safely. Of course most people can be trained to safely ride or drive successfully. And fortunately most people are rarely in a situation where exceptional skills are required. Despite the shockingly small sample size in the study, I still feel that this result confirms my suspicion that genetics, the way we’re wired, has a huge impact on whether we can ever hope to have the mastery of Rossi, Haga, Senna, Hamilton, etc.

    Given that: There are drivers who enter F1 seasons on the dollars they can bring to the team, not so much on their records. Those drivers are trained, motivated, provided with the best equipment, and still they can’t perform as well, at the limit, as their more talented competitors. Try as they may they can’t. And then it rains. And the differences really show.

    I think I’m a good performance rider and driver. I’m comfortable with sliding tires, late braking, catching mistakes, etc. I still can’t catch a coworker of mine who seems to work far less hard at going fast than I do. I’m 40, but he’s nearing 60 and isn’t slowing down. I’m convinced (and it makes me feel better to believe) that he’s genetically superior to me in this regard. I’m also sure there are other factors, but in the pure, innate, car control arena I feel that you just can’t train that sort of composure and skill.

    Of course we


 you did. Thanks young man.” With that he moved.
Charlie shrugged and looked away
David stopped.
“One more question.”
Charlie reluctantly tore his gaze from his ogling and looked at him in impatience.
“Your bike. How did you remain with it?”
Again, the shrug
“Dunno man. Loved the bike like it was part of my body. Died on it. Only natural I came along with it here”
David nodded and walked away, throwing an unacknowledged wave at Charlie.
He looked at the fast fading sun.
“Unfinished business.”

to be continued…

Before we begin this journey, I’d like to acknowledge the writer of this piece @GenesisMyNameIz, who helped me bring a rambling idea to life…or afterlife! Love you Twinnie! Mwah!
Ok! Back to the story….

Tears filled Charlie’s eyes as the wind whipped his hair straight up and backwards. A part of his mind knew the power bike was going too fast but Fuck it! He revved the engine and the speedometer needle jumped clockwise. He and his Lverda Ferrari F1 bike blurred and merged with the night itself, a booming sensation of violence and speed on the empty highway. The Numbness grew from Charlie’s chest upwards to his neck.
To his face.
He responded to this by shifting backwards in his seat while releasing the clutch with the tip of his left boot. The Power bike roared as the transmission re-ignited and leapt off the ground. In that split second, Charlie looked back and confirmed his fear. The road behind him was being erased by a massive orb of darkness speeding towards him almost as fast as he was moving. He had to go faster.
Faster. Faster.
The Numbness.
Everywhere now.
His eyes.
His mind.
The bike touched the earth back with a resounding ‘Whomp!’ and blazed forward. Charlie gritted his teeth and leaned forward. As long as the road kept coming.
Tonight, Charlie fully intended on outrunning the unexplainable. He zoomed off down the empty highway.

2 hours Earlier…

The small serval wild cat sniffed the wind, hoping upon hope that it could catch the smell of some helpless prey just beneath the bridge connecting the hilly crevice and the highway. Smelling nothing, it sauntered away, preparing to sleep hungry. All of a sudden all the hair on its furry body sprang upwards in alarm! Hissing and spitting, the cat turned upwards towards the bridge… looking for the source of its discomfort … and saw a massive motorcycle coming at fullspeed from the adjoining road about to climb the bridge. The motorcycle almost cleared the sharp corner of the wire meshing surrounding the bridge but at the last instant, slammed into the concrete steel wall of the bridge. The bike exploded immediately; erupting into a golden fireball that illuminated the nightsky for miles around. And the impact flung the body of the rider out of and over the bridge. The cat watched in trepidation as the body rolled head over heels towards its direction, bones cracking with each horrid twist down the hill. Eventually the body rolled to a final stop in a crumpled unnatural heap very close to the serval cat. The cat walked up to the heap and observed it. The rider’s neck had been broken severly and the head almost torn backwards. The chest had caved in and pieces and bits of intestine and innards poked out of the open bowel. The cat looked into the open eyes of the dead rider.
Purring demurely, the cat dug its fangs into the rider’s left eyeball and chewed contentedly.
Dinner came late. But it came afterall.

1 hour Earlier

Charlie picked himself up from the ground where he had fallen. He shook himself free of the dust and checked for broken bones or injuries. Strangely, he felt nothing. Just a numb feeling rising from his toes and circling his bowels. Apparently he had misjudged the curve on the highway bridge and ploughed through the bridge’s wire meshing with his power bike. The force of the impact had hurled him over the bridge while holding the bike captive, throwing him head over heels down the hilly sides of the crevice bordering the highway and the bridge. Charlie shook his head and in doing so, he saw it.

There was someone, No, something standing beside him. He looked up and the numbness floored his entire being. There was an ebb of darkness, blacker than the regular night’s darkness standing beside him. Standing into him. That was the only explanation. Even as he looked down at his hands, little tendrils of darkness swirled from his fingers, wrapped against his chest. Charlie never knew Numbness could hurt. It burnt like a piercing black blue fire in his heart. With a grunt, Charlie fell forward, disconnecting the intruding presence from himself. He looked back and saw the darkness flowing fluidly towards him. There was only one instruction Charlie’s mind screamed at him.

He clambered upwards… Groping with both arms and fingers and legs .. Struggling to climb up the not so steep hill. He could hear his bike’s engine revving idly in the distance. A numb feeling washed over his feet. He looked down and saw the darkness swirling upwards to his groin. With superhuman effort, Charlie broke lose again and ran upwards.

His bike was there. Just slanted against the broken part of the bridge where he had collided with it. The engine was running. The Numbness was clouding his thoughts now.
He had to ..
He had to get away. As fast as possible. Charlie climbed the bike. He revved the engine and the tires screamed as they spun; their traction with the road creating plumes of smoke. Charlie disengaged the brakes and the bike surged ahead, again disconnecting him from the darkness. Just Keep Moving.
Charlie knew he was in for the ride of his life…or after life.
He zoomed off, disappearing and appearing out of buildings, like the ghost he was.

To be continued….

%d bloggers like this:<|endoftext|>Personal Care and Style: How to buy shoes. Buy shoes from a brand known for quality and comfort. Many well-established footwear brands are known for their reliable, functional footwear. Buy a pair of shoes from one of these brands to make sure that you are getting a high quality product. Most of these companies have built their reputations on years of good customer service as well, so these shoes are likely to be covered by a generous warranty. Find quality footwear brands by reading online reviews.<|endoftext|>Early life trauma: A predictor of IBS

Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) affects 10 to 20 percent of Americans, the majority of them women. Symptoms include constipation, severe diarrhea, or a combination of both, along with nausea and stomach pain. Despite its impact on the quality of life of millions of people worldwide, IBS remains poorly understood and both difficult and frustrating to treat.

Yuri A. Saito Loftus, M.D., a clinical researcher at Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, says that one approach is to consider psychological factors in patients with IBS, noting that stress can worsen symptoms and that comorbidities such as anxiety and depression are common.

"Childhood physical and sexual trauma have both been implicated in adult IBS, but other types of trauma have been less well studied, especially with regard to families," she says. "I'm very interested in genetic and environmental triggers in the development of IBS, and I wanted to look at different forms of trauma in greater detail."

To do so, Dr. Saito Loftus and colleagues re-contacted participants in an earlier large-family, case-controlled study. In all, 4,520 people were sent the Early Trauma Inventory Self Report, which collects information about emotional, sexual and physical abuse as well as general traumatic experiences ranging from parental loss to natural disasters.

Of those contacted, 58 percent agreed to participate — a total of 430 cases, 447 controls, 827 case-relatives and 921 control-relatives.

Based on the survey reports, people with IBS experienced more trauma over a lifetime than controls did. Traumatic events, which were equally common before and after age 18, included natural disasters, serious accidents, divorce, the death of a sibling, exposure to violence, and feeling belittled or misunderstood.

Patients with IBS were not more likely to report experiencing the death of a friend, observing a murder, being burned or having certain sexual encounters.

"The long and the short of it is that the presence of early-life trauma — and not necessarily abusive trauma — is predictive of adult IBS," Dr. Saito Loftus says. "Further, psychological and physical stressors over a lifetime may contribute to the disease."

She says that evidence about family members is less compelling. "Trauma scores were generally similar between case-relatives and control-relatives; there was a slight trend but not enough to be statistically significant," she explains. "But family members with IBS did have higher trauma scores than those who did not have the condition."

One of the limitations of the study, Dr. Saito Loftus notes, is that researchers were unable to learn the full measure of how people with IBS are affected by trauma. For instance, the impact of a distressing event is likely influenced by a person's age at the time, how other people cope and

“I’d fight it like you did. Thanks young man.” With that he moved.
Charlie shrugged and looked away
David stopped.
“One more question.”
Charlie reluctantly tore his gaze from his ogling and looked at him in impatience.
“Your bike. How did you remain with it?”
Again, the shrug
“Dunno man. Loved the bike like it was part of my body. Died on it. Only natural I came along with it here”
David nodded and walked away, throwing an unacknowledged wave at Charlie.
He looked at the fast fading sun.
“Unfinished business.”

to be continued…

Before we begin this journey, I’d like to acknowledge the writer of this piece @GenesisMyNameIz, who helped me bring a rambling idea to life…or afterlife! Love you Twinnie! Mwah!
Ok! Back to the story….

Tears filled Charlie’s eyes as the wind whipped his hair straight up and backwards. A part of his mind knew the power bike was going too fast but Fuck it! He revved the engine and the speedometer needle jumped clockwise. He and his Lverda Ferrari F1 bike blurred and merged with the night itself, a booming sensation of violence and speed on the empty highway. The Numbness grew from Charlie’s chest upwards to his neck.
To his face.
He responded to this by shifting backwards in his seat while releasing the clutch with the tip of his left boot. The Power bike roared as the transmission re-ignited and leapt off the ground. In that split second, Charlie looked back and confirmed his fear. The road behind him was being erased by a massive orb of darkness speeding towards him almost as fast as he was moving. He had to go faster.
Faster. Faster.
The Numbness.
Everywhere now.
His eyes.
His mind.
The bike touched the earth back with a resounding ‘Whomp!’ and blazed forward. Charlie gritted his teeth and leaned forward. As long as the road kept coming.
Tonight, Charlie fully intended on outrunning the unexplainable. He zoomed off down the empty highway.

2 hours Earlier…

The small serval wild cat sniffed the wind, hoping upon hope that it could catch the smell of some helpless prey just beneath the bridge connecting the hilly crevice and the highway. Smelling nothing, it sauntered away, preparing to sleep hungry. All of a sudden all the hair on its furry body sprang upwards in alarm! Hissing and spitting, the cat turned upwards towards the bridge… looking for the source of its discomfort … and saw a massive motorcycle coming at fullspeed from the adjoining road about to climb the bridge. The motorcycle almost cleared the sharp corner of the wire meshing surrounding the bridge but at the last instant, slammed into the concrete steel wall of the bridge. The bike exploded immediately; erupting into a golden fireball that illuminated the nightsky for miles around. And the impact flung the body of the rider out of and over the bridge. The cat watched in trepidation as the body rolled head over heels towards its direction, bones cracking with each horrid twist down the hill. Eventually the body rolled to a final stop in a crumpled unnatural heap very close to the serval cat. The cat walked up to the heap and observed it. The rider’s neck had been broken severly and the head almost torn backwards. The chest had caved in and pieces and bits of intestine and innards poked out of the open bowel. The cat looked into the open eyes of the dead rider.
Purring demurely, the cat dug its fangs into the rider’s left eyeball and chewed contentedly.
Dinner came late. But it came afterall.

1 hour Earlier

Charlie picked himself up from the ground where he had fallen. He shook himself free of the dust and checked for broken bones or injuries. Strangely, he felt nothing. Just a numb feeling rising from his toes and circling his bowels. Apparently he had misjudged the curve on the highway bridge and ploughed through the bridge’s wire meshing with his power bike. The force of the impact had hurled him over the bridge while holding the bike captive, throwing him head over heels down the hilly sides of the crevice bordering the highway and the bridge. Charlie shook his head and in doing so, he saw it.

There was someone, No, something standing beside him. He looked up and the numbness floored his entire being. There was an ebb of darkness, blacker than the regular night’s darkness standing beside him. Standing into him. That was the only explanation. Even as he looked down at his hands, little tendrils of darkness swirled from his fingers, wrapped against his chest. Charlie never knew Numbness could hurt. It burnt like a piercing black blue fire in his heart. With a grunt, Charlie fell forward, disconnecting the intruding presence from himself. He looked back and saw the darkness flowing fluidly towards him. There was only one instruction Charlie’s mind screamed at him.

He clambered upwards… Groping with both arms and fingers and legs .. Struggling to climb up the not so steep hill. He could hear his bike’s engine revving idly in the distance. A numb feeling washed over his feet. He looked down and saw the darkness swirling upwards to his groin. With superhuman effort, Charlie broke lose again and ran upwards.

His bike was there. Just slanted against the broken part of the bridge where he had collided with it. The engine was running. The Numbness was clouding his thoughts now.
He had to ..
He had to get away. As fast as possible. Charlie climbed the bike. He revved the engine and the tires screamed as they spun; their traction with the road creating plumes of smoke. Charlie disengaged the brakes and the bike surged ahead, again disconnecting him from the darkness. Just Keep Moving.
Charlie knew he was in for the ride of his life…or after life.
He zoomed off, disappearing and appearing out of buildings, like the ghost he was.

To be continued….

%d bloggers like this:<|endoftext|>Early life trauma: A predictor of IBS

Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) affects 10 to 20 percent of Americans, the majority of them women. Symptoms include constipation, severe diarrhea, or a combination of both, along with nausea and stomach pain. Despite its impact on the quality of life of millions of people worldwide, IBS remains poorly understood and both difficult and frustrating to treat.

Yuri A. Saito Loftus, M.D., a clinical researcher at Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, says that one approach is to consider psychological factors in patients with IBS, noting that stress can worsen symptoms and that comorbidities such as anxiety and depression are common.

"Childhood physical and sexual trauma have both been implicated in adult IBS, but other types of trauma have been less well studied, especially with regard to families," she says. "I'm very interested in genetic and environmental triggers in the development of IBS, and I wanted to look at different forms of trauma in greater detail."

To do so, Dr. Saito Loftus and colleagues re-contacted participants in an earlier large-family, case-controlled study. In all, 4,520 people were sent the Early Trauma Inventory Self Report, which collects information about emotional, sexual and physical abuse as well as general traumatic experiences ranging from parental loss to natural disasters.

Of those contacted, 58 percent agreed to participate — a total of 430 cases, 447 controls, 827 case-relatives and 921 control-relatives.

Based on the survey reports, people with IBS experienced more trauma over a lifetime than controls did. Traumatic events, which were equally common before and after age 18, included natural disasters, serious accidents, divorce, the death of a sibling, exposure to violence, and feeling belittled or misunderstood.

Patients with IBS were not more likely to report experiencing the death of a friend, observing a murder, being burned or having certain sexual encounters.

"The long and the short of it is that the presence of early-life trauma — and not necessarily abusive trauma — is predictive of adult IBS," Dr. Saito Loftus says. "Further, psychological and physical stressors over a lifetime may contribute to the disease."

She says that evidence about family members is less compelling. "Trauma scores were generally similar between case-relatives and control-relatives; there was a slight trend but not enough to be statistically significant," she explains. "But family members with IBS did have higher trauma scores than those who did not have the condition."

One of the limitations of the study, Dr. Saito Loftus notes, is that researchers were unable to learn the full measure of how people with IBS are affected by trauma. For instance, the impact of a distressing event is likely influenced by a person's age at the time, how other people cope and how much support the traumatized person receives. She adds that measures of emotional abuse, such as feeling unloved or misunderstood, are highly subjective and impossible to quantify.

Translating findings into practice

Trauma doesn't explain all cases of IBS, Dr. Saito Loftus says, but it does explain psychological comorbidities such as depression. And, she adds, some people have a genetic susceptibility to gut dysfunction that may be exacerbated by early


America has never viewed its working classes through the sentimental fug of an Edwardian music hall, but when treated well one time they promptly payed back with the greatest explosion of prosperity and technology in known history. But that's a bygone era, constantly memorialized and milked for every last drop of hope in repeating a Greatest Generation. California, particularly its coastal southern cities, provides a juxtaposition of glittering got-it-made success and violent squalor, with pernicious polarizing influences and taxes that keep regressing. It's the Big vs. the Little Lebowskis, and it's actually hard to tell who's winning--half the time the plot's entertaining, half the time it's frightening, and half the time it's disastrous. Because it's California, the halves add up.

But uh-oh. Cali's attached. It's kind of attached to the US like a skull, in fact. Am I looking at the future of my entire country? Well, it was America's bellwether state of the 20th century, so yes, it would seem so. Reading Will California become America's first failed state?, a competently researched and interviewed article in the Guardian, triggered the above memory of a recent trip to L.A., and the upshot of it is that public services will be shut down to reduce the budget gap, that's not going to be enough, and people will think of something because Californians are innovative.

Metaphorically, to take California's lead, the United States has a case of brain cancer, and it's not ready to start dealing with it in any serious way. Delusion is the order of the day. The recession is over, I'm sure you've heard. Tide's still up, sky's still blue and the myth of the California Dream is going to die hard, like a butthole surfer screaming "whooaaa, duuuude," as he bashes up repeatedly against the stony crags of Monterey.

To end on a glass half full, as required, California dreamers hang it out innately, they don't know any different, which means America's problems tend to crop up first and most prevalently in that state. Presumably, so will solutions.

No comments:<|endoftext|>Computers and Electronics: How to use wtfast. Go to wtfast website. On your favorite browser, enter this address on the url bar on a new tab :. Hit enter on your keyboard and you will be taken to the software download page. Choose which version you want to download. You can download a 30-day limited trial version if you want to try it out first.<|endoftext|>

History Of Paintings

For millennia, humans have been drawn to the act of artistic expression. Some of the earliest known paintings can be found at the Chauvet Cave in France, and are estimated to be about 32,000 years old. Prior to 1500, tempera paint was the preferred medium of choice in Europe (particularly Italy), with many tempera paintings from the first century AD still in existence today. During the late Renaissance, however, oil painting techniques were developed in the Netherlands and they quickly spread across Europe. Oil paint is a more flexible medium, and allows for a greater range of optical effects; this in turn led to new expressive techniques for artists. During the Era of Enlightenment, five genres of paintings were recognized by art academies, including the French Academy and the Royal Academy in London. The genres were organized into a hierarchy, and include history painting, portraits, landscapes, still lifes, and genre painting (scenes from everyday life). The invention of photography in the 19th century greatly affected the course of painting. As photographic processes advanced, it took away from painting its historic purpose of recording the world. The art movements of the late 19th century and early 20th century, including Impressionism, Fauvism, Expressionism, and Cubism, were steps away from previous art movements that were rooted in realism and capturing the surrounding world with paint. Modern art movements, such as Abstract Expressionism, Surrealism and Pop Art, are far more concerned with art concepts and technique, than in a need to accurately record one’s surrounding world.

Paintings Techniques

Paint is a liquid mixture of pigment and a binding agent such as oil or water. A painting is created on a two-dimensional surface (ground); a wall painting or fresco is also considered to be a painting. Oil, acrylic, and watercolor are some of the most common types of paint today. Oil paint dries very slowly, so artists are easily able to blend colors together. The oil is derived from linseed, walnut and poppy. Tempera paint is created by mixing egg yolk with pigment. It dries much more slowly than even oil paint, and allows for the artist to easily blend colors. Watercolor can be created by mixing pigment with water, and is usually applied to paper. Before the 19th century, watercolor was used primarily for sketches, but with artists such as J.M.W. Turner, it slowly grew to be respected as a medium. Acrylic paint, which was invented in the 20th century, is synthetic and water-soluble, and when it dries looks very similar to oil paint. Acrylic paint is perhaps the most popular type of paint with modern and contemporary artists. In order to create a painting, an artist will apply paint with a brush, or other tool such as a palette knife, to a surface such as a canvas, wood panel, paper, wall, glass, copper, or concrete.

Artists Known For Paintings

The Renaissance saw the rise of master artists who created a great number of the world's most famous paintings including “The Last Supper” and "Mona Lisa" by Leonardo da Vinci, and “Primavera” by Sandro Botticelli. Other famous artists of the Renaissance include Raphael, Michelangelo, Van Eyck, and Titian. The Baroque movement of the 17th century included Rembrandt, Caravaggio, and Rubens, which was followed by the Rococo movement (Boucher and Fragonard), and the French neo-classical movement (David and Ingres). Romanticism, which is encapsulated by the works of Goya, Delacroix, Turner, and Constable, was followed by Realism, of which the French artists Courbet and Manet are most recalled today. Perhaps the best known of the Impressionist artists is Claude Monet, whose "Water Lilies" (Nympheas) is a series of approximately 250 art paintings that depict Monet’s flower garden in Giverny. Other famous Impressionist and Post-Impressionist artists include Degas, Cassatt, Morisot, Van Gogh, Cezanne, and Seurat. Notable 20th century painters include Pollock and Rothko of the Abstract Expressionist movement, as well as by Kahlo, Dali, Warhol, Lichtenstein, Richter, and Doig. Pablo Picasso is perhaps the most noted artist of the 20th century. One of the most famous Picasso paintings, “Guernica,” is a powerful anti-war piece which depicts the bombing of innocent civilians during the Spanish Civil War.<|endoftext|>• YouTube
  • Instagram - Black Circle
  • Facebook - Black Circle

Chapter 1

verse 1: DEATH DEATH...

Death, death and mo death;

Grand Theft Auto that automatically makes the news.

Happiness is defused and hidden because she ain't telegenic enough to

make the scene.

If you know what I mean then you know what was meant;

when the article was sent straight to yo phone.

What's been stolen is more than transportation;

it's your relation to love and peace that's deceased...each and every time you look at the screen.

 verse 2: FEEL LIKE

I feel like an elephant,

behind long bars that people peer through for amusement.

I eat peanuts because that’s what they throw me;

but one day when I’m the main attraction... maybe,

I’ll change peoples contempt at the gate;

let them see how it feels to pac your derm as much as humanly possible.

For now they only say tisk, tisk... that my tusks are ivory;

and I’m gray from much misery.

Those tusks put me in a position to fight in a circus

safari where I never belonged.

When the tusks fall they are placed unwillingly in museums

Or what we call today-jail.

verse 3: BLACK PAINT

I wish  I could articulate hate,

even say how it really, really feels to be black paint trying to dry on_______________ walls.

Black paint trying to dry on _________________ walls that swear to be pure when they come from me!

I’m only drying on them, because this scene is a script not reality.

It is a comedy, a comedy that I am too culturally biased to know is funny.

But still I remain of color, because if drying too fast is a sin then the rest of me is already chipping.

verse 4: COMB

I comb with a pen because there’s no need to cut anything,

but the stringy attitudes lying on the powerful heads of

 or failure of Reaganomics, of scientology, of pull yourself up by your bootstraps, trickle down Wysocki, trickle down. If you can keep your income inequality when all around you are losing theirs then you will be a man my son.

America has never viewed its working classes through the sentimental fug of an Edwardian music hall, but when treated well one time they promptly payed back with the greatest explosion of prosperity and technology in known history. But that's a bygone era, constantly memorialized and milked for every last drop of hope in repeating a Greatest Generation. California, particularly its coastal southern cities, provides a juxtaposition of glittering got-it-made success and violent squalor, with pernicious polarizing influences and taxes that keep regressing. It's the Big vs. the Little Lebowskis, and it's actually hard to tell who's winning--half the time the plot's entertaining, half the time it's frightening, and half the time it's disastrous. Because it's California, the halves add up.

But uh-oh. Cali's attached. It's kind of attached to the US like a skull, in fact. Am I looking at the future of my entire country? Well, it was America's bellwether state of the 20th century, so yes, it would seem so. Reading Will California become America's first failed state?, a competently researched and interviewed article in the Guardian, triggered the above memory of a recent trip to L.A., and the upshot of it is that public services will be shut down to reduce the budget gap, that's not going to be enough, and people will think of something because Californians are innovative.

Metaphorically, to take California's lead, the United States has a case of brain cancer, and it's not ready to start dealing with it in any serious way. Delusion is the order of the day. The recession is over, I'm sure you've heard. Tide's still up, sky's still blue and the myth of the California Dream is going to die hard, like a butthole surfer screaming "whooaaa, duuuude," as he bashes up repeatedly against the stony crags of Monterey.

To end on a glass half full, as required, California dreamers hang it out innately, they don't know any different, which means America's problems tend to crop up first and most prevalently in that state. Presumably, so will solutions.

No comments:<|endoftext|>

History Of Paintings

For millennia, humans have been drawn to the act of artistic expression. Some of the earliest known paintings can be found at the Chauvet Cave in France, and are estimated to be about 32,000 years old. Prior to 1500, tempera paint was the preferred medium of choice in Europe (particularly Italy), with many tempera paintings from the first century AD still in existence today. During the late Renaissance, however, oil painting techniques were developed in the Netherlands and they quickly spread across Europe. Oil paint is a more flexible medium, and allows for a greater range of optical effects; this in turn led to new expressive techniques for artists. During the Era of Enlightenment, five genres of paintings were recognized by art academies, including the French Academy and the Royal Academy in London. The genres were organized into a hierarchy, and include history painting, portraits, landscapes, still lifes, and genre painting (scenes from everyday life). The invention of photography in the 19th century greatly affected the course of painting. As photographic processes advanced, it took away from painting its historic purpose of recording the world. The art movements of the late 19th century and early 20th century, including Impressionism, Fauvism, Expressionism, and Cubism, were steps away from previous art movements that were rooted in realism and capturing the surrounding world with paint. Modern art movements, such as Abstract Expressionism, Surrealism and Pop Art, are far more concerned with art concepts and technique, than in a need to accurately record one’s surrounding world.

Paintings Techniques

Paint is a liquid mixture of pigment and a binding agent such as oil or water. A painting is created on a two-dimensional surface (ground); a wall painting or fresco is also considered to be a painting. Oil, acrylic, and watercolor are some of the most common types of paint today. Oil paint dries very slowly, so artists are easily able to blend colors together. The oil is derived from linseed, walnut and poppy. Tempera paint is created by mixing egg yolk with pigment. It dries much more slowly than even oil paint, and allows for the artist to easily blend colors. Watercolor can be created by mixing pigment with water, and is usually applied to paper. Before the 19th century, watercolor was used primarily for sketches, but with artists such as J.M.W. Turner, it slowly grew to be respected as a medium. Acrylic paint, which was invented in the 20th century, is synthetic and water-soluble, and when it dries looks very similar to oil paint. Acrylic paint is perhaps the most popular type of paint with modern and contemporary artists. In order to create a painting, an artist will apply paint with a brush, or other tool such as a palette knife, to a surface such as a canvas, wood panel, paper, wall, glass, copper, or concrete.

Artists Known For Paintings

The Renaissance saw the rise of master artists who created a great number of the world's most famous paintings including “The Last Supper” and "Mona Lisa" by Leonardo da Vinci, and “Primavera” by Sandro Botticelli. Other famous artists of the Renaissance include Raphael, Michelangelo, Van Eyck, and Titian. The Baroque movement of the 17th century included Rembrandt, Caravaggio, and Rubens, which was followed by the Rococo movement (Boucher and Fragonard), and the French neo-classical movement (David and Ingres). Romanticism, which is encapsulated by the works of Goya, Delacroix, Turner, and Constable, was followed by Realism, of which the French artists Courbet and Manet are most recalled today. Perhaps the best known of the Impressionist artists is Claude Monet, whose "Water Lilies" (Nympheas) is a series of approximately 250 art paintings that depict Monet’s flower garden in Giverny. Other famous Impressionist and Post-Impressionist artists include Degas, Cassatt, Morisot, Van Gogh, Cezanne, and Seurat. Notable 20th century painters include Pollock and Rothko of the Abstract Expressionist movement, as well as by Kahlo, Dali, Warhol, Lichtenstein, Richter, and Doig. Pablo Picasso is perhaps the most noted artist of the 20th century. One of the most famous Picasso paintings, “Guernica,” is a powerful anti-war piece which depicts the bombing of innocent civilians during the Spanish Civil War.<|endoftext|>• YouTube
  • Instagram - Black Circle
  • Facebook - Black Circle

Chapter 1

verse 1: DEATH DEATH...

Death, death and mo death;

Grand Theft Auto that automatically makes the news.

Happiness is defused and hidden because she ain't telegenic enough to

make the scene.

If you know what I mean then you know what was meant;

when the article was sent straight to yo phone.

What's been stolen is more than transportation;

it's your relation to love and peace that's deceased...each and every time you look at the screen.

 verse 2: FEEL LIKE

I feel like an elephant,

behind long bars that people peer through for amusement.

I eat peanuts because that’s what they throw me;

but one day when I’m the main attraction... maybe,

I’ll change peoples contempt at the gate;

let them see how it feels to pac your derm as much as humanly possible.

For now they only say tisk, tisk... that my tusks are ivory;

and I’m gray from much misery.

Those tusks put me in a position to fight in a circus

safari where I never belonged.

When the tusks fall they are placed unwillingly in museums

Or what we call today-jail.

verse 3: BLACK PAINT

I wish  I could articulate hate,

even say how it really, really feels to be black paint trying to dry on_______________ walls.

Black paint trying to dry on _________________ walls that swear to be pure when they come from me!

I’m only drying on them, because this scene is a script not reality.

It is a comedy, a comedy that I am too culturally biased to know is funny.

But still I remain of color, because if drying too fast is a sin then the rest of me is already chipping.

verse 4: COMB

I comb with a pen because there’s no need to cut anything,

but the stringy attitudes lying on the powerful heads of captivity;

who actually feel superior while acting out of inferior complexes.

Complex arrests are


Pets and Animals: How to breed a horse. Calculate the financial cost of impregnating your horse. Know that there is a considerable amount of cost involved with breeding a horse. There are fees for the stallion to breed with the mare, plus insurance costs to protect you should the mare kick out and damage the stallion, plus transport costs to get the mare to the stallion and back. Bear in mind that she may not become pregnant on the first attempt and so this may need to be repeated. Instead of using a stallion, you can also opt for artificial insemination.<|endoftext|>729, also known as SSC-8, violates the INF Treaty, which bans land-based missiles with a range from 500 to 5,500 kilometers.

The termination plan is scheduled to take effect on Tuesday, but German Chancellor Angela Merkel and other European leaders have persuaded the President to postpone action, allow for additional consultations with the allies, and try to put pressure on the Kremlin for the last time to comply with the treaty. The diplomats and officials discussed said.

On Saturday, Merkel’s last effort during a meeting with Trump in Buenos Aires was met with the president’s national security adviser John Bolton’s determination to withdraw from this landmark agreement.

NATO member countries also acknowledged that Russia is violating the treaty on medium and shorter-range missiles (INF) and blamed it for maintaining Moscow Formerly, only the United States accused Russia of violating the INF.

Earlier, US President Donald Trump announced the termination of the agreement with the Russian Federation on the elimination of medium and short-range missiles. But he allowed the re-conclusion of the contract with the Russian Federation and China.

Presidential adviser on national security, John Bolton, said that the revision of the INF Treaty required negotiations of all interested countries. Including the participation of North Korea and China, which also produce medium-range missiles and cruise missiles.

At the same time, the members in the meeting confirmed that they are ‘open to dialogue’ with Moscow. As per the participants, to them, the alliance is still ‘striving for constructive relations’ with Russia, when its actions ‘make it possible.

Russian Foreign ministry spokesperson Zaharowa said that the Russian side repeatedly stated that this(the accusation that Russia is in breach of the treaty) is a speculation if we put it in a calm way. We have not presented any evidence that will support the position after all. He further added that there is no basis for criticism by the US government that the Russian government is not implementing the INFdisarmament treaty, and no evidence was provided by the US side

In 1987, the leaders of USA and USSR have signed the document. Under the terms of the document, the parties we put to produce, use and store ground-based ballistic missiles of short(from 500 to 1 thousand kilometers) and medium (from 1 thousand to 5.5 the position). It has been the backbone of the European security architecture itself bound than three decades, but the Trump administration says it puts the UnitedStates at a military disadvantage against China, and China is not bound by the treaty.

In most parts of the West, the INF treaty was a watershed in arms control during the Cold War, eliminating more than 2,600 missiles and ending years of confrontation between European nuclear missiles in Eastern Europe.

Trump’s announcement that the United States will withdraw from the treaty raises fears that when the nuclear missile threat across the African continent hits the target within minutes, it will resume tensions in the cold war.

Leave a Reply
<|endoftext|>Sunday, October 31, 2010

Is a fairly compelling opinion on the matter. Luckily, I spent the rest of the weekend surrounded by family and friends, while we ate, drank and were merry, and had a fantastic time.

And while I may tune in, I will place exactly zero blame on Georgia fans if they find something other to do than watch this game next year.

Because we're beyond explanations and logic and futility and and faith and moral victories at this point.

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Capital Investment

That's one thing about infrastructure. Sometimes the projects are big and costly, and you have to take out loans to pay for them.

While I understand the knee-jerk reaction to big ticket items, this is a mistake, and a big one. This isn't about total cost, it is about return on investment.

The worst thing this says about our nation isn't that we're spending too much money, but that we're incapable of getting Big Things done on time and on budget. Christie could have focused on implementation, and pushed through a major project. Instead, he just wants to cancel it. I can understand his reasoning, even as I disagree with it. His "solution" solves nothing.

Though I also have a problem with the way it is reported. Cancelling the project "cost" 6,000 jobs a year for a finite number of years. It "cost" a projected 45,000 jobs long-term.

Not one item, however, about the cost-effectiveness of tax dollars funding the creation and maintenance of those jobs. Not one item about how this process could be sped up or costs could be brought under control. Not one item about who the planners are or why this is taking so long or why there are expected cost overruns. Not a thing on the contractors and planners who have already collected $600 million with nothing to show for it.

(But I'd bet they all talk shit about Louisiana....)

And that's a problem. We don't have the will or budget to make major infrastructure improvements in this country because our infrastructure projects are used, politically, as temporary employment programs. There is no political incentive to get the jobs done efficiently and actually improve infrastructure even though doing so rewards you with more jobs and economic development in the long term.

Yet the GOP sees this guy as a rising star. Which tells me where they're at in this process: addressing problems uncreatively with lazy solutions that solve nothing. The problems this project was designed to solve will remain undone, the money will remain spent, and development will continue to be slowed by an unresponsive government.

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Culture of Fear

Scared, frightened people make less rational decisions, are more prone to misplace their priorities and are easier to mislead. Belief that crime is perpetually on the rise is part of a larger American narrative that is destroying this nation economically and culturally. Such irrational fear leads to bad decision making and mismanagement of resources. It also has political ramifications:

Part of the reason for this divergence is what sociologists call pessimistic bias: the unshakable conviction that things are not just worse than they are, but also worse than they used to be. Humans appear to have a hard-wired tendency to compare contemporary life with largely fictitious good old days, in which all schools were top-notch, politicians had integrity, children behaved, and crime was nil.

HT: The Daily Dish.

More Election Thuggery

In South Carolina and a brutal bit of tape from a Rand Paul event in Kentucky.

Curb stomping a political opponent? Really?

Instant Recall Voting?

Of course, it might take about 4 cycles to get rid of everyone, and it would be very interesting to see Americans straight up shut down their government for a year, but I think this could work.

Monday, October 25, 2010

Your Vanishing Oil

Over? Nothing's over until we decide it is.

Well, or until the national media stops reporting it.

Nothing to see, here, please move along.

Because the oil has vanished. Really, it has.

Freedom of the Press

(Tangentially related, this is the 2010'th post on Hurricane Radio.)

Everyone who talks about politics should go and get involved with their local community politics. You want better government, you have to work for it. Part of working for it is taking rational action to affect your politics locally.

That being said, one can only imagine the importance of having independent media like the American Zombie to investigate stuff most of your locals won't touch.

And that's the thing that has intrigued me the most about this episode in New Orleans. Here is one overwhelming problem with our politics - locally, statewide and nationally - that has led us to the government we have today.

Here is an independent internet investigator going through pages and pages of official documents and timelines to examine and thoroughly vet a candidate for the United States House of Representatives. This is stuff you would expect media groups with more robust resources to be doing.

But they're not.

You'd expect this to be bigger news, especially in this town. You'd expect this kind of possible scandal to be on all the talk radio and all the papers. But except for a passing mention, it isn't.

So one must beg the question: why? Why not?

First of all, these questions are being asked of the frontrunner. This guy is very likely to become New Orleans' next congressman. And in a town more suited for feudalism and patronage than the free market and results, he is poised to hold a great deal of power. If he wins, he is expected to hold the seat for a very, very long time.

No one wants to be on his bad side. Few members of the local media want to be that person who self-limits their access by investigating his past.

Moreover, as I learned this summer, many of the things being talked about were considered normal behavior on the part of state legislators of

729, also known as SSC-8, violates the INF Treaty, which bans land-based missiles with a range from 500 to 5,500 kilometers.

The termination plan is scheduled to take effect on Tuesday, but German Chancellor Angela Merkel and other European leaders have persuaded the President to postpone action, allow for additional consultations with the allies, and try to put pressure on the Kremlin for the last time to comply with the treaty. The diplomats and officials discussed said.

On Saturday, Merkel’s last effort during a meeting with Trump in Buenos Aires was met with the president’s national security adviser John Bolton’s determination to withdraw from this landmark agreement.

NATO member countries also acknowledged that Russia is violating the treaty on medium and shorter-range missiles (INF) and blamed it for maintaining Moscow Formerly, only the United States accused Russia of violating the INF.

Earlier, US President Donald Trump announced the termination of the agreement with the Russian Federation on the elimination of medium and short-range missiles. But he allowed the re-conclusion of the contract with the Russian Federation and China.

Presidential adviser on national security, John Bolton, said that the revision of the INF Treaty required negotiations of all interested countries. Including the participation of North Korea and China, which also produce medium-range missiles and cruise missiles.

At the same time, the members in the meeting confirmed that they are ‘open to dialogue’ with Moscow. As per the participants, to them, the alliance is still ‘striving for constructive relations’ with Russia, when its actions ‘make it possible.

Russian Foreign ministry spokesperson Zaharowa said that the Russian side repeatedly stated that this(the accusation that Russia is in breach of the treaty) is a speculation if we put it in a calm way. We have not presented any evidence that will support the position after all. He further added that there is no basis for criticism by the US government that the Russian government is not implementing the INFdisarmament treaty, and no evidence was provided by the US side

In 1987, the leaders of USA and USSR have signed the document. Under the terms of the document, the parties we put to produce, use and store ground-based ballistic missiles of short(from 500 to 1 thousand kilometers) and medium (from 1 thousand to 5.5 the position). It has been the backbone of the European security architecture itself bound than three decades, but the Trump administration says it puts the UnitedStates at a military disadvantage against China, and China is not bound by the treaty.

In most parts of the West, the INF treaty was a watershed in arms control during the Cold War, eliminating more than 2,600 missiles and ending years of confrontation between European nuclear missiles in Eastern Europe.

Trump’s announcement that the United States will withdraw from the treaty raises fears that when the nuclear missile threat across the African continent hits the target within minutes, it will resume tensions in the cold war.

Leave a Reply
<|endoftext|>Sunday, October 31, 2010

Is a fairly compelling opinion on the matter. Luckily, I spent the rest of the weekend surrounded by family and friends, while we ate, drank and were merry, and had a fantastic time.

And while I may tune in, I will place exactly zero blame on Georgia fans if they find something other to do than watch this game next year.

Because we're beyond explanations and logic and futility and and faith and moral victories at this point.

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Capital Investment

That's one thing about infrastructure. Sometimes the projects are big and costly, and you have to take out loans to pay for them.

While I understand the knee-jerk reaction to big ticket items, this is a mistake, and a big one. This isn't about total cost, it is about return on investment.

The worst thing this says about our nation isn't that we're spending too much money, but that we're incapable of getting Big Things done on time and on budget. Christie could have focused on implementation, and pushed through a major project. Instead, he just wants to cancel it. I can understand his reasoning, even as I disagree with it. His "solution" solves nothing.

Though I also have a problem with the way it is reported. Cancelling the project "cost" 6,000 jobs a year for a finite number of years. It "cost" a projected 45,000 jobs long-term.

Not one item, however, about the cost-effectiveness of tax dollars funding the creation and maintenance of those jobs. Not one item about how this process could be sped up or costs could be brought under control. Not one item about who the planners are or why this is taking so long or why there are expected cost overruns. Not a thing on the contractors and planners who have already collected $600 million with nothing to show for it.

(But I'd bet they all talk shit about Louisiana....)

And that's a problem. We don't have the will or budget to make major infrastructure improvements in this country because our infrastructure projects are used, politically, as temporary employment programs. There is no political incentive to get the jobs done efficiently and actually improve infrastructure even though doing so rewards you with more jobs and economic development in the long term.

Yet the GOP sees this guy as a rising star. Which tells me where they're at in this process: addressing problems uncreatively with lazy solutions that solve nothing. The problems this project was designed to solve will remain undone, the money will remain spent, and development will continue to be slowed by an unresponsive government.

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Culture of Fear

Scared, frightened people make less rational decisions, are more prone to misplace their priorities and are easier to mislead. Belief that crime is perpetually on the rise is part of a larger American narrative that is destroying this nation economically and culturally. Such irrational fear leads to bad decision making and mismanagement of resources. It also has political ramifications:

Part of the reason for this divergence is what sociologists call pessimistic bias: the unshakable conviction that things are not just worse than they are, but also worse than they used to be. Humans appear to have a hard-wired tendency to compare contemporary life with largely fictitious good old days, in which all schools were top-notch, politicians had integrity, children behaved, and crime was nil.

HT: The Daily Dish.

More Election Thuggery

In South Carolina and a brutal bit of tape from a Rand Paul event in Kentucky.

Curb stomping a political opponent? Really?

Instant Recall Voting?

Of course, it might take about 4 cycles to get rid of everyone, and it would be very interesting to see Americans straight up shut down their government for a year, but I think this could work.

Monday, October 25, 2010

Your Vanishing Oil

Over? Nothing's over until we decide it is.

Well, or until the national media stops reporting it.

Nothing to see, here, please move along.

Because the oil has vanished. Really, it has.

Freedom of the Press

(Tangentially related, this is the 2010'th post on Hurricane Radio.)

Everyone who talks about politics should go and get involved with their local community politics. You want better government, you have to work for it. Part of working for it is taking rational action to affect your politics locally.

That being said, one can only imagine the importance of having independent media like the American Zombie to investigate stuff most of your locals won't touch.

And that's the thing that has intrigued me the most about this episode in New Orleans. Here is one overwhelming problem with our politics - locally, statewide and nationally - that has led us to the government we have today.

Here is an independent internet investigator going through pages and pages of official documents and timelines to examine and thoroughly vet a candidate for the United States House of Representatives. This is stuff you would expect media groups with more robust resources to be doing.

But they're not.

You'd expect this to be bigger news, especially in this town. You'd expect this kind of possible scandal to be on all the talk radio and all the papers. But except for a passing mention, it isn't.

So one must beg the question: why? Why not?

First of all, these questions are being asked of the frontrunner. This guy is very likely to become New Orleans' next congressman. And in a town more suited for feudalism and patronage than the free market and results, he is poised to hold a great deal of power. If he wins, he is expected to hold the seat for a very, very long time.

No one wants to be on his bad side. Few members of the local media want to be that person who self-limits their access by investigating his past.

Moreover, as I learned this summer, many of the things being talked about were considered normal behavior on the part of state legislators of both political parties. If the frontrunner has his career options limited by this type of behavior, other powerful patrons will likely run into the same scrutiny. (Well, not really, but in theory.)

In a macro sense, these are problems that exist across the land. It is why the GOP tend to focus on marketing utopian visions of the "good ole days" countered by paranoid fantasies of what will happen if Democrats get elected. It is why the Democrats tend to focus on ethnic and labor memberships to provide their base.

Nobody really wants to fix the problems inherent in