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Conservation Cloning: Feasible Way to Save Species
December 2, 2015 Evan 1,101 Comments
Adam Suvalskas: Building & Construction Tech.
Maria Peralta: Animal Science
Derek O'Dea: Turf Grass Management
Today, only four magnificent Northern White rhinos remain (Wei-Haas, 2015). These light-skinned rhinoceros have been critically endangered since the beginning of the 21st century. The San Diego Zoo in California has one female and the Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya has three females, and the last remaining male (Wei-Haas, 2015). Conservationists are fighting to prevent this species from becoming extinct. Since the last remaining male Northern White rhino is at an age where it can no longer successfully breed, traditional conservation tactics such as captive breeding are failing to provide effective results (Wei-Haas, 2015). These passive, enormous creatures used to inhabit the grassy plains of Southern Africa and roam freely, but now these defenseless survivors are on the brink of extinction without much hope for survival left (National Geographic, n.d.). Luckily, there is one method that can become the solution to repopulate the Northern White rhinoceros and similar species that are so far gone, where only a small population of the same gender or infertile individuals remain. Cloning, the process of producing a genetically identical individual using the DNA of another individual, has been used over the past decade to revive extinct species. We can use this process to clone the last male White rhino to create a male that would successfully mate with the remaining females, and thus resolve the captive breeding issue. In order to accomplish this, the U.S Fish and Wildlife Service and private organizations should provide funds for cloning-based conservation programs to repopulate endangered species that cannot be saved through traditional conservation methods.
During the past couple of decades, the advances in science and technology allow scientists to do what before seemed like science fiction. After the birth of Dolly in 1996, the first successfully cloned mammal, excitement filled the scientific community and led to further investigation and development in the field of genetic engineering (Kolata, 1997). In 2003, a cloning experiment was performed to clone a Javan Banteng, a breed of wild cattle. The project resulted in the birth of two genetically identical calves. These two Javan Bantengs resulted from the DNA of a biopsy of a banteng that died in the 1980s (CNN, 2003). According to Dr. Robert Lanza (2003), the chief scientist in this experiment, both calves looked "vigorous and healthy — like little Bambis with their big brown eyes and ears" (CNN, 2003). Another experiment, accomplished in 2009, was to clone the Bucardo, an extinct wild goat indigenous to mountainous regions of Spain. The researchers used frozen fibroblasts from the last living Bucardo female that died in 2000. From these fibroblasts, the scientists extracted the DNA of the Bucardo and injected it into unfertilized eggs of a domestic goat. These were cultured in a dish and an incubator, at the appropriate temperature. The embryos developed and the best ones were selected and introduced in the oviduct of the surrogate or host mother, in this case the domestic goat from which the unfertilized embryos were obtained. The experiment resulted in the birth of a Bucardo that was genetically identical to the donor cell. Due to a lung abnormality, the newborn unfortunately did not survive long after birth (Folch et al. 2009).
Another similar attempt was performed in 2011 when scientists from the Royan Institute for Reproductive Biomedicine cloned the near-extinct Esfahan Mouflon. This Iranian wild sheep was cloned using the same method as Folch et al., this time using a domestic sheep instead of a domestic goat (Haijan et al., 2011). This experiment also resulted in the birth of a living animal, a baby Esfahan Mouflon, but it also died soon after birth. The cause is not known, but the necropsy performed on the corpse did not reveal any physical abnormalities (Haijan et al., 2011). This institute was relentless and continued to work on this experiment after this bittersweet outcome. Finally, in the summer of 2015, this four-year project gave rise to Maral, a baby Mouflon (Dehghan, K., 2015). The news of this birth was reported by the Guardian on August 5th 2015, and at this time Maral had survived fourteen days. Science and technology has advanced to the point that we can now clone animals.
The next step after cloning an animal would be its reintroduction to its natural habitat. While cloning provides skepticism to many who watched the film "Jurassic Park," it is not what we intend to accomplish. The goal is to repopulate old species that used to thrive in different habitats before they became endangered. A successful reintroduction occurred in Slovakia with the European Ground Squirrel (Lőbbová & Hapl, 2014). The conservationist, Lőbbová and Hapl (2014), were able to reintroduce the squirrel into its natural habitat and carefully monitor them to ensure their survival. This was a great example of how we can save endangered species by reintroducing them into the wild.
With the reintroduction of endangered species and the endless possibilities of protecting and repopulating the endangered ones, there needs to be more funding provided and more science experimentation towards conservation cloning. To do this, we need more organizations to provide the funds. We already have government organizations such as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. But the government is not necessarily going to provide all the funding that scientists need to help these endangered species. There are non-profit organizations such as Revive and Restore that are founded by scientists that believe that cloning could bring back extinct species (Brand, 2013). Also, there are other organizations that provide funds, such as San Diego Zoo Global (SDZG) and the international conservation organization, which has helped numerous species be removed from the endangered species list (SDZ Global Wildlife Conservancy, 2014). The SDZG (2014) has repopulated over 30 species since the time of their formation and has also been the leader in ending extinction in over 35 countries across the globe, while the Revive and Restore organization is working towards DNA cloning of animals who are in the greatest of dangers for extinction (Brand, 2013). These two organizations not only provide funding toward the cause, but are acting upon themselves to help. The SDZG and Revive and Restore are just one of many organizations dedicated to the repopulation of species and there are others that need to show themselves to save endangered species. These organizations are the example for other organizations to rise up and help in the fight to end extinction.
Many critics of de-extinction may point out that the necessary process, development, and research will be quite expensive and not worth the money and effort. Critics arguing this point would be very correct when talking about already extinct species, especially ones that have been extinct for decades or centuries, but not when talking about species that still have a chance at survival. Most scientists believe it will be possible to revive the long-extinct woolly mammoths in the near future, but there is currently no way to "synthesize a genome-size chunk of mammoth DNA, let alone develop it into a full animal" (Wade, 2008, p. 1). Dr. Stephan Schuster, a professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at Penn State University, estimates that the cost of producing a cell that only resembles a mammoth embryo would cost $10 million, not to mention another $2 million just to recover the genome that is required prior to attempting to create said embryo (Wade, 2008 p.1), this process would cost about as much as $12 million before it even starts. This starting cost, along with the millions upon millions of other dollars that would be needed to support the reintroduction of a mammoth into the wild, greatly support the arguments of de-extinction critics.
Cloning of common animals that are not endangered however, like cats or cows, is actually relatively cheap when compared to the costs of cloning an extinct species like the wooly mammoth. According to a reporter from DailyMail.com, a couple had their yellow Labrador retriever cloned in 2009 for just $155,000 (DailyMail, 2012). The article also reported a cat in Texas being cloned for just $50,000 (DailyMail, 2012). Through these examples you can see that the process of cloning species that are still readily available compared to long extinct species is not as expensive as one might think.
There are already plans, acts, and systems in place that successfully conserved many endangered species around the world, and are much cheaper than the estimated cost to bring back a mammoth. One example is the case of the California condor, where only a small population existed in the the late 1980's. (Welz, 2013) This small population was closely monitored in captivity because it was going extinct in the wild (Welz, 2013). Since that time, hundreds of condors live in the California, Mexican, and Arizona wild, at a cost of over $35 million dollars (Welz, 2013). That amount might seem like a lot of money, but when put into perspective through the comparison with the cost of bringing back the mammoth, it is really not. The $35 million spent on the successful reintroduction of the California condor into the wild was over a time period of around 35 years (Welz, 2013). Attempting to bring back a wooly mammoth has a startup cost of $12 million, not to mention other costs of research, reintroduction, and monitoring, and it still might not even work (Welz, 2013). The cost of potentially bringing back species that were extinct for thousands of years is equal to about a third of the cost of successful reintroduction of endangered species into the wild. Conservation of species can bring about benefits and problems that have not been known before. In the case of the California condor, its reintroduction into the wild has brought about awareness and protection of lead poisoning, which affects dozens of other species in the Arizona and California wilderness (Welz, 2013). Just like the condor, the White rhino can eventually be reintroduced into the wild, however we first need to repopulate the species through cloning so that we can have a viable population that will reproduce.
Other opponents of cloning-based programs argue that the manipulation of animals in this way can lead to abnormalities and defects in cloned animals. The Burcardo for instance, did not survive because it was born with a lung abnormality (Folch et al., 2009). The Esfahan Mouflon that was born in 2011 did not survive after birth as well. No physical evidence of abnormalities was found but "veterinary pathologists believed that histopathological features of domestic sheep organs may not be a suitable landmark for assessment of wild sheep" (Haijan et al., p. 965). Many experts argue that the "cloning syndrome", abnormalities presented during the lifespan of the clone, is due to incompatibility between the host mother and the embryo. In the last twenty years, technology has advanced so quickly and improved in a short amount of time. Like any new technology there is always trial and error when it comes to complex techniques. Today there is evidence of clones that survived such as Dolly, the two Javan Bantengs and Maral. With more research and development, we can overcome the obstacles that have not allowed other clones to survive after birth and thus help repopulate endangered species that cannot be saved through the usual conversations programs.
For the 11th time, world governments met at the Convention for Biological Diversity (CBD) to strategize and determine a worldwide conservation plan (Platt, 2012). They came up with a plan through the year 2020, worth an estimated $80 million dollars (Platt, 2012). While it may seem like a very expensive price, McCarthy et. al. (2012) explain how "total costs are small relative to the value of the potential goods and services" with their plan (p.949). This plan only focuses on conservation tactics already in place today, and fails to consider how conservation cloning could factor into their plan. A professor from the University of Chicago, Casey B. Mulligan (2011), states that "By bringing cloning into the set of public policy instruments, we can protect more species, reduce economic costs of protection, or both." (Mulligan, 2011). If these world governments factored in the possibility of cloning into their plan, maybe the costs needed to achieve this goal could be significantly lowered. With 12% of this $80 billion dollar plan already funded, other private agencies need to step in and help out soon because the longer we wait, the more expensive this plan will be (McCarthy et. al., 2012).
Currently, conservation through cloning is not an effective strategy, as "current cloning techniques have an average success rate of less than 5 percent" (Jabr, 2013). But, recent successes in the field of conservation cloning show the potential it has to be a feasible way to restore populations (Jabr, 2013). With added time, funds, and research, cloning could become more successful and reliant of a strategy to help endangered species that cannot be saved using other conservation methods. The benefits of mastering successful cloning techniques are endless, as more conservation activists and efforts could arise and be inspired from resurrecting species (Welz, 2013). Scientists and researchers around the world "remain optimistic that cloning will become a useful tool for conservation in the future" and "that efforts to archive the genetic information of endangered wildlife are worthwhile" (Jabr, 2013). If organizations such as the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service would join the efforts to make cloning a consistent and reliable tactic to conserve endangered and near-extinct species, then animals like the dwindling Northern White rhino could have a great chance at thriving in the wild once again.
Brand, S. (speaker). (2013, February). The dawn of de-extinction. Are you ready?. TED Ideas worth spreading. Podcast retrieved from https://www.ted.com/talks/stewart_brand_the_dawn_of_de_extinction_are_you_ready
CNN. (2003). Scientists clone endangered Asian wild cattle. Retrieved from http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/science/04/08/science.banteng.reut/
Dehghan, K.. (2015). Scientists in Iran cloned endangered mouflon- born to domestic sheep. The Guardian. Retrieved from http://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/aug/05/iran-scientists-clone-endangered-mouflon-domestic-sheep
First couple to clone their pet dog paid $155,000 for the job and say their new pup has the same
mannerisms as the dead labrador. (2012) Daily Mail Online. Retrieved from
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2141574/First-couple-clone-pet-dog-paid-155
-000-job-say-new-mannerisms-dead-labrador.html
Folch, J., Cocero, M. J., Chesné, P., Alabart, J. L., Domínguez, V., Cognié, Y… Vignon, X. (2009). First birth of an animal from an extinct subspecies (capra pyrenaica pyrenaica) by cloning. Theriogenology, 71(6), 1026-1034. doi:
http://dx.doi.org.silk.library.umass.edu/10.1016/j.theriogenology.2008.11.005
Hajian, M., Hosseini, S. M., Forouzanfar, M., Abedi, P., Ostadhosseini, S., Hosseini, L… Nasr-Esfahani, M.H. (2011). "Conservation cloning" of vulnerable Esfahan mouflon (Ovis orientalis isphahanica): In vitro and in vivo studies. European Journal of Wildlife Research, 57, 959-969. doi:10.007/s10344-011-0510-5
Jabr, F. (2013). Will cloning ever save endangered animals?. Scientific American. Retrieved from http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/cloning-endangered-animals/
Kolata, G.. (1997). Scientists reports first cloning ever of adult mammal. New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/1997/02/23/us/scientist-reports-first-cloning-ever-of-adult-mammal.html?pagewanted=all
McCarthy, D…Butchart, C. (2012). Financial Costs of Meeting Global Biodiversity Conservation Targets: Current Spending and Unmet Needs. Science. 638(6109). doi:10.1126/science.1229803
Mulligan, C. B. (2011). Species protection and technology. New York Times. Retrieved from
National Geographic. (n.d.). White rhinoceros Ceratotherium simum. Retrieved from http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/white-rhinoceros/
Platt, John. (2012). Cost to prevent all future extinctions: $11 per person?. Scientific American. Retrieved from http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/extinction-countdown/cost-prevent-extinctions/
San Diego Zoo Global Wildlife Conservancy. (2014). Overview. SDZ Conservancy – Who We Are – Overview. Retrieved From
http://www.sandiegozooglobal.org/overview
Wade, N. (2008). Regenerating a mammoth for $10 million. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/20/science/20mammoth.html?pagewanted=2&_r=2
Wei-Haas, M.. (2015). Rare White rhino dies, leaving only four left on the planet. National Geographic. Retrieved from http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/07/150729-rhinos-death-animals-science-endangered-species/
Welz, A. (2013). De-extinction critics at scientific America have missed the point. The Guardian. Retrieved from http://www.theguardian.com/environment/nature-up/2013/jun/07/deextinction-critics-scientific-american
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Manish M
That was a great write-up. Learned CONSERVATION CLONING in this evolving digital world.
Thank you for sharing about CONSERVATION CLONING
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"Did he have a girlfriend? Was he cheating?" These are usually the first questions asked when news of a divorce spreads. It was the very first thing someone very close to me asked when told my ex and I had separated.
It seems simple. Married + Cheating = Divorce. I am divorced and have many friends who have also gone through it. Some of us were cheated on, some of us did the cheating and some of us experienced no infidelity at all. Couples get divorced never having had a scandal and couples do work through affairs and maintain long lasting and successful marriages. Divorce is not as easy as A+B=C.
Truthfully it's very often not something huge, not something terrible. It's a culmination of daily, weekly, monthly and yearly, minor transgressions. It's a lack of communication, trust, friendship, respect, shared values and dreams. It's problems that don't go away. It's fighting that gets ugly or worse, when you give up the fight and accept less. It's not about socks on the floor or a sucky Valentine's Day gift and it's not about cheating.
People ask, with hope in their eyes, about potential adultery because if that's what causes divorce then all they have to do is avoid that and they will be OK. Don't step out on your mate and you will be spared the trauma of the second most stressful life event. Cheating = divorce is a simple equation, one that is understandable, one that is easily wrapped up and tied with a bow. The reality that formerly happy couples divorce for hundreds of small things that are entirely unique to each couple is harder to swallow and harder to avoid.
The good news is that divorce isn't contagious. Don't be scared if it comes into your group and lives are altered. Divorce is not airborne, but the glimmer of opportunity does travel in the air. Take the opportunity, especially if you've been complacent; to take a look at your own relationship and look at what's going on inside your own four walls. Look at the big and small in the light of day.
Divorce will not "happen" to you. Divorce is a choice that is made. A+B=C means squat. Because, we are not equations. We (most of us) are highly evolved, thinking, feeling, acting and reacting humans that make choices. Divorce might only be the better of two terrible choices but it is a choice.
So forget the equations. I have. I was never very good at math anyway.


"Call no one happy until they are dead." "Never speak ill of the dead." If we still heed the injunctions of Solon and Chilon of Sparta, then obituaries, which represent a prominent way of expressing the human universal of grief, are a resource for philosophical anthropology. Philosophers have emphasized that we can determine what counts as a virtue for a given type of person in a given cultural context by analyzing what people say about the dead . Such judgments summarize the deceased's life and place it in a meaningful narrative context. This is why practitioners of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy ask patients to write their own obituaries: doing so helps people clarify what they value, how they want to live, and what their lives mean . In popular culture, this attitude has recently cropped in the Black Obituary project, which was founded by Ja'han Jones in 2016 to enable Black Americans to write their own obituaries in case they become the victims of lethal police violence. He characterizes the texts as "agonizingly introspective works," saying, "These are Black lives, as told by those who experience them in all their glory—tragedy—frustration—triumph."1 The ability — one might even say the right and the duty — to tell the story of someone's life, whether that life is one's own or another's, is a capacity we dare not neglect as self-presenting creatures. Moreover, praising the dead is a way of performatively identifying with them, which is why Aristotle said of Plato after his death that he was a "man whom bad men have no right even to praise" . And recent research on healing in social networks suggests that the death of one member often draws together those who survive .
Goethe allegedly observed that we die twice : first when we stop breathing, and again when the last of those who knew and loved us die. Philosophers such as Blustein  have persuasively argued for the duty to remember and memorialize, which involves obligations to ensure accuracy, sincerity, emotional aptness, publicity, and longevity. We do a disservice to someone's legacy if we attribute characteristics that they did not embody, if we insincerely express our grief, if we erase or hide their characteristics, or if we let their memory fade too quickly. These sometimes-complementary, sometimes-competing injunctions have been recognized in the West as far back as Pericles' funeral oration and Plato's Menexenus . In these mourning texts, Pericles and Plato compete to structure the meaning and value of Athenian citizenship by telling the story of recently-deceased soldiers in a way that emphasizes either their courage (in the case of Pericles) or their dedication to justice (in the case of Plato). Both understand that how we choose to remember the deceased expressively constitutes both individual and collective values, sentiments, and relationships. Pericles uses the occasion of patriotic grief to call for public recommitment to war and conflict with Sparta and her allies. Plato uses the same occasion to reorient Athens to justice, with militarism and empire side-lighted as merely sometimes instrumental to that higher value.
Thus, obituaries and poetic elegies reveal what counts as a value, virtue, or constituent of wellbeing for a particular type of person in a particular community. Speaking well of the dead enables us to tell the story both of individuals who have passed away and of the cultures that shaped them and to which they contributed. In so doing, we weave those we held dear into the fabric of human nature, human achievement, and human possibility. The present work aims to contribute to our understanding of moral psychology by extracting individual and communal values from of this rich and under-studied collection.
Traditionally, philosophers working in moral psychology have focused on designing and conducting surveys and experiments to elicit judgments that speak to laypeople's moral values and opinions. As with any study eliciting reactions from informed participants, this work is potentially limited in external validity. Studies employing vignettes from professional philosophy, such as stories involving mad scientists, runaway trolleys, and all-knowing supercomputers, run the additional risk of lacking ecological validity. While researchers have made significant progress investigating the judgments laypeople produce when prompted with extraordinary scenarios, our understanding of people's values would also be enhanced by reviewing the values people express when prompted only by sincere feelings of love, respect, and admiration.
Because obituaries are succinct and explicitly intended to summarize their subjects' lives, they may be expected to include only the features that the author or authors find most salient, not only for themselves as relatives or friends of the deceased, but also to signal to others in the community the socially-recognized aspects of the deceased's character. Such posthumous descriptions have a summative character to them, so their positive or negative valence is presumably meant to evaluate the deceased's moral identity as a whole. To the extent that obituary-writers follow the social norm of only speaking well of the dead, we can expect these evaluations to highlight the deceased's greatest virtues.
The summative nature of death notices highlights our somewhat atypical (in the context of moral psychology and experimental philosophy) goal of studying aretaic phenomena like character and virtue. While most research on moral psychology by philosophers has focused on deontological vs. consequentialist judgments about hypothetical scenarios , our goal is instead to identify values associated with living a good life; these values may turn out to include character traits, personality traits, institutional affiliations, social roles, and personal attachments. Indeed, our work indicates that much of the current philosophical study of lay values is working with an impoverished conception of the normative domain.
This is not to say that character, virtue, and social identity have been ignored by moral psychologists. Several approaches have been developed to study lay values, including the models of Schwartz  and Graham et al. . Schwartz's research suggests that values are embodied in complex, non-linear networks, an insight that we draw on in our analysis of funerary texts. Graham et al.  counted the number of value-laden words in sermons from politically liberal and conservative churches to support inferences about relative value structures within liberal and conservative groups more generally. They thus utilized a lexical approach to understanding evaluative language, according to which everyday language reflects folk conceptions of the nature of morals and values more generally. This approach starts from the thought that ideas that are particularly important to a community will naturally gain expression in that community's language, often as discrete descriptors (e.g., "loyal," "authoritarian," "nature-loving"). This type of lexical approach has a well-established history in the study of personality traits, a field that is also beginning to re-introduce evaluative terms (e.g., "wicked") to what it considers descriptors of traits .
We believe that obituaries are an especially promising resource for several pragmatic reasons, in addition to the theoretical considerations mentioned above. First, obituaries, unlike other value-laden corpora such as sermons, diaries, and letters, are published in newspapers and readily available online. Second, it is at least conceptually straightforward to use metadata to segment obituaries (and therefore populations and sub-populations) based on potentially moderating variables such as age, location, gender, and so on. Third, obituaries tend to focus primarily on moral values and virtues.
We expect the values expressed in these records to be diverse but also interconnected. Different communities and individuals are unlikely to unanimously agree on a single set of norms or ideals, but it would be equally surprising to find no significant overlap. Thus, the ideal approach to analyzing these texts will be sensitive to the heterogeneity in the various ways that we praise the dead. This analysis could be conducted by developing an extensive list of correlations between terms and phrases, but human observers have little to gain from a sprawling list of correlations between hundreds of variables. Thus, where we aim to present a holistic picture of the virtues expressed by each community, we will do so in the form of network graphs simultaneously representing hundreds or thousands of relations in a single, easily digestible picture.
We report two approaches – one employing expert coding, the other employing machine coding – to the scientific study of virtue and value through obituaries. Studies 1 and 2 employed hand-coding, in which obituaries were carefully read and labeled. Study 3 further develops the results of studies 1 and 2 with a semi-automated, large-scale semantic analysis of several thousand obituaries. We conclude by reflecting on some philosophical implications of these studies, as well as prospects for further research.
Given our goal of using obituaries to better understand laypeople's values, we aimed to select obituaries that are broadly representative of the general public's values, insofar as this is possible. To this end, we selected local newspapers with obituaries of people from all walks of life instead of targeting obituaries of larger newspapers that selectively write about famous individuals. We realized that obituaries from newspapers such as The New York Times would be both more selective (only covering a few famous or infamous individuals) and more comprehensive (written with the goal of telling rich and captivating stories of those few individuals whose lives were deemed worthy of note). We also found that, while Times obituaries are authored by professional writers, the obituaries in local newspapers are typically composed by laypeople with personal relationships with the deceased. The stories of (in)famous individuals in the Times include a full range of virtues, vices, and value-neutral descriptions. Our initial goal, though, was to target obituaries as a means of developing a better understanding of positively (or at worst neutrally) valenced terms.
Obituaries published between November 2013 and January 2014 were collected from newspapers in four cities: The Register Guard (Eugene, Oregon), The Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman (Wasilla, Alaska), The Flint Journal (Flint, Michigan), and The Hampshire Gazette (Amherst, Massachusetts). These were read with an eye to agent-level descriptions of the deceased (e.g. 'hard-working', 'honest', 'generous'). General categories of traits were developed inductively as obituaries were read; put differently, trait terms were manually, iteratively recorded verbatim and then summarized as the reader found other terms that shared a theme. For example, 'hiker' and 'fisherman' could be jointly summarized in the bigram 'nature-lover'. Given its exploratory and close-reading approach, this process utilized the expertise of the coder as a values-literate reader of American English rather than predefined rules for coding. Additional categories were added as new types of descriptions were found that did not match extant labels.
We collected and analyzed 930 obituaries (52% female) in total across the four cities, as summarized in Table 1.
We were particularly interested in investigating trends in the co-occurrence of descriptions of the deceased within obituaries. To see this, the co-occurrence of traits X and Y was treated as an undirected edge in a network, with the weight of each edge equal to the total number of obituaries in which the deceased was described as both X and Y. The resulting networks for each city and the combined network of traits are represented visually in Figures 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. These visualizations were generated with Gephi, using a standard ForceAtlas layout, adjusting node positions to avoid overlapping labels, and, for more populated networks, attraction distribution to highlight clusters of traits.
Figure 1 displays the traits and values ascribed to the deceased in Eugene. This graph depicts trait frequency with size (e.g., obituary writers highlighted volunteering more often than integrity, represented by the fact that "volunteer" is larger than "integrity" in the graph). Gender differences are represented with label coloring, with terms colored red to the extent that they tended to be ascribed to women, blue to the extent that they tended to be ascribed to men, and black for terms that were roughly equal in frequency after adjusting for total word count of male and female obituaries. Finally, line thickness and color represent the frequency of co-occurrence of traits, with thick green lines indicating pairs of terms that were frequently ascribed to the same individual. A label's position is not meaningful on its own, but positions carry meaning in relation to the positions of every other node. In graphs such as this, node positions are determined by an iterated application of an algorithm with three primary factors: (1) gravity, pulling all nodes to the center, (2) attraction, pulling nodes together if they are connected by an edge, with the strength of the attraction determined by the weight of the edge, and (3) repulsion, whereby all nodes are pushed away from all other nodes.
Similar analyses were conducted using the trait-terms gathered from obituaries from Wasilla, Alaska (Figure 2), Flint, Michigan (Figure 3), and Amherst, Massachusetts (Figure 4).
As with the obituaries from Eugene and Wasilla, gender differences were seen in the obituaries from Flint (above) and Amherst (below), but these graphs are colored to identify clustering of traits because the larger samples from these cities allowed for a more meaningful analysis of clusters of nodes, with clustering analyzed using Gephi's Modularity Measure.
In addition, we combined the data for all four towns to create a gender-contrast map for the full dataset (Figure 5).
To represent the combined data from local obituaries in more detail, nodes were assigned into four groups based on their edge weights using an algorithm introduced by Blondel et al. . The four figures below show these four clusters of strongly interconnected descriptions.
Naturally, these visualizations are only one perspective on the value-networks of the communities they represent. We believe, though, that they point to underutilized approaches to moral psychology. Experiments eliciting reactions to vignettes serve to identify causal relations. Studies employing neuroimaging may help us to identify the mechanisms at work, but our progress on these fronts will be limited by the conceptual frameworks employed, and naturalistic observation is needed to verify that the conclusions drawn from controlled studies accurately reflect the lived values of study participants.
Consider, for example, the groundbreaking fMRI studies conducted by Greene and colleagues (Greene et al. ; Greene & Haidt ; Greene et al. ). These researchers presented evidence that reason and emotion each play a significant role in shaping people's moral judgments, and that characteristically consequentialist judgments are more likely to arise from cognitive deliberation whereas characteristically deontological judgments depend more on emotional reactions. While we acknowledge the value of Greene's work, it also serves as a case study highlighting the shortcomings of experimental work unconstrained by naturalistic observation. In a follow-up fMRI study, Kahane et al.  offer reasons to think Greene et al.'s results stem from a biased set of thought experiments, such that the distinction between consequentialist and deontological judgments is not the best explanation for the neurological differences in their subjects. More broadly, sociologists of science such as Abend  have questioned the narrow focus of much recent research in moral psychology, calling for renewed efforts to understand virtues and values in addition to the differences between processes associated with consequentialist and deontological reasoning. Horne & Powell  argue in a similar vein that, while emotions bear on moral judgment, they do so in a more complex way than Greene and colleagues have suggested. Just as our work differs from Graham et al.'s lexical approach in not predefining the semantic framework, so it also differs from Haidt and Greene's work in neuropsychology by not predefining the set of relevant character traits or behaviors. More generally, the field of ethics-oriented experimental philosophy has been criticized for narrowly focusing on deontology vs. consequentialism at the expense of the larger and richer body of normative concepts applied by lay people [19, 20]. Insofar as the results presented here reflect ordinary moral conceptualization and practice, this criticism has some merit.
The practice of eliciting one-dimensional evaluations of bizarre stories also raises concerns about ecological validity. Casebeer & Churchland  observe that moral cognition is typically affective, social, organic, genuine, and based on a broad, distributed network of neural mechanisms. These features cannot be fully replicated in the lab, indicating that naturalistic observation is especially valuable in studying moral psychology. While our chosen datasets may have shortcomings, ecological validity is certainly not one of them. The information gathered here comes from real people describing those they knew intimately; as such, these texts are affectively rich and genuine, intentionally social, and free of any possible experimenter bias (though not, presumably, of other biases such as selection bias). In studying value-laden discourse "in the wild," we provide the field of moral psychology an important tool for assessing existing theoretical frameworks.
We will discuss these graphs further below, but it is worth noting already that the vast majority of terms identified by this method refer to virtues, values, or constituents of well-being. This is especially clear if the notion of a virtue is construed broadly to include affiliations and social roles. As Adams  and Alfano [23, 24, 25] have argued, such affiliations and social roles may constitute virtues or vices under certain conditions. Another thing to notice is that, while there are some noticeable differences in the value networks of different towns, the main source of differences is gender. There are two interesting aspects to these gender differences. First, women's obituaries tend to focus more on domestic and care-related affairs (e.g., 'nurse', 'volunteer'), whereas men's tend to focus more on public and political matters (e.g., 'sports fan', 'veteran'). This is not particularly surprising, as these are highly stereotyped behaviors. We therefore regard this finding primarily as a proof of concept. However, to the extent that such stereotypical values are celebrated (and other values are not), women and men both presumably face social pressure to live up to different normative standards — which may burden both groups in different ways. This indicates that studying obituaries may help us to identify gender-based cultural constraints on autonomy. Second, some of the dispositions that are differentially associated with women (e.g., 'tough', 'survivor') bear a remarkable resemblance to the "burdened virtues" that Lisa Tessman  defines as "traits that make a contribution to human flourishing […] only because they enable survival of or resistance to oppression." If this is on the right track, the study of obituaries can unearth both the normative expectations that constrain the virtues and values someone is taken to be capable of embodying (via stereotyping) and the burdened virtues she may end up cultivating in the face of systematic oppression.
We anticipated that local newspapers would be a useful place to look for variability in expressions of commonly shared values. However, we also wished to investigate the obituaries of significant figures because these might give us a better picture of the dispositions of people who are commonly seen as great or otherwise noteworthy. It might be that people generally take certain traits, such as honesty and dedication, to be virtuous for friends and loved ones, while evaluating famous individuals using different normative criteria, perhaps differentially valuing traits such as leadership and decisiveness. Following Zagzebski  on exemplarist virtue theory and Alfano  on its Nietzschean variant, we consider someone a candidate moral exemplar if they evoke strong emotions such as admiration. There is no established index of admiration, so this definition must be operationalized in an empirically tractable way. We do so by assuming that individuals who are memorialized in the New York Times are candidate exemplars. To explore the differences between lay values and elite values, as well as the values of candidate exemplars, we read and coded obituaries from The New York Times, following a similar set of methods as in study 1.
All obituaries published by The New York Times from 1 October 2013 to 1 February 2014 were read and analyzed. As with study 1, information was gathered on the age at death, gender, and traits of the deceased.
A total of 74 obituaries (13% female) from The New York Times were read and labeled based on trait-ascriptions found in the obituaries. Three-hundred thirty-seven trait types were included in the sample, with an average of 8.5 traits per obituary. These data were then translated into a network format, treating co-occurrence of a trait within an obituary as an undirected edge between trait nodes, resulting in 3,939 edges. The resulting network is displayed in Figure 6.
As in study 1, the resulting sets of traits were analyzed from a network perspective. Where someone was described as both X and Y, an undirected edge was created linking X to Y, with edge weight based on the total number of people described as both X and Y (Figure 10).
Value-maps like the one in Figure 6 represent a complex social structure of valuation. They show what journalists at the Times consider important about praiseworthy and noteworthy individuals.2 These results show that the most common person-level descriptor in such obituaries is 'honored', an indication that these individuals inspire strong positive emotions. Unlike the obituaries from local papers, these hardly mention family, friends, and local community. Instead, they focus on larger communities (e.g., 'civil rights advocate'), intellectual accomplishments (e.g., 'author'), and leadership. Compared to the network of traits from ordinary obituaries, the Times network has a lower network density (.066 vs. .115), a slightly higher mean clustering coefficient (.875 vs. .806), and higher modularity (.454 vs. .121).3 This is at least partially explained by the lower number of individuals represented and the wider range of terms used to describe these individuals, but the difference in network modularity is likely also explained by greater eccentricity of the people written about in the Times. Obituaries in the Times also contain more negative terms than those in local papers. This is consistent with the fact that many exemplars inspire not simple admiration, as Zagzebski  suggests, but deep ambivalence. Many exemplars, such as Socrates, Jesus, Rosa Luxemburg, Malcolm X, Harvey Milk, and Dian Fossey, met violent ends that presumably stemmed from emotions other than admiration. By examining Figure 6, we can see that female exemplars in particular often inspire ambivalence rather than simple admiration. In addition, they often embody burdened virtues (e.g., 'outspoken', 'curmudgeonly').
Obituaries were collected from ObituaryData.com in collaboration with the Alumni Office of a medium-sized public university in the United States. ObituaryData.com is a data-warehousing company that maintains a subscription to the United States' Social Security Death Master File, allowing a wide and nearly complete sample of deaths and respective obituaries within the United States. The University Alumni Office's account included permission to search the full text of all archived obituaries for keywords including the university's name and most common abbreviation of the university. We conducted automated acquisition of the entire collection of obituaries matching these terms, totaling 13,209 records from March 2000 to May 2014 and containing over 3.9 million words.
Gathered records comprised the following information about the deceased: name, city and state of residence, date of birth, date of death (or, lacking this, date of obituary publication), and full-text obituary content. Age in years at death was calculated from date of birth and date of death. In addition, forenames of the deceased were used to guess gender (Female, Male, or Unknown). To accomplish this, we compiled the most popular 4,275 female and 1,219 male names in the US as of 2005, based on 1990 US Census Bureau Data and other sources in 2005. The female and male name-lists were each ordered by decreasing popularity of name. The forename of the deceased in each gathered obituary record was then compared with both lists and assigned the gender of whichever list in which it appeared higher (e.g., if the name of the deceased was given as "Bobby" in the obituary record, the record was listed as "Male," because "Bobby" was listed as a more popular male than female name in the Census Bureau name lists).
Adjectives (e.g., "Honorable") were preferable to past participles (e.g., "Honored"), which were preferable to gerunds (e.g., "Honoring"), which were preferable to nouns (e.g., "Honor").
Words (e.g., "Adventist") were preferable to phrases (e.g., "Adventist Church").
Singular nouns (e.g., "Airplane," to describe a theme of a pilot's life) were preferable to plural nouns (e.g., "Airplanes").
Person-descriptors (e.g., "Pilot") were preferable to "themes" (e.g., "Airplane").
After two members of the research team had made independent judgments on conflicting terms, we used the openNLP (open Natural Language Processing) package in R  to automatically tag each suggestion by Part of Speech (POS), including its singular vs. plural status for count nouns. Conflicting judgments were then automatically resolved using the rules above. Conflicts unresolved in this automated way were then resolved manually by the remaining research team member. Through this process, for example, "accomplish," "accomplished," "accomplishing," "accomplishment," and "accomplishments"were all replaced with "accomplishment." In doing so, we ran the risk of conflating semantically distinct terms in some contexts; however, this approach was preferable to not identifying the semantic similarity of these terms in the majority of contexts where they might be used more or less interchangeably.
With the texts filtered and cleaned, we then constructed a semantic map of the obituaries, treating co-occurrence of terms X and Y within the same obituary as an undirected edge in a network. This resulted in a network of 910 nodes and 19,034 edges. Given the scale of this network, it would not be informative to present a visual representation of it in its entirety. Thus, we instead developed the simplified visualization shown in Figure 7, which collapses closely-connected nodes into a single group node. Using Gephi's modularity measure (resolution = 1.0), nodes were assigned to groups based on which terms tended to be clustered together. Groups of nodes were then treated as individual nodes.
In Figure 7, nodes represent large sets of trait terms.
Labels were assigned manually based on the common theme we identified in each cluster. Node size was determined by the number of terms subsumed within each group. Edge width was determined by edge weight, and node positions were determined by an iterated application of the ForceAtlas algorithm (Figure 11).
Before we initiated this semi-automated analysis, it was an open question whether this process would produce results similar to the results of manual reading. The results suggest that semi-automated data processing results in a network of trait-terms similar to those identified by the authors in carefully reading individual obituaries, but the results diverge from the results of study 1 in some important respects.
First, our semi-automated approach with this new corpus found a substantially higher frequency of scholarly traits. Far more people were described as writers, scientists, researchers, students, teachers, etc. In the obituaries analyzed in study 1, family, friendship and faith were consistently at the core of the network; in the current study, these traits were still frequently mentioned but were less central to the network than academic attributes. This difference is naturally explained by differences in the original data. The obituaries used for study 1 came from local newspapers where friends or relatives of any deceased person may write about the deceased, but for the present study, obituaries were filtered to include only those mentioning the university with which we were working. Thus, most people described in these obituaries were either alumni or university employees, making is unsurprising that they tend to be described with more academic language.
Second, we observed higher modularity and more distinct patterns in the clustering of traits in the present study. The network's modularity (.514) and mean clustering coefficient (.146) differ from what was found with local papers (.121 and .806) and the Times (.454 and .875). The higher modularity is partially explained by the larger sample size. With over 13,000 obituaries to draw from, we could more easily identify the patterns of connections and disregard less frequent or accidental connections.
Third, in addition to virtues and values, which were explicitly coded for in the manual studies, this automated study turned up many constituents of well-being. While it does not seem correct to say that accomplishments, athletics, gardening, or hobbies are virtues or values, they do seem to be part of what makes some lives enjoyable or worthwhile.
We believe this research has three main philosophical implications. First, it can be used to identify under-theorized candidate virtues, values, and constituents of wellbeing. In this paper, we understand these terms intuitively, but in general we are in agreement with Zagzebski  and Alfano  on how to conceptualize virtues, with Tiberius  on how to conceptualize values, and with Parfit  on how to conceptualize wellbeing. For example, studies 1 and 3 suggest that being a sports fan is commonly conceived of as a virtue or constituent of well-being, but contemporary ethics has almost nothing to say about fandom. Is there such a virtue (or vice)? If so, what is it? Does it differ from being loyal or a community member more generally? The deceased are often praised for their volunteerism. Is there such a virtue? If so, what is it, and how does it differ from benevolence? Likewise, a sense of humor seems to be viewed as a virtue or constituent of well-being, but almost no philosophical work explores what that virtue might be. This possibility has also been raised by Harry Frankfurt , John Lippett , Adam Morton , and Robert Roberts . Roberts in particular argues that being able to laugh at oneself is essential to self-transcendence, which is involved in many virtues. Although Roberts approaches the question from a Christian point of view, he ends up agreeing with Nietzsche  that one of the most important targets of laughter is oneself – in the service of what Roberts calls self-transcendence and Nietzsche calls self-overcoming.
The search for under-theorized normative phenomena has so far been fruitful (e.g., Anthony Appiah's Honor Code ) but haphazardly carried out. Systematically mining obituaries promises a much more comprehensive perspective.
Second, the patterns of virtues, values, and constituents of well-being represented in these maps have implications for normative ethics and the study of oppression. Whether a trait is considered a virtue for a person of your type influences whether you can see that trait as desirable or praiseworthy. By mapping virtues, values, and constituents of well-being, we uncover potentially-oppressive constraints on people's virtues and values. As mentioned above, one conspicuous set of constraints relates to gender. Further research may uncover similar constraints (e.g., the expectation that victims of injustice, such as Black Americans, always be willing to forgive — cf. .
Third, this project contributes to the study of descriptive cultural relativism. Although cultural anthropology of the early 20th century tended to support strong versions of relativism, cross-cultural psychological work by Schwartz  and philosophical interpretations of value-pluralism  suggest that there is at least as much variance in values within cultures as there is between them. This project thus illuminates both universal human values and the kinds of values-related variability that may differentiate communities.
URL = < http://www.blackobituaryproject.com/>. Accessed 3 October 2016.
Another approach to the dispositions valued in famous individuals would be to mine the online comments on their obituaries. Still another would be to mine Twitter and other social media for posts with a '#RIP' or '#RestInPeace' hashtag. We conducted a pilot investigation of these prospects but found that the content was not sufficiently rich to support a scholarly analysis.
We should note that, because Gephi does not support significance-tests, we are not in position to say whether any of these differences is statistically significant. One promising area for further research is to repeat our analyses, for example, in the recently-developed network analysis R package called IsingFit (Borkulo & Epskamp ; Epskamp et al. ; Borkulo .
Another way to check the reliability and validity of automatic processing would be to use both hand-coding and machine-coding on the same corpus, then compare the results. We have not yet done this, but future research — either by ourselves or by others — should undertake it.
Borkulo, C., and Epskamp, S. 2016. Fitting Ising Models Using the ELasso Method. https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/IsingFit/IsingFit.pdf. Accessed 3 Oct 2016.
Epskamp, S., Borsboom, D., and Fried, E. 2016. Estimating Psychological Networks and Their Accuracy: A tutorial paper. arXiv:1604.08462v3.
Borkulo, C. 2016. Statistical Comparison of Two Networks Based on Three Invariance Measures. https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/NetworkComparisonTest/NetworkComparisonTest.pdf. Accessed 3 Oct 2016.
Hornik, K. 2016. Apache OpenNLP Tools Interface. https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/openNLP/index.html.


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England scraps quarantine for fully vaccinated EU, U.S. visitors
By Sarah Young and Elizabeth Piper Posted on July 28, 2021
UK airports following new quarantine rules
LONDON (Reuters) -England will allow fully vaccinated visitors from the European Union and United States to arrive without needing to quarantine from next week, in a huge and long-awaited boost for airlines and travel companies.
Britain's travel industry has criticised the government for being too slow to open up, saying it has squandered its lead in the global vaccine rollout and given the EU a headstart in attracting tourists.
Now, from Aug. 2, travellers with U.S. and EU-approved vaccines will not have to quarantine. Lifting the same requirement for fully vaccinated Britons returning from medium-risk countries in July helped to kickstart a travel recovery.
The new rule applies to England, and devolved administrations in Scotland and Wales said they would follow suit. The UK government said international cruise sailings could also restart from England.
Airlines, such as British Airways, and Britain's biggest airport Heathrow, weighed down by cumulative pandemic losses of $4 billion, welcomed the move but said more was needed if the industry was to recover from the collapse in demand.
Top of the list is a reopening of the UK-U.S. travel corridor which is still affected by a ban on all non-U.S. citizens who have been in Britain.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson told LBC Radio earlier on Wednesday that he wanted U.S. citizens to come to England "freely" and was discussing making changes.
Travellers also still have to take an expensive COVID-19 test before departure and shortly after arrival in England.
BA Chief Executive Sean Doyle said the company's trials had proved it could check travellers for vaccination status quickly and safely.
"This step will allow us to reunite loved ones and get Global Britain back in business, giving the economy the vital boost it so badly needs," he said in a statement.
Changing the quarantine rules for the United States and EU will ease access to some of Britain's biggest markets for visitor volumes. It will also help companies drum up business after the severe financial strain of 16 months of pandemic-linked restrictions.
In response to the announcement, United Airlines said it would lay on extra flights to London.
Shares in British Airways were up 3% while easyJet rose 4% and Wizz Air jumped 7%. Airlines make nearly all their profits during the summer season and easyJet had said this month that it was directing more flights to Europe where there is more demand.
"It's the right thing, it should be done, but like I said it is little bit too late," easyJet CEO Johan Lundgren told LBC.
The UK government has said it was keeping quarantine rules for travellers from France because of the presence of the Beta variant there, but French officials say the bulk of cases comes from the overseas island of La Reunion in the Indian Ocean.
Britain will review the status of travellers from France at the end of next week. French officials have complained about British travel restrictions for France since a last-minute decision to keep them beyond July 19.
An lawmaker from President Emmanuel Macron's ruling party called Wednesday's decision "absurd".
"Quarantine for the fully vaccinated from Lille but not Brussels; Paris but not Miami; Annecy but not Geneva; Montpellier but not Barcelona," Alexandre Holroyd, whose constituents include French people living in Britain said on Twitter.
"Vaccines work: give those who are protected against #covid their freedom back."
(Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge, writing by Sarah Young, Kate Holton and Alistair Smout; additional reporting by Michel Rose in Paris and David Shepardson in Washington; Editing by William Schomberg and Alistair Bell)
FILE PHOTO: Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson holds a news conference in London
New York, other states to fight dismissal of antitrust lawsuit against Facebook
Olympics-Fencing-South Korea wins gold in men's sabre team final
A source of strength and hope, baby George turns one with Beirut blast
Brazil's Bolsonaro shuffles cabinet, recreates labor ministry

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Modkit Micro is a graphical programming environment for microcontrollers. Microcontrollers allow programmers and engineers to add behaviors to everyday objects and electronic gadgets.
Modkit Micro helps almost anyone to make almost anything smarter through a simple, yet powerful visual programming interface. Modkit Micro is based on years of research at the MIT Media Lab including the popular Scratch project, so it will look familiar to the over 1 million kids and novice programmers who have already been introduced to Scratch.
They're launching Modkit Micro on Kickstarter to produce copies of the desktop version on a flash drive and to provide early access to the online version to our supporters.
This entry was posted in coding, electronics and tagged kickstarters, programming, programming language, Scratch, visual programming language on May 29, 2012 by wolfgang.


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October 21, 2009, - 2:54 pm
Faux "Moderate" Muslim Zuhdi Jasser Attacks Flying Imams Pilot for "Bad Decision"
I've long been on to the phony "moderate" Muslim M. Zuhdi Jasser (who even disguises his first name, Mohammed). As I've noted, Jasser–the star of "The Third Jihad"–talks out of both sides of his mouth and publicly praised and excused the extremist Minnesota imam who was recruiting Somali Minneapolis area teens to become homicide bombers and terrorists for Al-Qaeda's Al Shabaab. Then, when I called him on it, Jasser denied and obfuscated, even though his comments were on a broadcast radio show. In an interview with Pamela Geller, he also exposed himself by slipping and calling Israel, "occupied territory." Since he's not sincere, he slips up, and we've caught him in lies several times now.
Jasser & Flying Imams Both Say Pilot Made "Bad Decision"
Today, Jasser exposed himself, yet again. While this sweaty snake oil salesman previously denounced the Flying Imams lawsuit and went all over TV to do so and make a name for himself, he had a different tone upon learning, yesterday, of the settlement of the lawsuit, with a US Airways pay out to CAIRs whining imams who acted very suspiciously on a plane and frightened multiple passengers and flight crew.
"People are going to wonder: Am I going to be another captain who will end up costing my employer X dollars because I made a bad decision that was a bit quick," Jasser said.
Ah, so now the pilot made a "bad decision" that "was a bit quick"? Ridiculous. These men were disobeying and deliberately blocking the flight crew, asking for seatbelt extenders they didn't need (which could be used to block Federal Air Marshals or strangle or tie up passengers). They put the seatbelt extenders on the floor of the cabin and didn't use them. They refused to sit in their assigned seats, instead sitting in pairs near exit areas. They also fanned out in the cabins. They all had one-way tickets and no baggage. The Federal Air Marshal said their behavior was so suspicious it merited their removal from the plane.
This was no "bad decision" or one that "was a bit quick." If anything, it was slow. And it was definitely the right action to remove these Islamic clowns from the plane.
Anyone with any decency or common sense knows these men did NOT belong on that plane and deserved to be removed. Anyone who describes it as Jasser now does is not a "moderate" Muslim.
Jasser's lies and lack of sincerity remind me of another phony, Hanan Tudor, who goes by the porn name "Brigitte Gabriel" (unlike Jasser, she isn't a radical or a Muslim, just a fraud, a complete ignoramus, and a liar). Tudor/"Gabriel" also slips up, talking out of both sides of her mouth.
In speaking to a Black Detroit-area church, she gushingly praised Barack Obama and said how glad she is that he's President. On FOX News' "O'Reilly Factor," she praised Obama's Muslim outreach (she repeated this on "Real Time" on HBO) and said he's "doing a better job than Bush" did at it. This was just after Obama pandered in several speeches and comments to Muslims in Turkey and called America a "Muslim nation." Then, Tudor/"Gabriel" sent a mass e-mail featuring an article someone ghostwrote for her (as they did her books), denouncing Obama on Islamic outreach. (Yup, this woman isn't just two-faced, she's got several of them.) But she's a fraud, and, like Jasser, because she's not a very good fraud, she slips up.
And that's just the tip of the iceberg on her. Stay tuned.
Tags: "moderate" Muslims, Brigitte Gabriel, faux moderates, Flying Imams, Hanan Tudor, M. Zuhdi Jasser, Mohammed Zuhdi Jasser, Pamela Geller, Zuhdi Jasser
Someone who really wanted to fight the Third Jihad would have demanded to know why the Imams were allowed on the plane in the first place and why the courts didn't put the passengers' safety first. Zuhdi Jasser would have done just that if he was truly a "moderate" Muslim. Siding with a CAIR is an obvious "tell." The only question left is if people will catch on.
NormanF on October 21, 2009 at 3:29 pm
Well this was bound to happen, liberal judge bent over backward for these muzzy bastards, my Fed Brothers are completely shocked but not surprised by these craven traitors in our midst.
Drakken on October 21, 2009 at 4:57 pm
Another good get, Debbie. Thanks.
sk on October 21, 2009 at 9:53 pm
Too bad. really too bad, I acutally believed him but you can't believe any of them. Should have known better.
Anna on September 13, 2010 at 3:34 pm
Woow,I actually have a book by B Gabriel of when I left my critical thinking behind,too bad I can t get my money back,a lot of things are making more sense now,thanks Debbie.
Juan on February 6, 2012 at 11:49 pm


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Car Accident Claim Lawyers in Adrian, MI
Hire professional and experienced car accident claim lawyers across Adrian, MI for compensation of injury and medical expenses.
Home > Adrian > Car Accident Claim Lawyers Adrian
We Have Experienced Car Accident Claim Lawyers in Adrian, MI To Compensate For The Injury. Hire Best Lawyer For Auto Car Accident Claim, Uber Driver Claim Lawyers, And Car Accident Insurance Claim Lawyers For Consultation Of Their Injuries.
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If you are injured in a car accident, it can be difficult to know what to do next. You may be feeling overwhelmed and stressed after an auto accident. You have a lot of questions and don't know where to turn for help. Our Auto Car Accident Claim Lawyers in Adrian, MI are here to help. We will work with you every step of the way to ensure that you receive the compensation that you deserve. We will also monitor the progress of any criminal charges filed against the at-fault driver and seek to obtain documents associated with any guilty verdict.
Adrian Map
Adrian Information
Adrian is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the county seat of Lenawee County. The population was 21,133 at the 2010 census. Adrian lies in Michigan's 7th congressional district.
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Area We Serve in Michigan
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About Adrian Legal Local Lawyers
Adrian Legal Local Lawyers is providing professional and experienced car accident lawyers for all types of car accident claims for your injuries and losses. We help you reach a fair settlement to recover damages.
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Source Unknown. Softball for Girls. 07June 1953. Springfield News-Leader Collection. News-Leader, Springfield, Missouri.
Description Drury athlete Lee Bower corrects the batting stance of Carole Miller. Observing are Shirley Martin at the left and Patsy Crockett. Published in the News & Leader on June 7, 1953.


text:
package com.example.padlabear.hw.json;

import org.json.JSONException;

import java.util.List;

public interface UserList<T> {
    List<T> getUsers() throws JSONException;
}


Actual fantastic face wash is not easy to come by. As it turns out, Ursa Major has you covered because they sell "Fantastic Face Wash" that stands up to its name. My favorite thing about this wash, aside from the visible brightness I've seen since I began using it 8 days ago, is the fresh scent from the combination of spearmint and citrus. I'd compare it to my toothpaste, but instead I get to use it on my face, neck and around my ears during a refreshing, hot shower. My suggestion is to lather up and leave it on your face while conditioning your hair – for the same amount of time to let it exfoliate to its fullest. Since I have dry skin, I was initially concerned I would get a little dry around my temples and chin (where I usually experience dry skin in the winter) but I'm pleased to report that has not been the case with Ursa Major. This wash is packed with Aloe Vera, plus it's 100% cruelty-free and vegan, too!


If you've been on the Internet for very long today, you've probably already heard about this: Google intends to purchase Motorola Mobility Holdings for $12.5 billion, or about $40 a share. The deal, Google's biggest acquisition ever, has been approved by the boards of both companies.
There are potentially far-reaching implications to this deal in both the long and short term: more immediately, Google will gain access to Motorola's massive portfolio of 17,000 patents and 7,500 patent applications (for reference, the Nortel bid that Google lost to Microsoft and Apple earlier this month ago was for just 6,000 patents). This will help Google face the wave of litigation that nearly every company in the smartphone market is currently trying to ride. In the long run, as the companies become more integrated, we could see Motorola phones that exhibit an Apple-like synergy between hardware and software. And that's just the tip of the iceberg.
What does it mean for Android?
In a blog post announcing the deal, Google CEO Larry Page was careful to note both that the "acquisition will not change [Google's] commitment to run Android as an open platform" and that "[Google] will run Motorola as a separate business," meaning that other manufacturers will be given the same access to Android that they currently enjoy and that Motorola, for the moment, would continue to run as a separate entity and would not receive preferential treatment as an Android licensee.
For the moment, this is likely to be true. Google won't want to deal with an exodus of hardware manufacturers from Android to competing platforms, and even if the stated goal was a tight integration between Motorola hardware and Google software, this would take time to achieve.
Surely, as time goes on, Google will begin to give some form of preferential treatment to Motorola and its handsets, whether in the form of early access to software updates (as we've already seen with the Xoom and Honeycomb) or in features developed specifically for Motorola phones. Even so, Google will likely work to give third parties the same sort of access they have today, since the company's success has come from getting Android on as many devices as possible rather than at trying to beat Apple at its own game.
As mentioned above, Microsoft could potentially see increased interest in Windows Phone 7 from handset makers worried about subpar treatment from Google, but Windows Phone 7 has had such a hard time gaining traction in the market that this seems unlikely.
What is more likely is that Microsoft will try to follow suit and buy up its own smartphone company - some have suggested that Nokia, a company with whom Microsoft already has a cozy relationship, could be a potential acquisition target, and Nokia's stock is currently up about 10% on this speculation.
Rumors of a Microsoft-Nokia acquisition were swirling earlier this summer, but Nokia called them "totally baseless" at the time, and there are no indications that things are any different now. Still, especially as the patent wars heat up, expect to see more acquisitions as companies try to beef up their portfolios and shore up their businesses.
The last thing to consider is whether the deal will actually go through at all: both companies approve, but the deal still has to clear the hurdle of the Federal Trade Commission, the US agency responsible for antitrust regulation.
The FTC already has its eye on Google: primarily, the FTC wants to make sure that Google isn't using its dominant position in the search market to promote its other products as it continues to diversify its business. Also of concern to the agency is whether Google discourages its hardware partners from using non-Android operating systems on their handsets. This investigation is still in its early stages, having only started in June, but the scale and scope of the Motorola purchase will be sure to raise some eyebrows.
Despite this, I would say that the likelihood of FTC interference in the Google-Motorola deal is pretty low, since it's not a stretch to say that there's still a lot of very healthy competition in the smartphone market - Android has grown by leaps and bounds in the last couple of years, but Apple and the iPhone are both still very healthy, and Microsoft is taking aggressive steps to increase the presence of Windows Phone 7 in the market. Regulators would be smart to scrutinize the deal, but they probably won't stop it.
Brilliant idea. The potential for tight integration into Cisco networking products would be killer in the corporate IT/MIS markets. And I bet the addition of resources from Cisco would help RIM knock out some killer hardware.
Add in QNX based OSes, and you have a phone I'd look forward to buying.
I HIGHLY doubt this could happen even if Cisco wanted too. They are having enough financial issues as it is, much of which can be attributed to them branching out and buying up other companies.
I don't think cash in hand is the problem. The problem is that it's probably not a good way to spend $15billion+.
"I would bring up IP as a very important for differentiation (among Android vendors). We have a very large IP portfolio, and I think in the long term, as things settle down, you will see a meaningful difference in positions of many different Android players. Both, in terms of avoidance of royalties, as well as potentially being able to collect royalties. And that will make a big difference to people who have very strong IP positions."


Rod Stewart and Penny Lancaster take in the sights of the French Riviera on Tuesday and Wednesday with their son Alistair Wallace, 18 months.
After being engaged for two years, the couple will make it official on Saturday at the beautiful Portofino hotel on the Italian island of Capri.
Rod's little boy is precious!
He appears to be enjoying the French Riveria.


Hmmm...*picks up Pokesnatcher*What is this?
Um... I think that guy had it with him. We'd best leave it alone.
AHH!*dodges Satoshi, throws device to Aurora*AURORA! Smash it!
Grr! What is that thing?
AHH! Pichu! Use Thunder on his uncovered hands!
Satoshi continues running as the device absorbs the electricity Pathectic.
*runs after Satoshi and tackles him* You did not just do that!
Oh, yes I did. Uses the pokesnatcher to put her in a net rendered helpless in a tree See ya twerps.
Someone appears from behind the tree. Now that's just not kind. I suppose you Team Rocket members wouldn't care about morals. Lucario, use Aura Sphere if you will.
Lucario, use Counter! Zara, I thought you would be able to take care of yourself. Riolu thought you were strong... and I can still feel your aura. The person sighs.
Satoshi stops in front of the door to the Viridian gym Before I enter this door, Zara, is it. How much do you love your Pokemon, Riolu? Answer truthfully and I may give it back to you.
Riolu is my only Pokemon, my first Pokemon, and I love HER a lot. Her name is Aurora, thank you very much, and I'll remind you that she can sense aura. I'll remind you that I just tackled you to get her back.
...Well, Zara, it's good to know you haven't changed. You should be able to take care of yourself. If you want, I will teach you to control aura, but you still need to grow.
The person pats Zara on the back and leaves.
Satoshi lets Zara's Riolu go back to it's owner Next time, no mercy.
...By the way, um, Riley, could you teach me some? Why are you in Kanto anyway?
However, Riley had already left.
I may be a Team Rocket Admin, but you just started your journey. I'm not a heartless being. You surely heard of James. Haven't you? He sorta... Rubbed off on me before he left to trail That Ash Ketchum kid. That's why I gave her back.
Well... thanks?... I guess. Zara turns around. Now, Aurora, we're heading for a different gym, but not before we catch some Pokemon, eh?
Zara walks into the tall grass and encounters a Sentret. Heh, this'll be easy. Aurora, use Force Palm! The attack easily knocks Sentret out and Zara catches it.
Satoshi looks out the window holding a tape recorder The girls name is Zara. Her weakness is her love for her Riolu, Aurora. The boy, I'm not so sure about. I'll get him next time.
Hmm... Lessee what this Sentret knows. Quick Attack, Fury Swipes, Sucker Punch, Slam, and Baton Pass. Heh, that's good.


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News 6 Dec 2010 last update:6 Aug 2012
Sarkozy seeks transparancy in world output and stocks data
French President Nicolas Sarkozy would empower his proposed international agricultural body with the release of reliable, up-to-date data on world production and stocks, which isn't always the case with data provided by countries at present, an anonymous source close to the matter said.
"The president is pushing for a body which would co-ordinate existing international organizations in order to provide precise and regularly-updated data," the person said, adding the first official meetings on the subject are scheduled at the end of December, before G-20 ministers meet in the first half 2011.
The question of whether the body would have a mandate to verify data is among the issues to be examined, the spokesman said.
Regulating commodities
"Publishing precise and up-to-date data requires being able to collect reliable data and being able to analyze its value," he said, adding the modalities to implement this goal need to be discussed with other G-20 countries.
Regulation of commodities markets is a priority for France's G-20 presidency, which began Nov. 12.
One of France's goals is to improve market transparency; more accurate data on agricultural output and stocks is a key proposal, together with increased regulation of derivative markets.
Strategic sensitivity
The subject is politically sensitive as stocks are strategic for states, some of which prefer not to disclose them.
Sarkozy first mentioned the idea of an international body at a farmers' meeting Nov. 25.
"Maybe it would be useful to have an international agricultural organization to assess output forecasts," Sarkozy said.
"When Russia and Ukraine suspended exports in August, none of the numerous international organizations which collect data were able to give updated figures on stock levels," he said.
"This absence of transparency brought speculation. Prices soared without knowledge of stocks."
markets and trade
Covid-19: SPACE 2020 also cancelled
The number of international agricultural shows being cancelled due to Covid-19 continues to rise. France's...
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May feed update: What did you miss?
All About Feed wraps up the latest updates and business developments from May to ensure you don't miss a thing...
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All About Feed wraps up the latest updates and business developments from February to ensure you don't miss a...
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All About Feed wraps up the latest updates and business developments from January to ensure you don't miss a...
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Bitvrđa is a village in the municipality of Surdulica, Serbia. According to the 2002 census, the town has a population of 23 people.

References

Populated places in Pčinja District

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Many EAPs are known for their provision of counselling support. EAP counselling referrals are mostly provided by affiliate or network counsellors and are complex not only because of the clients presenting problems but due to the sheer number of people in the consulting room. There's the employing organisation (who is ultimately funding the sessions), the EAP case manager (who has responsibility for the case), the employee who's been referred for counselling and the affiliate counsellor.
In the Winter 2015 issue of Counselling at Work, CiC's Clinical Director, Libby Payne, and Account Manager, Claire Neal, take a look at managing the unique 'tripartite' relationship of EAP counselling, and offer advice to affiliate counsellors on how best to create a positive working relationship with an EAP in order to gain the most from the partnership.
You can find out more at http://bacpworkplace.org.uk/journal.


As the casual sibling to Chicago's justifiably lauded Girl & the Goat, the Little Goat Diner takes the idea of an all-day, all-night diner and schmancies it up just a touch. Yep, there's a classic Formica countertop punctuated by spinning chrome-edged barstools, but you don't always see a communal table with rows of pristine white Eames chairs at your local greasy spoon. Nor do you get to slide into cushy leather booths or sit under a mod raftered skylight hung with a Sputnik-worthy midcentury chandelier.
In the same vein, the multi-part menu shows off a roster of deconstructed, reconstructed diner food. Disparate ingredients come together in "duh, of course!" combinations: kimchi and kraut paired up in a reuben, naan instead of pita on a Greek salad, BBQ maple syrup with de rigueur fried chicken and waffles. Lilies are gilded, but just barely. It's comfort food that surprises but still satisfies.
That's a scoop of Cheez-It ice cream (yes, really) flanked by two scoops of strawberry Quik ice cream, topped with chocolate-peanut butter-coated Cheez-Its. Our server likened the taste of the crumbled Cheez-It topping to that of a Butterfinger candy bar, and it's a spot-on comparison. The salty, rich notes balance the nostalgic artificial strawberry flavor in a sundae that really should be eaten during a Saturday morning cartoon viewing session.
The menu remains the same from open till close, which means I can start my day with a whole mess of seafood and pasta just as nature intended. "Breakfast spaghetti 'n clams 'n crab" is a dream come true for this leftovers-for-breakfast lover: a frittata-ish round of savory spaghetti pie studded with wee shucked Manila clams and topped with sweet threads of crabmeat and handfuls of herbs.
Not ready to be that adventurous at 8:00 am? Maybe you'd go for a more straightforward patty melt, perfectly greasy, tangy, and no less exciting for its lack of crazy ingredient insertions. Well, you could eschew the traditional beef and choose a goat patty to nestle atop the thick caramelized onions and between the buttery slices of pretzel rye bread. If you've never tried goat, give it a go—after all, it's the namesake protein here (and at Girl & the Goat, of course) and it's a stellar introduction to this still-underrated meat.
Or maybe you just want snacky stuff. It's not too hard to polish off all five jumbo shrimp in five minutes, each fat and tender specimen hidden within a deep-fried twirl of crispy somen tendrils. They're so fun to eat on their own that the cocktail sauce is almost superfluous. Or on the same crispy, loopy tip, to hoover down a plate of delicately shredded hash browns. Or maybe it should be hash brown, since it arrives as one cheese-bound tangle to be pulled apart with your fork (or fingers).
I don't think chef Stephanie Izard is lobbying to take the Little Goat beyond Chicago borders any time soon. However, if she ever decides to go whole hog (whole goat?) with a Shake Shack-style expansion, I think she should meet New Jersey diners on their own turf and bring one out here to the Garden State so I can make it my regular neighborhood hang. Until then, I'll keep logging miles to the West Loop in the hopes of eventually sampling everything on the Little Goat menu. I think I'm up for the task.
Little Goat Diner, 820 W. Randolph St., Chicago. 312-888-3455.


Trees with narrow canopies are suitable near pavement.
3 What Narrow Trees Can I Plant Along a Fence?
Trees with narrow profiles -- small canopies in proportion to the height -- are a solution for tight spaces, such as small yards, where space is limited between houses or buildings, or for streetscapes where space for planting is constrained by paving and infrastructure, such as underground utilities. Tall, narrow trees also have interesting architectural forms that are compatible with a formal theme, and they can be planted in rows to define boundaries and screen undesirable views.
Columnar trees -- also referred to as fastigiate -- are upright, slender and usually very tall. The rustle or density of the foliage helps buffer noise, and when planted in a row, columnar trees serve as a windbreak or visual screen. They can also be used as accent or feature trees. There are columnar or fastigiate cultivars of a variety of deciduous species, including sugar maples (Acer saccharum "Endowment" and "Goldspire") , European Hornbeam (Carpinus betulas "Fastigiata") and English Oak (Quercus rober "Fastigiata"). The trees reach heights of 30 to 60 feet, with canopies between 5 and 18 feet, depending on the species..
Evergreen columnar trees can be used in the landscape in the same manner as deciduous species, with the additional characteristic of retaining their foliage, while deciduous trees drop their leaves. This feature makes evergreen trees planted in a row effective for noise buffering and visual screening. They also create a strong, formal effect or accent in the garden. Several cedars have a tall, narrow profile (Thuja plicata, T. plicata "Canadian Gold" and T. plicata "Fastigiata"), and there are also columnar cultivars of cypress (Cupressocyparis) and holly (Ilex) species.
It's not always necessary to limit your search to columnar forms. Some tree species are tall with compact canopies that fit in small spaces, without the tower-like characteristic of most columnar forms. Many evergreen and deciduous species have narrow canopies, such as cypress, holly and cedar, which have varieties as high as 50 feet and canopies from 6 to 15 feet wide. Add other attributes to your search, such as foliage color and bark interest, to increase the effectiveness of the tree in the landscape.
Piper, Christina. "Tall, Narrow Trees for Small Spaces." Home Guides | SF Gate, http://homeguides.sfgate.com/tall-narrow-trees-small-spaces-60555.html. Accessed 19 April 2019.