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tv Hardball With Chris Matthews MSNBC August 23, 2011 2:00pm-3:00pm PDT
good evening. i'm chris jansing in new york tonight for chris matthews, and leading off east coast earthquake. if you've been watching tv, listening to the radio or following social media, you already know the headline. a 5.8 magnitude earthquake hit the east coast just before 2:00 this afternoon. tense of millions of people who think of quakes is something that happens to someone else, something that happens to people on the west coast, were jilted into a rare and nerve-racking e part of the state, but flt as far south and georgia, west and chicago and north at martha's vineyard where the president is vacationing pap powerful earthquake. no reports of major damage there may well be hidden structure
damage. in washington, d.c. and in new york, people poured out of buildings for an unscheduled mid-day break. and washington evacuated until it was clear to return to that building. all the details and bring you live reports throughout the hour here on "hardball." also what would otherwise have been our lead story tonight took place on the other side of the world. in libya, where rebel troops overwhelmed pro-gadhafi forces and poured into this compound. the victorious rebels fired weapons in celebration and grab wlad they could, but colonel gadhafi's whereabouts remain unknown. we'll get to that story later on in the show. but we begin with today's earth -- east coast earthquake. let's bring in bob bazell, nbc's chief science and health correspondent. bob, how big a deal is this? we don't have these here on the east coast. >> we do, but not that often, chris. that's the point. a 5.8 earthquake is not a small earthquake. let's not forget the earthquake that struck haiti, port-au-prince in january 2010
was a 6.0. not that much bigger. a lot of what happens after an earthquake depends where it strikes and what kind of shape the buildings are in. right close by it. this is a powerful earthquake. no mistake about it. it seems from all reports we've heard we've been lucky. we heard structural damage here and there but not a single report of an injury. when is really amazing. this happened in the central virginia seismic zone, an area of the world that was formed when the appalachian mountains grew up. 400 million, 500 million years ago. it's not so active as the western part of the united states, the sierra nevadas, which came up 30 million years ago and still is an active zone. earthquakes in the east, because the ground tends to be much hard are and older causes the energy to dissipate much more quickly. that's why the shaking was felt over such a wide area. in the west, the earth is softer. so the energy gets more absorbed
by the earth. so it's not felt as far away. but this soo big earthquake. we were very lucky today. >> from what i've been able to tell, the anecdote, people on the west side of manhattan felt it more than the east side of manhattan. is that crazy? >> not at all. it what do with where the rock formations are under manhattan, and what kind of building you're in and how the building responded to do. a couple, one good thing about this, a power plant, the north anna plant, nearby. 2 shut down properly. the generators cooling off the rods as they should. everything is fine there. it shows us, again, for things like older structures and power plants, bridges, tunnels, if they're old, earthquake dos happen in the east. this should be a wake-up call. we have enough things to worry about, obviously. we think about it all the time. but there are eastern earthquake and they can be severe. >> a spokesman at the white house said it shook pretty good here. it was felt in martha's
vineyard, not significantly where the president is. and the national cathedral in washington, d.c., they evacuated all sorts of buildings. union station, shook the foundation of the pentagon. the capitol, the house, the senate. so what happens now? because these are not buildings that were built to be earthquake-proof obviously, especially in the nation's capital. can they determine quickly these are all okay? >> all of those have good engineering staff to come in and make sure nothing is going to fall down. the reason people do go running out of builds when they see an earthquake, of course, you're worried not in a the earth wake will continue, something that will crack and fall down on your head. >> we're not used to it. had i lived in california, people would sit and have dinner, continue dinner parties through earthquakes. >> 1345as a matter of fact, i w having lunch, sitting with a bunch of people, just an earthquake. they said, you're nuts. they said to do me. for other reasons before, but -- >> for a particular reason. >> i grew up in california and
have been in haiti and japan and knew exactly what it felt like. you're right. >> it doesn't feel different here, because you and i were in japan when there were so many aftershocks. these were aftershocks 6 and higher, and it did have that rolling feeling to them. also a situation where the buildings are meant to withstand that. so you feel this rocking that goes on far after the earthquake is over. does it feel different on the east coast? on the west coast? or in japan? >> depends where you are. it didn't feel that much different than a standard earthqua earthquake. although here in new york it was less than a 3 compared to the 5.8. the people who really felt the earthquake strongly were the people who -- particularly around charlottesville, virginia. the university of virginia went running out of the buildings in a big hurry. for them, this was a very big earthquake. fortunately, no major damp and injuries. they felt it strongly. here, even though it's transferred through the ground efficiently, it's a long way away from the epicenter. we didn't feel the kind of
earthquake that you and i are used to from the aftershocks in japan, which, of course, were at 6. >> are aftershocks almost assured? >> they've already occurred. a couple in the magnitude of 2. very small, almost inperceptible. the national geologist survey saying an aftershock of 4 or more would not be surprising. >> really? >> absolutely. that's standard for an earthquake. to get back to this other point. for nuclear power plants and everything else that's extremely dangerous, it's a wake-up call. there are earthquakes throughout the united states including in the east coast. >> and when you have something that's this big when i say this big comparatively, this size of earthquake, has not happened in how long? i have that somewhere. >> 1897. >> yeah. >> about the same area. >> not something that's happened in a very long time. sdp that make us more vulnerable or more likely they'll be another -- or another 100 years?
>> no. the last one just over 200 years ago and this one, the haitian earthquake, hadn't been an earthquake in port-au-prince in 200 years. in geological time, that's the flash of an eyelash. faults formed 400 million years ago. so 200 years is nothing. >> how long could the aftershocks go on? >> for a while. but unlikely tham be another earthquake in this region for a while. i don't think the earth's aftershocks are in this case something we have to worry about. it's much more the idea of the reminder that we are susceptible here in the east coast to earthquakes. >> you've got to put this thought though, i don't disagree with you. having been through a quake in california and in japan, you see the difference when you have buildings that are meant to sustain them and people who have prepared and who have retrofitted. given frankly the current economic situation, i don't see much happening on the east coast. do you? >> yeah, but it's not a bad idea to look at all buildings, place
where bricks are hanging over even in an earthquake, a jolt can cause things to fall down. kinds of things to look for to make sure things are safe. i would like to know the homened tunn holland tunnel is safe to withstand and earthquake. i'd like to know power plants in an earthquake all do like the one that did today, shut down safely have. as we poircnt ud out in other c texas the india point nuclear power point in westchester has 6% of the u.s. population living within it's evacuation zone. if it didn't shut down properly, the consequences are unimaginable. yes, the money's not around for everything. we can't protect against every danger but this is a reminder that is a danger that we have to think about. >> bob bazell, thank you so much. joining me on the phone, the mayor of mineral, virginia, the
epicenter of the quake. mayor, how are you doing right now? >> everyone in town is quite shaken up, but with the sigh of relief, so far i've heard of no injuries. >> tell us a little where you were, what you felt what you experienced. >> actually i was sitting at my kitchen table. we had groundbreaking for our new town hall on friday and i had come home and sat at the table to write thank you notes for everyone that helped us with that, and fortunate that we're starting a new building, because our town hall appears to be the worst hit building in town. inside the walls are quite cracked. a lot of plaster has fallen. the top of the building has a lot of bricks that have become dismantled, and the other damaged -- all the old homes in town, i didn't see one that the klimny chimney was not broken. they all have old brick, and every one had been broken off. only one other building in town i had noticed that is unsafe to
go back in and that's made out of cinder block and it has been cracked from top to bottom, and fortunately, the high school and the middle school is about a half mile out of town, and all the kids were able to be evacuated, and all safely gotten home, either the parents picked them up or they rode the school bus, and schools are closed tomorrow. today -- the seventh day of school. we started back early. now they're going get a little setback until they see if the buildings are structurally sound to get the kids back in. but we're doing good, considering the magnitude of this earthquake, and the plant shut down like it was supposed to. so that was one worry that, one concern we don't have to have. other than that, everyone's cabinets have been emptied. a good time to clean out your cabinets, because nature did it for us. >> i like the way you think.
putting a positive spin on what had to be a pretty terrifying situation. now, not many of us are used to this. did people just go running out of their houses? was there panic? >> well, s when it happened, actually, i had no idea what was going on. we have heavy freight trains that come through here quite often and they sort of rumble 9 earth a little bit when they come through. that was my first thought. we've got a big train coming through, but then it continued. so i went to the back door, and all of my neighbors were standing out in the road. everybody just left their homes and were out in the road. so after i saw everybody here was okay, i ran up town in my vehicle and that's the same thing that was happening up there. all the businesses and the homes, everyone was out on the sidewalks. so i think everyone -- felt what was happening. >> give me a little sense of your town, how big is it, and how well prepared are you for what will surely be a task ahead to get cleaned up, and
obviously, the financial implications of this? >> ah, that's a. >> question. we're a small down. we only have about 430 residents. the town is about one mile square. sizewise, we have lots of older homes that structurally are a little weak anyway. so until everything is evaluated, we don't have any idea how much it's going to cost. the local grocery store, i went by there. all their shelves had been emptied into the aisle. so it's going to be a lot of labor and bulk to get things straight. >> we wish you well. you certainly have a positive attitude and thank you so much for taking the time to talk to us. >> thank you so much. back to our cleaning. >> mayor pam harlow, at the ep e center of the quake. let me bring in andrea mitchell, of course, nbc news cheer foreign correspondent but she actually felt the quake today in washington.
andrea, you were on the air? >> i was on the air and i've now been reminded that, in fact, this happened two years ago. i was with president clinton in pakistan and islamabad, broadcasting live tr-from-there. >> will you to be reminded of that? >> reporter: yeah. everything was shaking there. no one was saying, get out, get out. no safety concern. he, our technical managers cleared everyone out. i was here, computer logged in. finding my notes from the broadcast and everything just started rattling and rolling and it sounded as the mayor -- the mayor there just said to you, like a freight train. we didn't know what was happening until smarter people told me exactly what was lapping. me not being a californian. i was struck by her spunk and spirit, getting back to cleaning. we are so unaffected here in washington, but in has been some damage. damage to historic buildings. most notably, the national
cathedral, a heartbreaking situation for all who love it. it's about an hour from here. luke russert grew up on that campus, went to school there at st. albins and really stares damage to the pinnacles and spires. those stone masons worked more than 100 years to complete. so that is a sad moment, but no real damage, and the president was briefed. he had a national security briefing with fema and his national security team at 2:50 this afternoon from martha's vineyard and told there's no real emergency in any of the states. a hideous traffic jam as people try to get home. >> i mentioned earlier somebody in the white house said it shook pretty good. is that a good description of what you felt? >> reporter: more than just shaking. it just was everything going at once, and i've talked to people in virginia. also people, by the way, the colonial williamsburg, where the foundation reports all is fine in those buildings. the oldest buildings in america
from 1607. they did not suffer damp that they know. >> amazing. >> reporter: it say mazing. the capital briefing, about 3:30 today. their briefing was they were going to take several hours to go through the most important buildings, other than the white house, the capitol, and to make sure that the capitol itself and all the office buildings, some are older than others, as you know, are safe. there's so much that is historic from the rotunda on down. there's a lot to look at in terms of structural damage there. but they're not letting people back in in any of those buildings, the office buildings or the capitol. chris kuntz was the designated senator on the air with tam ran hran -- tamron hall. and they gathered and the session is pro forma, no recess. therefore, no presidential recess appointment. that is what the opposition
party, republican party, demanded. they are actually in every day for a couple of seconds. he being close by from delaware was the guy today and he actually held that pro forma session, i believe at the postal service, which is an historic building nearby. >> andrea mitchell, chief foreign correspondent. probably talking about libya at the time pap few things going on over there. >> reporter: you got it. >> and lived to tell the tale we are happy to say. good to see you, andrea. thank you. >> reporter: thank you. coming up, we'll talk a little more how prepared the east coast is for a major earthquake. what are the implications? you're watching "hardball." only on msnbc. another laptop bg or hires another employee, it's not just good for business -- it's good for the entire community. at bank of america, we know the impact that local businesses have on communities, so we're helping them with advice from local business experts and extending $18 billion in credit last year.
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welcomes back to this special edition of "hardball." how prepared are people and governments on the east coast for earthquakes? a lot of people instinctively rushed to the exits of the
buildings. is that the right thing to do? from the american red cross, good to see you. have you been getting a lot of calls? >> are we have. here at red cross head 3 quarqu we felt it like everybody else. we stopped is thas truck going on? when it was going on an extendered of time we knew in it was and wasn't something we were used to dealing with. >> the first time i ever felt an earthquake i was in california, realized what it was, ran out to the newsroom, as i'm running they're divingeneder their desks. >> yes. >> we saw people rushing out of buildings. what is the right thing to do? >> we recommend people duck, cover and hold on. get down on the floor, get under a sturdy piece of fun dhof furn hold on.
once the shaking stops it's okay to go outside. people looked around today, because here in d.c. and on the east coast, we're not used to it. they had to think for a minute what they should do. and, you know, people thought, should you get in a doorway? run outside? the duck, kov are and hold on is what we recommend people do. if you feel any aftershocks, in the coming hour, that's exactly has you need to be doing. >> obviously, the big buildings, they immediately have engineers going in and checking them out. making sure that they were safe and there was no structural damage, but in that part of the country, there are a lot of much older homes, obviously, not plent to withstand earthquakes. for the average person who might be nervous now what should they do? >> they need to make sure they do a walk-around through the house. make sure there are no obvious structural damage. the kind of thing you want to do after any quake to make sure your family is safe. it really reminds us how people
need to be prepared. we don't necessarily think about earthquakes here. we were actually spending the day here at red cross headquarter, getting ready for hurricane irene. we're used to that. bean ire between irene and the earthquake, you need to know what to do during an emergency of any kind and have certain supplies on hand as well. >> can we talk about that? again, weren't of the things that sort of -- i mean, it hits you when you live in california or live in, say, florida or north carolina where they get a lot of hurricanes. but wherever you are in the united states, what should people have in an emergency kit? >> you know, the emergency kit needs to contain a few basic things. food and watered. three-day supply we recommend. battery operated radio. of course, a flashlight. any kind of family paperwork you need. basic medications you might need. things that coop you comfortable and safe and heldy during an emergency, throw a first-aid kit in there.
basic things. keep it in your car, keep one in your house. it's good to have those things on hand. the other thing i recommend, here's what i saw today. as soon as this happened, people went outside, first thing, got on their blackberries and phoned and started trying to find their loved one. where's my husband? or are the schools closing? what's going to happen with my kids today. a big part of having a family emergency plan and knowing what you would do, where you would go and how to get in contact with each other, because immediately people found that the phone lines were pretty jammed here. they couldn't get calls out. so we all standing outside of our building. on text, on twitter all day, really trying to figure out where our families were and what to do next. >> laura howl of the red cross, a busy night ahead. >> thanks. joining me, david applegate for natural hazards at the u.s. geological survey. i understand you got caught in traffic trying to get to our camera. how was the ride over?
>> that's right. it was a bit slow. a reminder that there are all sorts of hazards involved here. >> where were you? did you feel it? tell me a little bit about your sense of this earthquake? >> i was as the u.s. geological survey's headquarters oust in reston, virginia, not too far from dell us aerum dulles. >> you closed? >> i understand a lot of them stayed on the job. we're used to this happening to our offices out in the west coast. this was a bit of an unusual situation. >> what's the first thing you forkes look for from a technical standpoint? >> well, a partnership along with, you know, we're focuses on the earthquake itself. how broadly it was experienced. what are the likely losses? we have a system called pager that gives us a quick look at what is the likely fatalities, what are the likely economic
losses from an order of magnitude system. in this case, pager results were showing a green alert for fatalities. we were not expecting a high likelihood of that but were expecting some pretty significant damage. this is a quake felt from all the way up in massachusetts down to georgia all the way out to ohio. there's going to be a lot of small damage that's going to add up. we estimate could be over $100 million and up to $1 billion. >> what's the difference between earthquakes here on the east coast and out on the west coast? >> well, the big difference is in how broadly they're felt. a magnitude 5.8 earth quake as this one was, these happen on a fairly regular basis out in california. the earth's crust there is very broken up. so the shaking will be knelt a small area. -- felt in a small area. we're not at the edge of a tete tonic plate where they're crashing against each other. we have very old rocks. they're very cold. they basically ring like a bell. so the energy from this
earthquake gets transmitted efficiently over a very broad area. on top of that, you have six sentiments that accumulated on the surface. that's going to amplifies shaking even more. a relatively moderate earthquake, but this is an order of magnitude smaller than the one, for example that did so much damage in haiti, and it's several orders of magnitude smaller than the japan quake. >> you know, the funny thing -- it's not funny -- but the interesting thing is that we're in a place where you have so many older buildings. especially around the d.c., virginia area, and very few new buildings, i'm getting, that are built as they are on the west coast, to earthquake standards. are you surprised -- i don't know how much you've had an opportunity to hear about the damage or see the damage. were you surprised that it wen mo wasn't more significant? >> we're fortunate that the event itself was in a fairly
rural area with virginia. you're actually right. these older buildings are the ones we're particularly concerned about. in fact, building codes for modern buildings, they build into that the seismic provisions from our national seismic hazard map. we recognize that earthquakes are a national hazard, that you can have damaging earthquakes in the central and eastern u.s. but, you know, these 19th century buildings that are unreinforced brick come down quite easily. even if the building itself doesn't come down, you can have failure of chimneys, get a lot of has we call non-structure damage. so the building itself is fine, but you could have bookcases falling over, light fixtures. that's why the red cross, i mentioned in your previous government, drop, cover, hold on. get under something sturdy. odds are your building may be okay but you can still be injured by falling debris. >> david applegate, who fought through the traffic to get on
tonight. we appreciate it. thanks so much. >> thank you. up next, we'll talk to a couple of our other correspondents in washington who felt the earthquake. you're watching "hardball," only on msnbc.
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welcome back. well, the national capital definitely felt the effects of today's rare east coast quake, among other things, flights suspended at least for a time in all the washington area airports. the philadelphia airport. atlantic city and a couple of new york city airports. jfk and newark. now, it didn't last long, but you know what the domino effect is when they back up flights even for a short period's time and when talking about major east coast airports that can resonate all through the evening. so be happy if you're not flying tonight or don't know anybody who is. let's talk more about how d.c. was affected. nbc jim miklaszewski was there.
pete williams. gentlemen, good evening. how are things at the pentagon, jim? >> reporter: i was sitting here in my plush office -- thamplgts is the most gross overstatement i heard even on "hardball" i've been there. >> trying to make everybody feel better. i was at my computer and suddenly felt a slight shimmer. quite frankly, chris, like many other here at pentagon thought oeshs, my god, we've been hit again, because it felt the same way here in the pentagon as it did when american flight 77 slammed into the building on 9/11. but as it proceeded to shake and got ever-more violent, the whole room shook. some books fell off our shelves on to the floor. i suddenly realized. no. that's an earthquake. i got up. people were running down the hall, evacuating the pentagon. luckily, nobody here was hurt. it was no severe damage. although there was some broken
water pipes on one of the upper floors that flooded an entire section of the pentagon, which is still shut down now on a corridor, some couple hundred yards away from where we are. and eventually they deemed the building otherwise safe, and everybody was brought back in. no serious damage, and, of course, no injuries. but i tell you, it did bring back haunting memories of ten years ago, chris. >> yeah. here in new york as well. you know, you're still shaking and one of the first things you think is, what's going on? i have to say, mik, the pentagon is one of the first places i thought about. it's so sprawling. is it still the biggest complex in the country? >> reporter: the biggest low-rise office complex. it is a huge building, and the fact is that it is made of solid concrete. built just before and during the opening days of world war ii to be able to withstand the impact of that airliner on 9/11 and
just take out a small section of the building is testament to the shear strength of this building. the fact is, this building -- it shook like a jell-o mold on a plate. that's what it felt like. >> let me bring in pete williams as well, and, pete, aren't you right by the homeland security folks? i mean, give us a little sense. i mean, you start to think about places like the pentagon, and homeland security, and are they functioning? are they damped? what's happening to folk there's? >> reporter: yeah. we're right across the fence from them, quite literally here, chris. we're both located in the same parts of washington for the same reason. at a high point in the city. we're at a high point to transmitting an ten fla to reach the city for affiliates and they're in because of jammed to house a navy intercepting and code-breaking facility from world war ii, right across the street. employees there sort of running out of the building on their own. no formal evacuation order at
first. essential personnel stayed in. all over town, different responses. people seemed to leave buildings on their own. formal evacuations as the white house, u.s. capitol and adjacent bimdings there. it bass a matter of hours building inspectors went around and sdidecided which were safe reopen. the supreme court never closed. never stopped operation, but in the meantime, federal officials, federal workers, have been sent home by the hundreds of thousands, traffic is snarled all over the washington area and to make matters worse, the washington, d.c. subway system, the metro, many of its training are operating at slower than normal speeds because they're trying to inspect the track at the same time the tracks are running. it raises real questions about what the city would be like if it were actually evacuated for real. but for the most part, it was more or less business as usual now. tomorrow we'll see what happens. whether all federal employees
will come back as scheduled. some of those national mall places will, may or may not be open tomorrow. the smithsonian is trying to decide. inspecting buildings that are big and old. similar questions about the national monument and memorials on the mall. the lincoln, the jefferson and so forth. a lot of inspection has to be done there, too. >> let's hope that's all okay. i'm thinking about all the people this week to the be first to go see the martin luther king jr. memorial. >> reporter: if it happens, because of the hurricane. it may be put off. >> and then we have the hurricane coming. you're right. >> reporter: right. >> pete williams and jim miklaszewski on a very busy tuesday. guy, thank you so much. >> you bet. up next, a different type of earthquake. in libya today. the rebels storming moammar gadhafi's compound in tripoli. but where is he? hi...do you happen to have any brilliant silver altimas? yea, right over here. look at 'em all. what about a black frontier with utilitrack? absolutely. oh, great, that's awesome. what about a platinum graphite rogue
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welcome back to "hardball." big developments in libya today as rebels stormed moammar gadhafi's compound in tripoli. gadhafi's whereabouts, however, are still unknown. the rebel, though, seem to be the momentum. for more let's bring in nbc news correspondent stephanie gosk on the phone from tunisia. i was on the phone earlier today around 10:00 eastern time when the rebels broke through the western gate, and then it went from there. describe the assault as you know it. >> reporter: well, what they did, coordinating assault and what we've been learning about the rebels over the last six months there aren't a lot of coordinated assaults. in the last week that's exactly what we've seen. a coordination at all the gates of the compound in one account
thousands of rebel forces surrounding the compound, and they engaged in a brutal firefight for hours, but then eventually prevailed. you only will to look at faces of the rebels to realize how significant and important it was for them today. practically speaking because this was one of the last bastions of control in the city for gadhafi loyalists, but also symbolically and psychologically. this was gadhafi's home. where he gave speeches. this was the center of his power. it was also a milliitary compou and in a lot of ways a fortress of hisby going over, taking it and looting it, it was a symbol of the end of his more than four decades reign. a lot of questions re s remain. first and foremost, where is gadhafi himself? is his son? his hometown, where his tribe is from. last week they've fired two scud
missiles out of cert. a large military presence there. there could be a battle there. and places ongoing with the capital. most significantly a number of journalists, more than three dozen, or almost three dozen, basically held inside one of tripoli's hotels surrounded by a number of loyalists that are using that kind of as their last holdout and using these journ journalists really as human shields. >> stephanie gosk, thank you. let me bring in a "time" international editor who talked about the symbolic importance of this. over the last six months since fight hag gone on we've seen this video of moammar gadhafi going around in this golf cart and that's where he has made pronouncements from. so where is he? >> reporter: i think he's smart enough to know that is the first place they would look. i think his instinct, head south. the east and west are both taken essentially by the rebels.
any european country he wants to land in will immediately hand him over 0 the international court. so south is where the desert is. south is where there are more places to hide. south is where the rest of africa is and places in africa where he is popular and well liked. so i think every instincts of his would be to head south. the big question is, was he able to get out of tripoli? even the way out was blocked by rebels when they began to come in. >> i think the other question is is this really over? even if it seems to be military xwli is it over until we know where gadhafi is? >> it's over in the way baghdad fell in 2003, it didn't matter that saddam eremained at large another seven months. it was important the regime had fallen. i think we're pretty close to that in tripoli. another day or two, if the rebels keep their momentum going and get the majority of his army to surrender, his exact whereabouts may not matter so much. he may be in a rat hole just as
saddam was, but his regime has fallen. >> after this, a series of meetings. already we've heard from the transitional council, talking about the money they're going to need, the international support, because they're worried about food and water and medical supplies, the kind of basic stuff. so what's next? even if we don't know where he is and there are apparently still random pockets of fighting? >> the important thicng, these rebels, they actually have something like a gft. the transitional national council has had six months to prepare for this and have had help. in touch with western governments, with the u.s. government. they have a certain amount of expertise and organization. may not be terrific, but it is the there. so it could be easier for them to get the ball rolling than we've seen elsewhere. >> is this going to be perceived do you think here, certainly internationally, as vindication for obama's actions in libya and as you well know and view others certainly no, so much criticism
from people like john mccain that the u.s. wasn't doing enough? >> i don't think internationally, certainly not -- people are not thinking of the u.s. right now. i think years from now, anyway, months from now, when people look back, that might be the conclusion for the u.s., did they make the right call. rye now it's all about the rebels, about finally freeing this country from gadhafi's rule after 42 years. who exactly gets how much of the credit is something for historians to work out. >> what's your gut tell you? we'll find gadhafi soon? in a bunker somewhere seven months from now? >> i don't think seven months. i think we'll find him sooner, hiding like a rat. >> good to see you. thanks for coming in. up next, switching gears to local politics. rick perry, republican candidate, compares african-american's struggle tore civil rights buy the gop's threat for taxes. we'll break that down. [ artis brown ] america is facing some tough challenges right now.
two of the most important are energy security and economic growth. north america actually has one of the largest oil reserves in the world. a large part of that is oil sands. this resource has the ability to create hundreds of thousands of jobs. at our kearl project in canada, we'll be able to produce these oil sands with the same emissions as many other oils and that's a huge breakthrough. that's good for our country's energy security and our economy.
we are back and rick perry has recently received scrutiny for expressing his 2010 political manifesto, but a comment about civil rights over this past weekend has managed to overshadow that completely. perry was in rock hill, south carolina this past saturday, asked a question about the significance of the civil rights movement and sit-ins. he gives a winding answer and then ends up comparing the civil rights struggle to republicans' fight for corporate tax rates. listen. >> america's gone a long way from the standpoint of civil rights and thank god we have. we've gone from a country that's made great strides in issues of
civil rights. i think we all can be proud of that, and as we go forward, america needs to be about freedom. it needs to be about freedom from over taxation, freedom from overlitigation, freedom from over regulation and nerns, rega american regardless of social and economic back gound, can you come to america and havetrue, b economic climate will be improved. >> so does perry believer african-americans' struggle for civil rights is comparable to the gop's fight for lower taxes? joining me is alex wagner. okay. is this ignorance? he was asked about the friendship nine sit-in, so maybe he didn't know what it was, so is it ignorance of the civil rights? complete insensitivity? >> i think it demonstrates a certain if not pronoun insensitivity to the struggle of
the black experience in america, especially at this time. if you look at what's happened to michb norse, the disparity between rich and poor, the census shows white americans make more than 20 times more than black families, for him to type corporate tax rates to the civil rights movement i think demonstrates a pronounce insensitivity. >> this is just the latest. when you look at this series of quotes from the book, you have to sit back as a political analyst and say, is he too far off even for the gop? >> this is also not the first time he as shot his mouth off. we have the stories about wanting to kneecap bernanke. rick perry marches to the tune -- walks to the beat of his own drum. i think there is a real concerned on part of at the
establishment committee he's not ready for primetime. this certainly doesn't do anything to improve that image, especially we're about to see the unveiling of the mlk memorial in washington. as i said, the country is facing particularly different economic climate. have we seen any sort of symbol from the perry camp this is maybe not something he should have said? no, not as of yet. >> you even have peter king saying you can't be questioning whether barack obama loves america, that type of thing, so there's a republican saying that. let me play for you also something that mitt romney had to say, because this really i think speaks to the larger sort of gop theme here. let me play this for you. we don't have it? all right. i'm going to read it. i have to put my glasses on, though. >> go ahead. >> romney on corporations at the iowa state fair -- corporations are people, my friend. of course they are.
everything corporations earn ultimately goes to the people. where do you think it goes? whose pockets? human beings, my friend. is this a theme we're going to hear? >> a couple things there, chris. one is the gop has shown a resilience. every time someone says, hey, that's not appropriate, mitt romney got all sort of blockback, yet it doesn't create pause. there is -- seemingly they are well to go to far ends of the earth to demagogue these financial issues, and we forget perhaps sometimes that dr. king's teachings, the civil rights teachings led to the establishment of johnson's great society programs, which was government taking a role to decrease the gap between the haves and the have-nots. those are the very principles that rick perry and mitt romney have called into question with their own economic policies. i think it is hypocrisy on a
level we have not -- >> and you have to wonder does it create an opening for somebody else. despite they say no, no, no, could chris christie get in, or marco rubio was invited to the reagan library to speak. you have to wonder if there's an opening for someone who is not sarah palin. >> that's why paul ryan has to keep coming back to the stump to say i am not running for president. there's a real hunger for someone who is not a far right conservative, but can speak to the principles. that person is not yet on the stage i think for a lot of americans. >> alex wagner, good to see you. thanks for coming in. the latest on the east coast earthquake. you're watching "hardball," only on msnbc. a network of possibili. in here, the planned combination of at&t and t-mobile would deliver our next generation mobile broadband experience to 55 million more americans,
many in small towns and rural communities, giving them a new choice. we'll deliver better service, with thousands of new cell sites... for greater access to all the things you want, whenever you want them. it's the at&t network... and what's possible in here is almost impossible to say. maybe not. v8 v-fusion juice gives them a full serving of vegetables plus a full serving of fruit. but it just tastes like fruit. [ male announcer ] get five dollars in money-saving coupons at v8juice.com.
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welcome back to "hardball." joining me from just outside 30 rock. nbc's peter alexander, a 5.8, but what's going on there in new york? because people, you know, i think it's the whole 9/11 thing. pete williams and miklaszewski were addressing this. when it first starts to happen, you don't know what's going on. >> there's definitively an added
sensitivity. we could learn a duck-and-cover lesson every child in california learns. here indeed people returned to the streets, some running down 50, even 60 flights of stairs to get there. what if nothing else this reveal is it changed the way we communicate. some learns about the quake by twitter before they even felt it, and others trying to reach loved ones at home, but no longer using home phones. they tried on the cell phones, and those suffered serious congestion for a period of time. there was some urgent moments. few people were able to reach each other. >> give us a sense of what you saw in the minutes after it happened. it was kind of weird in new york, because it seemed like certain parts didn't feel it at all, other parts pretty good. >> reporter: you know how it goes, sometimes people say what are you talking about? and others that's never crazy. i felt
Hardball With Chris Matthews
MSNBC August 23, 2011 2:00pm-3:00pm PDT
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Washington 11, Gadhafi 8, California 7, Virginia 7, Pentagon 6, New York 6, Tripoli 5, Pete Williams 4, Rick Perry 4, At&t 3, Haiti 3, Msnbc 3, Manhattan 3, Moammar Gadhafi 3, Perry 3, Martha 2, Stephanie Gosk 2, Andrea Mitchell 2, Irene 2, Alex Wagner 2
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Posted in: Dreams, Images, Love, Mankind, photography, photos, Poetry, Politics, Prose, Romance, Tempo, writing.	Tagged: Artist, Dreams, Images, Love, photography, Poetry, Politics, Prose, Romance, Tempo, Time, Writing.
Laoo Loaoo A La Loklooa, You see?
I love You – do You need more?
Shall We again, play tag?
Posted in: Dreams, Love, photography, Poetry, Prose, Romance, Tempo, writing.	Tagged: Dreams, Love, photography, Poetry, Prose, Romance, Tempo, Writing.
She was crying. I was crying too.
Posted in: Dreams, Images, Love, photography, photos, Poetry, Prose, Romance, Tempo, writing.	Tagged: Dreams, Love, photography, Poetry, Prose, Romance, Tempo, Time, Writing.
Posted in: Dreams, Love, photography, Poetry, Prose, Romance, Tempo, writing.	Tagged: Dreams, Love, Mankind, Poetry, Prose, Romance, Tempo, Writing.
I am lost, truly lost – within you; Still!
Posted in: Dreams, Love, photography, photos, Poetry, Prose, Romance, Tempo, Uncategorized, writing.
Make each whole once more, make us One!


Active: American Curls are moderately active. While they are playful and friendly (and remain that way into old age) they also enjoy curling up with a companion and cuddling the day away.
Size: The Ameican Curl is medium in size, weighing between 5 - 10 pounds.
Characteristics: While you may be first struck by the American Curl's curled-back, fascinating ears, there is much more to the American Curl that makes them a special cat breed. They have sweet, walnut-shaped eyes. Interestingly, American Curls are born with straight ears and between 3-5 days later they begin to curl back. Curls reach full maturity between 2 and 3 years of age. There is an acceptable range of curl, between 90 to 180 degrees. The curl should not be so extreme that it touches the back of the ear or head. Ears become permanently "set" around 16 weeks of age. They have rectangular, muscular bodies and seem to constantly carry a sweet and endearing expression.
Temperament: If you think the American Curl's ears make them special, their personalities will astonish you. They are very sweet and affectionate. They wake in the morning joyful and playful. They love to be with their companions and want to spend every waking minute in your adoring presence. Curls are happy to perch on your lap for some quiet affection. They love children and are happy to spend time playing and being silly as well. Accompanying their playfulness is their intelligence They can play fetch and learn tricks, and they can even open doorknobs!
Care: Whether your American Curl is longhaired or shorthaired, they are relatively easy to care for. Brushing 1 - 2 times per week will keep their coat looking beautiful. Bathing is not often needed, making Curls all the more easy to care for. Trim their nails weekly and brush their teeth often to prevent periodontal disease. Clean ears if you notice a bad smell or they appear dirty. The American Curl is the low maintenance best friend everyone deserves.
Coat: American Curl cats have a silky, gorgeous coat. It can be both long or short and can come in a variety of colors. The coat has only a little undercoat and does not shed much at all.
Origin: The American Curl cat is one of the newer cat breeds today. Often, new cat breeds have trouble gaining acceptance among cat fanciers and associations. The American Curl did not have trouble gaining acceptance and was quickly loved by all who came in contact with the breed. The breed is a result of a spontaneous genetic mutation. The American Curl gets its name from its signature curled back ears that give it a very unique and intriguing appearance. In June of 1981, Joe and Grace Ruga of Lakewood, California found a stray black kitten.
This black kitten had a silky coat and very unique ears. She was named Shulamith, meaning "black but comely" from the Old Testament, for her appearance. Shulamith gave birth to a litter of kittens and two had her unique, curled back ears. Rula gifted her sister-in-law Esther Brimlow with two of Shulamith's kittens. While making a delivery to Esther Brimlow, Nancy Kiester (a former breeder of Australian Shepherds) and was immediately intrigued by the kittens with curled back ears and sweet personalities and she took two kittens for her own. Kiester read an article about Scottish Folds (another breed with unique ears) and realized her kittens may be members of a unique breed.
She showed her kittens to Jean Grimm, who was a cat judge and Scottish Fold breeder. Selective breeding of the American Curl began in 1983 with the intention of creating a show breed. Soon after, in 1986, the American Curl was granted championship status by TICA. In 1991, the breed was accepted by the CFA for provisional status. The breed was quickly accepted by all major associations for championship status, much faster than many new breeds.


text:
Q: requirejs loading file from different path I've a webpage , where I've included the requirejs via script tag like -
<script data-main="/media/course-book-app/courses.require.main.js" src="/media/common/vendor/requirejs/require.js"></script>

On Safari browser, I'm getting error like -

What is causing this issue?
This issue is very frequent on Safari but on chrome it is less frequent.
Testing URL

A: From https://requirejs.org/docs/errors.html#scripterror (which is linked right there in the error). Follow the instructions and look at the script that caused the error

This occurs when the script.onerror function is triggered in a
  browser. This usually means there is a JavaScript syntax error or
  other execution problem running the script. To fix it, examine the
  script that generated the error in a script debugger.
This error may not show up in IE, just other browsers, and instead, in
  IE you may see the No define call for ... error when you see "Script
  error". This is due to IE's quirks in detecting script errors.

A: Here is the way to use requirejs correctly. This ensures the configuration gets loaded before loading any module -
define('requireconfig', function(){
    require.config({
        paths: {
          "jquery":    "/common/vendor/jquery/jquery-1.9.1.min",
          "backbone":  "/common/vendor/backbone/backbone.min-1.1.2",
          "underscore":  mediaPath + "/common/vendor/underscore/underscore.min-1.7.0"
        },
        shim: {
           backbone : {
            deps: ["jquery","underscore"],
            exports: "Backbone"
        },
        }
    });
});

define('main', ['requireconfig'], function () {
    'use strict';
});

// loading main module which loads the requirejs configuration

requirejs(['main'],()=>{
   requirejs(['jquery'], ($)=>{//jquery loaded});
}, ()=>{//error loading module})

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Beautiful Monsters: Living with a Prosthetic Limb
Ruminating on life with a prosthetic limb.
By Emily Rapp
| Summer 2016
We are easily reduced to the sum of our parts, and sometimes we are reduced to only our parts. As a woman who wears a permanent machine, I felt and still feel this reduction acutely.
Photo by Australia Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade/www.flickr.com/Photos/dfataustralianaid/technowannabe
When one part of the organic organism does not function the way it should, someone crafts a part to fill its place, to accomplish the needed task.
Photo by Derek Bridges/www.flickr.com/photos/derek_b/
Ever since there have been wars, physical anomalies, accidents, aging, and bodily improvisation, there have been cyborgs — people who are half machine, half body. When one part of the organic organism does not function the way it should, someone crafts a part to fill its place, to accomplish the needed task. Artificial legs made of iron. Wooden-wheeled wheelchairs. In the last century, the definition of a cyborg has of course deepened and broadened. Prosthetic limbs now contain computers that work with the living person's brain, signaling the parts to move. Humans — part human, part machine — have always existed: imago dei sprung from human invention and creativity.
Since the time I learned to walk, I have worn a machine. Made of disparate parts, I have, like Frankenstein's monster, moved as a hybrid person through the world, an amalgamation of mechanical parts that enable me to live and thrive. The correct functioning of my artificial part was as essential to me as food or drink, safety and shelter. Without it, I could not be at home in the world.
Born with a congenital birth defect that required the amputation of left foot at the age of four, I began my toddler life in a metal brace secured to the body by Velcro straps and a foam "bump" under the left foot that made my legs even, or "line up," as we said ("Is it lined up? Do you feel lined up?" the brace outfitter would ask). The brace helped me learn to walk and then kept me walking. For years, whenever I had an art assignment in school, I would look at the lines on my drawing of a flower or a bear's two paws together, holding a pot of honey, and think of the lines of the human body and how both were meant to be even and symmetrical. My first brace was a primitive creation, all metal and easily soiled cloth, with a clickety-clanking noise, a literal cage for the smaller left leg that kept it straight and allowed it to swing through after the right leg, the "lead leg," took a step forward. One step, two step, three step. The dance of a broken doll.
After the amputation of my foot, I had subsequent "modification" operations to the hip and other areas of the femur, and I graduated to another leg made of a light wood the color of the cabinets in my childhood kitchen. This wooden shell fit over my residual limb and attached with a cloth waist belt that frayed at the edges and rubbed against my hips when I walked, often creating rashes and sores that my mom rubbed with ointment. Secured along the sides, like two metal eyes, were the hinges that swung the leg through to its next-step destination. My dad had hung a rope swing in our garage in Wyoming, and I loved to swing, charging the right leg forward and then watching the bottom half of the left leg move on its own, back and forth, like a door closing shut against the body, a door opening and closing in the strength of a breeze, the leg both a part of me and also separate from me, mindless in a way that inanimate objects are, and yet also possessed of a mind of its own. I accepted this cyborgian body as mine, and at night I tore off the leg and let it rest next to my bed, an off-body talisman that, in the morning, just like in some kind of modern fairy tale, would be reintegrated — although not always easily — into my body. Helpless without it, my body was made active and mobile with the presence and assistance of this human-made device.
As a child, I imagined my body was put together by elves, beavering away in the back rooms of the Denver offices where we traveled for any leg-related activities. Denver was the closest city to oru our small town in rural Wyoming. The drives felt long to me then, the station wagon and then the minivan traversing miles of flat and desolate plains, with a hint of mountains in the distance as approached Colorado. The prosthetist's rooms were coated in sawdust, dirt, and metal parts. Like a fairy-tale princess, I was blessed (and this part I imagined with glitter) by a small group of people who were dedicated only to the crafting and welfare of my body. Instead of magical dresses and shoes, I was given magical body parts. As a child, I initially took great pride in being distinctive.
The prosthetist's office in Denver was located on the nondescript corner of a rundown block in a sketchy neighborhood, the floors coated in dust, the rickety side tables in the waiting room littered with old magazines. The traffic moving by on Colfax Avenue was often barely visible through the windows, which hadn't been cleaned for some time. I liked to rub a hole in the dirt with my sleeve and check for it when I returned; it was never wiped away. As an adult, looking back and thinking of this office — of its waiting room, the back room, and the "walking" runway where we tested the adjustments to the leg — I consider it as a place where objects of shame were manufactured: for the incompletes, the outcasts, the abnormal, the "disabled" as we were then (and still are) called, as if we constituted some beastly barbarian horde. Later, I would think about how those of us in these rooms were part of my strange fairy tale — instead of frogs turned into princes, we were people with misshapen bodies made acceptable (at least in part) to live and move in the world. As a child, however, I did not think of these things, but simply filled that dusty space with my constant chatter and genuine curiosity.
"What kind of leg do you have?" I'd ask the other amputees. In those days, the early 1980s, before the United States entered more wars from which men (and then women) would return in need of reconstructed body parts, the amputees I knew were Vietnam vets. They, too, were disabled, although the circumstances of them becoming so were far different from mine. These men, the war veterans — who seemed to me ancient and slightly edgy, with their smell of cigarette smoke and their sleeve tattoos — would chat to me about which legs they had, their ailments, their various aches and pains. As I thought later when I first heard the phrase, were the definition of the "walking wounded." In another century or another country or another time, we might have been made beggars or literal outcasts, so we converged here, at this place where body parts were made, to collect the mechanical pieces that would make us mobile and animate and at least partially human.
As much as this early machine mobilized and enabled my life, it often failed me as well. Prosthetists were unaccustomed to constructing limbs for girls, and the height of my leg was often wrong, the fit too tight, the foot too large — made for a man. I was literally mismatched and asymmetrical, the one side slightly withered and incomplete. Slowly, I graduated up through a succession of wooden legs, my feelings of distinctiveness gave way to feelings of shame. The difference I embodied was not a mark of being special; it signaled a freak show. I was a body made in Victor Frankenstein's workshop. Instead of inhabiting a regular girl's body that moved freely through the world, I had to be made: a created creature. I was the small girl version of Frankenstein's monster, weirdly constructed but heartier and stronger than I looked, full of both power and sadness.
Just before I started puberty — during one long, hot day of summer adjustments in the Denver office — I hopped to the back room to have a look at what my prosthetist (we called him a "doctor," although he had never gone to medical school) was doing with my leg, this precious object. I stood in the doorway in my underwear, leaning against the frame, and watched my leg move back and forth beneath a saw that descended from the ceiling, roaring and raging, spinning angrily and preparing to cut, slice, devour, change. I was part of that galvanized matter that Dr. Frankenstein was endeavoring to create. Flecks of wood flew like sparks and floated through the air, flake-shaped particles, atoms of artificial wood-skin. How strange to be divided from a part of my body, to see it manipulated in the hands of another: treated sawed, handled. I felt queasy and unsettled and out of place, as though I had no place at all, no body at all, no future. What did it mean to have a body that was made by a man with age spots crossing his bald head, with fat hands that adjusted part of me? What was my body? What was its purpose? What was its role? Without this thing being transformed beneath another's hands, I had no power, no mobility, no chance of being in the world in a way that was significant or, I felt, meaningful.
I reached down and touched the air where the finished prosthesis would go, the place where there was no leg. How could that be, when every other girl I knew so effortlessly embodied a two-legged form? It seemed such a simple thing, just one missing piece from knee to foot, but the absence was everything, even when, in a tactile sense, it was nothing at all.
I stood there for a long time, watching the "doctor" do his work on my body that was also not my body. A cigarette hung from his lips, and bits of bright ash flickered on the table. He cursed at my leg, tugged at it. I ached for the leg. I hated it. I wanted to pluck it from beneath the whirring blades of the saw. I wanted it to be chewed up, incinerated, or disposed of once and for all.
On the way home, I was uncharacteristically quiet. "Are you OK?" my dad asked. "Are you happy with the leg?"
"Sure," I said, but I couldn't help thinking that someday I would walk through the doors of the prosthetist's office with two real legs, as if a real metamorphosis had happened — from monster to princess. Instead of entering Frankenstein's workshop, I would enter a world where real fairy tales came true: peasants were made queens.
At night I began storing the leg in the closet and shutting the door so I wouldn't have to look at it or know it was there. I would lie in bed and imagine that a new leg, glorious in flesh and blood, would grow in the empty space beneath the covers. I would awake transformed. Reliance on an artificial leg made my hormonally charged heart spin: to wear the machine, to rely on it so deeply, was to be bound and shackled, but also, oddly free.
"I hate you," I once said to it, out loud. It was one morning as I was putting the leg on.
My brother walked past my bedroom door. "Who are you talking to?" he asked.
"You," I said, slamming the door in his face. I did not talk about the leg, and nobody knew how I felt about needing it. I covered it with questionable fashion choices; I tried to put it out of my mind.
In high school, I still prayed to be healed of the problem that required me to use the leg, to be rid of it, although the idea of being parted from it also filled me with a great and terrible dread, like the knowledge of death. It would be like jumping off a building to be seen without it, to be left without it. At slumber parties, I clutched it close in the sleeping bag. At high-school parties, I was careful to hide as much of it as I could, to shroud the difference in long pants or thick tights. I detested it. I relied on it.
As I've become an adult, I have cast off one leg after another as my body grew and prosthetic technology advanced. Now, artificial limbs have knees that operate like computers; feet come with intense shock absorbers that allow people to run and leap and participate in competitive sports. I own a running leg, and a leg with an adjustable foot made for wearing high heels. But this relationship I have with a mechanized body has always been contentious, because a women's body is, in part, her currency in the world, however we might try to deny it. A woman is embodied, and she is judged accordingly. We want to think that we are beyond this, that we are more than our bodies, but in the end, we are not. We are easily reduced to the sum of our parts, and sometimes we are reduced to only our parts. As a woman who wears a permanent machine, I felt and still feel this reduction acutely.
At my high school graduation, dressing in my room with another amputee friend of mind, pirouetting in front of the mirror, I observed that it would just be so much better with two real legs. She agreed. The "it" was the crucial point. We both wanted to be pretty, to have our bodies be acceptable, normal, noticeable — but in a way that felt special, not strange. We carefully calculated the fine line between these two descriptors. We didn't want to wear flesh-colored hose to match the flesh-colored paint of the artificial legs we wore, which hardly matched our own skin tones. We didn't want the leg to make loud noises as we walked. We didn't want to be stared at. We wanted to be women who didn't rely on any external, human-made parts to make us whole. We wanted to be whole without assistance.
Sex presented a particular dilemma. What to do with the leg? How to explain it? I worked to hide it, believing that the vulnerability of difference wasn't sexy or special. During those early years of sexual activity, I felt a deep embarrassment coupled with a furious wildness — a feeling that I need to overcompensate, prove that I was worthy, prove that I could be chosen, and that a so-called normal person would pluck me from the freak show, make me belong to a different group of people, the "right" group of people, the beautiful ones.
As a teenager, I became an expert at "partial sex." I made sure that everything from the top down — face, arms, breasts — were arranged for maximum beauty, a standard based on what I saw in magazines. I was physically fit to the point of obsession, and I became fastidiously committed to virginity, if only because it bought me more time to avoid being vulnerable in a sexual way.
As an adult, my desires changed, but remained terrified to reveal to others the truth of what I looked like and who I was. I didn't want to experience the moment in Frankenstein when the doctor realizes the horror of what he has created. Not beauty, but ugliness:
How can I describe my emotions at this catastrophe, or how delineate the wretch whom with such infinite pains and care I had endeavoured to form? … The different accidents of life are not so changeable as the feelings of human nature. I had worked hard for nearly two years, for the sole purpose of infusing life into an inanimate body. … I had desired it with an ardour that far exceeded moderations; but now that I had finished, the beauty of the dream vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart. Unable to endure the aspect of the being I had created, I rushed out of the room.
How could I know that someone would not, as the doctor had done, run away from me, horrified by what had been revealed? Beautiful face, terrible body. The Sphinx. A harpy. A siren. Samuel Taylor Coleridge's witch-serpent Geraldine. Who could desire such a monster?
But people did, and do. This is, in fact, another great lesson of Frankenstein's story: that love is given to all different kinds of human forms. That there is no fairy-tale body, no perfection. But I continue to struggle, finding it hard to walk by any magazine that promises "Your Perfect Body" or "Get a Better Butt" without picking it up and studying it, wanting it, hating the fact that I cannot have it.
When I became a mother, my relationship to my body changed yet again. A different kind of somatic naturalness — all mysterious organs and processes — was activated inside me, and everything worked. I made a beautiful boy, Ronan — flawlessly made, it seemed. But at nine months old, he was diagnosed with a terminal illness — a progressive neurological disease — that would claim his life before the age of three.
At first, I irrationally blamed my hybrid body with its "fake" leg. How dare I think I might actually manage to build something perfect in this body helped along by expensive, human-made parts? But as my son's condition developed, I developed a more nuanced relationship not only with my leg — which seemed an "easy" problem compared to his many ailments — but with other medical-grade machines that also contributed, for a brief time, to his well-being and quality of life. Because Ronan had trouble swallowing and sometimes breathing, he used a suction machine and an oxygen machine. At the end of his life, he used a nose tube that distributed pain medication. Nothing about his body in the world was easy, and suddenly all the mechanical parts of my own brain that worked together to enable me to speak, walk, type, move, shout, eat — all of them — were miraculous. I wasn't monstrous; difference can't be so easily easily understood or misunderstood. Everything, everything, everything was wrong with my son, and yet he was gorgeous and singular. He was my creation, but I would never, as Victor Frankenstein had, leave him.
Now, after my son's death, I think about what a revelation it is to move food to my mouth, to walk across a room — assisted or not — to have vision, mobility, thoughts, and a chance at a life. I understand that the most powerful machine any of us has is the brain, and I'm grateful for mine. I no longer curse the leg on the floor beside me, although it is true that I have occasionally cursed the world. Instead I am grateful for this complex system of interconnected neural pathways — mysterious pathways that remained unlit or burned to the ground in Ronan's brain, but that function in me in a way that enabled me to care for my son during his illness, and that continue to help me to survive, however uneasily, his death.
My body is, and will always be, partly mechanical. This fact is a burden, a gift, a risk, an attitude, and a reality that can be shifted in ways that I can control and not control. Like all of us who live and breathe and function in these bodies composed of so many disparate parts and processes, so many beauties and lies, so many conundrums and solutions, we are hybrid beings. We are, all of us, subject to the chaos and unpredictability that are creation, reinvention, and change.
We all live in fairy tale called life. And we humans are, all of us, beautiful monsters.
Emily Rapp is the author of Poster Child: A Memoir (2006) and The Still Point of the Turning World (2013), which was a New York Times bestseller. Reprinted from Curlers to Chainsaws: Women and Their Machines (Michigan State University Press, 2016), a new book of collected essays edited by Joyce Dyer, Jennifer Cognard-Black, and Elizabeth Macleod Walls.
Recognizing Core Limiting Beliefs
Uganda's Homegrown AI
Money for Everybody? Exploring Universal Basic Income
Citizen Mussels

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Q: javascript test if URL relative or absolute and not mailto: I have tables with buttons/links/email with mailto: and have written a default double click function which on double click of the row will direct the user to the last link in the table.
99% of tables will have the Edit button in the last column.
$('table:not(.noDoubleClick) tr td').dblclick(function() {
    var linkEl = $(this).parents('tr').find('td:last-child a');

    if(!linkEl.length){
        return false;
    }

    if (linkEl.attr('href') && linkEl.attr('onclick') === undefined && !linkEl.hasClass("popme")) {
        document.location = linkEl.attr('href');
    } else {
        linkEl.click();
    }
});

This works fine until I have a rare table where the last column is a email address with a mailto.
Q: How could I check if the href is relative/absolute link only. So that this would exclude mailto: and any other links which are not standard URLs.
I know I could do something like this: linkEl.attr('href').substring(0, 7) == "mailto:" to test specifically for mailto but is there a better way of doing this without a load of IFs testing for the different protocols to be excluded.
Update with working solution from @epascarello:
$('table:not(.noDoubleClick) tr td').dblclick(function(e) {
    var linkEl = $(this).parents('tr').find('td:last-child a');
    var linkElHref = linkEl.attr('href');

    // Check if has href and http protocol
    if(!linkElHref.length || this.protocol.indexOf("http") !== 0){
        e.preventDefault();
        return false;
    }

    if (linkElHref && linkEl.attr('onclick') === undefined && !linkEl.hasClass("popme")) {
        document.location = linkElHref;
    } else {
        linkEl.click();
    }
});

A: You can look up the protocol using the link's properties.
var theProtocol = linkEl.prop("protocol");
var isHttp = linkEl.prop("protocol").indexOf("http") === 0;

A: For a textual solution, you could use this regular expression:
var x = new RegExp('^([^:/?#]+:)?(//[^/?#]*)?([^?#]*)');
x.match(url);

If the second memory position is undefined or http: or https: you're probably dealing with a regular URL.


text:
Signet's comps grew this holiday—though an increasing amount of its customers weren't at the mall, but on their couch.
The company announced that its 2019 holiday comps rose 1.6%—with online sales climbing an impressive 13.5%, even as brick-and-mortar sales dropped 0.2%.
The results, for the nine weeks ending Jan. 4, topped Signet's prior guidance and led America's largest jeweler to boost its guidance for the next fiscal year. It now expects that fiscal 2021's same-store sales will rise 0.1%; it had previously expected them to fall 1%–1.7%.
Just about every division of Signet saw an increase in same-store sales this holiday—a change from past quarters, when only one or two divisions saw jumps.
James Allen led the company with a 26% comp gain, a return to past patterns of growth. The e-tailer's comps had fallen dramatically after the U.S. Supreme Court's 2018 ruling on online sales tax. Now, its same-store sales are being measured against quarters following that decision.
Piercing Pagoda's sales jumped 6.9%; Zales' comps rose 5.9%; Canadian chain Peoples saw a 4.5% increase; and flagship chain Kay eked out a 0.2% rise.
Comps dropped 3.5% at Jared, while regional banners saw a 10.4% decline. Sales at its U.K. division fell 3.1%, which it attributed to a "difficult operating environment" in Britain.
In a statement, chief executive officer Virginia Drosos credited the results to "product newness, investments in our digital capabilities, and more targeted marketing campaigns."
The company also noted the following trends this holiday:
– Bridal and fashion were strong in North America, while watch and bead sales declined.
– Total sales for the period were $1.8 billion. E-commerce sales totaled $252.3 million.
– The number of transactions grew in the holiday season, but the average transaction value was flat.
– Participation in its payment plan, including both credit and leasing sales, decreased year over year.
Signet's full holiday report can be seen here.
(Image courtesy of Signet Jewelers)


There are many activities you can incorporate into your wedding reception. Some are traditional and expected, while others are unique, fun and memorable for the bridal couple and their guests. From cutting the cake to releasing a pair of white doves, wedding couples have plenty of creative activity choices.
If you plan on having a variety of activities at your wedding reception, it is important to have a good emcee to make announcements, give instructions, and encourage everyone to be involved. Provide the emcee (many wedding DJs will do emcee duties) with a list of activities and generally when you would like them to happen in the reception to keep everything on schedule.
After the dignity of the wedding ceremony, the reception can be a great time to take some funny wedding pictures. The couple can pose in unique ways, and getting the guests involved with the photos is a great way to record wedding memories. Many photographers will also offer a photo booth for receptions, giving everyone the opportunity to have a nice photo taken that can be downloaded from the photographer's website after the event.
A white dove release is a highly symbolic wedding reception activity, and a couple can use this type of event to begin their reception festivities. Be sure to use a reputable wedding dove coordinator, however, to ensure the birds are treated humanely and to guarantee the moment will go as planned. If birds aren't right for your event, consider a butterfly or balloon release instead.
Dancing is an integral part of any wedding reception. The bride and groom open the dance floor with their first dance, and other traditional dances include dancing with their parents and the entire bridal party dancing. Some couples opt for heavily themed and choreographed dances while others are more casual, and throughout the night line dances and group numbers are popular for everyone to be involved.
A cocktail hour might be part of a wedding reception before the main meal begins. This gives the couple time to circulate among guests, or they may be using that hour between the ceremony and reception to take additional photographs. To liven up the cocktail hour, choose a signature cocktail for everyone to try or have some wedding trivia games to play to help everyone relax.
Candy and dessert bars are a hot trend at wedding receptions. The treats may be themed to the wedding colors or motif, such as autumn or beach themed candies, and guests can fill small boxes or bags with their favorites for a custom wedding favor. This can be a fun and attractive part of the wedding reception and it is easy to customize for any couple's special day.
The guest book helps couples record everyone who shared their special day, and the book can be passed from table to table during the reception to ensure everyone has a chance to sign. More unique options are a poster or picture frame that guests can sign, creating video greetings for the couple to view after the wedding, or using a wishing well for every guest to leave personal greetings.
Cutting the cake is one of the most anticipated wedding reception activities. The couple will cut the first slice of cake and feed one another bites to symbolize their commitment to care for and provide for each other. To make the cake cutting more unique, opt to cut the cake with an unusual implement, such as a sword for a military wedding or a jungle machete for a beach wedding.
Speeches and toasts are common at all wedding receptions, but couples should take care to limit the number of toasts to avoid boring guests. After the couple has been toasted, they should make a return toast to thank their guests for attending and sharing their special moments.
The bouquet and garter tosses are typically held toward the end of the reception as the couple is preparing to leave. Not every couple has these activities as part of their wedding reception, however, and alternatives include giving the bouquet to the longest married couple in attendance or tossing a faux garter instead of one indelicately removed from the bride's leg.
Leaving the wedding reception should be a grand moment for the bride and groom. Guests might throw rice or birdseed, blow bubbles, or wave sparklers to wish the happy couple well as they leave the wedding and take their first steps into their life together.


text:
Peer-Reviewed, Timely, Global and Free:
Online Scholarly Publication
By admin Volume 6, Issue 1: Fall 2010
Suzanne Ferriss and Steven Alford, Former Editors Revised: 15.05.15
The International Journal of Motorcycle Studies is now in its 11th year of successful publication. Yet, still—occasionally—we encounter a bit of resistance. We might have expected some scholars to question our focus on motorcycles as an area of academic investigation, which is why we included a page called "Why Motorcycles Studies?" But that hasn't been the issue. Instead, some have questioned our choice to publish the journal online. We'd like to take a few minutes to explain our decision.
IJMS was created by an international group of scholars devoted to the emerging, interdisciplinary field of motorcycle studies. In 2000, Gary Kieffner founded the Motorcycling Culture and Myth Area of the Southwest/Texas Popular Culture/American Culture Association conference. In 2003, owing to its prominence at the regional meeting, the area became a part of the national meeting of the PCA/ACA as well. At our initial meeting there, we agreed to create the journal as a way of extending our discussions—beyond the borders of the conference and outside North America. We wanted to engage not only other scholars but other motorcyclists, taking seriously the idea that intellectual discourse should not be confined to the academy, while simultaneously recognizing that obeying the conventions—and rigor—of conventional academic research would be paramount among our concerns. We would bring all that is valuable in academic publishing to the Internet to reach as wide an audience as we could. Only then would we be able to attract a global cadre of scholars and advance the study of motorcycling in all its forms.
This journal, like thousands of other academic journals, differs from more traditional journals only in its form of publication: online rather than print.
IJMS is a peer-reviewed journal overseen by an editorial board of published scholars from a variety of academic disciplines, working in the United States, Canada and Europe. Each essay undergoes a rigorous peer review process, with a minimum of two evaluations by faculty members teaching in business, history, transportation studies, literature, film, media/cultural studies and more. The journal is listed in the MLA Directory of Periodicals as well as the Directory of Open Access Journals, which lists over 5530 other "free, full text, quality controlled scientific and scholarly journals" (DOAJ). Soon after its publication, the journal was mentioned in the Chronicle of Higher Education and featured in an article in Inside Higher Ed.
As anyone who has ever published in an academic journal knows, it regularly takes an article submitted to a print journal to take years before publication, owing to the time-consuming printing process. This delay not only retards the progress of discussion among experts, it also can affect their careers, since publication is a significant component of the promotion process. Electronic tools have allowed us to cut the process at least in half. Our review process takes only months and most essays accepted for publication appear within a year, if not less. We also publish reviews of books, films and television shows soon after they appear, not months or years later. Online publication allows us to speed up the time from acceptance to publication so that cutting-edge scholarship can reach the largest possible academic and general readership.
Free and Open
With over 3000 readers each month (not per issue), IJMS reaches an audience well in excess of the average scholarly journal. Our readership is truly international: the journal is read by enthusiasts in 97 countries around the globe. This was a key reason in our decision to publish the journal, without subscription, online.
Online publication is no longer the future of academic publishing. It is the present. We happily stand by the quality of our published scholars and hope that those in the academy agree.
Breaking the Code: A True Story by a Hells Angel President and the Cop Who Pursued Him
Book Review by Anthony Saia


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Hi, it's Greenygrey. It's that end of the week time of the week, so I think it's about time for the second episode of your fave werewolf travel quests Australia to a comedy Wizard of Oz parody theme, Werewolf of Oz: Fantasy Travel by Google Maps.
You might be thinking that I missed the 'classic' 'epic' out of the book description, but I have in fact saved it for this episode, because it is a literary nonsense poetry treat that those two words say they are delighted to describe.
We made good progress through the clear morning, and it didn't seem long before Ulladulla came into view.
we slowed down as it neared.
you look in need of dinners.
as the crow flies, Molly Mook.
Molly said the harbour would be busy, so she led us to the beach above. From there, we walked down Ocean Street to the Rowdy Rook; I'd shapeshifted out of dolphin by then of course!
The Rowdy Rook was as welcoming as Molly had suggested. It was full of corvids of all types, and played some vids that made you think cor! The Black Crowes, Byrds and Them Crooked Vultures were particularly amazing.
We were ravenous by the time our mag pies arrived, and they fitted the bill; stylishly served in plates shaped like a spoonbill bill. That was some cook at the Rook.
Ocean Street and Mollymook are in Ulladulla.
Corvids are groups of birds of the corvidae biological family; such as crows, ravens, jays and magpies.
Black Crowes, Byrds and Them Crooked Vultures are all real bands.
Hi, it's Baron Wolfman, head honcho of Greenygrey Creation in the absence of the legendary Andy Wolfhol. There's been lots of Sweden talk on this here blog lately, so I thought I'd bring you some greenygrey Stockholm photos, not anything like those featured on our ol' pal Marc Latham's travel25years.wordpress.com blog (but there are some other greenygrey ones there too!).
and the sunnysky is too.
Marc Latham has books available on Smashwords and Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/author/marclatham).
Hi, it's Grey Greyvara, social conscience at the Greenygrey. When Marc Latham was studying for his PhD from 2000-2005 he was considered a Jew in a derogatory Islamo-fascist-liberal way for daring to say the Middle-East was a cycle of violence; mostly influenced by the work of media analyst with a cool surname Gadi Wolfsfeld.
Islamo-fascism continued in the area Marc lived, and that persecution of anything criticising Islam probably helped inspire some of those involved in the 7/7 bombings of 2005.
Marc was still quite a radical socialist during that time, so was critical of Islam for its social inequality and human rights abuses. But criticism of Islam at university was decoded and demonised as being pro-West, pro-Israeli and right-wing.
Marc understands this is the way the world is divided between east and west; highlighted in the Syrian conflict recently. Marc doesn't like the U.S. blockade of Cuba, but also doesn't like Cuba's alliance with countries such as Syria and Iran; although the West's ally in the Middle-East Saudi Arabia also has a terrible human rights record.
While that might sound Islamophobic, Marc enjoyed his time in Islamic countries when travelling through them in the 1980s. It's not Islamic people on the whole that Marc criticises, it is their rulers and ideologies.
Unfortunately, Islamism has risen since the 1980s, inspiring more people to become extremists. This has had a knock-on effect in other countries and religions, with more Christian and Jewish extremists, as well as more radical atheists.
As a focus on Islamism took over the left in the U.K.; originally through New Labour, and now epitomised by George Galloway; and 7/7 happened; Marc moved to the political centre, and out of academic life, leading to Greenygrey theory on this here websitey.
Marc moved from being a bit of a British Marxist, common in 1980s Britain, to a Scandinavian style democratic socialist; although Scandinavia has also changed politically since the Utopian post-World War II era, and many parts have become more capitalist.
However, it still scores highly in most standard-of-living and democratic ideals ratings: equality, press freedom, freedom of speech, environmental innovation etc.
So I was interested to hear Abba's Bjorn Ulvaeus express similar views to Marc on religion recently, published on the British Rationalist Association website; and in particular on the negativity and threat of Islamism.
'Israel has some responsibility in the Middle-East, because of its expansionism, but it is only Islam that is still spreading religious war around the region, and out into the rest of the world.
Marc hopes that Iran's election of the more moderate Rouhani and his recent peaceful overtones to the 'West' can bring a new era of hope to the Middle-East.
I didn't know that Bjorn Ulvaeus was a Swedish humanist until I read that interview, or that he'd had a similar religious journey to Marc Latham until watching the following interview.
Marc Latham's latest Folding Mirror poem was inspired by a news report of alien organisms being found on space rock, and scientists stating that it could have been how life started on Earth. The research is still in an early stage, so it's by no means proven.
Hi, it's Greenygrey. With all the bad news in the human world this week it seems like an ideal time to escape with the satirical comedy travel quest classic epic Werewolf of Oz: Fantasy Travel by Google Maps. Especially as this episode sees the WoOs set off up the east coast on a literary nonsense poetry bottlenose dolphin bonanza.
However, first of all there's even more bee wordplay. Maybe Werewolf of Oz analysts will one day argue over whether the Bingie Bee Bungee was really a trilogy, or whether this episode made it a quartet. Maybe you will too?
I slept well, and the others all seemed ready to leave when I first looked up. They were chatting jollily, and there seemed to be another new spirit amongst them.
The bees provided a beeautiful brekkie of honey beescuits. I felt a new surge of energy flow through my body afterwards.
The bees flew out as far as the first horizon, which was the limit of their safe flight range; but some bungeed a little farther. They all sang goodbyee. It was a beeautiful sight from the early morning ocean, lit up aquamarine by the new day's sun.
The harness and raft worked well. Barry and I swam in the front, with Barry's wife and three calves in two rows behind us.
although it was a shame to leave the bees of Bingie.
Islamists Deserve Nazi Comparison: But Which Ones?
The Al-Shabab attack on Nairobi, Kenya's Westgate shopping centre is a reminder about who Western leaders are helping in Syria. While the Syrian conflict is terrible for innocent civilians, the 'West' should not provide any help to rebels containing al-Quaeda elements. Their 'help' would soon filter down to groups like Al-Shabab, and other groups trying to Islamise Africa.
Hi, it's Wolf Whitzer, intrepid satirical comedy newshound at the Greenygrey with an unfortunately very serious news report.
While Western leaders were trying to build support for action against Assad in Syria they framed the conflict with WWII historical references.
Top British and American leaders compared their decision on Syria to that which the Allies faced with the Nazis in 1938: warning of the dangers of appeasement, and Assad's alleged use of chemical weapons to the Nazis' gassing of nearly 6 million people during World War II.
However, even if Assad did use chemical weapons there is no good side in Syria to support, with the rebels infiltrated by Islamic Fundamentalists like the Al-Shabab who attacked Nairobi, Kenya's Westgate shopping centre this weekend.
Their singling out of non-Muslims (the inferior kafir non-believers, white and non-white to Islamists) for execution is reminiscent of the Nazis' persecution of undesirables, and should awaken those thinking of helping them in Syria up to the reality of who they would be supporting.
Assad's Syrian government might have similarities to the Nazis, but the al-Quaeda inspired rebels have more; and more hatred of non-Muslim kafirs.
We should remember that we (non-Muslims) are all considered inferior to them, and they want to martyr themselves because they believe they are going somewhere better; somewhere very similar to the Christian heaven written in the bible about 500 years before their heaven became known.
The 'West' should view all al-Quaeda groups like the Nazis before World War II, and not provide any appeasement or support to them. That means staying out of Syria.
Hi, it's Greenygrey. One good thing about leaving the first episode of Werewolf of Oz: Fantasy Travel by Google Maps until late in the week is that there isn't such a long wait until the second episode.
And here it is, bringing the brief Bingie bee bungee trilogy to a close with lots of a bee see wordplay, before starting off up the east coast with an old friend from Kalbarri; maybe you remember Grey getting an urge to call Barry when it reached Kalbarri?
We thanked the bees for the bungee to Bingie, and were about to leave, but then one flew over to us. She introduced herself as Beeatrice, before asking us not to buzz off straightaway, as they were having a beebeecue on the beeach that night.
A beebee on Bingie beach with Beeatrice and the bungeeing bees was too much to resist, so we quickly agreed in unison. We spent the afternoon chilling in the sea, and evening soon came.
and then realised it was Kalbarri Barry.
After calling him over, I asked what he was doing all the way over the other side of Oz. He said he was holidaying with the family. I thought it was an amazing coincidence that we were both in Bingie at the same time, but you know, these things happen on the road… and at sea.
Barry said they were setting off for Sydney the next day, and invited us along. I hadn't shapeshifted for a while, so I suggested I shift into a bottlenose and swim with Barry and his family; pulling the others behind us on a makeshift raft. Everybody agreed to the idea, and we constructed the raft after the beerilliant bbq finished.
As the last embers of the fire lost their glow, we fitted the harness to the raft using the moonlight that silverlined across the ocean to our place on the sand.