text:
Skip directly to site content
All CDC NIOSH Mining
NIOSH Mine Safety and Health Technology Innovations Award
Keywords: Mine operators Safety incentives
Background: The Challenge of Applying Technologies in Mining
The NIOSH Mine Safety and Health Technology Innovations Award recognizes mines and companies that have made an extraordinary effort to apply technology or improve processes in innovative ways, above and beyond mandatory requirements, to improve mine worker safety and health.
In mining, technology should not be a one-time "fix" but rather an evolving and continuously improving process of applying new and better technologies and systems to solve problems. To recognize these safety milestones, NIOSH created the Technology Innovations Award with the goal of promoting technology identification, adoption, and dissemination throughout the mining industry. Mines and companies that qualify are invited to self-apply.
The nomination process is simple. Send an email to the Associate Director for Mining answering these questions:
What problem were you solving?
What is the technology or process and how does it work?
How did you modify and evaluate the technology or process to solve your specific problem?
What did you do to implement the technology or process at your mine?
What health and safety benefits have been realized or are expected?
Dr. John Howard presents the 2014 NIOSH Mine Safety and Health Technology Innovations Awards.
Specify which industry sector (metal, coal, industrial minerals, or stone, sand & gravel) is most applicable to your submission.
Also include the name of the mining operation or company implementing the technology or process improvement and the name, email address, and phone number of the primary contact for the submission.
Pictures and diagrams are optional, but may be submitted to help us understand the technology. The submission does not need to be elaborately produced and the text can be in layman's terms. If further clarification is needed during the review process, NIOSH will contact the submitters.
When we receive your nomination we will send you an acknowledgement and additional information on what to expect during the evaluation process.
Although nominations will be accepted throughout the year, please note that awards are given annually and the award date will correspond to the meeting date for the sponsoring organization. In order to allow time for full consideration of each nomination, nominations must be received no later than the listed deadline. Nominations received after the deadline will automatically be considered for an award in the subsequent year.
(click for printable flyer)
Award Venue
Nomination Deadline
Industrial Minerals IMA-NA Annual Meeting July 1, 2019 Sept. 2019
Stone, Sand, and Gravel NSSGA Legislative & Policy Forum/Fall Board Meeting Aug. 1, 2019 Sept. 2019
Metal NMA Safety Award Ceremony Aug. 1, 2019 Sept. 2019
Coal NMA Safety Award Ceremony Aug. 1, 2019 Sept. 2019
For questions, email us at mining@cdc.gov, or call 412-386-5302.
Proximity Detection System for Longwall Shields (Coal)
Ordinarily, shield movement is automated and therefore could result in crushing or pinning injuries to workers in close proximity. Consol Energy partnered with Komatsu Mining to develop and test a shield proximity system for use in the U.S. that combines low-power wireless transceivers and worker-worn battery-powered tags to protect nearby workers. When a worker is detected, the shields are prevented from moving until the worker is clear of the danger. Consol and Komatsu deployed the system in a highly active longwall face and refined the system's parameters, addressing appropriate distance between the shield and proximity pad, as well as lost tag notifications.
Adam Smith (top row, first on left), Dr. R.J. Matetic (top row, second from right), and Hal Quinn (top row, right), president of the National Mining Association present the 2018 NIOSH Mine Safety and Health Technology Innovations Award for coal to representatives from Consol Energy and Komatsu Mining. (Click for larger image)
Operational Intelligence Suite Application (Metal)
With so many sensor systems and controls possibilities in a mine environment, it can be difficult to keep tabs on them all, let alone respond swiftly enough to address hazards and high exposure levels. Anglo American created the Operational Intelligence Suite (OiS) application that works with off-the-shelf, real-time sensors to detect a range of health hazards (e.g., noise, dust, gases) as well as controls (e.g., airflow, pressures). This app allows for real-time visualization of occupational health and environmental key performance indicators when employees may be at risk of exposure, enabling proactive avoidance of potential violations before they occur. OiS installations have enhanced safety at several worksites with early detection of a control failure, process leak, or change in the work environment, initiating corrective action and preventing employee exposure.
Adam Smith (left), Dr. R.J. Matetic (second from right), Hal Quinn (right), president of the National Mining Association, present the 2018 NIOSH Mine Safety and Health Technology Innovations Award for metal to Anglo American. (Click for larger image)
Moisture-Tolerant Rock Dust (Industrial Minerals)
Mixing rock dust with coal dust is necessary to guard against propagation of explosions in coal mines, but rock dusts vary in their critical ability to disperse when wet. Imerys created a moisture-tolerant rock dust by blending conventional rock dust with treated calcium carbonate to offer an optimal solution for mines. Cooperative testing with NIOSH demonstrated that the treated particles fill in void spaces between untreated rock dust particles, blocking the wicking action that allows water to penetrate conventional rock dust. Imerys ImerCoal MT moisture-tolerant rock dust is commercially available and is being used in coal mines throughout North America.
Dust Reduction Systems (Stone, Sand & Gravel)
Dealing with the health hazards of respirable crystalline silica dust is a longstanding challenge for the mining industry. Wisconsin Proppants Operations successfully reduced airborne exposures to crystalline silica and respirable dust generated during frac sand production by installing two systems to control these dusts at the Wisconsin Proppants Hixton Mine. The company's use of a dense phase conveying system and a fogging system around rotex screens achieved dust reductions that offered measurable protections to workers.
Three-Point Seatbelt Restraint System (Coal)
During sudden jolts or rollover events, a driver can be tossed violently in a cab, even while restrained with a traditional lap belt. Injuries can happen—leaving some drivers with permanent damage. Peabody Energy Corporation launched an effort to better restrain drivers in their truck seats after an April 2016 event in which a truck load shifted dramatically, causing one of their haul truck operators to experience a lower back compression fracture. The company set about to prevent these sort of injuries by working to design a three-point seat belt with electronic controls that locks the driver in place when a sudden shift or potential rollover event is detected. These new seat restraints are now installed in their haul trucks.
Dr. R.J. Matetic presents the 2017 NIOSH Mine Safety and Health Technology Innovations Award for coal to representatives from Peabody Energy Corporation. (Click for larger image)
Redesigned Strike Hammer (Metal)
The design of strike hammers previously used at Kinross Gold Corporation left the workers using them at risk of two things: airborne contaminants that could be kicked up when the slag is fractured, and pieces of hot slag ejecting out of the molds which could lead to serious burns. Finding that the industry lacked a strike hammer that suited their desire to control the ejection of broken slag and contaminants, the company set about designing, developing, and engineering the specific tool needed. Kinross Gold's newly engineered hammer controls airborne contaminants and prevents hot, loose slag from ejecting when workers fracture slag in assay molds. This redesign offers greater protection to fire assay technicians.
Dr. R.J. Matetic (left) presents the 2017 NIOSH Mine Safety and Health Technology Innovations Award for metal to Randy Burggraff, Patti Tschirgi, and Ryan Horn of Kinross Gold Corporation. (Click for larger image)
Use of Technology to Safeguard Employees (Metal)
The word "drones" may call to mind their uses in warfare or recreation, but one company has put them to work in a novel way. Rather than send workers into hazardous areas to survey mine sites, Freeport-McMoRan has begun using a drone to give them a bird's eye view of their mine environment. The military-grade drone was modified to allow it to carry technology capable of recording high-quality images and streaming live video. The drone is used to inspect highwalls, tailings, large mill buildings, power lines, traffic flows, and several other aspects of their operations, including providing an additional aerial safety check in advance of blasting and documenting blast sequencing. The use of the drone reduces the risk of falls from heights, electrocutions, injury or death from highwall failures, and provides an extra measure of safety for mine operators who no longer must venture out to hazardous locations for a first look. The drone's imaging system can transmit streaming video, and take very clear pictures for mapping purposes.
Dr. R.J. Matetic (left) presents the 2017 NIOSH Mine Safety and Health Technology Innovations Award for metal to representatives from Freeport-McMoRan. (Click for larger image)
Health and Wellness Program (Stone, Sand & Gravel Sector)
Fitness for duty can be negatively affected if a company's workforce struggles with numerous health challenges. Granite Mountain Quarries and Pine Bluff Sand & Gravel Company began a health and wellness program for employees and their spouses in order to address a growing concern that worker health might compromise the safety of the job site. The multi-operation company rewarded healthy habits and healthy behavior through cash and HRA contributions. Many employees lost weight and stopped smoking. About half of employees now regularly get annual physicals, and many of those employees have either begun taking medications to address previously unknown issues, or been able to stop taking medication due to weight loss and better health habits. The company states that their workforce now reports to work energetic, alert, and ready to concentrate on the task at hand.
Hal F. Williford Jr. (left) of NSSGA and Dr. R.J. Matetic (second from left) of NIOSH Mining present the 2017 Mine Safety and Health Technology Innovations Award for stone, sand & gravel to W. Scott McGeorge of Granite Mountain Quarries and Jay Canada of Pine Bluff Sand & Gravel. (Click for larger image)
Fan Hanging Machine (Metal Sector)
Hanging auxiliary fans in underground metal mines is a difficult and potentially hazardous job, as the fans are large and the equipment currently used to lift them into place does not provide a safe location for workers away from the suspended load. Small Mine Development, LLC, and JH Fletcher together developed a purpose-built fan hanging machine to protect mine workers from the potential hazards of working around a large, suspended load. This machine securely holds the fan and has a platform for miners that travels up with the fan and moves independently along the length of the fan.
Dr. Jessica Kogel of NIOSH (top left) and Hal Quinn (top right), president of the National Mining Association, present the 2016 Mine Safety and Health Technology Innovations Award for metal mining to Small Mine Development, LLC., and JH Fletcher. (Click for larger image)
Stockpile Safety System (Coal Sector)
The safety of workers who operate dozers on surface stockpiles at mines depends on knowing where feeder locations are, and if material is feeding properly from above operating feeders. Arch Coal, Inc.'s Leer Mine developed a stockpile safety system to enhance dozer operator awareness and to help eliminate stockpile dozer incidents. The system offers video to the dozer operator and the plant operator of the dozer's location on the stockpile in relation to the feeders. An audible warning is provided if the dozer enters a zone above the feeder. In addition, the operators can confirm via video that the coal is being pulled from the surface of the stockpile to indicate there are not any voids. This system represents a significant advance to enhance dozer operator awareness to help eliminate future stockpile dozer incidents.
Dr. Jessica Kogel (left) of NIOSH and Hal Quinn (right), president of the National Mining Association, present the 2016 Mine Safety and Health Technology Innovations Award for coal to Arch Coal, Inc.
Dry Scrubbing System (Industrial Minerals Sector)
Airborne dust generated when ore is handled or transported can be a health hazard for mine workers. Focusing on the conveyor transfer point as a significant airborne dust contributor, Tronox Alkali developed a dry scrubber system that separates the dust particles from the air and uses an automated compressed air pulse system to clean the filters. The removed dust is collected in a hopper where it is mixed with water and then pumped to a mining sump. The system has been very effective and the company plans to have a second system operational soon.
Dr. Jessica Kogel of NIOSH presents the 2016 Mine Safety and Health Technology Innovations Award for industrial minerals to Tronox Alkali. (Click for larger image)
Compressed Air Foam Fire Suppression System (Coal Sector)
A fire in an underground coal mine can spread quickly, threatening the lives of every worker in the mine. Rapid suppression of the fire is often the best way to prevent disaster. Working with RM Wilson Company and Red Dog Services, Murray Energy Corporation developed a rail car-mounted compressed air foam fire suppression system to fight fires that can occur when transporting combustible material out of the mine. This system consists of a Red Dog Services Suppressor 60 modified to be mounted on an underground rail car with 500 feet of fire hose. Murray Energy worked with its partners to develop, refine, and test the system for effectiveness and durability. They have deployed 20 systems through seven of their operating companies.
NIOSH presenting the 2015 Mine Safety and Health Technology Innovations Award for coal to Murray Energy Corporation.
Helmet-CAM Technology (Industrial Minerals Sector)
Workers' exposure to respirable dust containing crystalline silica has long been a concern for the health of our nation's workers. Unimin Corporation worked in cooperation with NIOSH to field test and evaluate the Helmet-CAM technology. The Helmet-CAM technology integrates a wearable video recorder with a real-time data-logging aerosol monitor for the effective and efficient assessment and identification of work areas and processes that impact a worker's personal respirable dust exposure. Unimin implemented the Helmet-CAM technology at about 40 of its operations, requiring each production facility to conduct two Helmet-CAM studies annually to identify opportunities to further control exposures or to evaluate controls.
NIOSH presenting the 2015 Mine Safety and Health Technology Innovations Award for industrial minerals to Unimin Corporation.
An Integrated Approach to Real Time Data Analysis for Changing Ground Conditions (Metal Sector)
The safety of miners in open pit operations is highly dependent on understanding changing ground conditions using data from numerous types of sensing technologies. To implement its vision of a safety based geomechanical program, Freeport–McMoRan has embraced existing and emerging technologies and has created active partnerships with various data collection, information systems and technical providers. Through this cooperative effort, a system was developed that consolidates large sets of raw and processed data from many data streams, can produce early alarms based on movement outside of predicted trends, and analyze ground behavior to provide geomechanicial engineers timely and accurate notifications to support appropriate actions. Importantly, this integrated approach to real time data analysis and automated alarms represents the next big step in safety improvements that can be applied to many different surface and underground mining operations.
NIOSH presenting the 2014 Mine Safety and Health Technology Innovations Award for metal mining to Freeport–McMoRan.
An Innovative Technology Solution to Improve Safety during Longwall Recovery Operations (Coal Sector)
Coal miners can be exposed to many hazards during the difficult process of a longwall recovery. JENNMAR, and its engineering affiliate company, Keystone Mining Services, working together with Signal Peak Energy personnel, developed and demonstrated a successful method to greatly reduce the exposure of miners to hazardous conditions during this process. This method made longwall recovery history by successfully mining into a 42-foot wide, full-face recovery entry that was first bolted, meshed, and then completely back-filled with a specially formulated, cuttable, low density concrete that was pumped from the surface. As a result of the coordination and cooperation between JENNMAR and Signal Peak, an innovative use of this technology was developed resulting in improved safety during longwall recovery operations.
NIOSH presenting the 2014 Mine Safety and Health Technology Innovations Award for metal mining to Keystone Mining Services and Signal Peak Energy.
Remote Loader Operation (Stone, Sand, and Gravel sector)
Luck Stone modified a CAT 988G pit loader so it could be operated either remotely or from the cab, which reduced the risk of injuries during certain hazardous operations. The CAT 988G uses an electro-hydraulic system, which means that electronic controls in the cab feed a computer with information that controls the hydraulic valves on the machine. To bypass the machine's computer and allow an operator to control the machine outside of the cab, Luck Stone installed a supplemental processor which can take commands from a wireless remote control. A toggle switch on the processor allows an operator the option of controlling the machine in the cab or at a safe distance. The remote capability permits an operator to control many of the machine's functions, including the boom lift circuit, the bucket rack back and dump circuit, the engine's RPMs, the engine's emergency shut-down, and the transmission's forward, reverse, and neutral gear selection. With this innovation, Luck Stone provided its workers with a way to take the hazard out of many hazardous operations.
A Collision Avoidance System to Improve Mine Access and Haul Road Safety (Metal Sector)
The risks of travel on mine access and haul roads significantly increase during darkness, fog, and other adverse weather conditions. Collision avoidance under limited visibility conditions is a challenging problem, and the aviation industry has reduced accidents through the application of traffic-awareness technologies. Hecla's Greens Creek Mine, working with SAFEmine Technology USA, adapted a GPS and radio technology approach first used for aircraft collision avoidance. The resulting peer-to-peer communication system is simple and robust, providing vehicle operators with improved situational awareness and voice-annunciated warnings when potential collisions develop.
Next-Generation Sensors for Atmospheric Monitoring Systems (Coal Sector)
The potential for atmospheric monitoring systems to improve mine safety is limited by commercially available sensors that can be deployed throughout underground coal mines. Alpha Natural Resources partnered with Matrix Design Group to design, develop, and commercialize improved air velocity, low-power methane, and flexible-use carbon monoxide sensors, with wireless and wired data transfer options. The intrinsically safe approval with the 24-hour battery backup provides post-accident functionality for these sensors in addition to their day-to-day use to improve mine safety by detecting potentially harmful developments in the mine's ventilation network.
Clothes Cleaning Booth Technology (Industrial Minerals Sector)
Contaminated work clothing represents a potentially significant area of respirable dust exposure for workers at industrial minerals operations. Unimin Corporation, working in cooperation with NIOSH, developed a clothes cleaning booth technology. This technology provides a quick, safe, and highly effective method that allows workers to clean their dust-soiled clothing periodically throughout the workday. This system safely captures the dust and contaminants from the worker's clothing and removes them so as to not further expose the worker, co-workers, or the work environment. This technological innovation has been commercialized and put into practice at multiple work sites.
The inaugural awards, which highlighted coal and metal/nonmetal mining, were presented on September 25, 2012, during MINExpo at the ceremony for the National Mining Association Sentinels of Safety Awards. These awards, initiated in 1925, are given annually to the nation's safest mines.
The National Mining Association provided framed certificates for the 2012 winners:
Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold received the award for adapting an Australian over-the-road fatigue monitoring system for use in mine haul trucks and for implementing practices to use the information provided by the system to prevent accidents in the surface mining environment.
Red Conger, president of Freeport-McMoRan Americas, accepts the award from Jeff Kohler of NIOSH.
Lockheed Martin was recognized for developing a two-way, through-the-earth (TTE) mine communication system, known as MagneLink®, to aid in the rescue of underground mine workers in a post-accident environment. The system provides two-way voice and text communication from deep underground mines to the surface.
Mark Somers, Warren Gross, and Tom Parks of Lockheed Martin accept the award from Jeff Kohler of NIOSH.
CONSOL Energy was honored for its commitment and collaboration to improve post-accident communications and for interfacing Lockheed Martin's TTE technology with the company's primary communications system. This could expand mine workers' options for post-accident communications and possibly expedite the development and commercialization of TTE technology. The MagneLink® system was installed at CONSOL's Robinson Run mine in West Virginia in November 2011 to evaluate its capability in an operational mine.
The Sago Mine disaster in 2006 illuminated the critical role that technology needs to play to allow for mine worker escape and rescue in a post-accident environment. The ensuing discussions, Congressional hearings, and the NMA's Mine Safety Technology and Training Commission revealed inadequacies in the development and adoption of technologies that could improve mine safety, especially in the areas of emergency communications and tracking, refuge alternatives, and oxygen supply. The reasons for these inadequacies are many, and Congress correctly pinpointed a key barrier: The market for technology products in mining is so small that it is difficult to recover the costs for research and development, or even the ordinary costs associated with commercializing a new technology. Further compounding the problem, technology products approved under international standards and used in mines in other countries cannot be used in the United States unless they have been approved by the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA). The costs associated with the approval process are often considered greater than the potential U.S. market for the product. In practical terms, this has kept some technologies from the U.S. market.
Congress addressed this "small market" problem and codified the importance of mine safety technology in the Mine Improvement and New Emergency Response Act (MINER Act) of 2006. In the MINER Act, NIOSH was charged with developing existing and new technologies related to oxygen supply, refuge chambers, and communications and tracking. NIOSH has met this challenge in partnership with the mining industry, labor unions, manufacturers, the international mining community, and other Federal agencies including MSHA, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), and the Naval Research Laboratory. As a result, our nation's mines are now populated with a suite of post-accident communications and tracking technologies, many of which were developed through the NIOSH programs established by the MINER Act.
The Modern Evolution of Hearing Conservation Regulations
New National Survey of the U.S. Mining Population Published
Refuge Chamber Training Products and Guidance
Review of Recent Research on Organizational and Behavioral Factors Associated With Mine Safety
Significant Dust Dispersion Models for Mining Operations
Teaching Miners: Breaking the Barriers to Learning
Technology News 511 - NIOSH Develops Improved Mining Safety and Health Web Topic Page
This Is Mining...
Wire Rope Research: Analysis of Bending Fatigue in a 2-Inch IWRC Wire Rope
Work Sampling Applied to a Human Factors Analysis of Mine Worker Positioning
Page last reviewed: 6/5/2019 Page last updated: 10/2/2018
Content source: National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, Mining Program
home Mining
Site Browser
Safety and Health Topics
Data & Statisticsexpand
Mine Disastersexpand
All Disasters
Coal Disasters
M/NM Disasters
Mining Fact Sheets
MSHA Data Files
Summary Charts & Tables
Summary Mapsexpand
All Mining
Coal Industry
Metal and Nonmetal
Stone and Sand & Gravel
Tools & Publicationsexpand
Research Programexpand
Burden and Need
Mining Resources
NORA Mining Council
Contact the Mining Program
Mining Links
Contact NIOSH Mining
NIOSH Homepage
NIOSH A-Z
Workplace Safety & Health Topics


Just a step away from the ocean, this hotel is exactly what a budget traveler will look for at the end of their trip. It has a large swimming pool and pool bar. The hotel is also strategically located where guests can have easy access to lots of shops and businesses.
This property is special because of its location on the beach at Mui Ne and offers good quality for the price.
The Ijen Resort is in Banyuwangi on Java Island, Indonesia. It's easily accessible via a ferry from Bali.
Perched at the edge of the rainforest of Ijen National Park and overlooking terraced rice fields to a row of volcanoes, each of the resort's 41 bungalows boast superb views from their balconies and have all the facilities of modern comfort.
This resort is a special destination because of its proximity to the spectacular scenery of the Ijen volcano crater. In addition, Banyuwangi features other tourist sites such as rural villages, a huge fishing port, national parks with endemic species, and plantations reminiscent of its colonial past.
This luxury 5-star hotel is close to many of the impressive shopping areas Bangkok has on offer. Due to the quiet urban area between Silom Road and Siam Square it is a good place for relaxation.
Located on Rajadamri Road in an upscale area of central Bangkok, this hotel is connected to the Bangkok sky train and opposite the Royal Bangkok Sports Club.
The new Than Lwin Paradise hotel is in the city of Hpa An north of Mawlamyine in Kayin State, Myanmar.
Located directly on the Thanlwin River in Hpa An, this hotel offers a spectacular view from the restaurant terrace over the nearby mountains. Its bungalow accommodations come with handsome wooden interiors and all amenities to make a memorable stay.
We like the large restaurant. Even if the hotel is fully booked, the restaurant provides enough room for intimacy during breakfast, lunch and dinner. Also, this hotel is a perfect hideaway from the city center yet close enough to the region's unique tourist sites such as Zwekabin Mountain.
Located in the heart of Phnom Penh, this 4-star hotel is a luxurious, elegant and tranquil place to stay, yet strategically situated in the Boeung Keng Kang area. Within a short walk are offices, spas, restaurants, and a major shopping center.
The White Mansion Boutique Hotel is also located in Phnom Penh city center. The hotel is housed in the former USA ambassador's residence.
It is an easy walk to local markets, Independence Monument Park and Phnom Penh's main tourist attractions including the Royal Palace, the National Museum and the Mekong Riverfront.
This 4-star plus property is located in a very secluded part of southwest Koh Samui with great views of Phang Ka Bay.
This hotel is a stylish modern Bali/Thai fusion boutique resort. There are four room types including luxury beachfront villas, garden pool villas and apartments in the main resort building. Located on a quiet, pristine beach, it is private from any neighboring hotels or shops.
The resort is proud of its eco friendly policies such as using chemical-free ozone water treatment for the main infinity pool and private plunge pools. The wastewater is treated biologically and recycled to water the landscaping. Low wattage energy saving appliances are used wherever possible and a high percentage of waste materials are recycled.
The 4-star The Tama Hotel is located on the 22nd floor of the Phnom Penh Tower in the central city. This hotel is the latest addition to Phnom Penh's ever-growing boutique hotel scene and is Cambodia's first-ever capsule hotel.
Guests sleep against a glass window in bunks with a panoramic view of the city. There are variations in room types from deluxe to superior depending on size of the capsule space.
Located on Monivong Boulevard, it is easy to get anywhere in the city. Phnom Penh has unlimited offerings in cultural sites, history and art museums, the Central Market, theaters as well as vibrant nightlife establishments.
The My Dream Boutique Resort is a 4-star hotel in Luang Prabang. Guests staying here enjoy stunning views of the Khan River. The property sits in a garden-like setting only a few minutes walk from the Old Town. The rooms are built in traditional Lao style utilizing Lao textiles and natural materials. Every room has a verandah to enjoy the outdoors and views of the gardens.
Le Bel Air Resort located nearby just across the river from the Luang Prabang Old Town peninsula is a good alternative.
Luang Prabang Old Town is a very charming and compact place to walk or bicycle around to besides explore the many ancient temples, visit cafes, shop house boutiques or just watch the activity going on along the riverbanks of the Mekong River or Khan River.


Welcome to play Crystal-Craft game online on full screen and get Crystal-Craft flash game codes for myspace. Also, we have 3000+ other free flash games here!
Crystal Craft Codes for MySpace or Blogs:how to add games codes to myspace?
In this game, your mission is to save the planet by collecting those rain crystals while avoiding those enemy forces. Use your mouse to control the directions. And you totally have three lives.


text:
Explore Hangzhou with Chinatour.com
Situated in the southern end of the Grand Canal, Hangzhou, one of the seven ancient national capitals in China, is endowed with a long history, breathtaking scenery and rich culture, and is reputed as being the most beautiful and elegant city in the world.
Hangzhou is best known for its West Lake which has been lauded over the centuries in both songs and poems. The famous European explorer Marco Polo once wrote, 'indeed a voyage on this lake offers more refreshment and delectation than any other experience on earth'. In addition, other attractions like Qiandao Lake and Lingyin Temple also entice tourists to venture to Hangzhou each year.
Let Chinatour.com handle every aspect of your trip to beautiful Hangzhou — choose from our affordable travel packages below or give us a call to create your own custom China travel package!
IMPRESSION WEST LAKE
DRINK TEA IN TEA HOUSE
Get Lost in the Charming Beauty of West Lake
It is said that the beauty of Hangzhou lies in the breathtaking view of West Lake, a must-see attraction for your Hangzhou trip. Nestled in the green hills on three sides, West Lake is a freshwater lake divided by the causeway of Su Di, Yanggong Di, Bai Di. There are many temples, pagodas and gardens near the lake. Leifeng Pagoda is very famous for the folk legend of Madam White Snake.
West Lake was listed on the UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2011. The lake has different views in a day and four seasons, which forms the fabulous "Ten Views of West Lake". It was defined as having "influenced garden design in the rest of China as well as Japan and Korea over the centuries" by UNESCO.
Watch Impression West Lake
Impression West Lake is an attractive art show which performs every night. The adapted folk stories and myths are performed on the stage which is built an inch (3 cm) below the surface of the lake. Impression West Lake was directed by Zhang Yimo who uses the lake and its surroundings as a set and hundreds of performers to create sensational effects. Through watching the performance, the scene of Impression West Lake seems to take the audience back to ancient times.
Enjoy a Taste of Hangzhou Cuisine
Hangzhou Cuisine is characterized by the fresh, sweet and tender flavor which is very enjoyable for foreign visitors. The famous dishes include Dongpo Rou (pork), beggar's chicken and West Vinegar Lake. These dishes deserve to be experienced by tourists to Hangzhou from abroad.
Drink Tea in Teahouses
Drinking tea in teahouses is a perfect way to kill time and take a break after a tiring day of exploring Hangzhou. Hangzhou is known as one of the tea capitals offering the famous tea, Xi Hu Long Jing. The teahouses usually located by the lake or in the mountains. Most teahouses offer dim sum and/or fruit for customers.
Ordering a pot of tea and waiting for the sunrise over the mountains and lake in the early morning is an unforgettable experience. You will need to get up rather early to catch the sun coming up, but the view will be more than worth it!
The climate of Hangzhou is humid subtropical with four distinctive seasons. Hangzhou is a place which is suitable to be visited at any time of the year.
Springtime is generally warm and slightly windy. Many locals and tourists take time to enjoy the primroses and other beautiful flowers by wandering along West Lake. Dawn on the Su Causeway in Spring, one of Ten Views of West Lake, will provide you the most beautiful view. Spring is also the harvest time for tea farmers.
Summer is typically hot and humid. Lotuses blossom from early June until late August or early September and have enjoyed the reputation since the Tang Dynasty (618 – 907 CE). Yang Wanli, a poet during the Song Dynastey, once wrote, "Lotus Leaves grow to the sky with endless green, lotus blossoms bathed in the sunlight appear especially red". Carved Yard and Lotus Pool in Summer is the best site to enjoy the beauty of the lotuses.
It is cool in autumn: the Osmanthuses blossom in October and the air is scented with the their aroma. The Qingtang River and bay are best known as the world's largest tidal bore, as its rising tidal waters will travel against the normal current. A rare phenomenon in nature, the tidal bore attracts many tourists at home and abroad every year. Moon over the Peaceful Lake in Autumn, another one of Ten Views of West Lake, is a spot with picturesque surroundings to view the full moon.
Winder in Hangzhou is often chilly. The trees and flowers wither but plum blossoms are a beautiful sight in the cold weather. Winter provides a totally different tranquil view of the surrounding countryside. Remnant Snow on the Bridge in Winter is a very enchanting attraction in winter.
Hangzhou Attractions
As a prosperous tourist city, Hangzhou is gifted with abundant travel resource, such as the breathtaking West Lake, ancient Six Harmonies Pagoda, characteristic Meijiawu Tea Plantation, captivating Xitang water town, Ancient Village Wuzhen, sacred Lingyin Temple, enchanting Thousand Islets Lake, famous Mountain Putuo and the likes. No matter what your preference on attraction is, historical sites, scenic sites or cultural sites, Hangzhou has something for you.
Hangzhou Tours
From$1,799$999
the best choice for 1st-time visitors to China: visit the most famous UNESCO Heritage Sites!
15 Days and 13 Nights
Our unique arc route in China starts with the classical China east coast tour, going to explore four famous cities in China: Beijing, Shanghai, Suzhou, and Hangzhou. Enjoy the historical attractions and modern city views. Then you will take the luxury Yangtze River cruise, spending four nights on the longest river in Asia. After the […]
Visiting 6 Capitals in Chinese Culture back from QIN Dynasty. Beijing, Henan Province, Xi'an and Shanghai.
Hangzhou Culture
Hangzhou was once the capital of the Southern Song Dynasty (1127 – 1279 CE). It enjoys the reputation of being "paradise on earth", "the city of silk" and "capital of Chinese tea". With its unique entertainment atmosphere and cultural offerings, Hangzhou is praised as the city of entertainment in China.
XIHU LONGJING TEA
Tales of White Serpent
West Lake Vinegar Fish
Hangzhou Dialect
Hangzhou native residents speak what is known as the Wu dialect and it was the capital of State of Wu during Five Dynasties and Ten Nations period (907 -979 CE) and the Southern Song Dynasty when a large number of northern peoples moved into Hangzhou. Thus, the Wu dialect features some elements of the official language of China even today. Although Hangzhou's dialect is highly localized, Mandarin Chinese is still the predominant spoken language.
Hangzhou Tea
Hangzhou is not only famous for the beauty of West Lake but also for Xi Hu Long Jing, a notable variety of green tea. Xi Hu Long Jing, grows on the mountains around West Lake, and is regarded by many as the champion among all Chinese tea. Hangzhou has been producing Xi Hu Long Jing since the Tang Dynasty.
Citizens in Hangzhou are fond of teahouses" killing time or enjoying the beautiful scenery in teahouse is great joy to visitors of the city. There are over 700 teahouses which form several schools in Hangzhou. Among teahouses serving tea art is Taiji Teahouse where you can actually watch the process of making tea. Some cultural teahouses like Heji Teahouse are also a place to enjoy a traditional show and collect antiques.
The Legend of Hangzhou
A very famous story about Hangzhou is called the Tales of White Serpent. During the Song Dynasty, a shepherd boy saved a snake. Hundreds of years later, this snake transformed into a beautiful lady named Bai Suzhen and found the reincarnated shepherd boy Xu Xian. Bai Suzhen married Xu Xian, but the marriage was opposed by Fa Hai, a Buddhist monk who insisted that the human being should not unite with an evil spirit. He then tried his best to imprison Bai Suzhen in Leifen Pagoda which stands on the south bank of West Lake.
Hangzhou Cuisine
Hangzhou local cuisine is representative of Zhejiang provincial cuisine, one of the eight famous culinary schools in China. Hangzhou local cuisine is characterized by freshness, tenderness, softness and a mellow fragrance. Some famous dishes like West Lake Vinegar Fish, Dongpo Meat, Beggar's Chicken and Longjing Shrimp are best known among tourists.
Hangzhou Food
Besides the breathtaking landscape, Hangzhou is also home to diverse types of food. Such local specialties as West Lake Fish in Sweet and Sour Sauce, Shallot Stuffed Pancake, Shelled Shrimp with Dragon Well Tea, West Lake Water Shield Soup, Dongpo Pork and Jiaohua Chicken, are easily available in such local restaurants like Louwailou Restaurant, Wang Run Xing Restaurant and Tianwaitian Restaurant.
LONGJING PRAWNS
Dongpo Pork
Beggars Chicken
What to Eat in Hangzhou
The meat of live river prawns are stir-fried with Longjing tea. With a light and fragrant flavor, Longjing prawn is a very famous and traditional dish in Hangzhou. It is said that this dish was created when Emperor Qian Long of Qing Dynasty when he visited south China. Louwailou is the famous restaurant to serve this dish.
Dongpo Pork is another famous dish in Hangzhou. The half fat and lean pork are cut into lumps and then put into the soup with soy sauce, scallion, ginger and sugar. After being stewed in a sealed earthen pot, the mouthwatering dish is served. The taste can be described as oily but not greasy. According to legend, Dongpo Pork was created by Su Dongpo (1037 -1101 CE), a great poet during the Song Dynasty.
West Lake Vinegar Fish is very traditional delicacy in Hangzhou. Before cooking, the live fish from West Lake is kept in hungry for one or two days, which can get rid of the smell of mud. After it is poached, the juice which is made from sugar and vinegar with other ingredients is poured over the fish.
As its name suggested, Beggars' Chicken was created by a beggar who was very hungry and stole a chicken but didn't have a pot to cook it so that he wrapped the chicken with mud and roasted it in a bonfire. The cooked chicken tasted very delicious and fragrant. Now Beggars' Chicken is wrapped with dough and other ingredients are added.
Steamed Bun with shrimp stuffing
The flour skin of steamed bun is mixed with eggs and filled with chopped shrimp. It is a kind of dim sum or snack item. When it was served, the steamed bun usually is dipped in vinegar with pepper and ginger slivers.
Where to Eat in Hangzhou
He Fang Street
This is a food street located at the foot of Wu Mountain. The buildings on the both sides of street feature the architectural styles of Ming and Qing dynasties. There are some well-known restaurants and shops which display the cultures of food, tea and even Chinese medicines. Here visitors can eat very authentic Hangzhou snacks and local signature dishes. Some restaurants provide medicated food which is good for your health.
Address: Wu Mountain Square, Shangcheng District
How to get there: Bus No. 308, 301, 198, 87, 59, 13, 71, 208, 280, 404, 834, 808, 801 to Gulou Stop.
Da Dou Street
With length of half a mile (780 meters), Da Dou Street was opened in September of 2010. Here you can enjoy the very traditional residential houses with patios and courtyards. Here you can find many middle- and high-end restaurants, some of which cater for business banquets. You will feel relaxed as you wander along the Grand Canal or visit Xiangji Temple after dining.
Address: The east bank of Grand Canal from Daguan Bridge to Jiangzhang Bridge, Gongshu District
How to get there: Bus No.36, 76, 151, 251, 516, 816
Gao Yin Xiang Street
Beside He Fang Street and houses are many restaurants with tasty food or snacks. During dining time, the narrow streets are fully parked with hungry visitors. During dining time because you will likely have to wait for your meal for a long time.
Address: Not far away from He Fang Street
How to get there: Bus No.8, 216, 195, 60, 208 to Gao Yin Xiang East Entrance.
Baojiao Food Street
This street is located on the north side of West Lake and is an important entrance to the scenic area of West Lake. With its prime location, Baojiao Food Street houses many featured restaurants which serve many signature dishes.
Address: Near the cross road of Shu Guang Road and Ti Yu Chang Road
How to get there: Bus No. 807, 830, 66, 92, 228, 282, 841, 6, 11, 17, 25, 36, 221
Hangzhou Restaurants
Zhuangyuan Restaurant
Zhuangyuan Restaurant is a well-respected restaurant with more than 100 years of history. It provides Sichuan, Ningbo and Hangzhou-style cuisines. Signature Dish: Fish and Crab Spawn Noodle
Address: No.85, He Fang Street
How to get there: Bus No. 8/K8, 60/K60, K195, K216
The Grandma's
Having been in business over 150 years, The Grandma's is a restaurant located at the southern foot of Gu Hill. It is world famous for serving delicious cuisine and sum dim with beautiful scenery.
Address: No.30, Gushan Road, West Lake District
How to get there: Bus No.K850, K27, K7, Y2 to Duan Bridge.
Kui Yuan Restaurant
This establishment was built in the sixth year of the reign of the Emperor Tongzhi of Qing Dynasty. It is famous for its various kinds of noodles.
Address: No.154 of Jiefang Road or No.348 of Wenhui Road
How to get there: Bus No. K55, K195, K106, 801, 846, 38, K56, K105, 809, 49, 308, 814, 501, K515, 520, 335, K591, J14
Zhiweiguan Restaurant
A traditional restaurant providing delicious dim sum and Great Eight Cuisines in the charge of famous chefs.
Address: No. 71 to 73, Gao Yin Street
How to get there: Bus No. 8, 60, 846
Hangzhou Shopping
Hangzhou: Premier Shopping Destination
Hangzhou is also a great getaway for fantastic shopping. Such local specialties as Hangzhou Silk, Dragon Well (Longjing) Tea, Hangzhou Embroidery, Hangzhou Chrysanthemum and Wangxingji Paper Fan are all what you have to take a look at during your Hangzhou travels. These specialties are available on Qinghefang Street, at the Silk Market, Wulin Street and Yan An Road.
Hangzhou Silk
Hangzhou Chrysanthemum Tea
HANGZHOU EMBROIDERY
What to Buy in Hangzhou
Hangzhou silk is world-renowned and known for its beautiful patterns, elegant colors, diverse stitching, fine craftsmanship and soft feel. Silk products like umbrellas, landscape paintings and Chinese hand-held folding fans are highly regarded by travelers domestic and abroad.
Best Places to Buy Hangzhou Silk Road
Hangzhou China Silk Town
Address: No.217, Xinhua Road
Telephone: 0571-85100192, 0571-85193476
How to get there: Bus No.30 to Xinhua Lukou
Hangzhou Longjing Tea
Tea is an important part of Hangzhou's culture. Hangzhou is best known for its very own Longjing tea, a notable variety of green tea, which is famous among the locals.
Best Places to Buy Hangzhou Longjing Tea
Address: Located at the southwest of West Lake and enclosed by mountains
How to Get there: Bus No.27 to Longjing Stop
Hangzhou Chrysanthemum can be used as a kind of herb tea. Hangzhou chrysanthemum tea has the ability to improve eyesight and lower blood pressure. Hangzhou chrysanthemum is a very traditional medicinal plant in China. As one of great 4 chrysanthemums in China, Hangzhou chrysanthemum was used as a form of tribute in ancient China. It is as famous as Longjing tea in Hangzhou.
Hangzhou Chrysanthemum tea can be bought in the most tea shops and supermarkets in Hangzhou.
Hangzhou embroidery originated during the Han Dynasty (203 BCE – 220 CE) and prevailed in Song Dynasty (960 – 1279 CE). In ancient times, Hangzhou embroidery was divided into "Court" and "Folk" types. The court embroidery was made for the royal court. Folk embroidery featured patterns like bats, deer or cranes and was used to make bedcovers and folding screens.
Hangzhou embroidery is very elegant artwork with such vivid patterns as view of West Lake, peony, dragon, peacock, etc.
Where to Buy in Hangzhou
Southern Song Imperial Street
Southern Song Imperial Street is a two and a half mile long ancient street built during the Song Dynasty. Here you can not only buy local souvenirs and local products but also appreciate the classic-styled buildings.
Address: Stretching from North Gate of Huangcheng in south to Fengqi Road, across Chaotian Gate, Middle Zhongshan Road, North Zhongshan Road and Guanqiao Bridge.
How to get there: Bus No.25, 35, 187, 212, 404, K25, K327, K35, K850, Y8 to Yushan Stop.
Xinhua Featured Silk Street
Xinhua Featured Silk Street is located at the center of Hangzhou City. This street is in many ways a large market to buy high-quality silk in Hangzhou.
Address: Xinhua Road
How to get there: Bus No.8, 11, 28
Meijiawu Village
Meijiawu Village is located to the west of West Lake. It is the place which produces Longjing tea and where visitors can come learn about Chinese teas. Here you can pick up best Longjing tea.
How to get there: Bus tourist line 4 or 5 to Meijiawu Stop
Hefang Street
Here visitors can experience the culture of the late Qing Dynasty (1644 – 1912 CE). Hefang Street reflects the historical features of Hangzhou. There are over 100 shops and some of them are quite old. Here you can buy local products and crafts such as Hangzhou fans, brocades, embroideries.
Address: No.1, Wushan Square
How to get there: Bus No. 8, K8, 35, K35, 38, 40, K40, K284, 814, 818, 59, K59, K402, 60, K60, 814, K814
Shopping Malls, Supermarket & Department Stores
Hangzhou Department Store
Address: No. 546, Jiefang Road
Telephone: 0571-85177868
MIXC
Address: No.701, Fuchun Road
Intime Department Store
Address: No.18, West Lake Culture Square, Xiacheng District
Telephone: 88987688
Hangzhou Mansion Department Store
Address: No.1 Wulin Square, Hangzhou
Address: No. 588, Gudunlu Road, West Lake District
Address: No.135, Yanan Road, Shangcheng District
Address: No.355, East Genshan Road, Jianggan District
Auchan Supermarket
Address: No.213, Daguan Road
Hangzhou Maps

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Loving Botánica is a natural apothecary with a strong ethos of harbouring kindness and compassion for ourselves, our beautiful mama nature and all of her creatures. Our intention is to produce and share with you nourishing, botanical blends for beauty, wellbeing and self-care. Marrying natures beauty and utility, all of our products are created from high quality botanical sources, certified-organic ingredients and essential oils with intrinsic properties. We believe in minimising our eco-footprint and preventing harm to our environment and our beloved animal friends. Which is why we choose not to use any harsh chemicals, nor ingredients which have been tested on animals.
All of our products are hand crafted in small batches by a Mother-Daughter duo in our Melbourne-based studio. We – Charyn, an aromatherapy enthusiast and craftsman with over 30 years of experience, and Ashleigh, a meditation teacher and designer – began developing Loving Botánica and trialling our products on willing human participants, in 2015. Our journey was inspired by a mutual desire to delve deeper into chemical-free living. Exploring the ingredients lists in products which were deemed safe or 'natural', we found a distrust for brands 'greenwashing' their chemical-ridden wares. Henceforth, Loving Botánica was born. Since then we have been producing all things bathtime and beauty, selling at local markets and sending parcels all across Australia.


text:
Self-Care|A Christian Youth Group Turned Me Jewish
A Christian Youth Group Turned Me Jewish
As a teenager, crushes were my religion. I obsessed over boys from a born-again Christian youth group like a fanatic, and I found peace in this faith.
CreditCreditIllustration by Sharmila Banerjee
By Mandy Berman
When I was 14, I joined a born-again Christian youth group, despite having a Jewish last name and a lackluster-at-best interest in the teachings of Jesus Christ. I did it for the only reason that I did anything at that age: I had a crush on a boy.
He wore gauges in both ears, the earlobes stretched (how much commitment it took to do such a thing!), and the T-shirts of early-aughts punk pop. In youth group meetings, he strummed his guitar, golden curls falling in his face as he sang that his God was an awesome God.
He had friends like him: sons of former missionaries who now taught at the Christian college. They dated non-Evangelical girls from our school, but everyone knew they were virgins. They were talented painters or members of the drama club; they were proudly straight-edge. They were as artsy and alternative as they were adherents to the faith.
Soon, I loved them all. They closed their eyes when they sang, hands raised in the air. I watched them as they intently listened to the youth group leader deliver a talk: about seeing Christ in everything; about giving back to the community; about asking God for help. Afterward, they kicked a soccer ball around the gravel parking lot or flirted with me as they taught me how to skip stones on the Hudson River.
Their faith seemed integral to them. Showing up every week to praise God was just what they did, just another aspect of being a teenage boy.
As a teenage girl, I hated myself. I hated my body, suddenly curvy in what I deemed the wrong places. I wrote in my diary about what a fat pig I was, comparing my body with my lithe friends', lamenting that I would never get boyfriends, as they could.
I was, in fact, a healthy weight. It would be five years before I became anorexic, but the seeds began then, right after puberty, when the thinness of my friends became associated with lovability, with French kissing and dates, things they'd done several times but I hadn't at all.
The only things that brought me solace were these crushes. I had a rich fantasy life, imagining first kisses, songs dedicated to me across a crowded room, one of those boys showing up at my doorstep in the pouring rain professing his love.
Crushes were my religion; I believed, ardently, in the possibility of them coming to fruition. I obsessed over these boys like a fanatic, and I found peace in this faith. It kept me company at night, diverting my thoughts from self-hatred toward the love of boys I barely knew.
There was something incredibly appealing about people who loved God so much that they believed it would solve every other problem in their lives, as these boys did. Soon enough, I found myself singing along to the catchy praise songs with my eyes closed and my hands in the air. If something promised to fix my self-hatred that easily, why not let it?
The fact that I had a Jewish father was a problem. I don't think anyone in the youth group knew this about me, unless they stopped to consider my last name, but I felt I wouldn't fully fit in with them until I eschewed this part of myself. Until then, it was another aspect of myself to hate.
Our youth group leader had a girlfriend who styled her hair in that choppy, angular cut popular in the early 2000s: one diagonal line from bang to tip, flat-ironed to death. She wore barbed-wire chokers and hot pink T-shirts with skulls on them.
When we went on Christian camp overnights, she stayed with the girls, giving us talks from her top bunk about the sacredness of sex and the importance of maintaining our virginities for our future husbands. At that point in my life, sex was such a terrifying prospect that I was grateful to someone who told me not to do it.
That winter, we drove around singing Christmas carols to anyone who would listen. I cared a lot about what our group leader's girlfriend thought about me being genetically half-Jewish, because in the car, I asked her if she believed my Jewish grandfather, who had died when I was 6, was in hell.
She thought about this for a moment. She couldn't have been more than 20 years old.
"You know," she finally said. "I'd like to believe he had a moment, right before he died, when he accepted Jesus Christ as his Lord and personal savior," she said. She patted me once on the knee for good measure.
In the spring, there was an outing to Medieval Times. We ate turkey drumsticks with our hands, wore paper crowns and cheered for our knight, jousting on horseback. The boys called our waitress "wench," sending themselves into hysterics, and I remember giggling, too, even though I didn't know why it was funny.
That night, an older friend of theirs had us over to her apartment for a party. A floor-to-ceiling mural of the crucifixion was painted on one wall. We drank sodas and danced to early Madonna albums.
Later, several of us ended up on the bathroom floor. An athletic girl I admired was sharing her desires for her boyfriend, and how hard it was becoming for her to tell him "no" every time his hand moved to the waistband of her jeans.
One of the boys I liked said that, in those moments, she needed to remember the responsibilities that came with being saved by Christ.
I had not heard the term "saved" before. Somehow, I had missed this crucial step.
"You haven't been saved?" he responded when I asked what it meant. He had thick eyebrows and a slight accent from having spent his early years in the Middle East.
There were six of us on that bathroom floor. We joined hands. The boy with the thick eyebrows asked me to repeat after him.
I looked around the circle, at the cute boys and the pretty girls who had befriended me. Their acceptance was delectable, and in that moment, too difficult to let go of.
I grabbed his hand. He closed his eyes, his face reflecting the solemnity of his task. I repeated after him and accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and personal savior. Afterward, I called my parents to ask if I could spend the night at this stranger's apartment.
When I couldn't explain why, the boy got on the phone with them. My mother still refers to this moment as one of the most surreal of her life — the gall of a 15-year-old asking her to forgo her parental authority. (She had been warned about raising teenagers who were doing drugs and having sex, but never ones that got involved with zealous religious conversions.) My parents demanded I come home immediately.
In the morning, I found them sitting over mugs of coffee, talking quietly to each other. Their eyes were ringed red. My mother explained that the Christianity she grew up with didn't believe in hell or being "saved."
My minister grandfather had performed my parents' wedding ceremony in my Jewish grandmother's backyard. They made it sound simple, the marrying of faiths, as if their children could grow up to be two things at once. At the time, I was angry with them. I didn't think they understood what a powerful thing I had just done.
I kept going to the youth group for a little while, but soon my crushes led me toward new churches: the church of drama club; the church of soccer games; the church of cutting class. I didn't leave Christianity formally as much as I drifted away from it.
I thought it was coincidental that I dated only Jews from age 16 on. In therapy years later, I recognized that this might have been because I wanted to meet a nice Jewish boy not unlike my father.
I participated in Hillel in college and went on Birthright afterward: a free 10-day trip to Israel for Jewish American young adults. I'm now with someone who comes from an observant Jewish family. It is alluring to take on his religious identity as my own, and if someone asks if I'm Jewish, I say "yes" instead of "half."
But because I loved my grandfather who was a minister as much as I loved my grandfather who that young woman may still think is in hell, I'm trying to figure out how to honor both of them. I'm still trying to figure out a belief system not dictated by the boys I love.
When the time comes, my partner and I will raise our children Jewish. My partner prefers not to have a Christmas tree in our home. While I first found this difficult, I have come around to the idea.
For once, even if only in this small, symbolic way, my religious identity will be crystal clear.
Mandy Berman is the author of "Perennials" and "The Learning Curve," which will be published in May.
Rites of Passage is a weekly-ish column from Styles and The Times Gender Initiative. For information on how to submit an essay, click here. To read past essays, check out this page.


text:
← Update on Honey Fraud investigation by FDA
FDA Honey Fraud investigation ? →
Why bees are important !
Posted on May 22, 2015 by Julian Wright
This is the Epilogue from the novel Post to Post Links II error: No post found with slug "honey-passion"
Bees have been discovered in amber over 100 million years old, frozen in time, as if immortalized in their own honey. Bees were buzzing around the first flowers during the age of the dinosaurs, when creatures such as Tyrannosaurus rex preyed on Triceratops.
Over millions of years most plant species then evolved to create flowers.
Nature had very good reasons for making this happen.
A hundred million years is not so very long in our planet's history, yet a lot happened in fifty million, million minutes. Gondwanaland broke apart to gradually form the continents we know today. Great land masses drifted north and crashed together again, surrounded by the ever-changing oceans. Islands broke off and moved. The tropical islands of the Pacific were formed by parts of the continents breaking off, and also by crustal and volcanic activity.
Sixty five million years ago, in a few minutes, a massive meteor caused climate change and mayhem that signalled the demise of the dinosaurs and the birth of many new life forms. The flowering plants and buzzing bees lived on through the mayhem and into the next epoch.
Trial and error, survival born from success had proven the need for sex. Sex shuffles the deck of life – the genes of inheritance – passed on through the generations, giving a better chance of adapting and surviving. For animals and plants the age-old struggle for life has always had sex at its centre.
Plants appear to have no awareness of what all this means, but they are driven by a desire to increase their number. Sex is vital for them so that they can have healthy progeny which may be better survivors. They can spread their roots and shoots into new territory, but being rooted to the ground they cannot run about to hug each other in sexual ardour, so they must find other ways to shuffle the deck of genes.
Many plants, such as the grasses, gamble on casting into the wind billions and billions of their tiny masculine pollen grains hoping that a few, by chance, will land on the feminine stigmas of another plant of the same species. Most pollen is lost in this lottery but enough female organs are found that they can make seeds to spread their species still further.
But some plants found animal friends, especially bees, to carry their male pollen grains straight to the female stigma. The trick was to entice the friend with an attractive flower, a gift of fragrant energy-rich nectar to sip, and some nutritious pollen to be stuck onto their body. Now when the animal friend visits another flower there will be a good chance of botanical sex – or pollination as we call it. For the plant this was a more effective and efficient way of transferring their pollen. (For millions of years nature has always provided plenty of pollinators to do the job – until modern humans arrived.)
The colours and fragrances of those ancient flowers may have been something like our own favourite flowers. Indeed, flowers such as Magnolia have been around since the dinosaurs ruled the Earth. Humans often like to imagine that these flowers were made for us to enjoy. Maybe they were, but long before us, the plants had made a pact with the bees: "We grow these flowers to feed you with nectar and pollen, so then you can do something for us. All we ask is that you, our flying furry messengers of love, take our pollen to another flower and help us have sex."
The collaboration between plants and animals over millions and millions of years created amazingly beautiful and complex designs for achieving mutual success. The plants achieved pollination and the pollinators collected food. Each of countless generations shuffling the deck a little more, sometimes being lucky and sometimes not. The lucky ones survived and lots of practise achieved great things. The flowers became so cleverly and elegantly designed that we can appreciate their beauty, and the bees became their supreme messengers of botanical love. And so, over millions of years, nature's pact between the plants and the bees has become fundamental for so much life on our planet. (However, many humans do not appreciate the importance of this relationship.)
Some bees found great success by working closely together as a family, developing their own complex civilisations in colonies of many thousands of individuals. To care for each other the honeybees created intricate wax combs to raise their young and store their food of pollen and honey. For numerous millennia the bees have made honey from the flower nectars and plant saps to provide themselves with a naturally healthy food containing a complex mix of sugars, anti-oxidants and other bioactive agents.
Humans of various forms first strode onto the scene about a hundred thousand years ago. They surely wondered why the world was the way it was, but they had only the faintest inkling. Early humans were too busy keeping themselves alive to study such things, although it is very possible that more advanced cultures realised the basic reasons for a plant having flowers, the concepts of pollination, and maybe even the role of bees as pollinators. (Bandri and his tribe were closely integrated into their natural world, and did not need sophisticated tools to understand such relationships.)
Languages and tools helped to change our world and to change us. Communities gave us the opportunity to develop culture and knowledge, as well as the ability to love or to hate, to plan or to plot, to defend or to attack. There is scarcely any passion without struggle. We are also the only beings that can reflect on the past and think about what might happen in the future.
We needed to recognise and to know which plants and animals were food or were helpful, and which were dangerous. Cave paintings depict determined looking figures risking their lives to extract honey from precarious cliff-side bee colonies. Honey hunting represents one of man's earliest pursuits and continues to this day in many countries. (Bandri and his tribe would have been active honey hunters of the plentiful colonies of honeybees, and also stingless bees.)
Honey was an energy-rich food, prized for its' taste and symbolism. It was easily portable and long-lasting which means that it would have been a valuable aid when mankind was on the move, during hunting or warfare, and when migrating on land and sea. Honey was an important part of the diet for many cultures and it was frequently used as a medical aid. For millennia honey has had a special place in our culture and society.
Honeybees accompanied Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, and during the mythical Golden Age honey dripped from trees like rain water. In ancient Egypt taxes could be paid in honey, and honey found in the tombs of Egyptian pharaohs has been tasted by archaeologists and found edible. After his death, Alexander the Great's remains were preserved in a huge crock of honey.
Many cultures regarded honey as a sacred substance which should be the first food to touch the palate of the new-born baby. Cicero described how bees built a honeycomb in the mouth of the infant Plato, which predicted the singular sweetness of his discourses and his future eloquence.
Human civilization blossomed in Asia, around the Mediterranean, and in other regions about 2,500 years ago. There were great thinkers like Plato, Socrates and Aristotle in Greece, and Confucius in China. Ancient Egypt was soon to be conquered by Alexander the Great. Arts and literature were developing independently across the world. The Bronze Age was well-established and some cultures had sea-going vessels. Our story of Post to Post Links II error: No post found with slug "honey-passion" began during this period in history about 2,500 years ago, on the island of Sulawesi which is part of modern-day Indonesia.
Even in today's technological age, it is still true that most people are aware that honey is made by bees. Honey is that idea of syrupy sweetness, a term of endearment, and wistfully in the half-forgotten phrase the land of milk and honey. The word honey is added to so many food descriptions and whenever it is convenient to add some sort of sweetener to a phrase. For many of us however, honey itself appears to have become just a minor commodity in a bottle on a supermarket shelf. A new reality however, is that in some countries, most of the honey on the supermarket shelves is not made by bees or is in some way adulterated by fraudsters.
In tropical regions such as south east Asia, the Indonesian and the Philippine archipelagos, three quarters of the plant species rely to some extent on pollination by bees and other creatures. Therefore, the future story of the bee is critical to the future of these countries, and if a society forgets the role of the bee then problems will follow. The primary native bee pollinators are the large wild honeybee (Apis dorsata) and the smaller Asian honeybee (Apis cerana). There are also small stingless bee species that are pollinators. In a healthy tropical eco-system these native bee colonies would be present in large numbers.
Some countries, such as Vietnam have a society that is generally aware of the role of bees and beekeeping, resulting in a positive pollination environment, and high agricultural yields for fruit crops.
In the Philippines however, the vast majority of the population, and even most farmers and their 'advisors', continue to remain disastrously unaware of the role of bees and pollination. The continuing depopulation of the native bees, caused by unmanaged honey hunting and other factors, is resulting in increasing ecological and agricultural damage. Many smaller islands have lost their populations of the large wild honeybee, and even larger islands are on course to loose their populations unless awareness and attitudes improve. Lack of understanding also means that the smaller Asian honeybee has been removed from about a half of the land area, and stingless bees are in decline. Largely due to insufficient pollination, the yields and production of many fruit crops such as mango and coffee have been in perpetual decline over the past decade, and consequently rural communities are suffering. This situation has been exacerbated by large-scale, factory-made fake honey which is sold in the supermarkets, and bought by millions of innocent consumers who are unaware of the fraudulent honey business. Sadly, state officials might be corrupt or intimidated, or may fail to understand and act on the issues. Further information is available on the website.. http://beephilippines.info
Other issues such as Colony Collapse Disorder are also revealing that we need to remember that honey is only available to us because the honeybees are also doing the vital job of pollinating the plants on which we depend.
Honey is part of this story of passion and tropical islands. I hope that it has described realistically the way in which the story of honey is linked to our own human story. Also, I hope it may help to raise awareness of our pollinators.
This entry was posted in Apis cerana (Ligwan), Apis dorsata (Putyukan), Apis mellifera (European), Bee populations, Crop yields & pollination, Educational materials, General posts, Honey. Bookmark the permalink.


text:
NEO-SSPX WATCH: "DANGER OF SCHISM?"
The 2018 General Chapter is on the horizon, and the FSSPX agreementists are making their strategic moves now, instead of waiting until the same meeting in July, to influence the outcome in their favor.
It is rumored that Msgr. Fellay does not want to be re-elected or would reject a nomination if asked. Who knows? In any case, the high commanders of the Society are intensifying their efforts to equip those who will attend the meeting with the points of discussion that are needed to repel those who preserve the wisdom of Bishop Lefebvre on the FSSPX-Rome relations.
This clever public relations campaign is what was behind Dr. Brian MaCall's article on the unity of the FSSPX, published in Cathilic Family News in January. It was also what led Fr. Paul Robinson to write his essay on the integrity of Msgr. Lefebvre who appeared on SSPX.org. It was also what motivated Fr. Dominique Bourmaud to write an article for the December edition of Rhe Angelus where he defends the cause of conciliation.
In his article, Fr. Bourmaud affirms that there is a "real danger" if the SSPX "ignores" the "Pope and the bishops". The danger is that the SSPX would be "turning our small communities into religious ghettos" if it refuses to "show due respect" to the "ecclesiastical superiors".
Father Bourmaud affirms that refusing to show due respect to the Pope would mean that the SSPX has - effectively - fallen into sedevacantism. The FSSPX would adopt a "schismatic attitude" if it does not reach an agreement with Rome, he insinuates. An agreement with Rome is essential to prevent the SSPX from falling into a "schismatic", "dangerous", "ghetto" mentality, as is the case with the Resistance.
Bourmaud, whether he knows it or not, borrows, almost word for word, the arguments of Dom Gerard, the priests of the diocese of Campos, and of Father Aulagnier; arguments widely refuted by the SSPX decades ago.
In 2003, Fr. Aulagnier was expelled from the FSSPX because he spoke publicly in favor of an agreement with the conciliar church. He was interviewed by The Wanderer about his reasons. His argument was exactly the same as Father Bourmaud:
"I think there is a danger that this conflict will last for centuries. The Church is a visible and hierarchical society. If one lives too long in an autarky, one ends up losing the meaning of what a hierarchy is. So we are in danger . "
If we remain satisfied with our situation, then there is danger of a " psychological schism ", he added.
Father Violette, the District Superior in Canada at that time, refuted Father Aulagnier with logic, prudential judgment and recourse to Bishop Lefebvre:
Father Aulagnier has "created an extremely difficult situation within the Fraternity, trying to convince its members to make an agreement with Rome, also trying to cause division and even rebellion against legitimate authority , " wrote the P Violette.
"Our Resistance is not a rebellion . It is the necessary attitude of Catholics who want to preserve the faith when confronting prelates who attack, deny or threaten it. "
"The fact that we keep the faith and continue talking to the Roman authorities shows that there is no danger of schism, because we recognize its authority."
"The solution to this crisis will come from Rome, when the Roman authorities return to the integrity of the faith . But until this happens, we do well to continue our resistance . The time this lasts is not our problem, but God's. Because we can not, in the interest of a false unity, unite ourselves with those who promote error, nor with those who reduce the Church to a human institution ... "
"As Monsignor Lefebvre said: in breaking with their predecessors, it is the same modern Roman authorities who are schismatic ." When Rome returns to faith, the only topic of discussion will be who will become Bishop and to whom he will replace. "
This is precisely what the Resistance believes, despite being ridiculed as "sedevacantists" by the current authorities of the SSPX.
In 2014, Fr. Simoulin invoked the same argument of Fr. Aulagnier in an article entitled "The great question that is posed to us".
"Then, we must open our eyes to another danger, which is not hypothetical but actual: that of not aspiring to retake our legitimate place among the societies recognized by Rome, lose the desire of the Church and Rome . No longer wishing the normal bond with Rome and the Church, is the shadow of the schismatic spirit . "
Again, it is only necessary to read Mons. Lefebvre's interviews one year and two years after the Consecrations to know how to respond to this.
When the Archbishop was asked about the danger of schism, he responded by saying: "I do not say that we are the Catholic Church. I have never said it. Nobody can reproach me for having never wanted to consider myself a pope. But we truly represent the Catholic Church as it was at all times since we continue what she has always done. It is we who possess the notes of the visible Church: unity, catholicity, apostolicity, holiness. This is what constitutes the visible Church. "
A year later he said: "We are in the middle of a great combat, a great combat. We are fighting a battle guaranteed by the whole line of potatoes. Therefore, we should not have any doubt or fear, doubt like: "why should we go on our own? After all, why do not you join Rome and the Pope?" Yes, if Rome and the Pope were in agreement with the Tradition, if they carried forward the work of all the Popes of the nineteenth century and the first half of the twentieth, of course. But they admit they have taken a new path. "
"It is the fight of the City of Satan against the City of God, clearly, so we do not have to worry, we must trust in the grace of God."
He said then that " we should not doubt " because the way in which the crisis will end is a "mystery of God". "Neither should we hesitate for not being with those who are in the process of betraying us."
Note that in Mons. Lefebvre there is no "fear" or "concern" that the "ghetto" or the "schismatic" mentality be established in the SSPX. He is completely at peace and happy because he is not in relationship with those who are destroying the Church.
The Benedictine monk Dom Gerard also had as an argument that being in an "irregular" relationship with Rome would have a negative effect on souls, claiming, in the late 1980s, that if the "tradition of the Church" were "pushed out of their official and visible perimeter, "then there would be damage to souls.
Father Schmidberger, then Superior of the FSSPX, refuted Dom Gérard:
"It seems rather contrary to the plan of Divine Providence that the Catholic Tradition of the Church be reintegrated into the pluralism of the conciliar church , while the latter disgraces the Catholic Church and scandalizes its unity and visibility," he wrote.
" It is an honor for Le Barroux to have been rejected by the other Benedictines for their integral fidelity to the Mass of all times, and to have become a wonderful sign of contradiction ... when the laws of the Church are abused everywhere ... it is better Do not succumb to this scheme . "
In his book on the time bombs of Vatican II, Fr. Schmidberger expressed similar satisfaction for being outside the confines of the conciliar church:
"Dear friends, in these circumstances I have to warn you against illusions and false solutions to this problem ." The problem will not be solved by naming here a conservative bishop who still wears the collar or who is still a little Marian or who has personal devotion to him. Pope, the solution to this problem will not be to establish a Society, like the one in San Pedro ... and to give this Society here and there the right to celebrate the traditional Mass . Nor will the solution be in a mass pardoned here and there. . "
And yet, strangely enough, Fr. Schmidberger wrote a letter in 2016 indicating that he adopted the scrupulous position of Fr. Aulagnier. Here is the outstanding paragraph of the letter:
"We must not lose sight of the danger that the faithful and some confreres get used to the abnormal situation and see it as normal. [...] If the faithful or the brothers feel comfortable in this situation of freedom regarding the dependence of the hierarchy, then this implies a gradual loss of the sensus ecclesiae ".
What can be said in response to such a situation?
The argument that the FSSPX would side with the "schism" or adopt a "ghetto" mentality because it does not accept a deal with Rome is 1) completely and absolutely fallacious 2) was refuted and never believed by Bishop Lefebvre 3) is a line of argument used by the "traditional" priests who wanted to make an agreement with Rome and 4) is a line of argument refuted in depth again and again by the superiors of the SSPX since the late 1980s.
That the FSSPX, 2018, has published an article in The Angelus that uses word for word the same arguments of Fr. Aulagnier, indicates that the FSSPX has been directed by liberal forces totally disinterested in maintaining the policies of the past of the SSPX.
When publishing the article by Fr. Bourmaud, the SSPX has shown 1) that they have in fact changed their position regarding Rome 2) that they have departed from the grave words of Msgr. Lefebvre, Fr. Violette and Fr. Schmidberger, and 3 ) who are taking the same wrong arguments from Dom Gerard, Campos and other SSPX priests who joined the Conciliar Church in past years.
The FSSPX has no rational arguments about how it can reach an agreement with Rome without betraying its old position with respect to the conciliar church. They have become those same groups and priests that they once rejected as traitors.
May those faithful who have eyes to see the contradictions of the SSPX remain strong in the faith. The SSPX priests no longer see what they are doing and are blind guiding the blind to the well. As it is written, "even the elect will be deceived."
Labels: Neo-SSPX
TradcatKnight Radio, Lynette Zang "Something Nasty...
Fr. Kramer Still Educating Suspected Mason and Pse...
The Human Race Could Be INFERTILE In 50 Years: 'A ...
Declassified: State Department Document Reveals Pl...
Trump's Foreign Policy Is In Service To Israel
California overdue for a major earthquake
The Bitcoin Psyop...
VIDEO: 5G Small Cell Towers; Checkmate Humanity
Francis: Indifference & Anti-Semitism?
THE SPIRITUAL COMBAT: THE EFFORTS OF THE DEVIL TO ...
RESISTANCE: Nice Try, Mr. McCall!
COMING SOON: Ecumenical Mass, lady deacons, end to...
Ex- Franciscan Student HateMail....
Fr. Kramer: Loyalty to the Argentinian's Francis F...
Vatican Betrayal of China's Underground Bishops
New 'Passion of the Christ' sequel will be 'bigges...
VIDEO: AntiPope Francis 2017 "The Review"
NOVUS ORDO: Italian Bishops Want End Of "Humanae V...
Vatican Wants To "Abolish" Reality Of Intrinsic Ev...
TradcatKnight Radio, Bernard Janzen "UnMasking the...
The Ugly Truth: 9 Major Signs We Are Approaching t...
TradCatKnight Radio, Rob Kirby "Dishonest Commerce...
UNIVERSAL VACCINE PROPAGANDA: Nanoparticle Vaccine...
EARTH CHANGES: (WEATHER GONE WILD) Animals freeze ...
Project Black Star Update – Volume 4 (2018)
Trump's ties to Mossad/CIA Pedophile Ring
FALSE FLAG ALERT: New ISIS Video Sings to U.S. Jih...
Mark of the Beast Watch: 'Police State' National I...
(VIDEO) FR. MALACHI MARTIN ON ARCHBISHOP LEFEBVRE
The Season of Septuagesima Is Upon Us Once Again
World economic forum in Davos: Cardinal Turkson be...
Catholic Prophecy on the Antichrist/Mark of the Be...
Archbishop Lefebvre on the Priesthood
"Sister Lucia's" Affirmation of the Vatican's NewT...
Fr. Kramer: Salza remains obstinate in heresy .......
CULTURE OF DEATH: Cecile Richards confirms resign...
Cardinal: If the Vatican Capitulates, There Will B...
FRANCIS MEETS WITH COMMUNIST GURU GUSTAVO GUTIERR...
FEMA Ordered 102,000 Boxcars With Shackles and Gui...
False flag Super Bowl nuke alert
Selco: What an "Average Day" Is REALLY Like When t...
6 RADICAL SHIFTS IN SOCIETY BEING NORMALIZED BY TH...
Vaccine Propaganda Or the Great Culling? More tha...
Charlemagne: Great in every sense
Fr. Voigt, "The Kingdom we long for"
Fr. Campbell, Secondhand Lives
(Video) FrancisBlessing (OR LACK THEREOF): Francis...
Father Calmel on the New Mass
ENDTIMES REVELATION: Our Lady of the Pillar
What book did Francis receive from Rabbi Pynchas B...
Vatican II, Francis, Protestants Belong To The Red...
(VIDEO) FR. HESSE: MARTIN LUTHER - SAINT? OR SINNE...
What the Dramatic Increase in Pornhub Views During...
TradCatKnight Radio, F. William Engdahl "Israel, S...
TRUMP'S GOOD FRIEND/PASTOR: Dr. Norman Vincent Pea...
Mainstream Media Warns Stopping Weather Modificati...
Why We're Underestimating American Collapse
Soros warns that Trump has US 'set on a course tow...
Another massive asteroid to skim past Earth in 10 ...
California rocked by two earthquakes within minute...
(((Twitter))) Suspends Paul Nehlen For Stating Fac...
LATEST ENDTIME VIDEOS (JANUARY 26, 2018)
ECONOMIC CRISIS: Economic Collapse Will Bring Star...
MARK OF THE BEAST WATCH: 'Brain-like microchip the...
The Flight from God: Building a New Tower of Babel...
We lost the battle. Here is the New Missal (out in...
(VIDEO) The hand of Antichrist Maitreya Unveiled?
St Bridget Prophecies about the Birth of Antichris...
LATEST TRADITIONAL CATHOLIC SERMONS (JANUARY 25, 2...
Cardinals without chests
Irish priest asks for back-up as demand for exorci...
Bishop Schneider, Lefebvre Had "Prophetic Mission"...
ONE WORLD RELIGION WATCH: Francis presides at ecum...
TradCatKnight Radio, James Perloff, "Trump: Americ...
FALSE FLAG ALERT: ISIS makes new threat to Vegas
MORE QUAKES! Magnitude 6.4 Earthquake Strikes off ...
Things are getting worse, not better in the land o...
Earth Changes: Adapt 2030 Ice Age Report: What sci...
FATIMA WATCH: A Full-Blown War in Ukraine Between ...
LINK TO 30 FR. HESSE TALKS IN MP3 FORMAT
Cowardinal Burke
Francis makes a cell phone video about Chile while...
St. Emerentiana & Baptism of Desire
Novus Ordo: The mask is on… I mean, off
SCANDAL: LGBTQUEER ministry at New York parish pro...
POPE TO FLEE ROME WATCH: PRAY FOR POPE BENEDICT XV...
Marie Julie: Cross of Pardon & Luciferian Democrac...
ONE WORLD RELIGION WATCH: Bishop: Christians of al...
Fr. Kramer Educates The Heretical Pseudo Theologia...
TradcatKnight Radio, Dr. Peter Chojnowski "Two Sis...
Jesus Reminds Us Not Everyone Will Like Us
People Are 'Dying In Hospital Corridors' Under Bri...
IM NOT LOVIN IT: McDonald's french fries found to ...
Video: The War on Men
FATIMA EPIDEMICS WATCH: Future pandemic could kill...
ALIEN/UFO PROPGANDA: 'Massive object hundreds of m...
BROTHER NATHANAEL: The Slap Heard Round The World
Hitler was Illuminati "Hired Gun"
VIDEO: Maitreya Antichrist Image of The Beast 666


text:
SFGATE Homepage
Florida State, Michigan win College World Series openers
Good news, bad news for 49ers running backs before Eagles game
San Jose Airport changes name, turns it inside out
ESPN pundit: Purdy is 49ers' QB, Trey Lance pick a 'mistake'
Tech giant may be putting 29-acre Bay Area property up for grabs
Coldest temperatures of the year so far are coming to Bay Area
A trip down the most mysterious road in California
Netflix just released its most star-studded movie of 2023 so far
The one SF bar to avoid if you don't want to run into Eagles fans
After a violent 49ers game, the Eagles opened a stadium jail
NFL looking at rule change after Jimmie Ward broke Cowboy's leg
Drew Parrish limited Arkansas to five hits in eight innings and J.C. Flowers scored on a sacrifice fly in the ninth to give Florida State a 1-0 win over Arkansas on Saturday in a College World Series game in Omaha, Neb.
Parrish and Arkansas starter Isaiah Campbell engaged in a pitcher's duel sprinkled with defensive gems.
• In the CWS opener, Jimmy Kerr's first triple in two years helped Michigan build an early lead, Karl Kauffmann pitched seven strong innings and the Wolverines opened their first appearance since 1984 with a 5-3 win over Texas Tech.
The last time Michigan made it this far, a team led by future Hall of Famer Barry Larkin went 0-2. The Wolverines had lost four straight in the CWS since winning their first game in 1983.
• St. Mary's hired Greg Moore as its head coach, replacing Eric Valenzuela — who took the Long Beach State job last weekend. Moore recently was let go by Cal State Northridge, for which he was head coach for six seasons.
Golf: Brooke Henderson birdied the final three holes for a 3-under-par 69 good for a 19-under 197 total and a two-stroke lead over Annie Park (65) in the Meijer LPGA Classic in Grand Rapids, Mich. Lexi Thompson (69) was three shots back after a 62.
If Henderson, 21, were to close out the win Sunday, she would break a tie for the Canadian victory record for both women and men. Sandra Post also had eight LPGA Tour victories, and George Knudson and Mike Weir share the mark on the PGA Tour, also with eight victories.
WNBA: Allie Quigley scored 18 points and the Chicago Sky won their third straight game, 70-64 over the host Indiana Fever. ... Arike Ogunbowale scored 17 points, Allisha Gray added 16 and the Dallas Wings got their first win of the season at home, 71-61 over the Atlanta Dream. ... Amanda Zahui B scored 37 points as the New York Liberty ended a 10-game road losing streak with a 98-92 victory over the Los Angeles Sparks.
Soccer: At the Copa America in Brazil, Roger Martinez broke through for Colombia in the 71st minute and Duvan Zapata added insurance in the 86th minute to stun Lionel Messi and Argentina 2-0 in Salvador. Colombia ended a 12-year winless streak against Argentina, which lost a Copa America match for the first time since the 2007 final against Brazil. ... At Porto Alegre, Peru was held by 10-man Venezuela to a 0-0 draw.
• Uriel Antuna had a hat trick, Raul Jimenez scored twice and top-seeded Mexico cruised to a 7-0 rout over Cuba on the opening day of the CONCACAF Gold Cup at the Rose Bowl. In the earlier game in Pasadena, Canada beat Martinique 4-0.
Motor sports: John Force, 70, topped Funny Car qualifying in the NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals at Bristol (Tenn.) Dragway. The 16-time season champion is chasing his 150th event victory.
Memorabilia: A Babe Ruth road jersey dating to 1928-30 has sold at an auction at Yankee Stadium for $5.6 million.
Hunt Auctions said the price breaks a record for the most expensive piece of sports memorabilia ever sold. A Ruth jersey from 1920 previously sold for $4.4 million. The buyer was not identified.
Place an Ad / Classifieds
SF Marketplace Classifieds
Market Client Articles


How can I send fan mail?
No, I don't. I have a cat and I'm around dogs fairly frequently. No worries there.
Do you have any particular interests?
I love retro gaming. I have an NES, SNES, Sega Saturn, virtual boy, and lots of other consoles/games for each. if you have any retro stuff you dont want then send it this way. Also, Kylie and I like receiving fan letters and artwork. Feel free to send anything like that.
If I send a letter, will you read it?
Here's my guarantee. I will read the first full page of any letter you send. I can't guarantee that I'll be able to respond or anything, but I promise to read it.


SRCTREE-6629 Correct the wording of the analytics opt-in setting in the Tools/Options/General tab.
SRCTREE-6371 Fix the current branch not being correctly selected after a UI refresh.
SRCTREE-2775 Add AV scanning using virustotal.com to CI/build/release process.
SRCTREE-5608 Re-instate the concept of a project/owner when creating remote repository.
SRCTREE-5756 ST crashes for open New tab.
SRCTREE-5786 Fix the Toolbar Remote button to go to the target repository page on the host web site.
SRCTREE-5912 Automatically switch to the remote repositories listing view if repository creation failed to clone locally.


Want maximum nutrition during your pregnancy? Make sure these super foods are in your diet.
You know you should always eat healthy, but maybe -- just maybe -- you used to cheat a little. Latte and doughnut for breakfast? We've all been there!
Now that you're expecting, you are trying to think much more carefully about what you're feeding yourself because the foods you eat are the main source of nutrients for your growing baby.
Get off to a good start with these pregnancy super foods.
Enriched, whole-grain breads and cereals are fortified with folic acid and iron and have more fiber than white bread and rice. Work whole grains into your day: oatmeal for breakfast, a sandwich on whole-grain bread at lunch, and whole-wheat pasta or brown rice for dinner.
Add black beans, white beans, pinto beans, lentils, black-eyed peas, and kidney, garbanzo, or soy beans to your diet. Try them in chili and soups, salads, and pasta dishes. Besides providing protein and fiber, they are also good sources of key nutrients, such as iron, folate, calcium, and zinc.
Omega-3 fatty acids are good for your baby's brain and eyes, and salmon is a great source. Plus it provides protein and B vitamins. Salmon is also relatively low in mercury compared to other fish. Try it grilled, broiled, or on a salad. You can safely eat up to 12 ounces of low-mercury fish, such as salmon, per week.
Eggs are versatile and a good source of protein that provides amino acids you and your baby need. They contain more than a dozen vitamins and minerals, including choline, which is good for baby's brain development. However, be sure not to eat undercooked or raw eggs.
Blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries are delicious snacks and taste great in pancakes and on top of cereal. Berries are packed with vitamin C, potassium, folate, and fiber.
One cup of plain, low-fat yogurt has more calcium than milk, is high in protein, and doesn't have the added sugar of flavored yogurts. Dress it up with fruit or crunchy, whole-grain cereal.
Roberta Anding, RD, American Dietetic Association spokeswoman.


Ivan's blog: Prices Too High? Try Improving Your Service Levels!
Prices Too High? Try Improving Your Service Levels!
It is interesting to note how an almost chance conversation during the week can be emphasised and substantiated along the way.
In discussion with a CEO running a substantial £40million turnover company retailing consumer goods through some 35 off-High Street outlets, he made the point that his business is a discounter and unless they supply at the lowest price possible, then the competition will take business away.
He was bemoaning the fact that prices from China are escalating and he will have to start increasing his prices to the customer or reduce his margins to maintain his competitive advantage. It was pointed out to him that as all import prices are escalating to everyone, he wasn't alone; everyone else would have to take the same approach.
He was asked about his service levels to the customer and he said that in the market he was supplying, great service wasn't expected. It seems that he exploited that myth and had people in his stores who also didn't care about serving the customer.
We suggested that as his sales by volume are flatlining, that he starts to take the service aspect far more seriously. Prices will have to increase and the effect can be ameliorated by giving really good service which, frankly, doesn't need to cost very much.
It needs better (and probably fewer) people, better paid and better trained plus a disciplined, committed and dedicated approach to making the customer want to come back again and again. There is nothing wrong in running a business as a discounter and great service can offer competitive advantage.
In my Vistage group I have a member running a company serving professionals, whose sales by volume have increased significantly, year on year, right through the recession even though his prices are substantially higher than the competition. Feedback from customers almost never mentions prices but praises the excellent service given by his company.
I have just seen an email received yesterday by my wife, practice manager in a law firm, which reads, in part: "I really just wanted to thank you for everything you did for us,........., For my part to have someone who calls when they say they will, who does everything they say they'll do and that you can totally trust is priceless in today's world and very rare......... Fantastic! I will recommend your firm very highly and very often. Thank you again".
What a great way to end the week! In almost every case, price is actually a secondary feature of why people buy, whether it be business to consumers, top level or discounter, business to business or professional practice. In the end we prefer to deal with people we like, people who we can trust, people who make us feel important to them. How much does that cost? It outweighs price disadvantage every time.


The domain field is used to define the local space where participants exist. With this information, several DDS applications that use different domains can't communicate between them, even if they use compatible types and configurations. To make this communication doable it could be possible to change the domain of one application to move all of them to the same domain, but this modification may be undesired. In these cases, Integration Service can create a bridge between them, keeping each application with its configuration.
Integration Service can configure two endpoints to establish the communication with the rest of applications directly and without changing its configuration, sending the packages of one domain to the other one.
To solve the previous situation, Integration Service must be configured through its XML Configuration file with one endpoint able to write and read to each DDS world. Depending on the Topic Data Type of each DDS world, a Transformation Library could be needed to provide transformation functions that will convert the data from DDS World A to DDS World B and vice versa. See Data transformation to see a scenario with transformation functions.
In this example, a file named config.xml needs to be created.
The endpoints must be configured in the Fast-RTPS profiles section.
The root tag of the config.xml file must be <is> as described in the Configuration.
As both DDS Worlds use the same protocol, and Integration Service supports it out-of-the-box, the protocol level doesn't need any change to perform the communication.
Once the file config.xml has been created, IS is able to run and start the communication of both DDS Worlds.
Integration Service supports several connectors at the same time, so it could be possible to create connectors to bridge more than two DDS Worlds.
This example shows how IS can communicate two participants that belong to different domains. IS must be already installed to execute the example.
To properly execute the example, it's mandatory to compile it from the domain_change example location.
The compilation will generate an example application named DomainChange in the build directory. After executing DomainChange as a publisher, it will create its participant in domain 0, and after launching DomainChange as a subscriber, it will create its participant in domain 5.
As both instances are bound to different domains, the applications will not communicate. But once after launching IS with the config.xml that comes with the example, both DomainChange instances will begin to communicate.


We experimentally infected Amblyomma aureolatum ticks with the bacterium Rickettsia rickettsii, the etiologic agent of Rocky Mountain spotted fever (RMSF). These ticks are a vector for RMSF in Brazil. R. rickettsii was efficiently conserved by both transstadial maintenance and vertical (transovarial) transmission to 100% of the ticks through 4 laboratory generations. However, lower reproductive performance and survival of infected females was attributed to R. rickettsii infection. Therefore, because of the high susceptibility of A. aureolatum ticks to R. rickettsii infection, the deleterious effect that the bacterium causes in these ticks may contribute to the low infection rates (<1%) usually reported among field populations of A. aureolatum ticks in RMSF-endemic areas of Brazil. Because the number of infected ticks would gradually decrease after each generation, it seems unlikely that A. aureolatum ticks could sustain R. rickettsii infection over multiple successive generations solely by vertical transmission.