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Chapter 2. Methods
Hindsight bias
Independent variable
Operational definition
Representative sample
Random sampling
Stratified sampling
Experiment—laboratory and field
Confounding variables—participant and situation-relevant
Random assignment
Group-matching
Double-blind procedure
Single-blind procedure
Response or participant bias
Hawthorne effect
Placebo method
Correlations—positive and negative
Survey method
Naturalistic observation
Case study method
Measures of central tendency—mean, median, mode
Extreme scores or outliers
Positive versus negative skew
Measures of variability—range, standard deviation, variance
z score
Normal curve
Scatter plot
Line of best fit/regression line
Sampling error
Statistical significance
Psychology is a science, and it is therefore based on research. Though people are often guided effectively by their common intuition, sometimes it leads us astray. People have the tendency upon hearing about research findings (and many other things) to think that they knew it all along; this tendency is called hindsight bias. After an event occurs, it is relatively easy to explain why it happened. The goal of scientific research, however, is to predict what will happen in advance.
An understanding of research methods is fundamental to psychology. Because of that, you are more likely to see a free-response (or essay) question on this topic than on any other.
Sometimes psychologists conduct research in order to solve practical problems. For instance, psychologists might compare two different methods of teaching children to read in order to determine which method is better or they could design and test the efficacy of a program to help people quit smoking. This type of research is known as applied research because it has clear, practical applications. Other psychologists conduct basic research. Basic research explores questions that are of interest to psychologists but are not intended to have immediate, real-world applications. Examples of basic research would include studying how people form their attitudes about others and how people in different cultures define intelligence.
HYPOTHESES AND VARIABLES
Although some research is purely descriptive, most psychological research is guided by hypotheses. A hypothesis expresses a relationship between two variables. Variables, by definition, are things that can vary among the participants in the research. For instance, religion, stress level, and height are variables. According to an experimental hypothesis, the dependent variable depends on the independent variable. In other words, a change in the independent variable will produce a change in the dependent variable. For instance, consider the hypothesis that watching violent television programs makes people more aggressive. In this hypothesis, watching television violence is the independent variable since the hypothesis suggests that a change in television viewing will result in a change in behavior. In testing a hypothesis, researchers manipulate the independent variable and measure the dependent variable. Hypotheses often grow out of theories. A theory aims to explain some phenomenon and allows researchers to generate testable hypotheses with the hope of collecting data that support the theory.
Researchers not only need to name the variables they will study, they need to provide operational definitions of them. When you operationalize a variable, you explain how you will measure it. For instance, in the hypothesis above, what programs will be considered violent? What behaviors will be considered aggressive? These and many other questions need to be answered before the research commences. The operationalization of the variables raises many issues about the validity and reliability of the research.
When writing about research, students often describe the goal as proof of the hypothesis. However, proving a hypothesis is impossible. Rather, research aims to gather data that either supports or disproves a hypothesis.
Good research is both valid and reliable. Research is valid when it measures what the researcher set out to measure; it is accurate. Research is reliable when it can be replicated; it is consistent. If the researcher conducted the same research in the same way, the researcher would get similar results.
Before one can begin to investigate a hypothesis, one needs to decide who or what to study. The individuals on which the research will be conducted are called participants (or subjects), and the process by which participants are selected is called sampling. In order to select a sample (the group of participants), one must first identify the population from which the sample will be selected. The population includes anyone or anything that could possibly be selected to be in the sample.
The goal in selecting a sample is that it be representative of a larger population. If I conduct my research about television violence using only my own psychology students, I cannot say much about how viewing violent television affects other people. My students may not be representative of a larger population. I would be better off specifying a larger and more diverse population, the whole student body of 1,000, for example, and then randomly selecting a sample of 100. The definition of random selection is that every member of the population has an equal chance of being selected. Random selection increases the likelihood that the sample represents the population and that one can generalize the findings to the larger population.
Note that psychologists use the term random differently than laypeople. If I choose my sample by standing in front of the library on a Wednesday morning and approaching people in a way I feel is random, I have not used random sampling. Perhaps, without realizing it, I was less likely to approach people I did not know or people wearing college sweatshirts. Since they would not stand an equal chance of being selected for the study, the selection process is not random. In addition, the method just described would not yield a representative sample of the school's population. Not everybody will walk past the library on Wednesday morning. People who do not will have no chance of being selected for the study and therefore are not part of the population. Random selection is best done using a computer, a table of random numbers, or that tried-and-true method of picking names out of a hat.
Selecting a sample randomly maximizes the chance that it will represent the population from which it was drawn and allows researchers to draw generalizations about the population based on their findings about their sample.
Even if I randomly select a sample of 100 people from the school's population of 1,000, clearly the sample will probably not perfectly reflect the composition of the school. For instance, if the school has exactly 500 males and 500 females in it, what are the chances that my random sample will have the same 1:1 ratio? Although we could compute those odds, that is not necessary. Clearly, the larger the sample, the more likely it is to represent the population. A sample of all 1,000 students guarantees that it is perfectly representative, and a sample of 1 person guarantees that it is far from representative. So why not use all 1,000 students? The downside of a large sample is time and money. Also, realizing that the populations psychologists study are often much larger than 1,000 people is important. Therefore, for research to use large, but not prohibitively large, samples is considered optimum. Statistics can be used to determine how large a sample should be in order to represent a population of any particular size. If asked on the Advanced Placement Examination to design your own research, you should specify the size of your sample and avoid using samples of extreme sizes.
One additional action can be taken to increase the likelihood that a sample will represent the larger population from which it was chosen. Stratified sampling is a process that allows a researcher to ensure that the sample represents the population on some criteria. For instance, if I thought that participants of different racial groups might respond differently, I would want to make sure that I represented each race in my sample in the same proportion that it appears in the overall population. In other words, if 500 of the 1,000 students in a school are Caucasian, 300 are African American, and 200 are Latino, in a sample of 100 students I would want to have 50 Caucasians, 30 African Americans, and 20 Latinos. To that end, I could first divide the names of potential participants into each of the three racial groups, and then I could choose a random subsample of the desired size from each group.
Experimental Method
Experiments can be divided into laboratory experiments and field experiments. Laboratory experiments are conducted in a lab, a highly controlled environment, while field experiments are conducted out in the world. The extent to which laboratory experiments can be controlled is their main advantage. The advantage of field experiments is that they are more realistic.
Psychologists' preferred method of research is the experiment because only through a carefully controlled experiment can one show a causal relationship. An experiment allows the researcher to manipulate the independent variable and control for confounding variables. A confounding variable is any difference between the experimental and control conditions, except for the independent variable, that might affect the dependent variable. In order to show that the violent television programs cause participants' aggression, I need to rule out any other possible cause. An experiment can achieve this goal by randomly assigning participants to conditions and by using various methods of control to eliminate confounding variables.
Students often equate all research with experiments. As described in the text, many different kinds of research can be conducted, but only experiments can identify cause-and-effect relationships.
Assignment is the process by which participants are put into a group, experimental or control. Random assignment means that each participant has an equal chance of being placed into any group. The benefit of random assignment is that it limits the effect of participant-relevant confounding variables. If participants were given the opportunity to choose whether to be in the group watching the violent television or not, it is highly unlikely that the two groups would be comprised of similar people. Perhaps violent people prefer violent television and would therefore select the experimental group. Even if one were to assign people to groups based on a seemingly random criterion (when they arrived at the experiment or where they were sitting in the room), one might open the door to confounding variables. Using random assignment diminishes the chance that participants in the two groups differ in any meaningful way, or, in other words, it controls for participant-relevant variables.
Random assignment controls for participant-relevant confounding variables. Students sometimes confuse random assignment and random sampling. While both involve randomization, sampling is the process of choosing the research participants from the population, and it happens before assignment. Assignment is the process of dividing participants into groups (for example, experimental and control), and it cannot be done until after you have identified the sample.
Note that when we talk about differences between groups, we are referring to the group average. A single very aggressive subject will not throw off the results of the entire group. The idea behind random assignment is that, in general, the groups will be equivalent.
If one wanted to ensure that the experimental and control groups were equivalent on some criterion (for example, sex, IQ scores, age), one could use group matching. If one wanted to group match for sex, one would first divide the sample into males and females and then randomly assign half of each group to each condition. Group matching would not result in the same number of males and females within each group. Rather, half of the males and half of the females would be in each of the groups.
Situation-relevant confounding variables can also affect an experiment. For the participants to be equivalent is not enough. The situations into which the different groups are put must also be equivalent except for the differences produced by the independent variable. If the experimental group watches violent television in a large lecture hall while the control group watches other programs in a small classroom, their situations are not equivalent. Therefore, any differences found between the groups may possibly be due not to the independent variable, as hypothesized, but rather to the confounding variables. Other situation-relevant variables include the time of day, the weather, and the presence of other people in the room. Making the environments into which the two groups are placed as similar as possible controls for situation-relevant confounding variables.
Experimenter bias is a special kind of situation-relevant confounding variable. Experimenter bias is the unconscious tendency for researchers to treat members of the experimental and control groups differently to increase the chance of confirming their hypothesis. Note that experimenter bias is not a conscious act. If researchers purposely distort their data, it is called fraud, not experimenter bias. Experimenter bias can be eliminated by using a double-blind procedure. A double blind occurs when neither the participants nor the researcher are able to affect the outcome of the research. A double blind can be accomplished in a number of ways. The most common way is for the researcher to have someone blind to the participants' condition interact with the participants. A single blind occurs when only the participants do not know to which group they have been assigned; this strategy minimizes the effect of demand characteristics as well as certain kinds of response or participant bias. Demand characteristics are cues about the purpose of the study. Participants use such cues to try to respond appropriately. Response or subject bias is the tendency for subjects to behave in certain ways (for example, circle the midpoint on a scale or pick the right-hand option more than the left-hand one). One kind of response bias, the tendency to try to give answers that reflect well upon them, is called social desirability.
Equivalent environments control for situation-relevant confounding variables.
Experiments typically involve at least one experimental group and a control group. The experimental group is the one that gets the treatment operationalized in the independent variable. The control group gets none of the independent variable. It serves as a basis for comparison. Without a control group, knowing whether changes in the experimental group are due to the experimental treatment or simply to any treatment at all is impossible. In fact, merely selecting a group of people on whom to experiment has been determined to affect the performance of that group, regardless of what is done to those individuals. This finding is known as the Hawthorne effect.
Double blinds eliminate both experimenter and subject bias.
Continuing with the television example, the experimental group would be the participants who view violent television while the control group would view some other type of television, perhaps a comedy. If I were really designing an experiment, I would have to be much more specific in operationally defining my independent variable. I would need to identify exactly what program(s) each group would watch and for how long. Many experiments involve much more complicated designs. In our example, additional groups would view other types of films or groups would view differing amounts of violent content.
One important method of control is known as the placebo method. Whenever participants in the experimental group are supposed to ingest a drug, participants in the control group are given an inert but otherwise identical substance. This technique allows researchers to separate the physiological effects of the drug from the psychological effects of people thinking they took a drug (called the placebo effect).
Students sometimes believe that a control group is the only possible method of control. Remember that although it is an extremely important and obviously named type of control, using control groups is but one of many such methods.
Sometimes using participants as their own control group is possible, a procedure known as counterbalancing. For instance, if I wanted to see how frustration affected performance on an IQ test, I could have my participants engage in a task unlikely to cause frustration, test their IQ, and then give them a frustrating task and test their IQs again. However, this procedure creates the possibility of order effects. Participants may do better on the second IQ test simply by virtue of having taken the first IQ test. This problem can be eliminated by using counterbalancing. I can counterbalance by having half the participants do the frustrating task first and half the participants do the not-frustrating task first and then switching.
Correlational Method
Correlation does not imply causation.
A correlation expresses a relationship between two variables without ascribing cause. Correlations can be either positive or negative. A positive correlation between two things means that the presence of one thing predicts the presence of the other. A negative correlation means that the presence of one thing predicts the absence of the other. See the statistics section for more information about correlations.
Sometimes psychologists elect not to use the experimental method. Sometimes testing a hypothesis with an experiment is impossible. Suppose, for example, I want to test the hypothesis that boys are more likely to call out in class than girls. Clearly, I cannot randomly assign subjects to conditions. Boys are boys, and girls are girls. The assignment of the independent variable, in this case, has been predetermined. As a result, I will never be able to isolate the cause of the calling out behavior. It could be a biological difference or one of many social influences that act differently upon the sexes from birth onward. If I seek to control all other aspects of the research process, as I would in an experiment, I will have conducted an ex post facto study.
An even more popular research design is the survey method. The survey method, as common sense suggests, involves asking people to fill out surveys. To contrast the survey method with the experimental method, return to the question about whether there is a relationship between watching violence on television and aggressive behavior. The original hypothesis, that "watching violent television programs makes people more aggressive," cannot be tested using the survey method, because only an experiment can reveal a cause-effect relationship. However, one could use the survey method to investigate whether there is a relationship between the two variables, watching violence on television and aggressive behavior. In the survey method, neither of the variables is manipulated. Therefore, while there are two variables, there is no independent or dependent variable.
Students often confuse the use of surveys to measure the dependent variable in an experiment with the survey method. While surveys can be used as part of the experimental method, the survey method, as described, is a kind of correlational research in which the researcher does not manipulate the independent variable.
Using the survey method means that one can no longer control for participant-relevant confounding variables. Some people watch a lot of violent television, and others do not. In all likelihood, these two groups of people would differ in a number of other ways as well. The survey method does not enable the researcher to determine which of these differences cause a difference in violent behavior.
Although controlling for situation-relevant confounding variables using the survey method is possible (by bringing all the participants to one place at one time to fill out the survey), it is rarely done. One of the advantages of the survey method is that conducting research by mailing surveys for people to fill out at their convenience is easy. However, if people fill out the surveys in different places, at different times of day, by taking different amounts of time, and so on, the research will be plagued by confounding variables. Thus, again, determining what causes a difference in violent behavior becomes impossible. In addition, obtaining a random sample when one sends out a survey is difficult because relatively few people will actually send it back (low response rate), and these people are unlikely to make up a representative sample.
Students often confuse naturalistic observation with field experiments. Both involve doing research out in the world. However, in naturalistic observation, the researchers do not impact the behavior of the participants at all. In contrast, in field experiments, as in all experiments, the researcher has manipulated the independent variable and attempted to eliminate as many confounding variables as possible.
Sometimes researchers opt to observe their participants in their natural habitats without interacting with them at all. Such unobtrusive observation is called naturalistic observation. The goal of naturalistic observation is to get a realistic and rich picture of the participants' behavior. To that end, control is sacrificed.
One final research method we will mention is the case study method. The case study method is used to get a full, detailed picture of one participant or a small group of participants. For instance, clinical psychologists often use case studies to present information about a person suffering from a particular disorder. While case studies allow researchers to get the richest possible picture of what they are studying, the focus on a single individual or small group means that the findings cannot be generalized to a larger population.
Descriptive statistics, as the name suggests, simply describe a set of data. For instance, if you were interested in researching what kinds of pets your schoolmates have, you might summarize that data by creating a frequency distribution that would tell you how many students had dogs, cats, zebras, and so on. Graphing your findings is often helpful. Frequency distributions can be easily turned into line graphs called frequency polygons or bar graphs known as histograms. The y-axis (vertical) always represents frequency, while whatever you are graphing, in this case, pets, is graphed along the x-axis (horizontal).
You are probably already familiar with at least one group of statistical measures called measures of central tendency. Measures of central tendency attempt to mark the center of a distribution. Three common measures of central tendency are the mean, median, and mode. The mean is what we usually refer to as the average of all the scores in a distribution. To compute the mean, you simply add up all the scores in the distribution and divide by the number of scores. The median is the central score in the distribution. To find the median of a distribution, simply write the scores down in ascending (or descending) order and then, if there are an odd number of scores, find the middle one. If the distribution contains an even number of scores, the median is the average of the middle two scores. The mode is the score that appears most frequently. A distribution may, however, have more than one mode. A distribution is bimodal, for instance, if two scores appear equally frequently and more frequently than any other score.
The mean is the most commonly used measure of central tendency, but its accuracy can be distorted by extreme scores or outliers. Imagine that 19 of your 20 friends drive cars valued at $12,000 but your other friend has a Maserati valued at $120,000. The mean value of your cars is $17,400. However, since that value is in excess of everyone's car except one person's, you would probably agree that it is not the best measure of central tendency in this case. When a distribution includes outliers, the median is often used as a better measure of central tendency.
Unless a distribution is symmetrical, it is skewed. Outliers skew distributions. When a distribution includes an extreme score (or group of scores) that is very high, as in the car example above, the distribution is said to be positively skewed. When the skew is caused by a particularly low score (or group of scores), the distribution is negatively skewed. A positively skewed distribution contains more low scores than high scores; the skew is produced by some aberrantly high score(s). Conversely, a negatively skewed distribution contains more high scores than low scores. In a positively skewed distribution, the mean is higher than the median because the outlier(s) have a much more dramatic effect on the mean than on the median. Of course, the opposite is true in a negatively skewed distribution (see Fig. 2.1).
Measures of variability are another type of descriptive statistical measures. Again, you may be familiar with some of these measures, such as the range, variance, and standard deviation. Measures of variability attempt to depict the diversity of the distribution. The range is the distance between the highest and lowest score in a distribution. The variance and standard deviation are closely related; standard deviation is simply the square root of the variance. Both measures essentially relate the average distance of any score in the distribution from the mean. The higher the variance and standard deviation, the more spread out the distribution.
Figure 2.1. A, symmetrical distribution; B, positively skewed distribution; C, negatively skewed distribution F.
Sometimes, being able to compare scores from different distributions is important. In order to do so, you can convert scores from the different distributions into measures called z scores. Z scores measure the distance of a score from the mean in units of standard deviation. Scores below the mean have negative z scores, while scores above the mean have positive z scores. For instance, if Clarence scored a 72 on a test with a mean of 80 and a standard deviation of 8, Clarence's z score would be –1. If Maria scored an 84 on that same test, her z score would be +0.5.
Often in psychology you will see reference to the normal curve. The normal curve is a theoretical bell-shaped curve for which the area under the curve lying between any two z scores has been predetermined. Approximately 68 percent of scores in a normal distribution fall within one standard deviation of the mean, approximately 95 percent of scores fall within two standard deviations of the mean, and almost 99 percent of scores fall within three standard deviations of the mean. Knowing that the normal curve is symmetrical, and knowing the three numbers given above will allow you to calculate the approximate percentage of scores falling between any given z scores. For instance, approximately 47.5 percent (95/2) of scores fall between the z scores of 0 and +2 (see Fig. 2.2).
While z scores measure the distance of a score away from the mean, percentiles indicate the distance of a score from 0. Someone who scores in the 90th percentile on a test has scored better than 90 percent of the people who took the test. Similarly, someone who scores at the 38th percentile scored better than only 38 percent of the people who took the test. A clear relationship exists between percentiles and z scores when dealing with the normal curve. Someone who scores at the 50th percentile has a z score of 0, and someone who scores at the 98th percentile has an approximate z score of +2.
A correlation measures the relationship between two variables. As explained earlier, correlations can be either positive or negative. If two things are positively correlated, the presence of one thing predicts the presence of the other. In contrast, a negative correlation means that the presence of one thing predicts the absence of the other. When no relationship exists between two things, no correlation exists. As an example, one would suspect that a positive correlation exists between studying and earning good grades. Conversely, one would suspect that a negative correlation might occur between cutting classes and earning good grades. Finally, it is likely that there is no correlation between the number of stuffed animals one owns and earning good grades.
Figure 2.2. The normal distribution.
Correlations may be either strong or weak. The strength of a correlation can be computed by a statistic called the correlation coefficient. Correlation coefficients range from –1 and +1 where –1 is a perfect, negative correlation and +1 is a perfect, positive correlation. Both –1 and +1 denote equally strong correlations. The number 0 denotes the weakest possible correlation—no correlation—which means that knowing something about one variable tells you nothing about the other.
Students often believe strong correlations correspond to positive numbers. Do not forget that –.92 is exactly as strong a correlation as +.92.
A correlation may be graphed using a scatter plot. A scatter plot graphs pairs of values, one on the y-axis and one on the x-axis. For instance, the number of hours a group of people study per week could be plotted on the x-axis while their GPAs could be plotted on the y-axis. The result would be a series of points called a scatter plot. The closer the points come to falling on a straight line, the stronger the correlation. The line of best fit, or regression line, is the line drawn through the scatter plot that minimizes the distance of all the points from the line. When the line slopes upward, from left to right, it indicates a positive correlation. A downward slope evidences a negative correlation. The scatter plot depicting the data set given in Table 2.1 is graphed in Figure 2.3.
Table 2.1. The Relationship Between Hours Studied and GPA
Hours Studied
Laticia
As discussed previously, a correlation, no matter how strong, does not indicate a causal relationship.
Figure 2.3. Scatter plot showing the correlation between hours studied and GPA.
Whereas descriptive statistics provide a way to summarize information about the sample studied, the purpose of inferential statistics is to determine whether or not findings can be applied to the larger population from which the sample was selected. Remember that one of the primary goals in selecting a sample is that the sample represent the population from which it was picked. If a sample does not represent the larger population, one cannot infer anything about the larger population from the sample. Guaranteeing that a sample is representative of a population is impossible. The extent to which the sample differs from the population is known as sampling error.
Say that you ran an experiment testing the effects of sugar consumption on short-term memory. You randomly assigned your 50 subjects to either a control group that was given a sugarfree lollipop or to the experimental group that was given a seemingly identical lollipop that contained sugar. You then tested the participants' ability to recall 15 one-syllable nouns. If the experimental group remembered an average of 7 words and the control group remembered an average of 6.9 words, would you be comfortable concluding that sugar does, in fact, enhance short-term memory? Your gut reaction is probably to say that the 0.1 difference in the example is too small to allow us to draw such a conclusion. What if the experimental group consisted of just one person who recalled all 15 words while the control group contained one person who remembered only 5 words? You would probably be similarly reluctant to draw any conclusions even given this enormous difference in the number of words recalled due to the tiny sample size.
In both cases, you would be correct to be skeptical. The differences between the groups are likely due to sampling error and chance. The purpose of inferential statistics is to help psychologists decide when their findings can be applied to the larger population. Many different inferential statistical tests exist such as t-tests, chi square tests, and ANOVAs. They all take into account both the magnitude of the difference found and the size of the sample. However, what is most important for you to know is that all these tests yield a p value. The p value gives the probability that the difference between the groups is due to chance. The smaller the p value, the more significant the results. Scientists have decided that a p value of .05 is the cutoff for statistically significant results. A p value of .05 means that a 5 percent chance exists that the results occurred by chance. A p value can never equal 0 because we can never be 100 percent certain that results did not happen due to chance. As a result, scientists often try to replicate their results, thus gathering more evidence that their initial findings were not due to chance.
A p value can also be computed for any correlation coefficient. The stronger the correlation and the larger the sample, the more likely the relationship will be statistically significant.
APA ETHICAL GUIDELINES
Ethical considerations are a major component in research design. You should know and understand the ethical guidelines established by the APA (American Psychological Association) for human and animal research and be prepared to apply the concepts to specific research designs. Any type of academic research must first propose the study to the ethics board or institutional review board (IRB) at the institution. The IRB reviews research proposals for ethical violations and/or procedural errors. This board ultimately gives researchers permission to go ahead with the research or requires them to revise their procedures.
Groups advocating the ethical treatment of animals are focusing more and more attention on how animals are treated in laboratory experiments. The APA developed strict guidelines about what animals and how animals can be used in psychological research. Ethical psychological studies using animals must meet the following requirements:
■They must have a clear scientific purpose.
■The research must answer a specific, important scientific question.
■Animals chosen must be best-suited to answer the question at hand.
■They must care for and house animals in a humane way.
■They must acquire animal subjects legally. Animals must be purchased from accredited companies. If wild animals must be used, they need to be trapped in a humane manner.
■They must design experimental procedures that employ the least amount of suffering feasible.
Research involving human subjects must meet the following standards:
■No coercion—Participation should be voluntary.
■Informed consent—Participants must know that they are involved in research and give their consent. If the participants are deceived in any way about the nature of the study, the deception must not be so extreme as to invalidate the informed consent. The research the participants thought they were consenting to must be similar enough to the actual study to give the informed consent meaning. Also, researchers must be very careful about the trauma deception may cause (see Risk, below).
■Anonymity or confidentiality—Participants' privacy must be protected. Their identities and actions must not be revealed by the researcher. Participants have anonymity when the researchers do not collect any data that enable them to match a person's responses with his or her name. In some cases, such as interview studies, a researcher cannot promise anonymity but instead guarantees confidentiality, that the researcher will not identify the source of any of the data.
■Risk—Participants cannot be placed at significant mental or physical risk. Typically, it is considered permissible for participants to experience temporary discomfort or stress but activities that might cause someone long-term mental or physical harm must be avoided. This clause requires interpretation by the review board. Some institutions might allow a level of risk other boards might not allow. This consideration was highlighted by Stanley Milgram's obedience studies in the 1970s in which participants thought they were causing significant harm or death to other participants (see the "Social Psychology" chapter).
■Debriefing—After the study, participants should be told the purpose of the study and provided with ways to contact the researchers about the results. When research involves deception, it is particularly important to conduct a thorough debriefing.
1.Psychologists generally prefer the experimental method to other research methods because
(A)experiments are more likely to support psychologists' hypotheses.
(B)experiments can show cause-effect relationships.
(C)it is easier to obtain a random sample for an experiment.
(D)double-blind designs are unnecessary in an experiment.
(E)experiments are more likely to result in statistically significant findings.
2.Theoretically, random assignment should eliminate
(A)sampling error.
(B)the need to use statistics.
(C)concerns over validity.
(D)many confounding variables.
(E)the need for a representative sample.
3.Charlotte and Tamar are lab partners assigned to research who is friendlier, girls or boys. After conversing with their first 10 participants, they find that their friendliness ratings often differ. With which of the following should they be most concerned?
(A)reliability
(B)confounding variables
(C)ethics
(D)validity
(E)assignment
4.Which of the following hypotheses would be most difficult to test experimentally?
(A)People exposed to the color red will be more aggressive than those exposed to the color blue.
(B)Exercise improves mood.
(C)Exposure to violent television increases aggression.
(D)Studying leads to better grades.
(E)Divorce makes children more independent.
5.Professor Ma wants to design a project studying emotional response to date rape. He advertises for participants in the school newspaper, informs them about the nature of the study, gets their consent, conducts an interview, and debriefs them about the results when the experiment is over. If you were on the IRB, which ethical consideration would you most likely have the most concern about in Professor Ma's study?
(A)coercion
(B)deception
(C)confounding variables
(D)confidentiality
(E)clear scientific purpose
6.Some psychologists consider Stanley Milgram's obedience studies to be unethical because of which ethical consideration?
(A)improper sampling procedure
(B)risk of long-term harm
(C)clear scientific purpose
(D)debriefing
(E)anonymity
7.One of the principal differences between the ethical guidelines for human and animal research is:
(A)Human participants can be deceived for experimental purposes and animals cannot.
(B)Animals can be placed at much greater physical risk than human participants can.
(C)Human participants must be chosen much more carefully than animal subjects.
(D)If humans might physically suffer because of the study, the suffering must be minimal, in contrast to animal studies where any amount of suffering is ethical if it helps to further a clear scientific purpose.
(E)Environmental conditions for human studies must be monitored much more closely than they are in an animal study.
8.Lily scored 145 on an IQ test with a mean of 100 and a standard deviation of 15. What is her z score?
(B)–1.5
(C)+0.67
(D)1.5
(E)+3
9.What is the median of the following distribution: 6, 2, 9, 4, 7, 3?
(B)5
(C)5.5
(D)6
(E)6.5
10.Emma scores a perfect 100 on a test that everyone else fails. If we were to graph this distribution, it would be
(A)symmetrical.
(B)normal.
(C)positively skewed.
(D)negatively skewed.
(E)a straight line.
11.José hypothesizes that a new drug he has just invented will enhance mice's memories. He feeds the drug to the experimental group and gives the control group a placebo. He then times the mice as they learn to run through a maze. In order to know whether his hypothesis has been supported, Jose would need to use
(A)scatter plots.
(B)descriptive statistics.
(C)histograms.
(D)inferential statistics.
(E)means-end analysis.
12.Which of the following is an example of random sampling?
I.Picking out of a hat to assign each of three classes to an experimental condition.
II.Having a computer generate a random list of 100 high school students.
III.Approaching any 50 students during sixth-period lunch.
(A)I only
(B)II only
(C)III only
(D)I and II
(E)I, II, and III
13.Vincenzo conducts an experiment to see whether fear makes mice run through mazes faster. He first selected a sample of 60 mice and then divided them into a control group and an experimental group. Which cannot be a confounding variable?
(A)How fast the mice are at the start.
(B)When the mice run the maze.
(C)The population from which he selected his subjects.
(D)How frightened the mice are before the experiment.
(E)Where the mice run the maze.
14.Olivia, a nursery school student, hypothesizes that boys have fights with the finger paints more than girls do. She tests her hypothesis by casually watching the finger-painting table for three days of nursery school. What method is she using?
(A)field experiment
(B)informal survey
(C)case study
(D)naturalistic observation
(E)ethnography
15.Talia collects survey data that indicate that students who spend more time preparing for the AP test tend to score better than other students. Jen can now conclude that
(A)studying improves exam grades.
(B)a relationship exists between studying and exam grades.
(C)a significant correlation exists between studying and exam grades.
(D)anyone who does not study will do poorly on the exam.
(E)better students tend to study more.


Health Action International safeguards its objectivity and integrity by remaining resolutely independent. We never accept funding from the pharmaceutical industry. And we work with staff and members to mitigate any potential conflicts of interest that could call our independence into question.
We consistently provide our donors with detailed reports about the work they support and are registered on the European Union's Transparency Register. In the event that members of staff are offered gifts of limited value, we mitigate the potential impact by entering them on a publicly available gifts register.
As a non-profit organisation, all income and expenditure is transparently announced and audited. No income is accumulated to the benefit of individuals or the organisation, but reinvested in our mission. Our annual and financial reports provide an overview of the work we've done, as well as a detailed account of the funding that we've received and spent.


Chandigarh: Aiming to curve the availability of drugs near educational institutions, which has become a big threat to the country and visibly destroying the present generation at large, the Himachal Pradesh government is mulling to enforce complete ban on sale of tobacco near educational institutions.
Himachal Pradesh Health Minister Kaul Singh Thakur, while addressing the concluding session of Orientation and Capacity Building Workshop organized under National Tobacco Control Programme at Chandigarh today, urged society to contribute towards generating awareness about the ill effects of tobacco and added that PRIs representatives and NGOs could play a significant role in this direction.
Thakur, said that Himachal Pradesh was the first smoke free State among large States in the country. He said that effective steps were being taken for Tobacco control and sale of single cigarette has been banned in the State.
He added that some of the initiatives of Himachal Pradesh were followed by various other States also and added that WHO had also appreciated the efforts of the State Government. The State also received the WHO SEARO Award for tobacco control, he added.
Thakur said that there was an effective government and NGO partnership in Himachal Pradesh for tobacco control which has emerged as one of the best models in the country. He said that 7500 Asha Workers and PRIs representatives were imparted training for generating awareness about tobacco control in the State.
He urged that all the States to take effective steps to check tobacco consumption.
Representatives from Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Delhi Uttrakhand, Jammu & Kashmir and UT Chandigarh participated in the workshop.


text:
Established in 1996 and based in the heart of Soho, our output ranges from high-profile television dramas to blockbuster feature films.
Our Academy Award nominated team have won thirteen BAFTAs, six RTS Awards, four Emmys and nine Golden Reel Awards.
We offer all elements of audio-post including Sound Editing, Foley, ADR, Source Connect, Mixing in our Dolby-certified studios, and Dolby Atmos Mastering.
All/Film/TV
PiratesFull Audio Post
The Crown I – VFull Audio Post
ChernobylFull Audio Post
I May Destroy YouFull Audio Post
The AeronautsFull Audio Post
LandscapersFull Audio Post
Emmy Nomination for The Crown
Congratulations to the Boom mix team that worked on The Crown for the Emmy nomination this year!
BAFTA Wins
Huge congratulations to "I May Destroy You" and "Sitting In Limbo" for their BAFTA's wins yesterday.
BAFTA Nomination
Well done to the Sound team of The Crown on the BAFTA nomination for Best Sound: Fiction!
MPSE Award Win
Very pleased to say that A Christmas Carol has won the Golden Reel for Outstanding Achievement in Sound Editing – Single Presentation. Congratulations to the sound team!
MPSE Nominations
Congratulations to all of the sound teams from Boom nominated for the 2021 Golden Reel Awards! We have received nominations for The Crown S4, A Christmas Carol, Hanna and I May Destroy You
CAS Nomination for The Crown
We are pleased to announce that Boom has received a CAS nomination for their work on The Crown S4!
RTS Award Nomination
Great news as Boom have been nominated for an RTS Craft Award for The Crown in the Best Sound category. Congratulations to the team!!
2020 Emmy Nominations
Congratulations to the sound teams that worked on Catherine the Great and The Crown for their nominations for outstanding Sound Editing in the 2020 Emmy Awards!
BAFTA win for Chernobyl
Huge congratulations to the Chernobyl sound team for their BAFTA win for Best Sound in the Fiction category!
BAFTA Nominations
Congratulations to all the Boomers that have been nominated for BAFTA Sound: Fiction awards this year! A Christmas Carol, The Crown and Chernobyl have all been nominated.
AMPS Nominations
Chernobyl, A Christmas Carol and The Crown III have all been nominated for AMPS awards for Excellence in Sound for a Television Drama.
CAS Win for Chernobyl
Congratulations to the Chernobyl team for the win at the Cinema Audio Society Awards – Outstanding Achievement in Sound Mixing for a Television Movie or Limited Series
Golden Reel Wins for CHERNOBYL
Fantastic news from the MPSE Awards this weekend – Chernobyl won the Golden Reel Award in both Dialogue/ADR and Effects/Foley
MPSE Award Nominations
Huge congratulations to the sound teams of Hanna, Chernobyl, Peaky Blinders, Catherine the Great and The Crown for the six nominations for Best Sound Editing over four categories at the MPSE Awards!
Go to our awards page for more details on the nominations.
CAS Award Nomination
Exciting news as the team on Chernobyl have been nominated for a Cinema Audio Society Award for outstanding achievement in sound mixing for a Limited Series.
RTS Craft Award Win
Congratulations to the team for winning the RTS Craft & Design Award in the 'Sound – Drama' category for work on Chernobyl.
RTS Craft Nomination
We are very happy to say that Chernobyl has been nominated in the Sound – Drama Category for this year's RTS Craft Awards
BIFA Nomination
We are very excited to say that Wild Rose has been nominated for the Best Sound category at this year's British Independent Film Awards
HPA Award Nomination
We are very pleased to announce that the sound team for Chernobyl have been nominated for the Outstanding Sound – Episodic or Non-Theatrical Feature award!
Emmy Wins 2019
We are thrilled to announce Emmy wins in the categories of 'Outstanding Sound Editing For A Limited Series, Movie or Special' and also 'Outstanding Sound Mixing For A Limited Series or Movie' for Boom's work on Chernobyl.
Emmy Nomination 2019
We are delighted that Boom has received two nominations in this years Creative Arts Emmy Awards in the 'Outstanding Sound Editing' and 'Outstanding Sound Mixing' categories for a limited series for 'CHERNOBYL'.
Golden Reel Nomination 2019
We are very happy to have been nominated for this years Golden Reel Awards for FX and Foley editing on The Terror.
BAFTA Win
Big congrats to the team for picking up Best Sound (fiction) at last night's BAFTA Awards for their work on The Crown!
BAFTA Craft Nominations
Boom is very excited to have received three nominations from Best Sound (Fiction) at this years BAFTA Craft awards for Taboo, The Crown and Peaky Blinders.
Oasis Golden Reel Win
Congratulations to the team for their win at the prestigious Golden Reel Awards this year, winning Outstanding Achievement in Sound Editing for a Single Presentation for their work on Amazon Original, Oasis.
Golden Reel Nominations 2018
Adding to last weeks CAS award nomination, we're thrilled to have been nominated for three Golden Reel awards; FX/Foley editing on Oasis and Taboo, and dialogues/ADR editing on The Crown.
CAS Sound Mixing Nomination 2018
Boom is delighted to have been nominated for the Cinema Audio Society (CAS) outstanding achievement in sound mixing for The Crown.
Dolby Atmos Mastering
We are very excited to now offer Dolby Atmos Mastering for home entertainment in our new Atmos room!
RTS Best Sound Win
Big congratulations to the Taboo Boomers for picking up the award for Best Sound in a Drama at last night's RTS Awards!
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Welcome to Team Illinois Cheer - Home of the 2018 Small Senior 4.2 Summit Champions!
Welcome to Team Illinois Cheer - Home of the 2018 Small Senior 4.2 Summit Champions! As the popularity of competitive cheer continues to grow so does the demand for strong fundamentals & technical difficulty. We want to help build our athlete's cheer skills but more importantly give them life skills to be a winner at whatever they choose to do.
Our goal is to provide the athletes with a positive atmosphere where they enjoy the sport of competitive cheer. Along with the physical benefits of competitive sports, it is our intention that the simple principles of self-discipline and hard work be an important part of the process. In the end, developing strong athletes both physically and mentally is our focus.
Visit the CLASS INFORMATION tab for more detailed information.
CLICK HERE to register your athlete.
FUNdamentals is a class-based course developed to introduce cheer in a FUN way to athletes that have never been apart of All Star Cheer!
Our FUNdamentals program will debut in May 2019.
© 2019 Team Illinois Cheer, Inc.


text:
Lamar Odom says 'God is good' as he makes return to basketball
John Paul Sunico Monday, July 30, 2018
Basketball player Lamar Odom speaks at a news conference announcing his acquisition by the Los Angeles Clippers in Los Angeles, California in this July 2, 2012 file photo. | REUTERS/MARIO ANZUONI/FILES
Lamar Odom is set to make his return to professional basketball soon, and he credits God for being granted this new opportunity.
Odom broke the news of his return to playing pro ball in a recent Instagram post.
"My heart literally warms up now I can finally share with you all that I'm returning to play Basketball. I will be playing in China ! God is good ! Thanks lord for giving me another chance in life and thank you fans for your the love and support during all those hard years."
Odom has yet to reveal which team he will play for and when he will next take part in a pro basketball game.
He added, "Never give up on yourself and keep believing that only God can create the miracles you're hoping for."
The 38-year-old also said that basketball and his children — Lamar Jr. and Destiny — have always been the light in his life and that is where is focus is now.
Odom also called fellow former NBA player Stephon Marbury his "inspiration." Marbury played in the NBA from 1996 to 2009. He signed with the Shanxi Brave Dragons in 2010 and went on to play for other teams in China. He retired from playing pro basketball earlier this year.
For Odom, this latest move comes in the wake of a tumultuous past few years.
As noted in a report from CBS Sports, Odom has dealt with drug addiction in the past. In October 2015, he was found unconscious at the Love Ranch in Nevada and he was taken to a hospital and placed on life support.
Odom recalled what it was like waking up in a hospital in Nevada after the incident in a piece for The Players' Tribune. He remembered hearing a doctor telling him that it was a "miracle" he was still alive after what he went through.
He recounted the low points in his life while also revisiting the tragic memories of his mother and his son Jayden's untimely deaths. He further admitted that even at the time of writing that 2017 piece that he wanted to do drugs again, saying that staying sober is "an everyday struggle."
However, he also acknowledged that if he wants to continue being around for his children, then he must resist the temptations that drove him down some dark roads previously in his life.
Odom played 14 years in the NBA and won two titles with the Los Angeles Lakers. He also took home the NBA's Sixth Man of the Year Award in 2011.
Source: The Christian Post


text:
class Category;
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class TypeSet;

class Catalogue {
public:
    Catalogue();
    ~Catalogue();

    Category* root() const {
        return mRoot;
    }

    TileSet* tileSet() const {
        return mTileSet;
    }

    TypeSet* typeSet() const {
        return mTypeSet;
    }

private:
    Category* mRoot;
    TileSet* mTileSet;
    TypeSet* mTypeSet;
};

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Leave a Comment / Decades Fashion / By Stacey
Vintage Jewelry Find from Du Boff Jewelers
Thrift store hunter's fact
This is fact! What starts as hunting to find buried thrift store treasure oftentimes leads to discoveries far more interesting than the piece itself. This particular purchase—a beautiful, pristine, 3 piece set of 50s jet jewelry-- was one of those finds. The search to discover the origin of this set would lead this thrift store hunter to an art movement, a tour through New York real estate and a trip through 5th Avenue's posh jewelry district as far back as the 1940s.
The Sport of Thrift Store Hunting
For a shopping warrior like myself, finding vintage jewelry is in itself a reward. Finding a perfectly complete three piece set from the 50s. Well, that is magic! Sets become mismatched, lost and separated over time. This one was perfectly together. Barely, if ever, worn. Normally, a set of such quality would reveal a posh designer signature like Bogoff, Carnegie or Lisner. However, this one had no signature. The only clue to its origin was the box it came in. Corners tattered as if opened a million times, the box showed the logo Jewels by Du Boff 500 5th Avenue and the words "Jet Jewelry" scribbled on its face. I started my search with those two clues.
50s Jewelry Style
A little history about these sets. In the 50s and 60s, matching earring, bracelet and necklace sets were common compliments to every day dressing. Manufactured by many jewelry houses, they were the bling of its era. They turned conservative day wear into elegant evening wear. Every woman had a set or two or three. What set them apart was the quality. Evidenced by the faceted beads and fine closures, this set was indeed highly crafted. Was it jet as denoted on the box? I would say, yes. Due to the faceting of the stones and its overall light weight, the beads could very well be real Whitby Jet.
Google & Thrift Store Hunting
It is fair to say that based on the overall quality, this set is high end. I googled the biggest clue. The box label Jewels by Du Boff 500 Fifth Avenue NY. My search led me to a fascinating place. A link to The Toledo Museum of Art and a 1974 painting of a Du Boff's store window.
Don Eddy (American, born 1944) Acrylic on canvas. 1974
Did you think the image above was a photograph? It is actually a painting by Don Eddy, a photorealist. He was significant in developing a style of art popular in the 60s and 70s called photorealism. "Photorealists … painted images that resemble the way that photographs depict visual reality". Don Eddy took several photographs of the Du Boff windows to render this painting using layers of air brushing. He chose the shop windows of Du Boff jewelry store because in his words "The jewelry in that window…allowed me to further break down the color units and thus explore an alternate way of understanding the spatial impact of color. " Although not directly connected to the set I was researching, it adds value to its mystique. Clearly, it is a vital clue to the open, inventive nature of art at the time and of Du Boff central to it. The painting is part of The Toledo Museum of Art's private collection.
New York's Famous Fifth Avenue
As a non- New Yorker, my understanding of 5th Avenue is simple. It's wealthy. I know 5th Avenue through the romantic visions of mansions built for wealthy men like Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney and Andrew Carnegie. Today, Fifth Avenue from 42nd St to 59th St is probably the most famous shopping district in the world. Famous stores like Tiffany's, Bergdoff Goodman, Mikimoto, Louis Vuitton, Prada, Harry Winston, Hugo Boss and Henri Bendel line both sides of the street. Could Du Boff Jewelry store have been a catalyst to its soaring prestige enthralled within this lap of luxury?
Fifth Avenue in the 40s
My research brought me to this compilation video of life on the avenue in the 40s. Although a decade before the era of my jewelry set, I still hoped I could find a store front sign glaring through the myriads of cars and bustling pedestrians. Then, case solved. But no luck. I was left only with the confirmation that 5th Avenue was a colossal consumer district ready to explode. Was the pristine set of 50s jewelry rescued from thrift shop anonymity, its legacy? In some odd way, possibly. If in fact this jewelry set was purchased at Jewels by Du Boff cannot be known for sure. It could have just landed in the box. A gift treasured for its sentiment, nestled in a box fitting the intention of its giving. Its legacy? It was rescued by a treasure hunter like me. A cherished treasure in a cluttered thrift store showcase looking for someone to find, to fascinate and to discover.
ARTISANAL FASHION
https://youtu.be/ATydE1sJEz0


text:
Mandir-Masjid case will be treated as pure land dispute, says apex court
The Supreme Court has made it clear to parties before the Allahabad High Court in the Babri Masjid-Ram Janmabhoomi dispute said that it will deal with the instant matter as a "pure land dispute" and indicated that impleadment applications of those which were not before the High Court would be dealt with later.
Rejecting a lawyer's contention in the case that the matter involved the faith of crores of Hindus, the bench of Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra, Justices Ashok Bhushan and S Abdul Nazeer said: "We can't address these kind of arguments. We are treating it as a land dispute. There are appeals and cross-appeals."
To another lawyer, who was representing 32 activists and wanted to implead in the matter since they were "very concerned about the outcome of the case", the bench said "applications for impleadment and intervention shall be considered at the appropriate time".
The special bench, asking parties to file in two weeks English translation of documents exhibited by them, said that it would hear the appeals on March 14 and clarified that it never intended to hear the case on a "day-to-day basis".
The bench, also comprising Justices Ashok Bhushan and S A Nazeer, said it will deal with the instant matter as a "pure land dispute" and indicated that impleadment applications of those which were not before the High Court would be dealt with later, reports said.
The top court said the excerpts of vernacular books, which have been relied upon in the case, be translated in English and be filed within two weeks from February 8.
The apex court also directed its Registry to provide copies of video cassettes, which were part of high court records, to parties on actual cost, the reports pointed out.
The special bench of the apex court was set up following 14 appeals filed against the high court judgment delivered in four civil suits.
A three-judge bench of the Allahabad High Court, in a 2:1 majority ruling, had in 2010 ordered that the land be partitioned equally among three parties — the Sunni Waqf Board, the Nirmohi Akhara and Ram Lalla.
Babri Masjid
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White sugar, containing more than 99.7% of sucrose, is industrially obtained from two plants: sugar cane and sugar beet.
The first plant grows in tropical and sub tropical zones and is normally processed in two steps. In the first step a granular yellow sugar is obtained, named raw sugar, in Sugar Mills. In a second step, named refining, the final product, white sugar, is produced.
Sugar beet grows in temperate zones and white sugar is obtained in only one set of operations in Beet Sugar Factories.


text:
Fatigued Florida trucker kills seven kids in one family, injures several on school bus
Posted on January 27, 2006 by Ken Shigley
A truck driver who plowed into a stopped car on 1/25/06 and killed seven children from one family had been awake for 34 hours, except for a short nap. This dramatically emphasizes the widespread problem of truck driver fatigue that we see time and time again.
Seven children from one family in Lake Butler, Florida — five siblings and two cousins — were killed when their car stopped behind a school bus that was letting off children, and an 18-wheeler crashed into the car. Reports from the scene indicated the truck left no skid marks. The semi truck hit the car from behind and pushed it into the bus, causing the car to burst into flames on the rural two lane highway. Children on the bus reported hearing the truck's horn blasting before impact. The bus ended up 200 feet from the point of the chain reaction impact, and the cab of the truck lay overturned near the scene. The bus was at an approved bus stop. Early indications are that the truck may not have braked. The National Transportation Safety Board plans to spend eight to 10 days at the scene. A full report likely won't be ready for six to seven months. A data recording box inside the truck should show the truck's speed and indicate whether the driver braked. The bus was equipped with a recording device, but it wasn't working.
The car burst into flames, and everyone inside was killed, including 15-year-old Nicky Mann, who was driving illegally with a learner's permit and was taking her adopted siblings and her cousins home from school. Three children on the bus were seriously injured. The kids were heading home, and then to church. The fact that the driver was a few months shy of 16 and driving on a learner's permit appears irrelevant. It would have made no difference if the person behind the wheel of a car stopped behind a school bus had been a 54 year old with 38 years experience as a licensed driver.
The children's grief-stricken grandfather died of a heart attack that night, the eighth fatality of the crash. The family had planned to finalize adoption of the youngest child this week. Instead, they are planning funerals for all the children and their grandfather.
Investigation of the crash centers on "why he didn't see a big, large school bus." Authorities are looking into whether the truck driver was possibly talking on his cell phone, if he was tired or if there was a mechanical failure of the truck. A blood sample was taken from the truck driver to test for alcohol and drugs.
The truck driver, Alvin, Wilkerson, was cited in 2000 for driving with a suspended license and twice, in 2000 and 2001, for operating a vehicle in unsafe condition. He also was arrested and charged in 1997 with accessory after the fact to murder, in connection with the kidnapping and murder of a toddler, though that charge was later dropped, and was convicted of solicitation of prostitution in 1999.
Wilkerson was driving for Crete Carrier Corp., a Nebraska-based trucking company with its Florida hub in DeLand. (Coincidentally, I was in DeLand taking depositions of a truck driver and company representative on the day of this crash.) Crete employs 5,400 truck drivers operating 5,100 tractor-trailers around the country. Accordingly to FMCSA records, in the last two years, Crete truck drivers have been involved in 482 crashes and 20 of those crashes ended in fatalities. In Florida, transportation officials conducted 259 inspections of Crete trucks and drivers in the last two years alone and found 111 violations. Eight of those violations were so serious that inspectors immediately forced the trucks out of service and off the road.
This crash on a straight, level rural road highlights a national trend, in which the Road Information Program researchers determined that traffic fatality rates are 2.5 times higher on rural roads than on all other roads.
The Shigley Law Firm represents plaintiffs in wrongful death and catastrophic injury cases statewide in Georgia, and in other states subject to the multijurisdictional practice and pro hac vice rules in each state. Ken Shigley was designated as a "SuperLawyer" in Atlanta Magazine and one of the "Legal Elite" in Georgia Trend Magazine. He is a Certified Civil Trial Advocate of the National Board of Trial Advocacy, Chair of the Southeastern Motor Carrier Liability Institute and former chair of the Georgia Insurance Law Institute. He particularly focuses on cases arising from truck wrecks and accidents (tractor trailers truck wrecks, semi truck wrecks,18 wheeler truck wrecks, big rig truck wrecks, log truck wrecks, dump truck wrecks).


text:
Walking into Alchemy
Christmas in Austria
Nature Cure
Spiritual Alchemy
Amelia Marriette
Where will your OU degree take you?
MA Degree Ceremony University of Birmingham, 1995
I simply cannot imagine my life without the Open University. Everything would be so entirely different for me now. I left school at the age of 16, knowing that I had common sense and some intelligence, but I always felt that I was behind everyone else, forever on catch up.
In my early 20s, after seeing the film Educating Rita, I secretly harboured a dream that I would read for an Open University degree. When I was 25, I was encouraged by several people who urged me to sign up. With great trepidation, I went to a meeting held at the local school and had a talk to someone about my chances of being able to take on such a vast undertaking. I came away feeling charged up and ready to go.
I knew immediately from my first lesson with my tutor, who was aptly named Mr Diamond, that I was on the right path. I loved every minute of my studies. I studied Victorian Art and Culture; The Enlightenment, Culture and Society in Europe 1550-1700; Art in 15th Century Italy; War, Peace and Social Change; Film Studies; The Rise of Scientific Europe. But I was desperate to study Shakespeare. I was told at school that I simply wasn't clever enough to tackle Mr W.S., but I was determined, and my tutor encouraged me – laughing at the ridiculousness of my not being able to study the Bard. I was afraid at first, but then how I loved going to the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon, watching the BBC Shakespeare Series, travelling the country to watch open-air performances and reading, reading, reading. I was hooked.
I admit that at times I found it hard – juggling work and studying. Cramming my studies into moments here and there, late nights and working at weekends. But, each year it became a bit easier. I also met some amazing people. The week-long summer schools terrified me at first, but then I couldn't wait until the next one. I went to every lecture; this caused some hilarity amongst the other students – "you don't have to go to them ALL!" But I did. I don't regret that.
Obtaining my MA in Shakespeare Studies in 1995
I went on to read for my MA in Shakespeare Studies at the Shakespeare Institute in Stratford-upon-Avon. That period of my life was truly life-changing. I did some acting (I am not very good at that) some directing, and became a playwright myself. My first play – Nay, Remember Me! a comedy about Shakespeare and the First Folio - was performed at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre's Other Place Theatre. I taught the OU Shakespeare course for several years, but when that course ended, I turned to my other love – Art History. A love inspired once again by my OU studies. I moved into curating and eventually a job as a Keeper of Art, following a diploma in Museum and Gallery Studies at St Andrew's University. I was made redundant from my last post. I found that very hard. I suffered from depression. I was lucky, I had a chance to relocate to Austria, but I had no studying to do and no employment.
But the OU taught me how to be disciplined and how to research, so I began a new project. I walked 15 kilometres every week for fifty-two weeks in the hills and mountains where I now live in Southern Austria. Last year I published my first non-fiction book called Walking into Alchemy: The Transformative Power of Nature.
All of my achievements came from that early encouragement. In fact, I know full well that I took the first step towards a more golden future in 1990 when I entered the room and into my first OU class.
I could never thank the OU enough for everything they did for me, and also my older sister, who also read for an OU degree. This October, one of my great friends will begin her journey.
She knows who she is. I dedicate this blog to her and all those who are embarking on their journey this October. It's going to be amazing!
My play, Nay Remember Me is published by Lazy Bee Scripts.
https://www.lazybeescripts.co.uk/Scripts/Script.aspx?iSS=3055
Full-colour, signed copies of my book Walking into Alchemy: The Transformative Power of Nature are currently available from www.ameliamarriette.com/shop enter the code OU at the checkout to receive a 10% discount.
Also available from Amazon Worldwide.
What does Walking into Alchemy mean? And What is Spiritual Alchemy?
Is it okay to be imperfect? Japanese Kintsugi has the answer.
How does the Christmas Carol Silent Night Capture a Sense of Soul?


If you buy 5 pay $ 28.990 each one.
The DS1921G Thermochron iButton is a rugged, self-sufficient system that measures temperature and records the results in a protected memory section. The recording is done at a user-defined rate, as both a direct storage of temperature values and in the form of a histogram.Up to 2048 temperature values are taken and stored at equidistant intervals ranging from 1 to 255 minutes. The histogram provides 63 data bins with a resolution of 2.0°C. If the temperature leaves a user-programmable range, the DS1921G also records when this happened, for how long the temperature stayed outside the permitted range, and if the temperature was too high or too low. An additional 512 bytes of read/write NV memory allow storing information pertaining to the object to which the DS1921G is associated.
Data is transferred serially through the 1-Wire protocol, you can use our adapter USB to 1-Wire DS9490R.
Every DS1921G is factory lasered with a guaranteed uniqueelectrically readable, 64-bit registration number that allows for absolute traceability.
The durable stainless steel package is highly resistant to environmental hazards such as dirt, moisture, and shock. Accessories permit the DS1921G to be mounted on almost any object, including containers, pallets, and bags.
Digital thermometer with increments of 0.5°C.
Built-in RTC (Real Time Clock) with an accuracy of +/- 2 minutes per month.
Automatic temperature measurement in a user-programmable interval from 1 to 255 minutes.
Logs up to 2048 consecutive temperature samples in its internal memory NV.
Record the temperature histogram with a resolution of 2°C.
Alarms programmable low and high temperature by the user.
When the temperature recorded at the specified range.
512 bytes general purpose memory NV.
It communicates using 1-Wire protocol.
Range -40°C to + 85°C.


However, the 25-year-old has failed to nail down a spot in the first team since then and it has led to rumours growing that he could already be off.
AC Milan have shown an interest in the Brazilian and are willing to take him on loan in January if Liverpool agree to it.
But, according to Sport Mediaset, they will have to fight off competition from Juventus to sign the midfielder.
The Italian champions have started tracking Fabinho in case Liverpool decide to show him the door.
The Brazilian is reportedly happy to fight for his place at Anfield at the moment, but that could change if Juve firm up their interest.


text:
The Shanes sind eine Folk-Band aus Trier.

Bandgeschichte
Die Band The Shanes wurde im Jahr 1991 gegründet. Bereits ein Jahr danach machte die Gruppe ihre ersten Aufnahmen, welche die Hamburger Plattenfirma Strange Ways aufhorchen und als CD-Album Songs from the Urban Country Hell veröffentlichen ließ. Labelchefin Kathrin Achinger produzierte 1993 den Nachfolger Polka Hard, der den Joy-Division-Klassiker Love Will Tear Us Apart in Polkaversion enthält und der von dem bekannten BBC-Radio-DJ John Peel in dessen Sendung ausgestrahlt wurde.

1995 erschien eine Mini-CD mit sechs Songs unter dem Namen These Days, 1996 eine nur in Ungarn erhältliche Coproduktion mit dem ungarischen Aktivisten Benito von Gruenau und der rumänischen Band Vezérkar, die als limitierte Auflage mit dem Titel Budapest Sessions nur auf Konzerten der Band erhältlich war, sowie 1998 eine Promotion-CD 5 Years of Hardpolka.

In den nachfolgenden Jahren zog sich die sich schon vorher abzeichnende Instabilität der Besetzungen fort. Besonders die Schlagzeuger wechselten häufig. Dennoch spielte die Band viele Konzerte in Deutschland, Großbritannien, Österreich, Schweiz und den Vereinigten Staaten.

Erst 2001 folgte mit The Haunted House of Polka ein weiteres Album. Nun bei Karsten Jahnkes Label Pinorrekk, war die Band wieder öfter auf den Konzertbühnen in Deutschland und dem benachbarten Ausland unterwegs. Anfang 2005 kam das Studioalbum Pölka auf dem neuen, hauseigenen Indie-label Sumorex mit Sitz in Trier heraus. Das erste Livealbum Polka over Serbja, wurde in Cottbus aufgenommen und unter dem oben genannten Label im Juli 2007 veröffentlicht. März 2008 verließ Akkordeonspieler Andreas Diewald aus beruflichen Gründen die Band und wurde von Alexander Schuster ersetzt.
Ende 2008 wurde unter der Leitung des britischen Musikers/Engineers Mike Butcher (u. a. "Sabotage" von Black Sabbath, "Sexual Healing" von Marvin Gaye) das Album "Squandering Youth" aufgenommen.
Dabei wurden die bisher eher unterschwellig vertretenden Einflüsse aus dem Americana/Alternativ Country Bereich deutlicher herausgearbeitet, ohne auf die bisherige Verwurzelung in der Tradition osteuropäischer und irisch-englischer Folkmusik zu verzichten. Als Coversongs finden sich auf dem Album eine Countrypunkversion der Punkikone G.G. Allin ("Bite it, you scum") und eine Folkversion des Turbonegroklassikers "Sailorman".

2013 erschien das bisher letzte Album "Road Worrier" (SumoRex/Broken Silence) mit wieder neuen Bandmitgliedern, den beiden Engländern Chris Birch (Geige) und Matt Dawson (Pedal-Steel, Mandoline, Gitarre, Dobro), dem Bruder von Julian Dawson sowie Nataša Grujović (Akkordeon) aus Belgrad.

The Shanes spielten in der Besetzung Kornelius Flowers, Herr Dannehl, Warpig Stoffregen, Nataša Grujovich, Markus Schu, Chris Birch und Matt Dawson noch bis 2015 regelmäßig Konzerte, lösten sich Ende 2015 jedoch überraschend auf.

4 Jahre später formierte der 2008 ausgeschiedene Akkordeonist Andy Diewald eine neu Besetzung mit Herr Dannehl am Bass sowie Kornelius Flowers für eine Reunion-Show am 23. Dezember 2019. Ganz neu dabei waren Dimitrij Tatarinov (Gitarre), Maggie Krupp (Geige) und Andy James Fandel am Schlagzeug.

Sämtliche, nach der Reunion geplanten, Konzerte mussten aufgrund der COVID-19-Pandemie 2020 abgesagt werden.

Stil
Schnell einigte man sich, zunächst noch beeinflusst durch Bands wie The Pogues, M. Walking on the Water, The Whisky Priests und Les Négresses Vertes, auf ein Konzept, in der Geige und Akkordeon das Klangbild dominieren. Gepaart mit 2/4-Rhythmus und Rockmusik entstand daraus ein eigener Stil: "Hardpolka". Besonders in der letzten Zeit treten verstärkt Country und Americana Sounds hinzu.

Diskografie
 1992: Songs from the Urban Country Hell (Strangeways/Indigo)
 1993: Polka Hard (Strangeways/Indigo)
 1994: Love Will Tear Us Apart (Vinyl-Single), (Strangeways/Indigo)
 1995: These Days (EP), (Strangeways/Indigo)
 1996: Budapest Sessions
 1998: 1993–1998 – five years of HardPolka
 2001: The Haunted House of Polka (Pinorekk/Edel)
 2005: Pölka
 2007: Polka over Serbja (Live in Chosebuz)
 2009: Squandering Youth
 2013: Road Worrier

Weblinks

 Offizielle Website

Deutsche Band
Rockband
Musik (Trier)

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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Issue #149: Dancer With Bruised Knees by Kate & Anna McGarrigle
Dancer With Bruised Knees by Kate & Anna McGarrigle
Released By Warner Bros. Records
I miss the sound of my dad's voice. Or, maybe more accurately, I feel lost when I try to remember what his voice sounded like. He died when I was a couple of years out of college. After his funeral, with friends and family gathered in the house I grew up in — in the living room where my dad spent his last days in hospice care — my mom played back a segment he'd done on HearSay With Cathy Lewis, a public radio show produced in Norfolk. That was almost 12 years ago. I haven't heard that recording since.
I'd like to think he speaks to me in other ways. I catch myself using words and expressions he used frequently, and in those moments, my voice echoes his. There's also the letter my mom photocopied and sent me recently — a three-pager he wrote me when I was in middle school. I have no memory of reading it then, but reading it now is almost too much, like looking directly into the Sun. More frequent are the conversations we have via the record collection he left behind — upward of 1,000 albums. The Kingston Trio. Dave Brubeck. Miles Davis. So much classical. I think he had four versions of Aaron Copland's Appalachian Spring. My sister and I have raided those records repeatedly over the course of the last decade, and while you'd think all the good stuff would have been extracted and absorbed into our own collections by now, the albums waiting in Norfolk seem different each time I flip through them. I know it's because I'm a slightly different person each time I visit, but it's fun to imagine that my dad is still making recommendations — nudging this or that record forward so I'll notice it.
When I do bring something back to Richmond, I wonder how and why it made its way onto the built-in shelves in my parents' living room. It's one of the reasons I love records; each album represents a story — of hearing music, being affected by it, and deciding it deserves a place in your home. Dancer With Bruised Knees made the trip from Norfolk to Richmond a year or two ago, along with Kate & Anna McGarrigle's self-titled debut and a small stack of other finds, though I didn't truly dig in until this past October, when the Richmond Folk Festival inspired my father-in-law and me to go on a Canadian music binge. My wife's dad is a Canadaphile. He knew of the McGarrigles, and he knew that Kate was the mother of Rufus and Martha Wainwright. We listened to my dad's copy of Dancer, and it stuck with me. I'd love to know why my dad enjoyed it.
Did he delight in the similarities between "Blanche comme la neige" and the liturgical music performed at Christ & St. Luke's, the cavernous Gothic-style Episcopal church where, each Sunday, we'd hear world-class choral arrangements accompanied by a monstrous three-manual, 78-rank pipe organ? Did the minor-key seediness of "Southern Boys" remind him of Randy Newman's Good Old Boys, and of Newman's knack for telling sideways stories in which indictments are handed down with a smile — subtly, so the characters themselves wouldn't know they were being lampooned if they heard the songs written about them? Did the writing in "Walking Song" remind him of Paul Simon's? Architecture, the cold, boots, a rooming-house, the boulevards of Mexico — allusions delivered nimbly despite an ambling tempo. It all has the feel of something I would have discovered on my dad's copy of Bridge Over Troubled Water.
Questions like these are one side of the conversation my dad and I have while I'm spinning records I retrieved from his collection. The other side is silence. But it's a pregnant silence, full of meaning, presence, and purpose. You often hear people who aren't religious say that they find their spirituality in music. I never realized how closely this process of asking questions without expecting an answer resembles prayer. Maybe this is how I pray. I haven't been to that giant stone church in ages. Now that my mom has retired (OK, semi-retired) from the priesthood, I don't expect I'll be attending too many services in the near future. But I have my copy of Dancer With Bruised Knees. And I bet the next time I'm in Norfolk, I'll notice another album that's been nudged forward on the living room shelf, and I'll keep the conversation going.
Incandescent folk music from two sisters flooded with musical talent and vision.
There are some feelings that it's almost impossible to put into words. This has been a particularly melancholy and introspective week, and I've mostly been listening to things I loved when I was young, albums that helped me feel kind of okay when everything was most definitely not okay. Hoping to get back to my normal state of being when I can't even identify a particular cause for the shift. I put on Kate & Anna McGarrigle's Dancer With Bruised Knees one night after the kids went to bed, planning to listen as I tidied up the kitchen and got myself settled in for a little time by myself before falling asleep. I ended up standing almost completely still through the entire thing, just caught up in this feeling of nostalgia for a life I haven't lived. It was familiar, like a childhood favourite, but not a favourite of this childhood. This is where words are failing me, because I don't know that I can ever get across just how clearly I could see the life this other me had. Whose favourite song was "Southern Boys" whose childhood wasn't spent entirely in alternating loneliness and fear, who learned French just so she could sing along properly with "Perrine était servante," this little girl who grew up so happy and free. I was spellbound. And while I love my life and my family, it was so nice to spend 45 minutes catching a glimpse of the me that could/would/should have been. And to know that for her, this album feels like home.
SJ Lebowski
50 Foot Pop Queenie
Being asked to write my comments on a record by the McGarrigle sisters comes with a certain level of trepidation. I am not sure I am allowed to talk about them. Listen, Off Your Radar, do you realize what I am putting at risk here? As a native Canadian, there is nothing about what my parents referred to as simply "The McGarrigles" that is off my particular radar. "The Log Driver's Waltz" was one of the first songs I heard, "birling down and down the white waters" of the birth canal. Between 1973 and 2010, if there was a folk festival of note anywhere in the country, there's a good chance The McGarrigles were involved. If they weren't, someone within the Wainwright clan definitely was. Maybe I am exaggerating a little, but if nobody was directly involved then someone was definitely covering something from their catalog. There is nothing should say about any of the songs on Dancer With Bruised Knees outside of acknowledging their place in my country's national musical canon right up there with Neil Young's Harvest Moon, Joni Mitchell's A Case Of You, and everything by the late Gord Downie. The fact that they're listed as "Kate & Annie" actually came as a complete surprise to me. So please forgive me if I offer up the most trite and careful of recommendations as my countryfolk read suspiciously. The songs herein are steeped with a Canadian aesthetic that quite literally spans internal cultural lines within our provincial boarders from east to west. It brings together disparate flavours of folk music ranging from the east coast nautical to the French-Canadian melodies and even a more universal west-coast style of classic pop. Complex and beautiful, melodic and bird-like in their whimsy, Dancer with Bruised Knees will bring you one step closer to a successful immigration application. You're welcome!
The McGarriagle sisters' style of folk rock is innocent, pure, and approachable enough that its overall sonic character wasn't anything jarringly unfamiliar, despite my not knowing Dancer With Bruised Knees prior to now. What was interesting to read whilst listening to the singable melodic jaunts on piano, was that Kate McGarrigle, rest her soul (deceased 2010), was married to one Loudon Wainwright III. That last name not being quite so common, I thought, "Wait, is there some connection to Rufus Wainwright?" Lo and behold, Rufus Wainwright is the child of McGarrigle and Loudon Wainwright III. It's interesting to me that this tiny factoid remained a low key piece of information, as most people refer to Rufus with just his father's last name and not that of both his parents, even though his full name includes both. Imagine how much more familiarity there would be for the McGarrigle sisters — the amount of curious carry over listeners that would want to hear the music of Rufus Wainwright's mother and his aunt. Anyway, I digress. Dancer With Bruised Knees is nice and easy to digest when the song's unfold, even those which are written in French. "Naufragée du tendre," for example, works with Anna McGarrigle's delivery of the occasionally pointed French pronunciations, resulting in emphasized downbeats or moments in the melody when a phrase might musically resolve. It makes any linguistic barrier feel less exclusive, as your ear has something non-verbal to pick up on and run with. Isn't the power of music great like that? It's also pleasantly interesting to hear slight note twirls, swinging syncopated rhythms, and bends of notes in songs, on parts like the guitar or even the organ. While completely befitting of a folk rock aesthetic, when combined with something like the distinctive hum of a harmonica ("Hommage à Grungie"), the result leads to thoughts of a classic blues aesthetic and goes to show how shrewdly the McGarrigle sisters revolved between neat and traditional French folk and a looser, African-American, southern vibe in their writing. Hearing regionally born styles thrive outside of their originating geographic areas is always a fun exercise in noticing global trends in writing and for a duo that performed, and thrived all the way up to Kate McGarrigle's untimely passing, with more than a dozen studio albums across several decades under their belts, it's fascinating that the nuanced creativity on Dancer With Bruised Knees is just the beginning of what the sisters would be inspired by for years to come.
Though rooted in familiar folk settings, it's the unique approach to songwriting that makes this record marvelous.
Breaking from the norm, I didn't do any research before or during the initial listen of Dancer With Bruised Knees. I wanted to go in completely blind, just for a change of pace. By the end, I was certain the duo was from the South. Even in the face of French-language songs and a slightly northern accent of both Kate and Anna, I was convinced of it. Yeah, no… they're from Quebec. (The polite and stately nature of the proceedings should've been a dead giveaway by itself.) So, armed with that knowledge, I began to wonder if "Southern Boys" was meant to be satire or was the duo playing it straight? After a half dozen listens, I still wasn't sure. To be clear, I don't think either one makes the song more enjoyable than the other, nor does it speak to the song's quality. I am simply not entirely certain which it is. And I believe the reason why I can't decide is because of the lines, "Their breath in your ear is as soft as the cotton / Whether they're wooing or whispering the latest racist joke." You see, there are two things going on here. First, there's an implicit generalization of racist tendencies in the South. OK, fine. It wasn't the first time we heard it as a people in 1977, and I don't imagine that'll change anytime soon. (Also: How timely!) And second, while the delivery doesn't outright condone it, it doesn't exactly condemn it either. Instead, the delivery suggests it as a statement of fact, and there's more than a hint of attraction as well. So we're back to whether or not this is satire. Even after writing this as a means to work through my confusion, I'm still not sure. Short of asking Anna — because I can't ask Kate — I don't know that I'll ever fully be certain one way or the other. But I will remain fascinated by it for a long time to come.
Softly furred with maroon velvet, trimmed in gold braid, I couldn't stop myself. Running my index finger back and forth along its grain, I ignored the slitted glare from my father, helpless against that softness. In the home of an old friend, maybe, or old business associate, I wasn't sure, just that this was someone from my father's heavily shrouded past, the one he kept from us to this very day, and as such I knew I should be on my best manners. The wife, noticing my helplessness, creased her papery, round cheeks into a smile and insisted I walk away with it. The heart-shaped box that had once held chocolates became a hiding place for my prized possessions, which always held a faint aroma of the sweets thereafter. Dancer With Bruised Knees similarly holds delightful music in an unassuming package. Laced with a drama and rawness of emotion, Kate and Anna McGarrigle open up no matter the subject, ranging all over their lives to offer a parcel of songs that are at time bouncy, wistful, melodramatic, and sad. Welcome are the musical elements of the occasional pan flute, fiddle, and harmonica that bring me both south and to France. In the same way the lack of poise from the dancer on the cover doesn't negate her elegance, doesn't take away from her appeal, neither does the lack of cohesion negate the charm of this album.
Though one-half has passed, their daring musical spirit lives, with this record standing particularly tall amongst their rich discography.
I don't know exactly why, but I'm a big fan of Carole King. Sure, I can rationalize that "good music is good music," but it's difficult for me to be specific about it. I think it's her bravery that I admire most. She's unafraid to try new things, incorporate unorthodox styles and techniques, and that ultimately keeps us guessing. I felt a strange comfort while listening to Dancer With Bruised Knees. It took me a few tracks to realize it, but I felt so at home because this album plays very much like my favorite Carole King records (my favorite of which is probably Fantasy, by the way). Obviously the vocal stylings are vastly different. What I'm referring to is something buried in the aesthetics of the record as a whole. The opening tracks "Dancer With Bruised Knees," "Southern Boys," and "No Biscuit Blues" all give me the feeling of being in an old-timey saloon — like some old cowboy is going to accost me for my "Nee-Kay" sneakers a la Back To The Future III. And then there are the French tracks, which put me into soundtrack mode at the drop of a hat. I think I've mentioned this before on OYR, but foreign language tracks always make me visualize what's going on to compensate for the sensory deprivation of not being able to understand the lyrics — it's very cinematic. And that, I think, is a perfect way to sum up this record: it's a completely cohesive effort that actually plays like a score. Kate & Anna take us to different places, and perhaps times, by constantly changing the musical scenery through their imaginative compositions.
It really doesn't matter what you, I, or your best friend's opinionated uncle thinks about this record. The sheer fact of its existence — and that of its more assured predecessor, the self-titled debut — is a window into a different time. A time when a duo of quirky singer/songwriters from Canada could trampoline off of the success of one song — "Heart Like A Wheel" — when it gets covered by a singer — Linda Ronstadt — well on her way to global superstardom. That was enough to propel these ladies into a major label deal with Warner Brothers, who then lavished them with studio time attended upon by Joe Boyd and some of the greatest musicians alive — Steve Gadd, Grady Tate, and Dave Mattacks all laid down drum tracks here — and let them do whatever they want to do. What they wanted to do was put humor, French-Canadian folk, Randy Newman-esque social commentary, New Orleans pastiche, and art songs together on an album, not exactly aiming for the Billboard 100. And it didn't land there, although the magazine did include it as one of the pop albums on a list called "Billboard's Recommended LPs" in March, 1977. Just another fact that makes Dancer With Bruised Knees a window into another time, not necessarily a better or worse time, just very different. And listening to it has given me a new opportunity to contemplate in just how many ways time and tide has traveled since then.
Being a fan(atic) of The Roches, I can't help but notice similarities between their idiosyncratic approach to songwriting and the McGarrigle sister's own peculiar spin. (I am aware of the Loudon Wainwright connection between the two acts, but that was definitely not a thought that ever popped up in my head while listening to this sprawling sonic treasure.) Pair this record with The Roches' best — their self-titled 1979 record that we covered back in Issue #51 — and you might reach a different conclusions. Matched up together, you'll notice that the differences outnumber the similarities. Where The Roches rely on fluffy wit bolstered by glorious harmonies, the McGarrigle sisters excel on the sheer density of their work with a multi-lingual reach and compositions that feature errant melodic thoughts and layered brilliance. Neither is inherently better than the other — each offer their own musical quirks differently, and it's up to the listener to find their own common ground in the writing. And that's where the appeal of this savvy record came into full view. The Roches speak my own language… that is my musical language. They have wit, they have harmony, and they have resonance, all of which compels me to keep listening day in and day out. The McGarrigle's speak a different language for sure, but as I listen more and more, training my ear to learn their own language, I can't help but feel they are saying the same things with different words. Harmony is there, it's just not in the voices like The Roches, rather in the words, poetic and smooth like the idyllic early relationship ode of "Walking Song," which reads like a companion piece to the classic Big Star track "Thirteen." Wit is found then within the songwriting structures — where The Roches take a straight-forward approach and inflate it, the McGarrigle's seem to contort and twist it to keep the listener guessing, even if their own lyrical approach is as straight-forward as any folk fan could hope for. And then the resonance — well, that's one thing they both nail the same way. Lighthearted messages are given air by their use of the studio space ("No Biscuit Blues"), but they are beyond capable of switching to more weighty material like the late album track ("Kitty Come Home"), with a choral vocal arrangement that brings me back around to The Roches. I never much mastered learning a foreign language — probably my fault for taking Latin in middle and high school — but that doesn't seem to matter much here. The McGarrigle's offer up music with a robust core of musicality and passion and songwriting full of that will always translate easily into any language you speak.
Mother Earth's Plantasia by Mort Garson
Chosen By Guest Contributor Laura Stevenson
Contributors: Laura Burroughs, Erin Calvert, Kellen "J. Clyde" Ford, Dustin Gates, Kira Grunenberg, Davy Jones, Chelsea Kostrey, Steve Lampiris, SJ Lebowski, David Munro, Drew Necci, Jeremy Shatan, & Darryl Wright