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(Review) Watch the Sky
Watch the Sky by Kristen Hubbard Publication Date: April 7th, 2015 Pages: 272 (Hardcover) Genre: Middle Grade/Young Adult Fiction My Goodreads Rating: 3 Stars
The signs are everywhere, Jory's stepfather, Caleb, says. Red leaves in the springtime. Pages torn from a library book. All the fish in the aquarium facing the same way. A cracked egg with twin yolks. Everywhere and anywhere. And because of them Jory's life is far from ordinary. He must follow a very specific set of rules: don't trust anyone outside the family, have your works at the ready just in case, and always, always watch out for the signs. The end is coming, and they must be prepared.
School is Jory's only escape from Caleb's tight grasp, and with the help of new friends Jory begins to explore a world beyond his family's farm. As Jory's friendships grow, Caleb notifies Jory's mother and siblings that the time has come for final preparations.
They begin an exhausting schedule…
Top Ten Tuesday (Book Nerds)
It's time for another Top Ten Tuesday, a weekly feature brought to you by The Broke and the Bookish! This week's topic is: Ten Characters Who Are Fellow Book Nerds.
Hermione Granger is not only a fierce reader, but she's also a badass witch. Who else can keep Harry and Ron in line?
Liesel Meminger loves books so much she steals them.
I'm not very far through this one, but I identify the most with Jo March.
Colin Singleton reads the phone book for fun.
Madelineloves to read. But she's also stuck in her room because of a rare disease that makes her allergic to the world.
As a demigod Annabeth Chasesuffers from dyslexia, but she's a daughter of Athena so the more knowledge the better.
Atticus Finch. (I've yet to open my copy of Go Set a Watchman.)
Okay, technically Rory Gilmoreisn't a book character but her love for reading inspires us all.
I love Hazel Grace's passion about her favorite book.
And lastly:
Everyone thought Belle was weird because she …
(Review) A Court of Thorns and Roses
A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas Publication Date: May 5th, 2015 Pages: 432 (Kindle) Genre: Fantasy My Goodreads Rating: 5 Stars
When nineteen-year-old huntress Feyre kills a wolf in the woods, a beast-like creature arrives to demand retribution for it. Dragged to a treacherous magical land she only knows about from legends, Feyre discovers that her captor is not an animal, but Tamlin—one of the lethal, immortal faeries who once ruled their world.
As she dwells on his estate, her feelings for Tamlin transform from icy hostility into a fiery passion that burns through every lie and warning she's been told about the beautiful, dangerous world of the Fae. But an ancient, wicked shadow grows over the faerie lands, and Feyre must find a way to stop it . . . or doom Tamlin—and his world—forever.
Perfect for fans of Kristin Cashore and George R. R. Martin, this first book in a sexy and action-packed new series is impossible to put down.
Okay, okay,…
(Review) The Queen of Bright and Shiny Things
The Queen of Bright and Shiny Things by Ann Aguirre Publication Date: April 7th, 2015 Pages: 328 (Kindle) Genre: Young Adult My Goodreads Rating: 5 Stars
Sage Czinski is trying really hard to be perfect. If she manages it, people won't peer beyond the surface, or ask hard questions about her past. She's learned to substitute causes for relationships, and it's working just fine… until Shane Cavendish strolls into her math class. He's a little antisocial, a lot beautiful, and everything she never knew she always wanted.
Shane Cavendish just wants to be left alone to play guitar and work on his music. He's got heartbreak and loneliness in his rearview mirror, and this new school represents his last chance. He doesn't expect to be happy; he only wants to graduate and move on. He never counted on a girl like Sage.
But love doesn't mend all broken things, and sometimes life has to fall apart before it can be put back together again…
My Review: Wow, this book. I went on a litt…
(Review) The Sky is Everywhere
The Sky is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson Publication Date: 2011 Pages: 277 (Paperback) Genre: Young Adult My Goodreads Rating: 3.5 Stars
Goodreads Synopsis: Seventeen-year-old Lennie Walker, bookworm and band geek, plays second clarinet and spends her time tucked safely and happily in the shadow of her fiery older sister, Bailey. But when Bailey dies abruptly, Lennie is catapulted to center stage of her own life - and, despite her nonexistent history with boys, suddenly finds herself struggling to balance two. Toby was Bailey's boyfriend; his grief mirrors Lennie's own. Joe is the new boy in town, a transplant from Paris whose nearly magical grin is matched only by his musical talent. For Lennie, they're the sun and the moon; one boy takes her out of her sorrow, the other comforts her in it. But just like their celestial counterparts, they can't collide without the whole wide world exploding.
This remarkable debut is perfect for fans of Sarah Dessen, Deb Caletti, and Frances…
Top Ten Tuesday (Diverse Books)
Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature from The Broke and the Bookish! This week's topic is Ten Books The Celebrate Diversity/Diverse Characters. Below are some of my favorites that I've read.
This is a great story about familial relationships and how we keep things from those we love. The backstory is pretty deep (telling about the family's Chinese American heritage), even though most of the book revolves around Lydia's death. It's interesting to see how the family ends up where they are.
I originally picked this one up because I was reading my way through John Green, but it really helped steer me toward David Levithan's work. I loved both of the Will Graysons in this book even though they were complete opposites in so many ways. And, of course, there's Tiny Cooper.
I'm going to have to admit to falling in love with this cover, buying the book, and not even knowing what it was about. I loved the way that Emi grew up in this story and it was fun to watch …
(Review) All the Bright Places
All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven Publication Date: January 6, 2015 Pages:388 (Hardcover) Genre: Young Adult My Goodreads Rating: 3.5 Stars
Goodreads Synopsis: Theodore Finch is fascinated by death, and he constantly thinks of ways he might kill himself. But each time, something good, no matter how small, stops him.
Violet Markey lives for the future, counting the days until graduation, when she can escape her Indiana town and her aching grief in the wake of her sister's recent death.
When Finch and Violet meet on the ledge of the bell tower at school, it's unclear who saves whom. And when they pair up on a project to discover the "natural wonders" of their state, both Finch and Violet make more important discoveries: It's only with Violet that Finch can be himself—a weird, funny, live-out-loud guy who's not such a freak after all. And it's only with Finch that Violet can forget to count away the days and start living them. But as Violet's world grows, Finch's begins to shrink.
(Review) Emmy & Oliver
Emmy & Oliver by Robin Benway Publication Date: June 23, 2015 Pages: 352 (Hardcover) Genre: Young Adult My Goodreads Rating: 5 Stars
Emmy just wants to be in charge of her own life.
She wants to stay out late, surf her favorite beach—go anywhere without her parents' relentless worrying. But Emmy's parents can't seem to let her grow up—not since the day Oliver disappeared.
Oliver needs a moment to figure out his heart.
He'd thought, all these years, that his dad was the good guy. He never knew that it was his father who kidnapped him and kept him on the run. Discovering it, and finding himself returned to his old hometown, all at once, has his heart racing and his thoughts swirling.
Emmy and Oliver were going to be best friends forever, or maybe even more, before their futures were ripped apart. In Emmy's soul, despite the space and time between them, their connection has never been severed. But is their story still written in the stars? Or are their hearts like t…
Top Ten Tuesday (Last Ten Books...)
Yay, another Top Ten Tuesday a weekly post brought to you by The Broke and the Bookish!
This week's (July 14th) topic is: Last Ten Books That Came Into My Possession. So, here we go.
(All books linked to Goodreads, by the way.)
NetGalley Books:
I was lucky enough to get this ARC from NetGalley and it is amazing. You can read my review on it here.
Library Books:
This was a great read!
I loved I'll Give You the Sun and I can't wait to open this one up!
Purchased Books:
I'm reading this one with my women's group. It's a little different than what I normally read. :P
I have a thing for Captain America. *shrugs*
Reviews are already coming in for this one. I'm excited to read it, regardless of what I've seen already. To Kill a Mockingbird will always be one of my favorites.
(Review) My Sister's Secret
My Sister's Secret by Tracy Buchanan Expected Publication Date: July 21, 2015 Pages: 400 (Kindle Edition) Genre: Adult Fiction My Goodreads Rating: 5 Stars
Everything you've built your life on is a lie.
Willow's memories of her parents are sun-drenched and full of smiles, love and laughter. But a mysterious invitation to a photographic exhibition exposes a secret that's been buried since a tragic accident years ago.
Willow is forced to question everything she knew about Charity, her late mother, and Hope, the aunt she's lived with since she was a child.
How was the enigmatic photographer connected to Willow's parents? Why will Hope not break her silence?
Willow cannot move forward in her life without answers. But who can she really trust? Because no one has been telling the truth for a very long time.
ADDICTIVE, GRIPPING and EMOTIONALLY POWERFUL, this is the perfect read for your summer holiday escape.
My Review: Wow, this book was a roller-coaster of emotions. Th…


The BOS Archive and Museum Committee would like to build up a central electronic record of contemporary and historic records of clinical cases and techniques. Records of many techniques and appliances may be lost as members retire and discard old records.
The BOS does not have the resources to collect full sets of physical records. An electronic collection is easier to store and will be useful both from an historic perspective and also for educational reasons. The cases should have consent to be used in this way.
A. Full face (at rest and smiling).
C. Any other relevant views e.g. appliances.
D. All intra-oral views should be: anterior view, plus left and right buccal views of the teeth in occlusion.
A. Lateral skull tracings before and at relevant stages during the course of thetreatment.
B. Radiographs thought necessary to diagnose any significant changes.
A. Anterior view in occlusion.
B. Left and right buccal segment views in occlusion.
C. Upper and lower occlusal surface views.
The patient's name and address should be omitted from the records and relevant consent gained.


Lye is an ethnically mixed community in which different parts of the community often live parallel lives. This is not good for our long term stability as a community. Groups of men and women from the church have been meeting with groups local Muslims on a regular basis. We have been meeting for over ten years and have built up some strong relationships. We are unafraid to acknowledge our differences and do not hide the fact that both Christians and Muslims belong to missionary faiths.


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Tag Archives: Science
Surfing the Dimensions
Can you describe this in three dimensions? Of course not. Fundamentally, the notion that "reality" is three-dimensional (or four-dimensional, if you include the concept of time) is based on a mathematical depiction of a box, but it doesn't even describe what kind of box, its color, smell, materials, or anything beyond spatial measurements.
Nothing in nature can be described in three dimensions, yet mathematical rigidity limits our minds to its man-made constructs and inhibits understanding of the "essences" of physical reality.
Albert Einstein could never accept quantum physics, because he believed science should be able to predict with certainty. That a quantum particle could defy attempts to predict its position and momentum simultaneously offended him deeply, yet probabilities rather than certainties make for an infinitely creative universe with multi-dimensional possible futures.
A desire to know "the" future, to predict or control it, has attended man's evolution since time immemorial. When there were no instruments except the five known senses for guidance, man looked to the stars and other natural phenomenon for understanding. Whether a god or gods created man or whether man created his gods remains a subject of debate, but no one argues about the cycles of the sun, moon, and visible planets. In earlier times, those who could predict eclipses and the like were believed to have godly powers.
In modern times, we don't think of ourselves as superstitious, yet predictions abound, and they have the power to influence large groups of people. But just as you can only predict an electron's probable location at any given time, you can only predict probable events based on current trends and the beliefs that contribute to them. A study of astrology shows how futile predictions are, because there are so many factors influencing any given moment.
A horoscope is nothing more or less than a symbolic map of a moment in a specific place and time. It is completely impersonal, but an individual's horoscope, cast for the place and time of birth, describes the potentialities of the moment itself, not of the person incarnated at that time, although that person may manifest some or many of the potentialities indicated in the chart.
The so-called "scientific mind" does not accept anything it can't measure and "prove" by "objective" criteria, meaning it meets certain "laws" of nature. It's important to remember these are not necessarily nature's "laws" but man's "laws" imposed on nature through mathematics. The ancient Greeks liked symmetry, so conceived of a symmetrical universe, but the cycles of time defy symmetry. Calendars reflect the difficulty of fitting the solar system into mathematical laws. The earth refuses to orbit the sun in exactly 365 days but must take a quarter day extra to make its ellipse (not a circle) complete. The lunar day is a mathematically inconvenient 24 hours and 50 minutes. In short, it's a wobbly universe, not predictable, but in terms of the human time frame, stable enough.
Science doesn't have the instruments to detect subtle fields or the "essences" of things. It approaches the "essence" idea with its relatively recent discovery of the electromagnetic spectrum, of which light is the most obvious manifestation. Astrology and the loose assortment of "psychic" phenomena, operate like electromagnetic energy, on the principle of vibrational patterns or frequencies. The Oriental concept of qi, or "life force," which permeates everything, may approach this idea of energy patterns that are as yet beyond the scope of human instrumentation.
Anyone fully indoctrinated into modern "scientific" thinking might be justifiably skeptical of the claim that there are energy fields outside scientific measurement. Such people might scoff at the idea that human thought has the power to influence "the" future, yet science has begun to approach that threshold with quantum physics. That the experimenter influences the experiment–and is necessarily a subjective part of the experiment–shatters the illusion that true objectivity is possible.
Attempts to predict "the" future are also attempts to control "the" future, and those who predict catastrophe become invested in the futures they predict. They thus take subtle steps to bring about the future they fear, even though it may be disastrous.
It becomes a question of free will and the notion that you can choose what you think about. Those who believe in pre-destination , that they are fixed on a path and have no choice but to follow it, do not understand the infinite variations possible within every moment in time.
This entry was posted in Philosophy, Uncategorized and tagged astrology, chi, mathematics, predictions, psychic energy, qi, quantum physics, Science, three-dimensional reality, time on September 13, 2019 by katharineotto.
Addiction to Prediction
When you don't have a television, friends, or family, you have lots of time to read. At least I do, and lately, I've been reading about science and philosophy.
I've been trying to understand from a scientific point of view the apparently universal addiction to predictions. Albert Einstein believed it is the goal of science to predict, as did Isaac Newton. They believed the laws of the universe could be apprehended and codified mathematically. This was the basis of Einstein's discomfort with quantum physics. That events could not be definitely predicted–only their relative probabilities–led him to insist the theory was "incomplete."
It could be said the future is incomplete, too, that science and the future will never be finished. The ancients (and moderns) have a similar argument about God. If God is perfect, the mover that doesn't move, as Aristotle believed, or if God is done, complete, finished, and all life is moving toward that ideal, it does imply an end point.
It intrigues me that science has taken on the soothsayer's cloak, seemingly without awareness that this is the stuff of superstition and mythology. What's this preoccupation with the future? Is the present not good enough?
Quantum mechanics takes a leap by challenging the assumption of predictability. It also challenges the mechanistic tradition that ousted God or other life force from the cosmos. It supports my contention that there is no objective reality standing apart and uninvolved. The experiment is a creation of the experimenter.
The most significant distinction, here, to me, is that quantum mechanics turns conventional views of science's predictive aspirations upside down. The cosmos is unpredictable. We are floating in an ocean of probabilities punctuated with unlikely events.
We can predict with relative certainty that all our bodies are going to die, but no one can predict how or when. Those who commit suicide may on some level want to decide the method and timing. Those who "live dangerously" increase the probability that the how and when will occur dramatically and sooner rather than later.
Psychologically, the admission by scientists and mathematicians that life is unpredictable, that nature, the universe, and even electrons pulsate to their own rhythms–despite the rules mankind wants to impose on them–rattles the cages of the concrete thinkers who believe reality consists of rules. It's possible that the theologically inclined and the philosophers are more mentally nimble with respect to probabilities, possibilities, and the unexpected. The people who believe miracles are possible, that prayer works, that all is not what it seems, might delight in the idea of a probable universe of infinite variability.
It seems science has painted itself into a corner by creating a construct that has little relevance to life. Will Durant, in The Story of Philosophy, looks to Francis Bacon–who wanted to compile all human knowledge and saw science as the guiding light of the future–as a kind of messenger. Durant praises Bacon's vision but notes Bacon was not familiar with the scientists of his own time, like Kepler and Harvey. His enthusiasm was ideological, not practical. But Durant also suggests the idea of world rule by scientists instead of politicians is laudable. According to me, Durant is idealistic himself. Scientists in politics become politicians, as indicated by the current controversy over global warming or "climate change." According to the media-digested and regurgitated "statistics" or "evidence," scientists speak with one voice. Dissenters are ignored, discredited, or otherwise cast into the dustbin of irrational heretics.
My point, which I keep skirting, is that today's science is not my version of "science," so maybe I should respect Socrates' insistence on strict definitions. In our world, scientists as a group are accorded the awe and respect formerly reserved for gods, but who can define what "science" or "a scientist" is?
The Latin root for "science," is "sciere," or "to know," so it presumes nothing about forecasts. Aristotle made observations and used inductive reasoning to synthesize what he observed into an organized framework.
My dictionary says science is "knowledge obtained by study and practice." It also refers to systematized knowledge and classification. By that definition, any organized body of knowledge could be a "science." The dictionary refers to the "science of boxing."
Also by that definition, anyone who studies and uses a certain skill or set of skills can call himself a scientist. The science of carpentry, the science of advertising, and of course, political science. The "scientific method" need not apply.
My definition starts with the scientific method, which uses deductive reasoning to establish a hypothesis and seek evidence pro and con. To establish cause and effect in a controlled experiment, the variables must be artificially reduced to one. There is a "study" group and a "control" group, with the numbers in each group great enough to produce statistically significant differences between the groups, should differences exist. So "scientific research," at least in modern terms, only seeks to predict probabilities, like quantum physics does.
I have oft-expressed doubts about whether the scientific method is valid for obtaining knowledge that can be generalized outside the experiment, but this is the method used in medical research, at least. The idea of causation, the motivation to prove or disprove a hypothesis, and the factors that might affect the outcome are arbitrarily chosen.
Does any effect have a single cause? Here I have perhaps a broader view than most, yet I'm subject to "because" thinking, myself. I figure it's so much a part of traditional Western thought processes that many are not even aware of its subliminal effect on how we structure reality. As I read the ideas of philosophers through time, I see they, too, sought causes for the effects they observed. This correlated with beliefs in God, or nature worship, or superstitions and mythology. The idea of an unseen hand directing the forces of nature and thereby life on earth, reveals the human desire to understand.
Quantum mechanics and the Oriental pattern-based approach to understanding shakes the cause-and-effect pedestal. It no longer reigns absolute in a world in which correlations are given at least as much intellectual weight as presumed causes.
I wonder about such taken-for-granted notions as the speed of light. How do they know it travels at 186,000 miles/second? Who discovered that and how was it proved? How does anyone know that's the absolute speed limit of the cosmos?
It's hard to know where hypothesis or mathematical conjecture ends and proof or answers begin. So much is assumed to be true, until it no longer is, like the world is flat or evolution is a fact.
Are concepts of space and time even legitimate when considering the scope of the universe? I wonder if any answer will satisfy the questioners. Aren't answers just the flip sides of the next questions, or series of questions?
Another serious limitation of the scientific method, especially as it's applied to natural phenomena or human activity, is that you can't know what might have been. There are no alternative scenarios with which to judge and compare. This is my dilemma with historical trends and concepts like man-made climate change.
Ex-post facto justification for historical events—like dropping atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan—rely on the propaganda generated by "our side" about what might have happened instead. "The Japanese would never have capitulated," or "We saved thousands of American lives" are excuses I've heard numerous times. Fact is, nobody knows what might have happened. It is not given to us to know the results of unrealized action.
The disconnect between science and life also bugs me. Thomas Hobbes tried to apply scientific principles to human behavior for a model of government. I suppose the "behavioral sciences" also strive to fit human behavior into scientific models. This seems backwards. The deductive method tries to exclude too much and risks being blind-sided by factors it chooses not to see.
My study of astrology made me wary of predictions long ago. People want and crave predictions, but "good" or "bad" forecasts both put binders on the future and restrict imagination regarding alternative possibilities. "Science" might be more useful to humanity by broadcasting its knowledge of the present and leaving predictions to the fortune tellers.
This entry was posted in Philosophy, Science, Uncategorized and tagged Einstein, philosophy, predictions, Science, Socrates on April 10, 2019 by katharineotto.
Global Warmists and Thought Forms
The global warmists are making summer last too long. Today, on September 29, a week after the autumnal equinox, the temperature at my house is over 90 degrees Fahrenheit.
Now the "scientists" of the world–in this latest religion of abstractions that supposedly controls the cosmos–agree that man is responsible for "climate change," and we must do something about it. Even the psychiatric establishment has linked arms with the "scientists" to advocate for a "call to action," "educational initiatives," "alliances with other organizations," "leadership," "evidence-based advances," "special responsibility," and "radical measures" to spread the word that climate change poses a threat to public health, including mental health," according to the September 7 issue of Psychiatric News.
Well, the climate changes every day and every minute, and each square centimeter of the earth has a different climate. This could be proven by sticking a thermometer in the ground or hanging it in a tree or dunking it in an ocean. Where in this scenario is the climate not changing? This simplistic grasp of science is too easy for the "climate scientists" to comprehend.
The fundamental precepts of modern "science" require hypotheses that can be tested, according to the "scientific method." This method requires inclusion of a "control group," which is identical to the test group but without the experimental intervention. It also requires that the experiment must reduce variables to one, so that the test is high in selectivity and specificity. That is, the test must measure what you want to measure (selectivity) and only that variable (specificity).
The notion that the climate is changing and that man is the cause, contains two hypotheses, neither of which is testable under the scientific method. This makes it "political science," which employs its own methods.
It is at least as valid for me to claim the global warmists are extending summer temperatures through misguided thought forms. I'm not the first or only person to claim man can and does influence the weather through thought. This was the province of the shaman in some tribal cultures, and the premise behind Native American rain dances, and of mystics and seers around the world.
The idea of "thought forms" was popularized in the book Thought Forms: A Record of Clairvoyant Investigation by Annie Besant and CW Leadbetter, of the Theosophical Society, in 1901. The book asserted that people's thoughts, experiences, emotions, and music have an ethereal substance that can be perceived by the psychically attuned. The book contained paintings of thoughts related to devotion and devotion sacrifice, three types of anger, three types of love (undirected, directed, and grasping) and jealousy, intellect and ambition. The authors claimed that the quality of a person's thought influences his life experience and can affect other people. The book had a strong influence on modern art and literature. Kandinsky, Yeats, TS Eliot, Malevich and Mondrain, especially, were charmed by Theosophy. Wikipedia notes that Annie Besant and CW Leadbetter played a pivotal role in shaping the globalized culture of East-West mysticism and rationalism, sound and sight.
While the book refers specifically to individual thought forms, I've also read and believe there are group thought forms, too, akin to what psychiatrist Carl Jung called "archetypes," "the collective unconscious," or universal symbols. It could be argued that the terms "most people" or "society," or even "we" refer to a type of mass mind thought form, the generally accepted notion of what humanity as a whole is like, what it believes, or how it thinks. Perhaps television or the mass media reflect the mass mind thought form and its assumptions.
It's never clear how those who refer to "most people" arrive at their characterizations. I know of no one who has interviewed "most people," yet these terms slide easily off lips and are just as easily accepted. Who are these nameless, faceless, creatures so easily packaged into stereotypes such as "liberal," "conservative," "black," "white," and all the labels "we" use to lump individuals together in so much featureless protoplasm?
The "scientists" only acknowledge what they can perceive with the five senses they admit to, or with sense-extenders, like microscopes or spectroscopy. They have yet to prove life exists, or that the mind exists, and they have yet to prove the universe has only three dimensions.
If the mind exists, I would dearly love to see the "climate scientists" use theirs to bring fall weather to my back yard.
This entry was posted in Satire/Humor, Science, Uncategorized and tagged annie besant, climate change, cw leadbetter, global warming, Science, scientific method, thought forms on September 29, 2018 by katharineotto.
Masochists, Martyrs, and Victims
I've been going through old files of articles and clippings, trying to simplify my life. While younger people talk about productivity and greed, I look at the yellowed and dusty results of having produced and saved too much that has nowhere to go, except the trash. The exercise is gratifying and humbling, because I used to know and care about many more things than I do now. There are remnants of lost causes, one of which was my career.
I re-read 'The Masochistic Personality," by Stuart S. Asch, a psychiatrist who claims a difference between the sexual masochist and the personality type. The former gets his kicks by being dominated and abused by a certain type of person. The personality type is not specifically sexual but courts disappointment or humiliation. The term is derived from Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, a 19th century Austrian novelist who wrote about sexual gratification from self-inflicted pain. Some psychiatrists believe self-mutilation is also one of the traits.
The article focuses on the personality type, which has been dropped from the official list of psychiatric diagnoses, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-V), although the term retains historical and descriptive usefulness. Asch says masochists desperately seek approval and love. The masochist is strongly self-critical, having introjected an abusing authority figure who approves of self-punishment for forbidden sexual or aggressive thoughts or behavior. Masochists will abase themselves repeatedly or in ever more humiliating gestures to obtain the approval or extract guilt from the unloving, rejecting love object. They tend to blame fate for their repeated failures.
Asch mentions animals, who apparently develop more intense bonds to an adult that inflicts pain in early life. Indeed, in human beings, there seems to be a pattern of stronger attachment to an abusing parent. Genetic theories have contributed.
Asch doesn't discuss sadism, with that term ascribed to the Marquis de Sade, who wrote in the 18th century about people who experienced sexual pleasure by inflicting pain on others. Sigmund Freud attributed this to fear of castration, which leads the sadist to act out his fear on others. In my view, masochists and sadists need each other, and each carries traits of the other, like two sides of a coin. The metal that binds them together is blame.
The coin of blame buys religions, lawyers, governments, soldiers and toys. Everything from religion to law to parenting holds self-sacrifice as a noble standard, in the name of loyalty, duty, or spiritual progress. Society at large reinforces the sado-masochistic power struggles that have become the "norm" for Western beliefs. To falter brings guilt and, often, punishment. The ominous "they" are blamed for universal problems that "we" feed into without acknowledging "our" contributions.
I read with the distance of time and recuperation from the world of medicine. There is such rigid judgmentalism built into the discipline that patients become guilty just by being patients. I can already hear the screams of protest from my former "colleagues," who are masochists for putting up with this arbitrary system of classification known as the DSM-V and who collude with such an inhumane approach in the name of scientific objectivity.
Moreover, psychiatry as a discipline errs by not addressing the generalized ills built into the national psyche. For psychiatrists as a group to diagnose and presume to treat the individual effects of PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder), for instance, without addressing the causes of PTSD—primarily war–is abhorrent. To attempt or pretend to treat symptoms of substance abuse or attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), or even depression, without delving into society's contribution to the problems is, to me, an abdication of responsibility that puts the profession to shame.
What does this have to do with masochism? Maybe nothing, except that by taking such a narrow view, the institution of medicine begs to be punished, as though it knows it's wrong but will continue unchecked until something or someone puts a stop to it.
The victim role is the hardest to give up. It's easy to blame someone else when things don't work out. The masochist holds grudges and denies his role in his own trajectory. He will find or create a controlling sadist to manage his life for him. Power struggles ensue, with each blaming the other when things go wrong. Unfortunately, healthier choices are overlooked in this struggle, one that erodes self-respect and mutual trust.
Drug use going up? Suicide rates rising? All manner of psychiatric and physical illnesses swelling like a pregnancy? Violence increasing? Fear and anger seeking catalysts to ignite them into something cataclysmic and definitive? Look for someone and possibly many people or groups to blame.
A retrospective analysis of "The Masochistic Personality" reveals more about psychiatry's limitations than its strengths in understanding human nature. Perhaps psychiatry's move from early, descriptive interpretations to the codified DSM, its increasing reliance on medications, technology, and "scientific," measurable results, under the pretext of objectivity, renders it less human and compassionate, and thus less relevant to real life.
From the beginning of my studies, I noted the preoccupation with pathology. What a difference from astrology, which shows the dynamic interplay of strengths, weaknesses, and how perception often determines the difference. Oriental belief in qi gives a similar picture of dynamic patterns, with a concentration on health maintenance.
In contrast, the Western love affair with trouble, under the guise of reason, logic, sequential, and binary thinking, that shows in its approach to medicine, is like putting blinders on to see only a narrow range of information and to deny everything outside the limited field.
No one else attempts to diagnose society at large, but I see unsettling correlations between Freud's anal stage of psychosexual development and the current sado-masochistic world we live in. Have Americans been unable to mature beyond the "terrible twos," the age at which Freud claimed toddlers learn sphincter control and appropriate use of power? Successful negotiation of this stage leads to good boundaries, healthy respect for self and others, and the ability to tolerate a degree of frustration. Shame and doubt mark those who fail at this task. They are prone to power struggles with internal and external authority figures throughout life.
A culture carries its own karma. I don't understand the blame game. I don't blame anyone or anything for what we have created, because blame only perpetuates the problem, at the expense of solving the problem. Not to avoid the problem but to understand that anyone could have created it, and everyone can learn from it – this is the challenge.
This entry was posted in Health, Medicine, psychiatry, Uncategorized and tagged blame, DSM-V, martyrs, masochism, medicine, psychiatry, sadism, sado-masochism, Science, victims on September 13, 2018 by katharineotto.
What is Truth? What is Real?
Climate change? Does it matter? The storm surge from Hurricane Irma flooded my crawl space, water heater, and outside air conditioner, and I'm still cleaning up the debris. kco091117
Information. Misinformation. Disinformation. News. Fake News. Opinion. Generalization. Prediction. Propaganda. Lies. Advertising. Gossip. Second guesses. Stereotypes. Assumptions.
I feel overwhelmed by the glut of demands on attention and allegiance. What to believe? What not to believe? To believe everything and nothing at the same time? To trust my own judgment or to doubt? I long for escape, to screen it all out, to hear only the sounds of birds and wind through the trees, to see only the clouds floating by or the filigree of Spanish moss. Nature speaks her own language, full of mystery, but without hypocrisy.
Consensual science says the climate is changing, and it's man's fault. "Climate deniers," some with the same education and backgrounds, say the whole idea is a hoax.
The public and the media seem obsessed with the president of the United States, as if he alone has the power to bring on the Apocalypse.
I look at my immediate, media-avoidant home and see the reality of today's chores awaiting me. The frenzy that has gripped the world in fear of terrorism, Congressional bickering, North Korea, "climate change," the latest hurricane, and what gaffe the "Orange Tweet" has committed now. . . all seem far away, surreal, and not my concern.
My "scientific inquiry" has a more practical bent. How to repair the broken handle on my favorite plastic thermal mug, so that it will hold. Scientific experiment number one only worked a few days. Scientific experiment number two added rubber bands to hold the handle while epoxy dried.
The word "science" comes from the Latin, "sciere," "to know," but I contend knowledge is forever evolving and changing, based on new data, new perspectives. Lately, I've had to accept that much of what I thought I knew no longer applies. Not only that, I've found those who speak with the most authority often believe they know more than they do. Are they lying? Not if they believe they know. Who knows?
They say "knowledge is power." I've found knowledge also brings the responsibility for decisions about what to do with it. Each action or non-action leads to unforeseen probabilities. We can never know the paths not taken.
Lately, I've had to question everything I've been taught, especially within the field of medicine, but also regarding history and politics. While they may seem to be different areas of concern, they have merged as two inextricably linked paradigms regarding the human body and mind, as they relate to the greater social family of humanity.
I feel a greater need to understand than to know. To understand is eventually to love, according to one of my favorite philosophers. To believe I "know" is an exercise in hubris, maybe, and this is where official "science" and I part ways. How do you know you know?
Maybe I'm psychic. Maybe I'm psychotic. Maybe there's no difference, from an internal perspective. I've always relied on what I call a "vibrational perception" that tries to attune to "energy fields" of emotion: the frenetic human angst in the city, the mood of a room, the quality of the sounds in the atmosphere, the body language of someone I've unwittingly offended. I feel things I can't verify. I dream of things—usually minor things—before they happen. I believe I live many lives, not in a sequential way, but in a group of parallel lives in a "spacious present" where "bleed throughs" regularly occur. I believe time is an illusion, so we are all essentially immortal, thrust together in multiple contexts until we figure out how to get along. I believe ghosts talk to me, although I've never seen one. I feel them in my "vibe space." They like to mess with me.
I can't "prove" any of this, nor do I care to try. Maybe it's imagination, but imagination gives things their own validity. I still have a physical body in the physical world we breathing human beings agree exists, the "reality" that depends on physical senses for information.
I contend there is no objective reality, that we are all subjective, with unique perspectives, experiences, orientations. I believe life is universal and provides the energy of the cosmos. Some people call it god. Some call it "qi." Some may not think of it at all.
I read today that many people feel a strong need to be "right." They screen out conflicting evidence and dig their heels into defending ossified conclusions. That was my father's way. He was a proud "rational scientist," scornful of the "emotional irrationality" of women, generally, and my mother, specifically. To be wrong around him was a character flaw, never to be lived down, so it became an exercise in pride never to admit error. Ghosts don't exist, he claimed, until he became one, witnessed by a friend of science, after he died.
So who really knows? Maybe we're in the throes of a massive paradigm shift, in which the desire to understand begins to surpass the futile attempt to know. I don't believe the future is fixed or predictable. There are many probable futures, I hope, but the present is a good place to start.
This entry was posted in Philosophy, Science, Uncategorized and tagged climate change, information, knowledge, Personal, philosophy, Science on September 30, 2017 by katharineotto.
In Defense of Carbon
Carbon is the basic building block of life. It is an element, indestructible. We have the same amount of carbon on earth now as always. It goes through a cycle. Because it is so versatile, it can join with numerous other atoms to create complex structures.
I'm a climate change agnostic. I know the climate changes every day and every season. Whether human beings are changing the climate in a significant way is the subject of heated debate. I do know humans are poisoning the environment, but the most dangerous chemicals involved are not carbon dioxide or methane. These two are naturally occurring substances that are intimately involved in the cycles of life and death.
Organic chemistry is based on whether the compounds under study contain carbon. Photosynthesis is the means by which plants use energy from light to convert water and carbon dioxide to food for the plant. In this process, water is hydrolyzed (meaning broken down into its constituent atoms) with the hydrogen joining with carbon to form sugars, such as glucose and sucrose. The sugars contain energy that fuels plant growth, maintenance and manufactures the substance of the plant itself, like cellulose.
That plants can make their own food from light, carbon dioxide and water is a marvel of solar technology, because all food ultimately comes from plants. The mechanism of photosynthesis, according to my botany text (Botany: An Introduction to Plant Biology, 6th edition, T., Elliot Weier, et al., 1982) took almost 200 years to be understood, and it still contains undiscovered secrets. Researchers are now working on harnessing the 100% efficiency of plants to make electricity. In contrast, solar panels are only between 15-20% efficient.
According to Botany, a series of discoveries beginning in 1700 led to the eventual understanding of how photosynthesis works. In 1700, a Flemish physician and chemist Jan van Helmont grew a willow branch in measured soil and water. It grew from five to 169 pounds in five years, but used only two ounces of soil. In 1772, Joseph Fleming noted a sprig of mint could restore confined air that had been made impure by burning a candle, but in 1779 Jan Ingen-House noticed air was only revitalized when the green portion of the plant was exposed to light. In 1782, Jean Sonebier discovered carbon dioxide was necessary in the "fixed air" supply of the green plant, and in 1796 Ingen-House determined the carbon went into the nutrition and structure of the plant. In 1804, Nicholas Th. de Saussure observed water was also involved in the photosynthetic process, and in 1800 chemists discovered that carbohydrates were formed. Experiments using "heavy oxygen" (oxygen with atomic weight of 18 rather than the usual 16) proved the oxygen liberated in photosynthesis came from water rather than CO2.
The basic chemical reaction for converting carbon dioxide and water to glucose is:
6CO2 + 6H20 +686 kcal –> C6 H12 O6 + 6O2
The oxygen is released into the atmosphere. Plants also release water vapor through evaporation, and this induces liquids and nutrients to move upward through the xylem (the plant's substance, including transportation "vessels").
The glucose produced is used directly, or stored as insoluble starch. It's used to make cellulose and other structural components, or is combined with nitrogen, sulfur or phosphorus to make proteins.
When a plant or any life form dies, the stored carbon is either consumed by another life form or it is released as CO2 and methane (CH4), among other substances.
Igniting the hydrocarbon molecules reverses the photosynthetic process in a one-to-one ratio. CO2 and water are re-created, and the energy bound up in the molecule is released as heat or used to do work.
The chemical reaction when the simplest hydrocarbon, methane (natural gas), is burned is:
CH4 + 2O2 –> CO2 + 2H2O
Natural gas, oil, coal, ethanol, and plastic, to name a few, have the same carbon and hydrogen building blocks, in different combinations. All have high energy contents and produce CO2 and water when burned.
Ethanol—which is now a federally mandated gasoline additive—has a lower energy content than gasoline so lowers gasoline efficiency. Ethanol, also called "ethyl alcohol," is old-fashioned grain alcohol, the same substance distilled by farmers in Revolutionary War days, and the stuff that led to the Whiskey Rebellion when the whiskey tax was passed in 1791.
Plastic has a high energy content and burns hot. Plastic waste is accumulating around the planet, in huge ocean "gyres," as well as other bodies of water, sewage and drainage systems. Its breakdown products are associated with endocrine (hormonal) changes in people and animals.
The main weakness of the climate change initiative is that the focus on "greenhouse gases" diverts attention from more immediate and ongoing threats to the planet. The use of single-use packaging, for instance, uses valuable natural resources, such as paper, and environmentally harmful industrial products, such as plastic, that end up in landfill or in rivers, lakes, and oceans.
The ethanol mandate, passed in 2007, is a particularly toxic piece of legislation. Under this scenario, farmland is used to produce corn, soy, or other carbon-containing plant matter, to be distilled into alcohol for burning in cars. Not only does this deplete soil that might otherwise be used to grow food, but it requires massive amounts of water, time and money, so is a pox on the planet and on the engines that use it. It is particularly harmful in small engines, like lawnmowers, so conscientious users must use ethanol-free gas to protect their engines. That Archer Daniels Midland, the main corporate beneficiary of the ethanol mandate, is set up to distill ethanol for cars as well as ethanol for drinking, should provide clues as to how regressive this mandate is.
In summary, I contend that, "climate change" includes changing the political climate to recognize that growing trees is better for the planet than giving corporations "carbon credits" not to cut them down.
This entry was posted in Environment, Science, Uncategorized and tagged Archer Daniels Midland, carbon, climate change, ethanol, ethanol mandate, natural gas, organic chemistry, photosynthesis, Science on July 19, 2017 by katharineotto.
Political Climate Change
I've followed the "global warming," then the "climate change" controversy for a number of years and have a number of reservations about the terms being used, the focus on "greenhouse gases," and the almost religious fervor "climate scientists" adopt when pushing their agenda.
I'm an amateur scientist, at best, a "life scientist," who still believes observation is the best science there is. I can't deny the environment is changing, becoming de-vitalized, and I also believe mankind plays a significant role. That and other transgressions against fellow man and nature have made me ashamed to be human. I look to my pets and nature to restore my belief that nature will survive, even if humans poison or nuke themselves out of existence. It may take awhile, and the earth may generate a variety of mutant life forms, but nature will win in the end. Best to make a friend of her.
While I am no scientist, I've taken more undergraduate and post graduate science courses than most Americans have. I've taken biology, botany, inorganic and organic chemistry, physics, biochemistry, and a variety of medical science courses. I've done published research, too. The last showed me the limitations of the "scientific method," which assumes cause and effect and must control for variables. The primary rule in Western scientific research is that you can have no more than one variable. You begin with a hypothesis that you want to prove or disprove. You "control" for variables, meaning you have a treatment group and a "control group." In other words, you create artificial circumstances to suit your study design and outcome you want or expect.
Contrast this with the Oriental pattern-based approach, which embraces variables and looks for patterns among them. The presumption is nature is composed of interactive processes that enhance or mitigate each other. Everything is connected in a large, multi-dimensional web.
When it comes to the environment, it's impossible to limit research to one variable and determine cause and effect. We know what came before, and we use computer models to predict what will come next. We want to attribute causes to "climate change," and have focused on CO2 and other "greenhouse gases," specifically methane/natural gas (CH4).
I contend this is too simplistic. First we are technically at the end of an ice age, so planetary warming is at least partly natural. Carbon is the basic building block of life, an element, that can combine with many other atoms to create a variety of molecules. The difference between inorganic and organic chemistry is based on whether the substance under study has carbon. Methane/natural gas is the simplest hydro-carbon there is. It is part of the life-cycle, and every decaying life form produces it. Cow farts (which have been blamed for adding to greenhouse gases) and human farts all contain methane, as do other life form farts. It rises from the marsh and from landfill.
Carbon dioxide, CO2, the demonized poster child of the "climate science" religion, is the chief nutrient of plant photosynthesis, the process that combines carbon from the air with light to create food for the plant, and thus for every creature that eats plants. Carbon dioxide comprises significantly less than one percent of the atmosphere. By comparison, oxygen makes up 21 percent. If carbon dioxide is the primary culprit in climate change, then overpopulation, with more people exhaling CO2 and farting methane, is a significant factor in the production of greenhouse gases CO2 and methane.
No one of the scientists has addressed the fact that burning one molecule of methane/natural gas (CH4) produces two molecules of water for every one of CO2. Apparently none of the computer models programmed to track carbon emissions and predict climate change factors in the enormous amount of water added to the environment with the burning of fossil fuels. Water vapor is another "greenhouse gas" in fact, as anyone who has ever visited a greenhouse knows. What is the effect of cloud cover on the earth below? What is the effect of all the mass of buildings, highways, and parking lots? These have replaced forests and fields, which played a role in keeping the earth cool and absorbing rainwater before it flooded. Has anyone accounted for the thermals (vortexes of hot air rising from cities) creating fronts that change weather patterns all around?
The Industrial Revolution begun with the cheap abundance of coal and is intricately intertwined with its advance. This closely followed major other changes in paradigms, specifically Isaac Newton's discovery of gravity, and the subsequent mechanistic view of the universe. The mechanistic paradigm brought "determinism," which separated life (and god) from science. The idea that the universe functions like a machine, with everything governed by knowable physical laws, contradicted the Biblical presumption of free will.
We have made a quantum leap from Newtonian physics with Albert Einstein's theory of relativity and quantum mechanics. At the atomic and subatomic level, there is enormous variation and spontaneity within a larger order. All of a sudden, free will becomes scientifically valid again, the experimenter does influence the experiment by expectation or desire, and cause-and-effect paradigms begin to lose relevance.
I'm more concerned about the effects of environmental toxins than the buildup of greenhouse gases. The industrial revolution has led to unsustainable levels of toxic waste in air, water, and land, and we continue to dump poisons way worse than carbon dioxide into the world environment. We are poisoning ourselves along with the insects, but insects reproduce faster and develop immunity quicker than human beings do. Plastic, also containing hydrocarbon chains, release toxic chemicals, especially when heated, that Americans blithely drink in their bottled water. We're increasingly afraid of tap water because of contaminants in pipes and groundwater that we're only beginning to recognize.
Yes, we are devitalizing and perhaps even killing the earth, but we need to broaden our scope to look at multi-factorial contributors. It's not a government problem to solve. We should look to ourselves as individuals, a nation of excess and waste. Don't depend too much on salaried scientists, whose primary obligation is to their government, university, and corporate employers. They agree with each other in finding simple targets and ignoring the greater industrial pollution that continues as fast as it can generate profits on Wall Street.
This entry was posted in Environment, Science, Uncategorized and tagged climate change, CO2, methane, renvironment, Science, toxins on June 18, 2017 by katharineotto.
The Power of Life
May 28, 2017—The following thoughts give an overview of my reasons for skepticism about Western, allopathic medicine and the paradigm it represents. I claim the overriding belief in external agents for healing or symptomatic relief ignores the basic dignity of the individuals in question and the "vitality" that keeps us going.
The body is a marvelous homeostatic instrument, for which health is the natural state. This understanding pervades Oriental medicine, which is based on the concept of "qi" ("chi") or life force.
I'm an amateur student of Oriental medicine so can only describe it in general, simplified terms. Essentially, it holds that there is a continuum between spiritual, mental, emotional, and physical levels. Problems begin as spiritual. If not resolved at that level, the problems become increasingly "dense" until they show up in the physical body.
In Chinese medicine, the idea of qi underlies and informs the entire system. This sets Oriental medicine at odds with the Western, mechanistic viewpoint we Occidentals take for granted. With the advent of the industrial age, the "scientific method," and the requirement for "objectively verifiable" evidence, we've come to rely on instrumentation and a cause-and-effect sequence for assessment and treatment of any given condition. The body is treated as though it's a machine, with the resident human being largely a passive recipient of the diagnoses and treatments decided by the technician/physicians who administer them.
While the official stance of "science" receives almost religious devotion and some legitimate respect, it is exceedingly limited in what it can do. "Science," which relies on measurable "proof" has yet to prove that life exists. Nor has it located the "mind," although most believe the "mind" is in the brain. The scientific method relies on studies that theorize causes, then set up conditions that limit variables to one, to determine whether there's a significant correlation between cause and effect.
My unorthodox approach to life, health, and medicine stems from a fundamental belief in the power of the life force. I call it "vitality," but others may refer to "qi," "quality of life" or use any number of terms to describe this battery that keeps us going.
Whether individuals survive physical death, and if so, in what capacity, is a question no one can answer, although religions and philosophers of all persuasions have tried. What is life, anyway? Is it a candle flame that can be extinguished? Is it an essence, like "qi" that joins the "qi" of the cosmos, to be re-born in another place and time?
I won't try to answer these questions but raise them simply to note that a belief in life beyond death strongly influences how I live mine. Certainly others wrestle with the question, especially as they get older and wonder what lies ahead.
I became a psychiatrist partly to help make philosophy practical, but the profession—and Western medicine as a whole–is going in the opposite direction.
"How so?" a reasonable person may ask. The most obvious answer is that it devalues the most basic principles that keep us healthy or make us sick. Western medicine systematically undermines the individual's faith in his or her own body's self-correcting mechanisms. It pits mind against body, which is deemed untrustworthy, a thing to be feared, unreliable.
The intangibles that formerly distinguished psychiatry from other medical specialties, the "quality of life" issues—now take a back seat to "evidence-based medicine" and the vain attempt of psychiatrists to align with the more "scientific" practitioners.
The antidepressant Prozac (fluoxetine) was introduced in 1989, two years before I graduated from medical school. This began the separation of psychotherapy and other "talk therapy" from "medical management" of emotional problems. While other antidepressants, anti-psychotics, anti-anxiety agents, and mood stabilizers had been on the market for decades, Prozac began the trend toward a raft of new, patented, drugs that could treat symptoms while ignoring the larger life pattern that led to the problems. "Talk therapy" was shifted to psychologists and social workers, with the move heavily supported by government and insurance reimbursement criteria.
Since that time, the avalanche of patented drugs, technologies, diagnostic tests, and other interventions has made the "health care industry" one of the most profitable sectors in the United States. Costs for the individual have skyrocketed, such that few can afford medical help without insurance. Now, the government has made insurance mandatory. No one seems to recognize that insurance does not equal health care. In fact, insurance impedes, rations, and delays health care, and it raises the price for everyone.
Medical care costs twice as much in the US as anywhere else. Medications are significantly more expensive. A continuing medical education article I read says medical error is now the third leading cause of death in the US, after cardiovascular events and cancer.
That medicine and psychiatry seem obsessed with finding or creating problems already puts patients at a disadvantage, in a defensive position. Psychiatrists don't get reimbursed for "no diagnosis." They must find or invent a diagnosis, a label, to justify the time they spend.
No wonder Oriental medicine has such appeal for me. Here, diagnosis is based on patterns of disharmony within the body and mind. The hands-on approach is individualized and personal. The patients and the practitioners are partners, with the belief in the treatment's effectiveness–"the placebo effect" in Western terms—a desirable component. In short, it respects the dignity of the vital forces that medicine presumes to reinforce.
I hear people say that "health care is a right." We also have a right to refuse health care, especially when it's forced on us by hostile, predatory forces. We have the right to eat nutritious foods, life a balanced life, and keep stress levels low. We have the right to maintain our vitality and health they best way we know and to choose who and what to trust for help when we need it.
This entry was posted in Health, Medicine, psychiatry, Science, Uncategorized and tagged health care, medicine, Oriental medicine, Personal, psychiatry, qi, Science, vitality on May 28, 2017 by katharineotto.
What is Intelligence?
From my journal, seven years ago this month. Some things don't change (much).
Tuesday, March 2, 2010—I ran into M and his wife, K, at B&N yesterday, and we got to talking. M talked a lot about intelligence, and I realized he is insecure about his, because he doesn't (or didn't) have a college degree. He married his first wife because she did and quickly found degrees don't assure intelligence or curiosity.
We speculated together, and I continued later to wonder what constitutes intelligence. Others place too much emphasis on standardized tests, I believe, yet these represent the conventional guidelines. College or advanced degrees constitute another measure. If you go to a brand name school, all the better.
These don't guarantee intelligence, though, as M. learned. By others' standards, I am intelligent, well educated, and do well enough on standardized tests, but I was not smart enough to reach people like my father.
M said engineers are linear thinkers. His brother is an engineer and a perfect example. Another term is "narrow-minded." Some people have claimed vocabulary determines intelligence.
Seth, in The Individual and the Nature of Mass Events, claims fundamentalism has arisen in reaction to Darwinism, which presumes a random, chaotic, uncaring universe without rules. But science, as we understand it, binds itself with the most rigid rules and produces people like my father, who deny the existence of anything outside the framework.
I believe intelligence is an attitude rather than a concrete quality. Intelligence and curiosity may be synonymous, because curiosity gives flexibility, open-mindedness, inventiveness, and common sense.
We don't measure common sense on IQ tests, but this may determine basic intelligence more than any other parameter. Common sense finds food when hungry, shelter when cold or wet, safety when threatened. This is survival of the fittest in action, and this is why the relatively hairless beast called man can survive in freezing weather. It has little to do with beating other hairless beasts over the head with a club to steal their women and food.
In fact, the fittest and most likely to survive are those who can cooperate in groups, as the pack animals can join together to bring down their prey.
Intelligence is a relative term. M claims marriage compatibility is based on intelligence, and that he and K are closely matched.
My parents were closely matched in intelligence, I believe, but no one appreciated my mother's smarts because she didn't have the degrees to prove it. Yet she had an active mind, lots of common sense, and managed to keep my father's interest all their married life.
My father, who made gods of science and intelligence, was one of the most narrow-minded people around. He couldn't converse on any topic other than those that interested him, or where he excelled, and these were few indeed. He had little interest or curiosity about anything outside that box.
If you presume others are stupid, you will miss evidence that conflicts with your belief. The "scientific method," the presumption of cause and effect, must exclude more than it includes to have any validity at all, and then you are only proving the limitations of your experiment. The germ theory of disease, for instance.
This entry was posted in Personal, Philosophy, Uncategorized and tagged education, intelligence, IQ, Personal, philosophy, Science on March 7, 2017 by katharineotto.
A Quark's Life
Seven years ago this month, I wrote the following in my journal. Journalling is my therapy, and I advise everyone to try it. A blank page doesn't argue, criticize, judge, talk back, interrupt, gossip, or try to control. Also, it's virtually free. I prefer writing by hand, partly because I sometimes draw or scribble in the margins, but also because it frees me to pause and stare into space, without the constant whiny noise of studiously patient electronics.
My only rule is to be as honest as possible with myself.
Octtober 30, 2009–If even every quark* has consciousness and is immortal, as my disincarnate friend Seth (of the Jane Roberts' "Seth Series" fame) says, each carries memories of having been part of Queen Elizabeth I's body, or of the beggar on the street or of the tuna in the great blue sea. These were re-incarnational lives, so to speak. Each individual quark has joined others in multiple arrangements to form matter of different substances. The quark is so versatile that it is welcome in any neighborhood, presumably, unlike something like the silver atom, which has fewer opportunities for exploration. A quark can be part of a silver atom, but a silver atom cannot be part of a quark.
And so it goes. A quark sees the silver atom from a higher perspective, in a way, because it also knows what it's like to be part of a gold atom. Carrying that memory into the silver atom also enhances that atom's understanding of worlds outside itself. Each of the silver atom's quarks, while joining with its fellow quarks in the grand structure of the atom, joins the consciousness of the group to a higher purpose. Individual quarks are free to come and go from the atom, because they are replaced effortlessly by other quarks looking for silver atom experience.
It may go to a quark bar and tell stories of its lives as part of larger gestalts.
"Did you like being part of a toad?"
"Not as much as being part of a neutron star. Being part of a magnolia blossom was nice, too, if you like that sort of thing.
"Don't go near human beings, though, if you can help it. They are atomic bombs in the cosmic symphony."
"So why are so many quarks making humans?"
"I figure it's because there are so many quarks making television sets and computers."
"I did that. When I was part of a silver atom, I was part of a computer circuit. It was hot. I got out of there real quick-like. Now I just want to float in space and be part of the great cosmic cell.
"Can't blame you a bit, bud. If you're only a quark, you don't have to work very hard, because you are so replaceable."
*Quarks are sub-atomic particles.
This entry was posted in Humor, Philosophy, Science, Uncategorized, Writing and tagged humor, journalling, philosophy, Science, Writing on October 29, 2016 by katharineotto.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Oct. 11 (UPI) -- Cyclone Titli pounded the eastern shore of India Thursday, killing eight people and forcing 300,000 to evacuate.
The cyclone battered the coastal states of Odisha and Andhra Pradesh with 95 mph winds and knocked out power to a half-million people.
The area with the most damage is the Gajapti district, where the storm uprooted trees.
"We believe that the entire state, except for some western parts, is likely to receive rain throughout the day," Chief Secretary Aditya Prasad Padhi said. "There may be flooding of the Vansadhera River as Gajapati and Rayagada districts received heavy rainfall due to the cyclone."
The Andhra Pradesh area reported eight people had died, including a fisherman.
"Every hour from now on is very crucial," Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu said.
Cyclones are hurricanes that occur in the Indian and Pacific oceans.
Cyclone Titli, the Hindu word for butterfly, is expected to weaken late Thursday as it moves over the Indian coast. The storm was named by weather authorities in Pakistan.
The next will be named Gaja and Phetha named by Thailand and Sri Lanka, respectively.


text:
Diocese of Nusco was a Roman Catholic ecclesiastical territory in Campania, southern Italy, and  was a suffragan of the archdiocese of Salerno. In 1986 the diocese was suppressed, and its territory was united with the archdiocese of Conza-Sant'Angelo dei Lombardi-Bisaccia, to form the Archdiocese of Conza-Sant'Angelo dei Lombardi-Nusco-Bisaccia.

History

Nusco is in the Italian civil province of Avellino. The town is 22.08 mi (35.54 km) from Salerno in a direct line, but 44.3 mi (71.3 km) by land transportation, which takes one hour and ten minutes. In 1753, the town had a population estimated at 1,100 persons. In 2017, there were 4,148 inhabitants. In 1980, the entire diocese had a population of 32,775.

The diocese of Nusco dates from the eleventh century.

The cathedral of Nusco was originally dedicated in honor of S. Stephen the Protomartyr, but as its bishop Amatus came to be honored as a saint, the title of the cathedral was changed to S. Amatus. The cathedral was administered by a Chapter, composed of four dignities (the Archdeacon, the Archpriest, the Primicerius Major, and the Primicerius Minor) and six canons. In 1614, there were four dignities and eight canons.

The diocese of Nusco was a suffragan of the archdiocese of Salerno.

Concordat of 1818
Following the extinction of the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy, the Congress of Vienna authorized the restoration of the Papal States and the Kingdom of Naples. Since the French occupation had seen the abolition of many Church institutions in the Kingdom, as well as the confiscation of most Church property and resources, it was imperative that Pope Pius VII and King Ferdinand IV reach agreement on restoration and restitution. Ferdinand, however, was not prepared to accept the pre-Napoleonic situation, in which Naples was a feudal subject of the papacy. Lengthy, detailed, and acrimonious negotiations ensued.

In 1818, a new concordat with the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies committed the pope to the suppression of more than fifty small dioceses in the kingdom. On 27 June 1818, in the bull "De Utiliori",  Pope Pius VII restored the ecclesiastical provinces in the Kingdom of Naples, and reorganized the suffragans. The archdiocese of Salerno was assigned as its suffragans the dioceses of Capaccio, Policastro, Marsico, and Nusco; the diocese of Acerno was given to the archbishop of Salerno in administratorship. In the case of Nusco, the diocese of Montemarano was completely suppressed, and its territory and town incorporated into the diocese of Nusco.

Diocesan Reorganization

Following the Second Vatican Council, and in accordance with the norms laid out in the council's decree, Christus Dominus chapter 40, Pope Paul VI ordered a reorganization of the ecclesiastical provinces in southern Italy. Pope Paul VI ordered consultations among the members of the Congregation of Bishops in the Vatican Curia, the Italian Bishops Conference, and the various dioceses concerned. After twenty years, problems and objections were still apparent.

On 18 February 1984, the Vatican and the Italian State signed a new and revised concordat. Based on the revisions, a set of Normae was issued on 15 November 1984, which was accompanied in the next year, on 3 June 1985, by enabling legislation. According to the agreement, the practice of having one bishop govern two separate dioceses at the same time, aeque personaliter, was abolished. The Vatican continued consultations which had begun under Pope John XXIII for the merging of small dioceses, especially those with personnel and financial problems, into one combined diocese.

On 30 September 1986, Pope John Paul II ordered that the dioceses of Sant'Angelo dei Lombardi, Conza, Nusco, and Bisaccia be merged into one diocese with one bishop, with the Latin title Archidioecesis Sancti Angeli de Lombardis-Compsana-Nuscana-Bisaciensis. The seat of the diocese was to be in Sant'Angelo dei Lombardi, and the cathedral of Sant'Angelo dei Lombardi was to serve as the cathedral of the merged diocese. The cathedrals in Conza, Nusco, and Bisaccia were to become co-cathedrals, and their cathedral Chapters were each to be a Capitulum Concathedralis. There was to be only one diocesan Tribunal, in Sant'Angelo dei Lombardi, and likewise one seminary, one College of Consultors, and one Priests' Council. The territory of the new diocese was to include the territory of the suppressed dioceses of Conza, Nusco, and Bisaccia. The new archdiocese was to be a suffragan of the archdiocese of Benevento.

The first archbishop of the new archdiocese of Sant'Angelo dei Lombardi-Conza-Nusco-Bisaccia was Antonio Nuzzi, who had been Bishop of Nusco from 21 February 1981 to 30 September 1986.

Bishops of Nusco

to 1600

 Amatus of Nusco (1076-1093)
 Guido (1104)
Rogerius (attested 1143–1147)
Willelmus attested 1164, 1167)
 Rogerius (1198)
...
Lucas (c. 1240?)
Jacobus, O.Min. (by 1285).
P[ - - - ]
...
Rogerius Gesualdo (d. 1350)
Franciscus (1350–1365)
Arnaldus (1365–1374)
Angelo Vitale (1375–1394) Roman Obedience
Petrus, O.Min. (13 ?–1392) Avignon Obedience
Marcus de Porres (1394–1396) Roman Obedience
Angelo Barrili (1396–1400) Roman Obedience
Bernardus (1400– ? )
Guillelmus
Antonius (1418–1435)
Carluccio Paolucci (1435–1446)
 Giovannuccio Pasquali, O.F.M. (1446–1471)
 Stefano Moscatelli (11 October 1471 – 1485)
 Antonio Maramaldo (21 November 1485 – 1514)
 Marino Acciabianca (1514 – 1523 Resigned)
 Gerolamo Acciabianca (17 June 1523 – 1537)
 Pietro Paolo Parisio (11 January 1538 – 11 May 1545)
 Luigi Cavalcanti (1 June 1545 –1563)
 Alessandro Gadaletta (30 January 1563 – 1572)
 Pietro Persio  (23 Jan 1573 – 1578)
 Patrizio Lavosio  (1578–1602)

1500 to 1800

 Lazaro Pellizzari, O.P.  (1602–1607)
 Giovanni Battista Zuccato  (1607–1614 Resigned)
 Michael Rezzi (Resti)  (1614–1639)
 Francesco Arcudio (1639–1641)
 Giovanni Mauro, O.F.M. Conv.  (13 Jan 1642 – 1 November 1644)
 Aniello Campagna  (6 Mar 1645 – Jan 1648)
 Pietro Paolo Russo  (1 Mar 1649 – May 1657)
 Benedetto Rocci, O. Carm.  (6 May 1658 – October 1661)
 Angelo Picchetti  (16 January 1662 – 28 September 1668)
 Fulgenzio Arminio Monforte, O.S.A.  (1669–1680 Resigned)
 Benedetto Giacinto Sangermano (1680–1702)
 Giacinto Dragonetti, C.O. (5 Mar 1703 –1724)
 Nicolò Tupputi  (1724–1740)
 Gaetano d'Arco  (6 March 1741 – 25 May 1753 Died)
 Francesco Antonio Bonaventura  (26 November 1753 – 15 June 1788)
 Francesco Saverio de Vivo  (27 February 1792 Confirmed – 1797)

1800 to 1986

 Matteo Aceto (1818–1819)
 Pasquale de Nicolais (1820–1835)
 Francesco-Paolo Mastropasqua (1837–1848)
 Giuseppe Autelitano (1849–1854)
 Michele Adinolfi  (1854–1860)
 Gaetano Stiscia  (23 March 1860 – 24 April 1870 Died)
 Giovanni Acquaviva, C.O.  (22 December 1871 – 26 January 1893 Died)
 Giuseppe Consenti, C.SS.R.  (26 January  1893 –1893)
 Emilio Alfonso Todisco Grande  (12 June 1893 – August 1896 Died)
 Michele Arcangelo Pirone  (30 November 1896 – 6 February 1909 Died)
 Angelo Giacinto Scapardini, O.P. (29 April 1909 – 10 September 1910)
 Luigi Paulini  (11 September 1911 – 10 March 1919 Appointed, Bishop of Concordia)
 Pasquale Mores  (15 December 1919 – 31 January 1950 Retired)
Guido Maria Casullo  (29 May 1951 –1963)
 Gastone Mojaisky-Perrelli  (10 May 1963 – 18 November 1978 Resigned)
 Mario Miglietta (18 November 1978 –1981)
 Antonio Nuzzi (21 February 1981 –1986)

See also
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Sant'Angelo dei Lombardi-Conza-Nusco-Bisaccia
List of Catholic dioceses in Italy

References

Books
Eubel, Conradus (1890), "Die Bischöfe, Cardinale und Päpste aus dem Minoritenorden,"  , in: Römische Quartalschrift für Christliche Altertumskunde 4 (1890), pp. 185–258.

Studies

Cuozzo, E. (1979), "Amato di Montecassino e Amato di Nusco: una stessa persona?" . Benedictina 26 (1979), pp. 323–348.
 [article written by Giuseppe Paesano].
Kehr, Paul Fridolin (1935). Italia pontificia. Vol. VIII: Regnum Normannorum — Campania. Berlin: Weidmann.  pp. 377–378.
Mattei-Cerasoli, Leone (1919). "Da archivii e biblioteche: Di alcuni vescovi poco noti". . In: Archivio storico per le province Neapolitane 44 (Napoli: Luigi Lubrano 1919). pp. 310–335.
Torelli, Felice (1848). La chiave del Concordato dell'anno 1818 e degli atti emanati posteriormente al medesimo.  Volume 1, second edition Naples: Stamperia del Fibreno, 1848.

Nusco

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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The Asda Foundation Yorkshire Marathon returns to the city for the sixth time. The race leads runners on a varied route which encompasses both the city centre and scenic countryside.
The route begins on Green Dykes Lane and leads runners through the the medieval gateway at Walmgate Bar and past York Minster. Runners then head beyond the city walls and onto winding country lanes.
Drink stations and cheer points are positioned along the route and runners are timed using chip technology. After finishing the race, runners receive a medal, T-shirt and goody bag and can enjoy post-race drinks in the event village.
Registration for the Yorkshire Marathon 2018 is now closed as this event took place on Sunday 14 October.
Thank you to everyone who ran to raise money for Bloodwise.


I've just begun a bible study on the book of Hebrews. This week we were given a list of Psalms that are messianic song lyrics and asked which one we would be most prone to sing. I wanted to pick three of the five listed, but one really did strike me as significant for the season I find myself in.
I can look out my window and see evidence of the changing seasons. Leaves have changed from green to red, yellow and brown and are falling to the ground. The grass no longer needs to be mowed weekly. We are beginning to no longer have to check the weather to see if we need to grab at least a light jacket in the mornings. Although, in Texas, I'm not sure it's ever wise to get dressed for the day without checking the weather first this time of year.
I don't have to leave my house to see another changing of the seasons. My family has been in transition for several years and I'm beginning to realize that transition is just a way of life if you don't intend to be stuck in a rut. If you have set your eyes on Jesus and want to continue growing from glory to glory, change is inevitable. If you have children and they are moving successfully thru the stages of their lives, your life will change. If you have children and they are exerting their independence, which they will and should, your life will change.
If you are like me and look past the day in front of you…or the minute…you may see things that you would like to change about yourself or those around you. You may see a better life just ahead. You may look at the areas of brokenness and know there is so much more and want to control the circumstances and the people around you to make those changes take place in your great wisdom and timing. You may see someone you love headed for a cliff if they don't stop and want to change them or their circumstances so they don't fall or jump over the edge. Have you ever wanted to just remove that cliff altogether?
Have you ever wanted to CHANGE? Have you ever wanted to CHANGE someone else? Have you ever wanted to CHANGE your circumstances?
I read this scripture and knew this is the one I needed to set my heart to singing. I don't know if you have ever considered that what is true in the natural is equally true in the spiritual realm. It's a relatively new way for me to look at life too. But, it sure does open my eyes to the things beyond what I can see with my eyes. It opens me up to new understanding of the way God moves in and thru my life. As I read this scripture I realized WHO is in charge of the change. I knew that but that doesn't stop me from trying to change myself or those around me. But if He changes them…they will be changed. He is the author of lasting change. He is the author of new life. He is…not me. One encounter with Him and I WILL be changed. One encounter with Him and they WILL be changed. And not changed into something I would change myself or others into, but something HE wants to change us into. Something new and more glorious.
Until then feel free to join me where I am this evening…Kari has taken the words right out of my heart. I love the way she reminds me where to look on days like today.
Someone call 911! I am singing along to Justin Bieber Christmas songs out loud in public! I think I may have even been tapping my foot or bobbing my head or some other move that would indicate I was into the song.
When you call you might want to have them dispatch to several locations because surely the store owners are also in need of help if they are playing Justin Bieber during the middle of the day when all the kids are tucked safely away at school.
Could it be that we are all slowly being brainwashed by pop culture? Are we like the frog in the pot of luke warm water that is being boiled to death because he doesn't realize the water is getting hotter and hotter until it's too late?
I wonder if we changed up the lyrics to these songs and just kept the same catchy tunes if anyone would notice? Have you listened to some of the lyrics to these songs? Surely it is the tune and not the lyrics that has every Middle School and High School girl all abuzz.
Please let it be the catchy tunes and not the lyrics!!


All beers that are in our offer are produced in the best Croatian craft breweries. Carefully selected, completely natural beer, produced from the finest high-quality yeast, hops and barley malts, without preservatives and additives.
Barba Extra Hoppy Edition Chinook is hopped version of Barba Pale Alea, with focus on hop Chinook, which was added at the end. One of the American classics, Chinook is used for bitterness and aroma, which among other things carries notes of grapefruit, spices and pine.
Houblon is a beer with fresh and light fruit hops aroma rounded with full-flavored domestic malt. Unfiltered and unpasteurized beer with a smaller share of hop bitterness, intended for easy enjoyment and drinking.
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Inspired by the I.P.A's of the American North East. Pour golden in colour, with a slight haze and a lingering tight, white head. On the aroma you are greeted straight away with notes of pine, peach and passionfruit. On the palate apricot and naval orange shine through with a well-balanced bitterness backed up by a subtle sweetness from the south pacific hops and the unique yeast we use. Full bodied and medium carbonation make this IPA surprisingly easy to drink.
In The Rye IPA is a rye ale beer. Special selection of hops give this beer a citrus, fruity and herbal aromas, while peppery spice notes were obtained from rye.
Istrian processing (Istrian Pale Ale) of Indian Pale Ale, produced from barley malt, with a small proportion of wheat, a mix of American hops who are giving intense and interesting scent which contributes a significant amount of hops added by method of dry hopping. Amber color with abundant, creamy and stable foam, the smell of hops reminds of exotic fruits, citrus fruits and flowers. Closes mild bitterness remind of grapefruit peel. This IPA beer is not focused only on the hop (East Kent Golding, Chinook and Amarillo) but also on barley malt (3 different types of distinctive barley).
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text:
Macrocentrus cingulum är en stekelart som beskrevs av Carl Gustav Alexander Brischke 1882. Macrocentrus cingulum ingår i släktet Macrocentrus och familjen bracksteklar. Arten är reproducerande i Sverige. Inga underarter finns listade i Catalogue of Life.

Källor

Bracksteklar
cingulum


The Edge in Wigan is hosting a fantastic event on Tuesday 12th February from 5.00pm – 7.30pm where parents can discuss the issues teenagers face in society today. There will be a presentation from the Amy Winehouse Foundation and also various market stalls including teams from Young Addiction, CAMHS, Start Well / Social Care, CSE team, GM Police, Targeted Youth Support Services and Wigan Youth Zone.
Please use the following link to book on this highly recommended awareness raising event.


text:
Procol Harum: Novum
Fourteen years can go by very quickly, and that indeed seems to have been the case with Procol Harum, as their latest release Novum is their first since 2003's strong The Well's On Fire. Though it's taken a while to pump out another studio album, the band have been pretty busy on the live circuit over the years, the line-up being pretty stable and includes here in 2017:
Gary Brooker � piano, accordion, vocals
Josh Phillips � organ, vocals
Geoff Whitehorn � guitar
Matt Pegg � bass guitar
Geoff Dunn � drums
Pete Brown-lyrics
Of course any Procol Harum album is bound to be led by the still terrific vocal pipes of founding member & pianist Gary Brooker. He's once again at the helm here, and sounding decades younger than his 71 years, adding his splendid vocal melodies to the crisp rocker "I Told On You", a very fine tune which kicks off Novum. Supported by some tasty guitar licks courtesy of Whitehorn and sultry organ from Phillips, we have here a very strong song to open up the album. The calmer, blues/country strains of "Last Chance Hotel" dials back on the energy but supplies some nice melodies, and you can easily see this tune appeal to fans of the current 'crossover' craze. The tempo again picks up on "Image of the Beast", as driving piano, organ, and guitar weave and twist around Brooker's soaring vocal. "Soldier" blends blues and sophisticated pop, complete with another mighty fine Brooker vocal, though the song is missing some prominent organ, instead permeated with piano and crisp guitar lines. "Don't Get Caught" once again dabbles more in the pop realm, but the catchy melodies are there, and the lighthearted "Neighbor" brings in acoustic guitar, accordion, and layers of vocals for a quirky, wispy folk/pop flavor.
Brooker's majestic, elder statesman tones saturate the lush "Sunday Morning", as piano, violin, and guitar drift in the background, giving way to the crunchy hard rocker "Businessman", a great vehicle for Whitehorn's metallic riffing and stinging blues rock solos. Though Phillips' organ is there, it needed to be more upfront in the mix, which seems to be an issue throughout the album. He does however show up front and center on the next track, his smokey tones & solos popping in and out on the somewhat jazzy, somewhat bluesy, but quite rocking "Can't Say That", another uptempo number that also sees former Jethro Tull member Pegg laying down some acrobatic bass lines alongside Dunn's nimble drumming. At over 7-minutes long it's the lengthiest and most adventurous song on the album. "The Only One" features a wonderful, emotional vocal from Brooker, and the vocalist and his piano close out the show on the tender "Somewhen".
Classy stuff all around on Novum, and while I still would have liked Phillips' organ featured more prominently in the mix on some songs, overall there's a nice blending of styles and tempos here on the album, the band sounding in top form and delivering memorable material. Now 50 years into their career, Procol Harum are still delivering the goods, and that's a big plus for music lovers everywhere.
See more about this release on our recent YouTube show!
1. I Told on you
2.. Last Chance Motel
3.. Image of the Beast
4.. Soldier
5.. Don't Get Caught
6.. Neighbour
7.. Sunday Morning
8,. Businessman
9.. Can't Say That
10. The Only One
11. Somewhen
Added: April 29th 2017


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Are you planning to host a wedding? If so, there are some very vital arrangements before wedding that should be done so as to make the event very lively and interesting. One of the most vital considerations is to make use of a wedding organizer/planner.
These are the individuals who are well trained to arrange the wedding. They play key roles when it comes arranging for the smooth operations during the actual wedding day.
This will allow you save on the total cost of wedding and that time that would have been used for the arrangement of the services the planner will organize.
So if your planning a wedding yourself or looking to hire a professional here are some of the things that will need to be organized.
Florists are very important when it comes to planning a wedding. The florists should be able to supply all the required flowers that will suit the situation.
There are some instances where people who are organizing the whole event fails to consider the role of wedding planners in flower selection and they will end up buying flowers of poor quality.
Such organizers will make use of their experience to look for the florists available, vet them and select the best to supply quality wedding flowers at the best price range. Therefore, they should be considered when it comes to selection of flowers for a given wedding event.
It is also very important to have the best photographer for the event. Not everyone will identify the best photographer.
The quality of the photographs to be taken should be high quality and the skill level of different photographers vary. A wedding planner will do all they can to select the best photographer and the quality of the photographs will be within the required standards.
The planners have all the necessary experience and techniques to apply so as to select the best unlike ordinary people. Therefore in order to have quality pictures and recorded videos of the event, you should consider a professional wedding planner.
In every social gathering, food plays a major role! Delicious entrees and dishes can make or break an event. It is also a good idea to make sure there is a good selection to choose from, to cater for everyone's different tastes.
The catering company should posses cooking skills and presentations in a range of different styles. The wedding planner is responsible for sourcing the food and catering requirements of your wedding.
The transportation of the wedding party is crucial. Hiring a reliable limo company is essential and requires careful planning. There are several things to look for but first you need to set a budget.
Once the budget for wedding cars is set it becomes easier to make a short list. The planner then uses a short list of possible companies to use and conducts a survey and researches customer referrals. Once a list of the last three companies is made then pricing negotiations will start.
Generally most limo companies have specials or packages which will play an important role in selecting the best limousine hire company for the event.
Such people have a lot of experience and the know where to buy specific items at the lowest price range. The use of such professionals on your big day will thus assist you stick to your budget and you will avoid overspending.
They have some industrial contacts where you can buy some of the necessities of your events. This means that you will be able to buy at their internal price range which is not normally revealed to the public.
Once you have an understanding of the roles played by a wedding planner you are in a good position to know what to look for when doing your research.
Take your time when making your selection. This should be done in the preliminary stages of wedding arrangement.


Chimneys need to be swept and inspected to maintain safety in your home.
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Copyright 2018 Chimney Pro. All rights reserved.


text:
By ABC News | January 11, 2021
Lana Del Rey details new 'Chemtrails Over the Country Club' album, though that's not why she's trending
Tim Mosenfelder/WireImage
Lana Del Rey has revealed new details about her upcoming Chemtrails Over the Country Club album, though that's not why she was trending on social media.
In an Instagram post, Del Rey posted the cover artwork for the record, which shows her surrounded by a diverse group of women. She also wrote a lengthy explanation for the artwork in the post's comments, which reads, "In 11 years working I have always been extremely inclusive without even trying to."
"My best friends are rappers my boyfriends have been rappers," Del Rey wrote. "My dearest friends have been from all over the place, so before you make comments again about a WOC/POC issue, I'm not the one storming the [Capitol], I'm literally changing the world by putting my life and thoughts and love out there on the table 24 seven. Respect it."
You may recall that Del Rey made headlines last spring when she shared a post asking why artists including Doja Cat, Ariana Grande, Camila Cabello, Cardi B, Kehlani, Nicki Minaj and Beyoncé were lauded for songs about "being sexy, wearing no clothes, f***ing [and] cheating," while she was being criticized for "glamorizing abuse" in her lyrics. That led to commenters calling Del Rey out for naming primarily women of color to illustrate how she herself was being criticized.
In response to her latest comments, commenters took issue with Del Rey seemingly equating being a rapper with being a certain race or ethnicity. Others compared her post to the comments made by Miya Ponsetto — the 22-year-old who's been charged with assaulting a Black teenager after accusing him of stealing her phone — during her viral interview with CBS' Gayle King.
Del Rey is expected to release the Chemtrails Over the Country Club title track on Monday. Here's the track list:
"Tulsa Jesus Freak"
"Let Me Love You Like a Woman"
"Dark but Just a Game"
"Breaking Up Slowly"
"Dance Till We Die"


Description: Raise towers, set traps and produce soldiers in this zombie TD game.
Controls: Defend your king from hordes of incoming zombies. Use the MOUSE to build and upgrade towers. Press SPACEBAR to toggle the gameplay speed, use [1,2,3,4] numeric keys as shortcut for spells.


text:
Abolished Policies (Post Oct. 2014)
Archived RP
Board of Regents Policy 11.207 Board of Regents Policy 11.207
Hazardous Materials Management
Regents Policy Chapter 11, Miscellaneous
Regents Policy RP 11.207, Hazardous Materials Management
Prior Dates Amended: Oct. 31, 2014 (recodified)
Review Date: August 2019
I. Purpose
To set forth policy regarding hazardous materials management and define hazardous materials.
II. Definitions
"Hazardous Materials" means any substance, element, compound, mixture or solution which is now or at any time hereafter in effect becomes defined as a "hazardous waste," "hazardous substance," "pollutant," or "contaminant" under any applicable Environmental Laws, now or hereafter adopted, accomplished, and promulgated pursuant thereto; and asbestos, polychlorinated, biphenyls ("PCBs"), petroleum, and petroleum byproducts, fuel oils, sludge, crude oil or residue, or trichloropropane. See RP 11.207(A) and (B).
III. Board of Regents Policy
A. The university shall comply with applicable federal and state laws, statutes, rules, and regulations relating to the presence, use, transportation, segregation, consolidation, storage, clean-up, remediation, and removal of hazardous materials ("Environmental Laws"). The president may, as deemed appropriate and consistent with applicable Environmental Laws, adopt and implement university policies, guidelines and procedures relating to hazardous materials management.
B. "Hazardous Materials" means any substance, element, compound, mixture or solution which is now or at any time hereafter in effect becomes defined as a "hazardous waste," "hazardous substance," "pollutant," or "contaminant" under any applicable Environmental Laws, now or hereafter adopted, accomplished, and promulgated pursuant thereto; and asbestos, polychlorinated, biphenyls ("PCBs"), petroleum, and petroleum byproducts, fuel oil, sludge, crude oil or residue, or trichloropropane.
IV. Delegation of Authority
The president may, as deemed appropriate and consistent with applicable Environmental Laws, adopt and implement university policies, guidelines and procedures relating to hazardous materials management. See RP 11.207(A).
V. Contact Information
Office of the Board of Regents, 956-8213, bor@hawaii.edu
VI. References
A. http://www.hawaii.edu
VII. Exhibits and Appendices
No Exhibits and Appendices found
approved as to Form:
Cynthia Quinn
Executive Administrator and Secretary of the Board of Regents
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