The Jets beat the London Blitz 41-15 on Saturday at Warwick Uni.
In England season has just started. In weekend 2 Vice-Champion Coventry Cassidy Jets had to play at home against the defending British Champion London Blitz. Revanche for lost championshipgame was successful. Dominic Olney was named MVP as he led the Jets defense with 7 tackles, 4 passes defended, 1 interception & 1 fumble recovery for a touchdown, setting a new British League Record on the way (his 95 yard score eclipsed the previous mark of 80).
In a re-match of 2007's National Championship game the Cassidy Jets came away with a resounding 41-15 victory over the London Blitz. Cornerback Dominic Olney led the way for the Jets, as well as leading the team in tackles with 6 he also broke up 4 passes and intercepted another whilst his 95 yard fumble recovery marked his second touchdown in as many games.
Mark Cohen and Kofi Campbell both chipped in with 2 touchdowns apiece for the second straight game but it was Steve Coles who got the ball rolling. Matt Williams returned to kicking duties for the Cassidy Jets and his short opening kick-off was recovered downfield by Joe Black. The fluke onside kick put the ball in the hands of Coles whose first carry went for 20 yards and had the Jets knocking on the door. On the following play however quarterback Dax Michelena lost his grip on the ball and the Blitz recovered the first of 3 Jets fumbles.
Unable to take advantage of their host's generosity London quickly punted the ball back. A time consuming 11 play drive ensued for the Jets culminating in Coles' 11 yard touchdown run on fourth down. Williams added the extra point for a 7-0 lead and out the defending champions on the back foot. The Jets next possession also lasted 11 plays, this time Cohen put the finishing touch on the drive with a 15 yard reception from Michelena, who completed 11 of 16 for 131 yards. The extra point attempt failed as the American QB missed Joe Black in the endzone.
With London's offence being consistently foiled the Jets would twice add to their lead before half time. Campbell carried 5 times for 43 yards on a 7 play drive which saw him break the planes from 6 yards out. Michelena this time picked out David Sonne in the endzone to stretch the lead to 21-0. Cohen added his second when he snared a 20 yard pass to make Coventry's advantage 27-0 and Olney ensured that the Blitz didn't break their duck when he picked off Stuart Franklin's pass at his own 9 yard line to end the half.
Turning the tables on the Jets and needing a fast start to the second period, London opted for the onside kick, recovering at their own 47. It proved fruitless 3 straight incompletions left Coventry with the ball at their own 34. A botched snap followed by a run for minus 4 yards and an incomplete pass left the Jets facing 4th and 23. Coles went on to kick the ball away but watched helplessly as the snap sailed over his head and through the endzone. The result was a 2pt safety putting London on the scoreboard and shattering any hopes of a shutout.
Desperate for a quick score the Blitz decided to get a little pass happy, Franklin completed 4 of 7 hitting Tom Shannon from 24 yards out to ignite hopes of a comeback. Nathan Holt nailed the extra point as London pulled to within 3 scores. The Cassidy Jets offence had sputtered out of the blocks in the second half, a three and out and a botched handoff resulting in a fumble appeared to have handed momentum to a Blitz squad that was lacking 2 of it's impact players. With wide receiver Rod Bradley injured and linebacker Jason Brisbane not making the trip, London were without two of their leaders and the men that seem to set the tempo for their Championship run last season.
Veteran Cassidy Jets linebacker Will White provided the lift that his team needed his interception midway through the third quarter swung proceedings back in Coventry's favour and gives the Jets 11 picks through 5 games this year. Campbell made the Blitz pay for the turnover with carries of 30 and 19 yards, the later of which saw him run over would be tacklers en route to the endzone. Campbell, who finished with 123 yards on 13 carries, then added an exclamation by converting his own score to make it 35-9.
William's kick off was returned 72 yards where Adewale Oyemade chased down Stephen Hutchinson to make a touchdown saving tackle at the Jets 2 yards line. Middle linebacker Craig Pennington snuffed out a run in the backfield for a loss of one and on the next play White delivered the knockout blow. His tackle at the line of scrimmage jarred the ball loose after Dave Cowen had held up the runner. Olney, who was seemingly everywhere, picked up the football and outran everyone on his way to a British League record 95 yard fumble recovery for the Jets final score of the day. A handling error led to running back Coles' unsuccessful pass attempt on the extra point conversion leaving the score at 41-9.
In a deep hole the Blitz all but abandoned their running game save for John Chiltern's 1 yard consolation touchdown. London again recovered their own kick off but it came to nothing as the contest petered out to leave the Cassidy Jets 41-15 victors. Head Coach Gerry McManus lauded a "fantastic performance that epitomised a team effort" but was quick to point out that "it's a long season and we can't look to far ahead. We've carried over our good form from our European campaign and set down a marker for the season".
Next up for the Jets is a trip to Hamilton where they'll meet the East Kilbride Pirates for their first road game. The Pirates got their season underway this weekend with a 35-8 victory over the Gateshead Senators and will be eager to defeat the Jets for the first time after 3 straight losses.


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UNSW Sydney (current)
Promotion an der
At UNSW Sydney we generate new knowledge and transform research discoveries into successful innovations to benefit society, the economy and future generations. We conduct research across a wide range of areas and invest considerable resources where we believe we can make the biggest difference, such as:
Solar power (photovoltaics): We hold the world record for the conversion efficiency of a silicon solar cell, and we are home to one of the world's fastest solar-powered cars.
Clean drinking water: We created membrane filtration technology to filter water that is now used in taps around the world.
Population ageing: We are developing economic and health policy frameworks for government and industry to sustainably manage this global challenge.
HIV/AIDS: Since diagnosing Australia's first case of HIV, we have been involved in the development of every existing antiretroviral HIV drug.
The world's first quantum computer: Using silicon, we are one of the global leaders in the race to build a quantum computer.
Top 5 Research Centres
Australian Centre for Advanced Photovoltaics
The Kirby Institute for Infection and Immunity in Society
Social Policy Research Centre
Climate Change Research Centre
Centre for Quantum Computation & Communication Technology
Top 5 Research Achievements
UNSW is one of the world's leading research and technology hubs for clean energy innovation across a range of transformational areas including clean fuels, renewables, grid decarbonisation, transport electrification, energy storage and policy. An example is our development of environmentally friendly thin-film solar cells made from non-toxic and abundant raw materials.
UNSW is a world leader in coordinating the best responses to infectious diseases and blood-borne viruses. From the lab to the streets, our research has led to major breakthroughs in the quest to invent practical and meaningful solutions to defeat epidemics and ensure that the basic human right to good health is experienced by all.
UNSW is using creativity and inclusion to solve some of humanity's greatest challenges and shape a better future for all. Our current research is uncovering the gender specific impacts of COVID-19.
UNSW is developing better models for understanding climatic processes and dynamics to improve weather and climate prediction and support communities around the globe in the face of climate change. Our researchers are developing an understanding of the physics of storms and clouds, and how they interact with climate, atmosphere-ocean dynamics and teleconnections to regional rainfall variability and change associated with climate patterns particularly in Australia.
UNSW is leading the world in the race to build a quantum computer in silicon and undertakes world-class research in optical quantum computing and quantum information technologies.
Over 100 Research Centres
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The GOstralia! Research Centre in cooperation with UNSW award exclusive PhD full tution fee scholarships open to all faculties. More information
More funding information and application deadline available here.
Prospective students can apply for scholarships for research study, or competitive grants as a professional researcher. More information
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"There are many reasons why I would definitely recommend anyone to come and study here at UNSW. You'll be well resourced, there's care put into ensuring students are supported and there's a whole ethos of collaboration. Come here if you want to be in an environment that is nurturing, that is serious about high quality scholarship, and also very serious about engaging communities ethically."
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"For me, the biggest strength of doing a PhD degree here is the opportunity to facilitate cross disciplinary research and knowledge translation… When you know that your research can have a direct impact, that makes a difference." Snow Li, PhD Candidate from Medicine."I have the world-class expert in my field as my supervisor and that's not uncommon whatever your area of research."
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Hello Philippines! this August
Theater By angkulet August 12, 2009 No Comments
Hello Philippines CMC Media Center, U.P. Diliman, August 21-23, 2009 3pm and 7pm
The UP Repertory Company Alumni Association and the UP Repertory Company proudly present its first joint offering for 2009: Hello Philippines!
Hello Philippines, a one act musical, is a humorous take on call center culture. Team leader Tiffany tells five agents from his team that one of them is going to get axed. The twist, however, is that he will leave that decision to the five agents. So now, it's up to ex-tibak Anton, clueless rich girl Berni, the slutty Toni, the probinsyanong Brichi, and the overly religious Elsa to do whatever it takes to keep their jobs. Whatever it takes.
Hello Philippines is viciously funny and holds nothing sacred as it skewers the "call center lifestyle", a life cycle born out of fast money and desperation, shifting body clocks, and too much coffee, beer, and cigarettes. It attempts to put into perspective all the sacrifices one makes to stay in such an environment, albeit in an entertaining manner.
The College of Mass Communications Media Center is close to the College of Music building which is next to the U.P. Theater. It is also close to Quezon Hall where the Oblation is. For a map, click here.
The play will run August 21-23, 2009 with 3pm and 7pm shows.
For inquiries and tickets, text Jill at 0906-400-3279
You may also view more information on Facebook and Multiply.
An Introduction to Theater Photography
Virgin Labfest 6 Photos: Isagani (Set A)
Personal Thoughts from David Henry Hwang's Talk


Doris Anderson was known as a champion of the women's movement – a Canadian icon who fought throughout her life for the equality of women. That fight ended when Anderson died yesterday at St. Michael's Hospital from pulmonary fibrosis. She was 85.
Anderson, a long-time editor of Chatelaine magazine who later wrote a column for 10 years in the Toronto Star, spent most of her adult life fighting for women's equality – both inside and outside the home.
"She set the feminist agenda in Canada through Chatelaine magazine," said Michele Landsberg, another former Star columnist who also worked for Anderson at Chatelaine.
"She was a real mentor," Landsberg added.
Anderson and her team of writers looked at everything from abortion to sexism and made it appealing to everyone from the "prairie housewife to the Toronto sophisticate," Landsberg said. "She brought forward all the key issues for women and made them palatable and understandable ... To her, equality just made sense. It was a question of human rights and fairness."
Anderson had a profound impact on the face of Canadian feminism.
She agitated for the creation of a Royal Commission on the Status of Women through the 1960s. That commission's report eventually launched Canada's feminist revolution.
And she was responsible for women getting equality rights included in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, Landsberg said.
Anderson resigned her position as chair of the Canadian Advisory Council on the Status of Women over the issue. Her resignation prompted a wave of protests and lobbying by women for their rights to be included in the Charter.
It was a fight, Anderson was proud to say, that women in Canada won and in April 1981 women's equality rights were added to the Charter.
She remained active politically throughout her life, running for Parliament in 1978 and campaigning more recently for proportional representation in federal elections and lobbying for more women politicians on Parliament Hill.
As an active member of Equal Voice, an advocacy group dedicated to electing more women, Anderson was an "inspiration," said Rosemary Speirs, a former Toronto Star reporter and head of Equal Voice.
"She was one of our most effective speakers. She'd go out with her snowy white hair and her strong face. She was tall and stood up straight. She talked to young women about being equals and achieving an equal place in society. They were tremendously excited by her.
"She was fully engaged to the very end. She was a wonderful person to know. She had that great laugh and she always wanted to know what she could do to help."
Most recently she was the head of the Ontario Press Council and was the chancellor of the University of Prince Edward Island. She also wrote a number of books, including three novels and an autobiography – Rebel Daughter – and sat as the president of the National Action Committee on the Status of Women.
Anderson also was an officer of the Order of Canada, the winner of the YWCA Woman of Distinction Award, recipient of a Persons' Award, and she had honorary degrees from the University of Alberta, the University of Waterloo and Simon Fraser University.
But it was her work in Chatelaine that perhaps best speaks to the collective imagination and aspirations of Canadian women.
"She was a beacon. When she started editing Chatelaine, the ideal of what a North American woman was, you stayed home raising your nuclear family," Speirs said. "Magazines talked about how to please your man. Doris was instead writing a feminist column in Chatelaine and bringing that perspective to Canadian women."
Born Hilda Doris Buck in Calgary, Anderson graduated from teachers' college in 1940 and then from the University of Alberta in 1945. In 1949, she travelled to Europe to try fiction writing, like many other Canadians of her generation. She returned to Canada in 1950 and began working at Chatelaine. She became editor in 1957 and remained in the top spot until 1977. Along the way, she married David Anderson, a lawyer, and had three sons – an irony that never failed to amuse the feminist in her. The two divorced in 1972; he died of cancer in 1986.
But she was as equally committed to her sons as the world around her. "She was a fantastic parent," recalled her son Stephen. "She was a person with a lot of drive and character. She had a real toughness when she was dealing with adversity. As a parent, she was extremely loving and always adored us. She was really terrific and wonderful and she was really a lot of fun to be around."
NDP MP Olivia Chow believes that all Canadian women are in Anderson's debt.
"Her relentless push for fairness greatly inspired me," she said.
For the past year Anderson had been in failing health. But despite her illness, she continued to remain engaged and fighting for political equality, appearing recently before the Ontario Citizen's Assembly to plead for the need for the election of more women on Parliament Hill and the need for women to help govern the country.
"She was so passionate about the equality of women, and women and politics, and understanding ... that we have to take power," explained Kiloran German, a communications consultant who met Anderson and became friends with her through Equal Voice. "For her, there was no reason why not."
She was also equally outspoken about the role of women in the media, said German. She believed that the odds of breaking down the barriers for women in politics would improve dramatically if the barricades in newsrooms came down as well.
She leaves her sons Stephen, Mitchell and Peter. A public memorial service is being planned.


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The apartment is within walking distance of Hampstead Heath and has convenient access to the Northern and London Overground lines.
The property is available from 19/05/2019 and offered part furnished.


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Iran arrests eight for producing 'obscene' music videos
Iran has arrested eight people involved in producing "obscene" music videos, Tehran prosecutor general Abbas Jafarabadi told the judiciary's news agency Mizan Online on Saturday.
"Eight people producing obscene music videos, whose clips were broadcast on a famous anti-revolutionary television channel, were arrested in Tehran last week," he said.
Their charges will be reviewed by the special court of culture and media, he added.
Dozens of Farsi-language television channels are broadcast on satellite, all based outside Iran. Some air news programmes while others show only music videos, television series and movies.
Read the full article: https://www.yahoo.com/news/iran-arrests-eight-producing-obscene-music-videos-133919005.html?ref=gs
Categories News Heard Around The World | Tags:
Luis D Rey says:
No, the video was probably showing Killary Clinton shacking up with Ali Khamenei, lol
studi30 says:
Were they getting a RAP station?
Let the liberals in America take note; this is what their 'religion of peace' is all about, total censorship.
exoticdoc2 says:
Problem is, that's also what liberals are all about. They try to shut down and silence anyone that disagrees with their wacko viewpoint.
You seem to have missed my point; I was talking about TOTAL censorship, They will squeal like the pigs they are when they can no longer voice their objection to a group which is anti-feminism; anti-gay; anti-liberal. These idiots who are so determined to censor conservatives will be the biggest whiners when they can't express their objections openly!


The web survey, conducted by online news site Mynavi Woman, asked 103 men aged between 22 and 39 years of age: "What are the moments when you feel glad you're not married?". The top four responses were as follows.
The Japanese business world revolves around the networking and team-bonding tradition of nomikai, after-work drinking parties, where secrets are revealed and true feelings are shared outside of the office. Businessmen who don't attend drinking parties are less likely to get promotions and can be alienated from the group, so married men find themselves in between a rock and a hard place, torn between their obligations to their boss at work and the boss at home.
In Japan, it's the norm for hard-working salarymen to hand over their entire paypackets to their wives, who are in charge of handling the household budget. Many husbands receive pocket-money to last them for the month, which is usually just enough to cover their travel, drink and lunchtime food expenses, meaning many men go hungry or have to make do with cheap meals towards the end of their pay-cycle. Survey respondents said they were happy not to be married when they saw these sad-looking men during their lunch breaks.
Japanese singletons said they had to listen to married men complain at work and heard some awful stories about how badly their wives treat them. Many disgruntled husbands warned that women "change" and become entirely different people once they get married, putting single men off the thought of settling down.
▼ Japanese brides do wear traditional headwear known as tsunokakushi during the marriage ceremony to hide their horns of jealousy, selfishness and ego. But surely wives don't really have horns??
Bachelors said they enjoyed having time to themselves to relax and do as they please when away on holiday. Whether that be sightseeing or lazing about in the hotel room or ryokan, it's nice to not have to do things they're not interested in. Marriage and children can certainly change the way people travel and when your wife's in charge of the purse-strings, luxury weekends away can be few and far between.
While the responses from single men don't sing out the virtues of marriage, those who conducted the survey encourage the rest of us not to lose heart. If you're looking to snare a single man, watch out for these four points and make sure your man knows he has nothing to worry about. Single men, chin up—marriage in Japan might still be tied to traditional roles and values but that doesn't mean you and your wife can't get over these hurdles together and have a little fun at the same time!


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Why the Recent Spate of "Religious Freedom" Bills May Be a Good Thing
Posted on February 27, 2014 by Kaoru Negisa
Anybody who has been paying attention to politics recently has probably heard about the "religious freedom" bills that have been hitting a number of states recently. It's a little mind boggling that all of them have been making it to state legislatures all at the same time, with similar language, but so far it's been very difficult to actually track where they are coming from. Usually when bills like this are all proposed simultaneously, there is somebody not only writing the model legislation but willing to claim it. So far it's been difficult at best to track down the origin.
Regardless, what started in Kansas has grown to a number of other states including Georgia, South Dakota, Tennessee, Hawaii, Oklahoma, Mississippi, Missouri, Ohio, Oregon, Idaho, Alabama, Michigan, Maine, West Virginia, and is being considered in Utah. Most famous has been the recent veto of a bill that passed both houses of the Arizona legislature.
Go see why this might be a positive thing in a couple of ways in the full post over at Queereka.
Posted in Human Rights, Politics	| Tagged Christianism, LGBT, politics	| Leave a reply
Lowered Expectations + Vague Statements = Person of the Year
Posted on December 19, 2013 by Kaoru Negisa
By now you've heard that the Advocate has named Pope Francis its person of the year. In perhaps one of the most cringingly apologetic and sycophantic pieces published about the Supreme Pontiff, Lucas Grindley reaches to draw the barest scraps of meaning out of the most innocuous of statements. In fact, reading this piece, you'll notice that most of the article is Grindley doing little more than repeating himself or explaining why other people deserve the praise more. I almost feel as if the editorial board made the decision, and poor Lucas was tasked with writing it up. But let's examine this article to see if we can divine the thinking that makes what appears to be pandering to pop culture lionization into a legitimate choice.
As I mentioned, the first six paragraphs are about how other people should have been given this honor. Grindley focuses especially on Edie Windsor, the brave woman whose case got a part of DOMA thrown out in court. It's followed by this remarkably cop out
Thus begins my new piece for Queereka. Read the whole article on that site.
Posted in Faith, Human Rights, Politics	| Tagged Dolan, LGBT, morons, Perkins, politics, Vatican	| 2 Replies
Comics Leading Society
I know this is a little late, so please excuse me, but I just couldn't let this go without saying something.
You might have heard that some serious heavyweights in the comics industry dismissed accusations of sexism, while also saying that comics are usually following, not leading, social change, so that makes it totes ok if they were sexist, which they aren't. Their arguments read like a greatest hits of privilege apologetics (e.g. "We objectify men, too!", "Why don't they make their own comics?", and the suggestion that superhero comics, like skepticism, are more of a guy thing), and include a digression that touches on race by arguing that actively pursuing diversity automatically means not creating a stand-alone good character.
The people in question are Len Wein, most famous for creating Wolverine, Gerry Conway, who invented The Punisher (and gave what was to me the most baffling and infuriating quote, that "…the comics follow society. They don't lead society."), and Todd McFarlane, who developed a comic book as an excuse to sell toys.
Before we get too into this, I think it's important that we have some context for these guys' careers, because they are not lightweights in the industry, and all of them have had significant impacts on the way we experience comics to this day, for good and for ill. But by examining where they came from, we might be able to understand why they are so horrendously wrong.
Let's start with Wein. While Len Wein is best known for his creation of Wolverine, he actually created a number of the X-men that are incredibly popular, including Nightcrawler, Storm, and Colossus. He revived the book from five years of hiatus in 1975 and his tenure on the title set the stage for the team most non-comic readers would become familiar with: the 90's animated series composition. Wolverine was introduced to the team in this book, but the fuzzball was introduced to the universe over a year before in Incredible Hulk 181, touted as "The World's First and Greatest Canadian Super Hero". However, unlike his predecessors and, to an extent, his successors, X-men under his direction wasn't as socially conscious, preferring to focus less on the place of mutants in the world and more on super-powered people beating up on one another. Wein eventually became Editor-in-Chief at Marvel.
It was under his leadership that a man named Gerry Conway would be writing The Amazing Spider-man. Conway started at Marvel around the same time as Wein. In fact, 1970's Daredevil #71 was Wein's first comic at Marvel, and Daredevil #72 was Conway's. Conway took over Spider-man at the tender age of 19, after a couple of years of writing duties being passed between Roy Thomas and Stan Lee. Again, we saw a move away from making any statements (ironic, only a year after Amazing Spider-man #96-98, which was not given a Comics Code Authority label because Lee wouldn't abandon a plot thread about the dangers of drug use), and the eventual introduction of Punisher in issue 129. He would also script "The Night Gwen Stacy Died". Punisher wasn't given his own book until the early 80s, but stood out for his willingness to kill, a function largely of his antagonists being the mob and it being easier to mow down scores of faceless goombas than to have to create a new Doctor Octopus or The Vulture every couple of issues because you keep killing off unique villains.
Finally you have McFarlane. It's hard to count him among the other two since he didn't make his money or his fame from comic books directly. Rather, he created a comic, then marketed the hell out of toys for the comic. Yes, he did work on Spider-man as well, but really his success came from his founding of Image comics, an exercise in remembering why artists don't just write their own stuff, and the creation of Spawn, who has limped along in comic fandom with some hard core followers but no lasting impression. I'm sure there are some Spawn fans out there, maybe even a couple that can name a Spawn villain off the top of their head that isn't Clown, Satan, or Martin Sheen, but when your supporting characters are so incidental (BTW: Spawn had a supporting cast) that they can be cannibalized by your former company in an ill-advised continuity-merging event, you haven't created a lasting property. Ultimately, McFarlane's influence would probably be felt less as a creator and more as one of the people most fueling the Speculation Bubble that was one of the main reasons 90s comics were so awful.
The reason why I go into this digression is two-fold. The first is to point out that asking Todd McFarlane his opinion on comic books is a lot like asking Uwe Boll his opinion on movies. Sure, he's made a few, but they're not very good and usually a means to an end. McFarlane is much better equipped to answer questions about character design, much like Boll is better equipped to answer questions about just barely avoiding committing fraud.
The second point is that while McFarlane, who drove the Liefeldian testosterone-fueled 90s overeaction to body shape and human behavior (hello Youngblood, Cable, Doom's IV, and Hardcore Station, to name a few), could be excused for thinking that comics never did anything he wasn't interested in doing, Wein and Conway know better.
As I mentioned above, Conway, who gave the damn quote, took over Amazing about a year after Stan Lee specifically bucked the industry trade group in order to publish an incredibly timely comment on drug abuse and its dangers. Wein revived a book that had a really respectable seven year run as a metaphor to the Civil Rights movement while it was going on. Both of them started at DC and worked there during Denny O'Neill and Neal Adams' incredibly well done and successful Green Lantern/Green Arrow crossovers, which were specifically designed to address social issues because those were the books that were popular at the time (as a side note, they were also astounding and dealt with issues from a really balanced, but hard-hitting way).
Conway and Wein were executives at Marvel when X-men: God Loves, Man Kills was published in 1982. They were part of the industry and even could have grown up reading Archie Comics, which has always presented Riverdale as progressively accepting of other people, being one of the first comics to have regular appearances by characters of color, fairly recently introducing gay teen Kevin Keller, depicting Keller's future marriage to a same-sex partner (after coming home a war hero), and this month showing him kissing his boyfriend on the cover of his title book.
Wein and Conway both should be aware of William Marston's opinion that women should be in charge of the world, and how his feminism guided the creation of Wonder Woman. They might have even heard of Truth: Red, White, and Black, X-men: Magneto Testament, or Pride of Baghdad. You'd think they would have been familiar with Iron Man's continuing battle with alcoholism or the decades of thoughtful fallout from Hank Pym's abuse of his wife. Or with the importance of the introduction of characters like Black Panther, Luke Cage, and White Tiger. It's possible they haven't seen how well Batgirl has been doing since the launch of the New 52 under Gail Simone's leadership.They almost certainly have heard of the Marvel Civil War, which is my favorite crossover event of all time because it dealt with the question of how much liberty we can sacrifice for security at the height of the War on Terror.
Even if all of those things escaped their notice, they might be peripherally aware of this comic about an immigrant boy who comes to be raised in middle America and becomes a hero. In fact, the popularity of this comic is attributed as one of the reasons why many immigrants joined the war effort in the early 1940s, despite immigration being a very sore subject during the time of that comic's popularity.
Comics have consistently been ahead of or right in the middle of social change. They are often overlooked as a significant mover of social progress, mostly by people like Wein, Conway, and McFarlane who have never and will never have to worry about whether a character is like them at all: most characters are in a number of ways. They will never care about seeing people dealing with the problems that affect their lives, because the problems that affect their lives are not the kind of problems that need heroes.
But to suggest that comics are behind the curve is to project their own apathy onto a medium that has spoken directly about issues that have had to be tiptoed around in other places. It has been in front of so many social movements, and that we see it lagging behind on women's issues in many significant ways is more disappointing because they have been a positive voice on so many other things.
Comics can be a catalyst for change, especially super hero comics, even from the Big Two publishers. That's why it's important that we push back against these types of attitudes, and demonstrate that the books that we want are the ones that are not only well written, but make a point to be inclusive and allow characters to be something other than wish fantasy fulfillment for straight white cis teenage boys.
Posted in Feminism, Politics	| Tagged comics, feminism, LGBT	| 2 Replies
Confronting the "Best Arguments"
Most people are pretty sure they're right. Not necessarily about everything, but there are a few things they feel absolutely confident about. I know that I feel free damn confident about most of the stuff that goes up here, and when I'm not I will say so. However, there are two implications to this confidence: either I am really, truly amazing and right about everything I believe, or I am wrong about some things and haven't heard the right argument yet.
It's the latter that I find people banking more more and more. Let's look at some examples:
What are marriage advocates to do? How can marriage—a thorough defense of which requires deep theological reflection or the complex natural law web of anthropological, historical, social, and scientific ideas contained in [Robert George's] What is Marriage—compete with "all you need is love"? – Eric Teetsel, "On Winning the Marriage Debate"
Not for Hitchens the rich cross-cultural fertilization of the Levant by Helenistic, Jewish, and Manichaean thought. Not for Hitchens the transformation of a Jewish heretic into a religion that Nietzsche called "Platonism for the masses." Not for Hitchens the fascinating theological fissures in the New Testament between Jewish, Gnostic, and Pauline doctrines. – Curtis White, "Christopher Hitchens' lies do atheism no favors"
"Either this group is completely ignorant of arguments for and against God's existence or they're ignorant of the best theistic scholarship." – Anugrah Kumar, quoting William Lane Craig, "Christian Philosopher William Lane Craig Calls Atheist Hotline a 'Wrong Number'" (warning that the Christian Post is particularly annoying with its ads, with video ads that keep restarting if you pause or mute them)
We often see this regarding religious or theistic arguments, but it's becoming quite popular among people who continue to put forward bad arguments: simply claim that the person who doesn't buy into them hasn't heard all the really good reasons why we should buy into what they're saying. I think it's a variation on The Courtier's Reply.
I've encountered this before with theists and when I ask them to actually present those really good arguments, I will generally get a form of Pascal's Wager. Occasionally I will get the Kalam Cosmological Argument and very rarely anything different. Unfortunately, both Pascal and Kalam are very easily debunked. In fact, I took a look at Craig's ReasonableFaith.org (which is not as cool as a reasonable conversation, let me tell you) and it's almost all Pascal and Kalam. You don't have to believe me, go check it out yourself. I fact, if you check out his "The New Atheism and Five Arguments for God," (for example) you can see that he brings up Kalam, but also the Thomstic Cosmological argument, the Moral Argument, the Teleological Argument (which is by far the most ridiculous and easy to argue against, as far as I'm concerned), and the ever absurd Ontological Argument, which is really just such a joke on the face of it that I'm going to assume it was developed by Dr. Frank-n-furter. Though I will point out that he forgot the Argument from Tigers.
I've looked at that site for a while now and see very little that isn't a variation on these five, so I can't help but ask Dr. Craig…where are you hiding these "best arguments"? Because the ones you presented are all childishly simple and only really convincing to people who want to agree with the premise.
Oh, and there's the very popular "it's a mystery". That works for a lot of things.
Going to the Teetsel piece, we see basically the same argument being made for conservative principles. The problem is that people just don't understand the wealth of thought and philosophy that goes into being a conservative, and are instead distracted by pop culture and celebrities. Liberalism, according to Teetsel, is the result of an abandonment of thought to shiny entertainment.
This is even more absurd than the Ontological argument. Teetsel is trying to tell us that the ideology that aligns itself with people who think somebody rose from the dead (several people, actually), the ideology that consistently denies the findings of science, the ideology that has never been right about a social issue since the founding of this country (and not too often before), is the thinking person's option?
As David Sessions points out in this article for Patrol,
So Teetsel can't pretend that the gay rights movement won simply by circumventing an intellectual debate. They had the intellectual debate when the religious right so took its own position for granted that it thought it didn't need to argue; when the right finally started playing catch-up, even the most sophisticated versions of its ideas were too far outside the mainstream for a secular democracy. The right didn't lose because of the "packaging" of its ideas, it lost because those ideas themselves were defeated in battle. (Similarly, Romney lost the election not because he didn't get the conservative message across, but precisely because he did.)
This is also a lot like Penny Nance's preposterous assertion on Mike Huckabee's show that conservatives on college campuses are being "bullied" because they can't explain their opposition to things like same-sex marriage. The sad truth is that they are able to articulate their positions just fine.
So, here's the deal: we've heard your arguments, and they suck. I'm sorry, I don't know if you're just really invested in these things being true that you miss the obvious flaws in what you're saying or what, but these arguments are truly awful. Fortunately, you don't have to feel awful for having had them: you can change your mind. In fact, that would be great.
But if there are arguments that you're hiding from me, ones that suddenly make it plausible that a wizard who lives on a cloud is up there mucking about with our lives, or that magically makes welfare queens a reality, or that convinces me that I'm a bad person for a propensity to not only be attracted to men but also act on it, now's the time to break them out. Seriously, I don't know what you guys are waiting for. Isn't it time, after all this joking around, to break out the real "best arguments"? These are the gag arguments, right?
Posted in Atheism, Human Rights, Politics	| Tagged atheism, Christianism, god, GOP, LGBT, politics, skepticism	| 32 Replies
Confounding Quotations
Posted on May 25, 2013 by Kaoru Negisa
Well, I am home sick this weekend rather then spending my time hanging out with friends, snuggling my girlfriend, fencing, and singing folk songs well into the night. I actually have a new one I wrote and wanted to premiere when it wasn't 1:30 in the morning!
But so long as I am here getting over whatever the fuck has ruined my SCA event plans, I have at least gotten a chance to start catching up on the news I've been missing because of work deadlines. And I have to admit, while there has been plenty to make me angry, I find that I've just been confused by a whole lot of what's being said. And today we're going to work out some of my confusion on a number of quotes.
So here we go!
1. Divine Protection Racket
It's often joked among atheists that what Christians call "salvation" (and other religions call other things) basically sounds like a Mafioso extorting people. "Hey, nice soul ya got there. Be a shame if something happened to it, like it burned in a lake of fire for all eternity." It's a bit of hyperbole to highlight that God is often trying to save us from itself. And that's why this quote from Rep. Randy Weber is so hilariously confused and confusing.
It's a good thing that he's a holy, just non-vengeful God. It's a good thing we're not vengueful [sic], because he [sic] might ask him to bring an untimely demise to those in the abortion industry who are killing our babies. But we're not that way. He's a God of second chances.
Anyone else get the impression that the only thing keeping Randy Weber from murdering every abortion provider he can get his hands on is mortal law and disapprobation rather than divine grace? I mean, this quote is so all over the map. "It's a good thing God doesn't kill people, because we might wish God would kill people and God would do it, but he wouldn't and we wouldn't wish that on those goddamn BABY KILLERS that we totally wouldn't wish harm on." He really, really wants to be able to call for violence (and I would want to as well if I believed that people were actually killing babies), but he knows that that tends to look bad, so he keeps walking up to that line and backing away again.
It doesn't help that he's backing up world class idiot Paul Broun, which makes it difficult to be coherent. That being said, this was so out there that I'm not sure that it can be covered merely by being the Lou Costello to Broun's Bud Abbott.
2. Getting What You Pay For
I really, really hate to bring up Ron Lindsay again, but the man keeps making these strange, nonsensical statements. First it was his introduction at Women in Secularism, then his absurd comparison of pushback to North Korean propagandists, and now this tweet.
Free inquiry. Free expression. Not only are these indispensable in our quest for the truth but they're necessary conditions 4 human dignity
Where is this coming from? Ceiling Cat be praised, this is as ridiculous as The Thaw! Who has told Ron Lindsay that he can't inquire or speak? Seriously, who? Is this just a general statement that coincidently sounds like a defense of his increasingly ridiculous and paranoid assertions? Again, we seem to have a person who is under the impression that in order to be free, they must be free from any criticism. Criticism is only something that Ron Lindsay and the people he agrees with are afforded the right to, you see. Anybody who questions that, even in the mildest of terms, is an enemy of freedom, I suppose.
Also, it's taking a stand on some pretty nasty stuff. How do people's heads Photoshopped on porn advance human dignity? How does publishing a person's home address in front of a bunch of people who hate that person advance human dignity? As PZ pointed out in the link above
When they photoshop our faces onto porn, when they call us "manginas" and "cunts", when they flood CFI conference streams with denigrating insults to the speakers, they are not making "free inquiry", they are not using "free speech" in a "quest for truth" or to advance "human dignity".
Not all expression is some noble gesture in favor of free expression. Listening to it is more a testament to the greatness of free expression than just saying whatever stupid thing comes to your brain. As per usual, I go to MovieBob's The Big Picture on political correctness, which he defines pretty well as "being nice" and the enemies of political correctness as people who simply feel that some people don't deserve their niceness. That doesn't make you a samurai sworn in fealty to the First Amendment, ready to slit open your own belly if it's necessary. It makes you a jerk who doesn't want to be called a jerk while still predicating your behavior toward others on whatever impulses you have at the moment rather than anything they happen to do.
3. The Best Kept Secret
This is one that confuses me more on the practice than on the actual thing said. So, a couple of days ago, Pope Francis said a kind of nice thing about atheists and non-Catholics in general.
The Lord has redeemed all of us, all of us, with the Blood of Christ: all of us, not just Catholics. Everyone! 'Father, the atheists?' Even the atheists. Everyone! And this Blood makes us children of God of the first class! We are created children in the likeness of God and the Blood of Christ has redeemed us all! And we all have a duty to do good. And this commandment for everyone to do good, I think, is a beautiful path towards peace. If we, each doing our own part, if we do good to others, if we meet there, doing good, and we go slowly, gently, little by little, we will make that culture of encounter: we need that so much. We must meet one another doing good. 'But I don't believe, Father, I am an atheist!' But do good: we will meet one another there.
It's not much, but it's something, at least. And it's something I can get behind, too, since I'm more than happy to work with believers of any kind in making a positive change in the world. I do it fairly often, in fact.
But this is the Vatican, and they really can't let stuff like this go without swooping in to ruin the fuck out of it. Emphasis mine.
On Thursday, the Vatican issued an "explanatory note on the meaning to 'salvation.'"
The Rev. Thomas Rosica, a Vatican spokesman, said that people who know about the Catholic church "cannot be saved" if they "refuse to enter her or remain in her."
Look at that highlighted part right there and really think about it. It's Catholic doctrine that people who are unaware of the Church get a free pass on the whole Jesus thing, so why the fuck would you tell anybody about it? No, seriously, if you care about the state of people's souls after death, and you know that if you simply don't tell them that there's an option to sell your soul to a tiny nation-state in the middle of Italy instead of just doing whatever it is you do already, why wouldn't you just not tell them about it? Wouldn't that get more people into Heaven? Wouldn't that just starve hell of people because nobody knew they had the chance to give 10% of their income to men in fabulous, if poorly cut, dresses? Catholicism should be two guys who live in secret and make sure the other one is always following the catechism and nobody learns of their arcane practices.
This also suggests the other question: what if the one true religion involves two brother gods fighting over the last doughnut eternally, one guy in Luxembourg knew about it in 1751 and died without telling anybody, and because of the loophole that you don't have to believe if you've never heard of it, any person who is decently good and generous gets to spend eternity in the Divine Krispy Kreme, where the red light is always on? It's no less plausible than any other myth base.
4. Designed Economics
The Sensuous Curmudgeon is hilarious. I love reading their take on creationists and their mockery of evolution deniers. It's really something to read every time. However, they also are a fiscal conservative, so occasionally will write a post discussing economics that inevitably misses a point someplace. This was, however, exceptionally weird.
This post is based on their support of a quote from Ronald Bailey, which goes, "Intelligent design is to evolutionary biology what socialism is to free-market economics." There is then a lot of writing about how shopping malls are like evolution in that stores change and the mall you knew growing up is probably almost nothing like the mall you know today. I think this may be the crux of their argument.
Aside from the mall itself, who planned the assembly of all the individual stores, with all the wares they display? No mall developer could possibly design all that. Even if he started out with a few chain stores in mind as tenants, the roster of retailers currently at the mall is probably quite different from the original tenants, many of whom may have gone out of business and were replaced by new retailers. Not only do the stores gradually change over time, but the goods being sold are probably different from those that were originally on display. In the space of a decade or two, virtually everything is different.
I'm not sure if the Curmudgeon thinks that developers create malls, take on original tenants, then just let them go and develop as they will or what, but developers have constant say in what can go on in stores in a mall. When one store fails, the developer finds another store to replace it. Stores have very strict limits on what they can display and how they can display it. A mall quite literally is intelligently designed constantly.
Down here in Orlando we have the Mall at Millenia, which is supposed to be high end stores. Take a look at the directory. I see a Crate & Barrel, Monteblanc, Louis Vuitton, every Gap brand except for Old Navy, an Apple store, Prada, Rolex, and several other places that cater to the wealthy. Know what I don't see? Spencer Gifts. Or Bed, Bath, and Beyond. Or Target. Why? Because there is a developer who has complete control over this mall and decides who can and can't open a store there. That's nothing like evolution, which would allow any store that set up shop and made money to thrive, whether it was Tiffany & Co. or Dollar Tree.
The original quote makes no sense, either. As I pointed out, most businesses are, in fact, intelligently designed. The original person just took two things he liked and two things he didn't like and made a syllogism that only stands as true if the comparison is something that Ronald Bailey approves of to something that Ronald Bailey doesn't approve of.
The other problem with this quote and the whole perception is that this isn't necessarily a good thing. I mean, think about it: two common atheist complaints about religion are that a) evolution is an endlessly cruel process and it's hard to imagine an all-good creator putting entire species through that, and b) if we are intelligently designed, then the designer isn't that good at their job since there are so many ways things could be better. We reject ID because it's in all likelihood not true, not because there's something inherently bad about the idea of a designer. Hell, if there were a genuinely omni-benevolent creator who knew what the fuck they were doing, that would actually be a lot better! We would have redundancies built into our bodies, we wouldn't have pointless organs, we wouldn't run down with age, there would be no part of us that didn't heal or grow back, we wouldn't be so fragile, we wouldn't be susceptible to disease…the possibilities for improvement are endless. Why wouldn't we prefer it if species were just gotten right the first time and didn't have to go through the gruesome machine that is natural selection?
To apply that to economics, why would we prefer a system that is manifestly more brutal and apathetic to human suffering than one that actually tries to alleviate human suffering? No, I'm not talking about pure socialism, which doesn't work, but surely we can socialize aspects of things to increase the happiness and well-being of as many people as possible instead of shrugging our shoulders and saying that that's just the price of free markets. Again, atheists are constantly saying that given omnipotence we could do better than any of the perceived gods thus invented, so why would we embrace apathy instead of empathy when we have the chance?
5. Timmy and the Washing Well
Regular Conversationalists know that I consider Timmy Dolan one of the most horrendous humanoid creatures to walk the face of the Earth. I mean, the slimy trail he leaves through the media is toxic in the most nauseating sense of the word. I'm pretty sure he can't order breakfast without a back handed compliment to queer people or atheists, and his excessive pride in what he thinks is incredible subtlety reads like a child who can see up a girl's skirt and can't stop giggling at their own naughtiness.
Which brings us to this bizarre piece of tripe that he wrote titled "All Are Welcome!" in which he describes how the Church loves people to show up and wants them to know Jesus and blah blah blah. Then we get to this.
This balance can cause some tensions. Freddie and I were loved and welcomed at our family table, but the clear expectation was, no dirty hands!
He's, of course, talking about gay people, people who live together before marriage, and people who have been involved in abortion in some respect. To his credit, he also calls out businesmen (and only men) who don't pay their workers a fair wage, but it feels tacked on considering he rarely seems to discuss it otherwise and the Church doesn't throw their weight behind living wage laws as much as they do behind fighting marriage equality or contraception.
But what is bizarre and infuriating about this particular extended analogy, is that he really didn't think that anybody would question his comparison of being gay or cohabitating to being dirty.
It gets worse in that when several Catholics showed up at St. Patrick's Cathedral (where Cardinal Timmy preaches) with dirty hands for a silent protest, they were not only told they weren't welcome inside, but Timmy of the Imposing Jowls called the NYPD to have them removed! And, what's worse, the NYPD enforced it! Because, as we all know, it's imperative that an organ of the state enforce religious rules like the one that was broken here (i.e. "Do what I fucking tell you because I have a fancy hat!").
I admit, this one pisses me off, but the idea that protestors don't plague him like the Furies did Orestes also pisses me off. What baffles me is the repeated failure of people to stop and think in this whole debacle. First Timmy having a secretary translate his crayon scribble into a blog, then him calling the cops to prove that "all are welcome", then the NYPD showing up and enforcing religious dictates. It's just failure after failure after failure here, and nobody was able to figure out that this might not look very good, even if they weren't sure if it was right or not? I know that the Catholic church doesn't much care about bad PR at this point, but I thought the NYPD still did. Maybe too many loving handjobs on network television that convinces people they're all saints in blue suits?
(h/t to Slacktivist for that last one)
So, yes, things have gotten really confusing while I've been away. Am I being unreasonable, here? Do these things really make perfect sense and I'm just being dense? Because I really can't figure out how any of these things have gotten said or done.
Posted in Atheism, Faith, Human Rights, Politics	| Tagged economics, faith, Vatican	| 5 Replies
More Words that Mean Other Things
Posted on April 17, 2013 by Kaoru Negisa
During the 70s and 80s, a cottage industry of old white evangelical con artists rose up. People who had been involved in the conservative movement but were unhappy with the lefty capitulation of Bill Buckley decided that they had one hell of a product: fear for one's immortal soul with a righteous superiority chaser. Why not market the hell out of that?
So as a result we saw the rise of luminaries like Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, Francis Schaeffer…and Pat Buchanan. Buchanan was involved in the Nixon administration early in his career, where he fought for affirmative action based on religion while spending the rest of his career to date fighting against it for race. He is a writer for VDARE, a white supremacist group, and still believes that the Southern Strategy was a good idea.
Also, he wants you to know that he's totes not racist.
And now he's worried that the same people who noticed racism exsisted will now discriminate against poor, helpless, politically bereft Christians just because they will speak against gay marriage and queer people more broadly.
"Imagine the situation in America today if priests and pastors were telling congregations they need not obey civil rights laws. They would be denounced as racists. Church tax exemptions would be in peril," he said. "Something akin to this could be in the cards if the homosexual rights movement is victorious – a public rejection of the new laws by millions and a refusal by many to respect or obey them."
I really love this quote, not for the content, but rather because you can see his disappointment that he lost the race issue. I'm not saying that racism is solved, but rather that you should look at how he says that if you encourage people to disobey civil rights laws, you might be considered a racist today! Because in Buchanan's mind, it wasn't racist before, but now that we have this idea that segregation is bad, for example, suddenly it's racist to suggest Whites Only drinking fountains in public accommodations.
And, of course, he's afraid that people will now have to "reject" the "new laws" or someday, vocal and open homophobes might be treated the way we treat open and vocal racists today. Generally by giving them a column on WorldNetDaily.
But that's not the real amusing part. This is:
He concluded by darkly warning, "The culture war in America today may be seen as squabbles in a day-care center compared to what is coming. A new era of civil disobedience may be at hand."
By all means, take a moment to laugh. I'll wait.
Better?
Buchanan, in this case, is using the words "civil disobedience" because he's pretty sure that it sounds good. At least it seemed to work when he was fighting the people employing it in the 50s tooth and nail, so clearly they were on to something. Obviously there's something magical about those words, that phrase of phrases, that makes whatever you're doing seem good and right and noble and true.
The problem is, however, that it's not generally applicable. Fred Clark does an excellent job of explaining how civil disobedience should work (and gives several followup posts on how the evangelical right is trying to co-opt the words to hilarious effect), but the basic premise is that in order to civilly disobey a law, it has to be one that you have to option to civilly obey in the first place.
But Jesse's defiance can't be as easily channeled against this new law. Unlike the litter law, this one doesn't directly compel him to do anything or forbid him from doing anything. And since it does not directly require his civil obedience, it does not lend itself to his civil disobedience.
I'm not exactly sure what Buchanan wants people to do. He talks about preachers and pastors using the pulpit to rail against homosexuality, but that's not civil disobedience. That's exercising your right to be a vocal asshole. They can do that now and there will never be a law that will prevent that, let alone there being one in the works now, so I'm not sure how this qualifies as "civil disobedience". They can be civilly disobedient against gay marriage laws by…not getting a same-sex marriage, I suppose? Not performing them? No, the latter doesn't apply because nobody wants churches and the like to be forced to perform same-sex marriages.
I suppose that they can be civilly disobedient against anti-discrimination laws, such as the Washington florist who refused to provide flowers for a same-sex wedding because she's in a relationship with Jesus. The thing is, this is nothing new. Buchanan has been fighting anti-discrimination laws since they were passed. He's spent his life standing up for the privilege of white straight cis Christian males like himself to be able to discriminate against anyone they please because white folks built this country all by themselves.
So really, we're not seeing much new here, expect Buchanan jumping on the bandwagon with his racist colleagues and trying to use the language of civil rights (that were once so effectively used against him) to fight LGBT equality.
What's going on here is that the old formula of fear+superiority isn't quite enough these days. Buchanan and his ilk are having a harder time doing anything other than keeping the already-converted in line by telling them that there are two types of people: those who are like them and perfect in their flaws (or flawed in their perfection), and everybody else who will suffer for all eternity at the hands of a merciful god. That works great on people who currently think they're in the first category, but is a really bad argument for anybody not already drinking the purely symbolic grape juice.
So they are adding in another component: nobility. It's no longer just about being super Jesus-y awesome and avoiding infinite torture for finite infractions, now he has to sell the fantasy that standing up for the status quo is actually an act of defiance. Like Recall in the film Total Recall, they offer the feeling of excitement to people who otherwise live boring, average lives, without the mess of actually having to do anything exciting. Any straight white cis male Christian can live the thrill of fighting battles that were won 1700 years ago and not have to worry for a moment that he will lose anything of substance should he not prevail.
Posted in Human Rights, Politics	| Tagged Christianism, LGBT, racism	| 2 Replies


Kevin is a founding partner of McMickle, Kurey & Branch, LLP. His practice focuses on the representation of motor carriers, transportation intermediaries, insurance companies, property owners/managers, developers, construction companies and businesses in litigation matters. He handles casualty, cargo, insurance coverage, construction, employment and commercial cases throughout the United States. Kevin regularly handles jury trials in federal and state courts. In addition to his litigation practice, Kevin assists transportation entities and businesses with regulatory compliance and other commercial matters. As part of his insurance coverage practice, Kevin regularly works with insurance clients in the drafting of coverage forms and his Motor Truck Cargo Coverage Form is regularly used in the industry.


During seed maturation, the transcriptional activity of napin genes is regulated by developmental signals involving the transcriptional activator ABI3 and abscisic acid (ABA). To localize cis elements involved in the seed-specific activity of the napin napA promoter, a systematic analysis was performed focusing on two major element complexes, the B-box and RY/G. Substitution mutation analysis using promoter-reporter gene fusions in stable transgenic tobacco showed synergistic interactions between elements within these complexes. The distal part of the B-box shows similarities to abscisic acid response elements and the proximal portion contains a CA-rich element. In vitro studies involving Exonuclease III protection and electrophoretic mobility shift assays revealed binding by nuclear proteins to elements within the B-box. The distal and proximal parts of the B-box were found to bind distinct nuclear protein complexes. By gain-of-function analysis with a tetramer of the B-box fused to a truncated (−46) cauliflower mosaic virus (CaMV) 35S minimal promoter, it was demonstrated that the B-box mediates strong activity in seeds. Further, it was shown that the elements in the B-box constitute an ABA-responsive complex, since the B-box tetramer mediates ABA-responsiveness in vegetative tissues to a construct containing the CaMV virus 35S enhancer (−343 to −90). Thus, the seed-specific activity of the napA promoter relies on the combinatorial interaction between the RY/G complex and the B-box ABA-responsive complex during the ABA response in seed development.
Ausubel, F.N.; Brent, R.; Kingston, R.E.; Moore, D.D.; Seidman, J.G.; Smith, J.A.; Struhl, K.
Bate, N.; Spurr, C.; Foster, G.D.; Twell, D.
Bäumlein, H.; Nagy, I.; Villarroel, R.; Inzé, D.; Wobus, U.
Bobb, A.J.; Chern, M.S.; Bustos, M.M.
de Bruxelles, G.L.; Peacock, W.J.; Dennis, E.S.; Dolferus, R.
de Pater, S.; Pham, K.; Chua, N.H.; Memelink, J.; Kijne, J.
Ellerström, E.; Stålberg, K.; Ezcurra, I.; Rask, L.
Guiltinan, M.J.; Marcotte,W.R, W.R.; Quatrano, R.S.
Gustavsson, H.O.; Ellerström, M.; Stålberg, K.; Ezcurra, I.; Koman, A.; Höglund, A.S.; Rask, L.; Josefsson, L.G.
Hattori, T.; Vasil, V.; Rosenkrans, L.; Hannah, L.C.; McCarty, D.R.; Vasil, I.K.
Hattori, T.; Terada, T.; Hamasuna, S.
Jiang, L.W.; Abrams, S.R.; Kermode, A.R.
Lelievre, J.M.; Oliveira, L.O.; Nielsen, N.C.
Nunberg, A.N.; Zhuwen, L.; Bogue, M.A.; Vivekanda, J.; Reddy, A.S.; Thomas, T.L.
Ono, A.; Izawa, T.; Chua, N.H.; Shimamoto, K.
Örtoft, E.; Påhlman, S.; Andersson, G.; Parrow, V.; Betsholtz, C.; Hammerling, U.
Parcy, F.; Valon, C.; Raynal, M.; Gaubier Comella, P.; Delseny, M.; Giraudat, J.
Phillips, J.; Artsaenko, O.; Fiedler, U.; Horstmann, C.; Mock, H.P.; Muntz, K.; Conrad, U.
Pla, M.; Vilardell, J.; Guiltinan, M.J.; Marcotte, W.R.; Niogret, M.F.; Quatrano, R.S.; Pagès, M.
Rödin, J.; Sjödahl, S.; Josefsson, L.G.; Rask, L.
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Sablowski, R.W.M.; Moyano, E.; Culianez-Macia, F.A.; Schuch, W.; Martin, C.; Bevan, M.
Shen, Q.; Zhang, P.; Ho, T.H.D.
Skriver, K.; Olsen, F.L.; Rogers, J.C.; Mundy, J.
Stålberg, K.; Ellerström, M.; Josefsson, L.G.; Rask, L.
Stålberg, K.; Ellerström, M.; Ezcurra, I.; Ablov, S.; Rask, L.
Vasil, V.; Marcotte, W.; Rosenkrans, L.; Cocciolone, S.M.; Vasil, I.K.; Quatrano, R.S.; McCarty, D.R.
Yamaguchi-Shinozaki, K.; Mundy, J.; Chua, N.H.
Ezcurra, I., Ellerström, M., Wycliffe, P., Stålberg, K., & Rask, L. (2004). Interaction between composite elements in the napA promoter: both the B-box ABA-responsive complex and the RY/G complex are necessary for seed-specific expression. Plant Molecular Biology, 40(4), 699-709.
Ezcurra, Inés, Mats Ellerström, Paul Wycliffe, Kjell Stålberg, and Lars Rask. "Interaction between composite elements in the napA promoter: both the B-box ABA-responsive complex and the RY/G complex are necessary for seed-specific expression." Plant Molecular Biology 40.4 (2004): 699-709.


Click on any image to see images in slide show format.
Hmm perhaps its another difference between 020 and Rotterdam – plenty of trolleys where I live, including mine. A lot of bikes, too, so I guess it was your lucky day.
Seems enough of a demand to warrant the production of these "Bullit"t bikes.


Let's face it; no one likes getting fired from their job. Getting laid off can be both professionally embarrassing and financially devastating. Thankfully, it's possible to not only rebound, but also thrive after being terminated. In fact, that's exactly what has happened to some very successful people.
In this article, we're going to tackle the topic of getting fired. As part of that discussion, we'll first cite some pretty eye-opening unemployment / jobless statistics. Next, we'll talk about several famous people that were laid off at one point in their lives, only to bounce back into a very successful career. Finally, we'll outline steps that can help anyone that's been downsized get back on their feet.
We often hear or read about the unemployment rate in the United States. That value is usually quoted as a percentage of the entire workforce, so it's difficult to understand exactly how many people are jobless. It's also a "net" value, meaning it's a combination of people that were laid off and those that were hired.
A more insightful measure captured by the Bureau of Labor Statistics is layoff events and separations. Layoff events are a count of the number of layoffs involving 50 or more individuals. Separations are the total number of people that were fired for one reason or another.
The table below demonstrates that in 2009, there were nearly 11,500 layoff events, which is more than double the number of events back in 2005. The number of separations was incredibly high in 2008 and 2009 too. Over 3,500,000 people lost their jobs in those two years alone.
Fortunately, we're able to drill down one level and gain insights into why people were fired from their jobs. Here we pulled a table of data from the fourth quarter of 2008. While the information is not surprising, it does validate the pressure the Great Recession placed on the job market.
Business Demand: contract cancelations, contract completions, saturated markets, import competition, and insufficient demand for products or services.
Organizational Changes: business owners change as well as internal reorganizations.
Financial Issues: bankruptcies, cost cutting measures, and pressure to increase profitability.
Production Specific: automation, labor disputes, material shortages, and product lines discontinued.
Disaster / Safety: hazardous working conditions and extreme weather.
Seasonal: job naturally terminates at the end of a season.
It's understandable that people fired from their jobs can become mentally depressed. It's natural to go through the mourning period following the loss of a job. But it's important to realize that a life is not a failure just because a job is lost. Ironically, failing was the opportunity of a lifetime for some very famous people.
Co-founder of Apple Inc., Steve Jobs helped to design, develop, and market some very successful lines of personal computers, including the Apple II series and the Macintosh. Jobs was fired from Apple in 1985 after a power struggle with the company's board of directors. By 1998, he was once again CEO of Apple and returning the company to profitability.
An author and motivational speaker, Lou Holtz is the only coach in NCAA history to lead six different programs to bowl games, and the only coach to guide four different programs to the final top 20 rankings. In 1976 he resigned from the N.Y. Jets after a 3 Win - 10 Loss season. In 1977, he was National Coach of the Year at Arkansas. Ironically, he was fired from Arkansas in 1983.
Three-time mayor and one of the richest persons in the world, Michael Bloomberg was fired from Salomon Brothers in 1981. Mr. Bloomberg used his severance package to start Innovative Market Systems. The company was later renamed Bloomberg L.P.
There are many more examples of people that were terminated for one reason or another only to bounce back and find a way to be even more successful. The one common theme found in all these examples is these individuals never gave up.
Personal Finances: the first thing to do after getting fired is to get your personal finances in order. Make sure to receive all the money you're entitled to including a final paycheck, severance package, and unemployment benefits. Hope for the best and plan for the worst. Create a household budget and start lowering discretionary spending immediately, don't wait.
Medical / Health Insurance: everyone that works for a company with 20 or more employees will likely be eligible for health insurance coverage under COBRA. While many people are likely to shy away from the premiums, it could be argued that no one can afford to give up health insurance.
Temporary Jobs / Freelance Work: until a more permanent position is found, consider taking a temporary job or freelancing. The extra money each week will help meet most financial obligations until the return to a permanent job.
Career Path: losing a job creates a break that is a great opportunity to rethink a career path. Maybe the current path felt right, but the skills possessed are easily transferable to other careers too. If there are any doubts, it's time to take a career assessment test.
Relocation: another opportunity created when right-sized is the ability to relocate a home. That's not to say it's a great time to sell a home and move. But as the job search starts, it's time to identify geographically desirable locations.
Network: statistically, networking is one of the most effective ways to get a new job; so it's time to get reacquainted with anyone that can help.
Resumes / Cover Letters: it's time to dust off an old copy of a resume and cover letter, and start composing one that gets results.
Job Applications: just like resume writing, there is an art and science to filling out job applications too. Don't blow an opportunity by taking anything for granted. Sharpening skills will maximize the chance of success.
Interview Skills: the processes associated with job interviews changed a few years back. Newer techniques such as STAR interviews and behavioral questions were introduced. It's also important to be prepared to answer interview questions dealing with getting fired.
Persevere: unless someone is extremely lucky, it's very likely that rejection will precede success. That's all part of the process. Learn from mistakes as they happen, more opportunities will materialize.
Finally, once a new job is found don't forget to celebrate that achievement. The road may have started out rocky and there might have been bumps along the way, but soon it'll be clear that losing a job or getting fired was not the end of the world. In fact, for some it was just the beginning.


text:
The Pride's traditions encourage personal, professional growth
By ALLISON VINSON Reporter
As the first chords of "Ring the Bells" resonates across the football stadium, the South Dakota State community becomes one.
Alumni, students and friends of the university stand together to cheer for SDSU. Everyone claps along to the same beat as The Pride of the Dakotas leads the way.
This tradition bonds each of these people together in these few seconds, and the song holds a special meaning for The Pride of the Dakotas members.
"No matter if the Jacks win or lose, the football players come to the end zone and face us as we play 'Ring the Bells' and 'Yellow and Blue,'" said Anna Pickford, senior education major and piccolo player. "When we win, they smile and laugh, and when we lose, they take off their shoes and helmets … you can tell they are very grateful for us, their school and the Pride."
This year The Pride celebrated its 126th anniversary.
Kevin Kessler, music professor and director of The Pride, said what makes the marching band so special is the performance traditions.
"The fact that 'Yellow and Blue' (the school song) was written here on campus, and was written by a band director who was here 110 years ago … that's something that we're very proud of, that's a unique tradition that's uniquely ours," Kessler said.
Along with the school song, the Pride practices a swing step, a unique type of march where the feet step out of the traditional march. Additionally, another tradition is the set of drum cadences for all Pride events that identify them as the SDSU marching band, Kessler said.
"I was in the band as a student," Kessler said, "so there's an extra added layer of importance to me that those things are maintained under my watch, and that the students come to understand the importance of those traditions and the importance of just being a member of the band."
Student traditions help Pickford feel closer to her bandmates. One of the traditions that stands out the most to her is when any band member has a birthday. During practice, they have to stand on the podium, tell a joke and bring candy for the entire band.
"Most of my friends I've met in The Pride when I was a freshman, and we've been friends throughout, and we're still friends to this day because of Pride," Pickford said.
The traditions played a role in Pickford's growth in more than one way.
"I'm one of the section leaders for one of the Pride sections," Pickford said. "And as a freshman I was very shy and quiet, but it really builds your leadership skills, communication skills, things like that."
Brittany Fischer, senior global studies and sociology major, attributes her leadership skills to being a section leader for the color guard in The Pride.
"I've definitely learned a lot about leadership and speaking abilities … learning how to address issues in a positive way," Fischer said.
Another student tradition for Pride members is to have a dress up day every game day. Specific dress up days, according to Pickford, include dressing as a superhero and another where each section wore a different color.
"It just helps generate some fun," Fischer said.
The opening fanfare The Pride plays during every home football game at half time has been part of The Pride tradition for more than 30 years, Kessler said.
Students "come from all different colleges, all different majors," Kessler said, "… even though we have this wide range of people and experiences, it's fun to see them come together as one."
Kessler's favorite tradition of the Pride is the students.
"It really is the students we have," Kessler said. "They're a very special group of people."


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text:
Home/1950s/MLB – 1951 To 1968 – Special – The Legend Of Mickey Mantle
1950s1960sBaseball MusicHBOHighlightsInterviewsJoe DiMaggioLegendsMickey MantleMLBMLB All Star GameMLB Hall of FameMLB MVPMLB RecordsMLB World SeriesNew York YankeesSpecialsYogi Berra
MLB – 1951 To 1968 – Special – The Legend Of Mickey Mantle
L EJune 19, 2018
DOG COMMENTARY:
Bone Daddy grew up in West Texas in the 1950's and 1960's as a die-hard Yankees fan….and an especially huge Mickey Mantle fan….as evidenced by his 11 original Mickey Mantle baseball cards that he has in his wonderful memorabilia collection seen herewith.
Mantle was invited to the Yankees instructional camp before the 1951 season. After an impressive spring training….Yankees manager Casey Stengel decided to promote Mantle to the majors as a right fielder instead of sending him to the minors. Mickey Mantle's salary for the 1951 season was $7,500 (equivalent to $71,000 in 2017). "He's the greatest prospect I've seen in my time, and I go back quite a ways. I'll swear I expect to see that boy just take off and fly any time." said Bill Dickey on Mickey Mantle
Mantle was assigned uniform #6…. which signified the Yankees expected that he would become the next Yankees star….following Babe Ruth (#3), Lou Gehrig (#4) and Joe DiMaggio (#5)…..as Mgr. Stengel, speaking to SPORT Magazine, stated "he has got more power from either side than any player I have ever seen." I mean, and that was on one leg….for Mickey Mantle brought rare strength and speed talent to MLB like they had never seen.
After a brief slump, Mantle was sent down to the Yankees' top farm team, the Kansas City Blues….however, he was not able to find the power he once had in the lower minors….so, out of frustration, he called his father one day and told him, "I don't think I can play baseball anymore." ….so, Mutt his Dad, drove up to Kansas City that day….. and when he arrived, he started packing his son's clothes….and, according to Mantle's memory, said "I thought I raised a man. I see I raised a coward instead. You can come back to Oklahoma and work the mines with me." Mantle immediately broke out of his slump, going on to hit .361 with 11 homers and 50 RBIs during his stay in Kansas City….so, Mantle was called up to the Yankees after 40 games with Kansas City….this time wearing uniform #7…..after which he hit .267 with 13 home runs and 65 RBI in 96 games….and then In the 2nd game of the 1951 World Series against the New York Giants…. their rookie and future legend Willie Mays hit a fly ball to right-center field. Mantle, playing right field, raced for the ball together with center fielder Joe DiMaggio….who called for the ball and made the catch…..but in getting out of DiMaggio's way, Mantle tripped over an exposed drain pipe and severely injured his right knee. This was the first of numerous injuries that plagued his 18-year career with the Yankees. He played the rest of his career with a torn ACL.
Mantle moved to center field in 1952 replacing DiMaggio….who retired at the end of the 1951 season …. and was selected as a rookie to the All Star Game in his 1st season….albeit he didn't get to play. In his first World Series in 1952….he was the Yanks hitting star….with an on-base percentage above .400….and a slugging percentage above .600…as he homered for the 3rd Yankees run in a 3 – 2 win in Game 6….and he knocked in the winning runs in the 4 – 2 win in the Yankees Game 7 win….with a homer in the 6th….and an RBI single in the 7th. Mickey Mantle played center field full-time for the Yankees until 1965….. when he was moved to left field….as his final two seasons were spent at 1st base. The Mick accomplished so muc in his career….but some of my favorites are his all-time World Series records for home runs (18) and runs batted in (40).
The osteomyelitic condition of Mantle's left leg had exempted him from being drafted for military service since he was 18 in 1949….. but his emergence as a star center fielder in the major leagues during the Korean War in 1952 led to questioning of his 4-F deferment by baseball fans…. when two Armed Forces physicals were ordered….including a highly publicized exam on November 4, 1952….which was brought on by his All-Star selection, that ended in a final rejection.
Mantle had a breakout season in 1956 after showing progressive improvement each of his first five years….which he described as his "favorite summer"…..as he led the major leagues with a .353 batting average….52 home runs….and 130 runs batted in…. as he brought home both the Triple Crown and his first of three Major League Baseball Most Valuable Player Awards. He also hit his second All-Star Game home run that season. During Game 5 of the 1956 World Series ….which just happened to be Don Larsen's perfect game against the Brooklyn Dodgers….Mickey Mantle kept the perfect game alive by making a running catch of a deep fly ball off the bat of Gil Hodges….while providing the first of the two runs the Yankees would score with a 4th-inning home run off Brooklyn starter Sal Maglie….who had also been pitching a perfect game up till that point. Mantle's overall performance in 1956 was so exceptional he was bestowed the Hickok Belt (unanimously) as the top American professional athlete of the year. He is the only player to win a league Triple Crown as a switch hitter.
Mantle won his second consecutive MVP in 1957….after leading the league in runs and walks….while having a career-high .365 batting average (2nd to Ted Williams' .388)….and hitting into a league-low five double plays…..man, those are awesome stats…..and get this, The Mick reached base more times than he made outs (319 to 312)….which was one of two seasons in which he achieved the feat….and that is why we love us some Mickey Mantle around ImaSportsphile. Heck, and this cat did all that while playing on one leg….OMGD (Oh my God Dog)….could you had Mickey Mantle gotten to play on two good stems….for even those who got to see him play back in the day
The 1959 season was the first of four consecutive seasons that two All-Star games were played and Mantle played in seven of these games….as he made the AL All-Star team as a reserve player in 1959….and was used as a pinch runner for Baltimore Orioles catcher Gus Triandos….and the replacement right fielder for Cleveland Indians Rocky Colavito in the first game….with Detroit Tigers Al Kaline playing the center field position. Mantle was the starting center fielder in the second All-Star game's lineup….while getting a single and a walk in four at bats. In 1960, Mantle started in both All-Star games, getting two walks in the first and a single in the second game.
During the 1961 season….The M & M Boys graced the Yankees line-up and outfield….as Mickey Mantle teamed up with Roger Maris to chase Babe Ruth's 1927 single-season home run record of 60….as The Mick had done 5 years earlier in 1956….at which time the New York press had been protective of Ruth on that occasion also….and when Mantle finally fell short by finishing with 52….there seemed to be a collective sigh of relief from the New York traditionalists….and as a matter of fact….the NY press had not been all that kind to Mantle the whole time by throughout the early years by saying that he struck out frequently… and was injury prone….who was a "true hick" from Oklahoma…..and was perceived as being distinctly inferior to his predecessor in center field in Joe DiMaggio.
On January 16, 1961, Mantle became the highest-paid player in baseball by signing a $75,000 ($614,198 today) contract…. whereas DiMaggio, Hank Greenberg, and Ted Williams had been paid over $100,000 in a season….and Ruth had a peak salary of $80,000…..so, when Mantle became the highest-paid active player of his time by receiving a salary of $100,000 in 1963….he never asked for another raise throughout the remainder of his career.
Over the course of time, Mantle, with a little help from his close friend and teammate Whitey Ford, a native of New York's Borough of Queens ….The Mick had gotten better at "schmoozing" with the New York media….and finally gained the favor of the press. This was a talent that Maris….a blunt-spoken upper-Midwesterner….was never willing or able to cultivate….which resulted in him wearing the "surly" jacket for his duration with the Yankees….so as 1961 progressed….the Yanks were now "Mickey Mantle's team" and Maris was ostracized as the "outsider"….who was said to be "not a true Yankee." The press seemed to root for Mantle and to belittle Maris….but when Mantle was unexpectedly hospitalized by an abscessed hip he got from a flu shot late in the season….he left Maris to break the record….as he finished with 61…..while Mantle finished with 54 home runs…..and leading the American league in runs scored and walks.
In 1962, Mantle batted .321 in 123 games. He was selected an All-Star for the eleventh consecutive season and played in the first game….but due to a former injury acting up….he didn't play in the second All-Star game….then in 1963, he batted .314 in 65 games….when on June 5, he tried to prevent a home run by Brooks Robinson in Baltimore….and got his shoe spikes caught in the center field chain link fence as he leaped against the fence for the ball and was coming down….and broke his foot and didn't return playing again until August 4 when he hit a pinch-hit home run against the Baltimore Orioles in Yankee Stadium. He returned to the center field position on September 2….and by June 29, he had been selected an All-Star as a starting center fielder….but for the first time, he didn't make the 25-player team due to the foot injury.
In 1964, Mantle hit .303 with 35 home runs and 111 RBIs….and played center field in the All-Star game….then In the bottom of the 9th inning of Game 3 of the 1964 World Series against the St. Louis Cardinals ….The Mick blasted Barney Schultz's first pitch into the right field stands at Yankee Stadium….which won the game for the Yankees 2–1… as the homer was his 16th World Series round tripper….which broke the World Series record of 15 set by Babe Ruth….to which he followed with two more homers in the series to set the existing World Series record of 18 home runs….albeit the Cardinals ultimately won the World Series in 7 games.
The Yankees and Mantle were slowed down by injuries during the 1965 season….as they finished in sixth place some 25 games behind the Minnesota Twins…..as Mantle hit .255 with 19 home runs and 46 RBI…. in a year that he was again selected to the AL All-Star team as a reserve player….but did not make the 28-player squad for the second and last time due to an injury….and was replaced by Tony Oliva.
To inaugurate the Astrodome as the world's first multi-purpose, domed sports stadium….the Houston Astros and the New York Yankees played an exhibition game on April 9, 1965….when the great Mickey Mantle hit the park's first home run. In 1966, his batting average increased to .288 with 23 home runs and 56 RBI…then after the 1966 season….he was moved to first base….with Joe Pepitone taking over his place in the outfield….then on May 14, 1967….Mickey Mantle became the 6th member of the 500 home run club.
Mantle hit .237 with 18 home runs and 54 RBI during his final season in 1968…..as he was once again selected an AL All-Star team and pinch hit at the All-Star Game on July 11….as Mickey Mantle was selected an All-Star every season during his eighteen-year career except 1951 and 1966. After reading this story….it is easy to see why not only Bone Daddy, but so many boys who grew up loving baseball in the 1950's and 1960's considered The Mick to be their hero….as even on one leg… he was bigger than life.
NFL - 1950 to 1990 - NFL Films Special - Greatest Finishes + Unbelievable Comebacks
NFL - 1981 - Special - Bengals Who Came In Front In The Cold - The 1981 Cincinnati Bengals
MLB – 1981 – CNN Special – Pete Rose Bypasses Stan Musial NL Hits Record With 3631 Hits
NFL – Greatest QBs Ever – Dallas Cowboys Roger Staubach & Baltimore Colts Johnny Unitas
Olympics – Special – The Rare Ones – Mens 800m – Peter Snell & Dave Wottle & Alberto Juantorena
NFL – 1977 – NFL Films – Great Teams Great Games – Oakland Raiders Vs Baltimore Colts Sudden Death
Bone Daddy's University of Texas Football Collection Pieces


I am so happy that 2018 is here. I just spent the last few days focusing on what I want to accomplish this year.
And, trust me when I say the list is long.
But, before I commence in all the awesome things Married and Naked has in store in 2018 there is something I wanted to say first.
I'm sorry I lost my S?#@ (excuse my French)over the holidays.
I'm sorry you had to deal with a crazy, sad, unstable person for the last two months.
I never thought I would be one of those people that equated the holidays with sorrow, but I am now one of those people.
I have unwillingly joined that club.
Daddy died two years ago. Just 10 days after Christmas.
I never knew what grief was like. I didn't understand the pain. What it felt like.
This was only our second Christmas without him. God, it hurt.
But, it's not just Christmas. The emotional roller coaster kicks in on Halloween.
I remember him at our house every October 31st, dressed in some wild costume with ridiculous makeup that he did himself.
The massive gaping hole in our family becomes all to visible during the family rituals.
He was a part of everything.
There is not a day that goes by that I don't think of him. That I don't miss him.
At the kid's awards assemblies or recitals. At football games and Father's Day. Dying Easter eggs or picking pumpkins. Every time I go to his house or walk by his room. Every time I pass his picture.
But, it is the holidays and annual traditions, where the loss feels unbearable.
Those who have lost understand this.
So, it's true. I kinda lose it over those two months. I become unrecognizable to even myself.
Stressing over the smallest things.
Dreading the moments that used to bring such joy.
I apologize to you constantly for being a raving lunatic. I try to hide my sadness.
You tell me not to hide it. To embrace it. To feel it without shame.
Thru the craziness, you are there. You wait patiently.
You know that I will feel differently after January 5th. That is the day he died. That is the day, above all others, that brings the most dread. That is the day that brings forth the hardest memories and the most heartache.
And, once that day passes, you begin to see a return of the woman you love.
Once that day passes, the fog in my eyes begins to clear and the oppressive weight on my chest starts to lift enough to let me breathe.
I'm sorry I put you thru that. I'm sorry I lose it.
When we vowed, "for better or worse" we didn't really know what that meant. But, we have certainly learned the meaning in recent years.
Thank goodness we have worked so hard on our marriage. I believe the strong foundation that we built has helped us get thru.
I just want to say thank you. Thank You for being there. For being my shoulder. For understanding. For not judging. For holding my hand. For loving me anyway.
How grateful I am for your strength. For your kindness thru the pain.
I am forever indebted to you.
Now that I have said what I needed to say, it is time to move forward and embrace the New Year for all of it's possibilities.
Goal number one? Helping you achieve the Ultimate Marriage!
Women Are Making The Same Mistakes – And It's Time to Stop!
Oh, Girl! I feel your pain, grief and sadness. Bless you and your hubby! I have an amazing guy who also needs a letter like this! Blessings!
Thank you so much Joni. Really appreciate it. Glad to hear you have a supportive hubby as well.
I have a quick question. I write letters like this to my husband all the time. I thank him for letting me be me. I thank him for allowing me to feel my feelings. I thank him for putting up with it. I love my husband, I truly do. I couldn't ask for a better partner. But, sometimes, he goes through times when I have to deal with his crap and I don't get long notes with an explanation as to why I had to deal with a moody husband. I just don't get why I'm always saying sorry yet I don't get the same heartfelt notes in return. Do any of you? Honestly just wondering!!


We used this company to help us get a loan to buy our first home. All went well. Once purchased, our home was sold to a larger mortgage company, which we knew this would happen. ALmost six months later, America Homekey contacted us and said that our present mortgage company contacted them wanting a copy or my husbands divorce papers from his firs marriage. We asked why and agin was told the mortgage company wanted it. We contacted the mortgage company and they said that they had all the information that they needed.
If they needed any more information from us that they would ask for it and not by phone. When my husband called America HomeKey back and told him what was said they put him on hold and never returned. Do not use this company. Go elsewhere.


By now, you've probably spent more than a few hours in Final Fantasy XV trying to level up quickly and get your hands on all the best weapons. And I'm betting that you'd and Want to find out how to get a big old boost to your Perception, and some smaller boosts to a few other stats? Well, follow this little guide and then reap the rewards... literally!
What you are looking for is a recipe called Papa Bird & Baby Bowl. It replaces the Mother & Child Rice Bowl, which only gives you a 50% boost to Perception (but a 100% EXP boost).
This new recipe not only grants a 100% boost to Perception (and drop rates) but also increases HP by 1000 and gives a 40% EXP boost. The way the Perception boost works is that if an item has a drop rate of, say, 10%, then this recipe will boost that drop rate up to 20%. All in all, it is a really worthwhile item to find -- especially when you're trying to gather items or supplies.
All of these are easily sourced, so you shouldn't have any issues putting together this Perception-boosting meal.
Hope you've found this brief guide useful. Keep checking back with us for more tips and tricks in Final Fantasy XV.


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