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Uncategorized, United Methodist Renewal
Four Options for General Conference 2016
Date: April 14, 2015Author: critter1969 1 Comment
We are just over a year away from the most crucial United Methodist General Conference in our generation. The delegates being elected will shoulder the weight of Christian conferencing in the midst of polarizing debates and global diversity. At the center of the discussion will be the very definition of what it means to be United Methodist Christians. For all the private talk, public statements, and shared outrage over the past few years, it will all come down to what General Conference does or fails to do in May 2016. There is no other group that can address the issues now before us.
A safe prediction: Formal schism will not receive serious consideration. General Conference is peopled with hymn-singing, card-carrying, cross-and-flame-emblazoned United Methodists. I doubt there is even double-digit percentage delegate support for separation, amicable or otherwise. If there is a split, it will be messy and occur in the fallout to the decisions of General Conference. When it comes down to it, there are really only four realistic legislative outcomes. Each of these options has its supporters and detractors. What follows is a brief description of the landscape as I understand it. While I run the risk of misrepresenting someone's proposal or position, I think it most helpful to name the players involved for the sake of clarity. The four options are: (1) Do Nothing, (2) Relax Standards, (3) Close Loopholes, and (4) Structural Change:
While some view as unconscionable the idea that GC2016 should "fiddle while Rome burns", some see inaction in 2016 as preferable. The heart of this approach is the hope that future cultural and ecclesial change will be so sweeping on the issue of homosexuality that it will become a non-issue at a later date. I have heard the call to "make no change" from several quarters. The group that has made the most forthright argument for this is the United Methodist Centrist Movement. To be fair, they are technically advocating continued study, not complete inaction. Reading between the lines, however, they seem to believe that another four years of same sex marriage becoming the norm in America and increasingly occurring in the church (where allowed by dissenting bishops) will make a 2020 acceptance of homosexual practice a non-event. (There is recent indication that the Centrist Movement's timeline is unpopular and that they are working on updating their proposal.)
It is not universally agreed upon that time is on the progressive side. Mark Tooley of the Institute on Religion and Democracy looks to the demographics of the UMC for hope. He notes that the most liberal areas of the church are declining fastest and explosive growth is happening in Africa and other culturally conservative parts of the globe. African conferences gain 200,000 members per year while the American church loses 50,000-100,000 per year. Should present trends continue, the UMC will one day be a majority African denomination and Tooley predicts this will bring in eventual sweeping change. Although UMAction, a wing of the IRD, will be presenting legislation to tighten our rules on homosexuality, they seem to place the greatest hope for lasting reform with this demographic tsunami. It seems to me that if our culture is more and more accepting of homosexual practice and our church is more and more against it (as a percentage of the whole and in isolated quarters), this can only be a recipe for more intense conflict in the future if a settlement is not reached.
Relax/Remove Standards
There are big names advocating a loosening of standards related to human sexuality. Not the least of these is the Connectional Table of the UMC and Adam Hamilton, the pastor of the UMC's largest congregation. Some progressive groups, like Love Prevails, want to see a complete reversal on our language regarding homosexuality. To be fair, they don't say it that way. They advocate "going back to our pre-1972 language." 1972, however, happens to be the year when our then four-year-old denomination first adopted the Social Principles commissioned at our 1968 Uniting Conference. It seems a bit disingenuous to imply that there was an earlier time when the UMC was more open to homosexual practice.
As I have argued elsewhere, complete reversal would be a certain recipe for making two (or more) denominations out of one. If we go from stating that homosexual practice is incompatible with Christian teaching on May 10, 2016 to allowing openly itinerating gay clergy and bishops on May 20, 2016, the whiplash effect will break away parts of the American church and perhaps all of Africa. I cannot imagine a more anti-pastoral move on the part of our elected delegates. Thankfully, few are advocating this approach.
The Hamilton and Connectional Table approach is more moderate but nevertheless clear in its intent. They want to keep (for now) the language that "homosexual practice is incompatible with Christian teaching" but remove all punishments for performing same sex weddings and being a "self-avowed practicing homosexual" clergy. This creates a denomination-wide experiment into gay marriage and ordination. We need to be clear about the implications of this move. A pastor may officiate at a same wedding whether the folks that pay her/his salary want that or not. In all likelihood, laity would be unable to prevent a pastor from conducting that wedding at their sanctuary's altar as trustees are forbidden from interfering with pastors in religious ceremonies they deem appropriate. This move dis-empowers the laity by making our denominational policies unenforceable across the connection. Substantial and established case law prevents any attempt to limit the power of bishops to appoint any clergy in good standing to any church. A "practicing" gay elder in good standing is entitled to an appointment somewhere in the conference and the bishop may place him/her wherever the bishop wishes.
The Connectional Table approach would also send mixed signals to practicing homosexual candidates for ministry: "We view your lifestyle as incompatible with Christian teaching but have no mechanism to prevent you from serving." Boards of ordained ministry and clergy sessions will become the battle ground in which the anxiety created by these dual messages will be evidenced. When years of theological education and tens of thousands of dollars are on the line for each candidate, ambiguity is not helpful.
There is a myth circulating that, even with loosened standards, individual conferences could exclude a pastor under the chargeable offense of "immorality" in those locations where homosexuality might be considered to fit with that description. Multiple Judicial Council decisions, however, have necessitated the litigious language about homosexual practice we have today. (See a summary of this case law in the end notes). If the specific chargeable offenses are removed, there is no way to stop same sex weddings and ordinations from taking place anywhere and everywhere throughout the denomination. The sheer breadth of this change throughout our diverse denomination should give us pause. Whatever we do in 2016 I would think that plans that prescribe carte blanche change to all sectors of the church should be avoided.
Close Loopholes
Someone once saw the impious W.C. Fields reading the Bible. They expressed their surprise and inquired what he was doing. His pulled the cigar from his lips and answered: "Lookin' for loopholes!" People have been reading the UM Book of Discipline that same way for over thirty years and General Conference has regularly plugged the holes discovered. See the end notes of this post for a summary.
The A&W Plan authored by Bill Arnold and David Watson suggests that we grant clergy or churches that cannot abide by our rules the freedom to exit. In order to plug the holes presently being exploited, they suggest we change the way chargeable offenses are handled to better insure pastors are held accountable. The plan also calls for greater accountability for bishops so that jurisdictions can no longer shield our episcopal leaders from consequences for not upholding our rules. Others have suggested holes could be plugged by establishing minimum sentences for clergy performing same sex weddings. Generally speaking, many conservative groups are in favor of measures like these. (UMAction and Good News are working separately on some and I have authored a few of my own.) I am aware of one plan to move episcopal accountability from the jurisdictions to a general church structure, thereby better insuring that our bishops enforce our rules. The trick to plugging loopholes is doing so in ways that will pass muster with the Judicial Council and not be ruled unconstitutional. If recent General Conferences have taught us anything, it is that great scrutiny is applied by our highest court. Even if successful, however, attempts to make our standards on human sexuality fully enforceable will trigger four more years of clergy trials, protest, and defiance on our progressive side. I wonder if we have the stomach for this.
The remaining option is the one for which I have been forcefully advocating: structural change. The question is not whether it is possible to remain one denomination while operating under two different understandings of human sexuality. We are unofficially doing that now. The problem is that how we are doing it is causing us to be perpetually distracted and preventing us from focusing on mission and ministry. Progressive feel stifled and Traditionalists feel threatened. Our rules are irregularly enforced, which is unjust.
An adequate structural solution is based on the following tassumptions:
We are not going to arrive at a single unified opinion on whether homosexual practice is in keeping with the moral vision of Christianity. We have people on both sides that would rather die than change their minds. Time spent trying to change each other's minds could be better utilized.
This debate is symptomatic of a larger divide regarding how the scriptures are read and applied to ministry. Structural plans are not "just" over homosexuality. The two views at work are mutually exclusive and will be in perpetual conflict unless a covenantal border is established. There is either going to be a truce or ongoing battle.
Substantive change in the BOD language regarding homosexuality would harm our growing Central Conferences' capacity to do ministry in their contexts. Even a secular business strategist would tell us that harming our only expanding market is organizational suicide.
This debate is poisoning our church with distrust and preventing us from working on more substantive issues. Every proposal for the general church is viewed through the lens of how it will affect the balance of power in our most divisive issue. Settling this issue in a comprehensive way will free energy for other important matters.
There is no shortage of conceptual solutions, most of which are fanciful: everything from creating "Progressive Missionary Conferences" to creating special federated congregations where homosexual practice is allowed. Most of these fail because they try to employ a feature of our denomination to do something other than what it was created to do. These are not translated into legislation or up for serious consideration.
There is one major proposal that seeks to restructure the church by adding a layer to our already top-heavy structure. The Northeastern Jurisdiction Global Structure Taskforce has developed a detailed plan that would add a Regional Conference level between the global General Conference and our Jurisdictional/Central Conferences. While not referencing homosexuality, the plan is viewed in light of an earlier 2008 "Worldwide Nature of the Church" plan that was passed at General Conference but soundly rejected for ratification, especially in Africa. Some would view both plans as a way to pass more progressive social positions in America by segregating out conservative international voting blocs. While this plan has the distinction of being the only plan with complete legislation, apart from mine, I feel it is a non-starter for all the reasons mentioned.
Simply knocking the issues down to the annual conference level will likewise not work. Facets of our connectional covenant like open itineracy make it difficult to "live and let live" in the same conference given the fact that mutually exclusive worldviews are at work. Ideological minorities become "trapped" in judicatories based solely on geography. Conference-level issues like ordination require that a conference adhere to a single approach. A fruitful ideological alignment would involve an appointing bishop, appointed clergy, and congregations with the same moral vision. It is in this environment that ministry synergy occurs. A jurisdiction is the only structure in our denomination that has the potential for providing this.
Jurisdictions were actually invented to help Methodists manage their differences while staying together as a denomination. We were not forged as a united UMC, but a jurisdictional UMC. Division is built into our DNA. Our problem is that our jurisdictions are positioned to help address what divided us in the eras of Jim Crow and Civil Rights, not what divides us today and moving forward. There is an argument to be made for doing away with our jurisdictional system altogether because of its lingering association with the early and dismal days of the racial struggles in our nation. A better idea is to use the concept of jurisdictions (call them whatever you want) to help us stay together today so that, forty years from now, there are still United Methodists to look back and shake their heads at us (either for selling out to our culture or denying justice to gays… you decide).
I have authored two plans that use jurisdictions to provide comprehensive organizational solutions to our divisions. The two-jurisdiction plan replaces our five geographic jurisdictions with two based on ideology. Each jurisdiction is empowered to adapt our rules in ways similar to, but expanded from, those currently granted to the central conferences. The six-jurisdiction version creates an additional nation-wide progressive jurisdiction which annual conferences may elect to join. The key to both these proposals is that they provide double coverage of annual conferences across the U.S. Bishops are allowed to select a jurisdiction in which to serve and annual conferences choose (by majority vote), as well. Those individual churches and clergy who strongly dissent from the choice of their annual conference may be placed in the conference of the other jurisdiction that services their location. The full legislation associated with both solutions can be found on the Jurisdictional Solution website.
Who supports my jurisdictional approach? A recent edition of Christianity Today reported that voices on the conservative side of the UMC like Maxie Dunnam, former president of Asbury Seminary, and Rob Renfro, President of Good News, see a jurisdictional approach as workable. UMAction of the Institute on Religion and Democracy has been vocal in their opposition to both plans. There are signs that Good News would consider a formal endorsement but are waiting for a progressive group to join them in a joint endorsement. (Wouldn't that be something?) I have not heard officially from Good News that they are ready to endorse. I think it is fair to say they view my proposal as constructive and having merit. While there are progressive groups considering an endorsement, there have already been individual progressives that have endorsed the plan as fair and realistic. All these aforementioned folks tend to favor the two-jurisdiction version. Progressives feel that this version puts everyone on a level playing field. Conservatives like the fact that it gives American conferences a clear choice and ends the continued vitriol.
Some moderates, however, tend to favor the six-jurisdiction plan. Being "people of the middle", Moderates are averse to choosing between only two options. One centrist bishop believes that the six-jurisdiction plan may buy our denomination valuable time by allowing conferences that will not wait on gay marriage to go ahead legally within their own jurisdiction. Those for whom homosexuality is not a hot-button issue would be allowed the passive option of staying with their conference and jurisdiction. A notable moderate pastor has been characterized as saying that, although he is comfortable being part of a denomination where gay marriage is happening in some quarters, he is not comfortable being part of anything that looks, theologically speaking, like the Western Jurisdiction. Moderates like him worry that they would not feel at home in either the conservative or progressive jurisdiction. They would, however, feel comfortable staying in their current geographic jurisdiction and living with the Book of Discipline as printed, knowing that allowance has been made for their progressive brothers and sisters. The Centrist Movement, for reasons I don't quite understand, speaks favorably of the two-jurisdiction plan but is strongly critical of the six-jurisdiction version. I feel they might change their minds given further time to consider the implications of the two plans for moderate conferences.
Structural solutions are not very emotionally satisfying. They are the product of realism, not idealism. After months of study and conversation, I am more resolved than ever that the UMC in 2016 is best served by a Jurisdictional Solution. I believe that either of my plans could work. I feel the six jurisdiction plan would have a greater likelihood of passage and ratification, even though it does a less comprehensive job of ending our debates. I personally favor the original, two-jurisdiction version even though it leaves as an open question the future shape of the general agencies. My hope has been that leadership would be exercised ahead of General Conference so that we can come together to solve our problems constructively. The more time passes, I realize that my plans may only receive serious attention after crucial divisive votes are taken. Groups will come wanting to "win", and that is human nature. Thanks for taking time to tour the landscape with me. I always enjoy fielding your questions and reading your comments.
ENDNOTE: CASE LAW AND LEGISLATION RELATED TO HOMOSEXUALITY
When two practicing homosexual pastors were allowed to continue in ministry because the Judicial Council said there was not language requiring their expulsion, GC1984 added the language making homosexual practice a chargeable offense. When another pastor was allowed to continue in ministry in 1993 because Judicial Council said that General Conference must better define what a "self-avowed practicing homosexual" is, General Conference 1996 provided that definition. In 1997 the case against Jimmy Creech for officiating at a same sex marriage was dismissed because it was argued the Social Principles did not have the force of law. This went to the Judicial Council in 1998 who confirmed that the intent of GC was that the Social Principle would have for the force of law. GC2000 underscored this point by repeating the prohibition in another area of the Discipline. Creech was later defrocked for a 1999 same sex wedding. When, in 2002, an annual conference funded a ministry promoting the acceptance of homosexual practice, GC2004 extended the prohibition against funding such causes. In 2004, Karen Damman was found not guilty because of the word "although" in the BOD. The language was changed by GC2004 and even stronger language was added.
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Watch the Horrifying Trailer for Infamy, Season Two of AMC's Anthology Series The Terror
By Molly Schramm | June 20, 2019 | 1:15pm
Images via AMC TV News The Terror: Infamy
Adding horror elements to what is already a horrible time in U.S. history, the first trailer for AMC's horror series The Terror: Infamy adds shape-shifting spirits to Japanese internment camps.
Set during World War II, the trailer opens with sirens going off with announcements of the Pearl Harbor bombing. From there, the clip leads us to our central character, Chester Nakayama (Derek Mio), as he's led to an internment camp where things don't seem too normal. With multiple deaths happening in the community, the series follows the young man as he attempts to understand and subsequently combat whatever malevolent spirit is present.
Alongside Mio, Kiki Sukezane (Lost in Space), Cristina Rodlo (Miss Bala), Shingo Usami (Unbroken), Naoko Mori (Everest), Miki Iskikawa (Sway) and the legendary George Takei (Star Trek) will all star in the show's new season.
Premiering on Aug. 12, the season is the second of what AMC is now calling an anthology series. The first season of The Terror was based on Dan Simmons' 2007 novel of the same name, and told the story of a doomed expedition in the Arctic. Seemingly impossible to continue the story, the network has decided to expand upon the show in an American Horror Story type of way.
"The Terror has given us the opportunity to take a unique approach to the anthology format," David Madden, president of original programming for AMC, said in a statement when the second season was originally announced. "We loved the concept of beginning with an actual historical event and overlaying it with a fictional horror element, and we are immensely proud of this show's combination of cinematic scope and intimate character work. We are thrilled to announce a second season and dramatize one of the most chilling and important events of the 20th Century, guided by the vision of the gifted Alexander Woo and Max Borenstein."
Woo (True Blood) and Borenstein (Kong: Skull Island) will act as co-creators and executive producers for the series. Big-time producer Ridley Scott (Alien: Covenant, Blade Runner 2049) will also act as an executive producer with David W. Zucker, Alexandra Milchan, Scott Lambert, Guymon Casady and Jordan Sheehan. Woo serves as the showrunner, with Narcos' Josef Kubota Wladyka directing the first two episodes.
Watch the trailer for The Terror: Infamy below.
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Home>Science>Nancy Pelosi opens up about assault on her husband in emotional interview
Nancy Pelosi opens up about assault on her husband in emotional interview
nwcadminNovember 8, 2022Last Updated: November 8, 2022
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi gave an emotional interview to CNN on Monday, describing how she learned her husband Paul Pelosi was attacked at their San Francisco home and giving more details about the extent of his injuries. Was.
In an interview with Anderson Cooper, Nancy Pelosi said that her husband was struck twice on the top of his head with a hammer, breaking his skull. Doctors had to remove his skull, reshape it and then put it back in place, they said, adding that Paul Pelosi's brain was not pierced during the attack.
"He's doing fine," said Nancy Pelosi. "It's a long haul, but he knows he has to pace himself. He's such a gentleman that he's not complaining."
Nancy Pelosi said she has not discussed the attack in detail with her husband because "any revisiting of it is really painful."
"One of the hardest things for him all week was for him to go back into the house, and the entrance, which of course he had hit, and, of course, upstairs into the bedroom, where the man had made his entrance, what We will," she said.
The suspect, David Wayne Deppe, allegedly broke into the couple's home on the morning of October 28 and woke Paul Pelosi in their bedroom, Demand to know where his wife was, According to law enforcement, Paul Pelosi was able to call 911, and a dispatcher sent emergency services after hearing someone threatened. Law enforcement said that when police arrived at the home, they saw two men clashing with a hammer inside the entrance, before the suspect attacked Paul Pelosi.
"For me, this is the really hard part, because Paul was not the target and he is the one who is paying the price," Nancy Pelosi said on Monday. "It's really sad because it's a flame that was fueled by misinformation."
Nancy Pelosi said she did not listen to the 911 call or see police body camera footage of the incident. Asked if she would like to hear it, she said, "I don't think so."
Nancy Pelosi said she was sleeping in Washington DC during the attack. She said she had traveled from San Francisco the night before and that Capitol Police rang her doorbell and knocked on her door at 5 a.m.
"So I ran to the door and I was so scared to see the Capitol police and they said, 'We have to come in to talk to you,'" she said. "And I'm thinking about my kids, my grandchildren. I never thought it would be Paul, because I knew he wouldn't be out and about, shall we say. And so they were in that time. We didn't either. We didn't know where he was or what was his condition. All we knew was that he was attacked in our house and now they were taking him to the hospital."
Pelosi, who mentioned during the interview that she was close to tears at times, said the attack on her husband would affect her political future and whether or not she decided to retire.
Caitlin Yelko
Caitlin Yealeck is a digital producer for CBS News. Contact him at caitlin.yilek@cbsinteractive.com. Follow him on Twitter: https://twitter.com/hausofcait
Nancy Pelosic Paul Pelosi


YES has adopted a 4 step service learning process known as E4. The Strategy behind E4 is to move students from observers to leaders. This is accomplished by a stair-cased program centered upon carefully chosen Service Projects.
We first EXPOSE them to the reality of the poverty in the world through interactive curriculum. The students are presented with various questions: What is the true mission of the church, and what does it mean for each of us that we are members of the body of Christ? What are the stereotypes that exist within all of us that prevent us from putting the needs of others before ourselves? Is poverty a complex or simple problem, and what is our place in the solution?
We then ENGAGE the students in strategically chosen service projects that bring them together with people who are in need. Each project is chosen based upon specific criteria known to be meaningful in service-learning contexts. With each step, the environmental or cultural tension of the service project becomes more complex. This "created tension" is by design, and provides the kind of context conducive for real spiritual transformation.
For the students that have participated in 2 weekend service-learning trips, they are then eligible for a week of leadership training, where they are EQUIPPED with tools to guide others in service.


Here is where I share my passion for holistic health, healing, and wellness. Stay tuned for inspirational articles, tips, recipes, events, and much more!
Nature's solution to artery cleansing….in your kitchen!
Wednesday March 5, 2014 Dunedin Public Library Free Seminar with Nico and Paige.


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Home>News>Economy>Cryptocurrency>Here's What Everyone Missed in The Dorsey, Musk, and Wood Bitcoin Talk
Here's What Everyone Missed in The Dorsey, Musk, and Wood Bitcoin Talk
Source: A video screenshot.
On Wednesday, a highly-anticipated conversation regarding Bitcoin (BTC) between Ark Invest CEO Cathie Wood, SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk, and Square and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey took place online as part of The B Word initiative. While most have focused on the newsworthy aspects of the talk, such as the fact that SpaceX holds bitcoin on their balance sheet or that Tesla is likely to accept BTC again in the near future and that the company is not selling their BTC, there are a number of other key takeaways to look at when it comes to the fundamental aspects of Bitcoin as a revolutionary technology that has the potential to change the world for the better.
Social media was rather excited about Musk disclosing that he personally owns both ethereum (ETH) and dogecoin (DOGE) (but also owns a much greater amount of BTC), but for me, the key takeaway was the notable cypherpunk philosophy that underpinned various statements made during the panel discussion, which was also moderated by Square Crypto's Steve Lee.
Musk: Bitcoin empowers the individual
For Musk, money is an information system, primarily for labor allocation, and there are a number of issues with the various database systems that are currently used around the world today. Specifically, Musk sees serious issues when it comes to the speed and security of these outdated systems.
"[The credit card system] is like handing your username and password to a stranger in a restaurant if you buy a meal," noted Musk.
In his view, Bitcoin has the potential to offer improvements in the areas of throughput, fraud prevention, government interference, and other error-prone areas of the current financial system. "Bitcoin is solving for having no throat to choke," added Musk.
With that in mind, the CEO of Tesla sees Bitcoin and cryptocurrency more generally as something that fits into a wider vision of doing things that benefit people and create a better future for the world.
"It can have an empowering effect for individuals and increase the power of the individual relative to government," Musk said.
"And really, government is just a corporation in the limit. Sometimes some people are like against corporations but [in favor of] government. It's like: Guys, the government is just a corporation in the limit. It's the biggest corporation of all, and it's got a monopoly on violence. So, if you don't like corporations, you should really hate government."
Musk said he has been thinking deeply about money since his X.com days (a precursor to PayPal), and he sees Bitcoin as a candidate for creating a better standard of living for everyone around the world and providing more power to the individual. The Tesla CEO also discussed the importance of non-custodial wallets over leaving funds on exchanges, as the latter misses the point of why Bitcoin was created in the first place. In terms of empowering his own companies, Musk made it clear that holding BTC is definitely more attractive than holding cash in some European bank accounts due to the negative interest rate policies that have been adopted on the continent and is affecting Tesla directly.
Dorsey: Bitcoin changes everything
For Dorsey, BTC is a potential native currency for the internet that could eventually change the world. The Twitter CEO was explicit about the influence the cypherpunks have had on his thinking.
"[Bitcoin] is deeply principled," said Dorsey. "It's weird as hell. It's always evolving. And it just reminded me of the internet when I was a kid. I encountered alt.cypherpunks when I was fairly young. This was a topic of discussion for years. I didn't touch it until 2008 when we started Square."
Echoing some of what Musk had said, Dorsey shared that he encountered a "predatory" and "obtuse" financial system when he originally started Square. In his view, Bitcoin provides an opportunity to build something completely new from the ground up rather than trying to build around the existing system.
"[The traditional financial systems] just are not relevant to today, and they're certainly not relevant to the future, especially when you consider the entire world and countries like Nigeria, Ghana, or India and [their] interconnection with countries like the United States, Canada, and all over Europe," explained Dorsey.
The Square CEO also offered specific examples of the kinds of issues he sees with the legacy financial system, such as the problems a woman in Ethiopia faced when she was first trying to build out the local equivalent of the ride-sharing app Lyft.
"She still has to take paper, fiat cash from her passengers and pay all of her drivers in the same way because there's no monetary system that she can utilize," said Dorsey. "There's nothing digital."
Dorsey also covered the high costs of transferring money between African nations, with the 10% to 30% costs of transfers made from Ghana to Nigeria as a specific example. Additionally, Dorsey claims the advertising-based profit model that social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube are built around today would not exist if Bitcoin had been invented prior to the development of these platforms.
It's clear that, at least for Dorsey, Bitcoin is much more than an investment, and it's something special and unique that those who use it should help protect and develop.
"Having sound money that is separate from the state is the idea," said Dorsey.
"My hope is that it creates world peace or helps create world peace," Dorsey added later in the discussion. "Elon said it earlier, we have all of these monopolies on violence and the individual doesn't have power . . . It may sound a little bit ridiculous, but you fix that foundational level and everything above it improves in such a dramatic way. It's going to be long term, but my hope is definitely peace."
These comments from Dorsey will sound extremely familiar to anyone who has heard the "fix the money, fix the world" meme around Bitcoin.
Wood: Bitcoin is the best money for ESG
Wood talked about the ability for Bitcoin to change the world in the context of the movement found within many traditional institutions regarding how companies impact various social causes, which is commonly referred to as ESG (environment, social, and governance).
The potential environmental impact of Bitcoin's use of proof-of-work was heavily discussed throughout the event, with the general consensus being that it would make sense for Bitcoin to eventually be mostly-powered by renewable sources of energy. And again, Musk indicated that Tesla is likely to start accepting Bitcoin payments again in the near future due to his perception that Bitcoin's negative environmental impact has decreased in the past few months.
To this point, Wood stated, "I really do believe that Bitcoin will be much more environmentally friendly, certainly than traditional gold mining or the traditional financial services sector. In many ways, it already is, and it's just going to get better that way."
While Wood indicated that many institutions think of things like diversity and pay equity when it comes to the social impact of various companies, she also pointed out that she thinks about this aspect of ESG a bit differently when it comes to disruptive technologies like Bitcoin. Much like Dorsey, Wood pointed to statistics related to the reduction of friction in global payments, such as the heavy reliance on remittances in places like Tonga and El Salvador, as a social responsibility aspect of the Bitcoin phenomenon. Wood also pointed to the 4.3 billion people living under authoritarian regimes and 1.3 billion people living under double-digit or greater levels of inflation as other areas where Bitcoin can enable economic empowerment. Wood also pointed to the work of Alex Gladstein of the Human Rights Foundation for those who seek more information on this topic.
"Saving them from the destruction of their purchasing power certainly is a noble social goal," added Wood. "We expand social to be much more than the traditional ESG community."
In terms of governance, Wood pointed to the openness and transparency of the entire ecosystem around Bitcoin. "It's completely transparent, unlike the opaqueness of financial systems and the toll takers in the traditional financial world," said Wood.
The CEO of Ark Invest also shared how she became more familiar with the transparency of Bitcoin through conversations with various contributors to Bitcoin Core.
"In terms of talking to them about economics, economic theory, [and] failed monetary regimes historically, they know economic history, many of them, better than anyone I've ever met," Wood said of the Bitcoin development community.
"So, that gives me a great degree of confidence that they do believe they're on a noble mission. They could be getting paid a lot more than they're being paid right now if they worked at Google or Facebook or some of these other areas, but they've chosen this sense of purpose for a noble goal . . . It gives me a great deal of comfort as I think about the governance of the ecosystem, much more so than I think we would find in other financial ecosystems."
It is notable that Wood spent time to share her understanding of the Bitcoin development community, as that brings us back to a direct connection to the core ethos of "cypherpunks write code" that underpinned much of Wednesday's discussion. _____
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text:
Tellina flucigera är en musselart som beskrevs av Dall 1908. Tellina flucigera ingår i släktet Tellina och familjen Tellinidae. Inga underarter finns listade i Catalogue of Life.

Källor

Musslor
flucigera

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Proagra stabilis är en fjärilsart som beskrevs av W. Warren 1909. Proagra stabilis ingår i släktet Proagra och familjen mätare. Inga underarter finns listade i Catalogue of Life.

Källor

Mätare
stabilis


"It is with profound sadness that I am confirming that the legendary, iconic performer, Prince Rogers Nelson, has died," his spokeswoman said.
In a statement, Carver County Sheriff Jim Olson said his deputies responded to a medical call at about 09:43 local time (14:43 GMT) and later found an unresponsive adult male in an elevator at Paisley Park Studios.
First responders tried to revive him with CPR but he was pronounced dead at 10:07.
Hundreds of fans gathered outside Paisley Park. US President Barack Obama said the world had lost a "creative icon".
Born in 1958, Prince was a prolific writer and performer from a young age - reportedly writing his first song when he was seven.
With his first band The Revolution, Prince, he wrote more than two dozen rock classics in a five-year flurry.
Purple Rain, Little Red Corvette, 1999, Raspberry Beret, When Doves Cry, Kiss... At the same time, he wrote Manic Monday for The Bangles and Nothing Compares 2U, made famous by Sinead O'Connor in 1990.
On 15 April he was taken to hospital after his private plane made an emergency landing in Illinois.
It happened just hours after he had performed on stage in Georgia. He was treated and released after a few hours.
Tributes have been pouring in from artists young and old, across the musical spectrum.
"It's such a blow. It's really surreal. It's just kind of unbelievable," Aretha Franklin told MSNBC. "He was definitely an original and a one of a kind. Truly there was only one Prince."


BTS�now has over 1 billion streams on Apple Music.
They are the first K-pop artist to achieve the feat, and this includes streams from USA, Korea, Japan, Canada, and Austraila, as well as from countries in Europe and Southeast Asia.
I imagine 1sts are going to be in their future a lot.


text:
LMH Salon Opens On Renshaw While Jim's Barber Shop Is Remembered
Angie Raybourne, the new owner of LMH Salon (formerly Jim's Barber Shop) seated next to her father, Mark Cuthrell.
In the past few years if you had driven past 10 Renshaw Road in Highland Heights, it's likely you would have given the small, brick building no notice. But all buildings hold stories and this one holds one of the best: the story of James (Jim) T. Mountain.
There, at 10 Renshaw, Mountain cut hair in his one-chair barber shop – and if you had any connection to high school football, it's likely he cut yours – or your father's – or your grandfather's. Mountain died on September 5, 2014, but with the recent reopening at 10 Renshaw, now LMH Salon, Mountain's story lives on. LMH Salon, owned by Mountain's great-niece, Angie Raybourne, serves as a testament to the life Mountain lived – on the basketball court, on the football field, aboard the USS Leary, in his barber shop, at the horse tracks, and at home, caring for his wife.
Mountain was born June 12, 1921. He grew up at Second and McKinney in Dayton, Ky., where his mother owned a candy store (Mountain's father died when Mountain was 6). Mountain had one sister. One of Mountain's best childhood friends, Jim "Red Dog" Doughtery, lived at Third and McKinney (more on that later). Mountain's home flooded during the 1937 flood, and he and his family moved to Bellevue.
According to old news clippings and a family scrapbook, Mountain's childhood was spent playing basketball and baseball on the street, and fishing and swimming in the Ohio River. He and his friends would take canoes out on the Ohio River, and paddle in the waves of the Island Queen, a sidewheeler steamboat, while the boat's crew would try to shoo him and his friends away by throwing plates and shooting BB guns at them.
Dayton High School's football team in 1938.
Mountain attended Dayton High School where he played basketball (guard) under coach John Wooden (Wooden would go on to win 10 NCAA national championships in his 12 years as head coach at UCLA). Jim "The Man" Mountain (family says he was maybe 100 pounds, soaking wet) also played football for Dayton, losing to Highlands High School in 1938 but beating them 35-6 in 1939.
Jim Mountain served in the Navy during WWII.
Mountain served in the Navy for five years during WWII. He was a torpedoman. His ship, the USS Leary, sunk on Christmas Eve in 1943. Mountain was 22. He spent hours on a cork raft in the icy North Atlantic before being rescued. He was one of 60 survivors, and only one of two torpedomen (out of 11) who survived. According to family stories, one of the men on his raft asked to switch positions with him, believing he had a better chance of survival. Out of kindness, Mountain did. But the man was wrong – he died, and Mountain survived.
Local newspapers around northern Kentucky interview Jim Mountain upon returning home as one of the few survivors from the USS Leary.
From a newspaper clipping: "Mountain arrived home early yesterday, surprising his mother, who had been frantic with worry since hearing the previous night that the Leary had been sunk. Mountain's shouts of 'Mom, Mom, Mom,' as he pounded on the door were music to her ears."
Mountain was discharged from the Navy in 1947.
Jim and Louise Mountain.
Mountain attended Xavier University to study physical education. He began coaching football at Dayton High School in 1947. In In 1949, the Green Devils won the Kentucky State Football Championship. After, Mountain stopped coaching. He married the love of his life, Louise, who worried there wasn't enough money in education. So Mountain attended school to become a barber, which they both thought would lead to steadier work.
Mountain opened Jim's Barber Shop at 10 Renshaw in 1953.
Fast forward to 1994. Remember Mountain's childhood friend, Jim "Red Dog" Doughtery? In 1994, Doughtery was the assistant football coach at Highlands. One day, at practice, Doughtery recognized a man sitting on a bench at the top of hill, watching the Highlands team play. That man was Mountain. Doughtery introduced Mountain to head coach Dale Mueller. They needed a punting coach, and Doughtery knew Mountain could do the job. Mueller hired him.
Jim Mountain served as an assistant football coach at Highlands High School for many years.
Mountain served as an assistant football coach through four Kentucky State Football Championships, including 1996, 1998, 1999 (50 years from his first state championship with Dayton) and then 2004, which marked his 55th year of coaching.
Jim Mountain was inducted into the Northern Kentucky Sports Hall of Fame.
In 2005, Mountain was inducted into the Northern Kentucky Sports Hall of Fame. He quit coaching in 2006.
Generations of boys and men visited Jim Mountain for haircuts.
But for all the years Mountain cut hair, if you were a customer, sitting in his barber shop chair, you wouldn't know about the newspaper clippings welcoming the war hero home or the years he helped lead football teams to state championships. He was humble. He loved fishing and horse racing. He often cut Highlands football players and coaches' hair for free. And he loved his wife, Louise.
This sign was taped to a window in Jim's Barber Shop during his wife's illness.
For years 10 Renshaw held Mountain's barber shop on one side, and a salon (which Mountain rented out) on the other side. When his wife, Louise, became sick he turned the salon into a small apartment so he could both care for her and work at the same time. A sign taped to the window said "HONK YOUR HORN ONCE FOR HAIRCUT". Upon hearing a honk, Mountain would leave Louise, cut the customer's hair and then return to his beloved wife.
Today that "HONK YOUR HORN" sign is kept in a scrapbook Mountain's family put together before his death. The book is filled with pictures and news clippings, all of which help to tell the story of a life well lived. Raybourne's parents, Mark and Paula Cuthrell (Paula is Mountain's niece), took Mountain home to live with them when Mountain was in his 80s. Mountain stayed with them until his death in 2014.
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Enter Mountain's great-niece, Raybourne. She always wanted to be a hair stylist, and worked as an assistant manager at a Great Clips for several years before giving birth to her daughter.
Jim's Barber Shop at 10 Renshaw, before the renovation.
"Every hair stylist dreams of going to school and having your own shop," Raybourne says. After her daughter's birth, Mountain's health was declining. Knowing her dream, he sold 10 Renshaw to her for $1.
Raybourne and her family gutted the shop, while preserving as much of Mountain's history as possible.
The family got to her work. Raybourne's father, who sells life insurance for a living, became the lead contractor on the building. It had to be gutted. New plumbing. New electrical. New floors, walls and ceiling. They redid everything, all the while preserving as much of the barber shop's history – and Mountain's history – as they could.
Mountain's chair, restored, next to his old sign: "Jim Mountain Barber Shop."
The first thing customers notice upon walking into LMH (Love My Hair) Salon is a vintage barber chair. It was Mountain's, now restored. Mountain's tools, found while gutting the property, were cleaned and polished, and placed in shadow boxes now displayed throughout the salon.
LMH Salon has a modern-day vintage vibe, while also serving as a museum to the building's past.
Raybourne says she always knew she wanted her someday-salon to have a vintage look, and incorporating her great uncle's past with her modern-day offerings provides the perfect mix.
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"I feel like he is here," Raybourne says. The night before the grand opening, which was held July 22, Raybourne and her sister spent 45 minutes trying to get the knobs back on the newly reupholstered vintage barber chair; the new vinyl had made things tight. Finally, they completed the task and in that moment, all four shadow boxes behind them shifted, slightly, as if Mountain was saying, "Well done."
Meg Bardo (left, seated) and Angie Raybourne (right, standing) – the two stylists at LMH Salon.
LMH Salon (859-360-7971) is open Tuesday (11 a.m. to 8 p.m.), Wednesday (11 a.m. to 6 p.m.), Friday (11 a.m. to 6 p.m.) and Saturday (10 a.m. to 2 p.m.). In addition to Raybourne, Meg Bardo recently signed on as another stylist. They offer cuts, coloring, formal hair styles and facial waxing services. Folks are welcome to stop by for a consultation, and walk-ins are welcome.
This story could have easily been about the opening of a new salon. But Raybourne insisted its focus be on Mountain – his barber shop, his legacy. Raybourne and her father spent more time talking about Mountain's kindness, how soft-spoken he was, his love for animals and babies, and his legacy than they did the hours they've spent restoring his former barber shop and home.
"I hope I made him proud," Raybourne says, as she looks around the salon. Looking at the lovingly restored barber chair, the shadow boxes, the pictures and the memories – and realizing the life still left in this small brick building on Renshaw because of the work Raybourne and her family decided to take on in order to reopen its doors – one can't help but think, "you did."
Posted by Kara Gebhart Uhl at 7:30 AM
Labels: Highlands football, Jim Mountain, Jim's Barber Shop, LMH Salon
A P G November 27, 2017 at 8:18 AM
Really Great article! My dad took me there to get my haircut through my childhood. I only knew him as Jim. I had never heard the story behind Jim. Thank You! Good memories sitting in there, with my dad, waiting for my haircut when I was a kid.
Angus Bc November 27, 2017 at 8:25 AM
Fond childhood memories of my dad taking us boys to visit Jimbo. He was the best ever barber and was very sad when he passed. Great person that treated our family top notch!
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- Can backup SD2 protected CDs!!!!
The Iomega Predator defines a new way of portability - not the usual Jazz or Zip one, but the CD/ CDRW way. It is certainly not a great performer, but we think it is a fair value-for-money proposition. Even though it's great design and USB features will affect some users, there are more players in the portable recording playground. For instance the Yamaha 16x10x40 firewire CDRW which is a lot faster, but uses the IEEE1394 protocol instead of the USB one. One other thing that a user should consider, is certainly the ability of the drive to make working SD2 backups! This (and this only) is one reason I'd wanted a drive like this connected to my PC !


The Sony Alpha a9 is the most impressive and expensive mirrorless camera from Sony yet, that can put all other cameras to shame because of its speed. Yes, that's right. This 24.2 MP camera can shoot up to 241 RAW full-frame images at a blistering fast 20fps. The Sony a9 features the world's first full-frame stacked Exmor RS CMOS sensor. Similar to other mirrorless cameras from Sony, this one offers 5-axis image stabilization as well. As far as video is concered, it can shoot 4K footage, which is actually downsampled from a 6K sensor readout. This essentially results in a high quality 4K footage with exceptional detail and depth, as claimed by Sony.
The battery life has also improved a lot, as Sony promises double the battery life compared to previous A7 models. The Alpha a9 will be the best mirrorless shooter for professionals once it hits the shelves, starting May 25th for an asking price of $4499.
The Fujifilm X-T2 mirrorless camera was announced back in July and replaced the much-loved X-T1. It features an APS-C sensor, so full-frame enthusiasts, this one's not for you. Although you won't nearly get the surface area of a full-frame sensor, it packs some serious features for professionals regardless. It features the same 24.3 MP CMOS sensor that we first saw and loved in the X-Pro2. The X-T2's electronic viewfinder featuring a 2.36 million-dot OLED display is quite similar to the one on the X-T1, except for the fact that it's much brighter and offers 60 fps baseline frame rate.
The Fujifilm X-T2 can shoot 4K videos up to 30 fps, and also offers a maximum recording time of 10 minutes. The battery that this camera packs will let you take 340 shots. Fujifilm also offers an optional VPB-XT2 battery grip that can accommodate 2 batteries in addition to the one in the camera. The battery grip alone will be good enough to let you take up to 1000 shots if you're willing to sacrifice the compact size. The maximum recording time will also be increased to 30 minutes once the battery grip has been attached. Along with the Sony a6500, this is one of the best APS-C mirrorless cameras you can buy this year. Pricing is quite similar to other high-end APS-C mirrorless cameras at $1599.
The GH4 was made available in April 2014 and although it's ageing at the moment, the multiple price cuts that this camera received makes it a great deal, even after 3 years since release. It packs a best-in-class 16.05 MP Micro Four Thirds sensor that can take impressive stills, best suited to intermediate photographers. The camera offers continuous shooting at 12 fps and 7 fps with focus tracking.
The GH4 can also shoot video in either DCI Cinema 4K (4096 x 2160) up to 24 fps or Ultra HD 4K (3840 x 2160) up to 30 fps. If you're shooting 4K video, the battery should last you for just about 2 hours. The battery life is rated at 500-530 stills, which is well above average for a compact camera, but still below a prosumer DSLR. So, make sure you purchase additional batteries as well. Although the launch price of GH4 was roughly $1700, after multiple price cuts, it's currently available for under 1200 bucks on Amazon.
This is the best mirrorless camera that you can currently buy for photography and videography. Well, that's until the Sony Alpha a9 hits the shelves. In spite of being almost two years old, the a7R II is still widely recommended by enthusiasts, just for the sheer performance it packs. The Sony a7R II boasts a whopping 42 MP full-frame Exmor R CMOS sensor that lets you take astounding images at the highest details. It also offers 5-axis image stabilization and continuous shooting up to 5 fps, which is fine considering the camera launched a couple years ago.
The a7R II can record 4K Ultra HD footage at 30 fps. The battery on this camera should last you for about 340 shots if you're using the LCD screen or 290 shots if you're using the Electronic Viewfinder. All in all, this is a pretty well-built camera that manages to tick all boxes for the professionals who're looking to buy a top-tier camera this year. If you want the a7R II right away, you will have to shell out approximately $2900 bucks and the price has pretty much been justified.
The NX3000 is an entry-level compact mirrorless camera which is both thin and light weight, aimed at beginners. It was released back in June 2014, but it still manages to be in this list for the features it offers at a low budget price point. The NX3000 features a 20.3 MP APS-C CMOS sensor like other NX series cameras offered by Samsung. Make no mistake, this APS-C sensor is still physically larger than all the micro four thirds out there. It comes with a 16-50mm Power Zoom lens which offers Optical Image Stabilization.
Unfortunately, the NX3000 cannot record 4K footage, which is a downside that might bother you. However it can still shoot impressive Full HD 1080p footage using H.264 format at 30 fps. There's a dedicated one-touch record button on the rear of the camera. The battery on the NX3000 should last 370 shots according to Samsung. It can be currently purchased along with the lens for under 700 bucks on Amazon.
If you compare the Lunix G7 camera with the Samsung NX3000, it literally blows the Samsung camera out of the water in terms of what it offers at a lower price. Aimed at beginners on a budget, this mirrorless camera from Panasonic features a 16 MP Micro Four Thirds sensor, which is a step down from APS-C sensor on the NX3000. It also provides continuous shooting at 7fps to capture moments filled with action. The electronic viewfinder on the G7 is something that's missing on the Samsung counterpart.
The Lumix G7 boasts Ultra HD 4K recording at 30 fps, which the NX3000 completely lacks, even at a higher price. So, if you're interested in shooting videos with your camera, the choice is pretty obvious here. The battery life on the Lumix G7 is rated at 350 shots, which although lower, is still quite similar to the NX3000 it competes against. The pricing is what makes the Lumix G7 an obvious choice for beginners and people who're on a budget, as you can pick this one up for under $600.
Arguably, the best APS-C Mirrorless Camera you can buy right now, aimed at professional photographers and videographers alike. The a6500 is a step up from the a6300 and it's packed with features. Packing a 24 MP CMOS sensor with 425 phase detection points and 5-axis image stabilization, the a6500 shoots nothing short of stellar pictures. One of the primary areas where this camera excels in, is low-light performance.
The Sony Alpha a6500 can also shoot high resolution 4K footage at 30 fps and the process works quite similar to the Sony a9 by downsampling from a 6K sensor readout, which makes it look much sharper than regular 4K videos. You will be able to shoot continuous 4K video up to 20 minutes which is considerably more than the 10 minutes offered by its competitor, the Fujifilm X-T2. As far as stills are concerned, the battery should last you for about 350 shots.
The Olympus Mark II is a mid-range mirrorless camera from Olympus targeting photographers at the intermediate level. It's the successor to the much loved OM-D E-M5 which launched in 2012. It packs a 16 MP Micro Four Thirds sensor with 5-axis optical image stabilization which is good enough to satisfy even the prosumers. It boasts of continuous shooting up to 10 fps (5 fps with focus tracking), so that you don't miss any action.
For an asking price of almost 1000 bucks, you might expect 4K video recording, but this camera misses out that feature. It can still record 1080p footage at 60 fps which is good enough for many, but if you want that extra resolution, you might want to look elsewhere. The battery life is rated at 310 shots, according to CIPA (Camera & Imaging Products Association) standards, which is a bit lower than its predecessor. Although this is an impressive camera, for an few hundred dollars more, you have much better options to choose from.
A mirrorless camera from the widely loved DSLR manufacturer Canon is what everyone looked forward to. The M series was thereby born 4 years ago and the EOS M5 was launched to replace the M3 last year. There's no doubt regarding the fact that the M5 is Canon's best mirrorless camera yet. It packs a 24.2 MP APS-C CMOS sensor featuring Dual Pixel CMOS Autofocus. The APS-C sensor alone is good enough to edge out some of the competition with Micro Four Thirds sensor providing larger surface area. The camera also boasts continuous shooting up to 9 fps, which is quite impressive for a mid-range camera.
Canon targets the photographers at the beginner and intermediate level with the EOS M5. Living up to that tag, it lacks 4K video recording. However, it can still shoot 1080p footage at 60 fps. The battery life of the EOS M5 is rated at 295 shots which is quite low even for a mirrorless camera. For an asking price of $1099, there are better options to choose from, but if Canon decides to drop the price, this camera can be a pretty good deal. Still, if you're a fan of the Canon brand and you have the cash, we won't stop you from purchasing it.
Coming from the German manufacturer Leica Camera AG, the Leica M10 is known for its great build quality and longetivity. Yes, Leica cameras have been widely known to last a lifetime, so you probably get what you're paying for. The camera follows a retro look similar to most other cameras from this company. Nevertheless, build quality alone doesn't make a great camera. It packs a 24 MP full-frame CMOS sensor, which Leica claims to have been newly developed for the M10. It also offers continuous shooting of up to 5 fps, which is kind of disappointing for a camera at this price point.
The Leica M10 totally lacks video recording, let alone 4K recording which you might totally expect from any camera available in 2017. But instead, Leica claims to completely focus on still photography and yes, it does take some exceptional photos. The battery life is pretty disappointing as well as it's rated by CIPA at 210 shots. Of course, the Leica M10 isn't for everyone, as it's aimed at professional still photographers only. Thanks to its exorbitant price tag of over $6500. However, if you want a camera that's going to last you for a lifetime and enjoy the craftsmanship, that's something only Leica can offer.
The E-M1 Mark II sits at the top of Olympus' OM-D range of mirrorless cameras and it rightly deserves the spot. This camera is known for its speed. The dual quad-core processors that powers this camera makes way for blazing fast 60 fps burst shooting in AF-S mode and up to 18 fps in continuous AF mode. E-M1 Mark II is neither a full-frame nor an APS-C mirrorless camera. Instead, it packs a 20 MP Micro Four Thirds sensor featuring in-body image stabilization up to 5.5 stops.
The E-M1 Mark II can record video in either DCI Cinema 4K at 24 fps or Ultra HD 4K at 30 fps, which is enough to please the videographers. The battery life is quite impressive for a mirrorless camera at 440 shots, according to CIPA standard. The E-M1 Mark II packs some amazing features, especially considering the fact that it has a Micro Four Thirds sensor.
Meet the younger sibling to the hugely popular X-T1, the Fujifilm X-T10 which is a slightly stripped down and more affordable mirrorless camera which is suited for beginners or even intermediate photographers. The X-T10 features a 16 MP APS-C X-Trans CMOS II sensor which is plenty to take some beautiful stills. It has a high resolution 2.36 million dot OLED electronic viewfinder, similar to the X-T1. However, unlike the X-T1, you'll be missing out on some features like the lack of weather-sealing and flash sync port.
The Fujifilm X-T10 lacks 4K recording capabilities. However, if you still want to record videos on this one, you'll be able to shoot 1080p footage at 60 fps, which should be good enough to satisfy the beginners. Battery life is rated at 350 shots which is decent for a mirrorless camera in this price change. It's currently available on Amazon for under 900 bucks, which includes an 18-55mm kit lens.
Nikon and Canon may rule the DSLR market, but when it comes to mirrorless cameras, it's totally the opposite. As you can see from the above list, there are barely any mirrorless cameras from either of these brands, with Sony owning the majority of the market share at the moment. None of the cameras that we discussed above are mediocre by any means. Each of them has its fair share of strengths and weaknesses. So, are you looking forward to upgrade from a DSLR and make the transition to a new mirrorless camera? Let us know your thoughts regarding these cameras in the comments section below.


text:
Interview with Jeff White from ILM!
Jules and Marconin welcome special guest, Jeff White to the show! Jeff works for Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) and is the visual effects supervisor for Warcraft. Join us for this special episode where we talk about the art of motion capture, actor integration with CGI creation, how certain key scenes were created, and the love of the Warcraft universe by those who took such special care to create this film.
Warning: This episode contains discussion and spoilers of the Warcraft movie!
Pleasureful Gamble
We can finally share our news about a very cool opportunity surrounding the Warcraft Movie, so...we share it! Our Discussion topic: I'm 16, with a crush on a girl who has a boyfriend. I really think she likes me, too, but I don't know what to do. Should I go for it? Our Think Tank question: I'm a new university graduate with no job and a mountain of student debt. I don't feel anything anymore. I can't get off my parents' sofa to do anything more that eat. What can I do to feel something again? Be a part of the show by sending your Tell Us One Thing questions, feedback, and requests for advice to questions@taurenthinktank.com. Slash Moo, everybody!
Gentle Bro Hug
Things...and stuff...and...oh, Overwatch! Our Discussion topic: At Dreamhack Austin, the Hearthstone Twitch stream became out of control with racism and offensive chat while an African American player rose to the top. What can we do as a community to prevent this behavior from happening? Our Think Tank question: Why is it so hard to forgive yourself for the mistakes of the past? I find it easier to forgive others than to forgive myself, and it tears me apart sometimes. Be a part of the show by sending your Tell Us One Thing questions, feedback, and requests for advice to questions@taurenthinktank.com. Slash Moo, everybody!
Don't Take Marconin's Phone
Marconin got older! Jules makes headway with the big move! New mounts and running into Warcraft players in the wild! Our Discussion topic: My friend is a drama queen, and I don't know how to help her with all of her relationship problems. How do I talk to her? Our Think Tank question: My girlfriend has severe mental illnesses and doesn't seek help. I want to help her and have her be a partner to me, but she'd rather watch TV in bed all day. What can I do to have a life with her? Be a part of the show by sending your Tell Us One Thing questions, feedback, and requests for advice to questions@taurenthinktank.com. Slash Moo, everybody!
Don't Need Clothes to be Cool
Another show, another week, another round of updates about lots of driving, moving, and meetups! Our Discussion topic: My brother suffers from PTSD after his time in the military, and he's about to have his first child. He's terrified that he's not ready to have a baby. What should I do to help him? Our Think Tank question: I haven't told my Christian parents that I'm an Atheist. I'm not sure how to break the news to them or if I should tell them at all. Be a part of the show by sending your Tell Us One Thing questions, feedback, and requests for advice to questions@taurenthinktank.com. Slash Moo, everybody!
Happy Moother's Day!
We're back with another show, some big and significant life updates to share as well! Our Discussion topic: My 10-year high school reunion is coming up, and I was bullied badly, to the point of considering suicide. One of my bullies will be there, and he has lost the use of his legs due to an accident. Should I forgive him for his past actions or be glad he got what he deserved? Our Think Tank question: My raid leader is quitting the game, and I feel lost. My raid team has been like family to me, and I don't know what to do with myself now. Should I keep going or take a break for a while? Be a part of the show by sending your Tell Us One Thing questions, feedback, and requests for advice to questions@taurenthinktank.com. Slash Moo, everybody!
Marconin is a D.Va
It's a week another week of fun and games - including coming back to old ones! Our Discussion topic: I live as part of a co-housing development in my real life. It's made me think that the prevalence of online communities might be too easy to move in and out of without much investment. What do you guys think? Our Think Tank question: My wife has been unfaithful in the past, but I have forgiven her and we have moved on. However, I found out she's still messaging the man she was unfaithful with. I just want to be able to trust my wife again and start a family with her. What can I do? Be a part of the show by sending your Tell Us One Thing questions, feedback, and requests for advice to questions@taurenthinktank.com. Slash Moo, everybody!
Party In The Medivac
We are joined by a special guest - Heroes of the Dorm player @StephOddish from Team QBuildBrightwing at East Carolina University! We first learned about her from her amazing Stitches plays, but she's been a gamer all of her life. Oddish is now pursuing a full-time streaming career while training and shot-calling for the up-and-coming Heroes team Sweet Synergy. She talks with Jules and Marconin about being transgender, discovering her true identity, breaking boundaries for women in esports, and being true to yourself no matter what challenges may be in your way. Be a part of the show by sending your Tell Us One Thing questions, feedback, and requests for advice to questions@taurenthinktank.com. Slash Moo, everybody!
We Have Beef
BlizzCon is coming! A big raiding update for Marconin, and lots of things going on in Heroes of the Storm. Our discussion question: My long-time friend is so negative. We've always gamed together, but I'm happier gaming without his complaining and negativity. How can I start enjoying my game time again? Our Think Tank question: My mother is constantly complimenting me, but it just makes me feel uncomfortable, like she doesn't really doesn't see me as a person. What can I do to change this relationship? Be a part of the show by sending your Tell Us One Thing questions, feedback, and requests for advice to questions@taurenthinktank.com. Slash Moo, everybody!
Always Remember To Stop Streaming
Lots of updates, some sad news in Marconin's world, and stories about forgetting to use our brains! Our discussion question: I think my employer is engaging in wage theft, but my union tells me it's how things are done everywhere. I don't know what to do. Who can I talk to? Our Think Tank question: It's my 20-year high school reunion this year, and I don't want to go. Is there something wrong with me because I have no interest in revisiting the people of my past? Be a part of the show by sending your Tell Us One Thing questions, feedback, and requests for advice to questions@taurenthinktank.com. Slash Moo, everybody!


Anywho. Back to the point. As much as I like the short stories I've written, I can say with a fair amount of certainty that seven of the ten are probably not quite there. They might have interesting ideas behind them or cool scenes within them, but overall they just don't quite work in one way or another.
Which is where we run into the problem of the failed story. Because, in an ideal world, I would cannibalize those less than perfect stories. I would strip out the idea or the scene and I would use it elsewhere. Somewhere it could do some good.
And yet, I hesitate. I don't want to destroy those stories. I don't want to tear them into little bits and pieces and use the parts like some sort of organ donation scheme. Sure, they're probably on life support at this point. But I don't want to pull that plug just yet either.
If the novel doesn't get published, what do I do with all the ideas I was exploring in there? And what about the ideas I sort of kind of touched upon but didn't really flesh out?
I think this may be how some authors end up with repeating themes or imagery in their writing. They keep revisiting an idea or an image until they finally manage to explain it to their satisfaction. Or they keep revisiting it because there are so many different angles from which you can approach it.
When you're first writing, the story is malleable–you can change the character's gender, the setting, the outcome, it can become a sci-fi story instead of a fantasy. Anything goes.
But at some point you make a decision about what that story is and it starts to take on a specific form.
So, these stories are all at that stage. They've been finalized to the point where I'm not sure I can change them too much, because my mind sees them as just one thing right now and won't see them differently.
This entry was posted in General Musings, Writing and tagged a bad analogy or two, being a writer, ideas, when a story doesn't work, why do I remember the themes in Borges's writing and not the difference between lay and lie, writing, you don't know what you don't know. Bookmark the permalink.
The superpower I keep wishing for is the ability to force vehicles to turn when they are indicating (or more usually not turn if they have not). Less messy than yours but not perfect.
Oh, yeah. That's just downright dangerous.


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Beyond Ethanol
( Marco Verch / Wikimedia Commons )
BROOKE GLADSTONE This is On the Media, I'm Brooke Gladstone. So we've spent this hour considering how alcohol has been folded into just about every facet of American life. Church, leisure, creation, celebration, recreation, anguish and remorse, how can we escape its baleful impact even when it's not literally in us, it's still of us and all around us. Our friends across the pond struggle with the same question. In 2020, England and Wales saw a 20-year record high of over 7000 drinking related deaths. In 2018, we spoke with David Nutt, a neuropsychopharmacologist at Imperial College London, who said he may have found an antidote. He's developed a less addictive, less toxic drink that produces a gentle high. First, he called it "alco-synth," since rebranded as Alcarelle. Nutt's organization, GABA Labs aims to bring its alcohol alternative to the market by 2025. For years, Nutt helped steer English drug policy as a top government adviser, but that relationship was fraught.
DAVID NUTT During my time, we made ketamine illegal. We made GHB illegal. We made crystal meth more illegal. But when we said things like, well, OK, so now there are drugs which should be made less illegal because they're not as harmful as we used to think. Drugs like cannabis, the penalty should be reduced. The government was not remotely interested, and I just carried on arguing that case and they carried on getting angry with me. And eventually they sacked me.
BROOKE GLADSTONE You said that any drug less dangerous than alcohol should be available legally, right?
DAVID NUTT I don't think I said that while I was working for them but I certainly said it subsequently. While I was there, the terms I made to take on the job were that we had to start doing things properly. We had to have some criteria for assessing harm. And over the next 9 years, I developed, actually, two separate scales of harm. The first was a 9 point scale, but then after publishing that, I was approached by experts and they encouraged us to set up what's called the MCDA approach, multi criteria decision analysis approach, and that project ended up telling us that there were 16 harms that drugs can do. 9 harms to the user and 7 harms to society. But as we were doing that, of course, we were applying those criteria to ongoing assessments. And during that time, we revisited ecstasy. It's not as harmful as crack cocaine is not as harmful as crystal meth. So it shouldn't be a class A drug. It should be class B. And the government said, no, no, no, no, we don't change it because the newspapers won't like it. And then we said cannabis should stay as a class C drug. It's definitely less harmful than Class B drugs. And the government said, no, we don't like that. The newspapers want it to be Class B. And in the end, we just had this continual tension between what politicians want to do and what the science was telling us.
BROOKE GLADSTONE So after you were fired, you released a study that asserted alcohol was actually the most dangerous drug in the UK, more dangerous than heroin or cocaine even.
DAVID NUTT Yes. After being sacked and then did the study where we used the 16 parameters of harm and we then applied them to 20 drugs. So that particular study published in The Lancet in 2010 showed that alcohol is the most harmful drug in the UK because the harm to other people was vast. Things like traffic accidents, like the cost to the health service, the cost of policing, the lost productivity from hangovers, the child abuse, spousal abuse, etc. Alcohol, because of its pervasive use and its disinhibiting effects, is an enormously damaging drug to society. It's not the most harmful drug to the user, I think crack, crystal, heroin, one of the most dangerous drugs to the users, but alcohol, because of its prevalence of use, was the most harmful drug overall.
BROOKE GLADSTONE So tell me about the range of feedback you got from other scientists and from the government.
DAVID NUTT Of the 110,000 medical papers published in the last ten years, the paper itself is in the top point three percent of all citations. So it's massively cited by the scientists. And actually, we replicated it with a separate group of scientists in Europe, and they came up with almost the same ranking. So we're pretty sure it's right.
BROOKE GLADSTONE So why do you think that alcohol and illegal drugs are treated so differently?
DAVID NUTT Well, because the drinks industry watched how the tobacco industry made a half of it by claiming that nicotine wasn't addictive and then got really steamrollered when it turned out it was lying. So the drinks industry doesn't say alcohol is not addictive. Used responsibly, it says, it's avoided confrontation with scientists. The second thing it's done, is it lobbies ferociously. It's managed to put huge amounts of money into the pockets of politicians, and it dishes dirt on other drugs like cannabis so that it doesn't have any competition in the marketplace.
BROOKE GLADSTONE So how would you change the rules about drugs and alcohol to put them more in line with science?
DAVID NUTT I'll start with what I would do based on what we know from other countries' works. So, for instance, we know that now in your country, some of your states and in the Netherlands and Uruguay, that the regulated cannabis market works. It's safe, it doesn't cause massive social harm, etc. So, I would bring cannabis out of the illegal realm. That's the first thing I'd do. The second thing I would do is I'd actually decriminalize personal possession of all drugs.
BROOKE GLADSTONE All drugs?
DAVID NUTT All drugs and let me explain why. Personal possession, right? 90 percent of people who are caught with drugs in their possession for personal use, their lives will be more affected by the criminal sanction than they will be harmed by the drug. And for the 10 percent who are actually addicted to the drug, then they've got an illness, and putting them in prison or giving them a criminal sanction because they're ill, seems particularly inhumane. And we know that decriminalizing possession, which is what the Portuguese have done, has huge economic benefits, because if you treat people who use drugs as ill, rather than as criminals, you save a lot of money. And there's another hidden benefit, which is that if you give someone a criminal record for drug possession, there's very little else they can do in life but deal drugs. So you create an underclass, and underclasses live on crime and drugs. In the 15 years since they decriminalized drug possession in Portugal, deaths from heroin have fallen to one third of what they were before. Because people are in treatment, the number of users has gone down and therefore the number of deaths has gone down. In the same 15 years in Britain, heroin deaths have gone up by a third. We're trying to do what Americans do, which is to criminalize our way out of the problem, and all we do is create more deaths.
BROOKE GLADSTONE A couple of years back, you went on the BBC and proposed creating something totally new! A safe alcohol, alcosynth. Why?
DAVID NUTT Most of my professional career, I have been involved in trying to reduce the harms of alcohol. Back in the late 70s, 80s, I kind of developed an antidote to alcohol. I could sober up rats that were very drunk. But then about 10 years ago, I realized whatever you did, you could never get rid of the intrinsic harms of alcohol because it's metabolized to acetaldehyde, and acetaldehyde is a toxic substance.
BROOKE GLADSTONE Mmhm.
DAVID NUTT You know, whatever we do, if I can sober people up, the acetaldehyde, still pickling their liver. If I stop them having hangovers, the acetaldehyde's still damaging their brain. Having spent 30 years looking at the pharmacology of alcohol, I realized there were substances out there that actually could replicate some of the positive effects of alcohol but be much, much less harmful.
BROOKE GLADSTONE So what kind of reaction did you get to your announcement?
DAVID NUTT I got some newspapers calling me another nutty professor and other people saying, you know, this is a fantastic vision. The problem is I didn't get any money. Can't get money from governments to do this. There are 4 million premature deaths a year from alcohol. If we switched everyone to alcosynth, we'd save more people dying than eliminating malaria, tuberculosis or meningitis in the world. So it would be a massive health benefit, but it's just too leftfield for governments to invest. So I'm looking for private investors.
BROOKE GLADSTONE You know, the way we respond to alcohol is so subjective. Some of us get happy, some of us get hostile, do you know how people would react to Alcosynth?
DAVID NUTT Well, we've tested on fair numbers of people and most people get relaxed and happy. Yeah, there will always be some individuals who will have idiosyncratic reactions. You can't avoid that, but the good thing is it's a lot safer. You can't overdose on it, it's not going to kill you. I mean, we lose 3 young people a week in Britain from alcohol poisoning. In the States, you must probably lose 30 or 40, so we can put ourselves in a position where we do have a massive, massive reduction in harm.
BROOKE GLADSTONE Some of your colleagues when you made the announcement, dismissed the idea as just scientifically infeasible.
DAVID NUTT They're wrong. We've tested it. We have a number of substances which are enjoyed as much as a glass or two of wine. You know, you're not going to get completely out of your head on this. The people who want to be completely blasters aren't going to go for this, but people who would want to have a mellow, pleasant, sociable evening with their friends are.
BROOKE GLADSTONE What if you take too much?
DAVID NUTT Yeah, well, very cleverly. We've worked out how to plateau out the effect, so. If you take too much, you're just wasting your money because the effect doesn't go on, unlike with alcohol, which just builds up and builds up until it kills you. I suspect there are a lot of people out there who would quite like the pleasurable effects of alcohol, but they don't want the calories, which of course are huge in alcohol, our drink has very few calories, but also they don't want to damage their body or put their body at risk. So I think the population will be very welcoming of this.
BROOKE GLADSTONE How does it taste?
DAVID NUTT Tastes like whenever you want to put it in. So, you choose your favorite cocktail, and we put it in there. It's a mixer.
BROOKE GLADSTONE You've said that we have a hostility toward drug innovation. Why do you think so? I mean, isn't there money in this?
DAVID NUTT I mean, the drinks industry knows it's going to come, but it's going to fight tooth and nail to stop it.
BROOKE GLADSTONE Until it starts producing it.
DAVID NUTT Exactly. It's just like those e-cigarettes. Once they realize that people want safer cigarettes, the industry will then switch. I don't know if you saw a couple of weeks ago that Corona, the people that make Mexican beer, Corona, they took out a 200-million-pound share of a cannabis company in Canada with a view to making a cannabis drink. So I think that the alcohol industry realizes the future is going to be much more complex.
BROOKE GLADSTONE So how many evenings have you spent by the fire with a nice hot alcosynth toddy?
DAVID NUTT I prefer it with ice in it, but quite a few. But I never thought about it, it probably would go into a nice glass of hot milk as well.
BROOKE GLADSTONE Do you really think that this is gonna to work? You say that in a couple of months there'll be a patent out there. Do you think this will actually get to market?
DAVID NUTT Yep.
BROOKE GLADSTONE You do.
DAVID NUTT It'll do it in very interesting places, like, for instance, the Middle East, where alcohol is forbidden. Huge, huge market there. China, half of all the alcohol sales in the world are in China. Chinese government is desperate. We're working with the Chinese government at present trying to work out ways in which we could minimize the damage to the Chinese economy of drinking. There are smart places out there that will accept this enthusiastically, I'm certain.
BROOKE GLADSTONE What about UK and the States?
DAVID NUTT I think the UK is, we're very backward, but I think the US, with your more rational approach in many states to recreational cannabis, there's no conceivable reason or intellectual reason why you wouldn't then support a safer alcohol, would you? I mean, you've been rational about cannabis, maybe you'll be rational about this.
BROOKE GLADSTONE David, thank you very much.
DAVID NUTT It's been an absolute pleasure. Thank you.
BROOKE GLADSTONE David Nutt is the director of the neuro psychopharmacology unit in the Division of Brain Sciences at Imperial College London.
And that's the show. On the Media is produced by Leah Feder, Micah Loewinger, Eloise Blondiau, Rebecca Clark-Callender and Molly Schwartz with help from Ellen Li. Xandra Ellin writes our unique newsletter. Our technical director is Jennifer Munsen. Katya Rogers is our executive producer. On the Media is a production of WNYC Studios. I'm Brooke Gladstone.
Hosted by Brooke Gladstone


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COUNTDOWN: Track the nail-biting moon mission to the unexplored south pole
If successful, India will be the fourth country after the US, Russia and China to perform a 'soft' landing on moon.
Sri Lanka offers fresh probes into missing thousands
Multimedia · User Galleries · News in Pictures Send us your pictures · Send us your stories
Sri Lanka seizes 200kg of heroin in massive raid
Hundreds moved after deadly Sri Lanka dump collapse
3 Sri Lanka soldiers arrested for abducting journalist
Colombo - Sri Lanka's President Maithripala Sirisena on Saturday announced new investigations into alleged secret detention centres as part of a drive to find tens of thousands of people still missing after the country's decades-long war.
Sirisena said he would establish a mechanism to search locations where there are reports that people may still be incarcerated after the war, which ended in May 2009.
"If there are allegations that people are still being held in some locations, the government will set up a mechanism to inspect them," Sirisena told a rally in the former war zone of Sampur in the country's northeast.
Multiple official committees have examined the issue of missing people and recommended actions including reparations and criminal investigations into some high profile cases.
Authorities have so far been slow to act, but Sirisena promised he would now implement these recommendations.
The International Red Cross urged the government last year to disclose the fate of the more than 16 000 people still officially missing after the island's ethnic war ended eight years ago.
Government forces crushed Tamil rebels fighting for a separate homeland for the ethnic minority in a brutal offensive that ended 37 years of fighting. About 40 000 people are thought to have been killed in the final few months of the conflict alone.
Huge numbers of Tamils disappeared during the war including after being arrested by security services, while thousands more died in military bombardments.
Thousands of people also went missing during a crackdown by security forces and pro-government vigilante groups on Marxist rebels between 1987 and 1990.
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