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Home/Rod Dreher/Msgr Kalin & #MeToo Conservatives
Msgr Kalin & #MeToo Conservatives
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[Note: Below is an extraordinary opinion essay sent to me by its author, Peter Mitchell, a conservative Catholic and former priest. Mitchell was ordained in 1999 and laicized in 2017. He says that he "is grateful to be a baptized and practicing Catholic." — RD]
We Catholics ought to thank God that the abuse committed by former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick against young men under his authority is finally coming to light. As a former priest, however, I fear that the bishops may be tempted to allow McCarrick to become a scapegoat for abusive patterns – sexual and otherwise – running deep within the hierarchical power structure of the institutional Church. My own experiences and those of others in seminary and priesthood lead me to conclude that there have been and continue to be numerous other such instances – and not only on the "liberal" side of the Church but, astonishingly for some, on the "conservative" side as well.
In other words, McCarrick's unspeakable behavior and the conspiracy of silence that protects and enables it is sadly not some bizarre anomaly or rare exception but actually much closer to the norm than the Catholic faithful may at first be inclined to believe.
The revelations about McCarrick, as well as reports coming from Honduras of an entrenched homosexual network throughout the seminary system there raise some significant further questions. Given that we know that many other people in positions of ecclesiastical power have been aware of McCarrick's behavior and yet said and did nothing about it, the question must be asked: How many other bishops, vocation directors and seminary formators have engaged or are engaging in similar behavior with young adult men considering vocations to the priesthood, and how many other bishops and priests have agreed to remain silent about it "for the good of the Church"? My own experience as a seminarian and priest indicates that there may be many.
I was a seminarian for the Diocese of Lincoln, Nebraska, from 1994 to 1999, the so-called "John Paul II years." I was encouraged to enter the seminary there by priests and lay people whom I respected because I was concerned that "liberal" dioceses had problems with homosexuality in the priesthood, and I wanted to find "good formation." The Diocese of Lincoln enjoyed outward success in having numerous vocations to both priesthood and religious life, and many young men like me were drawn there by its prestigious reputation for orthodoxy, traditionalism and conservatism.
(The other place I strongly considered entering seminary was the similarly conservative-slash-traditional group called the Legionaries of Christ, whose founder Fr. Marcial Maciel was exposed as a serial abuser).
I went to Lincoln when I was 20, believing that by going to a "conservative, traditional" seminary program I would find a place immune from the systemic problems that I knew infested "liberal, progressive" seminaries. I could not have been more mistaken.
When I arrived in Lincoln to be a seminarian, I was introduced to the vocation director and told I needed to follow his directions if I wanted to become a priest. This man, Monsignor Leonard Kalin, was the vocation director for the Diocese of Lincoln and pastor of the Newman Center at the University of Nebraska for an entire generation (1970-1998) under two bishops with a reputation for impeccable orthodoxy. When he died a decade ago, Kalin was remembered publicly as a good and holy shepherd of young souls. It was a façade.
Kalin had a widespread reputation for heavy drinking, chain-smoking, frequent gambling, and basically modeling addictive behaviors to the young people whom he was set over as pastor and vocation director. Young men who wanted to toe the line as Kalin's seminarians had to be perfectly dressed, clean cut, well groomed, and maintain a crisp, neat appearance, as well as follow a regimented life of Masses, rosaries and daily prayers. Such external discipline and order was impressive to me and to many of the young men who entered seminary with me.
Like McCarrick, Kalin always kept a close circle of attractive, handsome young men around him, and, curiously, he rarely if ever socialized with other priests or people his own age. There was a clear hierarchy of power in Kalin's social circle, and he was always at the top.
As soon as I arrived I was told that all seminarians were required to attend daily Mass at the Newman Center. I was bewildered to find that the social life at the Newman Center centered around a culture of partying and alcohol. Indeed, from the very day I arrived, numerous other students and seminarians spoke excitedly about the highlight of the annual Newman Center social calendar –a trip to the well-known college party locale, South Padre Island in Texas, where all of the students and seminarians spent a week together of late night partying, drinking, and dancing – an atmosphere that would apparently be less than conducive to recollection and vocational discernment.
Kalin regularly took trips with seminarians to Las Vegas – referred to with a wink as his "desert retreat" – as well as all-night trips to a casino a few hours away just across the Iowa border, and seminarians were not-so-subtly pressured to attend and join in his gambling, drinking, and late-night fraternizing. I cannot count how many times I turned down invitations to join Kalin and his "favorites" for a so-called "desert retreat" in Vegas or a late-night trek to Iowa after the nightly 10 p.m. Mass.
Meanwhile, when Kalin wasn't headed out for the night to the local casino, seminarians were required to attend meetings with him at the Newman Center, which began at 11 p.m. and regularly expanded into the wee hours. These meetings, which often involved Kalin berating individual seminarians in front of the entire group, were inevitably followed by an invitation to join the good Monsignor for a "nightcap" in his private quarters in the rectory. I never went for the nightcap. I never understood why others wanted to go.
"Why won't this man let me go home because I have to get up for work at 6:30 tomorrow morning," was about the only thing I was ever really thinking as I endured these mandatory "seminarian meetings," which were filled with cigarette smoke from Kalin and the "cool" seminarians. But many of my brother seminarians couldn't wait for the meeting to end so they could join Kalin for his "nightcap." Those who politely declined the invitation were never quite treated with the same kindness and affection by Kalin as those who went.
Nor were Kalin's shenanigans limited to his own parish. During his frequent trips to visit us at the seminaries we attended on the East Coast, we were frequently asked to help smuggle liquor into the seminary for late night social gatherings with Kalin, even though seminary policy forbade any possession of alcohol on the premises. In this way, Kalin trained future priests to show contempt for the rules governing clerical life. If a leader like Monsignor Kalin didn't take them seriously, why should anyone else?
Kalin's visits were also the occasion for the invitation to join him at beach houses on the Jersey shore near Atlantic City, in a manner similar to the way McCarrick operated. Such invitations were very flattering to young men, making them feel "included and special." We were all told that "building fraternity" was an important and essential aspect of preparing for the priesthood. My and others' consistent refusal to join in such fraternization led to our ostracism and subtle condemnation by our "brother seminarians" who were close to Kalin and compliant to his wishes.
On one occasion, after we were pressured to attend a party weekend at the Jersey shore (which involved drinking and gambling at various casinos followed by watching questionable movies at a beach house), I wrote to the then-Bishop of Lincoln stating that this sort of fraternization was terribly disturbing to me and detrimental to formation for the priesthood.
I received no official reply to my complaint, but a few weeks later another seminarian called me aside and told me that Kalin himself had informed the seminarians close to him that I had complained and instructed them to watch me to see if I would be "loyal."
"There are no secrets among this brotherhood," the seminarian said to me sternly, implying that my lack of loyalty had been noted and that I had angered Kalin and his henchmen simply by speaking up to express how I felt.
Just as Father Robert Hoatson of the Archdiocese of Newark has noted in his sworn affidavit, I experienced profound discrimination as a seminarian and later as a priest because I was a heterosexual in an overwhelmingly homosexual environment where sexually active gay priests protected and promoted each other. The experience of this homosexual atmosphere – at times overt, at times closeted – is felt across the board by heterosexual priests I know in numerous different dioceses and religious orders. It is "everywhere" within the Catholic clergy, but seems to be especially prevalent among priests within the power structure of chanceries, seminaries, and the church's bureaucracy, up to and including the Holy See, where I served for a brief time in 2008-2009.
Back to Kalin. Just as Newark's Archbishop McCarrick had a ritual habit of inviting a seminarian to share his bed, Lincoln's Monsignor Kalin had a standard method for maneuvering young men into unwanted intimate situations. Each afternoon at the Newman Center, a summons would go out from one of the young male students who worked for Kalin as his "janitors" to see who among the seminarians was available to "take Monsignor walking." The one chosen for this ritual (always only one) was then instructed that at the end of the walk – I still can't believe I am saying this – he needed to "help Monsignor to take a shower" in one of the locker rooms at Memorial Stadium, to which Kalin somehow had a private key. The unconvincing premise was that Monsignor was old and feeble and "needed help" in the shower. Although I succeeded in always finding a way to excuse myself from "helping" with his shower, I know that the men who did – and there were many – endured Kalin's attempts to initiate sexual contact with them.
Every seminarian was required to have a private meeting with Kalin in his residence every couple of months. Whenever I would go in for my session, Kalin would criticize me extensively (which often involved him swearing at me) and then tell me that the most important thing I needed to do to prepare to be a priest was to "learn humility" (meaning obey him unquestioningly). Then, after working me over emotionally, Kalin would conclude by issuing an order: "Give me a hug." He would hold me for several minutes, cheek to cheek, with his body pressed against me.
I always found it bizarre and deeply off-putting, but at the time, in my naïveté, tried to explain it away as the somewhat eccentric kindness of an old man.
Assuredly, the outside observer will rightly ask, "But why would you remain in the seminary if you were subjected to and surrounded by such compromising and offensive behavior?" It is a question I have asked myself over and over in the past few years, turning it over like a prism, trying to ascertain a clear understanding of its many facets.
At the time, it seemed to me and many of my peers that the important thing was to "just get ordained" so that we could help others as "good priests." In addition, the reputation Kalin enjoyed, both within the diocese as well as nationally, made it extremely difficult to oppose his wishes. He held all the power over our evaluation and program of formation, had the ear of the bishop, and had great influence over the assignments of seminarians and priests. In a word, he held complete control over our lives if we wanted to become priests.
Although Kalin passed away in 2008, the seminarians he favored became the priests who continue to hold the reins of ecclesiastical power. To this day, anyone who tries to speak critically of Kalin's behavior and legacy is met with a code of silence for "the good of the Church." If I ever tried to express frustration with Monsignor's treatment of me, priests in positions of power over me quickly shut me down, almost robotically: "While he may have had a few flaws, he was very orthodox and recruited so many vocations."
Indeed he did – as did McCarrick, who prized his reputation as a fisher of men. The relevant and germane question today is, what ongoing effects has the systemic abuse of powerful men like McCarrick and Kalin had on those who are presently serving as priests? How many of these men's "intimate friends" are now themselves bishops and chancery officials holding power over other priests' lives?
At least in Lincoln, the answer is: many.
I know so many good, generous men who serve as priests there and elsewhere who live in fear of church authority and who remain silent about Kalin's abuse because they know that Kalin's protégés and protectors hold the reins of ecclesiastical power. The power of Kalin's "friends" exactly mirrors that of McCarrick's "friends."
The difference of course is that McCarrick rose in the Church to the level of cardinal. But within their own "kingdoms" each of these men rewarded those who complied with their wishes. This power structure remains intact. How many other McCarricks and Kalins are there in how many other dioceses and religious orders in the United States?
My own life as a priest was undoubtedly affected by the totally inadequate and abusive formation I received in terms of preparing me for a healthy life as a celibate heterosexual male. In 2017, I accepted laicization from the priesthood as a consequence of having violated my vow of celibacy as a priest on more than one occasion. I lived an unhealthy life as a priest, and I hurt people. I never intended to become such a person, but I did. What I did was wrong. I deeply regret having hurt people who looked up to me as a spiritual leader, and I take full responsibility for my actions.
I am painfully aware, however, that the people to whom my seminary formation was entrusted modeled addictive behavior to me and an entire generation of young men who are now priests. This culture of fear, shame, and secrecy – which exists within the "traditional" Church just as much as it does in the "progressive" Church – must be exposed and broken if the Church is to truly move forward.
Sadly, and perhaps understandably, this has not even come close to happening, because bishops and priests fear being exposed and lay people fear finding out. There is a strong tendency to engage in denial, particularly among devout Catholics who want to comfort themselves with soothing lies, like, "We go to a Mass said by a holy and orthodox priest, so those problems don't exist here."
Perhaps the exposure of Cardinal McCarrick's lifetime of abuse can give other priests and former priests and seminarians who have lived through the kind of thing I and many others have endured the courage to speak up about what happened to them, as a way of beginning to unravel the problem and initiate some sort of movement towards healing. The first need of someone who has experienced trauma is to be able to speak about their experience and be listened to. Unfortunately, it is extremely difficult for active priests to speak out because the men they would be speaking out against control every aspect of their lives and their reputations. But it needs to happen for their own good and for the good of the Church.
That is my motive in sharing my story: to help the Church begin to heal by talking about how I feel about what happened to me, so that others – but especially other priests – may find the courage and freedom to do the same. I fully understand that abusers like McCarrick and Kalin are people who were themselves abused in some way. I wish for them as well as for everyone involved only healing, forgiveness, and an encounter with the liberating Mercy of Jesus. I pray for forgiveness first and foremost for myself.
But there must be an honest acknowledgment of what they did, and sadly there must also now be an honest acknowledgment that many other bishops and priests have done what they did. There can be no longer be any hiding behind the illusion that silence and denial are good for the Church.
Forgive me if I close by sharing a personal insight from the journey I have taken. One of the key components to my counseling and healing has been a 12-Step program called "Adult Children of Alcoholic and Dysfunctional Families (ACA)." It has been an eye-opening experience for me to see how the description of dysfunctional family dynamics in ACA applies verbatim to the way the Church and seminary formation functions as a "spiritual family":
"We became afraid of authority figures and isolated. We became approval seekers and lost our identity. We became workaholics. We get guilt feelings when we stand up for ourselves. We judge ourselves harshly and have a very low sense of self-esteem"(ACA, "The Laundry List").
After 24 years of living entirely within the dysfunctional system that controlled my entire life, I am slowly beginning to find healing and a new way of living and thinking. I am finding the courage to speak honestly and candidly about how unhealthy my life was as a priest, despite trying to keep up the appearance of "holiness" on the exterior. I am overcoming the unwritten rule within the Church, common to all dysfunctional families: "Don't trust. Don't talk. Don't feel."
In place of such destructive silence, the family of the Church needs to step into what ACA calls "The Solution": "You will find freedom to express all the hurts and fears you have kept inside and to free yourself from the shame and blame that are carryovers from the past."
Unlike those who are still priests, I am finally free to share the truth about my experience without fear of reprisal from the ecclesiastical authorities who used to control my life. My story is only one small and relatively insignificant domino in the abusive system which McCarrick and Kalin exploited and profited from. But surely there are many, many other priests and bishops in positions of ecclesiastical authority who have embraced a similar pattern of abuse of power within the Catholic Church and who have brought great shame and sorrow upon many good people, including many priests.
Are there any others out there with whom my story resonates?
Will you have the courage to join me in speaking the truth to power by sharing your own story?


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The Arboretum Freiburg-Günterstal (about 100 hectares) is an arboretum maintained by the University of Freiburg. It is located in Günterstal in the Städtischen Forstamt Freiburg at Günterstalstraße 71, Freiburg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany, and open daily without charge.

The arboretum dates back to 1896, or earlier, when its first Douglas fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii) plantations were created to investigate their uses in local forestry. These early plantings focused primarily on useful trees from North America and Japan. Large-scale plantings occurred between 1901-1911 when several hundred thousand foreign trees were planted. After World War II, many rare species were added.

Today the arboretum is jointly managed by the university's Forstbotanischen Institute and the Freiburg Botanic Garden, and cultivates around 1,300 tree and shrub species from 60 countries and 5 continents, including mature specimens of Abies nordmanniana, Cedrus atlantica, Chamaecyparis lawsoniana, Cryptomeria japonica, Larix leptolepis, Picea orientalis, Pinus austriaca, Pinus banksiana, Pinus strobus, Pinus ponderosa, Pseudotsuga menziesii, and Sequoiadendron, as well as deciduous trees including Juglans nigra, Populus x canadensis, Quercus rubra, and Robinia pseudacacia. Two walking paths, each 2 km in length, provide identifying information.

See also
 List of botanical gardens in Germany

References
 Arboretum Freiburg-Günterstal
 Brochure with map
 Badische-Seiten description
 BGCI entry

Freiburg-Gunterstal, Arboretum
Freiburg-Gunterstal, Arboretum
Geography of Freiburg im Breisgau
Tourist attractions in Freiburg im Breisgau

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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Everything begins with your Menards account. It's the key to set in motion the automation of your receipt data. You do not have to be a professional contractor or have a Menards Big Card, or a contractor or commercial credit card to sign up for a free Menards online account. Most retailers can track your purchases for you by either your credit card like at Home Depot or your loyalty card like at Lowe's. If you are signed up for the Menards email program, that does not mean that you already have an online account.
Once you create a Menards account, add your credit cards and use them for all of your purchases. From there it's easy to track your receipts and automate them. You'll be able to make returns without a receipt, and you'll have access to your complete purchase history of all in-store, and online purchases, and other tools and benefits.
Sign in at Menards.com Under your name, click on My Account in the pull down menu, and complete your profile if needed. Then go to Manage Account, scroll down to Payment Methods, and Add + Credit Card to securely add new, expired, or closed credit cards, debit cards, and gift cards and click Save. An expired credit card cannot be set as a default payment and will not be available at checkout for online orders. You may add or delete cards at any time by clicking "Payment Options" under the Options section of your account. However, you may want to keep them listed until you have successfully automated all of your receipt data. See also Receipt Data Storage below.
You do not need a Menards account to place an online order. But remember if you are an online guest or didn't log in when placing your order, it is more difficult to look up your order receipt and usually your receipt can't be automated.
To look up a receipt, just sign in to your Menards account or download the Menards app onto your mobile device to access your account. To get a handle of your construction project costs or get your transaction data synced to your online accounting platform like Quickbooks, Xero, or Zoho without any manual data entry, see below on how to automate your receipt data.
According to Patti at the Menards store in Wixom, Michigan, you do not necessarily need an online account or the Menards app to look up receipts although it's still offers a lot of benefits and online extras if you do. She suggested that you just go directly up to the in-store kiosk near the turnstyles and put your gift, debit or credit card in that you think you used for a purchase in order to look up and reprint a receipt. Reprints can't be used for rebates but are useful for your returns, bookkeeping and other purposes. When/if you pay with a check or cash, you will not be able to do reprints online or at the in-store kiosk or automate those receipts. Patti warned that only your original receipts are accepted for rebates. Additionally, if you mail in your originals, then you don't have your receipts for anything else like claims, insurance, tax compliance, etc. So having automation tools is still a good idea even if you never "use" or lose your original receipts!
Pro Tip: Menards rebates are for merchandise credit for in-store purchases only and not for online purchases.
Go to Menards Gift Card Balance, sign in and click on Gift Card > Check Balance or download the Menards mobile app from the Google Play store or the App Store for iOS devices.
Pro Tip: Download the Menards app onto your mobile device for easy access to your account, to track orders, use material estimate calculators, or to check your Menards gift card balances.
Pro-Tip: Jeff, a sales associate from the Menards store located in Wixom, Michigan recommends that you do a pull order online first and then pick it up in-store so that your receipt can be tracked. Remember that you must be logged into your account and not to order as a guest.
Did you know that you can get receipts from discontinued credit cards, closed credit cards, and empty gift cards for the past 7 years from Menards? This is a great feature for catching up on your record keeping or if you are looking for receipts that you need to reconcile.
Anonymous forms of payment are not usually trackable. However, there are solutions. If you need to oversee project expenses, you could use a debit card or buy gift cards with cash as trackable forms of payment. Then your purchase is basically cash based (rather than revolving credit) and can still be tracked if you added the cards to your Menards account beforehand.
Pro-Tip: Remember that cash purchases can not be tracked at Menards. Menards will not be able to reprint a receipt for you or look it up.
If you have a commercial or business credit card set up in advance that requires a PO# or Job Name, then the cashier will ask you for it and it will be listed on your receipt. If you do not, it may be possible to ask at checkout if the cashier could enter one for you but there won't be a prompt for you at the card reader. When Job Name isn't available, you could purchase different gift cards for each separate project or use separate debit cards so that your expenses could be tracked by the last 4 digits which is always listed on your receipt. See below about automating your receipts and job costing.
To look up an in-store or online receipt, visit any Menards store with an in-store kiosk and insert your card used for your purchase. There's no need to remember any purchase details like store location, product, or date! Menards remembers your itemized details for you. NOTE: Reprinted receipts are available immediately after an in-store purchase without waiting for a system update if you need to print a reprint before leaving the store. To learn how to automate your Menards receipt data, see below.
Sign in at Menards.com Under your name, click on View Orders in the drop-down menu. From the left nav, click on Recent Purchases>Look Up Receipts and then adjust the date range.
Can I Add Receipts To My Purchase History?
No. At this time it is not possible to manually add receipts to your history.
On the Look Up Receipts page, click on the boxes on the right to choose which receipts you wish to print out or save to your device. Click the green Save(Print) button to view the image of the actual receipt. You can then Save, Print, or Download a pdf. If you automate your receipts, you can search by any detail (not just by sku or barcode) or create a snapshot report of expenses. During syncs to your accounting platform, your transactions are automatically matched and the pdf receipt is attached for you.
Menards makes it possible automate your receipts and sync them to your accounting platform with the Greenback app.
Go to Greenback.com to create a free Greenback account. Connect your account(s). That's it!
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Greenback does not recommend paying with Apple Pay or mobile wallets unless it is an online purchase and you are logged in to your Menards account. Contactless NFC payments are anonymous like cash so your receipts can not be tracked. Some vendors track by phone number, credit card, or loyalty card so it is important to know ahead of time how they can help you track your receipts.
It's imperative to store your receipt data for at least 3-7 years (or indefinitely for some receipts) for tax compliance. Menards will look up your receipts for you as far back as 7 years while other stores may only archive up to only 90 days. According to State Farm, receipts are needed to help you file an insurance claim, make coverage decisions, secure a settlement, or verify property loss for taxes in case of fire, flood, or other casualties. Greenback recommends automating all of your receipts from all of your vendors/shops/marketplaces so that you can be worry-free.


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Shoot location
Conference & Congress
Parties & Galas
Trade Fair & Presentation
Greenmeeting
Rightandfair
School leavers' ball
Newsletter & Programme order
Purchasing your ticket
Parking flat day rate
Conference flat-rates
A place with history
The ground on which the Historische Stadthalle now stands was privately owned by the Küpper family until 1894. In 1831, Abraham Küpper bought an old inn on the Johannisberg (one of the many hills on which Wuppertal is built), which had a hall seating some 1,000 people. The concerts held there may be regarded as the start of a long musical tradition on the Johannisberg. The decision to construct a concert hall and assembly room on this spot led to the announcement of an architectural competition in 1895.
© Antje Zeis-Loi
The actual building phase lasted from 1896 to 1900 and the official opening of the Historische Stadthalle was celebrated from6 to 8 July 1900 with a dazzling musical festival, one of whose conductors was a young Richard Strauss.
Although the Historische Stadthalle survived both World Wars more or less unscathed, the character and appearance of the rooms were altered substantially in the fifties in keeping with the architectural taste of the day. All the pictorial elements and colourful mouldings disappeared under a layer of monochrome paint.
The Historische Stadthalle was painstakingly renovated and rehabilitated between 1991 and 1995 in order to recreate and optimize the original aesthetic and functional qualities of the edifice. On 8 December 1995, the ceremony to mark the opening of the "new", Historische Stadthalle Wuppertal enticed 40,000 admiring visitors into rooms which had been returned to their former glory by master craftsmen. Since then, the participants and organizers of up to 500 events a year have demonstrated their undiminished enthusiasm for this architectural gem.
Sir Simon Rattle: "Acoustically, Wuppertal has one of the best concert halls in the world."
A Finnish research team has scientifically proven what the international music world has already known for a long time: the Großer Saal in the Historische Stadthalle Wuppertal is acoustically among the best concert halls in Europe.
The Viennese Philharmonic feel "at home" here, the great pianist Hélène Grimaud called it an "almost magical space for music" and Sir Simon Rattle advised Munich music lovers to "take a look at Wuppertal". Shortly after an interview with Rattle that appeared in the German newspaper Die Süddeutsche Zeitung in November 2012, Professor Tapio Lokki of Aalto University in Finland and his team announced their arrival in Wuppertal to take scientific readings of the Großer Saal.
The award-winning researcher has developed an innovative method which allows for the precise comparison of the acoustics of different concert halls. In addition to purely physical measurements, the method also takes account of sensory assessments of the room's sound. Lokki's conclusion: "Stadthalle Wuppertal is not very well known among acousticians worldwide. However, the hall has very nice acoustics and it should be much better known. We really liked the Stadthalle and it definitely supports the full dynamics that an orchestra can play. It is one of the best concert halls in Europe."
The Finnish acousticians had developed a symphony orchestra simulator, the so-called "loudspeaker orchestra" and used it to capture the spatial acoustics of 19 European concert halls. In every location, it was assembled in exactly the same way so that the concert hall was the only variable factor that could influence the sound of the recordings. Later on in the lab, this allowed for an extremely precise comparison of the acoustic properties.
When listening to music from the various different concert halls using spatial sound reproduction in the lab, all subjective audio assessments were conducted using sensory test methods that revealed the different factors affecting perception in the individual concert halls. With this combination of objective and subjective sensory data, Professor Lokki's team was able to explain the preference for certain concert halls.
The traditional "shoebox" style of architecture clearly has the edge. Europe's acoustically best concert halls – the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, the Wiener Musikverein, the Historische Stadthalle Wuppertal and the Konzerthaus Berlin – are all built in a similar way.
We would be happy to provide further details on request.
© Lars Langemeier
© Swen Hoppe
"THE QUEEN OF INSTRUMENTS"
That was what Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart once called the organ. Having seen the magnificent example in the Großer Saal of the Historische Stadthalle Wuppertal we agree with him unreservedly. Anyone who has ever heard it, or had the thrill of playing it, goes into raptures and quickly transmits their enthusiasm to music-loving friends and colleagues.
The concert organ was donated by members of the Mittelsten Scheid family (who are partners in the Wuppertal company Vorwerk & Co.) and was built at the workshop of Siegfried Sauer in Höxter-Ottbergen. It is a technical masterpiece: the 4,706 pipes with 67 stops, nine of which are located above the ceiling of the room, are played from three manuals. In addition to the mechanical console at the base of the organ, there is a second, mobile, electrical console, linked by fibre optics, on the orchestra platform. Modern playing aids, including 256 pre-set combinations, ensure that the organ may be used not only in all types of concerts, but also in a variety of ceremonies and celebrations. More...
The new organ is the fruit of an initiative on the part of the Friends of the Wuppertal Organ Festival (WOT). A special donation scheme was started in 1989, receiving the profits from a number of benefit events, some of which were supported by local firms. Almost 30,000 DM had already been raised when the Mittelsten Scheid family, which owns the company Vorwerk & Co, decided in the summer of 1991 to donate an entire new organ for the Historic Stadthalle. A number of estimates were obtained, and the order was finally placed with Siegfried Sauer's organ-building works in Höxter-Ottbergen.
This meant that the money collected by the WOT scheme was no longer needed, but another appropriate use was soon found – the echo division of the old organ had become unusable as a result of a lack of maintenance during the Second World War. Why not restore this small additional organ, ideally suited for Romantic music? The money that had been collected was therefore re-allocated and more events, including the production of a CD, were set in motion in order to help finance the project. This was completed at the same time as the main organ, so that Wuppertal now surely has one of the most versatile concert organs in the whole of Germany.
To give you some idea of the sound of this fantastic instrument, you can listen to this exciting and impressive excerpt from the CD "Virtuoso Organ Music" played by Andrzej Chorosinski (issued by Dabringhaus & Grimm), in which the artist interprets adaptations of symphonic programme music. Less...
TONAL REQUIREMENTS
The requirements for a concert organ far exceed those of a church organ. It must be able to meet the demands in terms of tone of performing not only music from the early Baroque, Bach's time and the Romantic period but also French organ symphonies and contemporary works. It also has to be able to be used for accompaniment and to provide a continuo; when used in conjunctionwith a large symphony orchestra it also needs body, colour and strength. But it also needs to be practical – as a solo instrument it has to be sensitive enough to match the tone shape of performers, it must provide a balance by offering a number of tone possibilities, and when working with an orchestra it is vital for the performer and the orchestra to be physically close to each other. More...
Listing these requirements also clarifies the specifications in terms of construction and layout that are needed when building a concert organ:
slider chests
a fixed console in the pedestal of the organ and a mobile console on the podium for working with an orchestra
modern playing aids, particularly with sufficient combination capacity to be able to preprogramme the many registration combinations of a concert
a wide range of wide principal, stopped and flute stops to ensure rich foundation tones in the 8' stops;
string voices in the German Romantic tradition
the reed and overblown flute voices characteristically used by Cavaillé-Coll in large French cathedral organs
pedals that are equally suitable both for providing cantus firmus registrations and for ensuring a rich bass foundation
a swell with rich tone colours that are dynamically different and effective and not least
a layout that places the positive physically as close as possible to the choir platform and the orchestra podium.
Comparing the organ's construction and specifications with these requirements reveals that the Historic Stadthalle's new organ meets most of these prerequisites, although not all were possible because of financial limitations. With 65 stops, it is certainly not a universal instrument. It is however so well-provided in terms of differing tones that it is entirely suitable for performances of music from the major periods of organ literature.
More specifically, there is a good range of fundamental 64', 32', 16' and 8' flue stops for the pedals. There are also two 4' stops, and 32', 16' and 8' mixtures and reeds. There is also a powerful bass foundation for the plenum, making it possible to play a cantus firmus with different tone colours.
The great organ has a comprehensive set of principal stops ranging from 16' to two mixtures stops of 2' (Mixtur V) and 1 1/3' (Acuta IV). The latter has the double function of firstly lightening the 2' Mixture further upwards, and also making possible a light Mixtur plenum which is a not infrequent feature of organ music into the late Baroque period. The trumpet ranks, in the German manner in 16', 8' and 4', give the great organ strength and richness. As a solo stop, the high-banked Cornett V is particularly characteristic. Less...
SPECIFICATIONS OF THE CONCERT ORGAN
Pedalwerk C to g' – 120*/95 mm head of water)
Untersatz (ak.)* 64'
Bordun* 32'
Prinzipal 16'
Violonbass 16'
Subbass 16'
Oktavbass 8'
Gedacktbass 8'
Tenoroktave 4'
Bassflöte 4'
Hintersatz V 2 2/3'
Kontrafagott 32'
Posaune 16'
Trompete 8'
Hauptwerk C to a''' – 84 mm head of water (manual I)]
Praestant 16'
Prinzipal 8'
Doppelflöte 8'
Viola da Gamba 8'
Oktave 4'
Hohlflöte 4'
Quinte 2 2/3'
Superoktave 2'
Cornett V ab c° 8'
Mixtur V 2'
Acuta IV 1 1/3'
Trompete 16'
Positiv C to a''' – 77 mm head of water (manual II)
Praestant 8'
Holzgedackt 8'
Quintade 8'
Rohrflöte 4'
Schwegel 2'
Terz 1 3/5'
Superquinte 1 1/3'
Scharff IV 1'
Dulcian 16'
Cromorne 8'
Tremulant
Schwellwerk C to a''' – 88 mm head of water (manual III)
Bourdon 16'
Principal 8'
Bourdon 8'
Flûte harmonique 8'
Gambe 8'
Voix céleste ab c° 8'
Flûte octaviante 4'
Nasard 2 2/3'
Octavin 2'
Tierce 1 3/5'
Sifflet 1'
Fourniture V 2 2/3'
Basson 16'
Tromp. harmonique 8'
Hautbois 8'
Voix humaine 8'
Clairon harmonique 4'
Echo C to a''' – 102 mm head of water
played using manuel II of the electric console in the swell case
Stillgedackt 16'
Fernflöte 8'
Salicional 8'
Vox angelica ab c° 8'
Fugara 4'
Flauto dolce 4'
Violine 2'
Harmonia aeth. 2 2/3'
Glockenspiel ab g° 4'
Solo C to a''' – 245 mm head of water
can be coupled to any keyboard
Tuba mirabilis horiz. 8'
4.706 pipes - slider chests
Console in the pedestal of the organ:
mechanical key action,
electrical registration action
Mobile console on the orchestra podium:
electrical action for playing and registration,
using fibre optics
Playing aids:
256 pre-set combinations
Sequencer, freely adjustable register crescendo,
various single cancellation switches, normal couplers,
manual III sub-coupler and III/I sub-coupler.
Prof. Dr. Hans-Joachim Oehm of Wuppertal,
in consultation with the organ specialist
Case design:
Markus Oehm of Wuppertal,
in consultation with
the Wuppertal firm of architects Baltzer & Partner.
Voicing:
Johannes Falke (of the company Sauer)
Project managment:
Prof. Dr. Hans-Joachim Oehm of Wuppertal
Consultants:
Hans-Otto Jakob, Frankfurt/Main
Helmut Peters, Paderborn
Sigfried Sauer, formerly A. Feith, founded in 1840,
of Höxter-Ottbergen (Germany)
Author: Prof. Dr. Hans-Joachim Oehm
Focus on the organ
Just stay on
Just as if you were here
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It's really happening. The instructional use of SmartSite will end when spring term concludes in June.
"As planned, SmartSite will no longer be an active learning management system once spring quarter ends, without exceptions," said David Levin, director of Academic Technology Services (ATS) in Information and Educational Technology.
The campus chose UC Davis Canvas in early 2016, and designated 2016-17 for the transition. Instructional technologists and other members of the transition team in ATS have spent the last year helping faculty and students adopt the new system, using an array of workshops, training sessions, online resources, drop-in hours, in-person assistance, faculty-led video tutorials, presentations, and a Canvas help line that never closes. All these resources continue to be available.
SmartSite will remain available for project sites until sometime in 2017-18, to allow project site owners time to find replacement tools or resources. Materials in SmartSite course sites will be available only in an archival format after this spring.
Read more about the "Move to Canvas" in this quarterly update.
The UC Davis community came out in force last week to give blood in the quarterly collection event on the Quad. BloodSource reported it collected 912 pints, which "is incredible and pretty normal for this campus," said Felicia LaMothe, a donor recruitment representative.
The three-day collection surpassed last April's three-day collection by 49 pints.
BloodSource tallied more than 1,200 participants in all last week (not everyone is able to complete the process). The total included more than 300 first-time donors. Forty-nine people signed up for the Be the Match bone marrow registry.
In a recent week, donated blood was used locally to help patients undergoing treatment for cancer, anemia, spinal fusion, trauma and more, LaMothe said.
Monday-Thursday — 7 a.m.-5 p.m.
Friday — 7 a.m.-3 p.m.
The new Scrubs Café opens Wednesday (April 19) in the Health Sciences District. The café is moving from Medical Sciences 1B to the new Veterinary Medicine Student Services and Administration Center, on Garrod Drive across from the Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital.
The café's menu will include cooked-to-order items, grab-and-go choices, snacks, and a variety of hot and cold beverages. The new Scrubs has a bigger dining area to provide space for informal networking, and the outdoor patio can be reset for special events.
A new feature: a walk-up window for veterinary hospital clients and others who have pets in tow.
TechHub at the Campus Store is having a one-day Apple computer sale, this Friday (April 21), offering savings up to $200 on select Macs and iPads (current models, while supplies last).
UC Davis Stores, which runs the Campus Store and the TechHub, announced that this week's Apple sale will be the last one of this academic year.
Save time and avoid the lines with an online preorder. For payment and pickup, visit the TechHub inside the Campus Store at the Memorial Union.
See the TechHub's selection of Apple products.


A BEAUTIFUL lifestyle behind the 6 FOOT picket fence. If you like your own PRIVACY & SPACE this 1,113m2 will ATTRACT YOU!
– LOVINGLY renovated with not a lot to do VISIT TODAY! HURRY.
– Step through this BEAUTIFUL Character home NOW.
– THREE car undercover and FULLY re-stumped with STEEL posts!
– Your family will LOVE the 1,113m2 QUARTER ACRE BLOCK!!
– Featuring a FULL makeover with NEW ROOF, NEW PIPING & NEW ELECTRICAL.
– With new steel posts under & all NEW aluminum windows the HARD WORK is DONE!
– USEABLE SPACE EVERYWHERE! With UPSTAIRS lovingly RESTORED!
– The home is located in Park Avenue and just 2 MINUTES drive from STOCKLANDS.
– The owner is SERIOUSLY MOTIVATED and will listen to written OFFERS TODAY!!!
– Privacy is a big winner with a LARGE backyard and room for the children to PLAY!
– They say great FENCES make GREAT neighbours, well this home has them ALL ROUND!!
– Offering a PEACEFUL street and QUIET neighbours this home is EXCELLENT VALUE!!!
– Beautifully RENOVATED UPSTAIRS with STEEL posts under & SECOND toilet.


text:
Jalen Smith Anthony Cowan Bruno Fernando Tevian Jones Ayo Dosunmu Andres Feliz Trent Frazier Sports College basketball Basketball College sports Men's college basketball Men's basketball Men's sports College hockey Hockey
Maryland Big Ten Illinois
Dosunmu, Illinois beat No. 13 Maryland 78-67 at MSG
By DENIS P. GORMAN - Jan. 26, 2019 04:55 PM EST
Maryland guard Anthony Cowan Jr. (1) reacts to a call during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game against Illinois, Saturday, Jan. 26, 2019, in New York. Illinois defeated Maryland 78-67. (AP Photo/Adam Hunger)
NEW YORK (AP) — Illinois' players and coaches jogged through a mob of outstretched hands on their way off the Madison Square Garden court, basking in the smiles and shouts of congratulations.
This victory on that stage? Nothing wrong with letting that sink in.
"That was a great character win for our basketball team," Illinois coach Brad Underwood said after the Fighting Illini beat No. 13 Maryland 78-67 on Saturday.
"Yeah, we executed — we made some shots — but to me it's a lot more about perseverance and showing up and competing. We did that today and we were fortunate to beat a very good basketball team."
Ayo Dosunmu scored 20 points to help the Fighting Illini (6-14, 2-7 Big Ten) snap a two-game skid by handing the Terrapins their second straight conference loss. Tevian Jones had 18 points, and Andres Feliz had 15.
While Illinois was reveling in its accomplishment, the Terrapins were collectively talking about the need to improve the details of their game.
"It was a matter of us doing the little things," said Bruno Fernando, who led Maryland (16-5, 7-3) with 19 points and 10 rebounds. Anthony Cowan Jr. had 18 points and Jalen Smith had 11.
"Things coach keeps emphasizing like boxing out and rebounding," Fernando added. "I think we gave them lot of chances on the boards and second-chance points."
The Terrapins led by 11 during the first half, but Illinois pulled within 34-30 at the break after Dosunmu scored all the Illini's points on a 9-2 run. That was the beginning of the end for Maryland.
"We were cruising a little bit and feeling good about ourselves," coach Mark Turgeon said. "We just weren't very good when we needed to be good, and they were. They were terrific when they needed to be."
Illinois hit four 3-pointers in a span of 1:27 early in the second half — including two by Trent Frazier — to take a 42-40 lead. Maryland ran off seven straight points, Illinois countered with six consecutive to regain the lead, then Maryland used a 10-4 run for a 57-52 advantage.
Illinois responded with a 10-2 spurt, capped by Jones' fourth 3 of the game with 4:49 left, and the Illini kept their poise from there. Feliz made five free throws and Dosunmu had a fast-break layup and hit two other layups to extend the lead to 72-63.
"It's huge," said Underwood, when asked about his team's lead management. "It's guys finally stepping up and making plays, making free throws. Guys wanting the ball and then playing with a conscious effort.
"For us to manage that and pull away, especially come from 11 down early means a lot."
Illinois: In the second half, Illinois made 50 percent of its shots from the field (13 of 26), including 6 of 14 from 3, plus 16 of 17 from the foul line. For the game, Illinois shot 42.4 percent from the field, 34.8 percent from 3 and 90.9 percent from the stripe. "The focus was to drive it in there and kick it out," Dosunmu said. "That's like easy money shots."
Maryland: According to data culled by KenPom.com, the Terrapins are the fourth youngest team in the nation. The young club has to be more careful with the ball after committing 21 turnovers to Illinois' nine.
HOOPS AND PUCKS
For the fourth straight year, Madison Square Garden hosted a day-night Big Ten basketball and hockey doubleheader. Penn State and Michigan met in the hockey game Saturday night.
Illinois: At Minnesota on Wednesday night.
Maryland: Hosts Northwestern on Tuesday night.


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Greetings From Far Away
"Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all of one's lifetime." – Mark Twain
Beautiful, defiant and intense, Argentina seduces with its street-side tango, incredible foods, gaucho culture and welcoming people. Explore the mighty Iguazu Falls, take in the colors of Buenos Aires. Then head into nature to explore Peninsula Valdes, Torres del Paine National Park and the humbling Perito Moreno Glacier. Reaching the end of the world at Ushuaia is just the tip of the iceberg of an incredible country. Argentina is one formidable cocktail of wanderlust!
A landlocked country full of diversity
Opened in 1914, the multidisciplinary Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) is Canada's biggest natural-history museum and one of the largest museums in North America. I love the synergy between the original heritage buildings at the main entrance on Bloor St and the 2007 addition of 'the Crystal,' which appears to pierce the original structure and juts out into the street like a massive shard – Toronto, Canada.
At display is the Flat Iron Building or Gooderham Building, an iconic sight in the heart of the old town of Toronto. Built in 1892, it's a five-story iron-shaped building with a steep copper roof and turret; in the background, Toronto's skyscrapers provide a beautiful contrast - Toronto, Canada
Postcard Greetings From Lake Louise - Banff National Park
False Creek seen from Cambie Street at dawn – Vancouver, Canada
High-rise buildings at Vancouver Harbor - Vancouver, Canada
Tracks at Waterfront Station - Vancouver, Canada
Girl in a wetsuit - Stanley Park, Vancouver
Aerial View - Vancouver, Canada
Postcard Greetings From Victoria - British Colombia, Canada
Colourful Entertainment - Fishermen's Wharf, Victoria
Multiple Worlds In One - Public Library, Vancouver
Shades of Green - Capilano Suspension Bridge Park, Vancouver
A Passing Through Town - Kamloops
Morning Light - Kamloops
Composition in Shades of Green - Glacier National Park - British Colombia, Canada
Twisted Lines - Kicking Horse Mountain Resort
A Wildflower Hike - Kicking Horse Mountain Resort
Natural Bridge - Yoho National Park
Emerald Lake - Yoho National Park
Takakkaw Falls - Yoho National Park
Peyto Lake - Banff National Park
Mistaya Canyon - Banff National Park
Herbert Lake - Banff National Park
Postcard Greetings From the Sunwapta Falls - Glacier Parkway


THE NEW "A" IN UDAAP: WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR YOUR COMPLIANCE PROGRAM?
Section 1031 of the Dodd-Frank Act "prohibiting Unfair, Deceptive or Abusive Acts or Practices adds an additional "A" to the FTC's definition of Unfair and Deceptive Acts and Practices. What would make a practice "abusive" in this new Dodd-Frank era? This session will explore all of the current issues surrounding UDAAP, including ATM fees, punitive loan provisions, credit life and yield spread premiums. While we have a separate session covering the new overdraft rules, this session will also touch on the new overdraft requirements as well. Additionally, we will use recent enforcement actions as case studies in new exam trends and explore the standards leading to enforcement actions (e.g., what is substantial injury?) as well.


At Forest Upper Cervical Chiropractic Centers, our balance of holistic treatment and sound medical knowledge ensure that you are in good hands. We focus on healing injuries caused by automobile accidents, sports injuries, and workplace injuries. We can help reverse the effects of injuries caused by repetitive motion, poor posture, and poor lifting habits.


text:
Q: FFT over only the 3rd dimension of a 3D array I have a C-style array with 3 dimensions and want to do an FFT over the 3rd dimension, but not over the first and second. I know, by reordering the array this should not be a problem, but does the FFTW library provide a function for this?
The array I use is:
int[dim1 * dim2 * dim3]

e.g. {1, 2, 3, 4, 5 ,6 ,7, 8, 9, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9} where all dimensions have the size 3.
Now I want to make a fft over all ones, all twos, all threes etc.
In my code:
auto data = new int16_t[32 * NR_ROWS * NR_COLS];

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Just yesterday I think someone posted on Facebook in Moycullen News group how they were walking along the promenade and how lovely it was, full of smiles and colour. This walk must have been so inspiring and so fulfilling that this person had to post a note in the group to express their appreciation of the lovely village we live in!!
Isn't it fabulous? I love reading such burst of candor - coming straight from the heart! Because to be honest, I feel the same way, going to work every morning, walking the countryside roads and secret lanes along the summer grass fields and bogs then along the promenade.
I see the same inspiring beauty all around me. Could it be this weather that is so invigorating and energizing? Making us see the world through a happy prism of colourful light reflected off everyone and everything?
Whatever it is, we are happy it is happening, it is keeping everyone smiling and looking positive for the future. What else could we want?


text:
Neo Solar Power, Delta Group to Create a Solar Cell Company in Taiwan
Published on 20 Nov 2012
Delta Electronics, Inc. and Neo Solar Power Corp. today jointly held a press conference to announce the strategic cooperation plan. NSP will launch a tender offer on 13% to 15% stake in DelSolar Co. ("DelSolar", 3599 TT) from November 20thto December 14th. Each DelSolar share tendered will receive 0.703 newly issued NSP share and NT$0.5 cash as consideration, implying around 5% premium to DelSolar's closing price as of November 16th. Delta Group is a global leader in power supply and thermal management solutions. Over the past years, Delta has been actively involved in energy saving and new energy solutions with long-term commitment. Delta currently owns around 54% in DelSolar.
Chairman of Delta, Mr. Yancey Hai, and Chairman of NSP, Dr. Quincy Lin, both indicated that this cooperation will consolidate the cell and module businesses of NSP and DelSolar and the system business of Delta, thus forming a highly competitive supply chain. The combined entity will become the largest solar company in Taiwan as well as a global leading player. Upon completion of the tender offer, NSP will further assess a potential merger with DelSolar at consideration equivalent to the tender offer. If the merger is completed, Delta will become the largest shareholder in the combined entity with long-term support and commitment. Delta agreed to support current NSP management team and to assistant NSP in integrating DelSolar's solar cell, module and system businesses. In addition, in an effort to strengthen the financial structure of the combined entity, Delta is prepared to participate in the fund raising activities of the combined entity with an amount of up to NT$1.5bn.
The combined entity will have solar cell capacity of close to 2GW and become the largest solar cell manufacturer in Taiwan and second largest globally. NSP currently has solar cell capacity of 1.3GW and module capacity of 60MW through its subsidiary General Energy Solutions. DelSolar currently has solar cell capacity of 600MW, module capacity of 180MW and involvement in downstream system business. The combined entity will have solar module capacity of 240MW and a cross-strait cell/module manufacturing base, achieving a great combination of both low cost and advanced technology. Meanwhile, with the significant enlarged economy of scale, the combined entity is expected to extract synergy from largely reduced procurement cost and the integration of R&D and sales resources and further strengthen its competitiveness and leadership in the global solar industry.
The solar industry has been extremely volatile since last year given severe changes in macro environment, including reduction of subsidies from major European countries given sovereign debt crisis as well as depressed pricing from over supply issue, and the industry as a whole is looking forward to consolidation. Despite the foregoing, industry surveys remain optimistic about the demand outlook of solar energy, especially considering that governments worldwide continue to actively promoting energy saving policies. According to iSuppli, 2012 global solar demand will reach 35GW, up 34.6% versus 26GW in 2011. While the over supply issue has not yet been resolved, technology and cost leadership would be the two key differentiators for solar companies to excel in the long run. Integration between solar cell and module/system is also expected to be a major development trend in the industry.
UBS acted as lead financial advisor in the transaction. Grand Cathay acted as joint financial advisor and tender offer agent.
Source: Neo Solar Power
URE (Solar Materials): https://www.enfsolar.com/ure-6
URE (Solar Panels): https://www.enfsolar.com/ure-6
URE (Solar Components): https://www.enfsolar.com/ure-6
Delta Electronics (Solar Components): https://www.enfsolar.com/delta-electronics
URE (Solar System Installers): https://www.enfsolar.com/ure-6


Ria Loves Pawlish: Awesome Reasons To Become An ULTAmate Rewards Member!
Awesome Reasons To Become An ULTAmate Rewards Member!
still plugging away at getting ready to move! riding lessons were cancelled yesterday due to the rain, hoping to get some riding in next week :) Mr. Pawlish and i went to the mall and ate at CPK... not too exciting, but a great day anyway. i finally gave in and bought the MAC 217 and 239 eye brushes... i just don't think they have been matched!
today i wanted to share with you some awesome reasons to join Ulta's ULTAmate Rewards. you get points for every dollar you spend, and get different amounts to spend in the store, depending on much you let your points build up! at 2000 points you get $125 to spend... so it's worth it to me to just let them roll on up :) you used to be able to get salon services with your points, but that is being discontinued in February of this year.
during your birthday month, you get a coupon for $10 towards anything in the store, even prestige brands! and the best part... you now get a free, full-size CK One Mascara in your birthday month! this is my birthday month, and i've already redeemed both :D i'm so excited to try this mascara as i've yet to try anything from the CK One line, which is from Calvin Klein and exclusive to Ulta.
the coolest thing about this mascara is the wand... you can change the size of the brush to change application!
and here's a look at the brush in both positions... very clever!


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Worried about being worried?
Up to one in five over 50s are anxious, often about nothing in particular. What can we do about Generalised Anxiety Disorder? asks David Hughes
If there's one thing we post 50s do better than the young, it's worry.
If anxiety was an Olympic Sport, the UK team would almost certainly comprise 50 to 54 year olds (22 percent feel anxious/depressed) and over 80s (20 percent feel anxious/depressed)
This is no laughing matter, of course, as anxiety not only diminishes enjoyment of life, but is strongly linked to a wide range of health problems.
Some worry is normal. Another thing about the over 50s is that we realise life is not always a bowl of cherries, and have learned to take a certain number of setbacks in our stride, but when does worry cross the line beyond a 'normal' amount?
Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD) is usually defined as an ongoing, chronic feeling of anxiety- of feeling anxious about nothing in particular.
Symptoms include poor quality of sleep, a sense of dread, feeling constantly 'on edge' and irritability as well as physical manifestations such as muscle aches and tension, and shortness of breath and heart palpitations.
If we do notice such symptoms- particularly the physical ones- it's obviously worth checking with a GP to ensure that, while anxiety id bad enough, it's not a sign of an even more serious underlying condition.
AS GAD is so common these days, however, the good news is that a huge amount of attention has gone into looking for solutions.
Psychotropic drugs are one route to alleviate the problem; but there are other avenues to explore as well, which can be done in conjunction with treatment from a GP. Here are some of them.
One thing that happens with exercise is that breathing depends. And it seems it's hard to be anxious when we're breathing deeply, which is why Andrew Weil MD in his book Spontaneous Happiness recommends what he calls the 'four-seven-eight' breath: exhale completely through your mouth; then inhale for a count of four; hold your breath for a count of seven; then exhale through your mouth again for a count of eight.
Repeat this twice a day. (And check with your GP first, I would say, particularly anyone with blood pressure problems.)
Yoga, done gently, is an excellent way to release tension; and you might also try meditation, where for anxiety, it seems effortless is best.
A US meta-analysis of 146 studies found Transcendental Meditation, which is easy to learn and use, to be twice as effective as other stress reduction procedures in reducing anxiety.
Obviously a big one - we are what we eat, after all. Comfort foods don't get that name for nothing as our mood can change with what we consume, although the term is usually associated with high- carb, high-sugar, high-fat extravaganzas that won't help anxiety in the long run.
In general, avoid or limit alcohol and caffeine, and sugar. And stopping smoking is important, too; studies have found lower levels of anxiety and depression in those who've quit smoking, compared with those who carry on. Aside benefit is that higher oxygen levels in the blood mean non smokers can concentrate better as well.
Also, eat regularly. don't skip breakfast: if blood sugar drops, which it might with no breakfast, that can trigger an anxiety attack.
Regular meals, with anxiety-reducing ingredients such as omega-3 fatty acids (nuts, fish, flaz seed are god sources), and plenty of B-vitamins (leafy greens are a good source, as are beef, pork, chicken, oranges and other citrus fruits, nuts and eggs), will improve levels of feel-good chemicals in the brain.
Whole grains are also good-in general, the five a day advice for a balanced diet is as important for the mind as for the body.
In recent years the link between happiness and gut health has also become more evident, so avoid foods which are hard to digest, such as fried or processed, particularly in the evening when digestion is weaker. Researchers in London found that people who ate mainly processed foods, high-fat dairy products and sweetened desserts had a 58 percent greater risk of depression than those who ate wholefoods such as fish and vegetables.
John Donne was right about that, as any modern sociologist would agree.
Loneliness and lack of social contact is hugely implicated in anxiety among older age groups- so improving such contact is a great way to counteract worry.
Take up a hobby, join local clubs, walk a dog- dog owners are usually sociable when their canine companions meet each other. Ramblers' associations, for example, combine exercise and socialising all in one.
It also helps to meet others with similar worries, as the realisation that we are not alone has been shown to be extremely helpful.
"A problem shared is a problem halved" is literally true, according to researchers from California, who found that discussing a threatening situation with someone in a similar position with someone in a similar position "buffers individuals from experiencing the heightened levels of stress that would typically accompany threat."
Organisations such as Anxiety UK have local contact groups where you can talk face to face with others about problems, and also phone lines and written support.
What's the worst that can happen?
In addition to social contact, we can also train ourselves to avoid 'catastrophic thinking'. Anxiety can make mountains out of molehills; cognitive behavioural therapy, and similar approaches, encourage us to realise they're really only molehills.
"Very few events really change the trajectory of you life," says Dr Ramsey. Try to remember what you were worrying about a year ago. Did those things actually take place?
According to Winston Churchill (who faced some pretty major problems in his life); "when I look back on all these worries, I remember the story of the old man on his deathbed who said he had had a lot of trouble in his life, most of which had never happened."
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Gary Oldman: "Acting is an antidote to self hatred"
Blue Peter: Here's one they made earlier
London's other underground
Petula Clark: "I make the most of every moment"
Headphones with a built in hearing test
Ringo Starr "I'm learning to handle life"
How to get the best night's sleep, every night
How to Earn Money by Working from Home
Nana Mouskouri "Music brings me peace, love and hope"
Bill roache "It's a real privilege to make people happy"
John Lennon & Yoko Ono: 'Imagine'
Bognor and other Regises
Do you remember? UFO
Women in WW1
Suzi Quatro: "I've always been a rocker at heart"
Rabble: The Movement keeping you fit and making you money!
Oldie of the Year 2019
Steve Coogan"The most radical thing I can do is talk about love"
Pressures of the sandwich generation
Want to live the (Feel)Good Life? Move to Watford
1969: The Year The Dream Died
Ruth Wilson "Audience's don't know who I really am"
How to Maintain Your Independence in the Kitchen
Cosyfeet Community Award 2019
Alexander Armstong: "My family is my priority"
Claire Foy "I didn't get life until I was 32"


I created this design for my granddaughter and to demonstrate how easy it is to create a "themed" Quick Little Matted and Framed Landscape Quilt. I printed a photo of my granddaughter, printed it on computer ready fabric, and slipped it into a spring scene along with a clip art image of a bunny printed on computer ready fabric. This quilt is featured in my book, Quick Little Landscape Quilts.


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text:
The Slatest
The United States Are Coming Apart
Ron DeSantis is only interested in saving Floridians. Expect state border security to become more common in the COVID-19 era.
By Joshua Keating
An electronic highway sign informs motorists on the Florida Keys Overseas Highway of a checkpoint, near Key Largo, Florida. Florida Keys News Bureau/Andy Newman/Handout via Reuters
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Last week, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis refused to allow a cruise ship full of passengers sick with COVID-19 to disembark, on the basis that "we cannot afford to have people who are not even Floridians dumped into South Florida." He later announced that he would allow 49 Florida residents to disembark from two cruise ships. The more than 250 non-Floridian Americans on board, not to mention the hundreds of others from other countries, are out of luck.
DeSantis' allegiance to Floridians—only Floridians—is a sign of how the virus is creating an every-state-for-themselves dynamic. It's not unusual for countries to exempt their citizens from travel restrictions, as the Trump administration has done during the coronavirus outbreak by allowing Americans to return from China and Europe after travel bans were put in place. This is dubious on public health grounds—Americans are just as likely to carry the disease as foreigners—but it makes political sense that governments have a higher degree of obligation to protect their own citizens. It's more unusual to see this kind of policy enacted at a U.S. state level.
Historian Nick Kapur referred to DeSantis' decision as "bizarro Floridian nationalism." This pandemic has already tightened international borders. But as Donald Trump designates certain heavily affected regions of the country as "hot spots," state residency may start to matter much more than it has in centuries. This virus is likely to leave the United States much less united.
Florida is not going to become an American Abkhazia or Somaliland any time soon. But DeSantis' stance on the cruise ships was not a one-off. Under fire for spending weeks resisting the kind of social distancing measures that other states have put in place, DeSantis has shifted to scapegoating residents of other states, particularly New Yorkers, for the subsequent rapid growth of coronavirus infections and deaths in Florida. Florida has set up checkpoints along its northern border to screen arrivals from coronavirus hot spots like New York and Louisiana, ordering them to self-quarantine or face jail time. According to the Washington Post, it was a conversation with DeSantis that prompted Trump to briefly consider an enforced quarantine of New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut.
DeSantis is at the forefront of this movement for state border security—ironic for a state as dependent on tourism and northern retirees as Florida—but he's not alone. Texas has also set up border checkpoints and many have mandatory quarantine policies for out-of-state arrivals. Rhode Island police officers were, for a time, pulling over cars with New York license plates, while the state's National Guard enforced quarantine orders for arrivals from the Empire State. All this led the Economist to declare that "Federalism, America's multi-tier political system, is facing its sternest stress test since the Civil War."
The nature of the virus makes this response inevitable. While no corner of the United States will escape COVID-19 completely unscathed, the trajectories and timing of its spread differ from region to region. And because of America's polarized political climate and the degree to which the pandemic became a culture war issue in March, different states adopted very different approaches to stop the spread of the disease. States that were lax in adopting social distancing endanger not only their own populations but their neighbors.
Even if they don't make much difference now that the virus is more or less everywhere, there was some logic, early in the pandemic, of using regional quarantines to halt or at least slow the virus's spread from one region to another. Back in January, when so many things that are now commonplace still seemed extraordinary, the world marveled at China quarantining Wuhan, a city of 11 million people. This likely helped stop the disease from spreading widely in mainland China outside its epicenter in Hubei province. (There have been only eight reported deaths in Beijing and six in Shanghai, for instance.)
But such measures are, for want of another word, un-American. Even before the coronavirus, Chinese citizens lived with a draconian, if frequently violated, household registration system that prevents them from relocating to another region and makes millions of people effectively undocumented immigrants within their own country. China has "autonomous regions" set aside for ethnic minorities and "special administrative regions"—Hong Kong and Macau—with vastly different political and legal systems.
Despite centuries of arguments over states' rights, we have no precedent to guide us through the current crisis. The original Articles of Confederation, which envisioned states as far more autonomous political entities than they ended up being, still guaranteed that "people of each State shall free ingress and regress to and from any other State." The Constitution that replaced the articles doesn't even bother mentioning the right to travel—it's basically just assumed in later court cases—but does specify, under Article IV, that "Citizens of each State shall be entitled to all Privileges and Immunities of Citizens in the several States."
These rights have been impinged upon in the past in times of emergency, including in previous disease epidemics, and one would hope that the checkpoints and travel restrictions will be lifted once COVID-19 is contained. But there's reason to think the effects could be longer-lasting.
Even before the pandemic, Americans were becoming fairly immobile by historical standards. The past few years have seen a small uptick in interstate migration after decades of declines, but the looming recession is likely to curb movement again, just as the 2008 financial crisis did. People are more rooted in their home states, and regional identities are becoming more calcified. America's political polarization is a regional divide as much as an ideological one.
And it's not just Republicans who seem to be hoping to carve up the U.S. While American Democrats are traditionally the party favoring a strong federal government, demographic realities and institutions like the Electoral College and the Senate make federal-level politics strongly stacked against them. Liberals may start to rethink the value of autonomous, powerful state governments. Facing congressional gridlock under President Barack Obama and outright hostility under Trump, Democratic states have crafted independent policies on a number of global challenges. Think of California's ambitious carbon emissions targets or the states that have enacted sanctuary protections for undocumented immigrants. During the coronavirus outbreak, Democratic voters have expressed vastly more faith in state and local authorities than in the federal response.
With the White House telling state governments they're on their own when it comes to acquiring vital resources, and governors of both parties calling for more interstate travel restrictions, there's not a whole lot of unity in this crisis.
The cliché is that disasters are when America comes together as a nation. But the peculiar nature of this threat, and the political moment in which it arrived, makes it feel more like it's coming apart into 50. As we hear frequently these days, the virus doesn't respect borders—either national or state—and this disunity will only make it harder to meet the next challenge that requires a common response.
Florida Coronavirus


Tim Wu, a Columbia University law professor, has an intriguing opinion article in the Sunday New York Times about the link between big business and fascism. He makes the case that a lack of anti-trust enforcement has contributed to the rise of populism around the world. I don't know if I'd go so far as to call today's political environment fascism but populism does seem a logical response to the issue of inequality. And inequality, to some degree, springs from the bigness argument.
I do agree too that there is something fundamentally wrong with capitalism as it is practiced here in the 21st century. Corporate profit margins have been on the rise, with the exception of the recessions in 2000 and 2008, since the early 90s and today stand basically at all time highs. Now, one might argue that margins were too low at the beginning of that period but corporate profits today are higher than they've ever been no matter how you measure such things (% of GDP, % of national income, profit margins, etc.).
At least from a theory standpoint, high profit margins should not persist and certainly shouldn't rise relentlessly for nearly three decades. High profits attract new entrants, competition, and should not persist unless there is something preventing new companies from competing effectively. What might cause a reduction in competition? Lots of things actually. Excessive regulation leaps to mind. Incumbent firms love lots of regulations; it makes it that much harder for smaller players to compete. That's why JP Morgan and the other large banks loved Dodd-Frank. And Dodd-Frank is a major reason concentration in the banking industry has gotten worse since the great financial crisis of 2008. Not exactly a repudiation of "too big to fail".
There is also what has become known as crony capitalism which is much more akin to fascism and really what this article points to as a cause of our problems. Large companies are able to organize themselves and lobby to influence public policy. Mergers that logically should be blocked on anti-competitive grounds somehow find a way to get approved when the right palms have been greased (campaign contributions) or the right ego stroked. The result is that almost every industry is more concentrated today than it was 30 or 40 years ago.
Excellent analysis. I share your skepticism of government intervention, but corporations are government sanctioned institutions in the first place, not pure creations of a free market. Government sets the rules under which they are chartered, governed and financed. So more than free market principles are already involved and government intervention is only a question of what kind and how much.
Maybe antitrust enforcement has been too lax. But there also may be other issues, such as tax laws. For instance the tax code may incentivize the accumulation of capital within the corporate structure as opposed to its distribution to stockholders in the form of dividends. Monetary policy calculated to create a "wealth effect" may make capital artificially cheap to corporations. Maybe the same principle of progressivity should be applied to corporations as individuals, where the bigger the corporation, the higher the tax rate.
In any case, the first place to look is for ways in which government intervention may be helping to create the problem.


text:
Clothing of figurines may be record of Ice Age tribes' skills
By Byron Spice, Science Editor, Post-Gazette
Besides a woven hat and a pair of dainty bracelets, the voluptuous Venus of Willendorf doesn't wear so much as a smile. So perhaps it's not surprising that the exaggerated sexual features of this stone-cold babe -- a 4-inch-tall limestone figurine unearthed near Willendorf, Austria, in 1908 -- have mesmerized archaeologists and art historians much as the charms of Pamela Anderson Lee have distracted otherwise diligent Web surfers.
James Adovasio of the Mercyhurst Archaeological Institute in Erie, and his colleagues have put forth new theories about Venus figurines. (Robert J. Pavuchak, Post-Gazette)
But experts now are taking a second look at the scanty bits of apparel worn by Miss Willendorf and by some of the hundreds of other "Venus" figurines that have been preserved from Ice Age Europe. They say the necklaces, string skirts and other "Venus-wear" that do so little to hide the obvious are proving to be equally revealing about the hunter-gatherer societies that existed along the receding glaciers.
These odd and mysterious figurines suggest that people living 26,000 years ago possessed well-developed weaving skills that were at least as valuable to the community as the strength and prowess of male hunters. Even the head dress worn by the Venus of Willendorf arguably reflects social traditions still seen today in the babushkas worn by women in Eastern Europe or even the bonnets favored by Amish women in Pennsylvania.
These new insights, ironically, are derived from Venus-wear that has been in plain sight for decades.
"The vast majority of folks have simply ignored the fact that these are woven fabrics," said James Adovasio, director of the Mercyhurst Archaeological Institute in Erie. It's an oversight he attributes to the mindset of archaeologists. Stone implements, not textiles, supposedly were state of the art during the Paleolithic period, the Stone Age.
"When you have these stereotypes, you don't look beyond the stereotype," he explained.
But those assumptions began to change a couple years ago, when Adovasio, his Mercyhurst colleague David Hyland and University of Illinois anthropologist Olga Soffer uncovered evidence that the Paleolithic people in what is now the Czech Republic were making twine, fashioning nets and even producing cloth.
The textiles themselves hadn't survived more than 20 millenia, but the cordage and woven articles had left impressions in the mud floors of huts. Those preserved impressions enabled Adovasio and Hyland to indirectly study the long-gone textiles, even allowing them to analyze types of knots.
"Simply having the ability to make string must have dramatically changed people's lives," said Elizabeth Barber, a linguist and archaeologist at Occidental College, near Los Angeles. String lets people haul things and catch things in nets. "I call it the string revolution. It must have been as powerful as the invention of writing and the wheel."
Archaeologists and scientists believe the sexual features of the Venus of Willendorf, a cast of which is at right, are exaggerated. (Robert J. Pavuchak, Post-Gazette)
Nets, in particular, suggest that hunter-gatherers need not have relied on hunting mammoths, deer and other big game. Women and even children likely would have been involved in hunting small game, constructing and hanging nets and then chasing varmints into the trap.
But studying Ice Age textiles is like chasing phantoms, so Soffer, Adovasio and Hyland are pursuing other lines of evidence in hopes of further bolstering their claims. The Venus figurines are one such effort.
In the case of the Venus of Willendorf, Adovasio said, they knew they were dealing with an icon. When he and Soffer went to examine the statuette at the Naturhistorisches Museum in Vienna, they found themselves escorted to an inner room with special lighting, where museum officials produced the figurine from a special leather case embossed in gold.
"I told them I needed to hold it to examine it," Adovasio said. "It was like I was asking to touch the Holy Grail." When given permission, he focused on the Venus' head, which has no facial features, but an intricately carved covering. "They thought it was an elaborate hairstyle," but it was unlike any hairdo he had ever seen. He came away convinced that it was a woven cap, not woven hair, with concentric rows of plaited material.
Only a minority of the Venus figurines have any apparel. Adovasio and his colleagues, however, have noted the presence of belts, bracelets, various headcoverings, string skirts and bandeaux, narrow strips of material worn on the torso. "Even the so-called naked ones often have necklaces and bandeaux, which are often written off as tattoos," he noted. "But tattoos with seams?"
A notable aspect of Venus-wear is the detail in which it is depicted. The figurines generally aren't very realistic -- the pear-shaped, disproportioned Venus of Willendorf likely had as much resemblance to women of the Paleolithic as she does to contemporary women. The Venus heads usually have no faces.
Yet the detail of the Venus-wear is tremendous. "You can tell which way the string was twisted," Adovasio said. "It's really kind of amazing."
At the simplest level, he said, the depiction of fabric provides evidence that Paleolithic people were familiar with cloth, which would suggest that weaving had been developing for hundreds of thousands of years before the figurines were carved or molded.
"This has been my argument for more than a quarter of a century," said Alexander Marshack, an image analyst for Harvard University's Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology. "The capacity was there. It is the human capacity. The basic skills are human and found all over the world.
"Weaving was just a way of problem solving," he continued. "They had no metal, but they used everything available in their ecology. They were just like us. We have become more technically advanced, not smarter."
His argument was based only on this rationale, rather than archaeological evidence, so many scientists dismissed it. Now that Soffer and Adovasio are finding textile artifacts, "I feel, perhaps, a little vindicated," he said.
But when trying to determine what these figurines meant to Paleolithic people, "you have to be careful about what you deduce from the evidence," he cautioned.
"It's hard to say what they mean," agreed Rosemary Joyce, an anthropologist at the University of California-Berkeley who studies South American figurines dating back 3,500 years. These sorts of figurines are found throughout the world and the ages and, like symbols today, they likely meant different things to different people.
It's probably safe to assume that the statuettes were a means of communication used by preliterate people, she said. Just as a newspaper focuses on things that are new, interesting or significant while ignoring everyday details, the people who made these clay or stone figurines weren't so much interested in reflecting society as they were in representing moments of importance.
So the fact that they expended so much energy on the details of apparel suggests there is something important about these items. Likewise, "the absence of skin [or fur] clothing thrusts the few woven objects into high relief," Joyce said. Perhaps the makers are commenting on the importance of textiles in their lives, or use the woven objects to identify people who are weavers, or the woven objects could simply be ceremonial clothing that denotes an individual's status.
Soffer and colleagues noted that some figurines have string skirts. Occidental's Barber has traced the use of string skirts from the late Stone Age through the Bronze Age to present day; consistently, string skirts have been a sign of fertility.
Even today, girls in Albania wear string skirts only after reaching puberty.
Likewise, if the Venus of Willendorf is indeed wearing a head covering, it too might be related to a present-day practice. Barber said women in some cultures, seeing the hair as an analogue for pubic hair, routinely cover their heads after marriage. It's a tradition still seen in Eastern Europe and one that has been taken a step further by the Amish, who cover the hair of girls and women alike.
"You have to take all this with a grain of salt," Barber added. "But the material all hangs together."
Symbolism aside, the evidence of Ice Age textiles continues to grow. Soffer, now on sabbatical, has been traveling across Russia, Germany and France, gathering photos and casts of woven clothing for Adovasio and Hyland to analyze.
She reports seeing what appear to be bone and ivory weaving tools, such as battens, and some impressions of what may be basketry. "This is all work very much in progress," she said in an e-mail message.
This week, Adovasio has joined her in France, where they hope to examine the only known examples of Ice Age fabrics -- stamp-size bits that, when excavated in the 1920s, were assumed to be more recent textiles that had somehow gotten mixed into an Ice Age site.
The Venus figurines not only reinforce the significance of these textile artifacts, but provide the "ideological overtones" of the Paleolithic peoples, Adovasio said. "They're expressing what society believes was important."
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