Josh Jones Dilworth is the founder and CEO of Totem, the press page company. Totem lets anyone build a simple and elegant press page in five minutes.
Every year around this time, I get asked by startups old and new, "How can I stand out to the press at SXSW? How can I make the press pay attention to me and my company?"
At SXSW, sophisticated strategies and creative shenanigans abound to gain press attention. If your launch or campaign uniquely matches the scope and tenor of the festival itself, you can thrive. You might even get a little lucky. With 25,000 geeks in Austin for what feels like a twisted combination of Burning Man and summer camp, anything is possible.
That said, the number-one piece of advice I give is seldom acted upon. So what's the big secret already?
A press page. Not merely a press page, but a great one. My company recently undertook a broad survey of the press, asking them whether they care about a website's press page in the first place, and if so, what they would like to see in one. The overwhelming response of over 100 journalists was that not only is a press page welcome, it can make all the difference.
The press, analysts and influencers are often your earliest audiences, and arguably your most powerful ones. Yet, the majority of startups and mature companies alike do very little to make life easy for those writing stories or conducting research.
First, the press page often gets triaged away – it's on the list, but rarely gets prioritized. Product comes first, the basic website second, and social media excellence third. Sometimes a company cobbles a press page together in the last minutes before launch – it likely houses little more than a few logos and a blind email for a PR contact.
Often, a press page gets stranded in the vacant middle ground between product and marketing. It seldom has a proper owner. PR people and marketers often have to work through a middleman, and sometimes through broad swaths of bureaucracy. On the other hand, designers and builders seldom understand what it takes to make a great press page.
Without further adieu, consider making a press page to support a launch or campaign at SXSW. Here are a few tips culled from the press themselves.
The press absolutely and emphatically want a real person to contact. Most press pages default to an "info@" or a "press@" alias for reasons of convenience – you want inquiries to go to multiple parties for redundancy's sake. This makes sense on paper, but if you're trying to make the press love you, surfacing a human will win you favor. If you're worried about redundancy, list more than one individual.
Furthermore, whether he works for you or an agency that represents you, your press contact should be available via email, phone (preferably cellphone), Skype (or other instant messaging client) and Twitter. Many press representatives have different contact preferences, but my company's survey indicates the more options the better, especially when there's an urgent request or breaking news.
Lastly, this contact should have a real headshot attached alongside contact information. Facial recognition for in-person meetings is especially important during conferences like SXSW.
Another common mistake is thinking about your press page as a repository for past press coverage, with little other helpful information or material.
What does this communicate? It says that you care more about showcasing results than earning more. The press told us outright that, although past coverage is helpful for context, it's not the first thing they want or need to see, and can sometimes be discouraging.
This doesn't at all mean that you shouldn't showcase your coverage or awkwardly hide it away. But it should sit below the fold, or maintain a low profile.
If you really want to impress investors or potential users by showcasing credible articles, consider featuring press on the company homepage with an "as featured in" element.
If someone has made his way to your press page, he's digging deeper, and is possibly looking for help. Use the press page to serve its primary audience: the press. Include the publication logo that links to your big review or launch coverage in a prominent place, especially if you intend it to increase conversion.
My company's survey also revealed that the press dislikes having to bounce all around your site, picking up disparate pieces of information for their articles.
Do reporters a favor: Gather key company information, team bios and product specs from other areas of your site onto the press page too. Include supplementary information like physical address, number of employees, funding status, social profiles, etc. This might seem redundant, but again, your efforts are all in service of the press, so be extra helpful.
The overall goal of the press page is to make it an effective home base for someone covering your company — a full service buffet of sorts. The press emphasize to my company time and time again that business websites make it surprisingly hard to track down the basics.
Go the extra yard so the press doesn't have to. Reporters told us that a well-organized company with a truly useful press page makes a better and lasting impression.
You spent a lot of time on your logo, didn't you? And yet, you might be making it much harder for others to use it than you realize.
Take a look around the web — you'll see grainy logos and sloppy logo screengrabs galore. The press is sick of browsing Google image search, desperately seeking good art. And guess what? Once that low-res logo gets sucked into their CMS the first time, it sits in their multimedia repository for future use. That bad or outdated logo can haunt you for years.
Logos are just the beginning, of course. Publications seek pretty charts and graphs, infographics, screenshots, live action photography, headshots, team shots and product photos too.
Video is in high demand too, whether a basic tutorial screencast or a full-fledged animated explainer. These videos keep readers on the press' articles longer, and increase conversion via click-throughs to your site. Videos are a win-win and are well worth the time, effort and money.
Flipboard's and Alltop's videos are some of my favorites, but more economical options like Parse.ly's or Swingly's videos are equally effective for startups on a budget.
I always tell clients and advisees, "A Mashable article is not a Mashable article is not a Mashable article." Just getting in Mashable doesn't magically generate credibility and visibility. Make great art accessible — it can mean the difference between a good article and a great one, between hundreds of users and thousands.
Few publications enjoy an art department these days, and even fewer have the luxury of a researcher. Some beat reporters are especially comfortable covering your market or company, but many newer reporters are just learning. And in the most innovative areas of the industry, no one is an expert yet. These days, journalists go it alone; therefore, they welcome all the help they can get.
We marketers are prone to making grand claims; it's not a stretch to say that most startups' market sizing slides tell embellished versions of the truth.
One of the biggest favors you can do for the press is to provide as much real data and empirical evidence as possible. This might include statistically significant surveys you've conducted, market research put forth by a reputable analyst, recent user counts, engagement measures and more.
You will earn the respect of the press by providing factual, contextual information. Often this information underwrites the very reasons your company exists in the first place, so you shouldn't be afraid of getting real. Editors require factual information and verified statistics for articles. If you can go the extra mile, the resulting coverage won't hinge on merely anecdotal claims. Facts are the very best flavor of Kool-Aid.
Of course, there are more sophisticated things you can do between now and SXSW, but I urge you to start getting your house in order in the most basic way.
During SXSW, the press is as harried as the startups and brands it covers, if not more so. Attention is sparse, and articles need to be published with urgency. If you're gunning to be part of the SXSW conversation, a great press page can render your story plug-and-play, and can free you from too many press follow-ups.
So do yourself a favor, and the press one too. By streamlining the press process, we can focus on what's most important – great companies, leading technologists and a fine brew or two.


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The Central Park Five: A Chronicle of a City Wilding (BOOK REVIEW)
by Sarah Burns
Hardcover, $25.95
264 pages, Illustrated
Book Review by Kam Williams
"In 1990, Anton McCray, Kevin Richardson, Korey Wise, Yusef Salaam and Raymond Santana, Jr. [were] convicted and sent to prison for a combination of rape, sexual assault and attempted murder of a female jogger named Trisha Meili in Central Park... That the victim had been a 28 year-old, successful, white investment banker and that the [accused] were black and Latino teenagers from Harlem was not lost on the public...
The media coverage of the crime exposed a racism rife in American society, and the language used to describe the supposed perpetrators was filled with imagery of savage wild animals, the same racist imagery that had been used to justify lynchings earlier in the century…
The false narrative disseminated by the police and the media was swallowed whole by the public… Even though some like to say we live in a 'postracial' society, the racism that fueled the rush to judgment persists, and… we have not evolved enough from the days when even the suggestion that a black man had raped a white woman could lead to a lynching."
-- Excerpted from the Preface (pgs. ix-xi)
On April 19, 1989, Patricia Ellen Meili entered Central Park around 9 PM, a regular running time for her due to the long hours she worked on Wall Street. Unfortunately, on this occasion, she would be sadistically beaten, brutally raped and left for dead, with 80% of the blood draining from her body by the time she was rushed to the hospital by ambulance after the police were alerted by a couple of passersby.
Because Trisha came from a privileged background marked by ballet and horseback riding topped off by an Ivy League pedigree, the NYPD was under considerable pressure to apprehend the perpetrators of the heinous crime. And it was not long before they had somehow extracted confessions from five teenagers from Harlem, none of whom had ever been arrested or even in serious trouble before.
Contrary to state law, the names of the juveniles were released to the press prior to their being indicted or arraigned. Furthermore, the police leaked incriminating admissions supposedly made by the accused of their own free will about having stabbed and ejaculated on the victim.
The tabloid press, ever inclined to exploit the hot button issues of color and class, soon began sensationalizing the case's lurid details, dubbing the white victim "The Central Park Jogger" while coining the term "Wilding" to describe the alleged behavior of her African-American and Latino attackers. Ordinarily apolitical icons also got into the act, like Donald Trump who took out full-page ads in every New York City daily newspaper calling for the death penalty, saying that the perpetrators "should be forced to suffer" and "should be executed for their crimes."
It was no surprise, then, that in the face of the vigilante-like demand for vengeance, all five kids were convicted despite the fact that none of their DNA was found on Trisha and she didn't have any knife wounds. They were only exonerated after having completely served sentences ranging from 6 to 13 years when a serial rapist named Matias Reyes, a DNA match to Exhibit A, confessed to the crime in 2002.
Written by Sarah Burns, The Central Park Five revisits the controversial case to determine just how a combination of a media circus, a flawed legal system and a racist society inclined to see black adolescents as animals had enabled such a gross miscarriage of justice to transpire. The author, who also disputes the popular notion that this country is now post-racial because of the election of President Barack Obama, is already collaborating with her father, award-winning filmmaker Ken Burns, on a documentary based on this eye-opening opus which belatedly sets the record straight.
A riveting retrospective on a tragic rush to judgment which ruined five, innocent young lives.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Q: Closing applications after documents are closed- OS X 10.8 When I use applications such as TextEdit and Preview, the application still stays open after I close the text file or jpg file. When I click the respective application (since it is still in the dock), the application prompts me with a window to choose a file to Edit/Preview. Is there a way to configure these applications so that when I close the text file or the picture, the application itself closes and I can avoid seeing that window?
For instance, this is the window that I see for TextEdit after I open and close a txt file with TextEdit, and then open the TextEdit application on my dock:

A: If you want to disable showing an iCloud-centric open dialog when you for example open TextEdit or Preview, you can either disable syncing documents and data from the iCloud preference pane, or use this unexposed preference:
defaults write -g NSShowAppCentricOpenPanelInsteadOfUntitledFile -bool true

There are some third party applications like RedQuits that make closing a window quit an application. RedQuits only applies to closing windows by pressing the close button though. There is a noticeable delay before it quits an application, and it doesn't support excluding applications like Mail.
10.7 also added support for automatic termination, which as far as I know just means that applications that have no open windows are hidden from the Dock and the application switcher under certain conditions. If you for example open Preview, open at least one window in it, close all windows, and switch to another application, Preview is hidden from the Dock and the application switcher. The process is not actually terminated, but there might be some changes in how it is managed.

A: Long answer: See https://stackoverflow.com/questions/5268757/how-to-quit-cocoa-app-when-windows-close
Short answer: It is a feature that is enabled/disabled by the programmer. It is not (usually) something that can be changed by a user.

A: My question for you is how exactly are you closing the application? In the Windows world, closing the file, for example, a text file opened in Notepad, will close Notepad entirely. In the Mac world, this is not the case. Closing the file closes only the file, while the app stays opened. This has been the way of Macs since I can remember.
Command-Q will close the app entirely, and not only that, it will keep the state of the app intact. So, using TextEdit as an example, if you had three text documents opened, and you close TextEdit, those same documents will reopen next time you open the app. Clear as mud, huh?

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


As we reported in April, Grey Hound has approved the entrance of border patrol agents on their buses even if they're not 100 miles from the border. Grey Hound's reason for allowing this is that they are "complying with the law." It's legal for border patrol agents to request documentation from people if they're within 100 miles of the border.
One Grey Hound passenger stood up against Border Patrol boarding her bus. Tiana Smalls was on a bus from Bakersfield, California to Las Vegas when she reminded passengers about their Constitutional rights.
At least three people have already been detained by immigration officials as they were abroad a Grey Hound bus.
A Southern California woman was recently on a Grey Hound when border agents asked for documentation.
Tiana Smalls was on June 6, she was on a bus from Bakersfield, California to Las Vegas to visit family. She said, in a Facebook post, that there was a checkpoint when they got to the California/Nevada state line — which is typical.
She said the bus driver made an announcement: "We are being boarded by Border Patrol. Please be prepared to show your documentation upon request".
That's when, according to the Facebook post, Smalls knew that she had to speak up.
Smalls said in her post that her Spanish isn't good, so she used Google Translate to tell other Spanish-speaking passengers that what agents intended to do was illegal.
She went on to say that there was a woman who didn't speak English and looked terrified.
"I reassured her that I had her back," Smalls wrote.
Please read all 4 of these screenshots from Tiana Smalls.
Smalls said once they realized she would be giving them a hard time, the agents got off the bus.


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text:
WINTER'S TALE
By JOHN BARRY
Updated Dec. 11, 2008
Third grade was a doozy. Katrina Simpkins, survivor of a half-dozen surgeries and body casts, had a stunted right thigh. Her right foot reached only to her left knee. She wore a prosthesis to school, and never found a way to fit in. There was this kid, this one little torturer, who kept at her all year.
For her hard slog through third grade, Katrina was allowed to pick the family's first vacation trip. Katrina's surgeries and expenses had made vacations an impossible luxury. But in June 2007, they hit the road for Florida. Katrina had chosen her personal Mecca, Cinderella Castle at Disney World. Her mom checked the route from their home in Columbia City, Ind., and found an aquarium not far from Disney. Might as well stop there, too.
At the Clearwater Marine Aquarium, Katrina peeked into a dolphin tank.
"Did I just see a stub?"
The dolphin was "a little girl" like her, an aquarium worker told her. She had lost her tail and nearly died when she entangled herself in rope from a crab pot. This girl dolphin was named Winter. She had a prosthesis of her own, a plastic tail, that helped her swim.
Katrina crept to the tank's edge. Winter came to her. She stopped. She lifted her head. She made eye contact. She seemed to be speaking to Katrina:
We're the same.
For two years, it has been one child after another. They've showed up on prosthetic legs, or in wheelchairs, or sick from cancer, or hearing impaired, all hurting or struggling in some way.
Sophie, 3, from Texas.
Heath, 5, from Orlando.
Brandon, 11, from Hudson.
Aidan, 7, from St. Petersburg.
McKenna, 9, from Dallas.
Phoebe, 8, from Clearwater.
Bailee, 4, from Knoxville, Tenn.
No one anticipated these kids when the aquarium launched a project to fit a baby dolphin with a prosthetic tail. But the list keeps growing.
Back in Indiana, all Katrina talked about was the dolphin with no tail. For two weeks, she cried and begged her mother to take her back to Clearwater.
Maria Simpkins called the aquarium's CEO, David Yates. He had introduced himself to Katrina on their visit. He told her to call him any time. On the phone, Maria asked him to help her out. "Please tell Katrina that Winter is all right."
David assured Katrina that the aquarium and Winter would always welcome her back. The call began a phone and text-messaging relationship between the CEO and the child that continued for a year and a half. She would watch him come and go on a Web camera set up over the dolphin tanks. On any given day, David had 10 text messages from Katrina on his BlackBerry.
She returned to the aquarium five times. The aquarium paid for one trip. The staff treated her like one of its own. She roamed the building, helped with the shows, assumed the role of someone in charge. She sometimes called herself the CEO. David would find her seated behind his desk.
This is a child, David said, who didn't fit in anywhere else. Under the spell of Winter, she feels confident. She belongs.
Other children like Katrina talk about "feeling normal" around Winter.
Aidan Schmitz, a solemn 7-year-old from St. Petersburg, was born with only one bone in her left lower leg. Aidan saw Winter on the Today show, and visited her at the aquarium.
"Winter looked at me. I waved at her, and she raised her flipper."
Brandon Saunders, 11, from Hudson, lost his leg on Memorial Day 2006 to a boat propeller. Brandon was sitting in the back of his dad's boat, snuggled up in a towel when the boat hit a rock. Everyone fell out, even the dog. Brandon's towel caught on the propeller and pulled him into the blades.
David Yates heard about Brandon on the news and invited the boy to meet the dolphin. They had both survived a tragedy at sea. They bore the scars of kindred spirits.
Winter let Brandon pet her.
Fourth grade has been another doozy for Katrina Simpkins, the little girl from Indiana.
She fell on the hardwood floor at home and broke her hip. While fixing her hip, doctors found a knee fracture. When those healed, she broke her shin. Katrina was in a wheelchair from April to August. She started fearing school again, didn't want the kids to see her that way.
David Yates, her telephone pal, flew to Chicago to be with her at Shriners Hospitals for Children. He got there before she did and surprised her in the parking lot.
He had brought good news. Since Winter was rescued, summer attendance at the aquarium had doubled. Soldiers hurt in Iraq had discovered Winter. Donations were way up. A $2-million renovation was almost completed. Winter was getting a new tank. A video documentary, Winter, the Dolphin That Could!, was coming out soon. A book was in the works.
David had brought a video camera, hoping to include Katrina in the documentary. He followed the girl into an examination room and sat beside her. A doctor came in to explain bad news. She would need more surgery on her hip. Not now, but in a couple of years. David watched Katrina react. She quietly asked questions.
David was awed by her composure. In that sterile examination room, the CEO, the talkative promoter, fumbled for words.
On a recent visit to the aquarium, Katrina ran into Dan Strzempka, the prosthetics designer who made Winter's tail. He and his boss, Kevin Carroll, were beside the dolphin tank, taking more measurements of Winter. Katrina saw Dan's prosthesis. Dan told her how he had lost his leg as a small boy.
Winter looked happy. She glided around the pool like a diva, flirting with her human admirers. But Dan was more concerned about how Katrina looked. He and Kevin didn't like the prosthesis she wore. The protective covering for her skin was missing. She had blisters. She complained it didn't fit right. Dan looked it over, frowning.
"How about I make a new one for you?"
In October, Katrina came to Dan's Sarasota lab for fittings. She stayed a week as he labored on a complicated design, intent on preventing those chronic fractures and blisters.
He worked on it all week. He secretly borrowed Katrina's favorite T-shirt from her mom. He sewed it over the top of her new prosthesis.
He unveiled it at the end of the week. It was pink and purple. The lettering was bordered by sea shells. It read:
John Barry can be reached at jbarry@sptimes.com or (727) 892-2258.
Visiting Winter
To see Winter, visit the aquarium at 249 Windward Passage, Clearwater.
Admission $11; children ages 3-12, $7.50; seniors $9.
The aquarium also offers free tours for groups of children with disabilities through its Winter Team Program. Contact Jeni Hatter, 727-441-1790, ext. 228.
To celebrate Winter's rescue, three years ago this week, the Clearwater Marine Aquarium has produced a video, Winter, The Dolphin that Could! It's available for purchase on SeeWinter.com.
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text:
Around Southern Ontario
Ontario Place transforming into 'year-round' attraction, Budweiser Stage to get makeover
Ontario Premier Doug Ford made the announcement alongside Culture Minister Lisa MacLeod and Toronto Mayor John Tory
Lucas Casaletto
Artist rendering of the future of Ontario placeSupplied by Therme Group
Ontario Place and its surrounding attractions are getting a full-blown makeover.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford made the announcement alongside Culture Minister Lisa MacLeod and Toronto Mayor John Tory, revealing a long-term theme park redevelopment plan.
Ford says this will present "an exciting, inclusive and family-friendly experience that will play a key role in the province's post-pandemic recovery, both as a tourism destination and as a display of Ontario's strong cultural identity."
"As we mark the 50th anniversary of Ontario Place this year, there is no better time to bring this iconic destination back to life," said Premier Ford on Friday.
"By taking this first step with our world-class development partners, as well as the City of Toronto and Indigenous communities, we will deliver a renewed Ontario Place that provides year-round entertainment for all ages and interests. As we continue to engage and consult with the community, Ontario Place will realize its full potential as a long-term economic generator for the people of Ontario."
The government is teaming up with Therme Group – a global wellbeing leader – for the park's redesign. Therme Group describes its vision as to create "the world's most advanced wellbeing resorts, achieved by harnessing the complex interplay of nature, technology and culture."
The province says once completed, "Therme Canada/Ontario Place" will be a family-friendly experience with options that appeal to everyone, including pools, waterslides, botanical gardens to relax, and sports performance and recovery services.
Outside, people will enjoy more than eight acres of free, publicly accessible gathering spaces, parkland, gardens and beaches.
Starting in August, the government will launch the next phase of engagement through its website, providing an opportunity for all Ontarians to voice their thoughts and share a vision on how they would like to experience a redeveloped Ontario Place.
The province is also teaming up with American events promoter and venue operator Live Nation to revamp Budweiser Stage and transform the venue into a "modern, year-round indoor-outdoor live music and performance venue."
"Protecting the iconic amphitheatre lawns, the new venue will have an expanded capacity of 20,000 in the summer and close to 9,000 in the winter, offering a unique indoor-outdoor experience with operable exterior walls to accommodate events, rain or shine," the government says.
Completion of the newly designed amphitheatre is expected by 2030.
Écorécréo Group, a Canadian-based company, specializing in developing original and adapted activities at large-scale public tourism sites, is also building what the government calls an "affordable, all-season adventure park for all ages."
"This new, environmentally friendly attraction will include aerial obstacle courses, net-based aerial adventures, ziplines, climbing walls, escape rooms and many other activities. Écorécréo Group will also operate Segway, quad-cycle, canoe and kayak rentals at the site."
The all-season park will be completed by 2024 to entertain over 500,000 visitors per year by 2030.
Minister MacLeod says the province "actively searched" for the best partners worldwide to work with on the redevelopment of Ontario Place.
"Our government remains committed to redeveloping Ontario Place in a sustainable way – respecting our historical and natural features while at the same time showcasing Ontario as the world in one province – a true reflection of our diversity and multiculturalism, while also showing respect for the rich traditions, cultures and heritage of First Nation, Inuit, and Métis peoples," she said.
"A modern, new Ontario Place will attract local, provincial and international visitors, and create unforgettable memories for a new generation."
The Progressive Conservative government has been seeking to redevelop the Toronto attraction that was closed to the public in 2012 after years of financial losses.
Ford's government has envisioned a brand new space and transforming the park that first opened in 1971 into an impressive attraction.
Former Toronto police chief Mark Saunders was appointed this spring as a special adviser to the province on its park redevelopment.
In an update, the provincial government says Saunders will continue to engage with the City of Toronto, Indigenous communities, project stakeholders, businesses and community groups that have an interest in the Ontario Place site to "ensure all perspectives on these important proposals are recognized and considered."
Mayor Tory praised the province's move to redevelop Ontario Place.
"I've said publicly many times that I want to see something spectacular here at Ontario Place, and I believe this ongoing process will deliver that," Tory said. "I welcome the fact that the proposals being unveiled today respond to many of the things City Council had asked for, including that Ontario Place should be a year-round destination."
The redevelopment is expected to keep key features, including Trillium Park, the Cinesphere Theatre, and the entire pods.
Ontario's Culture Minister says the "vision for Ontario Place" will not include casinos or condos and that the land will not be sold. She also says the site's essential heritage and recreational features will remain in place.
Ontario Place will remain open to the public year-round.
More Around Southern Ontario
Provincial police respond to collision on Listowel's Main Street
Three transported to hospital after crash involving school bus, transport truck
Mother sentenced to house arrest for death of toddler in Grand River
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Assisted Living Facilities in Gaston, NC
Gaston Assisted Living
Assisted Living in Gaston, NC
There are a total of 5 assisted living facilities in Gaston, North Carolina area. This list includes Gaston senior housing, assisted senior living communities and residential care homes for the elderly. Gaston assisted senior living facilities also provide dementia and Alzheimer's care (also known as memory care in Gaston, NC).
Hampton Manor
Hampton Manor is an assisted living facility in Gaston, North Carolina. It can accommodate a maximum of 82 senior citizens at a time. It is located at 320 Broughton Street, 27832 zip code in Northampton county and helps seniors who need help with daily living tasks. Hampton Manor provides amenities such as a library, chaplain services and 3 daily meals.
4 More Assisted Living Facilities in Northampton County, NC
Rich Square Manor
Rich Square Manor provides senior assisted living in Northampton county, North Carolina. It contains a total of 32 assisted living apartments for elderly adults. Rich Square Manor provides reasonably priced, pet-friendly assisted elderly housing and is located at 400 North Main Street, Rich Square, North Carolina 27869. Some of Rich Square Manor's amenities include a beauty salon, a 24-hour café and shuttle services.
The Oaks At Pleasant Hill
The Oaks At Pleasant Hill is a luxury senior living facility in Pleasant Hill, North Carolina that provides an arts & crafts studio, weekly pill box, transportation and other excellent amenities. It supports a total of 66 assisted living units. The Oaks At Pleasant Hill is available to all Northampton county elderly residents in need of assisted living. The Oaks At Pleasant Hill is situated at 4427 Us Hwy 301 in Pleasant Hill, North Carolina.
Pine Forest Rest Home
Pine Forest Rest Home is a residential care facility in Woodland, North Carolina, situated at 3277 Hwy 35 in 27897 zip code that includes exercise programs, pet therapy, shuttle services and help with bathing and dressing. It provides Alzheimer's care and assisted living throughout Northampton county in North Carolina. Pine Forest Rest Home has a total of 24 assisted living apartments.
Rich Square Villa
Rich Square Villa is an elderly assisted housing facility in Rich Square, North Carolina that offers a computer room, regular health checkups, chef-prepared meals as well as other amenities. Rich Square Villa is located at 310 North Main Street, 27869 zip code and provides assisted living to all Northampton county seniors. It provides 38 senior living units in total.
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Get costs and availability for all assisted living facilities and communities in Gaston
Assisted Living Facilities in Gaston, NC. List of all of the best assisted living, senior living and elderly housing options in Gaston for 2022.


Last edited by bossexotic; 10-09-2012 at 06:24 PM.
Wow thats pretty! I am diggin it! Congrats!
Very good-looking snake! I love genetic stripe combos, epecially when they have nice striping like that!
Reptile Collection: Amazon Tree Boas, Ball Pythons, Boa Constrictors, Brazilian Rainbow Boas, Carpet Pythons, Chondro, Corn Snakes, King Snakes, Milk Snakes and a Retic. Too many morphs to list anymore!
What was the pairing Rebecca? And as for it being a first, check in with Corey Woods...he's done a lot with the het reds and g-stripes.
x2? Was there a Red Axanthic involved? If anyone has one, it's Corey.
Looks like a really Nice Pastel G Stripe.
Thank you for getting me in touch with Corey Woods. We've discussed and this is a awesome looking Pastel Genetic Stripe. High hopes to hit it next time!
Good looking Pastel GS!! Congrats!


In this thought-provoking address given to the College of Cardinals, Cardinal Walter Kasper—whom Pope Francis has called "a superb theologian"—discusses everything that is beautiful about the family, without avoiding its problems.
According to Cardinal Kasper, the family functions as a small "domestic church" that can be a privileged route to evangelization. He speaks of this "domestic church" in a broad sense that includes the nuclear family as well as communities, parish groups, and other organizations. Cardinal Kasper considers the rediscovery of the "gospel of the family," the family's place in the order of creation, and the vision of the family in the Book of Genesis and in God's plan. The cardinal then reflects on the structures of sin within the family, including family problems, tensions between men and women, and the suffering of women and mothers. Finally, he concludes with a discussion of the family in the Christian order of redemption, drawing from the Gospels and other New Testament texts about the family, such as St. Paul's Letter to the Ephesians. He discusses marriage as a sacrament and its sanctifying grace. Cardinal Kasper also mentions the issue of those who have remarried after divorce. He stresses the need to unite pastoral care, the words of Jesus, and an understanding of divine mercy in responding to these Catholics.
In the Verbum edition, this volume is enhanced by amazing functionality. Important terms link to dictionaries, encyclopedias, and a wealth of other resources in your digital library. Perform powerful searches to find exactly what you're looking for. Take the discussion with you using tablet and mobile apps. With your software, the most efficient and comprehensive research tools are in one place, so you get the most out of your study.
Take a look at the Walter Kasper Collection for more works by Cardinal Kasper.
Walter Kasper is a cardinal in the Roman Catholic Church and president emeritus of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity. He was born in 1933 in Brenz, Germany. He was ordained in 1957, and was a professor at Tübingen University for 25 years. In 1989, he became bishop of one of Germany's largest Catholic dioceses, Rottenburg-Stuttgart. While there, he visited every one of the 1,000 parishes in the diocese. He was elevated to cardinal in 2001, and cardinal-priest in 2011. He served as president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity from 2001 to 2010. He is the author of Mercy: Essence of the Gospel and the Key to Christian Life.


text:
Dennis Haustein (* 2. März 1990 in Potsdam) ist ein deutscher Politiker (CDU). Seit 2023 ist er Mitglied des Abgeordnetenhauses von Berlin.

Leben
Haustein wuchs in Dahlewitz auf und legte 2009 das Abitur am Fontane-Gymnasium in Rangsdorf ab. Bis Januar 2013 absolvierte er eine duale Ausbildung zum Personaldienstleistungskaufmann. Anschließend war er bis zu seinem Einzug ins Abgeordnetenhaus 2023 als Personaldisponent, als Niederlassungsleiter eines Unternehmens im sozialen Bereich und im Serviceteam der BASF tätig.

Politik
Haustein ist Mitglied der CDU. Von 2021 bis 2023 war er Mitglied der Bezirksverordnetenversammlung Berlin-Lichtenberg.

Haustein kandidierte bei der Wahl zum Abgeordnetenhaus von Berlin 2021 im Wahlkreis Lichtenberg 3, verfehlte jedoch den Einzug ins Abgeordnetenhaus. Bei der Wiederholungswahl 2023 konnte er das Direktmandat im Wahlkreis Lichtenberg 3 gewinnen und zog ins Abgeordnetenhaus ein.

Weblinks
 Dennis Haustein auf der Website des Abgeordnetenhauses von Berlin
 Dennis Haustein auf abgeordnetenwatch.de

Einzelnachweise

Mitglied des Abgeordnetenhauses von Berlin
CDU-Mitglied
Politiker (21. Jahrhundert)
Deutscher
DDR-Bürger
Geboren 1990
Mann

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Texas A&M University was named to lead a consortium of U.S. academic institutions and other partners for a new Center of Excellence (CoE) for Cross-Border Threat Screening and Supply Chain Defense (CBTS).
As a result, CBTS garnered a $3.85 million grant for its first operating year of a 10-year grant period, said officials at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T).
The CBTS CoE will work closely with DHS components such as U.S. Customs and Border Protection to research and develop solutions to counter known and unknown biological threats to the nation's people, agriculture, and economy.
As lead institution, Texas A&M University will spearhead a consortium of academic, industry, government, and laboratory partners throughout the country to help fulfill S&T's commitment to provide continuous access to high-quality, university-led research and education resources to the Department's Components and the broader homeland security enterprise.
CBTS' research portfolio will focus on three major topic areas: Technologies detecting biological threats moving through global supply chains, data integration and analytics to support threat detection, and novel methods to minimize risks to DHS operations.


text:
Category: Brotherly Love
Brotherly Love, Love, Poetry
Promise Me, Tomorrow's Dead Man
Words for all the tender seeds who in their winter do not yet see they are to bloom as a fragrant rose.
I did not say your poetry was great,
That it roared and struck,
Plunging fangs into my neck.
Nor did I say it screamed
As it died, a defenseless child.
No, you misunderstood me, you see,
For I am honest and say
I am no competent critic of poetry.
But I have eyes that see deep,
Deep into people and their talents.
Eyes that see so deep
They see beyond tomorrow,
Can spot a rabbit
Before it becomes a bear,
Spot it like an eagle
From on high.
And I can stoop on talent so fast
My triumphant screams of discovery
Are carried from today
To be heard even years
Latter in your future,
Long after I have passed,
As by then your memories.
No, I said you
Were great.
You'll still need luck,
And you'll still need practice.
Or you will bleed out before your time.
So promise me now,
Promise tomorrow's dead man:
You will not fail my vision,
You will not betray it, but you,
You will practice with passion
And tenacity until you know
How to rip luck from the clouds
And make it lash rain and strike lighting
To revive and rebith people's souls.
Promise me, tomorrow's dead man.
Agape, Altruism, Art, Authenticity, Awe, Beauty, Being True To Yourself, Brotherly Love, Children, Community, Creativity, Dance, Education, Emotions, Enlightenment, Erotic Dance, Erotic Love, Ethics, Extended Family, Fairness, Family, Free Spirit, Freedom, Freedom and Liberty, Friends, Fun, Giving, Happiness, Honesty, Horniness, Human Nature, Humanism, Humanities, Ideas, Love, Lovers, Loyalty, Mature Love, Morality, Mysticism, Nature, New Love, Parental Love, Passion, Peace, People, Philos, Redemption, Romantic Love, Science, Self-determination, Self-Integration, Self-Knowledge, Self-Realization, Sense of Relatedness, Sex, Sexuality, Society, Spirituality, Talents and Skills, Transformative Experience, Unconditional Love, Vacilando, Wisdom
The Importance of Redemption
I sometimes get the impression that plenty of us tackle the big ideas in life almost the day we escape our cribs for the first time.
"Gurk! Life is mine to seize! I see it clearly now. I shall be my own hero. Gerp!" Or, "Poppels! But our capacity to love is what most defines us as moral. Twurks! What's this? Why, it must be what what ma-ma calls, 'poo'. And look! It's endlessly shape-able!"
Continue reading "The Importance of Redemption" →
Allies, Brotherly Love, Capitalism, Citizenship, Community, Competition, Consumerism, Cultural Traits, Culture, Fairness, Free Market Capitalism, Friends, From Around the Net, Giving, Human Nature, Life, Morality, Obligations to Society, Philos, Society, Values
Never Break the Circle
Years ago, there was Mike,
A Native American man who belonged
To the people of a Southwest nation,
And who was trying to teach his son
The people's traditional values.
Can you imagine how tough that was?
Maybe the values are the same
But the world is not.
No, it's not the same at all.
But Mike was determined,
Still made the effort.
Each weekend he drove his boy
Eight hundred miles South
To the villages where
He could play with his cousins,
Talk with his grandparents,
Learn from the whole village
How to walk with one foot on the earth,
And with the other foot firmly planted
In the spirit world.
His son made Mike proud.
Once the whole community
Gathered to share candy —
I think Mike called it,
"Halloween, Hopi style."
Forming a circle of young and old,
The people tossed the candies around
For several minutes, catching and tossing
Back the candies, the people shared
A good thing in life, and stopped
Only when everyone had something sweet.
"Cooperation", Mike told me,
"It's how the people live.
Not like what he learns in school.
There it's fight for yourself,
Live for your close kin alone,
And screw all the rest."
Against the Next War, Allies, Authoritarianism, Bad Ideas, Brotherly Love, Capitalism, Class War, Community, Compassion, Culture, Democracy, Free Market Capitalism, Free Spirit, Freedom, Freedom and Liberty, Friends, Giving, Human Nature, Humanism, Idealism, Ideologies, International Relations, Internet, Liars Lies and Lying, Life, Love, Obligations to Society, Peace, Philos, Political Ideologies, Violence, Wisdom
Against the Next War
The internet has made it now
Bound to happen
Tomorrow or the year after.
Bound to happen.
Up to you.
The politicians and the preachers,
The two dogs of the capitalist class,
Will once again want a war,
Just as they always do.
War to them is a gift, you see,
It's not personal, it's not their blood.
But war makes some folks rich
And you will never change that,
You will never change that,
Though the dogs will bark it's not so.
A war of aggression
Against some people somewhere,
Most likely brown,
Most likely poor,
Most likely weak,
Most likely no real threat.
War for the sake of the banks
And for the merchants of death.
War for the sake of the pulpit,
And for the corridors of power.
But not a war for the sake
Of you and of me. We don't count.
Our side is the one side
That has never counted.
That's how war goes, it's always been so
And it's bound to happen again,
Soon happen again.
This is your world,
How it really is —
The world you think,
The world you were taught,
The gods want you to live in and love
Them more than you love each other.
In your world are great nations:
Nations the greatest in history,
Nations with the power of suns,
A thousands suns,
To do good, make truths come true
For even the poor man, the poor woman,
The poor child. Make truths come true.
But these nations,
Nations great and greatest,
Act only like whores,
Filthy whores,
Fucking folks raw,
Spreading their diseases,
Recruiting new girls,
Ever younger girls
To fuck you, to fuck all of you,
To fuck everyone.
This is your world
Your world without end.
But now someday you see
Someday now for once it will happen
For once it will stop
Stop the day they give a war
You rise up, join hands
By the millions, possibly billions,
Linked together by the net
And by love, and by common sense.
At last,
At last you will rise, singing
"At last my spirit shall have water!
At last my cries shall be heard!
At last my thirst shall be slaked!"
Yes, you will rise up and you will say
In a voice thunderous and magnified
By the whole world joining in,
Say, "Those people are our friends,
We chat with them by day and by night.
We know their hopes, we know their dreams,
We know their troubles, we know their fears.
We know them, we know their names.
"Jane and Matthias. Terese and Sindhuja.
Mark, Parikhitdutta, and Min.
We even marry them now and then —
They shall not this time be murdered.
"You will not touch them,
Our brothers, our friends;
This once the bombs won't fall.
You politicians and preachers,
You capitalists and bankers all —
Yet you know it will ever be a dream
Just a dream, just a mere dream.
It will ever be a dream
If you, if we, keep on dividing,
Never uniting, never joining,
But instead just staying, just keeping,
To my echo chamber or to yours.
So let's come together
Let's come together,
Let's come together.
Before the nukes fall,
Before the demons fall.
Before we die in the winter,
And we come together
Never once come together at all.
Please seriously consider spreading this poem — spreading it to your site, to the social media sites — in an effort to make it go viral. We need it viral well before the next war, we need folks mulling over the idea of rebelling against the violence. Spread this poem and then you too write — write about the ideas presented in the poem. For you, for your brothers and for your sisters, for your children after you — stop the wars of aggression!
Please Note: Matthias has responded by dedicating his poem, Pooling Strength, to this cause.
Bruce has reposted the poem on "The Life and Times of Bruce Genencser".
Kat has responded by posting this article: I Don't Know Anything About War.
Abuse, Agape, Alienation, Altruism, Authenticity, Being True To Yourself, Brotherly Love, Christ, Christianity, Coffee Shop Folks, Coffee Shop Stories, Compassion, Cultural Traits, Culture, Ethics, Fairness, Free Spirit, Goals, God, God(s), Happiness, Human Nature, Idealism, Joe, Learning, Life, Love, Meaning, Memes, Morality, Morals, People, Philos, Physical Abuse, Purpose, Quality of Life, Relationships, Religion, Religious Ideologies, Self, Self Identity, Self Image, Talents and Skills, Values, Yahweh
There are no Weeds
April 30, 2017 April 30, 2017 Paul Sunstone
Long ago, the Coffee Shop was a hang out for many mildly disaffected youths. They were the kids who didn't fit in too well, who weren't always doing what was expected of them, who often had talents no one had noticed or encouraged, or who were simply marching to the beat of their own drummer.
Kyle, for instance, was the son of a wealthy father, but he wanted to make his own way in the world. So he had enlisted in the Army to earn money for college rather than allow his father to pay for his education. He was passionate about poetry and wanted to teach English.
Melanie was from a much poorer family than Kyle, and her only academic interests were mathematics. She paid for the community college by working as an erotic dancer.
Catherine was another mathematician, and she worried about her social skills. She graduated early from high school then stayed in town to mature for a year, rather than head straight to college.
Erin was 15 when she left her parent's house to sleep on friend's couches. She did her homework by streetlight for a while. Then she met Jim, a year or two older, who convinced her school was for losers, and life lay in studying the Kabbalah.
Jody was a bit older than most, and a prostitute fascinated with the Third Reich and Phoenician glassware. She'd scored high on the aptitude tests, but drugs, along with being raised in an abusive home, were too much for her, and she left unpursued her dream of becoming an historian.
Luke was raised in North Africa and in British boarding schools before his executive father transferred to Colorado. He planned to leave town soon to study psychology, for he wanted to heal minds. In the meantime, he was both too well educated and too brilliant for his high school classes. So, like many other eccentrics, he found his way to the Coffee Shop.
In the mornings, the Shop was full of business people; by midday it held all ages and walks of life; and by evening it was the kids. One slow Tuesday night I spent a half hour or 45 minutes carefully counting the crowd. My count was nearly 200, most of them people I'd met, most of them kids, most of them misfits.
If anyone loved them all, it was Joe. He seemed to have a knack for it.
A month or so after we met, Joe invited me to go with him and a couple to Valley View Hot Springs. It was the way he phrased the invitation that surprised me. "We need a chaperon", he said, "There might be trouble. You've got to say, 'Yes'."
I couldn't tell at first how serious he was about trouble. Joe was 18 that year, strong, and could handle himself. Besides, he knew Valley View was more peaceful than most any other place in Colorado. He'd been going there with his family since he was five or six. What kind of trouble did he anticipate?
The trouble was jealousy, Joe explained. He'd only recently befriended the couple, and he had not caught on to the guy's jealousy of him. Thinking everything was cool, he decided to share with them the most spiritual place he knew of. The girl was so enthusiastic to go to Valley View that the guy feigned agreement, and so Joe and the couple had made plans. But in the week between making plans and their realization, Joe was shocked when the girl pointed out to him her boyfriend's jealousy. That's when Joe got the notion my presence might somehow defuse the situation.
In the years I knew him, Joe almost never allowed himself to act on any jealously he himself might feel, and I think that might have been because jealousy excludes folks rather than includes them. Joe was all about including people. Looking back, it seems almost inevitable Joe would fail to see the boyfriend's jealousy until it was pointed out to him.
So, the four of us took a day trip to Valley View. The couple had brought swimsuits, but the guy strangely refused to join his girlfriend, Joe and I in the hot springs. Instead, he said he wanted to look for elk among the pines and scrub oak, and wandered off. I left Joe and the girl talking at one end of the pool, and spent most of the time watching dust devils swirl across the valley below.
It was by no means a bad trip, but I think it was the worse Joe and I ever managed to take to Valley View. It seemed none of us got into the spirit of the place. We left just as divided as we'd arrived. A few days later, Joe and I discussed it. After noting how argumentative the guy became on the trip home, Joe said he felt the girl had spent the afternoon at the pool in some kind of bubble; unresponsive to the beauty all around her; unable to connect with nature; indifferent even to the wind through the ponderosa. "We might as well have gone to the mall", he grinned.
Joe had been raised a Christian, but a year or two after the trip he committed himself to it. His inspiration was the New Testament, rather than the Old; the life of Jesus, rather than the Ten Commandments. Consequently, his first step was to simplify his life. He gave away his inessential possessions and moved from his parent's house to a shack. Mostly, though, he emulated Jesus and the Disciples in his heart and mind. It became clear the appeal of Christianity to him was its doctrine of universal love — he was, he told me, indifferent to heaven and hell. Instead, salvation, for Joe, was to learn how to love the world as Christ had.
His experiment with Christianity lasted a couple of years. When I asked him why he was no longer a Christian, he told me he still believed in God, and perhaps even that Jesus was Christ, but he could not have faith in them so long as people were sent to hell.
Joe worked at a greenhouse. One day, Joe spoke of his growing distaste for weeding. "They may be weeds, Paul, but they didn't ask to be born where they're not wanted. It feels terrible to kill them." Some part of me agreed with Joe — at least with his notion that all living things have value — but I still felt weeding in a greenhouse was justified by its necessity. I thought to myself he'd soon enough see that necessity and reconcile himself to killing weeds.
A day later, however, Joe found a partial solution. He began transplanting the weeds. At least he began transplanting the larger ones. He did it on his own time, after work, because he didn't think it was fair to charge his boss for the extra time it took. There was a large, bare mound of soil out back of the greenhouse and he was transplanting the weeds to the far side of it, where — he hoped — they would thrive.
I was a bit taken aback. On the one hand, it ranked among the craziest things I'd heard of a friend doing in some time. But on the other hand, looked at a little more rationally, it wasn't self-destructive, it was harmless to others, and it preserved life. I didn't think Joe's project would last — I thought he'd grow tired of it — but I rather admired him for asserting his good convictions in a world where there sometimes seemed to be too few good convictions.
Two months passed before Joe brought the subject up again. My first reaction was surprise he was still transplanting weeds. But then he explained his boss had found him out. Of course, he expected to be fired. Yet, after he'd told her everything, she'd only laughed and smiled, and told him he was a good worker, that she loved him, and that she would find other work than weeding for him to do.
Something happened one day to make me see symbolic meaning in Joe's actions. It began when Laura called to ask if she could come over and take a shower. She was a homeless kid who kept a few items of clothing at my place and sometimes dropped by for a shower or a meal. She was heavily into drugs, and I never invited her to stay too long, because I didn't want my things to start disappearing.
That evening, I got her fed and her feet massaged, and then sent her off to the shower. She told me she'd been partying, and that after my place, she wanted to go back and party some more. It wasn't long, though, before she'd fallen asleep on the couch. I thought about her while she slept.
Laura was nineteen, and she hadn't a regular home since she was thirteen. She'd never met her father, a man who left before she was born. At thirteen, she'd gotten into a fight with her mother's boyfriend. He swung a chair at her. A leg caught her in the belly and ripped a seven inch wound. She ran from the house and never returned.
The wound didn't get sewn up, and the scar was huge. I'd run my fingers along it once, and somehow the memory of that furrowed, lumpy scar tissue was still stuck in my fingertips. When I thought of Laura, I always thought of that scar. And that's what I was thinking of when Joe's words came back to me: "They may be weeds, but they didn't ask to be born where they're not wanted." It was somewhat like a minor epiphany: Joe would understand the tragedy of Laura better than anyone — if for no other reason than Joe had a knack for a certain kind of love.
There is more than one kind of love in this world. The kind Joe was most interested in is inclusive. That kind of love does not seek to jealously wall off a little private garden for itself. It is neither possessive nor jealous, as was the guy at Valley View. Nor does it demand to be loved in return — for a love that wants love in return must exclude some from being loved. It was the promise of that inclusive kind of love that attracted Joe to Christianity. It was the realization that some are excluded from God's love that caused Joe to lose his faith.
I believe it's rare for most of us — especially when we are young — to think of love as an excellence. That is, as a thing one might learn how to do to the best of his or her ability. Instead, we think of love as something requiring little or no talent, practice, or skill. We suppose it comes natural to us, and so we spend our time waiting for it without doing much to help it come about.
Every kid at the Coffee Shop had his or her own mix of talents and skills, and many of the kids had an excellence. Kyle, for instance, was a gifted poet. Melanie and Catherine excelled at mathematics. And Luke was a born psychologist. But I think Joe's excellence was his ability to love.
Sometime ago, Joe moved up into the mountains, where he met a woman and settled in with her. He lives up there now, in a small mountain town.
Al, Attila, Brotherly Love, Coffee Shop Folks, Coffee Shop Stories, Community, Cultural Traits, Culture, Education, Ethics, Friends, Giving, Human Nature, Learning, Life, Logic, Meaning, Morals, Obligations to Society, People, Quality of Life, Relationships, Religion, Society, Teaching, Values
The Gifts of AL Remington
It was difficult to beat Al. I think I only did it once. Or, maybe, I didn't. Maybe I just came close. He was strongest in the endgame.
If you let him get that far — and it was hard not to — he had you beat.
Al said he learned chess when he was in the army, stationed in Greenland, with nothing else to do but his job and learn chess. By the time I met him, he was in his 60s, still enthusiastic about the game, and the man to beat at the Coffee Shop. He was a gentle man, reserved, modest, but exuding an air of dignity and confidence, much like a good father or grandfather. In his 60s, he drove a dark blue Cadillac on wet days and rode a Harley when the sun was out.
One day I discovered the Coffee Shop didn't purchase the chess sets it had on hand. It was Al who did that. He would search garage sales for abandoned sets, buy them, and bring them to the Shop. He had to do that over and over again because people would loose pieces. But he didn't mind. It was his hobby.
I think it must have been Al who got "everyone" — at least a third of the regular customers — playing chess. There were always two or three games going back then. Half the regular customers were kids and most of the kids were taught the game by Al. That is, someone else would usually teach them the basic moves — then Al would teach them the art.
Not just the art of chess, but other things too. He taught kids how to win graciously, how to loose without animosity, how to be fair (he'd spot the less skilled players a piece or two), and even how to keep a poker face. He never lost his temper, he was always encouraging, and he taught values. For instance: There wasn't a kid at the Coffee Shop Al disdained to play, nor one he disrespected.
Several of the adults who hung out at the Shop were uncertain characters, but not Al. One man, Tim, was only there to proselytize the kids for Christ and had no other point in befriending them. Another man, Jeff, in his mid-thirties, was obsessed with getting laid by teens. A third man, who called himself Attila, dressed immaculately, neatly trimmed his white beard, and pretended to have wealth and connections. He would come every day to the Shop with his son, who he'd named Khan, and who was 15 and had lost his spirit. Attila would speak about Khan as if Khan wasn't present and sitting right next to him: I've never in my life heard a more verbally abusive father. Unlike those characters, Al cared for the kids.
Al never told you he liked kids, but he did. He'd surely raised enough of them: Four biological children, two or three adopted children, and a number of foster children. I figure teaching them chess was Al's way of raising up the Coffee Shop kids. He spoke to me several times of his belief that playing chess developed good, solid thinking skills. But he never quite said he considered himself on a mission to help the Coffee Shop kids. Saying something like that wasn't Al's style.
Al died at his home a couple years ago at age 72. I read his obituary to discover he was a minister. He hadn't spoken of that; had never proselytized me; nor — so far as I know — had he proselytized any of the kids. I guess that wasn't his style, either. Instead, he just served others.
Nowadays, I drop by the Coffee Shop once or twice a month. The kids Al and I knew have grown up and moved on. No one today plays chess. The adults sit with adults and the kids sit with kids. Maybe that's the way people feel it should be.
I was reminded of Al earlier today by a comment Ordinary Girl left on another post. She mentioned how adults stay away from kids for fear of being thought creepy. That got me to thinking of how Al, born in 1933, belonged to another generation — one that had a stronger sense of community and wasn't so set against mixing the ages. Yet, I wonder how kids are supposed to grow up with few adults in their lives?
Are they supposed these days to learn what they need to be a functional adult from Hollywood, the entertainment industry, and advertising? It seems to me we too often leave kids these days to be raised by the media.
Somethings we can only learn from another person. Things we cannot learn from a book, a movie, the television, popular music, or a video game. Somethings we must learn through our interactions with others. And some of those things that can only be learned through our interactions with others are very important. I discovered when I hung out with teens that many teens had what struck me then as a thirst to hang out with adults. I suspect they needed encouragement, insight into themselves, support, and affirmation, among other things. Those are not things we easily get from a book or movie.
Yet, it's not a one-way street. I believe there can be tremendous benefits for an adult to having kids in his or her life. For one thing, watching a new generation grow up, seeing it go through the same things you once went through, can give you an invaluable perspective on life and a profound acceptance of your own aging.
I've come to believe any society which separates the generations will sooner or later pay a price for it. It even seems to me unnatural. I doubt any previous society has headed as far in that direction as ours. And, to me, it is all part of the larger break down of genuine community. It seems our societies are becoming increasingly fragmented, and I am unsure where that will eventually leave us. I rather hope Al's generation is not the last to mix ages.
Note: Al was a grand- or great grandnephew of Frederic Remington, the painter.
Brotherly Love, Community, Cultural Change, Culture, Friends, Goals, Human Nature, Internet, Life, Love, People, Relationships, Science
Just How Strong are Internet Friendships?
March 6, 2017 Paul Sunstone
It seems to me, the internet has made it easy to meet people who are fundamentally like us. Nowadays, I myself expect it to happen once or twice a month — which is more frequent than the same thing happening offline.
Yet, what impresses me most about meeting people online who are fundamentally like me isn't how often it happens, but with whom it happens. I have been nearly astonished to discover again and again how much someone from a background, society, or culture very different from my own can feel almost like kin to me.
Indeed, it makes me wonder just how important background, cultural, and social differences are. Before the net, I saw such differences as crucially important; now, I'm not so sure. Maybe how well our most basic personalities mesh with each other can be more important to the strength of our friendships than all the financial, social, political, religious, philosophical, national, age, ethnic, gender, and other differences that would otherwise divide us.
I'm still very much working out an answer to that question. I would like to believe that friendship consistently trumps everything else, but I know that sometimes it doesn't. For one thing, there are too many recorded instances of friends murdering each other for political, religious, or other such differences for it to be true that friendships always trump those differences. Sometimes they do, but they don't always.
Of course, the mere fact your personality meshes well with someone else's personality in no way guarantees you two will become friends. So far as I've been told, a good personality mesh is less important to the strength of the friendship bond than at least two other factors.
Working together towards a goal is one of those factors. People tend to bond when they do that well. And if they do it well, then the more they do it, the more bonded they become.
Unfortunately, the internet provides comparatively limited opportunities to work together. Sure, you can do somethings together, but not as many things as you can with someone offline. That's important because working together towards a goal is — at least according to the science I've read — a top factor in friends bonding with each other. It's arguable that the limits the net imposes on this type of bonding reduce the strength of internet friendships.
The other factor is mutual self-disclosure. People who voluntarily and more or less comfortably disclose or reveal themselves to each other tend to bond much more strongly than those who don't. In fact, it seems very difficult to form a strong bond without at least some significant measure of mutual self-disclosure.
It's likely that the internet substantially helps to facilitate self-disclosure. There's a good reason Catholics build confessionals. It's much easier to talk freely and honestly about yourself when you have the anonymity that can be — and sometimes is — provided by the confessional. Even better than a confessional, the net can provide anonymity to anyone who wants it. In fact, I've noticed it is so common these days to "confess all" over the internet that I sometimes think of the net as "The Great Confessional of Our Times".
But even people who prefer to fully disclose their real names, locations, and other identifying information are nowadays apt to reveal all sorts of other personal stuff about themselves over the net. Whatever it is about the net that makes so many people feel safe to disclose so very much about themselves, anonymity does not seem to be the key factor causing it.
Whatever the cause(s) of it, it seems probable that so much self-disclosure provides comparatively many opportunities for people to bond in friendship. Moreover, I think those bonds are very likely to be just as profound in many instances as any offline bonds that are predominantly based on mutual self-disclosure.
Considering all of the above, I think a good case can be made for the notion that internet friendships are capable of becoming quite strong, perhaps just as strong as offline friendships. The opportunities the net provides for working together towards a goal — although comparatively limited — combined with the opportunities it offers for mutual self-disclosure would seem to be two most crucially important factors in making such strong bonds possible. Of course, there are other factors that go into forming strong friendships, but those two seem to be the top factors.
Furthermore, I think that, if two people's personalities fundamentally mesh well, they might even be able to form a strong bond between them in spite of being divided by many differences in such things as their age, gender, ethnicity, religiosity, politics, nationality, and so forth. That would seem to be significant here because the net easily brings together very diverse people.
But none of that addresses the odds or probability of such strong friendships happening. Are strong internet friendships less likely, as likely, or more likely to come about than strong offline friendships? To me, that's an interesting question, but one that I do not have an answer to. What do you think, though?
And what do you think about the overall strength of internet friendships?
Altruism, Brotherly Love, Christianity, Compassion, Ethics, Fantasy Based Community, Fundamentalism, Giving, Judeo-Christian Tradition, Kindness, Liars Lies and Lying, Morals, News and Current Events, Obligations to Society, Politicians and Scoundrels, Reality Based Community, Religion, Society, Values, Village Idiots
Is it Moral to Take Advantage of an Idiot?
May 22, 2011 May 22, 2011 Paul Sunstone
Is it moral to take advantage of the village idiot?
Suppose on Friday, your local village idiot signed over the deed to his house to you, thinking he was going to be raptured yesterday (Saturday, May 21, 2011), would you now be under any moral obligation to return his house to him?
Should banks forgive the credit card debts your local village idiot racked up in anticipation of his not having to pay them off?
In general, to what extent should politicians, preachers, pundits, corporations, neighbors, or society as a whole be allowed to exploit the world's village idiots?
Should the world's village idiots now be allowed to sue Harold Camping for damages to them?
Agape, Brotherly Love, Erotic Love, Health, Infatuation, Love, Mature Love, Mental and Emotional Health, New Love, Parental Love, Philos, Romantic Love, Society
Love is Subversive of More than Just the Social Order
January 3, 2011 January 3, 2011 Paul Sunstone
Love is subversive. Recently, Sagarika Ghose wrote eloquently on her blog, Bloody Mary, that "…in our country [India] love has always been a socially revolutionary force destroying taboos of caste, class and religion." She is by no means the first to notice that peculiar fact about love.
When the notion of romantic love entered Western Culture around 1200 C.E., the Catholic Church adamantly opposed it on the grounds that love was subversive of the medieval social order. And today, in India, reactionary groups like the Sri Ram Sena are just as set against love as was once the Catholic Church, and for pretty much the same reasons.
Those who think the established social order is usually more important than the needs of the individuals who make up society quite often support artificial limits on love. They try to bind the hearts of men and women, legislating such things as, "You can love someone of your own race, but not someone of another race", or "You can love someone of another gender, but not someone of your own gender", or "You can love someone of your own religion, but not someone of another religion." But such rules are not laws of the heart.
Yet, as many of us know, love is subversive of much more than the social order. Our love for someone can, in the right circumstances, lead us to question the whole range of our core values and beliefs. It can lead us to question who we are, and to even inquire into the very nature of the self. If water can be called the universal solvent of the chemical world, love can be called the universal solvent of the psychological world.
It is love, perhaps more than anything else in this world, that offers us rebirth. Human nature is such that, without periodic rebirth, we stagnate and psychologically die: As Dylan sang, "He's not busy being born is busy dying". Those who fear too much the subversive powers of love, often wind up stagnating.
(This post is a reprint and slight elaboration on a post from two years ago.)
Agape, Altruism, Attachment, Authenticity, Beauty, Belief, Brotherly Love, Compassion, Consciousness, Delusion, Enlightenment, Erotic Love, Freedom, Giving, Happiness, Health, Honesty, Horniness, Infatuation, Intellectual Honesty, Introspection, Kindness, Liars Lies and Lying, Love, Lust, Mature Love, Meditation, Mysticism, New Love, Obligations to Society, Observation, Parental Love, Philos, Pleasure, Quality of Life, Relationships, Religion, Romantic Love, Self, Self-Integration, Sexuality, Sexualization, Society, Spirituality, Transformative Experience, Ugliness, Values, Wisdom
Jiddu Krishnamurti "On Love"
November 2, 2010 November 2, 2010 Paul Sunstone
Jiddu Krishnamurti wrote about love with passionate urgency, with love and grace, and with unflinching integrity and insight.
Even merely reading his words, even now when his words are only frozen in books, you might still feel you are being swept into a current much stronger than you.
A current that possesses the power — if only you could allow it — to thrust you up upon some foreign shore, intensely alive with love, a complete stranger to your petty self.
Perhaps someone else has matched Krishnamurti by now, but I do not know who that would be.
Jiddu Krishnamurti "On Love".
Abuse, Agape, Brotherly Love, God(s), Love, Philos, Physical Abuse, Prostitution, Quality of Life, Relationships, Sexual Abuse, Sexuality, Sexualization
"Find Your Way Home": Surviving Prostitution
There is no country on earth in which women are not prostituted, and in many — perhaps most — countries, prostitutes are severely stigmatized. Stereotypically, these women are frequently seen as trash. Yet, bigotry is only the first — and in some ways the least — of the problems faced by prostitutes.
Worldwide, the leading causes of women and girls entering into prostitution are most likely poverty and lack of economic opportunities compounded by a lack of education. And those factors also seem to play a role in why American women enter into prostitution:
Results of a recent study of women in Toledo involved in prostitution revealed that 81% hadn't earned a high school diploma. Forty-eight percent, nearly half the women interviewed, had no previous work history. All of the women were eligible for welfare benefits and all came from families where their parents lived in poverty or fluctuated from poverty to working class throughout their childhood. None of the women were currently married, nor did any of the women who were parents consistently collect child support for the children they were attempting to raise. Therefore, street prostitution is largely representative of the poor, single, and less educated. With very few skills, a limited education, and minimal, if any, work experience, these women saw prostitution as a way to succeed in otherwise blocked entrances to conventional opportunities.
Yet, poverty, lack of opportunities, and lack of education are not the entire American story.
Numerous studies have found that over half of the women and girls working as prostitutes in America have a history of childhood physical and sexual abuse. In one study, for instance, 57% percent of the prostitutes interviewed reported childhood sexual abuse, by an average of three perpetrators. Thus, it seems plausible there might be a causal link between abusing a child and her later becoming a prostitute.
Other factors — such as substance abuse — also seem to play a part in why women and girls enter into prostitution in America:
Some prostitutes' explanation for becoming involved in prostitution include "having a history of sexual abuse, having grown up without love from the significant adults in their lives, being enticed by a male of female friend or by peer pressure from a group of friends, and needing money. Those who used drugs prior to their involvement in prostitution activities mention their addiction as a major reason for trading sex for money or drugs."
So it would seem the typical American prostitute comes from a fairly hellish background. That might go far to explain why one study found that some prostitutes — specifically, those who work in bordellos or as outcall girls — actually gain self-esteem after entering into prostitution. If you are coming from hell, a bordello might seem a good place to be. However, no studies suggest working on the street is a good place to be.
Precise statistics on how many women in America walk the streets cannot be found. The National Task Force on Prostitution suggests that over one million women have worked as prostitutes. But that figure — which is merely an estimate — includes both women who walk the streets and women who work other venues, such as massage parlors or bordellos.
To complicate matters, the percent of prostitutes who walk the streets varies from city to city. Where the police and courts have suppressed bordellos, massage parlors, outcall services, and other venues, the ratio of street walkers to all prostitutes can be as high as one in two.
In at least one study, 88% of street walkers wanted to leave prostitution — and with good reason:
Prostituted women have long been considered "fair game" for sexual harassment, rape, gang-rape, "kinky" sex, robbery, and beatings….A 1991 study by the Council for Prostitution Alternatives, in Portland, Oregon, documented that 78 percent of 55 prostituted women reported being raped an average of 16 times annually by their pimps and 33 times a year by johns. Twelve rape complaints were made in the criminal justice system and neither pimps nor johns were ever convicted. These prostitutes also reported being "horribly beaten" by their pimps an average of 58 times a year. The frequency of beatings…by johns ranged from I to 400 times a year. Legal action was pursued in 13 cases, resulting in 2 convictions for "aggravated assault."
Even if some folks find that working in a bordello or as an outcall girl increases their self-esteem, that surely cannot be true of most people who walk the streets. For one thing, walking the streets correlates very highly with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), and women who walk the streets may display the same symptoms displayed by some returning combat veterans.
All of the above, if taken together, might lead one to believe life is somewhat hard on prostitutes, especially street walkers. Some years ago, after first coming to Colorado, I was befriended by a young woman, Jennifer, whose life struck me as rather hard-knock. The first time Jennifer was raped, she was six years old. At eight, she was placed in a foster home where three men — including her foster-dad — repeatedly raped and beat her over the course of a year. At 11, she witnessed her older brother shot in the head by accident. And, as she once put it to me without any sense of irony in her voice, "after that, things got tough."
Jennifer, when I met her, had two young children, few job skills, and was divorced. I hired her for a low paying job — which was the only job I had available to offer her — but she quickly proved unable to cope with the duties and quit. Nevertheless, we stayed in touch for a while, and I learned quite a bit about her. The more I learned, the more I came to admire her. She was a survivor. She'd been through just about everything from drug dependency to a violently abusive boyfriend and, yet, she was a pretty upbeat person. She did not consider herself bad off because she knew people who had it worse. As she said to me one time, "I've been lucky because I've never had to whore."
I didn't figure out how to really help Jennifer, or figure out how to help anyone who, like her, has had an especially hard-knock life. Fortunately, there are people who do know how to help. A few weeks ago, I was contacted by one of them. Carolyn emailed me about a book written by a group of former street walkers who now live together in a communal home they call "Magdalene". It seems Magdalene is both a community and a two-year residential recovery program located in Nashville. Women are brought in off the streets and over the course of a couple years given the support, love, and skills they need to escape from prostitution.
Magdalene is supported both by private contributions and through the work of Thistle Farms, which is a non-profit bath and body-care business run by the women themselves. They just began a blog that you can check out here.
The book Carolyn wanted to interest me in is called, Find Your Way Home: Words from the Street, Wisdom from the Heart. It's a short book of about 120 pages, and the prose and layout make it easy to read. It is also the kind of book I hardly ever read. That is, a book intended to inspire. So, I really don't know much to compare it with.
Almost the only other inspirational book I've read is a work by James Dobson — and Find Your Way Home is far superior to Dobson's book. Dobson's book was intended to push a political and social agenda under the guise of advising and inspiring people. Find Your Way Home, on the other hand, is not intended to hoodwink its audience or make fools of them. Nor is it censorious and condemning like Dobson's book. Instead, it is very much accepting and non-judgmental. And, last, it does not seek to motivate the reader through fear, like Dobson's book. Instead, this book asks for your empathy and compassion. For those and other reasons, Find Your Way Home strikes me as a remarkably better book than the only other inspirational book I can recall reading.
Having said that, I found the book fascinating for the insights it provided into the Magdalene community. Judging from the book, the community seems founded on two pillars very important to it: God and love.
The god, in this case, does not seem to be the petty — and perhaps dead — god of fundamentalism, but a somewhat greater god, one given to a radical acceptance and love for her creatures. And the women of Magdalene seem to practice what their god preaches:
I have not been a perfect person in Magdalene. After a relapse I was welcomed back into the Magdalene circle. I was not as forgiving to myself as others were to me. People accepted me without judgment and it overwhelmed me. It was the first time in my life I felt unconditional love. All that is expected of me is to do what is right for me. Sisterhood is welcoming no matter what (p.93).
The book is full of similar testaments to the love the women have for each other. It might seem the community is well named, then, after Mary Magdalene who is the woman once identified by the Catholic Church as a prostitute, and by a Gnostic gospel as the favorite and most beloved disciple of Jesus.
All in all, I think Find Your Way Home will deeply interest and inspire anyone wishing to help someone who's had an exceptionally hard-knock life. I'm personally glad I read it.


DepartsTour starts at the statue at Praça Luís de Camões (square), at Chiado / Bairro Alto.
ReturnsTour ends around 10.30 PM. Customers can choose whether they remain at the final stop / restaurant or the guide will walk them to a taxi stop or other mean of transportation.
Sailors, fishermen and sea merchants, often away from home, were the pioneers of this musical genre, and would sing the beautiful and melancholic music with a feeling of saudade, an emotion of longing or homesickness for their distant loved ones. Currently, Fado is considered part of UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage. It is more than just a genre, it is a way of feeling and the sung expression of the Portuguese soul. You will pass by historical neighborhoods such as Bairro Alto, Alfama and Mouraria, to learn more about the traditional aspects of life, so you can get a feel of the city like a true local, a 'Lisboeta'! Along the tour you will try a variety of food samples and wines and get to see real live performances from 'fadistas' alongside the traditional sound of the Portuguese guitar. We'll start in Bairro Alto, one of the most traditional areas to enjoy Fado in Lisbon. Here you'll have some food samples and a glampse on the Fado music gender. Afterwards, we'll walk towards downtown and go through the Mouraria, one of the most traditional districts in Lisbon, where according to the traditions, the first lady who sang the Fado for the first time was born: Severa. Feel the Mozarabian district and it's narrow and full of charm streets. Here you'll have a cultural insight about this music gender and some more food and drink samplings. We'll finish this tour with a beautiful walking around the castle hill towards Alfama, where we'll finish the tour and have a diversified food sampling along with a Fado Show. You'll feel like a true Lisboeta. Note: Starting from 1st March 2019 this activity will become a walking tour. It will not include a full-course dinner but a multiple sampling of traditional finger food and local delicacies like "Pataniscas". It also includes a live performance in two different Fado houses.


text:
PROJECT SCOPE: Trenchless water main replacement using pipe bursting
APPLICATION: 1600 linear feet of 14-inch high-density polyethylene (HDPE) pipe replaced a leaky 12-inch ductile iron water main prone to breaks
PROJECT DATES: Fall of 2006
KEY CONTACTS: William Erskine, Mechanical Engineer, Lansing Board of Water and Light Troy Freed, utility contractor, Midwest Trenchless Services, Grant, MI
Trenchless water main replacement — a first in the capital of Michigan
Pipe bursting didn't burst their budget
By Bruce Kuffer, P.E.
The City of Lansing, Michigan and its local utility refused to stand by and become part of an overwhelming statistic.
According to the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) Report Card 2005, America faces a shortfall of $11 billion annually to replace aging facilities and comply with safe drinking water regulations.
Federal funding for drinking water in 2005 remained level at $850 million, less than 10 percent of the total national requirement. According to ASCE's report card, Michigan's drinking water infrastructure needs $6.79 billion over the next 20 years.
In the fall of 2006, William Erskine, a mechanical engineer with the Lansing Board of Water and Light, facing a recurring problem, managed a water main replacement project along the city's heavily traveled Martin Luther King Blvd. The mainline serviced a growing area of the city, which now houses nearly a half-million residents.
The existing 12-inch ductile iron water main was prone to breaks at the bottom of a hilly section of MLK Blvd. Residential basements in the immediate area had flooded several times during main breaks, and the prospect of digging and replacing the pipe – with resulting disruptions to traffic – was daunting.
Facing mounting budget pressures, Erskine supported a new idea: to use high-density polyethylene (HDPE) pipe and trenchless installation, thus eliminating the ductile iron breaking problems, minimizing gridlock and saving the city hundreds of thousands of dollars in restoration costs.
Erskine turned to Troy Freed of Midwest Trenchless Services (Grant, Mich.), a local utility contractor with over 25 years experience in the application of trenchless technology. The technique of pipe bursting was implemented to install nearly 1,600 linear feet of 14-inch high-density polyethylene (HDPE) pipe. It was the first time in Lansing's history that both HDPE pipe and pipe bursting were utilized.
Pipe bursting, which can be either pneumatic, hydraulic expansion or static pull, fractures a pipe and displaces the fragments outwards while a new pipe, of equal or greater diameter, is drawn in to replace the old pipe.
"This is an area with corrosive, hot soils, and we needed a pipe that could handle this environment and still provide a comparable service life," Freed said. "HDPE pipe with its resistance to corrosive soils offers the best option," he added.
"We also were very sensitive to the traffic conditions in this densely populated part of the city. With an open cut pipe installation, the city was concerned about the significant disruption and anxiety it would cause. The pipe bursting method gave us more efficient installation with less surrounding disruption."
The affected section of MLK Blvd. had been widened to accommodate the growing community. What Freed and his contractors found beneath the surface was a damaged 12-inch water main, and a 6-inch parallel line on the other side of the road that had smaller service lines connected to it. That meant that replacing the 12-inch line could be done without any water service interruptions. The road is bordered on each side by singlefamily housing and a schoolyard, so continued service was very important.
"It's about city's being willing to take that first leap,"said Freed, who works almost exclusively with HDPE pipe. "It was new to this community, but most people who see it done say they'll do it this way again."
Erskine estimated that the project was completed in about 60 percent of the time it would have taken with traditional excavating. Moreover, the resulting re-paving was completed with just two inches of asphalt instead of 10 inches of concrete and four inches of asphalt, due to almost no ground disruption.
The final price tag on this project was about one-third that of open cut excavating using another pipe material, according to Erskine. "When you're talking about a project like this, the dollars saved quickly reach the tens of thousands."
Planning the technique
Pipe bursting was developed in Europe in the early 1980s to replace the aging gas and water infrastructure. A piercing tool or bursting head is guided through a deteriorating service line. As the tool travels through the line it breaks apart the existing or host pipe and displaces the fragments into the surrounding soil. Typically HDPE pipe is then attached to the head and is pulled directly behind it making for a smooth and concise installation.
When upsizing pipe diameters, pipe bursting may create outward ground displacements adjacent to the pipe alignment. Although the ground displacements tend to be localized and dissipate rapidly away from the bursting operation, it is a potential outcome for which plans should be made.
"The biggest challenge was some heaving in the road surface as a result of increasing the pipe size," Erskine said. "That did happen in a few spots. But we were planning for that, and knew we'd just have to mill that area. You just need to plan for these potential scenarios."
As Erskine pointed out in Lansing, proper planning and design of a pipe-bursting project is essential for the project's success, as in any infrastructure project. "You have to know the soil conditions, condition of the existing pipeline and if there is a close proximity to other service lines. A thorough knowledge of what's already there is a must," he stipulated.
Specifications and Qualifications
Specifications for the installation of a pipe utility using pipe bursting must be written to address specific concerns of the project such as ground heave or settlement. Key items often specified by the owner are type of replacement pipe, surface heave/ subsidence limits, and bypass pumping requirements.
The contractor typically must submit qualifications, verification of nearby utilities, installation calculations (such as thrust block bearing capacity for static bursting and wall thickness calculations for polyethylene pipe), pulling force calculations, service line locations and the reconnection method.
"It was something to see," Erskine said. "I was impressed with how easy they opened up the hole and how easily the pipe was pulled through. We haven't had any trouble or calls since the job has been complete.
"It's refreshing to find not only economical alternatives, but also ones that make life easier for our citizens when aging pipelines have to be replaced," he added. "Let's face it, nobody wants to have their streets torn up for days and even weeks, much less have to pay for that level of frustration. I'm sure we'll be considering this method in the future."
The Plastics Pipe Institute (PPI) has developed a comprehensive handbook to assist designers, contractors and owners in designing and installing HDPE piping applications. The handbook is available online at http://plasticpipe.org/general/ ppi_handbook.php.
Another key resource is Pipe Bursting Projects (ASCE Manuals and Reports on Engineering Practice No. 112), which provides best practices for the design and construction of pipelines using pipebursting methods, with a special focus on building pipelines under roads, railroads, and streets. The manual covers both introductory and advanced topics, including history, recent innovations, documentation, typical applications, and terminology from the planning through construction phases.
Bruce Kuffer, P.E. is a staff member of the Plastics Pipe Institute (PPI), the major trade association representing all segments of the plastics piping industry. Member companies share a common interest in broadening market opportunities that make effective use of plastics piping for water and gas distribution, sewer and wastewater, oil and gas production, industrial and mining uses, power and communications duct and irrigation. More information is available online at http://www.plasticpipe.org.
From the PPI Director
Pipe made from high density polyethylene – HDPE – is saving communities, now more than ever before as their aging underground infrastructure continues to deteriorate. This highly versatile pipe is found in storm water drains, natural gas lines, potable water systems, sanitary sewers and underground conduit systems.
What do you do when you have a water service line that is cracking? Perhaps, like so many municipal systems that had iron pipe put in 50 to 100 years ago, now its time is up. How do you replace miles and miles of underground systems? Call in the bulldozers and backhoes? Cut up the streets? Tear up traffic patterns and add more hostility the daily commute for citizens?
Do what Lansing, Michigan did. Leverage the unique features of HDPE pipe allowing it to be inserted into existing pipes and threaded through existing systems. It can also be smoothly slipped under roads, even major highways. That saves taxpayers money.
Traffic keeps moving. Lawns are intact. Streets don't have to be repaved. And best of all, it's such a non-intrusive process that usually no one knows it's being done. That makes your citizens happy.
Because HDPE pipe comes in long coil lengths or sections, there are fewer joints. And what's more, those joints are heat fused together providing a leak-free system – for both infiltration and exfiltration. That's good for the environment.
And since HDPE pipe doesn't corrode, there's no more rust to taint the drinking water. That's good for people. Just like other cities have done over the years, Lansing, Michigan proved it again: HDPE pipe delivers an optimal solution – it has all benefits that can help to make heroes of everyone involved in providing safe, dependable water to your community.
For more than 55 years, the Plastics Pipe Institute has been providing impartial assistance to professionals involved in saving underground infrastructure in various cities and towns. Please call us so we can share our vast library of knowledge and resources to help you select dependable solutions that will deliver for you, for your children and for your children's children – we'll even look around for a cape you can borrow so your super-hero status is apparent to all.
Tony Radoszewski
"This is an area with corrosive, hot soils, and we needed a pipe that could handle this environment and still provide a comparable service life. HDPE pipe with its resistance to corrosive soils offers the best option."
Troy Freed
Midwest Trenchless Services
Lansing Job Overview
Replacement of a 12-inch ductile iron water main with approximately 1,600 linear feet of 14-inch high-density polyethylene (HDPE) pipe using pipe bursting techniques. It was along a primary urban road (Martin Luther King Blvd.) in a large city, so minimal disruption was important.
Contractor:
Midwest Trenchless Services, Grant, Mich.
The City of Lansing, Mich.
HB-125 HAMMERHEAD static pipe bursting machine (125 tons of power).
Damaged water main replaced. Residential flooding due to heavy rain in this area has stopped.
"It was something to see. I was impressed with how easy they opened up the hole and how easily the pipe was pulled through. We haven't had any trouble or calls since the job has been complete."
William Erskine
Lansing Board of Water and Light
© 2008-2014 All rights reserved Alliance for PE Pipe


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