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Eat Your Organic Orange Peels
By Dr. Mercola
Oranges are one of the most popular fruits in the U.S., but very few consume the peel, which is arguably the healthiest part of the whole fruit. Orange peels are rich in flavonoids, like hesperidin and polymethoxyflavones (PMFs), and other phytochemicals, which contribute many of their health benefits.
Flavonoids — antioxidant compounds found in certain fruits, vegetables, herbs, and spices — are known for their role in helping to prevent chronic diseases like heart disease and cancer.
In addition, orange peel contains higher amounts of certain nutrients than its flesh. For instance, 3.5 ounces of orange peel provides 136 milligrams (mg) of vitamin C, while the flesh contains about 71 mg.1
Orange peel also contains considerable amounts of calcium, copper, magnesium, vitamin A, folate and other B vitamins and dietary fiber.
They have an intense orange and bitter flavor, but the latter is often a clue that a food is healthy; the bitter taste is the result of the many flavonoids that orange peels contain.
Orange Peels for Heart Health
Orange peels (as well as the underlying white pulp, or pith) are rich in hesperidin, a flavonoid that's been shown to lower high blood pressure and cholesterol in animal studies. It also has anti-inflammatory properties.2
In middle-aged, overweight men, consuming hesperidin in oranges was found to significantly lower diastolic blood pressure (DBP) after four weeks.3
The polymethoxylated flavones (PMFs) in orange peels have also been shown to lower cholesterol more effectively than prescription drugs, without the side effects.4
The study's lead author, Elzbieta Kurowska, Ph.D., vice president of research at KGK Synergize in Ontario, Canada, told EurekAlert:5
"Our study has shown that PMFs have the most potent cholesterol-lowering effect of any other citrus flavonoid … We believe that PMFs have the potential to rival and even beat the cholesterol-lowering effect of some prescription drugs, without the risk of side effects."
Orange Peels May Have Anti-Cancer Activity
The flavonoids in orange peel have the potential to inhibit the RLIP76 protein, which is linked to cancer and obesity. Research is in the early stages, but if an orange peel extract could inhibit or reduce expression of RLIP76, it would have significant implications for chronic disease.
"When you get rid of this [RLIP76] gene in a mouse, it would appear that the mouse can't get obese, it can't get diabetes, it can't get high cholesterol and it can't get cancer," said Sanjay Awasthi, M.D., professor in the Division of Molecular Diabetes Research at City of Hope hospital.6
Flavonoids in orange and other citrus peels exert a number of additional anti-cancer effects as well. According to research published in the journal BioMed Research International:7
"Due to their broad range of pharmacological properties, citrus flavonoids have gained increased attention. Accumulative in vitro and in vivo studies indicate protective effects of polymethoxyflavones (PMFs) against the occurrence of cancer.
PMFs inhibit carcinogenesis by mechanisms like blocking the metastasis cascade, inhibition of cancer cell mobility in circulatory systems, proapoptosis, and antiangiogenesis.
… Taken all together, a considerable number of well-established lines of evidence have confirmed that flavonoids in citrus peel exhibit a remarkable spectrum of efficacious biological activities, particularly in antitumorigenesis.
Excellent permeability through membrane allows citrus flavonoids to possess great bioavailability, which consequently attracts researchers to perform scientific studies for effective disease prevention and treatment."
Orange Peels Offer Anti-Allergic and Anti-Inflammatory Benefits
Compounds in orange peels and other citrus peel may prevent histamine release (histamines are the chemicals that cause allergic reactions), making them a potentially anti-allergic food.8
The peels may also help to cleanse your lungs, helping you to expel phlegm, and the high levels of vitamin C are beneficial for your immune system, which may help you fight off respiratory illnesses like colds and flu.
In addition, citrus peel extract helps suppress inflammation similar to the anti-inflammatory drug indomethacin.9 The peel may offer a range of additional health benefits as well, including:10
Improve digestion and speed metabolism, according to the principles of Ayurveda
Improve oral health: chew orange peels as a natural breath freshener or rub the inside on your teeth to help with whitening and sensitivity
Improve skin appearance: Rub orange peel extract combined with milk to help lighten dark spots on your skin or use it as a skin toner
Support healthy weight loss: Orange peels are low in calories and high in fiber, making them a useful food if you're trying to lose weight.
Other Fruit Peels and Rinds Can Be Healthy Too
The rinds, peels, stems, leaves and seeds and many fruits and vegetables can be safely consumed and often contribute valuable nutrition and phytochemicals to your diet. So there's no need to limit yourself to orange peels. For instance:11
Swiss chard stems are rich in the amino acid glutamine, which is beneficial for your immune system.
Celery tops contain five times more magnesium and calcium than the stalks.
Broccoli leaves provide about 90 percent of your daily vitamin A requirement, compared to 3 percent in the florets.
Onion skins: The outer layers of the onion (including the papery skin) are thought to be the most nutritious, including concentrating the highest amounts of flavonoids.12 Try simmering onion skins in soups and stock then removing before serving.
Watermelon rinds and seeds are another example. Watermelon rind contains more of the amino acid citrulline than the pink flesh.13 Citrulline is converted to arginine in your kidneys, and this amino acid is important for heart health and maintaining your immune system.
Black watermelon seeds are also edible and actually quite healthy. They contain iron, zinc, protein and fiber. Passion fruit peel provides another example.
It contains a novel mixture of bioflavonoids that have been found to reduce wheeze and cough and improve shortness of breath in people with asthma.14
Delicious Ways to Incorporate Citrus Peels into Your Diet
If you'll be consuming citrus peels, be sure to choose organic fruits only. Oranges, lemons and limes topped the list of foods that most commonly contain more than one pesticide residue in the U.K.,15and these will be concentrated on the outer peel.
The fruit should be washed well (even if it's organic) prior to use. Then, one of the easiest ways to eat orange peels is to grate the zest and add it to salads, dressings, yogurt, tea, fish and vegetables.
You can also blend the peel and pith into smoothies (in the case of watermelon rind, try it blended up with lime juice for a refreshing treat). Lemon peel and pith provide many similar benefits to orange peel.
If you'd like to try it in a new way, here's a recipe for Moroccan preserved lemons posted by Epicurious.16 When they're ready, the peel can be added to many dishes, such as chicken salad, stews and vegetable dishes.
Moroccan-Style Preserved Lemons17
6 (organic) lemons
1 to 1 ½ cups fresh lemon juice (from 5 to 6 additional lemons)
Special equipment: a 6-cup jar with a tight-fitting lid
Blanch lemons in boiling water 5 minutes, then drain. When cool enough to handle, cut each lemon into 8 wedges, discarding seeds. Toss lemons with kosher salt in a bowl, then pack lemons, along with their salt, tightly into jar.
Add enough lemon juice to cover lemons. Seal jar and let lemons stand at room temperature, shaking gently once a day, for 5 days.
Add oil to jar and refrigerate.
Cooks' note: Preserved lemons can be chilled, covered in their juices, up to one year.


Iowa's most famous painting and one of the world's most significant and iconic Modern masterpieces is back in Iowa this summer after nearly two years of conservation work by the J. Paul Getty Museum and the Getty Conservation Institute in Los Angeles. Jackson Pollock's famed Mural, the centerpiece of the University of Iowa Museum of Art collection, is on display at the Sioux City Art Center this month until April 2015.
Over 300,000 people visited the painting during its exhibition at the Getty between March and June of this year, making it one of the most popular shows ever for that institution. Mural is considered by many to be the most important modern American painting ever made.


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JimWendler.com
5/3/1 Bench Press Questions
You have listed 5x5/3/1 as the go to template to use for bench on the hardgainers template. Also I have noticed it pop up on other programs sort of the way widowmakers go with squats and BBS goes with the press. My question is have your thoughts now changed regarding the use of 5x5/3/1 as the go to for bench?
I know that you have mentioned in past writings that you liked to keep the benching heavy, which 5x5/3/1 would be, and depend on things like dips for volume. Would 5 Pro and SSL 5x5 be the better option in your mind now?
I know that you have mentioned that you don't think the bench improves as much with BBS as the press does. Would you think BBB on bench would be beneficial or again stay "heavy" in 5 Pro and supplemental programing ie 5x5/3/1, SSL, Beyond, Leviathan?
I don't think it matters too much with bench press - simply because the majority of people need to put some size on their shoulders/pecs/triceps/biceps/lats/upper back - and instead they max out all the time and wonder why they can't flex bone or fat. So part of the prescription for bench press is putting on some muscle to flex - which takes some time. And a lot of food.
5x5/3/1 can work but it becomes a crap shoot with volume - it's only 25 reps but it's also 25 slow, fat reps which can fuck with a lot of people. For me, that's where it gets tricky. Every single time I've coached someone personally and their bench press went up, it is always because of getting bigger - so either I have a magic eye/formula when I coach people and that never happens to anyone else or it is a common theme with most people. Again, part of that is understanding programming and what to look for.
So to answer your question - it might work well for you, it might not. I really don't know when it comes to increasing the bench press because its such a finicky lift and I've always sucked at it. Plus, all the effort we put in with the football team is simply getting the kids bigger in the upper body; I no longer care about getting stronger in the bench press.
I do know that in general, you can't keep beating yourself up on volume on the bench press, week after week, and expect to make massive gains. Even our kids back off, especially the ones that have been in the program for 3 years and are at the point where it can make a difference. (Meaning - some of these kids just need to put in work for 2-3 straight years, no breaks before they can even think about periodization, etc.) If doing more work on the bench press makes the bench press increase, do it! But program it correctly. For example, two leaders followed by one anchor cycle.
Again, the big issue with 5x5/3/1 is people start way too heavy and it catches up too quick. If that isn't working for you, I'd recommend:
Boring But Big
Boring But Strong
5's Pro, 5x5 FSL (seems to work for more people than not)
Do two cycles of the above (remember to follow the rules for the assistance lifts) and finish off with 1-2 cycles of pushing PR sets and either 5x5 FSL or higher volume assistance work. Again, follow the rules for assistance work!
My advice is to keep pushing for size in the upper body, keep training smart and trying some different bench press ideas over the long term. I wish there was an easy answer; I'd be a millionaire. Time, effort and fully committing to a process is the only way to know how successful you can be.
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In-Season Training, CoronaBro Edition
Being Too Strong
Motivating Mopey Athletes, Good Mornings and People Who Hate the Deadlift
Weight Vest Training (Revisiting the WALRUS)
Your last excuse died here.
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English is currently the language of international business and it's vital for global business leaders to communicate proficiently in English to achieve professional success.
This course, held as a summer school in London, will give participants the essential English language skills so they can 1) manage and actively participate in meetings; 2) engage in telephone conversations with English-speakers; 3) give clear and compelling presentations and project updates; 4) negotiate with English-speaking clients and customers, and 5) write important business emails and documents. In this highly interactive programme, participants will acquire an understanding of crucial business vocabulary and related grammar structures through group work, practical exercises and simulated discussions. The aim of this course is to cultivate participants' general comprehension of Business English and to provide them with practical language strategies, which they can use to communicate effectively in a variety of important business contexts.


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Posts tagged 'hold the dark'
Hold the Dark
Hold the Dark (2018)
★ / ★★★★
The picture begins with a curious mystery involving a boy (Beckam Crawford) being taken by wolves. At least this is what his mother, Medora (Riley Keough), claims to have happened. This is the third child that had been abducted in their Northern Alaska village. She is so desperate and so afraid that her husband, Vernon (Alexander Skarsgård), a soldier currently overseas, would come home without any facts to offer him that she requests the help of Russell Core (Jeffrey Wright), a man with extensive experience of tracking down wolves.
Although based on the novel by William Giraldi, screenwriter Macon Blair and director Jeremy Saulnier fail to translate the story from page to screen in a way that is entertaining or enlightening. Mildly curious at times because the mythos of the village, the people who live there, and the animals within the vicinity are so alive, it is such a disappointment then that the majority of the film is a soporific experience, moving slower than molasses for no reason other than to test the patience. Perhaps the intention is to drench the audience in atmosphere and mood, but it is ineffective because it does not give us reason to remain emotionally invested. A slow pacing does not generate interest out of thin air.
Halfway through the film, I caught myself feeling appalled that it is directed by Saulnier, a filmmaker no stranger in establishing a calculated pace and then breaking it by sudden bouts of violence ("Blue Ruin," "Green Room"). While the approach is present here, unlike his previous work, the feeling behind the strategy is lifeless. It is like someone else attempting to make a poor imitation of Saulnier. I wondered if he has gotten tired of his usual tricks.
It is like clockwork. For instance, prior to the explosive violence, we are asked to endure the characters speak to one another in either monotone or whispers. It is a requirement that they look miserable or sad. Notice there is no reason for them to speak in this manner. Most of the time it comes across as a performance rather than a genuine moment in time of simply being. As a result, we grow detached from the characters being put onto the canvas. A scene or two after such conversations, somebody shoots another with a gun point-blank, or someone is stabbed, others are shot with an arrow. Another employs an assault rifle to mow down local police. I found the charade to be painfully predictable.
"Hold the Dark" is most frustrating because it is an amalgamation of ideas that, at first glance, do not or should not fit together: animals are behaving strangely, there is talk about being possessed by demons when masks are worn, American Indians reference their folklores to try to explain or hint to an outsider what is possibly going on, and the community tending to have its own unspoken rules. It is the writer and director's job to put these pieces together in a way that is presentable and welcoming—especially for viewers who many not be interested initially with these occurrences.
The failure of the film, I think, can be attributed to the filmmakers' lack of understanding of the source material. Because if they did thoroughly understand, joy and excitement could be felt even from the most depressing or bleakest story. The viewers would have a complete understanding of themes, character motivations, and the reason why this story is special to this Alaskan village. Instead, the work is opaque for the sake of being opaque.


January 31, 2007 • The PBS documentary series The Supreme Court presents a detailed view of how the nation's top court has helped to shape American history. Law professor Jeffrey Rosen has written a book to complement the series, which begins tonight.
January 31, 2007 • While arguments rage over troop increases or withdrawals, for millions of Americans and Iraqis the war is a family issue. The mother of a recent enlistee, the father of four U.S. servicemen, and two Iraqis talk about how they are directly affected by the war in Iraq.
January 31, 2007 • The recent book The Race Beat examines how the media covered the civil rights movement. Its co-author, a journalist with Southern roots, went on a mission to discover the era's heroes in the press.
January 29, 2007 • In the past, the Nielsen Media Research only counted 18- to 24-year-old viewers when they were living at home with their parents. Now, Nielsen will try to track their viewing habits even when they're away at college. The change is expected to boost ratings for TV shows popular with younger viewers. Robert Siegel talks with The New Yorker magazine's media critic, Ken Auletta.
January 28, 2007 • Thirty years ago this week, ABC's mini-series Roots was broadcast. The finale was among the most-watched programs in TV history. Roots star LeVar Burton reflects on the impact of the series in a conversation with Rebecca Roberts.
January 26, 2007 • NPR is opening a new, slightly tonier bureau space in Manhattan. But for radio veterans, the East Side space that's closing houses many memories.
January 25, 2007 • On a reporting trip in Pakistan last month, New York Times reporter Carlotta Gall was physically assaulted by Pakistani intelligence agents. The reason, she was told: asking too many questions, and visiting parts of Pakistan they considered off limits.
January 25, 2007 • Filmmaker Jacob Gentry talks about his movie, The Signal, which has been bought by Magnolia Pictures at the Sundance Film Festival.
January 24, 2007 • Moments after President Bush finished his State of the Union address Tuesday night, Statuary Hall in the U.S. Capitol filled with senators, House members, and the media. A power failure provided some extra suspense.


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Package options The Queen's Gallery, Buckingham Palace Tickets Activity Information Reviews
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The Queen's Gallery, Buckingham Palace Tickets
The Queen's Gallery at Buckingham Palace is a permanent space dedicated to changing exhibitions of items from the Royal Collection, the wide-ranging collection of art and treasures held in trust by The Queen for the Nation. Constructed forty years ago on the west front of Buckingham Palace out of the bomb-damaged ruins of the former private chapel, the Gallery was reopened by The Queen on 21 May 2002 and is now open to the public on a daily basis.
The Queen's Gallery at Buckingham Palace is a permanent space dedicated to changing exhibitions of items from the Royal Collection, the wide-ranging collection of art and treasures held in trust by The Queen for the Nation.
4.5 Rating ( 2 Reviews ) Write Review
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Give us your email ID and we will notify you as soon as tickets are back online
Appreciate exhibitions that are comprised of treasured items from the Royal Collection.
Explore plenty of art and various treasures with your family and friends.
Get to see several themed exhibitions for an all-around fulfilling experience.
The exhibition brings together some of the most important paintings in the Royal Collection from the Picture Gallery at Buckingham Palace. The room was originally designed by the architect John Nash for George IV to display his collection of Dutch, Flemish and Italian Old Master paintings. Artists represented in the exhibition include Titian, Guercino, Guido Reni, Vermeer, Rembrandt, van Dyck, Rubens, Jan Steen, Claude and Canaletto.
See the main public art gallery of Buckingham Palace, home of the British monarch, in London.
Experience works of art from the Royal Collection on a rotating basis.
It has its own access façade and typically displays about 450 works, always including mainly paintings and drawings.
You will receive a confirmation email after booking.
In the event that you do not receive an email from us, please check your Spam folder or notify us via email.
The Queen's Gallery is closed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
24 Dec 2022, Last admission 02:45 pm, Gallery closed at 04:00 pm.
25 Dec to 28 Dec 2022, Gallery closed.
27 Feb 2023 - 20 April 2023, Gallery closed.
The Queen's Gallery is part of a working royal palace so sometimes closures can happen at short notice. Keep an eye on updates in working hours.
The Queens Gallery Ticket at Buckingham Palace is only valid during the period specified in the selected package.
Buckingham Palace, London SW1A 1AA, United Kingdom
London Victoria or London Charing Cross.
By Underground:
Victoria, Green Park, St. James's Park and Hyde Park Corner.
By Coach/Bus:
Bus numbers 11, 211, C1, and C10 stop on Buckingham Palace Road.
Victoria Coach Station is a 10-minute walk from the Palace.
The Queen's Gallery, Buckingham Palace Tickets Package
The Queen's Gallery Admission Ticket From GBP 18.52


Most ghosts are kindly, sweet, and just want to hover around and remind themselves what it's like to feel alive—far from the nasty ruckus everyone depicts them as causing. Perhaps we need a diplomat... someone who can vouch for this complicated existence. With the right words (cut back on the ooooo's) and a kind smile (best you can muster), maybe we'll see a world in which the dead walk (float) next to the living.
With the periodic strong full moon, spiritual energy is at a high. What a better time for ghosts, ghouls, and a handful of specters to come out of the woodwork, pull a few pranks, and do their best to feel that connection with the living world for a while. Some are problematic, of course, and some people get spooked. Eventually, you know exactly who they're going to call. Ugh, that annoying siren and those ridiculous costumes. One little moan and suddenly there are proton packs and laser beams being fired everywhere! Can't we all just get along and aspire to peace?
Our best bet is you in this Womens Haunting Beauty Costume. This lovely silver gown has white mesh has white mesh flowing this way and that. The tattered ends, understandable after all these years in limbo, are all over but still have an aura of innocence and serenity about them that will surely help make your point. A plastic can be worn about the waist or as a headscarf depending on precisely how sweet you'd like to look.
We need someone to speak on the behalf of all these ghostly souls' accounts and let everyone know not all sheet-toting spooks are cut from the same cloth. In no time, all the mere mortals will be eating out of your hands. And, if not, then you can just rip out their souls and we'll try that peaceful option again next year! We all shuffle of this mortal coil eventually, after all.


In late 1973,while recovering from kidney failure, Dr. M. Miyazaki wrote and published an autobiography, My Sixty Years in Canada, a book that paints a vivid portrait of life as a Japanese Canadian in the mid-1900s.
Miyazaki, who passed away in 1984, was born in Japan but moved to Canada in 1913. He graduated from the university of British Columbia in 1925 but unable to pursue medical training in Canada due to laws preventing post-secondary study by Japanese Canadians, travelled to Missouri and Los Angeles for training.
He practised as an osteopath in Vancouver until the bombing of Pearl Harbor, when he was relocated to the Bridge River self supporting camp. Following the death of the doctor in nearby Lillooet, the British Columbia Provincial Police recruited Miyazaki to act in the capacity of coroner.
Given his status as an "enemy alien," special permits were required to allow him to stay in Lillooet instead of at Bridge River. This position soon evolved into that of all-around town-and-country doctor, dentist and obstetrician, and he had patients throughout the whole region from Pemberton-Mount Currie to Pavilion and Lytton. He also served as doctor for the area's four wartime self-supporting centres including Taylor Lake.
Dr. Miyazaki used Longford House, a late 19th-century manor near the town's main street as his surgery and residence. When the war was over, he remained in Lilooet, becoming a respected community leader.
In 1983, Miyazaki left Lillooet, donating the property to the community and the house was renamed Miyazaki House. The house remains open to this day as a heritage site for tours and still exhibits Miyazaki's office as he left it. His office still contains all original articles, including surgical instruments, medical texts, and skeletal displays. The house also has displays of local artwork and the history of the house before Miyazaki moved there.
Towards the end of his life, in recognition of his services to the community Miyazaki was given the Order of Canada. His Order of Canada commendation reads: C.M. (Member) December 15, 1976 April 20, 1977. Retired osteopath who, over a period of 35 years, has given unselfish service to the residents of Lillooet, British Columbia, particularly those of Japanese and Indian backgrounds and who continues to serve his community in spite of ill health.
My Sixty Years in Canada is dedicated to the Canadian Kidney Foundation, who received proceeds from the sales of the first run of 500 copies. After this, he gave the rights to the book to the Kamloops Japanese Canadian Association who printed another 500 copies. The book, which has been sold out for the past ten years or so, has been frequently requested and the KJCA is in the process of reprinting the book. The book, with a larger font, pictures, and an addendum on his life following the book up until his passing in 1984, will be available in December from the Kamloops Japanese Canadian Association, 160 Vernon Avenue, Kamloops, BC V2B 1L6. Books may be purchased for $25 plus $3.50 postage and handling ($28.50) per book, and cheques should be made out to the Kamloops Japanese Canadian Association. For further information e-mail info@kjca.ca or phone 250-376-3506.


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Column, History's Greatest Monsters
History's Greatest Monsters of 2012
By: Jeff Terich
Next week, Treble begins the annual tradition of compiling the year's best music in list form — songs, albums, best of genre, etc. We got through 11 months of avalanching pop music, and we're ready to have some closure. But before that happens, the time seems ripe for an appraisal of the music from 2012 that wasn't as successful. In "History's Greatest Monsters," the goal is to determine whether a critically panned album is as bad as the press makes it out to be, and so instead of choosing the 10 worst albums of the year, I'm starting with the negative critical consensus and determining whether or not the albums getting bad reviews in 2012 deserve the spite. Spoiler alert: Most of them do, and then some.
I'd like to stipulate that music's value is subjective, and no doubt there are plenty of folks who find something redeeming in albums that I don't. That's all part of the fun of talking about and sharing our opinions on music. But there's some music that only an artist's mother could love, and in the case of Die Antwoord, even that's not true.
Now then, on to the monsters!
The Darkness – Hot Cakes
It's impossible to hate The Darkness. Bold statement? Not really. The band are the personification of rock `n' roll at its most indulgent and ridiculous, which is fairly endearing off the bat. They're engineered for arenas and stadiums — nothing punk rock about them. Spandex, big hair, big heels, big boobs, drugs, whatever floats your boat man, that's what the Darkness are all about, and while we went a decade or so pretending we were done with cocky arena rock, the issue wasn't so much that it needed to die, it was just in need of someone better to take its reins. More AC/DC, less Poison, in other words. The Darkness, then, are exactly what was necessary to make that happen in 2003 with their infectious heroics on debut album Permission to Land. One mediocre follow-up and a laundry list of hardships made a third album a long way in the offing, however. And now that it finally arrived, it's nice, but certainly not everything it could have been. The sexy women on the cover, covered in maple syrup, on beds of pancakes, are an appropriately cheeky touch. And the AC/DC-style homage to living one's dreams in a rock band in "Every Inch of You" is an easy sell, particularly with Justin Hawkins' falsetto "Suck my coooock!" By and large, it's everything you should expect from a Darkness album, though there are far fewer memorable moments than there should be. One exception, however, is the band's cover of Radiohead's "Street Spirit (Fade Out)", done with a shlocky disco-metal attack, complete with a brief guitar-riff reference to "Just." It's a bit of a novelty, certainly, but Radiohead are the sort of band that could do with a little more humor now and then, so I'm in favor of the idea of it, even if I don't really see myself listening to it much. Basically, Hot Cakes comes down to this: The Darkness are back, and they're definitely not better than ever, but at least they're still having fun making flashy, cocksure rock music, which, in the end, isn't so bad.
Die Antwoord – Ten$ion
A Youtube description of a stream of Die Antwoord's "Never Le Nkemise 1″ reads, "NEXT LEVEL RAP-RAVE DUBSTEP." The obvious question is: Next level of what? Clearly the group has ramped up the bombast, the obnoxiousness, the volume and the ignorance since 2010′s $O$, itself a modern art marvel of bafflingly tacky and crass electro-rap. But clearly, nothing's gotten any better. Part of the problem is that it's hard to process Die Antwoord the same way you might any other musical group. In fact, I'm not even sure music is the point. That said, if there is a point, I'm at a loss to figure out what it is. There are beats, lyrics, lots of big and booming synthesizer, but none of it comes together in any sensical manner, and even less of it actually sounds good. Die Antwoord is clearly obsessed with sex, but there's not a single moment of music here that could even partially pass for sexy, especially "Hey Sexy" and the borderline rape fantasy "U Make a Ninja Wanna Fuck." Likewise, emcee Ninja talks a lot of trash, but his reference points are a few decades out of date, and for that matter, sort of gross and confusing: "What happened to all the coo' rappers from back in the day / Now all 'dese rappers sound exactly the same / It's like one big inbred fuckfest/No, I do not want to 'Stop, collaborate or listen." Ouch? I can't say with any certainty that Die Antwoord isn't having the last laugh here, but at least the first time around it was novel. If two decades of Internet use have taught us anything, it's that trolls get tiresome pretty quickly.
Kreayshawn – Somethin `Bout Kreay
For some reason, the mediocre sales of Kreayshawn's Somethin `Bout Kreay became an oddly viral slice of misinformation. Sure, 3,000 copies sold is fairly weak for a debut week from a hyped major label hitmaker (of sorts), though it's not breaking any records. But there also shouldn't be any mystery why its sales were so terrible. "Gucci Gucci," Kreayshawn's sole hit, if you want to call it that, is ultimately the best the White Girl Mob rapper had in her. Love it or hate it, the song is catchy beyond words, and you can't really blame Columbia for thinking it was the tip of the iceberg. Sadly, it's the whole of the ice cap. Somethin' Bout Kreay doesn't improve upon "Gucci Gucci," and, maybe even more detrimentally, is incredibly short on ideas. Considering Kreayshawn is only 23 years old, that's not very promising for the future. In just the first track, "Blasé Blasé," Kreay already seems to be trying to replicate her smash single but without the fun or hooks. There's a bigger issue at play here, however, and it's that Kreayshawn isn't really much of a rapper. She mostly spits an awkward monotone chant-speak, and it comes across as amateurish at best, and completely tone-deaf at its worst. But that doesn't mean Kreay doesn't try everything she possibly can to create some kind of image for herself, nonexistent skills be damned. She goes tough girl on "Left Ey3," dropping numerous references to celebrity women misbehaving in the `90s, while on the far more sickeningly sweet "BFF," she pleads to a third party to be her best friend with syrupy synths and Tiger Beat hooks. Beyond the fact that she's way too old for this kind of tween Trapper Keeper heart-scribbling, it's just a lazily written song, which is a recurring theme throughout. A quick review then: Kreayshawn still hasn't topped "Gucci Gucci," she can't rap, she can't write, and can't seem to effectively convey to the listener just who she is, beyond empty paeans to money, being a bad girl, or occasionally, soft-pop sentimentality. She should be thankful those 3,000 units moved as fast as they did.
Madonna – MDNA
Madonna's track record in the past ten years has been spotty, to say the least, but Madge also doesn't really have to try that hard anymore. Her records still sell. She's changed the face of mainstream pop music a half-dozen times or so, and she basically owned the '80s. That being said, it's a fairly cynical move on her part to put out something so generic and pointless as MDNA. For Madonna, essentially everything she's ever done has been in a grand fashion, making widescreen statements through dance-pop hooks and elaborate videos. Her VMA appearances, not to mention her opulent stage shows, are the stuff of legend, so it didn't bode well for her 12th studio album when her appearance at the Super Bowl this year, alongside M.I.A. and LMFAO, was a shambling mess. Madonna has taken risks at almost every stage in her career, and while some of them didn't work out (Hard Candy, American Life), the ones that did more than make up for it. There's nothing at all risky on MDNA. It's as phoned-in as Madge has ever sounded. Now, it has a few decent tracks, namely "I'm Addicted" and "Gang Bang," the latter produced by William Orbit in a cool, Giorgio Moroder-esque fashion. But once those dry up, there's not much left to look forward to. M.I.A. appears here on "B-Day Song," an incredible waste of both talents on a joylessly dumb track pairing birthday themes with tired double entendres. "I Don't Give A" is yet another song about how Madonna does what she wants, and she's a rebel, and all that jive, only this time it involves her divorce with Guy Ritchie. That bit of info would probably make the song seem more angry, but it's just lazy. Whatever emotion she's trying to sell just doesn't take. She doesn't sound angry so much as bored. And frankly, I am too. I got bored with "Superstar," I got bored with "Turn Up the Radio," and you better believe I got bored with "Give Me All Your Luvin'." Whatever one's opinion of Madonna, she's been one of the biggest and most influential artists in pop music for around 30 years. With MDNA, she still may be one of the biggest, but for the life of me, I can't find anything inspiring here.
Mumford and Sons – Babel
My first exposure to Mumford & Sons' new album Babel came with an NPR interview segment interspersed with bits of 30-second samples from the album. Admittedly, this was only a small taste, but if you had told me that the half dozen or so songs played were actually all part of the same song, I would have believed you. Variety isn't everything, though — the Ramones made a half-dozen classic albums without changing much of anything — and Mumford & Sons' formula is at least a winning one commercially. Babel went gold the week of its release, selling 600,000 copies right out of the gates. That's an impressive feat, particularly in a climate that supposedly isn't all that friendly for guitar-based bands. And I have to imagine that banjo-heavy groups would have fared even worse, but apparently that's not the case. It's easy to see why Mumford would appeal to a large audience. Their songs are catchy, dramatic, big-hearted and earnest, all things that have proven successful in rock bands of years past. In fact, the template proves itself time and again, from Springsteen to U2, Dave Matthews Band to The Killers. Of those groups, however, Mumford & Sons sound most like the Dave Matthews Band (with a lot more banjo), which is something I'm having trouble getting past. It's an aesthetic distaste, more than an outright gut churning disgust, though that still doesn't save the album from essentially being 12 variations of one howled-to-the-heavens, dewy-eyed, sprinting-through-wheat-fields, high-school mixtape anthem. And however appealing it is the first time around, by track 12 the relentless soft bludgeon is akin to water torture. There's room for the band to grow, even if there isn't much incentive for them to do so, but at the very least, some stylistic variance would go a long way.
Muse – The 2nd Law
Full disclosure: I've been lukewarm at best on Muse for most of their career. I bought Showbiz shortly after it came out, and for that matter still enjoy it on some level, but the group's ambitions weren't so outsized back then. The more operatic and overblown they got, the more trouble I had digesting their music. To be fair, I'm not really their target audience. I'm not a prog guy. I've never thought Radiohead needed more guitar solos. And I've never thought that Billy Corgan was holding back too much. Most of their catalog leaves me cold, but I can at least attest to the fact that the band is certainly talented. That they can attempt and largely pull off something so grand, regardless of taste, is worthy of some level of acclaim. So I entered The 2nd Law with an open mind. Much ado has been made about the band's embrace of synthesizers and dubstep techniques, though, for the most part, it still sounds a lot like a Muse album, at least more so than a Skrillex album, as some likely feared. It's both a risky move and an extremely cunning one for the band to evolve into a more current and commercial direction. But when held up against a band to whom they've frequently been compared — Queen — it makes perfect sense: this is Muse's The Game. Sure, it's got fancier technology, but it's still kind of a funky pop record from a bombastic art rock band. So the question remains of whether or not it works. The answer? Not exactly. It's not as much of a departure as I might have been led to believe, which is probably reassuring for fans wary of a complete abandonment of a long-held aesthetic. But it also has a lot of kinks to be worked out. For a band that can probably afford some high-end gear, why does it sound like they're relying on cheesy midi patches on "Save Me"? "Follow Me," one of the few tracks in which the group goes full-on EBM bro-step, sounds exactly like what you'd imagine Muse playing dubstep would sound like, which is a bit like adding Rococo gilt trim to a race car — completely tasteless and unnecessary. And "Survival," which you may recall as the official Olympic anthem of 2012, is just a complete failure on every level, juxtaposing stadium rock production with empty lyrical affirmations and opera singer backing, which probably doesn't sound good on paper, but is an even bigger mess in practice. That said, the album does contain "Madness," which I'll go on record as saying is the best song the band has released in… I don't even know how long. Matthew Bellamy reins in his histrionics for one, while the track actually features some legit grooves. So, props to Muse for that one. But the rest of the album falls somewhere between standard Muse and low-cal filler, which adds up to a blend of fair to middling material, forgettable fluff tracks, two or three complete fiascoes and one surprisingly good track. Not a success by any measure, but not a total failure either, I suppose.
Grade: D+
Owl City – Midsummer Station
I'd like to start off by mentioning that I had no idea Owl City had so many albums. Adam Young, who had a huge hit with the corn syrup-coated "Fireflies" in 2009, has been cranking them out ever since becoming something of a MySpace success story (when was the last time that happened?), and Midsummer Station is the umpteenth in a long line of fairly similar synth and Auto Tune-heavy dance emo records that offers essentially what all the other ones did, with a little more Rihanna/Katy Perry-style dancefloor boom. So if Young's past records were essentially a junior high version of the Postal Service, then Midsummer Station is Top 40 diva pop without the sexual education. Owl City is such an easy target at this point, and Young such an earnest and sentimental singer, that criticising his music almost feels like kicking a puppy. But music with production this big demands an equally big personality, not the dewy eyed robo-milquetoast at the helm. There's nothing cathartic about this music, nor anything even enjoyably dorky. Midsummer Station, in spite of Young's best efforts, would more likely empty a dancefloor than filll it, and until he drains some of the sap, I'm going to have a very hard time taking him seriously. If there's any real human personality somewhere on Midsummer Station, I haven't been able to find it.
Pop Etc. – Pop Etc.
When the Morning Benders arrived at the dawn of 2010 with a pleasantly lush debut in Big Echo, it was clear they were never going to change the world, but it didn't really matter. The music was good. It was pretty and dreamy, and whatever it lacked in energy it made up for with memorable, gorgeous songs. Two years later, the band was faced with the probability of having to change their name for reasons of avoiding a homophobic slur in other parts of the world (unbeknownst to the band), and with it came an entire new identity makeover that saw the Bay Area group swapping indie chamber pop for synth-heavy dance pop. Too bad they aren't very good at it. Part of the problem is frontman Christopher Chu. His voice isn't particularly expressive, and when added to a dozen Black Eyed Peas-lite compositions, the end result is much closer to Owl City than Rihanna. A handful of redemptive tracks crop up here and there, the best of the bunch produced by Danger Mouse, but they can't save this peculiar mix of misfired hooks and glossed-up dopeyness. Pop Etc. as an album is too saccharine, and the best of intentions can't make these songs any better. It's the rare case in which an artist can have a second chance at a first impression, and it's a completely botched opportunity.
Ting Tings – Sounds from Nowheresville
The first thing one expects from British pop duo The Ting Tings is fun. There's not really a lot of that on Sounds from Nowheresville. The next thing one would expect is melody. There isn't really much of that either. So at the very least, there should be a little bit of energy left to redeem the album. Nope; 0 for three. What the band does have on Sounds from Nowheresville is a batch of ten songs, few of which with any cohesion to the whole, and all of which sound like a fairly lackluster hipster karaoke night. Singer Katie White leaps from embarrassingly shrill rapping on "Hit Me Down Sonny" to generic and cliché spoken word love-story narration on "Guggenheim." In 33 minutes, very little of consequence happens, and what does is usually more annoying than anything. But I can't shake the feeling, listening to Sounds of Nowheresville, that the Ting Tings, a band with a history of product pushing, has gone from writing songs to writing jingles. It's probably not a bad career choice, what with the increasingly unprofitable music industry we have, but it amounts to a listening experience that isn't the least bit rewarding and, ironically, pretty forgettable. If the intent was to make something a little more Madison Avenue friendly, they might have botched that one as well.
WZRD – WZRD
Early this year, one of my esteemed colleagues emailed me about a "Kid Cudi rock album," which I initially misread as a "Kid Cudi/Kid Rock" album, which sounds like a disaster of epic proportions. Not that WZRD, the actual Kid Cudi "rock" album, is a roaring success by any measure. Let's get something straight though — this isn't as awful as the nadir Lil Wayne reached with his grotesque and painful attempt to belch out rock songs on 2010′s Rebirth. It's just almost as awful. The primary difference is that instead of diving headfirst into macho rap-rock cliches and throwaway "fuck the world" attitude, Cudi spends most of his time moping and sounding like a generally unpleasant person to be around. He vocalizes sophomoric suicide daydreams in "Efflictum," barfing out awkward and unconvincing weed-caked affirmations in the amateurish "High Off Life," then lurching back into a slow-moving, excruciating diary reading in "The Upper Room," which boasts lyrical zingers like "Most people are pussies." The rare moment in which Cudi actually shows some level of taste, the Desire-sampling "Teleport 2 Me, Jamie," comes all too infrequently. Still, in spite of Cudi's half-assed, cobbled together lyrics and completely off-putting personality, what's most baffling about WZRD is that, for a rock album, it hardly ever rocks. There's no energy, no verve, and little inspiration beyond how much Cudi seems to want to feel sorry for himself (He had a missed opportunity in calling the album DBBY DWNR). Cudi was never an amazing rapper, but it's pretty clear by this album that he's even worse at being a rock musician.
Treble's Holiday Gift Guide 2012Top 50 Songs of 2012
Home History's Greatest Monsters of 2012
November 25, 2012	Column, History's Greatest Monstersdie antwoord, kreayshawn, madonna, mumford and sons, muse, owl city, pop etc, the darkness, the ting tings, wzrd
A brief history of out-of-touch musicians
<div class="addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style addthis_32x32_style" addthis:url='https://www.treblezine.com/37638-brief-history-out-of-touch-musicians/' addthis:title='A brief history of out-of-touch musicians' >
</div>When rock stars lose the plot.<!-- AddThis Sharing Buttons below -->
Recap: Outside Lands 2012
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</div>Looking back at the weekend of live music in the Bay.<!-- AddThis Sharing Buttons below -->
Feature, Podcast
The Worst Song: Holiday Edition
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</div>In this very special holiday edition of the Worst Song podcast, hosts Jeff Terich and Candice Eley discuss which Christmas songs should be banned from the planet. If you're a fan of Casio-style synths and sexy baby voices, you should probably just turn away now. Dec 4, 2017Jeff Terich<!-- AddThis Sharing Buttons below -->
Column, Perversity
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</div>Part one, in which Treble recounts some recently-released albums that you absolutely must own<!-- AddThis Sharing Buttons below -->
Best Of, Lists
History's Greatest Monsters: The Worst Albums of 2015
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</div>The bottom of the barrel for 2015.<!-- AddThis Sharing Buttons below -->


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Multi-Billionaire Founder of Playtech Evades Assassination Plot in Cyprus
Categories: News | Published by: Sean van der Merwe
Israeli-Cypriot billionaire businessman, Teddy Sagi (49), was the target of a foiled assassination plot last week. Fortunately, the Cypriot security forces alerted him to the impending danger, allowing him to flee in time. Our PokCas news team investigated:
Authorities in Cyprus revealed last week that they had arrested a 38-year-old national from Azerbaijan. It is alleged that the suspect was in the process of leading an assassination attempt on Mr. Sagi, who is a well-known Israeli business mogul. Cypriot Intelligence was able to warn the tycoon of the imminent attack on his life, allowing him enough time to flee the island. According to a police source at the time, the authorities in Cyprus had been investigating the plot for several weeks without knowing who the precise target was. The source said:
"Around a week ago when they discovered the target was Sagi, they alerted the businessman, who fled the country immediately."
The suspect was arrested after crossing the Agios Dhometios checkpoint in Nicosia. It is alleged that he had a concealed pistol, ammunition, and silencer on his person when crossing the border. Apparently, he had been in Cyprus for three weeks prior to his containment and had crossed the border multiple times during that period. It appears that much time and effort were spent on plotting the murder attempt.
It was the assumption of the police that the plot was part of an Iranian terrorist attack aimed at Israeli businessmen, in general, in the name of Islamic Jihad. However, upon closer inspection, it seems that this may not be the case. The Azeri national was travelling on a Russian passport, and it is now suspected that the attempt on Sagi's life could be due to a business dispute of some kind with some Russian business counterparts. Nevertheless, the authorities have not ruled out their former theory as the open investigation continues.
Who is Teddy Sagi?
Teddy Sagi is estimated to be worth $5.6 billion dollars, according to the Forbes index. This easily secures him the place as one of Israel's wealthiest men. He is the founder of the leading iGaming company, Playtech. It is one of the largest casino gaming companies in the world right now. He sold off his shares but is still heavily invested in real estate and technology. His most recent acquisition was that of the US-based technology product – ExpressVPN, which his company, 'Cape', purchased for a whopping $936 million.
When you conduct business in these wealthy echelons, it's not too difficult to believe that you might make enemies faster than you make friends. It seems that in this case, though, that the 'enemy making' process superseded the accepted norms. The proactive alertness of the Cypriot authorities is a notable achievement and should be thoroughly congratulated.
Sean van der Merwe
Sean is a member of our expert content writing team. He has experience writing engaging reviews, articles, and blog posts across various genres. These include iGaming, cryptocurrency, video gaming, life, leisure, and more.
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For as much as I write on this blog, I don't often share the little random things that are going on in our life. Frankly, that's because our day to day lives are actually pretty boring. Yes, we're building a house and that's very exciting, but it's not what consumes most of our time. Well, it did consume a heck of a lot of time while we were going through the selections process, but that's done, so now it's just approving the random little change orders that come through (or the big change orders confirming our selections). Only two parts of my day are really focused around house-building at the moment: when we go see the house in the evening and when I write about the house on the blog. So here's a little update of the other things that are going on in our life.
This weekend we had a cousins get together. As I mentioned on Friday, it's a group of my cousin-in-laws, because they're Dave's cousins. Dave is really close his cousins on his mom's side of the family because they're all very close in age. Three of them actually lived in the same tiny town and went to the same high school. When I met Dave it was the first time in a long time that the group of cousins were all living in Indiana. Everyone was living withing 2 hours of each other (actually, everyone was either in or around Lafayette….Dave was the farthest one away on the north side of Indianapolis). Last year one of the cousins (Katie) has moved up to Michigan so we're spread out a little more, but we're still all in the Midwest. This weekend Katie came down to visit and help her sister, Abby, plan her upcoming wedding (!!!!). Having Katie in town = time for a cousin get-together.
L-R: Dave's cousin Abby, Nathan (Abby's fiance), Dave's cousin Katie, Nikki (Rob's wife), Dave's cousin Rob, Dave, and me!
We hadn't all been together as a group since Labor Day. I suppose I should clarify…Katie's significant other (John) didn't make it down from Michigan for Labor Day, but Katie brought his adorable daughter Layla down for the festivities so at least we had a part of him there! We got to see Katie, John, and Abby at Thanksgiving, but Abby's now-fiance Nathan was spending Thanksgiving with his family so we haven't seen him since Labor Day. Rob and Nikki spend Thanksgiving with a different side of their family so we hadn't seen them since the Labor Day camp out.
We all met up for dinner in Lafayette at Nine Irish Brothers, then went bowling, then headed back to Nine Irish Brothers for a drink. As usual, hanging out with this crew was a blast. Thankfully Abby's upcoming summer wedding means that we should have plenty of opportunities to see each other in the next few months!
Dave and Abby, the bride-to-be!


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Chief justice seeks big budget boost for Iowa courts
DES MOINES — The chief justice of Iowa's Supreme Court is asking legislators for a $7.2 million boost in the budget for the judicial branch of state government.
"Your justice system provides critical, unduplicated services to Iowans," Cady said this morning in the annual "Condition of the Judiciary" address to legislators. "…Our future can no longer be about taking small steps or standing still. We need to think big and take big steps."
Cady would direct a third of his requested increase to a digital initiative, using the money to develop electronic warrants, for example, and start paying for the court's digital services with taxpayer dollars rather than court fees.
"The age of technology is propelling courts into a new age of justice," Cady said. "…Our 'Digital Opportunities' initiative concerns projects such as….text messages to defendants and other court users…and online dispute resolution.
Justice Cady enters the chamber
for his speech.
"…Imagine a time when law enforcement officers will no longer need to drive from the scene of an investigation to a courthouse to request a warrant…Imagine a time when defendants receive reminders of their court dates on their phones so there are fewer delays and fewer adverse collateral consequences for defendants."
Cady's also warns lawmakers fewer people are applying to be judges because of the pay. He's asking for nearly $1.9 million extra to finance a four percent hike in judicial salaries. The other big-ticket item in Cady's request to lawmakers is for rural courthouses. Cady's asking for enough funding to hire 37 more full-timers to work in the clerks of court offices.
"The judicial branch is committed to providing full-time, full-service access in all 99 counties," Cady said.
Cady is seeking legislative approval so a clerk of court in one county may assist people in another county.
GoldDierks Bentley
Aint Worth The WhiskeyCole Swindell
HumanCody Johnson
Come Back As A Country BoyBlake Shelton
Heart Like A TruckLainey Wilson


Buy a Select Easton Ghost USSSA Fastpitch Softball Bat (-11, -10) and a select Easton ball glove or pair of Easton batting gloves and get 20% off each qualifying bundle. Cannot be combined with other discount offers. No coupon code required. Ends at midnight, 03/25. Shop qualifying items below.


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The stress of the project led to the feeling there was not enough time or money to complete everything the team wished to, which added to the stress and caused arguments about the design of the game. The developers ended up reducing the overtime they spent on the project to avoid burning out, though it meant further delays and risked the company running out of money as the game neared completion. In a speech at the 16th annual D.I.C.E. Awards in 2013, Chen admitted that the company had indeed been driven to bankruptcy in the final months of development and that some of the developers had gone unpaid at the time.[10] Hunicke described the solution to finally finishing the game as learning to let go of tensions and ideas that could not make it into the game and be "nice to each other".[8]
In 1997, as a producer for CNN, Bergen produced bin Laden's first television interview, in which he declared war against the United States for the first time to a Western audience. In 1994, he won the Overseas Press Club Edward R. Murrow award for best foreign affairs documentary for the CNN program "Kingdom of Cocaine," which was also nominated for an Emmy. Bergen co-produced the CNN documentary "Terror Nation" which traced the links between Afghanistan and the bombers who attacked the World Trade Center for the first time in 1993. The documentary, which was shot in Afghanistan during the civil war there and aired in 1994, concluded that the country would be the source of additional anti-Western terrorism. From 1998 to 1999 Bergen worked as a correspondent-producer for CNN. He was program editor for "CNN Impact," a co-production of CNN and TIME, from 1997 to 1998.
Utopia is placed in the New World and More links Raphael's travels in with Amerigo Vespucci's real life voyages of discovery. He suggests that Raphael is one of the 24 men Vespucci, in his Four Voyages of 1507, says he left for six months at Cabo Frio, Brazil. Raphael then travels further and finds the island of Utopia, where he spends five years observing the customs of the natives.
The Winnebago Voyage is sure to put wind in your sails. As captain of the road, you expect quality construction and functional features. The Voyage will exceed your expectations and add an element of luxury with galley and bathroom solid-surface countertops, full-size residential shower, premium furniture, and solid wood slideout fascia. Frameless tinted windows and high-gloss gel coat fiberglass painted front-caps look striking with the Red, Green, or Blue graphics package choices with exterior LED lighting colored to match. Floorplans which maximize space and minimize weight make the Voyage a great catch. When you're ready to set sail in style with a quality-built mid-profile fifth wheel, call your local Winnebago dealer.
An early evidence of the impact of Utopia in Europe appeared in Rabelais's first book of Pantagruel (1532) in which a section is entitled "The Expedition to Utopia." Actually the narrative in no way resembles Utopia, but there are incidental parallels. Details of the voyage from France to Utopia are in a general way reminiscent of More's account of the travels of Hythloday. And it is noteworthy that Rabelais called the inhabitants of Utopia the Amaurotes, a word derived from More's name for the capital city of Utopia.
The first book is told from the perspective of More, the narrator, who is introduced by his friend Peter Giles to a fellow traveller named Raphael Hythloday, whose name translates as "expert of nonsense" in Greek. In an amical dialogue with More and Giles, Hythloday expresses strong criticism of then-modern practices in England and other Catholicism-dominated countries, such as the crime of theft being punishable by death, and the over-willingness of kings to start wars (Getty, 321).
(Ho Chi Minh City) Vietnam is known for its lush, emerald green mountains, outstanding cuisine, and welcoming citizens. Here you can explore the Cu Chi Tunnels where Viet Cong soldiers lived and fought, travel by boat through the Mekong Delta, sample world-class pho, or bike through small villages. Students often enjoy a three-day trip to Cambodia from Vietnam to interact with an NGO that educates and trains disadvantaged locals in rural areas for employment in the hospitality industry.
I bought a used 2005 Pontiac Sunfire two weeks ago from 507 Motorsports. Before I purchased the car, I had it professionally inspected for any issues (I paid $250 at Brown's Auto Care (nearby), to include a compression engine test - engine tests are expensive -- a regular inspection is about $100). The only issue that was found was a leaky oil seal. 507 Motorsports adjusted the price accordingly. One week later, I discovered that my windshield washer fluid dispenser wasn't working due to a huge crack in the reservoir. 507 Motorsports owner, Jason, tried to fix it for me for free with heavy duty epoxy, but there is still a small crack in it. He said that if I bring him a new water reservoir, then he'll fix it for free. I don't think that the car was sold to me with a broken reservoir (I checked it before leaving the lot, and the windshield washer fluid dispenser worked). After I bought the car, several people (snow tire installers, back-up camera installers, Brown's Auto Care - to fix the leaky oil seal) messed around near that area, and perhaps it was accidentally cracked. At any rate, I bought a car in good mechanical condition (the important stuff is working perfectly) with new tires at 507 Motorsports for a really good price, so I'm happy (I discovered that when I had my snow tires installed that my car came with new all-season tires). My recommendation is that if you are serious about buying a car at 507 Motorsports (or any used car dealership that doesn't offer a warranty/guarantee), it's best to pay $100 or so for a semi-thorough inspection at a nearby auto shop, and if something is broken, the dealership will work with you to fix it before you buy it because they want happy customers. Otherwise, go to a place that sells certified, warrantied pre-owned vehicles (you will be paying much, much more for the car than a measly $100 inspection) and buy your car there.
Among the works that Wells wrote before World War I, the closest to a classical utopian piece is A Modern Utopia. It is utopian specifically in that Wells held a firm belief in the progress of mankind toward perfection; hence, he confidently pictured a bright future. The term "modern" in the title was meant to convey the idea that he intended to keep his picture within the realm of reasonable possibility, avoiding excessively visionary treatment of the theme. For that reason he was unwilling to adopt certain features that were traditional among the majority of earlier utopists.
The importance of More's Utopia in the history of utopian literature begins to be clear as we examine the documents published in the century following its publication. Patterns of uniformity and occasional divergences have been displayed. The utopian societies described — without exception — develop systems aiming toward equality and justice. Equality is attained in nearly every instance through community of property and the elimination of money, also through equitable sharing of labor, community rearing of children, and often community dining. Plain, uniform clothing is usually prescribed, and any kind of luxury or ostentation is discouraged, Bacon's New Atlantis excepted. The governments are made up of carefully selected elders of demonstrated character and competence. Variations appear in connection with the question of community of women, proposed by Plato but rejected by More. Campanella and some later writers follow Plato but most follow More. The acceptance of slavery in the community, approved by both Plato and More, is not adopted by their followers.
Morocco is an immensely rich cultural center point of north-western Africa that exudes influences of all of the proximal regions, including Spain and the Mediterranean, Egypt, the Sahara Desert, and the Atlas Mountains. The port of Casablanca, established in the 20th century, is a busy metropolis and home to the Hassan II Mosque, the second largest in the world after Mecca. Teaming with color bazaars and exotic culture, Casablanca and nearby Rabat and Marrakech will give voyagers a taste of a culture far different from any other place.
Journey received high acclaim from critics who praised the visual and auditory art direction as well as the emotional response playing with a stranger created. It received the IGN Best Overall Game Award for 2012 and Ryan Clements of IGN described the game as "the most beautiful game of its time", saying, "each moment is like a painting, expertly framed and lit".[3] Jane Douglas of GameSpot concurred, calling it "relentlessly beautiful" and lauding the visual diversity of the world and the depiction of the rippling sand; Matt Miller of Game Informer added praise for the animation of the sand and creatures, saying the game was visually stunning.[1][2] The music was also complimented, with Miller describing it as a "breathtaking musical score" and Douglas calling it "moving, dynamic music".[1][2]
These statements occur near the end of Book 1, which began, after some preliminaries, with a conversation about the justice of the death penalty for theft. (In an endnote on page 145, Miller tells of a report from 1587 that "in the reign of Henry VIII alone 72,000 thieves and vagabonds were hanged.") Hythloday believes that theft is a necessary consequence of personal property. Unstated but evident is that he believes also that personal property is not only a sufficient condition for theft (which makes theft a necessary consequence of it), but also a necessary condition for theft (which makes theft contingent upon it). Removing personal property, then, removes the possibility of theft, he believes: with the unexamined assumption that you cannot steal what you already own in common with everyone else. But of course you can: you take it and keep it for yourself so no one else can use it, taking what belongs to everyone, and not sharing it with anyone. Only the coercion of others, through established law or otherwise, can alter this. But then you are back to the existence of theft and social restraints to admonish and respond to it.
Reviewers of the game praised the visual and auditory art as well as the sense of companionship created by playing with a stranger, calling it a moving and emotional experience, and have since listed it as one of the greatest video games of all time. Journey won several "game of the year" awards and received several other awards and nominations, including a Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media nomination for the 2013 Grammy Awards. A retail "Collector's Edition", including Journey, Thatgamecompany's two previous titles, and additional media, was released in August 2012.
The politics of Utopia have been seen as influential to the ideas of Anabaptism and communism.[citation needed] While utopian socialism was used to describe the first concepts of socialism, later Marxist theorists tended to see the ideas as too simplistic and not grounded on realistic principles.[citation needed] The religious message in the work and its uncertain, possibly satiric, tone has also alienated some theorists from the work.[citation needed]
The Millennium: A Comedy of the Year 2000 by Upton Sinclair. A novel in which capitalism finds its zenith with the construction of The Pleasure Palace. During the grand opening of this, an explosion kills everybody in the world except eleven of the people at the Pleasure Palace. The survivors struggle to rebuild their lives by creating a capitalistic society. After that fails, they create a successful utopian society "The Cooperative Commonwealth," and live happily forever after.[28].
As one of the most populous nations in the world, India is bustling with a vibrant culture influenced by a variety of religions, including Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism, and Sikhism. Explore the Taj Mahal, one of the world's seven wonders, or travel to the holy city of Varanasi on the Ganges River. Get a taste of how 70% of Indians live by visiting the rural, traditional Chendamangalam village.
The story of the transformation from the nineteenth-century capitalist-industrial society is explained to the narrator by an old man who has made a study of the revolution that brought about the change. Before the outbreak of armed revolt, conditions for the common workers grew gradually more intolerable, and unions banded together in an organization similar to the AFL-CIO. The establishment ordered the machine-gunning of unarmed protesters, and the people finally learned how to fight back. Certain features of this history are reminiscent of the French Revolution, but others actually foreshadow developments and actions which occurred in the twentieth century, like the firing into the crowd of protesters in Petrograd by the Czarist guards.
Unlike many games, where different songs have different themes for each character or area, Wintory chose to base all of the pieces on one theme which stood for the player and their journey, with cello solos especially representing the player. Wintory describes the music as "like a big cello concerto where you are the soloist and all the rest of the instruments represent the world around you", though he describes it as not necessarily orchestral due to the inclusion of electronic aspects.[28][31] The cello begins the game as "immersed in a sea of electronic sound", before first emerging on its own and then merging into a full orchestra, mirroring the player's journey to the mountain.[32] While the game's art style is based on several different cultures, Wintory tried to remove any overt cultural influences from the music to make it "as universal and culture-less as possible".[28] Tina Guo features as the cellist for the soundtrack. She is a close friend of Wintory and has since performed "Woven Variations" with him, an eight-minute orchestral variation on the Journey soundtrack.[31] All of the non-electronic instruments in the soundtrack were recorded with a live orchestra.[29]
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CSA (Creative Studios of Atlanta) provides actors and voice over artists with professional level training that allows students to advance from all levels – beginner to professional.
CSA students train with Mr. Ken & other experienced guest instructors who are working industry professionals; who also have a passion for teaching. These learning opportunities with top-level casting directors, producers, directors, agents, and actors in the film, television, and voice over industry give you the most valuable and comprehensive training available in Atlanta.
In addition to acting, Mr. Ken teaches "kids of all ages" how to be comfortable being uncomfortable. He helps actors develop strong, dependable, healthy & lasting relationships with their peers.
Mr. Ken believes in the power of positive thinking and his critiques focus on what actors do well, and what they can improve on. These critiques are honest and uplifting and the positive feedback helps actors reinforce their strengths, while naturally correcting bad habits and behaviors as students focus more on what they are doing right; allowing actors and their careers to soar to new heights.
At CSA we don't want to put anyone into a box. We want every actor who walks through our doors to be the best actor & person they are, in their own unique way. Mr Ken does not tell actors what they should or should not do; instead he helps them discover what they are capable of. At CSA we foster independence, confidence, self-awareness and the ability to be a responsible risk-taker.
Working predominantly with kids, we know that not everyone who trains with us will continue to act their whole life, so our students will learn life skills they can apply to any field they choose to go into with a focus on acting. Past young students who have not chosen to continue their acting career have gone on to be very successful in chess, debate, public speaking, school leadership and other varied interests; and their parents have shared with us that they attribute the ease in which success was possible for their children was due to the self awareness and confidence that was reinforced or gained from learning acting with Mr. Ken.
At CSA we know working the entertainment industry is invigorating. It can also be scary. With that in mind, we have created an acting home for people who want to get serious about working in the industry. We built our school in a converted residence because it is important that our actors can walk in the door and feel like they have arrived at their home-away-from-home. We have a kitchen you can use to prepare your meals if you don't have time between work or school. We have a spacious back yard that doubles as our back lot that you can relax in before or after class. We have comfy wicker furniture on our porch that you & your classmates can lounge in during breaks, and our back deck also serves as an amphitheater & outdoor classroom.
The programs, classes and master level workshops at CSA allow actors and voice over artists to advance from all levels – beginner to professional – while training with experienced instructors who are working industry professionals. These learning opportunities with top-level casting directors, producers, directors, agents, and actors in the film, television, and voice over industry give you the most valuable and comprehensive training available in Atlanta. Classes can be taken at our converted residence in downtown old Alpharetta, at the Goat Farm in Atlanta, or at AWP (Atlanta Workshop Players) on Holcomb Bridge aprox 4 miles off 400.
Ken Feinberg, the founder and CEO of CSA, calls upon a productive three-dimensional career that embodies directing, casting and performing. For over 25 years Feinberg has been directing, writing, producing and acting in award-winning films, hit television series and major theater projects in Los Angeles, New York and Atlanta. Feinberg now passes his knowledge and experience on to students through a diverse curriculum covering acting, directing, and screenwriting at CSA. He established The CSA Film Academy for Young Actors, a highly selective, 9-month intensive program to mentor talented young actors and their parents for professional careers in the industry. Many of Feinberg's students have starred in feature films, series regulars on television, commercials, voice over, print, billboards and even Broadway.


Search around for networking advice and you're likely to unearth the same sensible-sounding tips again and again: leverage social media, focus on how you can help, attend lots of events, take people out for coffee, etc.
These are all solid suggestions for those early in their careers, but if you're hoping to connect with those at the pinnacle of success, you're going to need another game plan. Those at the top of their profession are more likely to be annoyed by your LinkedIn request, cold email, or canned cocktail party introduction than intrigued by it. Most likely of all, they'll simply ignore it.
So how do you break through the noise and create genuine connections with the extremely high powered? Duke University's Dorie Clark has a suggestion, which she calls inbound networking.
"The world is competing for the attention of the most successful people. If you want to meet them -- and break through and build a lasting connection -- the best strategy is to make them come to you," she explained on HBR recently.
To do that you'll have to make yourself extremely interesting to your professional heroes. That sounds like a tall order, but Clark offers three concrete tips to help you attract the attention of the super successful.
What sets you apart from the crowd? Why would a super busy professional want to meet you? If you want to connect with the most successful people, you're going to need to answer these questions first. You're not just looking for professional plaudits or great career successes, you're also looking for the quirky details of your life that might spur real interest and bonding. When it comes to networking with top people, "the way to genuinely capture their interest is to share something that seems exotic to them," claims Clark.
We're often better at evaluating the strengths and experiences of others than we are at examining our own, so Clark suggests you "ask your friends to identify the most fascinating elements of your biography, your interests, or your experiences.... At one recent workshop I led, we discovered that one executive had been a ball boy for the U.S. Open tennis tournament in his youth, and one attorney is an avid and regular surfer in the waters of New York City. Both are intriguing enough to spark a great conversation."
Not coming up with much when you comb your life for fascinating nuggets? Then maybe you need to focus on being more interesting before you attempt to play with the big dogs.
"Almost nothing elicits more interest than genuine expertise. If someone is drawn to a topic that you're knowledgeable about, you'll move to the top of their list," points out Clark. No surprise there. But she takes this straightforward truth in a slightly unexpected direction.
Work-related knowledge is valuable, but "sometimes it's even better when your expertise is outside the fold of your profession," Clark continues. Bill Gates and Warren Buffett didn't bond over business, she points out -- they bonded over bridge.
"When you're an expert in a given niche, you can often connect on a level playing field with people who, under other circumstances, might be out of reach," Clark concludes. "If you know a lot about wine or nutrition or salsa dancing or email marketing or any of a million other subjects, people who care about that topic are sure to be interested in what you have to say."
Everyone and their brother attends networking events. If you really want to stand out, why not go through the extra trouble of hosting one?
You might need to start with your own circle of acquaintances, but by asking those who attend your events to invite others, you can slowly expand your reach. "At a certain point you'll gain enough momentum that professionals who have heard about the dinners will even reach out to ask for an invitation," predicts Clark. Not much of a chef? Then why not try creating a Facebook group or starting a Meetup?


Use a separate email for bank accounts – There is now a multitude of banking options for today's society, and being able to check your accounts online is possible as well. You can do this by registering for their online banking services, but you cannot do so without a valid email. Since you will be connecting your email to a bank account—something which is of real value and can impact your finances should something ever go wrong, you must use an email which you use only for the purpose of banking transactions. This way, you lessen the risks of getting spam mail, or leaving it open in computer shops when you answer personal emails. Try to restrict the use of your banking email for just banking purposes, and make sure that you have a strong password for this email.
Separate your work and personal email – This should be a given, but there are times when people tend to overlook this. Have an email account you use strictly for work, and another one strictly for personal purposes. You can also open another one strictly for your social media sites to improve further on your email security. This helps you become a more organized professional by seeing only work-related emails at work and not being distracted by personal emails from friends or family. By separating your work and personal email, you are setting a clear line on how you use your email inbox, and you are also able to keep things more organized especially for work.
Have an email which you use for online registration purposes – You know what it's like—you register for an account online and you will get notifications of every little thing that happens after you have activated your account. When you use your personal email for online registration purposes, you will have that tendency of clogging your inbox with notifications you really don't read. This may lead to not being able to notice personal or work email if you use the same email for registration purposes. Because of this, it would be good to have an account which you use solely for online registration purposes.
Make sure you remember your alternate email address details – When you sign up for different accounts, you will be asked for an alternate email address to which they will send information if you forget the details for your new account, so make sure you remember the alternate email address you use. Better yet, use a single alternate email address so that you know which email to run to for recovery purposes.
By having multiple email addresses for different purposes, plus updating your password every once in a while, and checking your inbox to make sure everything is still okay, you will benefit from these email security practices!
What did you think of today's article? Feel free to comment below and share your best email security practices!
This entry was posted in Cloud Computing and tagged alternative email address, email security, email security tips, TAPNET on May 15, 2014 by Loren.
Your email allows you to register for profiles, gain access to an online inbox, get in touch with people from all over the world, and have a reliable online mode of communication. However, there are some people who wish to do you harm for personal gain and targeting your email security is one of their tactics. Because of this, you must be prepared for consequences which may affect your online use. One of the ways to do so is to have an alternate email address.
What is an Alternate Email Address?
An alternate email is another active email account which email providers ask you for in case you lose track of your current email address's password. Upon registration, you will be asked to provide an alternative email address to which your password and other log-in details will be sent in case you forget or have troubles signing in to your new email account.
A strong password – Your password for this alternate email should be strong and hard to figure out in case it is used for verifying a person's identity when trying to access your other email account.
Active – Although something which is attributed to you and not the email itself, the alternate email must be active. You should regularly check it and comply with whatever security measures the email provider asks you to do.
Updated – This is something that you do on your end as well. If you want to ensure that you won't lose your contacts, add them as contacts to your alternate email. This way, you can notify them from your alternate email if anything unfortunate happens to your other email which you regularly use to get in touch with them. Take some time to add the most important contacts you have to your alternate email so that if bad scenarios turn worse, you can easily inform the people you need to inform.
An alternate email is another way of verifying your identity. This way, it helps counter identity theft. Just make sure that you know all the security answers for the alternate email and that you won't forget the password.
Should something ever happen to your primary email address like getting a suspicious email and having it hacked—you can still notify people you need to contact when you have an active alternative email that has your contacts as well. This allows you to warn them if ever they receive anything from the other email account which you no longer have control of.
Overall, an alternate email allows you to still have control over your accounts if something unexpected happens. It would mean an extra level of security for your primary email address and more protection for your online mode of communication!
How do you maintain your email security? Do you have an alternative email? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
This entry was posted in Email Security and tagged alternative email address, email security, email security tips, TAPNET on May 5, 2014 by Loren.


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Why We Should Try Reason as an Alternative to Belief
Sep 2, 2019·9 min read
Image by Corbis
The human brain is small and evolved to cope with the challenges of the African savannah and the primordial forests of Eurasia. As complex organs evolve relatively slowly in comparison to individual lifespans our brains are pretty much the same as those of people who lived 30,000 years ago.
Most of our brain is occupied with mundane tasks like keeping the heartbeat regulated, making sure our lungs fill and then empty as needed, ensuring we don't fall over when we're walking, and interpreting the myriad inputs from our sensory organs. There's not much of the human brain that's actually dedicated to thinking and that's because for the most part throughout our evolutionary history there wasn't much benefit to be had from burning up precious calories on reasoning.
Our brains have inbuilt heuristics about associating effects with causes, seeing intentionality everywhere, and identifying important patterns. While these heuristics are frequently fallible, back in our ancestral environment they were adequate enough to ensure overall that the species survived.
For the most part, blind acceptance of what we were told by authority figures and subsequent unquestioning belief was enough to see our ancestors through their short and difficult lives.
The human brain today operates on exactly the same basis: we default to belief and we almost never engage in any form of reasoning. Of course, we don't realize this because we don't see ourselves from the outside. From the inside our thoughts and actions seem perfectly adequate to us. When reality differs from our beliefs we studiously ignore reality. Sometimes this strategy causes us problems but mostly it works well enough that we can carry on imagining that we're smart and stable and doing alright in this strange game of life.
Most of us are content to go from cradle to grave without ever once attempting to reason about anything. We accept what we're told, we believe it, we go through life trying to ignore the fact that many of our beliefs are contradicted by empirical evidence and are often not only internally contradictory but also quite incoherent. None of this bothers us because we're hardwired not to notice. Cognitive dissonance back on the African savannah would have resulted in doubt and hesitation and back then doubt and hesitation would frequently have been lethal. Thus we evolved to bumble along confident in our beliefs even when they are risible and absurd.
Today however many of us live in environments where doubt and hesitation are not likely to be fatal, especially if experienced in the relative security of one's own home. This means that, should we wish to make the attempt, each of us individually can try our hand at this reasoning thing.
How does reasoning work? There have been surprisingly few studies, but from what we do know it seems the most reliable way to reason from facts and arrive at coherent conclusions is to begin not as we almost always do with assumptions and beliefs but with an attempt to imagine we don't already know the "obvious" answer.
This is actually very hard to do because we hate the feeling of not knowing something. Back in our evolutionary history, not knowing something was often fatal. If we didn't know how to make fire or spot the tracks of a predator or know who in the tribe was scheming against us, the consequences were quite often lethal. The discomfort we feel when we realize we don't know something is an evolutionary adaptation that drives us to seek an answer as rapidly as possible. Thus we embrace the first easy-to-understand "explanation" we encounter in order to rid ourselves of discomfort.
But if we want to reason rather than merely believe, we have to train ourselves to accept temporary discomfort. We need to create the space in which reasoning can occur.
Let's look at a simplified model of how reasoning works. First of all we identify the problem: what is it we don't know? Then we consider what information we will require in order to begin to reason about the problem. After this we set out to acquire the information and understand it adequately. Finally, we can begin to reason about the implications of the information we've digested. Once we have formed a hypothesis about the problem, we check to see if the elements of our hypothesis are internally consistent as well as being externally consistent with all known real-world facts. If our hypothesis passes these tests we can have some modest confidence that it may be a reasonable conclusion.
We can use this model to perform a compare-and-contrast case study. Back in 2016 the people of the United Kingdom (England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland) were asked to vote on a binary referendum question: did they wish to remain part of the European Union or leave that Union? Those in favor of remaining presented abstract arguments while those in favor of leaving told simplistic emotionally-resonant lies that were basically children's fairytales about golden palaces and free ice-cream forever. Not surprisingly, when confronted with a choice between having to attempt to reason versus embracing free ice-cream, a slender majority of people voted for the ice-cream.
Those who voted for free ice-cream did the following: they accepted unquestioningly the unfounded assertions of the pro-Brexit campaigners, they never performed any primary research, and they never asked themselves whether the claims being made in favor of Brexit were internally consistent and consistent with publicly available information. Brexit voters responded as humans generally do when presented with claims by purported authority figures: they accepted and believed automatically. After all, what child of any age would be silly enough to turn down free ice-cream forever?
Reasoning, however, would have led the UK down a very different path. Commencing with a position of not knowing, a reasoning voter would have ignored the claims of the two sides and looked instead for publicly available information relevant to the decision: the dependence of the UK on the friction-free single market, the size of this dependence, and the total economic impact of this dependence (number of jobs, impact on GDP, etc.). A reasoning voter would have looked at issues such as immigration and assessed what the true impact had been to date. A reasoning voter would also have considered the complexity of the relationship between the 28 EU member states, the treaties binding them together, and the probable difficulty of unwinding those treaties. A reasoning voter would have looked for data which would indicate whether severing this long-standing relationship would yield gains greater than the costs, or vice-versa.
A reasoning voter would then have examined the claims being made by both sides and would have assessed these claims in light of actual facts. A reasoning voter would have ignored empty emotional claims such as "take back control" because a reasoning voter would have identified them as meaningless. What could "take back control" possibly mean in a global inter-connected world in which all parties to a transaction must conform to mutually agreeable standards? Indeed, a reasoning voter would have seen that the entire Brexit campaign was based on false claims and empty promises and would have concluded that those making these claims and promises were either insincere or abjectly stupid (or both).
Finally, a reasoning voter would have formed a hypothesis: "leaving the EU will be an extremely complex undertaking, will result in the UK economy being harmed significantly for a very long period of time, and the claimed benefits of this action are implausible or downright illusory." Checking this hypothesis for internal consistency would have shown it to be consistent. A reasoning voter would therefore have voted to remain in the European Union because all the publicly available information, plausible scenarios, and evident costs consistently indicated this was the most favorable choice.
In real life, of course, we don't reason.
This is why most people even today, after the extraordinary efflorescence of fact-based knowledge we've enjoyed over the last two hundred years, continue to believe in gods and goblins and ghouls and ghosts, in spirits and souls and precognition and all manner of other nonsense. The amount of nonsense we are prepared to believe is evidence in itself of the incapacity of the human brain to do even the slightest reasoning. That's because all of these notions, when examined for more than a fraction of a second, instantly fall apart in a jumble of incoherence and self-contradiction.
Our tiny human brains are evolved to infer intention, because for all of our existence it has been very important for us to guess what those around us are thinking and planning. If Mary gives Jane a sly sideways glance that may well mean they are plotting harm against Sally. Inferring this can give Sally a chance to form her own alliances in order to combat that harm. We're hardwired to see everything from a me-centric perspective. Everything that happens in our lives appears to happen around us so we feel as if we're the center of the universe.
This solipsistic view of the universe was for the most part beneficial: we steal food from our neighbor because our survival is more important than his, and we are the first to run from the leopard because our survival is more important than that of the slower members of our tribe.
A solipsistic view of the universe is, however, inconsistent with reality. The universe is vast and impersonal and non-teleological. The universe is not our own private butler, nudging us to learn lessons and making things happen for a reason. These vapid ideas are merely the consequence of the fact our brains are tiny and unsuited to grasping the impersonal immensity of reality. That would have had no evolutionary benefit whatsoever, so our brains never evolved to do it.
We believe in "souls" because primitive people knew nothing about neuroscience and they wanted to explain the strange feeling we have that there is something "inside" our bodies that "makes us us." Today we know the illusion of a consistent internal self is manufactured by the brain and we know how partial it is. Just as we're unaware of the two holes in the center of our vision (where the optic nerves exit the back of the eyeball) because our brains fabricate the illusion of completeness, so too we are as individuals unaware of the many gaps in our consciousness and the fallibility of our sensory inputs. We imagine we are coherent and complete when in fact we're an inconsistent patchwork of highly fallible sensations.
This understanding, however, would require us to go out and read scientific journals and acquire the necessary knowledge. It would also acquire us to set aside our childish preconceptions and the various myths we've absorbed uncritically over the years. It is far easier to believe whatever we happen to believe because belief requires no effort. And so that's what we do. We continue to cling to our gods and ghouls, our spirits and souls, because not-reasoning is the default option for the human brain.
Unfortunately, in our modern technological world not-reasoning now has terrible consequences. Because we invariably multiply our gods and goblins we go to war with those who believe in fractionally different imaginary magical creatures. We vote for blustering incompetents because it's easier to believe their lies than to expend the effort required to consider whether those lies are plausible or not. We believe that people with different hues of skin are better or worse than we are, and act accordingly. We believe our gods and goblins have a plan for us and we embrace that plan. And all the while our astonishing technologies amplify our folly, wreaking harm on a scale unimaginable to our ancestors who clung on to existence on the African savannah and in the primordial forests of Eurasia.
Although the human brain is very small and largely unequipped to perform reasoning tasks, it is now essential that we make the effort to attempt to reason, at least on those occasions when we're confronted with choices that have large consequences. The work of a relatively tiny number of clever people has given us technological marvels by means of which we can do great things or do great harm. Increasingly we're doing the latter because we're continuing to operate as we did tens of thousands of years ago when our technologies consisted merely of flints and wooden spears.
The human race doesn't have much time remaining in which to grow up. Our path to mental adolescence is via reasoning. Very few people have ever attempted this path but it is imperative that more of us begin the journey today for if we continue down the road of belief we most likely will end by exterminating ourselves and whatever is left around us.
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