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Catherine A. Hastings
Catherine A. Hastings, 68, passed away on Sunday, November 15, 2020 at Hospice & Community Care after being diagnosed with ALS in May 2019. Born in Frankfort, Germany, she was the daughter of the late Edgar A. and Myra Swinford Hastings and the wife of Robert E. Useller of East Petersburg, PA. Cathy graduated from Florida State University, College of Social Sciences, where she received her BA degree summa cum laude, and from Purdue University, where she earned both her Master of Science (MS) and PhD in Marriage and Family Therapy. She was an Assistant Professor for the Marriage and Family Therapy Program at Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS. While there, she served as Treasurer for the Kansas Association for Marriage and Family Therapy and for 2 years as a consultant with an organization designing creative problem-solving approaches for Fortune 500 companies. Cathy was coordinator of the Family Therapy, Child & Adolescent Unit at York Hospital, York, PA from 1986-1991. She worked at F&M College as Associate Director and Counselor for the Student Counseling Services from 1991-1996. She served as a Clinical Therapist of couples and marriage therapy for the Samaritan Counseling Center. Most recently, she maintained an independent couples, individual and family therapy practice in Lancaster from 2007 to 2019 when she retired. Throughout her career, Cathy was a champion for her chosen profession. She served on the national board of the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy (AAMFT), where she was a clinical supervisor and instructor. She also served on the state board of the Pennsylvania Association for Marriage and Family Therapy (PAMFT) and helped to secure legislation for licensure of marriage and family therapists in the commonwealth. A published author in her field, Cathy extended her reach beyond those colleagues who already knew of her insight, intelligence and compassion. A true advocate for professional growth and self-care, she was always willing to offer encouragement, provide support, and share resources with her peers. For over 30 years, Cathy demonstrated a genuine interest in helping individuals, couples and families grow and heal in her therapy practices. Regardless of their presenting problem, scores of grateful clients benefitted from her safe and trusting style, her empathic and positive approach, her gentle and thoughtful questions, and her caring and hopeful direction. The counseling community, one and all, both admired Cathy for her wisdom and loved her for her kindness. Outside of work, Cathy was equally committed to helping others, simply because she believed it was the right thing to do. With apparent ease, she uplifted those she met, spreading love and joy along her path. She began each day with Bob on a morning run and carried that energy throughout her days. When diagnosed with ALS, she confronted it with the same determination and perseverance that allowed her to complete several marathons, including the Marine Corps Marathon in Washington DC, twice. Though ultimately Cathy lost her battle to the disease, she took her last breath with Bob by her side and peace in her heart. Her family and friends, and indeed everyone whose lives she touched, will always remember her grace and beautiful spirit. In addition to her husband, she is survived by her brother, Gregory Hastings (Beth), Franklin, TN and many cousins and nieces and nephews. A private Celebration of Life Service will be held at The Groffs Family Funeral Home. The family wishes to make available a live webcast of the service starting on Tuesday, December 8, 2020 at 2:00 p.m. that can be found at https://client.tribucast.com/tcid/92285405. Memorial contributions in Catherine's name may be made to ALS Research at Penn State Hershey Medical Center. Checks should be made payable to Penn State University – ALS Center, Penn State Hershey Medical Center, (RESEARCH), Department of Neurology, EC 037, 30 Hope Drive, Hershey, PA 17033 or Samaritan Counseling Center, 1803 Oregon Pike Lancaster, PA 17601 or Hospice & Community Care, 685 Good Drive, Lancaster, PA 17604-4125.
Catherine A. Hastings, 68, passed away on Sunday, November 15, 2020 at Hospice & Community Care after being diagnosed with ALS in May 2019. Born in Frankfort, Germany, she was the daughter of the late Edgar A. and Myra Swinford Hastings and... View Obituary & Service Information
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Home IN-DEPTH IN-DEPTH: Bad Breeding – Anti-Capitalist Working Class DIY Punk At Its Best
IN-DEPTH: Bad Breeding – Anti-Capitalist Working Class DIY Punk At Its Best
WORDS: EMMA MURPHY
When a band submerges a hydrophone into the Thames in order to demonstrate the working class, industrial geographic of their roots, you know we're talking about punk.
Bad Breeding have been on the scene since the release of their first tracks, 'Burn This Flag' and 'Age of Nothing' way back in 2014 and since then have released three full length albums all as politically charged and galvanising as the last. Released on June 21st Exiled, in the words of vocalist Chris, "serves as a direct comment on the impact of neoliberalism on places like Stevenage, a town where large sections of the community have been ignored, but also abused as a matter of ideological course."
While not strictly anarchist, the band is far from subtle with the political themes that saturate their music. In fact this contempt for the "boot-end of late capitalism" spills over into multiple art forms including essays, artwork and film, which are often Crass-esque in nature and as easily accessible to the public as possible. The band "work with a close-knit community of people to make the artwork, write the essays and produce the videos, each of whom have varying interests in the genre and also have an interest in conducting conversations about working-class experience that transcend the mocking caricatures of television media and the 'mainstream press'".
"What we do comes as a direct result of what we have experienced in our local community…"
"Much of what Bad Breeding does is inspired and centred on the material conditions of those that write the music. What we do comes as a direct result of what we have experienced in our local community – a town battered by neoliberal greed and suffocated by the tightening grip of Conservative austerity."
In the 80s Stevenage, the hometown of Bad Breeding, was home to the Bowes Lyon House (now the Bowes Lyon Centre) which was a foundation for a thriving DIY punk scene "but you can't put on gigs there anymore. Licensing issues and the continued stomp of commodified culture has killed the live music scene here. Instead we've had to travel and make friends elsewhere in order to play shows."
Regardless, Bad Breeding are truly DIY. All self-taught musicians the band stress the importance of a physically, geographically close, community-like scene: "in terms of physical community-building that offers people a constructive platform for discussion and the space to play, close-knit DIY scenes will always be crucial – not just in terms of offering marginalised sections of communities with the chance to express themselves, but they are also important in political organisation by pulling together likeminded people in a room.
"Going to shows doesn't need to be about the monetary exchange for entry…they can potentially be fertile ground for organising movements of solidarity."
"So many tangents of 'punk' have been commodified and commercialised, harnessing a collective spirit in a room still allows you to challenge the entrenched logic of capital through the power of the collective, even if it's just for a few hours. Going to shows doesn't need to be about the monetary exchange for entry, high merchandise costs and parading obscure band t-shirts, they can potentially be fertile ground for organising movements of solidarity and potentially progressively radical modes of protest".
Bad Breeding are currently signed to One Little Indian, the record label owned by Ex- Flux Of Pink Indians bassist Derek Birkett who from day one was "understanding of the band's ideology and standpoint on a lot of issues. The determining factor for us was the ability to keep control of what we did and to not get involved in deals that were counter-productive for the band, both financially and ideologically".
The chances of sharing a Christmas dinner with label-buddy Bjork, however, are apparently very slim.
Bad Breeding are currently on a tour of Europe. Catch them at the following dates:
bad breeding

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Jury Awards Man $6M After Spending 23 Years In Prison for Wrongful Conviction
Posted on December 14, 2021 by HoodReportTV
According to reports, a North Carolina man named Darryl Howard was awarded $6 million in damages by a federal jury after spending over 20 years in prison for a wrongful murder conviction.
Howard was convicted of the murder of Doris Washington and her 13-year-old daughter in 1991. However, a former detective named Darryl Dowdy reportedly fabricated evidence to get Howard convicted. Howard served 23 years of the 80-year sentence he was handed before his conviction was put aside in August 2016.
Howard spoke on the decision, saying, "I'm happy about the verdict, but I'm just kind of upset about the damages. Twenty-three years of my life… but I'm happy about the verdict." Howard reportedly filed a federal civil rights suit in 2017 that accused the city of Durham, Darryl Dowdy, and more of a wrongful conviction.
Howard had hoped to get $48 million in damages as requested and noted he doesn't feel like justice has been served in the matter. "I'm not gonna put a value on it, I mean, just imagine 23 years I stayed in prison. It's the lowest [amount] I've ever heard of but it is what it is," said Howard.
source: News Observer
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DD-WRT Forum :: View topic - Incorrect NVRAM Total Size on K3.X builds?
Incorrect NVRAM Total Size on K3.X builds?
Posted: Sun Jan 10, 2016 21:17 Post subject: Incorrect NVRAM Total Size on K3.X builds?
I have a Belkin F7D3301 / F7D7301 router.
On K2.6 builds, it reports total NVRAM size as 32 KB.
On K3.X builds, it reports total NVRAM size as 128 KB or 256 KB.
That's impossible, right? A router can't magically increase NVRAM size no matter what firmware is running.
Will this become an issue?
Posted: Sun Jan 10, 2016 22:31 Post subject: Re: Incorrect NVRAM Total Size on K3.X builds?
A router can't magically increase NVRAM size no matter what firmware is running.
At times it seems to be a bit crazy --- but that is really a whole different topic.
The increased NVRAM size is a key part of dd-wrt broadcom k3.x ... it should not be a problem for you.
Unless my memory is wrong, then why does the CFE show a different NVRAM available size?
I flashed a 32K build from the start (21605) but it changed total to 128K. Later builds doubled it. I didn't flash any tailored build that said 64K or more. In fact, the custom builds for this router don't even work as DD-WRT will report instantly flash successfully upon uploading the firmware via webGUI.
You're thinking of the base nvram partition; k3x builds expand it in the application code.
In fact, the custom builds for this router don't even work as DD-WRT will report instantly flash successfully upon uploading the firmware via webGUI.
That normally happens when the build size gets too big for your router/model (and also if I try to use the 'reset after flash' option).
E.g. the 28647 k3x builds are too big, but 28598 flashes on my WNDR4000 (has other issues, but that's another story).
Oh so that explains why running "nvram erase" in DD-WRT can spell disaster.
As for build size, I'm on the latest version mega Broadcom generic. However, if I try flashing the F7D7301 tailored build, I get the instant flash success with zero changes and sometimes increased NVRAM consumption.


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Litel Technology
Big capaciity solar power light Solar home system
Mini Red Lantern solar String Lights for Patio Garden Holiday Home Decorations
rural rwanda is home to a pioneering new solar power idea - solar energy traffic lights
by:Litel Technology 2019-08-17
Nearly 20% of the world's population has no electricity.
Rachel Nuwer tells the story of a group of London graduates who are apparently desperate to help thousands of people in Africa get energy from the sun.
Can their ideas teach one or two things to Western Power suppliers?
Fidel Mberabagabo lives on a muddy road
Building mud and concrete houses on both sides surrounded by hazy, soft green hills.
Like most people in the rural Rwamagana area of Rwanda, he is a farmer.
Like them, the finances are tight;
He never knew how much he would make in a month.
But Mberabagabo's life is now different from many of his neighbors in an important way: he has electricity.
In developed countries, it is assumed that the light bulb will be turned on as soon as the switch is gently pressed;
They can get unlimited power to charge a lot of equipment;
Their well-
The reserved refrigerator and the heated house with artificial cooling will maintain the right temperature.
But as anyone who has experienced the aftermath of a hurricane or finds himself in a power outage will prove, life will basically stop if these precious facilities are taken away.
However, for all our dependence on power, about 1.
There are 2 billion people around the world-16% of the world's population-who are simply inaccessible.
In Rwanda, for example, less than 20% of the population lives in houses with electricity-a fact that hinders development and increases poverty.
This is a huge problem that determines many of the problems we face in the 21 st century.
For some, however, such statistics are not despair but opportunities.
"This is an untapped market," said Laurent Van Hook, chief operating officer of BBOXX, London.
US-based companies
Power grid energy to the developing world.
"There are huge opportunities to start a business, and there is a great possibility of affecting life.
For Van Houcke and his colleagues, rural residents like Mberabagabo who are short of electricity are not charity cases but real customers.
Their solution:
Profitable companies that make, install and affordable loansEfficient solar energy-
Power charger.
In just four years, they have brought power to about 130,000 households and businesses in 35 countries-and by 2020 they are targeting more than a million.
It all started with Imperial College London.
While others focus on providing resumes for future careers in the banking or consulting sector, electrical engineering student Van Hook and his two BBOXX co-
Founder Christopher Baker
Brian and Mansoor Hamayun decided to set up Equinox: a charity dedicated to powering up several communities in Rwanda.
In the summer of 2009, when they flew to Rwanda's friendly Kigali,
Back in the capital, they can see clearly the challenges facing the country.
There are many lookout points in this mountainous city. You can see charming buildings painted with cream and yellow colors, dotted with parks and several high-rise buildings.
But after sunset, a previously invisible partition appeared: the light suddenly stopped outside the core of the capital.
If there are so many citizens in Rwanda who still cannot access electricity, how will it achieve its goal of becoming "Singapore in Africa?
Instead of staying in Kigali, they spend most of their time living and working in rural communities in Rwanda, where there are about 200 families.
As they explore various ways to power new neighbors, they realize that the grid will never Power Rwanda and other people who are currently out of power: these communities are scattered in huge areas, too poor, such a large infrastructure cannot be afford.
They came up with a great idea: their conclusion is that Africa will, to a large extent, bypass the grid and go straight across Europe and North America into the solar sector-just like skipping landlines, this is rare in rural Africa and mobile phones are popular.
It is encouraging that their field survey also shows that many Africans in these communities fully accept the idea of paying for solar energy.
"If you go to the customer, tell them," You paid $5'
"Kerosene and batteries are $20 a month, but at the same price, you can use electricity," said Hamayun, CEO of BBOXX-well, it's a very easy sale.
"Governments and development agencies also understand that solar energy is long-standing.
Long-term solutions for these customers.
This encourages them to transform charity into charity. profit venture.
"Ultimately, our motivation is to scale up our business, which means making money and charging customers, rather than seeing them as beneficiaries," Baker said.
Brian, CTO of BBOXX
So why be money? Do business?
This means long-term investment: free projects and charity
Organized giveaways often do not have a lasting impact because they are often one-off
He said their reliance on donor funds also limits their scope.
The company needs to raise investor funds to enable them to build a team and bring technology to standard.
However, even though they found something on the ground, as Hamayun said, almost everyone they came into contact "thought that what we were doing was very dangerous and could not be expanded because it was Africa.
He continued that the first round of financing proved extremely difficult because there was no real precedent for developing technology operations in Africa.
"These customers are not fully served in all possible ways," he said . ".
They eventually found Khosla Impact, an initial investor who believed in the idea.
At the same time, three other similar
At the same time as BBOXX was launched, grid solar companies also appeared. Indeed, pay-as-you-
Go solar is an increasingly popular solution that can bring power to people who have never had electricity in Africa.
Mobisol in Berlin
Installation of 85,000 units in Tanzania and Rwanda;
The off-grid power company in San Francisco serves 50,000 households in Tanzania; and M-
Kenyan company KOPA has provided electricity to more than 500,000 families in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania.
Efforts to date have been concentrated in East Africa, but it is undoubtedly a matter of time for more companies to join the roster and expand the existing roster.
According to a recent report by the World Bank Group, energy storage in global emerging markets is expected to grow by 40% annually over the next decade.
It turns out that the technology itself is the easiest part to start and run these operations.
In BBOXX's case, the solar energy collected from the panels on the roof was stored overnight, while the remote connection on the 2g battery network allowed the geographic location and performance data to be sent back to headquarters
The algorithm monitors the health of the device and allows the team to proactively replace the faded battery (
Usually three years later).
As for payment, the team realized very early that rural customers could never afford BBOXX units.
So they chose to pay. as-you-
Monthly installment plan.
"This removes the huge upfront hurdles that solar systems in the developing world usually face," Baker said . "Brian says.
Customers can also purchase accessories that BBOXX aims to minimize energy use, including razors, smartphones and 24-
Compared to 24 Watts of the same Western model, it consumes 11 watts of power.
Finally, people can pay by mobile phone transfer.
"We don't accept cash," Baker said . "Brian says.
"We are 100% mobile currency"-a decision to take advantage of cash preferences --
Free payments that appear across Africa.
Five months ago, when BBOXX set up an office in Rwamagana, the area where Mberabagabo lived, he was one of the first people to register.
The technology "changed my life," he said.
Four lights from his family enhanced their sense of security.
Becoming an intruder, he also realizes that he no longer needs to light candles and lights that emit smoke, and he knows that it is harmful to the health of his children.
As the father of the five children, the light means that the older children of Mberabagabo can read and learn at night and then sleep.
"Now, we have enough time to do whatever we need to do," he said . ". 13-year-
Old Claude, his oldest child, said he "liked" the TV he rented at home and their first TV.
For the best viewing, Mberabagabo set it up in a home theater room with no windows, cool and complete except for the TV and the bench located opposite
Although Claude was stunned by a football match in Brazil the most recent afternoon, he insisted the news was his favorite show.
He is shy and polite, and even if a foreign journalist asks him if he is sure that sports and cartoons are not his favorite, he will stick to this unexpected answer.
"Now I can know who is in the government," he explained . ".
"I can ask better questions at school.
Indoor Solar LED bulb rechargeable portable Solar Emergency Bulb
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Gareth has unboxed an efergy Elite Classic Energy Monitor Set for a challenge set by Moneysupermarket.com. Over the next month Gareth will be monitoring this electricity consumption and attempting to make a saving by comparing his results online.
In this video Gareth opens up the Elite Classic 3.0 In-Home Energy Monitor and one of two EMS 2.0 In-Home Energy Monitors. With these devices Gareth hopes to get a handle on his energy consumption, and perhaps identify a better tariff. To compliment the challenge we will be linking to content with some tips for consumers on the MoneySuperMarket.com website.
Energy comsumption is something that is always at the back of our minds. We hear stories of how leaving your TV on standby contributes a little extra to your energy bill over the course of the month. I am just a guilty as the next man for thinking that it cannot be that much and the hassle of actually turning it off at the wall is more than worth the cost. When Moneysupermarket.com contacted me with the opportunity of actually seeing the impact these little indecresions had on my electricity bill I had to admit it might be time well spent.
An important factor is that I do not come under the standard "Big Six" on the mainland. England has a dizzying variety of energy providers and all I hear is horror stories of tariffs, confusion and contracts. Here is cosy Northern Ireland we have the "Big Two," Power NI and Airtricity. At the moment I believe these companies offer only one tariff each and what you see is what you get. Over the next month I will investigate the options, tariffs and prices available and when the results of the study are revealed I may be asking some very simple questions to those companies about the findings.


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You are here: Home / News / Car News / Features / Great Motoring Disasters: MG XPower SV
Great Motoring Disasters: MG XPower SV
March 16, 2015 /0 Comments/in Features /by Richard Bremner
When BMW sold the venerable British car company Rover in 2000 after six years of ownership, the new management decided to party like it was 1999.
This would be a different kind of car-company, they said, one that bunked off motorshows, ran non-PC ads and moved with the kind of creative agility that its German masters had never allowed.
What we didn't know back in 2000 was the agility with which its bosses – later to be known as the Phoenix Four – set about enriching themselves while attempting to secure the business a viable future. But that's another story.
Beside the non-appearance at motor shows, the partying also included the more than credible recreations of the Rover 25, 45 and 75 as the sportier MG ZR, ZS and ZT, and a judicious facelift of the MGF sports car into the (mostly) improved TF. These cars made a promising start, and the ZR even went on to become Britain's best-selling hot hatch.
Madness begins
Then came some lunatic, kids-in-a-sweetshop moments, and the quietly growing suspicion that MG Rover's management wasn't entirely devoted to issues of business survival. The front wheel-drive Rover 75/MG ZT would be converted to rear-wheel drive, fitted with a huge 4.6-litre V8 engine from a Ford Mustang sports car, and turned into a muscle car. World Rally motorsport specialists Prodrive were commissioned to engineer this complex project, and with decently impressive results given the inconvenient start point.
But less than 1,000 MG 260 ZT saloons and ZT-T wagons were sold before MG Rover crashed, speeding the company towards the moment with its sizeable and irrecoverable cash burn.
There was a Le Mans 24 Hour racing car project, too. True, the famous French circuit was not an inappropriate place for MGs to appear – works MGBs had competed decades earlier – but funding this escapade when the business had yet to turn a profit seemed like madness. In fact, the MG EX275 Lola showed some promise, mustering a terrific turn of speed if not the necessary reliability. The car would later spear silverware at other circuits, but not while MG Rover was involved.
Still, the top managers enjoyed their trackside 24-hour beer tent.
Creating a halo
But their most eye-brow raising manoeuvre, apart from getting rich, was the decision to buy the failing Italian sportscar maker Qvale. Who? Qvale Automotive had taken over the development of an Italian V8 sports car originally known as the De Tomaso Bigua, which it renamed Mangusta. But Qvale was struggling, providing MG Rover with the opportunity to buy the project pretty cheaply and develop it into a high performance MG halo model.
The Mangusta had a clever lightweight steel chassis, enabling MG Rover to create an all-new body relatively easily. The task now was to develop that body, which fell to former Lotus and McLaren F1 designer Peter Stevens, now freelancing as MG Rover's design director. His team's first shot was the MG X80, shown as a concept at the 2001 Frankfurt Motor Show and soon considered too tame for the job.
MG's Italian supercar, with added Longbridge
What came next was a machine that Italian chief engineer Giordano Casarini, who came from Qvale with the project, described as a car 'that will aggress you'. It wasn't perfect English but it captured the SV brilliantly, the MG's look as unsubtle as a machine gun at a christening. Squat of stance, bold of nostril, bewinged and big-bonneted, the SV was far from beautiful but certainly exuded a crude kind of power. Which it almost had, a Ford V8 engine developed by tuning specialists Roush Industries and Sean Hyland throbbing beneath its huge snout, from where it fired 320bhp at the rear wheels.
What made this muscle car different was the substance of its body, which was a mix of steel and exotic carbonfibre. The steel chassis was made by Vaccari and Bosi in Modena, the carbonfibre mat was made by Britain's SP Group and constructed by Italy's Belco Avia from 3,000 different pieces. The complete shell weighed just 65kg, the 1,495kg SV a spectacular 300kg less than the Mangusta. The chassis and carbon shell were then shipped to Turin's OPAC Group, a supercar engineering services supplier in Modena whose customers included Ferrari and Lamborghini. They assembled the body around an FIA motor racing-spec roll-cage, before returning it to Vaccari and Bosi for running gear installation.
For a while, MG Rover even had an office in Modena under its MG Sport and Racing subsidiary to mastermind this mad and madly convoluted shuffling of sub-assemblies. But it all sounded quite glamorous, even if the SV's final trim and assembly took place back in small Kwik-Fit-like workshop in the shadow of the giant Longbridge, Birmingham factory.
A bargain supercar?
The SV was launched in 2003 as the least expensive carbonfibre-bodied car on sale. Such was the quality of its carbon panelling – which bettered Ferraris of the day – that it won MG Rover an award.
But even if you could live with its fearsome looks, the case for the SV was hard to make against the mainstream sports cars you could buy for its absurd £75,000 ticket. Porsche, Jaguar and Maserati all made comparably performing and vastly more desirable machines for less money, and their owners would not need the defence skills of a lawyer to justify their purchase.
SV sales were alarmingly slow, leading MG Rover to develop the more potent 375bhp SV-R. It had a promising 175mph top speed and 4.9 second 0-60mph sprint time – and a still more delusional £82,950 price tag. For that, you could have a race-derived Porsche 911 GT3 supercar. And that was before you unearthed the poor fit and finish of the SV's interior, the unreachable seat recline knobs, the transmission tunnel-enforced homelessness of your left foot, the map-reading lights that were too dim to read maps by, the cumbersome four-point racing harnesses and the fact that the Ford V8's go was delivered as if it were waking with a hangover.
MG SV: so close, yet..?
Plusses? The MG felt admirably robust, it handled pretty tidily and cruised with a lot more quiet than its vagabond styling suggested. In fact, its manners were almost ludicrously tame for its looks. It was vastly better than the Qvale Mangusta.
MG Sport and Racing was on the brink of taking a knife to the SV-R's price when its struggles suddenly evaporated. MG Rover plunged into receivership in April 2005 with only 80-odd SVs and SV-Rs produced. The last of these would not find a buyer until 2008.
In truth, MG Sport and Racing were far from unaware of the SV's shortcomings. It had a made bad car half-decent, and learnt some valuable skills on the way. With these, it was planning a follow-up that would eclipse it with ease. That dream was abruptly – and predictably – dashed 10 years ago.
Tags: Bremner, Car Features, Great Motoring Disasters, MG
https://i1.wp.com/www.motoringresearch.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/01_MG_SV-1.jpg?fit=1800%2C1200&ssl=1 1200 1800 Richard Bremner https://www.motoringresearch.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/mr-top-motoring.svg Richard Bremner2015-03-16 17:12:342015-03-16 17:12:34Great Motoring Disasters: MG XPower SV
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How fatty diets stop the brain from saying 'no' to food
Published	 Friday 24 August 2018	 Published	Fri 24 Aug 2018
By Maria Cohut
People with obesity often encounter difficulties when it comes to regulating their eating habits, since their bodies no longer know when they are and are not hungry. Researchers ask why this happens.
How does a high-fat diet impair the brain's ability to send out the 'stop eating' signal?
How do we know when to eat, and when to stop eating? Easy: we feel hungry, so we know it's time for a meal.
Then, when we feel full, we know it's time to put down the cutlery and get on with our day.
These states of hunger and satiety occur due to the brain's ability to "decode" the signals of two key hormones: the so-called "hunger hormone," ghrelin, and the "energy expenditure hormone," leptin, which is released when it's time to stop eating and start burning those calories.
Obesity, researchers point out, is frequently characterized by leptin resistance, which means that the body is unable to "read" the signals sent by the hormone that typically curbs appetite.
What remains unclear is how leptin resistance develops, and which elements in the leptin-brain circuitry are affected.
A new study from the University of California, San Diego and a number of international research institutions has revealed that high-fat diets may impair the brain's capacity to "sense" leptin, therefore leading to leptin resistance.
The researchers have published their findings in the journal Science Translational Medicine.
The enzyme that damages leptin receptors
"Our hypothesis," says first study author Rafi Mazor, "was that an enzyme breaking down proteins into amino acids and polypeptides can cleave membrane receptors and lead to dysfunctional activity."
That is, the researchers wanted to test whether, in the process of metabolizing the fatty foods, the body creates a type of molecule that "cuts off" the leptin receptors found on the neuronal cells in the hypothalamus, which is the region of the brain that typically receives the leptin signals.
Just 5–10 percent weight loss has surprising health benefits
Shedding a small portion of that extra weight may do you the world of good, research suggests.
They tested this hypothesis in a mouse model of obesity in which the animals were regularly fed a high-fat diet.
Indeed, Mazor and colleagues found that their premise had been correct. The brains of mice that had eaten a fatty diet produced a protease — a type of enzyme — called "metalloproteinase-2" (Mmp-2).
Activated Mmp-2 then cuts the leptin receptors found on the membranes of neuronal cells in the hypotalamus, thereby impairing the brain's ability to tell when it is time to stop eating.
The scientists were able to identify Mmp-2 and confirm its impact on leptin receptors by assessing protease activity in the brains of mice with obesity. By looking at the response of leptin receptors, they noticed that Mmp-2 activity was preventing them from binding to leptin.
Moreover, in laboratory cultures of brain cells with leptin receptors, Mazor and team observed the same effect: Mmp-2 exposure impaired the cells' response to the hormone.
Conversely, when the research team engineered a group of mice not to produce Mmp-2, the animals did not gain much extra weight — even when they ate a fatty diet — and the leptin receptors in their brains remained intact.
'A new field of study for metabolic disease'
By observing this mechanism at play, the researchers have also started to develop a strategy that, they hope, would be able to block it. Therefore, they ask whether using Mmp-2 inhibitors could counteract leptin resistance and help individuals shed extra weight.
"When you block the protease that leads to the receptors not signaling, you can treat the issue," believes study co-author Prof. Geert Schmid-Schönbein.
The scientists aim to eventually develop such an inhibitor themselves; in the meantime, they are planning to conduct a study with human participants, so as to verify whether the same leptin-blocking mechanism applies.
"In the future," Mazor adds, "we will try to find out why proteases are activated, what is activating them, and how to stop it," adding, "There is still a lot of work to do to better understand receptor cleaving and the loss of cell function while on a high-fat diet."
"We opened a new field of study for metabolic disease. We need to ask what other pathways, in addition to leptin and its receptors, undergo a similar destructive process and what the consequences might be."
Rafi Mazor
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Here, the authors characterize how silver ions nucleate a star-block copolymer to generate nano-sized silver particles.
Covalently Entrapping Catalase into Calcium Alginate Worm Pieces Using EDC Carbodiimide as a Crosslinker.
Catalase is a biocatalyst used to break down toxic hydrogen peroxide into water and oxygen in industries such as cheese and textiles. Improving the efficiency of catalase would help us to make some industrial products, such as cheese, less expensively. The best way to maintain catalase's conformation, and thus enhance its activity, is to immobilize it. The primary goal of this study was to find a new way of immobilizing catalase.


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Quentin Tarantino Has An Idea For a 'Rambo' Movie Starring Adam Driver
"Nothing is over!"
ScreenCrush Staff
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The new Quentin Tarantino movie is almost here — watch the trailer now!
Blu-Ray Must Haves
Given how much space physical media takes up, it's hard for movie buffs to say no to the great promise of "cloud storage," and the idea that we could summon anything we want to watch with just a couple of clicks. But so far, reality hasn't matched the hype. Streaming services have been focused on exclusives and original programming, to the extent that the only way to have access to everything available is to spend hundreds of dollars a month on subscription fees. Meanwhile, older films keep disappearing from the digital archives; and even items that cinephiles "own" sometimes become inaccessible whenever software updates or a site shutters.
Noel Murray
Quentin Tarantino Says He'll Retire After Making Two More Films
Might as well call it quits while you're on top, right? That's what Quentin Tarantino is thinking. The 53-year-old filmmaker has eight films under his belt and only plans to make two more. After that, he says he's retiring.
Petition Launched for Quentin Tarantino to Direct 'Deadpool 2' After Tim Miller's Exit
When Tim Miller exited Deadpool 2 over creative differences (with Ryan Reynolds, of all people!) we were pretty shocked. The first Deadpool was great, an R-rated, funny, and blood-soaked respite from the formula we've come to expect from Marvel, and the prospect of a sequel was equally as exciting. But with Miller's exit, Deadpool's future has become a little more uncertain — so uncertain, that fans have set up their own petition to get Quentin Tarantino for the sequel instead.
Kill Bill Hair Dryer [VIDEO]
This video is the reason the internet was invented! This guy has the coolest blow dryer that makes a very familiar sound effect in the Kill Bill movies. Just hit play, you won't regret it!
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You Think You Know Tarantino? Watch This 'Kill Bill' Video and Test Your Knowledge!
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Two collaborative exhibitions featuring an impressive collection of photographs by Paul Thomas of the decaying interior of Shoreham Cement Works alongside a series of exploratory texts responding to the same site by Mark C. Hewitt, with accompanying events in Shoreham-by-Sea and Steyning.
June 2007: thirtyfive-a gallery, Brighton, as part of Architecture Week South East with commissioned audio descriptions by artist Rachel Gadsden.
Accompanying event at Ropetackle Centre, Shoreham, as part of Adur Festival 2007.
May 2008: Chatfields, Steyning, as part of Steyning Festival 2008 and architecture08. Accompanying event in the gallery.


I'm a pediatric nurse practitioner, but I'm also a mom. I understand completely when worried parents come into our practice and want quick answers about their child's injury or illness. That's especially important when it comes to head injuries.
With what we've learned so much in recent years about the potential long-term impacts of concussions, We must take the right precautions to protect kids from head injuries and also diagnose them properly. And that's why we tell parents not to rush in to a computed tomography (CT) scan for their kids.
Each scan exposes a child to significant levels of radiation. Last year, the New Jersey Hospital Association joined with hospitals and pediatric providers across the state in a public outreach effort called #ScanSmart. Our goal is to protect kids from the downstream risks of exposure to radiation through unnecessary scans.
· use ionizing radiation to take several images — a diagnostic tool which provide important information to the medical team about a child's injury.
· expose the patient to much higher levels of radiation than an X-ray — 60-80 times greater in comparison with a routine X-ray.
· carry a small risk for cancer — however, children are much more sensitive to radiation than adults, and they will be exposed to increasing amounts of radiation over their lifetimes.
Use Lowest amount of radiation needed.
I'm happy to report that this effort has decreased the number of unnecessary CT scans in children with minor head injuries by 30.8 percent so far, protecting those them from the potential impacts of radiation later in their lives.


After a lengthy search, the Board of Directors for It Is Written Canada (IIW) has appointed Michael Lemon as its new Speaker. Lemon holds bachelor degrees in theology and education and served as a pastor, teacher, and evangelist for 30 years in Canada and South Africa, most recently as teacher and chaplain at Fountainview Academy in British Columbia.
The Lemons have two daughters, Jo-Ann and Miclain, and the family will be relocating to the Oshawa area this summer.
It Is Written Canada's mission statement as a media evangelism ministry is to impact people within Canada through presenting an attractive picture of Jesus Christ through television, social media, faith-sharing resources, and public evangelism. For more information about IIW Canada, go to iiw.ca.


well im 37 divorced have 3 kids who live with there mum. i my self like going for wlks, camping and long drives. i love the out doors. i like to read fiction books ,play squash,and pool. love watching my team play football. hanging out with friends, love also dinning out at resturants.
i am looking for some one who is carring,loving and understanding. A life time partner and friend. you need to enjoy linf and have fun love one another and need to be honest, spontanouse ,cute and have a lovely smile. Need to respect alders .


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Hibernation: How it works, why animals do it, and the creature that can sleep for up to 11 months
John Lewis-Stempel January 10, 2022
Perhaps the phrase should be 'sleeping like a hazel dormouse'? Credit: Alamy
Dormice sleep for months, hedgehogs snore in quilts of moss and wood frogs turn to ice — a spellbound John Lewis-Stempel investigates the annual mystery of hibernation.
The world in winter: when the earth is cold and unforgiving, the days short and food scarce; when the mind of the animal is preoccupied by a single thought — survival. Some, such as the swallow, flee to warmer climes; some of the less fleet-of-wing enter a state of diapause or dormancy: the winter sleep of forgetting and sanctuary. Birds don't do it, but ladybirds do, likewise the bumblebee, the painted lady butterfly, the grass snake, the frog and three of our mammals — the bat family (all 17 types of them), the hedgehog and the dormouse.
Hibernate is from the Latin hibernationem, 'the action of passing the winter', although the dry logic of Latin fails pitifully to encompass the mystery and the miracle of the suspended animation by which the tiny dormouse can sleep soundly for more than half a year and wood frogs turn to ice, then revive.
Hibernation: when the living are dead, a natural phenomenon to be distinguished from 'torpor': hibernation is protracted and voluntary, torpor is the involuntary, occasional winter snooze of badger and squirrel. There are different 'switches' that turn dormancy on, the most common being connected with temperature and the length of daylight. That pest of potato crops, the Colorado beetle, begins its preparation for hibernation when daylight dips below 15 hours a day.
Hibernation is a process, with the slumber preceded by feasting. The hibernator's main pantry is its body. Thus the Colorado beetle greedily devours potato leaves before starting the zombie state, queen bees regale on pollen and nectar and hedgehogs pig out, fattening up by ½lb; 30% of its body weight will be fat. The dormouse doubles down on food, doubling its weight. Like the dormouse, the British mammals that hibernate to avoid the hard, hungry times are insect-eaters, or part-insect eaters; in winter, the huzz and buzz of the insects is all but gone, replaced by the sound of silence. Bats can be seen hanging upside down in the dark places from November to April, clustering together for warmth.
Dormice may begin their winter sleep as early as October. Quite our champion snoozer, the dormouse — hence, of course, the name, from the French dormir. The edible version (Glis glis) holds the mammalian record for hibernation, at a teenager-envy-inducing 11 months.
Hibernating, mammals live at a lower temperature and slow their bodies down. A hedgehog's heart rate drops from 190 beats per minute to 20 during the long lethargy; a dormouse's blood temperature sinks to just above freezing; bats reduce their breathing to five breaths a minute.
Greater Horsehoe Bats (rhinolophus ferrumequinum) hibernating.
So chilled out are bats during hibernation that they may be kept in a fridge, although a more usual winter roost is the church steeple, cottage attic or hollow tree. Some hang out in the original bat cave.
Hedgehogs and dormice, meanwhile, prefer their winter quarters at ground level, often in the cranny base of a brambly hedge. Dormice weave nests, hedgehogs wrap themselves around in moss and grass, but both snug solutions are quilts of warmth and camouflage. Inert, inside a cloak of concealment, with metabolism suppressed by 90%, little of the hibernating dormouse or hedgehog is left for a predator to detect. Except that Mrs Tiggy-Winkle sometimes snores in her hedgerow 'hibernaculum'.
Brown-breasted Hedgehog (Erinaceus europaeus) hibernating inside hollow fallen tree.
As dormouse and hedgehog sleep, ladybirds creep into cracks under loose tree bark, or into the corners of window frames, where they huddle in hoards. Other flying insects, retreating to the sheltered places to see out the winter, replace their 'blood' with the antifreeze of glycol. These include some of our most brilliant butterflies — the peacock, small tortoiseshell, comma and brimstone, as well as the painted lady.
Reptiles and amphibians go into a version of hibernation called brumation. Because the cold-blooded things rely on the sun to regulate their body temperature, hibernation is essential for their survival in colder climes. However, their 'ectothermic' nature means that they are entirely reactive to temperature; if the winter sun comes out, so do they. The scaly things do not sleep the deep sleep of overwintering mammals.
Frogs will hibernate on the bottom of ponds, but are equally to be found under a rock or log — as are the rest of their amphibian ilk. The toad in its lengthy lethargy seems stone-like itself, until it blinks drowsily at the tidying gardener. This movement in the eye of the disturbed hibernator reminds us that when they are asleep, they are also aware. The sensors and synapses of the hibernator's autonomic nervous system remain operational. A slumbering bear can detect an intruder at 50ft. If a mammal is in danger of freezing, an internal alarm will start a re-warming mechanism, such as quickening the heart to produce more heat or temporarily semi-waking the animal so its shivers lift its temperature.
As you might expect, climate change is wreaking havoc on hibernators. Scientific investigations have indicated that rising temperatures in the UK and beyond are causing hibernators to be active more frequently and for longer times during winter, causing them to use up vital energy. If the cold snap returns and no food is around, their chances of survival are drastically reduced. In the Himalayas, brown bears have been found to be napping not at all, an unbearable stress that has left them sore-headed and aggressive towards humans. We can hardly blame them.
So, should you see, on some unaccountably warm winter's day, Mrs Tiggy-Winkle bemusedly wandering the bare, desolate garden, offer her a bowl of water and a chunk of Fido's tinned food — it is a small amend to Nature.
Sleeping beauties: the bird that hibernates and other stories
The only bird that hibernates is the common poorwill, a nightjar species found in North America. Hiding in a hollow log or patch of grass, the bird enters torpor for weeks, even months.
In extremely hot, dry countries some creatures avoid the high temperatures and drought by going into a similar state of sleep called 'aestivation' or summer sleep.
The dwarf fat-tailed lemur of Madagascar is the only known primate to aestivate; it lives off fat reserves in its tail during a long dry season.
Bears practice a form of super dormancy termed 'denning', after the hibernaculum they excavate in earth or snow, in which they neither eat, drink, urinate, nor defecate. Although female black bears give birth during denning (which may last between six and seven months), their cubs do not hibernate alongside the mother.
Black Bear (Ursus americanus) mother hibernating with one year old cub.
Arctic squirrels lower their body temperature to below freezing during hibernation. In one study, the rodents' body temperatures were recorded at -2.9˚C, almost certainly the lowest core body temperature ever recorded in a mammal.
During hibernation, 65% of the water in the body of the wood frog turns to ice. The frogs stay frozen for up to seven months before thawing out.
Even fish can hibernate. Antarctic cod (Notothenia coriiceps) cuts its metabolism by two-thirds and burrows under the seabed for days on end during dark Antarctic winters.
Humans might possess the genes allowing hibernation, as suggested by instances in which individuals frozen in accidents are revived without apparent ill effect, notably the case of Swedish skier Anna Bågenholm. In 1999, she spent 80 minutes trapped in freezing water beneath 8in of ice, her body temperature falling to 13.7˚C, before she was freed. Over many months, she recovered. Mother Nature's natural hibernators, of course, can warm up and get going in mere minutes.
Kew's 2022 list of vital plant species, including a mushroom with teeth, an orchid that grows only in the dark and the Leonardo di Caprio tree
Curious Questions: Are snowflakes really all unique?
Country Life's 10 best nature stories of 2021


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OFF THE BLOTTER: Police news from around Downriver
By The News-Herald |
PUBLISHED: March 28, 2011 at 10:00 p.m. | UPDATED: June 17, 2021 at 12:07 p.m.
The following incidents are compiled from crimes recently reported by Downriver police departments.
A 12-inch piece of copper was stolen between March 17 and Monday out of Martenson Funeral Home, 10915 Allen Road.
The copper is valued at $20.
Two vehicles parked on Kolb Avenue were broken into March 21.
A Royce CB radio was stolen out of a vehicle parked in the 8100 block. A CD player, an iPod and an MP3 player were stolen out of a vehicle parked in the 8000 block.
– Peter Jurich
Someone scratched the paint on a 2010 Ford Escape parked Thursday in the 28000 block of Walnut Creek.
The parents of three boys caught breaking street lights Sunday on Woodruff Road have told police they will pay restitution for the damage to have the lights replaced.
A man walked into the PCS store, 26194 Telegraph Road, last Wednesday and asked about a product.
As the clerk was explaining the product, the customer punched him in the head, knocked him to the floor and left the store. The man is described as white and in his late 20s or early 30s.
A 30-year-old Flat Rock resident driving on Gibraltar Road near I-75 allegedly cut across traffic heading to a gas station, failed to yield to oncoming traffic and struck a vehicle traveling east.
After investigating the accident, police suspect the driver might have been operating while under the influence of narcotics. They are awaiting test results.
– Anne Sullivan
Someone kicked in the door of a house in the 33100 block of Young Drive on March 4 and stole jewelry, a laptop computer, a video game system and an assortment of games.
A resident of the 22000 block of Castelle called police Monday to report that someone stole a cell phone and a cell phone charger out of his 1995 Dodge pickup truck. The owner said the unlocked truck was parked in his driveway.
A 1987 trailer was stolen out of a yard in the 38200 block of Pennsylvania on March 19.
The trailer was chained to a tree in the yard and the chain had been cut.
A resident of the 26100 block of Denning Road called police March 18 to report that someone threw a cinder block through her bedroom window.
Police were called back two days later on a report of damage to a vehicle parked at the house. A taillight and a reflector assembly were damaged.
A set of car wheels and rims were stolen out of the yard of Darling International, 3350 Greenfield Road, at about 2 p.m. Monday.
A witness said a man who claimed to be employed with the company loaded them in a truck and drove away.
A purse was reported missing out of a house in the 19100 block of Wood Avenue the morning of March 18.
A 34-year-old resident reported a missing wallet on the night of March 18.
She told police she was at Children's Hospital of Michigan in Detroit at about 1 p.m. and had taken out her wallet to pay for valet parking. While at home several hours later, she realized the wallet was missing.
It contained two credit cards, an ATM card, a $25 Border's gift card, between $80 and $100 cash and her driver's license.
A 31-year-old Wyandotte woman was arrested for driving with a suspended license at about 8:30 p.m. March 20 on Pennsylvania Road near Quarry.
An officer checked the plate on her 2000 Saturn LS1 and the computer revealed that the registered owner's license had been suspended.
The driver said she was aware of the suspension, but was unable to keep up with payments she owed for tickets and driver responsibility fees. She was released on a $270 bond.
Police were sent to the 17000 block of Valade at about 9 a.m. March 21 to take the complaint of a 77-year-old resident who said her medical walker had been stolen off her front porch the previous night.
The woman said this was the second time in two months that her walker was taken off the porch.
– Jim Kasuba
Police were called to the Chrysler engine plant, 2000 Van Horn, at about 8:45 a.m. Friday after an employee found a fake $20 bill in the parking lot.
The counterfeit bill was confiscated.
A resident of the 3900 block of Trumbull called police Thursday to report that someone had fraudulently used his debit card, making purchases of almost $500 from a website.
The man told police other sales were pending on the debit card as well.
Police arrested a 19-year-old Riverview man for disorderly conduct at about 6 a.m. March 16 after he pounded on the door of a house in the 4000 block of 18th Street. The resident said he did not know the man.
Officers saw the man pounding on the door and yelling for the resident to let him in. Police said he appeared to be on some type of drugs. He had poor motor skills, slurred speech and difficulty keeping his balance.
A preliminary breath test indicated he had not consumed any alcohol.
A 64-year-old woman who was moving into a house in the 1300 block of 12th Street told police that someone stole items she had stored in the garage. The incident was reported March 16.
A snowblower and tools were among the missing items. There was no sign of forced entry.
A 17-year-old girl was arrested March 16 for disorderly conduct and resisting and obstructing police.
Officers went to the 200 block of Second Street to take the girl's complaint that her ex-boyfriend refused to give back their young son after she allowed him to have the boy for a few hours.
As an officer was explaining her rights, the 21-year-old father arrived in his vehicle. The girl yelled and swore at the man and pushed him. After resisting arrest, police said, she "went limp" and had to be carried to the patrol car.
Police stopped the driver of a 1996 Chevrolet S-10 for speeding on Biddle Avenue, near Pine, at about 5:30 p.m. March 17.
The 19-year-old Flat Rock man had a suspended license and could not provide registration or insurance papers for the vehicle. He was ticketed and the truck was impounded.
A Kenwood radio/CD player was stolen out of a 1996 Ford Mustang in the 4000 block of 17th Street on March 19.
The thief ripped the dashboard apart and left behind a screwdriver and a butter knife, both of which were taken as evidence.
A Wyandotte officer assisted in the arrest of a 46-year-old Detroit man believed to have stolen six cartons of cigarettes out of CVS/pharmacy, 13545 Eureka Road, Southgate, on March 20.
The officer was told that a man wearing a blue coat with a hood had just stolen the cigarettes. The officer saw a man fitting that description running east across Fort Street.
After the man refused to stop, he was tackled by an officer. Six cartons of cigarettes were in his sweatshirt. He was turned over to Southgate police.
The man is listed as a parole absconder, with original charges of retail fraud.
Police arrested a 37-year-old Wyandotte woman at about 1:30 p.m. March 21 after stopping the 1993 Chevrolet Lumina she was driving at Riverbank and Sixth Street for an equipment violation and because the registered owner was wanted on warrants.
The woman admitted to having a suspended license. She said some form of identification might be in her purse and the officer could look for it. While looking in the purse, the officer found a silver pipe, burnt on both ends, commonly used for smoking crack cocaine.
Other drug paraphernalia also was found, including containers with cocaine and marijuana residue.
She was arrested for driving with a suspended license and possession of drug paraphernalia. She also was wanted on one Wyandotte warrant, three Dearborn warrants and one Southgate warrant.
On March 21 or 22, someone entered an unlocked 2007 Ford Edge in the 1500 block of 12th Street and stole a men's black leather trifold wallet containing a credit card and an ATM card. A cell phone also was stolen.
The News-Herald


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From transference to the heirosgamos
"These are angels!" I called out "Yes," he replied, "that is you." I saw the gray curtain that separated the two angels, and the teacher explained, "That is the veil of illusion." It had lots of holes. I was deeply moved and shouted, "Oh, it's falling away, it's falling away," and I had the feeling that thousands of years that had been lived through in the half-conscious hope that it could be broken through were now fulfilled. I went to the angel who was "me" and saw a silver string reaching down from him into a very tiny creature that was also "me" in the realm of illusion. Another string reached down into a woman down there. It was Alberta. The two angels seemed identical and sexless, and they could "think together" in a kind of identicalness (that sometimes happened to me with Alberta in reality "down there'). And we thought, "Such a small part of our consciousness lives in these little creatures, and they worry about such little things. Poor little creatures!" And we saw that their union could not come about properly if the two little creatures did not fulfill their obligations to those near them rather than following their egoistic desires. And at the same time it was clear to us that it would be a sin against that "ultimate reality" (a sin against the Holy Ghost?) if we did not go on with the process of mutual striving for consciousness.
(from Psychotherapy, by Marie-Louise von Franz)
I seem to be smack dab in the middle of some serious Animus work (projections, transference, etc.), as will be obvious to anyone who's read the last few months of this blog, and this post is largely a continuation of the post about relationships I'd done a couple of months ago. In that post I explored how romantic attachments (or obsessions) are a part of the individuation process. This post is a really condensed overview of what I think that process looks like - I'll go explore the various aspects in later posts.
The hierosgamos, the sacred marriage of Goddess and God, is basically the symbol of ultimate individuation, the union of opposites. It's often associated with other images of individuation (like the Holy Grail) and I think it's the reason why we tend to be obsessed with romance in our society. We no longer fall in love with God (or Goddess); now, the literal relationship between men and women has become the sacred space where we meet the Other. And this can lead to some serious problems, as is obvious from the high divorce rates our marriages suffer from. But if our romantic relationships are a kind of vale of tears, it's also where we meet the Soul... if we're lucky. And if we work hard.
As usual I'm going to be borrowing heavily from Marie-Louise von Franz because, quite honestly, I couldn't really say it better than she has.
The anima is a kind of desire or a system of expectations that a man has in relation to a woman, an erotic-relationship fantasy. If outer expectations like ordinary sensual desire or schemes regarding money, power, and so on, get mixed up with it, everything is lost. Thus conscious recognition of the anima means loving the other for herself and for love's sake. "When I follow my love, then my love is fulfilled." Only for a man who pursues the anima for her own sake does she become Beatrice. For such a man she becomes a bridge to the transcendental realms. "Meditating, I followed the path of love," as Dante expresses it. But the anima is initially also to be found in a man's ambition, and thus she entangles him in guilt and error if he does not consciously recognize his lust for power. If a man is incapable of this, he finally ends up completely isolated in a state of possession
We could also apply this description to the animus, which is really a system of understanding.
For the animus what counts is insight or truth for truth's sake over and against any admixture of sensuality or power craving. Only a woman who loves the truth for its own sake can integrate the animus, and then he becomes, like the anima, a bridge to the Self, that is, to the knowledge of the Self. And when two people in a relationship with each other are on the path of a reciprocal individuation process, then the motif of the coniunctio of a suprapersonal couple is constallated. Jung pointed out in the citation given at the beginning that in the hierosgamos, it is not two egos that are face to face, but rather "everyone whose heart we touch." This strange multiplicity is very difficult to understand. It is as though in the "beyond" there exists only one divine couple, Shiva and Shakti, who are in eternal embrace, and the earthly human being participates in their coniunctio only as a "guest at the feast."
(1, p. 251)
Transference is basically taking an unconscious image of an archetype and laying it over some new person. For example let's say your father was authoritarian. If you meet an older man who provides a convenient hook (by being strong willed or demanding, for example) then you react to him in a way that's out of proportion to anything he's actually done. Just the memory, possibly not even conscious, of this archetypal relationship infects your present relationship. This makes sense from a basic biological psychology perspective; all animals make emotional associations. This is an adaptive response that enables them to make instant decisions about things that might be harmful or helpful. But we humans take this even further.
There are 4 stages in the process from transference to the hierosgamos:
archaic identity (or "participation mystique")
mutual projections
personal relationship
fated togetherness in "eternity"
Archaic identity is an unconscious state in which we aren't even aware of being possessed by these images, we simply unquestioningly assume that they're real - there really is a ghost, that tree really is talking to me, gods and demons really do exist. This is why projections can be so useful; it's only when these unconscious parts of ourselves are projected onto another person that we can start to become aware of them, and then proceed with the difficult process of owning and withdrawing those projections.
In the second stage, at first we're not even aware that there's any projecting going on, we just think we're relating to the person as they are (i.e. we're "in love"). But this isn't love. It's a facsimile of love that "creates an unrealistic erotic attraction darkened by infantile demands and prejudices". (1, 238) For as long as the beloved doesn't do anything that violates our projection, everything is bliss. But sooner or later (usually sooner), we see them for the mere human beings they really are.
If, however, we can get beyond the stage of mutual projections and accept the other for the special and unique person they are, we can get to the stage of personal relationship. This is where we finally start to have a real relationship, and it's where the hard work really begins; the difficult questions of finding a moving balance between intimacy and distance, and staying present regardless of whatever emotional upheaval you're undergoing. And yet, it's also the gateway to the fourth and final stage, the hierosgamos.
The Heirosgamos
This brings us to the fourth aspect, which I have called a "fated togetherness in eternity," the real mysterium coniunctionis. This stage has to do with the experience of the Self, the inner wholeness that cannot be understood intellectually, but only through love. Jung writes: "This love is not transference and it is not ordinary friendship or sympathy. It is more primitive, more primeval and more spiritual than anything we can describe." In this realm, it is no longer two individuals relating with each other on the personal level, but the "many, including yourself and anybody whose heart you touch." There, "there is no distance, but immediate presence. It is an eternal secret..." In a certain sense, in the manifestation of this fourth aspect a return to the first aspect takes place, but on a higher, more conscious level. For that reason an inkling of this highest stage is already present in the first and brings about the depth of passion with which many try to cling to the stage of participation mystique and to fight off a conscious coming to terms with, and recognition of, the limited human reality.
This is the final stage (about which I'm just using my imagination, hence the even more liberal use of other people's quotes.) Most relationships don't even get beyond the second stage because most people don't even realize they're projecting, let along do the hard work of owning and withdrawing their projections. But if they can get to the third stage, of personal relationship, and endure the uncertainty and maintain their presence with the other, they can occasionally touch upon the eternal relationship.
As in the third stage, the hierosgamos requires a moving balance, as it is "both more primitive and more spiritual than anything we are capable of describing. The king and queen [the spiritual couple], as well as the the animals [the instinctive couple], represent something completely transpersonal, like something that exists in the divine realm, beyond space and time. That is why the dream tells us that the royal couple are 'strangers to the world.' The human ego has to help them move in this concrete sphere. The dream beautifully depicts the intermediate position of the ego, which on the one hand imposes a certain spiritual discipline on the animals and on the other has to provide the royal couple with an element of earthly reality." (1, p. 247)
With the awareness and strength to withdraw projections, and with the continual struggle to find the difficult and moving balance between sexuality and spirituality, we may finally attain the hierosgamos. This is the reason why love (and desire) exercises such fascination for us; because it is through our relationships that we come face to face with the Divine.
When this event is highlighted in the background of a human encounter, when the god and goddess are present, then a feeling of eternity arises, as though the moment of the earthly encounter were now and always at the same time, as Jung expressed it, an "immediate presence." Thus Jung wrote in his memoirs that "emotional ties... still contain projections, and it is essential to withdraw these projections in order to attain oneself and to objectivity... objective cognition lies hidden behind the attraction of the emotional relationship; it seems to be the central secret. Only through objective cognition is the real coniunctio possible."
Books referenced
von Fran, Marie-Louise, Psychotherapy.
The urge to become whole is the strongest drive in a human being, and that is what is really hidden behind the deeper passion in the transference. At the end of his life, Jung admitted: "I falter before the task of finding language which might adequately express the incalculable paradoxes of love. Eros is a kosmogonos, a creator and father-mother of all... consciousness.... Here is the greatest and smallest, the remotest and nearest, the highest and lowest, and we cannot discuss one side of it without discussing the other... If he [man] possesses a grain of wisdom, he will lay down his arms and name the unknown by the more unknown, ignotum per ignotius - that is, by the name of God."
And once in a conversation, he said, "The problem of love is so difficult that a person has to be happy if at the end of his life he can say that no one has been destroyed on his account."
Labels: Jungian psychology, Relationships, Spiritual growth, Symbolism
Ethics, individuation and personal choice
One of the things that bothers European (and those of European descent like American and Canadian) visitors to India is what appears to be a casual attitude about the vast, visible suffering one experiences every day. Apparently this is due to the Hindu belief in reincarnation that everyone gets the lives they "deserve" (although I suspect it also has a lot to do with rationalizing social inequalities as well). Are ethics, in the sense of feeling and acting on a moral imperative to help those in need, compatible with the view that everything that happens to us is a learning experience?
First off, I want to explore the idea of "karma". Typically this is seen as the "you get what you deserve," eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth kind of cosmic justice. This just seems wrong to me. Satisfying, yes, but it misses the whole point of life. Life isn't a giant account book where everything eventually evens out. Life is something our souls choose to experience so that it can learn, experience and grow. Our soul chooses the life we live. At every moment it decides what problems and challenges are going to confront us, so that it might experience those things. So karma is better seen not as what we deserve so much as exactly what we need.
But what about people who are born to abject misery? What about children who are born to sick, starving mothers just to die horribly? On the one hand, if you believe that every soul chooses it's destiny, you'd have to believe that that child's soul chose to be born at that place and time, to experience that particular life.
Just to take a step back, how about a less extreme example... You often meet people who seem stuck in their lives. From the outside, it's perfectly clear where they're going wrong, and either they can't see it themselves or they won't. These people are being offered the opportunity to grow but they always just run away from it because, let's face it, growth is painful. Is this "just their karma"? Or does personal choice come into play?
Everyone has a choice. Their choices may be more narrow or more broad, easier or more difficult, but we're constantly being presented with the ability to choose one thing or another, even if the only choice we can make is our attitude towards a situation. Accepting that the Ego is merely a useful construct helps us to detatch from it and take a larger view, but it doesn't negate personal responsibility and choice. In fact, our choice is everything. It's not what is done to us, but what we ourselves do that matters. But the more you detach from Ego, - the more you identify with the Soul behind the Ego - the less you can rely on rules. You have to feel out each situation and make the (usually) hard choice required.
Labels: Philosophy
Springtime awakenings
It's been getting lighter earlier (and warmer!) lately - I feel like I'm waking from a post-December holidays hibernation. Spent the last two months focusing on health issues and have discovered that I'm not only gluten intolerant but dairy intolerant (WHAT NO CHEESE??! SAY IT AIN'T SO!!!)
That being said, I have to admit that I'm amazed at how much diet affects mood! Although things at work are kind of scary, I've been in an energetic and excellent mood since removing grains, legumes, dairy, sugar and industrial seed oils from my diet.
At any rate, although I've been focusing mostly on absorbing as much about Paleo/GAPS/leaky gut nutrition information as I can stuff in my head in my waking hours, life has been chugging along, whether I pay attention to it or not. Which became clear to me when I did my first tarot reading in ages - things have been coming to a head at work and, although I'm glad that I focused my energies on healing my body, my ability to distance myself from the ego monkey has definitely suffered. Either that, or things are just getting more challenging. Life does have a way of prodding you along when it's time to grow...


The audio in this YouTube video was recorded in early 2016 at North Coast Productions in Rochester, MN. Photographs are from various performances in 2015 and 2016. The song is included in the RavensFire CD released in July 2016.


text:
Q: Proofs: Subspaces, vectors. Studying for an exam, came across this question:
Let $V$ be a subspace of $\mathbb{R}^n$ and $u \in \mathbb{R}^n$ but $u \notin V$.
    $W = \{v + cu: v$ is in $V$ and $c$ is a scalar$\}$
A) Prove that $W$ is subspace of $\mathbb{R}^n$.
Comment: Certainly we have to use the definition of closure under vector addition and the definition of closure under scalar multiplication. But how?
B) Determine the dimension of $W$. Justify your answer.
Comment: What are the steps to determining the dimension of $W$?

A: You have
$$
W = \{v + cu\mid v\in V, c\in \mathbb{R}\}
$$
and you want first to show that $W$ is a vector space. To do this, you can look up all the conditions that need to be satisfied and check them.
For example you need to check that if $w_1$ and $w_2$ are in $W$, then $w_1 + w_2$ is also in $W$. So assume that such two are given and that
$$
w_1 = v_1 + c_1u \\
w_2 = v_2 + c_2u
$$
Then
$$
w_1 + w_2 = (v_1 + v_2) + (c_1 + c_2)u.
$$
This is in $W$ because $v_1 + v_2$ is a vector in $V$ and $c_1 + c_2$ is a scalar.
Again, you can look up other conditions that you need to check. They are all similar to the one I have shown here.
For the second part I suggest that you let $\{e_1, \dots, e_m\}$ be a basis of $V$. Then from that you try to get a basis for $W$.

A: About part $1$ I agree with thomas!
But about part $2$:
you know $u$ is independence with basis of subspace $V$ (because it is not generated by them (we have $u \notin V$) )
now supose $\{v_{1}, \cdots \cdots,v_{m}\}$be a basis for V
then $\{0+cu,v_{1}+cu,\cdots \cdots,v_{m}+cu\}$ will be a basis for $W$ ($V$ is subspace and has $0$) and
so $\dim (W)=\dim(V)+1$

A: a) yes, you have to show that $W$ is a subset of $\mathbb{R}^n$ and is closed under the vector addition and scalar multiplication inherited from $\mathbb{R}^n$ (take general elements of $W$)
b) take a basis of $V$ and extend it to a basis of $W$

A: For part $a$, in addition to showing $W$ is close under addition and scalar multiplication, you also need to show that the zero vector is in $W$ as well.
That is true because $V$ is a subspace so $v$ can be $0$. Since $c$ is a scalar, $c$ can be $0$ as well. So $w=v+cu$ can be $0$. Done.`

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
arXiv.org > astro-ph > arXiv:astro-ph/0208364v1
Title:CMB limits on large-scale magnetic fields in an inhomogeneous universe
Authors:C. A. Clarkson, A. A. Coley, R. Maartens, C. G. Tsagas
(Submitted on 20 Aug 2002 (this version), latest version 26 Mar 2003 (v2))
Abstract: We use the cosmic microwave background temperature anisotropy to place limits on large-scale magnetic fields in an inhomogeneous (perturbed Friedmann) universe. If no assumptions are made about the spacetime geometry, only a weak limit can be deduced directly from the CMB. In the special case where spatial inhomogeneity is neglected to first order, the upper limit is much stronger, i.e. a few nano-G
Comments: 9 pages, 1 figure; uses iopart.cls
Subjects: Astrophysics (astro-ph); General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology (gr-qc)
From: Chris Clarkson [view email]
[v1] Tue, 20 Aug 2002 13:09:52 UTC (22 KB)
[v2] Wed, 26 Mar 2003 13:18:52 UTC (22 KB)


text:
Sarah Boseley's global health blog
Polio: a case for real alarm
The World Health Organisation has declared a public health emergency as polio returns to countries that were free of it and calls on three governments to immunise adults travelling beyond their borders
Sarah Boseley
Wed 7 May 2014 13.31 EDT First published on Wed 7 May 2014 13.31 EDT
A Pakistani schoolgirl receives polio vaccine drops from a health worker. Photograph: Muhammed Muheisen/AP
The heroic effort to rid the world of polio, which was looking so promising only a year ago, has hit a major setback. There have been plenty of disasters in the past - the most obvious being the appalling killings of vaccinators in northern Pakistan. The most recent of those was only last month and there have been at least 30 in the last two years. What is happening now may in part be a consequence of that, but is even more threatening to the ultimate goal of polio eradication - it is the drift of the viral disease back into countries that everybody thought were clear of it.
That is why the language used by the World Health Organisation this week has been strong and alarming. An emergency committee convened by director general Margaret Chan said the spread of polio so far this year has been an "extraordinary event" and a public health risk to other countries. WHO stated:
If unchecked, this situation could result in failure to eradicate globally one of the world's most serious vaccine preventable diseases. It was the unanimous view of the committee that the conditions for a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) have been met.
The capital letters may look clunky but are not unwarranted and have already successfully triggered a helpful response from the Pakistani government. The WHO says it is adults who are taking the virus from one country to another and has called on the governments of three countries that it says are most likely to export the virus, Pakistan, Cameroon and Syria, to dose any travellers before they leave and ensure they have a certificate to prove it. Pakistan says it is setting up mandatory immunisation points at airports. That is entirely feasible, since the vaccine is given as oral drops. It falls short of the recommendation that people should be immunised at least four weeks prior to departure, but the WHO adds that last minute dosing "will still provide benefit".
There are only three countries now where polio is endemic - Pakistan, Nigeria and Afghanistan. There were 417 cases of polio in 2013 and more than a fifth were in Pakistan. It is now in the spotlight. Bruce Aylward, the WHO assistant director general who has led their efforts on polio, says it is the main pool from which the ripples are spreading.
In the majority of these re-infected areas, the viruses circulating actually trace back to Pakistan within the last 12-18 months.
Perhaps a public health emergency will help Pakistan's government with the political discomfort of putting measures in place that may upset some in the population. It is to be hoped that this will reduce the spread of cases. But there are other routes too. Wild poliovirus turned up in Cameroon again at the end of last year after two years with none. It came from Chad and may well have come from Nigeria before that. From Cameroon, it spread to Equatorial Guinea.
That sort of trail shows how difficult it is to keep polio in check - let alone eradicate it. There are now ten countries with recent polio cases and real anxieties about what will happen if it is exported into any more conflict-torn countries, like Syria, where blanket vaccination of children - the usual tactic - is very difficult. Immunisation at the airports will help, but the borders of many countries are porous, without passport check points, let alone polio drops. The only real way to finish polio will eventually be to rid the endemic countries of the virus and that's not impossible. If India managed it, so can the rest.
Vaccines and immunisation


Many companies had a rough 2014, but perhaps the brand that had it the worst was Target. Last holiday season, the superstore was hacked, and the credit cards of the nearly 40 million people who shopped at Target stores any time between November 27 and December 15 of 2013 were compromised.
Target spent most of 2014 repairing the damage the breach caused, both financially and image-wise. So when this year's holiday season rolled around, they were armed with the strategies, tools, and supplies they needed to make the most of their most busy and lucrative season.
It released a new smartphone app. Just in time for Black Friday, Target released an updated smartphone application that linked products to store maps. What does that mean? When you were waiting for Target to open on Black Friday (or Black Thursday?), you could use your smartphone to see where products were located in the store, and then strategically map out your shopping route to save time and avoid getting stampeded by the large crowds. The app also allows you to search for products online, view a store's inventory, and make purchases, among other things.
It advertised with TONS of commercials. Seriously, TONS of them. You probably saw one per commercial break, especially if you were watching ABC Family's 25 Days of Christmas. As soon as Halloween ended and November began, Target began rolling out its commercials and ads for the holiday season, starting with Black Friday sales and promotions. Even though the over-advertising was a little annoying at times, it did get consumers talking about Target's deals and products. So, in the end, they worked.
It introduced diversity to its advertisements. The week before Christmas, Target released an ad for a children's toy that featured a two-year-old girl with Down's syndrome. The company was praised for this move, given that few companies have incorporated diversity like this into its ads. However, in the week after Christmas, Target was criticized when the company used a white model to promote a clothing line inspired by the new "Annie" movie, which stars a largely African-American dominated cast. Though the move pales in comparison to the 2013 year-end credit card breach, it does leave the general public with a negative connotation when they think of the Target brand.
Overall, 2014 turned out all right for Target, despite starting (and ending) on a rough note. However, the case studies were abundant, so PR students had a lot to learn from the company this year. Who knows what 2015 will have in store for Target, all other major brands and for us PR students eager to learn.


I was led to an attorney, a former IRS man who audited tax exempt corporations and now helps incorporate companies as non profit organizations. He told me that the Freedom ART Project qualifies for non profit status, however, only if the art was complete and being made available to the community for viewing. In all his career he never heard of anyone receiving a 501c3 tax exempt status for a future community value (in my case, 25 years in the future). After asking several questions as to what I could do to qualify, I settled on developing a separate educational resource for offering art education to artists and to churches. That organization is planned as the Foundation for the Biblical Arts.
The Foundation for the Biblical Arts is being formed to offer a service that is desperately needed in my opinion. The goal of the organization is to raise the consciousness and acceptance of a more intelligent contemporary visual art in the Church, through education and inspiration, and to bring the visual arts back to the church as a means of worship and praise.
Here is the proposed curriculum as it is being pieced together for Non Profit consideration. CLICK HERE to download the Acrobat PDF file.


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Is It Parkinson's Disease or Something Else?
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Aging Well, Helpful Tips, Parkinson's, Senior Fitness, Senior Health, Seniors
A senior you love has been given a diagnosis that may not be accurate. Is it Parkinson's disease, or something else? Each year, a great many American seniors are told they have Parkinson's disease, yet they don't. For a lot of these patients, the correct diagnosis is a very similar but not as well-known condition: dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB).
Dementia with Lewy bodies impacts as many as 1.3 million Americans, according to the Lewy Body Dementia Association (LBDA). That estimate could possibly be too low since some individuals who've been incorrectly identified as having Parkinson's still have not been given a correct diagnosis.
Symptoms for the two diseases are often very similar, especially when they progress, given that they exhibit the same underlying modifications in the brain.
Below are the symptoms of dementia with Lewy bodies you should be familiar with, as reported by the LBDA:
Intensifying dementia – Increasing confusion and reduced attention and executive function are frequent. Memory impairment may not be evident during the early stages.
Recurrent visual hallucinations – These are commonly complicated and detailed.
Hallucinations of other senses – Touch or hearing are the most typical.
REM sleep behavior disorder – This can show up years ahead of the onset of both dementia and Parkinson's.
Frequent falls and fainting – Includes unexplained loss in consciousness.
Other psychiatric disturbances – Most of these differ from patient to patient.
Is a correct diagnosis really crucial? Diagnosing DLB promptly and accurately may mean the difference between life and death, according to Howard I. Hurtig, M.D., Chair, Department of Neurology, Pennsylvania Hospital and Elliott Professor of Neurology. Improperly treating DLB can not only trigger significant adverse side effects, but could even worsen symptoms and prevent appropriate symptom management.
Some of the confusion among medical professionals comes from the fact that both Parkinson's disease and DLB come under the same umbrella of Lewy body dementias.
The main difference is in the "one-year rule" associated with cognitive symptoms. Patients with Parkinson's disease in most cases do not present cognitive issues until at least a year after mobility symptoms start. DLB is typically the exact opposite, with cognitive symptoms appearing first for at least a year.
Happier Home Care, the leading provider of home care in Pasadena and the surrounding areas, delivers high-quality senior home care services to those with Parkinson's and many other chronic health conditions. Give us a call at 818-651-6679 to arrange a free home care assessment, to find answers to your questions, and to learn more about how our in-home care can make life better for someone you love.
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