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Contemplative Motherhood Podcast
Saying Yes to Mud puddles and Messes: An Introduction to Erin Thomas
May 30, 2021 Erin Thomas & Chelsea Whipple Season 1 Episode 2
May 30, 2021 Season 1 Episode 2
Erin Thomas & Chelsea Whipple
Listen in as Erin gives a first-hand account of her journey towards contemplation and motherhood. Her insight, experience and vulnerability will leave you wanting more and living out this deeper knowing within us.
Chelsea Whipple 0:04
You are listening to the contemplative motherhood podcast. My name is Chelsea. I'm a teacher, practitioner, spiritual director and pilgrim.
Erin Thomas 0:13
And I'm Erin, a creative homeschool educator, counselor and spiritual seeker. Listen in as we dive deeper into the contemplative lifestyle through hearing about each of our lives.
You'll hear our triumphs, failures, practices and mistakes as we journey together. You might even hear a kid or two in the background.
So grab some coffee, tea, curl up and take off your shoes. You are welcome here. Now let's get started.
Hi, friends and welcome to another episode of the contemplative motherhood podcast. We are so happy that you are here with us. I'm Chelsea and today we get to hear from my amazing co host Erin and get a glimpse of her journey of becoming a contemplative mother. Are you ready?
I'm so ready, friend.
Yay. Okay, to start us off, can you tell us a little bit about your adorable family?
Oh, I sure can. Um, let's see they are a handful. A lovely. I have two kids, one boy and one girl. And the boy is eight and the girl is five. And we are currently an active waiting family for domestic infant adoption. This basically means we are hoping to adopt an infant soon. I am married to my husband Olin and we have been married for 10 years. And we live in the hot, humid and beautiful Coastal Georgia.
I'm jealous in more ways than one. But thank you. So in our intro that we have we you describe yourself in a few words, a creative counselor and a spiritual seeker. What does that mean?
Yeah, those are big words, right? Difficult to sort of define yourself in three adjectives or three roles, especially in motherhood. So let's break that down a little bit. I think specifically in the area of spiritual seeking, I feel as though I am the type of individual that always seeking more in every aspect of my life. I sometimes use the word sojourner. I'm basically temporarily residing in a place both physically and spiritually for some purpose to fulfill and meaningful part of my journey with God. And so, spiritually seeking is just part of my identity. With the flipside being that embracing this sort of journey has meant that I might be catapulted or led to another portion of, you know, a different chapter in a different part of the world, or where I am now, and in the story that God and I are writing together. And so quite, literally and figuratively, I am a writer. I am a just a lover of words and word smithing. I don't know if that's a word, but it should be. Um, and stories that have really formed my character. And they ultimately I feel like have given me tools to flesh onto paper, the messages that I feel inspired to share and being a contemplative motherhood mother is one of them. So as far as counseling is concerned, professionally, I followed that academic track. I have a master's in counseling. But I found as I continued down this track academically and began to study it, there was more meaning and significance in this portion of my identity. And I found that I naturally desire to hear the life stories of others. I enjoy hearing about their pain, and their suffering and ultimately their desire for meaning. And so as a result, I feel it is part of my natural tendency to yearn to encourage and provide. So ultimately, all of that led to my interest in the intersection of psychology and spiritual formation, which is another can of worms. But all of that to say, this is part of the spiritual seeking aspect of myself creatively. I just find the steady anchor in creative outlets, such as art, music writing. And so for me, my purpose in the journey of contemplative motherhood is fulfilled through using those various outlets and intentional.
Yes, you did, and so much material I'd love to dive deeper, but maybe we will do it another time. So how would you describe how you live your contemplative lifestyle?
I remember asking you this question and how in the world do you possibly explain this, right? First of all, I find that it's really important for all of us to evaluate what that means for us specifically. So everyone lives this differently. Everyone has a background and a value system that they come from. So they're different traditions, different family systems, different journeys of faith that all sort of intertwine into this lifestyle. So I think it's important to sort of make sure that we say, everyone lives this differently. For me, in a simple way, I desire to have an intentional practice and presence of a dear deeper, spiritual meaning in a relationship with the Divine Presence of God. That's, so I read that down in my journal. And and you know, I think, to unpack that a little bit, I actively embrace the mindset within the context of my journey as just being a present mother. within the Divine Presence.
Can you say this one more time.
Yeah. So that the my mindset is just within the context of my journey, that I'm a present mother, within the presence of God. And that looks so different for so many people. And we all got there from some point or another, and how we sort of made the decision to jump into this lifestyle. What is this? What this this entail? And if we could give a dictionary answer for all of our listeners, you know, like that would be, that would be so easy. But we can't So yeah, that's one sentence. How I have gotten to this point, and what that looks like.
Now, last time, I had talked about my hamster ball. And I'm wondering if you could give us a visual example. Similar to that, your prior history?
Yes. So I love that you can obviously tell that we have teacher spirits must have a visual concrete example to apply. Right? And I was, I started thinking about this and remember those, but no, I think it was like the late 80s when we were first. First in school, this was when we had the old Apple Macs that you press the Escape button, and they had these super, super simple printers. But they had that connected computer paper. I feel like for me, my life felt like this constant connected computer paper with a need for preparation, just a constant output, desire for achievement that is really inherent in my being. But I felt like I was wavering. And I felt as though I wasn't solidified inwardly. And felt an achievement since even within in my spirit, but there was no peace. And so on paper, it was looking incredibly productive, right if I were to turn in my resume of my life and the checkboxes that I had sort of checked over time, but I was wavering with this unpredictable emotion, emotion and grappling with a lot of circumstances that were sort of unforeseen. So yeah, that was a lot of computer paper. There was a long chain of paper.
Yeah, and I do wonder, but you don't have to answer this because I remember you had to put it in the printer a certain way, the perforated lines had the line. Because if not, it get all crooked, and then the paper wouldn't come out. Right? And then you would feel like an existential crisis.
Erin Thomas 10:18
Listen, I could go on about that for an hour. I mean, I could rabbit hole for an hour, because that entails exactly who I was as a human being. But ultimately, looking at that, looking as though I was a person that looked productive, per se. On paper, I was still not internally anchored. And I wanted that, I wanted, whatever that look like. And I had an extensive background of various faith traditions and, and all kinds of rabbit holes spiritually that I had gone down, but ultimately served, circling back around, I wanted to live and be anchored in peace and have meaning and a time period where there was a significant amount of suffering in my life. That was, that was the goal. But I think that's true for a lot of people. You know, I mean, if we look back at our journey, we make decisions and ultimately have big transformational moments when we are going through a really difficult time period. So, you know, for me, personally, there was some grief and loss, I'm moving away from family, a constant changing environment. I found myself on a farm after living in the city for a really long time. I had a child with complex medical needs, who I was, you know, through certain circumstances, unexpectedly homeschooling and I had a toddler, okay, like a toddler should be enough. But I think ultimately, that realization that so many of us have that we don't have control over our external circumstances. And you don't have control over the suffering of the world. And I couldn't achieve that control outwardly. But I knew that it was possible. But I didn't know exactly how to do it. Oh, gosh, I can so relate to that. So I just want to say yes, yes, yes. The hamster wheel, it's still it's, it's still there. It looks a little bit different. And so I think, you know, sort of as a sidebar, I think it's important for us to think about contemplative motherhood, practically. Many of us who some of our listeners may be listening may have never even heard this word before. Maybe we have read some about it, but we don't know how to practically practicing this kind of thing. Practically practice. We're gonna go with that.
Chelsea Whipple 13:29
It's always a thing.
It's a thing.
Whatever words you splice together
Inevitably, as an achiever, by nature, what am I gonna do, right? Such an achiever. Um, I thought there was like some point of maturity, that I would get to spiritually that therefore everything else would line up, and then I would be like, whole or peaceful, or anchored, or whatever language you want to use to place there. And so I did some digging, as most of us do, and for me, that was a lot of books. And seeking mentors, and learning what everyday practices of contemplative motherhood look like. And so I carve out time for rest. Rest. We love that word. It makes me feel restful, crazy life, a motherhood, rest is hard. And I had sort of a preconceived idea that rest was Sleep, which, clearly we're all a fan of most of us, especially if you are a mom, you just dream, those times when you can put your face on the pillow
Except when you face is on your pillow and you can't sleep.
Isn't that the worse? Yes. And see, that's not a state of rest, in fact, right. And so, rest specifically for me meant being present and not doing or needing to achieve. And that was hard. For me, I am a doer. So rest. The second practical component was creativity. I by nature am a very creative, artsy soul. And so music, art and writing have been really pivotal in my spiritual life and my development. And soul care. This is the one soul care is one that I'm probably the most passionate about, and where it intersects with my background. And soul care, I think really looks different for for different people. But in my case, it's sort of looking at sometimes we use the word self care, but I think we say self care in the sense of a mother's, like, take a shower. That doesn't feel like care to me, feels like, like an essential for life, you know? Right, like, Oh, you get to eat today? Yeah. Congratulations, you get to eat sitting down. That's amazing. I think I am really big on language, obviously. So moving from self care to soul care, and what does that look like to care for your soul. And I think that's the one that we notice the most, when we don't attend to it. So, soul care may look different for different personalities and different faith traditions. For me, soul care is reading time in nature. Soul care, for me was therapy. That's really important to say. And that has been a very extensive part of being able to fully embrace the contemplative lifestyle. Yeah, there's a lot there. There's a lot there. And I think it's important that people know that, like, your soul care, your practices are going to look different, and we'll unpack but what we're looking for, and ultimately, what we desire is the result. And for me, that was a transformational process of being connected with the divine in a way that has bled over into other areas of my life, including my relationships with my children, and into our family life.
I love that I'm gonna have to think about what my soul care is. I have never really thought about what I need to take care of myself, my soul. Yeah. Wonderful. Thanks, Erin. So how would you define a contemplative mother?
Yes, so defining a contemplative mother. I think it's important to know that like, there is some level of embracing of our external circumstances, right? Like our kitchens and dining rooms may be really loud. We may be chasing a child at one point or another, or we're shuffling back and forth to, to a sport or an extracurricular activity. So I think, understanding that we're not removing ourselves from those circumstances necessarily. But we're desiring more of an inward process, and that connection with the divine. And so for me, that means feeling a holistic anchoring in my mind, my body, and spirit. Those are The three tenants that I sort of insure to do encourage others to do and make an inventory of those. and that is how we come to use your intentional practices. I hope that makes sense.
It does, the holistic anchoring. Yeah, the whole list, so many words, you are a wordsmither?
Well, I enjoy the source. I do. I don't know if everyone, like me just enjoys at the source, but a little quirk of me. But, you know, being present as a mother and being present in the divine spirit. Those are the two primary components. And, you know, so I think, ultimately, is important for me to share that I think most people who know me, personally know that I'm still a super wild and free mother. I still have those desires to let my hair run wild and take adventures into the creative unknown, and I still have that achievement nature. But I embrace those components of my identity as both Erin who is a spiritual being, and Erin, who is a mother to my children. And then with that, I place it in a larger vision and within a contemplative perspective. So I say yes to mud, puddles, and messes. And I understand that laundry and dishes are just like a constant evolution. I say no to things that don't line up with my set of intentions that I feel anchored within me, and I consult the Divine Spirit of God. Within that set of intentions. I remove destructions or task actions out of a need to just sort of complete a list, right. And finally, you know, it's a learning process. And as I go, I feel as though it's another chapter, and we're building another layer. And the contemplative lifestyle has now evolved into our journey as, like a whole family, a whole contemplative family, who just sort of happens to homeschool. Yeah, that's sort of the gist of it. I I don't know, I think there's a lot of unknowns, right? The world is basically a classroom, and I feel like I'm still learning.
Yeah, I think that's the beauty of being always calling it a journey. You know, not knowing where you're going next, what's going to change? Because every day presents itself with a new set of challenges.
And I hope in the future, we're going to be able to share some of those fun experiences with our kids. So you know that you're not alone.
Having our kids interrupt us and everywhere, everywhere in the household. I'm sure everyone can relate to that. One thing, Erin, I have known you for almost 16 years, which seems so crazy. I know. But even listening to you today, like it is amazing. One, how much I can relate to this journey. And I don't know if anybody else listening can really relate to that. desires and the anchors and that holistic seeking, you know, kind of a thing, but I was so surprised also, how much I learned from you. Yeah, I mean, that's a long way. Yeah. Yeah. What? You don't know I'm going to ask this question. So we get to ad lib a little bit, but what is there an invitation for our listeners that you can find in your story that would be helpful.
It's a really good question. One of the things that I think a lot of us tend to do and inventory are have a moment where we ask for a deeper meaning. And we ask for a connection with the spirit, or with the divine. And we ultimately, a lot of it comes from suffering, or from a difficult time period or a challenging time period. And so I encourage you, if you are sort of in the midst of a challenge, what you would consider a challenging time period, whatever that looks like to do that level of inventory that says, What specifically Am I seeking? And why. And ultimately, I think if you ask that question, then you're opening yourself up to a world of more questions. Right. But more opportunities, you know, definitely more questions. Yeah.
Yeah, cuz we say in the contemplative lifestyle questions are good answers are bad.
Right? Well, I think question, good questions just lead to more good questions. We all have the answers. And clearly no one would have a podcast. Am I right? We won't have a podcast if we did not have questions. Highly Yeah.
Yeah, a good. A good success marker for Erin and I would be that you constantly are asking questions.
Sometimes that can result in like three hour phone conversations. So it's okay to know when to pause the question. Yeah.
No, I love that invitation. Because you don't hear that type of invitation very much. You know, worrying at your Yeah, looking at your life from a point of view that we try to run away from or pack down inside of us, instead of allowing it to be a part of us, you know, to take us on our journey. And wherever that leads, so beautiful, I love it, friend, thank you. So, like, we want to do with every podcast is to end it with a practice an intentional practice, we will use Erin's word. So Erin is going to lead us here with an intentional practice that she likes.
So this was something that I actually learned early, early in adulthood, and it's called body tension awareness. And this is an inventory of body tension, exactly what it says. But I think that you'll find in areas that you carry more tension, you tend to ask more questions of like, why am I so tense in this area, for example, I carry a lot of tension in my hands. And that's because I like to write a lot. So, you know, I think, not to be overly analytical. This is really has the ability to sort of become a greater practice later on. But you first began by a general awareness of your upper body and a general began by the tightening of every segment of your muscle groups. So we start from the bottom and we build to the top. Beginning with your bottom limbs, we tighten and then through our torso, we tighten. And then with our face, and our head and our upper body, we tighten. And then we loosen. And then in a final action. centralize your mind on one word that will relaxes and brings peace to your spirit and with every effort, relax your mind.
I think I'm going to go take a nap now.
I will join you. Oh, that is just one of my favorites.
And that will there's a segue for that later. I think that's that's a practice that has more unpacking to do. But I wanted to share this quote. Father Richard Rohr if you're not familiar, I'm a huge fan. I think many of my fathers or mothers right. Definitely has been that. "All great spirituality is about what we do with our home. If we do not transform our pain, we will transmit it to those around us." What?
Can you read that one more time?
Absolutely. All great. Spirituality is about what we do with our pain. If we do not transform our pain, we will transmit it to those around us.
My father Richard, or for the win.
Yeah, I can't just guess I love the mystics. No, no.
Well, everyone, thank you so much for joining us. Stay tuned for our next one. And Erin, thank you so much for sharing your story with us.
I loved being here with you, friend. It feels like we're in the same room even though we're not. Yes. All right. Until next time. Thank you again for joining us today on the contemplative motherhood podcast. With us your host, Erin Thomas and Chelsea Whipple.
To get regular updates on our podcast, hear new episode drops, interact with us about past and future episodes and find our show notes. Make sure to go to our website, www contemplative motherhood.org.
As always, we appreciate your support of this podcast and then helping us share our journey with others. So if you enjoy today's podcast, make sure to subscribe rate and leave us a review. This helps us to cross paths with other program mamas across the board. So until next time of the purposes
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
All content © 2023 Contemplative Motherhood Podcast.


Slavery, in Its Principles, Development, and Expedients in The Atlantic Monthly May 1862.
Original wrappers. Also includes Methods of Study in Natural History, Weather in War, and more. Chipping to spine, some wear and soiling. A good+ copy. ; Octavo.


What did we pray for this morning in the Collect of the Day? "That we may think those things that are right and by Your merciful guiding accomplish them." We prayed to God, addressing Him this way: "O God, the giver of all that is good." This is who our God is. He is God, and He is a God who gives, and He is the one who when He gives He gives what is good. If you learn this and take it to heart you will understand much of what you have in your life: what your life is and what you have been given. You will see that there is so much good. You will see more and more that when God gives it is what is good.
On Mother's Day many mothers wonder where all this affection and thanks and gifts are the other 364 days of the year. It's sad that so many of us don't readily and joyfully thank our mothers, that we don't give them the affection they deserve, that we don't give to them in return for all their love and affection. If there's any good in this perhaps it's that our mothers don't love us and care for us in order to receive thanks and affection.
That's really what love is, isn't it? Can you imagine if moms loved their children for love in return? There might not be much love they would give to their children. When moms love their children it's much more that they just naturally love their children. That's what love is. They want to love them and care for them and do what is best for them.
This leads to another thing we learn from our moms: that what they give us isn't always what we want or what is pleasant. But it's certainly love. And it's definitely what is best for us. Love often means giving us things that our sinful nature recoils against. But that is exactly what we need. We need someone to love us in a way which won't ignore our sinful ways.
In the Gospel reading today Jesus talks about His relationship with us. He talks about the relationship His Heavenly Father has with Him. In our moms we get a wonderful picture of the kind of love Jesus is talking about with us and that His Heavenly Father has for Him. It's love that gives what is good, even if it's painful.
So when Jesus is saying that as the Father loves Him so He loves us and then He starts talking about commandments and how we are to keep His commandments, well, we get a little squirmy. What do commandments have to do with love? How is it when God gives us commandments that that is good and that in this way He is loving us? He says: "If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love." When we write our Mothers Day cards we probably aren't saying things like, "Mom, thanks for telling me to clean my room and eat my vegetables." We say things like, "Thanks for loving me and taking care of me." As we grow older we see more and more that all those commands are part of that love, part of taking care of us. This is the way it is with God. He gives us His commands because He loves us and takes care of us.
Of course, a relationship that consists of the one in authority handing down commands and the one under authority obediently keeping them wouldn't be much of a loving relationship. Fortunately, that's not what Jesus is talking about here. He is talking about a true loving relationship in which He loves us and we love Him in return. Again, we have an excellent example of this is in our relationship with our moms. What kind of relationship would it be if all she did was tell us what to do and we simply did it because we had to? That wouldn't be much of one. But it's not that way. She loves us unconditionally and we love her and trust her and give to her. That we also do what she tells us to do we, hopefully, see more and more that it is because she loves us and it is what is best for us.
With Jesus He knows all this. He's God and He is love Himself. His relationship with His Father is pure love yet even so Jesus delights in keeping His Father's commandments. Does it seem odd that He does so? Yes, it does. He certainly doesn't need to, He's God. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit have a perfect relationship without any commands needing to be kept. There is one reason Jesus keeps His Father's commands and that is love. It's love for His Father of course. But it's really located in His love for us. Jesus keeps His Father's commandments because of you and me. Because it's what we need, because it's what's best for us.
So when Jesus talks about us keeping His commandments He's not laying something down on us that zaps all the love out of our relationship with Him. He's giving to us something that breathes love. If we're honest, and hopefully we will be, we will see that we do not keep God's commandments. We're often like we are with Mom: "Do I have to?" We so often see God's commandments as burdens. Kind of like the way we so often see the things Mom makes us do. But John in the Epistle reading says that "His commandments are not burdensome." God does not gives us His commandments to burden us but to love us. That's why we prayed in the Collect "that we may think those things that are right and by [His] merciful guiding accomplish them." His commandments are loving.
That we sin and often recoil at God's commandments shows that we often don't think the things that are right, and we could also add good and beneficial. We need to keep in mind that when Mom tells us to do the things we ought to do these are first and foremost commands from God. Her authority is first and foremost God's authority. By grace we will also see that her love for us also is first and foremost His love for us. He is loving us by giving us a mom to love and care for us.
So when Jesus says "This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you," He is not laying a burden on us. He is not telling us, "This is how you must obey Me, you must love one another." He is giving to us. He is loving us by giving us a command which is not a burden but rather an act of love. We are to love others. Should we not? Should we not love others? Don't we want to? Does a mother love her children because she has been commanded to by God? Doesn't she rather do it because it is a joy? Doesn't she do it simply because she loves her children?
And so with us. We love others. If it seems a burden at times that's because it's hard work loving others. It's hard when they're not very loving back to us. It's hard when it does seem to be a burden, when it takes a toll on our time or health or finances. But Jesus' command is really an exhortation simply to love others in the way He has loved us. And how is that? He says that there is no greater love than someone laying down his life for his friends. This is love exemplified in Jesus. It's His love for us, in which He loves us to an extent in which there is no greater extent. It's not a love that has a limit or a love that can be exhausted or a love that places conditions on us. It's a love in which He lays down His life for us.
When He laid down His life for us He didn't just give His life, He took our place. He's not just talking a physical act of salvation here. He's talking about taking our place as we stand before God. He became as we are, a sinner. He became as one who deserves punishment for not keeping the commandments of God. He laid down His life so that when we die it doesn't mean eternal death and condemnation.
The kind of love that draws Jesus to do this also draws Him to view us in a new way: "No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends." Jesus is above all our Lord and Savior. He is also our friend. When you have close friends you know what a blessing they are. When you don't you know that also because you know what you need. We need friends. Jesus calls us His friends. We know one friend we can always count on and His command to us is that we then love each other as fellow Christian friends. This command and this love is not burdensome. If it's tough to love one another at times it's because love is not an easy thing. It's a conscious choice and effort. But the good news is that it's love that flows out of the Father's love for His Son and our Lord's love for us in laying down His life for us, His friends.
We did not choose Him, He chose us. His love really comes down to that. He has loved us and continues to love us by giving us what we need to think those things that are right and by His merciful guiding accomplish them. Amen.
Does Jesus Command You or Give to You?


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nice! Will you color it?


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Turtle WoW Forums What Would You Do? -- Role-Playing Writing Prompts
What Would You Do? -- Role-Playing Writing Prompts
Post by Mac » Sat Dec 10, 2022 3:37 am
Writing prompts. They can be a good way to develop and explore one's characters. They can also help improve and flex one's writing skills. But moreover, they can be a lot of fun to engage in. So let's have a thread for role-playing writing prompts.
Feel free to respond any way you'd like. If you want to give a short answer, that's great. If you want to write out a long and lengthy scene in reply, wonderful. You can write a poem or song if you wish. Just put yourself in your character's head and try to think how they think. If you have multiple characters you like playing, feel free to give multiple responses. You don't even have to be a role-player to play along.
Here's the writing prompt:
You find yourself in a bustling marketplace (perhaps in Stormwind or Orgrimmar, or in a more exotic location like Booty Bay) full of traders coming and going in all directions. A person bumps into you -- not an uncommon occurrence in such busy place -- and you pause for a moment before realizing you feel a bit lighter. That's when something catches your eye: an urchin a few yards away is clutching your coin purse. The child's devious grin quickly shifts to an expression of panic as they catch your eye, and the little pickpocket tries to take off and make a run for it. What do you do?
Jongyi
Re: What Would You Do? -- Role-Playing Writing Prompts
Post by Jongyi » Sat Dec 10, 2022 6:14 am
My high elf hunter would go after the child, catch him, take my loot back and spank him hard!
Missbliss
Post by Missbliss » Sat Dec 10, 2022 7:20 am
The little urchin darted amongst the crowd, finding his way into a narrow alleyway and shimmying his way down it to the adjacent street. He followed this street until he came to another wider alley, and he ran to the end of it where there was only a stone wall.
Hehehe, she'll never find me up here... He thought as he began scaling the stone wall, his little fingers strong and calloused - adept at gripping the protruding stones.
"HEY!" A girl's voice bellowed from behind him. He felt someone grip his raggy clothing, pulling him forcefully off the wall so that he fell onto his back.
The young urchin boy looked up, expecting to see a face twisted in anger, but was surprised to see the mischievous smile of a beautiful woman with bright blue eyes and platinum blonde hair.
"You didn't think I'd let you get away, did you? That was a lot of money that you took. I rely on that to eat, you know." She said, keeping her smile, though her hands were on her hips and she spoke with authority. The boy scrambled backwards and she followed him with slow deliberately paced steps.
"P-please! Mercy! Here, take it back! I'm sorry!" He cried fearfully, his voice cracking under the pressure. He pulled the coinpurse from his clothing and threw at her feet.
He took a better look at her now. She was a comparatively small woman, not much taller than he was despite him being only a boy. SHE was definitely an adult though; He could tell that. He understood now how she was able to follow him so quickly through the narrow alleyway that had he shimmied through.
As mentioned her eyes were a bright sky blue, and her hair a rare, natural platinum blonde color. It was exceptionally long, and although it was tied in a ponytail, it still hung all the way to her lower back. Her alabaster skin was unblemished to the point of being nearly angelic looking.
A blue cloak was clasped around her shoulders with a pin emblazoned with the twin-eagles of Lordaeron, and underneath it she wore black clothing over a suit of chainmail. A longsword scabbard hung at her waist and a shield on her back, and all of these were cleaned and well taken care of, obvious just by the look of them.
As he continued to crawl away, she knelt down and picked up her coinpurse, tying it back to her belt.
"You ought to be careful. Other people might not be so forgiving. What's your name?" She asked, looking down at him as he sat up and started to look less afraid.
"M-mateus... M-ma'am." He gulped.
"Oh dear... Please don't call me ma'am. My name is Evangelyne, but you can call me Eva." She told him, reaching out and offering him a hand up, which he hesitantly took. He dusted himself off and looked 'up' at her (he was almost eye level, standing at 4'10" himself).
"I'm really sorry again... You're not going to report me, are you?" He asked, rubbing his arm and looking away innocently.
"Well that depends... Are you going to continue stealing? You know stealing is wrong, don't you? If I hadn't caught you, I would've had to go hungry for at least a week. Is that what you wanted?" She asked him, tilting her head and raising her brow compassionately.
"Well, no... I was just hungry myself and I wanted something to eat." He explained.
"Well, here then." Eva reached into her coin purse, grabbing a small handful of silver coins and offering it out to the boy. His eyes sparkled. He had never seen more than a few copper in one place. "Take this, and don't let anyone else know you have it. Keep it safe, and protect it, and you shouldn't have to steal anymore."
The boy put out his hands eagerly and Eva let the coins fall into them. The boy held them as if they were a precious baby, putting them carefully into a secret pocket. "Thank you so much!" He said, but he thought for a moment. He wasn't a stupid kid, "But this isn't going to last me forever... What am I going to do when it runs out?"
"Well, you'll have to use it wisely then, right? How am I suppose to know?" She taps her chin, questioning herself, "Maybe I should take it back. I mean, maybe you need to learn to earn it yourself first..."
"No! I mean- I uhm, I understand!"
"I sure hope so!" She grinned at him and ruffled his hair a bit. "Now get going! Hurry to wherever you stay before someone finds out you have all that silver and tries to rob you!"
The urchin grimaced like a kid would when getting their hair ruffled by an adult, then nodded at her words before running off back the way he came.
Eva watched him with a warm smile which slowly faded as the boy faded from her view. When he was gone, she was straight-faced, almost frowning. Her eyes glazed over as memories of her own family flooded her mind. Happy times, smiling faces, children laughing and playing; It felt like a far off dream. Never again would she see their faces except in her memories.
She worried about the lad. She admired his tenacity and prayed to God that he would be ok, but the deep seated cynicism that found it's way into her from the years of horror she had to witness told her that it was no guarantee. The life of an urchin was no easy life. How would she know, so young herself, if she had just helped or hindered him.
"Please be strong." She prayed, clutching her hand to her chest. It was the best she could hope for him.
Post by Missbliss » Sun Dec 11, 2022 12:14 am
Thank you for the writing prompt. I've been inspired to write a lot lately so this is exactly what I needed. I hope to see more responses of all kinds. :)
Post by Mac » Mon Dec 12, 2022 5:54 am
Jongyi wrote: ↑
Missbliss wrote: ↑
No problem. I enjoyed reading your reply, as well as the other creative writing posts you've done on this forum, and hope to be able to read more from others.
Fosterwest
Post by Fosterwest » Tue Jan 24, 2023 9:49 pm
Thanks for the valuable advice, friend. Perhaps these tips will help in writing. But it seems to me that in such an important matter, the best option would be to seek help from a professional service for writing such complex content. For example, I often use nursing homework help when I need to quickly and efficiently prepare an academic paper or term paper. This allows me to count on an excellent result without putting in a lot of effort and time.
Last edited by Fosterwest on Sun Jan 29, 2023 2:22 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Post by Kefke » Tue Jan 24, 2023 10:18 pm
Names excluded to protect identities;
High Elf Paladin - Track the urchin down, but ultimately laugh it off and forgive them, so long as they gave the coin purse back. Then probably buy them a meal, and if they didn't have a home/parents try to take them to the orphanage.
Human Rogue - Give chase with all speed, resorting to foolhardy and reckless acrobatics to overtake the would-be pickpocket. They would give the child a scare after wresting away their belongings, but allow them to get away without chasing further.
Undead Mage - Sigh with resignation, shaking their head and pinching the bridge of their nose. After checking that nothing else was taken, they would go and sell off a few things to buy a new coin purse, and immediately get started on earning back the money/doing research, before quickly forgetting about the incident altogether.
Goblin Warrior - Much the same as the Rogue, but with more explosions and collateral damage, probably launching themselves through the air at least once, and laughing like a maniac the entire time. By the time they caught up to the child, they'd be in such a good mood that they'd end up deciding to pay the kid for giving them the opportunity.
Return to "Dancing Murloc Inn"

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Ladies receive concealed roses and men receive concealed Mardi Gras doubloons (coins). After an announcement, everyone unwraps them to reveal who is crowned to lead the parade as the 'Royal Court of the Krewe'. This is a tradition from Social Aid & Pleasure Clubs and Mardi Gras Krewes of New Orleans.
The event showcases the talents of local musicians, singers, dancers, and visual artists. Galleries of artwork that captures the landscape, architecture, and culture of the host city are on display and sold to benefit the NOLA Kid At Heart Foundation.
In Southern Louisiana, 'Lagniappe' (LAN-yap) is a term for an unexpected small gift or bonus given to a customer as a compliment for their loyalty. Local Lagniappe Sponsors of the Jazz Crawl allow us to collect donations from the purchase of items like food, drink, and fashion accessories.
The main attraction of the Jazz Crawl is the second-line parade, the most iconic tradition of New Orleans culture. The procession starts with a gospel dirge to recognize the event's memorial tributes and the second-line's roots as part of a Jazz Funeral. The band then kicks it up a notch as the moving block party of drums, horns, and second liners dancing with their parasols and handkerchiefs contagiously inspires bystanders to join in the celebration.
The parade is lead by the fancy footwork of costumed street dancers, a brass band, the newly crowned Royal Court of the Krewe, and a distinguished Grand Marshal. This represents the 'first-line'. Everyone else that joins in behind them is traditionally known as the 'second-line'. This is a nod to the modern day second-line traditions held by Social Aid & Pleasure Clubs of New Orleans.
The parade route is approximately 1 mile and designed to highlight the beauty of the host city. The downtown spectacle of a traditional New Orleans style second-line creates a unique photo-opportunity as the vibrantly colored group passes by iconic landmarks and backdrops energetically dancing, waving handkerchiefs, and twirling parasols.
The parade leads everyone to a centrally located square or park to present the history and cultural significance of Congo Square. In the late 18th Century, New Orleans' Congo Square was where enslaved Africans were permitted to gather on Sundays – enabling them to carry on their ancestral traditions of drumming and dance. Many historians consider this to be the birthplace of American music.
Historically, the gatherers of Congo Square would bring drums, bells, and other instruments to entertain themselves with tribal music, songs, and dance. As a reflection, everyone at the Jazz Crawl is encouraged to grab one of the many percussion instruments available and follow a demonstration to create a unified rhythm that moves people to dance in the circle.
One of New Orleans' most colorful and mysterious cultural traditions is that of the Mardi Gras Indian tribes that parade on undisclosed routes and times. Countless hours and thousands of dollars are spent handcrafting their remarkable suits and headdresses with beads, feathers, and patches. The beauty, history, and song of the Mardi Gras Indian will be shared at the drum circle if sponsorships and/or reasonable logistics allow for it.
A limited number of tickets are sold for the VIP After-Party that follows the African drum circle. The members of the Krewe that close out the festivities with us will enjoy an open bar with unlimited featured cocktails and a buffet style sampling of different Creole and Cajun dishes.
Just as the starting location showcases local artists, the ending location highlights the talents of New Orleans artists. The live music, dancing, and vibrant display of artwork will make you feel like you have transported to Frenchmen Street in the BIG Easy.
Artwork, unique experiences, and other items from local and New Orleans donors will be offered up through a silent auction to close out the fundraising efforts for the NOLA Kid at Heart Foundation.


text:
Mimi So is a New York City-based American jewelry designer, known for a "distinctive and definitive fashion vibe" and a large celebrity clientele. Her company was founded as a partnership with luxury conglomerate Richemont, which subsequently sold its interest to Mimi So.

Biography

Born and raised in New York City, the daughter of immigrants from China and Hong Kong, she is the youngest of three siblings. Her parents struggled after immigrating to the United States from China, but eventually opened three jewelry stores in Manhattan's Chinatown. She began to work in her parents' store at 8 years old, becoming a third-generation jeweler.

Pursuing an interest in graphic design, she graduated from the Parson's School of Design and initially worked at an advertising agency. She then returned to the family business, managing one of the stores and making pieces of jewelry for clients.

Mimi opened her own boutique at the corner of 5th Avenue and 47th Street, in Manhattan's Diamond District in 1998. Following in the footsteps of her mother, she was one of the first women to open a store in the largely Orthodox district.

She was admitted to the Council of Fashion Designers of America in 2009. By 2012, she was elected to the board of directors, and in 2015, she was elected Treasurer - one of the five officers of the CFDA, overseeing the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund and New York Fashion Week.

In 2015, U.S. Vice President Joseph Biden selected So as a representatives of the U.S., to host Chinese President Xi Jinping at the official state luncheon.

Mimi So Brand

Mimi So attracted a celebrity following after designing the wedding rings and jewelry for David Bowie and Iman. Subsequently, her limited edition designs were frequently worn by the stars of HBO's Sex and the City.

Neiman Marcus began selling her jewelry in one test location in 2002, and then expanded to 15 precious jewelry salons.

In 2004, Compagnie Financière Richemont, the conglomerate that owns Cartier and several other international luxury brands, formed a joint venture with the designer, launching Mimi So International.  The primary goal was international expansion, resulting in the opening of flagship stores in New York, Beverly Hills and Tokyo, with Japan distribution supported by Cartier.
The agreement entitled Richemont to purchase full control of the firm after seven years. But after two years, Richemont proposed to take majority ownership immediately. Instead, preferring to maintain control, she bought out Richemont's share in 2007. Fashion designer Carolina Herrera has been on the Mimi So International Board of Directors since 2004.

Before and during the partnership with Richemont, she advised and designed collections for sister brands including Cartier and Piaget, and designed the first jewelry assortment for Montblanc.
In 2012, she was selected as a featured designer by De Beers for the Forevermark Diamond campaign.

In 2005, Mimi So opened a three-story penthouse overlooking 5th Avenue in New York, which featured a designer salon and a glass-enclosed client cafe within a jewelry workshop. Designed by her with support from architects Yabu Pushelberg, it is a modern interpretation of the classical jewelry atelier townhouse, where the retail showroom sat on ground floor, with design and production floors above. Yabu Pushelberg also co-designed her Japan flagship inside the ground floor of Tokyo's Mitsukoshi Nihonbashi department store, and a boutique on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills.

So generally releases two to three limited edition jewelry collections per year, in sync with the fashion calendar. The jewelry is predominantly hand made in her New York studios.

The Mimi So website was noted by The Wall Street Journal as among the fastest-growing sites to buy fine jewelry online.

According to her CFDA biography, she is known for fine jewelry with modern designs, featuring graphic shapes, clean and asymmetrical lines, and bold fluid movements.

Recognition

Mimi So has been recognized for her philanthropy for children's charities, attending with Kanye West.

In 2003, Harvard Business School selected her business plan as a case study, after which she became an annual guest speaker.  A&E's Biography Magazine featured the designer as a subject, and in its advertising campaign.
In 2012, television show 1stLook NY (New York NBC affiliate) produced a biographical video profile, that was also broadcast in the city's 13,000 taxi cabs for two weeks.

See also
 Chinese Americans in New York City

References

External links
 Mimi So website
 CFDA Member Biography

Living people
Businesspeople from New York City
American fashion designers of Chinese descent
American fashion designers
Year of birth missing (living people)
American jewelry designers
Parsons School of Design alumni
Women jewellers

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
is an unincorporated city located in the , a border region between Kyoto, Osaka, and Nara Prefectures in Kansai region, Japan. The name is commonly shortened to  or . The name Keihanna is constructed by extracting a representative kanji from Kyoto, Osaka, and Nara. It is about  south of the city of Kyoto and  east of the city of Osaka. The city was constructed to help the advancement of creative arts, sciences, and research, as well as to spur the creation of new industries and cultures.

Location

Kansai Science City is located in portions of the following eight  and , in three prefectures:
Osaka Prefecture

Kyoto Prefecture

Nara Prefecture

Out of these, Seika in Kyoto Prefecture is completely inside the Kansai Science City.

The overall area of the Kansai Science City is , with an estimated population of 250,000.  There are 12 "Cultural and Academic Research Zones" within the Kansai Science City, encompassing , with an estimated population of 100,000. Seika & Nishikizu is the central district of this city. Fugenji and Kita-Tawara are science districts in land use adjustment.

Aerial photographs

Main research institutes and universities

Universities
Shijonawate Campus, Osaka Electro-Communication University
Doshisha University - Kyotanabe Campus, Tatara Campus, and Gakken Toshi Campus
Kyotanabe Campus, Doshisha Women's College of Liberal Arts
Institute of Free electron laser (iFEL), Osaka University
Nara Institute of Science and Technology
Seika Campus, Kyoto Prefectural University
Experimental Farm, Kyoto University

Research institutes
Universal Communication Research Institute, National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT)
Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute International (ATR)
Technology Research Laboratory, Shimadzu
Keihanna Research Center, Kyocera - optical and electronic devices, solar cells, advanced thin-film technologies
Kansai Photon Science Institute, National Institutes for Quantum and Radiological Science and Technology (QST)
Keihanna Site, Panasonic
Keihanna Technology Innovation Center, OMRON
International Institute for Advanced Studies (IIAS)
Nara Research and Development Center, Santen Pharmaceutical
Rohto Research Village Kyoto
Kansai Electronic Industry Development Center - supported by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry
Ion Technology Center
Research Institute of Innovative Technology for the Earth (RITE) - supported by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry
Keihanna Campus, Riken
Suntory World Research Center
Nidec Center for Industrial Science
Keihanna Area, NTT Communication Science Laboratories
Nara Research Institute for Cultural Properties

Other
Kansai-kan of the National Diet Library
Heijō Palace
Keihanna Open Innovation Center @Kyoto (KICK)
Keihanna Plaza

Transportation
Gakkentoshi Line, West Japan Railway Company (JR West)
Nara Line (JR West)
Kyoto Line, Kintetsu Railway (Kintetsu)
Keihanna Line (Kintetsu)
Shin-Meishin Expressway
Second Keihan Highway
Keinawa Expressway

In 2016, a government committee planning the final Kyoto-Osaka segment of the Hokuriku Shinkansen proposed routing the new high-speed line through Kyōtanabe.

About 100 minutes by bus from Kansai International Airport.

Notes

References

This article was translated from a portion of the corresponding article in the Japanese Wikipedia, retrieved on December 10, 2006.

See also
Hanshin Industrial Region
Harima Science Garden City
Tsukuba Science City

External links

Keihanna Science City - Public Foundation of Kansai Research Institute
The Kansai Science City Construction Act - Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism

Kansai Science City
Osaka University research


text:
Oct 7, 2018 News Hour Correspondent -
Kuldeep five-for gives India record Test win against West Indies
Spinner Kuldeep Yadav starred biggest-ever Test triumph for India as they thrashed the West Indies by an innings and 272 runs inside three days in the opening match on Saturday.
The tourists were dismissed for 196 early in the final session while following on, to trail the two-match series 1-0. They were bowled out for 181 in their first innings in response to India's 649-9 declared.
Kuldeep returned figures of 5-57 with his left-arm wrist spin, his first five-for in just his fourth Test since making his debut against Australia last year.
Ravindra Jadeja, who scored his maiden international century during India's only innings, took the final wicket of Shannon Gabriel for four as the hosts celebrated an utterly dominant win over the former cricketing powerhouse.
The world's top Test side surpassed their previous biggest win against Afghanistan by an innings and 262 runs during the minnows' debut five-day game in June. The match started with teenage opener Prithvi Shaw making 134 on day one to become the youngest Indian to score a century on debut, at 18 years of age.
Shaw, who is already being compared to Sachin Tendulkar, was adjudged the man of the match for his 154-ball stay laced with 19 fours.
Skipper Virat Kohli, who also scored a landmark century in India's only innings, was happy with the team's "clinical" showing and praised Shaw for his quality batting.
"Playing his first game, seeing him dominate — the guy showed he is different quality. That's why he's been pushed to the Test team," Kohli said after the win.
"Jaddu (Jadeja) as well — he has got important runs for us before and we wanted him to get three figures. We believe he can turn matches for us," said Kohli.
CricketindiaKuldeep YadavSportsTest MatchWest Indies


text:
« A day in the life…
More Than a Checklist »
Flip Tanedo | USLHC | USA
Meet the quarks
One of the most important experiments in the history of physics was the Rutherford experiment where "alpha particles" were shot at a sheet of gold foil. The way that the particles scattered off the foil was a tell-tale signature that atoms contained a dense nucleus of positive charge. This is one of the guiding principles of high-energy experiments:
If you smash things together at high enough energies, you probe the substructure of those particles.
When people say that the LHC is a machine colliding protons at 14 TeV, what they really mean is that it's a quark/gluon collider since these are the subnuclear particles which make up protons. In this post we'll begin a discussion about what these subatomic particles are and why they're so different from any of the other particles we've met.
(Regina mentioned QCD in her last post—I think "subtracting the effects of QCD," loosely phrased, is one of the 'problems' that both theorists and experimentalists often struggle with.)
This post is part of a series introducing the Standard Model through Feynman diagrams. An index of these entries can be found on the original post. In this post we'll just go over the matter particles in QCD. (I'm experimenting with more frequent—but shorter—posts.)
A (partial) periodic table for QCD
The theory that describes quarks and gluons is called Quantum Chromodynamics, or QCD for short. QCD is a part of the Standard Model, but for this post we'll focus on just QCD by itself. Quarks are the fermions—the matter particles—of the theory. There are six quarks, which come in three "families" (columns in the table below):
The quarks have cute names: the up, down, charm, strange, top, and bottom. Historically the t and b quarks have also been called "truth" and "beauty," but—for reasons I don't quite understand—those names have fallen out of use, thus sparing what would have been an endless parade of puns in academic paper titles.
The top row (u,c,t) is composed of particles with +2/3 electric charge while the bottom row is composed of particles of -1/3 charge. These are funny values since we're used to protons and electrons with charges +1 and -1 respectively. On the one hand this is a historical effect: if we measured the quark charges first we would have said that
the down quark has charge -1
the up quark has charge +2
the electron has charge -3
and the proton has charge +3
It's just a definition of how much is one "unit" of charge. However, the fact that the quark and lepton charges have these particular ratios is a numerical curiosity, since it is suggestive (for reasons we won't go into here) of something called grand unification. (It's not really as "grand" as it sounds.)
One quark, two quark, red quark, blue quark?
I drew the above diagram very suggestively: there are actually three quarks for each letter above. We name these quarks according to colors: thus we can have a red up quark, a blue up quark, and a green up quark, and similarly with each of the five quarks. Let me stress that actual quarks are not actually "colored" in the conventional sense! These are just names that physicists use.
The 'colors' are really a kind of "chromodynamic" charge. What does this mean? Recall in QED (usual electromagnetism) that the electron's electric charge means that it can couple to photons. In other words, you can draw Feynman diagrams where photons and electrons interact. This is precisely what we did in my first post on the subject. In QED we just had two kinds of charge: positive and negative. When you bring a positive and negative charge together, they become neutral. In QCD we generalize this notion by having three kinds of charge, and bringing all three charges together gives you something neutral. (Weird!)
The naming of different kinds of quarks according to colors is actually very clever and is based on the way that colored light mixes. In particular, we know that equal parts of red + green + blue = white. We interpret "white" as "color neutral," meaning having no "color charge."
There's a second way to get something color neutral: you can add something of one color with it's "anti-color." (You can formalize these in color theory, but this would take us a bit off course.) For example, the "anti-color" of red is cyan. So we could have red + "anti-red" (cyan) = color neutral.
If we don't see them, are quarks real?
The point of all of these "color mixing" analogies is that [at low energies], QCD is a strongly coupled force. In fact, we often just call it the strong force. It's responsible for holding together protons and neutrons. In fact, QCD is so strong that it forces all "color-charged" states to find each other and become color neutral. We'll get into some details about this in follow up posts when we introduce the QCD force particles, the gluons. For now, you should believe (with a hint of scientific skepticism) that there is no such thing as a "free quark." Nobody has ever picked up a quark and examined it to determine its properties. As far as you, me, the LHC, and everyone else is concerned, quarks are always tied up in bound states.
There are two kinds of bound states:
Bound states of 3 quarks: these are called baryons. You already know two: the proton and the neutron. The proton is a combination (uud) while the neutron is a combination (ddu). For homework, check that the electric charges add up to be +1 and 0. Because these have to be color neutral, we know that the quark colors have to sum according to red + green + blue.
Bound states of a quark and an anti-quark: these are called mesons. These are color-neutral because you have a color + it's anti-color. The lightest mesons are called pions and are composed of up and down quarks. For example, the π+ meson looks something like (u anti-d). (Check to make sure you agree that it has +1 electric charge.)
Collectively these bound states are called hadrons. In the real world (i.e. in our particle detectors) we only see hadrons because any free quarks automatically get paired up with either anti-quarks or two other quarks. (Where do these quarks come from? We'll discuss that soon!)
This seems to lead to an almost philosophical question: if quarks are always tied up in hadrons, how do we know they really exist?
A neat historical fact: Murray Gell-Mann and Yuval Ne'eman, progenitors of the quark model, originally proposed quarks as a mathematical tool to understand the properties of hadrons; largely because we'd found lots of hadrons, but no isolated quarks. For a period in the 60s people would do calculations with quarks as abstract objects with no physical relevance.
Why we believe that quarks are real
This seems to lead to an almost philosophical question: if quarks are always tied up in hadrons, how do we know they really exist? Fortunately, we are physicists, not philosophers. Just as Rutherford first probed the structure of the atomic nucleus by smashing high energy alpha particles (which were themselves nuclei), the deep inelastic scattering experiments at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (joint with MIT and Caltech) in the 60s collided electrons into liquid hydrogen/deuterium targets and revealed the quark substructure of the proton.
A discussion of deep inelastic scattering could easily span several blog posts by itself. (Indeed, it could span several weeks in a graduate quantum field theory course!) I hope to get back to this in the future, since it was truly one of the important discoveries of the second half of the twentieth century. To whet your appetites, I'll only draw the Feynman diagram for the process:
This is unlabeled, but by now you should see what's going on. The particle on top is the electron that interacts with the proton, which is drawn as the three quark lines on the bottom left. The circle (technically called a "blob" in the literature) represents some QCD interactions between the three quarks (holding them together). The electron interacts with a quark through some kind of force particle, the wiggly line. For simplicity you can assume that it is a photon (for homework, think about what is different if it's a W). We've drawn the quark that interacts as the isolated line coming out of the blob.
This quark is somewhat special because it's the particle that the electron recoils against. This means that it gets a big kick in energy, which can knock it out of the proton. As I mentioned above, this quark is now "free" — but not for long! It has to hadronize into more complicated QCD objects, mesons or baryons. The spectrum of outgoing particles gives clues about what actually happened inside the diagram.
We've just glossed over the surface of this diagram: there is a lot of very deep (no pun intended) physics involved here. (These sorts of processes are also a notorious pain in the you-know-where to calculate the first time one meets them in graduate courses.)
(By the way: the typical interactions of interest at the LHC are similar to the diagram above, only with two protons interacting!)
A hint of group theory and unification
I would be negligent not to mention some of the symmetry of the matter content of the Standard Model. Let's take a look at all of the fermions that we've met so far:
There are all sorts of fantastic patterns that one can glean from things that we've learned in these blog posts alone!
The top two rows are quarks (each with three different colors), while the bottom two rows are leptons. Each row has a different electric charge. Each column carries the same properties, except that each successive column is heavier than the previous one. We learned that the W boson mediates decays between the columns, and since heavy things decay into lighter things, most of our universe is made up of exclusively the first column.
There are other patterns we can see. For example:
When we first met QED, we only needed one type of particle, say the electron. We knew that electrons and anti-electrons (positrons) could interact with a photon.
When we met the weak force (the W boson), we needed to introduce another type or particle: the neutrino. An electron and an anti-neutrino could interact with a W boson.
Now we've met the strong force, QCD. In our next post we'll meet the force particle, the gluon. What I've already told you, though, is that there are three kinds of particles that interact with QCD: red, green, and blue. In order to form something neutral, you need all three color charges to cancel.
There's a very deep mathematical reason why we get this one-two-three kind of counting: it comes from the underlying "gauge symmetry" of the Standard Model. The mathematical field of group theory is (a rough definition) the study of how symmetries can manifest themselves. Each type of force in the Standard Model is associated with a particular "symmetry group." Without knowing what these names mean, it should not surprise you if I told you that the symmetry group of the Standard Model is: U(1) SU(2) SU(3). There's that one-two-three counting!
It turns out that this is also very suggestive of grand unification. The main thrust of the idea is that all three forces actually fit together in a nice way into a single force which is represented by a single "symmetry group," say, SU(5). In such a scheme, each column in the "periodic table" above can actually be "derived" from the mathematical properties of the GUT (grand unified theory) group. So in the same way that QCD told us we needed three colors, the GUT group would tell us that matter must come in sets composed of quarks with three colors, a charged lepton, and a neutrino; all together!
By the way, while they sound similar, don't confuse "grand unified theories" with a "theory of everything." The former are theories of particle physics, while the latter try to unify particle physics with gravity (e.g. string theory). Grand unified theories are actually fairly mundane and I think most physicists suspect that whatever completes the Standard Model should somehow eventually unify (though there has been no direct experimental evidence yet). "Theories of everything" are far more speculative by comparison.
Where we'll go from here?
I seem to have failed in my attempt to write shorter blog posts, but this has been a quick intro to QCD. Hopefully I can write up a few more posts describing gluons, confinement, and hadrons.
For all of you LHC fans out there: QCD is really important. (For all of you LHC scientists out there, you already know that the correct phrase is, "QCD is really annoying.") When we say that SLAC/Brookhaven discovered the charm quark or that Fermilab discovered the top quark, nobody actually bottled up a quark and presented it to the Nobel Prize committee. Our detectors see hadrons, and the properties of particular processes like deep inelastic scattering allow us to learn somewhat indirectly about the substructure of these hadrons to learn about the existence of quarks. This, in general, is really, really, really hard—both experimentally and theoretically.
Flip, US LHC Blogs
(By the way, if there are particle physics topics that people want to hear about, feel free to leave suggestions in the comments of the blog. I can't promise that I'll be able to discuss all of them, but I do appreciate feedback and suggestions. Don't worry, I'll get to the Higgs boson eventually… first I want to discuss the particles that we have discovered!)


1. Stab each pepper three times with a sharp paring knife and place them in a large glass preserving jar. 2. In a non-reactive saucepan, bring the other ingredients to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for five minutes. 3. Remove from heat and pour the brine over the peppers. Place the lid on the jar and let cool. Once cool, refrigerate for at least a week before using, if possible. (You can use them sooner, but Michael says they're worth the wait.) Serve whole, with Mexican dishes, or remove the seeds then chop and use to season any recipe that is improved by a little bit of sweet heat. Storage: I've kept pickles like this for up to a few weeks, under refrigeration, without any problems. But like anything preserved, you should take precautions. If you wish to preserve them longer, you can use these canning instructions and guidelines. Note: You can use another chile pepper in place of the japeños.


Scotland is set to bring forward legislation to tackle the 'deep-rooted' causes of child poverty.
The move, which will see consultations for the new Bill published over the summer, was announced by First Minister Nicola Sturgeon last week.
The Child Poverty Bill aims to set out a new approach to tackling deprivation and inequality. It will provide a clear way forward for delivering the Government's ambition to eradicating the problem.
The First Minister also announced she was re-appointing Naomi Eisenstadt as the Scottish Government's independent poverty advisor for another 12 months.
The Scottish Government previously rejected the UK Government's decision to abandon income-based child poverty targets.
And it wants to develop Scottish legislation after the UK Government repealed large parts of the existing UK-wide legislation.
A consultation setting out proposals for the bill aims to build on the existing work from the Child Poverty Strategy.
The First Minister said: "It is simply unacceptable that children are growing up in poverty and we must do all we can to tackle the inequality that still exists in 21st century Scotland.
"While we have made progress as a government through the Child Poverty Strategy, it's clear from feedback from my Independent Poverty Advisor, Naomi Eisenstadt, and others that we must keep striving to do more.
"The consultation and Bill will allow us to refine our approach and ensure it best meets the needs of those who so desperately need it.


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India Walton (in foreground on right), the Democratic Party nominee in the 2021 election for mayor of Buffalo, NY, walks to a polling place with supporters Thursday, October 28, 2021. (Photo: Matt Burkhartt for The Washington Post via Getty Images)
Putting India Walton's Campaign for Mayor of Buffalo in Context
India Walton might have lost an election. But she also ostensibly helped Buffalo progress more than halfway through the stages of a winning social movement.
Russell Weaver
India Walton—the progressive, working class, 39-year-old, Black mother-of-four who stunned Buffalo's Democratic establishment with her June 2021 upset win in the Mayoral Primary Election—appears to have lost her bid to become the city's Chief Executive. As of this writing, she's received 41% of the General Election vote, with unnamed write-in candidates (but, presumably, Primary loser and 16-year-incumbent, Byron Brown) winning the remaining 59% of ballots cast.
Some observers, including Brown, have been quick to characterize Walton's loss as a "rebuke" of her leftist brand of politics, stating that her General Election performance should serve as a "warning" to Democrats that leftward movement will cost the party at the ballot box. To paraphrase the celebratory words of New York State's Republican Committee Chairperson on election night, Brown did not simply beat Walton—he defeated a socialist movement in Buffalo.
Funny thing about movements, though: they're not won or lost in an election. Rather, movements progress through phases of an iterative, nonlinear process. Engineer-turned-activist Bill Moyer, who's frequently credited with steering the Chicago Freedom Movement toward its focus on fair housing in the 1960s, labeled this process the Movement Action Plan (MAP)—a concept he originated, developed, experienced, and refined through a lifetime of organizing.
In brief, MAP proposes that successful social movements pass through eight phases:
During "normal times", systemic problems like economic inequality or housing insecurity are not prominent on the public agenda. The problems, and the policies that sustain them, are relatively overlooked by the public and mainstream media.
Small networks of organizations and activists with expertise on a systemic problem use official channels (e.g., media, courts, public hearings) to focus attention on that problem.
Growing coverage of the problem produces "ripening conditions" wherein more organizations and people become sympathetic to the movement's positions. To Moyer, by this stage some 20-30% of the public are aware of and opposed to the problem.
One or more highly visible "trigger events" animates the problem, illustrating the need for change. During this "take off" phase, people and organizations flock to the movement in greater numbers. For Moyer, the fraction of the public aware of the problem and opposed to the policies or institutions responsible for it reaches 40% in this stage (recall: Walton won over 41% of General Election votes).
Seeing the movement's gains during "take off" as a threat to the status quo, powerholders mobilize their disproportionate power and resources against it, blocking its more transformative demands from being implemented. At least some members of or sympathizers with the movement perceive these unachieved demands as failure. This "perception of failure" leads to attrition.
The movement's experiences with external pushback and internal attrition help sharpen its analysis of power and of the social, economic, and institutional relations that produce and sustain systemic problems. It uses that analysis to build or expand prefigurative institutions that model solutions to those problems (e.g., in India Walton's case, community land trusts like the one she co-founded to promote affordable housing in Buffalo). Over time, "re-trigger events" bring problems back to life and again draw people and organizations to the movement in numbers. In Moyer's experience, this is the stage of "majority public opinion", where most people come to see a problem in terms of the policies and institutions that create and sustain it. Thus, it's also the stage where most people come to oppose the status quo and the powerholders who uphold it.
No longer just opposed to the status quo, a majority of the public embraces what were previously "feared" alternatives (i.e., the movement's more transformative demands), creating pressure for structural change. In Moyer's terms, this is a stage of "success", where incremental proposals no longer pacify the public as they once did. Instead, old policies and institutions are changed or dismantled, new ones are built, and people and organizations from the movement begin to replace powerholders who still seek to block transformative social change.
Finally, in what Moyer called "continuing the struggle", the movement works to extend successes, fend off attempts to undo progress, and transcend the boundaries (spatial, social, or political) of its prior victories.
The champions of the status quo sounding the death knell on Buffalo's progressive movement either aren't thinking at the MAP temporal scale; or, more likely, they're intentionally holding up Walton's election loss as evidence that progressive politics aren't capable of taking root in the existing political-economic system, thereby attempting to accelerate attrition from the Buffalo-based movement that Walton's come to represent.
Don't fall for it.
Walton's campaign pulled back the curtain on Buffalo's "resurgence" narrative, highlighting how the city's pro-growth economic agenda has exacerbated inequality, creating wealth and benefits for affluent developers and property owners while making life more precarious for the disempowered masses. She helped elevate systemic problems like housing insecurity, food deserts, and care deficits to the public agenda. And, perhaps most importantly, she advanced alternative policies and institutions—public-community partnerships to develop networked community land trusts, participatory budgeting, a public bank, and more—that have the potential to address those problems at a structural level.
Not long ago, these proposals—which her opponents breathlessly call "radical socialist"—might not have won much favor in a "moderate, business friendly" city like Buffalo. But Walton just captured over 41% of the general electorate, while bringing scores of people (especially young people) into progressive politics. Her campaign was a trigger event that helped the movement reach "take off" (stage four). Her loss will be perceived by some as a failure (stage five). But, in truth, it's a turning point.
The speed and ease with which establishment Democrats and Republicans joined forces to drag Brown over the finish line as a write-in candidate laid bare the real fight. It's not about shifting power from one political party to another—but from the opulent minority to the working-class majority. With the Mayoral election in the rearview mirror, and the fact that Walton seemingly won over Buffalo's working-class communities, the progressive movement in Buffalo looks poised to drive headstrong into MAP stage six: institution building.
By working outside of elected office—for now—to continue building the prefigurative, people-centered organizations that Walton's campaign envisioned for Buffalo, progressives in the city can institutionalize their recent gains. That way, when the next "re-trigger event" calls Buffalo's collective attention to the city's worsening inequality, concentrated poverty, housing insecurity, or related problems—and such an event will inevitably occur, given the choice to keep a developer-friendly strategy in place—the movement will have ready-made infrastructure on which to greet the general public, whose eventual rejection of business-as-usual will come with a demand for transformative alternatives (stage seven).
India Walton might have lost an election. But she also ostensibly helped Buffalo progress more than halfway through the stages of a winning social movement. Now isn't the time for despair, but for sustained building and organizing: "success" is arguably just a stage (or two) away.
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
Russell Weaver, PhD, is Research Director at the Cornell University ILR Buffalo Co-Lab. He is lead author of the book "Shrinking Cities: Understanding Urban Decline in the United States." Contact: rcweaver@cornell.edu | http://highroadpolicy.org
In Buffalo and After: Democratic Socialists Vs. Republican Democrats
Peter Hogness · Dec 6, 2021
The Empire Strikes Back at the Left in Buffalo and Cleveland
Norman Solomon · Jul 1, 2021
'When We Organize, We Win': Ocasio-Cortez Joins India Walton at Rally in Buffalo
Julia Conley · Oct 23, 2021
How Buffalo News Helped Keep a Socialist Out of City Hall
Ari Paul · Nov 13, 2021


text:
Битва за Атту (операция «Песчаный краб», ) — операция армии США по освобождению острова Атту от японских войск в ходе Тихоокеанской кампании во время Второй мировой войны. Проходила с 11 по 30 мая 1943 года.

Предыстория
Чтобы достичь успеха в этом районе боевых действий, американцам было необходимо уничтожить два японских форпоста, расположенных на островах Кыска и Атту с 1942 года. База на Кыске, располагая аэродромом и мощным гарнизоном, была более важна в стратегическом отношении, и первоначально американцы планировали нанести удар именно по ней. Однако, запланировав к высадке усиленную пехотную дивизию (порядка 25000 человек), американское командование столкнулось с трудностями в изыскании необходимого количества кораблей для перевозки и снабжения войск. Тогда адмирал Кинкейд решил перенести острие удара на остров Атту как на более лёгкую цель. Кроме того, он отметил, что заполучив базу в этом районе, американскому флоту будет проще контролировать местные коммуникации и отрезать Кыску от снабжения.

Соединение кораблей, задействованных в этой операции, состояло из линкоров «Невада», «Пенсильвания» и «Айдахо», эскортного авианосца «Нассау», большого количества крейсеров и эсминцев, а также двух подводных лодок — «Нарвал» и «Наутилус». В качестве наземных сил была задействована 7-я пехотная дивизия под командованием генерала А. Брауна.

Битва

11 мая разведывательная группа высадилась с подводных лодок в девяти милях к северо-западу от основного расположения японских сил и, не встретив сопротивления, стала продвигаться вглубь острова. Основные же силы произвели высадку на юго-востоке острова. К вечеру 11 мая количество американских войск на острове достигло 3500 человек. При поддержке с моря и с воздуха они принялись продвигаться по направлению к основной базе японских войск на северо-востоке острова.

Впрочем, американские войска столкнулись с немалыми трудностями на своём пути. Сильно пересечённая местность затрудняла продвижение, а крайне холодная и ненастная погода оказалась тяжёлым испытанием для войск, только что прибывших из Калифорнии, а также затрудняла поддержку с воздуха. Кроме того, оказалось, что данные разведки неточны и японских войск на острове значительно больше, чем ожидалось.

Японский гарнизон отчаянно сопротивлялся и американцы были вынуждены присылать подкрепления для своей группировки на острове. В течение трёх недель сражения на остров было доставлено порядка 12000 человек.

Наконец, к исходу мая американцы, реализовав своё численное превосходство, практически очистили остров от японских сил, а их остатки прижали к береговой линии. 29 мая командующий японским гарнизоном полковник Ясуо Ямасаки повёл оставшихся в живых (около 1000 человек) в последнюю отчаянную контратаку. Они сумели прорваться сквозь линию обороны американцев и вступить в рукопашную схватку, однако вскоре были все перебиты. Таким образом, к 30 мая остров вновь оказался в руках американцев.

Итоги сражения
Американцы потеряли 549 человек убитыми и 1148 ранеными, кроме того, порядка 2100 человек составили небоевые потери, в основном от траншейной стопы или переохлаждения и обморожений из-за неподходящего к климату обмундирования. Что касается японцев, американцы доложили о 2351 найденном убитом и ещё несколько сотен были похоронены самими японцами в ходе сражения. Число оставшихся в живых японцев составило всего 28 человек.

Примечания

Ссылки

 Aleutian Islands War:June 3, 1942 — August 24, 1943

Май 1943 года
1943 год на Аляске
Операции и сражения Второй мировой войны
Сражения Японии во Второй мировой войне
Сражения войны на Тихом океане
Сражения на Тихом океане
Сражения по алфавиту
Сражения США во Второй мировой войне
Алеутская операция
Конфликты 1943 года


C-Plus is made from 10 metabolism supporting ingredients, specially blended to nutritionally support hormone function in horses and ponies that may also experience excess body weight, a reduction in coat quality, and problems shedding hair.
C-Plus is a Chastetree berry based supplement specifically designed to optimise coat shedding, support coat condition, and help the distribution of excess fat deposits.
To provide nutritional support to horses and ponies that experience excess body weight and fat deposits, reduced coat shedding and poor coat quality.
C-Plus should be fed alongside a balanced diet, and appropriate management practices followed.
Fed at 3 scoops per day, a 3kg tub will last around 34 days, a 6kg around 68 days and a 12kg around 136 days.
Micronised linseed, Chastetree berry powder (15%), Brewer's yeast, Bladderwrack, Rosehip shells, Magnesium oxide, Mint leaves, Maize meal, Cinnamon, Astragalus.


I love the scouting program and with four boys, we'll be doing scouts for awhile! Here is a kit I created that will help me and any of you in scrapping your photos of your scouting adventures! Also versatile enough for other types of layouts!