text:
Tag: friendship
Three years ago, I started a membership group called Get Your Muse On. At its peak, it had about 40 members who actively shared weekly intentions, freewrites, and other creative shenanigans. Friendships blossomed, confidence deepened, and many a birthday limerick has been shared.
After a few different incarnatons, I made a decision this week to officially retire this group. I closed its doors to new members quite a while back, and those who remain are close-knit and committed to staying connected. But the participation and engagement aren't what they were and rather than trying to return to something that had its day, letting it simply be what it is — a sweet gathering place for friends who love writing — seemed like the next right step.
But letting go and allowing change to happen is not easy for me. I suspect this is true for many of us. It's bittersweet, maybe a little scary even, to acknowledge that a thing has run its course.
As we move towards the solstice and new year, I'm feeling this energy so intensely. I've heard from more than one person in the past few days that they are feeling exhausted, moody, tapped out. The holiday season can drain our wallets and our spirits, as much as it's supposed to fill our hearts with joy and sugarplums.
I was chatting with a teacher of Pearl's last night about her holiday plans. She said her grown kids have very different food preferences, so she didn't yet know what kind of meal she might prepare on Christmas day with them. I said something about images of families sitting down to eat, everyone at a table — how images like that can be so… she finished my sentence for me: Oppressive.
Yes. Images like that invariably make us feel like we're failing at something, when in fact we are actually living real lives, where not everyone wants to or can eat the same things, where not everyone wants to or can be at the table, where not everything is happy and bright.
Groups like the Muses are havens from these expectations. As I write this, I realize that this is true of all of my work — the writing groups, the coaching, even working with folks on books. Having room to show up as we are, to write without worrying about being good, to say what's really going on in our lives and hearts, to name what really happened in the past, all of this is how we get free to take up more space in the world and ultimately share more of ourselves.
More of ourselves, please. The world tells us a lot of things. The world tells us a lot of things about what being a writer is supposed to look like.
I got a(nother) rejection yesterday. It's an essay I wrote a year ago and originally submitted to the New York Times Modern Love column with a wish and a prayer and not-so-secret high hopes that this would be the One.
Spoiler alert: It wasn't. It was one of many. After the NYT rejected it, I kept sending it out. So far, not even a nibble. There's a high probability I will choose to post it here and on my blog. That's my way. That's what I mean when I say "keep going."
The end goal is not a perfect meal, a Rockwell painting, a slam dunk, a bullseye, or bragging rights. The end goal is to be here, to live fully, to take risks, to show up, to listen hard, to love well.
Last night, Pearl was awake with a tummy bug (he's currently finally sleeping on the couch next to me). At one point, hoping he'd be able to rest, I told him to try counting his breaths, from one to ten. "If you lose count, go back to one," I said.
I'm always going back to one. I had a zen teacher at one point who wrote about this, and it's true. We're always trying to get somewhere else.
So I'm letting the Muses group go as an "official" group. I'm making room, without having to rush in to fill it. I'm honoring the relationships I've come to cherish and know will endure, without clinging to the past.
Change happens. Stomach bugs happen. Rejection happens. Real life happens. And the writing? It happens, too, in the context of all of this. The minute we stop trying to get it right, the minute we start believing who and where we are is good enough, so much opens up. Room to breathe opens up. Trust might even make a guest appearance.
Back to one. Everybody now. And as for the Muses? You know who you are, and I love you all 4-ev-uh.
Boundaries, Conflict, Forgiveness — Oh My!
Photo: Oscar Keys
When you ask a question and the answer is no, that means the conversation is over.
"No" is not an invitation to push back, argue, convince, emote, cajole, or complain your way to a different outcome.
The time you spend fussing about doing a thing is often how long it would've taken to get said thing done.
You can accept not getting your way without a meltdown.
"No" does not mean, "I don't love you."
"No" does not mean, "You are unlovable."
"No" does not mean, "I'm angry at you."
"I'm angry at you" does not mean, "I don't love you."
"I'm angry at you" does not mean, "You are unlovable."
Interpersonal conflict is part of life. It is absolutely unavoidable. It is something many of us are terrified of, unskilled at, and reactive to.
Making mistakes is also an absolutely unavoidable part of life. No matter how conscientious, thoughtful, mindful, caring, and considerate you are, you will have blindspots. You will misjudge. You will say a thing or ask a question or make a request and later think, what was I thinking?
That is the moment when learning begins.
That is the moment when a voice in your head is very likely to start up, likely with something harsh and berating, such as, "You idiot!"
That is the moment when your heart may start racing, when your bowels will loosen, when your hands will get sweaty. Fight, flight, freeze, fawn — one or more of these will appear in a nanosecond and your body will go into a system of red alert.
I recently made a mistake. In the moment, it didn't seem like a big deal, though I could feel an undercurrent of pressure and rushing that should've been signals if I'd been paying closer attention.
Person A wanted to join Persons B and C for an outing. (My role: Intermediary between these parties.) Persons B and C had preexisting plans, that weren't 100% ideal for Person A. Person A pushed on me to ask Persons B and C if they could change their plan to accommodate this.
Had I been more in tune with my values at this moment — such as respect, connection, trust, and honesty — I would have told Person A, either you can change YOUR plans in order to join Persons B and C, or you can let it go.
Instead, I caved and asked Persons B and C if they could change THEIR plans.
Why did I make this decision? Because this is real life: Messy, stumbling, incurably imperfect. If only we could see the whole picture in each and every moment.
Then came later. Because of going to an event 45 minutes later than planned, all the involved persons missed the highlights of the event, which Person C in particular had been looking forward to for months, perhaps even longer. Person C was hysterically sad. (It may be noted that Person C is a very young person, whose sadness was not unreasonable.)
And so it was that Friday night, I received a text from Person D, telling me how hurt she was by my asking Persons B and C to change their plans to accommodate Person A.
In a word, it sucked.
In another word: I made a mistake.
And there was no way to undo that, no way to go back and change it, no way to fix it. All I could do was take responsibility, notice what I wished I had done and said instead, and apologize six ways to Sunday for my poor judgment call.
Would the relationships all be ok?
Of course, that was the fear.
In a word: Loss.
Person A wrote a card with a very sweet drawing and put it in Persons B, C, and D's mailbox.
I invited Person D to go for a run the next day. We met up in the driveway and gave each other a hug. We talked about how much we mean to each other. We talked about our families of origin and how we learned (or didn't learn) to meet conflict, anger, and hurt feelings.
Persons B, C, and D forgave Person A and me. We all learned some things.
"No" means no.
"Yes, this is how that will work for us" is not an invitation to negotiating alternatives.
Boundaries are healthy.
Relationships worth keeping can withstand some conflict.
You cannot control another person's reaction. We all bring whole lives to our responses to things, and there is almost guaranteed to be other stuff going on that may not be visible to the naked eye.
You are allowed to be angry.
You are allowed to feel hurt.
You are allowed to be scared.
You are allowed to make mistakes.
You are allowed to apologize. But it is not up to you whether or how your apology will be received. Not every song has a nice major chord of resolution at the end.
You are not required to learn form these experiences, but your world will be richer and your relationships stronger if you do. And there is no avoiding them, lest we live in a fragile, entitled state of needing everything to go our way.
Friends can become family. Family is not a guarantee of closeness.
Anger and hurt are inevitable and normal parts of being a human.
Forgiveness is a choice, not a duty.
Communication takes effort.
It's worth it.
Want to spend 2019 exploring how small but mighty words (like "honesty" and "courage") show up in your everyday life?
Join me for Truth: A Year-Long Exploration of Personal Values.
Thoughts on Advice and Friendship
All I saw was, "Hi, Jena" in my private messages. Two innocuous words of greeting from a kind person, and yet already I felt my nervous system gearing up. Clearly I still have have some stickiness around this topic. Because I knew what was coming: The A-word.
Advice! But not just any advice.
Unsolicited advice!
So, you decide you're going to do something new. Maybe you're considering a move. Or having a baby or getting a dog. You share on social media because it's exciting and you're someone who likes thinking out loud. But nowhere in your sharing do you ask for input.
Or perhaps you're struggling and could use some moral and emotional support. You write that it's a hard night, or your grief got tripped open all over again. Maybe your kiddo is hurting and it hurts to see them hurt.
We are quick to rush in. If things are hard, we want to fix it, share what worked for us, and make suggestions for what to do and how to be. If it's something fun and exciting, we are eager to make sure they've considered their options and are aware of the potential pitfalls, downsides, and other disasters that could ensue.
I imagine it's a safe bet to say most of us have been on both sides of this equation.
Fear, a need to take people down a notch, a know-it-all attitude, or simply the discomfort of witnessing and being with without necessarily have a say in someone's choices and decisions — surely all of these play a part in this dynamic.
The mighty pause.
If you have a piece of advice burning a hole in your heart, consider asking before you share it. For example, the aforementioned message went on to say, "May I give you a bit of unasked for advice on selecting a dog breed for your household?"
That would have been a good place to pause and await my answer. (In this case, the person did not pause. She asked and then answered the question herself by proceeding with said advice.)
I am totally guilty of this, for the record. Just a week ago, I took Aviva out to dinner to celebrate the release of her first EP. We shared a nice meal and then walked over to Herrell's for ice cream and hot fudge. At one point, she was animatedly telling me about her thinking for the next 2-4 years. And I did that thing. I jumped in and told her why she might want to consider x instead of y. Because my daughter is a badass, she called me on it. "Oh, snap," I said. Busted. But damn if it isn't a practice to just listen.
During a coaching call last week, I was taking notes when I saw something.
Being witness and being with-ness. Just one letter different. And essentially synonymous. To be with you is to be your witness. To be with me is to bear witness. Whether I'm excitedly talking about what kind of dog we might get or agonizing about whether to quit my job, unless I'm asking you for your advice, I'm not asking you for advice. I'm inviting you to be with me. To be with me in by witnessing and empathizing — whether in excitement or difficulty.
A weapon or a gift.
The summer I came out was the single most confusing, chaotic, charged period of my life. I sought out advice, but also knew ultimately I had to find a way to listen to and trust myself. That wasn't an easy balance to strike and lord knows I probably made a mess of it. My mind goes back to a few conversations that proffered guidance rather than advice.
One was: "Every decision has gains and losses."
The second was more of an inquiry: "Do you want to have a near-life experience?"
And the third made an observation, when I was hyper-focused on the other people involved: "What about you in all this?"
These moments became anchors for me during an unmoored moment. What none of them did was tell me I should be careful or cautious. They didn't warn me or say I was making a huge mistake. They didn't use words like "implore" or even "encourage." Encouragement with an agenda is like support with conditions, and it doesn't feel like love, it feels like pressure.
What makes these conversations stand out nearly eight years later is that they taught me something about presence, about friendship, about being wit(h)ness. They showed me that I was a grown-up woman, capable of trusting myself and making decisions rooted in integrity. They showed me who in my life was able to hold space for me without projecting their own fears or desires.
They pointed me, too, to the kind of friend, coach, parent, and partner I want to be.
Next time a friend shares hard news — maybe they're going through a nasty divorce, or grieving a loss all over again — or something momentous — they're expecting, adjusting to an empty nest, or writing a book — notice your first impulse. Is it to jump to your own experience of that thing and tell them what worked and didn't work well for you? Maybe it's to say, "I'm so sorry," or "That sounds big." Take a moment to notice the difference. Are you in your own head or being witness and being with them, over there, right where they are?
Ask first.
I never knew how powerful it was to simply ask questions: Would you like my advice? What would feel like love/support/presence to you in this moment?
In December, I participated in a wonderful group with Amy Walsh called The Art of Showing Up. One thing I loved and that really made an impression on me was this: In addition to offering fantastically creative assignments, she asked participants to include a "commenting policy" with every single post. It put the responsibility on the person sharing, to state clearly her needs. This in turn gave the other people in the group some instructions. We would know if someone didn't want any comments like, "You're so beautiful." Maybe they were looking for a particular kind of feedback. If the person posting wanted to hear about other people's experiences, she could ask for this. If she only wanted feel-good love-me-up-and-down kinds of comments, she could ask for this.
I do this in the Jewels on the Path group, if not using quite the same language. When members share new writing on Wednesdays, I remind them to articulate what kind of response they want. Sometimes, we simply need people to be witness and be with us. Other times, we truly want to know whether a piece of writing "works" for the reader. Where are the holes? Did the ending feel rushed? What did you want more of? Where did you get confused or lost?
Learning how to sit with someone (or someone's words) without rushing to advice is one side of the equation. Practicing being clear on what it is we want and need is the other.
Not an either/or.
My most enduring friendships have this in common: Presence. Not fixing, not judging, not drama. They show me what it is to be with, to witness, to love, to celebrate, to mourn — and to respect that every single one of us is here having our own experience. I'm so thankful we can learn with and from each other, and also have room to find our own way through this life. How could it be otherwise, really? At the end of the day, no one else lives in your body, your house, your family, your past, your knowing.
At the same time, having people who know and love us and will tell us when we're in a blind spot or ask us if we'd like to hear their guidance — what would we do without that? Like so many things, it's not an either/or, but a dance. Websters' defines advice as "guidance or recommendations concerning prudent future action, typically given by someone regarded as knowledgeable or authoritative." It's imperative to recognize that we cannot ultimately be an authority about anyone else's life. Ever.
Practice: "No Advice, Please."
Mani and I are in the early stages of exploring getting a dog. Our landlord has said yes. Yay! We are obsessed with French and English bulldogs. We're also looking at rescue pups at local shelters. We're doing our research and having lots of conversations.
I am a sharer. I am an open book in many ways. In work, writing, and life, I tend to be all about process, since the vast majority of, well, everything, happens there, in the exploring, in the becoming, in the lived experience, in the days and nights unfolding and revealing and concealing and becoming. What often isn't immediately apparent in all of this is an answer or an outcome. We LOVE answers and outcomes. The yes or no. The big announcement. The prize. The birth. The publication date. The decision, finally signed, sealed, and delivered.
In the absence of these, I'm continuously stepping into this funny, simple place called here in a time without a past or future called now. I don't mean to be snarky or esoteric; this really is my practice — arriving over and over into this moment, while always holding an awareness of context. I love being here with you.
Everything unfolds. (Also: Dogs.)
What does that have to do with dogs?
Well, I could wait until we have a new doggie and then share pictures and names and YAY!
But I am not doing that. I'm not waiting to share till I know what's happening. I'm sharing as we go, because this is life right now. Life right now is: We're hoping to get a dog, and I don't know yet what kind of dog or when, and I know many of you love dogs and who wants to be part of the process of seeing how this goes? Not: Do you think getting a dog right now is a good idea for us? Not: What kind of dog do you think we should get? Not: Do you have concerns about certain breeds?
But it's as much on me as it is on you, to be clear. I can practice saying: No advice, please. That part's my job. It's a two-way street, this communication thing, this relationship thing, this being with each other and this being witness to each other thing. It's a thing I love and cherish and honor. And it's a thing I'm always learning more about.
p.s. Stay tuned for more doggie news!
When Anne Sexton wrote,
"Everyone in me is a bird
I am beating all my wings"
She was writing for you.
When Nelson Mandela wrote,
"Do not judge me by my successes,
judge me by how many times I fell down
and got back up again"
He was writing for you.
When Amelia Earhart flew
across the Atlantic Ocean
alone, she was charting your course.
When Lucille Clifton celebrated
herself with these words:
"these hips are mighty hips.
these hips are magic hips."
She was celebrating you.
When David Whyte called despair
"a necessary and seasonal state of repair,
a temporary healing absence,"
he had you in mind.
I spoke with these poets,
these pioneers, these people of doubt
and faith, or darkness and light,
those who did not shy away
from the heart of the world
but flung themselves into what Pico Iyer
calls "the wonderful abyss."
They called me in at 4:00am,
just in time for your question
from the other side of the world:
To burn off anything extra,
becoming so fully human that every
feeling is welcome in your guest house.
To take down and build up.
To grieve and to sing.
To feel, and feel, and feel,
until all of the layers have been loved.
Stanley Kunitz and Rumi
joined us, and soon the room
was so full of friends and poets,
dancers and makers of things,
and those who crave a moment,
just one single moment, of pure
connection, someone to look at their eyes
with true love. Your voice rises,
still it rises — Maya Angelou, too —
and says, "I see you. I am here to see."
Seeing can be painful work.
And miraculous, too.
You are the one who lets go.
And you are the holder, too,
infinitely and forever held
by the arms of the world.
Grande Lattes, Treason, and the Universal Sign for Empathy
February 1, 2017 3 Comments
Photo: Anete Lusina
Two sparrows pecked away at a chunk of discarded donut in the snow outside the door to Starbucks as Luping and I dove into conversation today. The moment I walked in, she asked if I was feeling better (I had cancelled last week's session due to being sick). I told her yes, but that I still wasn't 100%.
The very moment those words came out of my mouth, I asked if she brought her notebook. She had. I wrote it down and explained this expression — how it means I'm feeling better but not all the way better. She nodded in understanding and told me coffee today would be her treat.
We walked over the register to order. I asked for a grande latte with one Splenda (I've cut it out completely at home, but still get one in my latte, go figure). She said she'd have the same, then she told me that she wants to try a different drink each week.
"You're branching out!" I said, then immediately added that it's like expanding, trying new things. "Oh, yes!" she said, as my little interpretive dance and definition clicked in her brain. She paid for our drinks, the cashier said something about how it's cool to "get out of your comfort zone" and that we were "all set," and we carried them back over to our little two-person table by the window.
"Do you know what 'all set' means?" I asked her. "What about 'comfort zone'?" She didn't know either of these. It occurred to me that in our first five minutes together, roughly half of the words spoken had been idioms she probably hadn't learned in English textbooks or classroom lessons, nor in the lab where she is doing graduate research at UMass. So she got out her notebook and we continued the "lesson" that had begun the moment we said hello to each other.
I suggested we write down each of these expressions, as a way of "keeping track" of what she's learning. Turns out "keeping track" is yet another one. I gave some examples. "I can't keep track of my keys; I'm always losing them." "I can't keep track of my kids; I never know where they are." (That made her laugh.) "I can't keep track of my books; they're all over the house."
From there, we both saw how closely related "branching out" is to "comfort zone." The more I described the former, the more I naturally found myself talking about the latter. I wound up drawing a little pot (labeled "pot") with several branches growing out of it. Actually, I should say "drawing," since drawing itself is out of my comfort zone and a good example of me branching out.
We talked about how people often prefer to stay inside their comfort zones, and how it can be scary to branch out. And how personal this is, too. For me, chatting with the barista is not a stretch. It doesn't require any real "branching." But for someone else, chatting with the barista, or any stranger for that matter, might be WAY out of their comfort zone.
Now I'm thinking of another one, for next week: "cookie cutter approach." I wonder if they even have cookie cutters in China.
After this, I got a lesson from her in Chinese poetry from the Han dynasty. I learned that many Chinese parents choose baby names from these ancient stories, not unlike how in the West many people are named after characters in the Bible. Luping told me the story of Qu Yuan, which is recalled each year during the Dragon Boat Festival.
As I listened, I couldn't help but draw parallels between Qu Yuan's "treason" against the Emperor (as she put it, he was honest and shared his disagreement openly), subsequent exile, and ultimate suicide with what we are facing right now under Trump, who is acting more like an emperor than a president of a democratic nation. I couldn't help but think of the bravery of so many people, both throughout history and just in the past few days, who have spoken truth to power — even at the expense of their personal or professional security and safety.
Somehow this led to the word "tragedy" (as opposed to "comedy"). Luping mentioned the Titanic as an example, then told me that she prefers tragedies to stories with happy endings. They stay with her more, she said. I told her I knew just what she meant. I put my hand on my heart and suggested that it was because of the empathy we may experience with the characters in a tragic story. She looked up "empathy" in Chinese, then put her hand on her heart, too. (Universal sign for empathy, I think.)
And then I taught her one last word of the day: "Tearjerker."
Luping may not have realized just how riveted I was by her Qu Yuan story, nor how relevant I found it to what we're currently facing. As we were saying goodbye, I did mention politics. She put her hand on my arm. She could lose her visa. Our leaders are throwing nuclear threats at each other. And here we were, two women drinking grande lattes with one Splenda each, each of us branching out, learning, connecting.
I felt energized and uplifted and grateful, and also sad that more people don't have — or don't seek out — the opportunity to connect with someone from another culture, or even just a different background than your own. Xenophobia withers under these conditions. For many people, this means leaving comfort zones in the dust.
"It seems a bit unfair," I said, as I buttoned my coat. She looked puzzled. I continued, "I think I'm learning more than you are!"
She said she is surely the luckier one. We left it that we could both be lucky, and agreed on our meeting for next week. As we walked out together, I saw that the sparrows had polished off that donut. I hadn't noticed them fighting over the crumbs, flying away.


text:
#include "ServiceImpl.hpp"
#include <iostream>

namespace sample {

void ServiceComponentDynamicReluctantOptionalUnary::Activate(
  const std::shared_ptr<ComponentContext>& /*ctxt*/)
{}

void ServiceComponentDynamicReluctantOptionalUnary::Deactivate(
  const std::shared_ptr<ComponentContext>&)
{}

std::string ServiceComponentDynamicReluctantOptionalUnary::ExtendedDescription()
{
  std::string result("ServiceComponentDynamicReluctantOptionalUnary ");
  result.append("depends on ");
  std::lock_guard<std::mutex> lock(fooMutex);
  if (foo) {
    result.append(foo->Description());
  }
  return result;
}

void ServiceComponentDynamicReluctantOptionalUnary::Bindfoo(
  const std::shared_ptr<test::Interface1>& theFoo)
{
  std::lock_guard<std::mutex> lock(fooMutex);
  if (foo != theFoo) {
    foo = theFoo;
  }
}

void ServiceComponentDynamicReluctantOptionalUnary::Unbindfoo(
  const std::shared_ptr<test::Interface1>& theFoo)
{
  std::lock_guard<std::mutex> lock(fooMutex);
  if (foo == theFoo) {
    foo = nullptr;
  }
}

} // namespaces

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


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I eat at least a TBSP of cocoa every day. I mix it with coffee and have been making shakes with it since the summer hit. I'm partial to Hershey's Special Dark but it's not organic and I'm sure the bean-to-package process is questionable (ingredients: cocoa). I've tried Penzey's, NOW organic, Ghirardelli, and the regular Hershey's cocoa, but the Special Dark has an intensity that I really enjoy. Any suggestions for organic or minimally processed cocoa?
That explains why the natural stuff I bought doesn't taste as good.
I remember a date at my first Cacao Festival: I shared my CHOCOLATE letters with a new girlfriend, Ethl. But she ate every letter in her name and left me with COCOA.
Correct spelling of the cocoa brand is Ghirardelli. The slight bitterness and rich flavor of this dark cocoa complement the light sweetness of the fruit concentrate (syrup) and tropical flavor of extra virgin coconut oil.
Another consideration is whether or not the chocolate has been fairly traded. Not really an answer, but something to look into if you've never heard about the issues of the cacao trade.
you're a chocolate savant. thanks.
That's the kind I use too-- great stuff!
damn, sean. pretty thorough post. nice.
'Special Dark' is dutch processed (using alkali) which makes it less bitter, but removes most of the good stuff. Look for unprocessed powders, like Hershey's Natural Unsweetened.
Dutch processing reduces flavanol content, so go with the natural if you want the maximum benefit. I prefer the bitter taste of naturally processed.
Up until now I've been getting by with a supply of Hershey's Natural Unsweetened brought from the USofA, but it will be gone by end of day.
Heryshey's Natural 100% cocoa all the way baby! It's both cheap and good!
Stay away from the "dutched" stuff, like Sean said, it has all the taste but none of the nutrition of real chocolate.
We use Bergenfield Natural Cocoa Powder. It is single origin and 100% cocoa (no fillers, additives, mixes, etc). It is non-alkalized, so it has all the polyphenols.
My brand is Ricoa unsweetened all-natural 100% and non-dutch processed cocoa powder.
A note on dutch-process vs. regular cocoa: the dutched stuff dissolves much better in liquids, including coffee. So if you're like me, and you're cuckoo for cocoa for the taste rather than nutritional benefits, it's the obvious choice. I also use Hershey's Special Dark, though if I could find higher-end dutch cocoa in my area, I would buy that.
Pernigotti Cocoa, the gourmet's choice :p Highly rated by Cooks Illustrated and Saveur, Amazon reviewers give it 30 5-star ratings out of 32 total ratings.
Lightly Dutch processed cocoa with vanilla mixed in, the Italian maker insists they remove less fat than other cocoa makers.
Using a coffee grinder to create "cacao brewing nibs" (less coarse nibs for adding to ground coffee) showed me that this same process creates cacao powder - just keep grinding. So, if especially tasty raw nibs are available, try making your own raw cacao powder. Technically, this does not create the further processed "cocoa powder", but should retain the raw cacao nutrition. Note: cacao powder (and cocoa powder) will clog coffee filters - just use the ground nibs.
A Cacao Festival seems to be occurring in more communities every year (and at different times of the year). These are fun events for learning about cacao nutrition and about the different cocoa powders. Not until I added fruit juice concentrate (syrup) to the Tessera recipe did I realize that cocoa powders have flavor and acidity uniqueness which affects the recipe. Depending on the recipe, some powders are much better than others.
Loving Earth Cacao is probably one of the best. It raw so retains the nutrients of the bean.
Chocolate Tessellation (chocolate so intense that "It's not candy!" could be included in the description of this Paleo-quality recipe) was created with Ghiradelli Natural Unsweetened Cocoa, an excellent product! The recipe has not been posted online yet, but Black Cherry Tessellas is similar and includes the brief history of this symbolic offering for a Mayan 2012 "celebration of cacao".
I've been using Equal Exchange(preferred) or Rapunzel.
Do you have any "recipes" for drinking cocoa (made out of raw cocoa powder?). I've hade Cococeps (one portion bags from iHerb) with maca, cinnamon and stevia. I do have to use at least 3 droppers of stevia to make it actually taste good, and I don't think maca is the reason for that.


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*Following consultation, based on the established diagnosis, only the doctor has the authority to communicate the final cost of surgery.


Welcome to the Stage Makeup Store. You've come here to treat your favorite performer, which may include yourself, to a wonderfully practical gift.
Don't forget to check out the tools of the trade which include the sponge applicators as well as a never ending variety of makeup brushes. You can even find DVD's which show specific techniques.


The vA3C Viewer is meant to disrupt the classic closed-source, pay-for-service online 3D model viewers. And it does so quite nicely. But as I pointed out in my previous post, the code was becoming a bit gnarly, so I disrupted the disruption and started vA3C Hacker. It does ( or will one day ) everything vA3C Viewer does but just in a faster, cheaper smarter way.
And tn since Hackette is just a tiny index.html file that you can drop into anywhere on GitHub, the the viewer is multi-cellular - a network or viewing stations.
And a main thing is that if I can't understand things within a few minutes then that thing has to be replaced by something shorter and simpler.
But the really main thing is that the app can begin to do its own marketing. The app really simplifies the process of doing screen captures is working well. Performances that include the camera tweening from location to location with text to speech voice over have been created. I am happy with the idea that vAeC will really help with bulding its own demos.
vA3C Hacker R1: A Possible Solution To A Personal Dilemma?
I have been having a lot of fun with vA3C Viewer. It's now up to R7 and it now has a lot of cool features. But I have been having less and less fun with each release. As the script gets bigger and bigger, adding a new feature takes more and more time. Lately it has taken several days to get just to get a thing or two going.
Taking time to add features is normal but it has a dreadful unintended consequence. Coding features over multiple days just about completely annihilates the possibility of writing a post. Your brain is fixated on completing the task. Thinking about a post is a distraction that gets in the way of completing the feature. Most likely the next post will be about the feature you are working on, so it might be easy to just cobble together some thoughts about the current work and get the post out of the way. But you end up coding until bed time and so no post.
One idea would be to write small apps only - apps that get finished in under a day. But that prevents anything of any great power from being accomplished. Any app of any significance has a lot of code - tens of thousands of lines of code.
vA3C Hacker is a breakaway from vA3C viewer in both thought process and coding style.
The HTML home page is 47 lines. All it does is load whatever script it is asked to load. If you don't tell it to load anything, then it just loads a page that informs you of scripts it could load for you.
What I have been doing is writing scripts that 'feed the beast'. Most are just a few dozen lines at most. Projects that were completed in a few hours. It sort of reminds me of the the early versions of WordPress. Then, if you went to login.php or page.php you came upon virtually everything to do with that particular function. You needed to go nowhere else to see or understand what that script did.
This made WordPress very easy to lean and to feel comfortable with. And it's the feeling I am getting with Hacker. Today I added two more features: the ability to drag and drop files into the app and the ability to drag 3D objects around in the 3D space. Both are totally standalone. You could quite easily look at the code of either and add one to your app without the other.
The process I am inventing for myself has probably been invented many times before. I just don't know its name and don't know how to search for it. But eventually I will find these out and, hopefully, report back with even greater understanding and more detail.
The other interesting aspect - and difference with vA3C Viewer - is the intent to stand on the shoulders of giants even more. The Viewer does a very nice job of giving access to a wide variety of content - from dozens of algebraic visualizations to dozens of models of aircraft, Hacker should continue doing this and as well begins to give access to a wide variety of code. Of course, the basis WebGL and Three.js - just like Viewer. But, for example, instead of trying to create a geometry editor, Hacker gives access to zz85's Three.js Inspector.
With a bit of luck, the next few days should see Hacker providing easy access to even more 'shoulders of giants'. But the real proof of the potential of the Hacker way of doing things will be the production of blog posts. The more posts you you see the more the efficacy of the system will be demonstrated.
An interesting phenomena of the architecture/engineering/construction (AEC) industry is the very low labor productivity.
And, yet, we all know that in the future buildings will grow, edit and repair at will with the help of robots using 3D printers to generate Lego-like re-definable construction elements and humans to sculpt, paint and decorate the beautiful hand-crafted elements.
So how do we get from that future back to the here and now as quickly as possible?
Building is not fast. It takes eleven days to build a Boeing 737 and months to build a house.
We want every building on the planet under perpetual construction, repair and embellishment - with lots of jobs for everybody. We want to replace the National Registry of Historical Buildings with a registry of hysterical buildings.
Stuff happens. Windows open, doors close and stuff happens just like living in the building. You can see every step of the construction. You can see the building aging and see what needs work or replacing. The digital model and the real-world model complement each other. It everything in Sim City, Second Life, WoW and CandC.
It just works. Nothing to download. Nothing to install. Nothing to learn.
It happens now. Click and it's here. On your computer. On your phone. Whenever, wherever.
Yes, the expensive, specialist apps still need to exist too. Good engineering and good design require professionals with professional tools.
But that should not stop the cheap, fast easy sharing, the give and take of data between everybody in real-time.
And when you think of design that future way, it turns out you can do a lot of what is wanted right now.
Each time you reload, the future changes.
OK. OK. For many of you the above hyperlinks will not work. ( We are looking at you, iPhone users. ) For many more there will be issues. But nonetheless the demos will work for some people somewhere.
Somewhere the future is working today.
Very large data files are sent to you with no effort. Many of the screens are over twenty megabytes in size - way beyond the size you can attach to an email. All arrive within seconds.
There's no server dude or web site manager between you and the data. Nothing to load or download. No sending files into walled gardens.
The files you see are sourced from Three.js, Stemkoski, FGx, Jaanga and vA3C repositories. Five groups with no connection to each other besides their presence on GitHub. GitHub is a place where you can keep data and code at no charge as long as its open source.
The app, the data, the learning curve - all cost cost zilch.
All the designs that arrive at your computer are editable. Change materials, move stuff about, throw things out. All doable.
If you like what you see, and you are an old-timey sort of person, you may save your work as a file ( probably huge ) to you local hard disk.
On the other hand you can now save your new creations and edits as permalinks. The permalinks are small and tidy yet they they actually contain all the information required to recreate your design.
For example, the five short links provided above *are* the design. These designs have no other existence or presence outside of those links. The links are the designs.
But also you could create and save and publish your own design. The Permalinks tab even provides you with a link to the Google URL Shortener.
Using these short links you can easily share your designs via email, posts, tweets or texts. Or, with a bit more work, even share live. And if the data is on GitHub all data changes can become part of the design history.
All of the 3D work is happening in an iframe, thus it is easy to append to existing code and web pages while still giving you the ability to edit objects and embed custom animations inside the iframe.
Sure there are many issues and bugs in this current revision. And there's a ton more future stuff to be added.
But remember this: George Santayana said "Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it."
"It seems that those who do learn from history are also doomed to repeat it. So let's have a go at learning from the future..."
A while ago I decided that the thing I like doing the most, most, most is coding. Yes, there are truthiness issues here, but let's not ruin a good start.
That does not mean, however happiness all the time 24/7. And yesterday was one of those times when the process became loathsome. It started with a equal sign in the wrong place, but not so wrong that it caused a message in the console. So: Look. Not find. Look. Not Find. Repeat. Repeat.
Then I wanted to add some sparkle to the project. A good way to add sparkle is to have a light that follows the camera.
Normally you don't need to add the camera because scene adds the camera by itself, but in this instance it's necessary to do so because you need to inform the scene that the camera has a new passenger.
Again: Talk to light. It not budge. Plead with camera. It not budge. Finally found the answer on one of West Langley's posts on StackOverflow. And, of course, that brings back all the memories of all the previous times I have confronted the un-budging light. So even worse then the problem was the feeling of having been such a dummie again.
The darkest moments, however, were brought on by the code itself. One issue about being a cowboy coder, is that you you can code yourself way out into the wilderness and then have trouble getting back.
One of the amazing things about Three.js is that it allows you to embed a scene, withing a scene, within a scene. It's like the Russian dolls that fit inside one another. In Three.js, however, the scenes can all be visible at once and everything co-mingled on stage all at once.
This worked a treat in helping get the vA3C code up and running for the AEC Hackathon, but really started causing problems as in: "Hello, Object, What scene are you in?" "Duh, I dunno" is the usual reply.
Anyway, a lot of the file opening code has been cleaned up - and the Russian dolls have morphed into one doll. You can now open files from the web using links & Ajax or from local your local hard disk using your OS' File Open dialog. Hats off to Mr.doob for loader.js in the Three.js editor.
The only newish feature is that attributes are back in in a rudimentary fashion. When you click on any item that has userData, the attributes appear in the top right corner - as you can see in the image of Jeremy Tammik's Revit House Project above.
My friend Clift Norris has identified a fundamental constant that I call Norris' number, the average amount of code an untrained programmer can write before he or she hits a wall. Clift estimates this as 1,500 lines. Beyond that the code becomes so tangled that the author cannot debug or modify it without herculean effort.
Of course, I have full admiration for a person who has written several programs in the 100,000 to 200,000 line range. But on the other hand, I have just as much admiration - and perhaps more - for the programmer who makes magic happen in a 100 lines of code or 10 lines of code.
The importance is not the length or the shortness of the code, nor is it in the robustness or riskiness of the code but the true benefit derives from the diverse spirits and skills of the people writing the code and their desire and capabilities to share their code - and fully respect each other gifts and talents.
The glorious thing about a computer is that it enables you to process data, save that data, and then - later and elsewhere - open that data for re-processing. This saving and opening thing - being such a sacred holy grail of computing - is normally programmed by the very high-priests in the various cults of data-crunchers. Moving that array of pixels on your screen down to very tiny magnetic blips onto the platter that's spinning very fast and from there to a server-farm in, say, Brea, California and from there to an array of pixels on your friend's screen in Poznan, Poland is not self-evident. It's a job best left to people with PhDs, distinguished resumes and first class brain cells.
The vA3C Viewer app that's being worked on is for viewing data files. So saving is not really a thing that viewers need to do. Unfortunately, the ability to move things about and change materials started creeping into the viewer. So now there are different states: Do you want to see that pretty pony in blue? Or in pink?
Thus a way of registering those states for reuse would be nice. The previous release of the viewer has the ability to create permalinks - text added onto the end of a URL. In turn these were hand--massaged into text files that restores selected states.
The plan was and still is to automate that process for R3. The idea is to provide a 'save' button that would collect all the links to all the models in the display along with their position, rotation and scale and save these into a script file that you can load that recreates what you had on your display when you saved.
This is a simple and light weight method and very doable. It is not the same thing as going through every item of geometry, finding every face, vertex and the associated materials and shuffling these all into a tidy bundle on your hard disk. This latter activity is for the pros. The former is OK for script kiddies such as your vA3C Viewer team.
Well, upon the morning that had been appropriated to the permalink coding task, it was decided that reviewing Mr.doob's Three.js Editor would be a good thing.
The Editor does *not* have a save feature. It does, however, have a command that reads the data in memory and sends that data as text to a new window where you can review the data.
And, then, it turns out the HTML5 has the new ability to enable you to save text that's in a window to a file on your hard disk.
Somehow these two thoughts became co-mingled. Code was copied, pasted and cobbled together. A 'Save' button was added to the vA3C Viewer.
And then, the Save button was clicked.
The mental lollipops nearly fell on the floor.
vA3C Viewer R3 is now enabled to take all the data that is in the display and write it out to a brand new JSON file. And these files, in turn can be used to create further JSON files.
Of course, it's not perfect. Files with shaders and other exotics don't work. Somethings come in and can be edited and others can't. But many fun things do work.
The images on this page show assemblies of files from the FGx Aircraft libray, the Jaanga AlgeSurf parametric equations library, the Three.js Examples library and the vA3C JSON files prepared for the AEC Hackathon. It's an assembly of arbitrary colorful fantasies.
So, yes, the computer has the wonderful ability to process data and to save it and reuse it. Unfortunately this does not stop the peeps with loose wing nuts from producing hyper-whimsical images.
It's a reverse Hansel and Gretel. The dots are like little stones you follow. But instead of taking you home they encourage you to visit new worlds you never knew existed. Yes, debuggers in other languages have similar sorts of capabilities - but since they are not as closely linked to the DOM they mostly good at showing you the garbage you have created and not as good with curated, fun stuff that's out there.
But this is not a language comparison diatribe. This post about accessing 3D models in deep DOM-like fashion.
I have been looking at Mr.doob's 200+ Three.js coding examples for four years. Their display output and their lines of code are becoming etched in my mind. They become fixed pillars as I look back on my development process.
Mr.doob's lines of code - and any other code - is as mutable, as real-timable, as DOM-able, as fresh as we want it to be.
So I am bringing in Lucy into Voxel Painter and making her mesh reflect the square in the city of Pisa. I have put Suzanne in the NURBs demo and the Witch of Agnesi cylinder equation in the canvas birds demo.
For sure, I could do this in a CAD program: insert a 'block' into a drawing etc. The difference is that I am not just using the program. I am creating/editing/playing with the program itself at the same time as I use it.
The preview in today's post looks a lot like the preview in yesterday's post. But there is a huge difference. Or a tiny difference - depending on your point of view.
The issue is this: The Internet is about nice people sharing data - in a free and unencumbered manner - and about naughty people manipulating data in peculiar ways. And, yes there are other types of peeps as well.
In the early days of the Internet, everybody was nice and it was fun and easy to share. Nowadays it's different. Of note here, are the increasing restrictions on cross origin resource sharing and the increasing demand for a same origin policy. And, yes, apps on servers can bypass many of these restrictions.
Thus the situation for a CAD file viewer such as the vA3C viewer has been fairly marginal. The only drawing the app could open were drawings from the same domain it was launched from.
The new - still quite broken - R3 of the vAEC Viewer loads the file we built for it at the AEC Hackathon. And it also loads every example file and every 3D model from Mr.doob's Three.js example folders. And it is loading and displaying the 170+ HTML files of math equations from Jaanga Alegesurf.
Not only is the app loading the files but it's also enabling you to mash-up the data from the three sources any way you want. And, yes, it's doing this real-time sharing in a time-honored, secure manner.
It's easy peasy. Fork the repo on the GitHub server. No need to download a single byte to a local machine. Publish the repo to the GitHub gh-pages branch. Presto now all of its data is available to apps running from your GitHub presence.
What happens when upstream changes? The official method is to create a pull request and merge. But that is bothersome to the upstream party. It's much easier to simply delete your fork and then re-fork.
Oh, but then - as GitHub warns - it can take quite a while for the pages to start appearing. Not to worry. Open for editing any file in the new fork, make any change, save. Presto! Your new gh-pages files appear instantly.
So this is a huge difference in terms of sharing. But what does this mean for GitHub? The GitHub peeps don't really want to go around replicating half-gig repos all over the place. And they don't have to. They use Git after all. A popular repo has many thousands of forks. So for GitHub your new fork - which they set up in a few seconds - is just a few new pointers and diffs. No big deal.
But for you and me this could be a nice big deal. Currently the site links to something like four hundred files. The current goal is to deliver access to, say, a thousand files of at least somewhat meaningful content.
The traditional on-line CAD viewer is closed-sourced, upload to a walled garden, do-what-they-allow-you-to-do place. Perhaps the time has come for an open-source, freely shared, highly programmable computer aided design enhancer.
The current rev is very incomplete and has many broken bits. It does, however, allow you to place Walt Disney's head inside a warped triaxial hexatorus textured with an image of a '53 Cadillac. Welcome to the Matrix.
Some of of best friends are mathematicians. This does not mean I necessarily like what they do. On the contrary, I find the Euler-derived notation difficult to parse, not easy to remember and not really pretty to look at. And then, say you have equations printed on a piece of paper or even displayed in Wikipedia - such as the Frobenius Endomorphism. Now tap or swipe the equation with your fingers. Nothing happens! People spend hours formatting text that just so it ends up sitting still like this. How lame is that?
And another really nice way of displaying math is via the computer display. The display above is generated by the latest update to AlgeSurf - called AlgeSurf PE. PE stands for parametric equations.
The code for the above can be see in breather-surface.html. A much refined and enhanced version is available via the new Equation Browser.
This new display technique represents a major shift in direction from the previously released AlgeSurf Marching Cubes Builder and Player, Both the the Marching Cubes and the Parametric equations apps serve the same purpose: to provide access a extensive libraries of well-known equations and allow you to display, edit and enhance these in 3D.
The Marching Cubes app enables you to do this by accepting and parsing text you enter into an input box - and the text being as close as possible to the standard mathematicians way of writing things. A lot of time and coding went into this effort - with the emphasis being on hiding the code from your view as much as possible.
In other word, the Marching Cube app aids and abets you trying to behave like an old-timey mathematician.
The Parametric Equations app, however, is all about *coding* math. There are 170+ equations - all derived from Jurgen Meier's wonderful web site full of math tutorials written in Java. Each equation is presented as a stand alone HTML file. The files are about 75 lines short and contain everything need to load and view the equation in real-time 3D.
You are very much encouraged to open up any of the files, change the equation and see what happens. It's a fast, fun and easy way to get going with exploring.
And the list of future wish list enhancements is even longer.
It's been so long since there's been a post, I don't know where to start.
But it's what off the map where it has really been happening. The goal - the quest - keeps getting to be bigger, deeper, wider. Soon the map will be - like Jorge Luis Borges' map - even bigger than the territory it covers. And, unlike most computer games, the closer we get the easier it gets. Well, that's how it feels at the moment. Tomorrow may bring desolation and sorrow, but not if we can keep on the same course.
A little background first. There are many mapping apps out there. Some are more accurate. Some are prettier. Some are faster. But they are still all maps. Things that get you from point A to B and other old-timey mappish things. Map apps are crap apps.
The goal is to take something like a 3D programming language and make cartography simply part of the language. Want people dancing in the streets? You can have it. Blue whales swimming up the Gulf stream? Good to go. Adventures on Route 66? Be my guest. Let your imagination go free.
But what do these things mean?
There are dozens of 2D map overlays available - all following the Tile Map Service standard. All these overlays are available at no charge as long as you are not greedy and you know the tricks. We need to de-trickify access. We need to show: "Here are the URLs that work."
3D data is also available at no charge. But it's imprisoned up in all manner of unusual places and strange ways. We need to unlock this data. We need to put the data up on GitHub and say "Come 'n get it!"
And we need take a popular beginner code page - Three.js - and show that instead of standing on a PlaneGeometry object you could be standing on New Jersey.
So future posts will talk about the 2D data with eighteen or more levels of zoom that is available from dozens of sources.
The 3D data that covers the entire world - land and water - to a reasonable level of accuracy will be described. For the moment that is '30 seconds' data - which is about a data point vey kilometer.
Wherever there is better data, us it. Currently that mean everywhere on the globe where there is land there is a data point every ninety meters.
And in same places such locations on Europe and the US, it is possible to get down to '1 Second data or a data point every 30 meters.
The aim of the project is to create a lightweight 3D library with a very low level of complexity — in other words, for dummies.
We are at one with this mindset.
If you understand the equal sign, an 'if-then' statement and a 'for i = 0 to i= 100', then reading the code on Jaanga should be quite straightforward.
Why try to simplify things?
It's not about simplifying things, it's about simplifying the programming part of things.
You are an architect or physicist or mathematician. Do you also need to be a wiz at jQuery or rule at Ruby?
No, you do not. And, more bluntly, the more time you spend on devising elegant programming code the less time you are spending on your own discipline.
As simple as this code is, it's worth remembering that this is just Very Simple Menu R1. Could the code be even simpler or the variables have better names? Could the commenting be more explicit?
R2 should be simpler and yet do more. Why not?


Yutian, China: Cyclists Pass Through Thick Pollution from a Factory.
This last rapid increase was after the world recognized the importance of reducing the carbon output, and almost all nations signed the Kyoto Protocol in 1997. The Kyoto protocol is an agreement to reduce global output of carbon that placed specific requirements on most of the worlds industrial powers of the time, but no requirements of developing nations. China was classified as a developing nation, and subsequently most of the planet's non-essential industry has been relocated to China, causing China's carbon output to increase from 0.9 gigatons in 1997 to 2.3 gigatons by 2010. This has not just led to massive industrialization in China, but massive health issues and an expected life expectancy drop of 5.5 years across northern China.(3)Edward Wong (July 8, 2013) "Pollution Leads to Drop in Life Span in Northern China, Research Finds" New York Times The researchers projected that the 500 million Chinese who live north of the Huai River will lose a combined 2.5 billion years of life expectancy because of outdoor air pollution. They did not examine the effects of the pollution on the animals or plants in the area, however it is difficult to not predict the effects. The Kyoto Protocol was ratified by most technologically advanced nations, however the United States refused to ratify it believing it would simply move the problem from industrialized nations to developing nations, and thereafter Canada withdrew entirely, meaning that North America is an effective exception to the Protocol, and continues to the world's largest carbon source per-capita.
Lianyungang, China: Buildings are Shrouded in Smog.
It could have been a random convergence of natural phenomena we have yet to account for.
It could have been a civilization that did not have much presence on the surface of the planet, perhaps a subterranean or off-world civilization. Theoretically the carbon build-up could have been an attempt to alter the planet's biosphere back to the cretaceous period's biosphere. Perhaps some Dinosauroids did survive underground or on the Moon or Mars, and they were attempting to fix their ancestor's mistake. The new mammalian species could have been genetically modified organisms designed as food sources, or perhaps simply designed as creatures that would survive better on the new colder Earth.
It could have been an colonial attempt by a presumably mammalian species from another star system.
The PETM was followed by several hyper-thermals similar to the PETM during the first 3 million years of the Eocene Epoch. Between 52 and 55 million years ago there were a series of short-term changes of carbon isotope composition in the ocean(4)Simone Galeotti et al. (2010) "Orbital chronology of Early Eocene hyper-thermals from the Contessa Road section, central Italy." Earth and Planetary Science Letters, Volume 290, Pages 192-200 that led to a temperature increase of 4 to 8°C (7 to 14°F) at the surface of the ocean. As with the PETM they are not fully understood, or explained. They were likely caused by the same cause.
Of course UFOs are real–and they are interplanetary…..The cumulative evidence for the existence of UFOs is quite overwhelming and I accept the fact of their existence.


Although yet to be a confirmed character in Zack Snyder's DC cinematic universe. The all female group in Gotham City Sirens looks to be a very likely place to include Pamela Isley. Which actress would you like to see play Ivy?


Ariga, K., Kawanami, S., Kosaka, T., Abe, T., & Kikuchi, J. (2001). Monolayer and bilayer properties of oligopeptide-containing lipids - difference in phase transition behavior -. Stud. Surf. Sci. Cat., 132, 553-556.
Title: Stud. Surf. Sci. Cat.


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Day 1 - London - Rome
In the early evening, our guide takes us on a tour of the Campus Martius, including the Pantheon, Temple of Hadrian and Piazza Navona.
Albergo Santa Chiara, Rome
Santa Chiara Hotel first opened its doors in Rome in 1839. It was originally a fiaschetteria, then transformed into a small inn, before expanding. The are 96 rooms in three adjacent palaces. One of these houses the chapel of St. Catherine of Siena. The hotel has been run by the same family for over a hundred years.
The hotel service is impeccable, the rooms are very clean and the beds are comfortable. Guests will discover that this hotel has a friendly and family atmosphere and will make them feel at home.
The hotel has hosted Nobel Prize winners such as Amartya Sen, Franco Modigliani and prelates who later became Popes.
Day 2 - Rome
We start at the Colosseum and enjoy its interiors, which once held 50,000 spectators, before seeing the Arch of Constantine. In the afternoon, we will visit the imperial palaces on the Palatine as well as the magnificent Roman Forum and Imperial Fora.
We start with a private visit to the little-known Porta Asinaria, an imposing 3rd century gateway, complete with massive ballista towers and guardrooms. Next, we continue to the excavations under the Papal Basilica of St. John Lateran. A short walk takes us to the Porta Maggiore, for the important remains of two aqueducts and the wonderful Tomb of Eurysaces the baker. We end the day with a visit to another Papal Basilica, Santa Maria Maggiore, and its excavations.
Today we explore sites outside the city, starting with a visit to the Catacombs of St. Sebastian and on to the Circus of Maxentius. Finally, we venture down the Appian Way to see the impressive tomb of Caecilia Metella and the Villa Capo di Bove.
Day 5 - Rome - London
We end the tour with the incomparable Vatican Museums, home to a staggering collection of artworks, and culminating with an exploration of the Sistine Chapel.
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ABRO201107 November 7 2020 (Saturday) November 11 2020 (Wednesday) Kate Parkinson $1,250
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text:
Roundup (Tuesday, May 28)
Class 3A supersectionals
At Barrington
Barrington 2, St. Charles North 0
Defender Madi Rosen delivered a brilliant second half wonder-goal to seal yet another supersectional defeat on St. Charles North and send host and twotime defending state champion Barrington to its third-consecutive Class 3A Final Four appearance.
Ellie McAuley struck just after the opening whistle of the game, and Rosen doubled the advantage after the break in the Fillies win. After the goals, the hosts defended with all their might Tuesday night before a big home crowd at Barrington Community Stadium.
The Fillies (21-1-1) will play fellow no. 1-seed New Trier on Friday night at North Central College in Naperville in a state semifinal match that will be a rematch of the 2018 and 2019 state finals, which ended with Barrington shootout wins.
"We've been training so long for a chance to get back into that (championship) game, knowing if we could win here tonight at home we would be going back to state with an opportunity to win a third-straight championship," Rosen said.
"It's amazing to think we beat a great team like St. Charles North once again, and for the seniors who are four-year players, it is just really something else."
This contest featured the two teams that have been 1-2 in the Chicagoland Soccer Top 25 all season long. Both entered the game with near spotless records, and each were ranked in the top five teams in the country by Top Drawer Soccer.
"Brian (Harks, St. Charles North coach) has what I felt all along was the best collection of attacking players around, beginning with CeCe Wahlberg, Claudia Najera, Sami Rydberg, and Sarah Andrey," said Barrington head coach Ryan Stengren. "We knew we would have our hands full, and in order for us to advance we had to keep a careful eye on each of them, while defending as well as we could as a team."
Knowing the no. 2 North Stars (19-2-1) were capable of striking at any moment, McAuley's opener for Barrington at just two minutes gave the home team an edge that forced Harks to ask his club to chase the game early on.
"An early goal always sets you back a little, but we have so much experience and players who have been through everything," Harks said. "I knew we would be okay. It was just a matter of playing with composure and getting back to what we do best."
Rydberg nearly equalized when she found the post in the 6th minute.
Barrington answered with two posts of its own. Rosen collected a Tina Teik helper and unloaded a left-footed cracker off the back post; then Christina Batliner sent Rebecca Shomaker through with the same result in the 13th minute.
"It was so important for us to come out quick and sharp, and we did that with Ellie's goal and then created two really good chances," said Batliner, who was magnificent outside Rosen as the Fillies right outside back.
St. Charles North's intentions were clear after they were unable to get back even before the intermission. The extra energy and urgency the North Stars brought after the break meant a 40-minute rough ride the Fillies managed to manage.
"Our backline stayed organized, even when (North) began to send more numbers," said Stengren. "We didn't play around with the ball when it got through; we just sent it back the other way which I feel began to frustrate them, especially after Madi's goal."
Barrington's junior keeper Leah Eisenbarth, in the first supersectional game of her career, made a strong save on a 30-yard blast from Wahlberg at 42 minutes and held on to the ball with confidence.
In the 57th minute, Rosen took advantage of time and space to hit a 35-yard guided missile that exploded into the far right corner to make it 2-0.
"Normally when I have the ball and coming across like that I always look to cross the ball," she said. "But when I saw all of my teammates marked, I thought 'Oh well, let's have a go.'"
Rosen, a natural left-footer, scored with her powerful right-footed attempt.
St. Charles North continued to battle. Wahlberg went endline and forced Eisenbarth to turn away her angled shot. The North Stars followed with three corners, all of which the Fillies defended. A Grace Barresi shot was saved at the near post to end the chances for good.
"It's tough getting to this game two-straight years and leaving without advancing to state, but it doesn't take anything away from a team that has just an incredible group of young women who were a joy to coach and watch play," Harks said. "I am so proud of all of them and couldn't haved asked for anything more from them this season and tonight."
Stengren allowed himself just a moment to savor the win.
"Just an incredible night of soccer from an incredible group of girls, who fought and battled to beat a great team," he said. "But it's not over. Tomorrow we'll begin training for Friday and yet another rematch with New Trier, who will be after us after beating them twice in a row for the state title." -- Mike Garofola
Fremd Supersectional
New Trier 2, Stevenson 0
Trevians star junior Emma Weaver recorded a goal and an assist as the no. 4 Trevians qualified for their sixth-consecutive state finals appearance with the victory.
Weaver broke open a scoreless game by forcing a Stevenson turnover and smashing home a ball from about 18 yards in the 59th minute.
She put the game away by pushing the ball down the right flank and crossing a ball that forward Alex Wirth converted in the 69th minute.
The game marked the third matchup between the two schools. They played twice six days apart in the Lou Malnati's Deep Dish Classic. New Trier (21-2-5) won the pool play game 2-1.
Stevenson (22-2-2) earned a spot in the championship as the wild card entrant and went on to the title after beating New Trier in the final after taking down fellow Final Four member Naperville North in the semifinals.
New Trier ended the Patriots' 17-game winning streak. The Trevians advance to the second semifinal Friday against top-ranked Barrington. New Trier has lost to the Fillies on penalty kicks in the state championship game the last two years.
-- Patrick Z. McGavin
Reavis Supersectional
Lyons 2, Andrew 1 (OT)
Lyons senior midfielder Eileen Murphy scored her second goal with 4:34 left in the first overtime as the Lions defeated Andrew in Burbank to earn their first state finals berth since the 2007 Class AA quarterfinals.
The Lions (18-2-1) will play at 5 p.m. Friday at North Central College against Naperville North (13-5-4), which finished third in 3A in 2018 and was a 2-1 winner over the Lions April 20 in Naperville. Since then Lyons has won 10-straight matches.
Murphy's 27-yard blast for the game-winner came after she put the Lions in the lead with a 20-yard header off sophomore Ava Dallavo's left-wing corner kick with 19:22 left in regulation.
The Illinois-bound Murphy, who has a team-high 22 goals, also had both tallies in the
Lions' 2-1 Glenbard East Sectional title victory over Young.
Andrew senior and Loyola recruit Megan Nemec broke free down right wing and tied the game with 5:02 remaining for Andrew (21-6-1), which finished fourth in 3A last season.
Lyons lost starting senior outside defender and DePauw-bound Grace Truax to a left knee injury with 7:15 remaining in the first half. Playing in her place the rest of the way was sophomore reserve Elli Kosonovich, who has been part of the regular defensive rotation since being promoted from the sophomore level one month into the season.
-- Bill Stone
Class AA supersectionals
At Hinsdale South
Benet 4, Fenwick 0
The no. 6 Redwings (22-3-1) earned their first trip to the finals. Abby Casmere scored twice to lead (22-3-1). Mia Tommasone and Sarah Bozych added a goal each. Jaimee Cibulka had two assists, and Kayla Brannigan and Cami Picha each chipped in with a helper. Eva Frantzen and Ava Rogers combined to earn the shutout in goal.
Benet faces Triad (19-3-2) in the semifinals at 1 p.m. Friday.


text:
SCilicon Beach
A Tree Grows in Space
#ILookLikeAnEngineer
Forging Iron [Wo]Man
Doing Well by Doing Good
Bionic Hands for War-Wounded Children
Teaching a Computer to Recognize Bill Clinton
Rise and Fall and Rise of a Startup
Hello, My Name Is Ivey
Acoustic Museums
The Art and Science of Decisions
DIG Sheds Light onto the Dark Web's Shadows, Connects the Dots on Gun Traffickers
Northrop Grumman, USC Establish Research Institute to Develop Advanced Optical Materials
Hello from SCilicon Beach
SCilicon Beach. The Map.
Engineer CEOs
Fashion Advice in a Snap
Splitting Tunes
The Viterbi Index
Making Smartphones Smarter
Startup Creates Sense of Touch in Virtual Reality
House Calls for All
Wireless Devices Using Fewer Wires
Trojans helping SpaceX go to Mars
A League of His Own
At 100, 'Mr. Freeway' Looks Back at His Concrete Creations
Summit of Courage
You Have an Hour with Bill Gates. What Do You Say?
Vietnam's Serial Entrepreneur
Hollywood's New Bet: Entrepreneurial Engineers
Driverless Vehicles of the Future — or Present
A Movement to Preserve Life on Earth
image/svg+xml Student Life
By Daniel Druhora
In Haiti, a small island beset by widespread poverty, violence and earthquakes, 20 percent of children will die before the age of 5. Countless others will bear the marks of survivors: missing hands, missing feet and other life-changing injuries that will never fully heal.
This is a story about a group of USC Viterbi engineers and a USC Dornsife premed student with a different kind of mission. A group of students bound and determined to restore the bodies of children rising from the ashes.
Alison Glazer, mechanical engineering senior and president of the student-run club 3D4E (3D For Everyone), had been tinkering with the power of 3-D printing for some time. She even built a 3-D printer herself, from wood.
But something wasn't right, Glazer said: "It was a feeling of spinning in circles. We were printing cool toys, key chains and iPad holders, but we wanted to do more than what the average kindergartener could."
Sitting in her lab, surrounded by 3-D printed toys and a 3-D printed head of the Greek god Zeus, propped like a trophy at her desk, Glazer pondered the limits of this technology.
"What if we could use the machines in a more meaningful way?" she wondered. "3-D printing with a purpose." Little did she know that somewhere across the globe, in a very different lab, someone else was thinking the same thing.
Kara Tanaka, an accomplished sculptor and premed graduate of the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, was displaying her sculpture called "A Sad Bit of Fruit, Pickled in the Vinegar of Grief" at a solo exhibition in Reggio Emilia, Italy. Forged out of fiberglass, enamel, linen, steel, wood and anodized aluminum, the installation speaks of things lost and the disappearance of the human body, a theme that has strongly marked Tanaka's artistic journey.
She followed its thread into 3-D printing's new niche — medicine. "When you print a hand for a child, you're literally sculpting that child's body, layer by layer," Tanaka said. "It's an emotional experience. You know someone's life will be dramatically changed."
Tanaka developed a relationship with e-Nable, a global network of volunteers that supplies 3-D printed hands to children around the world, on demand. She created the USC Freehand Project to supply e-Nable with as many hands for Haiti as possible. But the human hand is a wickedly complicated collection of bones and joints — the misalignment of one can throw life off balance. Tanaka realized she didn't just need to make a hand; she needed to engineer one.
"I never hung out with engineers," admitted Tanaka, "getting to know them and understand them was crucial to the project's success. USC gave us a taste of what real-world medical breakthroughs are made of — doctors, engineers and artists working together to make the future happen."
Glazer agreed: "Everything in our future is about collaboration. If it's happening already at the professional level, starting early means we're a step ahead of the game."
For starters, the club received an order from e-Nable to create 12 to 15 hands of various sizes for Haiti. But their printers were sadly overworked and in need of repairs. They reached out to AIO Robotics, a startup out of the USC Viterbi Startup Garage, which donated its new Zeus model 3-D printers.
"Hands for Haiti" was such a success that last spring e-Nable approached 3D4E with an even bigger challenge: They wanted to send hands to the most dangerous part of the world right now — Syria, where the five-year-long war has claimed the lives of nearly 12,000 children. To help them do it, they recruited Baltimore area Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts.
But there was a problem: Baltimore was on lockdown due to civil unrest following the death of Freddie Gray, who died in police custody. Mail wasn't getting delivered, schools were on shutdown, and streets were unsafe.
They broke through a vicious snowstorm, rioting and arson, but when they finally arrived, the scouts were proud to earn their merit badges assembling these cool superhero hands for the children of Syria.
"It was a strong statement, and in many ways a quiet protest against hatred and violence, " said Tanaka. "It fueled our creativity and desire to do more," adds Glazer. After the Syria project wrapped, they didn't throw a victory party. They did what good engineers do: They went back to the drawing board.
3D4E has a few projects in their imagination: creating a fully-functioning myoelectric arm, printing a 3-D map of USC campus, and creating a novel scanning system for capturing a full 3-D model of the human body. For now, they're continuing to make hands, this time for the children of Sierra Leone.


text:
The Truth About Syrian Refugees
How the American Economy Affects Us All
Mindful Happiness: A Dangerous Theory for Our Economy
Electoral Vote in 2016: How Trump Won The American Presidency
What is Brexit and Why Does it Matter?
The Worldwide Value of the Pound: Maximize Your Value
Eliminating the Middle Man and Euro Clearing
Political Leaders World Wide: The Changing Economy
Home » news » What is Brexit and Why Does it Matter?
Posted by admin in news On June 20, 2017
The United Kingdom withdrew from the European Union in 2016 which created an uproar in households worldwide. The UK is set to leave by 2019, but the Treaty on the European Union will change much of what makes the UK what it has been known for. The effect of this change will have an effect on all people worldwide due to the interconnectedness of every country. The UK will withdraw from being one of the European Communities in the common market, which has only been performed by three other countries to date.
The Treaty on the European Union includes policies based on internal market, agriculture and fisheries, free movement of workers, services and capital which all provide profitable, stable legal guidelines for these issues. This European Community also addresses the free movement of goods, areas of freedom, justice and security, and the alteration of those policies could be detrimental to the UK. Transport, competition, taxation and approximation of laws are all part of the treaty that have served the UK in a positive manner so far. The reason Brexit is so scary is that the withdrawal cannot be in isolated parts, therefore the UK must withdrawal from all aspects of the treaty including economic and monetary policy, employment, social and consumer policy, networks, industry and environments.
If the UK removes itself from the treaty, there will be a lot of pressure placed on the current government to put entirely new policies into action while maintaining respect for older traditions. Many people are curious about the changes, while others fear for the future of the UK and its impact on the modern economy. Things could make a drastic change through the Brexit movement and it is vital that individuals stay informed about the upcoming voting opportunities on new and important policies. The BBC offer a more in depth article explaining all you need to know about Brexit.
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Shop Gap today to find fun, comfortable sweaters for girls.


At the very beginning stages of building a new construction home, it's kind of hard to visualize the actual structure of the home. You start with clearing and filling the lot. Then you dig your footers and build your stem wall around the perimeter of the house. Then your do your underground plumbing and electric and pour your concrete slab. It's not until you build the concrete block for the perimeter of the house and lay the trusses for the roof that it actually starts to take shape and you are actually able to start picturing what your new home is going to look like.
We are currently at this stage in the process of one of our Mia model homes in Southwest Cape Coral and we decided to take a quick video to give everyone an insiders look at the first time a new home starts to look like, well, a new home. Enjoy!


Week 36 already and we only have 16 weeks left. How time flies! I can still remember the first week with this challenge in which I only shelled out as little as 50. Since then, it has been a constant challenge to remind myself every single week to pour in the necessary amount. There were times when I don't have much hence I just made some "utang" with the challenge. This holds true when I incorporated the Pay It Forward Mechanism.
Alas, I am excited to report the development of my challenge so far. Basically with the Pay It Forward Mechanism, I already covered the months of October, November and December. Hurray!
Well it was not easy. The first weeks were literally a walk in the park however as the values were getting bigger I have to shove away some comfort of mine in order to cater to the amount. Yet in the process, I was able to quantify a portion of my salary immediately to the challenge. I always see to it to deposit the necessary amount from my ATM in order to block off the weeks. You see, I deposited the money in a local bank here so I can secure it, no ATMs and it would take a lot of work to go there. Can't wait to finally complete the challenge! I am almost there.
For those who did the challenge in the beginning of the year, I hope you still have the motivation and the enthusiasm to continue. Push yourself to finish it regardless of the amount. Few more months left and we are done! I will also share where the entire amount will go once I completed it.
Remember, keep the 'saving' spirit. It will be YOU who will benefit most from the challenge. Continue saving!
P.S. To those doing the 52 Week Money Challenge and 52 Week Money Challenge Version 2, it is Week 36 already! Did you deposit the next amount yet?


An analysis of Energy Output of the Race Rocks Tidal Current Generator.
Temporal Spacing of Demolitions to Mitigate Demolition Training Impacts in Military Training Area WQ oc Sea Lions in the Race Rocks E.R. B.C.
A Model-Based Approach Investigating Killer Whale (Orcinus orca) Exposure To Marine Vessel Engine Exhaust.
Effects of natural and human-caused disturbances on marine birds and pinnipeds at Race Rocks, British Columbia.