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By Jen Lawson
Dog dementia
Published November 11, 2015 by Jen Lawson
This blog is almost one year old — happy blogiversary to my corner of the web!
I just realized I started this blog almost a year ago, on Nov. 14, 2014. I'm not going to do a "look back" at the year or make any self-congratulatory gestures for sticking with it for this long — I once had a private blog that I kept for nine years, so this is like breathing to me.
However, I love data so I thought it would be fun? cool? kind of interesting? hopefully not boring? to present what the analytics have to say.
Now, I have two systems for tracking all sorts of data on here, StatCounter, which is easy to understand, and Google Analytics, which is more challenging so I'm working toward becoming Google Analytics certified so I can understand the numbers behind the words, plus it could help me career-wise. Possibly.
Anyway, drumroll please…Here are the five posts that have received the most traffic:
Here's what happens when you fight a parking ticket in the City of Philadelphia
The Philadelphia Parking Authority sucks and here's why
The bathroom: Why it's my favorite room in the house
Eulogy: What I said at my father's funeral
Making sense of things after the loss of both parents
It's funny but not at all surprising that my rants on the parking situation in Philly and the tyrannical Philadelphia Parking Authority have gotten so many hits, but hopefully the situations I wrote about helped someone out there.
A bit more interesting is looking at which post received the most traffic in the past month. It's the one in which I described getting an envelope in the mail from my ex, How opening an envelope gave me closure.
It got double the amount of hits than any other post in the past 30 days, and a whole bunch were from the small suburban town where the people I refer to in the post happen to reside. I have no reason to believe anyone "from my past" reads this blog — why would they want to? Come on. Still, it's funny, and entirely a coincidence, I'm sure.
More than 90 percent of my traffic has come from the U.S., followed by the UK, Canada, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Philippines, The Netherlands, Israel, Spain and China.
A handful of recent keywords that people typed into various search engines that brought them to my blog:
attorney general investigating cartledge memorials (I hope the AG is investigating this place because they ripped my dad off after my mom died)
poodle puppy dogs
lobsta chowda beeya
Jen Lawson
why the bathroom is my favorite room
philadelphia handicapped parking ticket
what to do after both parents are gone
Philadelphia Parking violation: Blocking HP ramp
Most of my traffic comes from Facebook because I post some of my entries there, but I'm trying to do so less. If anything it's interesting to see how the stats shift when I just publish a post and don't promote it.
The one sort of disappointing aspect of this past year in blogging is that I really haven't grown my readership by very much. My focus has been learning the WordPress platform (it's sort of complicated at first!) and trying to teach myself the mechanics of SEO rather than promoting my content. It's okay if this is all it is because public recognition isn't important to me, but I do feel like I'm falling asleep at the wheel when it comes to getting people to read what I'm writing.
It's sort of confusing when some bloggers post mostly photos and share highlight reels of their lives and they have hundreds of followers, but like anything, you get out of it what you put into it. If I published three or four posts a week my traffic would jump, but then the quality would go down. I only write here when I have something really specific to say or some story to tell. I don't think anyone is interested in the minutiae of my life.
Other bloggers, I'd love to hear from you! Have you gotten any traffic that's made you go "hmm"? How do all of you people have so many damn readers and do I suck? No, seriously, what steps have you taken to grow your blog?
Living with dog dementia: An update on Sassy
Published November 6, 2015 by Jen Lawson
Since I last wrote about my dear old puppy Sassy and her dementia, things are improving. Or at least they're not really getting any worse.
She's been on selegiline (the generic version of Anipryl) since Oct. 13, so that's just under one month. (This is a human medication that's used to treat Parkinson's Disease, but it's been shown to help dogs with dementia, too.) I got a prescription from our vet and ordered it online through Allivet — 60 pills for $55.99. The prices vary widely, so it's worth it to spend some time looking for the best deal.
She's also on an omega-3 liquid that we squirt onto her food as well as an antioxidant called Cell Advance. We started her on those in July.
I'd read that it usually takes a month to see any signs of the selegiline working, but we started noticing an improvement in Sassy's mobility and some increased alertness about two weeks ago.
Before, she was falling down the stairs regularly and having trouble with her motor skills, but now she can jump onto the bed like a champ, and she's only fallen down the stairs a few times. We don't have to carry her upstairs as much.
We bought a baby gate a few weeks ago to control when she goes up and down the stairs, and that's helped a lot with the falling. She usually doesn't go up or down without us monitoring her.
The house soiling is continuing, which sucks, but it's not as frequent. She had been pacing a lot, but that's beginning to taper off.
Despite Sassy's improved mobility due to the new medication, she still struggles, so I ordered Dr. Buzby's Toe Grips for her. They arrived last week.
They're small, thick rubber bands that fit snugly around each nail, front and back, and they provide traction.
She somehow managed to remove them — we found a bunch in her bed and on the floor. But it seems like she's doing better and better every day, so she probably doesn't even need them right now anyway. They might come in handy later, so I'm hanging onto them.
I don't know if the meds will become ineffective eventually or if Sassy will continue to get better, but I'm feeling hopeful!
Dog dementia is heartbreaking, but I'm learning that with the right medications and accommodations, you can help your pup live a better life.
If you have a dog with dementia, I'd love to hear about your experience.
How I broke my toe
Published October 26, 2015 by Jen Lawson
Late Friday afternoon I spoke on the phone to a woman about a cat she owned a few years ago. She recently applied to adopt a new cat from the animal rescue where I volunteer and I needed to find out what veterinarian she used.
As we were chatting, I realized she sounded like someone — Linda Belcher from the animated series "Bob's Burgers." I'm not a major fan; I've only seen it a few times. But the voice resemblance was so strong that I couldn't stop laughing after we hung up, and I ran up the basement stairs to tell Mike about it.
I don't normally run up the stairs —which aren't carpeted, by the way — but I did this time in my exuberance. And I broke my toe.
I screamed and hopped around then I fell down and screamed some more. Mike checked it out and deemed it broken. (Since he's an Eagle Scout, I tend to believe him when it comes to stuff like this.)
It was bruised, swollen and a little crooked. I couldn't walk without limping, and I still can't. It's my first broken bone.
I Googled it and found that going to a doctor would probably be a waste of time since it wouldn't be splinted. The next day, after a painful trip to Trader Joe's during which I actually started to cry in the produce section, I kept it elevated and iced. Mike wrapped it in an ace bandage to keep the swelling down.
I spoke to the Linda sound-alike a few more times. I ended up approving her application and on Saturday she adopted a kitten from the off-site adoption center at Petsmart where I volunteer — our 200th adoption! (We opened this adoption center in April 2014, so that's 200 cats in a year and a half! It's an exciting milestone.)
I realized I still had a voice mail from the Linda sound-alike on my phone and played it for Mike.
Me: "See! Doesn't she sound just like Linda?!"
Mike: "Uh, maybe a little. Actually, not really."
I was going to share a photo of my toe, but it's too gross and I don't want to scare you away.
Remembering last year on "Back to the Future Day"
My dad died one year ago today. The last time I saw him was two days earlier, on Oct. 19, when we had lunch at Friendly's. I'm pretty sure that was his very last meal at a restaurant.
And, as everyone knows, today is also the date that Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd reach in Back to the Future II, Oct. 21, 2015. I gotta say, if my dad had to die, I'm disappointed that it didn't happen on this date instead.
For one thing, obviously, this is just a cooler date. Right? And also, he could've attended our wedding and heard about our trip to Scotland and I could have told him about how we drove through his old Scottish neighborhood. I also would've brought him back some shortbread cookies, which that you can get in the US, but they taste better in Scotland for some reason.
I miss him.
I've noticed something about how my dad's death has changed how I feel about Halloween. It's unfortunate that his funeral was a few days before Halloween, but it's not like we could've done anything about that. I feel like the whole Halloween season has this shitty halo around it now, sort of how my mom's death, which happened Dec. 13, 2006, created a shitty halo around Christmas. It's just never the same after something like that happens so close to a holiday.
I've never been one of those super enthusiastic Halloween people, anyway. I like a good party and dressing up can be fun. But there were many years when I didn't acknowledge it in any way.
This year, though, I can't help but view Halloween as a silly, hokey thing. (And furthermore, what's up with our national obsession with zombies?)
Of course, that won't stop me from going to a Halloween party this year, and I know it'll be a great time. But I just feel like I just no longer "get it." Maybe next year will be better, or maybe I'm just getting old.
At my parents' 50th anniversary party in 2003.
Caption for featured photo: My family went to Bushkill Falls in the Pocono Mountains when I was 9 or 10 and my dad and I rode these carts down a mountain. I remember being terrified! My dad took this photo and I love how we're elevated and can see the winding path that runs through the woods, and how nobody else was around. It wasn't often that we spent one-on-one time together and I've always remembered this.
How opening an envelope gave me closure
The other night I came home to find a business-sized envelope addressed to me in a woman's handwriting in blue ink.
"What's this?" I muttered and opened it.
Inside was my original birth certificate, birth registration certificate from the Office of Vital Statistics, and my Social Security card. There was no note, but there didn't need to be one, because only one person would be in the position to have them.
I immediately understood why I couldn't find these things years ago. I'd assumed they got lost in the shuffle during one of my moves. With a mental shrug, I had replaced my birth certificate and SS card as I needed them, and didn't give it much thought.
Here they were now, in my hands, sent by someone I've never met, but with whom I have something in common: A man. For me, it was years ago, and she's with him currently.
I don't know why they were sent, why now, or which party decided to send them. But I received so much more than some pieces of paper.
Having the originals gives me comfort, especially since both of my parents are gone now.
And it also gives me that closure that I never received when things ended. I thought maybe we could meet 30 years from now and have a fine chuckle over the messes we created for each other when we were young and spry, but receiving this envelope makes that unnecessary. When you assume someone you were with for 11 years now hates you, and then they perform a simple act of kindness and you realize they probably don't, it's a huge relief.
I briefly considered mailing a thank you note, since Mike and I are about to mail a bunch related to our wedding and we have a box of them. I even thought of three simple and sincere sentences of gratitude. But I decided to send my gratitude into the universe instead.
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Living with dog dementia: Is that an overripe banana on the floor or did she poop in the house again?
Published October 5, 2015 by Jen Lawson
Despite my attempt at humor in the title of this post, I'm feeling pretty concerned right now. I wrote a few months ago about how Sassy, who is 15, was diagnosed with dog dementia, also known as canine cognitive disorder. Her vet recommended supplements, and we noticed a big difference in her after just a few days. She seemed more clear-minded, quicker, more active, more normal. Granted, the pacing was still happening, but it became less of a focus for her.
But now she seems to be blacksliding.
So many things have happened in the past week.
She keeps falling down the stairs. Like, tumbling, rolling, down. We've been carrying her, but she doesn't like it, so she's been getting upset — she grunts and yelps and gives us what we call nibbles, basically opening her mouth and pretending to bite us. That's progressed to actually biting us. Well, Mike. It's happened twice this weekend.
She can't really jump up onto the bed or couch anymore without numerous tries or help from us. This morning after her walk, she couldn't even hop up the three steps from the sidewalk to our front door without a few attempts. Motor difficulties is something that accompanies dementia, according to this site.
One of the classic signs of dementia in dogs is that they'll stand at the hinge side of the door rather than at the side that opens. Despite all the other stuff we've been seeing, it was somewhat of a comfort that she hadn't been doing that. But, she started doing that a few days ago.
She peed in my bathroom the other day, which I think she used to see as one of her safe, cozy places and not a place she'd soil. Not only did she pee, she started lapping it up before I had a chance to clean it up. This is really abnormal behavior.
She's been pooping and peeing in other places of the house, another dementia symptom that's increasing. It doesn't seem to matter if she's just been walked or just been outside in the back. Forgetting house training is another symptom; she seems to be confused about when and where she's supposed to go. Every time she goes in the house, she seems really ashamed. We just clean it up and pet her and comfort her — it's not her fault.
She doesn't seem as interested in food anymore. We've been giving her this wet food since she'd been on these supplements and she usually dances on her back legs with a happy look on her face, eager to get her chicken stew. But she stopped doing that this week.
Last Friday we picked her up from the pet hotel and as we were getting out of the car, her bottle of omega 3 liquid fell to the ground and shattered. So she went without that until Monday. (Her vet was closed all weekend due to the Pope visiting Philly and it's stupid that the omega 3 comes in a freaking glass bottle.)
I noticed a marked change in her over those days of being off her supplements, and now that she's back on them, she's still exhibiting those same behaviors.
Then again, she'll have moments where she's her old self again. I was out a few nights ago at a work thing and Mike said she was running around downstairs like she used to.
I'm hoping that the fact that she was off her supplements for three days last week (last Friday, Saturday and Sunday) might have something to do with her current behavior. Hopefully in another few days she'll get back to how she was before we left for Scotland. I feel awful that we left her.
She saw her vet in July and the vet said her organs are healthy and strong and her system is in good working order. This makes things even more difficult because it's a quality of life issue for her, not necessarily a medical one in the strictest sense.
I think we'll observe her this week as Mike and I write our wedding thank you notes and go about our routines, and if we don't see any improvement, we'll bring her back to the vet. I read about a medication, Anipryl (generic is selegiline), that became available a few years ago for canine dementia and it's shown promising results, so maybe it's time to resort to that. The supplements were the first step.
This is so hard.
She's been by my side as my fiercely loyal best friend since 2004.
I love my puppy.
We got stranded on an unnamed road in Scotland
Published September 26, 2015 by Jen Lawson
Last Sunday we packed up our rental car in Glasgow and set out for Galloway Forest Park, about two hours away. The park is supposed to be one of the best places in the UK to stargaze and we were excited to go.
The navigation system in our rented Ford Focus tended to send us on circuitous routes on rural roads. That was okay, because the scenery was gorgeous — green, green grass spotted with white sheep seemingly everywhere, dramatic dark clouds against a blue sky.
But it was a little unnerving because these rural roads were two-way streets, but they were so narrow that if another car approached in the opposite direction, either we or they would have to pull to the side of the road. Luckily, we'd be able to drive miles and miles before we saw another vehicle.
And many of these roads were unnamed. As in, the local residents refer to them as something, but there's no official name on the books.
About halfway to the park, we came around a bend to a stunning panoramic view — a thick, green forest was on the left of the road, and to the right was a gently sloping field gave way to a small village about five miles in the distance. The dense forest featured green pine trees with perfectly zigzagged peaks, reminding me of a child's drawing.
"I'm pulling over for a photo," Mike said, and aimed the car to what looked like a grassy green shoulder. The long grass disguised the fact that it was a ditch. The soft earth gave out under the left front tire and it sunk in. The undercarriage was flush against the ground at a lopsided angle.
We were stuck.
We tried to get it out. We tried and tried so much that tendrils of smoke flew up around the stuck tire and the grass against the tailpipe burned. I put it in first while Mike pushed. Nothing worked. In fact, the spinning, stuck tire seemed to dig in deeper with each attempt.
Luckily, we still had cell service. We called Budget Rental Car's roadside assistance number, which was on the key chain. We called repeatedly over the course of four hours and talked to a different person each time, all kind and sympathetic and wanting to help, but the problem is we didn't know where we were. According to our GPS, we were on an unnamed road.
About a quarter-mile back was a farm and I remembered seeing some signs, so we walked down there and took photos of a sign that read "Glenalla Farm" at the top of a long, unpaved driveway. So long that we couldn't see a house or farm from the road. Close to that was a sign that said "Glenalla Forest" and another that read "Blair."
Mike gave all of these landmarks to roadside assistance dispatcher, but it didn't help them pinpoint where we were.
We were out there with the car for about a half hour when a bicyclist came by. We flagged him down and asked if he knew the name of the road. He didn't, despite being a local. He introduced himself as Paul and gave us his phone number in case our other options ran out.
While we were out there, five or six vehicles came upon us and stopped to ask if we were okay — a guy on a BMW motorcycle, some young guys wearing rugby clothing, a couple in a Land Rover with a big barking dog in the back who offered to hook up a leather dog leash and pull us out, and a few others. We were hesitant to take him up on his offer because if there was any damage to the rental car, we'd be screwed.
Mike managed to look up our map coordinates and gave them to roadside assistance, not realizing that it pegged us at a spot about 20 miles from where we actually were. We kept calling back with updates and they kept saying they were an hour away, 30 minutes away, five minutes away, but they never showed up.
The breeze blowing through the forest had the same light wooshing sound of a car approaching in the distance. We played the rural Scotland version of a game played in Philly. Instead of "Gunshots or firecrackers?" it was "The wind or a car?"
We ate the sandwiches we'd packed. We took a bunch of photos. We laughed at the absurdity of our situation. When it started to drizzle, I sat in the backseat of the car and applied mascara to pass the time.
All the while, we kept an eye on a spot in the distance where we could see a car if was approaching. We'll never forget the scenery because we stared at it for so long.
But I knew we were going to be okay. We had cell service. The weather wasn't bad. And we had each other. If I'd been out there alone, I'm sure I would've been terrified, although a woman stranded by herself might have yielded a more urgent search mission.
Still, it was so funny to be stuck like this. It gave me a deep reverence for Scotland, although it was perplexing.
Then, a local guy in a Ford Festiva stopped. He had a mini bobblehead on his dashboard that said, "Farmer Life" and offered to talk to roadside assistance for us.
We passed him the phone and he was able to tell the dispatcher specifically where we were, the best he could, despite admitting we were out in the middle of nowhere in a sea of unnamed roads. It seemed the dispatcher had a firmer, yet still uncertain, grasp on our general location and said the crew would be out soon.
The farmer, whose name was Leslie, seemed doubtful that they'd ever be able to find us, so he offered to pull us out himself if we could wait a half hour for him to return with a truck. We got stuck around 11:45 a.m. and it was about 3:30 p.m. at this point. We took him up on his offer.
Not long after, we heard the sound of a large vehicle approaching and a massive red farm tractor appeared. It was Leslie — he brought his tractor! He attached a rope and made the first attempt at pulling the car out, but it snapped right away. Next up: A sturdy chain. It did the trick.
We tried to offer him money, but he refused, saying he did his good deed for the day and waved as he drove off in his tractor. Mike called roadside assistance and cancelled it. Finally, we were on our way to the park!
Unfortunately, it was too overcast to see any stars, and we were a little too hyped up, anyway. We checked into the quaint, charming hotel called the Creebridge House in the village of Newton Stewart and settled in at the bar, sipping whiskey and local beers, chatting with the bartender about our predicament and rehashing it through laughter.
A few days later, as we prepared to leave Scotland for home, I asked Mike about his favorite part of the trip. Exploring the four castles we'd visited? Touring two whiskey distilleries? Walking the bustling streets of Glasgow and Edinburgh? Checking out some tiny, lovely villages as we traveled around the country?
"Getting stuck," he said with a smile.
Mine, too.
How weddings and funerals are similar
We're in the midst of packing because we'll be leaving for Scotland in a few hours! I want to publish this post before I go, though — it's something I've been mulling over for a while…
In the past nine years, I've helped to plan two funerals (my parents') and one wedding (my own). It's been said that funerals and weddings both bring out the best and the worst in people, but I've just seen the best in terms of behavior and generosity.
But in planning this wedding of mine that just happened this past Saturday, Sept. 12, I couldn't help but draw some parallels between weddings and funerals in general.
The people who want to be there will be there. Aside from last-minute snafus that prevent people from attending, if people want to attend a wedding or a funeral, they'll find a way to attend. I was shocked and pleased when crowds upon crowds of people attended both my mom's funeral in 2006 and my dad's last October, and they just had three days' notice. Granted, most were local people or drove a max of three hours to get there, but still, it was amazing to see how many people devoted a Saturday or took a PTO day just to pay their respects.
So in planning my wedding, I applied that reasoning and didn't bother sending save-the-date cards. It seemed to me to be an unnecessary step (I'm lazy) as well as an unnecessary expense. Mike and I did send our invitations a bit earlier than most people do, three months in advance, and it was a small wedding, but the vast majority of people who we invited ended up attending. Some even flew in from halfway across the country! (The fact that we held it at an amazing place also probably helped, admittedly.)
It's an emotional time and it's easy to make unwise decisions that will end up costing you. After my mom died, it was really important for my dad to get the headstone in place as soon as possible. He was distraught and under a lot of stress when he made a hasty choice and went with a memorial company, Cartledge Memorials in New Britain, PA without doing any research or comparisons. He paid in full immediately, and we found out later they charged him thousands more than they should have. Not only that, it wasn't installed by the date promised and then when we tried to find out what was going on, they wouldn't take my family's calls anymore. It was so egregious and disgusting that my sister filed complaints with the Pennsylvania Attorney General's Office and the Better Business Bureau. Finally, we contacted a consumer reporter with a local TV station who did an investigation and made Cartledge Memorials look like the lousy crooks that they are. My dad and sister were interviewed at the cemetery and she did an ambush of Cartledge. Finally, the headstone was installed and part of my dad's money was refunded.
Similarly, when planning a wedding, many couples get swept up in the Wedding Industrial Complex. It's a shadowy scourge that comes in the form of TV shows, websites, blogs, magazines and the influence of those around you that heighten emotions and could result in a lot of unnecessary spending and regrettable decision-making. It convinces couples that they need meaningless and expensive stuff like $125 wedding cake toppers custom-made to resemble the bride and groom. Or that their day will not be special unless the bride wears a wedding gown that costs about the same as a used car. I'm proud of the fact that my dress cost about as much as one of our weekend bar tabs. (It was not marketed as a wedding gown.) It's alarming how pervasive this is — anything even vaguely wedding or bride-like comes with a jacked-up price and it's so easy to get ripped off left and right. Mike and I spent our money on a kickass venue, great food, and an amazing photographer and tried to throw a fun party for our family and friends with as little planning as possible because I really couldn't have been bothered to do too much, and we were ruthless with budgeting. But I can completely understand how strong the influence of the WIC can be and how wedding planning can produce a sort of echo chamber, particularly when you read message boards and absorb what other people are doing. It's alarming how quickly expenses can add up when planning a wedding, and there are always hidden costs (hello, tipping!)
The flowers. O, the flowers. When someone dies, there are flowers. Flowers at the funeral home, lots of them. Flowers that people send to your home. I was a crime reporter for many years and I was always struck by how people would place flowers at the spot where people were hit and killed by a vehicles. And on numerous occasions I went to the home of a crime victim's family to interview them and was offered flowers to bring home because they received so many. So I really do associate flowers — not the ones in the ground, but arranged flowers — with tragedy and death.
Weddings and flowers go hand in hand. But the thought of carrying flowers at my own wedding made me want to gag a little. Mind you, I was in a dear friend's wedding last week and carried a gorgeous bouquet and was happy to do so. But I wouldn't have been able to bring myself to have flowers at my own wedding. I did wear a few flowers in my hair, but when Mike and I walked down the aisle, I carried a small pouch folded up in my hand that Mike's mom made for us using fabric from her mother's wedding dress. Admittedly, it was easy to get away with not having flowers because the venue was the opposite of a blank slate — there's so much to look at in there that it was sort of overwhelming. But my point is, it's hard to separate joyful flowers from tragic ones in my mind.
Tell me what you think — I'd love to hear it!
This garage is an alley around the corner from where we got married.
When life takes a U-turn in a good way: How I met my future husband
When I met my future husband, we were immediately inseparable. But we almost didn't meet. In fact, I cancelled the first date we had scheduled.
Like many people, we met through an online dating site. I didn't spend a lot of time on it and I never contacted anyone first. My approach was to create a profile then just read any messages that would come in. I deleted 99.9% of them.
Mike reached out to me in February 2012 and I replied. I thought he was cute and funny and one of his photos was of him smiling and opening a Tofurky box on Thanksgiving. Sold. We arranged to meet.
But, it didn't happen. I cancelled because someone I had dated previously talked me into "giving it one more try." Stupidly, I agreed to reconnect with this person, who was someone I didn't love nor did I even really like. It was a miserable slog that finally ended after a few months, in the beginning of July, to my relief.
For a few weeks, I thought about reaching out to Mike. I kept going back and forth. Would he reply to my email? Would he want to hear from me? Even though he was gracious when I cancelled, I still felt awful about it. I decided not to contact him.
Our very first selfie. Aww.
Then, one Saturday afternoon at the end of July, I had a complete change of heart. I realized I couldn't stop thinking about Mike, and I really had nothing to lose. So I took a chance. I opened my laptop and emailed him, saying I wasn't sure if he remembered me, but I was wondering if he'd give me another chance. I felt utterly vulnerable and scared shitless.
Then I refreshed my email every few minutes. Finally, he replied!
He said of course he remembered me, and was just thinking about me the other day. We made plans to meet on Aug. 1, 2012 at Devil's Den at 11th and Ellsworth in South Philly.
I walked in and he was sitting in the back. I immediately recognized him, and boy, was he good-looking! He stood up and we hugged and talked for the next few hours.
Then he walked me part of the way home, and we kissed on a South Philly street corner.
We were in each others' lives from then on. And tomorrow we'll say our vows.
Reaching out to Mike and admitting I'd made a mistake was the best decision I ever made. Where would I be right now if I hadn't?
"I urge you to please notice when you are happy, and exclaim or murmur or think at some point, 'If this isn't nice, I don't know what is."
― Kurt Vonnegut
This was taken on Sept. 6, 2015 at my dear friend Elizabeth's wedding.
Some people are wildly unfit to adopt an animal
Published September 2, 2015 by Jen Lawson
I haven't been sleeping so well lately. I have a few big things coming up — my friend's wedding this weekend. Mine a few days later. Work stuff and other stuff.
But what's keeping me awake now isn't any of that.
I've been volunteering at an animal shelter for seven years and I love it. I don't think I've ever really written about it here, and it's not because it's not important to me. Rather, it's too important, too big, to much to explain. I'm the lead volunteer at a satellite cat adoption center inside a major pet supply store, which means I have a list of responsibilities, and one is approving or denying applications from people who want to adopt cats from us.
When it comes to volunteering, my greatest joy is watching a human and an animal connect. A few weeks ago I approved the application of someone who decided to adopt three cats from us at once. I spent almost an hour talking to her on the phone the day before, and quickly understood she wasn't the proverbial "crazy cat lady." She simply fell in love with three cats and she and her husband had the room and resources. I felt on top of the world when this adoption went through. Since then, the adopter has sent me several updates and photos. Everyone is happy.
That's my greatest joy. One of the things that keeps me up at night — like now — is the wildly unfit adoption applicant. I came across two such people today, and I'm haunted.
Wildly Unfit Adoption Applicant 1: Her app looked fine, for the most part. But I found an inconsistency and followed the thread and found out she recently surrendered an old, overweight, diabetic cat to animal control because she was unhealthy. The cat was later euthanized.
Then just last month, she surrendered a dog to animal control because she couldn't train him. The notes that the receptionist read to me over the phone (HIPAA laws don't apply) said the dog had basically been neglected and was aggressive toward people and other animals, so he was euthanized, too. (I should note that neither of these pets were listed on the app where we ask for past pets.)
Wildly Unfit Adoption Applicant 2: Her app looked fine, for the most part. But today when I called the vet she listed, I was told her cat, who died two years ago, hadn't been to the vet since 2007. The vet didn't do the euthanization, so I wondered what happened because there were gaps there. I planned to call her tomorrow.
But she saved me a call when she stopped in tonight to check on her app. I asked her about her previous cat. She said she let him outside all the time, and that he cracked his teeth and split his ear and was a really tough cat, and told me all this in a bragging, proud tone. Keep in mind she lives in South Philly, not in the country or even the suburbs. You can't let your cat outside here.
The cat became very sick, so rather than taking him to a vet, she took him to animal control and signed the papers to surrender him. Of course he was euthanized.
Unfortunately, this happens. Animals who are sick or have behavior problems are euthanized. And yeah, there are assholes who'd rather dump their animals at a shelter rather than doing the right thing and getting the pet medical care, and/or standing by their side if they can't be saved. Some even dump their unwanted cats in the aisle or the bathroom of the pet supply store where the little adoption center is located.
What chills me is that they're seeking other animals. We care for the shelter cats so lovingly, we market them on social media, we cuddle them and play with them and celebrate when they're adopted into a good home. The goal is to look for reasons to approve people, and to always seek the best possible home for every cat.
These two applicants represent some of the worst that's out there. And what's messed up is that there were no obvious red flags on their apps. If I hadn't pushed for more information once I came across something worrying, I might have approved them.
Recently I was rushing through an application, approved the woman, and she adopted a cat from us. Later I learned she was on our "do not adopt" list — which I forgot to check. She indicated on a past application (which was denied) that she'd declaw, then she defended her pro-declaw views when asked about it. Now we have to worry about the poor cat she adopted, who might be dismembered, because of me.
Tonight, I told Wildly Unfit Adoption Applicant 2 that I wasn't able to approve her. She turned nasty and snatched the application from my hands started to storm off. I took two huge steps and managed to get it back from her, "for our records." I seriously trembled, I was so shaken up.
The lesson here is that the skills I used as a reporter — to ask "nosy" questions, to listen to my gut when things don't look or sound right and track down the information I need — are still as relevant to me now as they ever have been. And maybe I should look at these two applicants as dodged bullets. Maybe they're actually success stories because we didn't put any other animals in their care.
Maybe I'm just telling myself that so I can go to sleep, but that sounds pretty good to me.
Me with Mermaid, one of the cats who was up for adoption at PAWS.
Hi! I'm Jen!
And this is Sassy, my 15-year-old puppy and interspecies life partner. She's my proofreader, too, so any errors in this blog should be blamed on her. (RIP Sassy, 2000 - 2016)
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Brain Chips
Connecting the mind and machines
CNN's Michael Bay
Soon scientific advances may allow us to control machinery with our thoughts
You are going to have individuals who have super-powered calculation and communication abilities and will be far superior than the rest of us
-- Philip Kennedy, CEO of Neural Signals
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Are you worried that the ability to use the brain to interface with machines will create a a class of superpeople?
(Atlanta) -- We react naturally to the signals our brains send out to our bodies. Science has long been able to listen into the signals the brain sends, but is just now learning to turn those signals into meaningful action. The result is restoring movement and speech to the disabled.
One such effort is Cyberkinetic's BrainGate Neural Interface System, now undergoing clinical trials. The tiny chip was developed by Brown University's John Donoghue, who serves as Cyberkinetic's Chief Scientific Officer.
"Our research was to investigate the electrical signals in the brain," says Donoghue, "and how they are transformed as these thoughts get changed over into actual control of your arm or your hand."
"One of the big breakthroughs in neuroscience is that we can tap into signals [from the brain], and we get many complex electrical impulses from those neurons," says Brown. "We can read out those signals, and by some not-to-complex mathematical techniques, we can put them back together in a way that we can interpret what the brain is trying to do."
"In this trial," he explains, "we've implanted a tiny chip in the brain and that tiny chip picks up signals about moving the arm." The signal is then converted into simple commands that can be used to control computers, turn lights on and off, control a television set. Or, as Donoghue explains, "control robotic devices like an artificial hand... or a robotic arm."
In Atlanta, Philip Kennedy is working along similar lines. The CEO and chief scientist of Neural Signals, Kennedy is working with Eric Ramsey, a young man who has been "locked-in" since he was in a car accident in 1999. "A locked-in patient is somebody who is basically alert, intelligent, but they cannot communicate," says Kennedy. "His thinking brain is intact, but he cannot move, he can hardly move his eyes, he cannot speak, he gets spasms from time to time."
"We ask him questions," says Eric's father Eddie, "and he communicates through eye movement."
But, Kennedy is working to change that. He's surgically implanted a sensor that monitors the neural signals generated in the speech center of Eric's brain. Kennedy is listening for the patterns generated when Eric tries to imitate phonemes, the basic sounds that make up language.
"We are presently detecting the pattern of firing in those signals and the pattern is associated with particular phonemes or word sounds that he is trying to produce," explains Kennedy. "We have done that mapping and now we are trying to detect them and send them back to him, so that he can actually produce the phonemes or sounds of words." The result will be a computer synthesizing Eric's attempts to speak, and speaking for him.
Eric's father has been impressed by the progress so far, and has great hope for his son's future. " I think that he will be able to at least regain some type of communication with other people that will be easy to understand," says Eddie, "and keep him from being shelled-in within himself." Eddie hopes his son will someday be able to attend college and become an artist. "His ambition before this happened was to become a Disney artist," Eddie says, "and he was very good at drawing. We are hoping that maybe electronically he can go back to that."
Kennedy believes the future could bring a revolution as brain-computer interfaces are constructed using nanotechnology and getting information in becomes as easy as getting information out. "I imagine people will want to increase their memory," he says. "We can also expand our ability to calculate and maybe even have a direct communication, without a transmitter or cellphone."
The concept is familiar to readers of some near-future science fiction, especially the cyberpunk genre: A chip implanted in your head that allows you to store and recall information, of have a direct connection to machines, including computers and the Internet.
Kennedy says the implications of such technology are very serious. "You are going to have individuals who have super-power of memories, calculation abilities and communication abilities and be far superior than the rest of us." The power such devices could give people could lead to abuse. And governments might choose to restrict access to the technology. "Once you can do this brain machine interfacing, then everybody is going to want it," Kennedy says, "Either everybody gets it, or nobody gets it or a select few get it."
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Q: Could a set of $3$ vectors in $\mathbb{R}^4$ span all of $\mathbb{R}^4$? Could a set of $3$ vectors in $\mathbb{R}^4$ span all of $\mathbb{R}^4$; is this the same as asking if a 4 x 3 matrix could span $\mathbb{R}^4$ or if a 3 x 4 matrix could span $\mathbb{R}^4$?

A: For $m \lt n$, no set of $m$ vectors will span all of $\mathbb R^n$
In your case, it is not possible for $3$ linearly independent vectors to span all of $\mathbb R^4$: see the Wikipedia Entry on the dimension of a vector space.

A: Suppose that the three vectors $\vec{v}_1,\vec{v}_2, \vec{v}_3 \in \mathbb{R}^4$ form a linearly independent set $\{\vec{v}_1,\vec{v}_2, \vec{v}_3\}$, then this set can be a basis for some vector space. Because $\{\vec{v}_1,\vec{v}_2, \vec{v}_3\} \subset \mathbb{R}^4$, its span is a subspace of $\mathbb{R}^4$. Now the dimension of a subspace is the number of elements of any of its basis, so the dimension of the subspace spaning by set $\{\vec{v}_1,\vec{v}_2, \vec{v}_3\}$ has dimension $3$. Therefore, because $\mathbb{R}^4$ has dimension $4$, this set can not span it. Note that indeed this set can span subspaces with dimension less than or equal $3$, less than $3$ when there is any linear relationship among them.

A: If $\vec{v}_1,\vec{v}_2,\vec{v}_3 \in \mathbb{R}^4$, we can find a vector in $\mathbb{R}^4$ outside of the span of the three vectors.
Let $\mathbf{u} \in \mathbb{R}^4$ be such that $\vec{v}_1 \cdot \mathbf{u}=0$, $\vec{v}_2 \cdot \mathbf{u}=0$ and $\vec{v}_3 \cdot \mathbf{u}=0$.  The Rank-Nullity Theorem implies non-zero $\mathbf{u}$ exists, since the $3 \times 4$ matrix
$$
\left(\begin{matrix}
v_1[1] & v_1[2] & v_1[3] & v_1[4] \\
v_2[1] & v_2[2] & v_2[3] & v_2[4] \\
v_3[1] & v_3[2] & v_3[3] & v_3[4] \\
\end{matrix}\right)
$$
where $v_i[j]$ is the $j$-th component of vector $\vec{v}_i$, has nullity $\geq 1$.  I.e., the above matrix has a non-trivial null space.
Geometrically, $\mathbf{u}$ is orthogonal to $\vec{v}_1$, $\vec{v}_2$ and $\vec{v}_3$.

A: Compare this question with "n+1 vectors in $\mathbb{R}^n$ cannot be linearly independent" which asks a more or less dual question. Once you know that dimension is well defined, namely that all possible bases of a give vector space have equally many elements, it is quite easy to see that this is so, and that what you ask (having a spanning set of$~\Bbb R^n$ consisting of  strictly less than $n$ vectors) is not possible either. Namely for your question, if some number $m<n$ of vectors would span $\Bbb R^n$, which space also has its standard basis of $n~$vectors, then after possibly throwing out some of these$~m$ vectors (in case they should be linearly dependent), one would have a basis of $\Bbb R^n$ with strictly less that $n$ vectors, contradicting the cited fact.
However, proving that dimension is well defined (all bases have the same number of elements), inf fact really comes down to answering both your question (generalised to arbitrary$~n$) and the question cited about linear dependence, so proving those facts using a dimension argument is somewhat circular and hides the need to truly prove something directly from the definitions. One way you can do this is to show that, given any finite basis$~B$ of a vector space$~V$ and also a separate linearly independent set $S$ of $k$ vectors, one can construct a basis of$~V$ consisting of $S$ together with a subset of$~B$ obtained by throwing out exactly$~k$ vectors (this is essentially the Steinitz exchange lemma). For the negative answer to your question you would apply this with for $B$ a basis of strictly less than $n$ vectors extracted from your hypothetic spanning set, and for $S$ the standard basis of$~\Bbb R^n$ that contains $k=n$ vectors; the state result then says that $n$ vectors can be thrown out from $S$, but there are not enough vectors in$~S$ to do that, so this gives a contradiction.

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The Zika Virus Threat to the United States Research Paper
Tags: brazil dengue disease health latin america medicine world health organization
Zika, that was identified accidentally in Uganda in 1947 in the midst of insect and primate monitoring, had so far stayed as a hidden virus limited to a slim equatorial belt functioning along Africa and running into Parts of Asia. Not much is known with regards to ZIKV's release in the US. Phylogenetic studies suggest that the virus originated with the French Polynesian ZIKV force came into Brazil around May and Dec of 2013.
The unparalleled dimension and impact from the ZIKV pandemic within the Americas could be the all-natural consequence of a unique release right into a big populace without having preexisting immune system; Much like the Americas, the communities of Yap Tropical island and French. The seriousness of results in latest breakouts, in comparison with previous findings of moderate illness, has directed a few to hypothesize that this virus seems to have mutated to become much more pathogenic.
The important obstacle in ZIKV monitoring is definitely the percentage of occurrences that continue to be asymptomatic as well as the non-specificity of ZIKV signs and symptoms. Lab screening is required to verify ZIKV disease. A ZIKV vaccine might be the simplest way to safeguard at-danger communities in the long run. Without having a vaccine or even antiviral medicines, the instruments at discretion for decreasing ZIKV occurrence derive from vector management and restricting ZIKV contact. Topical bug repellents as well as other individual defensive steps do decrease insect stinging really should reduce the potential risk of ZIKV disease.
The intense outbreak of Zika virus (ZKV) disease taking place all through Latin America, Central America, as well as the Caribbean islands and possibly damaging the us is easily the most current of 4 unpredicted arrivals of essential arthropod-borne virus-like illnesses within the Traditional Western Hemisphere in the last two decades. This document talks about ZKV, that causes Zika fever, employing a unique emphasis towards the American. The document intends to comprehend the risk that ZKV have towards the Us citizens. This is going to be carried out by initially having a background look at the virus, subsequently the level of ZKV within the Us citizens, the issues that might have caused the circulation of the virus among the Americans, as well as the difficulties and control prospects.
Zika, which had been identified accidentally in Uganda in 1947 in the midst of insect and primate monitoring (Fauci And Morens, 2016), had so far stayed as a hidden virus limited to a slim tropical belt operating through Africa and straight into Asia. The virus dispersed primarily in wilderness primates as well as arboreal mosquitoes like Aedes africanus and seldom induced identified "spillover" bacterial infections in human beings, even during extremely enzootic locations (Pierson And Diamond, 2014).
Its present intense pandemic reemergence is consequently really exceptional. Years back, African experts observed that aedes-transferred Zika epizootics strangely tended to adhere to aedes-transferred chikungunya epizootics and outbreaks. In the year 2007, nevertheless, ZIKV surfaced from obscurity, leading to an episode of febrile sickness around the Yap Isles within the Federated States of Micronesia. Moreover, by the year 2014, ZIKV had spread all through the Pacific Isles, as well as in earlier 2015, ZIKV had been recognized for the very first time in Brazil (Waggoner And Pinsky, 2016). By year's ending, ZIKV had spread all through continental Latin America and into the Main The united states, the Caribbean islands, as well as Mexico.
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By way of initial epidemiologic monitoring and human obstacle research, Zika had been recognized as being a moderate or inapparent dengue-like illness with a temperature, muscle tissue cramps, eyesight discomfort, prostration, as well as maculopapular allergy (Fauci And Morens, 2016). In well over six decades of monitoring, Zika has never been observed to result in hemorrhagic temperature or demise. There exists in vitro proof that Zika virus mediates antibody-centered improvement of disease, a trend noticed in dengue hemorrhagic temperature; nevertheless, the medical importance of the research is doubtful.
One can find no Zika vaccinations in advanced production, even though several current flavivirus vaccine systems might possibly be tailored, such as flavivirus chimera or even glycoprotein subunit systems. Zika vaccinations might, nevertheless, deal with exactly the same issue as vaccinations for chikungunya (Fauci And Morens, 2016), Western Nile, Saint. Louis encephalitis, as well as other arboviruses: because outbreaks surface erratically and unexpectedly, preemptively vaccinating big communities in anticipation of breakouts might be excessively costly instead of inexpensive, but vaccine stockpiling accompanied by fast implementation might be as well sluggish to counter unexpected intense outbreaks.
Zika virus within the Americas-Brazil and beyond
In March of 2015, 24 individuals exhibited a febrile sickness described as allergy, arthralgia, as well as conjunctivitis to Santa Helena Medical center within the area of Camaçari, roughly 50 kms from Salvador, Brazil (Waggoner And Pinsky, 2016). 7 individuals experienced evident ZIKV RNA in serum while 3 individuals experienced evident CHIKV RNA, verifying the circulation of ZIKV to continental Latin America and featuring how challenging Zika temperature would be to identify according to medical attributes by itself. The Salvador Epidemiologic Monitoring Office additionally looked into 14,835 instances of indeterminate severe exanthematous sickness documented within the 12 zones of Salvador, exposing the obvious cocirculation of DENV-1, CHIKV, ZIKV, as well as DENV-3 (Waggoner And Pinsky, 2016).
ZIKV had also been retrospectively recognized by RT-PCR in serum samples gathered from 8 individuals in Natal, State of Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil, who exhibited a "dengue-like fever" during the early 2015 (Zanluca et al., 2015). Lastly, an Aids-infected person in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, exposed in May 2015 with 1 instance of allergy, malaise, myalgia, and also conjunctival hyperemia; severe Zika temperature had been established by Flavivirus genus RT-PCR as well as sequencing. Moreover, autochthonous ZIKV indicator continues to be noted all through continental Latin America, Central America, as well as Mexico, along with the Caribbean islands, together with Puerto Rico (Waggoner And Pinsky, 2016).
Phylogenetic evaluation of ZIKV series extracted from Brazil and also Suriname demonstrated that the virus had been from the Oriental lineage, as well as being assumed it was launched on the Pacific Isles in the summer season of 2014 in the course of the World Cup or perhaps the Va'a World Sprint Tournament canoe contest (Waggoner And Pinsky, 2016; Zanluca et al., 2015).
Why has ZIKV penetrated the Americas at this point?
Very little is understood with regards to ZIKV's release into the US. Phylogenetic studies suggest that the virus originated in the French Polynesian ZIKV force moved into Brazil around May and Dec of the year 2013 (Lessler et al., 2016). Even though there has already been conjecture about release during certain sports activities, Brazil has well over six million tourists each year, offering several possibilities for ZIKV release. Irrespective of how and when ZIKV came into the Americas,.....
Bhattacharyya, S., Gesteland, P. H., Korgenski, K., Bjørnstad, O. N., & Adler, F. R. (2015). Cross-immunity between strains explains the dynamical pattern of paramyxoviruses. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 112(43), 13396-13400.
Fajardo, A., Soñora, M., Moreno, P., Moratorio, G., & Cristina, J. (2016). Bayesian coalescent inference reveals high evolutionary rates and diversification of Zika virus populations. Journal of medical virology, 88(10), 1672-1676.
Fauci, A. S., & Morens, D. M. (2016). Zika virus in the Americas—yet another arbovirus threat. New England Journal of Medicine, 374(7), 601-604.
Lessler, J., Chaisson, L. H., Kucirka, L. M., Bi, Q., Grantz, K., Salje, H., ... & Cummings, D. A. (2016). Assessing the global threat from Zika virus. Science, 353(6300), aaf8160.
Morin, C. W., Comrie, A. C., & Ernst, K. (2013). Climate and dengue transmission: evidence and implications. Environmental health perspectives, 121(11-12), 1264. Doi. 24058050pmid:24058050
Musso, D., Roche, C., Nhan, T. X., Robin, E., Teissier, A., & Cao-Lormeau, V. M. (2015). Detection of Zika virus in saliva. Journal of Clinical Virology, 68, 53-55.
Paul, L. M., Carlin, E. R., Jenkins, M. M., Tan, A. L., Barcellona, C. M., Nicholson, C. O., ... & Isern, S. (2016). Dengue virus antibodies enhance Zika virus infection. Clinical & translational immunology, 5(12).
Pierson, T.C., Diamond, M.S. (2014). "Flaviviruses." In: Longnecker, R., Kieff, E., Cohen, J. I., Knipe, D. M., & Howley, P. M. eds. Fields virology. 6th ed. Vol. 1. Philadelphia: Wolters Kluwer: 746-794.
Sikka, V., Chattu, V. K., Popli, R. K., Galwankar, S. C., Kelkar, D., Sawicki, S. G., … Papadimos, T. J. (2016). The Emergence of Zika Virus as a Global Health Security Threat: A Review and a Consensus Statement of the INDUSEM Joint working Group (JWG). Journal of Global Infectious Diseases, 8(1), 3–15.
Waggoner, J. J., & Pinsky, B. A. (2016). Zika virus: diagnostics for an emerging pandemic threat. Journal of clinical microbiology, 54(4), 860-867.
World Health Organization. (2016). Current Zika product pipeline. Current Zika product pipeline. Geneva (SW): World Health Organization.
Zanluca, C., Melo, V. C. A. D., Mosimann, A. L. P., Santos, G. I. V. D., Santos, C. N. D. D., & Luz, K. (2015). First report of autochthonous transmission of Zika virus in Brazil. Memórias do Instituto Oswaldo Cruz, 110(4), 569-572. Doi. 10.1590/0074-02760150192.
"The Zika Virus Threat To The United States" (2018, March 10) Retrieved July 16, 2019, from
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programmers, but it is quite flexible and usable for other things.
are velocity sensitive so you can trigger loops at different volumes.
away from your instrument, and I generally want to play during the sustain.
be a reliable foot controller.
Next by Date: Music can "accomplish"


Caitlin was the wife of poet Dylan Thomas. At the start of the 70s, 20 years after he died, she started going to Alcoholics Anonymous. In a circle of 40 chairs, set out for an AA meeting Caitlin makes a determined effort to deal with her tempestuous past. The audience of 20 sits with Caitlin in the circle as she revisits her life with Dylan.
The unoccupied chairs become part of the action in this physical and powerful duet.
CAITLIN was commissioned by the National Library of Wales as part of this year's centenary celebration of Dylan Thomas' birth.
Comisiwn gan Lyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru oddi wrth Eddie Ladd yw CAITLIN. Mae'n rhan o'r gweithgareddau i ddathlu canmlwyddiant geni Dylan Thomas.


text:
Areas of Legal Practice: Different Types of Law
In some states the English frequent regulation has been adopted by statute. There is not any general rule to establish what part of the English common regulation is valid and binding.
There are few titles of respect to indicate famous attorneys, similar to Esquire, to indicate barristers of greater dignity, and Doctor of law, to point an individual who obtained a PhD in Law. As the European Court of Human Rights has said, the legislation must be adequately accessible to everybody and people ought to be able to foresee how the regulation impacts them.
The rule of regulation implies that each person is topic to the law, together with people who are lawmakers, regulation enforcement officers, and judges. Civil society is the people and groups that are not part of authorities that attempt to shield individuals towards human rights abuses and try to shield freedom of speech and different particular person rights.
Some common legislation systems, together with Australia, are shifting away from the concept of consideration as a requirement. The thought of estoppel or culpa in contrahendo, can be used to create obligations throughout pre-contractual negotiations. Although the function of the manager varies from nation to country, usually it will propose nearly all of legislation, and propose government agenda. In presidential systems, the manager usually has the power to veto laws.
This partly mirrored Germany's standing as a rising power within the late 19th century. Similarly, traditional Chinese regulation gave way to westernisation in direction of the ultimate years of the Qing Dynasty within the form of six personal law codes based primarily on the Japanese model of German law. Today Taiwanese law retains the closest affinity to the codifications from that interval, due to the cut up between Chiang Kai-shek's nationalists, who fled there, and Mao Zedong's communists who received management of the mainland in 1949. The present authorized infrastructure in the People's Republic of China was closely influenced by Soviet Socialist legislation, which basically inflates administrative regulation at the expense of personal legislation rights.
Law Professor Frederick Mark Gedicks disagrees, writing that Cicero, Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, and the framers of the U.S. Constitution believed that an unjust law was probably not a law in any respect. The practical interpretation of the time period "rule of legislation", according to the standard English that means, contrasts the "rule of legislation" with the "rule of man". According to the useful view, a society during which authorities officers have a great deal of discretion has a low diploma of "rule of legislation", whereas a society in which government officers have little discretion has a excessive diploma of "rule of regulation". Upholding the rule of legislation can sometimes require the punishment of those that commit offenses which are justifiable underneath natural law but not statutory legislation.
The 10 Most Important Factors for Buying Your Dream Home


text:
Scopula stenoptila is a moth of the family Geometridae. It is found in South Africa.

References

Endemic moths of South Africa
Moths described in 1916
stenoptila
Moths of Africa

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With Live 3D TEE, cardiologists, cardiac surgeons, anesthesiologists, interventional cardiologists, and echocardiographers can see cardiac structure and function all in real-time. It's quick, reproducible, and quantifiable.
Ability to view cardiac structure and function in action, even in hard to image patients.
Ability to see the complete valve from multiple perspectives while the heart is beating.
Philips xMATRIX Live 3D TEE was launched in 2007, and since then Live 3D TEE has been clinically proven in over a million exams and procedures.
Access to data and perspectives not availale to transthorasically.
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Monitoring before, during and after surgery.
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Ability to see live visuals of the area during follow up to clearly assess repairs and results.
Easy quantification of the mitral valve with and objective data.


Greetings from Franklin, TN! My name is Cindy Rust and I am married to my college sweetheart, Terry. We have three amazing kids Ty, Alex and Hailey and two really cute pups, Duke and Julz! We have lived in the Nashville metro area, home of Music City, for 12 years and love our very active and growing community. Terry and I both have another business together, but couldn't pass up the opportunity to join the Card My Yard team to "spread the love" these yard signs bring to so many special times in other's lives.


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Buddhism Forum Buddhism Discussion Forum Teahouse of the Compassionate One News & Current Events
deadliest mass shooting in the U.S.
The best place for discussion of current events. News about Buddhists and Buddhism is particularly welcome.
Former staff member
Location: Uni-verse
Re: deadliest mass shooting in the U.S.
Post by Virgo » Sat May 19, 2018 12:18 am
Mantrik wrote: ↑
Kevin...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldLBoErAhz4
Mantrik
Contact Mantrik
Post by Mantrik » Sat May 19, 2018 7:39 am
Virgo wrote: ↑
No kid in the US even feels safe going to school right now.
The interviewed a girls at the Santa fe school and asked her if she was surprised at the shooting:
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics ... -interview
http://www.khyung.com ཁྲོཾ
Om Thathpurushaya Vidhmahe
Suvarna Pakshaya Dheemahe
Thanno Garuda Prachodayath
Micchāmi Dukkaḍaṃ (मिच्छामि दुक्कडम्)
Johnny Dangerous
Location: Olympia WA
Contact Johnny Dangerous
Post by Johnny Dangerous » Sat May 19, 2018 8:04 am
Much like terrorism, these events make people feel they are in much more danger than they likely are.
I get that people are scared, but the idea that "no kid is safe anywhere" is just fear mongering. We still live in an incredibly safe time, and by and large kids growing up today in the US are quite safe, even with these horrific events - which surely need real solutions. There is already enough of a backlash and plans to further militarize schools, and even further limit the sort of environment that kids are educated in. This is certainly a crisis of sorts, but lets be intelligent about our approach. Much of the media coverage surrounding these events is tailored simply to whip up panic, not to further the public conversation.
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Post by Dan74 » Sat May 19, 2018 10:00 am
Johnny Dangerous wrote: ↑
But to repeat, 10 kids' lives cut short is a tragedy and a slow careful look at the causes and solutions with an open heart/mind unbeholden to special interests and lobby groups, is surely long overdue (by the decision-makers).
shaunc
Post by shaunc » Sat May 19, 2018 1:29 pm
These type of things have been happening in the U.S. for quite a while now. I'm sure that they've looked at other countries and have seen how they've dealt with the same problem. However I've come to the conclusion that tightening up firearm laws in the U.S. is flogging a dead horse. It's their problem and they either have to fix it themselves or learn to live with it.
Wicked Yeshe
Post by Wicked Yeshe » Sat May 19, 2018 1:56 pm
So tragic. May the victims find peace.
Post by Virgo » Sat May 19, 2018 2:13 pm
I get that people are scared, but the idea that "no kid is safe anywhere" is just fear mongering.
Hi Johnny. To be fair, I said "no kid feels safe at school". Can you really blame them? Being that there is on average one school shooting per week in the US?
I will provide some stats when I get home.
Here are the stats. There has been on average one school shooting per week this year (22 total as of today May 19'th):
https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/02/us/schoo ... index.html
The following article explains that there is an average of 10 per year since Columbine with 11 so far this year, less than 3 months into the year. That was as of March 21'st.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics ... fa313c0515
We have had 11 more this year since that was written, so we have jumped from 11 this year as of March 21'st to 22 as of May 19'th, 2018.
That is not fearmongering.
Post by Johnny Dangerous » Sat May 19, 2018 5:49 pm
As the saying goes ' feelings arent facts'...so yeah I get it, but I find the hyperbole counter productive.
Even with your stats, these are relatively uncommon events - thats part of what makes them newsworthy.
Johnny Dangerous wrote: Even with your stats, these are relatively uncommon events - thats part of what makes them newsworthy.
You're right, they are relatively uncommon events... in Australia, for example, where they had an extremely successful firearm ban and buyback, and where gun deaths dropped dramatically.
In the US, however, they are now happening once per week as the statistics show. I do not see how that can be considered uncommon.
Grigoris
Post by Grigoris » Sat May 19, 2018 7:25 pm
One school shooting is already one school shooting too many as far as I am concerned. Some here may be happy to give some leeway and say that it is okay for one school shooting a month, for example, but I really fail to see the logic behind this thinking.
And it is not just a case of instituting buy-backs and banning (though that would be a good start, right now). Here in Greece it is actually really easy to buy weapons of all types (lots of illegal weapons come in from Bulgaria and Albania) and yet NO mass shootings. NO school shootings.
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Post by Mantrik » Sat May 19, 2018 7:31 pm
It is said that more people have died as a result of US school shootings than on active service in the US military in 2018.
It is interesting to ponder if people are safer in the US military than in US schools.
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Post by Yavana » Sun May 20, 2018 1:41 am
Grigoris wrote: ↑
I dunno, Greg. I mean, it seems like countries with greater gun constraints also have more constraints on other things, too. Aussies have more constraints on both guns and on the internet, for example. I think that essentially equals less freedom. Young people weren't choosing to lash out in these bizarre ways until recently. What we ultimately have in the US is a sociological problem.
Post by Johnny Dangerous » Sun May 20, 2018 2:38 am
This really shouldn't be controversial. Most school kids in school in the US are safe, even with these events. If you are that worried about infrequent events like (mass) school shootings are actually putting all kids in danger all the time, you should also worry about terrorism in the same way, as these sorts of events are equally infrequent. Secondly, while it is regrettable that anyone is shot in schools, conflating any event with a shooting in a school with an intentional mass shooting is incredibly silly. If only because these events that you are reacting to - mass shootings - are actually a small sliver of all gun crime, a very small sliver. Lots of school shootings are in poor neighborhoods, and poor kids getting shot, kind of pisses me off that this is now part of someone's statistic in a conversation about how No Kid Is Safe when where I grew up, kids got shot all the time, and no one gave a shit. All the sudden now that mass shootings are happening "no one is safe".
It is terrible, and in some sense "one is too many" as Greg said, however, painting an extreme picture about all kids being in danger is a really terrible way to approach the problem, not grounded in reality. Do you realize how many schools there are in this country? And no the statistics do not show they are "now happening once per week", that is a bit of an extrapolation. The result of hand-wringing and exaggeration in public health/safety crises is rarely beneficial.
This isn't an anti gun control thing btw, I'm just tired of the hyperbole - which so far seems entirely unproductive.
Post by Virgo » Sun May 20, 2018 2:45 am
And no the statistics do not show they are "now happening once per week", that is a bit of an extrapolation.
Which one is an extrapolation?
May 18: Santa Fe, Texas
At least eight people -- and as many as 10 -- were killed in a shooting at Santa Fe High School.
May 11: Palmdale, California
A 14-year-old boy went to Highland High, his former school, and began shooting a semiautomatic rifle shortly before classes were scheduled to begin, officials said. A 15-year-old boy was struck in the shoulder.
April 20: Ocala, Florida
A 17-year-old student at Forest High School was shot in the ankle shortly before students were to walk out as part of a national protest against gun violence.. The suspect was a 19-year-old former student.
April 12: Raytown, Missouri
A man was shot in the stomach in the parking lot of Raytown South Middle School during a track meet.
April 9: Gloversville, New York
A student shot another student with a BB gun in Gloversville Middle School.
March 20: Lexington Park, Maryland
An armed student shot two others at Great Mills High School before a school resource officer fired a round at the shooter. The shooter was killed. One of the students, 16-year-old girl Jaelynn Willey, was taken off life support two days later.
March 13: Seaside, California
A teacher accidentally discharged a gun during a public safety class at Seaside High School, injuring a student.
March 8: Mobile, Alabama
One person was hospitalized after a shooting at an apartment building on the campus of the University of South Alabama.
March 7: Birmingham, Alabama
One student was killed and another critically wounded after an accidental shooting during dismissal time at Huffman High School. Police wouldn't elaborate further.
March 7: Jackson, Mississippi
A student was shot inside a dormitory at Jackson State University. His injuries were not life-threatening.
March 2: Mount Pleasant, Michigan
Two people were shot to death at a dormitory on the campus of Central Michigan University. The victims were not students and police think the incident stemmed from a domestic situation.
February 27: Norfolk, Virginia
A student at Norfolk State University was shot from an adjacent dorm room while he was doing homework. He was not seriously injured.
February 27: Itta Bena, Mississippi
A person was shot in a rec center at Mississippi Valley State University. Police said the person was not a student and the injury was not life-threatening.
February 24: Savannah, Georgia
A person was shot on the campus of Savannah State University and taken to a nearby hospital where he later died. Neither the victim nor the shooter were university students, the college said.
February 14: Parkland, Florida
A 19-year-old man gunned down students and staff with a rifle at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, slaughtering at least 17 unsuspecting students and adults. The shooter, Nikolas Cruz, had been expelled from the high school over disciplinary problems, officials said.
February 9: Nashville
A high school student was shot five times in the parking lot of Pearl-Cohn High School.
February 5: Oxon Hill, Maryland
A high school student was shot in the parking lot of Oxon Hill High. The victim was treated and later released. Police arrested two teens and said they are acquaintances of the victim.
February 1: Los Angeles
A 15-year-old boy was shot in the head and a 15-year-old girl shot in the wrist at Sal Castro Middle School in Los Angeles, officials said. Two other students were grazed by bullets. A 12-year-old girl was booked for negligent discharge of a firearm in that shooting, which was considered "unintentional," Los Angeles police said.
January 31: Philadelphia
A fight led to a shooting in the parking lot of Lincoln High School, fatally wounding a 32-year-old man.
January 23: Benton, Kentucky
A 15-year-old student shot 16 people -- killing two other 15-year-olds -- at Marshall County High School, authorities said. The student faces two charges of murder and 12 counts of first degree assault.
January 22: Italy, Texas
A 15-year-old student was wounded in a shooting at a high school in Italy, Texas, authorities said. The suspect, also 15, was quickly apprehended.
January 20: Winston Salem, North Carolina
A Winston-Salem State University football player, Najee Ali Baker, was shot to death at a party on the campus of Wake Forest University.
None of this proves that kids are in constant danger in America, all it shows is a very small sample over a relatively short period. What do you think the above proves, and can you please address my point about not conflating all school shootings with the mass ones you are specifically reacting to? You can't accurately say "they are happening once a week" when referring to these mass shooting events, then including stuff like shootings outside a high school that end up with a 32 year old getting hit.
This is all a terrible problem, it's really regrettable that it took these mass shootings for people to realize it, and suddenly freak out about it. Poor kids have been dying for years and no one even gave it a second thought.
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