There are several harmful money beliefs that keep you stuck in the same place. As we move into 2015, many people will make resolutions to improve their personal finances. But if you don't know much about money management or personal finances, you might make some mistakes. To get the new year off to a good start financially, you need to erase harmful money beliefs from your mind.
If you're serious about paying off your debt, this is one of several harmful money beliefs you need to let go. Debt controls your personal finances and keeps you stuck in the same place. If you owe money, it might be hard to move up in life, and most of your money might go to debt repayment. You have control over debt. It might take a while to pay down balances, but you can eradicate balances. Pay more than your minimums, negotiate lower rates and stop charging.
If you're constantly telling yourself that you'll never get ahead, you won't. Positive thinking can take you further in life. You are your biggest cheerleader. Don't wait for others to motivate and encourage you. If you want to get ahead, take actions and develop a plan that can move your finances forward.
I'm a firm believer that we're never too old to change. Even if you're in your 40s or 50s and have always been bad with money, you can wipe the slate clean. Most of the time, money management is all about self education and making wiser choices. If your credit score is bad, or if you have a lot of debt, working with a personal financial advisor can get you on the right path. Or you can read personal finance blogs or get advice from a friend who's financially savvy.
You are more powerful than you think. So people feel they are powerless if they have few options. But even if your options are few, you can make the most of your limited choices. For example, if you want to build your savings account, you might not be able to deposit $400 or $500 a month, but if you scale back and deposit $100 a month, that's $1,200 you'll save in a year's time.
Sometimes, circumstances beyond our control do happen. But if you feel you have bad luck, this can become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Realize that unforeseen events happen to everyone. We all have financial setbacks, but if you stay on the course, you can overcome these hurdles and reach your financial goals.
You don't have to be rich or have a lot of disposable income to save. Even if you're only able to say $500 or $1000, that's better than nothing. Each paycheck, pay yourself first. Ideally, you'll want to save 10% of every check and deposit this money into a savings account. But if you can only save $20 or $30 each pay period, you'll eventually accumulate a financial cushion.
This is a harmful money belief I wish would die. You don't have to be in your 30s or 40s to think about retirement. I'm a firm believer that the earlier we start planning, the better. As soon as you graduate high school or college and get a full-time job, ask your employer about a 401(k) plan, or open an individual retirement account with a financial planner.
There are many beliefs about money – some good and some terrible. If you learn to recognize harmful money beliefs, you'll have the power to change your financial future. What other beliefs should we ignore?


text:
Means Matter
Means Matter Basics
Attempters' Longterm Survival
Firearm Access is a Risk Factor for Suicide
Duration of Suicidal Crises
Lethality of Suicide Methods
Means Reduction Saves Lives
Method Choice and Intent
Youth Access to Firearms
Basic Suicide Facts
Lethal Means Counseling
Firearm Instructors
Gun Shop Project
Gun Shop Project FAQ
Bridges and Suicide
Means Restriction in the News
Brochures & Slides
Suicide, Guns, and Public Health
Most efforts to prevent suicide focus on why people take their lives. But as we understand more about who attempts suicide and when and where and why, it becomes increasingly clear that how a person attempts–the means they use–plays a key role in whether they live or die.
"Means reduction" (reducing a suicidal person's access to highly lethal means) is an important part of a comprehensive approach to suicide prevention. It is based on the following understandings (click on each to learn more):
Many suicide attempts occur with little planning during a short-term crisis.
Intent isn't all that determines whether an attempter lives or dies; means also matter.
90% of attempters who survive do NOT go on to die by suicide later.
Access to firearms is a risk factor for suicide.
Firearms used in youth suicide usually belong to a parent.
Reducing access to lethal means saves lives.
Firearm access can be a politically-charged topic. We welcome both gun owners and non-gun owners to this website. It is designed to introduce a non-controversial, "lethal means counseling" approach to reducing a suicidal person's access to firearms and other lethal means.
Families and friends who are concerned about someone can also help. Read more about ways to bring up storing guns off-site.
Clinicians concerned about a patient should also consider addressing firearm safety with the patient, or with their family.
The mission of the Means Matter Campaign is to increase the proportion of suicide prevention groups who promote activities that reduce a suicidal person's access to lethal means of suicide and who develop active partnerships with gun owner groups to prevent suicide.
The Harvard Injury Control Research Center is dedicated to reducing injury through training, research,intervention, evaluation, and dissemination. The Center has published hundreds of studies on injury topics ranging from motor vehicle crashes to alcohol use to youth violence and suicide. The Center is part of the Harvard School of Public Health.
The Means Matter Campaign is funded by The Joyce Foundation and the David Bohnett Foundation.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Always unplug your home appliances when they are not in use since they are still consuming energy when they're turned off. It is absolutely one of the largest blunders of property owners. It is best to not do this and always unplug your appliances after making use of them.


According to a study fish are becoming increasingly horny because of massive quantities of unnatural chemicals in the water. Researchers from Monash University found Prozac is making fish hell bent on reproducing. Mosquitofish that were given the drug in a tank spent more time chasing female fish. The higher the dose of the drug, the fish displayed "more frequent copulatory behavior" and spent more time following female fish. The pharmaceutical drugs makes its way into the ecosystem because our water treatment systems cannot filter it out.


text:
Carlos Alcaraz won Londero and he passed to the next round of Roland Garros. This is the second time that Carlos Alcaraz passed this second round of Roland Garros after won Juan Ignacio Londero by 6-4, 6-2 and 6-0. Alcaraz and Albert Ramos will face to face the next round, so there will be an insured Spanish player.
He signed the perfect debut because he did not concede any "break" ball and he got the first 4 correct to pass next round on a very easy way.
The Spanish tennis player has now 29 victories on this current season, just behind of Stefanos Tsitsipas (with 31 victories). The Greek player had this advantage because he competed on the last Masters 1000 at Rome. Alcaraz, with two rest weeks, has arrived on a very good shape and with many chances to win this tournament.
A touch of Spanish class 💫#RolandGarros | @alcarazcarlos03 pic.twitter.com/SFLyn2KkwJ
— Roland-Garros (@rolandgarros) May 22, 2022
the amazing point of alcaraz via @rolandgarros
The next round of this tournament will be against Ramos. Both players have played two times. Albert Ramos has 100% of win rate against his Spanish teammate. He won him at Rio de Janeiro (2020) and Umag (2021).
The Murcian player was very applauded by all the fans despite of his short career. People know that he has a lot of future and he is playing a really beautiful tennis.
Also, Alcaraz showed on this match one of his strong points: the service. With points of 209 kilometres per hour. Londero, currently 141 at ranking, completed a good performance against one of the most talented young player at the moment.
"This is one of the best tournaments and it is special. I have seen it since I was young and it is a pleasure playing in front of the fans. You have to adapt to the distances of a track as big as this one" said Carlos on the post-match interview. We will see how far Carlos go on this tournament.
Jorge Barbero
Stars of Strangers Things
Anthony Davis talks about his tough injury
Barça beat Atleticon de Madrid and become the leader of La Liga
NFL Week 18 and possible playoff scenarios
Luka Doncic is already NBA history
Barça draws against Espanyol in their first game after the World Cup
NFL week 17 promises exciting games
Aaron Gordon's dunk stands out on NBA Christmas Day
Cowboys and Eagles face off in Christmas Eve star game


WordPress Web 2.0 Guide v1.0 Freeware Download - WordPress Web 2.
Pirated Software Hurts Software Developers. Using WordPress Web 2.0 Guide Free Download crack, warez, password, serial numbers, torrent, keygen, registration codes, key generators is illegal. We do not host any torrent files or links of WordPress Web 2.0 Guide from depositfiles.com, rapidshare.com, any file sharing sites.


text:
Q: CppSharp generates the wrong code TL;DR: CppSharp generates the wrong binding code for a particular C++ method signature. How do I use TypeMaps and or passes to fix this? Is there documentation or examples of type transformations I can use?
I'm using CppSharp to generate C# bindings for OBS studio, in order to write a plugin for it.
When generating code from OBS.h using the following generator:
class OBSBindingsGenerator: ILibrary
{
    public void Postprocess(Driver driver, ASTContext ctx)
    {
    }

    public void Preprocess(Driver driver, ASTContext ctx)
    {
    }

    public void Setup(Driver driver)
    {
        var options = driver.Options;
        options.GeneratorKind = CppSharp.Generators.GeneratorKind.CSharp;
        var module = options.AddModule("OBS");
        module.IncludeDirs.Add(@"path\to\libobs");
        module.Headers.Add("obs.h");
    }

    public void SetupPasses(Driver driver)
    {
    }
}

class Program
{
    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        ConsoleDriver.Run(new OBSBindingsGenerator());
    }
}

I find that it generates:
    [SuppressUnmanagedCodeSecurity]
    [DllImport("OBS", CallingConvention = global::System.Runtime.InteropServices.CallingConvention.Cdecl,
        EntryPoint="video_format_get_parameters")]
    [return: MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.I1)]
    internal static extern bool VideoFormatGetParameters_0(global::OBS.VideoColorspace color_space, global::OBS.VideoRangeType range, float matrix, float min_range, float max_range);

and the corresponding public method
public static bool VideoFormatGetParameters(global::OBS.VideoColorspace color_space, global::OBS.VideoRangeType range, float[] matrix, float[] min_range, float[] max_range)
{
    ... // Code snipped for brevity
    fixed (float* __ptr4 = max_range)
    {
        var __arg4 = new global::System.IntPtr(__ptr4);
        // See here that __arg4 is an IntPtr argument and is being passed to a float parameter
        var __ret = __Internal.VideoFormatGetParameters_0(color_space, range, __arg2, __arg3, __arg4);
        return __ret;
    }
}

This obviously does not compile. The C++ definition is:
EXPORT bool video_format_get_parameters(enum video_colorspace color_space,
    enum video_range_type range, float matrix[16],
    float min_range[3], float max_range[3]);

In hand-written PInvoke, this can be fixed in many ways (declare a struct with the right number of float members, or a [MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.LPArray, SizeConst = 3)] and a float[] passthrough or declare the PInvoke parameter as an IntPtr).
My question then is: How do I use CppSharp and its code transformation tools (TypeMap? Pass? What?) to achieve any of the correct translations? I could fix this as a hack, but since I interop with my C++ libraries I'd prefer to learn the right way to do this with CppSharp (learn to fish).
Thanks in advance!

A: Please try with the latest CppSharp version (0.8.14+), it contains fixes related to array parameters.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Long overdue post and thanks list.
HÅRDA TIDER/NIGHT FEVER tour is over and Split 12inch is out. Big thanks to the bands for killer live shows and the brilliant material. To Erik P. for another excelent cover piece. To Gustav and Matte P. for excellent recording of the songs and to Matte P. for getting both masters together and preparing them perfect for pressing. Jakob of AdultCrash for being a partner in record crime for this one and someone i admire in the punk label world. To Hårda Skivor for taking part again. And last but not least Kurzi for putting the artwork pieces togehter, layouting and illustrating the lyric sheet in night sessions, doing a sticker for the speical reverse label edition over night and for always being there and supporting me and the label. Without bands and people like thist nothing would work on my side and i am honored and appreciate it to have you all.


CHANGCHUN, Feb. 16 -- A couple in northeast China's Jilin Province was awarded a good Samaritan award for helping more than 1,400 people find their lost family members in the past nine years.
At a ceremony held on Sunday, state broadcaster China Central Television included Zhang Baoyan and Qin Yanyou on its list of the 10 people who moved the nation in 2015.
In April 2007, the couple in Tonghua City paid out of pocket to set up a website dedicated to sharing information for those searching for their parents or children. The free service exhausted all of their savings until donations from big companies poured in several years later.
"We have seen more than 1,400 successful family reunions, but are still working on around 40,000 unsolved cases," Zhang said.
Zhang said the idea was inspired by the couple's own experience of losing their son briefly at an apartment store. "I trembled, I was full of pain. It's not hard to imagine the feelings of parents whose children were abducted or wandered away for long," she said.
In addition to Zhang, the website is staffed with seven full-time employees whose salaries are paid by the local government.
More than 170,000 volunteers across the country, divided into more than 100 groups based on their locations and professions, are helping investigations, offering help if their expertise or location matches with a case.
Police officers are important volunteers. "It's a great honor to help lost children back home using the advantage of my job," said Ding Chao at a police station in Luyi County, central China's Henan Province.
Despite progress, what Zhang remembers the most was a failed attempt to help a six-year-old boy who was abducted and sold find his family years ago.
The boy, Cong Cong, was abandoned by the person who bought him at a hospital in southeast China's Fujian Province after being diagnosed with life-threatening meningitis.
Zhang and volunteers rushed to the boy's bedside with donations that enabled him to get an operation. They also offered clues to the police and helped capture the traffickers.
However, their plan to bring Cong Cong to Beijing or Shanghai for better treatment failed because they lacked guardianship. Shortly after, the boy died.
"I prayed for him: 'I hope you meet your mother in the heaven, a place where there's no pain'," Zhang said.
The Chinese government has been clamping down on rampant human trafficking in recent years. According to statistics from the Supreme People's Court, from 2010 to 2014, courts at all levels concluded more than 7,000 abduction cases involving children and women and punished nearly 13,000 convicts.


text:
Discovery Claim on Pedro Creek
The city of Fairbanks exists in large part due the discovery of gold at this location. Felix Pedro (an Italian immigrant who Americanized his name from Felice Pedroni) struck it rich here on July 22, 1902. He filed his claim a couple of days later and officially recorded in October. He named the creek and adjacent hill after himself. Upon hearing of the discovery, people flocked to the site and established the city of Fairbanks, which is 12 miles south. The discovery also resulted in the beginning of major mining enterprises in the Alaskan interior. The site was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1992. Nothing of the mining operations on the creek remains so the area resembles what it looked like on that day in 1902.
Felix Pedro left for the U.S. in the mid-1880s and worked his way across the continent working in mines, finally arriving in Alaska in the 1890s. He found gold in four other locations in the immediate area of the first claim and struck it rich on a least one of them. He got married in 1906, toured Europe, and returned to Fairbanks. Interestingly, he died eight years to the day of his discovery on July 22, 1910.
Backlund, Oliver. "Discovery Claim on Pedro Creek." National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. May 13, 1992. http://focus.nps.gov/pdfhost/docs/NRHP/Text/92000498.pdf.
Backlund, Oliver. "Discovery Claim on Pedro Creek." National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. May 13, 1992.
Western/National Expansion
Created by Ben M on September 14th 2016, 4:28:43 pm.


-Don't forget it's CNC4newbie quality!!
You are at the right place for DIY CNC.
If you want a custom made fixture, holder, special parts or whatever your CNC needs, simply ask for a quote.
Don't hesitate to ask your questions, we will respond to you as fast as possible!!
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Recorded from a hospital bed using the built-in mic of a Neuros player. Thought the short sound of the remote when the button was pressed was interesting.
Any copy right issues? This is CC of course... but as an executive, sound artist for film its interesting. Some "popular" names used this sample. An Idea how this was handled, taken, distributed? As it is CC any student would use it yet someone from an industry... Be coo to study.
really great sound bites for channel surfing!


text:
Kuru is een prionziekte die ook wel trilziekte wordt genoemd. Deze ziekte is in 1959 ontdekt bij een Papoeastam, de Fore, op Nieuw-Guinea. Degene die de oorzaak ervan ontdekte, Carleton Gajdusek, kreeg in 1976 samen met Baruch Blumberg de Nobelprijs voor Fysiologie of Geneeskunde voor het ontdekken van een nieuw mechanisme voor het overbrengen van infectieziekten.

De verschijnselen van deze ziekte zijn: moeite met lopen als gevolg van ataxie en choreoathetose, trillende spieren (tremor), een verstoorde evenwichtszin, dementie op jonge leeftijd, onregelmatige lachbuien (dwanglachen) en incontinentie. De meeste mensen met kuru overlijden binnen 3 à 9 maanden.

Kuru werd een geheimzinnige ziekte genoemd, omdat alleen vrouwen en kinderen deze ziekte kregen. Later werd ontdekt dat de Papoea's een ritueel hadden waarbij zij overleden familieleden opaten. Alleen vrouwen en kinderen aten de hersenen, de bron van de ziekte. Kuru is daarmee de eerste en enige ziekte waarvan aannemelijk is dat zij vooral overgebracht wordt door menselijk kannibalisme.

Kuru is een overdraagbare ziekte die wordt veroorzaakt door prionen. De ziekte tast het centraal zenuwstelsel aan. Het is mogelijk dat de vatbaarheid voor kuru tevens een erfelijke component heeft.

De gekkekoeienziekte of BSE is een verwante ziekte bij koeien. De ziekte van Creutzfeldt-Jakob is een andere verwante ziekte, die bij mensen voorkomt.

Neurologische aandoening
Infectie door prionen

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


At Mother's Pride, children are encouraged to learn by doing and experimenting on their own. Keeping to this approach and to reinforce the colour green and brown, our little Prideens got busy in a fun-filled "Tree Making" activity.
Teachers created a beautiful set up of a tree. Children were encouraged to make the bark of the tree through paper folding activity. They then pasted the same on the tree painted on the mirror. On the easel board, children excitedly pasted leaves previously collected from the garden. Instead of real twigs, the branches were painted with brown colour.
Our Prideens thoroughly enjoyed the activity and showed full enthusiasm during the day. The activity culminated with the teacher discussing with the children the importance of preserving the environment and to plant a tree.
The cheerful activity was not only oodles of fun for our children, but also helped them develop fine motor and creative skills in a playful manner.


Child Development - Page 2 of 7 - Parenting & Lifestyle!
Get to know various milestones, creative ways of developing skills in children.
Dolphin Parenting : Interview with Dr. Shimi Kang!
by Jhilmilupdated on February 1, 2019 April 27, 2018 48 Comments on Dolphin Parenting : Interview with Dr. Shimi Kang!


Bushman's Revenge kick off 'You Lost Me At Hello' with a slow-moving metal riff dubbed 'Count The Holes In Your Head'. It's a pretty straight-forward offering, but further listening reveals a band unafraid to journey far from conventions of time and tone.
'Boelehoegda Rock City' starts simply enough, but soon drummer Gard Nilssen is speeding things up, dragging his bandmates –guitarist Even Helte Hermansen and bassist Rune Nergaard into a vortex of fuzzed out distortion.
'Ginsberg' rocks a similar vibe, but just before the album begins to sound a bit repetitive the trio wanders onto the whispering, arid plain of 'Hell is for Hello'. That piece introduces the slow, rumbling, Sunn0)))-touched 'King of Hello' – all 11 minutes of it.
The amusingly named 'Ghostwriters in the Sky' checks in with some piercing, drifting feedback before sliding into more laidback territory, brushed drumwork and booming standup bass that shares a certain kinship with the cinematic offerings of Calexico or Ennio Morricone.
'No Sleep Til Hammerfest' is unsurprisingly a more robust offering, but no one will mistake it for a Motorhead cover as it dances around a recognizable riff before settling down into something suitable for headbanging, then takes off again.
Closer 'Champagne for My Real Friends' starts at an easy lope, with the warm thrum of bass, but things get a tad distorted before the band finally heads off into the sunset.
The hefty tones of Bushman's Revenge should rope in fans of Om, Boris and similar combos while admirers of offbeat instrumental groups such as Stinking Lizaveta and their kin should dig their unusual time signatures and willingness to leave convention behind. And if your favourite Motorpsycho album is their live offering in conjunction with jazzers the Source, 'You Lost Me At Hello" should already be spinning in your home.


text:
Neglected Diseases
Home/Neglected Diseases
About Neglected Diseases
So far Neglected Diseases has created 137 blog entries.
RFP Announcement: Optimizing NTD Diagnostics and Sampling
A new cohort of grant program recipients was announced at this year's Coalition for Operational Research on Neglected Tropical Diseases meeting. Learn more about the recipients. Continue Reading RFP Announcement: Optimizing NTD Diagnostics and Sampling
RFP Announcement: Optimizing NTD Diagnostics and SamplingNeglected Diseases2020-12-04T10:24:07-05:00
Announcing the Fourth Cohort of African Researchers' Small Grants Program
A new cohort of grant program recipients was announced at this year's Coalition for Operational Research on Neglected Tropical Diseases meeting. Learn more about the recipients. Continue Reading Announcing the Fourth Cohort of African Researchers' Small Grants Program
Announcing the Fourth Cohort of African Researchers' Small Grants ProgramNeglected Diseases2020-11-20T14:57:50-05:00
An Endorsed Road Map to End Neglected Diseases
Today, governments around the world endorsed a new road map and targets for ending neglected tropical diseases. Learn more. Continue Reading An Endorsed Road Map to End Neglected Diseases
An Endorsed Road Map to End Neglected DiseasesNeglected Diseases2020-11-12T12:58:10-05:00
Meet Lisa Godwin, USAID's New NTD Division Chief
USAID's NTD Division has a new Division Chief, Lisa Godwin, with more than 20 years of global health experience. Learn more about Lisa and her new role. Continue Reading Meet Lisa Godwin, USAID's New NTD Division Chief
Meet Lisa Godwin, USAID's New NTD Division ChiefNeglected Diseases2020-10-27T12:19:24-04:00
Guinea's NTD Program Treats 4.4 million People in 14 days, Despite COVID-19
What does it take to distribute almost 20 million pills to over 4.4 million people in just 14 days? Planning, training, and mobilization of thousands of community drug distributors (CDDs)—key elements that programs targeting neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) must organize in a typical year. Continue Reading Guinea's NTD Program Treats 4.4 million People in 14 days, Despite COVID-19
Guinea's NTD Program Treats 4.4 million People in 14 days, Despite COVID-19Neglected Diseases2020-10-22T09:08:53-04:00
A Mighty Force: One woman sets her sights on the health of Filipino children
When Dr. Leda Hernandez began managing the Philippines' lymphatic filariasis (LF) program more than 25 years ago, she was given just one piece of paper to work with: a prevalence survey from 1960 and reports of a "mysterious disease" coming from some districts. See Dr. Leda's story for more... Continue Reading A Mighty Force: One woman sets her sights on the health of Filipino children
A Mighty Force: One woman sets her sights on the health of Filipino childrenNeglected Diseases2020-10-14T10:23:37-04:00
New Resource: Practical Approaches to Implementing NTD Guidance
USAID's flagship implementing partner-led programs have released a resource to help countries safely restart NTD programs according to global guidance. Continue Reading New Resource: Practical Approaches to Implementing NTD Guidance
New Resource: Practical Approaches to Implementing NTD GuidanceNeglected Diseases2020-09-29T10:55:41-04:00
New Award Announcement: Achieve Onchocerciasis Elimination in the Americas (Achieve OEA)
USAID awarded a five-year cooperative agreement to help achieve regional elimination of river blindness. Continue Reading New Award Announcement: Achieve Onchocerciasis Elimination in the Americas (Achieve OEA)
New Award Announcement: Achieve Onchocerciasis Elimination in the Americas (Achieve OEA)Neglected Diseases2020-08-20T11:18:36-04:00
Considerations for Treatment, Case-Finding, and Surveys
Learn more about the recently released document outlining considerations for mass treatment, case-finding, and surveys for NTDs in the context of the pandemic. Continue Reading Considerations for Treatment, Case-Finding, and Surveys
Considerations for Treatment, Case-Finding, and SurveysNeglected Diseases2020-08-20T12:02:19-04:00
NTD Donor Landscape 2017
The donor landscape has been initiated by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the U.K. Department for International Development (DFID), both supporters of the World Health Organization's 2020 goals to control or eliminate neglected tropical diseases (NTDs). This document was developed in response to the growing number of requests from the global NTD community to better understand the focus of donor contributions. Continue Reading NTD Donor Landscape 2017
NTD Donor Landscape 2017Neglected Diseases2020-08-20T12:35:49-04:00


text:
All notable changes to this project will be documented in this file.
This project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](http://semver.org/).

## [Unreleased]

## [0.3.2] - 2016-05-06
### Added
- requirements.txt.

### Changed
- Moved Conda installation to separate shell-script.

### Fixed
- Linear Separator example.

## [0.3.1] - 2016-05-02
### Added
- Testing in travis-ci with Python 3.5.

## [0.3.0] - 2016-05-02
### Added
- Support for Python 3.3 and 3.4.

## [0.2.0] - 2016-04-28
### Added
- Linear Separator class.
- Texture Recognizer example for Linear Separator class.

### Changed
- Refactored CHANGELOG.

### Removed
- Removed redundant `Image` class.

## [0.1.0] - 2016-04-21
### Added
- CHANGELOG.
- [travis-ci](https://travis-ci.org/char-lie/patterns_recognition).
- [coveralls](https://coveralls.io/github/char-lie/patterns_recognition?branch=master).
- Method for removal of not connected vertices and edges from Graph.
- New Semiring (max, +) on R — to find length of maximal path.
- Perceptron solver class to separate two linearly separable sets of points.
- Examples for Perceptron setup demonstration, in which points are separated by
  - Circle;
  - Points with circles around them of same class as corresponding points;
  - Ellipse with focuses parallel to axis with center in random position;
  - Ellipse with random focuses with center in origin;
  - Quadratic form;
  - Cubic curve;
  - Random order curve, random parameters;
  - Random order curve, dots picked by user in real-time.

### Changed
- Moved preparation method from Dynamic Programming solver
    to general Graph class.
- Removed redundant trailing spaces in code.

## [0.0.3] - 2016-01-07
### Added
- Dynamic Programming as a separate Solver class.
- Graph class to solve graph-based problems.
- Semiring class and several child classes.
    to perform operations on different semirings:
  - (argmin, +) on R — to gather arguments of minimal path;
  - (min, +) on R — to find length of minimal path;
  - (min, +) on R2 — to find length of minimal path;
      represented by two numbers;
  - (+, ×) on R — to find probability of all paths.
- Image class for images processing.
- Matrix Pointer class for lower memory and time cost images processing.
- Covered each class by **unit tests**.

### Changed
- Rewritten letters string recognition example using new classes.

## [0.0.2] - 2015-09-22
### Fixed
- Increased speed of basic example with letters string recognition.

## 0.0.1 - 2015-09-22
### Added
- Added basic example with letters string recognition.

[Unreleased]: https://github.com/char-lie/patterns_recognition/compare/v0.3.2...HEAD
[0.3.2]: https://github.com/char-lie/patterns_recognition/compare/v0.3.1...v0.3.2
[0.3.1]: https://github.com/char-lie/patterns_recognition/compare/v0.3.0...v0.3.1
[0.3.0]: https://github.com/char-lie/patterns_recognition/compare/v0.2.0...v0.3.0
[0.2.0]: https://github.com/char-lie/patterns_recognition/compare/v0.1.0...v0.2.0
[0.1.0]: https://github.com/char-lie/patterns_recognition/compare/v0.0.3...v0.1.0
[0.0.3]: https://github.com/char-lie/patterns_recognition/compare/v0.0.2...v0.0.3
[0.0.2]: https://github.com/char-lie/patterns_recognition/compare/v0.0.1...v0.0.2

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


2019-04-21JST10:00:18 you always makes me happy by your smile, and also does to anyone, but why the kindness makes me feel sad so much?? you always makes me happy by your smile, and also does to anyone, but why the kindness makes me feel sad so much??


text:
Unlocking Nixtamal
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Masa Today, Masa Forever
Nixtamalization takes something that's of little nutritional value—maíz, which is harvested when it's dry—and transforms it into a source of nourishment that has carried generations. It's how we get masa: the key to tender, pliable tortillas and many, many other essential dishes. But what is the process exactly? And how did it come about?
By Andrea Aliseda
Photo by Joseph De Leo, Food Styling by Micah Marie Morton
There's a list of foods that you can't cross the border with, including meat, fish, alcohol, and fruit. Tortillas, however, are in the clear. So on every family visit across the busiest port of entry in the Western hemisphere—the one dividing San Diego and Tijuana in San Ysidro's Port of Entry—was punctuated by an obligatory stop at the súper, usually Calimax, to pick up a few stacks of freshly made tortillas. At the dreaded three-hour border crossing, we'd follow the well-rehearsed motions: show our passports, be quiet unless spoken to, and await the routine question that border patrols ask with a tinge of intimidation: "Anything to declare?" My mom, with lightness in her voice to diffuse the tension, would respond with one word: "tortillas," and the patrol would gesture for us to cross.
The tortillas de maíz we'd get in Tijuana were so different from the American ones we'd buy in San Diego—and were worth the trouble every single time. The difference? A 3,500-year-old technology developed by Mesoamericans that's still in use today, transforming maíz from grain to sustenance. It's the backbone of approximately 605 Mexican dishes, and what we know in Mexico as nixtamal. Tender, freshly made tortillas that honor the process are an elemental expression of nixtamal; American grocery store corn tortillas typically alter the alchemy to achieve longest possible time on the shelf; this modification affects both flavor and texture.
Nixtamalization, when done properly, spins corn into gold: taking something that's of little nutritional value and alchemizing it into a source of nourishment that has carried generations. Corn that has been dried on the stalk—known as maíz—is boiled down with water that's been mixed with ash, or calcium hydroxide (known as cal). The alkaline quality of the mixture softens the kernels enough to make it possible to peel off their inedible external shell, known as the pericarp, making the corn more digestible and its nutritional benefits more bioavailable (that is, easier for your body to absorb). In the process, they also excrete a gel-like substance, which helps make the mixture perfect for grinding into masa. The word nixtamal—pronounced by giving the letter x a soft "sh" sound—puts together two Nahuatl terms: nixtli meaning "ashes," and tamalli meaning "cooked maíz masa." It's the dough that—when nixtamal first originated in 1,000 B.C.—was used to make tamales, wrapped and steamed maíz cakes, and maíz drinks, like the thick and warming atole and cool fermented tejuino. Tortillas came after.
Filling tamales.
I carried my Tijuanense piece of nixtamal across the border in burgundy-colored wrapped parchment paper—they were expertly folded to insulate the warmth. Condensation tends to cloud inside the package from the heat, causing the tortillas to become too tender and stick to one another—making it difficult later on to separate them. So once home, my brother and I would sit at the table together, busy with the task of peeling the tortillas off of one another, and restacking them before storing in the fridge.
En el otro lado, what we call the American side of the border in Tijuana, the most immediately available tortillas were short stacks of stiff rounds stuffed in plastic bags at grocery stores. Extra cal or preservatives, such as parabens, help these tortillas last on the shelves, but tend to make them drier, too, and easier to crack. Those tortillas didn't need to be restacked; they'd just fly into the fridge. These shiny plastic-bagged tortillas also emanate a foreign smell: a scent that can resemble ammonia or copper, which translates to the sour flavor that cookbook author Lesley Téllez mentions in the nixtamal guidebook, Nixtamal: A Guide to Masa Preparation in the United States. These mass-produced tortillas give dishes that rely on them as the star ingredient, like tacos or quesadillas, a noticeably different profile.
It's no secret that fresh tortillas de maíz reign supreme. Their wafting aroma—a flutter of nut, oat, and a touch of smoke—romances the senses, inviting a host of fillings and flavors to contrast and complement. Their tender texture, which can be crushed and then sprung back into shape, boasts a light chew with just enough resistance. But it goes deeper too: a fresh tortilla connects the hearth, the Mexican table, and the soul—it's a spiritual experience, like Enrique Iglesias sings in his 1995 hit. And what makes fresh tortillas so extraordinary, what makes the difference, is that they are a product of nixtamal, that within their circular flat round edges they contain eternal mysteries, entire civilizations, and one of the biggest technological breakthroughs still practiced in today's modern age.
"The first time I tried a corn tortilla made from real corn was when I lived in Mexico City," Téllez writes. "I nearly cried because it tasted so good, and because I've been deprived of the real thing for so long."
Welcome to the Golden Age of Masa
The real thing starts with maíz—a cereal plant that's harvested once it's dry, unlike sweet corn, which is harvested when its kernels are juicy and hydrated. Sweet corn is what we use for antojitos like esquites. But when we talk about tortillas, masa, and nixtamalization—the process that unlocks it all—we must begin with maíz.
From maíz to nixtamal
Before it became maíz, there was a grass called teocintle. Its earliest iterations in Mesoamerica can be traced back over 8,000 years. Maíz turned out to be a resilient crop, "capable of adapting to the most diverse ecological conditions," Carmen Wacher, Ph.D., from Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico (UNAM) writes in her study, "Nixtamalization, a Mesoamerican technology to process maíze at small-scale with great potential for improving the nutritional quality of maíze based foods." It grows not only in Mexico but across the Atlantic Ocean in eastern, southern and western Africa, the Caribbean islands, and in Europe. China grew 260.78 million tons of maíz in 2019. But maíz is incapable of self-seeding, unlike cilantro and spinach, which can propagate on their own—maíz is dependent on mankind to be stewarded into the world.
It's a crop that took a couple thousand years of domestication and grew to become the key sustenance for emerging Mesoamerican civilizations like the Mayans. This is why the renowned anthropologist Guillermo Bonfil-Batalla wrote, "maíz is a cultural creation." It didn't spring up by accident—the cultivation of maíz was intentional.
Along with beans and squash, maíz was one of the first agricultural crops to be harnessed by people in Mesoamerica. In Mexico this crucial trio of foods—squash, beans, and corn—is known as milpa, and for some Native Americans it is called the three sisters. However, unlike beans and squash, maíz wasn't a food one could simply harvest and consume. It required transformation. It required the human touch.
"Making nixtamal is one of the most important discoveries of our civilization."
"Maíz in and of itself wasn't that nutritious," Sofia Casarin explains. She is a maíz purveyor from Tamoa in Mexico City and spoke with me over Zoom about the role that nixtamal plays in Mexican cuisine and culture. "Making nixtamal is one of the most important discoveries of our civilization, [especially] to be able to subsist off of maíz as a principal carbohydrate."
Part of what makes nixtamalization so culturally important in places like Mexico is that nixtamal awakens a rich host of nutrients that are otherwise asleep in maíz. Amanda Gálvez, Ph.D., a professor in UNAM for the department of food and biotechnology in Mexico City, writes in Masienda's nixtamal guide that nixtamalizing corn makes its essential nutrients easier for our bodies to absorb. Nixtamalized maíz products contain 13 times more calcium than the maíz itself before nixtamalization, she writes, and can even function as a diet's main source of calcium. Calcium, one of the most critical minerals in the body, supports strong bones, teeth, muscles, and a healthy nervous system, among other important functions. Aside from calcium, nixtamal unlocks vitamin B3, an essential nutrient otherwise known as niacin, which helps our bodies turn food into energy. "We need that [niacin] to survive," chef Dave Smoke-McCluskey of Corn Mafia in South Carolina says over a phone call. And, as if by magic, when nixtamal is paired with beans, the combination creates a complete protein—meaning that together they contain all nine essential amino acids necessary in a human diet. It's an entirely life-giving product that arises from the shadows of death—using wood and sea shell ash, or calcium, made from limestone that's born of fossilized plant and animal remains.
Chef Mercedes Golip, an arepa enthusiast and educator in New York, tells me that in Venezuela, the process is called maíz pelado or pela'o, not nixtamal. Pelado translates to "peeled." It refers to the pericarp (the hard inedible outer shell) that gets peeled from the kernel as you wash away the nixtamal liquid and rinse the nixtamalized maíz, which is known as hominy if you keep rinsing and don't make masa. Golip adds that arepas peladas are typically made from corn that's processed with the ashes taken right from under the Venezuelan budare that is used to cook arepas once they're formed. The cycle continues.
Chef Golip's affection toward nixtamal doesn't stop at traditional arepas. She uses different natural colors, presses flowers, and even experiments with adding miso to make what she calls masa-miso. "The flavor is mildly acidic with floral and umami notes," she says of the fermented masa, adding that she uses the masa-miso to thicken and inject more flavor to soups and stews.
Over 2,500 miles north from Venezuela, in northern New York, Indigenous people were also peeling pericarps with ash. Chef Smoke-McCluskey tells me they call the process lyeing or washing. Today, he's one of only a few people making hominy grits in South Carolina; he explains that he does so in his Northeastern Mohawk tradition. "We generally use hardwood ash to make a weak lye solution. It's where the term lyeing comes from, but it's all part of the same process," Smoke-McCluskey says. The process creates a slurry, the liquid taking on the muddied color of ash. This hominy makes for hearty soups, and the masa is stirred together with beans to form a thick puck shape that gets cooked at a boil—until it dances, as chef Tawnya Brant describes in this recipe video for Haudenosaunee cornbread. The cooking liquid retains some nutritional value and shouldn't be discarded, chef Brant explains, urging viewers to save it for tea or to use as nourishing cooking liquid.
Though its alimental and cultural value has been proven over and over again, the exact origins of nixtamal remain a mystery even to those who have dedicated their lives to studying it: "We've talked to anthropologists, agronomists, scientists—there is no definitive answer" to explain the inception of nixtamal, Casarin says over Zoom. But the tools that birthed nixtamal have been found. It's blueprint: remnants of maíz seeds and ash in a clay pot.
"The first registry of nixtamal that was found was inside of a clay pot," she explains, telling me that clay pots, which existed long before nixtamal, were usually shaped like pregnant bellies—perhaps as symbolism of the wonders that clay pottery would birth.
Where to Buy Fresh Masa (and Masa Harina) in the U.S.
The nixtamalization process
"It's interesting to think about how the first corn kernels were nixtamalized. Who did it? Was it an accident? Did the corn speak to them?" These are the questions that chef Denise Vallejo of Alchemy Organica, who prides herself in sourcing organic ingredients for her pop-up, shares with me over text. "You can't really pound dry corn into anything, so somewhere down the line someone figured out how to add ash or lime in the cooking process, which made the corn bloom."
The very process of nixtamal is what made maíz such a nourishing and highly revered crop, and why eating it daily provided a multitude of benefits. But when Italian and Spanish colonizers decided to take maíz from the New World and make it a diet staple in Europe, in what is referred to as the Columbian Exchange, they missed one key element: nixtamal. This proved to be a fatal oversight. People who rely on unhulled maíz alone risk a niacin deficiency disease called pellagra, which includes symptoms of skin lesions, loss of hair, insomnia, dementia, and sensitivity to light. If this sounds like the spooky stuff of lore, that's because there might be a connection. Some scholars believe this disease was the origin of the vampire myth. Corn without nixtamal took its toll and left behind bloodthirsty legends of the undead.
Though nixtamalization is an ancient practice, and technologically, there have been some advancements, the bones of it have stayed very much the same. Emmanuel Galvan, who started Bolita, a micro molino and tortilleria in Oakland, California, during the pandemic, walked me through the process of nixtamalization, step-by-step:
Step 1: Galvan starts by bringing the water to a boil in a stainless-steel or enamel pot and adds one percent of cal, or calcium hydroxide, per total weight of maíz. He says boiling the cal with the water helps ensure that it's well incorporated. He adjusts the cal in his recipes depending on the color of the maíz, saying that too much cal for red maíz turns it gray, and too much for blue maíz turns it green, giving off a copper penny flavor.
Step 2: Once it comes to a boil, he adds the maíz and brings the heat down to a simmer, cooking the maíz gently for about 20 minutes.
Step 3: After the mixture is done soaking, he gives it a rinse to clean it and rub off the pericarps or kernel hulls. This is nixtamalized corn or nixtamal. At this step, you could continue washing your nixtamal maíz and have hominy. Hominy is what's used in pozole and in soups all over the Americas—from the Iroquois in New York to Colombia. Hominy is tender and engorged in size, resembling a garbanzo bean. But washing off the nejayote—the liquid the maíz is cooked in—to produce hominy means washing off the gel released during nixtamalization that makes for ideal masa. It's that gel that helps hold masa together.
Forming masa into chochoyotes, dimpled dumplings that taste like clouds of toasted corn.
Photo by Joseph De Leo, Food Styling by Christopher Barsch
From nixtamal to masa
Masa has a consistency close to that of Play-Doh. It's smooth but slightly sandy, and when you scoop some out with your hands, you'll notice some ridges are left behind in the crevice of the dough. Rolling it into a ball for tortillas is easy—the dough holds its shape even though it's soft to the touch. Masa's scent is mild and delicate, salty with a nutty hint reminiscent of oats, a touch of tang that can only be attributed to the calcium hydroxide used to prepare it.
Grinding nixtamalized maíz into masa is the final piece of a lengthy but extremely rewarding process. In Mesoamerican times, this ritual was completed using a metate: a rectangular, flat stone, usually porous and made from volcanic rock, with short legs, and a separate hand piece called a mano, or metlapil in Nahuatl. These tools have been used to grind washed maíz into fresh masa for thousands of years. In fact, the metate was already in the Americas, used for grinding seeds or juicing fruit before it was ever used to make masa. The earliest trace of metates found in the American Southwest date back to 5,500 to 8,500 years ago. Metates are traditionally used on the ground while kneeling, keeping the whole body engaged in the process. This positioning was seen as a way to show respect and admiration to the food being prepared: a gift from the gods. Using the mano to scrape the maíz in upward and downward motions, the nixtamal is transformed into the dough we know as masa.
Today, there are more convenient and time-efficient options for grinding masa, though the metate is still alive and well. Galvan says the simplest way to do it at home is with a food processor, but warns that it's hard to get an even grind. For large batches of his masa, he uses a local restaurant's large volcanic-stone molino. But for the most part, he says he uses a countertop model by Masienda called Molinito.
For those who feel called to make nixtamal at home, Chef Golip shares some good tips for storage if you can't cook it all right away: "Since making masa from nixtamal is quite industrious, I like to make a big batch—two to four pounds—at once." It can be frozen with good results, Golip says; just portion it out and create roughly flat discs and freeze them individually for 4–8 weeks. Thaw the disks in the fridge overnight before using.
Preserving the history and lineage of maíz, nixtamalization, and masa is the work of purveyors, farmers, chefs, and home cooks; keeping the recipes alive is a way to bolster a tradition that is at the heart of our identity, in Mexico and in the Americas at large. For Chef Golip, who considers corn to be at the cornerstone of her Venezuelan food culture, working with nixtamal and masa leads to crucial conversations about exile and finding comfort in a new home. In fact, she didn't learn to make arepas peladas until she moved to the U.S. 15 years ago, and says that learning how to cook them in her New York kitchen has been an enriching journey. The arepa, she says, is essential to her food memories, and "it was and still is the daily bread of many native communities. We need to make an effort to preserve and honor it." For now, Golip bridges the space between two countries in her New York kitchen, one arepa at a time.
Through Tamoa, Sofia Casarin and her partner Francisco Musi have focused on sourcing locally grown heirloom varieties of maíz—of which there are over 60 currently in Mexico. "We started working with maíz out of wanting to eat a better tortilla, because there are so many bad tortillas consumed now in Mexico," Casarin explains. Beginning in the 1980s, the tortilla became an industrialized product, and many mass-produced tortillas were based on low-quality maíz that weren't nixtamalized properly. Today, Tamoa's maíz is used to make masa in Mexico and beyond, stretching across the Atlantic in Europe and north of the border in the U.S., where purveyors have increasingly focused on sourcing quality ingredients for a tastier tamal or tortilla.
Whether made with corn flour, known as masa harina, or made from scratch using nixtamal, masa carries an important legacy through many of the cuisines of the Americas. In Belize, where Mayan people reside, they cook a dish called salbute—red cabbage and shredded chicken on a fried puffed tortilla. In Guatemala, you'll find tamales wrapped in banana leaf, and masa patties called garnachas, topped with ground meat and potato. Hondureños make pastelitos—stuffed masa half-moons that get fried to a golden crisp—and prepare fried cheese-and-masa capirotadas, served in a warming, brothy vegetable soup. Venezuelans pat their masa pelada into arepa-shaped pucks and slit them open horizontally, making a pocket perfect for cheeses, beans, avocado, meats, and more. In Mexico, we have a nixtamal dish for nearly every occasion, every season, and every course. In each country and region, our own iterations of maíz and nixtamal spin a golden thread that weaves through the Americas like a spiderweb; a rich history of humanity, with maíz and masa pulsing through it—alive across continents, and across international borders, alive in a stack of fresh-made tortillas.
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Russia Moves to Ban Jehovah's Witnesses as 'Extremist'
by Andrew Higgins
Russia Bans Jehovah's Witnesses, Calling It an Extremist Group
High Stakes as the Dalai Lama Hints at Being 'Reborn' Outside China
by Gordon Fairclough and Niharika Mandhana
China's Great Awakening
by Hugo Restall
Mormon Leader: More Dead People Should be Baptized
Tags: Audio, Buddhism, China, Dalai Lama, Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormon Church, Russia
It's Monday, April 24, 2017. I'm Albert Mohler and this is The Briefing, a daily analysis of news and events from a Christian worldview.
How should evangelicals respond to Russia's ban of Jehovah's Witnesses as "extremist group"?
On Thursday of last week, the news came that the Supreme Court of Russia had ruled that the Jehovah's Witnesses as an organization were to be banned everywhere in the nation of Russia. They were identified by the Supreme Court on the request of the government's justice ministry as an extremist organization.
Now what are evangelical Christians to make of this? Well, in the first place, loving the gospel of Jesus Christ, we would be very glad that a group such as the Jehovah's Witnesses would not have an influence within Russia, frankly anywhere. We recall the fact that Christians often referred to the Jehovah's Witnesses, and rightly so, as a cult, meaning that it is a group that denies central and essential teachings to the Christian gospel. We recall that we can trace the Jehovah's Witnesses not just back to a knock on our front door, but back to about the 1870s, when the group emerged in the midst of the millennial fervor that marked the nation at that time.
During that time, the nations saw the rise of many aberrant groups that denied orthodox Christian teaching, and the Jehovah's Witnesses as established by Charles Taze Russell were certainly included in that group. The Jehovah's Witnesses explicitly deny the doctrine of the Trinity. They deny a biblical Christology, insisting that Jesus was a created being. Furthermore, they teach a message which amounts to a form of works righteousness and obedience to the principles that are set down by the Jehovah's Witnesses. An indication of the aberrant theology of the group is seen in their own translation of the Scripture known as the New World Translation of the Scripture. For example, in John 1:1 where the Scripture clearly says that, "The Word was with God and the Word was God" the New World Translation of the Bible, under the direction of the Jehovah's Witnesses said that, "The word was with God and the word was a God."
That is an infinite and eternal difference. But weeks before the Supreme Court in Russia handed down its ruling, Andrew Higgins of the New York Times had explained the building controversy.
As he said, the case is, "a throwback to the days of the Soviet Union, when Jehovah's Witnesses were hounded as spies and malcontents by the K.G.B., the denomination is at the center of an escalating campaign by the authorities to curtail religious groups that compete with the Russian Orthodox Church and that challenge President Vladimir V. Putin's efforts to rally the country behind traditional and often militaristic patriotic values."
In handing down the decision last Thursday, the Russian Supreme Court cited the fact that Jehovah's Witnesses do not allow for the transfusion of blood as one of the representations that they are an extremist organization. Further evidence brought against the Jehovah's Witnesses was that they teach pacifism, which runs directly into those militaristic values of President Putin in Russia.
But the bigger issue for us to recognize is evangelical Christians is that the Jehovah's Witnesses were here identified as an extremist group. Now the bottom line in the political reality is that Jehovah's Witnesses lacked the political patronage and protection of anyone inside or outside Russia to keep the Russian government through its Supreme Court from making this declaration and thus making it illegal—and that means punishable by prison time—for anyone to be organized and involved with the Jehovah's Witnesses.
The important thing we need to recognize as Christians is that this goes beyond the legal warrant of any government. A government that could identify the Jehovah's Witnesses as an extremist group and make the group illegal is the same government that can identify Presbyterians or Lutherans or Baptists as an extremist group, simply because what is taught runs contrary to some aspect of what is affirmed by the Russian President and his increasingly autocratic state.
Furthermore, in thinking of Russia we need to understand the centrality of the Russian Orthodox Church and the fact that that church is increasingly calling upon the government to use the levers of its own power to eliminate any kind of theological competition within the country. You ask the question, why the Jehovah's Witnesses now? And the answer is, the government had the opportunity and it seized it. But the thing we need to recognize is that when religious liberty is compromised like this, when a religious denomination, even a cult in this sense, can be identified as an extremist group, not because of any action that represents a threat against the state or the society, but rather because of its teachings including pacifism, then we come to understand that this is indeed a curtailment of religious liberty in a country in which this is becoming increasingly routine. And among the things we need to recognize in this story is that a threat to religious liberty like this will not be limited to the Jehovah's Witnesses.
During the Soviet era, Baptists were as identified as any other group targeted for just this kind of persecution and elimination. And even now there are many evangelical groups operating in Russia, and the Russian Orthodox Church and the Russian government would just as soon see them disappear.
Rachel Denver, identified as deputy Europe and Central Asia director at the group Human Rights Watch, rightly said that the Supreme Court decision in Russia is "a terrible blow to freedom of religion and association in Russia."
And of course it is. But just taking the story at face value, as important as it is in terms of the decision of the Russian Supreme Court, one other interesting aspects, as we shall see in a pattern of stories today, is that religion finds its way routinely into the headlines, even in an age when the elites declare we should be completely committed to secularism.
Why is the atheistic regime in communist China concerned about the reincarnation of the Dalai Lama?
Within just days of the controversy in Russia over the Jehovah's Witnesses, there appeared a story in the Wall Street Journal with this headline,
"High Stakes in the Dalai Lama's Rebirth."
You've got that right. Here there is the description of an escalating controversy between the Dalai Lama and the communist regime in China and at the center of it, once again, is something that is inherently theological, the claim of reincarnation.
This is a truly bizarre story. It appeared in the Wall Street Journal; it was written by Gordon Fairclough and Niharika Mandhana, and it tells us that tens of thousands of the Buddhist faithful poured into the remote Himalayan monastery town in northwest India, traveling many days over rough roads from distant mountain valleys for a chance to see and hear a man they considered to be an embodiment of the divine, the Dalai Lama.
Now in the United States, the Dalai Lama is often considered merely a spiritual figure and of course a political figure, as he is understood to be a symbol of resistance against China. But throughout much of the Buddhist world he is actually revered as divine. The article in the Journal had to do with the fact that Chinese government officials were very uncomfortable with the Dalai Lama's visit to this remote village in India. As the Journal reported,
"Beyond the lessons on meditation and Buddhist belief, some see a larger aim in the visit of the increasingly frail, 81-year-old Dalai Lama. Anticipating his own death, he may wish to signal that he could choose, as Tibetan tradition allows, to be reborn in [that village]—still part of the Tibetan cultural sphere but safely outside China."
Now before we proceed a single word, let's just consider the fact that the Wall Street Journal, one of most influential secular newspapers in the United States, has just told us in a straightforward news report that the nation of China is concerned that the Dalai Lama may choose to be reincarnated in a village outside of China, and thus outside of their control. Jayadeva Ranade, identified as a former Indian government official and an expert on China and Tibet, said,
"It's a way of subtly sending the message on reincarnation. That's why the Chinese are so anxious."
The reporters for the Wall Street Journal go on to explain that reincarnation is the traditional means of determining the succession for Tibet's most important sacred and secular leaders.
"The Dalai Lama's rebirth," they wrote, "represents a high-stakes collision of the metaphysical and the geopolitical."
Later in the article the reporters tell us,
"The Dalai Lama—the 14th in his lineage—has indicated that he won't be reborn in any place under Chinese control. He has also hinted that he might opt not to be reincarnated at all."
Why? Just to disallow the Chinese from having any control over his successor. Now wait just a minute. We are seriously talking about the claim of reincarnation and the question as to where or whether the 14th Dalai Lama is going to decide to be reincarnated, this headline news in the Wall Street Journal. But if it's interesting thus far, it just gets a lot more interesting when we read in this article,
"In 2007, China's State Religious Affairs Bureau issued new regulations, which it termed 'management measures for reincarnation.' [These laws] laid out a system of government approval and permits for rebirths. Reincarnations of key religious figures must be approved by China's cabinet. In a swipe," we read, "at Tibet's exiled establishment, China's rules forbid any 'disruption or control' of reincarnation by 'any foreign organizations or individuals.'"
Seriously. Here we have the largest country that is ruled by a communist, atheistic regime that nonetheless has recently adopted rules and laws on reincarnation in order to prevent the symbol of Tibetan resistance from claiming to have been reincarnated outside of Chinese government control. Make no mistake, there's a lot at stake here in terms of the Chinese government and those who follow the Dalai Lama. The Journal reports that,
"In 1995, the Dalai Lama recognized a young Tibetan boy as the reincarnation of the Panchen Lama, No. 2 in the hierarchy of his school of Buddhism. Soon after, Chinese security forces detained the child and his family. They haven't been seen publicly since."
From a Christian worldview perspective let's just take stock of what we have here. We have of course the question of reincarnation, which demonstrates a crucial distinction between the Christian worldview and the Buddhist worldview. But beyond that, we also have the distinction between Buddhist and Christian understandings of time and history. The Christian biblical understanding of time is linear; we find that from Genesis to Revelation. It is in the context of past and present and future. History, according to the biblical worldview, doesn't happen again. Not only does it not happen over and over again, it never happens again. So for instance, in the Scripture we read in the book of Hebrews, it is appointed unto man once to die, and after that the judgment. There is no cycle of history. But that Eastern notion of history, in particular the Buddhist notion of history, is indeed pictured by a wheel—not a straight line, but a wheel, a wheel that goes over and over again in a cycle of history that is endlessly repeatable. And of course within that, that notion of reincarnation makes sense. If history is a giant wheel, a cycle that just turns and turns and turns over again, then it is conceivable that an individual soul could be reincarnated, once, twice, perhaps even multiple times.
But, of course, the Christian worldview and the notion of reincarnation are absolutely incompatible—not just incompatible because of the clear teachings of Scripture, but incompatible because of the larger worldview that is revealed in the Christian Scriptures as over against the notion of Buddhism. Buddhism's cyclical view of history is entirely sensical with reincarnation.
But here's something else that we have to note from the Christian worldview. We're living in an age in which we are told that theology shouldn't matter. But theology continues to matter. As we saw on Friday's edition of The Briefing, the New York Times has twice in one week articles about who should be in the pulpit of Christian churches, and now you have major media dealing with Jehovah's Witnesses in Russia and with Tibetan Buddhists in Asia, in India, and in China. And in a straightforward report in the Wall Street Journal, no less, you've got a report that in 2007, the atheistic regime led by the Communist Party in China officially adopted laws on reincarnation.
Now let's be clear, the Chinese government isn't trying to make any theological statement at all. This comes down to bare-knuckled politics and the fact that what they're trying to prevent is any arrival of a new resistance figure in terms of Tibetan independence. But in order to get there and to assert their autocratic state control, the Communist Party in China had to adopt rules on reincarnation. The very fact that the government has rules on reincarnation indicates that theology certainly hasn't disappeared, it just appears over and over again—not in a cyclical view of history, but in a linear story in which the Chinese party simply can't escape theology.
Speaking of China once again, we'll take a closer look at an important book written by Ian Johnson that recently appeared. The title of the book is, "The Souls of China: The Return of Religion After Mao."
That's going to be an interesting consideration, but the important thing for us to recognize is that the Wall Street Journal also in recent days ran a review by Hugo Restall of this new book. The important thing in this review is this particular paragraph. Mr. Johnson puts it this way,
"Chinese religion had little theology, almost no clergy, and few fixed places of worship. But this didn't mean Chinese religion was weak. Instead it was spread over every aspect of life like a fine membrane that held society together."
What's important there? What's important is that statement that religion in China—and that includes Buddhism in particular—Buddhism more importantly than anything else, but also including Confucianism, is a religion that doesn't have much theology, that has almost no clergy, few fixed places of worship. Now once again, we ask the question, why would this be different? Why is there a distinction between these Asian forms of religion and biblical Christianity? Why does Christianity have a teaching ministry, clergy? Why does Christianity have a thick theology? Why does Christianity have places of worship? It is because Christianity is a theistic religion that is based upon the revelation of God in Scripture, an inscripturated revelation upon which we are dependent. It is not primarily a method of spirituality or of meditation.
The Christian worldview is based upon the fullness of doctrine, again, a thick theology. But the Buddhist worldview is based upon the embrace and goal of nothingness. That is a radical distinction. Now the lesson here is not just the radical distinction between Christianity and Buddhism—that's important in and of itself. What's really important is that once again in just a span of a few days we're talking about an article in a newspaper like the Wall Street Journal that has to do with theology. Theology matters. It shows up here because it matters to the communist regime in China.
Theology matters: TIME reports Mormon leader is urging more baptisms on behalf of the dead
But next we turn back to the United States and to another group that made headline news over theological teaching in recent days. This article appeared in Time magazine telling us that one of the members of the top governing body of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, that is a group known as the Quorum of the Twelve Disciples, in speaking to an important conference of the church indicated that he wanted to inspire them to expand the number of dead people who are baptized within the Mormon church. These baptisms are known as proxy baptisms and they are baptisms that are done by the living on behalf of the dead.
Originally, the concern of Mormons was to identify their own ancestors so that they could be baptized by proxy by living family members who are Mormons in order to purchase or arrange for them the provision for them to embrace Mormon truth on what's described as the other side of the veil, that is a spiritual veil, on the other side of the veil, that distinguishes between life and death. In that other world, on the other side of the veil, those who have received proxy baptism by one of their loved ones would be able to achieve the full level of blessedness by choosing to embrace the same on the other side of death. Now we need to note that Mormonism has expanded this far beyond the baptism by proxy by the living for the dead who are ancestors to other dead as well. This Mormon leader said, speaking as a member the Quorum of the Twelve, that younger Mormons had been rediscovering proxy baptism. He said,
"They have learned that this work saves not just the dead; it saves all of us."
He went on to say,
"There are now many people who have accepted baptism in the spirit world. ... This is the work of our generation."
The Time report went on to tell us,
"The 'proxy baptisms' also were mentioned Saturday at the conference in a speech by Russell M. Nelson, another member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles who is next in line to assume the church presidency. Nelson said Mormons who keep their covenants to Jesus Christ are given 'Godly power.'"
"God's plan provides for those blessings to be extended to ancestors who died without an opportunity to obtain them during their mortal lives."
Another member of the Mormon leadership, that is Mark Bragg, a member of the secondary governing body,
"He applauded," said Time, "The increase in baptisms for the deceased: 'We are experiencing great joy and celebration on both sides of the veil.'"
That again means on both sides of what divides life and death. Now immediately recognize this is further attention to theology in terms of headlines—we've seen the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, now Time magazine. We're not talking about peripheral publications in the world of American media. We're talking about some of the most influential publications throughout the last century into the 21st century. We're talking about publications that do themselves represent in terms of their writing and editorial staffs an overwhelmingly secular perspective. But that secular perspective is undermined by many of the headlines that these periodicals, newspapers, and magazines have to cover. After all, we've just been talking about the fact that Jehovah's Witnesses and Buddhism and reincarnation and Mormons and the baptism for the dead have all show up just in a matter of a few days.
In teaching the baptism of the dead, the Mormon church takes a verse like 1 Corinthians 15:29 out of context, but the doctrinal authority is not so much Paul, but rather it is the writings of Joseph Smith and other canonical Mormon scriptures. But we're again confronted with that radical distinction in worldview, because in Mormon theology the baptism of the dead does indeed fit their theology in a way it certainly does not fit Christian theology. No historic Christian church has ever observed the baptism on behalf of the dead. But it does make perfect sense in Mormonism, where spirits are created beings, God himself is a created being, where God is, spirit beings may one day be, and where very clearly there is the opportunity for those on the other side of death to embrace their own Mormon baptism and thus to receive the blessings the church teaches come along with that baptism.
Mormons, like Jehovah's Witnesses in their own way, deny the doctrine of the Trinity and orthodox Christian theology. While Mormons share with Christians an affirmation of many important moral teachings, and while Mormons also share with Christians a very deep respect for the family, in Mormon theology the role of the family goes far beyond what it does in Christianity. The family has eternal significance in Mormonism, as reflected once again in this headline about the baptism for the dead.
So the next time you are told that theology doesn't matter, and that we are entering a new secular age in which you're not going to have to worry about religion, whatever its form, just consider the fact that the Russian Supreme Court considered the Jehovah's Witnesses such a threat that they have made them illegal throughout the country; that China considered the Dalai Lama such a threat that it has adopted, even as an atheistic regime, laws on reincarnation; and then we look at the fact that Time magazine ran a headline in which a Mormon leader is cited as saying that more dead people should be baptized. Those who are trying to escape theology are going to have a very hard time when they look at the pages of the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal or Time magazine, or frankly, when they look just about anywhere.
Today I'll be in Frankfurt and Erfurt, Germany, and I'll meet you again tomorrow for The Briefing.


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Research has demonstrated both beneficial and deleterious health effects of coffee. First, the good news: Moderate coffee consumption has been linked to many health benefits. Brewed coffee can be a rich source of natural antioxidants, which may play a significant role in slowing the aging process and in inhibiting life- threatening diseases such heart disease, stroke, Alzheimer's disease, and cancer. According to the Harvard Health Publications, studies have shown that coffee drinkers are 50% less likely to suffer from cancer than non-coffee drinkers. Several studies have suggested that the chlorogenic acid found in coffee may help prevent Type 2 Diabetes. In other research, coffee has been shown to help protect against asthma (most asthma medications contain high doses of caffeine), gall stones, cirrhosis of the liver, and Parkinson's Disease. Because coffee helps boost body metabolism, it can also be effective in a weight loss program.
On the other hand, there is also bad news: Coffee can really lower your body pH -- especially if you drink several cups per day -- and disease, especially cancer, thrives in an acid environment. Caffeine consumption has been linked to breast cancer, and breast lumps have often regressed in women who adopt the caffeine-restricted Minton Diet. When coffee is roasted, the carcinogen 3,4 benzopyrene is formed. There have also been identified two other possible carcinogens found in coffee.
Many years ago, Professor Brian MacMahon of the Harvard School of Public Health found that the drinking of three cups of coffee a day increased the risk of pancreatic cancer by a factor of nearly three. He felt that coffee drinking was the cause of 50% of all pancreatic cancers. In 1981, Dr. Tim Spencer of the St. Bartholomew's Hospital in London validated MacMahon's research. Prior to 1948, the British people drank tea and very little coffee, whereas after 1948 there was a vast increase in coffee drinking in England. Dr. Spencer plotted the importation of coffee into England between 1948 and 1973. During that time, the importation of coffee increased by 120%. Also during that time the death rate from pancreatic cancer in England increased by 50%.
Cancer is not the only issue. The caffeine in coffee is also a major stimulant of the sympathetic nerve system, and as such can stress your heart to the point of tachycardia. Moreover, caffeine is an addictive drug from which many severe withdrawal symptoms are proof of physical dependence; these symptoms include headache, fatigue, drowsiness, poor concentration, irritability, and brain fog. Deleterious effects of coffee may be compounded by the poor quality of the water with which it is made. Microwaving the water or reheating the coffee in a microwave oven is likely to completely destroy its health benefits and may actually compromise the health of the consumer. Adding milk, cream, non-dairy creamer and sugar may be much more dangerous than the coffee itself.
Then there is the chemical issue. Coffee crops are sprayed with up to seven different pesticides (as well as herbicides, fungicides, and other potentially harmful chemicals), many of which have been banned in the US and Europe but remain legal in less developed countries -- including those that grow coffee. Although about 85% of these poisons are destroyed during the roasting process, these chemicals are also toxic to the health of farm workers, damage the ecosystem, and seep into underground water wells. Smithsonian Institute research showed a significantly adverse impact on the lifespan of people living at the base of hills upon which coffee crops are grown and sprayed with pesticides. Organophosphates and other insecticides cause birth defects and kidney, liver and testicular damage, and are extremely toxic to birds, fish and other wildlife. The decaffeination process is also of concern, as it often uses methylene chloride, a known carcinogen that is also toxic to the cardiovascular and central nervous systems.
But people love coffee, and coffee is a social and cultural phenomenon around the world. Next to oil, coffee is the largest selling commodity on the planet. In the United States, average per capita consumption is 3.2 cups per day by over 108,000,000 coffee consumers. The National Coffee Association found in 2000 that 54% of the adult population of the United States drinks coffee daily (NCA Coffee Drinking Trends Survey, 2000). In addition to the 54% who drink coffee everyday, 25% of Americans drink coffee occasionally (NCA). And the US ranks only 12th on the list of coffee consuming-nations (Global Market Information Database, 2002)!
Bottom line, if you are a coffee-drinker, make sure you drink shade-grown, certified organic coffee. That coffee has a more neutral pH, no pesticides, and more antioxidants than other coffees. Because the soil is composted, the coffee has more plentiful low mass molecular compounds, which are responsible for coffee's protective antioxidants. Organic coffee providers also use ethyl acetate, a safer solvent for decaffeination than conventional solvents.
Editor's Note: BeatCancer.org has recently partnered with Golden Valley Farms Coffee, which is triple-certified: USDA certified organic, certified bird-friendly through the Smithsonian Institute, and Fair Trade certified. A portion of the sales of their BioBean Coffee helps to support the patient services of BeatCancer.org. Try it!


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http://thestir.cafemom.com/beauty_style/114548/Blondes_Like_Really_Do_Have
Blondes, Like, Really Do Have More Fun
Brittny Drye January 4, 2011 at 10:50 AM
The age old question "do blondes really have more fun?" might finally have been answered -- yes. But only because they bring in more dough, and let's be honest, for most, more money means more play. Salary numbers for blondes, brunettes, and redheads were recently calculated, and the finding was the average blonde brings home about $35,650 a year, compared to $34,780 for brunettes, and $34,380 for redheads. That equals to blondes making approximately $924 more a year than their brunette and red-headed peers.
Ironically, the most common complaint amongst blonde beauties is that they feel they aren't taken seriously at work. However, many of the surveyed women confessed that they used the ditzy stereotype to their advantage, which doesn't exactly help all of the smart blondes out there that are trying to break away from that assumption.
But while blondes tend to receive higher compensations and be more socially engaging in the workplace, the study showed that brunettes feel more respected and valued, more likely to stay at a job and work up the ladder as opposed to skipping around, while redheads had the most work ethic, putting in longer hours during the evenings and weekends.
I'd like to think that our work ethic, social engagement, and earned respect stem from our personality and not our roots (or dye bottles), regardless of what any study out there may say. Studies like these only further stereotypes, whether it be hair color, skin color, or nationality, and no good can come from stereotyping. I know lots of super smart blondes and dumb brunettes, lazy reds, and under-valued browns.
Do you find this study accurate for women in your workplace?
Image via gcoldironjr2003/Flickr
beauty hair


Participate in the second annual 50/50 Day on April 26, 2018! This global initiative promotes a gender balanced world where everyone's voice is heard in all aspects of society. Thousands of people and organizations, including AnitaB.org, will participate in 50/50 Day through various means. Here are some ways you can join the movement.
See the film that started the movement! Watch 50/50: Rethinking the Past, Present, and Future of Women + Power to learn more about 50/50 Day and why it is so crucial to build a gender balanced world. You can also watch last year's interviews with various prominent leaders, conducted by Tiffany Shlain, our 2015 Women of Vision Keynote Speaker. And don't forget to livestream this year's speakers and events here.
Start the conversation on how to create change. Check out these 50/50 Day discussion guides for both children and adults. These questions are a great way to introduce students, co-workers, and other peers to the issue of gender imbalance, and to get them thinking about innovative solutions.
Be the change you wish to see. Individuals and organizations can commit to various action items that will help them promote gender equality. The 50/50 Day team will release action pledges for you to choose from, but you are more than welcome to come up with your own. To connect and share resources with other allies, join the 50/50 Day Facebook group.
For more information about 50/50 Day, visit the website.


Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), who unsuccessfully ran for vice president in 2012, weighed in on the loss while speaking at the 2014 Conservative Political Action Conference.
"The 2012 election didn't go exactly as we had planned it," Ryan said. "Last year... it was pretty tough to be optimistic after a loss like that. A year later, I think there are a lot of reasons to be optimistic. You know why? I think the left is exhausted."


There have been 874 park hoppers online within the past 24 hours (and 213 on right now). Welcome back!
In 1998, Disneyland's New Tomorrowland borrowed an attraction that had opened a few years earlier at Epcot. A new preshow was created for the queue area. Instead of the long Kodak True Colors slide show, a video is shown that features Eric Idle. The theater is a mirror image of the Epcot original and features a few new special effects.
Disneyland's Honey replaced the 3-D Captain EO (featuring Michael Jackson).
Epcot's original Honey I Shrunk the Audience opened in (?). It replaced Magic Journeys.


NTT Docomo pushes a software update today to Samsung GALAXY SII LTE (SC-03D model) which doesnt bring Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich OS to the smartphone but rather a minor upgrade. After the upgrade is installed the new firmware build is OMLG5 . The software update adds stability by fixing some bugs like the e-book content specific events error and a few others.
GALAXY S II LTE model is upgradeable via Samsung KIES software tool which you can get it from here and via OTA (over the air).


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Lluís Valls-Taberner Arnó (Barcelona, 5 de juny de 1926 - 25 de febrer de 2006) fou un financer espanyol. President del Banco Popular de 1972 a 2004, fou també professor de la Universitat de Madrid i de la Universitat de Barcelona.

Biografia

Primers anys
Era fill de Ferran Valls i Taberner (jurista, historiador i polític) i de Marcelina Arnó Maristany. Va cursar els estudis primaris i secundaris en diverses ciutats (Barcelona, Gènova, Roma i Còrdova), a causa dels viatges que va haver de fer el seu pare.

Es va llicenciar en Dret per la Universitat de Barcelona. Es va doctorar en Dret en la Universitat de Madrid amb una memòria que portava per títol La cesión de contratos en el derecho español. Va ser professor d'Economia política i Hisenda Pública a les universitats de Madrid i Barcelona entre 1948 i 1956.

Carrera professional en la banca
El 1957 es va incorporar al Banco Popular com a vicepresident executiu, fins que el 1972 va ser nomenat President de l'entitat financera, càrrec que va abandonar en 2004. Després de la seva retirada, va passar a ocupar la Presidència de la Junta d'Accionistes.

Quan va ingressar al Banc, va escometre la separació de funcions i responsabilitats del Consell d'Administració i la direcció executiva. Des de la Presidència va influir decisivament que els processos de decisió es basessin en criteris estrictament professionals, va promoure una organització flexible i amb pocs graons jeràrquics i va forjar un estil propi de fer banca. El Banc Popular ha estat considerat tres vegades el millor banc del món i en quatre ocasions el millor Banc d'Europa.

Va presentar la seva renúncia als càrrecs de conseller i president del Banc a l'octubre de 2004, sent nomenat Ángel Ron president executiu pel Consell d'Administració. La defunció de Luis Valls al febrer de 2006, que havia conservat la presidència de la junta d'accionistes, i la renúncia del seu germà Javier als càrrecs de conseller i copresident, fan que Ángel Ron quedi com a president únic del Banc.

En la seva trajectòria professional va destacar com un dels banquers més importants d'Espanya en la segona meitat del segle XX i impulsor de l'Associació Espanyola de Banca Privada.

Altres dades
Era membre numerari de l'Opus Dei des de 1945, any en què va conèixer al seu fundador, Josepmaria Escrivá de Balaguer.

Valls va ajudar a salvar un poble, Morillo de Tou (Osca), que estava a la zona afectada per la Confederació Hidrogràfica de l'Ebre, en col·laboració amb CCOO.

Referències

Enllaços externs
 Página web Luis Valls Taberner
 Luis Valls Taberner. Un banquero para la historia
 ¿Quién es Luis Valls Taberner? Entrevista realitzada per Luis Ángel de la Viuda en TVE. 02/03/1977
 Entrevista a Luis Valls Taberner i al seu germà Javier, copresidents del Banco Popular Español 26/04/1993
 Luis Valls Taberner: La historia de un retrato
 Luis Valls Taberner, un año después
 Fallece Luis Valls, artífice del crecimiento y la consolidación del Banco Popular
 La metamorfosis del Popular bajo el imperio Valls
 Luis Valls renuncia a la presidencia del Banco Popular tras 32 años en el cargo
 El último magnífico
 Los siete grandes y sus viejas costumbres
 Adiós al "cardenal" Luis Valls

Membres de l'Opus Dei
Professors de la Universitat de Barcelona
Alumnes de la Universitat de Madrid
Morts a Barcelona
Advocats barcelonins contemporanis
Empresaris barcelonins contemporanis
Alumnes barcelonins de la Universitat de Barcelona


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Backcountry To Snowsurf – Buzz From SIA Day 1
Posted by Carly Terwilliger | Jan 27, 2017 | Apparel Today, Apparel Updates, Feature, Outdoor, SGB Today, Sports/Fitness
By Carly Terwilliger
Backcountry Is King
Skiers and snowboarders are being increasingly drawn to the backcountry, and snow sports companies are reacting accordingly. From backcountry-specific skis and even socks to more intuitive safety gear, today's powder enthusiasts can be both more comfortable and safer away from the resort.
Away from the groomers also means away from the ski patrol, prompting safety gear to get more user-friendly. "Certainly more people are in the backcountry and having to deal with avalanches," said Ortovox's Michael Collin. "But they don't walk in saying, I'm new to this, I need an Avabag. They say, I'm new to this, I need some education." The attitude seems to be that it's great that more people are getting out-of-bounds and exploring, but they need to understand that it's a different animal.
Mt. Airy, NC-based sock manufacturer Farm to Feet, which is owned by Nester Hosiery, is also tuned into the growing allure of untracked powder. "More people are headed out to the backcountry, and the conditions are slightly different," said Dave Petri, VP of Marketing, Nester Hosiery (pictured above). Just because you have a pair of ski socks doesn't mean they're going to perform perfectly away from the groomers. "People will spend hundreds of dollars on boots, but don't think about what goes between your expensive boots and your feet," he added.
Tech Stays Tech
The dream of lift-to-bar, and the siren song of luxury collaborations, are definitely being addressed by snow sports apparel companies, but others are hewing to the fact that in extreme conditions, you need things to work perfectly when you need them to work. "With other brands, sure, people are wearing more technical stuff in urban areas," said Collin. "But Ortovox is a mountaineering brand, it has an upper tier price point. People are buying it for a specific reason."
"You can go into a sporting goods store and find a shell that looks technical, by a 'technical' brand for 70 bucks, but it is a rain coat, not a technical shell that is breathable," observed Polartec CEO Gary Smith. "If you want to sell $400-plus truly technical shells you need a retail environment where staff can explain the difference." Echoing a sentiment from SIA Director of Research Kelly Davis, Smith emphasized the value of talking to a consumer in person about quality and specific needs.
The emphasis on doing a specific thing well was what Public Relations Manager Alex Hunt (pictured above) was talking about at the DPS booth. The ski brand was founded in 2005 by professional skier and ski designer Stephan Drake and ski engineer Peter Turne, with a focus on advanced carbon technologies. With all the buzz about new materials, Hunt said the company was remaining committed to their carbon roots. "Lightweight is definitely a priority; it always was," he said, "But we're not constantly trying to reinvent the wheel." On the subject of growing backcountry popularity, he said simply, "Our roots are definitely in deep powder, and lighter skis are just easier to take uphill with you."
Suck It, Pandas
No, not really, but the guys over at Soul Poles are putting bamboo to good use with a line of customizable ski poles. "It's extremely renewable, so it contributes to a conversation about sustainability in our industry," said Soul Poles' Russ Crandell (pictured above). The company collaborates with Protect Our Winters (POW) and customizes its poles with laser engraving. "They're good for everyone," said Crandell, suggesting the while some companies are scaling up with space-age materials, there's still room in the industry for a quirky product with a founder, Bryon Friedman, who is identified on his business card as "Skier/Musician/Founder," all with equal weight.
Vista Outdoor subsidiary Giro was hosting BigTruck in its booth. The Truckee, CA-based lifestyle hat brand, collaborated with Giro on a new goggle and helmet collection. "Giro contacted us," said BigTruck President and CEO Galen Gifford (pictured above), who was manning the counter and showing the wares himself. "They loved the soul of the company." In a nod to the growing surf/snow love-fest in evidence at SIA, the goggle bag features scenery from Iceland … but also Costa Rica.
Which brings us to Missoula, MT-based board designers Soul Motion Snowsurf and its colorful band of merry men, led by Founder Aaron Lebowitz (pictured above, to the right) and parked in the Trail Gate area across from the beer. Lebowitz is happy to acknowledge that the sport has changed, the boards have changed and he himself has changed, which is what drives the design and culture at his company. "Two years ago, people were saying, snowboarding is dead! So we thought, okay, why is that happening?" According to the Soul Motion team, it wasn't that the sport had died; it just turned out that catering exclusively to 20-24 year olds was unsustainable. As he got older, he realized that "the best rider isn't the one who can do the most tricks," he said. "The best rider has presence and grace."
On that note, we'll leave the backcountry shredders and the snowsurfers to enjoy the SIA happy hour, chatting about van life, skiing in Japan, dogs, beer and what's to come on Day 2.
Photos by Carly Terwilliger
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Missouri, Idaho Pot Supporters Making Big MMJ Legalization Push
November 8, 2011 - Updated December 17, 2021
Another day, another group trying to legalize marijuana in yet another state. Make that two groups, in two states.
Efforts are underway in both Missouri and Idaho to get cannabis initiatives on the ballot in 2012 and bring the legalization question directly to voters.
In Missouri, a group called Show Me Cannabis is set to start gathering signatures for a pair of pro-pot measures. The initiatives call for legalizing and regulating pot like alcohol, taxing marijuana sales and allowing patients under 21 to use cannabis for medical purposes with a doctor's recommendation. It's an interesting approach, given that groups in other states initially try to pass medical pot laws before attempting to legalize weed for recreational use. It's also notable because Missouri has some of the strictest marijuana laws in the country. Supporters of the initiatives are most certainly swinging for the fences on this one.
Marijuana has been a hotbed issue in Missouri for a while now. Lawmakers have introduced some type of marijuana bill each of the past five years, to no avail. Most recently, the state Legislature brushed aside a medical marijuana bill that boasted nearly a dozen co-sponsors, adjourning for the year before taking up the issue.
In Idaho, a group of citizens are collecting signatures for an initiative that would pave the way for medical marijuana use by patients with debilitating conditions. The MMJ supporters, who are organized under an organization called Compassionate Idaho, say the law would offer an alternative for patients looking for an alternative to traditional prescription pain killers. It's tough to say how this one will turn out. Idaho residents have mixed feelings about medical marijuana, with many supporting the idea of it but not exactly the sale and distribution of it.
Efforts are underway in nearly a dozen other states – including Colorado, Massachusetts, Ohio, Florida and California – to get marijuana measures on the ballot next year, with some seeking full legalization and others focusing on the use of pot for medical reasons.
Report: Mexican Drug Cartels Infiltrating Calif. Medical Pot Industry
Marijuana Initiative in Washington State to Get $300,000 Boost
Bright Spot for Medical Pot: Study Shows MMJ Legalization Doesn't Lead to Increased Teen Use
Emerging Regions Legal Retail