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Wikity, One Year Later
November 20, 2016 September 25, 2017 / mikecaulfield	/ 11 Comments
Consider this my one year report. 😉
The core idea of Wikity was simple: what if we bent the world of social media a bit away from the frothy outrage factory of Twitter and Facebook towards something more iterative, exploratory, and constructive? I took as my model Ward Cunningham's excellent work on wiki and combined it with some insights on how to make social bookmarking a more creative, generative endeavor. The shortest explanation of Wikity I can provide is this: Wikity is social bookmarks, wikified.
It took me four months just to get to that explanation.
What does "wikified social bookmarks" mean? Well, like most social bookmarking tools, we allow for people to host private sites, but encourage people to share their bookmarks and short notes with the world. And while the mechanisms are federated, not centralized, we allow people to copy each other's bookmarks and notes, just like Delicious or Pinboard.
That's what's the same. But we also do three things current social bookmarking sites do not.
We don't bookmark pages. We bookmark and name ideas, data, and evidence. A single page may have multiple bookmarks for the different ideas, theories, and data referenced in the page.
We provide a simple way of linking these "idea" bookmarks, so that finding one idea leads naturally to other ideas. Over time you create an associative map of your understanding of an issue.
As we revisit pages over time, we expand and update them, building them out, adding notes, sources, counterarguments, summaries, and new connections.
And the end result, after a year and about 300(!) hours of work, is something I love and I use every day. It's a self-hosted bookmark manager for linked ideas and data that has (for me) revolutionized my ability to think through issues and find connections between ideas I would have otherwise missed. If you want to see me construct an argument about something, you can read my blog. But if you want some insight into how I conceptualize the space, you can visit my Wikity site, and follow a card like Anger Spreads Fastest.
I use it every day, and have accumulated over 2,000 "cards" in it, varying from interesting clippings on subjects of interest to more lengthy, hyperlinked reflections. As outlined a couple years ago in my Federated Education keynote, the cards often start out as simple blockquotes or observations, but often build over time into more complex productions, with links, sources, bibliographies, videos, and additional reflections.
(I'm tempted to recount every development decision here, to explain all the expansion and tweaking the product has undergone to get to its current state. I know some people may be looking at it and thinking "300 hours? Really?" But the path to product was never a straight one.)
Wikity Today
Wikity is open. It's constructed as a WordPress theme, and you can download it from GitHub. It does a lot more than your average theme, but installation is a simple as uploading it to your WordPress theme directory and applying the theme. I learned PHP specifically for this project, so it's not the most beautiful code you've ever seen. But it does work, and shows another way of thinking about our web interfaces and daily habits.
Now that Wikity is easily installable as a theme on self-hosted WordPress, I'll be phasing out signups on the wikity.cc site, which I was running as a central space for new users to try out Wikity. In its place I hope to put an aggregation site that makes it easier for different people's Wikity installs to see what other people are writing about. That will reduce the cost and effort of running and maintaining an enterprise server for other people's content. I'll be reaching out to the owners of the 127 sites on there.
I should also mention to some early users that the scope of what Wikity does has actually been reduced in many ways. There's a way in which this is sad, but in other ways the biggest advance over the past year in Wikity has been realizing that the core of Wikity could be expressed as "social bookmarks, wikified." If you've ever built a product, you know what I mean. If you haven't — trust me, it's a painful but necessary process.
You can still use Wikity for a variety of things other than wikified bookmarks and notes — I worked with a professor in the Spring, for example, to use it to build a virtual museum, and as far as I can tell, Wikity is the simplest way to run a personal wiki on top of WordPress. But the focus is a hyperlinked bookmarking and notetaking system, because after a year of use and 2,000 cards logged, I can tell you that is where the unique value is. The beautiful thing is if you think the value is somewhere else the code is up there and forkable — sculpt it to your own wishes!
Finally a promise: Wikity core is safe from the demons of decay, at least for now. It will continue to be maintained and improved, mainly because I am addicted to using it personally. On top of that, we're currently organizing a Wikity event for Christmas break, to introduce educators to the platform as a learning and research tool for students.
Now lets talk about some of the struggles we've been through here, and where we're going in the future.
I have to admit, I thought early on that there would be larger appetite for Wikity. There may still be. But it has proved harder than thought.
Part of the reason, I think, is that the social bookmarking world that I expected Wikity to expand on is smaller than I thought, and has at least one good solid provider that people can count on (Pinboard, written and maintained by the excellent Maciej Cegłowski). More importantly, people have largely built a set of habits today that revolve around Twitter and Facebook and Slack. The habits of personal bookmarking have been eroded by these platforms which give people instant social gratification. In today's world, bookmarking, organizing, and summarizing information feels a bit like broccoli compared to re-tweeting something with a "WTF?" tag and watching the likes roll in.
I had a bunch of people try Wikity, and even paid many people to test it. The conclusion was usually that it was easy to use, valuable, cool — and completely non-addictive. One hour into Wikity people were in love with the tool. But the next day they felt no compulsion to go back.
We could structure Wikity around social rewards in the future, and that might happen. But ultimately, for me, that struggle to understand why Wikity was not addictive in the ways that Twitter and Facebook were ended up being the most important part of the project.
I began, very early on, compiling notes in Wikity on issues surrounding the culture of Twitter, Facebook, social media, trolling, and the like. Blurbs about whether empathy was the problem or solution. Notes on issues like Abortion Geofencing, Alarm Fatigue, and the remarkable consistency of ad revenue to GDP over the last century. Was this the battle we needed to have first? Helping people understand the profound negative impact our current closed social media tools are having on our politics and culture?
I exported just my notes and clippings on these issues the other day, from Wikity, as a pdf. It was over 500 pages long. I was in deep.
As the United States primary ramped up, I became more alarmed at the way that platforms like Facebook and Twitter were polarizing opinions, encouraging shallow thought, and promoting the creation and dissemination of conspiracy theories and fake news. I began to understand that the goals of Wikity — and of any social software meant to promote deeper thought — began with increasing awareness of the ways in which our current closed, commercial environments our distorting our reality.
Recently, I have begun working with others on tools and projects that will help hold commercial social media accountable for their effect on civic discourse, and demonstrate and mitigate some of their more pernicious effects. Tools and curriculum that will help people to understand and advocate for the changes we need in these areas: algorithmic transparency, the right to modify our social media environments, the ability to see what the feed is hiding from us, places to collectively fact-check and review the sources of information we are fed.
Wikity will continue to be developed, but the journey that began with a tool ended at a social issue, and I think it's that social issue — getting people to realize how these commercial systems have impacted political discourse and how open tools might solve the problem — that most demands addressing right now. I don't think I've been this passionate about something in a very long time.
I've had some success in getting coverage of this issue in the past few weeks, from Vox, to TechCrunch, to a brief interview on the U.S.'s Today Show this morning.
I think we need broader collaborations, and I think open tools and software will be key to this effort. This is a developing story.
So it's an interesting end to this project — starting with a tool, and getting sucked into a movement. Wikity is complete and useful, but the main story (for me) has turned out to lead beyond that, and I'm hurtling towards the next chapter.
Was this a successful project? I don't know what other people might think, but I think so. Freed from the constrictions of bullet pointed reports and waterfall charts, I just followed it where it led. It led somewhere important, where I'm making a positive difference. Is there more to success than that?
Fooled by Recency: Hoaxers Increment Dates on Fake Stories
November 18, 2016 November 18, 2016 / mikecaulfield	/ 3 Comments
Here's a fake story that was shown a number of places on the web during the campaign, claiming that protesters of Donald Trump were being paid. This has been covered so many times by so many fake and satirical sites that it is now an article of faith among Republicans, due to exposure effects.
Here's a major source of that hoax:
You'll note the publish date: November 11.
That's what the site looks like today. But we can see what it looked like previously, courtesy of archive.org's Wayback Machine.
Here's what it looked like in March, sporting a publish date of March 24:
Here it is in June, sporting a date of June 16:
And in September it sported a date of September 11:
So it's safe to conclude that one of the tricks in the fake news toolbelt is creating a feeling of recency through altering dates.
Another note — give the date futzing, I'm not sure we can trust the view counter, but captures from the Wayback do show it ticking up in a reasonable way. If the view counter is accurate (big if) we may also have a ratio of shares to reads.
The page was shared 423,000 times. It was viewed (by people coming through all sources, including but not limited to Facebook) 70,000. If (and again, a big if) we can trust the counter, the maximum click-through rate from Facebook would be 71/423, or 17%. In reality, it would likely be lower than that, as a significant number of people would come through other sources.
To put it another way, at least 83% of people who shared this never looked at it. Note that this is actually more than a recent study that says only 60% of people share without reading on Twitter.
So it's a big if as to whether we can trust this counter, but if we can, there's a couple interesting possibilities:
People share without reading on Facebook more than on Twitter
More highly viral content has a worse share-to-clickthru ratio
Explicitly political content has worse share-to-clickthru ratios
None of these are are firm conclusions, incidentally — just ideas I'll be keeping in mind for the future.
Latest In Rebuttal Shopping: Trump's IQ
I'm playing with this idea of Facebook posting as "rebuttal shopping". The idea is that a lot of stuff that goes viral on Facebook is posted as an implicit rebuttal to arguments that the poster feels are being levied against their position. This stuff tends to go viral on Facebook because the minute the Facebook user sees the headline they know this is something they need, an answer to a question or criticism that irks them.
Maybe the idea holds together and maybe it doesn't. But I'll occassionally be looking at new things that are trending on Facebook and seeing how they do or don't fit that pattern.
Today in rebuttal shopping we have this, on Trump's IQ:
I don't think I have to prove this fake: there is no official record of Presidential IQ scores throughout history, and of course intelligence tests didn't become common until well into the 20th century. Outside that, we even have the card description here, which references a "think thank" that proposed this, and the weird phrase "Intelligence professors". But if you want to click through, it is a blog post on Prntly.com that references a "report" that turns out to be someone talking on a forum.
Number of shares on this are not groundbreaking, but clearly in viral territory for something posted two days ago: 24,836 shares.
One of the comments on it, liked 59 times, seem to support the rebuttal shopping idea:
"Democrats love to talk about IQ's. Well they won't be talking about Trumps. They thought Obama was the smartest president ever."
However, a lot of the other comments rant about unrelated things, so maybe comments aren't the best result here.
This IQ issue seems to be a ongoing thing. A satirical article on Empire News last year claiming that Obama scored the lowest on an IQ test of any president in history garnered over 30,000 shares, and a chain letter hoax in the early 2000s had George W. Bush as the the lowest in history.
Where does this leave "rebuttal shopping"? I'm not sure. The new Trump fake news seems to follow the rebuttal pattern, as does the Obama story. The Bush story confirms something that wasn't much disputed at the time, however, and looks more like shopping for confirmation than rebuttal. It certainly is not resolving any cognitive dissonance.
We'll play with the idea a few more days and see what it brings to the fore.
Scanning the Facebook Feed as a Rebuttal Shopping Experience
The Stream is a weird place. Your Facebook feed, for example, is a series of posts by various people that in some ways resembles a forum, but in other ways it's not at all like a forum. When you post something to Facebook, there's not an explicit prompt you are responding to, which seems non-problematic when you are posting a cool new video you like, but a bit weirder when you are posting random articles.
A recent Jay Rosen tweet thread got me thinking about this a bit more deeply. Rosen suggests that the reason that fake news spiked before the election was demand-driven: many Republican voters were feeling uneasy about voting for Trump, and articles where Hillary was knocking off FBI agents and funding ISIS helped them feel better about that:
Conversation – Curated tweets by tofias
This is interesting, because the place where I became obsessed with the fake news phenomenon was in the primary, when a lot of Sanders supporters I respected and admired for their intelligence suddenly were posting bizarre vote-rigging stories.
As one example, the Inquistr story Election Fraud Study Points To Rigged Democratic Primary Against Bernie Sanders [Video] was repeatedly in my feed, with angry references to how this proved they had been right all along — Bernie was actually winning. The primary had been stolen!
The "study" the page linked was referred to as a "Stanford Study", a claim which took 60 seconds to debunk. It was the work of a current Stanford student of psychology. No background in politics or polling. No Stanford appointment. And the study itself was just a paper, written and shared via Google Drive — it hadn't been peer-reviewed or even designed above and beyond what one might do for a blog post. When you dug into the paper, there was nothing there — the computation of some effect sizes between states with paper trails and those without, and language which indicated that the author might not in fact have understood how exit polls work, or have been aware of the shift in demographic support for Clinton between 2008 and 2016. (In fact, in this respect there was an error that would disqualify it from ever being taken seriously).
I didn't expect most of my friends would get the math, but even so, without the call to authority, and considering the major barriers to rigging an election, one would assume people wouldn't re-share it. But reshare it they did. And quite a lot.
And this is where I think Rosen's point is interesting. If you think about the Stream, with it's lack of explicit prompts, how does one know what to share? One thought is that as you go through your stream you are doing something like shopping — you're explicitly in the market for something. And very often that something is a rebuttal to an implied argument that is giving you some cognitive dissonance.
For the Trump supporters, the dissonance was that Trump was unqualified and racist and Hillary was just (in their minds) corrupt. But was she corrupt enough? And if not, how could they vote for him? Changing Clinton to a murdering ISIS follower allowed them to follow their gut, which really wanted to vote for Trump. It gave their gut the evidence it needed to rule the day.
For the more militant Sanders conspiracists, the dissonance was between the results they felt Sanders should have and the ones that he got. People's gut had told them Sanders would be broadly popular, but the reality was that he was not quite popular enough. On the verge of having to accept that, Facebook threw out a lifeline for the gut: the election was rigged. Stanford scientists had proved it.
If you go through a few of the public (e.g. share to all) posts on this, which you can do with this search, you'll find something really interesting — so many of the comments people write when sharing the piece are of the type "I knew it! I knew it!". It's the sort of reaction someone has when they are struggling to maintain belief in the face of cognitive dissonance and suddenly stumble on a lifeline.
(Note, the post above is a public post (e.g. meant to be shared to the world). You can't see, and shouldn't share private/friends posts with that search. And even though the post is public I'm blacking out the person's name out of consideration)
This isn't to say that all this is innocent in the least. The "Stanford Study" that wasn't actually a study or from Stanford was shared at least a 100,000 times via different sites shared on Facebook, including by HNN (share count of their version: 82,000), which changed the headline to the more zippy "Odds Hillary Won Without Widespread Fraud: 1 in 77 Billion Says Berkeley, Stanford Studies". (Spoiler alert: the Berkeley study wasn't from Berkeley either). And it got a big assist from state-sponsored entities like the Russian-owned RT News in this episode of Redacted Tonight, which was viewed approximately 125,000 times on YouTube:
(That's YouTube views, BTW, which are serious stuff — you have to sit down and watch a significant percentage of it before the view will register).
The RT segment ups the ante, really highlighting the Stanford name, to much laughs. It's a study out of a little community college called Stanford, the host jokes (again, it's not). It's getting to the point it's really embarrassing, the host says, how people won't admit it was rigged. How much evidence do you need?
There's a similar story in the past couple days with a Breitbart story being shared that passed around a ludicrous map with a misleading headline about Trump winning the popular vote (in the heartland).
Now any person with half a brain can see how ridiculous this map is — if they stop to look at it. And any person that can stop to parse a sentence can see the gymnastics required here to claim this victory.
The people reposting this are not stupid. But crucially, they don't stop to think about it. They see and they click, I think, because they know the moment they see this that this is a rebuttal they have been in the market for. They don't need to evaluate it, because this is precisely what they have been looking for.
This is a bit rambling, but what I mean to say is I think Rosen is onto something here about the nature of the supply-side. I'm starting to think of feed skimming as a sort of shopping experience, where you know the ten sorts of things that you are looking for this week. Some paper towels, a new sponge to replace the ratty old one, and a rebuttal to your snobby cousin who posted that article that made you feel for twenty seconds that you might be wrong about something. Just what I was looking for!
As I've said before, this doesn't mean that the news only confirmed what you thought already. In fact, quite the opposite: this process, over time, can pull you and your friends deeper and deeper into alternate realities, based on well-known cognitive mechanisms. But thinking of this process as not so much one of discovery as rebuttal shopping — often brought on by cognitive dissonance — is useful at the moment, and I thank Jay Rosen for that.
Facebook's Wall Metaphor and Political Polarization
Let's continue to look at how Facebook has harmed public discourse, because I'm getting increasingly worried that once Facebook blocks fake news people will say problem solved. And really, the problem is not even close to solved.
One of Facebook's oldest features is the "wall" although we seldom call it that anymore. The wall in Facebook is your personal space, a place to express yourself, and occasionally a place for people to post messages to you. If you click on a person's name in Facebook you see their wall. It's the sum total of things they have posted to Facebook, along with the things that have been posted to them.
The wall (and Facebook itself) used to be a place for you to express non-newsy parts of yourself. You'd share status updates, various pictures of yourself with red solo cups, and links to funny videos or cool music. The wall was really an expression of you, the front page of your digital identity. It was the collection of things that made you who you are, the place where you showed various photos of your feet at the beach and expressed your undying love of Yacht Rock.
Compare that to something like Delicious bookmarks, which is a crime against the eyes, but uses another metaphor:
These are not things that Brian Lamb "likes" or supports, or thinks are cool. The Delicious page is not meant to be his digital identity. It's simply a list of things that Brian thinks might be worth reading.
If you take this article that is shown above, for example, on the subject of innovation, I have literally no idea whether Brian agrees or disagrees with it. In fact, knowing Brian's personal opinion of talk about innovation, my guess is that this paper probably doesn't align all that well with his views, but is interesting and informative enough that it is worth a read, so he's bookmarked it.
Now let's take a look at my "wall" in Facebook:
The thing about my wall is you can tell at a glance who I am. It's my digital identity, and I — like most others — curate it as such. These aren't just useful articles and videos. They are expressions of what I believe.
And this, I think, is a too unremarked turn in social media, because it has dramatic impact on what gets shared. If I can only share stuff that more or less agree with, that has profound impact of the flow of information through the network. Likewise, I'm unlikely to share things that aren't core to my identity — for instance, meeting minutes from the last town meeting. I'm more likely to share things I'm passionate about.
I know some people will read this and say — ha, ha, no, I share all sorts of things. I am not bubbled!
You might think that is true, but in practice I bet it is usually not. Look at the top three posts on your Facebook feed. Are the viewpoints they express generally in line with yours? (And I don't mean exactly, I mean generally) More importantly, are they core to your passions? Have you shared any boring but useful information in the last 24 hours?
My guess is you haven't. You might very well do that occasionally, but it is not your daily practice. It is swimming upstream, against the bias of the interface and the over-arching metaphor of Facebook's wall.
And this is a big problem. If you grew up in the 1980's you can think of Facebook as a jean jacket or goth trenchcoat on which you can put a number of pins and patches:
From blog We Are Reckless. Couldn't find one CC-licensed, can someone make one?
Together these pins and patches represent who you are. And that's great. People like to express themselves. But when you do that with politics it looks like this:
From Terapeak. Still available for sale!
Which is, again, great as expression. Peace is good. We should bomb less. And who likes fat cats anyways? So, awesome, great, wonderful.
But are a series of jacket buttons and patches really our best source for news?
This mixing of core identity with an information system has direct effects on what we share and see. We've talked about how Facebook's interface encourages sharing without reading, but just as important is this piece of the problem — that we subconsciously want all news we share to show unambiguously who we are. And while it's OK that we don't put buttons that we're ambivalent about on our jackets, the world depends on us getting news and information that we are ambivalent about. In fact, that's often the most important news.
I jokingly say that Facebook built a platform for distributing party selfies, turned it into a news source, and destroyed the world. That's hyperbole, of course. But the first two points of that — that Facebook turned an identity platform into a news source — that's absolutely true. It's only the ultimate impact of that that is in doubt, and we're increasingly seeing that impact has been more negative than we ever imagined.
Maybe Rethink the Cult of Virality?
TechCrunch has a story seemingly sympathetic to Facebook's plight, which has this graf in it:
Because Facebook and some other platforms reward engagement, news outlets are incentivized to frame stories as sensationally as possible. While long-running partisan outlets may be held accountable for exaggeration, newer outlets built specifically to take advantage of virality on networks like Facebook don't face the same repercussions. They can focus on short-term traffic and ad revenue, and if people get fed up with their content, they can simply reboot with a different brand.
It then says, given this, Facebook is really between a rock and a hard place. They don't want to become the truth police, right? But on the other hand they don't want lies, either. What's a billion dollar company to do?
Again, I'd say think a little bigger. We have prayed at the altar of virality a long time, and I'm not sure it's working out for us as a society. If reliance on virality is creating the incentives to create a culture of disinformation, then consider dialing down virality.
We know how to do this. Slow people down. Incentivize them to read. Increase friction, instead of relentlessly removing it.
Facebook is a viral sharing platform, and has spent hundreds of millions getting you to share virally. And here we are.
What if Facebook saw itself as a deep reading platform? What if it spent hundreds of millions of dollars getting you read articles carefully rather than sharing them thoughtlessly?
What if Facebook saw itself as a deep research platform? What if it spent its hundreds of millions of dollars of R & D building tools to help you research what you read?
This idea that Facebook is between a rock and a hard place is bizarre. Facebook built both the rock and the hard place. If it doesn't like them, it can build something different.
Banning Ads Is Nice, but the Problem Is Facebook's Underlying Model
So Facebook will ban fake news sites from their ads network, as will Google, which shows you exactly how hard it would have been to do this six months ago. But in any case, problem solved, right?
Unfortunately, no. Fake sites that get traffic can get on other ad networks, or go the malware route, or find one of the million other ways to turn eyeballs into cash. It will be a bit harder, I suppose, but it's not as if having a fake news factory is a high overhead business.
But even if all ad incentives were eliminated, we are still left with the real problem, which is that Facebook's model for news distribution is not suited for news distribution or anything like it.
Let's review. The way you get your stories is this:
You read a small card with a headline and a description of the story on it.
You are then prompted to rate the card, by liking it or sharing them or commenting on it.
This then is pushed out to your friends, who can in turn complete the same process.
This might be a decent scheme for a headline rating system. It's pretty lousy for news though.
If you think about the difference between this and blogging, it's instructive. While I know for a fact many people jump to the comments section without fully reading my blog posts, you'll notice that the way we structure things here on the blog is not:
Comments box
An invisible but implied link to the blog post body, opening in a new window
but rather
Blog body
which is because our assumption is that you read the post first, top to bottom, then you comment and maybe share. We also think that reading — not commenting — is the main dish here. This is a good model, and the interface is structured around it. It led to a much higher level of discourse (again, speaking generally) in the mid-aughts than the things that replaced it.
Facebook, on the other hand, doesn't think the content is the main dish. Instead, it monetizes other people's content. The model of Facebook is to try to use other people's external content to build engagement on its site. So Facebook has a couple of problems.
First, Facebook could include whole articles, except for the most part they can't, because they don't own the content they monetize. (Yes, there are some efforts around full story embedding, but again, this is not evident on the stream as you see it today). So we get this weird (and think about it a minute, because it is weird) model where you get the headline and a comment box and if you want to read the story you click it and it opens up in another tab, except you won't click it, because Facebook has designed the interface to encourage you to skip going off-site altogether and just skip to the comments on the thing you haven't read.
Second, Facebook wants to keep you on site anyway, so they can serve you ads. Any time you spend somewhere else reading is time someone else is serving you ads instead of them and that is not acceptable.
And so again, I want you to try and look at this Facebook interface with new eyes. It is literally a headline, a description, and a series of prompts asking you to react to the headline and description, and unless you think of it as a headline rating system it is really quite odd:
And so when Facebook says things like — it's not our software, it's just the way users act, well I'm confused. This card is designed to teach users how to act, and with the help of their data scientists, it does that effectively. Because of issues around content licensing and their ad revenue model, they designed it to have users comment and react to stories they hadn't read. I don't think you get to turn around then and say, well it's the users that aren't doing due diligence on the stories.
Facebook is one of the biggest companies in the world with the smartest UX designers in the world. If they wanted their users to be critical readers, they would have made very different choices. They didn't, and bad things happened. And now maybe we can all do better.


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On This Day: James Tiptree, Jr
Related Categories: Authors, Masterworks
Related Tags: anniversaries, authors, James Tiptree Jr, SF Masterworks
On this day, in 1987, Alice Hastings Bradley Sheldon – better known to the wider world as James Tiptree, Jr – died in tragic circumstances.
Alice Sheldon wrote most of her fiction as James Tiptree, Jr, making a point about sexist assumptions and also keeping her US government employers from knowing her business. Most of her books are collections of short stories, of which Her Smoke Rose Up Forever is considered to be definitive. Sheldon's best stories combine radical feminism with a tough-minded tragic view of life; even virtuous characters are exposed as unwitting beneficiaries of disgusting socio-economic systems. Even good men are complicit in women's oppression, as in her most famous stories 'The Women Men Don't See' and 'Houston, Houston, Do you Read?' or in ecocide. Much of her work, even at its most tragic, has an attractively ironic tone which sometimes becomes straightforwardly comedy – it is important to stress that Tiptree's deep seriousness never becomes sombre or pompous. Her two novels Up the Walls of the World and Brightness Falls from the Air are both remarkable transfigurations of stock space opera material – the former deals with a vast destroying being, sympathetic aliens at risk of destruction by it and human telepaths trying to make contact across the gulf of stars.
To chart the end of her life, we can do no better than to refer to her entry in The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction:
Alice Sheldon's life, whose dramas had so visibly shaped the ten years of her prime as a writer, also ended in drama. She had been married to Huntington Sheldon since 1945. For some time it was believed that he contracted Alzheimer's Disease in the early 1980s. This seems not to have been true. Whatever the case, in 1987, herself in precarious health, she shot him (in apparent accordance with a pact they had much earlier agreed upon), telephoned his son and told him what she had done, and then killed herself. She was honoured with a posthumous Solstice Award (see SFWA Grand Master Award) in 2010 and inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame in 2012.
And, of course, the James Tiptree, Jr Memorial Award was established in her honour, in 1991.
You can read more about James Tiptree, Jr in her entry in The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction. Her Smoke Rose Up Forever is available as an SF Masterworks paperback and an SF Gateway eBook, and contains:
The Last Flight of Doctor Ain
The Screwfly Solution
And I Awoke and Found Me Here on the Cold Hill's Side
The Girl Who Was Plugged In
The Man Who Walked Home
And I Have Come upon This Place by Lost Ways
The Women Men Don't See
Your Faces, O My Sisters! Your Faces Filled of Light!
Houston, Houston, Do You Read?
With Delicate Mad Hands
A Momentary Taste of Being
We Who Stole the Dream
Her Smoke Rose Up Forever
Love Is the Plan the Plan Is Death
On the Last Afternoon
She Waits for All Men Born
Slow Music
And So On, and So On
Happy Birthday, Walter Koenig!
When I'm 64: The Hugo Awards
Gateway Essentials: Samuel R. Delany
Brian W Aldiss: an Appreciation by Malcolm Edwards
Gateway Essentials: Lucius Shepard
Brian Aldiss 1925 – 2017
Happy Birthday to Brian Aldiss!

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Loki is an American superhero, crime, thriller, fantasy, and adventure TV series created by Michael Wardon. The show is based on the characters of the Marvel Comic Universe and the third TV series of MCU. The show was released on the 9th of June 2021 by Disney+ and has one released season yet. The show has been renewed for a second season and stars Tom Hiddleston, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Wummi Mosaku, and other such amazing stars. The show has received a great response from the audience and the critics.
Tom Hiddleston has been amazingly played the role of Loki in the MCU. His performance and costumes in this show has also been loved and adored by the audience. Many of the attires he wore are already highly in-demand by the audience. Tom Hiddleston Loki S02 Peacoat has received the most attention and demand from the audience. The coat is fabricated with premium wool blend and has a soft inner viscose layer. It has a peak lapel style collar, a front open style with buttoned closure, and has long sleeves with open hem cuffs. It comes in brown color and has two front pockets and two inner pockets.
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Nawab Shah joins Rajinikanth's Darbar- Cinema express
Nawab Shah joins Rajinikanth's Darbar
It may be noted that the film already has Suniel Shetty and Prateik Babbar, playing the villains
CE Features
@XpressCinema
Bollywood actor Nawab Shah, who was last seen in Salman Khan's Tiger Zinda Hai, has been roped in to play one of the antagonists in Rajinikanth's Darbar, directed by AR Murugadoss. Nawab has previously worked in Tamil films like Gajendra, Bose and Yaan.
It may be noted that Darbar already has Suniel Shetty and Prateik Babbar, playing the villains. Apart from them, the film stars actors like Nayanthara, Yogi Babu, Anandaraj, Harish Uttaman, and Bose Venkat in important roles.
Featuring Rajinikanth as a Mumbai-based cop, the film has music by Anirudh Ravichander, cinematography by Santosh Sivan and editing by Sreekar Prasad. The film has been planned to be released on January 9, 2020.
Darbar Nawab Shah Suniel Shetty Prateik Babbar Rajinikanth
Which was the first film you saw in theatres post lockdown
Biskoth
Kavalthurai Ungal Nanban
Others (Older releases)


ARAlu Sandige, Seeme Akki Sandige, Balaka Menasina kaayi, these are the few of those fryums that are prepared in our house in Summer. Dried completely in Scorching Sun for three to four days, and stored in boxes to be enjoyed during Monsoon and Winter.
I get so fascinated how our elders, grand mom, great great grandmom's and their great great grandmom's came up with such amazing things and such amazing techniques of drying things in sun and storing them. If well dried in Sun the Sandige doesn't get fungus and keeps for long.
I always love to follow techniques that our ancestors used. They are so much more logical, simple and pure.
So, Making Sandige is a huge affair. All the women of the family come together. Mom, Aunts, Kids everyone. Every Summer holiday we would go to Ajji's house ( Grandmom's house). All my cousin's would come too. So making Sandige would be one of the Summer Holiday tasks during the holidays, and we kids would jump in help.
A day before the biiiggg Event😉, all my aunts and mom would do all the preparation. Clean the paddy puffed rice for all the paddy peel, Cook the Sago, grind the masala. Everything would be prepared so that early morning before the dawn breaks they could start making them.The reason being Sandige shouldn't miss even a minute of sun, it should dry 3/4th the first day. And two the moment the sun starts coming up, it would get harder and harder to sit and make them, due to heat.
The house would be filled with this amazing smell of the cooked sago and the ground masala.While making the Sandige, we would finish half of it as is.
This time me , my mom and my sister-in-law made it together. We came up with so many new methods. We started at night when everyone else was off to bed and we had so much fun 😀.
1. Transparent thick good quality plastic for Seemeakki Sandige. You can use the same for Aralu Sandige also.
2. Round 2inch sized spoons.
3. Huge vessel and few smaller bowls.
4.Disposable gloves to mix the mixture.
20 ltrs – Aralu / Paddy Puffed Rice, i buy cleaned one itself.
Add Seemeakki in a pressure cooker. Add enough water for it to soak. Pressure cook it till it is cooked well, not overcooked. Let it cool.
Add half the puffed rice to this water.
Give it one stir and immediately pick them up and squeeze it hard between palms and put them in a huge vessel.
Add the green chilly and coriander paste, hing and salt to this. Add the cooled seemeakki mixture ladle by ladle.
Give the mixture a good mix. Take a small portion in your hand, squeeze it lightly (feather light) and see if the puffed ric sticks together to form a ball. It should just stick, not get slimy.
If requires add more seemeakki.
Do not handle the mixture too much. Do not let it get too soggy.
Now using the 2″ sized steel spoons, pickup the mixture very lightly. Dab it lightly and place them on the plates.
Traditionally its made with hands. Using the ladle makes it quick, easy, uniform and dries evenly.
Traditionally the Sandige would be made early morning before sunrise on the terrace on a cane mat. But now due to lot of reasons we have come up with a simpler method.
Make this at night, lay the plates under a fan (not AC) overnight and early morning put the plates out where the sunshines all day.
Leave it under the Harsh Merciless Summer Sun till Noon. At noon, flip the Sandige and let it dry till evening.
Be sure to bring them indoors at night if. Temperature change puts moisture back into the Sandige which is not good for the process.
Keep them out again the next day and for a week flipping now and then. Till they are completely dry. Store them in an airtight box.
SeemeAkki Sandi or Sago Fryums is a crispy, light, airy, melt in the mouth fryum. Simplest to make and favourites of kids.
Pressure cook the sago till is cooked well. Not over cooked. The sago beads should be cooked till the centre.
Add Salt, Hing and Jeera and give it a good mix. Incase the mixture thickens add more hot water. The consistency of the mixture should be watery. Should be Runny.
Spread the plastic sheet on the terrace or wherever the sunshines all day.
You will have to do it at the place where it is going to dry as you can not move it from there as the mixture will be runny.
Take a spoonful of the mixture and spread it into a 2″ disk.
Let it dry in scorching sun till evening.
Get it indoors in the evening. The Sandige would have started to peel off. Peel them.
Flip them and arrange them on a plate and Sundry it the next day, all day.
They have to be crisp and snap when you break them.
If not, dry them for an other day.
Store in an airtight bottle.
Balakamenasinakaayi or the Curd Chillies are these spicy, tangy, salty and crisp fried chilles that take a curd rice, sambar rice or Tovve rice to another level.
Though it is almost a 4 day process, it is worth the effort.
1/2 kg – Green chillies, small in size.
1 ltr – Curd, sour.
Wash and dry the chillies. Choose chillies that are hot and has thinner skin.
Slit them length wise and set aside.
Roast fenugreek seeds and Jeera and powder them.
In a large mixing bowl, add curd (sour the better) and the fenugreek Jeera powder, salt (keep it a little saltier than usual as it reduces while drying) and mix it well.
Add the chillies to the curd mixture, lightly mix it well.
Cover the bowl and leave it out in your balcony overnight.
Next day morning, take out the chillies and spread them in plates and put it in the sun full day.
Evening you will see that the chillies are turning white. Get them back, put them back in the same curd mixture that you had saved and mix it. Leave it out again in the balcony overnight.
Repeat this process for four days.
The chillies will dry completely and should be crisp.
The belief is that the dew drops at night makes the curd and in turn the soaked chilly more sour.
Once these are done and stored deep fry them. The process to fry them is, heat the oil in a deep pan. First fry the SeemeAkki Sandige as it is more delicate. The moment it dives into the oil, it will bloom into a beautiful, white crisp disk.
Then the Aralu Sandige. Drop them into the hot oil, with a ladle press them into the bottom of the kadhai. This makes sure they are fried properly till the center. It should bloom completely.
At last drop the Balaka and turn off the flame. The chillies will turn black. Take them off once they are crisp.
These are best served with Rasam, Sambar, tovve or curd rice. Or serve it as an evening snack with coffee.
This must be by far the longest post I have ever done in my blog 😄 Almost took me a day to write this ( not at a strech of course, i am a mother of a toddler you see 😀) Hope you guys still have some sun to make these and enjoy..
Aralu Sandige are absolutely my favourite. 🙂 I made Sandige with Avalakki this weekend. And with Ash gourd the weekend before that.
I love making Sandige with my extended family. It is so much fun!
Hey Aruna, thank you so much 😊 Making them with family should be made compulsory I feel 😁 it is so much fun, isn't it?
What a fabulous post. I just love old recipes that has been passed on. That is a lot of hard work MaDhuri…hats off !! Beautiful images – loved everything about it.
Your photography amazes me, Madz! Love it.
Everything so beautiful presented in this post. You are truly magician, you can even make dry chills look so glamorous. Looking forward to making these when my MIL is here, cant think of making these alone.


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Home Heard Around Atlanta Berry College to Host ACC Tennis Championships
Berry College to Host ACC Tennis Championships
The Rome Tennis Center at Berry College will once again host the Atlantic Coast Conference Men's and Women's Tennis Championships from April 15-19, 2020, and April 21-25, 2021.
"We're excited to come back to the Rome Tennis Center in 2020 and 2021. Our student-athletes had a terrific experience in 2017," said Brandon Neff, assistant commissioner, ACC Championships.
The 2017 ACC Championships in Rome had record-breaking attendance and made ACC history by running four consecutive matches on 24 umpire-chaired courts. Semifinal and final championship matches were nationally telecast on ACC Network Extra.
"We are honored to bring back the ACC Tennis Championships to Rome. A tournament of this caliber is a catalyst to the local Rome economy and brings a level of tennis excellence to the Rome community," said Tom Daglis, executive director, Rome Tennis Center at Berry College. "Hosting the ACC speaks volumes to the quality of the entire Rome tennis community."
Opened in 2016, the Rome Tennis Center at Berry College is the nation's largest single-surface facility boasting 60 courts across 30 acres. This city-owned facility was built on property donated by Berry College and is located less than a mile from the main campus.
ACC Championships
Berry College
Rome Tennis Center
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Discography of American Historical Recordings, s.v. "Corinne Morgan (vocalist : contralto)," accessed April 20, 2019, https://adp.library.ucsb.edu/index.php/talent/detail/41046/Morgan_Corinne_vocalist_contralto.
Corinne Morgan (vocalist : contralto). (2019). In Discography of American Historical Recordings. Retrieved April 20, 2019, from https://adp.library.ucsb.edu/index.php/talent/detail/41046/Morgan_Corinne_vocalist_contralto.
"Corinne Morgan (vocalist : contralto)." Discography of American Historical Recordings. UC Santa Barbara Library, 2019. Web. 20 April 2019.


Apricot kernel oil is perfect as a basic carrier oil, with its rejuvenating and protectant qualities for the skin. The oil is suitable for all skin types, and is particularly beneficial for dry and inflamed skin conditions such as eczema, as well as mature skin.
It spreads well and is absorbed readily into the skin, leaving a smooth, silky feel. Being a 'light' oil makes it excellent for facial care – such as blends for facial massage and creams.
Apricot kernel oil is rich in vitamins A, B1, B2, B6, B17 and E. Vitamin E's antioxidant properties protect against free radicals (which cause damage and age the skin) and promote skin cell regeneration. The B vitamins also support these dual functions: B1 helps to boost the immune system and create new cells and B2 is antioxidant and helps in red blood cell production. B6 is thought to be effective in treating and preventing acne, as well as being important for nerve function and generating haemoglobin and antibodies. Vitamin A stimulates the dermis and increases the creation of collagen and elastin, which give skin its elasticity.
Of all products in the plant kingdom, apricot kernel oil has the highest concentration of vitamin B17, which has been attributed with anti-carcinogenic properties. Apricot kernel oil has been used in traditional Chinese medicine as an anti-tumour treatment.
Common uses: acne treatment creams, skin cleansers, lotions, scrubs/peelers for sensitive skin, lip balms and anti-wrinkle products, moisturizing and gentle treatment for eczema. Massage blends. Considered a good alternative to sweet almond and grapeseed as a base oil.


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Rural flight in Ethiopia has shaped the country socioeconomic, cultural, political and urban way of life. Many migrants migrated from rural areas to urban areas for the reasons of living better life and well-being as well as hoping to enroll in new job.  However, the migration pattern have frequently impacted sociability tendencies as well as low resources in urban community. Eventually may create fear, insecurity and hopelessness to life.

For rural inhabitants, urban life is seems expensive that could fill livelihood for the person. The Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources adopted Rural Job Opportunity (RJOC) strategy to resolve the problem and aims at governmental investment.

Rural-urban migration are leading factor on spreading urban crimes especially in Addis Ababa. It includes theft, smuggling and robbery. It also affects housing, infrastructure, medical service, public schools and traffic policies as well as for social welfare. Management for rural-urban migration is informal employment.

Statistics

About 80% of the Ethiopian population is living in rural areas as of 2017. Although unemployment rate in these areas is only 2% (Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources), migration usually undertook by young people who with limited access of agricultural lands and production. Though, unemployment has been the core problem in rural areas. According to a study by International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), 28% of young people in the Blue Nile Basin in Amhara and Oromia Region have permanently migrated to urban areas between 2010–2014. However high unemployment in urban areas with 16.5% leads them job insecurity. Therefore, the Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources adopted Rural Job Opportunity Creation (RJOC) Strategy for Ethiopia to address these issues. RJOC aimed to improve the Ethiopian economy and encourages the government investment.

A 2014 report found that one-third of the households in the village experienced rural-urban migration in the period of 2007–2013, and 21% accounts young migrants. Most youth who migrate have capabilities to cover costs of transportation. Most migrations undertook for the sake of obtain better life, especially who migrate to urban areas. Youth often face restraints during migration to urban areas such as tenure insecurity, in terms of rental arrangements in residential units as well as workplace insecurity from eviction and confiscation, deemed critical problems.

Majority of youth are vulnerable to food insecurity since they do not have interaction with local people and young women seem to be more disadvantaged than male youth. They earn less informal self-employment as well as high risk of vulnerability of low resource, low income state. Migrant from Amhara Region has multiple reasons. High debt, poor harvest, service debts, spread of diseases as well as socio-culturally undesirable habits producing dysfunctional families and societal anomalies.

While rural poverty declined from 45.5% in 1995–96 to 23.5% in 2015–16, the urban poverty also declined 33.2% to 14.8% in the same period. Rural poverty rate is twice higher than urban poverty. Informal sector has been the major instant source of employment in Ethiopia rather than formal, which requires specialized skill and working capital.

Rural migration can be devastating factory on socioeconomic and cultural aspects. A study based on Arsi Oromo pastoralists proved that they are suffering from acute, regular water shortages and chronic food insecurity as well as incentive population growth. A declining ratio of land to people, lower agricultural productivity, and limited Infrastructure and other features prevailing in this rural community. In this study, schools are limited to primary level, and many adults remain uneducated (35% of males and 75% females have never attended school).

Crimes
Rural-urban migrants, particularly youth migrants are the main perpetrators of urban crime involving theft, smuggling and human security issues. According to Erulkar et al., youth migration cannot realize their objectives and the reason why they migrated from rural places. Alemante, et al. shows that small people on the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples' Region migrated to big towns die to different reasons.

In Addis Ababa, the rural-urban migration is basic contributor of crimes. Researchers also posited that the migration flock could potentially cause environmental pollution, overcrowding in (housing, employment, medical service, public schools, Infrastructure and traffic jam), social unrest (theft, crime, pickpocket, prostitution), beggary, high living cost and poor urban amenities.

References

Society of Ethiopia
Economy of Ethiopia
Housing in Ethiopia

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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Raivis Ansons
Baie-Comeau Drakkar
Prospect Pool Rankings EP Rinkside 2021-22 Prospect Pool Rankings: No. 29-ranked Pittsburgh P... Tue, 14 Sep 21 20:15:23 +0000 Every year, the Pittsburgh Penguins want to compete for a Stanley Cup. It's understandable. When they're healthy, they can ice...
NHL Entry Draft 2020 Grading Every Team's Performance at the 2020 NHL Entry Draft Thu, 08 Oct 20 05:00:59 +0000 It only took about eight hours on top of yesterday's three-or-so, but we finally, almost mercifully, reached the conclusion of...
NHL Entry Draft 2020 J.D. Burke's Top 103 Skaters Ranking for the 2020 NHL Draft Tue, 22 Sep 20 15:00:34 +0000 We're exactly two weeks away from the 2020 NHL Entry Draft, so what better time for another draft ranking than...
NHL Entry Draft 2020 The EliteProspects 2020 NHL Draft Guide is now Available Wed, 02 Sep 20 14:00:52 +0000 The title just about says it all, right? Wrong. Desperately wrong. The EliteProspects 2020 NHL Draft Guide is available, but...


A couple of days ago we brought you the scoop about AY Makun's new movie "10 Days in Sun City" and now we've got even more photos from the set.
Shot in Sun City, Johannesburg and Lagos, the hilarious star-studded comedy movie features A-list movie cast from Nigeria such as Richard Mofe-Damijo, Adesua Etomi, Mercy Johnson, Falz The Bahd Guy, 2Baba Idibia, Gbenro Ajibade, Fathia Balogun, Uti Nwachukwu, Yvonne Jegede and Alexx Ekubo to name a few. The movie also features Miguel Nunez Jr.from Hollywood and hilarious South Africa cast that includes the sensational Amanda Du Pont, comedienne Thenjiwe Moseley, Celeste Ntuli and lots more.
'10 Days in Sun City' is a potpourri of Love, Drama, Passion and Culture combined with generous portions of comedy. The movie is a feature-length comedy-drama that sees Akpos on another 'adventure', this time, to South Africa, with his girlfriend BIANCA. Bianca is a campus beauty queen who he (Akpos) has sacrificed his livelihood to make successful. After successfully winning a national beauty pageant, BIANCA, ever loyal to Akpos, is now an international celebrity rolling with society's 'high and mighty'. She is, amongst several mouth-watering corporate endorsements, global ambassador to, and the face of multi-national cosmetics conglomerate 'OTAWI' which is owned by Nigeria's richest man, Otunba Ayoola Williams, aka 'The Old Fox'. To Otunba, Bianca represents more than the face of his company, he has plans for her to play a bigger role in the business as well as in his 'life'. So Otunba decides to embark on the same journey to South Africa. Bianca has no idea what lies in stock neither does Akpos. But will Akpos give up his love with all the sweat he has invested or will Otunba loose this time with the use of his wit and charm as the 'old fox' which he has used to conquer like he has done, time and again, in the world of business?
According to AY, the movie is a celebration of great human and tourism resources from Nigeria, South Africa and America. He expressed appreciation to Sun International, South Africa Tourism and South Africa Airways for their immense support and contributions towards ensuring the movie was produced. '10 Days In Sun City' explores another Akpos series that this time celebrates the aesthetic developments in Africa by showcasing the tourism potentials of Nigeria and South Africa to the world.
Directed by award-winning South Africa-based Nigerian Director Adze Ugah and written by award-winning writer-directorKehinde Ogunlola, the high-octane comedy which is produced by Ayo Makun, Darlington Abuda and Kirsty Galliard is set to hit cinemas across Nigeria and South Africa from June 23, 2017.


Marka meets up with Frank for lunch and errands. She notices how careful he is with his computer, making sure it's password protected and shut down before he leaves.
He closed and locked his door behind him. Marka watched that action too. Frank paused, his hand on the knob. Her eyes lingered on his fingers. He felt suddenly self-conscious.
"No." She shook her head, eyeing the doorknob again before heading down the hall to the front entrance.
Frank strode quickly after her, catching up as the front doors slid open. They walked to her car and she handed him the keys.
"Is that Clark waving at us?" Marka shaded her eyes, gazing across the lawn.
"Yeah. We'd better go see what's up." Taking her hand, he led her across the lawn.
Clark walked over to meet them, hooked their arms in his and led them to the blue house. He walked rapidly and Marka, who had on heels, had a little trouble keeping up. Frank steadied her.
"What's up?" He asked Clark as they entered the mudroom.
"We have reason to believe the car is compromised," Clark replied.
"My car? Why would anyone do anything to my car?" Marka asked.
"Then what's the point of switching?" Her spine as stiff as Clark's, she did her best to hide her anger, but Frank could see it.
The two men exchanged a look. Frank knew the car was probably armored, bullet proof glass and maybe its own threat detection software.
"Me safe? What about you? No no one tore up my office, broke into my house or trashed my car. I'm good. I'm fine." Hysteria tinged her words.
Clark chuckled. "All of the above," he waved his hand at her.
"How many blue cars in the parking lot?" Clark laughed, chucking Frank on the shoulder.
"This is fun for you?" Cherry asked as she walked past them to the kitchen.
"What color are my eyes?" Cherry asked Frank. She averted her face, closing her eyes.
"He's very good," Cherry told Marka.
"You've no idea. And he's that good at everything." With a swish, Marka made a dramatic exit to the living room.
The two men stared after her, laughing. Cherry eyed Frank. He saw interest in her eyes.
"Really?" She tried not to sound too excited.
Frank stroked his tie, looking smug. "Why, yes." He followed Marka.
"Dammit, why are all the good ones taken?" Cherry muttered as she watched Frank stroll away.


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Put Your Weed in There! Parshat Pinhas
One of my favorite Saturday Night Live sketches begins in one of those exotic import stores, filled with incense holders, meditation bowls, handmade musical instruments and the like. A stoner-type guy who works there comes up to some customers and starts showing them some crafty knick-knack import. He says in a stoner voice:
"This is a Senegalese lute carved from deer wood, used for fertility rituals… oh and you can put your weed in there!"
They move from one knick-knack to another. Each time the stoner guy describes the intricacies and history of the item, he concludes by showing them some hole or little compartment in it and says, "Oh, and you can put your weed in there!"- and stuffs a baggy of marijuana into it.
Finally, a cop comes into the store. When the stoner sees the cop, he anxiously tells his customers to say nothing about weed. The cop walks over to them and says, "How you doing?" The stoner clenches his jaw, trying to restrain himself, and then busts out uncontrollably:
"WEED!! WEED!! WEED!!"
The cop says, "Why are you yelling like that?" He then examines the knick-knack he's holding, finds the weed and arrests him.
The Talmud says (Sukkah 52a), "A person's yetzer (drive, inclination, desire) grows stronger each day and desires his death."
In the sketch, all the stoner guy has to do to not get caught is nothing. But he can't help it- he yells, "Weed! Weed!"
How often are you given the opportunity for life to go well, to go smoothly, and somehow you find yourself messing the whole thing up? Why do we have this yetzer hara- this "evil urge"- this drive toward self-destruction?
In his introduction to Pirkei Avot, HaRav Yochanan Zweig proposes something unique and compelling: He says that the reason we tend to sabotage ourselves is actually because of our unbelievably enormous potential. We know, on some level, that our potential is enormous, and that creates a kind of psychological pressure. We are terrified of not living up to our potential.
So, to avoid the pain of knowing our great potential and not living up to it, we try to convince ourselves that we have no potential, that we are worthless, and all our self-destructive behaviors are aimed at proving our worthlessness to ourselves.
This week's reading begins with the aftermath of a self-destructive incident as well.
The Israelites had just been dwelling peacefully in their camp. Then the Midianites come along and try to seduce them into an orgy of idolatry and adultery. The Midianites didn't attack them militarily; all the Israelites had to do is say "No thank you," and they'd be fine. But what happens? They are easily seduced and the Divine wrath flares up. It's the golden calf all over again! Dang.
The fellow for whom the parshah is named, Pinhas, then wields his spear and kills two particularly hutzpadik offenders who were flaunting their orgiastic idolatry right in front of the holy "Tent of Meeting." This week's parshah then begins with Pinhas getting rewarded for his heroic murder, and he is given a Divine Brit Shalom- a "Covenant of Peace."
For many, it's hard to see anything positive in this story. Murder in the name of religious zealotry? Embarrassing.
And yet, if we dig deep into the underlying currents of the narrative, an urgent message emerges: There is a powerful drive toward self-sabotage, toward self-destruction. It is seductive, sexy, exciting and relentless. It will disguise itself in all kinds of ways to trick you and lure you into its power.
But, you can overcome it, if you are aware of it!
In fact, if you are aware of it, it has no power at all. The Talmud says that in the future, the Yetzer hara will be revealed for what it really is. When the wicked see the yetzer hara, it will appear as a thin hair. They will weep and say, "How were we ensnared by such a thin hair?"
The key is being conscious, and clearly holding the intention that you are not living for your own gratification, but rather you are here to serve the enormous potential for wisdom and love that is your essence, your divine nature.
At the same time, it's crucial to acknowledge that you do have needs and desires.
While it's true there are times when our impulses are so destructive that they must be completely halted as represented by Pinhas and his spear, in most cases our thirsts can be quenched in moderation, with balance and wisdom. Our desires, after all, are like the impulses of an animal. Don't let the animal take over, but don't torture it either. You have the power, through your awareness, to give the animal enough so that it let's you have peace, without it taking over and pulling you toward self-sabotage.
There's a story of a simple man who came to Maggid of Koznitz with his wife, demanding that he be allowed to divorce her.
"Why would you want to do that?" asked the Maggid.
"I work very hard all week," said the man, "and on Shabbos I want to have some pleasure. Now for Shabbat dinner, my wife first serves the fish, then the onions, then some heavy main dish, and by the time she puts the pudding on the table, I have eaten all I want and have no appetite for it. All week I work for this pudding, and when it comes I can't even taste it- and all my labor was for nothing!
"Time after time I ask my wife to please put the pudding on the table right after Kiddush (the blessing over wine), but no! She says that the way she does it is the proper minhag (custom)."
The Maggid turned to the woman.
"From now on, make a little extra pudding. Take a bit of the pudding and serve it right after Kiddush. Then, serve the rest of it after the main dish, as before."
The couple agreed to this and went on their way.
From that time on, it became the minhag (custom) in the Maggid's house to serve some pudding right after Kiddush, and this minhag was passed on to his children and his children's children. It was called the Shalom Bayit Pudding- the "Peace-in-the-House Pudding!"
On this Shabbat Pinkhas, the Sabbath of Peace, may we be aware of the needs of our hearts an bodies, giving and receiving the pleasures of life without being controlled by them. May we know that we are infinitely more vast than any particular impulse or want. May we see that all impulses come and go, and that we need not identify with them.
And that is the good kind of self-destruction!
Good Shabbos,
Bless you,
brian yosef
The Eyes of a Donkey- Parshat Balak
Once, during a monthly commute back to the Bay Area, I took an Uber from the airport to my car which was parked near our old house in Oakland. When I arrived, I got out of the Uber, unloaded my suitcases from the trunk onto the street, unlocked my dirty car that had been sitting for a month, loaded the suitcases into the car, got into the driver's seat and reached for my cell phone to plug into the car charger.
But… no cell phone! I had left it in the Uber.
Immediately I looked- the Uber was half way down the street! I took off running like my pants were on fire. The car started to slow down- yes! He sees me! But then he went over a speed bump and… started accelerating again!
Adrenaline pumping, I ran even faster. I yelled for him to stop. He approached a second speed bump, slowed down, and… yes! He stopped!
As I reached his car, he handed me the phone out of the driver's side window. "You're a fast runner!" he said.
"Not usually," I replied.
The body has tremendous potential, usually untapped. But in the moment of emergency, that potential can be unleashed. When I was little I remember hearing a story of a woman who lifted a car to save her child who had become trapped.
But there's another potential of the body besides its physical potential- the potential to save you by lifting the weight of ego, under which you may have become trapped. Have you ever been motivated by negativity or craving to do something that would have terrible consequences, and in that emergency your body gave you the message to stop and turn back?
In this week's reading, Balak king of Moab becomes frightened of the Israelites who are camping in a nearby valley, so he petitions the prophet/sorcerer Bilam to curse the Israelites. As Bilam rides out on his donkey to the Israelite camp, there is a strange and unique passage- one of only two instances in the Torah of talking animals (the other one being the talking serpent in the Garden of Eden).
Bilam rides his donkey through a vineyard, when an angel blocks the path with sword drawn. But only the donkey can see the angel; Bilam is oblivious to it. The donkey veers off the path to avoid the sword-wielding angel, and accidentally presses Bilam's foot into a wall. Bilam gets mad and hits donkey with a stick, at which point the animal opens her mouth and speaks:
"Ma asiti l'kha-
"What have I done to you that you hit me?"
Bilam yells back-
"Because you mocked me! If I had a sword I'd kill you right now!"
Says the donkey-
"Am I not your donkey that you've ridden until this day? Have I ever done anything like this before?"
Then Bilam's eyes are "uncovered" and he too sees the angel with the sword. Bilam bows, prostrates, apologizes, and goes up the mountain to view the Israelite camps.
When Bilam opens his mouth to pronounce the curse, his mouth utters a blessing instead:
"Lo hibit avein b'Ya'akov-
"(The Divine) sees nothing bad in Jacob...
"Mah tovu ohalekha Yaakov, mishkenotekha Yisrael-
"How lovely are your tents, O Jacob, your dwelling places O Israel…"
The donkey is your body- the beast you live in. You may think you want to say something, but your words will be a curse if you can't "see the angel." But the donkey sees it- and the donkey can talk!
What is the blessing that God "wants" you to say?
Your body is the gateway to this awareness, if you become present. Connect with your body, open your mouth and let the blessing come through.
But, the question may arise:
Isn't the body also a hindrance to consciousness and wisdom? Isn't your body the source of negativity and cravings?
In Kabbalah, one of the symbols for wisdom is fire- as in the fire that Moses saw at the burning bush. This is the fire of Reality becoming conscious- the fire that looks through your eyes, reading these words, right now.
But fire is also a symbol of destruction- of craving and negativity- as in the plague of hail and fire that rained down on the Egyptians. This is the fire of anger and craving, seducing you to satisfy its every impulse, then leaving you unsatisfied, with a trail of unwanted consequences.
Both of these manifestations of fire, however, are teachers of wisdom- if only you learn to discern whether it's the fire of "yes" or the fire of "no."
"Yes" to love, "no" to reaching- to seeing fulfillment outside yourself. "Yes" to blessing, "no" to the impulses that keep you stuck.
There's a story that when Reb Yosef Yitzhak of Lubavitch was four years old, he asked his father, Reb Shalom Ber:
"Abba, why do we have two eyes, but only one mouth and one nose?"
"Do you know your Hebrew letters?" asked Reb Shalom Ber.
"Yes," replied the boy.
"And what is the difference between the letter shin and the letter sin?" continued Reb Shalom.
"A shin has a dot on the right side, and the sin on the left."
"Right! Now, the letter shin represents fire, and fire makes the light that we see by. The dots on the right and left are like your two eyes.
"Accordingly, fire has two opposite qualities. On one hand, it can give us life by keeping us warm and cooking our food; that's the right dot. On the other hand, it can burn us; that's the left dot.
"Similarly, there are things you should look at with your right eye, and things you should look at with your left eye. You should see others with your right eye, and candy with your left eye!"
On this Shabbat Balak, the Sabbath of Body-Blessing, may we keep our awareness deeply connected to our senses and our breathing, so that the fire of Presence burns brightly with wisdom and with love. May we not identify with the urgencies of craving and negativity, and know that through the power of Presence, we are totally free from their power. And may the warmth and light of that freedom deepen more and more…
Reb Yitzhak gently spoke to them: "You know, every person is like a holy book- every person is in fact a Torah- as it says, 'Zot haTorah, Adam- This is the Torah- a person!' And just as you wouldn't pile things on top of a Sefer Torah, so too please don't push and shove one another."
The tzaddik put down his head, resting it in his arms, as one does during the penitential Takhanun prayer.


Design and architecture have always been a passion for Ben Crawford. This was publicly showcased when he and his sister won The Block NZ 2012 with their amazing design-led house, sending the auction room into a bidding frenzy. As well as running their advertising agency, Libby & Ben, he writes a well-regarded design column for The Herald on Sunday which is very much along the same lines as the beautiful Built For Caffeine, published in 2013.


text:
Q: Cannot connect to IIS site using anything but localhost/127.0.0.1 I have finally [painstakingly] setup a locally hosted site using IIS7.
I am now currently able to connect to it via http://localhost/mediaorganizer/ or http://127.0.0.1/mediaorganizer/ on the host machine.
However when I try to use the IP address of the host machine on itself or another machine on the network, I get the following error:

refused to connect error

I have searched up and down with no luck. I have setup the firewall rules for in-bound, they are set for TCP on port 80, using World Wide Web Services (HTTP Traffic-In). I have setup bindings in IIS as http, All Unassigned, 80. I also made sure to start the site while running IIS Manager as administrator. But all with no luck.
I feel I maybe missing a final process to achieve my desired effect. I've spent a solid day on this project and would appreciate any help.
Recent Logs

Software: Microsoft HTTP API 2.0
Version: 1.0
Date: 2016-08-28 02:33:55
Fields: date time c-ip c-port s-ip s-port cs-version cs-method cs-uri streamid sc-status s-siteid s-reason s-queuename
2016-08-28 02:33:55 127.0.0.1 50211 127.0.0.1 80 - - - - - - Timer_ConnectionIdle -
  2016-08-28 02:36:29 127.0.0.1 50356 127.0.0.1 64900 HTTP/1.1 GET / - 400 - Hostname -
  2016-08-28 02:37:30 127.0.0.1 50331 127.0.0.1 80 - - - - - - Timer_ConnectionIdle -
  2016-08-28 03:02:37 127.0.0.1 50593 127.0.0.1 80 - - - - - - Timer_ConnectionIdle -
  2016-08-28 03:06:33 127.0.0.1 50607 127.0.0.1 80 - - - - - - Timer_ConnectionIdle -
  2016-08-28 03:10:03 127.0.0.1 50678 127.0.0.1 80 - - - - - - Timer_ConnectionIdle -
  2016-08-28 05:16:54 127.0.0.1 50821 127.0.0.1 80 - - - - - - Timer_ConnectionIdle -
  2016-08-28 05:19:14 127.0.0.1 50864 127.0.0.1 80 - - - - - - Timer_ConnectionIdle -
  2016-08-28 05:32:17 127.0.0.1 50948 127.0.0.1 80 - - - - - - Timer_ConnectionIdle -
  2016-08-28 05:34:32 127.0.0.1 50999 127.0.0.1 80 - - - - - - Timer_ConnectionIdle -
  2016-08-28 05:42:10 127.0.0.1 51036 127.0.0.1 80 HTTP/1.1 GET /mediaorganizer/about.aspx - 404 - NotFound -
  2016-08-28 05:44:30 127.0.0.1 51041 127.0.0.1 80 - - - - - - Timer_ConnectionIdle -
  2016-08-28 05:46:35 127.0.0.1 51059 127.0.0.1 80 - - - - - - Timer_ConnectionIdle -
Software: Microsoft HTTP API 2.0
Version: 1.0
Date: 2016-08-28 06:00:59
Fields: date time c-ip c-port s-ip s-port cs-version cs-method cs-uri streamid sc-status s-siteid s-reason s-queuename
2016-08-28 06:00:59 127.0.0.1 50005 127.0.0.1 80 HTTP/1.1 GET /MediaOrganizer/ - 404 - NotFound -
  2016-08-28 06:09:42 127.0.0.1 50188 127.0.0.1 80 - - - - - - Timer_ConnectionIdle -
  2016-08-28 06:09:47 127.0.0.1 50183 127.0.0.1 80 - - - - - - Timer_ConnectionIdle -
  2016-08-28 06:12:58 127.0.0.1 50205 127.0.0.1 80 - - - - - - Timer_ConnectionIdle -
  2016-08-28 06:12:58 127.0.0.1 50208 127.0.0.1 80 - - - - - - Timer_ConnectionIdle -
  2016-08-28 06:16:14 127.0.0.1 50277 127.0.0.1 80 - - - - - - Timer_ConnectionIdle -
  2016-08-28 06:16:14 127.0.0.1 50279 127.0.0.1 80 - - - - - - Timer_ConnectionIdle -
  2016-08-28 17:59:24 127.0.0.1 51430 127.0.0.1 80 - - - - - - Timer_ConnectionIdle -
  2016-08-28 17:59:24 127.0.0.1 51428 127.0.0.1 80 - - - - - - Timer_ConnectionIdle -

A: I was able to correct the issue. Turns out I had configured IIS to listen to IP Address 127.0.0.1 through command prompt. I had to undo this by opening command prompt and enter in the following commands.
netsh
http
show iplisten <- just to confirm it was there, and it was.
delete iplisten ipaddress=127.0.0.1

Now I am able to use the PC name and it's actual IP address to access my local IIS site.

A: I do see a 404 - NotFound twice

2016-08-28 05:42:10 127.0.0.1 51036 127.0.0.1 80 HTTP/1.1 GET
  /mediaorganizer/about.aspx - 404 - NotFound -
2016-08-28 06:00:59 127.0.0.1 50005 127.0.0.1 80 HTTP/1.1 GET
  /MediaOrganizer/ - 404 - NotFound -

This happens when you have binding mapped to a specific hostname in IIS. Something like below . So check this and remove Host name if you have any.
If it's empty probably delete the binding and recreate without any Host name.
Another place to check is host file (C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts) . Comment out if you see anything like below by adding a # before
127.0.0.1       localhost //These should be commented out
::1             localhost //These should be commented out

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Alonzo Felder, Founder and CEO
Alonzo Felder is a full-time IT Analyst with a career spanning over 30 years at Duke University. Also versed in legal, historical, and investigative research methods, he spends his days providing user-level computer support and troubleshooting computer related issues. He conducts and participates in individual and group training of students, staff and faculty members. He conducts training on the proper and secure use of networked systems and workstations. Over the years he has developed in-service educational materials and conduct instructional programs to provide training, consultation, and support in the use of new technologies to both experienced and novice users.
Over the last 4 decades Mr. Felder has also co-authored, co-investigated, edited, produced and disseminated scientific articles, and journals, and medical research studies. He has also performed historical research for use in a variety of presentations and publications. He has also presented on family history research at numerous workshops/presentations.
He is an online participant/contributor on a number of Genealogy oriented forums: including GenForum, Finding Your Roots, AfriGeneas Genealogy and History Forum, Genealogy.com, Ancestry.com just to name a few.
In 2009 he was co-Producer of the historical art exhibit Of Our Grandfathers. The exhibit ran the entire month of February at THE LoDi PROJECT museum in Raleigh.This exhibit centered around Mr. Felder's maternal great grandfather, Albert Sidney James Allen, and grandfather, Ned E. Felder. The video portion displays family photographs from the 1860s through 1960s. The artists use these dignified and diverse images of African Americans and legal documents to explore lessons about respect, the importance of elders, faith, honor and other themes.
Mr. Felder and his work is referenced in the book Emancipation Betrayed:The Hidden History of Black Organizing and White Violence in Florida from Reconstruction to the Bloody Election of 1920 By Paul Ortiz. His research is also referenced in Old South, New South, or Down South? Florida and the Modern Civil Rights Movement edited by Irvin D.S. Winsboro. Both publications have been awarded the Harry T. and Harriette V. Moore Award, which recognizes an outstanding book relating to Florida's ethnic groups. Sponsored by the Florida Historical Society, winners of this award have exposed and analyzed a significant social issue from a historical perspective.
In 2014 Mr. Felder's work was featured on the "Finding Your Roots" TV show website. And in 2015 his submissions were featured on The Race Card Project by Michele Norris, one of the hosts of NPR's flagship afternoon broadcast, All Things Considered.
Mia Rowe has a passion for marketing and business management, she is always looking for ways to get involved in the community. She has been working with My Roots Foundation since the very beginning on Web Design, Social Media, Marketing, Events, and more.
mia@myrootsfoundation.com
Paul is an Associate Professor at the University of Florida. He served as President, 2014-15 of the Oral History Association, and currently serves as VP United Faculty of Florida.
Larry Wood
Larry is a Durham business owner with strategy and oversight experience in non-profit companies.
Claudine Woods
Claudine Woods. Claudine is an Office Administrator for the Law Firm of Alston & Bird. Since 2008 she has served as Co-chair of its "Connecting Through Diversity" program.
Kevin Stewman
Founding Board Member
Kevin Stewman is a member of a Law Firm specializing in Real Estate and corporate practice. The firm of Stewman, Booker & Love Law, PC. has been serving the counties of central North Carolina since 1996. Kevin was Awarded Juris Doctor Degree in May 1988. He graduated in the top 15% of his class.
George Digsby
George Digsby is THAT guy! You know, 'that guy' who knows everybody and gets things done! He has a restless energy that is contagious. He is always looking for ways to get involved in the community and to help businesses grow. He's great at contract negotiations, strategic planning, budgets, and project management. He works with My Roots Foundation on networking and fund raising and so much more.
Cassandra Davis holds a Ph.D. in Education from UNC Chapel Hill. Dr. Davis currently works as a qualitative researcher with several initiatives such as Gaining Early Awareness Readiness for Undergraduate Programs North Carolina (GEAR UP NC), North Carolina Transformation Partnership with Vanderbilt University, RAND, & NC Department of Public Instruction, IES/REL Southeastern American Indian Schooling in North Carolina.


he mCore case specially was designed for mBot, and compatible with Lego. The half-transparent and dull polish shell not only protects the mainboard but also reduces the harm of LED light to your eyes. And you can put a Li battery shell at the bottom.
Makeblock Bluetooth dongle is a BT4.0 (low power consumption) interface converter for Bluetooth devices that is designed mainly for short-distance wireless data transmission.
The dongle can pair with any Makeblock devices with built-in Bluetooth modules, which offers users a smoother wireless experience.
Me Auriga is the updated version of Orion which equipped with several sensors. The previous two red ports have been changed into four but remain the functions. Also, PORT5 is isolated only with serial communication function. So it can't be used to update program and is only for communication. Also, it is compatible with USB serial port. PORT6 to PORT10 are compatible with dual-digital, simulation, I2C bus, unibus, and simulated serial port. Me Auriga has encoder motor port, smart servo port and LED Ring Panel port (with power switch). Besides, the PCB is also enlarged.
Makeblock Orion is an easy-to-use mainboard based on Arduino Uno with improvements for education. It provides eight RJ25 ports to connect to all the other Me series modules with color-labels, can save you from horrible pin-wiring and help you focus on inventor amazing projects. Makeblock Orion supports most of programming software (Arduino/ Scratch/ AduBlock), and we offer the customized graphical programming software (Scratch for Robot/ Makeblock HD App).
RGB Grayscale Sensor is specially designed for line detect competition. It contains 4 RGB fill flashes and 4 photodiodes. This sensor can be used to detect line on deep background with light color track and light background deep color track as well. RGB Grayscale Sensor can detect line when grey value is greater than threshold value.( It is advised that the threshold value is greater than 30, that the effect is better.) This module has the functions of fast detection, learn court via button and the advantage of well adapted.
• Comes with Arduino and Makeblock Library for easy programming.
• Include various featured sensors, such as buzzer, light sensor, RGB LED, etc.
• On-board USB type B connector design for long-time use.
• Resettable fuse prevents the board from getting burn.
Me Ultrasonic Sensor can be used to measure distance or obstacle avoidance, from 3cm to 4m. With the Arduino library we provide, users can get the distance directly and use the module easily.
* Support for positive and negative transfer.
* High accurateness in flow control.
* D(1.5-4)mm*0.5m silicone tube is included for using.
* Environmental protection silicone tube for food and medical industry.
Me 4 Button V1.0 is great for all kinds of projects, can work as function button or direction button to control your robots. There are 4 momentary buttons on the PCB board which have a great "click" to them. They all share an analog output and different analog values reflect different buttons. You can easily connect it to Me BaseBoard V1.0 or Me BaseShield V2.0 by 6 Pin RJ25 cable.
This is a 50k dial type potentiometer with knob which can be rotated up to 270 degrees. It can convert rotary motion to an analog input which can be used to control the speed of a mobile robot, the brightness of RGB LEDs, or others.


text:
Q: Convert String "2008-02-10T12:29:33.000" to a Date with the same format 2008-02-10T12:29:33.000 in Java I have an ArrayList that contains strings like 2008-02-10T12:29:33.000
[2008-02-11T12:29:33.000, 2008-02-10T12:29:33.000]...

I want to sort this ArrayList in natural order. For this I have to convert this strings into a Date I quess.
The order after sorting sorting the ArrayList above shoult be:
[2008-02-10T12:29:33.000, 2008-02-11T12:29:33.000]

The programming language that I use is Java.

A: Although you could just sort the strings, I would store those dates as LocalDateTimes instead of strings and keep them that way. That will make manipulating them much easier.
The transformation could look like:
List<String> list = Arrays.asList("2008-02-11T12:29:33.000", "2008-02-10T12:29:33.000");
List<LocalDateTime> dates = list.stream().map(LocalDateTime::parse).collect(toList());

(this works because your strings are in proper ISO format).
And then sorting is as simple as:
Collections.sort(dates);

A: I don't believe you need to do any conversion, as there is a natural order of those strings (at least I can't see a counterexample).
So  Collections.sort() should do the trick.

A: ArrayList<String> dates = new ArrayList<String>();
dates.add("2008-02-11T12:29:33.000");
dates.add("2008-02-10T12:29:33.000");
Collections.sort(dates);
for (String date : dates)
{
  System.out.println(date);
}


Arrow – the direction of a pulling of a clamp of the electric socket.
The description of removal of internal finishing of a door of the driver is provided in this subsection. Internal finishing of back doors is removed in the same way, as well as lobbies.
1. Switch off ignition and remove a weight wire from the accumulator.
2. Insert an edge of the thin screw-driver between an overlay of the handle and handle with dredging and move an overlay of the handle to a door. Use the screw-driver with very thin edge not to damage a plastic overlay of the handle and the handle of a door.
3. Using the screw-driver inserted under edge of the handle with dredging take the handle with dredging from internal finishing of a door. Do not remove the internal handle of a door for dredging as under it there is a crossing point of internal finishing of a door.
4. Extend a clamp of the electric socket from the socket and disconnect the electric socket from the internal handle of a door, see rice. An arrangement of the electric socket on the internal handle of a door.
5. Through an opening after removal of the handle of a door unscrew three screws.
6. Unscrew the screws fixing the lower part of internal finishing of a door.
7. Unscrew and remove the button of blocking of the lock of a door.
8. Using special VW-3392 adaptation or the ny tool in the form of a flat fork is independently manufactured, separate a door upholstery from a door.
9. Lifting a door upholstery up, release the top part of an upholstery of a door from a window opening.
10. Moving draft of opening of a door back, take it from a guide and disconnect from the internal handle of opening of a door, see rice. Removal of draft of the internal handle of opening of a door.
11. Remove a door upholstery.
12. Remove the lower internal consolidation of glass from a door upholstery and establish it in a window aperture.
1. Before installation of an upholstery of a door check a condition of clamps of an upholstery and, if necessary, replace the damaged clamps. Establish clamps in an opening in a door upholstery.
2. Installation of an upholstery of a door is made in the sequence, the return to removal.
3. Connect a weight wire to the accumulator.


There are several live weekly studies and fellowship gatherings at various times. All studies are posted along with audio recordings on either this website or www.tryingthespirits.com. Please join us live as you are led by the Lord.
** If it says "Register" you will be sent a reminder and link to join the webinar. If it says "join", you just have to click the link at the meeting time.
Mondays at 7:00 pm CT. Click here for your local time.
– Click Here to register for the webinar.
Tuesdays at 7:00 pm CT. Click here for your local time.
Wednesdays at 12:30 pm CT. Click here for your local time.
Wednesdays at 7:30 pm CT. Click here for your local time.
– Proverbs Study- (Mitch Kuhn) Click Here to register for the webinar.
– Join us for a local bible study in Dallas, TX. Click here to learn more.
Thursdays at 12:30 pm CT. Click here for your local time.
– Bible Study- (Pete Wilson) Click Here to register for the webinar and here to review previous studies.
Thursdays at 7:00 pm CT. Click here for your local time.
Fridays at 7:00 pm CT. Click here for your local time.
Saturdays at 10:30 am CT. Click here for your local time.
Sundays at 11 am CT. Click here for your local time.


We hitched up the wagon and headed back home today. Okay, we didn't quite make it all the way home, but we did make it to Tulsa where we participated in the Walk & Roll for ALS Awareness with my mom. You can see her and my girls in the photo above, with my dad popping up in the back. My sister and most of her crew came too and a lot of my mom's friends, so it was a meaningful time. Only…I just wish this cussed disease didn't exist and there would be no need to raise awareness for it. That's all.


I have been using the building of various aspects of this site to teach my three girls about the web, e-commerce, etc.
When we first added the My Links section to the site, I explained to them that "these are affiliate programs. It is how e-commerce sites on the internet market themselves and that they pay money, or commissions, to the people who promote them."
She then asked me "Where does the money goes that you make?"
She stumped me! At first, I had dreams of thousands of dollars coming in every month to support my techy-gadget-outdoors-hobby-spending habits, but then I realized that this opportunity would be a good addition to the lesson. So I told her that " all the funds will go to college tuition for you girls."
So, it has now grown to a full revenue engine that isn't quite generating thousands per month, but is generating a couple of bucks per month ($223 was our highest month to date when I sold a couple expensive books on Amazon). I am sure it will offset some college expenses, and I am sure it has taught the girls something about technology, economy and savings.
Rebecca, Carolyn and Melissa thank you!
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