Should a client be dissatisfied with the service he/she received from the Public Service Pensions Board (the Board) he/she can seek to resolve the issue by addressing his/her complaint either orally or in written form to the Managing Director, Public Service Pensions Board, P.O. Box 912, Grand Cayman KY1-1103, CAYMAN ISLANDS. Telephone: (345) 945-8175.
On receipt of a complaint or a letter from a client (the complainant) expressing dissatisfaction with service received from the Board, the Office of the Managing Director will acknowledge the letter, within 3 - 5 working days. The timeframe for reporting the outcome of the review to the complainant is 5 to 10 working days after the review.
The date of receipt, name of client and nature of complaint should be noted within the organisation's complaints log maintained by the Managing Director's Office.
The Managing Director will normally pass the complaint to the Head or person in charge of the department for which this issue is relevant. An internal investigation into this matter will follow, and if necessary, the issue will be discussed with the complainant.
Where it is apparent that the response to the complaint will take longer than the target timeframe of 10 days, the Managing Director will inform the complainant and explain the reason for the delay in writing.
The complainant will always be informed of the outcome of his or her complaint. The Head or person in charge of the department for which this issue is relevant will draft a letter, for the Managing Director's approval and signature, to the client outlining the outcome of the internal investigation. If the Board is found to have not fulfilled its commitment to the client, this is acknowledged and the Board's sincerest apologies are then offered, along with any feasible/practical remedy. It follows that any procedures, processes and standards that needs to be changed to improve the delivery of client service and/or prevent future occurrences is undertaken. If the Board has met its client's commitment, this is communicated to the client and any other relevant party in as much of a cordial and professional manner as possible.
If the Board's position is challenged by the complainant, the Managing Director will agenda the appeal for the Board of Trustees for future determination.
Upon resolution, the date of resolution and any action taken should be noted in the complaints log.
NOTE: With reference to any errors in pension calculations, Section 9 of the Public Service Pensions Law (2004 Revision) states that: "The Board shall establish a procedure which enables any person to bring to the Board's attention a failure of administrative process which has prevented a pension from being paid or that has resulted in the incorrect calculation of the amount of a pension."


When and how was Amethyst discovered?
The word amethyst comes from the Greek meaning "without drunkenness". The ancient Greeks wore amethyst as jewellery and made drinking vessels decorated with it in the belief that it would prevent becoming drunk.
What is the colour of Amethyst?
Amethyst owes its colour to iron and aluminium impurities. It is a variety of Quartz that carries a spectacular purple colour. The colour ranges from a blend of deep violet and red to lighter lilac hues.
Amethyst is found in every corner of the earth. Majority it is mined in Brazil, Uruguay, Sri Lanka, Siberia, Canada, India, Bolivia, and Argentina and in the U.S.
Historically, the finest amethyst were found in Russia and were featured in much royal European jewellery.
The most important amethyst deposits are in Brazil. They are "Palmeira" amethysts of Rio Grande do Sul and the "Maraba" amethysts of Para.
Not quite Amethyst, but still cute right?
What is the hardness of Amethyst?
Amethyst measures a 7 on the Mohs scale of Hardness.
What are some interesting facts about Amethyst?
Amethyst, the gemstone believed by ancient Greeks and Romans to ward off the intoxicating powers of Bacchus.
Amethyst is said to keep the wearer clear-headed and quick-witted.
It is believed to improve skin and hair, and prevent baldness.
Its purple shade is associated with royalty.


text:
package liquid.transport.model;

/**
 * Created by mat on 10/5/14.
 */
public class SearchContainerAllocForm {
    private Long shipmentId;

    private Long containerId;

    private String bicCode;

    public Long getShipmentId() {
        return shipmentId;
    }

    public void setShipmentId(Long shipmentId) {
        this.shipmentId = shipmentId;
    }

    public Long getContainerId() {
        return containerId;
    }

    public void setContainerId(Long containerId) {
        this.containerId = containerId;
    }

    public String getBicCode() {
        return bicCode;
    }

    public void setBicCode(String bicCode) {
        this.bicCode = bicCode;
    }

    @Override
    public String toString() {
        final StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder("SearchContainerAllocForm{");
        sb.append("bicCode='").append(bicCode).append('\'');
        sb.append(", containerId=").append(containerId);
        sb.append(", shipmentId=").append(shipmentId);
        sb.append('}');
        return sb.toString();
    }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


People who surround you with love are the ones you hold on to. Family & friends are the ones who make me stronger in every obstacle I face & help me to face it.
They celebrated my birthday with me & filled me with their love & kindness.
It started on the 20th of June. My best friend Wadha surprised me with a birthday Cake. Her little boys sang for me. It was a lovely cozy celebration. Enjoyed it alot.


Generic ballot polling has moved back toward the GOP, but Democrats and the nonpartisan Cook Political Report say more individual candidates are in danger.
Even as generic congressional ballot polling has indicated that Republicans are making up some ground ahead of 2018 midterm election, Democrats are widening their targets and a nonpartisan analysis shows that more GOP incumbents might be at risk.
On Thursday, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee expanded its House battleground list to 101 Republican-held seats, an increase from its 91 targets as of November 2017.
"We have a long way to to go and won't take anything for granted, but are on track to take back the House in November," DCCC Chairman Rep. Ben Ray Luján (D-NM) said in a statement.
In what it's calling the largest battlefield in a decade, the DCCC added seven targets, including races in South Carolina, New Jersey, Ohio, and Texas. This decision was bolstered by the DCCC's own polling that showed President Trump underwater in a number of Republican districts in addition to the 23 GOP districts Hillary Clinton carried in 2016, according to a report by NBC News.
New Jersey's Fourth Congressional District is among the new targets—where Rep. Chris Smith won re-election in 2016 with almost 64 percent of the vote. It would be a tough hill to climb to say the least, but Republicans in the state are in danger, particularly with the recent announcement of Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen's retirement.
In South Carolina's Fifth Congressional District, Democrat Archie Parnell is running again after narrowly losing a 2017 special election by just 3 percentage points.
Finally, Democrats also are looking at Ohio's 15th Congressional District, where Rep. Steve Stivers, who also serves as the chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, beat his opponent in 2016 with 66 percent of the vote.
The Democrats' bullishness on 2018 was bolstered by the nonpartisan Cook Political Report, which issued new ratings for 21 districts on Thursday.
Included in that analysis is Pennsylvania's 7th Congressional District, which is now open after Rep. Patrick Meehan decided he would not seek re-election after it was revealed he settled a sexual-harassment complaint by a former aide. Meehan's decision caused Cook to move the race from a "toss-up" to a likely Democratic gain. His district is one of many gerrymandered districts in the state that could be changed after the congressional map is redrawn in Pennsylvania this year.
Cook also moved New Jersey's Second Congressional District, where Rep. Frank LoBiondo announced he would not seek re-election, from a toss-up to a lean Democratic district.
Another factor, Cook notes, is fundraising.
"In the fourth quarter of 2017, 39 Republican House incumbents were outraised by at least one Democratic challenger," David Wasserman wrote.
At the same time, former Vice President and prospective 2020 presidential candidate Joe Biden seemed to agree with the DCCC's assessment. During an address to House Democrats on Wednesday, he said, "Go out and holler, guys. Go out and holler. You are going to win back the House!"


Microbiome, 2018, 6 (1), pp. 85 - ?
BACKGROUND: Gut microbiota affects tephritid (Diptera: Tephritidae) fruit fly development, physiology, behavior, and thus the quality of flies mass-reared for the sterile insect technique (SIT), a target-specific, sustainable, environmentally benign form of pest management. The Queensland fruit fly, Bactrocera tryoni (Tephritidae), is a significant horticultural pest in Australia and can be managed with SIT. Little is known about the impacts that laboratory-adaptation (domestication) and mass-rearing have on the tephritid larval gut microbiome. Read lengths of previous fruit fly next-generation sequencing (NGS) studies have limited the resolution of microbiome studies, and the diversity within populations is often overlooked. In this study, we used a new near full-length (> 1300 nt) 16S rRNA gene amplicon NGS approach to characterize gut bacterial communities of individual B. tryoni larvae from two field populations (developing in peaches) and three domesticated populations (mass- or laboratory-reared on artificial diets). RESULTS: Near full-length 16S rRNA gene sequences were obtained for 56 B. tryoni larvae. OTU clustering at 99% similarity revealed that gut bacterial diversity was low and significantly lower in domesticated larvae. Bacteria commonly associated with fruit (Acetobacteraceae, Enterobacteriaceae, and Leuconostocaceae) were detected in wild larvae, but were largely absent from domesticated larvae. However, Asaia, an acetic acid bacterium not frequently detected within adult tephritid species, was detected in larvae of both wild and domesticated populations (55 out of 56 larval gut samples). Larvae from the same single peach shared a similar gut bacterial profile, whereas larvae from different peaches collected from the same tree had different gut bacterial profiles. Clustering of the Asaia near full-length sequences at 100% similarity showed that the wild flies from different locations had different Asaia strains. CONCLUSIONS: Variation in the gut bacterial communities of B. tryoni larvae depends on diet, domestication, and horizontal acquisition. Bacterial variation in wild larvae suggests that more than one bacterial species can perform the same functional role; however, Asaia could be an important gut bacterium in larvae and warrants further study. A greater understanding of the functions of the bacteria detected in larvae could lead to increased fly quality and performance as part of the SIT.


text:
« Bill Whittle: The Wolf, the Bear and the Lambs
Ted Cruz Owns Texas as Tea Party Rules the Election »
Inside the Ring: Directive outlines Obama's plan to use the military against citizens
A 2010 Pentagon directive on military support to civilian authorities details what critics say is a troubling policy that envisions the Obama administration's potential use of military force against Americans.
The directive contains noncontroversial provisions on support to civilian fire and emergency services, special events and the domestic use of the Army Corps of Engineers.
The troubling aspect of the directive outlines presidential authority for the use of military arms and forces, including unarmed drones, in operations against domestic unrest.
"This appears to be the latest step in the administration's decision to use force within the United States against its citizens," said a defense official opposed to the directive.
Directive No. 3025.18, "Defense Support of Civil Authorities," was issued Dec. 29, 2010, and states that U.S. commanders "are provided emergency authority under this directive."
"Federal military forces shall not be used to quell civil disturbances unless specifically authorized by the president in accordance with applicable law or permitted under emergency authority," the directive states…
…The directive was signed by then-Deputy Defense Secretary William J. Lynn. A copy can be found on the Pentagon website: http://www.dtic.mil/whs/directives/corres/pdf/302518p.pdf…
…The militarization of federal agencies, under little-known statues that permit deputization of security officials, comes as the White House has launched verbal attacks on private citizens' ownership of firearms despite the fact that most gun owners are law-abiding citizens.
A White House National Security Council spokeswoman declined to comment…
The article continues at The Washington Examiner.
H/T Anthony Martin
May 29th, 2014 | Tags: "Defense Support of Civil Authorities", domestic unrest, drones, emergency powers, Patriot Act, Posse Comitatus Act, SWAT team, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers | Category: Barack Obama, Department of Defense, Military, US Constitution

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Windows 10 HOLs for Microsoft Ignite 2017 — Honeycutt Inc.
Microsoft Ignite is one of the biggest events of the year for IT pros. We all look forward to mingling with likeminded people, absorbing as much technical content as possible, and of course attending some terrific parties. Aside from the expo, Ignite 2017 in Orlando offered more than 700 sessions plus hundreds of hands-on labs (HOLs).
We produced several HOLs for the event on the Learn on Demand Systems platform. Our HOLs focused on Windows 10, but they integrated many other Microsoft technologies, including Microsoft Azure Active Directory (Azure AD), Intune, Office 365, System Center Configuration Manager, and the Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT).


text:
Azerbaijani parliamentarians condemn French resolution
By Sabina Mammadli
France has demonstrated duplicity through its resolution adopted by its National Assembly on November 30, Chairman of the Defense, Security, and Counter-Corruption Committee of the Milli Majlis Ziyafat Asgarov said.
He made the remarks at the December 2 parliamentary session of the Azerbaijani parliament.
"The French National Assembly, like the Senate, adopted the same resolution. They are `concerned' about the `fate of Armenians'. Then why were they indifferent to the fate of about a million Azerbaijani refugees and internally displaced people? Why does France prevent peace talks between Azerbaijan and Armenia?" he questioned.
Further, other speakers of the parliament mentioned the fact that France's biased attempts spread chauvinistic ideas at the international level and inspire separatist and revanchist forces.
According to them, France's adoption of this absurd resolution is a violation of international law and seriously hinders efforts to build peace and stability in the region.
Sabina Mammadli is AzerNews' staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @SabinaMmdl
Anti-Azerbaijani resolution
French resolution


(Poland) Black Metal - Grim, hypnotic, cavernous and extremely violent in execution, this album consists of eight death worshipping hymns of fear, death, suffering, pain and impenetrable black... Black Metal. Unrelenting violence, hatred, and contempt for the living world. The idea of Strandhogg is reality without hope, where all living beings co-exist with the Dead. The only strength and law is Death. Only Death Is Real! Through the theory of phantom's curse and mutilation mind fanaticism Strandhogg is neither religious nor political band. Strandhogg is pure orthodox Death worshipping cadaveric congregation. Comes in Slipcase.


text:
PointsBet Becomes Official Sports Betting Partner for Detroit Pistons
6. January 2021 |	UPDATED ON: 6. January 2021
Sports betting platform PointsBet is revving up for a planned launch of athletic wagering in Michigan. The firm has now become the official sports betting partner of The Great Lakes State's NBA franchise- Detroit Pistons.
New commercial deal with Pistons
With the new commercial deal in place, PointsBet will get access to various intellectual property assets of the Pistons, including their logos. This will help boost the platform's brand exposure and visibility in the state. The partners are expected to work together on digital and social channels. The Piston.com dedicated mobile app and its social media platforms are expected to feature tailored content apart from broadcasts and digital signage including PointsBet branding.
Former Pistons ace Rip Hamilton will join PointsBet as its brand ambassador and promote its products in Michigan. Johnny Aitken, the US chief executive of PointsBet said that Michigan is a "fantastic sports state" and the company was happy to bring Hamilton onboard as its ambassador.
Cementing a position in Michigan
PointsBet was one of the early participants for a sports betting license in Michigan and is expected to launch its offering in the state this week. So far, 15 companies have obtained a license to offer athletic wagering in the state. The company is also working to bring strategic partnerships with other sporting franchises. It has also become the official sports betting partner with MLB franchise Detroit Tigers.
PointsBet already has a good presence in the US. It has partnered with several sports franchises in the US, including Colorado Buffaloes and Indianapolis Colts.
PointsBet, William Hill, and other sports betting platforms are fighting it out for dominance in the growing American market. Several firms from across the Atlantic are coming in to gain exposure to legalized gambling markets in US states. On the other hand, firms like FanDuel and DraftKings are also solidifying their position by gaining licenses in different states.
Categories News Tags Detroit Pistons, PointsBet, Sports Betting Post navigation
Betsoft's new slot 'Take Olympus' offers lots of free spins, bonuses
Churchill Down Phases Out BetAmerica As It Announced Michigan Online Betting Launch


text:
Q: How to check progress for Z3 optimization problem I have a problem which I code up in an smt-lib file for input into Z3. There are many constraints, but really, I am interested in minimizing one variable:
        (minimize totalCost)
        (check-sat)

The solver runs, and runs, for hours. Much longer than if I were to simply use an assert to set totalCost below some value and run check-sat. Is there any way to get Z3 to periodically print out the lowest value it has achieved for totalCost, along with all the variable values to achieve that? That would be very helpful. Thanks in advance!

A: Looking at the verbose mode as Patrick described is your best bet if you want to stick to the optimizing solver. Of course, the output might be hard to understand and may not even have all the data you need. You can "instrument" z3 source code to print out more if you dig deep into it. But that's a lot more work and would need studying the source code.
But it occurs to me that z3 is doing quite well with your constraints, it's the optimization engine that slows down? That's not surprising, as the optimizing solver is not as performant as the regular solver for obvious reasons. If you suspect this is the case, you might want to optimize by doing an outer loop: Do a check-sat, get the value of totalCost, then ask again but add the extra constraint that totalCost is less than the current value provided. This can quickly converge for certain problems: If the solution space is small enough and you use many different theories, this technique can outperform the optimizing solver. You can also implement a "binary" search of sorts: For instance, if the solver gives you a solution with cost 100, you can ask if there's one with cost less than 50; if sat, you'd then ask for 25, if unsat, you'd ask for 75. Depending on your problem, this can be very effective.
Note that if you implement the above trick, you can also use the solver in the incremental mode, and it would re-use all the lemmas it learned from before. The optimizing solver itself is not incremental, so that's another advantage of the looping technique. On the other hand, if there are too many solutions to your constraints, or if you don't have a global minimum, then the looping technique can run forever: So you probably want to watch for the loop-count and stop after a certain threshold.

A: If you run z3 via the command-line, you may try the option -v:1, which makes the OMT solver print any update to the lower/upper bounds of the cost function.
e.g.
~$ z3 -v:1 optimathsat/tools/release_files/examples/optimization/smtlib2_binary.smt2
...
(optsmt upper bound: 57)
(optsmt upper bound: 54)
(optsmt upper bound: 157/3)
(optsmt upper bound: 52)
(optsmt upper bound: 154/3)
(optsmt upper bound: 50)
(optsmt upper bound: 149/3)
(optsmt upper bound: 97/2)
(optsmt upper bound: 145/3)
(optsmt upper bound: 48)
(optsmt upper bound: 95/2)
(optsmt upper bound: 140/3)
(optsmt upper bound: 46)
(optsmt upper bound: 181/4)
(optsmt upper bound: 45)
(optsmt upper bound: 134/3)
(optsmt upper bound: 89/2)
(optsmt upper bound: 177/4)
(optsmt upper bound: 44)
(optsmt upper bound: 43)
(optsmt upper bound: 171/4)
(optsmt upper bound: 128/3)
(optsmt upper bound: 85/2)
(optsmt upper bound: 42)
(optsmt upper bound: 81/2)
(optsmt upper bound: 202/5)
(optsmt upper bound: 40)
(optsmt upper bound: 199/5)
(optsmt upper bound: 193/5)
(optsmt upper bound: 77/2)
(optsmt upper bound: 192/5)
(optsmt upper bound: 115/3)
(optsmt upper bound: 191/5)
(optsmt upper bound: 189/5)
(optsmt upper bound: 217/6)
(optsmt upper bound: 36)
(optsmt upper bound: 69/2)
(optsmt upper bound: 137/4)
(optsmt upper bound: 34)
(optsmt upper bound: 65/2)
(optsmt upper bound: 223/7)
(optsmt upper bound: 63/2)
(optsmt upper bound: 218/7)
(optsmt upper bound: 216/7)
(optsmt upper bound: 123/4)
(optsmt upper bound: 61/2)
(optsmt upper bound: 211/7)
(optsmt upper bound: 241/8)
(optsmt upper bound: 30)
(optsmt upper bound: 208/7)
(optsmt upper bound: 59/2)
(optsmt upper bound: 115/4)
(optsmt upper bound: 57/2)
(optsmt upper bound: 113/4)
(optsmt upper bound: 253/9)
(optsmt upper bound: 251/9)
(optsmt upper bound: 250/9)
(optsmt upper bound: 221/8)
(optsmt upper bound: 55/2)
(optsmt upper bound: 192/7)
(optsmt upper bound: 191/7)
(optsmt upper bound: 109/4)
(optsmt upper bound: 217/8)
(optsmt upper bound: 27)
sat
(objectives
 (objective 27)
)

This is only useful when the optimization algorithm being used advances the search starting from the satisfiable region. Some optimization engines like, e.g. MaxRes, approach the optimal solution starting from the unsatisfiable (i.e. more-than-optimal) region, and therefore do not provide any partial solution (however, they may be considerably faster on some instances).

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


In 1997, Apple launched its iconic "Think Different" campaign. Advertising creatives loved the campaign for a few reasons: It boldly didn't show any product and made the Mac customer the hero (most ad creatives didn't use PCs). Copywriters and art directors ended up adopting the tagline as a mantra for what they did (or hoped to do) day-in and day-out.
Maxim's is a fast-food chain in Hong Kong. This ad, for its boneless Hainan chicken, was released in December. Maxim's is declaring that its chicken is so tender and "succulent" that it glides smoothly and quickly down a playground slide. Maxim's then invited people to visit its Facebook page and guess how long it takes a piece of its chicken to slither down the slide.
This "bad different" stunt makes me think that Maxim's soaked that chicken slice with WD-40. It is not an appetizing image. At all. Agency: STHK, Hong Kong.
Here's a new campaign via Y&R Argentina for Topline gum. Copy line: "Stretch Your Kisses." This is a textbook digital art direction example of "just because you can do it, doesn't mean you should." Here was (probably) the art director's thought process: "What if I turned their faces into gum?! (But that doesn't make sen…) Shut up, left side of brain." He (The AD on these ads was a man) probably then spent two weeks making the comps.
South America, for years now, has been the undisputed home of WTFH art direction. I'm 99 percent sure the client didn't approve these "bad different" ads. Previous ads for the brand have been more "good different," like this 2009 commercial by DCN Saatchi and Saatchi.
What, exactly, makes an ad "good different"? Well, the "different" needs to be tied directly to the brand/product. Also, you just know it when you see it (sorry). A recent example is this Tylenol "Headache Chicken" spot.
You giddily looked forward to the next visual pun, to see if you could figure out the punchlines before the end of the spots. This is how you "think different." This wasn't just "good different," it was stupendous different. And nothing like it has been produced since.


text:
OpinionArticlesGalleryDate BookPress ReleasesParalympicsIOCANOC-NOCPodcastsEspañolFederationsOlympic GamesTerms of ServicePrivacy Policy
HOMENEWSESPAÑOL
Recent HeadlinesBeijing 2022OpinionPodcasts
WBSC Congress Opens in Botswana -- Federations Focus
Also: First round of the 2018 FIFA World Cup ticket period ends Oct. 12; World Archery Championships begin Oct. 15.
(ATR) The II WBSC World Baseball Softball Congress opens in Gaborone, Botswana on Thursday.
Delegates and high-ranking decision-makers from more than 130 WBSC National Federations and Associate Members will attend the three-day Congress.
Among key agenda items will be reviews of the Olympic baseball and softball qualifying system and format. The WBSC told Around the Rings on Tuesday that the schedule for Tokyo 2020 is still an "open issue" despite the IOC and Tokyo 2020 organizers reportedly reaching a final decision during the most recent Tokyo 2020 Project Review last week.
WBSC Baseball and WBSC Softball elections will be held, with a total of 37 nominated candidates running for 14 available posts.
The future hosts of the Baseball World Cups and Softball World Championships will be awarded, including the rights to host next year's U-15 Baseball World Cup, U-23 Baseball World Cup and Women's Baseball World Cup.
"The World Baseball Softball Congress in Gaborone will be an important gathering of baseball's and softball's leaders to discuss and shape the future direction and international expansion of our global sport," said WBSC President Riccardo Fraccari in a statement.
"WBSC is grateful to the Botswana Softball Association and the Botswana National Sports Commission for welcoming the World Baseball Softball family to the great city of Gaborone."
Two Million Ticket Requests for Russia
Fans have until Thursday Oct. 12 to make requests in the first round of the FIFA World Cup ticket period.
The first ticket period started Sept. 14, and according to a FIFA release two million requests have been made. Outside of local Russian fans, the top requests have come from Germany, Brazil, Mexico, United States, Argentina, China, Colombia, Israel and Egypt.
Of those countries only the U.S. and China did not qualify for Russia 2018. So far 23 of 32 countries have qualified for the final tournament. Qualification will wrap up next month.
Those who applied will be notified by FIFA on Nov. 16 if their requests were successful. Tickets purchased during the first stage will be delivered free of charge by May 2018.
World Archery Heads to Mexico
World Archery will continue its efforts to grow the sport in the Americas by hosting the 2017 World Archery Championships in Mexico City this week.
The championships begin on Oct. 15 in the Mexican capital despite devastating earthquakes that struck the city in September.
"On behalf of the global archery family, World Archery extends its deepest thoughts, sympathies and condolences to the people of Mexico following natural disasters that have resulted in the tragic loss of life and damage to buildings and infrastructure," said World Archery secretary general Tom Dielen.
"We have been assured that, while the authorities' immediate priority will be dealing with the aftermath of the earthquakes, the 2017 World Archery Congress and Championships should continue as planned."
The World Championships follow the 2015 Archery World Cup final also held in the capital, the country's second time hosting the event.
"Athletes were at the centre of the decision to award these events to Mexico City," Dielen said. "Mexico's archers have been asking for an international tournament in their country for some time, and they are one of the most internationally competitive teams right now."
The week-long tournament will conclude on Oct. 22.
Written by Gerard Farek, Aaron Bauer and Kevin Nutley
For general comments or questions,click here.
25 Years at #1: Your best source of news about the Olympics is AroundTheRings.com, for subscribers only.
ATRWBSCFIFA2018 World Cupworld cup ticketsBotswanaIOCTokyo 2020World ArcherychampionshipsarcheryMexicoMexico City
Two-time gold medalist left without route to Beijing 2022 Winter Paralympics
The world's best adaptive athletes in winter sports will be chasing gold when the 2022 Winter Paralympics open in March. Brenna Huckaby, a two-time Paralympic gold medalist, won't be amongst those contending for medals in Beijing though, after her classification was dropped from Beijing 2022 by the International Paralympic Committee.
Eight is great! Brazilian Jaqueline Mourão qualifies for Beijing 2022
The cross-country skier is set to compete in her eighth Olympic Games, tying her for third-most all time
Kazakhstan athletes ready for Beijing Games despite civil unrest and pandemic
The Kazakhstan NOC says preparations for the 2022 Winter Olympics move forward,
Study warns Beijing Olympic app could be vulnerable to cybersecurity breaches
The app is a required download for all Beijing 2022 attendees, including athletes and media
Pikes off the Pyramids? Giza set to host FINA events starting in 2023
The Pyramids of Giza are set to provide a stunning backdrop for international aquatics after FINA announced a series of events set to be held at the iconic Egyptian site. The images may help bolster the sporting prestige of the North African nation as it chases an opportunity to host the 2036 Summer Olympics.
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text:
Progress: Lecture by Johan Norberg
April 11, 2018 December 16, 2017 by Walker
This is part of the DR Book Collection.
Swedish intellectual Johan Norberg has penned a readable, optimistic, and data-driven book on the progress the world has made over the last 200+ years. As the title–Progress: Ten Reasons to Look Forward to the Future–suggests, Norberg focuses on ten aspects of human well-being. Each one has improved dramatically over the last couple centuries:
As I was listening to the Audible version in the car, the section on poverty really got to me, especially this part:
According to some statisticians, 28 March 2012 was a big day for humanity. It was the first day in modern history that developing countries were responsible for more than half of global GDP, up from thirty-eight percent ten years earlier. This convergence makes sense. If people have freedom and access to knowledge, technology and capital, there is no reason why they shouldn't be able to produce as much as people anywhere else. A country with a fifth of the world's population should produce around a fifth of its wealth. That has not been the case for centuries, because many parts of the world were held back by oppression, colonialism, socialism and protectionism. But these have no diminished, and a revolution in transport and communication technology makes it easier to take advantage of a global division of labour, and use technologies and knowledge that it took other countries generations and vast sums of money to develop. This has resulted in the greatest poverty reduction the world has ever seen.
Me when this part came up in the car.
If you want a fantastic summary of some of the greatest achievements in human history, check it out. You can see a lecture by Norberg in the video below.
Categories Books, Economics, Social Science, SocietyTags DR book collection, literature
The DR Book Collection: Catch-Up #2
I'm behind on my book reviews, so I'm once again going to forego the mini-reviews and instead post the books' descriptions with an accompanying video.
Annie McKee, How to Be Happy at Work: The Power of Purpose, Hope, and Friendship (Harvard Business Review Press, 2017): ""I'm working harder than I ever have, and I don't know if it's worth it anymore." If you're a manager or leader, these words have probably run through your mind. So many of us are feeling fed up, burned out, and unhappy at work: the constant pressure and stress, the unending changes, the politics—people feel as though they can't give much more, and performance is suffering. But it's work, after all, right? Should we even expect to be fulfilled and happy at work? Yes, we should, says Annie McKee, coauthor of the bestselling Primal Leadership. In her new transformative book, she makes the most compelling case yet that happiness―and the full engagement that comes with it―is more important than ever in today's workplace, and she sheds new light on the powerful relationship of happiness to individual, team, and organizational success. Based on extensive research and decades of experience with leaders, this book reveals that people must have three essential elements in order to be happy at work: A sense of purpose and the chance to contribute to something bigger than themselves; A vision that is powerful and personal, creating a real sense of hope; Resonant, friendly relationships. With vivid and moving real-life stories, the book shows how leaders can use these powerful pillars to create and sustain happiness even when they're under pressure. By emphasizing purpose, hope, and friendships they can also ensure a healthy, positive climate for their teams and throughout the organization. How to Be Happy at Work deepens our understanding of what it means to be truly fulfilled and effective at work and provides clear, practical advice and instruction for how to get there—no matter what job you have" (Amazon).
Steven L. Peck, A Short Stay in Hell (Strange Violin Editions, 2012): "As a faithful Mormon, Soren Johansson has always believed he'll be reunited with his loved ones in an eternal hereafter. Then, he dies. Soren wakes to find himself cast by a God he has never heard of into a Hell whose dimensions he can barely grasp: a vast library he can only escape from by finding the book that contains the story of his life. In this haunting existential novella, author, philosopher, and ecologist Steven L. Peck explores a subversive vision of eternity, taking the reader on a journey through the afterlife of a world where everything everyone believed in turns out to be wrong" (Amazon).
Terryl L. Givens, Fiona Givens, The Christ Who Heals: How God Restored the Truth That Saves Us (Deseret Books, 2017): "In a world increasingly prone to doubt, a foundation in Christ is the only sure basis of a durable discipleship. And for Latter-day Saints, the Jesus Christ revealed through the Prophet Joseph Smith is, in some very significant ways, a different kind of Christ than the Jesus of modern Christianity. The Christ of the restored gospel collaborated with Heavenly Parents for our salvation even before the foundation of the world, "does not anything" save it be for our benefit (2 Nephi 26:24), and is determined to patiently guide and nurture every one of God's children into an eternal heavenly family. Most significantly, this Christ does not rescue us from a condition of original sin or depravity. Rather, He is primarily a healer of the wounds incident to a long-planned sojourn, one intended to immerse us in the trials, pains, and soul-stretching of this mortal schoolroom. He is not only the most remarkable being in the history of religious thought; He is, in fact, The Christ Who Heals" (Amazon).
Neil deGrasse Tyson, Donald Goldsmith, Origins: Fourteen Billion Years of Cosmic Evolution (W.W. Norton & Co., 2004): "Our true origins are not just human, or even terrestrial, but in fact cosmic. Drawing on recent scientific breakthroughs and the current cross-pollination among geology, biology, astrophysics, and cosmology, Origins explains the soul-stirring leaps in our understanding of the cosmos. From the first image of a galaxy birth to Spirit Rover's exploration of Mars, to the discovery of water on one of Jupiter's moons, coauthors Neil deGrasse Tyson and Donald Goldsmith conduct a galvanizing tour of the cosmos with clarity and exuberance" (Amazon).
The Council of Fifty: What the Records Reveal About Mormon History, ed. Matthew J. Grow, R. Eric Smith (BYU Religious Studies Center, Deseret Book, 2017): "Three months before his death, Joseph Smith established the Council of Fifty, a confidential group that he believed would protect the Latter-day Saints in their political rights and one day serve as the government of the kingdom of God. The Council of Fifty operated under the leadership of Joseph Smith and then Brigham Young, playing a key role in Joseph Smith's presidential campaign and in preparing for the Mormon exodus to the West. The council's minutes had never been available until they were published by the Joseph Smith Papers in September 2016, meaning that the council has been the subject of intense speculation for 170 years. In this book of short essays, fifteen leading Mormon scholars explore how the newly available minutes alter and enhance our understanding of Mormon history. The scholars narrate and analyze the contributions of the records of the council to key questions, such as Joseph Smith's views of earthly and heavenly governments; the presidential campaign; Mormon relationships with American Indians; explorations of possible settlements sites, such as Texas and California; the "lost teachings" of Latter-day Saint leaders of that era; and the leadership style of Brigham Young" (Amazon).
Bart D. Ehrman, Did Jesus Exist?: The Historical Argument for Jesus of Nazareth (HarperOne, 2012): "In Did Jesus Exist? historian and Bible expert Bart Ehrman confronts the question, "Did Jesus exist at all?" Ehrman vigorously defends the historical Jesus, identifies the most historically reliable sources for best understanding Jesus' mission and message, and offers a compelling portrait of the person at the heart of the Christian tradition. Known as a master explainer with deep knowledge of the field, Bart Ehrman methodically demolishes both the scholarly and popular "mythicist" arguments against the existence of Jesus. Marshaling evidence from within the Bible and the wider historical record of the ancient world, Ehrman tackles the key issues that surround the mythologies associated with Jesus and the early Christian movement. In Did Jesus Exist?: The Historical Argument for Jesus of Nazareth, Ehrman establishes the criterion for any genuine historical investigation and provides a robust defense of the methods required to discover the Jesus of history" (Amazon).
Eli J. Finkel, The All-or-Nothing Marriage: How the Best Marriages Work (Dutton, 2017): "Eli J. Finkel's insightful and ground-breaking investigation of marriage clearly shows that the best marriages today are better than the best marriages of earlier eras. Indeed, they are the best marriages the world has ever known. He presents his findings here for the first time in this lucid, inspiring guide to modern marital bliss. The All-or-Nothing Marriage reverse engineers fulfilling marriages—from the "traditional" to the utterly nontraditional—and shows how any marriage can be better. The primary function of marriage from 1620 to 1850 was food, shelter, and protection from violence; from 1850 to 1965, the purpose revolved around love and companionship. But today, a new kind of marraige has emerged, one oriented toward self-discover, self-esteem, and personal growth. Finkel combines cutting-edge scientific research with practical advice; he considers paths to better communication and responsiveness; he offers guidance on when to recalibrate our expectations; and he even introduces a set of must-try "lovehacks." This is a book for the newlywed to the empty nester, for those thinking about getting married or remarried, and for anyone looking for illuminating advice that will make a real difference to getting the most out of marriage today" (Amazon).
Darrin M. McMahon, Divine Fury: A History of Genius (Basic Books, 2013): "Genius. With hints of madness and mystery, moral license and visionary force, the word suggests an almost otherworldly power: the power to create, to divine the secrets of the universe, even to destroy. Yet the notion of genius has been diluted in recent times. Today, rock stars, football coaches, and entrepreneurs are labeled 'geniuses,' and the word is applied so widely that it has obscured the sense of special election and superhuman authority that long accompanied it. As acclaimed historian Darrin M. McMahon explains, the concept of genius has roots in antiquity, when men of prodigious insight were thought to possess—or to be possessed by—demons and gods. Adapted in the centuries that followed and applied to a variety of religious figures, including prophets, apostles, sorcerers, and saints, abiding notions of transcendent human power were invoked at the time of the Renaissance to explain the miraculous creativity of men like Leonardo and Michelangelo. Yet it was only in the eighteenth century that the genius was truly born, idolized as a new model of the highest human type. Assuming prominence in figures as varied as Newton and Napoleon, the modern genius emerged in tension with a growing belief in human equality. Contesting the notion that all are created equal, geniuses served to dramatize the exception of extraordinary individuals not governed by ordinary laws. The phenomenon of genius drew scientific scrutiny and extensive public commentary into the 20th century, but it also drew religious and political longings that could be abused. In the genius cult of the Nazis and the outpouring of reverence for the redemptive figure of Einstein, genius achieved both its apotheosis and its Armageddon. The first comprehensive history of this elusive concept, Divine Fury follows the fortunes of genius and geniuses through the ages down to the present day, showing how—despite its many permutations and recent democratization—genius remains a potent force in our lives, reflecting modern needs, hopes, and fears" (Amazon).
Paul Bloom, Against Empathy: The Case for Rational Compassion (HarperCollins, 2016): "We often think of our capacity to experience the suffering of others as the ultimate source of goodness. Many of our wisest policy-makers, activists, scientists, and philosophers agree that the only problem with empathy is that we don't have enough of it. Nothing could be farther from the truth, argues Yale researcher Paul Bloom. In AGAINST EMPATHY, Bloom reveals empathy to be one of the leading motivators of inequality and immorality in society. Far from helping us to improve the lives of others, empathy is a capricious and irrational emotion that appeals to our narrow prejudices. It muddles our judgment and, ironically, often leads to cruelty. We are at our best when we are smart enough not to rely on it, but to draw instead upon a more distanced compassion. Basing his argument on groundbreaking scientific findings, Bloom makes the case that some of the worst decisions made by individuals and nations—who to give money to, when to go to war, how to respond to climate change, and who to imprison—are too often motivated by honest, yet misplaced, emotions. With precision and wit, he demonstrates how empathy distorts our judgment in every aspect of our lives, from philanthropy and charity to the justice system; from medical care and education to parenting and marriage. Without empathy, Bloom insists, our decisions would be clearer, fairer, and—yes—ultimately more moral. Brilliantly argued, urgent and humane, AGAINST EMPATHY shows us that, when it comes to both major policy decisions and the choices we make in our everyday lives, limiting our impulse toward empathy is often the most compassionate choice we can make" (Amazon).
Categories Arts, BooksTags DR book collection, Fiona Givens, literature, Terryl Givens1 Comment
Other Minds: Peter Godfrey-Smith at Google
April 11, 2018 October 1, 2017 by Walker
With philosopher Peter Godfrey-Smith's Other Minds: The Octopus, the Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness, I have learned more about cephalopods–squids, octopuses, and nautiluses–than I've ever cared to know. And it was deeply fascinating.
I have always found the ocean to be frightening and incredibly alien. The temperature and lack of oxygen in space are certainly scary, but add creatures that are weird and often predatory to the mix? No thank you. But this makes Godfrey-Smith's exploration all the more absorbing. He weaves together philosophy, science, and personal anecdotes (he's an avid scuba diver) in a way that causes the reader to reflect on the strangeness of life and especially the oddity of consciousness. He explains,
Cephalopods are an island of mental complexity in the sea of invertebrate animals. Because our most recent common ancestor was so simple and lies so far back, cephalopods are an independent experiment in the evolution of large brains and complex behavior. If we can make contact with cephalopods as sentient beings, it is not because of a shared history, not because of kinship, but because evolution built minds twice over. This is probably the closest we will come to meeting an intelligent alien (pg. 9).
Yet, the neurons of an octopus operate differently than those of vertebrates, spanning the creature's entire body:
"Smart" is a contentious term to use, so let's begin cautiously. First, these animals evolved large nervous systems, including large brains…A common octopus…has about 500 million neurons in its body…Humans have many more–something like 100 billion–but the octopus is in the same range as various smaller mammals, close to the range of dogs, and cephalopods have much larger nervous systems than all other invertebrates…When biologists look at a bird, a mammal, even a fish, they are able to map many parts of one animal's brain onto another's. Vertebrate brains all have a common architecture. When vertebrate brains are compared to octopus brains, all bets–or rather, all mappings–are off. There is no part-by-part correspondence between the parts of their brains and ours. Indeed, octopuses have not even collected the majority of their neurons inside their brains; most of the neurons are found in the their arms (pg. 50-51).
And that's just getting started. These scientific and philosophical reflections go back to some of the deepest questions that have been with humanity for thousands of years:
What is it to be alive?
What is to be?
What is it to be conscious?
While I would have preferred a little more philosophy (even some speculation), the book is nonetheless an eye-opening read. You can see Godfrey-Smith speaking on the subject at Google below.
Categories Books, Philosophy, ScienceTags DR book collection, literature
The DR Book Collection: Catch-Up
April 11, 2018 September 23, 2017 by Walker
So, I'm way behind on my book posts (much like I was behind on my TV/movies posts). So, I'm going to forego the mini-reviews and instead post the books' descriptions with an accompanying video.
Daniel J. Siegel, Mindsight: The New Science of Personal Transformation (Bantam Books, 2010): "This groundbreaking book, from one of the global innovators in the integration of brain science with psychotherapy, offers an extraordinary guide to the practice of "mindsight," the potent skill that is the basis for both emotional and social intelligence. From anxiety to depression and feelings of shame and inadequacy, from mood swings to addictions, OCD, and traumatic memories, most of us have a mental "trap" that causes recurring conflict in our lives and relationships. Daniel J. Siegel, M.D., a clinical professor of psychiatry at the UCLA School of Medicine and co-director of the UCLA Mindful Awareness Research Center, shows us how to use mindsight to escape these traps. Through his synthesis of a broad range of scientific research with applications to everyday life, Dr. Siegel has developed novel approaches that have helped hundreds of patients free themselves from obstacles blocking their happiness. By cultivating mindsight, all of us can effect positive, lasting changes in our brains—and our lives. A book as inspiring as it is profound, Mindsight can help us master our emotions, heal our relationships, and reach our fullest potential" (Amazon).
John Gottman, Nan Silver, What Makes Love Last?: How to Build Trust and Avoid Betrayal (Simon & Schuster, 2012): "In this insightful book, celebrated research psychologist and couples counselor John Gottman plumbs the mysteries of love and shares the results of his famous "Love Lab": Where does love come from? Why does some love last, and why does some fade? And how can we keep it alive? Based on laboratory findings, this book shows readers how to identify signs, behaviors, and attitudes that indicate a fraying relationship and provides strategies for repairing what may seem lost or broken" (Amazon).
Karen Armstrong, Islam: A Short History (Modern Library, 2002): "No religion in the modern world is as feared and misunderstood as Islam. It haunts the popular Western imagination as an extreme faith that promotes authoritarian government, female oppression, civil war, and terrorism. Karen Armstrong's short history offers a vital corrective to this narrow view. The distillation of years of thinking and writing about Islam, it demonstrates that the world's fastest-growing faith is a much richer and more complex phenomenon than its modern fundamentalist strain might suggest. Islam: A Short History begins with the flight of Muhammad and his family from Medina in the seventh century and the subsequent founding of the first mosques. It recounts the origins of the split between Shii and Sunni Muslims, and the emergence of Sufi mysticism; the spread of Islam throughout North Africa, the Levant, and Asia; the shattering effect on the Muslim world of the Crusades; the flowering of imperial Islam in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries into the world's greatest and most sophisticated power; and the origins and impact of revolutionary Islam. It concludes with an assessment of Islam today and its challenges" (Amazon).
Tom Nichols, The Death of Expertise: The Campaign Against Established Knowledge and Why It Matters (Oxford University Press, 2017): "People are now exposed to more information than ever before, provided both by technology and by increasing access to every level of education. These societal gains, however, have also helped fuel a surge in narcissistic and misguided intellectual egalitarianism that has crippled informed debates on any number of issues. Today, everyone knows everything: with only a quick trip through WebMD or Wikipedia, average citizens believe themselves to be on an equal intellectual footing with doctors and diplomats. All voices, even the most ridiculous, demand to be taken with equal seriousness, and any claim to the contrary is dismissed as undemocratic elitism. As Tom Nichols shows in The Death of Expertise, this rejection of experts has occurred for many reasons, including the openness of the internet, the emergence of a customer satisfaction model in higher education, and the transformation of the news industry into a 24-hour entertainment machine. Paradoxically, the increasingly democratic dissemination of information, rather than producing an educated public, has instead created an army of ill-informed and angry citizens who denounce intellectual achievement. Nichols has deeper concerns than the current rejection of expertise and learning, noting that when ordinary citizens believe that no one knows more than anyone else, democratic institutions themselves are in danger of falling either to populism or to technocracy-or in the worst case, a combination of both. The Death of Expertise is not only an exploration of a dangerous phenomenon but also a warning about the stability and survival of modern democracy in the Information Age" (Amazon).
Angus Deaton, The Great Escape: Health, Wealth, and the Origins of Inequality (Princeton University Press, 2013): "The world is a better place than it used to be. People are healthier, wealthier, and live longer. Yet the escapes from destitution by so many has left gaping inequalities between people and nations. In The Great Escape, Angus Deaton–one of the foremost experts on economic development and on poverty–tells the remarkable story of how, beginning 250 years ago, some parts of the world experienced sustained progress, opening up gaps and setting the stage for today's disproportionately unequal world. Deaton takes an in-depth look at the historical and ongoing patterns behind the health and wealth of nations, and addresses what needs to be done to help those left behind. Deaton describes vast innovations and wrenching setbacks: the successes of antibiotics, pest control, vaccinations, and clean water on the one hand, and disastrous famines and the HIV/AIDS epidemic on the other. He examines the United States, a nation that has prospered but is today experiencing slower growth and increasing inequality. He also considers how economic growth in India and China has improved the lives of more than a billion people. Deaton argues that international aid has been ineffective and even harmful. He suggests alternative efforts–including reforming incentives to drug companies and lifting trade restrictions–that will allow the developing world to bring about its own Great Escape" (Amazon).
Peter C. Brown, Henry L. Roediger, Mark A. McDaniel, Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning (Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2014): "To most of us, learning something "the hard way" implies wasted time and effort. Good teaching, we believe, should be creatively tailored to the different learning styles of students and should use strategies that make learning easier. Make It Stick turns fashionable ideas like these on their head. Drawing on recent discoveries in cognitive psychology and other disciplines, the authors offer concrete techniques for becoming more productive learners. Memory plays a central role in our ability to carry out complex cognitive tasks, such as applying knowledge to problems never before encountered and drawing inferences from facts already known. New insights into how memory is encoded, consolidated, and later retrieved have led to a better understanding of how we learn. Grappling with the impediments that make learning challenging leads both to more complex mastery and better retention of what was learned. Many common study habits and practice routines turn out to be counterproductive. Underlining and highlighting, rereading, cramming, and single-minded repetition of new skills create the illusion of mastery, but gains fade quickly. More complex and durable learning come from self-testing, introducing certain difficulties in practice, waiting to re-study new material until a little forgetting has set in, and interleaving the practice of one skill or topic with another. Speaking most urgently to students, teachers, trainers, and athletes, Make It Stick will appeal to all those interested in the challenge of lifelong learning and self-improvement" (Amazon).
Dan Ariely, Payoff: The Hidden Logic That Shapes Our Motivations (TED Books, 2016): "Every day we work hard to motivate ourselves, the people we live with, the people who work for and do business with us. In this way, much of what we do can be defined as being "motivators." From the boardroom to the living room, our role as motivators is complex, and the more we try to motivate partners and children, friends and coworkers, the clearer it becomes that the story of motivation is far more intricate and fascinating than we've assumed. Payoff investigates the true nature of motivation, our partial blindness to the way it works, and how we can bridge this gap. With studies that range from Intel to a kindergarten classroom, Ariely digs deep to find the root of motivation—how it works and how we can use this knowledge to approach important choices in our own lives. Along the way, he explores intriguing questions such as: Can giving employees bonuses harm productivity? Why is trust so crucial for successful motivation? What are our misconceptions about how to value our work? How does your sense of your mortality impact your motivation?" (Amazon).
Monica C. Worline, Jane E. Dutton, Awakening Compassion at Work: The Quiet Power That Elevates People and Organizations (Berrett-Koehler, 2017): "Suffering in the workplace can rob our colleagues and coworkers of humanity, dignity, and motivation and is an unrecognized and costly drain on organizational potential. Marshaling evidence from two decades of field research, scholars and consultants Monica Worline and Jane Dutton show that alleviating such suffering confers measurable competitive advantages in areas like innovation, collaboration, service quality, and talent attraction and retention. They outline four steps for meeting suffering with compassion and show how to build a capacity for compassion into the structures and practices of an organization—because ultimately, as they write, "Compassion is an irreplaceable dimension of excellence for any organization that wants to make the most of its human capabilities"" (Amazon).
Deirdre N. McCloskey, The Bourgeois Virtues: Ethics for an Age of Commerce (University of Chicago Press, 2006): "For a century and a half, the artists and intellectuals of Europe have scorned the bourgeoisie. And for a millennium and a half, the philosophers and theologians of Europe have scorned the marketplace. The bourgeois life, capitalism, Mencken's "booboisie" and David Brooks's "bobos"—all have been, and still are, framed as being responsible for everything from financial to moral poverty, world wars, and spiritual desuetude. Countering these centuries of assumptions and unexamined thinking is Deirdre McCloskey's The Bourgeois Virtues, a magnum opus that offers a radical view: capitalism is good for us. McCloskey's sweeping, charming, and even humorous survey of ethical thought and economic realities—from Plato to Barbara Ehrenreich—overturns every assumption we have about being bourgeois. Can you be virtuous and bourgeois? Do markets improve ethics? Has capitalism made us better as well as richer? Yes, yes, and yes, argues McCloskey, who takes on centuries of capitalism's critics with her erudition and sheer scope of knowledge. Applying a new tradition of "virtue ethics" to our lives in modern economies, she affirms American capitalism without ignoring its faults and celebrates the bourgeois lives we actually live, without supposing that they must be lives without ethical foundations" (Amazon).
Thomas Nagel, Mind & Cosmos: Why the Materialist Neo-Darwinian Conception of Nature is Almost Certainly False (Oxford University Press, 2012): "The modern materialist approach to life has conspicuously failed to explain such central mind-related features of our world as consciousness, intentionality, meaning, and value. This failure to account for something so integral to nature as mind, argues philosopher Thomas Nagel, is a major problem, threatening to unravel the entire naturalistic world picture, extending to biology, evolutionary theory, and cosmology. Since minds are features of biological systems that have developed through evolution, the standard materialist version of evolutionary biology is fundamentally incomplete. And the cosmological history that led to the origin of life and the coming into existence of the conditions for evolution cannot be a merely materialist history, either. An adequate conception of nature would have to explain the appearance in the universe of materially irreducible conscious minds, as such. Nagel's skepticism is not based on religious belief or on a belief in any definite alternative. In Mind and Cosmos, he does suggest that if the materialist account is wrong, then principles of a different kind may also be at work in the history of nature, principles of the growth of order that are in their logical form teleological rather than mechanistic. In spite of the great achievements of the physical sciences, reductive materialism is a world view ripe for displacement. Nagel shows that to recognize its limits is the first step in looking for alternatives, or at least in being open to their possibility" (Amazon).
Christopher H. Achen, Larry M. Bartels, Democracy for Realists: Why Elections Do Not Produce Responsive Government (Princeton University Press, 2016): "Democracy for Realists assails the romantic folk-theory at the heart of contemporary thinking about democratic politics and government, and offers a provocative alternative view grounded in the actual human nature of democratic citizens. Christopher Achen and Larry Bartels deploy a wealth of social-scientific evidence, including ingenious original analyses of topics ranging from abortion politics and budget deficits to the Great Depression and shark attacks, to show that the familiar ideal of thoughtful citizens steering the ship of state from the voting booth is fundamentally misguided. They demonstrate that voters―even those who are well informed and politically engaged―mostly choose parties and candidates on the basis of social identities and partisan loyalties, not political issues. They also show that voters adjust their policy views and even their perceptions of basic matters of fact to match those loyalties. When parties are roughly evenly matched, elections often turn on irrelevant or misleading considerations such as economic spurts or downturns beyond the incumbents' control; the outcomes are essentially random. Thus, voters do not control the course of public policy, even indirectly. Achen and Bartels argue that democratic theory needs to be founded on identity groups and political parties, not on the preferences of individual voters. Now with new analysis of the 2016 elections, Democracy for Realists provides a powerful challenge to conventional thinking, pointing the way toward a fundamentally different understanding of the realities and potential of democratic government" (Amazon).
Seth Stephens-Davidowitz, Everybody Lies: Big Data, New Data, and What the Internet Can Tell Us About Who We Really Are (HarperCollins, 2017): "By the end of an average day in the early twenty-first century, human beings searching the internet will amass eight trillion gigabytes of data. This staggering amount of information—unprecedented in history—can tell us a great deal about who we are—the fears, desires, and behaviors that drive us, and the conscious and unconscious decisions we make. From the profound to the mundane, we can gain astonishing knowledge about the human psyche that less than twenty years ago, seemed unfathomable. Everybody Lies offers fascinating, surprising, and sometimes laugh-out-loud insights into everything from economics to ethics to sports to race to sex, gender and more, all drawn from the world of big data. What percentage of white voters didn't vote for Barack Obama because he's black? Does where you go to school effect how successful you are in life? Do parents secretly favor boy children over girls? Do violent films affect the crime rate? Can you beat the stock market? How regularly do we lie about our sex lives and who's more self-conscious about sex, men or women Investigating these questions and a host of others, Seth Stephens-Davidowitz offers revelations that can help us understand ourselves and our lives better. Drawing on studies and experiments on how we really live and think, he demonstrates in fascinating and often funny ways the extent to which all the world is indeed a lab. With conclusions ranging from strange-but-true to thought-provoking to disturbing, he explores the power of this digital truth serum and its deeper potential—revealing biases deeply embedded within us, information we can use to change our culture, and the questions we're afraid to ask that might be essential to our health—both emotional and physical. All of us are touched by big data everyday, and its influence is multiplying. Everybody Lies challenges us to think differently about how we see it and the world" (Amazon).
Terryl L. Givens, Feeding the Flock: The Foundations of Mormon Thought: Church and Praxis (Oxford University Press, 2017): "Feeding the Flock, the second volume of Terryl L. Givens's landmark study of the foundations of Mormon thought and practice, traces the essential contours of Mormon practice as it developed from Joseph Smith to the present. Despite the stigmatizing fascination with its social innovations (polygamy, communalism), its stark supernaturalism (angels, gold plates, and seer stones), and its most esoteric aspects (a New World Garden of Eden, sacred undergarments), as well as its long-standing outlier status among American Protestants, Givens reminds us that Mormonism remains the most enduring-and thriving-product of the nineteenth-century's religious upheavals and innovations. Because Mormonism is founded on a radically unconventional cosmology, based on unusual doctrines of human nature, deity, and soteriology, a history of its development cannot use conventional theological categories. Givens has structured these volumes in a way that recognizes the implicit logic of Mormon thought. The first book, Wrestling the Angel, centered on the theoretical foundations of Mormon thought and doctrine regarding God, humans, and salvation. Feeding the Flock considers Mormon practice, the authority of the institution of the church and its priesthood, forms of worship, and the function and nature of spiritual gifts in the church's history, revealing that Mormonism is still a tradition very much in the process of formation. At once original and provocative, engaging and learned, Givens offers the most sustained account of Mormon thought and practice yet written" (Amazon).
David Bentley Hart, The Experience of God: Being, Consciousness, Bliss (Yale University Press, 2013): "Despite the recent ferocious public debate about belief, the concept most central to the discussion—God—frequently remains vaguely and obscurely described. Are those engaged in these arguments even talking about the same thing? In a wide-ranging response to this confusion, esteemed scholar David Bentley Hart pursues a clarification of how the word "God" functions in the world's great theistic faiths. Ranging broadly across Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Vedantic and Bhaktic Hinduism, Sikhism, and Buddhism, Hart explores how these great intellectual traditions treat humanity's knowledge of the divine mysteries. Constructing his argument around three principal metaphysical "moments"—being, consciousness, and bliss—the author demonstrates an essential continuity between our fundamental experience of reality and the ultimate reality to which that experience inevitably points. Thoroughly dismissing such blatant misconceptions as the deists' concept of God, as well as the fundamentalist view of the Bible as an objective historical record, Hart provides a welcome antidote to simplistic manifestoes. In doing so, he plumbs the depths of humanity's experience of the world as powerful evidence for the reality of God and captures the beauty and poetry of traditional reflection upon the divine" (Amazon).
Charles Duhigg, Smarter, Faster, Better: The Transformative Power of Real Productivity (Random House, 2016): "At the core of Smarter Faster Better are eight key productivity concepts—from motivation and goal setting to focus and decision making—that explain why some people and companies get so much done. Drawing on the latest findings in neuroscience, psychology, and behavioral economics—as well as the experiences of CEOs, educational reformers, four-star generals, FBI agents, airplane pilots, and Broadway songwriters—this painstakingly researched book explains that the most productive people, companies, and organizations don't merely act differently. They view the world, and their choices, in profoundly different ways…What do these people have in common? They know that productivity relies on making certain choices. The way we frame our daily decisions; the big ambitions we embrace and the easy goals we ignore; the cultures we establish as leaders to drive innovation; the way we interact with data: These are the things that separate the merely busy from the genuinely productive. In The Power of Habit, Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Charles Duhigg explained why we do what we do. In Smarter Faster Better, he applies the same relentless curiosity, deep reporting, and rich storytelling to explain how we can improve at the things we do. It's a groundbreaking exploration of the science of productivity, one that can help anyone learn to succeed with less stress and struggle, and to get more done without sacrificing what we care about most—to become smarter, faster, and better at everything we do" (Amazon).
Alvin Plantinga, Where the Conflict Really Lies: Science, Religion, and Naturalism (Oxford University Press, 2011): "This book is a long-awaited major statement by a pre-eminent analytic philosopher, Alvin Plantinga, on one of our biggest debates — the compatibility of science and religion. The last twenty years has seen a cottage industry of books on this divide, but with little consensus emerging. Plantinga, as a top philosopher but also a proponent of the rationality of religious belief, has a unique contribution to make. His theme in this short book is that the conflict between science and theistic religion is actually superficial, and that at a deeper level they are in concord. Plantinga examines where this conflict is supposed to exist — evolution, evolutionary psychology, analysis of scripture, scientific study of religion — as well as claims by Dan Dennett, Richard Dawkins, and Philip Kitcher that evolution and theistic belief cannot co-exist. Plantinga makes a case that their arguments are not only inconclusive but that the supposed conflicts themselves are superficial, due to the methodological naturalism used by science. On the other hand, science can actually offer support to theistic doctrines, and Plantinga uses the notion of biological and cosmological "fine-tuning" in support of this idea. Plantinga argues that we might think about arguments in science and religion in a new way — as different forms of discourse that try to persuade people to look at questions from a perspective such that they can see that something is true. In this way, there is a deep and massive consonance between theism and the scientific enterprise" (Amazon).
Paul Bloom, Just Babies: The Origins of Good and Evil (Crown, 2013): "From John Locke to Sigmund Freud, philosophers and psychologists have long believed that we begin life as blank moral slates. Many of us take for granted that babies are born selfish and that it is the role of society—and especially parents—to transform them from little sociopaths into civilized beings. In Just Babies, Paul Bloom argues that humans are in fact hardwired with a sense of morality. Drawing on groundbreaking research at Yale, Bloom demonstrates that, even before they can speak or walk, babies judge the goodness and badness of others' actions; feel empathy and compassion; act to soothe those in distress; and have a rudimentary sense of justice. Still, this innate morality is limited, sometimes tragically. We are naturally hostile to strangers, prone to parochialism and bigotry. Bringing together insights from psychology, behavioral economics, evolutionary biology, and philosophy, Bloom explores how we have come to surpass these limitations. Along the way, he examines the morality of chimpanzees, violent psychopaths, religious extremists, and Ivy League professors, and explores our often puzzling moral feelings about sex, politics, religion, and race. In his analysis of the morality of children and adults, Bloom rejects the fashionable view that our moral decisions are driven mainly by gut feelings and unconscious biases. Just as reason has driven our great scientific discoveries, he argues, it is reason and deliberation that makes possible our moral discoveries, such as the wrongness of slavery. Ultimately, it is through our imagination, our compassion, and our uniquely human capacity for rational thought that we can transcend the primitive sense of morality we were born with, becoming more than just babies" (Amazon).
Brené Brown, Braving the Wilderness: The Quest for True Belonging and the Courage to Stand Alone (Random House, 2017): "Social scientist Brené Brown, PhD, LMSW, has sparked a global conversation about the experiences that bring meaning to our lives—experiences of courage, vulnerability, love, belonging, shame, and empathy. In Braving the Wilderness, Brown redefines what it means to truly belong in an age of increased polarization. With her trademark mix of research, storytelling, and honesty, Brown will again change the cultural conversation while mapping a clear path to true belonging. Brown argues that we're experiencing a spiritual crisis of disconnection, and introduces four practices of true belonging that challenge everything we believe about ourselves and each other. She writes, "True belonging requires us to believe in and belong to ourselves so fully that we can find sacredness both in being a part of something and in standing alone when necessary. But in a culture that's rife with perfectionism and pleasing, and with the erosion of civility, it's easy to stay quiet, hide in our ideological bunkers, or fit in rather than show up as our true selves and brave the wilderness of uncertainty and criticism. But true belonging is not something we negotiate or accomplish with others; it's a daily practice that demands integrity and authenticity. It's a personal commitment that we carry in our hearts." Brown offers us the clarity and courage we need to find our way back to ourselves and to each other. And that path cuts right through the wilderness. Brown writes, "The wilderness is an untamed, unpredictable place of solitude and searching. It is a place as dangerous as it is breathtaking, a place as sought after as it is feared. But it turns out to be the place of true belonging, and it's the bravest and most sacred place you will ever stand"" (Amazon).
Brian C. Hales, Laura H. Hales, Joseph Smith's Polygamy: Toward a Better Understanding (Greg Kofford Books, 2015): "In the last several years a wealth of information has been published on Joseph Smith's practice of polygamy. For some who were already well aware of this aspect of early Mormon history, the availability of new research and discovered documents has been a wellspring of further insight and knowledge into this topic. For others who are learning of Joseph's marriages to other women for the first time, these books and online publications (including the LDS Church's recent Gospel Topics essays on the subject) can be both an information overload and a challenge to one's faith. In this short volume, Brian C. Hales (author of the 3-volume Joseph Smith's Polygamy set) and Laura H. Hales wade through the murky waters of history to help bring some clarity to this episode of Mormonism's past, examining both the theological explanations of the practice and the accounts of those who experienced it first hand. As this episode of Mormon history involved more than just Joseph and his first wife Emma, this volume also includes short biographies of the 36 women who were married to the Prophet but whose stories of faith, struggle, and courage have been largely forgotten and ignored over time. While we may never fully understand the details and reasons surrounding this practice, Brian and Laura Hales provide readers with an accessible, forthright, and faithful look into this challenging topic so that we can at least come toward a better understanding" (Amazon).
Categories Arts, BooksTags DR book collection, Fiona Givens, literature, Terryl Givens
Goodreads is my Cyberbrain
August 11, 2017 August 16, 2017 by Nathaniel
A Facebook friend posted a Quora answer to When people read hundreds of books a year, how much of them do they actually remember? I don't know about "hundreds", but I did read about 100 books in 2016 and chances are good I'll break 100 again this year, too. Here's the setup:
I read an embarrassing number of books (I'm in danger of having no life) but if I met you at a party (which I wouldn't, because I have no life) and you mentioned a book that you'd read and I'd also read it, I might not admit it.
I'd lie because unless it was really, really special, I wouldn't remember enough to talk about it intelligently.
The gist of the response thereafter is that it's fine if you don't remember the books you read, because (in this case) you can still harvest them for good ideas. And I think this is fine. It's a perfectly valid reason to read books. Another valid reason would be the food analogy. You probably can't remember (in any great detail) what you had for lunch last month, but it's pretty important that you ate something right? Otherwise you'd starve. And so maybe books are kind of like food for your brain. Even if you don't remember the specifics of any given meal, it still helps to have a high-quality diet. Another valid response.
But here's one more: you can store what you remember about a book in your cyberbrain.
The idea of using computers–and especially the Internet / cloud–to augment human memory is an old one. And it's not theoretical. It's exactly what I do with my Goodreads reviews. I try to write a review of every book I read I also take lots and lots of notes in Evernote. Then, I promptly forget what I read. Sometimes I literally forget that I read a book at all. But when I go back and reread my reviews, a lot of my initial impressions come back.
Over my lifetime, I've certainly read thousands of books. And for the most part, I can't remember them. I kind of have a big hole in my memory between the first few books I really loved as a kid in elementary school and middle school and the books that I started reviewing on Goodreads. In between, I really only remember a few books. The only exception is the ones I have on my shelves. If I pick up those paperbacks, I can basically always remember the overall plot and sometimes a surprising amount of detail. I just need the cues provided by the cover art–and maybe just the existence of a physical reminder–to trigger all those memories.
The Goodreads reviews are like that, but even better.
So review your books, kiddos. It's like a diary of your literary life, and it can help you keep hold of memories that would otherwise be totally lost.
Categories Arts, Books
"Better never means better for everyone"
The Handmaid's tale as a TV show is apparently a big deal. I don't know about that. I really liked the book when I read it a few years ago, but I dreaded it being made for TV and haven't checked the show out. Anyway, because the show is a big deal, I see lots of references to it on Facebook. Here's one that stood out:
Better never means better for everyone. It always means worse for some.
The line is from the book, and it made it into the show, too. Of course it did.
The sentiment is very, very far from unique. In fact, it's pretty close to universal among the left-wing of American politics. It's actually pretty common on the right, too, since it's more about populism than it is about left/right ideology. It crops up all the time. Just as one more example, here's another left-leaning author in another overtly ideological (but not nearly as aesthetically accomplished) book:
"Everybody's history is one long slog of all the horrible shit we've done to each other."
"It's not all that," Tak said. "A lot of it, yes, but there's good things, too. There's art, and cities, and science. All the things we've discovered. All the things we've learned and made better."
"All the things made better for some people. Nobody has ever figured out how to make things better for everybody."
"I know," Tak said.
So, that's one theory of human existence: in all of our history (and for hundreds of years into our imagined future) progress for everyone is impossible.
On the other hand, here's the reality:
The chart comes from Our World in Data's article on extreme poverty.
I understand the idea of living in a fantasy world if the fantasy is better than reality. I can even understand extending this wishful thinking to fantasies that don't actually seem very nice. That's what conspiracy theories are all about, after all. Some people would rather believe in a world where things happen for a reason (and that reason is the Illuminati) rather than believe in a world where things are pretty random and chaotic because the Illuminati running everything is less scary than nobody running anything. OK. Not my cup of tea, but OK.
What I don't understand is choosing to live in fantasy world that is so much grimmer than reality for no discernible benefit.
Which makes you wonder: what motivates this belief–contradicted by all available evidence–that universal improvement is impossible?
Categories Arts, Books, Economics, Politics, Television1 Comment
All the Books
June 14, 2017 by Walker
Here's something depressing:
There are millions of books in the world (and almost definitely hundreds of millions—last they checked, Google had the count at 129,864,880, and that was seven years ago). The rabid and/or competitive readers among you will now be asking yourselves: yes, yes, now how will I read them all?
Well, you won't.
Well, this should be obvious, but it still stings. I've experienced an existential crisis or two based on this very realization. Furthermore, as the author continues, "My to-read list is tantalizingly endless, and I often find myself thinking about the fact that my reading time/life is finite when I'm trying to get through a book that I know I should like but is boring (or annoying) me. As Hari Kunzru put it recently in the New York Times Book Review: "I used to force myself to finish everything I started, which I think is quite good discipline when you're young, but once you've established your taste, and the penny drops that there are only a certain number of books you'll get to read before you die, reading bad ones becomes almost nauseating.""
So how many books have you got left in you? Using the Social Security Life Expectancy Calculator combined with three reader categories, you can get a good idea of how many books you'll get through before you kick the bucket:
25 and female: 86 (61 years left)
Average reader: 732
Voracious reader: 3,050
Super reader: 4,880
25 and male: 82 (57 years left)
40 and female: 85.5 (45.5 years left)
Voracious reader: 950
Super reader: 960
80 and male: 89 (9 years left)
So chop chop. Up that number. Who needs sleep?
God at War: Interview with Greg Boyd
April 11, 2018 May 7, 2017 by Walker
A couple months ago, I gave a talk on "trials and their purpose", which basically become a discussion of the problem of evil in Mormon thought. I read a number of books in preparation for it, including David B. Hart's The Doors of the Sea, Michael Austin's Re-reading Job, and N.T. Wright's Evil & the Justice of God. Two books that I didn't finish prior to the talk was Jon Levenson's Creation and the Persistence of Evil and Gregory Boyd's God at War: The Bible & Spiritual Conflict. The latter in particular I wish I had finished in time. Boyd, a Princeton-educated theologian and pastor, approaches the problem of evil from what he calls the warfare worldview: the perspective that this world is a battlefield between spiritual forces of good and evil. He argues that the
biblical authors generally assume the existence of intermediary spiritual or cosmic beings. These beings, variously termed "gods," "angels," "principalities and powers," "demons," or, in the earliest strata, "Leviathan" or some other cosmic monster, can and do wage war against God, wreak havoc on his creation and bring all manner of ills upon humanity. Whether portraying Yahweh as warring against Rahab and other cosmic monsters of chaos or depicting Jesus as casting out a legion of demons from the possessed Gerasene, the Bible as well as the early postapostolic church assumes that the creation is caught up in the crossfire of an age-old cosmic battle between good and evil. As in other warfare worldviews, the Bible assumes that the course of this warfare greatly affects life on earth (pg. 18).
Boyd traces God's conflict with the forces of chaos and evil from the Old Testament (e.g., the hostile waters of creation, Leviathan, Rahab, the gods of Ps. 82, etc.) to the New Testament (e.g., Jesus' exorcisms, Christus Victor atonement theology). According to Boyd, the evils of this world are not only caused by the free will of human beings, but the free will of demonic beings as well. The book is fascinating and certainly interesting for Mormons, whose own teachings and scriptures depict a pre-mortal "war in heaven" that continues today. Boyd's analysis brings new meaning to Mormon's words: "Wherefore, all things which are good cometh of God; and that which is evil cometh of the devil; for the devil is an enemy unto God, and fighteth against him continually, and inviteth and enticeth to sin, and to do that which is evil continually" (Moroni 7:12).
You can see an interview with Boyd below in which he discusses some of these ideas.
Categories Books, Philosophy, ReligionTags DR book collection, literature, problem of evil
Total BS: Short Video featuring Harry Frankfurt
June 24, 2017 March 23, 2017 by Walker
Several years ago, philosopher Harry Frankfurt released his brief essay On Bullshit through Princeton University Press. The basic idea was that bullshit was different from a lie. A liar knows (and cares about) what the truth is and attempts to hide or distort it. Bullshitters, on the other hand, are more interested in persuading without any regard for the truth. The rhetoric could be true or false, but the only thing that truly matters to a bullshitter is that the audience is convinced. In short, liars conceal the truth. Bullshitters (sometimes) conceal their disinterest in the truth.
You can see Frankfurt discussing this concept in the fairly new video below.
Categories Books, Education, Philosophy, Society, Television2 Comments
Against Democracy: Interview with Jason Brennan
April 11, 2018 March 17, 2017 by Walker
When I shared Jason Brennan's newest book Against Democracy on my Facebook wall, I got a little push back in both the thread and even in a personal email. How could anyone be against democracy? Isn't this just elitist snobbery at best and totalitarianism in the making at worst? In short, no. Following the election, I finished off Ilya Somin's Democracy and Political Ignorance and Bryan Caplan's The Myth of the Rational Voter, both of which showed convincingly that our country consists of a politically ignorant and misinformed electorate. Brennan surveys this literature to demonstrate that voters often choose policies that would make us all worse off. He then dives into the political psychology literature and finds that political participation tends to make us mean and dumb (I told him that chs. 2-3 alone were worth the price of the book). Brennan divides the electorate into three categories:
Hobbits: the typical nonvoter; mostly ignorant and apathetic to politics and social science.
Hooligans: pretty much everyone else; consumes political information in a highly-biased way and ignores evidence contrary to their position.
Vulcans: rare; rational and scientific; can articulate opposing views well; interested in, but dispassionate about politics.
When judged from an instrumentalist point of view (i.e., judging institutions and systems based on their performance, not some supposed intrinsic value), the case for democracy seems far weaker than is often assumed. The evidence he presents helps him build his case for epistocracy: the rule of the knowledgeable. Yet, this isn't some technocratic bureaucracy, but a way to mitigate the negative outcomes of poor voter knowledge.
The book is packed with tons of information and rigorous arguments. I hardly do it justice with the description above. Even if you're not convinced to be an epistocrat, the solid social science alone makes the book worth reading. One of the most interesting books I've read in some time.
You can see an interview with Jason Brennan discussing the book below.
Categories Books, Politics, Social ScienceTags DR book collection, literature


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Emilia Nyström (Muurame, 13 de septiembre de 1983) es una deportista finlandesa que compitió en voleibol, en la modalidad de playa (siempre formando pareja con su hermana gemela Erika). Ganó una medalla de bronce en el Campeonato Europeo de Vóley Playa de 2010.

Palmarés internacional

Referencias

Jugadores de vóley playa de Finlandia

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Contrary to popular belief, dandelions are not just pesky garden weeds. They may have some health benefits.
In fact, people have used the plant to help treat ailments for several centuries. In this article, learn more about dandelion and 10 of its possible health benefits.
We also cover how to use it and possible side effects.
Dandelion is a plant with yellow flowers.Taraxacum officinale is the most common variety of this plant, and it grows in many parts of the world.
Botanists consider dandelions to be herbs. People use the leaves, stem, flower, and root of the dandelion for medicinal purposes.
Dandelions may have various health benefits.
Antioxidants work to neutralize the harmful effects of free radicals. The human body produces free radicals naturally, but they cause harm by accelerating aging or the progression of certain diseases.
Dandelions contain beta-carotene, which is an antioxidant that helps protect cells from damage. Research shows that carotenoids such as beta-carotene play a vital role in reducing cell damage.
The flower of the dandelion is also full of polyphenols, which are another type of antioxidant.
Dandelions contain bioactive compounds that may help lower a person's cholesterol.
One study from 2010 examined the effects of dandelion consumption in rabbits. Its results found that dandelion root and leaf could help lower cholesterol in animals on a high-cholesterol diet.
Another study in mice found that dandelion consumption reduced total cholesterol and levels of fat in the liver. The researchers concluded that dandelion might one day help treat obesity-related nonalcoholic fatty liver disease.
However, testing on humans is necessary to help determine how effective dandelion could be for lowering cholesterol.
There is some evidence to suggest that dandelions contain compounds that may help with regulating blood sugar.
In 2016, some researchers proposed that dandelion's antihyperglycemic, antioxidative, and anti-inflammatory properties may help treat type 2 diabetes. However, further research is required to make any definitive claims.
Some studies indicate that dandelion extracts and compounds may help reduce inflammation in the body.
In one 2014 study, researchers found that chemicals present in dandelions had some positive effects on reducing inflammatory responses.
They conducted the study in cells and not in human participants, which means that more studies are necessary to conclude that dandelion reduces inflammation in the human body.
There is little research to support the use of dandelion for lowering blood pressure.
However, dandelions are a good source of potassium. There is clinical evidence that shows that potassium can help reduce blood pressure.
For example, research has found that people taking a potassium supplement saw a reduction in their blood pressure, especially if they already had high blood pressure.


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Magnatone Tone Cabinets
In 1957, Owners Duhamell and Hellman sold Magna to a group of owners who all came from Thomas Organ and it's parent company Pacific Mercury. Previously, Magna only sold guitars and guitar amps, but with the new ownership coming from an organ company, the first new product to be engineered was a Magnatone organ tone cabinet called the TC-1.
The TC-1 was fitted with two Oxford 12" Alnico speakers faced in opposite directions in the cabinet. From its debut in 1957 through 1959, the TC-1 was produced in more numbers than any other guitar amplifier at Magna.


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SOURCE: Smithsonian Magazine
Smithsonian Magazine Interviews Amy S. Greenberg on Sarah Polk and the Model of Conservative Female Power
tags: presidential history, conservatives, womens history, Sarah Polk
In July 1848, as hundreds of women suffragists gathered in Seneca Falls to demand the right to vote and assert their right to participate in the public sphere, one prominent woman in Washington, D.C., was busy shaping the nation's policy and guiding its direction at the highest level of government. Unfortunately for the activists, she didn't share their politics.
First Lady Sarah Polk formed half of an unusual political partnership with her husband, President James Polk, during his sole term in office from 1845 to 1849. Despite his brief time in office, Polk had an outsized influence on American history, particularly with regard to the Mexican-American War.
As president, Polk sought his wife's counsel on decisions, relied on her smart politicking and benefited from her popularity. Her active role in his presidency made her the most powerful woman of the era, asserts Amy S. Greenberg, professor of history and women's studies at Pennsylvania State University and author of the new book Lady First: The World of First Lady Sarah Polk.
Religious and conservative, Polk didn't support the suffragists' campaign; she had no need for what they sought. Polk had leveraged her privileges as a white, wealthy, childless and educated woman to become "the first openly political First Lady, in a period when the role of women was strictly circumscribed," explains Greenberg, whose book hits shelves amidst a wave of feminist political activism. 131 women were sworn into Congress this January and the race for the Democratic Party nominee for the 2020 presidential election features multiple women candidates.
Read entire article at Smithsonian Magazine