One of our regular commenters (Steve) has his own blog and put up an interesting post today. Here's part of it with a link to the full post at the end. Thanks Steve for letting me cross-post it.
"I've been having some interesting conversations and thoughts about where the line is these days in terms of offending people by pointing out what I think are fallacies, flaws and inconsistencies in their beliefs. Religious people especially like to blur the distinction between themselves and their beliefs; it seems to be a commonly held position that faith based opinions should be respected regardless of their obvious flaws. This is strange to a rationalist like me, in no other field of human conversation are ideas respected simply because someone believes them to be true. Look at politics for example, sport, entertainment, there are as many opinions as there are people but somehow religion demands special treatment.
Other people say things like "aw leave them alone, think of all the good things that religions do", well yes that may be true but so what, many totally objectionable political parties do good things to, for example Hezbollah provides excellent health care and yet that is not a valid reason to give them a free ride when it comes to debate on the middle east. Another frequent claim is "you can't criticise religious stupidity because they aren't the only ones who can be stupid", absolutely, politicians can be incredibly stupid, as can financiers and sports people but just because MUFC donates money to UNICEF it doesn't mean I have to respect Christiano Ronaldo's views on abortion."
Read the full post here:
Naws
Showing newest 60 of 102 posts from June 2009. Show older posts
Showing newest 60 of 102 posts from June 2009. Show older posts
Tuesday, 30 June 2009
Gone with the Wind published on this day in 1936
Gone with the Wind was published on this day in 1936. Every Southern girl of my generation knows the story well. And as we know today, and here I am quoting a source on the Internet: "Many historians regard the book as having a strong ideological commitment to the cause of the Confederacy and a romanticized view of the culture of the antebellum South."
Whatever you think about the book, Southerners know it well so I thought some background trivia would be appropriate today.
"As several elements of Gone with the Wind have parallels with Margaret Mitchell's own life, her experiences may have provided some inspiration for the story. Mitchell's understanding of life and hardship during the American Civil War, for example, came from elderly relatives and neighbors passing war stories to her generation.
While Margaret Mitchell used to say that her Gone with the Wind characters were not based on real people, modern researchers have found similarities to some of the people in Mitchell's own life as well as to individuals she knew or she heard of.
Mitchell's maternal grandmother, Annie Fitzgerald Stephens, was born in 1845; she was the daughter of an Irish immigrant, who owned a large plantation on Tara Road in Clayton County, south of Atlanta, and who married an American woman named Ellen, and had several children, all daughters.
Researchers believed Rhett Butler to be based on Mitchell's first husband, Red Upshaw. She divorced him after she learned he was a bootlegger. Other historical evidence suggests the Butler character to be based on George Trenholm, a famous blockade-runner.
Martha Bulloch Roosevelt, the mother of US president Theodore Roosevelt may have been an inspiration for Scarlett O'Hara. Roosevelt biographer David McCullough discovered that Mitchell, as a reporter for The Atlanta Journal, conducted an interview with one of Martha's closest friends and bridesmaid, Evelyn King Williams, then 87. In that interview, she described Martha's physical appearance, beauty, grace, and intelligence in great detail. The similarities between Martha and the Scarlett character are striking."
Tomorrow is another day.
Blogging equals narcissism
Thanks to a sometime blog reader for sending this in. "If you say who sent it you," she added with a smiley face, "I'm not sending you anything else!" I have been warned...so this is a completely anonymous contribution.
I love this though -- very amusing and probably true.
I love this though -- very amusing and probably true.
Dumb Britain
My sister-in-law in London sent me this. I found it very funny.
UNIVERSITY CHALLENGE (BBC2)
Questioner: What is another name for 'cherrypickers' and 'cheesemongers'?
Contestant: Homosexuals..
Questioner: No. They're regiments in the British Army who will be very upset with you.
BEG, BORROW OR STEAL (BBC2)
Questioner: Where do you think Cambridge University is?
Contestant: Geography isn't my strong point.
Questioner: There's a clue in the title.
Contestant: Leicester
BBC NORFOLK
Questioner: Who had a worldwide hit with What A Wonderful World?
Contestant: I don't know.
Questioner: I'll give you some clues: what do you call the part between your hand and your elbow?
Contestant: Arm.
Questioner: Correct. And if you're not weak, you're...?
Contestant: Strong.
Questioner: Correct - and what was Lord Mountbatten's first name?
Contestant: Louis.
Questioner: Well, there we are then. So who had a worldwide hit with the song What A Wonderful World?
Contestant: Frank Sinatra?
LATE SHOW (BBCMIDLANDS)
Questioner: What is the capital of Italy ?
Contestant: France
Questioner: France is another country. Try again..
Contestant: Oh, um, Benidorm.
Questioner: Wrong, sorry, let's try another question. In which country is the Parthenon?
Contestant: Sorry, I don't know.
Questioner: Just guess a country then.
Contestant: Paris .
THE WEAKEST LINK (BBC2)
Anne Robinson: Oscar Wilde, Adolf Hitler and Jeffrey Archer have all written books about their experiences in what: prison, or the Conservative Party?
Contestant: The Conservative Party.
GWR FM ( Bristol )
Presenter: What happened in Dallas on November 22, 1963?
Contestant: I don't know, I wasn't watching it then.
UNIVERSITY CHALLENGE (BBC2)
Questioner: What is another name for 'cherrypickers' and 'cheesemongers'?
Contestant: Homosexuals..
Questioner: No. They're regiments in the British Army who will be very upset with you.
BEG, BORROW OR STEAL (BBC2)
Questioner: Where do you think Cambridge University is?
Contestant: Geography isn't my strong point.
Questioner: There's a clue in the title.
Contestant: Leicester
BBC NORFOLK
Questioner: Who had a worldwide hit with What A Wonderful World?
Contestant: I don't know.
Questioner: I'll give you some clues: what do you call the part between your hand and your elbow?
Contestant: Arm.
Questioner: Correct. And if you're not weak, you're...?
Contestant: Strong.
Questioner: Correct - and what was Lord Mountbatten's first name?
Contestant: Louis.
Questioner: Well, there we are then. So who had a worldwide hit with the song What A Wonderful World?
Contestant: Frank Sinatra?
LATE SHOW (BBCMIDLANDS)
Questioner: What is the capital of Italy ?
Contestant: France
Questioner: France is another country. Try again..
Contestant: Oh, um, Benidorm.
Questioner: Wrong, sorry, let's try another question. In which country is the Parthenon?
Contestant: Sorry, I don't know.
Questioner: Just guess a country then.
Contestant: Paris .
THE WEAKEST LINK (BBC2)
Anne Robinson: Oscar Wilde, Adolf Hitler and Jeffrey Archer have all written books about their experiences in what: prison, or the Conservative Party?
Contestant: The Conservative Party.
GWR FM ( Bristol )
Presenter: What happened in Dallas on November 22, 1963?
Contestant: I don't know, I wasn't watching it then.
Monday, 29 June 2009
More on women and their bodies
My first post today has sparked some excellent comments, and I saw something else today that enlarges on the subject.
"We are a society that bases everything on age: our rights, our behaviors, our health habits, our family priorities, our looks: all of these things are centered around the number of years we've been alive.
There's a shot in the opening credits of What Not To Wear that declares "No Mini Skirts After 35," a sign that plays into the notion that women should cover up once
they hit that number, as if a 34-year-old can rock a miniskirt like nobody's business, only to turn into a hideous freak the day she turns 35.
On the other hand, we have celebrities like Gwen Stefani, 39, who wear whatever the hell they want, because they can, and why shouldn't they? When it comes to "age appropriate" clothing, perhaps it's not so much about numbers as it is about one's own confidence and ability to pull off trends and styles without looking like they are trying to be anything but themselves.
Shane Watson of the Times of London takes on the shady ground of "age appropriate" clothing, noting that magazines praise women over 40 who make the attempt to be trendy and shrug off old "rules," such as Michelle Obama and Helen Mirren, who wear gorgeous, skin-baring ensembles instead of, oh, I don't know, Quacker Factory sweaters or whatever the hell it is that people think women over 35 should wear.
However, Watson notes, the old "rules" are still stuck in the minds of many women, who feel that they can't do certain things, like show their arms, because it's not considered appropriate after a certain age. "We still fall back on the same old mantras: fortysomethings shouldn't wear short skirts; bikinis are undignified past 35," Watson writes, "Every time we open a magazine, we see confirmation that what counts is not age but body shape and confidence. But still those rules that applied to the pre-Pilates-and-sushi generation keep sucking us back to what is and isn't age-appropriate."
I have seen my mother struggle with these rules when she puts outfits together for special occasions. "I can't wear that," she'll sigh, looking at a beautiful gown, "I'm too old." Bullshit, Mom. You can wear it and you should. Unfortunately, my mother, like many other women, has internalized these old rules, and instead of buying clothing that makes her feel beautiful (and that looks great, too) she plays it safe, for fear of offending anyone."
from Gawker.com
Eliz again: I know all about these rules but I've been hit by double rules by moving to a different culture. What's preferred in Mississippi is fuddy-duddy in London, and what's fine in London is seen as too tight or revealing in Mississippi. I get caught in the middle.
On the other hand, my mother bought very conservative clothes for me so I looked middle-aged at 20. So I figured maybe I could dress like I should have then now, even though I'm 100 years older. I feel like it's owed to me.
"We are a society that bases everything on age: our rights, our behaviors, our health habits, our family priorities, our looks: all of these things are centered around the number of years we've been alive.
There's a shot in the opening credits of What Not To Wear that declares "No Mini Skirts After 35," a sign that plays into the notion that women should cover up once
they hit that number, as if a 34-year-old can rock a miniskirt like nobody's business, only to turn into a hideous freak the day she turns 35.
On the other hand, we have celebrities like Gwen Stefani, 39, who wear whatever the hell they want, because they can, and why shouldn't they? When it comes to "age appropriate" clothing, perhaps it's not so much about numbers as it is about one's own confidence and ability to pull off trends and styles without looking like they are trying to be anything but themselves.
Shane Watson of the Times of London takes on the shady ground of "age appropriate" clothing, noting that magazines praise women over 40 who make the attempt to be trendy and shrug off old "rules," such as Michelle Obama and Helen Mirren, who wear gorgeous, skin-baring ensembles instead of, oh, I don't know, Quacker Factory sweaters or whatever the hell it is that people think women over 35 should wear.
However, Watson notes, the old "rules" are still stuck in the minds of many women, who feel that they can't do certain things, like show their arms, because it's not considered appropriate after a certain age. "We still fall back on the same old mantras: fortysomethings shouldn't wear short skirts; bikinis are undignified past 35," Watson writes, "Every time we open a magazine, we see confirmation that what counts is not age but body shape and confidence. But still those rules that applied to the pre-Pilates-and-sushi generation keep sucking us back to what is and isn't age-appropriate."
I have seen my mother struggle with these rules when she puts outfits together for special occasions. "I can't wear that," she'll sigh, looking at a beautiful gown, "I'm too old." Bullshit, Mom. You can wear it and you should. Unfortunately, my mother, like many other women, has internalized these old rules, and instead of buying clothing that makes her feel beautiful (and that looks great, too) she plays it safe, for fear of offending anyone."
from Gawker.com
Eliz again: I know all about these rules but I've been hit by double rules by moving to a different culture. What's preferred in Mississippi is fuddy-duddy in London, and what's fine in London is seen as too tight or revealing in Mississippi. I get caught in the middle.
On the other hand, my mother bought very conservative clothes for me so I looked middle-aged at 20. So I figured maybe I could dress like I should have then now, even though I'm 100 years older. I feel like it's owed to me.
Ending Fat Talk one anonymous post-it at a time
A woman started a blog aimed at getting other women to leave random notes of support for other women in public places. She wanted women to stop feeling so bad about their bodies. It's an interesting idea, and her website is here:
Operation Beautiful
This is what she writes:
"My name is Caitlin, and I'm the editor of Operation Beautiful. I started this blog because I truly believe in the mission of Operation Beautiful, which is to encourage positive body image in other women. Join me on my quest, and discover how beautiful YOU feel when you post a random note!"
Eliz again: I don't know if this would work in England as people here tend to be more cynical than Americans. But I'm sure I would be cheered up if I saw a friendly note from a 'kind stranger.' (That's how you are supposed to sign them.)
Sunday, 28 June 2009
Strawberries and cream
Beautiful weather in England. I spent a lot of today lazing around outside. The neighbors gave us a bowl of strawberries from their garden; Mel whipped some cream and we indulged in that traditional summertime activity in England -- eating scones with strawberries and cream.
Here I am taking scones to my daughter Katie who was reading under my favorite apple tree. Sitting under the apple tree on a summer afternoon reading is one of the great pleasures of my life.
Here I am taking scones to my daughter Katie who was reading under my favorite apple tree. Sitting under the apple tree on a summer afternoon reading is one of the great pleasures of my life.
Saudi women to be trained to sell lingerie
Thanks to Derry/Drew for sending this interesting article in:
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - Using colorful bras donated by employees at Victoria's Secret, a group of 26 mostly Saudi women completed the first course of its kind to be offered in the kingdom - how to fit, stock and sell underwear - a training organizers hope will help boost a campaign to lift the ban on women selling underwear in the kingdom.
The graduates held a small ceremony at a college in the western seaport of Jiddah on Tuesday, capping 40 hours of instruction during which they learned to overcome their embarrassment at doing bra fittings, deal with customer complaints and display the stock in an appealing manner.
"It was a beautiful experience," said Faten Abdo, a 32-year-old coordinator in the offices of a lingerie company.
"The most shocking thing for me was the bra sizes," she added. "We didn't know how to get proper measurements before."
The 10-day course comes three months after a group of Saudi women launched a campaign to boycott lingerie stores until they employ women. Almost all the stores in the kingdom are staffed by men. The only exceptions are a few women-only boutiques, some of them inside popular shopping centers.
The restrictions are ironic in a country that goes to great lengths to segregate the sexes. Men and women, for instance, who are not close relatives cannot stand in the same line at fast-food outlets or even be in the same car together. Conservative clerics have strong influence on government and society, and they ban anything they believe might lead to women's emancipation, such as driving or voting.
But those pushing for saleswomen in lingerie stores say they were tired of discussing intimate details with male staff and enduring their scrutiny when they ask for a particular cup size.
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - Using colorful bras donated by employees at Victoria's Secret, a group of 26 mostly Saudi women completed the first course of its kind to be offered in the kingdom - how to fit, stock and sell underwear - a training organizers hope will help boost a campaign to lift the ban on women selling underwear in the kingdom.
The graduates held a small ceremony at a college in the western seaport of Jiddah on Tuesday, capping 40 hours of instruction during which they learned to overcome their embarrassment at doing bra fittings, deal with customer complaints and display the stock in an appealing manner.
"It was a beautiful experience," said Faten Abdo, a 32-year-old coordinator in the offices of a lingerie company.
"The most shocking thing for me was the bra sizes," she added. "We didn't know how to get proper measurements before."
The 10-day course comes three months after a group of Saudi women launched a campaign to boycott lingerie stores until they employ women. Almost all the stores in the kingdom are staffed by men. The only exceptions are a few women-only boutiques, some of them inside popular shopping centers.
The restrictions are ironic in a country that goes to great lengths to segregate the sexes. Men and women, for instance, who are not close relatives cannot stand in the same line at fast-food outlets or even be in the same car together. Conservative clerics have strong influence on government and society, and they ban anything they believe might lead to women's emancipation, such as driving or voting.
But those pushing for saleswomen in lingerie stores say they were tired of discussing intimate details with male staff and enduring their scrutiny when they ask for a particular cup size.
Sunday morning
A reader sends in this question. "If the number of Christians in the next generation is declining, as recent surveys suggest, what will happen to all the churches in America? There are so many new ones in the South with huge parking lots to accommodate the faithful. These will be empty someday if numbers continue to decline."
The reader goes on to make a suggestion of his own. "Turn these into big movie theatres." He wonders what other readers of this blog might suggest for unused churches. In England, churches are resold as private houses, but buyers can be put off thinking something bad will happen if you use a former church as a domestic residence.
Another reader from Mississippi wrote yesterday: "Like you, I'm an atheist, but not quite as polite about it as you are. It's especially difficult here where there's a scripture of the day every day in the paper. I've been reading a lot of Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens and Philip Pullman, all highly recommended."
Thank you for sending me your thoughts and opinions. I love to get e-mail from previously unknown readers.
Continuing on with the religious theme:
GIVE Richard Dawkins a child for a week’s summer camp and he will try to give you an atheist for life.
The author of The God Delusion is helping to launch Britain’s first summer retreat for non-believers, where children will have lessons in evolution and sing along to John Lennon’s Imagine.
The five-day camp in Somerset (motto: “It’s beyond belief”) is for children aged eight to 17 and will rival traditional faith-based breaks run by the Scouts and church groups.
Budding atheists will be given lessons to arm themselves in the ways of rational scepticism. There will be sessions in moral philosophy and evolutionary biology along with more conventional pursuits such as trekking and tug-of-war. There will also be a £10 prize for the child who can disprove the existence of the mythical unicorn.
Domestic notes:
Another beautiful day in the UK. The sun is beckoning to me so I am going to abandon my chores and sit outside in the morning sunshine before it gets too hot.
I made ice cream last night. I have a little European ice cream maker so it can only make a quart but it broke so I had to put the ice cream in the freezer and stir it manually until it froze. It's delicious. I 'tested' a spoonful of it this morning and kept going back for a few more Quality Control tests with my spoon until my husband said, "Why don't you just put some in a little bowl and eat that?" But then those calories would count. As long as I'm only 'testing' it with a spoon, that's not real eating, is it??
Recipe:
1 pint double cream
1 pint full-fat milk
1 cup sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
What could be easier than that?
Going out into the sunshine now. See you later.
The reader goes on to make a suggestion of his own. "Turn these into big movie theatres." He wonders what other readers of this blog might suggest for unused churches. In England, churches are resold as private houses, but buyers can be put off thinking something bad will happen if you use a former church as a domestic residence.
Another reader from Mississippi wrote yesterday: "Like you, I'm an atheist, but not quite as polite about it as you are. It's especially difficult here where there's a scripture of the day every day in the paper. I've been reading a lot of Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens and Philip Pullman, all highly recommended."
Thank you for sending me your thoughts and opinions. I love to get e-mail from previously unknown readers.
Continuing on with the religious theme:
GIVE Richard Dawkins a child for a week’s summer camp and he will try to give you an atheist for life.
The author of The God Delusion is helping to launch Britain’s first summer retreat for non-believers, where children will have lessons in evolution and sing along to John Lennon’s Imagine.
The five-day camp in Somerset (motto: “It’s beyond belief”) is for children aged eight to 17 and will rival traditional faith-based breaks run by the Scouts and church groups.
Budding atheists will be given lessons to arm themselves in the ways of rational scepticism. There will be sessions in moral philosophy and evolutionary biology along with more conventional pursuits such as trekking and tug-of-war. There will also be a £10 prize for the child who can disprove the existence of the mythical unicorn.
Domestic notes:
Another beautiful day in the UK. The sun is beckoning to me so I am going to abandon my chores and sit outside in the morning sunshine before it gets too hot.
I made ice cream last night. I have a little European ice cream maker so it can only make a quart but it broke so I had to put the ice cream in the freezer and stir it manually until it froze. It's delicious. I 'tested' a spoonful of it this morning and kept going back for a few more Quality Control tests with my spoon until my husband said, "Why don't you just put some in a little bowl and eat that?" But then those calories would count. As long as I'm only 'testing' it with a spoon, that's not real eating, is it??
Recipe:
1 pint double cream
1 pint full-fat milk
1 cup sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
What could be easier than that?
Going out into the sunshine now. See you later.
Saturday, 27 June 2009
What is your most relaxing place?
I was reading an exercise to lower your stress. This is what it says:
Imagine a place where you feel at your most relaxed. It can either be a real place or somewhere that you've made up.
What can you SEE?
SMELL?
HEAR?
FEEL?
Everyone tell me what their special place is in the comments section.
For me, I can see brilliantly blue skies, smell the sea, hear the waves slamming the shore and feel sunshine on my skin.
My Day So Far
It's been beautiful in England. Sunny and warm. I slept late because I'd had such a tiring week. Mel brought me coffee and the cat jumped on the bed as I read the paper.
My daughter came home so that made me happy. I came downstairs and saw my husband playing Michael Jackson's The Way you Make Me Feel so I began to dance to that and my daughter said I was crazy.
Later I cycled to do errands -- take my ball gown to the cleaners, get prescriptions filled, buy beautiful apricots and cherries at the fruit and veg shop.
Then I went into town to meet a friend for lunch. We discussed her problem with a friend. It was very interesting as I could try to analyze her situation as an outsider as I only know her friend slightly.
I came back home and Mel whipped up some cream for scones. My daughter Katie asked for scones, and we got them. She was so pleased with us that she's announced she 'might' come home next week.
My son has a friend over who has a nut allergy, and I have no idea what to get for dinner. We were going to get Indian food from a local restaurant but can't take the risk now. I have about an hour to figure this problem out.
And how is your day going?
Imagine a place where you feel at your most relaxed. It can either be a real place or somewhere that you've made up.
What can you SEE?
SMELL?
HEAR?
FEEL?
Everyone tell me what their special place is in the comments section.
For me, I can see brilliantly blue skies, smell the sea, hear the waves slamming the shore and feel sunshine on my skin.
My Day So Far
It's been beautiful in England. Sunny and warm. I slept late because I'd had such a tiring week. Mel brought me coffee and the cat jumped on the bed as I read the paper.
My daughter came home so that made me happy. I came downstairs and saw my husband playing Michael Jackson's The Way you Make Me Feel so I began to dance to that and my daughter said I was crazy.
Later I cycled to do errands -- take my ball gown to the cleaners, get prescriptions filled, buy beautiful apricots and cherries at the fruit and veg shop.
Then I went into town to meet a friend for lunch. We discussed her problem with a friend. It was very interesting as I could try to analyze her situation as an outsider as I only know her friend slightly.
I came back home and Mel whipped up some cream for scones. My daughter Katie asked for scones, and we got them. She was so pleased with us that she's announced she 'might' come home next week.
My son has a friend over who has a nut allergy, and I have no idea what to get for dinner. We were going to get Indian food from a local restaurant but can't take the risk now. I have about an hour to figure this problem out.
And how is your day going?
Smoker's corner
At the office, smokers' areas have been built so they can smoke away from building entrances. In an effort to spruce it, little laurel trees were planted all around the smoker's area. What has interested me is how the laurel trees haven't grown very well -- their leaves are straggly and many are brown. These trees stand in contrast to all the other trees at the office -- it makes you wonder if something isn't stunting their growth.
I don't know -- I was just pondering. My friends in the tobacco industry say all the studies that say cigarettes give smokers cancer are flawed. What do you think?
Smoking costs Health Service more than previously estimated
Smoking costs the NHS over £5 billion a year, more than three times previous estimates, according to new research.
Care for people who smoke accounts for over five per cent of the overall budget, they found.
The cost has gone up by around five times in the last 18 years, boffins said, though the proportion of the entire budget has not changed dramatically in that time.
Friday, 26 June 2009
Baloney Detection Kit
With a sea of information coming at us from all directions, how do we sift out the misinformation and bogus claims, and get to the truth? Michael Shermer of Skeptic Magazine lays out a "Baloney Detection Kit," ten questions we should ask when encountering a claim.
from Richard Dawkins' website
from Richard Dawkins' website
Bring your guns to church
Interesting story from the New York Times. Wonder what Jesus would think of this?
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Ken Pagano, the pastor of the New Bethel Church here, is passionate about gun rights. He shoots regularly at the local firing range, and his sermon two weeks ago was on “God, Guns, Gospel and Geometry.” And on Saturday night, he is inviting his congregation of 150 and others to wear or carry their firearms into the sanctuary to “celebrate our rights as Americans!” as a promotional flier for the “open carry celebration” puts it.
“God and guns were part of the foundation of this country,” Mr. Pagano, 49, said Wednesday in the small brick Assembly of God church, where a large wooden cross hung over the altar and two American flags jutted from side walls. “I don’t see any contradiction in this. Not every Christian denomination is pacifist.”
The bring-your-gun-to-church day, which will include a $1 raffle of a handgun, firearms safety lessons and a picnic, is another sign that the gun culture in the United States is thriving despite, or perhaps because of, President Obama’s election in November.
Last year, the National Rifle Association ran a multimillion-dollar advertising campaign against Mr. Obama, stoking fears that he would be the most antigun president in history and that firearms would be confiscated. One worry was that a Democratic president and Congress would reinstitute the assault-weapons ban, which expired in 2004.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Ken Pagano, the pastor of the New Bethel Church here, is passionate about gun rights. He shoots regularly at the local firing range, and his sermon two weeks ago was on “God, Guns, Gospel and Geometry.” And on Saturday night, he is inviting his congregation of 150 and others to wear or carry their firearms into the sanctuary to “celebrate our rights as Americans!” as a promotional flier for the “open carry celebration” puts it.
“God and guns were part of the foundation of this country,” Mr. Pagano, 49, said Wednesday in the small brick Assembly of God church, where a large wooden cross hung over the altar and two American flags jutted from side walls. “I don’t see any contradiction in this. Not every Christian denomination is pacifist.”
The bring-your-gun-to-church day, which will include a $1 raffle of a handgun, firearms safety lessons and a picnic, is another sign that the gun culture in the United States is thriving despite, or perhaps because of, President Obama’s election in November.
Last year, the National Rifle Association ran a multimillion-dollar advertising campaign against Mr. Obama, stoking fears that he would be the most antigun president in history and that firearms would be confiscated. One worry was that a Democratic president and Congress would reinstitute the assault-weapons ban, which expired in 2004.
I'll be there
Icons of my youth are dropping like flies -- first Farrah Fawcett, now Michael Jackson.
Scenes of my life are associated with Michael Jackson's music. The Jackson Five was playing the night I went to my first boy/girl party. I remember sitting in a dark corner of the room, watching them dance and listening to Michael Jackson sing.
When Thriller was released, I was sharing an apartment in Jackson, Mississippi, with my friend Elizabeth (who now lives in Detroit). I played Thriller over and over during that year. It was such an exciting sound.
I was listening to the radio coming in to the office, and a DJ said that we will always remember where we were when we heard Michael Jackson was dead, just like we remember Elvis and JFK. So please tell me in the comments section where you were.
Here's mine:
JFK: I was coming out of elementary school in Natchez, Mississippi, and my mother told me when she picked me up. I was way too young to grasp what that meant.
Elvis: I was sitting in a rocking chair watching TV when the program was interrupted with the news Elvis was dead. As I was in Mississippi, this was a major news story.
Michael Jackson: I was lurching into the kitchen to find some coffee to help me wake up when my son told me the news. I was shocked.
I thought I'd put up a YouTube video of one of Jackson's songs for you to listen to today. But which one? I turned on my phone when I got to my desk and saw there was a text message from my husband. I'd called him last night to see if he could pick me up at Reading station when my train came in after rehearsals but hadn't seen his reply. This was what he wrote:
I'll be there
So I knew which song to put up:
Scenes of my life are associated with Michael Jackson's music. The Jackson Five was playing the night I went to my first boy/girl party. I remember sitting in a dark corner of the room, watching them dance and listening to Michael Jackson sing.
When Thriller was released, I was sharing an apartment in Jackson, Mississippi, with my friend Elizabeth (who now lives in Detroit). I played Thriller over and over during that year. It was such an exciting sound.
I was listening to the radio coming in to the office, and a DJ said that we will always remember where we were when we heard Michael Jackson was dead, just like we remember Elvis and JFK. So please tell me in the comments section where you were.
Here's mine:
JFK: I was coming out of elementary school in Natchez, Mississippi, and my mother told me when she picked me up. I was way too young to grasp what that meant.
Elvis: I was sitting in a rocking chair watching TV when the program was interrupted with the news Elvis was dead. As I was in Mississippi, this was a major news story.
Michael Jackson: I was lurching into the kitchen to find some coffee to help me wake up when my son told me the news. I was shocked.
I thought I'd put up a YouTube video of one of Jackson's songs for you to listen to today. But which one? I turned on my phone when I got to my desk and saw there was a text message from my husband. I'd called him last night to see if he could pick me up at Reading station when my train came in after rehearsals but hadn't seen his reply. This was what he wrote:
I'll be there
So I knew which song to put up:
Thursday, 25 June 2009
Secularism: a creed of mere negations
Regular blog commenter Brenda has taken umbrage with me quoting stupid Christians on the blog. She sends in a more balanced view from the Wall Street Journal (below). Thanks Brenda; I never would have seen this otherwise.
"Have you ever heard the one about the Christian who started to study calculus and ended up losing his faith? Of course you have. Such "conversion" to atheism is supposed to be the story of all modern, thinking people. But imagine it happening the other way around. Moreover, imagine the convert being a well-informed, public intellectual who had long made it his business to argue that faith is irrational?
Just such a conversion has happened to A.N. Wilson, the 58-year-old British biographer, novelist and man of letters. He was once an observant Anglican and, later, a Roman Catholic, but in the 1980s he lost his faith and began skewering the supposed delusions of the faithful. His antifaith stance was expressed in books such as "God's Funeral" (1999) and "Jesus: A Life" (1992). A few weeks ago, however, Mr. Wilson confessed that Christ had risen indeed. He attributed this to "the confidence I have gained with age." He now says he believes that atheists are like "people who have no ear for music or who have never been in love."
Mr. Wilson's story matches that of other skeptical authors who became convinced by Christianity, not least in Victorian Britain, when Darwin and various modern ideas shook the foundations of faith among the educated classes. Among the notable examples from Victorian Britain are Thomas Cooper, the most popular free-thinking lecturer in London in the 1850s; George Sexton, the most academically accomplished secularist intellectual of the time; and Joseph Barker, a well-respected leader of the mid-19th-century free-thinking movement. The 20th century also had its share of writers and intellectuals who rediscovered Christianity as mature thinkers, including T.S. Eliot, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, C.S. Lewis, Graham Greene, Evelyn Waugh and W.H. Auden.
Our modern assumption that thought and faith are incompatible can be traced to the Victorian atheists. As one of them snidely remarked when a fellow secularist came to faith: "I find it hard to believe that someone could progress backwards."
Secularist leaders were usually raised religious. As clever youths, they would begin to handle the Bible critically. They prided themselves in being "rational" and would decide that Christian beliefs did not meet this standard. They would then go on to find intellectual satisfaction in picking apart the beliefs of others. Thomas Paine's "Age of Reason," a book beloved by free-thinkers in the 19th century, systematically went through the Bible, gleefully mocking each book in turn.
Those who later recanted their atheism went on from this common start to begin to doubt their doubts. They gradually decided that their rationalistic method was too narrow: It could pick holes not only in Christianity but in any attempt to distinguish between right and wrong or to articulate the meaning of life. They came to realize that they could only tear down and thus were left intellectually with no habitable place to live. John Henry Gordon, who held the only full-time, salaried secularist lecturer position in England, came to believe that secularism was a creed of "mere negations.""
To read the entire article, go here
Mr. Larsen is the author of "Crisis of Doubt: Honest Faith in Nineteenth-Century England" (Oxford University Press, 2008).
"Have you ever heard the one about the Christian who started to study calculus and ended up losing his faith? Of course you have. Such "conversion" to atheism is supposed to be the story of all modern, thinking people. But imagine it happening the other way around. Moreover, imagine the convert being a well-informed, public intellectual who had long made it his business to argue that faith is irrational?
Just such a conversion has happened to A.N. Wilson, the 58-year-old British biographer, novelist and man of letters. He was once an observant Anglican and, later, a Roman Catholic, but in the 1980s he lost his faith and began skewering the supposed delusions of the faithful. His antifaith stance was expressed in books such as "God's Funeral" (1999) and "Jesus: A Life" (1992). A few weeks ago, however, Mr. Wilson confessed that Christ had risen indeed. He attributed this to "the confidence I have gained with age." He now says he believes that atheists are like "people who have no ear for music or who have never been in love."
Mr. Wilson's story matches that of other skeptical authors who became convinced by Christianity, not least in Victorian Britain, when Darwin and various modern ideas shook the foundations of faith among the educated classes. Among the notable examples from Victorian Britain are Thomas Cooper, the most popular free-thinking lecturer in London in the 1850s; George Sexton, the most academically accomplished secularist intellectual of the time; and Joseph Barker, a well-respected leader of the mid-19th-century free-thinking movement. The 20th century also had its share of writers and intellectuals who rediscovered Christianity as mature thinkers, including T.S. Eliot, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, C.S. Lewis, Graham Greene, Evelyn Waugh and W.H. Auden.
Our modern assumption that thought and faith are incompatible can be traced to the Victorian atheists. As one of them snidely remarked when a fellow secularist came to faith: "I find it hard to believe that someone could progress backwards."
Secularist leaders were usually raised religious. As clever youths, they would begin to handle the Bible critically. They prided themselves in being "rational" and would decide that Christian beliefs did not meet this standard. They would then go on to find intellectual satisfaction in picking apart the beliefs of others. Thomas Paine's "Age of Reason," a book beloved by free-thinkers in the 19th century, systematically went through the Bible, gleefully mocking each book in turn.
Those who later recanted their atheism went on from this common start to begin to doubt their doubts. They gradually decided that their rationalistic method was too narrow: It could pick holes not only in Christianity but in any attempt to distinguish between right and wrong or to articulate the meaning of life. They came to realize that they could only tear down and thus were left intellectually with no habitable place to live. John Henry Gordon, who held the only full-time, salaried secularist lecturer position in England, came to believe that secularism was a creed of "mere negations.""
To read the entire article, go here
Mr. Larsen is the author of "Crisis of Doubt: Honest Faith in Nineteenth-Century England" (Oxford University Press, 2008).
A book review
I put a novel I'd written up on Amazon to be downloaded as a Kindle purchase. I made my friend Elizabeth give me a five-star review even though she'd never read it. As the years have passed, I've come to realize that the book probably wasn't any good but I loved the whole experience of it. Now I see someone actually bought it and wrote a review of it on my birthday in March. I'm sure her review is totally accurate but somehow I don't even mind because it's so exciting to have it up there on Amazon and someone actually downloaded it.
Maybe one day when I have more time I'll try again to write a novel. But hopefully it won't be as bad as this one.
Here's what the reviewer said:
"I found this book to be increasingly boring to the point that I couldn't even finish it.
The characters had no depth whatsoever. I didn't mind deleting it from my Kindle because I just couldn't make myself care about any of the characters.
The writing was poor and stilted with no imagery at all."
Eliz again: OUCH!
Maybe one day when I have more time I'll try again to write a novel. But hopefully it won't be as bad as this one.
Here's what the reviewer said:
"I found this book to be increasingly boring to the point that I couldn't even finish it.
The characters had no depth whatsoever. I didn't mind deleting it from my Kindle because I just couldn't make myself care about any of the characters.
The writing was poor and stilted with no imagery at all."
Eliz again: OUCH!
About suffering they were never wrong
Interesting take on Auden's poem Musée Des Beaux Arts. Timothy Noah compares it to him napping on the sofa while people are dying in the train crash in Washington DC this week. Read on:
"A middle-aged man sleeps on his couch. Mere blocks away, two trains collide during rush hour. Twenty-five minutes later, the man is awakened not by the sound of sirens (common in this urban neighborhood) but by a phone ringing. It is his sister, calling from 3,000 miles away. Her stepdaughter, 225 miles north of where the incident took place, has just texted her about the fatal crash.
Time to update W.H. Auden's "Musée Des Beaux Arts"? The middle-aged man dozing on his couch (yes, that's me, recovering from a minor medical procedure) fits with "someone … eating or opening a window or just walking dully along" as less than a mile away at least four people die in a D.C. Metrorail collision. The old masters still have that right. But what they, and Auden, couldn't have anticipated was that at least some of the people turned away "quite leisurely from the disaster" would be Twittering Icarus' fall."
Musee des Beaux Arts W.H. Auden
About suffering they were never wrong,
The Old Masters; how well, they understood
Its human position; how it takes place
While someone else is eating or opening a window or just walking dully along;
How, when the aged are reverently, passionately waiting
For the miraculous birth, there always must be
Children who did not specially want it to happen, skating
On a pond at the edge of the wood:
They never forgot
That even the dreadful martyrdom must run its course
Anyhow in a corner, some untidy spot
Where the dogs go on with their doggy life and the torturer's horse
Scratches its innocent behind on a tree.
In Breughel's Icarus, for instance: how everything turns away
Quite leisurely from the disaster; the ploughman may
Have heard the splash, the forsaken cry,
But for him it was not an important failure; the sun shone
As it had to on the white legs disappearing into the green
Water; and the expensive delicate ship that must have seen
Something amazing, a boy falling out of the sky,
had somewhere to get to and sailed calmly on.
1940
"A middle-aged man sleeps on his couch. Mere blocks away, two trains collide during rush hour. Twenty-five minutes later, the man is awakened not by the sound of sirens (common in this urban neighborhood) but by a phone ringing. It is his sister, calling from 3,000 miles away. Her stepdaughter, 225 miles north of where the incident took place, has just texted her about the fatal crash.
Time to update W.H. Auden's "Musée Des Beaux Arts"? The middle-aged man dozing on his couch (yes, that's me, recovering from a minor medical procedure) fits with "someone … eating or opening a window or just walking dully along" as less than a mile away at least four people die in a D.C. Metrorail collision. The old masters still have that right. But what they, and Auden, couldn't have anticipated was that at least some of the people turned away "quite leisurely from the disaster" would be Twittering Icarus' fall."
Musee des Beaux Arts W.H. Auden
About suffering they were never wrong,
The Old Masters; how well, they understood
Its human position; how it takes place
While someone else is eating or opening a window or just walking dully along;
How, when the aged are reverently, passionately waiting
For the miraculous birth, there always must be
Children who did not specially want it to happen, skating
On a pond at the edge of the wood:
They never forgot
That even the dreadful martyrdom must run its course
Anyhow in a corner, some untidy spot
Where the dogs go on with their doggy life and the torturer's horse
Scratches its innocent behind on a tree.
In Breughel's Icarus, for instance: how everything turns away
Quite leisurely from the disaster; the ploughman may
Have heard the splash, the forsaken cry,
But for him it was not an important failure; the sun shone
As it had to on the white legs disappearing into the green
Water; and the expensive delicate ship that must have seen
Something amazing, a boy falling out of the sky,
had somewhere to get to and sailed calmly on.
1940
Wednesday, 24 June 2009
A nice Christian rant
Here's a rant from the Christian Voice magazine. Rev. Michael Bresciani says:
"June 6 is D-Day, June 14 is Flag Day and this year we celebrate Fathers Day on June 21. These observances have long been a deep and revered part of American culture …
June has traditionally been a month of honoring fathers, soldiers and patriots. Now, thanks to the social engineering of Barack Obama, we have a whole month to celebrate lesbians, bi-sexuals, gays and transgenders. In America, there will be about 290 million people who will likely not be rushing out to observe this month long celebration.
Barack Obama proclaimed June as LBGT month, saying he has partnered with the gay community to ‘advance a wide range if initiatives’. He plans to enhance hate crimes, repeal ‘don’t ask – don’t tell’ in the military and advance the right for gays to adopt.
We can’t say we didn’t see it coming, but choosing the month of June is almost a slap in the face to millions of Americans who choose to remember the fathers, warriors and patriots who have given so much to make the country what it is. Nothing could seem more like a futile attempt to mix oil and water. This is indeed social engineering, but it is not very sociable."
Eliz again: Wow, can you imagine how harsh this tirade would be if this guy wasn't a Christian?
"June 6 is D-Day, June 14 is Flag Day and this year we celebrate Fathers Day on June 21. These observances have long been a deep and revered part of American culture …
June has traditionally been a month of honoring fathers, soldiers and patriots. Now, thanks to the social engineering of Barack Obama, we have a whole month to celebrate lesbians, bi-sexuals, gays and transgenders. In America, there will be about 290 million people who will likely not be rushing out to observe this month long celebration.
Barack Obama proclaimed June as LBGT month, saying he has partnered with the gay community to ‘advance a wide range if initiatives’. He plans to enhance hate crimes, repeal ‘don’t ask – don’t tell’ in the military and advance the right for gays to adopt.
We can’t say we didn’t see it coming, but choosing the month of June is almost a slap in the face to millions of Americans who choose to remember the fathers, warriors and patriots who have given so much to make the country what it is. Nothing could seem more like a futile attempt to mix oil and water. This is indeed social engineering, but it is not very sociable."
Eliz again: Wow, can you imagine how harsh this tirade would be if this guy wasn't a Christian?
Richard Nixon's idea of acceptable abortions
Did you see this statement of Richard Nixon's released this week?
"There are times when an abortion is necessary. I know that. When you have a black and a white,’ he told an aide, before adding: ‘Or a rape.’"
"There are times when an abortion is necessary. I know that. When you have a black and a white,’ he told an aide, before adding: ‘Or a rape.’"
A Seven-Incher near your mouth
This post from Gawker. com made me laugh:
"Yesterday Burger King's financial woes were blamed on their "edgy" ad agency. Now tonight our pal Copyranter sent us their newest advertisement, a reeking of desperation creation he called the "most overtly blow-jobby ad I've ever seen."
The ad agency behind this is Crispin Porter Bogusky and just look what the ad wizards over there have come up with now to stop BK's bleeding! I mean, what better way to sell oblong meat sandwiches than by suggesting fellatio?! How did they ever think of that? Just look at all that piping hot beef laden with creamy mayo aligned perfectly with the open mouth of a wide-eyed blonde, sitting just above the line "It'll Blow Your Mind Away." Who doesn't want to run on down to BK for one of those right now?"
Did you know nutmeg is a narcotic?
I love sharing important news like this with you. I had no idea of the complexity of nutmeg. I'm going to get a new bottle (I've been using the same one for about six years and treat it with more respect.)
"Nutmeg is used in Arabic and Indian folk medicine today, but its use as an herbal remedy in Europe is long forgotten. Use as a medicine never seems to have caught on in the United States, with the exception of its use as an abortifacient in the nineteenth century.
This use offered the West its first glimpses into the narcotic properties of nutmeg, as a number of young women became delirious after using large quantities of nutmeg to induce miscarriages.
It may have been these turn-of-the-century reports that led to the use of nutmeg in American prisons by the 1940s or earlier.
One little-known application of nutmeg is its traditional use as an aphrodisiac. In India, nutmeg has been added to curry dishes and also to betel quids for its aphrodisiac effect."
When a human being eats nutmeg it opens his heart, and his sense is pure, and it puts him in a good state of mind. Take nutmeg and (in the same amount) cinnamon and some cloves and grind them up. And then, from this powder and some water, make flour -and roll out some little tarts. Eat these often and it will lower the bitterness of your heart and your mind and open your heart and your numbed senses. It will make your spirit happy, purify and cleanse your mind, lower all bad fluids in you, give your blood a good tonic, and make you strong.
From a writer in the 12th century
"Nutmeg is used in Arabic and Indian folk medicine today, but its use as an herbal remedy in Europe is long forgotten. Use as a medicine never seems to have caught on in the United States, with the exception of its use as an abortifacient in the nineteenth century.
This use offered the West its first glimpses into the narcotic properties of nutmeg, as a number of young women became delirious after using large quantities of nutmeg to induce miscarriages.
It may have been these turn-of-the-century reports that led to the use of nutmeg in American prisons by the 1940s or earlier.
One little-known application of nutmeg is its traditional use as an aphrodisiac. In India, nutmeg has been added to curry dishes and also to betel quids for its aphrodisiac effect."
When a human being eats nutmeg it opens his heart, and his sense is pure, and it puts him in a good state of mind. Take nutmeg and (in the same amount) cinnamon and some cloves and grind them up. And then, from this powder and some water, make flour -and roll out some little tarts. Eat these often and it will lower the bitterness of your heart and your mind and open your heart and your numbed senses. It will make your spirit happy, purify and cleanse your mind, lower all bad fluids in you, give your blood a good tonic, and make you strong.
From a writer in the 12th century
Tuesday, 23 June 2009
Great operatic experience
I met Lisa and two of her friends from New York at the opera last night. We had a wonderful time. We had two courses of our meal at one of the opera house's restaurants before the show. Then the bell rang for us to be seated. We watched the first act, then the bell rang again and we went back to the restaurant for our dessert. At the next intermission, we went back for coffee and petit fours. Now this is the way to enjoy opera -- to intermingle it with constant eating and drinking.
The opera itself was such a pleasure to watch. Renee Fleming was superb as Violetta, and when she finally died in the last act, I was almost crying. We got to meet her backstage afterwards as we were with a friend of hers. When her assistant opened to door to let us enter her dressing room, there she was dressed in a black finery and diamonds, looking beautiful, after having died of TB onstage just moments before.
Also waiting to meet Renee was Patrick Stewart, Capt Picard in Star Trek. I wanted to say ENGAGE! and MAKE IT SO to him but I stopped myself. I snapped photos of us backstage but he'd turn around so his face wasn't in the picture.
There he is behind Lisa and Rodger, holding a red program.
I was wondering how it is that celebrities get backstage passes to meet each other. Do they call up and say, "I'm a celebrity, I want a backstage pass to meet another of my kind?"
This is the only picture I have of us meeting Renee Fleming backstage. There is bad camera shake; my daughter's boyfriend fixed it as best he could but I think I'll just have to think of it as an 'artistic' photo instead of an accurate representation of what we looked like.
Katie at Henley
I've always admired the way Perez Hilton writes cute comments on the photos on his site but couldn't figure out how he did it. Someone at work told me to use Powerpoint so I just tried on a photo of my daughter rowing at Henley. Her BF took it of her last week.
I got it to work. It's a pretty lame comment but it's just my first attempt. I will keep playing with it, and soon I will be putting zingers on pics with ease.
I got it to work. It's a pretty lame comment but it's just my first attempt. I will keep playing with it, and soon I will be putting zingers on pics with ease.
Americans are lazy and unemployable
Just had to post this inflammatory stuff from my friend Richi's blog. Link to the whole article at the end.
"Vineet Nayar, the highly respected CEO of HCL Technologies, one of India's hottest IT services vendors ... related a recent experience with an education official in a large U.S. state. The official wanted to know why HCL, a $2.5 billion (revenue) company with more than 3,000 people across 21 offices in 15 states, wasn't hiring more people in his state. Vineet's short answer: because most American college grads are "unemployable."
...
They're far less inclined than students from developing countries like India, China, Brazil, South Africa, and Ireland to spend their time learning the "boring" details of tech process, methodology, and tools--ITIL, Six Sigma, and the like. ... [So] most Americans are just too expensive to train."
Americans are lazy and unemployable
"Vineet Nayar, the highly respected CEO of HCL Technologies, one of India's hottest IT services vendors ... related a recent experience with an education official in a large U.S. state. The official wanted to know why HCL, a $2.5 billion (revenue) company with more than 3,000 people across 21 offices in 15 states, wasn't hiring more people in his state. Vineet's short answer: because most American college grads are "unemployable."
...
They're far less inclined than students from developing countries like India, China, Brazil, South Africa, and Ireland to spend their time learning the "boring" details of tech process, methodology, and tools--ITIL, Six Sigma, and the like. ... [So] most Americans are just too expensive to train."
Americans are lazy and unemployable
Time to put the bird food away
A friend, Chris Eccles, moved from England to Maine a few years ago. He loves the American life. Except the other morning, when he opened the door of his house and saw this:
He wrote us that it was definitely time to put the bird food away!
I would have been far too scared to take this photo myself. I would have screamed and run away immediately.
He wrote us that it was definitely time to put the bird food away!
I would have been far too scared to take this photo myself. I would have screamed and run away immediately.
Monday, 22 June 2009
We will dominate this country
This is the sort of thing Westerners dread reading. In a London paper, I read about a debate between the head of a banned Muslim group in the UK and the director a rightwing think tank in London.
Police had to be called after the Muslim preacher's (Anjem Chourdary) security forces pushed out women trying to enter the main hall saying that only men could sit there and women had to be segregated and seated in the upstairs balcony. The event was abruptly cancelled because there's no way you can segregate women in a public event in this country like that through force.
Then the preacher attacked British society as 'corrupt' and 'morally bankrupt' and told his followers that the UK would be turned into a Sharia state.
He said, 'This country is rife with social and economic problems and only Islam has the answer. Muslims are multiplying at a rate eight times faster than the kaffir (non-believers). In a couple of generations this be a Muslim country, inshallah (God willing). We will dominate this country, my brothers.'
Police had to be called after the Muslim preacher's (Anjem Chourdary) security forces pushed out women trying to enter the main hall saying that only men could sit there and women had to be segregated and seated in the upstairs balcony. The event was abruptly cancelled because there's no way you can segregate women in a public event in this country like that through force.
Then the preacher attacked British society as 'corrupt' and 'morally bankrupt' and told his followers that the UK would be turned into a Sharia state.
He said, 'This country is rife with social and economic problems and only Islam has the answer. Muslims are multiplying at a rate eight times faster than the kaffir (non-believers). In a couple of generations this be a Muslim country, inshallah (God willing). We will dominate this country, my brothers.'
New foster four-legged cat
I had a reader request for a photo of our new foster cat that has four legs. (The one we just adopted out only had three.)
My daughter's boyfriend took this photo. He has fancy software that gussies pictures up. I want him to take one of me and make it come out beautifully -- that will require a lot of functionality from the software though.
Here's Daisy below. I just love that permanent eyeliner she has and would like to have that DNA myself.
My daughter's boyfriend took this photo. He has fancy software that gussies pictures up. I want him to take one of me and make it come out beautifully -- that will require a lot of functionality from the software though.
Here's Daisy below. I just love that permanent eyeliner she has and would like to have that DNA myself.
Sanctimonious Christian
Interesting article in a Sunday magazine today. A Christian woman (Sarah Oliver) has felt she needed to keep her faith a secret because she couldn't make a 'public declaration of her faith.' So I guess writing a big article about it in a paper with a huge circulation years later is her way of celebrating.
I got a good laugh over her feeling of victimization -- and the over-hyping of her announcement (her friend 'dropped her champagne flute' in horror).
"I didn't mean to find God. It's not like I was looking for Him and I sincerely doubt He was expecting me. "You of all people," an acquaintance exclaimed, flapping her hands in surprise and almost dropping her champagne flute when she learned that I go to church on Sundays.
But I do. I am a practising Christian, although I admit in an age where spiritual fulfillment is habitually achieved through self-help and yoga, admitting to be a secret swinger might, in some company at least, be easier."
Really, Sarah, get a grip. You are not in a minority in England. Most of my friends are Christian. Everyone knows loads of people who believe in God. I have to tell you also that we have a Christian religion as an official STATE religion in England. Kids have to learn about religion and say prayers everyday in school.
I think your prose was a bit overdone -- a little overwrought. But I am glad you have found the answers you were looking for in life.
I got a good laugh over her feeling of victimization -- and the over-hyping of her announcement (her friend 'dropped her champagne flute' in horror).
"I didn't mean to find God. It's not like I was looking for Him and I sincerely doubt He was expecting me. "You of all people," an acquaintance exclaimed, flapping her hands in surprise and almost dropping her champagne flute when she learned that I go to church on Sundays.
But I do. I am a practising Christian, although I admit in an age where spiritual fulfillment is habitually achieved through self-help and yoga, admitting to be a secret swinger might, in some company at least, be easier."
Really, Sarah, get a grip. You are not in a minority in England. Most of my friends are Christian. Everyone knows loads of people who believe in God. I have to tell you also that we have a Christian religion as an official STATE religion in England. Kids have to learn about religion and say prayers everyday in school.
I think your prose was a bit overdone -- a little overwrought. But I am glad you have found the answers you were looking for in life.
Seeing Renee Fleming today
Tonight I'm going to see Renee Fleming in La Traviata at the Royal Opera House in London. I don't get to the opera as much as I'd like because the tickets are hundreds of pounds. Mostly I go sit up in the rafters and squint at the singers. No matter how far away I am from the stage, though, I find going to opera is a thrilling experience. Some of my friends think my love of opera is strange, but I read someone the other day who captured my feelings exactly:
"I quickly came to accept that opera is a world like any other: it has its own forms of truth and to argue that you don't like opera because it isn't like life is to earn Matisse's rebuke to the woman who complained that an arm in a painting of his as out of proportion to the body: “It's not an arm, madam, it's a picture.”
There is something, of course, almost giant-like about opera. It's awesomely large, occasionally cumbersome and sometimes lumberingly slow, but just as often it's heart
stoppingly touching.
And to witness the grace and subtlety that a great singer like Renée Fleming can bring to a performance is to acknowledge that a giant can sometimes dance on a tightrope."
Will report on my experience soon.
"I quickly came to accept that opera is a world like any other: it has its own forms of truth and to argue that you don't like opera because it isn't like life is to earn Matisse's rebuke to the woman who complained that an arm in a painting of his as out of proportion to the body: “It's not an arm, madam, it's a picture.”
There is something, of course, almost giant-like about opera. It's awesomely large, occasionally cumbersome and sometimes lumberingly slow, but just as often it's heart
stoppingly touching.
And to witness the grace and subtlety that a great singer like Renée Fleming can bring to a performance is to acknowledge that a giant can sometimes dance on a tightrope."
Will report on my experience soon.
Sunday, 21 June 2009
Jesus and Mo
Thanks to Steve for giving me a link to the Jesus and Mo (Mohammed) cartoons where they debate religion. Here's an example:
Here's the link:
Jesus and Mo
Here's the link:
Jesus and Mo
A day in the life of Michigan Mom
I'm always telling you about my days so am glad to be able to tell you about someone else's day. Elizabeth, my friend in Detroit who goes by the blogger name of Michigan Mom, sent me this report:
"Yesterday we had an office trip to the Motown Museum . This was AMAZING fun! (The coolest: seeing the orange couch where Marvin Gaye often fell asleep. But I also loved seeing the switchboard where Diana Ross began her career with Motown [yes, she was the switchboard operator], and the studio – smaller than our living room – where most of the great Motown hits were recorded).
On the way there and back we played trivia games for prizes. I’m not good with names so I did poorly on things like, “What was the name of the lead singer of the Temptations?” But on the way back we did song lyrics, one of my important skills.
Paul Barker from our office was in charge of the outing, and he played 2 seconds of Stevie Wonder’s “Higher Ground” and asked, “Who can tell me three lines from this song?” Yes! I began shouting out:
Lovers
keep on lovin
Believers keep on believin
Sleepers just stop sleepin
I’m not known to be the biggest participant in these kinds of things so everyone was screaming with me when I won a picture of the Supremes, autographed by Mary Wilson. (This is a REAL autograph – Paul used to work at the museum so he has plenty of connections there still)."
Congratulations, Elizabeth. I never would have got that one right. Thanks for sending in the report. Other readers, please send me in stories of your day. I would love to read them and post. There are so many of you out there who never say a thing, and we would love to know more about you. Please don't make me beg.
"Yesterday we had an office trip to the Motown Museum . This was AMAZING fun! (The coolest: seeing the orange couch where Marvin Gaye often fell asleep. But I also loved seeing the switchboard where Diana Ross began her career with Motown [yes, she was the switchboard operator], and the studio – smaller than our living room – where most of the great Motown hits were recorded).
On the way there and back we played trivia games for prizes. I’m not good with names so I did poorly on things like, “What was the name of the lead singer of the Temptations?” But on the way back we did song lyrics, one of my important skills.
Paul Barker from our office was in charge of the outing, and he played 2 seconds of Stevie Wonder’s “Higher Ground” and asked, “Who can tell me three lines from this song?” Yes! I began shouting out:
Lovers
keep on lovin
Believers keep on believin
Sleepers just stop sleepin
I’m not known to be the biggest participant in these kinds of things so everyone was screaming with me when I won a picture of the Supremes, autographed by Mary Wilson. (This is a REAL autograph – Paul used to work at the museum so he has plenty of connections there still)."
Congratulations, Elizabeth. I never would have got that one right. Thanks for sending in the report. Other readers, please send me in stories of your day. I would love to read them and post. There are so many of you out there who never say a thing, and we would love to know more about you. Please don't make me beg.
Going on the Artists' Trail in Reading
My friend Madeleine invited me to do the most interesting thing today -- to walk with her on an artists' trail in Reading. You are given a map to see which artists' studios are open. We wandered around and saw paintings, sculpture, photographs and other artistic creations.
This is what the brochure says:
A walking trail of artists' studios in the university area of Reading.
Once a year, studio trail members open their studios to show their work, methods and tools. Some offer demonstrations, all share their enthusiasm.
I was amazed - I didn't know Reading had an artists' colony. I am so mean about this town -- but where has it been hiding these creative intelligent people?
Below is a garden where a sculptor displayed his works -- that's him explaining what he does to a visitor:
I really liked one of the painter's work. I need to save up some money so I can buy some of her stuff. She does painting courses in a chateau in France. I must send this information to regular blog reader Brenda who has just taken up oil paining.
The artist in Jenny Halstead, and I like this painting:
My friend Madeleine agreed with me that we never usually see these types of people in Reading. She said she heard a woman talking about a lecture she'd been to the night before about Anne Hathaway, and that she was going to another one about feminism and can it be fun....we never hear about these lectures. There's obviously a secret Reading that I know nothing about.
On my way out of one of the houses, I saw an ad for a walking tour of Reading's churches, complete with choirs singing at them, in late June. Am definitely going to check that out.
There's only so much sunshine in France a man can take
The man who wrecked the Royal Bank of Scotland so that it had to be propped up with £20 million of UK taxpayer's money got away with a full pension at 50. That means he was entitled to a pension of a million pounds A YEAR, despite leading the bank to losses of more than £24 million.
Of course this angered everyone who was thinking of all the careers this guy destroyed, who were left with no jobs or retirement funds. The poor man, Fred Godwin (and they knighted him so he's Sir Fred), felt he had to flee to France to escape the wrath of UK taxpayers.
One industry source said: "Fred is sick of living his life like a pariah and wants to get home, possibly with a view to working in the banking sector again."
"There's only so much time you can spend sitting around in the French sunshine, and Fred believes that a concession in his pension benefits will win back public confidence. He feels he's been punished enough and wants to hold his head up high back in Britain...
His wife Joyce, 49, and two children, have been enjoying visits to the beach, local golf courses, shopping centres and upmarket restaurants in France."
Poor Sir Fred! Don't you feel sorry for him, having that excess French sunshine and high living?
Maybe he could do some volunteer work and redeem himself by helping others instead of feeling sorry for himself?
Of course this angered everyone who was thinking of all the careers this guy destroyed, who were left with no jobs or retirement funds. The poor man, Fred Godwin (and they knighted him so he's Sir Fred), felt he had to flee to France to escape the wrath of UK taxpayers.
One industry source said: "Fred is sick of living his life like a pariah and wants to get home, possibly with a view to working in the banking sector again."
"There's only so much time you can spend sitting around in the French sunshine, and Fred believes that a concession in his pension benefits will win back public confidence. He feels he's been punished enough and wants to hold his head up high back in Britain...
His wife Joyce, 49, and two children, have been enjoying visits to the beach, local golf courses, shopping centres and upmarket restaurants in France."
Poor Sir Fred! Don't you feel sorry for him, having that excess French sunshine and high living?
Maybe he could do some volunteer work and redeem himself by helping others instead of feeling sorry for himself?
Saturday, 20 June 2009
The Key to Eternal Life?
Thanks to Linda in Washington DC for sending me this:
"In the sense that organisms existing today are connected through a chain of life – through their parents, grandparents, and other ancestors – almost a billion years back to the first animals of the pre-Cambrian era, an animal’s reproductive cells can be considered to be immortal. These germline cells generate their offspring’s somatic cells – other cells involved in all aspects of growth, metabolism, and behavior, which have a set life span – and new germline cells that continue on, generation after generation.
Now, in a dramatic finding, researchers from the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Department of Molecular Biology have found that certain genetic mutations known to extend the life span of the C. elegans roundworm induce “mortal” somatic cells to express some of the genes that allow the “immortality” of reproductive germline cells. Their report will appear in the journal Nature and is receiving advance online release."
Read more about it here:
The Key to Eternal Life?
"In the sense that organisms existing today are connected through a chain of life – through their parents, grandparents, and other ancestors – almost a billion years back to the first animals of the pre-Cambrian era, an animal’s reproductive cells can be considered to be immortal. These germline cells generate their offspring’s somatic cells – other cells involved in all aspects of growth, metabolism, and behavior, which have a set life span – and new germline cells that continue on, generation after generation.
Now, in a dramatic finding, researchers from the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Department of Molecular Biology have found that certain genetic mutations known to extend the life span of the C. elegans roundworm induce “mortal” somatic cells to express some of the genes that allow the “immortality” of reproductive germline cells. Their report will appear in the journal Nature and is receiving advance online release."
Read more about it here:
The Key to Eternal Life?
The Rise of Golden Skirts
I was reading an article on the rise of women in the boardrooms in the UK. The newspaper stated:
"Women are a rare breed in Britain's boardrooms and campaigners say progress is glacially slow.
“Our view is progress in the past couple of years has been very slow at best and at worst is stagnating or going backwards,” says Katharine Rake of the Fawcett Society."
What I found interesting was the comment that many of the women making it into the male bastion of the boardroom have not been raised in England. "An intriguing postscript to this is to wonder why, despite having had a female prime minister 30 years ago, many of Britain's most prominent businesswomen were not raised in the UK."
Many of these women have been raised in North America. One of the women quoted in the article believes there might be something in British culture which has meant many women assumed it was the “norm” for a man to be at the top.
Interesting, don't you think? I am hoping that I haven't brought my daughter up to think it's the norm for a man to be at the top.
"Women are a rare breed in Britain's boardrooms and campaigners say progress is glacially slow.
“Our view is progress in the past couple of years has been very slow at best and at worst is stagnating or going backwards,” says Katharine Rake of the Fawcett Society."
What I found interesting was the comment that many of the women making it into the male bastion of the boardroom have not been raised in England. "An intriguing postscript to this is to wonder why, despite having had a female prime minister 30 years ago, many of Britain's most prominent businesswomen were not raised in the UK."
Many of these women have been raised in North America. One of the women quoted in the article believes there might be something in British culture which has meant many women assumed it was the “norm” for a man to be at the top.
Interesting, don't you think? I am hoping that I haven't brought my daughter up to think it's the norm for a man to be at the top.
Four-legged cat
We adopted our three-legged cat this morning to a very nice family. This afternoon, we picked up our new foster cat, Daisy, who has FOUR LEGS.
Daisy is only 18 months old and was a stray. She hung out on a road near our house and was already pregnant when she was neutered last week. I told her NO MORE BOYFRIENDS. (I'm sure she didn't even know this guy's name.)
My son picked her up and marvelled at her having every single leg she was supposed to have. We've gotten so used to three-legged creatures around the house.
Daisy is only 18 months old and was a stray. She hung out on a road near our house and was already pregnant when she was neutered last week. I told her NO MORE BOYFRIENDS. (I'm sure she didn't even know this guy's name.)
My son picked her up and marvelled at her having every single leg she was supposed to have. We've gotten so used to three-legged creatures around the house.
Cartoon about correlation vs. causation
Following my earlier post about correlation vs. causation, my daughter Katie sends this helpful cartoon:
Katie says: This is from www.xkcd.com and I highly recommend reading the other cartoons too! Geeks only. Not you, Brenda. :)
Katie says: This is from www.xkcd.com and I highly recommend reading the other cartoons too! Geeks only. Not you, Brenda. :)
Friday, 19 June 2009
Scary stuff from pharmaceutical companies
Drug companies are notorious for their relentless marketing. But, Eli Lilly, the century-old pharmaceutical giant, has taken things several steps further. In fact, Bloomberg called out Lilly's marketing and promotion practices twice this week.
According to company documents, Lilly pushed doctors to give the antipyschotic drug Zyprexa to elderly patients with dementia, despite medical evidence that the drug didn't help those patients.
And, earlier this week, Bloomberg pointed out that Lilly actually ghostwrote scholarly articles about their drugs, and asked doctors to put their names on them. The drug maker Merck also did this for dozens of articles over its now-pulled Vioxx medication.
According to company documents, Lilly pushed doctors to give the antipyschotic drug Zyprexa to elderly patients with dementia, despite medical evidence that the drug didn't help those patients.
And, earlier this week, Bloomberg pointed out that Lilly actually ghostwrote scholarly articles about their drugs, and asked doctors to put their names on them. The drug maker Merck also did this for dozens of articles over its now-pulled Vioxx medication.
Logic Lessons: Correlation or causation?
I haven't posted a lesson in logic for a bit. Oranjepan, one of our blog readers, has just put in the following comment on a post: "Correlation or causation?"
Well, I'm not sure as I don't have a grounding in logic. So this will be the subject of our next lesson:
Fallacy Name:
Correlation vs. Causation
Explanation:
Determining the nature of causation is very difficult. Sometimes a cause and effect are closely related - spatially, temporally or both - but sometimes they are not. However, humans seem to be inclined to assume that events which are closely connected either spatially or temporally are also connected causally.
This problem is commonly known as the difference between correlation and causation. Just because two events correlate (are close in time or space) does not mean that one has caused the other. The Latin term for such an error is called "non causa pro causa," which means "non-cause for the cause." It is important to try and break ourselves of this habit and become more critical of our natural inclinations in such cases.
There are a number of different ways in which correlation and causation can become confused. One is called the "Neglect of Common Cause." Also sometimes called "Joint Effect," this occurs when someone assumes that one event caused another when, in fact, they are both really effects of some third event. This third event is the "common cause" of the other two. For example:
Every time I eat chocolate, it gives me acne.
The speaker above observes a strong correlation between eating chocolate and suffering from acne, drawing the conclusion that the former causes the latter. What is ignored, however, is the possibility that both are caused by something else - perhaps this person suffers from anxiety and stress. The stress causes him to eat chocolate, but at the same time causes acne to break out. This will lead to the two occurring very close in time, even though one isn't actually causing the other.
This fallacy has also found a home in quite a few religious debates:
Morality in this nation has worsened at the same time that adherence to traditional Christian beliefs has declined. Obviously, the latter has caused the former, so encouraging Christianity will ensure a return to traditional moral standards.
In the above example, it is assumed that the correlation between dropping standards of morality and weakening adherence to traditional Christianity means that the latter is the cause of the former. This position ignores, however, the possibility of some third event being the cause for both.
Thus, for example, it may be that growing diversity in society has weakened the bonds of all traditional institutions - including both religion and moral standards. Simplistic explanations like the above make it easy to propose simplistic solutions, but they cannot be accepted until alternatives like possible common causes have been addressed.
Eliz again: Thanks for bringing this up, OJ! I've learned something new today.
Well, I'm not sure as I don't have a grounding in logic. So this will be the subject of our next lesson:
Fallacy Name:
Correlation vs. Causation
Explanation:
Determining the nature of causation is very difficult. Sometimes a cause and effect are closely related - spatially, temporally or both - but sometimes they are not. However, humans seem to be inclined to assume that events which are closely connected either spatially or temporally are also connected causally.
This problem is commonly known as the difference between correlation and causation. Just because two events correlate (are close in time or space) does not mean that one has caused the other. The Latin term for such an error is called "non causa pro causa," which means "non-cause for the cause." It is important to try and break ourselves of this habit and become more critical of our natural inclinations in such cases.
There are a number of different ways in which correlation and causation can become confused. One is called the "Neglect of Common Cause." Also sometimes called "Joint Effect," this occurs when someone assumes that one event caused another when, in fact, they are both really effects of some third event. This third event is the "common cause" of the other two. For example:
Every time I eat chocolate, it gives me acne.
The speaker above observes a strong correlation between eating chocolate and suffering from acne, drawing the conclusion that the former causes the latter. What is ignored, however, is the possibility that both are caused by something else - perhaps this person suffers from anxiety and stress. The stress causes him to eat chocolate, but at the same time causes acne to break out. This will lead to the two occurring very close in time, even though one isn't actually causing the other.
This fallacy has also found a home in quite a few religious debates:
Morality in this nation has worsened at the same time that adherence to traditional Christian beliefs has declined. Obviously, the latter has caused the former, so encouraging Christianity will ensure a return to traditional moral standards.
In the above example, it is assumed that the correlation between dropping standards of morality and weakening adherence to traditional Christianity means that the latter is the cause of the former. This position ignores, however, the possibility of some third event being the cause for both.
Thus, for example, it may be that growing diversity in society has weakened the bonds of all traditional institutions - including both religion and moral standards. Simplistic explanations like the above make it easy to propose simplistic solutions, but they cannot be accepted until alternatives like possible common causes have been addressed.
Eliz again: Thanks for bringing this up, OJ! I've learned something new today.
Blog Miracle: MAN sends in recipe!
What a day for equality in this blog. Usually it's females who send in the recipes and a female (me) who posts them. But yesterday, a MAN gave us a recipe. I was so excited that I decided to post it rather than just leave it to languish in the comments section.
Regular commenter Steve uses a slow cooker for this delicious lamb curry. I'm going to make it ASAP and report back.
Steve's Slow Cooker Lamb Curry
Diced Lamb (enough for the people being fed!)
New potatoes (a handful)
Onion (large)
2 Large tomatoes (optional)
Garlic (2-3 cloves)
Coriander (small bunch)
Red lentils (small cup)
Small red chilli
Medium Tub Natural Yoghurt or 1 tin Coconut milk
Salt & Pepper
If you want to cheat (I normally do):
1 Tub of Curry Sauce Co. (via Waitrose) Rogan Josh curry sauce/paste.
(there must be some equivalent in the US)
If you don’t want to cheat you can make a basic paste yourself
Couple of large tomatoes
1 Onion roughly chopped
Cumin, Paprika, Garam Masala, Turmeric (about 1 tsp of each)
2 tbl spoons vinegar
Root Ginger + 2 cloves garlic
Salt & pepper
Water to adjust consistency
To make the paste I use a food processor
Blitz the tomatoes/onion/garlic/ginger; add the spices add water to get to a paste
that’s like a “thick soup”
To make the main dish
Chop the onion finely, crush the garlic
Chop the potatoes into halves (smaller if they are big)
Dice the chillies
Brown the lamb in generous qty of butter with the onion, garlic & chillies add salt
& pepper
Transfer the meat & juices to the slow cooker, add the paste
Stir in the potatoes and the lentils
Stir in the yoghurt or coconut milk
Season to taste
Chop and add the tomatoes (optional)
Add roughly chopped coriander (reserve some to garnish) [that's cilantro in the US]
Make sure there is enough liquid to be absorbed by the lentils and yet leaving a decent amount for the sauce (the danger is that it cooks dry)
Leave it on low for 7-8 hours.
Other variations would be to add green peppers instead of lentils, fried potatoes added at the end are nice too.
Eliz again: Thanks Steve. That sounds wonderful. Any other recipes you'd care to share with us are also welcome.
Regular commenter Steve uses a slow cooker for this delicious lamb curry. I'm going to make it ASAP and report back.
Steve's Slow Cooker Lamb Curry
Diced Lamb (enough for the people being fed!)
New potatoes (a handful)
Onion (large)
2 Large tomatoes (optional)
Garlic (2-3 cloves)
Coriander (small bunch)
Red lentils (small cup)
Small red chilli
Medium Tub Natural Yoghurt or 1 tin Coconut milk
Salt & Pepper
If you want to cheat (I normally do):
1 Tub of Curry Sauce Co. (via Waitrose) Rogan Josh curry sauce/paste.
(there must be some equivalent in the US)
If you don’t want to cheat you can make a basic paste yourself
Couple of large tomatoes
1 Onion roughly chopped
Cumin, Paprika, Garam Masala, Turmeric (about 1 tsp of each)
2 tbl spoons vinegar
Root Ginger + 2 cloves garlic
Salt & pepper
Water to adjust consistency
To make the paste I use a food processor
Blitz the tomatoes/onion/garlic/ginger; add the spices add water to get to a paste
that’s like a “thick soup”
To make the main dish
Chop the onion finely, crush the garlic
Chop the potatoes into halves (smaller if they are big)
Dice the chillies
Brown the lamb in generous qty of butter with the onion, garlic & chillies add salt
& pepper
Transfer the meat & juices to the slow cooker, add the paste
Stir in the potatoes and the lentils
Stir in the yoghurt or coconut milk
Season to taste
Chop and add the tomatoes (optional)
Add roughly chopped coriander (reserve some to garnish) [that's cilantro in the US]
Make sure there is enough liquid to be absorbed by the lentils and yet leaving a decent amount for the sauce (the danger is that it cooks dry)
Leave it on low for 7-8 hours.
Other variations would be to add green peppers instead of lentils, fried potatoes added at the end are nice too.
Eliz again: Thanks Steve. That sounds wonderful. Any other recipes you'd care to share with us are also welcome.
Thursday, 18 June 2009
What it takes to survive
It's sad when something like the Air France plane crashes and everyone on board dies. Then you start wondering if it happened to you, what would you do? The answer, it seems from this article in the Sunday Times today, is not to freeze. Apparently, your frontal lobe takes in the action, like seeing the wing of your plane catch on fire and searches its database to find similar instances so you'll know how to react and when it can't, your brain can sort of shut down, leaving you unable to make quick decisions. Read on:
"Why do some people live and others die?
Why do bullets find one victim and not another? Are there any hidden ways to improve the odds?
I have asked myself these questions ever since. Over the years I’ve also wondered how certain people make it through the most difficult trials while others don’t. Why do a few stay calm and collected under extreme pressure when others panic and unravel? How do some bounce back from adversity while others collapse and surrender? I’ve discovered that, when it comes to survival, there’s a whole lot that you can’t control – but a surprising amount that you can.
Researchers examining emergencies as disparate as the London blitz, the Kobe earthquake in Japan in 1995 and the attacks of September 11, 2001, have discovered that people rarely panic. But neither do they snap into action. Rather, most freeze until they’re told what to do. They morph into marble.
Exploring this phenomenon is the main focus of Dr John Leach of Lancaster University, one of the world’s leading experts on survival psychology. Leach was baffled in March 1987 when 193 of the 539 people on board the Herald of Free Enterprise died when the ferry capsized just outside the Belgian port of Zeebrugge. The waters were shallow, and rescue operations began almost immediately.
How could so many people drown so close to shore? The weather wasn’t dangerous. So what happened to all those people who didn’t make it? Why do so many people perish when they don’t need to?
He believes some people become “prone to dying”. There’s nothing magical or metaphysical about this process, he says. “It’s all about the engineering system called your brain. In the simplest terms, something becomes impaired – dysfunctional – and that means you don’t make the right decisions.”
Leach has a name for this syndrome: the incredulity response. People don’t believe what they’re seeing. They tell themselves there can’t really be a fire in London’s busiest Tube station. This really isn’t happening. So they go about their business, engaging in what’s known as the normality bias. They act as if everything is okay and underestimate the seriousness of danger. Some experts call this “analysis paralysis”. The stress of a crisis can cause the key part of the brain that processes new information to misfire. People lose the ability to make decisions. They turn into statues.
In any emergency, he continues, people divide into three categories.
First, there are survivors who manage to save themselves. Second, there are passengers who never have a chance and die immediately. Third, there are victims who should have lived but perish unnecessarily. According to the European Transport Safety Council, 40% of the fatalities in aircraft crashes around the world occur in situations that are survivable.
After examining many disasters and categorising the ways people respond to life threatening situations, Leach came up with the theory of 10–80–10.
First, about 10% of people handle a crisis in a relatively calm and rational state of mind. Under duress, they pull themselves together quickly. They assess situations clearly. Their decision-making is sharp and focused. They’re able to develop priorities, make plans and take appropriate action. Psychologists call this “splitting”, and it’s common among people who keep their cool under the greatest stress. Another 10% simply freak out. But most of us – around 80% – feel lethargic and numb. We sweat. We feel sick. Our hearts may race. We experience “perceptual narrowing”, or so-called tunnel vision. We stare straight ahead. We barely hear people around us. We lose sense and sight of our surroundings. In short, most of us turn into statues in the first moments of a crisis.
In aviation parlance, this is known as negative panic. The current theory of such inaction goes like this: as your frontal lobes process the sight of, say, an aeroplane wing on fire, they seek to match the information with memories of similar situations in the past. If you have no stored experience of a plane crash, your brain gets stuck in a loop of trying and failing to come up with the right response. Hence: immobility. You wait for instructions. The key is to recover quickly from this “brainlock”. But how?
Christian Hart, an American psychology professor and parachutist, believes this offers three survival lessons. First, try to relax. The simple act of remembering to loosen up can break you out of brainlock.
Second, remember where you are. Situational awareness can mean the difference between life and death. Third, human and mechanical errors may be fixable, but you never find out if you give up."
"Why do some people live and others die?
Why do bullets find one victim and not another? Are there any hidden ways to improve the odds?
I have asked myself these questions ever since. Over the years I’ve also wondered how certain people make it through the most difficult trials while others don’t. Why do a few stay calm and collected under extreme pressure when others panic and unravel? How do some bounce back from adversity while others collapse and surrender? I’ve discovered that, when it comes to survival, there’s a whole lot that you can’t control – but a surprising amount that you can.
Researchers examining emergencies as disparate as the London blitz, the Kobe earthquake in Japan in 1995 and the attacks of September 11, 2001, have discovered that people rarely panic. But neither do they snap into action. Rather, most freeze until they’re told what to do. They morph into marble.
Exploring this phenomenon is the main focus of Dr John Leach of Lancaster University, one of the world’s leading experts on survival psychology. Leach was baffled in March 1987 when 193 of the 539 people on board the Herald of Free Enterprise died when the ferry capsized just outside the Belgian port of Zeebrugge. The waters were shallow, and rescue operations began almost immediately.
How could so many people drown so close to shore? The weather wasn’t dangerous. So what happened to all those people who didn’t make it? Why do so many people perish when they don’t need to?
He believes some people become “prone to dying”. There’s nothing magical or metaphysical about this process, he says. “It’s all about the engineering system called your brain. In the simplest terms, something becomes impaired – dysfunctional – and that means you don’t make the right decisions.”
Leach has a name for this syndrome: the incredulity response. People don’t believe what they’re seeing. They tell themselves there can’t really be a fire in London’s busiest Tube station. This really isn’t happening. So they go about their business, engaging in what’s known as the normality bias. They act as if everything is okay and underestimate the seriousness of danger. Some experts call this “analysis paralysis”. The stress of a crisis can cause the key part of the brain that processes new information to misfire. People lose the ability to make decisions. They turn into statues.
In any emergency, he continues, people divide into three categories.
First, there are survivors who manage to save themselves. Second, there are passengers who never have a chance and die immediately. Third, there are victims who should have lived but perish unnecessarily. According to the European Transport Safety Council, 40% of the fatalities in aircraft crashes around the world occur in situations that are survivable.
After examining many disasters and categorising the ways people respond to life threatening situations, Leach came up with the theory of 10–80–10.
First, about 10% of people handle a crisis in a relatively calm and rational state of mind. Under duress, they pull themselves together quickly. They assess situations clearly. Their decision-making is sharp and focused. They’re able to develop priorities, make plans and take appropriate action. Psychologists call this “splitting”, and it’s common among people who keep their cool under the greatest stress. Another 10% simply freak out. But most of us – around 80% – feel lethargic and numb. We sweat. We feel sick. Our hearts may race. We experience “perceptual narrowing”, or so-called tunnel vision. We stare straight ahead. We barely hear people around us. We lose sense and sight of our surroundings. In short, most of us turn into statues in the first moments of a crisis.
In aviation parlance, this is known as negative panic. The current theory of such inaction goes like this: as your frontal lobes process the sight of, say, an aeroplane wing on fire, they seek to match the information with memories of similar situations in the past. If you have no stored experience of a plane crash, your brain gets stuck in a loop of trying and failing to come up with the right response. Hence: immobility. You wait for instructions. The key is to recover quickly from this “brainlock”. But how?
Christian Hart, an American psychology professor and parachutist, believes this offers three survival lessons. First, try to relax. The simple act of remembering to loosen up can break you out of brainlock.
Second, remember where you are. Situational awareness can mean the difference between life and death. Third, human and mechanical errors may be fixable, but you never find out if you give up."
Conservatives more easily disgusted
People who squirm at the sight of bugs or are grossed out by blood and guts are more likely to be politically conservative, new studies find.
In particular, the squeamish are more apt to have conservative attitudes about gays and lesbians.
Lots of other research has tied politics to biology and behavior. Some quick background:
A study last year found that when people feel physically clean, they are less judgmental.
Another study found that political conservatives tend to be tidy, with organized offices, but liberals favor colorful, more stylish but cluttered spaces.
Political views are driven by religion, culture and even biology, other research has shown.
A large, global study in 2007 concluded that political preference is 50 percent genetic.
In one of the new studies, Cornell University psychology professor David Pizarro and colleagues surveyed 181 U.S. adults from politically mixed swing states. They used a Disgust Sensitivity Scale (DSS), which offers various scenarios to assess disgust sensitivity, as well as a political ideology scale. They found a correlation between being more easily disgusted and political conservatism.
Then they surveyed 91 Cornell undergraduates with the DSS, as well as with questions about their positions on issues including gay marriage, abortion, gun control, labor unions, tax cuts and affirmative action. Participants who rated higher in disgust sensitivity were more likely to oppose gay marriage and abortion, issues that are related to notions of morality or purity.
The results are detailed in the journal Cognition & Emotion.
In particular, the squeamish are more apt to have conservative attitudes about gays and lesbians.
Lots of other research has tied politics to biology and behavior. Some quick background:
A study last year found that when people feel physically clean, they are less judgmental.
Another study found that political conservatives tend to be tidy, with organized offices, but liberals favor colorful, more stylish but cluttered spaces.
Political views are driven by religion, culture and even biology, other research has shown.
A large, global study in 2007 concluded that political preference is 50 percent genetic.
In one of the new studies, Cornell University psychology professor David Pizarro and colleagues surveyed 181 U.S. adults from politically mixed swing states. They used a Disgust Sensitivity Scale (DSS), which offers various scenarios to assess disgust sensitivity, as well as a political ideology scale. They found a correlation between being more easily disgusted and political conservatism.
Then they surveyed 91 Cornell undergraduates with the DSS, as well as with questions about their positions on issues including gay marriage, abortion, gun control, labor unions, tax cuts and affirmative action. Participants who rated higher in disgust sensitivity were more likely to oppose gay marriage and abortion, issues that are related to notions of morality or purity.
The results are detailed in the journal Cognition & Emotion.
Swine flu update
My daughter has a summer job at a doctor's surgery in South (pronounced 'sarf' by the natives) London. She's just texted me that someone at the surgery has swine flu. She's just come back from a May Ball at Cambridge University and says they have cases there.
Now what, I wonder? I guess she'll just continue to work and come home to see us as normal and we'll all get it eventually? Is that what happens in pandemics?
Now what, I wonder? I guess she'll just continue to work and come home to see us as normal and we'll all get it eventually? Is that what happens in pandemics?
The problem with doctors
From Ezra Klein:
"The latest Gallup poll...asked respondents how much they trusted various actor in the health-care debate. Doctors fared pretty well. So too did health researchers and hospitals. Obama is trusted. Insurers and pharmaceutical corporations, however, aren't. In fact, the only group less trusted than insurers and pharma are...Republican legislators.
One of the real difficulties in health care reform is that 71 percent of Americans think doctors are pretty much beyond reproach.
This is, in a sense, a psychologically important opinion. When we enter a doctor's office, we are generally in pretty bad shape ourselves. We're sick, and we don't know what to do. We're asking someone to tell us. And we don't have the expertise or energy to wonder whether every recommendations is based on firm scientific guidelines or totally disconnected from questions of profit.
But doctor behavior, though generally admirable, is certainly not perfect. We're still in a world, sadly, where study after study shows that the treatment we should get does not match the treatment we do get, where study after study shows that the treatments we do get are often not based on sufficient evidence. There are certain policies -- things like comparative effectiveness review, or a reform of fee-for service payment practices -- that would improve the situation. But it's hard for legislators to broach those subjects because doctors are a popular, and thus a powerful, constituency, and they reflexively oppose policies that could harm their salaries or limit their autonomy."
Gawker.com has a good comment about this poll:
Doctors are lazy and greedy and do not care about you. But Americans do not know this! Because of the TV, they think doctors would come up with a good national health care plan. They would not.
If the doctors made a plan, it would involve paying them even more money to not bother keeping up with advances in their fields and not ever letting you sue them when they hurt or kill you. Despite this, American trust the doctors more than anyone else—even Barack Obama, America's boyfriend!
"The latest Gallup poll...asked respondents how much they trusted various actor in the health-care debate. Doctors fared pretty well. So too did health researchers and hospitals. Obama is trusted. Insurers and pharmaceutical corporations, however, aren't. In fact, the only group less trusted than insurers and pharma are...Republican legislators.
One of the real difficulties in health care reform is that 71 percent of Americans think doctors are pretty much beyond reproach.
This is, in a sense, a psychologically important opinion. When we enter a doctor's office, we are generally in pretty bad shape ourselves. We're sick, and we don't know what to do. We're asking someone to tell us. And we don't have the expertise or energy to wonder whether every recommendations is based on firm scientific guidelines or totally disconnected from questions of profit.
But doctor behavior, though generally admirable, is certainly not perfect. We're still in a world, sadly, where study after study shows that the treatment we should get does not match the treatment we do get, where study after study shows that the treatments we do get are often not based on sufficient evidence. There are certain policies -- things like comparative effectiveness review, or a reform of fee-for service payment practices -- that would improve the situation. But it's hard for legislators to broach those subjects because doctors are a popular, and thus a powerful, constituency, and they reflexively oppose policies that could harm their salaries or limit their autonomy."
Gawker.com has a good comment about this poll:
Doctors are lazy and greedy and do not care about you. But Americans do not know this! Because of the TV, they think doctors would come up with a good national health care plan. They would not.
If the doctors made a plan, it would involve paying them even more money to not bother keeping up with advances in their fields and not ever letting you sue them when they hurt or kill you. Despite this, American trust the doctors more than anyone else—even Barack Obama, America's boyfriend!
Wednesday, 17 June 2009
Boring speech, lively video
Watching a boring speech by our Chancellor of the Exchequer, Alistair Darling. He starts out defending himself in a pompous way for his running of the UK economy. (Politicians...the country can be going to hell but it's all about THEM, isn't it?)
Today Obama announced new regulation in the US but apparently our financial guy in the UK is going to say we don't need a lot of new regulation. Interesting.
My son has been ill for a few days and now I have that psychosomatic thing where I think I must be getting sick too, just because I live in the same house as he does.
My husband is in London meeting a lot of his old college friends for a drink. I was supposed to go too but I needed to be at home with my son. But I know my husband will forget all the goss he hears and tell me when he gets home that no one said much of anything. He does that all the time. He'll have a long talk with someone on the phone, and I'll ask what they were talking about, and he'll say 'oh nothing much.'
This means I have had to develop advanced eavesdropping techniques to get any info at all.
Well, I'm going to turn off this speech that has gotten more boring by the minute. At least my friend Elizabeth sent me a cool video to watch to amuse myself (below). Thanks, Eliz.
Today Obama announced new regulation in the US but apparently our financial guy in the UK is going to say we don't need a lot of new regulation. Interesting.
My son has been ill for a few days and now I have that psychosomatic thing where I think I must be getting sick too, just because I live in the same house as he does.
My husband is in London meeting a lot of his old college friends for a drink. I was supposed to go too but I needed to be at home with my son. But I know my husband will forget all the goss he hears and tell me when he gets home that no one said much of anything. He does that all the time. He'll have a long talk with someone on the phone, and I'll ask what they were talking about, and he'll say 'oh nothing much.'
This means I have had to develop advanced eavesdropping techniques to get any info at all.
Well, I'm going to turn off this speech that has gotten more boring by the minute. At least my friend Elizabeth sent me a cool video to watch to amuse myself (below). Thanks, Eliz.
Only in America
My English sister-in-law sent me these photos with the words "Only in America." I don't know what she thinks of us Americans, but it must not be good.
Last public execution in France
Eugene Weidmann, a convicted thief, kidnapper, and murderer, was the last person to be publicly executed in France. After his arrest, Weidmann confessed to murdering five people and was sentenced to death. Shortly thereafter, he was beheaded by guillotine. The "hysterical behavior" of spectators at the event was so scandalous that French President Albert Lebrun immediately banned all future public executions. Executions by guillotine in France continued in private until what date?
Arranged marriages are like software development
We have a lot of Indians working at Nokia. Many of them have arranged marriages. The guys start at Nokia as really young things then if they don't find a wife within a certain amount of time, their families find a bride for them.
I was listening to them laugh and joke about this the other day. They said arranged marriage was like software development. You have a deadline to achieve a task (in their case, get married to a nice girl) and if you don't make the deadline (age 30), your family steps in and solves the problem for you.
After the deadline is met, I asked, can you make a Change Request if the bride isn't quite right, like you can do with software?
They shook their heads. Absolutely not.
I was giving a ride home to an Indian girl this week, and she was telling me how she has to make all their food from scratch every day, even though she works full time. They are purists about their food too -- you can't even use a sauce.
"But the breads you have -- chapatis -- those would be so hard to make from scratch every single day," I said. "Can't you just buy some from the supermarket?"
"Oh no," she replied. "They wouldn't be as fresh."
I dropped her off at her house then went home to mine and made some shrimp, pasta and pesto for dinner. I had fresh pasta but the supermarket had made it for me. The shrimp was already in marinade (thanks to the supermarket) and the pesto was out of a jar. I felt guilty but happy at the same time that I didn't have such stringent cooking rules at my house.
Wisdom from my desk calendar
Life is a long series of farewells; only the circumstances should surprise us. --Jessamyn West
Letting-go skills must be high on the scale of life skills.
Letting-go skills must be high on the scale of life skills.
Tuesday, 16 June 2009
People in general do not willingly read
"I know many people, quite young, who say things like, “People are so much more materialistic than they used to be,” or so much more narcissistic, or so much more self-indulgent, or so much less engaged with other people, etc.
Well, maybe so, could be. But I’m skeptical of generalizations like that. For thousands of years, people have been decrying the present and pointing to a more noble past.
For example, take this sentiment: “It is strange that there should be so little reading in the world, and so much writing. People in general do not willingly read, if they can have any thing else to amuse them.” Sounds very current, right? I read someone express exactly this sentiment on Twitter about thirty minutes ago.
So when was it said? In 1783. Richard Burke, to Samuel Johnson."
From Slate.com
Well, maybe so, could be. But I’m skeptical of generalizations like that. For thousands of years, people have been decrying the present and pointing to a more noble past.
For example, take this sentiment: “It is strange that there should be so little reading in the world, and so much writing. People in general do not willingly read, if they can have any thing else to amuse them.” Sounds very current, right? I read someone express exactly this sentiment on Twitter about thirty minutes ago.
So when was it said? In 1783. Richard Burke, to Samuel Johnson."
From Slate.com
Cambridge report
We got back from Cambridge this morning early and crashed most of the day. The May Balls go on until 6 but we gave up by 2:30 am and headed back to Reading.
I looked on the Internet to find a cheap room for us to sleep before the ball, and found a place that does continuing education courses. Imagine my surprise when we drove to the address and found it was this place:
It's called Madingley Hall, and Queen Victoria rented the entire place for Prince Albert when he was at Cambridge University. Here's Mel having breakfast in the great hall:
We took a stroll through the gardens after breakfast:
Before we met up with our May Ball friends, we had dinner with an old friend and then I ran into regular blog reader Lisa on the streets of Cambridge. She was out with a couple of her friends from New York. I'd never ever met her before so it was good to finally see what she looks like.
Ran into a couple of fire-eaters:
But Cambridge is still very traditional:
We had a lot of fun at the May Ball. Here is my friend Meg being punted in to the champagne reception:
Here we are at the Ball:
We had a great time. Sit-down dinner, loads of champagne, Chinese dancing displays, student bands, dancing, classical music. We saw Feeder, a really popular band in the UK. I think one of my favorite things was the Silent Disco. You picked up some cordless headphones before you entered a dark ballroom and put whatever music on that you liked (I picked Queen) and danced and danced. It looked strange to see people dancing in a room that was totally quiet -- I think that was what I loved about it.
I looked on the Internet to find a cheap room for us to sleep before the ball, and found a place that does continuing education courses. Imagine my surprise when we drove to the address and found it was this place:
It's called Madingley Hall, and Queen Victoria rented the entire place for Prince Albert when he was at Cambridge University. Here's Mel having breakfast in the great hall:
We took a stroll through the gardens after breakfast:
Before we met up with our May Ball friends, we had dinner with an old friend and then I ran into regular blog reader Lisa on the streets of Cambridge. She was out with a couple of her friends from New York. I'd never ever met her before so it was good to finally see what she looks like.
Ran into a couple of fire-eaters:
But Cambridge is still very traditional:
We had a lot of fun at the May Ball. Here is my friend Meg being punted in to the champagne reception:
Here we are at the Ball:
We had a great time. Sit-down dinner, loads of champagne, Chinese dancing displays, student bands, dancing, classical music. We saw Feeder, a really popular band in the UK. I think one of my favorite things was the Silent Disco. You picked up some cordless headphones before you entered a dark ballroom and put whatever music on that you liked (I picked Queen) and danced and danced. It looked strange to see people dancing in a room that was totally quiet -- I think that was what I loved about it.
A watch is traditionally not considered appropriate
My daughter Katie is going to a May Ball later in the week. My husband and I are going to his old college, Clare's May Ball on Monday. Katie is going to another one at a fancier college at Cambridge. Just now we were having a dressing crisis, trying to find the correct shoes, white gloves, etc.
Here's the dress code:
Guests ~ Ladies’ Dress Code
White tie, also known as evening dress or full evening dress, is the most formal dress code that exists for civilians today in the United Kingdom. The dress code at Magdalene May Ball shall be very strictly enforced, and the Committee shall refuse admission to any guest (male or female) who fails to fully respect the requirement of white tie hire.
Formal evening dress for ladies consists of the following elements:
Full length ball gown. Please note that knee- or calf-length dresses will not be deemed to be acceptable.
Stole, cape or cloak, or opera coat.
Dancing shoes – formal pumps, sandals or ballet slippers.
Jewellery. A watch is traditionally not considered appropriate, except for jewelled versions whose faces are covered so that they resemble bracelets. Watches will, however, be permitted.
Handbag – clutch style or small evening bag.
Gloves (optional) – if worn, should be opera length (over the elbow, reaching to the biceps).
Eliz again: This sounds like English rules from the days of the Empire.
Here's the dress code:
Guests ~ Ladies’ Dress Code
White tie, also known as evening dress or full evening dress, is the most formal dress code that exists for civilians today in the United Kingdom. The dress code at Magdalene May Ball shall be very strictly enforced, and the Committee shall refuse admission to any guest (male or female) who fails to fully respect the requirement of white tie hire.
Formal evening dress for ladies consists of the following elements:
Full length ball gown. Please note that knee- or calf-length dresses will not be deemed to be acceptable.
Stole, cape or cloak, or opera coat.
Dancing shoes – formal pumps, sandals or ballet slippers.
Jewellery. A watch is traditionally not considered appropriate, except for jewelled versions whose faces are covered so that they resemble bracelets. Watches will, however, be permitted.
Handbag – clutch style or small evening bag.
Gloves (optional) – if worn, should be opera length (over the elbow, reaching to the biceps).
Eliz again: This sounds like English rules from the days of the Empire.
Monday, 15 June 2009
Cambridge May Ball: The Forbidden City
I'm not at work today because I am going to Cambridge University to attend my husband's college May Ball. The May Ball celebrates the end of the academic year.
The balls are held in the college gardens, lasting from around 9 p.m. until well after dawn, with some colleges offering rides in balloons when the ball ends, and even breakfast in Paris, or, more traditionally, punting to Grantchester. "Survivors' photographs" are taken of those who last until morning.
Some famous balls include the John's May ball, which was named 'the seventh best party in the world' by Time Magazine.
This is a photo of a recent May Ball at my husband's college, Clare College.
It's been so cold in England recently that I fear I am going to have to wear a ski jacket over my ball gown to keep warm. We are being punted on the Cam River into a champagne reception to start the evening off so that should be freezing.
I am really looking forward to this though. We are going with our friends the Williams who have a son at Clare. We are taking over his college apartment to change into our evening clothes. We've decided to leave the ball at about 4 a.m. and drive back to Reading and crash at home, so that means I'm taking Tuesday off to recover. Pictures tomorrow. The ball committee is taking over one of the courts at the college and turning it into the Forbidden City.
The Forbidden City
On the night of Monday 15 June, Old Court and the beautiful gardens of Clare will be transformed into the Imperial Palace. Those who are fortunate enough to gain entry will be treated to a night of hedonism as a guest of the Emperor himself. It will truly be a night to remember...
For the lucky few, we offer the chance to be punted in, enjoy a champagne reception and dine on a sumptuous four course meal at the start of the ball. The dinner menu will showcase a flourish of flavours and sensations and will remain a surprise until the evening itself. The meal will delight, surprise and entertain - the perfect start to an evening of hedonism in the Forbidden City.
The balls are held in the college gardens, lasting from around 9 p.m. until well after dawn, with some colleges offering rides in balloons when the ball ends, and even breakfast in Paris, or, more traditionally, punting to Grantchester. "Survivors' photographs" are taken of those who last until morning.
Some famous balls include the John's May ball, which was named 'the seventh best party in the world' by Time Magazine.
This is a photo of a recent May Ball at my husband's college, Clare College.
It's been so cold in England recently that I fear I am going to have to wear a ski jacket over my ball gown to keep warm. We are being punted on the Cam River into a champagne reception to start the evening off so that should be freezing.
I am really looking forward to this though. We are going with our friends the Williams who have a son at Clare. We are taking over his college apartment to change into our evening clothes. We've decided to leave the ball at about 4 a.m. and drive back to Reading and crash at home, so that means I'm taking Tuesday off to recover. Pictures tomorrow. The ball committee is taking over one of the courts at the college and turning it into the Forbidden City.
The Forbidden City
On the night of Monday 15 June, Old Court and the beautiful gardens of Clare will be transformed into the Imperial Palace. Those who are fortunate enough to gain entry will be treated to a night of hedonism as a guest of the Emperor himself. It will truly be a night to remember...
For the lucky few, we offer the chance to be punted in, enjoy a champagne reception and dine on a sumptuous four course meal at the start of the ball. The dinner menu will showcase a flourish of flavours and sensations and will remain a surprise until the evening itself. The meal will delight, surprise and entertain - the perfect start to an evening of hedonism in the Forbidden City.
Sunday, 14 June 2009
Three-legged cat leaving us & breach of etiquette
We've enjoyed fostering our three-legged cat but now she has found another home. I have a week left in her company, then she goes to her permanent family. They came over to meet her today and very nice people they are too. EXCEPT....they do that thing where they talk about people you've never met using their names. "Sally said...." and "John laughed when he saw that and said..." And I'm thinking, PLEASE! I don't know these people. Just tell me you like the cat and want to adopt her, and that's quite enough conflab for me. (I'd just been out running so I really needed a shower at that point.)
Later I was telling the family about this, and my daughter was laughing then her boyfriend said, "You do that too." Wow, my daughter DID NOT like hearing that. But she took it in good humor.
My husband brought out his Correct Conduct book from his childhood and read to us about this very etiquette breach:
Some people will start a conversation and introduce the names of people only known to themselves. This is a tiring way of telling a story; it is far better to say, "A man I know said so-and-so," than "Mr Robinson said so-and-so," if nobody else is acquainted with Mr. Robinson.
I think that sums it up beautifully.
Later I was telling the family about this, and my daughter was laughing then her boyfriend said, "You do that too." Wow, my daughter DID NOT like hearing that. But she took it in good humor.
My husband brought out his Correct Conduct book from his childhood and read to us about this very etiquette breach:
Some people will start a conversation and introduce the names of people only known to themselves. This is a tiring way of telling a story; it is far better to say, "A man I know said so-and-so," than "Mr Robinson said so-and-so," if nobody else is acquainted with Mr. Robinson.
I think that sums it up beautifully.
My 15 Minutes
I was just leaving for Cambridge so checked my emails and my blog one last time. I noticed I was suddenly receiving a ton of hits, and it's Sunday afternoon -- such a slow time for blogs.
I knew then that somebody must have picked up one of my posts. I followed a couple of links and saw that a famous financial guy had picked up one of my humorous posts -- so it's no tribute to the quality of my blog, just that I picked up a cute cartoon to use one day. Still, I'm loving the hits today, thanks.
Here I am on this guy's blog, below:
Financial Armageddon
I knew then that somebody must have picked up one of my posts. I followed a couple of links and saw that a famous financial guy had picked up one of my humorous posts -- so it's no tribute to the quality of my blog, just that I picked up a cute cartoon to use one day. Still, I'm loving the hits today, thanks.
Here I am on this guy's blog, below:
Financial Armageddon
Top-secret recipe revealed. SSSHHHHH!!
After World War II, the Dennery family and other Greek immigrants opened some of the best restaurants in the Jackson, Mississippi area. Mr. Dennery developed this sauce as a salad dressing and its popularity exploded.
He guarded the secret recipe, but other competing Greek restaurateurs developed their own versions. Today several companies bottle the product, but this is close to the original version.
If anyone asks you where you got this recipe, don't tell them I blabbed! This post will self destruct in 30 seconds....
Kumback Sauce
1 tbs water
2/3 cup chili sauce
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 lemon, juiced
1 tsp Wocestershire sauce
1 dash louisiana hot sauce
1 tsp black pepper
1 small onion
1 cup mayonnasise
1/4 cup ketchup
1 tsp dry mustard
1 dash paprika
1 tsp salt
3 cloves garlic
Assemble all ingredients. Juice lemon and discard rind. Process in blender or food processer until smooth. Store in refrigerator. Best made a day ahead. Originated as a salad dressing, but is a great sandwich spread or over grilled veggies.
He guarded the secret recipe, but other competing Greek restaurateurs developed their own versions. Today several companies bottle the product, but this is close to the original version.
If anyone asks you where you got this recipe, don't tell them I blabbed! This post will self destruct in 30 seconds....
Kumback Sauce
1 tbs water
2/3 cup chili sauce
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 lemon, juiced
1 tsp Wocestershire sauce
1 dash louisiana hot sauce
1 tsp black pepper
1 small onion
1 cup mayonnasise
1/4 cup ketchup
1 tsp dry mustard
1 dash paprika
1 tsp salt
3 cloves garlic
Assemble all ingredients. Juice lemon and discard rind. Process in blender or food processer until smooth. Store in refrigerator. Best made a day ahead. Originated as a salad dressing, but is a great sandwich spread or over grilled veggies.
Alzheimer's Test
The following was developed as a mental age assessment by the School of Psychiatry at Harvard University. Take your time and see if you can read each line aloud without a mistake. The average person over 40 years of age cannot do it!
1. This is this cat.
2. This is is cat.
3. This is how cat.
4. This is to cat.
5. This is keep cat.
6. This is an cat.
7. This is old cat.
8. This is fart cat.
9. This is busy cat
10. This is for cat.
11. This is forty cat.
12. This is seconds cat.
Now go back and read the third word in each line from the top down.
Ha ha!
1. This is this cat.
2. This is is cat.
3. This is how cat.
4. This is to cat.
5. This is keep cat.
6. This is an cat.
7. This is old cat.
8. This is fart cat.
9. This is busy cat
10. This is for cat.
11. This is forty cat.
12. This is seconds cat.
Now go back and read the third word in each line from the top down.
Ha ha!
Saturday, 13 June 2009
My day today
What did you all do today? I rushed around buying food for the week ahead then I went to get a manicure and pedicure to prepare for the Cambridge May Ball I am going to on Monday night. I had an energetic pedicurist so when she was scraping my feet with a pumice and callous remover, she made my damn foot bleed. Now I'm hobbling around the house with my foot bandaged up. I bled all over my cool bejewelled sandals that I was going to wear to the ball too. Since I'm not in America, I can't sue her for millions; a shame.
I came home to check the results of the Iranian election. I was so hoping Mousavi would win, but no. I have Iranian friends who tell me about life there -- you go to a party and if men and women are in the same room together and someone tips the authorities off, which they will, the police arrive, cart you off to jail until you pay the bribe they expect to release you. She said it's all a game there -- you will be taken to jail for having alcohol at a party because someone will call the police so they can get money for the tipoff then you have to bribe the police and on and on it goes. I always wanted to go with her on one of her trips home but she said there was no way they'd let an American in there, especially me (I'm sure I'd say something wrong and get arrested by the morality police).
This afternoon I started reading a logic book that one of the blog readers, Howard, recommended. I hope it helps improve my mind. The author says:
Most know next to nothing about the way reasoning can go wrong. Schools and university pack their minds with invaluable pieces of information - about the nitrogen cycle, the causes of WWII, iambic penatameter and trig -- but leave them incapable of identifying even basic errors of logic. Which makes for a nation of suckers, unable to resist the bogus reasoning of those who want something from them, such as votes or money or devotion.
Will be quoting from this book more soon.
I did some gardening, cooking, laundry, as usual.
I found a canary whistle that my friend Elizabeth sent me and decided to freak the cat out by pretending there were birds in the house. What a fine way to spend my time -- playing mind games with the cat. But we had fun.
Someone is coming to look at her tomorrow so my three-legged cat might be history.
My plan to diet my way to ball-gown loveliness has failed miserably. My daughter came home last night with her BF and we had a big Indian meal. I thought my stomach might need its own postcode after that.
I guess I can try to diet again for the beach later in the summer (we're going to Spain). There's a guy at work who, every summer, says he needs to get his body 'beach ready.' It's so amusing because he says it every year and his body never changes. I know the feeling.
I came home to check the results of the Iranian election. I was so hoping Mousavi would win, but no. I have Iranian friends who tell me about life there -- you go to a party and if men and women are in the same room together and someone tips the authorities off, which they will, the police arrive, cart you off to jail until you pay the bribe they expect to release you. She said it's all a game there -- you will be taken to jail for having alcohol at a party because someone will call the police so they can get money for the tipoff then you have to bribe the police and on and on it goes. I always wanted to go with her on one of her trips home but she said there was no way they'd let an American in there, especially me (I'm sure I'd say something wrong and get arrested by the morality police).
This afternoon I started reading a logic book that one of the blog readers, Howard, recommended. I hope it helps improve my mind. The author says:
Most know next to nothing about the way reasoning can go wrong. Schools and university pack their minds with invaluable pieces of information - about the nitrogen cycle, the causes of WWII, iambic penatameter and trig -- but leave them incapable of identifying even basic errors of logic. Which makes for a nation of suckers, unable to resist the bogus reasoning of those who want something from them, such as votes or money or devotion.
Will be quoting from this book more soon.
I did some gardening, cooking, laundry, as usual.
I found a canary whistle that my friend Elizabeth sent me and decided to freak the cat out by pretending there were birds in the house. What a fine way to spend my time -- playing mind games with the cat. But we had fun.
Someone is coming to look at her tomorrow so my three-legged cat might be history.
My plan to diet my way to ball-gown loveliness has failed miserably. My daughter came home last night with her BF and we had a big Indian meal. I thought my stomach might need its own postcode after that.
I guess I can try to diet again for the beach later in the summer (we're going to Spain). There's a guy at work who, every summer, says he needs to get his body 'beach ready.' It's so amusing because he says it every year and his body never changes. I know the feeling.
My daughter's summer job (continued)
I am enjoying my daughter's reporting on her summer job as a medical notes summarizer. She put up the latest in a comment but I want to put it as a post so it doesn't get lost. Katie says:
"There was a really inspiring one today. The girl didn't live up to her parents' expectations and became depressed and had hysterical screaming fits. The parents didn't support her at all. The notes describe her as "pathetically lonely". But she manages to save up for several years to take a holiday to the other side of the world. Exit psychiatric notes and enter notes about ringworm, low back pain, etc.
The last note on top of the pile describes her as being medically fit enough to move to Hong Kong. I felt so happy for her, that she managed to get it together and move out of the country.
Some phrases are amusing to read: "His insight was suboptimal" and "He is bothered by some thoughts that his neighbour is the devil".
Hmm. Perhaps they look better in context.
One rather amusing letter when the consultant was seeing the patient about stress headaches remarked that the patient was rather wet and perhaps his reaction to any stress in life was to develop one of these headaches. The phrases he used! It was total English conservative doctor from the 50s (It was a pretty old letter)
In one set of notes, I was just turning the pages, and I suddenly saw a note declaring she had been removed from her practice due to racist remarks. I was handling the notes of a racist! But of course I had to carry on.
But all the notes on the patient and all the letters are by doctors. It's the oddest thing when something written by the actual patient comes up. It's all about the patient, but the only thing that's from them is whispers on a page."
Thanks Katie! We'll wait eagerly for the next instalment of Katie's Summer Job.
"There was a really inspiring one today. The girl didn't live up to her parents' expectations and became depressed and had hysterical screaming fits. The parents didn't support her at all. The notes describe her as "pathetically lonely". But she manages to save up for several years to take a holiday to the other side of the world. Exit psychiatric notes and enter notes about ringworm, low back pain, etc.
The last note on top of the pile describes her as being medically fit enough to move to Hong Kong. I felt so happy for her, that she managed to get it together and move out of the country.
Some phrases are amusing to read: "His insight was suboptimal" and "He is bothered by some thoughts that his neighbour is the devil".
Hmm. Perhaps they look better in context.
One rather amusing letter when the consultant was seeing the patient about stress headaches remarked that the patient was rather wet and perhaps his reaction to any stress in life was to develop one of these headaches. The phrases he used! It was total English conservative doctor from the 50s (It was a pretty old letter)
In one set of notes, I was just turning the pages, and I suddenly saw a note declaring she had been removed from her practice due to racist remarks. I was handling the notes of a racist! But of course I had to carry on.
But all the notes on the patient and all the letters are by doctors. It's the oddest thing when something written by the actual patient comes up. It's all about the patient, but the only thing that's from them is whispers on a page."
Thanks Katie! We'll wait eagerly for the next instalment of Katie's Summer Job.
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