What expanded your mind today?

[Hollylane]

Interesting articles, information new to you, books, food, people, animals, noticed behaviors, conversations had, places, things, science, culture, random realizations, new perspectives...etc


What expanded your mind today?

[Talon]

The discovery of a whale, that scientists had previously thought..
had been extinct for two million years.

[Hollylane]

http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/64745000/jpg/_64745865_composite1.jpg

New York, a graveyard for languages (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-20716344)
By Dr Mark Turin Linguist and broadcaster


Home to around 800 different languages, New York is a delight for linguists, but also provides a rich hunting ground for those trying to document languages threatened with extinction.

To hear the many languages of New York, just board the subway.

The number 7 line, which leads from Flushing in Queens to Times Square in the heart of Manhattan takes you on a journey which would thrill the heart of a linguistic anthropologist.

Each stop along the line takes you into a different linguistic universe - Korean, Chinese, Spanish, Bengali, Gujarati, Nepali.

And it is not just the language spoken on the streets that changes.

Street signs and business names are also transformed, even those advertising the services of major multinational banks or hotel chains.

In the subway, the information signs warning passengers to avoid the electrified rails are written in seven different languages.

But as I have discovered, New York is not just a city where many languages live, it is also a place where languages go to die, the final destination for the last speakers of some of the planet's most critically endangered speech forms.

Of the world's around 6,500 languages, UNESCO believe that up to half are critically endangered and may pass out of use before the end of this century.

http://i46.tinypic.com/mrfhau.jpg

Immediately we think of remote Himalayan valleys or the highlands of Papua New Guinea, bucolic rural villages where little known languages are still spoken by handfuls of speakers.

But languages can die on the 26th floor of skyscrapers too.

New York City is one of the most linguistically rich locations on earth, the perfect location to conduct research on endangered languages.

A recent Census Bureau report notes that in the United States, the number of people speaking a language other than English at home increased by 140% over the last 30 years, with at least 303 languages recorded in this category.

Originally home to the indigenous Lenape people, then settled by the Dutch, conquered by the English and populated by waves of migrants from every country ever since, the five boroughs that make up the Big Apple - The Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, and Staten Island - are home to every major world language, but also countless vanishing voices, many of which have just a few remaining speakers.

No longer do aspiring field linguists have to trek halfway across the world to collect data on Zaghawa or Livonian, they can just take the Number 7 train a few stops where they will find speakers of some of the 800 languages that experts believe are spoken in New York.

I did just that, getting out at Jackson Heights, to visit a young family I knew well from Nepal.

They live in a massive apartment block, which, judging by the names on the letterboxes, housed speakers of at least 40 languages.

Every household in their home village in Nepal, high in a mountains a few miles from the Tibetan border, has a son or daughter working in New York.

And they have recreated the sense of a Himalayan village in this new land - they all live within a few blocks of each other and meet regularly for children's birthdays or to play cards, chatting away in their endangered language, a form of speech known simply as village language.

And not only that - head of the family Wangdi has also picked up Chinese and Spanish from working in New York's sandwich bars and restaurants.

His son Sonam, now only one year old, already hears three languages at home. He will probably grow up speaking four. The only common language spoken in the apartment block? "English."

When there is an important Buddhist ritual to be performed, someone in New York records it on a smart phone and immediately posts it online so that grandma and grandpa back in Nepal can watch and participate too.

Recognising what a unique opportunity New York provided, two linguists and a performance poet - Daniel Kaufman, Juliette Blevins and Bob Holman - set up the Endangered Language Alliance, an urban initiative for endangered language research and conservation.

"This is the city with the highest linguistic density in the world and that is mostly because the city draws large numbers of immigrants in almost equal parts from all over the globe - that is unique to New York," says Kaufman.

Several languages have been uttered for the very last time in New York, he says.

"There are these communities that are completely gone in their homeland. One of them, the Gottscheers, is a community of Germanic people who were living in Slovenia, and they were isolated from the rest of the Germanic populations.

"They were surrounded by Slavic speakers for several hundreds of years so they really have their own variety [of language] which is now unintelligible to other German speakers."

The last speakers of this language have ended up in Queens, he says, and this has happened to many other communities.

Garifuna is an Arawakan language from Honduras and Belize, but also spoken by a diaspora in the United States.

Staff at the Endangered Language Alliance have been working with two Garifuna speakers, Loreida Guity and Alex Colon, to document not only their language but also aspects of their culture through traditional song, before these are lost without record.

Urban linguists have also shot video of Husni Husain speaking Mamuju, his Austronesian language from Sulawesi, Indonesia.

He may be the only Mamuju speaker in New York, and these recordings are probably the first ever digital documents of his language being spoken.

But why do languages die?

Communities can be wiped out through wars, disease or natural disasters, and take their languages with them when they go.

More commonly, though, people transition out of one mother tongue into another, either by choice or under duress, a process that linguists refer to as language shift.

Being one of the last speakers of a language is a lonely place to be - you may have no one to talk to, no way to write it down and all kinds of cultural and historical knowledge that does not translate easily into English, Spanish or another more dominant language.

Languages ebb and flow, some triumph for a while only to fade away.

At the end of 19th Century, the lower east side of Manhattan was a celebrated centre of European Jewish culture, a world of Yiddish theatre, newspapers, restaurants and bookshops.

But in the 20th century, Yiddish took a battering as the Jewish community left the lower east side and moved out to the suburbs. The American-born children of Jewish immigrants understood, but rarely spoke, Yiddish.

With no readership, newspapers closed and books were discarded.

And then, just as it was most threatened, Yiddish bounced back, thanks to an unusual combination of technology, faith and the efforts of Aaron Lansky, founder and president of the Yiddish Book Center.

He established the centre to help salvage Yiddish language publications, 11,000 of which have now been digitised and are freely available online.

Yiddish also found support from an unexpected quarter - while secular Jews were increasingly giving up the language in favour of English, religious Jewish communities across New York continued to speak it, using Yiddish as their everyday vernacular allowing Hebrew to be reserved for religious study.

"There are many people nowadays who take Yiddish very seriously and raise their kids in Yiddish as well," says Lansky.

"The resurgence of interest in Yiddish is certainly not a nostalgic enterprise. If anything I think it is really a serious attempt to understand a broader view of Jewish identity and it is only now that young people are engaging with that."

Even Yiddish radio, once ubiquitous in New York, has made a comeback thanks to technology, with a once-a-week show produced by staff at a Jewish newspaper.

New York is a city that never sleeps and a city that never stops talking - a churning metropolis in which businesses, buildings and people are buffered by the changing winds of commerce and culture.

It is the perfect vantage point to listen to how the world's languages rise and fall on the tides of human affairs. I wonder in how many languages can you say 'Big Apple'?

[Ginger]

How interesting, Holly! I didn't know there were 6,500 languages in the world.

And that list describing the progression of characteristics telling that a language is dying... devastating.

Every morning on he subway, I see people reading newspapers and books in many different languages: Asian (I can't tell the difference between Asian languages when I see them in written form), Russian, Hebrew, Spanish, Polish—often all on the same stretch of bench.

And there I sit with my New York Times crossword puzzle.

[nycfem]

This all made me think how on the subway today I saw a big glass framed poster that read (paraphrasing), "We hear you that you don't like the Poetry in Motion series [where they post a poem in the subways] so we have made a change. The Poetry in Motion series is back but now with colored pictures to go with it. The MTA listens to you." I was rather fascinated by that, and I thought, "Why didn't you ask me? I love the Poetry in Motion series!" I even write down some of the poems and have seen others doing the same. The new pictures are nice too, a picture and a few meaningful lines of a poem. I listened to a school kid reading one of those out loud, something from the 1800's. He read it slowly and seriously, seeming to consider it. Poetry is a good thing, even with pictures, and maybe especially with pictures.

[Canela]

I came across this quote today:

Love is giving him the power to destroy you
And trusting him not to.

It's still ringing in my spirit...

[Talon]

The fact that in CT...they are sold out of bulletproof packpacks...w/firearms tagging along second.

[Hollylane]

http://l3.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/LbrZvMRjEdnO.IFjdx5EhA--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7cT04NTt3PTMxMA--/http://media.zenfs.com/en-US/blogs/partner/470_2561836.jpghttp://l.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/8qn4ar0mfg5VjFeW1dS4og--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7cT04NTt3PTMxMA--/http://media.zenfs.com/en-US/blogs/partner/470_2561837.jpg


Letter from Chinese Laborer Pleading for Help Found in Halloween Decorations (http://shine.yahoo.com/work-money/letter-chinese-laborer-pleading-help-found-halloween-decorations-202400773.html)

Julie Keith was unpacking some of last year's Halloween decorations when she stumbled upon an upsetting letter wedged into the packaging.

Tucked in between two novelty headstones that she had purchased at Kmart, she found what appeared to be a letter from the Chinese laborer, who had made the decoration, pleading for help.

Samsung in hot seat over abusing Chinese workers

The letter reads: "Sir, if you occasionally buy this product, please kindly resend this letter to the World Human Right Organization. Thousands people here who are under the persecution of the Chinese Communist Party Government will thank and remember you forever."

"I was so frustrated that this letter had been sitting in storage for over a year, that this person had written this plea for help and nothing had come of it." Julie Keith told Yahoo! Shine. "Then I was shocked. This person had probably risked their life to get this letter in this package."

The letter describes the conditions at the factory: "People who work here have to work 15 hours a day without Saturday, Sunday break and any holidays. Otherwise, they will suffer torturement, beat and rude remark. Nearly no payment (10 yuan/1 month)." That translates to about $1.61 a month.

Keith, a mom who works at the Goodwill in Portland, Oregon, did some research into the letter. "I looked up this labor camp on the internet. Some horrific images popped up, and there were also testimonials about people who had lived through this camp. It was just awful."

Horrified, Keith took to Facebook. She posted an image of the letter to ask friends for advice. One responded with a contact at Amnesty International. Keith made several attempts to alert them about the letter, but the organization never responded.

With no response from various human rights organizations, Keith took her story to The Oregonian. "The reporter, Rachel Stark, got through to Human Rights Watch, but I had no luck."

This is not the first time a letter like this has turned up. Just this week, another plea was found written in Chinese on a toilet seat and posted on Reddit. Commenters on the website have questioned the letters' authenticity.

Though the letter lists the address of the specific camp, officials at Human Rights Watch were unable to verify the authenticity of the letter. However, Sophie Richardson, China director at Human Rights Watch, told The Oregonian that the description was consistent with their research. "I think it is fair to say the conditions described in the letter certainly conform to what we know about conditions in re-education through labor camps."


The concern over the conditions laborers must endure in China and other countries first came to the public eye in the 1980s with the use of sweatshops to make Nike sneakers. Since then, according to an article recently published in The New York Times, Nike "has convened public meetings of labor, human rights, environmental and business leaders to discuss how to improve overseas factories."

Tech companies, like Apple and Hewlett Packard, are being made to be accountable for their labor practices. After receiving a great deal of criticism, Apple is now making public statements that they are aware of the harsh conditions in China and are taking steps to improve them.

As for Julie Keith, she had a general idea about the conditions in Chinese labor camps, but this letter has been a dramatic eye-opener into the stark reality of the issue. "I was aware of labor camps. I knew they had factories but I had no idea of the gravity of the situation. I didn't realize how bad it could be for people."

Finding the letter has made Keith more aware of the origin of many products sold in the United States. "As I was doing my Christmas shopping this year, I checked every label. It's virtually impossible to avoid purchasing things made in China as over 90 percent of our goods are made there. But if I saw 'made in China,' this year I asked myself, 'do I really need this?'"

[Hollylane]

The US is currently in 17th place in academics. Time to reevaluate our priorities yet? :|

[girl_dee]

verbiage.

Am i the only one who is bothered by this phrase, when used to describe a victim of violence?

"They were in the wrong place at the wrong time"

*i* feel this somehow puts the victim at fault, even though it is not intended that way, and that really bothers me.

Is it just me?

[Okiebug61]

verbiage.

Am i the only one who is bothered by this phrase, when used to describe a victim of violence?

"They were in the wrong place at the wrong time"

*i* feel this somehow puts the victim at fault, even though it is not intended that way, and that really bothers me.

Is it just me?



Yeah it bugs me. It seems like a lot of people are blamed for a lot of things out of their control.

I blame the media for a lot of the crap victims have to endure.

[Hollylane]

http://i46.tinypic.com/dlnyp4.jpg

The impactful legacy of a 12-year-old girl and the national movement she sparked (http://sports.yahoo.com/news/the-impactful-legacy-of-a-12-year-old-girl-and-the-national-movement-she-sparked-155416307.html)


Jessie Rees got into the backseat of her parents' car after another grueling round of chemo and radiation and looked back at the hospital through the window.

She wondered aloud: Why did she get to go home from the hospital? What about the other kids? Why weren't they going home?

Her dad, Erik, ventured an answer. It's because they have a different type of treatment, he told his daughter. You get to go home after your treatment, but they don't.

Jessie, then 11, asked another question. It's a question that caused her mom, Stacey, to start crying. It's a question that, in her dad's words, "changed the tapestry of our lives." It also started a movement that has affected tens of thousands of people all over the world.

Jessie loved swimming the most. She was straight out of central casting, with blond hair, blue eyes, lightly tanned skin and the easy Southern California smile. She was a junior Olympic swimmer for the Mission Viejo Nadadores, which is where she could be found doing laps and giggling with friends. Swimming is among the most secluded of sports – you hardly see anyone else and you rarely hear them – but Jessie loved being a teammate. She yelled for her friends as they made their flip turns and made a special effort to see them compete. That's what she was doing in February of 2011 when she started complaining of headaches. Not a big deal, her parents thought, but then she started to develop a lazy eye. She had to go in for a checkup.

Doctors ordered an MRI and the result was unthinkable: Two malignant tumors in her brain stem. The cancer was inoperable. It was incurable. Erik sought "47 second opinions," he says, but every doctor told them the awful truth: there was little hope. At the end of February, Jessie was an up-and-coming swimmer. By the end of March, she was going through chemo with a 1 percent chance to live 18 months. Her parents started telling her about heaven.

Then, on the way home from one treatment one spring day, her parents explained the difference between in-patient and out-patient. And Jessie, who had one more birthday left if she was lucky, thought about the kids who didn't get to go home that day and asked:

"What can we do for them?"

What can we do for them? The question broke her parents' hearts. "She's fighting a battle she can't win," Erik says, choking up over the phone as he recalls that moment, "and she just chose to help others."

Jessie returned home that day and started to assemble brown-paper lunch bags. She plucked tiny trinkets and toys from around the house and filled the bags up with little gifts. The presents certainly weren't much, yet the gesture was everything. Her parents figured small jars would work even better, and Jessie's middle name was Joy. JoyJars. Jessie's eyes lit up at the name. That's what they would be called. And so every Monday from then on, Jessie and her dad would fill little JoyJars with toys for sick kids.

The reaction at the hospital was remarkable. "Can I keep this?!" children asked giddily. The answer was yes, of course. All over Jessie's hospital, and soon other hospitals in the Orange County area, hospital rooms of little boys and girls filled up with JoyJars.

Jessie's condition got worse. Her vision ebbed. Her headaches became more severe. Her legs, the same ones that propelled her through the water so quickly, could hardly hold her up. There were nights when Erik had to carry his daughter up the stairs to bed, holding back tears as he prayed the next day would be easier. It often wasn't. Jessie told her dad she felt "lonely and limited." Her friends wouldn't know what to say as her face bloated and she started having to wear a mask. "Her body," Erik says, "got stripped away."

And yet Jessie's power got stronger. Hundreds signed up to follow her on Facebook. Then thousands. Then tens of thousands. The swimming community began to talk about her story, even as the Olympic year drew closer. Soon the Reeses would need a warehouse for all the JoyJars.

On January 4, 2011, the Reeses put their daughter to bed. She was having headaches again. That was somewhat normal by then. But the next morning, at around 4:30, Stacey rushed into the bedroom after checking on Jessie. She couldn't wake her up.

Hospice was called. The nurses came and did everything to make Jessie more comfortable. "At 11:10 a.m.," Erik says, "she took her last breath." She was 12.

Yet as life left her body, a spark caught flame. People across the country had heard about the JoyJars, and Jessie's passing made a wave of news. Kaitlin Sandeno, the former Olympic swimmer, had been in touch with the family and decided she would attend the memorial. She arrived at Saddleback Church and was overcome: 5,000 people were there. Nearly that many watched online.

Sandeno started recruiting fellow swimmers and athletes from USC, where she went to school. She had a budding career as a swim coach but she decided to give that up to help the movement. This was more important. "I let go of the swim school and the private coaching," Sandeno says. "This is what I want to do."

Jessie had a motto: "Never Ever Give Up," or NEGU. That became Sandeno's motto and the motto of dozens of athletes across the country. Over the course of 2012, Olympians and NFL players started going to children's hospitals with JoyJars. Three Jacksonville Jaguars, led by quarterback Jordan Palmer, signed up to help. Erik says Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers has shown interest in being a spokesperson.

"There are more than 20,000 children right now in hospital beds fighting cancer," Erik says. "Their parents have to work, so they are entertained by the hospital staff. These kids, if a person comes in with a professional jersey on, they don't care who it is. They feel special."

There are now 35 athletes working with NEGU, and Rees hopes to have 100 by the end of this year. "I feel like we really do bring a sense of joy, and the athletes benefit just as much," says Sandeno, who is now a national spokesperson. "To see the other athletes' reaction – 'When can I do another one?' – this isn't a favor. This is awesome. You're providing a cool thing for people to give back."

There aren't many who give back in a full lifetime what Jessie Rees gave back in just 12 years. What began with a few paper bags and a few toys has now reached 11 countries. In 2012 alone, 47,000 kids received JoyJars.

Christmas was very hard for the Rees family. Erik and Stacey have two other kids, Shaya and J.T., but there was an empty stocking by the tree. This weekend will mark one year since Jessie passed. It will be a difficult moment to bear; what would Jessie have done with her life this year?

Then again, the answer to that question is clear and somewhat soothing. Had she lived, Jessie would have noticed all the kids around her, whether at the pool or in the hospital. She would have considered their situation, be it happy or sad. And then the little voice in her head would have asked, "What can I do to help them?"

[PaPa]

verbiage.

Am i the only one who is bothered by this phrase, when used to describe a victim of violence?

"They were in the wrong place at the wrong time"

*i* feel this somehow puts the victim at fault, even though it is not intended that way, and that really bothers me.

Is it just me?



Blaming the victim occurs a lot, Dee. There are college topics on this all the time in the 'Helping' fields...burns me right up too...

She wore that low-cut dress so she got what she was askin' for...
If she didn't want it then why did she dress that way? WHA?? Men are not expected to have control over their own urges?? Gimme a break!

[cinnamongrrl]

Starting my day out with yoga :)

[Hollylane]

Does confidence really breed success?
(http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-20756247)
Research suggests that more and more American university students think they are something special. High self-esteem is generally regarded as a good thing - but could too much of it actually make you less successful?

About nine million young people have filled out the American Freshman Survey, since it began in 1966.

It asks students to rate how they measure up to their peers in a number of basic skills areas - and over the past four decades, there has been a dramatic rise in the number of students who describe themselves as being "above average" for academic ability, drive to achieve, mathematical ability and self-confidence.

This was revealed in a new analysis of the survey data, by US psychologist Jean Twenge and colleagues.

http://i47.tinypic.com/x1zz8h.jpg

Self-appraisals of traits that are less individualistic - such as co-operativeness, understanding others and spirituality - saw little change, or a decrease, over the same period.

Twenge adds that while the Freshman Survey shows that students are increasingly likely to label themselves as gifted in writing ability, objective test scores indicate that actual writing ability has gone down since the 1960s.

And while in the late 1980s, almost half of students said they studied for six or more hours a week, the figure was little over a third by 2009 - a fact that sits rather oddly, given there has been a rise in students' self-proclaimed drive to succeed during the same period.

http://i49.tinypic.com/2hh2jwn.jpg

Another study by Twenge suggested there has been a 30% tilt towards narcissistic attitudes in US students since 1979.

The Oxford English Dictionary defines narcissism as: "Excessive self-love or vanity; self-admiration, self-centredness."

"Our culture used to encourage modesty and humility and not bragging about yourself," says Twenge. "It was considered a bad thing to be seen as conceited or full of yourself."

Not everyone with high self-esteem is a narcissist. Some positive views of the self may be harmless and in fact quite justified.

But one in four recent students responded to a questionnaire, the Narcissistic Personality Inventory, in a way which leaned towards narcissistic views of the self.

Though some have argued that narcissism is an essential trait, Twenge and her colleagues see it as negative and destructive.

In The Narcissism Epidemic, co-written with Keith Campbell, Twenge blames the growth of narcissistic attitudes on a range of trends - including parenting styles, celebrity culture, social media and access to easy credit, which allows people to appear more successful than they are.

"What's really become prevalent over the last two decades is the idea that being highly self-confident - loving yourself, believing in yourself - is the key to success.

"Now the interesting thing about that belief is it's widely held, it's very deeply held, and it's also untrue."

This bewitching idea - that people's lives will improve with their self-esteem - led to what came to be known as The Self-Esteem Movement.

Legions of self-help books have propagated the idea that we each have it within us to achieve great things - we just need to be more confident.

Over 15,000 journal articles have examined the links between high self-esteem and measurable outcomes in real life, such as educational achievement, job opportunities, popularity, health, happiness and adherence to laws and social codes.

Yet there is very little evidence that raising self-esteem leads to tangible, positive outcomes.

"If there is any effect at all, it is quite small," says Roy Baumeister of Florida State University. He was the lead author of a 2003 paper that scrutinised dozens of self-esteem studies.

He found that although high self-esteem frequently had a positive correlation with success, the direction of causation was often unclear. For example, are high marks awarded to people with high self-esteem or does getting high marks engender high self-esteem?

And a third variable can influence both self-esteem and the positive outcome.

"Coming from a good family might lead to both high self-esteem and personal success," says Baumeister.

"Self-control is much more powerful and well-supported as a cause of personal success. Despite my years invested in research on self-esteem, I reluctantly advise people to forget about it."

This doesn't mean that under-confident people will be more successful in school, in their careers or in sport.

"You need to believe that you can go out and do something but that's not the same as thinking that you're great," says Twenge. She gives the example of a swimmer attempting to learn a turn - this person needs to believe that they can acquire that skill, but a belief that they are already a great swimmer does not help.

Forsyth and Kerr studied the effect of positive feedback on university students who had received low grades (C, D, E and F). They found that the weaker students actually performed worse if they received encouragement aimed at boosting their self-worth.

"An intervention that encourages [students] to feel good about themselves, regardless of work, may remove the reason to work hard," writes Baumeister.

So do young people think they are better than they are?

If they are, perhaps the appropriate response is not condemnation but pity.

The narcissists described by Twenge and Campbell are often outwardly charming and charismatic. They find it easy to start relationships and have more confidence socially and in job interviews. Yet their prognosis is not good.

"In the long-term, what tends to happen is that narcissistic people mess up their relationships, at home and at work," says Twenge.

Narcissists may say all the right things but their actions eventually reveal them to be self-serving.

As for the narcissists themselves, it often not until middle age that they notice their life has been marked by an unusual number of failed relationships.

But it's not something that is easy to fix - narcissists are notorious for dropping out of therapy.

"It's a personality trait," says Twenge. "It's by definition very difficult to change. It's rooted in genetics and early environment and culture and things that aren't all that malleable."

Things also don't look good for the many young people who - although not classed as narcissists - have a disproportionately positive self-view.

A 2006 study led by John Reynolds of Florida State University found that students are increasingly ambitious, but also increasingly unrealistic in their expectations, creating what he calls "ambition inflation".

"Since the 1960s and 1970s, when those expectations started to grow, there's been an increase in anxiety and depression," says Twenge.

"There's going to be a lot more people who don't reach their goals."

Jean Twenge spoke to Health Check on the BBC World Service

[Hollylane]

https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn1/530668_420542751347961_148129211_n.jpg

Have a history teacher explain this if they can.

Abraham Lincoln was elected to Congress in 1846.

John F. Kennedy was elected to Congress in 1946.

Abraham Lincoln was elected President in 1860.

John F. Kennedy was elected President in 1960.

Both were particularly concerned with civil rights.

Both wives lost a child while living in the White House.

Both Presidents were shot on a Friday.

Both Presidents were shot in the head.

Now it gets really weird.

Lincoln's secretary was named Kennedy.

Kennedy's Secretary was named Lincoln.

Both were assassinated by Southerners.

Both were succeeded by Southerners named Johnson.

Andrew Johnson, who succeeded Lincoln, was born in 1808.

Lyndon Johnson, who succeeded Kennedy, was born in 1908.

John Wilkes Booth, who assassinated Lincoln, was born in 1839.

Lee Harvey Oswald, who assassinated Kennedy, was born in 1939.

Both assassins were known by their three names.

Both names are composed of fifteen letters.

Now hang on to your seat.

Lincoln was shot at the theater named "Ford."

Kennedy was shot in a car called "Lincoln" made by "Ford."

Booth and Oswald were assassinated before their trials.

And here's the "kicker":

A week before Lincoln was shot, he was in Monroe, Maryland.

A week before Kennedy was shot, he was with Marilyn Monroe.

AND...................:

Lincoln was shot in a theater and the assassin ran to a warehouse...

Kennedy was shot from a warehouse and the assassin ran to a theater...

[starryeyes]

Finally understanding how a cylinder and piston work in an engine. Understanding blow by, combustion and spark. <---- mind is expanded!

[Hollylane]

Barack Obama made history on Monday when he became the first president to speak about the Stonewall uprising and the gay rights struggle during an inaugural speech.

While many in the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community were thrilled with the mentions, an 11-year-old transgender girl named Sadie wondered why the President didn't directly address trans people, too.



"Sadie was so proud of President Obama for including the gay community in his inaugural address on Monday; however, she felt like the trans community wasn't included," Sage, Sadie's mother, told The Huffington Post on Tuesday. "That inspired her to write her own 'speech.'"

The speech, which began making the rounds on the Internet soon after the President spoke and was published in full on the TransGriot site, reads:

http://i47.tinypic.com/2exrmmu.jpg (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/23/transgender-girl-obama-speech_n_2533298.html?utm_hp_ref=tw#slide=2016213)


Sadie socially transitioned from male to female in kindergarten. She was home schooled until this year and is now in fifth grade and attending public school. A vegan, she loves anything that "protects the environment," as well as reading, swimming, basketball and texting her friends. She listens to Lady Gaga, Pink and Justin Bieber and wants to work for Green Peace when she grows up. She also wants to be a mom.

Though Sadie has been openly discriminated against, her mother says that she "isn't shy or ashamed of who she is," and adds, "I'm always 'on' when we go out because I never know when she'll strike up a conversation with the person in front of her in line at Trader Joe's. When she chats with people, she introduces herself as, 'Hi, I'm Sadie, my favorite color is pink, I'm vegan, and I'm transgender. Who are you?'"

Sage says she encouraged Sadie to write the essay because she thought "it might help empower her and overcome any feelings of oppression." In the end she says that she wants Sadie "to know that she has a voice. My dream for her is that she will be happy. That's all, really. I just want her to be happy."

[Dominique]

Ob/gyn group calls for patient screening of sexual coercion


January 23, 2013 5:39 pm

By Sally Kalson / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
It's not uncommon for abusive men to sabotage their female partners'birth control as a way of exerting power over them, according to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. Men have been known to poke holes in diaphragms or condoms, hide birth control pills or even forcibly remove patches and IUDs.
In response to a growing body of studies and reports on the subject -- a number of them conducted by Elizabeth Miller, chief of Adolescent Medicine at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh -- the College wants doctors to offer abused women and girls more long-acting methods of contraception that cannot be easily detected, such as implants, injections or IUDs with the strings cut short so they won't be noticed.
It also wants them to screen patients more effectively and frequently for coercion and refer them for help in leaving abusive relationships, something that not all OB/GYNs do.
The new opinion by the College's Committee on Health Care for Underserved Women will be published in the February 2013 issue of the journal Obstetrics & Gynecology and was scheduled to go online late today.
"It's incredibly useful to have a large organization like ACOG recognize the critical importance of intimate partner violence and coercion in women's health," said Dr. Miller, whose team is in the midst of a large randomized study on the topic in Western Pennsylvania, funded by the National Institutes of Health. Their earlier pilot project in northern California found that of 1,000 women coming into clinics, a quarter were living with reproductive coercion and half with partner violence.



Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/news/health/obgyn-group-calls-for-patient-screening-of-sexual-coercion-671613/#ixzz2IqNV6DAS

[justanolecowboy]

I do some dog training (not as much as I used too) - but I enjoy it - and I had occasion to talk with one of the monks from the New Skeet Monastery - that train GSD's - they have several books - and a very unique approach.

I would recommend to anyone who not only wanted to train but just to "know" more about your four pawed baby.

I do have a couple of them (the books that is) electronically - I would be willing to share - if anyone would be interested.

The monk I spoke with - was incredibly kind and generous - just as you might expect - and was full of laughter as well. Funny - you never really think of "monks" as men who laugh alot - but - well...they do!

An enlightening conversation!

[justanolecowboy]

verbiage.

Am i the only one who is bothered by this phrase, when used to describe a victim of violence?

"They were in the wrong place at the wrong time"

*i* feel this somehow puts the victim at fault, even though it is not intended that way, and that really bothers me.

Is it just me?



No - you are not the only one bothered - I do believe it is not intended that way - but (yes) - the phrasing does lean toward the victim of the circumstance being at fault.

[~ocean]

~ I listened ~

[Hollylane]

Couples of Color Scarce in Formulaic Gay Cinema (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/deron-dalton/couples-of-color-scarce-in-formulaic-gay-cinema_b_2396937.html?utm_hp_ref=gay-voices#slide=1952806)
http://s.huffpost.com/contributors/deron-dalton/headshot.jpg
Deron Dalton

Journalist

During my rare free time I love to watch movies. Usually I go through a period of watching a particular genre, then I move on to another. This past summer I became highly intrigued by LGBT cinema, particularly LGBT films focused on gay men. The films I was watching were mainly on Netflix.

Some of the films I watched were dramas, and some were comedies with a lot of romance, but all were gay-themed. As I moved through them, I noticed a common formula, especially in gay romantic comedies: An average-looking (but attractive in an adorable way) white male becomes interested in a hotter, confident and charming white male. The movie's plot is typically built around the funny obstacles, lies and deceptions that arise when these two archetypes date or become close friends, and that eventually brings them together in the end. This formula, or some variation on it, could be found in literally every gay-themed movie I watched. I sought out different types of gay-themed cinema, but all the films I came across utilized that common formula. It started to bother me that there were rarely black or Latino males in prevalent roles, and Asian-American males were almost nonexistent in these films. A lesbian or transgender character might be added to the mix in a smaller role, but rarely with depth. Heck, "fag hags" had more screen time than did characters of color and diverse gender identities!

Here is a list of movies I enjoyed this past summer that I thought could have used more diversity:

The Eating Out series (2004 to 2011): This series epitomizes the gay romantic comedy. All five movies focus on an average-looking white guy who uses lies and deceit to win over some smokin'-hot white guy. At the end of each 90-minute movie, the two men are somehow in each other's arms. Well, the couple in the fourth movie does not get back together until the end of the fifth movie, but it's the same thing.

Adam & Steve (2005): In this movie the average-looking white guy is Adam (Craig Chester), who also happens to be an ex-addict, and the hot white guy is Steve (Malcolm Gets), who also happens to be a successful psychiatrist. They first meet in 1987, when Adam is a goth kid and Steve is a Dazzle Dancer. They plan to hook up, but in a nice twist on the formula, Steve comically embarrasses himself and runs out. Seventeen years later they meet again and actually date. When Steve figures out who Adam is and realizes that he might have caused Adam's drug addiction, he breaks up with him... but it's a romantic comedy, so the breakup doesn't last, of course.

Another Gay Movie (2006): The title says it all. It's actually a parody of teen comedies like American Pie and gay-themed romantic comedies. Although the film is well-rounded and pokes fun at gay culture, lesbians and people of color have very small roles.

BearCity (2010): This one doesn't follow the formula exactly. It's about the bear community, a subculture of the gay community that doesn't get a lot of representation in gay media. The movie focuses on a skinny, above-average-looking twink, Tyler (Joe Conti), who has a thing for bears. Through some bear friends he meets Roger (Gerald McCullouch), a muscle bear. Roger is hesitant about Tyler, because the latter is from outside the community, so he lies about how he feels. The two go through the typical obstacles until they get together in the end.

Is It Just Me? (2010): This one is very similar to the Eating Out films. To sum it up, a newspaper writer, Blaine (Nicholas Downs), begins an online relationship with Xander (David Loren), who believes that Blaine is his sexy roommate, Cameron (Adam Huss). I know, that was a word-full for me, too!

These films are fantastic, non-mainstream movies, but like primetime television series, they lack representations of gay people of color, especially within gay relationships. But interracial couples and couples of color definitely exist within the gay community, and people (including me) love to see characters in the media that they can relate to. Nevertheless, gay-themed romantic films tend to leave them out, and when these films do include gay characters of color, black gay characters typically fulfill the "black man on the down-low" stereotype, and Latino/Hispanic gay characters usually fulfill the "hot-and-sexy Latin lover" stereotype.

For those reasons outlined above, gay and straight filmmakers should be inspired to include more gay characters of color in their work.

[nycfem]

Bear City was very helpful to BB's youngest son (my step-son) who is in college and came out as a bear (a cub, heh heh) which is an extra challenge after coming out as gay because it is a specific subculture and not as mainstream as coming out just as gay is. Before he came out to us, BB and I watched Bear City and with him at home, and it was a great bridge to use for him to gain confidence and to open up with us.

[Hollylane]

It's the birthday of the first woman to graduate from medical school, Elizabeth Blackwell, born on this day in Bristol, England, in 1821. She wanted to become a doctor because she knew that many women would rather discuss their health problems with another woman. She read medical texts and studied with doctors, but she was rejected by all the big medical schools. Finally the Geneva Medical College (which became Hobart College) in upstate New York accepted her. The faculty wasn't sure what to do with such a qualified candidate, and so they turned the decision over to the students. The male students voted unanimously to accept her. Her classmates and even professors considered many medical subjects too delicate for a woman, and didn't think she should be allowed to attend lectures on the reproductive system. But she graduated, became a doctor, and opened the New York Infirmary for Women and Children.

http://winningthevote.org/images/EBlackwell2.jpg

[DamonK]

That one instant this evening, walking to the car, a brilliant sunset, taking my breath away, knowing immediately who I wanted to share it with, and having that feeling consume my entire being.

[Ginger]

My mind remains a tight little hibernating bear today.

[Hollylane]

xEExMcjSkwA

[Hollylane]

I do some dog training (not as much as I used too) - but I enjoy it - and I had occasion to talk with one of the monks from the New Skeet Monastery - that train GSD's - they have several books - and a very unique approach.

I would recommend to anyone who not only wanted to train but just to "know" more about your four pawed baby.

I do have a couple of them (the books that is) electronically - I would be willing to share - if anyone would be interested.

The monk I spoke with - was incredibly kind and generous - just as you might expect - and was full of laughter as well. Funny - you never really think of "monks" as men who laugh alot - but - well...they do!

An enlightening conversation!

I found this video about the monastery, and I would most certainly be interested in a digital copy of the book(s).

My Obi, the feisty one (as Gaige says), has some behavioral issues that could I could use some help with. I am usually quite good at training my dogs, but I have found Lhasas to be especially challenging. Gaige is really good with him, but I have trust issues with him, because he has been known to bite (including me).

WZd2nT2Afds

[jcisbutch]

my good friend Jaison and I discussed the physics of a pressure cooker and like the dorks we are googled alot of information and came up with a theory to support our hypothesis.....in other words we both had way too mcuh time on our hands lol

[TimilDeeps]

Insect Growth Regulators

[Hollylane]

V1yW5IsnSjo

[DamonK]

The dream I had, knowing what it means.

[AmazonWoman1]

I found this in my email today.It was amazingly serendipitous which is what expanded my mind today to remember how the universe always is there for you & to make me so thankful.

“Judge nothing, you will be happy. Forgive everything, you will be happier. Love everything, you will be happiest.” ~Sri Chinmoy

Are you judgmental? Not many people would be aware if they were, let alone admit to being so, but it’s so easy to form an opinion about a person or situation without knowing all the facts.

What if the conclusions people spring to could really hurt someone? I like to think there are very few people who would actively want to upset others. Has someone passed judgment on you? What can you do if you feel misunderstood?

I want to share with you an unpleasant situation I was in recently, which has had a great impact upon my personal growth.

A few years ago in my thirties, I was in a car accident that caused me some spinal damage and exacerbated a pre-existing pelvic condition, subsequently leaving me initially in a wheelchair.

Currently, I am at a stage where I can now stand unaided and potter around a bit, but I still rely on a wheelchair or crutches for more than short periods of standing or walking.

One evening my partner surprised me with theatre tickets. I hadn’t been getting out much—outings now need to be meticulously planned—so I was really excited.

We were lucky enough to be able to park in the disabled bays right outside the venue (I am registered disabled and have a badge). We sat in the car and discussed whether I should take my crutches inside, as I was quite anxious about blocking the aisles. We decided that with his support I would manage the few steps inside without them.

The first upset of the evening was getting out of the car. A man queuing for a space behind wound down his car window and shouted that we should be ashamed of ourselves for parking there. We clearly didn’t “look” disabled and we literally “made him sick.” Hmmm.

This wasn’t the first time something like this had happened. I have a hidden disability, and unless I am in a wheelchair or using an aid, I look perfectly “normal” and am (relatively) young.

I tried to concentrate on the show for the first half, but the evening had been ruined for me by then. In the interval I needed the bathroom. The female bathrooms are down two flights of stairs (no elevator), which I couldn’t manage, so I went into the disabled bathroom on the ground floor.

When I came out, there was a queue of old ladies.

The first lady in the queue took one look at me and declared to her friend in a loud voice “young people are so lazy nowadays.” She looked at me and said “there’s nothing wrong with your legs,” and rapped me across my ankles with her walking stick! I went home in tears.

This evening affected me emotionally for weeks.

Although I shouldn’t need to justify myself to others, I would have been happy to answer genuine questions about my health instead of being met with accusations and aggression, but after much reflection I realized that forgiveness was the only way to move forward.

The points below really helped me to come to terms with how judgmental people can be.

1. The only person who can know the absolute truth about you is you.

People can and will have opinions, but never start to doubt yourself. Have absolute faith in who you are and don’t let another’s “idea” of you become your reality.

2. Ultimately, the opinion that really matters is yours.

If somebody doesn’t agree with what you are doing or how you are behaving, don’t feel pressured into changing. Have the courage of your convictions, even when others disagree or don’t understand.

3. People can’t “make” you feel anything.

I felt ashamed after being judged so harshly. I felt my body had failed me, putting me in that situation, and shame soon spiraled into self-loathing. I recognize now that these are feelings I had underlying anyway, and the situation just bought them to the surface. I know now we can choose how we want to feel and I choose to be happy.

4. Someone else’s judgment will be far more important to you.

It is so easy to dwell on things, but putting negative energy into running a scenario over and over in your mind is detrimental to your health. Although I found their remarks about me hurtful for weeks afterward, I doubt if the old lady or the man above ever gave me a second thought. Focus your energy on the positive things.

5. We don’t need to try to read people’s minds.

If we do not have compete trust in our actions, it can be easy to sense disapproval from others that may not even be there and then unnecessarily alter our actions accordingly. If you want an honest opinion, ask. Clear communication is far easier than second-guessing.

6. Forgiveness sets you free.

I am an honest person, and having my integrity brought into question momentarily resulted in anger and bitterness. Harboring this would ultimately have had absolutely no effect on anybody else but me. By forgiving, I have freed myself from this situation. Learn to accept an apology even if, especially if, it’s not actually offered.

7. Compassion changes everything.

People with limited vision and steadfast opinions will have a harder life than me. I send them love. Everyone deserves kindness. Always.

I hope you never find yourself being unfairly judged, or indeed forming an opinion of your own without all the facts, but if you do I hope my story can help you.

[MissItalianDiva]

an ah hah moment...like a freakin light bulb! Realizing I have been a hot mess full of horrid choices and decisions for about 3 weeks now and enough is enough. Time to get over whatever the heck my problem is and deal with it.

[Kent]

an ah hah moment...like a freakin light bulb! Realizing I have been a hot mess full of horrid choices and decisions for about 3 weeks now and enough is enough. Time to get over whatever the heck my problem is and deal with it.

It happens to all of us. Be thankful that you are willing to deal with it and move forward. Prayers go out to you.

[nycfem]

I was on the subway today, and a man got on and set down his boom box and readied for a performance. He was very no nonsense and announced in a matter-of-fact way, "I'm not going to accidentally kick anyone during my dance" which felt reassuring and thoughtful to me, also exciting, because I knew he'd be doing flips and stuff. He turned on an energizing yet chill wordless beat and started with a long handstand on one hand with only the bottoms of his feet pressed lightly against the bar that strap hangers hold onto. He was completely vertical yet upside down on the subway holding himself that way on that one hand for an extended period of time, and during that time my mind expanded. It was fucking impressive and got everyone's attention which is hard to do in New York City, especially on the train. When he was done with the whole performance (he break danced and flipped his ass off) people smiled and clapped, also something New Yorkers don't do, and I felt at one with everyone. We knew this was as good as it gets, and we filled his hat with coins and bills.

[Kent]

Filling out an application, downloading my resume, writing a cover letter and an online assessment... Nowadays, you gotta work hard just to get in the door... I worked it hard!! Must've paid off, cause I have a teleconference interview next Tuesday... :)

[starryeyes]

Filling out an application, downloading my resume, writing a cover letter and an online assessment... Nowadays, you gotta work hard just to get in the door... I worked it hard!! Must've paid off, cause I have a teleconference interview next Tuesday... :)

Wahoo! Good luck!!! :)

[Kent]

Wahoo! Good luck!!! :)

Thanks, Starry!! :)

[justanolecowboy]

http://theartofvision.com/unthink

[femmeInterrupted]

This was awesome! Is our universe the only universe????

http://on.ted.com/Greene

[LeftWriteFemme]

New Sexual Revolution: Polyamory May Be Good for You


http://news.yahoo.com/sexual-revolution-polyamory-may-good-154751829.html

[LeftWriteFemme]

Sea Slug’s Detachable Penis Grows Back Again and Again After Sex


http://gizmodo.com/5984010/sea-slugs-detachable-penis-grows-back-again-and-again-after-sex

[AmazonWoman1]

I keep hearing about multiple universes.I keep asking myself how do intelligent people not understand the definition of the word universe?The universe is everything there ever was or ever will be.There can not be anything outside of that EVER.Please ask them to think of another word for a different dimensional realm other then insisting on misusing the word universe over & over in sloppy thinking & sloppy languaging.

What expanded my mind was how genius scientists can get away with saying something that is obviously wrong & no one mentions it.

[DamonK]

An adventure to get a few pictures taken....

[Hollylane]

A new owl species from Indonesia (http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/21443913)

http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/65872000/jpg/_65872402_otusjolandaelombok29august2008filipverbe len(2).jpg

[Hollylane]

OSUVuxAZgdk

In my opinion, the world could use a lot more people like this guy...

[Ginger]

It expanded my mind a little today, to read about emergent theory. Like, you look at an atom of hydrogen and an atom of oxygen, and do you see anything resembling water? No. But put them together, and you get water. What's that about? The sum of two things is larger than their whole. Two things come together, and make something that has no resemblance to either of them.

[Hollylane]

When I watched this series of videos, suddenly everything I have thought of as suffering, suddenly seemed so microscopic, so utterly unimportant in comparison to the horror and suffering these people, and victims of other natural disasters have faced, and I am left stunned.

It is not that I was unaware of this horrible event, or did not feel empathetic before, it was listening to the survivors, while watching their videos, that really slammed it home.

I am posting 5 of them here, the rest are available on Youtube.

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S0p_6G5GIeo

PHpG1P3JwEU

zTVwsqdcA7U

L9GZapApWIE

[Hollylane]

Ti7nZwxUEjU

[Hollylane]

D0scG6_PMCE

[Hollylane]

PCBs in Fish and Shellfish


PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls, are highly toxic industrial compounds. They pose serious health risks to fetuses, babies and children, who may suffer developmental and neurological problems from prolonged or repeated exposure to small amounts of PCBs. These chemicals are harmful to adults as well. Although they were banned from manufacture in the United States in 1977, PCBs are slow to break down and can persist in the environment at dangerous levels.

PCBs accumulate in the sediments at the bottoms of streams, rivers, lakes and coastal areas. These chemicals can build up in the fatty tissues of fish and other animals, and in high concentrations pose serious health risks to people who frequently eat contaminated fish. Based on available data on PCB concentrations in fish, Environmental Defense recommends limiting consumption of certain fish .
What are PCBs and where do they come from?

PCBs are man-made chlorinated industrial chemicals also known by the trade name of Aroclor. There are 209 different PCB compounds (called congeners), which can be mixed in different combinations to yield different Aroclor compounds. These mixtures tend to be chemically stable and nonflammable, with high boiling points and electrical insulating properties.

This combination of useful chemical properties made PCBs popular for a variety of industrial applications, including use in electrical transformers, hydraulic fluids, lubricants and carbonless paper. More than 1.5 billion pounds of PCBs were manufactured in the United States before they were banned, and some electrical equipment in use today still contains PCBs.

Unfortunately, the same properties that made PCBs ideal for industrial use make them slow to break down in the environment. Most PCBs do not mix with water and settle into riverbeds, lake bottoms and coastal sediments. Here they can enter the food chain and bioaccumulate in invertebrates, fish, birds and mammals -- including people.

Although these chemicals have been banned for many years, increased testing has recently shown that the problem of PCB-contaminated fish is widespread. According to the Environmental Protection Agency's National Listing of Fish and Wildlife Advisories, advisories for PCBs increased 177% between 1993 and 2003 (from 319 to 884). Thirty-nine states issued PCB advisories in 2003, up from 31 states in 1993. As of 2003, more than two million lake acres and 130,000 river miles were covered by some type of PCB advisory. Three states (Indiana, Maryland and New York) and the District of Columbia have issued statewide freshwater advisories, and seven states (Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York and Rhode Island) have issued statewide coastal advisories for PCBs.Statewide advisories urge people to limit their consumption of all fish and shellfish from freshwater or coastal areas.
What are the health risks associated with consuming PCB-contaminated fish?

According to EPA, contaminated fish are a persistent source of PCBs in the human diet. PCBs are not highly toxic with a single dose (as in a single meal), but continued low levels of exposure (for example, eating contaminated fish over an extended period of time) may be harmful. EPA rates PCBs as "probable human carcinogens," since they cause cancer in laboratory animals. Other tests on laboratory animals show damage from PCBs to their circulatory, nervous, immune, endocrine and digestive systems.

A number of studies indicate that PCBs harm people, with fetuses and young children especially susceptible to the effects of PCBs on their developing nervous systems. For example, some recent studies found that:

Children of mothers who ate fish with large amounts of PCBs from the Great Lakes had smaller head size, reduced visual recognition and delayed muscle development.

A mother's exposure to PCBs and other chemicals was linked to slight effects on her child's birth weight, short-term memory, and learning.

Older adults (49 to 86 years old) who ate fish containing PCBs and other contaminants had lower scores on several measures of memory and learning.

How can I reduce the risks of eating seafood contaminated with PCBs?

PCBs build up in fish and animal fat, and therefore proper cooking methods can help reduce your exposure:

Before cooking, remove the skin, fat (found along the back, sides and belly), internal organs, tomalley of lobster and the mustard of crabs, where toxins are likely to accumulate.
When cooking, be sure to let the fat drain away and avoid or reduce fish drippings.
Serve less fried fish; frying seals in chemical pollutants that might be in the fish's fat, while grilling or broiling allows fat to drain away.
For smoked fish, it is best to fillet the fish and remove the skin before the fish is smoked.

[AmazonWoman1]

This expanded my mind today.I have repeatedly seen how one of the main things destroying our society is the removal of the feminine characteristics through making them negative traits has greatly affected our society.Our referencing qualities such as nurturing ,empathy etc. in a demeaning way eventually removes them from the balancing of life that was intended.This eventually leads to dehumanizing those possessing those qualities until they are acted against in a violent way.I love how Eve Ensler put that together with how we treat our earth.I think it started in the bible when they said "Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”This is the genesis 1.26.I so love what she did to make people aware & generate a space for more positive energy in the universe.I hope it can do something to help to protect the Ultimate Mother of all Mother Earth Many thanks to her & I hope people share this with everyone to get the thought out to reverse the trend.I hope you can locate an event near you to participate in on the website listed at the end.Namaste

http://www.care2.com/causes/eve-ensler-goes-ecofeminist.html

Eve Ensler is famous for her development of The Vagina Monologues, which has become a worldwide sensation performed in dozens of languages, but she’s more than just a playwright. She’s also an activist who’s passionately concerned about violence against women, and recently, she turned her sights to environmental devastation and the connections between harming the environment and hurting women. Is she going to take up nature as her next critical cause?

Ensler sees a parallel between the treatment of women and that of the environment, echoing observations and rhetoric made for decades. Just like women, nature is considered lesser when contrasted with men (as representatives of development and culture), and women are exploited, abused and discarded just as natural resources are. Sometimes these links are even more explicit, as Ensler points out with her work in the Congo, where women are deliberately made targets of violence to destabilize communities, making it easier for mining companies to take advantage of their resources.

Her observations are reminiscent of some of the core ideals of ecofeminism, a social movement that also explicitly links violence against women with violence against the environment, seeing both as a consequence of patriarchy. By reducing both women and nature to raw resources for capitalist exploitation, ecofeminists argue, patriarchal society has created a world of subjugation and abuse. While ecofeminism has been criticized for failing to consider real-world conditions for women, and for leaning heavily on rhetoric linking women with traditionally gendered tasks, the movement has provoked fascinating discussion about how people interact with women and the environment.

It is women who tend to suffer more in the wake of environmental devastation caused by exploitation of resources and related activities. Not just because women can be on the front lines of violence related to these activities, such as rising rape and domestic violence rates in mining towns, but also because women are often tasked with coping with the costs of climate change and environmental destruction. They’re the ones forced to go further afield to find water, fuel, and food to support their families, for example, while also performing routine household tasks. They’re also more likely to be living in poverty, which means they have decreased access to resources that might help them adapt.

By explicitly identifying conservation issues, and climate change in particular, as women’s issues as well as environmental ones, Ensler is making an important point, and it’s one people may listen to thanks to her high profile. Women are disproportionately affected by environmental destruction, and yet don’t receive support or assistance to help them survive, whether that’s in the form of counseling for victims of domestic violence or assistance with locating clean-burning fuels.

Fighting violence against women should also include addressing environmental issues, and vice versa, argue Ensler and many of those who share her sentiments. They argue that the treatment of women and the earth reflects a specific mindset that needs to be countered in order to achieve the goal of a safer and more peaceful society, and while this is only part of a much larger puzzle, it’s definitely a contributor to global issues that could benefit from a fresh take. Conservation and fighting violence against women aren’t just about changing routines and making new policies, but also about shifting mindsets.



Read more: http://www.care2.com/causes/eve-ensler-goes-ecofeminist.html#ixzz2LyyFAagv

[Jesse]

http://www.ted.com/talks/elif_shafak_the_politics_of_fiction.html

Listening to stories widens the imagination; telling them lets us leap over cultural walls, embrace different experiences, feel what others feel. Elif Shafak builds on this simple idea to argue that fiction can overcome identity politics.
Elif Shafak explicitly defies definition -- her writing blends East and West, feminism and tradition, the local and the global, Sufism and rationalism, creating one of today's most unique voices in literature.

[Hollylane]

Bad sleep 'dramatically' alters body (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-21572686)

[Jesse]

http://www.ted.com/talks/candy_chang_before_i_die_i_want_to.html

In her New Orleans neighborhood, artist and TED Fellow Candy Chang turned an abandoned house into a giant chalkboard asking a fill-in-the-blank question: “Before I die I want to ___.” Her neighbors' answers -- surprising, poignant, funny -- became an unexpected mirror for the community. (What's your answer?)
Candy Chang creates art that prompts people to think about their secrets, wishes and hopes -- and then share them. She is a TED Senior Fellow.

[Hollylane]

New Cars Increasingly Out of Reach for Many Americans

Looking to buy a new car, truck or crossover? You may find it more difficult to stretch the household budget than you expected, according to a new study that finds median-income families in only one major U.S. city actually can afford the typical new vehicle.

The typical new vehicle is now more expensive than ever, averaging $30,500 in 2012, according to TrueCar.com data, and heading up again as makers curb the incentives that helped make their products more affordable during the recession when they were desperate for sales.

According to the 2013 Car Affordability Study by Interest.com, only in Washington could the typical household swing the payments, the median income there running $86,680 a year. At the other extreme, Tampa, Fla., was at the bottom of the 25 large cities included in the study, with a median household income of $43,832.

The study looked at a variety of household expenses, such as food and housing, and when it comes to purchasing a new vehicle, it considered more than just the basic purchase price, down payment and monthly note, factoring in such essentials as taxes and insurance.

( More From CNBC: 10 Super-Hot Cars That You Will Never Drive )

Bottom line? A buyer in the capital can purchase a car with a sticker price of $31,940, slightly more than the new vehicle average for the 2013 model year and about what it would cost for a mid-range Ford Fusion sedan or a stripped-down BMW X1 crossover. The buyer in Tampa? They'll just barely cover the cost of a basic Kia Rio, with $14,516 to spend.

"If you live in New York City or San Francisco, you're probably going to have to pay a lot for housing, but you don't have to pay a lot for a car," said Mike Sante, the managing editor of Interest.com, a financial decision-making website.

Affordability has been a matter of growing concern for the auto industry in recent years as prices have continued to move upward. Even the most basic of today's cars are generally loaded with features that were once found on high-line models a few decades back - if they were available at all - such as air conditioning, power windows, airbags and electronic stability control, as well as digital infotainment systems. They also have to meet ever tougher federal safety, emissions and mileage standards that have added thousands to the typical price tag.

( More From CNBC: Must-Have Super Car: $1.6 Million and Not Yet Legal )

"The average compact car of today has the features of a midsize model somebody might be trading in - but it may be just as expensive," said David Sargent, director of automotive operations for J.D. Power and Associates.

That is one reason why many buyers have been downsizing in recent years, said Bill Fay, general manager of Toyota, though he added that "there is still a lot of affordability in the marketplace."

Perhaps, but industry planners have come to recognize that they are targeting a much smaller segment of the American public than in decades past. That's one reason why most manufacturers are offering more downsized models.

They also are working with their dealers to offer certified pre-owned programs where buyers can stretch their budget by purchasing a two- or three-year-old vehicle that has gone through an extensive inspection and, if necessary, repairs and replacements. Such vehicles may cost slightly more than a conventional used model but usually include a like-new warranty.

( More From CNBC: The Detroit Auto Show's Hottest Cars )

While the typical new vehicle will likely nudge up this year, Interest.com editor Sante stressed that car costs are one of the most controllable parts of a household's budget. "You're better off driving something more affordable and saving or investing the difference."

If the typical new car costs $30,550, with an average monthly payment of $550, the five cities most able to meet - or come close - are:

1) Washington

Average Household Income: $86,680

Affordable Purchase Price: $31,940

Maximum monthly payment: $628

2) San Francisco

Average Household Income: $71,975

Affordable Purchase Price: $26,786

Maximum monthly payment: $537

3) Boston

Average Household Income: $69.455

Affordable Purchase Price: $26,025

Maximum monthly payment: $507

4) Baltimore

Average Household Income: $65,463

Affordable Purchase Price: $24,079

Maximum monthly payment: $468

5) Minneapolis

Average Household Income: $63,352

Affordable Purchase Price: $24,042

Maximum monthly payment: $470

At the other end of the scale, those five cities least able to handle a car payment are:

21) Phoenix

Average Household Income: $50,058

Affordable Purchase Price: $17,243

Maximum monthly payment: $348

22) San Antonio

Average Household Income: $48,699

Affordable Purchase Price: $17,137

Maximum monthly payment: $334

23) Detroit

Average Household Income: $48,968

Affordable Purchase Price: $17,093

Maximum monthly payment: $332

24) Miami

Average Household Income: $45,407

Affordable Purchase Price: $15,188

Maximum monthly payment: $295

25) Tampa

Average Household Income: $43,832

Affordable Purchase Price: $14,516

Maximum monthly payment: $282

[Hollylane]

Gay Germany

Scene and Culture:

Homosexuality is widely accepted in Germany and this is reflected in such things as a low age of consent, legal prostitution and their same sex partnership legislation. Germans are also a very open people which means they don't have hang ups about sex. Public nudity is acceptable and laws on pornography seem quite liberal. There are for example nudist areas in parks in the middle of Berlin and Porno cinemas in airports.

There is a huge gay scene in Germany which is extremely liberal and caters to all tastes. In all the major cities you will find large numbers of bars, clubs, cafe, saunas and restaurants. For those seeking a slightly bolder gay scene Germany makes an excellent destination particularly Berlin and Hamburg.

Legal Notes:

18 years of Christian Democrat government hindered advancement on gay and lesbian rights in the 80's and 90's. Following the 1998 election of a Social Democrat-Green coalition government extensive gay law reform was undertaken. In 1999 immigration law was reformed, in 2000 an anti-discrimination bill was submitted and in 2001 Germany passed gay partnership legislation granting registered same sex couples rights and obligations in areas such as inheritance, health insurance, immigration, name change and maintenance. These rights were augmented in 2004 to include pension and adoption rights.

[StrongButch]

This meditation : Positive Affirmations for well being-hyptalk (you tube)

[Hollylane]

I just noticed this warning on a BBC News item...I don't know why this isn't done everywhere.

WTG BBC!

http://i47.tinypic.com/nxue8l.jpg


"Adverts are a major problem as they are trying to attract attention. One way is to make the material very active. Sixty per cent of photosensitive epileptics have their first seizure while watching television." (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/6728071.stm)

[AmazonWoman1]

I watched this today & was really entertained while I was informed.
http://www.upworthy.com/watch-the-tedxtalk-that-knocked-me-down-a-peg-or-two?c=upw1

She talks about gossip being sociology & uses a gay Egyptian king to illustrate it*G*

[Jesse]

http://www.ted.com/talks/allan_savory_how_to_green_the_world_s_deserts_and_ reverse_climate_change.html


Desertification of the world's grasslands, Allan Savory suggests, is the immediate cause of poverty, social breakdown, violence, cultural genocide -- and a significant contribution to climate change. In the 1960s, while working in Africa on the interrelated problems of increasing poverty and disappearing wildlife, Savory made a significant breakthrough in understanding the degradation and desertification of grassland ecosystems. After decades of study and collaboration, thousands of managers of land, livestock and wildlife on five continents today follow the methodology he calls "Holistic Management."

In 1992, Savory and his wife, Jody Butterfield, formed the Africa Centre for Holistic Management (http://achmonline.squarespace.com) in Zimbabwe, a learning site for people all over Africa. In 2010, the Centre won the Buckminster Fuller Challenge for its work in reversing desertification. In that same year he and his wife, with others, founded the Savory Institute (http://savoryinstitute.com) in Boulder, Colorado, to promote large-scale restoration of the world's grasslands.

[AmazonWoman1]

As I was reading a thread today it became apparent that it was in a way a form of mirroring to others what they can not see of themselves.A cheaper & quick therapy in a way.By posting comments about others comments it illuminated to the poster more about their value judgements ,prejudices etc.I thought it was fantastic people could grow from something so simple.Very cool for me.It made me have a deeper appreciation for what kind of tool threads truly were.When one of us expands our awareness this becomes a little bit better place to live.Thank you

[Hollylane]

sa1iS1MqUy4

Read the text here... (http://tothisdayproject.com/listen)

one of the powerful parts of this spoken word:

"to this day
kids are still being called names
the classics were
hey stupid
hey spaz
seems like each school has an arsenal of names
getting updated every year
and if a kid breaks in a school
and no one around chooses to hear
do they make a sound?
are they just the background noise
of a soundtrack stuck on repeat
when people say things like
kids can be cruel?"

[Hollylane]

XkyIdSYsRDk

[Hollylane]

19-Year-Old Kid Who's Giving Creationists a Run For Their Money. (http://www.upworthy.com/the-19-year-old-kid-whos-giving-creationists-a-run-for-their-money)

[Zimmeh]

Several shows on PBS.

Zimmeh

[Hollylane]

http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/dam/assets/130307145823-higher-call-gallery-painting-horizontal-gallery.jpg

Five days before Christmas 1943, a helpless American bomber pilot locked eyes with a German fighter pilot over the frozen skies of Europe. The German pilot spared the life of the American, and both men would reunite and become friends 50 years later. Franz Stigler and Charles Brown started the war as enemies, but during a tense wartime encounter, both men discovered a higher call.

The pilot glanced outside his cockpit and froze. He blinked hard and looked again, hoping it was just a mirage. But his co-pilot stared at the same horrible vision.

"My God, this is a nightmare," the co-pilot said.

"He's going to destroy us," the pilot agreed.

The men were looking at a gray German Messerschmitt fighter hovering just three feet off their wingtip. It was five days before Christmas 1943, and the fighter had closed in on their crippled American B-17 bomber for the kill.

The B-17 pilot, Charles Brown, was a 21-year-old West Virginia farm boy on his first combat mission. His bomber had been shot to pieces by swarming fighters, and his plane was alone in the skies above Germany. Half his crew was wounded, and the tail gunner was dead, his blood frozen in icicles over the machine guns.

But when Brown and his co-pilot, Spencer "Pinky" Luke, looked at the fighter pilot again, something odd happened. The German didn't pull the trigger. He nodded at Brown instead. What happened next was one of the most remarkable acts of chivalry recorded during World War II. Years later, Brown would track down his would-be executioner for a reunion that reduced both men to tears.

Listen to the story on CNN Radio Here (http://www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/living/2013/03/08/exp-binderwarstories.cnn-radio.html)

[KCBUTCH]

The degrading treatment of indigenous people around the world still
Seeing tribes go from free, to gathered and hunted for sport, and currently being used by wealthy tourist companies as caged tourist attractions
Money mistreats who it can to make more money
I knew all this but the subtle reminder in a documentary in my cultural anthropology class opens my mind again to those things

[Hollylane]

http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/66419000/jpg/_66419326_c0137470-obesity_clinic-spl.jpg

Obese heart patients 'do better' (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-21805395)

Obese cardiac patients are less likely to die than their normal weight counterparts, say researchers.

This is despite them reporting worse health and being less likely to follow lifestyle advice, a study of more than 4,400 patients reported.

One explanation is that doctors treat the disease more aggressively, the University College London team said.

The British Heart Foundation also said that where people stored fat, not just general obesity, was important.

It is not the first time researchers have pointed out this paradox, that being overweight or obese - a risk factor for heart disease in itself - can actually lead to a better prognosis.

One theory has been that maybe such patients were fitter, despite their size - taking more exercise for example.

To see if this was the case, researchers from University College London looked at data from patients who took part in the Health Survey for England or Scottish Health Survey.

They found that, as with other studies, patients with cardiovascular disease who were obese or overweight were less likely to die over the next seven years than people of a normal weight who had the condition.

In all 31% of patients were obese - that is with a body mass index of 30 or more - they reported in Preventive Medicine.

Those patients tended to be younger but reported worse health and had more heart risk factors such as raised cholesterol and blood pressure, but were less likely to smoke.

The researchers found that those who took part in physical activity at least once a week and did not smoke had a lower risk of death whatever their weight.

But obese patients who did not stick to these healthy lifestyle recommendations still had a lower risk of death than normal weight patients who smoked or were inactive.
BMI a 'poor marker'

Study leader Dr Mark Hamer said they were trying to explain why obese heart patients seemed to do better by looking at lifestyle factors, but they found that it was not the case that obese patients were healthier.

"We don't yet understand this paradox and we would clearly not advise patients to put on weight.

"One of the more sensible explanations may be that when obese patients present to their doctor, they are given more aggressive treatment because they are seen as very high risk," he explained.

"We do know, for example with cardiac rehabilitation, that the thing that absolutely works is exercise - that dramatically reduces risk even though you don't necessarily lose weight."

Other work by the same researchers has shown that a certain proportion of obese patients have very normal health and are not at increased risk of heart disease.

"BMI is quite a poor marker of what's going on," Dr Hamer added.

June Davison, a senior cardiac nurse at the British Heart Foundation, said: "It seems contradictory that one of the risk factors for heart disease may improve survival rates.

"The reason for this link remains unclear, but it's possible that those with a higher BMI go to their doctor sooner and may be treated more aggressively.

"Also, this study only measured BMI. When looking at health risk it's not only BMI that matters, but where fat is stored.

"Carrying excess fat around the middle can produce toxic substances which can increase your health risk."

[Semantics]

Portraits of Refugees Posing With Their Most Valued Possessions

http://cdn.petapixel.com/assets/uploads/2013/03/syria-1-copy.jpg

http://cdn.petapixel.com/assets/uploads/2013/03/sudan-6-copy.jpg


The most important object Dowla was able to bring with her is the wooden pole balanced over her shoulder, with which she carried her six children during the 10-day journey from Gabanit to South Sudan. At times, the children were too tired to walk, forcing her to carry two on either side.

Portraits of Refugees (http://www.petapixel.com/2013/03/21/portraits-of-refugees-posing-with-their-most-valued-possessions/)

[Girl_On_Fire]

A 9-year old discussing the meaning of life and the universe. (http://itoldyouiwassick.info/2013/03/29/9-year-old-discusses-meaning-of-life-and-universe/)

[Hollylane]

https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn1/65288_10151287236516486_975809255_n.jpg

Broccoli: Decline in Nutrients % Change 1950 vs. 1999: 60% less calcium! Petrochemical Monoculture depletes the soil.

https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/552458_10151288455206486_1405991761_n.jpg

[Kätzchen]

I came across a web blog for Queer & Trans* people of color (QTPOC), the other day: Black Girl Dangerous.

Founding editor, Mia McKenzie, and her assistant editor Janani, co-host this very important news blog with others who contribute actively in raising maximum awareness on what life is like for people of color and the systematic oppression that QTPOC people face on a daily basis. I read on this particular site that a person should not copy and paste any item on their site to any other site, so I will leave a link below for those who would like to explore further. I highly recommend reading this blog.

http://blackgirldangerous.org/about-bgd/

[KCBUTCH]

The class with the teacher of whom gravely offended me spoke about the topic at hand which enlightened me greatly.

[RockOn]

love being away from the office ... attending technical training all week ... skills upgrade ...

technology marches forward ...stayed tuned or be a "has been"

geek dat get-go-gadgie
:)

[Hollylane]

This week I encountered two forms of entertainment (Bones Season 8, Episode 18, The Survivor in the Soap, & James Patterson's book, Cross Country), that sent me diving into refreshing my knowledge about what has happened, and what is happening in Sudan. Much of what I have read and watched has brought me to tears, anger, frustration, action, and commitment to further action.

[~baby~doll~]

I'm reading a book i recently bought, "Third Sex Third Gender Beyond Sexual Dimorphism in Culture and History" by Gilbert Herdt

I expanded my mind while journeying toward self awareness. I found out how how much the wrong views on human sexuality and gender Charles Darwin presented have crushed other gendered people in Western Society. He created the current standard for the two gender system and left no room for those of us who do not fit in. Because of him we are all called abnormal.. Thank you Charles Darwin for making it difficult.

[~baby~doll~]

Feminist Thinkers and the Demands of Femininity: The Lives and Work of Intellectual Women by Lori Jo Marso

Examining the lives and work of historical and contemporary feminist intellectuals, Feminist Thinkers and the Demands of Femininity explores the feminist struggle to "have it all." This fascinating interdisciplinary study focuses on how feminist thinkers throughout history have long striven to balance politics, intellectual work, and the material conditions of femininity. Taking a close look at this quest for an integrated life in the autobiographical and theoretical writings of well-known feminists such as Mary Wollstonecraft, Emma Goldman, and Simone de Beauvoir, alongside contemporary counterparts, like Azar Nafisi, Audre Lorde, and Ana Castillo, Marso moves beyond questions of who women are and what women want, adding an innovative personal dimension to feminist theory, showing how changing conceptions of femininity manifest themselves within all women’s lives.
The quote is a description from Amazon.com

[bkisbutchenuff]

A good friend introduced me to Abraham Hicks.....Thank You!

[JAGG]

A post I just read. Interesting.

[AtLast]

Using it.....

[Hollylane]

Color me impressed.

Ra0NRDjT9xQ

[Hollylane]

Are Quinoa, Chia Seeds, and Other "Superfoods" a Scam? (http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2013/05/are-superfoods-quinoa-chia-goji-good-for-you)
Sure, trendy ingredients work like magic—for industry's bottom line.

—By Tom Philpott


https://fbcdn-sphotos-c-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn1/943486_4301457073953_865920493_n.jpg
Some gorgeous red quinoa. blairingmedia/Wikimedia

They're widely vilified—including by me—but food industry marketers really do have a tough job. People can only eat so much, and in industrialized countries where food is plentiful, they don't tend to consume more of it as their incomes grow. Unlike sales of, say, personal computers in the 1990s or tablets in the 2010s, overall US food spending tends to be pretty flat—it rises roughly with the growth of population.

One way the industry responds to this stagnation is to roll out "new and improved" products—an endless grope for bigger pieces of a slow-growing pie. Junk food manufacturers are masters of this game: Smokin' Bacon Ranch Miracle Whip Dipping Sauce, anyone? But the natural-food industry does it, too—with superfoods such as açaí berries, goji berries, quinoa, and chia seeds. These pricey, often exotic ingredients cycle quickly in and out of the foodie spotlight. Açaí berries were barely known outside of Brazil a decade ago, but last year açaí-laced products grossed nearly $200 million in the United States. And while açaí sales have dropped recently as their novelty has worn thin, coconut oil—touted as a wonder fat—is picking up the slack with $62 million in 2012, double the previous year's level.

Some of the super claims are true: Açaí berries, native to the Amazon rainforest, and goji berries, produced mostly in northern China, are indeed loaded with phytochemicals, plant compounds that seem to protect us from heart disease, brain deterioration, and cancer. And quinoa, the seed of a spinachlike plant grown in the Andes, really does offer a complete, high-quality vegetarian protein. Other boasts are, well, less true: Açaí and goji berries are not really miracle cures for everything from obesity to sexual dysfunction. Indeed, in 2006, the Food and Drug Administration reprimanded two different goji product manufacturers for making unsubstantiated health claims in violation of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act.

Nor do all superfoods come from the pristine places that their packaging would suggest. One prominent US goji supplier, Navitas, calls its berries a "Himalayan superfruit," but the company's website reveals they're a product of China, grown in the "lush, fertile valleys of the Ningxia Province." That's nowhere near Tibet—and, it turns out, most of the world's goji berries hail from industrial fields in this region.

Worse than superfoods' origin myths, though, are their effects on the people in their native regions. In 2009, at the height of the açaí berry hype, Bloomberg News reported that the fruit's wholesale price had jumped 60-fold since the early 2000s, pricing the Amazonian villagers who rely on it out of the market. In the Andes, where quinoa has been cultivated since the time of the Incas, price spikes have turned a one-time staple into a luxury, and quinoa monocrops are crowding out the more sustainable traditional methods.

If that doesn't faze you, perhaps this will: Quinoa may deliver a complete protein—all of the amino acids you require—in a compact package, but rice and beans together actually do better. And like goji berries, blueberries and strawberries are packed with phytochemicals. The only problem is that lacking an exotic back story, food marketers can't wring as exorbitant a markup from these staples: The domestic blueberry, for example, is periodically (and justifiably) marketed as a superfood, and in 2012, products featuring blueberries as a primary ingredient saw their sales nearly quadruple. But they only raked in $3.5 million—less than 2 percent of açaí-based product sales.

Yes, the food industry's hawkers have a tough job—and you can make it even tougher. The real superfoods are lurking exactly where marketers don't want you to look: in produce sections, bulk food aisles, and backyard gardens. Not quite as exotic as the Himalayas. But then again, neither are those industrial plots in China where goji berries actually come from.

[Hollylane]

http://farm5.staticflickr.com/4074/4892773472_6dc3e2cb12_z.jpg



Sheep, Goats, Octopuses and Toads have these rectangular shaped pupils. Typically classified as prey, these animals need to have a defense both day and night. But they don't have vertical slits due to their need to survey their surroundings more accurately. The narrower the pupil in relation to the horizon, the greater the accuracy of depth perception is in the peripheral vision of the animal. The perception of depth must be considered with these animals who spend their time evading predators in a rugged terrain.

[Hollylane]

http://s3.amazonaws.com/assets.prod.vetstreet.com/0c/8c8f60953111e1aa99005056ad4734/file/dog%20eating%20shoe.jpg


Dogs Who Love to Lick Human Feet (http://www.mmilani.com/dog-licks-feet.html)

By Myrna Milani, BS, DVM

(Originally written for DogWatch, a newsletter for the general public from the Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine)

My dog, Frodo, loves to lick my feet. I think he does it because he likes me but my girlfriend says he does it because my feet smell. Which is it?

No scientific studies of canine foot fetishes exist, but what we know about canine behavior and the human-canine bond suggests that both answers may possess an element of truth. That, in turn, means we must examine both canine and human contributions to this display.

Previously we discussed pheromones, those incredibly powerful chemicals that animals as diverse as ants and wolves use to communicate. Not only do animals pack a tremendous amount of information into these chemicals, only those who possess the proper receptors can receive the message. Many species secrete pheromones from glands in their feet which they use to mark their territories as well as to find their way. When others zero in on such scents, they may lick the object and/or their noses to enhance the processing of this scent data.

Although social animals such as dogs don't depend as much on the foot-form of communication/marking like more solitary species such as cats, two foot-related domestic canine behaviors suggest that feet play or played an important role in the canine behavioral repertoire. First, the fact that many dogs resist others handling their paws indicates that dogs take a protective view toward this part of their anatomy. Admittedly, this might result because dogs depend on their feet for locomotion. However, many dogs who resist having their feet manipulated will readily permit handling of the rest of their legs. This would seem to imply that the feet themselves carry the behavioral charge.

Second, dogs who mark with urine or stool also may scratch the ground with their hind paws. Not only does this provide a visual mark, but the scent from the feet could alter the message communicated. Even though few studies of canine pheromone communication exist, we do know that the pheromones secreted by the cat's facial glands communicate a more positive "This is mine" message compared to the more combative "I'll fight you if I catch you here" notice given in the marking animal's urine. Perhaps dogs who scratch after they mark use this behavior the same way we might use a wink or threatening gesture following a blustery outburst: to soften or strengthen the original meaning of the message.

Turning to the human half of the equation, do humans communicate using pheromones? For a long time scientists and the general public believed that any odors humans emitted resulted from problems—such as disease or a failure to practice good hygiene—rather than constituted part of our normal physiology. Because we viewed "body" odor as wrong, the idea that we might produce odors that we couldn't smell that could affect our behavior struck most as totally unacceptable. Consequently, scientists denied that we produced pheromones and also that we possessed the necessary physical apparatus to detect them. However, recent research indicates that we both produce and can detect such substances, and that these substances can alter our physiology and behavior as dramatically as similar compounds alter that of animals. Alas for dog-lovers, most of the research focuses on pheromones that affect mood or reproductive cycles, with those we emit from our feet receiving little or no attention.

Still, even though science may pay little attention to human chemical footnotes, for sure many dogs do. Moreover, some dogs find the feet of some people more tantalizing, just as some of us find certain human feet smellier than others. Traditionally the conventional wisdom said that dogs chewed shoes because the leather elicited memories of a time in their wild past when they teethed on the hide remnants of their prey. However, sufficient numbers of dogs chew shoes, slippers, and socks with nary a whisper of leather (or any other natural product) about them: Could the scent message imparted to those objects by their owners' feet serve as the more likely canine attractant in those people's absence or in times of canine stress?

Whatever the message owners of foot-loving dogs unknowingly communicate, the blissful look on these animals' faces indicates that the dogs, at least,think it's a good one.

[Jesse]

This probably expanded my heart more than my mind, but I could not decide on any other place more suited to post this...

xPAat-T1uhE

[SometimesSweet]

It is about time a poultry producer took this approach on this scale of production. Thanks for posting this Hollylane.


Color me impressed.

Ra0NRDjT9xQ

[Lady Pamela]

Interesting fact:
Monsato is the company that makes Chemo therapy and saps many people for tons of money and health through it.
Interesting fact is that Mansato is destroying all natural methods besides chemo to cure cancer.
They sray poisn on our crop. Using coveralls an masks.
They have already been banned in many other places...When will we learn?

Once again, the mighty dollar is worth more than morals and saving lives...just sad.



https://fbcdn-sphotos-f-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/p480x480/1000526_570552229661642_547659241_n.jpg

[Hollylane]

mcmuuEkcZpY

[Hollylane]

Ouw4J0w0CKk

[Hollylane]

qifMRxV8fww

[Hollylane]

Can city farms feed a hungry world? (http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20130603-city-farms-to-feed-a-hungry-world)

[Licious]

What a good idea for a thread!

Subscribing.

I am interested in many of the topics listed. Thank you everyone for posting. Information is Power, I believe that... spread the word, get people to think.


This post is regarding Commercial City Farms/Organic Farms near cities...

http://www.fairviewgardens.org/who-we-are/mission-vision/

Fairview Gardens Farms and Center for Urban Agriculture is near my home, it has been there for decades.

They have their stand next to the library and their property abuts the library parking lot... makes it easy to stop by for the free tours and yummy produce.

Their staff is requested worldwide to assist communities with Urban Agriculture.

I enjoy the free tours there and it's nice to see a viable urban farm that keeps going year after year.



http://www.santabarbaraca.com/includes/media/images/Fairview-Gardens.jpg

[Hollylane]

Devoted dad runs triathlon carrying his teenager daughter with cerebral palsy because she loves being outdoors... (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2188373/Rick-van-Beek-Devoted-dad-runs-triathlon-carrying-teenager-daughter-cerebral-palsy.html)



http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/08/14/article-2188373-148C27C1000005DC-797_634x417.jpg

[NorCalStud]

I am 60 in two days. My mind had to expand to grok that!

This is one of the most important things I have learned at this age:

Time allows for perspective to lengthen. It stretches past the myopic thoughts and it lengthins insight.

Okay I am not as judgemental. I am more accepting.

Make Love, Not War.

[Hollylane]

https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-frc1/q71/295651_527076667328696_1753681490_n.jpg

[Hollylane]

History of Labor Day

In 1882, Matthew Maguire, a machinist, first proposed the holiday while serving as secretary of the CLU (Central Labor Union) of New York. Others argue that it was first proposed by Peter J. McGuire of the American Federation of Labor in May 1882, after witnessing the annual labour festival held in Toronto, Canada. Oregon was the first state to make it a holiday on February 21, 1887. By the time it became a federal holiday in 1894, thirty states officially celebrated Labor Day.

Following. the deaths of a number of workers at the hands of the U.S. military and U.S. Marshals during the Pullman Strike, the United States Congress unanimously voted to approve rush legislation that made Labor Day a national holiday; President Grover Cleveland signed it into law a mere six days after the end of the strike. The September date originally chosen by the CLU of New York and observed by many of the nation's trade unions for the past several years was selected rather than the more widespread International Workers' Day because Cleveland was concerned that observance of the latter would be associated with the nascent Communist, Syndicalist and Anarchist movements that, though distinct from one another, had rallied to commemorate the Haymarket Affair in International Workers' Day. All U.S. states, the District of Columbia, and the territories have made it a statutory holiday.

[Hollylane]

The Morning Glory Cloud phenomenon (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morning_Glory_cloud)

474Ra2DSgvM

[Cin]

History of Labor Day

Following. the deaths of a number of workers at the hands of the U.S. military and U.S. Marshals during the Pullman Strike... .

30 is the number. 30 dead and 57 wounded.

The ARU proclaimed the strike a crusade for the rights of unskilled workers. Didn't work out so well. Seems we are still fighting that fight today.

Thanks for reminding us what Labor Day is really about and how (more importantly why) it became a statutory holiday. The Federal government threw labor a conciliatory bone after stomping them so hard.

[Hollylane]

WHOA!!!!!!!!!

1AGX_U0lqWU

[Hollylane]

https://sphotos-a-sea.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/1185069_344620525675252_325709569_n.jpg

[Nic]

Trying to see my life through the eyes of another man.

[Hollylane]

TJH1IKqF8PA

https://scontent-a-sea.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash2/528516_2659149417288_327022744_n.jpg

[Hollylane]

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[puddin']

bJX5XHnONTI


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[Glenn]

http://www.worldometers.info/

[MysticOceansFL]

Classes........................................... ..

[puddin']

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and tell it l'il sistah...

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[puddin']

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10829992

[ProfPacker]

http://www.progressive.org/news/2014/07/187763/howard-zinn%E2%80%99s-july-4-wisdom-put-away-your-flags

[AnAwkwardAccident]

Currently reading the book, 'Relax...You're Going To Die'. Pretty damn insightful.

[SirenManda]

During a random conversation with my best friend when she stops mid talk and said "People who can walk away don't deserve to have your time." I was silent for over a minute, really stuck with me today.

[AnAwkwardAccident]

It's funny the lies we tell ourselves to make ourselves feel better or play the victim.

[kittygrrl]

https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSrH5boQ_VBX9bB8SizGSziklZIutrpH ykUxeqOICz17j_-VEhg

[cinnamongrrl]

I had to reconcile my hatred for the city of Charlotte. I think I unfairly measured it against Asheville..and did not give it a fair shot.

Yes, it's a big, scary city, and it's so easy to get lost in. GPS has helped me with that...

I also thought it lacked beauty, but upon traversing the town on foot (because like most cities it lacks parking) I found some very pretty places. I had to cross a park to arrive at my destination...and I found it quite lovely. Especially on such a pretty day...

I mistakenly thought Charlotte was unfriendly...but every time I go there I've had nice conversations with complete stranger. I even had a nice man escort me from the parking lot to my destination...and the lady at the business I was visiting thanked me for the nice talk we had...people have always been happy to help me when I was lost there previously.

As Madonna once said, "beauty's where you find it..."