The Wildest of the Wild: Danum Valley

by Heng Wah, Jan 3, 2003 | Destinations: Malaysia / Sabah
Little Froggies in the Dark

Little Froggies in the Dark

Little Froggies in the Dark

Secluded From Human Civilization

Anyone with an interest in tropical rainforest and its rich and diverse flora and fauna will be amply rewarded by a visit to Danum Valley. As recent as the early 1960s, this nature sanctuary located in the south eastern corners of Sabah was virtually inaccessible. This is because the entire valley is cut off from civilization by the vast surrounding primary forests. In the early 1960s, between the waning years of the British rule and the nascent years of Sabah's independence through a merger with the independent Malaya, soil surveyors first carried out soil studies in Danum Valley. They observed that there was an abundance of wildlife and different forest types and then suggested the setting up of a wildlife sanctuary within Danum Valley.

A Forest Reserve is Born

In 1976, the Sabah Natural Parks Board sponsored a scientific expedition into Danum Valley, which was funded by the World Wildlife Fund (as it was known as then). Their report recommended that Danum Valley be turned into a natural park. A few years later, a state-wide fauna survey was carried out and its report concluded that Danum Valley was one of the most important conservation areas for mammal and birds. At around the same time, the Sabah state government alienated a vast area measuring 10000 square kilometers (3865 square meters) of virgin forests to the Sabah Foundation, a state-owned organization responsible for improving the welfare and education of the Sabahans.

The Sabah Foundation fulfils its objectives through generation of revenues from logging, saw-milling and other timber processing activities. Fortunately for the greening of our planet, the Sabah Foundation in 1980 voluntarily retaining Danum Valley as a conservation area where natural vegetation and the wildlife will be preserved for the purposes of conservation, research and education. In 1986, the Sabah Foundation formally opened a scientific field study centre in the eastern part of Danum Valley. To date, many scientific projects have been undertaken at the research centre. In 1996, the protective status of Danum Valley was further enhanced when it was gazette as a Protection Forest Reserve. As a result, logging and other commercial exploitative activities have been banned.

Largest Lowland Forest Reserve in Malaysia

As the crow flies, Danum Valley is about 70 kilometers (44 miles) west of Lahad Datu, Sabah's fourth largest town. It occupies an area of 438 square kilometers (170 square miles) making it the largest remaining area of virgin undisturbed lowland rainforest in Malaysia. Danum Valley lies within the upper reaches of Sabah's second largest river, the Segama and its tributaries. The eastern and southern borders of Danum Valley are demarcated by the Segama River. Danum Valley is generally hilly but not mountainous. Its highest point is Mount Danum, of 1090 meters (3585 feet) in height. Danum Valley is bordered all round by a vast timber concession area.

An Interesting Journey

The fastest way to get to Danum from Kuala Lumpur is to take one of the daily KLIA flights directly into Tawau. Adjacent to Tawau is where Sebatik Island is shared between Malaysia and Indonesia. After two hours and forty minutes of smooth and comfortable route aboard a Boeing 737, my aircraft touched down on the two-year old Tawau airport which still looks spanking new and whose glass and concrete walls still glisten and sparkle in the sunlight. Waiting for me in his resplendent t-shirt was David, my Lahad Datu friend. His shirt, in the corporate colors of his employer unmistakably caught my familiar eyes from among the sea of people milling in front of the airport exit. David whisked me in his four-wheel and headed towards Lahad Datu, some 120 kilometers (72 miles) from the airport. The quaint kampung houses and plots of cocoa farms and fruit orchards soon make way for miles and miles of monotonous oil palm plantations bearing such exotic names like Binturong, Tingkayu and Mostyn.

Yet, not all the scenes and images are dull and unyielding. From time to time, from the high vantage point of the road traveled we can gaze afar at a wide vista of rolling hills and valleys pock-marked with oil palm trees. A few kilometers after, we passed the mid-way town of Kunak, which has a reputation for producing the sweatiest oranges in Borneo, we reached the Madai Caves. This is where the local natives, the Idahans, have been harvesting birds' nests, a Chinese delicacy for 21 generations. After one and a half hours of leisurely drive, we finally arrived at the Silam junction, the main entrance into another world. At this point, we are just 13 kilometers (8 miles) short of Lahad Datu. Waiting expectantly for me was Rayboul, my guide from Borneo Rainforest Lodge and the driver. After I bid farewell to David, I boarded another four-wheel drive, this time heading for the Lodge which is another 83 kilometers (50 miles) away.

Elephants Trekking in the Night

Along the treacherous and winding road (formerly logging tracks), we observed many tell-tale signs of the presence of wild Asian elephants (elephas maximus). Their dung were splattered along the road and there were uprooted grassy plants such as wild bananas (musa sapientum) and wild ginger (zingiberareae) with their once bright red and yellow flowers looking so forlorn on the forest floor. For a greater part of our journey we traverse through an area where logging operations are still in progress although subject to a less destructive method known as reduced impact selective logging. This initiative was taught by the New England Power Company of the United States. Sky-cables, winches, and hoists are deployed so that trees which are felled do not come crushing down to the ground to destroy the smaller plants in the path.

Excessive Logging?

There is not much sight of the tall stands of mature tropical hardwood which can grow up to a height of 55 meters (180 feet) as many had long been felled and devoured the hungry sawmills in Japan, South Korea and Taiwan to be made into furniture and for construction purposes. What remained of the tall trees are the tualang trees (Koumpassia excelloa) or Mengaris as better known in Sabah.

Bee Trees, all of 'em

Unlike the dominant lowland rainforest species, the dipterocarp hardwoods the tualang is a legume. The wood is brittle and is therefore not commercially harvested. They however look beautiful with the silvery bark and bright green feathery crown which droops like multiple parachutes. They tower head and shoulders above all the other trees in view of their gigantic height which reaches 75 meters (250 feet). They are also known as the bee trees as 80 to 90 per cent of bee hives are found dangling on the tualang trees whose trunk is so smooth and slippery that the sun bears (Helarctos malayanus) are unable to clamber up to reach for the honey.

Eco-nature Adventures

In order to open up Danum Valley to ordinary folks like you and I, the Sabah Foundation in 1995 launched the Borneo Rainforest Lodge comprising of 31 twin-sharing timber chalets and a main two-storey building. In the main building, there is a reception area and a bookshop-cum-library are found on the ground floor while the upper floor boasts a spacious lounge, dining hall, bar counter, kitchen and a viewing gallery overlooking the misty forested hills and the bend of the Danum River. Just a few meters in front of the observation gallery are a few tall trees where throughout the day birds will rest their tired wings and sing away in their distinctive ways. During my three day stay, I was entertained daily by the antics of a troop of boisterous red-leaf macaques (Presbytics rubicunda) frolicking among the trees. While the chalets are spartan, they are each equipped with a bathroom cum modern closet, hot water shower, a ceiling fan and a wide balcony to enjoy the quiet surroundings, the sights and sounds of the forest. Through not lavish, the chalets are clean, airy and comfortable.

Fit for the King and Queen!

It is literally "fit for the King and Queen", for Sweden's King Carl Gustav and Queen Silvia stayed at the Lodge during their trip in 1996. It is primarily for this reason that Danum Valley remains a popular sojourn for the Swedes. A walkway constructed from Belian or Borneo Ironwood links all 31 chalets to the main building. The walkway is frequented by birds, small animals like lizards, squirrels, beetles, bugs, snails, millipedes and other invertebrates.

The Lodge is an excellent base to explore the lush lowland rainforests and it abundance and diversity of creatures. From the Lodge, one can trek along a number of well-marked nature trails including a 2 meter high, 1 kilometer long canopy walkway. One exciting track known as the Viewpoint Trail measuring 1.3 kilometers takes one to the highest hill in the vicinity of the Lodge. From its peak of 220 meters (730 feet) above sea level, one can enjoy a spectacular and unimpeded view of a wide expanse of the hills, valleys and forests of Danum Valley. Along the Viewpoint Trails one will totter across two timber planked foot bridges suspended by steel cables anchored to the trees. Along the trail, one will also set sight on the sparkling waters of a waterfall and touch and feel the refreshing coolness of the pristine waters of the Jacuzzi Pool. Swimmers will certainly feel reinvigorated by a dip in the pool after much perspiration resulting from the walk through the damp and humid forest undergrowth. So remember to bring your swimsuits along for this refreshing dip!

Ancient burial site

A short deviation from the Viewpoint Trail will bring one to a ridge which constitutes an ancient Kadazandusun (a Sabah native group) burial site. Coffins made of Belian wood a few hundred years ago are found along the ridge. Burial jars are also lodged in the burrows dug into the volcanic rockface. During the jungle walk one cannot give a miss to the squeamish leeches even with the protection afforded by leech socks and hard gloves. I did not realize that I was a leech victim as the saliva glands of the tiger leech (Haemadipsa picta) which attacked me contained an anesthetic besides an anti-coagulant. As a victim of the leech bite, I was awarded a certificate by the Borneo Rainforest Lodge to confirm my membership of the Danum Valley Blood Donors Society. As Danum Valley is still a protected forest reserve, some of the tropical timber species are as old as 500 years and many of them have a fat girth and huge buttress roots supporting the main trunk. The buttresses grow to heights taller than most vertically endowed basketball players appearing on the NBA circuit.

Rich in flora and fauna

It is reported that Danum Valley has 37 species of fishes, 56 species of amphibians, 72 types of reptiles, 275 varieties of birds and thousands of insects, worms and other mollusks and invertebrates. Almost every single Borneo primate species can be found in Danum Valley, the exception being the silver leaf monkey. All eight species of hornbills have also been sighted in Danum Valley. Some of the most beautiful and largest butterflies and moths can also be found here. On the two mornings I was at the Lodge, I heard the loud whooping and gurgling territorial calls from the Borneo Gibbons (Hylobates muelleri), reverberating at the crack of dawn through the distant hills and vales surrounding the Lodge. One of the biggest attractions is to catch the elusive and shy Orang Utans (Pongi pygmaeus) during the early morning walk. The morning too is the best time to watch flocks of hornbills and small families of the mountain red-belied squirrels (Calloscirus flavimonus) which are adept at scampering stealthily up and down the trunks of the tall trees looking for ants, lizards and other prey. I chanced up a flock of bushy crested hornbills (Anorrhinus galeritus) among a few tall trees at the Lodge. Their presence is made unmistakable by the sound of their raucous cackles and noisy wing flapping.

Greedy Pig appears!

When darkness falls, it is chow time for many animals and nocturnal creatures such as lizards, bats, flying foxes and squirrels, night owns and frogs. True to its sobriquet of "greedy pig", the solitary bearded pig (Suis barbatus) has been making its presence felt every evening between 7 to 8 at the back of the kitchen of the Lodge. Obviously, it could not resist the aroma of cooked food as it has the habit of foraging for leftovers deposited in the trash bins. On my first evening at the Lodge, the chef excitedly ran to me to ask me to direct my torch at "Janggut" or the Bearded one in English, a moniker the staff has given to the particular bearded pig.

During the night walk along the 200-meter Nature Trail close by the Lodge, Raybould the guide and I reaped a bountiful harvest in terms of sighting of things from Mother Nature. We encountered several tree frogs (Polydedates otilophus) roasting behind the wild yam leaves. At a very close range, I saw resting on twigs a flowering mantis leaf insect, leaf hopper, stick insect and a bulbul bird with its head resting snuggly between its wings. Hanging between the branches of trees was a sleeping oriental whip snake (Rhinoplocephus boschimoi). None of these creatures were flustered by our presence or roused by the crackling sounds from the dead branches and twigs as we stepped on them. Still active and sprightly were the reddish brown and black giant forest ants (Camponotus gigas). They form an endless line moving along the forest floor and each carried grub by its jaws. The cacophony of sounds made by the cicadas, beetles, birds, frogs and other creatures of the wild form a kind of uninterrupted orchestra piece with each of the species playing their assigned instruments.

Glow-in-the-dark Fungi

As our own eyes become accustomed to the darkness, something even more unusual became apparent ? faint luminous patches of white which are actually a kind of fungus cover over the fallen and decaying branches of tree trunks. After a rainy period which coincided with my visit in December 2002, a delicate mushroom-like fungus appeared on rotting logs. In the darkness, we can see that they are luminescent but with a greenish and bluish tinge and much brighter than the white encrusting fungi referred to as earlier.

As we headed towards to Lodge near the end of our night walk, I thought for a moment that this was the end of my close encounters of the wild kind. At the Lodge grounds, Raybould directed his powerful torch at a clump of fig trees (ficus family) which were planted along both sides of the walkway. We saw clinging to a branch in a koala bear-like fashion one of the strongest animals in Borneo (it is not found in Peninsula Malaysia) ? the tarsier (Tarsius bacaneus), a soft furry mammal 13 centimeters in length with a 20-centimeter tail and webbed feet.

When we reached my chalet, Raybould squatted down and shone his torch at the stilts supporting the chalets. Three pairs of red-like eyes reflected against the light. On closer examination, we discovered that the eyes belong to a small herd of greater mouse deer (Tragulus napu) or pelanduk kancil to the locals.

Although we did not encounter many wild animals who made Danum Valley its home, such as the extremely shy Sumatran rhinoceros (Dicerohimus sumatrensis), clouded leopard (Neofelis nebusa) and banteng, a type of wild Asian cattle that resembles a miniature cow, Danum Valley has much to offer to naturalists, nature lovers and ordinary travelers. Apart from infrequent visitations by greedy and callous illegal hunters, Danum Valley is very much untouched by human activity. May it remain so!

* * * * *


A 10-Point Plan for Supplies (Without Being Overwhelmed)

Essential Benefits EMS Software Integration Brings

EMS software has made the health sector more efficient and reliable especially on matters to do with data management. Computer assisted dispatch programs have made it even easier especially when it comes to decreasing expenses, improving operational efficiency, maximizing revenue, enhancing administration as well as enhancing patients care. The best thing about EMS software system is that it does not need any complementary software to make it a stand-alone. With the introduction of an efficient technology like EMS software system, there tend to be so many benefits in all ways. It would be essential for one to read on to know some of the benefits that come with EMS software system.

The EMS software system tends to improve the process. It is essential to note that data tends to be a critical element in any process or plan. Any data used in any process ought to be accurate, quality and consistent. The data in question ought to be accessible any time one needs it. While most of the systems still believe in the manual compilation of data, there are so many errors accrued to the manual collection of data. EMS software tends to come as a one-stop-shop for data needs.

EMS software also leads to improved compliance bearing in mind that no service wants to be on the offensive books of the regulatory agency. In most cases, the main problem service providers tend to have problems with regulatory bodies include signatures. When compared to the manual filing, EMS software system tends to be very accurate.

EMS software program also tend to increase quality measure tracking. There tend to be so many services who struggle with documentation in the modern world. Whether from a reimbursement standpoint or from a regulatory standpoint ensuring appropriate documentation is critical. It would be essential having a complex and complicated data collection made easy and efficient.

The EMS software system also tend to be good on matters to do with key performance indicators. There is need for key performance indicators which can be availed in a case where there is adoption of EMS software system. The best thing about integration of EMS software system is due to auto-population of some specific fields. Another benefit of EMS software system is employee satisfaction. Regardless of how a software is perceived to be effective, it becomes useless any time it is not adopted by the users. Due to reduced errors, employees tend to develop confidence with the EMS software system.

3 Medical Tips from Someone With Experience

A 10-Point Plan for Supplies (Without Being Overwhelmed)


Food and agro essay

Figure 1 shows three such projections for world population 5.

Standard T-Bolt Clamps

The sustainability of irrigated agriculture in the face of salinization depends on the amount of water available to flush the soil. On the cause of the s dust bowl. Many other cultures living close to the land were not as fortunate as the Yanomami to have conceived and implemented sustainable relationships with their surroundings and have paid the ultimate price, that of extinction The rate of loss we assume is about half that projected for the next 25 years in The Netherlands report on the National Environmental Outlook93 In BAU, we make the optimistic assumption that a modest expansion of irrigation will continue as it has recently.

There is an increasing fear of violent theft, and illegal immigrants and street youth are seen as particular problems.

Soil Erosion and Crop Productivity. In the western and northern parts of the country, certain groups of people were essentially serfs, with few or no political rights, whose labor was compelled by citizens of the Tswana polities.

Whose land?

Significantly reduces use of fossil fuels farm machines and transport of crops Makes use of abandoned or unused properties No weather related crop failures Offers the possibility of sustainability for urban centers Converts black and gray water to drinking water Adds energy back to the grid via methane generation Creates new urban employment opportunities Reduces the risk of infection from agents transmitted at the agricultural interface Returns farmland to nature, helping to restore ecosystem functions and services Controls vermin by using restaurant waste for methane generation No-cost restoration of ecosystems: Stunting itself can be viewed as a coping mechanism, bringing body size into alignment with the calories available during adulthood in the location where the child is born.

The developed countries would have to help finance these changes and also provide technology to the developing nations. Inthe hungry population could range from million to million with climate change Chen et al.

A Defining Characteristic of Botswana. Sincethis rate has slowed. In this case, too much groundwater has already been drawn off 55, 56lowering the water table and resulting in an economic conundrum, where the price of oil, a necessary ingredient to fuel the heavy-duty pumps needed to raise water from a greater depth than at present currently fueled by cheaper natural gas-driven pumpswill not prove to be cost-effective with respect to the price of wheat The likelihood of a graceful and humane stabilization of world population vanishes as well.

However, even in the best of situations, most solid waste collections are simply compacted and relegated to landfills, or in a few instances, incinerated to generate energy The extent to which an agroecosystem is stable in the face of a particular disturbance can depend in a variety of ways upon the time pattern of the disturbance Marten, a: Radon K, Monoso E, et al.

Tianjin, China, reports a drop in ground water levels of 4. However, the impact of an increase in fertilizer prices that forces farmers to reduce fertilizer use can be particularly severe if they have not taken the effort to maintain the organic matter content of their soil.

Yanomami natural resource use: However, since the vertical farm is still a theoretical construct, it is difficult to predict all of the potential benefits that may arise from producing food in this manner.

Textiles, clothing, and food processing constitute the major industries. This creates the need for a bartering, exchange, or cash economy to acquire food.

State of the World. J Expo Anal Environ Epidemiol. There are difficulties in finding new land that could be exploited for agricultural production. Union of Concerned Scientists, Improved conservation of water can enhance rainfed and irrigated crop yields, as discussed below.

Energy requirements for irrigation. This decline would include spreading malnutrition and increased pressure on agricultural, range, and forest resources.

So you will always know where the Mississaugas were.

The Vertical Essay

Crop Science Society of America. The technology has enhanced soil erosion, polluted groundwater and surface-water resources, and increased pesticide use has caused serious public health and environmental problems There are many restaurants representing food from around the world in the urban areas.

Death and the Afterlife. In view of the constraints we have identified we conclude that an expansion of 0. Some are thought to practice witchcraft, called boloi, and use human body parts to assist their clients.

Land degradation and its impact on food and other resources. Lessons from the IPCC SREX Report, the effects will include changing productivity and livelihood patterns, economic losses, and effects on infrastructure, markets and food security.

China has severe agricultural problems National Academy of Engineering. Global Agricultural Situation and Fertilizer Consumption in and The Southeast Asian Universities Agroecosystem network (SUAN) has used five system properties to assess agroecosystem performance: productivity, stability, sustainability, equitability and autonomy.

Culture of Botswana - history, people, clothing, traditions, women, beliefs, food, customs, family Bo-Co. Food security is a condition related to the supply of food, and individuals' access to it. There is evidence of being in use over 10, years ago, with central authorities in civilizations ancient China and ancient Egypt being known to release food from storage in times of famine.

Food security

At the World Food Conference the term "food security" was defined with an emphasis on supply. American-Made Glass Pipes versus Imported Glass Pipes: What’s the Difference? (Part 3 of 3). click here. table of contents. CONSTRAINTS ON THE EXPANSION OF THE GLOBAL FOOD SUPPLY by Henery W Kindall and David Pimentel, from Ambio Vol.

23 No. 3, May FCI failed in all 3 objectives of procurement,storage & distribution of food grains in India. Government setup Shanta Kumar highlevel Committee to fix it.

Food and agro essay
Rated 3/5 based on 9 review


West Los Angeles and Santa Monica Therapist: Adult, Adolescent, and Couples Therapy

Psychotherapy can help you feel better while also increasing your understanding of the origin and function of symptoms.  Psychotherapy can be intimidating and involve hard work, but it has the potential for being rewarding, beneficial, and meaningful given the right match with a therapist!

I believe that much emotional pain stems from difficulties in developing or maintaining fulfilling relationships. Therefore, I examine one's relational dynamics, ways of relating, and impact on others. I openly explore clients' feelings toward me, encouraging individuals to experience authenticity with others, and ultimately, with themselves.

I specialize in working with individuals with a history of trauma. This work involves grieving what is lost, fostering interpersonal safety, and reclaiming one's life through reconnecting to that which gives one meaning. I am also passionate about the impact of culture and spirituality and how they shape the psyche.

I have offices in both West Los Angeles and Santa Monica. Many clients come from Hollywood, Silverlake, Beverly Hills, Westwood, Culver City, Venice, and the San Fernando Valley. Cost-effective, sliding scale services are available through an associate at my office. I provide counseling and psychotherapy to:

Please continue to explore my website to see if my background and experiences connect with you.  Feel free to contact me through phone (310-845-6720) or email ( with any questions or to see if we are a good fit.


There are instances where products that have been stitched for just $1 are sold for $100 in American markets. Needless to say, this offers a huge profit margin for the company. However, there is growing realization that this approach is unethical and should not be encouraged. The main criticism is that the textile companies spend more on their advertising campaigns than on paying the most important component of the labor force.

With robots taking up this job, even this employment avenue for citizens of developing countries is coming to an end. On the other hand, the fashion industry looks forward to creating more designs in an automated manner without any difficulty.

The need for advanced automation in textile manufacturing exists because of increased international competition. One area of manufacturing affected by this competition is apparel assembly. The current manufacture of textile goods from cloth requires skilled manual operators. The application of flexible automation, such as industrial robots and machine vision, to the textile industry has not progressed compared to other industries [I]. Robot/vision systems have the promise to enhance some operations associated with fabric assembly.

Most industrial robots are used in simple, repetitive tasks such as packaging and are capable of manipulating rigid, not flexible, material. The integration of robots with machine vision is still chiefly in the experimental stage. Industrial robots are generally located in well structured manufacturing environments. Fabric assembly involves complex, loosely structured operations in which human vision and manual dexterity are essential. The utilization of robot/vision systems in fabric assembly has not advanced because of task complexity, high initial costs, and technological limitations.


Inspire UAV shot at by hunter

Wow! Crazy UAV related news story from Utah. First off, the title is wrong, it wasn't shot down. The pilot still managed to fly it back to his position despite multiple hits and 28 damaged areas on the craft. Kudos to DJI build quality! Personally I rather hope they do make an example out of the shooter to discourage future crazies. Though it sounds as though maybe the drone pilot wasn't following all his regulations either (line of sight at 1,000 ft unlikely) .


You can tell young ducks from old ones
Prepared for [event name] on [date]
by [name]

This entry is a re-creation of a recipe from Le Menagier de Paris (France, 1393 - Janet Hinson, trans.), entitled "You can tell young ducks from old ones". [insert a brief description of dish here, possibly including any or all of the following: characteristics of the final dish, when or how it might have been served, and why you selected it]

The Source Recipe
The original text of the recipe is as follows:

You can tell young ducks from old ones, when they are all the same size, by the quills which on the young ones are more tender.--Item, you have to know which ones are from the river, with delicate black toe-nails and red feet, while those from the stable-yard have yellow feet.

Item, the crest of the head, that is to say the top, is green throughout its length, and sometimes the males have a white patch across their necks at the nape, and they all have very changeable plumage, including that on top of the head.

Item, wood-pigeons are good in winter, and you can tell the old ones in that the secondary wing-feathers are all black, whereas those of the young ones of a year old are grey and the remainder black.

Item, you can tell the age of a hare from the number of openings under its tail, for there will be as many openings as years.

Item, partridge whose feathers are tight and well joined to the flesh, and are neatly and well joined and are in excellent order, are freshly killed: and those partridge whose feathers lift up crosswise and fall out and lose their hold on the flesh and go every which way, were killed less recently.--Item, when pulling the feathers from the belly, smell it.

Item, carp with pale-coloured scales and no yellow or red, are from good water. One with large eyes starting out of its head, and whose tongue and the roof of the mouth are smooth and oily, is fat. And note, if you wish to carry a live carp for a whole day, wrap it in damp hay and carry it belly up, without giving it any air, that is to say in a sack or a bag.

Related Recipes
While interpreting this recipe, I also considered the following recipes that appear to be related:
[edit as appropriate - note that this section should be left out if no related recipes can be found]

[if desired and applicable, add notes here about significant commonalities or differences between the main recipe and any similar ones]

The original recipe calls for the following ingredients: [edit this list as appropriate]

[if desired and applicable, add notes here about the ingredients - if any substitutions were made, explain why - also note what quantities were used for each ingredient and, if possible, why]

[include a paragraph or two describing the steps taken in preparing the recipe - if applicable, describe any differences between the process in the original source and that used in the re-creation, along with the reason for the deviation]

[add any information about any necessary equipment - if applicable, note when the equipment differed from that used in the medieval period, and explain why the original wasn't used]

[Replace citations with those from books where appropriate and/or possible. Make sure any links work, and that the referenced text is presented accurately]

Searchable index of "Le Menagier de Paris". Medieval Cookery.
  <http://www.medievalcookery.com/search/display.html?menag:2>. Accessed on August 22, 2019, 5:12 am.


Keala, Samuel Aukai Jr.

Aukai Kekoa

Samuel Aukai Keala Jr., left.

‘O John Keala ko‘u kupunakāne kualua
‘O Nancy Awa‘a ko‘u kupunahine kualua
Noho pū lāua a hānau ‘ia ‘o Samuel Aukai Keala, Sr.
‘O Samuel Aukai Keala, Sr. ko‘u kupunakāne kuakahi
‘O Charlotte Miller ko‘u kupunahine kuakahi
Noho pū lāua a hānau ‘ia ‘o Samuel Aukai Keala, Jr.
‘O Samuel Aukai, Jr. ko‘u kupunakāne
‘O Genevieve Achiu ko‘u kupunahine
Noho pū lāua a hānau ‘ia ‘o Tymmie Keala
‘O Kordell Kekoa ko‘u makuakāne
‘O Tymmie Keala ko‘u makuahine
Noho pū lāua a hānau ‘ia ‘o Kalaniaukai, ‘o Kamanukea, ‘o Kaena, a ‘o Ku‘ulei
‘O wau ‘o Kalaniaukai Tim ‘Īpa‘apuka Kekoa ka hiapo
E ola ka hāloa o ku‘u ‘ohana

Pipili no ka pilali i ke kumu kukui. (‘ŌN 2662) This ‘ōlelo no‘eau means "the pipili gum that sticks to the kukui tree." This saying is significant to me because of the kaona within it. It talks of one who remains close to a loved one always, like a child would hold on to the grandparent he loves very much. I love this particular kaona because it totally describes the way I feel about my Papa. As an ambulance driver, husband, and Papa to many, Sam was a wonderful person that left his legacy for me to live.

Samuel was born on October 5, 1930 in Keālia, Kona, on the Big Island of Hawai‘i. He was born to Samuel and Charlotte Keala, and also had a brother Herman and a sister Pi‘ikea. His father was a minister at ‘Imiola Church in Waimea and his mother was the post mistress. Many of his stories and fondest memories were about his childhood days in Waimea. Samuel attended Castle Kindergarten, Nānāikapono Elementary, and Waimea School. When he was in seventh grade, he became a boarder at the Kamehameha Schools. His room was located in the basement of ‘Iolani Dormitory, although he often stayed with Colonel Kent in Hale Pelekikena because the Kents were good friends of his parents. He used to smoke in the furnace room and got the nickname "Smoky."

Kamehameha was like a prison to Papa. He really missed home. So one day, his cousin busted him out of school and Sam caught the Humu‘ula ship back to Hawai‘i island. When his "great escape" was discovered, he was given the choice to go back to Kamehameha or go to Farrington High School. He chose Farrington and this is where he met my Gammie, Genevieve Achiu.

Sam held many different occupations. He retired from the City and County of Honolulu as a paramedic after giving over thirty years of service to the city. He was a "jack of all trades," he could fix just about anything! My Papa was also a paniolo and loved to ride horses, rope cows, and build trailers and corrals with his brother Herman. Sam loved Hawaiian and country music and the old songs of the forties. He especially loved my mother’s beautiful singing!

There are many, many stories I could tell about my Papa. My favorite stories are about Sam’s adventures in Waimea. Papa tells about the time he and his brother Herman had to clean the church yard at ‘Imiola. They found a gong under the fellowship hall and decided to see if it fit in Father Lorenzo Lyons’ bell that was in the church yard. After ringing the bell a few times, they tried to pull the pin out of the gong, but it was stuck. After several attempts, they decided to do it later. To make a long story short, the bell rang three nights in a row, but no one else heard the bell except for the two brothers, and on the third night they took their rifles and shot towards the bell. They were determined to rid themselves of whoever was playing this practical joke. The next morning they pulled the pin out with ease and threw the gong back where they found it.

Papa loved his family more than life and did all he could for us. He taught me the value of working hard and showing aloha and respect in everything I do. I miss my Papa, and I will carry on his legacy!


The Marxist Conception of the State

A Contribution to the Differentiation of the Sociological and the Juristic Method

Max Adler

Edited by Mark E. Blum

This translation of Max Adler’s Die Staatsauffassung des Marxismus enables English readers to know a significant perspective on Marx’s theory of the state, which was central to the interwar period in which he was writing (1922). In an extended dialogue with democratic jurist Hans Kelsen, Adler shows that the so-called necessity of law as the neutral arbiter of a democratic society has been heretofore a flawed imposition of the authoritative understandings of the ruling classes. Adler’s brings to his argument the Kantian concept of “sociation”, where every human judgment perforce sets its determinations within its view of the social whole, demonstrating that an accurate comprehension of interdependent equality that realizes an objective “sociation” can only occur in a “classless” society.


Trying to Conceive

How Long Does Implantation Take?

When does implantation happen? Once sperm meets egg, that growing embryo needs to get settled in your womb, but how long does implantation take? Well, after an egg has been fertilized, it takes several days for it to travel from the fallopian tube to your uterus, according to WebMD. The embryo continues growing and dividing, […]

Trying to Conceive

When Does Implantation Occur?

If you’re trying to conceive, you’re probably wondering, When does implantation occur? and How many days after implantation can I test? Here’s the deal: Once a fertilized embryo implants in the uterine lining, woo-hoo, you’re pregnant, but exactly when does implantation occur? It happens during that torturous two-week wait between ovulation and your next (hopefully missed) period. […]


Travelling with illnesses: what I was told.

Help for sufferers, Posts, Travel, Travelling with illnesses series

So I’ve got an apology to make. I haven’t posted anything in over two weeks. This is partly because I have been suffering (more on that soon), but also because I’ve been jetsetting.

For the last two weeks, I’ve been in a beautiful little country called Laos, making an attempt to help those less fortunate than me. Not only has it been one of my lifelong goals to travel, but spending time there helped me to improve who I am as a person, and truly push my limits to the max.

Of course, traveling with fibro, or indeed any other chronic disability, can be a bit of a challenge. Whether it be the plane journey, the climate differences, or the new activities; travelling can be a pain (literally!).

Throughout the next week, I’m going to be sharing a little about what I did over in Laos, along with giving some helpful tips for you to remember the next time you’re abroad.

In the meantime, here are a few suggestions I was given whilst away, that you might like to try out for yourself…

1. Be mindful.

I was told that one of the most important parts of looking after your body involves being able to listen to what it has to tell you.

Next time you have a quiet five minutes, get yourself comfy and listen. Start by breathing slowly and deeply, counting your breaths and feeling your body relax as you do. Then, focus on each part of your body, starting at your toes and working up to your head, and allow yourself to feel what’s going on there. Forget about your stress, forget about the outside world, just focus on you. Once you reach the top of your crown, allow your mind to accept and then let go of those feelings, and then concentrate back on your breathing.

This time, try and empty your mind, and allow any new thoughts, feelings, or worries to float through your mind and be let go. Spend a few moments like this, allowing your mind and body to relax and push aside any mental or physical problems for the moment.

2. Get a massage.

Sometimes, having a massage can really help you to relax, and what better way is there to treat yourself than to soothe your body and ease any achy muscles? Next time you have some spare cash, book yourself in to your local spa; or if you prefer to spend a little less, get a close friend or family member to spend some time with you for a pamper evening, where you can help each other.

3. Try yoga.

Personally, I haven’t had the chance to properly test this one out yet, but loads of people have told me that it is worth the effort.

Start simple and spend five minutes each day stretching out your body and focusing on breathing exercises. As you adjust, build up your routine to focus on longer, more complicated yoga positions. If you need inspiration, just try searching your fave social media for some yoga advice, as it is a popular hobby that is widely available online.

Do you have any advice you’d like to share, or an idea to try? Or, maybe you have something to say about what I’ve shared? Let us know what you think in the comments below, and don’t forget to like and share if you enjoyed this read!

Thanks guys!

What is ‘pacing’ and how can it help my fibro?

Help for sufferers, Posts, Work

Plenty of people with chronic illnesses like to talk about pacing, but if you’re newly diagnosed or have only recently started looking for advice, then you might not know what this is.

Pacing is a method of coping with the fatigue-like symptoms often associated with chronic conditions such as fibro. It involves creating a broken down or spread out routine, so that tasks can be separated into smaller, more manageable chunks. This ensures that you can concentrate longer on tasks by giving yourself small rest breaks in between.

For example, I like to split up my daily chores, study sessions, and various errands by having at least five to ten minutes of nothing for every hour or so. After a while, I have a larger break, and if I’m struggling, I will increase the frequency of my breaks. If you don’t like to sit and do nothing, try doing something easy that takes little energy (mental, physical, or otherwise) and is a distraction from your task.

(N.B: From here on it gets complicated, so you might want to skip the next paragraph if you dont fancy the heavy reading!)

The next question is this; how do you figure out your rest to work ratio? Well first of all, you need to spend some time figuring out how long you can go before you lose the will to live. This is how long you can go before you need a big break. Then, try and count how many times within this you get distracted; this is how many mini breaks you need. Spread them evenly within the time frame, and aim for between five and fifteen minutes for each break. you can alter this to your taste later, if necessary.

If all of this sounds too complicated, just remember to aim for 3:9:10 (for every 3 hours, have 9 equally spaced lots of 10 minute breaks, so every 20 minutes have a break). Or, have a 10 minute break every so often if you can’t keep count. Don’t forget as well that you can mix up the same ratio for smaller or larger amounts of time, and for every 3 hours, have at least half an hour or more to recuperate.

Most importantly, though, is to remember that you aren’t aiming to get loooaaaddss done, but to work at an efficient pace that keeps you healthy and happy. If you can’t do as much as you thought, that’s okay. Just stop for the day and adjust accordingly tomorrow.

If you like my pacing method or think you have something to input, please help us all out and let us know in the comments.

Thanks for reading!


주요 콘텐츠로 건너뛰기
2단계 편집 중 —

알림: 귀하는 선행 작업 안내서를 편집하고 계십니다. 변경된 사항들은 이 선행 작업 단계를 사용하는 안내서에 영향을 미칩니다.

단계 유형:

끌어서 재배열 합니다

Twist the opening pick to fully dislodge the battery and remove it.

Do not reuse the battery after it has been removed, as doing so is a potential safety hazard. Replace it with a new battery.

To install a new battery and ensure that is is properly aligned:

Remove any remaining adhesive from the phone, and clean the glued areas with isopropyl alcohol and a lint-free cloth.

Lay the replacement battery in place, but do not apply adhesive yet. Resume re-assembly until the motherboard is in place (STEP 18).

Apply new pre-cut adhesive or double-sided tape onto the phone frame, around the perimeter of the battery compartment, but not in the rectangular cutout in the center (which is actually the back side of the display).

Temporarily connect the battery connector to the motherboard to ensure proper battery alignment.

Press the battery firmly into place for 5-10 seconds. Disconnect the battery and resume re-assembly.

귀하의 기여는 오픈 소스 Creative Commons 인가 하에 허가되었습니다.


The Experientiality of Matter

It’s Time For Some Philosophical Investigations

Ludwig Wittgenstein’s Philosophical Investigations is a nice piece of work where he attempts to explain his views on language and the consequences of this view on various subjects like logic, semantics, cognition, and psychology.  I’ve mentioned some of his views very briefly in a couple of earlier posts, but I wanted to delve into his work in a little more depth here and comment on what strikes me as most interesting.  Lately, I’ve been looking back at some of the books I’ve read from various philosophers and have been wanting to revisit them so I can explore them in more detail and share how they connect to some of my own thoughts.  Alright…let’s begin.

Language, Meaning, & Their Probabilistic Attributes

He opens his Philosophical Investigations with a quote from St. Augustine’s Confessions that describes how a person learns a language.  St. Augustine believed that this process involved simply learning the names of objects (for example, by someone else pointing to the objects that are so named) and then stringing them together into sentences, and Wittgenstein points out that this is true to some trivial degree but it overlooks a much more fundamental relationship between language and the world.  For Wittgenstein, the meaning of words can not simply be attached to an object like a name can.  The meaning of a word or concept has much more of a fuzzy boundary as it depends on a breadth of context or associations with other concepts.  He analogizes this plurality in the meanings of words with the relationship between members of a family.  While there may be some resemblance between different uses of a word or concept, we aren’t able to formulate a strict definition to fully describe this resemblance.

One problem then, especially within philosophy, is that many people assume that the meaning of a word or concept is fixed with sharp boundaries (just like the fixed structure of words themselves).  Wittgenstein wants to dispel people of this false notion (much as Nietzsche tried to do before him) so that they can stop misusing language, as he believed that this misuse was the cause of many (if not all) of the major problems that had cropped up in philosophy over the centuries, particularly in metaphysics.  Since meaning is actually somewhat fluid and can’t be accounted for by any fixed structure, Wittgenstein thinks that any meaning that we can attach to these words is ultimately going to be determined by how those words are used.  Since he ties meaning with use, and since this use is something occurring in our social forms of life, it has an inextricably external character.  Thus, the only way to determine if someone else has a particular understanding of a word or concept is through their behavior, in response to or in association with the use of the word(s) in question.  This is especially important in the case of ambiguous sentences, which Wittgenstein explores to some degree.

Probabilistic Shared Understanding

Some of what Wittgenstein is trying to point out here are what I like to refer to as the inherently probabilistic attributes of language.  And it seems to me to be probabilistic for a few different reasons, beyond what Wittgenstein seems to address.  First, there is no guarantee that what one person means by a word or concept exactly matches the meaning from another person’s point of view, but at the very least there is almost always going to be some amount of semantic overlap (and possibly 100% in some cases) between the two individual’s intended meanings, and so there is going to be some probability that the speaker and the listener do in fact share a complete understanding.  It seems reasonable to argue that simpler concepts will have a higher probability of complete semantic overlap whereas more complex concepts are more likely to leave a gap in that shared understanding.  And I think this is true even if we can’t actually calculate what any of these probabilities are.

Now my use of the word meaning here differs from Wittgenstein’s because I am referring to something that is not exclusively shared by all parties involved and I am pointing to something that is internal (a subjective understanding of a word) rather than external (the shared use of a word).  But I think this move is necessary if we are to capture all of the attributes that people explicitly or implicitly refer to with a concept like meaning.  It seems better to compromise with Wittgenstein’s thinking and refer to the meaning of a word as a form of understanding that is intimately connected with its use, but which involves elements that are not exclusively external.

We can justify this version of meaning through an example.  If I help teach you how to ride a bike and explain that this activity is called biking or to bike, then we can use Wittgenstein’s conception of meaning and it will likely account for our shared understanding, and so I have no qualms about that, and I’d agree with Wittgenstein that this is perhaps the most important function of language.  But it may be the case that you have an understanding that biking is an activity that can only happen on Tuesdays, because that happened to be the day that I helped teach you how to ride a bike.  Though I never intended for you to understand biking in this way, there was no immediate way for me to infer that you had this misunderstanding on the day I was teaching you this.  I could only learn of this fact if you explicitly explained to me your understanding of the term with enough detail, or if I had asked you additional questions like whether or not you’d like to bike on a Wednesday (for example), with you answering “I don’t know how to do that as that doesn’t make any sense to me.”  Wittgenstein doesn’t account for this gap in understanding in his conception of meaning and I think this makes for a far less useful conception.

Now I think that Wittgenstein is still right in the sense that the only way to determine someone else’s understanding (or lack thereof) of a word is through their behavior, but due to chance as well as where our attention is directed at any given moment, we may never see the right kinds of behavior to rule out any number of possible misunderstandings, and so we’re apt to just assume that these misunderstandings don’t exist because language hides them to varying degrees.  But they can and in some cases do exist, and this is why I prefer a conception of meaning that takes these misunderstandings into account.  So I think it’s useful to see language as probabilistic in the sense that there is some probability of a complete shared understanding underlying the use of a word, and thus there is a converse probability of some degree of misunderstanding.

Language & Meaning as Probabilistic Associations Between Causal Relations

A second way of language being probabilistic is due to the fact that the unique meanings associated with any particular use of a word or concept as understood by an individual are derived from probabilistic associations between various inferred causal relations.  And I believe that this is the underlying cause of most of the problems that Wittgenstein was trying to address in this book.  He may not have been thinking about the problem in this way, but it can account for the fuzzy boundary problem associated with the task of trying to define the meaning of words since this probabilistic structure underlies our experiences, our understanding of the world, and our use of language such that it can’t be represented by static, sharp definitions.  When a person is learning a concept, like redness, they experience a number of observations and infer what is common to all of those experiences, and then they extract a particular subset of what is common and associate it with a word like red or redness (as opposed to another commonality like objectness, or roundness, or what-have-you).  But in most cases, separate experiences of redness are going to be different instantiations of redness with different hues, textures, shapes, etc., which means that redness gets associated with a large range of different qualia.

If you come across a new qualia that seems to more closely match previous experiences associated with redness rather than orangeness (for example), I would argue that this is because the brain has assigned a higher probability to that qualia being an instance of redness as opposed to, say, orangeness.  And the brain may very well test a hypothesis of the qualia matching the concept of redness versus the concept of orangeness, and depending on your previous experiences of both, and the present context of the experience, your brain may assign a higher probability of orangeness instead.  Perhaps if a red-orange colored object is mixed in with a bunch of unambiguously orange-colored objects, it will be perceived as a shade of orange (to match it with the rest of the set), but if the case were reversed and it were mixed in with a bunch of unambiguously red-colored objects, it will be perceived as a shade of red instead.

Since our perception of the world depends on context, then the meanings we assign to words or concepts also depends on context, but not only in the sense of choosing a different use of a word (like Wittgenstein argues) in some language game or other, but also by perceiving the same incoming sensory information as conceptually different qualia (like in the aforementioned case of a red-orange colored object).  In that case, we weren’t intentionally using red or orange in a different way but rather were assigning one word or the other to the exact same sensory information (with respect to the red-orange object) which depended on what else was happening in the scene that surrounded that subset of sensory information.  To me, this highlights how meaning can be fluid in multiple ways, some of that fluidity stemming from our conscious intentions and some of it from unintentional forces at play involving our prior expectations within some context which directly modify our perceived experience.

This can also be seen through Wittgenstein’s example of what he calls a duckrabbit, an ambiguous image that can be perceived as a duck or a rabbit.  I’ve taken the liberty of inserting this image here along with a copy of it which has been rotated in order to more strongly invoke the perception of a rabbit.  The first image no doubt looks more like a duck and the second image, more like a rabbit.

Now Wittgenstein says that when one is looking at the duckrabbit and sees a rabbit, they aren’t interpreting the picture as a rabbit but are simply reporting what they see.  But in the case where a person sees a duck first and then later sees a rabbit, Wittgenstein isn’t sure what to make of this.  However, he claims to be sure that whatever it is, it can’t be the case that the external world stays the same while an internal cognitive change takes place.  Wittgenstein was incorrect on this point because the external world doesn’t change (in any relevant sense) despite our seeing the duck or seeing the rabbit.  Furthermore, he never demonstrates why two different perceptions would require a change in the external world.  The fact of the matter is, you can stare at this static picture and ask yourself to see a duck or to see a rabbit and it will affect your perception accordingly.  This is partially accomplished by you mentally rotating the image in your imagination and seeing if that changes how well it matches one conception or the other, and since it matches both conceptions to a high degree, you can easily perceive it one way or the other.  Your brain is simply processing competing hypotheses to account for the incoming sensory information, and the top-down predictions of rabbitness or duckness (which you’ve acquired over past experiences) actually changes the way you perceive it with no change required in the external world (despite Wittgenstein’s assertion to the contrary).

To give yet another illustration of the probabilistic nature of language, just imagine the head of a bald man and ask yourself, if you were to add one hair at a time to this bald man’s head, at what point does he lose the property of baldness?  If hairs were slowly added at random, and you could simply say “Stop!  Now he’s no longer bald!” at some particular time, there’s no doubt in my mind that if this procedure were repeated (even if the hairs were added non-randomly), you would say “Stop!  Now he’s no longer bald!” at a different point in this transition.  Similarly if you were looking at a light that was changing color from red to orange, and were asked to say when the color has changed to orange, you would pick a point in the transition that is within some margin of error but it wouldn’t be an exact, repeatable point in the transition.  We could do this thought experiment with all sorts of concepts that are attached to words, like cat and dog and, for example, use a computer graphic program to seamlessly morph a picture of a cat into a picture of a dog and ask at what point did the cat “turn into” a dog?  It’s going to be based on a probability of coincident features that you detect which can vary over time.  Here’s a series of pictures showing a chimpanzee morphing into Bill Clinton to better illustrate this point:

At what point do we stop seeing a picture of a chimpanzee and start seeing a picture of something else?  When do we first see Bill Clinton?  What if I expanded this series of 15 images into a series of 1000 images so that this transition happened even more gradually?  It would be highly unlikely to pick the exact same point in the transition two times in a row if the images weren’t numbered or arranged in a grid.  We can analogize this phenomenon with an ongoing problem in science, known as the species problem.  This problem can be described as the inherent difficulty of defining exactly what a species is, which is necessary if one wants to determine if and when one species evolves into another.  This problem occurs because the evolutionary processes giving rise to new species are relatively slow and continuous whereas sorting those organisms into sharply defined categories involves the elimination of that generational continuity and replacing it with discrete steps.

And we can see this effect in the series of images above, where each picture could represent some large number of generations in an evolutionary timeline, where each picture/organism looks roughly like the “parent” or “child” of the picture/organism that is adjacent to it.  Despite this continuity, if we look at the first picture and the last one, they look like pictures of distinct species.  So if we want to categorize the first and last picture as distinct species, then we create a problem when trying to account for every picture/organism that lies in between that transition.  Similarly words take on an appearance of strict categorization (of meaning) when in actuality, any underlying meaning attached is probabilistic and dynamic.  And as Wittgenstein pointed out, this makes it more appropriate to consider meaning as use so that the probabilistic and dynamic attributes of meaning aren’t lost.

Now you may think you can get around this problem of fluidity or fuzzy boundaries with concepts that are simpler and more abstract, like the concept of a particular quantity (say, a quantity of four objects) or other concepts in mathematics.  But in order to learn these concepts in the first place, like quantity, and then associate particular instances of it with a word, like four, one had to be presented with a number of experiences and infer what was common to all of those experiences (as was the case with redness mentioned earlier).  And this inference (I would argue) involves a probabilistic process as well, it’s just that the resulting probability of our inferring particular experiences as an instance of four objects is incredibly high and therefore repeatable and relatively unambiguous.  Therefore that kind of inference is likely to be sustained no matter what the context, and it is likely to be shared by two individuals with 100% semantic overlap (i.e. it’s almost certain that what I mean by four is exactly what you mean by four even though this is almost certainly not the case for a concept like love or consciousness).  This makes mathematical concepts qualitatively different from other concepts (especially those that are more complex or that more closely map on to reality), but it doesn’t negate their having a probabilistic attribute or foundation.

Looking at the Big Picture

Though this discussion of language and meaning is not an exhaustive analysis of Wittgenstein’s Philosophical Investigations, it represents an analysis of the main theme present throughout.  His main point was to shed light on the disparity between how we often think of language and how we actually use it.  When we stray away from the way it is actually used in our everyday lives, in one form of social life or other, and instead misuse it such as in philosophy, this creates all sorts of problems and unwarranted conclusions.  He also wants his readers to realize that the ultimate goal of philosophy should not be to try and make metaphysical theories and deep explanations underlying everyday phenomena, since these are often born out of unwarranted generalizations and other assumptions stemming from how our grammar is structured.  Instead we ought to subdue these temptations to generalize and subdue our temptations to be dogmatic and instead use philosophy as a kind of therapeutic tool to keep our abstract thinking in check and to better understand ourselves and the world we live in.

Although I disagree with some of Wittgenstein’s claims about cognition (in terms of how intimately it is connected to the external world) and take some issue with his arguably less useful conception of meaning, he makes a lot of sense overall.  Wittgenstein was clearly hitting upon a real difference between the way actual causal relations in our experience are structured and how those relations are represented in language.  Personally, I think that work within philosophy is moving in the right direction if the contributions made therein lead us to make more successful predictions about the causal structure of the world.  And I believe this to be so even if this progress includes generalizations that may not be exactly right.  As long as we can structure our thinking to make more successful predictions, then we’re moving forward as far as I’m concerned.  In any case, I liked the book overall and thought that the interlocutory style gave the reader a nice break from the typical form seen in philosophical argumentation.  I highly recommend it!

Looking Beyond Good & Evil

Nietzche’s Beyond Good and Evil serves as a thorough overview of his philosophy and is definitely one of his better works (although I think Thus Spoke Zarathustra is much more fun to read).  It’s definitely worth reading (if you haven’t already) to put a fresh perspective on many widely held philosophical assumptions that are often taken for granted.  While I’m not interested in all of the claims he makes (and he makes many, in nearly 300 aphorisms spread over nine chapters), there are at least several ideas that I think are worth analyzing.

One theme presented throughout the book is Nietzsche’s disdain for classical conceptions of truth and any form of absolutism or dogmatism.  With regard to truth or his study on the nature of truth (what we could call his alethiology), he subscribes to a view that he coined as perspectivism.  For Nietzsche, there are no such things as absolute truths but rather there are only different perspectives about reality and our understanding of it.  So he insists that we shouldn’t get stuck in the mud of dogmatism, and should instead try to view what is or isn’t true with an open mind and from as many points of view as possible.

Nietzsche’s view here is in part fueled by his belief that the universe is in a state of constant change, as well as his belief in the fixity of language.  Since the universe is in a state of constant change, language generally fails to capture this dynamic essence.  And since philosophy is inherently connected to the use of language, false inferences and dogmatic conclusions will often manifest from it.  Wittgenstein belonged to a similar school of thought (likely building off of Nietzsche’s contributions) where he claimed that most of the problems in philosophy had to do with the limitations of language, and therefore, that those philosophical problems could only be solved (if at all) through an in-depth evaluation of the properties of language and how they relate to its use.

This school of thought certainly has merit given the facts of language having more of a fixed syntactic structure yet also having a dynamic or probabilistic semantic structure.  We need language to communicate our thoughts to one another, and so this requires some kind of consistency or stability in its syntactic structure.  But the meaning behind the words we use is something that is established through use, through context, and ultimately through associations between probabilistic conceptual structures and relatively stable or fixed visual and audible symbols (written or spoken words).  Since the semantic structure of language has fuzzy boundaries, and yet is attached to relatively fixed words and grammar, it produces the illusion of a reality that is essentially unchanging.  And this results in the kinds of philosophical problems and dogmatic thinking that Nietzsche warns us of.

It’s hard to disagree with Nietzsche’s view that dogmatism is to be avoided at all costs, and that absolute truths are generally specious at best (let alone dangerous), and philosophy owes a lot to Nietzsche for pointing out the need to reject this kind of thinking.  Nietzsche’s rejection of absolutism and dogmatism is made especially clear in his views on the common conceptions of God and morality.  He points out how these concepts have changed a lot over the centuries (where, for example, the meaning of good has undergone a complete reversal throughout its history), and this is despite the fact that throughout that time, the proponents of those particular views of God or morality believe that these concepts have never changed and will never change.

Nietzsche believes that all change is ultimately driven by a will to power, where this will is a sort of instinct for autonomy, and which also consists of a desire to impose one’s will onto others.  So the meaning of these concepts (such as God or morality) and countless others have only changed because they’ve been re-appropriated by different or conflicting wills to power.  As such, he thinks that the meaning and interpretation of a concept illustrate the attributes of the particular will making use of those concepts, rather than some absolute truth about reality.  I think this idea makes a lot of sense if we regard the will to power as not only encompassing the desires belonging to any individual (most especially their desire for autonomy), but also the inferences they’ve made about reality, it’s apparent causal relations, etc., which provide the content for those desires.  So any will to power is effectively colored by the world view held by the individual, and this world view or set of inferred causal relations includes one’s inferences pertaining to language and any meaning ascribed to the words and concepts that one uses.

Even more interesting to me is the distinction Nietzsche makes between what he calls an unrefined use or version of the will to power and one that is refined.  The unrefined form of a will to power takes the desire for autonomy and directs it outward (perhaps more instinctually) in order to dominate the will of others.  The refined version on the other hand takes this desire for autonomy and directs it inward toward oneself, manifesting itself as a kind of cruelty which causes a person to constantly struggle to make themselves stronger, more independent, and to provide them with a deeper character and perhaps even a deeper understanding of themselves and their view of the world.  Both manifestations of the will to power seem to try and simply maximize one’s power over as much as possible, but the latter refined version is believed by Nietzsche to be superior and ultimately a more effective form of power.

We can better illustrate this view by considering a person who tries to dominate others to gain power in part because they lack the ability to gain power over their own autonomy, and then compare this to a person who gains control over their own desires and autonomy and therefore doesn’t need to compensate for any inadequacy by dominating others.  A person who feels a need to dominate others is in effect dependent on those subordinates (and dependence implies a certain lack of power), but a person who increases their power over themselves gains more independence and thus a form of freedom that is otherwise not possible.

I like this internal/external distinction that Nietzsche makes, but I’d like to build on it a little and suggest that both expressions of a will to power can be seen as complementary strategies to fulfill one’s desire for maximal autonomy, but with the added caveat that this autonomy serves to fulfill a desire for maximal causal power by harnessing as much control over our experience and understanding of the world as possible.  On the one hand, we can try and change the world in certain ways to fulfill this desire (including through the domination of other wills to power), or we can try and change ourselves and our view of the world (up to and including changing our desires if we find them to be misdirecting us away from our greatest goal).  We may even change our desires such that they are compatible with an external force attempting to dominate us, thus rendering the external domination powerless (or at least less powerful than it was), and then we could conceivably regain a form of power over our experience and understanding of the world.

I’ve argued elsewhere that I think that our view of the world as well as our actions and desires can be properly described as predictions of various causal relations (this is based on my personal view of knowledge combined with a Predictive Processing account of brain function).  Reconciling this train of thought with Nietzsche’s basic idea of a will to power, I think we could say that our will to power depends on our predictions of the world and its many apparent causal relations.  We could equate maximal autonomy with maximal predictive success (including the predictions pertaining to our desires). Looking at autonomy and a will to power in this way, we can see that one is more likely to make successful predictions about the actions of another if they subjugate the other’s will to power by their own.  And one can also increase the success of their predictions by changing them in the right ways, including increasing their complexity to better match the causal structure of the world, and by changing our desires and actions as well.

Another thing to consider about a desire for autonomy is that it is better formulated if it includes whatever is required for its own sustainability.  Dominating other wills to power will often serve to promote a sustainable autonomy for the dominator because then those other wills aren’t as likely to become dominators themselves and reverse the direction of dominance, and this preserves the autonomy of the dominating will to power.  This shows how this particular external expression of a will to power could be naturally selected for (under certain circumstances at least) which Nietzsche himself even argued (though in an anti-Darwinian form since genes are not the unit of selection here, but rather behaviors).  This type of behavioral selection would explain it’s prevalence in the animal kingdom including in a number of primate species aside from human beings.  I do think however that we’ve found many ways of overcoming the need or impulse to dominate and it has a lot to do with having adopted social contract theory, since in my view it provides a way of maximizing the average will to power for all parties involved.

Coming back to Nietzsche’s take on language, truth, and dogmatism, we can also see that an increasingly potent will to power is more easily achievable if it is able to formulate and test new tentative predictions about the world, rather than being locked in to some set of predictions (which is dogmatism at it’s core).  Being able to adapt one’s predictions is equivalent to considering and adopting a new point of view, a capability which Nietzsche described as inherent in any free spirit.  It also amounts to being able to more easily free ourselves from the shackles of language, just as Nietzsche advocated for, since new points of view affect the meaning that we ascribe to words and concepts.  I would add to this, the fact that new points of view can also increase our chances of making more successful predictions that constitute our understanding of the world (and ourselves), because we can test them against our previous world view and see if this leads to more or less error, better parsimony, and so on.

Nietzsche’s hope was that one day all philosophy would be flexible enough to overcome its dogmatic prejudices, its claims of absolute truths, including those revolving around morality and concepts like good and evil.  He sees these concepts as nothing more than superficial expressions of one particular will to power or another, and thus he wants philosophy to eventually move itself beyond good and evil.  Personally, I am a proponent of an egoistic goal theory of morality, which grounds all morality on what maximizes the satisfaction and life fulfillment of the individual (which includes cultivating virtues such as compassion, honesty, and reasonableness), and so I believe that good and evil, when properly defined, are more than simply superficial expressions.

But I agree with Nietzsche in part, because I think these concepts have been poorly defined and misused such that they appear to have no inherent meaning.  And I also agree with Nietzsche in that I reject moral absolutism and its associated dogma (as found in religion most especially), because I believe morality to be dynamic in various ways, contingent on the specific situations we find ourselves in and the ever-changing idiosyncrasies of our human psychology.  Human beings often find themselves in completely novel situations and cultural evolution is making this happen more and more frequently.  And our species is also changing because of biological evolution as well.  So even though I agree that moral facts exist (with an objective foundation), and that a subset of these facts are likely to be universal due to the overlap between our biology and psychology, I do not believe that any of these moral facts are absolute because there are far too many dynamic variables for an absolute morality to work even in principle.  Nietzsche was definitely on the right track here.

Putting this all together, I’d like to think that our will to power has an underlying impetus, namely a drive for maximal satisfaction and life fulfillment.  If this is true then our drive for maximal autonomy and control over our experience and understanding of the world serves to fulfill what we believe will maximize this overall satisfaction and fulfillment.  However, when people are irrational, dogmatic, and/or are not well-informed on the relevant facts (and this happens a lot!), this is more likely to lead to an unrefined will to power that is less conducive to achieving that goal, where dominating the wills of others and any number of other immoral behaviors overtakes the character of the individual.  Our best chance of finding a fulfilling path in life (while remaining intellectually honest) is going to require an open mind, a willingness to criticize our own beliefs and assumptions, and a concerted effort to try and overcome our own limitations.  Nietzsche’s philosophy (much of it at least) serves as a powerful reminder of this admirable goal.


Asbestos information

This page is a free resource to help anyone needing information regarding Asbestos.

The page is primarily intended for those resident or working in the UK but some of the information is universal, such as what is Asbestos.

We recommend that everyone starts on the What is Asbestos? page as this will give you the key facts about Asbestos and it’s properties.

Asbestos is a term used to refer to six naturally occurring silicate minerals. Inhalation of the fibres can lead to various lung conditions, including asbestosis and cancer.


Deep vein thrombosis (DVT) is a blood clot that develops within a deep vein in the body, usually in the leg and in the larger vein that runs through the muscles of the calf and the thigh.

Deep Vein Thrombosis can cause swelling and pain in the leg, but often occurs without giving any symptoms. A DVT may well settle completely, as the thrombosis is dissolved by the body naturally, however, if a DVT extends up the deep veins it can become dislodged from the vein, and get carried through the main veins and heart to lodge in the lungs; also known as a pulmonary embolism. Small pulmonary emboli may cause chest pain, and sometimes coughing up of blood. Multiple or larger pulmonary emboli may cause breathlessness. A large pulmonary embolus which blocks the main blood vessels to the lungs can be fatal.

The thrombosis can also cause chronic blockage in the deep veins or damage to their valves, leading to long term swelling and sometimes skin problems at the ankle.

DVT and pulmonary embolism together are known as venous thromboembolism (VTE).

Symptoms of Deep Vein Thrombosis include:

a heavy ache in the affected area and warm skin over the affected area, particularly at the back of your leg below the knee. DVT usually (although not always) affects only one leg and the pain may be worse when you bend your foot upward towards your knee.

There is now evidence that wearing below knee graduated compression stockings reduces the chance of DVT for people with special risk factors, as there is no direct evidence about people being at special risk of DVT as a result of long journeys, but based on evidence about surgical operations the following factors increase the risk:

Having had a recent major operation
Obesity or being overweight
The contraceptive pill or hormone replacement therapy (HRT)
Heart disease Varicose veins
Varicose Veins

Treatment options for DVT include:

Medical Blood Thinners - such as aspirin or anticoagulants such as heparin injections, or warfarin by mouth may be advisable for a few people who have medical conditions with a particularly high risk of DVT. This kind of treatment will always be on the explicit advice of a doctor.
Compression Techniques - graduated compression stockings reduce the risk of DVT. They also help to prevent the ankle swelling which many people experience on long journeys.
Clot Removal - also known as Thrombectomy is the process of physically removing or breaking up blood clots. Surgery to remove a blood clot is rare. It's only considered if the blood clot is very large and is blocking a major blood vessel. This step is normally done as a last option, if use of clot-dissolving drugs or other treatments is not an option or has been unsuccessful.
Deep Vein Stenting - veins have been blocked for a long time can cause scarring and narrowed veins. The use of balloons and stents to dilate up the blocked veins and keep them open can be used in cases like these. This requires careful planning, and is only suitable for certain cases.

Our Vascular (Vein) Clinic in London is led by Mr Ian Franklin, one of London's top vascular surgeons and a leading specialist in vascular and endovascular surgery.

Due to the inherent complexity of the many vascular disorders, there may be more than one way of managing a particular condition. For this reason, when planning a procedure, Mr Franklin will discuss all the treatment options in a multidisciplinary team meeting, to ensure that all perspectives are considered before recommending a course of action to a patient

To enquire about a consultation with a Deep Vein Thrombosis specialist, please complete the form below.

I have read and understand Cadogan Clinic's Privacy Notice

From time to time we may wish to keep you up-to-date with information, offers and promotions we feel will be of interest to you. If you do not wish to receive such information, please uncheck this box.

Submitting your request

Latest News

Why Cadogan Clinic?

Book a Consultation


paypayPowered byPowered by

Ski Size Guide

If you want to understand ski sizing, the ski size chart below will give you a basic guide to finding the right ski length based on your height and ability. In essence though, beginners should choose a shorter ski and advanced skiers should choose a longer ski.

But whilst your height and skiing ability are two of the most important factors in choosing a ski, you should also consider your weight and the style of skiing you like to do most.

If you're a heavier build than the average for someone of your height, a longer ski will give you more edge to grip the snow during a turn, and more base area for flotation in powder and cruddy snow.

Conversely, if you’re a slimmer build, you may want to consider going for a shorter ski as you'll need less edge or surface area to support your weight than someone of an average build.

Style of skiing

It's also important to think about the type of skiing you'll be doing most, because you might want to choose a longer or shorter ski to suit your style.

If you like to ski faster than most, then a longer ski will inspire confidence and give you more stability. Alternatively, for slower speeds and tighter manoeuvres, a shorter ski will give you more control.

If you’re more freestyle-focussed and you want a ski that’s going to be more nimble for rails or indoor slopes then a slightly shorter ski will work better for you as there'll be less ski to move around.  For bigger park features and higher speeds you'll want a longer ski with more edge and base for a stable platform in take-offs and landings.

Off-piste and powder

In basic terms, a longer ski will give you more surface area and float in powder, but it's important to also consider the shape and profile of many powder-oriented skis. Quite often backcountry and freeride skis will have a lot of rocker up front - essentially a proportion of the ski sticking up in the air - meaning that if you take them onto the piste you'll have less effective edge in contact with the snow at any one time. A longer ski will give you more effective edge and control on the piste.

Check out our ski buyer's guide, for more about the different types of ski available and a jargon-busting tech guide, but if there's more that you don't understand, feel free to get in touch and we'll be happy to help.

Shop all skis

Ski size chart

See the Men's suggested size chart below:

Skier Height (cm/in) Advanced Skier Length (cm) Intermediate Skier Length (cm) Beginner Skier Length (cm)
137 4'6" 140 135 125
142 4'8" 145 140 130
152 5'0" 155 145 135
158 5'2" 165 155 145
168 5'6" 175 165 155
173 5'8" 180 170 160
178 5'10" 185 175 165
183 6'0" 190 180 170
188 6'2" 195 185 175
193 6'4" 200 190 180

See the Women's suggested size chart below:

142 4'8" 149 139 136
152 5'0" 152 142 139
158 5'2" 153 146 143
163 5'4" 163 153 150
168 5'6" 166 156 153
173 5'8" 170 160 157
178 5'10" 173 163 160
183 6'0" 180 170 167


AEN Special Interest Groups

Facilitating Meaningful Collaboration & Engagement

Facilitation Track

Programme Fees:

S$ 0.00 w/GST

AEN Member

Lyn Wong (Ms)

2.5 hours

What is the session about?

What are some challenges we face as adult educators in engaging learners? How can we better engage learners such that they are involved in co-creating the learning experience and enhance retention of learning? Through a facilitated process, adult educators come together to identify strategies they can use to create a collaborative learning environment where learners are actively engaged to work together to co-create their learning experience thereby leading to higher retention of learning. Attendees will learn some process facilitation tools and techniques that they can apply into their learning programs.

What does the session cover?

In this session, you can expect to learn:-

  1. Address real workplace challenges
  2. Experience a facilitated peer learning session
  3. Take away tools and techniques to apply

Fees & funding

AEN Member

Session fee

This session is open to AEN members for free.  To register for AEN membership, please click here.

About the speaker

Lyn Wong

Principal Facilitator & Coach

Lyn Wong (Ms), CPF, ACC, is passionate about organization learning and development in topics of change and transformation especially. An accomplished and committed professional, she has to her credit, multiple certifications in team and professional assessment tools which she employs with great success in her work with clients.

Every individual, team or organization is a system. Lyn believes that when we take a systemic approach to look at individuals, teams and organizations, we can better engage, align and integrate all parts of the system and tap into the collective wisdom to achieve strategic objectives. As such, be it coaching, training or facilitation work, she uses a facilitative and collaborative approach, holding space for a safe environment where clients share openly and explore collectively to co-create the future they envision.

Her focus and expertise include developing resourceful teams and leaders, harnessing the diversity of cross-cultural teams, facilitating collaborative problem-solving and active participation for organizational change.


The Deep

Culver City, CA: Columbia Pictures, 1977. Vintage US one-sheet poster for the 1977 film.

Based on screenwriter Peter Benchley's 1976 novel, starring Jacqueline Bissett and Nick Nolte as a pair of young vacationers who get involved in a dangerous conflict with treasure hunters when they discover how to get to a shipwreck in Bermuda waters. Nominated for an Academy Award for Best Sound. The second of 2 films featuring Bissett in a Peter Yates film (the other being "Bullitt," 1968).

Shot on location in Australia, Bermuda, and the British Virgin Islands.

27 x 41 inches (68.5 x 104 cm), folded four times as issued. Very Good plus, with central and corner pinholes, light fold stress, a few tiny tears, and title in holograph ink on the verso.

Lentz, p. 1022.

[Book #139051]

Price: $25.00


Work for RSPCA NSW and make a lifesaving difference to animals in need.

Animal Care Services

The Animal Care Services Department is committed to the care and welfare of animals. From customer services, animal attendants, to groomers and veterinarians, this department has a diverse range of roles, but they all ensure the highest standard of animal care.

Current Openings