How to Get Rid of 80% of Your Unhappiness in Relationships

Have you ever applied it to your relationships?

When you think of your friends and family members, which 20% create 80% of your desired outcomes and happiness?

These are your peeps.  These are the people with whom you want to spend your time and, if it’s a healthy relationship, these are the people with whom you should spend your time.

Take a moment after you’ve finished reading this and make time to get together with them.

Now, think of your friends and family members again.  Which 20% create 80% of your problems and unhappiness?

Here is the harder question.  Why are you sacrificing so much of your happiness to them?

Here are some of the answers I have heard:

“She’s my mother.”

“It’s not his fault.”

“I have nowhere else to go.”

“I’m married.  I made a commitment.”

“My (adult) son needs me.”

“I’m a rescuer at heart.”

“I’m Superman.”

“Who will take care of her if I don’t?”

“I’m too old to change now.”

“I couldn’t live with myself if I weren’t there for him.”

“He’s my brother.”

“I can’t afford to leave.”

Here are things that people often think but don’t say:

“I’m afraid no one else will love me.”

“I don’t think I deserve to be treated any better than this.”

“I’m so ashamed that it has gotten to this point.”

“I need to be needed.”

“I don’t know how to have a relationship where my needs are met, too.”

“I’m afraid of what will happen if I stick up for myself.”

“I’m afraid of change.”

Here is the part that can be too scary to even think:

“I don’t know how to put my needs first (in this instance or maybe in life).”

Here’s the reality:

First, let’s talk about the extent of problems and unhappiness you suffer as a result of the person.  Not all unhappiness is equal.

When you have contact with this person, how do you feel on a scale of 1 – 10, with 1 being minor irritation and 10 being high level anxiety or anger, often resulting in a need to medicate yourself with food, alcohol, cigarettes, or other substances?

How often do you currently have contact with this person?  How often do you really need to have contact with this person?  Could you decrease your time with this person?

Is the person causing you unhappiness because the person is emotionally, physically, or sexually abusive to you?  Has anyone told you the person has been abusive toward you, even if you would not describe the person as abusive?

Can you take a step back from the person to better evaluate the relationship?  Often, we don’t even know the reactions our bodies are having until we step away from the relationship.

There is a difference between someone creating 80% of your unhappiness intentionally versus unintentionally.  There is also a difference between someone creating 80% of your problems on a temporary basis versus on a permanent basis.

For example, if a loved one has cancer, you are likely to feel a great deal of unhappiness as a result.  You may be worried, angry that this person is suffering, sad, anxious, and more.  If you are married and there are medical bills piling up as a result, you may also feel anxious, worried, distressed, angry, and more.  Still, it is perfectly healthy to be there for the person as much as possible, to love the person and to also feel great pain.  You may experience caregiver fatigue and look to find ways to support yourself emotionally as a result.  You may experience caregiver fatigue and decide that you cannot do anymore.

In the alternative, if you love someone who rejects you, puts you down, always has to ensure that his needs are met (and yours are not), then it could be time to take stock of the relationship.  You know that it is not working for you – that is why you have listed it in with the relationships causing 80% of your unhappiness.

Can the relationship be fixed? Is the person willing to work on the relationship to meet your needs, too?  Is the person willing and able to talk with you, to meet in counseling or mediation to discuss it and put together a plan to get things back on track?

If it can’t be fixed, and you still want to maintain the relationship, then can it be contained?  Can you limit the amount of time that you spend with the person, spend less hours together, have a buffer present, opt for telephone contact, email, text, or Facebook instead of in person contact?

If it can’t be fixed, you know it’s not healthy, and it’s causing you a great deal of distress, it’s time to really look at why you are investing so much of your time in this person.  We have a finite amount of time on this earth.  Think of what you could do with all of that time that you currently spend unhappy.  Why is it more important to be there for that person than to be there for yourself?

Have you tried Dynamic Facilitation?

You've probably been in at least one meeting with a facilitator who used one white board to capture ideas.

I use 3!

Dynamic Facilitation provides the framework to have a difficult conversation successfully.

In Dynamic Facilitation, the facilitator uses three charts at once:  Perspectives, Solutions, and Concerns.  Each person who speaks provides his/her Perspective on or data about the problem.  The person is also asked to provide a potential Solution to the problem.  If a person has a Concern about a potential Solution, that is included as well.  Then the person is asked, given that Concern, what the potential Solution could be.

Dynamic Facilitation is solution-focused, but not in a way that is stifling.  Dynamic Facilitation moves people from focusing on the problem, which can cause feelings of helplessness, frustration, powerlessness, to focusing on the solution, which motivates action-oriented, powerful change.

1.       Dynamic Facilitation is useful in coaching, as it moves a person from stuck into action.

2.       Dynamic Facilitation is useful for having a difficult conversation between two or more people.  It gets the issues out onto the table to be dealt with and it provides the participants with concrete solutions for those issues.

3.       Dynamic Facilitation is useful for a team working on a tough problem.  It provides the necessary framework to gather data, generate potential solutions, and highlight concerns that may come up.

If you are struggling with a tough decision, if your team is stuck and unable to move forward, contact me.  Let's see if Dynamic Facilitation can help you to move from stuck to solution.


The top 3 of the most common death causes in germany are all associated with the heart: Circulatory disorders of the heart muscle, Acute myocardial infarction, heart failure. This makes it clear why so much research is going on in the field of cardiology. The heart tissue can benefit from all the biological mechanisms generated from shockwaves.

There are many studies with MTS devices in the field of cardiology. From Angiogenesis and Vasculogenesis to open-heart treatments.

Detailed information will be available soon.


Public Lab Research note

Absorption and Emission of Safranin O using a 532nm green laser July 24, 2016

by dhaffnersr | July 25, 2016 19:52 | 716 views | 0 comments | #13308 | 716 views | 0 comments | #13308 25 Jul 19:52

Read more:

A question I had asked myself was, “can I get an absorption and emission spectrum together at the same time by using a laser?”

The answer was yes! I prepped 5 sample cuvettes with 5 different dilutions of Safranin O and I used the solvent Methanol, I used this solvent because there are two major research publications using Safranin O and Methanol, so I followed their method an attained similar results.

I wanted to know the answer as to how and why, it could be possible that a fluorescent spectrum could yield an absorbance spectrum also using a laser, so I did some research and this is what I found:

“Just going back to basics, an absorption spectrum measures wavelengths at which a molecule absorbs light, while an excitation spectrum determines the wavelengths of light necessary to produce emission or fluorescence from the molecule, as monitored at a particular wavelength. One can think of an excitation spectrum as "fluorescence detected absorption'“. For many aromatic organic molecules, there is a rule called Kasha's rule, which states that although absorption can occur to several excited singlet states, S1, S2, S3, etc., emission (fluorescence) normally occurs only from the lowest excited singlet, S1. When one excites the higher states S2, S3 etc., one typically has rapid radiation less relaxation down to S1 on the picosecond timescale, followed by emission to the ground singlet, S0. So in such molecules one will indeed observe peaks in the excitation spectrum (obtained while monitoring S1 fluorescence) corresponding to absorptions to S2, S3, etc., because such absorptions do ultimately lead to emission from S1. If, by contrast, absorption to the higher S2, S3 states gives rise only to radiation less deactivation to the ground state (the case described by Dr. ten Brink), then the excitation spectrum for S1 fluorescence would not show the S2, S3 absorptions.

A final comment: Bear in mind that the intensity of peaks seen in the excitation spectrum is directly proportional to the number of photons absorbed. By contrast, in absorption spectroscopy, one usually measures the absorbance, which is log (base10) of incident light intensity over transmitted light intensity. Thus peaks in the excitation spectrum will not have the same relative intensities as peaks in the absorption spectrum, although they should appear at the same wavelengths. As an example, consider two peaks in a hypothetical absorption spectrum with absorbance’s of 2 and 1, respectively. Of course the first peak will appear to be twice as "high" as the second, on an absorbance scale. But in terms of absorbed light, for the first peak, 99% (1% transmitted) of the light is absorbed, while for the second peak 90% is absorbed (10% transmitted).

So in the excitation spectrum, the first peak would have an intensity only about 1.1 times that of the second peak. As one goes to a very dilute sample, however, the relative intensities in the two types of spectrum approach the same value.” (excerpt quoted from Research Gate online, reference given below.)

For an in depth education on this, I have provided the reference below;

In essence, the main reason I could observe the absorption peaks of my sample of Safranin O (basic red#2) is because the excitation source (the 532nm laser,) was able to excite the higher S2 and S3 transition states. This is NOT the case though, with all chromophore’s when using a laser source.

Now since this was my highest concentrated solution at 112mg, this makes sense that my first peak has a slightly lower intensity percentage than the second peak, as one factor goes up (absorption) the other factor goes down (transmittance.)

_ The Beer-Lambert Law still applies, whether I use a laser or a radiant white light source._

Targets and purpose for this study were, to test the Plab v2.5 Spectrometer’s capabilities at accurately resolving both absorption and emission spectra at its present specifications, using both a steady and reliable radiant light source (Solux 4700K 12vdc lamp) and a DPSS 150mW Green laser source.

The four main points of this study are bulleted below 1)Reference material- SPECTRAL CHARATERISTICS OF AZO DYES (2) 2)Safranin O (basic red # 2) 3)Absorption maxima @ 522, 524 and 525nm respectively (published in the literature) (1)(2) 4)Emission maxima @ 563nm in Methanol (6 – 24%) (published in the literature) (1)(2)

The first plot is the raw data from the initial scan, and I have it marked on the plot, the absorption peaks from the excitation states S2 and S3.

So we can see that, the fluorescence of our sample, has caused sufficient emission from the S1 state, to were, we are able to observe the absorbance in the S2 and S3 states.

The next plot compares the absorption and emission percentages of T-transmission and A-absorption. The first peak (absorption) is @ 68% absorbance, where the second peak (emission) is @ 87%. There is also a picture in the plot of the 5 samples of Safranin O at there exact dilutions, the same samples are also depicted in the above title picture, with my 405nm UV laser pointer illuminating through all 5 samples, in order to demonstrate the beer-lambert law in action.

This next graph is the absorption plot

Emission plot

This next plot is the calibration curve for the initial Solux 4700K lamp scan for the 5 samples, and indicates their respective concentrations and absorbance maxima

The last plot is the calibration curve for the absorption peak for the 532nm laser scan

Some discussion, with both the radiant light source scan (the Solux 4700K lamp) as my reference and the main target of the study, the 532nm laser scan, experimentally I think I have fell well within acceptable parameters of the main bulleted points from earlier (3) and (4) my target was 1) absorption @ 522nm, 524nm and 525nm for Safranin O in Methanol @ (6-24%)

The emission peak at only 561nm is very close to the posted literature of 563nm, so I still have a 2nm error, this can still be operator error, resolution, ect.,

In conclusion, I think the techniques demonstrated are very workable for this spectrometer's current specifications of 0.12mm slit width, 2770 lines ruling density (DVD {8.4g} diffraction grating) and the JDEPC-OV05 cmos sensor.

(1) - - Safranin O in Methanol

(2) -– Absorption and Fluorescent Spectra of Safranin O, Pg.93 SEC. (SPECTRAL CHARATERISTICS OF AZO DYES)

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On the day before gathering around the turkey, gather around the nearest jukebox to celebrate National Jukebox Day! The day before Thanksgiving is known as the best drinking day of the year (in my neck of the woods anyway.)
As Americans flock to their hometowns for Thanksgiving, many will head out to neighborhood bars and restaurants to catch up with friends and family and celebrate by playing great songs on their local jukebox.
The name jukebox is thought to originate from places called ‘juke houses’ or ‘jook joints’, which were establishments in the early 1900s where people congregated to drink and listen to music. In 1889, the first coin-operated player was invented in San Francisco by Louis Glass and his partner William S. Arnold, both managers of the Pacific Phonograph Co. Formally known as the nickel-in-the-slot machine, the player included a coin operation feature on an Edison phonograph and played a limited selection of songs without any amplification.
Throughout history, the jukebox continued to evolve with the times. When recording artists were first crooning into microphones and cutting records into vinyl, an aspiring inventor in a Chicago music store worked nights to build a box that would play both sides of the record. When the Blue Grass Boys played the Grand Ole Opry to sold-out audiences, guys and gals would dance the night away by playing their song over and over again on the jukebox at a local pub. With the advancement of technology, today’s jukebox is now more versatile than ever before with touchscreen interfaces that respond to the swipe of a finger (or can even be controlled by a mobile app) and a vast virtual library of songs including back catalog jukebox heroes alongside top artists of today.
Throughout each era – from big band and jazz, country and blues to rock & roll, acoustic and electric and everything in between— the jukebox has played it all. [courtesy National Day of Calendar]


Communication in smart cities

Information and communication are key to the intelligent city of tomorrow. Communication, data exchange and interconnectedness are the basis for all other key subjects of the smart city: Power supply, mobility and public safety. Communication technologies in the smart city are no longer limited to fixed-line telephony, mobile communications and internet. The modern city is based on a new communication concept that combines the traditional, separate communication infrastructures – from sensor networks to information networks and mobile communication. Furthermore, there will be new actors involved in the communication. Besides users with popular end devices like smartphones or notebooks, for example, vehicles, streets, buildings or other household devices will be integrated into the new infrastructure. The focus is no longer on the simple connection between two persons or end devices but on the interconnectedness of countless users, devices and systems via mobile internet.

Newly accessible municipal information represents a significant development not only in the sense of public access but also in regards to general transparency. Smart cities make it easier for citizens, institutions and businesses to access information. Freedom of information and involvement in communal matters can be greatly enhanced in an intelligent city, of course in total compliance with data protection regulations and based on the reliability of data transmission. The development of new information sources and the constant exchange between users and public infrastructure combine to take communication to a new level.

Mobile internet and smart administration

Nowadays, the internet plays a leading role in everyday communication. The mobile internet will become more and more important and will represent the lion's share of the internet traffic by 2020 at the latest. The increased use of the mobile internet and the associated rapid increase of the data volume pose new challenges to the existing communication networks. The existing networks no longer provide sufficient capacities for the increasing data volume and growing quality standards. New broadband networks that can meet these requirements are being researched worldwide, including in Germany. The so called future internet will revolutionize communication as we know it today. It is the goal to configure existing communication networks to achieve compatibility and interoperability. That way, a flexible communication infrastructure can be created that allows for seamless data transfer in case of network switch-overs without quality loss and that controls and maintains itself thus providing the highest level of security and reliability.

Importance of open data


Here’s why companies aren’t using drones.

Promises, promises…

A funny thing happened on the way to the soarin’.

Technology moves quickly. Laws do not.

Changing Technology

First Mover Syndrome

Again, we wait.

So, what’s next?

More Waiting

Ask yourself these 3 questions before considering drones.

“It’s the year of the drone!” Countless articles have started with this statement. (There is now one more!) Beyond the hype, how do you know, “When is a using a drone right for my organization’s needs?”

The 3 most important items to consider before using drones in your organization.

1. Will a drone gather the right data?

It’s all about the data! To most people, a drone’s true value is in the data it gathers. Collecting imagery and associated data (elevation data, 3-D models, etc.) is by far the most common use of drones at this time.

Yes drones are fun to watch and to fly, but do not get caught up in their appeal. Ask yourself if the data you will receive fits your needs or if it can be better gathered using more traditional methods.

Sometimes drones truly open up new possibilities to gain insight that is difficult, expensive or less safe to see using other methods. But, in other cases, ground based imagery or traditional surveys are still more effective than drone based data gathering.

2. Will a drone fit the mission profile?

Drones currently have limitations in flight time and payload that invalidate them for certain jobs. In these cases the data gathering capability may fit but the mission profile does not.

For example, a drone is the perfect tool to map a construction site. You can gather high resolution imagery, elevation information, cut and fill volumes, and measurements in well defined and secure locations.

However, drones are typically not the right tool to map exceptionally large areas. Take a beach erosion study over 100 miles of coastline. Sure there are larger, more complex drones with extended flight times that can do this. But regulatory restrictions and associated costs often make manned aircraft the best choice for this type of job (for now).

3. Will current regulations reduce effectiveness?

FAA regulations on drone flight are still rather restrictive in the United States. The most notable prohibitions are on flight beyond visual line of sight (“BVLOS”) and flight over people (“overflight”).

As of now, the average person cannot legally fly a drone out of the sight of the operator. While a drone may technically be able to launch and autonomously photograph 5 miles of pipeline, it is still illegal to do so.

Likewise, a drone cannot be flown over people or moving vehicles not directly involved in the operation. A drone could be launched by a television station to cover a story two blocks over. But this is nearly impossible to legally accomplish in an urban environment given current overflight restrictions.

The future is still incredibly bright for drone use.

Luckily, these limitations will be overcome. Advances in flight time, load capacity and distance capabilities will remove many of the hardware limitations. FAA regulations will be relaxed as the public accepts drones into their daily lives and the flight risks are reduced through advanced designs and collision avoidance technology.

There are many reasons why drones could be perfect for your organization. But there are still a few reasons while they may not fit… yet.

Drone attacks – Beyond the obvious worries.

A rogue drone descends into a baseball game and crashes into a seat.

It came out of the blue!

It was a beautiful day for a baseball game on a Sunday afternoon. But those in attendance never expected what happened in the top of the seventh inning.

It came literally out of the blue. A rogue drone descended in the stadium, erratically flew around for a while, then crashed into a seat. Amazingly, that seat was unoccupied, but the force of the crash was enough to send debris hurling at people on either side.

According to news reports, the drone was piloted by an amateur photographer. (Video below.)

Those that want to harm us notice our vulnerabilities.

The organizations and people that want to harm us take notice when a vulnerability is exposed. Especially so publicly. What appeared as a curiosity may have actually done more harm than is apparent.

The inability to stop it was more noticeable than the drone itself to those that are looking. This incident was broadcast on live television, and of course rebroadcast and re-posted around the world in the news, on sports programs and social media.

Protecting corporate brands.

It goes without saying that protecting citizens and patrons from harm is absolutely the most important priority of law enforcement, security and corporations. But corporations, especially large international ones, have the additional requirement to protect their brand.

Incidents like this rogue drone at a baseball game may not have injured people, but it surely injured the brand. It may make visitors feel less safe at games. It also hijacked the story of the day out of corporate hands. And that is a story that all corporations very carefully, and expensively, try to control.

(Watch the full video here.)


Folk-Fishing & Spanish Soul: The Legacy of Graciano Tarragó

Tarragó's folksong arrangements are colored by flamenco and infused with "duende," the heightened emotional/spiritual connection that exists in the realm beyond technique -- what could be loosely translated as "soul." (Photo by Carlos Saura)

Music informs identity. The little tune that floats into a window from the street below, the lullaby that vibrates in a low hum from a nearby room, the half-remembered refrain of a long-ago lovesong -- these souvenirs-in-sound tell us where we are from and where we are going. And in sharing our songs of joy, loss, sorrow and hope, we discover our most primal bonds and connect with who we really are.

Composers have long taken inspiration from homegrown tunes. Haydn and Beethoven published hundreds of folksong arrangements, and the Romantic symphonists -- Brahms, Bruckner, Tchaikovsky et al -- breathed new life into the symphonic form through their use of regional music. In folksong, they discovered the sinuous, singable melodies and bracing rhythms that refreshed their compositions like so many country breezes.

During the first decades of the 20th century, classical composers intensified what Australian composer/arranger Percy Grainger called their "folk-fishing trips." With industrialization eroding rural identity, composers tapped their musical roots and began to notate what had been a purely oral tradition of cradle, campfire and countryside. Dvořák, Britten, Bartók and their peers ushered in a nationalist music movement that fused the folk and the classical, preserving what globalization threatened.

Fernando Sor (1778-1839) was the first in the great line of Spanish guitar maestros and, like Tarragó, he collected and arranged various folksongs. He also had fabulous muttonchops.

Graciano Tarragó (1892-1973) was among these 20th century composers who mined their countries' musical gold, in his case against the backdrop of Franco's Spain. A teacher, performer, composer and arranger, Tarragó was part of the lineage of Catalán guitar maestros -- from Fernando Sor to Francisco Tárrega to his own teacher, Miguel Llobet -- whose contributions elevated the guitar from a humble "tavern accompanist" to a solo instrument deserving of dedicated study and nuanced composition. His studio at Barcelona's Conservatorio del Liceu nurtured a generation of Spanish musicians that included his own daughter, the virtuosa Renata Tarragó, and the young soprano Victoria de los Angeles. Working within the standard European Late Romantic aesthetic of his youth, Tarragó mined Spain's two particular motherlodes: its early music treasury and its rich folk tradition. From these complementary veins, he forged an inimitably Spanish musical voice.

Celestial jam session: detail from a mid-16th-century Spanish painting by Juan de Juanes featuring the vihuela, Tarragó's Renaissance instrument of choice.

For Tarragó, who played Renaissance vihuela in addition to guitar, early music was an artistic touchstone. The musicologist Felip Pedrell had recently recovered the compositions of Renaissance master Tomás Luis de Victoria (a.k.a. the "Spanish Palestrina") and his contemporaries, offering new clues to the origins of Spanish musical identity and influencing Tarragó profoundly. The perfectly balanced contrapuntal and harmonic elements of these early works spoke to Tarragó's innate clarity of style and his pedagogical impulse toward efficiently honed technique. In arranging these pieces, Tarragó found "a purity of musical structure," to quote his student Jaume Torrent, that demanded utmost tonal clarity and focus. Like Bach arias, these works locate their magic, as well as their difficulty, in their deceptive simplicity.

Graciano Tarragó shares trade secrets with a young student, 1919.

By contrast, Tarragó's folksong arrangements offer the more extroverted, fiery elements we typically associate with Spanish sound: infectious rhythms, exotic flamenco scales reminiscent of their Arab origins, improvisatory flourishes. Many of these pieces are colored by flamenco's cante jondo (literally, "profound singing"), their vocal lines soaring and plunging to express praise, longing or desire. They are infused with duende, meaning, loosely, "soul" -- the heightened emotional/spiritual connection that exists beyond technique and is said to be the essence of Spanish artistic expression. In Tarragó's folksongs, we experience, in the words of Albéniz, something "of the people, our Spanish people... color, sunlight, flavor of olives... like the carvings in the Alhambra, those peculiar arabesques that say nothing with their turns and shapes, but which are like the air, like the sun, like the blackbirds, like the nightingales in the gardens..."

My grandfather, Adolfo "Doe" Zamora, worked long hours in a refinery, but after work, he cleaned up well and serenaded my grandmother with the folksong, "No me mates con tomates." The tune was silly but had its charms, apparently; she gave him seven kids.

My own journey with Tarragó began several years ago on a hot afternoon in Madrid when, taking refuge from the midday sun in a dusty music shop, I stumbled across some out-of-print folios. My Spanish-Texan-New-Yorker self recognized in the yellowed pages certain essential parts of my own musical makeup: the canciones my father sang to me as a child while accompanying himself on his guitar, the stories of my grandfather serenading my grandmother in his sweetly scratchy baritone, my first classical recording of Victoria de los Angeles singing zarzuela in her crystalline soprano (her family hailed from the town of Zamora, allowing me to imagine her my angelic distant cousin), a certain Spanish light-dark sensibility built into my voice as it is into my DNA... The more I learned about Tarragó -- unmentioned in the history books, an unsung hero in so many senses -- the more I was reminded of how we all carry within us those who came before, and how music informs identity, again and again.

In Tarragó's simple, exquisite setting of the 16th century song "Si la noche se hace oscura" ("If the night grows dark"), a woman calls to her love, pleading to know why, hour after dark hour, he fails to come to her. Her confusion and grief pour out in her ascending melodic line, a rising sob as inexorable as nightfall itself. It is a song of heartbreak and withdrawal. In Tarragó's expert hands, it is also a song of restoration and the return to wholeness that is made possible through the self-soothing act of singing. Through song, Tarragó seems to say, we are restored to the people and the places we love; we are restored, ultimately, to ourselves. In singing, we honor our heritage, our loves, our teachers, those we've lost -- and we reconnect with who we really are. Aun si la noche se hace oscura. Even if the night grows dark.

Camille Zamora and Cem Duruöz perform "Jaeneras," arranged by Graciano Tarragó.

This post is part of a series produced by The Huffington Post as part of Hispanic Heritage Month. For more, click here.


Advisers still the ‘ultimate advice solution’: CFS:
FASEA a dark web of bureaucracy

FASEA a dark web of bureaucracy

Getting FASEA to comment on anything is mighty difficult when they don’t have a phone number or an address.

Anyone who has tried to get in touch with FASEA will share my frustration. Under the ‘Contact Us’ link of FASEA’s website, visitors are greeted with one of those terrible online forms to fill in. Like booking a hotel: name, phone, email, message. Finally, you need to tick ‘I’m not a robot’ – the irony of which is not lost on me.

Searching everywhere for a phone number, an office address, any sign of life at all is a futile exercise.

I filled out the form, leaving the following message before confirming I am not a robot:

I’m looking for confirmation and a few additional figures following the release of FASEA’s annual report. The annual report for 2017-2018 states that FASEA receives $3.9 million in annual funding under a contract that expires in 2021. I understand most of this funding is from the major banks and AMP. Could I please get a breakdown of where this funding comes from for my records?

I have it on good authority that FASEA receives almost $4 million a year from the big four banks and AMP. FASEA did not respond to my request for confirmation of this. They haven’t explained where the $4 million comes from. Which is not surprising. They don’t have a telephone number or office address. Do they actually exist?

I hope they have the internet and my messages aren’t being sent into a black hole. I fear they might be. Next time I'll include a message that I wish to give them money and see if they hit me back. Usually works.

Luckily, I’m not the only one befuddled by this completely inaccessible organisation.

In a 25 October letter to opposition leader Tanya Plibersek, financial advisers Philippa Hunt, Pamela Anderson and Halle Yilmaz wrote that FASEA’s evolution has been “extraordinarily frustrating” for stakeholders.

“The FASEA board was established in early April 2017. FASEA’s inaugural CEO joined six months later, but resigned in March 2018,” they said.

“Board member and Griffith University academic Dr Mark Brimble (one of the largest providers of commercial education product in the marketplace that FASEA intends to standardise) has been acting as CEO ever since.

“We still await the appointment of an independent new CEO, who was meant to start in August but to our knowledge has still not started. FASEA has no telephone number or physical address listed with Telstra.”

Given that the faceless FASEA is receiving close to $4 million a year, presumably from the big banks and AMP as a means of controlling the advice industry under the guise of ‘education’, they should shell out a few bob for a phone.

Then I could call them and find out exactly what they do and who pays them. Until then, I'll keep filling out the online form and confirming I'm still not a robot.

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Hannibal: Rome Holds Its Breath
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Around 800 BC, Kush, a little-known subject state of Egypt, rose up and conquered the Egyptians, enthroned its own Pharaohs, and ruled over the empire of King Tut for nearly 100 years. This unlikely chapter of history has been buried by the Egyptians and belittled by early archaeologists, who refused…
Archaeology: An Introduction to the World's Greatest Sites
The work of archaeologists has commanded worldwide attention and captivated the human imagination since the earliest days of exploration, with groundbreaking discoveries such as the treasures of ancient Egypt, the lost kingdoms of the Maya, and the fabled city of Troy. Archaeology brings us face-to-face with our distant ancestors, with…
The Origins of Modern Archaeology
Excavating Pompeii and Herculaneum
Travel to the iconic sites of Pompeii and Herculaneum in Italy--Roman towns that were famously destroyed by the 79 A.D. eruption of Mount Vesuvius. Learn about the history of their excavation, and witness the astonishing preservation of buildings, objects, and human remains. Delve deeper to discover fascinating details of ancient…


yväskylä Art Museum Holvi 12.6.–27.9.2009

18 collaborative projects were chosen to participate in this year’s exhibition. Some of these projects will be made in-situ specifically for Graphica Creativa. The artists involved are from Finland, Sweden, Norway, Germany, Holland, Belgium, Great-Britain, Ireland, USA, Canada, Korea and China.

The exhibition is composed of prints involving dance, music, photographs, video art, and literature. Along with artists, the collaborative groups also include a socio-historian, a stone-smith and an art critic. Graphica Creativa is organized by the Jyväskylä Art Museum and the Luova Grafiikka association.

Jyväskylä Art Museum Holvi
Kauppakatu 23


Buy The Battle for the Black Fen!

Category Archives: Nature and Ecology

The Citizen Scientist in Winter

Are you concerned with our environment but are not a political joiner? Do you love nature and want to learn more about it? Are you curious about the insects, animals, plants and fungi all around you? Have you been keeping lists in little notebooks, texts, and miscellaneous scraps of paper all over the house?

Since I wrote about “How I Became a Citizen Scientist” four years ago, the peril to life on earth has increased, but so have ways to transform your observations into environmentally useful data. A recent project, “Never Home Alone: The Wild Life of Homes,” lets you make your observations of spiders, ants, and other creepy crawlers sharing your home.

American spiders and their spinningwork. V.3 Academy of natural sciences of Philadelphia,1889-93.

Here in Detroit, our previously polluted Detroit River has been cleaned up to harbor all kinds of birds, animals (even beaver), and fish stocks; you can see folks fishing for walleye (which they apparently intend to eat) all along the banks. This makes for lots of new opportunities for citizen scientists. In “Reconnecting in Detroit:  The Transformative Potential of Citizen Science,” John Hartig lists “angler surveys, identifying aquatic invertebrates collected from river and lake sediments, counting birds, listening for frogs, spotting salamanders, collecting butterflies of dragonflies, or measuring water quality.”

In Oakland County, the northwest segment of the Detroit Metropolitan Region, I am astonished at what my nature loving neighbors get up to in the middle of winter. In mid-December, Oakland Audubon members range far and wide collecting data for their Christmas Bird Count. Right now, in the dead end of January, there is a stonefly search going on in the Rouge River. Organized by The Friends of the Rouge, this citizen science project helps volunteers examine cold, soggy samples of river detritus to count stoneflies.   These are “a primitive group of insects named for their habit of crawling on stones in a river. They have high oxygen needs, which limits them to clean, well-oxygenated streams.” Since they hatch in the wintertime, that’s when data must be gathered.

Before it gets warm yet in March, The Friends of the Rouge also train intrepid little bands (some of them in their 80s) to recognize particular species of frogs and toads even when they are all singing together.

They go out in the dark of spring nights, scrambling around secluded ponds and river inlets to identify which species are singing and to get an estimate of their numbers.

As for me, I am sitting in my warm house counting the birds that come to my feeder, turning my scribbled little lists into useful data in the Michigan Audubon’s Winter Bird Survey. I haven’t reached the stage of collecting data about the spiders who come up my bathtub drain, the mealy bugs that burrow into my cornflakes, or the moths munching on my woolies, but it might come to that yet if cabin fever has its way with me!

Wild Speculations and Ruptured Paradigms

Last summer I wrote an essay about whether climate warming will cause the extinction of the human species, so when I came across an article by Lucy Jakub on “Wild Speculation: Evolution After Humans,” I was interested in her startlingly idiosyncratic take.

I  spend many happy hours facilitating Socrates Cafes, where people ask philosophical questions and examine philosophical premises in an open-minded and open-hearted manner. As I read Jakub’s survey of speculative writing about the end of the species, I found myself querying the writers’ premises about how we got to this pass.

Geologist Dougal Dixon  (who assumes in those innocent years that it is a new Ice Age that will do us in) devotes his 1981 After Man to a scientific study, based on evolutionary genetics, of life forms that might evolve when we are gone.

“Humans go extinct because we lose our evolutionary advantage by adapting our environment to our needs, rather than the other way around.  When the resources needed to maintain our civilizations run out, we are unable to adapt quickly enough to survive. Crucially, nothing takes our place, and the planet reverts to an Edenic state, uncorrupted by knowledge.”

Let’s look at this philosophically: Dixon considers our capacity for adaption the fruit of our advanced cognition, which  isn’t advanced enough to prevent us from depleting our own ecosystem. But if this is so, is it our knowledge that corrupts us or poor choices about how to use it?

We did not all make those choices. Only a small (if powerful) elite of westernized humans – mostly male and mostly industrialists (think of Wordsworth! Think of Dickinson!) propose such a preposterous idea. Their presumption that human beings are separate from and in control of nature serves their bottom line and profit motive, while the rest of us have come to realize that we are more like ruinous genes running amok within it.

Jakubs  describes the “Speculative world-building,” of science fiction as a way to explore solutions to our environmental predicament. But Pierre Boulle, in his 1963  Planet of the Apes, is less worried about what is happening to the environment than what is happening in the pecking order, namely “man’s fall from dominance,” while Brian Aldiss, similarly, frets in his 1962 novel Hothouse that human beings have ceded control to (of all things) vegetation.

Do you see the pattern here? Nature (apes, plants) is a terrifying external force usurping human  power/over everything.

As we move into recent decades, however, Jakub notes that the “bourgeoning environmental movement led to a new genre, Eco-fiction, whose authors -Ursula K. Le Guin, Louise Erdrich, and Barbara Kingsolver- are especially beloved – mourned not the fall or humanity but the degradation of nature and our lost connection to it, and whose utopias didn’t necessarily include humans.”

Is it just a coincidence that the three authors she cites are women?  Or is the premise that nature is a degradable  “other” less  universal than it seems?

When women novelists write about nature there is a significant gender difference in our premises. In the 1980s I analyzed more than 300 novels by women to compare women heroes’ quests to those outlined (for “man”) by Joseph Campbell. What I found was that while his male hero took women as both “other” and embedded in an alien and dangerous realm of nature,” women saw themselves as deeply integrated in and interdependent with the green world around them.

In recent years, both men and women have embraced the Gaia hypothesis that our planet is an organism within which we and all other life-forms live and must maintain a mutually beneficial balance.  Meanwhile, Eco-fiction has become a widespread and popular genre to the extent that Jim Dwyer’s Where the Wild Books Are: A Field Guide to Eco-Fiction lists more than 1000 volumes from all over the world.

Mary Woodbury, its most thoroughgoing curator, describes Eco-fiction (as) ecologically oriented fiction, which may be nature-oriented (non-human oriented) or environment-oriented (human impacts on nature). . .Eco-Fiction novels and prose zoom out to beyond the personal narrative and connect us to the commons around us – our natural habitat.”

Ecology deals with the interactions of organisms within a system and takes human beings as one of those organisms. Eco-Fiction. in Woodbury’s definition,  is connective and understands nature as our commons. How we are to do the work of that connection and how we are to take our rightful place within that commons are questions this excitingly speculative new genre raises in our minds and hearts through the deep truths of storytelling.

Red Bees, Blue Bees

Red Bees

Henry David Thoreau felt that he would become “the laughing stock of the scientific community” if he tried to tell them what “branch of science” he pursued, because they would have no use for the philosophical (specifically, transcendental) basis of his observations. He was convinced that humans are not superior to the material world but endowed with the same spirit; his passion for nature had to do with the feeling of wholeness it instilled in him as a participant in rather than an outside observer of natural phenomena:

“I keep out of doors for the sake of the mineral, vegetable, and animal in me,” he wrote on November 4, 1852. “My thought is a part of the meaning of the world, and hence I use a part of the world as a symbol to express my thought.” (The Journal of Henry David Thoreau, 1836-1861 The New York Review Books and Classics).

His refusal to hold himself apart from nature did not prevent Thoreau from using the scientific method in his observations, taking detailed notes on natural objects and devising experiments to understand them better in order to arrive at viable hypotheses. That is what he and some  friends were up to in September of 1852, trying to figure out how honey bees went about their business:

“We were furnished with little boxes of red, blue, green, yellow, and white paint, in dry powder, and with a stick we sprinkled a little of the red powder on the back of one while he was feeding — gave him a little dab,— and it settled down amid the fuzz of his back and gave him a distinct red jacket.

He went off like most of them toward some hives about three quarters of a mile distant, and we observed by the watch the time of his departure. In just twenty-two minutes red jacket came back, with enough of the powder still on his back to mark him plainly.

He may have gone more than three quarters of a mile. At any rate, he had a head wind to contend with while laden. They fly swiftly and surely to their nests, never resting by the way, and I was surprised—though I had been informed of it—at the distance to which the village bees go for flowers.

Honey Bee Endangerment

Alas and alack, these are the very bees that human civilization, which Thoreau so distrusted, has endangered under the belief that we can do anything we want to nature without suffering such consequences as the  “colony collapse disorder” now decimating the bees upon which our agricultural depends:  10 million North American bee hives died off between 2007 and 2013 ”from “a combination of agricultural chemicals, diseases, parasites and stress.”

Nonetheless, every time I step out into my modest flower garden on a sunny day there are bees everywhere and of all different sizes,   tiny bees in the tiny flowers, medium sized bees in the medium sized flowers, and bumblebees rummaging around in the hibiscus. Then, being a transcendentalist myself, my ego vanishes into the sunshine and I feel myself, as did Wordsworth, part of “something far more deeply interfused” than my day to day chores.

Although some larger wild bees like the bumble bee are also in distress these days, many smaller wild bees that are native to our countryside seem to be doing quite well, and one of those is the Blue Bee frequenting the blooms of almonds and fruit trees in our national’s orchards.

Blue Bees to the Rescue

The United States Department of Agriculture informs us that “In recent years, the blue orchard bee (BOB) has become established as an alternative orchard pollinator in North America. With a strong preference for fruit trees, BOBs are highly efficient pollinators; in fact, just 250-300 females will pollinate an entire acre of apples or cherries.  BOBs forage and pollinate under cloudy skies and at lower temperatures than most other bees.  They are easy to manage and rarely sting.”

Farmers trying to manage Blue Bees quickly learned that they are much more Thoreauvian in their love of autonomy than the more social imported Honey Bees. Here is they are instructed

“Blue orchard bees might be efficient pollinators, but they’re terrible employees.

What makes blue orchard bees enticing to farmers, aside from the fact that they’re inherently cool and native to this country, is that they’re actually much more efficient pollinators than honey bees. This is partly as a result of their solitary nature and partly a result of the fact that they collect pollen with their abdomens, rather than their legs, which is what honey bees do; BOBs perform this goofy sort of swimming motion within the flower to get pollen to stick to them. This swimming motion is really great for spreading pollen from one plant to another, if not quite as great for actually collecting pollen to give to their broods”

If, like Thoreau, the farmers had painted their Blue Bees red, they would not have observed them returning to village hives but, as he to his beloved Walden, to autonomous little dwellings – holes in the ground, actually – more suitable to their distaste for bee socialization and theirlove of solitude

And so it is that modern farmers have learned to poke Blue Bee larvae into the ground near their orchards or to bury carefully measured little tubes here and there where mother bees can lay their eggs in the solitude they so cherish.

On the Joy of Natural Curiosity

You would think that when I am at my river cottage in Northern Michigan I would sit back, close my eyes, and relax.  I have the most comfortable deck chair you can imagine, fitted out with the most sybaritic of cushions, but I keep leaping up to see what is splashing in the river or to examine a flower I have suddenly noticed growing on the bank.

This summer I have read three books, dipping into each as the whim possesses me: The Journal of Henry David Thoreau, 1837-1861, Walter Isaacson’s   Leonardo Da Vinci, and Robin Wall Kimmerer’s, Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses.

“How sweet is the perception of a new natural fact! Suggesting what worlds remain to be unveiled,” exclaims Thoreau on April 18, 1852. “That phenomenon of the Andromeda  seen against the sun cheers me exceedingly.

I think that no one ever takes an original or detects a principle, without experiencing an inexpressible, as quite infinite and sane, pleasure, which advertises him of the dignity of that truth he has perceived.”

Leonardo Da Vinci’s “curiosity,” notes Isaacson, “like that of Einstein, often was about phenomena that people over the age of  ten no longer puzzle about.”

Leonardo’s puzzlings are scribbled over 7,200 pages of notebooks that Isaacson deftly organizes by topics. “My favorite gems in his notebooks,” he acknowledges, “are his To-Do lists, which sparkle with curiosity.”

From Leonardo Da Vinci’s To Do Lists:

 “Observe the goose’s foot: if it were always open or always closed the creature would not be able to make any kind of movement.”

“Why is the fish in the water swifter than the bird in the air when it ought to be the contrary since the water is heaver and thicker than the air?”

“Describe the tongue of the woodpecker.”

“Why is the sky blue?”

“Why can our eyes see only in a straight line?”

“What is yawning?”

I am way over the age of ten, but I retain a ten year old’s curiosity. I am always trying to figure out what is going on in nature – slogging through the wetlands to see what the beaver are up to, chasing up and down the river after sandpipers, or lying flat on my belly trying to figure out what Kimmerer means about the structure of mosses.

And what a joy I feel to see my sixteen year old grandaughter and thirteen year old grandson  bent over their nets and collecting jars, closely examining crawfish, dragonfly nymphs, minnows, and tiny river lampreys – curious as ever about the diverse and fascinating abundance of river life.

There is a lovely swathe of emerald, velvety moss right in front of my cottage that brings joy to our bare feet as we race down to swim in the river. After reading my book on mosses, it has revealed an eternity in itself.

Biologist Kimmerer and her assistant crouch on the forest floor, devising multiple experiments to figure out why Dictanum Flagellare shares space with Tetraphis pellucida  rather than compete with each other, as might ordinarily be expected of different moss species. Is it the wind? Is it slugs, they ask themselves, and create a sticky surface to see what might be crawling around. The answer, after two long summers of mosquitoes, sore backs, and discarded  hypotheses?  Chipmunks!

“Part of the fascination of working with mosses,” writes Kimmerer, “is the chance to see if and when the ecological rules of the large transcend the boundaries of scale and will illuminate the behavior of the smallest beings. It is a search for order, a desire for a glimpse of the threads that hold the world together.” P. 58

All three of the authors I read this summer – a nineteenth century New England naturalist, a Renaissance genius, and a Potawatomi scientist –   focus on minute particulars, tiny details like how a curl of hair resembles a river eddy (Leonardo), the motions a great blue heron’s wings make as it takes off (Thoreau), and the tiny sharp outgrowths that allow dried out moss to conduct raindrops to its ovules (Kimmerer). They possess an intense curiosity, an eye for the details of minute particulars, and a tendency to joy in  nature.

May it be so, and blessed be.

Climate Change and the Conundrum of Human Survival

I have discovered that many creatures have already adapted to climate warming  – I just read about a bird population in an area documented 100 years ago are now so smart now that a whole variety of species lay their eggs  “almost exactly counterbalancing the two-degree rise in average temperatures recorded over the last century.”

Which leaves me with the inevitable, haunting question: but what about humans? How far does global warming have to rise for us to become extinct?

So I spend the summer writing an article for Impakter, an international on-line magazine where I am a columnist, about whether we can learn anything from our history on earth that will help us survive global warming.

Here it is

Why Is that Seagull Hanging Out with the Pelicans?

I had a break on Florida’s Sanibel Island from our Michigan snow, sleet, and polar cold  early this April . It was over 80 degrees every day, sunny and warm, so I  wandered along the Gulf Coast beach in utter bliss with my toes in the waves.

All day long  Brown Pelicans flew close to the shore, suddenly turning as if on a hinge to dive bomb schools of fish, sieving them up in their bills and  throwing their heads back to swallow.  There was a little pod of three pelicans  accompanied by a small seagull, which flew over after every dive to join them.

I wondered, somewhat sentimentally, if this was a bird/bird friendship, like the companionship of cats with parrots and goats with baby hippos you sometime see on YouTube? I asked  a fisherman what was going on, and he explained that the pelican’s explosive dive stuns schools of fish, leaving plenty to bob confusedly about for the gull to feed on.

Gulls are well-known scavengers – there were crowds of them circling and screaming around fishing boats returning to harbor, riding low with the day’s catch.  The fishermen don’t get anything out of this gull companionship; neither, apparently, do the pelicans.

I have a handy-dandy Birder’s Handbook, which includes quirky informational essays. When I got home I consulted it, to learn that the pelican/gull relationship is not bird/bird friendliness but  “commensal feeding.” A  “follower bird” associates with a “beater species”  which “stirs up the waters” like the pelican or flushes hidden food advantageously.

Birds don’t just follow other birds: the Cattle Egrets I saw along Florida highways follow tractors as well as cows, gleaning the stirred furrows; the tractors don’t seem to get  anything from the relationship.

Birds of different species sometimes flock together for mutual protection,  to  “increase the number of eyes and ears available to detect predators and [confuse] them as many individuals flee at once.”   Great Egrets hang around White Ibises not only for fish that the deep-delving Ibises stir up, but also,  being taller, they detect and warn of approaching danger.  Downy woodpeckers feed with Titmice and Chickadees to “use them as sentinels,” while  Blue Jays alert my whole back yard until (including its squirrels) they are all yelling together about a menacing hawk.

Which explains a curious intermingling of species on the Sanibel Island beach:  a flock of Sanderlings, tiny sandpipers scuttling in and out of the surf to probe for mollusks, crustaceans, and horseshoe crab eggs, will have a Plover with them; or a Willet that signals danger with a fluting warble will hang out with a group of  Ruddy Turnstones.

sanderlings (small with white bellies mid-background) in a mixed flock

Another strange thing on those beaches is how tame the shore birds are, standing around totally unperturbed by human approach. One day while I was swimming a Snowy Egret trotted from the tideline to my towel and seemed to be waiting there for me. My father, a professed pagan and ocean-lover, told us before he died that he might come back to see us some day as a big white bird, so, thinking it  was him, I  pulled my grandson from his swim to introduce them to each other.

Silly me: the next day I saw the Egret, with his big yellow feet and his wispy feathers blowing in the wind, sitting by another towel to await  commensal feeding.

The Polar Bear Conundrum

Polar Bears

Polar Bear Counts as a Political Weapon

Where Does This Leave Us?

I live in hope

The Hare, the House Finch and the Tardigrade

In my recent blog about furry little Pitas  and their trouble coping with rising temperatures,  I wondered whether they might develop thinner coats in time to avoid extirpation.

( Extirpation is the loss of a species population in a particular habitat or, local extinction.  Extinction refers to the loss of the entire species on a world-wide basis)

Since I can be cheered up by even tiny bits of hope from nature  these days, I was pleased to hear that Snowshoe Hares are not only developing cooler winter coats but, in some warming areas, discarding them altogether.

Scientists, examining hares living in Pennsylvania, the Eastern United States, and the Yukon  report  that  “In addition to finding greater numbers of the animals with thinner winter coats in the more southerly population, (they) found a small number of individuals which did not develop a full winter pelt…. Clearly adapting to present climate conditions.”   But,  they ask,  “can the hares change quickly enough to keep up with global warming?”

If so, can a similar flexibility impact the fate of other species?  One way to approach this puzzle is to take  previous periods of climate fluctuation into account. as does Lucas Isakowitz, citing Jonathan Rolland’s research on such periods.

“’You have to imagine that 40 million years ago, global temperatures were much higher, and there were tropical areas in the poles, even in Antarctica,’” said Rolland. “’As the Earth began to cool, some species evolved, while others just moved to warmer climates.’” Birds and mammals proved themselves to be better at evolving than their cold blooded counterparts, which explains why they were able to move into habitats in more northern and southern regions.”

The problem, concludes Isakowitz, is that the present global warming caused by human impact isn’t spread over millions of years,  but has  increased more and more rapidly during the last few centuries.

I  take heart, nonetheless, from  the adaptability of the Snowshoe Hare, and from  those indefatigable House Finches that have not only spread far and wide over American in recent decades but have developed mutations for  new habitats.  When they decided to nest in cities, for example, their beaks changed shape to be more useful for cracking  bird feeder seeds, while urban finch males developed  new city songs that they realized were  appealing to newly urbanized females.

Then, too, there is the lowly and  Tardigrade:

“MICROSCOPIC BUG THAT’LL SURVIVE UNTIL THE SUN DIES DISCOVERED IN PARKING LOT IN JAPAN,” reads a header in my local newspaper, touting the Tardigrade as “The world’s most indestructible species, … an eight-legged micro-animal (that) will survive until the sun dies.”

Nature Rising?

My old friend Helen Klebesadel created this vision of “Nature Rising” in watercolor. “In this painting,” she explains, “the flying crow contains the forest trees, representing the interconnection of all parts of nature, including the human element.”

We humans tend to forget that we do not stand above and outside of nature, but are intricately interwoven within it. This winter the northern jet stream weakened to leave us shivering in temperatures that should have remained in the Arctic, and the rest of the country has experienced horrific storms, floods, and wildfires all year long. These disturbing events have left me worried over whether enough species will be able to adapt to climate change for nature itself to survive.

There is a newly popular term, “The Anthropocene,” indicating this epoch (following the Pleistocene) when humans have overwhelmingly influenced the planet. It carries an “aren’t we awful” connotation, casting a  gloomy light upon our culpability and the possible demise of our own species along with all of the others.

Several years ago, I made the (internet) acquaintance of Claude Forthomme, an Eco-Fiction writer, economist, and a retired Regional Director for Europe and Central Asia of Food and Agriculture at the United Nations. She is Senior Editor at Impakter, a European online magazine where she has published several of my articles.

I spend a frozen January writing an Impakter review of three books about nature’s awe-inspiring intricate particulars and a fourth about human culpability and anthropocentric doom .

Here is my review, with my take on whether human beings or nature will be the greatest planetary influence in the years to come:


Bangladesh Bank Open Data Initiative

Bangladesh Bank took another step forward in making its vast repository of data accessible to the general public. Data from the Monthly Economic Trends publication can now be easily downloaded by anyone interested, free of cost, into an Excel file . This includes detailed data, some dating back almost twenty years, on balance of payments, money supply, various consumer price indices, national accounts, stock price indices, interest rates, remittances, exchange rates, commodity prices and tax revenue. This file will be updated monthly.

For detailed banking sector data please click on the following link which has all the Excel tables in the latest edition of the quarterly Scheduled Bank Statistics  publication. For a detailed analysis of some of this data you will also find attached our first Financial Stability report which presents summary statistics and analysis of the banking sector.

Data on the weighted average rate of interest on deposits and loans for each bank is now available. In addition to this summary data we also have detailed interest rate data by type of deposit and loan product. We will progressively bring out other data in easily downloadable format, and develop new user-friendly applications, as part of this Bangladesh Bank Open data initiative to promote greater use of data for more effective policymaking.

Please watch the video clip of "Barriers to Growth"


Singer Raju Lama

One of the most famous singers of Nepal, Raju Lama needs no introduction at all.  Heartthrob for lots of ladies, he has been successful to let his charisma attract many ladies around the nation. With his beautiful and touching lyrics, he has become successful to mesmerize not only his ladies fans but also others. He was also honored by Dalai Lama who bestowed upon him, a Dhaka topi, while he was performing in front of Richard Gere and other popular figures.

raju lama

Associated with the band Mongolian Heart, Raju Lama is probably the only artist in Nepali music industry who has existed with and without a band at the same time. The band that split in 2007 reformed with new members. The band has also gone on tours to different parts of Nepal, Sikkim and Darjeeling after new formation and has also released a new album Raju Lama Mongolian Heart Volume 5 in September 2009.

Although most of the people believe that he left Nepal for good, he states that they have misunderstood and misinterpreted. He has been abroad for tours and concerts that he has been doing since he started singing. No matter where he is, he will always be known as Nepali musician who has been creating music and people should change their attitudes and way of thinking. He considers music as his passion and it is something that he has worked very hard for and wherever he lives, he would continue making music. Although he finds no difference between his life in Nepal and America, he misses his family as he is all alone there.

[youtube][/youtube] He is grateful to the music for what it made him today, however, he is disturbed with the piracy that exceeds in music industry in Nepal. Raju Lama with his touching and soulful music and lyrics, has a huge fan following, especially female fans, as the listeners can relate to his songs. He has rocked the nation with his hit songs like Sayad timro batoma, timilai dekhera, etc.


Being able to establish the extent of your brain’s capacity to function properly and extensively is basically on how you train your brain to take care of things. Mental training allows you to go through different processes that would involve brain exercises that would be very beneficial in enhancing your mental abilities. Mental training will not be involving pain in the process, it’s more of using the specific tools as well as techniques to keep your brain up and running at all times.

What Does Unsophisticated Rules Have To Do With Mental Training?

Having the ability to utilize simple rules is a comfortable way of enhancing your brain ability to increase is analytical power. Let’s say for instance you are trying to get into an investment that would double your money back, you have to put into consideration the computations regarding interest, compound interest and investment income. So the rules of being able to come up with the right formula on this would help your brain get into the right direction. It’s like somewhat training your brain to be more analytical in a way.

Questions Being Asked Regarding Mental Training

When we talk about mental training it doesn’t merely concentrate with formulas derived from mathematical equations as others would think, but it is as well practicality in life and having it applied through your everyday life.

If you know how to use questions to be able to train your mental abilities, other complicated tasks would be very easy for you to accomplish. Let’s say for instance comedians, they definitely would work out some punch lines that usually have to deal with questions that they could use in creating their good humor.

There are certain mental formulas that are being used by comedians and these formulas usually include practical questions that would lead to a conversion that would make you someone wonder what the right answer would be. These type of questions trains the brain to be more sharp.

Practical Methods You Can Use For Mental Training

Well there are a lot of simple problem solving methods that one can use and it would be best if you use these methods in your daily life by including it in your usual cognitive operation. like for instance you can make an effort in trying to solve certain problem solving issues that are challenging enough for you and your brain. This would contribute in assessing some of your personal matters that may have concealed suppositions.

Let’s say that there are several instances that are occurring in one time and you need to address them all. It’s difficult to multi-task if your brain doesn’t know what exactly to do or is unable to think and conclude of what should be done in a short period of time. Situations that needs instant decisions need sharpness of the brain so if you will be able to train your brain in working on several things at the same time, this is not going to be a problem for you.

There are a lot of tools that you can use in helping your brain to be more capable of providing you the right training for your brain. Life has certain rules where you would be able to constitute your conclusions from. You just have to look into those customary was that may be subconscious but would as well be beneficial in making a practical decision.

If you would be able to go through mental training on your own, you would then be capable to build a healthy condition for your brain. Utilize those rules and guidelines that would make your brain work efficiently and you’ll be very glad of the end results.

Bio: Vlad Stivenson, author of accurate IQ test.


Learning isn’t about how much a person remembers, but to what extent he expands his perception.

We don’t know what the world we live in is and what the connection between us should be, but if we expand our perception, we will perceive a wider more attractive world. This is what the wisdom of Kabbalah engages in.

When a person expands his “vessels” of perception/space of perception, he absorbs new data and then processes it and attains a new understanding. Unlike animals, we have to explore what we are living for and study the meaning of life.

This is the reason that man was given intelligence, so that he can understand his essence, his role in the world and the purpose of his evolution.

Small children have a natural instinct to learn, to know about new things and to explore so that they will grow and develop. It turns out that the smartest children are not those who memorize information, but who diversify and expand their world. This instinct is extinguished when they grow up, but if an adult has a desire to discover things, to learn, and to develop, he will also be able to study.

The difference between the animate level and the level of the speaking is that the level of the speaking is about endless study, and if I don’t learn something new every day, I don’t feel that I am alive. The understanding is both emotional and mental, the heart understands.

If a person doesn’t learn to correct his soul/reach his true essence during his lifetime, there is nothing left of him after he passes away.

KabTV’s “New Life Series – Learning,” 9/13/16


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 Australia - The Land Of The Kangaroo

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Australia - Land Of The Kangaroo....

Planning a trip? here's the best time to go.

yearly weather temperatures in Sydney, Australia

Where do you start with a country as vast and varied as this. Situated at the other side of the world, it takes 22 hours and 10,565 miles to get there from the UK. Flights to Australia are pretty reasonable and there is a choice of airlines to get you there. You can always stop off en route at Bangkok, Singapore or Hong Kong to break the journey up. Sydney is the gateway to Australia that most visitors include in their itinerary. Sydney is Australia's oldest and largest city with a staggering array of sights from the Opera House, the harbour bridge to the renowned golden sands of Bondai Beach. Many are impressed by the scenery of the nearby Blue Mountains while others enjoy Sydney's sights on the back of a Harley Davidson. For the really adventurous the Sydney Harbour BridgeClimb is a once in a lifetime experience as you climb 134m above sea level for an uninterrupted panorama of the city and surrounds.

Sydney Opera House

A visit to the Queen Victoria Building with its lavishly restored market place housing exclusive shops and restaurants is a must for any traveller. At the renovated Rocks Quarter, you'll get some idea of how the first settlers lived back in 1788. There's the new Darling Harbour complex that's filled with attractions including the powerhouse museum and Chinese gardens, shops and a selection of restaurants. Plan what to see and do in Sydney with the hop on and hop off bus tours. These depart regularly and visit all of Sydney's must see attractions for a very reasonable price. Harbour City Ferries, is an easy way to get to Balmain, Double Bay, Manly, Parramatta, Taronga Zoo, Darling Harbour and Cockatoo Island. Sydney Opera house runs daily 1 hour tours where you can step inside this iconic landmark and discover the stories and history behind Danish architect Jorn Utzon's remarkable achievement. Tours run in many different languages and if you're lucky enough you might just get to see the Sydney Symphony Orchestra rehearsing.

Australia is not only about Sydney though, the country is brimming over with amazing places to visit. There's Adelaide, Tasmania, and Melbourne to the South. Brisbane, Cairns and the Great Barrier Reef to the east. Darwin to the north, Perth to the west with Alice Springs and Ayres Rock dominating the centre. A two week holiday is nowhere near enough time to be able to see what all these fascinating places have to offer.

The Australian mix of cultures means that you'll find cuisine of every description from Chinese to Italian. Then of course there is the great Australian barbie! The climate is perfect for outdoor entertainment most of the year and al fresco dining is very much a part of the lifestyle. A great way to end a day of sightseeing is with a can of ice-cold beer and a steak on a traditional Aussie barbi underneath the night sky. Many visitors head to Ayers Rock to see the sunset with nibbles and glasses of champagne. A trip down under is sure to be a lifetime experience and many people that have visited make it a place to come back to.

Ayers Rock

Be sure to visit Melbourne the capital of the south eastern state of Victoria. Here you can visit the modern Federation Square development, with plazas, bars, and restaurants by the Yarra River. Take the kids to Melbourne Zoo with over 320 animal species from Australia and around the world. The old Melbourne Gaol is now a place to witness first hand at how early convicts were housed including the infamous citizen, the bushranger Ned Kelly.

For the sporty types The Melbourne Cricket Ground, also known simply as "The G", is an Australian sports stadium located in Yarra Park, and is home to the Melbourne Cricket Club. Take a ride on one of Melbourne's trams that date back to 1889. There's 25 routes and 493 trams to whisk you around the city. Melbourne is a great location to take a scenic drive along the Great Ocean Road and see the famous 12 Apostles rocks.

Adelaide is another place for sports fans to visit as it's home to the world's prettiest cricket ground the Adelaide Oval. The ground hosts interstate and international cricket matches in summer, plus national AFL football and state football games in winter. Kids will love a trip to the world famous Adelaide Zoo with 1,800 exotic and native mammals, birds and reptiles. There's a kids zoo as well as feeding sessions and free walking tours.

Alice Springs

In the centre of Australia is Alice Springs located halfway between Darwin and Adelaide, both 1,500km away. Alice Springs can be reached easily by air or by the legendary Ghan Train. A visit to the Flying Doctor Service will give you an insight to the medical life support for the people living in this extremely remote part of the country. The Overland Telegraph Line (linking Darwin and Adelaide) is preserved in the vintage buildings and equipment at the Alice Springs Telegraph Station Historical Reserve. In Alice Springs temperatures can vary dramatically, with an average maximum temperature in summer of 35.6 °C (96.1 °F) and an average minimum temperature in winter of 5.1 °C (41.2 °F). It can also reach a roasting 40 °C (104 °F)

Ayers Rock

Uluru - Ayres Rock

Ayres Rock or to give it its proper aboriginal name Uluru is a huge sandstone rock that stands in the 'red centre' the heart of the Northern Territory 450km away from Alice Springs. The rock is a sacred place for the indigenous Australians and it is believed that it formed some 550 million years ago. A World Heritage site, Ayers Rock rises 350m above ground and has 10km of pathways around its base that you can explore. Most visitors observe the rock during sunrise and sunset, when its terracotta hue morphs into a violet / blue tinge.

Cairns located in the north east of Australia is a modern and vibrant city and the gateway to the Great Barrier Reef, Port Douglas and the Daintree Rainforest. Travellers use Cairns as an ideal base to explore the wonderful attractions Tropical North Queensland has to offer. No visit to Cairns is complete without spending time at the Great Barrier Reef, the world's largest coral reef system - made up of nearly 3,000 individual reefs over an area of 344,400 square kilometres (133,000 square miles). UNESCO listed the Great Barrier Reef as a World Heritage Site in 1981 and it's an amazing place to go snorkelling or diving on. Travel 15 miles inland and you will be surrounded by a World Heritage Rainforest at Kuranda. This picturesque “Village in the Rainforest” provides a cool, high altitude retreat. Ride the Skyrail Rainforest Cableway and Kuranda Scenic Railway as they both offer an amazing journey up the rain forested-flanks of the Macalister Range.

Moving across to the opposite side of Australia on the western coast lies Perth the capital and largest city in Western Australia. Visit the biggest city park in the world, King’s Park and Perth Botanic Garden, with its enchanting wild flowers and bushland, and amazing views over the city's skyline. 30 minutes from Perth lies the port town of Fremantle with its fascinating Maritime Museum, Fremantle Prison, the Arts Centre and Old Courthouse. Cruise along the Swan River and see the Millionaires Mansions. If you have time visit the wineries or Nambung National Park to take a glimpse of the fascinating limestone formations known as the Pinnacles.

Darwin is the capital of Australia’s Northern Territory and is known for its laid-back fusion of frontier outpost and modern city. Take time out to visit the Defence of Darwin Experience, an immersive, interactive multimedia experience telling the story of Darwin’s role in World War II – a very important time in Northern Territory history. Alternatively Litchfield National Park has thundering waterfalls, rainforest pockets and sacred sights. Discover the history, intrigue, shipwrecks, mangroves and the natural environment on a Darwin Harbour cruise.

Australian kangaroo

Visa's are required for Australia and these can be obtained from the Australian consulate or via your travel company. Visiting Australia isn't complete without experiencing the Aboriginal culture expressed through rock paintings and carvings. Enjoy aboriginal art, dance and culture. Take the tour with an Aboriginal guide where you can learn about the Dreamtime and hear the creation stories of this great land. You can even try your hand at playing a didgeridoo. Travel into the bush for a bit of camping under the stars with just a sleeping bag, watch the kangaroos in their natural environment, cuddle a koala bear, go diving with the dolphins, go swimming on the Great Barrier Reef there's so much to see and do.

Australia has it all from history, shopping, scenery, wildlife, sightseeing and nightlife in abundance. Take a trip down under and have one of the most magical holidays of a lifetime.


The Sik District is a district in Kedah, Malaysia. Sik is famous for the Muda River, which is the longest river in Kedah and the Beris Dam, which is a water supply dam completed in 2004 at a cost of RM360 million. A popular attraction nearby is Beris Vineyard which has attracted thousands of visitors since its opening.


How Does Waste Mismanagement Affect Your Family’s Health?

For most of us, our daily routine comes as a blur. We are in a constant struggle with doing everything we need and battling with time. A balance between work, home, and social life is complicated. It is common for many to neglect some aspects of their lives due to different daily activities. At home, one of the neglected things is housework. It does not only involve cleaning but waste management as well. For some, they hire waste management services for proper garbage disposal. It is an excellent way to ensure that one properly dispose of garbage and there is no contamination. However, many do not put a lot of thought on waste, and they just let them sit home. Most do not even practice proper segregation of waste, and therefore, the dangers are worst.

Improper waste disposal does not only cause pollution, but it also poses a lot of health risks to anyone who gets exposed to them. And as you know, the longer you keep garbage, the more contaminated it becomes. So what exactly are the dangers to your health when you do not dispose of your waste at home properly?

A lot of homeowners take this easily thinking that trash can’t cause infections. But they do, and these usually happen when there are open wounds or cuts in the body no matter how small they are. Direct contact with waste if there is an open wound can cause skin and blood infections. The severity may range from minor to major ones depending on the bacteria or virus present in the garbage. However, for safety purposes, it is better to properly dispose of waste and prevent any contact with it when you have wounds or cuts. You may also contact eye and respiratory infections due to exposure to infected dust. As we know, the eyes, nose, mouth are open passages to any contaminants entering the body. You may also get infected through insects like mosquitoes and flies which had direct contact with garbage. These type of infection is very easy to pass on since insects can travel far and can land on anything.

There are also different types of conditions which you may get from solid waste found in your home. You may or may not be aware that these waste materials contain different toxic chemicals that get worse through time. These toxins such as mercury, cyanide and polychlorinated biphenyls are poisonous and can often lead to different types of both minor and chronic diseases. Minor diseases may include fever, diarrhea, stomach ache, flu, colds, cough, and vomiting. On the other hand, chronic conditions may involve lung diseases, heart illnesses, and cancer. In the long run, if left untreated, these may even cause death.

Improper management of garbage does not just cause diseases, but it may also create different types of accidents. If you do not make it a routine to dispose of waste and let them rot, the smell will form as well as fluids. Their number would also accumulate and cause hindrance at home. One might slip because of this and may cause bruises or even severe bone fracture.


Why you should know more about your County Sheriff?

As a citizen you can depend on the Sheriff’s Office to help make a community that is safe and trouble free. But to be truly effective, a Sheriff’s Office depends on your cooperation. Crime and accidents result in the great costs of lives, money, and pain. The Sheriff’s Office is working hard to protect you from these dangers. Your support is vital in the Sheriff’s efforts to prevent and solve crimes, eliminate hazards in and around the community, keep the courts and jails running efficiently, and keep traffic moving smoothly and safely.

Who is your County Sheriff?

Chances are you don’t give much thought to the county Sheriff. You may see an article in the newspaper, a name on the ballot, or a patrol car along side the road. What is it that makes our county Sheriff unique among Ohio law enforcement professionals? The Sheriff is the only elected law enforcement official in the State. This means that every four years he puts his record out for approval. He is accountable to the citizen and voter. Besides the personal accountability required to maintain his post, the Sheriff is a professional, trained in the latest law enforcement techniques and criminal justice procedures. It’s the combination of the above factors, along with the desire to perform public service, that makes the Sheriff a unique position among Ohio officials. To be truly effective he must, and does, understand the integrity needed to do the job in a legal and responsible manner and uphold the public trust placed in him. A Sheriff is more than an individual. He has an office behind him, made up of deputies and support personnel. It’s an organization of men and women dedicated to protecting and serving the people of our county. The deputies are sworn law enforcement officers. They are appointed by the Sheriff to uphold the laws and preserve the public peace.

Your Sheriff’s Office is working to serve and protect you.

A Sheriff needs the support of the community to do his job effectively. Help your Sheriff by taking the steps to protect yourself and your family from crime and accidents. Be an informed citizen, know the needs of yourself and the community, and communicate with your county Sheriff so he can be aware of how best to serve you. Your help can make a difference. Get to know your Sheriff and the men and women of the Office.

Sheriffs help to maintain a secure court system by providing courtroom security. Section 311.07 of the Ohio Revised Code, places the responsibility of the court house upon the Sheriff, under the direction and control of the board of county commissioners.

Jail operation
By law the Sheriff shall have charge of the county jail and all persons confined therein. He must do this in a fair and impartial way.

Prisoner transportation
Sheriffs throughout Ohio transport thousands of prisoners each year. Deliveries are made to and from state institutions, holding facilities, and courts, and extraditions are made from other states.

Police services
Due to Ohio’s rural nature, many communities cannot afford their own police forces. Many of Ohio’s communities have law enforcement contracts with the county Sheriff. The Sheriff’s Office also provides law enforcement services, security, and crowd control for special events such as county fairs, concerts and sporting events.

Traffic control
Sheriffs’ personnel are professionally trained in traffic control and vehicle crash investigation. Much of the traffic control and enforcement in our state is done by the Sheriff. Traffic control covers anything from enforcement of traffic laws to directing traffic around special events and construction projects.

Civil process service
Sheriffs are the agency primarily responsible for the service or “delivery” of legal documents in the State. This includes summonses, subpoenas, and law suits. Sheriffs also do evictions, repossessions, attach, and seize and sell property as ordered by the court.

For many counties in the state the Sheriff operates and maintains a 24 hour-a-day dispatch center that also provides dispatch services for other agencies such as police, fire departments and volunteer ambulance associations.

Specialized programs
Sheriffs help to control crime and traffic with specialized DUI enforcement programs, and drug and alcohol awareness programs. In some counties boating patrol on waterways and lakes is also provided. Many of these programs use federal funds or are joint ventures with other agencies.

Community involvement
Sheriffs are part of our communities, interacting with adults and students alike. Programs include: D.A.R.E., Neighborhood Watch, Explorers, McGruff, Speakers Bureau.