Review: The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

Ashley says the greatest thing I ever bought for her was her Kindle eBook Reader. It was the perfect solution for a female motorcyclist who didn’t have space for for the dozens of books she reads every year. One particular trilogy she downloaded was The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. The book is a complete thriller set in Sweden. It follows the intermingling lives of a disgraced journalist, and an outcast young female motorcyclist. The unlikely duo eventually pair up and can only attempt storm their way through a labyrinth of deception, secrets, and brutal violence.

Naturally, Ashley recommended I read it. I wasn’t sold on the idea. When the mainstream Hollywood picture came out I decided to a girl named Lisbeth Salander, and her 125cc Kawasaki cafe racer a chance. Much to my delight, this social reject motorcycle chick is one you don’t want to mess with, and you don’t want to miss.

The movie stars Daniel Craig, not that the plot needs any James Bond starpower or dramatics to keep you engaged. Much like in the book the characters are as real as movie realism gets. They come with their own history, their own lives, their own jobs, their own skills, and their own secrets. The more we get to know them, the more layers we peel off of them, and what shows on the surface rarely matches what lies beneath.

Likewise, the plot manifest itself in a web of half truths. The lives of Mikael Blomkvist and Lisbeth Salander, two polar opposites, eventually intermingling in a dark and violent web. A web filled with holes, like missing puzzle pieces, for the two to try to piece together.

Is this a motorcycle movie? Not quite. Not along the lines of The Wild One, or even The World’s Fastest Indian. This is the movie about a girl with a mysterious past, lacking even the most basic of social skills, posessing talents well beyond what everyone expects from a grungy 4’11” misfit. This is a story of a man who made a career uncovering truths and scandals, who himself was shamed. These two underdogs don’t do a whole lot of motorcycle riding, but their characters, the shadowy past of Lisbeth’s character, and the murderous plot they seek to discover is more than enough to leave any motorcyclist on the edge of his or her seat.

Ultimately, I enjoyed the movie so much I decided to read the second book in the trilogy, The Girl Who Played with Fire, on my phone’s Kindle app as my before-bed reading. I stayed up many, many a late night reading Lisbeth’s story as she turns from loner, to prey, to predator.


Selecting and editing final images

I mainly looked for character in my images, images that felt like they were part of a story so the viewer could try to imagine what was happening or what would happen next.

Here are some screen shots of the process I undertook for each of my final images, 1.image right out of camera 2. Adjust levels increasing the intensity of shadows 3. White frame to create an old hand printed feel 4. A layer of sold colour at a very low opacity to create the sepia effect (i chose to do this less for creative reasons more for practical ones, all the frames I seemed to be finding with-in my budget were dark wood making the black and white images appear to be very cold in tone the sepia warms them just enough to negate this effect).

dandy edit 1 dandy edit 2 dandy edit 3 dandy edit 4dandyrouge

I will undertake the same process with all my images opening them simultaneously to make sure the tone of each sits well together.

all open

wolverton shoot evaluation

2nd Major shoot (wolverton Station)

The former royal station at wolverton is where the majority of my images would take place, so it tool the largest amount of planning, thankfully the owner could not have been more helpful, Allowing me access to the whole property including its out buildings. again with this shoot my models are in the main part vintage enthusiasts so they provided their own costumes hair and make-up making things far more simple and easy on the budget.

GRIDLightingSetup wolf

contact sheet wolverton shoot

First shoot evalution

Noir defined (continued)

To me the noir genre has always been an exciting and inspiring part of pop culture, obviously due to my age I wasn’t around for the original source marital but I was first exposed to the shadowy corners and chiselled jaws or noir by the early batman animated series.

At the time I was naive to it what it was that I liked so much about the imagery, The dark night (batman) is portrayed as a shadowy hero aloft an art-deco city full of flat cap wearing goons, the spirit of it all is a mysterious hero that works just outside the law doing what’s right the same spirit I found in the original pieces of the genre.

A perfect example of this is “the big combo” a 1955 American piece directed by Joseph H. Lewis with cinematography John Alton,

In “the big combo” Police Lt. Leonard Diamond goes on a personal mission to bring down gangster Mr. Brown. He also has a strange obsession with the suicidal girlfriend of Mr. Brown. His main objective as a detective is to uncover what happened to a woman called “Alicia” from the crime boss’s past.

This shadowy love triangle perfectly illustrates the sort of dark brooding imagery that runs throughout all noir and in short I love it!..

first major shoot (brockwells garage kings lynn)

The Gents over at brockwells kings lynn were kind enough to allow me not only the use of their space but also two classic cars,

with a single model, single flash and some static lights i tied to create the feeling i was looking for in the images but in the end used natural light (which thankfully was in abundance)

Contact sheet garage shoot

20130607-064957 PM.jpg     20130607-064949 PM.jpg      20130607-093143-PM.jpg

LightingSetup for Garage shoot

thanks to Chris Drewery for assisting and providing the behind the scenes images

Gregory Crewdson

Gregory Crewdson was born in  Brooklyn, NY. graduating early from John Dewey High School,

in his younger years, he was a meber of the  punk band “The Speedies”

Their most popular song “Let Me Take Your Photo” proved to be a forshadow of Crewdson’s later succsess.

Hewlett Packard used the song in 2005 to advertse to promote its digital cameras.

In 80’s Crewdson studied photography at SUNY Purchase. He received his Master of Fine Arts from Yale University.

He is now a professor at the Yale University School of Art.In 2012, he was the subject of the feature documentary film Gregory Crewdson: Brief Encounters.

Gregory Crewdson’s photographs usually take place in small town America, but are dramatic and cinematic.They feature often disturbing, surreal events. The photographs are shot using a large crew, and are elaborately staged and lit.

Untitled photo from Crewdson’s series Beneath the Roses (2003–2005)


1800 333 270

enjoyed the workshops for various reasons, they were all well organised and planned and great to be a part of. discussing the subject matter, how it influenced/affected other participants, and receiving expert coaching from the facilitator was key to getting the most from the modules, everyone was always busy taking notes as we quickly learned that the information shared during the workshops was priceless||participation and exposure to the course initiatives has increased my overall capacity as a leader, I plan better, set more goals, reflect more often, endeavour to develop employees through better communication, providing a challenging environment, change behaviours & attitudes through more effective leadership. will always have the learning received throughout the course as a reference when needed


Zeitgeist Gallery / 516 Hagan St., #100 May 6, 2017 - June 24, 2017

Brady Haston, Douglas Degges

Brady Haston: Fragmentary Survey

Nashville’s obscure landmarks, urban reference points, and geology have informed Brady Haston's work and provide the abstract structure for the paintings featured in this show. These paintings are aware of many different times at once.

Haston's work began with a casual search for images and ideas by drawing on online resources and from brief impressions of the Dickerson Pike area where he lives. As this work progressed, Haston came across Paul Clements’ book Chronicles of the Cumberland, a collection of letters and first-hand accounts of the people who lived in the Nashville area during the tumultuous early years of the territory. As he read about the struggles and stories of these late-eighteenth-century inhabitants, a deeper understanding of Nashville allowed his work to be in influenced by older memories and the specific histories of the places he passes through on a daily basis.

The work engages the audience through an elaborate metaphor and creates a conversation that expands their knowledge of this specific area while helping to orient the viewer in a local, ongoing history.

Brady Haston is a Tennessee native who spent several years teaching drawing and foundations at Columbia College in Chicago. He is currently living and working in Nashville where he is on faculty at Watkins College of Art and Design.

image: Brady Haston

Douglas Degges: Split Ends


(612) 293-8629 [email protected]

Calm Company

I am always seeking to remove the anxiety from business and replace it with calm.

What is calm?

Calm companies are companies that are free of anxiety-inducing surprises.

Calm companies get paid on time and pay their people on time.

Calm companies communicate deadlines clearly and deliver on promises.

It means an unplugged vacation every year.

It means money socked away for retirement.

It means calm, not turbulent.

It means monthly, automated W-2 deposits paid to my bank account so my family can plan for things.

How about a camping trip to the boundary waters later this year?

How about attending your little girl’s musical performance at her school?

How about completing a musical?

How about learning guitar?

When you run a calm company, you free up your time.

When you free up your time, you open up possibilities.

What Isn’t Calm?

Calm companies don’t jump from one emergency to the next.

Calm companies don’t push calendars around at the whim of their customers.

Calm companies don’t go crazy when a customer sends an urgent request.

Calm companies are use knowledge and experience to their benefit and to the benefit of their customers.

It’s Not Easy

I know it’s not easy.

used to run an agitated company.

I converted it to a calm company.

The process took years of continual improvements and small course corrections, but I’m proud to say that we are there.

And you know what?  My wife is happier, my kids are more fulfilled, my customers clearly-understand my value proposition, and I’ve got a hold of my life.

Can you say the same?


Fixture upgrades | Reciruclation system | Fish lab renovationWetlands

Fixture upgrades

Plant Operations leads ongoing retrofits to replace old faucets, taps, toilets, and showerheads with more efficient models. New buildings are designed to include low-flow technologies to minimize water use.

Recirculation system

The University of Waterloo has a steam boiler that heats most of South Campus.  This system is cost-efficient, but requires a large amount of water to pump steam to campus buildings.  Plant Operations installed a closed-loop system to re-circulate water from the heating and cooling systems, rather than sending it down the drain.

Fish lab renovation

The Fish Laboratory in the Biology 1 building underwent a major retrofit in 2008 that has realized an annual water savings of 19,000 meters cubed. That's the same as the average water consumption for over 250 homes in Waterloo Region!

Waterloo's Environment 3 building features a greywater system that connects to simulated wetlands. Excess rainwater from the rooftop is stored in an underground cistern beside the building, where it is slowly filtered through the plants above. The cleaned water is then pumped back into Environment 3 for use in toilets and the two-story indoor green wall!


Missing man found safe

A Bodden Town man reported missing by his wife is safe and well, according  to police.

Police said they informed Brian Rattray’s wife he had been found safe and well.

Mr. Rattray lost his Bodden Town home in a suspicious fire on 30 August. His wife reported him missing early Friday morning telling police she had not seen him since the day before.

Mr. Rattray works at Northward Prison and has two children aged four and

Fire inspectors believed the blaze was suspicious after finding an empty gas canister on the fire scene.

Police are no longer treating the case as a missing person case.


What are the vectors in strep throat?

People usually. The vast majority of strep throat cases are spread in people to people contacts thru respiratory droplets. Animals hve been implicated rarely as have surfaces such as toys etc.
Person to person. This is always carried from one person carrying the disease, may be preclinical, transmits it the the second person just by being around the person.


Past Meetups (34)

What we're about

This is a group for people interested in mindfulness, meditation, consciousness, gratitude and any similar concept we wish to explore or practice. This isn't a class and no money will be exchanged. I am hoping to make real connections where we can meet up and support each other along our journeys.

Members (255)


3UO5: Aurora A In Complex With Yl1-038-31

Most protein kinases share a DFG (Asp-Phe-Gly) motif in the ATP site that can assume two distinct conformations, the active DFG-in and the inactive DFG-out states. Small molecule inhibitors able to induce the DFG-out state have received considerable attention in kinase drug discovery. Using a typical DFG-in inhibitor scaffold of Aurora A, a kinase involved in the regulation of cell division, we found that halogen and nitrile substituents directed at the N-terminally flanking residue Ala273 induced global conformational changes in the enzyme, leading to DFG-out inhibitors that are among the most potent Aurora A inhibitors reported to date. The data suggest an unprecedented mechanism of action, in which induced-dipole forces along the Ala273 side chain alter the charge distribution of the DFG backbone, allowing the DFG to unwind. As the ADFG sequence and three-dimensional structure is highly conserved, DFG-out inhibitors of other kinases may be designed by specifically targeting the flanking alanine residue with electric dipoles.
PDB ID: 3UO5Download
MMDB ID: 96749
PDB Deposition Date: 2011/11/16
Updated in MMDB: 2012/05
Experimental Method:
x-ray diffraction
Resolution: 2.7  Å
Source Organism:
Similar Structures:
Biological Unit for 3UO5: monomeric; determined by author and by software (PISA)
Molecular Components in 3UO5
Label Count Molecule
Protein (1 molecule)
Serine/threonine-protein Kinase 6(Gene symbol: AURKA)
Molecule annotation
Chemical (1 molecule)
* Click molecule labels to explore molecular sequence information.

Citing MMDB


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Chapter 9 Vocabulary

coordinate grid A grid formed by a horizontal line called the x-axis and the vertical line called the y-axis.
data Information collected about people or things, often to draw conclusions about them.
interval The difference between one number and the next on the scale of a graph.
line graph A graph that uses line segments to show how data change over time.
line plot A graph that shows frequency of data along a number line.
ordered pair A pair of numbers used to locate a point on a grid. The first number tells the left-right position and the second number tells the up-down position.
origin The point where the two axes of a coordinate grid intersect; (0, 0).
scale A series of numbers placed at fixed distances on a graph to help label the graph.
x-axis The horizontal number line on a coordinate plane.
x-coordinate The first number in an ordered pair; tells the distance to move right or left from (0, 0).
y-axis The vertical number line on a coordinate plane.
y-coordinate The second number in an ordered pair; tells the distance to move up or down from (0, 0).
Created by: CoachD


“Youth,” about young dancers in China. (Photo from China Lion)

The fictional military performance troupe at the center of the Chinese film "Youth" edu-tains soldiers and peasants with songs extolling "red hearts and iron wills." But the sweeping melodrama, set mostly in the 1970s, reveals that the young dancers and musicians are made of frailer stuff. Although their flaws are hardly shocking, their depiction alone may have been enough to halt the movie's original Chinese release. After an 11-minute trim, "Youth" is getting a much smaller rollout at home and abroad.

The setting of the film is much like that of the naturalistic "Platform," a thematically similar 2000 movie by Jia Zhangke that was a hit on the festival circuit. But "Youth's" director, Feng Xiaogang ("I Am Not Madame Bovary"), has a livelier, more mainstream style than Jia, snaking his camera exuberantly though scenes that highlight colorful costumes, dynamic choreography and beautiful chorines.

One of those dancers is narrator Suizi (Zhong Chuxi), a character based on screenwriter Yan Geling, who adapted her own autobiographical novel about her years in an arts troupe. Her tale begins with the arrival of Xiaoping (Miao Miao), a new dancer who's bullied by the mean girls. The central male character is Feng (Huang Xuan), an exemplary collectivist who later finds that his self-sacrifice is less admired in an increasingly Westernized China.

The film's themes mature from adolescent pettiness to adult regret, with several epilogues set well after the main events of the story. In between is a startlingly brutal detour into the 1979 Sino-Vietnamese War, with Suizi, Xiaoping and Feng on the front lines. There, they discover that the martial anthems they once sang are useless in actual combat, just as the political lessons they once taught are meaningless in an age in which Maoism has yielded to China's brand of capitalism.

Unrated. At Regal's Rockville Center Stadium 13. Contains bloody war violence. In Mandarin with subtitles. 135 minutes.


Tag: creative thinking techniques

The Exquisite Corpse

Michael Michalko

Combine What Exists Into Something That Has Never Existed Before

In his book, Scientific Genius, psychologist Dean Keith Simonton of the University of California at Davis suggests that geniuses are geniuses because they form more novel combinations than the merely talented. He suggests that, in a loose sense, genius and chance are synonymous. His theory has etymology behind it: cogito—”I think”—originally connoted “shake together”; intelligo, the root of intelligence, means to “select among.” This is a clear, early intuition about the utility of permitting ideas and thoughts to randomly combine with each other and the utility of selecting from the many the few to retain.

Because geniuses are willing to entertain novel combinations, they are able to discard accepted ideas of what is possible and imagine what is actually possible. In 1448, Johannes Gutenberg combined the mecha¬nisms for pressing wine and punching coins to produce movable type, which made printing practical. His method of producing movable type endured almost unchanged for five centuries. The laws of heredity on which the modern science of genetics is based are the result of the work of Gregor Mendel, who combined mathematics and biology to create this new science. Thomas Edison’s invention of a practical system of lighting involved combining wiring in parallel circuits with high-resistance filaments in his bulbs, two things that were not considered possible. Imagine, for a moment, that thought is water. When you are born, your mind is like a glass of water. Your thinking is inclusive, clear, and fluid. All thoughts intermingle and combine with each other and make all kinds of connections and associations. This is why children are spontaneously creative.

In school, you are taught to define, label, and segregate what you learn into separate categories. The various categories are kept separate and not allowed to touch each other, much like ice cubes in a tray. Once something is learned and categorized, your thoughts about it become frozen. For example, once you learn what a can opener is, whenever someone mentions “can opener” you know exactly what it is.

You are taught, when confronted with a problem, to examine the ice cube tray and select the appropriate cube. Then you take the cube and put it in a glass, where your thinking heats and melts it. For example, if the problem is to “improve the can opener,” the glass will contain all you have learned about can openers, and nothing more. You are thinking exclusively, which is to say you are thinking only about what you have learned about the can opener. No matter how many times the water is stirred, you end up creating, at best, a marginal improvement.

If you take another cube (e.g., vegetables) and put it in the same glass with the can-opener cube, your thinking will heat and melt both together into one fluid. Now when you stir the water, more associations and connections are made and the creative possibilities become immensely greater. The vegetable cube, once blended with the can opener cube, might inspire you to think of how vegetables open in nature. For example, when pea pods ripen, a seam weakens and opens, freeing the peas. This might inspire you to come up with novel ideas. You could, for example, manufacture cans with a weak seam that can be pulled to open the can. You cannot get this kind of novel idea using your conventional way of thinking.

What happens when you think simultaneously, in the same mental space, about a showerhead and a telescope orbiting the earth? When the Hubble telescope was first launched into space, scientists were unable to focus it. It could be salvaged only by refocusing it using small, coin-shaped mirrors. The problem was how to deliver and insert the mirrors precisely into the right location. The right location was in a light bundle behind the main mirror. The NASA experts who worked on the problem were not able to solve it, and the multi-million dollar Hubble seemed doomed.

NASA engineer, James Crocker, was attending a seminar in Germany when he found out about the problem. He worked on it all day. Tired, he stepped into the shower in his hotel room. The European-style shower included a shower-head on an arrangement of adjustable rods. While manipulating the shower-head, Crocker suddenly realized that similar articulated arms bearing coin-shaped mirrors could be extended into the light bundle from within a replacement axial instrument by remote control. Blending the Hubble telescope and the shower-head in the same mental space simultaneously created this remarkable solution.

Crocker was startled by his sudden realization of the solution that was immensely comprehensive and at the same time immensely detailed. As Crocker later said “I could see the Hubble’s mirrors on the shower head.” Crocker solved it by thinking unconventionally by forcing connections between two remotely different subjects.

Look at the following illustration A of the rectangle and circle. Both are separate entities. Now look at the extraordinary effect they have when blended together in illustration B. We now have something mysterious, and it seems to move. You can get this effect only by blending the two dissimilar objects in the same space.

Combining a rectangle with the circle changed our perception of the two figures into something extraordinary. In the same way, combining information in novel ways increases your perceptual possibilities to create something original.

Creativity in all domains, including science, technology, medicine, the arts, and day-to-day living, emerges from the basic mental operation of conceptually blending dissimilar subjects. When analyzed, creative ideas are always new combinations of old ideas. A poet does not generally make up new words but, instead, puts together old words in a new way. The French poet, Paul Valery, is quoted by Jacques Hadamard in Jacque Hadamard: a universal mathematician by T.O. Shaposhnikova as saying “It takes two to invent anything. The one makes up combinations; the other chooses, recognizes what he wishes and what is important to him in the mass of things which the former has imparted to him.” Valery related that when he writes poetry, he uses two thinking strategies to invent something new in writing poetry. With one strategy, he would make up combinations; and with the other, he would choose what is important.

Think for a moment about a pinecone. What relationship does a pinecone have with the processes of reading and writing? In France, in 1818, a nine-year-old boy accidentally blinded himself with a hole puncher while helping his father make horse harnesses. A few years later the boy was sitting in the yard thinking about his inability to read and write when a friend handed him a pinecone. He ran his fingers over the cone and noted the tiny differences between the scales. He conceptually blended the feel of different pinecone scales with reading and writing, and realized he could create an alphabet of raised dots on paper so the blind could feel and read what was written with it. In this way Louis Braille opened up a whole new world for the blind. Braille made a creative connection between a pinecone and reading. When you make a connection between two unrelated subjects, your imagination will leap to fill the gaps and form a whole in order to make sense of it.

Just as conceptual blending allows information to intermingle in the mind of the individual, when people swap thoughts with others from different fields, it creates new, exciting thinking patterns for both. As Brian Arthur argues in his book, The Nature of Technology, nearly all technologies result from combinations of other technologies, and new ideas often come from people from different fields combining their thoughts and things. One example is the camera pill, invented after a conversation between a gastroenterologist and a guided missile designer. Suppose you are watching a mime impersonating a man taking his dog out for a walk. The mime’s arm is outstretched as though holding the dog’s leash. As the mime’s arm is jerked back and forth, you “see” the dog straining at the leash to sniff this or that. The dog and the leash become the most real part of the scene, even though there is no dog or leash. In the same way, when you make connections between your subject and something that is totally unrelated, your imagination fills in the gaps to create new ideas. It is this willingness to use your imagination to fill in the gaps that produces the unpredictable idea. This is why Einstein claimed that imagination is more important than knowledge.

André Breton was a French writer and poet. He is known best as the founder of surrealism. The surrealists sought to overthrow the oppressive rules of society by demolishing its backbone of rational thought. To do so, they attempted to tap into the “superior reality” of the subconscious mind. “Completely against the tide,” said Breton, “in a violent reaction against the impoverishment and sterility of thought processes that resulted from centuries of rationalism, we turned toward the marvelous and advocated it unconditionally.”

Many of the tenets of surrealism included an emphasis on the actual functioning of thought…in the absence of any control exercised by reason. They created many exercises designed to probe the subconscious by getting the minds to be as passive and receptive as possible.

One day I had a long discussion with a friend about the Japanese whaling industry and their illegal poaching practices. After the discussion, I decided to experiment with one of Andre Breton’s surrealist exercises. The exercise has 3 small, grid like areas and one large grid on a sheet of paper.

The first rule of the exercise was to always forget your genius, talents, as well as the genius and talents of others. Try not to think about what you are doing—just let your automatic functions take over, letting them proceed as they wish. Your final solution will not come from your normal way of solving problems, but from a deeper, more intuitive impulse. So whatever happens, let it happen. The guidelines are:

  • Think of a problem. Don’t dwell on it and dismiss it from your thoughts. Look at the design below with the grids.
  • Use the 3 small grids at the top to create an image in the spirit of your unconscious. Try not to think of what you’re doing…just let your automatic functions take over, letting them proceed as they wish.
  • Then with the large grid on the bottom revert to your usual way of thinking and impose your will to create whatever imagery, abstract or literal you wish.

My problem was how to control the illegal whale harvesting by the Japanese whalers. In the small grids I drew one squiggle that looked like a human skull, one that looked like quotation markets and one that looked like a rose. In the large grid I drew a stick figure of a man with two profiles: one looking left and one looking right.

I pondered over my drawings for a long time. The skull reminded me of a pirate’s black flag; the quotation marks reminded me of a quote “The opposite of a profound truth is another truth; and the rose reminded me of the roses I give my wife to celebrate our union as husband and wife. The stick figure in the large grid reminded me of the ambiguity in all aspects of life e.g., no one is all good or all evil.

These images combined and recombined in my imagination and inspired the thought of one way of fighting an illegal activity is to use an illegal enforcement activity. The pirate’s flag reminded me of the Somalian pirate ships off the coast of Africa. The rose got me thinking of combining two illegal activities. The stick figure made me think of looking the other way when something illegal is accomplishing something good.

My final idea all this inspired is to make it legal for the Somali pirates to hijack illegal Japanese Whalers and hold them for ransom.

Now it’s your turn to give it a try.

We have not been taught how to think for ourselves, we have been taught what to think based on what past thinkers thought. We are taught to think reproductively, not productively. What most people call thinking is simply reproducing what others have done in the past. We have been trained to seek out the neural path of least resistance, searching out responses that have worked in the past, rather than approach a problem on its own terms.

Educators discourage us from looking for alternatives to prevailing wisdom. When confronted with a problem, we are taught to analytically select the most promising approach based on past history, excluding all other approaches and then to work logically within a carefully defined direction towards a solution. Instead of being taught to look for possibilities, we are taught to look for ways to exclude them. This kind of thinking is dehumanizing and naturalizes intellectual laziness which promotes an impulse toward doing whatever is easiest or doing nothing at all. It’s as if we entered school as a question mark and graduated as a period.

Once when I was a young student, I was asked by my teacher, “What is one-half of thirteen?” I answered six and one half or 6.5. However, I exclaimed there are many different ways to express thirteen and many different to halve something. For example, you can spell thirteen, then halve it (e.g., thir/teen). Now half of thirteen becomes four (four letters in each half). Or, you can express it numerically as 13, and now halving 1/3 gives you 1 and 3. Another way to express a 13 is to express it in Roman numerals as XIII and now halving XI/II gives you XI and II, or eleven and two. Consequently one-half of thirteen is now eleven and two. Or you can even take XIII, divide it horizontally in two (XIII) and half of thirteen becomes VIII or 8.

My teacher scolded me for being silly and wasting the class’s time by playing games. She said there is only one right answer to the question about thirteen. It is six and one-half or 6.5. All others are wrong. I’ll never forget what she said “When I ask you a question, answer it the way you were taught or say you don’t know. If you want to get a passing grade, stop making stuff up.”

When we learn something, we are taught to program it into our brain and stop thinking about or looking for alternatives. Over time these programs become stronger and stronger, not only cognitively but physiologically as well. To get a sense of how strong these programs are, try solving the following problem.

Even when we actively seek information to test our ideas to see if we are right, we usually ignore paths that might lead us to discover alternatives. Following is an interesting experiment, which was originally conducted by the British psychologist Peter Wason that demonstrates this attitude. Wason would present subjects with the following triad of three numbers in sequence.

2       4       6

He would then ask subjects to write other examples of triads that follow the number rule and explain the number rule for the sequence. The subjects could ask as many questions as they wished without penalty.

He found that almost invariably most people will initially say, “4, 6, 8,” or “20, 22, 24,” or some similar sequence. And Watson would say, yes, that is an example of a number rule. Then they will say, “32, 34, 36″ or “50, 52, 54″ and so on– all numbers increasing by two. After a few tries, and getting affirmative answers each time, they are confident that the rule is numbers increasing by two without exploring alternative possibilities.

The profound discovery Wason made was that most people process the same information over and over until proven wrong, without searching for alternatives, even when there is no penalty for asking questions that give them a negative answer. In his hundreds of experiments, he, incredibly, never had an instance in which someone spontaneously offered an alternative hypothesis to find out if it were true. In short, his subjects didn’t even try to find out if there is a simpler or even, another, rule.

On the other hand, creative thinkers have a vivid awareness of the world around them and when they think, they seek to include rather than exclude alternatives and possibilities. They have a “lantern awareness” that brings the whole environment to the forefront of their attention. So, by the way, do children before they are educated. This kind of awareness is how you feel when you visit a foreign country; you focus less on particulars and experience everything more globally because so much is unfamiliar.

I am reminded of a story about a student who protested when his answer was marked wrong on a physics degree exam at the University of Copenhagen. The imaginative student was purportedly Niels Bohr who years later was co-winner of the Nobel Prize for physics.

In answer to the question, “How could you measure the height of a skyscraper using a barometer?” he was expected to explain that the barometric pressures at the top and the bottom of the building are different, and by calculating, he could determine the building’s height. Instead, he answered, “You tie a long piece of string to the neck of the barometer, then lower the barometer from the roof of the skyscraper to the ground. The length of the string plus the length of the barometer will equal the height of the building.

The obvious moral here is that education should not consist merely of stuffing students’ heads full of information and formulae to be memorized by rote and regurgitated upon demand, but of teaching students how to think and solve problems using whatever tools are available. In the mangled words of a familiar phrase, students should be educated in a way that enables them to figure out their own ways of catching fish, not simply taught a specific method of fishing.

Read Cracking Creativity: The Secrets of Creative Genius

Creative Thinking Technique: Combine Ideas from Different Domains

Many breakthroughs are based on combining information from different domains that are usually not thought of as related. Integration, synthesis both across and within domains, is the norm rather than the exception. Ravi Shankar found ways to integrate and harmonize the music of India and Europe; Paul Klee combined the influences of cubism, children’s drawings, and primitive art to fashion his own unique artistic style; Salvador Dali integrated Einstein’s theory of relativity into his masterpiece Nature Morte Vivante, which artistically depicts several different objects simultaneously in motion and rest. And almost all scientists cross and recross the boundaries of physics, chemistry, and biology in the work that turns out to be their most creative.

ASK PEOPLE IN DIFFERENT DOMAINS FOR IDEAS. Another way to combine talent is to elicit advice and information about your subject from people who work in different domains. Interestingly, Leonardo da Vinci met and worked with Niccolô Machiavelli, the Italian political theorist, in Florence in 1503. The two men worked on several projects together, including a novel weapon of war: the diversion of a river. Professor Roger Masters of Dartmouth College speculates that Leonardo introduced Machiavelli to the concept of applied science. Years later, Machiavelli combined what he learned from Leonardo with his own insights about politics into a new political and social order that some believe ultimately sparked the development of modern industrial society.

Jonas Salk, developer of the vaccine that eradicated polio, made it a standard practice to interact with men and women from very different domains. He felt this practice helped to bring out ideas that could not arise in his own mind or in the minds of people in his own restricted domain. Look for ways to elicit ideas from people in other fields. Ask three to five people who work in other departments or professions for their ideas about your problem. Ask your dentist, your accountant, your mechanic, etc. Describe the problem and ask how they would solve it.

Listen intently and write down the ideas before you forget them. Then, at a later time, try integrating all or parts of their ideas into your idea. This is what Robert Bunsen, the chemist who invented the familiar Bunsen burner, did with his problem. He used the color of a chemical sample in a gas flame for a rough determination of the elements it contained. He was puzzled by the many shortcomings of the technique that he and his colleagues were unable to overcome, despite their vast knowledge of chemistry. Finally, he casually described the problem to a friend, Kirchhoff, a physicist, who immediately suggested using a prism to display the entire spectrum and thus get detailed information. This suggestion was the breakthrough that led to the science of spectrography and later to the modern science of cosmology.

EXAMPLES. Physicists in a university assembled a huge magnet for a research project. The magnet was highly polished because of the required accuracy of the experiment. Accidentally, the magnet attracted some iron powder that the physicists were unable to remove without damaging the magnet in some way. They asked other teachers in an interdepartmental meeting for their ideas and suggestions. An art instructor came up with the solution immediately, which was to use modeling clay to remove the powder.

The CEO of a software company looked for ways to motivate employees to participate more actively in the creative side of the business. They wanted employee ideas for new processes, new products, improvements, new technologies and so on. He tried many things but nothing seemed to excite and energize employees to become more creative.

One evening at a dinner with some of his friends he mentioned his problem and asked them for ideas. After a brief discussion, a friend who was a stockbroker suggested thinking ways to parallel ideas with stocks. Look for ways for people to buy and sell ideas the same way his customers study, buy and sell stocks on the stock exchange.

The CEO was intrigued with the novelty of the idea and he and his stockbroker friend looked for patterns between the stock exchange and an internal employee program. They blended the architecture of the stock exchange with the internal architecture of their company’s internal market to create the company’s own stock exchange for ideas. Their exchange is called Mutual Fun. Any employee can propose that the company acquire a new technology, enter a new business, make a new product or make an efficiency improvement. These proposals become stocks, complete with ticker symbols, discussion lists and e-mail alerts.

 Fifty-five stocks are listed on the company’s internal stock exchange. Each stock comes with a detailed description — called an expectus, as opposed to a prospectus — and begins trading at a price of $10. Every employee gets $10,000 in “opinion money” to allocate among the offerings, and employees signal their enthusiasm by investing in a stock and, better yet, volunteering to work on the project. Employees buy or sell the stocks, and prices change to reflect the sentiments of the company’s executives, engineers, computer scientists, project managers, marketing, sales, accountants and even the receptionist.

The result has been a resounding success. Among the company’s ‘ core technologies are pattern-recognition algorithms used in military applications, as well as for electronic gambling systems at casinos. A member of the administrative staff, with no technical expertise, thought that this technology might also be used in educational settings, to create an entertaining way for students to learn history or math. She started a stock called Play and Learn (symbol: PL), which attracted a rush of investment from engineers eager to turn her idea into a product. Lots of employees got passionate about the idea and it led to a new line of business.

INVITE OTHER DEPARTMENTS TO JOIN YOUR BRAINSTORMING SESSION. If you’re brainstorming a business problem in a group, try asking another department to join yours. For example, if you are in advertising and want to create a new product advertising campaign, ask people from manufacturing to join your session. Separate the advertising and manufacturing people into two groups. Each group brainstorms for ideas separately. Then combine the groups and integrate the ideas.

For more ideas on how to combine dissimilar subjects to create new ideas read Cracking Creativity: The Secrets of Creative Genius by Michael Michalko

How to Get Ideas while Dozing

What puzzles me?

Is there any relationship to the challenge?

Any new insights? Messages?

What’s out of place?

What disturbs me?

What do the images remind me of?

What are the similarities?

What analogies can I make?

What associations can I make?

How do the images represent the solution to the problem?


Clobetasol propionate usp monograph

Clobetasol propionate is classed as a very potent topical corticosteroid. Topical corticosteroids are also referred to as topical steroids . Topical steroids are used in addition to moisturisers (emollients) for treating inflammatory skin conditions such as eczema and dermatitis . A topical steroid is used when patches of eczema or dermatitis flare up. Clobetasol propionate relieves the symptoms of a flare-up by reducing inflammation, itching and redness. It is not a cure for the condition, but it will help to relieve the symptoms.

"Studies in the rat following oral administration at dosage levels up to 50 mcg/kg per day revealed that the females exhibited an increase in the number of resorbed embryos and a decrease in the number of living fetuses at the highest dose. Pregnancy: Teratogenic Effects (., possibility of causing abnormalities in fetuses): Pregnancy Category C: Clobetasol propionate has not been tested for teratogenicity when applied topically; however, it is absorbed percutaneously, and when administered subcutaneously it was a significant teratogen in both the rabbit and mouse. Clobetasol propionate has greater teratogenic potential than steroids that are less are no adequate and well-controlled studies of the teratogenic effects of clobetasol propionate in pregnant women. Temovate Cream and Ointment should be used during pregnancy only if the potential benefit justifies the potential risk to the fetus."

Clobetasol propionate usp monograph

clobetasol propionate usp monograph

clobetasol propionate usp monographclobetasol propionate usp monographclobetasol propionate usp monographclobetasol propionate usp monographclobetasol propionate usp monograph


Gun Safety

The Orinda Police Department continuously works with the community to promote and practice safe gun ownership and firearm safety at home. The Orinda Police offers programs to assist the community in that endeavor.

Securely storing firearms when not in use is the essential element of responsible gun ownership and the #1 way to help prevent firearm accidents, theft, and misuse. The Orinda Police Department offers free gun locks/cables that can stop a gun from operating while under lock and key to providing another level of safety. Anyone can drop into the police station and pick up a Project Childsafe Gun Lock. Gun locks are an effective way of preventing someone from purposely or accidentally using the firearm that may cause injury.

Also, at any time, the Orinda Police can conduct a safety audit to look at gun safes and the various methods homeowners use to store guns to ensure safety. Please call the Orinda Police Department and ask for an officer to examine and possibly provide recommendations for safe gun storage.

Finally, the Orinda Police Department also can receive and take possession of any firearms and ammunition homeowners feel are no longer needed or may pose a risk at no cost. Simply bring the unloaded firearms to the Orinda Police Department at any time located at 22 Orinda Way.

gun lock2
gun lock1


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Seychelles history

The history of the Seychelles before European colonization is almost entirely unknown
The history of the Seychelles before European colonization is almost entirely unknown. Settlers from Borneo, who eventually populated Madagascar may have visited the islands during the third and fourth centuries BCE. Arab navigators traveling the Indian Ocean most likely knew of the islands, though they did not stay there. Arabs traded the enormous coco de mer nuts, found only in the Seychelles, many years before Europeans arrived. Though the Arabs claimed to have found the nuts washed up in the Maldives, it is known that the coco de mer sinks in water, so their account may not be credible.

The human history of the Seychelles is not very long. Nobody lived on the islands until the 1600s, when it was discovered by European traders and explorers. It was 1609 when the British East India Company arrived in the Seychelles. The islands quickly became a refuge for pirates. The French were the first to claim the Seychelles Islands as their own in 1756 as part of the colony of Maritius, and they were the first to send settlers here. In 1770, 21 French people and 7 slaves arrived to start a community on Ste. Anne Island. That was the first human habitat on the Seychelles. These settlers grew crops and ate tortoises for meat.

Eventually, the British wanted the Seychelles for their own. The French appeared to give up the islands without resistance, but they were deceiving the British. As soon as the British conquerors left, they raised the French flag again. The change from French to British back to French really didn’t have much impact on the settlers’ lives. The Seychelles became a British colony in 1814. Before that time many slaves had been brought to the Seychelles. The British abolished slavery in the Seychelles in 1835, but many newly-freed slaves decided to stay. Under British rule, the Seychelles reached a population of 7,000 by the year 1825. Many large estates were established to grow food crops like coconut and sugar cane, as well as cotton. It was around this time that the Seychelles established Victoria as the capital and became home of many exiles from the British empire.

The freed slaves owned no land, and many worked sporadically in order to survive. At this time there were no exports and no money. After awhile, plantation owners discovered they could grow coconuts with far less labor than cotton, rice, and sugar - three very labor-intensive crops. The British continued to patrol along the East African coast, raiding dhows from Arabia transporting slaves back to the Middle East. Slaves that were freed south of the equator were taken to the Seychelles, where they became apprentices to the coconut plantation owners. There they worked the land and in return received wages and rations. Some 2,400 liberated slaves were taken to the Seychelles from 1861 to 1874.

In 1903, the Seychelles were made a crown colony and separated from Mauritius. During World War I, there was much disruption on the Seychelles Islands. Exports stopped, and visitors stayed away, and this was devastating to the economy. After the war things got better to some extent, and workers formed unions to fight for better wages, healthcare for poor people, and land reform.

World War II also caused havoc on the Seychelles, and led to a change in politics. The first political party was formed in 1948, and only educated land owners could vote. This was about 2,000 of the total population of 35,000. So the elected council represented the educated landowners’ interests. But afterwards, there were other political changes, and more political parties to engage in government. Reforms and resolutions were passed to benefit the citizens of the Seychelles.

In 1976, the Seychelles gained their independence from the British and became a republic within a commonwealth. They are still members of the Commonwealth of Nations. The first president of the Seychelles islands was James Mancham. By 1977, the islands had one-party rule that took place under a man named Albert Rene. But in 1991, Rene announced that the Seychelles would go back to a multiparty government. In 1993, the country held its first combined presidential and legislative elections. President Albert Rene won, and won again in 1998 and in 2003. In June 2004, the new president was elected: Alix James Michel.

In 1996, the government of the Seychelles started the Economic Citizenship Program. It provides foreigners with the opportunity to pay $25,000 and get a Seychelles Island passport. Another law, this one erected in 1995, granted immunity from criminal prosecution to parties that invested at least $10 million in the Seychelles. This greatly increased the country’s revenue. The Seychelles Islands are considered a prosperous country. The Seychellois are a blend of cultures and languages. Today, tourism is by far the largest contributor to the economy of the Seychelles Islands.

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понедельник, 20 февраля 2017 г.

Григорий Назианзин: "Мы не отделяем в Нем человека от Божества..."

"Мы не отделяем в Нем человека от Божества, но учим, что Один и Тот же - прежде не человек, но Бог и Сын единородный, предвечный, не имеющий ни.тела, ни чего-либо телесного, а потом и человек, воспринятый для нашего спасения, подлежащий страданию по плоти, бесстрастный по Божеству, ограниченный по телу, неограниченный по духу, Один и Тот же - земной и небесный, видимый и умопредставляемый, вместимый и невместимый, чтобы всецелым человеком и Богом воссоздан был всецелый человек, падший под грех... Если кто понадеялся на человека, не имеющего ума, то он действительно не имеет ума и недостоин быть всецело спасен, ибо невоспринятое не уврачевано, но что соединилось с Богом, то и спасется".

(Григорий Назианзин, письма к Кледонию, IV век)

среда, 15 февраля 2017 г.

Ursinus on the relations within the eternal Trinity and the personal properties of the Three Persons

"We may now readily perceive the difference between the Essence of God, and the Persons, subsisting in the divine essence. By the term, Essence, we are to understand, in reference to this subject, that which the eternal Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are considered, and declared to be, singly and absolutely in themselves, and which is common to the three. By the term, Person, however, we are to understand that which the three persons of the Godhead are considered and declared to be individually and relatively, or as compared with each other, and which they are according to the mode of existence peculiar to each. Or, we may define Essence as the very being of God—the very, eternal, and only Deity—whilst the term Person refers to the mode, or manner, in which the being of God, or the divine essence, subsists in each of these three. God the Father is that Being who is of himself, and not from another. The Son is that self-same Being, or essence, not of himself, but of the Father. The Holy Spirit is in like manner the self-same Being, not of himself, but from the Father and the Son. Thus the Being, or divine essence, of the there persons of the Godhead is one and the same in number. But to be of himself, or from another—from one, or from two; that is, to have this one divine essence of himself, or to have it communicated from another—from one or from two, expresses the mode of existence which is three-fold and distinct; to wit, to be of himself, to be begotten or generated, and to proceed; and hence, the three persons which are expressed by the term, Trinity."

ZACHARIAS URSINUS, The Commentary of Dr. Zacharias Ursinus on the Heidelberg Catechism, trans. G. W. Williard (Cincinnati, OH: Elm Street Printing Company, 1888), 130. (modified)

понедельник, 13 февраля 2017 г.

Which way is the Spirit blowing? (the Anglican Bishops' report on human sexuality)

I really hope that lots of my gay friends read this post. And also Christian brothers and sisters who have a different view to me on same-sex relationships and transgender issues.

The first thing I want to say is this: love. God's love. The Father's unconditional love for the Son which reaches out to all and saves whosoever believes in him. This is not about hate. And it is not about rejecting people. If you have felt - or feel - that God or the church or individual Christians reject or hate you I am really sorry to hear that. God is love.

As I have read negative reactions to the report by the House of Bishops of the Anglican Church, I would like to share some thoughts about where I am coming from.

1. People matter to God. All sorts of people. And whoever they are, whatever they believe, whoever they love God is there for them - and the Christian church is too. That is not just lofty ideals and empty words. Yesterday was Sunday, the day when church meets. And whenever we open our doors we are waiting for whoever will come - and they do. With all their issues and baggage. And the main thing they need to hear and experience is love.

2. Anyone who has loved or been loved knows that love is not as simple as blanket acceptance and approval. I don't mean that love is something less than accepting; I mean that love is something more than accepting. When my wife loves her now overweight husband, he both accepts me as I am and stops buying me chocolate biscuits. When I love my teenage daughter, I love her just the way she is and want to help her to manage her tensions and frustrations. When God loves any one of his creatures He does so unconditionally and also reserves the right - he is God after all - to transform us into the image of his beloved Son. Yes, we were 'born this way', but God's destiny for us is to lift us from what we are we to what we can be, what we were created to be: "born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God".

3. The Christian church does not represent society - nor should it. We are supposed to be an opt-in minority, not opt-out quasi-monopoly. Back in the 4th century CE a ruler called Constantine came to some form of Christian faith and in the context of a military campaign and power struggle granted the Christian church toleration, ending centuries of persecution. Later another ruler, Theodosius, made Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire. The result was that instead of 10% the church now represented 90%. And for many centuries almost everyone in 'Christendom' had some sort of church connection, even if only by virtue of being baptised in infancy. You might even consider yourself a Christian, even if you never go to church and barely know what the Bible says. However, globally speaking, we have been getting over opt-out Constantinian Christianity since the 16th century. The church is a voluntary society of believers. It is a matter of deliberate choice. We live in a secular society in which the Christian church holds beliefs and has practices that most people do not share. And that's okay.

4. It seems to me that no one is saying 'anything goes'. When I read blogs and articles advocating a radical revision of the historic Christian teaching on sexuality I read phrases such as these: "humane, spiritual capital in our relationships... a covenanted relationship between two persons before God... adult responsible men and women who are flourishing in relationships they are asking the church both to affirm and celebrate..." What about inhumane relationships? What about non-covenanted relationships? What about irresponsible men and women in relationships in which they are not flourishing? Where is the affirmation and celebration of multiple partners or abusive relationships? I assume the answer would be that, while loving and accepting the individuals involved, these relationships cannot be affirmed and celebrated. Anyone who has been involved in pastoral or counselling work has faced situations where a strongly desired relationship has to be forsaken for the good of all involved. So there are circumstances when it is okay not to affirm and celebrate? How is that response qualitatively different from the same response in respect of same-sex relationships?

5. "History tells me that I can be confident that there will come a time when LGBT relationships are fully accepted, integrated, honoured and celebrated in the sacramental and pastoral life of the church." This quotation begs at least two questions. Which history? Which church? Addressing the second question, it is frankly inconceivable that the Roman Catholic or Eastern Orthodox church will even contemplate revising their teaching on marriage; equal marriage can hardly qualify as that which has been believed "everywhere, always, by all" (the so-called Vincentian canon). Or indeed the Protestant churches in the Majority World. Even in semi-European Russia it is inconceivable. As for history, presumably the author is equating this issue with that or racial equality/slavery. He means history not as 'events' but as their record and interpretation in 'historiography'. Yes, there is a historiography which sees an overarching narrative of 'liberation' throughout history. However it seems to me this is again confusing the church and the world. There are all sorts of tendencies which can be observed in human society which are just as inevitable, but which can hardly be seen as progress. Interestingly the author equates such change with "the act of God's Spirit". This seems more Hegelian than Christian. God not as the immutable Creator but as the ever-evolving Weltgeist.

6. Let me also briefly address the 'Biblical' arguments. There is now a growing body of Christian scholarship which provides a theological basis for a very substantial revision of the historic teaching on marriage and sexuality (as indeed on other issues). My understanding of this New Orthodoxy is as follows. When the Bible speaks against homosexuality it is speaking against cultic or abusive same-sex relationships - so the argument goes. The Bible allegedly says nothing explicit about modern-day consensual homosexual relationships. However there is another thread in the Biblical revelation which celebrates covenantal commitment between two persons and - so it is claimed - this is not confined to male-female marriage; the classic examples are David and Jonathan and Ruth and Naomi. This thread is said to provide a Biblical basis for same-sex partnerships and marriage. It seems to me that these affectionate, covenanted relationships can be affirmed and celebrated by all believers. And they were clearly platonic/celibate; they are not marriage. Only in the imagination of Oscar Wilde was the king "after God's own heart", the author of Psalm 51, actively bisexual. The Lord Jesus Christ affirmed male-female lifelong marriage and celibacy, but in every other case his words were: "neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more". Likewise the Apostle Paul: "Now concerning the matters about which you wrote: “It is good for a man not to have sexual relations with a woman.” But because of the temptation to sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband."

I want to finish by talking about some people who are very dear to me. I could refer to two of them as S and H. They are dear brothers and sisters in Christ. They are gay; they experience an attraction to people of the same sex and in many ways can identify with the experience of many others. They see their calling in the light of Jesus' words about eunuchs in Matthew 19:12. Like their Lord they are also celibate. They are wronged whenever someone speaks disparagingly of LGBT people or whenever their very personal, intimate feelings are trampled on in culture wars in defence of marriage. But they are also wronged when it is assumed that to be gay and to be Christian is to be sexually active outside heterosexual marriage, to have 'gotten over' old-fashioned morals moving with the times and that of course everyone needs to be in a relationship to be fulfilled. These are precious souls and under the Chief-Shepherd it is my calling to be their pastor.

среда, 8 февраля 2017 г.

Reinventing the bicycle (Baptist associations and districts)

In Russian the saying, "reinventing the wheel" is translated as "reinventing the bicycle". Incidentally, it would be interesting to research the historical/anthropological question as to whether the wheel was in fact 'invented' in one place or in several.
History, of course, is not just about the past. It is also about understanding the present and coming up with solutions for the future. "Reinventing the wheel" in this case is about how the church can organise at a level above the local church

It is an interesting observation that the historic episcopal (bishop-based) model of a hierarchy of priests-bishops-archbishops (metropolitans)-patriarchs was adapted both by presbyterian church courts (kirk session-presbytery/synod-general assembly-general council), and also by independent/Baptist polity (local church-association-general assembly-world assembly). In other words an episcopal diocese is equivalent to a presbyterian presbytery and a Baptist association - not only geographically, but also in function. This shows not only how church government reflects secular government, but also how particular problems naturally beg a given solution - regardless of other, even theological considerations.

Within the episcopal polity a diocese is subdivided into deaneries (Roman Catholic and Anglican). This same phenomenon is also referred to as a provostry (Lutheran) or blagochinie/protopopiat (Orthodox). This is the intermediate level between diocese and parish. A deanery is headed up by a dean or suffragan bishop.

My question was whether this had also been the practice in a Baptist set-up, particularly as the need had arisen in our own context for such an arrangement. It turns out that it has. I have it on good authority that in the British context Baptist associations have been subdivided into districts (a Baptist deanery). In various contemporary contexts this same arrangement is also termed an area (Lairawn Baptist Association, Myanmar) or network (South Eastern Baptist Association, UK). A possible Russian translation might be округ.

понедельник, 6 февраля 2017 г.

"... душа и тело бунтуют против их суровости..." (о правилах и законах)

"Правила и законы существуют не для тех минут, когда нет искушения, они как раз для таких, как сейчас, когда душа и тело бунтуют против их суровости; но как они ни тяжелы, я не нарушу их. Если бы я для своего удобства нарушала их, какая была бы им цена? А между тем их значение непреходяще, - я в это верила всегда, и если не верю сейчас, то оттого, что я безумна, совсем безумна: в моих жилах течет огонь, и мое сердце неистово бьется. В этот час я могу опереться только на ранее сложившиеся убеждения, только на решения, принятые давно, - и на них я опираюсь".

(Шарлотта Бронте, Джейн Эйр)

“Laws and principles are not for the times when there is no temptation; they are for such moments as this, when body and soul rise in mutiny against their rigour; stringent are they; inviolate they shall be. If at my individual convenience I might break them, what would be their worth? … Preconceived opinions, foregone determinations, are all I have at this hour to stand by; there I plant my foot.”

(Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre)

"What about the stars?" (a response to Ricky Gervais on the Comedy Central show)

Confession: I am a huge fan of "The Office." In that series - the UK version - Ricky Gervais mastered the character David Brent. "The Office" isn't just hilariously funny; in my view it shows penetrating insight into individual and social psychology, issues such as the nature of leadership, the roles people assume in society, coping with change, responding to right and wrong and male-female relationships. The culmination of the series is when David Brent and his colleague, Tim, find and are united with their soul-mates.

Sometimes it is difficult to tell them apart: the actor/comedian Ricky Gervais and his most famous character, David Brent. Particularly when Ricky Gervais is ambitiously casting for a role to which he is far less suited: that of an evangelist for Dawkins-style new atheism.

Ricky Gervais is neither a philosopher nor a natural scientist and it tells. He also has an axe to grind in respect of his former church connection and an eat-drink-and-be-merry philosophy of life to justify ("I don't want to give up drinking and eating - what's the point?"). But since he is popular for his comedy he is guaranteed a hearing - most recently on US late night show, Comedy Central, hosted by Roman Catholic, Stephen Corbert.

In their brief 'debate' on atheism, Ricky Gervais' strongest line was as follows:

"… Science is constantly proved all the time. You see, if we take something like any fiction, any holy book… and destroyed it, in a thousand years’ time, that wouldn’t come back just as it was. Whereas if we took every science book, and every fact, and destroyed them all, in a thousand years they’d all be back, because all the same tests would [produce] the same result."

These are clearly the statements of a non-scientist. The overstatement of the scientific endeavour and its achievements ("proved... all the time... same result") give away that Ricky Gervais is not himself engaged in scientific experiment or its analysis.

Leaving that aside, what can we make of his central assertion?

The contrast it seeks to set up is between evidence-based scientific tests and their results on the one hand and non-evidence-based holy books on the other. In his worldview the former are objective and repeatable, while the latter represent fiction and are therefore unrepeatable.

So where do those holy books come from? What, if any, is their source?

Ricky Gervais would say they are fiction, the product of imagination. I would say they are a subjective response to something objective, which I would identify as revelation.

To answer this qustion we need to distinguish between General Revelation (there is a God who created everything) and Special Revelation (God has been involved in human history - supremely in the person of Jesus Christ).

Let us consider the first, General Revelation. This is what God has revealed about himself to all people, regardless of whether or not they have access to the Bible. The fact that there is something, rather than nothing (the Kalam or Cosmological argument). The design apparent in the natural world and in our own bodies. Our conscience which gives us a sense of right and wrong - which cannot be reduced to Darwinian survival instincts. This evidence is very much repeatable. It does not rely on a print run - and is unassailable even in the event of a mass book-burning or internet shut-down. Responding to this objective evidence we believe that there is a God who created all things.

Now the second aspect is Special Revelation. This is what God has revealed in human history over time and supremely in Jesus Christ - as recorded in the Bible. These historical events - and records of them - are the basis for our belief in the Christian God, the God who not only is, but also acts in history. So the question is: is it possible to obliterate historical events by destroying all records of them happening? It should of course be pointed out that destroying records of events doesn't mean the events in themselves didn't happen. Historical events are, of course, unrepeatable. But the events of the past continue to be accessible to us in a whole host of ways and we are able to study the past by means of historical research - just as we are able to study the natural world by means of experiment. In respect of the particular events of special significance for Christian faith, supremely the life of Jesus Christ, Christians would add that God has and will ensure that those records do make it to us - and they have in the form of the Christian Scriptures. Responding to this objective evidence we believe in the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

So my answer to Ricky Gervais would be that his hypothetical mass destruction of all religious literature - presumably along the lines of 1792 or 1917 - is not the knock-down argument it might appear to be. The Holy Book of the Christian faith, the Bible, is not a work of fiction, but a record and a response to objective evidence in respect of the universe (not dissimilar to the empirical evidence on which science is based) and to objective historical evidence (which is accessible to historical enquiry). These don't necessitate religious faith; you are free not to believe. But they do provide an objective basis for believing. And the reflective atheist would do well to interact with that evidence rather than suggesting that only their worldview has any objective basis.

I am reminded of a conversation said to have taken place in the wake of the Terror following the French revolution. Someone was allegedly boasting, "We will destroy every single religious symbol in France." A wise contemporary retorted, "What about the stars?"


February 15, 2014

The Cat Who Broke his Sweet Tooth

Maverick the Cat

Carry the One Radio

Feb. 15, 2014 (Hosted by Sam Esselmann)

This is our first "CTOR Short"! Our producer Samantha explores why her cat Maverick cannot taste sweet foods.

February 01, 2014

Tapping into the Brain's Avoidance Centers: Garret Stuber

Traditionally, dopamine is known to transmit reward signals (food, sex, etc.) in the brain and promote behaviors that lead to that reward again. What you may not know, however, is that the area of the brain that releases dopamine, the ventral midbrain, also receives signals of aversion (things we find unpleasant or even dangerous) from a far-off brain region called the lateral habenula. These avoidance signals promote behaviors that lead us to avoid unpleasant or dangerous things in the world.

These brain circuits are necessary for survival and are the focus of Dr. Garret Stuber and his laboratory at the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill. Using a tool known as optogenetics, Dr. Stuber can excite specific populations of neurons within mouse brains and observe their effects on behavior. For example, by stimulating the neurons in the lateral habenula that signal aversion, he can cause mice to avoid the location in which they received that stimulation. He is essentially creating an aversive stimulus by stimulating the neurons that would normally respond to harmful or unpleasant cues in the world. His work has important implications in addiction and psychiatric disorders

More on the Stuber Lab's research

Hosted by Osama Ahmed


Treatment Success

Success rates vary and depend on many factors, including the clinic performing the procedure, the infertility diagnosis, and the age of the woman undergoing the procedure. This last factor—the woman's age—is especially important.

CDC collects success rates on ART for some fertility clinics. According to the CDC's 2013 ART Success Rates, the average percentage of fresh, nondonor ART cycles that led to a live birth were:

  • 40% in women younger than 35 years of age.
  • 32% in women aged 35 – 37 years.
  • 21% in women aged 38 – 40 years.
  • 11% in women aged 41 – 42 years.
  • 5% in women aged 43 – 44 years.
  • 2% in women aged 44 years and older.

Success rates also vary from clinic to clinic and with different infertility diagnoses.

ART can be expensive and time-consuming, but it has allowed many couples to have children that otherwise would not have been conceived. The most common complication of ART is a multiple fetus pregnancy. This is a problem that can be prevented or minimized by limiting the number of embryos that are transferred back to the uterus. For example, transfer of a single embryo, rather than multiple embryos, greatly reduces the chances of a multiple fetus pregnancy and its risks such as preterm birth.


Technical analysis of USD/CHF for May 11, 2018

USD/CHF is expected to trade with a bearish outlook. The pair remains weak below its nearest horizontal resistance at 1.0040. Both the 20-period and 50-period moving averages are turning down, and call for a further decline. Additionally, the relative strength index is negative below its neutrality area at 50. Therefore, as long as 1.0040 is not surpassed, likely decline to 0.9975 at first. A break below 0.9975 would trigger a drop towards 0.9950

Chart Explanation: The black line shows the pivot point. The present price above the pivot point indicates a bullish position, and the price below the pivot point indicates a short position. The red lines show the support levels, and the green line indicates the resistance levels. These levels can be used to enter and exit trades.

Strategy: SELL, stop loss at 1.0040, take profit at 0.9975.

Resistance levels: 1.0060, 1.0090, and 1.0120

Support levels: 0.9975, 0.9950, and 0.9900

The material has been provided by InstaForex Company -


Rusty Lake

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We wish you a pleasant stay in Rusty Lake!

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Survival games

The primary goal of a game in the Survival genre is to stay alive no matter what. Your second goal is to defeat all the enemies or overcome all the obstacles on your path. Rusty Lake has a great collection of these games where you can try to survive as long as possible yourself! Good like with staying alive!

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The title of this game explains the game in a nutshell. In order to win you have to survive the dang...

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50% 3.686 Play

After waking up in the darkness of the woods with only a flashlight in your hands you better find a ...

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In this classic point and click game you’re stuck in a time traveling battle in which only one pla...

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The characters from Adventure Time are in need of your help! You are being called to help defend the...

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Aetna Design Manager - 51530BR in Hartford, Connecticut

Req ID: 51530BR

The Design Manager takes the lead in designing and producing unique and compelling content in a clean and sophisticated visual language for both digital and print formats -- pairing design and messaging. Project examples include digital interactive guides, print marketing materials, HTML emails. Expertise and mastery in Adobe Suite are expected along with a fundamental understanding of web design technologies such as HTML and CSS.

Fundamental Components:

Develop concepts, artwork, layouts and presentations for a variety of creative projects; adheres to branding guidelines.

Daily collaboration with cross-functional teams at all levels of the department including Creative, Traffic, Production and Client Services to meet customer objectives.

Participates in brainstorming/concept sessions.

Maintains and shares up-to-date knowledge on industry technology and trends with the rest of the creative team.

Attention to detail with emphasis on accuracy and quality, and a critical eye for design aesthetics with proven ability to manage multiple projects simultaneously.

Ability to work in a fast-paced environment on multiple projects under tight deadlines.

Bachelors degree or equivalent in Graphic Design combined with an outstanding creative portfolio, minimum of 7+ years of experience in a digital/print marketing or digital/print agency environment.

Project Management/ is desired

Communications/ is desired

Marketing/ is desired

Information Technology/ is desired

Functional - Communications/Design production - electronic/7-10 Years

Functional - Communications/Design production - print/7-10 Years

Functional - Communications/Brand development/7-10 Years

Functional - Project Management/Communications Management/7-10 Years

Functional - Marketing/Promotional and collateral materials/7-10 Years

Technical - Multimedia/Adobe Photoshop/7-10 Years/Power User

Technical - Multimedia/Adobe Illustrator/7-10 Years/Power User

General Business/Communicating for Impact/ADVANCED

Leadership/Collaborating for Results/ADVANCED

Service/Providing Solutions to Constituent Needs/ADVANCED

Finance/Profit and Quality Vigilance/ADVANCED

Leadership/Driving a Culture of Compliance/ADVANCED

Technology/Selecting and Applying Technology Solutions/ADVANCED

Together we will empower people to live healthier lives.

Job Function: Product


How to ask professor to explain something again?

nikki2 07/11/2018. 4 answers, 4.899 views
etiquette professors email research-assistantship

I had a class last week and I was 10 minutes late. I missed part of the class, and I want to write an email to my professor to arrange a time to meet.

I prepared this email:

Dear .....

I’ve missed part of the previous session and this part is not clear for me. Could I meet up with you this week so you can explain it to me?

Thank you

Is it appropriate?

4 Answers

OBu 07/12/2018.

I would like to take a different perspective than Buffy:

You were late (maybe even disrupted the course when entering the room) and missed something. Now you want additional time from your teacher to catch up something which happened in the first 10 minutes - which will take ~5-15 minutes of the working time of your teacher. Multiply this by 100 students and 5 courses per week, and you will spot the problem ;-).

Therefore, I would suggest to try everything you can do to catch up on your own. Ask other students. Use books. If you invested >3h without success, you can still write this e-mail explaining what you already understood, where you struggled and at which point you need specific help.

This will show your professor you are really engaged and makes it easy to answer your question within seconds. Maybe (s)he will ask you "just to talk a few minutes after the next lecture" which is also very time effective.

The behavior also depends a bit on your local student-teacher-relationship. In my course, I would not mind if you just approach me after class, you will receive a little (friendly but sarcastic) remark about being late, and get an answer (and I'm happy that someone is trying to learn something).

Nicole Hamilton 07/11/2018.

Perfect question for office hours! Go and wait for your turn to ask.

Buffy 07/11/2018.

Yes, it is appropriate, though you will want to apologize for being late. Most professors, good ones anyway, value questions and the students who ask them. If the prof in question holds regular office hours that would be the most appropriate time to ask.

I don't think there is any "special" way to ask. What you suggest seems fine to me.

You can also try to get up to speed on the topic before you meet, using text books and the like. Or discussions with fellow students.

I was once thought to be very smart because I asked a lot of questions. On the other hand, my mother thought I was a "pain" because I asked a lot of questions. But she wasn't a professor.

xmp125a 07/12/2018.

No, as a general rule, such mail is not appropriate. I would not be happy to receive such email. There are reasons courses are taught in classes of multiple (many) students, and that is, the professor's time is much more valuable than students'.

There may be exceptions to the above rule. For example, if you have been late to some widely known reason that affected many people (e.g. snowstorm, public transport breakdown, etc.), then the professor may be more generous (but I would not be surprised if he asks for multiple students that missed the class to arrange a single meeting).

On the other hand, if a) people are habitually late to this professor's class, or b) you were late multiple times, don't even think about this, because you may get pretty bad reaction. Do the math, if there are 100 people in the class and only 5% are late and want extra time with professor, it can easily add up to a burden that is non-negligible.

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Then and Now: How Tax Brackets Have Changed Over the Past 100 Years

By Dan

Tax season is here, and recent talk of massive tax reform has Americans even more focused on taxes. Yet even as tens of millions of taxpayers look to prepare their returns, tax reformers seek to put today's tax rates into a longer-term context that looks back at the history of the American income tax system.

Continue Reading Below

When you go back 100 years and look at the way Americans paid income taxes in 1917, you can see how the tax brackets a century ago in some ways stand in stark contrast to what we see today -- yet they also have some interesting similarities.

Image source: Wikimedia Commons.

Tax brackets: 1917 vs. 2017

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The tax brackets that Americans currently expect to pay for 2017 depend on filing status. You can get the whole set of 2017 tax brackets here, but below, you'll find the brackets for joint filers:

2017 tax brackets

Data source: IRS.

Given the way that many people reminisce about the good old days, you might expect that the income tax brackets from 1917 -- which was just four years after the 16th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution authorized a broad-based federal income tax -- would be simpler. Yet as you can see below, the bracket structure was actually more complicated:

1917 tax brackets

Data source: Tax Foundation.

Those brackets look particularly intimidating by today's standards. A top marginal rate of 67% meant that for every $3 top earners had in income, $2 went to the tax man.

However, there are a couple of things to keep in mind. First, this complicated structure of taxes came as a direct result of World War I. The previous year, the top bracket had been 15%, and the year before that had featured a 7% maximum tax rate. However, the War Revenue Act of 1917 sought to boost federal revenue in order to pay for war efforts. In addition to the changes to income taxes, the Act also created an excess profits tax, expanding corporate taxation as well as affecting individuals.

The other thing is that inflation has made these nominal income brackets a lot different. According to the Tax Foundation, price changes have made the $2,000 in income that defined the top of the lowest 2% bracket worth about $35,000 in today's dollars. Put another way, in order to get to a tax rate that's above the current low bracket of 10%, one would have had to make the equivalent of $350,000 in income, and the top bracket in 1917 applied only to those earnings the modern equivalent of more than $35 million.

What to expect for the next 100 years

The first 100 years or so of the U.S. income tax system provides some insight into what the future will bring. Taxes have generally followed cycles, starting simple and then gradually becoming more complicated over time. Then, reforms start the cycle anew, creating new, simpler structures as a new benchmark from which future additions again begin to complicate matters. Just as 1917's complex structure eventually gave way to simpler structures in the late 1920s, tax reforms in the mid-1980s dramatically simplified taxes by creating just two brackets that were later expanded to the current seven.

It's possible that taxes will once again get simplified in the near future. The Trump administration and Republican lawmakers in Congress have both proposed tax plans that would feature fewer income tax brackets. There's an outside chance that a simpler structure will apply by the time Americans have to file their 2017 taxes, although most political commentators believe that a 2018 tax law change is more likely.

Taxes have been a constant in the U.S. for more than a century, and they'll remain so in the coming century as well. By staying up to date with tax changes and keeping a longer-term perspective, you can prepare yourself and take maximum advantage of any tax breaks that you're entitled to use.

The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.


20 Min Hotdish (Goulash/American Chop Suey)

Introduction: 20 Min Hotdish (Goulash/American Chop Suey)

My family has always called this dish hamburger hotdish. My husband's family called it goulash and I've also heard it called American Chop Suey. So whatever you call it...it's really good and really quick to make.

Step 1: Ingredients

I use ground turkey for this but ground beef works too.

1 lb ground turkey/beef

1 15oz can diced tomatoes w/garlic & onion

1 15oz can tomato sauce

1 8oz bag NoYolks noodles - dumpling size

Worcestershire sauce

Salt & Pepper

Olive Oil

Step 2: Cook...

Make sure you heat up your pan while your gathering together all your ingredients.

If you can also heat up about 3 cups of water to a boiling. I use an electric kettle. You don't have to do this, it just makes bringing this a boil go faster.

Heat your pan on med-high heat. I use a 12" stainless steel pan.

Add roughly a tablespoon of olive oil to the HOT pan.

Add in the ground meat. Cook just until the pink is gone. About 5 mins.

Add in the diced tomatoes and tomato sauce.

Add in the package of noodles. Fill the empty tomato sauce can with hot water and add that plus enough water to come up the sides of the pan. The water doesn't have to cover the noodles.

Shake about 2 tablespoons of Worcestershire sauce stir all to combine.

If it isn't already boiling bring to a boil. Put the lid on and cook for 12-15 mins. or until the noodles are done.

(The egg noodles in the recipe cook fast. If you choose a different noodle they may take more or less time.)

Step 3: Eat and Enjoy

Take the lid off, add salt and pepper, more Worcestershire to taste, serve and eat.

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2 Discussions

Goulash usually has paprika in it, otherwise I'll eat that dish any day!

1 reply


The Golden Times.

Lyra: A 13 year old girl who is destined to save the world, and grew up at Jordan college.

Roger: Lyra's friend who was also taken by the gobblers.

Lord Faa: Gyptian leader who helps Lyra on her adventure.

Sarahfina: A witch who also helps Lyra on her adventure

Pan: Lyra's daemon.

Iorek: A polar bear who later becomes King.

Lyra grows up at Jordan college but when children stealing gobblers come she lives with ms.coulter. When lyra runs away she goes to the north to with her demon pantateamon to rescue the stolen children she is also in the possession of the golden compass: a tool used to get any answers. Everyone believes she is destined to save the world. She is then kidnaped by the gobblers and she finds out that they want to disconnect children from there gobblers. Lyra escapes with her friends but is then attacked and Lyra gets lost, she is then taken prisoner by bears but Iorek fights the bear king and wins! yay! Iorek is crowned king. Lyra wants to give the Golden Compass to Lord Asriel so he can basically open up a portal to another world. The story ends by Lord asriel declaring he is going to save the world from sin and he goes to another world with Lyra and Pan(panatimon)

Gobblers want to disconnect demons from children.

Lyra wants to save her friend from them and ends up saving everyone from them.

Quotation Explanation

Never! Never! Never! she cried and backed against the wall to defend him to the death.

I chose this quote because it shown Lyra's love for Pan and that she will never let them tear them apart like the other children.

Big image

I would give this book a 3 1/2 because when ever I was reading it I liked it but I always wanted to read something else. I did like the fact that the main character was my age because i can relate to how she feels some of the time about not wanting to grow up.

The author could have put more background info. about the demons and witches because it would be much easier to understand.


Evaluation of Baltimore's Mental Health Capitation Program

How does single stream-funded, capitated payment for mental health services affect provider behavior? This study evaluated Baltimore's experiment to provide capitated mental health services to long term state hospital inpatients being discharged to community care and Medicaid high cost users. The evaluation included two components: 1) a prospective controlled study of Medicaid high cost users, comparing two samples of patients randomly assigned to the capitation program or to traditional service systems; and 2) a strategic analysis of the capitation programs, comparing their methods with those used by traditional service providers. The objective of the study was to develop a good understanding of how mental health provider performance is affected by program incentives and of how these providers adapt to a single funding stream, in terms of flexibility and innovation in service delivery.


Shattered (Dream Realms Trilogy, #1) - Sophia Sharp Horrible writing. I'm not quite sure how I managed to read this book. Immature, bad plot, and I felt the author tried to cram a lot of information into a very short period of time. I felt zero connection between Logan and Laura. If she was trying to mimic Twilight, she failed miserable. Her description/view of vampires was unimpressive and I had a really hard time following or even believing her own created history about them. In her effort to try and do something different and bring a 'new' light to vampires, she strayed so far off the road, making her ideas utterly unbelievable.


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Contracts Assistant/Officer - Didcot, Oxfordshire, OX11

Contracts Assistant/Officer - Didcot, Oxfordshire, OX11

Short term contract (1-3 months)

Salary: competitive

Key Requirements: NQ to 2/3 years PQE solicitor or has some years of contracts experience (ideally in the research / higher education sector), science and technical knowledge.

If you are looking for a dynamic workplace to gain some experience and have the ability to communicate effectively, within a science and technical environment, in writing and orally in English to a very high standard and can present a coherent argument this maybe the role for you.

Our client is looking for a candidate who enjoys what they do and is able to blend into their team quickly and effectively to get the job done.

The successful candidate will be working directly with agreements and contracts for a wide range of (non-procurement) requirements, including those related to Facility access, Studentships, Collaborations, Joint appointments, Intellectual Property, Media arrangements and Estates management.

The successful candidate will have the following qualifications / experience:

A good practical understanding of the legal aspects of the business and/or science environment;
Demonstrable knowledge and working experience of drafting academic and commercial agreements to a high standard;
Demonstrable knowledge and understanding of relevant legal principles applicable to the role as well as maintained knowledge of English law.

Working knowledge using legal research resources such as Practical Law Company and familiar with the internet as a business resource; Knowledge and experience in the administration of legal agreements;
Rigorous administration skills;
Displays enthusiasm and interest to effectively extract and contextualise the relevant information required in order to take control of the process;
An ability to analyse, interpret and respond effectively to detailed written documentation;
An organised, level headed but flexible approach to working

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Let's Prehend
A Manual of Human Ecology and Culture Design

BRIEF MYSTERY OF TIME, Mind or Matter? Dilemmas of Reality and Mind

"God created time to keep everything from happening at once."
—Folk saying

As physics and cosmology advance, the disparity between the world of science and the world of common sense seems to grow. Which world is real?

The objectivist position holds that the world of the scientists is more valid than common experience because it describes reality more accurately and more completely. More valid does not necessarily mean more fun. But how else than by using the quantum theory, etc., could we explain how the sun shines and why the sky is blue, not to mention the more difficult explanations of why the trees are green and our blood is usually red?

The subjective experience of reality is the realm of the mind-scientists who describe in increasing detail how mental machinery works. The poets and their ilk also have a lot to say about it.

How does it happen that scientific theories, such as Einstein's notorious equation, E=mc2, are so magnificent, and that physics and cosmology become increasingly unified? Is this grand unity some quality of the universe, or is it some quality of the mind? Since the universe is evidently in total harmony, like an electron soup or giant jello, it must be our minds that cause the dissociation of the universe into things, things that we must then toil to reorganize and unify.

Fortunately, even though our minds distort reality by False-Focus and There-and-Then, we are able to reconstruct a mental model of the universe, at least in our primitive and abstract mode of mind. Since mental mechanisms, FF and TT, fragment reality, we need to apply effort for reintegration and accord. Perhaps, if reality were not a total system, the universe would fly apart as soon as we stopped thinking about it. Such might be the image of the fragile idealist, who, on the edge of paranoia, calls upon some God to hold reality together and allow his tortured mind to sleep. Obviously the dissociation of reality is the work of the mind, not of reality itself.

Time seems to run forward, like the physicists say it does. Everyone, especially science fiction writers, imagines experiences or machines that skip over time. Everyone has experiences in which time seems to pass differently, such as deja vu, smoking a joint, falling in love, or having an auto accident.

The explanation from cognitive science is that the subjective human experience is based on memory, and thereby subjective time can be rearranged by whimsical mechanisms of mind. It seems that we remember, not the original incident, but rather the last remembering. Thus memories migrate in time and detail. Much work is being done by the scientists on the persistence of memory, its selection, distortion, and decay. This is especially important in the criminal professions, since witness memory is so crucial.

The subjective experience of certainty can be a poor measure of objective validity. Those who confuse the subjective with the objective may find themselves "Out on a Limb."[ This is the title of famous actor and author Shirley *MacLain about past-life and other mystical DSM experiences.] Time travel may be fun, but is not to be taken seriously. There is no validation of it. There may be an experience of dying, but probably no experience of life-after-death or reincarnation. Perhaps time travel, past lives, etc., are a delusion, a pathology, a dissociation of the ego from reality for the sake of its own aggrandizement, an ego trip. But who can be sure? Both the subjective and the objective deserve respect.

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