Finding Your Writing Pace

Authors often forget that professional writing is a two-pronged calling.

First and foremost, writers write. It's what defines us, and we do it whether or not we write for publication or for pleasure (or, as happens in many cases, both). There’s nothing wrong with writing as an avocation instead of a career – and some writers make a business decision to self-publish (or even NOT publish) their work and never worry about sales or the business side of publishing.

That is a legitimate choice.

But for authors who intend to make writing a career, publication is a business, and sales do count, and to make those sales you must start with a salable product. In publishing, as in any other business, quality is not the place to compromise. Quality works sell better, and are more engaging to read, than unpolished or hurried ones.

As the old adage says, “you never have a second chance to make a first impression.” This goes for authors too. Whether you’re querying agents, approaching a publisher, self-publishing, or marketing your work to readers, professional authors have a business obligation (as well as a personal one) to produce the best work possible.

As an author, you have a story to tell, but a working writer never forgets that a story is also a product, and high-quality goods sell better than shoddy ones.

From a business perspective, an author must plan enough writing time to write, edit and polish each work before the due date or release. Rushed works never please as well as careful, well-developed stories.

As an author, you need to learn how long it takes you to write, revise, edit and polish a work for publication--not "what the market wants," but what you can reasonably do. Your speed might not be the same as anyone else's--and that's okay.

Your time to produce a manuscript will likely decrease with time and experience, but learning how long it takes you to write and polish a publishable manuscript is a fundamental part of every author's early business plan. You’ll need to know in order to set and stick to your publishing schedule – regardless of the publishing path you choose.

Don’t panic if you can't finish a novel as fast as someone else, or if it takes you more than a year from start to finish. If you want to write faster, or more consistently, try setting a schedule and deadlines--even if they're entirely self-imposed. Vary the pace and find your comfort zone. (Also: be open to change – few writers keep the same pace throughout their careers.)

Knowing your pace helps you plan and schedule releases and publishing contracts – regardless of publishing path. It also helps you plan for future projects. Can you handle more than one series at a time? Some authors can, but some cannot--and their results don't matter...what matters is how it works for you. It's not a race, and your writing career cannot--and should not--be defined by someone else's process.

Many authors enter the business with little awareness that writing pace controls many other decisions. Finding your pace means finding the time you need to deliver a polished, professional work that readers will love. Quality wins out over speed every time.

Take some time this week to examine your pace. Try making a schedule. See what works, and discover what doesn't. Challenge yourself, but respect your creative process, too.

Do you know how long it takes you to produce a finished manuscript? Have you gotten faster as the years go by?

An Afternoon With A Master

By Mary Gillgannon

A few weeks ago, Nora Robert’s book Liar hit the top of the Publisher’s Weekly bestseller list. I was delighted by this news. Since I also write romance, it’s cool to see a romance writer make it to number one. The genre is often disparaged and sneered at, but there can be no doubt romance is hugely popular, accounting for almost 40% of ebooks sold and over 20% of print.

The other reason I felt a kind of personal thrill over Nora’s success is because I once had the opportunity to spend several hours with her and discuss writing. It was at a conference nearly twenty years ago. We were sitting in the lobby with my editor at the time. Nora, who was the keynote speaker, walked by, and my editor asked her to join us. A short while later, my editor left, but Nora stayed and chatted with me and three other “newbie authors” for a couple of hours.

At first the conversation was very general, but it gradually turned to writing. Nora was so gracious and relaxed, my friends and I took the opportunity to glean what knowledge we could from this amazing professional. We asked, of course, how she managed to be so prolific, managing to write six or more books a year, under two names. (And unlike bestseller James Patterson, she writes every word herself.) She talked about her work ethic and “Catholic guilt” and said she writes for several hours almost every day, even when traveling.

Next, we asked about her writing process. You might imagine that someone so prolific would have to plot and outline ahead of time. But Nora’s process is fairly loose. She comes up with an idea and/or characters and starts writing, developing the plot and doing research as she goes along. I asked if she ever got stuck and she said, “All the time.” But then she explained her magic solution: “When you write yourself into a corner, you just have to write yourself out again.” A simple enough sounding technique, but it embodies some very important philosophies: Never giving up and having faith in your story and in your own abilities.

With every book, I write myself into a corner, not once but several times. Early in my career, I would panic when this happened. My confidence in myself and my writing would start to waver. I would worry the book totally sucked and maybe I should abandon it and write something else. (Some books I did abandon, at least temporarily.) But now I know writing is more about persistence than skill or creative brilliance. I also know that if I hit a bump or a rough spot, I have to keep going. If I keep putting words on the paper, the answer to the question—what happens next—will eventually come to me. And I’ll be out of the corner and back on the smooth writing road again. I figure if this technique worked for the 200-plus books that Nora has written, it ought to work for me.

Better All The Time?

By Mary Gillgannon

Some of my writer friends enjoy revising. They’re excited to have the first draft done and begin polishing the story. I, on the other hand, dread that part of the process. I much prefer the thrill of having the story unfold in front of me. The adrenaline rush of having my characters come to life and make things happen. That’s what keeps me writing.

Of course, it’s not always like that in the first draft. Sometimes my characters refuse to tell me what the story is. Or they take me off on a wild goose chase and I end up re-writing half of the book. But still the initial process is very often exhilarating.

And yet, I eventually get to the end and have to begin the important work of cleaning up the mess that is my story. It’s a seriously cringe-worthy process: Oh, my God, I didn’t really write that! No! I didn’t really use the word “really” about a hundred times. Not to mention “pretty” and “that’ and a dozen other bad habits. And then there are the doubled words (which Word never seems to catch) and the missing words. The logic problems. The occasional “homophone”; I didn’t mean “there”, but “they’re”!

And of course there’s the process of “quieting the ripples”. Because when you realize the middle part of the book is crap and try to fix it, you inevitably affect plot points throughout the story and have to fix them, too! And my beginning sucks! And why didn’t I think about that earlier in the book?

I always get through it. But it’s not fun. And I especially get discouraged because I’ve been writing for so long. I think: Why isn’t easier? Why aren’t I a better writer after 20 books?

Well, according to a research study, I am better. A scientist studied the creative process by tracking brain activity with MRI’s. His research subjects included both novice adult writers and “expert” writers (they were enrolled in a MFA program). To separate out the creative part of writing, he had them first copy something already written to get a baseline for the actual writing process. Then he did MRI’s as they brain-stormed an original story and wrote it.

He found that novice writers used different parts of their brain even while brainstorming. The novice writers had more activity in the visual center of the brain while the expert ones had activity in regions involved with speech. When the two groups began writing, there were other differences. In the expert writers a region in the brain called the caudate nucleus became active, while in the novice writers it was quiet.

The caudate nucleus is involved in skills that are learned through practice, such as piano playing, basketball or even board games. When a person begins learning these skills, they have to consciously think about what they are doing. But as they become more expert, the caudate nucleus takes over and coordinates these complex skills.

There has been a lot criticism of this study by other scientists, who are skeptical that it really shows where the creative process takes place in the brain. But I found the results encouraging. It suggests that as writers we do become better and more efficient in the writing process. We start using parts of the brain that are involved in more complex functions.

Maybe the problem for me is that as I get better, I also raise my expectations and become more critical. I have to tell myself that even though I still find stupid mistakes when I revise, at least I know they are mistakes and can recognize what needs fixing. So all the years of doing this have paid off and I really am becoming better at this.

At least I’ll believe that until I have to revise the next book!

You can read more about this study on the creative process in this New York Times article.

A Muse By Any Other Name

By Mary Gillgannon

In a post a couple of months ago, I was discussing the creative process and mentioned my muse “not speaking to me”. Afterwards, I began to think about the concept of a muse, what it means to me and why I think of mine as female.

The word probably originates from the Greek word mosis, referring to desire or wish. In Greek mythology, the muses were nine goddesses, all daughters of Zeus, who were said to have power over inspiration. The term has come to mean someone who has a deep influence on another person's creative work. Historically, it was most often used by male artists to describe women they loved and made the subject of their work. But nowadays, the term doesn’t necessarily refer to a relationship, person or even an entity. The word can be used simply to describe your own inner source of creativity and inspiration. It’s a tangible term for an intangible process. A way of personalizing and making real something that no one really understands:  how the creative process works.

Being writers, we want to assign words to the process, to find a way to describe it. Over the years, I’ve encountered a variety of metaphorical descriptions. People talk of “dipping into the creative well”, as if there was some sort of subterranean pool in our subconscious that we could drink from. James Joyce wrote that all the real creative work was done by “the nigger in the basement”. A more politically-correct writer, Barbara Samuels/Barbara O’Neal, uses the term “the girls in the basement”, to describe the source of her creative ideas. Another writer friend once described it to me by saying there was a wall separating her from all these wonderful, magical ideas and that once in awhile, she felt she could reach under that wall and pull things out and use them in her writing.

I suppose I see my “muse” or the source of my inspiration and ideas, as being a remnant of my childhood self, the little girl I was before I learned to focus on what I was supposed to focus on, rather than letting my thoughts roam free. That’s probably why I think of my muse as female, because she represents the fanciful, imaginative child I once was, who sang and told herself stories for hours and hours.

I think almost all children are naturally creative. Daydreaming and making up stories is a huge part of how they learn and interact with the world. But the ability to tap into that fluid “anything is possible” outlook gets damaged over time. When a child is chided for daydreaming or simply told to “pay attention” in school or when doing chores, they start forming the habit of focusing on the “real” world, the things they can directly perceive through their senses and through reasoning. Their connection with that fertile, free-flowing part of themselves gets cut off, and gradually what was once a constant rich flow of creative ideas slows to a mere trickle.

Years later, when we decide to take up a creative pursuit, we may find it difficult to access what was once the very essence of our world. Instead of having all sorts of fantastical ideas swirling in our heads, we get trapped in our mundane reality. We suffer from writers’ block. We get stuck and the words won’t come. The well hasn’t run dry, but we no longer have access to it. Instead of a river right beside us, our creativity hides in a deep dark reservoir, buried far below all the layers of the responsibilities, demands and distractions of our lives.

Over and over, I find myself using water metaphors to describe creativity. Perhaps that’s because, like water, creativity and inspiration aren’t something you can grab onto or really contain. It keeps moving and changing, like the process that defines it. My muse is a water sprite, skipping over the waves, glimmering in the sunlight. Sometimes I catch sight of her for long enough to capture a bit of her magic and use it in my work. I wish she wasn’t so elusive and that I was better at creeping up on her so I would have time to really study her. But like a lot of enchanted beings, she remains always on the move and a little out of focus, lost to the all-too-sensible and realistic lens through which my adult self views the world.


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Little Interactions Mean a Lot

Noncovalent bonds are weaklings compared to familiar chemical reactions, but they add up to strongly influence the shape and behavior of molecules.

Roald Hoffmann

2014-03PerspectiveF1p95.jpgClick to Enlarge ImageI used to like my energies big. Strong chemical bonds and large energetic reactions are dramatic and easy to observe and understand. They make fire burn and drive much of industrial chemistry. But a lot of the world around us and inside us works on more subtle atomic and molecular interactions that operate on energy scales 10 or 100 times smaller.

Consider the following phenomenon: You dip a paintbrush into water, or watch Esther Williams jump into a pool—as she often did with staged abandon, wonderfully coiffed, when I grew up and first went to the movies. (If Esther Williams means little to you, substitute the singer Rihanna.) When the paintbrush or Esther emerge from the water, their hairs, to put it colloquially, are stuck together. The first instinctive reaction is to say that the hair clumps up and that the brush acquires its point because they are wet. But hold on: Look at the brush while it is in the water—the hairs remain apart, and you can’t get wetter than that!

So, it’s not wetness that makes the hairs clump. Rather, it’s the small hydrogen bonding forces between water molecules, which are greater in number when as many water molecules as possible are near each other. The macroscopic manifestation of this bonding is called surface tension: It’s why water droplets form in clouds, and it’s what allows whirligig beetles to scoot on the surface of ponds. It’s what C. V. Boys calls “the skin of the water” in his wonderful 1911 book Soap Bubbles: Their Colors and Forces which Mold Them, which Ben Widom brought to my attention. The energy of hair plus water is lower when the hairs clump together; the small hydrogen bonding forces that bring water molecules together carry along the hair strands with them.

Such weak, or noncovalent, bonds are ubiquitous, and their prevalence gives them a power that belies their modest nature. In water, they influence the global geology and climate of the Earth. In organic molecules, they regulate how proteins fold and hold together DNA’s double helix. Despite my partiality for big energies, the power of accumulated small energies have prompted me to question my prejudices.

The Cumulating Logic of the Small

What is big from one perspective is small from another, and energy can be measured in a variety of ways. By “big energies,” I mean those equal or greater than about 1 electron volt per molecule, which is equal to 23.1 kilocalories per mole, or 96.5 kilojoules per mole. A photon of yellow light has an energy of about 2.1 electron volts.

In theoretical chemistry, I was looking for molecules that in one bonding arrangement could be at least 1 electron volt per molecule more stable than in an alternative configuration, or that would require an activation energy (the barrier to a reaction taking place) that is at least 1 electron volt lower than a competing reaction, thus proceeding much more expeditiously. I knew that the strength of the hydrogen bonds that hold together the base pairs of the DNA in my body are, per pair of atoms involved, at least an order of magnitude smaller than 1 electron volt. So are the “dispersion” forces (more on these in a moment) that make the molecules around me—be they acetaminophen or ethanol—solids and liquids rather than gases.

Quantum mechanics, through accurate solution of Schrödinger’s wave equation for the energies of the matter waves, is needed to describe theoretically the reactants and products in a chemical reaction. I think the reason I favored the large gobs of energy was that my way of solving Schrödinger’s equation was … lousy. (I’m just a quantum mechanic—it comes with the chemistry.) I could only get approximate energies, plus or minus an electron volt of the solution. For energetic reactions that is good enough.

Yet I knew that energies much less than 1 electron volt could make a big difference in fundamental molecular processes, such as making functional proteins. Every molecule solves Schrödinger’s equation exactly, without worrying about it. Nature’s way of exercising decisive control is through the accumulation of many small differences. Once proteins of some complexity (containing more than 100 amino acids) became the toolkits for making and breaking bonds, then small differences in the folding and variations in the kit components (the amino acid sequence) create local environments (active sites) that are exquisitely tunable.

Through accumulation of small interactions, Nature creates an effective qualitative difference in the rate of cleavage of a carbon–carbon bond (C–C), the geometry of binding oxygen (O2), or the firing of a nerve signal. There is room in biology for large dollops of energy: Witness the two photons used in photosynthesis. But soon even that large influx of energy is partitioned in a cascade of many small reactions. This partitioning maximizes efficiency for the overall process, getting the energy of the photons into the energy courier of the cell, adenosine triphosphate (ATP).

Even if I was unable to calculate energies exactly, I’ve grown to appreciate the cumulating logic of the small. The wondrous world of the unromantic diminutive adding up to something big is increasingly important as the applications of nanotechnology and the potential for quantum computing unfold.

People Argue about Small Energies

In addition to the hydrogen bonding mentioned earlier, there are other small forces, like multipole interactions that convert an asymmetry of the way electrons are distributed in a molecule into forces between them. And dispersion forces, which are responsible for molecules and atoms condensing and eventually freezing. These are all essential, small, structure-determining factors called noncovalent interactions, to distinguish them from “real” chemical covalent (or ionic) bonds, which are 10 or more times stronger. For example, the covalent bonds that hold methane (CH4) together are achieved when each hydrogen atom shares an electron with the carbon atom; these bonds are much stronger than the hydrogen bonds that cause wet hair to stick together, and so it takes much more energy to break apart methane than strands of hair held together with bonds between water molecules.

There are volumes written on each noncovalent force, and yet people still disagree on their origins and even more vehemently on the relative contribution of the interactions mentioned above to the energy of the molecule as a whole. The energies involved in such interactions are characteristically small, tending to be less than 5 kilocalories per mole of atom pairs involved. I don’t want to lump them together; they are so interestingly different. But here I must, while saying just a few fuzzy words on two of them in particular.

Dispersion forces are also called van der Waals interactions. German American physicist Fritz London provided the quantum-mechanical view of these in 1930, so sometimes they are referred to as London dispersion forces. Their physical origin is in the correlated motions of the electrons in two interacting atoms or molecules: A fluctuation in the electron distribution in one induces a local asymmetry of electrons in the other. Carefully averaged over space and time, an attraction emerges that falls off as 1/R6, where R is the separation between the nuclei of the atoms involved.

Dispersion forces can be tiny, as is the case for two helium atoms, which is why helium cannot be frozen at ambient pressure, or large for big molecules, such as the alkanes in candle wax or aspirin. (The forces are related roughly to the number of “exposed” atoms capable of coming close to each other). However big they are, the 1/R6 falloff ensures that they are relevant only when atoms get close to each other. But not too close, because then they repel each other.

Prototypical hydrogen bonding, the noncovalent bond associated with wet hair and brushes, occurs when the hydrogen of a polar oxygen–hydrogen (O–H) or nitrogen–hydrogen (N–H) bond comes near an electron source, typically the lone pair of electrons of a nearby oxygen or nitrogen atom. The chemistry community sees these bonds most commonly as the result of an ionic attraction between the positively charged hydrogen (in the N–H or O–H bond) and the negatively charged electrons of the lone pair on a nearby N or O. (I don’t agree, but that is a story to be told elsewhere.)

Despite such disagreement on origins, there is no disagreement at all on the magnitude of the energy involved, generally less than 5 kilocalories per mole. Small again, but there are oh-so-many of them.

Is the Straight and Narrow Preferred?

Small energies play out in other interesting ways in some of the simplest organic molecules: the unbranched long-chain hydrocarbons, such as the liquid to waxy “normal” alkanes, which are written chemically as CH3(CH2)nCH3. The molecules in gasoline belong to this family with n = 6 or so; increasing n from six leads to diesel fuel, jet fuel, oil, and lubricants. When alkanes become solid, which happens for still higher values of n, there isn’t much use for them, except as candle wax. The unbranched, or anti conformation, is energetically preferred, as shown for C18H38 below.

One wants to know the preferred shape of a molecule to understand its chemical personality—how it behaves, and how it reacts. A conformation is a geometry of a molecule that differs from another one by rotation around only single covalent C–C bonds. At each interior point in the hydrocarbon chain, for every four carbons, a choice is available between an extended conformation, which chemists refer to as all-anti, and two mirror-image curled-up forms, known as gauche conformations. The all-anti and one of the two gauche conformations are shown below for lighter fluid, or n-butane, C4H10.

The energy difference between the two conformations is truly minuscule. The gauche geometry is merely about one kilocalorie per mole in energy above the global minimum of the anti form; this is just 1/40th of the energy of a photon that is absorbed by a chlorophyll molecule in photosynthesis.

The two “conformers” are related by 120 degrees of rotation around the central C–C bond. Here’s another small energy at work, now controlling the geometry of a molecule. That rotation faces a small barrier; the reasons for it are still rousing my fellow theoreticians to much debate. But there is little uncertainty about its value; it is around 3 kilocalories per mole. Because there are two gauche forms, these conformations are favored by entropy. So, only as temperature approaches zero kelvin would one have the frozen-in anti conformation of n-butane as the only form present. At room temperature in a liquid or gas there is, however, enough energy from molecular collisions to have a significant number of n-butane molecules in the gauche conformation.

Suppose we have two conformations of a longer-chain, normal alkane, say C18H38. The all-anti, extended one is shown above, and a kinked form is shown at right. The turn in the middle of the kinked chain is achieved by incorporating two gauche “turns” (play with a model, and you will see it can be done).

That kinking costs energy, but only a wee amount—each gauche turn has an associated penalty of about 1 kilocalorie per mole. What is accomplished by the kink is visually apparent in the depiction below; the second part of the chain is brought near the first. In that conformation, or actually in a family of conformations looking roughly like that, there is a new source of stabilization that is unavailable in the extended, all-anti geometry: attractive dispersion forces between the two parts of the chain. The more chance for hydrogen atoms to come close to each other, the more stable that arrangement, so the folded molecule is more stable.

Small as they individually are, dispersion interactions add up. For an isolated molecule, for some n in CH3(CH2)n CH3 for example, the energy lowering (stabilization) in dispersion interaction will win out over the increase in energy (destabilization) in kinking, the latter accomplished by two or more gauche conformations along the chain. The molecule that I thought would be “straight” when I forgot to consider dispersion forces actually prefers energetically to be kinked.

To my knowledge, Jonathan Goodman first wrote down this idea in 1997. Theory in his and others’ hands confirmed the notion: For CH3(CH2)nCH3, the crossover from extended to kinked (and eventually curled in a more complex way) comes at around n = 16, or 18 carbon atoms. Remarkably, the experimental proof for this hypothesis has recently come forward, in work by N. O. B. Lüttschwager and colleagues.

A Really Recyclable Molecular Filter

2014-03PerspectiveFp97.jpgClick to Enlarge ImageNoncovalent bonds abound in nature, but there are clever new ways to exploit them artificially as well. Separating the small from the large is important in science, for instance, in gel electrophoresis and centrifugation. The development of nanofilters has opened up new ways to quickly separate small particles from even smaller ones, but most do not exploit noncovalent bonds because materials that rely on weak interactions often are not stable.

In 2011, Boris Rybtchinski and his collaborators at the Weizmann Institute of Science made a nanofilter held together by noncovalent bonds. The nanofilter has the additional intriguing property of being recyclable.

To make this nanofilter, Rybtchinski and colleagues took a beaker with a solution of a molecule in it, call it PP2b (you don’t want to know its systematic name), and poured it on a membrane, essentially an inert support. PP2b transformed into a colored gel on the support. That gel could separate the two kinds of nanoparticles. Small ones could go through readily, whereas large ones stayed on top. Then, when they poured a mixture of water and ethanol on the filter (roughly the strength of a good vodka), the gel dissolved and passed through the membrane, along with the large nanoparticles. PP2b and the large particles were easily separated, and then the PP2b was ready to be used again.

A balance of hydrophobic and hydrophilic bonding—that is, two types of weak, noncovalent bonds, working together—explains the magic of supramolecular polymers such as PP2b. Hydrophobic and hydrophilic are terms describing the proclivity of molecules or pieces of molecules to prefer, on a microscopic level, an aqueous environment or its opposite, represented emblematically by a long hydrocarbon chain.

If a piece of a molecule is polar, a local separation of positive and negative charge, that polarity will be attracted to a watery environment; a nonpolar segment would prefer the hydrocarbon surroundings. Soaps and detergents work through providing regions of both hydrophobic and hydrophilic bonding; the balance is also important in the preparation of many good things in this world, such as mayonnaise.

The platelet-like hydrocarbon rings in the middle of PP2b (see above) are nonpolar; the CH2CH2O, repeated on average 19 times, is the polar part, which likes water. In a number of solvents, including the common THF (tetrahydrofuran), PP2b is a biggish molecule with two tails. But in the presence of substantial amounts of water, the hydrophilic and hydrophobic interactions turn on, because the hydrophobic parts (the central organic platelets) want to be near each other.

The organic platelets, with pendant ethylene glycol tails, aggregate. On a molecular level one sees the formation of segments, then fibers, which can be viewed with a scanning electron microscope.

The performance of PP2b in solution is pretty neat—usually, one adds water and a solid dissolves; here, Rybtchinski and his colleagues added water, and a gel, a solid-like material with a lot of water still in it, formed. That’s the filter.

Notice that hydrogen bonds and dispersion forces are involved; small interactions that, as I said, are 10 to 30 times smaller than the energies of carbon–carbon, carbon–oxygen, or carbon–hydrogen bonds. Yet these small interactions add up, with a vengeance, to create three-dimensional aggregates, the network of fibers. This network is robust—stable to approximately 70 degrees Celsius—until you pour alcohol on it.

From Molecular to Macroscopic Scales

After all that, I still like my energies big. And, for that matter, I also like to follow individual molecules through their collisions with other molecules as bonds are broken and remade. My desire for the big and the particular—and my resistance to calculating averages over billions of molecular trajectories—comes with a price, however. It prevents me from moving from the angstrom scale of molecules to the macroscopic world where we experience the practical results of chemistry. It keeps me away from ferromagnetism and viscosity, and from Esther Williams’s interaction with water.

It’s an irrational desire, I know. The accumulation of tiny differentials rules nature. How could it be otherwise in a molecular world where it takes 6 x 1023 water molecules to make a single slurp of refreshing liquid? Change happens more readily through shuffling small pieces than by completely rearranging big ones, as evolution has discovered.

On the human level, as in chemistry, a big number of small actions can bring about large-scale change: Within our imperfect approaches to democracy, the small contributions of many can accomplish real change—be it in the abolition of slavery, the empowerment of women, or the limitation of automobile emissions.

I waver. It is so clear that small interactions of molecules can hardly be ignored, even if a weak theoretician with imperfect tools decides he cannot work on them. I like stories—science, and not only science, lives in them. The stories of modern chemistry that I have retold here show ever so clearly that aggregation, the action of many tiny gobs of energy in concert, can lead to essential change and a tangible, macroscopic consequence.

  • Ball, P. 1999. H2O: A Biography of Water. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson.
  • Boys, C. V. 1958 (1911). Soap Bubbles: Their Colors and Forces which Mold Them. New York: Dover.
  • Chandler, D. 2005. Interfaces and the driving force of hydrophobic assembly. Nature 437:640–647.
  • De Greef, T. F. A., M. M. J. Smulders, A. P. H. J. Schenning, R. P. Sijbesma, and E. W. Meijer. 2009. Supramolecular polymerization. Chemical Reviews 109:5687–5754.
  • Goodman, J. M. 1997. What is the longest unbranched alkane with a linear global minimum conformation? Journal of Chemical Information and Computer Sciences 37:876–878.
  • Krieg, E., H. Weissman, E. Shirman, E. Shimoni, and B. Rybtchinski. 2011. A recyclable supramolecular membrane for size-selective separation of nanoparticles. Nature Nanotechnology 6:141–146.
  • Krieg, E., E. Shirman, H. Weissman, E. Shimoni, S.G. Wolf, I. Pinkas, and B. Rybtchinski. 2009. Supramolecular gel based on a perylene diimide dye: Multiple stimuli responsiveness, robustness, and photofunction. Journal of the American Chemical Society 131:14365–14373.
  • Lüttschwager, N. O. B., T. N. Wassermann, R. A. Mata, and M. A. Suhm. 2013. The last globally stable extended alkane. Angewandte Chemie-International Edition 52:463–466.

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Chimps mimic high society to get ahead

EMORY (US)—When attempting to solve a problem or adopt a new behavior, chimpanzees, like humans, follow the example of their more experienced higher-status betters, new research finds.

The study, published in Public Library of Science One (PLoS One), confirms that the process of learning and adopting new behaviors is shaped by the social characteristics of the individual performing the new behavior.

Anthropologists have long viewed prestige—modeling behavior after celebrities, politicians, and other community leaders—as distinctly human, but the study makes clear that chimpanzees also mimic prominent members of society.

For the study, chimpanzees in two separate groups watched two group mates (distinguished by status and experience) solve a foraging task, each using a different technique.

When the observing chimpanzees were given the opportunity to solve the task, they overwhelmingly preferred the technique used by the more experienced, higher-status individuals with a proven track record of successfully solving such tasks.

“Because both techniques were equally difficult, shown an equal number of times by both models and resulted in equal rewards, we concluded the most copied chimpanzee enjoyed more prestige than the other,” says Victoria Horner, of Emory University’s Yerkes National Primate Research Center.

“If similar biases operate in the wild, the spread of cultural behaviors may be significantly shaped by the characteristics of the original performer,” Horner continues.

Researchers from University of St. Andrews in Scotland and Beloit College contributed to the study.

More news from Emory University:


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Sörenberg Flühli

Holidaying in Sörenberg means experiencing pure nature - and sharing in this wonderful plant and animal world. Nowhere else in Switzerland is there so much naturally protected moorland in such a small area as here. The moor landscape is characterised by the great contrast between the smooth, rounded surface contours of the moor and the rugged Schrattenfluh.

Sörenberg and the 8 km distant climatic health resort of Flühli form a strong family-oriented vacation destination. In addition to several small hotels, Sörenberg has a particularly wide range of holiday apartments and group accommodation. Close to Flühli you may also be surprised to find a restored Art Nouveau hotel.

The people in the Alpine valleys have complied with and acted upon the laws of nature for centuries. An important offer in the Entlebuch biosphere are thus guided hikes on topics related to the nature of the environment: karst walks over the Schrattenfluh, cave visits, wildlife observation by Brienz Rothorn, spotting the golden eagle, medicinal herbs and poisonous plants, and interesting facts about the moorland along with legends are the themes of some of these guided hikes.

From Sörenberg a cable car runs you up to the Brienz Rothorn, a popular starting point for wonderful mountain hikes. Here you also come across the steam train that takes you to further heights in summer. Below the Rothorn summit lies the Eisee lake - a beautifully deep blue mountain lake and paradise for anglers, nature lovers and hikers alike.

The place to combine wellness with purest nature amid a moorland landscape is at the idyllic Schwandalpweiher Kneipp facility by Fühli. An adrenalin kick for the adventurous is guaranteed by the high ropes course - and bikers get their fill on an interesting network of routes. Golfers also have the opportunity to indulge in their hobby and alphorn courses; cheese making, gold panning, Native American fun days etc. are further offers in this unique realm.

Selecione uma visão diferente para os seus resultados:


Tag Archives: language change

Phoneme Inventory Size and Demography

It’s long since been established that demography drives evolutionary processes (see Hawks, 2008 for a good overview). Similar attempts are also being made to describe cultural (Shennan, 2000; Henrich, 2004; Richerson & Boyd, 2009) and linguistic (Nettle, 1999a; Wichmann & Homan, 2009; Vogt, 2009) processes by considering the effects of population size and other demographic variables. Even though these ideas are hardly new, until recently, there was a ceiling as to the amount of resources one person could draw upon. In linguistics, this paucity of data is being remedied through the implementation of large-scale projects, such as WALS, Ethnologue and UPSID, that bring together a vast body of linguistic fieldwork from around the world. Providing a solid direction for how this might be utilised is a recent study by Lupyan & Dale (2010). Here, the authors compare the structural properties of more than 2000 languages with three demographic variables: a language’s speaker population, its geographic spread and the number of linguistic neighbours. The salient point being that certain differences in structural features correspond to the underlying demographic conditions.

With that said, a few months ago I found myself wondering about a particular feature, the phoneme inventory size, and its potential relationship to underlying demographic conditions of a speech community. What piqued my interest was that two languages I retain a passing interest in, Kayardild and Pirahã, both contain small phonological inventories and have small speaker communities. The question being: is their a correlation between the population size of a language and its number of phonemes? Despite work suggesting at such a relationship (e.g. Trudgill, 2004), there is little in the way of empirical evidence to support such claims. Hay & Bauer (2007) perhaps represent the most comprehensive attempt at an investigation: reporting a statistical correlation between the number of speakers of a language and its phoneme inventory size.

In it, the authors provide some evidence for the claim that the more speakers a language has, the larger its phoneme inventory. Without going into the sub-divisions of vowels (e.g. separating monophthongs, extra monophtongs and diphthongs) and consonants (e.g. obstruents), as it would extend the post by about 1000 words, the vowel inventory and consonant inventory are both correlated with population size (also ruling out that language families are driving the results). As they note:

That vowel inventory and consonant inventory are both correlated with population size is quite remarkable. This is especially so because consonant inventory and vowel inventory do not correlate with one another at all in this data-set (rho=.01, p=.86). Maddieson (2005) also reports that there is no correlation between vowel and consonant inventory size in his sample of 559 languages. Despite the fact that there is no link between vowel inventory and consonant inventory size, both are significantly correlated with the size of the population of speakers.

Using their paper as a springboard, I decided to look at how other demographic factors might influence the size of the phoneme inventory, namely: population density and the degree of social interconnectedness.

Continue reading

Population Size and Rates of Language Change

Continue reading


Onnit Labs introduces three all-natural supplements. ShroomTech Sport is said to improve endurance, oxygen utilization and energy with Cordyceps. ALPHA Brain contains acetylcholine and gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) boosting nutrients, which, according to the company, can improve mental drive and create a calm focus. New Mood consists of L-tryptophan and 5-HTP, which are said to improve mood and induce a sense of relaxation and calm.

Pop quiz: Which of the following could be indicators of future heart problems?
a. Unhealthy cholesterol levels
b. High blood pressure
c. Elevated homocysteine levels
d. All of the above
e. What’s homocysteine?!?

The wide and diverse range of marine oil products, and the omega-3 content they all offer, has ascended the ranks to health staple status over recent years. Consumers are now beginning to plumb deeper into the inner lives of their marine oil selections, and to ask more of them in both efficacy and stability.

Kids are taught how to balance, whether it’s learning to walk, carrying dinner plates to the sink or keeping the momentum on a seesaw without falling off. Most Americans are not applying what they learned on the playground to their eating habits. Too many are letting their nutrition crash to the ground by not achieving their recommended dietary allowance (RDA) of minerals such as iron, while other minerals, like calcium, are sometimes devoured to a dangerous extent.

Effer-C Elderberry from NOW Foods is an effervescent drink mix powder pack that contains 1,000 mg of vitamin C plus antioxidants and CoQ10 for energy and immune system support. It is made with BetterStevia and xylitol to keep the mix sugar free. The product is packaged in individual servings.
SRP: $12.99


Snap-O Fact #43
The gadget spec URL could not be found

The Obama Administration Reformed The Patent System.
In order to support his $447 billion jobs plan, President Obama signed the America Invests Act on Sept. 16, 2011. The purpose of this act is to encourage entrepreneurship and investment in the United States. The bill is created to avoid and minimize long, expensive law suits regarding the patent system by granting the patent to the first applicant. Thus, it establishes a post-grant review process to ensure the rights of the patent’s owners. Therefore, instead of the legal battles regarding the patent system, investors and businessmen can focus on innovation, technology, and job creation. “Issuing patents to the first person or company to file will help provide clarity in the patent-granting process,” commented the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.


Stem cell research is morally problematic

By Mona Charen

Not satisfied with that contrast, he elaborated that “a few of these folks (who oppose funding this research) are just grinding a political axe, and they should be ashamed of themselves.”

My son takes between four and six shots of insulin daily and must test his blood sugar by pricking his finger the same number of times. This disease affects every major organ system in the body and places him in the high-risk category for more problems than I care to name. When he settles down to sleep at night, I can never be entirely sure that he won’t slip into a coma from a sudden low blood sugar. How happily I would take the disease upon myself if I could only spare him! So please don’t lecture me about grinding a political axe.

Proponents of embryonic stem cell research point out that some of the embryos currently sitting in freezers in fertility clinics around the world are going to be washed down the drain anyway — which surely kills them, and without any benefit to mankind. This is true. There are several answers to this.

The first is that a society that truly honored each human life would take a different approach. Fertility clinics and the couples who use them would understand the moral obligation not to create more embryos than they can reasonably expect to transfer to the mother’s uterus. In cases where this was impossible, the embryos could be placed for adoption with other infertile couples (this is already a widespread practice).

Once you begin to pull apart a human embryo and use its parts, you have thoroughly dehumanized it. You have justified taking one life to (speculatively) save another. Despite the rosy future painted by Ron Reagan and others, those of us who follow the field with avid interest have been disappointed by avenues of research that have failed, thus far, to pan out.

Still, opponents of stem cell research should not argue that the research is going to be fruitless. No one knows. The problem is that this kind of research is morally problematic. Germany, Italy, Portugal, Luxembourg and Austria ban it. (The United States does not. We simply withhold federal funding.)

There is something else, as well. While the idea of growing spare parts — say, spinal nerves for a paraplegic — in a Petri dish seems wonderful, it may not be possible to do so from embryonic stem cells. As The Wall Street Journal reported on Aug. 12, scientists have been frustrated by their inability to get stem cells to grow into endoderm (the cells that make up the liver, stomach and pancreas), whereas they can coax them to become heart and nerve tissue.

“Scientists speculate,” the Journal explained, “that might be because the embryo early on needs blood and nerve tissue to grow, while endoderm-based organs aren’t needed until later.”
If we can use the stem cells of normal human embryos for research, by what logic would we shrink from allowing an embryo to reach a later stage of development in order to study better how endoderm forms?

These are treacherous moral waters we’re setting sail in, and those who hesitate ought not to be scorned as ignorant, uncompassionate or blinkered.

Mona Charen writes for Creators Syndicate.


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1402.8 #119 (DL Qual #69

Nov 14, 2012 3:18 PM  Disneyland Talk Land
Well...the time has come! I woke up to a text from a very generous MWer that wants to thank me and 2 others (not saying names to ruin the surprise for them yet hehe) for being so welcoming to her when she first joined the app, and is taking us to CLUB 33!!!! I never thought the day would come that I'd be invited, but it's happening!!!! I'm sooo excited!((: planning on early new year, and don't worry, I'll take so many pictures!!!😄😍🎉 had to share my excitement, here(: also, in respect of the amazing friend that invited me, she's asked to not give out her name yet :))

And you get to bring your MWmama, right??? Heehee. Jk. Have a WONDERFUL time and congrats! Post pics and I can't wait to see what you wear, darling. 😘 So happy for you and the others - misschurro  6101.2 #18 3:24PM
You know she will look adorable!! - RCmom  5235.3 #19 3:24PM
Straight up, she will! - misschurro  6101.2 #18 3:26PM
What an incredible opportunity. I'm sure it is because you are a reflection of human kindness. You are always so pleasant and genuine in your postings. A simple act of kindness has been rewarded. I'm happy for you, and look forward to your pictures. - Sugarbuzz  237.9 #1472 3:50PM
Wow! Thank you all for the kind words and sharing of the excitement!!!(: I am so so blessed to be given this opportunity an it still doesn't seem real!(: just shows how incredibly strong Disney magic can be! And how this single app brings people together(: I'm so thankful for this experience and the wonderful MWer that is taking me!(: thank you everyone! - AvidDisneyThrifter220  1402.8 #119 3:58PM
woo hoo! congrats! have fun! - OhanaPhoto  4569.2 #25 3:19PM
Wow! That's awesome Jess! I am sooo happy for you!!! - RCmom  5235.3 #19 3:21PM
Wow!! Lucky you!! Have a great time!! - brodysmommy  422.3 #502 3:22PM
Yay! Congrats - lilo84  377.0 #578 3:22PM
Thats great! Good things happen to good people. Congrats to all of you. Cant wait for the pictures :) - pinkmonkeys  528.7 #380 3:23PM
WOW!! So awesome! What a fantastic experience. - mousejedi  310.1 #832 3:24PM
You are going to love it!! Kudos to the MouseWaiter for making dreams come true! - MermaidWithShears  1025.8 #175 3:25PM
Yes!!! Kudos indeed!!! I NEVER expected this to happen((: - AvidDisneyThrifter220  1402.8 #119 3:29PM
YAY!! Congrats to everyone! That is a wonderful way to thank someone. - aprilinjune4  483.5 #421 3:25PM
Sooooo amazing!! You very much deserve this opportunity!!! Hope you have a blast!! - CourtyAstroBlisters  783.3 #229 3:29PM
What a beautiful gesture! Once in a lifetime experience!! Have a magical time Jess!!! - Willierose  2313.6 #63 3:30PM
So Jealous....it's at the top of my bucket list. Have a fanatic time!!!!Congrats to you and the other MWers that are going with you. - acejedi  22.2 #6751 3:32PM
YAY have a great time :) Cant wait to see pics - DisneyMe2Death  875.0 #206 3:33PM
Wait. Now there's a Fairy Godmother? So many awesome MWers in here. 😸 - Waites4DodgerEars_CM  1002.5 #180 3:36PM
I'm so thrilled for all of you! Have a wonderful time! - Cinderella_Schnooks  3259.1 #40 3:37PM
I think this is an incredible gift... - IMissDisney  1205.7 #143 3:37PM
Awesome. Congrats - Hendizl  2788.2 #44 3:43PM
"The time has come!" Said the Walrus. That's a cool story, amazing MWers! - philliprocks  1296.4 #130 3:46PM
Say What?! OMG that is so amazing! - TheNewTrent  749.0 #243 3:46PM
That's so awesome! I'm sooo happy for you. :) - Vegan7LuvsStitch  1026.3 #174 3:49PM
Wow! Lucky. Have a wonderful time. - dumbbunny  627.2 #312 3:50PM
That just goes to show how important it is to be welcoming here! (As everyone is)! Congrats!!! - DisneyDavidEMT  2536.6 #51 3:52PM
Wow that's a very exciting! What a lucky girl!! Have a great time! - MoniqueLovelle  10.8 #10093 3:54PM
What a generous thing to do in return for you and the others for just being nice and welcoming...have a great time - TiggerBelle  515.4 #393 3:59PM
Wow, very generous indeed! Have fun! - CadaverousPallor  268.4 #1151 4:04PM
How exciting!! - Jillian  767.1 #237 4:15PM
That's amazing! I'm very happy for you! - rbeezy  703.0 #264 4:19PM
Good for you! - Mrs.mouse  543.6 #367 4:20PM
Congratulations! Hope you have an awesome time. Be sure to post a pic. - MonLuvsDisney  192.1 #2062 4:22PM
I'm so happy for you! Can't wait to see what you wear and all your fun pictures :). - kss4tink  218.0 #1737 4:24PM
Awesome! You got enough time to pick out a cute outfit :) - RAQQUEL  49.8 #4685 4:27PM
How exciting! - GarnerPhotography  324.9 #748 4:29PM
Congrats I'm glad you get to live that dream! Save me a club 33 chocolate :) hehe - Snow33  195.2 #2026 4:29PM
So happy for you!! You deserve it! - vdubmomma  204.4 #1916 4:32PM
Congrats!! - LizO  471.1 #439 4:38PM
That's fantastic! Good for you! Can't wait to see the pics. - MissAmericaSings  401.4 #539 4:44PM
jelly!!! - Radius  502.7 #405 4:44PM
Maybe we will see each other there - CaptnSparrow  679.5 #281 4:47PM
When we get our date set, I'll let you know! - AvidDisneyThrifter220  1402.8 #119 6:27PM
you totally deserve it. you're such a sweetheart. thanks to the MWer for choosing such an awesome person. - nicoleface  1752.6 #93 5:56PM
Yay I'm so happy for you! - Yesi  110.6 #3376 6:36PM
All of you definitely deserve it! Have fun! - cheeselesspizza  220.6 #1703 6:39PM
Yay!! That's so awesome!! - SarahLovesDisney  83.9 #3816 6:44PM
😊 - ItsJessicaRabbit  27.7 #6025 6:47PM
😊😊😊 - AvidDisneyThrifter220  1402.8 #119 7:14PM
This is so cool! I'm sure you'll have an wonderful time. - RapunzalK  196.7 #2005 6:52PM
WOW! That's awesome! Congrats to you, that is very kind & generous...what an amazing thing to do for someone - awesome MW'er! ✨°O°✨ - LMAO-Asturi  173.3 #2327 8:15AM
That's so awesome! Hope you have an amazing time and I look forward to your pictures! - luvmygreenarmyman  571.1 #345 8:18AM
I love karma! - PrincessDuckie  883.9 #201 8:29AM
So happy for you! ((Hugs)) - Duchess_SMK  6250.0 #17 8:31AM
Congrats! I'm excited to see your pictures. I know you'll look adorbs and the backdrop will be perfect! - ladylikesdisney  945.0 #189 8:38AM
How exciting. Congrats! - CherryTreeLane  460.4 #451 8:52AM
How exciting! Such a great opportunity! I know you will have soooo much fun! - disneymomma87  205.7 #1893 9:01AM
How exciting! Have lots of fun! - sunshinegrl  348.8 #650 5:54PM
Very nice! - mrscttlemstr  315.9 #796 7:21PM

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unFORECAST for the week of Nov 23, 2015

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Here! Yay! - LadyTrampTraveler8  48.3 #0 10:36AM

Big Thunder Ranch and Barbecue will close permanently Jan 10
Fantasmic! Jan 10-TBA
Disneyland Railroad Jan 10-TBA
Mark Twain Riverboat Jan 10-TBA
Sailing Ship Columbia Jan 10-TBA
Davey Crocket Explorer Canoes Jan 10-TBA
Tom Sawyer Island Jan 10-TBA
Season of the Force-Hyperspace Mountain begins November 16

Soarin' Over California Nov 2-12
Luigi's Rollickin Roadsters opens early 2016

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Main Street Electrical Parade - sawman911  2162.6 #69 9:33AM
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Dec 13, 2015 10:00am

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Saronite Ore Farming

This Saronite Ore farming guide will show you the best places for mining Saronite Ore. This ore is mined from Saronite Deposits or Rich Saronite Deposits. It's recommended to have Mining skill 400 before you start farming, so you won't get any ore fragments.

I must also mention that Titanium Veins are rare mining nodes that primarily spawn in areas where you will find Saronite Deposits.

Saronite Ore

Wintergrasp is the best zone for farming Saronite. The respawn rate is fast and there are a lot of Rich Saronite Deposits. The only disadvantage is that you can't use flying mount when the battle for Wintergasp is in progress.

Attention! Currently it seems that sometimes there is a bug and you can't see any mining nodes, or even npcs in the zone. Logging out and then logging back in fixed this bug for me, but you might even have to close the game.

Sholazar Basin

Shoalzar Basin is also an excellent zone. The best part is that if someone is already farming here, you can just try Wintergasp because these two zones are really close to each other.

Once you are done mining Saronite, go to my Obsidium Ore Farming page!


One of the big focuses of Maven 3 is to provide a more reliable, more stable and better performing build tool. And one big area of improvement is Performance.

Maven 3 has the (new and somewhat experimental) ability to analyze your project structure, and the dependencies between your modules, to figure out which modules can be built in parallel. This has major performance implications for larger multi-module projects - the documentation reports typical speed increases of 20-50%.

To configure your modules to be built in parallel, you need to tell Maven how many threads you want to work with.  The following command will run Maven using 4 threads:

mvn -T 4 clean install

Or you can get Maven to calculate how many threads to run, based on the number of available CPU cores. In this example, Maven will run up to 2 threads per core in parallel.

mvn -T 2C clean install

The biggest speed increase comes from tests. Of course, not all tests can be run in parallel - if two modules both start up a web server on the same port, for example, you will get yourself into trouble. Speed increases will also depend on how your tests are distributed through your modules - if all the slow ones are together in one module, for example, speed increases are likely to be limited. In this case, you might want to also try running your unit tests in parallel.

If you want to learn more about the finer points of build automation with Maven, including Maven 3, don't miss out on the next Java Power Tools Bootcamps, coming up in London (September 13-17) and Canberra (October 18-22).


Human Pantheon

Temur, Major Deity, Father of the Gods, Patron of Politicians, Earth, and Safety;
Father of the Gods

Alignment: Lawful Neutral Symbol: Crown and Coin
Domains: Law, Protection, Strength, Earth, Nobility Weapon: Broadsword

Priests of Temur are often consulted on the rule of law and in some places, asked to act as judges. Usually dressed in white and yellow vestments, priests of Temur will wear silver and gold armor when they take the field.

Laifa, Major Deity, Mother of the Gods, Patron of Mother, Home, Childbearing, and Water;
Mother of the Gods

Alignment: Neutral Good Symbol: Wheat and Scepter
Domains: Animal, Good, Healing, Protection, Water Weapon: Mace

Priests of Laifa are usually dressed in browns and tans

Murgle, Major Deity, Lord of the Underworld, Guardian of the Dead;
First son of Laifa

Alignment: Neutral Evil Symbol: Skull & Vines, Festering Hand
Domains: Death, Destruction, Evil, War, Fire Weapon: Scythe

Grunnush, Major Deity, God of Air, Patron of Chaos, Disorder, Fear, and Weakness;
Second son of Laifa

Alignment: Chaotic Neutral Symbol: Bird
Domains: Air, Chaos, Destruction, Trickery, Weather Weapon: Composite Longbow

Palenon, Major Deity, God of Goodness and Light, Patron of Warriors, Glorious Deeds, and Life;
Third son of Laifa

Alignment: Lawful Good Symbol: The Sun (with a Face)
Domains: Good, Healing, Sun, War, Glory Weapon: Morning Star

Priests of Palenon are often dressed in reds and white robes. In battle, they trade those for armor and

Marsa, Minor Deity, Goddess of Love, Patron of Lovers, Spring, and Fertility;
Daughter of Laifa

Alignment: Chaotic Good Symbol: The Moon
Domains: Animal, Healing, Plant, Charm, Madness Weapon: Long bow, Short bow (including composite)

Elise, Minor Deity, the Traveler, Patron of Shadows, Secrets, and Pain;
Daughter of Murgle

Alignment: Chaotic Evil Symbol: Mirror
Domains: Travel, Darkness, Knowledge, Magic, Evil Weapon: Quarterstaff

Elise is unique among all the pantheons as she accepts clerics from all alignments except Lawful Good.
Followers of Elise are usually found wandering the roads and cities of the world. They are dressed in comfortable traveling clothes and sometimes carry a staff with a mirror. The temples to Elise are considered to be waystations open to any. If a priest is in attendance, it is usually because they are just passing through.

Vurda, Minor Deity, Lord of Hate and Decay;
Daughter of Murgle

Alignment: Lawful Evil Symbol: Laughing Skull
Domains: Death, Destruction, Earth, Evil, Law Weapon: Two Handed Sword

Priests of Vurda shave their heads and often add tattoos to their scalps. They also dye their arms and hands black. Temples to Vurda are dark and windowless.

The Unaligned
A few human clerics align themselves not with any particular god, but rather represent the eternal balance of the universe. These generalist clerics are simply referred to as Reverends or Ministers.

Alignment: True Neutral Symbol: Scales
Domains: Any two Weapon: Warhammer

Human Pantheon

Return of Hadrach Striogi Striogi


The Story Behind 'Catfish'“To think about the definition of ‘Catfish,’ it’s really anybody that is willing to take a risk, push the envelope, leave their comfort zone.”
~ Nev Shulman

Nev Shulman, a 20-something photographer from New York City, was heartbroken to discover that the girl he was falling for online was actually a disturbed, middle-aged mother who took on the role of several false personas. Catfish, the 2010 documentary that featured Nev’s journey, encouraged others to share stories of their own. “Catfish,” the television show, debuted this past November on MTV; Nev and his filmmaker friend, Max Joseph, travel around the country to help those involved in online relationships meet face-to face.

The catch? They all hope that the person they’ve emotionally invested in is who they say they are.

Spoilers below, so stop reading if you don’t want to know what the series is about.

What I’ve personally found interesting is getting a glimpse into what’s really occurring behind the scenes. Why do some people feel the need to pretend that they are someone else, or why promote other levels of deception? And why does the person on the other end want to believe that it’s all true?

The very first episode features Sunny, a 21 year-old college student, who fell in love with Jamison after talking online for several months. They phoned, e-mailed, texted, and even went as far to discuss a future together, children included. He portrayed himself as a model, a television writer, and an aspiring anesthesiologist. Too good to be authentic?

“I bet everything in my life on this,” Sunny told Nev. Nev and Max researched Jamison’s history and discovered that basic aspects of his life simply did not check out. For one, his claim to writing cue cards for Chelsea Handler is dismissed as soon as it’s uncovered that cue cards on the Chelsea Handler show don’t even exist.

Finally, they organize a meeting in person, only to unfortunately realize that he is a she (Chelsea), who was impersonating this gorgeous boyfriend-figure the entire time. “I made a Facebook to get revenge, and it turned into something it wasn’t supposed to,” she said. This 18-year-old girl has been Jamison for four years (it turns out, he is real, and she’s been using his actual photos to carry out the charade).

Why did she do it? My favorite part of the Catfish episodes is when Nev plays the role of therapist. He sits down with Chelsea, as she candidly opens up about her past and being bullied by her peers. By creating a fake identity, she felt she was able to exert control via taking advantage of someone else.

I thought it was so sad that Chelsea was picked on to such an extreme, and she didn’t even wish to be herself anymore. However, Nev reminds her that even as “Jamison,” she was still able to get along with those she’s befriended; all those great qualities really did come from her true self.

Sunny was devastated when she found out that her love interest was not who she thought, yet she decided to honestly believe in what she was told during their interaction together. Nev, who had his own share of heartbreak over his failed online relationship, shares why he so readily took the bait. “There was definitely an aspect of me wanting to believe,” he said in an interview with The Jewish Chronicle Online. “It was flattering, it was interesting, and (Meghan) was much more fun than all the women I knew.”

“Catfish” airs on MTV on Monday nights at 11/10 Central.


The Information Services Industry encompasses a somewhat diverse population of companies. Still, there is a common theme in that these companies provide valuable and practical information to end-users. (Services are billed either on a subscription or per-use basis.) End-users range from small businesses to large corporations, with the mix favoring the latter. Service providers often cater to specific markets. Most equities in the industry carry beta coefficients fairly close to 1.00, indicating that they typically perform in line with the broader stock market. With a few exceptions, these issues pay a very modest dividend, if any.

Market Considerations

This industry is generally cyclical. Notable end-markets served that are the most dependent on the macroeconomic cycle are commercial real estate, advertising, retail, high-tech, energy and engineering. Areas that are a bit less cyclical include consumer credit, business information, information technology, financial services, and economic analysis. Legal, tax accounting, healthcare and education are among those sectors having the greatest stability. In most cases, the performance of a business line is closely linked to corporate customers' budgets. During stressful economic periods, clients may move more information functions in-house. Service companies can protect against this risk by securing as many long-term contracts as possible. Government business also helps to smooth the effects of the broader market cycle.

The Operating Structure

Business models of Information Services companies tend to be similar. These companies do not provide physical products. Therefore, there are no figures for inventory or cost of goods in the traditional sense. Capital budgets are limited to investment in systems and technology; outlays for real estate and machinery are not significant.

A database is an important resource for many service providers. Managements need to ensure that compiled information is up-to-date and relevant to the end user. Frequent revisions to the database are essential and costly. Also, the speed and quality of the interface between the database and the customer are crucial to success. Industry leaders utilize the most advanced information technology available. At times, competition can be fierce.

Besides suppliers of database information, the industry includes companies that offer consulting. Such services require a highly skilled workforce. Consultants come from top colleges and universities or have significant real-world experience. Salaries can be high, and companies need to charge customers enough to earn a profit. When the corporate sector of the economy is healthy, it's not hard to maintain good profitability, but during difficult times, managements must optimize employee utilization and contain compensation to support the bottom line.

In addition to compensation paid to consultants, marketing outlays account for a substantial portion of a company's operating budget. Much of these outlays go to pay sales representatives. Salespeople are typically assigned to a particular segment of the customer base, which may consist of several small businesses or one large corporate client. Representatives must prove adept at bringing in new customers, while meeting the needs of existing ones. Effective managers closely monitor the productivity of individuals and the entire sales force on a regular basis.

Capital Structure

The industry's debt burden, as a whole, is usually less than one-third of total capital. But there are several companies with few or no long-term obligations, and some with substantial borrowings. Consulting firms, relying mainly on brainpower, are not capital intensive, and thus only require short-term funding to finance new projects or small acquisitions. Companies that maintain big databases, develop expansive information technology systems, and/or pursue large acquisitions often carry heavy debt loads. These service providers need to increase free cash flow to service and pay down their debt.

Beyond the initial public offering of common stock, equity financing is not as crucial as cash and debt are to funding operations and expansion. (Secondary offerings are made when share prices are especially attractive.) Still, stock options are a key incentive to managers and employees (salespeople, consultants). Unchecked, options can measurably boost common shares outstanding and dilute stockholder value. Companies in the industry take care to limit the overall float via regular buybacks. The percentage of a company's exercisable options is worth noting.

Long-Term Success

Those who succeed in this industry are able to keep pace with changing practices in the workplace, new information, and advances in systems and technology. Too, they must hold on to a skilled cadre of consultants, salespeople and technicians. Competition tends to be rather stiff. Capital barriers to entry are not all that high. Still, it can often be a challenge to secure top talent. The business arena and company standings may quickly change when new players come on the field or the established line-up consolidates or acquires smaller entities.

Information Services Industry stocks have historically kept pace with the broader market averages, with some better weathering market downturns than others, depending on the end-users served. The sector's Earnings Predictability scores are generally above average. Share Price Growth Persistence ratings are more varied, according to individual company operating performance. More often than not, long-term buy-and-hold investors are likely to be satisfied with this industry.


Production buildings

The Best-Hall production building will offer a cost-efficient and unobstructed solution for the varied needs of your production. The hall has no supporting columns, which means that all of the space can be used efficiently for productive use. The hall can be equipped with protective walls attached to the steel frame, conveyors, bridge cranes, working platforms, heat insulation, or accessories required by the authorities, as necessary. As the intended use, capacity, or production materials change, the structure and level of the equipment in your hall is easy to alter.


Hike to the Top of Longs Peak

It is impossible to not stare at the eastern skyline of Rocky Mountain National Park and not be compelled to at least wonder what it would be like to climb Longs Peak. Dominating the skyline, and topping out at 14,259 feet, Longs is the ultimate adventure for enthusiastic hikers.

Don’t be fooled though, it’s not a walk in the park. In fact, the 16-mile round trip hike will push hikers lungs and stamina to the test. The reward? Unobstructed 360 degree views spanning the eastern plains and continental divide.

The Rundown to Longs Peak:

Two rules come into play when hiking Longs: Start early and drink more water than you think necessary. When planning an assent, try to organize it so you can hike during the tail end of your trip. The few days of being in the park will help your body acclimate to the high altitude. The journey starts from the Longs Peak Trailhead located along CO-7 10.2 miles from Estes Park. Most hikers typically begin before dawn, since afternoon thunderstorms usually roll in around 12 or 1 pm and can be life threatening above tree line.

The first two miles gain steady elevation while passing through Goblin’s Forest. After crossing several small streams, the trail emerges from the trees and crosses into open tundra. Time this right and the sun will just be peaking out across the eastern horizon. Looking ahead you will now be able to see Longs looming in morning darkness.

The trail continues to gain elevation while feeding through open tundra filled with jagged rocks and boulders lit by the early morning sunrise. At Chasm Lake Trail Junction, grab a quick snack and soak in views of Longs 18-acre granite face known as the Diamond. The face can be climbed by experienced climbers and typically is considered a top tier destination.

After the junction, follow the trail gaining steady amounts of elevation while wrapping around a small ridgeline. The hike then enters the boulder field, a large relatively flat field of boulders where a few backcountry campsites reside. The infamous keyhole, which leads to the only non-technical route up Longs Peak, is now visible directly ahead at the top of the boulder field.

Before passing through the keyhole, check for storm clouds building on the horizon. Past this point the trail is fully exposed and can be dangerous if a thunderstorm rolls in. Always remember to error on the side of caution and heed a hikers well-known saying: the mountain is not going anywhere; it will be here another day.

Pass through the keyhole and begin a final mile-long ascent to the summit. To navigate, follow spray painted targets to the base of a long trough. As you ascend the trough, don’t forget to turn around for some of the best views in the Park of Glacier Gorge to the North.

The large flat summit of Longs has unobstructed 360-degree views of the eastern plains, Indian Peaks Wilderness to the south, and the Rocky Mountain National Park to the west. To return, retrace your route back to Longs Peak Trailhead.

Note: If you start to feel nauseous, it’s probably a resort of high altitude. Start heading back down to lower elevations where the symptoms should reside. If they persist, it’s best to seek a doctor.

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Newborn Baby Photography: Tips for Keeping Baby Sleepy

When doing newborn baby photography, it makes everyone's job easier if the child you are photographing is reasonably sleepy throughout the photography session. As a rule, sleepy children are much more agreeable and less likely to raise a fuss. As any parent knows, however, keeping a newborn sleepy is no small feat in and of itself. While there is no magic technique that will guarantee that a newborn will be pleasant, sleepy and docile throughout the duration of the photography session, there are a handful of steps that can be taken to increase the chances of being faced with a sleepy newborn.

Below you will find a rundown of the steps that you and the parents can take to help ensure a pleasant experience.

Plan Ahead

All newborns have at least a rough schedule of when they are at their sleepiest. While parents may often wish that they could predict more accurately when their child will be wide awake, there are certain times during the day when newborns tend to become sleepy. Ask the parents of the newborn you will be photographing when these times are and schedule photo sessions to correspond with these normal sleeping times.

Keep the Room Warm

It is a fact that infants feel more comfortable--and by extension, sleepy--in warm environments. The last place that newborns were used to living, after all, was their mother's womb. An hour or two before any photo session with a newborn involved, it is always a good idea to begin heating up the room that will be used to shoot pictures. If you do not want to heat up your entire studio, have a handful of space heaters on hand that can provide heat to the shooting area when your subject arrives.

Make Sure Baby Is Well Fed

One of the main things that can cause a newborn to suddenly wake up completely and become cranky is when they are hungry. Infants have very small stomachs and they need to be fed regularly and routinely in order to keep them happy. Feeding a baby immediately before shooting will often go a long way towards ensuring that you have a pleasantly sleepy subject for your photographs. Whether this means allowing a mother to breastfeed her child in your studio or instructing the parents to bring a bottle with them to the studio, be sure to alert them to this fact before they come to the studio.

Music or Toys

Be sure to ask the parents of the child if there is any music or toys, like a mobile above the child's crib at home, that tends to help the newborn fall asleep quickly. If the newborn you are photographing tends to get to sleep better when a particular lullaby or song is played lightly, have a CD player on hand or ask the parents to bring in their system in order to recreate the child's normal sleep environment as much as possible. Similarly, if a child is used to sleeping with a particular toy or decoration, consider having the parents bring this along too.

Popular Cameras for High Quality Photos:


Aloha and Welcome…

“Lokahi i ka Lanakila” - United in Victory

The 5th BCD is an organization that is dedicated to protecting the team. Through training, counseling, and instilling strong ethical and moral behavior that are consistent with the Army Values and Warrior Ethos, we attain a high level of organizational performance while simultaneously maintaining Soldier and Family well-being.

COL Charles D. Mills

COL Charles D. Mills