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Author: talksfree Big red star, 1000 posts Old School Fool Add to my Favorite Fools Ignore this person (you won't see their posts anymore) Number: of 47797
Subject: The Word From IDCC Date: 7/2/2001 12:27 PM
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I spoke at length with the investor relations director, Janet Point, at IDCC. I found her straightforward and knowledgeable. The following is a summary of what I heard her to say.

IDCC does have licenses with Nokia, Siemens, Panasonic and others. After their settlement with Q in 1996, they have develop new patents on the core CDMA technology. They hold about 200 patents. None of their patents give them exclusive rights to license all of the CDMA technology necessary for WCDMA.

She described CDMA as a bundle of rights, to which several companies have or claim ownership of key acpects - Q, IDCC, Motorola and others. None of the companies have all of the rights necessary to license CDMA for use in the WCDMA technology. Nokia, or others, will have to go to Q for some of the rights, Motorola for some of the rights, and to IDCC for some of the rights. She equated this to the semiconductor industry where many companies cross license among themselves the bundle of rights necessary for producing semiconductor chips.

It is her expectation that all of the holders of the CDMA bundle of rights will reach cross licensing agreements to be able to collectively license the CDMA technology necessary for WCDMA, of which IDCC will be a part.

Interpretation - Janet Point did not say the following, it is solely my interpretation the meaning of what she says.

IDCC sees itself as a player in the WCDMA marketplace, but not "the" player, or even the most important player. Others hold key core CDMA patents, and those players will have to be a part of the picture.

Therefore, under the best scenario for IDCC, they will receive a portion of the royalties, as will Q, Motorola, etc. This means that Q, IDCC and others will all share in the WCDMA marketplace. This also means the Chun's assertion that IDCC will dominant the marketplace to the exclusion of Q is incorrect.

I hope this clarifies the issues for everyone. I have not heard from Q yet, but believe that is is worthwhile stating the "best" possible position for IDCC based upon IDCC's statements, since it negates some of the comments of the IDCC group who has been posting here.

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Ladies and Gentlemen,

As I was posting the audio from Falcons head coach Jim Mora's conference call with our local beat writers, it occurred to me that you may not know exactly what multimedia we post on

I'm continually updating the schedule found on the following page:

Always check the homepage, as well as the links in the media player and the "This Week's Multimedia" slide in the homepage lead story rotation for a listing of all the multimedia posted each week.

Thank you,

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My RAGBRAI Team LIVESTRONG Fundraising Page

Monday, January 30, 2012

Pay It Forward ... w/ Blood and/or Platelet Donations

This post was kickstarted by a tweet from a virtual friend, Darryl (@lovingthebike). Darryl linked a blog post from his website called "Pay It Forward." (Great read - go get it here.) Two guests write about how they received from others who pay it forward and now try to emulate that in their lives. That got me thinking. How can, and how do, I pay it forward? Below is one way I do....

Ok, time for a plug for the American Red Cross.

As you know, you can do blood donations through the Red Cross - at blood drives like the ones we periodically have at work, or by going to your local Red Cross office.

You can make blood donations every other month (56 days, or 8 weeks to be precise). And the actual donation part only takes a few minutes. (Getting from the reception desk to the table where you actually donate takes a little longer.)

Another way to give is to donate platelets. Platelets are used by patients fighting cancer, have undergone transplants, or otherwise have weakened immune systems. A single donation can provide up to three therapeutic doses. (In contrast, it takes up to six whole blood donations to provide enough platelets for one dose.) Follow this link for more information from the Red Cross.

After donating at the first office blood drive (last June) since I started last February, I was notified by the Red Cross that I am an ideal platelet donor candidate. My count is very high and they need A+ donors. I have made three such donations in the last two months.

My goal for 2012 is to make a donation either platelet and/or whole blood at least once a month. I'd like to do more, but it does take a lot of time.

In addition to the screening process you go through for every donation (which can take up to an hour), it can take up to an additional two hours for the donation. And the preferred method is the double-arm, where blood is drawn from one arm and returned (sans platelets) in the other. Of course, you can't use your arms during that time, so plan on bringing an iPod to listen to tunes, an iPad to watch a flick, or be at the mercy of whatever channel they have on the tube that day.

The Red Cross staff and volunteers are the BEST! while you donate. They will get you anything you need - a blanket, something to drink, adjust your pillow, etc. The ones I have worked with have all be awesome.

A couple of hints:
1) When they go to stick you, if you hate needles (like I do!), wiggle your toes - it focuses your attention on your feet and away from your arm. And do try to relax. When you're tense, your blood vessels constrict and it just makes it harder.
2) Eat something a couple hours before you donate. If your stomach is too emplty, you won't have enough blood sugar in your system and you may feel light headed afterwards. True for either blood or platelet donations.

Giving blood and/or platelets is an easy way to help out in your community. A way to "pay it forward" if you will.

Thanks for reading.

  1. Hi Bob, I'm so happy that today's post sparked you to write this one of your own. This is perfect pay if forward type of action kicks off another positive reaction. What a great goal you've set for 2012 and it's one that many people will benefit from. Great job....and keep on paying it forward.

    1. Thanks, Darryl! And keep up the GREAT work over at LTB!

  2. The simple act of giving blood can save another life. Bob, you have just inspired me to donate blood myself.


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Wednesday, May 21, 2014

Muirhead on why she chose curling instead of golf

Eve Muirhead is playing golf with the big boys this week, teeing off at the European Tour's biggest event of the year, the BMW PGA Championship. She's playing in the celebrity pro-am ahead of the tournament. That means she'll be playing alongside the likes of Ernie Els, Graeme McDowell and Sergio Garcia.

Muirhead, for those who don't know, is a scratch golfer who had scholarship offers from U.S. schools. But she elected to pursue curling instead of golf.

"I knew I had the potential in curling to be at the top of the game. I knew a handful of golfers who made it to the top, to professional level, and that would have meant I'd have to move away and not curl at all," she said.
"I can be the best in the world, I know that if I put in the work I'm hopefully going to get the rewards at the end of it," she added, when asked what the one main attraction to curling was.

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Boing Boing

Fun and inexpensive pocket-size wood puzzles

I found these matchbox size wood puzzles at a general store in Colorado and bought three of them. There are a bunch of different ones in the series and I plan to get them all because they are almost like magic tricks and it’s fun to challenge your friends by showing them the end result (without letting them see the process of solving them).

The Baffle Board is a miniature version of an old classic known as the Red Goose puzzle. The challenge is to move the three beads from the loop of string on one side of the block to the loop on the other side. The printed solution included with the puzzle isn’t very clear, so here is a YouTube video, if you can’t figure it out.

Push N Pull is similar to the Red Goose, but a little easier to solve. The solution included in the puzzle is clear.

Brass Monkey is the hardest puzzle of all, but also the most fun. The challenge is to make a pyramid out of the six wooden pieces. The pieces tend to roll away as you work with them, so it helps to do this puzzle on a non-slippery surface, like a rubber computer mouse pad, or to support it with something like a stack of Post-It Notes. The included solution is not very clear, so here’s a YouTube video with the solution. – Mark Frauenfelder

Pocket-size wood puzzles

Matchbox Puzzlers
By House of Marbles
Baffle Board $3 Buy one on Amazon

Push 'N' Pull $3 Buy one on Amazon

Brass Monkey $3 Buy one on Amazon

See more photos at Wink.

10 fun tricks to do with liquid

Start a fire with a water bottle. Use glycerine to make a bottle disappear. Create weird dancing blobs with cornstarch and water. Marvel at water droplets sizzling in a hot pan. Poke pencils through a water-filled ziplock bag without the water leaking. This video has a total of ten cool things you can try at home. It's also one of the rare YouTube videos that doesn't require skipping ahead 20% to get to the interesting part.

Sushi Go - know which sushi to keep and which to hand off with this cute fast-moving card game

Something about the name Sushi Go had me hesitant to take the game seriously. It landed in my game closet over a year ago and remained untouched. Then last week my family wanted to play something new, so I finally ripped open the Sushi Go’s plastic wrap and broke out the super cute cards. And good thing I did!

Sushi Go is a fun, fast-moving card game that keeps you on your toes as you choose a card from your hand and then pass the rest to the player on your left (receiving a new hand from the player on your right). The goal is to score the most points by strategically collecting groups of sushi (or a piece of sushi and a spot of wasabi to dip it in) while working to block your opponents from collecting what they need. Each type of sushi has a different value, which is listed at the bottom of the card. For instance, egg nigiri is worth one point per card, while sashimi is worth ten points for every three you collect. Make sure to collect as much pudding as you can, since the person with the least amount of dessert at the end of a round will lose six points.

Although two people can play, it’s much better with three to five players. And you can play a game (which consists of three rounds) in around fifteen minutes, making it perfect for anyone on-the-go who needs a quick game fix.

Sushi Go
by Gamewright
Ages 7-100, 2-5 players
$11 Buy a copy on Amazon

See more photos at Wink Fun.

How to make cool copper wire tiaras with LEDs

The Exploratorium's Tinkering Studio has a nice tutorial on how to make tiaras/copper crowns with copper wire, solder, batteries, and LEDs.

circuit [via]

Swingline Thermal Laminator on sale for $15

My daughter Jane has been asking for a laminator so she can make bookmarks, club ID cards, and other projects. I just learned that Amazon is selling a Swingline thermal laminator for $15 (regularly $60) so I ordered it. It comes with 5 letter-sized lamination pouches. (A pack of 100 lamination pouches costs $10.)

Blokus takes 2 seconds to learn, but many games to master

Apparently Blokus is a popular game that’s been around since 2000, introduced by the French company Sekkoia before being sold to Mattel in 2009. But it’s new to me. I just bought it a few weeks ago after my daughter came home from her friend’s house raving about the game, and we’ve had many a summer Blokus evenings since.

Blokus is a strategy game that takes two seconds to learn, but many games to master. In a nutshell, each player picks a color and starts with a pile of Tetrus-shaped plastic pieces made of 1-5 squares. For instance, one piece is only one square, another is a line of three squares, another a four-square block, another a five-square L-shape, and so on. No piece is alike. Players start off by placing a piece of their choice in a corner of the gridded board. They then take turns connecting pieces to one of their own pieces already on the board. But you can only connect pieces by their corners – not by the edges (although your edges can connect with an opponent’s edge). As the board gets filled, the turns get more difficult, and after a few games you’ll realize how much strategy can make or break a game. The game ends when no one can make another move. The player left with the least amount of squares wins. Addictive and challenging, yet simple enough for a child to learn, Blokus is a great family game.

Note: The version above is 10" x 10", which is smaller than the original 13" x 13". They both have the same amount of pieces, but the one I got (the link above) is simply smaller in size and less expensive. Some commenters on Amazon prefer the larger size for its ease of use. Since I only know this version, it works perfectly fine for me.

Ages 7 and up
$20 Buy a copy on Amazon

See sample images at Wink.

Interview with 10-year-old cartoonist Sasha Matthews, author of "Sitting Bull" and "Pompeii"

I loved this interview with 6th-grader cartoonist Sasha Matthews, creator of two historical comic books: Sitting Bull (which we ran on Boing Boing) and Pompeii: Lost and Found. You can buy copies of her comics here.

My kids-and-grownups project book, Maker Dad, on sale for Kindle: $1.99

My book, Maker Dad: Lunch Box Guitars, Antigravity Jars, and 22 Other Incredibly Cool Father-Daughter DIY Projects is just $2 as a Kindle right now.

Read the rest

Game review: detectives hunt for the infamous Mr. X in Scotland Yard

“Certainly there is no hunting like the hunting of man…” wrote Hemingway. It is precisely this Holmes-versus-Moriarty style rivalry that makes Scotland Yard worth an hour or more of your time. At the outset, a player is chosen to be the infamous “Mr. X,” pursued throughout the game by the remaining 1-5 players. The board is an intricate map of London, detailing lines of public transit, but also including fun landmarks, such as Buckingham Palace and the London Eye. The transit routes, however, are the key to winning the game.

Detectives are issued tickets for each type of transit—taxi, bus, or underground (train), which cannot be replenished, and therefore must be used wisely. If less than the full number of detectives are playing, the extra pieces become “bobbies,” after the British slang for police. Bobbies act as shared pieces at the detectives’ collective disposal that don’t need tickets to explore London. Likewise, Mr. X does not need tickets for regular transit. Additionally, he is issued special tickets that allow him extra privileges, like using the ferry or making two moves in one turn. Detectives take turns collaborating and moving their pieces from one station to another, according to the tickets at their disposal. When all of the detectives and bobbies have moved, Mr. X takes his turn, recording his invisible moves on a special notepad. Detectives are allowed to know what type of transit he used, assuming he hasn’t used one of his special tickets. Mr. X only appears on five of the twenty-three turns, lending hide-and-seek anticipation and lots of discussion on where he could be next. The game is over either when Mr. X has been cornered (can make no more moves without bumping into a detective) or captured (a detective lands on his station). Alternatively, if Mr. X evades capture for the full twenty-three turns, he is the victor.

Geared toward the analytical thinker and recommended for children 10+, Scotland Yard is an exciting way to pass a rainy afternoon. Including both cooperative and competitive play, the game even comes with a visor (or hat, depending on your edition) for Mr. X to hide behind as he strategizes. Moreover, as in a real man-hunt, there’s just enough luck involved that either side could gain an unexpected advantage at any moment. If you’re hunting for an edge-of-your-seat challenge for you and your friends, investigate Scotland Yard. – Chloe Quimby

Detectives hunt for the infamous Mr. X in Scotland Yard

Scotland Yard
by Ravensburger
Ages 10 and up, 2-6 players
$29 Buy a copy on Amazon

Thank you Unique Toy Shop for lending us this copy to review!

August 18, 2015

See more photos at Wink.

Brief history of the Cootie Catcher

Cooties are real. Apparently, "cootie" comes from the Malay word "kutu," meaning "dog tick." Fortunately, you can easily make a cootie catcher wit the added benefit that the device doubles as a fortune teller, chatterbox, whirlybird, salt cellar, etc.

Read the rest

Build a top quality kinetic Rhinoceros Mini-Beest from a kit

Dutch engineer and artist Theo Jansen has created the most amazing kinematic sculptures, which he refers to as life forms. The incredibly ingenious mechanical linkages are powered by compressed air, harvested from the wind. They are made of PVC pipe, recycled bottles, and scrounged wood from shipping pallets. From a pile of junk, Jansen creates articulated multi-legged beasts which run free on the beaches of Holland. (Okay, amazing is a word that is thrown around a lot, but here is your proof.)

The astounding and huge creature that you see at 5:00 into the video is the inspiration for this excellent book/kit sold by EDU-TOYS. This combination assembly kit and booklet includes the plastic parts engineered by the Japanese educational product producer Gakken and a new 24-page English language booklet. You’ll get fascinating photos of Jansen and his various creations in their natural environment as well as well-written and illustrated instructions. And you’ll need them! The kit has over 130 parts, which at first seems a little intimidating. However, simply follow the clear line drawings for each step of assembly and the sequence and logic to the parts become clear.

The engineering and molding is top quality with polished molds and flash-free parts. No glue or tools are needed. All the press fittings are snug, the snap junctions crisp, and the gears mesh perfectly with seemingly no friction. You’ll appreciate all the attention to detail when you finish the build: place the Mini Rhino on a flat surface and gently blow on the squirrel cage fan. The beest comes to life and walks across the table! The multi-link legs are driven by a central camshaft as the drive gears spin smoothly. WOW! What’s also nice is because it’s a kit you assemble yourself, you’ll have a feeling of accomplishment and a full understanding of how the clever design works (not something you’d get by simply buying an assembled version).

Rhinoceros Mini-Beest Science Kit
by Elenco
Ages 8 and up, over 130 parts, includes 24-page science booklet
$25 Buy a copy on Amazon

See sample pages at Wink.

Takenoko board game – take care of a bamboo garden to keep a panda alive

Takenoko (which means bamboo shoots in Japanese) is a light, colorful board game in which players take on the role of Japanese court members to take care of a panda and gain points by completing tasks. At the beginning of the game each player is given three cards explaining their tasks. The tasks include cultivating and irrigating plots, growing colorful bamboo, or getting the panda to eat said bamboo. At the end of the game the player with the most points wins. But where Takenoko shines is with the weather element.

The weather die is rolled at the beginning of each turn, and tends to throw all your best laid plans out the door. Experienced or ignorant players can make or break your plans as well, which makes the game a little chaotic. Takenoko is fun and easy to teach, but it can be a little frustrating when you're at the mercy of poor dice rolls. Just go with the flow, do what's in front of you, and you'll have a great time.

The game is beautiful and the components are excellent. The painted miniatures, colorful plots and plastic bamboo shoots make it look like an expensive candy box. It plays about 45-60 minutes and can have up 4 players. The winner of the Golden Geek Award of 2012, it's little wonder why people adore this game so much. – Engela Snyman

by Asmodee
Ages 13 and up, 2-4 players
$33 Buy a copy on Amazon

See sample pages from this book at Wink.

Tummple! A reverse Jenga in which you build rather than take away

Tummple! has been described as reverse Jenga. That seems pretty accurate. Both games share a similar wooden-block aesthetic, and in both games the object is to keep things from falling. The key difference is that in Tummple! you are building.

The game goes like this: A small wooden base is laid out. All subsequent builds are placed on the base or on other pieces. Players take turns rolling a nice big twelve-sided die that will give the rolling player one of five options. The first three involve placing one of the blocks. The block is to be placed on the wide side, the narrow edge, or the end. The other two options are what add a bit of strategy and meanness to Tummple! Players may be required to place a tump. Tumps are little plastic half marbles. The white ones act as blockers. They cannot be touched by any pieces played subsequently. The yellow tumps are even tougher. They render the entire surface area on which they've been placed untouchable. Blocks must be placed flat. And when the player releases the piece, their turn is over. Anytime someone causes pieces to fall, they keep all those pieces as points against them. When all the blocks in the box have been played, the game is over. Add up the blocks you’ve collected. Player with the fewest, wins.

The box says 2-4 players, but you can play with as many people as you can fit around the table. With more people you're likely to have ties, as some people will cause no collapses during their turns. But it's still fun. While taking photos for this review, I discovered there's also something to be said for solitaire play. We have had a good time with this one. It's good for all ages. And you have a cool little abstract sculpture when you're all done.

See sample pages from this book at Wink.

Ages 6 and up, 2-4 players
$25 Buy a copy on Amazon

Olympians Zeus, Athena, Hera, Poseidon, Hades and Aphrodite are each featured in this beautiful 6-volume boxed set

When I was a teen, I really wanted to like Greek mythology, but the complexity of the pantheon and some of the absurdities of the stories lost me rather than sucked me in. I quickly became confused and bored. Over the years, I've gained a greater appreciation and understanding of classical mythology, but I haven't gone back to try and relearn everything I couldn't retain in school. Until now, thanks to George O'Conner's impressive Olympians box set.

The set contains six volumes, Zeus (King of the Gods), Athena (Warrior Goddess), Hera (Goddess of the Air, Sky, and Heavens), Poseidon (God of the Sea), Hades (Lord of the Dead), and Aphrodite (Goddess of Love). Each one runs 85 pages, and besides the origin story (and a few other key tales) for each god, there are also author notes, a summary of the key characters in each book, a recommended reading list, and even a series of discussion questions. The author and publisher definitely designed these books to be taught to young people and I would definitely recommend them to teachers, home schoolers, and students who want to learn of the “august residents of Mount Olympus” (as the back cover puts it) in a fun and resonant way. These books are really beautifully illustrated and produced. Most of the book covers include spot foil stamping. The Zeus cover is seriously cool, with the silver lightning in his hands actually flashing dramatically as you move the cover to catch the light. I dare you to hold this book in your hands and not want to move it around and make thunder sounds like a ten year old (OK, maybe that's just me).

The six volumes come in a handsome slipcase, which also includes a large full-color poster of the pantheon on one side and an extensive Olympian family tree on the other. Although these books are in comic book form, with spare dialog, they still manage to pack in a lot of story and paint a fairly complete portrait of each god. I wish I'd had these books when I was a kid.

See sample pages from this book at Wink.

Olympians Boxed Set
by George O'Connor
First: Second
2014, 480 pages, 7.6 x 10.2 x 1.6 inches (paperback)
$36 Buy one on Amazon

Mobile game of the week: Zoombinis

Zoombinis is a gentle but engrossing puzzle game. It stars a series of little blue folks with different combinations of features, and you must convey them safely through a series of logic puzzles that rely on those features.

It's a remake of a beloved and, for some, iconic, educational CD-ROM released in 1996 called Logical Journey of the Zoombinis. It's a pleasant memory from an era when computers were novel and rare, yet educational software was usually no thrill to children. The world of the Zoombinis was different—not explicitly "teachy", it let players intuit how variables and interdependencies work, and learn how to discover rules and patterns, just by sorting the little blue Zoombinis by their eyes, noses, hairstyles and feet types.

The imagination and attention to detail still seems magnificent even today: the player interacts with whimsical contraptions, from pizza makers and bubble fields to crystal mines and mud flingers, and each of them puffs, chugs and splats like a plausible machine, flinging Zoombinis about cutely as you solve puzzles.

There's a great USA Today feature about the history of the Zoombinis and why the old game was important, and here is my favorite quote from one of the original developers, Scot Osterweil:

"We were probably plumbing our own self-consciousness, but over time we realized that the Zoombinis were kids," Osterweil said. "They were persistent. Our joke was that they were knee-high to everything they met. The world was full of bigger creatures. And if you think about it, rules in a kid's world are arbitrary. The kids shouldn't have to sort themselves by feature — they don't believe in that. But the world is full of these big people who tell them to sort."

The feature does a good job of explaining how the old 1996 CD-ROM came to Kickstarter and raised $101,716 for a desktop and tablet remake. Now that Zoombinis is on your tablet device, it's a perfect time to revisit it, or to introduce it to your kids.

Actually, I still very much enjoy Zoombinis as an adult. As you progress through the game, bringing groups of Zoombinis successfully through all the puzzles, the difficulty level increases: You'll have to solve for multiple rules instead of just one, or figure out a stage's rule with far fewer clues. Playing it on harder settings gives you that fun sense of flexing a brain-wing you haven't used since you were younger and a more agile thinker.

If you are an adult player, you'll have to plod through some levels that are probably much too easy for you a few times before the difficulty becomes engaging. Related: the only real shortcoming of the tablet adaptation of Zoombinis is that it's not really adapted for tablet play. Audiences who are used to having the things they touch explained to them, or to having their options highlighted (for example it's not visually clear that you can choose from two paths at a certain juncture, as you might not notice the muted arrows on the secreen) are unlikely to know what to do, where to touch or how to play at first.

There is an intro film and a generally-unhelpful help button, but I worry that people who've never tried Zoombinis before won't know what they're looking at or doing in the age of no manuals and graduated tutorials. And while the game is scored based on how many Zoombinis you bring successfully to "Zoombiniville" at the puzzles' end, I wish players could select their own difficulty level from the start rather than having to complete areas multiple times to advance.

Zoombinis remains a wonderful game, and if I could figure it out and be transfixed by it as a young person there's no reason today's players of all ages won't be able to be drawn in. There's something to be said for the old days of letting people learn and experience on their own. I note these shortcomings mostly because I think you should be prepared to overlook them. But if the developers do future updates to the mobile version, I hope they'll do just a little bit of modernizing for the mobile audience, so that as many folks of all ages from an entirely new generation of players have a chance to be delighted by this game.

Dad gets tattoo to that looks like his daughter's cochlear implant

Six-year-old Charlotte Campbell of Taupo, New Zealand says she likes her daddy's tattoo. So do I.

(Image: Alistair Campbell)

This small intelligent orb guesses what object you are thinking of in 20 questions

This tennis ball-size orb knows what you are thinking. Most of the time it will guess what you have in mind after asking you twenty yes/no questions. It is eerily smart, and slightly addictive. The toy is remarkable. Because it is so small, so autonomous, its intelligence is shocking to the unprepared. Most children can’t stump it, and if you stick to objects it will stump smart adults about 80% of the time with 20 questions and most of the time with an additional 5 questions. I love to watch people’s reactions when they think of a “hard” thing, and after a seemingly irrational set of questions you are convinced are dumb, the sly ball tells you what you had in mind. (For instance, it can correctly guess “flying squirrel” without asking “does it fly?”) People who play chess machines won’t be surprised, but just about everyone else will be tickled. It feels like the future. But right now, for fourteen bucks, you can get an amazing little artificial intelligence, about as smart as an insect — but an insect which specializes in guessing what object you are thinking of. And in that part of the brain, it’s smarter than you are.

See more photos at Wink Fun.

20Q Deluxe
by Techno Source
Ages 7 and up
$14 Buy a copy on Amazon This link is for 20Q Deluxe, a newer version from the photos above


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For old times' sake
The bojack bumper sticker -- only $1.50!

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This page contains a single entry from the blog posted on February 20, 2013 2:37 PM. The previous post in this blog was Football and law school and Ducks, oh my!. The next post in this blog is Is NE 42nd Avenue the next bunker row?. Many more can be found on the main index page or by looking through the archives.

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Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Right on schedule

Gun control fever is subsiding in Salem. As it will soon be in D.C. Wash., if it isn't already. Until the next massacre, the next uproar, the next set of politician grandstanding moves, and the next gradual fade into nothing. We tuned out the most recent hubbub for good reason. Paying attention to it is a waste of time.

Comments (11)

Except, of course, for when those guns get too close to the legislators. Then it's full steam ahead!

However, Burdick and Prozanski said they are adding another item to their gun-control agenda: a bill that would largely prohibit people from bringing guns into the Capitol.

Grandstanding? Grandstanding? Would our, or any other legislators grandstand? Only if given the chance, or making the chance.

At last. I visited my local Freddies today for some ammo and the shelves looked as though they had been looted. Geez, it's hard to compete with those preparing for the end of the world when all you want to do is kill a few targets.

Burdick and Prosanski were simply informed that themselves and other like-minded legislators would likely be out of a job if they ran again.

How courageous of them. They'll keep the maniacs with AR-15s out of the Capitol to protect themselves but forget about the rest of us.

Another of many diversions to the real problem of spending.

When you have to walk away from your house because you cant afford the taxes you will understand the diversions.

Give them sports,porn and weed at no charge if thats what it takes.

The 2A wackos may not have ever read Mao, but they follow his observation:

"....Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun."

The attack at the Clackamas Town Center happend about 6 pm. By 9 the next morning Ginny Burdick's bill was filed and had a cosponsor. For her it wasn't a tragedy, it was a marketing opportunity.

x-portlander, I assure you that 2A proponents are quite familiar with this particular Saying of Chairman Mao. You only have the cause and effect reversed.

It is precisely because of the continued existence of such authoritarian mindsets that it remains necessary for the people to provide a check against runaway governments.

Parity is what the Founders wanted.

The legislators have more police protection than our children in schools, fancy that...

As a lawyer/blogger, I get
to be a member of:

In Vino Veritas

Lugana, San Benedetto 2013
Canoe Ridge, Cabernet, Horse Heaven Hills 2011
Arcangelo, Negroamaro Rosato
Vale do Bomfim, Douro 2012
Portuga, Branco 2013
Taylor Fladgate, Late Bottled Vintage Porto 2009
Pete's Mountain, Pinot Noir, Kristina's Reserve 2010
Rodney Strong, Cabernet, Sonoma 2012
Bookwalter, Subplot No. 28, 2012
Coppola, Sofia, Rose 2014
Kirkland, Napa Cabernet 2012
Trader Joe's Grand Reserve, Napa Meritage 2011
Kramer, Chardonnay Estate 2012
Forlorn Hope, Que Saudade 2013
Ramos, Premium Tinto, Alentejano 2012
Trader Joe's Grand Reserve, Rutherford Cabernet 2012
Bottego Vinaia, Pinot Grigio Trentino 2013
Villa Antinori, Toscana 2011
Pete's Mountain, Elijah's Reserve Cabernet, 2007
Beaulieu, George Latour Cabernet 1998
Januik, Merlot 2011
Torricino, Campania Falanghina 2013
Edmunds St. John, Heart of Gold 2012
Chloe, Pinot Grigio, Valdadige 2013
Edmunds St. John, Bone-Jolly Gamay Noir 2013
Kirkland, Pinot Grigio, Friuli 2013
St. Francis, Red Splash 2011
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Taylor Fladgate, Porto 2007
Portuga, Rose 2013
Domaine Digioia-Royer, Chambolle-Musigny, Vielles Vignes Les Premieres 2008
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Pol Roget Reserve Sparkling Wine
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Silver Oak, Cabernet, Alexander Valley 2002
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Phil Stanford - Portland Confidential
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David Sedaris - Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim
Anthony Holden - Big Deal
Robert J. Spitzer - The Spirit of Leadership
James McManus - Positively Fifth Street
Jeff Noon - Vurt

Road Work

Miles run year to date: 181
At this date last year: 254
Total run in 2014: 401
In 2013: 257
In 2012: 129
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text:
Lamhaa Banned in Middle East

The upcoming Sanjay Dutt, Bipasha Basu, Kunal Kapoor starrer, Lamha has been banned in the Middle East because of its sensitive content. The film questions when the citizens of Kashmir will stop being terrorized all in the name of politics.

The makers are unsure why the film has been banned in the Middle East especially since the film has been passed by the Indian Censor Board. According to producer Bunty Walia, there are no explicit scenes that need to be edited. Walia went on to say in an interview, “This news has really dampened my spirits. The Middle East is a huge market for Bollywood movies these days and we could suffer a huge setback because of this ban. There is definitely a lot of money at stake that could have been recovered from that region, but more than that I am sad that the audience there can’t see a film like ‘Lamhaa’”

While the cast and crew find it incredibly ignorant and unnecessary, they have been joined by a number of actors and directors from the fraternity who have come out defending the film on Twitter.

Sanjay Dutt: “First the premiere of lamhaa was not allowed in kashmir.. Now the middle east puts a ban on the release of the film in their countries.”

Bipasha Basu: “Ban on an honest film??What happened to the freedom of expression?? The middle east hs banned r flm # ‘Lamhaa’ n sadly d ppl of Kuwait, qatar, uae, baharain n oman wll nt b able 2 watch it.”

Director Rahul Dholakia: “3 1/2 years on a film- life and death situations !!! Gotto do what u have to do !!! F**k all who ban or dont like/want to see the film !”

Madhur Bandarkar: “Banning a film is nothing but a Cultural Terrorism….very upset about ban on LAMHA iN GULF COUNTRIES…I CONDEMN IT STRONGLY AND SUPPORT MAKERS WHOLE HEARTEDLY!!!!”

45 queries in 0.336 seconds.


text:
Wednesday, August 22, 2012

The Church in Zarahemla

We begin with an interesting research question: Could we locate the seven churches Alma1 founded in the greater land of Zarahemla Mosiah 25:23 ca. 120 B.C.? Terms of  interest in the text include variations of:
  • baptize
  • church
  • establish
  • ordain
  • order
  • people of God
  • priests and teachers
  • regulate
Alma1 founded a church in the wilderness of Mormon near the local land of Nephi ca. 147 B.C. Mosiah 18:17, Mosiah 23:16 when he was about 26 years old. We derive his age by calculating backward from Mosiah 29:45. 27 years later, ca. 120 B.C., Alma1 and his flock of several hundred Mosiah 18:35 arrived in the local land of Zarahemla Mosiah 24:25 where King Mosiah2 immediately recognized Alma's priesthood and moral authority Mosiah 25:14. Soon, Alma1 had founded seven churches throughout the greater land of Zarahemla Mosiah 25:23.

Had the church existed in the greater land of Zarahemla before Alma1 arrived ca. 120 B.C.? Yes. King Benjamin called priests to teach the gospel Mosiah 6:3 and Ammon at the court of King Limhi knew he held priesthood authority to baptize although he felt personally unworthy to exercise it Mosiah 21:33. But, Alma1 was such a towering spiritual figure that King Mosiah2 entrusted him with ecclesiastical affairs Mosiah 26:8 as the senior high priest Mosiah 26:7 throughout the greater land of Zarahemla.

How large were the church congregations Alma1 established? The text does not say, but we have some parameters to consider:
  • As a young church leader in the land of Mormon, Alma1 consecrated one priest for every fifty congregants Mosiah 18:18. Multiple priests and teachers were ordained for each church unit Mosiah 25:19 in Zarahemla. So, a few hundred believers was probably the minimum number required to plant a new church.
  • Another name for churches was "bodies" Mosiah 25:21. The text explicitly says the church bodies in Alma's day were large Mosiah 25:15.
  • One criterion for dividing people into a new church body was simply the number of people who could gather in one place and listen to a speaker together Mosiah 25:20. This implies an upper limit of several thousand members per congregation.
  • In the great awakening that followed the Amlicite war, about 3,500 people joined the church throughout the greater land of Zarahemla in one year Alma 4:5
We know that Alma1 regulated the affairs of the church Mosiah 26:37 supported by an able lay ministry Mosiah 27:5. During his 29 year tenure as the presiding high priest in the greater land of Zarahemla, many people were baptized Mosiah 26:37, some of them by Alma1 himself Mosiah 25:18. The aged leader ordained his son, Alma2 , to succeed him as high priest over the church Mosiah 29:42 and passed away ca. 91 B.C. at age 82 Mosiah 29:45. The text is silent about Alma's journeys on the preaching circuit or specifics about any individual church. We do know that the church of God was generally established throughout all the lands subject to King MosiahMosiah 25:19, Mosiah 27:35. So, where were these lands and churches?

Fortunately, Almawas one of the principal Nephite record keepers and we have detailed information about his life and ministry. Soon after Almawas ordained high priest by his father and given charge over all the affairs of the church, he was also appointed chief judge by the voice of the people Mosiah 29:42. He occupied this dual role for approximately eight years from ca. 91 B.C. to ca. 83 B.C. Alma 4:18. During those years, he presided over capital cases Alma 1:14, led the Nephite armies in battle Alma 2:16, and baptized many in the waters of Sidon Alma 4:4. Then, in the ninth year of the reign of the judges, Almaturned the chief judgeship over to Nephihah Alma 4:20 and began his famous missionary journeys bearing pure testimony Alma 4:19.

Alma2 taught and ordained priests and teachers to preside and watch over the church that was previously established in the city of Zarahemla Alma 6:1. So, we know that one of the seven churches founded by Alma1 was in the capital city of Zarahemla. Alma 5:1-2 implies that there were other churches in the local land of Zarahemla in addition to the one in the principal city. Analyzing ancient settlement pattern data in our proposed local land of Zarahemla, three densely populated regions stand out - the Emiliano Zapata area which we correlate with the city of Zarahemla, the Balancan area, and the Palenque area. These regions are shown as white circles (average radius 12.5 kilometers) in the map below.
3 areas with large populations anciently in our proposed
local land of Zarahemla
We propose that three of Alma's seven churches were in the local land of Zarahemla, roughly corresponding to the locations indicated in the map above.

Alma2 then crossed the river and taught and established the order of the church in the land of Gideon as he had previously done in Zarahemla Alma 8:1. The church in Gideon, though, was already established before Alma's arrival Alma 6:8. In fact, Alma2 apologized to the good people of Gideon - since becoming high priest over eight years ago, he had never before communicated with them face to face Alma 7:1. From this we learn that one of the seven churches founded by Alma1 was in the land of Gideon.
One of Alma's seven churches was in Gideon
Next on Alma's itinerary was the land of Melek west of the river. Almataught and baptized Alma 8:4-5 in Melek as he had previously done in Zarahemla. This verbiage indicates he was working within an existing church organization as a visiting authority with convening power rather than calling leaders and planting a new church. So, another of Alma's seven churches was in the land of Melek.
Proposed land of Melek west of Sidon, another of
Alma's original seven churches
After Melek, Almaventured into hostile territory in apostate Ammonihah three day's north of Melek Alma 8:6. The church of Nehor, later led by Amlici, was headquartered in Ammonihah Alma 14:16-18, Alma 15:15, Alma 16:11. Nevertheless, the text makes it clear that prior to Nehor and Amlici the church of God had been established in Ammonihah.
  • Nehor's preaching, particularly successful in Ammonihah, disparaged the true church Alma 1:3
  • Nehor preached against the prevailing order of lay ministry among priests & teachers Alma 1:3
  • Alma's original intent in Ammonihah was to teach and baptize just as he had done in Zarahemla and Melek Alma 8:8-10
  • Amulek was a Nephite living in predominantly Amlicite Ammonihah Alma 8:20. Discussing events five years earlier, Mormon emphasized the contemporary meaning of the term "Nephite" in the post-Amlicite war era Alma 3:11. Thus, Amulek was a believer, a member of the church of God, albeit one who had backslid during much of his adult life Alma 10:5-6. Almadid not have to baptize or ordain his missionary companion.
  • Even though the Amlicites held a deep-seated aversion to the Nephite scriptures Alma 14:8, copies were widely available among the people of Ammonihah Alma 14:1.
Therefore, we suggest that one of Alma's seven original churches was in the land of Ammonihah.
Proposed land of Ammonihah where the true church once existed
The seventh church we believe was probably in the land of Minon south of and upstream from the local land of Zarahemla, although nothing in the text explicitly indicates this. The only other candidates might be the lands of Noah or less likely, Manti, or the city of Aaron, all attested in the text by ca. 82 B.C. By the time of  Almaand the four sons of Mosiah2, Manti was well-established along the north south Zarahemla to Nephi corridor Alma 16:7, and eventually Almaattempted to travel there Alma 17:1. In the ca. 120 B.C. time frame, though, when Almafounded the seven churches, people were still getting lost trying to travel between Nephi and Zarahemla and vice versa (see the blog article "Water Fight on the River - Round Five"). It is not likely that Manti was part of the Nephite nation at that early date. Noah and Aaron are less likely than Minon simply because they are further away from the local land of Zarahemla. When Almagot to the land of Sidom, ca. 81 B.C., he founded the church there Alma 15:13. Sidom was distant enough from the Nephite culture core it had only recently been brought into Zarahemla's orbit. The same was probably true for Noah and Aaron. So, we propose that one of Alma's seven churches was in the land of Minon.
Proposed seven churches in the greater land of Zarahemla
Mosiah 27:2 says that the seven churches founded by Almawere in the "land round about" the city of Zarahemla. Mosiah 27:32 adds that they were "round about through all the land". The red line shows our interpretation of this circularity.
Seven churches in the land round about Zarahemla
How far distant were the seven church bodies from each other? In our correlation above, the red circle has a radius of 65 kilometers. The text says Alma's most arduous journey Alma 8:3 on this circuit was the one from the city of Zarahemla to Melek, shown in magenta on the map below. The term "take journey" in Nephite parlance implies long, tough travel.
Proposed journey from the city of Zarahemla to the land of Melek
The Zarahemla to Melek journey plotted above runs for 135 air (straight-line) kilometers which would require about 9 day's travel according to our standard metric (see the blog article "Land Southward Travel Times"). Highest elevation en route: 388 meters.

The text evidences an all too human pattern of societal upheaval followed by resurgent interest in religion. Some examples:
  • In Mosiah 25, ca. 120 B.C., Nephite society in the greater land of Zarahemla was fundamentally transformed with the influx of Alma's and King Limhi's peoples. King Mosiahauthorized Alma1 to establish churches throughout all the land Mosiah 25:19.
  • In Alma 4, ca. 86 B.C., the Nephites were suffering because of the severe devastation brought on by the Amlicite war Alma 4:2-3. They began to establish the church more fully and many were baptized Alma 4:4.
  • In Alma 45, ca. 73 B.C., the war with Zerahemnah caused massive casualties Alma 44:21 and major disruptions in the church Alma 45:21. Helaman led a nationwide renewal throughout the church organization Alma 45:22.
  • In Alma 62, ca. 57 B.C., following the lengthy war with Amalickiah/Ammoron, the church was in disarray. Once again, Helaman led a resurgence throughout all the land Alma 62:44-46.


text:
Back, Body, and Soul
Back, Body, and Soul
The Doctor Kleverlaan Way
Perfect Bound Softcover
Print Type:

Finally a book that helps you understand:

  • Why we get pain, and how best to manage it and maybe ease it forever
  • How to activate your core, start exercising and manage your weight
  • Which therapist to see when you or someone you love needs help
  • Whether to use heat or cold on pain, and why
  • Easy effective stretches to stretch your way to success

When your car isn’t running at its peak, you take it in for a tune-up.

You buy a better grade of fuel, put air in the tyres, and check your fluid levels—before a troublesome noise becomes an expensive repair.

You know better than to ignore the warning signs.

Why wouldn’t you take the same precautions with your body?

With a focus on back health, author Dr Carla Kleverlaan introduces the concept that, like your car, your body needs regular maintenance to keep it running at peak performance.

This book empowers and motivates you to get the body you always wanted. Drawing on experience in health and a passion for elite sport, Dr Kleverlaan has put together a simple guide to better health and well-being. By following her tips on posture, diet, exercise, and regular tune-ups, you can enjoy the journey of nurturing your back body, and soul.

In this guide, as in her clinic, Dr Kleverlaan shares the advice that helps patients around the world live with less pain, more vibrance, and in better balance overall.

Kleverlaan lifts the lid on all the secrets your practitioner might not have time to tell you, and why it’s so important to start loving your body: because you are worth it.

“A brilliantly simple and easy-to-read guide to being pain free and getting into shape”

Preview coming soon.
Around the world, Doctor Carla Kleverlaan, an osteopath, a beach volleyball athlete, and performance coach, has educated people how to keep their bodies in tune for 12 years. She is currently lecturing at the Victoria University and working in a private practice in Melbourne, Australia.

Buy This Book
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text:
Game Three

ST LOUIS, MO - OCTOBER 26: Brandon Workman #67 of the Boston Red Sox is removed from the game in the ninth inning against the St. Louis Cardinals during Game Three of the 2013 World Series at Busch Stadium on October 26, 2013 in St Louis, Missouri.

Boston May Learn Losing Close Ones Is Hard To Overcome In October

Baseball analysts cite win-loss record in close games as a sign. But what does it mean in the postseason?


text:
Police stand guard outside the Worcester funeral home that handled Tsarnaev arrangements. (Credit: WBZ NewsRadio's Kim Tunnicliffe)

Mass. Senate Approves $47K For Marathon Bomber Funeral Home Security

The state Senate has allotted $47,000 to reimburse the city of Worcester for securing a funeral home that held one of the alleged Boston Marathon bombers.


text:
Saving the MBTA: Good For Cycling, Good For Everyone

Written by Boston Biker on Feb 02

You can’t have good cycling without good public transportation, it’s that simple. Save the MBTA.

from MassBike.

You hopefully saw our first report on the MBTA fare increase and service cut proposals, which will have a negative impact on anyone who uses public transportation, bicyclists included. But in addition to hurting bicyclists who use transit for part of their bike trip, all other bicyclists will also be affected. With fewer transit options, there will be more cars on the street. With more cars on the street, bicyclists (and everyone else) will have to deal with more traffic and more frustrated drivers. More traffic means more exhaust and reduced air quality that we breathe while riding. The MBTA has already conceded these points. Basically, this is a bad deal for all users of the road.

MBTA riders gathered outside the State House for a rally.

We have been hard at work with MassDOT’s Transportation Advisory Committee, Transportation for Massachusetts, and our fellow advocacy groups to try to find a better solution. In a recent meeting, the choice was framed in the following way:

  1. Massive service cuts, substantial fare increase; or
  2. Massive fare increase, fewer service cuts

But this is a false choice, because neither option will solve the MBTA’s underlying financial problems, and both will have unacceptable impacts on transit riders and everyone else. Without a more comprehensive solution, within a year we will be back discussing further fare increases and service cuts.

The public meetings so far have been totally packed, and also full of anger directed toward the MBTA. The reality, however, is that the T’s options are limited; it can only raise fares or cut service to balance its budget. If you don’t like either proposal, the real audience is the Legislature, because they are the only ones who can allocate more funding to the T.

What You Can Do To Help

1. Contact your state representative and senator and let them know that you want them to find a permanent solution for the MBTA and transportation funding.

2. Go to one of the ongoing MBTA public meetings to demonstrate to the T and to legislators that there is a widespread call for a real solution to this problem.

submit Saving the MBTA: Good For Cycling, Good For Everyone to reddit.com Add to Reddit.

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Posted in advocacy, Commuting, infrastructure | 1 Comment »

One Response to “Saving the MBTA: Good For Cycling, Good For Everyone”

  1. By matt on Feb 2, 2012 | Reply

    right, they shouldn’t cut anything except the fares. and expand service. tax the rich to pay for it. that always works

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Sunday, September 30, 2012

September Show and Tell

Thank goodness we kicked off the September meeting with our members show and tell.  Angela's quilts are a hard act to follow:-)  Here's a quick glimpse of what our members had to share this month.  Click on any image for a full size picture and more details.

LindaW4LindaW4 BackRebeccaL

Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Angela Walters Trunk Show

The BMQG was absolutely delighted to have a trunk show by the multi-talented Angela Walters of Quilting is my Therapy for our September meeting!

Angela shared some of her tips as the "quilt whisperer" for how she lets the quilt tell her how it should be quilted.  Her approach to quilting modern quilts features dense quilting, using multiple patterns, and changes in scale to add interest to negative space.

She brought many of the quilts she made herself for her book Free-Motion Quilting and a few sneak peeks that will be in her next book, In the Studio.  Sorry Angela, you're probably going to need to wash these after we drooled all over them:-)  We were all inspired seeing her quilts in person!

 Several members also attended classes with Angela.  It's not nearly as easy as she makes it look but it's fun practicing as Angela cheers you on:-)

The day wouldn't have been complete without a a few fabric purchases, especially after so much inspiration.   A huge thanks to the gang at Quilter's Way for making this all possible!!!

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

QuiltCon Block Challenge

Have you been following the QuiltCon Block Challenge? Over 375 blocks were submitted and has been displaying groups of them based on their shared design aesthetic.

Be sure to check out today's batch of triangle blocks which includes this block by BMQG member Malini.

Malini also made this Starburst block. I love the little splash of print she added. You can read more about the inspiration behind these blocks on Malini's blog, My Quilting Journey.

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Reminder: September meeting with Angela Walters

Just a reminder to check out the Quilter's Way site for more information on Angela Walters' upcoming visit.   Angela is the author of "Free Motion Quilting with Angela Walters" and a real phenom in the modern quilting world.

We are thrilled to have Angela join us for our BMQG meeting on Saturday, September 22 from 1-3 at the new Quilter's Way in the Acton Woods Plaza, 340 Great Road, Acton

Due to our agreement with Quilter's Way and Angela, this meeting is only open to paid BMQG members.  If you are interesting in joining us but haven't yet submitted your 2012 dues, please see the "membership" or "contact us" tab above for more information about submitting dues beforehand.


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Corsair Pumpkin Spice Moonshine

Talk about Tennessee, American and Rye Whiskey here.

Moderator: Squire

Corsair Pumpkin Spice Moonshine

Unread postby bourbonbasement » Thu Apr 28, 2011 11:56 am

Anyone try this? Sounds like a good thing to mix drinks with around the holidays. I'd like to try some, but at $30+ it's not worth taking the risk if it's horrible.
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Re: Corsair Pumpkin Spice Moonshine

Unread postby Mike » Sun May 01, 2011 11:39 am

That's is a new one on me, you buy and we'll give it a go! Oh, and my dog, Barleycorn, says he want to try a sip too, but be careful of making a friend of him. he is the most expensive friend I have ever had.
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Rage, rage against the dying of the light. - Dylan Thomas
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Contact Us

eBay Lights Up With Rare NES Games in Wake of World Championship Interest

Nintendo World Championships

Late last week, you might recall a dinged-up copy of the elusive NES Nintendo World Championships cartridge raking in high bid after high bid on eBay. It would seem the success of that less-than-perfect copy has caused some uproar in the retro gaming community, and more sellers have cropped up in the hopes of earning big bucks for one of the rarest games in the world.

Multiple copies of both the grey and gold World Championship cartridge appeared on the auction site, drawing interest from buyers almost instantaneously. While the beat-up copy from last week is still awaiting a proper buyer at it’s $99,000 closing bid, a better version managed to move for “just” $17,500.

Ars Technica reported that much of the widespread press coverage of other Nintendo World Championship games being sold for Scrooge McDuck-levels of currency has led to collectors and fanatics trying to rake these rarities into their collections before they fade into the sunset. In particular, only 26 gold editions of the NWC cartridge were made in existence. Sure, it’s probably the same material as The Legend of Zelda cartridge, but still, it’s uber rare. The gold editions of the NWC were distributed by ‘Nintendo Power’ for a mail-in contest held exclusive to the magazine and were never used in the actual world championships held by Nintendo in 1990.

The gold edition currently up for auction has already reached six figures, though it’s unlikely to go through due to the low buyer rating of the bidder. That said, there are a handful of bidders right behind the top spot with bids that are nearly as ludicrously high. The buyer experience and purchasing histories of those sequential bidders make it ever-so likely that this golden NWC game will be sold for over $100,000. Well, at least free shipping is included.

As for the games themselves, the NWC cartridges contained three mini-games that were meant to tally up and compare scores of all the players in the tournament. The games on the NWC cartridges were Rad Racer, Super Mario Bros. and Tetris.

With over one week left to go before the auction for the cartridge expires, we can only guess at how high this will go. For now, you can keep up with the auction here, just don’t blame us if you decide to bid just to find out the game was an actual clunker.

Next: 25 Most Expensive Video Games

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Tuesday, 4 March 2014

Annoy a Linguist Day

It's that time of year again. This time I want to write about the fetish for avoiding the passive voice. Recently I've spoken to writers who think it's their duty to avoid the passive at all costs. The irony is sweet when they proceed to misidentify the passive. Look at this article on passive avoidance where of all the examples the writer gives of the evil passive voice, only one is actually passive.

I'm baffled at this hostility towards a completely normal and useful grammatical structure. I like to blame Orwell, but it's older than that. Supposed grammar experts tell us that the passive voice is dull, it's sneaky, it's feeble, it's not used by good writers - and none of these things are true, as Geoff Pullum explains. I've been told it's hard to understand but I don't think that is true either.

I’ve also been told it is unclear, because it hides the agent (the person doing the action). The implication is that all we have to do is avoid the passive, and our writing will be automatically clearer. This seems like very bad advice. The agent can be hidden in the active voice, and it's possible to write passive sentences where the agent is expressed.

I’ll talk about the second point first. 1a is active, and 1b is passive, and the agent (me) is equally clear in both:

1a. I wrote a book.
1b. The book was written by me.

Yes, passive sentences can omit the agent, as in 2:

2a. We served dinner.
2b. Dinner was served.

If you want to focus on the dinner then you could argue that 2b is better, because it places the dinner at the beginning of the sentence, and omits unnecessary information. Clarity has nothing to do with expressing the agent, it's to do with making clear what you want to make clear.

And non-passive sentences can omit the agent as well. These sentences are all non-passive, but they have no agents:

3. The book fell off the table. (Who pushed it?)
4. The case took on racial overtones. (Whose fault was that?)
5. The beer pours easily. (Who's pouring it?)
6. I am afraid. (What’s scaring me?)

Many passive sentences can easily be made non-passive with no change in semantics:

7a. The window is displayed.
7b. The window appears. (Who made it appear?)

8a. Mistakes were made.
8b. Mistakes happened. (Who made them?)

9a. I was given a gift.
9b. I received a gift. (Who gave it to me?)

The A sentences are passive, the B sentences are non-passive. I don't see how the non-passive sentences are clearer than the passive sentences. The agent is equally invisible in both.

Simply avoiding the passive voice doesn't help you write clearly. If your goal is to express the agent, then you need to think about what the agent is, and make sure you've expressed it, and you can do this with either a passive or non-passive sentence. And if you want to focus on something other than the agent, you can do this with either a passive or non-passive sentence.

Previously on Annoy a Linguist Day:
taking grammar seriously
What is grammar anyway?

John Emerson said...

Orwell's "Politics and the English Language" is one source. If the taboo became prominent only in the 50s (don't know) it would be THE source, in my opinion. More likely he just accounts for its popularity. Like E B White's book, His essay is a staple of college writing classes.

Speaking of bureaucratic prose, he said "the passive voice is wherever possible used in preference to the active." He had in mind the specific use of the passive to avoid assigning responsibility -- as the joke has it, "Mistakes were made".

goofy said...

But you can just as easily avoid assigning responsibility without using the passive, as in my example "mistakes happened". To blame the passive voice is to miss the point.


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Campus Comes Together for THON

Students and staff from the Brandywine campus showed their Penn State spirit with an enthusiastic turnout at this year's 46-hour Penn State IFC/Panhellenic Dance Marathon (THON), held February 18-20 at the Bryce Jordan Center at University Park. More than two dozen students attended the event. Chancellor Sophia Wisniewska was also part of the contingent, clad in the same bright green t-shirt worn by everyone in the group.

Freshmen Alexis Cicala and Amanda Rasley represented the campus as two of the more than 700 dancers on the floor.

"Forty-six hours on my feet was nothing compared to the chemo and treatments children with cancer have to go through," Cicala said. "I will never forget when the total was revealed and Tucker Haas, a child with cancer whom Amanda and I know, cried and hugged everyone around him. For such a young child he knew how much a million was. It wasn't a dollar or two, it was nine million. Those tears in his eyes made it all worth it."

This year's THON raised a record $9,563,016.09 for the Four Diamonds Fund at Penn State Hershey Children's Hospital, exceeding last year's total by $1.7 million, and Brandywine's fundraising efforts contributed more than $12,000 to the outstanding success. Throughout the year, Brandywine students collected money on "canning" weekends, held a spaghetti dinner and auction and sold "Kandy and Kisses" for THON. Director of Student Affairs Matthew Shupp allowed his head to be shaved in a "Save it or Shave it" event that raised hundreds of dollars.

THON, started in 1973, has raised more than $78 million in the fight against pediatric cancer.

(Photo courtesy of Lauren Jerla)


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Sunday, August 26, 2012

Dark Sublime

James Chastek sums up much of the horror genre, and in so doing, why we can often learn from it:

One can make any number of horror-movie monsters by removing the limits from some natural desire: Alien is reproduction without regard for anything else; The Blob is pure and unlimited growth (with unlimited consumption as a corollary); The Thing is a sacculina-esque parasite that places no limits on its own desire to survive etc. Removing the limit shows two sides of removing a limit: on the one hand we get a monster and on the other hand we get godlike power. These two aspects are usually reflected in the plot: the protagonists want to kill the unlimited thing as a monster; the antagonists (government officials) marvel and desire the unlimited thing as a god. The marvel of the antagonists is tempered by the fact that they do not simply marvel at the godlike thing but also desire to possess and control it. Such possession itself is a claim to unlimited power, and so is a redoubling of the monster.

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Thursday, March 22, 2007

Translator Edith Grossman

According to today’s Writer’s Almanac, today is “the birthday of one of the few translators who has become something of a literary celebrity herself, Edith Grossman, born in Philadelphia (1936).” In a speech Ms. Grossman gave in honor of Gabriel García Márquez, she said of translation that it “is an act of critical interpretation” and she goes on to discuss the idea of fidelity.

Here is the rest of today’s entry in the almanac, which is interesting because it talks a little about how she got into translation and what choices she made while translation Mr. Márquez:

“Her parents were Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe, but for some reason Grossman became obsessed with the Spanish language when she was in high school. She said, “My high school Spanish teacher just reached me. I said whatever this woman is doing I want to do.”

Grossman won a Fulbright grant in 1963 and went to Spain to study medieval Spanish poetry. But when she began to read the poetry of Pablo Neruda and César Vallejo, Grossman decided that contemporary Latin American literature was too interesting to ignore. She began translating contemporary Spanish novels, and then in the mid-1980s, she got her big break when she got a chance to translate Gabriel García Márquez’s novel Love in the Time of Cholera.

She knew that one of Márquez’s favorite English authors was William Faulkner, so she decided to use Faulkner's style as a guide for her translation. She said, “I didn’t use any contractions in the narration, and I used Latinate words, polysyllabic words, instead of German monosyllables.” When Grossman's translation of Love in the Time of Cholera came out, it was such a success that Grossman was able to quit teaching and begin translating full time. She has since translated all of the new books that Márquez has published.

In 2003, she published a translation of the Spanish classic Don Quixote. Grossman wasn't sure she could do it until she finished the first sentence. Her version of the sentence is, “Somewhere in la Mancha, in a place whose name I do not care to remember, a gentleman lived not long ago, one of those who has a lance and ancient shield on a shelf and keeps a skinny nag and a greyhound for racing.”

When it came out in 2003, it was hailed as the best English translation of the novel in decades, perhaps the best American translation of the novel ever completed.”

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Thursday, June 28, 2012

Poems written in Pamphlets

Considering making a videopoem of my last poem: *Can I Be Fired Or Laid Off Without Notice?*

While it's an explicit reference to our mortality, and I hope that's pretty obvious, I actually wrote the poem in a pamphlet put out by CLEO (Canadian Legal Education Ontario) entitled, 'Have you been fired or laid off?' on workers' rights.

I didn't have any paper, and so grabbed something at hand and wrote inbetween the paragraphs.

As you can see in my photo, with my bluetooth keyboard for my iPhone, and Songa, my adorable kitten. When I got the pamphlet to take a photo for you, she just *had* to get in on the action. :)

Anyway, I would perform the poem with a green screen of things like bread lines, perhaps headlines referring to the worsening 'recessions' since 2008, and especially the crises in Europe.

All of which, to my simple mentality, is due to the interest payments on debts.

I refuse to own any credit cards due to that interest payment issue. Nor do I have any loans, etc. While I live on the edge financially, I live without debt.

If the ridiculous interest payments could be deleted, and any payments from indebted countries, like Greece, Spain, etc., and innumerable third world countries, made on the actual loans themselves, the crisis would be over.

Why do we live like this when we are eating our own flesh, so to speak. Yes, yes, Shakespeare and _The Merchant of Venice_, but it's the greed of Capitalism itself that has installed itself in the hearts of the financially powerful.

I could froth all day. +Lena Levin and I had a long discussion (on G+) about credit cards recently, and I'm sure that fed into my poem.

Which you can find here:

Sent from my iPhone

Monday, June 25, 2012

Can You Be Fired or Laid Off Without Notice?

Cling to the thin breast
of stars grazing your hair;
starlight shines vacant
in your eyes.

On this globe revolving in mad
abundance, careening

in our dreams

where spiders feed us silk
from their mandibles;
and the strawberries are sour

studded with green eyes
watching from red lanterns.

What light to see by is this?

Scattered unripe fruit, the world
overtaken by insects.

Push the shopping cart through
the storm of shredded light.

Let breaking branches scratch
your face. The wind is your voice.

Night spins hallucinating
a starry nest.

We are broken illuminations

Dust of starlight.

Caught in a web
spun in silk fire fibres.

Pull your hair
from your dirty face.
Wipe off stardust, like grime.

Magic is a spider eye
in a world of compound debt.

Survival, man, woman,

is the song
to spin singing

on dangling

Monday, June 18, 2012

Solar Eclipse

Solar Eclipse, 2012, Brenda Clews, 28" x 22", 71cm x 56cm, oil on canvas.

I just took the photo in bright sun and the upper left corner is too shiny, bright (someday I will get a better camera to take photos of these paintings I promise). Overall, the colours are quite good. If you've been following these posts, you might notice that I've corrected the arm - the model had it over a pillow but I didn't paint it that way so it seemed too large - I've shortened it so that it is now in better proportion and also painted in more indication of the hand. Later on I may add a few more colours to the bottom of her sarong, which seems to enclose her as a fitted cocoon-like sleeping bag somehow, to make it more 'landscape,' or that a nightscape river is flowing through her.

The whole painting is Surreal, figures in a psychic landscape of the dreaming imagination.

A painting with a textual history, meaning a history of texture. It was another painting before. On my wall for half a year, and I couldn't look at it anymore. (See album of earlier painting here: ( Deciding not to sand the canvas, or even prime it, I began painting over the original painting on Saturday afternoon.

At this point, I do like it. So it may be done, not sure. Back up on the wall it goes. The true test is how liveable is it?

Sunday, June 17, 2012

Solar Eclipse

Solar Eclipse, 2012, Brenda Clews, 28" x 22", 71cm x 56cm, oil on canvas.

A painting with a textual history, meaning a history of texture. It was another painting before. On my wall for half a year, and I couldn't look at it anymore. (See album of earlier painting here: ( Deciding not to sand the canvas, or even prime it, I began painting over the original painting yesterday afternoon.

At this point, I do like it. So it may be done, not sure. Back up on the wall it goes. The true test is how liveable is it?

Saturday, June 16, 2012

Midnight Sun (a new figurative painting)

Midnight Sun, in-process, 2012, Brenda Clews, 28" x 22", 71cm x 56cm, oil on canvas.

A painting with a textual history, meaning a history of texture. It was another painting before. On my wall for half a year, and I couldn't look at it anymore. Deciding not to sand the canvas, or even prime it, I began painting over the original painting this afternoon (see the album of what is underneath here: Midnight Sun). It may be done, not sure. The true test is, how liveable is it?

(The colours are pretty good, but the main figure has pink in her body and that is not appearing.)

Friday, June 15, 2012

Origami and the pets (34sec)

direct link: Kitten Plays with Origami

My niece is always busy with her hands. As she chats, she makes origami birds, and even balls like the one you see here.

Not having any 'real' cat toys, only string and such, I tossed one of Freya's origami balls on the floor and it was an instant hit!

However, the video clip, which I had grabbed my iPhone to record for my niece, was not to be about the origami ball after all.

It reminds me, rather, of days of management - like being a mother of young children again. The kitten is adorable, and fast, I think my older dog (who's mostly deaf) doesn't know what to make of her. Is she a squirrel to chase?

That's sort of what's happening today. But Keesha wouldn't harm her - Songa would be more likely to cause damage with her sharp little claws and the way she can aim a hiss spit right into the eye.

She sleeps on my pillow at night purring and first I thought, I'll give this 2 weeks, then, no, a month, but now I'm thinking give it a year. They might end up the best of friends.

(At the end, you'll see a tiny yellow origami bird lying on the floor, what I originally gave to Songa to play with, which also was made by my niece.)

Video taken with my iPhone 4, and edited in the iMovie app.

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

A Deer Trapped in a Backyard in the Annex in Toronto

direct link: A Deer Trapped in a Backayrd in the Annex in Toronto

A frightened, lost deer leapt over a fence into a neighbour's back yard around 6am yesterday. A fellow walking his dog saw the deer leap (you can hear his voice in the video, which was taken near sunset).

The deer was there all day, and may be hiding under a bush in the downpour of the evening.

Animal Control said to leave the deer, that it will find its way out the way it came in.

My neighbours are quite alarmed, but waiting to see what happens, and what to do next.

We live in the Annex in Toronto, a downtown neighbourhood.

The deer is scared, as I realized when I was taking this video, and so hid myself from her, but he or she is also simply magical.

A magical visitor.

It poured heavily last night, and I worried about whether the deer had any shelter, how it was doing. In the morning, it appeared to be gone from my neighbour's backyard, though I haven't seen them to ask what happened.

James Kalin on G+ said it was probably a juvenile male with rudimentary horns.

An elegant animal, and an extremely unusual sight in the density of an inner city.

Saturday, June 09, 2012

Morning Pages: Starlings

what remains after the starlings have flown?

leaves shaking to stillness
where they held

Every day, with my morning coffee, I shall try to write a few lines in my 'writing' Moleskine. I have not made this task more difficult by insisting on an image as well. :)

After reading the news, and the issues that come up in Toronto City Hall's Council, which we are hearing far more about due to our strange and contrary mayor, and sitting by an open window, I wrote this little poem.

Friday, June 08, 2012

As if Death Were a Passion

As if Death Were a Passion, Brenda Clews, 2012, 12" x 16", graphite and acrylic on triple-primed cotton canvas sheet.

outline the skeleton
in red
make the lines of the bones

alizarin crimson, cadmium red
flame red, poppy bright

ok, blood too

the passion of death

as if death
were a passion

It's taken many weeks for me to watch this great little instructional video on how to draw a skeleton. I've never taken anatomy, so I fully appreciate teaching tools like this (thank you Kenny Mencher!). I'll have to get myself a wee skeleton at a Medical Supply store at some point. :)

I meant to take a photo before I started working it. Ah well. It's not perfectly drawn because I don't want that.

The instructional video is here: (if, like me, you'll probably watch it later do bookmark it since it's an unlisted video you won't be able to find it on YouTube without the link)

I took the photo with my iPhone 4 using Camera+ and then a Clarity filter - later I'll blog it without the filter. It's just kind of neat with the tones the filter gives it.

Wednesday, June 06, 2012

Celestial Dancer V put out on the street and taken!

I've been clearing out a lot of stuff the last few weeks, many bags of clothes to the drop-box, lots simply to garbage. This painting was one of the first I did with water-soluble oil paints in 2004. I did it on a canvas board - dumb, the cardboard warps, impossible to frame ever - and I didn't really like it. I drew it from an image of Nijinski in a dark body stocking, so always felt, though I love the richness of black skin, that this painting was a bit misleading even though it was grouped with my Celestial Dancer series and called it Celestial Dancer V.

Last weekend cleaning up my art supplies, I came across it wedged behind my desk, where it's been stored for years. I pulled it out, not sure what to do with it. The thought of standing on it to crack it in half for the garbage was too much at that moment.

On impulse, I took it outside and put it against the fence on the sidewalk. When I looked 5 minutes later, it was gone.

I hope whoever found it either likes it and has hung it on wall that needed 'something,' or has painted over it.

I'm so delighted that I did this that I'm considering what else I can put out! :)

When I looked for a photo of the painting on an external hard drive where the contents of my old computer are stored, I found it, not only easily because labelled, but that I had, as usual, taken images all along the way. And I even found the original image I drew! How wild is that. I have not, as yet, been able to re-locate the Nijinski on-line to see which ballet he was leaping about in a dark body stocking in! He had a slick of glitter on his costume that I did not add to my painting. :) This piece was done in my studio in Vancouver - as you'll see in the final image (they work backwards). I also used a wet-on-wet technique and so lost some of the detail in one of the arms that clearly turned into a lake of paint that dissolved out and in the detail of the hands.

Tuesday, June 05, 2012

Two Lamps and a Pot of Orchids

This is a sketch to toss. Part of my enterprise this year: to go backward to go forward. To return to before I got sidetracked and see where a more natural route would take me.

Two Lamps and a Pot of Orchids, Brenda Clews, 2012, 13" x 10", acrylic on archival paper.

The charcoal sketch.

Friday, June 01, 2012

Retreat to Beautiful Objects

direct link: Retreat to Beautiful Objects

When I retreated to my world of beautiful objects.

She was a dream, not the mask but how I composed her in Tangled Garden.

A vegetative force, Nature, birth, life, death, decay, mulch, compost. Beautiful and frightening. Strange dreams, the unknowable body itself. Life consuming life to live, plant or animal. Cells fuse to make new life, new connections, new hybrids. Wood/trees; metal/circuitry; bone/grafts; skin/love. Teeming presence.

I come from a jungle, the nature I write of is not pastoral, pretty. A fibrous network of vast connections. Natural processes. We are Nature looking at herself through her own eyes. This slip of consciousness viewing the universe for a knowing moment, soon to be lost. How can we forget the hungry ghosts, the floral opera singing in us?

An ecology of consciousness. An understanding of the parasitical and angelic. Leave the savageries. Our worlds of beautiful objects call us to retreat.

What I wrote at YouTube: celebrate the unexpected popularity of my long videopoem, Tangled Garden,, a slow art film of a triptych of earth poems, Surreal, mythopoetic, a rhizoma of images, metaphors, explorations, philosophies (with English subtitles). I had originally thought to paint a Tangled Garden painting to give away when the video reached 1500 views (my daughter's claimed the painting, so some other celebratory gift), and began making a video of the process of the painting.

There's lots of aspects here - from the drawing and painting itself to photos of the making of the papier-mache mask, to a dance in the woods which inspired the figures in the painting. The fishnet gloves - don't you adore them! - will now be featured in any future art videos. I just love them!

The writing came out of a dream I was having during a nap when I was considering what to say in the video. It's more of a piece about the poetic process in the poems in Tangled Garden, what sort of consciousness is holding sway. I woke up laughing. I felt a bit strange laughing all by myself in a dark room late at night for the recording for sure!

Prefer the video without the subtitles, but they're there for the hearing impaired, those who like to read along, and for YouTube automatic translation into one of 25 languages if the viewer is not fully conversant in English.

Music is Pierre-Marie Cœdès' 'Whirling Thoughts,' from his album, "Insomnia": (with his permission). It is a great album, do go and listen.


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Blog Entry

Big East coaches recommend for 17-team tournament

Posted on: May 24, 2011 3:53 pm

PONTE VERDA BEACH, Fla. – The Big East Conference men's basketball coaches voted Tuesday to allow all 17 teams to compete in the league’s tournament starting in 2012.

The coaches’ recommendations at the league’s spring meetings still must be approved by the athletic directors and then voted on by the league’s presidents before becoming official.

With TCU joining the league for the 2012-13 school year, the basketball membership will grow from 16 to 17 teams. There was some thought that the league might opt to only allow the top 12 teams to play in Madison Square Garden for the Big East tournament. That’s how the tournament was restructured from 2006-08 until the league allowed all 16 teams to advance to New York beginning with the 2009 tournament.

UConn coach Jim Calhoun said if he was the Big East's commissioner he would want a 12-team tournament, but as a coach he preferred all 17 teams playing in the tournament.

Since: Sep 15, 2006
Posted on: May 24, 2011 4:23 pm

Big East coaches recommend for 17-team tournament

The Big East is run by the worst group of morons. They have 17 teams, straddling almost every major TV market east of the Mississippi River....and they're by far 6th in the BCS. A total joke. I wish someone with a brain was running that conference.

They will have 17 teams in the tournament and it will be stupid, just like the 16-team, double-bye mess they have now.

The views expressed in this blog are solely those of the author and do not reflect the views of CBS Sports or


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Friday, May 1, 2009

'Chicago Trib,' 'LAT': Editorial Clashes With Biz Side

by Erik Sass

When Sam Zell led a buyout of the Tribune Co. in April 2007, he promised that management would respect the integrity of the editorial operations, but newsroom staffers evinced skepticism. Two years, hundreds of layoffs, and one bankruptcy later, newsrooms at the company's biggest papers are in a state of ferment about breaches of the boundary between editorial and advertising operations.

Indeed, as Zell and his minions look increasingly like an unwanted foreign regime, a bona fide newsroom uprising may be in the offing.

In the latest controversy, 55 reporters and editors at the flagship Chicago Tribune signed an email to editor Gerould Kern and managing editor Jane Hirt accusing the paper's marketing department of surveying subscribers about unfinished stories to gauge their reaction -- laying the groundwork for deciding which articles get published based on market sentiment.

According to the Associate Press, which first reported the email, the editorial staffers still don't know whether articles were changed or canceled because of responses to these surveys.

Either way, they wrote, the marketing surveys set a bad precedent, as it's hard to imagine any other use for the information. "It is a fundamental principle of journalism that we do not give people outside the newspaper the option of deciding whether or not we should publish a story, whether they be advertisers, politicians or just regular readers." In the wake of the email, Kern said the marketing surveys were an experimental project that would now be suspended, following a brief period of operation.

The fracas at the company's flagship paper comes just weeks after the newsroom at another big Tribune paper, the Los Angeles Times, lashed out at management for allowing an ad resembling an article on the front cover of the newspaper.

The ad, for NBC's new LA police drama "Southland," was run over the objections of editor Russ Stanton and a dozen other senior editors. In an interview with TheWrap, LAT executive editor John Arthur called the front-page ad "horrible," "unfortunate" and "a mistake." In the interview, Arthur also took issue with an ad for "The Soloist" that appeared to be a supplement using LA Times-style font from section fronts.

The conflict between editorial and business operations at the LAT has been long simmering. Last summer, the original Los Angeles Times Magazine was closed and replaced by a new publication, with a new editorial staff, entirely under the control of the Los Angeles Times Media Group. In short, control of the magazine came from the business -- not editorial -- side.

For ethical reasons, Stanton requested that the Media Group not call itself the Los Angeles Times Magazine, since it is not under the control of the newspaper's editorial staff. The new publication was given a slightly different name: L.A. Los Angeles Times Magazine.

In a memo to employees last month, John T. O'Loughlin, the executive vice president and CMO for target media at the LAT Media Group, referred to the magazine as a "flagship publication" of the newspaper -- appearing to negate the earlier, mostly semantic distinction.

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