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We May Be Consuming More Glyphosate Than Ever Before
As use of this pesticide grows, little effort is being made to track its health effects
By Jeneen Interlandi
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A new study suggests that human exposure to the herbicide glyphosate has increased by 500 percent in the past two decades. The findings, published today in the medical journal JAMA, represent one of the only efforts to figure out how much of this chemical is making its way from food, air, and water into our bodies.
"This study demonstrates something many scientists have been worried about," says Michael Hansen, Ph.D., senior scientist at Consumers Union, the policy and mobilization division of Consumer Reports. "As use of the chemical grows, more of it is getting into our bodies."
Glyphosate is the key ingredient in Roundup, a pesticide used on a wide range of crops, including wheat and oats and genetically modified soy and corn. The chemical is also found in hundreds of weed-killing products used on suburban lawns and gardens. Previously published data shows that use of the chemical has increased significantly (some fifteenfold) in the past two decades.
And as its use has grown, so have concerns—and debates—over the potential risks to human health. In 2015 the World Health Organization classified glyphosate as a probable carcinogen. Earlier this year, the state of California followed suit with a new requirement that products containing this chemical carry warning labels on their packaging.
More on Glyphosate
California to List Roundup Among Cancer-Causing Chemicals
More Concerns About Glyphosate Residues in Produce
Is There Glyphosate in Your Diet?
But the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) continues to assert that glyphosate is safe. In 2013 the agency increased the allowable levels so that twice as much of the chemical can now be found on certain crops without penalty.
And despite being the most widely applied pesticide in the world, glyphosate is still not monitored by the Department of Agriculture's pesticide data program or the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's program on human exposure to environmental chemicals. "It's a huge gap in our safety net," Hansen says. Neither agency responded to a request for comment.
New Findings
For the current study, researchers measured the urine concentrations of glyphosate in 100 elderly people living in Rancho Bernardo, a large suburb in southern California. The urine samples were collected between 1993 and 1996, and again between 2013 and 2016.
The scientists found a large increase in the proportion of study participants whose exposure levels exceeded the detection limit. In the 1990s, just 12 percent of the samples had detectable levels of glyphosate. By the 2010s, 70 percent did.
They also found a thirteenfold increase in glyphosate concentrations between the two collection periods. The concentrations they measured were far below the EPA's daily exposure limit of 1.75 mg/kg and the European Union's more conservative limit of 0.3 mg/kg. But experts say the increase in exposure levels across time is cause enough for concern.
"We're being exposed to more and more of this chemical," says Paul J. Mills, Ph.D., a professor at the UC San Diego School of Medicine and the study's lead author. "Most people don't even realize that they are consuming it through their diet."
The current study didn't look at health outcomes or evaluate urine samples from people in any other part of the country. But Mills and his colleagues are planning several follow-up studies.
Unknown Quantities, Unknown Risks
A 2016 report in the journal Environmental Health that looked at human and animal studies found a link between glyphosate exposure and a number of health problems, including liver and kidney damage, endocrine disruption, and an elevated risk of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. But a vast majority of those studies were done with animals.
In fact, very few human studies have been done on the health effects of glyphosate, and no federal agency monitors how much of the chemical makes it from the environment into our bodies. That lack of information makes it difficult to even begin to assess how much glyphosate is potentially harmful to humans and whether current exposure levels are above or below that mark.
Researchers like Mills have begun to piece some information together from isolated studies. Mills says that his new findings coincide with a 2015 review that found similar concentrations in U.S. and European adults. (Together, the findings indicate that U.S. exposure rates are higher than European ones.) But in general, experts including Mills agree that much more data is needed.
While the health effects of glyphosate aren't well-understood, many scientists and consumer-safety advocates believe its widespread and growing use are reason enough for closer monitoring and more careful study by federal agencies.
"The safety limits we have right now are complete guesses," says Bruce Blumberg, a scientist at the University of California at Irvine who has studied glyphosate.
The fact that pesticide residue on fruits and veggies is generally below those limits sometimes leads people to conclude that there's no risk associated with pesticide exposure from food. But at least some human and animal studies suggest otherwise, and given recent disputes over the authorship of some glyphosate studies, including ones the EPA used in its assessments, some experts say it's time to revisit those conclusions.
Jeneen Interlandi
I'm a scientist-turned-journalist, covering the intersection of science, policy, and consumer health. I have an abiding passion for good storytelling and verifiable data. I live in Manhattan with my husband and our cat. When I'm not working, I love museums, parks, and visiting my people in New Jersey. Follow me on Twitter (@JInterlandi).
More From Consumer Reports
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Which Fish Are Safe for Pregnant Women?
Harmful Chemicals Might Be Lurking in Fast-Food Packaging
Scientists Raise Concerns Over Weed Killer Glyphosate in New Study
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Dr. Young has asked me to help him out with this blog so eventually, I'll start about blogging more on a regular basis. Before I do, let me introduce myself. My name is Michelle Lew, and I recently just joined Dr. Young's team. I'm very excited about this opportunity, and I look forward to all of my endeavors here. I'm his IV nurse on surgery days, but I'll also help out with pre-ops and post-ops appointment. I'll also be doing Botox and facial fillers. I'm the short Asian girl in the office, so when you see me, please say "hi." I love meeting new people and I enjoy working with everyone.
Again, I'm very excited about this new journey, and I can't wait to share it with you guys!
This entry was posted on Friday, September 17th, 2010 at 3:38 pm	and is filed under Diary of a Facial Plastic Surgery Nurse. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.


HP made a series of UPS in the mid 1990s that included power boosting, intelligent communications port and long run time. HP subcontracted the support of these units to American Power Conversion.
APCC does not actively support these units. There is almost no mention of the units on their web site. They sent me what documentation they had, and I've posted extracts below.
I've only got the L900, so I've only posted the specifications for that model. The general operating sequence and the communications port are common to all three units. All three use the same batteries. The L600 uses 2 batteries in series, the L900 and L1250 use 4 in series.
I've done a bit of experimenting with my L900 and the Powerwise Assistant software from HP. I was able to reverse engineer parts of the communication protocol. I've used this information to create a small script that will poll the L900 and print its status.


And Google could make billions off of them.
Despite several setbacks, Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL) is moving forward with its YouTube subscription music service. This week, a series of leaked images from Android Police gave us quite a few details about what the service will be like.
Most notable among the speculative features of the service is that Google will tap into YouTube's trove of live concert footage, remixes, and song covers -- music that's mostly exclusive to YouTube. Additionally, it will remove ads from YouTube music videos, allow for audio-only listening on mobile, and integrate with Google Play Music All Access, Google's current music subscription service.
Google is setting itself apart from the plethora of music subscription services, and is poised to dominate the growing market.
The rapid rise in music streaming has led to a plethora of choices when it comes to which platform to use. The problem is exacerbated because just about every one of them has the same catalog of music. Each mainstream music streaming service boasts over 20 million songs.
There are slight tweaks that might differentiate one from another. Pandora has its Music Genome Project and loads of data, which makes a great radio service, but it's not on-demand. Spotify capitalized on people's desire to share music with friends with its shareable playlists. Others are built on top of terrestrial radio (iHeartRadio, TuneIn Radio), and still others are about curated playlists or stations (Beats, Slacker, Songza).
But really, it's the same product with different packaging.
Microsoft is surprisingly ahead of the pack. Its Xbox Music service includes over 92,000 music videos. YouTube houses even more, though, with its Vevo joint venture library topping 100,000 videos.
Google will separate itself even further if it integrates its exclusive live performances and other audio content with streaming albums from All Access. It's like Google is selling the deluxe edition of an album for the same price as its competitors are selling the standard edition.
With a superior product, Google should be able to take a large chunk of the market as it grows. In the first half of 2014, on-demand music streaming (different from Internet radio) grew 42%. That's even faster than the resurgent vinyl medium, and it's off a much larger base.
Even with a superior product, though, Google could miss out on a significant share of the market. It's already starting at a deficit to services like Spotify and Deezer, which both have strong momentum in the market. But YouTube is the perfect launching pad for Google. The ad-supported nature of the site will allow Google to put banner ads or pre-roll ads around music videos. These are qualified leads -- hundreds of millions of them.
Most music subscription services don't do much consumer-facing marketing. Those that have, like Beats Music, haven't had great success. Using YouTube's platform to advertise is low-cost and low-risk for Google.
A recent survey by MIDiA Research found that 7% of consumers would pay a monthly fee to watch YouTube music videos with extra content and no ads. That's potentially 70 million users, which is on par with Pandora's free radio service. Of course, $9.99 per month is probably much higher than most of those 7% had in mind. Still, converting even 1% of YouTube users, 10 million, would equal Spotify's subscriber count.
Paid music subscriptions are growing in-line with the rest of music streaming. Last year, the number of listeners that subscribed to a music service grew 40% to 28 million. It's easy to see that the number of subscribers could grow to 100 million within the next five years, creating a $10 billion industry. That's a big opportunity, even for Google.


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The Mr.'s Top Ten Favorite Movies
The Mrs' Top Ten Favorite Movies
Who Knew a Zombie Movie Could Have So Much Heart?: Our Review of "Warm Bodies" (2013)
Directed By: Jonathan Levine (50/50)
Starring: Nicholas Hoult, Teresa Palmer, James Franco, Rob Corddry, John Malkovich
Rating: PG-13 for zombie violence and some language
Synopsis: R (Hoult) is a zombie who spends his days lumbering around an airport with other zombies, thinking internally about his existence as a zombie. While on a mission to feed one day, R and his pack attack a group of humans that includes the beautiful Julie (Palmer) and her boyfriend, Perry (Franco). When R eats Perry's brains he inherits Perry's memories and begins to fall in love with Julie...possibly turning human again in the process.
Andrew: Hello readers! Last night Sarah and I finally got off of our lazy butts (relatively speaking) and hit up the theatre to see this past weekend's new zombie romantic comedy…
Sarah: Also known as a zom-rom-com…
A: …a very apt description for the movie Warm Bodies, starring Nicholas Hoult (X-Men: First Class), Teresa Palmer (Take Me Home Tonight) and Rob Corddry (Hot Tub Time Machine). This was a film that we didn't see a whole lot of promotion for though we had seen the trailer before a few times and it looked silly, the kind of film that made us go, "Eh…maybe we'll see it, maybe we won't."
But it's that time of year, the doldrums of winter when studios generally dump the movies they have no hope for into theatres right before the Oscars (a term that Grantland has dubbed "Dumpuary," which I love) so we went to the theatre because we've been slacking on the blog and didn't really have high hopes for this movie. But now that we've seen Warm Bodies, Sarah, what did you think of it?
S: I really liked it! It was very cute. Normally I don't like zombie movies, they tend to freak me out a bit, but they successfully managed to give a zombie movies some heart. They brought humor to it and kept it really cute and light. I really enjoyed it. I was very entertained, which hasn't happened a lot during the past month of so at the theatre.
Generally, when you genuinely care about the characters and the proceedings like I did with this movie, that's a good thing. So yeah…it was really cute. What did you think?
Some of our favorite things about Warm Bodies are the nods to the zombie genre and
how it plays the usual genre tropes.
A: I was pleasantly surprised at how much I liked this movie. Right from the get-go when they introduce Hoult's zombie character, named R, and he spoke to the audience through an inner monologue and was making observations about what it's like to be a zombie and what the world was like now, they were lampooning the zombie genre and they had me.
I thought Hoult did a fantastic job as R, this love-stricken zombie. His mannerisms, his inner monologue, his delivery, his ability to make these one or two word sentences as he slowly turns more human…he was just perfectly cast because you cared about him and he was warm.
So, you know, I liked it because of the zombie humor, but I also liked the relationship between him and Teresa Palmer's Julie. I thought they did a really nice job building up their relationship. It was a little contrived at the beginning, but whatever, suspension of disbelief and all that. So as their friendship grew I thought they did a good job taking their time introducing these two characters. It was really cute to watch them grow, and it was funny…I don't know…
S: Yeah, there was just something about this movie that kind of grabs you and holds you throughout. It was funny! I think the humor is what had me the most. His inner monologue is hilarious! Because his inner monologue is just like a normal guy, you know? And he's struggling with the reality that he has to eat human brains to survive and he feels guilty about it…
So you're introduced to what culture usually thinks of as the bad guys, these zombies, but they're really not. And when you finally realize what the heck is really going on…it was a little too much of a statement for me, like how humanity stopped having real relationships with each other? That irked me just a little bit, but I got it. I mean, I get it and it makes sense in this technological world that we live in, but it was a little too kitschy and cute. That said, I liked the movie.
I had a little bit of problem with Teresa Palmer because it was like watching a blonde Kristen Steward…though she was slightly more animated…
A: I liked her! I liked her when she was in Take Me Home Tonight, she was the girl in that…
S: Oh my gosh, she is! She's older than I thought then.
A: She's 26, but yeah…here, first I want to touch on something about the zombies and then I'll get back to Palmer.
Like you said, something else I liked that you just mentioned, how R felt guilty about eating brains, that was a nice little twist on the zombie genre and what everyone comes to think of zombies. Like, yeah, he felt bad about eating brains, but I liked the idea that zombies inherit or feel their victims memories and emotions when they eat their brains.
S: Yeah, that was a cool twist!
A: I just thought that was a neat little thing, and the execution of things like that were really well done.
S: They were very well done, I agree.
A: Even though Dave Franco (21 Jump Street) isn't in the film a whole lot as Julie's boyfriend, Perry, I think they utilized him really well in having R eat his brains and then experiencing Perry's memories through his eyes. I thought Franco did well enough in his role, and likewise with Nicholas Hoult, to make you feel those memories. It was just really well done all around I thought, the memories thing.
But to go back to you saying Palmer looks like Kristen Stewart – notice that Warm Bodies was produced by Summit Entertainment, the same studio that does the Twilight movies. So they very much know what they're doing. They cast a leading lady who looks like Kristen Stewart…
S: It's a love story where they cast the a pale guy as the love interest, a forbidden love…
A: Instead of a vampire it's a zombie…you know…they released it on Super Bowl weekend so they were giving girls of all ages alternative programming to the big football game…I mean, the movie made over $20 million this weekend!
S: Oh it did very well, it was tops at the box office this weekend.
A: So this was all very well done and executed by all involved. Is it a great movie?
S: No! But it's cute. And weirdly, it's a great date movie, if that makes any sense.
A: What did you think of Rob Corddry as R's fellow zombie, M?
Rob Corddry (left) and Nicholas Hoult play M and R, two zombies just looking for love in this crazy,
post-apocalyptic world.
S: I liked him. I think he' s a good actor and he's not in enough movies. He's definitely funny so he brought a lot of humor to the film. He's actually kind of a sad character in the film! But he's definitely the second-most famous actor in the film…
A: I would argue he's the most famous.
S: Next to John Malkovich (Red)?
A: Oh yeah, my bad. Forgot about him.
S: Yeah, so Corddry is the second biggest name in the movie, which means neither of the lead characters were the biggest names and I kind of liked that. I kind of like it when big-name actors aren't the focus. So it was good casting on their part.
Now John Malkovich's character? I know a lot of people are going to disagree with me here, and maybe it's because I haven't seen him in too many things yet, but I find him to be one-dimensional. I haven't seen him in anything where he's not being intense, and he only really has that one face…I don't know, I know I'm going to get a lot of crap for that.
A: Well I think he did his job well enough. Malkovich plays Julie's father, but he also happens to be a colonel and is the leader of the city the survivors all live in. I like that, even though they only say it a few times, but they explain that his wife and Julie's mom was killed by zombies so…
S: That's part of his prejudice against the zombies, yup.
A: But so I thought Malkovich did a good enough job expressing that. He's always concerned about his daughter and the actions he takes are because of his love and concern for her. With a lesser actor maybe that stuff doesn't come across as well as it did, or as sincere as it did, so I thought he did a good job.
S: Yeah, yeah. I mean, if you're going to put big names in this movie, they did it in the right spots. I also loved seeing Analeigh Tipton, from Crazy, Stupid, Love as Julie's best friend. I think she's not in enough things because she's funny and pretty. She's not in this movie a ton but she makes the most of her scenes I think.
You know, they just did a good job with this movie. It also had some great music in it…yeah, there were a lot of things I liked about it. I thought they did a good job. I enjoyed it a lot.
A: Final thoughts on Warm Bodies, then?
S: Like I said earlier, there's not a lot in theatres that's really good other than the Oscar nominees. So if you've seen those movies and are looking for something else to watch, this is a good choice.
A: It's one of those rare January/February movies that's actually entertaining. Every now and then there's a diamond in the rough that sticks out from the other crap…
S: And this one isn't one of the crappy ones.
FINAL VERDICT: A nice way to kill a Saturday afternoon!
(Individual Scores - S: 3.5/5 A: 3.5/5)
Photo Sources: geektyrant.com, IGN, sciencefiction.com
Posted by Two Tickets For... at 6:37 PM
Labels: Dave Franco, John Malkovich, Nicholas Hoult, Rob Corddry, rom com, Teresa Palmer, Warm Bodies, zombie
After first seeing the trailer for this, I thought there is no way that anyone would get me to watch this. I thought it looked horrid. But after reviews, and realizing that is Jonathan Levine at the helm, I may end up seeing this. I hope I don't regret it. Nice review, and you have settled my expectations. Thanks for sharing!
Two Tickets For... March 25, 2013 at 11:41 AM
Glad we could help in any way! Trust us, we were hesitant to see this at first but we're very glad we did.
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Alone In The Dark: Andrew's Review of "The Purge" (2013)
Andrew Shares a Term Paper He Wrote on His Fav Horror Film: John Carpenter's "Halloween"
We're Split on a G.I. Joe Movie, Go (Action) Figure: Our Review of "G.I. Joe: Retaliation" (2013)
Two Tickets For… Ranks… The Marvel Cinematic Universe Films (Not Called The Avengers)
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Reiki Energy Healing is a healing modality based on the principle that there is Universal Life Force, and by means of touch and non-touch, we are able to promote the body's physical, spiritual, emotional, and mental well-being. Kelly Evanish is certified in Reiki I and II, and is able to tap into each person's healing process. One experiences calm and relaxation, and can heal from all illness and ailments. It it for both people and animals.


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Masako Ohta is an accomplished key account and business development manager. She has over 20 years' experience in client relations in Australian and Japanese companies.
Masako works primarily with Japanese clients across a broad range of industries to protect their intellectual property assets in Australia and New Zealand.
She has a Masters in Intellectual Property Law and is a registered Australian Trade Marks Attorney.
Throughout her career Masako has served as Japanese Client Manager for global law firms in Australia. Her expertise and commercial understanding have led her to assist many Japanese clients in various industries including mining, electric utility, housing, car manufacturing, banking and finance, food and beverage, consumer goods in doing business in Australia and works cohesively to achieve their objectives.
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Dementia is real…
Asked if nukes could stop a hurricane
Suggested 'raking leaves' prevents forest fires
Suggested "windmills"(turbines) cause cancer.
Said Climate Change is a Chinese Hoax
Was a prolific anti-vaxxer
Fueled a racist conspiracy theory that Obama was born in Kenya
Said he would run into a school unarmed to stop a school shooting
Proposed an "alligator moat" at the border
Stared directly at a solar eclipse
Tried to buy Greenland
Directed the EPA to investigate toilets
Threatened to deny emergency funding for deadly California wildfires, despite the majority of fires being on federal land
Autographed bibles during a visit to a disaster zone.
Posted a photoshopped photo of his head over Greta Thunberg's Time magazine cover because he was jealous of a teenager
Claimed (without evidence) 3-5 million illegal ballots cost him the popular vote.
Extended a hurricane forecast with a sharpie because he couldn't admit he made a mistake on Twitter
Some quotes for good measure:
"Women, you have to treat them like shit."
"Nobody respects women more than I do."
"Nobody loves the bible more than me."
"I'm the least racist person you'll find anywhere in the world."
"There's nobody that's done so much for equality as I have"
"Nobody's ever been more successful than me."
"There's nobody bigger or better at the military than I am."
"Nobody in the history of this country has ever known so much about infrastructure as Donald Trump."
"Nobody knows more about trade than me"
"Nobody knows more about taxes than I do, maybe in the history of the world."
"I know more about renewables than any human being on earth."
"I know tech better than anyone"
"This is the only musical: the mouth. And hopefully the brain attached to the mouth. Right? The brain, more important than the mouth, is the brain. The brain is much more important."
"Sorry losers and haters, but my I.Q. is one of the highest -and you all know it! Please don't feel so stupid or insecure, it's not your fault"
"I'm very highly educated. I know words; I have the best words."
"Actually, throughout my life, my two greatest assets have been mental stability and being, like, really smart"
"I think that would qualify as not smart, but genius….and a very stable genius at that!"
"I am the chosen one."
"I think I'm much more humble than you would understand."
Conspiracy of the AstroTurfed Conservatives
Iowa: website leads to Iowa Gun Owners. That domain is registered by the same proxy LLC as reopeniowa, but was registered in 2007. Identical to Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin.
Maryland: Website lists no contact information or responsible group. Identical to New Jersey, North Carolina, Oklahoma, similar to Ohio.
Minnesota: website leads to Minnesota Gun Rights. That domain is registered to the same LLC as reopenmn, but was registered in 2013. Identical to Iowa, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin.
New Jersey: Website lists no contact information or responsible group. Identical to Maryland, North Carolina, Oklahoma, similar to Ohio.
North Carolina: Website lists no contact information or responsible group. Identical to Maryland, New Jersey, Oklahoma, similar to Ohio.
Ohio: Website lists no contact information or responsible group. Similar to Maryland, New Jersey, North Carolina, Oklahoma, somewhat similar to Washington.
Oklahoma: Website lists no contact information or responsible group. Identical to Maryland, New Jersey, North Carolina, similar to Ohio.
Pennsylvania: website leads to Pennsylvania Firearms Association, registered to the same LLC as reopenpa, but was registered in 2019. Identical to Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin.
Washington: Website lists no contact information or responsible group. Similar to Ohio.
Wisconsin: Website leads to Wisconsin Firearms Coalition registered to the same LLC as reopenwi, but was registered in 2016. Identical to Iowa, Minnesota, Pennsylvania.
Conclusion: of 100 domains researched, 16 have active websites, including 1 Facebook group, and 6 quasi-legitimate looking domains.
There appear to be at least two campaigns here, one of which is definitely an astroturf. Iowa, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin are identical and likely all maintained by the same individual or group. Maryland, New Jersey, and North Carolina are identical and could be maintained by the same individual or group, but there isn't any real data to support that. Ohio, Oklahoma, and Washington are outliers. They're roughly similar to the previous group, but different enough that the domains may have been bought independently.
Conspiracy rating: 5/10 Comet Ping Pongs.
UPDATE: One of the domain squatters in Florida has now run his domains through the GoDaddy proxy service. Keep an eye on any websites that redirect from those domains, as he could have found buyers.
This isn't any conspiracy, it's just good old fashioned American business. There are indeed two campaigns:
One using OneClickPolitics:
PA, WI, OH, MN, IA – OCP's branding is displayed proudly all over these sites, just look at the source and the stunningly obvious "contact your legislator" custom site widget. Seems to use uniform CMS. Ohio is not an outlier – they just altered their CMS presentation.
One using UJOIN:
MD, NC, NJ – these were harder to ferret out, but they all use similar formats & different CMS They try to link directly to CHANGE.ORG, and up their "blog" when data can't be autofilled. These "blogs" cross link with one-another. These sites seem to have a hard time dealing with privacy extensions, unlike OneClickPolitics.
Unknown data collection/provenance:
OK (OCOPA is a real but intensely partisan think tank, the reopenok site is, however, very new and looks to be aping the other sites instead of relying any CMS), WA (this is a true enigma – if someone really wanted their sites to be "grassroots" looking they would all look like they were designed by script kiddies that time-traveled from 1998). Hilariously, whatever software they are using in WA links directly to this reddit post as part of their "truth news feed" – so it's not hand-curated.
I encourage you to read and examine the sites, mission statements, and services offered by One Click Politics, and UJOIN. They go out of their way to expound that they are masters at pretending to be grass-roots movements that can conjure up seemingly organic support at the drop of a check.
To quote OCP:
Are you launching a new coalition or association and need more members now? Want 10,000 signatures for your petition from residents of a certain state? Are you battling a legislative issue in a location where you don't have enough advocates, who are constituents of the legislators you are attempting to influence? Or would you like to impress your boss by reporting a 15% growth in membership in less than 90 days? If your answer is yes, keep reading!
OneClick Acquisition is your solution for generating immediate legislative actions from new supporters within mere days. We deliver "on demand, organic supporters" through our proprietary digital ad placement technology.
So again, not a conspiracy – but definitely astroturfing. The real question though, isn't who is doing this. It's can they be definitively financially linked to these two professional astroturfing firms?
(probably not)
Both firms tout their ability to cycle news stories, facebook posts, twitter rampages, and texting so as to appear "grassroots" and not seem as if they are disseminating copy-pasted material.
And yes, there are many, many more professional astroturfing firms out there, willing to take whatever check comes across their desk in order to influence public opinion and legislation.
I suggest that if any of you want to stick it to OCP and UJOIN, take screenshots of their bogus sites, so that they'll have to diversify their tactics in the future.
In conclusion, this isn't something necessarily coming from ESLEWHERE. It's a critical flaw in our political system. Private corporations can legally masquerade as normal citizens who are concerned about their "constitutional rights" being infringed upon by and you don't know who wrote the check.
Here's the thing: people on both sides of the aisle are going to be screwed by these so-called protests. People are going to die if this takes hold. This isn't a right vs left thing. This is a normal people vs big-data-government-lobbyist thing. Even your racist uncle who may have gone to one of these protests may be hurt by this. It's not you (if you disagree with him) vs him, or you vs his political views. It's normal people vs THEM.
THEM isn't your governor, or your representative or senator. THEM is whoever hired these ghouls. Also these ghouls themselves.
Wash your hands, wear a facemask, and P.S.:
EDIT: I would be remiss if I did not take the time before logging out to mention that the states targeted by OCP – pennsylvania, wisconson, iowa, minnesota, and ohio are presidential election swing states. Make of that what you will.
Dr_Midnight explains how the Russian propaganda machine is messing with Trumpets…
There's an imperial ton of astroturfing going on, and it's quite visible in how those groups popped up literally overnight (hint-hint). The thing is that they targeted groups who were… how does one say… more receptive to the message who wouldn't be inclined to look any deeper into what they were joining.
As an example, right now, this is happening in Los Angeles.
Now, here's a screenshot of the description of the "Operation Gridlock Los Angeles" group when it was first spotted by Buzzfeed News.
Concurrently, here's a screenshot of the description of the "Operation Gridlock Tennessee" group.
But, hey… it's Buzzfeed News right? Cool-cool-cool-cool-cool…
Here's a link to the group "Pennsylvanians Against Excessive Quarantine" – sitting 55,281 members deep at the time of this post.
Now here's a link to the group "Minnesotans Against Excessive Quarantine" – presently with 18,938 members.
Why do these groups have the exact same description?
Let's not stop there. Following their own links: one is from the "Pennsylvania Firearms Association", and the other is from the group "Minnesota Gun Rights" – both with the exact same layout.
Both of these domains are registered with the same registrar and were registered on the exact same day at the same time.[ ~]$ whois reopenmn.com [Querying whois.verisign-grs.com] [Redirected to whois.godaddy.com] [Querying whois.godaddy.com]
[whois.godaddy.com]
Domain Name: reopenmn.com Registry Domain ID: 2512322197_DOMAIN_COM-VRSN Registrar WHOIS Server: whois.godaddy.com Registrar URL: http://www.godaddy.com Updated Date: 2020-04-08T14:39:18Z Creation Date: 2020-04-08T14:39:17Z Registrar Registration Expiration Date: 2021-04-08T14:39:17Z [ ~]$ whois reopenpa.com [Querying whois.verisign-grs.com] [Redirected to whois.godaddy.com] [Querying whois.godaddy.com]
Domain Name: reopenpa.com Registry Domain ID: 2512322050_DOMAIN_COM-VRSN Registrar WHOIS Server: whois.godaddy.com Registrar URL: http://www.godaddy.com Updated Date: 2020-04-08T14:37:30Z Creation Date: 2020-04-08T14:37:29Z Registrar Registration Expiration Date: 2021-04-08T14:37:29Z
The rest of the whois information is obscured by a proxy organization that provides privacy for whois records (I even use them myself as do many others for privacy reasons), so I cannot tell who owns these domains.
Following the pattern of their sites, I checked for "reopenmd.com", but it never resolved to anything. That said, the DNS lookup itself didn't result in a NXDOMAIN error which tells me the domain does exist.[ ~]$ whois reopenmd.com [Querying whois.verisign-grs.com] [Redirected to whois.godaddy.com] [Querying whois.godaddy.com]
Domain Name: reopenmd.com Registry Domain ID: 2515645280_DOMAIN_COM-VRSN Registrar WHOIS Server: whois.godaddy.com Registrar URL: http://www.godaddy.com Updated Date: 2020-04-17T04:19:17Z Creation Date: 2020-04-17T04:19:16Z Registrar Registration Expiration Date: 2021-04-17T04:19:16Z Registrant Organization: Registrant State/Province: Florida Registrant Country: US Registrant Email: Select Contact Domain Holder link at https://www.godaddy.com/whois/results.aspx?domain=reopenmd.com Admin Email: Select Contact Domain Holder link at https://www.godaddy.com/whois/results.aspx?domain=reopenmd.com Tech Email: Select Contact Domain Holder link at https://www.godaddy.com/whois/results.aspx?domain=reopenmd.com
Registered a little more than week later with the same registrar. The thing is, they didn't actually complete their whois information this time, and whoever set it up cheaped out or forgot to pay for the Domains by Proxy service. Although whois information is literally a public record, I'm not inclined to place my account at risk by opening myself up to accusations of doxxing. That said, anyone who feels inclined to can go to https://whois.godaddy.com and search for reopenmd.com. I myself would be personally curious as to why someone in Florida is registering domains claiming to be gun rights organizations in other states.
Seriously, even without that information – who or whomever is responsible for this astroturfing couldn't make this more obvious if they tried. It honestly took me longer to type all of this up to present here than it did for me to find this all. Yet people have taken the bait hook-line-and-sinker.
Meanwhile, the President then starts tweeting "LIBERATE MINNESOTA", "LIBERATE VIRGINIA…", and "LIBERATE MICHIGAN"; and one of the major forces behind the group in Michigan was a political group that has direct ties to and has historically been heavily funded by the family of the Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos (though said family denies direct involvement in last weeks protest)?
In that regard, I'm not alleging some major conspiracy here, but l-o-fucking-l.
Edit: for the record, reopenva.com also exists and has the exact same registry info as reopenmd.com.[ ~]$ whois reopenva.com [Querying whois.verisign-grs.com] [Redirected to whois.godaddy.com] [Querying whois.godaddy.com]
Domain Name: reopenva.com Registry Domain ID: 2515650132_DOMAIN_COM-VRSN Registrar WHOIS Server: whois.godaddy.com Registrar URL: http://www.godaddy.com Updated Date: 2020-04-17T04:43:47Z Creation Date: 2020-04-17T04:43:46Z Registrar Registration Expiration Date: 2021-04-17T04:43:46Z Registrant Organization: Registrant State/Province: Florida Registrant Country: US Registrant Email: Select Contact Domain Holder link at https://www.godaddy.com/whois/results.aspx?domain=reopenva.com Admin Email: Select Contact Domain Holder link at https://www.godaddy.com/whois/results.aspx?domain=reopenva.com Tech Email: Select Contact Domain Holder link at https://www.godaddy.com/whois/results.aspx?domain=reopenva.com
Edit 2: Apparently, others have found that a domain for pretty much every other state was registered in the same pattern at the same time.
Edit 3: Holy crap, this blew up! Thanks! I really just have a strong dislike for disinformation, and want people to be empowered to know who is involved with what; and I also want people to know to always apply critical thinking to these things.
DerekVanGorder explains Money for Nothing
All money comes from currency issuers: governments, central banks, and banks. These institutions create money by fiat, by spending or loaning new money into existence.
People like you & I can't create money by fiat. We're currency users; we use the money that our institutions create. So this sounds a little unfamiliar to us, but nevertheless, it's pretty ordinary; new money is created every day, and finds its way into our economy in the form of government spending, or bank loans.
In normal times, the general public prefers to have currency issued to us for work. In our culture, wage labor is considered a morally just and righteous way to receive money, and there is a strong stigma against receiving money for free. Currency issuers go through a lot of effort to satisfy this demand of ours; they use monetary policy to try to achieve a full employment target, so that most people can receive money through wages.
During an emergency, where a lot of people suddenly have to stop working, full employment is no longer a tenable way to funnel money to consumers. The economy will shrink from the non-essential businesses to essential businesses only. But these essential businesses still need customers— even if not all of those customers can be workers for a while. So governments need to come up with another way to get money to consumers, so the economy can keep working…. or else the whole thing will crash.
One really efficient way to make sure people have enough money to spend, is to simply give consumers money.
Lots of people might ask "where is this money coming from?" because they're used to getting money only for work. But the money comes from the same place as wages do: from currency issuers, who are always determining how much new money enters the economy– whether that's through the government (3% of money supply) or through private bank loans to businesses (97% of the money supply).
Governments can issue as much or as little new money as they want. But they can't do so without consequences. If they issue too much money, to allow too much consumer spending, then we get inflation; that means there's too much money trying to buy too few goods– so the money just becomes worth less.
But if they don't issue enough money, or don't distribute it efficiently, we get a different problem: poverty. The economy is delivering less goods to people not because we're short on goods, but simply because we didn't print enough money for people to use.
In our society, people care a lot about unemployment, and not too much about poverty. Whenever we commit to reducing poverty, we usually try to have it occur through work ("higher wages," etc.). People feel so strongly about this, that we come up with stories about how the "real value" of money comes not from goods, or production, but from work.
They warn that if governments "print money" this will cause inflation. Or they might say it's necessary to tax people who don't work as hard, before we do any new spending. But the truth is, the value of money doesn't have much to do with work. And the government doesn't need to tax anybody before printing money; we're always printing money, one way or another.
A simple way of summing this up is: it's not important where money comes from (that has an easy answer). The important question is: does the new money have somewhere to go? i.e. does the economy have enough productive potential, to respond to that new money with goods?
EDIT: this became a popular post. If you'd like to learn more about my perspective on the economy, you can check out my YouTube channel.
EDIT 2: If you're interested in more on these topics, I recommend checking out Alex Howlett and his Boston Basic Income discussion group.
Watch "THE URGENT NEED FOR MEDICARE FOR ALL (7:25PM ET)" on YouTube
THE URGENT NEED FOR MEDICARE FOR ALL (7:25PM ET): https://youtu.be/qMcJNlNOXao
Old Man Look at Your Life…
Can't ya hear me knocking?
I wanted Bernie. I wanted Warren over Biden. I wanted several candidates more than Biden. Nonetheless:
2020 is SO much bigger than Biden
A 2020 Trump Presidency would mean:
A conservative judiciary the rest of your life. A likely 7-2 SCOTUS, and another massive chunk of lifetime federal judge appointments.
This means unfavorable rulings for: climate change, abortion, gerrymandering, executive power, executive oversight, Congressional authority, civil rights, immigration issues (children in cages), and so, so much more. You can basically say goodbye to this for decades to come with a Trump Presidency. Everything Bernie, Warren, Democrats, and progressives ever stood for is going to take a sledgehammer with a Trump Presidency.
It would mean the continuing takeover of an authoritarian rule. Trump has argued he is immune from indictments, from oversight, from the courts, and he has a DOJ and Republican Senate to help him solidify his role as America's King.
It would mean further emboldening of a worrying white nationalist, conspiratorial presence in America. Racism, sexism, xenophobia, wild conspiracies, and more would be given a green light.
The continued isolation of America on the world stage. Every country on the planet besides NK, Saudi Arabia, and Russia does. not. trust. us. anymore. We are a mockery on the world stage in everything we do.
The most corrupt cabinet in history. William Barr, Betsy DeVos, Mnuchin, Wheeler, Pence. It's like a super team of unqualified, horrendous people with enormous conflicts of interest. Every position is basically hired to deconstruct the agency they work for. The intelligence community is being flat-out purged for loyalists.
A continuing WAR against climate change efforts and science. Undoubtedly the biggest issue humanity, including our children, grandchildren, and beyond will face.
No matter what your criticisms of Biden are,
Let's remember who Trump is:
-Trump defrauded the government of $400 million dollars.
-Trump ran a fraudulent charity (one that supported veterans and children with cancer) and university.
-Trump cheated on his third wife with a porn star and illegally paid her to keep quiet before an election.
-Trump committed at least 5 felony instances of Obstruction of Justice., including trying to get Mueller (the man investigating him) fired… twice.
-Trump was impeached for Obstruction of Congress and Abuse of Power.
-Trump killed a top general of a hostile nation that posed no imminent threat.
-Trump has over twenty sexual misconduct/assault allegations.
-Trump tried to lie about a hurricane by extending a forecast with a fucking sharpie on a map because he couldn't admit he made a mistake on twitter.
-Trump doesn't believe in climate change.
-Trump thinks windmills cause cancer and raking prevents forest fires.
-Trump is a stable genius – The "nuclear" quote – Another classic
-Trump's only "political experience" prior to becoming President was fueling a racist conspiracy theory that Obama was born in Kenya.
-Trump told a group of minority Congresswomen (3 of which born in America) to "go back" to the countries they came from.
-Trump got on the stage at Helsinki to tell the world he trusts Vladimir Putin over his own intelligence agencies.
-Trump is purging the intelligence community and replacing the positions with unqualified sycophants.
-Trump is exploiting a public health crisis for personal gain, and using the cover to remove oversight.
At the end of the day, we have a choice to make in November as reasonable adults and Americans.
– Quoted from a Redditor named CaptainNoBoat
visitor activity tracker


text:
Devised and produced by Damien Barber
Poole Lighthouse
Sunday 20th November 2016, 7.30 pm
The Demon Barbers XL
The Breaking Tradition Dance Company
This follow up to much-acclaimed The Lock In brings the concept to Christmas Eve at the Olde Fighting Cocks pub. The landlady, Jasmineezer Scrooge is preparing to launch a new Oomphah Techno Bar, specialising in "alchopops, seedy lighting and mind-numbing bass beats."
The production is between unclassifiable, and classifiable under theatre … or dance … or concerts … or Christmas. It is very different and full of life and a sense of raucous enjoyment. This was just the second night of the tour, and it's all one off gigs. A pity in a way … if they'd been doing a three night run, I'd have gone again with my grandkids and phoned several people to say "don't miss this … it's so full of life."
Damian Barber is the narrator as well as (theoretically) Marley's ghost, and this is more theatre, less concert than The Lock In. They don't do their own folk material, and Damian can be found more often among the dancers than with the band. While he sings lead on a couple of numbers, he only plays a little concertina, and no guitar. Ben Griffith, back in drag as the pub landlady, doesn't touch drums at all until the second half.
It's a Christmas Entertainment. The nearest thing is pantomime, they use lots of panto elements, but is also dance theatre, so as ever we have tap dancing, hip hop dancing, break dancing and Morris dancing (in a contemporary way). The band are led by Bryony Griffih on violin and vocals, taking the melody line on most of it. Angus Milne is on bass guitar (guitar for one song). There is an added new drummer … Ben Griffith is otherwise engaged, and there is a keyboard player. Cunningly what looks like an upright pub piano is cut away with an electronic keyboard installed … it has a straight piano setting, but is also used as organ, and electronic keys. Mostly they're four piece, though their tap dancers add second violin and accordion in one, and Damian adds concertina twice. In the second part (when they've largely finished the story), Ben Griffith moves to drums so they have a twin drummer sound.
The music is terrific, and the two tap dancers are an extra percussion instrument. I guess Christmas music is a major "folk music." In the instrumental sections behind the dance we had carols, we had Christmas pop songs and themes, we had a piano led White Christmas, we had Winter Wonderland, we had Bryony Griffith playing a long Lieutenant Kije, though the reference would be Greg Lake's I Believe in Father Christmas which adopted the tune. As it was instrumental, we'll call it Lieutenant Kije. I'd love to see it again and play Spot That Tune with Briony Griffith's melodies … Little Donkey … Away in A Manger… so many of them.
There was a lot of audience participation, clapping, singing, playing musical chairs on stage. We had Damian singing lead on a folk rock Jingle Bells. We had an audience singalong to Twelve Days of Christmas, in two halves of course, with the dancers doing charades to prompt the script. As well as the display of break dancing, two extended "Sword dances" with Damian Barber among the dancers were highlights.
It's a Christmas Show they could do for years … Damian Barber does backflips with the much younger dancers too. It has a lovely improvisational, seat of the pants feel at times, as when the Ghost of Christmas Present's mic failed, and Damian Barber had to change the battery. All taken in stride too.
When you arrive, the foyer of Poole Lighthouse has several Morris Dancing groups performing. They've done this before, extending the entertainment. The really big surprise was when we were filing out and the whole cast raced out, led by The Ghost of Christmas Past, Present and Future on saxophone, which we hadn't seen before. They had guitar, violin, percussion and did a storming number in a semi-circle with athletic break dancing. Two small kids joined in.
Audience was wildly enthusiastic, but there were too few of us. Sunday night doesn't help. Poole does well with dance, but you get groups along from schools and dancing classes, and teachers don't organise such trips on a Sunday. I felt a weekday evening would have enlarged the audience. A lot of people were previous fans or into folk, or morris dancing. The potential constituency for this event is far wider than the already loyal fan base.
Their latest CD was on sale. Given no pictures yet, let's put it in.
The Lock In Poole Lighthouse, February 2013
The Demon Barbers, Forest Arts, New Milton, June 2013


text:
Q: Chapter 1.2; Ross: 2nd Course in Probability I would like to clarify on Ross' example of a non-measurable event.

Consider a circle having radius equal to one. We say that two points
  on the edge of the circle are in the same family if you can go from
  one point to the other point by taking steps of length one unit around
  the edge of the circle. By this we mean each step you take moves you
  an angle of exactly one radian degree around the circle, and you are
  allowed to keep looping around the circle in either direction.
Suppose each family elects one of its members to be the head of the
  family. Here is the question: what is the probability a point $X$ is
  selected uniformly at random along the edge of the circle is the head
  of its family? It turns out this question has no answer.

I can understand this example well. Ross then further clarified why the probability is undefined using the following equation:

$$ \begin{align} 1 = P(A) + \sum_{i=1}^\infty(P(A_i) + P(B_i))
\end{align} $$
  Thus if $x = P(A)$, we get $1 = x + \sum_{i=1}^\infty 2x$, which has
  no solution where $0 \leq x \leq 1$.

Which I also can understand.
My confusion here is that Ross' example seems to be overly and unnecessarily complicated. The idea here is that for disjoint events $A_1,A_2,\dots$, we must have $P(\bigcup_{i=1}^\infty A_i) = \sum_{i=1}^\infty P(A_i) = 1$. I believe that the following example is much simpler: Consider the "uniform distribution over $\mathbb{Q}$", i.e. (roughly speaking) each rational number has an equal probability of being chosen. Then the probability of choosing a specific rational number must be undefined as $\mathbb{Q}$ is countable.
Am I missing something here?

A: You are missing the most important thing, where you speak roughly : no such uniform distribution exists over the rationals, or even over a superset of the rationals, simply for the reason that the rationals are countable, and a countable sum $\sum_{n=1}^\infty  x$ is either $0$ or $\infty$ for $0 \leq x \leq 1$. So there is no measure space on which we can conduct the operations specified by you. This is why Sheldon Ross can't give this particular thing as an example, but he can do something similar to the example he gives and which you attempt to give, which is done in other books.
Namely, take $[0,1]$ with the usual measure, and now say two points are in the same family if their absolute difference is a rational number. Then pick a head of each family, put the heads together in one set, and the probability of that set of heads $A \subset [0,1]$ can't be defined i.e. it is a non-measurable event.
The reason remains roughly the same : the sets of the form $x+A$ , for $x \in \mathbb Q \cap [0,1]$, are disjoint, have the same measure as $A$ and have union $[0,1]$. Therefore, if $P(A) = y$ then $\sum_{x \in \mathbb Q \cap [0,1]} y = 1$, which can't be satisfied as the sum is countable.
Such a set $A$ is called a Vitali set (Note : A rational translate of a Vitali set is also a Vitali set, so no uniqueness holds). Note that we used the axiom of choice to "pick" a member of each family to put in the Vitali set. Without the axiom of choice, it's nice to know that Solovay has constructed a set model in which all sets are Lebesgue measurable, but the model doesn't include the axiom of choice.
For another example of a non-measurable set , see the Sierpinski construction of a non-measurable set.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Fixed Gear Bicycles or "fixies" are one of the kinds of bicycles you may see on the roads of Davis. Fixed gears are the oldest form of drivetrain on bicycles. They are extremely simple from a mechanical standpoint, and this simplicity tends to be attractive to some riders. The 'fixed' refers to the lack of a freewheeling mechanism on the bike, so whenever the wheel is moving so are the pedals, and vice versa. If you pedal forward, you move forward, and if you pedal backward, you move backward.
They can be used by serious cyclists looking for a different type of training on the bike. Around town, they are most commonly found under people who are just getting from point A to point B.
There is a large discussion of whether the fixed gear mechanism itself constitutes a brake, because it is possible to skid the rear wheel by using the crank and chain. In Davis and Sacramento, the authorities have come down on the side of the bike needing a separate braking mechanism in order to comply with the law. So, if you do decide to ride a fixed gear, be aware that riding without a brake will get you a ticket.
How do you stop? A rider may resist the forward motion of the pedals, thereby slowing the rear wheel and ultimately coming to a stop. More advanced stopping techniques include skidding and skipping, though the former is a very inefficient method of stopping. Also note that the ability to skid one's rear wheel in this manner does not satisfy California's requirement of having a brake capable of skidding a wheel. The bike can also have normal brakes (most people leave on at least one traditional brake).
Does it take more energy than a regular geared bike? If you know when to shift on multi-speed bicycle, a fixed gear will almost always use more energy. The rare exception to this is if you're riding your fixed gear at your optimal cadence at all times (no accelerating/decelerating) in which case the decreased weight/friction from the missing derailleur will end up saving you a small amount of energy. However, if you don't know how to use the shifter on a multi-speed bicycle (as many people don't, sadly) then a fixed gear may take less energy.
Why would you choose this type of bike over one with modern features, including multiple gears and the ability to freewheel? Some reasons: For one thing a fixie offers many opportunities for doing tricks not possible in a traditional bike or even a bmx bike, including trackstanding, and riding backwards, to name a couple (these and more can be seen at http://www.bootlegsessions.net). It can also be a fashion statement (watch for hipsters). Mechanical simplicity. Visual simplicity. It can be common ground by which to meet new people. Alternate training style. Feeling "more connected" to the road. Better control on slippery roads. Fewer parts results in less, usually cheaper, maintenance. Lighter than the same frame built with a geared drivetrain.
Aren't they terrible for your knees? In a word, yes. Especially if ridden with a high gear ratio at low speeds, a fixed gear bike puts more pressure on your knees than a geared bike. Using brakes to slow down will help alleviate this problem.
If you're interested in more information, especially local, check out the group DavisFixed. If you want your own fixed-gear bike, great places to check out the selection are local bike stores. If you want to race them on a track, the nearest is Hellyer Park. This is the only place one should ride a fixed gear bike without brakes.
In regard to "the sensation of riding," riding a multi-speed bike can give a riding sensation much closer to driving a manual transmission than a fixed gear. Everything from the sensation of running through the gears when accelerating to the selection of gear for optimizing either power or efficiency, etc. Even shifting your bike under power requires a certain amount of finesse to avoid crunching your gears (lowering torque until the shift is complete and/or timing shifts to release at the top/bottom of your pedal stroke where torque is lowest), much like managing RPM matching and feathering the clutch for a manual car. Also, the power response from a multi-speed bike is much more dynamic, as you can quickly downshift from your usual cruising cadence right before accelerating for extra instant torque at the wheel, while on a fixed gear you don't get to feel that extra "jump" unless you're in a very narrow cadence range. Not to mention you can take turns way more aggressively on a bike with a freewheel, as you can raise one pedal while you lean.
A manual car will often punish you by stalling or jerking if you do things incorrectly. However, riding a multi-speed bike "incorrectly" doesn't give that kind of disciplining (aside from maybe having to push a large gear ratio from a standstill) so people aren't forced to learn. Most people do not shift frequently enough, ride hard enough, or use a high enough cadence to experience this "sporty" feel. But, once they do, it can be just as exciting and novel as it is learning to ride a fixed gear for the first time! As a sidenote, most of this mainly applies to multi-speed bikes with shifters which are within immediate reach of the hands (or knees for you downtube racers), such as trigger shifters or STI.
As for the "extra bit of effort," I think a quote from Greg LeMond sums it up best: "It never gets easier, you just go faster."
2009-07-30 00:43:16 On the shifting issue - is this equivalent to if I rode my (multispeed) bike with exactly one gear ratio all the time, and never shifted? I know that I'd be pedaling way too fast if I couldn't change gears as I accelerated.
2009-07-30 08:13:21 On the shifting issue - is this equivalent to if I rode my (multispeed) bike with exactly one gear ratio all the time, and never shifted? I know that I'd be pedaling way too fast if I couldn't change gears as I accelerated. Your multispeed bike would still be able to freewheel. Take that mechanism away as well, and you have a single speed fixed gear.
2010-05-31 17:22:07 I personally began riding Fixed Gear bikes about 6 months ago. I wanted the ability to ride quickly and being that Fixies are MUCH lighter then say a Mountain bike and average grade Road bikes(bikes with gears and brakes). i also found skidding and the tricks available with Fixie's appealing. The bikes are very light and maintenance is very low. People say its a fashion statement but in reality, everything we do is a fashion statement. I personally top out with my gear ratio 48/16 at 30MPH. my cruising speed is about 18mph. thesse bikes are practical for anyone. The skidding took me a week to learn and i have had no accidents.
2010-07-14 15:40:33 um, a conversion will also require a track hub. there's ways around this, but it isn't safe and i don't want to be on the same roads as people gluing cogs to old hubs.
I have a fixed gear bike, I also have many others. the track bike isn't any faster really than my other bikes, it's the rider that makes a bike fast or slow. I got a track bike because davis is so flat changing gears isn't totally necessary. I do prefer a 3 speed for commuting though. I also like the huge tires on my 29er (gearing is way low on that because it's a single speed mountain bike, but still fun). There is just something fun about the fixed drivetrain, I like how it carries your stroke through the deadspot. that said, there's nothing special about a track bike.


From the "we already knew this" department: A new study in the Journal of Affective Disorders shows that people with high or moderate levels of belief in God do better in short-term psychiatric treatment on measures of well-being, intent to hurt themselves, and depression.
I can't find a link to the original study — here is a short article from psychcentral.com.
It would be nice to see some studies on Pagan beliefs and psychiatric outcomes. Still — I will take what I can get.
I post this here because I have been thinking about ways in which Pagan clients can better help their counselors be comfortable with spiritual and religious beliefs.
Studies that show that people believing in "God" — and I am going to assume for the moment that this would generalize to gods and goddesses — are mentally healthier would seem to me a positive step towards convincing the mental health profession that spiritual people are onto a good thing.
Mentioning such studies might be a good strategy if you encounter a therapist hesitant on the whole spiritual thing.
This group is growing out of the recent Pantheacon conference.
The initial focus would seem to be on growing an association of Pagan professionals, advocacy, and perhaps developing tools for other therapists and the community. This discussion of what the association should be is ongoing. I've joined to participate and check it out.
The focus of the separate and pre-existing Pagan Professional Counseling Yahoo Group has so far been more on case consultations, and peer support for fellow Pagan therapists.
Hard to say if these will remain separate in focus or come together in some way.
I found an interesting take on AA today on CNN's religion blog. Click here to see it — it's entitled My Faithlessness: The atheist way through AA.
So she has found a way to spiritually connect in the end — through humility and service and a recognition of flawed nature. I'm glad for her.
I'm not sure this will work for many Pagan alcoholics. My Pagan clients are especially annoyed with the emphasis on surrender of power. They tend to think that they need to take back personal power and personal responsibility in order to rebuild themselves. They feel oppressed by the assumptions of one male deity. They DON'T want a nonspiritual alternative.
1. We recognize that we have given away personal power by addiction to substances, that this has resulted in dysfunctional living, that it's time to reclaim our power and restore balance to ourselves and our lives.
2. Came to acknowledge that the Divine Power within can bring about healing change and harmony.
3. Chose to allow the Divine within of our own personal path to be the central guiding force in ourselves and our lives.
4. Examined ourselves deeply and honestly on all dimensions, physical, mental, behavioral, emotional, and spiritual.
unhealthy and unbalanced in our bodies, thoughts, emotions, behaviors & souls.
6. Were ready for the Divine within to work transformation to restore balance to ourselves and our lives.
7. Sincerely invited the Divine within to dispel barriers to change, and to facilitate transformation.
8. Made a lists of all beings we have harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
9. Made direct amends to such beings as much as possible, except when to do so would cause harm to them or others or make a difficult situation worse.
10. Continued our process of self-examination, acknowledging our strengths as well as our problems, promptly acknowledging our mistake & successes when they occurred.
rhythm making, invocations, prayers, vigils, nature walks, journal writing, and other practices, to strengthen our relationship with the Divine within and to allow this dimension of ourselves to be the guiding force in our lives.
12 . Having had a spiritual rebirth as a result of this process of healing transformation, we continue to work with these principles and are willing to share our story with those who come to us in need.
There actually used to be a Pagan AA meeting in office space I rented on Saturdays before the local Pagan shop Mystickal Voyage shut-down. I'd love to know if they managed to relocate somewhere nearby.
I will comment that vanilla AA is often effective. I'm frequently glad it exists. I think most of the problems are as much a result of local failings and local members as of the AA system itself. Few groups run perfectly as intended.
My occasional objections to it are along the lines of AA as its own religion, the 12-Steps and the program being inviolate and those questioning are "in denial", and of course the emphasis on surrender to higher power. Again — much of this depends upon how the local meeting is run.
1) Frequent complaints by high IQ clients that it seems simplistic and not open to intelligent challenge.
2) Frequent complaints of hypocritical/relapsing sponsors.
I'm not sure there is a summary point to this posting — I guess maybe that some flexibility is needed in finding a path to sobriety and to the Divine. Also that such flexibility is being created by Pagans and atheists and others who need the help while stuck in our mainstream culture.
Just finished a wonderful weekend at the 2011 Sacred Space Conference. I'd like to thank Caroline Kenner for asking me to submit classes as well as the whole host of other event planners.
I presented a class on healer ethics — which was a very broad class concerning common ethical considerations across a wide variety of healing professions from the more medical (professional counseling, acupuncture) to the alternative (Tarot readers, energy healers, etc.). We had a small but very enthusiastic group and the class about ran itself with all the examples and questions. I was very pleased with how it went.
I also presented a very well attended class on trauma spectrum disorders with the goal of educating group leaders about what different disorders entail, how to spot them, and possible effects on their spiritual groups. Another good discussion.
The conference was fantastic — I got to go to several sessions from other presenters I really enjoyed.
I missed Jonathan White's class on "Ceremonial and Counseling Work with Anger" which combined Pagan ceremonial methods for working on anger with counseling. Likely was a good class — his always are.
I'm happy to see several classes on mental health popping up at Pagan spiritual conferences and even happier at being invited to help teach them.
I added a new blog to the Pagan Counseling links section (scroll down on right-hand side). Staff of Asclepius is an attractive blog mostly about Pagan health issues. The main author Masery posts an interesting mix of Pagan health news (much of it mental health-related), interviews, and personal observations.
Dr. Valerie Cole, the Department Chair of the Pagan Pastoral Counseling program at Cherry Hill Seminary, has started a new blog.
PCP Episode #108 is Online!
Amber and Dave at PCP also posted a nice outline of the show online so that if you are interested in a specific topic you can jump right to the portion of the show that it's discussed.
The outline of the show is here.
The actual .mp3 file is available for download here.
This show is also available through iTunes.
I got to visit the grand re-opening of a drop-in center on Friday. A drop-in center (sort of like the name implies) is a facility, usually run by other mental health clients, for the benefit of mental health consumers. They play games, watch movies, generally hang out, and frequently get involved in educational and job-related activities as well.
Anyway, I walked into this drop-in center and shortly noticed 4-5 clients all wearing pentacles, dragons, tattoos, and all the usual status stuff that marks Pagans as Pagans.
Well, apparently several of these Pagan folk attend the psychiatric rehab program (PRP) across town (ironically they don't attend mine — where the management is Pagan). Pretty soon I was hearing stories of astral battles, shamanic banishment of astral nasties, and the ways in which their PRP was now cleansed, warded, and protected courtesy of the Pagan clients.
All in all a rather normal Pagan conversation. Except for the setting.
Which put me in both a state of cognitive dissonance and a thoughtful mood.
How exactly would the typical psychiatric center staff react if they caught a banishment ritual going on? How should they react? Do they dare even consider allowing it?
In a traditional culture (or a Pagan discussion environment) this problem would not even arise. The shaman (or Pagan) would of course be allowed to proceed with the banishment. It would not matter if he/she was really banishing nasties or just hallucinating it — the community support would make it no big deal and possibly be healing to the individual.
But in a serious mental health center, when do you let clients run free with their paranormal experiences — especially if they are involving other clients?
I'd be real curious to know how this balancing act plays out at their PRP — but of course if I ask I might upset the apple cart.
Wednesday I got to hear an advance copy of my interview with PCP: Pagan-Centered Podcast. I was very happy with it, apart from some sound quality issues. They did a good job cleaning up my "ummm.." and awkward pauses.
Self-promotion aside, I think this is a worthwhile interview to listen to if you are hesitant to see a therapist and want to know how to approach a therapist with Pagan beliefs. I also cleared up misconceptions on being involuntarily hospitalized, drugged without consent, labeled schizophrenic for paranormal experiences, and a host of other concerns. I was quite happy with it.
I believe it will be posted as episode #108 in a few weeks. You can get it off of iTunes, or visit their website for other methods.
I sent the following memo out to my staff at a psychiatric rehabilitation day program today. What are your thoughts on the proper role of religion and/or spirituality in a state-funded psychiatric environment? When does it help with recovery? When does it hurt? Does the presence of ANY religion pressure nonbelievers? Does its absence leave believers with a hole in their heart? What if they don't have the means to get out to their religious or spiritual community?
Our institutional population is often not able to get to church or other religious activities and so are missing out on the spiritual/religious aspects of their lives.
I believe in a holistic program approach encompassing mind, body, and spirit. We bring in everything else the clients need.
There are now several studies in the psych literature that show a link between spirituality and recovery – especially for depression and for drug/alcohol issues. (See Keating & Fretz, 1990; Propst et al., 1992; Worthington, Kurusu, McCullough, & Sandage, 1996).
However, at the same time this is a secular, state-funded program which provides equal services to all clients – religious or not.
So a balance is needed – a way to provide spiritual and religious programming but in a totally optional way that pressures and evangelizes no one.
They are appropriate only if there is absolutely no pressure whatsoever on clients to attend.
They are appropriate only when there are other attractive activities in the same timeslot of a secular nature.
Spiritual/religious activities will usually be held in a side classroom rather than the community room in order to further emphasize that attendance is optional and so it does not by default grab up folks who just sit in the community room.
There must be enough client interest to justify the programming strictly on client need (not evangelism). This is pretty clear for Christianity right now. For other religions like Buddhism, etc. I'd theoretically be just as happy to have classes if there was a need. I suspect given smaller numbers of interested clients, such could be accommodated by client-run clubs.
This is verbose, but I hope clear – please feel free to hit me with questions individually or at staff meeting.


Here at We ❤ Health Literacy Headquarters, we can get into zombies. There's nothing like a horde of undead to spice up a chase scene—and they can even help us write more clearly! But did you know that zombie preparedness is now an accepted part of the health communication toolbox? That's because if you're talking about zombies instead of SARS or H1N1, people are more likely to perk up and learn something.
One zombie flick that really packs in the public health messaging is 2013's World War Z.


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2 Minutes With … Eric Zuncic, CSO of DDB North America
On Skittles, Burger King and 'Farewell, Holiday Work Parties' for Miller Lite
By Amy Corr on Nov 15 2021 - 7:00am
Eric Zuncic | Photo illustration by Ashley Epping
As chief strategy officer of DDB North America, Eric Zuncic has architected a multi-disciplinary strategy team that helps clients modernize to a more audience-first, full-stack approach to marketing, measurement and growth.
Prior to joining DDB, Eric was chief strategy officer at Crispin Porter + Bogusky, where he oversaw work for Domino's, Infiniti, Kraft, American Airlines, Hershey's and Hotels.com. Eric was also a partner at Mekanism, where he helped the transition from a digital production company to a full-service creative agency.
He is a graduate of the University of Richmond and holds an MBA from Harvard Business School, where he studied innovation and strategy. He lives outside New York City with his wife Grace, son Charlie and daughter Ellie.
We spent two minutes with Eric to learn more about his background, his creative inspirations, and recent work he's admired.
Eric, tell us...
I grew up in a town 17 miles west of Chicago, called La Grange Park. I now live in a town 17 miles north of New York City, called Larchmont. So, between 17 miles and "L" towns, I'm consistent.
What you wanted to be when you grew up.
Professional athlete. Football, hockey, basketball, baseball … didn't matter.
How you realized you were creative.
I wrote a "Weird Al" Yankovich-style parody album of TLC's CrazySexyCool in the fourth grade.
A person you idolized creatively growing up.
My older brother Neil. From his fashion sense to his eclectic music preferences to his ability to draw freehand really well, he is how I learned what "taste" was.
A moment from high school or college that changed your life.
Study abroad in college. Copenhagen. First time outside North America. The first week totally changed my perspective on humanity—how much we have in common at our cores, but how superficially different we allow ourselves to seem to one another.
A visual artist you admire.
Simon Stålenhag.
A band or musician you love.
Okkervil River. Will Sheff paints beautiful stories with nothing but words and sounds.
Wolverine.
Rotten on Netflix.
Someone worth following on Instagram.
@thingsihavedrawn.
Walking my kids to school. It's where all the kindergarten gossip gets spilled.
Your favorite creative project you've ever worked on.
All credit to the brilliant people who actually made these ideas, but there are two that immediately come to mind that I feel lucky to have been involved in.
The World's Largest Blind Taste Test for Kraft. It was one of those rare instances of a sharp insight ("Don't change my mac 'n' cheese") resetting the marketing strategy, becoming the brief, leading to a "Could we actually do this?" idea and literally stopping the presses in a production facility to rethink the entire go-to-market plan for a product launch. And the print ad—"We would invite you to try it, but you already have"—was genius.
Kraft | Blind Taste Test
"Exclusive the Rainbow" for Skittles. The depth of understanding of our audience to get meta and make ads about ads to get people to watch one kid react to a Super Bowl ad was a lot of fun. And the fact that—to this day—nobody but Marcos has seen that ad starring David Schwimmer is mind-blowing.
Skittles | Exclusive the Rainbow
"Farewell, Holiday Work Parties" for Miller Lite. The insight was unexpected. The execution was flawless. And we made art, that happened to be an ad, but was treated like art—being featured physically and digitally at LACMA (Los Angeles County Museum of Art). Oh, and it sold a lot of beer.
Miller Lite | Case Study: Farewell, Work Holiday Parties
Crispin's early work on Burger King… from Chicken Fries to the Western Bacon Ranch to Subservient Chicken to Whopper Sacrifice and Whopper Virgins—they knew their audience SO well and just committed to it. Creativity knew no boundaries and found its way into every nook and cranny of that business.
Burger King | Whopper Sacrifice
Someone else's work that you admired lately.
The Volvo E.V.A. initiative. Doing the right thing for the industry and humanity, even if it means giving up their intellectual property.
A main strength of yours as a creative person.
Making sense of the seemingly nonsensical.
Wanting to be "right."
The sound of water.
Unnecessary interpersonal conflict, on any scale.
Event planner.
DDB North America
Amy Corr
Amy Corr is assistant editor of Muse by Clio.
More from Amy Corr


hole « Peeter Joot's (OLD) Blog.
Last time we found that the low temperature behaviour or the chemical potential was quadratic as in fig. 1.1.
The only change in the distribution fig. 1.2, that is of interest is over the step portion of the distribution, and over this range of interest is approximately constant as in fig. 1.3.
This is illustrated in fig. 1.4.
We can think of this state distribution in a condensed matter view, where we can have a hole to electron state transition by supplying energy to the system (i.e. shining light on the substrate). This can also be thought of in a relativisitic particle view where the same state transition can be thought of as a positron electron pair transition. A round trip transition will have to supply energy like as illustrated in fig. 1.6.
We'll find a density of states distribution like fig. 1.7.


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Kevin Litman-Navarro
Pi Day 2018: How the Nerdiest Google Doodle Calendar Day Began
3.14159265358979323846264338327950288419716939937510582...
With a confectionery Doodle on Wednesday, Google paid homage to Pi Day, the nerdiest holiday of the year. Pi Day occurs every year on March 14 (3.14) in celebration of the the numerical constant pi.
Pi represents the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter. That is, for every circle, its circumference is pi times as long as that circle's diameter. Its discovery is generally credited to the Ancient Greek mathematician Archimedes around 250 B.C. But it's more than just a number — pi is a lifestyle.
Pi Day was first formally recognized by physicist Larry Shaw in 1988, and since its inception thirty years ago Pi Day has become a mainstay in high school geometry classrooms across the country. Shaw organized the inaugural festival at the San Francisco Exploratorium, an experience-based science and discovery space (it resists the label "museum") founded by Frank Oppenheimer in 1969.
Mathematical revelers at the Exploratorium partake in a profound ritual every Pi Day. Baked goods in hand, a parade of mathematicians and enthusiasts form a ring around a Pi-engraved monument. Then, in concert, they circle around the marker three and one-seventh times, a close approximation to pi.
If you're missing out on the Exploratorium observance, you can make up for the lack of community with an extra delicious pastry. Chef Dominique Ansel, who created the pie featured in Google's Doodle, posted a recipe for his famous apple pie as a pi day gift to all.
Unfortunately for pie and circumference lovers around the world, many places don't get the chance to truly join the Pi Day celebrations. The United States is basically the only nation that writes the date with the month first, so the punny-ness of Pi Day is lost elsewhere.
But geeks looking for another reason to party can simply swap out Pi Day for another worthy cause: the birthday of Albert Einstein. After all, Einstein did some math in his life, so feel free to talk about numbers and maybe eat some baked goods, too.
Patrick Stewart was the scariest villain of the decade
By Ted Meyer
Inverse Daily: Carbon-neutral by 2050
By Greta Moran
'A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night' was always love at first bite
By Ashley Naftule


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Mortgage rates are rising, but nothing to worry about if you want a cheap loan
3 min read Published March 30, 2021
Zach Wichter
Written by Zach WichterArrow Right Mortgage reporter
Zach Wichter is a former mortgage reporter at Bankrate. He previously worked on the Business desk at The New York Times where he won a Loeb Award for breaking news, and covered aviation for The Points Guy.
Connect with Zach Wichter on Twitter Twitter
Get in contact with Zach Wichter via Email Email
Our mortgage reporters and editors focus on the points consumers care about most — the latest rates, the best lenders, navigating the homebuying process, refinancing your mortgage and more — so you can feel confident when you make decisions as a homebuyer and a homeowner.
Mortgage rates were historically low for most of 2020, but as the pandemic recovery gathers steam, that is changing. Rates have mostly been climbing in 2021, and that trend is likely to continue through the year as more folks get vaccinated and back to work.
But that doesn't mean mortgages are about to become unaffordable either. Many people will still be able to secure great loan rates compared with pre-pandemic times, and millions of homeowners could still potentially save by refinancing their loan before rates move even higher.
Why rates dropped so low
The economy is complicated, so there isn't a totally cut-and-dried explanation for why mortgage rates were so low last year, but the simplest way to understand it is because Treasury rates went down.
"Mortgage rates typically follow the 10-year," said Joel Kan, associate vice president of economic and industry forecasting at the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA). "This hit to the Treasury rates came at a time when we already started to see rates come lower in the beginning of 2020 and there was already the start of some refi wave."
For much of 2020, economic uncertainty kept Treasury rates suppressed, which encouraged low mortgage rates, too. The 10-year Treasury generally tracks fixed mortgage rates.
Where rates could head in the next few months
The days of sub-3 percent mortgage rates are probably over for now. Getting the pandemic under control is in the foreseeable future for the U.S., which means the economy is going to start getting back to some kind of normal in the months ahead.
"Our forecast right now is to see rates continue to increase," Kan said. "Between now and the end of the year, looking for another 50 basis points of an increase because economic growth is expected to continue at the current pace or pick up."
MBA predicts that the average rate on a 30-year fixed loan will be 3.6 percent by the end of 2021. But the rise shouldn't be quite as sudden as the falloff was last year.
"It's been a gradual increase because in the second half of last year there was still a lot of uncertainty over the vaccine and how quickly things would reopen," Kan said. "On aggregate things have come back pretty well. Of course there are households that are still suffering, but on aggregate, things turned around a lot faster than most expected."
What's pushing rates higher
As businesses reopen and consumers start spending more in the hospitality sector again, mortgage rates are likely going to keep climbing gradually throughout the year.
Increasing consumer demand may squeeze supply chains and result in more inflation. The result is almost certain to be higher mortgage rates ahead.
"In addition to that because of this potential for a bigger jump in growth, we've seen inflation move higher, the prices that consumers pay for goods and services," Kan said. "We've already seen a lot of reports from builders that, with the high demand for housing, not only do we have a low supply of housing, but the costs to build are going up," he added. "That's all going to act together to push rates higher, faster."
For homebuyers, rising rates shouldn't have as big an impact as increasing prices. An ongoing housing shortage has made for a strong seller's market, and although mortgage rates are gradually climbing, the bigger squeeze for housing affordability seems to be coming in the form of competition from other buyers.
"Obviously home price growth has been extremely high and looks to be accelerating, but we don't see rates as a significant factor in that yet," Kan said. "If rates go higher faster, it's possible" that could have more of an effect.
How many people could still benefit from refinancing
Many millions of homeowners.
But it's not quite that simple. Data firm Black Knight reported this month that 11 million homeowners stand to save by refinancing, but that doesn't necessarily mean the savings make the process worth it for all those borrowers.
"If I have 10 years left and I refinance into a lower rate but that adds another 5, 10, 20 years to my mortgage, is that worth it to me?" Kan said. "Yes we could look at how many borrowers out there could refinance," but there are other factors to consider.
Aside from borrowers who are close to paying off their current loan, it also doesn't make sense to refinance if you could move and turn a profit on the house. Because competition among buyers is so high, for some it may make sense to use this opportunity to upgrade or downsize instead.
The rock-bottom days for mortgage rates seem to be over, but that doesn't mean they're not still low by historical standards. Rates are likely to keep rising this year, but should stay affordable for many borrowers for the foreseeable future. However, if you have a somewhat recent loan, you may want to explore your options for refinancing before rates rise above a level that could yield you significant savings.
How and why to refinance your mortgage
How to choose the right kind of refinance for you
How much home equity do I need for a mortgage refinance?
Read more from Zach
Mortgage rate forecast for 2023: Expect a 'notable pullback' as inflation eases
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Mortgage rate forecast for September 2021: Don't wait for rates to rise
4 min read Sep 01, 2021
Mortgage rates are going up, but that doesn't mean your mortgage rate is going up
4 min read Apr 27, 2021