Over the past eight years, as the movement to integrate cannabis into fine dining has gathered momentum, I've sampled early offerings from transgressive cooks and high-end chefs alike—tasting experimental cuisine from cutting-edge culinary seekers eager to make a name for themselves by seizing upon a previously forbidden and underutilized herb.
Nowadays, weed food attracts attention from Michelin-star chefs, TV producers, food critics and restaurant trade associations, but when I first got into it in 2012—as author of The Official High Times Cannabis Cookbook—only a handful of adventurous foodies dared add the "secret ingredient" to their menus and pantries.
From the earliest days of this underground movement, I began attending the smattering of secret weed dinners springing up in private homes, closed restaurants, urban lofts and erstwhile art galleries. There was a contagious spirit of optimistic invention in that trailblazing era, with chefs like Chris Sayegh ("The Herbal Chef"), Andrea Drummer, and Payton Curry grabbing headlines for going "beyond brownies," while experienced restauranteurs such as Miguel Trinidad raised the bar even further by launching stoned supper clubs.
And then a Viceland show called Bong Appétit came along and changed everything almost overnight, transforming weed dinners into a trend as ubiquitous as Bitcoin.
Along the way, the liberalization of cannabis laws in California gave rise to a lot of confusion over the legality of these types of events. Currently, there's no provisions in the state regulations that permit dinners that serve cannabis-infused foods, so supper clubs have remained in a grey area. Adults can share cannabis products amongst themselves, and chefs can charge for the food and service they provide, but no one is technically allowed to sell weed-infused food that hasn't been produced in a licensed manufacturing facility and passed rigorous lab tests for THC dosage.
With that in mind, all of the dining experiences described in this article are considered to be within the bounds of private events, and chefs who do infuse foods tend to go light on the THC dosage. You can expect to sign a waiver protecting the hosts from lawsuits just in case you get too high.
Typically, these events aren't advertised, so would-be attendees must be referred by a friend who's already a member of the supper club. Sometimes an application process is required, since chefs like to cultivate the guest list as carefully as they choose their produce.
Of course, anyone can cook with cannabis at home, so if you feel inspired, pick up a good cookbook and throw your own stoned dinner party. Or hire any one of these chefs to cater a private party. Either way, see below for details on California's best cannabis culinary experiences, as well as hints on how to get invited to these secretive suppers.
With a forthcoming cookbook entitled Edibles: Small Bites for the Modern Cannabis Kitchen, Chef Coreen Carroll has dedicated herself to high hospitality since 2015, when she launched the Cannaisseur Series in partnership with her husband Ryan Bush. Held at a spacious loft in San Francisco, Coreen's events include brunches, cocktail mixers, and dinners, usually with lightly-infused dishes accompanied by flower pairings. A master at designing a progression of highs, Carroll integrates plenty of CBD and non-psychoactive options to balance the small amounts of THC served in the beginning of the meal. Recent notable dishes include a Beet Poached Quail Egg Fricasse, and an Almond Olive Oil Cake topped with a pink sugar-encrusted Candied Cannabis Leaf. Sign up for the mailing list and receive invites for events held twice a month but move quickly since dinners usually fill up within a week.
Stepping into a lovely Victorian home in San Francisco's Mission District, you'll be greeted by wine expert Jamie Evans, aka The Herb Somm, a warm hostess dedicated to creating elegant experiences that blend cannabis, fine food, and perfect wine pairings. Inside, you'll find offerings from a few select craft cannabis brands, accompanied by a three-course, low-dose meal prepared by a rotating cast of chefs, and tailored to a unique theme.
But it's really the intersection of weed and wine that makes this event so special. When served in moderation, Evans believes this "allows for a unique sensory experience by pairing aromas and flavors between wine, cannabis, and food. It also opens the door for terpene education as well as discussions about terroir, growing regions, and farming practices." Recently, Evans was pouring a Mathilde Chapoutier Rosé Grand Ferrage 2017 and Anselmi San Vincenzo 2016. Thursday Infused takes place every other month on, you guessed it—Thursday!
Creating inventive, gourmet dishes either infused with hash or paired with concentrates, Executive Chef Michael Magallanes is a veteran of the San Francisco fine dining scene, boasting experience at Michelin-starred eateries Aziza and Mourad. Working with Barron Lutz, a friend from his restaurant days who went on to found the Nasha concentrate company, Magallanes developed techniques to precisely activate and dose high-quality ice hash, choosing to highlight the earthy flavors of this product and integrate it with complimentary ingredients. Dinners typically feature eight to ten courses of haute cuisine such as Braised Spice-cured Beef Short Ribs with Jujubes Sauce and Spring Vegetables, Parsley Root with Huckleberry, Oats and Brown Butter, or Sea Urchin on Toast with Rhubarb and Shiso.


Long-time Maverick member Shelby Rimmereid Larson has once again, redefined the definiton of "Rockstar." This mom of 5 is a successful entrepreneur, board member, influential speaker, all-around WONDERFUL person AND a published author. That's right, Shelby recently finished Moonlighting on the Internet, 2nd Edition, a followup to Yanik Silver's First Edition (Moonlighting on the Internet: Five World Class Experts Reveal Proven Ways to Make and Extra Paycheck Online Each Month), written in 2008.
A "moonlighter" of eight years, Shelby has created a seven-figure business, multiple six figure businesses and has failed at many other online opportunities in between. Bringing her experience with success (and failure) from seeking income on the internet, Shelby covers business models in the areas of freelance services, digital and information products, affiliate marketing, Amazon webstores, and eCommerce.
Readers can access a Moonlighting on the Internet website that's dedicated to supporting their development by including a free assessment quiz to help them identify their best income path based on time, resources, level of interest and abilities. Click here to check it out.
Get in on Shelby's "moonlighting magic" and order your copy of Moonlighting on the Internet, 2nd Edition today!


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Economy, Lifestyle, Reflections
Wal-Mart: an anatomy of a colossus
Date: 07/07/2013Author: RJ 1 Comment
You see them everywhere now, spreading like a fungus, invasive, unstoppable, a contagion blighting main street America. What we used to call downtown is a pale shade of what once gave vitality and lent identity to our cities and towns, now reduced to a town hall, a few restaurants, maybe a police station, a bank or two, perhaps a post office and a motley of lawyer offices.
While the rise of the shopping mall, geared to a modern, mobile consumer, has played a significant role in emptying our town centers, the rise of box stores has accentuated the trend, with Wal-Mart foremost among them.
In the U.S., Wal-Mart is our largest retail employer, with 1.2 million workers; worldwide, more than 2 million. It's also the richest, with 2012 sales of $444 billion. Each week, an estimated 200 million visit a Wal-Mart, at last count, some 10,700 stores located in 69 countries. There are also ten web sites internationally for those finding it more convenient to shop at home.
Wal-Mart has its vociferous critics who malign its resistance to unions, poverty scrapping wages, marginal health benefits, and harsh impacting of local commerce. Defending itself, Wal-Mart takes pride in pledging $2 billion through 2015 to combat hunger in America. It gave 17 million to needy Gulf communities in the aftermath of Katrina.
Wal-Mart claims it's done much to help small farmers by its increasing emphasis on local produce with $1 billion in purchases. In countries such as Brazil, it has confined its meat sources to those farms not engaging in deforestation.
It has pioneered in garnering healthier foodstuffs in a commitment to reduce sodium by 25%% and added sugar by 10% and the elimination of transfats over the next two years at no price increase. Last February, it introduced "It's Great For You icons" to suggest healthier food items. Along the same lines, it has contributed $26 million to programs promoting better nutrition.
In the sustainability area, Wal-Mart is a leader in transitioning to solar for 5 to 20% of the energy needs of its stores. Last week, it announced immediate solar implementation for ten of its stores in Maryland.
But much of what Wal-Mart does is all about public relations, or polishing its image, a shellac concealing inequities. Were it done for its own sake, or from compassion, or a sense of social need, such altruism would doubtless be received warmly. It continues, however, to advance itself by marginalizing worker wages and benefits.
In 2002, there were the revelations in Mexico, where bribery was used to purchase land sites and contracts. Initially, Bentonville, AR headquarters hushed up the scandal, only to sense media's gaining on them and the fact of declining stock value. Its response, as nearly always with Wal-Mart, was damage control. Appointing its own investigators, it ultimately sent its findings back to the very authorities in Mexico tainted by the scandal, resulting in exoneration of the accused.
There is also no denying Wal-Mart has been fiercely anti-union. In Canada, for example, it closed a store just after it had been unionized. In late 2012, organized union boycotts were staged against Wal-Mart on Black Friday, though few "associates," about 50 nationwide, took part and consumers virtually nil. In fairness, unions were a principal factor behind the collapse of Hostess Brands following last November's strike and have often exacerbated costs elsewhere in a marketplace keenly sensitive to foreign competition. In Kentucky, where I live, Toyota workers have repeatedly turned down unionization by large pluralities. My point is that when employees are treated well they have little relish for unions. The lack of participation by Wal-Mart employees smacks of fear of reprisal, given their meager earnings yet need for income.
In those industries represented by unions, businesses in general have responded to decreased profitability by increasingly resorting to contract labor, reduced hours, reduction in workers hired, layoffs, elimination of stores and factories, or by simply packing-up and leaving the U. S. Hostess Brands, makers of Twinkies I grew up on, had already been struggling with indebtedness and sagging profits, and yet one of its several union called a fatal strike. But it's one thing to work for Toyota that treats workers like family and quite another working for parsimonious Wal-Mart, which has increasingly been turning to the same cost limiting measures.
It may come as a surprise, but nearly a third of Wal-Mart's hires come from heavily unionized grocery stores and fast food enterprises that actually paid their workers less in wages and benefits than Wal-Mart. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average pay of a Wal-Mart associate is $21,744 (2012) compared with $20,200 for grocery store workers. The anomaly is that Wal-Mart prospers while retailers like Montgomery Ward have bellied-up, and chains like JC Penney and Sears may be about to follow. It seems obvious consumers have been voting with their feet. Sam Walton's philosophy was to sell cheap and reap volume. He seems to have gotten the message, but for self-advantage rather than entering into the ethics good stewardship of wealth demands.
Turnover at Wal-Mart is high, with half of hires quitting after only a year. Still, it's less than the 65% average in the retail industry at large, which merely demonstrates worker discontent is intrinsic in a market place defined by low wages and marginal benefits generally.
Recent headlines have focused on alleged discrimination against women in areas of pay and promotion with several class action suits underway. Though two-thirds of Wal-Mart's workers are women, only a third are in management. Wal-Mart's argument is that the statistical disparity doesn't reflect context, with many women preferring part-time employment or lacking in prerequisite skills. Pay and promotion are decided by local stores anyway, not Bentonville. In a 2011 High Court decision, the Court ruled by a 5-4 vote in Wal-Mart's favor, based on local determination rather than national policy. To Wal-Mart's credit, two years ago it launched a support program to assist women in acquiring management skills.
Walmart has also been taken to task for relying on imports, especially from China, resulting in decimation of the manufacturing sector. For me, this is reliable criticism, though I would argue America's manufacturing exodus had begun before Wal-Mart's emergence as a retail colossus. I also ask, Where is this not happening and how likely its rebirth? Still, Wal-Mart has pedaled foreign goods with unabated alacrity from the outset in consort with low wages to maximize profitability.
I started out with the given of the decimated local community; it's a fact, much of it caused by Wal-Mart, but not solely. What about Lowes and Home Depot, Best Buy and Macy's among a plethora of entrepreneurial empires that have increasingly homogenized America's look and short circuited the mom & pop stores of our childhood? Will they also go away?
But there's a good side, too. Consider Vermont. I'd gladly live there if it weren't so cold and costly. Vermont has only four Wal-Marts! This comes about largely through small town pressure to maintain community cohesiveness. Yet in Burlington, Vermont's largest city, you'll find the same crowded Wal-Mart aisles as anywhere else. What's more, it's proved a spinoff as an anchor for other chain stores like Lowe's. Nonetheless, it comes at a price and I remember popular writer Bill Bryson commenting on his adopted Hanover, NH town how much he enjoyed the intactness of the town center not yet impacted by suburban malls.
In today's troubled economy, at least more than a million Americans have found work at Wal-Mart unlike many millions more who want to work and are open to even lower paying jobs, but cannot. But this speaks to me of desperation and not free, and first, choice. Personally, I don't like to shop at Wal-Mart's and avoid doing so in favor of cleaner, less-crowded aisles; that special intimacy I find at my local drug store where they know me by name; foods that somehow look fresher and less picked-over.
I do sometimes think the Wal-Mart criticism, at times justified, borders on an unceasing venom fostered by some of my fellow Progressives yearning to restore us to a pristine world, which I doubt ever existed except in the weave of human myth, proving again Idealism's too frequent folly in pursuing a salient, but unhelpful, simplicity. Bottom line, Wal-Mart is not some rude renegade in the business commune. They're simply the largest and thus most visible target and hardly the sole sinner.
I suspect my fellows resent as I do the oligarchy of the rich, particularly when its comes to the money pinching Sam Walton who became America's first billionaire, $2.8 billion, in the mid 80s. Even then, parsimony came easily to Sam, who had a vogue for $5.00 haircuts and never left a tip. He made sure his family, Helen and the four children, were well-provided for, however, bequeathing a net worth of $23 billion. Six of the surviving Walton offspring ultimately had as much money as the bottom 30% of Americans. But money talks. In 1992, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Bush and his wife, who came to Bentonville for the occasion.
I'm chagrined at the $23 million executive salary paid to Wal-Mart CEO Michael Duke this year. According to the Huffington Post, at an average pay of $12.67 an hour, it would take 785 years for an "associate" to earn Duke's one year salary. But maybe this is an unfair gripe or poor sense of what makes for injustice, After all, Apple's Tim Cook gets just under $400 million per annum, exhibiting capitalism's vulgarity at its worst.
What I also fervently dislike about Wal-Mart is its intrusion into virtually every nook and cranny, not just textiles and food. Not only do they sell gas, they now feature inside banks, subway and McDonalds outlets. Medicine is currently all the rage, having begun with optometric services. Now Walmart wants to be your physician, too, with thousands of clinics offering an array of services.
But I'm being unfair again, since Wal-Mart currently lags behind CVC and Walgreens in this market dash to offer such services. But my insistent defiance leads to my confessing I now shop at a Kroger superstore for our groceries, another box store in other words, where I can also buy furniture, kitchen utensils, even jewelry. New Yorker writer George Packer eloquently captures my mood in his acute analysis of America's fall from grace (Unwinding [2013]) in writing of fellow resistant types:
… in parts of the country that were getting richer, on the coasts and in some big cities, many consumers regarded Wal-Mart and its vast aisles full of crappy, if not dangerous, Chinese-made goods with horror, and instead purchased their shoes and meat in expensive boutiques as if overpaying might inoculate them against the spread of cheapness, while stores like Macy's, the bastions of a former middle-class economy, faded out, and America began to look once more like the country Mr. Sam had grown up in.
Like it or not, we're all caught in the net. Wal-Mart has coalesced with the landscape, ubiquitous and with many imitators. We can never, no matter what we do, get quite free again. We can never go home again.
Walmart's Troubles Continue In India (forbes.com)
Wal-Mart's 'American Idol'-style contest is back (money.cnn.com)
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One thought on "Wal-Mart: an anatomy of a colossus"
kscotsparks says:
Thanks for these perspectives, Ralph! 'hope you are WELL. love, ks

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


The Philippine government is already looking into the unlawful killings in the wake of the war against illegal drugs, a senior government official said Monday.
Presidential Communications Office Secretary Martin Andanar was responding to the resolution issued by the European Union expressing concern on the spate of killings involving drug suspects.
"Extra-judicial killing is not a policy of this administration. We will never condone any unlawful killings," he said.
The call of the European Parliament to launch an immediate investigation is already being addressed as President Rodrigo Duterte has already instructed authorities to look into these incidents and bring the perpetrators to justice, Andanar explained.
As to the specific, comprehensive policies and programs in compliance with human rights, he said plans for the construction of drug rehabilitation centers are now underway.
The president has also directed the military to allot some of their idle lands for these centers as part of the second phase of the anti-drug war, which is the rehabilitation of drug dependents, he added.
He noted that at least four rehabilitation centers will be built this year, two in Luzon, one in the Visayas, and one in Mindanao.
Since Duterte assumed office on June 30, over 700,000 drug users and pushers have surrendered to authorities while more than 3,000 drug suspects were killed, most of them allegedly perpetrated by vigilantes.
The president has also sought for six-month extension to end illegal drug problem in the country from his initial target of three to six months.


I know the word Operations Management is not strange to us. It has to do with the day to day activity that is been performed in order to ensure that an organisation continue to reap the benefits of executing a project.
Operation Management is departments in the organisation that are responsible for overseeing, directing, and controlling business operations that supports day to dayactivities performed to meet the strategic objectives of a project. What some of us performs in our various offices are part of operations.
I have said it in one of my articles that a Project has a beginning and end date. Also, a project has a unique result but an operation involves monotonous tasks that do not have beginning or end. Therefore, If I am employed as a Secretary in an office, what I am performing is operations management not project.


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Spartan Newsroom (https://news.jrn.msu.edu/tag/parenting/)
Legislature divides over parenting
By KAREN HOPPER USHER
LANSING – Michigan custody law should reflect the changing Michigan family. That's the sentiment behind a bill in the House Committee on Families, Children and Seniors that would revise the Child Custody Act of 1970 which says parents have to be "advised" of joint custody as an option. Meanwhile, a resolution, passed by the committee, would raise awareness of parental alienation. Under the proposed "Michigan Shared Parenting Act," courts would presume joint custody is in the best interest of the child, unless certain conditions are met. Those conditions would include the parents agreeing not to have joint custody or a judge believing the child would be "materially harmed" by joint custody.


I am writing because I am concerned about the lack of competition in agricultural markets and the lack of presence of organic options and support for organic farmers. It is crucial to our health and survival as a people that we support and encourage organic farming practices so that they become the norm, not the exception. I am not familiar enough w/Monsanto to comment solely on them or their practices. But I do believe that it should be the right of farmers to buy their seeds from places other than Monsanto. There should not be a mafia-like hold on the food industry. I think it is our right as consumers to see labels on all food and other products, depicting the contents of what we are about to eat or use. Smaller farmers shouldn't be forced out of business or struggling to survive. If Monsanto is responsible for promoting farmers that do not use organic practices and do use methods that pollute the water, soil, etc, I don't understand why they are allowed to continue operating. What people don't seem to understand is that we are only poisoning ourselves. If you think about that for a minute, you'll understand why I'm writing this letter.


Use this area to manage the rewards points: alter existing rewards points, create new rewards points, add or delete or disable rewards points.
Under Add-ons -> choose Rewards points from left side menu to get to the Rewards points list. Here you will find all rewards points set.
- search box at the right. You can search a rewards points program by name.
Under the filtering and searching line is the place where you see listed your rewards points programs (main page content).
The All statuses is filtering your rewards points based on their status: enabled or disabled.
For example, if you wish to see all disabled rewards points programs, select from the drop down menu in Status selector the Disabled option.
The system will look to match your search string in name of the rewards points program.
The search can be used independent or with filters. When the search is used with filter, remember that search will be performed only within the filter. The easiest way to use the search is without filters.
Into this area you will find listed all rewards points programs based on filters you applied or your search. If no filters applied and search is cleared, all your rewards points programs will be listed here.
The # represents the id of each rewards points program. This field allow sort: you can sort them ascending or descending your programs (from oldest to newest and from newest to oldest).
Rewards points program name (it allows sort). One click on Name will sort the programs in alphabetical order from A to Z, a second click on same Name will sort the them in alphabetical orders from Z to A.
Enabled, refers to rewards points programs status. If a program is marked as enabled (Enable - Yes), that program will be considered in rewards points computation. If a program is marked as disabled (Enable - No), that program will not be taken in consideration in rewards points computation when a order is submitted.
You may disable a program in case you did not finished setting it up or it is not applicable for the moment.
Enable field heading allows you to sort all enabled / disabled programs. One click on Enable heading will bring up all programs enabled. A second click will sort the rewards programs with the disabled ones in front.
Order, it is about what rewards points program will be shown in top listing. This order field is important because allows you to control which rewards program to be executed in case you doubled them. The first program will be executed and all doubled ones will be ignored.
The Order heading allows you to sort your rewards programs based on this field. One click on Order will result in ascending sort and a second click on it will sort your programs descending.
The blue headings in Rewards points listing will sort all list based on that field.


Bushwick Open Studios is an annual arts and culture festival typically held during the first weekend in June. The lineup includes music, dance and interdisciplinary performances, but the core of the festival is the open studio. Artists living and working in Bushwick, one of New York's most vibrant artistic communities, invite the general public to visit their creative homes and learn more about their work.
This year, over 600 Brooklyn artists welcomed visitors to their studios on Saturday, June 1 and Sunday, June 2. Having religiously attended the event for the past several years, I was eager to see what this year's artists had been working on behind the scenes.
Here are five artists to look for the next time you find yourself in Bushwick! Make sure to contact the artists ahead of time to arrange your visit.
Between the vivid color palette of her paintings and the adorable baby she was toting, I couldn't resist entering Kristen's studio. Flashes of neon mingle on her canvasses with hard geometric edges, printed text, faint imagery and, at times, a graffiti feel. Exploring her studio also reminded me precisely of why I love open studio events in the first place: to fully immerse myself in the in the raw, sometimes unkempt environment of the artist and her creative process. Kristen's work appears to have been arranged just so by her deeply curious yet organized mind, with a structure alternating between architectural and haphazard.
I was thrilled to stumble into Tim's studio after having followed him on Twitter and never having had a chance to see his gorgeous portraiture up close and personal. Who knew artists could still paint like this, these days? He's the youngest Old Master you'll ever meet! His larger-than-life portraits of women of color are arresting to say the least. Stunning, formidable and unabashedly contemporary, his figures draw the viewer into their space and match your gaze with unshakable confidence and rigor. The views from his palatial studio weren't bad either!
Less is more (at least in the case of Aaron's Williams' thoughtfully "curated" studio space). During my visit, the artist hung just three of his large scale manipulated photographic landscapes; as a result, everyone who wandered into the studio soaked up the details and textures of each image. I couldn't help but associate them with the grandeur of the Hudson Valley painting tradition. However, Aaron offers a fresh take on the genre with his crumpled, folded and torn compositions. Sourced from found stock imagery, the photos are cleverly enhanced by his handling and layering techniques.
Maybe it was the neon tube lights or her studio mate's fragrant cedar sculptures, but I was immediately enchanted by Esther's beautiful space and compelling sculptures. Her studio was populated with an eclectic collection of concrete geometric forms, which she further enhanced with dainty combinations of plexiglass, neon and natural minerals. The whole feel was earthy yet modern with a distinct pop appeal. I had never seen anything like it and I need to see more! Plus, she's pretty adorable, isn't she?
While its arguably more efficient to stick to the big warehouse spaces chock full o' artists on each floor, it also pays to stray into some of the solitary studios off the beaten path. That is certainly the case with Gustavo's studio on Jefferson Street. His in-home studio space is virtually covered in work ranging from mounted Snapple bottle cap messages to vibrant abstract paintings and a glow-in-the-dark bathroom sink-turned-pedestal. I was most excited about his newest project: a collection of free-standing and wall-mounted plastic cable tie sculptures. He managed to transform the most mundane, utilitarian throwaway into a seemingly mystical object from a bygone era.
Krista Saunders is an independent curator based in Brooklyn, NY.
She has worked for the ICA in Philadelphia, the Queens Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of Art and New Museum of Contemporary Art in various capacities. Krista is also a 2010-11 Lori Ledis Curatorial Fellow and served on the Momenta Art Advisory Board from 2011-2012.
In addition to exhibitions at BRIC Rotunda Gallery, NURTUREart and Lesley Heller Workspace, her curatorial portfolio also includes site-specific exhibitions in alternative forums such as Urban Alchemist Design Collective, The Old Stone House and Vax Moto motorcycle garage.
Krista is the Co-founder and Director of Ground Floor Gallery, a new space for emerging artists in Park Slope, Brooklyn.
Follow her art-world adventures on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram (@groundfloorbk).


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French government backs US occupation of earthquake-stricken Haiti
Antoine Lerougetel
After the January 12 earthquake that devastated Haiti, the French government has moved to quell political opposition in Europe to the US military occupation of Haiti.
The US intervention has blocked critical medical and food supplies, including from organisations such as Doctors Without Borders, as Washington concentrated on consolidating its grip on Haiti. The earthquake's death toll stands at over 200,000, with 250,000 injured and millions made homeless. It has also boosted imperialist plans to turn Haiti into a cheap labour resource of wage slaves on starvation wages in the garment industry. (See: "Reconstructing Haiti" on starvation wages).
French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who has built his foreign policy around repairing Franco-American relations after his predecessor Jacques Chirac opposed the Iraq war at the UN, quickly repudiated Cooperation and Overseas Territories Minister Alain Joyandet's now-famous reproach to US operations in Haiti: "It's about helping Haiti. It's not about occupying it."
Joyandet's comments were echoed by Guido Bertolaso, the head of Italy's Civil Protection Agency. Bertolaso described the US operation in Haiti as "a truly powerful show of force, but it's completely out of touch with reality. They don't have close rapport with the territory and they certainly don't have a rapport with international organizations and aid groups." Bertolaso added: "when confronted by a situation of chaos, [the US tends] to confuse military intervention with what should be an emergency operation, which cannot be entrusted to the armed forces. We are missing a leader, a co-ordination capacity that goes beyond military discipline."
The official French position came in a presidential communiqué, which asserted: "The French authorities [are] fully satisfied with the cooperation" with Washington. The communiqué added they "are keen to recognize the exceptional mobilization of the United States in favour of Haiti and the essential role they are playing on the ground."
At the same time, the French government is making preparations to expel Haitian immigrants back towards their devastated, occupied homeland. On January 13, Immigration Minister Eric Besson halted expulsion procedures against Haitian sans-papiers, but for only 3 months—even less than the 18 months accorded by the US government. For many immigrants this entails a return to famine and homes reduced to rubble. Besson has rejected appeals by support organisations for residence rights to be granted to all Haitians in France.
Reports indicate that even these wholly inadequate announcements of relief are not being followed. On January 22 at the Val-de-Marne préfecture near Paris, it was business as usual. The government office issued an expulsion order to two Haitians whose passports were not in order. The state prosecutor's office said, "The Haitians have a month to leave France."
The Sarkozy government fully supports the basic lie the US uses to justify its military occupation of Haiti: the central problem in Haiti is security. Speaking on January 23, in preparation for the Montreal conference on Haiti, he tried to use the catastrophe to build up European security forces : "Security is also the ability to react in an emergency … like the Haitian tragedy." He added, "This is why France advocates the creation of a European civil security force … which could be deployed very rapidly."
Assertions by Sarkozy, Prime Minister François Fillon, and Besson of "an old friendship" and "profound historical and cultural ties" between France and its former colonial possession are hypocritical and sinister.
While France had ceded the position of leading imperialist power in Haiti to the US by the beginning of the twentieth century, it has historically played a crucial role in keeping the country in poverty. Napoleon—who came to power on the basis of suppressing the masses' influence in political life that had led France's revolutionary government to recognize Haiti's independence and free its slave population in 1794—dispatched troops in an attempt to reimpose slavery. These forces were defeated by Haitian slaves led by Toussaint L'Ouverture and Jean-Jacques Dessalines. However, in 1825, with 14 French warships threatening Port-au-Prince, the restored French monarchy of Charles X demanded that Haiti repay 150 million francs, later reduced to 90 million, in exchange for its own freedom. The indemnity was a crushing blow to Haiti, which did not finish repaying it until 1947.
The US Marines Corps, which ruled Haiti from 1915 to 1934, did not disturb the arrangement, and France's role at key points in Haiti's history has been to support the US. French support for US-backed dictatorships in Haiti was symbolized by "Baby Doc" Duvalier's decision to flee to France after he lost power in 1986. French troops assisted the US occupation of Haiti after the 2004 US-backed coup against elected President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.
Currently, the French government makes no criticisms of the US Navy and Coast Guard's blockade of Haiti's waters—an operation known as "Vigilant Sentry"—to intercept and return any Haitians attempting to escape. Nor has it protested against the fact that the US has set up a detention camp at its naval base in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba capable of housing over 1,000 Haitians, should they try to evade the blockade.
Indeed, there is every reason to believe that the French bourgeoisie welcome it. As the treatment of Haitian and other sans-papiers before the earthquake would suggest, the French authorities are doubtless relieved that the naval blockade will prevent a wave of refugees from escaping Haiti to France's Caribbean possessions, including nearby Guadeloupe and Martinique.
Social conditions on those islands are already very tense. One year ago there was a 44-day general strike in Guadeloupe. At the time, the French daily Le Monde commented that the Guadeloupe general strike "aroused the most strongly felt anxiety at the top of the state." It explained: "The government dreads that the measures in favour of purchasing power [i.e. the demand during the Guadeloupean general strike for increased wages] which might be agreed in the islands could be used, in metropolitan France, as a reference point ..."
The Haitian community in France's Caribbean possessions is badly oppressed. A 2006 report published by the Migrants Outre-Mer (Overseas Migrants) association in conjunction with the Collectif Haïti de France (Haiti Collective in France) says that, of the 1.5 million Haitians living abroad, 100,000 are on French territory: 40,000 in metropolitan France, 30,000 in Guyana and 20,000 in Guadeloupe.
Of the Haitians in Guadeloupe, 5,000 are sans-papiers. On the island, the number of expulsions is "massive: estimated at an average of 2,000 per year. When an illegal immigrant is arrested the person receives an 'obligation to leave French territory (OQTF) within a month." This OQTF was suspended in metropolitan France on appeal, but not in Guadeloupe.
In general, Haitians in Guadeloupe earn very low wages and are subject to discrimination. The report notes: "Some schools ask for the parents' identity documents in order to enrol their children, which very much frightens the parents who don't have residence rights."
The report reveals that an agreement has been in negotiation between France and Haiti to enable the French state more easily to expel Haitians living in France and the French Caribbean possessions. Such agreements have also been made with former French African colonies.
In 2006 the GARR (Support Group for Refugees and Repatriated People) published damning figures on the treatment meted out from January to November 2005, to Haitian political asylum seekers in France and the overseas departments (DOM). Of 4, 718 applications in the DOM only 2.3 percent were accepted. "Most Haitians arrive by boat. They go through the island of Dominica, 80 kilometres to the south of the coast of Guadeloupe." In 2004, in order to get to Guadeloupe from Haiti a migrant had to pay a trafficker $2,000 to $3,000, plus $300 to $400 on arrival. Doubtless, the earthquake has sent these payments sky high.
In his paper "Illegal immigration in Guadeloupe: the case of the Haitians," published October 2005, academic Louis-Auguste Joint notes the oppression of Haitian immigrants, who are often scapegoated for social problems. In 2004, at the time of the US- and French-backed ouster of elected Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide—an ouster whose associated death toll he estimates at 10,000—only ten of 2,005 political asylum-seekers were granted asylum.
In Guadeloupe the OFPRA (France's Office for the Protection of Refugees and Stateless Persons) issues a paper (récipissé) to asylum-seekers while they are awaiting the verdict on their applications. The decision is taken in Paris. Workers are allowed residency, but are still legally forbidden to work pending the outcome of their application. They then become prey to exploitative employers, working 18 hours a day for €20 or €30 in banana and sugar cane plantations.
EuropeWestern EuropeFranceThe 2010 Haitian earthquake


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Q: Approaching Java/JVM internals I've programmed in Java for about 8 years and I know the language quite well as a developer, but my goal is to deepen my knowledge of the internals. I've taken undergraduate courses in PL design, but they were very broad academic overviews (in Scheme, IIRC).
Can someone suggest a route to start delving into the details? Specifically, are there particular topics (say, garbage collection) that might be more approachable or be a good starting point?  Is there a decent high-level book on the internals of the JVM and the design of the Java programming language?  My current approach is going to be to start with the JVM spec and research as needed.

A: Some additional ideas:

*

*Get involved in the OpenJDK project. Nothing beats understanding the internals of some software by hacking on it!

*Look at how other JVM languages (e.g. Clojure or Scala) generate code for the JVM

*Do a mini-project that interests you and requires use of JVM internals. Perhaps using something like ASM to manipulate bytecode..

A: If you are not familiar yet with the Java bytecode format, then consider writing a tiny compiler which creates valid Java byte code (or Jasmin assembler) and make it run correctly.
Seeing "Hello World" or "4" (given 2+2) generated by your code is very satisfying.

A: I did a bit of this when I started with Java, years ago. My approach was to read the VM spec, and to look at the output of javap -c, which displays the disassembled bytecode of a class. I also tried creating java classes with particular bytecode, using a java bytecode assembler. There is an assembler called jasmin, if you want to try that.
You might also want to look at the Lambda Expression Translation document that Brian Goetz of Oracle has posted, which covers the strategy that will be used to translate the lambdas (closures, essentially) that are being added in Java 8.
You can also get the source code for the Hotspot VM from OpenJDK, and the early access version of the javac compiler with lambda support (hg repository) for JDK 8, if you really feel like diving into the deep end of the pool.
Looking into garbage collection is probably a good idea. A quick search turned up this Dr. Dobbs article on Java's garbage-first GC. I don't know if that's a good introduction. I assume you already know about mark-and-sweep and generational garbage collectors; if not, you will want to read up on those first.

A: In addition to what everyone else have said, check out the Java Performance Tuning page. It contains a lot of articles on garbage collection and performance tuning in general. It also contains a list of performance tuning books that might be interesting for you as well.

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Listed By: COLDWELL BANKER - R.M.R. REAL ESTATE, BROKERAGE.
This Business located at 2528 HIGHWAY 17 NORTH ST, Sault Ste Marie is currently For sale. The age of property is . It has & . The average sale price in Sault Ste Marie is $989,255. The average lease price is $16 in Sault Ste Marie. View other properties in Sault Ste Marie.
2528 Highway 17 North Street is in the city of Sault Ste Marie. Highway 17 North Street has 1 properties for sale in the market. View other properties in Sault Ste Marie. Of the 29 total sale properties listed in Sault Ste Marie, the average listed price of a property in Highway 17 North Street is $ 1,500,000, that is less than the average asking price of $989,255 in Sault Ste Marie.
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This property was previously sold for $1,395,000.00.


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ATLANTIS DUBAI IS THE FIRST DESTINATION IN THE MIDDLE EAST TO BE GRANTED PRESTIGIOUS AZA ACCREDITATION
أتلانتس دبي يحصل على الإعتماد الرسمي من جمعية حدائق الحيوان وأحواض الأسماك كأول منتجع يطبق أعلى مستويات حماية البيئة الحيوانية على مستوى منطقة الشرق الأوسط
linda.abdulhay@atlantisdubai.com
Ring In The Year Of The Tiger At Atlantis, The Palm With Specially Curated Chinese New Year Celebrations At Hakkasan And Saffron
Marine and Waterpark
MICE and Weddings
Atlantis, The Palm Is Inviting Foodies To Take The Veganuary Challenge
Sea Lion Point_Sea Lion Education_Vetinary
The Lost Chambers Aquarium_Fish Tales Tour_Shark Eggs
The Lost Chambers Aquarium_Education_Fish Husbandry
Signifying its unwavering commitment to uphold the international standards of animal care, conservation and education, the ocean-themed resort is the only AZA accredited brand in the region
To coincide with World Oceans Day, Atlantis Dubai is thrilled to announce that it has been granted accreditation by the Association of Zoos & Aquariums (AZA). AZA is the independent accrediting organisation for the best zoos and the best aquariums in the world, assuring the public that when they visit an AZA-accredited facility, it meets the highest standards for animal care and welfare. There are now 240 AZA accredited facilities worldwide, with just 23 of these members – including Atlantis Dubai – being outside of the USA.
Tim Kelly, Executive Vice President and Managing Director, Atlantis Dubai , is understandably proud of this new endorsement being granted to the all-encompassing destination: "We are delighted to be the first in the Middle East to receive this internationally recognised, gold standard accreditation. Atlantis Dubai is currently home to over 65,000 marine animals residing at The Lost Chambers Aquarium, Sea Lion Point and Dolphin Bay. When Atlantis, The Royal opens in 2021 it will also fall under this accreditation. The specialist team at Atlantis Dubai are consistently practising the highest standards of animal care and, by achieving AZA accreditation, it provides recognition for their skills, commitment and dedication."
In order to achieve the accreditation, Atlantis Dubai underwent a thorough review to ensure it met – and will continue to meet – ever-rising standards in each category. These include animal care and welfare, veterinary programmes, conservation, education, and safety. AZA requires zoos and aquariums to successfully complete this rigorous accreditation process every five years in order to be retain membership of the association.
"AZA accreditation signifies Atlantis Dubai's active role in protecting our world's wild animals and wild places while providing exceptional animal care and meaningful guest experiences, said AZA's President and CEO, Dan Ashe, adding: "Atlantis Dubai is truly a leader in the zoological profession, and I am proud to have them among our members."
The AZA accreditation process includes a detailed application and a meticulous on-site inspection by a team of trained zoo and aquarium professionals. The inspecting team observes all aspects of the facility's operation including animal care and welfare; keeper training; safety for visitors, staff and animals; educational programs; conservation efforts; veterinary programs; financial stability; risk management; visitor services; and more. Finally, top officials are interviewed at a formal hearing of AZA's independent Accreditation Commission, after which accreditation is granted, tabled, or denied. Any facility that is denied may reapply one year after the Commission's decision is made.
Kelly Timmins, Director, Conservation, Education and CSR, Atlantis Dubai said : "Modern zoos and aquariums today play a crucial role in conservation, not only helping people to learn, but to protect animals in the wild. Achieving AZA Accreditation is the first achievement in a much larger strategy, which will see the resort increase its commitment to sustainability while driving conservation action. We look forward to being part of the AZA community and collaborating with both local and international partners as we embark on this exciting journey."
Atlantis, The Palm is the first entertainment resort destination in the region and located at the centre of the crescent of The Palm in Dubai. Opened in September 2008, the unique ocean-themed resort features a variety of marine and entertainment attractions, as well as 17 hectares of waterpark amusement at Atlantis Aquaventure, all within a 46-hectare site. It is home to one of the largest open-air marine habitats in the world, with over 65,000 marine animals in lagoons and displays including The Lost Chambers Aquarium, a maze of underwater corridors and passageways providing a journey through ancient Atlantis. Atlantis Aquaventure waterpark features 18 million litres of fresh water used to power thrilling waterslides, a 2.3-kilometre river ride with tidal waves and pools, water rapids and white-water chargers. Dolphin Bay, the unparalleled dolphin conservation and education habitat, and Sea Lion Point were created to provide guests a once in a lifetime opportunity to learn more about one of nature's most friendly mammals. The resort boasts an impressive collection of luxury boutiques and shops as well as extensive meeting and convention facilities. Atlantis, The Palm is also known as the culinary destination in the region where guests can take their pick from a collection of 29 world-renowned restaurants including Bread Street Kitchen & Bar, Hakkasan, Nobu, Ronda Locatelli, Seafire Steakhouse & Bar, award-winning underwater restaurant, Ossiano, and traditional Middle Eastern favourite, Ayamna. The nightlife scene at Atlantis is lively, too, with the fun-filled Wavehouse offering something for everyone, and WHITE Beach & Restaurant the perfect place to unwind with a drink as the sun slips into the Arabian Sea.
About AZA
Founded in 1924, the Association of Zoos and Aquariums is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the advancement of zoos and aquariums in the areas of conservation, animal welfare, education, science, and recreation. AZA is the accrediting body for the top zoos and aquariums in the United States and six other countries. Look for the AZA accreditation logo whenever you visit a zoo or aquarium as your assurance that you are supporting a facility dedicated to providing excellent care for animals, a great experience for you, and a better future for all living things. The AZA is a leader in saving species and your link to helping animals all over the world. To learn more, visit www.aza.org.


I knew Stay! A Top Dog Story would be a winner without even opening the book and I was right. How did I know this? I have yet to see or read anything by Alex Latimer that was not gorgeous and well-written. Stay is a wonderfully funny book. Any kid, no, anyone with a dog, will understand Ben's hesitation and worry. Ben wants Buster to go on vacation with the family, but mom wants a vacation to get away from Buster. The answer is no. So Buster spends this time with an unsuspecting Grampa.
"I feel like I've forgotten something important," Ben said.
"Well, you can always send it to me on a postcard," replied Grampa.
Ben does forget a few things, like why Buster might bark at night, where he gets drinks of water, and what Buster might be dreaming, but Ben still thinks he is forgetting something really important. He writes more postcards to Grampa. Then he finally remembers THE most important piece of information. Unfortunately, Grampa doesn't get this postcard in time. After what happens, Grampa decides Buster needs a dog bark collar and some proper training.
In every story the main character must change. Latimer makes sure Buster's training helps, but there is always a twist. Latimer's twists have never failed to gain a laugh. Stay! A Top Dog Story will cause loads of knowing smiles and a big laugh at the end, as a good, humorous picture book should. Smartly written, beautifully illustrated, Stay! A Top Dog Story is a wonderful new addition to Latimer's growing list of winning picture books. Stay! A Top Dog Story is the perfect book for any dog lover.
STAY! A TOP DOG STORY. Text and illustrations copyright © 2015 by Alex Latimer. Reproduced by permission of the publisher, Peachtree Publishers, Atlanta, GA.
Purchase Stay! A Top Dog Story at Amazon —Book Depository—IndieBound Books—Peachtree.
Find Stay! A Top Dog Story on Goodreads HERE.
STAY! A TOP DOG STORY. Text and illustrations copyright © 2015 by Alex Latimer. Used by permission of Peachtree Publishers.
I must get my paws on this one. A well trained dog (or should I say dog owner) sounds too good to be true. Haha! Super review, Sue!
I've never heard of a well-trained dog owner. Is this a myth? A children's story? I think you should definitely get your paws onto Stay!
Yes, a well-trained dog or owner, (or a well-trained cat, for that matter) are indeed hard to find. How about wolves?
A messy, rowdy, persnickety dog that needs lots of attention? Never heard of such a thing!
😆 Yeah, I heard they are kind of rare.


MANDALA's graphic design came to me almost in a dream. I had several other ideas for the album, but nothing resonated as much as this one.
The challenge: track down a suitable mandala image.
I researched images online and also began reading books to find images that might be available from publishers. In the process, I found not only many images, but many text quotes that would later find their way into the design.There are all kind of mandala's out there on the Web. Few of them truly looked real, as many were digital reproductions. Others were poor photographs, or Western attempts at drawings.Thankfully, via the internet, I was able to contact Martin Brauen, a photographer in Switzerland who had photographed the Dalai Lama performing the Kalachakra ritual. Within a matter of a months I had the image I was looking for.
"The Kalachakra Sand Mandala is a two dimensional representation of the five-story palace of the deity Kalachakra. It is one of the colored-particle mandalas, a generic term used to describe any mandala made of crushed materials such as jewels, flower petals, rice, or, most commonly, sandlike stone ranging in density from soapstone to marble.
In medieval Japan lived Rikyu. Rikyu had angered the shogun, and was ordered to commit ritual suicide. The day it was to happen, Rikyu did tea for his best friend and oldest student in a small, dimly lit tea room. We don't know what they talked about, or if they said anything at all. But we could imagine the power of it — the profoundness of every movement, every moment, knowing that it would be the last time he ever did the ceremony, the last time they would ever sit together. At the end of the tea, he gave the chashaku (the tea scoop) the poetic name "Tears." And then he went to the temple and killed himself.
The scoop is carved from bamboo, and usually has some kind of poetic name that expresses an idea or image; the scoop is chosen to represent the theme of the tea. It can also serve as a metaphor for tea spirit — students are said to be "carving the chashaku inside themselves."This CD to represents an ending to all that had happened before, and I wanted to make it a gift to some people that helped me on the way, so that they could put it behind them as well. That's the meaning of the tears.
My portraits were taken at the Archives in downtown Harrisburg, PA by photographer Sean Simmers (717) 540-0358.
Through a variety of discussion groups, I have found that many people are confused by Buddhism. This page lists resources for those interested in clarifying their understanding of basic concepts. Please note I am not a Buddhist teacher. I am a humble practioner, primarily of the Soto Zen school, but I have been influenced by many branches. I seek only to show resources that have helped me. Each student must make their own assessment. Below are some recommended Buddhist resources that I've collected during my travels. I've had life-shaping experiences with all of the organizations below, and hope others will as well.
Shasta Abbey has a very straight-forward audio tape program that helps bring the dharma to people who may not have access to a physical zendo or teacher. Donations are required, and well worth it.


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HomeTV ShowsArrowDC to be Honored at the 2017 GLSEN Awards
/James Simpson
/alan scottAlex DanversarrowAwardsBatwomandc entertainmentdiane nelsonGLSENLGBTQMister Terrificsupergirl
DC to be Honored at the 2017 GLSEN Awards
DC Entertainment is being honored with an award for their work in highlighting LGBTQ characters throughout their media. The award is being presented by GLSEN, a leading educational organization devoted to supporting LGBTQ youth in schools. Diane Nelson, the president of DC Entertainment, will receive the award on DC's behalf at the organization's gala on October 20th at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel.
Fans of DC Comics know that DC has made a great effort to highlight their diverse characters of late. Batwoman, introduced in the popular series 52, was the first lesbian super-hero. Barbara Gordon's roommate was an early transgender character in the New 52 and the Shining Knight is one of the first ever hermaphrodite heroes. Meanwhile, numerous other LGBTQ characters have been published and continue to be published by the company, such as Midnighter, Renee Montoya, and the Earth 2 version of Alan Scott. Last year, after the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando, DC partnered with IDW Publishing for the award winning "Love is Love" graphic novel. And many of the company's television shows feature a diverse cast of characters, including Kara's sister, Alex Danvers, on the hit CW series Supergirl, and Mister Terrific from Arrow.
Eliza Byard, Executive Director of GLSEN, stated that:
"GLSEN is excited to honor DC Entertainment with the Visionary Award for their impact and innovation."
She went onto explain how important superheroes have become to global pop culture and that it is important that all young people see themselves reflected in these characters and that DC has done a great job of showcasing this. Diane Nelson pledged DC's continued commitment to tell stories that "reflect and inspire our diverse audience."
Tickets to the gala are available to be purchased online at www.glsen.org/events.
Tags:alan scottAlex DanversarrowAwardsBatwomandc entertainmentdiane nelsonGLSENLGBTQMister Terrificsupergirl
Source:DC Entertainment
Review: Bug! The Adventures of Forager #4
Barry and Iris Speeding to Couples Counselling in Flash Season Four?
Crisis on Infinite Earths' Cameo connects the DCEU to The Arrowverse


Welcome To this immense sized Stunningly beautiful home located in Westgreen Park in Katy! With the lovely Kitchen being adjacent to the den making it great for Gatherings and Events. The Real Excitement awaits for you, As you open the back door to discover an Exquisite large sized Patio for you to enjoy the scenery. Walking up the stairs you will be welcomed by The enormous sized game room with great lighting making it ideal place to Entertain.


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Just in time for the weekend, the ATM at our Jacob Parrott Branch is back in service. Thank you for your patience and understanding while we serviced the machine. Have a great weekend!


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Spit Marks: The Afterlife of Those Popular DNA Tests May Surprise You
Paige Comstock Cunningham, JD, PhD
Editors Note: This article appeared in Salvo 44, Spring 2018 edition and is used by permission.
Spit Marks
The Afterlife of Those Popular DNA Tests May Surprise You
If you could find out if you were going to develop a fatal disease, would you want to know? Think about it. Or would you require your fiancé to have a DNA test before you would agree to marry him?
Many of us would shun such knowledge as TMI—too much information—or such demands as impertinent. Yet that kind of genetic sleuthing has been proposed by startup company Genomic Predictions, initially to determine one's likelihood of developing Type 1 diabetes. This DNA test, however, is not designed for use on adults who might want to learn of their own propensity to disease, but for use on human embryos created through IVF, to evaluate their suitability for implantation. As in a nightmarish college admissions scenario run amok, "doctors and parents could huddle and choose to avoid embryos with failing grades."[1]
Powerful Computing Meets Massive DNA Data
The technology, called expanded Preimplantation Genetic Testing (ePGT), uses volumes of genetic data and powerful computer models to predict which IVF embryos will develop Type 1 diabetes. Unlike Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis, which looks for a specific disease carried by one or both parents or for a chromosomal anomaly such as Trisomy 21, ePGT technology examines an array of genes that contribute not only to a disease, but also to characteristics such as eye color, height, or intelligence.
Creating the model for these calculations requires an enormous amount of genetic data. And where do you suppose that data comes from?
One source is the U.K., specifically Biobank, which recently released medical records and DNA information for 500,000 middle-aged British people. Included in the data was information about SNPs, or single-nucleotide polymorphisms, small DNA mutations that differ slightly from person to person. SNPs are thought to be linked to matters as serious as life-threatening diseases and as trivial as bread consumption.[2]
The other DNA treasure trove? Data from consumer do-it-yourself DNA test kits, sold by companies such as Orig3n, 23andMe, and Ancestry.com. These companies do not operate simply to sell consumer DNA kits so that companies can target purchsers with ads, but also to sell data to medical research firms. As one writer describes it, 23andMe's "big moneymaker" is salable consumer data: a company spokeswoman said that 80 percent of its two-million-plus customers consented to having their data used for research.[3] In 2015, the company sold customers' genetic information to Genentech for $10 million.[4]
The mad rush to spit into a test tube shows no signs of slowing down. Ancestry.com sold over 1.5 million DNA test kits during the Black Friday–Cyber Monday weekend last year, and 23andMe's kit is a top seller on Amazon.[5] Customers pay for DNA results, which the companies turn around and sell to research firms.[6] The DNA investigation can include not only hunts for ancestry, but also analysis of personal health data. That might explain 23andMe's sale of data to Pfizer and Genentech, and Ancestry's deal with Calico, a longevity project created by Alphabet, the parent of Google. If you have long-lived ancestors, or ones with remarkably short lives, your DNA is particularly desirable.
Illusory Privacy of DNA Results
Even if a customer opts out of every possible use of his or her DNA, most companies retain the right to use or sell it as "anonymized" data, with your name and other personal information removed from the sample. Yet a determined researcher or biohacker could still discover your identity. Several years ago, a group of researchers was able to determine a person's last name from a DNA sample and then triangulate for his identity using only publicly available information.[7] Even the most vigilant customer, one who reads all the fine print and opts out of every option, is unwittingly contributing to the most massive accumulation of genetic information in history if he sends his sample to a company that retains the right to use anonymized data.
How much do people actually think about what they are signing up for? In 2015, over 90 percent of customers consented to their data being used for commercial and non-profit research purposes.[8] That number has since declined, so now a startup has announced plans to facilitate customers' selling their genetic info themselves, using cryptocurrency, something like bitcoin.[9]
Genetic Profiling Without Limits
When companies like Genomic Predictions combine access to an unprecedented volume of DNA data with massive computing capabilities, the results can be startling. Using machine-learning techniques, Genomic Predictions physicist Stephen Hsu and bioinformatician Laurent Tellier claim to be able to predict a person's height to within 1.5 inches, using only a DNA sample.
Height may be the easiest non-disease characteristic to predict, but Hsu is interested in testing for an even more worrisome trait: IQ, which is much harder to predict than height. Hsu says that even though his company will not select for intelligence, "I fully predict it will be possible." The most likely early adopters of this technology when it matures? "Billionaires and Silicon Valley types," who will "do IVF even though they don't need IVF."[10] The pursuit of the smartest, tallest, and healthiest children may initially come with a hefty price tag, including popular resistance. But if the rich succeed, Hsu suspects that the rest of society will fall in line.
Nor is genetic profiling limited to the testing of already-created embryos. In 2013, 23andMe was awarded a patent for genetic and computer technology that would enable parents to handpick an egg or sperm donor. An analysis of the parents' genetic info combined with that of the potential donor could indicate whether a particular disease could be avoided. Powered by massive computing, genetic calculations can match the intended parents' DNA with DNA profiles of large caches of potential egg and sperm donors, narrowing the field to a "preferred donor." The drop-down menu included in the patent application included options not only for disease traits, but also for eye color, lactose tolerance, and muscle performance.[11] Even though designer offspring is more illusion than reality, it is unsettling that a patent has been awarded on the technology that would enable parents to choose.
Paradoxically, expansion of choice may result in contraction of parents' hospitality toward their own child. As law professor Dov Fox points out, such technology inherently undermines parental acceptance of their child. When parents select for a particular kind of child—tall, with a sense of humor and a talent for running marathons—they are less open to the "possible contours along which their child's life may unfold."[12] After all, once a person has conceded the morality of selecting for (or against) one trait, however serious, then the door has been opened to selecting for multiple traits—and expecting the results to match the selections.
Ironically, Genomic Predictions' co-founder Tellier was inspired by the movie Gattaca, a dystopian sci-fi portrayal of a future society divided between the genetically perfect and the "de-generates." In the movie, the human spirit triumphs over the pursuit of perfection. Yet, as happens with the genetically designed children in Gattaca, Tellier's goal is to notify parents if their (embryonic) offspring are "outliers" or "at the wrong end of a statistical curve for disorders such as diabetes, schizophrenia, dwarfism, and late-life osteoporosis."[13] I would be among the 54 million Americans with osteoporosis.[14] "Outliers," indeed.
Setting aside the pros and cons of amassing reams of genetic information, privately or publicly, there is still the question of the ultimate uses to which such data would be put. While much of the research would aim at eradicating serious diseases, other, more dangerous kinds of research would also be done. Finding ways to extend life may help those who are at risk of premature death. But the attempt to extend a normal lifespan to abnormal lengths will not be far behind. Neither will the desire, followed closely by the obligation, to select the "best" offspring. The eugenic impulse was not only a mark of the early twentieth century. It is an indelible blemish on fallen human nature.
[1] Antonio Regalado, "Eugenics 2.0: We're at the Dawn of Choosing Embryos by Health, Height and More," Technology Review (Nov. 1, 2017): technologyreview.com/s/609204/eugenics-20-were-at-the-dawn-of-choosing-embryos-by-health-height-and-more.
[2] Regalado, "Eugenics 2.0."
[3] Kristen V. Brown, "23andMe Is Selling Your Data, But Not How You Think," Gizmodo (April 14, 2017): https://gizmodo.com/23andme-is-selling-your-data-but-not-how-you-think-1....
[4] Deborah C. Peel, "The Hidden Danger of Do-It-Yourself Genetic Tests, Newsweek (Dec. 16, 2017): newsweek.com/hidden-danger-do-it-yourself-genetic-tests-749475.
[5] Megan Molteni, "Ancestry's Genetic Testing Kits Are Heading for Your Stocking This Year," Wired (Dec. 1, 2017): wired.com/story/ancestrys-genetic-testing-kits-are-heading-for-your-stocking-this-year.
[6] It is important to note that population-wide genetic studies can yield significant findings about health that contribute to the common good, and that such findings would not otherwise be obtainable.
[7] Melissa Gymrek et al., "Identifying Personal Genomes by Surname Inference," Science (Jan. 18, 2013): http://science.sciencemag.org/content/339/6117/321.
[8] Katie M. Palmer, "Another Personal Genetics Company Is Sharing Client Data," Wired (July 21, 2015): wired.com/2015/07/another-personal-genetics-company-selling-client-data.
[9] Christina Farr and Ari Levy, "You'll soon be able to sell your genetic info for a new cryptocurrency called Luna Coin," CNBC (Dec. 18, 2017): cnbc.com/2017/12/18/luna-coin-project-sell-your-genetic-data-for-crypto-tokens.html.
[10] As quoted in Regalado, "Eugenics 2.0," note 1.
[11] "Gamete donor selection based on genetic calculations," U.S. Patent 8,543,339 (Sept. 24, 2013): google.com/patents/US8543339.
[12] Dov Fox, "23andMe's Designer Baby Patent," HuffPost (Oct. 4, 2013): huffingtonpost.com/dov-fox/23andmes-designer-baby-pa_b_4042165.html.
[13] Regalado, "Eugenics 2.0," note 1.
[14] National Osteoporosis Foundation, "Bone Health Basics: Get the Facts": nof.org/preventing-fractures/general-facts.
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Google isn't (without one or two exceptions) a hardware company. They make the operating system and then make it available to companies that make the hardware. So first, I'll talk about Android Wear. If you have a newer (meaning in the last 2 years or so) Android-based device, you've probably run into Google Now, which is a real-time assistance of sorts. Don't know what I'm talking about? Ok, let's say you use Googles products, like Gmail and Google Calendar, and you've allowed Google to scan these products for your information. You have a meeting at 3 o'clock across town. If you've set it up properly, Google Now will alert you about the meeting, tell you how long it will take you to get to the meeting, let you know the traffic conditions based on your location, and let you know when you should leave for the meeting to get there on time. And of course provide a link to Google Maps to tell you the best way to get there. Have a flight? Google Now will tell you the flights status, when you should leave to get to the airport, the weather where you're going to land, and depending on the airline, will give you the ticket barcode to scan at the gate when you get to the airport. And that's not even HALF of what Google Now can do. It's amazing to have this application running on your phone or tablet.
So essentially Android Wear is Google Now but not on your phone or tablet. In this instance, it's on a smart watch. So now that alert on your phone is being fed to your wrist, and you can act on it. Not only those alerts, but email, phone calls, text messages, tweets, all this information that you generally take your phone out to action you'll be able to do on your wrist. Now, acting on phone alerts isn't really anything new, but Google Now is contextual information, like the meeting alert, being fed to you BEFORE you need it. Flick your wrist, the calendar appointment is there before the appointment time. The address is there for you to see. The flight information is ready when you get to the airport without your having to look for it. THAT'S what makes Android Wear so awesome.
To make this even more awesome, Google has partnered with companies like Motorola, LG, HTC, Samsung (Yeah … that Galaxy Gear isn't looking all that great right about now), even Fossil to make devices that use Android Wear. And to kick it off, Motorola and LG have announced two smart watches that will be available sometime this summer. Personally, I think Motorola's 360 is ridiculously fly. There's not a lot of information available on it just yet, but trust me … as a watch guy and a gadget addict, this one has my undivided attention. And it's only going to get better. With so many partners, there will be all kinds of devices at all sorts of price points. And the best part? A device using Android Wear will work with ANY Android phone using Android OS 4.3 and up. What a novel idea … making something that works with pretty much any device using a particular OS, instead of their own line of phones.


Let's be honest, this is a fun deck and not S-Rank material.
There's an embedded mini-challenge: Try to see if you can get a back-line Syvrel the Exile to stick, and a Gibbet around. They're best friends and love to play together grappling over screaming enemy hobos for a friendly game of backyard evisceration.
It won't work though. This gives you moral high ground to take revenge in the next step.
Develop Thunderhorn and Purgatos for sweet Furor Chakram multi-hit value. You have a wide array of positioning tools to try and maximize their impact.
Stay alive and annoy to no end with good old Desolator.
By that time you should have kept a bunch of bursty damagey stuff in your hand. Close the game with a vengeance using a buffed-up Saberspine Alpha.


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Enter Mordred.
For the first four hours of Brian Sibley's adaptation of T.H. White's The Once and Future King, Mordred, Arthur's bastard and incestuous son, has loomed over the proceedings as, on the night before the battle of Camlann, Arthur reminisces with Merlyn about his reign. He has always been an off-stage presence while Arthur frets about the coming battle against his son on the Salisbury Plain, and at last in "The Lengthening Shadow," the penultimate chapter of the adaptation, Mordred enters the drama.
Mordred, an albino hunchback with a powerful intellect and a forceful personality, arrives in Camelot at a time when the idealism of Arthur's youth has given way to the settling and failures of middle-age. Lancelot has been banished from court, knights are plotting murder and revenge, the light of Guenever's happiness has dimmed, and Arthur seeks a new purpose for the Round Table beyond the worldly. The peace of Arthur's kingdom rests on secrets, acknowledged or not, and their exposure by Mordred will tear the kingdom apart.
I find it difficult to offer much insight into "The Lengthening Shadow." Thinking through the arc of The Once and Future King, I thought this was likely to be the problematic episode due to the period of time — some twenty years — that it had to cover. Drawn largely from the second half of The Ill-Made Knight, the third book in White's quadrilogy, we move from Galahad as an infant at the beginning to glancing over the Grail quest at the end. Lacking some of the focus of previous episodes, we have a succession of incidents that illustrate the failing of the Round Table and move the characters and narrative pieces into place for the finale. Also, the framing device — Arthur and Merlyn in the king's camp — isn't utilized to the extent that it was in previous episodes, depriving the episode of the element that I've really enjoyed, the rapport between Paul Ready's Arthur and David Warner's Merlyn.
However, the episode does give us a wealth of strong scenes between Ready, Lyndsey Marshal's Guenever, and Alex Waldmann's Lancelot. One particularly powerful scene comes near the beginning when Guenever banishes Lancelot from court, and Marshal conjures up the fury of a queen scorned. There are also two conversations about the Holy Grail, and in those scenes, Ready, Marshal, and Waldmann convey three characters who have known each other for years and have an easy rapport with one another. Also of note is a strong scene between Waldmann and Paul Heath (as Sir Kay) in which they discuss the relationship between Lancelot and the Queen.
The reintroduction of the Orkney clan — the children of King Lot and Queen Morgawse: Gawaine, Agravaine, and Gareth — is necessary and welcome, since they play an important role in the end of Arthur's kingdom, but the scene that reintroduces them — a parley at Lancelot's castle, Joyous Gard — has the unfortunate problem of not identifying them in the conversation. The final scene of the episode features them prominently, and on a second listen I was able to finally discern them through their thick Scottish accents. (Here's a clue — Agravaine has the deeper voice, Gareth has the higher pitched voice, and Gawaine falls in the middle.)
I've been thinking about how I want The Once and Future King to end, because there are two ways it can end. It could end, as my one-volume hardcover ends, with Arthur leaving his camp on the morning of the battle, hopeful and ready to face the future. Or it could end, as The Book of Merlyn ends, after the Battle of Camlann (which, except for how it starts, T.H. White doesn't describe) with Arthur and Mordred dead, Guenever in a convent, and Lancelot in a monastery.
I can justify either ending. I know which one I would prefer. I want the one-volume ending.
As much as I would like the Merlyn ending — Arthur and Mordred settling their differences and making peace, until an accident triggers a battle that neither man truly wants — the one-volume ending is, I think, the sadder — and more powerful — ending. We know how Arthur's story ends, thanks to tellings and retellings of this tale. We know he won't survive the battle, but that's not the important part. The important part — and Merlyn's final lesson — is this: Arthur has done all that he can and, more importantly, he has made peace with himself, and so he marches off to his destiny, content. He did the best he could to make the world a better place, and though the Round Table is "broken," as Arthur says at the end of this episode, the dream will live on. I want that final conversation between Arthur and the page from Warwickshire. Yes, that's how I want it to end.
Though the final episode, "The Candle in the Wind," aired yesterday in Britain, I probably won't listen to it for a few days yet. I don't want this to end, not just yet. This has been something special and immensely enjoyable, and I'll be sad when it's done.
December 15, 2014 October 21, 2015 Audio Drama, BBC, BBC Radio 4, Brian Sibley, david warner, King Arthur, Merlin, Mordred, TH White
One thought on "The Once and Future King: The Lengthening Shadow"
Thank you again, Allyn Gibson, for another perceptive appreciation of the challenges involved in tackling White's sprawling saga…
I was intrigued to read your thoughts on how, maybe, the series 'ought' to end! From the outset I wrestled with the two possible conclusions offered by 'TO&FK' and 'The Book of Merlyn'. I hope you will think I made the right decision…
Previous Previous post: The Once and Future King: The Ill-Made Knight
Next Next post: The Once and Future King: The Candle in the Wind


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Q: Handlebar styling issue on each div In the below code, I have used handlebars.js for templating in which it creates each donation from the server but the onClick event doesn't affect all the iterated div, it only affects the first div. How to fix such an issue using handlebars.js?
{{#each donations}}

Donar name: {{donar}}

Food item:{{fooditems}}

Quantity:{{quantity}}

Meeting point: {{meetingpoint}}

Food type: {{foodtype}}

Contact no: {{contactno}}

        <button onclick="changed()" id="idOfButton">I will deliver</button>

{{/each}}

A: You're creating many div blocks with the same id changeCss, and
document.getElementById('changeCss') always refer to the first matching div.
I'm assuming you want to change only the div where the button is clicked. 1 solution is to pass the current button as a parameter of the changed function. Then we apply the CSS to the parent element (the div) and disable the current button.
The code below demonstrates what I said for 2 identical blocks.
`

 function changed(element){
      // element is the button you clicked
      element.parentElement.style.cssText ='background-color:green; color:white' ;
      element.disabled= true;
 }

Donar name: {{donar}}

Food item:{{fooditems}}

Quantity:{{quantity}}

Meeting point: {{meetingpoint}}

Food type: {{foodtype}}

Contact no: {{contactno}}

        <button onclick="changed(this)" id="idOfButton">I will deliver</button>

Donar name: {{donar}}

Food item:{{fooditems}}

Quantity:{{quantity}}

Meeting point: {{meetingpoint}}

Food type: {{foodtype}}

Contact no: {{contactno}}

        <button onclick="changed(this)" id="idOfButton">I will deliver</button>


Starbucks chair Howard Schultz, who long served as the CEO of the chain, is stepping down. Schultz's departure comes after years of rumours of the businessman's political aspirations — something he acknowledged in an interview with The New York Times.
In September 2016, the coffee retailing mogul endorsed Hillary Clinton for president — his first time publicly endorsing a candidate.
House of Fraser, the struggling bastion of the UK's High Street, is set to close 31 of its 59 stores as part of a rescue deal. The retailer needs approval from 75% of its creditors to go ahead with the rescue.
Creditors will vote on the plan, which involves company voluntary arrangements, on June 22. Market commentators say the chain has lost its relevance and suffers from a lack of investment.
Procter & Gamble's (P&G) shares rose this week this after Trian Partners' Nelson Peltz indicated his proposal for reorganising the consumer goods company is gaining traction.
Trian's white paper describes how P&G could improve its business by sorting the company into three autonomous units, developing local brands and increasing external talent. Peltz joined P&G's board in March after a vigorous proxy fight.
Antoine Arnault, one of LVMH chair and CEO Bernard Arnault's five children and an executive of several brands at the group, will now also oversee communications and image issues at the group.
LVMH, the world's biggest luxury goods conglomerate, has long been run by the Arnault family.


My mom and I travel to NYC alot, and we've stayed at an array of places, including the Waldorf-Astoria. However, the Herald Square hotel is the best place we've stayed. It's an old-apartment building, so it has a very homey feel. The lobby is more of an apartment-lobby than a hotel lobby, and it is very basic, and the staff buzzes you in instead of having a doorman. However, in the lobby, there are some tables and chairs. There is also a cappuccino machine and coffee machines in the lobby. The rooms are very cozy. I highly recommend staying here! It's a great value!
My mom and I have stayed here twice in the past few months. The rooms are very modern, and the bathrooms are HUGE and have the coolest showers I've ever seen. The staff is very friendly and very accommodating. It has a great location because it's right next to Rush St., which is very popular on the weekends.
The Unicorn cafe is one of the best places to study in Evanston. I'm a student at Loyola, and I will occasionally just go to Evanston to study here. The coffee shop is basically like an indoor patio. Most people here are usually studying, or at least being quiet in conversation, so it's very easy to focus. I love the sizes of their lattes!
This place is a coffee-house/cafe in an old car dealership. The atmosphere inside has a very "downtown" feel. It has typical sandwiches, burgers, and a great selection of coffee. The prices aren't bad- I went here and got coffee and a sandwich and it was $8. The food was really great, and it's just a comfortable place to relax over coffee.
Hi-D-Ho is a typical old-fashioned burger joint. They have hamburgers, hot dogs, french fries. I love their cheese fries! They have really low prices. You can go here and easily eat on less than $5. Eating here is alot like ordering food from a ball park. It's a fun place to go for lunch. They do have weird hours, so you may want to call and see if they're open before you drive to it.
Crabby's is one of the best places to eat in Rogers. I've eaten there twice, and loved my meal both times. I had the Seafood Salad and the Salmon. The seafood salad has crab cakes on it, and they were the best I've ever had. It's a bit pricey- my salad was $14, but both times I've eaten there, I've had leftovers. The atmosphere is very classy. It's just an all-around fabulous restaurant, and I highly recommend dining here.
Green Bean has healthy lunch options. I love their wraps and sandwiches. The prices are reasonable-I usually end up spending about $6-7 on my food. Be warned: it's super packed from about 12-1:30 for lunch, so you may have to wait a bit.
The best filet mignon I've ever had was from here. They also have incredible mashed potatoes and just delicious, home-cooked food. It's a very elegant restaurant. It's a bit pricey. Entrees will usually run $18-32.
I live in Conway, but my family will drive all the way to Morrilton just to eat here. It has a great bar atmosphere without being trashy. The food is amazing. They have a self-serve popcorn machine, so you can get popcorn as your appetizer. The waitresses are incredibly friendly. They have all sorts of food, and even a children's menu. It's also a great place to go play pool. Even if you live in Conway, it's worth driving 20 minutes to eat here.
Metropolis has wonderful coffee and a small assortment of food items. The staff is always very friendly. It's a great atmosphere for studying or hanging out with friends. I recommend their almond croissants and the 3-cheese panini!


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Obituaries, May 15, 2004
Cynthia M. Van Bunschoten GREENFIELD CENTER — Cynthia M. Van Bunschoten of Pine Robin North died Friday, May 14, 2004, at Saratoga Hospital after a long illness. She was 68. Born on Feb. 21, 1936, she was a daughter of Mary (Lander) Frydel of Cohoes and the late Sylvester Frydel Sr. A longtime area resident, Cynthia worked for the state of New York prior to her marriage. She then spent her time at home taking care of her family and also assisted her husband in running Lake Tuckaway Campground. She was a member of St. Clement's Roman Catholic Church in Saratoga Springs and volunteered for organizations like Meals on Wheels as well as different area food pantries, soup kitchens and children's benefits at Christmas time. Cynthia enjoyed gardening and playing cards but most of all was a loving wife and mother who loved spending time with her family. In addition to her father, she was predeceased by a daughter, Kelly Van Bunschoten, who died Nov. 26, 1992. In addition to her mother, she is survived by her husband of 48 years, D. William 'Bill' Van Bunschoten of Greenfield Center; her son, William Van Bunschoten and his longtime companion, Victoria Benton, both of Greenfield Center; two daughters, Deborah Roy of Cushing, Wis., and Kimberly Winters and her husband, Jeffrey, of Stillwater; her brothers and sisters, Sylvester Frydel Jr. and his wife, Rose, of Stillwater, Joyce Linen of Wilton, Christine Charoensook of Greenfield Center and Rosemary D'Allaird and her husband, James, of Glenville; her grandchildren, Jessie, Robin and Nicole Roy and Jennie and Jacob Mackor; and several nieces and nephews. A Mass of Christian burial will be celebrated at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday, May 18, 2004, at St. Clement's Roman Catholic Church, 231 Lake Ave., Saratoga Springs. Burial will follow in the family plot at Greenridge Cemetery on Lincoln Avenue. Friends may call from 2 to 4 and 7 to 9 p.m. Monday at the William J. Burke & Sons/Bussing & Cunniff Funeral Homes, 628 North Broadway, Saratoga Springs (584-5373 or burkefuneralhome.com). Memorial donations may be made to the Ruben Dialysis Center, 59 Myrtle St., Saratoga Springs, NY 12866. Dana B. Westcott Sr. SARATOGA SPRINGS — Graveside services for Dana B. Westcott Sr., who died Dec. 8, 2003, will be held at 11 a.m. today in Hudson View Cemetery in Mechanicville. Arrangements are under the direction of the William J. Burke & Sons/Bussing & Cunniff Funeral Homes of 628 North Broadway, Saratoga Springs (584-5373).


The Speakeasy kicked off its month-long Stand Up Comedy Competition last weekend, and QC Scene was there to check it out and snap some pics from the event!
Congrats to the top five comics moving on in the competition, sponsored by QuadCities.com! The winners from this past Saturday are Michael Maxwell, Matthew Jacobsen, Beckett Kenny, Al Nimpson and Stevie Mo, making it through a round of 16.
The second prelim round is at 7 p.m. Saturday at the Speakeasy, 1818 3rd Ave., Rock Island. The event will have comics coming from across the Midwest to compete!
For tickets and more information, call (309) 786-7733, ext. 2.


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Rebecca Hagelin
Author, Columnist & Family Advocate
Rebecca Hagelin is a weekly columnist for The Washington Times. Her popular column, "Inside the Culture" appears in both the print and online editions every Monday. She has been a guest on thousands of radio and television programs over the years, and is published regularly in Townhall.com, PatriotPost.US and newspapers throughout the country. Rebecca has championed faith and family values for some 30 years, speaking around the nation educating parents on how to combat the negative effects of the pop media culture on their children. She is the President and CEO of Rebecca Hagelin Communications and Marketing, LLC, which specializes in creating national radio marketing campaigns, working with such freedom champions as Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and Mark Levin. She previously served as The Heritage Foundation's Vice President of Communications and Marketing, and in various capacities with other pro-family organizations since the early 1980's. In 2006, Concerned Women for America named her as one of the nation's "Top Ten Evangelical Women." She is the author of the acclaimed books, Home Invasion: Protecting Your Family in a Culture That's Gone Stark Raving Mad, and 30 Ways in 30 Days to Strengthen Your Family. Rebecca serves on the Board of Directors for Dr. James Dobson's Family Institute; Awakening; and The Eberle Communications Group. She is the Secretary of the Council for National Policy and a member of the organization's Executive Committee. Rebecca and her husband, Andy, have three grown children, and live on Little Gasparilla Island in Florida.
30 Ways in 30 Days to Strengthen Your Family
Every Christian parent faces a daily dilemma: How can I bring up my children to be people of character in a culture that undermines my values?
Media and cultural expert Rebecca Hagelin knows how overwhelming it is to raise kids in today's morally toxic environment. In this practical guidebook, she helps you:
Learn how to battle the culture, not your child
Know the difference between your principles and your preferences
Understand how marketers target your children and how to keep them safe online
Develop and follow your "mother's intuition" and "father-knows-best" instincts
Teach your children to be good stewards of money, time, and work
You must fight to protect your children's innocence, their childhood, their character—and their future. It's a battle worth fighting. And it's a battle you can win.