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My name is Melissa and I am e-mailing you concerning direct democracy. Can you give me an exact definition of direct democracy and what would be its effects? Thank you for your time January 10, 2003 DDC Response (to a student inquiry): Hello Melissa, Thank you for your inquiry regarding direct democracy. The basic definition of democracy is: Government by the people, usually through elected representatives. The simple definition of direct democracy is: Government by the people, directly, rather than through elected representatives. To understand the effects of direct democracy, the origin of democracy should be understood. Democracy was created in Athens, Greece over 2500 years ago. Athenian democracy was direct democracy, however, they did elect representatives to manage their government. The Athenians had a constitution, they made all major decisions regarding their government, directly, and they voted every one or two years to either retain their elected representatives or replace them with new representatives. Our vision for direct democracy is much like the Athenian model. Fully (and truthfully) informed voters would make all major decisions regarding government, such as taxation and public policy. There would be elected representatives to micro-manage government. However, the elected representatives would be nonpartisan professional government managers rather than partisan professional politicians, and they would be subject to confirmation by the voters every one or two years. Therefore, the effects of direct democracy would be revolutionary compared to the way government operates today. Of course, it would take a constitutional amendment to enact direct democracy. In my opinion, if we had direct democracy over the past few decades, society, government, education and the economy would not be in crisis. The fact of life is that the people, with all their faults, should be able to decide what is best for each of them individually, and collectively, what is best for all of us. Indeed, we are the only ones in a position to do that. Best regards, Daniel B. Jeffs, founder The Direct Democracy Center
Tag Archives: burger king Average Sentiment Per Tweet -- Corporations Twitter Sentiment Analysis This is a summary of a final project I did from my Introduction to Data Mining class at NU. The goal of the project was to find a business need and execute a data mining process. The general process I used is outlined here and the sentiment lexicon is found here. The lexicon is from a paper: Minqing Hu and Bing Liu. “Mining and Summarizing Customer Reviews.” Proceedings of the ACM SIGKDD International Conference on Knowledge.Discovery and Data Mining (KDD-2004), Aug 22-25, 2004, Seattle, Washington, USA. My experiences using social media, the business-centric focus of my grad classes, and my love for burritos inspired me to look into Twitter sentiment analysis. [I also needed to research something that wasn’t baseball.] Imagine every time you’ve misinterpreted a text message from your friend. Or every time an irate Twitter follower takes a sarcastic tweet seriously. That’s how hard it is for normal people to correctly interpret sentiment of written communication. So now picture trying to get a computer to do the same thing. Not easy. But at the very least we can find a way to categorize more tweets correctly than we misidentify. On August 25th & 26th, I scraped tweets containing Twitter handles of some companies:Company Twitter Handles I choose these based on my personal preferences or companies that I thought might have strong sentiment. The tweets were scraped using R and the package streamR. [These are pretty easy to use, if anyone wants to start doing any Twitter research, I’d start here.] The tweets are saved as JSON files, which are a mess, but human-readable. R parses the tweets into a data frame then that can go into a SQL database if so desired. The way I determined a tweet’s sentiment was by matching words in the tweet to a predetermined sentiment lexicon. This process is outlined in this presentation, if you are curious about how to execute it. The algorithm is simple enough to write with one FOR loop. The toughest problem I had was dealing with the tweet’s data object. The scoring system was simple, each word from a tweet that matched to the lexicon list will count as a +1 [positive] or -1 [negative]. The words are added together to give a sentiment score. The sentiment score can be interpreted like algebra [0 is neutral, greater than 0 is positive, and less than 0 is negative]. I grouped the results by company: Absolute Twitter Sentiment Corporations The bar graph sums the sentiment scores of every tweet I captured. So for example, two negative words in one tweet will drop the company’s total score 2 points. No surprises here that Comcast is in last place. I’ve never heard anyone say anything nice about Comcast, and apparently Twitter is not much kinder. News about the Burger King-Tim Horton’s merger broke while I was capturing tweets, so that accounts for the great discontent about Burger King. I’m not quite sure what BK’s baseline should be since this is the only data I have on hand. Verizon has very positive scores. I am a little skeptical of this, because Verizon (and Apple) had a lot tweets that were ad-based. While it’s great to know who is advertising your product, it’s not the goal of this particular project. Ads and news stories gets retweeted and regurgitated a lot, but the tweets from real customers don’t. One way to account for large volume of tweets is to look at average sentiment per tweet: Average Sentiment Per Tweet -- Corporations This graph takes the total sentiment score and divides it by the total number of tweets mentioning that company. This will give more weight to a company’s Twitter-customer base that’s strongly opinionated one way or another. To no one’s surprise, Comcast is dead last again. But to my delight, Chipotle ranks first! [I love burritos…and apparently a lot of Twitter users do too.] Chipotle is a good example of a company that does not have the volume that Comcast or Verizon has, but their users feel strongly about their product and tweet positively about it. Luckily, there is a bunch of metadata available with the tweets including my favorite variable, a timestamp. First, here’s a time series baseline for August 25, 2014: Total Tweets Per Hour -- 8/25/14 The volume of tweets increased through out the day, and peaked around lunch in EDT. Let’s look at Chipotle’s time series graph broken up by sentiment classification: Chipotle Sentiment Per Hour 8/25/14 Neutral and positive tweets peaked during the 1PM EDT hour, with no corresponding spike in negative tweets. This is very encouraging for Chipotle since you would expect the negative tweets to follow the same pattern, and they don’t. They actually rise later in the day. Further research would have to be done to determine if this trend is real and what the source of it is. It could be a time zone delayed problem, general staffing/production issues in non-lunch hours, selection bias of people who go to a later lunch, or a random fluctuation that happened that day. Comcast also has some interesting patterns: Comcast Sentiment Per Hour -- 8/25/2014 There are two spikes in neutral tweet volume early in the day. I think these are results of mentions in a news related tweet that was retweeted a lot. The large spike at 2PM EDT is probably also caused by retweets as well. However, during the early afternoon, there are distinctive negative customer tweets accounting for the surge in negative sentiment after lunch. My conjecture for this surge would be an increase of people dealing with Comcast’s customer service. It would be interesting to see if call center data matched up. This is just the most basic implementation of sentiment analysis. There are more advanced machine learning techniques that can weight words differently and looks at consecutive word groups (n-grams) in addition to individual words. The advantage of this can be seen easily. The phrase ‘not good’ is negative, but only looking at the constituent words it would be scored neutral. There is a lot of other processes I can try to get more accurate results, but unfortunately, not in this post.
Tips for Finding the Best Junk Car Buyer Cars have been used over the years for transportation purposes, due to the availability of roads people who can afford cars have found it necessary to purchase their own vehicles. Many automobile companies have come up with different car designs and with the advancement of technology have seen the manufacture of cars that are voice operated and they have air conditioning. The more cars are introduced in the market the higher the depreciation rate is. Once a new car is bough it depreciates 15%-20% and it will continue to depreciate every other year and more models are produced every other time. Cars are normally left in the garage unused when another car is bough and it is time to make money out of them. Cars that sit on the garage cannot be sold in the same price as the price you bought them; this is because no one would want to buy a second hand car that is expensive unless the car is of a limited edition. There are several ways you can employ to ensue you get the best junk car dealer. You can conduct research online on a junk car dealer to involve; you will find junk car dealers that will relieve you of the burden of having old cars, sell junk car in Ft Lauderdale here! You can use Google maps to find a company that is near your locality. These Cash Auto Salvage Miami dealers can also be found in the major cities.If you do not trust the internet you can use the phone directory, this will include businesses that are certified and it will even provide their pages. You will call the company and you will be assured to call a genuine company that is not shady. You can call them and ask on the rates, you can provide them with the necessary information about the vehicle you want to sell. You can ask for referrals from friends and family on the companies they know would buy your old car. They can tell you the experiences they had with the company and if they are able to negotiate the prices of the cars. You should also look out for companies that have a bad reputation so that you do not fall into their trap. You can also learn more tips on where to find the best junk car buyer by checking out the post at http://www.ehow.com/how_2069611_open-car-dealership.html . When you are researching online it is important to consider the reviews made about the company even if the company is big, people will usually tell the truth about their experiences with the companies. You should not always believe everything that is provided by the company in their website always conduct your own research.
Debate with Matrix/DNA Theory in Science/AAAS Debate com a Matrix/DNA no Science/AAAS Earliest mollusk probably looked like a spiky slug A tree mimics exactly the shape of Milk Way because it was created by this galaxy. A cell system also has the same number of organelles as the number of different astronomic bodies. And there is more: each organelle performs same systemic function as each astronomic system. But, we can see it only when we know the universal Matrix/DNA formula that built all natural systems. So, for a better understand about the first mollusc shape and functions we must have on the table the matrix formula and the exactly model of the building blocks of our creator, this astronomic system – both are at my website… but still it is a theory.. Correlations without causation Endurance of stable shapes i.e celestial bodies are spherical due to their gravity, just like there is a limited number of shapes in organisms that provide practicality and durability. But this doesn’t connect the two systems in any way. No, Kotsios, there is no apophenia here. It is perceiving meaningful patterns (the common at genetic inheritances) within not random data, but within data as evolutionary links. Yours scholar world view does not see these patterns because learned to be blind to the connection between cosmological and biological evolution. So, there is a big hole in their wiring of neurons. You do not see the correlation because yours causation (origins of life) is not the first causation (origins of the universe). If this astronomic system (Milk Way) does not connect with the first biological systems, what and who created biological systems?! Some supernatural forces and elements coming from outside the materialistic realm of this galaxy? And remember: such parent, such offspring, no matter the differences of environments and big mutations. By the way, if you do not know my theoretical astronomic model and the explanation how it fits exactly as the unit of information of the DNA, you never will accept that we were created by stellar system and not by dust of stars… All you did, was to replace a supernatural creator with the Milky Way. Celestial organisation is based on gravity. Biological organisation is based on chemistry. Gravity is very weak to act on the molecular level and chemistry requires much more proximity than the celestial distances allow. There is no connection between the origins of the two systems, besides their existence in the same universe No creators, it is all about our ancestrals. Galaxies,atoms, are our ancestrals. The human body pressure and homeostasis acts over organs and flows, it is also to weak at atomic and molecular levels. But was not gravity neither body pressure that organized matter into systems. You are missing the essence, the code, which is the formula at my website. Organic chemistry emerged with a new state of matter – the liquid – which was not existent at galaxies’ formation. But, chemistry alone, leads matter to eternal equilibrium, never to compose working systems. Th new planetary surface environment, different from the space, and new state of matter caused the big mutations in biological systems. While our direct astronomic ancestor was a closed system, we happened to be opened systems. If you believe there are no connections between the system you live inside and was here producing your past ancestors and the system you are, you need to appeal to a mystic agent, like a magical randomness.. or magical supernaturals. We do need such jumps of imaginations anymore.. You forgot about prions, viruses, RNA based life, etc. You forgot that there are known reasons for the shapes of bodies in space, and, organ functions, etc…and that they do not share reasons. Saying “Astronomic system” and “function” assumes things that are entirely unsupported by any evidence whatsoever. You are seeing patterns that are not there. You are also calling a “feeling” a “theory”. In science, a theory is an explanation that has been tested, to falsify it, and passed the tests…and so forth, …..not merely what a stoner says after seeing a Bohr Diagram and thinking…wow, that looks like our solar system! No TJ, I did not forget these things, all them were hardly and perfect inserted in the same evolutionary lineage, from this astronomic system to complex biological organisms. Nature has used a unique formula for all biological systems (DNA) because Nature has used a unique formula for “all” natural systems since the beginning of this Universe. I can’t believe you can not understand this obligatory evolutionary detail. If all galaxies are similar like all biological systems, it is because all galaxies has a common essence like DNA. Same for all species of atoms systems. The evolutionary tree does not begins with archaea, fungus, but, with atoms. That’s why we can find all biological properties (metabolism,sexual reproduction,life’s cycles,etc) at atoms ( as electromagnetic fashion) and astronomic systems ( as mechanic fashion), expressed or not due evolutionary phases. If you can’t see the evolutionary sequitur from a galaxy to a cell system you will need some mystical belief, like “spontaneous origins of life by chance”… There is a universal evolution of a unique system in this 13,8 billion years, so, since it is a unique evolutionary lineage, must have repetitive universal patterns among all shapes of this universal natural system. About theory: Science took the name ” theory” from philosophy (the Greeks coined the word). I am using the word in its real meaning and science is not the owner of this word Tags: , , , , Comments are closed.
Sunday, August 24, 2008 Pumpkin Prowess Fall has definately come around this neck of the woods. Its not just because the weather is cooling down a bit or the fact that the sun doesn't hang for quite as many hours in our big sky as it did during the long days of summer.There is a difference in the air that I just can't quite explain but can definately feel. It wont be long now before the western larch's needles start turning a bright yellow-orange. Thats actually pretty cool around here because of how many larch there are in our forest. You don't really think about how many there are until the needles turn and whole hillsides are a contrast of orange against the deep green of all the other trees. Those will make for some great pictures to post on here when the time comes. With the creeping in of fall I find myself hoping my pumpkin will grow faster. I feel like a witch or mad scientist out in the garden waving my hands chanting "grow my little one grow". Don't worry I haven't gone off my rocker, I'm just excited about how big this little sucker might get. It set on so late that its having to play catch up to Polly's 100 lb one now. I'm very jealous of my future mom-in-laws gourd actually. Its a nice bright orange and a perfectly round 67 inches in circumference as you can see from the pic I took of hers yesterday. sniffle sniffle It puts mine to shame at the moment. I can't really complain though. My pumpkin is still in that light yellow baby pumplkin stage of development though it should start to get more orangy any day now. My little guy has put on about 20 lbs in the last week and is starting to so show some umph. I think its weights close to 35 lbs total now, though maybe even a bit more than that since its getting harder to lift. Its kind of a pain in the rear end though. Mace and I are so paranoid that it might freeze at night (already had frost Aug 1st) that we have a system of covering the entire pumpkin plant every single night. It starts with wrapping the pumpkin itself up in a giant towel, then putting a big box over that to keep the little guy as warm as we can. After the pumpkin itself is covered, we use the system of boards we set up running the entire length of the plant to support the 6 tarps we need to cover the plant. It looks pretty haphazard after all is said in done but it keeps the plant a good 20 degrees warmer than the rest of the garden, which is worth it after all the work we've put into pruning and burying the vine itself day after day. I know it sounds like a lot of extra work, and it is, but its been really fun seeing something grow so much so fast that it seems worth it. Again... there isn't much to do in Trout Creek Montana, I have to get my kicks in somehow. I picked the last of my raspberries and made the very last batch of jam yesterday. Mace's chest freezer is pretty much filled to the brim so I'm not exactly sure where I'm going to put these last 8 jars. Between making raspberry and strawberry jam, freezing the peppers we've roasted from the garden, and the litany of other stuff we've made and canned over the past few weeks cupboards both at Mace's and Polly's house are getting stuffed. Its a nice feeling really seeing all the hard work paying off. Weird thing is is that both gardens still haven't be fully harvested. We've just been picking at it as thing have ripened but there is still a ton out there. All the onions, carrots, rest of the beets, more peppers and tomatoes, green beens, peas, etc etc I'm not sure where everything is going to go. Its been a great growing season and the produce has been yummier than ever for it. Last night Mace and I cooked for the whole family using pretty much just stuff from our garden. We had a giant salad with carrots, lettuce, cucumbers, yellow peppers, and red onions all of which came from our garden except for the lettuce. Then we had elk steak cooked on the grill with roasted new red potatoes and carrots (again from our garden). It was one of the best meals we'd all had in a long time. Fresh veggies are just too yummy. To top the night off we all sat around a fire pit outside and roasted marshmellows with Lane and Gracie (Mace's nephew and niece) and watched the shooting stars til midnight. All in all it was a great evening. 1 comment: Kati said... Holy. Crap. I have 3 cacti. Do I need to water them?
COPY / PROXY and the Translator Date: Wed, 25 Oct 89 23:31:26 PDT From: tribble (Eric Dean Tribble) #1, MarkM: Non-PROXY messages in a proxified class should also not be DEFERRED, since the stubble generated Proxy subclass will have to be a concrete class (XLint doesn't need to check for this, the compiler will). #2, Dean: Presumably member functions in the PROXY forward the message over the wire. This is completely automatically generated and shouldn't care whether a body for the real object was defined. Concrete subclasses could then be defined which could be exported to another machine only as the parent type. #3, MarkM: I don't understand your paragraph at all. Perhaps the following will clear up our misunderstanding: If "Baz" is a class with a "PROXY:" section, then stubble will automatically generate a subclass of it called "BazProxy". BazProxy must be a concrete class, an the RPCTransceiver code will instantiate it when any object which is a kind of Baz is passed by proxy. #4, Dean: BazProxy can be made concrete even if Baz is not. Let's take a sample method in the PROXY section: Object * getValue(Position * key) DEFERRED_FUNC; Stubble can still generate the code that forwards the message even though RealBaz doesn't implement the message. Of course all messages defined in a PROXY section should be DEFERRED. I am also unconcerned with whether RealBaz implements the message. Note that in #1, I am specifically referring to messages defined in Baz that are not defined in a PROXY section. Presumably the meaning of defining these outside the PROXY section is that the programmer is instructing stubble not to generate forwarding code (or any other code) for it. Since BazProxy must be concrete, it needs some definition for any message declared DEFERRED in Baz. Where should this come from? If this doesn't make sense, please give me a call. This does suggest an interesting extension to stubble: for the above currently-defined-to-be-incorrect case (a DEFERRED message in a proxified class outside a PROXY section), stubble could generate a non-DEFERRED declaration for it in BazProxy and provide no definition. This would require the programmer to define how BazProxy responds to this message. It would be a SELF_PROXY kind of ability: i.e., it would provide an ability whose relationship to PROXY is analogous to the relationship of SELF_COPY to COPY. Both to emphasize the analogy, and to make the programmers intentions clearer to readers of his code, I think such messages should only appear in a "SELF_PROXY:" section. As this ability would be a strictly upwards compatable change that is currently unneeded, I propose we remember it but don't do anything yet towards implementing it. It may prove useful when we want to write proxies that do local caching.
What is the difference between System.String and System.Text.StringBuilder? Posted by deccansoft on 9/15/2010 \| Category: C# Interview questions \| Views: 1449 In String - everytime memory is allocated to new object. In StringBuilder - the content is appended to string it will not instantiate everytime. Asked In: Many Interviews \| Alert Moderator Comments or Responses Login to post response
The History of the Electric Car You’d be forgiven for assuming that the electric car was a modern invention, but it actually boasts quite a lengthy history. In fact, the first electric vehicles can be traced back to the 19th century. It’s not completely clear who is responsible for developing the first electric vehicle, but there Top Motorhome Films Motorhomes feature in many a film adding comedy, drama and suspense to a wide range of exciting tales. Here are some classic examples. Meet the Fockers In this comedy caper that follows on from Meet the Parents, Robert De Niro’s character introduces his over-the-top motorhome that comes complete with fancy The Majesty of America’s Route 66 Mention the words “road trip” and the “USA” in the same sentence and for many, thoughts will immediately turn to the country’s most famous road: Route 66. Running between Chicago and Los Angeles, it’s a route that’s often described as the world’s greatest road trip, with many tourists spending their
Monday, July 3, 2017 The Tried + True Houseplant Guide: What Other Guides Won't Tell You There are a lot of articles floating around in the Internet that have titles like "Hard To Kill Houseplants" or "low maintenance houseplants." Listen to me, some of those articles will tell you that ferns are low maintenance. I'm hear to tell you that ferns are HIGH maintenance. You know what else is high maintenance? Airplants + succulents. But you'll see those listed as hard to kill/low maintenance plants. I am going to give you a list of plants here that I have found to be easy peasy. These are plants I have grown myself, nearly killed and revived, or never even came close to killing- plants that even my mother who has a black thumb can keep alive. ZZ plants- These aren't my favorite looking houseplants BUT we do have 2 because they still provide greenery and are good for filtering air pollutants. Also, these may be the most low maintenance plant of them all. I swear you could stick one in the basement for a month and never water it and it would still be alive. Pothos- Oh man, the pothos plant was my gateway houseplant. These are often confused with philodendron because certain varieties are very similar looking. If these are showing signs of distress, they will almost always revive. In fact, I don't think I've ever killed a pothos. They can be in different light conditions from low to high light. They are the ultimate boho plant and they are easy to propagate. Snake plant- These are neglectable like the ZZ plant. Their lighting requirements are whatever you want to give them. They don't care how often you water them. AND they come in lots of different varieties. I will add that we do have one snake plant that looks a little sad, and I'm not sure why. However we have 1.7 million other ones that are thriving. Also, our snake plant that looks a little sad is still growing new leaves so idk man. Philodendron- there are a zillion different varieties of these and they are probably my favorite houseplant of all time because they are so easy to maintain and come in so many different varieties. I would say the more high maintenance varieties are the larger ones like the split leaf, hope, and xanadu. However, even these are low maintenance in comparison. The larger ones just seem to show signs of distress more BUT they will almost always revive. While I loooove pothos, I prefer the philodendron a bit more because they seem to grow more quickly. Cactus- I currently have a cactus that I've probably not watered in 6 months. It's small and located on a shelf that is hard to reach, so I never water it. But it's hanging on. I have another one that is really top heavy and has uprooted and fallen out of it's pot 876 times. It will never die. You do have to be mindful of placement if you have children or pets and of course if you don't want to be stabbed yourself. Most cactus need high light but that's easy to do. We have several in window sills or by windows. Jade - I list this one with caution. Historically these are almost impossible to kill. However, I feel it's important to note that I have recently killed one of these. It was very neglected, but lots of people say these thrive on neglect. I'm here to tell you that they do not. However, my other jade plant that I've treated more humanely and have paid a teeny bit of attention to, is doing well. In contrast these plants I've seen listed as low maintenance but are not. I consider a plant to be high maintenance if it requires specific light + water requirements. For example if it needs bright but indirect light and moist soil but not too moist and not too dry. Get out of here. Who can monitor that. We have 50+ houseplants so I cannot even. I need a plant to be flexible and have the ability to resurrect from near death. Succulents- Some varieties are ok, but most end up growing weird and wonky and then die. I'm not exactly sure what I'm doing wrong but I kill almost all succulents eventually. A florist once told me that a succulent that lives inside will last well for about a year, and then it will basically die. If you are going into succulents knowing that they will only look good for a year, then you may be interested. There is propagation involved if you want your plant to not look leggy after awhile. I prefer cactus instead. Ferns- I love a fern. They are beautiful and bohemian looking, but they are persnickety. They need just the right lighting and just the right watering. I simply cannot. We currently are trying 2 Kimberly Ferns outside and they are doing well. Regardless, when they are inside they need to always have damp soil and need specific lighting which I've never been to figure out. Air Plants- These need to be soaked every week in water for at least 10 minutes. I'm just never going to do that. The exception to this is the xerographica, which I soak a few times a year and is still kicking it. These, like succulents, will look okay for a while but I could never keep up with soaking them every week. Soaking and watering are very different things. You can water wherever your plant is, but you have to move all your plants to a sink to be soaked. Fiddle Leaf Figs- I see these suckers all. the. time on low maintenance lists. Here's what I can tell you. We have had 2- one is still alive and another died pretty quickly. The one that is still alive was touch and go for a while but is doing okay. Our living fiddle leaf is actually fairly low maintenance now but we had so many ups and downs and because we had one die so easily- I'm listing it here. I've read a lot about maintaining these but what I figured out that you have to figure out yourself, through trial and error, what works for your fiddle leaf. This means possibly killing your plant in the process. Calathea- These are pretty cool. They open and close during the day. BUT we killed ours. I babied it and it was doing well for a while and then bam, it died. They, like all of these, have specific water and lighting requirements. Now this article isn't meant to steer you away from high-maintenance plants, because they definitely have their place. We have a few (and have killed a few) ourselves. But if you are away from home a lot, you're busy or a plant beginner, or you straight up don't want to deal with plant drama, the easy plants we've talked should be your go-tos. Peace, Casey Post a Comment Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...
As some people do not realize this but modern medicine is still a fairly new subject and topic. I have chatted with some individuals who think modern medicine is centuries old but what they fail to realize is modern medicine is at least 70 years old to no more than 100 years old. The practice of medicine that is going on today is nothing what occurred just a century ago. Hippocrates, the Father of Modern Medicine, was born 460 BC and died 377 BC and many doctors are to adhere to the Hippocratic Oath upon graduating and entering in to the medical field. However, it appears that many doctors do not adhere to this oath and for many this oath has been removed. For some people they remember the oath to state that "Thou Shalt Do No Harm" but there is so much more to it than that. I was actually surprised when I read the oath all the information it contained. If doctors really believed in Hippocrates and that we was the father of modern medicine then they would realize that he did not believe in drugs for he knew it would harm the human body. He believed strongly that a person needs adequate rest, massage, proper diet, exercise, herbs, clean air, etc. in order to properly treat the human body. I honestly think: "What does Hippocrates think of 'Modern Medicine' today" since it is nothing like he would have described. I have heard of stories were doctors scoff at the notation of someone even suggesting they, the doctors, are wrong or wanting to try "traditional" medicine. Most doctors now-a-days are not trained in "traditional" medicine, meaning they are unfamiliar with herbs and natural remedies. For most doctors, the amount of nutrition training received is only 30 minutes to an hour; however, a doctor can choose to know more about nutrition if they so deem to. I, myself, have been scoffed at by the doctors for suggesting natural remedies. Since I have asthma I have been on medications my whole life. When I went to my doctor a few years ago I asked what I had to do to get off my medications, and she replied nothing since you will need to be on these medications for the rest of your life. Well, I didn't take her answer seriously and started to do my own research. Between changing my diet and taking better supplements I was off two of my medications within 3 months and off one more within 9 months. I still have one more medication and it is a rescue inhaler. In addition, my research has uncovered that Asthma can be caused my vaccine poisoning and Candida. Some of the old remedies still hold true today and modern medicine has yet to explain them. Like why your Grandmother always had a bottle of Cod Liver Oil in her medicine cabinet :) I am not writing to debunk doctors, for yes there are times they are necessary. It is wise to know that your body knows how to heal itself given the proper means, meaning diet, exercise, rest, etc. And have you ever noticed that once you are given a drug you usually end up needing to take additional drugs because of side effects from the previous drug? Listen to the side effects on the drug commercials; they are very interesting to listen to. Some good authors to look into are Alexis Carrell, Bernard Jensen, Weston A. Price, and Edward Bach. These men wrote some profound information that would stun society today! There are more authors out there but these are just to name a few. Here is the classical version of the Hippocratic Oath: To Your Health,
Mongoose – കീരി The Indian grey mongoose or common grey mongoose (Herpestes edwardsii) is a species of mongoose mainly found in southern Asia, in India, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka and some other parts of Asia. Mongoose plays a significant role in the well-being of our ecosystem. Found in thick forest areas and in open cultivated fields, mongooses prey on rats, mice, snakes, lizards, frogs, insects and many other smaller animals. Due to its predatory diet, a mongoose is considered farmer’s friend and are therefore useful for saving billions of worth of food crops annually. There are six species of mongoose found in India: 1. Indian Grey Mongoose (Herpestes edwardsii) 2. Ruddy Mongoose (Herpestes smithii Gray) 3. Small Indian Mongoose (Herpestes auropunctatus Illiger) 4. Crab-eating Mongoose (Herpestes urva Hodgson) 5. Stripe-Necked Mongoose (Herpestes Vitticollis Bennett) 6. Brown Mongoose (Herpestes fuscus Waterhouse) The Indian Grey Mongoose is listed in Schedule II while all the other five species are listed in Schedule IV. Hunting or trade in mongoose and its parts and derivatives in India is an offence leading to imprisonment of between three and seven years and a fine of not less than INR 10000. The Indian grey mongoose The Indian grey mongoose Leave a Reply
Rate And Duration of Despair “One of the most remarkable features of the unemployment figures is that both the rate and the duration of unemployment have increased during every Republican administration and decreased under every Democratic one, without a single exception.” ~James Gilligan, Why Some Politicians Are More Dangerous Than Others, Kindle Locations 704-706 This pattern has existed since records first began being kept, unemployment rate since 1900 and unemployment duration rate since 1948. It’s not even just unemployment. The same partisan disparity is found with rates and, when applicable, durations of diverse issues: poverty and economic inequality, recessions and depressions, GDP and GNP, homicides and suicides, etc. The author further explores the broad range of studies that show various correlations between these factors, most especially how the other factors have through time-series analysis been causally linked to increasing violence. Then Gilligan connects it all to regional partisan politics and differences of populations. He considers many angles, from crime policies to studies on authoritarianism; revealing “some very interesting inter-correlations between all three of these variables: character, party, and state” (Kindle Location 1816). Also, he offers a thorough survey of the data on incarceration and crime rates. There is no clear, strong evidence that mass incarceration decreased crime and violence. An argument, instead, can be made that mass incarceration has been contributing to the problem. Gilligan’s main argument is based on his accidental discovery of how the homicide and suicide rates followed party administrations. No one had noticed because the two parties were averaging each other out. No party was in power continuously for long enough to make the pattern obvious enough for a casual observation. The more the author looked at the data the stronger the correlation became and the wider set of the correlated data. The primary conclusion is that economics is so bad during Republican administrations that an increasing number of Americans turn to violence, both against others and against themselves. Furthermore, the longer a Republican administration remains in power the worse it gets. The opposite happens with Democratic administrations. This is what the data shows. It’s freaking mind-blowing. He does offer a cautionary note. Even under Democrats, violence rates although lower than Republicans are still at what would be considered epidemic levels in other Western countries. Still, the pattern remains interesting. One has to wonder what the pattern would look like if Democrats or those even further to the left had maintained political power continuously for this past century. Or imagine how our society would be transformed if ever a left-wing party came to power, as seen in other Western countries. Screw both the Republicans and Democrats! We can only take so much backlash of misery and temporary respite. Even for someone who despises the two party system, this pattern can’t be easily dismissed or ignored. The differences between the parties are real. Politics does matter. Many independents wish the differences were even greater, but one has to be extremely cynical to argue these differences aren’t significant enough to make a difference. If one is unemployed or at risk of unemployment, if one is poor or homeless, if one feels the shame and desperation of being deemed a loser in a society based on Social Darwinism, it certainly matters. Nonetheless, what is an independent to do when the back and forth partisan power struggle never leads to permanent solutions that get to the root of problems? As a psychiatrist who worked for 25 years in the prison system, that is what James Gilligan wants to know (Kindle Locations 123-134): “Given the stability of that correlation between the political parties and the violent death rates, and my inability to disconfirm it, the question that remains is: what does it mean? Why is it occurring, and doing so repeatedly? As a physician, my interest has always been in matters of life and death, not politics, and this foray into politics because of a chance discovery that implicated political actors only happened because of my attempt to learn what was causing these deaths and how we could save lives.” Ignoring parties, how do we get positive results? How do we make the world a better place? What lesson should we learn? I wish I knew. 21 thoughts on “Rate And Duration of Despair The US would probably look more like what Canada is today. There would be a seesaw between left and right, with left wanting a Scandinavian-like social democracy, and the right, hopefully being fiscal conservative, not far right like in the US. It’s interesting looking at the crime rates, the poverty rates, education, life expectancy, healthcare, etc. The US is near the bottom on pretty much every measure compared to the other developed nations. That would not be so if the US had a true left wing party. • Yeah, I could see a US version of Canada. I’ve wondered what it would be like if all of North America was a single country. Maybe throw in a large immigration of Scandinavians into the mix to create a better balance. That could be a fun experiment. • Well, there’s about 35 million Canadians and 26 million people living in the Nordic nations. Contrast this with the US population, which is about ~320 million. The US would dominate out of sheer numbers. Perhaps a better option would be to split the US into two. It would be along the blue state-red state border. It would not be that exact. Some areas like Appalachia would go to the red states. Others like Austin,Texas firmly belong in the blue state area. Problem solved. The red states would look a lot like the “Jesusland” cartoon after the 2004 election in the US although sans the left wing areas. I wonder whether Iowa if it had a referendum would choose the blue states. The urban areas are very left wing, but the rural areas are very conservative. • It would be an even greater experiment to split North America along regional lines. Parts of Canada share the same ethnic cultures and political traditions as parts of the United States. Migration patterns to the US Midwest extended up into Canada. Some of the US Northeast also has common elements with the nearby regions of Canada. The same is seen with the US Southwest and lower East Coast in relation to Northern Mexico. As for Southern Mexico, it is more culturally similar to Central American countries. As for the Deep south, that would need be its own country all by itself. The entirety of the Upper South and Appalachia probably would want to join them. Some parts of the Lower Midwest would also be more culturally aligned with the Deep South. All or most of the Northern states in the US could easily merge with Canada. That would make for a great society. It would be a country with great farmland, strong industry, and a tradition of tolerance and multiculturalism. Iowa is somewhat of a crossroads of regional cultures. But ultimately Iowa has more akin to the Upper Midwest. Most of Iowa’s population is in the urban areas which are fairly liberal and progressive. Iowa isn’t like Illinois, Ohio, and Indiana in that the Upper South influence doesn’t reach to any great extent that far North on the other side of the Mississippi river. 2. It would still solve the majority of the problems that the northern states face, along with the cultural divide that the southern US has. It would mean that things like: – Better labor protection – Environmental laws – Universal healthcare – More generous financing for student loans (or better yet lower cost education) Could be established without too much disagreement. That being said, I would imagine that illegal immigration from the southern states to the northern ones would become a problem. • “That being said, I would imagine that illegal immigration from the southern states to the northern ones would become a problem.” There is the rub. At present. the Southern states are dependent on the funding from the federal government mostly paid for by non-Southern states. If the South lost its federal funding, the poverty of the region would suddenly become unbearable for many people. It would lead to a violently oppressive society not seen since Jim Crow or slavery. There would be a mass wave of refugees. • These things always get worse under Republican administrations, for as long as data has been kept. And this is the worst Republican administration in living memory, probably in the entire history of the party. This new Trumpcare that is replacing Obamacare is going to throw a bunch of people, including children, off of healthcare. And the tax cuts are going to defund a wide variety of social services. Under Starve the Beast, it is the average American who suffers. This isn’t to entirely blame Trump and Republicans. Certain demographics have been experiencing mortality rates for quite a while now. It just gets worse less slowly for those demographics under recent Democratic administrations. Besides, data like this can’t be blamed on a new administration in their first year. • Technically the 2016 data occurred under a time when Obama was president, although the GOP was in control of the Congress. That said, I have no doubt that Trump’s actions will make a bad situation worse. 3. As I recall, James Gilligan discusses Congress in his book. And the same pattern follows. Of course, the most powerful effect is seen when both the presidency and Congress are controlled by the same party. But there are complicating factors. When Reagan was president, he raised taxes more than he cut them. He did this while increasing spending on military and growing the number of federal employees, despite fiscal conservative rhetoric. This then led to the creation of the US permanent debt. Conservatives like to look for excuses about this, when they acknowledge it. One excuse is that, during his administration, Democrats gained control of Congress. But that ignores that his party had initial control of Congress when many decisions were made. And even Democrats did gain control, there were still many Southern conservatives in the Democratic Party and they would often vote in line with Republicans. This meant that Reagan retained a conservative majority throughout his entire administration. That is a key factor at a time like this. The Democratic Party has become increasingly conservative. And it is an entirely new kind of right-wing conservatism that has taken hold of both parties. In the past, many conservatives were progressives, supporting trust-busting and public programs. Also, conservatives like Eisenhower and Nixon would praise liberalism in the political sphere. Supposed liberals in power today are economically more conservative than were conservatives prior to Goldwater and Reagan. Certainly, Obama was no paragon of progressivism and left-liberalism. It would be useful to see the same data broken down to when the political left had power vs when the political right had power, no matter which party had power. • Except Obama didn’t take the American center. Along with several other administrations, he helped push the establishment even further right beyond the center of the American public. In doing so, he redefined the center of power in being ever more disconnected from most Americans. This allowed the GOP to go so far right that it went over the edge. His economic policies are moderate Republican from the 1980s, but that is far far far to the right of majority opinion. And the result is a radical right-wing single party banana republic ruled by plutocracy and oligarchy. That is something Obama or any other establishment figure can’t admit. None of this is about polarization. A large majority of Americans agree on most central issues. That is particularly true of economic issues where even most Republican voters are more progressive than most Democratic politicians. The progressive label is the single most popular across the political spectrum. It’s not only economic issues. Most Americans on the political right, including evangelicals, have become increasingly liberal on social issues. The once antagonistic issues of the culture wars have essentially become non-issues and so less useful as political footballs. Most Americans in and outside both parties are largely indifferent to such things same sex marriage. Along these lines, most Americans support abortion rights as they support gun rights, but they also support basic regulations and controls of both. That is to say most Americans are moderate in not being ideologues. Even the majority left-wing economic views are about practical reality, not ideology. The Cold War rhetoric has lost its power and meaning. The fear-mongering about Godless commies is no longer a convincing boogeyman, not even on the political right and especially not for the younger generations. Trump failed even to get much of anyone to pretend to care about the bullshit war on Christmas. Yet Republican lite politicians like Obama are still living in the Reagan Revolution of the late Cold War, still pushing neoliberalism and neoconservatism. That is because Obama, like other Clinton Democrats, are children of the Cold War. Obama, in particular, became an adult during the 1980s. His political world coalesced during the Reagan administration and was entrenched during the Clinton administration, the latter being a continuation of the former. Obama never knew a political system that wasn’t dominated by the political right and so he considers that normal. He is a product of that system, having promoted his early career within the establishment political order. Obama feels comfortable in his role as a Reagan Republican. He takes it as a badge of honor, proving he is a practical and professional politician. Reagan has became the symbolic embodiment of this new corporatist age where big biz and big media captured big gov. As a Hollywood movie star and corporate spokesperson, Reagan demonstrated a new way for the ruling elite to operate. Entertainment media’s cult of personality took hold of the presidency, the idea that the leader of the “free world” should be someone you’d like to sit down to have a beer with rather than someone who took seriously the role of a public servant promoting the public good. All that matter is a president speaks inspiring rhetoric. That is why so many recent presidents in both parties have used progressive style rhetoric, even though we haven’t seen anything close to progressive policies since Nixon (AKA the last liberal president). 4. Obama’s legacy is Trump. His only “disappointment” was that he was unable to get the TPP passed. He did what his donors wanted him to do for the most part. He largely deflected the anger after 2008 and did little. He has since cashed in: Obama received $400,000 for his Northern Trust appearance, according to Bloomberg News, which also reported this week that the former president had made a similar appearance this month at the private equity behemoth Carlyle Group. Carlye Group and Northern Trust both declined to comment when contacted by AFP. A spokeswoman for Cantor Fitzgerald confirmed that Obama would attend next week’s event but offered no additional details. The speeches are the first Obama has given to Wall Street since leaving the Oval Office on 20 January. Since May, Obama has made paid appearances in Italy, Germany, Scotland, Canada, Indonesia and South Korea. “Since leaving office, President Obama has spent his time doing public and private events, both paid and unpaid, that are true to his values and his record,” Kevin Lewis, an Obama spokesman, told AFP. Consistent with that, his paid speeches in part have allowed president Obama to contribute $2 million (€1.66 million) to Chicago programs offering job training and employment opportunities to low-income youth. Don’t let the low income youth part fool you – I think that much like the Gates Foundation, this will go to neoliberal causes (Ex: the Bill Gates Foundation tries to privatize public education). • I never expected much from Obama. I figured he’d be more of the same. But I gave him the benefit of the doubt. I wish he had enacted policies that matched the hype, although his campaigning was always vague on the details. Either way, I wanted him to have a second term so that he would be held accountable, leaving no way for Democrats to honestly blame anyone else. Of course, that didn’t stop them from dishonestly blaming Republicans, poor whites, evangelicals, etc. But at least historians will know that Obama had two terms to prove himself, having started out with mass public support and a Democratic majority. For shits and giggles, the cynical side of my personality would like to see Clinton or a Clinton-clone run again and lose to Trump again. It would suck to have 4 more years of Trump, but at this point I’m not sure it matters. For all the real fears of world war with nuclear weapons, I still think that someone like Clinton is more dangerous in the long term. • You might get your wish in 2020 I’m afraid. They seem to be trying to find a corporate Democratic type that will serve Wall Street and try to hush it all up. I don’t think they care about the common citizen at this point. • It seems all so predictable, no matter what anyone may wish. The entire system is stuck in a pattern. And those who seem to be in power are automatons following a script. I doubt most of them could imagine anything else, as there is little incentive to cause them to think differently. The whole charade will go on until it can’t. Leave a Reply WordPress.com Logo Twitter picture Facebook photo Google+ photo Connecting to %s
by Mark Babatunde, at 12:30 pm, May 15, 2017, History British Artist Copies Ancient Nigerian Artwork Without Giving Credit? Outrage has accompanied the recent works of British artist Damien Hirst for copying ancient Nigerian artwork without giving credit. Hirst’s work, entitled “Golden Heads (Female),” which was part of his recent “Treasures from the Wreck of the Unbelievable” exhibition held at the Palazzo Grassi in Venice, Italy, appears to be an exact replica of the famous Ife sculpture, but with no reference whatsoever to Ife or Nigeria. The well-known terracotta head was originally created by artists from the ancient Ile-Ife kingdom of southwest Nigeria between the 12th and 14th century. Nigerian artist Victor Ehikhamenor, who was also at the Venice art show, was quick to notice the similarity and promptly sounded an alarm. Victor Ehikhamenor Victor Ehikhamenor standing next to his work. Photo credit: Wikipedia Ehikhamenor, the contemporary artist who was in Venice to present an exhibition entitled “Biography of the Forgotten,” took to his Instagram page Tuesday to express his displeasure: He went on to describe Hirst’s actions as a cultural and artistic appropriation of the worst kind: As time passes it will pass for a Damien Hirst, regardless of his small print caption. The narrative will shift and the young Ife or Nigerian contemporary artist will someday be told by a long nose critic, ‘Your work reminds me of Damien Hirst’s Golden Head.’ We need more biographers for our forgotten. Ehikhamenor’s post was accompanied by a postcard photo of Hirst’s Golden Heads, where he wrote: This postcard of ‘Golden Heads (Female)’ by Damien Hirst with no reference to Ife and great artists that originally made these timeless classic will travel far and wide. Once again the hunter has glorified his tale in the absence of the lion. Quite understandably, Ehikhamenor’s lamentation sparked an outrage on social media with some commenters saying Hirst’s actions evoked memories of the pillaging of priceless ancient Nigerian art and crafts by the British colonial government: jg_konk wrote: this is an outrage .. yet it even harkens back to the Picasso masterpiece “Le Demoiselles d’Avignon” jmichaelwalker1 said: They are too hungry And honeyrilla added: Years ago the Detroit Museum of Art held an exhibit entitled something like “Influence or Imitation.” The show was compiled of original works created by African peoples juxtaposed to works by European artists – Picasso, Klee, Braqué, etc. The similarities were uncanny. Others slammed Hirst’s barefaced attempt at cultural appropriation and likened it to the criminal act of intellectual property theft: hope you agree it’s daylight robbery for Damien Hurst [sic] to profit so vastly at all for his blatant appropriation meanwhile African artists (whose names are less renowned) would starve for lack of support. Suggestions welcomed if you have any on how the issue could be addressed to stop the wipe out of our peoples history and accreditation? Hirst is yet to respond to the allegations that he stole ancient Nigerian art.
Lee Harris – The Rise of the Lightworkers \| OMTimes Magazine An interview with our beloved Lee Harris (His live events are wonderful, I highly recommend participating when the opportunity arises!) ~PB Lee Harris – The Rise of the Lightworkers by OMTimes Magazine March 25, 2017 by Sylvia Henderson Lightworkers Find Greater Meaning with Insight Lightworkers have an extraordinary role as part of the universal consciousness. Lee Harris is a gifted energy intuitive, a channeler, an author and a teacher, who is bringing extraordinary new light to our rapidly changing world. Leading a vibrant, on-line community, Lee Harris reaches over 200,000 people around the planet every month. His weekly energy updates, broadcast on YouTube, have received over 2½ million views to date and offer practical guidance for navigating daily life with clarity, empowerment, and optimism. With his penetrating insights into the energetics of emotions, and teachings on how to integrate spirituality into daily life and grounded and practical ways, Lee’s private clients and retreat participants report profound shifts as they discover a new understanding of who they are here to be. His acclaimed energy mastery retreats and energy tune-up seminars held around the globe are adventures into the deepest aspects of living, loving and awakening. Lee is the author of “Energy Speaks, Volumes 1 and 2”, the producer of more than 100 transformational audio and video recordings and is also an accomplished singer, songwriter, and soul-found healer. Rise of the Lightworkers with Lee Harris Sylvia Henderson: Lee, I am very excited because I think that you have been able to tap into some very important information in a very interesting time in humanity. How did the awareness of your intuitive gifts unfold for you? Lee Harris: Well, it was a process that took place over several years. Initially, I believe my spiritual access or connection was coming through my creativity in my early years. Then, in my late teens, it started to change, and I had a few experiences with friends where it was fun to read tarot cards for them, even though I did not know what the cards meant. When I was 22, I directly heard the voice of my guide, and that was not something I was looking for. I was on a train, and I heard those voices in your own head that you do, your own mind, and I was just going through the things that day that was on my agenda, probably telling myself things that I was very disappointed with and disappointed with myself about. Then suddenly on the left there was this very clear, loving, strong voice that it took me about ten minutes to realize that there were two very different voices in my head, and this one on the left I had never heard before. So, I was a little unsure what was going on, but I did know about channeling even though it was not something I was seeking. I started to write down what this voice was telling me over the next few months, and eventually I put the dots together to realize that it was my guide that I was hearing. But on some level I had had some level of access to them until that point. But there was a change, because I had been opening and developing my own intuition that facilitated that happening. So, for a few years, I just shared it with friends. Then, after a period, a good friend who was a healer said you should be doing this for work, and I never thought that would be possible. I even doubted anyone would come, but I did 60 readings in the first 60 days and never looked back since. Sylvia Henderson: I know you were getting this information from your guide; how did you step into your ability to channel information, and what is the primary message that they would like to share with humanity? Lee Harris: Well, my guides, I refer to them as the Z’s, and the reason for that is the very first name that was given to me was Zachary. He was, like, we do not have names, but we know that you have names and need names so we will give you the closest thing we could give you vibrationally, my name would be Zachary. Then in the years that followed, I met Ziadora and Zaphariah, who identified themselves as what we would understand as more feminine energy within my guide team. They explained that they were part of a collective of 88 energies that extended wider into source, and they refer to themselves as a voice of galactic consciousness. There are some channelers who channel angels; there are some who channel extra-terrestrials. They basically said they are travelers who move between all of the worlds and they speak of themselves as a consciousness library. So, their main message, particularly for us as humans, would seem to be that the confines of this human experience, as difficult as that can be for us living in the third dimensional earth, even at this time that the other dimensions are opening up. They say that even though there can be challenges and contrasts that we experience as confining, that is why you came here. You came here to help raise the frequency and the consciousness levels of the planet and also have an experience for yourself. Sylvia Henderson: Can you tell us why we are experiencing these shifts so profoundly within our emotional body and our physical body? Lee Harris: Well, a couple of things that the Z’s will talk about is that we, as a planetary body and a human race, also the other species existing on the planet, we are all going through a real shift period. This, apparently, is a universal phenomenon, too, that a lot is changing universally and thus also on the earth. So, you see, from my perspective, you are seeing that mirrored right now in terms of what we see, particularly on a political, governmental basis. I am 40 years old, but even my friends in their 60’s and 70’s say they have never seen anything like this in their lifetime. Sylvia Henderson: You did say that this is happening on a universal level and you also said that the Z’s are part of galactic collective consciousness, so can you talk a little bit about that? Lee Harris: Well, the one thing that they are often talking about is that we as human beings are travelers and will tend to forget that. They say that when you incarnate throughout the lifetimes, you also incarnate across the galaxy. So, you can have different lifetimes as different beings, and this is something that is not touched upon I think. I mean, it is touched upon in certain communities on earth, but for the main, we tend to be shielded from the idea of the fact that we are part of a very vast Universe. There are many different life forms. Interestingly, just recently, and this is part of the wave of change that we are seeing, I have noticed that wellness has come to light for all of us. The CIA and several government bodies around the world are releasing online evidence of UFO contact that previously many have been campaigning for to be released, but it has been shielded from the public. So, what they say is that the universe is far bigger than we as humans have ever been allowed to understand. And they speak from that place of uniting as much as they can; the very differing worlds and races that exist in and around us, and what they do say is “As above, so below.” They say that just as on the planet there are those who stand for the light, and there are those who stand for consciousness, and then there are those who stand for conflict. They say it is the same throughout the universe that some of the same conflict energies exist throughout the universe. And so what we have played out here on earth is a very microcosmic experience of what plays out for beings across the galaxy. So we took on the personality and the makeup of our families, we took on the personality and the cultural makeup of the time we were born into, and that becomes you as a soul-based human on the planet. So this is why when people meditate or have soul-based experiences. They feel very free, because their experience of the soul is so much wider than what we are focused on here on a day-to-day basis as a human being. Yet, the Z’s will always say even though you are focused very intently on a very short period, relatively, you know a human life if you live to be 90 or 100 years, they say it is a blink of an eye. But we are so focused on it that we tend to forget the enormity of the universe, the enormity of a lifetime, and when we can reconnect to that and remember that it tends to take away the intensity, or the edge, of what we are going through down here today. So, it tends to open you out beyond the confines of what they refer to as a game of consciousness, and their point is they are saying, “How conscious can human beings become?” That really is the question, because if we can keep becoming more conscious as a human race, we stand a greater chance as a race of living on to thousands and thousands of years. I think the big question on everybody’s mind at the moment is how is that going to be possible with the way things are looking. They kind of remind that there are many races that you can be in the universe, there are many beings that you can be in the universe, and this is but one experience that you try on, which is why the soul is such a vast space to be in. The human being is a very small focused place to be; yet within that, we experience the vastness of everything. Sylvia Henderson: One other question for you, Lee, what is your definition of God or Source? Lee Harris: For me, the definition would be what I would call higher connectivity, though that can show up in many moments. For example, I can be having a conversation with a taxi driver and suddenly that conversation becomes very connected; you know where your skin crackles because you feel all the truth of what is going on. So, for me, the definition of God or Source is higher connectivity. And when we experience that with another person, with ourselves in a meditation, with a tree in nature, for me that is when we feel most fully alive, and that is what I really enjoy and appreciate about being human, that you get to experience that many times over, especially the more you focus and the more you learn how to create it in your life. Sylvia Henderson: So, is everything in the universe is nothing more than a representation of consciousness? Lee Harris: That is a good and a big question. We might experience these in energies or in people. Sometimes you walk into space at home or a piece of land, and something does not feel right to you. It can almost give you a chill. So, they say that just as you see a battle between light and dark playing out on the planet so, too, in universal terms consciousness does not exist everywhere. Of course, being, if you like, in relationship to a place where the consciousness is deadened or dark can help get you back towards consciousness, but they would say, no, the consciousness we are speaking of does not exist everywhere. One of the things that lightworkers are advised to do at the moment is, they say, find the pockets of light. You might not be able to be in the light all day long, but if you recognize your suffering or things have felt heavier, or darker recently, because of what is coming out of so much more people than ever before it is really important to find your pockets of light. Essentially, island hop between them so that a pocket of light for you might be a great conversation with a friend, it might be having a moment playing with your dog, it might be listening to some uplifting music. But you have to find them and keep moving between them in order to keep your own frequency high, particularly at times like this. I do think at times like this we are in a sea change. Many people had already stabilized their balance, and then the world went through this period of instability that we are still in so you can “not” be affected by those energy waves. I think that recognizing that balance is a moving target all the time and, as you let yourself get through the grief or the shock of what you see going on about you and around you, to recognize you will learn to change with this. That is what we do. We are very good at being adaptable, but sometimes we do not want to adapt, or we feel resentful of what we see is happening that is disturbing our peace. As a lightworker, you are going to find a way to bring yourself back to peace so that you can be that for others, but these are times that lightworkers have to forget about the others a bit if they are really struggling, and really focus on themselves. That, in itself, is the opportunity. You are being given an opportunity by the universe to go even deeper with yourself to learn what it is you need to bring balance. Sylvia Henderson: That is so very interesting, too, as I think that those of us who are very sensitive and heart-sensitive, that is one of the hardest things that it is for us to do is to really take care of ourselves and to nurture ourselves, and it is that self-love journey, is it not? Lee Harris: It is, and I think to learn how do I have a healthy boundary while still being open to the rest of the world. Empaths, healers, sensitives, tend to be wired that they like to feel and pick up on the ocean of everyone else. At the moment, the ocean of everyone else is a lot more chaotic and afraid than ever before. It does not take a genius to work out that that is going to ricochet and affect all those sensitives, and it is going to make you need or want to pull back your focus from focusing on the way that others are feeling and to give yourself full attention, which is not a natural way of being for sensitives, empaths, healers. Yet it is the very act that will strengthen you because you will still be inclined to want to help others. But, after going through a period where you really deeply focus on your own healing and limit your engagement that you used to have with other people, then you will come back even stronger and be able to hold an even stronger frequency for others while not having to hijack or disrupt your own in order to offer that. That is a very tricky skill. It is what I call energy mastery, and I think that we are all working on our energy mastery all of our life, but this is a real period of time that brings strength to us in a way that it never has before. Please visit Lee’s website, http://www.leeharrisenergy.com for more information. Leave a Reply WordPress.com Logo Twitter picture Facebook photo Google+ photo Connecting to %s
Tag Archives: Festivals in Nigeria Oke’badan festival in the heart of Ibadan Oke'badan Festival The Oke’badan festival is one of the many colourful and glamorous festivals celebrated in the city of Ibadan, the capital of Oyo State and the third largest city in Africa. Oke’badan festival is held annually to celebrate the founding of Ibadan and show gratitude to its founders as well; and also to unite the sons and daughters of Ibadan at home and in the diaspora. Continue reading Oke’badan festival in the heart of Ibadan Obitun: Initiation of girls into womanhood in Ondo Town Obitun cultural dance of Ondo people The people of Ondo inhabit the south western region of Nigeria and are one of the largest subgroups of the Yoruba ethnic group. Ondo people live as one big family because they are bounded by the same historical background, traditions and cultural heritage which defines who they are. The culture and traditions of Ondo people are very rich, fascinating and exciting as well. Continue reading Obitun: Initiation of girls into womanhood in Ondo Town Sharo Festival- How Fulani boys endure flogging to pass into manhood and get married Sharo festival of Fulani people Nigeria, the giant of Africa, is made up of over 350 different ethnic groups/tribes with beautiful and varying cultures and traditions. The Fulani ethnic group, found in the northern region of Nigeria, are one of the dominant ethnic groups in Nigeria alongside the Yoruba, Hausa and Igbo groups. The Fulani people have rich and peculiar cultures and traditions which guides their everyday life. Continue reading Sharo Festival- How Fulani boys endure flogging to pass into manhood and get married Osun Osogbo Festival (Video) Osun Osogbo is a festival celebrated annually in Osogbo land, Osun State, in the month of August. The Osun goddess is believed to symbolise wealth, fertility, beauty, prosperity and love. Below is a video of the festival…. The Second World Black and African Festival of Arts and Culture, popularly known as Festac 77, was a boisterous cultural celebration which took place in Lagos, Nigeria, starting from January 15 1977 to February 12 1977. The festival celebrated the cultures and traditions of Africa and also presented African art works, literature, religion and music to the universe. The history of FESTAC can be traced back to the 1940s when certain ideas were developed on Pan-Africanism and Negritude by the Senegalese president, Leopold Sedar Senghor, Aime Casaire and some others. The Festac 77 was the largest pan-African gathering during the period it took place. Nigeria was called upon to host the second Festac festival after the end of the first one which was held in Dakar, Senegal (1st to 24th of April, 1966). The festival was to take place in 1970, but due to the Nigerian civil war that broke out (1967-1970), the festival was postponed to 1977. The Festac 77 festival was attended by about 17,000 people from 56 African nations. The festival paved way for the construction of the Festac Town/Village in Lagos and the National Theatre, Iganmu, Lagos. The Nigerian government built the Festac Village to accommodate the 17,000 and above participants. The main reason the Festac Village was built was to cut the accommodation problem and pressure Lagos was likely to face. Festac77 emblem The celebration of the festival commenced at 9 a.m on the 15th of January, 1977. The opening ceremony took place inside the National Stadium, Surulere, Lagos, where many participants held a parade to welcome visiting dignitaries and the Nigerian Head of State, Olusegun Obasanjo. The Festac 77 festival has the royal ivory mask of Benin as its emblem. A shango priest entertained the crowd by setting the festival bowl aflame and a thousand Pigeons were released to signify the liberation and oneness of the Black nations. Several drama and music shows were staged at the Tafawa Balewa Square in the afternoons and evenings. musicians like Miriam Makeba from South Africa, Stevie Wonder, Louis Moholo, The Sun Ra Arkestral and so on rocked musical concerts sending their numerous fans dancing wild to their songs. A musical show during festac77 Several countries showcased their artworks at the National Theatre, at the Nigerian National Museum and some places around the Tafawa Balewa Square. At the Square, each country represented at the festival was given a booth to exhibit their paintings, musical instruments, woven cloths, books and art objects. Some other notable exhbitons that took place were Africa and the Origin of Man, which was held at the National Theatre, and Ekpo Eyo’s 2000 Years of Nigerian Art, which included Nok terracottas, Benin court art, Igbo Ukwu, Ife and Tsoede bronzes and art objects. Another exhilarating event at the FESTAC 77 festival is the boat regatta held at the Queen’s Drive Foreshore in Ikoyi, Lagos, which lasted for three days. The participants of the boat regatta were mainly from Nigerian states such as Ondo, Ogun, Lagos, Imo, Edo, Kwara, etc. More than 250 boats full of acrobats, masquerades and musicians displayed at the occasion. USA Festac77 The Festac 77 participants also made a trip to Kaduna to witness the Dubar festival which took place for three days. There was a gallant display of horse riding, dancing of the Bida Masqurades, blowing of the Kakaki trumpets and many more. Here are the countries that attended the Festac 77 festival:- Kenya, Zaire, Congo, Benin, Cameroon, Gabon, Mauritius, Niger, Somalia, Equatorial Guinea, Egypt, Malagasy, Mauritania, Botswana, Lesotho, Chad, Central Africa, Upper Volta, Morocco, Angola, Senegal, Mozambique, South Africa, Swaziland, Ghana, Libya, Zambia, Togo, Guinea-Bissau, Sudan, Algeria, Mali, Sierra Leone, Tunisia, Liberia, Ethiopia, Ivory Coast, Tanzania, Uganda and Gambia. Some South American countries were also present at the festival, e.g Guyana, Cuba, Haiti, Brazil. Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados and so on represented the Caribbean. The United states also sent their representatives from different countries. An anthem was written for FESTAC 77 by Margaret Walker from Alabama, USA, while the music was produced by Akin Euba from Nigeria. Here is the lyrics of the Festac 77 anthem titled, For My People. FESTAC ’77 Anthem 1] Let a new earth arise Let another world be born Let a bloody peace Be written in the sky. Refrain: Festac 77 is here 2] Let a second generation Full of courage issue forth Let a people loving freedom Come to growth Refrain: Festac 77 is here 3] Let a beauty full of healing And strength of final clenching be the pulsing in our spirits And our blood Refrain: Festac 77 is here 4] Let the martial songs be written Let the dirges disappear Let the race of men now rise And take control Refrain: Festac 77 is here The FESTAC 77 will forever remain a remarkable celebration in the history of Nigeria.
The History of Marihuana Reveals Interesting Stories For a long time, the fate of marihuana has always been considered illegal. If you look into the actual history of marihuana, you will dig out interesting facts that state the reasons marihuana was considered illegal were actually baseless. Those who had voted on the fate of this plant never really knew the truth about it, and their knowledge was based on limited information supplied in order to mislead the lawmakers. The actual history of marihuana shows how the plant’s fate was wrongly based on racism, fear, yellow journalism, corrupt legislation, ignorance, and greed of a particular group of people. Marihuana’s Use is Completely Legal Let’s blow the dust off the history of the plant and reveal the stories that will take you by surprise. Obviously it is not a recently discovered plant species. Its use has been found in human history in a legalized manner since 7,000 B.C. and maybe even beyond that. It has been labeled as ‘illegal’ less than one percent of the time since the plant has been known. Also known as hemp, the marihuana plant was famous throughout history for its various medical and recreational uses. For more than a century, it has been used for making cloth, incense, rope, food and so on. Although the plant was introduced in the western countries in the early 1600s, it became popular as a recreational drug only since the early 1990s. In 1619, there was a law in America that ordered all farmers to grow Indian hempseed so that there was no shortage and hemp was considered a legal tender. It was so because the plant was considered useful for various things that were needed for the war, hence the government encouraged the growth of this crop. The 1850 census reveals 8,327 hemp plantations in Unites States alone. The cannabis hemp was used for making cloth, rope and canvas. How was Marihuana Misinterpreted? Harry J. Anslinger was an overly ambitious man who saw the Bureau of Narcotics as a great business opportunity and his medium of making money became marihuana. He latched on to it, determined to deem the drug as illegal at the federal level, and thus build a strong agency for himself. He wove stories of racism and violence around the use of marihuana, stating it as a harmful drug that is taken by Negroes and also that it had a degenerating effect on race, it stimulates sex and turns you violent, etc. Yellow journalism by William Randolf Hearst further helped Anslinger malign the use of marihuana through the medium of newspapers, thus creating a bad image of it in the eyes of the public. People believed what they read in the newspapers, and soon marihuana was looked down upon as something very risky and harmful. Thankfully, some researchers have again started digging into the real facts of marihuana and they have taken the responsibility to clear the fog surrounding the use of this medicinal plant, and make its benefits reach more people. Cannabis Plant, Can be Smoked in Cigarettes or as an Oil
What is the phenomenological critique of science? Expert Answers amarang9 eNotes educator\| Certified Educator Phenomenlogy is a philosophy that strives to have a more objective understanding of the world by acknowledging the subjective nature of experience. Therefore, much reflection is required by the scientist on his/her individual conscious apprehensions of the world. The roots of this philosophy are found in Kant who described things as they appear (phenomena) and things in themselves (noumena) or things as they actually are. What phenomenolgists try to do is understand the ways we consciously observe the world and how our mental acts have intentionality. This means that a mental act has an "aboutness" which is to say that a thought can be about an iceberg but a physical object like an iceberg is not "about" something. This separates physical objects and mental acts, something the phenomenologist would insist that scientists be aware of. Even if we discuss objects in terms of objective theories, based on physics and math, our discussion is a mental activity. The phenomenologist would criticize the scientist who only considers the objects he is studying. The phenomenologist would implore that scientist to consider how his individual (first-person) conscious experience plays a role in apprehending knowledge about that object. For example, if I see a yellow tennis ball, half of which is in shade, it appears not to be uniformly yellow. But the thing in itself (outside the shade) is a uniform yellow. Here is an example where individual conscious experience is a limit to gathering knowledge. Access hundreds of thousands of answers with a free trial. Start Free Trial Ask a Question
Which is Better Fresh or Frozen? Frozen fruits and vegetables take a lot of heat because most people assume that if it’s frozen it must be of a lesser quality and nutritional value than the same items fresh in the produce department. Is it true? Is fresh really better than frozen? And if so, is the difference great enough to spend more money to make sure we’re always eating fresh fruits and vegetables? According to nutritionist Cynthia Sass, RD, frozen foods get a bad rap for being processed junk, but the truth is, some of the healthiest foods in the market are in the freezer section. MATURITY. Ask any nutritionist and you’ll learn that the minute a fruit or vegetable is picked, it begins to lose nutrients. The amount of time between harvesting you eat it impacts its nutritional value. Because most frozen fruits and vegetables are frozen shortly after they are harvested, those items scheduled for flash freezing are allowed to fully ripen. That means they are chock full of vitamins, minerals and antioxidants. Freezing actually “locks in” many of their nutrients. On the other hand, much of the fresh produce in your supermarket was harvested 1,500 miles away—much of it in South America—and had to travel by truck to get to the store. It may have been picked before it reached its nutritional peak, then artificially ripened during transport. NUTRITION. Frozen produce has been proven to be just as nutrient-rich, even superior to fresh, retaining most of their antioxidants and vitamins. Scientists from Leatherhead Food Research and University of Chester, carried out 40 tests to measure nutrient levels in produce that had been sitting in a fridge for three days, compared to frozen equivalents. They found more beneficial nutrients overall in the frozen samples, in everything from broccoli to blueberries. Of course, eating newly picked produce within minutes of harvest is the healthiest option. However, frozen can be almost as good and is often better than items sold as “fresh,” because unless you pick it yourself, you have no idea how long it has been since that produce was harvested. ADDITIVE-FREE. Frozen goodies like spinach and strawberries have no additives because freezing preserves food—additives are not necessary to preserve quality. “Naked” produce (e.g. no added salt or sugar) is the norm. That’s why frozen fruits and vegetables carry a single word ingredient lists—just the fruit or veggie itself. Always check the ingredients, but I bet you’ll find at least a dozen varieties in the freezer aisle with absolutely nothing added. CONVENIENCE. Even the freshest produce comes with a requirement of prepping. Sometimes that extra time requirement is just too much at the end of a stressful day. Know the feeling? Frozen produce, however, magically preps itself. It comes washed, peeled and chopped. Frozen produce can save you a ton of time, making it more likely that you’ll cook and eat at home rather than opting for take out. Rejoice! March is the best time of the year to load up the freezer because frozen foods are on sale at their lowest prices of the year during National Frozen Food Month. We need your help! • Gary D Does frozen produce like vegetables, fruits etc contain pesticides? Does anyone have a definitive answer from knowledge not speculation?
DISCLAIMER: A Japanese person owns Prince of Tennis. I'm not Japanese. Ergo, it's not mine. (As if changing my citizenship would hand me over the copyright.) WARNING: Rated T-M you decide. A year ago….. Sanada smirked, pulling the glass of vodka away from Tezuka's hand and finishing it off himself in one gulp. "Alright, enough. We're done here." Tezuka frowned in disagreement, but nevertheless nodded. They stood up from the bar stall they were sitting on. Sanada paid the bills before following Tezuka out of the bar. He heard giggles from the girls sitting near the exit, but ignored them. He knew what they were thinking and understood what they want; which is exactly the reason why he needed not to pay attention. "You should know better how to hold yourself back." Sanada said, as he walked closer to Tezuka who was leaning against his car, a hand massaging the back of his neck, and an uncomfortable frown not leaving his face. "Get in. I'll drive." Tezuka looked at Sanada for a second and nodded, opening the passenger seat and settling down. He sighed and shut his eyes. "I don't need to remind you that this car's my dad's. Drive with extra caution." Tezuka muttered. He groaned when a sudden sharp throbbing on his head hit him. He shouldn't have drunk too much. Tezuka opened his eyes when he felt Sanada's body shifting closer. He frowned even more at their proximity. Sanada who was then on the driver's seat was leaning close, too close in fact that he could smell the strong and intoxicating aroma of vodka on his breath. "What are you…." and then Tezuka felt the touch of a soft leather strap against his chest. Sanada had fastened his seatbelt. "Taking extra caution." Sanada said. They drove to Tezuka's house in silence. With Sanada's attention focused on the road, Tezuka felt secured and had almost entertained the idea of drifting off for a couple of minutes. Almost. "How's your arm?" Sanada asked, eyes not leaving the road in front of them. They remained silent for a solid five minutes before Sanada brought the car to a sudden stop. Tezuka glared. "Why don't you stay at my place? I don't know what to say once your mother starts to ask questions." Tezuka sighed. "She'll just ask more questions if I don't go home." "But at least you're not drunk by then." Sanada reasoned, looking at Tezuka's disheveled figure. Tezuka groaned but considered the idea. Both his parents are at home; awake most likely. And despite how he was trying to hold his ground in making his own decisions, he knew Sanada had a point. More importantly, he was aware that Sanada was living on his own; which makes the situation less compromising. "Alright. I'll call them. How far's your place." "A block away." Tezuka nodded. "Then drive." "Oh my god Tezuka….you…" Fuji let his facial expression finish what he wanted to say. He was now sitting on the bed, staring at his boyfriend who was still glued on his back. "That was an accident. Unintentional." "It's hardly an accident when you both planned to have a drink that night." Tezuka looked at him quizzically. "We're both drunk." Fuji frowned. "We're in the same condition last night just in case you forgot." "It's different." "No, I don't think so." "Yes it is because I love you." Tezuka blurted, surprising himself on the slip of tongue. "That's…what happened between Sanada and I was an accident. Nothing more." he continued, refusing to look back at Fuji who suddenly looked dazed. "You mean it, right?" Tezuka didn't respond, but instead grabbed the pillow beside him and covered his face. God…..why the hell did he even say that? "Stop acting like a jerk." Fuji said, pulling the pillow away. Tezuka didn't budge. "Why are you covering your face?" No response. "If you don't want me to personally ask Sanada about it then better tell me the whole story." Tezuka groaned before removing the pillow from his face. "You're persistent." Fuji smiled. "Always am." The stoic captain just shook his head. Fuji giggled and went back on his original lying position beside his captain. "So.." Fuji began, eyes glinting in a mixture of interest and jealousy. "Who was on top?" A year ago at Sanada's apartment… Tezuka gasped in a desperate attempt to catch his breath. What he really wanted when he agreed to spend the night at Sanada's house was to get some sleep; a good night sleep free from his parents' interrogation. It never occurred to him that agreeing to what seemed like a pure act of generosity on Sanada's part would involve intimate physical contact which Tezuka considered as invasion to his privacy. "No-stop…where are you-" Tezuka's words were swallowed by his own groan as he felt Sanada's hand rubbing his erection. He didn't even know why, how or when he started having a hard-on much as how he didn't want to know. What he wanted to happen however was for Sanada to stop assaulting him with 'that' hand. Sanada bit his neck, making Tezuka give out a feral groan. "I'm warning you….you should stop…otherwise…." The next thing Tezuka knew, Sanada went down on his knees and replaced his hand with his mouth. And Tezuka remembered himself cursing out loud for the first time in his life. Fuji frowned in thought. "Okay, I got it. That was an accident." he decided. Tezuka gave him that 'I-told-you-so' look. "Now that I think about it, you and Sanada really are close." Fuji said. The stoic captain looked at him, unbelieving. Tezuka opened his mouth to say something, but before he can do so, Fuji had already leaned close, hugging him tight. "But it doesn't matter. I'm now more important….right..?" Fuji asked, looking up at Tezuka with a jade of hesitation in his eyes. As if doubting the validity of Tezuka's untimely confession earlier. Tezuka sighed and nodded. And then Fuji kissed him. Tezuka kissed him back. Even if Fuji thought things were going a little bit too fast than what he'd expected, he would have to admit that they're becoming more and more comfortable with the intimacy. Tezuka, for one, doesn't mind returning his advances anymore. He wondered about what's with the sudden shift, but decided to think about it at a later time. Savoring each other's presence was his priority. Doubts and questions could wait. "You're sure you'll skip today's classes?" Fuji asked, pulling an inch away. "We have our mastery exam in zoology today. And we're scheduled to have our report for Geometry so…." Fuji stopped talking when he felt Tezuka's thumb tracing his lips. "I'll work on a valid excuse." Tezuka replied before he changed their positions so that Fuji was under him. "I'm sure you can do one yourself." Fuji smiled. He can hear the challenge behind those words. "You bet." he muttered before pulling Tezuka by the collar and clashing their lips together. "Kunimitsu, I forgot to tell you that the lock of your room…."Ayana trailed off as she opened the door of Tezuka's room and caught him and Fuji at a rather heated situation. "…isn't working…" she finished barely above a whisper. Tezuka, whose hand was under Fuji's shirt and who was sucking a certain part of the tensai's neck froze. Struck by the sudden awareness of a third party's presence, both immediately pushed each other away. Fuji hastily buttoned back the first three buttons of his shirt as Tezuka jumped off of bed and faced his mother. Ayana looked at her son, and then to Fuji, then back to Tezuka. "I was…" she cleared her throat. "I just thought it's best if you take the day off from school." Fuji and Tezuka blushed. Ayana walked closer to Tezuka and handed him a key. "Use the guest room if you have to." she whispered, fighting off the blush on her face. "Call me if you need anything." "Mom you don't-" Her glare silenced him off. She then turned around to head out but stopped just when she reached the door. With a heavy sigh, she turned around and darted a look to the two guys in front of her. "I don't need to remind you both to use protection, do I?" Fuji cleared his throat to hide his giggles. Tezuka gaped at his mother as if he was just informed of his death. "Kunimitsu?" Ayana probed, a warning in his voice. Tezuka stood frozen. "Are we clear on this?" Ayana asked. When her son still didn't respond, Ayana averted her gaze at Fuji. "We'll talk some other time." Fuji nodded with a small smile. And then Ayana left. Tezuka remained frozen on his spot just beside the bed, staring at the open door where his mother just went out. "Your mom's sharp. I can't lie." Fuji said. He waited for Tezuka to say something but there was none. "Tezuka?" "I…" Tezuka mumbled, eyes fixed on the open door. "….want to die…" Fuji sighed and shook his head. "Nuts." It's Sanada! I'm a little bit surprised myself, but yes! Tezuka told me himself. And….I love Tezuka's mom! And I love people who review because they're the bloodline of this story! Anyhow,…what do you think? (I feel so happy and I don't know why….^_^!)
One of the best ways to spend the Friday after a week's work is eating out with co-workers or friends at the local bar restaurant. This may be one of the reasons why the number of bar restraunt has increased. If you are planning to open your own bar restaurant, you are bound to acquire and use bar restaurant equipment. Bar Restaurant Equipment Most bar restaurant owners understand the need to acquire the basic equipment needed to run a bar. In addition to basic bar restaurant equipment, there is a lot of other specialized equipment that needs to be acquired to ensure that the bar can provide excellent service to its consumers. This specialized machinery is often hard to acquire, expensive and could eat up a company's budget due to the high maintenance it may require. This is the reason why most bar owners would invest only on basic equipment and then find other means to acquire others without purchasing it. One of the most popular ways to acquire and have the license to use specialized equipment is through bar restaurant equipment leasing. Leasing is a good way to gain access to some of the latest equipment without the need to pay high upfront payments that are usually required for cash purchase. Bar Restaurant Equipment Leasing Bar restaurant equipment leasing is a great way to keeping monthly costs low and consistent. Aside from low monthly cost, leasing is actually better than renting because of the fact that you will not have to worry if the owner will increase the fee every month. This is the downfall of equipment renting; you will not have a "say" to fee increases. In addition, you don't have to worry about the machine's maintenance cost when you have a leasing contract. The owner of the material is bound to check it every month or two for repair and maintenance. You also have a choice to return the equipment at the end of the lease or make a final payment such as a $1 buyout at the end of the lease. However, even if leasing is cheaper than cash purchase deals, there are still a lot of bar owners who cannot afford the expenses to get into a leasing contract. There are also a lot of companies who would reject bar owners who don't have a good credit history. If you are one of those bar restaurant owners, then the task to find the equipment lease that\'s right for you may be really challenging. Bar Restaurant Equipment Financing Looking for financing and leasing companies is a real challenge; this is why asking your dealer to recommend dealers in that niche or going to LeaseQ and getting a free instant quote is a brilliant idea. Companies like LeaseQ exist to help owners who are looking for both lenders and leasing companies that could satisfy their needs without having to undergo a strenuous process of documentation and proving their worth; although LeaseQ might have some soft credit pull that has no impact on your credit score If you are still thinking about bar restaurant equipment financing, then don't worry, you can go back as often as you like when you are ready to apply for bar restaurant equipment leasing as the application process takes less than two minutes. To see if you qualify for bar restaurant equipment leasing, click here for a free quote. Get a Free Instant Quote on Your Restaurant Equipment Lease. Related Articles To find Bar Restaurant Equipment near you use our Restaurant Equipment Dealer Locator
Thursday, October 4, 2012 Whitney umbrella?/Denver we have a problem! 1. Please example a little more. Not getting your connection. Thanks! 2. Pointed to in red - Whitney's #1 song of all time - but in this case, refers to Michelle Obama. Whitney died not long after a ritual performed at the Super Bowl, decoded as a "Whitney Umbrella." "UH O" at top reminds me of "Houston we have a problem" (Whitney Houston.) In this case it's "Denver we have a problem." It's a signal that Michelle is in trouble. 3. When Obama's were on The View, they talked about their anniversary, first kiss at Baskin-Robbins, etc. and Joy Behar blurted out "It's like Romeo and Juliet". Just a sync I picked up on, we know how that story ended. I think they both are in danger spot. Here's a link, Joy says it around 6 minute's in. I think there's much more to pick up on in that interview too and for some reason John Denver and his "plane crash" keeps popping up in my mind:
Why on earth would anyone DO that? Sat Sep 23, 2017 10:13pm Anyone who wants to go out in the wilderness to experience, explore, or "conquer" it shouldn't think it's a good thing to destroy it by leaving their CRAP behind as if anyone else might want to see it there. What's with the stupid signs ? WHY haul them up there in the first place. ONE sign erected would serve the damned purpose far better. After all, a selfie beside the "official sign" means more than standing beside a homemade sign that could be done literally ANYWHERE. Those stupid rocks left behind is lamer than lame. • It's realityPikes, Sat Sep 23 8:36pm • Why on earth would anyone DO that? — Sia☺giah, Sat Sep 23 10:13pm • Summits aren't signedPikes, Sun Sep 24 1:04am
Sunday, April 06, 2008 Iran Had Forces on the Ground at Basra From the Timesonline: Petraeus intends to use the evidence of Iranian involvement to argue against any reductions in US forces. Why is this no big surprise? Because the Democratic party's strategy of undermining American efforts in the GWOT have, of course, emboldened Ahmadinejad and the mad mullahs. You can't really blame them. When a major US political party uses the same talking points as the mullahs, of course they see a green light for mischief. Countdown to slanderous Leftist attack on the general's veracity, and/or apologia for the barbaric Iranian mullahcracy in 3...2...1...
Monticello driving directions and distance Monticello : Route planner and distance Location of Monticello Monticello is a city located in the western of the united states in the county of San Juan, and the state of Utah. Monticello lies near cities of Moab, Aneth, Montezuma Creek, Bluff, La Sal, and Blanding. Monticello is geographically situated on 37.8713829 latitude and -109.3428948 longitude.carte-plan-Monticello
Friday, April 15, 2011 Dining on dinos to end world hunger I was at a professional dinner recently seated with three women, all avid travelers, who were sharing stories about the most exotic meals they’d ever consumed. That meant my role was to sit there biting on my spoon with sufficient force to ensure that neither food nor stupid observations would spill from my mouth. Of course, I couldn’t help myself. I made about four offbeat observations that left the ladies looking at me the way cows look at passing trains. I’m fascinated by global eating habits. What on this continent is revered as delicacy is over on that one reviled as repugnant. People cuddle dogs over here while over there they think nothing of tossing them in the wok with rice, carrots and bok choy. I judge not. I understand we’re running out of food and believe we’ll all need to alter our diets to meet rising demands. Who knows? Maybe one day we’ll be getting our roughage from things like tree bark. I have to imagine that would clean out the system more effectively than iceberg lettuce. It might even become a delicacy. Fancy restaurants might serve things like dogwood salad -- and wouldn’t that bark have some bite! One woman said a language misunderstanding once tricked her into eating squid. This was repulsive to her, she said, because she was a great admirer of the squid. I told her I admired Benjamin Franklin, Mark Twain and Bugs Bunny. She said squid is more intelligent than dolphin. She saw a documentary that showed a squid reach way around and with one of its eight arms and give an unsuspecting shrimp a distracting tap on the opposite shrimpy shoulder. I told her I’d seen Moe pull a similar trick on Curly. I asked if she thought that’s where the squid had seen it. Now, that would have been evidence of true intelligence. She ignored me. “When the shrimp looked the other way, the squid seized it and ate it!” She was confusing intelligence with treachery. There are multi-million dollar international bounties on the heads of notorious outlaws who use similar tactics. One woman startled the table when she said she’d once eaten cat brains. “That’s disgusting!” said the squid lover. “How could anyone do that to a cat?” “Bullshit,” I blurted out. “Cats don’t have brains.” Turns out we’d misheard her. She’d said calf brains. The women asked about the texture, how it tasted and if the flavor’d been enhanced with French sea salt. I asked if it cost more to dine on a smart calf brain than that of a dunce. She pretended she didn’t hear me, but I thought it was a good question. Certainly, if given a choice, I’d pay more to eat the brain of Stephen Hawking over, say, Ashton Kutcher purely for health reasons. No nutritionalist would advocate consuming something that’s been dead for so long. I thought it was a great question and evidence that my brain should be worth more than hers. As I mentioned, I was struggling to keep quiet, but the topic was so energizing it was hopeless, especially when talk turned to how to feed a world with exploding population. That’s when I threw one of my big pet theories on the table. And I mean really big. “World hunger will be eliminated,” I said, “in 20 years when scientists learn to farm dinosaurs.” A typical sauropod, the largest animal ever to roam the earth, weighed up to 70 tons and on a football field could have its tail tip at midfield and its nose be breaching the goal line (dingbat on-field refs would still need to go to the replay booth to confirm its snout broke the plain). Imagine the immensity. Just one sauropod could feed a family of four for 123 years, provided the family had a freezer the size of your typical Chuck E. Cheese. I chose the sauropod over the T-Rex for dietary reasons. Sauropods ate exclusively plants and other heart-healthy offerings while T-Rex ate things like, well, sauropods. Of course, their diets were certainly better than ours, assuming things like Hershey bars and Big Macs were unavailable 140 million years ago. Sadly, my grand theory was met by looks of stunned silence. It was clear they were intellectually incapable of grasping the genius of my idea. Must not have eaten enough brain food. The Honourable Husband said... Your companion is confusing squid with octopus, in particular a very smart German octopus named Paul who predicted the results of the World Cup, He was a rogue genius. The rest of them are dumb as cows, and should be eaten in the same way. Rodell said... If I was one of those guys who wrote LMFAO, I'd right now be LMFAO. Paul rocks! And is bound to be damn tasty!
A network of projects for data and knowledge sharing on European ungulates EUROUNGULATES is an umbrella project that coordinates and connects different open, bottom-up projects that promote collaborative science among research institutes based on knowledge and data sharing to investigate the movement ecology of European ungulates in their different habitats and management regimes
Thursday, January 17, 2008 New upgrade guidelines. An upgrade soon? USA Cycling just re-tooled their points system and started awarding a lot more points for high placings in races, especially road races. NCNCA always did that, but USAC is actually more generous than NCNCA now. Re-totaling my haul from last fall, I've got 19 points now, out of 25 More important (for me, since I wasn't planning on upgrading so soon) is that they force you out at 40 points now, instead of 60 or whatever it was before. Is it normal to be afraid to upgrade? Because I ride with a lot of 2s and 1s, and...I'm not so eager :-) If this helps any of you 4s pop up into the 3s ranks though, right on! Come race with me. We'll have some fun Sunday, January 13, 2008 "You should know your place" --AMD to BPG That pic is Karla trying to come to grips with a hairy-legged cyclist. She's apparently in to the whole "shaving" thing. Not sure what was going on in the 123 race at the Early Bird #2 in beautiful Fremont today, but the moment of the day had to be the pack streaming around Turn 1, where all us spectators were and some random AMD guy looking back at the BPG guy ("Team Weed" per some spectator - great moniker) on his wheel and saying (loudly and dismissively) "You should know your place". What's that all about? Yes, sir, though. Very humorous. We yelled at them to get in their place and know their place, etc the next couple laps. Good times. Joel Robertson predictably stomped on the pedals in the ever-so-lovely Team Oakland kit (since his new team can't seem to get a kit of their own), initiating some shit, driving some shit into a big gap, then sprinting past Mister World Championship Armbands himself, Larry Nolan, for 3rd I think (maybe 2nd?) in the winning break of the P123 race, with lots of heavy hitters in attendance (a couple pros, a few ex-pros, a couple stars-n-stripes rolling around). Nice work, Mr.Robertson! The weather was great all day, and I mentored nearly all the races (missed the early early 4s race, sorry guys). Had great fun and got a lot of Insider Racing Know-How(tm) into the new guys' heads I think (I hope). Each pack of racers seemed to have its own specific problem (while getting correct the thing that plagued some other pack) which was amusing except for the part where people can crash and get hurt. Predictably, some people did crash and get hurt (firetruck made an appearance today, that's no good), and some people are going to send some expensive carbon equipment to the equipment graveyard sooner than they would have hoped, but there was some great riding out there, too. The majority even. That gives me hope for the rest of the season when we're racing for real, which is why I do this mentoring schtick (it's not the free bagels, for sure) Honestly, after being sick all week from last Sunday's exertions, I was overjoyed just to be clipped back onto my ride again and toodling around. I did miss it so. Also, there was a huge (in my opinion) women's pack today. I love seeing that. Get out there and kick ass, gals! Lots of TO folks out there too - Mel, Sean, new-Jeff (way to hang in there this time!), new-Laura (nice riding, ma'am!), Brian, Ed(-not-Lai), Carol, and TO-wannabees Alice and Karla. Everyone hung tough in their fields and didn't cause any fuss. Can't beat that. I'm on hiatus for the next few weeks. I'll be in lovely Cape Town, South Africa for a week, then in Zimbabwe (Victoria Falls) and Botswana (Linyanti Bush Camp, near Maun). I'll admit that I'm probably going to miss riding while I'm there, but this is the trip of a lifetime, folks! I won't miss it too badly. See everyone in February... Sunday, January 6, 2008 Pop! (or, 100 miles of crits may be too much...) Did the first Early Bird this morning. Hello, 2008! I clearly need to do some intervals, because the 123 race asked more of me than I could deliver. It shredded apart (as good friend Joel was initiating the race-winning break) and as it came back together I blew up. I'll take solace in the fact I'd already done 97 miles of crit by that point. And I was sick all week. And the sun got in my eye, and the wind took the ball, and, and...oh well, I guess it's time for intervals :-) Oh, I should mention that there was a crash in 5s, and no, I have no idea why it happened. I mean, I know why. I was a mentor in the field and I was in the pack, near it. I saw a wheel overlap and stuff, but how do people crash on a big wide straightaway? Bizarre. And a shame. No major injuries though (whew), and all other fields survived with nothing but a flat tire here or there. Sweet! But protect those front-wheels, and maintain your space, people! Saturday, January 5, 2008 New Year, New Season. Bring on the Squirrelly Birds! Tomorrow is the first Early Bird Rain's in the forecast. Been training hard...should be fun, if a little nasty :-) The pic above is from when I first got back into cycling in 2005. It was raining then too, and you should note that I do not have a goatee, that's all road grit (mmmm) Last year I had my legs back under me and I mentored a bunch. I'm hoping to do the same this year, though I won't be around for the last too, owing to some travel. Rubber side down! Mechanically Challenged (Challenge RR) (20070902) Not sure what to write about this one. I don't have a lot positive to say about the experience. I do try to take something positive out of everything though, so I'll think of everything good about Saturday. 1. The scenery was fantastic - Challenge, California is in some truly beautiful country, and the course goes through some great parts of it 2. The school the race is based out of has great facilities (not always the case...) 3. Hmmm...running out of positives here. The guys in the pack were nice? Alright, so what gives? What sucked so bad? Well, Challenge, California, is just a bit under 3 hours from my house. With an 8am start time, my alarm went off at the chipper hour of 3:45am. That's ugly. To get up at that hour and get everything together (correctly!) while still zombified from being so early, that means I have to do all my pre-race prep the night before which hurts the WAF (Wife Acceptance Factor) for a given race. So the logistics required for this race don't make it popular in the Hardy Household. But it's hilly, and I'm a small guy, so I'm a sucker for hilly races. I should be able to climb with the lead group, right? So off I go. At least I didn't get a flat tire on the way to the race like I did for the last race I did last Sunday. I get there, go through the whole pre-race thing and see who showed up. I'd checked the pre-registration and most of the climbers were on the list, but not all of them. Well, they decided to come, and around 10 extra juniors (read: strong light guys that can climb quickly) showed up too. Hmm, so this is going to be hard I'd done all my pre-race recon though, had a mental map of the course, the elevation profile, how I wanted the race to work tactically, and how I'd react in various parts if it didn't go that way. We roll off and proceed to do a neutral (read: referee/official motorbike leading us at a moderate pace, no passing allowed) down one of the most poorly paved descents I've seen. Except for Copporopolis I guess. Then we're off to the races. At this point, I'll mention some actual racing tidbits. There were hills, we went quickly up them, it hurt etc etc. But that's not what got my attention. What got my attention is that after one of the hills, leading to a long descent then a false flat downhill section, I can't get into my big ring. Huh? I do everything I can with the shifting and the cables and I finally get it in there. So I forget about it, and I'm in the 50x11 ripping down the hill with the pack when we get to the false flat part and I want to move up to the 13 or so. But my bike won't shift into it. I'm stuck in the 11! For those reading (like my family) that are wondering what "the 11" means, it's the biggest, hardest gear on the bike. I turn the crank once, and the rear wheel goes nearly 5 times. It's a great gear, if you're doing around 32mph. I'm doing 26, and it's not the right gear. Worse, there are hills coming, I know, in about 3 miles. What can I do? I try to think of options, and I can't think of any. What can you do when all you have is the biggest gear? Go fast, I guess. So I attack. I sprint off the front of the group, dial the pain level in the legs up to "simmer" and start hauling ass. After a couple miles I have about 30 seconds and the hills are coming. Trying to maintain mental focus while I'm hammering along, I'm doing everything I can to figure out what the problem is. I'm jiggling cables. I'm playing with the shifters, I'm looking around the bike, and flying I finally realize what it is right as I get to the hills. My gear shifter's cable guide had snapped off and moved out of position. The cable guide is this little plastic bit that is on the bottom of the bottom bracket, and it's what the shifter cables slide against as they go back to the derailleurs. It's pulled off to the side, nearly into the front chainrings, so the cables are nearly slack, jamming the gears. Ah-ha! Maybe I can fix that. I look back and see the pack down the road with my nice little gap, I sigh, and pull over, clip off the bike, flip it over and start working on it. I see that the cable guide has a plastic protrusion that holds the guide in place by fitting in a hole on the bottom bracket. Or at least, that's the theory. Since it's plastic, it's all mashed up and doesn't fit anymore. That's the problem. I shove it into place, and jump back into the pack. At least the gap was good for something. The guys in the pack and I chuckle about it and we start going up the hill. Then it pops off again. Guess this isn't my race. I pull over, the pack leaves (for good this time) and I fix it. I ride on, and when I finish the first lap I decide to do the second lap as training since I'd be doing a hard ride today anyway if I wasn't racing, and it is pretty country. Near the bottom of that hellaciously (non-paved) descent I hear this awful rattle at the back of my bike though. "Now what?" I'm thinking. Turns out the descent was so rough that the lockring on my cassette unscrewed. I'm not even kidding. I know I torqued that thing up, too. Again, for those wondering what this means, picture the gears on the rear of a bike. Now picture them no longer stacked up neatly against the spokes, but sliding off away from the spokes so that they're loose and just rattling around. Yep, that's my bike. Great! So I pull over, pop the wheel off, and do what I can to reinstall the gears. I'm able to get it rideable again with finger-tightening at least. Did I mention it was hot? Right about now, the temperature went over 90 I ride for another 5 miles or so, then the cable guide snaps off again. I fix it. 91 degrees, 5 more miles The cassette rattles off again 92 degrees, 5 more miles The cassette rattles off again. Oy. 95 degrees, etc etc etc I stopped 9 times total. In a race. I was starting to feel like I should have brought a tricycle or a big wheel or something. I was having heat-stroke dreams of a professionall cycling team's team car rolling up with a spare bike so I could throw mine in the ditch. At this point I'll mention the last really good thing about the day. Brandon Hill, a racer out of Sacramento that I've been racing with for a bit more than a year and moving up categories with fell out of the pack and rode with me the whole way. Every time I stopped, he stopped and waited with me, and we finished together. That made the race if not actually good ... slightly less bad. Thanks, Brandon. Then I got in my car and drove home for 3 hours. I always try to take a lesson from each race. What's the lesson from this? Well check your equipment, I guess. Torque everything down. And if your cable guide is just plastic and doesn't have any screws holding it in place, maybe you should think about making sure it's really secure. I also try to leave some information in here for future people racing on the same course. What's the course like? Well, it has a section of truly awful pavement. Adjust your tire/wheel choices appropriately. The course is very hilly. The 3s were doing about 5.2W/Kg up all of the hills. If that doesn't sound doable, the race won't be much fun. If that does sound doable it's a great race though - if you've got the power (and functioning equipment) it can be very tactical. Last CalCup race tomorrow! The Giro di San Francisco! Racing in the city streets of SF is fun. Hopefully I'll have my gear working well for it. University Road Race - climber's paradise (20070828) Getting closer to the end of the season but the races are still packed together for the second to last weekend of the California Cup. August 26th is one of the hardest races of the year - the much-feared University Road Race. The race is on a loop of roads in the University of Santa Cruz. If you've never been there, you should go, because it is a very picturesque campus - little buildings all nestled in the mountains. Wait, did you say mountains? Yep - great in cars, but on a bike? Well, the course is a 3-mile loop, and it only does two things - it goes up, and it goes down. Each lap goes up one road for a total elevation gain of around 400 feet, then it turns a corner, and drops down those same 400 feet, where it turns a corner and you go up again. My category 3 race had 15 laps of this scheduled, quite a party, with 60 of my closest friends. I should mention that on the way down, I got a flat right rear tire on my car. I changed it quickly, but is this a good omen? On my team we had the rarely seen but very strong Michael Fee, and James Bauer was also present. James and I had raced the day before, but Fee hadn't raced in months. I've trained with him though and know he's very strong, so I think we had a good squad there. I've heard that you can't let any gaps go in this race - that you have to stay at the front the whole time and just ride as hard as possible, so that's my plan. Not much team tactics going on with a plan like that, but the course itself was so hard that it was what would beat most of the riders, not tactics. Right before the gun went off, Mike Fee noticed his front wheel was flat, so he got one of mine, but I don't think this is a good omen either... True to the prediction of straight-up hard riding, when the pace picked up in the middle of the race, the peleton detonated, and pretty soon we were down to around 15 riders. With 7 or 8 laps to go, I realized that James, one of my teammates, was in the feed zone now making sure I had enough food and water. That was extremely nice of him (and his wife did hand up some of my infamous "Hardymax" (or "CytoMike" if you prefer)) but I was curious how he ended up out of the race. So I'm down to one teammate in the race, but I'm able to stay consistently with the front of the pack, so I'm starting to think my chances are pretty good in this race. That's an amazing realization for me as I'm still pretty new to this higher category racing, and I'm never sure how strong I am relative to the other guys. With 3 or 4 laps to go, unbeknownst to me, a deer leaped into the pack and took out a couple of riders, with Mike Fee among them, so his race was over. This is definitely not a good omen. Each of the last 3 laps, going up the hill me and three other riders surged off the front and got a gap on the remaining pack, but we never had a large enough gap at the top that we didn't regroup. When the final uphill came, my legs were so tired I didn't have much of a sprint, so I took 7th in the grinding uphill finish. That's not bad, but after thinking about it a lot, I've come to the same conclusion I came to after San Ardo - if you want a breakaway instead of a sprint you have to give it everything you have when you have a gap. At the top of the hill when we had those gaps I never really pushed it, and that let the rest of the group back on. I could have gotten 4th instead of 7th at least. Lesson not quite learned last time, but maybe this time it will stick. I will admit I was extremely happy with 7th though. On a course this selective, in a new category, that was a great result. Two more races in the CalCup - the Challenge Challenge which is supposed to be ridiculously hilly, and the Giro di San Francisco. It looks like I can climb okay so I may do well at the Challenge, and I know I can sprint, so the Giro should be an opportunity as well. Maybe by the end of the CalCup I'll have a reasonable standing in the series, and I may even have enough points to be upgrade to category 2! We'll see how it goes next weekend... San Ardo Road Race - can't catch a break (20070828) The races are really piling up now - the California Cup series packs a ton of races into a very short amount of time, and August 19th was the San Ardo Road Race, the 5th out of 8 events, and the 4th or 5th weekend in a row that I've been racing or travelling... This race in particular is a logistical challenge because it's nearly 3 hours away - halfway to Los Angeles, but I pre-registered and sent my money in, so I'm going... In the 3s we had Boris, Sean, James and I - that's a pretty good crew. There was a very early break that looked pretty good, and James looked like he got in the move. Webcor had 9 guys in the field and Form Fitness had 5 or 6. They each had folks in the break, and so did we so I proceeded to kick back in the pack and watch the fools who didn't get someone in the break blow motors on the front trying to chase it down through all the Webcor and Form Fitness disruption. Meanwhile, Sean had a mishap where some yahoo swerved around or something causing mid-pack lameness which resulted in Sean having a spoke nearly broken for him. His wheel was rubbing enough that his day was done. Boris had been travelling a lot so he didn't have his motor with him, but we're still okay. Until...until...there's a form up the road...looks like a that our rider? is James. Uh oh. Turns out he didn't quite make the gap to the break and they were motoring something fierce, so now we have no one in the break and about 50 miles to go to the finish. I am now one of the fools on the front, killing it to bring the break back. James pitches in (and more importantly) works around the pack behind me getting others to lend a hand. This continues for some 30 miles or so, and I'm starting to get tired. I figure the break is probably nearly reeled in and since I'm not going to have a sprint after all the work I'd save something up for the inevitable counterattacks so I turn off the jets and sink into the pack. The break does come back, and now it's counter counter counter...I figure with so many teammates, nothing is going up the road without Webcor and Fusion so I wait for things with them in it, then bridge up or go with them. I must have covered 10 attacks. Felt like a hundred. A couple were promising, but after much thinking I believe I've learned that breakaways simply take more dedication than I or my breakmates were putting out. We were never really driving it when we were off, so everything came back. Then we curved through town, all lined out, stayed lined out over the bridge, I had great position for the last hill, and when the big effort started on the hill before the last corner and little finish straight, I detonated and shut everything down, rolling in with nothing to show but a great workout. Well, hey, I like great workouts, and I'll try harder next time if I want the break to work... There were some really fine performances on the day though, that's for sure - Stephen's ride was fantastic, and the P/1/2 action was great. There were real pros there, and both Joel and John were in the mix full strength. Very cool. The next day is the University Road Race, one of the hardest races of the season, so all I can do in the remaining hours of the day is focus on recovery and try to get ready... Suisun-o-drome (Suisun Crit) (20080828) August 12th brings the Suisun Harbor Criterium - 4th of 8 races in the California Cup cycling series of races. Suisun is one of my favorite races. It seems silly because the course is completely featureless. It is a "typical" 4-corner rectangular course like most other criterium courses, but what makes it different is that it is really really short. I mean, it's only a half-mile around. That makes for some very interesting racing because you can lap the field with a 50-second lead, or you can sprint almost the whole lap. I haven't been having good luck with flat tires lately and need a little confidence, so my plan at Suisun was basically to stay up front, then That doesn't make for interesting reporting, so I'll cut to the chase and say that I scoped out the sprint before hand, and decided that the appropriate thing to do was exactly what I did at the Timpani Criterium where I won. I would accelerate very hard into the last corner, hopefully get a gap so the person behind me didn't have any draft, then hold the sprint all the way down the start finish straight. Unfortunately, when I got to the point where I was supposed to jump something unexplained happened in my head. Instead of actually accelerating I literally thought to myself "I should accelerate here" instead of actually doing it. Well, that's not useful . About a second later the message finally got to my legs and I accelerated a little bit, but it was too late. The corner was right there so I had to stop pedaling, and while I was in the lead I didn't have a gap. We came around the corner and I gave it everything I had, but the guy that was behind me was juuuust able to come around me and nip me at the So, I got second place, which is fantastic, but I also learned that I need to remember to do formal visualization before the sprint or I'll miss the mark. I normally do that, but this time I didn't and I missed an opportunity. Hopefully I won't make that mistake again, but obviously time will tell Dunnigan Flats (Dunnigan Hills RR) (20070828) August 18th brought the Dunnigan Hills Road Race, the 3rd event out of 8 in the California Cup Series Now, I missed the first two events because I was in Colorado for a wedding, but the wedding was great fun so it was worth it That does mean I'm behind in the points though, and I've been training my buns off, so I'm pretty excited to see how I stack up in this race. The course is pretty much pancake flat, and should favor a sprinter. My remaining goal for my category 3 racing tenure is to go for a breakaway though, so I'm looking for a small group to get away near the end. It's a really long race (90 miles!) and I had teammates so I planned to basically sit in the pack, do no work, and then with between 10 miles to go and 5 miles to go be very active trying for breakaways. If that didn't work, I'd cool it and go for the sprint. Everything looked like it was going according to plan at the start, but around 15 miles in, I started to get a strange bouncy feeling...oh no, could it be? yes, a flat tire. Now, when professional cyclists get flat tires, you can see the cyclist's team car zip up while they're on the side of the road, they get a spare tire in around 10 seconds, then they get a huge shove to get up to speed, and finally the draft all the cars following the pack until they are back in the pack. No problem. I am not a professional. We don't have team cars. We do have a "follow vehicle" and I had put spare wheels into it, but as I pulled out of the pack to get the wheel change, I noticed the follow vehicle was waaaaaayyyy back on the road. Apparently someone else had just gotten a flat and a wheel change before me, and the vehicle hadn't made it up yet. 2 minutes and 45 seconds later, I have my spare rear wheel in, but the pack is nearly out of sight. The follow vehicle does a good job of pacing me back towards them when disaster strikes! Another person got a flat. The follow vehicle pulled over to help them, and now I'm well and truly done. Nothing to draft off of to get back to the pack, and 70 solo miles later I finished the race. I had a lot of time to contemplate what I learned from this. The only thing I could get out of it was that if you get a flat tire in a road race and you can ride on it at all, you should ride on it and stay in the pack while you look for the follow vehicle. If the vehicle isn't there, you should keep riding on it until it comes back, or as long as possible, as that time may be the difference between chasing on or not. After that, if you can get the follow vehicle to stay with you and pace you up at all, every minute they're pacing you is worth its weight in gold. With 3 of the 8 races down, I've still got no CalCup points. Hopefully I'll do better in the rest of the CalCup. Well that was unexpected... (Timpani Crit) (20070805) Alright, so where are we? We're one race away from the CalCup, and all of us fanatical point-chasing / status-conscious racers are gearing up for a fitness peak and the big showdown, right? Okay, maybe just me, but I'm going into this race with a little confidence from the District Championship RR the day before where I climbed well and had a reasonable On the way home from that race though, James Bauer and I talked a lot about improvements we could make. One revelation James had for me was that if I hit the finish line on a sprint and I'm still hammering or accelerating, I screwed up. I should be totally spent at the line! I'm not going early enough apparently. So I resolved to have a sprint today where I started maybe 100m earlier than I have been. Which is a little bit of a scary thought when you think about it, because that's a 250m sprint for me, and that's a lot of tarmac to hold full power. Can I make it? Only one way to find out.... So there's 70 or so of us in this cat 3 race, and it's windy, but this is a featureless course. Flat. 4 rounded corners. Good pavement. So basically, this is a big hammerfest sprint type race where breakaways historically don't work. Boris is also in the race with me, but Boris was hanging around in the field and he and I didn't have a strategy together so weren't very So in our 55 minute race a few people fool around off the front but with 5 laps to go all the breakaways have been caught, we're all together and it looks like it's going to be a sprint... I'm near the front, riding on what I think of as "the inside eddy" - the flow of riders coming up along the inside line, hitting the front and falling back through the middle. I'm rolling in the eddy from around 10th deep to 5th just holding steady - near the front when I roll forward but not in the wind, and fading back but barging into the inside line of riders moving up when I get around 10th. Mentally, I'm thinking of when I'm going to jump, how many people deep I want to be, what gear to use etc, every lap for the last 4 laps I'm visualizing the decisions I've made - 3rd wheel with 2 corners to go, jumping out of the last corner. This gear, that line, etc. I'm not even paying attention to the power numbers and heart rate coming up on the computer but I dumped them later and they were pretty high . I didn't feel bad but it's probably good I didn't see them. The last lap comes and I'm still surfing the inside eddy, but now we're doing it full-bore with bared teeth and lots of speed. People are getting antsy and pushing around a little bit but I manage to pushy enough and have good enough timing to get third wheel into the second to last corner. Looking good so far...we're rolling at 32mph now and the first wheel runs out of steam and pulls over to the inside. Second wheel starts to slow down but someone back in the pack yells at him: "Go!". Miraculously and for some unknown reason, he stands up and does just that with about 50m to go to the last corner. He accelerates pretty hard but I'm right on his wheel pushing hard into the last corner in his draft. From that point on, I don't remember anything else except the finish line. We swept out of the last corner and I'm pouring full gas on already, with 250m to go. The finish line gets bigger and everything becomes earily silent and in slow motion. I don't remember shifting gears. I don't remember feeling even minor discomfort. I didn't look back or to the side. I remember having my mouth open (funny how you remember some things). I do remember throwing my bike at the line, which is also funny because apparently I had at least 5 bike lengths on second I fought for position starting around 7 to go and held it. I went for the early sprint, and it worked. I won myself a bike race! woohoo 7 more cat 2 upgrade points (which scares the crap out of me, frankly), 15 BAR points for me and the team. Go Team Oakland! The downside to being in good racing shape but being too young to do the 35+ races is that you only get one race a day and criteriums are so short that you actually lose fitness by doing them. I need to ride two to three hours a day on average to maintain fitness and I usually count on weekend days for about four hours a day. So I ended my victorious day with two and a half hours on the trainer under the wonderful Team Oakland pop-up tent watching the rest of the races. The exciting life of a bike racer indeed But this crosses off the second of three goals I had for the cat 3s. I've gotten a top ten and a top five now, but I have never finished a race in the winning break. Looks like I'll be riding breakaways for a A Confidence-Building Exercise (District Championship RR) (20070805) Men's Cat 3 race, it's James Bauer and I. I woke up at ass o' clock (4am for those following along at home), and picked James up for the drive down to a cold and foggy Monterey. After much consideration, I put on my winter cycling kit - bib knickers, a warm underlayer, arm warmers, a vest - the works. And it was the right choice. Where's summer?? Weather aside, I have a mental problem while cycling. Well okay, I have a few, and some aren't cycling-related, but specifically I have a hard time making it up steep climbs with the pack. I have gotten dropped on climbs a lot so I don't have a lot of confidence on them. The CalCup race series is about to start though, and I want to do well, and it has some hilly road races. So what I need is to have some confidence that I can climb with the 3s heading into the CalCup series. So heading into this race I had one goal: finish with the pack. Doesn't sound exciting but this is a very hilly course so if I can do that I will know that I can climb okay. That's very important for the confidence. So we start off, and James attacks. Go James! Now I'm familiar with James' style of racing, and he always attacks. Early. And usually he comes back pretty quick (sorry, man Smile ), but this time, he's rolling away. Well, damn. Go James! A couple people bridge up to him. The laps are flying by, the pack catches James, James attacks again! Good Lord James! That's gotta hurt. He's away for a couple laps again. The pack catches him again, and he attacks again!! Okay, this is silly. I had to use two exclamation points there. He stays off for the last half lap of his four and a half laps off the front (that'd be 50 miles or so, for those still keeping score) but now we're all together. Up till now, I've been relaxing in the pack and just working on my cycling tan (coming along quite nicely, thank you) but we have gone hard up the hill a couple times and hey, it only hurt like the third or fourth circle of hell, not the inner circles. This has potential. We get to the last time up the climb and Ryan Bennett, an ex-teammate of ours and nice guy takes off up the climb. I'm at the front too, and for a moment I'm going to catch him but I remember my goal, I look at my power numbers and heart rate both going into blinky-redline territory and decide to let him go and make sure I finish with the pack rather than bury myself trying to catch up. I cross the top of the climb with the front group, but Ryan's gone. We hammer along towards the finish line, there's a big nasty hairy sprint in which I take 5th, but Ryan stayed away, so I got 6th in the race. This was, to me, a huge victory. Upgrade points from cat 3 to cat 2 go 7 deep. So I got 2 points well before I thought I'd get any cat 2 points. "Best All-Around Rider" (BAR) points go 10 deep, so I got some BAR points for me and the team. And I made it up the hill with the group. I've got some confidence now. No celebration for meeting a goal is complete without protein, but I chased my protein shake with some scotch. Cheers. Thank you sir, may I have another (Masters Championship Crit) 20070805) Well then. Yesterday had what I consider to be an awful performance in the road race, but really, it was a gorgeous setting (Diamond Valley == beautiful), we had a BBQ at Jesse's Tahoe cabin (awesome man, wonderful time, thanks) and after the race we actually spent the rest of the day at the beach under clear skies with enough heat that it was perfect. That pretty much lays to rest all the bad feelings from the road race. So let's go racing! James Bauer and I wake up at ass o'clock (that'd be 4am I think) and start practically free-basing carbs like sugar junkies. We drive to Minden, we get our nifty spandex on and roll around for a First, I have to say, this is the best crit course ever. It was dreamlike smooth. They had broomed away even the leaves so it was perfectly clean. And it was only 4400 feet over sea level, which for some reason felt much more than 20% better than yesterday's 5500 feet. Only 11 people showed up though, and 3 of them were from Team Spine. This is a small race, folks, there's not going to be anywhere to hide. And those Spine guys are strong. And it's not like I had a 70 mile high altitude race the day before...oh wait, I did. So...this could hurt. One of the Spine guys goes from the gun and we start chasing. A second Spine guy bridges and now there's two off the front. Drat. We continue chasing. We catch them and (surprise!) the third Spine guy who had been resting in our draft while we chased counter-attacked and was away. Well then. Guess we should chase more. Weeee Finally we gave up. 4 men got away in total - 2 Spine guys and 2 randoms. We toodle along. One of the randoms cracks out of the breakaway so there's only three up the road now. 2 Spine. They lap us, and I learn something important. If someone laps you, and they come through the pack and attack again and are then off the front, you can leave the pack and go up to them and sit in their draft, but you MAY NOT work with them. As a lapped rider, you are only a passenger on the leading riders. I didn't pull because I thought that was the case but I asked the officials later to confirm it, and them's the rules. So now we have a pack sprint coming, and I've got some pride so I want to do well. I've set it up in my mind perfectly, practicing the fast lines through the chicane before the final straight. Thinking about exactly where I can start and still hold the speed. I'm ready to go even though we're just sprinting for 4th. We get to the corner before I'm going to start my sprint and POW! The 3rd Spine guy (the one that wasn't in the breakaway) has already started his sprint. So he has a little gap on me as I get my sprint going and I got beat by every Spine team member in the race. That's impressive, kinda Smile I got 2nd in the pack sprint at least, that's something. There I learned my second lesson. For each corner you have to stop pedaling in during a sprint, add 50 meters to the distance you can normally hold a full power sprint. That little rest helps, and you should go earlier. No offense to James (who will get better billing in the NCNCA District Championship RR race report...) but he had a fairly anonymous race. At the start, before the main break was away he was mixing it up big and almost made the move, but once it was established we were both just passengers. c'est la vie. As with the road race, for the criterium, maybe next year... Mmmm...cooked legs, extra salty (Masters Championships RR and Crit) (20070805) This report is a bit delayed because the race happened the weekend before last, but there were some important lessons learned. What were they? * altitude is very painful if you're not used to it. Jim Rusk and I, power nerds both, were about 15% off on our normal watts vs bpm. You know what that means? Suckage. * if you do a lot of work at the front, you probably won't have any snap in your legs when you need it Those are the lessons - the nutshell race report is that it was an open race (all categories together - anyone 30 or over could race in my category), it was near Tahoe at 5500 feet, it was hot and most of the guys in the race were 1s, 2s or solid 3s. Mostly 1s and 2s I think. We had Haydn as our designated strong man, Maury Long, me, Jesse Freese, and Jim Rusk as the Kaiser team. We got our asses handed to us But we went down swinging at least. 23 started. 4 Spine? Spine attacked. We lost Jesse the first time up. Spine bridged. We were chasing for Haydn. We lost Jim the second time up. I was cooked by the third time up. Maury flatted out. Haydn felt ill. 13 finished. I got 13th. Jim actually skipped a lap, but did a last one with me for the workout (I was already off the back just finishing to get a good workout in) and they clocked him as 14th I think. Reports are that the last anyone saw of Haydn was him shouting that he was getting back down to sea level, slamming the door and peeling out. Next year, maybe. After I get an altitude tent. Bad Luck (Albany Crit) (20070722) Two races in a row now (I got a flat tire early in the race at Coyote Creek - my last race) This time I was in a doomed break, but that was okay, at least I saw what it felt like Then I was 5th wheel with 3 corners and around 600m to go, and wheels 3 and 4 decide they both want wheel 2 really bad. So bad, they lock handlebars and go all scrapy slidey on the road right in front of me So I'm doing my best to get maximum braking while keeping it together, basically waiting to see where a clear lane is going to be and they finally start sliding generally left. I dive right and one of them flails an arm out along the ground. I bunny-hop his arm, but by this time about 10 people have already gone past me and the pack is absolutely flying, as you would expect. I'm about 15mph down and just shut the engines off and coasted in for a back-of-the-pack finish. An inauspicious outing, but hey, the rubber side stayed down, I dig that...I've got a friend that wasn't so lucky three times in a row, on the same hip. Next up is a road race and a criterium in Lake Tahoe. It's the Master Championships, and it's an "open" race which means uncategorized, which means the category 1 and category 2 races can whup on little ol' category 3 me. We'll see how it goes Vacaville Grand Prix, and some goals met (20070701) So I've already mentioned that my goals are a top-10, then a top-5, and to be winning the break at least once, while helping teammates whenever possible. My chance to do that today took place in Vacaville, at the Vacaville Grand Prix, a technical, slightly hilly, really well done and fun figure-eight course in the much nicer than expected downtown of Vacaville, California, less than hour from my house. So I load up the car like I'm headed for a weeklong camping trip (lawn chairs, loads of water and food, official Team Oakland team popup tent, trainer, two bikes, race wheels etc etc), and I'm off. I get a great spot on the start/finish straight and get set up. I've been building up a new race bike and I was hoping I could get ready to race it today which is why I had two bikes, but I had some technical difficulties and just couldn't get the new bike working right. So I set up my old trusty bike for the race and warmup while watching my teammate Paul work his way through an early Sunday morning in his Masters 35+ category 4 field. I've got one teammate in my race, John Wilk, and while I tell him I can't commit to anything I'll do whatever I can. Our field hits the course, and decide having my legs torn off yesterday, today I feel great. It was one of those days where the course didn't feel hard, the corners were interesting but easy, and the hill was something for other people to worry about. Don't get me wrong, I wasn't the strongest guy or anything, but I was feeling okay. This was going to work out. John meanwhile is taking my feel-good race and making it look silly, working up front, in a breakaway, just really tearing it up. All to no avail though, it's coming down to a bunch sprint and here's where I made a major break from the last two races I've done with cat 3s. I fought tooth and nail for my position in the last few laps instead of letting these more aggressive guys take it to me. The entire last lap I can't find John though, and when we hit the hill I'm still looking around and getting closer and closer to the front. As I'm just about at the top of the hill, I hear him behind me saying nothing more than "I'm here". Excellent! When you're the leadout guy, and you hear that, it's music to your ears. I don't know what I can do, but I turn around and say "let's go" and thread through to the outside on the downhill assuming he'll do the needful. We hit the last corner and I'm about 6 people back, blasting into the headwind, on the windy side, just soaking it up. There's a little kink with about 150 meters left before the finish, and about 100 meters before that I make the only move I can. I accelerate approximately 1mph for the lamest sprint in the century , advancing from about 6th to about 3rd with John on my wheel. He wisely sees I'm not going too far and lights it up, blasting completely off the front of the field through the kink to take the win. I meanwhile huddle into the beloved precious draft of the other sprinters and just hang on for dear life to take ninth. So that's it. I got a top 10 and in a small way, I think I helped John get a clear lane and an acceleration point for his win. I tell you what though, after Leesville Gap and this race it's clear to me what the difference between being first over the climbs (John) and winning races (John!) is and what I'm doing. And I'm not doing badly, but I've got some training to do...Great day for Team Oakland though. We'll see what I can do before Coyote Creek. I think it's next on tap. Huge, Heaping Helpings... (Leesville Gap RR) (20070701) The hardest cycling races there are would be hilly road races. So I just upgraded and I'm all set to race with some much faster, stronger dudes, so what the hell, I chose a hilly road race as my first category 3 race. Even better, in order to make it to and be ready for the 8:10am start I had to do most of my prep the night before (a couple hours) then wake up at 4:30am and leave the house by 5am. And I do this for fun! And I was served huge heaping helpings of pain today. Yep. The course meanders for 15 miles of awful pavement, a little gravel, a mild uphill with horrendous pavement for a while, then it hits a huge climb. I'm headed up the climb, with the lead group, feeling awful and having one of those "gosh, I don't really know how to ride my bike" moments when I lost contact with the leaders and started falling through the field like Here's the best part, Jim Rusk and Maury Long, two very nice teammates, blast past me. I yell some encouragement at them, but these guys aren't in my race. I'm a 3 and these guys are 4s. They started 5 minutes after me, and they're climbing super strong. Way stronger than I am. Okay, so I need to work on my climbing... I get over the top, hook up with a couple of fellow cat 3 racers, we blast through a long gravel climb, and start hooking up with more and more cat 3s. Before long, there are a lot of us, we're powering along and we see another group of 3s. We blast up to them, integrate nicely and start hauling some serious ass along the road. Not long after that...lo and behold, there's the front group with my teammate John (who made it over the climb with the front group) in it. They must have been going extremely slowly because there's no way we should have caught them. The fields nearly all together now, and we proceed to do pretty much nothing for 40 miles. Then we have a sprint in a 5 foot wide lane, with 30 guys on a dead flat road (read as: a really lame race ending - too many people, not enough So I finished with the main group (17th out of 55 I think), but I really had no chance being there (the lead group should have been long gone after the climb), and in the end the sprint was pretty lame. All in all, my first cat 3 race was educational, but not a great racing experience. We'll see how the next one goes. Bicycling Existentialism (aka goal-setting) (20070701) Ok, so what the heck am I doing here? Let's be frank, I spend quite a bit of time on the bike, and I better be getting some value out of it when you consider the amount life energy I pour in to it. Why am I bringing this up now? Because I just met all of my goals as a category 4 cyclist, and accumulated enough points that I am forced to move up into the significantly harder category 3. For a goal-oriented person like me that means that I need to figure out what I like about being a cyclist, and what I want to do in the 3s so that I enjoy it. After much introspection (just to make sure), I decided these things: 1) While I like personal success (winning races etc) what I really like is doing better than I expect. That's a subtle difference, but it's all about setting the bar low and over-achieving, see . If I set a goal of placing top 20, and get 19th, I'm the king in my own mind. If I set a goal of winning, and getting second, ennui ensues. 2) While exceeding low barriers is nice, I do want to progress and push my personal limits closer to whatever ultimate maximum fitness I have in me 3) I love, and I mean really love, riding with and working for the success of solid, nice teammates. Luckily I have a bunch of really nice teammates, several of whom are very solid performers. Cycling has more than it's share of, how should I say it...really aggressive types. But my teammates really are nice guys. I want to to see them do well and help them if possible. So there it is. I've got a new category. And given where I find joy in the competitive part of cycling, I'm shooting for a top-10, then a top-5, personally, and hopefully if I can I will make it in to the winning breakaway at some point, even if I come in last out of my breakmates. On a team level, I want to do whatever I can help the team as a whole grow and prosper, and I want to do whatever I can for my fellow category 3 racers so that they get good results. If I do a good job, next spring I'll have some chips to call in for my own personal goals. So that's it, we'll see how it goes... The trouble with leadouts (Burlingame Crit) (20070625) Ah Burlingame. So fresh after a completely relieving victory at the Pacific State Grand Prix over an admittedly not-as-strong field as the guys that showed up in Burlingame, I'm looking to work for the team and launch someone else to success in what would be my last cat 4 race. Something about the work I did the day before (warmup, the race, then 3 hours of trainer afterwards), celebrating the victory (read: drinking a bit, and getting a solid 5 hours of sleep), then setting up the Team Oakland campgrounds the morning of the race should have told me that the "unpleasant sensations" I was feeling in my legs should be listened to, but no, I signed up to be the last lead-out guy for Ian Swinson starting at the Start/Finish line on the last lap. Given that long list of reasons why I had no power today, you'd think I would play it cool until my job came up, but that wouldn't be any fun, so I found myself off the front a couple of times and chasing a couple times. Now I'm definitely tired. You can see where I'm going - basically the leadout plan we had was working pretty well, it was planned to be a disconnected thing and both Andrew Hardardt and Anthony Eng did very very well in their designated roles as "pack discipline". It would have been awesome if they could have pulled forever, but the pack was together and there weren't any attacks after they did their work. So great job there. Unfortunately, when it got to my turn, the last part was supposed to be connected, and while Ian was right on my wheel this is where the trouble with leadouts comes in. Basically, I went to turn on the gas and I just had no gas. I was able to string it out reasonably enough but only until there was half the lap remaining and then I was done for good. Now with the last part of the train being connected, there's Ian, and now he's in the wind. 600 meters with no gap or room to accelerate and make one is too much to ask of most people and he predictably didn't make it. Not quite the ending to my cat 4 career that I was looking for but I take two lessons out of it - either of which would have worked. First - a disconnected lead-out, where the sprint doesn't assume that being on the teammates' wheel is the right place to be, is a safer plan than trusting the person to make it to the spot every time. We're just not that good at judging fitness and leadout speeds at the cat 4 and cat 3 level so that trust is misplaced too often. Second - if I stall a leadout, I need to remember the guys behind me and pull over enough for one line to get through, but still shelter my designated sprinter while he gets back in line. So that was my Burlingame race in a nutshell - a great plan on behalf of the E4 team, mostly great execution, but then not quite enough goods to carry the day. On the bright side, if you're going to bungle a race, Burlingame is a good one to screw up. Apparently even winning the E3 race is only good enough for an ill-fitting, not-good-looking helmet since all the prizes were merchandise Up next for me, Leesville Gap as a 3 (and I'm not nervous about it at all, nope, not a bit...) The Top Step (finally!) (20070725) So for all the readers following along at home, it's important to remember that I had a few goals this year as a Cat 4. I wanted to win a race. I wanted to help organize my fellow cat 4 teammates, and help others do well. That's pretty much it. For those that have followed everything, you'll remember that I did win a race in January. Oh wait! It was a training race. Damn, felt good but wasn't really satisfying. I didn't feel like I had met the goal. Then, I entered a race where category 3 racers (one level up from me) raced with us, but the results were collated into separate category 3 and category 4 ranks. Turns out I was 13th in the race, but I was the first cat 4 racer! I won! Sort of! Totally unsatisfying. I've done consistently very well though, all season, well enough in fact that I was in serious danger of being forced through slow accumulation of upgrade points to move to category 3 without outright winning a race. Sounds like a good problem to have, but still, I don't like unmet goals. So I plotted to go to Texas, thinking the fields would be a bit shallower there, and that didn't quite work out either. So after my ill-fated (and chock full o' hubris) trip to Austin thinking I would bring home the first place goods, I was really down to one last weekend. This weekend I was either going to win a race or accumulate enough points trying that I would get moved to category 3. So it's off to the Pacific State Grand Prix in sunny Stockton, CA for a Saturday race. The Burlingame criterium, run on Sunday gets all the press, but if you ask me the PacState GP had an equivalent course if a little safer, a larger and all-cash prize list, and the weather is much better. A good race. I got there pretty early, toting everything necessary to live there for a week basically, since I had the Team Oakland pop-up tent, and watched the two races before me. Interestingly enough, they both ended up in sprint finishes, and the first person around the last corner won the sprint. I looked at the corner and the start/finish line. Tailwind down the straight...around 150 meters to the line from the corner. Note to self, breakaways probably don't work, and make sure I'm first around the So the field is off for 50 minutes of sun-drenched, L-shaped anaerobic fun, and while there was a little breakaway action, sure enough, there's just a couple laps to go and we're all together. At this point, I'm tempted to shut my brain off and go into "duh...I'm bike racing" mode, which happens worryingly often enough but I catch myself tuning out and actually say (using my inside voice) "I am relaxed, and I am in control of this race". Sounds silly, but you should try it. That ends my reverie and with two laps to go I review my plan as I pass certain markers...."change gears here, position body there, jump here, take this line, this gear here, full gas to the line from this spot..." etc. Following that, the last lap felt like I was holding a royal flush and just dropping one card at a time when it was time to lay it on the table. Someone jumped hard on the back straight, and while everyone else was thinking "too soon" I was thinking "600 to go and a free lead out! sweet!", I jumped off their wheel with 250 to go, blasted past them into the last corner with maybe 5 feet on the person on my wheel and proceeded to keep pounding the pedals and adding gears until I sailed across the line with...about 5 feet on the person on my wheel. I can't begin to tell you what a relief it was when I realized that I had finally completely exorcized that goal and could mentally move on. I'd gotten on the top step of the podium at last! After basking in that relief for a half hour or so, I then realized that I was going to be a category 3 for real, and hopped on the trainer to cruise for a few hours, through the Pro race where they were duking it out for $10,000. Made the $60 I won look like chicken-feed, but it was priceless to me. What's next? Well, I'm pre-registered for the Burlingame Criterium on Sunday as a 4, so we'll see what I can do to help my teammates since I'm about to check out... Everything's Bigger In Texas (20070620) Okay, so I'll admit that I went to the AT&T Crit in Austin expecting to find smaller fields (it's Texas, not Northern California Bike Mecca, right?) and less talent. Basically, I was expecting to go over there and beat up on some people. Imagine my disappointment when reality sets in and I realize that despite the fields being smaller and a little shallower, I hadn't actually worked out the math. If the fields in NorCal are around 75-100 with 15 or so that could make you hurt, a 40-50 person field is still going to have around 5-10 that can make you hurt, right? Right. So I did the Cat 4 race first, in 90 degree heat with 100% humidity (no exaggeration, it rained a bit on us before and during the race and evaporated into a nice wet haze) so I wasn't cooling at all. I swear I went on a breakaway with every single one of the other 5 or so riders that were a threat, but never more than one at a time. The others just towed the pack up. Very frustrating! Was gassed enough on the last lap to not maintain position properly and got 5th in the sprint. No breakaway glory, no sprint victory. $25 though. Entry fee repaid. I warmed down for 15 minutes, drank and ate, then warmed up again for 20 minutes and hopped in the Cat 4/5 race thinking my fortunes would be better here. Lo and behold there was a story typical of our own Cat 5 fields. There was a guy in here (nice, by the way, we chatted afterwards) who didn't have his 10 races to get to cat 4 yet, but out of the 7 or so he'd done, he'd only gotten second once. First the rest of the times. I tried to get in a break with him but the only time I did he didn't work hard (why bother, he can sprint...) and we were absorbed. I fought for position better and was rested for the sprint, I unleashed it and actually felt right at home in the 12 after I shifted into it only to have someone completely pinch me in to the curb. I actually had to use the brakes with 100m to go, but after a brief discussion with the rider (civil, I promise, and if you know me you know it actually was) I got around him and pipped two more people for 3rd. Still no breakaway, very little sprint glory, but $35 this time. Oh well, didn't strike gold in Texas, but had a great time. Should mention that my sister, who hasn't raced since her college days more than a decade ago agreed to do the race with me, rented a bike, shared a trainer with me that we bought for this race, borrowed a Team Oakland jersey and scored 5th in the women's cat 3/4 field. Go Team Hardy! That's it for the first race back since Copperopolis. I've got a new bike now, with most of the parts worked out. I've got a new position that I've been working on. I've been training a lot, and the fall campaign is about to start in earnest. A couple more tune-up races then it's onwards and upwards to the Fall as a Cat 3. Next up is Burlingame as a 4 though. We'll see how it goes... Copper-f'in-opolis (20070408) Ah, Copperopolis, "the Paris-Roubaix of California". I was racing one of my last E4 races (I'm about to upgrade to the next-highest category - E3) so I should be relatively stronger than the field right? I could even be accused of sand-bagging, but with all the hype around this race, I'm still pretty nervous. This is supposed to be the toughest race all year. Add to that, my teammates Jim Rusk, Jason James, George Thoma and I are the E4s and our pre-race plan was to take what is supposed to be a race of attrition, and accelerate the attrition. We were going to warm up well and drill the first climb, which comes just a few miles in to the race. So our entire plan was to take the toughest race on the calendar all year, and make it as hard as possible. Yep, definitely nervous. When we lined up, instead of the 40 or so people that were in the race last year, I think there were 70 to 75. I'll make a short detour here to say that Joel (a 2) was going to race the P/1/2 race if any big pros showed up, but he didn't see any so he did the Masters 1/2/3. And Levi Leipheimer (Discovery Channel, duh) showed up, as well as Barry Wicks (pro World Cup cyclocross racer - big big stud). Joel! P1/2 next time! Smile So the E4s roll out, and we start up the attrition machine. I'm going to make a second detour here and say that George wasn't sure how he was going to do in the race, but he worked with us hard on the plan for the first climb and paid for the effort I'm sure. Despite not having the pack for help, after the race, I watched George cross the line. This is a tough course, and finishing the race out wins a lot of respect from everyone. Nice job, sir Jim and Jason and I are still plowing ahead at the front, with the bit between our teeth and it really stings. I actually partially blew about halfway up the climb but was able to hold the damage to losing just a position or three a minute, so I was in the pack okay at the top. The pack was a bit smaller though, maybe 40 people? Our plan had been for it to be around 20 though. We just couldn't push hard enough to drop all those people. Either we need to work harder, or the 4s field is really deep this year. I vote for a bit of both. The descent was not nearly as bad as people say, there were no rains this year so all the patches (and the road was essentially just a collection of patches) were intact. That made for a very bumpy ride, but there were no pinch-flat craters. So we bombed down it. The second lap nearly had a selection at the front-end of the climb, where I was at the tail-end of a single-file line of 8 with a tiny gap, but the pressure eased off (mercifully for me) and we crested with 30 or 35. Still a huge pack given how fast were climbing, in my opinion. The third lap rolls around, and this time Jim is a victim of the pace. I was at the front not driving it per se, but just pacing myself just under redline, and while there were little ones and twos trying to get away they were all cracking on the climb and coming back. When we get to the top, the pressure stays on though, and now we're down to around 20-25. Jason James is in there, there's a group of three up the road and both he and I and a Squadra guy roll off the front, but not together. I can't get to Jason, he can't get to the Squadra guy, and the three in front are working well together. Squadra blows, I fade back into the pack, and Jason's in no-man's land for maybe 5 miles. The pack double-rotates itself back together (sorry Jason) with a decent chase, and now there's just one hill, the descent, then the finish hill. We cruise up the final hill, my left hamstring starting to cramp (guess I need more miles), and bomb the descent. Jason and I are both in the front 5 the whole descent, but so is Ryan Prsha, my Webcor-based nemesis (he keeps beating me, dangit). The sprint itself was a complete hairball as uphill sprints tend to be. The downhill in front of it made it worse because people that downhill fast (large dudes) don't tend to uphill sprint well. So the front/middle is caving in / going backwards and all us little sprinters are trying to blast around the sides. Jason actually had to get in the gravel on the side a bit while in full sprint. Ryan goes first, but with good timing and gets a bike length or two. I'm gaining on 6th, 5th 4th and Ryan a little, we come to the line and the guy on my left just barely inches me out for 2nd! Damn! I look over to see who it is, and it's Jason!! Score. Jim Jason and I are trying to upgrade close together so I wanted him to get as many points as possible, so this is a good thing. Ryan took it though, with a thorough victory. All in all, 2nd and 3rd isn't a bad day, and we definitely executed our plan. I've had a couple people from other teams say (either there or in email later) that we had a great show of force, and I think they're right. We weren't sitting in and waiting for the results, we were making the race happen. Very satisfying. The only thing that wasn't perfect was to see Jim in the mix at the end too - but he was oh-so-close. I'm about to upgrade, as is Ryan Prsha, so the E4 racing dynamic is about to change a bit. It'll be interesting to see how things go then. When I go to the E3 category, I'll be racing against all the guys I had such a tough time beating (or not beating, as the case may be) this Spring in the E4 category. Plus all the other guys that were good enough to get high placings and move up, so the E3 races are going to be a great deal harder, and I'm pretty nervous about it. I'm not sure exactly what I'm going to do to prepare, but I'm thinking about taking some time off racing specifically to focus on training for four to six weeks. I'm pretty sure my fitness isn't quite where it needs to be for the E3 category and I'd like to change it. So maybe no race reports for a while, but you never know. A lot of the thrill of cycling is in the racing for me, so I may not be able to stay away. We'll see... Missed it by that much - Ronde van Brisbeen (20070408) Men's E4 - a skeleton crew both days, but I can't blame a lot of the guys for wanting to hit the 35+ race up, you guys were stacked deep there. We had Ed Lai, Brian Johnston, Jim Rusk and I in the first day, and just me and Brian Johnston in the second day. The first day, that hill took it's toll, and Ed and Brian were both viciously struck down before their prime. That reminded me mightily of last year, wherein I cracked on the third to last climb, chased on, then blew up spectacularly on the last climb. It happens. This year, I was up there, with Jim with me, and we went into the race without a plan really so we got predictably mediocre results. I had some sort of brain malfunction where in the last kilometer I thought the idea was to sit in the wind and then sprint too early. For some reason, I didn't win...why not?? Oh yeah, because that's a pretty bad sprint. I did creep away with ninth though, and Jim came in around 20-something. There were 100 starters if I recall correctly, so that ain't bad. Jim and I have resolved to yell at each other (as in "drill it") in the finish in the future when there's two of us. I would have much rather blasted myself to pieces knowing he was tucked in third wheel than finish 9th. Jason James and I made the same mistake at Bariani but then fixed it in the NorCal crit. Jim and I will get it right next time I'm sure. And if I'm sprinting I'm going to find a wheel next time! Note to self - I do not have a 400m sprint. Then I waved flags at people for a long time and tried to reason patiently with people about why they really shouldn't try to drive through a bike race. It worked out okay. The second day dawned with the promise of a fresh chance at victory and I saddled up to tilt at windmills again. I really wanted a breakaway on the Sierra Point course. I actually love this course, it rewards hard work and positioning, and I'm good at positioning and willing to work hard, so I'm all excited. I line up right on the line since this race is really fast from the gun historically, then they roll the juniors out on their gear check (juniors have restricted gears - they can't use really big ones - to protect their knees) and then sit them in front of us - nice! I lined up on the line for a reason officials, and that's not quite fair. Okay, we're away anyway and I spent all race trying to attack or off the front and just never getting the two teams I needed to go with me (Webcor and Third Pillar) to both be there at the same time, so the other one kept chasing whatever group it was down. Very frustrating. Maybe I just didn't commit enough though...I dunno. Nothing worked though. Fast-forward through the usual round-and-around action, and then there was a big sprint, and I got 6th. Still didn't quite get the sprint timing right, but at least this time I didn't go too soon. Probably too late if anything. Would you believe they had a podium that went down to 5 places? 6th place gets nothing. Sigh. Got 4th in the omnium, and would you believe that they had podium pictures for the omnium down to 3rd place? 4th place gets nothing. Double sigh! Too near misses. Then I played course marshall the rest of the day (5 hours?) and helped my other teammates pick up and pack up after the race. Not a bad day, but it would have nice to get on the podium at our own team's race. Maybe next year... Teamwork, and a "win" (20070408) Not a long report (I may write more later), but what did we not do at this race? There were actually two races for us Elite Category 4 men. A race where we were separate (all E4), and a combined race where E3 (a higher category) and E4 raced together, but were "picked" separately - meaning they would take the final results and separate them between guys that were E3s, and guys that were E4s, resulting in two finishing standings. We had total team domination in the Men's E4 race - we had a plan, adjusted it a little during the race and just nailed it. Mark Robertson and Jim Rusk seared themselves to a slightly blackened well-done while keeping the pace high closing in on the last lap, I took the last kilometer at full power and then some with Jason James drafting closely on my wheel and then blasting around me in the finish straight for 2nd place, while I hung on for 13th. In the Men's E3/E4 combo race - teammate Justin Fraga was off the front of the pack, up the road flying the team colors, holding off the pack and taking the overall and E3 win, the team was really working well to help out, and in the chaotic pack sprint I came in for a "win" by technical knockout as the top E4 in the race at 14th. So I got my win, yay! You can even see it online here - the race was "The Colavita NorCal Crit" I also discovered that (as of this writing anyway) I am the #1 Men's E4 rider in the "Best All-Around Rider" standings for all races in Northern California and Nevada. Woohoo! You can see that here just to prove it (though I may have sadly dropped since then, you never know...) Bariani Road Race (20070408) A possibly quicker race report this time ? Men's E4 race - cast was 6 guys * Ed Lai (second race of the year after Merco) * Michael Claudio (ditto, but after Cherry Pie?) * Mike Hardy * Jason James (raced a bunch already) * Geoff Gunderson (first race of the year) * Thornton Weiler (birthday boy, fresh off the grasshopper race) So we had a full crew just about. We showed up 2 hours early and proceeded to warm up together, talk turkey, and get ready. We lined up right at the front of a full field in 70 degree weather with no wind. The plan was to attack, then attack more, then attack. Preferably on the hill and the flat section after. True to plan, Ed goes off the front with another guy and motors away for a bit. The pack gets antsy, and Ed comes back. Jason James gives it a go with someone (possibly before Ed's break? I think it might have been), but again, the pack is restless. At this point, I should note that the lack of wind was a real bummer for me. It made the race entirely too easy, in my opinion, if you were sitting in the pack. Going off the front? Really hard. But sitting in? Not a problem. So the only tactical feature left on the course was the hill, but the flat road afterwards had a tailwind! Then it went downhill. Had I used my head more, I would have thought "this thing is staying together until the end, I'm saving it for the sprint". If I had done that, I would not have done what Thornton did though. I pushed the pace pretty hard up the hill, then as I faded off the front Jason James hit it and strung it out a bit, and finally when he faded off a bit, Thornton, a Stanford guy and a Squadra dude lept off the front. 2 laps to go at this point? Fantastic timing, and great move, with the possible exception of it missing a Third Pillar guy. Jason and I tried a couple of times to motivate or help (with bridge efforts) a Third Pillar guy get up there, but the pack wasn't going to be fooled so easily and we couldn't make it hard enough to get separation without essentially chasing Thornton down. So now the Squadra Ovest team goes into blocking mode (with 8 guys?) and we're just rolling along with Thornton growing smaller in the distance. Unfortunately, at this point the Squadra dude in the break blew up, and Squadra goes into chase mode. Drat. I get up there and start disrupting whatever I can, and covering bridge attempts as best as I can, but people (Third Pillar and Squadra now) are managing to put in fairly long pulls, and Thornton is slowly coming back. Up the hill the last time, and the pack makes the catch, I go hard up the hill now and get off with a small group, but once we get to the top we all just look at each other. I'm a bit cooked from all the disruption and chase efforts so I don't want to go, and now Jason is driving a group up to us, at which point we all just start looking around, 10 wide and maybe 25mph. From my perspective at this point you can sum it by just fast-forwarding to the inevitable bunch sprint. Nothing fancy except I went way too early for the amount of juice I had in my legs. A special note should go to Jason James who was in the wind a bunch at the end and gritted it out for 4th, almost 3rd in the sprint, and Thornton, who reattached to the pack on the last hill and hung on for a very high placing. 10th? Somewhere around there. I think I got 20th or 30th or something - I shut the sprint down early. If I had it to do again, I'd do one of three things, but not what I did today. either: * keep the hammer down after the last hill with 2k to go (why not?) * save it completely for the sprint, the whole day (but I had to help block...) * see that Jason was there and ride tempo to the finish for the team (best option I think) Menlo Park GP - 3 is now the magic number (20070310) Enough of these challenging scenic road races, you know you've got a guilty craving for some flat four-corner crit action, right? Well, here's the Menlo Park GP. It's a flat rectangle, maybe 1k in length. You can pedal through all the corners (not that the E4 pack did mind you, nope, we hit the brakes and coast because ooooo a corner) and the short straightaways were long enough that you couldn't do the low-energy attack-before-the-corner-and-gap-the-pack thing. In other words, it rode like a real honest-to-god flat square. Who's the cast? We had Anthony Eng, Andrew Hardardt, Stephen Langone, Ian Swinson (in his first E4 race, congratulations) and myself. Beautiful weather, nice temperatures. I checked registration the night before and noticed that all the usual hammers were going to show up, but with no wind in the morning, as I was doing the warm up, I boldly predicted that there wouldn't be anything going on all race and we'd have a big sprint. One thing we 4s have done well this year is getting to races with a lot of time and warming up together. With the exception of Ian (who did drop by at the end of the warmup to sync up) we all had the trainers together for a quick (but adequate, I thought?) warmup while we were able to chat with each other. Very useful. I'm still looking for a #1 next to my name before I become cat 3 cannon fodder, and I worked on my sprint earlier this year. I asked around and no one else wanted anything in particular, so with no one else wanting to do anything at the race I wanted to go for it. I predicted a sprint, and for me to do a sprint well, I need to have breaks neutralized, and be confident that I can sit in but not get swarmed in the last two laps, so what I needed was covering during the race and what I call "pack discipline" at the end. The whole pack had the covering thing down for us during the race, so that only left the last couple laps. Ian had fought his way up to the front near the end, and I was on his tail, maybe 8th or 10th wheel, with the pack two-wide and two laps to go. Perfect, looking good at this point. It was too early to do much, but on the long straightaways swarms kept threatening. Ian and I line-hopped over into the swarming folks and maintained our positions pretty deftly heading into the last start/finish straight. At that point in a race the pack always seems to hesitate a little bit, and true to form the speed dropped a little with a big swarm threatening our perfect positions. I yelled at Ian to punch it, and he rolled up and hit the wind from about 1k to 700 meters to go - stringing it out in the process, with the impending swarm fading back - sorry, next time guys. I was still around 7th wheel, and that left the guys in front of me without many options - perfect for me. They basically had to hit the gas at that point, so I was able to sit in the rest of the backstretch, and was fourth wheel coming around the last corner. With 300m to go everyone stood up and gave it what they had - I was still fourth at that point, but one of the guys in front of me was fading and that was motivating. I just inched him out at the line, taking third in the process. I ran through the numbers later (below if you're curious) and while I wish I had more power, I hit my sprint-training numbers at the end of the race, so I must have done something right with regard to getting to the finish in good shape, at the same time that I either need to time things better or just need more raw power. The winner was still going away from me at the line, so I'm going to vote for more power. Hopefully he'll either cat up or I'll be able to train my power up in the next few weeks and get the elusive 2nd or 1st place I haven't cracked yet. In the meantime, I thought our team routine worked really well again, and I thought our teamwork, especically at the end was the right thing at the right moment. Other exciting bits: Another Squadra dude crashed right in front me, but this time I had a few more meters to dodge him, and I did so successfully. Not so lucky was some guy between the crashee and I, he hit him front wheel first and did a full front flip. For a moment I was racing next to an upside down bike about 8 feet off the ground. They neutralized us for 10 minutes, then stopped us and restarted us with 3 laps to go though, so they could mop up the broken collarbone one guy had, and the broken tibia/fibula another guy had (ouch). Some numbers: Speeds - pre-neutral, 26.4mph avg (282 watts for me) Speeds - last 3 laps, 27.9mph avg (320 watts for me) Speeds - sprint max 35.6mph (900 watts for me) Moving up a step... Snelling RR (20070225) Saturday was the Snelling Road Race, a mostly flat road race in the farm country of the Central Valley in Northern California. The wife of one of my teammates calls it "Smelling" since there are a lot of cows around, and that isn't too far from the truth but there are also a lot of cherry orchards there, and they were in full bloom with the spring, so I thought it was pretty country. The race was around 65 miles, the roads weren't great, but there wasn't supposed to be much wind, so I opted for some aerodynamic wheels I have (tri-spokes, if you're curious) that are hard to control in a cross-wind, but really fast. The cast of Team Oakland crew in the race were: * Jesse Freese (looking to finish strong in his first road race) * Jim Rusk (looking to come back after his Pine Flat cramps) * Jason James (looking for some glory, or a top-10) * Me (looking for victory still, or maybe some points, or helping anyone else with a strong desire) * Ed Lai (who unfortunately got sick and stayed home - next time, man!) Pre-race strategy involved talking with the Third Pillar team, since they had a lot of very strong guys and warned us they were going to set the pace high from the gun, and the Squadra Ovest team mainly just to tell them that we were nice guys and the one hot-head they have on their team should relax a little bit and enjoy the racing, n'est ce pas? With five laps, we decided on a strategy of having a couple guys hang near the front to keep on eye on things and go with breaks for the first two laps, then have a different couple guys work the second two laps, and basically attack the race trying for a breakaway. The final run-in had about two miles of really crappy pavement, a 90-degree right hand turn, then a 300m hill/flat-spot/hill sprint. None of us wanted to sprint through all that crap, which is why we focused on breakaways. Owing to the warning about the high pace, we all warmed up before the start (not always necessary for a road-race, especially a flat one) and lined up near the front. The field was completely full, with 100 category 4 racers, and when the gun went off, our huge pack rolled off into the sunrise to see how things played out. In contrast with the forecast, there actually was a wind, and the first long flat section was a perfect cross-wind. When you're racing bicycles, you need to be drafting as much as you can, but with a cross-wind the draft is at an angle - it moves to the downwind side of the rider in front of you. Since the road doesn't care where the wind is, what that means is that you usually end up right up against the side of the road, trying as hard as you can to get any draft from the rider in front of you but not getting much, and not giving much to the guy behind you. Third Pillar was true to their word, and they really hit the gas on this stretch, which led to the beautiful to see (but painful to be in) sight of 100 guys, in single file, ripping along a country road in perfect single file. By the end of the stretch some riders had started to pop, opening gaps that you had to jump around and close, and we were only 5 miles into the race. I could tell this was going to be a long day. On the second lap, Jason James had opted for early-race breakaway detail, and he went with two of the Third Pillar guys, and a couple other folks. According to his story, they were riding so hard that he could barely hold on to their wheel, but the pack wasn't letting them go anyway. The pack kept the speed high, caught that break, and when Jason slid back past me, he said he felt wrecked but that they were still strong. Knowing the crosswind section was coming, that Third Pillar was motivated, and that today was a day for breakaways, I pushed it towards the front and got ready to try my own hand. Sure enough, on the third lap, we hit the crosswind, and the pack hit the gas again. Gaps started to open, and about a half mile into this two mile stretch I realized that with the crosswind being what it was, it wasn't going to hurt any more to simply go to the front myself, so I pulled out of line, went past the final 5-10 people in front of me and really drilled it. That tore up the front group, and when I pulled off the front we were down to six guys off the front, with the pack strung out behind us, chasing like Out of this group of six, the same two Third Pillar guys were there, and one of them hit the front of the group so hard that the rider two people in front of me had a little anaerobic disaster and blew off the wheel, taking all three of us off the group. I jumped around it as fast as I could, but now I'm chasing solo up to the front three. We had a motorcycle escort, and as he came up to the group he saw me, smiled, pointed to the three leaders, and waved me forward to spur me on. That easy gesture from someone who only had to twist his wrist to go faster frustrated me just enough to step on it and touch up with the front guys. So it was done - the race was torn up, I was in a breakaway group of four, off the front of a 100-strong pack of racers, with the most motivated team in the race (Third Pillar), a Webcor guy (Dave - nice guy), and myself. We represented three large teams in the field, so as long as we held up our end of the bargain by keeping the hammer down, we could count on our teammates back in the field to hold up their end of the bargain by disrupting chase efforts and giving us a good chance to stay away. There was only one problem with this setup. One of the Third Pillar guys (his name was also Mike, coincidentally) was new to bike racing but apparently is a very strong triathlete. So strong in fact, that he had blown my teammate Jason James off his wheel already in the race, and now I'm suffering like a dog to stay on his wheel. I pulled through a few times, but I want to be clear that this dude powered the breakaway in a big-time way. I was cross-eyed, seeing spots, having problems with motivation and just generally having a hell of a time riding with this group. It was clear that he was stronger than everyone but at least he was nice about it - encouraging us to stay on his wheel and keep it together, and even dropping back to fetch one or the other of us back up to the little group when we split up. We kept on like this for a full lap, amassing what must have been a 5-7 minute gap or so on the field so quickly it was amazing, but the Webcor rider had already fallen off the group, and finally I couldn't take anymore. I pulled through, felt my legs empty completely, and cracked. I thanked the two Third Pillar guys for their work, wished them well and fell off the pace. There were just under two laps to go, I was by myself with a huge pack in the distance behind me and I just felt done. I have to admit that at this point, I had no confidence in my own ability - I had tried so hard to stay on, and failed, and despite being in third place on the road I felt so beat down I wanted to pull over and stop. Knowing how hard I had trained this winter, and that my teammates were probably in the wind behind me kept me from giving up completely though, and I quickly took down some calories and a bunch of water while ticking over a relaxed tempo on the pedals. The pack in the distance grew larger, I finished my personal refueling and prepared to reintegrate with my field. To my surprise, that was a Master's 35+ Cat. 1/2/3 pack though, not my Cat. 4 field. Apparently that pack had passed mine, and now that they were gone, I was looking at maybe 5 minutes of road behind me, and I still couldn't see my pack. That meant that I still had a huge gap. Next thing you know, Dave, my fellow break-mate from Webcor rolled up to me and said hey, we couldn't hold on to those guys, but I still think we have something here, do you want to go for it? I figured I wasn't going to sprint anymore today (my legs were already too cooked for that) so why not. And so it went. Just under two laps to go, two guys out in the wind, with 96 people behind us. Can we make it? I don't remember anything specific about that 20 miles except that I very carefully stayed right below my absolute limit the entire time, with my heart doing nearly 180 beats per minute for nearly an hour. I was so close to blowing up completely and cramping, but I kept it together, and finally we hit the last stretch of road, with only 300 meters to go, and no pack in sight. We had made it. We had agreed not to play games with each other since it was a hill finish and that would be enough to sort us out. We held to that, and when we got to the hill, we both stood up to sprint, but Dave unfortunately cramped up, and I went just ahead of him to take 3rd place. Woohoo! My first breakaway every, and my highest result in more than 10 years. And I get another t-shirt Back in the pack, Jim Rusk had made it into a chase group, Jason James had bridged up to it and gone through it, and both rolled through with high placings. Jesse finished his first road race looking strong, and I'm sure he'll figure bigger in the next one. As for me, I'm taking it easy tomorrow to rest the legs, skipping next weekend's races, and will be back for the Zamora Road Race the weekend after. In the meantime, the next step is to figure out how to stay in the breakaway, where "figure out" most likely means "training harder" since I really just need more power. Happy Trails... Pine Flat Road Race (Four is still the magic number) (20060225) Alright, so where are we? Well, in official races this year, I've: * gotten crashed out (Early Bird Crit) * gotten fourth place (Martinez Crit) * then crashed out (Cherry Pie Crit, though I still finished top half) I haven't done a road race yet though, and I haven't done anything against my peers that involved climbing up hills while on a bike, so I thought this weekend would be a good opportunity to see how I did in those conditions. That means it's time to head to beautiful Pine Flat Reservoir, outside of Fresno, California. The drive is so long that I drove up the day before, pre-rode part of the course with my friend and teammate Jason James, then we camped out near registration. That was great actually - the stars were fantastic. The next morning dawned cold but with good weather, we lined up and took off. This race features two sharp climbs in it after about 50 miles of rolling or flat roads, and nothing really happens in the race until the climbs hit. I had one other teammate there besides Jason James - Jim Rusk. Jim is a climber by trade so he was looking forward to Pine Flat but he also hadn't raced yet this year so he wasn't sure how he would do. The night before, we talked strategy and decided that we would pay attention during the race so that no breakaways got away in the flat section (like one did last year) but we wouldn't do anything until the first climb. Once that climb came, the goal was to make it over in a small group, but not alone, then get to the bottom of the final sharp climb in a competitive spot. Things basically played out exactly as we wanted them to - the pace was really lethargic on the run-up to the first climb, but things all of the sudden got hot once the road pointed up. When the pack hit the climb, gaps started opening up everywhere and people were going either forwards or backwards really fast as the climb sorted the group out. I attacked up the last steep ramp of the first climb and got a decent gap, with a couple people headed off the pack in search of me, meanwhile the pack continued disintegrating. Just over the top of the climb, I sat up a little bit to regroup so I wouldn't have to work alone on the long downhill to the final climb, and I eventually ended up in a group of 10 or 12 (I'm not sure) along with my teammate Jason James. This was a good spot to be in as none of the other guys had teammates, and the group was big enough that we could hold off the rest of the field if we worked together. We got a quick rotation going, and somewhere in the middle of it, Jason rolled by me and asked how I felt on the climb. I told him I felt fantastic (since I did - which was a really great feeling after all the work this winter) and then he asked me if there was anything I wanted him to do. That alone is a really self-less act, and the best thing I could think of was for him to drill it in the section right before the final climb to make sure we had pressure on the group and we really did stay away. Jason said he'd do it, and true to his offer, he really lined it out, in just the right spot, for just the right amount of time. We got to the point where we staring at the final 1.5km of climb, and I was sitting third wheel, just behind one guy, and with a Webcor guy maybe 20 meters in front of us. The final climb was a real slugfest - just brute strength really. With 200 meters to go I was in fourth place, and I stepped on the gas, momentarily passing two guys and making it up to second place (the Webcor guy was still in front, with a solid lead). Unfortunately, I couldn't quite hold that pace, so I eased off a touch, and two people came by me, so I ended up in fourth place at the finish, earning a free "Pine Flat" t-shirt for my trouble For his part, Jason James has a goal this year of getting enough top-10 finishes to move up to category 3 (we're 4s right now), and after he worked for me he realized he was about 12th. He dug deep, and beat up on a few different dudes, finishing 7th. True grit right there, congratulations, sir. Jim Rusk unfortunately cramped up a bit on the first climb, but that's racing - the first race back does that to most people since race-pace accelerations are hard to simulate in training. He'll be back though, I'm sure. The cool thing is that this tells me that I can climb this year, so a lot of road races I didn't do last year (since they had hills in them) are open to me now. That should be a lot more fun than all the short What's next? Snelling Road Race in beautiful Snelling, CA...
Saturday, February 26, 2011 Police Recommend Drug Trafficking Charges for B.C. Compassion Club Members In 2006, the club’s founder, Edith Noreen Evers, was charged when police seized and destroyed dozens of pot plants growing on her acreage in Black Creek, south of Campbell River. Rather than plead guilty and accept a modest fine as punishment, Ms. Evers launched a lengthy legal battle and spent five months in custody before she was sentenced to time served and released last April. Mr. Yacub, who has managed the club’s affairs for seven years, said relations with the community and the police have been trouble-free since the arrest of Ms. Evers. The club only distributes marijuana to people with applicable conditions whose diagnosis has been confirmed by a doctor, he said. The North Island Compassion Club has retained Mill Bay lawyer Kirk Tousaw, who represented two members of the Vancouver Island Compassion Club after their 2004 arrest for marijuana trafficking. In 2009, after dragging through the legal system for five years, the B.C. Supreme Court granted the accused in that case an unconditional discharge. Mr. Tousaw predicted a similar result for Mr. Yacub and Mr. Myers. “There’s almost a decade of case law now, all standing for the proposition that bona fide medical marijuana producers and distributors ought to be granted full discharge,” Mr. Tousaw said. The North Island Compassion Club’s storefront location has been closed until further notice, but Mr. Yacub said legal troubles or not, he and other members remain determined to serve the club’s clients. - Article from The Globe and Mail. Compassion Club raided Spencer Anderson, Comox Valley Echo The North Island Compassion club, a medical marijuana group, was busted by Comox Valley RCMP last week. On Friday, police executed a search warrant on the club's headquarters on Sixth Street in Courtenay. They seized several pounds of marijuana, and arrested four people. RCMP spokeswoman Const. Tammy Douglas confirmed two were charged and released on a promise to appear in court. "Police are concerned the club has become a front for marijuana dealing," said Douglas in a statement. "We recognize there are conflicting views on the medicinal value of marijuana but it remains illegal to sell in the manner in which they were conducting business." Ernie Yacub is a director for the club and claims to be one of the two persons charged. He said the bust shook up a lot of his fellow club members, many of whom he said are already nervous when it comes to getting hold of medicinal marijuana. "We're talking about people who are sick in the first place, who are having all kinds of similar issues anyway, people who are afraid to talk to their doctors about marijuana ... ," said Yacub. "... So here we have a legal program where some people can access [medical marijuana] while the rest of us are criminalized, and the access is denied." The Compassion Club has been operating for 10 years and has been at its current location for the last seven. Before that, Yacub said the club was dispensing marijuana at the train station. He said police were civil and respectful during the bust on Friday but added, "If there's something they don't like about our operation, they can talk to us, instead of coming in here and taking all our medicine..." Yacub said the club's members - there are 200, by his estimate - depend on the marijuana for pain relief. Yacub himself suffers from spinal stenosis. "Imagine if the cops raided the only pharmacy in town and took everything. That's what it is for some of our members. Many of them are already on pharmaceuticals, but they also use [marijuana], because it works." - Article from Smoked Medical Cannabis May Be Beneficial as Treatment for Chronic Neuropathic Pain, Study Suggests. The results of the groundbreaking study are published in the latest issue of the Canadian Medical Association Journal. ScienceDaily (Feb. 25, 2011) — The active ingredient in cannabis can improve the appetites and sense of taste in cancer patients, according to a new study published online in the cancer journal, Annals of Oncology. Friday, February 25, 2011 As you guys might or might not know, Cannabis Liberation Day will once again take place in Grand Circus Park in Detroit, the Motor City, on Sat. May 7, 2011. This year there's reportedly 420 cities who have expressed interest in sponsoring an event, and we're sure it will be one of the biggest yet. Our esteemed colleague, Jay Hayburner, who started Detroit Liberation 11 years ago, is not available since he's incarcerated for, you guessed it, cannabis. So this year the field is wide open. I would like to get every compassion center, every grower, every activist out there on Woodward, and at 4:20 give Detroit the biggest Pro-Cannabis March ever. I am open to ideas from anyone to make this an awesome day of celebration. If you know anyone who is a pro-cannabis performer (musician, poet, artist, mime) please ask them to attend this event. We'll give them a chance to perform for the crowd. Anyone who wants to come down and say a few words about their own experiences will have an open mic at our event. As to vending, each vendor will have to work that out with the city of Detroit. I would recommend doing that before April 20. (Puff Puff). I will update everyone on the status of our event as information becomes available. Peace. For More Info: Paranoia Will Destroy Ya! Who is an activist's #1 enemy? Go ahead make a list. Then cross them all off. Because an activist's #1 enemy is...Himself! Activism is a tough gig. It requires sticking to your guns when everyone around you is calling for your head. It asks for a lot and gives back very little. Nowhere is this felt more than in the cannabis movement. Just like the Christians they are being thrown to the lions for no good reason. They're being brutalized, locked up, & persecuted. Their property is being taken away from them. They're losing their families, their dignity, their freedoms. All because they smoke cannabis. A plant. For a cannabis activist this is a hard pill to swallow. And so they make a commitment to defend the persecuted, to stand up when necessary. That's what Free De Herb is all about. It's about innocent people being destroyed by unfair laws. It's about being subject to an evil rule, where police and courts look at you as another number on a docket. It's about ending the War On Cannabis once and for all. And you just don't hedge on that bet. I'm an activist. And I intend on seeing cannabis legal in my lifetime. I am so tired of 'potheads' who, in addition to confirming stereotypes about our culture, don't want to get involved. And these are oftentimes the biggest whiners after a run-in with the Five-O. They'll bitch when it's their precious freedom on the line, but when you ask them to step up for the cause they somehow have better things to do. (How many of these award winners do you know?) For Cannabis Legalization the time is now! And every single smoker, grower, patient, and advocate needs to get on the legalization train (Boarding at 4:20). We'll win your battle for you, but please step back if you're paranoid. We don't need another obstacle in our way. People who are paranoid are concerned with one thing: Themselves. It's a totally selfish condition brought on by purely selfish desires. Paranoid people never question why they live in fear. They just do. Once paranoia is a part of you it becomes a cancer. This 'cancer' is usually what stops all forward progress. It effectively gives us reasons not to try. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that paranoia is all in our minds. Are there enemies out there? Of course. But do they really give a crap about you posting something on a Facebook group? Maybe you're afraid they'll cancel your Facebook page. Sorry, but Facebook's got a thousand reasons to cancel your account, none of which have anything to do with cannabis. So what are you afraid of? Ironically, your fear is what the Cannabis Nazis are looking for. Because as long as you 'fear' them they can control you. Why do you think they raid legitimate compassion centers all the time? It's part of the Mind-Fuck, to keep you on our toes. Well they can't arrest all of us. And there was a time when the cannabis culture recognized that. Where's My Real Freedom Fighters? “Is The War On Cannabis Over? Not Even Close!” After my morning coffee and a bowl of Sour Diesel I started thinking; About The War On Drugs, and how cannabis doesn’t belong anywhere near it. That cannabis is a plant. A PLANT. And a plant is not a drug regardless of the dictionary you’re using. So why is it still being called a drug, even though there’s no evidence to support such a claim? Stupidity. Arrogance. Control. Take your pick. But the important fact is, cannabis isn’t a DRUG. So it’s inclusion in the War On Drugs is completely bogus. Every cannabis arrest, prosecution, & imprisonment is EVIL. If you support the War On Cannabis you’re EVIL. I for one am not going to sit by while EVIL people run our state, our country, our world. So you’ll have to pardon me if I sound angry, but I'm fucking pissed. And I’m not going to take it anymore! And I’m not calling out anyone. Not law enforcement, not the courts, not the police. I would rather change things through reasonable dialogue, support the idea of the community participating in cannabis issues, sit down with Law Enforcement and talk to them face to face. And I still support such ideas. But the cannabis culture has gotten soft. The activists who used to tell the Pigs to Fuck Off are now voting Republican. And everyone’s afraid to say anything for fear of Big Brother kicking in their door. A Global Internet Community has given way to mass-paranoia and one-dimensional conversations. Face it. We’ve become our own worst enemy. And it’s time to return to those days of yesteryear, when the word Revolution didn’t cause mass hysteria and there was such as a thing as community organizing. We are all we got people. If we don’t support each other, who will? So once again, I send out a message of good will to my Real Cannabis Brothers & Sisters. If you hear me say, “Hell Yeah!” Then roll a phat one. “Medical Marijuana – Who Really Won?” In 2008 63% of Michigan voters approved The Michigan Medical Marijuana Act, effectively making it legal for residents with certain medical conditions to cultivate, smoke, and bake their favorite buds. This was celebrated throughout the cannabis community as it signified a new day for the sick and depressed among us who chose cannabis over mass-produced drugs. And in spite of the fact that this law has benefited all cannabis users just by existing, it has also given us a number of additional challenges. #1. Mind Fuck=Paranoia. The System’s favorite ally. Sure they’ll give you something. But then they’ll weasel their way out of it, and even sabotage you once you’re not looking. It’s also called the old Bait & Switch. We’ve been hornswoggled for so long, a lot of us are used to it. But if you get used to being compromised, you’re doomed. Even though medical marijuana has been legal for more than 2 years, sick patients and their caregivers are still being taken down and their lives still disrupted. Is there no relief? #2. Us & Them. Additional pressures are being put on the recently liberated. Under the Michigan law you can be cited and jailed for sharing your medicine with a non-card carrying person. Which means they can set up a narc in your midst, and if you pass them a joint of that bad-ass bud your grower just laid on you, you could be on your way to the hoosegow. What has been the effect of this thus far? Certified medical patients are scared shitless and they close themselves off in hopes of remaining undetected. So, let’s review. The voters approved medical marijuana (by a substantial margin I might add), and sick patients are now more closed off and paranoid than ever before. Funny thing, laws. Eh? #3. A bill is already circulating in the Michigan Senate that will harass and eventually forbid compassion centers from coming into your neighborhood. After all, who wants a bunch of sick people in wheelchairs gumming up the place? Many local authorities have referred to compassion clubs as ‘criminal enterprises’, setting up task forces to close them down. And to the average American you’re still just a “burner’. What we learn here is this: Our fight is as one culture. Not medical and recreational users separate, but Cannabis Smokers United. Union 420! You may think you’ve been liberated, but the slave owners are already working on getting their slaves back. #4. The list of acceptable conditions to become “Legal” reads like the log at a Hospice Center. You pretty much have to be at death’s door or on the road to ruin. The MMMA, while well-meaning has addressed only part of the War On Cannabis. I would argue that its main redeeming value is instead of smoking Regos we’re now huffing Sour Diesel. Whoops. There goes that criminal element again! In summary, medical marijuana is being challenged at all levels, in every municipality. Prejudice against cannabis users is still being felt, and some might say it’s getting worse. Voters seem to be OK with Medical uses but bring up Recreational and the thumbs start twitching downward. As long as cannabis is being classified as a drug, it will be treated as such. And I don’t want to have to contract a serious condition to enjoy de herb. Do you? The Bash Michigan's Hash Bash is a celebration of the cannabis culture, held each year on the first Saturday in April. This year the date to put on your calendar is April 2nd. As is tradition the event kicks off at "High" Noon on the Diag at U of M, and moves on to Monroe St. at approx. 1:00pm, where the Monroe Street Fair takes place. This is a wonderful gathering of heads, lovers of cannabis, and activists, all showing love for their fellow human beings. In fact, if you’d like to attend the Hash Bash for the first time, just show up on April 2nd and follow the beautiful people. It’s that easy! Begun in 1972 after the John Sinclair rally/concert “ten for two”, which lit a fire under cannabis supporters everywhere, the Hash Bash has become an Ann Arbor tradition. And don’t think that members of Ann Arbor’s law enforcement community haven’t recognized this. They are known for objecting to the event, and some have even sought to end it. But it continues, and for one good reason: People show up to support it. The Hash Bash is nationally recognized, and it’s here to stay. For those of you afraid to attend this event because you think the place is surrounded (It probably is. Sorry optimists), there are certain guidelines you can follow NOT to get busted. #1) The cops are looking for the obvious. They’re looking for potheads firing up a “J”. They’re looking for the hippies, the burners, the dealers. Don’t give them an easy look. What a trip it would be if all the attendees at the Bash wore three piece suits one year instead of jeans and t-shirts. It would totally fuck their heads up. So don’t be a burnout. Be a productive citizen who just happens to smoke cannabis. Those people do exist don’t they? #2) Cannabis possession is a civil offense in the city of Ann Arbor, although State & Federal laws still apply, so BE SMART. Smoking on or near any U of M property will be looked at as a cardinal sin. And after getting taken down for smoking a joint in 2000, I can tell you they go out of their way to humiliate and embarrass you. Smoke on the Diag at your own risk. #3) This is a pro-cannabis event, and city residents expect the “freaks” to come out on Hash Bash day. This is our strength. They’re expecting us. And no matter what you say about cannabis supporters, they bring money to spend, and they’ll buy food and drinks galore. The centerpiece of Monroe St. is Dominics, and they clean up every year. So there’s a kind of love-hate relationship going on. Play up the Love and play down the Hate. #4) We all love each other. We’re there to have a good time. Doesn’t everyone want to support love? The Hash Bash is the kickoff for Cannabis events world-wide. It is an Icon, a Tradition, and an American Original! Greetings To All My Cannabis People. I am the bearer of Good News! We are about to beat this ego-centric War Against Cannabis once and for all. And all my real Freedom Fighters are going to be a part of it. We will march. We will rally. We will petition. We will holler. We will change the game. There’s been a lot of talk lately about the Egyptian people and their non-violent victory over a corrupt government. Well, my Brothers & Sisters, it’s time for a Cannabis March on Washington! All of us, the wind whipping our hair and 420 smiles on our faces, walking right up to the “House” and telling President O’Bama to “Get It Legal!” And we’re not leaving if we don’t get what we want. Get ready for a giant tent city of stoners and patients right under the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument being turned into the world’s biggest bong. Because We Are One Family. We Are One Power. We Are One. I Love My Family. I recently posted a comment to Mike Bouchard's Facebook page regarding his attack on 'marijuana' smokers. Mr. Bouchard, who is the Sheriff Of Oakland County, has persistently harassed medical marijuana compassion centers and blocked pro-marijuana events from taking place within his borders. His latest comment regarding 'busts' on centers in Ferndale and Waterford, MI was "This is Michigan, not some Cheech and Chong movie,", and he has likened the compassion centers, which are set up legally through Michigan's Medical Marijuana Law, to "organized crime". It is unquestionable that Mr. Bouchard has thrown down the Gauntlet on pot smokers and will resist the LEGAL right of medical 'marijuana' recipients to acquire and use their medicine. In my comment I asked Mr. Bouchard how long this facade was going to continue, how long before taxpayers start refusing to foot the bill for all his 'marijuana' arrests and incarceration of sick patients. Of course I never got a response and I didn't really expect one. Mr. Bouchard knows deep down in his heart that they are persecuting the wrong people, that this war against an herb is wrong & immoral. But hey, somebody has to be the scapegoat when money's at stake. Busting potheads is very lucrative for Mr. Bouchard and his cronies. In addition to Michigan's drug seizure laws, which bring in untold amounts of property that can be sold at a 100% profit, law enforcement and courts are welcome to apply any 'charges' to a defendant once they drag them through the legal mud. Probation fees, drug testing fees, tether fees, they even charge you for the jail time itself! No wonder Mr. Bouchard is so involved in busting potheads. But the community should be very disturbed by this. And don't think that people aren't noticing how law enforcement places things like assault weapons and bales of money out in front of the 'evil weed', as if to further vilify it and excuse their actions against their fellow citizens. Shame on you Mr. Bouchard! Dear Mike Bouchard I'm not a resident of Oakland County, but I can't help but see how hostile you are to the Medical Marijuana law which voters overwhelmingly approved. If I didn't know any better, I'd guess you have a hidden hostility towards the cannabis culture and you're using your lofty position to push your own agenda. The voters don't want you to keep busting marijuana users. So why are you still doing this with alarming frequency? Why are your troops still kicking in doors and busting people for a plant? A PLANT! Do you know Mr. Bouchard? Or are you so drunk with power that you can't see anything reasonable? I think it's the latter. Funny. You don't look like a fanatic. But your deeds and actions tell otherwise. What are you hoping to achieve? Some Social Utopia? Or are you just living in the past, holding onto the old myths that cannabis is a "gateway drug"? Have you ever studied cannabis Mr. Bouchard. Do you know anything about it besides the fact that it's illegal? I'm betting you don't. Because if you did the necessary research you would find that in 5000 years of use cannabis has NEVER caused a single death, has never been proven to be physically addictive, and cures or helps hundreds of health disorders, including cancer.You can choose not to believe these claims, but you cannot ignore their existence. Where did you get your medical degree Mr. Bouchard? From a cereal box? Are you seriously telling the residents of your county that this glorified Witch Hunt on cannabis users is necessary, let alone fiscally responsible? Oh, I forgot. Oakland County has so much money to spare that it can choose to engage in these sort of Gestapo tactics. Well then, go ahead Mr. Bouchard. Heaven knows I can't do anything to convince you otherwise. But remember one thing. You war on our culture is an abomination, and if you continue you are betraying your residents, the voters, and your own conscience. Good Day Medical Pot Bust A New DEA Strategy The DEA, now unable to raid legal cannabis clubs, has turned to targeting the activists who supply them. Cures Not Wars, founded by Dana Beal, has been involved in supplying cannabis clubs in New York and across the East coast for as long as they have existed. Two of his associates, Chris Ryan and Jay Statzer have pled no contest to felony charges for aiding legal cannabis clubs. Dana had been busted for medical pot before in '91 en route to patients in Boston. He is currently up on similar charges. The drug war line is that medical cannabis will be diverted into the illegal market. The reality is the opposite says Statzer, "The DEA didn't take that 180 pounds off the street, I did! This is a friendly fire incident in the war on drugs." This operation was purchasing in the Southwest at distributor cost so the patients on the East coast could buy their medicine below wholesale cost. Considering the quantity restrictions poisoning many medical cannabis laws, this service is often an illegal one. One needing activists, not dealers. For example, the Michigan law provides for caregivers to enter the illegal market to divert pot into the hands of their legal patients. However, a limit of two and a half ounces forces the caregiver to pay inflated retail prices. You need to buy at least a pound to get a wholesale price break. Like the (passed by Republicans to bankrupt Medicare) poison pill of Medicare Part D, there is no ability to negotiate the drug prices in the law and that hurts the patients. This is a need that should go away once everybody's plants are matured and cured but there can be that need for many months for every new patient. When Jay was arrested, it was by two K-9 officers who were assured by their guidance to lie their way into the stop and search. Then, the DEA was right there for the booking. The DEA wrote a lie into the report that Jay had refused to do a controlled delivery. "I would have been happy to lead the DEA right to the door of the compassion club knowing they couldn't raid. They knew too and that's why no such offer was made. I only refused their one attempt to get a statement before they flew back to DC. They deliberately jacketed me as a dealer to hide their motive." Unfortunately for Statzer he will not be allowed to bring the DEA agents, the director of the club he was delivering to, or any other evidence to prove his intention before an Ohio jury and is forced by 18 years of mandatory minimum time to take a plea. The core questions remain to be tested. Can legal medical cannabis be transported from one legal state to another? Will the DEA continue to target activists as if they were drug dealers for taking pot off the streets? If a patient can't afford the medicine is there really a right to the medicine? How can any law be legal if it contains racist hate speech like "marihuana" in its text? Jay Statzer Get It Legal! We now know that cannabis legalization is entirely possible and that the persecution of our culture, which is nothing more than social genocide, will have to end. Yes, Johnny Law is still cracking us in our heads for doing nothing more than smoking a harmless herb, but the lies and deception that have permeated US policy on cannabis is beginning to wear thin. Even the public is getting tired of spending countless tax dollars on busting kids for smoking pot and incarcerating thousands of adults for their chosen medicine and beliefs. Eventually it will be necessary for those in power to acknowledge that this War On Drugs is a War On People, and our leaders would never continue such practices, let alone support them. With a major vote in California barely getting defeated, and subsequent votes being proposed daily, the march for cannabis liberation carries on. And it's never been more important for all pot smokers and supporters to rally together and help push this thing over the edge. In Michigan, where medical marijuana is now a reality, the fight will be even more heated. Voters have elected a Secretary Of State, Bill Schuette, who has expressed an interest in repealing the Medical Marijuana Legislation, and it's anybody's guess what new governor Rick Snyder will do to either hinder or help our cause. But one thing is clear. We must follow the example of our good friends Gatewood Galbraith and Jack Herer, and incessantly promote the cannabis cause. Rep De Herb, Mon. And don't think that just because you're not a "user" you can't help with the struggle. We know a lot of people who aren't afraid to let their freak flag fly, to celebrate the counter-culture. And to those brave souljahs we say, "Damn Right!" The Pot Head's Dilemma - "To Smoke Or Not To Smoke." Here we are in the 21st Century, and we still don't have hover-cars, space highways, or cannabis legalization. And while technology moves to realize the first two, one wonders when, and if, the third will ever happen. Oh sure. They'll throw us a bone every once in a while, but in the broader sense our politicians and judicial tyrants don't want legalization across the board. This would mean a huge loss in revenue from pursuing, apprehending, prosecuting, and imprisoning the cannabis culture. And I'm not talking about Mr. Kingpin here. I'm talking about sons, daughters, students, teachers, doctors, patients, police officers, even the lawmakers themselves! I'm talking about a multi-billion dollar business centered around medicinal persecution, or the rights of citizens to partake in cannabis sativa as an alternative to pills and powders. Cannabis, or as its more commonly referred to, marijuana, is still high on society's hit list as being a negative & destructive force on our culture. In spite of the fact that it has never caused a single death (compare to alcohol), and that most pot smokers are a peace-loving and caring lot, your average Mom & Pop household still look at it as a 'gateway drug', and therefore a potential threat to their way of life. Cannabis is almost always accompanied by harder drugs when there's a 'bust', and therefore gets lumped into the same extreme categories. If a proper survey were done, it would most likely show that a majority of those who are against cannabis legalization are avid drinkers and pill poppers. Which makes most of society's opposition to our cause purely hypocritical. But of course this doesn't stop them from pushing the issue, and smoking a 'J' in public can still get you prison time in the Land Of The Free. Which brings us to the average pot smoker, a group that is reportedly getting bigger each year (Take that D.A.R.E.!). They are often the demographic however that, come election time, are rarely seen at the polls, even when a key pro-cannabis initiative is on the ballot. Their reasons for not turning out vary, from being afraid the government will target them for signing a petition, to just out right laziness. One thing is for sure. If even half of the pot heads in this state, let alone nationally, voted when pro-cannabis initiatives were up for consideration, pot would be legal, or at the very least de-criminalized. There are pot heads everywhere. They're on every corner, in every neighborhood, every board room, and are of every nationality. They are your parents, your mentors, and your clergy. Pot heads have the numbers to politically change this country. If only they could admit they were pot heads. America is fueled by Big Media, a Capitalist machine that has managed to permeate every corner of our society. You can't go anywhere without the glare of Big Brother peeking out from a sign, billboard, magazine, TV, or storefront. And what Big 'Media' Brother teaches you is similar to what George Orwell envisioned, "Be good. Don't smoke that 'wacky tobacky'. Watch these shiny objects. Drink booze and smoke cigs like real Americans. Go to sleep." Unfortunately, much of America has sucumbed to this 'eternal sleep'. They go along with what their Corporate overlords tell them to: buy the products, believe the bullshit, live in fear. Which is why so many pot heads are afraid to stick their necks out for the pro-cannabis movement, why they prefer to smoke their bud behind locked and bolted doors. They FEAR. The fear-mongers, members of law enforcement and the judicial system, have gotten into their heads. "Thought crime does not entail death: Thought crime is death."--George Orwell. A recent pro-cannabis vote in California was defeated primarily because the growers of Humboldt County (and other lucrative pot growing areas) feared legalization would hurt their bottom line, a move fully supported by the anti-cannabis movement. Here it wasn't pot smokers who determined the fate of cannabis in Cali but businessmen, who used their riches to help defeat the bill. Just imagine how that vote would have turned out if only a fraction of the non-voting-pot smoking community turned out on November 2nd. They'd be smoking Killer Cali in the streets right now. "Think For Yourself" has never been more important. We've been manipulated and most people either don't know it, or they're just too afraid to admit it. Fear of cannabis is completely irrational. It is a beautiful & graceful plant with untold resources and pleasures to offer. It may not be your cup of tea, but it is for millions of others, and it always will be. Hundreds of years from now, people will be smoking a spliff in their new hover-car as they listen to Bob Marley. Cannabis will never die. It will continue to grow, and each generation will have its 'heads'. And It Will Be Good. So pot heads. What's it gonna be? Are you gonna let your freak flag fly, or are we going to continue bailing you out of jail because of your choice of medicine? It's totally up to YOU. The movement is ready to fight the hypocrites who flood our legal system, but we need your help to put this thing over the top. All we're asking from you is to sign a petition every once in a while and go out to vote. It's once every two years! And we must all work together to educate the public about the misconceptions regarding De Herb. This may be as simple as talking to a stranger who's on the fence regarding legalization issues, or wearing that Hash Bash shirt to a family reunion. But hiding isn't the answer. And that's what a lot of pot smokers are doing right now. Consider this a challenge. Prove me wrong America! Come out for Cannabis Liberation Day on May 7th, 2011 in over 300 cities world-wide. Make this year's events the biggest ever! If we all work together, this senseless and crazy war against cannabis can finally come to an end. Liberation Is Coming! MAY 7th, 2011 IS "J" DAY! For the 11th consecutive year Cures Not Wars is sponsoring a Cannabis Liberation Day march and rally in Detroit, Michigan at Grand Circus Park, 1601 Woodward Ave, directly in front of Comerica Park. The purpose for this event is to decriminalize adult use of cannabis world-wide and free up government resources that are being devoted to prosecuting cannabis related offenses. Cures Not Wars would like anyone who has been affected by today's oppressive anti-cannabis laws to attend, as well as anyone who believes in personal freedom. We plan to have music, speakers and much more, and there is no admission to attend. Medical marijuana patients & compassion centers will have a special place at our event, and they can consider themselves our guests of honor. We'll kick off the day's festivities at "High" Noon, and plan to go until 6 or 7pm. A march is planned for 4:20pm on the streets of Woodward Ave., in one of Detroit's busiest metropolitan areas, and we ask that you bring signs to carry or materials to make signs, such as poster boards, markers, etc. This is not just a gathering of cannabis advocates, but a celebration of the cannabis culture as well as Michigan's recent medical marijuana legislation. We offer a peaceful and positive way to show the community that wasting tax dollars on busting potheads is a drain on all citizens, and that such laws need to be repealed. What makes this event special is the people. Much like Ann Arbor's Hash Bash, which attracted thousands of cannabis supporters last year, Detroit's Liberation Day will be teeming with the young, the old, and everything in between. So won't you please be a part of it. We welcome anyone who would like to speak or perform at this year's event. The exposure factor should be pretty sweet and your contribution will be greatly appreciated. Any questions? Check out our official website at: or Overgrow The Government! Did You Know? - In Canada, there are two precedents for selling marijuana seeds: 1) R. v. Hunter in the year 2000, the BC Court of Appeals found that a $200 fine, not jail time, is the appropriate punishment for selling seeds. 2) On March 7th, 2008, the BC Appeals Court released a decision that the punishment for selling cannabis seeds should not be more severe than one month in prison and one year of probation, the punishment handed to a marijuana seed retailer in BC who was selling to Americans. - Marc Emery, Michelle Rainey and Greg Williams never went to the United States. The seed business, "Marc Emery Direct Marijuana Seeds", was Canadian-based and run by Marc Emery. There were no US-based employees, and only regular mail was ever sent across the border from Vancouver, BC to Americans who made orders online or through the mail. - According to a 2005 survey done by the Strategic Counsel & Angus Reid Polling, 58% of Canadians opposed extradition in this case. In the years since, public opposition to extradition has only grown, with national newspaper editorials, local news columnists, and even Members of Canada's Parliament all urging the Justice Minister to refuse extradition in this case. - Marc Emery paid Income Tax to Revenue Canada and Revenue BC on all of his income generated from his seed business. He paid more than $500,000 in taxes between 1999 to 2005, and put his occupation on the income tax declarations as "marijuana seed vendor". - Marc Emery's magazine "Cannabis Culture" was sent to every Member of Parliament for over 12 years, and still is today. Every issue of Cannabis Culture up to #57 (the issue printed on the very same day as the raid on Marc Emery's seed business, July 29th, 2005) included the entire seed catalogue in it, so Parliament knew about the business. - Health Canada, when it first began licensing medical marijuana users, recommended to Members of Parliament and licensed users that new cannabis growers should purchase seeds online from Canadian seed sellers such as Marc Emery Direct. Svend Robinson, the New Democratic Party Health Critic in Canadian Parliament, will testify to that fact. The Weed Generation In my life I've smoked Michuacan, Monkey Paw, Thai Stick, Panama Red, Columbian Gold, Maui Waui, Northern Lights, Bubble Gum, Jack Herer, Sinsemilla, Purple Kush, Chronic,Blunts, Bongs, Vaporizers, One Hitters, Hookahs, and yes, even a toilet paper roll with tin foil. I am not Tommy Chong by any stretch of the imagination, but I have smoked enough bud to kill every single brain cell in my body. And yet I'm as fit as I've ever been, as thoughtful and productive as I've ever been, and I'm looking forward to the future. Not at all like those anti-pot commercials where the "addicted" are lethargic and pretty much brain dead. It seems that nowadays we can't buy a break in the mainstream media, in spite of our Seth Rogans and our Snoop Doggs. To them we, the potheads of this great nation, are a hindrance to progress and should be vilified. When I look out here and see the smiling faces, happy because they just smoked a fattie, I know that they're my people. What the media sees however is bunch of hippies and n'er do wells, people who should just be happy that they live in a country as great as America and stop bitching about little things like losing your property because you decided to grow a few seed bank plants in your basement or going to jail and pissing in a cup because you were pulled over and the officer found a roach in your ashtray or losing your children because someone at their school found out that you like to spark up every once in a while or losing your job because you came up dirty on a random piss test. I mean, why can't you freaks drink booze like everyone else? The fact that you can still go to jail for a very long time for growing what is one of the most beautiful and useful plants in the world is an American tragedy. The fact that sick people are being thrown in jail for growing their medicine is an American tragedy. The fact that nearly every business violates our right to privacy by forcing us to piss in a cup is an American tragedy. This country wastes enough money each year apprehending and incarcerating marijuana offenses to fund thousands of schools and enhance thousands of communities. This too is an American tragedy. In closing I'd like to say to all the police officers, judges, prosecutors out there to take a serious look at themselves. To realize that we're all human and we're all looking to fill that void. We're all on drugs of some kind, or we're drunk, or we're speeding on caffeine. America is a drugged nation! So before you accuse me take a look at yourself. Be A Champion-Smoke Cannabis! Early in 2009, 8-time Olympic gold medal winner Michael Phelps was photographed smoking a water bong containing, GASP!, marijuana. This set off a storm of controversy created mostly by America's media outlets, and before he knew it, the man who just months earlier was declared the greatest Olympian athlete ever became America's scapegoat. Why? Because he decided to smoke marijuana. The only relevant question here is, "Does mainstream America really believe that Michael Phelps is now a common criminal because he smokes De Herb, or was this just more smoke and mirrors by the Pro-Republican media?" I tend to think the latter. Recent state-wide votes on marijuana have been considerably favorable, even winning out in prehistoric drug states like Michigan. (Oh yeah, Thank You Voters!!) So I think the public are actually supporting decriminalization of marijuana for medical purposes. It's the politicians who invest heavily in the justice system, with its over-the-hill judges who look at crime and punishment as a way to avenge their own shortcomings, who are against it. Marijuana related offenses are the easiest to prosecute and drug offenses represent the biggest profit for state governments. But they don't stop there, Oh No. Once they put you in prison, then they go after everything that's in your name. Cars, RVs, property, your home. And once you do get out, to nothing by the way, then society doesn't want to give you a job because now you're an ex-con. All because you like to smoke a little bud. I'm sorry, but what the government is allowing to happen to its citizens is as close to Nazi Germany as we're going to get. Does it really matter that instead of leading us to a gas chamber they're leading us to a cell? It doesn't matter to me. This war on marijuana is a war on people. It's a war fought for greed and power, a war funded by America's Conservative Front so they can continue their prison state mentality and enslave us all. While this might sound like a far fetched idea, think for a second about what happened to Michael Phelps. This man did nothing more than make a bad judgement call and he lost one of his biggest endorsers, Kelloggs. If you listen to Kellogg's side of the story, making a mistake is not part of Kellogg's philosophy. Neither is forgiveness or restraint. Kelloggs is part of that Republican funded prison state and we, the productive pot smokers of America should not spend our money on any of their products. There's just way too many brands of cereal out there. And to Michael Phelps, I wish you many happy bong hits. Inside Job Corporate and governmental concerns are clearly centered on keeping marijuana illegal. This is evident by the huge drug testing industry, which makes billions of dollars violating our privacy. Hemp is a threat to the textile industry, which has mastered the art of merchandising inferior products at a premium price. Even minor marijuana offenses can mean the forfeiture of hundreds of government loans and assistance programs, saving the government millions of dollars. Want to go to college on a Pell Grant? Better not smoke any wacky tobacky. And the prison complex. More inmates mean more correctional jobs, and we all want that, right? I am convinced that corporate America will never embrace our cause. It’s bad for business. And even though George W. was the biggest coke-head ever to grace the White House, the drug laws in this country are pathetic. It all comes back to the people, just like it did in 1776. We need the average voter. We need them to embrace our cause, if even for selfish reasons. Legalize Don't Criticize Pro-marijuana events have taken a hit over recent years. They are attracting much smaller crowds and societal pressures regarding marijuana use have scared many potential activists away. What remains is a core group of activists who attend every event, yet these people oftentimes end up preaching to the choir: themselves. Of course the media gives their usual apathetic coverage of the events, so the average citizen misses the point altogether. What they see is a bunch of potheads bitching about not being able to engage in illegal behavior. That is if they care to look at it at all. The fact is, without some form of mainstream acceptance our rallies and marches have minimal impact. Many activists refuse to believe this and continue to organize without adding much to the bigger picture. Groups such as NORML tend to separate themselves from the recreational user and concentrate on political lobbies. And while they can be seen passing a joint with the common folk, their focus is clearly elsewhere. What separates the haves from the have-nots is mainstream support. Progressive thinking comes from progressive people. Does this mean Michiganders are conservative? Of course it does. And that requires a totally different approach. The difference between liberal and conservative thinkers is that one thinks for themselves while the other thinks what they’re told to. And in spite of the fact that Michigan gave their support to John Kerry in the last election, they are doomed to think inside the box. To illustrate this, let’s look at the Ann Arbor Hash Bash. The Hash Bash began as a student project at the University Of Michigan, a premier institute of higher learning, in 1972. It has since become a major pro-marijuana event, attracting such stoner-alumni as Tommy Chong & John Sinclair. Its reputation reached a peak when High Times, America’s pro-pot magazine, began sending their staff to cover the event. In the mid to late 70s the Hash Bash was a true cultural phenomenon, attracting thousands of activists and curious thrill seekers. Marijuana was openly smoked (as it should be) and there was a very low incidence of problems for the city. Some would say that the Hash Bash brought economic strength to the area, especially the restaurants and bars, and that our culture was a relatively well behaved bunch. The residents of Ann Arbor didn’t really mind all the freaks that descended on their fine city every April. After all, it was only once a year, and they probably looked forward to the colorful pageant that is the marijuana culture. But at some point local politicians began frowning on the event. They saw it as a black eye to the city that so many “criminals”, many of which came from outside the area, chose to practice their negative behavior within their boundaries. Of course Michigan government, which has been in the grip of corrupt conservatives for quite some time, agreed, and the disassembling of our precious resource began. The arrests went up dramatically, and soon those swing voters, the weekend pot smokers, disappeared. The Hash Bash of 2005, while not generating many arrests, made nary a ripple in the minds and hearts of those who still believe that possession of a joint is a jailable offense. The crowd, a soggy crew of diehards, did their best to put the issue out there, and God love ‘em for that, but the lack of numbers downplayed any long term effect. We need to get the people out to these kinds of events in droves. There needs to be thousands of chanting activists holding signs and decrying the inhumane laws surrounding marijuana. Mothers, fathers, grandparents, business owners, religious leaders. They all need to show up. But how to do that? First of all, the average citizen does not feel personally affected by marijuana prohibition. They probably never bought or tried a hemp product, most were never busted for a marijuana offense, at least in adulthood, and many have bought into the gateway drug theory, which states that marijuana leads to progressively more dangerous drugs. They may not demonize the weed, but they certainly don’t support its legalization. News reports showing marijuana busts always feature footage of confiscated guns and shady characters, further condemning it for the average viewer. But we are compassionate. Right? We care about our fellow humans (I know, it’s a stretch). So the medical marijuana patient should be someone they at least respect. The problem is, medical marijuana is usually reserved for critically ill patients, making it a last resort for many. But the medical issue is certainly intriguing. Extra effort should be made to get these people out on the front line, not as poster children, but as symbols of the practicality of marijuana use. The best way to get someone on your side is to demonstrate how they themselves are being affected. We know that millions of tax dollars are being wasted each year on busting potheads, many of which are honest tax-paying citizens. Illustrate this by passing out informational flyers at non-marijuana events such as concerts. Keep the flyer simple and non-offensive. For example, the phrase “Fuck The Police” should be avoided. Concentrate on the financial losses of the average tax-payer, including the cost of rehabilitation and incarceration. But get that message out into the mainstream. Work on that majority that can actually help change the laws regarding marijuana and hemp. We know who we are. We know that we’re going to sign the petitions, march in the rallies, and support the legalization issue. But we’re not enough. This has become painfully evident by the stepping up of marijuana related arrests. We must sway the public if things are to change for the better. Even once a marginal victory is attained, the ultimate prejudice towards the pot culture will make that victory pointless.
Showing posts from February, 2017 Epiphany 7A; Kinder Than Necessary Scripture appointed for today can be found here To God the Glory Around this time last year, our then five-year-old started to repeat a short phrase that we later learned was the guiding principle of his kindergarten classroom. Be kinder than necessary. Four words. Four simple words born of love and care, that have truly reshaped my own understanding of what is sufficient. To be kind. Yes. But, to be kinder than I need to be…well, that has proven transformative on more than one occasion. To be kinder than necessary is born of grace and generosity. It assumes that we are capable of so much more and in this it is empowering. To be kinder than necessary offers us an opportunity to convey grace, to shine a light, and to embody love. In this, the phrase itself, is a challenge and a declaration; an affirmation and a gift. And, I learned it not in the bowels of the seminary library or sitting listening intently to some sermon or another, but in a kindergarten classroom. A kindergarten classroom wh… Epiphany 6A Scripture appointed for today can be found at: Note, I went with Deuteronomy... If This…Then X; If That…Then Y This week I spent a significant chunk of time grappling with the scripture appointed for today. And, in the midst of this grappling I found myself reflecting upon another genre of literature entirely. Choose your own adventure. Remember those books?If you were a young child in the 80s they were the bread and butter of junk fiction. One popular edition titled “The Mystery of Chimney Rock” began as follows… “On your vacation in Connecticut, you notice a huge, empty stone house at the top of a hill. The old house, known as "Chimney Rock:' is so dark and gloomy that most people won't go near it. But you're the curious type. Should you see for yourself what's inside? If you say, "I'll do it!" turn to p. 4. If you say, "No thanks!" turn to p. 6.” At the pinnacle of every ac…

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