Art, both badart and “important art,” can reveal the inner workings of artists’ minds. Beautiful art is at its best and most useful when it illuminates truths about the human condition, but badart can reveal the inner workings of one individual’s mind—their strange lusts, their disturbing daydreams, their antisocial desires, and their nonsensical fears. Beautiful art can speak to the general trials and triumphs of being human, but badart can speak in equal eloquence to the highly specific neuroses and joys of one singular mad mind. After all, we all like sunsets. But there’s a unique appeal to the Museum of Bad Art’s behemoth crimson cat devouring a pale-faced human under a Pepto-Bismol-pink sky.
source
Tuesday, July 31, 2018
Badart vs Important Art
Mamet
“Every scene should be able to answer three questions: Who wants what from whom? What happens if they don’t get it? Why now?”
David Mamet
France
The Washington Post
aris. (Eric Feferberg/AFP/Getty Images)
by Hamza Shaban July 31 at 9:49 AM Email the author
When French students return to school in September, they’ll have to leave one of their most prized possessions at home — their smartphone.
French lawmakers on Monday passed legislation banning students as old as 15 from bringing smartphones and tablets to school, or at least requiring that they be turned off, according to the Agence France-Presse. Officials in support of the new rule described the policy as a way to shield children from addictive habits and to safeguard the sanctity of the classroom.
“We know today that there is a phenomenon of screen addiction, the phenomenon of bad mobile-phone use,” education minister Jean-Michel Blanquer told French news channel BFMTV, according to CNN. “Our main role is to protect children and adolescents. It is a fundamental role of education, and this law allows it.”
France bans smartphones in school
This isn’t the first French law designed to beat back the encroachment of digital technology in everyday life. Last year the government passed a law requiring French companies to draft rules that limited work emails and work-related technology outside the office. Dubbed the “right to disconnect,” French officials said the legislation aimed to reduce job-related stress and prevent employee burnout.
"Employees physically leave the office, but they do not leave their work. They remain attached by a kind of electronic leash, like a dog,” BenoĆ®t Hamon, Socialist member of Parliament and former French education minister, told the BBC. “The texts, the messages, the emails: They colonize the life of the individual to the point where he or she eventually breaks down.”
In the Drink!
We just took Romeo swimming at the secret swim spot to play fetch in the water. After a few throws a he lost sight of the stick. We called him, throwing pebbles into the water to show him the way but he swam in circles and then continued to swim towards the other shore. We wondered if he was following our echoing voices. I took off my sandals and straw hat and jumped in wearing my polka dotted skirt and black vest. Romeo saw me swimming and he swam right to me and we both swam ashore.
He Drugged Them!
Thanks to Judge Dolly Gee:
Trump administration must stop giving psychotropic drugs to migrant children without consent, judge rules
by Samantha Schmidt July 31 at 6:38 AM
A federal judge on Monday found that U.S. government officials have been giving psychotropic medication to migrant children at a Texas facility without first seeking the consent of their parents or guardians, in violation of state child welfare laws.
Crystal Hana Kim
“What did you do when the food ran out?” I ask.
“We’d eat anything we could find,” she says. “We peeled the bark from trees, collected the sap, and cooked that. We picked potato vines, roots.”
“How did you know what was safe to eat?”
“I grew up watching birds, seeing what they ate, what made them die and what let them live.” She clucks. “When you grow up in the country, you know what’s edible like you know your own bones.”
https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2018/07/31/like-you-know-your-own-bones/
The President who Hates Children
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/31/us/migrant-children-separation-anxiety.html
A 3-year-old boy who was separated from his mother has been pretending to handcuff and vaccinate people around him, behavior he almost certainly witnessed in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody, according to those working with him. A pair of young siblings burst into tears when they spotted police officers on the street.
“The bad news is that the first few years of life are a sensitive period of brain development; what happens can have dramatic impact later,” said Ms. Bick, whose research has focused on children placed in foster care and institutions. “The good news is that children are resilient, and early intervention can benefit them.”
Raccoon Nation
https://www.pbs.org/video/nature-raccoon-nation/
Raccoon Nation
Season 30 Episode 7 | 52m 57s
Are the obstacles that our fast-paced urban world throws at raccoons actually pushing the development of their brains? Closely follow a family of urban raccoons as they navigate the complex world of a big city.
Raccoon Behavior
http://www.havahart.com/raccoon-facts#behavior
Raccoon Behavior
Activity: Nocturnal in nature, raccoons are mostly active at nighttime. They are most active in spring, summer and fall, and will sleep in their dens for most of the winter.
Reproduction: Reproduction begins in late winter. Females, or sows, usually give birth to 1-6 baby kits in April or May. Mothers are very protective of their young until they separate after about a year.
Social Interaction: Raccoons are independent after 12-14 months of age. Adults live in loose knit communities of 4 - 5 raccoons for better protection against predators.
Communication: Raccoons communicate with each other using over 200 different sounds and 12-15 different calls.
Skills: Raccoons possess amazing dexterity that gives them the ability to open doors, jars, bottles and latches. They are also great climbers, which allows them to better access food and shelter.
http://mentalfloss.com/article/527175/10-clever-facts-about-raccoons
King Arthur Sourdough Waffles
These are fabulous and you need not prep them the night before. I liked them better when i didn't make an overnight sponge. The sourdough and buttermilk are sour enough!! Also, I prefer to use my fresh medium grind whole wheat flour in place of white flour. I also add additional salt (double the amount) when using kosher salt and whole wheat flour. Whole wheat has all of the natural wheat germ oils in it and this is why you'll need more salt.
Classic Sourdough Waffles or Pancakes
Overnight sponge
2 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
2 tablespoons sugar
2 cups buttermilk
1 cup sourdough starter, unfed/discard
Waffle or pancake batter
all of the overnight sponge
2 large eggs
1/4 cup vegetable oil or melted butter
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
Instructions
To make the overnight sponge, stir down your refrigerated starter, and remove 1 cup. Note: This is a good opportunity to feed the remainder, if necessary.
In a large mixing bowl, stir together the 1 cup unfed starter, flour, sugar, and buttermilk.
Cover and let rest at cool room temperature (about 65°F to 70°F) for about 12 hours, or overnight.
In a small bowl or mixing cup, beat together the eggs, and oil or butter. Add to the overnight sponge.
Add the salt and baking soda, stirring to combine. The batter will bubble.
Pour batter onto your preheated, greased waffle iron, and bake according to the manufacturer's instructions.
Serve waffles immediately, to ensure crispness. Or hold in a warm oven till ready to serve.
Yield: 1 dozen 8" waffles or about 2 dozen medium pancakes.
Want to make pancakes? Simply cook the batter in rounds on a griddle, rather than in a waffle iron.
For whole-grain waffles, substitute our white whole wheat flour or Premium whole wheat flour for some or all of the all-purpose flour.
Teens Crime and Late Developing Frontal Lobes
Experts link teen brains' immaturity, juvenile crime
By MALCOLM RITTER
ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEW YORK
The teenage brain, Laurence Steinberg says, is like a car with a good accelerator but a weak brake. With powerful impulses under poor control, the likely result is a crash.
And, perhaps, a crime.
Steinberg, a Temple University psychology professor, helped draft an American Psychological Association brief for a 2005 case in which the U.S. Supreme Court outlawed the death penalty for crimes committed before age 18.
"What we really want," he said, "is to turn delinquent kids into good adults."
Partnership and Charity
https://www.oceanstatejoblot.com/educators-partnership-program
https://www.oceanstatejoblot.com/charity-foundation
https://www.oceanstatejoblot.com/charity-foundation
Woonsocket is a Good place to Hide!
Fugitive captured. The out of towners discover that our police are THE BEST.
World Central Kitchen
Founded by @chefjoseandres, we are a group of chefs using the power of food to empower communities and strengthen economies. #SmartSolutions
Washington, DC + The World
worldcentralkitchen.org
JosƩ AndrƩs
Verified account
@chefjoseandres
We all are Citizens of the World. What's good for you, must be good for all. If you are lost, share a plate of food with a stranger...you will find who you are.
Doroethea Lange
The camera is an instrument that teaches people how to see without a camera.
-Dorothea Lange
Andrew Wyeth
"I can't work completely out of my imagination. I must put my foot in a bit of truth; and then I can fly free." - Andrew Wyeth
Farm Fresh Yellow Squash and Green Zucchini
Last night I cubed the squash and zucchini and sauteed it with olive oil and red chili flakes adding a dash of soy sauce. I threw in sliced carrots and almonds and sunflower seeds. It was fantastic over brown rice.
Tree Sitters
But they also say this is about more than just a pipeline, built by Mountain Valley Pipeline LLC. It is, they say, also about the erosion of democracy and the natural world by money and the hunger for it. They see this pipeline as one more physical manifestation of the loss of personal agency in the face of an impersonal and uncaring government. They say it’s about the little guy – in this case almost all women – being pushed too damn far and being unable to take it any more.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/may/26/tree-sitters-appalachian-oil-pipeline-virginia-west
Drew Philp
“On this walk, I learned that racism is a problem that has it’s roots in ignorance. But when we say that person is ignorant, we are also ignorant because we don’t take a chance to open a dialogue. When we face [this] problem we will solve it, but it will take a long time. This is the lesson I learned.”
Drew Philp
Drew Philp's Detroit Adventure
15 minute ted talk:
https://www.ted.com/talks/drew_philp_my_500_house_in_detroit_and_the_neighbors_who_helped_me_rebuild_it?language=en
Book:
A $500 House in Detroit: Rebuilding an Abandoned Home and an American City
Drew Philp
Scribner (2017)
Drew Philp is the author of "A $500 House in Detroit: Rebuilding an Abandoned Home and an American City," a memoir of rebuilding a former abandoned home while finding his place in his city, country, race and generation.
Why you should listen
Drew Philp is a freelance writer living in his rehabbed house and most often covers inequity in the Midwest for the Guardian. He has hitchhiked the Rustbelt to speak with average Americans about changing manhood and walked to Cleveland from Detroit to speak to postindustrial trump supporters in pursuit of stories. Philp has also been published in BuzzFeed, The Detroit Free Press, De Correspondent and other national and international outlets.
In 2009, Philp bought an abandoned house in Detroit with no windows, plumbing or electricity, which was filled with 10,000 pounds of trash. Living without heat for nearly two years, fighting wild packs of dogs, and harvesting materials from the often burning neighborhood, Philp repaired the house with his own hands and the help of his dynamic community. He lives there with his dog Gratiot.
Philp has also hitchhiked the US, co-taught a class on race to all white students at the University of Michigan, written scripts in the film industry and taught for many years inside prisons and juvenile justice institutions across the state. His accolades include the Stuart and Vernice Gross award for literature, an 11th Hour Food and Farming Fellowship facilitated by Michael Pollan and a 2017 Kresge Arts in Detroit fellowship.
Monday, July 30, 2018
Johann Hari
A TED Talk: Everything you think you know about addiction is wrong
July 12, 2015 / by Johann Hari / Video
https://youtu.be/PY9DcIMGxMs via @YouTube
July 12, 2015 / by Johann Hari / Video
https://youtu.be/PY9DcIMGxMs via @YouTube
Bluberries at the Big Apple in Wrentham MA
There are blueberries cukes apples raspberries apricots cauliflower corn and beets and more...for sale!
Perfume
I found an abandoned bottle of pink perfume in the locker room. It's called love addict. It smells like teenagers and I use it as bathroom deodorizer.
My husband's new used car smells like a new car even though it's 7 years old. I will get some oranges to eat and perfume the car.
My ideal perfume would smell like my old white leather ice skates or homemade bread or basil or roasted garlic.
My husband's new used car smells like a new car even though it's 7 years old. I will get some oranges to eat and perfume the car.
My ideal perfume would smell like my old white leather ice skates or homemade bread or basil or roasted garlic.
Sniffing it Out
This dog is trained to find computers and stop crimes
Police across the US have been using Electronic Storage Detection dogs to sniff out technology as evidence.
She's also a graduate of an elite K-9 search class that trains dogs to sniff out electronics, including phones , hard drives and microSD cards smaller than your thumb.
Tales from the underdog
Dogs are built to smell.
Where we might smell pizza, a dog could pick out the wheat in the crust and the tomatoes, oregano, basil and mozzarella in the topping. A dog trainer told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. that if you took all the olfactory receptor cells out of a human and spread them with a butter knife, you would get a smear the size of a postage stamp. A dog's smelling cells would cover a tea towel.
So it made sense when a major in the Connecticut State Police's computer crimes department asked its K-9 academy — the longest-running K-9 police school in the US — if a dog could sniff out thumb drives.
To find out, Jack Hubball, a chemist with Connecticut's Forensic Science Laboratory, ordered thumb drives, SD cards and hard drives from multiple manufacturers. And he learned all memory devices use a chemical compound called triphenylphosphine oxide, or TPPO. That was the break they needed.
Once they had isolated the common chemical, the state's K-9 trainers could begin to train the first ESD dog in 2012. They spent up to six months "imprinting" the chemical odor on a black Lab named Selma.
Over and over again, they got her to smell a white, odorless (to us) powder, and then fed her. Selma eventually associated the scent with food and would search out the smell for a reward. And she found devices that had completely escaped investigators. They kept the program a secret for four years, says Halligan, to make sure there weren't any surprise issues.
Raccoons!
Last night my husband and I took Romeo out for a walk. We stopped short when we saw four fat teenage raccoons. They were climbing over and eating out of five gray trash barrels down a driveway on our street. It was about 7:00PM and there was plenty of light. It was fascinating to watch their masked faces and little black gloved hands. They're not the only wild critters in the 'hood.
Basil Almond Pesto
Feel free to experiment with this recipe! Swap in your favorite nut, cheese, green, or herb.
Ingredients
For Pesto
1 clove garlic
1/4 cup toasted almonds
2 ounces grated pecorino cheese plus more for garnish
1 cup fresh basil leaves packed
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
salt to taste
Instructions
Cook pasta according to package directions and drain, reserving at least 1 cup of cooking water. Place pasta in a large serving bowl. (I cook small pasta in my pressure cooker with salt oil and water: 1/2 the water for half the time. Save the concentrated cooking water.)
Meanwhile, make pesto. With a blender or food processor running, add garlic, almonds, pecorino, and basil and blend into a coarse paste. Drizzle in olive oil and blend until smooth. Season to taste with salt.
Pour pesto over pasta and add about 1/4 cup of the pasta water. Toss to coat pasta. Continue to add pasta water until the sauce has reached your desired consistency. Sprinkle more pecorino over the top and serve.
https://pinchandswirl.com/spaghetti-with-basil-almond-pecorino-pesto/
Henry Siegman
Must read!
The only uncertainty is whether America’s democracy will survive if Americans will allow him to serve out his current term.
Henry SiegmanHenry Siegman is President Emeritus of the U.S./Middle East Project and a past senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. He formerly headed the American Jewish Congress and the Synagogue Council of America.
Chasing the Scream
Chasing the Scream: The Opposite of Addiction is Connection
by Johann Hari
The New York Times Bestseller
The Book Behind the Viral TED Talk
For the first time, the startling full story of the disastrous war on drugs--propelled by moving human stories, revolutionary insight into addiction, and fearless international reporting.
What if everything you think you know about addiction is wrong? One of Johann Hari's earliest memories is of trying to wake up one of his relatives and not be able to. As he grew older, he realized he had addiction in his family. Confused, unable to know what to do, he set out on a three-year, 30,000-mile journey to discover what really causes addiction--and what really solves it.
He uncovered a range of remarkable human stories--of how the war on drugs began with Billie Holiday, the great jazz singer, being stalked and killed by a racist policeman; of the scientist who discovered the surprising key to addiction; and of the countries that ended their war on drugs--with extraordinary results.
His discoveries led him to give a TED talk and animation which have now been viewed more than 25 million times. This is the story of a life-changing journey that showed the world the opposite of addiction is connection.
Johann Hari was a columnist for the Independent in London for nine years and was twice named Newspaper Journalist of the Year by Amnesty International UK. He has written for the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Guardian, Le Monde, Slate, the New Republic, and the Nation. He has also been awarded the Comment Award for Cultural Commentator of the Year by Editorial Intelligence, and has been named Journalist of the Year by Stonewall. Hari lives in London.
chasingthescream.com
@johannhari101
Hard-Boiled Detectives and Eggs
Hard-boiled eggs are easy to work into your budget, and help you lose weight. Eggs keep hunger at bay and prevent big spikes in blood sugar. The protein in eggs preserves muscle mass so you can burn fat, and other nutrients in eggs support the metabolism of carbs and fat. Hard-boiled eggs also contribute essential nutrients, including vitamin B-12, vitamin D, selenium and protein.
Add Cholula hot sauce!
Add Cholula hot sauce!
Isaac Asimov
I write for the same reason I breathe - because if I didn't, I would die.
— Isaac Asimov
Tupper and Leggo
The Dodo
Verified account @dodo
18h18 hours ago
Tupper has autism, and he was having terrible nightmares that kept him from sleeping at night. But then he met a dog named Lego who changed everything
Lipstick Evidence
It turns out collecting lipstick evidence at a crime scene, whether off a paper cup, cigarette butt or piece of clothing, is a difficult and tedious process. So most lipstick brands are identified while still on the object using complex techniques—an expensive and tricky process.
Bellott’s team first examined current methods of lipstick extraction, whittling away unnecessary steps and experimenting with new solvents. The result? A two part process in which one chemical removes oils and waxes from the lipstick and then a different compound captures the remaining lipstick residue. This residue can be analyzed using a method known as gas chromatography—which is relatively inexpensive and does not require extensive training.
Since each brand of lipstick is composed of a unique array of organic molecules, brands leave a revealing ‘chemical fingerprint.’ Bellott and his colleagues compiled a database of 40 different lipstick brands, which crime scene investigators can eventually use to identify the maker of lipstick marks.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/csi-sephora-new-technique-helps-identify-lipstick-brands-crime-scenes-180958451/#cbzjV1CwESijMEez.99
Fear is Your Enemy
[His] need to demonstrate over and over that he is worthy of admiration overwhelms his capacity to focus on nearly anything else.
[His] grip on reality will likely continue to diminish as he faces increasing criticism, accusations, threats of impeachment and potential criminal indictments. We can expect him to become more desperate, more extreme in his comments, more violent in his threats, and more reckless and destructive in his actions.
Lastly, recognize that fear is your enemy. Holding onto the opposites of realism and optimism is the best antidote. James Stockdale, a Navy vice admiral, was imprisoned for eight years in North Vietnam and tortured repeatedly. What he said afterward about how he survived is relevant for anyone dealing with feelings of helplessness and hopelessness: “You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end—which you can never afford to lose—with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be."
Bandy X. Lee is assistant clinical professor in law and psychiatry at Yale School of Medicine and a project leader for the World Health Organization.
Article
Divest!
This industry has turned human suffering into a billion-dollar business.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/30/opinion/private-prisons-immigration-divest.html
Preserving our Homelands
"Native people had to be scientists in order to survive," says Green, the Natural Resources director. "So they had to understand the natural world and what was going on and how to deal with it."
Since starting the program in 2012, three additional tribes have developed similar camps for their kids: the Seneca Nation in New York, the Penobscot Nation and the Houlton Band of Maliseets, both in Maine.
Both Green and Hendricks say, ultimately, they hope kids from the tribe will get degrees in science and then come back home to lead research on things like resource preservation. They believe that as the world and the climate continue to change, it’s important that people who have historic and cultural ties to the land are the ones helping the broader community adapt.
Article
Sunday, July 29, 2018
RI's Dr. Michael Fine
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
https://www.publishersweekly.com/9781629635811
Health Care Revolt: How to Organize, Build a Health System, and Resuscitate Democracy—All at the Same Time
Michael Fine. (174p) ISBN 978-1-62963-581-1
Slum Landlords Take Down a City
It's the slum landlords that can destroy a city. When trash and dead cars litter the property drug dealers take over.
It's Difficult
“It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.”
― Upton Sinclair, I, Candidate for Governor: And How I Got Licked
Agonies
“Human beings suffer agonies, and their sad fates become legends; poets write verses about them and playwrights compose dramas, and the remembrance of past grief becomes a source of present pleasure - such is the strange alchemy of the spirit.”
― Upton Sinclair, Dragon's Teeth
Sentiment Meter or Yelp for Cops
“What we are trying to do here: is to increase outreach, increase engagement, create relationships, and build on those relationships,” O’Neill said. “I think this is important information.”
https://www.themarshallproject.org/2018/07/16/yelp-for-cops
No Wolf
“Literature was not born the day when a boy crying "wolf, wolf" came running out of the Neanderthal valley with a big gray wolf at his heels; literature was born on the day when a boy came crying "wolf, wolf" and there was no wolf behind him.”
― Vladimir Nabokov, Lectures on Literature
Knowing
“Knowing you have something good to read before bed is among the most pleasurable of sensations.”
― Vladimir Nabokov
The Reader
“I need you, the reader, to imagine us, for we don't really exist if you don't.”
― Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita
Toska
“Toska - noun /ĖtÅ-skÉ/ - Russian word roughly translated as sadness, melancholia, lugubriousness.
"No single word in English renders all the shades of toska. At its deepest and most painful, it is a sensation of great spiritual anguish, often without any specific cause. At less morbid levels it is a dull ache of the soul, a longing with nothing to long for, a sick pining, a vague restlessness, mental throes, yearning. In particular cases it may be the desire for somebody of something specific, nostalgia, love-sickness. At the lowest level it grades into ennui, boredom.”
― Vladimir Nabokov
Even by a Millimeter
“You write in order to change the world ... if you alter, even by a millimeter, the way people look at reality, then you can change it.”
― James Baldwin
Home
“Perhaps home is not a place but simply an irrevocable condition.”
― James Baldwin, Giovanni's Room
Free
Sunday, July 29 Rhode Island State Beaches Governor's Bay Day at all RI state beaches. Park free and enjoy the sand and surf at any of RI's seven beautiful state beaches – Scarborough, Roger Wheeler and Salty Brine in Narragansett; Charlestown Breachway and East Beach in Charlestown; East Matunuck in South Kingstown; and Misquamicut in Westerly. Some beaches will have special activities.
August 2nd Birth of James Baldwin
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Baldwin
James Arthur "Jimmy" Baldwin (August 2, 1924 – December 1, 1987) was an American novelist and social critic. His essays, as collected in Notes of a Native Son (1955), explore intricacies of racial, sexual, and class distinctions in Western societies, most notably in mid-20th-century America.[1] Some of Baldwin's essays are book-length, including The Fire Next Time (1963), No Name in the Street (1972), and The Devil Finds Work (1976). An unfinished manuscript, Remember This House, was expanded and adapted for cinema as the Academy Award-nominated documentary film I Am Not Your Negro.[2]
Baldwin's novels and plays fictionalize fundamental personal questions and dilemmas amid complex social and psychological pressures thwarting the equitable integration not only of African Americans, but also of gay and bisexual men, while depicting some internalized obstacles to such individuals' quests for acceptance. Such dynamics are prominent in Baldwin's second novel, Giovanni's Room, written in 1956, well before the gay liberation movement.[3]
The Masks
“Love takes off the masks that we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live within. I use the word "love" here not merely in the personal sense but as a state of being, or a state of grace - not in the infantile American sense of being made happy but in the tough and universal sense of quest and daring and growth.”
― James Baldwin, The Fire Next Time
James Baldwin Festival
“You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read. It was books that taught me that the things that tormented me most were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive, who had ever been alive.”
― James Baldwin
Faced
“Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.”
― James Baldwin
Soak in a Bath
In winter our bathtub is in the coldest room in the house but Summer means lounging in the bathtub!
Lots of Leftover Homemade Bread
I have lots of leftover homemade bread and I am thinking perhaps I'll make meatloaf or meatballs. Real summer food.
Saturday, July 28, 2018
Margaret Atwood
Perhaps I write for no one. Perhaps for the same person children are writing for when they scrawl their names in the snow.
- Margaret Atwood
Taking Romeo to the Pond
SOMEHOW
I DID actually meet my deadline....just a few changes and then Bill has to scan it all. Today was my first time driving ROMEO as my only passenger. He was in the front seat and I held his leash just in case. I opened all the windows and the sun roof. He was a good boy, sniffing the breeze, loving the trip. I drove slowly along the pond. When we got out and climbed down the bank I threw the stick in the water. He's a low rider in the water. He couldn't see the stick. He swam in circles gulping water. I threw pebbles to show him where it was but they didn't land anywhere near the stick. Frantic at this point, I threw more sticks and he gulped more water, and I finally coaxed him ashore and we went home. Whew. After he got settled I went to the YMCA and swam a mile at the pool with a 9 year old wearing a mermaid tail.
I DID actually meet my deadline....just a few changes and then Bill has to scan it all. Today was my first time driving ROMEO as my only passenger. He was in the front seat and I held his leash just in case. I opened all the windows and the sun roof. He was a good boy, sniffing the breeze, loving the trip. I drove slowly along the pond. When we got out and climbed down the bank I threw the stick in the water. He's a low rider in the water. He couldn't see the stick. He swam in circles gulping water. I threw pebbles to show him where it was but they didn't land anywhere near the stick. Frantic at this point, I threw more sticks and he gulped more water, and I finally coaxed him ashore and we went home. Whew. After he got settled I went to the YMCA and swam a mile at the pool with a 9 year old wearing a mermaid tail.
Rhode Island Parrot Rescue
One of my fellow mermaids told me about the RI parrot rescue.
Rescue! Rehabilitate! Adopt! Educate!
http://riparrots.org/
A great documentary:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wild_Parrots_of_Telegraph_Hill
Two Mermaids
I did my work today. Yay! And then I took Romeo swimming in the pond. Romeo was a very good boy traveling in the car. He stayed in his seat. Then I swam a mile at the YMCA. The water was warmer than usual due to the heat wave but it was good to swim. There was a 9 year old girl swimming in a mermaid costume for the second day in a row. It turns out that we are both named Emily and we are both mermaids!
Marinade
Chicken leg + thighs were $1.10 per pound at my butcher's ( Jamie Sullivan's SHAW'S~143 North Main St Woonsocket RI) so I bought 4 and marinated them in Asian hot chili garlic sauce, Italian red wine vinegar, the peanut oil on top of my jar of peanut butter, and the cheap champagne I found (unopened) in the street. Smells good. We'll see!
The logo I designed for Jamie will be published by Wednesday!
The logo I designed for Jamie will be published by Wednesday!
Summer
I'm not sure why but I love clotheslines. Perhaps because they tell a story. I love making use of the hot weather by drying my clothes on the line. I like to grow basil. Summer clothing is anything that barely touches the skin, a skirt, a vest and flip-flops. Ideally I want to be able to sew them myself. That is a plan for winter. Summer is taking the dog swimming in the lake because the city walks are too hot.
It's the Simple Things that are HUGE
Making myself a fresh hot cup of coffee, feeding my animals taking a bath and putting on clean clothes does wonders to my outlook on life.
Learning, Listening, Writing, + Teaching
I had parents who behaved the way 45 does. I remember all of the chaos strategies, enemy tricks, and narcissism dramas. It was trauma 24/7. This is why I ran away from home at age 15. This is why I have not turned on TV or radio in over 2 years. This is why I am reading more poetry and history and talking a lot less. I'm listen to the smart young protesters who have to inherit this mess. All of this is what motivates me to keep on learning, listening, writing and teaching.
Keep on Truckin'
One of the biggest marketing hurdles the industry has to overcome is tamping down the prevailing notion that the road is not an appropriate — or safe — place for women.
Article
Naureen Khan is a writer
We lived in a beige brick house that my parents scraped to afford with their retail jobs, and on Eid al-Fitr and the Fourth of July, we threw raucous parties. Cars lined up bumper-to-bumper in our driveway and for long stretches down the street. Guests tumbled out in kaleidoscopic panjabis and saris and were led to our doorstep by the smell of biryani.
I went to summer camp at a Baptist church, the one where Jessica Simpson’s father was once a minister, because it was cheaper than the secular ones in the area, and there was only the lightest bit of proselytizing in between trips to the swimming pool and the bowling alley. When it was my turn to bring in snacks for the classroom, I brought trays of homemade kalo jam — fat, round, syrupy Bangladeshi sweets — and was only mildly embarrassed.
What Happened?
Naureen Khan is a writer and senior researcher at “Full Frontal With Samantha Bee.” She lives in Harlem.
Sam Shepard + Jessica Lange
I love this woman in a way I can’t describe & a feeling of belonging to each other that reaches across all the pain. It’s as though we’ve answered something in each other that was almost forgotten. I look back on that whole ten years in California & I see myself hunting desperately for something I wasn’t finding. I know the Work point of view is the only true one. That life is inside. That nothing outside can ever finally answer our yearning. I know that’s true but, in some way, finding Jessie has reached something inside me. A part of me feels brand new — re-awakened.
I know even this will change. There’ll be moments of deep regret maybe. But life is a gamble. I felt the weight of that the first time I left home for good. I walked out of that house into the unknown & it scared the shit out of me but the adventure of hitting life straight on was a thrill I’ll never forget. I feel that now — along with the fear. But I see the fear stems from being alone in the world & it has a new meaning for me now. You can be alone in the midst of people or you can be alone & join with the other one’s aloneness. There can be a real meeting between two people at the point where they always felt marooned. Right at the edge. And that’s how it is with me & her.
https://www.brainpickings.org/2017/08/03/sam-shepard-on-love/
New Bedford:The City that Lit the World
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New Bedford, Massachusetts, was once the wealthiest city per capita in North America (Credit: Credit: Posnov/Getty Images)
USA Massachusetts History
The city that lit the world
http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20180719-the-city-that-lit-the-world
New Bedford, Massachusetts, is a place few have heard of. But the mark it has left on the world is profound.
By Mike MacEacheran
20 July 2018
On the south-eastern underbelly of the Massachusetts shoreline, overshadowed by the hook-shaped peninsula of beautiful Cape Cod and the harbour islands of Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard, New Bedford is the kind of place most visitors drive right through.
All but forgotten on the Acushnet River, the downtown is a relic of its 19th-Century heyday, preserved as a monument to history and a peculiar reminder of the city’s rise and fall. The quaysides and cobbles still buzz with local life, but scratch below the surface and darker, more uncomfortable truths lurk on every corner.
Because New Bedford isn’t just any town. On a visit, you’ll learn it was once the wealthiest city per capita in North America. But you’ll also hear it was where men were 100 times more likely to die than anywhere else and that the streets were once overrun with blubber and blood. The catalyst? Whaling.
“We call New Bedford ‘the city that lit the world’ for a reason,” Schnetzer told me, pointing to what was once the most profitable street in the US. “The Quakers – the religious dissidents who first settled the area – found that if they rendered the fat from a whale carcass washed on shore, then lit it, they had smokeless, scentless, beautiful lamp oil.”
As gruesome as it sounds, whale oil was a plentiful resource, and within years the operation had multiplied tenfold. To increase yields, liquid spermaceti wax was harvested from the skulls of sperm whales that swam in the channels of Nantucket Sound, then later processed into fuel.
Chores Ground Me
A batter of dough, a walk downtown, a scrub of the kitchen floor. Whenever I think that my chores interrupt me I remind myself that chores ground me. The next day; a load of wash, a sink of dishes, a pot of boiled eggs. It's true, they do as long as they are sprinkled throughout the week and not piled on back to back like a marathon session. I used to hate weekends because not working meant back -to-back chores. Now I know better. Chores ground me, and swimming centers me.
Beth Brownsberger Mader
Article
I recall a class one day in college when discussion surrounded altruism, and whether it truly exists—the idea that one could give without ever really getting (or needing) anything in return. I vehemently argued that real altruism is hogwash: giving alone always has a return on the investment, even if it is simply the good feeling of knowing one has given. Upon return from the class break, I found a wildflower on my notepad. I asked who left the flower; no one fessed up. Someone was trying to make a point: leaving the flower was supposed to show an altruistic offering. What they failed to understand was that by doing that, they were giving themselves some kind of pat on the back for making the unspoken comment, which only underlined my argument. It built up their own sense of self-esteem.
We give, and, because we are human, we need something back. What is really hard to determine, though, is when we need it from other people, or when we need to rely on ourselves for it.
Friday, July 27, 2018
Balance
“An evolved life requires balance. Sometimes you have to cut out one thing to find balance everywhere else.”
― Sarah Hepola, Blackout
“Sometimes people drift in and out of your life, and the real agony is fighting it. You can gulp down an awful lot of seawater, trying to change the tides.”
― Sarah Hepola, Blackout
“Some people are so brimful with misery they can’t help splashing everyone else.”
― Sarah Hepola, Blackout
Swimming
I went to the pool by driving a few minutes through the heat. I saw the midday swimmers and it felt good. My body knew how to glide. My goggles were foggy until I remembered the cure, a little bit of spit.
Rebecca Solnit
The magic of the street is the mingling of the errand and the epiphany.
-Rebecca Solnit, Wanderlust: A History of Walking
Casey Crafford
https://www.runnersworld.com/runners-stories/a20861949/mile-markers-hush/
Our pursuit of quiet does not detract from our time and ability to care for our people—it infuses and amplifies it. Seeking quiet is a gift we give ourselves in order to be a gift for others.
-Casey Crafford
Delilah S. Dawson
What’s your advice to new writers?
To embrace imperfection and playfulness and write what makes you feel passionate without worrying about genre, qualifications, or talent. Writing, to me, is not this stiff and stilted exercise in constant one-upmanship. It's telling your story as only you can, providing entertainment and escape and connection. And finish your book-- one crappy first draft is worth more than a thousand perfect first pages.
Delilah S. Dawson is the author of HIT, Servants of the Storm, the Blud series, and short stories in the Carniepunk, Violent Ends, and Three Slices anthologies. Her next book is Wake of Vultures, written as Lila Bowen and out this October. She lives in Georgia with her husband and children and can be found online at www.whimsydark.com.
Imagination
“Imagination is the voice of daring. If there is anything godlike about God, it is that. He dared to imagine everything”
― Henry Miller, Sexus
Book
“A book lying idle on a shelf is wasted ammunition. Like money, books must be kept in constant circulation... A book is not only a friend, it makes friends for you. When you have possessed a book with mind and spirit, you are enriched. But when you pass it on you are enriched threefold.”
― Henry Miller, The Books in My Life
One Swims
“Everyone has his own reality in which, if one is not too cautious, timid or frightened, one swims. This is the only reality there is.”
― Henry Miller, Stand Still Like the Hummingbird
Anything
“The moment one gives close attention to anything, even a blade of grass, it becomes a mysterious, awesome, indescribably magnificent world in itself.”
― Henry Miller
God and Devil
“Serenity is when you get above all this, when it doesn't matter what they think, say or want, but when you do as you are, and see God and Devil as one.”
― Henry Miller
War
“Everybody says sex is obscene. The only true obscenity is war.”
― Henry Miller, Tropic of Cancer
Life
“Life moves on, whether we act as cowards or heroes. Life has no other discipline to impose, if we would but realize it, than to accept life unquestioningly. Everything we shut our eyes to, everything we run away from, everything we deny, denigrate or despise, serves to defeat us in the end. What seems nasty, painful, evil, can become a source of beauty, joy, and strength, if faced with an open mind. Every moment is a golden one for him who has the vision to recognize it as such.”
― Henry Miller
Discover
“Every day we slaughter our finest impulses. That is why we get a heartache when we read those lines written by the hand of a master and recognize them as our own, as the tender shoots which we stifled because we lacked the faith to believe in our own powers, our own criterion of truth and beauty. Every man, when he gets quiet, when he becomes desperately honest with himself, is capable of uttering profound truths. We all derive from the same source. there is no mystery about the origin of things. We are all part of creation, all kings, all poets, all musicians; we have only to open up, only to discover what is already there.”
― Henry Miller
Aware
“The aim of life is to live, and to live means to be aware, joyously, drunkenly, serenely, divinely aware.”
― Henry Miller
Ponder
“I need to be alone. I need to ponder my shame and my despair in seclusion; I need the sunshine and the paving stones of the streets without companions, without conversation, face to face with myself, with only the music of my heart for company.”
― Henry Miller, Tropic of Cancer
Develop an Interest
“Develop an interest in life as you see it; the people, things, literature, music - the world is so rich, simply throbbing with rich treasures, beautiful souls and interesting people. Forget yourself.”
― Henry Miller
Straight to the HEART
The idea is to write it so that people hear it and it slides through the brain and goes straight to the heart.
-Maya Angelou
Dream
Two nights ago I dreamed that somehow I had my poet friend's dog. She didn't know so I had to tell her. I had no idea how her little dog found his way to my house 536 miles away. In Persian poetry the dog has symbolic meaning. http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/dog
Panic
I always anic when I am enjoying a book and I am getting to the end. What's next? I always need a running list of books preferably memoirs. My panic is equal to food panic, when there's no food in the house.
Hybrid of a Whale+Dolphin
New species (a hybrid of a whale and a dolphin) discovered off Hawaii
Thursday, July 26th 2018, 3:35 pm EDT
By Kimi Andrew
HNN Summer Intern
Last August, scientists thought they might have spotted a new species off Kauai.
Turns out, they did.
Researchers say this is the first-ever documented hybrid between a melon-headed whale and a rough-toothed dolphin.
The unusual new species has been named “Steno Bredanensis.” It was found by scientists from Cascadia Research Collective during a two-week project.
“We had the photos and suspected it was a hybrid from morphological characteristics intermediate between species,” Robin Baird, head of the research project told The Garden Island Newspaper, in an interview. “We were able to get a biopsy sample of the animal.”
Baird, along with his research team, will be back in Kauai waters next month for more studies.
During that time, they hope to get more photos of the new hybrid species, water samples, and do testing on other species in the area.
Copyright 2018 Hawaii News Now
The Role of Artist
“The role of the artist is exactly the same as the role of the lover. If I love you, I have to make you conscious of the things you don’t see.”
― James Baldwin
A Right
“It took many years of vomiting up all the filth I’d been taught about myself, and half-believed, before I was able to walk on the earth as though I had a right to be here.”
― James Baldwin, Collected Essays: Notes of a Native Son / Nobody Knows My Name / The Fire Next Time / No Name in the Street / The Devil Finds Work / Other
Larger, Freer, More Loving
“If the concept of God has any validity or any use, it can only be to make us larger, freer, and more loving. If God cannot do this, then it is time we got rid of Him.”
― James Baldwin, The Fire Next Time
America
“I love America more than any other country in the world and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually.”
― James Baldwin
An Invented Past...
“To accept one’s past – one’s history – is not the same thing as drowning in it; it is learning how to use it. An invented past can never be used; it cracks and crumbles under the pressures of life like clay in a season of drought.”
― James Baldwin
Articulate
“You write in order to change the world ... if you alter, even by a millimeter, the way people look at reality, then you can change it.”
― James Baldwin
“The victim who is able to articulate the situation of the victim has ceased to be a victim: he or she has become a threat.”
― James Baldwin
Contemptuous
“There are so many ways of being despicable it quite makes one’s head spin. But the way to be really despicable is to be contemptuous of other people’s pain.”
― James Baldwin, Giovanni's Room
Say Yes
“People can't, unhappily, invent their mooring posts, their lovers and their friends, anymore than they can invent their parents. Life gives these and also takes them away and the great difficulty is to say Yes to life.”
― James Baldwin, Giovanni's Room
No Limitations
“Know from whence you came. If you know whence you came, there are absolutely no limitations to where you can go.”
― James Baldwin
Most Dangerous
“The most dangerous creation of any society is the man who has nothing to lose.”
― James Baldwin, The Fire Next Time
Mercy
“People don't have any mercy. They tear you limb from limb, in the name of love. Then, when you're dead, when they've killed you by what they made you go through, they say you didn't have any character. They weep big, bitter tears - not for you. For themselves, because they've lost their toy.”
― James Baldwin, Another Country
Love
“Love takes off the masks that we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live within. I use the word "love" here not merely in the personal sense but as a state of being, or a state of grace - not in the infantile American sense of being made happy but in the tough and universal sense of quest and daring and growth.”
― James Baldwin, The Fire Next Time
Nearly Impossible
“It is very nearly impossible to become an educated person in a country so distrustful of the independent mind.”
― James Baldwin
James Baldwin
“Anyone who has ever struggled with poverty knows how extremely expensive it is to be poor.”
― James Baldwin
The Paradox
“The paradox of education is precisely this - that as one begins to become conscious one begins to examine the society in which he is being educated. ”
― James Baldwin
People Pay
“People pay for what they do, and still more for what they have allowed themselves to become. And they pay for it very simply; by the lives they lead.”
― James Baldwin
The Only Fact We Have
“Life is tragic simply because the earth turns and the sun inexorably rises and sets, and one day, for each of us, the sun will go down for the last, last time. Perhaps the whole root of our trouble, the human trouble, is that we will sacrifice all the beauty of our lives, will imprison ourselves in totems, taboos, crosses, blood sacrifices, steeples, mosques, races, armies, flags, nations, in order to deny the fact of death, the only fact we have. It seems to me that one ought to rejoice in the fact of death--ought to decide, indeed, to earn one's death by confronting with passion the conundrum of life. One is responsible for life: It is the small beacon in that terrifying darkness from which we come and to which we shall return.”
― James Baldwin, The Fire Next Time
Mr. President:
“I imagine one of the reasons people cling to their hates so stubbornly is because they sense, once hate is gone, they will be forced to deal with pain.”
― James Baldwin, The Fire Next Time
James Baldwin
“Children have never been very good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them.”
― James Baldwin
Rice
I love all kinds of rice. I feel comforted by the pillow sized bags of rice piled up at Price Rite. Every year I buy one. Lately I have enjoyed making rice to go with my veggie chili. I used an ice cream scoop to shape a ball onto our plates.
Today I am soaking blackeyed peas. I love them because just like lentils they taste like dirt.
Today I am soaking blackeyed peas. I love them because just like lentils they taste like dirt.
Simple Things
I'm in the country house, the room attached to the back of the house that is too cold most of the year. My husband and I sit at the 1940's enamel table and read the news on our devices with the window fan blowing at us. This is bliss. Oh and did I mention we have two flowerpots full of basil? My butcher laughs at me because such simple things make me happy. It's true! The world turns for me I don't have to get out and push it.
The Imposter: Documentary
A documentary centered on a young man in Spain who claims to a grieving Texas family that he is their 16-year-old son who has been missing for 3 years. Director: Bart Layton
Stars: Adam O'Brian, Nicholas Barclay, Carey Gibson
One Leaf!
We cleared away the small yard. Next year I might make it an herb garden. Or an herb garden in clay pots on the porch. I love growing herbs especially parsley and basil and cilantro because even one leaf makes a huge difference in a meal. At the end of the growing season can I dry them upside down in bunches hanging on a string in my office and they are good for years.
New Neighbors
We have lovely Brazilian neighbors who are best friends of Val, the neighbor who moved to New Bedford. We are still all connected Val, Sandra, Victoria and I am grateful. I get attached to the families in the neighborhood.
Thursday, July 26, 2018
Indian Market
Massachusetts
Patel Brothers
425 Moddy Street
Waltham, Massachusetts 02453
t:781.893.1003
f:781.893.6003
waltham@patelbros.com
Patel Brothers
504 Boston Turnpike
Shrewsbury, Massachusetts 01545
t:508.842.9600
f:508.842.9630
shrewsbury@patelbros.com
Patel Brothers - Grand Opening July 1st
1190 South Washington St.
North Attleboro, Massachusetts 02760
t:(508) 699-4398
f:(508) 699-0706
Dirt, Suddenly, is Somewhat Glamorous.
Dirt, suddenly, is somewhat glamorous. New York City has been leading this reassessment. An Urban Soils Symposium was held at the New York Botanical Garden last year, attracting scientists from around the world, who spoke about how city soils can be used to grow more food, improve storm drainage and counter global warming by taking excess carbon out of the atmosphere. Another conference, slated for December, will bring gardeners and researchers together to discuss how to regenerate soils that have been degraded by urbanization.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/25/nyregion/the-citys-buried-treasure-isnt-under-the-dirt-it-is-the-dirt.html
Arthur Miller
It is my art. I am better at it than I ever was. And I will do it as long as I can. When you reach a certain age you can slough off what is unnecessary and concentrate on what is. And why not?
- Arthur Miller
West Nile Virus - CDC
ROBO MESSAGE reports Turbesi Park Blackstone MA just tested positive for the virus and they are going to spray on July 30th, 2018.
Turbesi Park Blackstone MA was built on a swamp. Take precautions. Buy Deet and use it if you are outside especially near swamps.
https://www.cdc.gov/westnile/
Turbesi Park Blackstone MA was built on a swamp. Take precautions. Buy Deet and use it if you are outside especially near swamps.
https://www.cdc.gov/westnile/
by WN Virus
Jul 11, 2018 - Information on West Nile virus. Provided by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Greg Brown Rocks!
Greg Brown - Trump Can't Have That
Greg Brown - Trump Can't Have That
Greg Brown - Trump Can't Have That https://youtu.be/qI_VkjbBLXo via @YouTube
Greg Brown - Trump Can't Have That
Greg Brown - Trump Can't Have That https://youtu.be/qI_VkjbBLXo via @YouTube
That Guy
Saw the Larry Nassar of Northern RI in the parking lot. He drives one of those creepy man Buick LeSabre 70's cars bugger green. He drove out of the Job Lot parking lot slowly staring at me as I stared back. He used to walk in on the ladies changing at the health club until another lady mentioned it and I put it together and told the owner. He wasn't fired though. He was told to stay out of the ladies room until the place closed. The club is gone now so he's out on the loose.
Lucinda Williams
You can't be afraid to deal with your demons. You've got to go there to be able to write. LUCINDA WILLIAMS
Updike
I would write ads for deodorants or labels for catsup bottles, if I had to. The miracle of turning inklings into thoughts and thoughts into #words and words into metal and print and ink never palls for me. JOHN UPDIKE
Minigarch
minigarch - Wiktionary
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/minigarch
minigarch (plural minigarchs) (chiefly concerning the former Soviet Union) A petty oligarch, one with somewhat less money or power.
Julie Fast
Depression heightens loneliness, which only leads to isolation. Regardless, try to do something social—it might make you feel a little better!
Growing World of Horticultural Therapists
A path to wellbeing: the growing world of gardening therapy
Horticultural therapists reveal how outdoor projects help to support physical and mental health
Wednesday, July 25, 2018
Outgoing BPD Chief Bill Evans
Source
Outgoing Boston Police Commissioner Bill Evans says a major takeaway from his five-year tenure is a gentler approach to demonstrations and large gatherings.
During his final Ask The Commissioner segment on Boston Public Radio Tuesday, Evans said that under his watch, the Boston police department took a less aggressive approach to policing sporting events, demonstrations, and local protests that followed the violence at rallies in Charlottesville, VA.
“I always say if you come looking for a fight, with the helmets and sticks, you’re going to get a fight, but if you learn to talk to people, it’s a lot better of an approach," he said. "By experience, we’ve learned that that’s a much better approach, and now I think across the country, you’re seeing everyone handle demonstrations the way we have.”
Evans served in Boston law enforcement for 38 years. He officially retires from his post August 3 to head public safety at Boston College.
He’ll be succeeded by Superintendent-in-Chief William Gross, who will, as of August 4, be the city’s first African-American chief of police.
Social Anxiety
3 Simple Ways to Silence Social Anxiety—Right Now
Social anxiety is painful and can make you feel inferior, self-conscious and even humiliated. Try these strategies to tackle your fears
#1. Create constructive mantras
Empowering self-talk can do wonders to boost your confidence. Instead of worrying about how people may be judging you, try replacing these thoughts with phrases like, “People like hanging out with me,” and “the world is a friendly place.” It can help to remember that everyone has their own problems, and they are likely more focused on them than on you.
#2. Plan to focus on others
Ask yourself: who do I know at this event? Try putting your attention on the people you feel comfortable with. This can allow you to take a lighter approach and to get your mind off of worries—such as if you are dressed appropriately.
#3. Take a walk with your dog
Dogs can break barriers even with complete strangers, and it’s a great thing to have in common with others! Just take your dog for a walk around the block or to a local park. If you’re a cat or bird owner (or any other pet you can’t take for a walk) social media can provide a way to build relationships by sharing fun stories and photos about your animal friend.
Article
Get a Grip
Science
After Last Year's Hurricanes, Caribbean Lizards Are Better at Holding on for Dear Life
A stunning case of natural selection in action
“I think we’ll find more and more of these studies coming out, since extreme climate events are becoming more frequent and more severe,” Donihue says. “Again and again, we’re seeing that these extreme events can have an evolutionary impact.”
The Big Apple (Farm)
Pick Your Own APPLES for 2018 Season
Pick Your Own BLUEBERRIES
Pick Your Own RASPBERRIES
Now growing Pick your own HOPS
Wholesale PEACHES and other fruits available!
Big Apple Farm Store
The Big Apple
207 Arnold St
Wrentham, Ma
508-384-3055
http://www.thebigapplefarm.com/
Run Fast, Cook Fast, Eat Slow
For more quick, healthy recipes for runners, buy the book available on August 14, 2018.
Gov Bay Day Sunday, July 29, 2018
Rhode Island Beaches
PROVIDENCE, RI - Governor Gina M. Raimondo today signed an Executive Order announcing that the 30th Governor's Bay Day celebration will take place on Sunday, July 29, 2018.
Governor's Bay Day will include free parking at all Rhode Island state beaches, as well as fishing in Rhode Island's saltwaters without a fishing license. The Rhode Island Public Transit Authority (RIPTA) will also waive the roundtrip fare on all service to South County beaches on Route 66 (URI/Galilee). Service to the beach will be provided on a first come, first served basis.
"Rhode Island's beaches are some of the best in the world--after all, there's a reason we're called the Ocean State," said Governor Gina M. Raimondo. "Bay Day is one of my favorite traditions that celebrates the best of our state--our beautiful parks and beaches, our thriving recreational fishing industry and our commitment to protecting our natural resources for future generations to enjoy. I hope Rhode Islanders come out to the beach on the 29th for a great Bay Day!"
"We're delighted to welcome Rhode Islanders and tourists to visit our spectacular state beaches on Governor's Bay Day," said DEM Director Janet Coit. "This year marks the 30th Bay Day celebration, and presents the perfect opportunity to highlight the progress we've made cleaning up Narragansett Bay and celebrate the vitality of our coastal waters. We invite everyone to take some time out on the 29th and explore our beautiful Bay and gorgeous state beaches. Enjoying these magnificent natural resources with family, friends and visitors creates memories that will last a lifetime."
Parking will be free at all state beaches, which are:
-Charlestown Breachway, Charlestown, RI
-East Beach, Charlestown, RI
-East Matunuck State Beach, South Kingstown, RI
-Misquamicut State Beach, Westerly, RI
-Roger W. Wheeler State Beach, Narragansett, RI
-Salty Brine State Beach, Narragansett, RI
-Scarborough State Beaches (North and South), Narragansett, RI
The Governor's team will share information on this event using the hashtag #GovBayDay on social media.
Salt LAKE on Mars
Underground lake found on Mars
Science News
July 25, 2018 / 10:03 AM / Updated 3 hours ago
Underground lake found on Mars, raising possibility of life
Will Dunham
4 Min Read
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Using a radar instrument on an orbiting spacecraft, scientists have spotted what they said on Wednesday appears to be a sizable salt-laden lake under ice on the southern polar plain of Mars, a body of water they called a possible habitat for microbial life.
Scientists Roberto Orosei (L), Elena Pettinelli (C) and Enrico Flamini pose near a replica of the Cosmo Sky Med satellite before a news conference where they announce after first-time detection of liquid water on Mars by italian radar Italian radar MARSIS, on board the ESA's Mars at the Italian Space Agency headquarter in Rome, Italy July 25, 2018. REUTERS/Alessandro Bianchi
The reservoir they detected — roughly 12 miles (20 km) in diameter, shaped like a rounded triangle and located about a mile (1.5 km) beneath the ice surface — represents the first stable body of liquid water ever found on Mars.
Whether anywhere other than Earth has harbored life is one of the supreme questions in science, and the new findings offer tantalizing evidence, though no proof. Water is considered a fundamental ingredient for life.
The researchers said it could take years to verify whether something is actually living in this body of water that resembles a subglacial lake on Earth, perhaps with a future mission drilling through the ice to sample the water below.
“This is the place on Mars where you have something that most resembles a habitat, a place where life could subsist,” said planetary scientist Roberto Orosei of Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica in Italy, who led the research published in the journal Science.
“This kind of environment is not exactly your ideal vacation, or a place where fish would swim,” Orosei added. “But there are terrestrial organisms that can survive and thrive, in fact, in similar environments. There are microorganisms on Earth that are capable of surviving even in ice.”
The detection was made using data collected between May 2012 and December 2015 by an instrument aboard the European Space Agency’s Mars Express spacecraft that transmits radar pulses, which penetrate the Martian surface and ice caps.
A view of Ophir Chasma on the northern portion of the vast Mars canyon system, Vallles Marineris, taken by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. REUTERS/NASA/JPL/University of Arizona
“This took us long years of data analysis and struggles to find a good method to be sure that what we were observing was unambiguously liquid water,” said study co-author Enrico Flamini, chief scientist at the Italian Space Agency during the research.
The location’s radar profile resembled that of subglacial lakes found beneath Earth’s Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets.
Mars long ago was warmer and wetter, possessing significant bodies of water, as evidenced by dry lake beds and river valleys on its surface. There had been some signs of liquid water currently on Mars, including disputed evidence of water activity on Martian slopes, but not stable bodies of water.
Orosei said the water in the Martian lake was below the normal freezing point but remained liquid thanks in large part to high levels of salts. Orosei estimated the water temperature at somewhere between 14 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 10 degrees Celsius) and minus 94 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 70 degrees Celsius).
It remains to be seen if more subsurface reservoirs of water will be found or whether the newly discovered one is some sort of quirk, Orosei said.
If others are detected and a network of subglacial lakes exists like on Earth, he said, that could indicate liquid water has persisted for millions of years or even dating back to 3-1/2 billion years ago when Mars was a more hospitable planet.
The question would be, Orosei added, whether any life forms that could have evolved long ago on Mars have found a way to survive until now.
“Nobody dares to propose that there could be any more complex life form,” Orosei said.
Reporting by Will Dunham; Editing by Sandra Maler
Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Business News
July 25, 2018 / 1:24 AM / Updated 17 minutes ago
Twelve charts to watch for signs of the next U.S. downturn
Dancing is not a Crime
Opinion
Dancing Is Not a Crime
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/21/opinion/contributors/end-irans-gender-apartheid-now.html
A teenage girl in Iran posted Instagram videos of herself dancing in her bedroom. Then the police came to interrogate her.
By Nazanin Boniadi
Nazanin Boniadi is an actress, an activist for Amnesty International and a board member at the Center for Human Rights in Iran.
Beach Closures
http://www.health.ri.gov/data/beaches/
Harmful Algae Blooms
Algae are an important part of out freshwater and saltwater ecosystems. Too much algae growth, an algae bloom, can be a problem when it occurs in recreational waters. When the type of algae in a bloom can produce toxins these are called - harmful algae blooms.
Cyanobacteria Blooms
Cyanobacteria, also known as blue-green algae, occurs in both salt and freshwater, but the blooms are of most concern in freshwater ponds and rivers. These blooms look like mats or thick paint on the surfaces of water. Blooms frequently appear blue or green but sometimes appear brown or red. These blooms can be harmful to people and animals. Contact with cyanobacteria can cause skin and eye irritation. Swallowing a small amount of water contaminated with cyanobacteria can cause gastrointestinal symptoms. Drinking large amounts may cause liver or neurological damage. Small children and pets are more susceptible to the effects of cyanobacteria than adults. Dogs, in particular, can get very ill and even die from ingesting cyanobacteria, either by directly ingesting it or licking it off their fur.
What you should do
Do not swim, play, or fish in water that appears to have a bloom.
Do not let your pets swim or play in water experiencing a bloom.
If you or your pet comes into contact with waters experiencing a bloom, wash with soap and water immediately.
Tree Canopy
politics & government
Woonsocket Collects Money To Buy Trees
The state Department of Environmental Management awarded the City $1,500.
By News Desk, News Partner | May 24, 2018 8:09 pm ET
Woonsocket Collects Money To Buy Trees
From Woonsocket Office of the Mayor: Mayor Lisa Baldelli-Hunt is pleased to announce the City of Woonsocket has been awarded a $1500 grant from the RI Department of Environmental Management (DEM) to 'apply towards the thoughtful stewardship of its urban forest.'
"These funds will provide a terrific boost to the continuation of our beautification and greening efforts citywide," said Mayor Baldelli-Hunt who credited the collective efforts of the City's Engineering Department as instrumental in securing the grant funds. "They made this award happen. I applaud the proactive initiative and diligence they displayed to secure this funding opportunity which Superintendent of Solid Waste Michael Debroisse first located."
The City intends to utilize the funds to purchase several tree species for planting throughout neighborhoods in an effort to increase its supply of tree canopy, according to Mr. Debroisse who accepted the SEM's certificate of award during an Arbor Day ceremony its Division of Forest Environment held on April 27, 2018. Internationally observed, Arbor Day promotes the public planting of trees and their natural benefits.
Giraffes
Giraffes have extremely long gestation periods — longer than any other animal on Earth outside of elephants, whose pregnancies last about 22 months.
Richard Hoffman
Richard Hoffman
INTERVIEW:http://www.advicetowriters.com/interviews/2015/8/18/richard-hoffman.html
Tuesday, August 18, 2015 at 02:19AM
How did you become a writer?
I honestly don’t know. I suspect that my love of reading led me to want to write. When I was very young, I wrote little story books with drawings and dialogue balloons that I colored and my mother stapled them together for me. So I must have had the itch to do this all along. I grew up in a macho, blue collar, locker-room culture in which the writing of poems would have triggered very dangerous homophobic responses from other guys, mockery being the least of it. I was the football player with a secret stash of poetry, a cache of penciled poems in a notebook hidden between the mattress and box spring.
Name your writing influences (writers, books, teachers, etc.).
Nonfiction inspirations: Baldwin and Orwell. Poetry: Theodore Roethke, Thomas McGrath, Muriel Rukeyser. Short fiction: Andre Dubus, Bernard MacLaverty, Frederick Busch. Behind those writers are the choirs of saints and angels, of course: Montaigne, Augustine, Donne, come to mind. My recent book of poems, Emblem, is inspired by two early Renaissance works, Andrea Alciati's Emblematum Liber and Sebastian Brant's Stultifera Navis (Ship of Fools). A book I carried around and read and reread for about 10 years is Elisabeth Sewell’s The Orphic Voice: Poetry and Natural History. It’s out of print now, tragically. If I were a publisher, I’d bring it back. It’s eco-poetics on the grand scale, including the human organism in the matrix of creation. I'm an omnivorous reader, not much of a scholar, and half the time I don't recall from where I got a particular notion. I’m pretty lazy and trust in a kind of osmosis.
I’ve been blessed with wonderful teachers, especially the poets Barbara L. Greenberg, Stephen Tapscott, and Donald Hall, each of whom helped me in a different way during a crucial time in my twenties.
When and where do you write?
I try to be writing all the time. I mean that in the spirit of being “one on whom nothing is lost.” A lot of the time that means jotting things all day, writing a couple of pages in a notebook, not worrying what it is connected to. Then when I have time less encumbered by obligations — summers, vacations, those few times when I’ve been able to take some time away from home and work to devote to a book, I gather all that stuff and sort it and look for what I can make of it. Mostly I write whatever I can, whatever I’ve been given to write on a given day. Later, I gather things together. Whenever I set myself a project, I'm in danger of turning writing into homework. I always hated homework. So if I'm supposed to be writing prose (as I was recently, with a memoir under contract and with a deadline) then all I want to do is write poems and/or stories. It's the rebellious Catholic schoolboy.
Recently when our house was full with five adults and a baby (my grandson), I rented a studio because I had no place to write. It had three walls; a little wedge of a room made of leftover space in an old industrial building. No one else wanted it so it was cheap, but it seemed perfect for me! I set up tables for fiction, nonfiction, and verse. I worked in a desk chair on rollers and whenever I'd get stuck for more than a half hour or so, I would push off across the hardwood floor — whoosh — and see if anything was happening at one of the other tables, if any of the other projects seemed "alive" that day.
I’m always working on several things at once, as if I’m gardening, tending several different kinds of plants growing from the same soil. I have a couple of quiet places I like to get away to, the houses of generous friends. I spend the first two days fasting and reading and walking in the woods and remembering how to be alone, and I lay out the various things I’ve been tending: drafts of poems, essays, stories. I shuffle through the huge stack of note cards I keep, and I sort them in ways that seem right. I don’t really start working on anything until something starts working. I often finish several things during that time, but I refresh a number of things in the garden, too, and plant some new things. When I finish anything it has probably been in the works and carried forward, draft after draft, in my notes for a very long time. Maybe I’m just making the best of what would otherwise be called ADD, but it’s the only way I know how to work.
What are you working on now?
Right now I’m assembling my fourth collection of poems. There’s an art to organizing a book of poems, but I’m beginning to think I don’t know what it is. I’m lucky to have other poets I trust, Peter Covino, my wife Kathleen Aguero, D. Nurkse, who’ll weigh in. It’s weird: you have to believe there is one right way to organize the book while at the same time knowing full well that there isn’t.
Have you ever suffered from writer’s block?
Yes, but I don’t call it that. I don’t want to reify it. I think it is just fatigue, or resistance to something I might be about to say that I am not yet ready to know, or fear of someone’s response to what I’ll write. The churning, the clenching, the sitting and staring, the self-doubt, it’s all writing. All of it. If I were not afraid I was getting it wrong, how would I know if I’m getting it right? It comes with the territory, struggle does.
What’s your advice to new writers?
Commit yourself to a long apprenticeship and do it in secret. Don’t hang out your shingle. Don’t print up business cards. It’s hard enough without putting external social pressure on yourself. Take Whitman’s advice: “Dismiss whatever insults your own soul.” There’s a great deal of bullshit around us.
Richard Hoffman is author, most recently, of the memoir Love & Fury, which was a finalist for the New England Book Award from the New England Independent Booksellers Association. He is also author of the celebrated Half the House: a Memoir, just reissued in a new 20th Anniversary Edition in 2015, with an introduction by Louise DeSalvo. His poetry collections are Without Paradise; Gold Star Road, winner of the 2006 Barrow Street Press Poetry Prize and the 2008 Sheila Motton Award from the New England Poetry Club; and Emblem. A fiction writer as well, his Interference & Other Stories was published in 2009. A past Chair of PEN New England, he is Senior Writer in Residence at Emerson College.
Thank God for the Judge
“Well, the powerful are doing what they want, and the poor are suffering what they must,”
Article
Toast Bar
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/24/dining/australian-breakfast.html
“Breakfast is clearly the most beautiful meal,” said Aron Tzimas, Mr. Stephen’s business partner...
Child Abuse!
There's a smart child next door and his parents just yell at him day and night. He is already showing signs of limited language skills. It's tragic because he is SMART. He climbs explores turns knobs, wants to PLAY and connect with the world. His parents continually yell and yell. The are damaging him to say the least mostly because they don't realize that he's a toddler. They scream paragraphs at him as if he was their age. And they don't protect him from things that they should like porch railings, gas stoves, etc. They threaten him so often he is deaf to it. This is a perfect example of child abuse!
Billie Holiday
If I'm going to sing like someone else, then I don't need to sing at all.
BILLIE HOLIDAY
Virginia Woolf
So long as you write what you wish to write, that is all that matters; and whether it matters for ages or only for hours, nobody can say. VIRGINIA WOOLF
Great News for Us!
With a pending sale called off, current owner enthusiastic about dairy’s future
http://www.providencejournal.com/news/20180724/east-providence-dairy-with-137-years-of-doorstep-delivery-wont-change-hands-second-owner-says
Mischief
video
Mischievous Cat Labeled 'Problem Child' Finds A Mom Who Adores Her
Video for Cat Labeled 'Problem Child' Finds A Mom Who Adores Her The Dodo
▶ 1:54
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5Su_JEpDaE
Gustav Flaubert!
Sentences must stir in a book like leaves in a forest, each distinct from each despite their resemblance. GUSTAVE FLAUBERT
Romy Reiner
Romy Reiner
@romyreiner
14h14 hours ago
The divide in America is so deep I don’t know how we will salvage this country. It is literally the battle between good vs evil. Racist vs non racist. It isn’t about religion, political party, or gender. It’s about the fact that we are all humans. We should be loving, not hating.
High Mileage with Basic Maintenance
Our mechanic Sam says:
Honda's have developed a reputation for producing reliable vehicles capable of reaching high mileage with basic maintenance. The continued quality of these cars given their high mileage is a testament to the dedication of American Honda and our mechanic Sam maintaining an amazing vehicle for us. Some of these Honda's are fast approaching the half million mark while still delivering on the promise of outstanding quality and everyday reliability. A great commuter car!
Honda's have developed a reputation for producing reliable vehicles capable of reaching high mileage with basic maintenance. The continued quality of these cars given their high mileage is a testament to the dedication of American Honda and our mechanic Sam maintaining an amazing vehicle for us. Some of these Honda's are fast approaching the half million mark while still delivering on the promise of outstanding quality and everyday reliability. A great commuter car!
Tuesday, July 24, 2018
Article by Susan Gubar
Far from seeming narcissistic, undertaking a self-obituary can be a form of summation and of caregiving for those who may be in need of direction after we are gone.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/19/well/write-your-own-obit.html
Vote Today to (REJECT) and Keep Politics out of the Schools
Special Referendum in WOONSOCKET RHODE ISLAND TODAY
http://www.elections.state.ri.us/elections/upcoming/
Our sabotaging city council has done enough to put the brakes on all things positive (for no reason except SPITE). We believe they are accepting corporate bribes and or they just can't handle a strong smart beautiful WOMAN running the government.
http://www.elections.state.ri.us/elections/upcoming/
Our sabotaging city council has done enough to put the brakes on all things positive (for no reason except SPITE). We believe they are accepting corporate bribes and or they just can't handle a strong smart beautiful WOMAN running the government.
Bannocks
I did it. I came home from my walk and made bannocks and I wasn't disappointed. I used the steel cut oats, whole wheat flour buttermilk salt baking soda baking powder and unsalted butter. I also used my food processor to grind the oats-- something the Scots didn't have in their time.
They taste like an Emily cookie; not too sweet very textured and good with strong tea.
They taste like an Emily cookie; not too sweet very textured and good with strong tea.
Sharpen the Saw
Image result for sharpen the saw activities
Sharpen the Saw – Physical Dimension
Eat Healthy Meals. Eating a healthy diet is one of the best ways to keep your saw sharp. ...
Drink Lots of Water. It's vital to drink lots of water throughout the day. ...
Do Cardio. ...
Lift Weights. ...
Stretch. ...
Get Enough Sleep. ...
Take Breaks. ...
Breathe Deeply.
More items...
How to Sharpen the Saw – Adopting Habits of Renewal (Part 1 ...
https://daringtolivefully.com/sharpen-the-saw-part-1
Life Changing Food
A Restaurant Takes On the Opioid Crisis, One Worker at a Time
A Kentucky couple realized that restaurants have an unusual power to help addicted people recover, and created DV8 Kitchen to hire, train and encourage them.
Image
DV8 Kitchen in Lexington, Ky. The restaurant opened last September, and hires people with opioid addictions. It focuses its entire business model on helping them recover.
By Priya Krishna
July 10, 2018
LEXINGTON, Ky. — Five years ago, Rob and Diane Perez found a spoon and a ramekin in the trash at a branch of their Saul Good Restaurant & Pub, and realized that their top server was doing heroin in the bathroom.
They had already lost the first manager to join their staff; she died in jail after trying to obtain prescription pills illegally. But they didn’t put the pieces together until last year, when they got a call that a cook would not be coming into work because he had overdosed on opioids and died.
They realized that they had lost 13 employees to addiction over 10 years, and that half the cases were related to opioid drugs. “They were not fired,” Mr. Perez said. “They were dead.”
selfish pursuit
“All suffering is caused by ignorance. People inflict pain on others in the selfish pursuit of their own happiness or satisfaction”
― Dalai Lama XIV
“A truly compassionate attitude toward others does not change even if they behave negatively or hurt you.”
― Dalai Lama XIV
what prevents you?
“There is only one important point you must keep in your mind and let it be your guide. No matter what people call you, you are just who you are. Keep to this truth. You must ask yourself how is it you want to live your life. We live and we die, this is the truth that we can only face alone. No one can help us, not even the Buddha. So consider carefully, what prevents you from living the way you want to live your life?”
― Dalai Lama XIV
“Take into account that great love and great achievements involve great risk.”
― Dalai Lama XIV
Different Roads
“People take different roads seeking fulfillment and happiness. Just because they’re not on your road doesn’t mean they’ve gotten lost.”
― Dalai Lama XIV
Remember
“Remember that sometimes not getting what you want is a wonderful stroke of luck.”
― Dalai Lama XIV
The Challenge
“When we meet real tragedy in life, we can react in two ways--either by losing hope and falling into self-destructive habits, or by using the challenge to find our inner strength.”
― Dalai Lama XIV
Compassion
“If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.”
― Dalai Lama XIV, The Art of Happiness
Mind Heart Philosophy
“This is my simple religion. No need for temples. No need for complicated philosophy. Your own mind, your own heart is the temple. Your philosophy is simple kindness.”
― Dalai Lama XIV
Silence + Optimism
“Silence is sometimes the best answer”
― Dalai Lama XIV
“Our prime purpose in this life is to help others. And if you can't help them, at least don't hurt them.”
― Dalai Lama XIV
“Choose to be optimistic, it feels better.”
― Dalai Lama XIV
Necessities
“Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them, humanity cannot survive.”
― Dalai Lama XIV, The Art of Happiness
As You Wake Up...
“Every day, think as you wake up, today I am fortunate to be alive, I have a precious human life, I am not going to waste it. I am going to use all my energies to develop myself, to expand my heart out to others; to achieve enlightenment for the benefit of all beings. I am going to have kind thoughts towards others, I am not going to get angry or think badly about others. I am going to benefit others as much as I can.”
― Dalai Lama XIV
Don't Lose HOPE
“There is a saying in Tibetan, 'Tragedy should be utilized as a source of strength.'
No matter what sort of difficulties, how painful experience is, if we lose our hope, that's our real disaster.”
― Dalai Lama XIV
Dalai Lama XIV
“If you think you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping with a mosquito.”
― Dalai Lama XIV
Grown up Love
https://www.elephantjournal.com/2015/08/dating-a-man-not-a-boy-what-grown-up-love-looks-like/
In a grown-up relationship there will be no hidden agenda, game playing, control or manipulation. All the cards will be laid out so there is no need for guesswork or trying to read minds. Conversation flows freely whether it is about trivial subjects or deep and intense emotions—nothing is off limits.
The most amazing thing about a grown-up relationship is that there are no expectations placed on one another. Each day is there to be lived without having any pressure on it to be anything other than real.
Every moment within this type of relationship is a bonus—so whether it lasts a day or a lifetime, it will be a relationship that each party chooses on a conscious level daily.
A grown-up relationship is not one of convenience or one to reach personal gain. It will exist to create memories, to share the journey of life together, to adventure as a team and to explore one another’s bodies and minds.
There are no rules, regulations or conditions that need to be discussed. Each person within the relationship is virtuous, has good ethics and high standards for themselves. They are not quite a sinner and not quite a saint; they have found the balance of testing each extreme without causing damage to anyone or destruction to anything else.
Fred, I think this is love
World peace must develop from inner peace. Peace is not just mere absence of violence. Peace is, I think, the manifestation of human compassion ~ Peace in the world helps to develop inner peace. The world not only without violence. Fred, I think this is love.
Who the hell is “Fred?”
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