Yesterday morning, however, this man drives up at 6-7 am on a Sunday morning with all of these dogs yowling... we were just stumbling along, well, I was, half awake, Cici was rollling on the grass, stalking squirrels and sniffing around... the guy almost ran us over, got out of his car and I asked him if he saw us and he said yes, duh... then he said that he was going to let eight that is 8 dogs out, could we please leave, the nerve !!!  I am paying a fortune to stay in this place and he comes there with his eight dogs...we left though... did not want Cici to get ganged up on by a bunch of crazy dogs... like their owner...

then we ventured into the dog park, too many dogs there, but she did find one friend, a black lab who she chased and played with for a few minutes... then I whisked her away...

doggie heaven...  they love her at the bank and feed her treats... mostly, people here have been wonderful regarding her but on occasion, there are those who are still afraid of dogs and/or pit bulls...

The Washington Post apparently did a wonderful photo gallery of the Michael Vick dogs rehabed and sheltered at various animal sanctuaries including Best Friends in Kanab Utah and Bad Rap in northern California...

here's the link and a few other links... the other day this guy in a laundromat asked me if my dog had a locking jaw, I was stunned... cici was wagging her tail, kissing feet and doing her usual social butterfly routine and he wanted to know about her locking jaw... there is no such thing as a locking jaw... it is a myth (see below, there is a link to myths about pit bulls)... the jaws of pit bulls are the same as any other dog, K9, period end of story...  otherwise intelligent people believe this baloney... media hype and hysteria about super dogs...  yeah, she's a super dog all right... super smart, super friendly, super silly, super loving, and super playful...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/photo/galleries/vickdogs/

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/01/080128-vick-dogfighting_2.html

http://www.pitbullsontheweb.com/petbull/breedinfo.php

http://www.realpitbull.com/myths.html

Please pray for the entire Wright Family, and the Grace Tabernacle Christian Center Church of God in Christ which Rev. Timothy Wright pastors!

There is breaking news that Pastor Wright may have pulled through surgery, and unfortunately his grandson did not! Pastor Wright is such a talent and let's all remember that God is still a healer, and again earnestly pray for the Entire Wright Family!

Read Article About the Accident at Newsday.Com

New York Times Article on Accident

Indians are forever spraying, spewing and releasing toxins in other forms into their environment, blissfully ignorant about the impacts of harmful chemicals on themselves and their natural surroundings. Without preserving the health of nature, they will not get clean air and water for sustenance of life. Yet, such elementary logic does not impress the consuming class.

The NYT piece, though by no means a sterling piece of journalism (it says inexplicably that the toxic chemical waste on the Union Carbide/Dow site is "languishing" for years now), serves the purpose of summarising the situation. It also points out that many years after the tragedy, there are people living amidst the polluted surroundings. 

The State Government, which belongs to the bigoted "India Shining" brigade, has done nothing to help. It took a Supreme Court order four years ago, and two decades after the deadly gas leak, to provide water to the wretched people living in the gas leak area.

How starkly different the world of these miserable people is from the comfort zones that India's middle class imagines iteself to be in, with its opulent villas, gated security, health spas and polished cars. It is unlikely that this class of people, feeling a false sense of security thanks to their isolation from reality, will appreciate the story in question. They are unlikely to be moved, because of their deep ignorance, of the narration of Government indifference, corporate corruption and the emaciated nature of India's environmental laws and the implementing agencies.

The tragedy is that the middle class is unable to see the creeping poison under its feet, as the toxic sludge from a variety of poorly regulated industrial activities is poisoning its land, water and air. It happened quickly for those closer to the Bhopal site, but is taking place at a slow but sure pace for the rest of us.

Most of the students went to the spots the night before and waited patiently for more than twelve hours to just have a glance at Olympic torch. Millions of Chinese people along the Olympic torch relay were shouting one slogan: “Go China”.

read more and see the pictures in The Brooklyn Voice

Down Syndrome is a chromosomal disorder that results when a person “inherits all or part of an extra copy of chromosome 21,” according to Encarta. The defect causes mental retardation. For McMahon, it greatly affects his mental capacity and his speech; he has a bad stuttering problem that many times affects his ability to express himself...

Read more at "The Brooklyn Voice"

Read more at The Brooklyn Voice

Since the 1950s, he has galvanized cinema audiences the world over (albeit in this country relegated to art houses and, ironically, grind houses) with his powerful brooding performances – transcending the language barrier with his trademark penetrating glare.  Truth be told, those magnificent eyes can literally stare you to death...

Read more at "The Brooklyn Voice"

When journalists are witnesses to breaking news what is their obligation to report that news? In an era when being first isn't even fast enough any more, should a web tool like Wikipedia wait until the pubic has had time to digest the news from more traditional sources? Guidelines for editing Wikipedia state that all entries must be verifiable by other published materials.

That isn't the only debate here. The Wikipedia poster, identified in the Times article as a "junior-level employee" at Internet Broadcasting Services, a St. Paul, Minn. firm that provides Web services to a variety of companies including local NBC affiliates, has been fired. Was he fired for being quick on the draw? Was he fired for updating the online encyclopedia without confirming the facts or was he fired for not knowing that family members traveling abroad still might not have been notified? Or, was he fired for scooping NBC?

It may not have occurred to that poster that family members were in the dark. He may have deduced that if he knew of Russert's death, next of kin surely had been advised. The Times reports that he made the changes believing that the information was already in the public record.

Does his action justify his job loss? Would some form of punishment or discipline been more appropriate?

Journalists have long debated when it is appropriate to release the name(s) of murder victims, accident fatalities and other tragedies. Often newspaper articles report that the names were not released pending notification of family members. Some news organizations follow the rule that if the police release the victim's name then it is okay to print or broadcast it. One can assume, right or wrong, that the police -- or other law enforcement agency -- have notified the family.

But what is the ethical obligation of a newsroom of journalists who witness the sudden -- and newsworthy -- death of their colleague? As journalists they are trained to report the news. As colleagues and friends they are socialized to act as first responders, administering CPR, calling 911 and reaching out to the fallen's loved ones. How do we reconcile our personal and professional beliefs and practices?

I am reminded of an incident several years back when one of my colleagues at Knight-Ridder collapsed in the newsroom. An editor who recognized his symptoms as a likely seizure acted as the first responder and attended to my colleague while another called 911. Our colleague had no history of seizures so calls immediately were being made to family members and HR to obtain medical information that could be useful. Because our office building had numerous entrances, a few of us went downstairs to direct the EMS team. When they didn't arrive after several minutes, another call was made to 911. It was more than 20 minutes -- and several increasingly frantic phone calls later before the ambulance crew arrived.

This incident took place in the late 1980s-- long before Twitter, Wikipedia or even the Internet, but at a time when the District of Columbia's ambulance service was under fire for slow response time, going to the wrong address, getting lost or not showing up at all. Those of us involved in attending to our colleague (who would be fine) were unaware at the time that another colleague was doing what journalists do: reporting the news.

Amazed and angry at the slow EMS response, she took the story out of our newsroom to a wider audience when she telephoned a local television network affiliate that had been covering the ambulance story. A well-known television personality showed up unannounced in our newsroom the next day wanting to interview those of us who had made the 911 calls.

Our colleague who had needed the medical attention was adamant that he would not talk to the press, citing his privacy. Those of us who had been in the newsroom that day and witnessed the incident were supportive of his request for privacy. When the television reporter insisted that he would not leave our newsroom until he had his story, decisions had to be made. As journalists we realized that a story needed to be told about the poor response rate of the city's ambulance service. But as friends and colleagues we also respected the need for privacy.

A compromise was reached. One of the witnesses to the events in the newsroom agreed to be interviewed, but only about the response time for the EMS crew. There would be no discussion about the nature of our colleague's illness, nor would his name or any other identifying factors be revealed.

If that incident happened today, our decisions -- and our moral dilemma -- could be drastically different. The way we share information today and the tools that people use to receive news has completely changed. As new tools emerge, and the time it takes to exchange information lessens, journalists and anyone who participates in the conversation will have to examine what it means to be first.

"

Business groups have resisted measures that would revoke the licenses of employers of illegal immigrants. They are proposing alternatives that would revise federal rules for verifying the identity documents of new hires and would expand programs to bring legal immigrant laborers.

Though the pushback is coming from both Democrats and Republicans, in many places it is reopening the rift over immigration that troubled the Republican Party last year. Businesses, generally Republican stalwarts, are standing up to others within the party who accuse them of undercutting border enforcement and jeopardizing American jobs by hiring illegal immigrants as cheap labor.

Employers in Arizona were stung by a law passed last year by the Republican-controlled Legislature that revokes the licenses of businesses caught twice with illegal immigrants. They won approval in this year’s session of a narrowing of that law making clear that it did not apply to workers hired before this year.

Last week, an Arizona employers’ group submitted more than 284,000 signatures — far more than needed — for a November ballot initiative that would make the 2007 law even friendlier to employers.

Also in recent months, immigration bills were defeated in Indiana and Kentucky — states where control of the legislatures is split between Democrats and Republicans — due in part to warnings from business groups that the measures could hurt the economy.

In Oklahoma, chambers of commerce went to federal court and last month won an order suspending sections of a 2007 state law that would require employers to use a federal database to check the immigration status of new hires. In California, businesses have turned to elected officials, including the Democratic mayor of Los Angeles, to lobby federal immigration authorities against raiding long-established companies.

While much of the employer activity has been at the grass-roots level, a national federation has been created to bring together the local and state business groups that have sprung up over the last year.

“These employers are now starting to realize that nobody is in a better position than they are to make the case that they do need the workers and they do want to be on the right side of the law,” said Tamar Jacoby, president of the new federation, ImmigrationWorks USA.

After years of laissez-faire enforcement, federal immigration agents have been conducting raids at a brisk pace, with 4,940 arrests in workplaces last year. Although immigration has long been a federal issue, more than 175 bills were introduced in states this year concerning the employment of immigrants, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

State lawmakers said they had acted against businesses, often in response to fervent demands from voters, to curb job incentives that were attracting shadow populations of illegal immigrants.

“Illegal immigration is a threat to the safety of Missouri families and the security of their jobs,” Gov. Matt Blunt, a Republican, said after the Missouri Legislature passed a crackdown law in May. “I am pleased that lawmakers heeded my call to continue the fight where Washington has failed to act.”

But because of the mobilization of businesses, the state proposals this year have increasingly reflected their concerns. State lawmakers “are starting to be more responsive to the employer community because of its engagement in the issue,” said Ann Morse, who monitors immigration for the national legislature conference."

So I hit my bookmark, and soon I was checking out the newest piece by Bob Herbert. (When I say please read it, I mean please read it. Did I already say please read it?  Clickity clow here now.) And what I find most interesting-and disturbing-about Herbert's point is how easily I see myself as part of the lethargy and anxiety he touches upon when describing people in our country today. And to be totally honest, I was thinking some of the exact things Herbert wrote about while I was  watching the fireworks go off on this Fourth, surrounded by friends, many intoxicated and happy, as was I. I had had a great day, after all. And yet...something felt wrong. Something felt over-indulgent and wasteful and yes, wrong. 

I've read that when people are trying to lose weight, or give up booze, or gambling or sex or whatever it is that they have "problems" with, they first spend some time doing the whole "dude, I'm fackin' faaaaaat" thing before, you know, putting down the Pizza Hut or the prostitute and going for that six mile run. It's a process, after all. Right now, I feel like that fat person who knows they are fat but can't stop noshing on the deep dish; meaning I know that I have concerns about my country, and its direction, and my attachment to certain styles of living and behavior; but beyond "having concerns" I have yet to do anything about it. As Herbert says, I'm not exactly rolling up my sleeves right now. I prefer to cower and worry.

But take the idea of sacrifice for instance. When I think about what it means to be an American, I know, for instance, that it entails a lot more than running around my friend's backyard with a sparkler in one hand and a Sam Adams in the other, listening to that new Kanye song blaring in the background and giggling my face off. I mean, our country is at war. Even typing that makes me feel ashamed. How-in any way, shape or form-am I being made to be aware of this fact; to feel its full effect? What have I had to give up, or to acknowledge during the years since 9/11? And how is it possible that I go weeks without this ever even crossing my mind for more than five seconds? It's like I expect someone (my President maybe) to remind me of what is reality; that people are dying right now for my country, men and women my age and younger. And I feel unworthy of trying to imply that I understand this gross disconnect myself; typically, I want someone else to do it for me. Make me understand, I feel like saying. Make me understand what is truly going on, and what I can do to make a difference. To matter. Because I appreciate what I have; I really do. 

Of course, my concerns are not even just about the Iraq War or our troops who are in Afghanistan right now; 35,000; I just discovered this colossal number today...I had no idea it was this high. I do think that there is an emptiness to this society of endless consumerism and more, more, more all the time that we live in; it's exhausting to be part of this world that seems to never stop, and that tricks us into thinking that there is something fulfilling about owning thirteen t-shirts from American Apparel and knowing things about celebrities pets and babies and believing that we should always appear hip and calm and perfect and always demand instant gratification and results, in all that we do, from our love lives to our job possibilities. And that is not to say that these thoughts or concerns overwhelm me all the time-one look at my blog would confirm this in a second. I mean, please, I am far too lucky for that: I am disgustedly disconnected from any family who has relatives fighting for our country right now, and most of the time I ignorantly play into the facebook/gawker/narcissism aura of what I feel is the hallmark of my generation, and myself. So, yeah, it's more like a nagging. And I guess it's that I don't know how I turn that nagging into something tangible. Instead of tackling that 'ol "tangible" conundrum head-on, I waste my time with worry about being weak, or at least misdirected. And it's not like you can really start hollering about car bombs in Baghdad in the middle of a party as people are taking shots of Tequila in honor "of America", despite if that's when you are struck with the thought and the irony of the situation; it's poor form, and you'd look insane. (Um, who brought that girl to the party?) And hollering is not action, after all.  I guess writing about imaginary hollering is simply a step; and anything meaningful has to begin with a step. (Isn't that something Gandhi said once? Mother Teresa maybe? Bueller?)

It can seem so simple: graduate, get a job, buy a house, consume more and more and then have kids or whatever and hope that they can do the same thing. Hmmm... I'm not a depressed person, I swear. Really. But I want to feel I deserve it more. I want to think I'm beyond being a soon to be fat person in front of people.com, drooling over Jake and Reese and worrying about eyebrow waxes and how men's brains work. I'm not about to join the Marines or anything but....well, who knows, maybe I should.

(And yeah, this is a great song. Season with Sam Adams.)

We've written about how hard it is to create a 99.999 percent up time championed by the telecommunications industry, but suffice to say there are a ton of moving parts involved in keeping a site visible to the end users; the list begins with the network architecture and ends with the internet connection of a consumer in Austin. Along the way there are software upgrades, server shortages, DNS issues, cut cables, corporate firewalls, carriers throttling traffic and infected machines.

The Times notes that downtime is more than just inconvenient: As more data is stored online and cloud computing becomes more prevalent for businesses, it's less like a bar closing for a night than a bank closing for a day. But it will never be possible to keep all sites across the entire web up 99.999 percent of the time. Knowing that, architecting for failure, and more services such as downforeveryoneorjustme.com (I would really love a more memorable name for this site) and helpful 404 pages would be appreciated.

<< How to reduce oil dependency

David Kirsch, an oil analyst at PFC Energy, said that if the most promising areas off Florida and California were opened for drilling, their peak production in a decade could be as little as 250,000 barrels a day — less than a quarter of what the gulf produces now. “It’s almost a desperate attempt to take advantage of the political climate brought on by high energy prices to steamroll through legislation that won’t fundamentally address those high energy prices,” Mr. Kirsch said. (As reported in the New York Times)

250,000 barrels a day – to put this number in perspective, it's the amount that the Cantarell oilfield in Mexico declined in the last six months (and its decline will continue). It's the amount that North Sea oil fields declined in the last year (and their decline will continue). It's the amount taken offline recently when rebels in speedboats attacked an oil rig off the coast of Nigeria. It's a little over 1% of our current oil consumption and maybe a third of a percent of the world's. It's spit in the bucket.

Meanwhile, conservation methods offer us a way to reduce our dependence on oil by as much as one-third. That would be 28 times as great an effect. Twenty-eight times. We wouldn't have to spend anything, or spoil anything, to do it. We could start right away, rather than waiting 10 years. And perhaps most tellingly, it would be a benefit that actually accrued to squeezed U.S. citizens, rather than a benefit that accrued to oil companies and whoever will bid the highest for the offshore oil.

It's what the other developed nations of the world have done. Maybe we should take advantage of the research they've done in this area? Or must we live through the World Without Oil scenario first?

Wedding Guests Behaving Badly.  Almost as good as Tanno's story about the hunting themed wedding she attended...If you're friends with her, ask her to tell the story, it's fantastic.

Flip-flop podcast from the New York Times.

A glimpse of the commuting New Yorker on the Q train.

Jersey Shore town makes flipping people off legal. From the article:

"'I'm giving people the finger if it's legal, absolutely,' laughed Carlos Padilla, a 23-year-old from Dumont wearing a sleeveless white T-shirt and gold chain. He's renting a house for the season with a bunch of pals -- all of whom were drinking beer from red plastic cups and listening to rap music on the front porch one night this week."

Mmm sleeveless white t-shirt and gold chain.  Can't wait to get to the shore this summer...

The "FriendFeed" filter needed to have a couple of characters that would catch  most of the content in the FriendFeed, and I decided to go after a couple of words that were common in almost all the items in my FriendFeed:

And so, the first step was to see the kinds of words that concepts that I can pick out of the FriendFeed over the last day or so:

The Radian6 New Topic Cloud for my FriendFeed now looks like this:

And by clicking on the "Sale" keyword in the top line (in Red) I actually came to a very relevent story about the line for the sale on 3G iPhones has already been started since last Friday (July 5th)!

This story comes from Digg.com and had 773 diggs when I viewed it tonight

I could see doing this kind of thing to focus in on the content of a particular site or series of sites  - to determine what's most engaging - especially if there's Social Media on a site - and there are several sites I work with now that have social media on them - but are themselves not blogs or social networks - yet they have elements that are "social".

In that case, while it's possible the content management system of a publisher's site might give "them" (the publisher) the information about what was most commented on, most engaging.

But what if your not the publisher and you wanted to know, for example, what was the most important parts of a site that were interacted with (say a Newspaper like the New York Times); I could see where Radian6, and tools like it, can give you information on what's most engaging about a site that has "community" or "social" elements in it - like blogs.nytimes.com, sites that have community based features.

And that can be very valuable information to have - in order to tell you what's more interesting about a site from the people who use it.

I used the New Comparative Topic Monitor Widget to look at the common features in my FriendFeed and determine the activity of them over the last few days and I saw it was less over the weekend (no surprise); but Radian6 lets me click on any point in each line of the chart and give me the posts to my RSS feed sorted by Engagement - which FriendFeed can't do, today.

And to make things even more relevant and interesting, Radian6 can also tell me which parts of my FriendFeed are more "influential" using the New Influence Viewer  -  which shows me not only the influential in my own selection of FriendFeed subscribers - but the posts or items that are most influential in my FriendFeed from those sources.

This leads to stories like Unite For Change: The Investment from my.barackobama.com with an embedded YouTube Video that had been watched over 60,000 times since late June, when it was published.

Darn! I'm good ...  take a look:

Just another thought about how to use a tool like Radian6, whose owners have kindly given me access to use it.

JERUSALEM — A three-foot-tall tablet with 87 lines of Hebrew that scholars believe dates from the decades just before the birth of Jesus is causing a quiet stir in biblical and archaeological circles, especially because it may speak of a messiah who will rise from the dead after three days.

If such a messianic description really is there, it will contribute to a developing re-evaluation of both popular and scholarly views of Jesus, since it suggests that the story of his death and resurrection was not unique but part of a recognized Jewish tradition at the time.

The tablet, probably found near the Dead Sea in Jordan according to some scholars who have studied it, is a rare example of a stone with ink writings from that era — in essence, a Dead Sea Scroll on stone.

It is written, not engraved, across two neat columns, similar to columns in a Torah. But the stone is broken, and some of the text is faded, meaning that much of what it says is open to debate.

Still, its authenticity has so far faced no challenge, so its role in helping to understand the roots of Christianity in the devastating political crisis faced by the Jews of the time seems likely to increase.

Daniel Boyarin, a professor of Talmudic culture at the University of California at Berkeley, said that the stone was part of a growing body of evidence suggesting that Jesus could be best understood through a close reading of the Jewish history of his day.

“Some Christians will find it shocking — a challenge to the uniqueness of their theology — while others will be comforted by the idea of it being a traditional part of Judaism,” Mr. Boyarin said.

Given the highly charged atmosphere surrounding all Jesus-era artifacts and writings, both in the general public and in the fractured and fiercely competitive scholarly community, as well as the concern over forgery and charlatanism, it will probably be some time before the tablet’s contribution is fully assessed. It has been around 60 years since the Dead Sea Scrolls were uncovered, and they continue to generate enormous controversy regarding their authors and meaning.

The scrolls, documents found in the Qumran caves of the West Bank, contain some of the only known surviving copies of biblical writings from before the first century A.D. In addition to quoting from key books of the Bible, the scrolls describe a variety of practices and beliefs of a Jewish sect at the time of Jesus.

How representative the descriptions are and what they tell us about the era are still strongly debated. For example, a question that arises is whether the authors of the scrolls were members of a monastic sect or in fact mainstream. A conference marking 60 years since the discovery of the scrolls will begin on Sunday at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, where the stone, and the debate over whether it speaks of a resurrected messiah, as one iconoclastic scholar believes, also will be discussed.

Oddly, the stone is not really a new discovery. It was found about a decade ago and bought from a Jordanian antiquities dealer by an Israeli-Swiss collector who kept it in his Zurich home. When an Israeli scholar examined it closely a few years ago and wrote a paper on it last year, interest began to rise. There is now a spate of scholarly articles on the stone, with several due to be published in the coming months.

“I couldn’t make much out of it when I got it,” said David Jeselsohn, the owner, who is himself an expert in antiquities. “I didn’t realize how significant it was until I showed it to Ada Yardeni, who specializes in Hebrew writing, a few years ago. She was overwhelmed. ‘You have got a Dead Sea Scroll on stone,’ she told me.”

Much of the text, a vision of the apocalypse transmitted by the angel Gabriel, draws on the Old Testament, especially the prophets Daniel, Zechariah and Haggai.

Ms. Yardeni, who analyzed the stone along with Binyamin Elitzur, is an expert on Hebrew script, especially of the era of King Herod, who died in 4 B.C. The two of them published a long analysis of the stone more than a year ago in Cathedra, a Hebrew-language quarterly devoted to the history and archaeology of Israel, and said that, based on the shape of the script and the language, the text dated from the late first century B.C.

A chemical examination by Yuval Goren, a professor of archaeology at Tel Aviv University who specializes in the verification of ancient artifacts, has been submitted to a peer-review journal. He declined to give details of his analysis until publication, but he said that he knew of no reason to doubt the stone’s authenticity.

It was in Cathedra that Israel Knohl, an iconoclastic professor of Bible studies at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, first heard of the stone, which Ms. Yardeni and Mr. Elitzur dubbed “Gabriel’s Revelation,” also the title of their article. Mr. Knohl posited in a book published in 2000 the idea of a suffering messiah before Jesus, using a variety of rabbinic and early apocalyptic literature as well as the Dead Sea Scrolls. But his theory did not shake the world of Christology as he had hoped, partly because he had no textual evidence from before Jesus.

When he read “Gabriel’s Revelation,” he said, he believed he saw what he needed to solidify his thesis, and he has published his argument in the latest issue of The Journal of Religion.

Mr. Knohl is part of a larger scholarly movement that focuses on the political atmosphere in Jesus’ day as an important explanation of that era’s messianic spirit. As he notes, after the death of Herod, Jewish rebels sought to throw off the yoke of the Rome-supported monarchy, so the rise of a major Jewish independence fighter could take on messianic overtones.

In Mr. Knohl’s interpretation, the specific messianic figure embodied on the stone could be a man named Simon who was slain by a commander in the Herodian army, according to the first-century historian Josephus. The writers of the stone’s passages were probably Simon’s followers, Mr. Knohl contends.

The slaying of Simon, or any case of the suffering messiah, is seen as a necessary step toward national salvation, he says, pointing to lines 19 through 21 of the tablet — “In three days you will know that evil will be defeated by justice” — and other lines that speak of blood and slaughter as pathways to justice.

To make his case about the importance of the stone, Mr. Knohl focuses especially on line 80, which begins clearly with the words “L’shloshet yamin,” meaning “in three days.” The next word of the line was deemed partially illegible by Ms. Yardeni and Mr. Elitzur, but Mr. Knohl, who is an expert on the language of the Bible and Talmud, says the word is “hayeh,” or “live” in the imperative. It has an unusual spelling, but it is one in keeping with the era.

Two more hard-to-read words come later, and Mr. Knohl said he believed that he had deciphered them as well, so that the line reads, “In three days you shall live, I, Gabriel, command you.”

To whom is the archangel speaking? The next line says “Sar hasarin,” or prince of princes. Since the Book of Daniel, one of the primary sources for the Gabriel text, speaks of Gabriel and of “a prince of princes,” Mr. Knohl contends that the stone’s writings are about the death of a leader of the Jews who will be resurrected in three days.

He says further that such a suffering messiah is very different from the traditional Jewish image of the messiah as a triumphal, powerful descendant of King David.

“This should shake our basic view of Christianity,” he said as he sat in his office of the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem where he is a senior fellow in addition to being the Yehezkel Kaufman Professor of Biblical Studies at Hebrew University. “Resurrection after three days becomes a motif developed before Jesus, which runs contrary to nearly all scholarship. What happens in the New Testament was adopted by Jesus and his followers based on an earlier messiah story.”

Ms. Yardeni said she was impressed with the reading and considered it indeed likely that the key illegible word was “hayeh,” or “live.” Whether that means Simon is the messiah under discussion, she is less sure.

Moshe Bar-Asher, president of the Israeli Academy of Hebrew Language and emeritus professor of Hebrew and Aramaic at the Hebrew University, said he spent a long time studying the text and considered it authentic, dating from no later than the first century B.C. His 25-page paper on the stone will be published in the coming months.

Regarding Mr. Knohl’s thesis, Mr. Bar-Asher is also respectful but cautious. “There is one problem,” he said. “In crucial places of the text there is lack of text. I understand Knohl’s tendency to find there keys to the pre-Christian period, but in two to three crucial lines of text there are a lot of missing words.”

Moshe Idel, a professor of Jewish thought at Hebrew University, said that given the way every tiny fragment from that era yielded scores of articles and books, “Gabriel’s Revelation” and Mr. Knohl’s analysis deserved serious attention. “Here we have a real stone with a real text,” he said. “This is truly significant.”

Mr. Knohl said that it was less important whether Simon was the messiah of the stone than the fact that it strongly suggested that a savior who died and rose after three days was an established concept at the time of Jesus. He notes that in the Gospels, Jesus makes numerous predictions of his suffering and New Testament scholars say such predictions must have been written in by later followers because there was no such idea present in his day.

But there was, he said, and “Gabriel’s Revelation” shows it.

“His mission is that he has to be put to death by the Romans to suffer so his blood will be the sign for redemption to come,” Mr. Knohl said. “This is the sign of the son of Joseph. This is the conscious view of Jesus himself. This gives the Last Supper an absolutely different meaning. To shed blood is not for the sins of people but to bring redemption to Israel.”

The article is reported by Ethan Brunner. The title of the article is "Ancient Tablet Ignites Debate on Messiah and Resurrection." Here's the link to the article at the NY Times website:  http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/06/world/middleeast/06stone.html?_r=1&hp=&pagewanted=print&oref=slogin

1. "Sit. Stay. Love.”

“The field of psychotherapy has traditionally viewed those whose closest relationships are with animals as somehow lacking, their affections pathologically misplaced, their devotion a symptom of their inability to forge healthy connections with the humans around them.

But in recent years, researchers have begun to take far more seriously the bonds between humans and animals … and to evaluate those relationships in a more positive light.”

2. “At $100 for Tank of Gas, Some Choke on ‘Fill It’”

“Thirty members of the fan club’s Arizona chapter used to attend off-roading and other events three times a month. But now that Avalanche owners pay more than $100 per tank, the club is lucky to attract 10 members once every two months, said Eric Tolliver, a chapter leader.

“‘Everybody’s trying to save money on gas, so now we mostly chat online instead of driving,’ Mr. Tolliver said.”

3. “As Web Traffic Grows, Crashes Take Bigger Toll”

“The volatile emotions around Web downtime are perhaps most prevalent in the discussion around Twitter, on which users post updates on who they are with, where they are, and what they are doing.”

4. “A Political Agitator Finds a Double-Edged Weapon”

“Mr. Stark’s latest project has taken him to the Web site of Mr. Obama, who happens to be Mr. Stark’s choice for president. And while he said he did not relish making Mr. Obama a target, Mr. Stark is using the candidate’s own social-networking portal, my.barackobama.com, to confront him.”

5. “At Penn, the Subject Is Gossip”

“‘I, as an academic, am accustomed to seeing buildings with names like Newton, Copernicus, Darwin,’ said Ponzy Lu, a chemistry professor at the university. ‘Then to see the name of this person, who is very fresh in our memory, who is not associated with a pursuit of knowledge — a gossip columnist: it strikes me as being totally idiotic.’”

6. “In a Chaotic Industry, Beck Abides”

“His creative breakthrough, he said, occurred on his 2002 album, Sea Change, a set of plaintive, gimmick-free tracks inspired by a breakup. The recording process renewed his commitment to songwriting but came with consequences.”

7. “Who Let the Dogs On? You’d Be Surprised”

“‘Survivor’-esque reward challenges mean that winning pairs get the elaborate Dog Bone Suite, along with the power to banish another team to the backyard Dog House. Naturally, it’s often the humans who aren’t so well behaved.”

8. “Remembering Brainwashing”

“In the early 1950s, American troops were being killed and captured by the thousands in Korea. Panic spread that China’s Communists had learned how to penetrate and control the minds of American prisoners of war.

“The technique was called ‘brainwashing.’”

9. “If You’re Open to Growth, You Tend to Grow”

“‘People who believe in the power of talent tend not to fulfill their potential because they’re so concerned with looking smart and not making mistakes. But people who believe that talent can be developed are the ones who really push, stretch, confront their own mistakes and learn from them.’”

10. “Home Screening”

“David Gilmour is a father as well as a novelist and former film critic. He has written a memoir, The Film Club, about his decision to allow his 15-year-old son, Jesse, to drop out of school on the condition that he watch three movies a week of Gilmour’s choosing.”

11. “The Dysfunctional Jameses”

“His argument is that no single member of the family, however remarkable his or her achievement, can be understood separately from the others, and that there has as yet been no view of the family that takes into account late-20th-century work on same-sex love, gender, repression, illness, depression and alcoholism. In Fisher’s view, it has never been made apparent how ‘contemporary’ the Jameses are, how relevant to our times as ‘the forerunners of today’s Prozac-loving, depressed or bipolar, self-conscious, narcissistic, fame-seeking, self-dramatized, hard-to-mate-or-marry Americans.’”

12. “File-Sharing Fetish”

“So while pornography is no doubt culturally important and central to technological progress, I almost never run across it in my own online travels. Yes, I’m trying to seem relaxed and cosmopolitan. The truth is that pornography makes me feel tired and sulkily excluded, as if I were watching a long foreign-language play filled with hilarious jokes I’ll never understand.”

13. “Late-Period Limbaugh”

"Unlike many right-wing talk-show hosts, Limbaugh does not view France with hostility. On the contrary, he is a Francophile. His salon, he told me, is meant to suggest Versailles. His main guest suite, which I did not personally inspect, was designed as an exact replica of the presidential suite of the George V Hotel in Paris."

"And Mogaoku is in trouble."

Read the full article here.

Unfortunately, as we have explained on many occasions, 'nutritionist' is not usually a protected title.  While there are no doubt a number of well-qualified, university-level-credentialled and capable individuals practising as nutritionists, in most states absolutely anyone is able to call themselves a nutritionist.  As Ben Goldacre's dead cat Hettie demonstrated, you don't even need to be alive or human in order to be a credentialled nutritionist.

If people want to pay an unqualified and unregulated nutritionist (who could have extremely limited skills, knowledge, abilities and common sense) for dietary advice, they are quite entitled to do so - though we would prefer that nutritionists made their status and qualifications known to clients prior to any consultation, so that properly informed consent can be attained.  However, it is irresponsible for Tara Parker-Pope to suggest that people in the advanced stages of CKD consult a 'nutritionist' without adding in the need for appropriate credentials: in such cases, bad advice from an unqualified and unregulated nutritionist could have extremely serious consequences. As could advice from a nutritionist who does not recognise that s/he is acting beyond the bounds of their competence and knowledge.

The fact that such advice is offered on a New York Times blog is particularly unfortunate: it makes this advice look more credible.  It is also regrettable that - while helping to promote the role of nutritionists - Tara Parker-Pope fails to mention the possibility of consulting a Registered Dietitian who is especially knowledgeable about renal disease, the effects of the usual drugs and dialysis (as appropriate): these practitioners are appropriately qualified and regulated ('dietitian' is a widely protected title) and are experienced in dealing with patients with CKD. If suffering from CKD and concerned about diet, you should consult the doctor, consultant or dietitian who is part of your care team: this is a specialist, and important, issue on which to receive dietary advice.

The New York Time's slogan is, famously, "All the news that's fit to print".  Tara Parker-Pope's advice to this commenter was - quite simply - not fit to have printed on a New York Times blog.

Update: h/t to Lee from the comments: Detox diet lead to brain damage.

Mrs Page's legal team alleged Mrs Nash advised her to increase her water intake by six pints a day - and to avoid salt. They also said that when informed of Mrs Page's symptoms, Mrs Nash said "what was happening was not unusual" and "was part of the detoxification process".

We are very sorry to read about this case and wish the family well. It is a wretched example of what can happen in such circumstances. It is difficult to know what happened here as there may be a non-disclosure agreement.

In this case it seems as if the nutritional therapist in question had received her education at a college of natural health and was practising in the naturopathic tradition.

In general terms, there is a very real difficulty when some therapists are acting so far outside their sphere of competence that they are not aware that they should be urging a client to seek medical assistance.

Update 7.07: Quackometer comments on the case: Alleged Victim of Oxford Nutritionist 'Detox Diet' wins £810,000.

According to the Times website, this was one of the most popular stories clicked on and/or e-mailed to others that day.  And why not - rather than being a comment on our shallow news culture, it was written more like a how-to.  Publicity rules, becuase that's what the people want.  Even from the New York Times.

This has always been a struggle for me.  I understand the need to get attention in a media-saturated environment - hey, I'm in the PR business myself - but I won't stop pushing for, and hoping for, an elevated public dialogue about more substantive matters than whether or not Madonna is hooking up with Alex Rodriguez.  And yet, as a new blogger, I know I should tag this very post with "Madonna" and "Alex Rodriguez" to try to get more eyballs to read it.  Sigh...I know I'm not alone in living this paradox (although oftentimes I feel I am).  It's a daily struggle between high-minded idealism and lowbrow reality.

How do we live with ourselves?

Art - Civilization on Display - Buddha's Caves in Dunhuang (Holland Cotter, New York Times, 6 July 2008)

China's Legacy - Let a Million Museums Bloom (Holland Cotter, New York Times, 4 July 2008)

NB If anyone knows of a concise term commonly used in the art/history/academic world to refer to this dilemma of tourism and conservation, so that I can create a tag or category for this article, and future ones, and so that I can find more on the topic, I would be most appreciative. Thanks.

Summary: During a segment in which Fox & Friends co-hosts Steve Doocy and Brian Kilmeade labeled New York Times reporter Jacques Steinberg and editor Steven Reddicliffe "attack dogs," Fox News featured photos of Steinberg and Reddicliffe that appeared to have been digitally altered -- the journalists’ teeth had been yellowed, their facial features exaggerated, and portions of Reddicliffe’s hair moved further back on his head.

Read Full Article Here

While doing my Sunday morning reading I came across this article that seems to take a balanced approach on the issue of Affirmative Action and both political parties.  Read more here.

Can you gauge the depth of love by the quality of a person's taste?

What about those who aren't well read? What about bad musical taste? (Or no taste at all?)

Several years ago I was driving my girlfriend's car, and she was the passenger. We were in the first month of dating - the "honeymoon period" of roses and sweet wine. She popped in a tape and out from the speakers came Celine Dion. She said with a straight face that Celine was her favorite artist. Period.

I honestly didn't know how to respond. I thought about asking her if she knew any Cowboy Junkies, or Emmylou Harris, or possibly a softball pitch of Carole King. But Celine is so far off the mark I didn't see the point. In my opinion, someone who props up Celine as their favorite isn't even really trying. So much music is out there, decades of music, that makes Celine sound like musical poo. At that moment, I did think to myself, "this (relationship) might not go very well."

It didn't go well, but I am not sure that Celine had a lot to do with it. I have thought many times since about that situation, though. Could I love someone who loves Celine Dion? If Celine is out, where do I draw the line? Mariah Carey? Gwen Stefani?

My hope is if I do find a lover who loves Daughtry, she will at least be open to listening to something more eclectic. I do believe that most people, those who are open to new possibilities, will if not embrace at least accept music with more depth. In this I hope.

Please pray for the entire Wright Family, and the Grace Tabernacle Christian Center Church of God in Christ which Rev. Timothy Wright pastors!

There is breaking news that Pastor Wright may have pulled through surgery, and unfortunately his grandson did not! Pastor Wright is such a talent and let's all remember that God is still a healer, and again earnestly pray for the Entire Wright Family!

Read Article About the Accident at Newsday.Com

New York Times Article on Accident

Please pray for the entire Wright Family, and the Grace Tabernacle Christian Center Church of God in Christ which Rev. Timothy Wright pastors!

There is breaking news that Pastor Wright may have pulled through surgery, and unfortunately his grandson did not! Pastor Wright is such a talent and let's all remember that God is still a healer, and again earnestly pray for the Entire Wright Family!

Read Article About the Accident at Newsday.Com

New York Times Article on Accident