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In recognition of Americans with Disabilities Act Day on July 26, this week’s post is about the low representation of individuals with disabilities in the biomedical research workforce and efforts underway at the NIH to change this.
According to recent education and workforce data, the participation of individuals with disabilities in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields is improving but at an unacceptably slow rate. The share of academic scientists with one or more visible or invisible disabilities grew from just 6 percent in 1999 to 9 percent in 2019; individuals with disabilities make up about 11 percent of the U.S. general population.
These statistics are from the “Women, Minorities, and Persons with Disabilities in Science and Engineering” report published in April 2021 by the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics at the National Science Foundation. The report also found that:
- Of all graduates awarded doctoral degrees in the biological and biomedical sciences in 2019, 8.89 percent reported having one or more disabilities.
- Scientists and engineers with disabilities have a higher unemployment rate than those without disabilities and a higher unemployment rate than the overall U.S. unemployment rate in 2019.
- A smaller share of scientists with disabilities received research assistantships, traineeships, or internships or had fellowships, scholarships, or grants than did those without disabilities.
Other research confirms the lack of representation of people with disabilities along the academic and biomedical career pathways.
- Students with disabilities indicate interest in and intent to major in STEM fields at the same rate as their peers without disabilities, but they do not receive an undergraduate degree or pursue STEM graduate studies at the same rates.
- In medical education, data suggests that medical students with physical disabilities constituted less than 1 percent of learners in 2019.
Barriers to Inclusion
Individuals with disabilities face multiple barriers in the scientific workforce. These include:
- A lack of systemwide recruitment and engagement of individuals with disabilities.
- A lack of data on individuals with disabilities in federal, state, and local databases related to STEM careers and workforce.
- A lack of a standard assessment tool for data collection and evaluation of individuals with disabilities.
- A lack of representation of employees with disabilities on advisory boards and leadership teams at institutions.
- At the institutional level, workplaces have limited staff resources for staff training and purchasing accessibility-related technology.
The absence of mentors and role models is tied to the low persistence rate of individuals with disabilities in STEM fields, as it is for other underrepresented groups in science who benefit from the sense of belonging and identity role models instill. For example, a survey published in JAMA in 2021 examined the prevalence of U.S. practicing physicians with disabilities and estimated an overall disability prevalence of 3.1 percent.
Without faculty mentors who identify as disabled, individuals with disabilities will continue to be underrepresented and potentially disadvantaged during career transitions, perpetuating the cycle of underrepresentation of people with disabilities in the biomedical workforce, according to the authors of a 2019 article on diversity inclusion published in The New England Journal of Medicine.
Diverse Experiences Foster Creativity
Education and workforce inclusion initiatives have historically focused less on individuals with disabilities, despite their low participation and persistence in the science workforce. As a result, the biomedical research enterprise can benefit significantly from the diverse perspectives individuals with disabilities contribute.
The authors of a study on workplace accommodations to support people with disabilities concluded that workplace accommodation could lead to more creative work by disabled and non-disabled employees by enhancing their creative self-efficacy.
Some scientists with disabilities say that coping with everyday life challenges has helped them strengthen their creative skills, ability to concentrate and deal with adversity, and other similar skills. Research suggests that individuals with neurodivergent features—variations in cognitive functioning such as autism, ADHD, and dyslexia—may have a creative edge because such traits are linked to new idea generation and innovative problem-solving.
Despite this evidence, misunderstandings, a lack of inclusivity policies, and biases regarding people with disabilities can prevent their particular talents and abilities from being appreciated in the workforce by the non-disabled population.
How the NIH is Addressing Disability Inclusion
In a December 2020 post, I discussed the systemic barriers to the inclusion of individuals with disabilities in the scientific workforce, such as implicit bias, and suggested evidence-based strategies institutions can take to counter these negative perceptions.
One approach at the NIH is the newly constituted Advisory Committee to the Director Working Group on Diversity (ACD WGD) Subgroup on Individuals with Disabilities. The subgroup will support the working group to assist, in turn, the Advisory Committee to the Director with its advice to the NIH Director on how to best support individuals with disabilities in the scientific workforce.
To start, the ACD WGD subgroup will systematically identify data, strategies, and experiences of individuals with disabilities in the scientific workforce. The subgroup will report its findings in a white paper along with suggestions for how the NIH can improve its efforts to support individuals with disabilities in the biomedical research enterprise. I look forward to sharing the results of the subgroup’s work with you in future COSWD Office communications.
Another effort underway is the NIH Common Fund’s Faculty Institutional Recruitment for Sustainable Transformation (FIRST) initiative. FIRST aims to enhance and maintain cultures of inclusive excellence in the biomedical research community using a multi-pronged approach. In part, FIRST will achieve its goals by funding institutions to hire cohorts of highly qualified, early-career research faculty committed to diversity and inclusion, including individuals with disabilities.
Dr. Bernard’s Reflections
We must engage the full range of diverse talent in the U.S. and ensure working to include individuals with disabilities in the scientific workforce is a priority for the NIH. The COSWD Office’s proactive approach focuses on data collection, education and awareness, and visibility, among other actions that will reduce the barriers to entry for individuals with disabilities and foster their lasting participation in the workforce.


Transport chiefs have been accused of showing “cavalier disregard” for Cambridge residents by shutting a key river crossing.
Daniel Zeichner, Labour’s parliamentary candidate for the city, said a temporary alternative should have been provided while the bridge at Jesus Lock was closed for 10 weeks.
Work to repair the steel structure of the Grade II-listed bridge and to repaint it started yesterday.
But the council has rejected Mr Zeichner’s call – arguing existing bridges at Victoria Avenue and Magdalene Street were not far away, and warning that a replacement would cost more than £100,000.
Mr Zeichner claimed it had more to do with the fact that the council’s Conservative administration had no members in Cambridge and said it was hard to imagine a major road being shut for nearly three months “without alternatives”.
Mr Zeichner said: “While everyone will understand that bridges need routine maintenance, the failure to provide a temporary alternative beggars belief.
“Local residents have expressed their fury that people on foot or on bikes will have to make lengthy detours for months.
“Conservatives on the county council are showing a cavalier disregard for the interests of people in Cambridge, safe in the knowledge that it comes at no political cost.”
A county council spokesman said it was “not true” to say there were no alternative crossings nearby.
He said: “Both Victoria Avenue and Magdalene Street bridges are within a matter of a couple of hundred yards up and downstream of the Jesus Green bridge and those alternative routes are clearly signposted on the approaches.
“The cost of providing a temporary bridge is estimated at £100,000-plus, and would be hugely complicated because of the weir, sluice gate and lock.”
At the same time, Green Dragon bridge in East Chesterton is closed for similar works. Fort St George bridge will be repaired this autumn.


· Thread type: metric ISO thread din 13 · Cutting material: HSS · Version: Metric = set of 3 pieces (pre, middle and finish cutter) · Surface: bright · Application: for through and blind hole threads · din: 352. Notice for international buyers /. International Buyers - Please Note. That would be violations of international trade law. We do not mark merchandise values??
Below value or mark items as. Governmental regulations prohibit such behavior. MIB precision marking calipers with fine adjustment 160 - 300 mm for SELECTION. MIB three-point / five-point calipers digital or analog to the SELECTION. MIB internal groove caliper 10 - 300 mm reading 0.05 mm for SELECTION.
MIB precision spring compass din 6487 different versions for SELECTION. MIB small caliper for dental technicians with curved, pointed beak 80 mm.
MIB small caliper with a pointed beak and depth 100 mm. MIB depth caliper with fine adjustment vernier 1/20 or 1/50 SELECTION.MIB edge finder, TiN coated, anti-magnetic for SELECTION. MIB digital micrometer with carbide tips 0 - 25 mm, IP 65, spindle stud.
MIB internal precision measuring device with dial gauge / measuring pin / steel measuring head for SELECTION. MIB USB interface for connection to PC for micrometer / caliper for SELECTION. MIB digital tooth gauge calipers M2 - M50 for SELECTION. Precision hand tap set HSSG, different sizes fixed. This item is in the category "Home & Garden\Tools & Workshop Equipment\Hand Tools\Taps & Dies".
The seller is "mathyswerkzeuge" and is located in this country: DE. This item can be shipped worldwide.


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Two weeks I wrote about some exciting news about ; the first three satellites for the new constellation had been completed and accepted by Globalstar. Now they have been delivered to the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan where they will be launched with three other satellites in October. Click to watch the delivery. Thales Alenia Space is under contract to build all 40 new for Globalstar.
This is a substantial step in Globalstar restoring full service to their subscriber base, expected by June 2011. Globalstar offers high-quality voice and data satellite service through their satellite phones and data devices. SPoT, the award-winning satellite personal tracker uses Globalstar’s simplex data service to save lives.
is a Globalstar Star Dealer and we look forward to restoration of service.

domain: news


As I already wrote not too long ago, Dutch solar is booming right now. Parties involved have reported sales increases up to 100% in the first half of 2015 compared to 2014. Thanks is primarily due to a generous net metering system and the faith of the public that these policies will not be adjusted to their disadvantage soon.
Solar panels are mostly being sold to individuals who put them on their own roofs. Large-scale solar is very rare in the Netherlands currently. A good illustration is the top 3 largest photovoltaic power plants the country has at the moment. In the #1 spot for over a decade, there is ‘de Floriade,’ a vast building on which 2.3 MW of solar power capacity has been installed. It was constructed in 2002 and has sadly managed to keep this #1 position for 13 years now. Finally, though, this week, a 2.5 MW plant on the roof of webshop Wehkamp in the town of Zwolle opened, ultimately dethroning the ‘Floriade’ plant. The third place is for ‘Solarpark Azewijn’ with 1.8 MW, and what was formerly the third place was ‘Venco Campus,’ with 1.6 MW.
So, obviously, solar power plants are not a huge thing in the Netherlands. The very densely populated country just doesn’t seem willing to use its precious land for generating power with photovoltaics, which might be fair considering the enormous number of roofs that are still available to expand the country’s solar generation capacity. Another, probably much more important factor, is subsidy. The Dutch government created a subsidy program called SDE+, which focuses on larger renewable energy projects. In the past, most money from this program went to wind power and biomass. Therefore, there was barely any subsidy left for large-scale solar power generation, preventing many projects from actually getting realized.
But recently, this has changed. The subsidy has been reorganized and is being distributed better now. The chances of getting government money for your solar project have improved, which is starting to make a tremendous impact on the solar sector. The largest Dutch solar power plant today might have a capacity of barely over 2 MW, but the largest one that is currently proposed has a capacity 15 times bigger! This project, which will be located near Delfzijl, will consist of 120,000 solar panels which will turn 30 hectares of land into a 30 MW solar power plant, enough to power 7,500 to 8,000 households. And there is much more in the pipeline. One example is a project near the town of Leek, where a solar farm of 15 MW has been proposed. Another example is a 6 MW project on the Island of Ameland, on which construction will start this month, or a 6 MW facility that is planned for construction near the town of Marum. There’s also the proposal for a 27.6 MW plant near the town of Veendam, a 10.8 MW plant near the town of Emmen, an even larger solar farm near Amsterdam Schiphol Airport, and many, many more.
Although these project are not that big compared to developments in the US or China, for example, they are considerable projects for a country that, till now, basically hadn’t any decent solar power plants at all. It shows that solar is really going to play an important role in fulfilling our energy needs, and has gradually evolved from just a green icon to something that seriously contributes to a cleaner future.
Image: rooftop solar in the Netherlands, via Shutterstock


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1. Baidu joins hands with GAC, formally launching the high-precision map and self-localization mass production project
On April 11, Guangzhou Automobile Group Co., Ltd. (“GAC”) and Baidu, the Autonomous Driving Technology Day of 2019 — “Intelligent Driving along the Way,” was successfully concluded in Guangzhou. At the event, Baidu and GAC held the launching ceremony of the high-precision map and self-localization mass production project, while announcing that the two sides have cooperated in putting up the Level-3 autonomous driving vehicle model of GAC, which is expected to be “off to the market”（上市 in 2020. We look forward to the GAC vehicle model’s early realization of the leap from the scientific research results to the mass production.
GAC has a rather rigorous evaluation standard for filtering its partners in the mass production project of high-precision map. Starting from the demand of GAC’s mass production project, Baidu has conducted four rounds of complete technology demonstration and actual road testing on the positioning performance and application scenarios of its high-precision map for half a year. The road testing covers more than 40 scenarios, and the accumulated total road mileage is over 2000 kilometers.
GAC wrote in the road testing results: “Baidu high-precision map can achieve lane-level positioning, and the output of the high-precision map is perfectly normal when vehicles are driving on high-speed roads. In the scenarios of open roads, city gorges, shaded trees, and tunnels within 200 meters, vehicles can change lanes at will, respond quickly, and locate itself without errors, the overall lane-level positioning can meet the requirements of GAC.”
Upon the rigorous road testing, the elements and index evaluation of Baidu’s high-precision map, as well as the positioning algorithm that Baidu researched and developed based on its high-precision map, can quickly and accurately provide the location information of vehicles. The positioning’s accuracy, precision and response speed and other indicators all meet the requirements of GAC.
In terms of high-precision maps, Baidu’s high-precision map covers national highways and urban expressways, and can meet the requirements of GAC in the aspect of relative accuracy and absolute accuracy; in terms of OTA services, Baidu’s high-precision map can achieve monthly updates for major cities and quarterly updates nationwide, as well as the ability of full and incremental online updating of the map data.
High-precision maps are the essential “infrastructure” in the era of autonomous driving. Baidu is the one and only company in China that not only owns the leading technology of high-precision maps, but also provides a comprehensive layout of complete solutions for autonomous driving. Recently, Baidu high-precision map has officially obtained the figure number GS (2019) 1391 from the Ministry of Natural Resources, which marks an important breakthrough in the formulation and standardization of industrial standards for high-precision maps in China. It also means that the commercialization of high-precision maps in China has reached the final approval at the policy level; it indicates that China’s autonomous driving has been guaranteed by policies from the steady and high-speed development to mass production.
Based on the successful cooperation between Baidu and GAC at the high-precision map level, the cooperation between them in Level-3 autonomous driving and other products will also be carried out gradually. We look forward to the GAC vehicle model’s early realization of the leap from the scientific research results to the mass production. In the future, more and more autonomous driving solutions with “Apollo gene” will become the standard configuration for traditional automobile companies’ AI upgrades, which will also bring about another revolution to the human travel.
2. Amap’s “High-precision Declaration,” service upgrading promotes the critical commercializing period of autonomous driving
On April 11, 2019, Amap held a press conference named “High-precision Declaration” in Beijing. Amap said that it would upgrade the high-precision map service, provide standardized high-precision maps at cost price, share the achievements of research and development and commercialization with partners, and accelerate the process of autonomous driving.
Based on its research and development achievements on high-precision maps, Amap will provide full-factor-standardized high-precision map data for partners which can meet the needs of Level-3 autonomous driving and cover all domestic highways and urban expressways except for Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan. Moreover, it will provide high-quality data updating services and project delivery services based on automation production capacity and its experience of commercialization.
Besides, depending on Alibaba’s rich application of high-precision maps, Amap can accumulate a lot of practical experience in that field, thereby continuously reducing the costs of data collection and update. The logistics distribution, vehicle-road coordination, urban brain, and other businesses of Alibaba Big Family have also provided an important foundation for the future application of Amap’s high-precision map research and development. The business needs within these groups give Amap the best scenario to polish its high-precision map services.
3. Autonomous driving will be fully realized in the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games
On April 13, the signing ceremony of the official automobile service partner of the 19th Asian Games was held in Hangzhou International Expo Center. Geely Automobile became the official automobile service partner of the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games. At the signing ceremony, Ancong Hui, the CEO and President of Geely Automobile Group said that when the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games is held, Geely Automobile will fully realize autonomous driving within the Asian Games area and create an intelligent travel scenario in the Smart Asian Games Village.
Since the market development plan of the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games was released on December 26, 2018, as of March 2019, the Hangzhou Asian Games has started the collection of official partners in six key categories, including information technology integration and cloud services, financial technology services, banking services, communications services, air passenger services and automotive services.
Chen Weiqiang, the deputy secretary-general of the Hangzhou Asian Games Organizing Committee and vice mayor of Hangzhou, said that the Hangzhou Asian Games will enter a comprehensive acceleration stage of market development, not only will the collection of official sponsors, official suppliers and related work of franchising enterprises be fully launched, but also the ticketing plan will be launched in succession in 2019.
Ed. note: This article was originally published in Compliance Review

domain: geography


text: This region, crossed by the Andes, is ideal for those who want to escape the hustle and bustle of the capital, Bogota. From small mountain villages to historic towns, the choice is huge! A few hours from the capital stands the pretty village of Anapoima. Its mild and dry climate is very popular in Colombia and people come here to relax and enjoy the excellent thermal baths. Apulo is another very attractive village with beautiful landscapes and a stunning green lagoon. Finally, Carmen de Apicala thrives every year for the festivities of the Virgen del Carmen, and attracts many tourists the rest of the time, who come to enjoy the numerous waterfalls, lakes and the national water park. It is no wonder that Cundinamarca is so popular!


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A great way to start your day - with yoga!
All ages and all levels can participate in the instructor's hatha style yoga class. The instructor will lead the students through a gentle flow, usually beginning with breath exercises to thread into the initial sitting positions, followed by a sequence of standing asanas and ending with a deep relaxation in a few restorative poses. Classes will bring your awareness to both breath and the practice of "letting go" to help eliminate physical and mental toxins to leave you feeling recharged and more receptive. The week is cumulative and students will get the most out of the lessons by attending classes every day.

domain: hobby


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Abolitionist Angelina Grimke Weld (1805-1879) spoke out against slavery alongside older sister and fellow abolitionist Sarah Moore Grimke.
Influenced by her sister and lifelong partner in the abolitionist cause, Weld converted to Quakerism. She joined the Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society in 1835. She spoke out publically against slavery and her strong abolitionist beliefs ultimately created a schism between Weld and the Society of Friends. Weld refocused her efforts on the American Anti-Slavery Society where she served as an agent in 1836. She worked as part of a group that presented antislavery petitions to state legislators and the U.S. Congress.
The sisters wrote letters, which were published in the press and reissued as pamphlets, on the topic of equal rights for women. Weld gave the opening day address at the 1838 Anti-Slavery Convention of American Women in Philadelphia. Anti-abolitionists rioted outside the hall and eventually burned down the building by the time the convention had reached its third day.
In 1839, Weld and her sister published a document entitled Slavery As It Is, which presented testimony to the evils of slavery collected from southern sources. Both sisters also taught at Eagleswood Academy, a coeducational and racially integrated school located within the utopian community of Raritan Bay Union. The school was run by Weld’s husband, Theodore.
Lerner, Gerda. The Grimké Sisters from South Carolina: Pioneers for Women’s Rights and
Abolition. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2004.
Lumpkin, Katharine D. The Emancipation of Angelina Grimké. Chapel Hill: The University of
North Carolina Press, 1974.
Lahr, Angela. “’Bowed in the Dust’: Guilt and Conscience in the Life of Angelina Grimké
Weld.” The Historian 77, no. 1 (2015): 1-25.
Nelson, Robert K. “’The Forgetfulness of Sex’: Devotion and Desire in the Courtship
Letters of Angelina Grimke and Theodore Dwight Weld.” Journal of Social History
37, no. 3 (2004): 663-679.

domain: library


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Carotid arteries are the major arteries in the neck that supply oxygen-rich blood to the brain. When the carotid arteries become clogged or constricted by a build up of plaque (a sticky substance made up of cholesterol, calcium and fibrous tissue), this is a serious medical condition known as carotid artery disease.
Clogged or constricted carotid arteries are very dangerous because they limit blood flow to the brain. Limited blood flow to the brain reduces brain function and also increases the risk of having a stroke, which can cause severe disability due to permanent brain damage and can even cause death.
Unfortunately, someone could have carotid artery disease and show absolutely no symptoms. One of the warning signs of carotid arterial disease, is the occurrence of something called a “mini-stroke” (or transient ischemic attack – TIA). A TIA is a temporary episode where a person experiences numbness or weakness in the arm, leg or face on one side of the body, loss of vision in one or both eyes, difficulty understanding what someone else is saying, slurred speech, difficulty talking, a loss of coordination, dizziness or confusion and/or trouble swallowing. This episode can last just a few minutes, or can continue for up to 24 hours.
If you have ever experienced any of the symptoms related to TIA, it is highly recommended that you get a vascular screening as soon as possible to see if you have any blockage in your carotid artery. Carotid artery blockage will only worsen with time, leading to a stroke, which can be fatal or that could leave you disabled for life.
There are certain conditions that put someone at higher risk of having a stroke. If any of the following apply to you, you are at higher risk of having a stroke and should have a stroke screening as soon as possible:
• 50 years old or older
• High Blood Pressure
• High Cholesterol
• Heart Disease
Depending on the extent of the blockage of your carotid artery, our Tampa vascular doctors may simply recommend lifestyle adjustments, medication, non-surgical invasive procedures or, as a last resort, carotid artery bypass surgery.
The non-surgical methods that our vascular surgeons use offer quick recovery time, leave minimal to no scars and restore healthy blood flow to the brain, eliminating the risk of stroke.

domain: medical


I believe you have to move the mounting brackets back 1" to the next set of holes, same goes for the skip plate they are adjustable. The 304 and the 2>5 use the front holes because they are shorter. The serp belt is a good deal and came on west coast vehicles the only thing that you need to remember is the water pump is different it turns backwards from a Vee belt but identical until you look at the impeller, and the fan is also reversed, there are two ways that the serp belt will fit just make sure you install it correctly. Also the taurus/contour fan is almost a bolt on just trim the corners abit. but you are on the right track.
86 CJ7 5.7 vortec. 4L60,D44's,OBA,Air tank bumpers w/D rings detroits,4.88,35" bfg, mt's 9500ti warn
86 CJ7 2.5 detroits, OBA 4.56, air tank bumpers, w/D rings,9500I warn 31x10.5x15, Trxus
86 CJ7 bone stock, w/factory 44 never seen the dirt soon to be for sale
87 Wrangler also never seen the dirt.


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Sneaky Fox's Selena Pantyhose are a newcomer in the collection. These pantyhose are made with two different deniers. From the knee and down, the denier is 50 and at the top, they are 30 denier. This gives the pantyhose a very interesting and decorative look. The pantyhose look beautiful under long as well as short skirts and the denier-alteration give an almost colour-block effect or a kneehigh look.
- 30° gentle wash
- Do not bleach
- Do not tumble dry
- Do not iron
- Do not dry clean
Don't fit in - Stand out!
The Sneaky Fox woman empowers her look with daring colours and unconventional styling. Her openly sensuel attitude celebrates a magnetic ultra-femininity and emphasizes her courage in every step she takes.
Every day, her free-spirited personality rips the code of conduct presenting the new rules. She encourages others to experiment with colours, patterns, and bold statements. With her eye for detail and brave fashion approach, she is dressed as a modern warrior on the international fashion scene.

domain: artistic


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Mayhem # 2626084
About MeLA based Actress.
Represented by Aqua Talent and Immortal Artists.
Just Guest-starred on the Lifetime Network. Most recently shot a national spot for Apple Music.
Love to collaborate on quality projects. Compensation depends. If I love your work there is always something that can be worked out.
Obsessed with making this world a more loving place and Connecting with creative minds. The hustle never stops. Born and Bred East Coaster, but Cali's got me dreaming..
Follow me on Twitter and Instagram @ItsMissFitz
Have you worked with Emily Fitz? Add Credits for Emily Fitz! >>


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In Jasper's car the world seems to have suddenly gone quiet.
"Where are we going Jasper?" I ask tentatively looking out the window. He doesn't look at me and takes more than a moment to answer. We weren't going in the right direction.
"Jasper?" I press.
"To the hospital." He states.
"Jasper, you stop this car right now, I will not go to any hospital. You take me home this instant or let me out and I will find my own way." I demand suddenly fierce.
"You've been raped, I have to get you checked out." He says quietly.
The words stab into me. Such a sick word. Rape. Nasty ugly word. Brings to mind disgusting and repulsive things. It should never be used in reference to any thing having to do with Edward. It brings chills to me as Charlie flashes to mind, his hands on me, his mouth...
"Don't you ever say that again Jasper Holden, now you take me home or I will get out at the next light." I challenge breaking away from my reverie.
"You would defend him, even now?" He asks incredulously.
"You don't know what happened." I say tight lipped.
"I know enough, would you still defend him?" He presses.
"I don't know what you think happened but I just want to go home okay?" I say pleadingly, avoiding a proper answer. He says nothing but he does turn the car in the direction of my apartment. When we get to the luxury apartment that I now occupy, he parks and gets out quickly to come around and open the door for me. He silently helps me from the car and escorts me to my floor. At my door he grasps me gently.
"Bella please don't let him get away with hurting you like that, he is my best friend in the world but any man that hurts a women needs to be punished." He says softly. I pull his arm and lead him into my apartment and sit him on the large armchair.
"Jasper listen, it is a very complicated situation between me and Edward. He was not himself a while ago, you have to know that, you have known him your entire life." I say to him settling on his lap and caressing his cheek.
"I know you and Edward had some sort of thing before, I know you two think that no one knows, but we all have eyes and can see how you look at each other when you think no one is looking. I never asked you, but I accepted that you were trying to move on from him. Please trust me enough to tell me what happened tonight." Jasper said running his hand over my arm gently.
I am surprised by his honesty, I had never realized that we were so obvious, I was never very good at hiding my emotions, but I thought Edward was.
"Jasper I know you think he did something horrible tonight, but I can't no matter how hard I try, think of it like that. I have been hurt in ways you can never imagine so I think I can recognize when I am truly abused. I have a deep love for Edward and I don't think that ever goes away. You can't after all, easily forget your first everything." I say softly. He is momentarily stunned. They all think me so experienced and knowing, I want to laugh.
"Edward was your first? But I thought you only met him a little before we met you?" Jasper asks.
"Yes, that's true. So you can imagine how sensitive the situation is, being that it occurred so recently and at such a late age for me." I said feeling slightly embarrassed.
"No, there is nothing wrong with waiting for your first time, but why Edward? And I got the idea that what ever you guys had was long past… so when exactly did you guys uh… you know?" Jasper asked shyly.
"Well, about a month after us becoming friends, one night it just happened. You guys had just left. It was the night we played twister and you grabbed my butt. He realized that it was my first time, but I think he was in that mode where he didn't want to get tangled in a relationship of sorts or something so he uh, distanced himself from me." I said biting my lip
"What do you mean he distanced himself from you? He tried to drive you away or what?" Jasper asked
"Not so much try, he did. I am here obviously. I couldn't take it any more." I admitted.
"What did he do?" He asked his hands tightening around me.
"Two days after he slept with me, he started fucking various women with me in the next room." I replied dryly.
"And yet you still love him?" Jasper asked jaw clenching.
"Yes, I do. But I have a big heart and I think I can love many. Since my departure with Edward I have sworn to myself that I will not tie myself to one person so easily again and I will experience all that this life has to offer." I said cuddling closer to him.
"So basically your going to sleep with whoever you want, whenever?" Jasper asked breathing becoming labored.
"Yes, does that bother you? After all that is what our little club is meant for, liberation of all kinds right?" I ask breathing warmly on his throat feeling him tremble slightly.
"But what about tonight? Do want to be used too? That is what Edward did. He used you to satisfy himself in that moment. Will you be someone's plaything?" He asked feebly
"Hmm, I think I rather like the idea for now." I said licking his throat in tiny little laps ignoring the jab at Edward using me.
"You know all the guys at the club want you don't you?" He said breathing in short gasps.
"Really? I had no idea, but for now I want you. I haven't felt this light in a while, don't let this moment go by Jazz" I say latching onto a spot in the middle of his throat and sucking firmly as he moaned softly.
"I've wanted you since I first saw you." Jasper managed to say.
"Oh?" I ask as I stand up and slip my dress to the floor, standing before him in only panties and heels.
"Then have me." I say wrapping my arms around him. In an instant I'm enveloped by him, and I can't tell what is up or down as I realize I am now lying on the couch. I help him struggle with his clothing, tearing at his shirt and yanking his boxers down.
He lays atop me, his firm muscled weight is delicious against my body, I want him roughly but I know he will not take me like that. I feel his hands sliding my panties down and off my ankles, and I am exposed beneath him. Our nakedness hiding no desire, leaving no heartbeat unheard.
I feel the rigid point of him heavy against my thigh for a moment then the length is plunged into me and I bite down on my lip as moans escape.
I am filled entirely by him. He is larger in width then Edward, and I feel myself being stretched my him. It feels good, but I cannot help but think of Edward for a half second. Of how Edward seemed to fit inside me perfectly, how his length felt growing in my hand as we lay together, ready for the next bout.
My legs are stretched open, my thighs gripped momentarily as he drives deeper inside me. I ache from this position, but I will not say so for it is the exact exquisite pain I hoped for. If I cannot have roughness, I will settle for mild pain. I have no idea where the craving for pain is coming from. Edward never hurt me, but I think pain reminds me of him and even if it is wrong, I love having him in my mind.
My fingers grip Jasper's hair. So unlike Edward's silken tendrils, his hair is wavy and thick, soft but not silky. I pull at it playfully and he hisses in response. I rise up to meet his thrust, desperate for more of the ache, for more friction. Sweat slicks our bodies, I spread my legs until it hurts and it is heaven. I scream out as I feel myself nearing climax, I see Edward's face for the briefest moment, and then Jasper quickens his pace till I am uncontrollable beneath him, thrashing wildly as he finishes inside me bringing me to my peak, clawing at the couch cushions even though I wish it were his flesh. Jasper is a gentle creature, the violence I now crave I do not think is in his nature.
Breathing labored, he collapses atop me, and the weight is comforting.
"Edward c'mon man, lets get you home. Its okay." I said trying to calm my hysterical little brother, the club closed hours ago and now at four a.m. we are filling out of the place and locking up. The girls leave ahead of us as we all promised to continue the party at my place. I have no idea what went on earlier in the closet, but my bro is fucked up.
"Is he going to be alright?" James asks stepping back as Edward looks as if he might puke all over the place.
"He looks pretty bad, man your brother can't hang for shit!" Jacob laughs as Edward stumbles and nearly falls, but I scoop him up before his face smacks into the pavement, and he looks at me like he would prefer the pavement.
"He'll be cool man, lets just get him up to the apartment and shut the fuck up asshole, next time you drink too much I'm going to leave you here on the street to be sodomized." I growl at Jacob.
"You going to be doing the sodomizing Emmy-Bear?" Jacob asks in a mock girly voice and he and James laugh while they attempt to hail a cab. The two know how to push my buttons. They know my weak spots. One is Edward, he is my only sibling, he's my baby brother for fuck's sake! He really seems to be hurting too.
I have never seen him like this in our entire life. Only a year apart, we grew up as close as two brothers can be. As children of divorce we spent our growing years flip flopping from coast to coast from dad to mom, until mom passed away when I was ten and little Eddie nine, and we were with dad permanently. Carlisle is as cool as dads come, he remarried about a year ago to his lovely assistant, Esme.
Growing up, he never gave us any grief, never told us to grow the fuck up or to stop embarrassing him. The only bit of advice that is constant with him is 'be the good guy'.
' Just be the good guy son, the good guy always wins in the end ' he repeated whenever a situation requiring our personal judgment would arise.
I wonder if Edward was the good guy tonight? From the state of him I would bet on no.
"Hello? Emmett? Are you going to put the pussy in the cab or what? The driver is not going to wait all night while you sing him to sleep!" James yelled impatiently from the front seat of the cab.
I sat Edward in the cab and then got in next to him and Jacob sat on his other side, keeping him upright.
"Keep running your mouth dickhead and I'll have to break it for you." Was my reply to James' s sneer. The dude is like seventy-five percent asshole and like the rest is man-whore, but he is also my best friend besides my brother and I guess I do like having him around. Crazy as hell, but a good man to have around in a sticky situation, James could be a little annoying at times, especially since he is my roommate.
"So ah, what is wrong with you Miss Priss?" Jacob ask Edward shaking him to awareness.
"She hates me now, how can she ever forgive me? I should be thrown in front of a bus." Edward mumbled to his self burying his head in his hands in defeat.
"Dude what the hell happened? Your brother is soo wasted!" Jacob laughs clapping his hands shocking a dozing Edward awake.
"Yeah that he is. But we all get pretty wasted sometimes, so leave him alone." I add
"Always protecting your precious!" James said laughing.
I ignored them as we arrived after a very short ride from the club to our apartments. The guys help me to get Edward in the elevator and to our floor. We are practically carrying him now. He collapses in the entrance way and then starts babbling again.
"Emmett, you have to tell her that I really do love her okay? If I don't make it…" Edward trailed off.
"Dude, why the fuck wouldn't you make it? Your drunk as hell, not dying of polio or something." James laughs as Edward continued to make strange requests.
"No, I am going to hell. I am going to burn in hell forever for this." Edward slurred.
"Calm down man, what could you possibly have done that's so bad?" Jacob asks hoisting a sinking Edward up yet again.
"I am a monster. Emmett don't tell dad how bad I've been okay? When I am gone tell him I was the good guy…"Edward rambled on.
"Sure Pal. No problem." I say humoring him but in my mind I am slightly worried. What is making him hate himself like this? Poor kid. Dragging Edward through the narrow hallway to the guestroom seems like a challenge, and the guys eye me wearily as they loose their grip on Edward and he smacks into the wall before sinking to the ground. James snickers, but stifles it when I shoot him a warning look.
"Shit." I curse, trying to hoist Edward's dead weight back up.
"Lets just put him in your room to crash out for now." Jacob says looking down at Edward with curiosity before grabbing one of his shoulders helping me get him back on his feet.
"No, guys c'mon. I'm not even tired!" Edward announces trying to brush us away from him stumbling away.
"Edward just sleep this off k? You will feel better tomorrow." I lie knowing he will feel ten times worse in the morning.
"Just give him another shot and he will be out." Jacob insists
"Yeah and maybe a few Percocets, he looks like he needs to forget for a while." James adds.
"You two were just saying how wasted he is, why would I get him more wasted?" I ask
"So he can forget whatever it is he keeps going on about." Jacob says simply. I shrug.
"Give him a beer and one Percocet and that's it." I agree hoping it will help. The guys cheer in approval and James goes to the kitchen to get some beer.
"The girls are here!" James announces on his way back. The girls left before us so the should have actually arrived first, right on cue Riley explains that they stopped at an adult shop on the way and bought some toys.
"If you boys behave we may even show you what we got!" Alice teased happily and Irina and Tanya giggle in unison. Rosalie looks down at Edward sprawled across the couch as James hands him a beer and Jacob supplies him with the pills.
"What the fuck are you doing? Why are you giving him more beer and shit? He is already shit faced!" Rosalie exclaims trying to grab the beer from Edward before he can chase the pill he just swallowed with it. Jacob grabs her by the waist holding her away long enough for Edward to clutch his beer tightly and chug it down before she can grab it. Rosalie smacks at Jacob and he lets her go.
"Well fuck! If he gets his stomach pumped its asshole here's fault!" Rosalie says indicating Jacob, before collapsing next to Edward on the couch.
"Poor kid." She mumbles petting his hair motherly.
"He will be fine, the puss just needs to learn to handle his alcohol better." James says squeezing in on Rosalie's other side. She smirks at him but says nothing. She is such a hot ass bitch. A hot bitch who cares what happens to my brother. Maybe she has a thing for him…Why should I care? Not like me and her have ever gone out or anything. God knows I want to but…but what? It causes drama when you fall for people your always around, with people you see all the time. Not the thing for me. I like the ways things are going just fine. Why mess with a good thing? Cause it irritates the hell out of me to watch James sit next to her, touching her.
"So what toys did you get Rose?" I ask trying to take my mind of the million other things floating across my brain. I take a seat in the oversized armchair and Alice props herself on my lap clutching a tasseled bag in the shape of breasts. I peek over her shoulder at it, curious about what they got.
Alice reaches into her bag and pulls out what looks like a flashlight.
"What the hell is that?" Jacob asks.
"Its for you Jacob! Actually I got one for all of you, it's a flesh light!" She says tossing each of us one. Opening the top where the light bulb usually sits on a real flashlight, is a fleshy mound. A fake pussy. Ha! All the guys roar with laughter.
"I am so using this!" James announces.
"Uh Tinkerbell you can use this on me any time, but I don't play solo." Jacob says to Alice.
"Oh really? Well maybe you will tonight!" Alice says lifting her top flashing Jacob her small pert breasts, nipples perfectly pink and mouth watering. James whistles rudely and Alice laughs.
"See anything you like Jacob? Hmm? Anything worthy of jacking off to?" Alice says coyly taking my massive hands and placing them over her small breasts, rubbing me over her nipples. Jacob's mouth falls open and we all laugh at him.
Edward opens his eyes, drawn awake by the laughter and looks around ignoring the scene before him and grabs another beer and downs it and then gets up and stumbles to the bathroom. Distracted by all the pretty ladies and their new toys, It's a while before I notice that Edward has not come out of the bathroom yet.
"Edward? Hey man you okay?" Jacob asks tapping on the door loudly. No answer. I get up and knock as well.
"Edward! Open the door right now!" I pound nervously. I don't hear anything on the other side of the door so I twist the handle to the left as hard as I can and it clicks unlocked. Inside the bathroom Edward is slumped on the ground an empty pill bottle in his hand.
Oh my god, oh my god. I can't think. Everyone is now crowding into the hall and bathroom to see what's going on. No one moves to help. Shit! What the fuck do I do? My mind draws a blank.
Rosalie shoves past me and checks Edward's pulse then pulls him up to a sitting position on the floor and holds him against her chest bracing his head in one hand and then with the other hand, shoves her fingers into his mouth and down his throat.
Choking and gagging he wakes and turns to vomit into the toilet.
"He'll be fine guys. Just put him to bed now." She says washing her hands looking slightly annoyed.
"What the fuck was that Rosalie? How did you know to do that?" I ask
"Common sense you dumb shits, next time listen to me when I warn you about something, believe me I know what I am talking about." Rosalie explains looking over at Edward who is still vomiting profusely into the toilet.
"Thanks Rosalie and believe me, from now on your word is law." I reply awed with her. She nods and heads back to the sitting room. Edward collapses resting his head against the sink, done vomiting.
"You good now?" I ask. He nods.
"I'm sorry Emmett." He mumbles hoarsely
"It's okay pal, lets get you to bed." I say
All the others follow Rosalie back into the sitting room except for Jacob.
He helps me lift Edward and lead him to my room which is right of to the side of the living room and as soon as we put him in bed, Edward is out cold.
He looks so peaceful when he's sleeping. I can't understand what's up with him. This is so not his normal behavior. He never gets this drunk or acts this strange. I take his shoes off for him and cover him up before turning out the light and closing the door. Hoping he will be better tomorrow.

domain: literature


State officials to update residents on PFOA issues
BENNINGTON — State officials have scheduled meetings here to discuss issues related to PFOA contamination of wells around two former ChemFab Corp. factories.
The Agency of Natural Resources plans back-to-back informational sessions in Bennington on Monday, May 14, at different locations. The first will focus on the eastern sector of the state-identified perfluorooctanoic acid contamination zone east of Route 7A and the railroad line, and the second on the western sector, where water line extension work is in progress to address the soil and groundwater pollution.
The first session will be from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. at the Old First Church barn, located just off Monument Circle in Old Bennington. Officials will provide an update on settlement negotiations with Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics, the company the state believes responsible for the contamination.
Those talks are entering a critical stage, as a disagreement persists over possible other sources of PFOA in the eastern sector.
A 7,377-page report prepared by Barr Engineering for Saint-Gobain concluded that there are other likely sources of PFOA in that area, including a closed and capped former town landfill.
State Department of Environmental Conservation personnel have been reviewing that massive report and are expected to offer comments. Thus far, state officials continue to assert that the two former ChemFab plants — on Water Street in North Bennington and Northside Drive in Bennington — were overwhelmingly the cause of the contamination involving more than 150 in the eastern section.
Meanwhile, in the western section of the contamination zone, municipal water line work has been in progress since last fall and is expected to continue through this fall, connecting some 200 properties to village or town systems to provide clean drinking water.
An update on that effort, provided by agency staff members and the two engineering firms involved in the water line projects, is scheduled for 7 to 8:30 p.m. at Tishman Hall on the Bennington College campus.
The work is being funded by Saint-Gobain, which is providing up to $20 million for the projects and related costs the state has incurred since PFOA was discovered in local wells in early 2016.
The company and the state reached that settlement last summer, and the state is seeking a similar agreement concerning the remaining contamination sector.
If no agreement can be reached, state officials have said they will take Saint-Gobain to court to recoup costs of addressing the soil and groundwater contamination.
Saint-Gobain acquired ChemFab in 2000 and closed the last local factory — in North Bennington — two years later. In total, the company operated here from 1968 to 2002, coating fiberglass or other fabrics with Teflon in a high-heat drying process that produced the stack emissions the state blames for the widespread contamination.
PFOA was used in the production of Teflon for many decades, and the chemical was only identified since the early 2000s as extremely stable and highly water soluble and capable of being spread widely through the atmosphere.
At the meeting, Bennington College's Center for the Advancement of Public Action also is expected to discuss a survey of health conditions among residents of Bennington and the Hoosick Falls, N.Y., area who were exposed to PFOA through drinking water.
Exposure to the chemical has been associated with several diseases and conditions, such as kidney cancer, testicular cancer and ulcerative colitis; high cholesterol and high-blood pressure.
Jim Therrien writes for New England Newspapers in Southern Vermont and VTDigger.org. Email: firstname.lastname@example.org. @BB_therrien on Twitter.
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I have actually enjoyed some of the WBC games. Team USA was supposed to be a dream team, and yet they scored 6 runs against the team that Canada scored 18 against, and got pummeled by Team Mexico in Game 2. Team USA plays Team Canada on Monday at 7:00 PM PDT, and Team Columbia on Wednesday at 7:00 PM PDT.
Pool A – All five teams ended with a 2-2 record. The tie breaker is:
The tied teams shall be ranked in the standings according to the lowest quotient of fewest runs allowed divided by the number of defensive outs recorded in the games in that round between the teams tied
Pool A – Cuba (1) and Italy (2) advance based on the tie breaker.
Pool B – Japan advances after going 4-0 in their 4 games. Australia went 3-1 and advanced.
Pool C – Saturday:
Colombia 5 – Mexico 4 (10 innings)
Dodgers participating were Julio Urías and Austin Barnes. Urías pitched 5.0 innings. He retired the first 12 batters, but ran into trouble in the 5th. First two batters, Jorge Alfaro and Elias Díaz, doubled for a run. Reynaldo Rodriguez followed with a 2-run HR. Urías then retired the next three batters in order. Urías registered 6 Ks and 0 walks.
Rodriguez was the hitting star for Colombia going 3-4. Rodriguez played 9 seasons in MiLB, never reaching MLB. He has been toiling in the Venezuelan, Mexican, and Colombian Leagues (Regular Season and Winter) since September 2016. For his 9 MiLB seasons, Rodriguez slashed .264/.335/.483/.818 with 116 HRs. You would think he would have had a shot with some4 MLB team.
The other Dodger on Team Mexico is Austin Barnes, Barnes went 2-4 with a double. Former Dodger Alex Verdugo went 1-5. Another former Dodger, Guillermo Zuniga pitched the final 2.0 innings for Colombia for the win. In his 2.0 IP, he gave up 1 hit, 1 BB, and 4 K.
USA 6 – Great Britain 2
Trayce Thompson hit a HR off Adam Wainwright in the top of the 1st to give GB a 1 run lead.
Mookie Betts led off the bottom half of the 1st with a long fly to LF. Paul Goldschmidt reached on a fielding error, moved to 2nd on a wild pitch, and scored on a Nolan Arenado double. Arenado scored on a 2 out single by Kyle Tucker.
Kyle Schwarber slugged a 3-run HR in the 4th. A pair of Cardinals joined again to score a run on the 6th. Goldschmidt singled and came home on Arenado’s 2nd double.
Adam Wainwright went the 1st 4.0 IP. Kyle Freeland pitched 3.0 innings. David Bednar closed out the 9th with 3 Ks.
Mookie went 1-5. Nolan Arenado went 3-5 with 2 doubles, 1 run, and 2 RBI’s.
Trayce Thompson went 2-4 for GB with a HR and a double.
GREAT BRITAIN SOLO HOMER!
Trayce Thompson gives his squad an early lead over USA!
📺: FOX and the FOX Sports App pic.twitter.com/KYwvPpIyUq
— FOX Sports: MLB (@MLBONFOX) March 12, 2023
Pool D (Saturday):
Venezuela 5 – Dominican Republic 1
A peek at the two lineups and you see very quickly that these two teams are stacked with super talent.
- José Altuve
- Ronald Acuña Jr.
- Luis Arráez
- Salvador Perez
- Gleyber Torres
- Andrés Giménez
- Anthony Santander
- Eugenio Suárez
- David Peralta
- Julio Rodríguez
- Juan Soto
- Manny Machado
- Teoscar Hernández
- Rafael Devers
- Wander Franco
- Jeremy Peña
- Jeimer Candelario
- Gary Sánchez
- Francisco Mejía
Venezuela vs. Puerto Rico
Which team moves to 2-0? #WorldBaseballClassic
7PM ET @FS1 pic.twitter.com/HQla3wZ5SU
— World Baseball Classic (@WBCBaseball) March 12, 2023
The star of this game was the Dodger’s very own David Peralta.
In the bottom of the 4th, Venezuela loaded the bases with nobody out. After an infield pop-up and a strike out, David Peralta stroked a 2-out, 2-run single into RF.
David Peralta and Team Venezuela take the lead! #WorldBaseballClassic pic.twitter.com/ZBrN45fJkb
— World Baseball Classic (@WBCBaseball) March 12, 2023
In the bottom of the 6th, Eugenio Suarez drew a 2-out walk. David Peralta crushed a long double to CF to score Suarez. Run scoring double
David Peralta again!!! #WorldBaseballClassic pic.twitter.com/0nZCezQ0DI
— World Baseball Classic (@WBCBaseball) March 12, 2023
For the game, Peralta was 2-3 with a BB and 3 RBI’s.
Pool C (Sunday):
Canada 18 – Great Britain 8 – 6 ½ innings (mercy rule)
- Canada – Freddie Freeman was 2-5, 3 runs scored, 1 BB, 1 RBI
- Great Britain – Trayce Thompson – 1-3, 1 BB, 1 run. 1 RBI
Mexico 11 – USA 5
This was a train wreck for the USA. Padres pitcher Nick Martinez and Royals pitcher Brady Singer surrendered a 2-run HR and a 3-run HR to Washington Nationals 1B Joey Meneses respectively.
Team Mexico jumped out to an 11-2 lead after 7 ½ . Team USA scored one after Kyle Tucker tripled and Tim Anderson singled him home in the 2nd. They had three hits until the bottom of the 7th when Will Smith clubbed a solo HR. In the 8th, Bobby Witt doubled home a run, and Tim Anderson doubled home two more.
Hitting star for Team USA was Tim Anderson. Anderson went 2-4 with a double and 3 RBIs.
Team USA pitching was very generous. In particular:
- Nick Martinez – 2.2 IP, 3 Runs, 5 Hits, 1 BB, 2 K, 1 HR
- Brady Singer – 2.0 IP, 4 Runs, 4 Hits, 1 BB, 2 K, 1 HR
- Daniel Bard – 0.2 IP, 4 Runs, 4 Hits, 1 BB, 1 K
LAD players offense:
- Mookie Betts – 0-5
- Will Smith – 1-4 HR
If Will Smith was on the Braves, they would have already inked him to an extension. Dodgers should lock him up.
Smitty’s all-star catcher era starts this year.
— Doug McKain (@DMAC_LA) March 13, 2023
Pool D (Sunday):
Venezuela 9 – Puerto Rico 6
David Peralta had a run scoring single in the 4th, scoring the star of the game, Salvador Perez. For the game, Peralta was 1-3, 2 BB, 1 RBI. Salvador Perez was 4-4 with 2 doubles and a HR, 3 runs, and 5 RBIs.
Former Dodger Kiké Hernández played CF for Puerto Rico. Kiké was 1-4 2 runs, and 1 RBI.
Venezuela now leads Pool D with a 2-0 record.
Israel 3 – Nicaragua 1
Former Dodger Joc Pederson played CF for Israel. He was 1-3 and a HBP. Former Dodger prospect pitcher Dean Kremer started for Israel. He pitched 4.0 scoreless innings, 3 hits, 1 BB, 4 K. And for Bums, Zack Gelof was 0-5.
Team USA pitching is not very good. And the offense is very reminiscent of the 2022 Playoff Dodgers. A lot of bark, no bite. Thus far. Stay tuned.
Some of these games are more exciting than ST games with MiLB players.
Haven’t watched a single inning. I am just not interested in this. Although it gives some rookies a lot of playing time, I would rather have the players in their own camp.
I’m with you, Bear. I don’t find these games interesting at all.
I loved the Venezuela – Dominican Republic game. Some serious All Stars in that game. And yet it was David Peralta who was the star.
It was fun to watch Julio Urías mow down Colombia with 4 perfect innings including 6 Ks. He then gives up 3 only to come back to retire the side in order again. Maybe this is something he does not get to do with the Dodgers. Get in trouble…go to the pen, instead of letting your best pitcher get out of trouble.
I do watch the Dodgers ST games. But it is far more interesting to watch WBC games than other teams’ AAAA/AAA/AA/A players.
The way Venezuela is playing, the Dodgers may lose Miguel Rojas for a week. He is only playing 4-5 innings every other day. We have all been told that CT3 will be the backup SS, instead yesterday it was Yonny Hernandez playing SS and CT3 playing 3B. Hernandez is a better 3B and CT3 is a better SS. Would it not have been better if CT3 was working with Miguel Vargas?
The teams do not take the outcome of the games seriously, so we are just watching an advanced scrimmage. I watch a lot of Tulsa and OKC games during the season so I am going to see a lot of Michael Busch, Andy Pages, the deep MiLB pitching and others. I am going to be watching a lot of Tulsa games to get to watch not only Diego Cartaya, but also the DP combo of Eddys Leonard and Jorbit Vivas. Those two have been outstanding this Spring.
I watch a lot of College games. I went to the California JC championship tournament last summer. I have a friend whose grandson is playing High School ball this year, so I will be going to a lot of High School games. I watch baseball where ever it is played. I love the Dodgers, but I really love the game of baseball. So for me to give up watching AAAA/AAA/AA/A players for two weeks during ST to watch veritable All Star teams compete to WIN, I can live with that.
definitely feels like a scrimmage with artificially inflated importance attached to it
You had two of the same thoughts I did Jeff. USA pitching is not very good (of course losing CK and Nestor hasn’t helped) and the hitting is in a short term, maybe fatal, slump similar to our series against SD in the playoffs.
With regard to my interest, I’m more interested than I thought I’d be and especially interested in seeing some of the Japanese and Korean stars who may be posted this winter.
The fans of many of the world teams are having a lot of fun. Mexico fans were dominate at Chase Field against the USA team. I’m not watching any Spring games mostly because I haven’t signed up but I think the games are great for baseball.
So did anybody see that instant replay in the WBC game [GBR/CAN] where the guy slid into 3b and got his hand in before the tag?
And then they upheld the call and called him out.
I did. I wanted to watch Trayce and Freddie. Some of the umpiring is bad.
Trayce looks a little thicker around the middle to me. I like his skill set but still think he can be exposed with velocity inside. For an athletic dude he doesn’t have that quick twitch you’d like to see.
He absolutely can be beat with up and in fastballs. So can a lot of players. But agree that Trayce’s swing is too long to catch up to that pitch. Ever. I think the Dodgers recognize this, but accept it because of what he can do with pitches that miss. Just like the one thrown by Adam Wainwright.
I would much prefer James Outman in CF on a regular basis, but I do not get a vote. Last week it was a foregone conclusion that Jason Heyward and Trayce Thompson would be on the roster coming out of Spring. Apparently they were both told they would be. But give James Outman credit (A LOT OF CREDIT) for now making the decision a lot harder. I still think Outman’s options are his downfall, and that he will start the season in OKC.
The Dodgers cannot help themselves. It looks to be a platoon in LF with Peralta and CT3, and in CF with Heyward and Trayce. Yonny Hernandez will be the utility infielder.
Bear with me for a minute. Think about Cody Bellinger. He was good until he wasn’t. Why not use Outman right now while he is good and worry about later later? We shouldn’t be saving him for anything. Save Gavin Stone, save Bobby Miller . . . but play Outman right now when he could be a ROY candidate.
I’m hoping the Dodgers always had an open mind about Outman making the team to start the season and instead of saying anything close to CF being his to lose chose to keep the pressure off as much as possible, hoping he would do just what he has been doing.
Heyward only has a minor league contract. Might he be willing to play there through April?
Looks to me like they are hoping all 3 of them play well this Spring so they can platoon Heyward and Thompson, and give Outman top of the order at bats in OKC til something goes wrong with the plan. Zimmer and Duggar? Beats me. Avans and DeLuca? Vaunted depth.
It looks like the Dodgers will not have to face Trevor Bauer while paying him $22MM. He is going to take his game to Japan.
do we get that 4mil credited back to us?
I do not know the rules with that. Also is there different rules for signing a non MLB contract vs an MLB contract?
I get it. For some country’s this is their big stage. Czeck Republic, China, Israel and a few others. I just do not like the teams stars away from camp. I would rather watch baseball as an Olympic sport but the Olympics are always in August.
Jordan Yamamoto has retired from MLB. He is on his way home to Hawaii.
Around baseball. Former Yankee 1st baseman, Joe Pepitone passed away today at age 82. RIP. Adrian Morejon of the Padres will have an MRI. He was shut down due to arm issues. Brandon Crawford shut down by the Giants for a knee issue. Mets starter, Jose Quintana might be down for up to three months. He has a stress fracture in his ribs. Dodgers hammer Guardians, 11-4. Busch had three hits in three at bats. Muncy hit his first spring homer. Locker room fodder. In the USA-Mexico game last night, Austin Barnes gunned down fellow catcher Will Smith trying to steal. That will be locker room fodder for months.
Leonard made an impression in camp. Ticketed for AA with some momentum. In play for MLB debut some time in 2024.

domain: sports


text:
Sadly, I didn’t enjoy the sequel nearly as much. The parts I most enjoyed were those that were others-focused. Since the days of watching “Home and Away” as a child, I’ve been interested in foster care, so I loved reading about Emily and Trent’s fostering experience, and I liked the ‘Daughter’ theme that ran through the book, but the spotlight was frequently on insecurities I felt she already covered in the prequel. It’s a great shame more wasn’t made of how The Lulu Tree came into being. As a founder, Emily could probably tell the story better than most, and it seems deserving of more than just the end of this book.
I’d recommend Emily’s memoirs if you’re a reflective sort of person, and she puts in enough backstory that you can read “Making it Home” as a standalone book, without having read “Atlas Girl”.


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A LETTER TO MY CAT
Notes to Our Best Friends
- Imprint: Crown Archetype
- On sale: 10/28/14
- Price: $25.00
- Pages: 176
- ISBN: 9780804139656
In the follow-up to the hit book A Letter to My Dog, cat fanatics—including celebrities such as Dr. Oz, Joe Perry, and Stacy London—pay tribute to their favorite felines.
For millions of people everywhere, cats are more than just pets—they can be soul mates, companions, confidantes, and family. In the new book, A LETTER TO MY CAT: Notes to Our Best Friends (Crown Archetype; $25.00; On Sale October 28, 2014), Lisa Erspamer collects letters from cat lovers all over the world, including celebrities such as Dr. Mehmet Oz, Stacy London, Gina Gershon, Dita Von Teese, Fred Willard, Kat Von D, and Joe Perry of Aerosmith. This heartwarming compilation celebrates the feline friends who fill our lives with joy and companionship.
As a follow-up to the hit book A Letter to My Dog, A LETTER TO MY CAT features beautiful photographs and deeply personal letters from cat lovers to their beloved, four-legged friends. There are letters from the keepers of social media star Lil BUB and of Matilda, the official cat of the Algonquin Hotel. Readers will meet Buddy, who helped save his owner from sudden cardiac arrest; Koshka, who was rescued by an Army staff sergeant in Afghanistan; and Scooter, a disabled cat who comforts patients at hospitals and nursing homes.
The stories in A LETTER TO MY CAT are moving, funny, and full of love for our most discerning furry friends. Among the many touching sentiments:
- Dr. Mehmet Oz tells Baby Cat: “I knew from the moment you came into our lives that you were the perfect addition to our family.”
- Animal Planet star Jackson “The Cat Daddy” Galaxy calls Velouria his “feline Sherpa through the years of discovering my true purpose.”
- Mike Bridavsky, owner of Lil BUB, says the Internet sensation is, “the best boss a dude could ever hope to have.”
- Gina Gershon writes to Cleo: “You have been my best friend, muse, traveling companion, and true love for the past seventeen years.”
- Carrie Ann Inaba remembers her first encounter with Taz: “That day I found you on the street is one I will always be thankful for.”
- Stacy London composes a poem for Al: “You talk to me endlessly / In purrs and meows / But I understand every word / As if they were bonjours and ciaos.”
- Beth Stern assures her blind rescue cat, Bella: “You are a survivor. Now, relax, sweet girl, and enjoy the life you so deserve.”
With adorable photographs from Susan Weingartner, Sharon Hardy, and more, this beautiful book will charm any animal lover. Poignant, thoughtful, and downright hilarious, A LETTER TO MY CAT celebrates the unconditional love that cats bring into our hearts and homes.
About the Author
Lisa Erspamer is the president of Lisa Erspamer Entertainment and Unleashed Media. Prior to that, she was chief creative officer and executive vice president of programming and development for OWN, as well as co-executive producer of The Oprah Winfrey Show. She has partnered with the Best Friends Animal Society, a national nonprofit that collaborates with rescue groups and shelters to save dogs and cats in shelters across the country. The creator and coauthor of A Letter to My Dog, Lisa lives with her dogs, Lily and Grace, in Los Angeles, where she is working on her next book, A Letter to My Mom.


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domain: design


text:
“Defend your inner world. Be present. Be in the moment. Engaged, connected.” – Rainer Maria Rilke
Growing up I think I was always defending myself. Or feeling quite often like I had to. I was quiet, different: my family had more money than most of the kids I went to school with and I was very shy. My parents owned a successful business and we had a lot of “stuff” I didn’t see other kids getting. I was always somehow defending myself to them, my life, from taunts and challenges, from kids who thought I was a snob even though they didn’t know me.
The part no one ever saw was me defending myself from my father, emotionally speaking, who was a constant source of criticism and judgment my whole life. I loved animals, drawing, writing, being outside – I didn’t want to run the business and had little interest in it. It didn’t help that I watched my parents fight about it all the time, watched it consume their lives, their health, their happiness. Who would want to carry on that legacy? Not me, no thank you.
While my dad often supported my talent, he negated it, too, telling me I could never make a living at it. I heard his voice for so many years, stopping me from doing anything unsafe. I still hear it sometimes, I think, even though both he and my mom passed away many years ago now.
But I also still hear my mom, who told me to write, draw, paint, do whatever I loved to do. My mom who regretted so much of her own life, regretted the choices she did not make out of fear. My mom, who never wanted me to regret mine.
Much of my adult life has been spent feeling I needed to defend myself, my choices, or preparing to do so, in case anyone should come around looking to pick on me again. I have made many efforts to protect myself from the outside world, from any perceived harm. That is one of the legacies of my childhood.
When I read this quote by Rilke, I understood that writing this blog was allowing me to defend my own inner world, to present it to the outside world, in a way I never could growing up. It is all the things I never had the courage or ability to share then, all the stuff, pleasant and unpleasant, I learned to keep quiet about and continued to closet away for many years. This is my chance, finally, to speak.
To me the quote expresses exactly what writing a blog is about: It allows me, you, anyone who takes the chance to defend their inner world (and not necessarily in an adversarial sense), to express what they believe and reach out to others who may feel inspired or supported themselves by the connection. A blog allows anyone to be present by writing and sharing exactly what they feel compelled to in that moment, whether that’s a story, a photo, a poem, video, music, or in my case, the quote above and the inspiration behind it. A blog engages and connects you not only with your own life, your own creative work or personal journey, but also helps connect you to others, as well. And that’s a pretty cool thing.
The quote applies to anyone, blogger or not. Whoever you are, whatever you are doing, your inner world matters. Your life matters. Stick with it, pay attention, don’t give up.

domain: sociology


There’s a new streaming site that hit the market on July 15 and it’s none other than Peacock TV. The new streaming app is compatible with Amazon Fire TV and Firestick devices. It’s owned by NBC Universal and features all the popular NBC shows. This includes The Office and movies like Shrek as well as NBC’s popular show Brave New World. In this post, we look at what the new streaming site provides and how to install Peacock TV on Firestick.
What is Peacock TV?
Before I show you how to install Peacock TV on Firestick, let me tell you a little bit about this new streaming app.
Is Peacock on Firestick? Peacock TV is owned by NBC Universal, which is a well-known broadcasting company. This means that there will be a huge amount of content on Peacock TV. It will keep you occupied all day and night. Just like other leading online TV content networks such as Netflix, Hulu, and Prime Video, Peacock TV requires a subscription before you can watch its content.
The good news is that NBC is offering a free version of Peacock on Firestick. This gives you access to 70% of the content on the app. The free version is ad-supported. There’s a $5 per month version which gives you full access to the app’s content but it’s ad-supported.
The $10 per month subscription gives you full access to the app’s content without the pain of suffering ads. It’s completely ads-free.
The Peacock TV Interface
One thing you’ll like about Peacock TV on Firestick is its clean interface. It looks nice and extremely easy to navigate around. The main menu comes with easy navigation buttons to different categories of entertaining content. This includes Channels, Trending, Browse, TV Shows, Movies, Kids, News, Sports, and Latino.
You will likely spend most of your time on the browse section. Here you will see tons of movies and other content to watch. It’s a new app but it contains entertaining and informative content with big names in the movie industry including Jurassic Park, Matrix, The Office, and lots of great content that you’ll definitely love.
When you go to the movies section, you’ll be presented with a huge collection of movies in different genres. On each movie icon or image, you’ll see a small purple icon. This means the content is only available to premium subscribers. You won’t be able to watch the premium content, labeled with a little purple icon at the top left-hand corner, if you have the free version of Peacock TV.
Fortunately, there’s plenty of good stuff to watch even on a free account. Any content you click on brings up more information about the movie and a button to watch now or add to your watch list. When you click watch now you’ll get a few adverts and a preview of the movie before the movie starts.
Sometimes it plays ads before the movie or while the movie is playing. You can see when the ads will show up by checking the dots along the movie’s timeline. Another thing to note is that the bandwidth of the app will be awesome. So, expect to watch your favorite shows and movies with minimum buffering.
The app has a sports section too. Expect the best sports coverage from this section. This is because NBC actually broadcasts a lot of BPL games including Premier League and many more games from all parts of the world. Straight from the app you can see Premier League highlights and a wide range of different sports channels, sports documentaries, and much more. There’s also a Live TV section accessible via the Channel menu.
The major setback with Peacock Firestick is that it’s US-based so viewers from outside the US may not have as much content as Americans. For example, viewers in the UK don’t get as much as half the content accessible to people in the US.
Fortunately, you can go around this restriction by using a reliable VPN to access the app’s US content from anywhere in the world using a US VPN server. If you connect to a US VPN server you get access to more content including US Netflix and much more. Having said that let me now show you how to install Peacock TV on Firestick.
Attention: Read before you continue
Governments and ISPs across the world monitor their users online activities. If found streaming or browsing content on your Fire TV Stick, mobile or PC, you could get into serious trouble.
Currently, the following information is visible:
- Your IP:
- Your Country:
- Your City:
- Your ISP:
If this is your real information, you need to use a VPN to protect your identity.
We strongly recommend you to get a good VPN and hide your identity so that your online experience doesn’t take a bad turn.
We use IPVanish which is the fastest and most secure VPN in the industry. It is very easy to install on any device including Amazon Fire TV Stick. Also, it comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee. If you don’t like their service, you can always ask for a refund. IPVanish also runs a limited time offer where you can save 74% on your VPN and they allow you to use one account on unlimited devices.
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Installing Peacock TV on Firestick
You can install Peacock TV on any Android device including Fire TV, Firestick, and Fire TV 4K. The first thing you need to do when installing the Peacock TV app on Firestick is to go to Settings and scroll across to My Fire TV. Go to Developer Options and turn on Apps from Unknown Sources then click on the Home button.
The next step is to go to the search icon at the top and Search for Downloader.
Is Peacock available on Firestick? It’s important to mention at this point that currently Peacock TV Fire Stick isn’t available in the Amazon Store. I don’t know why but I’m pretty sure it will be added to the Amazon Store in the near future. So, launch the Downloader app and remember to allow the permissions so you can install things you download to your device.
Give it a few moments to locate the download page. Just click on the green download button to download the file to your device. It’s a small 9.3MB file.
Hit on Install.
Click on Done.
Make sure to delete the file you downloaded once Peacock app Firestick has finished installing to save space on your device.
You don’t need to search any more guides on how to install Peacock TV on Firestick. It’s as easy as that! Just sign up to start
Fill in the details and enjoy your new streaming app!
The first time you open the Peacock TV app, you’ll have to sign in or sign up to start watching. All you need to do is to type in your email address, create a password, and you’re good to go.
You can use a real email address just in case they ask you to confirm your email. Once you sign in you can start using Peacock TV as easy as that.
Drop us a comment below if you have any questions about the installation process!


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I Just Got a ’59 Cadillac In the Mail!
The Postal Service’s New Stamps Honor Vehicles Of the ’50s. Check Out the Cars That Served As Models.
EVEN IF YOU’RE not a stamp collector, you might want to pick up a few sheets of a special grouping that the U.S. Postal Service will offer in early October.
The “’50s Fins and Chrome” stamps, the second installment in their “America on the Move” series, feature a ’57 Chrysler 300C, ’57 Lincoln Premiere, ’57 Pontiac Safari, ’57 Studebaker Golden Hawk and a ’59 Cadillac Eldorado.
Vintage Vehicles Were Models
But the “’50s Fins and Chrome” stamp series itself is only part of this story. Veteran automotive artist Art Fitzpatrick used recently taken photographs of private collectors’ cars as models for the series.
For the owners of these cars, selection for the project was like winning a nationwide car show. And, as you might expect, behind every winning car, there’s a story worth telling
’59 Cadillac Eldorado
Gordon and Jennifer Wangers of Las Vegas own this stock Cadillac convertible. Gordon, a semi-retired CEO of AMCI, an automotive event marketing and promotional agency, has owned his car for about five years. He obtained it as part of a trade, swapping a ’36 Delahaye for the Cadillac, a new Ferrari 360 Modena, and “a six-figure check,” he said.
“It turned out to be a much better deal financially for the guy who got the Delahaye, but I’m very happy with both the Cad and the Ferrari,” Gordon Wangers said. The Delahaye was designed for five-foot-five French guys and I’m 6 feet, four inches. I could barely fit and had difficulty driving it. I am totally comfortable driving the Eldo and it gets almost as strong a reaction from the public.”
Wangers believes that the big convertible represents the very best of Cadillac, sporting “the biggest fins and most chrome, just over the top: American luxury at its pinnacle.”
After a transmission rebuild, detailing and work on the hydraulic system, it was ready to roll. Wangers kept the original engine and transmission.
He has pondered that having his car immortalized on a stamp will give him an interesting piece of trivia to discuss as he chats with other gearheads at shows such as the ones he attends in Southern California.
“With a little imagination, you can pretend you are Elvis when driving this,” he said enthusiastically. “In its day, there were no BMW 7 Series or Mercedes S-Class sedans in America. This was it, the ultimate luxury cruiser. Fifties Americana didn’t get any better!”
’57 Chrysler 300C
George McKovich of Twin Falls, Idaho, thinks that the color of his car, Gaugan Red, made it stand out to Fitzpatrick.
A retired lodge owner, McKovich spotted the Chrysler online in 1999. It was near Albany, New York, and once the deal was sealed, he and his wife flew east to pick up the car and drive it back home. Although mechanically sound and not largely altered, the Chrysler needed lots of body work.
“The guy who sold it just put Bondo over all the rust holes and painted it,” McKovich says. “It was disappointing, but we had already gone that far.”
The original transmission (rebuilt) and 392-cubic-inch engine remain. McKovich also had the interior redone and added front and rear disc brakes for safety. The restoration was completed in 2004 and since then he’s driven it to eight or 10 car shows annually.
“I’m a stamp collector myself and 50 or 100 years from now, some kids will be putting that stamp in their stamp books,” he said. “It’s an honor to have (my car) on the stamp.”
The oddest part of his experience was how McKovich received the contract from the U.S. Postal service.
“They sent the contract by Federal Express,” he said. “That’s been a joke between my wife and me.”
’57 Lincoln Premiere
This two-door hardtop still has its original transmission and 368 engine. It also came with factory air conditioning, a rare option that owner Joe Ventura of San Diego enjoys.
The head of Ventura, Kuehn & Associates, a CPA firm, Ventura says that stamp artist Fitzpatrick spotted the Lincoln Premiere at a car show in Carlsbad, California, and wanted to arrange a photo shoot.
At that time, Roger Moster, a San Diego United Parcel Service retiree, owned the car but had agreed to sell it to Ventura.
“The day I was to pick it up, Roger said, ‘Let me use it one more day,’” Ventura recalls.
Ventura delayed taking possession for a day and now his car will be part of philatelic history.
“I’ll be hanging onto the car for a while,” Ventura said.
But Moster, who had owned it since 1993, doesn’t regret that he sold the Lincoln Postal Service model.
“I had it for 14 years and I was ready for something different,” he said.
“I have six collectible cars now. I like to change them around a little bit. You can have only so many cars.”
Ventura drives it to local shows about five times a year, and owns about 20 other classic cars.
’57 Studebaker Golden Hawk
Blake Conway of Vista, California, owns this hardtop and a business restoring antique motorcycles: Paint by Blake.
He discovered the Golden Hawk on a used car lot in 1990. After acquiring the car, he completely restored the interior, rebuilt the supercharger, performed a little minor engine work and his classic was cruise-worthy.
Completely stock, the Golden Hawk boasts its original transmission and 289- cubic-inch V-8 engine.
Conway isn’t sure how Fitzpatrick found him but “I was really stoked about it,” he recalls.
He occasionally drives it to local cruise nights and drove it to Las Vegas for his wedding in 1995.
Being featured on U.S. Postage isn’t the Golden Hawk’s only brush with fame. It was featured on a 1998 automotive calendar, Classic Cars of 1957.
It also was displayed at the San Diego Auto Museum on a rotating pedestal.
’57 Pontiac Safari
Noel and Starr Evans of Washington Depot, Connecticut, and their Pontiac live farther from Fitzpatrick than any of the other cars photographed, but one look at the Safari and it’s obvious that it was worth the logistics involved.
Noel, a retired auto mechanic and Starr, a retired 2nd- and 4th-grade teacher, had their vehicle at a national show when Fitzpatrick spied it.
Starr thinks the resurgence of popularity in wagons in recent years made their car stand out, along with the vehicle’s striking colors, Fountaine Blue and Kenya Ivory.
“Art said he had no guarantee they’d keep the colors the same but they did,” Starr said.
Now that the car will be represented on a stamp, the Evans’ want to treat it to a new paint job. However, the colors will stay the same.
The Evans drive their Pontiac to car shows far and wide and have taken it as far as Denver and Tulsa since buying it locally in 1994 as their 25th anniversary present for each other.
Since then, they have tended to a few mechanical issues, installed new carpeting, and modified it a little with an additional power window switch and a remote mirror. They also had the pistons dished so the car can run on regular instead of premium gas. The original transmission, 347-cubic-inch engine and everything else is stock.
“It’s part of the family and we’ll probably never think of selling it,” Starr said.
The Man Behind the Stamps
Selecting what cars to feature on the postage wasn’t as difficult as you’d think. Since it’s U.S. postage, American cars were a natural choice.
Postal Service administrators and associated consultants picked the cars for an earlier grouping, “Sporty Cars of the ’50s,” which Fitzgerald also illustrated. (More about that below.)
After that first round, “I was pretty much the postal service’s expert on cars,” Fitzgerald said, “so I got to pick the cars for Fins and Chrome.”
Because of Fitzgerald’s background in vintage cars (he’s 90 and has illustrated ads for Nash, Plymouth, Chrysler, Kaiser and Studebaker) along with his friends in different car clubs, finding the cars and selecting which ones to use was pretty much a cinch. Many of them are garaged within an easy day trip from Fitzgerald’s home.
After photographing the cars, picking which ones would be included and then choosing the angle for the drawing, it took Fitzgerald about 10 days to complete each illustration.
However, since he also worked on selecting, finding, photographing and illustrating the five different cars, those 50 days of illustrating were spread out over about three years.
To Be Introduced at Carlisle
The Postal Service said a first-day-of issue stamp dedication ceremony will be held Oct. 3 during the Fall Carlisle Collector Car Swap Meet & Corral in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. They intend to have a 10- foot image of the stamp group on hand for the occasion.
The automotive series was inaugurated in 2005 with “America on the Move: Sporty Cars of the ’50s” stamps. Those depicted a 1952 Nash-Healey, 1953 Chevrolet Corvette, 1953 Studebaker Starliner, 1954 Kaiser Darrin and a 1955 Ford Thunderbird. The Postal Service says those stamps and the new series are its way of paying tribute to “America’s love affair with the automobile.”
One other thing, the “’50s Fins and Chrome” stamps won’t be available individually. You can only get them in sheets of 20 which repeat each car five times as shown in the image on page 24. Each sheet costs $8.40.
Mail Your Vehicle Too
Bummed that your classic wasn’t chosen? Cheer up, you canbuy U.S. postage featuring your car’s photo at www.pictureitpostage.com, www.photostamps. com, www.zazzle.com/ custom/stamps or www.stampexpressions.com.


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Psychiatrist Viktor Frankl’s memoir has riveted generations of readers with its descriptions of life in Nazi death camps and its lessons for spiritual survival. Between 1942 and 1945 Frankl labored in four different camps, including Auschwitz, while his parents, brother, and pregnant wife perished. Based on his own experience and the experiences of others he treated later in his practice, Frankl argues that we cannot avoid suffering but we can choose how to cope with it, find meaning in it, and move forward with renewed purpose. Frankl’s theory-known as logotherapy, from the Greek word logos (“meaning”)-holds that our primary drive in life is not pleasure, as Freud maintained, but the discovery and pursuit of what we personally find meaningful.
After watching a short biography on Viktor Frankl I was fascinated by his life story and sought out Man’s Search for Meaning to learn more about his experiences and his theories on psychology. I was particularly drawn to the notion of meaningful suffering and understanding suffering as something as much a part of life as the positive things. It’s also hard not to be compelled by the question of how someone could find meaning to their life in a situation as dire as a Nazi concentration camp. I saw the book not just as an opportunity to learn, but also gain a new perspective on life for myself.
The book opens with the section “Experiences in a Concentration Camp,” which is a fairly self-explanatory as an autobiographical story. Much of it details daily life, living conditions, the work they were put through, and the things Frankl had to do to ensure survival. Though rarely described too graphically, the conditions and cruelty he and others went through are haunting. There’s a matter-of-factness to the way he writes about these events that makes them doubly effective. At one point he recounts how he and another inmate were dismayed that they missed being put on a truck to get exchanged for some POWs, apparently due to an error with the list. They found out later that those people were herded into huts at another nearby camp, which were promptly burned to the ground with them inside. I was struck by this revelation, but Frankl does not linger on this.
A lot of nuanced detail to camp life and how it was structured is explained as well, much of which I did not know. For instance, among the inmate population there were “kapos” appointed by the SS who would “supervise” and in turn abuse their fellow inmates for personal gain. There were also the small pleasures one could get, such as convincing the man serving soup to ladle from the bottom of the pot so that the watered-down broth might have some peas in it. He explains how some inmates were saintly, others barbaric, and all suffering and just struggling to survive. He poignantly highlights how we still have the freedom of choice in our behaviour in any situation; that we are not solely affected the environment we find ourselves in. If behaviour truly could not be helped you would not see both good and bad among those suffering, the response would be uniform.
His account is made more insightful by the way he analyzes the psychology of the inmates themselves, through self-reflection as well as observation of others. He specifically identifies the psychological reactions experienced by all inmates to some degree, from shock during their initial arrival into the camp, to apathy after adjusting to this existence of suffering, to reactions of depersonalization, moral deformity, bitterness, and disillusionment if they manage to survive and find liberation. He describes the notable stature of those who had given up, succumbing to satisfying immediate pleasures and inaction, as well as the mindsets he put himself in to endure: focusing on those he loves, his hopes of seeing them and his home again, and imagining himself years in the future lecturing on his very experiences in the camp (which of course he eventually did) as a way to grant himself reprieve from his nightmarish present. It’s uplifting in spite of the suffering because it shows how even in the worst of situations hope and spirit can persevere.
The section that follows his story is “Logotherapy in a Nutshell” which expands upon his theory in greater detail for the average reader. This section was first included in a revised edition of the book in 1962, 16 years after original publication. It is an accessible and concise look at his theory, making it easier for someone with no experience studying psychology (like me) to understand. There were still some jargon and terms that went a little over my head, as one might expect, but I never found myself lost. This section gave more concrete form to the ideas expressed in his story, which I found useful. I also really enjoyed hearing about how logotherapy has helped people he has encountered since his liberation, as well as the ways it can be applied to your life and the way you perceive it.
Man’s Search for Meaning is a book I think everyone should read at least once. I’m not a psychologist, so I can’t speak to better alternatives or what might now be considered wrong or inaccurate academically, but it certainly spoke to me in a profound way as a person. It’s not a book I’d say has all the answers, but rather gives you the tools to answers those questions for yourself. It’s also a powerful exploration of one of modern history’s greatest atrocities told from the perspective of a victim. It’s simply an invaluable read.
My rating: 5 out of 5
2 thoughts on “Book Review – Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl”
I have to read this. I admit, I never overcame my childhood fascination with all things WWII but I am really intrigued by the psychological experiences and expansions the author makes. Great review, I cannot wait to read it!
[…] Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Franklin reviewed on Ryan’s site Muse With Me. His review is here and if you read it you’ll see why it piqued my interest. After The Book of Joy I really want […]


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On November 22, at the chapel tucked away inside the A-Building at the Vallendar campus of WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management, there was a joyous sound as a collective of talented students commanded the humble stage for a good cause. Every year, WHUSH, short for WHU Students Help, holds their Charity Concert, an event that gives the community a little holiday cheer while simultaneously supporting those in need. For 2022, their attentions turned to Lichtzeichen e.V., a local charity that assists expectant mothers who are facing hardship.
Before the singing and playing had even begun, the crowd, packed from wall to wall, felt a need to loudly applaud the efforts of this altruistic student group. The show, freely open to the public, officially started with a call to action, as representatives from WHUSH asked the audience to make donations to the Vallendar-based organization, which started as a project by Schönstattbewegung 20 years prior. Ulrike Eichenberg, who helped found Lichtzeichen, expressed her gratitude for the productive collaboration with the school’s “incredible young folks,” saying, “We’ve had the best time working with you.” According to her, the funds raised will go toward supporting the center’s latest project: an expansion of their facilities, which will allow for daily childcare. This is in addition to all that Lichtzeichen currently does for expectant mothers, such as providing them toys and clothes, hot meals, counseling, and housing support—both before and after their babies arrive. During the intermission, the club sold freshly made cookies, bowls of soup, and waffles to the charity’s benefit, helping them on their mission to “give mothers and their child a good future.”


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