It's always nice to plop down to a big bowl of hot dog food and read about how the company you work for (ostensibly and/or on paper) squandered one of the most recognizable brands in PC history. As you'll recall, the turn of the century was a time of great confusion. iTunes hadn't yet rolled over the media space and these new M-P-3 files* were quite popular yet no one knew how to play them. Enter WinAmp. Ars, to their credit, wrote an excellent expose on WinAmp, talking to the folks who made the company what it was - and who left to allow the company to degenerate into what it is now. The creators, Rob Lord and Justin Frankel, built WinAmp as a solution to play the nascent MP3. ?Winamp grew out of wanting a good, enjoyable way to listen to MP3s on a computer. It wasn?t the first MP3 player, but the MP3 players around before it were hard for me to want to use," Frankel told Digital Tools.
Tuesday, June 26, 2012
How AOL Squandered WinAmp
It's always nice to plop down to a big bowl of hot dog food and read about how the company you work for (ostensibly and/or on paper) squandered one of the most recognizable brands in PC history. As you'll recall, the turn of the century was a time of great confusion. iTunes hadn't yet rolled over the media space and these new M-P-3 files* were quite popular yet no one knew how to play them. Enter WinAmp. Ars, to their credit, wrote an excellent expose on WinAmp, talking to the folks who made the company what it was - and who left to allow the company to degenerate into what it is now. The creators, Rob Lord and Justin Frankel, built WinAmp as a solution to play the nascent MP3. ?Winamp grew out of wanting a good, enjoyable way to listen to MP3s on a computer. It wasn?t the first MP3 player, but the MP3 players around before it were hard for me to want to use," Frankel told Digital Tools.
3 Video Marketing Tips for Your Online Business | Internet and Email ...
Video marketing as a means for promoting anything, just about, has been streaking like a meteor in the past few years. In this article we will be looking into a few effective video marketing tips that give results.
Your video?s title plays an important role in the overall result of your marketing campaign. Searching for videos online is like using a search engine with different keywords. If you were to look for gardening videos on a video sharing site, you might use gardening hints, or gardening methods. So your aim should be to leverage this title to the fullest extent, so that you not only get ranked for your targeted keywords but also reach out to your target audience easily. You will do this by using relevant keywords, but keeping in mind that you want to keep the title simple. You must be sure that you are paying attention to the keywords, they must make sense and stay on topic of the video. You want to make the title eye catching, as this is the first thing people focus on when they find the video. You want to be able to grab peoples attention with a well worded title. If you have ever done any copywriting, you have learned about the importance of a good title. It is pretty much the same for video titles. You want to portray the purpose of the video clearly. The title of the video is the best place to do just that. Remember that when you?re creating your title, you have to make it short and snappy, and at the same time make it convey what the video is all about. It can take a bit to fully grasp the concept, but the end results are effective.
If viewers want to embed your videos on their sites, they only have to copy and paste the code, so make sure you let them do this. This is a way to get both more views for your videos and also quality backlinks from the websites that use your videos. This means there?s no reason you should want to prevent people from doing this, as it only helps you. Remember, every time someone embeds your video on their site, it gives their visitors a chance to see it, and some of them may do the same, which can cause your video to spread virally.
One thing that makes video marketing stand out from others is that people can give their views and feedback. More people will be interested in your videos when they see the number of comments and ideas posted as well.
In conclusion, video marketing can be seen as a simple and effective way to drive targeted traffic to your website, without actually paying for it.
One thing you need to realize concerning this discussion about affiliaterevolution is it can become as effective as you want; it depends on how you scale your promotions.
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The Engadget Show 34: LeVar Burton, weather balloons over Alaska, Northeastern University and ITP
This month's show is all about learning -- but don't worry, it's a lot more fun than it sounds. We'll be putting the "tainment" back in edutainment. But first, we're kicking things off with a quick detour to Los Angeles to check out all of the explosive sights and sounds at E3 and heading over to the gadget tables to show off the Samsung Galaxy S III on AT&T, the new MacBook Pro with Retina Display and the taking the new Parrot AR.Drone 2.0 for a spin around the studio.
Next up, Tim heads to Alaska to work with a team of researchers studying the northern lights with high-tech balloons and helmet cameras. We've also got class visits to Northeastern University, where students are creating technology for the betterment of mankind and NYU's ITP school, where art and technology meet. ITP's Danne Woo and Matt Richardson will be showing of some of the school's projects, including the kinetically-powered Circuit Board, the Descriptive Camera and the condiment-extruding Burritob0t.
Then we'll close things out with an interview from none other than LeVar Burton, who tells us about the rebirth of Reading Rainbow and how Project Glass and the iPad are making the real world a little bit more like Star Trek. Check out the full episode after the break!
Gallery: The Engadget Show 34: LeVar Burton, weather balloons over Alaska, Northeastern University and ITP
Hosts: Tim Stevens, Brian Heater
Guests: LeVar Burton, Matt Richardson, Danne Woo
Producer: Rob Samala
Director: Michelle Stahl
Executive Producers: Brian Heater, Joshua Fruhlinger and Michael Rubens
Download the Show: The Engadget Show - 034 (HD) / The Engadget Show - 034 (iPod / iPhone / Zune formatted) / The Engadget Show - 034 (Small)
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The Engadget Show 34: LeVar Burton, weather balloons over Alaska, Northeastern University and ITP originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 25 Jun 2012 16:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Tunisia sends ex-Libya PM back to face trial
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Monday, June 25, 2012
This Week In Beauty: The Best & Worst From June 17-24 (PHOTOS)
We spend lots of time focusing on what stars wear (and any wardrobe malfunctions they may have), but what about what they put on their faces? There's been a lot of news lately about makeup companies and although makeup may not seem important, plenty of women won't leave home without it.
In a survey, two-thirds of British women said that heading to the office bare-faced caused them more stress than public speaking, going on a first date or enduring a job interview. 91 percent of women surveyed would rather cancel a first date altogether than go without makeup on. And in the U.S., women spend around $7 billion on cosmetics every year.
And that doesn't even include hair.The AP recently reported that in 1950, about seven percent of women dyed their hair. Today? 95 percent or more.
With all that beauty-obsession (and our own love of makeup) in mind, we're taking a look at This Week In Beauty. From this week forward, we'll be showcasing the best, worst and most interesting styles of hair, makeup and nails that we came across this week. Take a look, get inspired and vote for your faves!
Also on HuffPost:
Contribute to this Story:
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Sunday, June 24, 2012
Naked In The File Name Of Your Image? Google Images May Block It
A Google Webmaster Help thread has one webmaster who is upset that many, about 4,000, of his images are being blocked by Google's Image Search SafeSearch filter.
Gary Illyes from Google explained that although the images might not look visually offensive but the filenames and words on the page can also flag the image as offensive. He said, do a site command and add the word [naked] to the query and that shows that many of those images are returned for a type of nude keyword phrase.
The easy fix is to rename the filenames of the images to safe words and to remove any unsafe words from the context of the page.
Gary explained in the thread:
The SafeSearch algorithms look at a variety of signals to decide what's potentially unsafe, and one of them is the filenames of the images. If the filenames contain words that may be offensive, generally the image is also potentially offensive. The same applies to the textual content of your HTML pages.I realize identifying the images and/or the pages that may be filtered can be a challenging task; what I usually do is to turn off SafeSearch and do searches for [site:YOURSITE.com naked] and similar keywords to find them. The results that show up are typically related to the searched keyword.
To fix the issue, you will want to remove the potentially offensive words from the image filenames and the text of the landing pages.
Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Help.
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Saturday, June 23, 2012
UPDATE 1-Golf-Travelers Championship second round scores
Sat Jun 23, 2012 1:43am BST
June 2 2 (Infostrada Sports) - Scores from the U.S. PGA Tour Travelers Championship at the par-70 course on Friday in Cromwell, Connecticut holes played rounds -9 Fredrik Jacobson (Sweden) 36 65 66 -8 Nathan Green (Australia) 27 65 Charley Hoffman (U.S.) 24 67 -7 Blake Adams (U.S.) 36 69 64 Roland Thatcher (U.S.) 36 66 67 Stuart Appleby (Australia) 36 68 65 -6 Brian Davis (Britain) 36 67 67 Marc Leishman (Australia) 36 68 66 Tommy Gainey (U.S.) 36 66 68 -5 Charlie Wi (South Korea) 36 70 65 John Rollins (U.S.) 36 68 67 Tim Clark (South Africa) 36 66 69 Aaron Baddeley (Australia) 36 67 68 Webb Simpson (U.S.) 36 66 69 Will Claxton (U.S.) 18 65 -4 Graham DeLaet (Canada) 36 68 68 Rocco Mediate (U.S.) 36 66 70 Keegan Bradley (U.S.) 36 68 68 Lucas Glover (U.S.) 36 70 66 Billy Hurley III (U.S.) 36 69 67 Ken Duke (U.S.) 27 67 J.B. Holmes (U.S.) 26 70 Greg Chalmers (Australia) 25 67 Jerry Kelly (U.S.) 24 66 Gary Christian (Britain) 18 66 -3 David Mathis (U.S.) 36 64 73 Zach Johnson (U.S.) 36 72 65 Kyle Stanley (U.S.) 36 70 67 Rory Sabbatini (South Africa) 36 71 66 Bubba Watson (U.S.) 36 66 71 Chez Reavie (U.S.) 36 66 71 Brendon De Jonge (Zimbabwe) 36 72 65 Billy Horschel (U.S.) 25 71 Matt Kuchar (U.S.) 23 67 Louis Oosthuizen (South Africa) 23 69 Camilo Villegas (Colombia) 22 68 James Driscoll (U.S.) 20 68 Garth Mulroy (South Africa) 19 68 Roberto Castro (U.S.) 18 67
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Letting go: My big decision | Mary DeMuth
As of July 15, 2012, I?m letting go of my writing mentoring and Write Uncaged.
Why?
I?ve been divided for several years now between two different tribes?readers/listeners to my message and potential writers. I made the decision to mentor writers based on a frustrating conversation I had with a writer in the mid 1990s. I determined I?d be helpful. With my all or nothing personality, I didn?t stop to think that this might simply mean me being helpful if someone asked me questions. Instead, I started actively mentoring writers the moment I learned a new thing. And for a while, that worked. Much of it was done for free, and I found ways to squeeze my mentoring into the corners of my life.
Eventually demand grew, and I started charging for my work. But that got to be too much work, so I hired editors to help.
For the last year, I?ve had this dull ache inside when I thought about mentoring. If you stopped me and asked me point blank why I had it, I wouldn?t have been able to articulate why. But now I know.
The truth is, I?m passionate about sharing my story, about helping people find freedom so they can live uncaged lives. But my passion for mentoring writers has waned. I no longer have the energy and drive I used to have in this aspect of my life.
Prior to this decision, I met with a brand manager of a bestselling author. She didn?t know my struggle, nor did I really. But she said something that brought this to the forefront. She said that the author had been successful because he stayed on message. He focused. If publishers asked him to write a parenting book, he?d say no because it wasn?t his core message.
I realized I?d been dividing my heart and time in two directions. And it was time to let go of one.
It became time to go ?all in? on my writing and speaking career, to really listen to what my publisher has said about how they see me (writing spiritual growth books), and to focus my efforts on that. You don?t see Beth Moore teaching other people how to write Bible studies. You don?t see John Grisham teaching writers how to write legal thrillers. They concentrate on doing what they do best, and now I feel it?s time I let go of the good for the sake of the great.
This doesn?t mean I?ll never help writers, it just means I?m letting go of that part of my business. From this point forward, I?ll be focusing solely on my message ?living uncaged.?
Important Note: I?m letting go of my products, including my popular proposal tutorials. I?ll be taking them down by?July 15th. If you?d like them, you can order them now.
I do have some strong recommendations for mentoring:
- The Bestseller Society. ?http://bestsellersociety.com/?There, you can watch me on video teaching everything I know about writing (over ten hours of instruction.)
- Writing coach Alice Crider:?http://www.alicecrider.com/?I can personally attest to her amazing coaching. She?s been instrumental in shaping me as a writer and a person.
- Jeff Goins is an amazing writer with a heart to help new writers.?Do subscribe to his blog.
- Believer?s Press has been a sponsor to Write Uncaged. They?ve done all my ebook formatting and POD formatting. If you need an affordable, amazing service as you self publish, consider?Believers Press.
Be assured I?ve prayed through this decision, sought counsel, and have felt deeply compelled to go forward. It?s time to commit fully to writing and speaking, and let go of my writing tribe.?God is pushing me out of the nest into the next.
Joyfully,
Mary DeMuth
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Related posts:
- 23 Reasons why you should go to Mount Hermon Christian Writers Conference
- The Mount Hermon Head Start Mentoring Program
- Writing Costs you Something
- Letting Go of One, Embracing the Other
- Letting go of friendships
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Kenyan police arrest two Iranians over explosives
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Russia's Putin warns opponents not to cause unrest
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Friday, June 22, 2012
Video: Clemens not guilty, but shames game
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Car quality at highest level ever, J.D. Power says
Lexus
Lexus once again topped the chart. The maker averaged just 73 problems per 100 vehicles included in the survey.
By Paul A. Eisenstein, msnbc.com contributor
The quality of the cars rolling out of U.S. dealer showrooms has reached the highest level ever, according to a new study by J.D. Power and Associates.?
?This is, without doubt, the best level of quality we?ve ever seen,? said Dave Sargent, vice president of global automotive at J.D. Power.
But while traditional problems like squeaks, rattles and electrical glitches have become increasingly uncommon, owners are registering a growing number of complaints about their high-tech audio, entertainment and navigation systems.?Younger buyers -- those under 35 -- are about twice as likely as older buyers to complain about tech issues
Sargent described the challenge of building in more technology -- without quality issues as "the battleground of the future" among manufacturers.
Power?s 2012 Initial Quality Survey shows a nearly 5 percent improvement compared with last year?s results on the number of problems owners experienced with their vehicles. Of the 34 brands ranked by the IQS, 26 improved their 2011 results, only five showed declines. Of 185 different models that were on the market during both years, 65 percent improved their quality scores in 2012.
Lexus, the perennial leader in initial quality, topped the chart again. The automaker averaged just 73 problems per 100 vehicles included in the survey ? 73 PP100 in J.D. Power-speak ? or less than one reported problem for every vehicle Lexus sold.? But Porsche and Jaguar were close behind, tied for second. That?s particularly significant since Jaguar ?literally leapfrogged? from 20th place last year, said Rafi Festekjian, JDPA?s Director of Automotive Research.
Historically, brands that land in the upper quartile of the IQS have a significantly higher loyalty rate ? measured by repeat buyers ? than those who have more quality problems.? And Power data suggest that quality and reliability is still the single most important factor in determining what vehicle to buy for 59 percent?of American motorists.
?The good news is that the industry has made major improvements,? said Festekjian. He said the sharp increase in quality scores was all the more impressive considering manufacturers have ?had to keep their eyes on the ball? even as their plants were running significant overtime to keep up with demand in the fast-recovering U.S. automotive market.
Now in its 26th year, the IQS actually covers two distinctly different sorts of potential problems. There are the classic defects and malfunctions, anything from a faulty turn signal to an engine failure, and?there are the design-related problems. These can include such issues as poorly designed cupholders or a balky navigation system.
J.D. Power reports new cars have fewer mechanical problems, with CNBC's Phil LeBeau.
By traditional measures, there are fewer defects than ever. But there?s been a sharp 45 percent increase in problems related to audio, entertainment and navigation systems since 2006, according to Festekjian.?Wind noise issues were traditionally the most common complaint fielded by the IQS. ?Now, we?re seeing that hands-free systems not recognizing commands has become the number one reported problem,? he noted.
The problem is compounded because?more cars come with hands-free systems of one sort or another ? more than 80 percent of the vehicles covered by the 2012 IQS.
That underscores the challenge facing automakers like Ford. The second-largest of the domestic manufacturers has drawn in plenty of new customers with its Sync infotainment system. But problems programming the technology let Ford?slip sharply in the 2011 IQS and it hasn?t fully recovered yet. Ford showed only a slight improvement in its score in the 2012 study, but slumped to well below the industry average of 102 problems per 100 with a brand score of 118 pp100.
Japanese makers in general topped the list, with seven of the 15 brands scoring above?industry average. Detroit had four brands in that group, led by Cadillac with a score of 80 PP100. European makers had the remaining four above-average brands.
Two microcar brands, Fiat and Smart, lagged at the other end of the scale, with 151 problems per 100 vehicles. British Mini fared only slightly better with 139 PP100.?
But even the weaker brands generally showed some improvement over their 2011 scores, noted Festekjian.? He also pointed out that the old industry axiom that smart shoppers should wait until a vehicle is on the market for at least a year isn?t necessarily true anymore.
A number of all-new or completely redesigned vehicles actually did better than the models they replaced, including the Audi A6 and A7 lines, the Toyota Yaris, the Honda CR-V and the Mercedes M-Class.
?It?s a testament to how manufacturers are listening to the voice of the consumer and then embed that across the board from product planning to manufacturing to the dealer,? he said.
In terms of individual market segments, Ford and Lexus each led in three, for the Expedition, Taurus and Mustang and for the ES350, LS and RX, respectively.? Nissan, Infiniti and Toyota each led in two segments.
The Porsche 911, meanwhile, not only topped the ranks of premium sporty cars but had the single best score of any vehicle since J.D. Power redesigned the IQS in 2006.? The iconic sports car averaged just 44 PP100 in a study where the lower the score the better.
The annual quality study also singles out the highest-quality assembly plants and the Platinum Plant award was given to Honda?s Suzuka 3 assembly line in Japan, which produces the maker?s CR-Z crossover and Fit subcompact models.?
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Six-Wheelers Converge on Goodwood
Just the Facts:
- For the first time ever, three historic British six-wheeled Formula 1 racecars will appear together at the 2012 Goodwood Festival of Speed.
- The trio of six-wheelers include the Tyrrell P34, the March 2-4-0 and the Williams FW08B.
- The annual festival runs June 28 to July 1.
GOODWOOD, England ? For the first time ever, three historic British six-wheeled Formula 1 racecars will appear together at the 2012 Goodwood Festival of Speed. The annual festival runs June 28 to July 1.
The trio of six-wheelers includes the Tyrrell P34, the March 2-4-0 and the Williams FW08B.
Ken Tyrrell's radical racecar, the only one of the three to feature four front wheels and actually enter a race, competed in 1976-'77, with Jody Scheckter and Patrick Depailler finishing 1-2 at the 1976 Swedish Grand Prix.
Robin Herd's March Engineering car, tested in 1977, had four wheels in the rear, as did Frank Williams' experimental six-wheeler in 1982, but neither car was ever entered in a race.
A fourth six-wheeler, the Ferrari 312T6, was tested by Niki Lauda and Carlos Reutemann in 1977, but was never entered in competition by the Scuderia.
Six-wheeled cars were effectively banned from F1 in 1983.
Inside Line says: Today it's the Nissan Deltawing, but back in the 70s it was six-wheelers like these that were pushing the limits of racecar engineering.
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Thursday, June 21, 2012
Video: Prince William turns 30
>>> it was 30 years ago tonight we announced on this broadcast the birth of william arthur phillip louis of the house of windsor better known to you and me as prince william . he turned 30 today and is now a married man second in line to the british throne and today he inherits a minor fortune from the estate of his late mother who has now been gone for half his life. we get the story tonight from nbc's stephanie gosk.
>> reporter: prince william can't be blamed for wanting to keep his 30th birthday low key . between the queen's diamond jubilee , the royal wedding , and very soon the summer olympics , there has been no shortage of big events. but it is no less a milestone.
>> i think his mother would be very proud of him.
>> reporter: today william inherits his half of princess diana 's fortune a reported $15 million.
>> i'm sure it is a bitter sweet moment for prince william to inherit this money, his mother's legacy.
>> reporter: the man second in line to the british throne is born with many of life's most difficult challenges already overcome -- money, check. future job, check. but it is what he does beyond that that defines him.
>> there's so much i want to do and it worries me occasionally. i want to do it all.
>> reporter: but he has made a start. william is passionate about his military career as a search-and-rescue helicopter pilot, and his charity work inspired in many ways by his mother.
>> she wanted to give so much love and so much care to people who really needed it.
>> reporter: prince william volunteers at the same homeless shelter where princess diana dedicated her time.
>> what we see is he has got this ability like his mother had to connect. he really genuinely feels he cares.
>> reporter: prince william even spent a cold, winter night in an alley way with homeless teenagers to get a sense of what it would be like but also to show how dedicated he is to helping them out. the brave 15-year-old who walked behind his mother's coffin has turned into a confident, poised young man born with a title but striving not to live a life of entitlement. stephanie gosk, nbc news, london.
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Wednesday, June 20, 2012
The Empirical Manifesto - Relationships
I recently watched Guy Richie's Sherlock Holmes and its magnificent sequel, and will admit to being downright smitten with the intimate relationship Holmes and Watson share in this particular interpretation - what is it in the psychology behind the homosociality of bromance buddy-films that endears us to them?
Imagine observing two house painters whose brushstrokes seemed to be playing out a duet on the side of the house. They may be shocked to think that they were engaged in an intimate activity with each other, however from an experiential point of view, they would be very intimately involved.*
Nancy Sherman's [philosophy professor and author] elucidation on Aristotle's intimate nature of friendship helps define the importance of the empathetic "singleness of mind" for a truly intimate relationship - through sharing in argument and in thought. Not just thinking alike, but arriving at similar conclusions through similar processes:
The point is that the friends ?share? a conception of values not merely in that there is significant overlap between the values of the one friend and those of the other, and not merely in that this overlap is maintained through the influence that the friends have on each other. Rather, the values are shared in the sense that they are most fundamentally their values, at which they jointly arrive by deliberating together.[Friends have] the project of a shared conception of eudaimonia [i.e., of how best to live]. Through mutual decisions about specific practical matters, friends begin to express that shared commitment. Any happiness or disappointment that follows from these actions belongs to both persons, for the decision to so act was joint and the responsibility is thus shared.*
It wasn't just the antics Holmes and Watson found themselves embroiled in, nor was it their inherent trust in each other to play to their strengths - it was their attitude in the acknowledgement that the relationship existed; something I used to endeavor to understand about myself and my friends when I was younger, even up to a decade ago - most recently the relationship I had with my hetero-lifemate
drax0r which I now understand to have also been a very intimate one by the many and varied definitions of both intimacy, and friendship.So just what are some of those definitions of intimacy? As already mentioned there is experiential intimacy - a sharing of activities without communicating thoughts or feelings - but being actively engaged with one another nonetheless; unique in the choice with whom we choose to share these activities with, and for what reason. Emotional intimacy is where two or more people can comfortably share their feelings with and/or empathize with each other much as intellectual (cognitive) intimacy is an exchange of thoughts and ideas enjoying similarities and differences between opinions. Both emotional and intellectual intimacy are separated from casual conversations/relationships by a level of comfort in that communication which allows for trust building, introducing vulnerability.
The meaning and level of intimacy varies within and between relationships. Intimacy is considered the product of a successful...process of rapport building that enables parties to confidently disclose previously hidden thoughts and feelings. Intimate conversations become the basis for "confidences" (secret knowledge) that bind people together.*
In short, without first exposing oneself wholly (vulnerability) and without opaque motivation (transparency) and having it returned (reciprocity), intimacy will never be experienced. Ever. No matter how much sex takes place - the lowest common denominator of one possible intimacy which most people confuse as the physical act of penetrative intercourse itself. We all want our cake, and want to eat it too.
Sex is the icing on the cake. Intimacy is the cake.*
My first post on intimacy postulated that dialog, transparency, vulnerability & reciprocity would take on different characteristics upon each level of self-actualization; transparency behind communication during periods in which someone is fearing for their life would differ from those trying to win the respect of their peers, for example. In comparison, this thesis will be on defining the different levels of intimacy, and attempting to structure an order behind them so we can discover why a foundation is so very important to growth and what that growth looks like once it reaches maturation. To that end, I've manifested a illustrative graphic:
Network giant CISCO's Get Intimate at Work presentation uses a common intimacy pyramid to convey how to build trust in a client relationship from a business perspective, but the steps they outline to get there are all the same. In order to advance through the levels, we must first have an authentic foundation. But what is authenticity and how do we identify it? The answer to that was surprisingly found in the periodical Shambhala Sun concerning the nature of being truly genuine:
To be genuine you have to be honest with yourself first, and then with others. Don't make anything up. Just do it. Just be it. Its's pretty straightforward. But being honest with yourself is is not so easy. There's a little think called self-deception that gets in the way.*
Starting at the top, reciprocity is giving and taking selfishly and selflessly - a [mutually beneficial] cycle of Randian ethics; abject communication without repercussion - having individual needs fulfilled while fulfilling the needs of others. Needs cannot be met without exposing one's self to another. To be vulnerable we must be willing to place ourselves in harms way, to acknowledge the potential to be hurt. And this takes mature amounts of emotional fortitude and personal responsibility. This is the same mindset which must also occur at the lowest level - likes, interests & sex. If we cannot be genuine and open at the lowest levels, we will never even reach the higher levels. All pyramids of ascending aspirations work on this principle.
Over time, we deny our needs and replace them with defenses. Then when someone values us, we have to reject him or her. To let ourselves be cherished for who we really are would be to violate our parents' edict that we are flawed, and to arouse our fear that if we do, feel, or think certain things, we'll be neglected and abandoned?in the most primal sense, left to die. So to receive love is to risk death.*
But in attempting to articulate how very unlikely it is the majority of us can honestly self-evaluate, I ran across an interesting psychoanalytical term, alexithymia - a state of deficiency in understanding, processing, or describing emotions. So while the majority of us probably succumb to some degree of self-deception unconsciously, therefore preventing us to be honest even with ourselves - others of us aren't even capable of comprehending our own emotions to evaluate. We must at all times be mindful of what we are feeling.
To end self-rejection, you have to learn to love in another what you hate in yourself.*
Honesty about our likes, dislikes, interests and yes, sex is all about laying a foundation of authenticity, something from which to build on. Its what makes the next level, expressing personal goals and aspirations so fulfilling - genuine interest in each other - a test of compatibility and genuineness. While rejection can come from any level of the pyramid, trust (intimacy) ascends with it, in essence a self-strengthening process, bolstered by honesty of the previous success and anticipation of the next. Fears & challenges then is the first introduction to vulnerability, albeit on a much safer scale. Its the baby-step of climbing the intimacy ladder - topple this and trust topples with it. Yet succeed, and dialog - true back and forth exchange of ideas and information - becomes possible. What are you going to discuss?
Dialog however, is merely the gateway to the transcendent meta-intimacies. That said, I have attempted to structure them to aid in comprehension. Transparency is a complete accountability of self and declaration of motivation - its the "why" behind the facilitation of dialog. Revealing incentive is the first step to vulnerability because it exposes us to criticism. That exposure - even prior to feedback - builds trust, inherent to intimacy. If being transparent is accepted with genuine honesty, full-on vulnerability is a natural progression. I define vulnerability as allowing the true me to be unabashedly judged. For those who can push through the self-deception and self-rejection, for those who can honestly self-evaluate - that's an enormous step. But only by empowering someone else with that knowledge are we truly vulnerable.
When we start shading what we say to keep our relationship calm, we destroy intimacy and desire and diminish our sense of security and self-worth.*
Like every other character-building ground we may gain, it will absolutely require continual, aggressive reevaluation without provocation as a matter of preventative maintenance. Never hitch self-worth to that which can be given or taken away. Those who cannot bear to be judged should never open themselves up for judgement. But for those who can withstand judgement, the gifts are immeasurable.
The highest values [in life] are not learned, they are discovered.*
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Tuesday, June 19, 2012
News in Brief: American Astronomical Society Annual Meeting
Highlights from the 220th AAAS meeting held June 10-14 in Anchorage, Alaska
Web edition : Monday, June 18th, 2012
20 hours of fame
Seen in gamma rays, the sun is usually dark. But on March 7, it blazed for 20 hours after a massive solar flare dumped high-energy particles and light into space. ?The sky looked completely different,? Stanford University?s Nicola Omodei said on June 11. NASA?s Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope captured the sun?s brief moment in the ? sun, and recorded "the highest-energy light ever detected during a solar flare,? Omodei said. Scientists studying the gamma-ray?producing particles determined that instead of only being flung outward by the initial flare-producing shock, the particles were probably also accelerated by reconnecting solar magnetic fields after the event.
Sun?s short-term memory
Scientists trying to forecast peaks in solar cycle activity have generated vastly variable estimates, ranging from Wimpy to Hulk. Dibyendu Nandy, from the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research in Kolkata, suggests an explanation for the prognostic failure. ?The sun has a very short memory,? he said on June 11. ?It forgets its history of past activity.? That?s because a process called ?turbulent pumping? mixes the solar magnetic field and erases ?memories? of past cycles of activity. This mixing makes previous solar cycles bad indicators of future intensity. Instead, Nandy suggests that solar maximums, or periods when the sun has its highest number of sunspots, can be reliably predicted only using the previous minimum ? which means the sun remembers its own history for just 5.5 years.
Getting to know the dwarfs next door
Astronomers studying M dwarfs, the most abundant of our stellar neighbors, are beginning to understand more about how these redder, dimmer stars evolve and age. That understanding is important because these stars are likely to be common hosts of exoplanets. On June 12, Scott Engle of Villanova University reported that an M dwarf?s magnetic field betrays the star?s age, which can theoretically reach 100 billion years. Aging stars lose mass and spin more slowly, reducing the magnetic field strength in a predictable way ? a relationship Engle discovered after studying M dwarfs in binary systems with companions of known ages. Older M dwarfs are also expected to emit fewer potentially harmful X-rays and less ultraviolet radiation, which could make an orbiting planet a more comfortable place to live.
Small telescope, big planet
Sometimes, a little eye turned toward the sky can see big things. In this case, the Kilodegree Extremely Little Telescope ? essentially the equivalent of a digital camera ? discovered two enormous stellar companions orbiting faraway stars. One of these bodies is a Jupiter-sized planet orbiting a star bright enough to allow scientists to study the planet?s atmosphere. The other, a big brown dwarf, is ?something that has never been seen before,? said Ohio State University graduate student Thomas Beatty ?on June 13. Like NASA?s Kepler spacecraft, KELT looks for dips in light caused by bodies passing between a star and Earth. KELT-1b, the brown dwarf with a mass equivalent to 30 Jupiters, is one of these star-dimming objects. It circles its star in just 29 hours, receiving 6,000 times the amount of sunlight that Earth gets. ?It sort of resets the bar for weird,? Beatty said.
Small planets don?t mind metal-poor stars
Smaller planets tend to live around stars with variable metal content, being equal-opportunity inhabitants of stellar systems that are both metal-rich and metal-poor. This nonpreference is unlike that of Jupiter-sized planets with close-in orbits, which are devoted metalheads that associate primarily with metal-rich stars. In stellar astronomy, ?metal? refers to any element heavier than helium. Scientists spied the differing characteristics of the two groups after surveying more than 200 planet candidates in the Kepler field and correlating the planets? sizes with their host stars? metal content. The result, reported June 13 at the meeting and online in Nature, suggests that smaller planets form more easily and earlier in a star?s evolution than Jupiter-sized planets. ?They could be widespread in our galaxy,? said study coauthor Lars Buchhave of the University of Copenhagen in Denmark.
Weird and distant planet
It?s not just their names that are weird. The dwarf planet Quaoar (Kwa-war) and its satellite Weywot present some unusual characteristics. Quaoar, which orbits its sun at roughly 40 times the Earth-sun distance, is much denser than expected. Weywot takes a more oval-shaped path around Quaoar than it should, if theories describing satellite formation apply to the two tiny Kuiper Belt bodies. Both of these characteristics suggest the system formed after an unusually violent collision blasted away Quaoar?s outer icy sheath, leaving behind a dense chunk of rock. And Weywot, instead of condensing from the resulting debris disk, was borne of a large fragment ? the remainder of an ?unusually high velocity collision,? said Wesley Fraser of Canada?s Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics on June 13.
Found in: Astronomy and Atom & Cosmos
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Monday, June 18, 2012
The Mysterious Brain of the Fat-Tailed Dwarf Lemur, the World's Only Hibernating Primate
A fat-tailed dwarf lemur (Image courtesy of Kathrin Dausmann)
In the 18th century Carl Linnaeus named them lemurs, after the Latin lemures?spirits of the dead, wandering ghosts. He knew the primates roamed Madagascar?s forests at night, their large eyes brimming with moonlight, their shrill cries crashing through the treetops. One of the smallest lemurs on the island, the fat-tailed dwarf lemur, resembled a phantom in another way: it completely vanished for seven months each year.
For a long time, no one understood where the fat-tailed dwarf lemur went?a remote part of the island? the spirit world??or what it was doing all that time, but scientists had a hunch. Perhaps the lemur was hibernating. If so, it would be the only primate in the world?and one of the only tropical mammals?to do so. Given Madagascar?s climate, however, it made sense that a lemur might hibernate to survive annual periods of drought.
In general, Madagascar has two seasons: the hot, wet season from November to April, and the cooler, dry season from April through October. The deciduous forests on the west coast, where many fat-tailed dwarf lemurs live, offer no open sources of water during the dry season and only fibrous fruits bereft of sugar. Perhaps, scientists reasoned, the fat-tailed dwarf lemur hunkered down and waited for the rains to return, slowing its metabolism and dropping its body temperature. It could survive off of nutrients stored in its tail, which always grew plumper as the dry season drew closer.
In 1993 Kathrin Dausmann of the University of Hamburg and her colleagues finally put the hibernation hypothesis to the test. Between 1993 and 2003, the researchers regularly traveled to the forest of Kirindy on the west coast of Madagascar, where they captured 53 fat-tailed dwarf lemurs (Cheirogaleus medius). They tagged all the lemurs with radio transmitters to track their location and implanted six of the primates with small temperature sensors.
Around April, the lemurs disappeared as usual, but they were not really gone?just out of sight. The radio transmitters revealed their hiding spots?nests within tree hollows?and the temperature sensors confirmed that the primates were in fact hibernating during the dry season. The lemurs? approach to hibernation, however, was unusual.
A fat-tailed dwarf lemur on the west coast of Madagascar (Credit: Frank Vassen, via Wikimedia Commons)
Many small hibernating mammals?including arctic ground squirrels and European hedgehogs?regularly emerge from deep hibernation every few weeks and enter brief periods of biological activity during which their body temperatures rise, their metabolism speeds up and their brain activity increases. The animals do not necessarily get up and move around, but they might urinate and defecate. When they emerge from hibernation, they also sleep. That may seem paradoxical at first; isn?t hibernation a form of deep sleep? No, it?s not. During hibernation the mammalian brain is too cold and too idle to generate the electrical activity that regulates the kind of sleep we look forward to each night. Some scientists think that the need for sleep entirely explains why mammals periodically wake up from hibernation, while others think it is just one reason. What scientists know for certain is that any mammal deprived of sleep for too long will die.
In Dausmann?s study, lemurs hibernating in well-insulated hollows maintained a constant body temperature of about 25 degrees Celsius (77 degrees Fahrenheit), rousing themselves once every 10 to 14 days, somewhat like ground squirrels and hedgehogs. But the body temperatures of lemurs inside poorly insulated hollows fluctuated by 20 degrees Celsius or more every day with the ambient temperature, which increased from 10 degrees Celsius (50 degrees Fahrenheit) or colder at night to 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit) or warmer during the day. No one had ever observed such passive hibernation in a mammal. Dausmann thinks the primates essentially return to a reptilian form of temperature regulation, relinquishing control of their body?s thermostat to the environment and sparing themselves the energetic cost of waking up periodically during hibernation. The sun does most of the work for them.
In recent years, Peter Klopfer of Duke University and his colleagues have been visiting the forest of Kirindy on Madagascar to learn more about fat-tailed dwarf lemurs. Klopfer is particularly interested in studying how the dwarf lemur?s brain copes with hibernation. As a primate brain, the lemur?s brain is larger relative to body size, more complex and more demanding of energy than a squirrel?s brain. Klopfer and his teammates observe lemurs at the Duke Lemur Center and set up nesting boxes on Madagascar. They measure how much oxygen the lemurs use while inside their boxes as a proxy for changes in body temperature, as well as implanting temperature sensors just below the skin. The researchers also slip small, slender electrode needles below the lemurs? scalps to measure electrical activity in their brains.
A fat-tailed dwarf lemur with a plump tail (Image courtesy of Kathrin Dausmann)
So far, their data suggests that the hibernating fat-tailed dwarf lemur brain is unique among all hibernators, orchestrating sleep patterns that look nothing like those of ground squirrels or other hibernating mammals.
In people and most other mammals, rapid eye movement (REM) sleep?the phase most strongly associated with dreams?occupies about 25 percent of a night?s sleep. This is true for fat-tailed dwarf lemurs that are not hibernating. Klopfer and his team discovered that when hibernating dwarf lemurs sleep, however, they exclusively enter REM-sleep and they stay in REM sleep for an unusually long time. Arctic ground squirrels, in contrast, rarely or never enter REM sleep during hibernation. It?s almost as though the primate brain builds up a desperate need for REM-sleep during hibernation, Klopfer speculates, and satisfies the need with long REM sessions. As part of a recent study, scientists discovered that hibernating black bears maintain typical cycling between REM and non-REM sleep, but unlike many smaller hibernators their body temperatures do not drop all that much.
To Klopfer, the discrepancy between the sleeping patterns of hibernating ground squirrels and dwarf lemurs suggests that hibernation is not a conserved trait passed down from one evolutionary generation to the next. Rather, hibernation might be a convergent trait that evolved independently several times in different groups of animals. But studies on how fat-tailed dwarf lemurs hibernate are preliminary, Klopfer stresses, and?as with much hibernation research?there are still more questions than definitive answers.
Klopfer also thinks that, as a primate, the fat-tailed dwarf lemur is a better animal model than the arctic ground squirrel, hamster or hedgehog for studies on inducing hibernation in people. Some scientists have framed the possibility of deliberately reducing a person?s body temperature and metabolism in a controlled manner as a medical breakthrough that could permit otherwise impossible surgeries, as well as deep space travel. Although researchers have made some progress in artificially inducing hibernation in rodents, we are nowhere near ready to send human popsicles to Mars.
In about a week, Klopfer is returning to Madagascar to continue studying the fat-tailed dwarf lemur and to begin investigating the brain activity of the tenrec, which looks somewhat like a shrew and is the only other tropical mammal that hibernates. If the tenrec also enters REM sleep during hibernation, then this style of hibernation might be explained by a tropical environment, rather than a behavior unique to hibernating primates. Perhaps, Dausmann proposes, only the brains of tropical hibernators have the opportunity to get warm enough for REM sleep in an energetically efficient manner. An arctic ground squirrel hibernating in a burrow deep underground is not exposed to much fluctuation in ambient temperature, so it has to actively warm its brain in order to sleep, which requires a lot of energy?perhaps too much energy to fully enter REM sleep. A tropical hibernator, in contrast, could rely in part on high ambient temperatures to warm its brain enough for REM sleep.
Regardless of the exact details, the fact remains: fat-tailed dwarf lemurs are remarkable.? These tiny lemurs show that is is possible for a primate and its brain to survive off of nothing but a tail?s worth of fat for seven months?enduring large fluctuations in body temperature every day during that period?and to emerge from the whole experience, a little groggy perhaps, but as healthy as ever. Scientists now know where dwarf lemurs go when they disappear and what they are doing. Now they just have to figure out how they do it.
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