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E-Mail Is Easy to Write (and to Misread)
By DANIEL GOLEMAN
AS I was in the final throes of getting my most recent book into print, an employee at the publishing company sent me an e-mail message that stopped me in my tracks.
I had met her just once, at a meeting. We were having an e-mail exchange about some crucial detail involving publishing rights, which I thought was being worked out well. Then she wrote: “It’s difficult to have this conversation by e-mail. I sound strident and you sound exasperated.”
At first I was surprised to hear I had sounded exasperated. But once she identified this snag in our communications, I realized that something had really been off. So we had a phone call that cleared everything up in a few minutes, ending on a friendly note.
The advantage of a phone call or a drop-by over e-mail is clearly greatest when there is trouble at hand. But there are ways in which e-mail may subtly encourage such trouble in the first place.
This is becoming more apparent with the emergence of social neuroscience, the study of what happens in the brains of people as they interact. New findings have uncovered a design flaw at the interface where the brain encounters a computer screen: there are no online channels for the multiple signals the brain uses to calibrate emotions.
Face-to-face interaction, by contrast, is information-rich. We interpret what people say to us not only from their tone and facial expressions, but also from their body language and pacing, as well as their synchronization with what we do and say.
Most crucially, the brain’s social circuitry mimics in our neurons what’s happening in the other person’s brain, keeping us on the same wavelength emotionally. This neural dance creates an instant rapport that arises from an enormous number of parallel information processors, all working instantaneously and out of our awareness.
In contrast to a phone call or talking in person, e-mail can be emotionally impoverished when it comes to nonverbal messages that add nuance and valence to our words. The typed words are denuded of the rich emotional context we convey in person or over the phone.
E-mail, of course, has a multitude of virtues: it’s quick and convenient, democratizes access and lets us stay in touch with loads of people we could never see or call. It enables us to accomplish huge amounts of work together.
Still, if we rely solely on e-mail at work, the absence of a channel for the brain’s emotional circuitry carries risks. In an article to be published next year in the Academy of Management Review, Kristin Byron, an assistant professor of management at Syracuse University’s Whitman School of Management, finds that e-mail generally increases the likelihood of conflict and miscommunication.
One reason for this is that we tend to misinterpret positive e-mail messages as more neutral, and neutral ones as more negative, than the sender intended. Even jokes are rated as less funny by recipients than by senders.
We fail to realize this largely because of egocentricity, according to a 2005 article in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Sitting alone in a cubicle or basement writing e-mail, the sender internally “hears” emotional overtones, though none of these cues will be sensed by the recipient.
When we talk, my brain’s social radar picks up that hint of stridency in your voice and automatically lowers my own tone of exasperation, all in the service of working things out. But when we send e-mail, there’s little to nothing by way of emotional valence to pick up. E-mail lacks those channels for the implicit meta-messages that, in a conversation, provide its positive or negative spin.
On the upside, the familiarity that develops between sender and receiver can help to reduce these problems, according to findings by Joseph Walther, a professor of communication and telecommunication at Michigan State University. People who know each other well, it turns out, are less likely to have these misunderstandings online.
These quirks of cyberpsychology are familiar to Clay Shirky, an adjunct professor in New York University’s interactive telecommunications program. His expertise is social computing — software programs through which multiple users interact, ranging from Facebook to Listservs and chat rooms to e-mail. I asked Professor Shirky what all of this might imply for the multitudes of people who work with others by e-mail.
“When you communicate with a group you only know through electronic channels, it’s like having functional Asperger’s Syndrome — you are very logical and rational, but emotionally brittle,” Professor Shirky said.
“I’m part of a far-flung distributed network that at one point was designing a piece of software for sharing medical data; we worked mostly by conference calls and e-mail, and it was going nowhere. So we finally said we’d all fly to Boston and get together for two days, just sit in a room and hash it out.”
During that meeting, the team got an enormous amount of work done. And, Professor Shirky recalls, “because the synchronization by e-mail was so much better after the face-to-face piece, we actually hit the launch date.”
He proposes that work groups whose members are widely dispersed but need to have high levels of coordination — say, a computer security team protecting a global bank — do not have to assemble everyone in one room to reap the same benefit. Instead, he suggests a “banyan model,” after the Asian tree that puts down roots from its branches.
In this approach, he said, “you put down little roots of face-to-face contact everywhere, to strategically augment electronic communications.”
Professor Shirky advised the I.T. head of a global bank to gather together one representative from disparate cities for a day or two and complete tasks. That way, when the security group in Singapore gets e-mail from the security people in London, someone will be more likely to know the sender, and sense how to read the information with less risk of misconstruing or discounting it.
CONSIDER, too, the “e-mail the guy down the hall” effect: as the use of e-mail increases in an organization, the overall volume of other kinds of communication drops — particularly routine friendly greetings. But lacking these seemingly innocuous interactions, people feel more disconnected from co-workers. This was noted in an article in Organizational Science almost a decade ago, just as e-mail was starting to surge. Saying “Hi,” it turns out, really does matter; it’s social glue.
As Professor Shirky puts it, “social software” like e-mail “is not better than face-to-face contact; it’s only better than nothing.”
Daniel Goleman is the author of “Social Intelligence: The New Science of Human Relationships” (Bantam). E-mail: preoccupations@nytimes.com.
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Karen,
Email is both a curse and a blessing, as are any type of forums that are read only without little emoticons to give it a more accurate meaning.
I agree with what was said about it being very one sided-egocentric--and that the communication doesn't always match the intent.
That said...I also think that email is difficult for more reasons.
1. You don't know if the person opens the email or the message. Most of us have multiple emails. Some get dropped even. I have at least 3 accounts close up on me because I gave up on trying to plod through the spam.
2. You can be block sendered and not know it.
3. When you use emails they do stay on a server where our government is happy to nose into your business without a search warrant.
4. Businesses will delete emails if they deem them personal before they even get to you.
5. Businesses keep your emails-your private messages and even business messages--on their server so like it or not it's there for posterity.
I'm sure I could think of more but for now, that's enough.
I really like email and phone messages because they can be perused when there is really time. Phone calls and meetings are so open-ended that they aren't really efficient.
For socializing I would much prefer dancing and substance abuse, or maybe sex!
nmp,
OMG...You said the "S" word in public! You're definitely not a Republican; Republicans only do the "s" word in the closet.
(hahahahah..bad joke, I know!)
Just wanted to see if you were on your toes! LOL
Hey I just went to Radiohead's site and downloaded their new album and you can pay whatever you want.
I paid one British pound, which is about 2 US dollars or so.
Heard about Radiohead's promotion - pay anything from 1 to 100 GBP.
Might give it a try myself.
The Mann (Coulter, that is) on Jews:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21257498/
The Mann says this nation would be better if it were all Christian. Well, such a nation would NOT have any room for sodomites - like YOU.
Ally
It's good but for the first time, I thought Yorke sounded kind of like Neil Young - which isn't a bad thing - maybe it's the vocal range. Or a little like Robert Wyatt of Soft Machine, more British Prog-rock like.
They also have on there where you can pay alot more and pre-order a disk version. At least they'll get alot of publicity and save on shipping and distribution.
coultergiest is a pig. Of all the pigs on display I think she stinks worse than all of them.
Holy crap. Did you say 2 US dollars to one British pound? Oh man we are ...fubar.
"For socializing I would much prefer dancing and substance abuse, or maybe sex!"
That is The Best Quote Ever.
Amen.
OH My. OH HELL YEAH.
Obamarama anyone?
Obama: Bye-Bye Mr. Nice Guy?
It may be bye-bye Mr. Nice Guy for Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, who said Thursday that he is opening the "next phase" of his campaign and plans to more pointedly and aggressively go after frontrunner Sen. Hillary Clinton.
"Now is the time where we're going to be laying a very clear contrast between myself and Senator Clinton," the Illinois Democrat told CNN. "Not just on the past, not just on Iraq, but on moving forward."
Cont.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-071011obamaclinton,0,27913.story?coll=chi_tab01_layout
Al Gore wins Nobel Prize
October 12, 2007 - 7:05PM
Former US Vice President Al Gore and the UN climate panel won the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for raising awareness of the risks of climate change.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee chose Gore and the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to share the $1.5 million prize from a field of 181 candidates.
The committee recognised their efforts to build up and spread knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures to fight it.
Reuters
sparrow and nmp - and that "s" word that only happens in the closets of Republicans - and the nitwits think that makes them moral.
I can write one line emails without greeting or farewell. They are quick with the instant gratification of arriving at the target's emailbox within moments.
Other emails I spend a long time on, rereading and redrafting. I was hopeless at writing actual letters because they were full of crossings out and were too big a mess to post.
I don't find that I'm misunderstood. At least I'm not aware of that happening. In fact, I'd rather write an email rather than make a phone call. I'm more likely to be misunderstood by the words I use when speaking. Hence, given the chance, I will always email.
Thank God for Al Gore!
Last night my friend who was also once a family member for a moment, rolled her car 3 times on the interstate and broke every major bone in her body. including her skull, neck and spine. She is 26.
And then my brother called and said my grandmother has suffered a stroke that has 'returned her to a state of infancy'
I was sitting out by the fire last night thinking about what a shitty day this would be, and the worst part was knowing that I would read the news and absolutely nothing there would make me feel better.
Then Al Gore goes and wins the Nobel Peace Prize. Finally, finally, finally a bit of good news.
What a truly wonderful victory for him.
One way or another they will make these kids pay. I knew they would do this...
A black Louisiana teenager at the center of the racially charged "Jena 6" case was ordered Thursday to spend 18 months in a juvenile facility, after a judge ruled he had violated his probation for earlier juvenile convictions, a source with knowledge of the court proceedings said.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/law/10/11/bell.jail/index.html
Christy, here in Australia, a young Sudanese teenager was set upon by 2 white guys while their white girlfriends watched. The Sudanese boy died. And guess what our Immigration minister did then ......... he's cancelled all African refugees because they don't assimilate very well. Talk about blaming the victims - Liep is the 2nd young man to die at the hands of white assailantS - plural - always more than one.
As well as blaming the victims our Immigration minister, Kevin Andrews,
rewarded their murderers by closing the door on African refugees. Racist pr*ck!
I hope that your friend is able to recover completely once her bones heal. And I'm sorry that your grandmother had a stroke.
If you think that things come in threes - my mum died this morning.
Christy
Best wishes for those affected in the part of your day that was not good.
A vacation did me good as in my work I experience sad, draining things every day and try to balance them with the good things.
When people are involved, it's necessary occasionally to recharge, for the long haul.
That includes for politics.
Oh Woz.
I am so sorry about your mother.
If you need anything let us know.
NMP, thank you darlin.
I am one of the many Americans that has never taken a vacation. With my luck I will finally tale one only to get highjacked or return with malaria.
Man that totally sucks about Wozs' mother. What an awful blow.
What a crappy day already and it is only 8 am.
Why won't Ann Coulter die already?
I wish her nothing but blistering misery.
Of course, I don't mean it to be offensive or inflammatory, it's just the way I feel.
woz...
tons of sympathy from thousands of miles away
:-(
Paging Pat Robertson... What did Red America do to deserve this from The Almighty?
U.S. Drought Monitor Survey Released
Atlanta Mayor Begs Residents To Conserve Water
The latest U.S. Drought Monitor survey released today shows the drought is getting worse. Basically, the eastern half of Alabama remains under the worst drought conditions on the scale -- that's approximately 58 percent of the state under D-4 condition. All the state is under D-1 status or worse.
61 percent of Tennessee is under D-4 or exceptional condition. In Georgia, 27 percent of that state is under the worse category. Other states under D-4 classification includes parts of Kentucky, North and South Carolina and Virginia.
The long range forecast calls for the drought to persist in much of the region through December.
The commissioner of Atlanta's Department of Watershed Management made a plea for conservation today because of the severe drought that has forced restrictions on 61 counties in north Georgia.
Robert J. Hunter called it a drought "of historic magnitude." He said everyone must come together to protect and conserve limited water resources.
The storage for Atlanta's water supply is Lake Lanier, located north of the city. Hunter said it provides water for one-third of the residents of Georgia.
He said that now there is enough water in Lanier to serve the area for 121 days.
more...
http://www.wsbtv.com/news/14320447/detail.html
... and in related news, Al Gore resisted the urge to say I told you so.
Monkey, you could spend all day describing the torture and beating of coultergiest and the funny thing is, I don't think any of us would find it particularly offensive or imflammatory.
Funny woo-woo, not funny haha.
It is human nature to feel that way about the sickest piece of scum on earth.
Christy
I never really took a vacation til I was 40.
Where there's a will there's a way.
Women do different things in different orders but most eventually do everything.
Anyone downloading the new Radiohead, I'm on the 3rd listen & it is stellar. Heading off to work.
Oh yall look, Paul Krugman comes out swinging in defense of the Frost boy.
Great response.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/12/opinion/12krugman.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
Oh for the love of Christ! Unfreakingbelievable!
Vanessa Alarcon saw them while working at an antiwar rally in Lafayette Square last month.
"I heard someone say, 'Oh my god, look at those,' " the college senior from New York recalled. "I look up and I'm like, 'What the hell is that?' They looked kind of like dragonflies or little helicopters. But I mean, those are not insects."
Out in the crowd, Bernard Crane saw them, too.
"I'd never seen anything like it in my life," the Washington lawyer said. "They were large for dragonflies. I thought, 'Is that mechanical, or is that alive?' "
That is just one of the questions hovering over a handful of similar sightings at political events in Washington and New York. Some suspect the insectlike drones are high-tech surveillance tools, perhaps deployed by the Department of Homeland Security.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/08/AR2007100801434_pf.html
I don't know wether to scream or laugh or just run for my freaking life.
HAHAHAHHAHAH!
I LOVE the idea that some multi-million dollar piece of equipment is following me around, wasting taxpayer dollars and going to yoga class with me. I hope it's true!
And I hope that whoever is analyzing the data from such surveillance notes how many of us are watching everything THEY do, writing about it, teaching about it, and empowering others to do something about it.
And I hope to GOD they are briefing Nancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer on what they find.
They need all the clues they can get.
HEYYYYYYYY CONGRESSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!
We are OUT HERE!!
We want you to STOP THE KILLING IN OUR NAME.
NOW.
And try to remember that you work for US.
Amen Sister Karen!
Insect robots!? COME ON PEOPLE!
Oh, man. It is 9 am and I am going to go get drunk, or high, or laid or... something.
I can't take this sh*t anymore!
To all DCPers.
I know I am addressing people who do and do not know me, who do and do not like me, who do and do not agree with me, but none of that, simply none of it, matters.
I do not care who you are or what you do, but if you make it a point to right now today to again put forth the effort to stand against george w bush and ANYONE who enables this madness, I will personally be forever grateful and will teach my children to remember you as heros.
Do not give these bastards another inch! At all! They took our country from us,damn it TAKE IT BACK! Stop the killing, stop the torture, stop it ALL and do not be satisfied until it stops.
Whatever you do, do not accept any more excuses for NOT stopping it. No more excuses. No more lies.
Do not let them lie to you anymore, not a single time. Call them on every single lie you catch them in.
We have many reasons now to lose hope and question the very underpinnings of our faith, but we absolutly can not lose this fight, or we lose everything.
If we allow this freaking bastard to attack Iran, it will be too late. The war that will come here will last thousands of years.
No matter what you think of me, or this, it does not matter, just STOP THEM!
Only the United States Constitution matters. Only that. If we save her, we will save ourselves.
Whatever is happening with each of us, I am begging you to get on the line today and form a solid freaking wall of opposition that can not be moved an inch more. Get on that line and forget everything else, because only this will truly matter when we are gone.
For whatever has been said between us, I just want yall to know, I already think you are all heros already for being here, for staying in spite of the horror of these times. I have seen all of you form the core of that wall, and it is been a great honor to be with you here.
Now, whatever you do today, you hold on, and make it a point to not let them get another damn day of peace and quiet.
When it stops, and peace returns, then we can rest.
Christy... Pass whatever ya decide to do down...
One Dumb Nayshun
Why Miss Christy, are you actually asking people to behave and participate like they belong to the land of the free and the home of the brave? Isn't wearing the tshirt enough?
Slogans Heroes
Monkey,
You already know my mind. Blockading Fox news and probably still the WaPo, is the best plan I can think of without a lonewolf scenario.
georgie is untouchable and even pelosi has turned a deaf ear to 'the advocates.' Yeah, whatever the hell that means.
Our only chance to bring him down is to kick the soap box he is standing on out from under him. Kick it HARD too, and let gravity take over.
Fox News is an enemy of our Constitution and has been central to all of their plots. They could not have done it without them, they can't continue without them. We have got to shut them up NOW.
It is the only way I know to show the rest of the world We are trying to stop it.
If they don't see that signal soon, their hearts indeed will turn against us forever.
And then we will only be left with mob and lone wolf scenarios. Niether of which actually work.
REALITY CHECK FOR THE RON PAUL FOLKS (on the internet)
Despite a great surge in PR and hype, the Ron Paul campaign is well back in the polls - sometimes he is so far back, he is not even listed:
Must share TV:
glumbert - What if the Military had disclaimers like Pharma Ads?
This is the Dem front-runner - Hillary - laughing at a serious questions about healthcare on national TV. Even if Hill thought the questions were outrageously funny, does she have to burst out laughing?? Could she have just answered them in a cool and adult manner? (this will surely be in a negative campaign ad montage, if (when) Hillary is nominated.)
Christy, Woz
Sorry, my thoughts are with you. Peace
Down with Faux, right on Christy
(Iraqi) Father dies after failing to stop playground bomb attack
KIRKUK, Iraq: A suicide bomber exploded a cart of sweets on a crowded playground in the northern Iraq town of Tuz yesterday, killing a child and a father and wounding at least 20 children.
The father, who had come to the playground with his children for the Eid al-Fitr festival tried to prevent the suicide bomber from setting off his explosives but failed, police captain Hiwa Abdullah said.
A spokesman at the hospital in Tuz, about 200 kilometres north of Baghdad, confirmed it had received the bodies of a man and a child.
Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of the holy fasting month of Ramadan and which began in Iraq for Sunni Arabs yesterday, is traditionally a day when families visit relatives and head to public parks for picnics and relaxation.
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/father-dies-after-fail...
Kangaroo,
Australia DOES shoulder some of the blame, for (1) sending Murdoch to the US and (2) letting Howard lead Australia for 11 years.
It's utterly disgusting that the destroyers of American constitutional values are FOREIGN in origin - like Murdoch, Unification Church, etc, etc.
My advice to the so-called leaders of this country: be CAREFUL who you befriend.
Australia DOES shoulder some of the blame, for (1) sending Murdoch to the US and (2) letting Howard lead Australia for 11 years.
Sadly, too true
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071012/ap_on_go_co/craig_ethics
Craig ethics complaint backfires on GOP
WASHINGTON - Larry who?
Now that scandal-tinged Idaho Sen. Larry Craig has reneged on a pledge to resign this fall, his fellow Republican senators act as though they hardly know him. They want voters to forget him, too.
But they privately acknowledge that an earlier strategy to drive Craig from office has backfired, sticking them with an open-ended ethics investigation likely to keep the issue before the public for months.
Senate Republicans demanded the Ethics Committee inquiry into his sex-sting conviction last summer in hopes of forcing Craig to resign. He essentially called their bluff this month when he reversed his decision to resign Sept. 30 unless a court let him drop his guilty plea.
Now Republicans are powerless to stop a process almost certain to do more political damage to the party in general than to a retiring senator.
{{{More on link. Heh.}}}
This is a great exchange in the Republican debate between Ron Paul and the pro-war Republicans about the Iraq war. Paul is making all the arguments that the Dems should make about Iraq. BTW I don't agree with ANYTHING Paul stands for - domestically.
Cool to open my email and see a photo of Karen presenting a "Backbone" award to Mayor Rocky Anderson!!!
& Rep. Barbara Lee got one too! I had a free subscription to The Progressive magazine (having to do with someone I met at YearlyKos 2 years ago) and on the cover was a story about Barbara Lee. I was just going to read it!!
Still buzzing about Al Gore!
http://www.americanprogress.org/cartoons/2007/10/101207_horse.html
Today's American Progress Cartoon
October 13, 2007 12:00 AM
not my president said:
Cool to open my email and see a photo of Karen presenting a "Backbone" award to Mayor Rocky Anderson!!!
Story is on main page now--check it out!
I love Rocky Anderson. Cool story.
Hey yall check this out. I don't even know what to make of it but it starts off with the robo bugs and turns into probably the most disturbing and scary things I have read this century.
It is highly freaking disturbing. If that is true, it is much much worse than we think it is.
http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/174847
Dana Carvey doing his wonderful impression of Bush41 on the eve of the invasion of Kuwait 1991 - hilarious and factual
NMP,
Your canvas is on my easel half finished, but I need to know what shade of green to go with the orange and black...?
Are we talking mint green or dark green or auqa...? Green has radical swings in the color spectrum, just wanted to make sure I am close.
It won't be finished though until I get back from Oklahoma, I am packing now to leave.
I like the brighter greens with a little more yellow in, warmer, lime to jade. Do you think that would be too wild?
Hey! Lookee Here....! Someone in Congress has actually read the Constitution and knows DimWit has WAY overstepped the bounds of executive authority as granted in the Constitution! Now, if we could just get ALL of our Congress Critters to read and understand what the Constitution actually SAYS, as written...! (Pssssst! Hey Congress Critters...! Pay attention to the part about IMPEACHMENT, will ya...?!?) Article I, Section 8 is reprinted in the newspaper story, too, in case anyone wants to read it again. Yeah, reading it again just makes you mad if you already know what it says and compare it to DimWit's claim of executive privilege. I just love how the words flow, even if it is "just" a list of Legislative duties and responsibilities. Elementary words written coherently, easy to understand.... Makes on ill to read that some legislators had Article 1 confused with the First Amendment....
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/10/10/congressional-fashion-statement-were-article-1/
Excerpt (more on link below the pix):
WASHINGTON, Oct. 10 – The way Representative John Yarmuth of Kentucky sees it, lawmakers on Capitol Hill and Americans everywhere have forgotten who the Founding Fathers really intended to run the country –- not the President who was more of a Constitutional after-thought but the Congress, the people’s elected representatives.
Mr. Yarmuth said he and many of the 41 other freshman Democrats in the House had been puzzling for some time over just how to remind voters of this, how to mold a most basic lesson of American civics so that it could be carried far and wide by the modern techniques of political messaging. And then an idea struck.
Today, on the House floor, Mr. Yarmuth began distributing small buttons, seemingly made of parchment, with the words, “Article 1” – as in Article 1 of the Constitution, which states, “All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives.”
In other words: Mr. President, the Congress would like to remind you, that you, dear pal, are Article 2.
Most red lipstick has lead in it.
Beware of dragonflies at peace rallies.
Telecoms approached by government about wiretapping BEFORE 9/11.
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/10/13/124458/17
INS injecting Haldol into detainees?
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/10/13/62820/766
These were from Senegal. I witnessed them heavy-hand a friend from Cameroon, so I don't doubt it. He was a student who overstayed his visa. Scary stuff.
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/10/12/coulter-just-wants-jews-to-be-perfected/
Coulter just wants Jews to be “Perfected”
~~~~~
AC belongs in a mental hospital. Seriously. The most offensive part is toward the end of this video, but you need to watch the beginning part to grasp the delusioal mindset that leads to the most offensive part. Caution: Do not watch this with anything in your hands that might lead you to throw something at your computer monitor, and you might want a barf bag handy so you don't hurl all over your keyboard.... I can't even summon pity for this contemptable wretch that spews such venomous vitriol and who is so, IMHO, obviously deranged and hopelessly stupid (I can't even grant AC the dignity of 'ignorant,' which only means 'unlearned or untaught,' since that implies a person who can be curious enough to seek knowledge; obviously, AC falls in the category of 'stupid: someone who refuses to learn' - or so it means in my private lexicon). WHY is this cretin getting any air time?
Gag-g-g-g-g-g.... I hafta go wash out my eyes and clean my ears....
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/10/12/the-daily-show-on-the-armenian-genocide/
The Daily Show: On the Armenian Genocide
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/10/12/countdown-interview-up-close-clinton/
Countdown Interview: Up Close & Clinton
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/10/12/un-pushes-for-war-crimes-probe-of-us-contractors-in-iraq/
U.N. Pushes For War Crimes Probe Of U.S. Contractors In Iraq
Reuters story via Yahoo
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20071011/ts_nm/iraq_dc
Wowzers! Well, about f*ing time someone looked into at least a FEW of the war crimes committed in Iraq! I realize it's unrealistic to hope such powers of observation could be awakened in our blind, deaf, and dumb invertebrate Congress Critters, but at least someone besides those of us who know war crimes have been committed for the sake of lies for oil is aware of the war crimes and is willing to at least look into this (although I seriously doubt anything will be done about it)....
Honk Now to Impeach
Beep-Beep, mmm-Beep-Beep, Yeah
Not too wild at all darlin. Infact I was hoping you would say that. It is perfect.
I just ruined a commissioned work, the phone constantly ringing has my nerves shot, shaky hands.
I say I ruined it, but in fact I think I more correctly painted My Mona Lisa. That is what I am naming it. A black man with traditional black features stretched over a classic native indian skull.I can not believe how difficult it became. I will have to do another one for free for this lady because no way I will get it done on time now. I hope she isn't totally p*ssed.
The mistake canvas I will use as practice for the rest of my life. I am obsessed with him now.
Tanner said last Friday in Los Angeles at the National Latino Congreso --- and our own Alan Breslauer was there with video camera and tough questions --- that while it's a "shame" that the elderly may be disenfranchised by restrictive Photo ID laws at the polling place, minorities needn't worry, as they are less disenfranchised, if only because "minorities don't become elderly. The way that white people do. They die first."
...That from, yes, the Biush DoJ's Civil Rights division Voting Section chief.
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=5158
Sometimes I forget what cold hearted bastards these people are, then I read something like this, and it all comes flooding back.
God forgive me, but I hate these freaking people.
Let's see if this embed code works. I've never done this before....
[Editor's note: Nonny, the embed code works. Something must have gotten messed up between the copy and paste. I went back to youtube and got the embed code and re-copied it into your comment. dwahzon]
Okay, Embed code doesn't work. Someone with authority please delete the above entry?
This is what it's in reference to:
Tuesday, October 16 [9:00 p.m. Eastern, 8:00 p.m. Central; check your local listings.]
Frontline: Cheney's Law
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/cheney/
For three decades, Vice President Dick Cheney has waged a secretive, and often bitter battle to expand the power of the presidency. Now in a direct confrontation with Congress, as the administration asserts executive privilege to head off investigations into domestic wiretapping and the firing of U.S. attorneys, FRONTLINE meticulously traces the behind-closed-doors battle within the administration over the power of the presidency and the rule of law.
{{{Read longish program description and quotes from some people online, and there is also a place on the upper left of the web page to watch a short preview.}}}
FRONTLINE | Cheney's Law Oct 16 @ pbs.org/frontline
http://youtube.com/watch?v=rLz5Ja_pius
Oral Roberts University President Richard Roberts now faces more shocking allegations in a lawsuit filed against him.
A second petition was filed today in district court that includes the university's Board of Regents as a defendant.
Inside the petition is a scandal vulnerability assessment which contains a web of new allegations.
It claims Mrs. Roberts spent the night in the university's guest house with an underage male on 9 separate occasions.
It states there are 29 photos of Mrs. Roberts and the underage male alone in her sports car after city-wide curfew
The university's Board of Regents was added as a defendant in the lawsuit.
It claims Roberts and the board gave a convicted sexual deviant unrestricted access to the students of the university as a "mentor."
It also says three days after the original lawsuit was filed, ORU and Roberts terminated ORU's financial comptroller.
Then it states witnesses have reported that voluminous materials and documents were shredded and destroyed.
It also quotes a taped phone call where Roberts was heard saying, "I have the deck stacked -- I am elected to three year terms and if a regent appears to give me trouble, I remove him. I stack the deck."
Channel 2 tried to contact Richard Roberts for a response to the new allegations.
The reporter could not reach him.
http://www.kjrh.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=34ac9d61-ca95-4a35-aac8-85426e499587
Oncall, are you here?
Can I ask you a hypothetical about breast cancer?
My grandmother, my fathers mother, is one of eight sisters. All 8 developed breast cancer, 4 of them already died of it and a 5th will be dead of it by morning. The other 3 have also all lost both breasts, but are survivors for now.
What are the odds, on a genetic level, that I or my sisters will develop breast cancer?
[Editor's note: Nonny, the embed code works. Something must have gotten messed up between the copy and paste. I went back to youtube and got the embed code and re-copied it into your comment. dwahzon]
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
THANKS, DW!!! :-)
I copied the code off of the PBS web site below the preview. I am still debating whether or not I want to go into revulsion shock and watch Frontline (I detest the horrible little cretin), or if I should talk myself into watching it for the educational value of knowing how someone that evil thinks and operates (that takes some fancy talking, because I really, really find him repulsive).
Embedding things is still very much a mystery to me. I know how to 'insert pictures' into emails and if I could insert images straight out of any of my image files I'd be okay, and I know how to copy-paste links or other text, but going to a different web site and finding images or code to embed just confuses me....
Thanks, again! :-)
October 13, 2007 8:44 PM
Christy said:
Oncall, are you here?
Christy,
There is a blood test available; BRCA 1/2 analysis which tests for certain genetic mutations in the BRCA 1 and 2 regions of the Breast CAncer (hence the name) associated gene. I would urge you and other family members (including males) to consider getting this test performed. Most insurance companies do pay for it. If you are negative for the mutation your risk is no greater than the general population( ~12% by age 85). If you are positive for the mutation the risk is significantly higher (~55%-85%). The chances of having the mutation are dependent on the age and menopausal status of the person who developed the cancer, and a family history of ovarian cancer significantly effects the risk as well. The big question is, what does one do with the information if they do have the mutation? It is important to know that there are options to how aggressive one can be to lower their chances of dying from one of those cancers.
If you want to e-mail me, I can give you some more information.
Christy,
On a "hypothetical level", I can answer your question if you let me know how many of the women were premenopausal and postmenopausal when they were diagnosed with their cancers. Also if there is any family history of ovarian cancer would give me more information to give you an educated guess as to the chances that you or your sisters/brothers are carrying the mutation(s). Is there any family history of pancreatic cancer, endometrial cancer or prostate cancer? Knowing that can sometimes help as well.
A Mighty Heart. Has anyone seen it? It has been given rave reviews as to it's authenticity and truth and the excellent casting of each character.
Christy, would you email me please. I've had 2 emails returned to me. Actually - 1 email twice.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/14/opinion/14rich2.html
The ‘Good Germans’ Among Us
This is a "must read." Excerpts:
By any legal standards except those rubber-stamped by Alberto Gonzales, we are practicing torture, and we have known we are doing so ever since photographic proof emerged from Abu Ghraib more than three years ago. As Andrew Sullivan, once a Bush cheerleader, observed last weekend in The Sunday Times of London, America’s "enhanced interrogation" techniques have a grotesque provenance: "Verschärfte Vernehmung, enhanced or intensified interrogation, was the exact term innovated by the Gestapo to describe what became known as the ‘third degree.’ It left no marks. It included hypothermia, stress positions and long-time sleep deprivation."
~~~~~
Our humanity has been compromised by those who use Gestapo tactics in our war. The longer we stand idly by while they do so, the more we resemble those “good Germans” who professed ignorance of their own Gestapo. It’s up to us to wake up our somnambulant Congress to challenge administration policy every day. Let the war’s last supporters filibuster all night if they want to. There is nothing left to lose except whatever remains of our country’s good name.
{{{I do believe we need to send this to our Senators and Representatives.... They've given Georgie and Dickie a free pass and more power and more money at every turn when they had a Constitutional (and legal and ethical and moral) duty to say 'NO!' - and they didn't. Worse, they did these things in our names.}}}
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/13/opinion/13sat1.html
Editorial: A Prize for Mr. Gore and Science
Excerpt:
There will also be those who complain that this prize — like the committee’s earlier awards to Jimmy Carter and the chief United Nations nuclear inspector, Mohamed ElBaradei — is an intentional slap at President Bush. It should be. We only wish that it would finally wake up the president.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/14/opinion/14sun1.html
Editorial: Spies, Lies and FISA
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/10/13/164643/13
Why Do You Need Immunity If You Haven't Broken the Law?
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/14/business/14qwest.html
Ex-Phone Chief Says N.S.A. Sought Data Earlier
The phone company Qwest Communications refused a proposal from the National Security Agency that the company’s lawyers considered illegal in February 2001, nearly seven months before the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, the former head of the company contends in newly unsealed court filings.
{{{If Congress Critters cave in to Georgie and Dickie - AGAIN - on FISA, lax or no oversight, etc., they will all richly deserve to be bitch slapped with a hunk of sopping wet lutefisk until their faces turn red, and/or until they find some shame for their past lapses in judgment in giving Georgie and Dickie too much power and/or they wise up to the FACT that Georgie and Dickie can't ever be trusted, that they in no way deserve retroactive immunity from anything for the crimes they've already committed.... Oh, and can we talk about IMPEACHMENT yet...? The Clinton impeachment only took 3/4 months, y'know, so impeaching Dickie first and Georgie second could be accomplished before election day '08....}}}
Woz amd Oncall, I can't email you, it won't even let me compose one, and I've had no new emails in 2 day Woz. It never made it. All I can tell you is wait and try again in just a bit.
I would just make up a new email, but I have tried that several times and all of them lock up on me like this, regardless of what comp I am on. I even know exactly when it started. About 6 months after the 04 election.
When it does unlock though, I will definately email you Oncall for more info. Since all 8 were diagnosed it is one of those questions that I always wanted to ask, but was kinda afraid too. 8 of 8 is ominous and watching all these women lose their breasts just makes me want to grab my own and run away screaming.
To answer your question though, all of them were postmenopausal, all of them developed it after 50, and no, there is no other history of the other cancers you asked about, though my father did die of lung cancer.
Is it unusual for so many females in one family to all develop it, or is it typical? Me and my sisters are all totally freaking paranoid about it. I am waiting on my sister now to come get me, I will tell her what you said about the genetic testing.
Amen Nonny,
"Why Do You Need Immunity If You Haven't Broken the Law?"
Christy and Oncall,
I didn't want to say anything until Oncall had a chance to reply.
But my mom got that blood test done and it came up 'negative' for cancer risk.
I've also spoken with people who feel that EST may have been a big cause of cancer later on in life as well. Long story though...won't go there.
Christy,
Set up a free yahoo account. I bet ya you'll be able to email then. Just go to yahoo.com and sign up as a new user. I've had no problems with my yahoo account until maybe last year when I must have bought something and used that email address. Now it gets a little more spam but not as much as other accounts I've had that I don't use as a result of that spam.
The Great Forgetting
ttp://www.uruknet.de/?p=m37187&hd=&size=1&l=e
The forced removal of the Cherokee in 1838-39 from their homelands in the east to Indian Territory (now Oklahoma) is known as the "Trail of Tears" or "The Trail Where They Cried". Of the 16,000 Cherokees who were herded into stockades and marched west by U.S. troops, about 4,000 died of desease, exposure, or fatigue.
The Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, located on the Mall in Washington, D.C., is a monument to historical amnesia. The blond limestone building, surrounded by indigenous crops of corn, tobacco and squash, invites visitors on a guilt-free, theme park tour of Native American history, where acknowledgment of the American genocide is in extremely bad taste (...) We are molded as much by the histories we stifle as by the myths we create to exalt ourselves. Those who ignore the truth about their past are condemned to replicate, over and over, their crimes. The devastation in Iraq is the legacy of lessons unlearned, from the genocide of Native Americans, to slavery, to the Mexican war, to the invasion of Cuba and the Philippines, to Vietnam. America’s brutal cycle of imperial invasion and occupation is as enduring as the cultivated illusion of its goodness. And the first step toward breaking this cycle and exposing this illusion is facing our history and ourselves. The National Museum of the American Indian feeds the mass amnesia that makes our national psychosis possible....
http://www.uruknet.de/?p=m37187&hd=&size=1&l=e
Whoops no pic, still trying to figure out how to post pics.
pic test
(photographed in Vancouver BC, 2004)
How the Hell do you post them NMP
To post a picture, type in
<img src="yourpicturefilename" alt="picture title" width="350" border="0" />
Pictures should not be more than 470 pixels in width.
appropriate sources for picture files include flickr and photobucket. You can set up an account at each site for free and upload your pictures there to share with others.
ie.,
<img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2074/1561975594_b1ca624db6.jpg" border="0" width="350" alt="Acadia-18-bassharbor-lighthouse" />
which produces this:
Thanks Dwah will give it a go.
Tank you Dhaw
You're welcome.
One more point. Your img statement is missing the WIDTH parameter. It is very important to include it. Here's what you put in:
This posts the picture and links the picture to the original picture at your photobucket account.
If photobucket does not generate the img statement with a width parameter, you must add it yourself as follows:
Here's what your picture looks like with that added:
The maximum width that you can use in a comment on the DCP blogs is 470. Here's what it looks like with a 470 width.
Hope this helps.
NonnyO
Thanks - I just came to check and see if the Frank Rich article was posted.
Fox print media actually covered media distortion of the war criticism of General Sanchez and the fact that the media slant may actually have endangered soldiers.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,301676,00.html
Veteran Washington Post Reporter Killed In Iraq
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/14/AR2007101400612.html?nav=rss_world
America Beware, You think your safe from Blackwater, when the US military is not even immuned from their thuggish behaviour, they take out your military?
Blackwater Is Soaked
An arrogant attitude only adds fuel to the criticism.
By Rod Nordland and Mark Hosenball
Newsweek
Oct. 15, 2007 issue - The colonel was furious. "Can you believe it? They actually drew their weapons on U.S. soldiers." He was describing a 2006 car accident, in which an SUV full of Blackwater operatives had crashed into a U.S. Army Humvee on a street in Baghdad's Green Zone. The colonel, who was involved in a follow-up investigation and spoke on the condition he not be named, said the Blackwater guards disarmed the U.S. Army soldiers and made them lie on the ground at gunpoint until they could disentangle the SUV. His account was confirmed by the head of another private security company. Asked to address this and other allegations in this story, Blackwater spokesperson Anne Tyrrell said, "This type of gossip has led to many soap operas in the press."
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21163806/site/newsweek/
AAhhhhh shit Condi what about hearing about efforts to protect Americas Freedoms from Georgie and Yourself hmm?
Rice pledges support to Russian activists
Rice told the rights activists she wanted to hear about their efforts to protect freedoms in Russia.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20071013/ts_nm/russia_usa_rights_dc
Commander Wants 40,000 GIs in Europe to Deal With 'Resurgent Russia'
http://stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=49444