Tomorrow night, I?ll interview writer Anne Lamott at Symphony Space?here in New York City. I?m a longtime fan of her work, so am looking forward to hearing her speak about her writing and her process.
It?s especially gratifying for me to do this interview, because years ago, when I was still in law school, Anne Lamott and I were both bridesmaids in my college roommate?s wedding. I was so intimidated by her, a Real Writer, that I don?t think I spoke two words to her the entire time. The intense discomfort I felt around writers was one clue that helped me realize that I wanted to be a writer, myself.
So, in honor of Anne Lamott, here?s a tips list summarizing, very briefly, some of the points she makes in her terrific book on writing, Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life.
Write regularly, whether you feel like writing or not, and whether you think what you?re writing is any good or not.
Give yourself short assignments. Keep it manageable so you don?t get overwhelmed.
Write sh**ty first drafts. (I?m not being prissy about the word choice, just don?t want to get hung up in spam filters.) Don?t expect a piece of writing to flow perfectly out of your fingers on the first go. Of all the points she makes, many people seem to find this one the most helpful.
Let the Polaroid develop; in other words, observe, watch, listen, stay in the moment, until you understand what you want to write about.
Know your characters.
Let the plot grow out of the characters.
?If you find that you start a number of stories or pieces that you don?t ever bother finishing?it may be that there is nothing at their center about which you care passionately. You need to put yourself at their center, you and what you believe to be true or right.?
Figure out ways to jam the transmissions from Radio KFKD, the interior station feeding doubts and criticism into your brain. Especially about jealousy of other writers.
Have pen and paper ready at all times. (She always carries an index card.)
Call around. Ask for help.
Start a writing group.
Write in your own voice.
Being published brings a quiet joy, but it doesn?t transform your life, and eventually you have to write again.
?Devotion and commitment will be their own reward.?
One line from Bird by Bird was helpful to me recently. I?ve been feeling a bit panicky about whether I?m going to be able to figure out the structure for my next book; I?m always anxious about a project until I get my structure nailed down. I took heart from her admonition: ?Try to calm down, get quiet, breathe, and listen.?
What strategies for writing have you found to be helpful? Or for getting yourself to sit down and work on any big project?
Also ...
Speaking of writing: one of my secret goals, as I've been working on my own happiness projects, has been to inject the phrase "happiness project" into the common parlance. Today, I noticed, the New York Times ran an article entitled "The Happiness Project" that had nothing to do with my work. Victory!
His music is well known, but his talent and passion for photography is bursting onto the scene. A comprehensive overview of the Canadian-born rock star?s works from the past decades opens at the NRW-Forum in D?sseldorf.
D?sseldorf, Germany (PRWEB) November 29, 2012
The new photography exhibit at the NRW-Forum in D?sseldorf, ?Bryan Adams ? Exposed,? February 2 -- May 22, 2013, puts a spotlight on the rock star?s other beloved art form. This is the first showing of the collection in Germany.
The exhibit spans decades of Adams? work in photography, a passion that begun as a teenager in the mid 1970s with photographs of everyday things and people, such as his mother, girlfriend, piano, and parking lots. As his fame as a musician and his worldview grew, so did his subjects, which included many of the celebrities he was around, like Amy Winehouse, Mick Jagger, Michael Jackson, Mickey Rourke in a bathtub, or Dustin Hoffman wearing a suit and fishing in the sea. The direct access he had to many celebrities makes his portraits highly intimate studies, some of which are photographic icons in their own right. A portrait of Queen Elizabeth II he took at her golden jubilee in 2002 later appeared on a Canadian stamp.
The new exhibit includes about 150 of Adams? celebrity portraits, as well as a completely new series of work: raw and provocative portraits of injured British soldiers returning from their duty in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Adams -- known for such major hits from the mid 1980s such as ?Straight from the Heart,? ?Run to You,? ?Summer of ?69,? and nominated for many major music awards including the Academy Awards, Grammy, and Golden Globe Awards, most recently in 2007 for the song ?Never Gonna Break My Faith? for the film ?Bobby? -- is co-publisher of Zoo Magazine, a photography magazine he founded in Berlin in 2004. In 2012, he won the Lead Award in the category ?portrait photo of the year? for his portrait of Mickey Rourke, the second time he won this award.
After its showing at D?sseldorf?s NRW-Forum, the exhibit will go on a world tour of major museums.
Through 2013, D?sseldorf?s tourism office is offering hotel and city specials for this and other of the city?s art events. Packages can be booked right from the tourism office?s website at http://www.duesseldorf-tourismus.de/hotelpakete. Prices start at ?59 per night per person based on double-occupancy for a 2-3 star hotel in the city center and at ?69 per person for a 4-5 star hotel. All packages include breakfast, a D?sseldorf Welcome Card (free public transportation within city limits plus 30 free or reduced admissions to city attractions), and a city information package. Most art-related hotel packages also include admission to the exhibit. Please check the website for current information.
For more information on the Bryan Adams exhibit, visit http://www.nrw-forum.de.
D?sseldorf Marketing & Tourism GmbH is the visitors and convention bureau of the city of D?sseldorf. Its responsibilities include tourism and city marketing, as well as conference and meeting marketing, hotel reservation services, fairs and convention services, city event ticket sales and advance ticket reservations. For more information, visit http://www.visitduesseldorf.de.
D?sseldorf International Airport, Germany?s Next Generation HubTM, offers several non-stop flights from US & Canadian cities (Atlanta, Chicago, Ft. Myers, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Newark, Toronto, San Francisco, Vancouver), as well as convenient connections to many European cities. For more information about the airport, visit http://www.fly2dus.com and http://dus-int.de/dus_en/.
US PR Contact: Rainer Perry D?sseldorf Marketing & Tourism 212.957.6653 Email Information
BAMAKO, Mali (AP) ? Timbuktu residents say that Islamist extremists controlling the city publicly whipped 6 young people, males and females aged between 16 to 22 years, who each received 100 lashes for having talked with each other on the city streets.
Aboubacrine Yattara, who lives in Timbuktu and witnessed the whippings, told Associated Press over the phone that the young people were arrested last week by the Islamists controlling the city and were convicted Wednesday of comingling. He said they were flogged Thursday in Timbuktu's small market.
The head of the Islamist brigade responsible for customs in Timbuktu, Mohamed Ag Mossa Intoulou, did not deny the whippings when contacted by AP but said he did not have authorization to speak to the press.
Picture this: after years of watching your best friend and your brother fall for all the wrong people, they finally fall head over heels in love with the right person ? each other! It?s the type of story you only hear about on TV sitcoms or in the movies. Only for me, this happened in real life ? my life. Yes, just last month, my best friend and older brother exchanged wedding vows in front of family and friends. It was such a beautiful day for so many reasons. The tears that were shed were definitely happy tears, reminiscing on the journey that got them to that very day.
My girl friend and I met in 2001 when we were in undergrad, and by 2002 we were nearly inseparable. Since we were on such a small college campus, it didn?t take long for us to build a friendship that would inevitably last a lifetime (little did we know just how the term ?lifetime? would unfold). Not long after we graduated, we got our first apartment and moved in together. We were both so happy to just have our own space, and to be able to come and go as we pleased (sorry mom & dad!). In 2005, she honored me by accepting one of two roles as Maid of Honor at my wedding. I always knew I would return the favor for her one day. But I never imagined that it would also mean standing by my brother?s side as well. Even though I?ve actually had people say to me that they would never want to be in a similar situation as myself, I can think of plenty of reasons why I wouldn?t have it any other way.
For one, I can stop holding my breath. When my brother moved back to the east coast a few years ago, I started noticing that he was getting more and more invitations to certain things that my friend would normally invite me to. When asked, neither of them initially admitted that they had a thing going on, but I knew better than that (did I mention they dated several years before, and had always maintained contact/friendship?). I know my brother, and I know my friend. So my first thought was ?Oh gosh, I really hope this all works out!? Let?s face it. The situation could?ve gone one of two ways: A) Happily Ever After, or B) A lifetime of excruciatingly uncomfortable family gatherings ? for all of us. Well, thank GOD for the happily ever after! When I realized just how serious things were getting between them, I just remember praying that this would be the fairytale ending that they both wanted and deserved. I?ve never seen either of them so happy before, and it?s such a beautiful thing to see!
Their union of holy matrimony only made our sisterhood official. My sisters and other brother had thought of her as a sister, and my parents already thought of her as a daughter even before they got married. If there was a family function, she was almost always there. And if she wasn?t, then someone would surely ask for her. And now, every time we get together, it is truly a family affair. Holidays, birthdays, plays; regardless of what it is, we now get to share a lot more of those moments together. I know that if there is a family function going on, then my BFF will be there. We get to truly grow old together, and our kids get to grow up together in a way that is even more special. How awesome is that?!
Will there be/have there been some changes in the dynamic of our friendship? Yes. Will there be times when we can?t confide in one another? Sure.??Times when we can?t seek out each others? advice when it comes to certain matters? Absolutely. Does any of this outweigh the benefits? Absolutely not. There is nothing about their marriage that I can?t get excited about. When my BFF and brother got married, it was one of the happiest days of their lives. But I can honestly say that it was a pretty awesome day for me too.
BMWK: Tell us about your experience. Have you (or anyone you?ve known) experienced a similar situation with your best friend marrying your brother/sister? What made it a favorable or unfavorable situation?
About the author
Christine St.Vil helps moms across the country feel good and have self-care without the guilt. Through her coaching and training, she?s taken her corporate background and is helping people fulfill the most exciting position of all: a stay-at-home mom. Christine is a wife and proud mother of three.
Researchers report first success of targeted therapy in most common non-small cell lung cancerPublic release date: 28-Nov-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Robbin Ray Robbin_Ray@dfci.harvard.edu 617-632-4090 Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
BOSTON - A new study by an international team of investigators led by Dana-Farber Cancer Institute scientists is the first to demonstrate that chemotherapy and a new, targeted therapy work better in combination than chemotherapy alone in treating patients with the most common genetic subtype of lung cancer.
Published online today in The Lancet Oncology, the combination of chemotherapy and the targeted drug selumetinib was more effective than chemotherapy alone in a clinical trial involving patients with a form of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) that carries a mutation in the gene KRAS a variety that represents about 20 percent of all NSCLC cases. Previously, no targeted agent, either alone or in combination with another drug, had proven beneficial in a trial involving patients with this type of NSCLC.
The 87 patients who participated in the new, phase II trial conducted at 67 sites around the world had advanced, KRAS-mutant NSCLC that had failed initial chemotherapy. The participants were randomly assigned to receive either selumetinib and the chemotherapy agent docetaxel or docetaxel alone.
Investigators found that while 37 percent of the patients in the selumetinib group experienced some shrinkage of their tumor, none of the patients in the docetaxel-only group did. Of particular significance, patients receiving selumetinib lived a median of 5.3 months before their cancer began to worsen, compared to 2.1 months for those receiving chemotherapy alone. (Patients in the selumetinib group also survived longer, on average, than those in the docetaxel group 9.4 months compared to 5.2 months but the improvement was not considered statistically significant.)
"Our findings suggest that selumetinib and docetaxel work synergistically each enhancing the effect of the other," says the study's lead author, Pasi A. Janne, MD, PhD, of Dana-Farber. "This opens the possibility that there may finally be a therapeutic strategy using a targeted therapy which could be clinically effective in this population of KRAS-mutant lung cancer patients."
Some side effects, including neutropenia (a white blood cell deficiency), neuropenia plus fever, shortness of breath, and loss of strength, were more common in the selumetinib group than the other.
Researchers and physicians will need to work on ways of managing these problems with patients, Jnne said.
NSCLC tumors with KRAS mutations are more common in current and former smokers than in those who have never smoked, and occur at a higher rate in Caucasians than in others. The study findings are especially noteworthy because mutated KRAS regardless of the type of tumor it appears in has been one of the most difficult genes to block with targeted therapies.
Selumetinib circumvents that problem by targeting not KRAS itself, but one of the gene's co-conspirators, a protein called MEK that is indirectly activated by KRAS.
"The opportunity now is to validate this approach in further clinical trials so it can be developed into a real therapy for patients," Jnne remarks. "Given that KRAS mutations are common in other cancers (found in 90 percent of pancreatic cancers and 40 percent of colon cancers), our findings may be useful in developing therapies for patients with these cancers as well."
###
The co-authors of the study are Alice Shaw, MD, of Massachusetts General Hospital; Jos Rodrigues Pereira, MD, of Instituto Brasileiro de Cancerologia Torcica, in Sao Paulo, Brazil; Galle Jeannin, MD, of Hpital Gabriel Montpied, in Clermont-Ferrand, France; Johan Vansteenkiste, MD, of University Hospital Gasthuisberg, in Leuven, Belgium; Carlos Barrios, MD, of PUCRS School of Medicine in Porto Alegre, Brazil; Fabio Andre Franke, MD, of Hospital de Caridade de Ijui, in Iju, Brazil; Victoria Zazulina, MD, Paul Smith, PhD, Ian Smith, MD, and Lynda Grinsted, of AstraZeneca UK, in Macclesfield, United Kingdom; and Lucio Crin, MD, of Hospital S Maria della Misericordia, in Perugia, Italy.
The study was sponsored by AstraZeneca, which holds the rights to the development of selumetinib.
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute is a principal teaching affiliate of the Harvard Medical School and is among the leading cancer research and care centers in the United States. It is a founding member of the Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center (DF/HCC), designated a comprehensive cancer center by the National Cancer Institute. It provides adult cancer care with Brigham and Women's Hospital as Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women's Cancer Center and it provides pediatric care with Children's Hospital Boston as Dana-Farber/Children's Hospital Cancer Center. Dana-Farber is the top ranked cancer center in New England, according to U.S. News & World Report, and one of the largest recipients among independent hospitals of National Cancer Institute and National Institutes of Health grant funding. Follow Dana-Farber on Twitter: @danafarber or Facebook: facebook.com/danafarbercancerinstitute.
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Researchers report first success of targeted therapy in most common non-small cell lung cancerPublic release date: 28-Nov-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Robbin Ray Robbin_Ray@dfci.harvard.edu 617-632-4090 Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
BOSTON - A new study by an international team of investigators led by Dana-Farber Cancer Institute scientists is the first to demonstrate that chemotherapy and a new, targeted therapy work better in combination than chemotherapy alone in treating patients with the most common genetic subtype of lung cancer.
Published online today in The Lancet Oncology, the combination of chemotherapy and the targeted drug selumetinib was more effective than chemotherapy alone in a clinical trial involving patients with a form of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) that carries a mutation in the gene KRAS a variety that represents about 20 percent of all NSCLC cases. Previously, no targeted agent, either alone or in combination with another drug, had proven beneficial in a trial involving patients with this type of NSCLC.
The 87 patients who participated in the new, phase II trial conducted at 67 sites around the world had advanced, KRAS-mutant NSCLC that had failed initial chemotherapy. The participants were randomly assigned to receive either selumetinib and the chemotherapy agent docetaxel or docetaxel alone.
Investigators found that while 37 percent of the patients in the selumetinib group experienced some shrinkage of their tumor, none of the patients in the docetaxel-only group did. Of particular significance, patients receiving selumetinib lived a median of 5.3 months before their cancer began to worsen, compared to 2.1 months for those receiving chemotherapy alone. (Patients in the selumetinib group also survived longer, on average, than those in the docetaxel group 9.4 months compared to 5.2 months but the improvement was not considered statistically significant.)
"Our findings suggest that selumetinib and docetaxel work synergistically each enhancing the effect of the other," says the study's lead author, Pasi A. Janne, MD, PhD, of Dana-Farber. "This opens the possibility that there may finally be a therapeutic strategy using a targeted therapy which could be clinically effective in this population of KRAS-mutant lung cancer patients."
Some side effects, including neutropenia (a white blood cell deficiency), neuropenia plus fever, shortness of breath, and loss of strength, were more common in the selumetinib group than the other.
Researchers and physicians will need to work on ways of managing these problems with patients, Jnne said.
NSCLC tumors with KRAS mutations are more common in current and former smokers than in those who have never smoked, and occur at a higher rate in Caucasians than in others. The study findings are especially noteworthy because mutated KRAS regardless of the type of tumor it appears in has been one of the most difficult genes to block with targeted therapies.
Selumetinib circumvents that problem by targeting not KRAS itself, but one of the gene's co-conspirators, a protein called MEK that is indirectly activated by KRAS.
"The opportunity now is to validate this approach in further clinical trials so it can be developed into a real therapy for patients," Jnne remarks. "Given that KRAS mutations are common in other cancers (found in 90 percent of pancreatic cancers and 40 percent of colon cancers), our findings may be useful in developing therapies for patients with these cancers as well."
###
The co-authors of the study are Alice Shaw, MD, of Massachusetts General Hospital; Jos Rodrigues Pereira, MD, of Instituto Brasileiro de Cancerologia Torcica, in Sao Paulo, Brazil; Galle Jeannin, MD, of Hpital Gabriel Montpied, in Clermont-Ferrand, France; Johan Vansteenkiste, MD, of University Hospital Gasthuisberg, in Leuven, Belgium; Carlos Barrios, MD, of PUCRS School of Medicine in Porto Alegre, Brazil; Fabio Andre Franke, MD, of Hospital de Caridade de Ijui, in Iju, Brazil; Victoria Zazulina, MD, Paul Smith, PhD, Ian Smith, MD, and Lynda Grinsted, of AstraZeneca UK, in Macclesfield, United Kingdom; and Lucio Crin, MD, of Hospital S Maria della Misericordia, in Perugia, Italy.
The study was sponsored by AstraZeneca, which holds the rights to the development of selumetinib.
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute is a principal teaching affiliate of the Harvard Medical School and is among the leading cancer research and care centers in the United States. It is a founding member of the Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center (DF/HCC), designated a comprehensive cancer center by the National Cancer Institute. It provides adult cancer care with Brigham and Women's Hospital as Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women's Cancer Center and it provides pediatric care with Children's Hospital Boston as Dana-Farber/Children's Hospital Cancer Center. Dana-Farber is the top ranked cancer center in New England, according to U.S. News & World Report, and one of the largest recipients among independent hospitals of National Cancer Institute and National Institutes of Health grant funding. Follow Dana-Farber on Twitter: @danafarber or Facebook: facebook.com/danafarbercancerinstitute.
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
New England used to be one of the churchiest places in America. Can evangelicals convert the secular natives?
Photo by Purestock.
The pastor of a small church in rural Vermont is not the kind of guy you?d expect to speak with a slow North Carolina drawl. But Lyandon Warren felt a calling to New England ever since he heard a speaker in his college Christian Studies program explain that less than 3 percent of the region?s population is evangelical Christians. By his denomination?s definition, those numbers indicate an ?unreached people group??a whole population without a viable Christian community. ?My heart was opened,? he says. ?To be a foot-soldier on that battleground is a joy and a privilege.?
In 2006, Warren moved to Vermont to open a new Baptist church in a town whose last church had closed its doors the year before due to lack of attendance. His congregation, which meets in the closed church?s old white clapboard building, grew slowly but steadily, and in early September, Warren opened up a second new church in a nearby town. Similar churches have sprung up throughout the region: New England has become a mission field, and there are seeds of a revival sprouting.
The Northeast is the historic cradle of American Christianity, and just about every postcard-ready town here boasts a white church with a steeple. But sometime between the Second Great Awakening and today, the region evolved into the most secular part of the country. In the words of one regional missions group, ?pulpits that once boasted gospel preachers like Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield now proclaim universalism, liberalism, and postmodernism.? A Gallup poll this year found that the four least-religious states in America are in New England. For evangelicals, the issue is more pointed: Evangelical researcher J.D. Payne has found that of the five U.S. metro areas with the lowest percentage of evangelicals, New England cities are beat only by Mormon-dominated Provo, Utah. New England is relatively wealthy and educated, and overall, its population is shrinking and aging. That?s why some Christians see New England as ?hard soil??and desperate for re-evangelizing. There?s a palpable sense of momentum growing among evangelicals in New England, who say this hard soil may soon bear fruit thanks to institutional efforts, individual leaders, and an intangible sense of energy often credited to the Holy Spirit. But do they have any hope of success in the most proudly and profoundly secular region in America?
The movement to convert New Englanders looks something like the recent evangelical focus on Western Europe, another traditionally Christian region that is now broadly unchurched. One popular approach is ?church planting,? in which a pastor moves to a new location to found a new church that he hopes will eventually spawn several others, and so on. Because the method eventually produces indigenous churches, it?s considered a more reliable and organic path to growth than traditional ?outsider? evangelism. To generalize broadly, church-planters tend to be young and Web-savvy, are almost always male (with a supportive wife), and often share a conviction that orthodox theology needn?t be burdened by the trappings of traditional worship. Think overhead projectors, not organs.
Many of New England?s church-planters are sent by denominations based in (or at least biggest in) the South. The North American Mission Board, the Southern Baptist church planting organization that sent Lyandon Warren to Vermont, helps plant about 20 new churches in the Northeast each year, according to Jeff Christopherson, who heads the group?s efforts in Canada and the Northeast. And that?s just one organization. The Northeast has sprouted a remarkable crop of church-planting organizations and conferences, college campus ministries, and public events like Christian music festivals. Collin Hansen, editorial director of the Gospel Coalition, an influential national church network, recently called these ?the best of times for Christians in New England.?
Stephen Um is pastor at Boston?s Citylife Presbyterian Church and a leader in the movement to re-evangelize the region. Born in Seoul but raised and educated mostly in Massachusetts, Um founded his church just over 10 years ago with a base group of 12 people. Citylife now meets in two locations in Boston, including a hotel conference center on Boston Common, and attracts between 700 and 800 people?a highly educated congregation that?s about one-half white and one-half Asian?every Sunday. Um calls what?s happening in New England a ?quiet revival.? He speculates that since the drivers of the revival are small churches spread throughout a largely rural area, it doesn?t get the kind of media attention that megachurches attract.
Um is also the founder of the Center for Gospel Culture, which he calls a ?catalyzing center? for mobilizing and recruiting Christian leaders in the region. The group hosted a regional conference in October with the Gospel Coalition. The event was designed ?to encourage the development of this organic gospel movement.? The 1,200-person-capacity event space he reserved sold out by mid-September. The event drew representatives of about 270 different churches representatives from about 40 networks and denominations.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un, seen here in August, was parodied as the "sexiest man alive" by spoof paper, The Onion.
By Ed Flanagan, NBC News
BEIJING ? Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice?
That?s the hard lesson being learned Tuesday by China?s ruling Communist Party newspaper, The People?s Daily, after it ran a version of a story by American satirical news site,?The Onion, that named North Korean supreme dictator, Kim Jong Un, as the ?Sexiest Man Alive for the year of 2012.?
The government newspaper didn?t just proclaim Kim the winner of the dubious honor. It positively reveled in it.
"With his devastatingly handsome, round face, his boyish charm, and his strong, sturdy frame, this Pyongyang-bred heartthrob is every woman's dream come true,? quoted the newspaper from The Onion. "Blessed with an air of power that masks an unmistakable cute, cuddly side, Kim made this newspaper's editorial board swoon with his impeccable fashion sense, chic short hairstyle, and, of course, that famous smile."
Pregnant? North Korea leader's wife reportedly returns to public eye after long silence
The Chinese paper?s three paragraph piece on its official website was followed by a 55-page photo gallery depicting Kim at his best ? riding a horse, shown on the cover of Time Magazine, inspecting fruit and of course, being met with rapturous applause by his people.
North Korea?s official state media, KCNA, has not commented on its website about either article.
Elizabeth Dalziel / AP
From work to play, see pictures from inside the secretive country.
This?wouldn't?be the first time that Chinese state press has fallen for The Onion's satire, and it remains unclear whether editors at the People?s Daily knowingly posted the piece.
In 2002, the Beijing Evening News published another story from the prank website that claimed the United States Congress was threatening to leave Washington, D.C., and relocate to Charlotte, N.C., or Memphis, Tenn., if ?its demands for a new, state-of-the-art facility are not met.?
In February of this year, U.S Congressman, Rep. John Fleming (R-La.), was left red-faced after he reposted an old Onion story that claimed Planned Parenthood was opening an "$8 billion abortionplex"?in Topeka, Kansas.
Meanwhile, this past September in the lead-up to the U.S. elections, Iranian state media fell for another Onion gag that said most rural white Americans "would rather vote for Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad than U.S. President Barack Obama.?
David Guttenfelder / AP
In this March 9, 2011 photo, a girl plays the piano inside the Changgwang Elementary School in Pyongyang, North Korea. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)
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Companies such as Hostess go to extensive lengths to protect their recipes
Photo by Paul J. Richards/AFP/Getty Images.
A bankruptcy judge approved the liquidation of Hostess brands last week. Historic brands like Twinkies, Wonder Bread, and Ho Hos will be sold at auction to the highest bidder. Will the buyers get the exclusive right to use the recipes for those products?
Not exactly. Confectioners rarely patent their recipes, because applying with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office means publishing the ingredients and methods. The legal protection lasts only 20 years, after which time anyone can profit from the creation. Manufacturers instead guard their recipes as trade secrets, a status that isn?t time-limited. The company forces employees to sign nondisclosure agreements and sues rival manufacturers that extract their methods and formulas from workers. The companies that eventually buy Hostess brands will gain access to those trade secrets and the right to enforce the secrecy agreements. If, however, someone cracks the Twinkie recipe and manufactures an identical product under a different name?the brand names are protected by trademark?there?s very little the new owner will be able to do.
Candy companies go to extraordinary lengths to protect their recipes. In her essay ?Trade Secrecy in Willy Wonka?s Chocolate Factory,? law professor Jeanne C. Fromer explains that the fictional Wonka?s lock-and-key approach to candy making isn?t far from reality. Companies store their recipes in safes. For many years, Mars, the company that makes Skittles, Snickers, and M&Ms, refused to reveal its president?s name. The company also builds its own machines and blindfolds visiting repairmen. No Hershey employees know the proportions of ingredients in the company?s chocolate bars.
Recipes are patentable, in theory, but few of your kitchen creations would qualify. An idea must be novel and nonobvious to deserve legal protection. That?s a difficult standard to meet, because most recipes are combinations of widely available ingredients. Recipes are most likely to win patent protection if they involve some novel manufacturing process. Several inventors, for example, have obtained patents for variations on the peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwich by rearranging the ingredients to extend shelf life.
Recipes can also be copyrighted, which prevents others from copying and selling the instructions on how to make a product. Copyright, however, doesn?t protect the food itself from commercial exploitation. In other words, you?re not allowed to sell copies of the current Toll House chocolate chip cookie recipe, but you can make and sell the cookies.
Got a question about today?s news? Ask the Explainer.
Rivers State Deputy Governor, Engr. Tele Ikuru, administering polio vaccine to a baby during the Maternal and Infant Immunization Week in Port Harcourt, recently.
Military authorities have confirmed that twin suicide bombings hit a church inside a military barracks of the Armed Forces Command and Staff College, in Jaji, Kaduna state, killing 11 people and injuring 30 others.
A military source confirmed that a bus entered the barracks and drove straight to the wall of the Saint Andrews Protestant Church, where it exploded and ten minutes later another car blew up outside the church.
Though the first blast caused no casualties, the second blast however did as curious worshippers gathered around the scene of the first blast looking at the debris of the initial explosion.
The area has since been cordoned off.
No one or group has claimed responsibility for the attack.
Meanwhile, the Northerner Elders? Forum said the bounty placed on the leaders of Boko Haram, was an indication that the Federal Government has suspended the plans to negotiate with the sect.
The spokesman of the forum, Dr. Paul Unongo, said the President could not say leaders of the group were still faceless.
According to him, it was the responsibility of the Federal Government to kick-start the negotiation with the sect in the interest of Nigerians.
He said, ?If by facelessness, Jonathan means that there are different versions of Boko Haram, then it is understandable. Security agencies have been arresting people they say are leaders of the sect. So, there must be something not quite correct here.
?When we (NEF) met the President, we suggested the carrot-and-stick approach to him and he accepted it. However, what is reprehensible is the excessive application of the stick. What Nigerians want to see is the end of the violence and loss of innocent lives.
?If Jonathan applies himself to it, he would identify people he can talk to and they would relate his message to Boko Haram. He has to create the atmosphere for that negotiation to happen.?
Unongo added that when the Federal Government could not handle the violent activities of the Niger Delta militants, it negotiated with them.
He said, ?The militants were rehabilitated and compensated with huge sums of money; some of them were given big contracts. If it was possible for the militants in the Niger Delta, which is Jonathan?s part of the country, why would it not be possible for Boko Haram in the North??
On the cash reward placed on the leaders of the sect, Unongo said, ?On the surface, placing a bounty on the heads of the leaders of Boko Haram shows that the FG has dropped negotiation.?
Similarly, Secretary of the Borno State Elders? Forum, Dr. Bulama Gubio, said by giving excuses for the inability of the Federal Government to initiate the negotiation, Jonathan had shown poor commitment to resolving the crisis.
He said, ?Since the President has said there is no negotiation going on between the Federal Government and Boko Haram, what else can we say? All we can do is to continue to appeal to both sides to negotiate in the interest of the people. ?Our people are dying every day and our economy is paralysed. Borno State is still part of Nigeria, so the Federal Government should swallow its pride and go the extra mile to make sure the negotiation works. I don?t think Federal Government can solve the problem without negotiation.?
In addition, the Convener of the Concerned Northern Professionals, Politicians, Academics and Businessmen, Dr. Junaid Mohammed, said it would amount to double standards if Jonathan?s administration shies away from negotiating with Boko Haram, the way the late President Umaru Yar?dua did with Niger Delta militants.
?The Federal Government has been spending about N1bn every year on security; that amounts to about 20 per cent of the total budget going to the armed forces. So, they have made a lot of money and would not be interested in seeing the end of the violence,? he claimed.
You can?t give the speech of your life until you first give life to your speeches.
One way to breathe life into your speeches is to craft memorable phrases that will linger on the lips of your audience, and a great tool to help you achieve this goal is chiasmus.
In this article, we define what chiasmus is, study several famous (and not-so-famous) chiasmus examples, and give some tips for crafting chiasmus into your own speeches.
What is Chiasmus? A Definition?
Chiasmus is a Greek term meaning ?diagonal arrangement.? It is used to describe two successive clauses or sentences where the key words or phrases are repeated in both clauses, but in reverse order. For this reason, chiasmus is sometimes known as a criss-cross figure of speech.
For example, consider the common phrase:
When the?going?gets?tough, the?tough?get?going!
?Going? and ?tough? are reversed in successive clauses, while the other words (when, the, gets) bind them together and often include straightforward repetition (the, get/gets).
In the general pattern, when your first clause contains two words A and B, then the second clause contains the same words, but in reverse order:
[1] ? A? B? [2] ? B? A?
Each of ?A? and ?B? can be either a single word, or a group of words.?Graphically, it looks like this:
?
Isn?t that antimetabole?
Some rhetorical glossaries distinguish between chiasmus (diagonal arrangement of ideas and grammar) and antimetabole (diagonal arrangement of exact words). According to this, every example on this page is antimetabole. However, chiasmus is the more common term, and this subtle distinction is probably beyond what most speakers care about. So, I?ll follow the lead of those who describe both as chiasmus, like Jay Heinrichs. The key point is not knowing what it is called, but rather using it in your speeches!
Chiasmus from John F. Kennedy
Chiasmus was a common technique used by John F. Kennedy (or perhaps his speechwriters). We include just a few of his chiastic phrases here.
For example, the most famous line from his Inaugural Address (January 20, 1961) reverses your country and you in successive parallel clauses:
Ask not what your country can do for you ? ask what you can do for your country.
In the same speech, he says:
Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate.
In his address to the United Nations General Assembly on September 25, 1961, he repeats that line, slightly massaged to reflect his audience and his relationship to it:
[...] we shall never negotiate out of fear, we shall never fear to negotiate.
The same speech includes:
Mankind must put an end to war, or war will put an end to mankind.
Finally, his 1963 address on the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty includes:
Each increase of tension has produced an increase of arms; each increase of arms has produced an increase of tension.
More Chiasmus Examples
Winston Churchill used chiasmus in his Iron Curtain speech?(March 5, 1946):
Let us preach what we practise ? let us practise what we preach.
Ronald Reagan, speaking of relations between the United States and Soviet Union:
We don?t mistrust each other because we?re armed; we?re armed because we?mistrust each other.
Barack Obama, in 2006:
My job is not to represent Washington to you, but to represent you to Washington.
Bill Clinton, 2008 Democratic National Convention:
People the world over have always been more impressed by the power of our example than by the example of our power.
Sarah Palin, 2008 Republican National Convention:
In politics there are some candidates who use change to promote their careers, and there are those like John McCain who use their careers to promote change.
Chiasmus in the Bible
There are entire websites devoted to Biblical passages built around chiastic patterns. Here, we include just a couple from the New Testament:
Matthew 19:30 ?
But many who are?first?will be?last, and many who are?last?will be?first.
Matthew 23:12 ?
For whoever?exalts?himself will be?humbled, and whoever?humbles?himself will be?exalted.
Chiasmus in Music
Crosby Stills, Nash & Young sang a famous song titled ?Love the One You?re With?:
And if you can?t be?with?the one you?love, honey, Love?the one you?re?with.
Chiasmus in Literature
William Shakespeare, Richard II:
I wasted time, and now time doth waste me.
The motto of Alexandre Dumas??The Three Muskateers, (and also the unofficial motto of Switzerland):
All?for?one, and?one?for?all.
Horton the elephant?s signature phrase in Dr. Seuss? Horton Hatches the Egg:
You can take the boy out of the country, but you can?t take the country out of the boy.
Or?
Quitters never win and winners never quit.
A Guide for Using Chiasmus in Your Speeches
It?s not that hard to create your own chiasmus for your speeches. I crafted several of the examples in this article in just a few minutes, including this one:
I?d rather have lots of love and little money, instead of lots of money and little love.
It?s not as polished as ?Ask not??, but you?ve got to start somewhere.
To help you along, here are a few guidelines:
Use with moderation
Rethink relationships
Question causation
Riff off chiasmus examples
Guideline 1: Use with Moderation
Chiasmus, like most rhetorical devices, is best when used in moderation. If you use chiasmus over and over again, you?ll diminish the impact, and you?ll start to sound gimmicky.
For most speeches, one or two is enough.
Guideline 2: Rethink Relationships
Kennedy?s most famous chiasmus plays on the relationship between the country and the individual. The criss-cross invites his audience to rethink the relationship between the two.
You, too, can take relationships and flip them around. Consider the relationship between a speaker and the audience:
A good audience listens to the speaker. A great speaker listens to the audience.
Or, the relationship between parents and children:
In middle age, parents take care of their children; In old age, children take care of them.
Guideline 3: Question Causation
Several famous chiastic phrases play on the causation between two entities.
For example, the quotation from Ronald Reagan above questions whether arms cause mistrust, or whether mistrust causes arms:
We don?t?mistrust each other?because?we?re armed; we?re armed?because we?mistrust each other.
Try taking other concepts and flipping them around. For example, in a speech questioning whether failure causes despair, or vice versa:
I give up?when?all is lost, but all is lost?only when I give up.
Guideline 4: Riff off Chiasmus Examples
If you?ve never tried to craft chiasmus before, a good place to start is taking a known chiasmus and using it as a template into which you can substitute one or both key repeated words.
Cicero is quoted as saying:
One should?eat to live, not live to eat.
This has been morphed numerous ways, including:
One should work to live, not live to work.
You could take the basic pattern and apply it your situation. For example, a speech about passion while speaking might include:
A professional speaker doesn?t just speak to live ? she lives to speak!
While researching this article, I came across an intriguing book titled Never Let a Fool Kiss You or a Kiss Fool You by Mardy Grothe. With hundreds of chiasmus examples, there?s an awful lot to riff off of. I may have to add this to my Christmas list.
Your Turn: Try it Out!
With a little brainstorming and experimentation, you can elevate your speeches with chiasmus.
Try it out, and share your examples in the article comments.
DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) -- At least 112 people were killed in a fire that raced through a multi-story garment factory just outside of Bangladesh's capital, Dhaka, an official said Sunday.
The blaze broke out late Saturday at the eight-story factory operated by Tazreen Fashions Ltd., a subsidiary of the Tuba Group, which supplies Walmart and other major retailers in the U.S. and Europe.
By Sunday morning, firefighters had recovered 100 bodies, fire department Operations Director Maj. Mohammad Mahbub told The Associated Press. He said another 12 people who had suffered injuries after jumping from the building to escape the fire later died at hospitals. The death toll could rise as the search for victims was continuing, he said.
Local media reported that up to 124 people were killed in the fire. The cause of the blaze was not immediately clear, and authorities have ordered an investigation.
Army soldiers and paramilitary border guards were deployed to help police keep the situation under control as thousands of onlookers and anxious relatives of the factory workers gathered at the scene, Mahbub said. He would not say how many people were still missing.
Tazreen was given a "high risk" safety rating after May 16, 2011, audit conducted by an ethical sourcing assessor for Wal-Mart, according to a document posted on the Tuba Group's website. It did not specify the conditions or violations that led to the rating.
A spokesman for Wal-Mart said online documents indicating that the factory received an orange or "high risk" assessment after the May 2011 inspection and a yellow or "medium risk" report after an inspection in August 2011 appeared to pertain to the factory where the fire occurred.
The August 2011 letter said Wal-Mart would conduct another inspection within one year. Spokesman Kevin Gardner said it was not clear if that inspection had been conducted, or if the factory was still making products for Wal-Mart.
If a factory is rated "orange" three times in a two-year period, Wal-Mart won't place any orders for one year. The May 2011 report was the first orange rating for the factory.
There was no indication whether the violations had been fixed since the May inspection. Neither Tazreen's owner nor Tuba Group officials could be reached for comment.
The Tuba Group is a major Bangladeshi garment exporter whose clients include Walmart, Carrefour and IKEA, according to its website. Its factories export garments to the U.S., Germany, France, Italy and The Netherlands, among other countries. The Tazreen factory, opened in 2009 and employing about 1,700 people, makes polo shirts, fleece jackets and T-shirts.
Bangladesh has some 4,000 garment factories, many without proper safety measures. The country annually earns about $20 billion from exports of garment products, mainly to the United States and Europe.
In its 2012 Global Responsibility report, Walmart said that "fire safety continues to be a key focus for brands and retailers sourcing from Bangladesh." Walmart said it ceased working with 49 factories in Bangladesh in 2011 due to fire safety issues, and was working with its supplier factories to phase out production from buildings deemed high risk.
At the factory scene, relatives of the workers were frantically looking for their loved ones. Sabina Yasmine said she saw the body of her daughter-in-law, who died in the fire, but had no trace of her son, who also worked at the factory.
"Oh, Allah, where's my soul? Where's my son?" wailed Yasmine, who works at another factory in the area. "I want the factory owner to be hanged. For him, many have died, many have gone."
Mahbub said firefighters recovered 69 bodies from the second floor of the factory alone. He said most of the victims had been trapped inside the factory, located just outside of Dhaka, with no emergency exits leading outside the building.
Many workers who had taken shelter on the roof of the factory were rescued, but firefighters were unable to save those who were trapped inside, Mahbub said.
He said the fire broke out on the ground floor, which was used as a warehouse, and spread quickly to the upper floors.
"The factory had three staircases, and all of them were down through the ground floor," Mahbub said. "So the workers could not come out when the fire engulfed the building."
"Had there been at least one emergency exit through outside the factory, the casualties would have been much lower," he said.
Many of the victims were burned beyond recognition. The recovered bodies were kept in rows on the premise of a nearby school.
Meanwhile, many of the bodies were handed over to families but at least 60 bodies remained unidentified till late Sunday, said police official Moshiuddoula, who uses one name. The unclaimed bodies were later taken to Dhaka Medical College where the corpses will be kept until Monday morning for identification.
Otherwise, the bodies will be handed over to a charity organization, Anjuman-e-Mufidul Islam, for burial, said local chief government administrator Sheikh Yusuf Harun. The charity group is a voluntary organization which buries unclaimed bodies.
By late Sunday, firefighters had concluded their search and left the scene, the fire department's control room duty officer Bhajan Sarker told The Associated Press by phone.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina expressed shock at the loss of so many lives in the blaze and asked authorities to conduct thorough search-and-rescue operations.
The Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association said it would stand by the victims' families.
Separately, a flyover under construction fell onto a busy market, leaving at least 14 people dead including three construction workers in southeastern city of Chittagong, an official said Sunday.
Local fire official Abdul Mannan said the concrete structure collapsed on Saturday night, and authorities recovered the bodies by Sunday morning from under the debris in the second-largest city after Dhaka.
I can?t tell you how many conversations I?ve had with clients regarding whether to eat small meals more frequently versus eating three meals daily. Will eating more frequently aid in weight loss? My advice has always been do what works for you. For example,?if you?re the type of person who has a hectic job or daily schedule and eating 5 times a day isn?t going to work then obviously eating more frequently isn?t for you. My advice has been based on the person and what works as well as how eating fits into one?s lifestyle. Here is some information that is a little more science based and may help you decide what works for you.
Eating Small Meals Each Day By: Dr. Mercola
You?ve probably heard that eating smaller meals, several times a day will stimulate your metabolism, and keep it revved to burn more calories throughout your day.
The New York Times points out that although some studies have found modest health benefits to eating smaller meals, the research usually involved extremes.
Many weight-loss books and fad diets claim six meals a day is a more realistic approach.
But will it really make a difference?
The New York Times states:
?As long as total caloric and nutrient intake stays the same, then metabolism, at the end of the day, should stay the same as well. One study that carefully demonstrated this, published in 2009 in The British Journal of Nutrition, involved groups of overweight men and women who were randomly assigned to very strict low-calorie diets and followed for eight weeks. Each subject consumed the same number of calories per day, but one group took in three meals a day and the other six.
Both groups lost significant and equivalent amounts of weight. There was no difference between them in fat loss, appetite control or measurements of hormones that signal hunger and satiety. Other studies have had similar results.?
Exercise, on the other hand, seems to effectively increase metabolism according to studies.
You?ve probably heard this advice many times: Eat smaller meals more frequently to lose weight. Unfortunately, science is still split on this issue. Some studies show a benefit to eating this way, while others find no discernible biological differences whatsoever.
So which advice should you follow?
Latest Research Shows No Weight Loss Benefit from Increased Meal Frequency
According to the study above, published in the British Journal of Nutrition at the end of last year, increasing meal frequency from three meals a day to three meals plus three additional snacks did not promote greater weight loss.
Both groups consumed an equal amount of calories (2931 kJ/day) and both groups ended up losing a little less than five percent of body weight after eight weeks.
Likewise, a previous study mentioned in the article above found no difference in energy balance between groups of people consuming either one meal or five meals in a two-week change-over trial.
So does that mean this is just another myth gone bust?
The Case for Eating Smaller Meals More Frequently
This recommendation is based on the theory that the more often you eat throughout the day, the faster you will rev your metabolism. And the faster your metabolism, the more calories your body burns throughout the day.
And although some studies, like the two just mentioned, concluded there was no difference between eating fewer or more frequent meals as long as the number or calories remained the same, other studies contradict these findings.
For example, a French study published in the journal Forum of Nutrition in 2003 found that people whose habitual diet pattern included a fourth meal ? the so-called ?go?ter? or snack commonly eaten at 4 pm in France ? had demonstrable benefits on Body Mass Index and metabolic profile, even though their total energy intake for the day is not greater than those who skip this meal.
The study states:
?The ?go?ter?, commonly eaten in the afternoon in France by most children and many adults, has the biological characteristics of a meal because it is eaten in response to hunger. Suppressing the ?go?ter? in ?habitual fourth meal eaters? soon leads to an increase in Body Mass Index (BMI).
Further, people who are regular ?go?ter? eaters have a higher carbohydrate intake and better metabolic profile than other adults, even though their total energy intake is not greater.
Increased feeding frequency leads to a reduction in the total secretion of insulin, an improvement in insulin resistance and a better blood glucose control, as well as an improvement in the blood lipid profile.
The experts agreed that, as long as we do not consume more energy than we use up and we only eat when we are hungry, it may be useful to split our total energy intake into as many meals as our social pattern allows.?
One of the primary benefits I see mentioned here is the improvement in insulin resistance and blood glucose control.
Remember, optimizing your insulin regulation is of MAJOR importance, as that has a significant long-term impact not just on your weight, but on your overall health and chronic disease risk.
Personally, I believe there may be some benefit to eating smaller meals more frequently as it will likely help keep your blood sugar more balanced throughout the day.
Snacks, as long as they?re nutritious, of course, could also help you avoid overeating later because you?re ravenous and eat too quickly once you do sit down for a meal. It may also help you stick to healthier food choices in general, since many people tend to reach for fast food or quick and easy processed foods when they?re tired and hungry.
Let Common Sense Dictate Your Meal Frequency
In the end, perhaps the most prudent recommendation is to simply let your hunger dictate when to eat. An important caveat here though is to remember that WHAT you eat is essential.
If your body gets the nutrients it needs, your hunger will be a reliable indicator for when you need to eat. However, many people today are in fact undernourished, despite being overweight.
Consuming junk food and fast food that does not feed your body the nutrients it needs will often lead to eating far more calories than you need simply because your insulin- and other hormonal balances are out of whack.
As Dr. Rosedale explains in the article What You Don?t Know About Leptin Can Make You Fat, insulin and leptin work together to control the quality of your metabolism.
Metabolism can be roughly defined as the chemistry that turns food into life, and therefore insulin and leptin are critical to health and disease.
Insulin works mostly at the individual cell level, telling the vast majority of cells whether to burn or store fat or sugar and whether to utilize that energy for maintenance and repair or reproduction.
Leptin, on the other hand, controls energy storage and utilization, allowing your body to communicate with your brain about how much energy (fat) the cells have stored, and whether it needs more, or should burn some off.
Controlling hunger is one way that leptin controls energy storage.
Hunger is a very powerful and deep-seated drive that, if stimulated long enough, will make you eat and store more energy. The only way to eat less in the long-term is to not be hungry.
It has been shown that as sugar gets metabolized in fat cells, fat releases surges in leptin. It is believed that those surges result in leptin-resistance, as well as insulin-resistance.
Once you become leptin-resistant, your body loses the ability to effectively and accurately convey hunger signals, resulting in feeling hungry much of the time, even though you?ve consumed sufficient amounts of calories.
Sugar (and foods that convert into sugar, such as grain carbohydrates) is the main culprit in causing you to become leptin-resistant and should clearly be avoided, especially if you?re struggling with excessive hunger.
Instead, switching to a diet tailor-made for your individual biochemistry by eating for your nutritional type will optimize your overall health and leave you feeling satiated longer.
How to Really Super-Charge Your Metabolism
Just like the article above states at the end, the best confirmed way to really boost your metabolism is exercise.
When you exercise you clearly burn more calories, but you can super-charge your calorie burning mechanism even more by building muscle!
Why is this?
Because muscle demands energy to just ?sit? on your body. Fat does not.
For every pound of muscle that you gain, your body burns 50-70 calories more per day. That means, if you gain 10 lbs. of muscle, your body will burn an additional 500-700 calories per day, and with proper diet, that equates to more or less guaranteed weight loss.
Everyone?s metabolism is different, but you can speed it up or slow it down within a reasonably short amount of time by making the following common-sense changes to your diet and lifestyle:
Eat according to your nutritional type to ensure your body is getting the right fuel it needs
Avoid sugar and grains as they are the leading cause of insulin- and leptin-resistance, which affects your hunger levels, your weight, and your risk of any number of diseases
Listen to your hunger, and eat a healthy meal or snack when hunger calls
Implement a well-rounded exercise regimen that includes strength training to build muscle, as well as interval training, which has been demonstrated to significantly increase fat loss
What Has Been Your Experience?
Like many areas in natural health there is no definitive answer and, ultimately, the correct conclusion is that ?it depends?. I suspect that the answer to the headline of this article might fall into that area.
So let me know what you believe, and what your experience has been. By sharing you can help enlighten all of us as to what the answer to this question really is. It only takes a few moments to register to write a comment below.
Thanks in advance for sharing.
Information obtained via Dr. Mercola. Copyright Mercola ? All Rights Reserved. Website & Article?Link: http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2010/04/13/should-you-eat-many-small-meals-each-day.aspx
Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot explained that he isn?t a huge fan of long gaps between new gaming consoles, according to Kotaku.
Although most people aren?t interested in spending a lot of money every few years for a brand new video game console, Guillemot explained that the gap is essentially bad for business. In fact, the Ubisoft CEO feels the longevity of the current generation may have ultimately harmed the industry.
?I think that what has happened is the transition has been very long,? Guillemot explained to Polygon. ?You know, in the industry, we were used to changing machines every five years. This time we are in the seventh year of the 360. We need new consoles and at the end of the cycle generally the market goes down because there are less new IPs, new properties, so that damaged the industry a little bit.?
He added, ?I hope next time they will come more often.?
Guillemot explained new consoles force game developers to try new things. Since a new console hasn?t come along in quite some time, the Ubisoft CEO feels that some designers are resting on their laurels by releasing sequel after sequel.
?When a console is out for a long time ? you don?t take as much risks on totally new IPs because even if they are good, they don?t sell as well,? he explained.
According to the Examiner, video game industry sales are down 25 percent. Since software developers aren?t willing to take a chance on new titles, many gamers are experiencing a problem generally associated with the motion picture business: sequelitis. Most of the top selling games released this holiday season are just new installments in previously-established franchises.
?Everybody who is taking risks and innovating is welcome because there are lots of hardcore gamers and those guys want new things, where the mass market will be more interested in having the same experience and doesn?t want to take as much risks because it?s not aware as much of what is going to change its experience. So, the beginning of the machines is always a good time for innovation,? Guillemot explained.
Do you agree with Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot that long gaps between consoles is bad for the industry?
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Public release date: 28-Nov-2012
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New England used to be one of the churchiest places in America. Can evangelicals convert the secular natives?
Companies such as Hostess go to extensive lengths to protect their recipes
While researching this article, I came across an intriguing book titled Never Let a Fool Kiss You or a Kiss Fool You by Mardy Grothe. With hundreds of chiasmus examples, there?s an awful lot to riff off of. I may have to add this to my Christmas list.