OK, so I have revised and corrected my previous Esperanto Primer (v1.0) and here is the new one An Esperanto Primer (v2.0).
Let me know if there are any corrections or suggestions.
Author Archive
Category: Esperanto, Language
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Thursday, December 15th, 2011 | Author: James O'Neill
Interpreting the Constitution by Erwin Cherminksy
I received an unexpected birthday present in the mail from Katia, who is a great friend of ours who is living in Belarus. She ordered a gift certificate from Barnes and Noble for me. I was really, really shocked to receive it.
With this wonderful gift I bought a book that I have been wanting for a while: Erwin Cherminsky’s Interpreting the Constitution. Erwin Cherminsky is a well known scholar of Constitutional Law. He is a professor at the University of California – Irvine, and has wrote the Introduction to Constitutional Law book that I purchased for my birthday last year (see my previous post on 22 Dec 2010).
I still really want to go back to school to get my degree in Law specializing in Constitutional Law and Civil Rights.
Thanks again Katia! =)
Thursday, December 15th, 2011 | Author: James O'Neill
I have not been posting since life – family, business, and work has kept me really busy, so here is a quick update. =)
Reading: I have not had much time to read, but recently I have finished “The Da Vinci Code” and I am working on “Angels and Demons” now in what little spare time I find.
Writing: I am looking at attempting some writing of some fiction…
Broken Toe: For Thanksgiving I broke my toe while taking Uliana downstairs to put her down for her nap. If you did not know I was sailor before that, you sure knew it afterwards. =O
Uliana: For a few months now Uliana has been sleeping without a pacifier and is pedaling a tricycle on her own. She is getting so big. We are watching too much Sesame Street… hence the previous post!
Smart Phone: Tanya and I both got our first smart phones in August 2011 – droid based smart phones and I love having a smart phone.
Cars: Both of our cars are in the process of dying so we are looking for a new car to at least replace one of ours. We are considering trading in both of our cars to purchase one, and going without a second car for a while. It will be annoying, but we can handle it.
Work: Work has just been really busy with new projects here and there.
Studio: We bought a second house in Baraboo to live in and to run our Yoga Studio out of in May of 2010. We went from having 5-6 classes a week to 15-19 classes per week and we brought on 2-4 more instructors. I am also working on a new Drupal based website for the studio.
Dells House: In July of 2011 we spent a bunch of money fixing up our Dells house to prepare it for new tenants and we have luckily found great tenants. Fixing it up was a weeks worth of vacation.
Category: Life, Update
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Tuesday, December 13th, 2011 | Author: James O'Neill
For all of you out there that are having a problem sleeping give Ricky Gervais’ Sesame Street Lullaby brought to you by the letter ‘N’ a try. I blame this completely on my 2 year old little girl.
Wednesday, November 30th, 2011 | Author: James O'Neill
I am not an atheist. I label myself as an agnostic deistic humanist (see my posts under the Ministry tag for more info), but there are a lot of things about this that I agree with. I love the comment about Galileo, but I think the most important point she makes at the end is that atheism, as a movement, is not angry because of harm that is done to them, they are angry because of the harm done to others due to religion.
The following video is of the presentation given by Skepticon 4 titled “Why are Athiests so Angry?”.
Tuesday, August 17th, 2010 | Author: James O'Neill
California’s Appellate Court granted a stay on Judge Vaughn’s ruling pending appeal. This was, in my opinion, to be expected since this is such a high profile case and precedent setting case, so nothing drastic there. However, there is some good news as far as this process is concerned as is covered here BREAKING: 9th Circuit STAYS Judge Walker’s ruling; Appeal scheduled December 6 on Prop 8 Trial Tracker:
- the appellate court is expediting the the appeal of the ruling of the unconstitutionality of Prop 8 and set the date for the week of 6 December, which is awesome. The sooner the, hopefully, better.
- they are also specifically asking the Prop8′ers:
In addition to any issues appellants wish to raise on appeal, appellants are directed to include in their opening brief a discussion of why this appeal should not be dismissed for lack of Article III standing.
which is huge. Judge Vaughn said that they do not have standing for a stay or appeal, if I remember correctly, and the appellate court obviously pretty much agrees with them, but are giving them a chance to sound at least a little rational and try to retain some self respect.
In the scheme of things this is pretty huge. The appeal process could end up being pretty short (comparatively speaking) since they do not have standing for appeal, so this may most likely get dismissed with prejudice, which would prevent a Supreme Court Appeal. This will be a massively huge win and precedent for gay rights all throughout the US if this does happen, since there will be a court ruling stating that banning gay marriage is unconstitutional and they have no standing.
If the Supreme Court does not dismiss out of hand due to lack of standing, which would rock, then the appellate court’s decision will be appealed to the Supreme Court.
Cross your fingers everyone. History and justice is happening. =)
Monday, August 16th, 2010 | Author: James O'Neill
I am currently reading the new book ” Sex at Dawn: The Prehistoric Origins of Modern Sexuality” which is a book on Evolutionary Psychology, which for me, is a really fascinating topic. I think I have the table copied over correctly. It is a great book so far.
This table occurs in Chapter 3 and I found it really, really interesting and I thought I would share it with you. I found it especially interesting since chips and bonobos are our closest genetic relatives, differing by about 1.6%. It is amazing how diverse the primates’ mating patterns are.
Table 1: Social Organization Among Apes
Bonobo
Egalitarian and peaceful, bonobo communities are maintained primarily through social bonding between females, although females bond with males as well. Male status derives from the mother. Bonds between son and mother are lifelong. Multimale-multifemale mating.
Chimpanzee
The bonds between males are strongest and lead to constantly shifting male coalitions. Females move through overlapping ranges within territory patrolled by males, but don’t form strong bonds with other females or any particular male. Multimale-multifemale mating
Gibbon
Gibbons establish nuclear family units; each couple maintains a territory from which other pairs are excluded. Mating is monogamous. mating.
Gorilla
Generally, a single dominant male (the so-called ·Silverback”) occupies a range for his family unit composed of several females and young. Adolescent males are forced out of the group as they reach sexual maturity. Strongest social bonds are between the male and adult females. Polygynous mating.
Human
By far the most diverse social species among the primates, there is plentiful evidence of all types of socio-sexual bonding, cooperation, and competition among contemporary humans. Multimale-multifemale
Orangutan
Orangutans are solitary and show little bonding of any kind. Male orangutans do not tolerate each other’s presence. An adult male establishes a large territory where several females live. Each has her own range. Mating is dispersed, infrequent and often violent.
Wednesday, January 16th, 2008 | Author: James O'Neill
We thank thee, Lord, for bringing us together to share this joyous day
where we join (congregants names) in the bonds of holy matrimony,
so that they may begin their futures together as one family,
looking to each other with eyes of love and whose relationship
will grow as glory of (our Lord, the gods, godesses, spririts, etc) shall bless it to be.
Blessed be the food that is brought and prepared here this day and
bear great tidings for the new family that we shall bear witness to.
On this day we come together while the eyes of our loving creator
watches over their union and the festivities that follow.
In the name of our Lord and in the name of (congregants names) I bless this
day and all that comes of it. Amen
Category: Marriage, Ministry, Relationships, Religion
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