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Filed under: Motorcycle

It’s unlikely that Moto Guzzi is the first brand you think of when talk turns to Italian motorcycles, but the manufacturer has a long history of producing desirable V-twin-powered machines and still offers a number of interesting models to consider. Chief among them is the latest version of the Griso, seen above.

The most noticeable feature that sets Guzzi’s new Griso 8V SE apart from its standard siblings are the classically Italian paint colors: either Tenni green or Rosso Mandello red with a blacked-out powertrain. A nicely-stitched leather seat and wire-spoked wheels round out the visual modifications.

Just as importantly, though, the Griso 8V SE manages to boost torque output by five lb-ft to 85, though horsepower remains steady at 110. That extra power comes courtesy of revised cam profiles and fuel injectors, along with a larger airbox that helps Moto Guzzi’s eight-valve Quattrovalvole breathe a bit better. Check out our high-res gallery below and make the jump for the official press release.

[Source: Moto Guzzi via Hell For Leather]

Continue reading Moto Guzzi refines performance cruiser recipe with Griso 8V SE

Moto Guzzi refines performance cruiser recipe with Griso 8V SE originally appeared on Autoblog on Sun, 13 Dec 2009 17:19:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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UT Commencement speaker and ORNL director, Thom Mason, addresses graduates.

KNOXVILLE — Our world has big problems and we need intelligent, educated people to solve them.

That was the message shared by Thom Mason, director of Oak Ridge National Laboratory, who addressed approximately 1,000 University of Tennessee, Knoxville, undergraduate students who participated in fall commencement today at Thompson-Boling Arena.

“Some of you are headed to graduate school, others to new jobs and still others to military service,” he said. “And I expect some of you are still looking for jobs in a very tough economic climate. But history shows that your education provides you with an overwhelming advantage.”

History shows that an educated populace can turn hard times into better times. He cited a Harvard economist who looked at high school graduation rates before, during and after the Great Depression. The graduation rates rose between the 1920s and 1940s, and those skilled workers helped the U.S. win World War II and lead the country into a booming, postwar economy.

“In 1957, when the Soviet Union launched the first Sputnik satellite, the United States responded with a massive

UT graduates celebrate at Sunday's commencement ceremony.

investment in science, technology and education,” he continued. “The return on that investment includes the personal computer with its graphical user interface, global positioning systems, the laser printer, cell phones and a lot of other electronic gadgets that we use every day that underpin our economy.

“Today, we need a new set of skilled workers to tackle the challenge of transforming our energy system.”

Mason went on to detail a global energy problem, saying that economic development and population growth are causing increased energy demands. The solution, he said, is better use of sustainable energy sources and new technologies to harness that power.

“To fundamentally transform our global energy system, we need major breakthroughs in science and technology,” Mason said. “To take one obvious example, the Earth’s surface receives more solar energy in an hour than we are currently using in a year. But we don’t have the technology needed to capture, store and distribute solar energy at a cost that can compete with conventional grid-supplied energy.”

Mason encouraged graduates in all disciplines to work toward a solution to this problem, saying that everyone can help; from entrepreneurs who can take breakthroughs to the marketplace to communicators to spread the news about energy solutions to architects who can design energy-efficient buildings.

A UT graduate's decorated mortarboard.

“Whatever you choose to do, I suggest that you look for challenging problems to solve,” he said. “Work that demands your best effort is a great deal more rewarding than something that is trivial or easy.”

On Friday, students receiving advanced degrees were recognized in a graduate hooding ceremony. There were 517 receiving master’s degrees and 68 receiving doctorate degrees.

During today’s commencement, six students received commissions as second lieutenants in the United States Army.

More than 2,800 students were eligible to participate in today’s commencement which combines graduates from the summer and fall terms. The graduate and undergraduate ceremonies can be viewed in an archived webcast.

Click here to listen to an audio report on Mason’s address.

View photos from the event.

—

C O N T A C T :

Beth Gladden (865-974-9008, [email protected])

We will not bet on this particular prediction, but now you can get the feeling: why guys like Fedex are voting for Electrification and, by the way, electric cars are here already (picture gallery).

SAI

Oil’s Going To $225 By 2012, Says Analyst

Canada’s LeaderPost has an excellent article about the coming oil price surge and the need for uber-aggressive efficiency projects.
LeaderPost.com:
Chinese consumers are buying more than a million cars a month — and in India when the US$2,500 Nano went on sale, more than 200,000 were ordered in the first two weeks. Adding millions of cars a month to roads will inevitably drive up oil prices.
Jeff Rubin, the former chief economist for CIBC World Markets, predicts that the price of oil will rise to US$225 a barrel by 2012. For readers who dismiss Rubin, think about this:We are in the midst of the biggest recession since the Great Depression and oil has already risen above US$80 a barrel. In 2003, few pundits would have thought US$80 oil was possible. (And Rubin’s past predictions have proven deadly accurate: In 2006, he predicted oil would hit US$150 a barrel in 2008.)”

DS homebrew dev tombot’s The 15th Floor is a homebrew adventure/puzzle game inspired by games such as Myst, Crimson Room, and Hotel Dusk. Made using DS Game Maker (qjnet/nintendo-ds/ds-homebrew-ds-game-maker-31.html), The 15th

Better that it goes to our waste than our waist, you could say

Americans may well be the most wasteful people in history. Just finding ways to dump, bury, disintegrate or recycle all the stuff we go through and toss out is a major industry. But we are wasteful in at least one way that, if not exactly virtuous, is something we should probably be thankful for, and that is in the matter of food.

According to a report by the Department of Agriculture, roughly 40 percent of all the food produced in the U.S. gets thrown away. On the one hand, in a world where a billion people have insufficient food, that is truly shameful. On the other hand, the USDA calculates that each of us discards an average 1,400 calories per day in the process.

If you want a nightmare scenario, imagine what we would look like if we instead consumed all those leftovers and scraps and so forth. The diabetes rate alone would probably be around 85 percent.

It’s not such a small world after all

Despite the fact that tens of millions of people are chronically undernourished and lack secure, reliable access to food around the globe, the human race is steadily growing fatter. According to newly released World Health Organization numbers, so many people worldwide now carry too much excess weight that they’ve coined the word “globesity” just to label it. In fact, one in every three adults on earth is now overweight and one in every 10 is obese, an amazing stat given the vast legions of the underfed. WHO reckons that there will be some 2.3 billion overweight humans walking the planet in 2015, a number you also get by adding the combined populations of the US, Europe, and China.

Of course, if global warming causes the Pacific to rise enough, we’ll be number one

So, which is the fattest nation, per capita, in the whole wide world? Somewhat surprisingly, the United States only ranks third on the list, with 66.7 percent of us overweight or obese. Germany, land of fatty sausages and rich strudels? Nein; it’s on our heels in fourth place at 66.5 percent. Then comes, rather inexplicably, Egypt, at 66 percent. So who took the top two spots?

Two island nations in the South Pacific whose explosive post-World War II obesity epidemic was posted about here some time ago: American Samoa, at an appalling 93.5 percent, and Kiribati, at 81.5 percent. The cause is absolutely no mystery: a culture yanked from an environment of physical labor in pursuit of food which was mostly fish and fruit and vegetables, to one of processed, fat-and-calorie-laden Western food products, with no physical effort required. So much for the “island paradise” concept.

(By Robert S. Wieder for CalorieLab Calorie Counter News)

From the RSS feed of CalorieLab News (REF3076322B7)

The huge amount of calories we don’t consume, and the fattest nations on earth

Everyone and their grandma has been ranking the bowls……Except for me. So I figured that I should jump in on all the fun, and talk about the 2nd season of College Football: “Bowl Season”.

Now, I am in the camp of those who think there are just way too many bowl games. I’m not going to lie. It takes quite a bit to get me hyped up for a bowl game. To be honest, almost every year I set out to try and watch every bowl game, and every year I end up watching a handful of bowls, but mostly college basketball.

This year, I’m not making any promises like that, especially when it’s quite possible I’ll be going down to Tempe for the bowl game. At the same time, I will make the effort of watching a handful of games, and I figured I would share my process of elimination with you, by doing a countdown of bowl games that I am looking forward to most.

In Part 1 of this three part series, I’m going to countdown the 14 bowls that I find the least exciting. I’d characterize this group by saying that I could watch some of these games, but I’m certainly not rearranging my life to watch them. I can safely say that if I somehow did not watch a single game from this group, I wouldn’t be too disappointed.

#34: New Orleans Bowl (Southern Miss vs. Middle Tennessee State), 12/20/2009, 7:30pm CST, ESPN

I have absolutley no reason to get excited about this game at all. I thought Southern Miss would be a better team than they were, but they ended up being just another 7-5 midmajor. If you’re hardcore, on paper these teams look pretty even in regards to scoring. It could be a close game. Accuscore has Southern Miss as a 54% favorite. Whatifsports.com has Southern Miss, just edging the victory as well. Fortunatley for me, the Vikings play the Panthers on that Sunday night, so I will be watching that as well.

#33: New Mexico Bowl (Fresno State vs. Wyoming), 12/19/2009, 3:30pm CST, ESPN

There have been years in the past, when I’ve flicked on the game, because it’s the 1st one in the season, and it’s been a bit of a novelty. Usually, I can’t watch past the 1st quarter. This year, I will probably try and attempt the same thing, but will end up doing something else. Not a knock on Fresno State which is a decent team, but moreso on Wyoming. On paper, this has the makings of a blowout. With Fresno State, you have one of the best offenses in the nation, averaging 436 yards/game and about 34 points scored. With Wyoming, you have one of the worst offenses, averaging 298 yards/game, and about 17 points scored.

#32: Little Caesar’s Bowl (Marshall vs. Ohio), 12/26/2009, Noon CST, ESPN

What ranks this game here as opposed to last, is probably the fact that Marshall has a new head coach from the regular season now. Since there is a “craziness” possibility to this game, I may watch the first few series.

#31: Hawaii Bowl (Nevada vs. SMU), 12/24/2009, 7pm CST, ESPN

The biggest thing this game has going for it, is that there is no College Basketball at all that night, no other College Football that night, and no NBA either. There is a Chargers vs. Titans game on the NFL Network, but that’s it as far as sports go. People wanting their sports fix might be tuning into this one. Or maybe they will do something with their families on Christmas Eve (for those that celebrate it). 

#30: GMAC Bowl (Central Michigan vs. Troy), 1/6/2010, 6pm CST, ESPN

This actually is a decent matchup among mid-majors. It really is. The biggest problem with this bowl is that it’s sandwiched right between the Orange Bowl and the BCS Championship Game. I might watch some of it, as I wait for the Iowa State vs. Duke game, but that’s about it.

#29: St. Petersburg Bowl (UCF vs. Rutgers), 12/19/2009, 7pm CST, ESPN

I know Rutgers is 8-4, but they went 3-4 in the Big East. Also, this is practically a homegame for UCF. Just not a lot about this game to sell me on.

#28: EagleBank Bowl (UCLA vs. Temple), 12/29/2009, 3:30pm CST, ESPN

Can’t say much about this one, other than I’m probably not going to watch it.

#27: International Bowl (South Florida vs. Northern Illinois), 1/2/2010, 11am CST, ESPN2

I don’t think I’ve ever watched the International Bowl and this matchup isn’t really changing the chances of that happening for me.

#26: Armed Forces Bowl (Houston vs. Air Force), 12/31/2009, 11am CST, ESPN

The thick of the CUSA schedule exposed Houston as a paper tiger, it could be a close game. It is an interesting matchup in Houston has the best pass offense in the nation, while Air Force has the best pass defense in the nation. There’s not enough there for me to take an interest, especially if I’m in Tempe getting ready for the Insight Bowl.

#25: Alamo Bowl (Michigan State vs. Texas Tech), 1/2/2010, 8pm CST, ESPN

Michigan State is a disappointment this year. I think many thought they had an outside shot to compete for the Big 10, and instead they finish 6-6. To add insult to injury, they also suspended 8 guys and kicked 2 off the team for some off the field drama. There’s no reason why Texas Tech shouldn’t roll this team by 21.

#24: Meineke Car Care Bowl (Pitt vs. UNC), 12/26/2009, 3:30pm CST, ESPN

On paper, Pitt should roll UNC. I just wonder how they will play coming off that disappointing loss to Cincy. It seems like when a team gets snubbed or loses a tough championship game like that, they don’t come in ready to play.

UNC is just manic with their play. Some weeks they look great and beat Virginia Tech, while others they are losing to NC-State. Overall, I see the makings of a potentially sloppy game

#23: Humanitarian Bowl (Bowling Green vs. Idaho), 12/30/2009, 3:30pm CST, ESPN

Watch the weather forecast for this one. If it’s a clear, calm day, it’s going to be a shootout with my man Freddie Barnes tearing it up, and I’m going to want to watch it! If it’s blizzard conditions, or just a day condusive to running the ball a lot, this bowl belongs in the #34-30 range.

#22: Music City Bowl (Kentucky vs. Clemson), 12/27/2009, 7:30pm CST, ESPN

C.J. Spiller is the reason to watch this game. If you haven’t seen him play before this would be a good spot to see him as I have a feeling he’ll have a big game in this one. Kentucky has a bad rush defense. That said, I see this as a Clemson romp, so I’m not exactly expecting a good game from this one.

#21: Papajohns.com Bowl (South Carolina vs. UConn), 1/2/2010, 1pm CST, ESPN

South Carolina really perplexes me. Spurrier is supposed to be this offensive genius, but South Carolina seems to have had sucky offenses since he took over. I’m rooting for UConn in this one. With everything they’ve gone through this season, how nice would it be to see the Huskies get a bowl victory?

In Part 2 of this series, I will count down the next tier of bowl games in terms of what I’m looking forward to. Look for that on Tuesday. In the meantime, feel free to join in on the conversation.

Julian Sanchez discusses John Searle’s talk at Google on consciousness and free will, embedded above (via Andrew).

Consciousness could well be a spandrel. That is to say, it may just be that when you have a sufficiently complex information processing system made of the particular kind of physical stuff our brains are composed of, the processes involved will have some kind of subjective character. If conscious mental activity just is brain activity, and not some kind of strange excretion from it, however, then they have precisely the same causal properties, and it’s just a confusion to describe it as “epiphenomenal.”…Or to put it another way: The alternative picture is that evolutionary selection pressure might have produced these very strategic zombies—like vastly more complex insects, say, all stimulus-response with nobody home— but then some mutation won out that added this further feature, consciousness, to the system, because it yielded some additional improvement.

The big question is, why do we think there’s a self inside of us? I’ve been working my way through Jung, who said essentially that there are two things: an I and a self. Self is essentially a way of identifying the set of complexes (mental things or processes) that belong to us, and the I is the complex that sits in the middle of all of that. But, the I is just one of a large number of characters that live inside our head, and the self is a spongy mass that can pick up or discard other bits of the mental landscape as part of the process of individuation.

Another way of looking at the problem of consciousness is via the evolutionary paradigm. We have a consciousness because that’s the best way for a complex informational system to accomplish the set of tasks (predation, social interaction, anticipation of future states, interrelation of sensory and volitional data) necessary to support an organism of such complexity. It might also be true that there are informational, as opposed to biological laws at play. We might have a conception of self because its really difficult to process information without having a dynamic internal model referring to onesself, in the same way that its really complicated to describe what’s going on in one’s day without using a personal pronoun.

In any case, what becomes apparent is that despite a large number of attempts to identify a seat for the soul in a localized part of the brain, we end up with nowhere to point. There are many pieces of the brain where part of the soul might rest, but as we cut finer and finer the parts slip between our fingers. This is an argument for emergent properties in the nervous system. That, or non-materialism.

Free will presents a similar paradox. Julian suggests it may be a required by-product of biological structure. However, it might a by-product of the informational structure of the universe; to the extent that the universe contains phenomena that are indeterminate and unpredictable both in the future and in the past (one cannot either predict the shape of the puddle from the shape of the ice cube, nor reconstruct the ice cube’s shape from that of the puddle it made), and because predictable events can result in conscious entities’ taking actions that preemtively cause the predictable event not to actually occur, free will must be possible.

Filed under: Car Buying, Etc., Mercedes-Benz

That’s customer retention, not retentive customers, though Mercedes-Benz could be said to enjoy both. J.D. Power and Associates has been indexing customer retention for seven years, and Mercedes-Benz tops the list in 2009. Power measures how many vehicle buyers are replacing an older model from the same brand, and Mercedes-Benz’s 67-percent retention rate tops all others, including the usual suspects, Honda and Toyota.

What’s resonating with customers are resale value and quality. Even used Mercs are spendy, but they all ooze an air of quality. Ingot-solid platforms and the fine sheen of obsessively-perfected engineering seem to convince buyers that the cars will last forever and are of the highest quality. Why said customers might then trade a car with such inherent awesomeness, which is built to withstand all manner of circumstances, is another story entirely, but Mercedes-Benz’s first-place finish this year caps a five-year run of increasing numbers, culminating with this year’s best-ever 67 percent, the highest the Power study has measured.

[Source: J.D. Power]

J.D. Power ranks Mercedes-Benz #1 for customer retention originally appeared on Autoblog on Sun, 13 Dec 2009 15:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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by taxikipali, via libcom, 13 December 2009: “Reforms and fears about the explosive economic crisis mark the days after the latest riots in Greece… The day after the latest riots, which erupted as a response to mass preventive repression against the commemoration of Alexandros Grigoropoulos murder, is characterized by the launching of an array of reforms by the greek state struggling with an explosive economic crisis…” more

If you enrolled over 14,000 ICU patients into a study on a single day, and then did follow-up, what would you find regarding the relationship of infection to the outcomes of ICU stay and mortality?

Just such a study was published in JAMA last week, and here are the not-so-stunning conclusions:

Infections are common in patients in contemporary ICUs, and risk of infection increases with duration of ICU stay. In this large cohort, infection was independently associated with an increased risk of hospital death.

To an ID specialist, this is kind of like reading that someone has done a study linking time spent outside in the rain and the likelihood of becoming wet.  Patients in ICUs are susceptible to getting infections for innumerable reasons — so many that it seems to us (from our admittedly biased perspective) almost remarkable when an infection doesn’t occur.

In all seriousness, ICU-related infections are a gargantuan problem, and if this study helps publicize the clinical and research needs, more power to it.

You’ve got a big blank wall? Really? I would love to have just one. I was looking for space to do modified push ups the other day and…But I digress. If you have a big boring wall and you don’t have several thousand dollars to drop on a big, big piece of art, try one of these quick fixes:

• Put a grouping of smaller objects on the wall. A few mirrors, a set of matted photos with matching frames or a group of interesting vintage plates can have the same impact as a large piece of art.
• Make your own oversize art. A piece of foam board, hot glue, picture hanging hardware with sticky backing and a big piece of fabric can combine to make a gorgeous piece. Simply stretch the fabric over the board and hot glue the fabric edges to the back of the board. Add the hardware and you’re done.
• Use wall decals to make a focal point. A favorite saying or some bright geometric shapes can liven up the space.
• Hang curtains on a rod to make a faux window.
• Paint or stencil a design on the wall to make it an accent wall.

How do you spruce up a blah wall?

Photo: SXC

Post from: Blisstree

Five Quick Fixes for a Blah Wall

Although the Wii and DS do have their own stable of worthwhile releases this year, the sheer number of shovelware titles have taken their toll. Review scores for games from both platforms have conspired to turn them

The bite-sized Dove Promises are one of my favorite types of chocolates to keep around the house for snacking. Each one usually has a fortune cookie-type message inside the wrapper, which I tend to glance at and then cast aside. Imagine my surprise when I found one that read: “Use cookie cutters as tree ornaments. Martha Stewart.” All of the messages inside Dove’s holiday Promises have tips from Martha Stewart herself – all of which I find a lot more useful than the generic messages that you usually find inside these chocolates! A few other food-related tips I found included “Decorate a cake with handmade whipped cream and fruit,” “Turn to a tried-and-true recipe for an important get together” and “Package cookies in a decorative bread pan wrapper with ribbon.” Other tips are more generally about the holidays, not just food.

The two flavors I found these in were the Milk Chocolate with Caramel and the limited edition Dark Chocolate Peppermint Bark. The peppermint bark flavor, by the way, is really delicious. The chocolate is creamy, with a nice snap to it, and the white chocolate layer has big chunks of peppermint in it. It is definitely a step above some peppermint bark I’ve tried, and I like the fact that they come in bite-sized pieces, too.

Politico recognizes inconsistency emanating out of the Obama administration based on comments from today’s Sunday morning yak-fests.

Two of President Obama’s top economic advisers disagreed Sunday about whether the recession had ended.

Lawrence Summers, director of the National Economic Council, flatly said that it had.

“Today, everybody agrees that the recession is over, and the question is what the pace of the expansion is going to be,” Summers said on ABC’s “This Week.”

But Christina Romer, who heads the White House Council of Economic Advisers, offered a more cautious view on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

What’s going on here?

Basically, the administration would love to take credit for a recovery, while also acknowledging the continued pain in the economy and allowing itself the ability to fire off a second stimulus if need be.

It’s a tigh trope to walk, though it’s probably one they’ll be trying to walk until the 2010 elections (though from then out, they want to be fully into taking-credit mode. If they’re still talking about a recession in 2011, Obama may be a one-termer.

The other message today was that Obama wants banks to lever up — er, lend more — again.

The White House will have the nation’s bankers as its guest on Monday

CBS News: When I asked top White House economic advisor Larry Summers if the President needs to encourage banks to do more lending, he told me that bankers “need to recognize that they’ve got obligations to the country after all that’s been done for them, and there is a lot more they can do.”

Tomorrow, the President will meet with heads of the country’s biggest banks and Summers told me the White House has a blunt message: “President Obama is going to be talking with them about what they can do to support enhanced lending to customers across the country.

“We were there for them. And the banks need to do everything they can to be sure they’re there for customers across this country.”

Read the whole thing >>

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

• Risk Of Double-Dip Recession Is Rising, Says Krugman
• Arianna Huffington: Larry Summers Should Resign
• Citi: Cost Cutting Is Over, Now Leverage Will Drive Earnings

I just watched “Fanboys” earlier so I’m a bit stuck on Star Wars today. Anyway, I know that a few of you were a bit miffed when Force

Filed under: Spy Photos, Crossover, Nissan

Just when you thought Qashqai was about a weird a name as a car could get comes some spy shots of the Nissan Qazana. Mmmm… yeah, you’re right. Qashqai is still weirder. However, the Qazana, which we first saw in Geneva, is weirder looking than the Qashqai. Or practically anything else, for that matter. But it’s not bad-weird, just weird-weird. That said, sticking with the maxim that all SUVs (and cars that look like SUVs) want to either be WW2 Jeeps or lunar rovers, the Qazana isn’t that odd. We quite like it.

The lads at AutoExpress just caught some spy shots of a Qazana prototype, complete with black trash-bag crypsis. Despite the budget camo, it does look like some of the show car’s more novel elements are making it into production — specifically, its large headlights. It even seems as though the highly-stylized grille will see the light of day.

AutoExpress claims that it doesn’t stop there: The motorcycle-inspired (and highly whacked-out) interior will also allegedly make the final cut. In terms of where it fits in the lineup, the Qazana will slot below the larger Qashqai. Like the Qashqai, look for the Qazana to be built at Nissan’s Sunderland, UK plant. Here’s hoping Nissan chooses the bold path and brings out a Qazana that truly resembles the concept. Odds of it making to the US? We’d normally say “zilch,” but we did just get the Cube, so who knows?

[Source: AutoExpress]

Spy Shots: First Nissan Qazana prototype caught testing originally appeared on Autoblog on Sun, 13 Dec 2009 14:13:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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My scale of corporate evil as of Dec 2009.

Top end of the scale is 15. It’s a linear scale.

1. Philip Morris: 15
2. Exxon: 13 (see link to #1)
3. For profit health insurance companies: 11
4. Goldman Sachs: 11
5. AT&T and Verizon (tied): 10
6. Microsoft: 10
7. Facebook: 10
8. Average publicly traded company: 8
9. Apple: 5
10. Google: 3
11. CARE International: 1 (They’re not a PTC, so this is merely a non-evil reference point)

What’s your ranking?

I promised, I know. Here they are, 10 of the best of Mrs. PiggleWiggle’s parenting tips. I have used these and I can tell you that Mrs. PiggleWiggle may be a fictional character but she rocks!

10Tips For Great Parenting via Mrs PiggleWiggle

1. Engage your child’s imagination: Whether it is chores or overcoming a bad habit give your child the skills to think outside of the box.
2. Be his/her number one fan and forever cheerleader. There are billions of people in the world that are queuing up to tell your kid what a failure he is. It doesn’t have to come from you. Even if there are things that he doesn’t do well you can always find something positive to say! Remember Power of Life and Death?
3. Allow him to learn from his own mistakes as much as possible. This means standing back and allowing him to experience the consequences of his actions.
4. Help you child put himself in other’s shoes. Didn’t feed the dog? Maybe skipping lunch or a snack might be in order.
5. Care about the kids more than the stuff. Children should be taught to be careful with things and take care of what they have; however when you find that you are yelling or spanking excessively because a child broke an antique vase then you are the one with the problem. The message you are sending is “my stuff is more important than you”.
6. Let the punishment fit the crime. I had a child that would kick holes in the wall in a temper. Used to send the child out side to kick the brick trim on the house until she didn’t feel like kicking walls anymore. Didn’t hurt her OR the wall.
7. Listen with your heart.
8. Keep them busy with a good balance of play and chores and time to be bored.
9. Make memories.
10. Never lose the wonder and magic of childhood.

image: Taken by Erin Audet Myers, collection of marye audet

Post from: Blisstree

Parenting According to Mrs. PiggleWiggle