Deutsche Übersetzung: Rassenvermischung: Die Moral des Todes
by Dr. William L. Pierce (pictured, portrait by Will Williams)
HISTORY HAS TAUGHT us that the most fundamental necessities for the existence of a healthy and progressive White society are the racial quality of its members and a moral code or value system which complements and enhances that quality.
Ultimately, of course, the former is much more fundamental than the latter. Only a sound race can give birth to sound racial ethics. Without the living biological entity, there is and can be nothing. But as long as the race survives — as long as the potential for effective racial sovereignty exists — alien and spiritually damaging values alone will not prove fatal.
The enemies of our race have obviously long understood this truth. That is why, a half-century ago, they waged the most vicious war the world has ever seen in order to destroy an idea based upon that racial truth. That is why they subsequently organized the systematic swamping of White civilization by millions of alien immigrants. And that is why they have used their control of the news and entertainment media, of the government, and of schools and universities to implement a massive propaganda campaign to encourage miscegenation between Whites and non-Whites.
Of course, miscegenation is not a natural occurrence. Evolution would have been impossible if every evolutionary experiment had been short-circuited by cross-breeding. Nature’s urge toward higher and more complex life forms has demanded that subspecies remain genetically isolated until all possibility of genetic admixture has been removed. Even though such isolation of the various human subspecies from one another has not been of sufficient length to ensure the impossibility of genetic admixture, it has ensured the existence of deep-seated psychological barriers which, under natural conditions, prevent miscegenation.
When these natural conditions are disrupted and distorted, however, unnatural sexual activities such as homosexuality and miscegenation have been known to result. Just as bulls have been known to mount mares, and St. Bernard dogs have tried to mate with Chihuahuas when forced into close confinement and deprived of their natural environment, so Whites have copulated with Negroes in similar circumstances. It is the disruption of the White man’s natural environment and the dehumanization of his society and culture, therefore, which the Jews and their collaborators in the news and entertainment media have consistently worked for in order to encourage racial mixing.
This campaign began at least as early as 1967, when 16 U.S. states still had laws against miscegenation. In that year Jewish director/producer Stanley Kramer brought out the film Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, starring Katherine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy as a couple whose daughter begins an affair with a Negro. The aim of the film was clear and since has been admitted. It was designed as an “educational film” for White Americans: after seeing their on-screen heroes, Tracy and Hepburn, surrendering their White daughter to a Black male, they would feel less compunction in doing the same.
Since that time Whites have not just been encouraged to mate with Blacks, Hispanics, and Asians, they have been subject to every conceivable Pavlovian method to blackmail and bully them emotionally into doing so. With ever increasing intensity the message has been that miscegenation is not just an option, but the option that society expects. Particularly, the primary aim of the Political Correctness movement, in all of its manifestations, has been to confuse heterosexual Whites and make them feel sinful and guilty for being White; to encourage them to “repent” by helping put their race out of existence.
The Hollywood film The Last of the Mohicans, which came out in 1992 with the Jewish actor Daniel Day-Lewis in the leading role, is a typical example of how the Jewish news and entertainment media have spearheaded this campaign. In the film White males are portrayed as weak, cowardly, disloyal, and barbaric — and as justly deserving of their slaughter at the hands of the noble, dignified, courageous, and sexy Red Indians. Yes, just to ensure that White women don’t miss the implication that White men are worthless, the leading White female character dumps her despicable British-officer fiancé and runs off into the sunset with the Mohican hero. The underlying message of the film is clear: race-mixing is not only natural and understandable, it is also the morally right thing to do.
Zoologists and anthropologists have identified two types of feral constraint which ensure that under natural conditions animal groups — including human groups — which may be able to interbreed with each other refrain from doing so. On one hand, there are inborn biological impulses based upon physical “sign stimuli,” such as smell, color, and visual differentiation. Then there is the behavioral imprinting and habituation which takes place in the early weeks and months of infancy based upon the intimate relationship between the mother and the infant. This helps to ensure that when sexual mating is eventually attempted, it will take place only with those forms that resemble the parent or siblings.
Not surprisingly, the Jews have gone all out to corrupt and cripple the latter tendency in Whites, particularly under the guise of “children’s entertainment.” In 1994, for example, the Walt Disney Company brought out a re-adaptation of its 1967 film The Jungle Book. This was Disney’s first children’s offering since being taken over by the Jewish clique headed by Michael Eisner, and, predictably, it was a complete distortion, both of the original Kipling story and the 1967 Disney animated version. With a story line remarkably similar to Last of the Mohicans, the White heroine rejects her British-officer fiancé for an Indian jungle boy played by a Chinese actor.
Significantly, the White girl’s decision is portrayed as being based upon moral considerations of right and wrong, upon her realization that White society and White men in particular are irredeemably bad. Eisner pursued this line in the two subsequent Disney animated children’s films, Pocahontas and The Hunchback of Notre Dame, which are similar both in their pernicious race-mixing propaganda and in their blatant disregard for the original stories. Such systematic consistency in shape and content suggests design rather than coincidence.
In any case, the actual motivation of Michael Eisner in churning out such material is not the most important question. The thing that really matters is the actual effect of his efforts: young children are being influenced, at an age where they are most open to behavioral imprinting, with a message that miscegenation is good and morally correct, and that Whiteness is evil and morally wrong.
Just as young Whites in the past were encouraged by an alien religious dogma to feel sinful because of their natural sexual urges, to feel unclean in having them, and to seek “salvation” by denying them, so today they are indoctrinated with guilt-inducing ideas about being White. And the solution which they are offered to overcome these artificial feelings of guilt and self-hate is increasingly clear: mate with a non-White partner and have mongrel offspring. Racial suicide is thus insidiously presented to them as the only way in which they can overcome their Whiteness and all the consequent pain and shame that goes with it.
Actually, miscegenation has rapidly emerged as the official religion of the New World Order and its adherents. Propagated with an increasingly hysterical fervor, it has been developed as the new universal slave-morality which embraces and transcends established religions such as Christianity. In March 1994, for example, evangelist Billy Graham’s publication Christianity Today urged readers to rejoice over the existence of mixed-race marriages and mixed-race children and to do everything possible to make them fully accepted into society. It even stated that this is one area where the news and entertainment media are morally ahead of the churches.
This propagation of miscegenation as an ideological crusade also has made significant inroads into the education system. When a North Carolina middle school principal recently cautioned a White female student and a Black male student about the dangers of interracial dating, he was immediately suspended from his job and disciplined. He was not allowed to return to work until he had been “reeducated” after confessing and repenting his “sins” in a counseling and sensitivity training program.
The ideological nature of this campaign to promote miscegenation was also reflected in an article in the August 1996 issue of Maryland Family Magazine, part of the Times Mirror group. Written by Helen Armiger, described as a candidate for ordained ministry in the United Methodist Church, “How to Raise an Unbiased Child” argues that society is compelled to teach its youth to live harmoniously and productively within a global environment. Quoting approvingly a Maryland education official, Armiger insisted that there exists a moral obligation to provide children with the opportunity to engage in a variety of relationships with people of different races and sexual orientations without any kind of parental or social constraint.
Behind the high-sounding slogans portraying miscegenation as morally imperative and beneficial, the motivation of its proponents is clear: the intention is not to “save” or “redeem” Whites, but to destroy them completely. What such “morality” really derives from is a totally subjective, alien mind-set which seeks the biological extinction of the White race, and which, from its own perspective, sees such an extinction as a good and righteous thing. Some of its proponents are much more honest than others in admitting to this reality. One journal, Race Traitor, edited by Noel Ignatiev and subtitled “Treason to Whiteness is Loyalty to Humanity,” openly declares its conviction that the only way to solve the social problems of the age is to abolish the White race. Its admitted aim is not “multiculturalism” or “multiracialism,” but biological unity and racelessness.
Such thinking is not confined to the political fringes. On September 29, 1996, The New York Times Magazine ran an article by Jewish writer Stanley Crouch (author of the book The All-American Skin Game: Or, the Decoy of Race ). Entitled “Race is Over,” Crouch’s article confidently predicted that a century from today unprecedented levels of racial mixing — of a wide variety of combinations — will ensure that the very concept of race will be redundant. Americans of the future, it argues, will find themselves surrounded in every direction by people who are part Asian, part Latin, part European, part American Indian. The sweep of body types, combinations of facial features, hair textures, eye colors, and what are now “unexpected skin tones” will, in Crouch’s view, be far more common because the current paranoia over mixed marriages should be by then largely a superstition of the past.
Even this declared goal, however, reveals only part of the agenda, because one particular race has an exemption ticket from this universal morality of genetic amalgamation. But The New York Times Magazine article symbolizes what the Politically Correct movement is really all about. When the mainstream Harper’s Magazine runs articles advocating government-sponsored summer camps for young White girls to meet and begin relationships with non-White males, it is not doing “good” for those girls; it is actively encouraging what is most definitely bad for them. And when the Prudential Insurance Company of America sponsors a series of racial unity conferences for children across America and the world, it is not doing what is “right” for those children; it is doing what is totally and utterly wrong for them.
Actually, such “morality” is without any moral foundation whatsoever. It’s not based on any natural or biological law, nor does it follow any rational or scientific line of reasoning. This helps to explain why it is having some difficulty in achieving its objectives. Undoubtedly many Whites preach the cause of miscegenation, and many have put it into practice. But, revealingly, the numbers in the latter camp are still much smaller than in the former.
Some of the Whites who advocate race-mixing are obviously unhealthy in a genetic sense, and mentally ill as opposed to spiritually sick. The person who wrote to his local newspaper recently stating his frustrated wish to have five per cent Black blood in his ancestry so as to blend in with what he considers the ideal American racial composition, may be an example.
In any case, in instances such as these miscegenation could even be considered a tool of natural selection in weeding such people out of the White gene pool.
For the majority of Whites who advocate miscegenation, however, their sense of righteousness in espousing it is nothing more than a manifestation of trendiness: of wanting to feel and appear fashionable.
Take, for example, the case of the young Hollywood couple Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman. Both appear to be healthy and physically attractive specimens of Aryan humanity. Yet they have recently adopted a Black child and actively collaborated with the Jewish media in publicizing it as a fine and noble deed which has helped the cause of human and societal “progress.” There is nothing biologically wrong with this couple; they’ve just gone out of their way to make a fashion statement. And the adopted child is nothing more than a fashion accessory for their symbolic commitment to the idea of miscegenation.
Indeed, it is revealing that for all their fashion consciousness, Cruise and Kidman chose to marry each other rather than non-Whites: they chose to adopt a non-White child rather than to create one. Even they, therefore, whether conscious of it or not, are evidence that most Whites are not yet putting the idea of miscegenation into practice — regardless of the lip service which they might feel compelled to give it.
A recent study of miscegenation statistics by Jewish academic Douglas J. Besherov, resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, seemed to give some credence to this view, although the report highlighted some very disturbing trends. These included a tripling of marriages between Whites and Blacks since 1970, and a sharp increase in marriages between Whites and Asians or Hispanics. The U.S. Census Bureau counted about 150,000 interracial marriages nationwide in 1960. By 1990 that number grew tenfold to 1.5 million. In 1994 it was estimated at more than 3 million.
Equally alarming was the statistic that 35.4 percent of White women married to Black men said they planned to have children, a higher proportion than the 29 percent of White women married to White men who said they wanted children. This is on top of a four-fold increase in mixed-race births since 1970, although not all of these involved a White parent.
Such trends are obviously ominous and potentially catastrophic by pointing in the long term to the biological extinction of White America. In the short term, however, from the perspective of those of us trying to prevent such a nightmare from unfolding, they do provide at least some grounds for optimism and opportunity. Despite 30 years of Judeo-Christian brainwashing, over 90 per cent of Whites are declining to transgress what Douglas J. Besherov admits is American society’s “last taboo.”
Similarly, despite the efforts of Senator Howard Metzenbaum (D-OH, now retired), who in 1994 introduced the Multiethnic Placement Act in the Senate in an effort to bring about an increase in transracial adoptions, most Whites appear still to prefer to adopt White babies, and most non-Whites still prefer to adopt non-White babies. Such attitudes, moreover, appear to be hardening in spite of the Clinton administration’s attempts to legislate against them.
The Cruise-Kidman adoption, for instance, was condemned by the National Association of Black Social Workers on the grounds that transracial adoptions amounted to racial and cultural genocide.
Undoubtedly an important factor in this situation has been the growth in tensions that has accompanied the transition to a multiracial society. As racial and ethnic identification has become more relevant in people’s lives, the resulting racial polarization and intensified group solidarity have mitigated somewhat against the idea of interracial mating. It seems clear, for example, that the O.J. Simpson trial served the useful purpose of intensifying both White and Black racial consciousness and of discrediting the idea of miscegenation.
One hopeful sign of this was the fact that Hulond Humphries, a White high school principal in Wedowee, Alabama, who was ousted from his position in 1994 for threatening to cancel the spring prom if interracial couples turned up, recently won an election runoff for superintendent of schools.
As with the race question in general, many Whites — for the moment at least — seem to be carrying around with them two conflicting value systems in relation to race-mixing: the one they publicly purport to hold and the one they actually live their private lives by. While the former is artificially created and only maintained by continuous external conditioning, the latter arises from instinct, which is genetically ingrained.
Thus, although race-mixing propaganda may have been purposefully designed to appeal to the subconscious and to avoid encountering rational faculties, it has inevitably come up against subconscious genetic realities which are not easily influenced by alien attempts at behavioral modification. Consequently, while it has been relatively easy to bring about widescale spiritual sickness and confusion, it has been much more difficult to implement widescale biological amalgamation.
Such a situation, however, will not last forever. History is full of examples of artificial and destructive moralities triumphing over the natural order. Despite its setbacks, the cult of miscegenation has spread substantially over the last thirty years and will continue to do so. Current trends continue to point to the most fundamental and inescapable reality which confronts us today: the White race stands on the precipice of biological extinction.
And one thing is certain: as the strains and tensions of this multiracial society increase in the coming years, so the campaign to destroy us through racial mixing will intensify. For this reason alone, regardless of increased racial polarization, the false morality of miscegenation will not disappear naturally. The circumstances of racial chaos will help us, but only organized and radical action on our part will achieve the vital necessity of a complete and decisive separation of the races and the final destruction of the morality of death.
* * *
From National Vanguard Magazine, Issue No. 117 (March-April 1997)
1 – Newsweek, June 10, 1991.
2 – Roger Pearson, ‘Ecology, Adaptation, and Speciation,’ in Ecology and Evolution, Washington, DC (1996).
3 – Raleigh News and Record, February 10, 1996.
4 – Race Traitor, No. 2, Winter 1993.
5 – Letter from Ivan Wittman to Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, May 4, 1996.
Source: National Vanguard


Brian Queen started off this sparkling panel with his presentation, “The Paper Artist & the Engineer: How Technology Supports the Creative Process.” He amply demonstrated that new digital technologies have presented book artists and designers with amazing new tools: laser cutters, CNC routers, and 3-D printers are capable of more than you might imagine. The talk was supplemented with several short “demo” videos, and a parade of artifacts that were passed through the audience. Queen pointed out that throughout history, artists have been among the first people to exploit new technologies.
Josef Beery’s presentation, “Flax: The Printer’s Plant” brought us out of the laboratory and into the fields of Charlottesville and the papermaking studios of the University of Virginia. Beery described in loving and close detail the complex and time-consuming stages of making paper from flax. The talk was anchored in pedagogy. Beery showed how his semester-long class tackled problems before finding success.
The final presentation featured Suzanne Sawyer and Amy LeePard’s experiments with printing on wet sheets of handmade paper. Amy couldn’t make it to the conference, but she participated via video. Titled, “Pulp Diction,” their talk walked through the trials and errors of their processes in not only making sculptural paper but incorporating relief printing on it. Their results left everyone amazed.


ERIC Number: ED339780
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 1989
Reference Count: N/A
Jones, Reginald L., Ed.
This volume presents an overview of contemporary black adolescents from social, psychological, economic, educational, medical, historical, and comparative perspectives, with most emphasizing the roles that race, socioeconomic status, and environmental forces play in this critical period. The volume includes 19 chapters by various authors arranged into 8 sections. The first section treats perspectives in an overview essay by J. T. Gibbs, a look at important developments in black adolescent research by B. G. Holliday, and a discussion of comparative personality development by C. B. Murray and others. The second section treats youth in diverse settings in J. A. Banks' look at black youth in white suburbs and C. C. Lee's description of rural black adolescents. The third section is on physical and mental health and includes B. Staggars' report on black adolescent health care issues and H. F. Meyers' paper on urban stress. The fourth section explores psychosocial development and socialization in R. L. Taylor's paper on social construction of identity and M. L. Clark's paper on friendships and peer relations. The fifth section looks at education in R. Tobais' report on issues and programs and C. B. Murray and H. H. Fairchild's paper on models of underachievement. Section 6 is on career development and employment with papers by I. Baly on career and vocational development and J. Malveaux on transitions to the labor market. Section 7 examines counseling and psychotherapy in chapters by C. C. Lee and A. J. Franklin. A final section on special topics looks at antecedents and outcomes of adolescent pregnancy by D. Scott-Jones and others, teen parenting by L. Goddard and W. Cavil, substance abuse by E. G. Singleton, and black youth and the criminal justice system by F. F. Hawkins and N. Jones. Included are bibliographic sketches of the authors, and author and subject indexes. All chapters include extensive references. (JB)
Descriptors: Adolescent Development, Adolescents, Black Education, Black Students, Black Youth, Counseling, Drug Abuse, Early Parenthood, Health, Mental Health, Research Reports, Rural Environment, Secondary Education, Social Development, Suburban Environment, Urban Youth
Cobb and Henry Publishers, P.O. Box 4900, Berkeley, CA 94704-4900 ($25.95 paperback; ISBN-0-943539-01-3--$36.96 hardcover).
Publication Type: Books; Collected Works - General
Education Level: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A


Dental hygiene or oral hygiene means maintenance of the mouth, teeth and gums. Oral hygiene is made up of at-home daily maintenance and regular visits to your dentist. The daily brushing and flossing you do at home combined with the professional cleanings provided by your dentist and dental hygienist will ensure you keep your natural teeth for a life time.
The Dental Hygiene process:
No matter how thorough and at-home brushing and flossing routine may be, calculus will build up on the teeth over time. As Calculus builds below the gum line, bacteria eventually invade the area with the potential to create a host of dental problems. A dental hygienist is trained to eliminate this calculus buildup and eliminate this threat to one’s health.
Dental hygienist are specialist a scraping away the hard plaque and removing calculus deposits. They also take Digital X-rays and look for changes to the patient’s bite.
When the hygienist is done cleaning, the dentist will conduct further examination of the gums and mouth for signs of tooth decay or gum disease. The American Dental Association suggests patients schedule a visit to the dentist and dental hygienist twice a year to guarantee good oral hygiene.


Desertion, Fear of War or Cowardice
Keywords:war; criminal; military; conditions
Since ancient times, mankind has been confronted with this political phenomenon called war. In an
etymological sense, the word war refers to an armed conflict (of long duration) between two or more states,
nations, human groups, for the realisation of economic and political interests, so it becomes our instinct to
defend ourselves, to neutralise what we consider to be a threat to us. In times of armed conflict, belligerents are
willing to create a state of psychological fear in those they consider enemies by destroying symbols they hold
dear; a church or monument that has been desecrated with explosives, so this is a direct blow to the community
that has grown up around them. It’s not just about the demolition of stone, mortar and glass; it’s also about the
loss of centuries of history, customs and safety assent.
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“The truth is that, just as so many did in the 1970s, a commodity cycle has been confused with a ‘new paradigm’ and (neo)Malthusian biases have cherry-picked data and made vague pronouncement (“the easy oil is gone”) with little more than some curve-fitting to support their conclusions.”
“We now have an elephant in the room, and its name is peak oil,” states Kjell Aleklett in an interview with James Morgan in ScienceOmega (June 10, 2013). Interviewer James Morgan adds: “Of course, it is possible to argue over the exact point at which global peak oil will arrive, but at some time in the not too distant future, we are going to have deal with this problem.”
And so here we go again on the trial of exhaustion theory, one step removed from the scientism of central planning where decline rates are projected and a social cost of depletion is calculated for an extraction tax. But it is all bad science.
One reason that bad science persists is that too many non-experts trust scientists to produce valid, reliable work, and the article in ScienceOmega, an interview with Professor Aleklett, the director of the Association for the Study of Peak Oil, is an excellent example.
Of course, being an interview, it represents the opinions of Prof. Aleklett, but even the mildest of scrutiny would probably have prevented the publication.
Aside from factual mistakes (such as his claim to have written the first peer-reviewed peak oil article), the interpretation of many issues is, at best, confused. Most important, the death of peak oil was due to an examination of the research, not the recent surge in shale oil production.
The expert community never paid more than passing interest in what was a debate, not between geologists (or scientists) and economists, as peak oil advocates argue, but between optimists and pessimists, with the former usually being knowledgeable and experienced, and the latter novices.
The original methods used to predict the peak of world oil production proved to be deficient: the theories were not based on science, but statistical analysis and curve-fitting, and the predictions repeatedly failed, rarely mentioned by Aleklett and his colleagues.
More recent claims that ‘natural science’ is now being used (which was supposedly the case in the 1990s research) are similarly flawed. The fact that a physicist is supervising the work doesn’t make it scientific: in fact, there work is roughly the same as mathematical models of stock market behavior.
New Peak Fallacies
The claim that oil production has peaked is also fallacious. In the past decade, petroleum production has risen by over ten million barrels per day (mb/d); it rose 2.5 mb/d last year despite a variety of political problems (Sudan, Syria, Nigeria, Libya, Iran)….
And Prof. Aleklett confuses the issue of differentiating production and consumption, describing it as double-counting. What is occurring is that the global recession and price-induced conservation have caused global consumption to slow; peak oil advocates mistakenly assume that this is because of production constraints.
Prof. Aleklett was not “right” in predicting the peak between 2009 and 2013, any more than his colleague was right in predicting the peak in 1989, 2002, 2008, or that global resources had peaked at 2 trillion barrels.
The deficiency caused by the lack of independent variables becomes obvious when examining his point about the EIA and IEA dropping their forecasts for oil production in 2030 by 25 mb/d, to 95, which he claims shows how attitudes have changed since “you first made your predictions.” In fact, they both show near-linear increases in production throughout the time horizon, which hardly suggests that they have been influenced by the prediction of a roughly 2010 peak.
The truth is that, just as so many did in the 1970s, a commodity cycle has been confused with a ‘new paradigm’ and Malthusian (or neo-Malthusian) biases have cherry-picked data and made vague pronouncement (“the easy oil is gone”) with little more than some curve-fitting to support their conclusions.


It’s time to make some beats for y’all.
Whether you want to liven up the party or just get your name out there, you’re going to need some good beats to accomplish that.
That’s why in this guide we are going to show you how to make beats so that you can get started in your music production career whether it’s for fun or you are an aspiring professional.
So let’s get started.
1. How To Make A Good Beat: The Fundamentals
Before you make any beats, I highly recommend that you have some foundation in music theory.
If you are coming with no musical knowledge, it is going to be difficult to find chords and notes that go well together.
It’s like trying to write the word “apple” without knowing the English alphabet. You can definitely copy it but you won’t know the reason why apple is spelled that way and wouldn’t know how to write the word “cat” without again copying (while still having no clue how the word “cat” was formed…)
So back to music theory…
Sure, it’s possible to play notes randomly and find something you like…
But just having a little foundation to give you that direction will make it easier and faster to find a melody that you enjoy.
For example, if you had no music theory, you wouldn’t know that in the Major C scale (the scale with only white notes) that the black keys will sound off.
But if you knew just the basics of music theory, you know that those black keys can help you make some sick sounding minor chords, add some dissonance to your music, or know which chord progressions will go well with the song you’re thinking in your head.
So is it mandatory?
But will it make your life easier?
So I recommend you learn just a little of music theory. Just a teensy bit with the formation of chords and basic scales.
2. Choose Your DAW
Okay, if you’re completely brand new, then your question is probably…
“What the hell is a DAW?”
And I don’t blame you because that’s what I asked when I kept seeing this word.
To put it into some context, GarageBand and Logic Pro X are DAWs.
It’s a Digital Audio Workstation so you can make music and beats.
Think of it as Adobe Premiere for video editors or Photoshop for graphic designers.
It’s a tool for “audio editors.”
So now you know what it is, your next question is probably…
“Which DAW should I choose?”
And I highly recommend something easy and free like GarageBand (if you have a mac) to get your toes wet.
The reason for this is that you just want to execute on creating beats.
It truly doesn’t matter what DAW you choose in the beginning, but you should focus on one where it’s user friendly so you can learn less about the software and spend more time on making your first beats.
And then when you learn beats, you can figure out what you like and don’t want in your DAW and have more research to choose which DAW to use in the future.
Back to the video editing reference, it’s like editing on something like iMovie to figure out if:
- You actually enjoy it
- The little things that you like or don’t like about the current software.
But here are some solid choices to choose for your DAW:
- FL Studio
- Logic Pro X
- Ableton Live
You can’t really go wrong with any of these when starting out.
To put it in perspective, I went from GarageBand to Logic Pro X once my skills got better at making bets.
So just pick one and let’s start making some beats!
3. Choose Your Genre
Now, before you choose your software, get your equipment, etc. I again recommend you choose a genre to specialize in.
What type of music should you create?
There’s so much genre and each one has it’s own little specialties from:
- Hip hop
And each one differs completely from the rest.
The reason why you want to specialize from the get go is so that you can see genuine improvements over time.
Each genre has a lot of little things and when you’re bouncing from genre to genre, you become a “jack of all trades” rather than a master at one genre.
So why is this important for a beginner?
Because when you’re a beginner, chances are you want to improve as fast as possible (cause that was me…)
And when you focus on one thing, you will improve at that one thing exponentially faster than if you focused on multiple things.
Which makes sense.
Think of it like this. If you want to learn to play music, you can choose a ton of instruments like the guitar, piano, saxophone, violin, etc.
If you spend 10 hours learning each instrument, you will probably be able to use each instrument…
Versus just picking one instrument and putting 40 hours into it.
In other words, if you focus on just one thing you will improve drastically faster than bouncing everywhere.
It also applies to life… (kinda…)
Anyway, if you don’t know what to specialize in, think of the music you enjoy and experiment in the beginning to see what you like before you specialize in.
But the faster you specialize, the faster you will improve.
4. Set the tempo
One of the first things you want to do when creating beats is you want to set the tempo of the song.
The question is…
Do you want a fast song or a slow song?
Most of this is pretty intuitive if you have listened to songs, but usually you pick a slow song if it’s a sad or emotional song or a fast song if you want to make it energetic or upbeat.
So how do you choose what BPM should be?
The best part is to pick one that sounds what you’re thinking of and adjust along the way.
The best part with DAWs is that when you change the BPM, you can hear how it sounds when it’s slowed or sped up, allowing you to choose what best suits what music you’re going for.
5. Choose The Melody For Your Song
Once you have decided on a song to use, then the next step is to choose the melody for your song.
This should be the bread and butter of your entire song.
This can be a simple four chord progression where you go crazy with all the harmonics and synths…
Or it can be as simple as a simple 3 note sequence.
It truly depends what you’re trying to go for when you are creating your music.
There’s three major ways on how to create a melody for your song:
- Play randomly and see what sounds good and go from there (A legit good start to making music…)
- Listen to famous songs that you enjoy and draw inspiration from their chord progressions…
- Take a shower and wait for inspiration to hit randomly…
Okay, you don’t have to take a shower, but that’s where a lot of my good beats come from.
Another thing you want to consider with your melody is where you’re going with the entire song.
What’s the story of the song and is the melody in sync with that music?
For example, if you have an amazing upbeat melodic song but you have lyrics for a slow, emotional heartbreak song…
It’s probably not going to mesh well.
And that’s not the only thing to consider what genre the song is, but does the melody emphasize the parts you want to emphasize in your lyrics and helps express what you’re trying to say in your music.
In the end, you should focus your melody on trying to express your song at its core.
So choose your melody, but through iteration is where your melody gets better as the more rough drafts you go through.
6. Structure Your Song Correctly
Another thing you want to consider is to structure your song correctly once you have your DAW, melody, and the type of song you want to create.
What a lot of amateurs (and even professionals) struggle with is that once they figure out a beat, they realize that they have this amazing chorus and spend hours upon hours on making it perfect…
And then they realize they don’t know what to put in the beginning and ending.
You want to have a general idea of the structure of your song so that you don’t run into this problem.
You want to consider 3 three things:
- What are you trying to convey to your listeners?
- What do you want it to sound like?
- How do you want the beginning, middle, and the end to sound like?
Once you can figure this out, you have a great basis on how to make your music.
Think about it like this.
Let’s say we are happy kids screaming for ice cream type of music…
So a happy and energetic song.
And what we’re trying to convey is that life is amazing.
Now in my head, I’m imagining happy chord progressions with a loud bang in the chorus.
So now I have a general idea of how my song is.
Now let’s get a bit more specific.
The question I’m missing is…
“How do I want to start my music and how do I want to end it?”
So then I want to start it as a slow ramp up and end it with a slow ramp down.
And then we get more specific.
I want a verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge structure.
And then we get more specific.
I want to add goat noises somewhere.
You see what I’m doing here?
I’m getting a general overview of the song and slowing drilling in the elements of what I want.
Then I start with that general framework and then start experimenting to see what I like and don’t like about it, but I have direction and structure on what I am ultimately trying to accomplish.
This isn’t the “only” way to make music, but it’s an effective starting point when you’re starting out to make beats for beginners.
7. Have A Unique Selling Point
This is more for when you get the hang of making beats, but when you’re making beats, you want to consider having a unique selling point.
Over 24,000 songs are made every single day, putting you at a disadvantage when trying to get your music listened to.
And if you want your music to get noticed, then the question you should ask yourself is…
“Why should listeners want to listen to me?”
- Do you make them feel a certain emotion?
- Are your lyrics relatable to them?
- Do they like your character?
- Is there a distinct sound in your music that they love?
It’s answering these questions that allow you to get closer to making music that wants to get listened to.
And there are some ways to make your beats unique so that people will listen like:
- Having certain vocal chops mixed in
- Certain rhythms and beats
- A unique intro/outro to your songs
But what you’re looking for is that certain “sound.”
For example, Droeloe does a good job at this where, although each music is different, it has that same “element” that you know it’s created by Droeloe (or you can hint at it…)
And how do you do that?
Practice and experimentation.
This is a lifelong journey that you can take if you want, but there is no textbook step-by-step example…
It’s getting better at your craft and maximizing your chances of success.
But don’t worry about that in the beginning and just have fun making beats in the beginning…
I’m just planting ideas in your head for when you progress in your beat-making journey.
8. Experiment With Sounds
You can do many crazy things with the sounds you can make.
It basically comes down to…
“How big is your imagination?”
You can make some deep, emotional voice really pack a punch and make you cry a river…
To making goat noises sound awesome in a trap remix. (Are you up for that challenge?)
Go crazy and try experimenting with sounds.
Here are some ideas to consider that will help get your imagination juices running:
- Create vocal sounds and try changing the pitch and intensity…
- Start adding multiple of the same instruments (like drums) and see if you can make a sick beat…
- Start adding everyday noises like shower noises and see if you can add elements to make your existing songs better…
- Find some troll noises (like a horse neighing) and try to make it sound good by editing the EQ and even making drops to it…
- Start breaking rules and have no repetitions in your music or a song using just the xylophone…
These ideas are random, but that’s the point.
It’s trying things outside of what you’re used to, where more ideas will grow.
And remember to have fun. If you’re not enjoying making horse neighs sound good, but you really enjoy the noises turtles make when they walk across the sidewalk…
Then go for that.
In the end, these are all ideas to help you get started to becoming the musician you want to be.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is it hard to make beats?
It depends. It can be as simple or as difficult as you’d like it to be. You can make a simple 4 chord progression on the piano or you can make trap music. It all depends on what you feel like making and how difficult you’d want it to be.
What materials do you need to make beats?
The materials you need to make beats are a DAW and a laptop. Then after that, I highly recommend getting headphones and a nice mic to record.
What artists use FL Studio?
Famous artists who use FL studio include:
- Porter Robinson
- Alan Walker
- Soulja Boy
And many others. But, you can probably find other famous artists who use different DAWs.
It’s not the equipment, but the skills that make the difference. But having a powerful DAW to support your skills is always a nice thing to have.
I hope you learn something about where to start when making beats for beginners. It can be daunting when you’re starting out, especially when you have no music theory knowledge, but remember…
It’s possible if you truly want to learn it.
With the vast amount of resources like YouTube and Google, it’s practically impossible not to learn it if you truly desire it. Let me know in the comments if you took a leap and created your first song!


The Mathematics Department strives to instill in each student a conceptual understanding of and procedural skill with the basic facts, principles and methods of mathematics. We want our students to develop an ability to explore, to make conjectures, to reason logically and to communicate mathematical ideas. We expect our students to learn to think critically and creatively in applying these ideas. We recognize that individual students learn in different ways and provide a variety of course paths and learning experiences from which students may choose. We emphasize the development of good writing skills and the appropriate use of technology throughout our curriculum. We hope that our students learn to appreciate mathematics as a useful discipline in describing and interpreting the world around us—and for its own intrinsic beauty.


Quick, efficient pathogen detection and fingerprinting is essential and often lifesaving when it comes to preventing foodborne illness. Now, University of Georgia food scientist Xiangyu Deng has created a system that can identify foodborne pathogens in a fraction of the time taken by traditional methods.
“In outbreaks, time is very important. When a pathogen is detected in food, we then have to determine its subtype, or fingerprint,” said Deng, an assistant professor of food microbiology at the UGA Center for Food Safety in Griffin. “We need to shorten this process to the least amount of time possible.”
Currently, detecting and subtyping the pathogen are separate processes, but Deng has combined these two steps through a process called “metagenomics analysis.”
“To prevent a pathogen from spreading, you have to first identify it by studying its DNA signatures. Sometimes you only have a few cells of the pathogen in a food sample, just a tiny fraction of the resident microbial populations on the food,” he said. “You could sequence the entire sample (of food) to identify the pathogen inside it, but that would not give you enough pathogen DNA signal for identification.”
Traditionally, the pathogen is separated from the food sample by growing the pathogen in bacterial cultures, which takes 24 to 48 hours, Deng said.
To shorten the culture process, researchers in Deng’s lab apply tiny magnetic beads coated with antibodies that pull the pathogen cells out. Then they amplify the DNA of the captured pathogen cells so they have enough DNA to sequence.
“Using a new, very small sequencing tool that’s about the size of a USB drive, we can sequence while capturing the data in real time,” Deng said.
Compared to the mainstream genome sequencer that produces sequencing data after running for a day or two, the small sequencer generates enough data for pathogen detection and subtyping in about an hour and a half, he said.
Deng tested the process on raw chicken breast, lettuce and black peppercorn samples treated with salmonella and retail chicken parts that were naturally contaminated with different serotypes of salmonella. In one case, a small amount of salmonella was detected and subtyped from lettuce samples within 24 hours. This takes two weeks using standard methods.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 1 million foodborne illnesses and 380 deaths in the U.S. each year are linked to nontyphoidal salmonella.
Identifying pathogenic bacteria before a food product is released into the market can reduce the number of people who get food poisoning, said Francisco Diez, director of the food safety center and an expert on enterohemorrhagic E. coli, an important cause of food contamination and foodborne illness.
“Our center conducts cutting-edge research to ultimately protect the consumer,” he said. “The kind of scientific investigations the center conducts can be applied to solve contamination issues for the food industry.”
Deng’s work was featured in the February issue of Applied and Environmental Microbiology, a leading journal in the field.
To learn more about the food safety center, visit www.ugacfs.org.


Challenging your mindset is the first move you need to make in order to make big changes around you. Your mindset is a powerful tool that determines everything: what you believe to be right, your values and the actions you take according to the thought processes that got you to where you are today.
Where you are today may not be exactly where you want to be tomorrow, but the good news is that there is room for change through actions that will affect your future.
Your version of reality may be different from someone else’s. However, you have to stay true to yourself and what you believe in. For example, you might have a vision is to bring about equality in the workplace regardless of gender, race, religion, disability, etc. To bring about that kind of change, you will need to take into account many new beliefs and actions that will disrupt the status quo mindset.
Identify Your Disruptive Mindset
It is vital to think about the mindset that keeps the status quo alive in your personal or working life. What you think about on a consistent basis has a direct impact on your behaviour.
Learning to master your mindset could be the difference between moving forward and remaining stagnant. This ability separates those who are able to succeed from those who do not because of the barriers they have erected for themselves.
In order to achieve the success you envision, you must feel capable of achieving it. It should not matter what anyone else thinks. Self-esteem comes from within and determines how we perceive and evaluate our own self-worth.
Developing a healthy self-esteem also affects your character, reinforcing beliefs, feelings and attitudes. Therefore, become the quarterback of your mind. Plant seeds of positivity based on examples of greatness and inspiration, rather than being sceptical and filled with doubts.
Learn to Think Futuristically
If you have the ability to look past the events of today and into the possibilities of tomorrow, it’s a great stepping stone to bigger and better things. This skill allows you to think through everything with a broader perspective and a more optimistic mindset, increasing the chances of reaching a golden objective.
The old saying definitely holds true: “The optimist says the glass is half full, the pessimist says the glass is half empty.”
Basically, it all comes down to the way we give meaning to the events occurring in our lives. Leaders of tomorrow will need to be able to implement ideas and think one or more steps ahead of everyone else in order to thrive in a competitive and fast-changing world. With this in mind, you need to upskill and reskill to sharpen your capabilities in terms of predicting future changes, even before your competition makes a move.
The path to success is bound to include some roadblocks and rough patches; this is where your mindset comes into play, whether you will admit defeat or strive to move forward. Adversity tests one’s character and courage to push through the hardships. Developing a thick skin and facing each obstacle is part of the power of a resilient mindset.
Be Willing to Face Disruption
According to EY (Ernst & Young), disruption cannot be predicted but it can be anticipated. You can formulate different scenarios for the future in order to create a sense of urgency and educate colleagues, peers or your organisation about the implications of disruptive situations. This can help concentrate people’s attention and spark creative responses, leading to proactive innovation suited to the pace and scale of disruption.
Companies increasingly face a stark choice: disrupt or be disrupted. Recognising that the forces of disruption are inevitable is the first major step an organisation must take to prepare for it.
In order to strike back, you must identify where your assumptions and opinions will be challenged, and where your knowledge is deficient. This will help you and your workforce to focus on closing the knowledge gaps, enabling a positive mindset that can focus on the bigger picture and a brighter future.
Arinya Talerngsri is Chief Capability Officer and Managing Director at SEAC – Southeast Asia’s Lifelong Learning Center. She can be reached by email at firstname.lastname@example.org or https://www.linkedin.com/in/arinya-talerngsri-53b81aa. Explore and experience our lifelong learning ecosystem today at https://www.yournextu.com


Long before a child boards the school bus for the first time, doctors, caregivers and policymakers should focus on preventing obesity and the health problems that go with it, according to the Institute of Medicine, which advises the nation on health matters.
In a report released yesterday, experts offer advice on how to get more American children off to a healthy start, including recommendations for feeding them appropriate foods in the right amounts and making sure they get adequate sleep and regular activity.
More than 1 in 5 children between 2 and 5 years old are overweight or obese, putting them at risk for lifelong problems related to excess weight.
And 1 in 10 infants and toddlers is overweight, based on charts doctors use to track growth.
"A lot of us used to think that a chubby baby is a healthy baby and a sign of good parenting. In fact, too much chubbiness is not a good thing," said Sara Benjamin Neelon of Duke University Medical Center. She is a member of the committee that wrote the recommendations.
"Babies don't always grow out of their baby fat."
Extra pounds early in life often lead to a lifelong struggle with weight. And that can contribute to chronic illnesses, including cardiovascular disease and diabetes.
In the past decade, much has been said and done regarding school-age kids, but there are earlier opportunities to make a difference before bad habits become harder to break, committee members said yesterday.
Acknowledging that parents play the largest role in shaping eating and exercise habits, committee members said their goal was to outline recommendations for doctors, daycare providers, government leaders and others who can influence choices parents make and improve what happens outside the home.
"There are many opportunities to identify those at risk and start to engage in preventive measures," said Leann L. Birch, who led the committee and directs the Center for Childhood Obesity Research at Pennsylvania State University.
Among the recommendations in the report:
• Pediatricians should measure weight and length at every well-child visit and pay attention to the rate of weight gain over time, alerting parents to concerns and helping to identify changes that might contribute, such as putting juice in bottles.
• Caregivers and early-childhood educators should prioritize physical activity, even for infants, who can be put on their bellies to develop muscle strength.
Younger children should be encouraged to play and walk. Strollers should be used only when necessary, and opportunities to exercise shouldn't be withheld as punishment.
• Children should be taught healthy eating behaviors early. That means offering a wide array of nutritious foods, giving appropriate amounts or letting the child take his or her own portion.
Parents also should let a child stop eating when he or she is full. Infants should be breast fed.
• Time in front of the television and computer should be limited to encourage physical activity.
• Child-care providers should make adequate sleep time a priority. Evidence shows that babies and toddlers are getting significantly less sleep than they did 20 years ago.
Research has shown that lack of sleep is a risk factor for obesity in children and adults.
How young children learn to relate to food has lasting effects, Birch said, and adults can help by providing mealtimes that encourage good choices and discourage overeating. That might mean allowing a child to take as much as he or she wants or giving a half sandwich instead of a full one.
"Children respond to large portion sizes (that adults give them) the same way adults do. Namely, they eat more," Birch said.
In the past several years, more research has connected lack of sleep to weight problems not only in adults but in children, said Dr. Elsie M. Taveras, who co-directs the Obesity Prevention Program at Harvard Medical School.
Early childhood "appears to be a very important developmental period for sleep and protection (against) later obesity," she said.
Dr. Ihuoma Eneli, medical director of Nationwide Children's Hospital's Center for Healthy Weight and Nutrition, praised the report.
"I think it's important and timely. We know that if you address childhood obesity at these early ages, you have your best chance at having much better outcomes."
The report can be found online at www.iom.edu.


About one's ears. Causing trouble. The allusion is to a house falling on one, or a hornet's nest buzzing about one's head.
If your ears burn, people say some one is talking of you. This is very old, for Pliny says, “When our ears do glow and tingle, some do talk of us in our absence.” Shakespeare, in Much Ado About Nothing (iii. 1), makes Beatrice say, when Ursula and Hero had been talking of her, “What fire is in mine ears?” Sir Thomas Browne ascribes this conceit to the superstition of guardian angels, who touch the right ear if the talk is favourable, and the left if otherwise. This is done to cheer or warn.
One ear tingles; some there be That are snarling now at me.
Little pitchers kave large ears. (See Pitchers.)
“He is over head and ears in love with the maid. He loves her better than his own life.” —Terence in English.
To give's one's ears [to obtain an object]. To make a considerable sacrifice for the purpose. The allusion is to the ancient practice of cutting off the ears of those who loved their own offensive opinions better than their ears.
“At which, like unbacked colts, they pricked their ears.”
Shakespeare: The Tempest, iv. 1.
When civil dudgeon first grew high, And men fell out, they knew not why; When hard words, jealousies, and fears, Set folks together by the ears.
Butler: Hudibras (The opening).
Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894
More on Ears from Infoplease:


We have enthused our worksheets on sentences for beginners with all the special care and thought to ensure that our little ones have the most delightful and fruitful learning experience during their sentence-writing journey with us. Whether it is about completing, unscrambling, tracing, or building sentences, each exercise has hidden in it surprises, wonders, and lots of fascination compelling enough to leave them motivated for writing more and better.
These worksheets are designed for students of kindergarten, grade 1, and grade 2.
Develop pencil grasp and fine motor skills in children of kindergarten and grade 1 to improve their writing skills, and help them gain an understanding of basic sentences with our pdf worksheet on tracing sentences.
Let children launch smoothly into their initial attempts to write sentences with this free printable worksheet that ensures all the required assistance.
A cut and glue activity such as this in our free pdf worksheet provides sufficient impetus to children of kindergarten and first grade to build sentences in a jiffy.
Sorting out words to put the jumbled sentences in a meaningful order can truly get the kids jazzed up about writing, with this scrambled sentences printable worksheet.
For beginners in kindergarten and first grade, sentences, as opposed to a group of words that are not complete sentences, could be perplexing enough. Our sentences vs. fragments worksheet is here to get them past this hurdle.
Wouldn't it be remarkable for teachers and parents to have this worksheet template for making children of grade 1 and grade 2 practice stretching a sentence using the question hints as many times as needed? Well, here you go!


Our endocrine systems are working tirelessly to regulate the body’s processes. Being able to send and receive the appropriate hormones, our endocrine system is able to fine tune the body’s metabolism, growth, immune system, and more. While we regulate our external behaviors, going to work, eating, exercising, getting rest, our hormones are busy contributing to a functioning body. These are all important as we try to control our weight.
Problems arise from times when hormones are not in balance. This hormonal imbalance can disrupt any good intentions on behalf of external behaviors: especially when it comes to losing, or gaining, weight. Hormones play a critical role in the background while you try to manage that number on the weight scale. In fact, in some cases, all the dieting, exercising, and good rest might amount to little because of hormonal imbalance issues. In fact, if those normal behaviors are not contributing to measurable weight loss, consider the possibility that hormonal imbalance might be playing a large part in it.
While the body has many hormones, here are some of the more common contributors to weight gain.
Cortisol: The stress hormone. Cortisol plays a big part in the fight-or-flight reaction when you are responding to an external stimuli. Say there is a loud noise, and you react to it. Your endocrine system will excrete cortisol in response, blood will go from your digestive system to your muscles, your senses will sharpen, and your heart starts to pump faster and stronger. Now picture cortisol in a hormonal imbalance. Your body is constantly under a state of perceived stress because the hormone is impacting your metabolism as less blood reaches the stomach and intestines. The body cannot digest as efficiently, so the food just gets stored as fat, and not utilized for all of its good nutrients. Cortisol contributes to a disrupted metabolism, and the body actively stores fat as it is an evolutionary trait from long ago as a response to stressors.
DHEA: DHEA is a hormone that helps to regulate metabolic function and muscle growth. As the body ages, it creates and secretes less and less. This means that the body just does not create the same muscle mass as it used to. Less muscle means less calories burnt. Less calories burnt means more calories hanging around, and those calories get stored as fat.
Testosterone: Testosterone is another hormone that is abundant in youth, starting after puberty, but declines with age. Like DHEA, testosterone helps to create muscle growth in males. High testosterone is a benefit in the production of muscles, but it can increase the risk for prostate cancer, low testosterone is unhealthy in other ways. The interesting thing about decreased testosterone in males is that it can lead to obesity and diabetes, and the resulting obesity actually contributes to even further reduced production of testosterone. It is a double-edged sword that leads to weight gain. It is important to note that high testosterone in women leads to diabetes and obesity, the opposite effect of what it does in men.
Estrogen: Estrogen production follows cycles in women, declining later in age. Found less in men, it plays a role in metabolizing sugar and regulating blood sugar. High estrogen levels can present a higher risk for breast cancer, but lower estrogen often results in less efficient processing of sugars. These poorly processed sugars are then stored in the gut and midsection, increasing the unhealthy storage of adipose fat tissue. This leads to weight gain.
In conclusion, a certain weight might be an ideal number, but weight gain could be a symptom of something concerning and confusing. Especially if you are integrating good eating, exercising, and resting behaviors, and you are still gaining weight, I recommended a full hormone blood panel be done to assess deficiencies and imbalances. There are many options for treatment. However, careful monitoring is key.


We are never going to get anywhere as long as our economies of attraction continue to resemble, more or less, the economies of attraction of white supremacy.
Love, as an emotion and a force has a great impact on our lives. Our understanding of love comes from and within a history, culture and politics. In a world organised by anti Blackness and White Supremacy, how we love, what and who we love as well as and what we are attracted to is not just reflective of the world we live in, but arguably
sustains it also.
In this module we will together investigate these issues, as well as explore together what Decolonial Love is and how we could live in this way, taking into account the following points:
– From Pandora to German Romanticism and Disney colonial affection.
– Self-love. How to deal with our Egos in an Egocentric racist society.
– Communal living vr individualistic lifestyle (family and friends).
– Interracial love or Eugenics?
– Sexuality “other” or Queer universal as the new commodification of bodies?
– Music is NOT a “UNI-versal” language (in a colonial matrix of power).
– Ancestry. Money God and Christendom values.


Relational Worldview Model
Terry L. Cross, MSW, ACSW, LCSW
The relational worldview model was developed by the National Indian Child Welfare Association (NICWA) in the 1980's and continues to be refined in practice by NICWA staff. It is a reflection of the Native thought process and concept of balance as the basis for health, whether that is an individual, family or an organization.
The relational worldview model serves as NICWA's philosophy and approach to providing technical assistance. It is used by NICWA community development specialists as a framework and process for assessing the technical assistance needs of a community and applying it to a specific technical assistance plan.
Printed originally in the 1997 May/June issue of Pathways Practice Digest, volume 12, No.4
On our globe today, there are two predominant worldviews—linear and relational. The linear worldview is rooted in European and mainstream American thought. It is very temporal, and it is firmly rooted in the logic that says cause has to come before effect. In contrast, the relational worldview sees life as harmonious relationships where health is achieved by maintaining balance between the many interrelating factors in one’s circle of life. Understanding these worldviews and how they relate to Indian child welfare work can serve to enhance an ICW worker’s ability to meet his or her community’s needs.
“Worldview” is a term used to describe the collective thought process of a people or culture. Thoughts and ideas are organized into concepts. Concepts are organized into constructs and paradigms. Paradigms link together to create worldviews. This article will summarize both the linear and relational worldviews and show how family functioning can be understood from the relational worldview perspective.
The linear worldview finds its roots in Western European and American thought. It is logical, time oriented, and systematic, and has at it’s core the cause-and-effect relationship. To understand the world is to understand the linear cause-and-effect relationships between events.
In human services, workers are usually taught that if we can understand the causes of a problem by taking a social history, then we will better know how to help. Interventions are targeted at the cause or symptom, and the relationship between the intervention and the symptoms is measured. Yet, the linear view is narrow. It inhibits us from seeing the whole person. It is not good or bad. It simply is, and in the U.S. it is dominant. Indian child welfare workers need to be able to understand this thinking, because they will encounter it in the mainstream system. Historically, however, Indian peoples have not used linear cause-and-effect thinking. Rather, the approach could be called a relational or cyclic view.
The relational worldview, sometimes called the cyclical worldview, finds its roots in tribal cultures. It is intuitive, non-time oriented and fluid. The balance and harmony in relationships between multiple variables, including spiritual forces, make up the core of the thought system. Every event is understood in relation to all other events regardless of time, space, or physical existence. Health exists only when things are in balance or harmony.
In the relational worldview, helpers and healers are taught to understand problems through the balances and imbalances in the person’s relational world. We are taught to see and accept complex (sometimes illogical) inter-relationships that can be influenced by entering the world of the client and manipulating the balance contextually, cognitively, emotionally, physically, and/or spiritually.
Interventions need not be logically targeted to a particular symptom or cause but, rather, focused on bringing the person back into balance. Nothing in a person’s existence can change without all other things changing as well. Thus, an effective helper is one who gains understanding of the complex interdependent nature of life and learns how to use physical, psychological, contextual, and spiritual forces to promote harmony.
A Relational Model
The relational worldview model for assessing family problems can best be illustrated with a four-quadrant circle. The four quadrants represent four major forces or sets of factors that together must come into balance. These quadrants represent context, mind, body, and spirit. The mind includes our cognitive processes, such as thoughts, memories, knowledge, and emotional processes such as feelings, defenses, and self-esteem. The body includes all physical aspects, such as genetic inheritance, gender, and condition, as well as sleep, nutrition, and substance use. The context includes culture, community, family, peers, work, school, and social history. The spiritual area includes both positive and negative learned teachings and practices as well as positive and negative metaphysical or innate forces.
These four quadrants are in constant flux and change. We are not the same person at 4 p.m. that we were at 7 a.m. Our level of sleep is different, our nutrition is different, and our context is likely different. Thus, behavior will be different, feeling will be different, and what we think about will be different. The system is constantly balancing and re-balancing itself as we change thoughts, feelings, our physical states, or our spiritual states. If we are able to stay in balance, we are said to be healthy, but sometimes the balance is temporarily lost. We have the capacity as humans to keep our own balance for the most part, yet our different cultures provide many mechanisms to assist in this process. Spiritual teachings, social skills and norms, dietary rules, and family roles are among the myriad of ways we culturally maintain our balance.
Death is an example of an event that threatens harmony. When we lose a loved one, we feel grief emotionally; physically, we may cry, lose appetite, or not sleep well. However, spiritually, we have a learned positive response, a ritual, called a funeral. Usually such events are community events, so the context is changed. We bring in relatives, friends, and supporters. In that context, we intellectualize about the dead person. We may recall and tell stories about him or her. We may intellectualize about death or be reminded of our cultural view of that experience. Physically, we touch others, get hugs and handshakes; we eat, and we shed tears.
These experiences are interdependent and play off each other in multi-relational interactions that, if successful, allow us to resolve the grief by maintaining the balance. If we cannot, then, in a Western sense, we are said to have unresolved grief or, in some tribal cultures, to have a ghost sickness or to be bothered by a spirit. Different worldviews often use different conceptual language to describe the same phenomenon.
When performing an assessment of an Indian family, the worker needs to look not only for linear cause-and-effect relationships to isolate the causal factors; he or she should also ask, “What are the holistic and complex inter-relationships that have disrupted the balance in the family? What factors can come into harmony and allow a family not only to survive but to grow strong?” The nature of our strengths and challenges becomes evident as we examine families from the relational perspective.
First Quadrant: Context
The context within which Indian families function is filled with strength-producing or harmonizing resources. Oppression, for all its damage to us, creates an environment where survival skills are developed and sharpened. We learn to have a sixth sense about where we are welcome and where we are not. We teach our children to recognize the subtle clues that may spell danger. We sit with our children at the movies or in front of the TV and interpret to cushion the assaults of the mainstream media. We learn how to cope with the dynamics of difference and pass our strategies on to our children.
The richness of our histories and heritages provide anchors for our identities. Our relations, relatives, and kin often form systems of care that are interdependent and system-reliant. Healthy interdependence is the core of the extended family. It does not foster dependence and does not stifle independence. Rather, it is a system in which everyone contributes in some way without expectation of reciprocity. I give my cousin a ride to the store, and, while at the store, my cousin buys some items for our grandmother. Our grandmother is home watching my brother’s children who are planning to wash my car when I return home. No one person is paying back another, and yet the support and help cycle within the family.
The community provides additional influences. From church to social organizations to politics, we are all affected by the events in the world around us. Family resilience is supported by role models, community norms, church structures, and the roles of elders and natural helpers or healers. However, we struggle with negative forces in our environments: poverty, oppression, substance abuse, unemployment, crime, trauma, or any of hundreds of negative influences. Together, these influences contribute to the balance of who we are and how we cope.
Printed originally in the 1997 July/October issue of Pathways Practice Digest, volume 12, Nos. 5-6
Two predominant worldviews—linear and relational—exist in North America. The linear worldview is rooted in European and mainstream American thought. It is very temporal, and it is firmly grounded in the logic that says cause has to come before effect. In contrast, the relational worldview sees life as harmonious relationships where health is achieved by maintaining balance between the many interrelating factors in one’s circle of life.
“Worldview” is a term used to describe the collective thought process of a people or culture. Thoughts and ideas are organized into concepts. Concepts are organized into constructs and paradigms. Paradigms linked together create a worldview. This is the second of a two-part article that continues the discussion of how family functioning can be understood from the relational worldview.
The relational worldview, sometimes called the cyclical worldview, finds its roots in tribal cultures. It is intuitive, non-time-oriented, and fluid. The balance and harmony in relationships between multiple variables, including spiritual forces, make up the core of the thought system.
The relational worldview model can best be illustrated with a four quadrant circle representing four major forces or sets of factors, which together must come into balance. These quadrants are context, mind, body, and spirit.
The Four Quadrants of the Relational Model
First Quadrant: Context
The context within which Indian families function is one filled with strength-producing or harmonizing resources. Oppression, for all its damage to us, creates an environment where survival skills are developed and sharpened. (A fuller description of the contextual quadrant appeared in previous issues of Pathways.)
Second Quadrant: Mental
In the mental area, the Indian family is supported intellectually by “self talk” and by the stories we hear about how others have managed. Sitting around the kitchen table or on the front steps, we learn strategies for interacting with the world or how to use resources. In passing on the stories of our lives, we pass on skills to our children, and we parent for resiliency. We instill the values of relationships, of getting by, of not needing, and hard work for little return. Storytelling is, perhaps, our greatest teaching resource for communicating identity, values, and life skills. The stories also let us know who our people are and what they stand for and provide role models and subtle expectations.
Emotionally, we learn a variety of ego defenses that allow us to deal with overwhelming odds. Denial, splitting, disassociation, and projection are each useful in their own way as mechanisms for surviving oppression. Functionality can only be understood in context. For example, many of our families know real pain and endure grief almost beyond the comprehension of mainstream America, and yet they give back to their communities. Because of oppression, substance abuse, or poverty, many have learned not to need, not to feel, and not to talk about it; yet, they still help out at the church or at school or by giving sister a break from the kids. These are kindnesses that bring life-sustaining energy, which flows from auntie’s approving looks, from a child’s laugh, or from a pat on the back.
Other emotions rob people of their resources—rage, depression, anxiety, grief and jealousy, among others—and are likely to contribute to a lack of harmony. Our people have experienced generations of loss from which we are only know beginning to recover. This sense of loss and the inter-generational grief that is a part of it are strong elements that affect the balance of our families.
Third Quadrant: Physical
While, for the individual, we think of the physical area as concerning the body, it also refers to the family structure and roles. Kinship expressed in how we relate to our kin, how we act as a system, and how we sustain each other will greatly influence the balance in our lives.
The role of fathers is part of the balance and one that can contribute strength to the family system whether the father is present in the home or not. In a recent study of American Indian families that looked at child neglect and the factors that either contributed to or helped prevent it, the role of fathers was found to be central. When the father was involved in the family, child neglect was much less likely to be present. The father did not have to be present in the home for the positive effect to be felt. He only had to remain a contributing member of the family and to maintain relationships with his children. Non-custodial dads take note: your continuing relationships with your children contribute to positive outcomes. Families are better able to be resilient if they include dads.
One thing that kin often do together is eat. Our special culture or family foods, our use of foods to mark special occasions, and our rituals around eating together all contribute to the health of the family.
Fourth Quadrant: Spiritual
Spiritual influences in the family include both positive and negative learned practices. The positive practices are those we learn from various spiritual disciplines or teachers: faith, prayer, meditation, healing ceremonies, or even positive thinking. They are the things we learn to do to bring about a positive spiritual outcome or to bring positive spiritual intervention. Negatively learned practices are things like curses or bad medicine. Even things like sin, promotion of chaos, and perpetual confusion could be considered learned negative spiritual behaviors. These are things that people do to invoke negative spiritual outcomes or negative spiritual intervention.
Here, our teachings and the spiritual institutions play a great role. Usually, there are learned positive practices that are meant to counter the negative practices of ourselves or someone else. Often, what is considered positive in one person’s faith is considered negative in another’s, and the lines between the two become blurred by emotion. In Indian communities, the churches and/or traditional spiritual ways play a significant role in shaping the spiritual practices of the family.
In the relational worldview, human behavior is also influenced by spiritual forces beyond our own making. Luck, grace, helping spirits, and angelic intervention are a few of the terms used to describe getting just the right help at just the right time. One does not have to believe in or practice a spiritual discipline to believe in or experience the phenomenon. Bad luck, bad spirits, ghosts, the devil, and misfortune are a few of the terms used to describe things that bother people no matter what their spiritual practices. These forces are often turned back or controlled through prayer, rituals, or ceremonies.
In the relational view, the casual factors are considered together. It is the consideration of the interdependence of the relationships among all factors that gives understanding of the behavior. It is the constant change and interplay between various forces that accounts for resilience. We can count on the system’s natural tendency to seek harmony. We can promote resilience by contributing to the balance. Services need not be targeted to a specific set of symptoms but rather targeted toward restoration of balance. Family support services are an example of adding to the balance.
It is not, then, our extended family, church, or survival skills or any other single factor that provides families harmony. It is the complex interplay between all of these factors. Getting in harmony and staying in harmony is the task.
Two Ways of Helping
In the Western European linear assessment, we are taught to examine a problem by splitting the factors into independent linear cause-and-effect relationships. This has value in the development of knowledge of each factor and does tend to give us specific interventions to try. However, such splitting tends to leave us with incomplete knowledge and services that fail to acknowledge the spirit. In the linear view, the person owns or is the problem. In the relational view, the problem is circumstantial and resides in the relationship between factors. The person is not said to have a problem but to be out of harmony. Once harmony is restored, the problem is gone. In the linear model, we are taught to treat the person, and in the relational model, we are taught to treat the balance.
Today, the linear model dominates delivery of family services, yet almost half or more of all Indian clients hold a relational worldview. In Indian child welfare, we have an opportunity to work within the relational worldview, to work with traditional methods of helping and healing that focus on the restoration of balance and harmony.
The medicine person, elder, or spiritual teacher usually works in these ways. He or she may work in the realm of the mind, providing advice or council or story-telling and dream work. He or she may work in the realm of the physical with herbs, fasting, sweat lodges, or specific diets. He or she may work on the spiritual through ceremonies, healing rituals, or by teaching. Always, they become part of the context of the person being helped and add to the balance with their presence and willingness to help.
It is important for ICW workers to honor their own cultures with services that seek to intervene, assess, and attempt to help Indian families.
About the Author
Terry Cross is an enrolled member of the Seneca Nation of Indians and is the developer and founder of the National Indian Child Welfare Association. He is the author of the Heritage and Helping, an eleven manual curriculum for tribal child welfare staff including a volume on working with substance abusing families. He is also author of the Positive Indian Parenting curricula, as well as Cross-Cultural Skills in Indian Child Welfare. He also co-authored Toward a Culturally Competent System of Care published by Georgetown University, Child Development Center.
His life and work in both Indian and non-Indian settings and his academic background give him unique skills to serve the project. He has 30 years of experience in child welfare, including 10 years working directly with children and families. He served on the faculty of Portland State University School of Social Work for 15 years. He has served on the board of the National Committee to Prevent Child Abuse and has been an advisor to the American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children. He has directed the Indian Child Welfare Association since it’s founding in 1983 and has traveled to make presentations internationally in relation to child welfare work. Terry is experienced in evaluation design, and policy related research. He has organized culturally specific technical assistance programs for over 16 years.


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This is the tiniest crested form of the famous "Golden Barrel Cactus". A
dwarf form covered by touch friendly spines and looking quite dissimilar
to the standard species.
Description: This is a very
nice crested cactus, easily recognizable for its short yellowish bristly soft
spines. The standard "Golden Barrel Cactus" (E. grusonii) is a
large spherical barrel cactus with imposing strong yellow spines,
and one of one of the more common an known cacti. This species is widely
cultivated and gave rise to a number of different cultivars, monstrose
and crested forms. The E. grusonii forma minor cristata -
here described - is the smallest and delicate crested variant, quite rare in collection and priced
for its reduced size and touch friendly covering of soft spines, it will
form tangled brain-like green mounds
and can reach a considerable size (up to 30 cm tall and in diameter, or
Spines: It has few short and more or less twisted
bristly, glassy pale-yellowhis
spines all quite similar in shape,
loosely cover the surface of the stems.
Remarks: The cause of cresting is not fully explained.
as to why some plants grow in this unusual form.
speculate that it is a genetic mutation. Others say it is the result of
a strike of
lightning or freeze damage, but whatever the stimulus, the growth
point of the stem has switched from a geometric point, to a line, which
folds and undulates as the crest expands. Though these crested E.
grusonii are rare, cresting occurs naturally, and can be
encountered in many other cactus species.
Cultivation: It is of easy cultivation. Require
full sun or
The plants on their own roots
should be kept in a deep pot with a very draining mineral substrate. But
be particularly careful with watering, which all crested plant require
(rot sensitive). Keep dry during the winter rest. Since they are rapid
growers, and need plenty of space for their roots, repotting should be
done every other year or when the plant has outgrown its pot.
plants are easy to grow and will form a large brain-like mounds
with age. Watering during the active growing season (spring and
summer); this will encourage steady growth, and prevent the crest from becoming flabby. It need
a well drained soil mix. Water
generously during the
summer but allow to dry fully before
watering again. During the winter months they should be kept rather dry.
Propagation: Propagate from


PCOS (Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome)
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Effecting 1 in 10 women, PCOS (polycystic ovarian syndrome) is a reproductive hormone imbalance, which creates problems in the ovaries. While the ovaries should make the egg that is released each month as part of a healthy menstrual cycle, with PCOS, the egg may not develop as it should or it may not be released during ovulation as it should be.
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
Diagnosis and treatment of PCOS remain controversial with challenges defining individual components within the diagnostic criteria, significant clinical heterogeneity generating a range of phenotypes with or without obesity, ethnic differences and variation in clinical features across the life course.
From the International Evidence-Based Guideline for the Assessment and Management of Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) (2018)
What are typical PCOS Symptoms?
TRACK YOUR SYMPTOMS TO HELP YOUR DOCTOR HELP YOU
Low sex drive
Excessive body hair growth
Male pattern baldness or thinning hair
Weight changes & trouble losing weight
Trouble conceiving/ infertility
Prevalence & Lack of Information
PCOS affects 5-10% of women of reproductive age, making it more prevalent than diabetes. However, it receives less attention.
— Dr. Marcelle Cedars, Director, Division of Reproductive Endocrinology
UCSF Center for Reproductive Health
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Difference between ovarian cysts and PCOS
What is the main cause of PCOS?
What are the first signs of PCOS?
What is the diagnostic criteria for PCOS?
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PCOS effects on mental health
What food is best for PCOS?
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Should you suffer from hirsutism, your dermatologist can provide suggestions


Because the coloring of common terns changes significantly as seasons change, they are often difficult to identify from plumage alone. They are most easily identified by their black head and red bill. The tail is forked and the tail feathers are more elongated than those of most terns. The wings are pointed and the inner and outer parts of each wing are the same width. The body of common terns is whitish-gray and the underparts are much paler than the upperparts, particularly in adult terns. The female is usually smaller than the male, although only slightly. The bill is usually pointed downward when the tern flies. Other notable characteristics include an exceptionally powerful head and neck and unusually long legs, which distinguish them from other terns such as Arctic terns.
Common terns are found from northern Canada south to the Caribbean Sea, as well as throughout Europe, Northern Asia, North Africa, and the Middle East. Some populations of common terns winter in the south to Peru and Argentina. (Ehrlich, et al., 1988; Malling Olsen and Larsson, 1995)
Common terns almost always reside in colonies. The colonies tend to be along ocean coasts, although they are also found on the shores of large lakes. The two things necessary for a colony of terns, or a "ternery," are isolation from predators and a reliable source of food nearby. The birds also must be able to communicate visually and vocally with the rest of the colony from their nests. They nest among rocks and cliffs. (Burger and Gochfeld, 1991; Malling Olsen and Larsson, 1995)
Not enough information available.
During courtship, which begins in April, male terns establish their territories at the colony before beginning what is called "courtship feeding," in which males bring fish to the females as a way of courting them. Premating displays are accompanied by the male tern posturing followed by the two terns circling each other. The males mount the females for one- to two-minute intervals before copulation actually takes place. Common terns are known for wildly flapping their wings during and directly after copulating. Common terns are monogamous. (Burger and Gochfeld, 1991; Ehrlich, et al., 1988)
Common terns, after migrating to their breeding grounds shortly after the beginning of spring, proceed to find a mate (terns tend to be monogamous); they reproduce in early to mid-summer. It is rare for a pair to produce more than one clutch per summer. They nest among rocks and cliffs. The nests are made up of shells and debris or of dead vegetation. Clutch size is 3, on average, and the chicks hatch in 3 to 4 weeks. Young fledge in 27 to 30 days. Common tern chicks are able to fly by the time they are a month old but do not reach sexual maturity for 3 years. (Burger and Gochfeld, 1991; Ehrlich, et al., 1988)
One of the parents attends the nest at all times after the eggs hatch; the female is often, but not always, the one standing guard. Common terns become very aggressive after their chicks learn to move on their own because of the likelihood that the chicks will be harmed or killed by predators. Both males and females bring food back to the nest, but males are usually more involved in feeding than females are. Chicks are semiprecocial. Young terns usually learn to fly when they are 27 to 30 days old. (Ehrlich, et al., 1988; Palmer, 1941)
The average lifespan is about 9 to 10 years. The oldest common tern ever recorded was 25 years old. (Terres, 1980)
Common terns live in colonies. There is no clearly organized hierarchy among the birds; all appear to be equal. Although all the terns migrate and live together, each family unit is responsible for its own feeding and care of eggs/chicks. They often defend feeding territories. Terns nest during the breeding season and they migrate at the end of the season. (Burger and Gochfeld, 1991; Ehrlich, et al., 1988)
We do not have information on home range for this species at this time.
Common terns communicate mostly with their unusual, hoarse voices, and they have three different, distinct calls. During mating, communication is mainly visual and tactile. (Malling Olsen and Larsson, 1995)
The diet of common terns is usually limited to fishes. Often, if food is particularly abundant, the terns will catch more fish than necessary. Common terns sometimes catch fish that are too big for them to swallow. This, combined with their tendency to catch as much as is available even if it is not needed, explains why it is not unusual to see fish scattered around terns' nesting grounds. At the beginning of the breeding season, terns may eat insects, annelids, and echinoderms in addition to fish. However, throughout the later parts of the breeding season, the tern's diet is much more limited.
These terns are very good at catching insects. Many have been reported to fly near the surface of the water and pick insects off the surface while in flight. It is rare for them to eat dead food. They usually fly at great heights before diving for their prey, a behavior uncommon in other terns. The terns dive into the water after a fish, come to the surface, shake the water from themselves, and fly off with the fish. When a solitary tern catches fish in the same spot repeatedly, other terns from its colony join it.
Foods eaten include: "Food fishes," such as whiting, herring, haddock; sand launces; insects; crabs, shrimp, and other crustaceans; annelids; mollusks; fish eggs; and in certain cases, echinoderms. Terns that nest near bodies of fresh water often consume minnows in place of fish like herring and whiting. (Palmer, 1941)
When a predator comes too close to a tern colony, any terns that spot the predator begin to call loudly to the rest of the colony. Adult terns come over to mob the predator while the chicks take cover in the high grass or in their nests.
Also, the sheer number of terns in a colony aids in the strategy of "passive avoidance". In other words, the probability of any one tern being harmed by a predator is much less because of the number of other terns that the predator could choose instead.
A common tactic among members of colonies, and in fact among all members of tern colonies and gull colonies, is called a "panic." This means that an entire colony of terns flies up making noise, falls silent suddenly, and then swoops back down toward the ground. This can be very threatening to potential predators and often assures that the colony will be left alone, particularly by smaller predators such as blue jays or grackles.
Known predators include: red foxes (Vulpes vulpes), raccoons (Procyon lotor), striped skunks (Mephitis mephitis), minks (genus Mustela), long-tailed weasels (Mustela frenata), squirrels (subfamily Sciurinae), dogs (Canis lupus familiaris), cats (Felis silvestris), rats (Rattus norvegicus), gulls (genus Larus), herons (family Ardeidae), hawks (family Accipitridae), falcons (family Falconidae), owls (family Strigidae), blue jays (Cyanocitta cristata), grackles (genus Quiscalus), reptiles (class Reptilia) and ants (family Formicidae). (Burger and Gochfeld, 1991)
Common terns have an impact on populations of the prey they eat and are an important food source for their predators. Occasionally the fish they catch and do not eat are eaten by other scavenging animals living in the same area. (Burger and Gochfeld, 1991)
There are no known adverse affects of common terns on humans.
In the nineteenth century, terns were exploited commercially for their eggs and feathers. (Burger and Gochfeld, 1991)
The Michigan DNR considers common terns to be threatened in Michigan. Human interference has caused health and habitat problems for the terns. Human disturbance in the form of deliberately damaging eggs, chicks, and nests has become a problem because the coastal areas where terns nest are also areas where people picnic and sunbathe. Nature photographers and bird watchers, while meaning no harm, sometimes disturb the terns when they are nesting. Humans also cause problems for the terns through environmental pollution with chemicals, which weaken the eggshells and cause birth defects. Some adults and chicks die when they become tangled in netting or plastic. In the nineteenth century, terns were removed from nearly all of their former habitats when they were exploited commercially for their eggs and their feathers. (Burger and Gochfeld, 1991)
Alaine Camfield (editor), Animal Diversity Web.
Kristina Sepe (author), University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, Phil Myers (editor), Museum of Zoology, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor.
Burger, J., M. Gochfeld. 1991. The Common Tern. New York, NY: Columbia University Press.
Ehrlich, P., D. Dobkin, D. Wheye. 1988. The Birder's Handbook: A Field Guide to the Natural History of North American Birds. New York: Simon and Schuster.
Malling Olsen, K., H. Larsson. 1995. Terns of Europe and North America. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Palmer, R. 1941. Behavior of the Common Tern. Boston, MA: Boston Society of Natural History.
Seago, M. 2002. "Common Tern, Sterna hirundo" (On-line). Accessed 03/05/04 at http://www.birdsofbritain.co.uk/bird-guide/common-tern.htm.
Terres, J. 1980. The Audubon Encyclopedia of North American Birds. New York, NY: Alfred A. Knopf.