<?php
if ('1' == $user_ID) :
echo 'you are logged in - this will not be shown to the public: <br/><br/>';
  // test routine begin //
echo 'cat-id , cat-slug , cat-name , number of posts <br/><br/>';
$categories= get_categories('');
foreach ($categories as $cat) {
echo $cat->cat_ID.' , '.$cat->category_nicename.' , '.$cat->cat_name.' , '.$cat->category_count.'<br/>';
}
  // test routine ends //
echo '<br/>end of logged in section <br/>';
endif; ?>

in this example, i displayed a full list of all categories with id, slug, and name.

the wordpress back-end (dashboard) is generally a good place to work, however for developers, some lists don’t show all the variables or parameters that would be useful for programming custom displays or functions. for instance, the IDs of posts, pages, categories, tags, etc. are not easily found in the back-end.

you can (and sometimes need to) build your own code snippets to show them on the spot where you are working with them.
this avoids a lot of guesswork.

and now you know how to hide these displays from public view.

here, i am going  to present yet another solution: a flexible core structure to allow any number of columns with any number of rows, limited only by screen space, readability and fantasy…

a three column grid category template

the structure (for instance 3 columns, 4 rows, 12 or more posts):
1 5 9
2 6 10
3 7 11
4 8 12

the structure (for instance 3 columns, 4 rows, less than 12 posts, i.e. 7):
1 4 6
2 5 7
3

i’ll begin with a step by step introduction into the concept:

1. setting of variables
2. query_posts
3. calculate rows
4. loop 1 – the columns
5. the wordpress loop – the rows
6. page navigation

1. setting the variables:
$set_number_of_columns = 3; // enter numbers of columns here;
$set_number_of_rows = 3; // enter numbers of rows here
$set_showpost = $set_number_of_columns * $set_number_of_rows ;


2. query_posts:
global $query_string;
$paged = (get_query_var('paged')) ? get_query_var('paged') : 1;
query_posts($query_string.'&showposts='.$set_showpost.'&paged='.$paged);


3. calculate rows:
// make adjustment to get three equaly long columns even on last paged page
// get number of posts for this,
$num_of_posts = $wp_query->post_count;
// divide by $set_number_of_columns to get number per column,
// round up to next integer to make $ppc posts per column variable, or $set_number_of_rows whatever is smaller
$ppc = min(ceil($num_of_posts/$set_number_of_columns),$set_number_of_rows);
// calculates number of rows, i.e. showposts for the following query_posts and get_posts


4. loop 1 – the columns:
<?php for ( $col = 1; $col <= $set_number_of_columns; $col += 1) { ?>
<div class="col<?php echo $col; ?>">
<?php $row = 1;
$noffset = ($col -1) * $ppc + ($paged - 1) * $set_showpost ; //calculate offset parameter if paged ?>


5. wordpress loop – the rows and posts:
<?php $posts = get_posts($query_string.'&numberposts='.$ppc.'&offset='.$noffset); foreach ($posts as $post) : start_wp(); ?>
<div id="post-<?php the_ID(); ?> class="post row<?php echo $row; ?>">
<?php //output all post related data, i.e. date, title, content/excerpt, postmetadata, tags, etc. // ?>
</div> <!--closing .post div -->


6. page navigation:
<div class="navigation">
<div class="alignleft"><?php next_posts_link('&laquo; Older Entries') ?></div>
<div class="alignright"><?php previous_posts_link('Newer Entries &raquo;') ?></div>
</div>


here is the full code:

the naming of the css classes is:
class .col1 for the first column; class .col2 for the second column; and so forth.
same thing for the rows: class .row1 for the posts in first row, on so on.
going with this code is the css:
.col1, .col2 {float:left; width:49%; }

one million dollars, copyright © silkandart, a source of inspirational art on silk

have a look at the image above and check the link within the image caption.
nice feature?
as many of you might have experienced before, the image caption function of wordpress filters all html content, including any attempts to insert  links.

however, this functionality would come very handy, if you want to credit the copyright owner of the image (which could obviously be yourself) by providing a one-click connection to their website.

the convention to insert the link into the caption text is:
‘text before the link ##http://www.linkurl.com##link text## text after the link’.
multiple links are possible.

i have choosen the double ## because it does not get filtered from the caption text and is very unlikely to be part of any normal caption.

here follows the code of the function:

add_shortcode('wp_caption', 'LinkInCaption');
add_shortcode('caption', 'LinkInCaption');
function LinkInCaption($attr, $content = null) {
// Allow plugins/themes to override the default caption template.
// to place a link in the caption you need to use following convention:
// 'text before link ##http://linkurl##linktext## text after link ' //
// more than one link allowed
// this function DOES NOT CHECK FOR CORRECT SYNTAX, i.e. the correct number of ##
// thanks to: @sagemintblue http://wordpress.org/support/profile/3715429 for the main function code
// text manipulation by: @alchymyth
$output = apply_filters('img_caption_shortcode', '', $attr, $content);
if ( $output != '' ) return $output;
extract(shortcode_atts(array(
'id'=> '',
'align' => 'alignnone',
'width' => '',
'caption' => ''), $attr));
if ( 1 > (int) $width || empty($caption) )
return $content;
$text=explode('##',$caption);
if( count($text) >= 3 ) :
$outtext=$text[0]; //start with the caption text to the left of the first ##
for($i=1; $i<count($text); $i=$i+3):
// add the link html codes to the respective places
$outtext = $outtext.'<a href="'.$text[$i].'">'.$text[$i+1].'</a>'.$text[$i+2];
endfor;
$caption = $outtext;
endif; // end of the caption manipulation
if ( $id ) $id = 'id="' . esc_attr($id) . '" ';
return '<div ' . $id . 'class="wp-caption ' . esc_attr($align)
. '" style="width: ' . ((int) $width+10) . 'px">'
. do_shortcode( $content ) . '<p class="wp-caption-text">'
. $caption . '</p></div>';
}


don’t worry, the caption will look awful in the editor window, but should render nicely in the browser.
a very small side effect at this stage is that the image caption text appears in the alt text of the image the way you type it, including ## and link url.
the plugin does not check for the correctness of the input.

i would like to encourage you to explore the possibilities of the wordpress filters and functions on your own – nearly any idea can be realized by exploiting them.

be safe and use a virus scanner before downloading or installing any software

i managed to put the function into a plugin – HyperlinkCaption.zip – under the terms of the GNU General Public License:

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
(at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
GNU General Public License for more details.

code is poetry – code is alchemy

lists or posts styled with alternating color backgrounds, for instance, can inprove the readability of blogs.

most themes and the standard wordpress installation are not offering this feature.
however, it is easy to implement, when you know how.

for example we could give alternating posts within the ‘wordpress loop’ a different extra class (’odd’ or ‘even’) which can then be used with css.
to begin with, we introduce a counter ($c = 0;) before the loop, increment it inside the loop ($c++), and generate a class depending on the number of the counter by checking the modulus 2 of the number ($c % 2 – modulus is the remainder of the division):

<?php $c = 0 ; ?>
<?php if (have_posts()) : while (have_posts()) : the_post(); ?>
<?php $c++;
if( $c % 2 == 0 ) $extra_class = ' even';
else $extra_class = ' odd'; ?>
<div class="post <?php echo $extra_class; ?>">
<!--typical stuff in the loop-->
</div>
<?php endwhile; ?>
<?php else : endif; ?>


the class ‘odd’ or ‘even’ can be used in the style.css to create different background colors, alignments, margins, paddings, font-styles – no limits.

the most basic application of this method with a counter is how to style the first post in the loop different (only showing the logic part of the code):
<?php $c++;
if( $c == 1 ) $extra_class = ' first';
else $extra_class = ''; ?>

to make it more interesting, the next example is to create three different styles and a special style for the last post on the page.
we can get the number of the last post with $wp_query->post_count .
The structure is the same, the main difference is in the ‘if, elseif, else’ logic:
<?php $c++;
if( $c == $wp_query->post_count ) $extra_class = ' last';
elseif( $c % 3 == 0 ) $extra_class = ' three';
elseif( $c % 3 == 2 ) $extra_class = ' two';
elseif( $c % 3 == 1 ) $extra_class = ' one';
?>

you can extend this method to create any number of cyclic classes.

and you can use it in any situation in your wordpress templates, where you loop through some output – lists, foreach, for, while, posts, comments, …

special thanks to @esmi who dared venturing into the realm of more than two alternating styles, and who inspired me to post this article.

This is my latest ‘hack’, turning the default theme that comes with every wordpress installation, into a 3 column version, with equal sized left and right sidebar columns, all dynamic and widget ready.

All functions of the default theme are fully preserved. You can still modify the header colours from within the dashboard.

All files and graphics zipped for download. A great start for learning to mod your own theme.

At last a ‘default’ wordpress theme that fills the width of my laptop’s monitor

Update: horizontal page navigation below the header included.

To activate it, edit header.php and  remove the commenting where indicated.

Disclaimer: This article is not designed to provide medical advice or professional services. It is intended to be for educational use only. The information provided in this article is not a substitute for professional care and should not be used for diagnosing or treating a health problem or a disease. If you have, or suspect you may have, a health problem you should consult your doctor.

And obviously the quality and purity of your drinking water is of highest importance. You can imagine that drinking polluted water is not going to help your body to improve its health. I am going to emphasize the benefits of drinking pure or – as it is in reality – of purified filtered water by pointing out the negative health impact of common contaminants in tap water. Although water companies are regulated and have to control the quality of the water they supply to your home, there are limits in how the water companies have to treat the tap water, resulting in residual contamination.

Sediments and Turbidity

Often considered more a nuisance than a health threat, sediments and turbidity, very small particles, in your tap water can spoil the enjoyment of drinking water. Turbidity can come from various origins and can make the water taste ‘metallic’ or ‘foul’. It can also stain the sink or bath tub.

Chlorine

This is the main chemical that water companies add to your tap water to kill micro-organisms and bacteria to prevent the spread of waterborne diseases. The same chlorine is the active ingredient in bleach, a very aggressive chemical. Also, you may remember the smell and feel of chlorine in water from the public swimming pool – and also how it made your eyes itch. Now, it is interesting that chlorine is not even the most effective chemical to treat drinking water – but the cheapest. The reaction of chlorine with other contaminants in tap water can cause the generation of chloroform and other trihalomethanes THMs, a group of chemicals suspected to cause cancer and are linked to a higher rate of birth defects. Your body is particularly exposed to the chlorine, when your are taking a hot shower, and when your skin and lungs open up to the the hot water and the vapours.

Heavy Metals

Recent surveys found lead in the tap water of over nine out of ten households. Lead is a heavy metal that accumulates in the body and leads to nervous defects. Lead pipes have been used in the past for house plumbing systems, and may still be installed if you have a house more than 20 years old. Copper from the water pipes is less dangerous and will only get into the drinking water in areas with soft, acidic water supplies.

Cysts and Other Microorganism

The most dangerous micro-organisms in tap water are Cryptosporidium and Giardia. These micro-organisms are just 4 microns small, so they can pass through the filter systems of the water companies, and they can survive the chlorine desinfection of tap water. They can cause severe stomach upsets and diarrhea. An infection can be fatal for someone with a weakness to the immune system, i.e. the very young or the elderly.

Chemical Contaminants

Pesticides, herbicides, volatile organic compounds VOCs, pharmaceuticals, solvents, and others, are also found in tap water. They come from run-offs from farms and industrial operations. Over 2000 contaminants have been found in tap water, and many of these are carcinogenic. Of course, usually the levels of these chemicals are quite low – below the legal levels – but nobody really knows what effects so many chemicals at the same time can have on the human body. The filter systems of most water companies are not fully equipped to remove all of these chemicals.

What Can You Do?

Just be aware of the whole list of substances that can be in your tap water. They all can have negative effects on your health. To filter these out before you drink the tap water, you have to use a state-of-the-art multi-stage water filter system, like the ones you can read about in www.domesticwaterfilter.com. These filter systems leave the healthy minerals calcium, magnesium, and potassium, and also sulfates and carbonates, in the water, as they can be found in natural clean spring water. These minerals not only contribute to the good taste of clean water, they are also vital for many bodily processes.

A domestic water filter is a must for any health conscious person.

Please consider those who are less fortunate to have clean drinking water available:

Roughly one sixth of the worlds population – 1.1 billion people – do not have access to safe water.
water charity: wateraid
and
water charity: justadrop

SHREK: No! Layers! Onions have layers. Ogres have layers. Onions have layers. You get it? We both have layers.

The obstacles that separate us from enlightenment also form layers of various energetic composition – and have to be dealt with individually with specialized methods – there is no panacea!

If you have read ‘The Four Agreements’ by Don Miguel Ruiz, you might know that your reactions are guided by the way you agreed, at a very early age, to certain pattern and conditioning by those whom you trusted to be superior to yourself.
Every single one of these agreements forms a layer.

Every time we make one of these agreements, it removes us further away from who we really are. As we grow older, these agreements form layer after layer after layer ….

Each of these layers can have very different ‘energy’ to it.

To make my point clear, let me go over to the physical world and compare this to archaeology – some ancient artifact is covered by different layers of debris, mud, slime, hard crusts, rubbish, concrete, more slime, scrap metal, compost, gravel, ………

To get that cleared and removed to get to the core, the ancient artefact, you would need to use more than one single method – particular as you don’t want to risk and damage the core.

You would start with a heavy excavator to remove the rubble, then use a pick-axe and spade, and the little trowels. You can then investigate what you have unearthed, and try to make sense of it. If you are satisfied with your explanation, this layer is no longer of any interest to you, and you proceed with the next one.

The next layer can have a totally different structure and composition.

( more to come …
- - - work in progress )

If you want to discuss sustainability further, you can download the book for free at www.withouthotair.com, and you can also buy it as hardback or paperback, for £45 or £19.99, resp.

To give you an idea of the tone of his book, here is a quote from the 10-page pdf synopsis:

Turning phone chargers off is a feeble gesture, like bailing the Titanic with a teaspoon. The widespread inclusion of “switching off phone chargers” in lists of “10 things you can do” is a bad thing, because it distracts attention from more-effective actions that people could be taking.

–
David J.C. MacKay. Sustainable Energy – without the hot air.
UIT Cambridge, 2008. ISBN 978-0-9544529-3-3. Available free online
from www.withouthotair.com.

You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection.

The Buddha

This holds true also for an open source program such as wordpress.

I will put it this way: the wordpress software, ie. the core program, is the subconsciousness. We know it is there, but generally we are not aware of it and don’t understand how it works. And, unless something goes wrong, we don’t really want to know.

And in a way, you could see that all the programmers and organizers of wordpress.org  as an open source software  are a kind of  ’creator’ who is well above all and who has put all this out for us to work with. This is not unlike some interpretation of G.O.D. (greater organized design) who made us but also gave us the freedom and intelligence to change the program.

Now, there a many many thousands of blogs out there, using wordpress.org software to program there own way of expression.

What every blog software does, is to take a lot of input in (the posts, pages, articles, pictures and so) and arrange and present them in a way that is personal and special for the individual (programmer).

In wordpress, these are the php-files, such as index.php, single.php, functions.php, comments.php, and so on.

This is analogue to the conscious mind which does exactly the same – gathering input (through our senses), storing it (memory),  sorting it, and creating specific output, based on a hidden program.

The ’sorting program’ is build upon past experiences, ways we accepted from our parents, teachers, the society, religion, and so forth.

Think of the primary output as the HTML code that is generated by the wordpress php files. If you look at that on a screen, it seems pretty ‘bland’, uniform, not very interesting.

This is where the themes of wordpress come in: they individualize the output in a way that is again personal to the individual designing them. They add the CSS styles, and make the output colorful, creative, enjoyable (or not, if you don’t like the theme).

(Look up CSS Zen Garden if you are not familiar with css.)

Again, i like to compare this to the human mind. The ego will use its ‘css style sheet’ and ‘color’ any message it receives from the mind, and will give it an individual meaning.

Just present a piece of information to a group of people and watch how they react – you can be sure to get a whole range of different reactions.

The good thing with this model is, that we have the power and opportunity to change the programs, the php files, the themes, the css at any time.

As a programmer – and we all are our own programmers ! (even if we don’t like the programming results) – you can adapt the wordpress files, change your theme, and tweak the style sheets at any time.

This is the fantastic opportunity when you host your own wordpress blog (ie. when you are an individual in control of your life), it gives you control over ‘consciousness, mind, and ego’, to stay within the model.

Those who run the free blogs on wordpress.com, on the contrary, have not this level of control. They have to use what they get offered by somebody else (ie. the makers of wordpress.com, the filter programs that filter all the html input in the posts, the providers of the free themes you can choose from, and so on). They have a limited choice of  ‘conscious decisions’, ‘ways of expression’, ‘influence’.

Sounds very familiar with real life, where the expression of the ‘masses’ are pre-programmed and limited by a small elite (tv and media, politicians, church, tradition, teachers, …).

Coming back to the beginning of this post, where I compared the wordpress software with the subconsciousness, I hold the vision that when enough conscious people (programmers) join and work together, they can change the very core programming of the consciousness, the subconsciousness of mankind – also known as ‘common consciousness’.