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Port Orford Heads State Park
In addition to Battle Rock, another shoreline scene worth taking in, featuring a striking panorama from north to south, is located up West Ninth Street at what the locals call the Heads, or Port Orford Heads State Park. If you go down the cement trail to the tip of the blustery headland, you look south to the mouth of Port Orford’s harbor.
Also located here is the historic Port Orford Lifeboat Station (541/332-0521, 10 a.m.–3:30 p.m. Thurs.–Mon. Apr.–Oct., free), built by the Coast Guard in 1934 to provide rescue service to the southern Oregon coast. After it was decommissioned in 1970, the officers quarters, the pleasingly proportioned crew barracks, and other outbuildings were converted to a museum depicting the work of the station.
A trail leads down to Nellie’s Cove, site of the former boathouse and launch ramp.
by Judy Jewell and W. C. McRae from Moon Oregon, 8th Edition, © Elizabeth & Mark Morris and Avalon Travel
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On The Road – Part Two, The Salton Sea
The Salton Sea is a photographer’s Disneyland. A desert lake. Barren, harsh and beautiful. Not so much natural as unnatural.
Located thirty miles south of Indio, which is just next to Palm Springs, the Salton Sea is 229 feet below sea level.
(Technical Note: I’m going to go into greater detail on the shooting of these photos in a few weeks. Later in the morning I started shooting from a tripod and shooting both stills and video of the same thing. I have an idea for what I’m going to do with it, but am going to go into greater depth on that after I’ve done something with the video portion, which shall incorporate all of this an much, much more. In short, though, shot with a Nikon Coolpix for the grab shots and the serious photos shot with Canon 7D, Tokina 11-16mm F2.8 lens with ND4 filter and Polarizing filter to heighten the skies. Wish I were more up to speed with PhotoShop. Black & whites created and punched up in Apple iPhoto.)
Bonnie wanted to take a road trip to someplace where we could take the dogs, Alex and Ava, and I wanted to go someplace where I could take pictures.
The Salton Sea is an ancient lake bed. It had been virtually dry for most of the known history of the region, even having a town with a Southern Pacific railroad line running through it. Then in 1905 high waters in the Colorado River cause the failure of a dike and flooded the Salton Sea with water again, submerging the town and the rail line. An extraordinary phenomenon. Now the Salton Sea’s water level declines for times, then is replenished by the water levels from the Colorado River.
At various times the lake has thrived, producing marinas and yacht clubs. Most of these have become lake history with the passage of time. But they have left contemporary ghost town relics of the lake’s heydays.
Temperatures can hover around 128 degrees Fahrenheit in the summer. On this day in early April it was only in the mid-80’s, but plenty warm enough for Ava and Alex to turn into Salton Sea Dogs for the day.
While I was exploring with the Canon 7D, Bon was exploring with Alex and Ava. Swimming in the Salton Sea is not encouraged because of the extremely high salinity — the water is saltier than the Pacific Ocean. But Ava, like most women, like a good salt bath now and then.
Part of Sean Penn’s film Into The Wild was filmed here, capturing some of the independent-spirited residents. Some of them military retirees, people on fixed incomes, loners and hermits, and people who just want to “get away.” From these pictures you can definitely tell that this is a place that qualifies as “away.”
The shoreline shimmers white and crunches under your feet. That’s from the decades accumulation of tiny seashells and crunched skin and bones of fish kills that happen as a result of the lake’s high salinity. The sea water in the Salton Sea is, in fact, saltier than the Pacific Ocean.
In the 1960’s Brooklyn-based photographer Bruce Davidson traveled to Southern California and did a photo-essay of Los Angelenos as out-of-place people in a surreal landscape. Everything about his photos looked alien and bizarre.
Those pictures resonated in my head as I was exploring the Salton Sea with my Canon 7D, exaggerated by the super-wide angle perspective of the Tokina 11-16 F2.8 lens. It’s hard not to feel like a kid in a candy story when you’re in an other-worldly landscape like this.
At one point I felt so excited by the images that I pulled out the tripod, which I almost never use, to record the images in 1080 HD 24p video.
Bombay Beach is a place of the ruggedly individual Salton Sea residents call home. On the other side of a levee wall are the skeletal remains of some of the residents’ old homes, a mobile home park that was flooded in the mid-70s and has been decaying and deteriorating every since. And a destination for photographers ever since.
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A Memphis program designed to bridge the gap between minorities and swimming will
appear on NBC’s “Rock Center” with Brian Williams on Thursday, July 26, at 9 p.m. Memphis
University of Memphis professor and Make a Splash Mid-South board member Carol Irwin,
PhD, is profiled in this report. Dr. Irwin, the principal investigator, along with
team members Dr. Richard Irwin, Dr. Tim Ryan, Dr. Sally Ross, Dr. Nathan Martin, and
Dr. Joris Drayer, conducted groundbreaking research which identified that almost 69
percent of African-American children do not know how to swim or can only swim in the
shallow end of the pool. They also identified barriers to swim lesson participation.
Make a Splash Mid-South, a program started after the fatal drowning of two teens in
Memphis pools in 2008, utilized Irwin’s research in developing a comprehensive free
and low-cost swim lesson program in Memphis. Make a Splash Mid-South, started by Le
Bonheur Children’s Hospital, is a community coalition of organizations committed to
the health and safety of children. Members include the City of Memphis Parks and Neighborhoods,
YMCA of Memphis and the Mid-South, the University of Memphis, among others.
The “Rock Center” story will also include video from the Memphis Splash Diversity
Swim Team practice at Hickory Hill Aquatic Center. The Memphis Splash team is the
developmental swim team started by Make a Splash Mid-South to provide new swimmers
an opportunity to further develop their skills.
Irwin is an assistant professor in the Department of Health and Sport Sciences in
the College of Education, Health and Human Sciences. Her research has been funded
by USA Swimming Foundation and the Benjamin L. Hooks Institute for Social Change at
the University of Memphis.
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On a recent December evening, Dr. Dan Kelly (Class of 2008) held a fundraiser at Percy’s Tavern, in Manhattan, to bolster support for the nongovernmental organization (NGO) he helped establish in Sierra Leone while still a student at Einstein. Wellbody Alliance, formerly known as the Global Action Foundation, provides health as a human right to the rural poor of Sierra Leone. "We believe that every life matters, and we are trying to infuse our hope and energy into the public clinics and hospitals that we serve. Our vision, in the long run, is to rebuild the country’s public health system where the high-quality medical care we provide is accessible to all," said Dr. Kelly.
Such efforts have been keeping Dr. Kelly quite busy, as he recently completed a Fulbright scholarship in connection to his work in Sierra Leone. He will be headed to the University of California, San Francisco in July 2013, where he will begin a fellowship in infectious diseases. Until then, he continues his work in Sierra Leone and as a faculty member of Baylor College of Medicine, in Houston, where he recently completed his residency in internal medicine.
"I have wonderful support at Baylor for my work abroad," he noted. "I’ve got a flexible schedule that allows me to spend about 70 percent of my time in Sierra Leone, where I’m overseeing a number of different grants that we’ve received." That includes a recent grant from the World Health Organization for $300,000 to conduct a community-based tuberculosis program and a text message grant to explore the use of texting with health workers in Sierra Leone.
Meanwhile, his Sierra Leonean mentor and Wellbody Alliance founding partner, Dr. Mohamed Bailor Barrie, earned a Fulbright Scholarship that will sponsor a Master’s degree at Harvard Medical School starting in August 2013. The Master’s degree in Global Health Delivery is run in collaboration with Partners in Health. (Partners in Health, or PIH, is an NGO established by world-renowned global health authority Dr. Paul Farmer.)
"It's very exciting," said Dr. Kelly. "We’ve also become a ‘partner project’ to PIH, and this includes mentorship from the Boston office. PIH has created an incubator for like-minded organizations like us, and the support and information-sharing have been immensely helpful to our growth and development."
Also exciting for Dr. Kelly was seeing a number of his former classmates (Drs. Christina Gagliardo, Laura Korin, Frederick Nagel and Issa Toure) and a current Einstein student (Masha Kon) who had come out to support his NGO, along with members of the Princeton Friends of Wellbody, comprised of undergraduate students from Dr. Kelly’s undergraduate alma mater.
Einstein Hosts Leading Student Conference
Tuesday, March 12, 2013
A Collaborative Conference on Rare Communication Disorders
Friday, March 08, 2013
A Week of Global Health Enlightenment
Wednesday, March 06, 2013
Honor Recognizes Dedication to Community
Tuesday, February 19, 2013
Discussion of Competency-Based Education Highlights Davidoff Education Day
Wednesday, February 13, 2013
Einstein's "He-ART" and Science Come Together
Wednesday, February 13, 2013
The Salt Talk: A Perspective on Public Health & Hypertension
Tuesday, February 12, 2013
A Physician with the "Write" Stuff Shares Her Story with Students
Wednesday, January 23, 2013
Mo-tivated to Change the Face of Men's Health
Tuesday, January 15, 2013
"B.R.A.IN Kids!" Promotes Research and Fun
Wednesday, January 09, 2013
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Business and Professions Code section 17533.7 (part of the False Advertising Law) prohibits misreprentations about the geographic origin of goods:
It is unlawful for any person, firm, corporation or association to sell or offer for sale in this State any merchandise on which merchandise or on its container there appears the words "Made in U.S.A." "Made in America," "U.S.A.," or similar words when the merchandise or any article, unit, or part thereof, has been entirely or substantially made, manufactured, or produced outside of the United States.
Last week, the Court of Appeal (Fourth Appellate District, Division Three) picked up its blue pencil and crossed this provision out of the FAL. Its opinion in Kwikset Corp. v. Superior Court (Benson), ___ Cal.App.4th ___ (Feb. 25, 2009), reads Prop. 64's standing requirement so narrowly that it is unlikely consumers will ever be able to assert a violation of this provision again. Companies may as well start mislabeling all of their products as "Made in the U.S.A.," because unless the AG's office steps in, there is nothing anyone can do to stop them.
In Kwikset, plaintiffs alleged that they paid money for defendant's products in reliance on (false) representations that the products were "Made in U.S.A." Plaintiffs alleged that they read and relied on that misrepresentation in deciding to make the purchase. They alleged that they would not have bought the products at all if not for the "Made in U.S.A." misrepresentation. They alleged that they spent good money on products they did not want, solely because of this misrepresentation. Slip op. at 5-6.
Was this enough for the Court of Appeal? No. Those allegations established that the plaintiffs suffered "injury in fact," the Court determined, but not that they "lost money or property" as a result. Id. at 8-13. Why not? Because the plaintiffs received functioning products in exchange for their money:
Absent a showing of some complaint about the cost, quality, or operation of the mislabeled [products] they purchased from petitioners, real parties received the benefit of their bargain and are not entitled to any restitution.
Id. at 11. The benefit of the bargain? The bargain was for a product Made in the U.S.A. The plaintiffs were induced to make a purchase and did not get what they paid for, not by any stretch. That is why misrepresentations about geographic origin are prohibited in the first place.
The Court of Appeal cited several other recent cases in which courts determined that plaintiffs got the benefit of the bargain despite the defendants' misrepresentations about the products. Id. at 5, 12 (citing , e.g., Hall v. Time, Inc., 158 Cal.App.4th 847 (2008); Animal Legal Defense Fund v. Mendes, 160 Cal.App.4th 136 (2008)). But those cases did not allege violations of specific, defined statutory prohibitions, such as those proscribing misrepresentations of geographic origin. In those cases, the courts could, at least arguably, find that the plaintiffs lacked standing without interpreting Prop.64 as repealing entire substantive provisions of the False Advertising Law. The effect of Kwikset is to substantively amend the FAL, contrary to Mervyn's.
The Kwikset plaintiffs offered to amend their complaint to allege that "there were other alternative ... products available ..., many of which were lower priced" than defendants' mislabeled ones; and that the value of defendants' mislabeled products "was less than what [they] paid" for them and less than "the value of the [products] as represented." Id. at 14. In other words, plaintiffs were prepared to amend their complaint to allege that by misrepresenting their products as "Made in U.S.A.," defendants were able to charge more for them than if truthfully labeled as foreign-made. See id.
Instead of remanding for the trial court to consider permitting this amendment in the first instance (as the Supreme Court did in Branick), the Court of Appeal decided for itself to refuse to permit amendment. The Court observed that plaintiffs "fail to provide any citation to the record or present any documentation to support the assertion there is evidence in the record supporting these proposed amendments." Id. The Court also focused in on the original plaintiff's deposition testimony that he had been reimbursed for his purchases (id.), without considering the fact that three new plaintiffs had joined in the action, and that they might not have been reimbursed (id. at 5). The Court issued a writ of mandate directing the trial court to sustain the defendants' demurrer to the complaint without leave to amend and dismiss the case. Id. at 15.
Since when must a plaintiff put "evidence in the record" to obtain leave to amend a complaint? A demurrer is not an evidentiary hearing, and plaintiffs are supposed to be given leave to amend if there is any reasonable possibility that they can cure the defect in pleading. Here, at least, they should have been given a chance to try.
Eventually, the Supreme Court is going to need to decide whether Prop. 64's standing langauge was intended to "blue-pencil" substantive provisions of the False Advertising Law by making them, as a practical matter, unenforceable by private litigants. This case may or may not be the Supreme Court's vehicle. Meanwhile, if you see something labeled "Made in the U.S.A.," there's no longer any reason to trust it in California.
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Parmelee, SD, Apr 17, 2012 -- The community of Parmelee, South Dakota, gathered today to celebrate the ground breaking of a new fire hall. A dream that started over four years ago, the fire hall will be home to the Parmelee Volunteer Fire Department (PVFD) located on the Rosebud Indian Reservation. Through continued dedication and determination, PVFD partnered with over ten different agencies and groups such as the Todd County Commissioners, State of South Dakota, Todd County Emergency Management, Rosebud Sioux Tribe-Tribal President and entities, BIA, South Central RC&D, South Dakota Department of Agriculture, and the Central South Dakota Enhancement District.
South Dakota USDA Rural Development provided funding for the project totaling $120,000 through a $55,000 Community Facility Direct loan and $65,000 Community Facility grant, along with other funding including a $10,000 applicant contribution, and $130,000 Community Development Block Grant from the State of South Dakota for a total project cost of $260,000. The fire department and community, led by local resident Susan Kary, were able to access financial resources and build the support from the community for the project.
“This project exemplifies President Obama’s commitment to invest in improved infrastructure and is a prime example of how Rural Development programs can assist with the development of essential community services,” said Rural Development State Director Elsie M. Meeks. “The leaders of this small community determined that they were in need of a fire station – they had already secured a fire truck – and they persevered until they secured the funding, even though it took them over four years.”
Parmelee is approximately 21 miles from the closest fire department and responses to fires sometimes took 45 minutes. The need for the fire hall was apparent for quicker response times for emergency situations and for storage of trucks and equipment. The new fire hall will be a 50’x70 foot pre-engineered building with three bays and portion of the facility will be made available for community functions. The 20 person volunteer fire department serves a population of 1,188.
“I wish to thank everyone who has so willingly supported us in our efforts, “said Susan Kary, Secretary for the Parmelee Volunteer Fire Department. “This wouldn’t have been possible without the partnerships. We appreciate everyone who participated in our event. It means so much to our volunteer fire men and women and our small community to see this project become a reality.”
USDA Rural Development has eight offices in the state serving South Dakotans living in rural areas and communities. Office locations include a state office in Huron, along with area offices in Aberdeen, Mitchell, Pierre, Rapid City, Sioux Falls, Watertown, and Yankton.
Further information on this and other programs offered by USDA Rural Development is available by calling (605) 352-1100, by visiting www.rurdev.usda.gov/sd or at any local area office.
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The bonfire was gathering strength on the river bank, popping and crackling in the cool morning air. A fog hung over the Ganges. It was my first day in Varanasi, India; and, for the person inside that fire, it was their last.
I had been in India now for more than a week; and, to this point, my visit had been one of personal firsts, eye-popping surprises and unexpected delights. Delhi's swirling market bazaar was enough to keep me busy for days. It is a magical and chaotic labyrinth of colours, tastes and smells, incredible for bargain hunting, and a thrilling place to spend an afternoon following a morning of checking out the city's countless temples and mosques. A few days later, in Jim Corbett National Park, India's first tiger reserve, I'd ridden an elephant over the savannah through a small storm of creatures, including monitor lizards, wild elephants, jungle fowl, eagles and pheasants, barking and Sambar deer, wild boar, macaques and langurs. All that, definitely a first for me. But a human cremation? This was not only a personal first. It was, at least for the first few minutes, deeply off-putting.
It was well under way on that foggy morning on the Ganges when Shyamlal, a quiet man whose withered face strained slightly as he rowed, pulled the boat to and steadied us in the gentle current. We were only a stone's throw from the fire. I could see an adult's feet sticking out of the flames. As a backdrop, farther up on the river bank, the city of three million was just starting to wake up. The chai-coloured Ganges was as smooth as silk. Every half-minute a carp broke the surface. Then, still again. The fire was a single point of brightness in the breaking dawn. I was riveted, concerned, fascinated. Who was that in there?
The men of the Dalit caste who tend these pyres, once known as Untouchables, fed the flames with cordwood; another tidied the site, collecting scraps and stacking wood for cremations later that day. Three family members of the deceased stood to the left, watching quietly. Three boys tossed a ball back and forth, their voices travelling the short distance over the water. These cremations are not a private affair. They are open to the public. And come the public does. The only rule is no cameras.
A calm spirituality runs through the old streets of Varanasi. You can't help but feel it everywhere, despite the mayhem of pedestrian and ricksaw traffic that seems to teeter perpetually on the point of total collapse. It is one of the seven most important cities in Hinduism and one of the oldest continually inhabited cities in the world. It is a place where you do not die, I was told, but where you attain death, for dying in Varanasi brings moksha, or the final release of the spirit. The hospices up and down its old streets are filled with the elderly and the sick who come from all over India to wait their turn.
Cremations are, with their high-impact shock value for the outsider, the single most striking aspect of Varanasi. Yet there is nothing moribund or sorrowful about the city. It is a thoroughly alive and exciting metropolis. Its market bazaar is every bit as thrilling and hospitable as the one I picked through in Delhi. At the Shanti Silk Emporium, for example, Mr. Ajay, its charismatic owner, showed me how to tell silk apart from its cheaper, petroleum-based imitators. (He held a lit match to a scarf's tassel, then waved the smoke under my nose. It smelled of burning hair. When he did the same with a different scarf, it smelled of burning plastic.) The city is also home to over 250,000 temples and shrines, most of them as small as a figurine placed in a grotto at the side of a shop or perched, incongruously, in the crotch of a tree; the famous Monkey and Golden Temples draw visitors from around the world; and only a short drive from here is Sarnath, the site where Buddha is said to have taught his first sermon.
On my last day in Varanasi, after a morning at the Manikarnika Ghat, I climbed to the rooftop terrace of the Fuji Ganga Home restaurant and saw the sky was aswirl with dozens of children's kites. A landscape of rooftops receded in three directions. Just a few blocks east, the Ganges rolled on under a pleasant winter sun. My waiter that afternoon was a 31-yearold man named Pramed. He was in no rush to leave the rooftop after he brought my lunch. It was slow that day, and he seemed as taken by those kites as I was.
"Looks like the whole city's flying one today," I said.
The boys of Varanasi were practicing for an upcoming kite festival, he explained. It was a big deal. "Prizes. Very important. Lots of money." He smiled and looked up again.
I leaned against the parapet and took in the city one last time. Tomorrow I was hopping a plane back up to Delhi. With my eye I traced one of those thin kite lines down to its owner, a small boy standing on a nearby rooftop. Then I noticed other children standing on the buildings all around me. In a city of rooftops, it seemed each held a boy cupping a ball of string, fishing line in fact, at the end of which swam a swirling kite somewhere up there in the clouds, dipping and pulling, like spirits on their way.
IF YOU GO
Air India offers daily non-stop service from Toronto to New Delhi with frequent connecting flights to Varanasi.
WHERE TO STAY IN VARANASI
Radisson Hotel; the Mall, Cantonment, 221002; from $130
WHERE (AND WHERE NOT) TO EAT
Most restaurants are still very cheap in India. Street food is ubiquitous; but unless you're a seasoned pro it's commonly recommended you don't go there. Stomach issues for those unaccustomed can end up ruining your trip. It's simple enough to find a great, safe restaurant meal for well under $10. For the same reason, stick to bottled water only.
- Phulwarie Restaurant and Sami Cafe D37/33 (Near Bright Studio) Godowlia; this charming and inexpensive outdoor patio, overflowing with palms and good vibes, is a great place to fuel up on delicious curries while taking a breather from the hectic street just beyond the crumbling stone arches.
- Ganga Fuji D5/8 Kalika Gali, Dashaswamedh; excellent and affordable with a basic but well-positioned rooftop patio that offers a breathtaking view of the city and the mother Ganges.
- Lotus Lounge 14/21 Mansarowar Ghat; international cuisine on a terrace overlooking the Ganges.
WHEN TO GO
In north-central India, the thermometer in summertime often reaches the mid-40s and winter months can be cold and damp. Autumn and early springtime are your best bets to go.
Dennis Bock was a guest of Air India and the India Government Tourist Office.
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"Why do you read that stuff?" many of us are asked. Those who don't read fantasy often don't understand why we would want to read about places that don't exist, populated with creatures that can't exist, doing things that can't happen. We might struggle with an answer, mentioning how exciting fantasy is, how it allows us to use our imagination, how in fantasy anything can happen. Or, if we've faced this attitude too many times before, we might simply shrug and walk away. But whatever our response, it often seems to be lacking something, to be inadequate to describe the true appeal of fantasy. And that's because it's very hard even for us to articulate why, exactly, we are so drawn to fantasy fiction.
In his essay "On Fairy-Stories," J.R.R. Tolkien says that fantasy deals with "the adventures of men in the Perilous Realm." This "Perilous Realm" is a place he calls Faerie, the location where a fantasy takes place, an enchanted land that cannot be described directly: "Faerie cannot be caught in a net of words; for it is one of its qualities to be indescribable."
By Faerie, Tolkien does not mean some sort of pretty fairyland, with little pink sprites flying from flower to flower singing songs. He means something more powerful, more elemental. But what, exactly? If it can't be described in words, how the heck can I explain to my husband why I want to visit this place instead of cleaning the house?
While most authors and critics shy away from an exact definition of Faerie, most agree that this land must contain two elements: beauty and terror.
Beauty seems pretty easy to explain. Who wouldn't want to take a vacation to a beautiful place, to see the sunset-tinted heights of a mountain range or experience the peaceful beauty of a still mountain lake? And the beauty of Faerie is even greater. Again, we should not mistake cuteness for beauty. Faerie is not the land where the Smurfs live. The beauty of Faerie is a beauty that transcends our world. It is something we can only experience in our minds (which may explain the failure of most fantasy movies).
But why must Faerie contain terror? And if it does, why do we want to visit this Perilous Realm? Excitement? Perhaps. But I think there's more to it than that. If the beauty we see truly is transcendent, greater than anything we've experienced, sublime, then it will create in us a feeling of awe, that overwhelming sense of mixed wonder and dread we feel in the face of greatness that surpasses our understanding. And I think this is the emotion we all wish to feel when we read a fantasy.
Awe is a powerful emotion; equal parts wonder and terror, and it is a signal to us that we have reached Faerie, that we have reached the truly unknown, the truly fantastical, the truly imagined. Awe strikes us and overwhelms us, and it runs deep into our hearts with an intensity few emotions have.
One of the reasons awe is so powerful and so desirable is because it works on the deepest level in which a work of art--a story, in this case--can affect us. A truly great work of art causes a reaction in us called "artistic arrest." This term is used most often with paintings and sculpture, but it is equally valid in a discussion of stories. Artistic arrest occurs when the art seizes and holds you. It's that moment when your mind engages the story and you enter into the creative process, recreating the artist's images in your own mind; the moment of revelation when you say, "A-ha!"; the moment when you feel the same emotions that the artist felt, and those emotions are so overwhelming that you are literally stopped. Arrested. I can think of no better description of awe, or of the distinctive pleasure associated with reading fantasy.
This suggests an intimate bond between fantasy and art. Not only can a fantasy story be great art; the entire genre of fantasy stories is in some sense focused on creating the essence of great art, through the emotion of awe and its resulting artistic arrest. And we, as readers of fantasy, are searching for great art, and for that transcendent experience it provides.
So the next time someone asks you, "Why do you read that stuff?" you might try answering, "To experience beauty, terror, and artistic arrest." This still won't get you out of cleaning the house, but it may make your questioner start to wonder what he's missing.
Most voracious readers make their regular visits to the bookstore to visit their favorite sections, check out all the new releases, pick through the older titles, and search for new works by favorite authors. Yet most of us never stop to consider why the various publishers have chosen these particular few books, out of all the thousands of works submitted to them each year, to publish. Some of us have a vague idea that the publishers pick the "best" manuscripts to publish. But quality is not the main factor that governs a publisher's decision to publish a particular book.
Before I discuss the most important factor in a publisher's decision, let me stress that quality is a factor in every good publisher's decisions. Editors and publishers want to produce a good quality "product" just like any other manufacturer. Their job, especially in the fantasy field, is to entertain, and if their products are not entertaining, readers will get their products elsewhere.
If quality is important, then are editors simply looking for any good manuscript to publish? No. Publishers specialize in certain types of books, just like clothing stores specialize in certain styles of clothes and cater to certain types of people. A manuscript might be great, but if it doesn't fit into the type of books the publisher specializes in, then that publisher will not publish it. For example, if an author submits the best biography of Abraham Lincoln ever written to a fiction publisher, that publisher won't want to take on the book. They don't have the expertise and the contacts developed to sell this type of book; it's not where their strength lies.
The publisher does not simply publish a random collection of "good books" each month; they publish books that fit into the various categories in which they specialize. For example, Hobbit Publishing may publish ten paperback books a month: one lead, two fantasies, three science fiction, two romances, one mystery, one health. (The lead book is the one expected to sell the most copies and would most likely be by a best-selling author. It might be in any of the categories Hobbit publishes.) So you can see that if you send Hobbit a biography, or a Western they're not going to be interested. This list of categories published by Hobbit is called their "list" (if you've ever submitted a novel to a publisher, you may have received the infamous rejection, "this manuscript is not suitable for our list at this time").
The list may be even more specific than this. For example, those two fantasies published by Hobbit may be broken down into one Medieval-style fantasy and one game tie-in fantasy. Similarly, the three science fiction titles per month could be one military SF, one near-future SF, and one sociological SF. If a manuscript doesn't fit into one of these categories, then chances are good it won't be published by Hobbit.
So why do publishers limit themselves to only certain types of books? Well, these are the books that in the past have "worked" for the publisher, meaning they've sold well and made the publisher a profit. This means the publisher knows how to publish this kind of book: they know the type of books in this category that interest and entertain the consumer, the right covers to draw attention, the best marketing techniques to spread the word to this audience. And they probably have built a good reputation with readers of this category. If a category stops being profitable, then it's eliminated from the list. Hobbit would constantly reevaluate its various categories and chart their sales. Categories can be added as well. If another publisher, say Orc Books, has great success with a Western, Hobbit may decide to try adding a Western category. Publishers constantly keep an eye on trends and on how the competition is doing to make sure they're not missing out on anything.
While the composition of the list is the major element underlying every decision the publisher makes, other factors influence the publisher as well. The sales of an author's previous books, the amount of money the author wants for a manuscript, the expense in production of certain books (like full color, illustrated, or very long books), and changes in the marketplace all affect publishers when they are deciding whether or not to take on a specific book. So next time you go into a bookstore and see all those shiny new releases, think about the decisions that have shaped the selection of books offered to you. And then, using your own selection process, pick the one you're going to take home with you.
For this guest editorial I'd like to share a theory I have on fantasy's dark side--supernatural horror. A few months ago, I moved from New York City, where I'd been an editor at Dell Publishing, to New Hampshire, where I'm a freelance editor and college professor. A strange thing happened after I'd spent a few days in the little house in the woods where I now live. I started imagining Evil Dead entities rushing through the woods toward me, imagining bogeymen outside coming to get me. These are thoughts I hadn't had for years. Mind you, in New York City I was scared of someone coming to get me, but it wasn't the bogeyman; it was the guy who'd broken into the apartment downstairs and tied up the two women living there while he spent all night going through their costume jewelry piece by piece. But I didn't spend much energy worrying about supernatural entities. Now it's not necessary that you worry about these things in order to enjoy horror. In New York I edited and enjoyed many horror novels. But in New Hampshire I felt my imagination opening, exploring the dark side of the fantasy spectrum with a terrific thrill. In fact, I spent most of my first night in this house awake, cowering under the blankets, certain that something was trying to get in.
As the founder of the Abyss horror line of books, I've often been asked if I think the downturn in horror book sales over the past seven years signals that horror is dead. I've heard many people say that our world today contains such horrors in it that it's impossible to imagine anything scarier than reality. Well, I don't buy that. I don't know about you, but in the middle of the night I can imagine some pretty hair-raising stuff.
I believe that reading horror is, in one sense, a type of play. The thrill of hide-and-seek with the stakes raised. The thrill of tickling your friend until she screams, or being tickled until you scream. But if you play hide-and-seek for a living (say between the subway and your apartment), it isn't much fun to play it in your free time. And if your skin is constantly crawling with sensations, tickling won't do much for you. It's not that reality is more frightening than anything we can imagine, but that reality constantly elicits minor fears that limit and control the way we think. To escape from their fear, people want to feel the opposite, to feel safe and secure. While as a child I went to dusk-to-dawn horrorthon drive-ins with my mom (free packet of green blood with admission), today's kids want Barney or The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. Where once The Omen and Rosemary's Baby had us enthralled by the devil, people today only want to read about angels. Even the holiday of Halloween has been overshadowed by fear. Kids up here go trick-or-treating in the afternoon, in broad daylight, with all their treats checked for tampering. Many people are afraid of so many things, they don't want to play anymore. Imagining that slavering, soul-sucking monster in the closet just isn't the fun it used to be.
And so our imaginations can become constricted, limited. We live so much among people, in a world shaped and regulated by people, it's hard to imagine any non-human force having a significant impact. Up here in the woods, if I look at some trees and imagine what's behind them, I'm free to imagine an eight-tentacled green vampire-creature. Back in the city, if I look down an alley and imagine what's hiding there, I'm going to have to work through a lot of more realistic possibilities--a mugger, a rapist, a psycho--before I can get to the good stuff.
So back to New Hampshire. People are still killed, robbed, stabbed every day. But I'm just not too worried about any of these things happening to me (these people leave their doors unlocked ). I'm more open to the idea of playing with things that go bump in the night, more hungry for eerie, terrifying experiences.
Does that mean supernatural horror is doomed? No. Many of us are intrepid souls who will seek out the horrors no matter what real life fears we live with. But I think our numbers will grow, and we will all be freer to play, to revel in the dark, when we find some respite in the real world.
Children of the Vampire: The Diaries of the Family Dracul;
by Jeanne Kalogridis; Dell, NY; 368 pp.; mass market paperback; $5.99
The Diaries of the Family Dracul trilogy attempts a very difficult task: to create a backstory for Bram Stoker's Dracula that deepens and increases our enjoyment of that classic. And it succeeds. Children of the Vampire, the second book in the trilogy, takes place in the years approaching the events in Dracula, and tells the story of Dracula and his descendants. If you've ever wondered why Dracula is immortal, you'll get your answer here, and it will haunt you. It seems that when, as a mortal, Dracula sensed he was going to die, he made a pact with the devil: if Dracula (also known as Vlad Tsepesh) could corrupt the eldest son of each Tsepesh generation, the devil would allow him to continue to live.
In the first book, Dracula faces his greatest problem with Arkady, the eldest son of the current Tsepesh generation, who is a good man and will not be corrupted. If he dies before his soul is corrupted, Dracula's pact with the devil will be broken, and Dracula will die. We left Arkady at the end of the first book near death. Unable to corrupt him, Dracula takes a desperate step. He bites Arkady, transforming him into a vampire. Arkady has not been corrupted, but he has been trapped between life and death, so technically Dracula has not failed. He has bought himself time to corrupt Arkady's son, Stefan.
Arkady is a fascinating character. A devoted husband and father, haunted by the sins of his family, he now finds himself to be the same type of monster as the one he so despises. Only by embracing the vampire life and learning its secrets can he grow strong enough to one day defeat Dracula. We see him torn between the bloodlust of vampirism, the bitterness that drives his desire for revenge, and the love for his family.
Mary, Arkady's wife, believes he is dead and marries another man, Jan Van Helsing. After some years Jan dies, leaving Mary with two sons now in their twenties: Stefan, Arkady's son, and Abraham, an adopted son. When Stefan is kidnapped by one of Dracula's minions, Arkady rescues him and explains Stefan's heritage to him, warning him of Dracula's intentions. But Dracula will not be stopped and soon kidnaps Stefan successfully. Arkady tells Abraham it is now up to him to rescue his brother and kill Dracula. The vampire can only be killed by the hand of a human.
In the tradition of Dracula, this is a story of forbidden passions. Stefan is in love with Abraham's wife, which drives a wedge between the two brothers. And Arkady must struggle to control the constant underlying presence of the bloodlust, which at times overwhelms him. Children of the Vampire is also a story of true evil, as Dracula toys with, tortures, and murders his victims.
Each character in the novel is well drawn, compelling, and each evolves over the course of the story, changing sometimes for the better and sometimes for the worse.
But the strongest element is the plot. Kalogridis skillfully weaves her narrative with Stoker's, adding new layers of resonance to the story and amazingly, providing us with surprise after surprise in territory that we all know--or we all think we know--very well. The result is a brilliant, terrifying, compelling story that provides a significant addition to this fascinating myth.
The Merlin Chronicles;
edited by Mike Ashley; Carroll C. Graf, NY; 464 pp.; Paperback; $12.95.
The character of Merlin has fascinated man since the appearance of Geoffrey of Monmouth's Prophecies of Merlin in 1134 and even before. As part of the Arthurian legend, he has been one of the most written-about characters in literature. And of the characters that are part of the Arthurian legend, Merlin is the most mysterious. The Merlin Chronicles is an anthology of stories about this most fascinating of personalities, and it presents a wide variety of interpretations and treatments. The danger with this type of anthology is that by the time you reach the end, you'll know more about the character than you ever wanted to know, and you'll be sick to death of the subject. But The Merlin Chronicles manages to feed your hunger for knowledge about Merlin, while simultaneously leaving you hungry for more. A trick worthy of Merlin. The mystery of Merlin only grows as you read.
Mike Ashley provides a good introduction to the origins of Merlin and his appearances in literature over the ages. This will get you up to speed and give you a full appreciation of the references in the stories to come. The stories cover the full range of Merlin's life and loves.
In "Dream Reader," Jane Yolen provides an enchanting story of Merillin's (Merlin's) boyhood, following the orphan as he is adopted by a traveling mage, Ambrosius, and a bard, Viviane. Merillin at this point is innocent and good, but his life seems precarious, haunted by a growing sense of danger. We can feel the forces beginning to work which will eventually spell his doom.
Tanith Lee, in "King's Mage," paints a bittersweet portrait of Merlinus in old age. His magic is fake, but it has earned him the respect, reverence, and even love of King Arthur and his subjects. In return, Merlinus gives them, through some wine doctored with mushrooms, a vision of ultimate beauty and hope, a vision of the Grail.
In "Merlin Dreams in the Mondream Wood," Charles de Lint gives us another view of Merlin in old age, imprisoned in a tree in which only a young girl can see him. This poetic story dramatizes the difference between the way an adult sees nature and the way a child sees it, as Wordsworth says, with "the glory and the freshness of a dream."
We also learn more about the characters who surround Merlin. Marion Zimmer Bradley, for example, reworks a section of The Mists of Avalon to create "The Pledged Word," the intriguing story of the childhood of Nimue, whose life will later intertwine with Merlin's.
Other contributors, including Robert Holdstock, Jennifer Roberson, Jessica Amanda Salmonson, Esther Friesner, and Darrell Schweitzer, provide a range of stories from the traditional to the bizarre, providing tantalizing glimpses of different facets of Merlin's character. Yet like the magician that he is, Merlin manages to keep his true essence, the one image that unites them all, just beyond our sight, keeping the mystery of Merlin alive and vital. And this many-faceted personality is only appropriate for one whose origins combine so many influences and sources, from myth, legend, and history, yet underneath come from just one place: man's inmost self.
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“Don’t worry. She won’t break.”
This is a classic cliché of new parenthood. “Don’t worry,” nurses say to insecure new parents hesitant to hold their infants. “She won’t break.”
But I know the truth: Babies can break. I broke when I was eight months old, and a year old, and again and again and again. Three dozen broken bones before my twelfth birthday.
And then, at 31, I passed a flawed gene on to my daughter—the gene that caused my osteogenesis imperfecta (OI or “brittle bone disease”) and makes bones fragile instead of resilient.
For my daughter’s second birthday, we bought a child-sized couch to provide a safe place for her—our tiny, fragile girl—to climb without the risk of tumbling from the regular couch to the floor. As she climbed around on the new mini-couch, she fell and broke her leg.
I could not make up a better introduction to the capricious disorder we live with. Last year, my daughter (now 12) fell down a flight of stairs while lining up for a choir concert. She was embarrassed, but fine. A few months ago, she was putting away a laptop computer in her science class when her arm cracked under its weight.
Between her second and fourth birthdays, my daughter had six broken bones. At the same time, my husband and I were grappling with whether, and how, to have another baby. Every child of mine has a 50 percent chance of inheriting OI. While I adored this child with her golden curls and limitless curiosity, I also longed for assurance that our next child might break an arm falling down the stairs but never putting away a laptop.
We went through one cycle of preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD), which is in vitro fertilization (IVF) with the added step of screening embryos for particular genetic mutations. Of the four embryos produced from our sperm and eggs, only one did not have my OI mutation. Two weeks after that little bundle of hope was transferred to my uterus, my pregnancy test came back negative.
By that time, the desire that had seemed so simple—to have a strong-boned baby—had become complicated. PGD is emotionally and physically exhausting. It is expensive. But even if we could pay for another cycle, I was no longer sure I wanted to.
The staff at our fertility clinic told us many things—about success rates and health risks and appointment schedules and how to snap the top off a glass vial of powdered hormones, add sterile water, draw the concoction into a syringe, and jam it into the roll of pudge under my belly button.
They did not tell us that our PGD treatment would lead us down a twisted path choked with hard questions about choice, responsibility, and suffering. Questions about whether it is a good or bad thing for parents to choose particular traits for our children to inherit—or not. Questions about whether fertility medicine feeds on a culture that expects parents to meet higher and higher standards for raising successful, healthy children. Questions about what technology designed to prevent the birth of children with genetic disabilities says about the value of people living with those disabilities, like me and my daughter. Questions about whether parents have a moral duty to prevent our children’s suffering.
The weight of those questions, combined with the financial and emotional costs of PGD, was too much. We did not do another cycle.
Instead, we conceived another baby naturally. I knew we could very well end up with another fragile baby. I also knew I could not stomach the sickening lurch of uncertainty I had felt during my oldest daughter’s earliest days, when we suspected she had OI, but did not yet know for sure. This time around, I needed to know, from the beginning, exactly what we were dealing with. I had an amniocentesis done. A few weeks later, the phone call came letting us know that our second daughter did not inherit OI. Two years later, we got the same news about the baby boy who completed our family.
Our journey through PGD, with all of those awful questions, rubbed me raw. But it uncovered a hard, shining truth: If either of those amnios had come back positive, I would have welcomed and adored another fragile baby.
I know, from the most strenuous sort of experience, that life with a broken body can be rich, full, and happy. In the end, I embraced my imperfect body, accepting both its miraculous ability to bear babies, and its heartbreaking ability to transmit pain. I also know that little girls should not break their legs falling off a child’s couch. OI is a menace. I will never stop feeling grateful that our younger two children escaped it. I will never stop grieving that our oldest daughter did not, even as I cannot imagine her being anyone other than the smart, lovely young woman she is becoming.
I do not know whether the choices we made were good or bad, right or wrong. We have the children we have—all three much-wanted, beautiful, imperfect, beloved. We made the choices we made. All I know for sure is that none of them were easy.
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Class offerings for young students (5-7) focus on basic music, listening and practice skills with a Kodaly instructor. Classes for middle and high school students offer thorough professional instruction for new instruments to prepare for school band, and providing a resource for future needs. Specialty group classes offer opportunities for adults and older students who may not otherwise have access to musical instruction.
Registration is available for classes online, or in person by visiting West Valley Music. All classes are held at 262 Castro Street. Missed classes by students are not available for make-up. Visit westvalleymusic.com or call (650) 961-1566 for more information.
Sing, Dance, Play Camp
Prerequisite: 5-6 years old only
Duration: 5 day course, 50 minutes per class
Session 1=June 20th - 24th, 5-5:50pm
Session 2= June 27th - July 1st, 5-5:50pm
Tuition: $100 per student
Class limit: 10 kids per session
Prerequisite: All student enrolled in this class must be able to attend without the supervision of parents/caregivers.
Duration: 6 weeks
Dates: WEDNESDAYS 3:10 - 3:55pm, June 29, July 6, 13, 20, 27 and August 3
Prerequisite: 6-7 years old only; Practice is required and parents/caregivers must be in attendance.
Duration: 6 weeks
Dates: THURSDAYS 4-4:50pm, June 30, July 7, 14, 21, 28 and August 4
Class limit: 5
Instructor Angely Chen holds a Masters in Music Education with a Kodaly Emphasis from Holy Names College, Oakland, CA. She is a Kindermusik Licensed Educator and has taken Suzuki Piano and Montessori Education courses. As a music educator for more than a decade, Angely has taught choir and hundreds of classes (K-5) with Kodaly methodology in the Mountain View Whisman, Cambrian and Los Altos School Districts. Her teaching experience also includes working with preschool students at the Child Development Center of DeAnza College. As a mentor teacher, clinician and guest speaker, Angely has worked with teachers, providing music education training programs and workshops through the South Bay Teacher's Association and other groups.
Instrument Safari and Jumpstart (middle and high school students)
Kids can take a guided tour through the jungle of instruments. Hands-on exploration with a highly skilled professional will help kids to find the best possible instrument choice. Class limit of 10 students.
Safari Guide Ronnie Cato is an accomplished composer, singer/songwriter, musician, music promoter, sound engineer, and teacher, with experience teaching privately and with the Hayward School District as an instrumental program teacher. He currently serves as the orchestra director at Mt. Eden High School.
Dates and times: June 22, 29, July 13, August 2, 4, 5. Either 6-8pm OR 5:30-7:30.please check website for exact time.
Tuition: $25 per student; includes $10 coupon towards 6 month rental.
Designed to give students of any age a jump-start on a band instrument before school starts with an experienced, specialized professional teacher. Beginners start learning in a more relaxed setting, with dedicated attention and a focus on addressing key parts of the learning curve to prepare for participation in band. Rental included the entire duration of the class.
Tuition: $100 per session
Instruments offered: Flute, Clarinet, Saxophone, Trumpet, French horn, Trombone
Summer Session is June 1- August 31, 2011. Missed classes by students are not available for make-up.
Band instrument rentals are included in tuition.
Saxophone and Clarinet students are responsible for purchasing their own reeds.
Students are responsible for purchasing their own book for the course.
Specialty Group Class: Adult Guitar
Designed to give adult students a jump-start into learning a new instrument of their choice in a group lesson setting and taught by a practicing professional guitarist, Jim Wetzel. With over twenty-five years experience teaching acoustic and electric guitar to beginners, intermediate and advanced students in folk, popular, blues, rock and jazz styles, Jim has taught at the Community School of Music and Art, Joplin and Sweeney Music, San Francisco State, and Santa Clara University, among other local institutions.
Class limit: 6 students
Duration: 3 weeks, Tuesdays 5-6pm, June 14, 21, 28
Tuition: $100 per student
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Through the support of the Green Lane Project, an initiative that aims to bring more bike-friendly infrastructure to cities across the country, the District is starting the planning process for new lanes for cyclists.
They're mapped along L and M Streets, NW, and 1st Street as well as near Union Station.
To help fund the effort, D.C has received grants from the bicycle nonprofit, Bikes Belong Foundation. The new bike lanes are expected to be in place within the next two years.
Bicycling Magazine recently named the District as the fourth best city for bicyclists.
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I’m an admitted bowhunting tinkerer. I’m always looking to learn more. I will start by saying this not a speed thing. Speed is easy to figure. Less weight equals more speed but I’m thinking in terms of a bowhunting setup rather than a 3D, target setup. By more I mean efficiency from the bow and increased penetration. I talking in terms of the Kinetic Energy (KE) and Momentum (MO) outputs compared to draw weight and arrow weight so I started messing around with my arrow weight. For this test I used an older Bowtech (2006 Justice) set at 64 pounds. I used a variety of tip weights and arrow tubes and weight washers to hit the grain weights exactly. I used a “Chrony” brand Chronograph. I started with an IBO arrow weight of 5 grains of total arrow weight (all components) per pound of bow draw weight. This is the arrow weight that advertised speeds are derived from. I then experimented with increasing arrow weights. The following results were achieved.
Arrow wgt: 5 grains per pound of draw x 64 Lbs = 320 grain arrow.
Arrow speed (5 shot average): 277.5 FPS
KE: 54.5 ft/lbs
Efficiency factor (KE divided by draw wgt): 54.5 divided by 64 = .843 Next I tried 6 grains per pound
Arrow wgt. 6 grains per pound of draw x 64 = 384 grain arrow.
Arrow speed: 256.1 FPS
KE: 55.9 ft/lbs
Efficiency factor (KE divided by draw wgt.): 55.9 divided by 64 = .874 Next I tried 7 grains per pound of draw
Arrow wgt. 7 grains per pound of draw x 64 lbs = 420 grain arrow.
Arrow speed: 238.3 FPS
KE: 56.4 ft/lbs
Efficiency factor (KE divided by draw wgt.): 56.4 divided by 64 = .883Next I tried 8 grains per pound of draw
Arrow wgt. 8 grains per pound of draw x 64 lbs = 512 grain arrow.
Arrow speed: 226 FPS
KE: 58 ft/lbs
Efficiency factor (KE divided by draw wgt.): 58 divided by 64 = .908Next I tried 9 grains per pound of draw
Arrow wgt. 9 grains per pound of draw x 64 lbs = 576 grain arrow.
Arrow speed: 214 FPS
KE: 58.5 ft/lbs
Efficiency factor (KE divided by draw wgt.): 58.5 divided by 64 = .915Next I tried 10 grains per pound of draw
Arrow wgt. 10 grains per pound of draw x 64 lbs = 640 grain arrow.
Arrow speed: 203 FPS
KE: 58.5 ft/lbs
Efficiency factor (KE divided by draw wgt.): 58.5 divided by 64 = .915Next I tried 11 grains per pound of draw
Arrow wgt. 11 x 64 = 704 grain arrow.
Arrow speed: 190 FPS
KE: 56.4 ft/lbs
Efficiency factor (KE divided by draw wgt.): 56.4 divided by 64 = .881
Seeing I crossed the point of diminishing returns in efficiency and KE, I didn’t go any farther.
At the bottom of this you will find a graphical representation of the above data.
Allow me to ponder. Back in 1985 I bought a compound bow and used it for 21 years before buying the BowTech mentioned above. That old bow set at 70 pounds and shot a heavy aluminum arrow with a 145 grain broadhead a blazing 197 feet per second. By today’s standards, such a bow could never kill a deer but with that bow I killed countless deer as well as bear and small game and other critters and I always got a pass thru. I cannot recall a single instance where any game animal ran off with my arrow.
As far as this test goes, as expected, heavier arrows provided more power and efficiency but only to a point. It would appear that the sweet spot that can obtained from this bow comes from using a 9 grain per pound of draw weight arrow even though momentum continued to increase. Regardless of the bow you use, there is an arrow weight that will provide the maximum impact performance and efficiency. That being said, arrow lethality is not any one single factor but is a combination of several factors.
1. Shot placement (no amount of math will make up for a poorly placed shot)
2. Broadhead sharpness and design.
3. Impact force (KE and MO)
Provided you can hit your target, having all 3 will maximize arrow lethality with shot placement trumping all but in the real world of bowhunting, things happen that are beyond our control. There will be times when shot placement is not what we would have hoped for and that’s we rely on broadhead sharpness/design and impact force to bail us out of a less than perfect situation. Since we as bowhunters have control over the efficiency of our bow arrow combination and broadhead selection, we would do well to maximize those aspects of our set-up. Are you getting the most out of your bow/arrow combination? Would a heavier arrow/broadhead combination give you that edge when things don’t go exactly as planned? You no doubt paid top dollar for your hunting rig so why not get the most from your investment by squeezing every ounce of killing power out of your investment? You bought your broadheads based on a combination of hunter recommendation, hunting shows and magazine ads. You bought your arrows probably based on name and what the spine charts told you to use but neither of these are customized to you and your bow to perform at optimum bowhunting conditions.
None of this will come as a shock to traditional bowhunters using a stick and string. They have long known the advantages of high arrow weight to draw weight for penetration but the modern compound bow market is stuck in the speed fad and all advertising seems to be based on feet per second as if that were the end all and be all of bow performance. Speed is only one part of the equation. But the current fad is speed and from a bowhunters perspective we consider speed when thinking in terms of things like yardage estimation but rangefinders have all but negated that. Another consideration for arrow speed is the effect of speed in regards to a deer’s ability to jump the string but please consider the following. If your bow provides the maximum in performance with a heaver arrow at 250 FPS vs 300 FPS you are still better off with a more efficient performing bow/arrow because a few FPS means nothing to a deer’s ears since sound travels from your bow to a deer at 1,126 feet per second. A few feet per second of bow speed pales in comparison to the speed of sound. Even with the fastest bows on the market at 360 FPS, the sound of your intentions will reach the deer more than 3 times faster than your arrow will.
Having bowhunted for 35 years and knowing many many bowhunters I can say with great confidence that bowhunters are some of the cheapest hunters on the planet. We are always trying to do the most by spending the least but is saving a few bucks robbing you of a few big bucks or does or antelope or bear? Arrows are not cheap but weight tubes and broadhead weight collars are so you have the ability to maximize (or at least improve) your bow’s performance without breaking the bank. We tend to spend a boat load of money on a bow but scrimp on the things that kill game (arrows and broadheads) Perhaps after spending all that money on the broadhead delivery system, there is little left for the one piece of gear that actually kills the deer. After experimenting with the performance of your bow you have to ask yourself some questions. Is the 100 grain broadhead market where you should be shopping? Will your rig perform better with a 125 or even 220 grain head? Are 7.8 grain per inch arrows better penetration or would 9 grains per inch perform better? The off season is long but it gives bowhunters the opportunity to refine and experiment to put the odds in their favor.
So how does the hunting archer test and evaluate and experiment to get increased performance for his bow? You will need a chronograph. If you don’t own one, perhaps your local archery club does (another good reason to be affiliated with a local club). You can also visit a local archery dealership and for a few dollars and with an assortment of field tip weights, weight washers, weight tubes, weed trimmer line and even masking tape to get you to the weight you want, you can find out the sweet spot that will give you better performance from your bowhunting gear. Perhaps you can maximize performance with a few weight collars and/or a weight tube inside your arrow. Using weed trimmer line to boost your arrow weight which reminds me of a story. I was contacted by a whitetail bowhunting friend who planned to go out west on an American bison hunt and he was looking to optimize the output from his 70 pound compound. He knew his 375 grain whitetail arrow was not going to cut it for such a big animal. After a little experimenting we ended up with brass inserts, a 200 grain broadhead and 4 lengths of weed trimmer line inside his arrow which brought him to a hefty 700 grain arrow (10 grains per pound of draw). The performance and penetrating ability of his arrow ended the life of a 1,700 Bison at 35 yards. His arrow passed through both sides of the chest of the roughly 3 foot wide beast. This might be a bit extreme for thin skinned whitetails but hopefully you get my point. Maximizing a bows output puts the odds in your favor for making a quick, clean, good penetrating and ethical kill regardless of the size of your prey. Personally I find it objectionable for a game animal to run off carrying an arrow not to mention the increased difficulty in blood trailing a deer with no exit hole. If that happens, there was a breakdown in at least one of the three points of arrow lethality mentioned above.
If speed is your thing, the answer is easy, shoot an IBO weight arrow weight but I caution using an arrow lighter than that since less than 5 grains per pound of draw risks voiding your bow’s warranty so be aware that too light an arrow comes with some risks. There were other things I noticed as I increased arrow weight. Bow noise and vibration felt in the hand dropped as arrow weight increased. Both are a good thing for bowhunters. Also, there was a noticeable increase in penetration into my target as I reached 11 grains per pound of draw due to the ever increasing momentum. This pondering turned out much lengthier than I originally anticipated, thanks for listening. I hope you were able to pull something of value from it.
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Catherine "Kate" Bush, CBE (born 30 July 1958) is an English singer-songwriter, musician and record producer. Her eclectic musical style and idiosyncratic vocal style have made her one of the United Kingdom's most successful solo female performers of the past 35 years.
In 1978, at the age of 19, Bush topped the UK Singles Chart for four weeks with her debut single "Wuthering Heights", becoming the first woman to have a UK number one with a self-written song. She has since released ten albums, three of which topped the UK Albums Chart, and has had 25 UK Top 40 hit singles including the Top 10 hits "Wuthering Heights", "Running Up that Hill", "King of the Mountain", "Babooshka", "The Man with the Child in His Eyes", and "Don't Give Up".
In 1987, she won a Brit Award for Best British Female Solo Artist, and in 2002, her songwriting ability was recognised with an Ivor Novello Award for Outstanding Contribution to British Music. During the course of her career, she has also been nominated for three Grammy Awards. After her 1979 tour – the only concert tour of her career – Bush released the 1980 album Never for Ever, which made her the first British solo female artist to top the UK album charts and the first female artist ever to enter the album chart at Number 1. She is also the first (and to date only) female artist to have Top 5 albums in the UK charts in 5 successive decades.
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When news happens, text LT and your photos and videos to 80360. Or contact us by email or phone.
Darwen theatre’s film festival will have green theme
A FILM festival with an environmental theme will come to Darwen next year.
The People and Planet Film Festival takes place at Darwen Library Theatre in Knott Street from February 9 to 22.
And organisers hope it will bring in film lovers to the town.
The festival has been organised by Blackburn with Darwen Council, in conjunction with Community Rail Lancashire.
The idea behind the event is that people will travel to the festival by train – a greener mode of transport than car.
A range of films will be shown, but which ones are is still to be announced.
The Library Theatre is well equipped to show films as it hosts Darwen Library Theatre Film Society on a regular basis.
A spokesperson said: “It is all about us, people, we are the ones having the biggest impact on the planet and the aim of the Film Festival is to show how pro-environmental choices can be easy, normal and attractive through the medium of entertaining and informative films. Climate change will pose many challenges to our way of life but how do we approach these challenges? The People and Planet Film Festival celebrates what an amazingly diverse place it is we live in and how unique we all are.
“Schools and community groups will be invited to watch a film and explore related issues on Monday February 11 and 18 and Tuesday 12 and 19.”
For information or if you want to get involved, contact email@example.com or visit peopleplanetfilmfest.wordpress.com.
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Gilbert Raymond Hodges was born on April 4, 1924, in Princeton, Indiana, but he was a part of Brooklyn; a New York baseball treasure, a naturalized Brooklyn “Bum.”
Hodges was 19 when he played third base for one game with the Dodgers in late 1943. He struck out twice and walked, then marched away as a WWII draftee in the Marines.
He returned to the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947 as a catcher, but on the insistence of Roy Campanella, he was moved to first base. Manager Leo Durocher said: “With my catching set, I put a first baseman’s glove on our other rookie catcher, Gil Hodges, and told him to have some fun. Three days later, I looked up and wow, I was looking at the best first baseman I’d seen since Dolf Camilli.”
Hodges proved to be the Dodgers’ Lou Gehrig — big, strong and gentle. He was 6 foot, one-and-a-half inches tall and weighed 200 pounds. The three-time Gold Glove winner played first base gracefully. His hands were so large that teammates joked that he didn’t even need a glove. His quick footwork provoked the allegation that he rarely had his foot on the bag for his putouts.
Hodges married a Brooklyn girl, Joan Lombardi, in 1948, and settled down in Flatbush to raise their four children. “If you had a son,” Pee Wee Reese once said, “it would be a great thing to have him grow up to be just like Gil Hodges.”
On August 31, 1950, against the Braves, Hodges hit four homers. His 40 home runs in 1951 were second only to Ralph Kinter’s 42, but he struck out a league-high 99 times.
He reached career highs in 1954, hitting .304 with 42 home runs and 130 RBI (second to Ted Kluszewski’s 49 and 141). During the 1952 World Series loss to the Yankees, Hodges went a dreadful 0-for-21, and prayers were said for the beloved Dodger in churches all across Brooklyn. In the following year’s Series he hit .364. Hodges homered in each of his last four World Series, his shots winning 1956’s Game One and 1959’s Game Four for the Dodgers.
Hodges played with the Brooklyn Dodgers until their move to Los Angeles in 1958. He went with them and played on the L.A. Dodgers team through 1963. Hodges ended his playing career with the New York Mets. He hit the first homer in their history on April 11, 1962, at St. Louis. Though he began the 1963 season with the Mets, he was sent to Washington, and took over as manager of the struggling Senators, who were 14-26 under Mickey Vernon. In five seasons, the best Hodges could do was a sixth-place finish in 1967.
Hodges was traded back to the Mets as manager in exchange for pitcher Bill Denehy and cash. His 1968 club finished ninth, but the following season, Hodges took the Mets to the pennant, skillfully platooning at five positions. The Mets swept the Braves in the League Series and took the World Series from Baltimore in five games. Hodges managed the Mets to a third-place finish in 1970.
Hodges died suddenly of a heart attack after a spring training golf game on April 2, 1972, two days before his 48th birthday. In 1978, a bridge that had opened in 1937 to provide access to the Rockaway Peninsula had Hodges’ name added to make it “The Marine Parkway Gil Hodges Memorial Bridge.” Brooklyn has also honored him with the Gil Hodges Little League team and the Gil Hodges Community Garden in Park Slope.
During 16 years on the regular Baseball Hall of Fame ballot, Hodges received the highest total number of votes cast without being elected. In 14 of the 15 years, he finished among the top ten in balloting. Six of his teammates — Reese, Snider, Don Drysdale, Campanella, Koufax and Robinson — are in the Hall, along with former managers Alston and Durocher. Gil Hodges’ beloved No. 14 has yet to be called to take its rightful place alongside the other “Boys of Summer.”
The Hall of Fame can stand for another thousand years and invite another thousand men to join the ranks of baseball’s best. But until Hodges is included, Cooperstown will never be complete. The decision falls to the Hall of Fame’s Veterans’ Committee and with Hodges inevitably on the next ballot, you can bet the fans who continue to love his memory will be there championing for his ultimate place.
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Sniping exposes our cruel class system
Forty years after his death, two of Bruce Lee's siblings reminisce about their famous brother's life and a legacy that is inspiring a whole new generation of fighters. Jo Baker reports.
So the two top candidates to be the next chief executive decided to engage in a bit of class warfare over the weekend. Leung Chun-ying claims that rival Henry Tang Ying-yen and his Commission on Poverty have done nothing to alleviate the condition, which is actually getting worse. Tang replies that Leung never said a word about poverty in his long career in public service until he hit the campaign trail.
They are both right about each other. But you can hardly blame them. There is no quick fix for the poverty problem, the widening income gap and systemic inequality in our society. And chances are that whoever wins, he will not be committed to making the economic and social changes necessary to reverse the trend.
There is a class system in Hong Kong, at least in the form of a permanent underclass. The kind of social mobility we saw exemplified by our rags-to-riches tycoons is a thing of the past. Children born into lower income and underprivileged families today are at a serious disadvantage in terms of the quality of education and employment opportunities available. It is not that they cannot reach the top or at least make a better living than their parents, but with so much stacked against them, they start with a handicap and must struggle extra hard.
So both men are flirting with fire to raise such issues if they only want to score a few points for their campaigns. One particularly jarring publicity stunt was when both candidates rolled out their families this month for the camera. It is instructive that all their children have studied at international schools and/or overseas universities. Our local public schools are not equipped to train young people to meet the demands of the 21st century. But that is ok, because our upper middle class have always been sending their children to private schools and overseas, and they return as executives. But suffer the poor local children.
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Establish Early Childhood Coordinating Council
Will "establish an Early Childhood Coordinating Council in the Governor’s Office. The Council would lead the way to align efforts, measure progress and ensure accountability, ensure efficiency in resources and maximize federal dollars for these efforts."
Buried inside a wide-ranging package of education reform, a Promise Kept
Updated: Wednesday, July 6th, 2011 | By Ryan Kost
Gov. John Kitzhaber campaigned on a platform of wide-ranging education reform. Hardly a piece of the system went unmentioned -- including early-child hood education.
Along with promises to establish a new "Oregon Diploma,” link data systems and eliminate redundant standardized tests was a promise to establish an "Early Childhood Coordinating Council.”
According a position paper posted to the governor's campaign site, Kitzhaber would "establish an Early Childhood Coordinating Council in the Governor's Office. The council would lead the way to align efforts, measure progress and ensure accountability, ensure efficiency in resources and maximize federal dollars for these efforts."
It was a nice idea, but didn't have a chance of becoming reality unless the governor could wrangle enough support from the state Legislature.
On June 21 2009, the Oregon House gave final approval to Senate Bill 909. While the bill got most of its press for creating the Oregon Education Investment Board, which will oversee all aspects of state education, it also gave life to an Early Learning Council. The bill explains: "The council is established for the purpose of assisting the board in overseeing a unified system of early childhood services, including the funding and administration of those services.”
The measure, it should also be noted, gives the governor the power to appoint the council's nine members, effectively putting it -- and any potential action -- under his purview. (Another bill established the governor as the new superintendent of public education when the current officer holder's term ends.)
It remains to be seen just how effective this council will be and what sorts of policy changes it might endorse, but it's clear that the governor can count this as a Promise Kept.
We want to hear your suggestions and comments. Email the Oregon Truth-O-Meter with feedback and with claims you'd like to see checked. If you send us a comment, we'll assume you don't mind us publishing it unless you tell us otherwise.
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Timothy Pachirat, Department of Politics at The New School for Social Research and the Graduate Program in International Affairs at The New School for General Studies; author, Every Twelve Seconds: Industrialized Slaughter and the Politics of Sight
An account of industrialized killing from a participant’s point of view. Political scientist Timothy Pachirat, was employed undercover for five months in a Great Plains slaughterhouse where 2,500 cattle were killed per day—one every twelve seconds. Working in the cooler as a liver hanger, in the chutes as a cattle driver, and on the kill floor as a food-safety quality-control worker, Pachirat experienced firsthand the realities of the work of killing in modern society. He uses those experiences to explore not only the slaughter industry but also how, as a society, we facilitate violent labor and hide away that which is too repugnant to contemplate.
Through his vivid narrative and ethnographic approach, Pachirat brings to life massive, routine killing from the perspective of those who take part in it. He shows how surveillance and sequestration operate within the slaughterhouse and in its interactions with the community at large. He also considers how society is organized to distance and hide uncomfortable realities from view.
About the Presenters:
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I wobble, barefoot, along a series of two-by-fours, arms straight out to the sides for balance.
Five others in this brand-new fitness class are in front of me. Our next task is to squat, hoist heavy sandbags onto our shoulders and walk across a mat that covers the floor at Aikido of Ashland. Now, we drop the bags and crawl 30 feet, making sure our knees and elbows don't touch the mat. We pair off and throw a 14-pound, leather medicine ball to each other 10 times, finishing the circuit with a standing long jump from a squat position.
The first time through, the circuit is easy, so I'm feeling a bit smug. The next time through, my quads begin to complain when I throw the medicine ball and attempt the standing long jump. Along comes circuit No. 3 and, OK, I'm learning about humility.
This is a test class for MovNat, a new, worldwide fitness craze that kicks off Jan. 8 in the Rogue Valley. Short for “Move Naturally,” MovNat is designed to put us in touch with our inner Neanderthal.
“I was doing research on the Paleo Diet and came across the website for MovNat,” says fitness coach and certified MovNat teacher Mike Sotos. “In both, you're getting back to your true nature.”
For the circuit we just completed, that's not hard to visualize. The two-by-fours are the narrow log I'm scurrying across to escape a woolly mammoth. The sandbag is a young deer I've killed for dinner.
“You can call it primal movement,” says Sotos, an Ashland native. “It really is a movement to get back to nature. I was always thinking, 'How could I combine being outside, on the trails, with fitness (routines)?' ”
MovNat was created by Frenchman Erwan Le Corre, a fitness guru more interested in developing functional strength than bulging pecs or flat abs. The MovNat regimen is built around skills development, whether they be locomotive — walking, running, crawling, jumping — or manipulative, such as carrying, throwing, catching.
Though the circuit for today's trial run consists of five stations, Sotos is designing the circuit for his class around 10 stations. When he received his training certification in Las Vegas earlier this year, Sotos learned the full suite of 51 official skill regimens, including rope climbing, hauling a partner piggyback and pulling oneself across a set of monkey bars.
Sotos grins. “It's like being a kid again,” he says.
During the post-class cool-down, participants discuss their new experience.
“If you're an athlete and love nature, this will help you get to the next level,” says Ashland triathlete Molly Romero. “This helps you get beyond the usual exercises for strength, speed, agility and balance. I think it will boost performance.”
For Ashland cyclist and ski racer Troy McCrae, it's the variety that appeals.
“This is fun, not like going to the gym, where you're thinking, 'Here I go again,' ” says McCrae. “This can be a full-body workout without sacrificing your training for your main sport.”
In his day job, McCrae is a construction worker. Several MovNat skills come naturally to him, but several are challenging.
“I walk on two-by-fours 12 feet above the ground,” says McCrae. “Still, here, you find muscles you didn't know you had.”
Local MovNat classes will be twice a week, indoors on Tuesday evenings at Aikido of Ashland, 695 Mistletoe Road, and outdoors on Saturdays in a yet-to-be determined Ashland park. MovNat is, after all, naturally suited to the outdoors.
Sign-ups are for one-month blocks. The first block of eight classes runs from Jan. 8 to Feb. 2. The cost is $50 for an eight-class session or $8 for a single drop-in.
For information, contact Sotos at Rogue Valley Fitness, 541-301-4124 or firstname.lastname@example.org.
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The second round of the Federal Reserve's quantitative easing program, better known as QE2, will expire this week.
The QE2 policy was officially announced on November 4, 2010, and has been widely credited with subsequent stock market gains. And now, according to rumors, the end of this "experimental" program will kill the stock rally -- with potential impact across all markets.
Let's think about that.
For starters, there is little "experimental" about QE2. As EWI's November 2010 Elliott Wave Financial Forecast pointed out to subscribers, "In Japan, the very same remedy the U.S. is applying today -- rate cuts followed by quantitative easing -- finds its stock market still down more than 75% from its December 1989 peak."
Also, this chart, from EWI president Robert Prechter's January 2011 Elliott Wave Theorist, shows "the effect" the first round of quantitative easing (QE1) had on the market:
But investors have short memories. And even many of those who remember how powerless the Fed was during the 2007-2009 crash are convinced that "it's different this time."
What do the facts and the evidence say? Read the expanded, 2011 edition of our popular free Club EWI resource, The Independent Investor eBook.
From the very first pages, the charts and graphs will show you that the Fed’s QE programs are far less powerful than is commonly presumed.
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OXFORD -- The Oxford City Council will continue its discussion later this month about the privatization of its sanitation department that began last year.
Last March, Oxford Mayor Jerry Roseberry proposed that the city look into privatizing its garbage and recyclables pickup services to possibly save up to $175,000 per year, not including vehicle costs.
"This action is a continuation of the city's effort to provide full value for the citizens' tax dollars," Roseberry said Thursday.
Last year, he reported that the city was netting about $20,000 for its services -- the city collected about $139,000 for garbage collection and paid $16,500 for landfill costs and nearly $103,000 in payroll and benefits for two employees who have since retired. City employees are continuing to collect materials.
"Auditors tell us every year that we're spending a lot of money every year (on sanitation services) that we're not recovering," Roseberry said Wednesday, adding that small cities like Social Circle and Walnut Grove use privatized services for sanitation.
Roseberry said Thursday that the city's auditors have reported that over the last six years the city has received an average of $141,252 in sanitation revenue, and expenses for that department have averaged $276,304 annually, and the average annual loss from operating the sanitation department five days a week has been $135,052 per year.
Roseberry said the city is using temporary employees to replace the retired employees, and the driver will retire this year.
"So, the city needs to make a decision," he said.
Last year, Roseberry estimated that a private contractor would cost about $83,500 to net the city about $55,000 if they kept services at the same price; service details also would not be expected to change. Added to the reduction of landfill costs and other costs, the net change in cash flow could be nearly $175,000.
"The city will continue to pick up yard waste and provide chipper service two days a week even if the garbage and recyclables are contracted out," Roseberry said.
The city received six bids from its Request for Proposals last year, but the council never finalized any plans to follow through with the changeover. Roseberry said Wednesday that the council at that time had decided to delay any plans, and he has been compiling some more information to help make a decision.
The council plans to revisit the topic at a work session at 6 p.m. April 16 at Oxford City Hall, where citizens are invited to learn more about it.
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I'm having trouble with my Toffee recipe (which is as follows);
1 # butter
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup water
bring to boil, then turn down heat to medium-high until starts to thicken, then turn on low heat until mixture reaches 295 degrees F., then pour in pan to cool.
Half of the time, the toffee turns out well. The other half, the toffee turns dark and tends to separate, and the toffee turns cake-like.
I've tried a suggested "fix", which was to take off the heat and add 1/2 cup of hot water in the final minutes and stir well, but it didn't help (well, it stopped the mixture from separating, and the mixture didn't turn cake-like, but it didn't set up.
I don't have the background knowledge or experience to know why sometimes the toffee turns out great, and sometimes it fails. My best guess is maybe humidity changes are making a difference, but I don't know. I've tried different pans, different stoves, adding a little bit of corn syrup, etc.
Reduce the water to 1/4 C. Cook in a tall rather than flat pan. I heat the water and butter to a boil, then stir in the sugar. Cook on med to med high, stirring constantly. If it is going to separate, it will do it at about 250. Adding water and continuing to cook will solve the problem. You need to cook to at least 310. Good luck.
Thank you extremely much! I will try it (and I'll take the "luck") :-)
I forgot one very important part. Weight your sugar, don't measure it. You want a pound.
Ok (equal parts butter and sugar). Thank you very much.
Make sure that when you start boiling the sugar that all of it is completly in solution. Wash down the sides with a brush and water, but make sure it's all dissolved. The reason it seems to separate at about 250 - 255F is that that's the point that the saturation and boiling curves intersect. If you still have crystals there, especially not using any doctor solids, the sugar will continue to crystalize out to the saturation point of the curve, giving you the fudge like texture. Adding water can help redissolve but the additional time held hot will increase your inversion level, with enough resulting in a stickier, darker piece with increased bitterness from the new compounds formed. Also once above the above temperatures, since the syrup is supersaturated, minimal shear will help prevent crystallization. I typically don't stirr at all, using reduced heat to prevent burning.
Thanks Mark. I've always wondered why it did that. I never have a problem in the large batches in a copper kettle over an open flame, but have had a problem using an induction burner.
Do I need to always cook to "at least 310 degrees", or only if I add water if things begin to separate?
The batches tried yesterday still tended to have that terrible "fudge like texture", unless they burned, being darker and stickier. Since you're saying adding water can increase the chance of burning due to longer cook times, is there anything else I should try first?
What do you mean "doctor solids"?
Are you saying that above 255 degrees (if the syrup is properly "supersaturated") and if at a low enough temperature, I needn't stir the mixture at all?
As I seem to continue to have problems, I could only come up with 3 possible things which I didn't know how much they did or didn't affect things.
1. I use unsalted butter--does this make much difference (realizing that salt lowers the boiling temperature of water)?
2. I am placing the toffee into a sheet metal pan to cool on top of the wooden table (I don't have room for our marble slab at present)--I didn't know if perhaps not cooling quickly enough created additional problems?
3. Humidity seems to affect the outcome--I didn't know the significance of this, nor any adequate work-arounds.
Ruth stated that she brought the water and butter to a boil and then began to stir in the sugar. If that is the case, can the sugar be "completely dissolved in the solution" before boiling?
I know I'm having quite the fits with toffee and your help (as also Ruth's) is greatly appreciated.
The temperature you cook to will determine flavor and color. Once over 300F you are down under 3% moisture.
Doctor solids are anything dissolved in the water that isn't sucrose. This typically includes glucose syrups, invert syrup, salts, proteins, etc. They affect cook temperatures, browning rate, inversion, but are primarily used to control sucrose crystallization, and give final desired texture and shelf life.
The added water affects more caramelization, not burning.
Rate of cooling primarily affects caramelization.
Humidity is a big factor. Once the toffee cools, it will begin to absorb moisture from the air. Needs to be below 45%RH, but below 35%RH is ideal. The sugar is in its amorphous, or glass, form rather than crystal, or solid.
Boiling the sugar and butter first is common practice. Add the sugar while stirring, and once all in, the sugar should be all in solution about the temperature it begins a full rolling boil, somewhere near 225-230F depending on the amount of water you use. A rule of thumb is the water should be a third the weight of the sucrose. Once boiling wash any crystals off the side of the pot, and you can remove from heat to check clarity on the side of a metal spatula, just note the difference between crystals and bubbles, you can feel the crystals. You may need to wash down the sides a few times through the cook.
Reducing the heat as you near the finish helps prevent burning.
Thank you so much for taking your time to be so thorough in your answer. I will try and digest everthing you said and modify my technique accordingly.
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Directed by: Jonathan Demme
Starring: Jimmy Carter, Rosalynn Carter
In all honesty, I’ll admit that the prospect of sitting through a documentary about former President Jimmy Carter embarking on a tour to promote his book Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid wasn’t what I’d call appealing. When I found out the film’s running time was 125 minutes, I started to dread Jonathan Demme’s Jimmy Carter: Man From Plains more than any number of the sure-to-be horrible movies I usually review. Everything about the documentary seemed to scream that cardinal sin of filmmaking: boring. Thankfully, I was wrong.
By the time I was born, Jimmy Carter was already long out of office. Thus, my opinions on the man have been formed by what the legacy of his presidency had become, critics who said his presidency was plagued by malaise, with the idea that he’s done a better job out of office (with projects like Habitat for Humanity) than he did while in office. And while certain aspects of Carter’s presidency are touched on in the film—such as the energy crisis, Iran and Carter’s role in the Camp David Accords—the documentary is first and foremost about what Carter is doing today combined with a portrait of the man himself.
This is done through the framework of Carter’s book tour. We tag along to book signings, radio and TV interviews and public-speaking events. The film shows the controversy surrounding his book—from the use of the word “apartheid” in the title to its supposed anti-Semitic nature. But what the film does successfully is give Carter a platform for his ideas under the auspices of the constant debates between himself and his detractors. Through the debates, we are shown that Carter is not against Israel, but rather for peace, and along the way we are given an outline of the complicated struggle that is occurring in the Middle East.
But as much as the film is about Carter’s politics, it’s also about Carter the man. He’s painted as a sort of Renaissance man from the small town of Plains, Ga.: farmer, athlete, Nobel Prize winner, painter, poet, author, politician, humanitarian and physicist. Remarkable in and of itself, all of this becomes even more amazing when you realize the current president is proud to have been a C-grade student and has admitted to only rarely reading the newspaper, whereas Carter can recite Dylan Thomas. The jabs at the Bush administration are there, from the outright (as when Carter states his opinion of the current White House) to the more subtle (like traveling to New Orleans’ still-dilapidated Ninth Ward to build houses), but it’s never a movie simply lambasting Bush.
Love him or hate him, Man From Plains is unlikely to sway anyone’s opinion one way or the other on Carter. What the film does instead is promote discourse as opposed to mudslinging. Demme’s film never acts like an incendiary call to action, à la Michael Moore, but rather a call to thinking, of looking at the world in a more complicated light. For anyone interested in world affairs, the complexities of Israel and Palestine or politics, Man From Plains is currently a must. Rated PG for some thematic elements and brief disturbing images.
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The $500 million fine that Google would be paying to the government was a bit of a mystery when it was first revealed back in May, although it was soon discovered to be related to online pharmacies. Today, it’s all been made official, and some new details have come out about the offenses that led to the giant fine against Google (NSDQ: GOOG).
Google got in trouble for allowing Canadian pharmacies to purchase AdWords ads targeting U.S. consumers. Importing Canadian drugs is illegal under U.S. law.
The massive fine represents the sum of Google’s ad revenue from Canadian pharmacies, as well as revenue made by the pharmacies themselves. That makes it “one of the largest financial forfeiture penalties in history,” according to a statement issued today by the Department of Justice.
The DOJ said that Google was aware the drug imports were illegal since 2003, and that from 2003 to 2009 the company actually offered customer support to the pharmacies, helping them with placing and optimizing AdWords purchases.
While importation may be illegal, the comparatively low cost of drugs in Canada has driven U.S. consumers to purchase them-both online and in-person-for years now. But the authorities note: “While Canada has its own regulatory rules for prescription drugs, Canadian pharmacies that ship prescription drugs to U.S. residents are not subject to Canadian regulatory authority, and many sell drugs obtained
from countries other than Canada which lack adequate pharmacy regulations.”
In February 2010, Google changed its policies so that only online pharmacies accredited by professional groups would be allowed to advertise through AdWords.
The investigation was led by the U.S. Attorney’s office in Rhode Island.
Contacted about the settlement, a Google spokesman told paidContent: “We banned the advertising of prescription drugs in the U.S. by Canadian pharmacies some time ago. However, it’s obvious with hindsight that we shouldn’t have allowed these ads on Google in the first place. Given the extensive coverage this settlement has already received, we won’t be commenting further.”
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There they all are, all forty-three of them. Their pictures take up the better part of the front page of this Sunday's "Week in Review" section of the New York Times. Underneath the pictures is the headline of the story by Adam Nagourney, "The Pattern May Change, if . . ." Aha, so there's a pattern we're supposed to detect. The Times regularly reminds us that its readership is highly educated, and I like to think that I'm no slouch when it comes to detecting patterns, so I study the pictures carefully.
Pattern, pattern, what's the pattern? Well, all forty-three were, and one still is, president of the United States. Most are middle-aged or older. The more recent ones are smiling for their picture. But I have the sense I'm not getting the pattern that the Times wants me to get. And then there it is, right before my eyes. Recognizing that even highly educated readers may need some help, the editors put the clue to the pattern under each and every picture: "White Male." Is it really possible? I go back and study the pictures again and, sure enough, every one of them is a person of pallor and every one is a man. There does indeed seem to be a pattern here.
Mr. Nagourney has done his research. It appears to be possible that Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama will be a presidential candidate in 2008. Hillary Clinton, we are informed, is a woman and Barack Obama is a black, therefore "the 2008 campaign may offer voters a novel choice." That is because we have never had a female or black president. But of course, why didn't I think of that?
Mr. Nagourney writes, "Over the past of the past eight years, in the view of analysts from both parties, the country has shifted markedly on the issue of gender, to the point where they say voters could very well be open to electing a woman in 2008." I don't know what is meant by the past of the past eight years, although the past eight years are certainly past. No data are given, but it is the "view" of analysts that things have changed "markedly" and voters "could very well be open" to electing Hillary Clinton, who, as we are given to understand, is the only woman likely to run for president in 2008. "View," "could be"there is a certain tentativeness in Mr. Nagourney's reporting, but that is to be expected when you're working on a groundbreaking story.
We are told that "it is much less certain that an African-American could win a presidential election." It is not certain that a black could win? Does this mean it is certain that a black could not win? Nagourney does not come right out and say so. But he sees big obstacles. For instance, "black Americans are concentrated in about 25 statestypically blue ones, like New York and California." Since there are fifty states, and most blacks, but by no means all of them, live in half of those states, one wonders if "concentrated" is quite the right word.
Mr. Nagourney talked with the Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, who is described as a "civil rights leader," and he says it is now easier for a woman or black to be elected. Geraldine Ferraro, who once ran for the vice presidency, says it would be easier for a woman. "There is a certain amount of racism that exists in the United Stateswhether it's conscious or not, it's true," says Ms. Ferraro. The problem of unconscious but true racism is compounded by the fact that blacks, unlike women, are a minority. It is different with women. Mr. Nagourney elicited this finding from Ms. Ferraro: "Women are 51 percent of the population." You may want to file that for future reference.
The assumption would seem to be that, as blacks vote for blacks, so women vote for women. But, Mr. Nagourney informs us, 2008 is about more than race and sex, although not much more. "Race and gender are big issues in American politics," he writes, "but they are not the only ones." For instance, there is the question of whether Senator Obama has sufficient experience to be president. Mr. Nagourney relentlessly presses on, consulting yet another political analyst, this time a "senior" political analyst by the name of David A. Bositis.
Mr. Bositis says: "If it's the right black candidate, I do think there is propensity to elect a black. But it has to be the right black candidate." I understand that the Rev. Al Sharpton is not going to make another run. In any event, it is the expert opinion of Mr. Bositis that only a black candidate who can be elected can be elected.
This, mind you, is the big front-page story in the "Week in Review." Yet there are those who wonder why, for some of us, there "is propensity" to continue reading the Times. Entrenched habit is part of it, plus the pleasure of musing over coffee on the foibles of those who take with such touching seriousness their task of guiding the thought of what we are assured is the more educated segment of the population.
According to Adam Nagourney, if I understand the gist of his story, the 2008 election will be a referendum on whether America is sexist or racist. It cannot be a referendum on both pathologies, since Senator Clinton is white and Senator Obama is male, and that probably can't be rearranged. But the editors no doubt feel it was a sound decision to take the front page of the "Week in Review" to alert their highly educated readership to the previously undiscerned pattern of electing white males as president. It is, I would go so far as to suggest, even more than a pattern. There it is, in boldface, under every one of the forty-three pictures: White Male. The format is that of a rogue's gallery, and under each mug shot the designated offenseRobbery, Rape, Embezzlement, Drug Smuggling, Extortion, etc. Except, in this case, it is the same offense forty-three times over: White Male.
As Mr. Nagourney says, "[T]he 2008 campaign may offer a voters a novel choice." In addition to the novelty of race and sex, there will be another great novelty in 2008. To judge by Mr. Nagourney's account, it appears that the other party is not going to be running a candidate for president. Or, if they do, it's more or less irrelevant, because they'll only try to perpetrate the offense for the forty-fourth time. And so, in 2008, for the first time, we will have in the run for the Democratic nomination a clear up or down vote on whether America is more racist or more sexist.
On the other hand, Obama may take the second spot on Clinton's ticket, in order to gain experience for his presidential run in 2016, and then we'll never know what was proved about the relative power of racism and sexism. The one thing we know for sure is that, while race and gender are not the only issues in American politics, 2008 may provide an opportunity to end at long last the patriarchal and racial hegemony that the Times has so helpfully brought to our attention. Forty-three is enough! (I can still hardly believe it. Every one of them a White Male.)
According to conventional wisdom, embryonic stem cells are the wave of the future. Sure, there may be some ethical concerns, but scientifically and medicinally they're rock solid. Not so fast. In the January issue of First Things, due to hit newsstands on or about December 15, Dr. Maureen L. Condic argues that the "promise of obtaining medical miracles from embryonic stem cells" is a "fairy tale." You won't read about it anywhere else. Isn't it time you subscribed?
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Survey Showcases Pharmacists’ Role in Cutting Care Costs
Despite an economic landscape that has resulted in declining prescription drug reimbursements and rising expenses, independent community pharmacies “remain a viable small business model,” according to a new survey from the National Community Pharmacists Association (NCPA). The 2011 NCPA Digest, sponsored by Cardinal Health, focused on the actions that community pharmacists are taking to overcome financial challenges and continue to provide patient care.
“Community pharmacists continue to play a vital role in improving health outcomes while reducing costs,” said B. Douglas Hoey, RPh, MBA, NCPA executive vice president and CEO. Two areas in which community pharmacists made a significant mark in 2010 were in “promoting the appropriate use of lowercost generic drugs” and “providing critical, face-to-face patient counseling on the proper use of medications.”
Key findings from NCPA Digest, now in its 79th year, are as follows:
• The average amount of prescription drugs dispensed declined slightly, from 64,635 to 64,169; however, the number of refills increased slightly.
• The generic dispensing rate among independent community pharmacies increased from 69% to 72%.
• The number of prescription drugs dispensed under the Medicare Part D program held steady at 30%. The number of Medicaid prescription drugs dispensed rose from 14% to 16%.
• Home delivery and compounding remained among the most common niche services offered by independent community pharmacies.
• Disease state management services were offered by 78% of pharmacies.
The survey, according to Hoey, “offers further proof of the adaptability and innovation of independent community pharmacists as they try to overcome significant challenges to keep serving patients.”
Comparative Effective Research Efforts Falling Short
A study of 7 state Medicaid programs found that although states desire comparative effective research (CER) to establish their pharmacy policies, current public CER efforts aren’t meeting their expectations. Despite an influx of federal dollars to generate more CER, states are using resources to contract with private organizations to produce CER information on their behalf.
“There is growing pressure on state Medicaid programs to bring prescription drug costs under control and provide high-quality care, even as the Medicaid population expands,” said Jenny Gaffney, the study’s lead author. “Although a range of organizations are trying to fill key evidence gaps, these efforts have lacked the timeliness and relevance needed to inform day-to-day complex decisions on what drugs to cover and for whom.”
The study, which was completed by researchers from Avalere Health and the Kaiser Family Foundation’s Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured, found that state Medicaid programs defaulted to using the net price of drugs to refine preferred drug lists (PDLs) due to a perceived lack of compelling evidence of comparative clinical benefit. Research also indicated that a majority of states rely on a single pharmacy benefit management company to help with the decision- making process for pharmacy benefits, and that states do not use publicly available sources of CER because of the lack of cost information, and the length and timing of the analyses.
Although the majority of states participating in the study previously provided open access to mental health drugs, many now restrict access to drugs in these classes through the PDL, researchers found. To view the report, visit www .kff.org/medicaid/8233.cfm.
Congress Considering Drug Shortages Bill
In light of the increasing number of drug shortages that have been reported in recent years, the US House of Representatives and the US Senate are considering a bill proposing that prescription drug manufacturers warn the FDA early about potential situations.
The early notice by drug manufacturers of a discontinuation or interruption in the manufacturing process would enable the FDA “to work with other manufacturers to ramp up production,” according to a statement by the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP). If adopted, the legislation—entitled the Preserving Access to Life-Saving Medications Act—would amend the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act.
In September, the Subcommittee on Health held a hearing to examine the increase in drug shortages. Howard K. Koh, MD, MPH, assistant secretary for health, US Department of Health and Human Services, discussed the importance of increased and earlier communications about drug shortages, according to a report from the American Pharmacists Association (APhA). Dr. Koh pointed out that the number of shortages rose from 61 in 2005 to 178 in 2010, with the majority involving generic medications and generic sterile injectables, including oncology drugs.
Representing ASHP at the hearing, Kevin J. Colgan, MA, FASHP, corporate director of pharmacy at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, told the subcommittee, “I am here today because I cannot serve my patients or their caregivers due to shortages of medications, some of them critical to patient care.” ASHP, he noted, supports the drug shortages legislation.
In addition, the APhA House of Delegates Policy Committee is proposing drug shortages as an issue for 2012. PT
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We have found in Asian country especially in rural sectors new mothers are unaware about baby's health care issues therefore...
IT HAPPENS ONLY IN INDIA,
GREAT JOB MR. PARMAR
it is good to eat as many as vegetables and fruits (totally vegetarian), but my aurvedic doctor asked me to stop eating every...
Entrepreneurs see business in goats’ low investment and high fertility rate
An advertisement in a national newspaper invited investors: “Get 2% assured returns plus double your investment amount in four years.” The offer was not for investing in gold, silver or equity. The cash cow was goats. Beetal Livestock and Farms Pvt Ltd, a company in Delhi’s suburb, Gurgaon, claimed to run goat farms. It asked investors to invest in goats that it would rear.
When this reporter, posing as an investor, visited the company’s office, it offered several other plans for investment on goats, all offering over 100 per cent profit. The company even promised insurance for the goats, each costing Rs 6,000, and bank security on the investment. It claimed it has over 200 investors. How can it promise such an impressive return? Ashish Jhamsar, one of the sales managers, explained the business model: “Each goat gives birth to four kids every year. We sell these new goats to other investors like you. Thus, from each goat, we make a profit four times of its original value in the first year. Next year, each of those four goats will give birth to four kids and our profit becomes 20 times. The profit keeps multiplying.”
The company started in 2008. Initially, it offered 8-10 per cent monthly return. Ragini Chandra (name changed on request), invested Rs 1.2 lakh on goats with the company in April this year. She was promised Rs 10,080 return per month for three years. She got the returns only for May and June. “The cheques for July and August bounced,” Chandra said. Jhamsar said this happened because the company’s bank account was frozen because of “some issue” with the documents. “We have sorted it out. We will distribute all due cheques,” he added. Chandra is not convinced. “They’ve been saying this for two months,” she said.
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Some of the thousands of illegal Tunisian immigrants who have landed in Italy this month have headed on to France, where they have not exactly received a warm welcome.
France has not experienced the same massive numbers of Tunisian immigrants who have overwhelmed the tiny Italian island of Lampedusa. But some of them have since crossed Italy's border, hoping for a better life here.
Refugee rights advocate Jean Francois Bloquin says many left the North African country for economic reasons.
Bloquin told French radio these immigrants are seeking jobs, not political protection. Economic hardship was among the factors driving protests in the North African country that ultimately ousted long-time president Zine el Abidine Ben Ali.
While France and other European countries have promised assistance to help Tunisia get back on its feet, they have also vowed to step up coastal patrols to prevent more illegals from crossing the Mediterranean.
France's European affairs minister, Laurent Wauquiez, echoes the government's line - that these Tunisians will be treated like any other economic migrants. That usually means deporting those who arrive here illegally.
As Paris adopts a tough stance toward Tunisian immigrants, it is trying to improve ties with its former colony following a series of diplomatic gaffes. On Saturday, hundreds of people protested in Tunis against France's new ambassador to Tunisia, after he responded testily to a journalist. The ambassador, Boris Boillon, has apologized.
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By JOAN LOWY
WASHINGTON — In a time of unparalleled aviation safety in the United States, reports of mistakes by air traffic controllers have nearly doubled — a seeming contradiction that puzzles safety experts.
The near collision last month of an American Airlines jet with 259 people aboard and two Air Force transport planes southeast of New York City, coupled with the rise in known errors, has raised concerns in Congress that safety may be eroding.
A US Airways plane carrying 95 people crossed paths with a small cargo plane in September, coming within 50 to 100 feet of each other while taking off from Minneapolis. A few months earlier a US Airways Airbus 319 intersected the path of another cargo plane during an aborted landing in Anchorage, Alaska.
In fact, an air traffic controller at the Ronkonkoma, N.Y., radar facility that handled the American plane says he complained about a lax atmosphere at the facility — the second busiest of its kind in the nation.
Controller Evan Seeley, 26, said he ran afoul of the local union when he tried to prevent sick leave and scheduling abuses aimed at increasing overtime pay. Even more disturbing were Seeley’s charges that controllers sometimes watch movies and play with electronic devices during nighttime shifts when traffic is slower. He said he has sent his complaints to the Transportation Department’s inspector general and to the Office of Special Counsel, which investigates whistleblower charges. He claims his recent demotion from his position as a front-line manager was related to his attempts to correct problems.
Union officials called Seeley’s claims “wild” and “baseless.”
In the 12 months ending on Sept. 30, 2010, there were 1,889 operation errors — which usually means aircraft coming too close together, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. That was up from 947 such errors the year before and 1,008 the year before that. Before 2008 the FAA used a different counting method.
The FAA administrator says the higher number of known errors is due to better reporting and technology that can determine more precisely how close planes are in the air.
Very few of the errors fall into the most serious category, which could result in pilots taking evasive action to prevent an accident. But those instances have also increased. In the year ending Sept. 30, there were 44 such events; 37 in the prior year and 28 in the year before that.
The situation has sparked concern in Congress. FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt was repeatedly asked about the error increase and Seeley’s claims at a hearing before the House aviation subcommittee earlier this week.
“We don’t want to play ’gotcha,’” Rep. Thomas Petri, R-Wis., the panel’s chairman, told Babbitt. “We do want, though, to have people know that we’re concerned and we’re watching.”
The FAA chief noted the dearth of major accidents. Saturday is to mark 24 months in which there have been no fatal airline accidents. The last was the crash of a regional airliner on Feb. 12, 2009, near Buffalo, N.Y., that killed 50 people.
“That record is hard bought and we’re very proud of it,” Babbitt said.
Babbitt said the rise in errors is because of a new safety program that protects controllers from punishment for mistakes they voluntarily report The program is aimed at increasing error reporting so trends can be spotted and new training methods, changes in procedures or other actions can be taken. It is modeled after a successful error-reporting program for airline pilots.
The program, which started in 2008 and was fully phased in last year, is receiving about 250 reports a week. But safety experts note that those reports generally aren’t counted in FAA’s official error tally and thus don’t explain the surge.
Bill Voss, president of the Flight Safety Foundation in Alexandria, Va., and a former controller, said there is reason to be concerned, but “how much to be concerned is difficult to determine because there are so many changes going on to sort out.”
“I know the FAA is paying close attention to controller errors right now,” Voss said. “The public face may be that they are ascribing it to the reporting system, but privately they are working very hard to improve the error rate at every level.”
Babbitt said he has tried to create a collaborative climate where controllers and other employees feel freer to acknowledge mistakes.
Former controllers give Babbitt high marks for his efforts. In the past, they said, controllers frequently tried to conceal errors in order to escape punishments that too often didn’t distinguish between minor infractions and truly dangerous behavior.
“Administrator Babbitt is attempting to change the culture from a blame culture to a learning culture,” said Sid McGuirk, who worked for 35 years as a controller, frontline manager, and error investigator.
The use of new, more precise aircraft tracking systems at a small number of the FAA’s 108 facilities has also picked up instances of planes flying too close together that would otherwise have gone unnoticed, Babbitt said. That has also contributed to the increase, he said.
Babbitt’s changes coincide with a period of rapid turnover in the controller work force. Many of today’s 15,500 controllers were hired in the years after President Ronald Reagan fired striking controllers in 1981 and are now eligible to retire. FAA has hired 7,000 controllers in the past five years and plans to hire 5,200 in the next five, according to the National Air Traffic Controllers’ Association. About a quarter of the work force is in training, which can take up to five years.
The FAA sent a special team to New York this week to investigate Seeley’s claims, which were first reported by the New York Post.
Seeley’s attorney sent the FAA a letter on Jan. 17 offering to not go public with the allegations if Seeley was reinstated as a manager and transferred to a Texas facility where he had previously worked. The request was refused.
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It is amazing that our country daily has thousands of commercial airliners and thousands more private aircraft taking off, flying ...
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Originally Posted by awordinyourear
Now Miss Gross without implying you know nothing about mobile phones, cellular telecoms or the development of gsm. S40, to anyone who does know about mobile phones , cellular telecoms or the development of GSM, means the OS on Nokia's base level smart phones.
Now I am a great admirer of Jobs who has reinvented himself brilliantly but the question of what OS is likely to be better for phones is undecided. There is no doubt that the closed garden of the iphone allows amazing responsiveness. However it is unlikely that Apple will be allowed to become the sole developer of smart phone os worldwide. However the anger i see here reminds me of what I read about the 1930's and that worries me.
That's already been ended. I checked further, and have bumped up against all of the misinformation present on the web. I see that the S40 OS is not considered to be "Symbian", though, I've spoken to people who were around back then, who still insist that it and S60 have roots together. Whether that's true or not, I can't say, but they would be in a position to know. Perhaps they are wrong, or others are. Right now though they are not the same, whatever that past may, or may not have been.
And the discussion about that is over.
You're getting upset about nothing. The discussion over which OS will become dominant is similar to what is being argued on many other websites. Don't take it to an illogical extreme as you're doing.
The question of which OS's will be dominant in the future is market driven. No one "decides" which it will be. If it's the iPhone OS, that's great, if not, that's great too. But people using any particular OS will want that one to be the most popular, which ever it is, because that will benefit them. Each company also wants to dominate, because it benefits them as well. That's realism.
By the way, I have no idea what the "miss" is all about for you but my name melgross, doesn't indicate "miss", so I don't know where you're coming from with that. When referring to someone, please use the proper screen name.
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My daughter Samantha was a bad napper. Every day I was filled with anxiety: Could I get her to sleep? Would she stay asleep until she got the rest she needed? And would she snooze long enough for me to relax? By the time my second daughter, Chloe, was born, I was learned from my mistakes. Plus, I had armed myself with a shelf full of books on the topic of babies and sleep. (I read all of them.) Not surprisingly, Chloe is a great napper. No matter where you're at in the nap game, your baby can become a good napper too. All you need is an action plan. Done: We rounded up the best advice from today's sleep experts. Read on, and your baby will be nodding off in no time.
Newborn to 3 months: Sleeping around the clock
Thankfully for new parents who are trying to get up to speed on caring for their infant, newborns kind of take care of themselves when It comes to sleep. They'll doze off in your arms, the car seat, or the swing; there's no pressure to do anything special to make naps happen. However, it's a good idea to sometimes put your newborn down to nap in the same spot he sleeps at night. Also, make sure the room is dark and relatively quiet, even if baby is happily dreaming in the bouncy seat. What's most important is to avoid having him stay up for more than two hours at a stretch, although even two hours of wakefulness might be too long for some newborns. Look for signs of drowsiness (he's less active, yawning or less interested in his surroundings), says Marc Weissbluth, M.D., professor of clinical pediatrics at Northwestern School of Medicine and author of Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child.
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During a week of big business news, the buyout of another boutique brewery by a big corporation was barely noticed, but Lion Nathan’s takeover of the Little Creatures brewery illustrates the duopoly problem that is crippling Australian business.
A few days after that deal was announced, rumours that Business Spectator – which the above link takes you to – would be taken over by News Limited started circulating. These turned out to be true.
In both cases, existing duopoly players bought out small competitors, a process that’s been going on since Australia decided industry duopolies were necessary to protect the nation’s managerial classes, and these takeovers kill genuine innovation and stymie new thinking.
For those duopolies the definition of success is grabbing a few percent of market share off each other while using their market powers to screw down supplier costs.
A good of example of this is the retail duopoly, the farmers and producers get screwed while the supermarket chains engage in price wars driven by truly awful advertising campaigns.
Un-imaginative, un-original and plain un-inspiring. Any smart young kid wanting to get ahead in the retail industries knows they have to look overseas for job opportunities or inspiration.
Therein lies the real problem with Australia’s duopoly business culture – it triggers a brain drain as comfortable managements block any innovative new thinking as being too hard or just unnecessary.
In the media duopoly, telecoms analyst Paul Budde illustrated the problem in his account on trying to convince Fairfax of where the media industry was heading in a connected economy.
Fairfax’s management didn’t get it and didn’t care – today they still don’t get but they care deeply as their business model crumbles.
It’s not just future managers that are looking overseas for opportunity, the customers are well.
The duopoly model that evolved in Australia over the last thirty years depended upon the tyranny of distance to act as an effective trade wall. The Internet has demolished that wall for most industries.
Almost every Australian duopoly is living on borrowed time. If, like the proprietors of Business Spectator or Little Creatures, your business plan relies on selling out to a local duopolist then you’d better move quick.
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Study finds the bulk of shoes’ carbon footprint comes from manufacturing processes.
Three MIT students have won coveted scholarships for study in England.
Mark E. Lundstrom of Palo Alto, CA, a graduate student in management, is one of 32 men and women nationwide named this week to receive Rhodes scholarships for study at Oxford University. Some 1,275 applicants from 350 colleges and universities in the United States sought the scholarships.
Ian M. Blasch of Lilburn, GA, a senior majoring in mechanical engineering, and Seema Jayachandran of Salinas, CA, a senior majoring in electrical engineering, are among 36 US students chosen this month to receive British Marshall Scholarships for up to three years of all-expenses-paid study at any British university. About 800 students applied for the scholarships.
Mr. Lundstrom, who received the SB in aeronautics and astronautics in 1991, expects to receive the SM from the Leaders for Manufacturers Program at the Sloan School of Management in June. This semester he is on an internship assignment at The Boeing Corporation, and is also actively involved as a senior partner in a new high-tech machine tool and medical products manufacturing business.
He plans to study political science at Oxford to complement his technical and managerial studies and return to the United States to focus on issues of international competitiveness.
In his personal statement accompanying his application, he said that "to succeed, government and industry should adopt a collective rallying cry for the US economy:competitiveness." He added, "Future wars will not be fought with nuclear weapons, F16s and smart bombs, but with lathes, robots and the skills of the American employee."
As an undergraduate, Mr. Lundstrom was captain of the MIT ski team, founder of a program for handicapped skiers, founder of a student exchange program with Russia, president of the SAE fraternity and president of the MIT Chapter of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. He is also a private pilot.
Mr. Blasch, also a pilot and skier with an interest in helping the handicapped to ski, is a member of the Air Force ROTC program and expects to receive his commission in June. He is one of only two ROTC scholars to also have been awarded a scholarship to the Air Force's Flight Training School and he recently was named as the top pilot in the northeast by the Air Force Association.
He plans to study advanced mechanical engineering at the Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine in London. His ambition is to become a test pilot and astronaut, help to design and build the US space station and someday be part of an expedition to Mars.
"I want to use my talents to explore a frontier like Lewis and Clark, Columbus, or Magellan," he said in his scholarship application. "My heroes have been the men who have challenged fate and made the unknown known. Like the soldier Odysseus, I want to travel through the unknown trusting in my knowledge and ingenuity to guide me safely."
Mr. Basch has traveled extensively as an exchange student, including a year spent on the Isle of Wight in England. He was introduced to the idea of thermal power systems in space while working for EG&G at the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory, where he assisted on a nuclear power propulsion system for sending a manned mission to Mars.
Ms. Jayachandran, who has a perfect 5.0 grade point average, is also a tennis star (she has been a member of the MIT varsity team for four years and won an Intercollegiate Tennis Academic All-American Award) and a Burchard Scholar, the MIT prize awarded for excellence in the humanities. She also has been a member of MIT's Committee on the Undergraduate Program, which reviews and discusses educational policy as it affects undergraduate programs.
Although her concentration has been engineering, she plans to study physics and philosophy at Oxford, eventually obtain a doctorate in physics and pursue a career in academia or government, perhaps in the area of science policy.
"I prefer physics to engineering in large part because I seek a discipline that answers or uncovers questions about fundamental truths," she wrote in her application. "My interest in physics unfolded as I became intrigued by questions that lie in both spheres of science and philosophy. What existed before the Big Bang? How does one reconcile deterministic laws of physics with free will? The study of physics invites contemplation, and the study of philosophy complements it well."
Her commitment to intellectual pursuits has been matched by a deep engagement in politics not only to support her candidates of choice but to have impact on public policies she is concerned about, such as education and civil rights.
She worked as a hardware engineer at Apple Computer in the summer of 1991 and earlier wrote software for a naval research laboratory.
A version of this article appeared in the December 9, 1992 issue of MIT Tech Talk (Volume 37, Number 16).
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|2006-05-11, 21:13||Link #1|
Certificate of Completion/Attendance
I just recently recieved this in my email and was pretty appalled at what I read. Furthermore after a brief investigation I now am completly against the NCLB act (No Child Left Behind) that President Bush has implemented and I was wondering how some of you might feel about it.
Also Considering some of you are high school students you have probably been offered this and had no idea what it could do to your future. So Please Read This Carefully and let me know what you think and how you feel.
Subject: Hi-School - Certificate of Completion
The "Certificate of Completion or Attendance" that is being offered
in lieu of high school diplomas, is a part of Bush's "No Child Left Behind".
This is how it works:
It is for students who are unable to pass both the Language Arts and
portions of the 10th grade ISTEP. Students must take the same 10th grade
test over in the 11th and 12th grades until they pass both portions. If they are unable to pass the 10th grade test by the 12th grade then they have two options:
1. Drop out and go to a GED program or,
2. accept a "Certificate of Completion" - it is NOT a diploma. Once a
student accepts it, they cannot ever get a diploma or a GED. A
certificate of completion means that a student can never (as long as
1. go to the armed services
2. go to college
3. go to trade school
4. go to journeyman's school
5. go to beauty school
6. go to culinary arts school
7. get a federal loan in their lifetime
This is the portion of NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND (2001) that Bush slipped in
during the 2004 revision of the NCLB bill. It has not been publicized.
high school in Indiana, in 2005, there were 87 seniors in the graduation
class. Five got diplomas and 82 got "Certificates of Completion".
This is being referred to as the "Paper Plantation". It is better
for students to drop out and get into a GED program so they may seek
forms of education, later in life, if they desire to do so. All 50
have "Certificates of Completion or Attendance".
Please pass this information along to EVERYONE you know who has
school age children. Clergy, please preach it from the pulpits. Our
people MUST know this information. Thank you & stay blessed.
"No one can make you feel inferior unless you allow them."
|2006-05-11, 22:55||Link #3|
Join Date: Nov 2003
Anyway, the no child left behind act's name seems to have been inspired by the various ministries in Orwell's 1984, in that it actually does the exact opposite of its name. Schools that don't meet the standards it sets are denied federal funding, and if they don't improve, they can get taken over by the state or private contractors. However, without that funding, they have no chance of meeting that standard, so the kids in those schools, typically inner city schools, get screwed. The system seems set up to ensure the districts most in need of federal funding don't get any. Because of that, schools have taken to forging test scores to keep it.
The educational system in this country needs a complete overhaul. Let's not forget the recent study that showed just how bad young americans are at geography...
|2006-05-11, 23:23||Link #5|
Join Date: Nov 2003
Of course, that still doesn't make the no child left behind program worthwhile, nor our education system any better.
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Charlotte Beersadvertising executive
Birthplace: Beaumont, Tex.
Adept at combining her business acumen with a little Southern charm, Beers has paved the way for women to succeed in the extremely competitive milieu of advertising. Exceptionally hard working, she carved out successes for her company and herself at a string of jobs. First as a market researcher for Uncle Ben's, next as an account executive at J. Walter Thompson, where she became the first female vice president in the firm's 106-year history. Disappointed when she was denied further promotion, she left Thompson for Tatham-Laird & Kudner where she worked 100-hour weeks for two years to turn around the firms low employee morale and shaky financial status. She became CEO, and under her reign over the next decade increased profit margins to double the industry average, tripled billings to $325 million, and lured in major new business accounts. She resigned in 1992 and was heavily courted by several firms but decided to take on the challenges posed by the $5.4 billion, 8,000-employee multinational Ogilvy & Mather. She stayed for four years, increasing billings by $2 billion, before handing over the reins to Shelly Lazarus, a longtime Ogilvy employee. In Oct. 2001, she joined secretary of state Colin Powell as under secretary for public diplomacy and public affairs, a post she held until March 2003.
Fact Monster/Information Please® Database, © 2007 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
More on Charlotte Beers from Fact Monster:
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Local food bank workers say in just the past year distribution needs have increased by one million pounds in the big bend area, but Monday a creative way to spread the word for hunger relief is on display.
The resemblance is well, uncanny. The Golden Gate Bridge, a Polaroid camera, a boom box, all of these structures are part of a competition that also doubles as an awareness campaign.
“We're here in the Tallahassee Mall all week and we'll have thousands of people who will ask questions about hunger relief,” says Tom hunt of Second Harvest Food Bank.
As part of the Second Annual Canstruction Competition, judges examined the work of local architects and FAMU students, a very time consuming assignment.
“Oh, a lot more than you'd think, besides designing, getting the cans, assembling it really is a big job,” says Enn Ots, a FAMU professor.
While the structures are fairly large, the message they send is even larger. Already partnered with 350 agencies, second harvest workers say non-profits are hungry for help.
“We honestly have another dozen to 20 non profits applying for partnership every month and we're trying to accommodate that.
Second Harvest will be taking up donations at the display through Sunday at the Tallahassee Mall. As for Monday's judging, the Polaroid camera received the Best of Show Award.
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Ahmad Abu Khattallah does not dispute claims he was at the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi the night it was attacked. “We had heard there was some shooting at the area,” says the man with a beard down to his chest. “February 17th [a brigade tasked with protecting the mission] asked us to help them extricate some of their men holed up in the mission.” But when asked who was behind the Sept. 11, 2012 assault that took the life of U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens, Khattallah gazes without emotion at his mobile phone as he sits for one of several interviews with TIME in a local hotel. “The attack came from the people,” he says, pausing to capture his thoughts. “I don’t know if anything was planned.” He grows vehement when confronted with allegations that he masterminded the raid (the Associated Press interviewed a witness who claims that Khattallah, who heads a militia called Abu Obaida Bin Jarra, guided fighters around the compound.) “The attack,” Khattallah insists, “that was not us.”
In a number of meetings over two weeks, Khattallah discussed everything from Islam’s respect of other religions to his qualms with Washington’s Middle East policies. But it is his alleged role in the Benghazi debacle that has made him a person of interest for Americans. As if to belie accusations that could well catapult him to the top of the FBI’s Most Wanted List, Khattallah has not gone into hiding and wanders the streets of Benghazi freely.
He is certainly a person that many in Benghazi believe can get things done. During an interview at his sparsely furnished house in Benghazi’s Layti neighborhood, his living room filled up with men seeking his help to resolve problems. Under Muammar Gaddafi’s rule, Khattallah was incarcerated several times. The dictator’s security services frequently arrested pious Muslims for sporting long beards or spending too much time in mosques. With his facial hair, Khattallah was one of the usual suspects. Like many Libyans, he took up arms against the government during the 2011 revolution, coming to prominence after the assassination of the rebels’ chief of staff Abd al-Fattah Yunis in August 2011. Many rebel officials believe Khattallah was behind the killing. TIME brought up the subject during one of the interviews but Khattallah refused to go into it saying “The revolution is over. And we don’t talk about the past.”
Ostensibly a building contractor, Khattallah refuses to give his age but he looks to be in his 40s. Not a jovial man, he nevertheless often has a smile on his face. And while he often answered questions quickly, a pensive look would come over him at some times before venturing a cautious response. There would be many ambivalent and ambiguous statements. At times, he would respond to questions with queries his own, at others he would refuse to answer them altogether. For example, when asked “how many people does Ansar al-Shari’a have?” Khattallah unhelpfully replies that the Islamist group “has many people.” The organization had been linked to the attack though it has denied involvement. The New York Times claimed that Khattallah is a leader of the group. When asked if Ansar al-Shari’a members were involved in the Sept. 11, 2012 attack, he simply says, “We didn’t see them there that night.”
A number of Libyans say Khattallah belongs to the takfir movement which believes that Muslims who do not demonstrate a requisite level of piety can be declared infidels, thus allowing them to be killed. When asked about takfirism, Khattallah simply says, “The people who curse our Prophet are infidels.” In Arabic, the words have additional resonance. The word for “infidel” has the same root as takfir.
He prefers focusing on Western hostility toward Islam. “Stop thinking of us as terrorists,” he says, “and start to build a friendly relationship with the people.” When asked his opinion of the attack on the Benghazi mission, he says swiftly, “I don’t support the attack on American diplomats in Libya, but if Americans get involved in Libyan issues they need to watch out what they are going to get.” When asked again if he supported attacks against Americans, he says, “I don’t have an answer for that.”
In the murky world of Libyan militias that dominate the country’s new security landscape, people like Khattallah have gained authority and status. Intelligence services have not interrogated him. Khattallah claims he has even been in contact with President Muhammad Muqaryef, though he is not forthcoming about the communication was about. He insists the president never said Khattallah was a suspect in the Benghazi incident, even though CBS News cited Muqaryef as saying so. “We can’t move against Khattallah and his gangs,” says a senior militia leader. “They control the street. Khattallah was involved in the attack. We know this.” The militia leader, however, refused to have his name made public because he was fearful of being targeted by radical Islamists for cooperating with the U.S.
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British soldiers continue being killed in Afghanistan despite years of fighting in that country in the misguided belief that peace soon would be at hand. During the past few days, new reports from Army sources claim the average British soldier is being sent into combat without the right type of military equipment, there are a shortage of machine guns and ammunition, an insufficient amount of night-vision equipment, and vehicles lack the protection required when daily encountering road side bombing. Another complaint is the growth in the number of medically unfit soldiers who are being compelled to serve in the front lines or cited in official statistics which claim to represent the actual number of duty-ready troops for battle.
Service men still fear they are being asked to do too much with insufficient resources because the government does not wish to increase the size of the armed forces despite being asked to take a prominent role in Afghanistan. It is time to recognize there are simply not enough soldiers to handle the complexity of a two front war both in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
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THE FDA IS BECOMING A DRUG COMPANY
By Byron J. Richards, CCN
June 14, 2007
This year, Kennedy and Enzi tacked this piece of legislation onto required FDA funding, lumping numerous FDA issues into one huge bill (S.1082) and telling everyone it is a safety bill. Within this new legislation is the creation of the Reagan-Udall Foundation for the FDA, set up as an independent non-profit Foundation that will be under the control of the FDA. The Senate fought bitterly over various drug-safety issues unrelated to the Reagan-Udall Foundation, as if these issues acted as a smoke screen to slip past members of the Senate the creation of the Reagan-Udall Foundation for the FDA, the von Eschenbach dream come true.
Not a single Senator raised one concern about the significant safety issues inherent in the Critical Path Initiative/Reagan-Udall Foundation or conflicts of interest when Big Pharma and the FDA work side by side to develop, patent, and license drugs. The entire history of von Eschenbach’s relationship with Big Pharma, Big Biotech, and C-Change has been conveniently ignored. This issue now moves to the House, where it will be interesting to see if Representatives are as poorly informed as Senators as to what is actually going on.
Yes, the FDA is going into the drug development business. According to Senate bill S.1082, the purpose of the Foundation is to advance the mission of the Food and Drug Administration to modernize medical, veterinary, food, food ingredient, and cosmetic product development, accelerate innovation, and enhance product safety.
It will do this by taking into consideration the Critical Path reports and priorities published by the Food and Drug Administration, identify unmet needs in the development, manufacture, and evaluation of the safety and effectiveness, including postapproval, of devices, including diagnostics, biologics, and drugs, and the safety of food, food ingredients, and cosmetics.
The board of directors is composed of four primary members: the Commissioner of the FDA, the Director of the National Institutes of Health, the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Director of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. These members will then select the remaining board members to be composed of 4 representatives from Big Pharma and Big Biotech, 3 representatives from academia (which is funded by Big Pharma), 2 more from the FDA and NIH, 2 from consumers groups, and 1 from health care providers. This means that the FDA/Big Pharma/Big Biotech voting block always has 13 votes – to at the most 3. An executive director of the Foundation will be appointed by the board and serve at the pleasure of the board.
The bill says the Foundation will ensure that “action is taken as necessary to enable the licensing of inventions developed by the Foundation or with funds from the Foundation; and (C) executed licenses, memoranda of understanding, material transfer agreements, contracts, and other such instruments, promote, to the maximum extent practicable, the broadest conversion to commercial and noncommercial applications of licensed and patented inventions of the Foundation.”
Since the Foundation is responding to the needs of the Critical Path Initiative, and that initiative is primarily about the development of new drugs, it is clear that the Foundation will not only help with drug development but it will have significant business relationships as a result. Do not be confused by the Foundation’s non-profit status, this is simply a useful vehicle that SRI International has used to coordinate collaboration while securing patents and licenses and then spinning off business ventures. The FDA is trying to reduce its legal liability to the federal government by setting up the Regan-Udall Foundation as a non-profit, in case the drugs it helps design injure or kill people. Make no mistake about it, the FDA will be fully in control of the Reagan-Udall Foundation for the FDA. Once this becomes law, as anticipated by September 30, 2007, we will enter a new era with the FDA as a quasi drug company.
A Safety Nightmare
It is indeed disturbing that SRI International is intimately involved with the drug development process and has equally extensive connections with Homeland Security and the Defense Department. It will be far easier to make biological weapons that disrupt gene function than it will be to cure anything, in terms of initial applications of Critical Path technology. Indeed, this is an international problem and could cause an arms race of a new sort, as the Reagan-Udall licensed technology moves out into the world and not only creates a generic biotech drug industry but a generic biotech military industry. It would be responsible for the Congress to actually consider this problem before letting the Jeanie out of the bottle.
On the drug development side von Eschenbach plans to replace clinical trials that show positive outcomes such as true improvement in the medical condition or improved life expectancy with studies based on biomarkers or surrogate endpoints. Biomarkers are like sign posts that point the way, but do not guarantee that anything positive is actually happening. This concept lowers the safety and effectiveness testing required to get an approval, a key theme of the Critical Path Initiative.
This use of biomarkers, in and of itself, represents a drastic reduction in safety for Americans. One example of this problem is the Avandia scandal, wherein the drug was approved based on its ability to lower blood sugar (a surrogate endpoint or biomarker). It turns out that the drug does so while increasing the risk for heart failure, heart attack, and mortality. Over an eight year period it was turned into a blockbuster drug with sales of 3.2 billion a year. During this time the FDA sat on the known risks and did almost nothing to determine the aftermarket safety of the drug.
The problem was actually exposed by an independent researcher. Based on last year’s drug sales and the increased risk for heart attack, it is likely that 35,000 people needlessly died last year alone. How will independent researchers expose problems in the future when all of the advance technology required to evaluate the issue is part of an FDA-controlled monopoly?
Biotech drugs are inherently dangerous as they throw gene switches and powerfully influence functions of the body. Our understanding of what we are doing is in its infancy. This is like having the discovery of matches to light fires and not having any firefighting equipment or technology. Take the biotech company Amgen, with annual sales of 14.3 billion in 2006, and nearly half that revenue coming from two biotech drugs, Epogen and Aranesp, used in kidney disease. Aranesp is the blockbuster with 4.1 billion in sales for 2006, and is also used to treat anemia during chemotherapy. Amgen stock and sales are taking a beating as it is now coming to light that these drugs pose a significant risk for increased death when used, and doctors keep using them in an inappropriate way even though the FDA has warned them not to.
The FDA is scrambling to contain the damage the drug is causing without making Amgen look bad. Otherwise, the whole fast track approval of new biotech drugs as envisioned by the Critical Path Initiative and Reagan-Udall Foundation is in jeopardy. This is because these Amgen drugs were approved by the FDA based on biomarkers, not based on improved patient outcomes. An FDA Advisory panel was surprised to find how little testing Amgen did to demonstrate these drugs are safe or actually improve the patient’s health. Amgen has a long history of involvement with the American Cancer Society and its fundraising activities. Will an FDA chief that is beholden to the same circle of friends and a true believer in what Amgen stands for actually be able to objectively regulate the company and protect patients from danger? Or will the profits of the drug company and image of the Critical Path Initiative be more important?
The Loss of Patient Centered Care
There was a time when a patient walking into the doctor’s office actually had a meaningful conversation. The amount of time spent and the type of lab work or diagnostics performed were not constrained by managed care. To the best of the doctor’s ability, the patient was given personalized care in the best interest of the patient. Patient centered care has been replaced by time constraints, minimized diagnostics, and maximized dispensing of questionable drugs. All of these problems are about to get significantly worse, as we enter the new era of von Eschenbach’s concept of personalized medicine, based on genomics and proteomics.
Initially, a flood of new biotech drugs will hit the market, resulting in numerous Avandia and Vioxx-like scandals, which in some cases may take several years to identify. Congress, with 20-20 hindsight, will hold hearings that will result in legislation to improve safety. Von Eschenbach will tell Congress that the fault is not the drugs. Rather, it is the inability to personalize those drugs to specific patients that is the problem. Von Eschenbach would love to say that today, but he knows he doesn’t have the technology ready to implement this plan as he will in five years.
Thus, he is willing to put the lives of hundreds of thousands of innocent Americans in jeopardy by exposure to barely tested biotech drugs and recklessly push forward with his Critical Path Initiative plan.
The Von Eschenbach solution will be to evaluate the blood of every patient taking the drug with the FDA’s sophisticated biomarker software. The FDA has already developed the early stages of this software and will continue to perfect its new system of medicine over the next decade. Making a long story short, in order to receive medical care your blood will be evaluated by an FDA-controlled super computer, your genes will be profiled, your genetic weaknesses will be part of your medical record, and you will have an RFID chip in your arm storing your complex biological medical records, tracking your vital signs, and monitoring your whereabouts. If doctors think they have it bad now just wait until they become slaves to the FDA computer’s directions and drug prescriptions – which will no doubt be the latest and most expensive biotech drug experiment.
Loss of Health Options
The FDA knows that most of its Critical Path technology is years from practical application, thus it is confronted by the problem of maintaining funding while not much is happening. One aspect of this technology is very advanced toxicology tools, tools required for the development of new drugs. In January of this year the FDA issued a press release saying they want to use Critical Path science to develop tools to assist with their regular FDA duties:
While any person is in favor of the FDA being able to better identify contamination in food, such as infectious E.coli, assessing the safety of food and food ingredients is an entirely different matter. Similar language has been written into S.1082 in the section on the Reagan-Udall Foundation for the FDA, meaning the FDA is seeking to have it written into law that it can use Critical Path toxicology assessment to determine the safety of food ingredients (i.e., dietary supplements). This becomes a vehicle for the FDA to be able to remove any dietary supplement it desires from the market at its whim.
The supplements most likely to be removed are those that compete with Big Pharma and Big Biotech drugs, especially those drugs produced by the Reagan-Udall Foundation itself. S.1082 already contains the troublesome wording. The battle now moves to the House where it is vital to get an amendment into this legislation that will protect dietary supplements without interfering with the FDA’s ability to identify true food contamination problems. This amendment has been prepared by Jonathan Emord, our nation’s top health freedom attorney.
To keep up to date on this legislation and to help preserve your access to dietary supplements, send an email your Senators and Representative by clicking here.
A great deal will be happening in the next month or two on this legislation, which will determine the future of health care safety and quality for many years to come. Ideally, the Reagan-Udall Foundation for the FDA should be removed from this legislation altogether until the technology is ready and the safety can be assured. Realistically, both the Senate and House are going to pass this legislation with the Reagan-Udall Foundation in the bill – unless massive public protest occurs.
Assuming that the Reagan-Udall Foundation does move forward, strong language will need to be in this legislation to preserve health freedom and protect consumers from having dietary supplements evaluated using drug-related risk benefit analysis. In addition to the Emord amendment it will be essential to protect ourselves from the FDA’s internal conflicts of interest that pervade the agency. As things are now the FDA is more concerned about looking good and protecting its image than it is about drug safety or allowing unfettered access to safe and effective forms of natural health options. Alternative therapies and dietary supplements are the true competition to the FDA’s Big Pharma and Big Biotech medical model it is seeking to cram down the throats of all Americans. Stay tuned – more to come. For part 1 click below.
Click here for part -----> 1,
© 2007 Truth in Wellness, LLC - All Rights Reserved
are used strictly for NWVs alerts, not for sale
Byron J. Richards, Founder/Director of Wellness Resources, is a Board-Certified Clinical Nutritionist and nationally-renowned health expert, radio personality, and educator. He is the author of Mastering Leptin, The Leptin Diet, and Fight for Your Health: Exposing the FDA's Betrayal of America.
Richards encourages individuals to take charge of their health, stand up for their health rights, and not blindly succumb to propaganda from the vested-interests who profit from keeping Americans sick. As founder of Wellness Resources, Inc. of Minneapolis, MN, an independently-owned fine-quality dietary supplement company since 1985, he has personally developed 75 unique nutraceutical-grade nutritional formulas. www.wellnessresources.com
FREE Subscription to Byron's Health Newsletter, click here.
Not a single Senator raised one concern about the significant safety issues inherent in the Critical Path Initiative/Reagan-Udall Foundation or conflicts of interest when Big Pharma and the FDA work side by side to develop, patent, and license drugs.
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We’ll only win this war if banks lend
This was the day a senior executive of the Bank of England spelt out in graphic language the impact of the financial crisis, saying its effects on economic output and incomes were ‘as bad as a world war’.
It was also the day it emerged how disgracefully the banks are failing to help Britain recover from the disaster they created, while continuing to put their own interests before the country’s.
Shocking new figures show that between July and September, High Street lenders drew £4.4billion from the Bank’s Funding for Lending scheme – the money they’re offered at rock-bottom interest rates to pass on to borrowers most in need of it.
Sympathetic: Executive Director Andy Haldane said: 'There is every reason why the general public ought to be deeply upset by what has happened - and angry'
Yet of this, only a small fraction reached the small businesses and first-time buyers for whom it was intended, with the City’s net lending increasing by less than £500million.
To their deep discredit, some banks which drew heavily on the fund – including state-backed Lloyds and RBS – allowed their net lending to fall during the scheme’s first three months, blaming the need to write off toxic debts.
More damning still, there is strong evidence that much of the cheap money made available under the scheme was advanced in low-risk loans to comfortably-off homebuyers who could raise large deposits – the sort of people least in need of special help.
With countless small businesses crying out for affordable loans to help them survive and expand – and a generation of young people unable to get their foot on the first rung of the housing ladder – this is a betrayal on a monumental scale.
In his blunt analysis of the City’s conduct before and since the crisis, Bank Executive Director Andy Haldane said: ‘There is every reason why the general public ought to be deeply upset by what has happened – and angry.’
Until the banks face their responsibility to lend again, the anger can only grow.
Common sense test
More from Daily Mail Comment...
- A grotesque attack on Britain's values 24/05/13
- IMF gives a reminder of what really matters 22/05/13
- A plea from the heart of loyal Conservatives 21/05/13
- Who's in charge of the clattering Tory Party? 20/05/13
- 'Loons' that Cameron alienates at his peril 19/05/13
- Green shoots for the Tories? 17/05/13
- DAILY MAIL COMMENT: The legacy of Labour's migrant search parties 17/05/13
- DAILY MAIL COMMENT: Painful lessons from across the Channel 15/05/13
- DAILY MAIL COMMENT: Police, secrecy and the legacy of Leveson 15/05/13
- VIEW FULL ARCHIVE
Years after this paper first highlighted a scandal which has already cost lives, an all-party group of MPs finds that NHS patients are still at risk from foreign doctors with a poor grasp of English.
The Health Select Committee says ministers have made ‘no substantive progress’ towards overturning EU rules which ban members from subjecting migrant workers to language tests.
How much longer can it take to convince Brussels of the common sense that doctors must be able to understand their patients, and vice versa?
The warning comes as it emerges that locums are being paid as much as £1,200 a day to work out-of-hours – one more disastrous consequence of Labour’s botched renegotiation of GPs’ contracts, which allowed them to opt out of evening and weekend duty.
No wonder so many EU doctors are lured to Britain, where 23,000 are registered to work without checks.
If Brussels persists in banning language tests, ministers should adopt the solution favoured by most of our continental partners – and simply ignore the rules.
True, they might have preferred to wait a few weeks for the perfect moment. And the hearts of millions of mothers who have suffered morning sickness will go out to the Duchess of Cambridge today.
But if all goes well, God willing, the misery will be forgotten in the joy to come.
The Mail congratulates Prince William and the Duchess.
Amid the economic gloom, at the outset of what threatens to be an icy winter, they have given the nation news to warm all but the most curmudgeonly of hearts.
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We begin with William Schuester finding out that there is a tenure position open at school. A history teacher was forced to retire after saying a really obvious WWII joke. With the wedding coming up, Will wants this tenure position to support his family. The one problem facing him is the fallout from his annual performance of La Cucaracha, in honor of “Taco Tuesday”. It was a wildly offensive rendition that received complaints, so the principal brought him in to reprimand him for not knowing Spanish very well. It was an odd time to bring that up and it doesn’t really have anything to do with the complaints, but how else were the writers supposed to shoehorn in guest star Ricky Martin?
Do you remember when Glee was about misfits trying to survive on the fringes of society? No? How about they were a bunch of assholes who went to a high school full of straw men? Or perhaps you recall the time when we didn’t need to resort to crude literary devices such as this line of faux questioning? Really, what we’re trying to say is that this episode is all about the persecution that Glee clubs endure from rival Glee clubs. It is a powerful message.
We pick on Glee a lot for being offensive, and I’m getting a little worried that we’re gonna look like a couple of assholes who are just calling out TV shows for the slightest infraction. This is not at all the case, and I’m going to try and explain our views on “offensive” comedy. We really, really don’t care how offensive a TV show (or anything else) gets. I’ve watched a number of episodes of Two Broke Girls, and it’s terrible. It’s a horrible show, but it’s not really trying to be anything else. It makes racial jokes because that’s all it has. It’s a sad state of affairs, but we’re not offended.
What we care about is when a TV show (such as Glee) sets itself up to be a movement against homophobia, racism, and Mean People, and then goes and makes the entire show based on shallow stereotyped jokes. Our problem is the hypocrisy, not the content.
Glee returned from a lengthy hiatus to deliver us their most offensive episode to date. Seriously, we have been doing this for years and we couldn’t believe what we were seeing.
We will start with Glee choosing to give us some quality time with Becky, because they wrote her a whole subplot. Right after the credits, we get a shot of Becky at her locker, and a voiceover of her internal dialog. It was at this point that we stopped the video, and checked to make sure that our sketchy internet copy of the video wasn’t corrupted, and sadly, it wasn’t. This is actually what happened on the show. Instead of Becky’s actual voice, the producers chose to use the voice of Helen Mirren.
Take a minute and just soak that in.
When Glee began it was supposed to be about a group of underdogs, misfits, and castoffs coming together in spite of their difficulties, and expressing themselves through music. It didn’t really work and it still sucked , but that is what it was about. Now, the school has become really chill, accepting three openly gay students. The district elected a mechanic to congress based on his pro arts education campaign. Throughout this episode, the Glee Club is given every possible unfair advantage to win Sectionals to the extent that they can’t possibly fail. In other words, all the external conflict has been eliminated and all that is left is a bunch of shallow, entitled, arrogant teenagers bickering amongst themselves. As always, we examined this mess to see what jokes we could make. Here they are. Read More
This episode started with a shocking twist—do you remember that slap that Santana gave to Finn? Well, Glee fucking followed up on that shit. We would have bet money that little plot element would have been discarded to the “Artie’s Legs” pile, but apparently the writers thought they could execute something truly awful based on that slap, and execute they did. They took all the emotion and meaning that could have been gleaned from this situation, made it kneel down, and shot it in the back of the head, disposing of the pistol in a storm drain. OK, that may be a bit of an exaggeration, but the Schue/Shelby/Santata/Finn/Figgins meeting was a pretty awful little scene, containing everything we hate about each of those characters. Bottom line is this: Finn has a lesson plan for both Glee clubs, and it involves Santana. What is this lesson plan? We can’t tell you yet, because this review is chronological. More pointedly, how does he get to just set lesson plans all of a sudden?
The previous episode depicted Finn apologizing and reconciling things with Santana, Britney and their offshoot Glee Club, the Trouble Tones. However, the “here’s what you missed on Glee” guy tells us that “everyone is mad at each other. They just are, damn it!” This established a common Glee theme that would be present throughout the episode: Just telling the audience what to think instead of actually telling stories . Remember that bit where Finn apologized to Brittany and company, and they had a tender reconciliation? Of course you don’t, because the announcer dude said that didn’t really happen. We’ve always been at war with Eastasia.
This episode was especially stupid and boring, so we had a difficult time writing this review. It took several attempts.
Draft 1: Oh, God. Gross. Just gross. Weird and awkward. Ugh.
Glee wrote an episode about sex
that assaulted our cerebral cortex
They came up with the plot
right on the spot.
There was no thought
There was some awkward shit with Bieste
that didn’t make sense in the least
Rachel fucked Finn with a strap on
and we decided to get our rap on.
This week, as the Glee producers were going down their list of ethnic and cultural groups to mock, they noticed a glaring omission. “How have we not mocked the Irish yet?” “I don’t know, but let’s overcompensate for it”. And verily, they overcompensated the fuck out of it.
Glee is on hiatus for a while, so we are also kind of on a break. What the hell, though. Here’s some shit that we like:
A blog from Ben Palmer, an Atlanta comic. He writes about his Chinese Roommate, working at JoAnn Fabrics, and shit his grandpa says. His grandpa is not funny enough to get a TV show, and that’s too bad.
A very filthy podcast that is awesome. I didn’t initially think that “two guys talking about shit” would be that funny, but I was very wrong. If you get a recent episode, make sure you check out their glossary so that you know what the hell is going on. Plus, the have occasional celebrity guests, such as Patton Oswalt, Kyle Kinane, Jimmy Pardo and Brian Posehn. Yet another warning: it is gloriously filthy.
If you don’t get what this is about, then good. You don’t deserve it.
It’s this new website. Mark my words: it’s gonna be big.
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Webb's Winter Work Experience
Webb Students Working Across the USA and Around the World
While other colleges were taking a long winter's nap, Webb students were gaining valuable experience in the real world. It's called "Winter Work," and it happens every January and February for every student. Freshmen work alongside ship fitters and welders in shipyards. Sophomores plow the oceans, realizing that crews will have to live and work on their future designs. Juniors and seniors network and apply themselves in design offices. Like the maritime industry, our Winter Work experience is global with more and more students finding themselves overseas with jobs in countries including Antarctica, British Columbia, Canada, Cyprus, Denmark, Finland, Italy, the Netherlands, South Korea and the United Arab Emirates.
Webb Institute's Winter Work experience is unlike any other. Read first-hand accounts of our students' Winter Work, or check out where they've worked this year at the links below.
- Meet the Winter Work Bloggers
- See Where Webbies are Working This Winter
- Fairy Tales about Winter and Summer Work - Watch Video Now!
- A Once in a Lifetime Salvage Project Involving Webb Students: Costa Concordia
- Read about Past Winter Work Experiences from 2010, 2011, and 2012
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Next week, the Seattle city council will take up a package of modest but important regulatory reforms. These are precisely the sort of fixes Sightline has been advocating: targeted updates that move us toward a more sustainable city—one that’s not only cleaner but that also offers richer economic opportunities to its residents.
Interestingly, many of them are actually “back to the future” type proposals. For example:
- Coffee shop-size neighborhood commerce—the old corner stores—will once again be allowed in places zoned for low-rise density.
- Outside of designated pedestrian zones, the city will relax the stringent requirements for ground-floor commercial space that isn’t supported by the market.
- In places with good transit service, the law will return to the way it was when the city was built: officials will no longer force private property owners to supply a minimum number of parking spaces.
That last one is particularly popular with institutions like Seattle Central Community College. Consider the absurdity of the current situation: the college is located just a few minutes walk from downtown and it’s served by multiple bus lines, as well as a forthcoming streetcar and light rail station. Not surprisingly, its existing parking facilities are under-subscribed. Yet it cannot expand its classroom space without also building costly new parking structures. Oy.
The new reforms will scrub that requirement, letting the college spend its money on education rather than car storage.
Given the modest nature of the proposals, there’s been exceedingly little concern over them. True, in an article about the policy package, the Seattle Times did manage to find a few grumpy folks concerned about crowded on-street parking in central city neighborhoods. Yet an examination of the “problems” cited in the article serve to highlight how utterly undramatic the changes are.
Let’s take a quick look.
For example, the article goes on at length about Aegis Living, a new assisted living facility that some neighbors are opposing over on-street parking worries. It’s interesting, I guess, but it’s got absolutely nothing to do with the proposed reforms. They don’t impact the Aegis development at all.
Or this example:
Jim Hobbs, who has run his car-repair shop for 30 years, the city’s proposal to eliminate parking requirements smacks of a political agenda…
“The city of Seattle doesn’t want us here,” he said of his auto-centric business. “It’s the whole anti-car thing…
“Everybody owns a car,” he said. “Or two.”
Yet this it is completely wrong. In fact, fully 15 percent of Seattle households (not individuals mind you), have no car. More than a quarter of Seattle’s renting households don’t own a car, and 40 percent of low income households don’t either. (In fact, even among households in Seattle with somebody employed—that is, not counting students, retired folks, or the out-of-work—44 percent have access to one or no cars.)
So, just for the record: no, “everybody” does not own a car or two.
More to the point, eliminating parking mandates in selected and highly urbanized areas is not exactly the same thing as eliminating parking. In fact, the city estimates that even where no parking at all is required for multifamily buildings, developers typically supply parking for 60 to 75 percent of the residents. For example, the North Lot Stadium Place development is not required to provide any parking, and yet developers are planning on around 900 parking stalls.
That’s just the way it should be. Builders should respond to reality—and they should supply what the market actually wants for parking. (Hint: not everybody owns a car.)
Okay, enough grousing. The balance of the regulatory reform package is similarly modest. It will streamline some duplicative red tape for new development in urban centers and near light rail stations; it will slightly expand opportunities for home-based entrepreneurship; and it will clarify some of the language in the land use code around backyard cottages and temporary use permits in the public right-of-way.
These are not exactly earth-shattering policy changes, but they amount to good and useful progress all the same.
Citizens will have a chance to voice their support on Wednesday, March 28 at 9:30 a.m. in City Council Chambers. I’ll be there.
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Fernando was one of our two packers.
Randy was the other. They work for Kennedy Meadows Pack Station. The owner, Matt Bloom, is very accommodating.
This was a very large bear and we saw him two days in a row. We observed about six bears in all.
One bruin left his track near camp, but we didn’t have any trouble with our food.
This Cooper’s hawk landed about fifty yards away while Wes and I alternated glassing and nodding. Shortly thereafter, a cinnamon colored bear walked up to within 20 yards of us before attempting to leap out of his hide.
On the second day of hunting, this three point buck appeared in the willows below us. We’d seen him on day one as well.
Then we saw him again on day three, but at about 150 yards. Apparently he’d seen us as well.
His partner was a four-point buck (in the lead), but was more camera shy. Like many bucks, he was better at keeping his head down. As you can see fairly well, this buck has blacktail characteristics.
We have noted that some deer in this area look like blacktails and others more like mule deer. There is a species called the California mule deer and these deer would most likely fall into that taxonomy.
According to biologists I’ve discussed this with, the California mule deer is not a cross between blacktails and mule deer, it is a species that evolved in this habitat. Could be.
We saw these bucks every day of the hunt.
Chipmunks were plentiful, as were many other ground squirrels including marmots, pica and Townsend ground squirrels.
The most prevalent creature on the ridge was the Clark’s nutcracker. While watching one of these birds from about 20 feet away through his binoculars, Rob observed one of them regurgitating pine nuts and storing them in a slot in a pine tree.
After a few hours of watching deer in the morning, a three-point buck with a nice spread bedded in these willows. Wes decided to sit on him and see if he’d make a mistake.
There his is. Wes sat next to that large rock for several hours waiting for the buck to show himself, but he didn’t.
One exciting moment occurred on the last hunt day when Wes jumped a mountain lion that took off at full speed until reaching a place to hide behind a large rock.
Read Full Post »
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(NaturalNews) The CDC has released a new zombie apocalypse preparedness campaign, and at one level, it almost begins to be useful. The "Preparedness 101 Zombie Apocalypse" novella is viewable online, connecting with the public through a pop culture theme -- zombies -- that has experienced a strong resurgence over the last few years.
The zombie novella even offers a small taste of some realistic, practical advice. Early in the novella, for example, a concerned citizen clicks on the CDC's preparedness website and prints out a list of items needed to create an emergency preparedness kit. Those items include:
Water, food, flashlight, battery-powered or hand-crank radio, extra batteries, first aid kit, medications and medical items, multi-purpose tool, sanitation and personal hygiene items, copies of personal documents, cell phone with chargers, family and emergency contact information, extra cash, emergency blanket, map(s) of the area, medical supplies (hearing aids with extra batteries, glasses, contact lenses, syringes, cane), baby supplies (bottles, formula, baby food, diapers), games and activities for children, pet supplies (collar, leash, ID, food, carrier, bowl), extra set of car keys and house keys, manual can opener (http://www.cdc.gov/phpr/images/zombie/Alt_Text_for_Graphic_Novella.pd...)
There's only one problem with this list: There's nothing in it for self defense against the zombies.
First off, everybody knows that if you want to stop a zombie, you need a good shotgun. A 12 gauge is preferred, and Remington pump action shotguns are very, very reliable. However, I kind of take a liking to the Benelli M4 autoloader (http://www.benelliusa.com/shotguns/benelli-m4.php), which can blast six zombies in less than three seconds.
There are no shotguns, pistols or any other tools of self defense even mentioned in the CDC's novella. The entire message is "wait for the government to save you."
Instead of defending yourself, the novel suggests you make your way to what is essentially a "FEMA camp" -- an area surrounded by wire fencing, where masses of people sleep on cots in a gymnasium-style staging area.
The zombie apocalypse is halted, predictably, by a vaccine. Yep, the CDC's amazing scientists are depicted as developing a miracle vaccine that halts the zombie infection and saves the world. There's no mention of mercury side effects, or the effects of chemical adjuvants that cause convulsions, paralysis and even autism in some people. That little factoid is completely left out of this fiction novel. There's also no mention of how the drug companies have already been caught faking their vaccine trials, spiking blood samples with antibodies to try to make them appear more effective than they really are (http://www.naturalnews.com/036417_Glaxo_Merck_fraud.html).
The CDC's world-saving vaccines are, of course, to be injected into all the people in the FEMA camp. But not before an attack wave by the zombies, fended off by the U.S. military.
In the end, the main character of the novella suddenly awakens. The whole thing was a "bad dream" (kind of like all the fiction surrounding the H5N1 hysteria pushed by the CDC and the WHO). But the character remembers one thing: It's important to be prepared.
Except he still has no shotgun.
Supplies recommended by the CDC will only position you to die like everybody else
On the final page of the novella, the CDC recommends a list of supplies that include politically correct preparedness items such as baby diapers and extra batteries for your hearing aid. You're also supposed to have a whistle and a copy of your health insurance policy. (Yep, because paperwork is always important in a collapsing police state.)
The list does NOT include many of the basics that will really save your life in an emergency: A portable water filter, colloidal silver, an emergency tourniquet, a large utility knife or combat knife, and a well-oiled firearm with tritium night sights. Nope, because the CDC doesn't want to encourage anyone to take care of themselves. You're supposed to just report to the local FEMA camp, take your vaccine shots, and rely on the government to save you. That's the message from the CDC.
Real survivors have shotguns, rifles, pistols and plenty of ammo. They have night vision devices and the skills to use them. Real survivors have ballistic vests that stop bullets. (www.BulletProofMe.com)
Real survivors carry tactical flashlights (www.SupplySource.com) and own survival garden seeds. They are decisive, self-reliant and determined to make it through almost anything.
The CDC doesn't teach real survival skills. It teaches a watered-down fairy tale version of "polite" survival... survival for people who live in denial of the real world. If you really want to survive a zombie apocalypse, don't listen to the CDC. They'll get you killed. For real preparedness, read websites like this one (NaturalNews.com) or James Wesley Rawles' site www.SurvivalBlog.com
P.S. The Natural News Store is opening in 30 days, and we'll be offering storable organic foods at a healthy discount. The website will be http://store.naturalnews.com
The bottom line? The CDC's list is really just "preparedness for people who want to die." If you want to actually LIVE through a crisis, or a pandemic, or even a zombie apocalypse, step up to real preparedness which inevitably requires a firearm plus the skills to safely and effectively use it in an encounter with violent attackers.
Senior citizens are buying firearms like crazy
Did you know that most of the people buying firearms right now are senior citizens? Did you know that senior citizens who carry concealed weapons routinely stop crime? Watch this video we created, which has been viewed over one million times, to see an example from a security camera: www.youtube.com/watch?v=epZod2qyyN4
Did you know that gun sales are skyrocketing through the roof? 16 million gun sale background checks were performed by the FBI in 2011 (http://www.cnbc.com/id/48943733), and that number may exceed 20 million this year.
If you buy a firearm, make sure you get a firearm that actually works in the field. There's a lot of stuff on the market that falls apart or jams when you need it most. My firearms instructor told me the two most reliable models he's seen across thousands of students are Glock (http://us.glock.com/) and M&P (www.Smith-Wesson.com). If you get a Glock, go with "Gen 3" because it's proven in the field and spare parts are easily available. Many firearms instructors swear by the Glock 19, which turns out to be a perfectly balanced firearm for most women as well as men.
Do you know why senior citizens are buying firearms like crazy these days? Because crime is UP thanks to the economy being gutted by government policies that seem intent on destroying the jobs base in America. At the same time, police forces are being downsized. So you've got more crime, but fewer police on the streets. That means more innocent victims unless you can protect yourself. The great advantage with a firearm such as a Glock 19 is that even a small, elderly woman can handle it and thereby give herself a mechanism for instant defense against much larger muggers, murderers or other violent criminals.
Even liberals are buying guns these days because they want to be safe, even if they don't "like" guns. I don't particularly like guns, either. I just like being safe and self-reliant. A firearm just happens to be the most effective way to accomplish that. I'm FAR more interested in seeds, permaculture, superfoods, philosophy and natural living, but in order to protect all those things -- plus my farm and my family -- I also own firearms.
Firearms are "force equalizers," which is why the government doesn't want citizens to have them... because it would make the citizens "equal" in power to the government. Watch my video here for an explanation of the "monopoly of violence" being pushed by the government today:
Your NaturalNews.TV video could be here.
Upload your own videos at NaturalNews.TV (FREE)
About the author: Mike Adams is a natural health author and award-winning journalist with a passion for sharing empowering information to help improve personal and planetary health He is a prolific writer and has published thousands of articles, interviews, reports and consumer guides, and he has created several downloadable courses on survival and preparedness, including his widely-downloaded course on personal safety and self-defense. Adams is a trusted, independent journalist who receives no money or promotional fees whatsoever to write about other companies' products. In mid 2010, Adams produced TV.NaturalNews.com, a natural health video sharing website offering user-generated videos on nutrition, green living, fitness and more. He also launched an online retailer of environmentally-friendly products (BetterLifeGoods.com) and uses a portion of its profits to help fund non-profit endeavors. He's also the CEO of a highly successful email newsletter software company that develops software used to send permission email campaigns to subscribers. Adams also serves as the executive director of the Consumer Wellness Center, a non-profit consumer protection group, and practices nature photography, Capoeira, martial arts and organic gardening. He's also author a large number of health books offered by Truth Publishing and is the creator of numerous reference website including NaturalPedia.com and the free downloadable Honest Food Guide. His websites also include the free reference sites HerbReference.com and HealingFoodReference.com. Adams believes in free speech, free access to nutritional supplements and the innate healing ability of the human body.
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(CNN) – Letters evaluating the physical health of Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan were released by their physicians Friday, both indicating that the GOP's presidential and vice presidential nominees are in top condition for their respective ages.
Romney's letter, issued by Randall Gaz of Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, noted the candidate last underwent a physical exam on August 9, which showed the candidate a "healthy appearing, energetic, strong, physically fit male."
– Follow the Ticker on Twitter: @PoliticalTicker
– Check out the CNN Electoral Map and Calculator and game out your own strategy for November.
Romney weighed 184 pounds in August and had a blood pressure of 130/80 – putting the candidate in the "prehypertension" range, as defined by the National Institutes of Health. Gaz, in his letter, wrote that Romney had mildly elevated triglyceride levels, for which he takes a daily 10 milligram dose of the drug Lipitor.
Other vital statistics included a resting heart rate of 40 beats per minute and a body temperature of 98.4 degrees.
Other information contained in the letter included the fact that Romney "totally abstains from drinking any alcoholic beverages and does not use any tobacco products or illicit drugs," a condition of his Mormon faith.
The letter also notes Romney suffered a concussion from a car accident in 1968, during his time as a missionary in France. That accident came as he was driving the mission president and his wife during a six-hour ride between Paris and the south of France. Their car was hit by what was believed to be a drunken driver. The mission president had to return to the United States because of his injuries, and his wife was killed.
Romney also had an appendectomy in 1965, and stitches on his hand in 1987.
Ryan's physical assessment, from the attending physician of the U.S. Congress Dr. Brian Monahan, painted a similarly healthy portrait of the GOP vice presidential nominee.
Monahan noted Ryan occasionally suffers from airway hypersensitivity, which the doctor said he treats with an inhaler. He also wrote that the Wisconsin congressman experienced back and knee injuries.
Vital statistics were all healthy for Ryan, whose father and grandfather died in their fifties. He weighs 163 pounds, stands 6' 2" tall, has a resting heart rate of 59 beats per minute, and a blood pressure of 121/62.
Ryan, 42, is well known for his fitness routine P90X, and has led sessions of the cross-training regime in the House gym.
"My dad died of a heart attack at 55, my grandfather at 57, so I've always had this incentive to stay healthy," Ryan told CNN's Gloria Borger last year.
Romney, 65, is often seen partaking in water sports at his lakefront home in New Hampshire. He is known to use elliptical machines for regular workouts, but told CBS in August he would consider trying Ryan's exercise of choice.
"I've never tried that," he said. "I might have him show me how to do it someday. I get on the elliptical or the treadmill or the stationary bike for about 40 minutes and that's about it for me. But that workout of his, he's in pretty good shape."
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War is hell. Civil War may be worst than hell and much more ‘hellish’ than one realizes. At least, that is what director Jang Hoon may be trying to communicate with his Korean war epic “The Front Line”. Set towards the end of the Korean war, this film takes the viewer into the mind of the soldier; their thoughts, their fears and even their fragility are all on display. War is hell and truly in war, no one truly wins. During the time when an uneasy … more
Koreans know a thing or two about war. While the Korean War lasted from 1950 – 1953, the nation remains divided into the Republic of Korea and Democratic People’s Republic of Korea even today, a source of constant tension between the two peoples. It’s hard to imagine the stress and discord created between families broken apart due to living on opposing sides of the 38th Parallel, but films like THE FRONT LINE can offer citizens of the world a look … more
What's your opinion on The Front Line (Korean film)?
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Tax Preparation Software
One alternative to preparing your taxes yourself, or to hiring professionals to prepare your taxes for you is to use tax preparation software. Many software developers have published computer programs that make quick work of preparing and filing your taxes. Picking the right program can be a bit difficult, however, as there are so many choices to select from. Below, find a list of the more popular available choices:
- Tax Act for the Web. The off-line version of this software is cumbersome and slow but the web-based version is easy to use. The price is competitive and preparation is straightforward.
- SnapTax: This is a web-based program that can help you complete the 1040A and 1040EZ as well as state forms. This package is a good choice if these are the forms you want to file with. However, the program is not as fast to complete as the name suggests.
- TaxAct Deluxe: This program also comes in web-based and computer-based versions. The web version is significantly slower than the computer-based counterpart. This software does not have as many features as Turbo Tax Premier (described below) but is still a good value.
- TurboTax Premier: This package comes closest to having a tax professional do your taxes. Addressing complex tax issues is relatively easy. Premier is the top-of-the-line product from Intuit, makers of Quicken personal finance software. The premier edition features financial planning tools not available in the standard version and is highly recommended.
It is no longer necessary to file many tax forms manually by sending paper returns to the government. Instead, the forms can be prepared electronically, and submitted via the Internet over a secure connection. This method of filing is called e-filing, and it is more convenient, more secure, and faster than paper filing. In addition to these benefits, e-filing offers you a confirmation that your tax return has been received by the IRS. If there is a problem with your return, you will receive a rejection notice within 24 hours of submitting your tax return. This notice will indicate what errors there are in your return so you can correct them and resubmit. Although e-filing is, in many ways, a better method for filing taxes than the older paper method, not everyone can file electronically. Filers who meet any of the following criteria must file a paper form:
- Live in a community property state and are married but filing separately
- Are claiming a dependent who has already been claimed by someone else
- Are submitting a tax form that cannot be electronically filed (ire., multiple support agreement)
- Filing before January 15 or after October 15
Filing an Extension
If you think that you may not be able to make the April 15th deadline for individual filing, be sure to file an extension. Extensions are automatic, meaning that you do not have to wait for an approval before the extension is granted. You must file form 4868 prior to the April 15th deadline however. You are responsible for paying your best estimate of any taxes you expect to be due at the time you submit form 4868. It is better to slightly overestimate your tax payment, rather than to underestimate it. If you underestimate the amount you owe, you will be penalized for not paying up fully with your extension request.
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If you are a leader you will be leading at least one and in reality possibly several teams. Developing a profitable team is a challenge but there are some easy points that you can do to tremendously improve the likelihood of success.
Be clear on the outcomes
If you are to have any opportunity of constructing a profitable team you need to commence by obtaining clear about the outcome or result that is to be achieved. The result needs to be certain and written in a language that will be understood by everybody. Bear in mind that vague specification of outcomes is likely to lead to okay but less than optimal outcomes.
Be clear about the abilities you require
A profitable team wants to have the correct blend of abilities to deliver the results. A soccer team for example requirements the appropriate mix of defensive, attacking and creative players. A organization team is no diverse.
Get clear on the vital abilities to deliver the results you want.
Be clear about the attributes that are necessary
Abilities are crucial but they are only part of what helps you obtain outcomes. Attributes or interpersonal qualities are just as essential. They incorporate locations like motivation, influencing, relationship building, individual drive and resilience to name just a few. Make confident that you do not lose sight of getting the right attributes when building your team.
Bring out the very best in every person
It is all too easy to pigeon hole folks or make up what they can or can not do based on their job title. You know the type of items that individuals say day in day out like advertising are the only creative folks, accountants won’t take any risks, top quality assurance get in the way, human resources are too rules based to name just a few.
Make a point of obtaining out what individuals can bring to the table rather than just guessing what they can or cannot do.
Recognise that it takes time
No team ever leaps immediately from forming to performing.
They go by way of a series of stages where they move forward, move back, work together, have conflict and hit obstacles. Accept this and see it as a short term setback for a bigger lengthy term acquire.
Bottom Line – Teams can deliver fantastic outcomes. So what do you need to have to do differently as a leader to get much more success from teams?
And now I invite you to learn from my no cost audio e-course Leadership Success accessible at http://www.goalsandachievements.co.uk/
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A look at the wildfires that are scorching south Georgia and northeast Florida.
19,000 acres have burned. 35% of it is contained.
More than 200 firefighters are working hard to get the fire under control.
Overnight, the fire did not grow much. However, it is still moving southeast to Keystone Heights.
More than 250 homes have been evacuated. One mobile home has been reported scorched.
All Bradford County schools are open today. Administrators say children with respiratory problems should remain home.
Madison Street Baptist
is open in Starke for displaced families in Bradford County.
An additional shelter has been opened for those unable to reach Madison Street Baptist due to road closures. The shelter is at the Seventh Day Adventist Church
in Interlachen located at 377 County Road 315 South
Highway 2 is still closed
Residents in the Moccasin Creek Circle area north of S.R. 2 are being evacuated. This affects about 30-40 homes in northern Baker County.
The Red Cross is helping with shelters in North Florida.
The First Baptist Church of Glen St. Mary
, 9846 George Taber Boulevard, has been opened for people in Baker county.
Officials aren't sure of the exact number of homes that are evacuated at this hour. They say many people have just volunteered to leave their homes. At last check, the number stood around 300.
In Taylor, the people who didn't leave their home are heading to the corner store to get their updates on the fire. They say they are getting ready for any news of evacuations.
Wildfire grows to over 42,000 acres
Clay County has extended its outdoor burning ban until May 15 unless weather conditions change.
Clay County Fire Rescue urges residents to call 911 to report any wildfire in the local area.
More than 6,000 acres burned. Wildfire situation is stabilizing.
No mandatory evacuations
Flagler County Emergency Services along with Public Works, Division of Forestry and the City Palm Coast, Bunnell and Flagler Beach Fire Departments all remain on high alert.
Heavy drift smoke from distant wildfires may be noticed in the area during the next few days. Persons who have respiratory complications and those sensitive to smoke should remain inside when possible.
Please do not call 911 if you see the smokey haze. Call 911 if you see a defined smoke plume, a column of smoke or flames.
Firefighters from across the country are battling a 100,000 acre wildfires that stretches from Ware to Charlton Counties.
In Davis County, several families were ordered to leave their homes.
There were mandatory evacuations for Moniac, Georgia, which is on the border with Baker County.
For general information concerning the South Georgia wildfires call the 24-hour hotline at (912)287-4467.
A hotline for information on the wildfire and shelters in Charlton County: (912)496-3687.
Evacuated Homeowner Tip - Bring Insurance Information
Homeowners who evacuate should take their home insurance information with them and contact their insurance agent. Keep any receipts of expenses incurred because you may be able to get reimbursed by your insurance company.
This page will be updated throughout the day. Please check back later.
Wildfires Update - May 9, 2007
Georgia Wildfire Resources & Updates
18,000 Acre Wildfire Threatening Keystone Heights
First Coast News
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||Printers Proof on the side.
Archvially linen backed original turn of the century designed stone lithograph antique poster.
The Lefevre-Utile biscuit manufacturer was always eager to avail itself of the services of the best posterists. For them, Bouisset has a boy munching on a LU biscuit---and, since the company always tried to project an upper class image, he put him in the uniform of a prestigious private school, with a smock and a medal for scholarship. The LU-LU boy became a trademark used on product boxes, and it can be seen to this day painted on the entire gable wall of a 6-story building on the rue D'Auteuil in Paris.
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Assessing writing goals halfway through 2012
Past posts have talked about goal-setting and using project-planning techniques, like setting interim goals, to determine whether you’re progressing as a writer.
Hard as it is to believe, 2012–that shiny new year we celebrated a few weeks ago–is halfway over (and we’re only a little more than three months away from the conference). Today’s a good time to track your progress against goals and see how you’ve done this year, writing-wise.
Before we assess, a few words about goals:
- Goals are tools you can use to help you achieve what you want. They’re stepping stones, not hair shirts.
- If you didn’t make your goals, it doesn’t necessarily mean you were lazy. It might mean you weren’t as far along as you thought.
- If you didn’t make your goals, but you learned something that will help you scream through future work, it’s a valuable detour.
- If you didn’t make your goals because life exploded and even a full night’s sleep is a luxury, life happens. You should be aggressive with your goals, but not a Nazi slave-driver.
- If you didn’t make your goals because you’ve been spending all your spare time watching House re-runs on virtually every channel on cable TV, well, you might want to reconsider your priorities.
That said, here’s where I am:
- Blogging. I have exceeded my goals. I have a ton of posts in the can. Traffic’s up considerably. I’d like to think that has something to do with quality, considering we don’t give away any valuable prizes. (Though many thanks and much credit must go to the other bloggers, Mary Ann De Stefano and Julie Compton.) I’ve also added some links to the widgets to the right.
- Writing outside the blog. I’ve written a lot of words, but I still have the problem of revisions turning into rewrites. I believe this is a process issue, rather than an effort issue. Maybe I write too fast with the first draft. Maybe I don’t spend enough time mapping out my characters. I simply don’t know. I do know that each time I rewriter/revise, the story and characters are sharper. The characters are certainly more complex. But I can’t sustain a successful writing career this way. My goal for the second half of the year is to figure out how to do revisions without writing another first draft.
How about you? Where do you stand?
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The West Middle Reading teacher would teach Reading and/or Reading Academy. This teacher would work with Second Chance Reading curriculum as well as general education reading curriculum.
- Iowa teaching license required
- K-8 reading or 5-12 reading endorsement required
- Middle school endorsement preferred
- Willing to be trained in Second Chance Strategies
- Effective classroom management skills
- Strong technology skills
- Ability to differentiate
- Experience working with at-risk, diverse population of learners
- Ability to work collaboratively
- Creates classroom culture that supports the learning of every student
While performing the duties of this job, the employee is frequently exposed to indoor and outdoor conditions. While performing the duties of this job, the employee is required to frequently walk, stoop, bend, and sit. The noise level in the work environment ranges from mild to loud.
The Sioux City Community School District exists to educate students to believe in their talents and skills, achieve academic excellence and succeed in reaching their potential.
We are proud that more than 58 percent of our teachers and administrators have masters, specialist, or doctorate degrees. We are a progressive organization that is considered a leader in education. Every effort will be made to recruit the most qualified candidates for all position within the District. We recognize that diversity is an asset to be valued and will strive to encourage diversity among our workforce.
Sioux City serves as the regional hub for business, employment, industry, retail trade, medical care, educational opportunities and tourism in Northwest Iowa, Southeast South Dakota, and Northeast Nebraska. More than 140,000 people live in the tri-state metropolitan area. To learn more about our city visit http://www.sioux-city.org/
Interested applicants must complete an on-line application.
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Protecting New Jersey’s seniors is a primary objective of the Division of Consumer Affairs.
The first step in protecting yourself is learning to recognize fraudulent schemes. There are two areas in which older New Jerseyans are particularly vulnerable; home repair and telemarketing scams.
Home Repair Tips
If you are planning a home improvement project, picking the right contractor is very important.
• Contact Consumer Affairs at 1-888-656-6225 to ensure that the contractor you are considering is registered and whether he/she has been the subject of any complaints.
• Get written estimates from at least three contractors. Ask the contractors how long they have been in business, if they have liability insurance (they are required by law to carry liability insurance) and if they will be using subcontractors for your project.
• Contact the references your contractor gives you. Ask each person whether the job was completed on time, whether there were any unexpected costs, whether the workers showed up on time and they cleaned up when finished, and whether they would use the contractor again.
• Do not pay for the entire job up front. It is customary to pay one-third in advance, one-third halfway through the job and one-third upon completion. Do not use cash to pay the contractor.
• Do not sign a contract you do not totally understand.
• If you sign a contract, you must be given notice that you have three business days during which you may cancel the contract for any reason.
• Make sure all manufacturer warranties and guarantees are in writing and that the contract states name brands or quality/grade of materials to be used.
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Movie/film is a term that encompasses motion pictures as individual projects,as well as the field in general,the motion pictures that translate the reality,
HAUSA FILM is a film that started a few years ago with a little producers, productions and audience but now it has covered the whole world more especially the African countries.
FILM! In the movie world every producer, director, story/scriptwriter, costumiers, producer, production manager, ex. Producer there mission is to spread there real culture and religion.
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Election night 2008 was an historic moment for the country, particularly for many African-Americans.
An African-American man was elected president of the United States for the first time, largely with the help of a community that voted for him at an unprecedented level. Barack Obama won 98 percent of the black vote in 2008.
As the results came in on Nov. 4, 2008, tears flowed freely. Many people watching were filled with emotion, hard for some of them truly to explain. Some in the black community wrestled with thoughts of the past, present and future, thoughts of Jim Crow and overcoming, all of which were crystallized in one epic moment.
But it is now four years later and there is a looming question: Will African-Americans turn out for Obama on Election Day as enthusiastically as they did before?
Black voters' participation in a race many say to be too close to call could prove critical to President Obama's chances for re-election.
A new BET documentary, "Second Coming: Will Black America Decide 2012," tries to take the pulse of the community in the final days of the campaign. Film director Marc Levin sent teams around the country to talk to African-Americans from every walk of life, from celebrities to everyday people. The producers found the euphoria of 2008 has given way to some harsh realities.
"I think there is no doubt the thrill is gone and that for the African-American community, for a lot of young people, for a lot of Americans, period, that moment in 2008 was a once-in-a-lifetime experience," Levin said.
the Great Recession has hit the African-American community hard. The ABC News polling unit said unemployment among African-Americans is at 14.3 percent, nearly double the national rate.
"To me, [Obama] hasn't done anything," said an African-American man in the BET documentary. "The economy hasn't gotten better, nothing's gotten better. We're in the same spot we were when Bush was in presidency."
Aside from the economy, one issue has risen to the top of the most contentious issues among many blacks, and influential black clergy: gay marriage. Many in African-American church congregations are opposed to President Obama because he supports gay marriage.
"We are living in days of darkness," Pastor Michael Stevens of Charlotte, N.C. said in the documentary. "To declare what the word of God says about male and female and man and woman and husband and wife, now I am the homophobic bigot."
Baltimore Rev. Dr. Jamal Bryant is an Obama supporter who also appears in the film. He too opposes the president on the gay marriage issue. Bryant said he believes that gay and lesbian couples should be allowed to share insurance and be able to leave their property to their partners in their wills. But marriage, he said, is reserved for a man and woman.
Bryant told "Nightline" there are some pastors in the African-American community who are telling their congregations either to stay home or vote the other way on Election Day, but it's a small minority. He said he still believes that African-Americans "are walking in lockstep" with the president.
"The African-American community is not myopic by nature. We have more than one opinion," he said. "I think that those parishioners are still going to go vote and in large numbers, they're going to vote for President Obama."
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As more and more electric vehicles begin to enter the luxury market, we felt that a trip to Fisker Automotive was in order (after all, it was here where it all began).
On a recent visit to Fisker Automotive headquarters, located in Anaheim, California, co-founder Henrik Fisker shares his story with JustLuxe's own Beck Bamberger.
According to Fisker, who first entertained the idea of developing a luxury electric car back in 2005, the initial concept proved to be somewhat bleak.
"What if you could make an environmentally friendly car, where you don't have the sacrifices that they are always associated with?" said Fisker. "They don't look good. They're boring to drive. They're slow."
Utilizing its highly-innovative team of engineers, and a technology pioneered by the US military, it was only a matter of time before the Fisker Karma was born. In 2008 — just three years after the groundbreaking concept was first conceived — the Karma debuted as the world's first luxury plug-in eclectic hybrid vehicle.
According to Fisker, it's more than a question of what can be done; instead, it's a matter of how much one is willing to sacrifice.
"But in the case of the Karma, if you can afford a $100,000 car, you really don't have to sacrifice," Fisker said.
With 15,000 Fisker Karma's hitting the road in 2011, it's safe to say that most agree.
JustLuxe is a luxury Web publication providing objective analysis and information to affluent consumers to assist with their decision making, such as chartering a yacht, purchasing a jet membership card, booking a luxury hotel, traveling to a specific destination, or buying real estate. Our writers conduct interviews with industry executives and leaders in their fields, analyze product offerings and review the Web sites of leading companies to ensure our readers have up-to-date data to make informed decisions. Consumers can find purveyors of fine luxury goods, services and travel solutions throughout the pages of JustLuxe via content or with our advertising partners. See our Best of Luxury high-end brands and partners.
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FARIDABAD: In a bid to contain widening skill gap in the region, the Faridabad Small Industries Association (FSIA) and the University of Bavaria of Germany have joined hands to train job seekers, especially engineers, MBAs and graduates in other professional courses from the city.
The joint programme, iTREE (Institute for Training in Employment and Entrepreneurship), is aimed at preparing students technically to meet industry's requirements. It will impart short-term training programmes of three to six months duration. The programme will also help freshers draw around Rs 16,000 to Rs 20,000 per month salary in Faridabad itself.
"This programme will engage students with professional courses who are about to complete their studies soon. The programme involves two-hour evening courses for engineering and MBA students to make them fully equipped for the market," said Gisiela, a German expert at iTREE. She further said that these courses are aimed at giving students full market exposure and enable them to sustain work pressure.
Rajeev Chawla, president of FSIA said their industry fraternity was going through an acute problem as fresh professionals would be unable to translate their academic training into market requirements as most of them lacked market exposure. He noted that most of the freshers were not able to answer basic questions related to their academics.
"An MBA HR is unable to fill the ITR or e-file I-T returns, how can one rely on them to take care of employees' insurance or other managerial tasks. That's why none of them was able to cross the Rs 10,000 level as their first salary. We signed an MoU with the German university in November, 2011 to make a curriculum for such professionals in the region. Besides, this programne will also help SMEs and MSMEs in the region to get right professionals, while a student will be able to get a job that is in line with his or her degree.
Project director of iTREE, Jitendu Roy said that the pilot project of the programme was underway and would be fully launched in June 2012. "We are planning to train 400 professionals in a year with 100 percent placement," he said, dismissing the notion that a professional student "can read by sitting in a class room". According to him, there has to be a provision for maximum exposure to the market in students' curriculum, which was not found in most of the professional institutes (other than the premiere institutes like IITs and IIMs).
Ms Gisiela said, "The curriculum of iTREE programme has been designed in such a way that both graduates and undergraduates can take advantage of it. Undergraduates would be offered vocational courses in electrical, mechanical, electronics stream, while the post graduates interested in managerial jobs would be offered basic exposure in accountancy and insurance."
There would be courses for the undergraduate girls who are mostly required as office executives in most industries. "For such aspirants, there will be course that equips them in power point presentation, excel chart making, email etiquettes and programme documentation," said Mr Chawala of FSIA. He said that iTREE programme has pumped given industry-men in the region hope of getting better executives. Most of the industries are ready to give room for upcoming students in this programme. Therefore, the students would have the luxury of studying while they would be working.
While there is need for around 10,000 skilled manpower in the region, iTREE is to train only 400 students. Mr Roy said, "From next year, there will be provision for 1,000 students and we are planning to increase our faculty up to 10, which is currently only four."
Mr Roy said the programme was fully financed by the local industry people who willingly contributed for the project. "The amount of Rs 10 lakh that they contributed was enough to start such a programme," he added. "There is no room for charity in the iTREE programme. Neither for industries nor for students," said Ms Gisiela.
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By Laura Meckler
House Speaker John Boehner invited President Barack Obama to give his State of the Union address on Jan. 25th and suggested he hopes they can work together in the coming months.
“A new Congress provides us a renewed opportunity to find common ground and address the priorities of the American people,” Mr. Boehner (R., Ohio) said in a letter sent today.
The address will be Mr. Obama’s second State of the Union speech and his fourth address to a joint session of the House and Senate.
The likely date of this year’s speech was already well known, but the letter from the speaker confirms it.
The State of the Union address is an important opportunity for the president to outline his top priorities for the coming year and to try and set a tone for how he hopes to accomplish them. This year’s address is considered particularly important as Mr. Obama begins figuring out how to navigate the new Congress, with Republicans controlling the House and Democrats with a small majority in the Senate. The speech will come about 2 1/2 weeks after the Arizona shooting rampage, which has prompted a temporary truce in Washington battles.
Mr. Boehner’s letter made reference to the weekend events, which killed six people and wounded 14 others, including Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D., Ariz.).
“Recent events have reminded us of the imperfect nature of our representative democracy, but also how much we cherish the ideal that our government exists to serve the people,” Mr. Boehner wrote. “Even in the wake of tragedy, we must never waiver from our obligation to carry out their will and provide solutions to keep moving our nation forward.”
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Cement rendering is perfect for hiding brickwork or surfaces that are no longer at their best. Applying the render will transform your home into something that is truly stylish and modern. Read on for more.
Cement rendering is perfect for covering masonry walls such as brick or concrete blocks It is usually done on exterior walls but it can be done on exposed interior walls as well. The actual render mix is made up of cement, lime, and sand, and it sometimes has a bonding agent such as Bondcrete included to help it better adhere to the surface. The render can be plain and then painted later or for a truly maintenance free finish, the colour can be included in the render itself.
The professional will prepare the surfaces appropriately, mix the render as it is needed, and apply it in thin coats to the wall. The render is smoothed at every stage so that you end up with a very clean application. Different finishes and effects can be produced depending upon the look you are after.
Cement rendering is a job best left to the professionals such as a plasterer, bricklayer, or specialist renderer. Always ensure that your professional is appropriately qualified, licensed and experienced. They should be insured if required. Obtain a quote before any work is begun so that you know roughly how much the job will cost, and try and see references or examples of their previous work.
We need your email address so that we can send you the details of businesses who express interest in your job.
We need your phone number so that businesses who express interest in your job may call you for more details.
or enter your location to search
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Google Asserts Oracle Patents Invalid
In the latest filing uncovered by Groklaw, Google has counter-filed a claim to the earlier suit. They claim that the Dalvik VM is not a JVM, and that the Dalvik bytecode generated from the Java source is not JVM bytecode.
They then further up the ante by asserting that the Oracle patents in question are invalid because “one or more claims are directed to abstract ideas or other non-statutory subject matter.”
Google also denies any involvement with any protected elements (e.g. copyrighted code) claiming third-party liability; in effect, that if someone else committed the code to the repository (managed by the Open Handset Alliance) then Google should not be held liable.
Where it gets interesting – especially in light of the recent Apache threatening to leave the JCP is that the suit specifically calls out this point of Harmony in Appendix A:
Sun also released the specifications for Sun's Java platform, including Sun's Java virtual machine, under a free-of-charge license. The license allows developers to create "clean room" implementations of Sun's Java specifications. If those implementations demonstrate compatibility with the Java specification, then Sun would provide a license for any of its intellectual property needed to practice the specification, including patent rights and copyrights. One example of a "clean room" implementation of Sun's Java is Apache Harmony, developed by the Apache Software Foundation. The only way to demonstrate compatibility with the Java specification is by meeting all of the requirements of Sun's Technology Compatibility Kit ("TCK") for a particular edition of Sun's Java. Importantly, however, TCKs were only available from Sun, initially were not available as open source, were provided solely at Sun's discretion, and included several restrictions, such as additional licensing terms and fees. In essence, although developers were free to develop a competing Java virtual machine, they could not openly obtain an important component needed to freely benefit from Sun's purported open-sourcing of Java.
They also note that Oracle, prior to the acquisition of Sun, called for exactly the same openness.
Whatever happens, the outcome of the suit will be closely watched by millions of Java developers.
They also said
Groklaw has the reply, which was filed Wednesday. It reads in part:
Google further denies that the document attached to Oracle's Amended Complaint as Exhibit J contains a true and correct copy of a class file from either Android or "Oracle America's Java." Google states further that Oracle has redacted or deleted from the materials shown in Exhibit J both expressive material and copyright headers that appear in the actual materials, which are significant elements and features of the files in question.
Re: Exhibit J!
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Lamont Weekly Report, September 21, 2012
This week was marked by recognition, outreach, and service.
I am pleased to report that Sean Higgins, Director of Lamont’s Office of Marine Operations, has been promoted to Senior Research Scientist. The promotion recognizes Sean’s outstanding record at managing the resources and personnel in support of the operations of the R/V Langseth on behalf of both Lamont and the broader marine science community.
For those of you interested in learning more about communicating effectively with the news media, the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences and the Earth Institute are hosting a media training workshop on the morning of Monday, 1 October.The workshop, to be held on the Morningside campus, will be run by members of the communications staff of the Earth Institute and Lamont and will feature Lamont alumna Brenda Ekwurzel of the Union of Concerned Scientists. If you are interested in participating in the workshop, please contact David Funkhouser at the Earth Institute or sign up online at firstname.lastname@example.org.
As if to underscore this invitation, in Tuesday’s Science Times Jim Davis concisely answered the question, submitted by a reader, of how melting ice might affect the tilt and rotation of the Earth. This question had been relayed by Kevin Krajick and Kim Martineau more than a week earlier from C. Clairborne Ray, the Science Q&A columnist at the Times. The referral, and Jim’s answer, provided a nice illustration of how Lamont can be seen by journalists as a source of objective expertise on the workings of our planet.
On Thursday, Arctic sea ice filled the news, sprinkled with abundant commentary from scientists at Lamont and the Earth Institute. The National Snow and Ice Center released a report earlier in the week that Arctic sea ice cover on 16 September had reached not only the low point for this calendar year but also the lowest level on record. On Wednesday, Peter Schlosser, Stephanie Pfirman, Benjamin Orlove from IRI, and Anne Siders from the Center for Climate Change Law spoke on this topic at one of EI’s Sustainable Development Seminars. A separate panel discussion in New York City sponsored by Greenpeace held that day on the same topic featured remarks by Jim Hansen of GISS.
Another type of outreach, beyond that to the media, is to the friends and alumni of Lamont. On Wednesday Art Lerner-Lam and I met with Greg Mountain, the President-Elect of Lamont’s Alumni Board, and with Stacey Vassallo, who leads alumni relations activities in Lamont’s Development Office. One of the clearest messages from that meeting was that many of our alumni, and Columbia alumni more generally, would enjoy hearing about current research from members of Lamont’s scientific staff. Please consider giving a talk to an alumni group in the course of your future travels. Stacey would be delighted to arrange the scheduling of such an event if you alert her in advance of your trip.
Most of us received an e-mail reminder this week to vote in the biennial elections of the American Geophysical Union. A glance at AGU’s election site (http://sites.agu.org/elections/) yields the heartening message that Lamont is exceptionally well represented among those standing for election to leadership positions: Jim Davis for a seat on AGU’s Board of Directors, Robin Bell for President-Elect of the Cryosphere Sciences Focus Group, Kerstin Lehnert for President-Elect of the Earth and Space Science Informatics Focus Group, and Jason Smerdon for Secretary of the Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology Focus Group. I hope that you will join me in supporting our colleagues in these elections, which will remain open through 4 October. The election-day phrase I recall from my time in the Boston area comes to mind: Vote early, vote often.
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Drawing more than 300 million travelers annually, faith tourism - which includes religious pilgrimages and more esoteric spiritual destinations - is one of the top travel trends today.
"Each year, more and more travelers are interested in exploring sites with unique spiritual significance," says Scott Nisbet, president and chief executive officer of the Globus family of brands. "On these spiritual journeys, travelers are looking for a meaningful vacation. One where they can explore the roots of their faith by walking in the footsteps of religious leaders while also encountering a transformation or deepened sense of wisdom about the world."
Spiritual destinations are as diverse as the experiences they offer. They could be the location where a religious teacher was born, a miracle occurred or a place that holds other sacred significance. Below are some of the world's most popular spiritual travel destinations.
The Holy Land (Israel and Jordan):
Whether you're interested in following the "Way of the Cross" in Jerusalem or floating on the Dead Sea, the "Holy Land" is arguably the most important spiritual destination in the world.
With more than 2 million tourists annually, Jerusalem is a meaningful destination for both Christianity and Judaism. For Christians, Jerusalem is the site of the Last Supper, the Crucifixion and Resurrection of Jesus. Jewish people see this city as the Biblical Zion, the City of David, the site of Solomon's Temple and the eternal capital of the Israelite nation.
As Jesus' birthplace, Bethlehem is also a world-famous pilgrimage site, hosting more than 1 million travelers annually. Other spiritual destinations of significance in Israel and Jordan are Nazareth - chief scene of the ministry of Jesus Christ, Baha'i Shrine in Haifa, Acre - the Crusader city, Cana - the site of the first documented miracle, Petra and of course, Mount Nebo - the mountain where Moses saw the Promised Land.
The Globus family of brands offers travelers the chance to see and experience all of these spiritual sites on its 10-day "Journey Through the Holy Land" tour.
More than 4 million people visit the Vatican in Rome every year. An important destination for Catholics, it is home to monuments of the religion's most important saints. It is also said that it was here where St. Peter took his last breath.
Greece and Turkey:
Famed Apostle Paul is known to have traveled through Greece and Turkey in the Bible's New Testament. Thessalonika, for instance, was the center of Paul's activities in northern Greece. It is where he preached, founded a church and wrote two epistles: Acts 17:1-9 and 1 and 2 Thessalonians.
Famous for the Marian apparitions of Our Lady of Lourdes, with 7 million travelers annually, the southern French town of Lourdes is a popular catholic destination. Of course, Paris also welcomes spiritual travelers with Notre Dame Cathedral and the St. Vincent de Paul Shrine, as does Avignon's Chapel of the Apparitions.
For more information about the world's most popular spiritual sites and the Globus vacation packages that take travelers to these destinations, you can contact your preferred travel agent or reach out to Globus directly at www.globusfaith.com or 800-221-0090.
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When you visit books.google.com, you'll be presented with the option to search Google Books or to browse through the Google eBookstore.
Google Books strives to provide information about print books in a way that's accessible to digital users for free. This includes bibliographic information, some limited previews, and full view of public domain works.
Google eBooks are made available for sale by their publishers. Just as with Google Books, you can preview a limited number of pages. However, if you like what you see, you have the option to purchase a digital copy of the work, which you can then view in full on most Internet-enabled devices, or even download.
When you're viewing a Google Book, you'll easily see if it's available for purchase as a Google eBook.
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Yevgeny Yevtushenko, Russian poet, reads at California State University, Northridge (CSUN). Born and raised in Siberia, Yevtushenko first published in 1949; in 1957, he was expelled from the Literary Institute for "individualism." His works included criticisms of Stalinism and Soviet anti-Semitism. He is currently a professor at the University of Tulsa in Oklahoma. Black and white photograph, 5 x 7 in.
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32 The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord nin the tenth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, owhich was the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar. 2 At that time the army of the king of Babylon was besieging Jerusalem, and Jeremiah the prophet pwas shut up in qthe court of the guard that was in the palace of the king of Judah. 3 For Zedekiah king of Judah had imprisoned him, saying, “Why do you prophesy and say, ‘Thus says the Lord: rBehold, I am giving this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall capture it; 4 sZedekiah king of Judah shall not escape out of the hand of the Chaldeans, rbut shall surely be given into the hand of the king of Babylon, and shall speak with him face to face and see him eye to eye. 5 And the shall take Zedekiah to Babylon, and there he shall remain until I visit him, declares the Lord. uThough you fight against the Chaldeans, you shall not succeed’?”
6 Jeremiah said, “The word of the Lord came to me: 7 Behold, Hanamel the son of Shallum your uncle will come to you and say, v‘Buy my field that is at wAnathoth, xfor the right of redemption by purchase is yours.’ 8 Then Hanamel my cousin came to me in qthe court of the guard, in accordance with the word of the Lord, and said to me, ‘Buy my field that is at wAnathoth in the land of Benjamin, for the right of possession and redemption is yours; buy it for yourself.’ Then I knew that this was the word of the Lord.
9 “And I bought the field at wAnathoth from Hanamel my cousin, and yweighed out the money to him, seventeen shekels of silver. 10 zI signed the deed, asealed it, bgot witnesses, and yweighed the money on scales. 11 Then I took the sealed deed of purchase, containing the terms and conditions and the open copy. 12 And I gave the deed of purchase to cBaruch the son of Neriah son of Mahseiah, in the presence of Hanamel my cousin, in the presence of dthe witnesses who signed the deed of purchase, and in the presence of all the Judeans who were sitting in qthe court of the guard. 13 I charged cBaruch in their presence, saying, 14 ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Take these deeds, both this sealed deed of purchase and this open deed, and put them in an earthenware vessel, that they may last for a long time. 15 For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Houses and efields and vineyards shall again be bought in this land.’
16 “After I had given the deed of purchase to fBaruch the son of Neriah, I prayed to the Lord, saying: 17 ‘Ah, Lord God! It is gyou who have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by hyour outstretched arm! iNothing is too hard for you. 18 jYou show steadfast love to thousands, jbut you repay the guilt of fathers kto their children after them, O great and lmighty God, whose name is the mLord of hosts, 19 ngreat in counsel and omighty in deed, pwhose eyes are open to all the ways of the children of man, qrewarding each one according to his ways and according to the fruit of his deeds. 20 You have shown rsigns and wonders in the land of Egypt, and to this day in Israel and among all mankind, sand have made a name for yourself, as at this day. 21 tYou brought your people Israel out of the land of Egypt with signs and wonders, with a strong hand and uoutstretched arm, tand with great terror. 22 And you gave them this land, vwhich you swore to their fathers to give them, va land flowing with milk and honey. 23 And they entered and took possession of it. wBut they did not obey your voice or walk in your law. They did nothing of all you commanded them to do. Therefore you have made all this disaster come upon them. 24 Behold, xthe siege mounds have come up to the city to take it, and ybecause of sword and famine and pestilence zthe city is given into the hands of the Chaldeans who are fighting against it. What you spoke has come to pass, and behold, you see it. 25 Yet you, O Lord God, have said to me, a“Buy the field for money band get witnesses”—though zthe city is given into the hands of the Chaldeans.’”
26 The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah: 27 “Behold, I am the Lord, cthe God of all flesh. dIs anything too hard for me? 28 Therefore, thus says the Lord: eBehold, I am giving this city into the hands of the Chaldeans and into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and he shall capture it. 29 The Chaldeans who are fighting against this city fshall come and set this city on fire and burn it, gwith the houses on whose roofs offerings have been made to Baal gand drink offerings have been poured out to other gods, hto provoke me to anger. 30 For the children of Israel and the children of Judah have done nothing but evil in my sight ifrom their youth. The children of Israel have done nothing but hprovoke me to anger jby the work of their hands, declares the Lord. 31 This city has aroused my anger and wrath, from the day it was built to this day, kso that I will remove it from my sight 32 because of all the evil of the children of Israel and the children of Judah that they did to provoke me to anger—ltheir kings and their officials, their priests and their prophets, the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. 33 mThey have turned to me their back and not their face. And though I have taught them npersistently, they have not listened oto receive instruction. 34 They set up ptheir abominations in the house that is called by my name, to defile it. 35 They built the high places of Baal qin the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, rto offer up their sons and daughters to Molech, sthough I did not command them, nor did it enter into my mind, that they should do pthis abomination, tto cause Judah to sin.
36 “Now therefore thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, concerning this city of which you say, u‘It is given into the hand of the king of Babylon by sword, by famine, and by pestilence’: 37 vBehold, I will gather them from all the countries wto which I drove them in xmy anger and my wrath and in great indignation. I will bring them back to this place, yand I will make them dwell in safety. 38 zAnd they shall be my people, and I will be their God. 39 aI will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear me forever, bfor their own good and the good of their children after them. 40 cI will make with them an everlasting covenant, that I will not turn away from doing good to them. dAnd I will put the fear of me in their hearts, that they may not turn from me. 41 eI will rejoice in doing them good, fand I will plant them in this land in faithfulness, with all my heart and all my soul.
42 “For thus says the Lord: gJust as I have brought all this great disaster upon this people, so I will bring upon them all the good that I promise them. 43 hFields shall be bought in this land iof which you are saying, ‘It is a desolation, without man or beast; jit is given into the hand of the Chaldeans.’ 44 Fields shall be bought for money, and kdeeds shall be signed and ksealed and kwitnessed, lin the land of Benjamin, lin the places about Jerusalem, land in the cities of Judah, lin the cities of the hill country, lin the cities of the Shephelah, and in the cities of the Negeb; for mI will restore their fortunes, declares the Lord.”
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In debates over abortion, homosexual conduct, euthanasia, prostitution, drugs, those who call themselves liberals often mount the same basic argument; a socially or morally permissive stance is necessitated towards such practices because people have a right to choose do what ever they like with their own bodies. As John Stuart Mill put it in his book On Liberty:
“The only part of the conduct of anyone, for which he is amenable to society, is that which concerns others. In the part which merely concerns himself, his independence is, of right, absolute. Over himself, over his own body and mind, the individual is sovereign.” [Emphasis added]
Mill intended his principle to be criteria as to what should and should not be made a criminal offence; he did not consider it criteria for determining what is right and wrong. Yet many contemporary liberals appear to use it in this latter way. They contend that as long as the action involves only consenting adults it is morally permissible. It is often asserted in our society, as though it were self-evident, that people have a moral right to do whatever they like with their own bodies.
I think this claim is far from self-evident. Irving Kristol famously proposed this counter-example in a 1971 article in New York Times Magazine:
“[T]he plain fact is that none of us is a complete civil libertarian. We all believe that there is some point at which the public authorities ought to step in to limit the “self-expression” of an individual or group even where this might be seriously intended as a form of artistic expression, and even where the artistic transaction is between consenting adults. A playwright or theatrical director might, in this crazy world of ours, find someone willing to commit suicide on stage, as called for by the script. We would not allow that-any more than we would permit scenes of real physical torture on the stage, even if the victim were a willing masochist. And I know of no one, no matter how free in spirit, who argues that we ought to permit gladiatorial contests in Yankee stadium, similar to those once performed in the Coliseum of Rome-even if only consenting adults were involved.”
The examples Kristol gives are all cases where any person of common sense would condemn the act but where all the victims consent to be harmed.
In his book Harmless Wrong Doing: Moral Limits of the Criminal Law, Liberal Political Philosopher Joel Feinberg considers Kristol’s objection as the most important and potentially-devastating counter-example to the harm principle and he spends considerable energy attempting to circumvent it. He offers four responses. Here I will argue that these responses fail.
First, Feinberg questions whether such cases are really cases of consensual homicide. He suggests that Kristol is too complacent about “the problem of determining genuine ‘willingness’ and voluntary ‘consent’.” He picks up on the fact that Kristol refers to such things happening in this “crazy world”. Feinberg argues, “an agreement is hardly consensual if one of the parties is “crazy”. To exploit a crazy person in the way he describes is not distinguishable from murder”.
Feinberg is correct; people who are crazy, in the sense of being insane, are not competent moral agents. However, it is doubtful that Kristol was speaking of people who are crazy in the literal sense of the word. His reference seems more like a colloquial comment on the kinds of depravity people will engage in if given the freedom to do so. Feinberg appears to find it difficult to accept that a sane person would ever choose to engage in the depraved activities outlined in the counter examples Kristol offered. However, if one believes that human beings are capable of great evil as I do then much of what he says is implausible.
Feinberg also argues that if gladiatorial matches existed today then one would need various mechanisms to ensure consent was actual. He suggests that licensing procedures would render the contests unobjectionable and that both the contestants and the audience could agree to a set of rules that held that the contest must stop once one fighter has clearly gained his or her dominance.
This response is inadequate. It is unclear why contestants would agree to these provisions. Why, for example, could they not agree to a free-for-all or a fight to the death? In the journal Ethics, Jan Arneson observed, “Feinberg has projected a bit of his own nice character onto the world at large” and correctly adds “Feinberg’s liberal principles non-tendentiously applied would hold that we ought to let the free market decide how horrific or bloody the contests should become”.
Arneson adds that even if the contestants and audience did agree to such rules it is hard to see why the practice would then become unobjectionable:
“Feinberg’s response contains the disturbing suggestion that a state-regulated version of Kristol’s gory spectacles would be acceptable to the liberal … so long as some analogue of the Marquis of Queensberry rules is enforced (no bludgeoning your opponent when he is down; no slashing below the belt; no disembowelling your opponent once he surrenders), commercial combat with lethal weapons should in principle be tolerated by a liberal society. Many would consider this a reductio of the liberal position.”
Feinberg’s third attempt to circumvent Kristol’s counter-example is to argue that consensual gladiator matches would inevitably involve harm to non-consenting, third parties. Reflecting upon the audience in a gladiatorial match, Feinberg suggests:
“We cannot hold an image of these wretches in our minds without recoiling, for each of them alone will seem threatening or dangerous, and thousands or millions of them together will be downright terrifying. … When the bloody maiming and slaughtering of a human being is considered so thrilling and enjoyable that thousands will pay dearly to witness it, it would seem to follow that thousands are already so brutalized that there is a clear and present danger that some innocent parties (identities now unknown) will suffer at their hands.”
The claim that such an activity will lead to the deaths of innocent third parties is an empirical one. Feinberg simply asserts that he is correct but offers no evidence to prove this. In the absence of such evidence, the claim is speculative.
A second problem reinforces this. The people killed in gladiatorial matches consent to the fight; the innocent third parties Feinberg mentions do not. In order for enthusiasm for death and killing in a gladiatorial match to spill over into the killing of innocents, fans of such matches must be unable to distinguish between consensual and non-consensual killing so that they are unable to limit their enthusiasm for one without endorsing the other.
This assumption is implausible. For example, permitting people to engage in and enjoy consensual sodomy does not necessarily mean that those people will engage in sodomous rape. Allowing the consensual use of drugs will not mean that all drug users will then coerce others into drug use. Allowing people to watch pornography would not result in the majority forcing others to have sex. Perhaps, even closer to the issue under discussion, allowing people to watch boxing matches does not appear to lead many of them to inevitably engage in assault. Why then should allowing people to watch consensual homicide lead a significant number of them to engage in non-consensual homicide?
The final response Feinberg proposes is to concede that in cases like Kristol’s examples we do see cases of unjust homicide that are consensual but he claims that cases like this are hypothetical, “[t]here seems little likelihood that they will ever occur, at least in the foreseeable future”.
Again Feinberg relies upon an unsubstantiated empirical claim. He asserts, without offering any reason, that gladiator matches are unlikely to occur at all in the foreseeable future. But why think this? Duelling to the death was practiced for centuries. People clearly have been willing to engage in such activities and did so for many years. Moreover, it is also plausible that people would choose to watch such spectacles, even ordinary people. Public executions were popular as late as the nineteenth century which suggests that people are willing, if allowed, to watch real death and violence. The practice of the circuses and gladiator matches in civilised Rome shows the appeal of watching such spectacles. There appears to be no reason for thinking that such an activity is unlikely to occur given the history of the human race.
Interestingly, Feinberg admits this elsewhere in his monograph. In a footnote he notes that the example of gladiatorial contests is no worse, and in some respects better, than some forms of commercial brawling that exist in the U.S. After saying this he cites disapprovingly the examples of “tough guy” contests where people fight bar-room brawls with no holds barred, no rules and often on racial lines. The sources he quotes note that such contests are popular, “the newest rage in spectator entertainment”. It is hard to understand then why Feinberg thinks that such things are unlikely to occur in the future.
It seems then that Feinberg fails to escape the counter-example proposed by Kristol. Liberal morality provides no basis for condemning gladiator matches (and I am not aware of any responses by defenders of liberal or permissive morality that fair any better than Feinberg.) It seems to me that slogans such as “as long as everyone involved is a consenting adult” are not the self-evident truisms they purport to be and are actually quite implausible. It seems far more self-evident that people who engage in and watch consensual gladiator matches are, in fact, depraved rather than that slogans like this are correct. If that makes me non-progressive reactionary or a conservative then I am guilty as charged.
I write a monthly column for Investigate Magazine entitled “Contra Mundum.” This blog post was published in the July 2011 issue and is reproduced here with permission. Contra Mundum is Latin for ‘against the world;’ the phrase is usually attributed to Athanasius who was exiled for defending Christian orthodoxy.
Letters to the editor should be sent to:
Contra Mundum: Pacifism and Just Wars
Contra Mundum: Religion and Violence
Contra Mundum: Stoning Adulterers
Contra Mundum: Why Does God Allow Suffering?
Contra Mundum: “Till Death do us Part” Christ’s Teachings on Abuse, Divorce and Remarriage
Contra Mundum: Is God a 21st Century Western Liberal?
Contra Mundum: In Defence of Santa
Contra Mundum: The Number of the Beast
Contra Mundum: Pluralism and Being Right
Contra Mundum: Abraham and Isaac and the Killing of Innocents
Contra Mundum: Selling Atheism
Contra Mundum: Did God Command Genocide in the Old Testament?
Contra Mundum: Fairies, Leprechauns, Golden Tea Cups & Spaghetti Monsters
Contra Mundum: Secularism and Public Life
Contra Mundum: Richard Dawkins and Open Mindedness
Contra Mundum: Slavery and the Old Testament
Contra Mundum: Secular Smoke Screens and Plato’s Euthyphro
Contra Mundum: What’s Wrong with Imposing your Beliefs onto Others?
Contra Mundum: God, Proof and Faith
Contra Mundum: “Bigoted Fundamentalist” as Orwellian Double-Speak
Contra Mundum: The Flat-Earth Myth
Contra Mundum: Confessions of an Anti-Choice Fanatic
Contra Mundum: The Judgmental Jesus
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I am a relative novice in the arena of firewalls but am attempting
to learn as much as I can. Monitoring this forum on basic fw issues to
the most esoteric is exceptionally enlightening. I have been
implementing L/WAN's for about 9 years and consider myself relatively well
qualified in certain areas.
Coming at the issue of firewalls as a small system integration house
we researched what a firewall is and what is important. What is important
as I see it is to keep the unwanted out while inconveniencing those who
need access as little as possible..
First: How is security rated A1, B3, B2, B1, C2, C1 in the US, other
similar grading scales in England/Germany and probably countless others
worldwide. Then to find out what was the best achievable security rating
for a product that is usable.
The most secure, usable, firewall we have found to date is the Cyberguard
As mentioned the products are B1 compliant (awaiting certification)....
They are relatively easy to setup , nice GUI and it has built in the ablity
for most "standard "(excuse the word) proxies and allows creation
of probably anything you might need. It is priced competitively with
Sidewinder, Raptor and the other high-end hardened O/S FW's available but
as far as I know it is the only one that is B compliant.
If you need to purchase a firewall, I do not see how anyone ever
chooses anything other than the Cyberguard.
Thanks for your time.
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"Mrs. ELŻBIETA STEFAŃSKA was born in Cracow, Poland, on September 7, 1943. Her extraordinary musical talent having become aparent already at an early age, she received her first piano lessons from her father Ludwik Stefański, professor at the Music Academy Cracow.
In 19.. she graduated from the National Music University Cracow in the harpsichord class. Her teacher was the famous German Professor Hans Pischner from Berlin. In the following years she improved her musical proficiency at various international master classes in Siena and Weimar, under the guidance of eminent European harpsichord player - such as Zuzanna Ruzickova or Ruggiero Gerlin. Her first two prizes were awarded to her at the Ancient Music Competition, Łódź, for her piano and harpsichord performance of baroque works. 1965 she won the First Prize at the International Music Competition in Geneva, where she was also honoured with the special Henri Ghez reward as the best harpsichard player. Among her awards and prizes are also the City of Cracow Prize for actistic achievements, awarded to the Baroque Trio of which she was a member and "LAUREL OF CBACOW MUSIC LOVERS" granted to her "in testimony of their gratitude and appreciation for having made classic music widely known".
Elżbieta Stefańska is a Professor at the Music University of Cracow where she leads the harpsichord class and where, from 1981-1990, she was Head of the Department of Clavecin and Ancient Instruments. Since 1990 she has frequently been invited to give concerts and to play for TV and radio recording in Japan, South Corea and Taiwan. In the Mozart Year she played 18 Mozart sonatas (6 CDs) using an ancient Mozart piano for the Pony Canyon sonographic company in Tokio. For the same company she also recorded numerous works by J.S. Bach composed for clavecin. " Visit website for more information. (ed.)
Category: Ensembles/Performers/Associations/Societies / Keyboards
Added on: Apr 26, 2008 | Hits: 360
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Practicum Class 2006 - 2007
In their resources to share, the 2006-2007 class present a value framework for Community Social Psychology and discuss the importance of creating a strong vision forprograms.The Program evaluation process is detailed, as is data collection methods, two aspects of Community Psychology that go hand-in-hand. The class offers an in-depth look at recruiting and managing relationships with volunteers. There is extensive information on mentoring relationships and the ins-and-outs of effective collaboration. There is also an interesting discussion of the importance of developing an asset inventory not only in planning programs for children, but also for defining your own strengths.
Resources to Share
Placement:Lexington Public Schools
Supervisor: Jennifer Putnam
I worked at the Fiske Elementary school in Lexington in the Special Education Program called the ILP (Intensive Learning Program), which services special needs children with severe disabilities and behaviors. This small classroom focuses on one-to-one learning and is designed to educate special needs children in a manner suited to their needs and promote interaction with regular education as much as possible.
My work as a practicum student focused on social skill development with the children. I ran two social skill activities a week and went with the children to inclusion times with regular education classrooms and collected data on their social interactions.
Placement:Andover Historical Society
Supervisor: Elaine Clements
In early 2006, Andover Historical Society’s main educational program, an after school program for kids called Time Travelers, had gone on indefinite hiatus due to lack of attendance, paired with the resignation of the Museum Educator. My primary focus during my practicum was getting this program back off the ground. This included running a post-program evaluation (which involved contacting the program’s former participants and their parents), building partnerships within the community, writing a grant, and working with Andover public schools. I am also working on building a system of sustainability so that the program’s success is dependent neither on grant funding nor specific staff persons/interns’ involvement.
Placement:Northeast Center for Healthy Communities
Supervisor: Jim Ryan
The Northeast Center for Healthy Communities is located in Lawrence, and works with several local communities to enhance the health of people living and working in that community. Specifically, I worked with Medford Health Matters, located in Medford, and gained experience in program evaluation, grant writing, facilitating meetings, organizing and analyzing data, working with public officials and those of diverse backgrounds, and developing assets in the community.
Medford Health Matters cooperates with the local schools, police departments, and all other town departments to decrease youth alcohol and substance abuse, increase the environmental health of Medford, educate about type II diabetes, and raise awareness about many different health issues.
Placement:The Cultural Organization of Lowell (COOL)
Supervisor: LZ Nunn
I feel that my experience as a Practicum student will make me extremely marketable as I begin to look for a fulltime job. The duties I have performed and the projects I have worked on throughout this year have assisted me in terms of my personal and professional development.
COOL was an interesting placement because it allowed me to learn about all the cultural programs that are offered in the city of Lowell; where I lived all my life. Projects I worked on this year include Destination World, Winterfest and the ARTVentures Series. Although at times I feel that I did a lot of administrative work, I also, was allowed to think creatively and apply many of the Community Social Principle to the community.
Placement:The Wish Project
Supervisor: Donna Hunnewell
I served mainly as the Volunteer Coordinator with responsibilities to recruit and organize volunteer groups to work at the warehouse; create and implement a volunteer database and sign-in log; plan projects in the warehouse for volunteers to organize and sort incoming donations; set up current monthly projects (Easter bags, Holiday gifts, Newborn baby kits) and assist volunteer to organize and package goods; create Volunteer Manual for future individuals in this position. Volunteer groups I worked with consisted of various ages and organizations, including Girl Scout and Boy Scout troops, UML sports teams, church groups, mentally disabled teens senior citizen groups and school organizations.
Placement:Lowell House, Inc
Supervisor: Ken Powers
Lowell House, Inc. is a human service agency dedicated to providing addiction and HIV services in safe and community based environments. LHI embodies a culture that recognizes and values diversity by supporting progressive approaches to treatment. LHI contributes to the health and well-being of the community through demonstrated leadership in the areas of prevention, education and intervention. Lowell House has been providing these services to individuals and communities in the Merrimack Valley for over thirty-five years.
Some of my practicum experiences have included the following objectives and goals:
- Participant Observer
- Learning about the different programs within the agency
- Attending weekly supervision meetings
- Interacting with other staff members
- Planner Manger
- Meeting with and learning about other agencies
- Involvement in the city of Lowell’s Ten Year Plan to End Homelessness
- Professional Development
- Understanding my role and responsibilities
- Observing and learning from the Lowell House, Inc. staff
- Grant writing project(s)
Please be advised that this is only some skills I am attempting to develop. If you have some other areas of interest and/or would like to pursue a project that appeals to you and this is an agency that you might consider, please contact Ken Powers, CEO, Executive Director, LHI, to ascertain if it would be a mutually acceptable and beneficial experience.
Placement:Crittenton Women’s Union –Woman to Woman Program
Supervisor: Josephine Madrazo
I am doing my practicum at the Crittenton Women’s Union (CWU) in Boston. CWU transforms the course of low-income women’s lives so that they can attain economic independence and create better futures for themselves and their families. The program that I am working in is called the Woman to Woman program, a 12 week career development program designed to provide computer training, professional development skills (such as resume writing and interview skills), and professional dress. I have also assisted in advocacy, job search, and writing skills lessons.
I meet one on one with participants to sharpen their job search correspondence tools (such as resume, cover letter, and thank you letter). I was originally recruited to compile a resource manual for mentors to use when issues come up with their mentees that they need assistance with. The manual includes many organizations and programs that can provide leads in these cases.
Placement:Rape Crisis Services of Greater Lowell, Inc
Supervisor: Meredith Trueblood
RCSGL was founded in 1976 with the mission to heal and empower survivors of rape and sexual assault through counseling, advocacy, and education. My experience at the RCSGL, Inc. has been nothing short of amazing. The women in the agency are truly passionate about the work they provide for the community. My particular position at the agency is to educate children in the Greater Lowell Area on safety, rights, and empowerment through the Child Assault Prevention program.
I also worked with the women at UTCE on the Vagina Monologues to raise awareness for Sexual Assault Awareness month. I am currently working on the “Clothesline Project.” I will be hanging the clothesline at Lowell High School, Lowell Vocational School, Middlesex Community College, and here at University of Massachusetts Lowell during the month of April. This past year has opened so many doors for me and helped to shape my future.
Placement:Center for Family Work and Community
Supervisor: Robin Toof
The Center for Family, Work & Community is dedicated to providing exceptional organization development, consultation and training. It can also teach you how to create partnerships within the community. The can help community and organizational capacity by bringing university skills, strategic planning and expertise to groups outside the university. I have learned to utilize my practicum skills in class and put them into evaluation projects the center has with different agencies.
Placement:TRIO Student Success Program
Supervisor: Ann Buskey & Aimee Rusman
The Student Success Program at Middlesex Community College is a federally funded TRIO Program that serves 200 low income and first generation college students and individuals with disabilities. Services are available to students to support the educational experience. Academic support is provided and includes regular and drop-in appointments with tutors, counselors, and an academic services specialist.
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"In literature it is only the wild that attracts us. Dullness is but another name for tameness. . . . A truly good book is something as natural, and as unexpectedly and unaccountably fair and perfect, as a wild-flower discovered on the prairies of the West or in the jungles of the East."
--"Walking," 1862, Henry David Thoreau
- B.A. Xavier University, 1983
- M.A. Saint Louis University, 1988
- Ph.D. University of Kansas, 1997
Dr. Martin specializes in nonfiction writing, environmental literature, and American literature.
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Egg donation and Surrogacy
Hello, I'm trying to get an idea of what our options are. My g/f has had a hysterectomy but still have her ovaries. Would it be possible for her to donate her eggs (she is 32) and using IVF use my sperm to have a surrogate carry our child?
The information provided by medical professionals in the Q&A is for informational purposes only, and is not a substitute for individualized medical advice,
diagnosis or treatment by a qualified health care provider.
Replied on 7/3/2012
More Questions on Surrogacy
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|Copyright © 2013
Do not use this website as a substitute for medical care. Please consult your physician
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Houston Chronicle: "High
court deals blow to Hispanics." June 18, 2002
The U.S. Supreme Court closed the door Monday on challenges to Texas' redistricting plans, rejecting arguments that Hispanics were illegally shut out of the state's two new congressional districts. The decision, which also affirmed state legislative boundaries, resolved the last court cases arising from the state's 2001 redistricting.
The ruling is good news for incumbent congressional Democrats and for Republicans who likely will pick up Texas' two new seats. It is bad news for the Democrats, who probably will lose their majority in the state House, and for Texas Hispanics, who had hoped their rising population numbers in the last census would help them put more Latinos in office.
"We're incredibly disappointed," said Nina Perales, staff attorney with the San Antonio office of the Mexican-American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, a Hispanic advocacy law firm that sued over the new boundaries. "This was the only way that Latino population growth was going to translate into increased political influence. ... The courts have thwarted that effort."
Attorney General John Cornyn and Houston lawyer Andy Taylor, who represented the state in the cases, declined to comment.
The U.S. Constitution requires political boundaries to be redrawn every 10 years to reflect changes in population recorded in the census. In Texas and elsewhere, the redistricting following the 2000 census sparked numerous legal challenges.
The Texas cases were among the first to reach the Supreme Court, which affirmed the state's redistricting without hearing arguments and without commenting on its reasons.
Hispanic population in Texas increased by 2.3 million between 1990 and 2000, accounting for 60 percent of the state's population growth. The state gained two new congressional seats, bringing the delegation to 32, because of its increased population.
The Texas Legislature is charged with drawing districts for Texas congressional representatives, the state House and Senate and the state Board of Education.
But lawmakers couldn't agree on plans in last year's session.
State House and Senate redistricting then fell to the Legislative Redistricting Board, a GOP-dominated panel of five top state officials. Congressional redistricting went straight to a three-judge federal panel made up of 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Patrick Higginbotham of Dallas, a Republican, and U.S. District Judges John T. Ward and John Hannah Jr., both Tyler Democrats.
The federal judges approved congressional and state legislative plans last November after making changes to fix four Hispanic districts for the Texas House after the U.S. Justice Department said the districts violated federal Voting Rights Act protections. The result of the redistricting was a dramatic shift in legislative power from the Democrats to the Republicans.
The districts will take effect next year, with representatives selected in the November general election.
The court's map retained Harris County's 25 state House districts, but made it harder for Democratic Houston Reps. Fred Bosse, Scott Hochberg and Debra Danburg to win re-election in reconfigured districts. Bosse decided against running. Danburg faces Republican Martha Wong and Hochberg faces Republican Dionne Roberts in the November election.
The state Senate map did not dramatically affect Harris County representation, but it stretched Republican District 17 from Fort Bend County to the Louisiana line, causing Democratic District 4 to become Republican and angering many blacks in Beaumont and Port Arthur.
MALDEF and the state Mexican-American Legislative Caucus sued, arguing that in an effort to protect incumbents, the final plans unfairly packed a large number of South Texas Hispanics into the same number of districts rather than creating a new district there. The plans also split large Hispanic populations near Houston and Dallas, leaving the two new districts with suburban Anglo majorities that tend to favor Republican candidates.
But the state, led by Cornyn, urged the justices to reject those arguments, saying it would be a mistake to "equate the mere existence of political considerations in the districting process with purposeful or invidious discrimination."
"Such an approach would plunge the court in the `political thicket,' compelling the type of judicial second-guessing of state legislatures that the court has steadfastly rejected," Cornyn wrote in a filing to the high court.
J.D. Pauerstein, a San Antonio lawyer who represented the GOP, said Monday that Republicans are pleased with the court's decision.
"We were confident that the redistricting did not affect anyone's voting rights and that no one was improperly harmed by it," he said.
Texas Democratic Party Chairwoman Molly Beth Malcolm called the decision "a bittersweet victory."
"We're disappointed that they upheld the outrageous gerrymandering that Cornyn and the Republican redistricting committee foisted upon the Texas House and Senate, but we're pleased that they upheld the congressional plan drawn by fair judges," she said.
The Constitution requires congressional districts to be redrawn every 10 years based on population changes. Redistricting is necessary to ensure equal representation, but is often bittersweet for the members of Congress who lose constituents while gaining new ones.
The recent redistricting in Texas made changes to the 24th District, which I represent in Congress. I was very pleased to pick up new areas in Dallas and Tarrant Counties that I know very well. But I was disappointed that the wonderful people in Ellis and Navarro Counties, whom I have represented for the last 10 years, will not be in the 24th District in the next Congress.
The new 24th District will contain 202,064 new constituents, many of them living in Fort Worth and Arlington. I have already had the opportunity to meet a number of people active in these areas and am eager to meet many more.
I am very excited to represent all of these new areas, which contain many of the most distinctive neighborhoods, businesses, churches, and historical landmarks in the metroplex.
I represented North Arlington during my first four years in Congress (1979-1983) and I look forward to catching up with old friends there. And I am eager to meet with new constituents in wonderful Fort Worth neighborhoods such as Berkeley, Handley, Meadowbrook, Riverside, Ryan Place and Woodhaven. And on a personal note, I am very excited to represent my alma mater: Paschal High School.
The new 24th District also contains colorful landmarks like Carshon's Deli (where they make their own corned beef) and Justin Boot Company in Fort Worth, and River Legacy Park in Arlington. The district also contains historic places of worship like Travis Avenue Baptist Church, Brentwood Church of Christ, and Broadway Baptist Church. In addition, the 24th District will encompass Fort Worth's hospital district including All Saints Episcopal, Medical Plaza, Harris Methodist, and John Peter Smith.
For 23 years, I have been deeply honored to serve this region in Congress. In this time, my district has changed several times and so have my constituents. These changes have allowed me to represent an extremely wide cross-section of North Texas ˝ from Irving to Corsicana ˝ at different points in my tenure.
I've always believed the changes to the 24th District over the years have been a great asset and an opportunity for me. It has given me an appreciation for the diverse needs and concerns of people in different parts of the region, but it has also underscored how interconnected our North Texas communities are and how important it is that we work together.
While there are always disappointments when you lose constituents in redistricting, there are also new opportunities. So I look forward to meeting my new constituents and to representing them in Washington.
I'll also work to represent the shared concerns of our entire North Texas community, and will continue working with my local colleagues in Congress from both parties to deliver for the metroplex and for Texas.
U.S. Rep. Martin Frost, D-Dallas, represents parts of Arlington and Grand Prairie. For more information about redistricting, visit the Texas Legislature online, www.tlc.state.tx.us.
It's a revolution. Or to some, a long overdue evolution.
Whatever the label, the Texas Legislature is changing.
Legislative district maps have been redrawn to favor Republicans instead of Democrats. Powerful Democratic lawmakers are retiring. At last week's campaign filing deadline, a record number of GOP candidates signed up to run for the Texas House.
Although some turnover in the Texas House and Senate is normal, especially after the once-a-decade redistricting is done, this change could be historic. For the first time since Reconstruction, Democrats may become the minority party in the Legislature.
Already, the GOP holds all 27 statewide offices.
"With redistricting and the general conservative drift of the state in recent years, Republican majorities in both the House and Senate should not come as a surprise," said Bruce Buchanan, a government professor at the University of Texas at Austin.
Ballots for the March 12 primary will be missing the names of some 20 incumbents in the 150-member House who did not file for re-election. Several are committee chairmen and lieutenants to Democratic Speaker Pete Laney, who faces a challenge in his district from a Republican member of the State Board of Education.
Newcomers, many of them Republicans, are clamoring for open legislative seats. A record 185 Republicans are running for the Texas House, said party spokesman Ted Royer.
The GOP is aiming for 85 to 90 seats in the House, which Democrats currently hold 78-72. Republicans also hope to build on their 16-15 majority in the Senate.
"Texas Republicans are more confident than ever that 2002 will be the year that the GOP emerges as the true majority party at all levels of state government," said Susan Weddington, chairwoman of the Republican Party of Texas.
Not so fast, countered Texas Democratic Party chairwoman Molly Beth Malcolm.
"We're not conceding anything. We've still got people that are running in a lot of those seats," Malcolm said. "If we have the money necessary to get our message out, most people that I run across in this state really are more interested in who is the best person to get the message out."
And, Malcolm said, Democrats are confident they will win some statewide races.
Ed Martin, a veteran consultant for the Democrats, agreed.
"The Democrats were dealt a cruel hand in redistricting, but the party will still be very competitive in legislative races," Martin said.
When lawmakers return for the 2003 session, they could face a budget crisis minus leaders like Appropriations Chairman Rob Junell, a 14-year veteran Democrat in the House who is not seeking re-election.
Comptroller Carole Keeton Rylander has warned there could be a $5 billion deficit next session. In the mean time, budget writers are dealing with rising Medicaid and other costs as the economy slows.
Revamping the state's complex tax laws and school finance system also are expected to be top issues that will have to be tackled without the guidance of House Education Chairman Paul Sadler, a Democrat from Henderson who also isn't running after a decade of service.
"Redistricting tends to bring new faces to the Legislature and 2003 will be no different," said Laney, who pointed out that 11 chairmen did not return after redistricting in 1991.
"A number of experienced lawmakers will not be back in the House next year, and they will be missed," he said. "But I'm confident that the new members who replace them will be just as dedicated and hardworking as they build their own records of achievement."
A new House speaker also could be at the helm.
Republicans are hoping to win a majority in the chamber and then oust Laney, who wants a record fifth term as speaker.
Rep. Tom Craddick of Midland is among the Republicans lining up for Laney's job.
Laney, a Hale Center cotton farmer first elected to the House in 1972, believes he can win another term as speaker even if Republicans control the chamber.
Malcolm, the Democratic chair, said Laney's experience should help him win in November against Judy Strickland, the Republican education board member seeking his House seat.
"The people of his area know the kind of statesman that he has been and also the kind of speaker that he has been," she said. "He has been a statesman. Not a party person, but a statesman, looking at what is the best thing for the state."
Buchanan, the government professor, said there are no guarantees in an election that has already had its share of surprises.
There will be new faces and some uncertainties, he said.
"One of them being will there be a continuation of the bipartisan tradition? That kind of depends on who wins the speakership and the governorship," he said.
With President Bush and his bipartisan mantra gone from Austin, and partisan redistricting fighting fresh in politicians' minds, some 2002 campaigns may become bitter.
Bush, who swooped into town Friday for the formal unveiling of his governor's portrait at the Capitol, gently reminded Republicans and Democrats about the Texas he likes to remember.
"From both parties we came into this building with one desire to do what's right for Texas," Bush said.
Flanked by Democrat Laney and Republican acting Lt. Gov. Bill Ratliff, Bush called out names of Texas friends from both sides.
"Sometimes in politics friends are just a fleeting memory but that's not the case for us," Bush said. "You're either a friend, or you're not a friend, no matter what your politics are."
Dallas Morning News
Republicans were positioned to grab control of the Texas House for the first time since Reconstruction on Wednesday as the filing period closed for legislative candidates of both major parties.
Political experts are predicting that Republicans will capture a solid majority of seats in the 150-member House in the 2002 elections, mirroring the statewide GOP trends of the past several years.
As many as 85 to 90 seats could wind up in the Republican column. The current House has 78 Democrats and 72 Republicans.
The current Senate has 16 Republicans and 15 Democrats. Republicans hope to build on the majority they first won in 1996.
GOP strategists expect to pick up two to three seats, which would leave the chamber with 18 to 19 Republicans. Their cause will be aided by the departure of two incumbent Democrats, Mike Moncrief of Fort Worth and David Bernsen of Beaumont. Republicans are targeting both seats.
The bright GOP prospects in the Legislature are mainly the result of redistricting plans ordered by a three-judge federal panel last year that tilted several districts toward the GOP.
"With redistricting and the general conservative drift of the state in recent years, Republican majorities in both the House and Senate should not come as a surprise," said Bruce Buchanan, a government professor at the University of Texas in Austin.
GOP political consultant Royal Masset agreed.
"With so many strong Democrats deciding to retire, Republicans should have no trouble winning 86 to 88 seats," he said.
The final day of filing indicated that at least 20 House incumbents will not seek re-election.
A record 160 Republicans are running for the House this year.
A big question mark is who will be chosen speaker by the House that takes office in January 2003.
Democrat Pete Laney of Hale Center, a five-term speaker, said he wants a record sixth term. But he could have difficulty retaining the office if the Republicans win a substantial majority of House seats.
"I don't think speaker of the House is a slam dunk for the Republicans yet because of loyalty of many members to Laney," Dr. Buchanan said. But if GOP gains are sizable, it would be hard to deny the influential post to a Republican, he and other experts said.
Mr. Laney appeared to be unworried. "Redistricting tends to bring new faces to the Legislature, and 2003 will be no different," he said.
Before running again for speaker, Mr. Laney will have to defeat a challenger to his legislative seat. He faces Republican Judy Strickland, a State Board of Education member from Plainview.
Veteran Democratic political consultant Ed Martin said that in spite of the pro-Republican redistricting plans, the Democrats could still wind up with nearly a majority ˝ which would allow Mr. Laney to remain speaker.
"The Democrats were dealt a cruel hand in redistricting, but the party will still be very competitive in legislative races," he said. "There is potential for increased Democratic turnout this year."
Among the leading Democrats not running for re-election are House Appropriations Committee Chairman Rob Junell of San Angelo and House Education Committee Chairman Paul Sadler of Henderson. At least five other Democratic chairmen also are stepping down.
At least five Senate districts will have new officeholders. Besides Mr. Bernsen and Mr. Moncrief, Democrat Carlos Truan of Corpus Christi and Republicans J.E. "Buster" Brown of Lake Jackson and David Sibley of Waco decided to give up their seats.
The 2002 Texas congressional elections promise to offer as many subplots as a soap opera.
Candidates statewide filed Wednesday to run in their respective party primaries on March 12.
Texas has more seats ˝ 32 ˝ than ever, thanks to the once-a-decade redrawing of congressional districts to account for population changes. But neither of the state's two new seats looks set to elect a Hispanic, angering groups that represent the fastest-growing population in Texas.
The Dallas area boasts three open seats. The sons of two Republican incumbents are trying to follow their fathers' footsteps into Congress. And the outcome of the state's 32 races could play a role in whether the GOP keeps control of the House.
What's more, voter turnout may be higher this year because of concerns over the slumping economy and the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, said political scientist Allan Saxe of the University of Texas at Arlington. Fewer than one in three registered voters came to the polls in 1998, the last year there was a congressional election without a presidential race on the ballot.
"I think the apathy may have been dislodged a little bit by Sept. 11," said Dr. Saxe, "and if the economy worsens, I think the apathy will be even more jarred."
The Texas congressional map unveiled this fall triggered considerable political jockeying in the Dallas area.
One of the state's new two districts is in heavily Republican territory in northern Dallas County. Rep. Pete Sessions, R-Dallas, tired of driving hundreds of miles on the weekends to see constituents in his sprawling 5th District, announced that he would jump to the new, more compact 32nd District.
Mr. Sessions faces party opposition from Dallas businessman Danny Davis. The winner of the Republican primary will meet either Pauline Dixon, a retired schoolteacher, or Walter Hofheinz, a Dallas lawyer, in the general election.
The Democrats said they were eager to run.
"There needs to be more courage and compassion in Congress," Mr. Hofheinz said.
Ms. Dixon said: "Pete Sessions should not get a free ride. This is more my district than his district."
Mr. Davis could not be reached for comment.
In Mr. Sessions' former district, Republicans Jeb Hensarling, businessman Mike Armour, Dallas lawyer Dan Hagood, computer analyst Fred Wood, and lawyer Phil Sudan are running. Democrats are putting their hopes on former Dallas County Appellate Judge Ron Chapman; Wayne Gordon Raasch, who does contract work with the Texas Department of Corrections; and Dallas County precinct chairman Bill Bernstein.
A third North Texas seat opened up last month when House Majority Leader Dick Armey, R-Flower Mound, announced that he would retire after nine terms in January 2003. His son, Denton County Judge Scott Armey, 32, announced Tuesday that he will seek to succeed his father in the 26th District, but six other Republicans and one Democrat want the same thing.
Keith Self, a retired army officer from McKinney; Michael Paris, a consultant from Irving; Roger Sessions, a Roanoke physician; Dave Kovatch, a City Council member from The Colony; Michael Burgess, a Highland Village physician; and David Gulling, a pilot from Hickory Creek, will challenge Mr. Armey in the primary. The winner will face Democrat Paul LeBon of Highland Village.
Political science professor and political newcomer Tom Caiazzo of Plano will try to unseat U.S. Rep. Sam Johnson, who has represented the 3rd District since 1991. The winner will face McKinney human resources executive Manny Molera, a Democrat.
In the race for the 4th District, 11-term incumbent Ralph Hall, 78, of Rockwall will be unopposed in the Democratic primary. Two first-time candidates, Edward Conger of Rockwall and John Graves of Longview, are vying for the Republican nomination. Mr. Conger, 42, is a teacher, and Mr. Graves, 35, is a lawyer.
Brad Barton, 31, son of Rep. Joe Barton, R-Ennis, is among eight Republicans running for the new 31st District seat in Central Texas. The district stretches from Round Rock to the Houston suburbs. The elder Mr. Barton, 52, is seeking a 10th term in the 6th District.
Former Secretary of State Henry Cuellar, a Democrat, will bid for the 23rd District seat held by Rep. Henry Bonilla, R-San Antonio.
Although much of the campaigning hasn't started, some of the most intense partisan battles over the 2002 Texas congressional elections already have been fought ˝ in court.
When state lawmakers could not agree on a congressional map, the job fell to the state and federal courts.
Democrats hold 17 congressional seats to the GOP's 13. Both parties took a keen interest in where the new districts would be and how existing districts would be affected.
After much legal wrangling, a three-judge federal panel issued a map that appears to protect incumbents. Although Republicans are favored to win the two new seats, analysts don't expect the shift in the balance of power in the congressional delegation that the GOP had forecast.
The map also displeased Hispanics, who accounted for 60 percent of the growth in Texas and make up one-third of the state's population.
A year after President-elect George W. Bush chose the Texas House of Representatives as the setting for his campaign victory speech ˇ saying it embodied the bipartisanship he hoped to bring to fractious Washington ˇ that chamber is awash in intrigue and infighting in the aftermath of political redistricting.
The hard feelings emerged last month after a panel of three federal judges approved a Republican-drafted legislative redistricting map that is expected to transfer control of the House to Republicans for the first time in more than a century.
Several prominent Democrats have since announced they would not seek re-election because they were either paired with other incumbent Democrats or pushed into unfamiliar districts.
"They were after maximizing the number of Republicans that can be elected," said Zeb Zbranek, an East Texas Democrat who is stepping down after being placed in the same district as two other Democratic incumbents. "It was purely political."
Meanwhile, even though the biennial Legislature will not convene again until January 2003, a furious behind-the-scenes political race is already under way among Republican lawmakers positioning themselves to be the next House speaker, the job currently held by a Democrat Pete Laney. It was Mr. Laney whom Mr. Bush held out as a symbol of bipartisanship and selected to introduce him for the nationally televised speech last December.
For now, Mr. Laney has said he will seek re-election in his district and run again for speaker when House members elect a new leader at the beginning of the 2003 session.
His chances to remain speaker are considered uncertain; the Democrats currently hold a 78-to-72 edge in the House, but Republicans believe they can win between 82 and 90 seats in the November general election. Still, Republican Party officials are mobilizing to make certain Mr. Laney cannot hold onto the top job.
Some Republican legislators, including some allies of Mr. Laney, have complained that party officials are demanding the sort of toe-the- line party loyalty more typical of Washington than Austin.
"My concern is that we'll be more like D.C., in that we'll divide the aisle," said Tommy Merritt, a Republican legislator from East Texas who is an ally of Mr. Laney. "And I think that is a very significant change in Texas."
Mr. Merritt angered many Republican officials at the end of this year's session when he introduced a redistricting plan that largely protected incumbents and created fewer new majority-Republican districts. It was voted down, but many Republicans have not forgotten. Though party officials are required to remain neutral in primaries, several Republican officials recently attended a fund- raiser for Mr. Merritt's Republican challenger.
The race for speaker, usually an internal matter decided by House members, is also apparently attracting considerable attention from Republicans outside the chamber. "It's quite different this time," said State Representative Brian McCall, one of the Republican candidates for speaker. "There is great interest, and apparently pressure, for some to heed what the outsiders are saying."
Political analysts have said that many prominent Republicans, including some influential contributors, are pressuring Republican members to unite behind Tom Craddick, the longest-serving Republican in the House, despite the other Republicans who have announced as candidates.
Legislators in both parties say Mr. Craddick has coveted the job for years, and some Democrats believe he would change the tenor of politics in the House.
"Clearly, if the speaker is Tom Craddick, we'll see partisanship in a major way," said State Representative Glen Maxey, a liberal Democrat who said he would not seek re-election after his district was changed to include two other Democratic incumbents.
Mr. Laney has adhered to the tradition of appointing members of both parties to committee chairmanships, something unimaginable in Washington. As such, he developed a loyal cadre of Republican and Democratic legislators.
Harvey Kronberg, editor of The Quorum Report, an online newsletter dedicated to Texas politics, said Mr. Craddick, should he become speaker, had also pledged to divide chairmanships and may even reach out to Democratic backbenchers shunned under Mr. Laney.
"The bipartisan nature of the House can still survive," Mr. Kronberg said. But he noted that Democrats were wary, particularly since Mr. Craddick has campaigned against incumbent Democrats in years past, considered a breach of etiquette.
"What will change is the trust level in the speaker," Mr. Kronberg added.
While governor, Mr. Bush often allied himself with Democratic legislators, a move that not only helped him pass his program but also burnished his reputation for bipartisanship.
Many partisan Republicans were incensed when Mr. Bush refused to campaign against Paul Sadler, the influential Democratic lawmaker who had helped Mr. Bush on education issues. Now, Mr. Sadler is one of the Democrats who has said he will not run for re-election.
Democratic legislators were not the only critics of the new redistricting boundaries, which were drafted by Republicans. Judge John H. Hannah Jr. of United States District Court, a Democratic appointee and a member of the panel that approved the plan, wrote that the boundaries were legal, if not necessarily fair.
"The dominant political party treated all members of the opposing party as if they were `enemies of the state' instead of respected state leaders, many with a great wealth of governmental knowledge and ability that has and could inure to the benefit of Texas," Judge Hannah wrote.
Susan Weddington, chairman of the Texas Republican Party, said the new redistricting map corrected what she characterized as "the excessive gerrymandering" from a decade ago that she said benefited Democrats.
As for the speaker's race, Ms. Weddington said the state party was neutral and denied that any pressure was being applied on behalf of Mr. Craddick. But she said grass-roots Republicans had a right to lobby legislators over who will become the next speaker.
"It's not about a private club electing their president," she said.
One prominent Republican intensely interested in the Texas House elections is United States Representative Tom DeLay, the majority whip.
Ms. Weddington said Mr. DeLay, who is seeking to become the majority leader in the House of Representatives, had helped form a political action committee to raise money for Republican legislative candidates in hopes of building a healthy majority in the Statehouse.
And one issue Mr. DeLay wants re- examined is Congressional redistricting.
Last month, the panel of federal judges approved a Congressional redistricting map that analysts contend will allow Democrats to maintain their advantage in the state's Congressional delegation. After the ruling, Mr. DeLay's aides said they would push to have the Texas Legislature reconsider the Congressional lines in 2003, when Republicans were expected to be in control.
State Rep. Delwin Jones, R-Lubbock, knew 40 years ago that leadership in redistricting would be key to preserving the political strength of rural Texas.
The 2001 House redistricting chairman has been a leader in the effort just about each time the Legislature has engaged in the menacing decennial process of reapportioning political seats.
This year's tug of war between rural and urban legislators has dwindled to a close, with three solidly rural West Texas seats preserved in the U.S. House, but several area state House members - including Jones and fellow West Texan, Rep. Gary Walker, R-Plains - pitted against each other.
Each of the four times the Texas Legislature has tackled redistricting, it's been followed by biting political rhetoric and hurt feelings.
But this year was especially rough. The difference this time, Jones said, was the close partisan splits, 78-72 favoring Democrats in the House, and 16-15 favoring the GOP in the Senate.
On the brink of a state House majority for the first time since the Civil War, the GOP's battle became personal.
"You don't draw districts for political parties, you draw what's best for the people - and the people have changed," Jones said.
Texans have shifted from Democrat to Republican, and as a result, more Republicans are in office, he said.
"There is the contention that because there are more Republicans than previously, then there was an 'entitlement' to draw districts designed to elect Republicans. I contended you've got to design them to represent the people of the districts," he said.
"It's this contention that has been the problem."
Jones, 77, said he knew a fierce battle was in the making, but he didn't expect it to be as powerfully divisive as it turned.
On the House floor May 7, 76 representatives voted for Jones' House plan. Of the 71 who voted "no," 28 of them got the districts they wanted, Jones said.
The day of the vote, a contingent of GOP women filled the House gallery to pressure members to remember their commitments to the party, Jones said.
"I was flattered that none of the Lubbock Republican women came in," he said.
As for whether he worries about rankling the GOP's rank and file, Jones said, "I try to focus on what my district would do if they had access to information to all the information that I have."
"I've always taken the position I'll meet with anybody and explain any vote I've made," he said.
That position has made him a steady hand for West Texas, said Lubbock's GOP chairman Marc McDougal.
Although Jones may not always agree with the person sitting next to him, he has an open door policy, McDougal said.
Redistricting in its infancy
In the 1960s, Jones saw the early signs of districts in West Texas changing, and he wanted to make sure the integrity of agriculture areas was protected.
He made no secret of his interest in chairing the House committee. In 1969, he told those running for House speaker that he wanted the seat.
"I wanted to look after rural Texas," he said.
Jones supported the opposition to former Rep. Gus Mutscher, a Democrat from Brenham, and he announced his choice.
But during the interim, only Mutscher was left. Jones told him he had the job - and Jones wouldn't ask for any special committee assignments.
"I told him I knew I supported the wrong guy," Jones said.
Mutscher made Jones chairman of the agriculture committee - unheard of for a member who'd opposed a new speaker - and when redistricting reared its ugly head, Mutscher gave Jones that chairmanship, too.
"It was the fair thing to do," said the former speaker, who was later dethroned by a banking scandal.
"Delwin is an individual and a likable person - I could work with those attributes," Mutscher said recently. "That's going a long way in meeting the test (of appointing a chairman), anyway."
"Delwin liked to work, and he liked to talk issues - another trait I found very appealing - despite the fact he may have started off on the wrong side."
Leading the 1970s redistricting, Jones just had to meet the one man, one vote requirements. But several counties were split, and the maps went to the Legislative Redistricting Board.
In the process, Jones had drawn a congressional district for the first black woman elected to the Texas Senate, Barbara Jordan, who won the piece of Jones' cartography in 1972 in the U.S. House of Representatives.
"That created some wrath - some people were not happy," he said.
As a result, the Legislative Redistricting Board drew a district for Jones's seat that stretched almost to Amarillo but included a tentacle that included Jones' house and two voting precincts.
"I have, for some reason, been in conflict with the chairmen of the LRB," Jones said, referring to both the 1970s and the 2001 plans from Attorney General John Cornyn.
Former state Rep. Ralph Wayne Jr. was planning to retire from the Legislature, and he convinced young Pete Laney, a staffer and Democrat farmer from Hale Center, to get in the race.
Laney and Jones were both Democrats vying for the same new seat. They carried out likely one of the most congenial primaries in the state.
It was 1972, a time in West Texas where campaigning was done at pie-suppers and hog shows - "anywhere you could find 100 people" - and Laney and Jones became fast friends.
Three decades and one's party switch later, the two are still tight.
"Delwin is much more than a political colleague to me," Laney said. "He has been a close, trusted friend for more than 30 years. He's a straight-talker, has a devilish sense of humor, and is one of the most honest people I've ever met."
During a radio interview in the midst of their primary campaign, a reporter asked Jones what kind of guy is Laney.
"I said, 'Well, I could explain it best by saying that if I were not in the race, I would support him because he's a good guy,"' Jones said.
The Jones' camp just about came unglued, he said.
Laney won the race, and 1972 - the year 77 other legislators left the House - showed Jones the power of redistricting.
Lubbock attorney Harvey Morton had just moved to the city when he met Jones at a junior bar meeting, shortly after that defeat.
Jones was speaking to the young lawyers, and the impression of his love for lawmaking was evident, Morton said.
"It was obvious he enjoyed public service, enjoyed being in the Legislature and it came across very strong," Morton said.
For the early 1980s, Jones was officially out of the process. He worked behind the scenes for rural Texas in that decade's redistricting battle, but he was out of step with the national Democrats' focus, he said.
"I saw the change that was occurring. I was categorized as a renegade Democrat because I didn't endorse the liberal national policies," he said.
"My philosophy more closely fit with the Republicans, which is conservative, business-oriented."
Jones' 1986 decision to join the GOP was the only decision he's ever made that's disappointed Morton, who had served as a Democrat party chairman in Lubbock.
"The climate up here had changed so drastically, it was really difficult to get elected without identifying with the Republican Party," Morton said. "Delwin is someone with a great desire for public service, so he made the decision he probably had to."
However, Morton said, Jones has never let party affiliation get in the way of being a good rural West Texas representative.
"He's just always done what's necessary to take care of this part of the state," Morton said.
When Jones returned to the Legislature in 1988, he told then-Speaker Gib Lewis he wanted to be on the redistricting committee.
In 1989, Lewis made Jones the vice-chairman of the committee.
"I'm the first freshman vice-chairman of a committee," he said.
The 1991 redistricting process was fierce. Democrats were trying to protect their base, and as a result, the city of Amarillo and Lubbock County were split.
Jones attempted three compromise congressional maps that didn't divide Amarillo. But Democrats in power wanted to preserve a Democrat seat.
The battle waged on for years. In a last ditch effort to keep the case out of a multimillion dollar court debate, Jones traveled to Houston to meet with the financier of the case.
He worked out a settlement, he said, and was named Outstanding Legislator of the Session by both the Texas House and Senate for his efforts.
That ability to work out a compromise against the odds is one of Jones's strongest characteristics as a lawmaker, said Jane Anne Stinnett, a longtime Texas Republican.
"He's very good at working with everybody, getting them to compromise and be on the same page," Stinnett said.
"He is one of the best politicians - he knows how the Legislature works and he works it very well."
Quelling the divisiveness of this redistricting year has taken a major effort from Jones, Stinnett said.
Maintaining three strong western rural districts in Congress was important to this part of the state, Stinnett said.
"He works not only with Republicans, he works with everybody," she said.
The early years
Just out of the Air Force in 1945 - where he'd been on his way to Japan as a navigator when word of the Great War's end aired on the radio - Jones returned to West Texas and farming.
He rented a farm to produce cotton and grain sorghum, and decided to go to college.
He continued farming, taking classes at Texas Tech and working part-time at a service station.
He pumped gas for former Gov. Preston Smith, when the Lubbock politician was first running for a seat in the Legislature.
Farming in West Texas wasn't without its difficulties in the 1960s.
A pivotal debate was whether landowners had rights to the water beneath the surface.
A New Mexico case proved the ownership, Jones said, and he trekked back and forth to Austin, carrying the flag for farmers.
"Almost everybody in the Legislature was a lawyer, and I told some guys one day, 'Any fool can do better than a bunch of lawyers,' and so they suggested I run for office," Jones said.
His first foray into politics, Jones was a write-in candidate with 4,471 votes - the most signatures of any candidate up to that time.
But it wasn't enough.
"I didn't win," he said.
The next election, Jones made his way onto the ballot. But he lost that election, too.
The third attempt proved successful, and in 1964, Jones went to Austin as a lawmaker.
"I have been noted for being tenacious - that's a kind way of saying bull-headed and stubborn," Jones said.
Jones ran as a Democrat - that's all there were then. No Republicans would win a seat in the House until 1967.
The lawmaker was as concerned about rural Texas in his early legislative days as he is now, said Ben Barnes, former speaker of the house and lieutenant governor.
"When Delwin first came to the Legislature, he was a farmer and he prided himself on knowing a lot about agriculture," Barnes said.
Jones came with a long legislative agenda for the region and Texas Tech, Barnes said.
Jones pressed for Tech's law school, medical school and a bevy of agriculture bills.
"Delwin is a unique individual, and I think the fact he's served this long in the Legislature - that's a long time to serve and not get public service fatigue," Barnes said.
Much of the work earned Jones the title of "Man of the Year in Agriculture" by Progressive Farmer Magazine - the first time a lawmaker won the title.
Protecting rural and agriculture interests is what drove Jones to the Capitol, he said.
"I'm the only one in the family that's ever been political," Jones said. "I'm not sure my dad ever voted until after I got elected."
Jones' GOP ally in Lubbock, Stinnett, said folks often ask when Jones will retire from the Legislature and take a break from lawmaking.
"We say, 'When he's in a pine box,'" Stinnett said.
Rep. Clyde Alexander seemed philosophical as he chewed a cigar Tuesday in his Capitol office.
"I've had a good 13 years, and I've got a lot to do," said Alexander, 54, D-Athens. "I'm going to get on with the rest of my life, and I might as well get started."
The chairman of the House Transportation Committee says he decided to spend more time with his family. The decision was helped along by a House redistricting map imposed by three Republicans on the Legislative Redistricting Board that puts him in a Republican-leaning district with Rep. Betty Brown, R-Terrell.
Several of Democratic House Speaker Pete Laney's key team members have decided not to seek re-election since a three-judge federal court on Nov. 28 approved the board's plan with only slight changes.
Others quitting -- so far -- are Appropriations Chairman Rob Junell, D-San Angelo; Public Education Chairman Paul Sadler, D-Henderson; Civil Practices Chairman Fred Bosse, D-Houston; County Affairs Chairman Tom Ramsay, D-Mount Vernon; Public Health Chairwoman Patricia Gray, D-Galveston; and Transportation Vice Chairwoman Judy Hawley, D-Portland.
The board put all but Junell, who is in line for a federal judgeship, into districts with other incumbents. Several other Laney team members were paired with other legislators. Although some -- such as Public Safety Chairman Bob Turner, D-Voss, who's paired with Rep. Harvey Hilderbran, R-Kerrville -- plan to seek re-election, others, such as Pensions and Investments Chairman Dale Tillery, D-Dallas, might retire.
The two board members who are legislators -- Laney and Lt. Gov. Bill Ratliff -- voted against the board's plans.
The Democrats are convinced that the three Republican statewide officials who rammed the plan through -- Attorney General John Cornyn, Land Commissioner David Dewhurst and Comptroller Carole Keeton Rylander -- were targeting Laney and his key lieutenants.
The only one of the three federal judges who served in the Texas Legislature said as much in a stinging postscript to the court's order.
"I write separately to express my shock at the drawing of districts by the State of Texas," Judge John Hannah Jr. wrote. "The dominant political party treated all members of the opposing party as if they were `enemies of the State' instead of respected state leaders, many with a great wealth of governmental knowledge and ability that has and could inure to the benefit of Texas."
Hannah said he voted to uphold the board's "distasteful" maps only because it wasn't proved that federal law had been violated.
The judges had provided a stark contrast to the Cornyn-led approach on the House and Senate maps in the congressional map drawn by the court, which sought to preserve incumbent congressmen.
(The redistricting board handles only legislative redistricting when the Legislature fails to do so. Congressional redistricting is left to the courts if the Legislature fails to act.)
The LRB Three gave Laney just two of his 12 counties and 14 new ones. Laney says he'll run for re-election anyway.
Whether he and the Democrats can scale the steep slope created by Cornyn & Co. will be one of the most interesting questions in the 2002 elections.
You may contact Dave McNeely at email@example.com or 445-3644.
Texas taxpayers are facing a $3 million-plus bill from private-sector lawyers involved in litigating the state's recently concluded redistricting battle.
The legal tab includes more than $1.4 million, plus about $75,000 in collateral expenses, billed to the attorney general's office; $904,747 charged to the lieutenant governor; and $687,878 to the speaker of the House, according to invoices obtained by the San Antonio Express-News.
All fees will be paid by Texas taxpayers.
The largest single expense, $750,053.14, came from the Houston firm of Locke Liddell & Sapp. Its lead redistricting lawyer, Andy Taylor, was until last spring Attorney General John Cornyn's first assistant.
He billed the state at $375 per hour.
Two Taylor associates, Jan Soifer and Brent Benoit, also formerly on the attorney general's staff, billed the state at $300 and $230 per hour, respectively.
Bob Heath and Steve Bickerstaff, two Austin lawyers hired by Cornyn, each billed the state at $250 an hour.
Rick Gray, House Speaker Pete Laney's lead attorney, and Leon Carter, acting Lt. Gov. Bill Ratliff's, billed the state at $225 an hour.
The tab was defended as the price of doing the decennial business of redistricting by the state officials who hired the outside legal help.
"You don't have any alternative but to respond," Ratliff said, adding that he was named as a defendant in 18 redistricting lawsuits.
However, Jeff Wentworth, R-San Antonio, chairman of the Senate Redistricting Committee, and Dan Morales, the attorney general during the last round of redistricting, in 1991, were highly critical of the expense.
Wentworth, who favors an independent commission to redraw political maps after each census, said redistricting dominates one of five legislative sessions.
"We can't afford that," he said. "There is a better way, one that does not squander the time of legislators and their staffs and the attorney general and his staff."
For Morales, who could face Cornyn next fall in the U.S. Senate race, the opportunity to criticize Cornyn's outside legal assistance was just desserts.
Cornyn has been critical of Morales' handling of the state's $17 billion tobacco settlement, which paid contingency fees of $3 billion to five private attorneys.
"We would not have allowed that," Morales said of the state's arrangement with Taylor. "It appears unseemly for a lawyer to leave state employment and immediately start to profit from a relationship with a state official."
Jeff Boyd, chief of Cornyn's civil litigation section, said the "standard criteria" Texas uses in hiring outside legal help is if the state lacks either the expertise or the resources to try the case itself.
In this case, Boyd said, Heath had the experience from past rounds of redistricting, and Taylor had handled all the AG's redistricting work before leaving the agency.
While he winced at the fees, Boyd said: "I think taxpayers clearly got their money's worth to guarantee the voting rights of 20 million Texans."
And, Boyd added: "The process begins with the Legislature, and they didn't get it done."
The Legislature failed to pass redistricting plans this year, and the House and Senate maps later were decided by the Legislative Redistricting Board, comprised of Cornyn, Ratliff, Laney, Land Commissioner David Dewhurst and Comptroller Carole Keeton Rylander.
A federal court ultimately decided both congressional and State Board of Education plans ˇ all of which had been the Legislature's responsibility.
Laney and Ratliff defended their legal expenses.
"The attorney general urged me to use his people," Ratliff said. "But I thought there were likely to be times when we (he and Cornyn) disagreed ˇ and there were."
Laney said the legal bills "are merited because the stakes are so high."
"It involves nothing less than the distribution of legislative power to the people of Texas," Laney said. "Judicial review is necessary to ensure that the Constitution and the laws of Texas are followed."
Wentworth, lobbying for his independent commission, sees it a different way. He said the majority party "crams a partisan plan down the people's throats."
"That's the fundamental flaw," he said, concluding that 12 other states ˇ among them Pennsylvania, Ohio and New Jersey ˇ have chosen to take the issue and, theoretically, the legal expense away from their legislatures.
Bob Richter can be reached at firstname.lastname@example.org.
The state has paid $2.7 million in legal fees for court fights over legislative and congressional redistricting, and hundreds of thousands of dollars in charges are pending, according to records examined by The Associated Press.
Included in the expenses were private attorneys' fees ranging from $200 to $575 per hour; expert witness testimony costing tens of thousands of dollars; and $375 color map enlargements used in court.
Those involved say the complex state and federal court cases are worthy endeavors.
"What is at stake is the voting rights of 21 million Texans and that's why this subject is so important. That's why it's so difficult. And that's why it's so contentious," said Republican Attorney General John Cornyn, whose office spent the most on legal costs.
Redistricting is the redrawing of voting boundaries based on new U.S. Census figures every 10 years. The resulting plans typically end up challenged in court.
This year, with political party control and minority voting rights on the line, 17 lawsuits were filed statewide, some even before the Legislature met to work on redistricting.
The AP examined billing records at Cornyn's office and those provided by House Speaker Pete Laney, D-Hale Center, and acting Lt. Gov. Bill Ratliff, R-Mount Pleasant.
In some situations, Cornyn used his staff lawyers, while Laney and Ratliff turned to state attorneys with the Texas Legislative Council.
Experts said that many states hire private attorneys to work on redistricting cases. Lawyers working for legislators may be redistricting wonks but lacking in trial experience.
"Being that it comes around every 10 years, it's a very specialized area of law," said Tim Storey, a redistricting analyst with the National Conference of State Legislatures. "And attorney fees being what they are, the costs can pile up pretty fast."
But Texas had "a really extraordinary round of redistricting," he said, adding that he didn't know of another state involved in so many court cases.
As of Nov. 28, two private law firms and an attorney hired by Cornyn's office had received $1.1 million. Bills totaling $254,050 await approval for payment.
Locke Liddell & Sapp charged Cornyn's office $120 per hour for a law clerk's labor and up to $575 per hour for work by one of the firm's partners.
"I think we're looking now somewhere upward of $2 million as a total. That's pretty much within the target range that we expected," said Jeff Boyd, deputy attorney general for litigation.
Gray & Becker, the firm hired by Laney's office, billed the state $687,878 as of October, while Case Carter Salyers & Henry charged Ratliff's office $904,747 for the same period.
Both firms charged $60 an hour for clerk work and up to $225 an hour for top attorneys.
Charges for November were not available.
Both Laney and Ratliff saw lawsuits as inevitable because of clashing opinions about dividing the state into fair voting districts.
"The stakes are so high," Laney said. "It involves nothing less than the distribution of legislative power to the people of Texas.
Said Ratliff: "You have to balance the interests."
Cornyn said his bills topped the others' because as the state's lawyer he represented other Texas officials in court. Cornyn also chaired the Legislative Redistricting Board that handled redistricting after lawmakers failed to do it.
At Cornyn's suggestion, the offices of Land Commissioner David Dewhurst and Comptroller Carole Keeton Rylander each agreed to pay $25,000 toward legal costs, records show. Dewhurst and Rylander, both Republicans, were redistricting board members.
Laney and Ratliff sat on the board, but voted against the GOP plans that won approval. So they each hired attorneys to push their own plans in court.
The bulk of the legal charges stemmed from fights over which lawsuits would go to trial and where. Sometimes lawyers had to appear at hearings in different cities on the same day.
Boyd oversees redistricting charges paid from the attorney general's budget. Texas Legislative Council, which also had redistricting costs built into its budget, oversees Laney's and Ratliff's bills. Potential expenditures are not capped, but both the legislative council and Cornyn's office said they were close to reaching their anticipated budget.
Throughout the process, Cornyn's office kept a close watch on growing expenses, records show.
On documents detailing legal fees, Boyd scribbled a note to fellow deputy Howard Baldwin: "Here's the bad news, with obviously more to come."
Baldwin sent a note back saying he told the agency's budget director the costs could hit $2 million. "She cried!" Baldwin wrote.
In one e-mail exchange, lawyer Andy Taylor ˝ the former top assistant attorney general until this year ˝ wanted permission to blow up color maps to be used during trial, costing $125 to $375 apiece.
"You're killing me (as I am you). I hate those fancy expensive color blowups," Boyd replied, suggesting Taylor consider less expensive services, such as Kinko's. "Keep in mind you have a very poor client."
In one note Taylor offered to handle any appeals free of charge.
A call to Taylor by the AP was returned by Boyd, who said his job was to try to contain costs.
"It's tough. There's a lot of hours that goes into it. There's a whole lot of cases," Boyd said.
After dozens of hearings held across the state, some of the 17 cases were thrown out and others were consolidated. Most of the cases went to court in October and November.
The winding legal road led to a federal court, which last week ordered new Texas legislative districts that lean toward the GOP. Earlier the court ordered new congressional districts. It is possible a party to the lawsuits will appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
If the court-ordered maps are used in 2002 elections, Republicans could gain ground in a state that was predominantly Democratic until the 1990s.
The changing political landscape meant Democrats and Republicans were fighting for the upper hand in court, said Laney lawyer Rick Gray, a veteran of redistricting cases.
"That, I think, on balance just made the whole process more intense," Gray said.
Republican and Democratic candidates for U.S. Senate and lieutenant governor told the Texas Farm Bureau on Monday they want to be bipartisan, then took partisan shots at each other over redistricting and loyalty to President Bush.
The gathering of more than 1,000 Farm Bureau members at the Waco Convention Center was the first major political forum of the 2002 election season.
Candidate filing for next year's election began Monday and continues through Jan. 2.
Featured speakers at the forum included candidates to replace retiring Republican Sen. Phil Gramm, candidates for lieutenant governor and the Democratic candidates for governor.
Gov. Rick Perry, a Republican, missed the forum but plans to speak to the convention today.
Though none of the candidates mentioned others by name, several clearly tried to lay the groundwork for partisan attacks on potential opponents.
Two of the Democrats sniped at Attorney General John Cornyn and Land Commissioner David Dewhurst, both Republicans, for the role they played as members of the Legislative Redistricting Board.
The LRB, comprising Cornyn, Dewhurst and three other top state officials, approved a redistricting plan for the state House and Senate that reduced the number of rural state lawmakers by moving their districts into suburban areas. Last week, a federal court upheld most of the plan.
"There are going to be a lot fewer people representing rural Texas in the future," said former state Comptroller John Sharp, who is running for lieutenant governor. "I intend as lieutenant governor to make up for the loss of those folks."
The Farm Bureau, one of the state's largest agriculture industry groups, has complained that Republicans reduced rural representation for partisan gain.
Former Dallas Mayor Ron Kirk, one of the Democrats running for the Senate seat, said redistricting was evidence that some politicians will put partisan interests ahead of the good of the state.
"All those lines were drawn solely based on what's it going to do for the Republican Party or the Democratic Party," Kirk said. "We've got a lot of communities that have been needlessly torn apart because we could not see beyond partisanship to do what was right for Texas." Kirk said he was able to pull a divided community together as Dallas mayor.
Neither Cornyn nor Dewhurst specifically replied to the criticisms. Cornyn embraced Bush, the state's former governor, while Dewhurst touted his role as chairman of Perry's Task Force on Homeland Security.
Cornyn said Texans next year will be asked to decide whether they want a senator who will work with Bush or one who will side with the president's Democratic opponents in the Senate.
"I know what it's like to work shoulder to shoulder with George W. Bush," Cornyn said.
Dewhurst said he was proud to be leading Perry's anti-terrorism task force to protect Texas from attacks like the ones of Sept. 11.
"The better we are protected, the less likely it is that we'll be attacked," Dewhurst said.
Democratic U.S. Senate candidates Ed Cunningham, Dan Morales and Victor Morales did not attend the convention.
U.S. Rep. Ken Bentsen, D-Houston, a candidate for Senate, avoided political criticisms as he addressed the convention. Bentsen repeatedly promoted a pro-agriculture voting record during his four terms in Congress.
"I've even supported the peanut program, and I'm allergic to peanuts," Bentsen said.
The convention also heard from Democratic gubernatorial candidates Tony Sanchez of Laredo and John WorldPeace of Houston.
Sanchez, a millionaire businessman, said his passion in running is to improve the Texas public education system. He claimed that as much as 90 percent of the state's children never graduate from college.
WorldPeace, a Houston lawyer, said he would give teachers a $2,500-a-year pay raise and return prayer to school. He said he changed his name to promote peace, not because he is a pacifist.
Signaling they are willing to target frequent allies as they battle for control of the House, Republicans believe they have found their strongest-ever challenger to Blue Dog Rep. Ralph Hall (D), who has sailed to re-election in a rural, east Texas district but may be jeopardized by a new, court-drawn House map.
One month before the state's Jan. 2 filing deadline, Kevin Eltife (R), the mayor of Tyler and a longtime Hall ally, last week told National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Tom Davis (Va.) that he's "very, very seriously" eyeing a bid against Hall in the state's new 4th district, GOP leadership aides said.
Eltife, 42, who's barred under term limits from seeking a fourth two-year term as mayor of the 90,000-resident city, was recruited by the White House earlier this year to challenge Rep. Max Sandlin (D) when it appeared Tyler would be drawn into Sandlin's adjacent district in 2002.
A federal court subsequently created a map that placed Tyler in Hall's district.
"My real concern is the Republicans losing control of the House," Eltife said in an interview Friday. "There's a good chance that Democrats could take control, and that alone has made me consider this. Every seat is important. Ralph is a good man, but at the end of the day, we have to be worried about who takes control of the House."
House GOP aides said the NRCC has promised Eltife the committee's full support in what could be a nationally watched race. "Eltife would be a very formidable candidate," claimed NRCC Communications Director Steve Schmidt. "The NRCC will spend a great deal of resources to win that race."
Hall, 78, said Eltife is "a fine guy, a good friend and has been a good mayor of Tyler. And if he decides to run, I know he'll run a good, clean race. ... I would be surprised, though, if the NRCC was encouraging someone to run in my district, as my record of bipartisanship is very well known."
Indeed, Hall, who supported only 35 percent of the House Democrats' agenda and 22 percent of then President Bill Clinton's program in 2000, may seem an unlikely target for House Republicans. The 11-term Democrat is likely to retire within the next decade, and even his party concedes that Republicans will surely take his seat, held for nearly 50 years by ex-House Speaker Sam Rayburn (D).
Furthermore, Hall has won re-election since 1982 with at least 58 percent of the vote, including a 59 percent showing during the GOP's 1994 revolution. He was unopposed in 1990 and took 60 percent last year against Republican challenger Jon Newton.
Except for a 1985 "present" vote for then Speaker Tip O'Neill (D-Mass.), however, Hall has consistently voted for his party's House leadership and pledged to remain a Democrat. Given their razor-thin margin in the House, Republicans said that vote justifies their decision to go after Hall.
House GOP aides said they also were encouraged by a federal court redistricting of Texas, unveiled Nov. 14, which they say made enough changes to Hall's district to render it competitive. The court-drawn map created two new Republican seats in the Lone Star State, but did not yield the larger-scale gains that House Republicans expected and intended to use to build on their narrow majority.
Thus, Republicans are looking to knock off less vulnerable incumbents, including Hall, who picked up Republican voters in Tyler-based Smith and Gregg counties under the redistricting plan and lost a small chunk of his base in Hunt and Denton counties.
Smith, a locality of 175,000 residents, is now located entirely within the 4th.
Eighty-eight percent of Hall's current district is included in the new 4th.
Democratic performance numbers in the 4th improved marginally under the court's map, but Democratic leaders acknowledge that Hall's appeal has little to do with his party's strength in the district.
Republicans are also trying to counter Democratic claims that they can run competitively in conservative, rural districts. Democrats, who picked up rural, GOP-held seats in Kentucky and Arkansas during the 1990s, hope to build upon those gains next year.
Claiming that the NRCC would make Eltife a top national priority, Republicans privately hope their bluster will ultimately persuade Hall to retire before the January filing deadline. The 11-term Democrat has never raised more than $750,000 for a re-election bid, which GOP strategists said could cost twice as much next year.
With the federal courts having ruled on legislative and congressional redistricting cases, it is time to look at losers and winners and inbetweeners.
First the winners
For the first time since Reconstruction, the GOP is poised to take control of both houses of the Legislature and possibly have one of their own as speaker of the House.
The day after a federal court panel issued its legislative maps, a group of prominent Republicans announced formation of a new political action committee aimed at doing just that.
"The battle lines have been drawn, and Republicans are ready," said Railroad Commissioner Tony Garza, one of the board members of the newly formed Texans for a Republican Majority.
The PAC's objectives, listed by priority:
Elect a House Republican majority to guarantee the election of a Republican speaker.
Increase the Republican Senate majority.
Maintain Republican hold on all statewide offices.
Now the losers
Even some die-hard party regulars privately concede that the Democrats will almost certainly lose their majority in the House and continue to be the minority party in the Senate.
In the House map, 39 incumbents were "paired," meaning they now live in a district with another incumbent and must run against one another or change residences.
Of those representatives paired, 27 are Democrats. In the Austin area, three Democratic representatives are all drawn into one district. In the Galveston area, three Democratic incumbents are all in one district. In Houston, two Democrats and a Republican are drawn into a district that is a GOP stronghold.
As for as the congressional map, Democrats were elated when the three-judge federal panel earlier released its map that indicates Democrats can win 17 seats and Republicans can win 15.
But that elation may be short-lived.
If they gain strong majorities in the House and Senate, there will be an effort by Republicans to redraw congressional districts in the 2003 legislative session.
Texas Democratic Party leader Molly Beth Malcolm said she was "disappointed but not defeated" by the legislative redistricting maps that she labeled "grossly partisan."
"Texas Democrats are not going to hand the state over to Republicans who put partisan interests above what's best for the state," she said.
"We will work hard over the next year to take our message to the people of Texas," said Ms. Malcolm. "And we believe a majority of voters will see the light about the Republicans' motivations in redistricting and their allegiances to big special interests and the far right wing."
Now the inbetweeners
House Speaker Pete Laney, the highest-ranking Democrat in the state.
Republicans say the veteran Democrat's days are numbered in the powerful post of speaker.
Democrats say don't count him out yet, even if the GOP has a majority in the House after the 2002 elections.
Some Democrats believe Mr. Laney can win another term as speaker even if their party has only 70 of the 150 House seats.
They note that Mr. Laney has enjoyed GOP support in the past and that he could pick up a half dozen or so Republican votes for speaker.
But Republicans believe they will pick up at least 88 seats next year, and that will be more than enough to take away Mr. Laney's gavel when the Legislature convenes in January 2003.
Not only is his future as speaker in jeopardy, but under the court-ordered plan Mr. Laney must run for re-election for his House seat in a district that includes many new counties and is marginally Republican.
However, most independent analysts say they believe Mr. Laney is a sure bet for re-election to his House seat, but they aren't taking odds on whether he can win another term as speaker.
Mr. Laney isn't saying much except that he is running for re-election to his House seat and for speaker.
During the last decade, Hispanics accounted for 60 percent of the growth in Texas.
Now they make up one-third of the state's population.
Armed with those stats, lawyers for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund argued during the redistricting trials that Hispanics deserve more safe House, Senate and congressional districts.
But when the final maps were drawn, there were no new congressional and Senate districts that would likely elect Hispanics and only one new House seat.
"We are very pleased to have prevailed in our case for an additional Latino-majority House district in the state," said Nina Perales, a lawyer for MALDEF.
"Because of the growth in Latino voters over the decade, the court should have created the additional Senate district as well."
Sam Attlesey is deputy chief of the Austin Bureau of The Dallas Morning News.
Republicans would have strong majorities in the state Senate and House under redistricting plans ordered Wednesday by a three-judge federal court panel.
Under the map reshaping the 150 House districts, the GOP could hold as many as 88 seats, and some analysts said veteran Democratic Speaker Pete Laney's chances of re-election to the powerful post could be jeopardized.
Even if the judges' decision on a plan were appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, analysts say, it is likely that the judges' plan would be used at least for the 2002 elections.
The map redrawing the 31 Senate districts could result in Republicans holding as many as 19 seats.
Currently, there are 15 Republican senators and 15 Democrats, and one seat is vacant.
The House, with 78 Democrats and 72 Republicans, is the only area of state government still controlled by Democrats. Mr. Laney, a veteran lawmaker from Hale Center, is the highest-ranking Democrat in the state.
"The court's map does not change my plans to seek re-election to the House and another term as speaker," said Mr. Laney, who has held the post since 1993.
Already three Republican representatives ˝ Tom Craddick of Midland, Brian McCall of Plano, and Edmund Kuempel of Seguin ˝ have announced that they will be candidates for speaker when the Legislature convenes again in January 2003.
The federal court panel, which comprises two Democrat-appointed judges and one Republican-appointed judge, drew its own House plan.
But for the Senate boundaries, the judges adopted a map that had been drawn by the Republican-dominated Legislative Redistricting Board. State law gives that board responsibility for redistricting after each U.S. census when the Legislature fails to adopt redistricting plans. That's what occurred during the session that ended earlier this year.
Analysts said the Senate plan could make it more difficult for Democrats such as David Cain of Dallas, Mike Moncrief of Fort Worth, and David Bernsen of Beaumont to win re-election in 2002.
The board's Senate plan had been approved by Department of Justice officials, who determined that it did not violate the Voting Rights Act.
The three-judge panel noted that approval in its order Wednesday. The judges added that "federal courts have a limited role in considering challenges to pre-cleared legislatively adopted redistricting plans."
The panel is made up of U.S. Circuit Judge Patrick Higginbotham, who was appointed by a Republican, and U.S. District Judges John Hannah and T. John Ward, both appointed by Democrats.
As for new House districts, the Legislative Redistricting Board's map had been rejected by the Department of Justice because it diluted Hispanic voting strength in three areas of the state.
Under the judges' plan ordered Wednesday, 37 incumbent representatives would have to run against a fellow incumbent in the same district.
Attorney General John Cornyn, a Republican who's a member of the board, said he was pleased that the three-judge panel "has approved the LRB Senate map outright and 98 percent of the LRB House map."
"Our goal was to produce maps that comply with the law and preserved minority voting rights. Today's rulings show that the LRB was successful in achieving those goals," said Mr. Cornyn.
The redistricting ruling "will reflect the changing political and demographic realities of the 21st century: a Republican Party that is emerging as the new majority and a growing Hispanic population," said state GOP leader Susan Weddington.
Molly Beth Malcolm, the Texas Democratic Party chief, said she was disappointed that "the court felt it was not within its jurisdiction to correct a map that is grossly partisan, that tears apart Texas communities and that fails to provide fair and equal representation for African-Americans and Hispanic voters."
"But Texas Democrats are not going to hand the state over to Republicans who put partisan interests above what's best for the state," said Ms. Malcolm.
"The Republicans may be able to draw lines, but the Democrats will draw more votes in 2002 than ever before," she said.
A federal court on Wednesday ordered new boundaries for the Texas House that boost Hispanic voter strength and election opportunities for Republicans.
The court upheld most of the House districts and all of the state Senate districts drawn by the GOP-dominated Legislative Redistricting Board.
Both statehouse maps and the board's map of congressional districts were challenged in federal court, but Wednesday's orders only changed the state House plans. The court redrew a congressional map two weeks ago.
"Our goal was to produce maps that comply with the law and preserve minority voting rights. Today's rulings show that the LRB was successful," said board chairman John Cornyn, a Republican who is also the state attorney general.
The court's House plan creates a new Hispanic majority district in south Texas and changes boundaries of other Hispanic majority districts. The U.S. Justice Department said the board's map violated the Voting Rights Act by denying Hispanics opportunities to elect candidates of their choice in some districts.
By some estimates, the board-approved map could give Republicans up to 90 seats in the Texas House where Democrats now hold a 78-72 edge. In the state Senate, the GOP, which held a 16-15 edge in this year's legislative session, could gain three or more seats under the new plan.
The board was charged with drawing legislative and congressional districts when the Legislature failed to complete the task.
Many Texas Latinos were virtually certain that the past decade's explosive growth in the Hispanic population would give them a new congressional seat. They were wrong. Texas was awarded two new seats because its population grew to 20.9 million in the '90s, but the seats went to areas likely to vote for non-Hispanic white Republicans.
The ending to this redistricting saga comes in a year of heightened hoopla over Hispanic influence. This is, after all, a year when President Bush held the first White House celebration of Cinco de Mayo and when politicians headed to language schools to learn Spanish.
"We're all in shock," said state Sen. Judith Zaffirini, a Laredo Democrat who served on the state Senate's redistricting committee. "We were shocked because we expected better. We thought our expectations were reality-based."
Others in the Hispanic community said the outcome was no surprise since some Hispanic leaders worked against the effort by the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund and other Latino groups to create a new Hispanic district.
Creating the new district would have put incumbent Hispanics in jeopardy, they said.
"You can't just look at raw numbers," said U.S. Rep. Charlie Gonzalez, D-San Antonio, who testified against a MALDEF redistricting plan.
"We are clustered. We don't register in the same numbers and we definitely do not vote. We absolutely do not leverage our potential on Election Day. We have to look to ourselves as to what we do to cure that," Gonzalez said.
It's a familiar refrain that Latinos encounter each political season. Despite their numbers, their lack of political participation either because of apathy or because many among them are not citizens, prevents them from being a significant political force.
"The hype has always been overstated because Latino voting power is only as strong as the number of people who actually go to the polls," said Lisa Montoya, an Austin political consultant.
Latinos comprise 33 percent of Texas' population in 2000, the U.S. Census Bureau reported. As of July, 2.3 million Hispanics were registered to vote in Texas, comprising one fifth of the state electorate.
The federal court that drew congressional boundaries put the new seats in the areas of highest growth in Texas, Dallas and Harris counties.
Hispanics were responsible for 60 percent of Texas' population surge, which some believed meant more political say in Congress for Texas' Hispanics.
Democrats hold 17 of Texas' House seats and Republicans 13. There are six Hispanics from Texas in Congress, only one of them Republican. U.S. Rep. Gene Green, who is white, represents a majority Hispanic district.
Nina Perales, a MALDEF attorney, says Hispanics took a back seat to party agendas in the congressional district line drawing. Democrats sought to preserve incumbents, while Republicans looked to pick up as many seats as possible, she said.
"The court gave each side what they were looking for politically and gave Latinos nothing," Perales said.
MALDEF, however, found itself with foes among other Hispanics.
Creating a new Hispanic district would have meant siphoning from other Hispanic districts, they said.
Gonzalez was among those who could have seen the number of Hispanics in his district diminish. He testified against the MALDEF plan.
Beyond preserving their districts, Hispanic Democrats who opposed the MALDEF plan sought to help their party regain the majority in the U.S. House. Democrats need to win six seats in the next election to rule the House. If they do, senior Hispanics from Texas have a shot at committee chairmanships or party leadership.
"It makes sense; these people have seniority. They already hold positions of power on different committees. It would take a new member 10 years to obtain the power they already have," Montoya said.
Although it did not provide any additional Hispanic seats, Democrats were satisfied with the final plan because it preserved incumbents. Republicans who had hoped to pick up more seats said the plan preserved incumbency at the expense of Hispanics and blacks.
Morris Overstreet, president of the Coalition of Black Democrats, has said the court's map was not exactly what black voters wanted. But he said the Hispanic-black majority in District 25 in Fort Bend and Harris counties will create an opportunity to send another African-American to Congress.
Failing to add a Hispanic seat does not erase the political gains of Hispanics over recent years, said Arturo Vargas, executive director of the National Association of Latino Elected Officials.
"What this means in the long run is we need to continue the kind of trend we've seen in other parts of country, producing candidates who are able to appeal across racial and ethnic lines, who really garner support of non-Latino voters as well," Vargas said.
U.S. Rep. Silvestre Reyes said Hispanics may not have to wait another 10 years to see more Latinos in Congress. Some districts in Texas with significant minority populations could see population shifts in the coming years that could make electing Latinos in them possible, he said.
Meanwhile, U.S. Rep. Martin Frost, D-Dallas, said while Texas didn't produce a new seat, Democrats are predicting new Hispanic congressional seats in Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico and California.
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Published: 2/1/2013 8:25 PM | Last update: 2/1/2013 8:25 PM
Meetings bring public up to date on wind energy issuesThe first in a series of traveling "roundtables" on the impact and future of the wind energy industry in Kansas drew about 40 people to Newton on Friday.
The intent of the meetings - the next one is scheduled on Valentine's Day in Kingman - is twofold, said Dorothy Barnett, executive director of the Climate and Energy Project.
Polsinelli Shughart is a Kansas law firm specializing in energy issues. Some of its reports' key findings include:
* New wind generation has been less expensive than other new peaking or intermittent energy generation;
* Kansas wind generation has created a total of 13,484 total jobs (3,484 construction jobs, 263 operation and maintenance jobs, and 9,737 indirect and induced jobs) for Kansas citizens;
* Kansas wind generation has created revenues of more than $273 million for landowners, and more than $208 million for community organizations and local and county governments.
"It's a well done report that focuses on data from the 19 working wind farms in Kansas," Barnett said. "It really does a nice job of talking about how wind has become a cost competitive economic tool. There are a lot of reasons why it's good for the state."
Key among the policy issues, Barnett said, is an apparent effort through Senate Bill 82 to take the wind out of the state's Renewable Portfolio Standard requirements.
Introduced last week, the bill first would push back the dates by which the state's utilities must meet minimum levels of energy produced from renewable resources, from the 2016 to 2018 for the minimum 15 percent of peak demand, and from 2020 to 2024 for the 20 percent level.
"In itself, it may not sound like a big deal, giving utilities more time," Barnett said. "But it would also put in place triggers that could substantially impact whether utilities even have to meet portfolio standards."
Language in the bill would allow utilities to be exempted from meeting the requirements at all if a utility could show "good cause" for not meeting it,
"Good cause includes, but is not limited to, availability of firm transmission service or excessive costs to retail electric customers," the bill states.
It does not define excessive costs, though the current law already includes a 1 percent cap on the impact on rates in complying with the policy.
"Firm transmission in this context doesn't make sense," Barnett said. "With wind you don't have to have access to transmission 100 percent of the time because it produces only about 60 percent of the time. We're concerned about the language of the bill."
Other presentations on the economic impact were presented by the Harvey County Economic Development Executive Director Mickey Fornaro-Dean, Hutchinson/Reno County Chamber of Commerce President Jason Ball, and K-96 Development Association Executive Director Harland Priddle.
A study by the Wichita State University Center for Economic Development and Business Research around the time of the announcement that Siemens would be locating in Hutchinson estimated the project - using a jobs multiplier and based on the plant reaching its full job potential - would have a local economic impact of about $22 million to $24 million annually, said the Chamber's Ball.
That didn't happen because orders for the plant fell precipitously, with expiration of the federal Production Tax Credit and low natural gas prices, and 60 percent of the workforce was laid off.
Still, Ball said, even with the 150 jobs remaining it has a net affect of creating some 342 jobs in the community and a payroll of $10 million plus.
"Every small to midsized metro area in the nation would love to have that kind of project," Ball said.
Organizers plan to hold six more "business leader roundtables" over the next six weeks.
The next, Barnett said, is 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., Feb. 14 at the Kingman Community Building, with local sponsors including Sumner, Barber, Harper and Kingman county officials.
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- Mitchell Stokes
Email / IRC / WWW
- I can be contacted via email at firstname.lastname@example.org, and I’m also registered on blenderartists.org as Moguri. Furthermore, on freenode I frequent the #blendercoders, #gameblender, #bgecoders, and #blender channels using the nick Moguri.
- One of the slower parts of the BGE is the converter. The converter can take a while to load heavier scenes and is completely blocking until it finishes. This means that scenes can take a while to load, and nothing can be done while the scene is loading. This makes the game look like it "freezes" when loading larger scenes. My plan is to save time by saving converted BGE data out to disk so the data can simply be loaded and used as opposed to loaded, converted, and then used. Also, I would like to make the loading process asynchronous to allow other tasks to be done while waiting for a scene to load.
Benefits to Blender
- The benefit to the BGE would be faster and smoother loading of assets. Assets can be loaded while other things are happening in the game (like, displaying an animated loading screen). As a side benefit, the saved conversion data won't be directly usable by Blender, which offers users a little bit of extra security.
- Save out pre-converted files
- Asynchronously load files (blend or pre-converted)
- Converter-time optimizations
- Saving all of the BGE structures to a file would be a rather daunting task, so instead I will modify the conversion pipeline to go from Blender data to an intermediate and then to BGE data. The plan is to keep the intermediate data structures very similar to the BGE structures to avoid too many further conversion tasks. Ideally, the data in the intermediate structures could be mostly copied into BGE structures. The intermediate structures can then be saved out to disk. Using the intermediate data structures simplifies the saving process since we can limit the number of intermediate structures. To also facilitate in saving and loading the intermediate data to and from disk, I will look into using ReadBlend, bParse, FBTables or possibly Blender's built-in tools (we'll see how nice these play with non-Blender data).
- The other side of making file conversions smoother is to allow them to be done asynchronously. To facilitate this I plan to add two new functions to bge.logic: LibLoadAsync() and LibNewAsync(). This will behave similar to their blocking counterparts, but will return some form of future object and do the conversion in a new thread, which will let the game continue to do things while the libraries are being loaded. The Game Actuator (when set to "Start Game From File") will have an "Asynchronous" options (or some similar "user-friendly" wording) that will switch scenes after the new scene has been converted, and not block the game in the meantime.
- By saving out files with converted data, we open up the possibility to do optimizations at conversion-time that might normally be too slow to do during run-time. For example, a user could specify to have all of their textures compressed using DDS/DXT to help save on VRAM. You wouldn't want to do this every time you wanted to load the Blendfile in the BGE, but it could be a useful option for publishing. As such, the user would be able to specify when to do this optimizations, which allows the user to turn off the optimizations for faster iterations while developing their game. Other possibilities include baking animation fcurves. I don't know if this would save much time at run-time, but it would eliminate some Bezier calculations. More testing will need to be done to figure out what optimizations would be useful.
- Ultimately, the conversion process should not get any slower if the user just wants to use the system in a way similarly to how it is used now. This will make sure that iteration times remain low. Mostly the converter data should only be saved out to disk when publishing a game.
- The project will be split up roughly as follows:
- Add intermediate step to the conversion process -- 2~3 weeks
- Save intermediate data out to disk -- 1~2 week
- Asynchronous loading -- 3~4 weeks
- Conversion-time optimizations -- 1~3 weeks
- Bug fixing, cleaning and docs -- 1~2 weeks
- Total time: 8~14 weeks
- I am a 20 year old Computer Science student at Eastern Washington University in Washington state, USA. I have been active in the Blender community for a while now and active as a developer for 2~3 years.
- My main area of focus is the Blender Game Engine where I have contributed bug fixes to areas such as lighting, dynamic loading, and the Python API. One of my fist larger BGE dev projects was helping with the new BGE Python API for Blender 2.49. I have participated twice in Google Summer of Code for Blender with this proposal in 2010, and this one in 2011. Both projects were considered a success, but only the second one has made it into trunk.
- As far as programming languages go, I know Python and C/C++ fairly well now. I wouldn't call myself a "guru" at either, but I know my way around both languages. I also know Java, but that won't be very useful for this project.
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Paris, France, Jan 14, 2013 / 10:52 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Over one million people reportedly took to the streets in France on Jan. 13 in opposition to President Francois Hollande's “marriage for all” proposal.
Figures show between 1.3 and 1.5 million protested against their president's plans to pass same-sex marriage, according Bruno Dary, the former military governor of the city of Paris. Numbers from other media outlets range from an estimated 340,000 to 800,000 attendees.
Set to go before France's parliament Jan. 29, the draft law proposes to redefine marriage as a union “contracted between two persons of different sex or of the same sex.”
“It was a kind of a tsunami,” participant Catherine Vierling said of Sunday's demonstration.
“There was a very strong and powerful feeling of determination from everyone” said Vierling, who was part of the committee of the French Abroad of La Manif pour Tous, the event's main organizer.
“There was a peaceful and joyful feeling combined with an intense, strong power,” she added.
Vierling told CNA that Champs de Mars, a large park next to the Eiffel Tower, was so packed that according to the city of Paris, police had to escort buses that were stuck in traffic.
“There were families from all over the country who traveled the whole day,” she said. “My nephews, nieces and brother-in-law woke up at 6 a.m. to catch the train.”
“There were so many young people and people taking trains back at midnight, but families really felt this was needed,” she added.
Demonstrators included wide range of participants, many with no reported religious affiliation. Numerous gay individuals took part in the event, with slogans including “We're more gay without marriage.”
Attendees also included French gay city mayor, Jean Marc, who is outspokenly opposed to the legalization of same-sex marriage, as well as members from the organization HOMOVOX, which stands for “one voice for homosexuals.”
Those within the Muslim community, of which many had voted for president Francois Hollande for his immigration policies, were also at the event in disapproval of his plans to legalize gay marriage.
Many also protested against the socialist government's plans to legalize adoption for same-sex couples.
“You can have legal papers to protect a child, but this is uncalled for,” said Vierling, who is also a medical doctor.
“The whole thing will cause children to lose their identity and they need to know they came from a mom and a dad,” she added.
Some also opposed the president's failure to fix the economy with slogans “Give us jobs, don't change law on marriage” and labeling its plans for June as “silly actions.”
There were also socialists protesting against their own government's views saying “Please come back, Jospin, they all went crazy,” referring to France's former socialist prime minister.
Young women dressed as French Revolutionaries with phrygian red caps carried signs with “Don't touch my civil code.”
“This is just a political thing and it's going to create so much turmoil,” Vierling said.
“Our future depends on our feet and if we're walking the streets everything can change from one minute to the next, but not if we just sit at home comfortably watching TV,” she added.
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Jordan's King stresses importance of Arab peace plan
Jordan's King Abdullah II affirmed that it is premature to talk about confederation or federation with the Palestinians before the establishment of an independent Palestinian state and we have no desire to talk about it .
“Our position is unwavering. Any discussion of confederation or federation is premature and we have no desire to discuss it. The form of the future official Jordanian-Palestinian relationship is something to be decided by both after the establishment of an independent Palestinian state,” King Abdullah said in an interview with Al-Ahram daily published on Thursday.
What is important now is to launch Palestinian-Israeli peace negotiations that lead to a two-state solution; an independent viable Palestinian state on Palestinian soil living in security and peace side by side with Israel, the King said.
The Jordanian monarch noted that he keeps in constant close contact with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Saudi King Abdullah Bin Abdel Aziz to garner support to the Arab peace initiative and “explain its parameters and promote it within the international community, as well as in Israeli society so that they can influence their leadership and their community.”
The King said he was not surprised by Israel media reports following his meeting with Israeli Knesset President regarding the possible solution of the refugee issue in return to financial compensation. “These baseless comments were unsurprising. We are used to occasional statements meant to confuse and undermine our efforts to establish a just solution to the Palestinian issue,” the King said.
He stressed that the US as a super power should shoulder a moral responsibility towards peace in the Middle East. “I would like to emphasize that the US, being the world superpower, bears a huge moral responsibility to achieve peace in the Middle East, beginning with helping to end the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
King Abdullah expressed hope that the Sharm Al Sheikh conference would have achieved results that would help end the violence and the sever crisis in Iraq. However, the King said “we must stress that only the Iraqis themselves are capable of knowing their country’s best interests, but they have to unite and challenge the voices that are inciting sectarianism and violence.
In reply to a question on his visit to Israel, King Abdullah said he was invited to visit Israel in the past. If we find in this visit an opportunity to create progress in the Peace process and serve the Palestinian people, who are facing the greatest blockade and injustice known in history, and then we will consider it at that time, the King said.
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THE Virgin tycoon announced he and and his family will fly into space by the end of next year.
SIR Richard Branson today announced that he and his children will be the first passengers when the Virgin Galactic space tourism programme begins.
Virgin boss Sir Richard and son Sam and daughter Holly are expected to be flying 60 miles up into space on the SpaceShipTwo (SS2) aircraft by the end of next year.
Today, Sir Richard joined around 120 other tourists who have signed up for the two-hour flights, at 200,000 US dollars (£128,000) a trip.
As the travellers and Sir Richard posed at Farnborough Air Show beside a replica of SS2, Sir Richard also announced that the WhiteKnightTwo aircraft that will help launch SS2 into space will also be used for a new launch vehicle - LauncherOne - which will take small satellites into space for around a tenth of the present cost.
The Virgin Galactic team said a number of companies were keen to use LauncherOne.
From a spaceport built in New Mexico, USA, by UK architect Lord Foster, WhiteKnightTwo will take the SS2, with six passengers and two pilots, to a point about 50,000ft (15,240m) up before the SST rockets into space.
Sir Richard and other passengers will be able to float around the cabin due to weightlessness before the SS2 effectively becomes a glider for its return to the spaceport.
Virgin Galactic announced today that a total of 529 people - including, it is believed, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie - have signed up for an SS2 trip.
This number now outstrips the 528 who have gone into space since Yuri Gagarin's first trip in 1961.
"Next year Holly and Sam will be joining me for a first voyage into space," Sir Richard told a packed media conference at Farnborough today.
He went on: "Going into space is a hard business. It keeps my mind buzzing."
He added that he would have loved to have taken WhiteKnightTwo and SS2 to Farnborough.
And in a jokey remark concerning Virgin's big airline rival, Sir Richard said: "It would have been nice to have flown over the Olympic Games, especially as British Airways is one of the (Games) sponsors."
A number of the space tourists posed for pictures beside SS2 replica. They included Irish businessman and author Bill Cullen, 70, who was the first to sign up for a trip into space, paying his 200,000 dollars in 2004.
Accompanied by his partner, Jackie Lavin, today, he said: "I wanted to be the first Irishman in space and I'm really looking forward to it.
"I've been interested in space ever since I followed comic hero Dan Dare when I was a kid."
Another space tourist at Farnborough today was businessman Grant Roberts, 36, formerly from Lewes in East Sussex but now based in Dubai.
He was with his father, Michael, 65, and his grandfather Frank Roberts, 90, who was an RAF pilot who flew on missions over Germany in the Second World War.
"I was inspired by the exploits of my grandfather, as was my father," said Grant Roberts, who paid for his space trip in 2007.
He went on: "I can't wait to go up. The whole family plans to travel out to New Mexico with me."
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Florida Water Coalition Award
Several members of the Florida Water Quality Coalition presented Keyna Cory with a plaque for her efforts in leading the numeric nutrient criteria task force for the business and regulated community. Since 2009 Keyna has been coordinating the efforts of the task force to stop the US Environmental Protection Agency from implementing unreasonable and unscientific water quality standards in Florida.
(Pictured with Jim Spratt, Chair of the Florida Water Quality Coalition)
Florida Governor Signs into Law Key
Solid Waste Permit Bill
Mon, 2012-05-07 10:00
Florida Gov. Rick Scott signed into law a key industry bill doubling the permit terms for solid waste facilities.
House Bill 503 extends the permit term for a solid waste management facility with a leachate collection system to 20 years from 10. Facilities without leachate collection systems can extend the term to 10 years from 5, said Keyna Cory, longtime Florida Chapter lobbyist for the Washington-based National Solid Wastes Management Association (NSWMA), in an e-mail.
The law will take effect July 1. The bill was sponsored by Rep. Jimmy Patronis (R-Panama City).
The NSWMA called the bill a top priority for the region and the industry when it passed the state legislature in March, and applauded the bill being passed into law.
"The new law will save the industry millions of dollars," said John Clifford, NSWMA Florida Chapter chairman in a news release. "The language in this bill will help companies of all sizes in Florida, from the small business to the large international companies. The money saved with the extension of the permit renewal can be used by NSWMA members to invest in equipment; upgrade facilities and increase workforce. This legislation maintains environmental protection, but does so without needless burdensome regulation. It is really a win-win for all involved."
The cost for landfill permit renewals vary depending on the type of facility, Cory said. It currently takes about six to eight months to renew a permit if there are no issues.
Legislation looks to curb stolen metal trade
By Danny Valentine, Times Staff Writer
Published Sunday, March 25, 2012
TAMPA - For metal thieves in Florida, targets are everywhere.
They've hit homes, businesses, churches, construction sites, utilities, telephone companies and storage lots. They've ripped out copper wiring, dismantled air conditioning units and illegally scrapped manhole covers, stop signs, interstate guardrails, park benches, railroad ties and chain-link fences.
Now authorities hope they will get a new weapon in the battle against the surging thefts.
Two bills awaiting Gov. Rick Scott's signature would make it harder for people to sell stolen metals to recyclers, stopping a crime that can mean huge losses for property owners, advocates say.
"It's just hurt too many people - both in the pocketbook and with their loved ones," said Keyna Cory, a coordinator for Floridians for Copper and Metal Crime Prevention, which supported the legislation. "We think this is what we need to stop this crime."
The primary bill (HB 885/SB 540) creates statewide standards and a database for recording information about metal sales. It also increases penalties for metal theft and establishes a list of metals that can't be resold without proof of ownership.
"Why steal it if I can't sell it someplace?" asked Cory.
The legislation would require that metal recyclers take down sellers' information as well as information about the metal, such as a serial number. That information would be entered into databases shared by law enforcement.
It would create a list of 20 items, including manhole covers, funeral markers, storm grates and beer kegs, that can't be scrapped unless the seller can prove ownership or authority to sell the property. Payment for those items must come in check form - no cash.
The law also would make these requirements uniform across the state, instead of the existing patchwork of regulation at the county level, Cory said.
The penalty for metal recyclers who fail to keep proper paperwork would increase to a third-degree felony from a misdemeanor. That would be upped to a second-degree felony for third or subsequent violations.
People who steal metal from electrical substations would face a first-degree felony.
"We came together collectively to work on something to help solve the problem," said Rose Mock, president of Allied Scrap Processors in Lakeland and President of the Florida Recyclers Association.
Though not a perfect solution, she said, it's a step in the right direction. She also said that Florida recyclers took a proactive step to combating metal theft.
"People think that nobody's doing anything, but we are," she said. "We all are."
The changes would help local authorities regulate the industry better, said Hillsborough County Sheriff's Detective Dillon Corr, who investigates scrap metal cases.
"We're going to take away the outlet and, hopefully, that's going to reduce the metal theft," he said.
Metal theft has grown steadily in the past 10 years, spurred by rising prices and increasing demand from China and India, experts say. But the crime has increased dramatically with the economic downturn.
"It's basically a crime of last resort," Corr said.
He said scrapping offers a huge reward for little risk, attracting everyone from drug addicts to out-of-work electricians.
Metal thieves can cause far more damage getting the metal than it is worth at the scrap yard. The thefts can also have serious unintended consequences.
In September, a Miami pedestrian was struck and killed on a stretch of road left dark after metal thieves stripped copper from the streetlights, according to Floridians for Copper and Metal Crime Prevention Coalition.
The Withlacoochee River Electric Cooperative, serving west-central Florida, suffered more than $300,000 in metal theft-related damage in 2011, the coalition reported.
Although not all law enforcement agencies track metal-related thefts, some have reported large jumps. Clearwater, for example, saw metal thefts jump from 59 in 2010 to 169 in 2011.
It's hard to know exactly how big of a problem metal thefts are across the state. Or how much they do in damage.
"I think that we would be closer to billions," said Cory.
Fla. lawmakers pass solid waste permit changes
March 14, 2012
A trade group representing private solid waste management companies is lauding what it calls two key pieces of solid waste legislation passed in Florida.
"Our chapter's two top priorities were passed this session, and both of them were unanimously approved," said NSWMA Florida Chapter Chair John Clifford in a statement.
House Bill 503 is what the chapter calls a "major rewrite of environmental permitting lawsö that doubles permit extensions for solid waste management sites with leachate collection systems from 10 to 20 years, NSWMA said.
Locations without leachate collection systems would see their permits also double from five to 10 years.
House Bill 7003 creates a statewide environmental resource permitting system that the trade group said "will give consistency to the five DEP districts when it comes to the permitting process."
Both bills passed unanimously and are awaiting Gov. Rick Scott's signature to become law.
Keyna Cory, government relations specialist for the Florida Chapter, said grassroots efforts by members paid off.
"Florida Chapter members really stepped up to the plate and contacted their legislators before key committee votes letting them know how important this issue was to their company," she said in a statement.
Contact Waste & Recycling News senior reporter Jim Johnson at firstname.lastname@example.org or 937-964-1289.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 13, 2012
Contacts: Thom Metzger, 202-364-3751
NSWMA: Florida Legislature Passes Key Solid Waste Legislation
Industry Priorities Were Passed and Should Become Law
Tallahassee, Fla. - The Florida Chapter of the National Solid Wastes Management Association (NSWMA) today applauded the passage of two pieces of key solid waste legislation by the Florida Senate and House of Representatives during the 2012 legislative session. NSWMA is very hopeful that the bills will be signed into law by Florida Governor Rick Scott.
NSWMA Florida Chapter Chair John Clifford stated that the Chapter was very pleased with the legislation that was passed. According to Clifford, "Our Chapter's two top priorities were passed this session and both of them were unanimously approved."
The first bill supported by the NSWMA was HB 503 by Rep. Jimmy Patronis (R-Panama City). This bill is a major rewrite of the environmental permitting laws that includes language that will double the term of permit extensions for solid waste management facilities with leachate collection systems from 10 to 20 years. Those facilities without leachate collection systems would be able to extend their permit terms from 5 to 10 years.
Lobbyist for the Florida Chapter Keyna Cory said the success of passing this important legislation was due to the grassroots effort. "Florida Chapter members really stepped up to the plate and contacted their legislators before key committee votes letting them know how important this issue was to their company," said Cory.
NSWMA Florida Chapter Vice Chair Chuck Dees stated that working with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection was another key factor for a successful session. "We began working with DEP early in the process so that we could agree to compromise language that is beneficial to the industry without harming the environment," stated Mr. Dees.
The other passed legislation on the Chapter's Session Priority list was HB 7003 by Rep. Steve Crisafulli (R-Merritt Island). This bill creates a statewide Environmental Resource Permitting system. This legislation will give consistency to the five DEP districts when it comes to the permitting process.
Each bill is consistent with legislative intent to require regulations to be effective in protecting the environment, not just burdensome to industry.
NSWMA - a sub-association of the Environmental Industry Associations - represents for-profit companies in North America that provide solid, hazardous and medical waste collection, recycling and disposal services, and companies that provide professional and consulting services to the waste services industry. NSWMA members conduct business in all 50 states.
Florida lawmakers pass metal-theft bill amid public safety concerns
3:31 a.m. EDT, March 13, 2012
The death of a South Florida woman served as a catalyst to bolster the state's metal-theft laws.
In September, Thelma Morrow was killed in a crash along a darkened street, left that way by thieves who stripped copper from Miami streetlights. The driver who hit her told police the light outages helped make the crash difficult to avoid.
State legislators, citing her death, now have approved a bill that enhances criminal penalties against thieves and corrupt recyclers.
Morrow's death "spawned us into action, because her life was so tragically taken," said Sen. Chris Smith, D-Fort Lauderdale, who co-sponsored the bill. "It lit the fire under us to make sure that this doesn't happen again."
Legislators are sending the bill to Gov. Rick Scott, who is expected to sign it. The law would take effect July 1.
Morrow's sister, Ethel Morrow Dandy, 62, said she was grateful the measure was approved.
"She had to die an untimely death because of those copper-wire thieves," Dandy said. "This law will make a difference."
The theft of utility wires already was a misdemeanor, but now such metal thievery would be a first-degree felony. "You're going to spend some time behind bars for doing this," Smith said.
The bill also would tighten restrictions on scrap-metal yards statewide. If buying stolen property is made riskier for scrap-yard dealers, the reasoning goes, it will cut off the demand side of the illicit business.
The bill prohibits buying 17 metal items often targeted for theft, things like manhole covers, backflow valves, coils from air conditioners and utility light poles, wires and fixtures. People selling to dealers must prove ownership or show they are authorized to sell the metals.
And dealers must pay by check for the items, an extra hurdle if you're seeking quick money.
Dealers intentionally ignoring inspection requirements would face a third-degree felony. Recyclers with three or more offenses would be charged with a first-degree felony.
Backers of the measure said it only should affect dealers who who turn a blind eye to the illegal source of items offered for sale.
"It's the ones that aren't legit who are going to have serious problems trying to comply," said Keyna Cory, coordinator of Floridians for Copper and Metal Theft Crime Prevention, a coalition of industry organizations.
Smith said the metal-theft bill is the first one increasing criminal penalties co-sponsored by him.
But it "was worth it in this case," he said after he heard from countless metal-theft victims in South Florida and learned of Morrow's death.
Morrow's sister said she wished the bill would have been approved "a long time ago, before it cost someone's life."
Dandy said she and her family plan to visit Morrow's gravesite in Fort Lauderdale on Tuesday, her sister's birthday. Morrow would have turned 53.
"We truly miss her," Dandy said.
email@example.com or 954-356-4701
Jack Cory Testifies Before the House Civil Justice Subcommittee
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The Old Opera House still looks as magnificent and imposing as it did when it was opened by Kaiser Wilhelm I in 1880. The building was financed by wealthy Frankfurt citizens and was designed in Italian Renaissance style by Richard Lucae. Destroyed in a 1944 air raid, it was rebuilt in 1964-81 and renamed the 'Old Opera Concert and Conference Centre'. The main auditorium, with seating for about 2,500 people, is the central part of the building and is used for concerts, conferences and other events. Smaller rooms can be hired for functions. Visitors can obtain refreshments in the cafe, the restaurant or the bistro.
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topic #2 [that white dotted line]
Sometimes you listen to a song but dont really 'listen' to it. I mean yeah, you hear it but are you focusing in on the vocalists pitch or how many counts the backround drum beat has? Of course not. Us, we, being the most sluggish yet petty creatures this universe has every seen do not have the time to listen to the little things. Do you really expect a 30 year old single mother with 2 jobs (one to support her whinny ass kids and the other to support her special habits that let her escape what the 1st job supports) to sit down for a minut 3 minute song with a repeating chorus? Hell, shed prefere to be grocery shopping or sleeping with the many men she meets at the out of town bar where she goes so her perfect neighbors wont look down upon her hard work. But, yes, music is such an important aspect of our society. Stirring so many different kinds of emotions around in our nonextensive minds that the people who know people want to link it with violence and "bad" behavior. Yes, truthfully speaking music does in fact make some people feel a certain way but to take away or edit the lyrics of a song is going about it the wrong way. Maybe you would like to filter your small children about such topics as sex, drugs, and violence, the whole bit, but for our generation; we deserve to hear whats being said i say. We deserve the chance to choose for ourselves what is right and wrong. Now this might seem like a tired out tantrum but please, be considerate. This is not factual information from an amazing source but from my overworked brain itself. Im just, simply, putting these ideas out into the open for your minds to consume rather than be sheltered from our shithole of a civilization. To be strong is to survive but they never tell you that it must be not physically strong but mentally and emotionally. That, my friends, is key.
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One of the challenges most people I talk to have in dealing with OSS is integrating projects that were designed to work together. Many people are trying to use Struts with Hibernate and/or Spring with Hibernate and end up having integration problems…The reality is that enterprises run open source and commercial software side-by-side and will continue to do so. That’s why Oracle partnered with SourceLabs
to solve this issue for Oracle AS 10g customers. SASH simply means (Struts, Apache Axis, Hibernate and Spring). SourceLabs provides services around their tested SASH
stack. Oracle customers using server-side Java are now able to improve productivity, reduce operational risk, and adopt open platforms with confidence.
I find this exciting and it’s inline with Fusion Middleware’s Hot-Pluggable message (believe me it’s not just a marketing buzzword) which essentially means that we are willing to compete on industry standards and if you find a module that works better than one of the components in the Oracle stack, you can seamlessly swap it out with the equivalent module of your choice. Oracle’s middleware is engineered to work well with third-party products, including open source and IBM's WebSphere line.
To get more information and even download SASH for Oracle AS 10g, go to the SASH section on OTN
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Austria: The International "Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance Art Exhibition" Held in Graz (Photos)
(Clearwisdom.net) On the evening of July 5, 2007 an international art exhibition entitled the "Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance Art Exhibition" officially opened in Graz, the capital of Steiermark Province. The "Ars Cara" arts and culture club sponsored the exhibition. Their motto is "Arts for Human Rights." Ars Cara had great success showing the same exhibition last year throughout Austria. It was supported and recognized by politicians, NGOs and a kind and caring public.
This time, Café Kaiserfeld, located in the center of the city, served as the gallery to show these special works of art. The various artists tried not just to create beautiful artworks, but also to call attention to human rights violations and the persecution suffered by Falun Gong practitioners in China at the hands of the Communist regime. The artists, many of whom are of Chinese origin and were persecuted and tortured by the regime because of their beliefs, want to stop the persecution in China by depicting it through their art.
Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, teaches the principles of "Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance," which translates from "Zhen, Shan, Ren" in Chinese. The persecution is a very criminal and dehumanizing situation inflicted upon a group of people who try to live their lives according to these principles. It is an insult to justice and humanity that more people in Western countries are not paying attention to this atrocity. These same principles also give practitioners the strength to withstand such terror. It remains an unanswered question why anyone would oppose Truthfulness, Compassion Forbearance.
Café Kaiserfeld in Graz allocated a separate room that has been renovated just for the exhibition. The room is especially attractive because it opens to the sidewalk and the street and many people pass by daily, on their way to the city center. There is a large picture window allowing everyone to see the exhibit even without coming inside. We hope that this will allow us to reach many people's hearts through the art.
Mr. Dietz, a representative of the provincial government, gave a beautiful and inspiring talk, explaining how honored he was to welcome the exhibit to the city of Graz. He also stressed the importance of portraying such a great injustice through art. He said that the exhibition does not seek to sell paintings, but is intended only to touch the hearts of the audience.
He was delighted to hear about the exhibition and immediately agreed to give a speech at the opening. He said that usually visitors at a private viewing receive a price list no matter whether the artist is a professional or an amateur. He regretted that most artists and the general public are willing to overlook human rights violations and in favor of economic interests. He thanked us for giving him the opportunity to speak, expressed his hope that the persecution would soon come to an end, and wished the club and all practitioners the best.
Dr. Raimund Kirner, an Austrian Amnesty International representative, also gave a talk about the situation in China. In his speech, he stressed the obvious clash between the 2008 Olympics, normally conducted in the spirit of peace, fairness and universal brotherhood and the human rights situation in a country that is synonymous with human rights violations. The West expected the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing to lead to an improvement of the situation; however, reality has proven that the opposite to be true.
As early as April of this year, the Chinese Ministry for Public Security issued instructions for gathering intelligence internationally prior to the Olympics. The instructions list forty-three categories of "undesirables" who will be excluded from participating in the Beijing 2008 Olympics. This is only one of many examples of the lack of scruples exhibited by the Chinese Communist Party and their continued efforts to persecute and suppress people.
Dr. Kirner also explained that the Bruno Kreisky Institute has conferred the highly regarded "Bruno Kreisky Award for Human Rights" on Chinese human rights attorney, Mr. Gao Zhisheng. Unfortunately, Mr. Gao Zhisheng was not able to accept the award in person. He is currently under strict house arrest in China after having been sentenced to three years of detention for "subversion," and his very life has been threatened due his extraordinary efforts on behalf of human rights.
Mr. Gao is currently being held at an undisclosed location and nothing is known about his whereabouts. Dr. Kirner welcomed the efforts of "Ars Cara" to improve human rights through the art exhibition and was grateful for the opportunity to speak.
The audience was very touched by the beautiful program which included the finishing touch by members of the European Choir singing "Coming for You."
Mema-TV filmed the art show opening and conducted interviews with Dr. Kirner and other audience members. We expect that the program will be shown several times on regional TV channels throughout the coming week.
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|chronic manageable disease
Dec 5, 2010
Dr. Frascino, I keep hearing that hiv is now a chronic manageable disease. My question is: Is it really? Whenever I read literature it always says if you keep your viral load down. But what if you can't keep it down? What if none of the medication works? I do not see how anyone can claim that there is a normal life expectancy. I guess I am just scared and it doesn't seem like there is going to ever be a cure. At least not in the next 100 years. I know that you deal with it everyday and I don't know how you keep on going. Jason
| Response from Dr. Frascino
I addressed this topic in one of my blogs for this site: "A Chronic, Not Always So Manageable, Condition." I'll repost it below.
A Chronic, Not Always So Manageable, Condition By Bob Frascino, M.D. February 16, 2010
I'm undoubtedly the most optimistic guy in the galaxy, bar none! Really, I am. For instance, you know how some people are cup-half-full folks and others are cup-half-empty folks? Well, I'm a cup-runneth-over kind of fellow. Yet despite my unabashed and unbridled optimism about essentially everything in existence, I'm beginning to think the term "chronic, manageable condition," when applied to HIV/AIDS, may be overly optimistic or at least misleading, particularly for many of us who are positively charged and struggling to coexist with a virus that wants nothing more than to plant us six feet under!
While I freely admit that many of us who are virally enhanced no longer feel we have one foot in the grave and the other on a banana peel, I wonder: Do we really have a "chronic, manageable condition?" (I'm still new to this whole blogosphere thingy and commencing today's entry with a provocative prologue followed by an open-ended question suddenly makes me feel like Carrie Bradshaw at the start of a Sex and the City episode, typing away on her Mac in an uber-chic strapless fashion-forward empire-bodice camisole leotard and Prada cha-cha heels. But I digress. And besides, I'm dressed in trendy Rock and Republic jeans, Pumas, tank top and hoodie, just in case you were wondering. And before any of you ask, 2xist boxer-brief tighty-whities.) Now where was I? Oh yeah, chronic manageable conditions.
Personally, I tend to think of halitosis, hemorrhoids or even "the heartbreak of psoriasis" as examples of chronic manageable conditions. But HIV/AIDS? I'm not so sure.
One recent day, a number of real-life HIV/AIDS stories crossed my desk and they have fortified my position vis-?-vis HIV/AIDS as a chronic, but not always so manageable, condition. Let me, first, set the stage for this discussion and then give you a firsthand view from several HIVers who contacted me that day.
I received a very kind e-mail from a journalist who wrote a feature article about me several years ago for a local newspaper. She wrote to graciously volunteer some of her time to help The Robert James Frascino AIDS Foundation. (Megan, if you're reading this blog, it's great to hear from you again and I'll give you a call within the next few days!) In preparation for her March 2007 article, I recall we spent considerable time discussing how HIV/AIDS had become a much more treatable ("manageable") illness with the discovery and availability of potent combination antiretroviral therapy in the mid-1990s.
By way of comparison, I remember referencing a cover story written about me for the magazine section of the San Jose Mercury News in 1996, which carried the headline "Robert Frascino, M.D.: Casualty of War." It was a terrific article, but I would have preferred something along the lines of "Wounded in Action" for the title. Nonetheless, in 1996, just prior to the release of the first protease inhibitors, when the San Jose Mercury News article appeared, HIV was indeed a death sentence with a short shelf-life. I, like everyone else at the time, anticipated the virus would snuff out my life on this planet within a few short years. My, how things had changed within the few years that passed between these two feature articles.
There could be no doubt the new drugs had been nothing short of miraculous. After all, I was still alive, right? And not only had I survived, but I had thrived! So the focus of the more recent article reflected the reality of having, for the first time since the onset of the pandemic, effective treatment to combat the virus.
Much has been written over the past several years exclaiming the virtues of these life-sustaining wonder drugs while simultaneously proclaiming that HIV/AIDS has now become a chronic, manageable condition, like hypertension or diabetes. Antiretroviral drug advertising campaigns fueled this notion with glossy photos suggesting that taking pills would transform a frail HIVer into a sturdy, studly mountain-climber or sexy javelin-thrower. Is it any wonder that John Q. Public absolutely believes HIV/AIDS is a chronic, manageable condition? But is it really???
Also that day I received an e-mail from an "out HIV+ gay M.D." in a rural part of the country. He wrote:
"I have a male (straight) patient I have been seeing for 15+ years. Over the years he has had aseptic necrosis of both hips, both shoulders, and now the knees. (now opioid dependent from pain control) But most importantly at the moment, his 35" abdomen of 15 years ago is now 52" at the widest part (several inches about the navel) and he is losing balance because of this odd collection of weight, not to mention GI upset, short of breath etc. Do surgeons ever 'de bulk' all this visceral fat? It needs it because this is much more than 'cosmetic' and is severely compromising his quality of life. Thanks for any thoughts or advice."
Is HIV really a chronic, manageable condition for his patient? The answer to his query is not all that encouraging. HIV-associated central fat accumulation, visceral abdominal fat (VAT), is not amenable to surgical intervention. And there are no FDA-approved drug therapies for this condition. Lifestyle modifications (diet and exercise), as well as switching antiretroviral therapy, have had very limited success in reducing VAT. One drug, metformin, did show some benefit at reducing VAT, but accelerated peripheral fat loss (lipoatrophy). Neither testosterone nor thiazolidinediones has led to significant improvement. Recombinant human growth hormone (rHGH) has demonstrated some improvement in two large clinical trials. However, this treatment is costly and can be associated with significant side effects. The improvement seen was also temporary. There are some promising data using growth hormone releasing hormone (GHRH). My advice was to try to enroll his patient in a clinical trial of GHRH if he qualified.
That same day I received a question in my inbox in The Body's "Ask the Experts" forum from a woman who calls herself "Mommy of Three." This unfortunate woman is struggling and her chronic condition is far from being managed. I encourage you to read her post in full detail. She deals daily with health issues as well as life circumstances and past traumas that make effective HIV care virtually impossible for her. (If someone has ideas to help her, please feel free to comment!)
Later that day, another physician contacted me. He'd recently seroconverted to HIV positive. He wrote: "I find it very difficult to trust who to talk about this with. In fact I think this is the first time that I even put it in writing." He wanted to get in contact with me, for "some guidance from a physician-to-physician point of view," but he wanted us to only talk on the phone because of his "concern about the confidentiality of email communication."
I can think of no other chronic medical condition that would instill such fear. And what about HIV/AIDS's other "unique" facets, such as stigmatization, difficulties finding competent, compassionate health care, problems with employment, alienation from friends and family, disclosure issues and even criminalization? (Note to self: These are all nifty, bloggable topics. Note on note to self: Check to see if "bloggable" is a word.)
At the end of the day I received a question from an HIVer who complained his HIV medications were giving him intractable diarrhea and explosive gas. Further details revealed this was not your run-of-the-mill "Hershey squirts" and "trouser coughs." Rather, his pop-a-vein-in-your-forehead poopies would make Montezuma's Revenge seem like a case of constipation. And his "gas" was setting off sonic blasts so loud, I'm convinced he'll be getting fan mail from the seismographic people here in California for the next month.
Chronic, manageable conditions? Maybe not-so-much for these folks. And they are only the ones who contacted me that particular day! I have much more to say about this topic and how the "chronic manageable condition mantra" may actually be hindering our HIV prevention efforts. I invite you to stay tuned for "A Chronic, Not Always So Manageable, Condition, Part II."
As for what's left on my to-do list for tonight, I need to respond to the folks mentioned above: the chronic-not-so-manageables.
Robert J. Frascino, M.D.
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From the 2010 News Archive
Chief Justice of Wisc. Supreme Court to Lecture Feb. 18
The Honorable Shirley Abrahamson
of the Supreme Court of Wisconsin will visit the School of Law on February 17 and 18 as part of the Schoolís Distinguished Visitorís Program. Chief Justice Abrahamson will present this year's Pearl, Lawrence I. & Lloyd M. Gerber Memorial Lecture "Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson: View from the Middle Seat" at 5 p.m. in the Ceremonial Courtroom on February 18. The lecture is free and open to the public.
Judge Abrahamson was the first woman to serve on the Supreme Court of Wisconsin at the time of her appointment in 1976 by Wisconsinís 38th Governor Patrick Lucey. In 1996, Abrahamson became chief justice, and has since served as the administrative leader of the Wisconsin court system.
Chief Justice Abrahamson is a member of the Council of the American Law Institute and a board member of the Dwight D. Opperman Institute of Judicial Administration at the New York University School of Law. She is a fellow of the Wisconsin Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and an elected member of the American Philosophical Society. She also holds many honors, including the 2009 Harry L. Carrico Award for Judicial Innovation presented by the National Center for State Courts for her service as a national leader in safeguarding judicial independence, improving inter-branch relations, and expanding outreach to the public.
Judge Abrahamson was in private practice for 14 years and was a professor at the University of Wisconsin (UW) Law School before joining the Supreme Court of Wisconsin. Previously, she served as president of the National Conference of Chief Justices and chair of the board of directors of the National Institute of Justiceís National Commission on the Future of DNA Evidence. She has also served on the State Bar of Wisconsinís Commission on the Delivery of Legal Services, the American Bar Associationís Coalition for Justice, and the National Academiesí Science, Technology, and Law panel.
The Distinguished Visitors Program brings scholars and professionals in law and allied fields to the School of Law for short or longer-term academic visits. Visiting professors present a public lecture and work with students and other faculty members in a variety of formal and informal settings. Recent Distinguished Visiting Professors include the Honorable Johann Vincent van der Westhuizen
of the Constitutional Court of South Africa in October 2009 as well as Arthur Chaskalson, former President of the Constitutional Court & former Chief Justice of South Africa, Justice Bess Nkabinde of the Constitutional Court of South Africa, Kendall Thomas, Nash Professor of Law and Founding Co-Director of the Center for the Study of Law and Culture at Columbia University in the City of New York, among others.
Posted by Carrie Oleynik
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Know the Signs of Colon Cancer
Sherri Brown, LaGrange Daily News, Ga.
Posted June 17, 2012
Signs and symptoms of colo-rectal cancer Colo-rectal cancer may cause one or more of the symptoms below. If you have any of the following you should see your doctor: --A change in bowel habits, such as diarrhea, constipation or narrowing of the stool, that lasts for more than a few days. --A feeling that you need to have a bowel movement that is not relieved by doing so. --Rectal bleeding, dark stools or blood in the stool (often, though, the stool will look normal). --Cramping or abdominal (belly) pain. --Weakness and fatigue. --Unintended weight loss. Most of these symptoms are more often caused by conditions other than colo-rectal cancer, such as infection, hemorrhoids or inflammatory bowel disease. Still, if you have any of these problems, it's important to see your doctor right away so the cause can be found and treated, if needed. Source: American Cancer Society Making excuses are common and usually don't have lasting consequences. However, Betty Brooks Tyner isn't making any more excuses. The last one almost killed her. Tyner now knows she was too quick to dismiss signs of a serious problem. The bleeding and pain she experienced sounded like hemorrhoids to her, especially since her brother-in-law had recently had surgery for the swollen veins. She knew the surgery was painful and she didn't want to go through that, so she didn't go to the doctor. It wasn't until the bleeding became serious that she went to her doctor, who quickly sent her for a colonoscopy. Tyner didn't follow those instructions either. "I had a bad infection in my leg and I was trying to get well from that. I put it off about four months before I went to get the test," she admitted. "I didn't want to be hurting at both ends, but I should not have waited." She had the colonoscopy, a test where a doctor inserts a camera on a flexible tube throughout the large bowel and part of the small bowl. The results were the last thing Tyner wanted to hear. She had colon cancer. "I was shocked. I was afraid. I was angry," she said. Tyner immediately began treatment to shrink the cancer with chemotherapy and radiation followed by surgery to remove the cancer. Tyner still struggles with post-surgery problems, but she's now cancer free and counts that a blessing. "It's amazing how we see the signs, but we don't pay attention," she said. "My father died five years after he was diagnosed with colon cancer. I knew better." Tyner isn't alone. Many colon cancer patients do the same thing. In fact, 56 percent of the colon cancer patients treated at West Georgia Medical Center in the past two years received their diagnoses when they were in the life-threatening stages 3 or 4 of the disease. "The problem, of course, is that at that point you do what you can, but the survival rate is not what it is at stage 1 or 2," said Charlene McClanahan, director of oncology services for West Georgia Health. The number of colo-rectal cancer deaths in Troup County is significantly higher than the statewide rate. In Troup County, the colo-rectal cancer death rate per 100,000 people is 24.1, while the rate in Georgia is just 16.9 and in the United States, it is 17.1. "We're at a much higher death rate than compared to the state and national rates," McClanahan said. The irony is that colon cancer is an "easy disease" if caught early, said Dr. Chad Sisk, gastroenterologist with Gastroenterology Center of West Georgia. "All colon cancer starts as a polyp. If you get your screenings as they are recommended, you catch polyps before they become cancer. The goal is prevention," Sisk said. "Most colon polyps are benign, but you can't predict which ones will be cancer and which ones will not, so the goal is to take them out so you never get colon cancer." The larger the polyp, the higher the risk is that it's cancer or pre-cancerous. Family history also plays a role. "If an immediate family member has colon cancer, you've got three times the risk," Sisk said. Colonoscopies are recommend for everyone beginning at the age of 50. If there is a family member with colon cancer, especially if they were diagnosed at a young age, then colonoscopies should begin 10 years before that age. For instance, if a sister had cancer at 35 years old, the sibling should be tested at 25 years old. The cost of colonoscopies can be a problem. Because the patient is asleep for the test, there is a high cost to a facility -- a hospital or a surgery center. The average cost is about $3,000, McClanahan said. However, many private insurances pay 100 percent of the cost, without a deductible. Medicaid and Medicare also pay for colonoscopies. Still, the result -- avoiding cancer -- can be priceless. "Colon cancer is a common cancer, but it's something we can prevent. A lot of cancers you can't prevent," Sisk said. "But with colon cancer, if you get screenings, the hope is you never get colon cancer." ©2012 the LaGrange Daily News (LaGrange, Ga.) Visit the LaGrange Daily News (LaGrange, Ga.) at www.lagrangenews.com Distributed by MCT Information Services
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As for Collins and Stanton — they were not impressed. They attended the packed Chicago premiere, at the Regal Theater in Bronzeville. Collins remembers sinking in his seat: "The movie was very, very long." Stanton said: "It felt so amateurish, which shouldn't have been surprising: We were amateurs."
Micheaux died three years later in North Carolina. He was 67, and though he had been in bad health for years — he directed "The Betrayal" though he had intense arthritis — the circumstances of his death remain unclear. Said Charlene Regester, who teaches Micheaux at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill: "There are a lot of unknowns and 'probablys' concerning this man's life."
For instance, of the 41 films he made, probably less than a dozen exist today.
It's hard to say for sure.
After his death, Micheaux was forgotten for decades. Interest in his life didn't percolate until the 1960s. By the late '70s, historians had located prints of "Body and Soul" and "Within Our Gates"; by the '90s, additional films surfaced. The Directors Guild of America gave Micheaux a posthumous lifetime achievement award, and Micheaux received a star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame. In 2010 he was honored with a U.S. postage stamp.
But his reputation within film circles has never really been settled, "and that's because you can't actually watch his movies," McGilligan said, "because there is no such thing as a Micheaux film that exists as it was intended." Prints were often found deteriorated or badly edited by regional censors, a typical practice.
As for his movies that were never found, "The Betrayal" is among them.
"There is a legend that his widow became so bitter after he died, she burned everything — prints, memorabilia," McGilligan said. And yet the history of "lost" movies is full of stories of random discoveries in attics and film archives.
So, probably it's lost.
But when asked if they are disappointed that no known copies of their only movie seem to exist, Collins and Stanton shrugged. They never saw Micheaux as a steppingstone anyway. Stanton had promised her father she would not become an actress, and Collins remained realistic.
"There weren't opportunities for African-Americans in movies then, and there wasn't going to be, so why pursue that?"
After Micheaux left Chicago, they never saw him again. But they heard from him one last time.
"We sent him a wedding invitation," Collins said. "He never came. But he sent a wedding present — copies of his books, signed." He smiles shaking his head at the self-regarding audacity. "I would joke about that gift," he said, "but Myra would say, 'It's a gift. It's the thought that counts.'"
'Within Our Gates'
Music Box Theatre, 3733 N. Southport Ave.
(773) 325-1710 or musicboxtheatre.com
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Our Man in London: On Louis Susman’s appointment as ambassador to the U.K.
The retired Chicago businessman Louis Susman recently became the U.S. ambassador to the United Kingdom, an appointment widely regarded as the prize for his ferocious fundraising on behalf of the Obama campaign. Derided by the British press as the “vacuum cleaner,” Susman is only the most prominent example of a continuing—and questionable—American tradition
(page 1 of 5)
Last February, three months after raising more than half a million dollars for Barack Obama’s presidential campaign, the retired Chicago investment banker Louis Susman took a call from the White House. Susman won’t say who was on the line—it was likely David Jacobson, the Chicago lawyer who worked for Obama during the campaign and went to Washington as Obama’s special assistant for presidential personnel—but Susman will repeat the question he was asked: “‘The president has an intent to nominate you [to be ambassador to the United Kingdom], and, if he does, would you accept?’”
Susman didn’t even pause to check with Marjorie, his wife of 50 years. “I accepted on the spot,” he recalled in a telephone interview from their new home in London.
No surprise that he didn’t need to think it over. Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Court of St. James’s—the official title—is widely considered the most coveted of the 185 ambassadorships the president has to offer. Susman’s predecessors include John Adams, who presented his credentials to King George III in 1785. Five envoys to England went on to become president, four vice president, and ten secretary of state.
Today, Lou and Margie Susman are settling into the 35-room, red brick, neo-Georgian Winfield House in Regent’s Park, surrounded by a private garden second in size only to the one at Buckingham Palace. The posting is as safe as it comes—no worries about a mob storming the embassy—and the one language required is the one language Susman speaks.
By American political standards, Susman, 72, earned the appointment. For 40 years, he has worked the phones tirelessly for Democrats, sucking up cash from friends and associates with such ferocity that he earned the nickname the Vacuum Cleaner or, for short, the Hoover. In 2004, as national finance chairman for John Kerry—they were friends from Nantucket, where both own vacation homes—Susman was said to have been in line for a cabinet position had Kerry won. For the 2008 election, a roster of ambitious Democrats sought Susman’s golden touch. “I’ve had calls from every potential candidate,” he told me in May 2006. A few months later, Susman threw in with the new Illinois senator, Barack Obama, even though the smart money was then touting Hillary Clinton. In all, Susman bundled $247,000 for Obama’s presidential campaign and another $300,000 for his inauguration. The Obama miracle of 2008 marked the first time Susman had backed a presidential winner—and, hence, the first time he and Margie could reap the reward.
But the position has come with a tarnish. Susman’s appointment kicked up the long-standing argument over awarding diplomatic positions to top fundraisers. The London press dripped disdain. “Ultimate Prize for ‘Vacuum Cleaner,’” blared The Daily Telegraph. Why, the Brits demanded, does the United Kingdom (UK) so often get stuck with a buckraker, while almost always dispatching professional diplomats to its embassy in Washington? “We are the only major power that sends nonprofessionals regularly,” says Ronald Neumann, president of the American Academy of Diplomacy and former U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan. “We’re the only one who thinks this is amateur hour.”
The tradition dates to President Andrew Jackson, but didn’t Obama promise change? “I think that President Obama, as all presidents, choose who they think is the most qualified and deserving person to become an ambassador,” Susman told me last October. “The qualifications are the first order of business, and I think, if it’s relevant, the second order of business would be if they’re deserving.”
Susman is good on the second count; it’s the first that bears watching.
* * *
Illustration: Roberto Parada
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On this page you will find some of the items, thoughts and messages that were submitted to the Veg-Christian@all-creatures.org E-mail discussion group, or to all-creatures.org.
Visit our all-creatures.org Home Page
(submitted by Maynard S. Clark 5 February 1999)
Canterbury, England. A.D. 999.
An atmosphere close to panic prevails today throughout Europe as the millennial year 1000 approaches, bringing with it the so-called "Y1K Bug," a menace which, until recently, hardly anyone had ever heard of Prophets of doom are warning that the entire fabric of Western civilization, based as it now is upon monastic computations, could collapse, and that there is simply not enough time left to fix the problem.
Just how did this disaster-in-the-making ever arise? Why did no one anticipate that a change from a three-digit to a four-digit year would throw into total disarray all liturgical chants and all metrical verse in which any date is mentioned? Every formulaic hymn, prayer, ceremony and incantation dealing with dated events will have to be re-written to accommodate three extra syllables.
All tabular chronologies with three-space year columns, maintained for generations by scribes using carefully hand-ruled lines on vellum sheets, will now have to be converted to four-space columns, at enormous cost.
In the meantime, the validity of every official event, from baptisms to burials, from confirmations to coronations, may be called into question.
"We should have seen it coming ," says Brother Cedric of St. Michael's Abbey, here in Canterbury. "What worries me most is that 'THOUSAND' contains the word 'THOU,' which occurs in nearly all our prayers, and of course always refers to God. Using it now in the name of the year will seem almost blasphemous, and is bound to cause terrible confusion.
Of course, we could always use Latin, but that might be even worse- The Latin word for 'Thousand' is 'Mille' which is the same as the Latin for 'mile.' We won't know whether we're talking about time or distance!"
Stonemasons are already reported threatening to demand a proportional pay increase for having to carve an extra numeral in all dates on tombstones, cornerstones and monuments. Together with its inevitable ripple effects, this alone could plunge the hitherto-stable medieval economy into chaos..
A conference of clerics has been called at Winchester to discuss the entire issue, but doomsayers are convinced that the matter is now one of personal survival. Many families, in expectation of the worst, are stocking up on holy water and indulgences.
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June 29, 2012 / Wtf / 0 comments
Modeling business was not enough for these beauties so they decided to take up acting. Here is the list of the most famous models who can also be seen playing in the movies.
Milla Jovovich was born in 1975 in Kiev, Ukraine, to a Serbian pediatrician and a renowned Russian actress. Her family moved to the U.S. in 1981 and she began her remarkable modeling career at age nine.
If you hadn’t heard of Brooke Shields before, this tag line from her Calvin Klein Jeans ad had to grab your attention. Not that she hadn’t had a previous noteworthy resume.
Top model of the late 1960s who made skinny an “inny” along with other famous skinny models such as Jean Shrimpton (“The Shrimp”), Veruschka von Lehndorff, and Penelope Tree (“The Tree”).
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In April, the Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting was awarded to the Associated Press for a series of articles it published about the New York Police Department’s “clandestine spying program that monitored daily life in Muslim communities.” The AP’s assertions were so extensive that they filled more than 50 separate pieces, the first published in August of last year. Its reporters alleged that since the attacks of September 11, the New York City Police Department’s Intelligence Division had placed entire Muslim communities under scrutiny with “no evidence of wrongdoing.” The department, they wrote, had infiltrated mosques and Muslim student groups with no legal basis to do so. It had operated far outside its geographical jurisdiction and had cast too wide a net when monitoring and analyzing American Muslims.
The NYPD had joined the CIA in an “unprecedented partnership,” blurring the line between foreign and domestic intelligence-gathering, and had operated in secrecy with “scant oversight.” It had run afoul of legal constraints, especially a series of limitations on its intelligence-gathering to which the NYPD itself had agreed following a court case in 1985. It had violated civil-liberties rules in a way that would not be permitted of federal institutions. And after all this misbehavior, the results were mixed in any case.
The articles were quickly and widely disseminated and elicited expressions of deep outrage among Muslim Americans and civil-liberties activists. They created fissures between the police and the communities it sought to protect, undermined confidence in the NYPD, and attracted national attention—which, according to the AP’s Pulitzer citation, “result[ed] in congressional calls for a federal investigation and a debate over the proper role of domestic intelligence-gathering.” As well they should have. A free citizenry relies on a free press to uncover civil-liberties abuses.
But any serious discussion about the alleged methods and practices of the NYPD Intelligence Division should have begun with one question: Was the AP’s investigation accurate?
The answer is no.
The articles misrepresent the scope, purpose, and rationale behind many of the NYPD Intelligence Division’s programs. They confuse events and policies in ways that are misleading and cast the tale they are telling in the worst possible light. I know all this to be true, because I have worked directly for the deputy commissioner of the Intelligence Division for the last seven years, first as a special assistant and then, for the last four years and counting, as his director of intelligence analysis, overseeing all the city’s terrorism investigations.
Nonetheless, the articles were accepted as gospel—perhaps because the accuracy of the work was beside the point. They were celebrated precisely for what they alleged, not what they proved. Their purpose was not to foster serious debate about NYPD anti-terrorism activities, and there has been no such serious debate in their wake.
The legal and policy questions surrounding how to safeguard civil liberties while defending society from acts of terrorism are certainly complex. There is, inevitably, a difficult balance we must strike between security and liberty, and it demands rigorous and ongoing debate about American anti-terrorist methods. Rather than raising these issues in a thoughtful way to inspire reasoned discussion, however, the series of articles made broad allegations and cherry-picked and misconstrued examples to support particularly damaging charges.
This article is intended to restore the context, accuracy, and critical detail left out by the AP and thereby convey the truth of what is an honorable and successful story of sustained, life-saving police work in a climate of unprecedented threat. It is impossible to respond to every AP allegation and distortion even in this generous space. I will therefore focus on the three subjects that have dominated headlines about alleged NYPD misconduct since the articles were published: first, a supposed human-mapping program run by the department; second, counterterrorism efforts outside New York City; and third, actions involving universities. In honing in on these hot-button issues, I will also refute a number of attendant accusations about the ethics and efficacy of NYPD methods.
But first, some background on the evolution of the Intelligence Division and its strategy.
On February 26, 1993, a massive car bomb was detonated below the North Tower of the World Trade Center. The 1,336-pound device was intended to knock the North Tower into the South Tower, bringing both down and killing thousands. The plot failed but still killed six people and injured 1,042 more.
Although the suspects were dismissed as incompetent, their associates were already plotting another attack. The extremist cleric Omar Abdel Rahman, also known as the Blind Sheikh, was at the heart of this follow-up plan to attack the United Nations, the Lincoln and Holland tunnels, the George Washington Bridge, and the FBI’s New York office. That so-called Landmarks Plot was thwarted by an informant who had infiltrated the group.
Almost all the participants in both plots were ultimately arrested, tried, and brought to justice, and that temporarily closed the case for most Americans. But on the morning of September 11, 2001, Islamist terrorism crashed back into New York City when 19 al-Qaeda members hijacked four commercial passenger airliners and rammed two of them into the World Trade Center, killing 2,749 people and completing the mission begun in 1993.
Having been attacked twice successfully in the span of eight years, the city could no longer completely defer the responsibility of counterterrorism to the federal government, determined Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly. While the NYPD was prepared to work with the federal agencies, the department determined it would have to make systemic and autonomous changes in how to protect the city from further attacks.
To meet that challenge, in January 2002, the NYPD became the first police department in the country to develop its own Counterterrorism Bureau. The new mayor, Michael Bloomberg, and Commissioner Kelly appointed Marine Corps Lieutenant General Frank Libutti to run it. To head a restructured Intelligence Division, the department recruited David Cohen, a 35-year veteran of the CIA who had led both the operational and analytical branches of the agency.
This was no mere cosmetic relabeling or shuffling of the bureaucratic deck. The department increased its representation on the FBI-led Joint Terrorism Task Force from 17 detectives to 120. It reassigned fluent speakers of Arabic, Pashto, Farsi, and Urdu to counterterrorism duties. And it posted senior officers in 11 cities around the world to build relationships with local police agencies and visit the scenes of terrorist attacks abroad.
The NYPD also incorporated a crucial civilian component to fight terrorism. A corps of expert analysts in foreign affairs, intelligence, and counterterrorism were recruited from top graduate schools as well as from the intelligence community inside the Beltway. These well-trained and well-educated civilians were tasked with studying evolving methods of attack and terrorist hot spots around the world.
Additionally, the department cast a wide net for collaboration, working with law-enforcement agencies throughout the northeast and mid-Atlantic and partnering with 11,000 members of the region’s private-security industry through a program called NYPD Shield.
Preventing another 9/11 meant studying the attacks of 1993 and 2001 and the thwarted Landmarks Plot. The 1993 attack and the plot were local affairs, planned by groups of regionally based conspirators, six of whom originated from the Palestinian territories, Egypt, and Kuwait. The men lived in New York City and New Jersey, and the sites of their radicalization included the Al Kifah Refugee Center and Al Farouq Mosque, both on Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn, and the Al Salam Mosque in Jersey City. These mosques were in thrall to the Blind Sheikh.
The 9/11 attack was carried out by men from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, and Lebanon. They had been trained overseas before blending into the population of the United States. At least six of them chose to live in Paterson, New Jersey, specifically because there was “an Arabic-speaking community there,” as the 9/11 Commission Report says. Vitally, in the Landmarks Plot (the only one against New York that was derailed during this eight-year period) a confidential informant who was able to penetrate the conspiracy was the critical factor in detecting and disrupting the plan before it became an attack.
These trends meant that the department had to figure out how to (a) find individuals from abroad who had buried themselves in local communities and (b) utilize human intelligence (confidential informants) to penetrate conspiracies before they came to fruition.
If the task wasn’t challenging enough, the NYPD also had to contend with a piece of legal architecture known as the Handschu Guidelines, a binding agreement overseen by a federal judge following the settlement of a lawsuit in 1985. No other police department in the country is bound by these rules, which at the time stipulated in part that police were not allowed to investigate political activity before having specific knowledge of criminal activity. After 9/11, the department was understandably concerned that prohibitions in the guidelines might interfere with its ability to prevent terrorist attacks. As a result, in 2002, the NYPD proposed to a federal court that the terms of the guidelines be modified; the court agreed.
The modified guidelines begin by stating a general principle: “In its effort to anticipate or prevent unlawful activity, including terrorist acts, the NYPD must, at times, initiate investigations in advance of unlawful conduct.” Clearly, conducting an investigation following a successful attack, as was done in 1993 or 2001, was no longer acceptable. Plots had to be disrupted before they went operational.
The new Handschu rules also state: “The NYPD is authorized to visit any place and attend any event that is open to the public” and “to conduct online search activity and to access online sites and forums on the same terms…as members of the public.” The department is further authorized to “prepare general reports and assessments…for purposes of strategic or operational planning.” It is therefore entirely legal for the Police Department to search online, visit public places, or map neighborhoods.
The Demographics Unit
The AP Claim: The NYPD has engaged in a “human-mapping” program without citing any evidence of wrongdoing. This program has placed entire Muslim communities under scrutiny.
For some, the very act of gathering intelligence is an illegitimate use of police power. But to find and stop terrorists, the Police Department uses many of the same methods that are used to arrest drug dealers, human traffickers, and gang leaders. Detectives develop detailed information about the nature of the crime and the people involved. While tips from the public are useful, the police cannot rely on them exclusively to detect terrorism conspiracies.
In 2003, with that in mind, the Intelligence Division created the Demographics Unit. Its mission was to identify “venues of radicalization” or “hot spots” in order to detect and disrupt terrorist plots in their beginning stages. The unit was also charged with identifying the locations in certain communities where foreign operatives might hope to lie low, just as the 9/11 hijackers did in Paterson, New Jersey. Given the rich diversity of the ethnic and cultural landscape of New York City, officers in the unit were specifically chosen for their unique language capabilities and cultural knowledge. Individuals were matched to geographic areas where they would be best able to distinguish the benign from the threatening. Proud to be Americans and members of the NYPD, the majority of these officers were Muslims.
A September 22, 2011, AP article paints a frightening portrait of the Demographics Unit and the work it did: “The New York Police Department put American citizens under surveillance and scrutinized where they ate, prayed, and worked, not because of charges of wrongdoing but because of their ethnicity, according to interviews and documents obtained by the Associated Press,” runs the article’s opening paragraph. “The documents describe in extraordinary detail a secret program intended to catalog life inside Muslim neighborhoods as people immigrated, got jobs, became citizens, and started businesses. The documents undercut the NYPD’s claim that its officers only follow leads when investigating terrorism.”
But this police-state nightmare bears no resemblance to the nuanced work of the Demographics Unit. The unit employed what is called a risk-basis model. In the three Islamist plots against New York between 1993 and 2001, the vast majority of the conspirators were from a limited group of countries: Egypt, Kuwait, Lebanon, the Palestinian territories, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. The risk-basis model would therefore indicate that these countries could be deemed “higher risk” or “of concern” in relationship to terrorism.
A similar risk-based model is exactly what the Transportation Safety Agency (TSA) recently adopted in the wake of a different terrorist plot—that of the 2009 Christmas Day Bomber, who failed to bring down a plane above Detroit only because he couldn’t ignite the explosive device concealed in his underwear. The TSA made a list of “countries of concern,” and now passengers from those 14 states face additional scrutiny, such as pat-downs and having their carry-on luggage examined under the new rules. (There is a great deal of overlap between the countries on the TSA list, developed by the Department of Homeland Security and the State Department, and those states the NYPD has considered “countries of concern.”)
Plainclothes officers of the Demographics Unit were deployed for this mission. They went into neighborhoods that had heavy concentrations of populations from the “countries of interest” and walked around, purchased a cup of tea or coffee, had lunch and observed the individuals in the public establishments they entered. This is an important point: Only public locations were visited. Doing so was perfectly within the purview of the NYPD, for, as the Handschu Guidelines say: “The NYPD is authorized to visit any place and attend any event that is open to the public.”
Here’s what they did not do: Plainclothes officers did not conduct blanket ongoing surveillance of communities. Not only is that an impossible task, but it also would have been inefficient and had a low likelihood of identifying terrorist plots in their early stages. At its largest, during a brief period after the July 7, 2005, attacks in London, the unit had 16 officers—hardly enough to monitor a neighborhood, much less whole communities. Officers would take a first pass to familiarize themselves with luncheonettes, dollar stores, and other legitimate businesses and record what they saw. They would be very unlikely to return unless there was reason to believe that a location might be a “venue of radicalization.”
How did the AP treat this? Its writers claimed that “the department has dispatched teams of undercover officers, known as ‘rakers,’ into minority neighborhoods as part of a human-mapping program, according to officials directly involved in the program.” As mentioned above, individuals involved were not undercover officers. Undercover officers are provided with fake identities and misrepresent who they are. Plainclothes officers of the Demographics Unit carried no false identification and did not purport to be anyone in particular. This was a blatant error on the part of the AP. In addition, the AP claimed, “Police have also used informants, known as ‘mosque crawlers,’ to monitor sermons, even when there’s no evidence of wrongdoing.” As a matter of Police Department policy, undercover officers and confidential informants do not enter a mosque unless they are following up on a lead vetted under the terms of the Handschu Guidelines. The AP’s description of “mosque crawlers” roving from mosque to mosque without express legal permission to enter that location is pure fiction.
Still, there was the collection of information, and that is really what troubled people. So why cover social and recreational sites to begin with? The answer: Radicalization frequently occurs in nontraditional locations, not only religious centers. One of the key findings of the 2004 attack on a Madrid train station (inspired by al-Qaeda) and the 2005 attack on the London Underground (committed by al-Qaeda) was that the plotters had not radicalized in mosques. In Spain, different members of the terrorist cluster were radicalized in a barbershop, an apartment, and an unidentified store where some “watched videos containing images of exercises in training camps, as well as images that exalted the value of the jihad,” according to court testimony. In the U.K., the venues of the radicalization of the 7/7 bombers included the Iqra Learning Center bookstore and the “al-Qaeda gym” (the Hamara Healthy Living Centre), both in Beeston.
The AP articles claimed that the NYPD “kept files on individuals” gathered by the Demographics Unit. This is a significant distortion of reality. Yes, to be sure, observation reports were prepared. Naturally, such reports included the names of store owners and customers and the information gleaned from conversations. However, no files about particular individuals were created. The Word-document reports and area-familiarization summaries about visits to public locations were kept on the shelf so that they might be accessed in the event of a fast-moving plot. It would give the department a head start on geographically based knowledge, including data about venues of radicalization and potential “flophouses” or other locations where operatives from specific countries might seek to conceal themselves.
For example, the Demographics Unit was critical in identifying the Islamic Books and Tapes bookstore in Brooklyn as a venue for radicalization. Information the unit collected about the store provided a predicate for an investigation that thwarted a 2004 plot against the Herald Square subway station. The unit also played a role in forming the initiation of an investigation that led to the 2008 identification of Abdel Hameed Shehadeh, a New Yorker who was arrested and is currently facing federal charges for allegedly lying about his plans to travel to Afghanistan in order to kill U.S. servicemen. Both operations were conducted in accordance with the Handschu Guidelines.
Anyone who suggests that the efforts of this unit (which was renamed the Zone Assessment Unit in September 2010) did not comport with legal rules either has not read the Handschu Guidelines, has misunderstood them, or has willfully overlooked their meaning. The AP’s reporters and editors were in one of these categories. Anyone who denies the success of the demographics initiative is fortunate not to carry the burden of responsibility should there actually be a counterterrorism failure resulting in an attack. I, for one, would have borne that responsibility. The AP team would not have.
Outside City Limits
The AP Claim: The NYPD’s Intelligence Division operates far outside its geographical jurisdiction without the knowledge of local agencies.
If vast oceans and international borders cannot hinder terror plots against the United States, invisible lines separating states and counties certainly cannot. The 1993 attack on the World Trade Center was launched from Jersey City. The 2005 attack on the London Underground was launched from Leeds, 180 miles north of the capital. More recently, Faisal Shahzad’s 2010 plot to explode a bomb in an SUV in Times Square on a summer Saturday night on behalf of the Pakistani Taliban was launched from Bridgeport, Connecticut.
It is perfectly legal for the NYPD to travel beyond the boundaries of New York City to investigate cases or visit commercial establishments where terrorists might be radicalizing. Similarly, it is legal to obtain information outside of New York that the Intelligence Division may use “to prepare general reports and assessments concerning terrorism and other unlawful activities or the purposes of strategic or operational planning.”
In order to help its partner agencies better understand their own jurisdictions, the Demographics Unit was deployed on select occasions to jurisdictions in New Jersey and Long Island. This led the AP to determine that “the NYPD operates far outside its borders and targets ethnic communities in ways that would run afoul of civil-liberties rules if practiced by the federal government.” What’s more, according to the August 23 article, “it does so with unprecedented help from the CIA in a partnership that has blurred the bright line between foreign and domestic spying.”
The notion of the NYPD as a rolling team of rogue spies would be comically preposterous if it weren’t so damaging. First, the NYPD is not the federal government. Second, these operations were not unilateral. Local agencies were involved. Any reports or assessments were shared with the local police agencies. What local police chose to tell or not to tell the politicians in their areas was beyond the NYPD’s purview.
As the New Jersey Star-Ledger reported on March 6, 2012:
Although recent disclosures that in 2007 the New York Police Department spied on Muslims in New Jersey have unleashed a furor, interviews with a dozen former state and federal officials show the department’s presence was widely known among the state’s law enforcement officials. In fact, it seems that after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, almost everyone—including Gov. Chris Christie, who was U.S. Attorney for New Jersey at the time—knew to varying degrees the NYPD was scouring the state, where some of the hijackings were planned and one was launched.
A different initiative included the selective use of undercover officers and confidential informants outside city limits. As with the investigation of the 1993 plot against the World Trade Center, which refused to be limited to one side of the Hudson River, a number of terrorist investigations that began inside city limits bled over into adjacent jurisdictions. Any such investigative activity involving human sources had to be conducted in strict accordance with the Handschu Guidelines, just as if those investigations were limited to New York City.
NYPD efforts beyond city limits led to the arrests of the New Jersey–based Mohamed Alessa and Carlos Almonte at John F. Kennedy Airport in June 2010. They were headed to Somalia to join the terrorist organization al Shabaab. Their apprehension marked the conclusion of a three-and-a-half-year investigation by the FBI and Joint Terrorism Task Forces in New York and New Jersey. Also involved: the New Jersey Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness and the U.S. Attorney’s office in Newark. The case against Alessa and Almonte was developed through the careful work of an NYPD undercover officer who made contact with the men in 2009 and became a trusted confidant in northern New Jersey.
Similarly, the investigation that led to the arrest of Jose Pimentel began with an investigation in New York City and moved upstate to the Albany region. In November 2011, Pimentel was one hour away from completing the construction of a pipe bomb intended for detonation in New York City when he was nabbed by police. The department’s intelligence program was built to facilitate exactly the kind of regional collaboration that made his detention possible.
One AP headline blared, “NYPD’s spying programs yielded only mixed results.” Strictly speaking, “mixed results” is accurate in that for the programs to have yielded non-mixed results, they would have been 100 percent successful or 100 percent unsuccessful. But the implication of the headline is that results have been disappointing. The record of just one aspect of these initiatives tells a dramatically different story. Read on.
The AP Claim: The NYPD has investigated and infiltrated Muslim student groups without any legal basis to do so.
At universities students are expected to explore new ideas, challenge themselves, and engage in robust debate involving multiple dissenting opinions. The NYPD has been especially sensitive in any operational work that risks infringing on this protected space. Allegations that police have been infiltrating Muslim student groups at colleges in the city and schools beyond city limits, including Yale and the University of Pennsylvania, are serious and need to be addressed.
But in covering this topic, the AP conflated two different elements of investigative work: open-sourced Internet searches and undercover officers. “Investigators have been infiltrating Muslim student groups at Brooklyn College and other schools in the city, monitoring their Internet activity and placing undercover agents in their ranks,” reads an October 11 story. “Legal experts say the operation may have broken a 19-year-old pact with the colleges and violated U.S. privacy laws, jeopardizing millions of dollars in federal research money and student aid.” This is a dramatic misinterpretation of the nature and scope of the department’s actions.
The first investigative initiative involving students began in 2006 and involved the NYPD Intelligence Division’s Cyber Unit. Officers reviewed Muslim Student Association (MSA) websites, all of which were publicly available, for a period of six months—and with good reason.
Consider the following stories from Great Britain: On March 30, 2004, British authorities disrupted an al-Qaeda plot to mount a bomb attack in the United Kingdom. The individuals involved had obtained 1,300 pounds of ammonium nitrate fertilizer for making bombs. They considered targeting a shopping mall, a nightclub, the U.K.’s 4,200-mile network of underground high-pressure gas pipelines, various British synagogues, Parliament, and a soccer stadium. Four of the seven conspirators were either current university students, dropouts, or graduates of London Metropolitan University, the University of Hertfordshire, and Brunel University. One was an active member of the latter’s Islamic society.
The 2005 London subway plot killed 52 commuters, injured 700, and severe disrupted the city’s transport infrastructure. One of the suicide bombers was a recent graduate of Leeds Metropolitan University, one a recent dropout from the same university, and one a university student at Thomas Danby College in Leeds at the time of the attack.
Next summer, on August 9, British authorities disrupted an al-Qaeda conspiracy to detonate liquid explosives on nine transatlantic airliners traveling from the United Kingdom to the United States and Canada. Four of the nine conspirators were either current university students, dropouts, or graduates from London Metropolitan University, City University, Brunel University, and Middlesex University. One had been president of London Metropolitan University’s Islamic Society.
Most important, the trend is not limited to the U.K. Right here in New York, Mohammed Junaid Babar and Syed Fahad Hashmi, who were arrested in connection with the previously referenced 2004 plot in the U.K. and pled guilty to al-Qaeda-related terrorist activities, had been radicalized through the university-based New York branch of al-Muhajiroun, an Islamist student group in Britain to which several of the subway bombers were linked. The group actively recruited at the Muslim Student Associations of Brooklyn College, Queens College, and other universities in New York City. More recently, the NYPD learned that Adis Medunjanin, indicted for his participation in the most serious plot on American soil since 9/11—the 2009 Najibullah Zazi plot to detonate explosives in the New York City subway system—was an active member of the Queens College Muslim Student Association.
So what did the NYPD do about campus radicalization and recruitment? For a six-month period, beginning in November 2006 and ending in May 2007, Intelligence Division detectives conducted public-information Internet searches to determine if radicalization and recruitment to terrorism were occurring on local university campuses and, if so, to what extent.
Detectives visited publicly available websites of universities and colleges in and around New York City, catalogued what they saw, and assembled the information into 23 biweekly reports. (Once again, NYPD members investigating counterterrorism activities are authorized by the Handschu Guidelines to search websites open to the public for the purpose of developing intelligence information to detect or prevent terrorism or other unlawful activities.) They were looking mostly at speakers, conferences, and events held at MSAs that might—even if inadvertently—support terrorism or provide a recruiting venue for extremist Islamist groups.
Fortunately, the vast majority of speakers, conferences, and events held at Muslim Student Associations in the tristate area were nonthreatening in nature, and in May 2007 the initiative was closed. The information from the biweekly reports was not entered into any database.
Nevertheless, not everything going on at universities was benign. Detectives learned that Jesse Curtis Morton, who has just recently pled guilty to “using his position as a leader of Revolution Muslim Internet sites to conspire to solicit murder, make threatening communications, and use the Internet to place others in fear,” according to the Eastern District of Virginia, spoke at Stony Brook University as a leader of the Islamic Thinkers Society. In April 2007, detectives learned that Morton’s co-founder of Revolution Muslim, Yousef al-Khattab, spoke at Brooklyn College’s Islamic Society.
Wholly separate from this initiative is the use of undercover officers in investigations that sometimes involved MSA-related activities. Of course, one could be forgiven for thinking that an investigation involving students from City University of New York on a whitewater-rafting trip was a direct consequence of these open-source Internet searches, given how the AP conflated the two. It was not.
Here is how the AP managed to conflate the discrete phenomena in a February 18 article: “Police talked with local authorities about professors 300 miles (480 kilometers) away in Buffalo and even sent an undercover agent on a whitewater-rafting trip, where he recorded students’ names and noted in police intelligence files how many times they prayed. Detectives trawled Muslim student websites every day and, although professors and students had not been accused of any wrongdoing, their names were recorded in reports prepared for Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly.”
The trip fell under a classic investigative framework after information obtained by the NYPD raised the possibility that an individual or group of individuals were engaged in or planning to engage in unlawful activity.
Much has been made of the benign nature of this particular event where no discussion of terrorism occurred. A post about the trip on New York magazine’s website claims, “What has civil-liberties advocates really worried is just how far the NYPD has stretched the parameters of its domestic espionage program—until now, at least, the official line was that the force only pursued leads about suspected criminal activity. Clearly, that’s no longer the case.”
Such histrionics are hardly warranted. In the subway-bomb-plot trial of Najibullah Zazi and Adis Medunjanin, it was disclosed that operational planning for the plot occurred on the basketball courts of Kissena Park and while hiking on Bear Mountain, north of New York City. Neither a bucolic setting nor a recreational endeavor guarantees peaceful intentions.
The AP also has claimed that these and other investigations have occurred with insufficient oversight. One article uncritically quoted New York Civil Liberties Union lawyer Christopher Dunn, who declared of the NYPD anti-terrorism program: “At the end of the day, it’s pure and simple a rogue domestic surveillance operation.” He continued: “One of the hallmarks of the intelligence division over the last 10 years is that, not only has it gotten extremely aggressive and sophisticated, but it’s operating completely on its own. There are no checks. There is no oversight.”
In particular, the AP has asserted that the modified Handschu Guidelines gave the NYPD operational carte blanche. “He scrapped the old rules and replaced them with more lenient ones,” reads an August 23, 2011, article describing U.S. District Judge Charles S. Haight Jr.’s decision to modify the guidelines in 2002. “It was a turning point for the NYPD.”
But far from providing evidence of this charge, the whitewater-rafting case reveals it as folly. The Handschu Guidelines require written authorization from the deputy commissioner of intelligence when utilizing human intelligence. That requirement was met here as it has been in every other case. Moreover, an internal committee reviews each investigation to ensure compliance, and a legal unit based in the Intelligence Division evaluates every field intelligence report generated through an investigation. This committee meets regularly every month, and at one meeting at the end of my tenure, no fewer than 10 attorneys and five assistant or deputy commissioners were in attendance. It is important to note that investigations are discontinued unless they reasonably indicate that an unlawful act has been, is being, or will be committed.
As a matter of Police Department policy, undercover officers and confidential informants do not enter a mosque unless they are doing so as part of an investigation of a person or institution approved under the Handschu Guidelines. Likewise, when undercover officers or confidential informants have attended a private event organized by a student group, they have done so only on the basis of a lead or investigation reviewed and authorized in writing at the highest levels of the department.
Given my dual role as a former director of intelligence analysis at the NYPD and a visiting lecturer at Columbia University, I took a special interest in this issue and personally reviewed the documents in question to see the number of times that NYPD human sources were present on local campuses in the last five years. The numbers are very small and almost always involved intelligence-collection efforts limited to individuals who were under investigation, not the broader student body.
So, yes, in 2006, given the trends observed both here and overseas, the NYPD thought it prudent to learn more about what was occurring at Muslim Student Associations in the region via open sources, and the six-month initiative generated six months’ worth of public-information reports. The NYPD did not send undercover sources to infiltrate MSAs throughout the northeast. Both the open-source initiative and the few investigations where undercover officers examined the activities of university students as part of an ongoing investigation authorized by Handschu Guidelines have led to a greater understanding of the relationship between terrorism and university organizations and have, as a result, kept New York City safer.
In total, the NYPD has helped to prevent 14 terrorist attacks on New York City and its surrounding areas and permitted exactly zero deadly plots to materialize in the 11 years since 9/11. Its success, based on the math alone, is indisputable. But in a free country, success is not enough. Civil libertarians are correct in asserting that safety at the cost of political freedom would betray the highest American ideals. And the unlawful targeting of New York City’s minorities would constitute nothing less than a cultural and spiritual gutting of the greatest, most diverse city history has seen. But neither of those travesties have occurred, thanks to the genius of America’s Constitution and the NYPD’s exquisite adherence to it.
Sadly, the absence of wrongdoing goes only so far in a media-driven society shaped by the 24-hour news cycle and explosive headlines. The damage the AP inflicted upon the NYPD’s reputation cannot be mitigated wholly by this or any other honest airing of the facts. Indeed, one can argue that inflicting such damage—not debating police methodology—was the point of the AP’s series.
The war on the NYPD’s method of combating terrorism is a war on the war on terror by proxy—an effort to portray the least controversial aspect of homeland security as instead a matter of great civil-libertarian concern. Long before the AP series, the war on the war began with efforts to discredit the federal government’s endeavors to collect intelligence from combatants and terror suspects captured on the battlefields of Afghanistan and Iraq. It zoomed in on the rights of those detained overseas and at the American base in Guantánamo Bay. Now it has come home, to take on a once universally heralded and supported effort at domestic counterterrorism at the epicenter of the 9/11 attacks, New York City.
Having impugned military and intelligence efforts to fight terrorism, these foes are now taking aim at the most conventional kind of anti-terror approach—one that works within the domestic criminal-justice system, is overseen by courts, and is being managed by a police department that has rigorously kept to the terms of legal limits to which it agreed nearly 30 years ago.
By portraying the NYPD efforts as rogue operations, the AP and the Pulitzer committee are seeking to slacken attempts inside the United States to stop terrorist plots before they happen. Letting these false and misleading stories alter local counterterrorism work would be catastrophic. It has taken many hard years to craft the effective anti-terrorism policies that serve us so well today. Now, with al-Qaeda on the ropes, our renewed sense of security can morph easily into complacency—and terrorists will be sure to exploit any new opportunities to attack. The price of maintaining the safety of New Yorkers has been kept remarkably low, not only for residents but for the country as a whole. Preventing another devastating attack from occurring in the city after 2001 was much more than a local necessity. Such an attack would have been devastating to national morale.
And it still would be.
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Love for Football Ties Us All Together!
六月 30, 2011
Brazilians legends Romario and Zico, two of the World's most loved football heroes, are the latest to be tied together with the Special Olympics movement and millions of athletes around the world.
A Special Olympics Brazilian soccer team member laces up his soccer shoes with red laces to promote the Wear the Laces campaign.
Visiting the divisioning session with Team Brazil on Sunday, Romario and Zico announced that they have taken on a new role as ambassadors for Special Olympics, committed to using their profile and influence to promote respect, acceptance and inclusion for people with intellectual disabilities worldwide.
Both ambassadors jumped straight into their new role! Within minutes of the announcement Romario and Zico pulled out their shoelaces and tied up their new ones as part of the Special Olympics Wear the Laces campaign. Elsewhere at the Hellinikon Olympics stadium, South African football legend and Special Olympics Ambassador Luca Radabe was busy doing the same with Team South Africa.
Romario pulls out his shoelaces and ties up his new ones as part of the Special Olympics Wear the Laces campaign.
The three legends gave athletes a few tips on training and techniques. And of course the athletes were delighted and awed to get the chance to have their photo taken with their national football heroes.
"Today I join the Special Olympics family and I am proud to Wear the Laces for Special Olympics" said Romario, "Unfortunately not enough people realize the impact that our movement has for athletes and their families. I believe that there is nothing more powerful than sport to help us create a new world where everyone is accepted and respected regardless of their abilities or disabilities; a community of respect and love."
Zico, a new ambassador for Special Olympics, huddles with Brazilian Special Olympics soccer team. He is committed to promote respect, acceptance and inclusion for people with intellectual disabilities worldwide.
"By wearing the laces," added Romario "I feel tied to my special friends and focused on my job in helping them reach their full potential."
Join your heroes Romario, Zico and Luca Radabe in wearing the laces for Special Olympics. Purchase your own laces and find out more by visiting www.wearthelaces.org.
About Special Olympics in North America
Your Donation Matters
Special Olympics transforms athletes’ lives through the joy of sport. Help us make a difference.
Volunteer Near You
Volunteering with Special Olympics is fun and very rewarding, for both the athlete and the volunteer!
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A majority of Americans say presumptive GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney should release income tax information beyond the two years he's already disclosed.
The USA Today/Gallup survey showed 54 percent of those surveyed felt Romney should release tax returns from additional years, compared to 37 percent who said Romney should not release more returns.
Romney has released his tax return from 2010, and an estimate for his 2011 information. He filed for an extension on submitting his taxes in April, and has vowed to release the full return when the documents are finalized and filed.
Democrats, and some Republicans, have urged Romney to disclose more of his tax information. Democrats say additional returns will clear up questions about offshore accounts and his rate of income tax, while Republicans say it would be politically advantageous to disclose more information. President Barack Obama's campaign immediately blasted out the poll Thursday as an indication their campaign push is working.
In Thursday's poll, 30 percent of self-identified Republicans said Romney should release more of his returns, compared to 75 percent of Democrats and 53 percent of Independents who said the same.
The survey also showed respondents were divided on whether or not the tax return information was relevant to the campaign. Forty-seven percent said having more tax return information from Romney would be "largely irrelevant" to making a decision at the voting booth, compared to 44 percent who said the returns would provide ""legitimate information that helps voters make better decisions."
The Gallup/USA Today poll was taken by telephone on Wednesday from 539 adults. The sampling error was plus or minus 5 percentage points.
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Intercollegiate football on the campus of Arizona's first university had its beginning a century ago when, guided by volunteer coach Stuart Forbes, the nickname-less UA eleven played a modest three-game schedule, winning one, losing one, and tying one. Enduring UA tradition was born early, though. After that inaugural season, football student manager Quintus Anderson was ordered to purchase new uniforms for the team and, finding a good deal on some red and blue jerseys, he bought them. The fact that the official school colors at the time were sage green and silver mattered little, because the UA student body liked the new jerseys so much that almost immediately they voted red and blue to be the University's new school colors.
After its initial season, the UA football team toiled away in desert obscurity for the next 13 years, under nine different coaches, compiling a record of 39-9-3. The year 1914, however, brought a watershed season for UA football. James Fred McKale was hired away from Tucson High School ("If we can't beat him, hire him!") to be UA's first athletics director and coach of everything. In his first season as head football coach, McKale's underdog team performed so well against west-coast power Occidental College that Los Angeles Times reporter Bill Henry was moved to write, ".....the Arizona men showed the fight of Wildcats." The ecstatic UA student body immediately adopted "Wildcats" as the school nickname. At the end of the season Pomona College, which had beaten Occidental for the West Coast title, came to Tucson to play the newly-named Wildcats for the Southwestern Football Championship as well. Led by five-sport student-athlete Asa Porter, Arizona won 7-6. It was the University's first athletic title. A year later, in an unsurpassed display of school spirit and zeal for athletics, the UA student body completed a huge, whitewashed stone "A" on Sentinel Peak west of town. Football had arrived on the UA campus.
There have been other countless memorable people, events, and moments during the first century of UA football. Here are just a few of them.
Drop-kicker/receiver Harold "Nosey" McClellan leads the nation in scoring with
124 points. Wildcats finish the regular season 7-1, are invited to UA's first bowl
game, the East-West Christmas Classic in San Diego, to play powerhouse Centre
College of Kentucky.
October 18, 1926
UA quarterback and student body president John "Button" Salmon dies from injuries sustained in a car wreck. His final words, spoken to coach APop@ McKale,
are: "Tell them.....tell the team to Bear Down." Soon thereafter, the UA student body adopts ABear Down@ as the school's athletic motto.
Arizona Stadium opens. In the official stadium dedication game, Arizona beats
Cal Tech 35-0.
Bill "The Eel" Hargis becomes the first Wildcat to rush for 1,000 yards in a season.
Coach Gerald "Tex" Oliver's "Blue Brigade" plays an expanded, more nationwide
schedule, compiles a record of 31-11-4, and produces UA's first All-Americans:
halfback Ted Bland (1935), fullback Walt Nielson (1937), and center Tom Green-
field (1938). The team's 1938 record of 8-2 was a school best to date.
UA leads the nation in passing offense, and end Hank "Birdlegs" Stanton leads the
nation in pass receiving and is named All-America.
Quarterback Fred W. Enke leads the nation in total offense.
In its first televised game, broadcast statewide, UA beats Arizona State 35-0.
In his first game as starting halfback, sophomore Art Luppino rushes for 228 yards on only six carries and scores 32 points. He goes on to lead the nation in rushing, scoring, all-purpose running, and kickoff returns.
Art Luppino becomes the first player in NCAA history to lead the nation in rushing
twice. He also ties for the national title in all-purpose running and is third in scoring.
Dave "The Roadrunner" Hibbert leads the nation in pass receiving.
Coached by Jim LaRue and led by quarterback Eddie Wilson and "Touchdown
Twins" Bobby Lee "The General" Thompson and "Jackrabbit" Joe Hernandez,
Arizona compiles a record of 8-1-1, UA's best to date, and breaks into the
National Top 20 for the first time.
Coach Jim Young's Wildcats compile back-to-back 9-2 seasons, UA's first nine-win campaigns. Receiver Theopolis "T" Bell is named All-America and fullback
Jim Upchurch becomes the second Wildcat to rush for 1,000 yards for two consecutive seasons.
Arizona enters the Pacific-10 Conference.
Tom Tunnicliffe shatters UA career records for passing and total offense.
Linebacker Ricky Hunley becomes UA's first consensus All-American, an honor he receives two consecutive years.
Place-kicker Max Zendejas breaks Art Luppino's career scoring record.
Coached by Larry Smith and led by 1,000yd. rusher David Adams, Arizona finishes 9-3, defeating North Carolina in the Aloha Bowl.
Defensive back Chuck Cecil receives consensus All-America, Academic All-
America, and NCAA Top Six honors.
All-American Darryll Lewis wins the Jim Thorpe Award as the nation's best defensive back.
Ontiwaun Carter breaks Art Luppino's career rushing record.
Arizona's "Desert Swarm"defense is born. UA leads the nation in scoring defense and nose guard Rob Waldrop is a consensus All-American.
"Desert Swarm" leads the nation in rushing defense and achieves its first 10-victory season, defeating Miami 29-0 in the Fiesta Bowl. Rob Waldrop is named UPI Lineman of the Year, FWAA Outstanding Defensive Player, Outland Trophy winner, and unanimous All-American.
Steve McLaughlin wins the Lou Groza Award as the nation's best place-kicker.
Defensive lineman Tedy Bruschi is named Unanimous All-America.
Center Wayne Wyatt earns National Football Foundation/Hall of Fame Scholar-
Athlete honors and is UA's 13th football Academic All-American
Former linebacker Ricky Hunley becomes UA's first College Football Hall of
Arizona wins 12 games, beats Nebraska 23-20 in the Holiday Bowl and finishes ranked number four in the country, its highest ranking ever. Consensus All-America Chris McAllister wins the Tatupu Award as the nation's best special teams player.
Former coach Jim Young becomes UA's first coach inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame.
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November 30, 2010 § 1 Comment
Note: This was originally supposed to be a guest blog somewhere, but the author of that blog never got back to me. So I thought I’d post it here.
“They are the most wonderful mystery, body and blood.”- Gilead, Marilynne Robinson
I remember the first time I took Communion at the Anglican church that I now attend. It was a revelation to me. It was a grave, joyful matter, and as I swallowed my bread dipped in wine I felt blessed by that bread and wine in a way that I never had before. It was more than just a way to remember, but it was charged with a certain energy because it was being taken seriously as a Sacrament.
Why hadn’t I ever experienced this before? Was it because my previous church was so afraid of appearing Catholic that we didn’t ascribe any significance beyond remembrance to Communion or is it a symptom of a deeper problem in many churches? Sometimes it seems as if there is a fear in the Church of using art or symbols that we don’t understand or can’t control because we don’t know what they will reveal to us. It seems to me that a lot of churches and Christians have carved out a canyon between art and symbolic actions and church and Christianity and then burned the bridge that spans this gap.
We have art and symbols to point us to deeper things. We have church and Christianity to point us to deeper things. It seems to me as if they are on the same team. Art, as mystic poet Kahlil Gibran puts it, is “a step in the known toward the unknown.” Good art can transcend the here and now and touch our emotions in ways that words can’t. Art, like God and his ways, is a mystery and that’s why it can show us God. It reveals things hidden and sometimes hides things already revealed forcing us to look deeper.
Another thing art and symbols do for our faith is to ground it in its sometimes forgotten physicality. As the great Creeds and Paul in 1 Corinthians 15 remind us, the Christian’s greatest hope is the bodily resurrection, therefore making the physical presence of the body very important. The symbol of Communion or making the sign of the cross, by involving our body, reminds us that the Christian faith is a faith that radically affirms our physical nature as being a good creation of God. There is no Gnostic split between spirit and flesh in Christianity. This is constantly reaffirmed when we taste the bread and wine and know that they speak of a deeper reality, of Christ’s body and blood. Our physical senses, by means of a physical symbol, are drawn deeper in a spiritual reality.
Artwork is Bonfires by Chuck Hoffman and Peg-Carlson Hoffman.
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World Church Peace and Justice Team
Adam Wade, team lead
The Community of Christ Peace and Justice Committee advises and assists the church in its pursuit of global peace and justice. It is a standing committee of the World Conference, an international legislative assembly of elected delegates. The Peace and Justice Committee was created by World Conference Resolution 1177 in 1982; members of the committee are appointed for two-year terms by the First Presidency of the church.
The committee's scope is to:
- Promote a climate of peace by encouraging
- the regeneration of persons, making them brothers and sisters;
- an opportunity for self-expression, recognition of equality, and acknowledgment of personal worth;
- responsible participation in governmental processes and support of good and wise persons in positions of governmental leadership; and
- the study of the root causes of war and violence and working toward the elimination of these evils.
- Express responsibility for world conditions in such ways as
- accepting stewardship over creation;
- encouraging personal lifestyles that eliminate waste, greed, and insensitivity;
- committing resources to the pursuit of peace, justice, reconciliation, and human development;
- encouraging support of leaders promoting peace; and
- speaking out against human inequity wherever and whenever it is found.
- Oppose all forms of destructive violence, such as national and international conflict, war, withholding of food, terrorism, and mental and physical abuse.
- Urge nations toward responsible reduction of instruments of mass destruction.
- Emphasize that peace is not attained by mere nonparticipation in violence. Proclaim our ability to make the gospel of peace an incarnate reality.
- Continue as a standing committee with international members.
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iPad SURVIVES FALL FROM SPACE
Fondleslab fails to fracture
Rugged case manufacturer G-Form sought to prove its hardware protection credentials this week, launching an iPad into space before letting it plummet to Earth. Needless to say, the fondleslab survived the fall - we probably wouldn't write the story otherwise.
The company wrapped an iPad in its Extreme Edge case and, using a weather balloon which bursts at altitude, sent it soaring toward the stratosphere.
The slate made it above 100,000 feet before it started to rapidly descend, eventually crash-landing on a rocky hill in the Nevada countryside.
“As far as we know, this is the first iPad ever in space,” said G-Form’s VP of innovations, Thom Cafaro. “And definitely it’s the first iPad that’s ever free-fallen from space and survived to play more movies."
Yep, the iPad still worked, so while this is an obvious attempt to grab promotion on the company's behalf, we probably shouldn't question the pedigree of its cases too much, which will be on show at CES 2012 next week. Here's the video of the iPad's galactic journey:
Last year, a US Air Force Combat Controller accidentally dropped his iPhone out his pocket while leaning out of an airplane. It survived a fall of 1000-odd feet. Perhaps Apple hardware is just that brawny.
Our very own team at Vulture Central are experienced in the art of launching things to great heights too, after El Reg became the first to send a paper aircraft into space. That escapade was recently turned into a motion picture - well, sort of - that you can view without the need to hit up Torrent sites. Check it out. ®
Weigh has nothing to do with it all-else being equal.
In an atmosphere, wind resistance to surface area DOES make a difference, which is why the hammer-and-feather thing was demonstrated on the moon - try it in your living room or off your balcony and you won't get the same result. That is what 'terminal velocity' is all about. If you want the cannonball thing to work down here, you need to pair it up with a same-size sphere of balsa wood (or polystyrine these days is even better).
Interesting asside: a mouse can fall (relatively) safely from any height as its terminal velocity is well below the point at which is would suffer major damage from hitting the ground.
So what is the terminal velocity of the iPad in one of these cases? Probably fairly low as the case is presumably light and we all know the iPad is too. So dropping it from only 50 feet up might get it striking the Earth at the same speed anyway. Might even save wrecking a perfectly serviceable balloon as well. Sighs...
Space at 100k feet?!
Uhh... I don't think so. A generally accepted standard is the Karman Line, which is a rough approximation of the point below which "significant lateral thrust would be keep a craft flying level" (from 'Where Does Space Begin?' on Slate). That altitude is 100 kilometers. If Google is to be believed, that works out to 328,083.99 feet.
NASA determines whether you're an astronaut (which it seems would apply to iPads as well as badasses) by using the 100km figure above. The USAF, generously, considers you an astronaut if you've gone up a mere 80km - but that's still far above 100,000 feet.
Not only that, the SR71 Blackbird had a *service ceiling* (normal operating range) of 85,000 feet.
And a final thought - a balloon can only support an object if it can 'float' on the air around it. A balloon, by definition, can't leave the atmosphere any more than a rubber duck can float to the top of the tub water and keep on going until it's hovering. Ye cannae change tha laws'a'physics.
So we have problems:
A: At absolute best, the balloon could 'float on the surface of space'. If you want to get really pedantic, that disqualifies any claims immediately - the iPad is hanging below the balloon, ergo it can't be in space. But that's not necessary...
A: By definition you can't stick a balloon in space, as it will pop. Their balloon did not pop. It did not go into space.
B: The atmosphere's border is gradual, not immediate, like the tub water. Something buoyant will float up to a certain point and stay there; it's 'surface' is dependent on its lift. Have any mass at all? You won't get to the top; at some point your lift (unless you're a rocket) is going to go away, and that point will not be space.
C: Remember, even helium has some mass. If you get to the point where the atmosphere is less dense than helium, as it must, the whole kit and kaboodle might as well be a brick. You want to get to space? Helium may be lighter than air, but I'm fairly sure it isn't lighter than nothing.
So, there's no way in hell it's going to come even close to any commonly accepted definition of 'space'. And it didn't - far less than half by the most generous definition, and less than a third by the most common.
I'm not surprised about the case manufacturer - playing fast and loose with the facts is a treasured tradition of marketing - but I'm a bit surprised that El Reg just gave them a free pass. If someone from the US issued a press release saying that they had driven an electric car "coast-to-coast on one charge, all the way to Chicago!", you'd be all over it like a cheap suit. So I'm disappointed that you didn't jump on -this-.
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90th Regional Support Group
The 90th Regional Support Group, headquartered at Fort Sam Houston, commands approximately 5,300 soldiers and 280 fulltime personnel in 47 units and enjoys tremendous support from the City of San Antonio and the surrounding community. The citizen soldiers and fulltime support personnel who serve as "Tough Ombres" continue to bear out the legacy and heraldry of those proud, brave and heroic fighting men who made the 90th one of the most respected and decorated Divisions in the US Army.
Two granite monuments, erected by the soldiers of the "Tough 'Ombres," 90th Infantry Division, U.S. Army, who fought in World War I and World War II were recently discovered in a Lake Texoma park in Lake Texoma, Oklahoma. The monuments are dedicated to the soldiers from Texas and Oklahoma who gave their lives on the battlefields of Europe. The World War I monument lists the soldiers who died in action in what was known then as the "war to end all wars." The other monument, dedicated to the soldiers who fought in World War II, lists the five campaigns in which the 90th Division fought during 288 consecutive days of combat in the European Theater.
The 90th Division Association represents soldiers who fought in World War I, World War II, Desert Storm and current "Tough 'Ombres." After learning about these monuments, the Association petitioned the state of Oklahoma to allow the relocation of the two monuments to the birthplace of the 90th Infantry Division at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas. The State of Oklahoma gave approval for the relocation to Fort Sam Houston earlier this year. An elaborate ceremony dedicating the two granite cenotaphs and an additional monument commemorating the 90th soldiers who fought in Desert Storm took place on Saturday, September 1, 2001.
The 90th Infantry Division was constituted on August 5, 1917, and organized on August 25, 1917, at Camp Travis, now Fort Sam Houston, Texas. The Division recruited soldiers primarily from the states of Texas and Oklahoma. The Division patch and heraldry depict the T-O symbol, Texas - Oklahoma. Soldiers returning home after World War I formed the 90th Division Association and met annually at Lake Texoma. They dedicated the World War I monument to their fallen comrades. As more veterans of the 90th Infantry Division returned from World War II, more Tough 'Ombres joined the 90th Division Association and a subsequent monument for these battle scarred veterans was dedicated. However, over the years the membership dwindled, the members ceased to meet at Lake Texoma and the two monuments fell into obscurity.
|Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list|
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<urn:uuid:9f103519-6d2b-4166-9cf6-3ea139449bfb>
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ROSEMARY Smith's fascination with Indonesian culture first began as a teenager but it wasn't until her early 50s that she got the chance to experience the country first hand.
Mrs Smith, the Jerrabomberra Public School Indonesian language teacher, was a recipient of the 2013 Endeavour Language Teacher Fellowship at the end of last year.
As part of the Fellowship she travelled to Indonesia this February for an intensive three-week study program.
An up close and personal view of the country will help Mrs Smith in her job where she educates about 500 students about Indonesian language and culture each week.
"Originally I did Indonesian in high school, I was always interested in Indonesia seeing it's our second closest neighbour and studying something totally different was something that appealed," she said.
"There were only six of us [studying Indonesia] and that was considered a big year. It wasn't seen as a popular topic or elective."
Indonesian language teachers, particularly primary school ones, are few and far between.Mrs Smith, who was teaching kindergarten at the time, was encouraged by the school's outgoing language teacher to take over the post.
The Queanbeyan resident was one of the 31 teachers who travelled to Denpasar for the study program which included attending four hours of intensive language lessons each day and a cultural activity in the afternoon.
They also went on field trips each Saturday. The cultural excursions included interviewing a native speaker at a youth centre, pottery, cooking and batik lessons, visiting rice fields, a traditional shadow puppet performance and attending a village festival for the Goddess of Learning.
Mrs Smith said one of the highlights of her trip was staying with a local host family and immersing herself in the local culture and everyday lives of Indonesian people.
"We got to see how real people go about real life in Indonesia," she said.
"Just everyday people going about their daily lives."
Something that will be with me for a long time is that Balinese people have their own beliefs. They're mindful of the influence of the Javanese and the Balinese don't want to lose their identity and culture.
"I hope they succeed, the Balinese lifestyle and religion is beautiful and I hate to think of imposing anything that isn't traditional."
She described Indonesian people as being "very practical, matter-of-fact people".
"One day we went to temple and once they had completed doing their blessings and offerings, they went home. There wasn't any hanging about afterwards," she said.
"They came, did what they needed to and went home. I think we can learn a lot from the simple attitude of 'this what you do and when you've finished, on to do something else'.
"Mrs Smith said the trip has enriched the way she can teach the Indonesian language and culture to the students. She created a wiki page to be used in class and has 6000 photos to share with students.
"Now I can actually say 'look, I saw this and this is how they do it'," she said.
"I can give the children a broader and well-balanced view ... of the way things really are and not just what is reported on the news. That will help the children have a better cultural understanding and empathy.
"My aim with the students is if they go into high school and choose to do a language then I've succeeded and if that language is Indonesian, even better," she said.
"Language is so valuable, to learn any language is a good thing to me."
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Balochistan: Pakistan’s response to crisis failing
Two separate attacks on civilians in Balochistan highlight the failure of Pakistan to tackle escalating insecurity in the region, said Amnesty International.
Yesterday, Baloch politician Abdul Salam was assassinated in the city of Khuzdar by unknown assailants. Abdul Salam was a human rights defender who worked on behalf of hundreds of victims of enforced disappearance in Balochistan.
“A brazen assassination like this in a city as heavily militarised as Khuzdar raises serious questions about the will or ability of Pakistan’s security forces to protect the people of Balochistan,” said Mustafa Qadri, Amnesty International’s Pakistan researcher.
Three employees of the BGP Oil and Gas company were killed and 4 injured in an attack in eastern Balochistan yesterday. The Baloch Liberation Army, an armed group that demands a separate homeland for ethnic Baloch, claimed responsibility for the attack.
“The Pakistan government's military response to the crisis in Balochistan has failed to protect the rights of Pakistani citizens living there. It's crucial for the government, including the civilian and military authorities, to commit to the rule of law and establish accountability for all perpetrators,” said Mustafa Qadri.
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| 0.945004
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| 2
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