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Results 1 to 6 of 6
12th December 2012 06:16 PM #1
- Join Date
- Dec 2012
What is the best way to increase breast milk supply?
Good day mums! I am a new mum and I'm having a difficulty expressing milk. On the first month, I have a lot of milk on my breast and I expressed it to avoid soreness on my breast. Eventually, on the second month, my milk supply rapidly goes down. As much as possible, I don't want to use formula milk so what is the best way to increase my production of milk?
24th December 2012 12:23 PM #2
There are many things you can do to increase your breastmilk supply, but the very best thing is to be sure that baby is sucking at the breast often.
The reason your milk supply may have gone down was because you were expressing milk in order to relieve engorgement. Expressing milk does not provide the same stimulation to the breast that a baby's sucking does. Your milk supply will increase and decrease in direct response to sucking stimulation from your baby.
If a baby gets sick, they will tend to breastfeed more, and a mother who puts her baby to the breast often during that first day when baby is not feeling well, will have more milk for her baby the next day (it adjusts within 24 hours). When a baby has a fever, they sweat more and they need more liquids (milk) to keep from getting dehydrated. Babies who are sick also find that they just like to pacify at the breast as it comforts them.
So put baby to the breast often - at least every 1 1/2 to 2 hours. Also be sure you are breastfeeding every 2 hours at night. I co-slept with my babies in order for mum to get enough sleep. Co-Sleeping makes it easy to awaken to a fussy baby, pop him onto the breast, and then both of you fall back to sleep while he happily suckles until he is full. So much easier than getting up and sitting in a chair while you feed, and then getting baby to go back to sleep.
Be sure you are drinking plenty of liquids yourself. Coffee and tea don't count, as they are diuretics and will cause you to lose fluid. Purified water is best. Always have a glass of water right by you when you are breastfeeding or pumping. You must have plenty of liquids in you to create plenty of milk for your baby.
Drink Mother's Milk Tea which has the following herbs in it: anise, fennel and coriander
Mother's Milk Tea helps to increase breastmilk production.
It's also super important that you make sure you are getting enough rest. Anytime there is added stress this can affect breastmilk supply. Do whatever you can to make sure that you rest when baby sleeps. Housework can wait - but right now you need to be sure you stay healthy and rested so that you can give your baby the best of all you have.
Hope this helps. Please post back and let me know how old your baby is, how often you are feeding him and how many bottles of formula he is getting in a 24 hour period. Every time you give him a bottle, that is taking time away from the breast, and there's something you can do about this to make sure he gets enough food (formula/breastmilk) while at the same time, making sure he is stimulating your breasts more more milk productions.
24th December 2012 08:22 PM #3
- Join Date
- Dec 2012
Thank you so much for the advice. I will surely do that from now on. I actually co-sleep with my baby since the day he was born. He is now turning to 5 months by the end of December. If breast milk, I feed him every 1.5 to 2 hours and if formula, I feed him every 3 to 4 hours. Because of my low milk production, I make it alternate when feeding my baby (breast milk, formula, breast milk). In average, he is getting 15 ounces of breast milk and 12 ounces of formula in the 24-hour period.
26th December 2012 06:39 AM #4
- Join Date
- Dec 2011
29th December 2012 01:32 PM #5
mom2many gave you a great link in case you are interested in feeding more breast milk until your supply increases.
However, if you're happy with the formula feeds then I would suggest that you feed your baby formula while you are breastfeeding. Sounds odd, but the way you do this is by using a lactation aid. This is a thin tube that you insert into the side of baby's mouth while he is drinking at the breast. He gets the milk you have while, at the same time, stimulating the breast to produce more milk AND drinking the milk/formula he needs.
It would be an ideal situation for you and help you increase your milk supply quickly.
Here's a video where Dr. Newman shows you how to use a lactation aid to stimulate more milk production.
2nd May 2013 12:59 PM #6
As Kate describes, I used a Medela Supplemental Nursing System (SNS), (which is sometimes referred to as a supply line) to supplement my baby when my supply was insufficient. My poor supply was the result of a combination of factors including a traumatic birth, high volume of blood loss, a really nasty bought of the flu a month after my baby was born, and high levels of emotional distress due to financial and personal issues.
Because the more baby feeds, the more milk you produce, using the supply line enabled me to supplement my baby (so she got the nutrition she needed) while my body got the stimulation it needed to increase my supply. This got us both through the rough patch enabling me to build both confidence and milk supply.
I also made a point of walking every day to get some fresh air, reduce stress and increase fitness, drank lots of water, ate oats for breakfast, and also drank Weleda Nursing Tea every day (which tastes lovely unlike many similar products).
My daughter is now just over 2 years old and I am still producing breast milk for her. I credit my success to the SNS and the steps I took to equip my body with what it needed to produce more milk!
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|« Back to Article|
King: Giving thanks for being a U.S. citizen
Bill King says immigrants who become American citizens show more appreciation for their status than many who were born here.
By Bill King | November 21, 2012 | Updated: November 21, 2012 4:41pm
I get the most feedback from readers when I write about immigration. Much of it is passionate. Most of it is belligerent to those here illegally. There are two things I hear almost invariably from those who oppose immigration reform, both of which are wrong, and there is one thing that I never hear.
The first thing I always hear is that those here illegally are criminals and have no rights. Of course, criminals actually have rights, as do noncitizens under our legal system. But laying that misstatement of the law aside, it is also inaccurate to say that every one of the 10 million or so living here without a visa has committed a crime. About 40 percent came here on a valid visa that has now expired. Overstaying a visa subjects that person to deportation; however, it is not a crime. About another 20 percent were brought here as children and therefore are not legally responsible for entering the country without a visa.
As for the 40 percent who did break the law by crossing the border without permission, they have only committed a misdemeanor punishable by a small fine. Relatively speaking, it is a far less serious crime than say burglary, which is a felony. Given that our police only solve about 12 percent of the burglaries committed, I have a hard time getting worked up about the government not prosecuting every person who has left some hellhole in Central America and walked hundreds of miles to get into this country to make a better life.
The second thing I almost always hear is that those of us advocating for immigration reform want an "open border" policy with no restrictions on immigration.
To the contrary, we just think that the current system is dumb and ineffective and want a better one.
The principal reason that the current system does not work is because it ignores economic reality. If you have a ready supply of inexpensive labor on one side of the border and a demand for it on the other side of the border, the supply is going to meet the demand no matter what the law says. No man-made law is ever going to repeal the law of supply and demand. And no system that ignores fundamental economic realities can ever be effectively enforced over a long period. The Soviet Union could not enforce a border that ran only 87 miles long across Berlin with unlimited resources and no ethical or humanitarian restraints. What are the chances we are going to close a nearly 2,000-mile border?
The great genius of America is that we are the first country in the world based, not on geography or tribal affiliation or ethnicity, but on principles and ideals. Those ideals - individual liberty, democracy, equality under the law and the guarantee of inalienable rights - are the beacons that have drawn millions to our shores. And it has been the passion of those new immigrant patriots that has kept our national spirit renewed and vital.
My housekeeper became a citizen earlier this year. The day that she voted she brought me her receipt from the electronic voting machine, holding it as if it were her most treasured possession. The idea that she would have passed up the right to vote after waiting so many years to become a citizen never crossed her mind. Yet how many millions of citizens born in this country did not even bother to vote?
That brings me to what I almost never hear from those who have such antipathy for illegal immigrants: any appreciation for how lucky they are to have been born in this country. I do not hear in their voices the sheer joy of being an American citizen that beamed from my housekeeper's face as she proudly showed me her voting receipt that day.
Let's face it, the only real difference between them and us is that we were born here. Those of us who were fortunate enough to be born here were given an incredible birthright. We did not have to earn it as my housekeeper did.
So what I plan to do on this day of thanks giving is to remind myself just how lucky I am to have been born in the most remarkable and unique country in the history of the world and thank the good Lord for that blessing. It is something we should all probably do and do more often than once a year on Thanksgiving.
Email King at firstname.lastname@example.org and follow him on twitter.com/weking.
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* Residential Architecture: Hus-1 House by Torsten Ottesjö
Posted by the editors on Sunday, 24 June 2012
Residential Architecture: Hus-1 House by Torsten Ottesjö: “..With double curved surfaces, compact and efficient planning it is a house on the human scale that blends effortlessly into the surrounding nature..Situated in the unique cultural landscape of the Scandinavian West Coast, Hus 1 reflects and communicates with its surroundings. The natural materials used in the construction have made it a friendly place for both humans and nature for its whole life cycle..The building was constructed on site. The idea was a house as personification – a structure designed to fit the needs of a two specific people. The majority of the furnishing is built into the house. The dwelling features convex walls which seam together with the floor creating both a sense of airiness and a naturally curved seating space along the sides of the interior. The structure is free-standing, so it can be moved anywhere; though the feeling is that it has actually sprouted out of the ground it rests on..” Original take on a small tailor-made home..article includes a video..
image: © David Relan; article: ”Hus-1 / Torsten Ottesjö” 14 Jun 2012. ArchDaily. <http://www.archdaily.com/243901>
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At the age of five years, for the first time the author went to live with her family, all of whom were complete strangers to her. For the following ten years she was systematically abused by both parents.
For short periods she went back into care but not for her own safety as the abuse was always kept secret. Her parents told endless lies to the Social Services, about how badly behaved she was, to which she would confess because she wanted to go back into care. The only happiness and feeling of being safe and secure she had came from the children’s homes.
Her story goes into great detail about the abuse and her private thoughts as a child. She has now decided to share it in the belief there is a possibility that it could help others who are or have been in a similar situation
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Hereditary Sarangi Players Speak
Beginning with Ravi Shankar and Ali Akbar Khan, Indian art music is renowned internationally for its improvised raga performance. This ancient tradition has for centuries been transmitted orally within the seclusion of hereditary families. Few such families remain today, and not enough is known...
Published June 21st 2007 by Routledge
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We are glad to meet you at our site, which is devoted to GPS auto navigation and everything related with Global Positioning. That web source will allow you to be in touch with the most recent achievements of GPS navigation, get the reviews of GPS navigators and software and choose the most suitable device for your vehicle. Get the open access for all places you are going to and safe petrol getting rid of driving around and seeking for some tricky destination.
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Vehicle navigation system is based on utilizing GPS technology as well as imbedded map programs to superimpose your location on a virtual map. This allows not only to tell you were you are, but even tell you the exact and the shortest way to the place where you want to go. It is possible because your map program can calculate the exact distance between you and your desired destination and can compare every single route and tell you the shortest one! GPS navigation systems can prevent from getting lost out there on the highways and prevent you from making the extra miles when going to the familiar places you thought you knew how to go to. When the GPS navigation system is on, you will choose only the most direct routes. The fewer miles you drive will mean more petrol you safe, which brings an enormous economy of funds. Driving these days can get very expensive when it comes to gas prices, so buying a GPS Device can help cut down on those prices, and even in some cases find out the lowest gas prices in the area!
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- Garmin Nuvi 880
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There are also a number of great options available. Many of the high end GPS auto navigation systems include a range of features to make the usage as simple and convenient as possible. Aside from the standard information about maps and positions, these GPS systems can also provide information about local amenities such as gas stations, motels, and even speed control cameras in certain countries. GPS auto navigation systems come with the ability to upload additional map systems so they can be used in different countries, and through the use of local radio services, provide comprehensive traffic information to the driver wherever in the world he is.
A GPS navigation system is one of technological wonders that became accessible for millions of people, who use them on a daily basis. Whether you want a simple auto navigation GPS system to help you avoid the traffic problems in your home town, or are a cross country driver who needs the long distance planning flexibility for getting to the place as efficiently as possible, there is a GPS system available that will suit your needs.
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The almost-endless column of books on your desk is a promise to the future, a compendium of things that someday youíll look at and learn about. You want to know it all! But who has time to read books anymore, save for lucky students and book professionals? Youíre reduced to the literary equivalent of a lick and a promise, courtesy of Artnet Magazine -- an intense though brief survey of new titles, just in time for the holiday season. Remember, nothing in the art world gives value for money like an art book!
Speaking of value, the art-market boom seems to have convinced art-book publishers that the time is right to bring out some how-to manuals for new art collectors. You know already that the secret of art collecting is simple -- have lots of money. If you want to know more, the nimble Allworth Press offers Marketing and Buying Fine Art Online: A Guide for Artists and Collectors by California-based artist and web entrepreneur Marques Vickers ($19.95). The 216-page paperback is packed with technical details for the aspiring internet artist, from domain-name registration and digital watermarking to "art as a hedge investment" and "traits of compulsive collectors."
Targeting the same readership -- those of us who would rather learn by studying than by actually doing, perhaps? -- is Canadian journalist Lisa Hunterís The Intrepid Art Collector: The Beginnerís Guide to Finding, Buying and Appreciating Art on a Budget (Crown, $13.95). The best way to collect on the cheap is to invite your artist friends to your birthday party, but of course thereís more to be said than that. The Intrepid romps through African art, Oriental rugs and antiquities as well as photography, prints and posters, with mini-features like "finding tomorrowís art stars at student art shows." Columbia University MFA professor Jon Kessler notes, correctly, that "hot MFA programs" at Yale, Columbia and Cal Arts are perceived as "a way of entering the market."
Better for sophisticates in this department is Adam Lindemannís Collecting Contemporary (Taschen, $29.99), which delves rather deeper into the more mysterious workings of the avant-garde and its corresponding market via interviews with leading collectors, dealers, auction-house experts, consultants and curators. For further details, consult the interview with Lindemann himself in these pages [The New Art Aristocrats Oct. 18, 2006]. Suffice it to say here that art historians of the future will surely mine Lindemannís interviews for a deeper understanding -- it does go deep, you know it does -- of the tick and the tock of the weird contemporary art market.†
Correlating as well with a robust art market is what has been called a "criticism of complaint" -- that is to say, art critics are always a little grumpy, and nothing makes them grumpier than when the art they donít like is selling like hotcakes. Thus, Critical Mess: Art Critics on the State of Their Practice (Hard Press Editions, $24,95), edited by Art in America scribe Raphael Rubinstein and featuring an impressive collection of essays, most previously published, by writers ranging from art historian James Elkins and philosopher Arthur C. Danto to working critics like Peter Plagens and Jerry Saltz.
Of course, most of the time, if a critic is complaining about art writing, it really means that he (or she) doesnít like the art that everyoneís writing about. I read Rubinsteinís own essay on the "quiet crisis" in art criticism when it was originally published in 2003, and though I donít really recall his arguments, I do remember that the abstract paintings that he commended were definitely god-awful. Still, despite the basic fallacy of the premise -- art criticism is in fine, though low-paying shape, thanks very much -- the book makes for entertaining reading, if only because "we count on critics to amuse us with the bad news" [see "Book Report," Apr. 15, 2002]. In one of our favorite lines, for instance, Elkins, who youíve got to admit is a little stuffy, counts gallery invitation cards as part of "the sheer quantity of writing on contemporary art."
The mess that Rubinstein is talking about can, however, be found in the art world as a whole, which sometimes seems to be a hotbed of cupidity. And lord knows, the art world has plenty of people who are anxious to play the role of schoolmarms for the museum world. Thus, Ethics and the Visual Arts (Allworth Press, $27.50), edited by Elaine A. King and Gail Levin, features several new essays by many of the top advocates in the field, which makes it definitely worth its space on the bookshelf. Actually reading the essays is a bit of a slog, however.
Complaints about the compromised funding of exhibitions like "Sensation" at the Brooklyn Museum and "Armani" at the Guggenheim, though they loomed large back when the shows were under way, seem more like molehills today. And frankly, the now-familiar lecture about stolen "cultural property" -- invariably exported under the corrupt noses of local governments by local citizens -- is more than a little tiresome. As one top dealer in ancient art readily admitted to me just the other day, "Thatís an argument that weíve lost." Just send the loot back, and letís move on.
One essay that makes for fascinating reading is Levinís own text on the sad fate of the more ephemeral parts of the estates of Edward Hopper, who died in 1967, and his widow, Jo Hopper, who died the following year, all of which was bequeathed to the Whitney Museum. Under the guidance of its respected curator James Goodrich, Levin claims, the museum failed in its duty to claim its legacy, which included invaluable archival material as well as artworks. Thanks to this inattention, many Hopper works ended up on the private art market. †
Another notable essay is Saul Ostrowís Consuming Emancipation: Ethics, Culture and Politics, a comic gem of crypto-Stalinist cant, though this kind of Alan Sokol-Social Text prank seems out of place here.
Speaking of the hard slog, you know they have a lot of that in university art history departments, and proud of it, too, they are. This is where the ideas live -- they wear them on their sleeves, so to speak -- but boy do they make the reader struggle like a bug in molasses to get anything out of it all. For instance, on hand in our vaulting pile is the 492-page A Mieke Bal Reader (Chicago, $28), an impressive paperback survey of influential essays by the prolific Dutch scholar Mieke Bal. Luckily for the reader, Bal isnít one of those academics who clog their prose with nonce terms and impenetrable syntax. Rather, she writes as clearly as a babbling brook -- and is about as deep.
Balís essay on collecting, for instance, something we know something about, cites dozens of authors, from Pierre Bourdieu to Slavoj Žižek, but says little of substance other than to claim that collecting constitutes a "narrative" and has something to do with the notion of the "fetish." As is common practice among theoretical writers, she doesnít encumber her argument with anything specific or concrete, other than to refer in passing to a friend who has a collection of seven flower vases (the reference to Bourdieu does involve art collecting, for which Bal perceptively notes that "you need to be rich -- so rich, that the rest of the world hardly matters"). Most of the time, however, the reader isnít quite sure what real-world activity Bal might be referring to.
In distinct contrast are a couple of essay collections by a couple of art-world veterans who are what we can call working professionals (rather than ivory-tower academics). Their writings trace a very real daily practice, and contain both testimony and evidence of how the art world actually works. David Robbinsí The Velvet Grind: Selected Essays, Interviews, Satires (1983-2005) (JRP, $18) includes more than 20 texts by the Milwaukee-based conceptual artist, ranging from writings on his own art -- including "Talent," the 1986 series of head shots of young artists that brought him widespread acclaim -- to interviews with other artists like Richard Prince, or Peter Nagy and Alan Belcher, the proprietors of the East Village art gallery Nature Morte in the early 1980s. As a writer Robbins has a light touch, and his observations have an amiable anecdotal relevance.
Klaus Ottmann is a curator and critic who trained in philosophy and got his start writing about art in the pages of Flash Art, and his new collection, Thought Through My Eyes, Writings on Art, 1977-2005 (Spring), is all over the map. It has terse essays that tend towards the poetic and experimental, like the short piece on the German painter Salomť that beings the volume, and more problematic texts like Criticism and the Common Consciousness (1992), which offers rather too extensive quotes from Kantís The Critique of Judgment with his own rather too sparse interpretive remarks.
The reviews fare the worst with the passage of time, as they are too limited in both description and comment to be of much use today (a three-gallery New York show of works by Marcel Broodthaers in 1997, for instance, is called "long overdue" and full of "significant works," though the source of such significance is not detailed). And with about 75 texts, the overall effect is fragmentary. The book might work best on a table in a sunroom (or some other, smaller room), where it could serve as a source of casual readings.
Do the same failings mar Imagining the Present: Context, Content and the Role of the Critic (Routledge, $44.95), a collection of essays by Lawrence Alloway (1926-1990)? Alloway was a curator at the Guggenheim Museum, one of the founding editors of Artforum magazine, art critic for the Nation and coiner of the term "Pop Art," and somehow you approach a collection of his writings with rather more relish than usual. As a writer, Alloway was, in the words of Richard Kalina, the painter who edited this volume, "clear-eyed" with no interest in writing "that felt like cozy amateurism, snobbery, angry young man whining, tweedy pastoral yearnings or donnish aestheticizing."
Though Imagining the Present is in fact mired in the past -- debates of the 1970s, notably regarding Greenbergian abstraction, that are now (astonishingly) all but forgotten -- its essays are signposts in contemporary art history. The book includes "The Arts and the Mass Media" (1958), where Alloway introduced the idea of Pop Art, as well as "Systemic Painting" (1966), "Anthropology and Art Criticism" (1971) and "Photo-Realism" (1973). His "The Function of the Art Critic" (1974) can serve as a corrective to the many maundering essays produced on the topic since. Missing from the book, sadly, is "Network: The Art World Described as a System" (1973), an early attempt to analyze the contemporary art market.
But so many books of essays and criticism, you must be thinking, what kind of holiday gifts might they make? Itís a little like getting a textbook as a present or, perhaps, a cactus -- the late art dealer Colin De Land once sent Art in America editor Betsy Baker a large prickly pear as his "thanks" for an A.i.A. review of one of his shows, a review with which he presumably disagreed. When we think of art books, we think of oversized tomes with lots of pictures, images that are in themselves stunning and varied. And, of course, there is no shortage of such things.
Some are organized around specific art-historical investigations. Garrett Stewart, an English professor at the University of Iowa, has given us the 300-page The Look of Reading: Book, Painting, Text (Chicago, $65), a scholarly survey of artworks showing books and people reading, ranging from Zurbarán and Tiepolo to Art Spiegelman. Other art books are much more focused, like Brice Marden: Paintings on Marble (Steidl, $35), with a text by critic Lisa Liebmann, which zeroes in on the celebrated abstract artistís curiously timeless paintings on stone, made in 1981-87 on the Greek island of Hydra.
Best of all are exhibition catalogues, especially those produced for current shows, which are topical and timeless both. The 866-page hardcover Domenico Tiepolo: A New Testament (Indiana, $75) by Adelheid M Gealt and George Knox, published to accompany the exhibition of Tiepolo drawings at the Frick Collection, has the weight of a book that stretches back centuries. It reproduces the 113 drawings in Tiepoloís epic and idiosyncratic retelling of the ancient story of early Christianity, along with the authorís texts identifying details of the narrative and a fascinating introduction looking at Tiepoloís various artistic strategies.
An especially large selection of titles relate to shows at the Metropolitan Museum -- and who can leave the Met without buying a catalogue? -- including Set in Stone: the Face in Medieval Sculpture (Yale, $50) by Charles T. Little, a curator at the Cloisters. The survey of sculptures, many torn from cathedrals and other buildings in a flurry of French revolutionary iconoclasm, provides a material trace of the dawn of Gallic secularism. From the Guggenheim Museum, a good choice is No Limits, Just Edges: Jackson Pollock Paintings on Paper ($40), the 144-page catalogue for the exhibition organized by Susan Davidson -- a necessary addition to the art loverís Pollock book collection.
Not all museums are in New York, of course. If you didnít find time to visit the Santa Monica Museum of Art for the contrast and compare exhibition of paintings by Giorgio de Chirico and Philip Guston, now is your chance. Enigma Variations: Philip Guston and Giorgio de Chirico ($30), the catalogue for that eye-opening show, which was organized by Michael R. Taylor and Lisa Melandri, includes 26 color plates plus a illuminating essays tracking the "unprecedented, and perhaps unmatched" effect of the older artist on the younger.
Last but not least is a stocking stuffer, a small (ca. 4 x 7 in.) "artistís book" by New York painter Peter Nadin, The First Mark: Unlearning How to Make Art (Edgewise, $10). Publisher Richard Milazzo calls the book a "novella" that "shifts between prose and poetry" to tell the story of its painter-protagonist and his search for "the first mark, the primordial impulse behind all art." And, we hasten to note, the story includes an art dealer named Walter who is brained with a bronze cast of a roast beef sandwich! Happy holidays!
WALTER ROBINSON is editor of Artnet Magazine.
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|
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Travelling has always been for me a constant battle against curiosity and my recent trip to Michigan with my hubby is a proof. Passing by cities and towns with unique names had left me asking the origin of each names and Tawas City was not spared from the hook. Some claim that “Tawas” is derived from the word “Ottawas” asserting that the Ottawa Indians once inhabited the area. However, historical information contends that the name was after the leader of the Saginaw band Chippewas, who were actually the first to camp along Tawas Bay,old Chief O-ta-was. What is so great about Tawas City? It overlooks beautiful Lake Huron on Michigan’s Sunrise Side Coastal Highway Heritage Route!
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<urn:uuid:bdd138e5-1245-47ef-b47b-208556c2b2a5>
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CC-MAIN-2013-20
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http://becauseiamuniquelyandwonderfullymade.com/2012/09/05/tawas-city-michigan/
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|
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VortexGE is a software 3D renderer for the X environment that was created without using OpenGL/MesaGL. It also supports 2D image manipulations and audio access and is intended for creating Linux games without needing 3D card acceleration.
|Tags||Software Development Libraries Sound/Audio Players Graphics 3D Rendering Games/Entertainment multimedia|
|Operating Systems||POSIX Linux|
Release Notes: The tarball distribution is now separated into two files: source with documentation and media. Many deprecated symbols and features were removed. VortexGE now would be correctly built using GCC 4.2.x and GCC 4.3.x. Lua 5.1.4 is now used as the scripting engine backend. The VDumpStack() function was improved a bit. Support for streaming Ogg-Vorbis audio as background music was added.
Release Notes: Starting from this version, the tar ball distribution is separated into two files: one with source and documentation, and one with media. The _C, _T, C, and T prefixes for classes and structures have been removed. Support was added for a streaming sound buffer (but currently only supports Ogg-Vorbis). Lua 5.1.4 is now used as the scripting engine backend.
Release Notes: Many of the symbols and features which were deprecated in the previous version have been removed. The function CDialogPage::GroupRadioButtons() now automatically checks the first radio button in the list. A new function, CDialogPage::CheckRadioButton() was added. VortexGE should be correctly built using GCC 4.2.x and GCC 4.3.x. Some code cleanups and bugfixes were made. Some improvements were made in the configuration script.
Release Notes: Some deprecated features have been removed. New controls, CPopUpMenu and CMenuBar, were added. All styles of the CSpinButton control are now implemented. The CInputBoxML control is improved. Support has been added for loading Ogg Vorbis files. There are some improvements in the CPanel3DBuffer class related to rendering, collision, and bounding box calculation. Lua 5.1.3 is now used as the scripting engine backend. There are a few bug and documentation fixes.
Release Notes: All symbols/features which were marked as deprecated have been removed. The CInputBoxML class now supports text selection and copying using the keyboard. A new CThreadKey class was added. VortexGE should now be built correctly using GCC 4.2.x. Some configuration script fixes and improvements were made along with some documentation fixes.
|
<urn:uuid:27e55855-22e6-4646-8588-b59f432e4b63>
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CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
http://freecode.com/projects/vortexge
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|
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| 0.931632
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| 1.554688
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|
The Sale That Dropped 600 Points
Posted on Oct 1, 2010
We knew capitalism was crazy, but it turns out it took only a single sale of $4.1 billion in futures to put into motion a series of events that culminated in the “flash crash” of May 6, during which the Dow Jones dropped 600 points in just a matter of minutes.
The sale, which was discovered after a months-long investigation and long-awaited report from the SEC, concludes that the crash was not a result of market manipulation but rather the regular trading of futures made possible through aggressive deregulation. —JCL
The New York Times:
A single sale of $4.1 billion in futures contracts by a mutual fund touched off a series of events that led to the so-called flash crash, the sharp stock market decline that shook investors and markets on May 6, federal regulators said on Friday.
In a long-awaited report, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission said they had identified the sequence of events that erased more than 600 points from the Dow Jones industrial average in minutes on the afternoon of May 6 before the markets recovered just as quickly.
Significantly, the report found that the plunge was not caused by any market manipulation but by a single firm trying to hedge its investment position, if in an aggressive and abrupt manner.
A chart of the Dow Jones industrial average May 6.
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CC-MAIN-2013-20
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http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/print/the_sale_that_dropped_600_points_20101001/
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|
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Bronx Lab School
BRONX NY 10467 Map
Bronx Lab School
Bronx Lab School’s green walls and brightly painted murals give it a comfortable and cozy feel. Teachers go by their first names and the small-school atmosphere keeps the students and teachers close. “Teachers actually care about you as an individual,” said a 12th grader.
Throughout the year, students go on multi-day trips, called "Explore Weeks." In one Explore Week, students interviewed veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars. In the process, the students learned how to film and edit their own mini-documentaries.
Outdoor trips are abundant, with an annual 250-mile biking trip of the Underground Railroad in Ohio and a mandatory camping trip for incoming freshmen on the first week of school. “All these trips let you improve yourself as a leader and makes you more open-minded,” commented one student.
“This school is very good for students who are middle-of-the-road because we have a lot of resources for them,” explained Shenea Hunt, a college counselor. “Students can do really well here and learn good life skills.” Students keep the same group for advisory in all four years and teachers say it’s rare for a student to slip through the cracks.
The school opened in 2004 in the Evander Childs Educational Complex, a building that has had a bad reputation in the past. But Principal Christopher Lagares, a former history teacher at Manhattan Village Academy, says: “This is no longer Evander Childs. We’re finally breaking the stereotype.”
The school has a senior seminar, and 9th graders take an Integrated Math and Science class that combines algebra, geometry and physics. A select group of 10th graders participate in an internship program, working two days a week at various sites including architectural firms, dental offices and Montefiore Medical Center.
On Wednesdays, classes end early for credit recovery classes and professional development. A mandatory extended-day program for 9th graders offers electives and allows students to attend office hours of their teachers for extra help twice a week. “We work really hard to make sure that students who don’t always come to us high school-ready are college-ready when they leave,” explained Lagares.
Despite a full-time college staff to organize a college curriculum for all students, only about two-thirds of students graduate with a Regent's diploma. However, scores and graduation rates have improved consistently, students have collectively received $7.6 million in scholarship funds since 2008, and 12 students have been awarded Posse Foundation Scholarships.
Seniors participate in an annual SUNY Lock-in in October; they stay at school until evening filling out college applications with assistance from staff. Advanced students may take College Now courses at Lehman College, though there are no Advanced Placement classes.
After graduation, 80 percent of students plan to attend college, mostly in 2-year programs at CUNY schools. Some enroll in 4-year programs at CUNY, SUNY and private universities like Fordham.
Special counselors from the Institute for Student Achievement and FEGS Health and Human Services set students up with afterschool jobs.
Bronx Lab shares the gym, weight room and indoor track with the High School of Computers and Technology and the Bronx High School for Writing and Communication Arts, often holding gym with all three schools together in one session. The whole school goes to lunch together and shares the cafeteria with another school. Though the school itself was clean, many of the shared spaces became increasingly dirty as the day went on. Bronx Academy of Health Careers, High School for Contemporary Arts and Bronx Aerospace High School also share the building.
The school also has building-wide PSAL sports and active clubs like the Gay-Straight Alliance and the American Appalachian Club. “We try to connect students with different programs to give them a reason to come to school,” commented Lagares.
Global Explorers Learning AFAR program promotes cross-cultural exchange by sponsoring international travel for students who cannot otherwise afford it. In 2012, 10 students volunteered in Mexico. Selected students attend a summer program at The Hotchkiss School in Connecticut.
Special education: Students are mainstreamed into regular classes through ICT. SETSS is available to those who qualify.
Admissions: The school gives preference to Bronx students and those who attend an information session. (Aryn Bloodworth, November 2012)
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CC-MAIN-2013-20
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A bill to expand alcohol sales for grocers and other retailers has small-business owners squaring off against each other.
A packed House committee heard testimony for a second day on a bill, opposed by retail liquor store owners, which would allow grocery and convenience stores to begin selling full-strength beer, wine and spirits.
Steven Faust, owner of MDL Wine & Spirits in Overland Park, said House Bill 2532 would destroy his family’s business, investments and future to benefit the bottom line of large corporate retailers, such as Walmart, Hy-Vee, Quik-Trip and Dillons.
Faust said he recently invested his life savings and all of his business and personal assets to sign a 10-year lease on a 23,000-square-foot space, based on the knowledge of current Kansas liquor law. If the law changes, he said, he will likely be one of the retailers that is driven out of business.
Faust said liquor retailers made decisions about the size of stores, locations, layouts and product lines based on laws that had been in effect for more than 60 years. To suddenly change these laws, he said, would be unfair and prevent small-business owners like him from effectively competing.
“No small-business owner has ever been able to compete with these corporate giants, and Kansas liquor store owners are not going to fare any differently,” Faust said. “When these corporations want market share they know how to get it, and it will only be a short matter of time before a majority of retailers are either out of business or forced to sell.”
Doug Jorgenson, director of the state's Alcoholic Beverage Control division, told the House Federal and State Affairs Committee that he expected about 2,000 more establishments would apply for liquor licenses if the bill passed.
Jorgenson, who is neutral on the bill, said his agency would have to hire 18 more staff members at a cost of about $1.4 million, because it is already strained.
"We're doing our best right now, but we're short-staffed and underfunded like most state agencies," he said.
Proponents of the bill said Tuesday that existing Kansas law runs counter to the spirit of free enterprise and urged the committee to level the playing field. Small-town grocers, convenience stores and big retailers have formed an unlikely partnership to support the bill.
If the bill becomes law, grocery stores and convenience stores will be able to immediately apply for Class A and B licenses, which would allow them to sell beer and wine, but they couldn’t obtain a new Class C license, which would allow them to sell spirits, until Jan. 1, 2016. They could, however, obtain a Class C license by buying one from an individual with a current license in their county.
Sen. Dick Kelsey, R-Goddard, spoke in opposition to the bill Wednesday.
Kelsey said that although he owned a stake in an alcohol-addiction treatment facility that would see an increase in revenue if the bill passed, he didn’t want it to become law. Goddard said the facility helps teach addicts how to avoid temptation by not going into liquor stores, but it is impossible to tell them to not go into grocery stores or buy gas.
He also told the committee how his own family has been affected by alcohol.
“I’ve had a couple of my kids about destroy their lives over alcohol,” Kelsey said. “This thing is personal for me.”
|
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|
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About the video
The Creators Project: How did music become part of your life? António Pinto: Well, I’m not part of a family of musicians, I’m part of a family of artists. Music came through my sisters, because when I was younger they loved musicians. (laughs) When I was seven or eight years old, my sister was dating a bass player from a band and I would follow them. I went to their shows and so on. I loved sitting down to play the drums after the shows were over, and I ended up getting a set. In my house we had a piano, a set of drums, and a guitar, and I started to play them out of curiosity. There was another thing, too: When I was young I would play albums at home, put some cushions in a chair, and pretend I was the drummer. I would close my eyes, and I was in a concert.
What kind of music did you listen to at that age? Like I said, my sisters introduced me to music, and it was through them that I acquired three albums that were important to me in my youth: one was Heavy Weather by Weather Report, another was something by Stanley Clarke, and the third, if I’m not mistaken, was Miles Davis’s Bitches Brew. I got those albums when I was ten, and it really opened my mind in terms of listening to music. I started to get curious so I would research to find more things to listen to. You have to remember at the time there was no internet. Back then you would get the album and listen to that album exhaustively. You could say that I had an “internet” curiosity, let’s say, for music, way before the new easiness there is today existed. So more than my first attempts at playing and making I think it’s good to be curious about what you listen to. Seek out things that can open your mind. When did you decide that this is what you wanted to do with your life? My professional life is kind of an accident. Unfortunately I’ve never been that determined. Excuse me for what I’m going to say, but that American thing of “This is what I’m going to do, and I’m going to be the best at it,” is the opposite of how I work. Things happened very naturally for me. The music itself, it was a natural process -- it wasn’t a search, never. I am where I am by chance. How have you integrated technology into your music? My music has evolved with the technology. The first work I did, in terms of recording, was using this little device where you had to record one cassette to another. Then there was Tascam, which was a four- channel recorder. Then there was the first Sound Designer, which was one of the first audio-sequence programs. I know all of the programs: Logic, Performer, Studio Vision, Live, and Pro Tools, so my musical knowledge came together with my technological knowledge, and they both contribute to the result of what I do. Where do you compose most of your music for movie soundtracks? I do it at home. I have a piano there. I usually compose at home or come here, and then I do what I call “knitting.” I start distributing the music throughout the movie. With Pro Tools. That way I can start seeing how the music will work with the moving image, and then I see the music in synch with the image. Then I redesign it, cut it, assemble it, make downloads, and see how the movie flows with the song.
|
<urn:uuid:52b13ba5-947c-4923-853a-5f8f003d14bf>
|
CC-MAIN-2013-20
|
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|
en
| 0.987418
| 770
| 1.632813
| 2
|
By Dancho Danchev
What would an attacker do if they were attempting to inject malicious iFrames on as many Web sites as possible?
Would they rely on search engines’ reconnaissance as a foundation fo their efficient exploitation process, data mine a botnet’s infected population for accounting data related to CPanel, FTP and SSH accounts, purchase access to botnet logs, unethically pen-test a Web property’s infrastructure, or hit the jackpot with an ingenious idea that’s been trending as of recently within the cybercrime ecosystem?
No, they wouldn’t rely on any of these. They would just seek access to servers hosting as many domains as possible and efficiently embed malicious iFrames on each and every .php/.html/.js found within these domains. At least that’s what the cybercriminal operations that I’ll elaborate on in this post are all about.
Let’s take a peek at a recently advertised DIY mass iFrame injecting Apache 2.x module that appears to have already been responsible for a variety of security incidents across the globe. This module makes it virtually impossible for a webmaster to remove the infection from their Web site, affects millions of users in the process, and earns thousands of dollars for the cybercriminals operating it.
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<urn:uuid:e08e65fe-e9de-4e6c-9263-225b9c542964>
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CC-MAIN-2013-20
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http://blog.webroot.com/tag/scareware/
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|
en
| 0.93842
| 269
| 1.765625
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The people of the American Medical Association are what make this organization strong. Our members, delegates, trustees, council members, section members, medical societies and countless other physicians, medical students and staff all play an integral role in the AMA and contribute to its success.
Twenty-one men and women comprise our Board of Trustees—they guide the AMA as it sets standards and policy for the medical profession. Our House of Delegates is the primary policy-setting body of the AMA. Its delegate and alternate delegates represent organizations from around the nation such as state, local and specialty medical societies.
The elected or appointed members of our seven AMA Councils concentrate their efforts on developing an expert understanding of specific issues related to such matters as ethics, science and medical education, so that they can make recommendations on policy.
The AMA provides career support and opportunities for involvement through our member groups and sections, which range from the Medical Student Section to the Women Physicians Section, and our various coalitions and consortiums, such as the Litigation Center of the AMA and the State Medical Societies, are active in various efforts to improve the professional environment for physicians.
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<urn:uuid:82d78ac7-c6b8-4263-9f9b-9fa9f5d37128>
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CC-MAIN-2013-20
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http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/about-ama/our-people.page
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|
en
| 0.965733
| 230
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|
(CNN) -- Coupons give discounts on frozen meals, toothpaste, breakfast cereals and household cleaners. And increasingly, consumers are turning to coupons for their prescription medications, too.
Web-savvy consumers, like Stephanie Nelson, founder of couponmom.com, seek coupons by visiting the drug manufacturer's Web site and print them from home computers to lower prescription costs.
Nelson, an Atlanta, Georgia, resident, found three $10 coupons for her children's Advair (an asthma medication) that applied to her insurance co-pay and a $30 discount for another medication.
"That's becoming more common," Nelson, a coupon expert, said of finding prescription discounts. Coupons for many nonpharmaceutical items are widely available, and users can often sign up for special offers. "Once you get on the mailing list, they send you coupons by e-mail or mail on a regular basis."
Prescription coupons may result in initial savings, but critics say they lure consumers into buying expensive brand-name drugs. Advocates, however, see benefit to consumers in the current tough economy.
"It's not a permanent solution, but it's a solution that helps a lot of people," said Dr. Rich Sagall, president of NeedyMeds.org, a nonprofit that helps people who cannot afford medicine or health care costs.
It's unclear from marketing research how many prescription drug coupons are redeemed.
Prescription drugs are lumped into the health and beauty category, which includes personal care products and over-the-counter drugs. That makes it difficult to pinpoint how many medication coupons have been redeemed, according to NCH Marketing Services Inc., part of the Valassis Co., which manages coupon processing and promotion information. However, prescription drugs were not in the top 10 growth or top 20 categories of coupon distribution, said Charles Brown, vice president of marketing.
"I don't think there are any questions that they are becoming more and more popular," said Mark Calabrese, vice president and general manager of marketing solutions for Cegedim Dendrite, which provides companies co-pay cards, programs and vouchers.
Most major pharmaceutical groups have some form of vouchers or coupons, he said. These incentives were put on the market in the mid-2000s. Lately financial considerations prompted by a tough economy and higher out-of-pocket expenses have turned consumers to use them more.
The purpose of these prescription drug discounts is to help people stay on their prescribed medications, which in the long run will help them save money by staying healthier, Calabrese said.
At Buckley Pharmacy in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, owner Jerry Segal often sees patients fill their prescriptions with discount cards from the doctor's office or printouts from their computers.
"We don't have a problem with that," he said. Pharmacists enter the ID and group number from the coupon into the computer to check whether the discounts are legitimate.
Most coupons printed from a home computer require insurance and apply the discount to the recipient's co-pay, he said. Five to 10 percent of the coupons received at Buckley Pharmacy come from home printouts, Segal estimated.
Online coupons for prescription drugs are products of the direct-to-consumer marketing age, said Nilesh Bhutada, assistant professor of clinical and administrative sciences at California Northstate College of Pharmacy.
"You're able to try medications for free and see if it works for you and see if side effects have an impact on your health," he said.
Research suggests that such free trials or discounts create "positive impact on the brand" -- essentially brand loyalty, Bhutada said.
In a study published this year in Health Marketing Quarterly, University of Georgia researchers created ads for a fictitious cholesterol-lowering medication. One of the ads contained a coupon for a free 30-day supply, and the other did not. After filling out questionnaires, the 150 participants indicated a more favorable view of the ad with coupons.
Dr. Doug Bremner, author of "Before You Take That Pill: Why the Drug Industry May Be Bad For Your Health," likened coupons to free drug samples from the doctor's office.
"What happens is, the free samples are given to physicians, [and] they give them to their patients," Bremner said. "Once they take the prescription medications, which is a brand name that still has a patent, they're more likely to keep using it. The expenditure is greater than they would be otherwise. In the long run, it's profitable for the drug company, and the same thing goes on for coupons.
"It's probably beneficial for sales of prescription medications but not beneficial for consumer or patient. In a lot of cases, you may get a coupon for brand-name drug, and there's a generic equally effective that costs less."
That's not always the case, said Sagall, whose Web site links to pharmaceutical coupons.
Doctors might prescribe a certain drug that might be more expensive than a generic, because it could be more effective depending on an individual's situation, he said.
The active ingredients for generics and brand-name drugs are usually the same, but there can be differences in the generic's inactive ingredients that affect how quickly a drug is released.
Consumer advocate Fatima Mehdikarimi said she tends to avoid prescription drug coupons in favor of generics without coupons.
The coupons tend to be "for things that you need repeatedly, versus one prescription," she said. "In the long run, it's not a deal when there are alternatives."
There are other ways to find discounts that require digging on the Web, said Mehdikarimi, who runs the Shopping Queen Web site, which dispenses cost-cutting advice. She compares drug prices from different retailers and checks to see whether she can find coupons from retailers such as CVS, Walgreens, Costco, Target or Wal-Mart.
When a medication for her daughter's earache cost $150, she told the physician it was too expensive. The doctor wrote another prescription for a generic drug that cost $10, and it worked just fine, she said.
Mehdikarimi repeats the frequently dispensed advice: Seek generics.
|
<urn:uuid:c5cd927e-3139-45b0-95ba-5cbce0244bb1>
|
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|
http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/04/20/prescription.medicine.coupons/index.html
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|
en
| 0.957004
| 1,284
| 1.546875
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|
06/29/2010 - Re: Forest Shakedown, May 18, and Horror Borealis, May 19, Peter Foster
These columns implied that the work of The Pew Charitable Trusts, in helping to broker the recent Canadian Boreal Forest Agreement, somehow violates the intent of Pew's founding donors. Nothing could be further from the truth.
The four children of Sun Oil Co. founder Joseph N. Pew and his wife, Mary, established seven family trusts beginning in 1948 to address societys challenges and opportunities, and to strengthen the communities in which we live. By taking a giant step to help sustainably manage the vast and globally important resource of the boreal forest, all the participants in this agreement provide a great service not only to Canada but also to the world.
We are committed to telling the truth and trusting the people. In the case of the boreal agreement, the science and economics provided compelling data on which to base the largest forest conservation plan in history.
Today, half of the board of The Pew Charitable Trusts are members of the Pew family. Our entire board and staff embrace their stewardship responsibilities with care and diligence in serving the public interest and honouring the legacy of our donors.
Rebecca W. Rimel, president and CEO, The Pew Charitable Trusts, Philadelphia
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<urn:uuid:7da58932-b20e-44f0-be4b-caa6a1d6fc9b>
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CC-MAIN-2013-20
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http://www.pewtrusts.org/news_room_detail.aspx?id=59213
|
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|
en
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|
Americans Cut Spending Last Month
Growth expected to slow severely in fourth quarter
Published: Friday, November 30, 2012 at 10:56 a.m.
Last Modified: Friday, November 30, 2012 at 10:56 a.m.
WASHINGTON | Americans cut back on spending last month while their income remained flat. The weakness in part reflected disruptions from Superstorm Sandy that could slow economic growth for the rest of the year.
The Commerce Department said Friday that consumer spending dropped 0.2 percent in October. It was the weakest figure since May, and it compared with a 0.8 percent spending increase in September.
Income had risen 0.4 percent in September.
Work interruptions caused by the storm reduced wages and salaries in October by about $18 billion at an annual rate, the government said. The storm affected 24 states, with the most severe damage in New York and New Jersey.
Consumers may also be scaling back on spending because of fears about the “fiscal cliff.” That’s the name for automatic tax increases and spending cuts that will take effect in January if Congress and the Obama administration fail to strike a budget deal by then.
“The upshot is that although both incomes and spending will probably bounce back in November, the underlying trend is weak,” said Paul Dales, senior U.S. economist at Capital Economics.
The depressed spending figures suggest that the economy is growing more slowly in the October-December quarter than it did in the July-September quarter. Consumer spending drives nearly 70 percent of economic activity.
Dales predicts U.S. economic growth will tumble from the 2.7 percent annual rate in the July-September quarter to a weak 1 percent in the October-December period. That’s too low to lower the unemployment rate, now at 7.9 percent.
Even discounting the effects of Sandy, income and spending gains would have been meager. Income would have risen a still-weak 0.1 percent. Spending would have been essentially flat, Dales estimated.
After-tax income adjusted for inflation fell 0.1 percent in October. And spending, when adjusted for inflation, dropped 0.3 percent — the biggest such decline in three years.
The saving rate edged up slightly to 3.4 percent of after-tax income in October, compared with 3.3 percent in September.
Many economists say growth will rebound in the New Year once the rebuilding phase begins in the Northeast.
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Emotions are powers of the Mind, and like all powers of the Mind influence Energy. Emotion can therefore be thought of as E-Motion; Energy in Motion.
Although all thought influences Energy to some extent, emotions can be and very often are a very powerful influence over Universal Energy, and therefore what we attract into our individual physical reality we create based upon those thoughts or emotions.
Thoughts charged with emotion can be very powerful indeed. Providing we remain fully aware of this fact then we can either control or use emotions in our lives to a very powerful extent. We should always either immediately negate any negative emotions by use of the will, or much better still we should immediately transmute negative emotions to their opposite positive emotions as soon as we become aware of them. Again, we should always remain fully aware of our feelings, thoughts and emotions at all times as a fundamental requirement for creating our own reality and controlling our own lives rather than simply being carried along with the flow, or being constantly under the influence of others.
It should be mentioned that this is a principle behind true alchemy. When most people think of alchemy or perhaps even in the context of the philosophers stone, they are often thinking in terms of the transmutation of base metals such as lead into precious metals such as gold. This is of course quite possible due to the fact that everything in the Universe is ultimately Energy, and Energy is influenced by Mind. At a quantum potential level therefore there really is no reason whatsoever why Energy transiently comprising atoms of lead should not be transmuted to Energy comprising atoms of gold or indeed atoms of anything at all.
True alchemy in its purest and original form however is not about transmuting material things, about rather the evolution to perfection of the human body, Soul and Spirit where the “lead” of negative characteristics are transmuted to the “gold” of their corresponding positive characteristics, an ongoing process of perfection that continues along the path back to unity with The Source, The First Cause, God.
The true meaning of life, the very reason for our creation and individual existence is to evolve back to God by means of the ongoing process of perfection, always aspiring to the Ultimate perfection of God. Transmutation of negative, dense, low vibrations to their opposite positive, fine, high vibrations is all a part of the ongoing evolutionary process of all life.
Awareness and control over the emotions can be profoundly valuable, especially for example in the creation of our own realities. Because they are such a powerful aspect of the Mind, they have an equally powerful effect on the Energy that shapes our individual reality.
The scale of emotion ranges from the very highest vibration of all, the vibration of the The Source, The First Cause, of God, that of Unconditional Love, all the way down to the very lowest vaibration at the lowest end of the emotional Energy scale of vibration, that of abject hate.
It should be noted that the base level of emotions, and therefore of vibration have a profound effect on exactly where people find themselves after passing on from the physical world after the process erroneously known as “death”. As we know, The Law of Attraction is always in immutable operation throughout the Universe. In the context of the transition from the physical to the non-physical worlds everyone will transition to the Energy level of vibration of the Astral worlds that most closely match the overall vibrations of the Astral body or Soul. Those who have therefore lived a hate oriented physical life will transition to a lower Energy level of vibration of the Astral worlds that matches that level of Energy and vibration perfectly. They will find themselves existing within a dark, dank, oppressive existence with for example perpetual mist and fog with bare trees with no leaves; these being a perfect reflection of their Mind and therefore vibration. Such a world will be inhabited with other people with similar Energy vibration characteristics.
Even these worlds however are places of learning and evolution in that the people residing there will eventually learn the meaning of the phrase “do unto others as they would do unto you”, and once learned they can integrate that experience into their being, raising vibrations and the transition to inner, more pleasant worlds of a inner Energy level of vibration before reincarnating to apply the lessons learned within another physical life on Earth.
The same principles apply all the way down the scale of emotion from Unconditional Love, through joy, passion, enthusiasm, positiveness, optimism, hope, contentment, satisfaction, boredom, frustration, feeling overwhelmed, disappointment, doubt, worry, blame, discouragement, anger, revenge, insecurity, jealousy, fear and hate.
It is well worth noting that “fear” is a level of vibration that is very far down on the emotional scale and yet is an emotion that many people increasingly project to their own detriment by creating a powerful fear driven reality for themselves. As the very true statement says “there is nothing to fear but fear itself”. Like worry, fear will always feed upon itself manifesting more of the object of that fear into the individual, experiential reality of the fearful person. Fear must therefore be immediately identified and transmuted to a higher Energy level of vibration and emotion such as optimism, or preferably joy.
Our emotions are also our inner system of guidance as we progress along the path back to God, and in maintaining full control over our own individual reality. By always being consciously aware of our emotions we can steer our lives in the desired direction instead of being swept along like flotsam on a river, by random thoughts and “situations” and under the influence and even direct control of others. As we already know, we are all open channels of expression for the Source, The First Cause of God, and by maintaining these open channels as widely open as possible we will allow God to express and create though us, in turn enabling ourselves to easily attract and share in the infinite abundance of the Universe.
By paying such close attention to our emotions, accentuating the most positive powerful ones while neutralising or transmuting negative emotions we can align ourselves with The Source, The First Cause, God, thereby enjoying a much closer relationship with God as a free flowing channel of expression, attraction and therefore of creation. We are all co-creators in the Universe, the microcosm, as well as within our own experiential reality.
Emotions can have an extremely powerful effect on creating your own reality. The more positive, focused, emotionally charged Energy you can focus upon your desires as if they are already a total reality in your life, the more of your desires you will attract from the Universe of infinite abundance.
One of the most powerful of all aspects of positive emotion is passion. Charging your manifestation exercises with passion will greatly enhance its effectiveness, and accordingly how soon it will become an experiential reality within your physical life, keeping in Mind that the objects of your desires have always existed within the infinite abundance or the Eternal Now of the Universe. So whatever you do, always “follow your passions”.
Following your passions is very powerful in business. Those who start a business with the exclusive idea of causing people to part with money that they may profit will never be truly wealthy, they may merely “make money”. “Making money” and attracting true wealth are very different things. Those who do go into business to “make money” might well achieve their objectives if they work hard and succeed in making money or even in making a lot of money, but they will most certainly never be wealthy. When such people look back at the money they made and how they made it, they will know that they have a hole inside them that they can never go back and fill. They made money alright but what genuine difference did they really make to the lives of people and to the world? If they did affect the lives of other people was it truly in a positive way that enriched the life of others?
We are all Sons and Daughters of God, made in the true Spiritual image of God, and we must always first and foremost serve our Brothers and Sisters of the Universe before we even think of serving ourselves. Selfless service is extremely important both in personal evolution and in attracting wealth. By serving others we serve ourselves in accordance with immutable Universal laws.
In business, following a passion is an extremely powerful way of attracting long-term wealth. More importantly, in the years to come such a person will be rightly filled with pride, fulfillment and joy at having profoundly been of genuine service to his or her Brothers and Sisters of the Universe, having touched the lives and helped many people in the process. Passion is Energy, a very powerful Energy of emotion that will influence the Energy of like-Minded people by means of the Law of Attraction. When a person is passionate about the product or service being offered, people who are equally passionate about the same subject will be attracted and will likely purchase the product with as much joy as you are selling it to them. This principle can be likened to two tuning forks separated by a distance. When one tuning fork is struck the other tuning fork will resonate at the same frequency of vibration and will be attracted. If you consider yourself to be one of these tuning forks and your potential customer the other, both resonating at the same frequency of Energy and therefore vibration, it is simple to understand how the Law of Attraction operates in these situations.
There is plenty of evidence of this on the Internet today whereby people are following a passion in providing goods and services. These people are sometimes making millions of dollars per year offering what might seem like very obscure goods and services, and all working from home with a single Website and no particular technical abilities or resources.
The Universe often requires physical channels in order to bring physical things into physical reality. The Internet is the ultimate physical channel in that there are millions of people already connected to the Internet, with more each day, and using the Internet every day in seeking information, products and services in pursuit of their passions. When the passions of someone resonate with someone else who is passionately offering goods or services relating to the very same passion, their relative Energy, vibration resonates in harmony and they are thereby attracted to each other in a very powerful way. Such an attraction really is perfect because these passionate people have been able to mutually achieve their objectives with joy, and after they part will feel mutually fulfilled; the merchant in providing goods or services that have proven to be of true value and service to someone sharing the same passion, and the customer for obtaining an object of their passion that will enrich their lives. This is another example of service resulting in evolution and expansion.
As we will see in the next chapter of this book, emotion is an extremely powerful catalyst to apply in the process of conscious manifestation. The higher and more charged the emotion is, and the higher will be the vibrations and the more powerful it will be in accordance with The Law of Attraction.
One of the most powerful emotions, aside from Unconditional Love is Joy, which is very high on the Energy scale of vibration; the more joy that is projected into manifestation exercises, the more effective it will be the result. People with a genuine passion for something almost always follow that passion with great joy and enthusiasm, which is why The Law of Attraction works so powerfully in their favour in attracting an unlimited abundance relating to that passion.
Two further emotions that are very important are Appreciation and Gratitude. Taking anything for granted results in low vibrations, and your life will reflect that perfectly. Sincere appreciation and in particular genuine and sincere gratitude conveys a vibration that will attract more of the same into your life. It is all a part of maintaining that open channel as an expression of God through which God can express in the form of unlimited abundance, evolution and creation. Always give thanks in your Mind with the highest possible sincere appreciation and gratitude for everything you have attracted into your life from the Universe of infinite abundance and you will continue to attract more abundance without limits.
As we will see in the next chapter on the subject of manifestation, empowering your manifestation exercises with the Energy vibrations of joy, passion, enthusiasm, gratitude and appreciation has a very powerful influence over the Energy involved, and will assist enormously with attracting the objects of your desires into your physical experiential reality by affirming the fact that you already have them, thereby increasing the attraction of these desires into your experiential reality where they can be enjoyed.
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More than gimmicky publicity campaigns and the best efforts of our leadership, there is a reason why the Georgetown College Democrats are the largest student organization on campus.
Presiding over the largest Pell Grant increase in national history, pro-student healthcare reform, the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, and ordering the long-awaited end to our nearly decade-long war in Iraq, change has indeed come to America. In fewer than three years, President Barack Obama has overcome significant institutional setbacks and presided over an administration that has enacted more progressive policy change than any other in most of our lifetimes, all during a great recession.
While the disappointments have grown numerable and many of us were left wondering what happened to the progressive we voted for in 2008, giving Obama a second term remains our best hope for prosperity through this young decade. The work of ending 9% unemployment, creating jobs, and advancing real reform on immigration and the environment began but was quickly cut short by the arrival of obstructionist Republicans and divided government in 2010.
We have the chance to finally end the recession and put Americans back to work next November in 2012. Let’s unite once more to achieve it.
Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons
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When news happens, text your photos and videos to 07747488605. Or contact us by email or phone.
Why Warsi is wrong about Pakistani men
The grooming debate took another turn today as Sayeeda Warsi claimed the community was not speaking out against the crime.
She urged Muslim leaders to address the issue and ensure that men who regard white women as “third class citizens” are isolated by their communities.
But is this really the case? And is race really a factor in how these men are behaving?
And what steps should mosques take to highlight this issue? And what steps can they take. It is unlikely that any of those taking part in such acts would listen to somebody at a mosque anyway.
The point is that this is not a race issue but is has BECOME a race issue. And anyone who argues against it is simply thought to be insensitive against the plight of the victims.
This is simply not the case. This is a sick and twisted crime just like everything else.
We all have sympathy with the victims.
It is though time to state the obvious. This is not an issue exclusive to ‘Asians’. It is also not an issue exclusive to Pakistani men.
The vast majority of those men who take part in the sexual abuse of children are not ‘Asian’ or ‘Pakistani’ men. They are white men.
This is a fact supported by evidence.
Every time a white person is arrested does his background, culture and the way he was brought-up play a part in the reports that follow?
Is it wrong to suggest that black men have been passing white women around in their circles for many years? Would a senior politician ever say this in public?
And what is this ‘culture’ of seeing white women as third class citizens?
If there is anything that actually highlights this culture it is Indian Bollywood movies. Scantily clad background dancers tend to be ’white women’.
These films are aired in UK cinemas. Millions watch them on a weekly basis.
And why are there no Indian women dancing at the side of the Indian Premier League (IPL) matches? All tend to be white women.
Where is the uproar?
One can only dare to think what would happen if a Pakistani film featured scantily clad white women dancing behind a lead actor in a shalwaar kameez.
There is indeed a culture of the degradation of women. But it is not just white women I’m afraid.
In every community you will get people taking part in in criminal activities.
These crimes are highlighted everywhere in the community.
It is about time we stopped apologising for the actions of a sick minority.
This is a twisted crime just like everything else.
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Your gift to help a hardworking entrepreneur will double in impact thanks to a generous World Vision partner.
Carmen is from Mexico. She needs a loan of $250 to buy stud sheep.
Carmen has a small business selling turkey, sheep, and corn. She started this business ten years ago to help her husband with household expenses. She sells most of her animals to members of her community, although when she has a large flock of turkeys she will travel to sell them in other towns' markets.
Carmen works extra hard during cold seasons, when her animals are susceptible to sickness. She must keep them from dying so that she does not lose the money that she invested in them.
Carmen will use a loan from World Vision to buy stud sheep. This will expand her flock and help her have a stable source of income. Carmen plans to save part of her income to keep investing in her business and to save up for emergencies.
She has two children still living at home; they are both in high school. As her income increases, she will be able to provide them with a better quality of life and continue to pay for their education.
Carmen’s long-term goal is to buy pigs as well so that she can sell three different kinds of animals to her neighbors.
The Agriculture business sector covers all farming and livestock activities. Some entrepreneurs request loans to help in securing supplies and equipment. Others want to buy more animals to breed or purchase feed and medicines. The majority of our loan clients live in rural communities where agriculture is already understood as a business model. It is for this reason that approximately 50% of our loans are in the agricultural sector.
Crecencio Morales is a mountainous community that is home to an indigenous population of approximately 8,000. Elder members of the population still speak the Mazahua indigenous languages and weave traditional clothing.
Residents of Crecencio Morales live in poverty, depending primarily on agriculture, commerce, and the production of artisan goods for income. Most homes are made of wood and have only two rooms with dirt floors. Families cook their meals on wood stoves, as gas and electricity are limited. Few residents have access to toilets or running water; most use outhouses and fetch water from community wells.
In Crecencio Morales, World Vision is providing families with business training; helping farmers increase agricultural production and incomes; attending to the health needs of malnourished children; increasing access to safe water through the installation of water tanks; and providing tutoring and recreational opportunities.
Thank you for supporting the small loan for Carmen Garcia Cruz to improve her farming and livestock business. She invested her loan of $250 to buy stud sheep.
Carmen has now repaid her loan in full. She used her additional income to purchase food for her turkeys and sheep and to buy supplies in bulk. She also used it to provide food and other daily necessities for her family.
Carmen's 2 children continue to study in high school.
The profits she is earning create lasting improvements in her life. In the future Carmen hopes to take out another loan and purchase some pigs to raise.
Thank you for your support of Carmen and World Vision Micro. These funds are now being recycled to support another deserving entrepreneur in the same community.
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Bible of the Right Concedes on Gay Marriage
Well, that makes it more or less official: A recent spate of articles that has shown the National Review moving closer and closer toward acceptance of marriage equality has culminated in an admission that the ground has permanently shifted.
In a Mar. 18 article entitled "Gay Marriage Gains Ground," Michael Barone concedes that "support for legalization crosses party lines." Beginning with Ohio Sen. Rob Portman’s recent op-ed in the Columbus, Ohio, Dispatch Barone points to another conservative GOP superstar, former Vice President Dick Chaney.
Both men have gay children, which led them to change their minds. But Barone doesn’t mention such other darlings of the right such as Ted Olson. The man who successfully challenged Al Gore in the Supreme Court case that gave George Bush the presidency, Olson and his wife were long considered among the most rigorous and profound thinkers of the New Right.
In recent years, Olson has become a hero to gay activists for taking his brilliant legal mind and applying it to the so-far highly successful court fight against California’s Proposition 8. Olson has said that he believes same-sex marriage is not only right but also fits right in with conservative principles.
So why is the National Review so important? Founded by William F. Buckley, the man who is perhaps most responsible for the resurgence of modern American conservatism, in 1955, the magazine bills itself -- with some justification -- as America’s most widely read and influential magazine and web site for conservative news, commentary, and opinion."
Buckley may have been the mastermind behind the spectacular flameout of Barry Goldwater’s run against Lyndon Johnson for president in 1964, but he also became a savvy talking head on the then-fresh medium of television.
Buckley’s TV show "Firing Line" became must-watch TV for the Burgundy-and-brie set. He regularly locked horns with liberals, but his most famous bout came in 1969, when he debated Gore Vidal. No Marquess of Queensbury rules here: These guys went at each other like raging bulls, using libel suits and insults as their capes and swords.
The match-up of two Ivy League, silver spoon New York aristocrats from opposite sides of the political spectrum created one of the most famous feuds in modern American literary history.
When Gore called Buckley a "crypto-Nazi," Buckley leaped from his seat and yelled, "Now listen, you queer, stop calling me a crypto-Nazi or I’ll sock you in your goddamn face, and you’ll stay plastered."
Buckley later said of Gore’s homosexuality, "The man who in his essays proclaims the normalcy of his affliction, and in his art the desirability of it, is not to be confused with the man who bears his sorrow quietly. The addict is to be pitied and even respected, not the pusher."
Most notoriously, early in the AIDS epidemic, Buckley called for sufferers to be isolated and branded with a tattoo. To be fair, his wife went on to do AIDS fund-raising and, more notably, was perhaps the best friend of the legendary New York socialite who was one of the first, most visible, most active, most empathetic and most effective supporters of Gay Men’s Health Crisis in its critical early years. No less than Larry Kramer has called her a saint (and Kramer is hardly one to dole out praise to anybody).
The magazine has long been a spear-carrier for pet causes of the right. That’s why its sea change is so significant.
On Mar. 13, the magazine reported that one prominent GOP pollster found that same-sex marriage was "inevitable." Calling it "another issue that would limit the growth of the Republican party," the pollster also noted the remarkable acceleration of acceptance that now crosses party lines.
"In the previous 20 years, the increase of support for gay marriage had been about 1 percent a year," Jan van Louhuizen reported. "Somewhere around 2009 there was an increase to 4 or 5 percent. It’s like a hockey-stick curve. All of the sudden there is this elbow."
More importantly, anti-marriage advocates have become marginalized into an increasingly tiny demographic of "Evangelical whites, tea-party Republicans, older voters, and whites that do not have a college degree."
These are not the typical readers of the National Review, who tend to be of the professional class or business executives and are as likely to live in light-red enclaves of blue states, such as Manhattan’s Upper East Side or Boston’s Beacon Hill, than in Muskogee, Oklah., or Huntington, W. Va.
On Sunday, there was another dramatic statement from yet another hero of the Right. Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, who faced down a recall vote after he renegotiated contracts with state workers, said on "Meet the Press" that younger conservatives are so accepting of marriage equality that it will soon cease to be an issue in political races at all.
Walker, who in the past has compared same-sex marriage to incest and pedophilia, now believes that the issue is obscuring the GOP core message. "When I talk about things, I talk about the economic and fiscal crises in our state and in our country," he said. "That’s what people want to resonate about. They don’t want to get focused on those issues"; i.e., like same-sex marriage.
If the most prominent intellectual on the right, George Will, hasn’t exactly endorsed same-sex marriage, he soft-peddled the seismic shift as a move from traditional conservatism to a right-leaning libertarianism. Will was speaking specifically about the recently completed CPAC, the right wing’s most prominent annual gathering, held in Washington, D.C.
Other than Sarah Palin, who was guaranteed to throw red meat (or at least a giant soda) at the adoring crowd, the best-received CPAC event was apparently an "outsiders" gathering that approvingly discussed same-sex marriage.
Like bread crumbs leading to a majestic house, the long and very recent string of articles, statements and public discussions keep returning to the same themes: Young people see opposing same-sex marriage as a betrayal of the core conservative value of less, not more, government regulations over human behavior. A great many of them are making common cause with those gay activists (and others) who believe that marriage should not be sanctioned by the state at all, but by clerics and religious institutions.
Or not at all. Civil unions would take the place of legal marriage, with places of worship still able to bestow blessings on the wedding vows outside of the law.
Whatever it’s called or whatever it becomes, the union of two unrelated adults regardless of sexual identity or orientation is rapidly -- and unexpectedly -- becoming as accepted here as it is in most of Northern Europe.
At CPAC, the change in the Grand Old Party was noticeable in the fact that the big-name speakers seemed to run from it, as though it were too hot to handle -- or toxic if he did. No one called for extending the federal Defense of Marriage Act. Even Rick Santorum, easily the most prominent anti-marriage equality candidates last year, didn’t bring up the subject or wouldn’t comment.
Finding itself in the unfamiliar role of wallflower, the board of the Family Research Council, in a statement, bemoaned, "Twenty years ago, reiterating what the Republican Party stands for wouldn’t have been newsworthy. "Our movement has entered an age when silence does more to define conservatives than sentiment."
Reflecting a new reality (possibly) that voters might actually want elected officials to concentrate on bread-and-butter issues, an operative close to Santorum told Polotico, voters are "not going to bed at night worrying about gay marriage, quite frankly."
In other words, they are more and more seeing it as a loser, a drum that hurts the ears of voters who would hear noises about jobs, a recovering market, their home’s value rising and Social Security stabilizing.
The National’s Review also-ran much younger journal of right-wing opinion, seems to be ignoring the issue in favor of New Right causes like the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Whether to the most remote villages of the steppes, or the no-less treacherous field mines along Washington’s K Street, GOP operatives are quietly trying to move their candidate or office-holding clients away from marriage to the military (ooops, Don’t Ask Don’t Tell repeal); to big business and bigger moguls (except that gay men like David Geffen, Tim Gill and Peter Thiel have "hijacked" the conversation.
It increasingly looks as though an unregenerate homophobic right-winger can’t turn anywhere for support.
Sports? Pro teams and their players rapidly emerged last year as the most vocal supporters of gay marriage, against bullying, and acceptance. Gay gay gay gay. The clergy? Although the Catholic Church and a few fundamentalist Protestant sects are mounting a rear-guard action, the mainstream denominations, including two of Judaism’s three major U.S. branches and nearly all the "parlor Christian" churches to which America’s elite belong, left the anti- group a while ago.
When Clint Eastwood, who emerged as the one breakout star of the GOP 2012 national convention in Tampa last year, later said he supported gay marriage, it looked as though the only vocal supporters were those who make their living from their stance. And erosion of support, active members and donations among groups like the National Organization for Marriage, are leaving these holdouts stranded to marshal whatever troops remain for non-winnable battles in states like Rhode Island, Hawaii, Colorado and, now it appears, even the bellwether of bellwether states, Ohio, is rapidly shifting ground.
Where Ohio goes, goes the nation has been a mantra of politics for the past several elections. That’s why the view the absence of any substantial negative fallout from Portmans’ 180-degree turn as the most telling evidence yet that voters, if not all of their elected leaders, have decided that a marriage between those two nice ladies who live down the block means a lot less than whether an elderly straight couple can stay in a house underwater on its mortgage.
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False hope for 'direct election'
Talk about the direct election of presidents bubbles up around every quadrennial election. This year was no different. Liberals say the constitutional mechanism for picking presidents, the Electoral College, is outdated. They claim it depresses voting in non-battleground states and raises the possibility of electing presidents unable to govern because they don't represent the national popular will, don't command at least a popular-vote plurality or both. The election that sticks hardest in their craw is 2000's, when their candidate, Al Gore, won the popular vote but lost to George W. Bush in the Electoral College.
Liberals swaddle their arguments in "democracy," "disenfranchise," "one man, one vote," and "the will of the people." This time around, they have been persuasive enough to secure Republican former Gov. John G. Rowland's endorsement and the support of 56 percent of Americans surveyed by Rasmussen Reports.
Read more of this story and more!
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Sandy Socks wrote on Dec 29, 2012 3:19 PM:
The real issue is what's better for the country. Millions of voters in New York who wanted Romney to win had their votes discarded. Same for millions of voters in Texas who wanted Obama. But of course that doesn't matter to Pape and his toy.
Obama and Romney concentrated most of their money and energy in 10 swing states. Even then, both candidates only targeted less than 10% of voters there looking to make an impression on those "Undecided" folks.
Is candidates ignoring the overwhelming feelings and will of millions of Americans what this newspaper wants?
Sure, if it benefits Republicans.
I wouldn't wrap a dead fish in this newspaper for fear of embarrassing the fish. "
FREEPRESS wrote on Dec 29, 2012 8:18 PM:
toto wrote on Jan 2, 2013 8:07 PM:
National Popular Vote would give a voice to the minority party voters in each state. Now their votes are counted only for the candidate they did not vote for. Now they don't matter to their candidate.
And now votes, beyond the one needed to get the most votes in the state, for winning in a state are wasted and don't matter to candidates. Utah (5 electoral votes) alone generated a margin of 385,000 "wasted" votes for Bush in 2004. 8 small western states, with less than a third of California’s population, provided Bush with a bigger margin (1,283,076) than California provided Kerry (1,235,659).
With National Popular Vote, elections wouldn't be about winning states. No more distorting and divisive red and blue state maps. Every vote, everywhere would be counted equally for, and directly assist, the candidate for whom it was cast.
Candidates would need to care about voters across the nation, not just undecided voters in a handful of swing states. The political reality would be that when every vote is equal, the campaign must be run in every part of the country.
When and where voters matter, then so are the issues they care about most.
A shift of a few thousand voters in one or two states would have elected the second-place candidate in 4 of the 14 presidential elections since World War II. Near misses are now frequently common. There have been 7 consecutive non-landslide presidential elections (1988, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008, and 2012). 537 popular votes won Florida and the White House for Bush in 2000 despite Gore's lead of 537,179 (1,000 times more) popular votes nationwide. A shift of 60,000 voters in Ohio in 2004 would have defeated President Bush despite his nationwide lead of over 3 million votes.
With the current state-by-state winner-take-all system of awarding electoral votes, it could only take winning a bare plurality of popular votes in the 11 most populous states, containing 56% of the population of the United States, for a candidate to win the Presidency with a mere 23% of the nation's votes!
The National Popular Vote bill has passed 31 state legislative chambers in 21 states with 243 electoral votes. The bill has been enacted by 9 jurisdictions with 132 electoral votes - 49% of the 270 necessary to go into effect.
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Senate Committee Holds Hearing on Solitary Confinement
Tue June 19,
(Washington, D.C.) - This morning the Senate Judiciary Committee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Human Rights, chaired by Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL), will hold a hearing on the practice of solitary confinement in U.S. prison systems. The hearing will feature testimony from law enforcement personnel, academics, and advocates. The issue of mental health effects associated with solitary confinement is expected to receive close consideration.
In advance of the hearing, the American Psychiatric Association submitted the following testimony
to the Subcommittee. APA asked the Subcommittee to consider closely the known mental health effects associated with solitary confinement if any policy changes to the practice are made. Furthermore, APA noted how many prison systems often lack adequate healthcare facilities to provide services in an ethically appropriate fashion, and recommended necessary investments be made in both physician workforce and physician workspace."
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HUNDREDS MAY BE RESENTENCED UNDER ROCKEFELLER DRUG LAW REFORM
By May 31, 110 inmates had been resentenced, 35 of whom were released, under legislation signed in December 2004 by Gov. George E. Pataki reforming the state's harsh mandatory sentences known as the "Rockefeller" drug laws. These laws were originally passed in the early 1970s during the Nelson A. Rockefeller administration.
Under the new law, indeterminate sentences for Class A-I drug offenders serving 15 to 25 years to life have been replaced with determinate sentences from eight to 20 years, and the threshold weight for drug possession has doubled from four to eight ounces for a Class A-I drug felony conviction, and from two to four ounces for a Class A-II drug felony conviction. The new law also has replaced indeterminate sentences for lower-level drug offenses with determinate sentences, generally with lower mandatory minimums.
Of the approximately 14,000 offenders currently incarcerated for a felony drug conviction, 446 are Class A-I drug felons, serving life sentences with minimum terms of 15 years or more. Under the new law, these offenders can immediately apply for resentencing in the court in which they were convicted. Other incarcerated drug offenders (Class A-II and below) who have not finished their minimum sentences could be eligible for an additional merit time reduction. In addition, most drug offenders facing charges now or in the future could be eligible for shorter sentences.
HTML: Judicial Institute Judicial Salary Bill State of the Judiciary Drug Law Reform Welcome Innovative Jury Practices ABA American Jury Initiative Security Camera Network Court Security Review Profile: Joseph J. Traficanti Jr. Chief Justices In Manhattan Civil Case Management Court Officer Recruitment Public Access to Courts Family Court E-Petition Program Kids Go to Work Court Construction Update Fiduciary Commission Report OCA Update Bronx Court Cuts Case Backlog Law Day 2005 Merit Performance Awards
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The story of "Train in Vain"
by Marcus Gray
The following is a (slightly) abridged and adapted excerpt from Route 19 Revisited: the Clash and London Calling. The book includes chapters on the writing and recording of the album, on the packaging and promotion, and on the initial impact and long-term influence. But at its core is a section telling the tale behind each of London Calling's 19 tracks. From that section, this is the story of "Train in Vain." It's atypical in the respect that it focuses on one member of the band far more than the others, but otherwise it's fairly representative.
Like the rest of the section from which it comes, it takes its time to arrive at its destination, but it's not a gratuitous shaggy dog story. I made a conscious decision to explore each of the songs in detail and take a few diversions off the beaten track, so there are all kinds of trails and wormholes criss-crossing the album's unusually rich four-dimensional hinterland. Themes, places, people, events and inspirations recur, so that the histories speak to each other in the same way the songs do. As I once read in a David Bowie album sleeve note, the result is at once microcosmic and macrocosmic. Though, hopefully, only occasionally that pretentious.
Books of this nature are not aimed at the casual reader: they're intended for enthusiasts. And what would be the point in trying to tempt such folk with a pamphlet rehashing what they already know, or could find for free in a few minutes via the search engine of their choice? That said, I'd like to think Route 19 Revisited isn't just a wallow in Deep Clash Theory (or Shallow Clash Minutiae) for the sake of it; it's also about trying to catch an occasional glimpse of the force that through the green fuse drives the glory of rock'n'roll. As one of those Dylan guys almost put it.
"Train in Vain"
Over the years, a considerable mystique has grown around the last song on London Calling. It wasn't listed on the original LP cover, inner sleeve or label, which encouraged people to refer to it as a 'hidden extra' track. This was interpreted as a typically generous gesture from the Clash. And in a way, it was. But it wasn't pre-planned. It has its origins in something else that was even more typical of the band: a chaotic, skin-of-the-teeth rush to finish a project.
In the Clash On Broadway box set booklet, originally released in 1991, Kosmo Vinyl recounted what subsequently became the accepted version of how "Train in Vain" came to be, and how it came to be on London Calling. Continuing in the role he had assumed for the Clash's September-October 1979 Take the 5th tour of the USA, upon the band's return to London, Kosmo began discussions with the NME about a promotional freebie that would be timed to coincide with the planned release of the album in December: a flexi-disc of a previously unreleased Clash song to be attached to the UK music paper's cover.
In early November 1979, the band returned to Wessex studios in Highbury Park, London to record "Armagideon Time" for the flipside of the official UK single release, and to add a last few overdubs to several London Calling tracks prior to the final mix. At this time, when the Clash could not have needed the extra pressure less, Kosmo started badgering them to come up with something to meet the NME's looming deadline for the flexi. In the Vinyl Version, Mick Jones obligingly wrote not just the tune but also the accompanying lyric overnight, and the rest of the band put all other considerations on hold the following day to make sure the song was completed on time. Road manager Johnny Green confirms that Mick came in to start work on the song just as he and drum roadie Baker - believing all recording had been completed - were starting to clear the Clash's equipment from Wessex Studio One.
Kosmo adds a double sucker-punch line to his tale of heroic endeavour. Firstly, had he known the Clash already had unreleased songs in the can - like their cover of Booker T. and the MGs' "Time is Tight" - he would have simply offered the NME one of those, and saved the band the trouble. Secondly, even while "Train in Vain" was being recorded, he learned the NME couldn't go ahead with the flexi-disc, after all: their owners, IPC, rejected the idea out of hand. Determined to give their fans the freebie anyway, the Clash opted to put the track on London Calling instead, presenting themselves with even more frantic deadline problems.
It's a good story, but Kosmo hadn't been at Wessex throughout the main August 1979 album sessions, and was only aware of the endgame. Similarly, Johnny and Baker weren't physically in Studio One for every minute of every recording day (or night). Chief engineer Bill Price was, though, and he recalls the genesis of "Train in Vain" slightly differently. 'When we did "Train in Vain" for the NME, I seem to remember that we had done the backing track earlier, maybe under another name,' he says. 'I'm sure it was started, but not finished, before the American tour. At the time, I guess the band thought "Train in Vain" to be a pop song too far, and it was not originally scheduled to be on the album. But they were looking for something to do with it to keep Mick happy. It's Topper and Mick, not really the Clash.' When it was decided to revive it in early November, there was no time to teach Paul Simonon the bass part, and Joe Strummer had little or no interest in the track: as he told journalist Chris Bohn just a month later, he found 'jealousy and heterosexual complaining songs' boring.
Talking to Adam Sweeting in 2004, Mick implied the decision not to proceed with the flexi idea was made by the Clash rather than IPC. 'I remember we thought, "This is a bit too good to give away on the NME, so we didn't.' For 'we', read 'I.' It was Mick who was convinced that "Train in Vain" was something special, and who pushed hard for the song to be included on London Calling.
He knew the album as it stood was a showcase for his talents as a tunesmith, versatile musician, studio arranger, and even co-producer (albeit uncredited), but it was still dominated by Joe Strummer to an unprecedented degree. 'London Calling' itself - the lead track, the project-defining song - was chiefly Joe's creation. Mick had been the main writer or instigator of several lyrics on the Clash's first album, and had been practically the sole author of "Complete Control" and of Give 'Em Enough Rope's attention-grabbing "Stay Free." As of 10 November 1979, though, both proportionally and in terms of impact, he had contributed relatively few lyrical ideas to their third album, a double. More so than ever before, Mick's vocals were all over London Calling, but somehow there appeared to be less of his actual voice on the record. "Train in Vain" represented his last chance to clamber up onto the table and put that right.
'I watched the dynamic change. It was very fluid within the band, who called the shots,' says Johnny Green. 'I think, during London Calling Joe's power rose hugely. He'd been at a really low ebb with hepatitis when they were coming out of being a punk group and Mick had taken control. And then with [original Clash manager] Bernie Rhodes going [at the end of 1978], Joe had taken a bit more of a dive. But I think London Calling allowed Joe - because of his creative input, and because of his energy and dynamism - to reassert himself over the band.' Nobody could have faulted Mick's commitment or work rate during the writing and recording of the album, but - as the lyric of "Train in Vain" itself testifies - he had been unhappy and unusually unproductive as a writer for some time before that. 'Even when his star was not in the ascendant, though, Mick would never give up,' says Johnny. 'He was not going to say, "Well, OK, Joe, you take it over for a while." In that way, Mick was tough.'
Even though tacking it on as the last track on the album pulled the rug from under the big finish offered by Joe's 'Thank you, and goodnight from the band' shtick on "Revolution Rock," and even though the Clash had already pushed their record company's patience up to - and past - its limit by insisting upon including 18 tracks on the album, never mind 19. . . "Train in Vain" was added to London Calling.
What rings entirely true about Kosmo's account of "Train in Vain" is the brinksmanship involved in finishing the song. With the absolute possible final deadline for delivery to the pressing plant being 11PM on Tuesday 13 December 1979, mixing of the track - and tweaks to the rest of the album - continued throughout Monday and into the very early hours of Tuesday morning, with the sequenced playback of the now 19-track London Calling not taking place until 5AM. Bill Price then took the tapes to Tim Young at CBS studios in Whitfield Street for mastering to commence at 10AM. After a reviving nap at home, Mick joined them in the afternoon to hear the result. The album sleeve had gone to the printer days before, so he took this opportunity to have Tim etch the legend, 'Track 5 is "Train in Vain"' into the run-off groove of side 4. In more ways than one, then, Mick Jones had the last word on London Calling.
Like "I'm Not Down" and "Lonesome Me," "Train in Vain" is a Mick Jones song that makes multiple references to the classic pop of an earlier era. Former Drifters lead singer Ben E. King recorded "Stand By Me" in summer 1961, taking it to Number 4 in the USA and Number 27 in the UK, but its roots went much deeper than that. In 1905, Psalm 23, verse 4 - 'Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me- had inspired Charles Tindley, the self-educated son of slaves to write a Christian hymn entitled "Stand By Me." It was recorded by numerous other gospel artists before, in the late Fifties, the lead vocalist of gospel group the Soul Stirrers, Sam Cooke, amped up the drama in the verses by throwing in extra biblical references, and, together with the group's manager, J. W. Alexander, claimed co-authorship of the resulting "Stand By Me, Father."
The Soul Stirrers recorded it in 1960, by which time Sam Cooke had already left to go solo as a singer noted for secularizing gospel songs, in the process helping to invent what became known as soul music. Ben E. King has admitted his "Stand By Me" was based on Cooke's. He followed Sam's example in three further ways: by addressing his new lyric to a woman rather than to God or his only begotten son; by going solo when the Drifters passed on his request to record the song; and by replacing the previous composer credits with his own name and those of his co-authors, the established rock'n'roll songwriting team of Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller.
In an early Sixties popular music scene dominated by Milquetoasts idealizing teen romance, King's amended lyric sounded remarkably adult. The inspiration of Psalm 23 is still evident: sung with gospel passion, the song considers love as mutual support and succour through bad times as well as good. If it gets dark and scary, even if the world crumbles, the protagonist can make it through so long as his partner is by his side. And vice versa.
By 1968, it was a long time since country and R&B had had their baby and named it rock'n'roll, and they had pretty much D-I-V-O-R-C-E-D and gone their separate ways. But Tammy Wynette had grown up picking cotton and singing gospel, and mainstream country always kept its commercial hat on and at least one eye open. The provenly popular sentiment of Ben E. King's hit had at least a subliminal influence on "Stand By Your Man," the song Wynette co-wrote that year with her producer Billy Sherrill, especially where the song evokes 'cold and lonely' nights. While the support King advocates is anything from two-way to universal, though, Wynette's would appear to be all one-way. No matter how much your man lets you down or betrays you, she advises, forgive him, stick by him, comfort, love and support him, because, 'after all, he's just a man.' Released as a single in the USA, it reached Number 1 in the country charts and then crossed over into the mainstream chart. The album of the same name went platinum and Tammy Wynette became an instant country superstar.
In the wider world, though, response was mixed. 1967 had been the year of free love, dropping out and turning on, and 1968 itself was the year of fighting in the streets and Valerie Solanas's Society for Cutting Up Men (SCUM). The values expressed in Wynette's song might have been comforting to those who had been brought up in a world where it was traditional for women to suffer and make sacrifices, but to anyone at the cutting edge of popular culture - and the particularly edgy section where the cutting up of men was done - they seemed either hilariously or annoyingly reactionary. The folk who lived there overlooked the gentle humour of Wynette's line 'after all, he's just a man': look after him because, after all, he's just a big baby. Solanas might have been an extreme example - the Anti-Tammy - but feminists would continue to dismiss Wynette as the worst kind of role model for the rest of her life. The song's longevity didn't help. It finally made it to Number 1 in the UK in 1975, some seven years after its initial release, by which time feminism was no longer the preserve of a radical fringe.
Four years later, the Slits' brand of feminism was muddy enough in its ideology to allow them to strip naked and plaster themselves in yet more mud for the cover of their debut album Cut, but it was clear enough to inspire the oddball but irresistible avant-punk-dub composition "Typical Girls." Although attributed to the band as a whole, the lyric is by guitarist Viv Albertine. The titular girls worry about clothes, spots, fat and smells, and conform to one of two stereotypes: either they're 'femme fatales', that is, unapproachable goddesses, a reference to the Velvet Underground song of that title; or they're downtrodden drudges who 'stand by their man,' a reference - of course - to the Tammy Wynette song. The pay-off line is that the typical girl ends up with the typical boy. Viv and the Slits leave the listener in no doubt about their lack of interest in netting themselves one of those.
Whether or not he considered himself a typical boy, "Typical Girls" must have made for tough listening for Mick Jones when released as a single in September 1979. Mick and Viv had become friendly at Viv's Davis Road squat in early 1976, around the time the personnel for the Clash were being assembled. Much like Joe Strummer's then-girlfriend Palmolive, she was inspired to learn an instrument and rehearse with other people in and around the squat, including Sid Vicious and original Clash member Keith Levene. As the punk movement's identity came into sharper focus over the coming months, it revealed itself to be very much down on love and long-term or monogamous relationships. In this, it took its lead from Johnny Rotten's infamous dismissal of love as 'two minutes of squelching noises' (within a year, Rotten was involved with Nora Forster, the mother of Slits vocalist Ari Up, a relationship which has now survived for over 30 years).
The pressures of being in two different high-profile bands with rarely synchronised commitments would have made life difficult enough for Mick and Viv's relationship even if they hadn't been part of a scene with such highly charged sexual politics. She moved into Simon Close with him in spring 1979, but they finally split up over the summer. 'Mick used to cry and cry about Viv,' says Johnny Green. 'She really was quite hard on him. He rarely behaved like that with other women. He played the rock star normally, but with Viv, no. It's the only time I've ever seen him like that. She broke his heart.'
Cut was the distillation of more than two years' work, and it revealed Viv's songwriting speciality to be spiky lyrics inspired by the people she had been close to during that period: "Instant Hit," about a boy who takes heroin because he's 'set to self-destruct', concerns Keith Levene; and "So Tough" developed from a phone conversation she had with Johnny Rotten about Sid Vicious. Side two of Cut begins with a three-song suite of anti-love songs that closes with "Typical Girls." In the middle comes the sardonic "Love und Romance," fluffy (male) sentiments wrapped around vicious threats. First, though, is Viv's "Ping Pong Affair," a song in which the protagonist leaves her boyfriend sulking in his room, walks back down Ladbroke Grove alone, says that he can have his comics and records back, goes out to have fun without him... and doesn't miss him while the next six months pass. Who could this mystery man be?
Although it was probably not Viv's intention to be vindictive, her contributions to the Cut triptych amounted to a rejection of both the romantic ideal and of the person who had hoped to share a version of it with her. 1979 had already been trying enough for Mick Jones. Back in February, some of his most valued possessions had been stolen from the Pembridge Villas pad he shared with Tony James, while Mick was on the Pearl Harbor tour of the U.S. with the Clash, and Tony was in the Top of the Pops studio with Generation X. Together with the financial problems following on from the sacking of Bernie Rhodes, this event resulted in Mick briefly moving back into the tiny second bedroom in his Nan's high-rise council flat. In April, temporary replacement Clash manager Caroline Coon found him his new place in Simon Close, but evidently his month back at square one served to teach him a salutary lesson about the precariousness of the rock'n'roll life.
The other members of the Clash took their partners along for the Take the 5th tour, but Mick travelled alone. 'The Clash is everything to me. I have nothing else,' he told journalist Paul Morley at the time. 'I'm under the impression that I have given up everything else for it. I'm under the impression that I have lost everything: home, personal life, everything. So my dilemma in a way is that I resent the Clash.' This rare interview lapse into Suffering Artist Syndrome came less than two months before he completed "Train in Vain".
The song's oft-repeated chorus is, 'You didn't stand by me,' and the opening line is 'You say you stand by your man...' Literally speaking, the latter is a misrepresentation of "Typical Girls", which says the exact opposite, but the reference is clear enough to qualify "Train in Vain" as an answer song. Mick follows the chain of allusion back to Tammy Wynette and Ben E. King's earlier compositions, and offers a negative echo of both: the walls crumble, and he can't be happy or keep 'the wolves at bay' without the woman's love and support. In the third verse he goes on to detail his other tribulations - a job that doesn't pay, no home to call his own - but these pale in comparison to being dumped. Throughout, the spurned lover fixates on details from the break-up conversation(s), questions the truth of declarations of love made in happier times, feels sorry for himself, resigns himself to rejection, then comes back with more accusations, wheedles, and demands: 'you must explain!' In short, he sulks in his room.
The lyrics are unpolished - time was, after all, very tight - to the extent that three consecutive lines in the third verse start with 'but,' and the negatives pile up in the chorus, tying it up in nos and didn'ts as well as nots. Wounded, raw, repetitive and pouting, it's a painfully accurate encapsulation of a post break-up 'air-clearing conversation': the kind of post mortem that the dumpee needs to have, but the dumper would do almost anything to avoid. As would the dumpee's friends, let alone members of the general public. As the self-deprecating Mick himself commented in the album track notes he contributed to the Clash's 1980 tour programme, The Armagideon Times, 'Oh the misery of it all!'
"Train in Vain" isn't the first song about lost love on London Calling - or, for that matter, even the first song about losing one of the Slits on London Calling - but it is the most naked and direct. The Clash had already chosen to ignore many of the Commandments of Punk in making the album, but defying the edict Thou Shalt Not Sing Blatant Broken-Hearted Love Songs was the boldest and most defiant move yet, and proof, if any more were needed, that Mick Jones was no longer prepared to be shamed out of displaying his emotions - or dictated to in any way - by Johnny Rotten, Bernie Rhodes or Joe Strummer.
That said, had Mick presented the song as a haunting and fey acoustic ballad, he would quite likely have found himself sitting outside Wessex's front door wearing his guitar for a hat. Luckily, the tune to which he attached his lyric saves the day: in this case, a cocky, up-tempo strut which prevents the song coming over as too self-indulgent. The most distinctive feature is the clean, crisp, almost percussive guitar riff: according to Bill Price, courtesy of 'spring reverb on the Roland Space Echo'. Some of the other instrumentation choices were dictated by the limited time and personnel available: the Irish Horns weren't around for the November sessions, and on-loan keyboard player Mickey Gallagher had also packed up and gone back to the Blockheads. In the absence of a brass section or organ, Mick chugs along under his guitar line with a shimmering secondary harmonica riff. Topper Headon further fattens out the sound with a shaker, and gets a handclap sound out of his drums. Mick adds an occasional piano figure for emphasis. All these elements, plus the bass, are mixed so well that each can be heard clearly and distinctly, and yet they blend perfectly into an irresistible groove.
Overall, the style is familiar, but has proven difficult to pin down. This is partly because, as music theorist Patrick Clark explains, Mick has written the song in the key of A, but hasn't established that fact by using E, the dominant chord. Not for the first time on London Calling, this makes the tune modal, the mode this time being Ionic. In his 1979 album review for Sounds, Garry Bushell thought it sounded 'like the Stones bash through an early Tamla number', and that's not a million miles away: in 1965, the Rolling Stones' transitional second album caught them applying their twin-guitar-plus-harmonica R&B style to a selection of recent soul hits by Solomon Burke, Irma Thomas, Otis Redding and the Drifters. Circa 2008, an anonymous contributor to Wikipedia claimed the guitar riff owed much to that of American soul belter J. J. Jackson's 1966 US Number 22 hit "But It's Alright": it's similar, but not a straight lift. The combination of scorned lover lyric and up-tempo pop also vaguely recalls Fleetwood Mac's "Second Hand News" (1977). Then, in the closing few seconds of the song, a series of elongated harmonica trills brings to mind Pete Townshend's synthesiser work in "Baba O'Riley" (1971). And the way Mick sings 'explai-ai-ain' and 'lie-ie-ie' is very early Beatles . . . more precisely, in the latter case, very "Tell Me Why" (1964). As ever, Mick's tune and arrangement run the gamut of styles and throw their arms around the entire Canon of Popular Music.
Given the chorus, the obvious title for the song would have been "Stand By Me," but that would have been too tellingly unoriginal. In the end, Mick let the rhythm provide the name and ended up with a (presumably intentional) reference to yet another inspirational source: for their 1969 album, Let It Bleed, the Rolling Stones covered the 1937 Robert Johnson blues "Love in Vain", in which the protagonist carries the suitcase of his former lover to the station, and stands there distraught, watching as the train takes her out of his life forever.
Although they would have preferred the album to have been half the size, the Clash's American label, Epic, were glad "Train in Vain" was included. The UK single, "London Calling", was hardly designed to appeal to the American market. Lost love is a universal theme, though, and the multiple references to the familiar music of yore on Mick's late addition made it the perfect choice for the American single. The only problem was the potentially confusing title. So it was released in the USA as "Train in Vain (Stand By Me)". Joe Strummer would continue to make it clear that "Train in Vain" was not his cup of tea. Even on the live performance video of the song, shot by Don Letts at the Lewisham Odeon on 18 February 1980, Joe introduces the song by announcing that the Soul Train is about to leave from Platform 1, but 'if you don't want to come, there's always the toilets'. Again, Mick Jones laughed last: the single made the Top 30, a landmark moment in the Clash's campaign to break America.
Edited extract from Route 19 Revisited: the Clash and London Calling by Marcus Gray
published by Soft Skull in the USA in October 2010
also available from Jonathan Cape in the UK
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In the summer of '07 I found and moved to Shepherdstown and soon began daily excursions through town and the dazzling countryside that embraces it. Two weeks into this ritual, I followed a small hand-painted road sign on 230 to a place called Ridgefield Farms. A young farmer named Scott was tending the veggies that day. Showing me around, bagging produce, and listening to me blah, blah, blah, this absolute sweetheart of a guy assured me I was going to love Shepherdstown. In the middle of our chat he said rather off-handedly "I also teach over at the college." Perfect, I thoughta farmer who teaches at the universityor a college teacher who farms. Whateverthis place is great. The next time I saw Farmer Scott he was wearing a tuxedo and on stage in the Frank Center seated at a Fazioli piano making pure magic.
Robert Scott Beard was born and raised in Richmond, Va. He and his younger brother, Chris, were the children of Carolyn Toler and Charles Beard. The Beard boys grew up in a world of music, food and nature. Scott Beard is a man with many cultivated interests, a great sense of humor, and an inquisitive take on life. However, it's not difficult to understand how one person can be such a versatile expert when you look at his forefathers, and mothers.
Scott's great-grandmother on his mom's side, was Elizabeth Spaulding Edwards. Elizabeth was a great musician having gone to the renowned Peabody Conservatory of Music. Great-grandfather, Harry, was a farmer. The Edwards lived in LaPlata, Maryland and raised a huge family of musically talented children. According to Scott everyone could "play by ear." True to his DNA he was "plunking out tunes," on the old upright piano Elizabeth had rescued from the Baltimore Opera, when he was three years old.
Edith and Carrington Beard, Dad's side, lived in Rockville, Virginia where Grandpa was an executive with Southern States. He was also a cattle farmer. Carrington came from a modest upbringing. And though he never went to college he grew up to pilot his own plane and go down on record as one of the first people in the country to develop a method of seed preservation. It was the 30s.
While at Patrick Henry High in Richmond, Scott, like his grandfather, discovered science. His biological experiments in the ultra-violet effect on ferns earned him top prizes and an invitation to the National Academy of Science competition at West Point, NY. Of this he laughed "I didn't win but I got to the nationals. " The lad was an avid reader with an inquisitive mind. While in school, his recreational reading was the encyclopedia, volumes A through Z. He also loved to read cookbooks because as he tells it "All the men in my family were fantastic cooksme included. " His first love however was the piano and upon graduation he went off to Baltimore and the Peabody Conservatory. The legacy continued.
"It was like the being on the sound set of Fame, "Scott recalled, "and I was completely in my element. I loved it." But Peabody wasn't all fun and games "It took more than talent to survivea very humbling experience." It was also a bonding experience and 26 years later, Scott and former classmates still get together to perform. After graduation he took a year off and went to live in Mt. Royal with his new buddy, a Doberman named Jambi. Then it was back to school and the University of Maryland for a PhD working his way through by teaching piano to senior citizens Baltimore's inner-city.
Graduation came in 1996 with the completion of his thesis on the works of Theodore Leschetizky. Leschetizky was a polish romantic, a composer, concert pianist and teacher of some of the late 19th century and 20th century greats.
He is best known for his piano compositions for one hand which he wrote after he'd been shot in the arm and lost the use of the corresponding hand. One of the most famous of these works was Andante Finale, Op. 13. Scott told that story as an introduction the piece. He was in a concert at the time and though I knew he would pull off this one-handed performance I was completely unprepared for what I was about to hear. Mesmerized is a word to describe the audience throughout the entire piece, it sat unified in jaw-dropping, eye-popping awe before jumping to its collective feet with a roar of overwhelming appreciation. Leschetizky taught his students that there was "No life without art; no art without life." Scott learned these lessons of the past very well.
In 1991 Scott met the gregarious Alan Gibson. Gibson ran his own advertising/PR firm in DC with marquee clients like the Kennedy Center and Britches.
He was also an accomplished cellist and played a mean piano. The two hit it off, realized what they had found and by 1993 were living on Alan's 53' Hatteras at the Gangplank Marina. "We lived on that boat for six years," Scott said. "There's a community of boat people living on the Potomac River and we made some great friends." They moved a piano on board and Scott proceeded to teach and work from the marina and a studio on Capitol Hill.
The life of a boat person, especially one on a 53-foot yacht, is good, but in 1999 Scott and Alan gave it up, moved to Kearneysville and became country gentlemen. The property had a stream running through it and two structures on it, an Earthberm home and a Straw House. Scott was completing his doctorate and had accepted a teaching job at Shepherd University. He was also continuing his concert work in in DC. The move to Kearneysville made the all-round commute possible.
It was in 2003, when Scott's mom was going through the paper and came across an apple slash pumpkin farm for sale. She said "Al "- for that is what Carolyn Beard calls Alan Gibson - "why don't you buy it?" And so the conversation ball started rolling. ..down a bumpy road. The decision to become business partners and farmers was eventually agreed upon and they bought Ridgefield Farm. The decision came with a commitment that "If we were going to do this we were going to make it work." And work it does. With its long driveway passing waving fields of edible stuff, a maze of zinnias, an orchard of fruit trees, out-buildings full of produce and one beautifully restored 1898 big house on thirty-five acres; Ridgefield Farms today is the site of weddings, holiday parties, hay rides and a great tribute to Halloween. It produces and sells enough food to feed the county and amidst it all are the strains of celestial sounds coming from the music room. And admission that "We couldn't do any of this without Barb Anderson and Manuel Ventura." We were in the kitchen talking at this point and Barb was at the counter planning her next move on a dozen quarts of raspberries. Scott likes to spend quality time in the kitchen. He's a genius when it comes to creating all kinds of soups, but his specialty is coconut cupcakes with crme cheese, lime, chocolate chip frosting.
A word here about the mainstays of Ridgefield Farms - Popcorn and Kelly. Scott and Alan rescued the beagle/spaniel and cock-a-poo, eleven and fifteen years ago respectively from shelters when they were puppies. Today, both still look and act like puppies. Another testimony to the benefits of the farm living.
Dr. Scott Beard of Shepherdstown, West Virginia, is a nationally recognized pianist, teacher, clinician, author and recording artist. He has performed throughout the United States and countries all over the world, Carnegie Hall and in just about every embassy in Washington, DC. His concerts have been praised for their poetry, their passion and innovative programming. In May 2009, he toured the Mediterranean as part of the Yale University alumni travel association, performing in France, Italy, Spain, and Croatia. His anthologies of ensemble music for piano have been published by Alfred, he's the Associate Artistic Director of the Opera Camerata of Washington; and will be at the Fazioli for the first Two Rivers Chamber Orchestra concert on October 17. Note: don't even think about missing this.
He is passionate about his work, and whether he's performing, writing, farming, cooking or teaching, he loves what he does and is great at it. His students have won prizes in the National Symphony Young Soloists, Beethoven Society, Ithaca international competitions, and the list goes on. For his dedication to teaching, his students and his art, Scott Beard was named 2006 West Virginia Music Teacher of the Year. As a Professor at Shepherd University Scott has the ultimate opportunity everyday to beautify the future as he brings out the full potential in the finest music students in the country and teaching them what he knows so well - There is no life without art, no art without life.
- Sue Kennedy is a former public relations executive and Emmy Award winning screenplay writer.
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By JIM KUHNHENN
WASHINGTON (AP) - His sights fixed firmly on securing a second term, President Barack Obama had hoped that the rest of the world would wait until after the election if it had to grow restless and demand his attention.
The eruptions in the streets of the Arab world, inflamed by an anti-Muslim video made in the U.S., mean Obama can put it off no longer. The protests are testing the president's foreign policy skills and giving voters a pre-election view of how he handles a crisis.
The turmoil also offers an opportunity _ a risky one _ for Obama to appear presidential in the midst of the election campaign, to contrast himself with a challenger less experienced in foreign policy and to illustrate that being president is not just about being a steward of the economy.
Even with a rebellion in Syria and tensions over Iran's nuclear ambitions, no international image can be more searing and demand more public attention than that of a U.S. embassy under attack and American civilians in peril. This week's angry demonstrators, flag burnings and imperiled civilians already were drawing comparisons to 1979, when Iranian revolutionaries stormed the U.S. embassy in Tehran and took 60 hostages and held them for 444 days, helping erode President Jimmy Carter's public support.
For Obama, the timing of the violent demonstrations less than two months before the election creates further complications.
His Republican rival, Mitt Romney, jumped on the administration for what he claimed was a feckless response to the breach of the U.S. embassy in Cairo. A favored and popular U.S. diplomat, the ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens, was killed along with three other Americans in an attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya. And protesters in the capital of Yemen stormed the U.S. embassy compound there and burned the U.S. flag.
"I know that it's difficult sometimes seeing these disturbing images on television because our world is filled with serious challenges," Obama told supporters Thursday in Golden, Colo. "It is a tumultuous time that we're in. But we can and we will meet those challenges if we stay true to who we are, and if we would remind ourselves that we're different from other nations."
U.S. officials sought to distinguish the anti-American protests from the Arab Spring revolutions that ousted long-time strongmen in Egypt, Libya and Yemen and that Obama backed.
"We see this now as principally tied to this video and those in the regions who are seeking to exploit it," a senior administration official said.
The protests and the attack in Libya present a juggling act for the president. He must show resolve both at home and abroad, pressing foreign governments to do their part in protecting U.S. personnel and property, condemning the protesters and at the same time denouncing a provocative, though amateurish video that finds refuge in the cherished U.S. right of free speech. At the same time, he has been forced to push back on Romney.
Obama accused his GOP rival of having "a tendency to shoot first and aim later." And while even some Republicans flinched at the timing of Romney's criticism, that could be forgotten if protests continue to threaten U.S. overseas posts.
Still, in an election dominated by the economy, other issues have grabbed headlines, only to quickly recede.
And Obama's response so far has been somber and focused on protecting foreign personnel. The Pentagon on Wednesday ordered two warships to the Libyan coast.
Obama forcefully condemned the attack in Libya and has decried the assaults on the embassies. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton forcefully denounced the film, which depicts Muhammad variously as a cartoonish lecher, fool and thug.
But it was just that type of condemnation from the U.S. Embassy in Cairo that prompted Romney to accuse the administration of issuing an "apology."
"If I was looking for what reminds people of the importance of poised presidential leadership, I have to come right out and say that Obama is getting the better part of the argument this week," said Michael O'Hanlon, a foreign policy expert at the Brookings Institution. "I like a lot of things about Romney, but he hasn't handled this very well."
The mob actions in Egypt, Libya and Yemen nevertheless present a challenge for Obama because they draw more attention than other foreign policy conundrums. What's more, in these instances the perpetrators are not state-sponsored, presenting Obama with a diffuse target.
"The risk here for President Obama is that he appears weak because there is not an easy military solution," said John Ullyot, a Republican strategist and former Senate Armed Services Committee aide. "You're talking about unruly mobs and shadowy figures."
Star-studded event raises millions for AIDS research. (Photos)
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She can sing, but can she act? Jewel takes on a famous role.
A fallen police officer's daughter gets a swarm of support. (Photos)
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Peculiar Knob mine approved
Mining company WPG Resources will start work on a new open cut mine near Coober Pedy in South Australia's Far North by the end of the month.
The company says the State Government has approved the project.
The $420 million Peculiar Knob iron ore mine project also includes a storage and export facility to be built at Port Pirie.
The company wants to begin ore shipments by the end of May next year.
Executive chairman, Bob Duffin, says about 240 people will be employed at the site with an extra 60 jobs created in Port Augusta and Port Pirie.
"There will be a 10-month construction period and we're expecting that we will be commissioning our trains in May of next year with the view to getting our first export out before the end of May," he said.
"There will be 300 direct jobs created during the production phase. It will create a new core business for the town of Port Pirie which until now has essentially been a one company town."
Topics: mining-industry, business-economics-and-finance, industry, mining-environmental-issues, states-and-territories, rural, mining-rural, coober-pedy-5723, adelaide-5000, sa, port-augusta-5700, port-pirie-5540
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November 14, 2012 | 759 views
Getting back into the school routine
The phone call that Hewlett High School students received from Superintendent Dr. Joyce Bisso on Oct. 28 was not the typical one. In most cases, when school is called off, it is the morning of a snowstorm, not the evening before a superstorm. Initially excited about having one fewer day of school, students were in for a surprise when given seven full days off from school.
The week of Oct. 29 was extremely strange. There may have been an unexpected hiatus from school, but many students were without power, heat, and electricity. The week off from school was a different type of vacation. Instead of being able to go into town with friends to eat dinner, shop, or to see a movie, students bonded with their families in either their homes or in family friends’ homes. However, the original feelings of excitement turned into uncomfortable and worrisome ones. The storm came at a very inopportune time for many Hewlett students. Seniors had been working to finish their college applications for the early deadlines when the storm hit. For those without electricity, the application process was made especially arduous.
Halloween didn’t go exactly as planned. Students couldn’t sport their costumes in the halls, and Key Club’s annual Halloween event didn’t take place. Had there been school, students would have been taking their final tests of the first quarter. Furthermore, various athletic teams were hoping to have successful playoff events, but those didn’t take place on their originally scheduled days, either.
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..... AND THE COUNTRY IS PAYING A HUGE PRICE FOR SHAKING HANDS WITH UNCLE SAM, WRITES SYED ARSHAD HUSSAIN KASHANI
Muslim world is burning. There are killings going on unabated especially in Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Palestine. Though the hands that kill the hapless Muslims in Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestine are somewhat fully exposed, however in Pakistan they are camouflaged and have the potential to mislead. Pakistan is a state created with huge sacrifices that made a mark in the history. Geographical changes are taking place from the time immemorial; however creation of Pakistan is one among very few changes that made the mark in history. This Pakistan is bleeding today by multiple cuts. The Pakistan which was created with the intention of giving peace to its subjects is yearning for peace. Today there is mayhem everywhere in Pakistan. Bloodshed everywhere.
Why Pakistan is bleeding, who is the real killer in Pakistan, who is guiding the drones, who is threatening its integrity by killing Pakistanis in the internal war; it is important to analyze so that one reaches the right conclusion. It may not do much to the problems of Pakistan, but may serve as eye opener for anyone so that one presently sitting in a peaceful zone understands the hidden hands that destroy peace of the region for the advantage e of the self. The rhetoric of present Pakistan establishment that India is destabilizing Pakistan does not hold much ground as India is too little a chap to create such a scenario inside Pakistan. In fact the powers that are destroying Pakistan may get unleashed and damaging India as well.
Once USA made friends with Afghanistan when the latter was invaded by then USSR – the main rival of USA in the race for ruling the world. Two Alexanders is always a problem for the rest as fight of equals is highly devastating. USA trapped USSR in Afghanistan with purpose though different sites were available in the world to start the fire. It was mainly for the human resource Afghanistan provided then for USA against USSR. As soon as USSR was crushed in the long drawn war, US shifted its focus towards Afghan Mujahedeen. They had to destroy the world’s bravest army which survived the brutal and highly devastating assault of USSR. US acted with precision and incited the infighting in a calculated way in Afghan Mujahedeen that killed more of them than what USSR did. Former Brigadier ISI Muhammad Yusuf in his famous book “The Bear trap” gives the precise account as how USA worked after the collapse of USSR only to create infighting which was detected at the right time by then ISI Director, Gen. Akhtar Abdur-Rehman. He resisted till he could and was then killed along with Gen. Ziaul-Haq in the plane crash.
The history repeated itself, this time Pakistan establishment collaborated with USA to fight against Taliban. Pakistan public was always skeptical about the role of USA and public always resisted this Pakistan inviting America to help them out. The unholy wedding took place and now it is all USA that is controlling Pakistan affairs the way that Pakistanis are killing each other. It looks Afghanistan of 90’s that is happening in Pakistan. Today Pakistan army is fighting and killing the militia that has always been neck to neck with Pakistan army in the defense of Pakistan. The enemies of humanity have their agenda to crush Muslims; however it looks strange when men from within (Pakistan) are used in killing its own citizens. Today Pakistan is ruled by those who are proven criminals by the law of land and are forced on the public by the imperialistic powers to fulfill their agenda.
We can not justify the devastating suicide bombing in Pakistani cities and towns killing civilians and destroying Pakistan. At the same time there is the same chill in the heart when Pakistan army attacks and kills civilians including kids living in mud houses of the tribal area. The life there is as precious as in cities of Pakistan. The drone guided by the beasts in human costume kills at will, the state is not able to provide security cover against drone to its citizens if it is not approving it. That is where the Pakistan seems crippled.
Pakistan is bleeding today profusely and Pakistanis have to stop it from bleeding to death. This is a severe problem, a lot distance has been travelled in opposite direction and unification of hearts seems very difficult now. However Pakistan has no option but to work on that agenda only.
There is a message for the rest of the world; don’t embrace USA.
(Feedback at firstname.lastname@example.org)
Lastupdate on : Wed, 21 Apr 2010 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Wed, 21 Apr 2010 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Thu, 22 Apr 2010 00:00:00 IST
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|Jan 31 - Feb 26, 1981|
During February, the Frumkin Gallery will show a major new painting by James McGarrell. This work, called Travestimento (Disguise) has occupied the artist through the past year and is his largest painting ever. The work consists of four panels, eight feet in height with a total length of 20 feet.
The panels of Travestimento are unified by a series of arches running across the painting which frame a distant landscape through which a train is moving. In the foreground are a series of figures around a table involved in various activities, including the playing of a saxophone. The painting is full of detail, including an opulent still life and a host of references to paintings of the past. In total it is a sort of encyclopedic work in which the artist has summarized many of his interests and ideas of the past 20 years.
James McGarrell has shown with the Frumkin Gallery since the 1950s, and is well known both here and in Europe as a painter and print maker. He has had many shows in Europe, especially in France and Italy, where many of his most important works are in public and private collections. He has begun to spend most of his year in the USA once again and the new painting was done here. In addition to Travestimento there will be a group of new lithographs and watercolors in the exhibition, some of which relate to the genesis of the big painting.
The McGarrell exhibition will open on January 31st and run through February 26th. The Frumkin Gallery is at 50 West 57th Street. Hours are 10 to 6, Monday through Friday and 12 to 5:30 Saturday.
1. Travestimento, 1980, 92 x 226 inches
2. Expulsion, 1980
3. Bath, 1980
4. Temptation, 1980
5. Whale, 1980
6. Swing, 1980
7. Rescue, 1980
8. Narcissus, 1980
9. Plough, 1980
10. Bianca & Blacky, 1980, lithograph
11. Triad, 1980, lithograph
12. Boxfire, 1980, lithograph
13. Explanation for Andrew,
Explanation for Flora, 1980, offset lithograph
14. Draw, Dive and Dark Discs, 1980, lithograph
15. 28 Imagined Places
28 Folded Variations, 1980, lithograph
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CHAPTER VII. BEERJAND AND THE FRONTIER OF AFGHANISTAN.
Thirty miles over hill and dale, after leaving the little hamlet, and behold, the city of Beerjand appears before me but a mile or thereabouts away, at the foot of the hills I am descending. One's first impression of Beerjand is a sense of disappointment; the city is a jumbled mass of uninteresting mud buildings, ruined and otherwise, all of the same dismal mud-brown hue. Not a tree exists to relieve the eye, nor a solitary green object to break the dreary monotony of the prospect; the impression is that of a place existing under some dread ban of nature that forbids the enlivening presence of a tree, or even the redeeming feature of a bit of greensward.
The broad, sandy bed of a stream contains a sluggishly-flowing reminder of past spring freshets; but the quickening presence of a stream of water seems thrown away on Beerjand, except as furnishing a place for closely-veiled females to come and wash clothes, and for the daily wading and disporting of amphibious youngsters. In any other city a part of its mission would be the nurturing of vegetation.
The Ameer, Heshmet-i-Molk, I quickly learn, is living at his summer-garden at Ali-abad, four farsakhs to the east. Curious to see something of a place so much out of the world, and so little known as Beerjand, I determine upon spending the evening and night here, and continuing on to Ali-abad next morning.
There appears to be absolutely nothing of interest to a casual observer about the city except its population, and they are interesting from their strange, cosmopolitan character, and as being the most unscrupulous and keenest people for money one can well imagine. The city seems a seething nest of hard characters, who buzz around my devoted person like wasps, seemingly restrained only by the fear of retribution from pouncing on my personal effects and depriving me of everything I possess.
The harrowing experiences of Torbet-i Haiderie have taught a useful lesson that stands me in good stead at Beerjand. Ere entering the city proper, I enlist the services of a respectable-looking person to guide the way at once where the pressing needs of hunger can be attended to before the inevitable mob gathers about me and renders impossible this very necessary part of the programme. Having duly fortified myself against the anticipated pressure of circumstances by consuming bread and cheese and sheerah in the semi-seclusion of a suburban bake-house, my guide conducts me to the caravanserai, receives his backsheesh, and loses himself in the crowd that instantly fills the place.
The news of my arrival seems to set the whole city in a furore; besides the crowds below, the galched roof of the caravanserai becomes standing room for a mass of human beings, to the imminent danger of breaking it in. So, at least, thinks the caravanserai-jee, who becomes anxious about it and tries to persuade them to come down; but he might as well attempt to summon down from above the unlistening clouds.
Around two sides of the caravanserai compound is a narrow, bricked walk, elevated to the level of the menzil floors; at the imminent risk of breaking my neck, I endeavor to appease the clamorous multitude, riding to and fro for the edification of what is probably the wildest-looking assembly that could be collected anywhere in the world. Afghans, with tall, conical, gold-threaded head-dresses, converted into monster turbans by winding around them yards and yards of white or white-and-blue cloth, three feet of which is left dangling down the back; Beloochees in flowing gowns that were once white; Arabs in the striped mantles and peculiar headdress of their country; dervishes, mollahs, seyuds, and the whole fantastic array of queer-looking people living in Beerjand, travelling through, or visiting here to trade.
Some of the Afghans wear a turban and kammerbund, all of one piece; after winding the long cotton sheet a number of times about the peaked head-dress, it is passed down the back and then ends its career in the form of a kammerbund about the waist. Fights and tumults occur as the result of the caravanserai-jee's attempt to shut the gate and keep them out, and in despair he puts me in a room and locks the door. In less than five minutes the door is broken down, and a second attempt to seclude myself results in my being summarily pelted out again with stones through a hole in the roof.
A Yezdi traveller, occupying one of the menzils - all of which at Beeriand are provided with doors and locks - now invites me to his quarters; locking the door and keeping me out of sight, he hopes by making me his guest to assist in getting rid of the crowd. Whatever his object, its consummation is far from being realized; the unappeased curiosity of the crowds of newly arriving people finds expression in noisy shouts and violent hammering on the door, creating a din so infernal that the well-meaning traveller quickly tires of his bargain. Following the instincts of the genuine Oriental, he conjures up the genius of diplomacy to rid himself of his guest and the annoyance occasioned by my presence.
"If you go outside and ride around the place once more," he says, "Inshallah, the people will all go home."
This is a very transparent proposition - a broad hint, covered with the thin varnish of Persian politeness. No sooner am I outside than the door is locked, and the wily Yezdi has accomplished his purpose of ousting me and thereby securing a little peace for himself. No right-thinking person will blame him for turning me out; on the contrary, he deserves much praise for attempting to take me in.
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but I want to share what I’m thinking, about the Family Fun Library workshop and a few other things too …
The workshop at BPS will be an eight week course, with the goal of setting up and customizing a library system of albums for 8 1/2 x11 or 12×12 pages. There won’t be "weekly projects" per se, but rather weekly steps that focus primarily on organizing or re-organizing the way we "share" our memories/finished pages with our families. There will be an audio message each week and some kind of download (checklist, photo-organization task or challenge, sorting/labeling assignment etc) — that build on each other to help us accomplish what could otherwise be an scary or overwhelming change/process. I really want workshop participants to be actively participating in the process as the workshop is being taught.
Now, about albums — we [BPS] are in partnership with scrapbook.com so that we can provide you with an online resource for class and workshop materials. I got word last week that they now have available, two album lines that I feel will work really well as Family Library systems. The first is the We R Memory Keepers linen albums. These post-bound albums come in an array of rich beautiful colors [in 8x8 and 12x12.] They are a bit pricy, but if you are looking to create a collection of albums you can display in your family or living room — these are stunning. The second is the American Crafts super-cool davy board albums, that feature colored spines. These a 3-ring albums available in 81/2 x11 and 12×12. For those of you that want to purchase albums before our workshop begins, you will need a minimum of four albums in different colors [size is totally up to you.] Please know that you don’t have to use either of these album lines. You also don’t absolutely need different colored spines/albums as you can do other things to indicate which albums holds which type of memories/pages. If you have more than 3 or 4 people in your immediate family, I would suggest getting two albums in the color you intend to use for your "All About Us" or personality-based pages. I am currently using the following colors for my topics:
Yellow – All About Us [I have 7 of these albums]
Red - People We Love [I have 2 albums]
Green – Places We Go [I have 2 albums]
Blue – Things We Do [I have 3 albums]
I do have to say that with children, the color thing is so fun. Color quickly and easily communicates the content, so it is very easy for them to find and enjoy the red album with grandma and grandpa and the cousins inside!
The really good news is, both of these companies will continue to manufacture their albums, so that you can add individual albums as your collection/library grows.
I am actually considering switching out all of my albums for one of these two lines. I am also considering adding 12×12 albums to each of my color categories, so that I can make layouts in either size.
If you have additional questions, at this time, post them with a link to your email. I am currently developing the workshop and would love to know what questions/needs you have as you consider a library system.
For those of you that have NO idea what this post is about, you will as soon as you read my book The Big Picture — which by the way should be restocked and ready to ship in about a week!
side note: one of the main reasons BPS
exists is because as an experienced teacher in the industry, I have
long felt a need to do a different kind of teaching — something that
is really more like coaching; I want to be able to guide/walk students
through processes that aren’t easily addressed either in the retail or
live event venue. I know there were several students in my creativity
workshop that felt they didn’t get what they expected; that what was
shared was not directly related to scrapbooking — and I’m hoping to
blog my feelings about this soon. BPS will
provide many classes and workshops that are similar to what is
currently available elsewhere, but we will also forge a new kind of
interaction between teacher/coach and human being/scrapbooker.
I think for the industry to really grow we’ve got to address
scrapbooking as part of a healthy, vibrant lifestyle. Yes, it’s a
craft/hobby and in the case of very talented people an artistic
expression — but it is also more than that. We’ve got to start
teaching and sharing with eachother the fundamental processes that lead
to "creativity" and the ability to reflect and record our stories in
unique and meaningful ways. So, ramble, ramble .. BPS will be fun pages and projects
you can complete at your convenience in your pajamas, but it will also
be a different kind of education portal — a place where people can
interact and exchange ideas over an extended period of time; a place
where these ideas can grow into concepts and concepts can be customized
to liberate and enrich individual lives [and scrapbooks!]
whew! Got that off my chest.
We are so appreciative of your interest so far in this new adventure and we love the feedback [both positive and negative] regarding anything that we do. Please remember that the comments page at BPS is not an email box. If you need a response to your comment or question, email it to us at firstname.lastname@example.org It is our policy to immediately delete any mean-spirited comments left on the site. Negative is fine, mean is not. Teachers that are willing to come and share at BPS need to feel that they are working in a safe environment where their personal character is protected from thoughtless comments. Just thought you should know.
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A prodigal daughter's return to the farm
Growing up in Idaho potato country with an odd Japanese mother and a pro-life American father, exotic-looking Yumi Fuller felt like "a random fruit in a field of genetically identical potatoes." She ran away at 14 and did not return for almost 25 years.
Was "Yummy" a bad girl? The apple of her father's eye, gone rotten? Not really. Readers of Ruth Ozeki's splendid earlier novel, the provocative My Year of Meats (1998), know this author seldom judges. She merely bears witness to paradox and compromise.
All Over Creation describes a prodigal daughter's return to see for one last time her ill, aged parents. The mother, Momoko, has Alzheimer's; the father, Lloyd, is dying. Yummy's old friend Cass locates her through the Internet and summons her back home.
This serious book by a former filmmaker is leavened with outrageous visual humor as when Yummy's teenaged son Phoenix takes the labels his grandfather made for his grandmother (STOVE, REFRIGERATOR, etc.) and attaches them to all the wrong objects.
Readers soon regard all Ozeki's characters as old friends, for they seem as contradictory as real people. Even the seemingly selfless Cass a cancer survivor who looked after the Fuller parents in Yummy's absence is not without sin. She was the lumpy child assigned to play the potato in their school's Thanksgiving pageant, while beautiful Yummy was always the Indian princess.
"Yummy, do you know what it's like to go through life as a side dish?" Cass asks, years later.
"No.""I didn't think so." Cass, an earth mother type married to a Vietnam vet and living on a potato farm, has only miscarriages; Yummy lives in lush Hawaii and has three cute children she cares for haphazardly. Yet somehow the women's old friendship rekindles believably.
As an occasional first-person narrator, Yummy provides the outsider's perspective on life in potato country. She finds herself drinking and smoking more than she's done in a while, and escaping into hot sex with someone she never expected to see again.
Chapter Two introduces a band of young radical protesters the Seeds of Resistance traveling the land in a camper that runs on discarded oil from fast-food restaurants. To support their mission of saving the world, the Seeds operate a pornographic Web site. But if you think they're not sweet, loving people, watch them at Yummy's parents' farm.
Like My Year of Meats, this novel looks critically at what happens to America's food before it reaches the table. Genetically engineered potatoes not beef draw the author's ire this time. But the real culprits are the commercial interests who would keep the truth hidden, covering up dangers to the public.
Even more emotionally satisfying than Ozeki's first novel, All Over Creation will likely leave many readers praying for the creation of a sequel.
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30 July 2008
HUMAN RIGHTS COMMITTEE
Geneva, 7-25 July 2008
CONSIDERATION OF REPORTS SUBMITTED BY STATES PARTIES
UNDER ARTICLE 40 OF THE COVENANT
Concluding observations of the Human Rights Committee
UNITED KINGDOM OF GREAT BRITAIN AND NORTHERN IRELAND
1. The Committee considered the sixth periodic report submitted by the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (CCPR/C/GBR/6) at its 2541st, 2542ndd and 2543rdd meetings, held on 7 and 8 July 2008 (CCPR/C/SR.2541, 2542 and 2543). The Committee adopted the following concluding observations at its 2558th and 2559th meetings, held on 18 July 2008 (CCPR/C/SR.2558 and 2559).
2. The Committee welcomes the State party’s detailed sixth periodic report and commends the inclusion in the report of a comprehensive account of action taken to follow up on each of the Committee’s concluding observations on the consideration of the previous report. It appreciates the written replies provided in advance by the delegation, as well as the frank and concise answers given by the delegation to the Committee’s written and oral questions.
B. Positive aspects
3. The Committee welcomes the adoption of the Racial and Religious Hatred Act 2006.
4. The Committee welcomes the adoption of the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008 abolishing the common law offences of blasphemy in England and Wales.
5. The Committee welcomes the adoption of the Civil Partnership Act 2004, the Gender Recognition Act 2004, the Equality Act 2006 and the Sex Discrimination (amendment of Legislation) Regulations 2008.
C. Principal subjects of concern and recommendations
6. The Committee notes that the Covenant is not directly applicable in the State party. In this regard, it recalls that several Covenant rights are not included among the provisions of the European Convention on Human Rights which has been incorporated into the domestic legal order through the Human Rights Act 1998. The Committee also notes that the State party is the only Member State of the European Union not to be a party to the Optional Protocol to the Covenant. (art.2)
The State party should ensure that all rights protected under the Covenant are given effect in domestic law and should make efforts to ensure that judges are familiar with the provisions of the Covenant. It should consider, as a priority, accession to the Optional Protocol to the Covenant.
7. The Committee regrets that the State party intends to maintain its reservations. It notes in particular that the general reservation to exempt review of service discipline for members of the armed forces and prisoners is very broad in scope.
The State party should review its reservations to the Covenant with a view to withdrawing them. In particular, the State party should reconsider its general reservation concerning service discipline for members of the armed forces and prisoners.
8. The Committee notes that, despite recent improvements, the proportions of women and ethnic minorities in the judiciary remain at low levels. (arts. 3 and 26)
The State party should reconsider, with a view to strengthening, its efforts to encourage increased representation of women and ethnic minorities in the judiciary. The State party should monitor progress in this regard.
9. The Committee remains concerned that, a considerable time after murders (including of human rights defenders) in Northern Ireland have occurred, several inquiries into these murders have still not been established or concluded, and that those responsible for these deaths have not yet been prosecuted. Even where inquiries have been established, the Committee is concerned that instead of being under the control of an independent judge, several of these inquiries are conducted under the Inquiries Act 2005 which allows the Government minister who is responsible for establishing an inquiry to control important aspects of that inquiry. (art.6)
The State party should conduct, as a matter of particular urgency given the passage of time, independent and impartial inquiries in order to ensure a full, transparent and credible account of the circumstances surrounding violations of the right to life in Northern Ireland.
10. The Committee is concerned at the slowness of the proceedings designed to establish responsibility for the killing of Jean Charles de Menezes and at the circumstances under which he was shot by police at Stockwell underground railway station (art.6)
The State party should ensure that the findings of the coroner’s inquest, due to begin in September 2008, are followed up vigorously, including on questions of individual responsibility, intelligence failures and police training.
11. The Committee is concerned at the use of Attenuating Energy Projectiles (AEPs) by police and army forces since 21 June 2005 and emerging medical evidence that they may cause serious injuries. (art.6)
The State party should closely monitor the use of Attenuating Energy Projectiles (AEPs) by police and army forces and consider banning such use if it is established that AEPs can cause serious injuries.
12. The Committee notes with concern that until the recent decision of the European Court of Human Rights in Saadi v. Italy, the State party was defending the position that persons suspected of terrorism could under certain conditions be returned to countries without the appropriate safeguards to prevent treatment prohibited by the Covenant. Furthermore, while the State party has concluded a number of memoranda of understanding on deportation with assurances, the Committee notes that these do not always in practice ensure that the affected individuals will not be subject to treatment contrary to article 7 of the Covenant, as acknowledged in the recent decisions of the Court of Appeal in DD and AS v. Secretary of State for the Home Department and Omar Othman (aka Abu Qatada) v. Secretary of State for the Home Department (2008). (art.7)
The State party should ensure that all individuals, including persons suspected of terrorism, are not returned to another country if there are substantial reasons for fearing that they would be subjected to torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. The State party should further recognise that the more systematic the practice of torture or cruel , inhuman or degrading treatment, the less likely it will be that a real risk of such treatment can be avoided by diplomatic assurances, however stringent any agreed follow-up procedure may be. The State party should exercise the utmost care in the use of such assurances and adopt clear and transparent procedures allowing review by adequate judicial mechanisms before individuals are deported, as well as effective means to monitor the fate of the affected individuals.
13. The Committee notes with concern that the State party has allowed the use of the British Indian Ocean Territory as a transit point on at least two occasions for rendition flights of persons to countries where they risk being subjected to torture or ill-treatment. (arts. 2, 7 and 14)
The State party should investigate allegations related to transit through its territory of rendition flights and establish an inspection system to ensure that its airports are not used for such purposes.
14. The Committee is disturbed about the State party’s statement that its obligations under the Covenant can only apply to persons who are taken into custody by the armed forces and held in British-run military detention facilities outside the United Kingdom in exceptional circumstances. It also notes with regret that the State party did not provide sufficient information regarding the prosecutions launched, the sentences passed and reparation granted to the victims of torture and ill-treatment in detention abroad. (arts. 2, 6, 7 and 10)
The State party should state clearly that the Covenant applies to all individuals who are subject to its jurisdiction or control. The State party should conduct prompt and independent investigations into all allegations concerning suspicious deaths, torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment inflicted by its personnel (including commanders), in detention facilities in Afghanistan and Iraq. The State party should ensure that those responsible are prosecuted and punished in accordance with the gravity of the crime. The State party should adopt all necessary measures to prevent the recurrence of such incidents, in particular by providing adequate training and clear guidance to its personnel (including commanders) and contract employees, about their respective obligations and responsibilities, in line with articles 7 and 10 of the Covenant. The Committee wishes to be informed about the measures taken by the State party to ensure respect of the right to reparation for the victims.
15. The Committee notes with concern that, in order to combat terrorist activities, the State party is considering the adoption of further legislative measures which may have potentially far-reaching effects on the rights guaranteed in the Covenant. In particular, while it is disturbed by the extension of the maximum period of detention without charge of terrorist suspects under the Terrorism Act 2006 from 14 days to 28 days, it is even more disturbed by the proposed extension of this maximum period of detention under the counter-terrorism bill from 28 days to 42 days. Recalling the withdrawal of the notification of the State party’s derogation from article 9 of 18 December 2001 on 15 March 2005, the Committee notes that article 9 is therefore now fully applicable again in the State party. (arts. 9 and 14)
The State party should ensure that any terrorist suspect arrested should be promptly informed of any charge against him or her and tried within a reasonable time or released.
16. The Committee remains concerned that negative public attitudes towards Muslim members of society continue to develop in the State party. (arts. 18 and 26)
The State party should take energetic measures in order to combat and eliminate this phenomenon, and ensure that the authors of acts of discrimination on the basis of religion are adequately deterred and sanctioned. The State party should ensure that the fight against terrorism does not lead to raising suspicion against all Muslims.
17. The Committee is concerned about the control order regime established under the Prevention of Terrorism Act 2005 which involves the imposition of a wide range of restrictions, including curfews of up to 16 hours, on individuals suspected of being “involved in terrorism”, but who have not been charged with any criminal offence. While control orders have been categorized by the House of Lords as civil orders, they can give rise to criminal liability if breached. The Committee is also concerned that the judicial procedure whereby the imposition of a control order can be challenged is problematic, since the court may consider secret material in closed session, which in practice denies the person on whom the control order is served the direct opportunity to effectively challenge the allegations against him or her. (arts. 9 and 14)
The State party should review the control order regime established under the Prevention of Terrorism Act 2005 in order to ensure that it is in conformity with the provisions of the Covenant. In particular, it should ensure that the judicial procedure whereby the imposition of a control order can be challenged complies with the principle of equality of arms, which requires access by the concerned person and the legal counsel of his own choice to the evidence on which the control order is made. The State party should also ensure that those subjected to control orders are promptly charged with a criminal offence.
18. The Committee remains concerned that, despite improvements in the security situation in Northern Ireland, some elements of criminal procedure continue to differ between Northern Ireland and the remainder of the State party’s territory. In particular, the Committee is concerned that, under the Justice and Security (Northern Ireland) Act 2007, persons whose cases are certified by the Director of Public Prosecutions for Northern Ireland are tried in the absence of a jury. It is also concerned that there is no right of appeal against the decision made by the Director of Public Prosecutions for Northern Ireland. The Committee recalls its interpretation of the Covenant as requiring that objective and reasonable grounds be provided by the appropriate prosecution authorities to justify the application of different rules of criminal procedure in particular cases. (art.14)
The State party should carefully monitor, on an ongoing basis, whether the exigencies of the situation in Northern Ireland continue to justify any such distinctions with a view to abolishing them. In particular, it should ensure that, for each case that is certified by the Director of Public Prosecutions for Northern Ireland as requiring a non-jury trial, objective and reasonable grounds are provided and that there is a right to challenge these grounds.
19. The Committee notes with concern that, under Schedule 8 to the Terrorism Act 2000, access to a lawyer can be delayed for up to 48 hours if the police conclude that such access would lead, for instance, to interference with evidence or alerting another suspect.
The Committee considers that the State party has failed to justify this power, particularly having regard to the fact that these powers have apparently been used very rarely in England and Wales and in Northern Ireland in recent years. Considering that the right to have access to a lawyer during the period immediately following arrest constitutes a fundamental safeguard against ill-treatment, the Committee considers that such a right should be granted to anyone arrested or detained on a terrorism charge. (arts. 9 and 14)
The State party should ensure that anyone arrested or detained on a criminal charge, including persons suspected of terrorism, has immediate access to a lawyer.
20. The Committee is concerned that despite anti-social behaviour orders (ASBOs) being civil orders, their breach constitutes a criminal offence which is punishable by up to five years in prison. The Committee is especially concerned with the fact that ASBOs can be imposed on children as young as 10 in England and Wales and 8 in Scotland, and with the fact that some of these children can subsequently be detained for up to two years for breaching them. The Committee is also concerned with the manner in which the names and photographs of persons subject to ASBOs (including children) are frequently widely disseminated in the public domain. (arts. 14, paragraph 4 and 24)
The State party should review its legislation on anti-social behaviour orders (ASBOs), including the definition of anti-social behaviour, in order to ensure that it complies with the provisions of the Covenant. In particular, the State party should ensure that young children are not detained as a result of breaching the conditions of their ASBOs and that the privacy rights of children and adults subject to ASBOs are respected.
21. The Committee remains concerned that the State party has continued its practice of detaining large numbers of asylum-seekers, including children. Furthermore, the Committee reiterates that it considers unacceptable any detention of asylum-seekers in prisons and is concerned that while most asylum-seekers are detained in immigration centres, a small minority of them continue to be held in prisons, allegedly for reasons of security and control. It is concerned that some asylum-seekers do not have early access to legal representation and are thus likely to be unaware of their right to make a bail application which is no longer automatic since the enactment of the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002. The Committee is also concerned by the failure to keep statistics on persons subject to deportation who are removed from Northern Ireland to Great Britain, as well as their temporary detention in police cells. (arts. 9, 10, 12 and 24)
The State party should review its detention policy with regard to asylum-seekers, especially children. It should take immediate and effective measures to ensure that all asylum-seekers who are detained pending deportation are held in centres specifically designed for that purpose, should consider alternatives to detention, and should end the detention of asylum-seekers in prisons. It should also ensure that asylum-seekers have full access to early and free legal representation so that their rights under the Covenant receive full protection. It should provide appropriate detention facilities in Northern Ireland for persons facing deportation.
22. The Committee regrets that, despite its previous recommendation, the State party has not included the British Indian Ocean Territory in its periodic report because it claims that, owing to an absence of population, the Covenant does not apply to this territory. It takes note of the recent decision of the Court of Appeal in Regina (Bancoult) v. Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (No 2) (2007) indicating that the Chagos islanders who were unlawfully removed from the British Indian Ocean Territory should be able to exercise their right to return to the outer islands of their territory. (art. 12)
The State party should ensure that the Chagos islanders can exercise their right to return to their territory and should indicate what measures have been taken in this regard. It should consider compensation for the denial of this right over an extended period. It should also include the Territory in its next periodic report.
23. The Committee remains concerned that while the Governor of the Cayman Islands has not recently exercised his power to deport any person who is “destitute” or “undesirable”, section 89 of the Immigration Law (2007 Revision) has not been amended. (arts. 17 and 23)
The State party should review the law on deportation in the Cayman Islands in order to bring it into conformity with the provisions of the Covenant.
24. The Committee remains concerned that powers under the Official Secrets Act 1989 have been exercised to frustrate former employees of the Crown from bringing into the public domain issues of genuine public interest, and can be exercised to prevent the media from publishing such matters. It notes that disclosures of information are penalized even where they are not harmful to national security. (art. 19)
The State party should ensure that its powers to protect information genuinely related to matters of national security are narrowly utilized and limited to instances where the release of such information would be harmful to national security.
25. The Committee is concerned that the State party's practical application of the law of libel has served to discourage critical media reporting on matters of serious public interest, adversely affecting the ability of scholars and journalists to publish their work, including through the phenomenon known as "libel tourism." The advent of the internet and the international distribution of foreign media also create the danger that a State party's unduly restrictive libel law will affect freedom of expression worldwide on matters of valid public interest. (art. 19)
The State party should re-examine its technical doctrines of libel law, and consider the utility of a so-called "public figure" exception, requiring proof by the plaintiff of actual malice in order to go forward on actions concerning reporting on public officials and prominent public figures, as well as limiting the requirement that defendants reimburse a plaintiff's lawyers fees and costs regardless of scale, including Conditional Fee Agreements and so-called "success fees", especially insofar as these may have forced defendant publications to settle without airing valid defences. The ability to resolve cases through enhanced pleading requirements (e.g., requiring a plaintiff to make some preliminary showing of falsity and absence of ordinary journalistic standards) might also be considered.
26. The Committee notes with concern that the offence of “encouragement of terrorism” has been defined in section 1 of the Terrorism Act 2006 in broad and vague terms. In particular, a person can commit the offence even when he or she did not intend members of the public to be directly or indirectly encouraged by his or her statement to commit acts of terrorism, but where his or her statement was understood by some members of the public as encouragement to commit such acts. (art. 19)
The State party should consider amending that part of section 1 of the Terrorism Act 2006 dealing with “encouragement of terrorism” so that its application does not lead to a disproportionate interference with freedom of expression.
27. The Committee notes with concern that corporal punishment of children is not prohibited in schools in Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands, Gibraltar, Montserrat and the Crown Dependencies. (arts. 7 and 24)
The State party should expressly prohibit corporal punishment of children in all schools in all British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies.
28. The Committee remains concerned at the State party’s maintenance of section 3 (1) of the Representation of the People Act 1983 prohibiting convicted prisoners from exercising their right to vote, especially in the light of the judgment of the European Courtof Human Rights in Hirst v. United Kingdom (2005).
The Committee is of the view that general deprivation of the right to vote for convicted prisoners may not meet the requirements of article 10, paragraph 3, read in conjunction with article 25 of the Covenant. (art. 25)
The State party should review its legislation denying all convicted prisoners the right to vote in light of the Covenant.
29. While the Committee notes that the State party is currently investigating the practice of “stop and search” in order to ensure that it is applied fairly and appropriately to all communities, it remains concerned about the use of racial profiling in the exercise of stop and search powers and its adverse impact on race relations. (art. 26)
The State party should ensure that stop and search powers are exercised in a non-discriminatory manner. To that end, the State party should undertake a review of stop and search powers under section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000.
30. The State party should publicize widely the text of its sixth periodic report, the written answers it has provided in response to the list of issues drawn up by the Committee, and the present concluding observations.
31. In accordance with rule 71, paragraph 5, of the Committee’s rules of procedure, the State party should provide, within one year, relevant information on the assessment of the situation and the implementation of the Committee’s recommendations in paragraphs 9, 12, 14 and 15 above.
32. The Committee requests the State party to provide in its next report, due to be submitted by 31 July 2012, information on the remaining recommendations made and on the Covenant as a whole.
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How To Convince Others Of Your Ideas
what's in it for others?As you are building your case, you should always angle your argument to the people you are pitching your idea to. What's in it for them if they get on board? Better yet, why should they put their necks on the line? While in many instances, it is the lower-level employees who take the fall, oftentimes shareholders and board members want upper management's blood.
senior management buy-inRight before your big day, you need to make sure that you have at least one major hitter on your side. The challenge here is to get a "big cheese" to unofficially agree to back you, under the provision that the idea is received with some support by others.
Why is this essential? What if your argument and suggestion go totally against the company or board's direction? In this case, not only would your suggestion be overruled, but you would also be seen as going against the grain. This might short-circuit your career, and you don't want to drag someone else down with you.
keep it short and sweetOne reason why you should not prepare a 100-slide presentation is that this will put your audience to sleep, but another reason is that you will never get all the time you would like to make your case. At best, your window of opportunity will mirror an elevator pitch: you will have an audience with a short attention span to persuade. The instant that they lose interest -- and this will happen quickly -- you will have lost your opportunity.
contingency plansAs you are going through your presentation, you need to gauge eyes, measure breathing rates and read people's body language. While you will not want to be caught skating all over the ice, you will need to have a couple of aces in your pocket that represent contingency plans. It is highly possible that your audience will like some, but not all, of your ideas. Thus, you will have to have thought of enough alternatives and addendums in order to ensure that your overall goal does not get blown out of the water simply because one detail is out of line.
implementationFinally, even if you have managed to convince people of your idea, you will have to implement it and execute the plan. After all, anyone and everyone can sit at a board meeting and extol ideas and pontificate issues -- heck, someone may have even beaten you to the ideas. But without the acumen and ability to actually get the job done, they are useless -- you, on the other hand, will not be.
track recordWhen the dust settles, you have to be careful what you say and how you say it. Because, if your idea flops, then you will never be heard again -- trust me. Alternatively, if you manage to line up a number of base hits, then you can load up the bases so that when your big idea comes to fruition, you can belt it out of the ballpark and lead your team to victory.
Ash Karbasfrooshan is also the author of Course To Success, available at www.CourseToSuccess.com.
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Pundits, academics and bloggers are mad. They’re mad because even though they are so clever, nobody seems to be enacting their policy suggestions on a national level. Oh, people listen and tell them they’re clever, but the Bush administration keeps going on its merry way; no one seems to be storming the castle gates. Now that the congressional democrats have caved to the administration, the pundits and bloggers have someone new to whine about. With all this anger going around, so much desire to blame, it was inevitable that someone would blame the public. According to the NYTimes Sunday Magazine, in a section called the Idea Lab, a George Mason economist named Bryan Caplan has a new book “The Myth of the Rational Voter: Why Democracies Choose Bad Policies” where he argues that “voters are worse than ignorant; they are, in a word, irrational — and vote accordingly.” Apparently the conventional theory (“the Miracle of Aggregation”) is that voters act somewhat randomly, except for a small percentage of informed voters. Given a choice between a candidate with a wise plan for, say, health care and a candidate with a foolish plan, the ill-informed voters will, with their bundle of expectations, tend to split over the candidates, and the small percentage of informed voters will put the wise candidate over the edge. Except that Caplan says this does not, in fact happen. Large groups of voters can behave perversely in a systematic manner, and cancel out the other random and also the well-informed voters. His evidence comes from a survey comparing PhD opinions against average Americans opinions, but the popularity of the book will come (if it is popular) from people thinking about the ’04 election.
What Caplan is really complaining about is candidates, not issues. In our representative democracy, candidates have a variety of influences, and give us (the voters) a variety of statements about their positions. We may feel strongly about a single issue, a general position or simply like a candidate for a variety of commendable or not so commendable reasons (such as smartness or physical attractiveness or party affiliation). The thing is, of course, elected officials can run into unexpected situations, like the President with 9/11. The President’s behavior since 9/11 is the issue he has been judged on in subsequent elections. But I think the issue is more complicated, because the war on terror is so different from other wars. In the past we have given President’s wide latitude of action in dealing with wars, such as Lincoln’s suspension of habeas corpus and Roosevelt’s internment camps. But the enemy in those wars was easy to see and the progress clear. By comparison, the role of the Iraq invasion and occupation is not clear in the war on terror, and the overall progress in the war on terror is not clear. But I think voters have hung onto and supported the President’s explanations as reasonable longer than they might of for a less important issue, such as a recession or immigration policy. We are, after all, supposed to be at war, even if it doesn’t seem like it. Voters should treat war differently. This war is more subtle than the events in Iraq, and I think voters know that. In fact, it is so subtle it is probably nearly impossible to define. After all, we are not at war with the Middle East, but we could be said to be at war with individuals and groups throughout the Middle East and the rest of the world (Indonesia, e.g.). We are not at war with Islam, but those who we are at war with describe themselves as devout followers of Islam. Voters can almost be forgiven for wanting to simplify the issue; I think that was a big part of the initial support for invading Iraq. I think voters still have a collective sense of guilt about that, and so want both to stay long enough to win (still), and leave as soon as possible to put it behind us.
Caplan, for his part, wants to give the Council of Economic Advisors “Supreme Court Status”; that is, the power to veto laws with bad economics. The NYTimes, for their part, argue that voters have been unable to make good voting decisions because the administration has lied to us. Myself, I don’t know, but I wouldn’t support any restrictions on democracy, unless you think campaign finance reform is undemocratic. Better funding of schools, and more college aid would actually probably help the situation some more. And maybe more Aaron Sorkin programs. Or maybe not.
I may come in and edit parts of this post as the day goes on ...
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There is a certain sense of delirium that surrounds dividend stocks. In the financial markets, where money can be won or lost in seconds, a dividend payout seems like one of the few sure bets. Sometimes it is, but investors often get so swept up in choosing the stock with the highest yield that they overlook one crucial caveat: there is no such thing as, well, a sure thing. So should you be on the hunt for a "dividend darling"? We dish on dividends here.
Making money 101
There are two ways to make money on a stock: The one that people are most familiar with is appreciation. This type of stock growth can be the stuff of investing legend, such as when stocks like Microsoft Corporation exceed all standard expectations and projections, making investors who buy in at the right time deliciously rich. How rich, you ask? Well, if you had purchased 100 shares of Microsoft on the first day it began trading, you would now be sitting pretty on about $750,000! (Don't get too excited. Investors don't hit this kind of return often, but the possibility of it is what keeps the markets going.) [More: 6 Canadian dividend stocks for a cold market]
The second way to make money from a stock is through dividends. Dividends usually come in the form of cold, hard cash, which is deposited into investors' brokerage accounts, or even sent to them in the mail. Now that we have your attention, it's important to understand that dividends aren't a sure thing. Companies can - and do — cut their investors off. Nevertheless, dividend payouts tend to be more predictable than the market swings that can dictate a stock's appreciation, at least in the short term. Plus, dividends provide income, which often means you don't have to sell any shares to enjoy your spoils.
Why some companies pay
Not all companies pay dividends and there's a lot of banter in the investment community about whether they're a good thing. When companies pay a dividend, this is money they're not reinvesting into their own future growth and development. Opponents suggest that rather than lining investors' pockets, those dividend cheques could be helping the company become even more profitable. According to this line of reasoning, dividends can be a drag on a stock's appreciation.
On the other hand, many of the companies that pay dividends are large, established companies, such as banks, telecommunication and natural resource companies. This suggests that dividends are often paid by the investing world's version of a railway train: rugged, dependable and enduring. [More: 10 stocks with a fashionable edge]
Start-up companies, on the other hand, are the ever-evolving rocket ships: they travel further and faster, but also carry more risk.
Want an example of a company that exemplifies both? Let's consider Mr. Gates' baby again.
After years of explosive growth, Microsoft began paying a small dividend in 2003. So, while it took off as a high-flying growth stock, once it hit the moon, its prospects for continuing that kind of growth were grounded.
Throwing money around
According to die-hard dividend fans, having some money to throw around is actually a positive sign for companies; their generosity is a reflection of solid performance, and the company's belief in its ongoing profitability. Dividend investors also argue that they themselves can find better uses for that cash than a company could (hmmm...such as investing in other undervalued stocks or maybe back into the dividend-paying company anew).
The pros and cons of cold, hard cash
For investors, the main advantage to dividend-paying stocks is that they provide income in a way that other stocks cannot. And because they tend to be paid out by large, stable companies, they can often provide a relatively dependable return for investors who aren't keen on taking the wild ride that stock appreciation can provide. Furthermore, just because a stock pays a dividend doesn't mean it won't appreciate, affording dividend-stock investors the potential for double rewards. [More: Buying stocks: Is it time to get greedy? Why contrarian investors see opportunity amongst chaos]
And that's not all ...
For Canadian investors, dividends from eligible Canadian stocks also provide one additional perk: the Dividend Tax Credit. This credit treats dividend income more favourably than other forms of investment income. It may not sound like a sexy way to boost your returns, but then neither is turning part of your payout over to the government.
Dividends: Do or don't?
Investors should choose dividend stocks just like any other stocks — based on the profitability and future potential of the company. After all, a dividend on a losing stock will be little more than a consolation prize.
And while the standard payouts on dividends aren't as exhilarating as finding a high-flying stock, the truth is that sexy sometimes sneaks up on you. Stock appreciation may be the drama queen of the stock market, but dividends have been methodically boosting overall market returns by about 50 percent over the past 50 years. There's something seriously seductive about that. [More: 6 ways to reduce risk in your portfolio]
GoldenGirlFinance.ca is a free personal finance and education site for women.
Nothing contained herein is intended to provide personalized financial, legal or tax advice. Nothing should be construed as an offer to sell, or a solicitation of an offer to buy a security, a recommendation for any product or service by Golden Girl Finance or any associated third party, or a suggestion regarding the purchase, holding or sale of securities. Before implementing any financial strategy, you should obtain information and advice from your financial, legal and/or tax advisers who are fully aware of your individual circumstances.
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Clomipramine is a type of tricyclic anti-depressant used to treat a range of conditions including depression, phobias, obsessional disorders and cataplexy.
It is sold under a variety of brand names including Anafranil®.
Clomipramine is sometimes used to treat people with autism who have mental health problems. It may also be used to treat people with ASD who have other problems, such as repetitive behaviours or social deficits.
We are currently reviewing the research evidence on the use of clomipramine for people with autism. We have not yet formed an opinion on clomipramine but we do have an opinion on Anti-Depressants as a whole.
Please see the Advanced version of this page for more information about this intervention, including relevant research studies and details of how we will rank them.
Please read our Disclaimer about this intervention.
Last Updated : 25/03/2013 Back to Top
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The Fugitive (TV series)
||This article includes a list of references, but its sources remain unclear because it has insufficient inline citations. (January 2011)|
|Created by||Roy Huggins|
|Narrated by||William Conrad|
|Theme music composer||Pete Rugolo|
|Country of origin||United States|
|No. of seasons||4|
|No. of episodes||120 (List of episodes)|
|Running time||51 min.|
|Production company(s)||Quinn Martin Productions
United Artists Television
|Distributor||CBS Television Distribution|
|Picture format||B&W (1963–66)
|Original run||September 17, 1963– August 29, 1967|
The Fugitive is an American drama series created by Roy Huggins and produced by QM Productions and United Artists Television that aired on ABC from 1963 to 1967. David Janssen stars as Richard Kimble, a doctor who is falsely convicted of his wife's murder and given the death penalty. En route to death row, Kimble's train derails and crashes, allowing him to escape and begin a cross-country search for the real killer, a "one-armed man" (played by Bill Raisch). At the same time, Dr. Kimble is hounded by the authorities, most notably dogged by Police Lieutenant Philip Gerard (Barry Morse).
The Fugitive aired for four seasons, and a total of 120 51-minute episodes were produced. The first three seasons were filmed in black and white; the final season was in color. As of October 2012, The Fugitive is broadcast weekly on Me-TV.
The series premise was set up in the opening narration, but the full details about the crime were not offered in the pilot episode, which started with Kimble having been on the run for six months. In the series' first season, the premise (heard over footage of Kimble handcuffed to Gerard on a train) was summarized in the opening title sequence of the pilot episode as follows:
|“||Name: Richard Kimble. Profession: Doctor of Medicine. Destination: Death Row, state prison. Richard Kimble has been tried and convicted for the murder of his wife. But laws are made by men, carried out by men. And men are imperfect. Richard Kimble is innocent. Proved guilty, what Richard Kimble could not prove was that moments before discovering his wife's body, he encountered a man running from the vicinity of his home. A man with one arm. A man who has not yet been found. Richard Kimble ponders his fate as he looks at the world for the last time. And sees only darkness. But in that darkness, fate moves its huge hand.||”|
This title sequence was shortened for the remainder of the first season as follows:
|“||The name: Dr. Richard Kimble. The destination: Death Row, State Prison. The Irony: Richard Kimble is innocent. Proved guilty, what Richard Kimble could not prove was that moments before discovering his murdered wife's body, he saw a one-armed man running from the vicinity of his home. Richard Kimble ponders his fate as he looks at the world for the last time, and sees only darkness. But in that darkness, fate moves its huge hand.||”|
The main title narration, as read by William Conrad, was changed for the first episode of the second season on through the last episode of the series:
|“||The Fugitive, a QM Production—starring David Janssen as Dr. Richard Kimble: an innocent victim of blind justice, falsely convicted for the murder of his wife ... reprieved by fate when a train wreck freed him en route to the death house ... freed him to hide in lonely desperation, to change his identity, to toil at many jobs ... freed him to search for a one-armed man he saw leave the scene of the crime ... freed him to run before the relentless pursuit of the police lieutenant obsessed with his capture.||”|
It was not until episode 14, "The Girl from Little Egypt", that viewers were offered the full details of Richard Kimble's plight. A series of flashbacks reveals the fateful night of Helen Kimble's death, and for the first time offers a glimpse of the "one-armed man".
Inspirations and influence
The series was conceived by Roy Huggins and produced by Quinn Martin. It is popularly believed that the series was based in part on the real-life story of Sam Sheppard, an Ohio doctor accused of murdering his wife. Although convicted and imprisoned, Sheppard claimed that his wife had been murdered by a "bushy-haired man." Sheppard's brothers hired F. Lee Bailey to appeal the conviction. Bailey defended Sheppard and won an acquittal in the second trial. Huggins denied basing the series on Sheppard, though the show's film editor, Ken Wilhoit, was married to Susan Hayes, who had had an intimate relationship with Sheppard prior to the murder and testified during the first trial in 1954.
The plot device of an innocent man on the run from the police for a murder he did not commit while simultaneously pursuing the real killer was a popular one with audiences. It had its antecedents in the Alfred Hitchcock movies The 39 Steps, Saboteur and North by Northwest. The theme of a doctor in hiding for committing a major crime had also been depicted by James Stewart as the mysterious Buttons the Clown in The Greatest Show on Earth. Writer David Goodis claimed the series was inspired by his 1946 novel Dark Passage, about a man who escapes from prison after being wrongfully convicted of killing his wife. Goodis' litigation over the issue continued for some time after his 1967 death.
It has also been speculated that another part of the plot device of a fugitive living a life on the run from the authorties was loosely inspired by the French novel Les Misérables and that the Richard Kimble character was inspired by the novel's protagonist, Jean Valjean, an ex-convict living a life as a fugitive and having numerous aliases as well as helping people around him. The character of Lt. Gerard, whom hounds Kimble throughtout the series, is also loosely inspired by a character from the same novel, a relentless police inspector named Javert, who is obsessed with capturing the fugitive.
While shows like Route 66 had employed the same anthology-like premise of wanderers finding adventure in each new place they came to, The Fugitive answered two questions that had bedeviled many similar series: "Why doesn't the protagonist settle down somewhere?" and "Why is the protagonist trying to solve these problems himself instead of calling in the police?" Casting a doctor as the protagonist also provided the series a wider "range of entry" into local stories, as Kimble's medical knowledge would allow him alone to recognize essential elements of the episode (e.g. subtle medical symptoms or an abused medicine) and the commonplace doctor's ethic (e.g. to provide aid in emergencies) would naturally lead him into dangerous situations. Several television series have imitated the formula, with the twists being mostly in the nature of the fugitives: a German Shepherd dog (Run, Joe, Run, 1974); a scientist with a monstrous alter ego (The Incredible Hulk, 1978); a group of ex-US Army Special Forces accused of a war crime they committed under orders (The A-Team, 1983); a husband and wife (Hot Pursuit, 1984); a young man afflicted with lycanthropy (Werewolf, 1987) and a reinstated detective (Life, 2007).
In its debut season, The Fugitive was the 28th highest rated show in the US (with a 21.7 Rating), and it jumped to 5th in its second season (27.9). It fell out of the top 30 during the last two seasons, but the show's finale in 1967, in which Dr. Kimble's fate was shown, held the record at that time for the highest share of American homes with television sets to watch the finale of a series, 72%.
The show also came away with other honors. In 1965, Alan Armer, the producer and head writer of the series, received an Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America for his work. And in a 1993 ranking, TV Guide named The Fugitive the best dramatic series of the 1960s.
Dr. Richard Kimble
The series' lead, and the only character seen in all 120 episodes, was Dr. Richard David Kimble (Janssen).
Though Kimble was a respected pediatrician in the fictional small town of Stafford, Indiana, it was generally known that he and his wife Helen had been having arguments prior to her death. Helen's pregnancy had ended in a stillborn birth of a son, and surgery to save her life had also rendered her infertile. The couple was devastated, but Helen refused to consider adopting children as Richard wanted. The night of Helen's murder, the Kimbles were heard arguing heatedly over this topic by their neighbors. Richard later went out for a drive to cool off; as he was returning home, he nearly struck with his car a one-armed man who was fleeing from the house. Richard then found that Helen had been killed. No one had seen or heard Richard go out for his drive, or seen him while he was out, and he was convicted of Helen's murder.
After his escape from custody, Kimble moves from town to town, always trying to remain unobtrusive and unnoticed as he searches for the one-armed man while also trying to evade police capture. He usually adopts a nondescript alias and toils at low-paying menial jobs (i.e. those that required no ID or security checks) in order to survive. Though Kimble tries to keep a low profile, circumstances often conspire to place him in positions where he would be recognized or forced to risk capture in order to help a deserving person he has met in his travels.
Richard is unusually skilled and is usually able to perform well any job he takes. He also displays considerable prowess in hand-to-hand combat. In the episode "Nemesis", he distracts and then knocks out a forest ranger, then quickly unloads the man's rifle to ensure he cannot shoot him if pursued.
Lt. Philip Gerard
Kimble is pursued by the relentless police detective Lt. Philip Gerard (Morse), a formidably intelligent family man and dedicated public servant. Gerard appears in 37 episodes.
Morse portrayed Gerard as a man duty-bound to capture Kimble, but who also appeared to have some doubts as to his guilt. In one episode, when a woman witness remarks that Kimble killed his wife, Gerard simply replies, "The law says he did", with a tone of doubt in his voice; in the episode "Nemesis", the local sheriff (John Doucette) states, "You said he's a killer", to which Gerard sharply replies, "The jury said that!" However, in "Wife Killer" he states with certainty that the one-armed man does not exist and that Kimble is guilty.
Gerard's doubts are augmented after Kimble rescues Gerard in episodes such as "Never Wave Goodbye", "Corner of Hell", "Ill Wind", "The Evil Men Do", and "Stroke of Genius". "The Evil Men Do" in particular played on the respect that develops between the two men when Gerard is pursued by former Mob hitman Arthur Brame (James Daly), who is rescued from a runaway horse by Kimble; Kimble rescues Gerard from Brame. When Kimble escapes from Gerard, the lieutenant does not pursue Kimble, but instead goes after and kills Brame. In the epilogue, Gerard explains his decision to Brame's wife Sharon (Elizabeth Allen) by noting Arthur is a career killer while "Kimble, he's done the one murder he'll probably ever do". Gerard comes close to acknowledging Kimble's innocence when he concludes, "Until I find him, and I will, he's no menace to anyone, but himself."
In "Nemesis", Kimble unintentionally kidnaps Gerard's young son Philip Junior (played by 12-year-old Kurt Russell). Though as concerned as any father should be, Gerard is confident that Kimble will not do his boy any real harm. After his experience with Kimble, Philip Junior questions whether or not he is guilty and his father openly admits that he could be wrong, though it does not change his duty.
There are parallels to be seen between Gerard's pursuit of Kimble and the pursuit of Jean Valjean by Inspector Javert in Les Misérables, though Javert never lets go of his obsession to follow the letter of the law and hunts down his fugitive, even killing himself when he could not reconcile his tenets with the mercy Valjean shows him. Gerard, on the other hand, was portrayed externally as a man like Javert, but internally as more of a thinking man who could balance justice and duty. According to some of those who worked on the show, these parallels were not coincidental. Stanford Whitmore, who wrote the pilot episode "Fear in a Desert City," says that he deliberately gave Kimble's nemesis a similar-sounding name to see if anyone would recognize the similarity between 'Gerard' and 'Javert'. One who recognized the similarity was Morse; he pointed out the connection to Quinn Martin, who admitted that The Fugitive was a "sort of modern rendition of the outline of Les Misérables." Morse accordingly went back to the Victor Hugo novel and studied the portrayal of Javert, to find ways to make the character more complex than the "conventional 'Hollywood dick'" Gerard had originally been conceived as. "I've always thought that we in the arts ... are all 'shoplifters'", Morse said. "Everybody, from Shakespeare onwards and downwards ... But once you've acknowledged that ... when you set out on a shoplifting expedition, you go always to Cartier's, and never to Woolworth's!"
The one-armed man
A shadowy figure, the one-armed man (Bill Raisch) is seen fleeing Kimble's house by Kimble after the murder of Helen. In the series, not much is revealed about the man's personal life, and how or when he lost his right arm.
The one-armed man was rarely seen in the series, appearing in person in only ten episodes. (He also appears in the opening credits beginning with season 2, and in a photograph in the episode "The Breaking of the Habit".) He is seen extremely infrequently in the first three seasons, and has almost no actual dialogue until season four, when his character begins to take a more prominent part in the plotline. Aware that Kimble is after him, the one-armed man frequently tips the police off as to Kimble's whereabouts, most notably in "Nobody Loses All The Time" when he telephones his girlfriend (Barbara Baxley) at a hospital and orders her to call the police—even though Kimble risked arrest to save her life.
Like Kimble, he uses a variety of aliases while on the run—in the episode "A Clean And Quiet Town", he is credited as "Steve Cramer", and in "The Ivy Maze", he poses as "Carl Stoker". He goes by the name "Fred Johnson" in several episodes; first in the season-two episode "Escape Into Black", where he works as a dishwasher using this name. In the season-three episode "Wife Killer", a reporter discovers that the one-armed man carries a range of identification using various names. As "Fred Johnson", he has a membership in an athletic club, and a receipt for the sale of a pint of blood—this particular receipt shows that his blood type is B negative, and that he claims his age as 47. (Raisch himself was 60 when this episode was filmed.) The other identities used by the one-armed man are not revealed in the episode, although as the reporter flips through a wallet full of I.D, she notes that he is "a man of many identities, not one of them the same."
The one-armed man is identified as Fred Johnson in the two-part series finale "The Judgement". He is also referred to as Johnson in "The Ivy Maze" (where he is posing as "Carl Stoker") and at one point Fritz Simpson (William Windom) addresses him as "Fred" (in that episode, Kimble, Gerard, and the one-armed man all appear in the same scene for the first time). As this is the only consistent name they have to go by, both Gerard and Kimble refer to the one-armed man as "Fred Johnson" in a few later episodes. However, when interrogated by Lt. Gerard in "The Judgement", the one-armed man denies that Fred Johnson is his real name.
Though the one-armed man's real name is never definitely established, a case could be made for his actual name being "Gus Evans". As revealed in "The Judgement", that was the name the one-armed man used before he killed Helen Kimble, when he would presumably have had no need to adopt an alias.
Kimble's murdered wife Helen was portrayed in flashbacks in several episodes by Diane Brewster. Also seen very occasionally were Kimble's married sister, Donna Taft (Jacqueline Scott); his brother-in-law, Leonard Taft (played by several actors in different episodes, including Richard Anderson, James B. Sikking and Lin McCarthy); and Gerard's superior at the Stafford police department, Captain Carpenter (Paul Birch). Only the character of Richard Kimble is present onscreen in every episode; off-screen narrator William Conrad is also heard at the beginning and end of each episode (though not credited), while a different voice announces the title of the episode and the names of the episode's guest stars in the opening teaser. This announcer (an uncredited Dick Wesson) also says, "The Fugitive" aloud at the end of the closing credits leading in to studio sponsorships of the series ("'The Fugitive' has been brought to you by.....") Quinn Martin's previous show, The Untouchables, also contained both a narrator (Walter Winchell) and an announcer (Les Lampson).
The 120 episodes of The Fugitive offered a who's who of Hollywood character actors and upcoming talent. Many guest stars appeared in multiple episodes. Mel Proctor's book, The Official Fan's Guide to The Fugitive, lists all the actors and their episode numbers in Appendix 5.
Musical score
Pete Rugolo, who worked on David Janssen's earlier series Richard Diamond, Private Detective, composed the original music for The Fugitive. (Rugolo would later work with creator Roy Huggins on Run for Your Life and other projects.) Tracking music was standard practice at the time, but unlike virtually all primetime scripted series of the 1960s, no episode—not even "The Judgment"—received an original score; all the original music used for the series was composed by Rugolo and recorded in London before the series was filmed. In fact, many episodes had Rugolo as the sole credited composer for the episode's scores. However, only a fraction of all the music heard throughout the series was original Rugolo music. Library music (either from other classic TV shows or from stock music libraries, as was the case with The Adventures of Superman) provided a majority of the episodes' scores. For example, a keen listener could find himself listening to a cue from the Outer Limits series during the climactic final episode of The Fugitive. Numerous cues from The Twilight Zone episode "The Invaders" are used to strong effect throughout the series, notably in the climax of the episode "The Witch". The old pop songs "I'll Never Smile Again" and "I'll Remember April" each appear several times in the series, often associated with Kimble's deceased wife, Helen.
What little original melody was actually written and recorded was built around a fast-paced tempo representing running music. Different variations, from sad to action-oriented, would be used, with many arrangements developed for the music supervisor to select as best suited for particular scenes. There was also an original "Dragnet"-type theme for Lt. Gerard.
A soundtrack issue containing the key music Rugolo wrote and recorded for the series is now available on CD from Silva Screen Records. About 40 minutes in length, this CD contains mono yet hi-fidelity cuts and cues that were recorded in London.
- Theme From The Fugitive (1:18)
- The Kimbles (2:48)
- Tragic Homecoming (3:53)
- Under Arrest (1:43)
- Lt. Gerard (1:46)
- The Verdict/Train Wreck (2:07)
- On The Run (1:57)
- The Life Of A Fugitive (1:27)
- Main Title Theme (:39)
- Life On The Road (1:35)
- Main Theme - Jazz Version (1:30)
- The One-Armed Man's Name Is Fred Johnson (2:38)
- Brass Interlude (2:53)
- Sorrow (1:03)
- Dreams Of The Past (1:11)
- Youthful Innocence (1:35)
- Back On The Road (1:11)
- A New Love (2:16)
- Family Reunion (2:34)
- Watching And Waiting (1:33)
- Kimble vs. The One-Armed Man/Hand To Hand (5:11)
- The Day The Running Stopped (2:12)
- Freedom And Finale (:43)
- End Credits (1:09)
For the release of Season 2, Volume 1, entirely new musical scores (created on synthesizer and composed by Mark Heyes, with additional contributions by Sam Winans and Ron Komie) were done to replace the tracked music that had been used for original and rerun broadcasts, syndication and earlier home video releases. CBS/Paramount has yet to offer any detailed explanation for the music replacement, though a recent article on the Film Music Society's web site suggests that the use of several cues from the Capitol Music Library that may have been difficult or impossible to clear could have been the cause. Many fans of the original score wrote letters of protest and boycotted this release with the hope that CBS/Paramount would fix this debacle by reissuing the collection with all of the original music intact.
On 17 February 2009, CBS/Paramount announced a program to issue replacement discs for Season 2 Volume 1, with much of the original music restored. This was a significant effort by CBS to mollify outraged fans. While this was a step in the right direction, many fans concluded that the replacement discs were too little, too late. Several episodes still had major portions of their original scores replaced by the new compositions, and at least one key scene in the episode "Ballad for a Ghost" was deleted entirely. Inexplicably, many of the missing cues were clearly owned outright by CBS. These cues (correctly) appeared in some scenes, yet were replaced in others, reflecting an overcautious CBS Legal Department and needless music replacement.
The Fugitive premiered in the United States on September 17, 1963. A total of 120 episodes were produced over the course of the show's four seasons, with the last original episode airing in the United States on August 29, 1967.
The series aired Tuesdays at 10:00 on ABC.
Final episode
The two-part final episode entitled "The Judgment" aired on Tuesday, August 22, and Tuesday, August 29, 1967.
The one-armed man, going by the alias "Fred Johnson", is arrested after tearing up a Los Angeles strip bar. When Kimble reads about it in a newspaper while working in Arizona, he travels to Los Angeles. However, Gerard has been alerted and has already arrived in Los Angeles, where he is spotted by an old friend of the Kimble family, a woman named Jean Carlisle (Diane Baker), who is working as a typist with the Los Angeles Police Department. She immediately contacts Kimble's sister Donna, who, after failing to reach Kimble at his last job in Tucson, manages to find out and tell Donna where Kimble might be arriving in Los Angeles. Jean manages to reach Kimble just as the police start searching the area and gets him safely away to her apartment. Later, she reveals that she has been fond of him since she was a child, when her father's arrest and disgrace left her family with no friends save the Kimbles. After Kimble learns that Johnson has been arrested, he elects to turn himself in in a final hope of confronting Johnson and making him tell the truth. Before he can carry out his plan, Johnson is bailed out of jail by a corrupt bail bondsman who formulates a plan to blackmail the person who supplied the bail and who is himself killed by Johnson after revealing that the money came from someone in Stafford. Kimble decides that he must leave Los Angeles and head back home immediately, but just as he is about to catch a taxi to the airport Gerard finally apprehends him after chasing him for years. "I'm sorry," Gerard tells him, "you just ran out of time."
While taking the train back from Los Angeles to Stafford, Kimble informs Gerard that he found something that might lead him to the truth and that he believes Johnson is going to Stafford to use the information he killed the bail bondsman for. Gerard gives Kimble 24 hours to prove his innocence, and Kimble agrees to turn himself in if he cannot.
The key piece of evidence Kimble has is the bail bond slip signed by a man using the name "Leonard Taft", the name of Richard's brother-in-law, married to his sister Donna. The man is actually the Tafts' neighbor, Stafford city planner Lloyd Chandler (J. D. Cannon). Chandler learns from Donna that she had received a phone call from someone claiming that he knew who really killed Helen Kimble and arranging a meeting that night at an abandoned riding stable. While Donna and Leonard dismiss the call as a crank, Chandler keeps the meeting. Even though Chandler is armed with a loaded pistol, Johnson easily overpowers and disarms him and blackmails him for $50,000. Later, after learning from Donna about the phone call, Kimble and Gerard investigate out the stable, but find only a dropped unfired bullet from Chandler's gun.
Chandler tries to get the money while hiding it from his wife Betsy, even resorting to putting his house up for sale. Eventually, he cracks and tells her what he had done and why, revealing that he witnessed the murder of Helen Kimble. In a frightful panic after her husband had driven off and after drinking heavily, Helen had called Chandler and he had come over to the house to try to calm her down. While upstairs with Helen, both she and Chandler heard Johnson breaking into the house and witness his attempted robbery. Helen confronted Johnson, who responded by attacking her and beating her to death with a lamp, while Chandler stood frozen on the stairs watching in horror. Johnson spotted him, but seeing that Chandler in his current state posed no threat, he made good his escape. Chandler never told anybody because he was afraid that his standing in the community would be ruined; he had fought in World War II and earned a Silver Star while in combat, and feared that if anyone found out about his moment of cowardice in the Kimble home he would never live it down.
Jean Carlisle returns to Stafford and she and Kimble are briefly reunited. However, because Kimble is unsuccessful in finding his evidence within the 24 hours he was given, he is about to leave with Gerard when Donna finds a bullet hidden in one of her sons' dresser drawers. Shown the bullet, Gerard identifies it as being identical to the one they found at the riding academy the night before. Donna tells her husband and the lieutenant that the bullet must have come from Chandler, who had taken a group of boys to a shooting range the day before. Kimble and Gerard head over to the Chandler residence to learn that Chandler has headed to an abandoned amusement park and is luring Johnson there so he can make up for his earlier unwillingness to talk by killing Johnson.
By the time Kimble and Gerard arrive at the amusement park, Chandler and Johnson have started a firefight with Johnson's pistol squaring off against Chandler's rifle. While trying to stop the shooting, Gerard takes a bullet to his thigh from Johnson, temporarily disabling him. The lieutenant tosses Kimble his weapon and Kimble heads off to finally confront his wife's murderer. Chandler is forced to help Gerard walk, and during the whole time Gerard tries to convince him to speak up so Kimble can be exonerated.
The climax takes place on top of a carnival tower where Kimble has chased Johnson and where they engage in hand to hand fighting while Gerard and Chandler watch from the ground. Kimble is able to extract a confession from Johnson, but Johnson, who is also tired of having Kimble pursuing him, manages to get hold of Gerard's pistol, tells the doctor he is going to kill him and attempts to fire it, but before he is able, Gerard hits Johnson with a well placed shot from the ground with Chandler's rifle. Johnson falls off the top of the tower to his death. Kimble climbs down and tells Gerard that he was able to get a confession out of Johnson, but since he is now dead and there were no other witnesses but him, he cannot prove his innocence. Chandler, apparently having been convinced by Gerard, decides that he will in fact testify on Kimble's behalf in order to exonerate him.
In the final scene of the episode and the series, an exonerated Kimble leaves the courthouse and, after hesitating, shakes the extended hand of Lt. Gerard. Dr. Kimble walks off toward his new life, accompanied by Jean Carlisle. Narrator William Conrad intones, "Tuesday, August 29th: The day the running stopped."
The final episode on August 29 was interrupted or not shown in some parts of the country due to local baseball telecasts. "The Judgment, Part 2", was shown in those markets the following week. The William Conrad voiceover was changed to, "Tuesday, September 5: The day the running stopped." The September 5 ending was used for the VHS release of the episode, while the August 29 version has proved the more popular with classic television stations that have shown it over the years.
Part two of the finale was the most-watched television series episode at that time. It was viewed by 25.70 million households (45.9 percent of American households with a television set and a 72 percent share), meaning that more than 78 million people tuned in. That record was held until the November 21, 1980 episode of Dallas, ("Who Done It"), viewed by 41.47 million households (53.3 percent of households and a 76 percent share), but was later surpassed by the series finale of M*A*S*H, ("Goodbye, Farewell and Amen"), on February 28, 1983, viewed by 50.15 million households (60.2 percent of households and a 77 percent share). According to producer Leonard Goldberg, the network was simply going to end the series with a regular episode without any kind of denouement to the predicament of Richard Kimble, as the network executives were totally oblivious to the concept that a television audience actually tuned in week after week and cared about the characters of a TV series. The timing of the broadcast was unusual: rather than ending the regular season, the finale was held back while suspense continued through the summer reruns.
- 1963-1964: #28 (21.7)
- 1964-1965: #5 (27.9)
- 1965-1966: N/A
- 1966-1967: N/A
The Fugitive, a feature film based on the series, was released in 1993, starring Harrison Ford as Kimble, Tommy Lee Jones as Gerard (now named 'Samuel' instead of 'Philip', and a U.S. Marshal rather than a police lieutenant) and Andreas Katsulas as the one-armed man (now called Fred Sykes instead of Fred Johnson). The movie's success came as Hollywood was embarking on a trend of remaking old television series into features. The film remained true to its source material, in particular, the notion that Kimble's kindness led him to help others even when it posed a danger to his liberty or to his physical safety. The film also showed Gerard pursuing his own investigation into the murder as part of his pursuit of Kimble and coming up with his own doubts as to the case. To coincide with the theatrical release, NBC aired the show's first and last episodes in the summer of 1993, and later hosted the film's broadcast television premiere in 1996. Tommy Lee Jones received the 1993 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. The film was also nominated for Best Picture.
In 1998, Gerard and his team of Marshals returned in a follow-up film U.S. Marshals. With the exception of actress L. Scott Caldwell, the deputy marshals were played by the same supporting cast. Although the film was a sequel, it did not include the character of Kimble. It did though retain a similar plotline of another fugitive Mark Sheridan, portrayed by actor Wesley Snipes, who evades police to prove his innocence from a government conspiracy.
Television remake
A short-lived TV series remake (CBS, 2000–2001) of the same name also aired, filmed in Everett, Washington starring Tim Daly as Kimble, Mykelti Williamson as Gerard, and Stephen Lang as the one-armed man. CBS canceled the series after one season with a total of 22 episodes. The show was the first lead in to CSI: Crime Scene Investigation on Friday nights, which became a hit when it debuted the same year. This incarnation was produced by Warner Bros. Television, the TV division of Warner Bros. Entertainment which produced the 1993 film.
Home video
||This section may contain an excessive amount of intricate detail that may only interest a specific audience. (October 2012)|
Prior to home video, The Fugitive was part of the original lineup on the "Arts & Entertainment Network", commonly known as A&E, beginning in February 1984. It ran until the summer of 1994. The show also appeared on the nationwide WWOR EMI Service, on the former KTZZ-TV (now KZJO) in the Seattle area and briefly on the TV Land network in 2000 before disappearing from television altogether.
Currently, Republic Pictures and CBS Television Studios own the copyrights to the series (while CBS itself now owns distribution rights); CBS DVD (with distribution by Paramount) released Season 1, Volume 1 on DVD in Region 1 in late 2007. Reviews of the first DVD set have been very positive as the show appears uncut and uncompressed, re-mastered from the original negatives and magnetic soundtrack, although a disclaimer by CBS mentions some episodes are "edited from their original broadcast versions" and some music changed for home video. (Incidental music was altered in at least two episodes, "Where the Action Is" and "The Garden House".) There are no subtitles or alternate languages but English closed captioning are provided, and the "liner notes" consist merely of TV-Guide-style episode synopses inside the four-disc holder. Season 1, Volume 2 was released on February 26, 2008. Season 2, Volume 1 was released on June 10, 2008. Many reviews of this third DVD set were highly negative due to the replacement of the original used music tracks with the aforementioned synthesizer music (see Musical score section above for details.) Season 3, volume 1 was released on October 27, 2009, and Season 3, volume 2 was released on December 8, 2009, with most, but not all, of the original music intact. Season 4, volume 1 was released on November 2, 2010. It appears that this volume will be the first to include any extras, including a Featurette titled "Season of Change: Composer Dominic Frontiere". Season 4, volume 2 was released on February 15, 2011.
On November 1, 2011, CBS released The Fugitive- The Most Wanted Edition on DVD in Region 1. This 34-disc set featured all 120 episodes of the series as well as bonus features, such as the unaired version of the pilot with different footage. The set was recalled due to possible music issues, but some sets were released.
CBS's rights only cover the original series; the later productions were handled by Warner Bros. Entertainment.
|DVD name||No. of
|Season 1, Volume 1||15||August 14, 2007|
|Season 1, Volume 2||15||February 26, 2008|
|Season 2, Volume 1||15||June 10, 2008|
|Season 2, Volume 2||15||March 31, 2009|
|Season 3, Volume 1||15||October 27, 2009|
|Season 3, Volume 2||15||December 8, 2009|
|Season 4, Volume 1||15||November 2, 2010|
|Season 4, Volume 2||15||February 15, 2011|
|The Complete Series||120||October 23, 2012|
- TV Guide Names Top 50 Shows
- Bretts, Bruce; Roush, Matt; (March 25, 2013). "Baddies to the Bone: The 60 nastiest villains of all time". TV Guide. pp. 14 - 15.
- Bailey, F. Lee; Aronson, Harvey (September 1, 1972). The Defense Never Rests. New American Library. p. 67. Retrieved 2013-01-02. "More than ten years later, the Sheppard card would serve as a model for the popular television show The Fugitive."
- Brooks, Tim; Marsh, Earle. The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows, 1946–Present. Eighth Edition. NY: Ballantine Books, 2003. Pp. 1459-60.
- The Evil Men Do, Act IV and Epilogue
- Robertson, Ed (1993). The Fugitive Recaptured. Universal City, California: Pomegranate Press. ISBN 0-938817-34-5.
- Lin McCarthy at IMDB
- Jon Burlingame, "TV's Biggest Hits: The Story of Television Themes From Dragnet To Friends," 1996, p. 134, Schirmer Books, ISBN 0-02-870324-3
- "Episode Guide for The Fugitive". Internet Movie Database.
- Dan Pasternack (October 21 and December 7, 2004). "Leonard Goldberg on "The Fugitive" series finale". Archive of American Television - EMMYTVLEGENDS.ORG. Retrieved April 17, 2013.
- "Special Collector's Issue: 100 Greatest Episodes of All Time". TV Guide (June 28-July 4). 1997.
- Fugitive Season 1 Volume 2 Box Art
- Fugitive Seaon 2 Volume 1 Box Art
- Fugitive Season 3 Volume 2
- Fugitive Season 3 Volume 2
- Fugitive Season 4 Volume 1
- Fugitive Season 4 Volume 2
- Fugitive: The Complete Series
- The Fugitive: Season One, Volume One
- The Fugitive: Season One, Volume Two
- The Fugitive: Season Two, Volume One
- The Fugitive: Season Two, Volume Two
- The Fugitive: Season Three, Volume One
- The Fugitive: Season Three, Volume Two
- The Fugitive: The Fourth And Final Season, Volume One
- The Fugitive: The Fourth And Final Season, Volume Two
|Wikimedia Commons has media related to: The Fugitive (TV series)|
- The Fugitive (1963) at the Internet Movie Database
- The Fugitive (1993 movie) at the Internet Movie Database
- The Fugitive (2000) at the Internet Movie Database
- Encyclopedia of Television
- Index at TV.com
- Behind-the-scenes production photos Collection of crew member Stephen Lodge.
- Stephen J. Cannell's Archive of American Television explanation of Huggins' approach
- The Fugitive in Flight: Faith, Liberalism, and Law in a Classic TV Show, a book by Stanley Fish examining the moral structure of the series.
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Mon May 28, 2012
Afghans Who Helped U.S. Forces Still Hope For Visas
Originally published on Mon May 28, 2012 8:01 pm
Afghans hired to help U.S. forces in Afghanistan say Congress should keep its promise to grant them visas to America. Despite death threats from the Taliban, thousands of Afghans have worked with Americans since the war in Afghanistan began. Most say they wanted to serve their country, but they also hoped to win visas to America. But since 2009, the number of U.S. visas awarded has slowed to a trickle.
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Continuing on the concept of “advanced SEO“, I am today marveling at the collision of Apache web server and SEO. It is finally happening, and it is about time.
Continuing on the concept of SEOs Dealing in Minutia, I am also marveling at how this small problem with Apache has gone un-noticed for so long in SEO world.
First, let me say that Beverly Hills is a very nice place to live. Beverly-Hills is just as nice, and Beverly+Hills is even nicer. However, Beverly%20Hills is not quite as nice, although I certainly understand the urlencoding that led to the sub-standard living conditions. To be fair, Matt Cutts has said it’s better than Beverly_Hills, but my SEO senses tell me that, too is changing. Of course Beverly Hills and beverly Hills are the same, as are beverly Hills, and even the easily-parsed beverlyHills with or without proper Beverlyhills capitalizations. Oh if it were so easy. Too bad we can’t all live in easily-parsed locations like BeverlyHills, LaJolla, and NewYorkCity. We wouldn’t need fences. Life would be easy.
But the only reason those places are easily parsed is because they are space-separated place names in the corpus of information that is the index. The URL is the anomaly. Google needs the space-separated HTML out there in order to know that /beverlyhills/plasticsurgeons.html is semantically equivalent to /Beverly Hills/plastic surgeons. The first chicken was indeed born of an egg from other than a chicken. Check Darwin’s notes on that.
But as the advanced SEO positions his search engine friendly URLs in Beverly Hills neighborhoods, he runs into this recognized Apache bug, which reveals that Apache does some escaping of its own before the rewrite engine even gets the URL:
At the early beginning, when the internal request processing starts, apache unescapes the URL-path once. This is not done by mod_rewrite, this happens before mod_rewrite is involved and I think this is also a part of the security concept.
If you are using your rewrite rules in directory context, you have a filename (a physical path, e.g. /var/www/abc) while the per-dir prefix is stripped (so you’re matching only against the local path ‘abc’ if your rules are stored in /var/www/). How would you map some unescaped URL-path to the file system? There’s no way to make the unescaping process optional for a physical path in directory context.
This is not a show stopper. If you’re building front controllers you are capable of avoiding Apache’s rewrite altogether (and may now recognize this as a necessity), but it sure is inconvenient if you had planned out a site architecture with an eye on a nice, stable, data-driven virtual URL hierarchy using your own front controller in collaboration with Apache’s fast, integrated mod_rewrite.
The bug reports describe this in more detail, and show a few ways to work around the problem if you are so inclined to do so (that is, if you are so inclined to revisit your code once Apache gets pached again).
My point? This ain’t beginner-level SEO, friends. Pursuing Google-friendly URLs with a modern web infrastructure, and running into a bug in Apache? THE web server? And not just a bug, but one that demonstrates how Apache’s roots are in file systems, which we left behind a few years ago when we started using CMS’s and frameworks. If you’re moving a large dynamic site to a more “search engine friendly” site architecture with semantically useful URLs, you’re client just got a change order and a work authorization form. And the first order of business on that agenda is not working around the problem. It’s revisiting a cost-benefit analysis. If such an obstacle is too big for your SEO boots, what will you do? Settle for good-enough? I won’t. Certainly not in Beverly Hills.
In 2002 I implemented a method of statically caching a sitemap via use of a primitive front controller with hooks into Apache’s 404 handler. The goal was the same as it is today - user and search friendly URLs with no physical file system correlates, and fast, clean structure. I presented it to a technical audience in 2005, and was asked why it was necessary at all. Even now, 5 years later, working with frameworks and application programming languages far advanced from the old days of PHP3 and 4, we have the same problems: Google gives weight to things it can’t manage properly, and everything’s running on a web server built a long time ago when “things was different”. SEO is about optimizing content as published, so that it ranks in search engines. As long as the web keeps changing, and Google does or does not, SEO will be hard.
As far as the Apache/SEO collision thing, it’s not so much this bug as the source of it: Apache protects an underlying file system, and I just don’t have any need for a file system any more.
If you’re into the minutia, here are some links:
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Holiday homes in Germany in Bavarian Forest
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Bungalow.Net's holiday homes in the Bavarian Forest allow you to discover one of Europe's most popular outdoor regions. With its forested mountains, pastures, rivers and lakes and unique rock formations like the Phahl and "Devil's Table", no wonder it's called the "green roof of Europe". It is the perfect destination for a green holiday in Germany, hiking or walking along quality hiking trails such as the Goldsteig or cycling on long or short distance routes - the possibilities for an active holiday in the Bavarian Forest are practically endless. The Bavarian Forest is also home to the first mountain biking tracks in Germany, the EldoRado region in the St. Englmar Mountains. Water sports fans are also well catered to having countless lakes and rivers to choose from. Enjoy a water sports holiday in the Bavarian Forest with activities like kayaking, swimming, canoeing, water-skiing, boating and more on the Regen River or the lakes of Perlsee, Blaibach and Neubarer. Discover this amazing region from one of Bungalow.Net's bungalows with internet in the Bavarian Forest.
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If you're looking for a holiday among nature, you can't get any greener than Bungalow.Net's holiday homes in the Bavarian Forest. Take advantage of our eco-friendly houses in the Bavarian Forest and explore this unsurpassed natural environment of Germany. Reserve one of our pet-friendly chalets in the Bavarian Forest and you can even bring the family dog along for the adventure. Enjoy a hiking holiday in the Bavarian Forest traversing the Frauenau Reservoir or trek up to the ruins of Weissenstein Castle near Regen, perfect if you're looking to add a bit of culture to your active holiday in the Bavarian Forest. If you're vacationing with the kids, head over to Bodenmais where you can visit a mining museum (and a former shaft of the mine) situated on Silberberg hill then go down by way of its 600-meter summer bobsled run. There's also plenty of opportunity to see wildlife, not only in the forest itself but at places like the Bavarian Forest Animal Park in Lohberg, the open-air animal park in Neuschonau and the wildlife park of Ludwigsthal. Of course the Bavarian Forest is not just for a green holiday in Germany as winter provides the perfect opportunity for you to savor a fantastic winter holiday in the Bavarian Forest with activities like cross-country skiing, sledding and more. Green or white, the magic of the Bavarian Forest is sure to enchant you, so don't delay - book one of Bungalow.Net's self-catering accommodations in the Bavarian Forest today!
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Accepts Honor During Visit with First Female Navy Submariners As part of the Joining Forces initiative to honor, recognize and serve military families, today at the White House President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama met with the U.S. Navy’s first contingent of women submariners to be assigned to the Navy’s operational submarine force. In 2009, U.S. Navy Secretary Ray Mabus announced that for the first time in Navy history, women would be assigned to the submarine force. The 24 women who met with the President and First Lady today were accepted into the Navy’s nuclear submarine program after completing an intensive training program. They are serving on ballistic and guided missile submarines throughout the Navy. A photograph of the President, First Lady, Defense Secretary Panetta, Secretary Mabus and the women submariners can be found at this LINK . As part of the visit to the White House, First Lady Michelle Obama accepted Secretary Ray Mabus’ invitation to serve as the sponsor of the future USS Illinois (SSN 786). Illinois is a Virginia-class submarine, the Navy’s newest class of attack submarine, and is being built in Groton, Connecticut and Newport News, Virginia. Illinois is expected to join the fleet in late 2015. In sponsoring USS Illinois, the First Lady joins a tradition of First Lady sponsorship of U.S. Navy submarines. First Lady Laura Bush is USS Texas’ (SSN 775) sponsor and christened it in 2004; First Lady Hillary Clinton is USS Columbia’s (SSN 771) sponsor and christened it in 1994. As sponsor, the First Lady will establish a special link to Illinois, her Sailors, and their families that extends throughout the life of the submarine. “It’s an honor and a privilege to serve as sponsor of the USS ILLINOIS,” said First Lady Michelle Obama. “I’m always inspired by the service and sacrifice of the men and women of the Navy, as well as the families who support them. This submarine is a tribute to the strength, courage, and determination that our Navy families exhibit every day.” “Naval tradition holds that a sponsor’s spirit and presence guide the ship and her crew throughout the life of the ship,” said Secretary Mabus. “Illinois and her crew are blessed to have such a wonderful sponsor and I am grateful Mrs. Obama accepted my invitation to serve as sponsor for this submarine.” First Lady Michelle Obama also serves as the sponsor for the recently commissioned Coast Guard Cutter Stratton, based in Alameda, California. The Coast Guard ship is named after Captain Dorothy Stratton, the director of the Coast Guard Women’s Reserve during World War II where she oversaw 10,000 enlisted women and 1,000 commissioned officers.
Read more about government news here:
First Lady Named Sponsor of New Navy Submarine, USS ILLINOIS
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KHABAROVSK, July 31 (RIA Novosti) - The Russian Defense Ministry said on Friday it would not abandon the development of the troubled Bulava ballistic missile, and that tests could resume in August.
The missile, which is being developed by the Moscow-based Institute of Thermal Technology (MITT), has suffered six failures in 11 tests. The general director of the institute resigned last week over the failures, which are believed to represent a severe setback in the development of Russia's nuclear deterrent.
"Everything depends on the conclusions reached by an investigation commission," Deputy Defense Minister Vladimir Popovkin said, adding that the probe could be finalized as early as next week.
The Bulava (SS-NX-30) submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) carries up to 10 MIRV warheads and has an estimated range of over 8,000 kilometers (5,000 miles). The three-stage solid-propellant ballistic missile is designed for deployment on new Borey class nuclear-powered strategic submarines.
The Russian military expects the Bulava, along with Topol-M land-based ballistic missiles, to become the core of Russia's nuclear triad.
Popovkin said more work has to be done to correct flaws in the Bulava's development, but that there was no alternative to the missile for a number of reasons.
"We have no choice - we already have one [Borey class] submarine, and have laid down more, so to start a new R&D project would be unrealistic," the official said.
Russia's newest Borey class strategic nuclear submarine, the Yury Dolgoruky, has completed the first round of sea trials in early July.
Two other Borey class nuclear submarines, the Alexander Nevsky and the Vladimir Monomakh, are currently under construction at the Sevmash plant and are expected to be completed in 2009 and 2011. Russia is planning to build eight of these submarines by 2015.
"A submarine costs about 60 billion rubles [about $2 bln], and the development of a new missile would cost up to 30 billion rubles [$1 bln] - these are serious expenses."
"But the most important thing is the years [spent on development], because we urgently need to change our sea-based strategic delivery vehicles," Popovkin said.
The future development of the Bulava has been questioned by some lawmakers and defense industry officials, who have suggested that all efforts should be focused on the existing Sineva SLBM.
The RSM-54 Sineva (NATO designation SS-N-23 Skiff) is a third-generation liquid-propellant submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) that entered service with the Russian Navy in July 2007. It can carry four or 10 nuclear warheads, depending on the modification, and has a maximum range of over 11,500 kilometers (about 7,100 miles).
Russia carried out successful test launches of two Sineva missiles from two Delta IV class nuclear-powered submarines in service with the Northern Fleet, located under an ice floe near the North Pole, on July 13-14.
The results of the tests confirmed that the Sineva would stay in service with the Russian Navy until at least 2015.
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The failure of the Islamist political parties who came to power in the dramatic events of the Arab Spring would allow the military to reenter the political arena. Political Islam was successful in the opposition, but it could fail in power, as the negative experience of Egypt and Iraq have shown.
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I am shocked, genuinely shocked, to see the Maoists partying and celebrating yesterday’s 23-point deal by equating that to the declaration of a republic.
By Dinesh Wagle
Wagle Street Journal
Almost 98 days after the Maoist ministers’ withdrawal from the cabinet, the Prime Minister today “accepted” their resignations. Prachanda has said that the party will send another set of leaders in the cabinet within 48 hours. In these wasted 98 days, we have lost the opportunity to hold the CA election and declare Nepal a republic through the peoples’ verdict. And it was all symbolic: the resignations of the Maoist ministers, pending and approval of those resignations. We all knew even after quitting the portfolios, Maoists were in fact running the ministries that were assigned to them in April.
Yesterday’s 23-point deal, which is making headlines on the international pages of the world press just because it said a word republic would be added in the interim constitution, is no more than a symbolic gesture too. That is a great face saving for the Maoists who are busy portraying the agreement as a victory in their ‘peaceful war’ to declare Nepal a republic. I am shocked, genuinely shocked, how Maoists can interpret the decisions in their favor. A hastily called and obscure gathering of some members of the civil society was THE Round Table Conference for the comrade Prachanda. Adding one word republic somewhere deep inside the constitution is the declaration of republic for the Maoist party. Not to forget the fact that even that addition of the word will come into effect (implemented!) after the meeting of the CA convenes. So this, in fact, is the declaration of republic in credit, the term coined by the Maoists themselves! We thought they were against such credit declarations.
Maoists should understand this: just putting one word republic in the statue doesn’t make a country republic. Maoists haven’t been able to convince us as to how the favorable situation has been created to hold the election that they couldn’t think was possible in November. The only concrete change that the deal promised is the increment in the number of seats in the Constituent Assembly. Out of total 601 members, 335 (or 55.74 %) will be elected through proportional system while 240 (or 39.9 %) will be elected through first past the post system from same number of geographical constituencies. The remaining 26 (or 4.32 %) will be nominated by the prime minister.
Phew! But that’s okay! If the adding just a word makes comrades happy, we are happy for them! So much with your republic demand! Good that adding one word in the constitution and adding a few seats in the assembly makes comrades feel that favorable environment for the election has been created. Now let’s get ready to vote!
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Stolen Book Of Mormon 1st Edition Returned
MESA, Ariz., (UPI) – An Arizona bookstore owner said she was relieved when police returned the first-edition Book of Mormon that a friend of hers had stolen.
Helen Schlie, 89, owner of the Helen Spencer Schlie Gallery in Mesa, said the book, one of only about 200 surviving first-editions from 1830, had been in her family for 40 years when it was taken last year by Jay Michael Linford, 49, The Arizona Republic reported Wednesday.
U.S. marshals arrested Linford in Virginia June 11 and the book was recovered. Some of the pages had been sold to Texas dealer Reid Moon, and they were also recovered.
Linford pleaded guilty to theft Jan. 10 and is scheduled to be sentenced Feb. 12.
The book is estimated to be worth tens of thousands of dollars.
UPI - United Press International, Inc. Since 1907, United Press International (UPI) has been a leading provider of critical information to media outlets, businesses, governments and researchers worldwide.
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Is there news related to personal liberty happening in your area? Contact us at firstname.lastname@example.org
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9th EMBL/EMBO Joint Conference 2008
Regine Kollek, University of Hamburg, Germany
Regine Kollek, PhD, received her doctoral degree in molecular biology from the University of Würzburg (Germany), before she spent two years at the Medical School of the University of California, San Diego (USA). From 1981 through 1984, she was senior researcher at the Heinrich-Pette Institute at the University of Hamburg (Germany). From 1985-1987 she was a member of the scientific staff of the Inquiry Commission on "Chances and Risks of Gene-Technology" of the German parliament in Bonn. After that she joined an interdisciplinary research group at the Hamburger Institute for Social Research, working on sociology of science and technology and risk theory.
Since 1995 she has been professor for biomedical technology assessment at the University of Hamburg and head of a research group dedicated to the study of the implications of modern biotechnology in medicine at the Research Centre for Biotechnology, Society and the Environment. Her research focuses on the ethical and societal implications of modern biotechnology and genetics in medicine. Her latest books are on predictive genetic diagnosis (2008) and on pharmacogenetics and individualised therapy (2004). She is member of the German Ethics Council and of the International Bioethics Committee of UNESCO.
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The active engagement of the EU in conflict resolution processes will be among top priorities, Davit Bakradze, the new state minister for conflict resolution issues said on July 19.
Bakradze, who was chairman of the parliamentary committee for Euro-Atlantic integration issues, replaced Merab Antadze on July 19. The latter was appointed deputy foreign minister in charge of relations with Russia – the position he held before becoming the state minister last July.
“Radical changes have already occurred in respect of conflict resolution issues in the last year and a half,” he said, naming the establishment of a Tbilisi-backed provisional administration in South Ossetia and the presence of the Abkhaz government-in-exile in upper Kodori Gorge in Abkhazia.
He said these two developments had “drastically changed power configurations” on the ground both in Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
“There is no need to drastically change policy,” he said, “I will try to contribute to this process based on my previous experience [in the parliament] and based on contacts I have in EU member states and elsewhere.”
“So one of my top priorities will be to engage more actively EU member states in the conflict resolution process,” he added.
Parliamentary Chairperson Nino Burjanadze also stressed Bakradze's “good contacts both in the United States and Europe, which will be useful in his future work.”
She said on July 19 that Bakradze also had what it took “to continue talks with the de facto authorities [in Tskhinvali] and naturally with the provisional administration.”
MP Kote Gabashvili, who chairs the parliamentary committee for foreign affairs, said the cabinet change was as a result of “a new dimension” in the South Ossetian conflict resolution process – apparently a reference to Dimitri Sanakoev’s Tbilisi-backed administration.
"This new dimension needs new approaches," Gabashvili said on July 19, "and I think that it was a very good decision to select Mr. Bakradze for this position.”
The reshuffle comes after President Saakashvili told his government colleagues on July 18 that “conflict resolution efforts should become much more intensive and efficient.”
He announced plans to set up a government commission to negotiate South Ossetia’s status with the Sanakoev administration and warned cabinet members that “we have timeframes; so we should work round-the-clock.”
Davit Bakradze, 35, was chairman of the parliamentary committee for Euro-Atlantic integration issues. He was also a co-chairman of the EU-Georgian Parliamentary Cooperation Committee and in that capacity he contributed to the organization of a visit by Dimitri Sanakoev to Brussels, which was an important part of Tbilisi’s policy of promoting Sanakoev internationally.
Trained in physics, Bakradze joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1997 and became chief of the disarmament and arms control unit in the ministry a year later. In 2002 he joined the National Security Council (NSC) and became head of the NSC’s department for foreign policy and conflicts in 2003. He was elected to the parliament through the National Movement party-list in 2004.
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http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=15467
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This one states that “All outcomes are achievements: there is only feedback”.
Fantastic…. you can never fail. Failure is a state of mind and when you start viewing life as a continuous feedback loop, it really changes your outlook….. a failure becomes an opportunity to do better next time. A downward spiral of failure and lack of confidence becomes a improvement spiral of feedback and doing things better. Incredibly useful for you as a parent and for your children.
I’ll put this into some applications tomorrow and draw it up to show what I mean. Goodnight for now.
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http://www.nlpmum.com/parenting/presupposition-outcomes-are-achievements
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Earlier this month, Hollaback! Buenos Aires founder Inti Maria Tidball-Binz was featured in Argentina’s El Guardián newspaper, but the coverage was far from celebratory. Writer Juan Terranova belittled the movement, stating that street harassment is okay. As if Terranova couldn’t be any more infuriating, he ended by threateneing Tidball-Binz,
I finish here with a wish for 2011: to meet Inti Maria Tidball-Binz at a vernissage, share a drink, and later tell her I would love to rape her in the ass.
Terranova’s rape threat is unacceptable, and frankly, frightening. Hollaback and Change.org have put forth a demand that Terranova resigns from El Guardián.
If anything Terranova’s threat illustrates the need for women to fight back against street harassment. While street harassment can be perceived as actions that happen when jogging, walking or being out in public space, Terranova’s complete dismissal and subsequent threat underlines a connection between street harassment and violence against women. It can happen anywhere, whether in the streets or in print. And we need to start fighting back.
You can start by taking part in today’s First Annual Anti-Street Harassment Day. Holly Kearl, activist and author of Stop Street Harassment says that her objective in initiating this day is to “encourage people to break the silence around street harassment and bring more attention to this pervasive problem.” She suggests ways for people to get involved, ranging from educating yourself about street harassment to holding a local anti-street harassment event.
I have another suggestion for getting involved: Join your local Hollaback branch.
Hollaback was designed by women who were tired of being silenced and sought a simple, non-violent response. What emerged is a platform where thousands of stories of street harassment have been told. Hollaback branches can now be found in Buenos Aires, Czech Republic, Mumbai, France, London, Atlanta, Baltimore, El Paso, Houston, New York City, Portland, SoCal and more will be launching soon. If your city doesn’t have a branch, start your own!
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Twins Abby and Brittany Hensel, 22, were not expected to survive when they were born in Minnesota, USA, in 1990.
The girls are conjoined with separate heads and bodies above the waist, but a shared torso, bladder and female reproductive system.
The girls' reality TV show is about to air in the States, but up until now, they have managed to avoid publicity, living a quiet life in their small town. Now, they are set to become celebrities as the show chronicles their graduation from uni, their travels to Europe, and their hunt for jobs.
Despite being conjoined, the girls insist they are completely different people and have their own unique personalities. They both want to marry and have their own children, and say they are going to be 'great moms one day'.
The girls - who had a partially-formed third arm removed when they were 12 - are joined side by side, and have two spines which are joined at the pelvis, two hearts, two stomachs, three kidneys, two gall bladders, four lungs – two are joined– a liver, one ribcage, a shared circulatory system and both partially share their nervous systems.
Proud Patty said she though they were 'beautiful' from the first moment they saw them.
"I kissed Abigail and then Brittany and gave them both a hug. It's been like that ever since – two kisses and a hug for the most beautiful children in the world."
Brittany has no sensation on the right side of her body, whilst Abby feels nothing on the left, but between them they have co-ordinated their arms and legs to enable them to walk, run, swim and drive - and even to scratch the other twin's itches!
The girls have a younger brother Dakota, 20, and sister Morgan, 18, and say they were not treated any differently growing up in their town of just 300 people, but that strangers would often stare and want to photograph them - but their family instilled in them the confidence to cope and to be individuals:
"When children ask if they have two heads, they say they don't. They each have their own," says their mum, adding "That's what we have encouraged them to do, to develop their own individuality as much as possible."
What amazing girls - we can't wait to see their TV show! You can watch the trailer and see more of Abby and Brittany in our video and gallery below.
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Get involved: send your pictures, video, news and views by texting GAZETTE NEWS to 80360, or email
Answer to Colchester congestion crisis - stop cars!
A Cycling campaigner has put forward radical proposals to reduce congestion in Colchester - including closing a key junction to cars during peak times.
About 34,000 vehicles travel under North Station bridge each day creating a bottleneck of traffic at peak times.
And concerns have been raised the situation will get worse when 1,600 homes are built off Nayland Road in Mile End in forthcoming years.
Questions are being asked about how to deal with the extra influx of traffic.
And Will Bramhill, chairman of the Colchester Cycling Campaign, said the answer is to deter it.
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http://www.gazette-news.co.uk/news/9980169.Answer_to_Colchester_congestion_crisis___stop_cars_/
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Posts Tagged ‘viruses’
The Destruction of the Viruses was a fairly ambitious (but not very innovative) game written for the Infection theme. The player had to clean out the insides of a computer by killing all the viruses that resided there. The viruses could clone themselves, so it wasn’t always that easy.
It played like a top-down shooter, with FPS controls, and used OpenGL to draw a level that could be rotated around the player.
There were many good intentions, and much love for the number 5 (there being 5 levels, 5 enemy types, and 5 weapon types), yet the game failed badly. The biggest mistake was a bug which made some parts of the game framerate dependent, leaving it extremely hard if you had a low framerate (it played as intended at about 180 FPS). It’s hard to say how it would have fared without the bug, but as it were, it placed about 23th.
You can get the compo version, or its source, if you want to, but I really must urge you not to! Better to get the ‘made working dist’ released a few days after the deadline. Both of them are for Windows and OpenGL.
I have an even better version around somewhere, that I haven’t packaged and released yet. I’ll do that soon, and then I’ll include it here.
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President's XV - Schools Development
Photo: RFU Archive
Top of the class! Many children get their first taste of rugby at school. We want to recognise an exceptional school, cluster or School Sports Partnership programme that provides quality opportunities for boys and girls to play rugby union. The winning project will support pupils, teachers, young leaders and adults other than teachers in helping young people on their rugby journey both inside and beyond the school gates.
Please note that the school development award was not held in 2006/07.
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http://www.rfu.com/managingrugby/clubdevelopment/volunteers/recognition/presidentsxv/previous_winners/schoolsdevpw
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Our Farm Practices
Our Farm started over 20 years ago as a small sidewalk garden and has grown over the years to the 11 acre Farm it is today. We began selling high quality produce to our customers in 1997, and have been farming at our location on Meridian Road Since 1999.
The Farm is located "down in The Hollow", on the banks of Mud Creek, with beautiful views of both mountain ranges and Mt. Lassen. ( If you stand on the levee on a clear day you can see Mt. Shasta ).
Ours is a very diverse Farm, with not only many varieties of Vegetables grown, also Chickens, Goats, and sometimes a Pig or two. We also have a young Fig Orchard and few fruit trees.
We've always been an Organic Farm, certified with C.C.O.F. since 2002. In our Organic fertility program we primarily use feather meal, bone meal, and mined sulfate of potash. We also use compost tea to stimulate soil micro-organism growth. Our tilth program emphasizes minimum tillage in our bedrows, and have no- till isles which allows for long term organic matter growth and greater carbon sequestion.
All of our transplants are grown here on site in two low-tech, low energy input, highly efficient greenhouses.They are built out of PVC pipe and have widthstood 80-95 MPH swirling winds!
All of our transplants are placed in the field by hand ( I loath heavy tractors and the compaction they create) or seeded with push seeders. Some crops are grown with plastic mulch and all are irrigated with drip irrigation.
Much care is given to the plants with weeding, mowing, irrigation -all done with Respect and Love.
Then when our Vegetables have grown to the peak of their perfection, they are carefully hand harvested and brought to you at the Farmer's Market or Local Natural Food Store or to our C.S.A..
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http://www.pyramidfarms.com/content/5027
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Not only do they enjoy some of the state's most generous formulas for calculating their public retirement benefits, but judges are uniquely empowered to protect or enhance them. That's because they decide legal questions raised by anybody with a grievance about the way PERS works. Under this system, judges have settled PERS cases even as they acknowledged their own conflicts of interest.
Further, it's likely that any reforms to the PERS system, from reducing cost-of-living adjustments and employer "pickups," as Gov. John Kitzhaber has proposed, will almost certainly be challenged in court by employee unions. The outcome of those cases will affect the judges who decide them.
Start with the formula. Under "Plan A," a judge accrues a pension at a rate of 2.8125 percent of his or her annual salary -- 68 percent higher than for general service employees. That means he or she can earn a pension worth half his salary in less than 18 years. It takes a general service employee 30 years to do the same.
Under Plan B, a judge's pension is richer still. It is calculated at a rate of 3.75 percent of the final average annual salary, meaning he'll earn a pension of half his salary in a little more than 13 years. To get the Plan B formula, judges must agree to serve as pro tem judges without compensation for at least 35 days a year for five years.
And while judges are required to contribute 7 percent of their salaries toward their retirements, it doesn't come out of their own pockets. It is picked up by the employer -- that is, taxpayers.
However, any discussion about the relative generosity of judges' retirement benefits must note that Oregon's judges, who are elected in nonpartisan races, are paid less than their counterparts elsewhere. The most recent survey of judicial salaries by the National Center for State Courts shows salaries for Oregon's Supreme Court justices rank 45th among the states. An Oregon Supreme Court justice earned a little more than $125,000 as of Jan. 1, 2011. Appellate and circuit judges also earn below-average salaries.
The conflict of interest was created in 1983, when the Legislature mandated that judges be members of PERS.
In three prominent PERS cases since, judges have noted that they would personally be affected by their rulings, but said they have no choice but to rule anyway under the "rule of necessity." In two of the cases, the court's ruling solidly favored PERS members, including judges.
The rule of necessity faces a new challenge in the Oregon Court of Appeals, where Bend lawyer Daniel Re argues it has been misused. The rule of necessity, he has written, "requires a case to be decided unfairly."
"It flunks the smell test," he said.
Re says the courts can apply a fairer standard by appointing independent, temporary judges -- judges pro-tem -- to hear PERS cases.
It's by no means clear that Re's suit will change anything about the role of judges in PERS cases. A lawsuit filed 15 years after the original judgment "does go against the rules of repose," noted Arthur Hellman, the Sally Ann Semenko chair and professor of law at the University of Pittsburgh. He referred to the doctrine of settled law, which requires a compelling reason to reopen a judgment.
But Hellman also noted that "it's probably not a very common combination" to have judges participating in the same pension system as all other public employees, and to deal with a state constitutional amendment that reduces the pension expectations of current employees.
The actuarial shortfall in the PERS budget is about $16 billion -- meaning taxpayers are on the hook for an additional, unbudgeted $16 billion to pay promised benefits to retired public workers. That obligation already has caused school districts to lay off teachers and cut the length of the school year, and for Gov. John Kitzhaber to call for pension reforms to help stabilize education funding. In September, the PERS board approved a 45 percent raise in rates paid by public employers -- again, taxpayers -- in an effort to narrow the gap. Public agencies say the higher costs will require more layoffs and service cuts.
Some of this pain is due to such legal decisions as the Oregon Supreme Court's 1996 ruling in Oregon State Police Officers Association vs. the State of Oregon. That case was triggered by the passage of 1994's Ballot Measure 8, a PERS modification package advanced by tax activist Bill Sizemore that narrowly passed. The measure required public employees to contribute 6 percent of their pay into their pension, struck down the ability of public agencies to guarantee an interest rate on employees' pensions, prohibited members from counting unused sick leave to their pensions.
The Oregon Supreme Court took the case on appeal and decided that Measure 8 was unconstitutional. Then-Supreme Court Justice George Van Hoomissen wrote the majority opinion, which was cheered by public employees.
"Once offered and accepted, a pension promise made by the state is not a mirage (something seen in the distance that disappears before the employee reaches retirement)," the opinion reads, in part. "A contrary holding would serve notice on any person who might consider embarking on a career in public service that the state's promises could well prove to be worthless."
While Van Hoomissen wrote for the majority, the court was sharply divided. In a stinging dissent joined by two other justices, then-Justice W. Michael Gillette described the majority opinion as "novel" and said it amounted to "an inappropriate use of the judicial power."
Wrote Gillette: "The lead opinion suffers, not from any want of good will or of diligence, but from a temporary loss of perspective, apparently due to the subject matter -- pensions -- that we are addressing. I cannot join it."
Nevertheless, he and other retired Oregon judges benefited from the Oregon State Police Officers ruling.
Van Hoomissen retired Jan. 1, 2001 with a final year salary of $109,647. According to PERS records, he collects $6,824.78 a month -- about $82,000 a year -- in benefit payments earned during his 27 years as a judge and 13 previous years as a legislator and district attorney.
Re's case in the Court of Appeals directly tackles the matter of judges' conflict of interest. But here's the kicker: It's going to be decided by judges who are PERS members. Re sought to disqualify such judges from hearing the case, arguing "the judges of this Court are directly interested in this proceeding because Petitioner's prevailing will necessarily reduce the judges' retirement benefits."
In a two-sentence order, the Court of Appeals rejected Re's argument.
Writing for the court, presiding judge Robert Wollheim said, "The court has considered the petitioner's motion and orders that it is denied."
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<urn:uuid:0a53e38f-826c-44fc-bb0f-ff9f1851e4d1>
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http://www.oregonlive.com/politics/index.ssf/2012/12/oregons_judges_play_unique_rol.html
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After discussing a land swap last year, Sunnyside city eventually moved into the Petersen building as a donation from Carbon School District.
Since the move, the city has worked on improving the old structure and making the Petersen School building available to the public.
Officials contracted Siemens to conduct a feasibility study into making the structure more "green" while cutting the maintenance and operations costs that are substantial in the large building.
Following the original report from Siemens, Sunnyside officials started work on a grant application that would include structural improvements and a geothermal heating system capable of heating and cooling different parts of the building only when needed by an occupant.
The units would use an exchange system that is environmentally friendly, according to the officials.
But decay in the west wing of the building has increased and local officials are considering changing the city's application to include the destruction of that portion of the structure.
"The west wing of city hall really is in bad shape," said Sunnyside Mayor Bruce Andrews during a council meeting on Dec. 16. "It has settled substantially and windows are starting to break."
In a July 19, Sun Advocate article, superintendent Patsy Bueno explained that the school district had completed a project to level the Petersen building and insure the safety of the facility.
According to city officials, the building has continued to settle around the support system installed by the district five years ago and needs to by addressed.
The building was deeded to the school district in 1956 by Kaiser Steel, minus the mineral rights. After the legalities of ownership were worked through by the school district's attorneys, the property was donated to Sunnyside.
Since that time, Sunnyside has moved the city's offices into the building entry.
The city is currently using the west wing along with the gymnasium for community programs.
For example, the Dragerton Diggers wrestling team practices there.
Following some discussion, Sunnyside decided to examine the area after officials at the last council meeting considered having engineers explore the part of the building to see if demolition of the wing would be best for the city.
"Let's have the engineers come down and look at it. It really has gotten worse than when we started with the building," said Sunnyside Councilmember Sherri Madrid.
Continued discussion involved removing the contents from that area of the building. Additionally, the council discussed an expansion of the city's cemetery as it is currently reaching full capacity.
While two properties were discussed, city officials settled on moving forward with a strip of land that runs parallel to Valley View near the current cemetery grounds.
The city has rights to a portion of the land and has contacted Breland Corporation a subsidiary of Utah Reverse Exchange, about purchasing the land.
According to officials, the city offered the corporation $300 for the small portion of land-locked property.
Officials indicated in the city's letter that, if the company was not interested in selling the land, Sunnyside would start condemnation proceedings on the property.
At the Dec. 16 meeting, city officials discussed the progress of the joint East Carbon-Sunnyside public safety building.
The metal and trusses are currently being finished on the roof and when that process is finished they will clean out the structure, install the windows and doors and begin working on the inside, as winter weather closes in.
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Where You Fit In, Librarians
This blog is on the SLJ site, and so some of you may wonder why I suggested that aspiring NF writers focus on teachers, not librarians. Here’s the drill — speaking to both writers and librarians: those of us who are not librarians have pretty good ways of finding out what kinds of books will meet your needs. We know that you are told to use reliable review journals, such as SLJ, Booklist, Kirkus, the Horn Book, BCCB, PW (though it reviews almost no nonfiction), VOYA (for YA). Any writer can simply look at the books that get stars, that make it to end-of-the-year "best book" lists, that are picked for the NCSS-CBC Notable Trade Books in the Social Studies list, that are selected for state lists and awards, to get a decent sense of what criteria you are using. Writers, editors, publishers can and do attend the open meetings of the Notables and BBYA meetings at ALA annual and midwinter meetings. And while those committees change each year, and do not have any one single point of view on books, it is not hard to get a sense from them of what matters to librarians.
Aspiring writers: if you are not looking at those reviews, you should. But the problem is we simply do not have the same access to how teachers make decisions. We know the standards they have to meet. We read about (or experience through our own kids) the various ways in which NCLB changes what teachers do in class. But we have no way of reading over teachers’ shoulders and seeing the reviews that will influence their choices — and that is because those reviews do not exist. No national, state, or even local publication or website systematically reviews NF for teachers. Which leads us back to librarians, and the social studies crisis I mentioned some blogs ago.
The old idea was that you, the school librarians, would read the reviews, then be in touch with teachers to suggest books. Of course this still happens — perhaps most of you who read this blog do just that. But nationwide, that flow, that conduit, from reviews, to librarians, to teachers no longer operates. Too many schools do not have librarians, too many harried teachers rely on lists of books handed to them, or that they used last year — having neither the time nor the budget to consider new books. Too many schools have adopted the idea that the classroom library should be entirely fiction, while the school library should be NF (which is to say, reference).
This lack of contact between the world we authors and publishers have access to and the world of teachers and classrooms is why I suggest that writers need to do the spade work themselves. We simply do not have a good information flow between the needs of the classroom and book creators.
Am I missing something?
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Sadly, I just heard about another family that lost its home as a result of a fire started in a clothes dryer. Thankfully, everyone escaped unharmed but everything else is gone. My friend (who relayed the story) and I started talking about the hidden dangers lurking in the laundry room and I began to think that it might be helpful to share with you some important safety reminders about the appliances and products used there. Here are the most important laundry room dangers to be aware of:
1. Lint build-up It's no secret that lint collects in and around the dryer and these accumulations can ignite and engulf a dryer, or worse your home, in flames. Be vigilant about cleaning the lint screen after every load and regularly vacuuming the filter chamber to remove clumps of lint trapped there. To better access lint stuck deep inside the chamber, try the Lint Lizard. It's one of our favorite infomercial products. It's thin plastic tube attaches to your vacuum cleaner and is neater and easier to use than any brush we've tried. Only a technician can disassemble and clean a dryer's motor, but at least once per year move your dryer away from the wall, disconnect the vent duct and vacuum the back of the dryer and as far into each end (indoors and outdoors) of the duct as you can reach.
2. Flimsy dryer duct Never vent your dryer with a thin foil accordian duct. It may be flexible and easy to install, but it's a magnet for lint. Instead use a rigid metal duct. Make sure the vent is as straight and short as possible. Unnecessary bends collect lint and slow drying time and extra long ducts are harder to clean.
3. Brittle washer hoses Over time traditional rubber hoses can dry out, crack, leak and burst. Replace these hoses with reinforced braided ones. For an extra measure of safety, turn off the hot and cold water valves to your washer after your last load of laundry. It's an easy habit to learn for a little peace of mind.
4. Improperly stored detergents It bears repeating. Keep laundry detergents, bleach, and all cleaning products out of reach of children and pets and keep the packages closed when not in use. The recent rash of injuries to children who have bitten and swallowed the new single-dose laundry packets is proof that cleaning products are still too readily accessible to children.
5. Unlocked washer controls If the control panels of washer and dryer have child locks, make it a point to engage them so little fingers can't accidently start the appliances. This is important if you have young children or they come to visit. An open washer or dryer door is an invitation for small children or pets to climb inside. If you leave the washer door open to allow the tub to dry, be sure to lock the controls and set a timer as a reminder to return to close it. A laundry room with a locking door is the best way to keep children and pets from playing near these appliances.
The most important safety tip I can recommend is, never leave the house or go to bed with your washer, dryer, or any appliance running. When you're home and alert, you have the best chance of addressing an emergency and containing any damage.
To see firsthand how we test washers, dryers, and all the products we recommend, sign up for a Good Housekeeping Research Institute tour.
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The local food movement has been all about buying seasonal food from nearby farmers. Now, thanks to the Web, it is expanding to include far-away farmers too.
A new start-up, Foodzie, is an online farmers market where small, artisan food producers and growers can sell their products. Foodies in Florida, say, can order raw, handcrafted pepperjack cheese from Traver, Calif., or organic, fair-trade coffee truffles from Boulder, Colo.
“You get a similar experience to a farmers market, when you get the opportunity to meet farmers, but it is much more scalable and you get a better selection,” said Rob LaFave, a Foodzie co-founder. “Ninety-seven percent of the country does not have this kind of access to artisan foodmakers.”
Foodzie was started by Mr. LaFave and two of his friends, who met during college at Virginia Tech, where they would frequent farmers markets. Last year, while living in North Carolina, one of them, Emily Olson, now 24, came up with the idea. She was working as a brand manager for a gourmet grocery chain and realized that other foodies who did not work in the business had no way to discover artisan foods outside their local farmers markets. Small farmers had no way of finding or selling to far-flung customers, either.
Mr. LaFave and the third co-founder, Nik Bauman, both 25, worked in corporate sales and software development. “With business, food and computer science backgrounds, we figured we had everything we needed,” Mr. LaFave said.
The three quit their jobs, packed up and moved to Boulder, where they joined TechStars, an incubator program for tech start-ups. They opened the site to the public in December and moved to San Francisco in January.
Foodzie is a gourmet version of Etsy, the online marketplace for handmade goods that has been hugely successful, selling $12.9 million worth of products in December. Like Etsy, sellers set up virtual storefronts on the site to post their wares and tell shoppers about themselves. On Foodzie, sellers can post their goods for free and Foodzie takes a 20 percent cut of each sale.
While a 20 percent cut is high for an e-commerce site (Etsy sellers pay 20 cents to list each item and the site takes a 3.5 percent cut), it is low in the food business, Mr. LaFave said. Food retailers typically take 50 percent of the sale price and distributors take another 10 percent.
Unlike Etsy, where buyers and sellers do the entire interaction independently, Foodzie serves as a middleman. It takes the purchase information from the buyer, processes the payment and e-mails the seller a prepaid shipping label.
One seller, Seth Ellis Chocolatier in Boulder, wanted to reach customers in other states, yet could not take on the challenges of building and operating an e-commerce site and marketing the site to national customers, Ms. Olson said. “We can give them new customers who would have never known about them.”
Foodzie is adding video and other social networking features to help shoppers get to know sellers, as they do at offline farmers markets. “There’s not a great place to talk about the food and artisans they’re buying from,” Mr. LaFave said. “It’s really important to connect these people, make it easier for people to learn the story behind the food and where it comes from.”
Foodzie raised $1 million in funding in December from angel investors, led by First Round Capital and SoftTech VC, and it is considering raising a follow-on round. Though some investors who had expressed interest in the site pulled out when the economy soured, most were impressed that Foodzie, unlike many Web businesses, had a revenue model from day one, Mr. LaFave said.
Foodzie was an attractive investment, said Jeff Clavier, managing partner at SoftTech VC, because unlike many Web 2.0 social sites, “Foodzie makes money every day as people buy products. We have learned a lot from Web 2.0 about adding the involvement of users. Services built using that technology, but focusing on generating revenue by serving a certain marketplace, will be compelling in this environment.”
The site has only been live since December, and it has had 43,000 visitors in the past month. So far, 29 sellers have opened shops and 41 are in the process of opening them. The founders recently hired a fourth employee to help Ms. Olson recruit new food producers at farmers markets and food shows. The founders will not disclose the volume of sales that have been made through the site.
Mr. LaFave is convinced that the recession will not diminish people’s interest in buying locally grown and handmade food. “There is a misconception that all these foods are more expensive than mass-produced alternatives,” he said. “People are pouring their heart and soul into these products, using the highest quality, heirloom ingredients. Buyers are really supporting the local economy and small, independent food makers and growers.”
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The other day I was reading a blog post written by rather prominent business writer Jeff Bullas. He has made an entire career out of his approach to online self-promotion, and he provided an interesting analogy for the use of social media for advertising content.
According to him, giving content through social media is like the drug dealer giving new customers the first hit free. He calls them “savvy businessmen” who know the value of this tactic. Because free content will quickly build a loyal client base who will return with the money for more.
I thought two things when I read that: one, it was one of the worse analogies I have ever heard; and two, he has a point. Tacky as such a comparison might have been, social media does make an excellent platform for increasing visibility and loyalty through providing free content. But also free content that is easily spread through sharing, or shared naturally through feed activity viewed by the user’s friends list.
There is perhaps no better way to be seen than by using social media. Campaigns should be started and cultivated using multimedia, such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google+, LinkedIn, YouTube, Reddit and your blog itself. All of which has its own place in the grand scheme of things.
Sadly, this will take a lot of time and effort. You can’t do it all at once, and are better served tackling one social media site at a time before you start to really promote your content. Or, choosing a few that are more easily synced together and so can be posted to at the same time (such as Facebook and Twitter, which is more likely to have the same status updates).
However you choose to approach it, here are a few tips to get you started.
Make It Easy To Subscribe
Too few blogs have clear buttons on their site that link to their social media profiles. Which is a real pain, because it makes the users have to search them out…which isn’t always an easy task with the many similar titled profiles that are sure to be out there. Likewise, your social media about page should have a link to your other profiles and your blog right there with the description of what you are about.
Post Share Buttons On Posts
You don’t have to always share your own content. Instead, you should make it easy for users to share it for you. Have buttons for different social media sites installed with your posts. This should include Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest and (in my opinion) other sites like Reddit. Some people might not even consider sharing a post on their own, but will remember their profile when they see the share buttons. So it is important to have them available.
Post Other People Content
One of the easiest ways to increase the amount of content being posted to your profile is by sharing content from other people. Especially things currently circulating social media like relevant or humorous photos, or interesting articles. It will make you a source, which can lead others back to you. Especially when a user shares, retweets or posts from your page.
Take Advantage Of Site Features
Each social media site has their own, unique features available. Those should be exploited to their greatest degree, in order to create a proper campaign. For example, Facebook has apps that can be incredible useful, especially if you want to run a contest or create something interactive. Twitter has their hashtags and live search, which can bring you to the attention to your demographic. Pinterest is growing fast and allows you the chance to be more visual. YouTube promotes viral content. LinkedIn will let you network with mutually beneficial contacts. Quora engages users on a more personal level. All of these will give you a unique way of promotion.
Properly Describe Your Content
I don’t like clicking on links where I can’t anticipate what will be waiting on the other side. Many others don’t like doing so, either. You should make sure that you post proper details of the content, such as a small description and a warning if it is not safe for work, or has any kind of autoplay video or audio on the page. That includes other people’s content you link to.
Getting some help is always great, especially idf you are new and don’t have too many loyal followers to support you. Check out Viral Content Buzz that lets you promote your content by promoting other people’s content!
While I can’t get behind Jeff Bulla’s assertion that drug dealers are good businessmen that provide an example to follow (even if the analogy was a loose one), I agree with him on the point of the importance of social media. Promotion is easier than ever using this tool, so the sooner you get started, the better.
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Unintended ConsequencesMay 18, 2010
More tales of village life.
At the back of this little house is the, oft mentioned, donkey track that leads down into the rest of the village. Since the house next to us is deserted and the house opposite derelict the track gets little traffic. During the summer months tourists wander up it from time to time and then turn back when they discover that it leads to a dead end.
Ever since we moved in we have had an eye on that dead end; the track opens out into a space about 15 feet by 15 feet, overlooked by our kitchen window but otherwise entirely private. It isn’t our land, the title deeds are perfectly clear on that, but it’s a lost space and no one uses it and it’s been entirely unloved. Our vague plan when we bought the house was that we’d clear the space and put tables and chairs out there along with some plants in containers. Then, if anyone ever complained at our colonisation we could undo things.
Until now that plan has been on hold. The house had to be the first priority and the walled garden close behind. There was also another reason for holding back: we wanted to have some time in the house to understand how the light and the sun impact the walled garden and the potential second space. No point putting sunbeds there if it never got the sun. We learnt quickly that full sun is as welcome in winter as hard shade is in the height of summer.
Well, a year on we now know that in winter it rarely sees the sun. It is east-facing and the surrounding stone walls are high on several sides so in the short light of the winter months it is a cold and damp place, so much so that moss and lichen become a problem on the donkey track.
In summer it gets the afternoon sun but because of the height of the walls it stays much cooler than the garden. Just the place to retreat to on a sweltering summer’s afternoon.
But, apart from the project to clear the area there is another issue: the area is bordered on two sides by a derelict house and an empty plot. On their own they wouldn’t be a huge problem, all are built of fantastic Lefkara limestone and look beautiful. The issue is that the weeds have been allowed to grow unchecked and combined with the occasional discarded household appliances the plots look distinctly unappealing to humans. To rats however they are an ideal home. We’ve seen them running through these plots unchecked. The term rat run is all too appropriate.
So, the potential is there for a lovely hidden secret garden to sneak off to on hot summer days but for the ten foot high weeds and local rat population in parts of the village over which we have no control.
Our only other fellow Brit in the village, Gerry the antique-collector, lives on the other side of these plots. Via the donkey track it’s a good 5 minute walk to his house from ours or 30 seconds as the crow flies. Since we mentioned the rodent problem he has become aware that he, too, is hearing the nocturnal patter of rodent feet across his roof. He has long wanted to buy the empty plot to get it cleared and improve the look of the area around his house. However despite his best efforts he, and the previous English owner of his house, has been unable to find the details of the owner. His neighbours have always claimed that it would be impossible to buy as the land had been passed down according to Cypriot inheritance law and was probably now owned jointly by a dozen or more heirs. To buy would mean getting each to agree to sell their 1/12th share.
This week Gerry declared war on the rats and weeds. If the mysterious missing owners would do nothing about the plot then he’d take charge, he said. He would pay for the land to be cleared and when it was done he might put a chair or two in there. This morning we woke to the sound of someone strimming and chopping and hauling ancient water tanks out of the area. We assumed that this was Gerry’s doing and it turns out that, indirectly, it was.
This afternoon he stopped by to gloat; he hadn’t paid for the area to be cleared, the owners had. Apparently the village grapevine had been activated and word had got back to the owner (just one, the story of a dozen heirs seems not to be true) that a mad Brit was planning a land-grab. Horrified by such an idea the owner decided to take preemptive action and get things cleared so there was no further cause for complaint.
The work is not yet finished but already the area is looking distinctly better and, hopefully, less appealing to the local rodent population. We might just get our secret garden this summer after all.
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An Egyptian man casts his vote Saturday in a referendum on a disputed constitution drafted by Islamist supporters of President Mohammed Morsi in Cairo. / Daniel Berehulak, Getty Images
CAIRO (AP) - Key Egyptian rights groups called Sunday for a repeat of the first round of the constitutional referendum, alleging the vote was marred by widespread violations. Islamists who back the disputed charter claimed they were in the lead with a majority of "yes" votes, though official results have not been announced.
Representatives of the seven groups charged that there was insufficient supervision by judges in Saturday's vote in 10 of Egypt's 27 provinces and independent monitors were prevented from witnessing vote counts.
The representatives told a news conference that they had reports of individuals falsely identifying themselves as judges, of women prevented from voting and that members of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood were allowed inside polling stations. They also complained that some polling centers closed earlier than scheduled and that Christians were denied entry to polling stations.
Mohamed el-Baradei, Egypt's best known reform leader, was as frustrated by how the referendum was run as the rights groups.
"Is a referendum held under insufficient judicial supervision, clearly tenuous security and the violence and violations we are witnessing the road to stability or playing with the country's destiny? the Nobel Peace Laureate and former U.N. nuclear agency chief wrote on his Twitter account.
The vote capped a near two-year struggle over Egypt's identity since the ouster of longtime leader Hosni Mubarak in a popular uprising. The latest crisis over the charter evolved into a fight - deadly at times - over whether Egypt should move toward a religious state under Morsi's Brotherhood and their ultraconservative Salafi allies, or one that retains secular traditions and an Islamic character.
Underlining the tension, some 120,000 army troops were deployed to help the police protect polling stations and state institutions after clashes between Morsi's supporters and opponents over the past three weeks left at least 10 people dead and about 1,000 wounded.
The draft would empower Islamists to carry out the most widespread and strictest implementation of Islamic law that modern Egypt has seen. That authority rests on the three articles that explicitly mention Shariah, or Islamic law, as well as obscure legal language buried in a number of other articles that few noticed during the charter's drafting but that Islamists insisted on including.
According to both supporters and opponents of the draft, the charter not only makes Muslim clerics the arbiters for many civil rights, it also could give a constitutional basis for citizens to set up Saudi-style "religious police" to monitor morals and enforce segregation of the sexes, imposition of Islamic dress codes and even harsh punishments for adultery and theft - regardless of what the laws on the books say.
For Islamists, the constitution is the keystone for their ambitions to bring Islamic rule, a goal they say is justified by their large victory in last winter's parliamentary elections. Morsi rejected opposition demands that he cancel the referendum.
A statement by the seven rights groups called on the election commission to avoid the same type of violations in the second round and repeat the first round.
"The vote counting took place took place in darkness," said Negad Borai, the head of one of the groups. He alleged the election commission did not investigate thousands of complaints on alleged violations and irregularities.
The second and final round of voting on the charter is planned for Saturday Dec. 22.
Some of the charges made by the seven groups were echoed in a statement issued by the National Council for Human Rights, a state agency, adding weight to the claims. It added that some polling centers did not have voters' lists, that vote-buying took place outside polling centers and that monitors' permits to be at polling stations were not recognized.
While the charges are serious, they don't touch the wholesale vote fraud that defined Mubarak's 29-year rule. But, while the charges raise more questions about the legitimacy of the vote, it is unlikely that the state election commission will order a do-over.
Some voters on Saturday said the presumed supervising judge at their polling centers refused to show them official documents to certify that they were indeed a judge. Others said some polling centers closed hours ahead of the 11 p.m. cutoff.
Still others complained of suspected members of the Brotherhood whispering to voters inside polling stations to vote "yes." And some voters alleged some of the supervising judges were influencing voters to choose "yes."
A group of women in Alexandria alleged the judge in their polling center was stalling to stop them from voting.
The allegations of widespread violations came only hours after the Brotherhood claimed a majority of Egyptians who voted on the proposed Islamist-backed constitution have approved the document with a majority of about 57 percent. The state-owned Al-Ahram daily published similar unofficial results in its online edition.
Turnout was unofficially estimated at around 32 percent - which if confirmed would be far lower than the presidential or parliamentary elections following Mubarak's fall.
Official results are not expected until after the second round. But the Brotherhood, which has in the past accurately predicted election results, relied on vote tallies collected by its activists at the individual polling stations across the country.
Wael Ghonim, an icon of the 2011 uprising against Mubarak, summed up the Saturday vote in a Tweet he posed on his account: "Out of every 100 Egyptians, 69 did not take place in the referendum, 18 said 'yes' and 13 said 'no.'"
Egypt's tenuous security was on display on Saturday and again on Sunday.
Late Saturday, a mob of hardline Islamists known as Salafis attacked the Cairo offices of the liberal Wafd party, smashing windows and doors.
Egypt's latest crisis began when Morsi issued a decree on Nov. 22 giving himself and the assembly writing the draft immunity from judicial oversight so the document could be finalized before an expected ruling to dissolve the panel by the nation's highest court.
On Nov. 30, the document was passed by an assembly composed mostly of Islamists, in a marathon session despite a walkout by secular activists and Christians from the 100-member panel.
On Sunday, the head of the nation's highest court, the Supreme Constitutional Court, said he was prevented by Morsi's supporters from entering the tribunal's Nile-side building. The president's supporters have been staging a sit-in outside the court since Dec. 1, the day before the court was expected to rule to dissolve the constitutional panel.
If the constitution is approved by a simple majority of voters, the Islamists empowered after the overthrow of Mubarak would gain more clout. The upper house of parliament, dominated by Islamists, would be given the authority to legislate until a new lower house is elected.
If the draft proposal is rejected, elections would be held within three months for a new panel to write a new constitution. In the meantime, legislative powers would remain with Morsi, who won the presidency in June.
The official website of Egypt's state television reported that 68 and 72 percent of voters cast "no" ballots in Cairo and Alexandria respectively, Egypt's two largest cities. The only other two provinces where the "no" vote won the majority were Gharbiyah and Daqahliya in the Nile Delta, north of Cairo.
The Brotherhood and other Islamists enjoy wide support in most of the 17 provinces voting on Dec. 22, something that could work in favor of the "yes" vote.
Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Read the original story: Egypt rights groups say constitution vote marred
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Top: Home Page
Up: Cambridge bicycle facilities and program
CAMBRIDGE: GENERAL COMMENTS ON BIKE LANES
I agree with many of the bicycle-related measures Cambridge has taken, particularly, educational and law-enforcement measures. I have found bicycle coordinator Cara Seiderman to be an effective proponent of bicycle-related programs within the Cambridge city government. However, Seiderman did graduate study in Denmark, and came to her position in Cambridge with a vision of bicycling formed by that experience. I disagree with Seiderman about the validity of the Northern European vision of bicycle facilities, and about its implementations in Cambridge.
On major streets, Danish cities have special bike lanes, separate from those for motor vehicles, at the edge of the street. Motorists turning or right across the bike lanes must not merge into the bike lane, but instead must yield before crossing the bike lane. Unlike the American approach in which bicyclists may make left turns either as vehicle operators or according to pedestrian rules, Danish traffic law prohibits bicyclists from making vehicular left turns at major intersections.
Or to put it in the simplest terms, in Denmark, bicyclists are required to turn left from the right lane, and motorists are required to turn right from the left lane. Motorists must, then, yield to bicyclists in their right rear blindspot, a maneuver which imposes additional delay and/or danger. Bicyclists may not merge to the vehicular left turn position, but must cross all of the traffic lanes at once like a pedestrian, a maneuver which has the same problems and is also much slower than a vehicular left turn.
In my days on the Cambridge Bicycle Committee, I had a discussion with Seiderman about a draft of an instructional pamphlet that indicated that motorists should yield to bicyclists in the bike lane, but without indicating how or when. I pointed out to her that American traffic law requires drivers making a right turn to merge into the right lane first, even if it is a bike lane. Seiderman was visibly uncomfortable with my comment.
Seiderman's underlying assumption appears to be that motorists should defer to bicyclists -- that bicyclists should have a special status which she regards as superior to that of motorists, able to use the streets while maneuvering more like pedestrians than like vehicle operators. If right-turning motorists must cross the bike lane the way they cross a sidewalk, then bicyclists are supposedly protected in the same way as pedestrians.
Problem is, the special status may reflect a sense of moral and environmental superiority, but it is inferior in terms of safety. A motorist can not reliably yield to a bicyclist overtaking on the right at 10 to 20 miles per hour. Three bicyclists have died between 1999 and 2002 in the Boston area while attempting to overtake on the right. There has also been a very serious and widely publicized bicycle/pedestrian collision in which the bicyclist was overtaking a motorist on the right.
In its first bike lane installations on Mt. Auburn Street and Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge bowed to the requirements of research and of the traffic law to the extent of dashing the lane stripe before major intersections to indicate that motorists should merge into the bike lane. The stripes were not very convincing. They were so short that they were not visible from half a block away. The dashed length of bike lane was too short to allow a merge, in many cases.
More recently, Cambridge has installed bike lanes without dashes even as they approach major intersections with heavy right turning traffic. One example is at the T intersection of Broadway and 6th Street. Massbike Board member Tom Revay had the following comment about this intersection (from an e-mail message to the Massbike list, on June 21, 2001):
Solidly-striped bike lane at Broadway and 6th Street
This bike lane at O'Leary Square on Broadway uses yet another approach: the bike lane leads up to a series of dashes only in the intersection, indicating in clear defiance of the traffic law that motorists should not merge before turning right.
Bike lane on Broadway at O'Leary Square
The 1984 MAPC study of bicycle crashes in the Boston area states:
The MAPC study, which precedes thie installation of bike lanes, also reports a high rate of dooring crashes. Most of Cambridge's bike lanes are adjacent to parallel parking in the "door zone" where the maximum safe speed is about 5 miles per hour. A Cambridge cyclist was killed in a dooring incident in a Massachusetts Avenue bike lane on July 2, 2002. That incident is covered in detail on another page on this site.
All in all, Cambridge's approach in striping bike lanes is impractical, inconsistent, and defies research results, national guidelines for bicycle facilities design, and the traffic law.
I do not intend to say that bike lanes are always bad. They have their appropriate uses --and there is one bike lane installation in Cambridge that largely avoids the problems -- but Cambridge has installed most of its bike lanes where the traffic pattern is too complicated and variable to allow any specific part of the road to be set aside for bicycle use. Cambridge has also installed bike lanes where there is simply not room for them, by shoehorning them up against parking lanes in the "door zone". Consider the bike lane shown below (Hampshire Street looking east, in the last block before Broadway). Who can contend that it is safe to ride a bicycle in this lane at any speed greater than 5 miles per hour? Just what is this bike lane supposed to achieve?
Bike lane on Hampshire Street approaching Broadway
Cambridge regards the bike lanes as making a political statement in favor of bicycling. I would like to think that a better statement might be made by an approach that creates facilities that are actually usable.
The city of Berkeley, California is similar to Cambridge as the location of a major university, and as a hotbed of liberal politics. Shattuck Avenue, the main arterial, has narrow lanes and is lined by retail storefronts and parking like Massachusetts Avenue. Bicyclists may ride on Shattuck Avenue, but the Berkeley bicycle program has not shoehorned bike lanes onto it. Instead, Berkeley has concentrated its efforts on moderate traffic calming in residential neighborhoods, and on creating through routes that avoid the crowded arterials. I find that this approach has worked quite well.
Top: Home Page
Up: Cambridge bicycle facilities and program
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The greatest contribution Tinker Hatfield ever made to shoe design was this: the idea that a signature shoe should reflect some of the athlete’s personality, and not just be a product that bears his or her name. The Air Jordan XIII is probably the best example of this.
The design started with a nickname, “Black Cat.” That led to the prismatic “eyes” on the outer ankle and soles, and the “face” that appears when you put the outsoles next to each other. The dimples on the upper reflect Jordan’s love for the game of golf. And when viewed from the back at a proper angle, the uppers form a subtle “23.” The performance, as usual, was top-notch, once again using Zoom Air and a spring plate. Different colorways used different upper materials, from full-grain leather, to suede, to reflective mesh. It was also the first Air Jordan released by the Jordan Brand, which had split off from Nike.
Once again, though: different shoe, same result. Another championship, finishing off the repeat threepeat, once again against the Utah Jazz. He ended it, as proper, with the last shot to end all last shots. (But what were those on his feet?)
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‘RASOOL Allah, pir nabi ke, kar do bera paar; hukum tihaaro deen duni ke, tum ho hazrat maula’ (You are the Messenger of God [PBUH], most exalted of the Prophets. Help me ford the river. Your word is supreme in the temporal world and for my spirit. Guide me, O learned one.)
It was one of those marvellous ironies last week. Irate Muslims were violently protesting in Islamabad and elsewhere against a hateful film on their religion. And in Delhi’s Chinmaya Mission auditorium a Hindu woman singer was striking serene adulation for the Prophet of Islam.
I doubt that Priyadarshini Kulkarni would have seen her rendition of the slow composition in Raag Poorvi as a counterpoint to the turmoil among incensed Muslim groups, if at all she were aware of the world outside the concert hall.
The raag she chose was composed by the 14th-century Sufi sage Hazrat Amir Khusro. It is possible he also wrote the words. The Jaipur-Atrauli school of music that Priyadarshini belongs to was founded by the legendary Alladiya Khan at the waning of the 19th century. And going by the available headcount, the ustad produced more Hindu musicians than disciples from his Muslim milieu.
His gems included Kesarbai Kerkar, Mogubai Kordekar and Mallikarjun Mansur. Priyadarshini has a long way to go to find a place in their exalted company. But when she began the afternoon raag, and as her eyes closed with devotion furrowed on her face, she was unconsciously making a point that is all too often missed. No religion can be the monopoly of its ascribed followers. And no believer can own his or her religion as a pot of gold.
For decades I have been listening to Kamla Jharia’s records. Her mastery of the Urdu language (as was the case with K.L. Saigal) is complete. She effortlessly defied the simp-listic Urdu-for-Muslims and Hindi-for-Hindus kind of silly stereotype. But listen to her two exquisite naats, celebrations of the Prophet, and you would quickly discard any lingering notions of religious monopolies.
‘Ya Shah-i-Arab Sayyed-i-Abraar tumhi ho, Makki Madani Hashemi, sarkaar tumhi ho’ is Kamla Jharia’s composition of a devotional tribute in the gentle morning melody of Raag Desi. Then there is the humbler cry for help in Raag Jogiya, another lovely morning pick-me-up. ‘Tumhre daya ki hai aas Muhammad; Aaya hoo’n tumhre paas Muhammad.’ I seek your blessings, O Muhammad, and here I stand in supplication so that you may bless me, sings the Hindu crooner.
It is said the loveable Indian poet and anti-colonial activist Hasrat Mohani would follow his annual Haj with a visit to Mathura and Benares where he saw among the Hindu devotees a reflection of his own faith.
But Gauhar Jan was a different singer from Calcutta. She had a run-in with Gandhi because he looked down upon her profession and wouldn’t let her ilk be involved with nationalist activism other than to collect funds.
She sang at least two amazing compositions that applauded the founder of Islam with Indian motifs.
In a Persian qawwali by Amir Khusro, God is assigned the role of ‘Mir-i-Majlis’, in a mehfil of raqs-i-bismil, a dance of ultimate devotion. And the Prophet is likened to a lamp in the august gathering, a symbol of enlightened presence.
Gauhar Jan’s maternal ancestors were Armenian Jews. Her father was an Englishman who deserted her mother and so a Muslim patron of music in Azamgarh gave her protection. She was the first Indian musician to cut a record with a European company.
The two naats were her way of honouring a religion whose follower, her adopted father, gave her shelter when others had all but wrecked her life. Purist Muslims would frown at this way of celebrating their faith. There are those too that would reject the use of music altogether as a means of supplication.
Others would find it disagreeable that ‘outsiders’ chant the names of their religious protagonists with what they consider to be un-Islamic idioms or phrases. The famous rivalry between the puritan Mughal emperor Aurangzeb and his eclectic brother Dara Shikoh comes to mind. Aurangzeb was tone deaf as far as music was concerned. Dara Shikoh was the quintessential patron of the arts and, perhaps that’s why, of religious accommodation.
It is this simple tenet of faith that has come under a test today. And while Muslims have picked up a large share of mindless violence, principally against each other, the tendency for bigotry is by no means their monopoly.
There was this self-styled Christian ‘visionary’ in Norway who sprayed innocent men and women with bullets. Remember the indoctrinated mob in India that spuriously claimed to represent Hindus and which burnt alive a well-meaning Australian missionary and his two young sons in a jeep in the forests of Orissa?
They are of a piece with the killer of the Punjab governor in Pakistan and the self-proclaimed Muslims who recently lynched American officials in Libya in apparent revenge for the film insulting to Islam.
This last event should not be left unchallenged because, like the Aurangzeb-Dara Shikoh dispute, it masks a more nuanced parallel narrative. I haven’t been able to fathom who decides which insult to one’s faith deserves an uprising. The Internet is crawling with sullen abuse by millions of puerile users every day. Which abuse becomes the trigger for violence?
And it isn’t that only Muslims are being abused. There is hardly a sect or cult of any religion that is spared. My own view is that the reasons for violence are being deliberately manipulated. The traditional secular struggle against colonial occupation of land and resources has been shrewdly dissipated into protests against assorted cartoons and hateful movies.
Once perverted into a religious harangue from an anti-colonial battle cry, everyone wants to enter a sanitised debate. President Obama will be thus bracing to tender advice on religious amity, dodging the trickier problem of political solutions. It’s probably just as well that Priyadarshini Kulkarni sang with her eyes closed.
The writer is Dawn’s correspondent in Delhi.
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Stover International Week
27th August - 3rd September 2013
We aim to help our new international students develop their knowledge of English and their ability to use the English language, while simultaneously making a direct contribution to the pupils' general confidence and social development.
Learners are taught in small class groups, based on a pupils age and ability, which help pupils to improve their spoken and written English language.
Pupils live in Stover's boarding houses with some of the day spent with British pupils in order to be completely immersed in the English language and culture. Opportunities are also offered to visit places of interest that are both enjoyable and fun.
The cost of the International Week will be £400.
For more information please contact, the Registrar, Felicity White, on 01626 354505 or email at firstname.lastname@example.org
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Mon 25 Feb 2013
Philip Glass - The Perfect American
Teatro Real, Madrid, 2013 | Dennis Russell Davies, Phelim McDermott, Christopher Purves, David Pittsinger, Donald Kaasch, Janis Kelly, Marie McLaughlin, Sarah Tynan, Nazan Fikret, Rosie Lomas, Zachary James, John Easterlin, Juan Noval-Moro, Beatriz de Gálvez, Noelia Buñuel | Medici.tv / ARTE Live Web, Internet Streaming, 5th February 2013
It’s not too hard to see the point being made about in Philip Glass’s new opera based on the last days of Walt Disney. The irony is hammered home repeatedly and with no great subtlety in either the libretto or the musical arrangements. His animation and the safe family-friendly ideals they espouse may be revered by generations of children and their parents, but those values are derived from a rather more flawed human individual. An old-fashioned, smalltown country-boy with Republican ideals, intolerant of progress and union activity, Walt Disney is depicted in The Perfect American as a megalomaniac who not only took the credit for the hard work and talent of others, but he treated them appallingly as well. So he wasn’t a nice guy. Why make an opera about him? Well, if Walt Disney and his works are held up as being the epitome of “The Perfect American”, even ironically, then there might be some merit in exploring prevailing bigoted attitudes and intolerance. If that’s its purpose however, the opera singularly fails to make its case.
Whether Walt Disney should be accorded the stature of being the subject for opera isn’t so much in question then as much as whether a study of the animation giant as the “Perfect American” really has as much to say about the society we live in today as the subjects of previous Glass biographical works - Einstein (Einstein on the Beach), Gandhi (Satyagraha) or the great reforming Egyptian pharaoh (Akhnaten). Whatever you think of Walt Disney or his children’s animation films, he’s not exactly the first person who comes to mind when you look around for a representative icon of American values. Yes, the Disney animation studio was certainly one of the earliest and biggest exports of American family values, the empire of the Mouse and the Duck expanding to conquer and achieve universal recognisability in even the most remote corners of the world. As for whether the personal attitudes of Disney persist and hold influence, there’s a case could certainly be made for that, but not laid specifically at the door of Walt Disney the man.
The idea that he may have been as important as Thomas Edison or Henry Ford may form a part of Walt Disney’s self-delusion, but there is no reason given why the audience should believe it or even any suggestion that anyone takes the comparison seriously. This is a fault that lies throughout the whole premise of the opera. Based on a novel by Peter Stephen Jungk, a fictionalised account of Walt Disney that recounts the last few months of his life, The Perfect American seems to be attempting to suggest that the flaws and delusions of one man have some kind of wider implication, but in reality it just presents the twisted views of one small-minded individual that seem to have no place or purpose on the operatic stage. The same could perhaps be said about Mark Anthony Turnage’s Anna Nicole, but the tragic story of the rise and demise of Anna Nicole Smith could arguably be said to reflect the pitfalls in following the American Dream with a broader historical scope (Marilyn Monroe) and more cutting social observation, at least on the compromised position of women within that Dream.
Like Anna Nicole, The Perfect American similarly relies heavily on a depiction of the corrupting influence of smalltown America. But whereas Anna Nicole Smith saw it as a “shithole” that she had to escape from, Walt Disney - in the kind of obvious expositional language that is prevalent throughout Rudy Wurlitzer’s libretto (”Everything that I’ve become has its roots in Marceline“), looks back fondly on his origins, seeing in his hometown all the good old-fashioned American values that he holds dear. Just to emphasise his position as a reactionary and an unpleasant man, his relationship with Wilhelm Dantine - an animator on ‘The Sleeping Beauty‘ - and their fall-out over union activities is the linking element between the three acts, but Dantine is still devastated when Walt dies. The libretto’s idea of any other kind of character development is limited to snappy mottos (”Never say die!“), common clichés (Mickey Mouse being “more famous than Santa” and “more recognisable that Jesus“) and banal observations (”That’s what he does, spares everyone the worst“) that don’t so much highlight the nature of Disney as illustrate the lack of imagination of the libretto and the treatment.
Even those areas where the work tries a less literal approach, the implications are no less obvious and at the same time no more revealing of the man other than the scale of his self-delusion. He expresses his desire to a nurse at the hospital to be cryogenically frozen so that he can be revived in the future, and hubristically compares his cartoons to Greek gods, believing that his work and his beliefs in good conservative American values will “live forever”. A little more colour is added when Walt is contrasted with Andy Warhol, who was born in the same year, or in a sequence where Walt has a conversation with a robot Abraham Lincoln, but even there, it seems like just thrown in as an opportunity to allow Disney to express some pretty distasteful views on the abolition of slavery leading to the degradation of traditional American values.
The latter sequences allow director Phelim Mc Dermott and designer Dan Potra a bit more freedom to experiment with the staging, but to be honest, it’s impressive throughout. It’s not on the same scale of brilliance of McDermott and his Improbable Ensemble’s work for Glass’s sublime Satyagraha a few years ago, but that narrative-free work called out for a strong collaborative theatrical expression. Here however, they still manage nonetheless to find an imaginative way to work with the rather more banal reality of The Perfect American, keeping it visually engaging and thematically relevant through projected animation sequences and supernumeraries playing the larger-than-life rabbits of Disney’s mind, avoiding any Mom and Apple-Pie clichés or overly literal depictions of small-town Americana.
The performances of the cast at the Madrid world premiere run in the Teatro Real (viewed via Internet streaming) were also exceptionally good. Christopher Purves was an outstanding Walt Disney, but all the cast managed to inject some personality into their characters and even some sense of melody into their singing. As scored by Glass however, there wasn’t much of that in the lifeless orchestration of bland repetition that lacked and real dynamic or variety in tempo and seemed to have no sense of a distinct dramatic character or expression for the work. It’s a long way from Glass at his most original and operatic best in Einstein on the Beach, Satyagraha or Akhnaten, but Glass has shown himself in more recent times to still be creatively inspired when the subject (Kepler) or the source (Kafka, Cocteau) are worthy. Walt Disney and The Perfect American doesn’t seem to fire the composer’s imagination this time, and it seems hardly likely to excite audiences when it comes to the English National Opera this summer.
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Merry Christmas to all!
In honor of the holiday, I thought this might be a nice occasion for a festive tour through the gardens of Spain.
I had the privilege of visiting Spain earlier this autumn, specifically the cities of Barcelona, Sevilla, Cordoba, Madrid and Toledo.
While I was there, I took a number of garden-related photos. Let's start in Granada, where we spent a whole day at the remarkable Alhambra, a complex of palaces, villa, fortress and gardens built by the moors primarily from the 11th to 13th Centuries C.E.
GardenVisit.com calls the Alhambra gardens "the best and most-famous late-medieval castle gardens in Europe." I have to admit - and this may be sacrilegious to late-medieval castle garden fans, but the Alhambra gardens did not actually appeal to me very much.
In fact, to be honest, I found the famous Spanish gardens I visited to be a bit of a letdown in general. Too much in the way of endless hedges, not nearly enough in the way of color, flowers or horticultural diversity. Perhaps my expectations were too high. Perhaps Spanish gardening tastes are simply not in sync with my own.
That said, you can't traipse around Spain for a couple of weeks without finding some photogenic garden sights. Here are a few of my favorites from the Alhambra.
|The interior of the Generalife palace within the Alhambra complex. I liked the way that the arch with its intricate carvings framed this garden view.|
|Can anyone help with a plant ID here? The flowers (but not the leaves) look a little like Fatsia japonica. If this plant is hardy in zone 6/7, I'd be interested in adding such a pollinator-friendly plant to my garden.|
|In October, when we visited, the Alhambra was highlighting Celosia (also known as Cockscomb) as its Plant of the Month. Fun fact -- according to Wikipedia, Celosia is actually related to amaranth. Wikipedia further claims that at least some varieties of Celosia may have medicinal or edible uses. I've been hesitate to grow celosia since I've heard the plant is somewhat temperamental (sensitive to root stress), but these claims make me want to take another look at a plant which clearly has some lovely ornamental appeal. If you've grown (or tried to eat) celosia, please share your experiences in the Comments section below.|
|Here's a slightly different idea with a rushing stream actually carved into the handrail of the stairway. What an interesting concept!|
Want to stay in the loop? Never miss an update with a free email subscription to Garden of Aaron!
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BRUSSELS – Euro zone finance ministers and the International Monetary Fund made their third attempt in as many weeks to agree on releasing emergency aid for Greece on Monday, with policymakers saying a write-down of Greek debt is off the table for now.
Greek Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras said he was confident the ministers would reach a deal after Greece fulfilled its part of the deal by enacting tough austerity measures and economic reforms.
"I'm certain we will find a mutually beneficial solution today," he said on arrival for what was set to be another marathon meeting.
Greece, where the euro zone's debt crisis erupted in late 2009, is the currency area's most heavily indebted country, despite a big "haircut" this year on privately-held bonds. Its economy has shrunk by nearly 25 percent in five years.
EU Economic and Monetary Affairs Olli Rehn said it was vital to disburse the next 31 billion euro tranche of aid "to end the uncertainty that is still hanging over Greece". He urged all sides to "go the last centimeter because we are so close to an agreement".
Negotiations have been stalled over how Greece's debt, forecast to peak at 190-200 percent of GDP in the coming two years, can be cut to a more sustainable 120 percent by 2020.
Without agreement on how to reduce the debt, the IMF has held up payments to Athens because there is no guarantee of when the need for emergency financing will end.
The key question is: Can Greek debt become sustainable without the euro zone writing off some of the loans to Athens?
IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde said on arrival that the solution must be "credible for Greece".
A source familiar with IMF thinking said the global lender was demanding immediate measures to cut Greece's debt by 20 percentage points of GDP, with a commitment to do more to reduce the debt stock in a few years if Greece fulfills its program.
Under the source's scenario, Greece's debt could be reduced to around 125 percent of GDP by 2020 using a variety of methods including a debt buyback, reducing the interest rate on loans and returning euro zone central bank 'profits' to Greece, but further steps would still be needed to hit the 120 percent goal.
The ministers took an extended break in mid-afternoon while experts worked on how to formulate a link between short-term measures and a credible assurance of eventual debt relief.
Germany and its northern European allies have so far rejected any idea of forgiving official loans to Athens.
DEBT RELIEF "NOT ON TABLE"
German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble told reporters on arrival that a debt cut now was legally impossible, not just for Germany but for other euro zone countries, if it was linked to a new guarantee of loans.
"You cannot guarantee something if you're cutting debt at the same time," he said. That might not preclude debt relief at a later stage if Greece has completed its adjustment program and no longer needs new loans.
The source familiar with IMF thinking said a loan write-off once Greece has established a track record of compliance would be the simplest way to make its debt viable, but other methods such as foregoing interest payments, or lending at below market rates and extending maturities could all help.
The German banking association (BDB) said a fresh "haircut" or forced reduction in the value of Greek sovereign debt, must only happen as a last resort.
Two European Central Bank policymakers, vice-president Vitor Constancio and executive board member Joerg Asmussen, said debt forgiveness was not on the agenda for now.
Asmussen told Germany's Bild newspaper the package of measures would include a substantial reduction of interest rates on loans to Greece and a debt buy-back by Greece, funded by loans from a euro zone rescue fund.
So far, the options under consideration include reducing interest on already extended bilateral loans to Greece from the current 150 basis points above financing costs.
How much lower is not yet decided -- France and Italy would like to reduce the rate to 30 basis points (bps), while Germany and some other countries insist on a 90 bps margin.
Another option, which could cut Greek debt by almost 17 percent of GDP, is to defer interest payments on loans to Greece from the EFSF, a temporary bailout fund, by 10 years.
The European Central Bank could forego profits on its Greek bond portfolio, bought at a deep discount, cutting the debt pile by a further 4.6 percent by 2020, a document prepared for the ministers' talks last week showed.
Not all euro zone central banks are willing to forego their profits, however, the German Bundesbank among them.
Greece could also buy back its privately-held bonds on the market at a deep discount, with gains from the operation depending on the scope and price. Officials have spoken of a 10 billion euro buy-back at around 30 cents on the euro, that would retire around 30 billion euros of debt, although since the idea was raised the potential gain has fallen as prices have risen.
But the preparatory document from last week said that the 120 percent target could not be reached in 2020, only two years later, unless ministers accept losses on their loans to Athens, provide additional financing or force private creditors into selling Greek debt at a discount.
The latest analysis for the ministers showed the debt could come down to 125 percent of GDP in 2020, one euro zone official with insight into the talks said.
FORGIVING OFFICIAL LOANS?
German central bank governor Jens Weidmann has suggested that Greece could "earn" a reduction in debt it owes to euro zone governments in a few years if it diligently implements all the agreed reforms. The European Commission backs that view.
An opinion poll published on Monday showed Greece's anti-bailout SYRIZA party with a four-percent lead over the Conservatives who won election in June, adding to uncertainty over the future of reforms.
German paper Welt am Sonntag said on Sunday that euro zone ministers were considering a write-down of official loans for Greece from 2015, but gave no sources, and a euro zone official said such an option was never seriously discussed.
(Additional reporting by Robert-Jan Bartunek, Ethan Bilby, Luke Baker in Brussels, Reinhardt Becker in Berlin, Astrid Wendlandt in Paris; Writing by Jan Strupczewski and Paul Taylor; editing by Philippa Fletcher)
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Just six days before contracts expire, General Motors, Ford and Chrysler are demanding the Canadian Auto Workers give them all the cost-saving provisions the UAW accepted last fall as all sides talk tough and prepare for an impasse.
But accepting an agreement modeled after the U.S. deal, which includes tiered wages, would challenge the core identity of the CAW and the principles on which it was founded -- mainly, bargaining for rigid wage increases over bonuses and other incentive-style pay more popular in the States.
"Every one of these companies is saying that the UAW model is the model for the future, and we've said that we've been a sovereign union for 28 years now," CAW President Ken Lewenza told the Free Press.
The UAW accepted a type of tiered wage structure in 2007 for new workers that meant they might never reach the same pay as current top rates. In Canada, new hires reach full wages after six years.
"We can be flexible on the wage progression, and I think we can be flexible in some other areas. But the principles of workers getting to the top rate sooner or later? Those are principles, quite frankly, that are not for sale," Lewenza said.
The CAW is making progress, Lewenza said.
"But is the gap a mile wide? Yes."
In U.S. dollars, the CAW's total labor cost for hourly wages and benefits is about $60 per hour, compared with $58 for U.S. workers at GM, $56 at Ford and about $50 at Chrysler, according to the Center for Automotive Research.
On Monday, the CAW warned its 20,000 members that the Detroit Three are threatening to pull at least some future investments out of Canada if the union doesn't give up cost-of-living increases, agree to lower wages for new workers and contribute more to their pensions.
Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne told the Toronto Globe and Mail on Friday, "Nobody in their right mind would continue to create an unlevel playing field in its own organization. ... It's impossible. We have other plants, other options."
Lewenza called Marchionne's comments premature, but he also said a separate wage structure for new workers is out of the question.
Ford management is sounding less confrontational. Mark Fields, Ford's president of the Americas, said Monday, "Our expectation is we will come out with a satisfactory agreement for both parties."
Both GM and Chrysler also told the Free Press that negotiations are constructive, and they are optimistic that they can find creative solutions.
Lewenza, who has led the CAW since 2008, persuaded autoworkers to give up annual wage increases and other concessions in 2009 when the Canadian government joined the U.S. Treasury in providing emergency loans to GM and Chrysler.
Now, with each automaker making large profits in North America, the CAW says it believes its workers should be rewarded. However, the UAW accepted more extensive concessions in 2007, 2009 and 2011 in return for product investments and up to 13,850 new jobs by 2015.
To reach a new four-year agreement in 2011, the UAW agreed to forgo wage and cost-of-living increases and instead accepted lump-sum signing bonuses, a new profit-sharing formula and job commitments from the Detroit Three. (They accepted the second-tier wage deal in 2007.)
"It doesn't mean anything if we have a $5-per-hour pay increase and have 5,000 more workers laid off because we don't have the product and investment," UAW President Bob King said last fall. The UAW declined to comment Monday.
The approximate parity of the U.S. and Canadian dollars has pushed the Detroit Three's costs in Canada to what they call the highest in the world. But Ford, GM and Chrysler's controlling partner Fiat are losing hundreds of millions of dollars in Europe, where wages and a glut of factories are more costly than worker pay anywhere in North America.
The companies also want the CAW to make a contribution to the union and companies' defined-benefit pensions.
"That doesn't move to a 401(k)," Lewenza said. "We still would maintain our existing defined-benefit plan."
Absent from the list of demands is profit sharing. The UAW agreed to a profit-sharing formula in 1984, and agreed to revise that formula last year.
The CAW has opposed profit sharing since it split from the UAW in 1985, but Lewenza said he would keep an open mind about the idea this year.
"The companies have not offered profit sharing to us," Lewenza said. "Their position has been, 'Until we are at wage parity, why would we offer profit sharing checks?' "
Contact Brent Snavely: 313-222-6512 or email@example.com. Staff writer Alisa Priddle contributed to this report.
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After testifying on “Promoting Broadband, Jobs and Economic Growth through Commercial Spectrum Auctions” before the U.S. House Energy & Commerce Subcommittee on Communications and Technology, I issued the following statement:
“As I stated in my testimony this afternoon, there are a number of benefits that auctioning more spectrum for the U.S. wireless industry would provide for America and Americans. This includes billions of dollars in revenue for the U.S. Treasury and increasing access to wireless Internet for millions of consumers across the country. In addition, some economists have stated that the wireless industry’s investment in next generation wireless technologies could create as many as 200,000 jobs, which doesn’t include positions in adjacent fields that increasingly rely on wireless technology such as healthcare, energy, education and transportation.
“With only certain bands of spectrum that work best for wireless products and services, we must ensure that this finite resource is being used to its highest and best use. With more than 120 MHz of unused or underused spectrum by broadcasters, we have proposed compensating those who participate in incentive auctions, share channels or adopt a cellularized architecture while preserving over-the-air broadcasting.
“Spectrum is vital to our industry. It is what fuels the ‘virtuous cycle’ of innovation and competition, which is why we are seeing tremendous consumer usage and demand for wireless Internet anytime and anywhere. Cisco’s Visual Networking Index has projected that wireless data traffic in North America will grow 20 times from 2010 to 2015, on top of the 110 percent growth we experienced in 2009-2010. The U.S. is the world’s wireless industry leader. Yet we are at a pivotal moment because other countries, such as the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Korea and Japan have already allocated additional spectrum because they recognize mobile broadband as a key economic driver.
“We appreciate the support of the President, many members of Congress, the FCC Chairman and Commissioners, and other policymakers to make more spectrum available for the U.S. wireless industry so we can remain the world’s leader.”
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Meet the magical Monkey King, a stargazing rabbi, and a spry three hundred year-old tomte grandmother. Our characters are windows into folktales, fantasies, and historical stories. We perform with hand, rod and life-sized puppets.
Galapagos was founded in 1987. We named it for the Galapagos Islands, a habitat for many peaceful and unusual creatures.
We studied with Taiwan’s master puppeteer Li Tien-lu and his I Wan Jan troupe, and use traditional Chinese puppets and choreography in several shows.
We bring a love of history and heritage to our performances.
Galapagos has performed at many venues in the Northeast, including at Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts and the American Museum of Natural History.
Our work has been funded by grants from organizations such as the Henson Foundation and the Puffin Foundation.
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I love dark chocolate, particularly from Colombia and Ecuador.
I love sitting down with a proper cup of coffee and tasting the way it can be fruity or smokey, depending on the bean and how it was roasted.
I love great food, and nearly missed an international flight once in an attempt to get a slice of pizza from a particular coal-fired oven in Brooklyn.
At the end of a long day, my favorite way to unwind is to toss fresh sweet onions and some garlic into sizzling olive oil, and then decide what to make with it.
Indian food? Italian? Thai? A savory chicken soup?
As I describe food using the word “love,” I’m aware I really should reserve it to talk about the people I’m closest to, but given how much time and attention I devote to what passes my tongue, “love” feels like an accurate descriptor.
And as someone who works professionally to serve the poor, I often wrestle with the tension brought on by my selfish pursuit of gastronomic pleasure.
Don’t get me wrong – I think one of the amazing things about Jesus’ first recorded miracle was the setting. Instead of healing a leper, or feeding thousands of hungry people, He made wine at a wedding feast.
I think God was saying something about celebration, about appropriate extravagance. I think this is an amazing gift to humanity: we are created with the ability to appreciate a decadent dessert or a great party.
But I know that my obsession with food has a serious downside. When most of my day is spent thinking about me — my wants, my desires, my preferences – I quickly lose the ability to care about others.
As Chris Seay writes in his new book A Place At The Table,
“Certainly, our relationship with food is a unique window into our soul. In the days leading up to a fast I committed to a few years ago, a very simple realization broke my will, pride and eventually my heart. I realized that the joy that food and material possessions bring to me is often substantial, but that far too often I lack any sense of gratitude for it.”
In A Place At The Table, what Seay proposes to a reader like me is that I spend 40 days in a fast with a unique twist: eat what my sponsored child eats.
And in the process, recapture gratitude and a sense of solidarity with the poor.
I have an overwhelming number of options every day, but 9-year-old Billy in Haiti exists on small portions of rice, beans, stewed greens and bananas.
So I am going to do the same.
I haven’t read all of Chris’s book, but it is structured as a 40-day devotional, and has accompanying video and other resources for each day.
How would you define your relationship with food? Could a period of eating simply change your perspective?
Will you join me?
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Marco Rubio has thrown the GOP a lifeline; let’s see whether his fellow party members are willing to grab it. The freshman U.S. senator from Florida has been a hard-line foe to illegal immigrants, both in his home state and since his election to Congress, but now he is considering drafting a new “DREAM Act,” which would offer legal status to illegal immigrants who were brought to the United States as children.
Similar efforts have failed in recent years, almost entirely because of Republican opposition. But according to the polls, most Americans favor such a measure. And passing it would be not only smart politics but also, more importantly, the right thing to do.
First, let’s make clear that Rubio’s plan (as reported in the press — he hasn’t actually written language) would involve only those illegal immigrants who were minors when they came here and have led exemplary lives ever since. In order to qualify, these illegal immigrants would have to agree to serve in the U.S. military or attend at least two years of college.
Apparently, Rubio hasn’t decided yet whether his limited amnesty — yes, the A-word, in its best sense, applies — would put recipients on a path that eventually could lead to citizenship or just permanent legal residency. The latter would be a mistake, in my view, not least because we want those who make their homes in the United States to become full participants in our democratic society, with the duties and responsibilities that entails, as well as the privileges. And who could argue that someone who risks his or her life defending the U.S. in the military should not be entitled to full citizenship?
So far, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee, Mitt Romney, has said only that he is studying the issue. No doubt he’s worried that endorsing the plan might hurt him with the party base. But he’d be a fool to reject the opportunity Rubio is providing. Opposition to illegal immigration — as every recent poll demonstrates — is simply not a core voting issue for voters, even conservatives (among whom I count myself).
The irony in Romney’s reticence is that the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act was originally a bipartisan effort to reach some reasonable accommodation on the least contentious issue in the immigration debate. Sen. Orrin Hatch was the original sponsor of the 2001 version of the legislation. But like many others, Hatch dropped his support when he became cowed by the extremist population-control advocates that founded and still dominate the anti-immigration movement.
Few Republicans have the courage to take on the well-funded radicals who want not only to eliminate illegal immigration but also to severely restrict legal immigration. And while they’re at it, these extremists want to discourage Americans from having babies and encourage old and sick people to die — at their own hands if they become burdens. John Tanton, Garrett Hardin and Richard Lamm — founding fathers of the modern immigration restriction movement — have written and spoken admiringly of assisted suicide, various forms of euthanasia, sterilization and China’s one-child policy. Hardin and his wife, both members of the Hemlock Society, committed suicide when they became infirm, which Tanton paid tribute to in an essay.
Why pro-life Republicans are in bed with the likes of these guys remains a mystery to me. But maybe there’s hope yet that they will come around to embracing a way out of the anti-immigrant swamp they’ve wandered into. Sen. Rubio offers a path out. They should take it.
The alternative is to consign those who were brought to the United States illegally through no fault of their own to live in the shadows, unable to work, study or contribute their many talents to the only country many of them have ever known. Of course, the opponents of the DREAM Act will say these young people should simply leave. They aren’t likely to — and if they did, it would be the United States’ loss, not just theirs.
We’re talking about kids who want to serve in the military and put their lives on the line to protect the rest of us. We’re talking about bright youngsters who would earn college degrees and become respected members of their communities. And we’re talking about future taxpayers who would help pay for the Medicare and Social Security benefits many of those who oppose their staying here now receive.
Republicans should seize this opportunity not only to pass the DREAM Act but also to restate the values and principles that have made this country the greatest in the history of the world.
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http://www.humanevents.com/2012/04/28/rubios-lifeline/
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In a converted factory in New York’s Union Square neighborhood, a woman’s delicate voice floats from a spacious fifth-floor apartment outfitted as a music studio with a baby grand piano, microphones and sound system, and electric keyboards. Every so often, the voice halts, awaiting instruction.
A vocal student is practicing with vocal coach and singer Norma Garbo ’72. Garbo reveals that her studio is where she coached country star Taylor Swift and “American Idol” judge and songwriter Kara DioGuardi, and where the rock band Scissor Sisters currently trains.
Garbo was president of Cabrini’s Women’s Chorale for three years. She then attended Villanova University’s theatre program. The next summer, Garbo met her ex‑husband, a professional studio musician in New York, and packed her bags to move to the Big Apple.
Vocal lessons with renowned instructors helped refine her singing, and taught her how to read and write music. Soon she was booked to record advertising jingles. Then she landed backup gigs with superstars like Billy Joel, reggae legend Jimmy Cliff, and disco artist Gloria Gaynor.
Garbo’s friend, composer Artie Resnick (who penned chart-topping hits “Under the Boardwalk” for The Drifters and “Good Lovin'” for The Rascals) in 1978 asked Garbo to provide vocal instruction for his wife, Susan.
She became Garbo’s first student, and Garbo’s practice grew by word-of-mouth. Today, Garbo’s students devote the first portion of each lesson with a series of 14 exercises that correct breathing and use the body to project the voice. Students then warm up singing scales with piano accompaniment. Students use the remainder of the 45-minute lesson to sing pieces they are preparing to perform, as Garbo coaches them on proper position of the jaw and tongue, pronunciation, and vocal techniques.
Garbo credits her Cabrini education—including a minor in secondary education and student teaching experience—with giving her the confidence and ability to become an instructor.
“Cabrini brought me to the point where I knew I could teach,” Garbo says. “Teaching is similar to performing. Whether it’s a great song or words of wisdom, unless you grab your audience’s ear, you can’t be heard.”
In the late 1980s, the Manhattan School of Music contacted Garbo regarding an open position as instructor of jazz and pop music. She accepted, and was a faculty member for 16 years. While teaching, she continued to perform at high-profile venues such as the Kennedy compound in Hyannis Port, Mass.; the 1989 Inaugural Ball for President George H.W. Bush; and upscale Manhattan hotels such as The Plaza, The Waldorf-Astoria, and The Pierre.
One of Garbo’s former students from the Manhattan School is launching the International Music College from her hometown of Vancouver, British Columbia, and she appointed Garbo head of the commercial vocal department. In her new role, Garbo soon will be teaching voice—via Skype—to students all over the world.
Today, Garbo sings with a few notable orchestras in New York, including The Peter Duchin Orchestra. She says it keeps her fresh because it provides variety.
“On these jobs, I do music from the Great American Songbook to rock ‘n’ roll and R&B,” says Garbo. “I get to do a whole gamut of styles.”
And after more than three decades, Garbo says she still beams when a student uses the knowledge she tries to impart, and improves vocally. “To see a student grow to the extent where they become a star, or become better than their potential, is so rewarding,” she says.
“The Norma Garbo Technique,” a comprehensive vocal lesson, is available on CD. For information, contact
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We knew the day would come.
The lottery and gaming industry in West Virginia has produced big money for more than two decades. Billions have been funneled into the treasury from gambling; education, senior citizen programs and the tourism industry have benefited tremendously from those dollars.
But West Virginia no longer can consider gambling as a stable source of funding.
Many factors are now in play that will have a negative impact on this revenue stream including major competition, specifically in the form of casinos, from surrounding states.
The West Virginia Racing Association highlighted its plight to lawmakers earlier this week and is seeking relief from the state when it comes to licensing fees and taxes.
Closing down table game operations, furloughing employees and reducing racing cards and purses are all being talked about.
In addition to the competition from neighboring jurisdictions, which has taken away lots of out-of-state visitors and their money, the economy has also slowed and people just don’t have the same amount of disposable income to “play with” if you will.
A few years back, when the issue of video lottery machines and licenses was being heavily debated, opponents of gambling were sounding the red alert on numerous fronts including how the pot at the end of the rainbow would eventually dry up.
While many supporters of gambling expected it wouldn’t come this soon, that day is here.
Sure, millions are still going to be generated from the lottery and gambling, but the golden age certainly is over and legislators need to be thinking now how they are going to deal with the fiscal fallout that has begun and will continue.
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Making the switch from 3G to LTE is a bittersweet change. We’ll now get substantially faster data speeds, but may have to keep an eye on usage to avoid overages. Some of us were backed into a corner by carriers and forced to ditch our precious unlimited data plans in order to upgrade to a new iPhone with subsidized pricing. If you’ve signed up for a data plan that matches average monthly usage, do you really need to worry about running up your bill?
While LTE has its advantages over 3G, there’s a downside to faster data speeds. The first thing you may not notice, is how much more you’ll browse the Web. Because pages load faster and the connection is more reliable, you’re more likely to browse longer. That may not be the biggest factor that wastes away your limited data plan, but all that extra browsing can certainly add up throughout the month.
Apps Also Use More Data
Recently, we tested a few apps and features using the iPhone 5 to see if there was really a difference in data usage between 3G and LTE. Pandora, FaceTime, and Netflix were each tested for six minutes to get a good idea of the apps’ normal data usage. The numbers below combine the data that was sent and received during the testing period for each app.
As you can see in the chart above, there’s one big problem here. While most of the usage between 3G and LTE is almost the same, Netflix seems to be the biggest data hog.
Rock Out With Your Data Out
With Pandora, music was streamed using the high quality setting. The low quality setting in Pandora was 30 percent lower in data usage than the numbers shown above, but in my opinion, sounded 50 percent worse. Regardless of the quality, the data usage was very comparable when comparing 3G with LTE. Streaming music over LTE racked up 8.7MB, while 3G only consumed 7.9MB.
FaceTime Over Cellular, Eh?
If you’re on a wireless plan that allows iOS 6′s FaceTime over Cellular, you may want to think twice before making those video calls without Wi-Fi. It’s kind of disappointing that a feature we’ve longed for, is now limited by the data plans that finally allow it in iOS 6. Making a FaceTime call over 3G or LTE may be convenient, but as you can see, both speeds heavily consume data. Using FaceTime over LTE burned 30.8MB, while 3G used 27.8MB.
Netflix May Be The Enemy
The difference in usage between the two data speeds was most noticeable when streaming video. Netflix is a data thief when used over LTE. The thing about Netflix is, the quality of any streaming video is based on the available bandwidth. Netflix will automatically adjust the quality depending on the connection.
If you’re on a 3G connection, you’ll be served a lower quality stream to help buffering. The low quality video also means less data, and in our testing, only consumed 27.1MB.
When streaming Netflix over LTE the difference in cellular data usage is ridiculous. The video that was streamed during the test racked up 79.6MB of data. In my opinion, the high quality video wasn’t even noticeably better than 3G to warrant the heavy data consumption. It’s also important to note that the auto-quality feature can be disabled through the online account settings on the Netflix website.
So What’s The Big Deal?
The main point is, even if you’re using an iPhone with LTE exactly the same as you had on a 3G connection, you’ll still end up using a few more megabytes here and there. There’s really no way around it. Every single one of our tests showed that LTE consumed more data than 3G, even when performing identical activities such as a streaming music with Pandora.
Don’t let this information hold you back from freely using your iPhone, but I’d definitely keep an eagle eye on your data when you do use these apps and features. If you’d like to avoid the difference in data, you can always turn off LTE and revert to 3G when using these data driven features. While that’s kind of an annoying solution, it will definitely lower your usage down to 3G levels.
Whether you like it or not, LTE consumes more data than 3G.
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- assured + -ly (Wiktionary)
“But it most assuredly is an eff up, and all that remains is seeing how the eff up will unfold.”
“It most assuredly is NOT a tax and the legislation specifically avoids the term “tax”.”
“I'm on record stating my admiration for many things about the USA, but the health care system most assuredly is not one of them.”
“And this, assuredly, is what every parole system must provide.”
“It assuredly is not one of production, despite the many improvements which might be made in our productive methods.”
“Your mother, who assuredly is not cold as to your interests, is not at all troubled by what took place.”
“Fleda's eyes were too dim to see white birch or holly, and she had no longer the least desire to have the latter; but with that infallible tact which assuredly is the gift of nature and no other, she answered, in a voice that she forced to be clear, "O yes! thank you, Grandpapa;" – and stealthily dashing away the tears, clambered down from the rickety little wagon, and plunged with a cheerful step at least, through trees and underbrush to the clump of holly.”
“She was a human being if you will, a Christian in creed and name assuredly; but beyond and above all things she was”
“Grey brings much of the same kind of assuredly affectless quality to this role as she does in her work in adult film, and it is this kabuki interplay between the various characters she inhabits both in and outside of the world onscreen that adds to the film in a way a "traditional" actress would not.”
“The effect of this change is such as assuredly the ingenious person who made it never contemplated.”
These user-created lists contain the word ‘assuredly’.
Use these and get promoted
Synonyms for the word "very"
A long list of adverbs, beginning with full-drive. Someone had to list them. This list in continued in the list More Adverbia.
Read some sniping and some informative commentary about a...
Hecko, words! I’m so happy I’ve found you. I want to keep you all and never want to lose you again. I hope you like it here.
Adverbs to make it perfectly clear that what I'm talking about is 100% correct, beyond the shadow of a doubt, no debate required thankyouverymuch. If you can't see that, you need to get your head e...
Looking for tweets for assuredly.
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| 0.97322
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Secure Coding: Designing and Implementing Secure Applications -- an O'Reilly book by Mark G. Graff and Kenneth R. van Wyk.
A great book on the philosophy and theory behind secure design and implementation of applications and systems. Includes a great deal of insight and any number of things to ponder, but no code to steal or hard-coded list of absolute priorities. So while it won't help if you're shipping an program at the end of the week and it has to be secure, it will help you understand the security trade-offs in your next system and point you towards where you might start improving things.
Due to it's abstract nature, it isn't tied to one programming language or platform and shouldn't date too quickly.
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| 0.938805
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|
Seek Peace not WarMatt.5:38-40 - Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth:
39 But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.
40 And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also.
Matt.5:43-45 - Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy.
44 But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;
45 That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.
War accomplishes some things. It protects certain countries and their land. It rescues people from dictators. It keeps dictators from expansionism. And it also accomplishes a few residual things like economic issues.
But war never accomplishes anything for the kingdom of God. It is completely at odds with all that Jesus lived and taught. It is not a viable option for those who truly wish to follow in the steps and teachings of Jesus.
Now if we wish to put aside the obvious teachings of Christ when they conflict with national interests, then we must also admit that we do not believe those teachings in the absolute. And this is the position that the overwhelming majority of western believers take without apology or without a viable explanation that relieves the obvious inconsistency. And to be perfectly honest, it is the perspective I once held with clenched teeth.
But if we are to be painfully honest, and if we can strip ourselves from the well worn traditions that we were taught as truth, then perhaps we can take a fresh and uninhibited look at what our Master taught and lived. I mean, isn’t that what the Christian faith is in its purist form? In fact, isn’t that what believing in Jesus actually means? Isn’t the embracing and the obeying of His teachings the definition of what it means to be His disciple?
I will be sixty years old in May of this year, and I am amazed at how many things I embraced without a thorough inspection of the Scriptures. And some things have gone unquestioned within the ranks of evangelicalism. In fact, to question them is often seen as rebellion or at least a sign of spiritual immaturity. Can you imagine such a thing? To question the use of massive violence as a tenant of God’s kingdom is seen as immature? Such is the nature of things when the systems and thoughts of this present world are given a place within the church and within the hearts and minds of God’s people.
I do not suggest that those who make a special place for war are not saved or do not love Jesus. What I am suggesting, from both experience and the open revelation of Scripture, is that their perspective on war is at odds with Christ and His kingdom. And this kind of compromise comes primarily through a melding of spiritual truths and nationalistic allegiances. It is most difficult to see when we have been taught over and over that being patriotic is a Christian virtue. And many men and women of spiritual maturity and who love Christ with all their hearts have been our mentors in this area.
But they are wrong, as was I. I realize it is uncomfortable to suggest such things since they are “settled law” within evangelical circles. But we must never bow to councils or creeds or the doctrinal traditions of men, regardless of their ecclesiastical status. And may I say that being free from this deception results in no small residual spiritual benefits. I say this with humility and meekness, that when the Spirit releases you from any bondage you can experience the air of spiritual freedom. But when such a bondage is as strong and as pervasive as nationalism and war, and when that bondage affects almost everything we do and think, well the freedom of such a deliverance is almost overwhelming.
But to even take a deeper look at these issues will cost you. You will have to delve deep into the Scriptures, and you will have to address the overarching theme as laid out by the Master. And you may not have anyone with whom you can dialogue about your journey since that journey is almost forbidden territory. But this I can promise you: That somewhere along that journey you may experience a startling revelation that awakens your very soul.
And this revelation is not just a different perspective about something. It isn’t just changing your view on an issue. It changes your very life, and if you assess that change against the knowledge of what you used to strongly believe, it should, it must, humble you before your Gracious Lord and Savior. You were wrong, and the Spirit corrected you. Does that not prove His love toward you? Unwarranted love? Unconditional love?
And when and if you are transformed by a fresh illumination of truth, you can never look back with disdain to those who remain where you were. Take it from me, the flesh desires to glory in anything the Spirit does. But we cannot succumb to any of that. The freedom that is found in the Lord Jesus also must free us from condemnation and self righteousness. Many will suggest we hate America, but we reject that indictment. We hate idolatry, not any country. Some will present all kinds of scenarios that are difficult to answer. What about Hitler, etc., are the most common.
I can only answer that God is in control, and that obeying the teachings of Jesus can never receive their validity through the prism of consequences. The outcome must always be placed in faith before His throne. Even an unbeliever like Gandhi leveraged the freedom for an entire nation through a philosophy that seemed doomed to fail. But we are not embracing a philosophy; we are embracing a Lord. And success must always be defined to the degree of dedication and obedience to our Lord. We reject the worldly definitions of success. To the world, the cross was a dismal failure.
The path that follows the nail scarred feet leads against the winds of this world. It is not an easy path, but the rewards are immeasurable. Violence and hatred are not on His path. What the world embraces as normal and reality are almost always at odds with the teachings of the God/man. The path of Jesus is a thrilling journey of humility and power. And His power is not physical; it is spiritual. And many times that spiritual power appears as earthly weakness.
And when we are weak, He is strong through us. But when we are strong in this world, He is weak in us. The entire Christian life is one of contrasts and conundrums. He who is weak is strong; he who loses his life finds it; he who is last is first; he who dies lives forever; he who is crucified is resurrected. It is a most exhilarating journey in which Christ increases and we decrease. To experience the life of Christ living through us is an experience which has no equal.
And it is against this surpassing life experience that we can see, we must see, that there can be no room for compromise and accommodation. War continues to be man’s way of protecting and defending lest he lose any of his earthly freedoms. But what does the world have to offer to a man who is eternally free? To us who have an inheritance reserved in the heavenlies, what on this earth should allure us? When we die to ourselves, what temptation is effective to a corpse?
So let the world contemplate and plan its next war. Ours is the gospel, and our war is with the enemy of our souls. To be free in Christ affords a redeemed soul a freedom that cannot be known on earth by those who seek it here. Watch and pray and seek Him with your whole heart and He will be found of you. Weep over the sins of this world, but do not be partakers of such things. The whole world lies in the wicked one and willingly they follow his ways. But not so we who claim Christ’s name.
Gal.6:16-17 - And as many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God.
17 From henceforth let no man trouble me: for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus.
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Thousands of Mississippi military personnel stand to gain significant tax relief from a federal bill that passed the House and Senate unanimously
The legislation provides several tax breaks for soldiers. It includes a deduction for reservists' and National Guard members' travel expenses related to their service.
Sen. Trent Lott said many of those part-time soldiers, who make up the bulk of Mississippi's armed forces, travel long distances for their monthly training.
The amount of that deduction still needs to be determined when the House and Senate reconcile their bills. The House set a $1500 limit on above-the-line deductions, which are available whether or not taxpayers itemize deductions, to cover out-of-pocket expenses for reservists traveling to training.
Meanwhile, Sen. Gerald Dial says he'll introduce a bill to make Alabamians activated for the war in Iraq exempt from state income taxes.
Dial, a Democrat from Lineville and a retired National Guard general, acknowledged the state's current financial crisis but said it is important that legislators show their support for U. S. troops.
The state is facing a $500 million budget shortfall in the current fiscal year. Dial did not say how much his bill would cost the state in lost revenue.
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When I tell people I am a beekeeper, they inevitably ask two questions: (1) do I get stung, and (2) how often do I get stung.
Being stung by your bees is an occupational hazard that is gladly welcomed by beekeepers. Most beekeepers accept that when we are fiddling with 50,000 to 100,000 bees we are bound to get walloped. Many of us take precautions during our hive checks, such as a veil and gloves; however, there are some beekeepers, like my husband Ryan, who conduct beekeeping practices in shorts and a t-shirt, no veil, no gloves. There are definitely days when this is possible — days when the weather is cool and the bees are easy-going about their business with nary a concern for this smelly giant who’s conducting a serious home invasion. But there are also days when the bees are just downright pissy and it doesn’t matter how careful or covered you are — those little buggers are going to find some flesh and when they do they’re gonna getcha.
So, yes, we do get stung. How often? Well, again, that depends on the circumstances. The most I’ve ever been stung at once is eight times and it was, quite honestly, all my fault. I was meandering around a hive and noticed that one of the boxes was askew. Wearing a sweater and jeans (both dark in color, which bees hate), I decided I could “scoot” the box into place. I accomplished this only to be attacked by a couple dozen guard bees who did not appreciate my intrusion. I must add here that there is nothing more amusing and entertaining as a human running away from a group of bees. The arms flailing, the head jerking from side to side, the look of pure panic, alarm, and agitation, all in a full-run, mind you, across the yard while a handful of creatures no bigger than a pinto bean pursue indefatigably until the intruder has gotten his just desserts. This was me. I ran into the garage and stripped down to my underwear to ensure that all the little terrorists had been extracted from my clothing and then stood there, hoping that none had followed me inside.
Bee also have a pattern, that is there is a series of events that will lead up to the actual sting. The first thing you notice is the sound of their buzzing. A foraging bee creates a buzz equal to a soft hum. An annoyed bee’s buzz is considerably more high pitched. They will also give you a warning shot, popping you on the head or fluttering around your ear or under your neck. If you experience this, it’s in your best interest to move out of their range. They’re telling you nicely to bugger off. If you walk away, they’ll leave you alone. If you don’t then comes the attack sequence. You can run, but most of the time you can’t hide. And swatting and flailing? Forget it! it just makes them more game for the chase. Most bees that are in hot pursuit will not follow you through a threshold — a doorway, through some trees or bushes — so this is an option. Still, chances are that if you got stung, you ignored the warning signs.
We have nine hives in our back yard — that’s about half a million bees at minimum — but for the most part the bees leave us alone. I can and have worked unbothered in the garden when my husband is checking a hive and bees are everywhere. My daughter also plays in the garden in front of the hives without being disturbed. The only time we are harassed is after the honey harvest. Sometimes the hives will send out sentinels to hover at our back door and will buzz antagonistically around your head if you venture outside. We consider it payback for stealing their hard-earned honey. And then there’s water — when we have our daughter’s little splash pool filled the bees will come around to gather water and this can sometimes cause some problems, which is exactly what happened to me on the 4th of July this year.
Charlotte and I were relaxing in her plastic pool and I was blasting squirts of water from the hose up into the air. After a few moments, I felt what I thought was a large drop of water dripping down my head. I instinctively reached up to wipe it away and WHAPPOW! She stung me right in the center of the top of my head, then got stuck in my hair. Anyone who’s had a bee stuck in her hair knows how disconcerting it is (there’s a reason for the saying “Got a bee in your bonnet?”). I was more concerned about extracting her than I was about extracting the stinger from my scalp. I eventually pulled her out, then went inside to dig through my coif and find the stinger so I could pull it out. For those of you who are not aware, honeybees have a barbed stinger, which means that when the stinger goes in your skin it stays there. The problem is that her stinger is attached to her intestines, so when she pulls away her intestines and stinger are yanked out and she eventually dies. The stinger pumps venom into your skin for nearly a minute, however, ensuring a painful reminder of her presence and how committed she was to making you go away.
Lots of people have never been stung by a bee so they’re not really sure what it feels like — it hurts like you got poked hard with a needle, then it feels sort of numb. When I’ve gotten stung on the arm or leg, it’s not all that painful. But the sting on the scalp was like the worst brain freeze I’ve ever felt. It hurt real bad. But for me, it’s not the initial pain of the sting that is so bothersome. For me, it’s what comes in the four or five days following the sting that is intimidating — the allergic reaction. Yes, I am a beekeeper who is allergic to bee stings.
People’s reaction to bee stings varies. Mostly, you get what’s called a local reaction. If you’re like my husband and his mother, a local reaction might amount to a bit of soreness for all of about 30 minutes. For me, a local reaction means four or five days of soreness, followed by a hot, swollen welt, followed by an itch that almost drives me mad, and then sometimes blisters and bruising. Fortunately, I’ve never had what is called a systemic reaction, which is where your throat closes up and you go into anaphylactic shock. Still, my local reactions are quite painful and require constant care for the duration: Benadryl, both internally and topically, ice, and ibuprofen. I’ve just recently started taking the homeopathic remedy called Apis Mellifica, which helps with the swelling. Here’s an example of what a local reaction might look like on me.
Now, because this sting was on my head I thought that all evidence of the reaction would be masked by my hair. I of course, did not take into account something called gravity, which ensured that the swelling would travel down the front of my face over a course of five days. So what you see below is the swelling slowly draining from my head to just under my eyes. I woke up one morning with my eyes swollen shut, but , fortunately, with absolutely no pain. My husband said I looked like a Klingon, which I thought was a compliment. Fortunately, I recovered — as victims of bee stings will almost always do.
Do I hate the bee for stinging me? No. Am I afraid to venture in my back yard? No. Am I afraid of being stung again? No. It just is what it is. So the next time you see a bee, give praise to the power she wields with her tiny body and respect her for fighting to the death to protect what is hers. She’s just doing her job.
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New paintings and collages by Nicole Mauser
Pressure, Drag, Hesitation and Speed, are conditions that underscore a history and decision-making process, which can be charted back mark-by-mark within a painting methodology. These conditions are driven by a formal rigor that is self-aware of materiality. This on-going series of paintings and collages employ “found” marks and residues, collected on the periphery of the artist’s studio practice. They function as reference and act as points of interchange between information and knowledge. Sensory information is residual and acts as a prompt for an abstract vocabulary to develop. Line, form, shape, and chroma, transfer a dialogue through muscle memory via viscous materiality. Compressions of space multiply and ricochet, functioning to create pockets of shallow depths to confront the viewer. These works do not beg the question why forms begin and exist, but how they will play out.
Nicole Mauser (b. 1983) lives and works in Kansas City, MO. Her works have been exhibited nationally and internationally, recent exhibitions include Carrie Secrist Gallery, Chicago; The Dolphin Gallery, Kansas City; H&R Artspace, Kansas City; SBG, Kansas City; Punch Gallery, Seattle; and collections include the collection of the The Alexander, Indianapolis. Mauser is a co-founder of the artist run gallery, PLUG Projects. Upcoming exhibitions include, Contemporary Abstract Painting at Ringling College of Art & Design featuring, Kris Chatterson, Omar Chacon, Vince Contarino, and Peter Plagens (February 22- April 3), and a two-person exhibition with sculptor Kate Perryman curated by Jessica Baran at Ft. Gondo Compound for the Arts, St. Louis (September, 2013).
Congratulations goes out to Natasha Hatcher, MWSU digital animation and illustration student, who’s photograph was the selected into the 33rd Annual College & High School Photography Contest, co-sponsored by Nikon. Over 16,000 photographs were entered from the U.S., Canada and around the world. Photo editor, Nell Campbell, selected the best photographs to be in the finalist group.
Geo Sipp, Professor of Art was featured in the Kansas City Star’s Arts & Entertainment section, Sunday December 16th, 2012 edition. In a story entitled The Art of War, Art Critic Alice Thorson reviewed the Wolves in the City graphic novel that Professor Geo Sipp is currently illustrating. Professor Sipp’s work may be viewed at http://www.geosipp.com.
With graphic novel, Algerian war gets a KC artist’s interpretation
An artist and a writer from KC depict Algeria’s struggle for freedom from France. It will sound very familiar.
By ALICE THORSON
The Kansas City Star
Algeria celebrates the 50th anniversary of its independence from France this year, and a local project has been part of the festivities.
Five years ago, artist Geo Sipp and writer Conger Beasley Jr., both of Kansas City, had a meeting of the minds.
Independently, each had been looking into the history of the French-Algerian War, notorious for the widespread use of torture.
In the course of their readings, both came to see parallels between what happened at Abu Ghraib during the U.S. war in Iraq and what happened in Algeria half a century ago, when the French military used techniques such as waterboarding to elicit information from members of the Algerian resistance.
There were horrific acts on both sides.
“The French-Algerian war was the first modern war,” Sipp said in an interview at his home studio in the Roanoke/Valentine neighborhood. “There were suicide bombers, women fighters (see accompanying story), terrorism, street-to-street and house-to-house combat. Torture was implemented with no apology.”
Beasley, a novelist and travel writer, lives in St. Joseph; Sipp is a professor of art at Western Missouri University in St. Joseph. Together, they conceived the idea of doing a graphic novel about the Algerian war.
Beasley would write the narrative; Sipp, an accomplished printmaker who enjoyed a successful career as an illustrator before turning to teaching, would do the images.
Their “Wolves in the City” tells the story of Buster Higby, an American who serves in the French Foreign Legion during the French-Algerian War. Fleeing a murder rap in small-town Missouri, he enlists in the French military and is sent to Algeria. There, Buster, who has taken the name Bertrand, becomes part of a special squad charged with interrogating Algerian insurgents.
Bertrand becomes a highly effective torturer. He also falls in love, and his professional and personal involvements entwine in a dramatic denouement.
As of this fall, Beasley has the story blocked out and Sipp has completed four dozen of the anticipated 200-plus images for the novel.
In October, he exhibited 22 of them in a solo show at the Festival International de la Bande Dessinee Algeria, a big comics and graphic novel festival that coincided with the country’s 50th anniversary celebrations.
“I was invited by the Algerian Cultural Ministry and the directors of the festival to show work,” Sipp said. He traveled to Algiers to attend the festival, where he spoke on several panels. His visit included a dinner with the French ambassador to Algeria and the French cultural minister.
Most of the images Sipp is creating for the book are drawings on glass, which he grains with carborundum grit to achieve a frost-textured surface.
By exposing the drawings on glass to photosensitized etching plates, he has made editioned prints, which he exhibits as stand-alone works of art.
Printmaking is Sipp’s specialty. For the chapter breaks of “Wolves in the City” he is creating a series of woodcuts. Like the drawings, they reflect his admiration for German expressionist artists such as Otto Dix, George Grosz and Max Beckmann, who exaggerated and abstracted their figurative compositions to convey anxiety and emotion.
Sipp also is working on a series of paintings based on French newsreels of the Algerian war, which will be used, he said, for “scenes of drama and historical impact — particularly battle scenes” — in the book.
Drawing on a technique he used as a commercial illustrator, he makes a copy of the newsreel image he wants to use, then traces it on drafting film, heightening the contrasts.
“I eliminate a lot of detail and go mostly for the emotive form,” he said. The process involves applying repeated layers of tape, paint and resin to the image, which, he said, heightens luminosity and a sense of transparency.
Sipp’s images will carry most of the narrative. Text passages will appear, not as word balloons but on a separate page or in a box below the images, which will sometimes run for several pages.
“It relies on a visually educated audience,” Sipp said.
The graphic novel has been enjoying a renaissance in recent years, as evidenced by an international proliferation of comics and graphic novel festivals and the format’s increasing appearance on library shelves and in school curricula.
Some date the medium’s literary legitimacy to Art Spiegelman’s 1992 graphic novel, “Maus,” which earned the author a Pulitzer Prize.
In summer 2011, Spiegelman joined master comics artists Gary Panter and Chris Ware for a panel on the fine art of comics at the Whitney Museum of American Art.
Earlier this month, in a column on “graphic novels that would make good gifts,” the Boston Globe cited Ware’s boxed set, “Building Stories,” as “the standout work of the year.”
Ware is one of the artists Sipp most admires.
To date, most of Sipp’s drawings for “Wolves in the City” have been of riots and raids — what he calls “establishment shots,” evoking the mood of the story. Guiding his visualizations are detailed scripts written by Beasley.
For the book’s opening image of a French army raid on an Arab village east of Algiers, Beasley’s script calls for a “wide, full-page visual show(ing) soldiers, Foreign Legionnaires — a hard-bitten band of disciplined killers — armed with automatic weapons, dressed in camouflaged uniforms, fatigue caps with pointed bills, baggy blouses bound across the chest with bandoleers of machine-gun bullets, pant legs tucked into the tops of dusty combat boots, charging across a dry, grassless patch of red-dirt earth.”
“The story draws in part on popular American mythology,” Sipp said. “In the ’30s, ’40s and ’50s, joining the French Foreign Legion was a popular fantasy for a man with a sense of adventure and virility.”
At the time, “Beau Geste,” a 1924 novel adapted for film and stage about the adventures of three brothers who join the force, fired the public imagination. It also, Sipp said, served as a touchstone for “Wolves in the City.”
Lately Sipp has been concentrating on how he will depict his story’s main characters, and three of his students have agreed to serve as models. For Bertrand, he found a young man with chiseled features and short cropped hair.
He is using a grizzled model for Bertrand’s friend, Emile, who figures early in the story, and a dark-haired young woman for Bertrand’s lover, Marta, a Moroccan Jew and Holocaust survivor. Sipp has taken multiple photographs of the three students, including numerous facial shots.
Sipp was moved to do the project after reading French-Algerian journalist Henri Alleg’s 1958 book, “La Question,” in which the author described being tortured by French soldiers seeking information about the FLN, or National Liberation Front resistance. Offering a vivid window onto the methods and tactics of torture employed by the French military, the book was banned by the French government.
“That was a book that led me to believe this is a very contemporary story,” Sipp said. “That was the real spark that made me think, ‘I’m interested in spending a good chunk of my life doing this.’ ”
“The FLN wanted to create a free Algeria,” Sipp said. “They were considered terrorists by the French military. It’s very similar to today. We see the same amorphous struggles in conflicts ranging from the Balkans to Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria and the Palestinian territories.”
Another important impetus to “Wolves in the City,” he said, was the 1966 film “The Battle of Algiers.”
“It’s a phenomenal picture, which was filmed in Algiers just a couple of years after the war had ended, so the wounds and emotions were still very fresh,” Sipp said in an email.
“What makes it particularly remarkable is that there was only one professional actor in the film. Every other participant in the film was an Algerian or French citizen, and the person who played the lead role as the head of the FLN (National Liberation Front) was the actual person who was head of the FLN.
“I own a copy and watch it frequently when I need to refresh myself with the verisimilitude I’m looking for in my work.”
In their research for “Wolves in the City,” Sipp and Beasley also read Alistair Horne’s “A Savage War of Peace,” a definitive history of the Algerian war, first published in 1977.
In his preface to the 2006 edition of “War,” Horne drew a series of parallels between the Algerian war and the U.S. involvement in Iraq, including Iraq’s adoption of some of the same tactics used by the Algerian resistance and the U.S. government’s use of torture.
Sipp estimates that “Wolves in the City” is two or three years away from completion. In the meantime, he will continue to exhibit editioned prints of the drawings for the book and delve further into the details of the war.
“I’m not trying to politicize or editorialize,” he said. “What I’m really interested in is: How do we deal with conflict and different ideologies and live together?”
Women on the front line
Women played a key role in the Algerian war for independence as spies, nurses, messengers and combatants.
Zohra Drif and Djamila Bouhired planted bombs in a French sector of Algiers, seeking to avenge the deaths of Muslim children from a bomb in the Casbah.
Daniele Minne also served as a bomb carrier.
Tiny photographs of the three women are part of a new acquisition at the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art.
Asad Faulwell’s “Mujahidat #11,” on view in the museum’s ongoing “Oppenheimer Collection@20” exhibition, enshrines these women fighters within a colorful, patterned abstraction influenced by Islamic art and Moroccan textiles. The work is part of the young L.A. artist’s series of paintings devoted to the women of Algiers, many of whom were imprisoned and tortured by the French and rejected by their Algerian countrymen when the war ended in 1962.
“They (Algerian men) were taking women who they had no intention of empowering after the war, getting them to fight on the front lines and then (the resistance) turning their backs on them as soon as the war was over,” Faulwell told the Middle Eastern art journal, Muraqqua, in 2010.
As writer Yasmine Mohseni observed, “These women planted bombs and fired guns, yet, even today, people see them as victims.
“It is this dichotomy of viewing the Arab woman as a victim that makes the subject matter so compelling,” she said.
One positive outgrowth of the ongoing turmoil in the Middle East and the conflict between the West and Islam has been an increased interest in Islamic culture and history by American artists such as Sipp and Faulwell, who is of Iranian descent.
A growing number of exhibits are featuring artists from Islamic cultures and Middle Eastern countries. The recent “On Watch” exhibit at Block Artspace, for instance, introduced the local art audience to the work of Iraqi-born Jananne Al-Ani and Palestinian Taysir Batniji.
Nationally, exhibits in the works include “Iran Modern, 1950-1980” at the Asia Society and a big exhibit of Shirin Neshat’s work at the Detroit Institute of Arts.
The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art is also working on a show about Islamic art and contemporary artists.
“Art is the perfect medium to promote cultural awareness and understanding,” said Kim Masteller, the museum’s curator of South and Southeast Asian art, who will present the show next fall in the Bloch Building Project Space.
The project, a collaboration with the Kansas City Artists Coalition, “is meant to create a dialogue between historical and contemporary art,” Masteller said. The exhibit will include work from Neshat’s “Women of Allah” series and Kansas City artist Asheer Akram’s version of an elaborately decorated Pakistani cargo truck.
To reach Alice Thorson, call 816-234-4783 or send email to email@example.com.
Posted on Sat, Dec. 15, 2012 11:04 PM
Missouri Western’s Department of Art and Music present Hansel and Gretel. This children’s opera is truly family friendly entertainment. This multimedia production includes live performance and digital animation. Teaming up, the art and music department’s goal is to expose children to the possibilities of art and music. A short informative presentation on the role of art in the production brings to light career choices and possibilities. While hearing the performers gives inspiration it also presents choices and possibilities in music. A shortened version has been taken out to schools with over 700 grade school children.
We hope you can come to Potter Hall, November 2nd, 3rd, and 4th as we bring this classic tale to life. Refreshments will be served at intermission. Please print off a Coupon to buy one ticket and get one free.
The first 500 children will receive an activity book with coloring pages, seek and find, and a word search.
The Missouri Western State University Department of Art is extending a warm invitation to you and your art students to attend the first annual MWSU Visual Arts Day. We will be hosting Visual Arts Day, Thursday, October 11, 2012. Scheduled events will begin at 8:00 am and conclude about 4:00 pm. The day will consist of a juried high school art exhibition, art competitions and events, and studio workshops in clay, graphics, animation, printmaking, photography, drawing, and sculpture. Participating students and faculty will have the opportunity to view the artwork of their contemporaries in an environment designed to promote creativity, collaboration, and camaraderie.
If your school is interested in attending or would like more information about MWSU Visual Arts Day contact David Harris at firstname.lastname@example.org The MWSU Department of Art looks forward to hearing from you.
Sean Starwars, a member of the renowned Outlaw Printmakers will be in the Missouri Western Print Studios Monday, September 10th through Thursday, September 13th, 2012. An exhibition of his recent woodcuts is currently on view in the Potter Gallery from September 10th through October 9th. More of Sean’s work may be viewed at http://www.seanstarwars.com.
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For many people VoIP (voice over IP) is synonymous with Skype, the only brand of internet telephony that has made a real mark on the collective consumer consciousness.
This article appears in the January 07 issue of PC Advisor, onsale now in all good newsagents.
There is one major drawback to using Skype: it is proprietary. Fortunately, there is an alternative. You don't need to be restricted to making and receiving cut-price calls only with those using the same Skype service. VoIP has its own open standard.
SIP (session initiation protocol) enables you to call anyone who uses VoIP, except Skype customers. Skype doesn't accept incoming SIP calls. But, while Skype may seem to have the market to itself for the moment, there are loads of standards-based alternatives on the way.
Router hardware that directly supports SIP – including the Netgear TA612V Broadband Voice Adapter and the AVM FritzBox Fon we use in the January 07 issue of the magazine – is on the horizon.
VoIP can save you money on phone call costs. It uses your broadband connection to enable you to chat, but it is not as easy as picking up a phone. Cordless Wi-Fi VoIP handsets are a step forward, but they still need to be configured.
And you don't save as much as you might imagine. International VoIP calls to fixed lines might be very cheap, but shop around and you can match or better most VoIP landline call charges. Sipgate charges 1.5p per minute for calls to the US, but I subscribe to 1899.com and it charges me a third less. All I have to do is pick up my phone and dial four digits before entering the number I wish to connect to. It's less hassle, it's cheaper and, consequently, VoIP doesn't get a look in.
However, VoIP has aces, too. It doesn't tie you down to calling from one location and, because it's an IP data service, it is so much more useful than analogue voice. Using a router that supports SIP, you no longer have to have your PC switched on to make calls, either.
For more information, our sister site Techworld has a comprehensive VoIP.
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Five Metropolis residents were among 73 World War II veterans who arrived at Williamson County Regional Airport in Marion, after spending two event-filled days in Washington, D.C. on Sept. 14.
Since April 2009, dozens of WWII vets from the southern third of Illinois have participated in the complimentary flights in a program named Central Illinois Honor Flight (CIHF). Similar programs are underway across the country.
As the ranks of the WWII vets shrink each day by l000 or more, CIHF is striving to provide a trip to the country's capital for each survivor.
On the most recent flight five veterans from Metropolis were honored to participate in the "Honor Flight,” along with a guardian for each. They were: Carl Mescher with Andrew Mescher of Brookport; Wilford E. Wachter with Troy Lewis of Metropolis; James Whalen with Norma Harrison of Herrin; John Fletcher with Steve Fehrenbacher of Metropolis; and Earl Marlman with Thomas Millendorf of Metropolis. Also on the flight was Clarence Cox, now of Lake of Egypt near Tunnel Hill, who served as vocational-agriculture teacher at Joppa High School for several years. His guardian was his son, Reggy Cox of Karnak.
All four branches of the military were represented.
Southern Illinois was well represented on the flight that also included a staff of volunteers. This group included registered nurses and several men who loaded and unloaded wheelchairs, one for each vet, along with the luggage, and served meals, passed out bottled water all day and assisted in any way they could.
When the Sun Country chartered plane landed in Washington, after departing from Marion on Sept. 13, the vets were greeted by cheers, clapping, hugs and hand shakes by the public in Reagan International Airport.
This act was repeated wherever the group stopped, with total strangers thanking the vets for providing them the freedom they now enjoy in this country.
Many of the veterans stated that they were not heroes and that those who gave their lives were the real heroes.
Each vet was given a bright orange shirt with the Honor Flight logo, a cap and a goody bag, filled with necessities, along with a disposable camera.
From the airport, the vets and entourage were loaded onto three buses.
A stop at the Marine War Memorial was followed by a scenic drive to the Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia, where the Changing of the Guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier was watched with deep respect, followed then by a visit to the Air Force Memorial.
Along the way, the bus drivers pointed out famous sites as they meandered through the traffic of the city.
The afternoon was filled with stops at various war memorials before the entourage was delivered to the Sheraton Hotel, where on the 16th floor an evening banquet was waiting. The ballroom, with a view of the picturesque National Cemetery, provided time to relax after a busy day. Marlman said they could also see the Pentagon from their hotel rooms.
At 8 a.m. the next morning, the three coaches were loaded for the second day of sightseeing.
-- To read the entire story online, please subscribe to the Planet's e-Edition --
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While there is no question that Tony Kushner’s The Illusion is a modern adaptation of Pierre Corneille’s early 17th-century comedy, proclaiming so would be an injustice to Kushner’s creativity, which stands in its own right as an excellent work of theater. From the moment it begins, the play shuttles the audience immediately into the action. The play’s two acts each begin with an unprovoked crash of a closing door as the theater goes dark. And from there it’s hard to look away.
The play takes place in the magician Alcandre’s cave, and revolves around his showing the visiting Pridamant visions of his disowned son. Both actors (Chris Sullivan and John Reeger, respectively), though they do not play a major role in the play, are consistently engrossing. Sullivan’s is the better performance, as he plays an imaginative combination of supernatural authoritarian and oddball tinkerer (at various times he seems to be orchestrating the visions, while at others seems to have as much control over them as Pridamant). Reeger, who at times expresses convincing remorse for how his character treats his son, has a tendency to fall into either melodramatic wails or unpersuasive authoritarian gestures.
The overall structure of the set design is tremendously compelling as well. The visions take place on a raised platform under which gears churn and seem to activate the magic which takes place. The story arc is divided into three visions, and here Kushner places his own stamp on Corneille’s complex narrative. Pridamant’s son (alternatively named first Calisto, then Clindor, and finally Theogenes; but all played by Michael Mahler) begins in a state of obsessive love for a nearby princess (Hillary Clemens, who also has three names throughout), and their interaction develops from there. While Corneille is famously concerned with the concept of theatricality within everyday life, Kushner’s text and Charles Newell’s direction emphasize a mix of slapstick and histrionic comedy with pockets of dark character traits and profound expressions of love and anguish.
While most of the dialogue and general action within the visions is strong, Mahler’s performance is the weakest. His attempt to inject a somewhat psychotically obsessive element in the character’s actions push Kushner’s over-the-top rhetoric too far and does not mix well with Clemens’ subtly complex desperation to fall in love. The indisputable gem of the supporting cast is Matamore, played by Timothy Edward Kane. A pompous, cowardly blowhard whom Clindor serves, Matamore is a mix between an incapable warrior hell-bent on conquering the world and a Musketeer. During the second vision, Kane has impeccable comedic timing in dispensing with diversely witty descriptions of the man’s conquests while being an obvious fop who almost asks to be ridiculed.
The play is a gripping and imaginative comedy which should hold almost any theater fan through to the completion of the three visions. Kushner, however, continues the narrative in a culmination of sorts between Alcandre and Pridamant where Alcandre attempts to give a one-minute analysis of the visions’ implications. Such reflection is best left to extended thought and slow recollection, and Kushner’s explanatory technique feels uncomfortably crammed in. The disappointing ending, however, does not take away from the entirety of the play’s world, where dramatic inpredictability and emotional intensity produce a thoroughly enjoyable experience.
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Register now for free, or sign in with any of these services:
There is far more to learn in school than the curriculum. In fact most adults cannot remember specific units they studied in school. Instead, they utilize other skills like teamwork, empathy, sharing, compassion, and leadership on a daily basis. Homeschooling offers small class sizes, which helps move topics along quickly, but it often fails to fully prepare children to deal with the real world and people that are different.
Serving on a volunteer board should not prevent anyone from getting a job.
Yeah, we all got this the fifth time you copied and pasted it.
Time for a new obsession?
So, less than half of small businesses are unaware of tax benefits that could benefit their business and the health of their employees?
So much for the "information" age.
Of all the dumb ideas that have ever been put forth upon this world, this is the dumbest of the dumb.
Hey, lets take all the simple systems and make them unnecessarily complex!
Summer reading loss is one of the main reasons why lower socioeconomic students fall behind. The accumulated effects of losing several months of reading level every summer means a student can be several years behind their higher socioeconomic peers by the time they enter high school.
What other constructive insight might you have to lay upon the altar of wisdom? It sounds like you know a lot about the teacher work day.
How many planning days do you think they get? According to my school calendar, they get 3. 3 days to plan a year of instruction sounds about right for me.
Cue the nitpicking...it is a properly crafted budget that makes the best out of a bad situation.
However, I suppose cutting a few more days would be a fair price to help alleviate the ridiculous class sizes most students and teachers will be facing next year. Classrooms were not intended to hold the number of students that the current budget allows.
I don't see any benefit to the state of Oregon or the students in the school systems from this move. His track record appears appalling, as does his tendency to move from job to job. Surely there was a more highly qualified applicant from within the state that has a greater sense of loyalty to, and knowledge of, our schools.
Neither the school district or the union has any control over PERS. Your rant, while typical and unoriginal, is not germain to the article.
Perhaps police departments and firefighters could go virtual as well. Someone is breaking into your house? Go online and the Internet will arrest them. House on fire? Zap it with a cool splash of HTML.
Perhaps prisons could work online as well. Prisoners would just have to stay online 24/7.
I like your thinking. We could do all essential services via the web. Roads, hospitals, national defense...
I mean, after all the money we spend on police and fire, we still havent eliminated crime or fires. It's clear that the brick and mortar public safety model is broken.
Contrary to your rantings, the solution to better schools is not cutting teacher pay even further. You probably aren't aware that Beaverton teachers have taken pay cuts for 4 years in a row...and next year will make 5.
Pers costs go up, but that has nothing to do with the district or the teachers (who pay their own pers). Health care costs go up, fuel costs go up, etc.
You won't get better teachers by paying them less.
It appears that you are against the decision to eliminate teacher/librarians, which I fully understand. Besides that what else is wrong with the budget?
The article contains a glaring mistake. If elementary schools are staffed at a student ratio of 30:1, class sizes cannot possibly range from 28-30. Likely, the range will fall between 26 and 37.
Large schools with 5 classrooms per grade can much more easily distribute students to create even class sizes. Smaller schools will see a much wider range of class sizes.
Well, now I know where I can go and safely commit some crime. Thanks Oregonlive!
Once again, the wise voters of the boondocks vote their wallets over the safety of their own children.
They would be remiss If they do not explore every option available. I like the way Beaverton is dealing with this budget shortfall. Instead of making decisions, letting people advocate one program over another, then having to go back and rework things, they got all the community and staff input in the beginning, made a decision, and are sticking with it.
You bet I did! They were great. However, as a parent I have a different perspective...especially having read that somebody died after the party.
If I were to ever do that kind of thing, I would valet park every car that came in, confiscate keys, and lock the property down after a certain hour. As a former punk-ass kid, I better know how to neutralized them.
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Vice President Joe Biden / Charles Dharapak, AP
Vice President Biden warned Congress on Thursday that there is a "moral price to be paid for inaction" on revamping the nation's gun laws.
Biden's remarks came as he took his push for the Obama administration's gun-control proposals to a conference in Danbury, Conn., several miles from the site of the mass shooting in Newtown more than two months ago that reignited a national debate on gun laws.
Before speaking at the forum Thursday, Biden met with the families of two victims of the Dec. 14 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School that left 20 children and six school employees dead.
The vice president also praised the Connecticut congressional delegation, local lawmakers and the state's residents for being among the most active in the gun debate since the Newtown tragedy.
"I think about all the courage you've shown," Biden said. "It's not too much to ask the political establishment - the members of Congress, Democrats and Republicans, state legislators and governors to show some political courage too."
President Obama has relied on Biden to push his gun agenda, which includes a call for a ban on assault weapons, limiting the size of ammunition clips and expanding background checks.
First, Obama tapped Biden to come up with a set of recommendations that became the foundation of the gun policy overhaul that the president unveiled last month. In recent weeks, Biden, has been at the center of the White House's public push for the agenda.
Biden said when Obama asked him to be his point man on the hot-button issue he suggested there could be a political price to pay for jumping headfirst into the issue.
"He said, 'Look Joe you don't have to do this if you don't want to,'" Biden recalled. "The way he said it was a reflection of what the standing assumption in American politics is today. That this is kind of a third rail in politics. That if you take this on there's going to be a severe political price to pay â?¦That's what happened in the past."
National Rifle Association spokesman Andrew Arulanandam dismissed Biden's remarks.
"Holding press conferences and making speeches will not make our country or children safer," he said. "Prosecuting criminals, fixing our broken health care system and placing law enforcement in schools will."
The NRA also announced on Thursday that the organization's executive vice president, Wayne LaPierre, will deliver an address in Salt Lake City on Saturday on the "real consequences" of the Obama administration's push for universal background checks, a key facet of the White House gun control agenda.
The NRA also plans to unveil new advertising on Saturday confronting Obama on the issue. LaPierre and other NRA officials have made the case that case that enhancing the background check system will do little to prevent gun crimes while putting an unnecessary burden on gun owners.
Connecticut has begun its own push to tighten gun laws at the state level.
At Thursday's forum, Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy announced his own legislative plan, which includes calls for a ban on high-capacity ammunition magazines, requiring background checks for the transfer of any firearm and expanding the state's assault weapons ban.
"Two months ago, our state became the center of a national debate after a tragedy we never imagined could happen here," said Malloy, a Democrat. "We have changed. And I believe it is now time for our laws to do the same."
Copyright 2013 USATODAY.com
Read the original story: Biden: 'Moral price' to be paid for inaction on gun laws
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Concern over endangered bat expedites gas driller's tree cutting plans
By Timothy Puko
Published: Friday, March 30, 2012
A hibernating endangered bat is helping a gas drilling company chop down trees on private land in Beaver County, thanks to a judge's ruling.
The trees, being cut today according to an attorney in the case, are on private land in Darlington that is the subject of federal and county court cases over drilling rights that Chesapeake Energy Corp. acquired in 2005, according to court filings.
The company and landowners have been locked in a legal battle, with the landowners claiming in county court that they were deceived into signing the leases Chesapeake now holds. Those landowners denied the company access to start work, leading Oklahoma-based Chesapeake to file for federal court protections. They both filed court complaints Tuesday.
U.S. District Judge David Cercone today placed a restraining order on the landowners trying to block company workers, saying Chesapeake would be irreparably harmed without access to the land. But the judge said tree clearing has to be done by Saturday or wait until Nov. 1 to avoid disturbing the habitat of the Indiana bat while it is out of hibernation.
The company, through its subsidiary Chesapeake Appalachia, had argued it needed to start clearing trees by Wednesday in order to finish before the federal deadline Saturday. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service prohibits timbering in the area for six months through November because to protect the species' hibernation habitat.
Despite the shortened timetable, the company started timbering today when it received the federal court order, said Steven C. Townsend, lawyer for the landowners.
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Last week, Ford Motor Company's (NYSE:F) new Focus electric car was given a U.S. EPA rating of 105 miles-per-gallon equivalent (MPGe).
According to Ford, the Focus is a plug-in electric that offers the equivalent of 99-mpg highway and 110 in the city. This actually beats out Nissan LEAF's 99 MPGe and Chevy Volt's 94 MPGe.
The Focus is set to retail for $39,995 before the $7,500 federal tax credit. Still a bit pricey compared to the Nissan LEAF which retails at $35,200 before the $7,500 tax credit, and the Mitsubishi i, which will run you $21,625 after the $7,500 tax credit.
Of course, you do get more bang for your buck with the Focus compared to the LEAF and the Mitsubishi i. It'll be interesting to see if that'll be enough to attract electric car buyers.
You can learn more about the Focus Electric in the video below. . .
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Kuwait has always had a strong and very close relationship with Turkey—culturally, socially and politically. Since 2005, this relationship was further strengthened through closer economic ties when the Kuwait Investment Authority (KIA) significantly increased its investments in Turkey.
Turkey has always been on the radar of the KIA, and we have owned a stake in the Arab Turkish Bank since 1975. Turkey, with a population of more than 75 million straddling one of the world’s busiest sea-lanes across two continents, is expected to play a greater global role economically and financially. This is further supported by Turkish demographics—more than 25% of the population is 14 years or younger.
In 2005, the KIA undertook a comprehensive review of its Strategic Asset Allocation, and Turkey was identified as one of the countries with significant potential—especially in its financial sector, which includes banks, financial services, and insurance companies. Financial institutions were a natural choice as banks invariably act as a proxy for the economic growth of a country, and Turkey is no exception. A part of the KIA’s review process included a comparative analysis between those economies expected to grow at low single digits versus those emerging markets with high growth expectations. Turkey is a dynamic country that, other than in 2009, has continued to grow spectacularly.
In addition to the financial sector, the other sectors that the KIA has considered for investments in Turkey include real estate, infrastructure, and consumer-related businesses.
This confidence in Turkey’s potential was validated by the resilience shown by the Turkish economy during the recent financial crisis of 2008-2009, which impacted the global economy badly. While most of the leading global financial institutions were severely impacted in the storm of the Great Recession of 2008/09, Turkish financial institutions emerged stronger and healthier from this crisis. Turkish sovereign credit was also rewarded for its reforms, and its credit rating was actually increased from C in 2005 to B/BB in 2010. In fact, statistics show that capital inflows into Turkey increased over the past few years, which is another vote of confidence by the international financial community in Turkey’s economic policies and its openness in encouraging foreign direct capital investments.
I believe that the term BRICs, indicating high growth emerging economies, should be renamed as BRITCs, since Turkey is going to be an indisputable contributor to global economic growth in the coming decades.
During the financial crisis, the KIA saw increased investment opportunities where we were able to participate in the share capital of some of the leading Turkish institutions as well as acquire prime real estate in Istanbul, a leading international city with a population of more than 12 million representing nearly 17% of Turkey’s total population.
From a low exposure in Turkey in 2005, the KIA increased its participation in leading blue-chip listed Turkish entities through different external fund managers. Simultaneously investing in the shares of listed entities on the Istanbul Stock Exchange, the KIA also took direct stakes in the financial and real estate sectors. The KIA’s investments in Turkey, over only a few years, increased by various multiples into hundreds of millions of US dollars. This was due to significant fresh funds allocated to Turkey as well as the organic growth of the KIA’s investments. As an example, one of our investments in a financial institution has more than tripled in value in less than three years
The KIA believes in Turkey. We believe in the future of Turkey. Turkey has numerous well-known advantages, and the KIA has identified several factors that we are confident will continue to help Turkey prosper:
•Turkey has one of the most well regulated, highly capitalized, and extremely efficient banking sectors globally.
•Turkey has undertaken a series of economic reforms that have helped the country face the current, as well as expected, crises with greater resilience than most of its neighbors.
•Turkey has a highly vibrant economic environment with a history of entrepreneurship and business interests regionally as well as globally.
•It has an active private sector with professional managers who have proven themselves in good and bad times.
•Turkey has unparalleled natural geographic comparative advantages with a mobile and literate young population who are comfortable in the West as well as in the East.
•Turkey’s ongoing reforms with the goal of becoming a member of the EU.
The KIA will continue to invest in Turkey in those sectors, industries, and companies where the investment opportunities are attractive—and if the price is right.
© The Business Year
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Energy audits rising in popularity
TVA's energy audit program is booming (at least compared to last year) thanks to a promotional program by the agency and local utilities. According to KUB spokeswoman Jennifer Fern, 3,137 customers have completed the audits January to June this year compared to 125 customers for the same period in 2007.
The audits are designed to help business and residential customers save energy and, ultimately, money. Here's a link to the audit page on KUB's new website for more info. As a cool feature they'll send you your consumption history via email. Even if you're not, like me, a KUB customer, you can do the audit (and get your free kit) via their website or go directly to the website for TVA's Energy Right program, where you can find the audit and other info about energy savings.
As an incentive for customers, if you complete the audit you'll get an energy efficiency kit from TVA that includes two compact fluorescent bulbs not a bad deal in itself),
outlet and light switch gaskets, a filter whistle, two faucet aerators, a hot water temperature gauge, a home thermometer and a "How to Save" brochure.
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Thousands turn out for free dental work in Phoenix
PHOENIX -- The Central Arizona Dental Society greeted nearly a thousand patients seeking free dental care Friday morning at the state's first Dental Mission of Mercy.
The Central Arizona Dental Society is hosting the two-day event, which runs Friday and Saturday from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. at Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Phoenix.
"It's to treat people who have pains and infections dental-related who can't afford to get treatment otherwise," said Dr. Mark Hughes, spokesman for CADS.
The organization rounded up 300 volunteer dentists to provide all sorts of free dental procedures. They will be able to see about 2,000 patients.
"The biggest area is the restorative area where we'll be doing fillings and things like that," Hughes said.
Hughes said the dentists will provide about $1 million dollars in free, basic care.
The Mission of Mercy has been held for about 10 years in 24 other states.
Aaron Granillo, News Editor
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Democracy as concentration
By Matthew Flinders
Nietzche’s suggestion that “When the throne sits upon mud, mud sits upon the throne” is a powerful phrase that has much to offer the analysis of many political systems in the world today, but my sense is that it is too crude, too raw, and too blunt to help us understand the operation of modern forms of democratic governance. It is certainly not a phrase that enters my mind when I reflect upon the election and presidency of Barack Obama. American democracy is, just like American society, far from perfect. Yet to see democracy as some form of social distraction or to define elections as meaningless risks descending into nihilism.
Democracy is therefore not a distraction because it ensures that public pressure actually matters. Elections matter because they allow arguments to be made and pressures to be vented. Elections inevitably produce ‘winners’ and ‘losers’ but at least the losers live to fight another day. If there is, however, a problem within American democracy it rests on the fact that some sections of society have arguably become what I call ‘democratically decadent’. Decadent in the sense that they seem to have forgotten that membership of any democratic society involves both rights and responsibilities; it involves listening and talking; giving and taking. No political system or politician can satisfy a world of ever greater public expectations. I am personally quite glad that Obama turned out not to be Superman as too many people look to politicians to solve their problems as if there were simple solutions to complex problems.
Let us not delude ourselves about the limits of politics or the role of politicians. Let us not engage in a form of self-denial by ignoring the fact that the United States has somehow managed to lose its capacity to engage in mature and balanced political debates. ‘Attack, attack, attack’ may have become the motto of American politics as seen in the political adverts and the toxic gutter-press sniping of shock-jocks, but we should not confuse democracy as it has been practiced in the past with how it might be practiced in the future. Let us be candid about the fault-lines within American society: its focus on material consumption, the isolating effects of the internet, the absence of intellectual nourishment, the destructive consequences of untrammeled free markets, and the existence of social conflict. But then use the great power and value of democratic politics to address these issues and through this forge a new politics of optimism. Let us concentrate hard on this thought and not be distracted!
Matthew Flinders is Professor of Politics at the University of Sheffield. His latest book, Defending Politics: Why Democracy Matters in the 21st Century, has just been published by Oxford University Press. His book Delegated Governance and the British State was awarded the W.J.M. Mackenzie Prize in 2009 for the best book in political science. He is also the author of Democratic Drift and co-editor of The Oxford Handbook of British Politics. Read his previous blog posts: “It’s just a joke!” on political satire and “Attack ads and American presidential politics.”
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2010—Second Worst Year for Home Construction
January 24, 2011
Builders began work last year on the second fewest number of homes in more than half a century, as the weak economy kept people from buying houses, according to the Associated Press.
Builders broke ground on a total of 587,600 homes in 2010, just barely better than the 554,000 started in 2009. Those are the two worst years on records dating back to 1959.
And the pace is getting worse. The Commerce Department reported that builders started work at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 529,000 new homes and apartments last month. That's a drop of 4.3 percent from November and the slowest pace since October 2009.
In a healthy economy, builders start about one million units a year. They built twice as many in 2005, at the height of the housing boom. Since then the market has been in decline.
One positive sign is that builders appear to be planning more projects in 2011. Building permits, considered a good barometer for future activity, rose 16.7 percent in December to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 635,000, the best pace since March.
People are buying fewer single-family homes, which represent nearly 80 percent of the market. Demand fell 9 percent to an annual rate of 417,000 units. Apartment building increased 17.9 percent to an annual rate of 112,000 units.
Housing construction fell in all parts of the country in December except the West where activity surged 45.8 percent. Construction dropped 38.4 percent in the Midwest and was down 24.7 percent in the Northeast and 2.2 percent in the South. Severe winter weather likely affected activity in the Northeast and Midwest.
In Category: News In Brief
Related: Economy, Housing Market
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I only use natural peanut butter, which is made of peanuts, period. There can be salt in there too but that's it! Natural peanut butter may cost a little more because it's made of 100% peanuts (no fillers) but you get the best nutritional profile this way. A 2 Tablespoon serving provides 190 calories, 16 grams of fat of which 14 grams are unsaturated (and heart healthy), and 8 grams of protein.
You might now be wondering what else they could add to peanut butter. The most common ingredient you'll find on the list behind peanuts is oil. Adding oil cuts the cost to make the peanut butter because oil is cheaper than peanuts and when you add oil, less peanuts are used. Adding oil is not a terrible thing. Oils are also high in unsaturated fat so the nutritional profile doesn't change much. You'll get less protein but only by a gram or so. The big problem with adding oil is making sure the oil is not partially hydrogenated oil. If it is, your peanut butter now has trans fat in there and trans fat is more harmful than helpful for your heart.
I am a fan of Teddy brand peanut butter because it's local to Massachusetts plus the taste and texture is excellent.
Recently they came out with a PB plus Flaxseed version which in my opinion is an acceptable addition to the ingredient list because it boosts the omega-3 fatty acid content in a natural way. The number of brands of natural peanut butter on the shelves has grown tremendously over the last couple of years so I am sure you can find one at your everyday local store without a problem. Next time you need a quick meal make a PB&J sandwich on whole wheat - it's a go-to in my diet each week!
Try This Smoothie Recipe...
Combine 1 large ripe banana, 2 Tablespoons Natural Peanut Butter, 1.5 cups cold skim milk and a handful of ice cubes in a blender. Blend on high until ice is crushed and peanut butter and mixed in evenly. Enjoy! -- You could also add frozen strawberries or raspberries in place of the ice cubes for a different variation.
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