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Our penultimate Virginia poll will come out tomorrow morning. Two major trends appear to have driven movement in the race over the last week and a half and it's safe to say any of the candidates could win next week. When Terry McAuliffe first talked about entering this race last summer, my immediate thought was that it reminded me of Janet Reno's run for Governor of Florida in 2002. Although she had much stronger ties to that state than McAuliffe does to Virginia, it was still an instance of somebody who had built their name in Washington hoping that would translate into votes back at the state level, a formula that doesn't have a lot of successful precedents. The arc of this primary contest has been pretty similar to Reno's. Reno had a large lead in the polls over competitor Bill McBride for most of 2002, just as McAuliffe held a lead between 9 and 16 points in every independent public poll conducted between April 25th and May 21st. But Reno's lead proved to be fragile, polls in the week before the election surprisingly showed the contest within the margin of error, and McBride ended up winning a most unexpected victory. The fact that McAuliffe has bought expensive air time in Washington DC for this final week seems to be a clear indication he knows he doesn't have this race wrapped up- it will be interesting to see if this celebrity candidate can avoid Reno's fate and pull it out in the closing days.
- PASSENGER-STRAND (1) (remove) - A large-scale chemical modification screen identifies design rules to generate siRNAs with high activity, high stability and low toxicity (2009) - The use of chemically synthesized short interfering RNAs (siRNAs) is currently the method of choice to manipulate gene expression in mammalian cell culture, yet improvements of siRNA design is expectably required for successful application in vivo. Several studies have aimed at improving siRNA performance through the introduction of chemical modifications but a direct comparison of these results is difficult. We have directly compared the effect of 21 types of chemical modifications on siRNA activity and toxicity in a total of 2160 siRNA duplexes. We demonstrate that siRNA activity is primarily enhanced by favouring the incorporation of the intended antisense strand during RNA-induced silencing complex (RISC) loading by modulation of siRNA thermodynamic asymmetry and engineering of siRNA 3-overhangs. Collectively, our results provide unique insights into the tolerance for chemical modifications and provide a simple guide to successful chemical modification of siRNAs with improved activity, stability and low toxicity.
A growing body of epidemiologic evidence links oral health, obesity, and cardiovascular health, though few studies have reported on these relationships in children. While underlying mechanisms are unclear, adult studies have suggested sub-acute systemic inflammation, also implicated in the etiology of both obesity and cardiovascular disease. This study investigated associations between self-reported dental hygiene, obesity, and systemic inflammation in children. 128 children < 19 years of age from rural counties in West Virginia participated in a community-based health screening that included anthropometric assessments, blood collection, and a questionnaire about dental hygiene and self-assessed oral health. Participants ranged from 3.0-18.7 years. Univariate analysis demonstrated an association between parent-reported dental hygiene, including frequency of preventive dental care and parent-assessed overall dental health, and markers of systemic inflammation but not obesity. In multivariable regression, parent-assessed overall dental health and obesity were independent predictors of systemic inflammation, after adjustment for age, gender, and parent education. This is the first known study of the association between dental hygiene, obesity, and systemic inflammation in children. These results highlight the importance of preventive dental care in overall, systemic health in children and are consistent with previous reports in adults.
This is release 1.0 of the National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) Area-Characterization Toolbox. These tools are designed to be accessed using ArcGIS Desktop software (versions 9.3 and 9.3.1). The toolbox is composed of a collection of custom tools that implement geographic information system (GIS) techniques used by the NAWQA Program to characterize aquifer areas, drainage basins, and sampled wells. These tools are built on top of standard functionality included in ArcGIS Desktop running at the ArcInfo license level. Most of the tools require a license for the ArcGIS Spatial Analyst extension. ArcGIS is a commercial GIS software system produced by ESRI, Inc. (http://www.esri.com). The NAWQA Area-Characterization Toolbox is not supported by ESRI, Inc. or its technical support staff. Any use of trade, product, or firm names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Government. This distribution consists of an ArcGIS "Toolbox" file ("NACT.tbx") with folders and files containing associated documentation, scripts, and data files. Specific documentation and example usage for each tool is included in the toolbox file and is accessible from within ArcGIS desktop applications (for example, ArcMap and ArcCatalog). Tools in the toolbox include: - Areal Overlay Statistics toolset: - Area Statistics To Table - Feature Statistics To Table - Footprint Statistics To Table - Areal Overlay Weights toolset: - Area Weights To Table - Feature Weights To Table - Footprint Weights To Table - Areal Overlay Weights Analysis toolset: - Calculate Weighted Statistics - Partial Area Weights - Tabulate Weight Table - Point Overlay toolset: - Point Overlay Polygon To Table - Point Overlay Raster To Table - Selection and Area Processing toolset: - Aggregate Raster to Percent Grids - Shrink Polygon Area - Tabulate Features To Percent - Tabulate Footprints To Percent - Weed Points - These tools may be cited as follows: - Price, C. V., Nakagaki, Naomi, and Hitt, K. J., 2010, National Water-Quality Assessment (NAWQA) Area-Characterization Toolbox, Release 1.0: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 2010-1268. [online-only] - Download the archive file "NACT.zip" to your computer. - In a selected folder (for example, "C:\Tools"), unzip the downloaded file "NACT.zip." This will create a directory ("NACT") containing a collection of files and folders. - You can now safely delete the zip file. - At this point, you can use the toolbox in any ArcGIS desktop application using standard functionality. - For your convenience, step-by-step instructions are provided below for adding the toolbox to ArcGIS 9.3 or 9.3.1. For more details and information about managing toolboxes within ArcGIS, see the ArcGIS online help article "Adding and Removing Toolboxes." - a. Display the Toolbox window. - From the running application's main menu, select "Window -> ArcToolbox." This should display the ArcToolbox window within the application window. Click the "Favorites" tab at the bottom of the ArcToolbox window to display the catalog tree of active toolboxes. - b. Add "NACT.tbx" to the application. - In the ArcToolbox window, right-click "ArcToolbox" and select "Add Toolbox" from the context menu that appears. Browse in the resulting dialog box to your folder ("C:\Tools\NACT") and select the file "NACT.tbx." Click the "Open" button. Using The NAWQA Area-Characterization Toolbox You can access the tools the same way standard ArcGIS tools are used: by double-clicking on the name of the tool, or right clicking the tool to access its properties or documentation. The tools also are accessible from the ArcGIS command line or from within scripts; examples are included in the documentation for each tool. (Documentation for each tool may be accessed by right-clicking the tool and selecting "Help" from the context menu.) The persistence of the toolbox depends on the ArcGIS desktop application you were running while completing the above steps: - ArcMap, ArcScene, ArcGlobe - If you save the current document, the reference to the toolbox will be saved as well, so the toolbox will still be available when the current document is opened at a later time. - Active toolboxes are saved when you exit ArcCatalog, so the toolbox will be available in future ArcCatalog sessions. The toolbox will also be included by default in new ArcMap, ArcScene, or ArcGlobe documents. First posted November 4, 2010 Part or all of this report is presented in Portable Document Format (PDF); the latest version of Adobe Reader or similar software is required to view it. Download the latest version of Adobe Reader, free of charge.
In this physics puzzler use your skill to get this forest-dwelling red ball home. You'll need to fill in the missing parts with an item; a stick, a spring, a hand. Each item lasts only 2 seconds so you'll need to think fast. Do you love buckets? Do you love balls? Well if so then that means you just love playing Bucketball ! A simple game that's easy to learn and fun to play - Throw the ball into the bucket ! It really is THAT simple ! Your task is to defend the winding path using archers, wizards, dragons, paladins, various spells and even ninjas ! As if that wasn't hard enough you've also got to dig up tresure so you can play on the slot machines! WTF? It's some bull-riding with a slight difference - Can you ride the bull and make sure to touch the right keys? failure to comply with this simple request will result in the bull exploding! See if you can you beat the record of 57 secs??? A strange little game where completing the game is only the first step. The real challenge is in finding all the hidden objects cunningly secreted in various hiding places behind loose blocks in the walls... It's 'chocks away' and time to pilot your biplane into the skies and go in search of the dreaded Hun - Shoot down enemy aircraft and destroy ground forces to survive and progress in this epic WW1 game!
Strengthenening library and documentation services within the IGAD Mandate in the Member States Project Planning Seminar 31 July to 6 August 2000 ,IGAD Seccrtariat Djibouti :Status of Sudan library,information system and services\|\| 4. INFORMATION DISSEMINATION: The growing access to computers and electronic communications worldwide makes it nowadays possible to offer and acquire automated, updated information almost in every field or activity. Specifically, the practice of scientists to consult electronic data banks as an aid for their research, and to produce and consult scientific bibliography in machine readable form, is extending considerably not only in industrialized countries, but in many developing countries as well. In particular, in all African countries - although to varying degrees within the countries and also from one country to another - many academics already use computer facilities for their daily work and scientific interchange. The rapidly developing of information and communications technologies provide thus a useful and powerful tool for the construction a comprehensive information system that includes in principle the whole of the regular, periodic or serial scientific produced in the region, such a system can be used in principle also to catalogue and classify these publications according to previously defined quality criteria, and it can serve also as a basis to provide both editors and scientists with an efficient channel for the rapid production, dissemination and retrieval of research material [Cetto, 1997, p. 243].
Pulse » Recent Items from 9/20/2009 Pulse has a simple goal: to give you a quick view of what's happening in the SQL Server community. Finding interesting content on Pulse is easy – you can drill down to a specific time period (by clicking on the bars of the chart), toggle different types of content on and off, and sort the results by popularity or recency. Discovered an informative blog post or a hilarious tweet? Tell the rest of the community about it by voting it up or down. Behind the scenes, our popularity algorithm will make sure it rises to the top of the list. When a simple up-or-down vote isn't enough, voice your opinions in a comment. Or check out what others are saying about something you posted or tweeted. Service Broker in Microsoft SQL Server 2005 is a new technology that provides messaging and queuing functions between instances. The basic functions of sending and receiving messages forms a part of a “conversation.” Each conversation is considered to be a complete channel of communication. Each Service Broker conversation is considered ... Do to the overwhelming amount of data sequencing questions asked on the MSDN forums, I will demonstrate how to implement the most common solutions for sequencing data, using SQL Server 2000 and greater. Before starting I would like to give a disclaimer. I believe that data sequencing should be handled ... Pulse is a section of SQLServerPedia that gives you a quick view of what's happening in the SQL Server community.
HP CEO Meg Whitman: “I Believe In Creative Destruction” The New York Times has published a compelling profile on Meg Whitman, the current CEO of Hewlett Packard. Before Whitman became the HP CEO, she attempted to run for governor of California and was the CEO of eBay. Ms. Whitman believes that Wall Street does not quite get HP. HP has a lot of promise in mobile devices, cloud computing, and Big Data. “I believe in creative destruction,” said Ms. Whitman as quoted by The NYT. “I believe in creative destruction,” Ms. Whitman became rich by running eBay and she spent more money running as a candidate for public office in the nation’s history trying to become the governor of California. When talking about her loss to Jerry Brown in the race, Whitman said “I left a little bruised.” She added “It was hard, it was personally very hard.” She endorsed John McCain for the 2008 election and that did not sit well with a lot of technology leaders including her own former boss eBay founder Pierre Omidyar. Whitman spent around $140 million on her campaign, but she said it gave her thicker skin. Whitman hosted a $25,000 per plate fund-raising event for Paul Ryan. However she would not go into politics even if Mitt Romney, her former boss, at Bain offered her a job. Last year HP posted revenues of around $127 billion. HP employs around 320,000 people and has a network of manufacturers and computer resellers across 170 countries. “In India, we have 60,000 people,” said Ms. Whitman. There is a new program for selling printer ink in 87 countries and every 15 seconds, HP is turning out around 60 new printers, 30 PCs, and one powerful server. HP’s revenue has fallen 5% though and the profit margins at IBM and Apple are several times higher than HP. HP’s share price is sitting at $17, which is around the same of where it was at in 1995. HP’s stock is down 24% since Whitman took over and the company spends around $4 billion per year on marketing. Ms. Whitman changed the slogan of the company to “Make it matter” and she plans on unveiling her strategy at the company to Wall Street analysts this Wednesday. Whitman believes that there should be restyled PCs whose screens break off so that it works as a tablet. HP will also start building mobile devices. “On Day 1 when she came here, she said, ‘Here’s the deal: I’m team oriented,’ ” stated HP head of server, storage, and networking David Donatelli. Before Whitman was CEO of HP, her predecessors include Carly Fiorina, Mark Hurd, and Leo Apotheker. Fiorina was named CEO in 1999 and she was the one that drove HP’s acquisition of Compaq. Mark Hurd focused on cost-cutting at HP, but had resigned after being accused for inappropriate conduct with a female employee. Ms. Whitman also wrote off Mr. Hurd’s $8 billion acquisition of Electronic Data Systems for $13.9 billion. Leo Apotheker kept talking about how HP would stay relevant and after the company’s stock sank at a rapid pace under his leadership, he was out. “She understands customers, business,” stated Silicon Valley investor and HP director Marc Andreessen. “While she’s not an engineer, at eBay she got schooled in how to talk to engineers.” Andreessen was one of the executives that pushed for Whitman to become the CEO. “Engineers running companies with 50,000 people or more just aren’t available,” added Andreessen. “I’m the first C.E.O. in a long time who is from the Valley,” stated Whitman. “Carly, Mark and Leo weren’t.” She added “I understand the speed you have to move.”
Have any of you checked outhttp://www.dezignwithaz.com It's is a site with tons of awesome, crazy & random huge wall decals. Each one comes with easy to follow step by step instructions. I was having trouble with the final decorations of my apt, but then I found these. Check 'em out!
\|Puppy developer news\| For the current daily news, please go to my blog: \|Welcome to all Puppy fans! I am Barry Kauler, the creator of Puppy Linux. Puppy version 0.1 was released on June 18, 2003, and since then the pace of development has not waned, in fact has gathered momenum. From the start I have maintained a log of progress, in the form of my "Developer News Page", which in the first few years was just that, a static HTML web page. Then in the second half of 2006 I moved to a blog, or rather blogs (plural) as there were various security and hosting issues that caused me to try different blog scripts and different hosts. Due to a particularly serious security weakness of my host in late 2007 and early 2008 (servage.net) I moved back to a static web page. In February 2008 I moved to a new host (hostgator.com) for my puppylinux.com domain, and undertook the considerable effort of putting all my Developer News since 2003 into one place. I had to convert a Simplephpblog blog at ibiblio.org and a WordPress blog at servage.net to static HTML pages, which I did manually over four or five solid days. I then put it all together with my older static HTML pages and reorganised the pages into mostly by order of Puppy version numbering. My Developer News pages are a personal daily account of my work, and so reflect my personal "ups and downs" and even have news snippets unrelated to Puppy, such as accounts of short holidays, photos of an interesting plant growing in my garden, and of two weeks that I worked as "pavilion steward" at the Perth Royal Show (it is quite newsworthy for me to take on paid employment, as the Puppy project has taken over my life and since mid-2006 has been my full-time "job"). Release notes (announcements) Historical news pages, by version number Older historical news pages, by year Copyright 2008 Barry Kauler. All rights are reserved. This page and all Developer News pages linked from this page are the exclusive property of Barry Kauler and may not be reproduced in any form whatsoever. Part of the reason for this is that although these are historical documents and thus largely unchanging, I do make corrections fom time-to-time, such as fixing links and adding helpful extra links. Primarily though, this is my personal record of Puppy development and should be treated as such and only accessed from my own domain, puppylinux.com/news.
Catching Elephant is a theme by Andy Taylor It’s cold this morning so I’m going for the ‘cute’ look. My hair went darker again today :) Work Christmas party. Had way too much fun xD At my parents place alone and bored selfie Eating healthy + exercising = actually feeling okay with myself today :) Themed! #spiderman #tasm (Taken with Instagram) I think I forgot to mention I got my hair fixed. we be drunk
One mom who never ceases to amaze and inspire me is design mom. Please read this very exciting interview and be inspired! 1. How did you come up with your blog title? I wish the story were more exciting. :) I'm a graphic designer and a mother, and both of those titles seem to influence each other in my daily life. I make decisions as a mother based on my design training and experience. And the fact that I am a mother affects how and when I can be a design professional, so the title "Design Mom" seemed to make sense. My intention, as I started , was to keep a record of how motherhood looks to me as viewed through a design filter -- or the intersection of Motherhood and Design. 2. What made you start your blog? I had read blogs for a couple of years -- mostly personal-essay type blogs. I'd even attempted to start my own, but found that writing personal essays, no matter how short or light, was terribly time-consuming and challenging for me. Plus it totally stressed me out. Then my sister Jordan started her blog, O Happy day. It was (and still is) mostly photos, with a sentence of two underneath. A lightbulb went off in my head -- I could write a couple of sentences without stressing. The timing was perfect, my baby number 5 was 2 months old, and I was looking or a creative outlet that I could do at odd hours -- or in my pajamas. Something that would help me ward off post-partum depression (which by baby number 5, I knew was prone to) and would be less stressful than taking on more freelance design clients. Blogging was the perfect fit. 3. Who do you admire the most in the Design World? Oh man, it's always hard to name names. In the Graphic Design/ Textile world: The art directors at Martha Stewart (especially whoever did the now defunct Kids Magazine) and a million more. . . In the Design Blogging World: and a million more. . . 4. When will you develop a line of your own? Good Question. I have no idea when but I do know I'd loe to Right now, I'm more interested in collaborating with an exciting line than start from scratch. We'll see what I come up with. 5. How has maintaining a blog as a Mom changed your life? (and your role as a MOM) It has been so much fun and gives me a daily creative fix. Plus it's led to lots of cool opportunities. For example, without blogging, I would have never started skrt and I can hardly imagine my life without skrt. Additionally, I think blogging has done an amazing job of connecting mothers. Blogging, especially as a new mother, is such a brilliant way to help you through those months where all your hard work and learning and struggle is not being recognized. A new mother knows what a challenge it can e to get through a list as simple as: give a baby a bath, make a bed, eat a decent meal, get showered and dressed. With a newborn, a list like that is a major accomplishment. Now, with blogging, you can write a quick post about the baby's schedule. Or how you had a marathon laundry day. Or your errand to pick out a new baby blanket. Or whatever. And suddenly it seems like a valid and worthy way to spend the day, but blogging makes it recognizably so.) As far as affecting my role as a MOM goes, it has for sure affected my daily schedule. As my blog morphs into a business, I have brought in a babysitter a few mornings a week so that I can have some dedicated time to work on Design Mom and sk*rt. And when my kids make something cool, they always ask me if I'm going to blog about it! Well, Design Mom, thanks so much for taking time to answer these questions and for inspiring each of us daily with your blog, while you intersect being a Graphic Designer and a MOM! Do you have Moms in your life that inspire you, love to hear who they are?
Welcome to MoinMoin. You will find here the help pages for the wiki system itself. HelpIndex - is a list of all available help pages. Fulltext search is available on FindPage. If you find any errors on the help pages, please describe them on HelpErrata. Please do not edit or create help pages in other wikis than MoinMaster (see HelpContents), because the pages from MoinMaster will overwrite any other changes on wiki engine upgrades. Please follow the established structure of help pages if you want to change pages in MoinMaster. Before doing any major or widespread changes please discuss that on the mailing list or MoinMoin wiki.
Kitty Vacuum Dodge! Kitty Vacuum Dodge! - 0.2 Space to jump Esc to exit You have 9 lives, each time you are hit, you lose one. This is my first game using pygame, and first upload, which is currently a work in progress. Put together in about a night, I haven't done much polishing because I'm excited to get it up! - Fixed bug that prevented game from shutting down correctly. - Gave Kitty a bit of "airtime" to make jumping feel more natural. - Slightly decreased the size of hit boxes for all objects. - Increased the speed of vacuums slightly. - Updated the hud to have a new, more easily readable font. - In preparation for gamestates, and progessing levels, added a hud element to display the current level at the start. - If Kitty is hit by a vacuum while facing the opposite direction, his directional orientation will be reversed when placed back in starting position. - Life counter will count backwards indefinitely after using your final life. click to view original size Pygame.org account Comments If you wish to leave a comment with your pygame.org account, please sign in first. pygame.org welcomes all python game, art, music, sound, video and multimedia projects. If they use pygame or not. May 17, 2013 May 16, 2013 May 15, 2013 May 11, 2013 May 8, 2013 Apr 26, 2013 Apr 24, 2013 Apr 23, 2013 Apr 19, 2013 Apr 18, 2013
Rock, Paper, Scissors Rock, Paper, Scissors - 1.0 Joshua Powell (powellj6) A simple "RPS" (rock, paper, scissors) game with a few extra choices available to the player, besides "rock, paper, or scissors". You can either guess or look at the code. Hopefully it will make you laugh. Game also counts your wins and losses and displays them after each round. Ties are not counted but could be easily implemented if you so desired. All problems, criticisms, and questions are welcome. (also, if someone could tell me how to keep the white space in the description. I probably gonna slap myself in the face when I realize how easy it was. Anyway, enjoy) Pygame.org account Comments If you wish to leave a comment with your pygame.org account, please sign in first.
simpleParticle01 - 1.0 Eric Pavey (akeric) I wrote this in couple afternoons. Hadn’t done any projects like this in a while, but this was a simple task I wanted to tackle: Draw particles with the mouse, when close generate an interaction, and when the interaction occurs trigger an event. In a nutshell, that’s what this does: The app was mainly just written for leisure, it’s not that speedy. But was a nice relaxing thing to do over the weekend. If you grab just the source, you'll also need a fixed-up version of the Pygame vec2d lib, which you can download from my site here: Pygame.org account Comments If you wish to leave a comment with your pygame.org account, please sign in first.
Ticket #197 (new defect) Non-BMP unicode characters are dumped using surrogate code units if python was not configured with UCS4 \|Reported by:\|\|travis.mcleskey@…\|\|Owned by:\|\|xi\| If python is built with UCS2 (the default, for example, on OS X), you get: The output should instead be "\U0001D10C", since the surrogate code units are not valid unicode characters. - Summary changed from Dump 32-bit "\U"-style escape sequences, even if python was compiled without UCS4 to Dump 32-bit "\U"-style escape sequences for non-BMP characters, even if python was compiled without UCS4
Video: Called Fat, News Anchor Responds with Inspiring Words The hurtful, shallowness of society is oftentimes overwhelming. Many use the internet daily as a weapon to lash out at others in terrible ways. Those of us that have chosen media as our life’s profession are targets for such attacks. I share a video with you of a news anchor’s stance when she receives a hurtful email from a viewer whose only goal is to demean and degrade. Her response will leave you in awe. Please, leave a response…
QA Automation Engg at TCS Tata Consultancy Services Thirumal Rao is a member of: Thirumal Rao's Experience Assistant System Engineer Tata Consultancy Services, Bangalore Thirumal Rao's Education BMS College of Engineering Challenges faced in job The rate of growth of technology in the last few years is so fast, even the best are left half way gaping for breath. This unique attribute makes the technology sector coveted for the best brains in the world. Staying relevant in this industry is the most challenging aspect of the job which also makes it more interesting. Accepting this fact and building myself to adapt to the ever changing environment is what I think will gear me for the future. I come from an urban educated middle class family in Bangalore. My role model I have many role models who inspire me in my life. One such role model relevant to this context would be Ratan Tata. He inspires me as a social-faceted entrepreneur with a bold vision and amazing leadership qualities. Tremendous growth of Tata Industries under his watch from 1991 until his retirement last year(2012) is a testament to his leadership. I do not know of any other corporate house who even makes comparable, let alone matching,contributions in philanthropy as Tatas. Goals and Ambitions My goal is to stay relevant in terms of technology and ensure I am learning everyday at work. I believe if a person has the zeal to learn and adapt, work becomes fun. As in any fun related activity, goal will not be focused on achieving the end, but to enjoy the means. I believe there are no standard rules for a successful career. However, if someone is starting his first job, I would like to remind him/her the importance of learning, upholding professional ethics, commitment in his/her everyday delivery. It is important to build a reputation of being reliable person who is capable of keeping his promise. I have been fortunate to work for a client which is the 'most valuable company' in the world, and have been part of some very critical projects that became successful. This is more of a privilege than an achievement. I am part of Breakthrough Science Society, through which I've gained significant insight on some prevailing issues in society that is impeding India from achieving prosperity. The very notion of being associated with such an organisation makes me feel proud and I consider it as a valuable achievement in my life so far. The best is yet to come. Company and job profile I am a QA Automation engineer at Tata Consultancy Services(TCS). I am responsible for the functional automation of web apps for one of the high-profile clients of my company. TCS is a leader in the global marketplace and among the top 10 technology firms in the world. With over 40 years of experience in the field, the company is well positioned to offer its mature and unique engagement and delivery models to the customers. My major responsibility in the current role involves design and development of automation framework customized to the needs of the application. Along with this, I get involved in consulting and recommendations for QA engagement model for the customer. In addition to automation, I've also worked as a performance test engineer, functional QA co-ordinator responsible for overall delivery of QA team in an onsite-offshore model, functional tester. The colloquial use of 'internet' or 'computer' in India has changed drastically over the last decade. There are myriad ways of rendering content over web. On the one hand, there seems to be a convergence of devices like laptops, tablets, phones to serve multiple purposes. On the other hand, technology is manifesting in hitherto -unimaginable ways and means. Take Google glass or driver-less/auto-driven car for example. Each and every product needs testing. If the scope of a product increases by X factor, testing scope increases by 2^X factor. In the short term, I believe mobile devices will continue to play even more vital role in one's life. I will bet on mobile device testing hitting big in the next 2 - 3 yrs. Managing professional as well as personal life It is a million dollar question, and a million dollar business. I think publishers have made more money on books in this topic than any scholarly subject :-) I try to compartmentalize personal life from professional life by trying not to bring work home. It is not always easy or possible, I often try to manage or at least manage to try. Making job easier Nothing helps me make my job easier, and I would not want my job easier either. I would rather strive to make my job interesting and challenging. An Introduction to General Systems Thinking by Gerald Weinberg may be an interesting book for people in QA. Testing is probably the most underrated phase of Software Development LifeCycle. I do see some paradigm shift in the recent times, but there is a long way to go. My view on India technical development It has more to do with lack of entrepreneurial skills than talent. Schools and colleges still thrive on learn-by-rote way of evaluation. It douses the flame of creativity in young students. Silicon valley in US has a thick concentration of Indians who have created many tech products, which is a testimony of the potential we have. Education system has to be revamped and colleges should become a microcosm of young and bright visionaries with radical ideas that challenges the status quo. My important career decision I was a functional tester, then took up performance testing, now working as an automation engineer. I've made the move whenever I felt my learning curve was reaching stagnation. I think each of these steps were important decisions in my career. As an engineer, analytical and logical reasoning becomes a central part of your mental faculty. This will change the way you perceive anything and everything in life - be it writing a program, understanding a concept, reading a novel, watching a movie, etc., Engineers do not usually like abstractions without boundaries. My strongest Skill Open mind to learn, adaptability, commitment, passion for quality are some of my professional attributes.
Day in history for June 23, 2001 - 1876 -- 125 years ago - A woman named Calbert who had placed herself on the track of the Western Union Railroad at a curve of the road between Rapids City and Hampton and gone to sleep was run over by a passenger train due here at 6 o'clock last evening and instantly killed. - 1901 -- 100 years ago - Miss Paula Harms was home for the summer after spending the winter at the New England Conservatory of Music at Boston. - 1926 -- 75 years ago - Orders to officers of the Rock Island Police Department, regarding their special duties in serving as a guard for the Swedish royal party, were issued by Chief of Police Herman Sehnert. - 1951 -- 50 years ago - Despite threatening weather, more than 700 children proudly paraded in their gaily decorated vehicles at the Rock Island city playgrounds yesterday afternoon. Fifteen boys and 15 girls at each playground marched home with bright silk ribbons, awarded for the best entries. - 1976 -- 25 years ago - Farmers are being warned to ``be careful so you don't fall into manure pits.'' And to ``step up over door sills, otherwise you might fall.'' This startling information is brought to light in a pamphlet from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). The contract to develop the material totaled $119,500. The cost of publishing is $347,200. This means $466,700 is being spent by the government to instruct farmers in safety habits, which, for the most part, involves nothing more than common sense. Back: Available days in June 2001
Each year more than 4 million homeless pets are killed as a result of overpopulation, but families who adopt from animal shelters or rescue groups can help preserve these lives and support the growing trend of socially responsible holiday shopping. Best Friends Animal Society encourages families this holiday season to give the precious gift of life by adopting homeless pets rather than buying from breeders, pet stores or online retailers. Also, resist the urge to surprise a friend or family member with a living gift. Choosing the right pet is an extremely personal decision, one that should be made carefully by the adults who will be caring for the animal for its 15- to 20-year lifetime. Instead, offer an adoption gift certificate paired with a basket of pet care items or stuffed animal for the holiday itself, and then let the person or family choose the actual pet that feels right to them. Once you’ve decided to adopt, keep in mind that welcoming a pet into your life is a big decision and requires important preparation. Best Friends offers tips and advice to help make a smooth transition at home: * Determine roles and responsibilities – Before bringing home a new pet, discuss what roles and responsibilities each family member will take on. Who will be in charge of feeding, walks, changing the litter box and taking your pet for regular visits to the vet? Giving each family member a specific task will help everyone feel involved, especially young children. * Prep the house – Adding a pet to the house means adding new items to your shopping lists. For dogs, the basics are a collar and leash, chew toys, a kennel and dog bed. Cats need a litter box and litter, a scratching post and a carrying crate for transportation. Also don’t forget food and toys. * Have your pet spayed/neutered – Spaying or neutering is one of the greatest gifts you can provide your pet and community. It not only helps control the overabundance of pets, but can also help prevent medical and behavioral problems from developing. Most shelters include this with the adoption package or can recommend a local veterinarian in your area, so check with the staff at the shelter before you leave. * Research community rules and resources – Do a little research on what identification (tags, microchips, etc.) you might need for your pet. Scout out the local dog parks and runs for future outdoor fun, and make sure you know where emergency vet clinics or animal hospitals are located. * Set limits – Having pre-determined rules will create consistency in training and help make the home a pleasant environment for you and your pet. Will your pet be allowed to snuggle with you in bed or curl up with you on your furniture? Will treats be limited to one a day? It’s important to discuss these questions as a family before your new family member arrives. An estimated 17 million people will be adding pets to their families this year, so this season, help bring some holiday cheer to a homeless pet by adopting your newest companion.
Taking Play Seriously By ROBIN MARANTZ HENIG Published: February 17, 2008 On a drizzly Tuesday night in late January, 200 people came out to hear a psychiatrist talk rhapsodically about play -- not just the intense, joyous play of children, but play for all people, at all ages, at all times. (All species too; the lecture featured touching photos of a polar bear and a husky engaging playfully at a snowy outpost in northern Canada.) Stuart Brown, president of the National Institute for Play, was speaking at the New York Public Library's main branch on 42nd Street. He created the institute in 1996, after more than 20 years of psychiatric practice and research persuaded him of the dangerous long-term consequences of play deprivation. In a sold-out talk at the library, he and Krista Tippett, host of the public-radio program ''Speaking of Faith,'' discussed the biological and spiritual underpinnings of play. Brown called play part of the ''developmental sequencing of becoming a human primate. If you look at what produces learning and memory and well-being, play is as fundamental as any other aspect of life, including sleep and dreams.'' The message seemed to resonate with audience members, who asked anxious questions about what seemed to be the loss of play in their children's lives. Their concern came, no doubt, from the recent deluge of eulogies to play . Educators fret that school officials are hacking away at recess to make room for an increasingly crammed curriculum. Psychologists complain that overscheduled kids have no time left for the real business of childhood: idle, creative, unstructured free play. Public health officials link insufficient playtime to a rise in childhood obesity. Parents bemoan the fact that kids don't play the way they themselves did -- or think they did. And everyone seems to worry that without the chance to play stickball or hopscotch out on the street, to play with dolls on the kitchen floor or climb trees in the woods, today's children are missing out on something essential. The success of ''The Dangerous Book for Boys'' -- which has been on the best-seller list for the last nine months -- and its step-by-step instructions for activities like folding paper airplanes is testament to the generalized longing for play's good old days. So were the questions after Stuart Brown's library talk; one woman asked how her children will learn trust, empathy and social skills when their most frequent playing is done online. Brown told her that while video games do have some play value, a true sense of ''interpersonal nuance'' can be achieved only by a child who is engaging all five senses by playing in the three-dimensional world. This is part of a larger conversation Americans are having about play. Parents bobble between a nostalgia-infused yearning for their children to play and fear that time spent playing is time lost to more practical pursuits. Alarming headlines about U.S. students falling behind other countries in science and math, combined with the ever-more-intense competition to get kids into college, make parents rush to sign up their children for piano lessons and test-prep courses instead of just leaving them to improvise on their own; playtime versus r?m?uilding. Discussions about play force us to reckon with our underlying ideas about childhood, sex differences, creativity and success. Do boys play differently than girls? Are children being damaged by staring at computer screens and video games? Are they missing something when fantasy play is populated with characters from Hollywood's imagination and not their own? Most of these issues are too vast to be addressed by a single field of study (let alone a magazine article). But the growing science of play does have much to add to the conversation. Armed with research grounded in evolutionary biology and experimental neuroscience, some scientists have shown themselves eager -- at times perhaps a little too eager -- to promote a scientific argument for play. They have spent the past few decades learning how and why play evolved in animals, generating insights that can inform our understanding of its evolution in humans too. They are studying, from an evolutionary perspective, to what extent play is a luxury that can be dispensed with when there are too many other competing claims on the growing brain, and to what extent it is central to how that brain grows in the first place. Scientists who study play, in animals and humans alike, are developing a consensus view that play is something more than a way for restless kids to work off steam; more than a way for chubby kids to burn off calories; more than a frivolous luxury. Play, in their view, is a central part of neurological growth and development -- one important way that children build complex, skilled, responsive, socially adept and cognitively flexible brains. Their work still leaves some questions unanswered, including questions about play's darker, more ambiguous side: is there really an evolutionary or developmental need for dangerous games, say, or for the meanness and hurt feelings that seem to attend so much child's play? Answering these and other questions could help us understand what might be lost if children play less.
MEDIA DECODER; Carey Is In and Lopez Is Out In Shuffle at 'American Idol' By BILL CARTER Published: July 24, 2012 LOS ANGELES - The Fox network has reached a deal with Mariah Carey that will bring her to television as a judge on the next season of ''American Idol,'' the president of Fox Entertainment, Kevin Reilly, announced Monday. Ms. Carey, the multiplatinum pop singer, spoke briefly by telephone to reporters at the annual press tour here, saying she was looking forward to joining the show. Mr. Reilly, who said the deal had been completed just hours earlier, also confirmed that Jennifer Lopez has left the show, saying, ''I think I can say 100 percent Jennifer is not coming back.'' Ms. Lopez and another judge, Steven Tyler, reached mutual agreements with Fox to end their participation, Mr. Reilly said. But nothing has been decided about the third judge, Randy Jackson, he said, noting that Mr. Jackson was close to Ms. Carey - he is her co-manager - and was instrumental in recruiting her to join ''Idol.'' ''We've got a great relationship with Randy Jackson. He's a very important part of that television show,'' said Mr. Reilly, adding that he expected to announce a decision on Mr. Jackson's future ''in the next week or so.'' The blockbuster singing competition suffered through its worst season in the ratings this year and much speculation has surrounded the shake-up among its regular cast members. Mr. Reilly would not comment on other names that have been floated for judging positions, including a former performer on ''Idol,'' Adam Lambert. Mr. Reilly said Fox hoped to conclude all of the panelist deals for the show ''as early as next week, or it could be in the next two weeks.'' Ms. Carey has a long history of No. 1 hits. Mr. Reilly acknowledged that Fox had been withholding comment on Ms. Lopez until Ms. Carey committed. ''There was a scenario where maybe Jennifer would have stayed,'' he said. But he added that with all the troubles the music industry now faces - ''you have to do a lot of touring, you have to sell a lot of downloads to make the money you used to make,'' he said - Fox has had ''no shortage'' of interest from top singers. The show's executive producer, Nigel Lythgoe, said earlier that he believed it might be best for ''Idol'' to replace all its judges every season. Mr. Reilly agreed, saying, ''I think change is going to be a part of the show going forward.'' This is a more complete version of the story than the one that appeared in print. PHOTO: Mariah Carey will be a judge. (PHOTOGRAPH BY MICHAEL BUCKNER/GETTY IMAGES FOR BET)
January 10, 2013 By Quiet Buck About Quiet Buck We turn to YHWH when our foundations are shaking. only to realize it is YHWH shaking them. A Minister of YHWH View all posts by Quiet Buck This entry was posted on Thursday, January 10th, 2013 at 8:21 PM and tagged with bible, Cherokee, Chickamauga, Christian, church, commandments, Devil, doctrine, facebook, full moon, God, Jesus, love, Messiah, minister, Native American, new moon, nwo, prophecy, QuietBuck, sabbath, Satan, savior, scripture, sundown till sundown, torah, tradition, Truth, twitter, Yahowah, Yahuah, Yahushua, Yahuwah, Yahwah, Yeshua, YHWH, YouTube and posted in Lessons. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. 2 Responses to “Sabbath?” - •Proverbs 28:9 He that turneth away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be abomination. - •1Timothy 4:6 If thou put the brethren in remembrance of these things, thou shalt be a good minister of the Messiah, nourished up in the words of faith and of good doctrine, where unto thou hast attained. ■ Recent Lessons - •James 1:27 Pure religion and undefiled before YHWH and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world. Thus saith YHWH the King of Israel, and his redeemer YHWH of hosts; I am the first, and I am the last; and beside me there is no El. - We turn to YHWH, when our foundations are shaking. Only to realize, it is YHWH shaking them.
Thank you for your outstanding customer service. Joan M. - Clayton, California Our goal is for QuiltHome.com to become one of your valued sources of quality quilting supplies, information, and inspiration. We welcome your comments, suggestions, observations, and bug reports. Please leave your Comments HERE. Add color and excitement to your next project with these supple solids. Designed to coordinate with other Michael Miller collections, this luxurious new collection is made of high quality and density cotton creating a silky soft touch.
Breakfast at Tiffanys by Fig Tree Quilts for Moda by Carolyn Gavin Aren't they cute?? Also Sara has just started a blog, Sew Ladybug Sew, so make sure to check her out and give her a big welcome to blogland! :) Here's what's up for grabs by Exclusively Quilters That's right, one lucky winner gets to pick their favorite bundle of 8 fat quarters!! How to enter: 1 entry: comment and tell us the bundle you would choose (mint, pink, blue, tan) 1 entry: follow us and comment that you did so 1 entry: become a follower of Sew Ladybug Sew and comment that you did (here) 1 entry: check out Ladybug Quilt Shop and tell us your favorite thing There you go, 4 chances to enter and 4 chances to win. Winner will be announced 1 week from today, Wednesday November 3rd. Now let's shop some fabric! :)
Raymond Michael Rodden was bored this week, so he drove to downtown Phoenix and began walking around, snapping photos of the federal courthouse and the state capitol with his iPhone. The 33-year-old man ended up jailed, unemployed and homeless; his iPhone, iPad and Macintosh laptop confiscated as “evidence.” All because they found it odd he was taking photos at 3 a.m. “They told me they’re going to keep my computer because they want to see my search history,” he said Saturday evening in a telephone interview with Photography is Not a Crime. “They wanted to know if I belonged to any extremist groups like the national socialist movement or sovereign citizens. They wanted to know what kind of books I checked out of the library.” However, the only charges pending against him, if you even want to call them charges, are citations that he walked into an alley – a bogus charge that applies only to motorized vehicles – and that he neglected to change the address on his driver license after moving to Phoenix from Tucson last August. They couldn’t even keep him jailed on the initial charge of an outdated warrant out of California because the San Obispo County Sheriff’s Office did not want to bother extraditing him from Phoenix. “The warrant was not even valid in Arizona,” adding that it was over a probation violation for unlawful use of a vehicle, stemming from a 2001 incident in which he took his roommate’s car without permission after a heated argument. That old roommate is still one of his best friends, allowing him to stay in his Tucson home after he was kicked out of the Phoenix home that was part of his employment. “I was living in my boss’s house taking care of his son,” he said. “Now he thinks I’m some crazy person.” The fact that the Phoenix police bomb squad tore his boss’s car apart searching for explosives before impounding it most likely convinced him that Rodden was not the most suitable person to care for his six-year-old son as he worked as a long-distance truck driver. “The most radical thing I do is read Photography is Not a Crime and Cop Block,” he said. So like most people who read those sites, he knows his rights when it comes to dealing with police. And that is exactly why he is going through this ordeal. It started Thursday at 3 a.m. when he was sitting at home, unable to sleep. He decided to drive to downtown in his boss’s car, which he had permission to do. He parked the car in front of the Phoenix Police Department and began walking around downtown, which is a ghost town at that time. This is particularly insane.
Financial Accounting - CH 1 & 2 \|Four Principal Activities of Business Firms:\|\| 1.Establishing goals and strategies\| \|What are the 2 sources Financing comes from?\|\| 1. Owners\| \|Investments are made in the following:\|\| 1. Land, buildings, equipment\| 2. Patents, licenses, contractual rights 3. Stock and bonds of other organizations 5. Accounts Receivable \|What are the 4 areas for conducting operations?\|\| 1. Purchasing\| \|What are the 4 commonly used conventions in financial statements?\|\| 1. The accounting period\| 2. The number of reporting periods 3. The monetary amounts 4. The terminology and level of detail in the financial statements \|Common Financial Reporting Conventions, Accounting Period\|\|The length of time covered by the financial statements. (The most common interval for external reporting is the fiscal year).\| \|Common Financial Reporting Conventions, Number of reporting periods\|\|The number of reporting periods included in a given financial statement presentation, Both U.S. GAAP and IFRS require firms to include results for multiple reporting periods in each report.\| \|Common Financial Reporting Conventions, Monetary amounts\|\|This includes measuring units, like thousands, millions, or billions, and the currency, such as dollars ($), euros (€), or Swedish kronor (SEK)\| \|Common Financial Reporting Conventions, Terminology and level of detail in the financial statements\|\|U.S. GAAP and IFRS contain broad guidance on what the financial statements must contain, but neither system completely specifies the level of detail or the names of accounts. Therefore, some variation occurs.\| \|Characteristics of a Balance Sheet\|\|A Balance Sheet:\| 1. is also known as a statement of financial position; 2. provides information at a point in time; 3. lists the firm's assets, liabilities, and shareholders' equity and provides totals and subtotals; and 4. can be represented as the Basic Accounting Equation. Assets = Liabilities + Shareholders' Equity \|Accounting Equation Components\|\| 1. Assets\| 3. Share Holder's Equity \|Assets\|\| Assets are economic resources with the potential to provide future economic benefits to a firm. \| Examples: Cash, Accounts Receivable, Inventories, Buildings, Equipment, intangible assets (like Patents) \|Liabilities\|\| Liabilities are creditors' claims for funds, usually because they have provided funds, or goods and services, to the firm.\| Examples: Accounts Payable, Unearned Income, Notes Payable, Buildings, Accrued Salaries \|Shareholders' Equity\|\| Shareholders' Equity shows the amounts of funds owners have provided and, in parallel, their claims on the assets of a firm. \| Examples: Common Stock, Contributed Capital, Retained Earnings \|What are the separate sections on a Balance Sheet (Balance sheet classification)\|\|1. Current assets represent assets that a firm expects to turn into cash, or sell, or consume within approximately one year from the date of the balance sheet (i.e., accounts receivable and inventory).\| 2. Current liabilities represent obligations a firm expects to pay within one year (i.e., accounts payable and salaries payable). 3. Non-current assets are typically held and used for several years (i.e., land, buildings, equipment, patents, long-term security investments). 4. Noncurrent liabilities and shareholders' equity are sources of funds where the supplier of funds does not expect to receive them all back within the next year. \|Income Statement\|\|1. Sometimes called the statement of profit and loss by firms applying IFRS\| 2. Provides information on profitability 3. May use the terms net income, earnings, and profit interchangeably 4. Reports amounts for a period of time 5. Typically one year 6. Is represented by the Basic Income Equation: Net Income = Revenues - Expenses \|Revenues\|\|(also known as sales, sales revenue, or turnover, a term used by some firms reporting under IFRS) measure the inflows of assets (or reductions in liabilities) from selling goods and providing services to customers.\| \|Expenses\|\|measure the outflow of assets (or increases in liabilities) used in generating revenues.\| \|Relationship between the Balance Sheet and the Income Statement\|\| 1. The income statement links the balance sheet at the beginning of the period with the balance sheet at the end of the period.\| 2. Retained Earnings is increased by net income and decreased by dividends. \|Statement of Cash Flows\|\| The statement of cash flows (also called the\| cash flow statement) reports information about cash generated from or used by: 2. investing, and 3. financing activities during specified time periods. The statement of cash flows shows where the firm obtains or generates cash and where it spends or uses cash. \|Classification of Cash Flows\|\| 1. Operations: \| cash from customers less cash paid in carrying out the firm's operating activities cash paid to acquire noncurrent assets less amounts from any sale of noncurrent assets cash from issues of long-term debt or new capital less dividends \|Inflows and Outflows of Cash\| \|The Relationship of the Statement of Cash Flows to the Balance Sheet and Income Statement\|\|-The statement of cash flows explains the change in cash between the beginning and the end of the period, and separately displays the changes in cash from operating, investing, and financing activities.\| -In addition to sources and uses of cash, the statement of cash flows shows the relationship between net income and cash flow from operations. \|Statement of Shareholders' Equity\|\|This statement displays components of shareholders' equity, including common shares and retained earnings, and changes in those components.\| \|Other Items in Annual Reports\|\|Financial reports provide additional explanatory material in the schedules and notes to the financial statements.\| \|Who are the 4 main groups of people involved with the Financial Reporting Process\|\| 1. Managers and governing boards of reporting entities.\| 2. Accounting standard setters and regulatory bodies. 3. Independent external auditors. 4. Users of financial statements. \|What is the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)?\|\|An agency of the federal government, that has the legal authority to set acceptable accounting standards and enforce securities laws.\| \|What is the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB)?\|\|a private-sector body comprising five voting members, to whom the SEC has delegated most tasks of U.S. financial accounting standard-setting.\| \|GAAP\|\|1. Common terminology includes the pronouncements of the FASB (and its predecessors) in the compilation of accounting rules, procedures, and practices known as generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP).\| 2. Recently, the FASB launched its codification project which organizes all of U.S GAAP by topic (for example, revenues), eliminates duplications, and corrects inconsistencies. \|FASB board members make standard-setting decisions guided by a conceptual framework that addresses:\|\| 1. Objectives of financial reporting.\| 2. Qualitative characteristics of accounting information including the relevance, reliability, and comparability of data. 3. Elements of the financial statements. 4. Recognition and measurement issues. \|Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002.\|\| Concerns over the quality of financial reporting have led, and continue to lead, to government initiatives in the United States.\| Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 established the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB), which is responsible for monitoring the quality of audits of SEC registrants. \|International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS)\|\|-The International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) is an independent accounting standard-setting entity with 14 voting members from a number of countries. Standards set by the IASB are International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS).\| -The FASB and IASB Boards are working toward converging their standards, based on an agreement reached in 2002 and updated since then. \|Auditor's Opinion\|\|Firms whose common stock is publicly traded are required to get an opinion by an independent auditor who:\| 1.Assesses the effectiveness of the firm's internal control system for measuring and reporting business transactions 2.Assesses whether the financial statements and notes present fairly a firm's financial position, results of operations, and cash flows in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles \|Basic Accounting Conventions and Concepts\|\|1. Materiality is the qualitative concept that financial reports need not include items that are so small as to be meaningless to users of the reports.\| 2. The accounting period convention refers to the uniform length of accounting reporting periods. 3. Interim reports are often prepared for periods shorter than a year. However, preparing interim reports does not eliminate the need to prepare an annual report. \|Cash vs. Accrual Accounting\|\|Cash basis\| A firm measures performance from selling goods and providing services as it receives cash from customers and makes cash expenditures to providers of goods and services. A firm recognizes revenue when it sells goods or renders services and recognizes expenses in the period when the firm recognizes the revenues that the costs helped produce. \|What Is an Account? How Do You Name Accounts?\|\|-An account represents an amount on a line of a balance sheet or income statement (i.e., cash, accounts receivable, etc.).\| -There is not a master list to define these accounts since they are customized to fit each specific business's needs. -Accountants typically follow a conventional naming system for accounts, which increases communication. \|What Accounts Make up the Typical Balance Sheet?\| \|Current assets and current liabilities (Balance Sheet Classifications)\|\|Receipt or payment of assets that the firm expects will occur within one year or one operating cycle.\| \|Noncurrent assets and noncurrent liabilities (Balance Sheet Classifications)\|\|Firm expects to collect or pay these more than one year after the balance sheet date.\| \|Duality Effects of the Balance Sheet Equation (Assets = Liabilites + Shareholders' Equity)\|\|Any single event or transaction will have one of the following four effects or some combination of these effects:\| 1.INCREASE an asset and INCREASE either a liability or shareholders' equity. 2.DECREASE an asset and DECREASE either a liability or shareholders' equity. 3.INCREASE one asset and DECREASE another asset. 4.INCREASE one liability or shareholders' equity and DECREASE another liability or shareholders' equity. A T-account is a device or convention for organizing and accumulating the accounting entries of transactions that affect an individual account, such as Cash, Accounts Receivable, Bonds Payable, or Additional Paid-in Capital. \|T-Account Conventions: Assets\| \|T-Account Conventions: Liabilities\| \|T-Account Conventions: Shareholders' Equity\| \|Debit vs. Credit\| While T-accounts are useful to help analyze how individual transactions flow and accumulate within various accounts, journal entries formalize the reasoning that supports the transaction. The attached standardized format indicates the accounts and amounts, with debits on the first line and credits (indented) on the second line: \| Revenue or Sales:\| (Common Income Statement Terms) \|Assets received in exchange for goods sold and services rendered.\| \| Cost of Goods Sold:\| (Common Income Statement Terms) \|The cost of products sold.\| \| Selling, General, and Administrative (SG&A):\| (Common Income Statement Terms) \|Costs incurred to sell products/services as well as costs of administration.\| \| Research and Development (R&D) Expense:\| (Common Income Statement Terms) \|Costs incurred to create/develop new products, processes, and services.\| \| Interest Income:\| (Common Income Statement Terms) \|Income earned on amounts lent to others or from investments in interest-yielding securities.\| \|Unique Relationships Exist Between the Balance Sheet and the Income Statement\| \|Important Account Differences\|\|1. Balance sheet accounts are permanent accounts in the sense that they remain open, with nonzero balances, at the end of the reporting period.\| 2. In contrast, income statement accounts are temporary accounts in the sense that they start a period with a zero balance, accumulate information during the reporting period, and have a zero balance at the end of the reporting period. \|The Financial Statement Relationships can be summarized as:\| -After preparing the end-of-period income statement, the accountant transfers the balance in each temporary revenue and expense account to the Retained Earnings account. -This procedure is called closing the revenue and expense accounts. After transferring to Retained Earnings, each revenue and expense account is ready to begin the next period with a zero balance. \|Expense and Revenue Transactions\| \|Dividend Declaration and Payment\| \|Issues of Capital Stock\| \|Posting\|\|1. After each transaction is recognized by a journal entry, the information is transferred in the accounting system via an activity known as posting.\| 2. The balance sheet ledger accounts (or permanent accounts) where these are posted begin each period with a balance equal to the ending balance of the previous period. 3.The income statement ledger accounts (or temporary accounts) have zero beginning balances. \|Adjusting Entries\|\| There are some journal entries that are not triggered by a transaction or exchange.\| -Rather, journal entries known as adjusting entries, result from the passage of time at the end of an accounting period or are used to correct errors (more commonly known as correcting entries). \|Four Basic Types of Adjusting Entries\|\| 1.Unearned Revenues\| \|Closing Process\|\|1. After adjusting and correcting entries are made, the income statement can be prepared.\| 2. Once completed, it is time to transfer the balance in each temporary revenue and expense account to the Retained Earnings account. This is known as the closing process. 3. Each revenue account is reduced to zero by debiting it and each expense account is reduced to zero by crediting it. 4. The offset account—Retained Earnings—is credited for the amount of total revenues and debited for the amount of total expenses. 5. Thus, the balance of ending Retained Earnings for a period shows the difference between total revenues and total expenses. \|Preparation of the Balance Sheet\|\|1. After the closing process is completed, the accounts with nonzero balances are all balance sheet accounts.\| 2. We can use these accounts to prepare the balance sheet as at the end of the period. 3. The Retained Earnings account will appear with all other balance sheet accounts and now reflects the cumulative effect of transactions affecting that account. \|Final Step in Preparing Financial Statements: The Cash Flow Statement\|\|1. The statement of cash flows describes the sources and uses of cash during a period and classifies them into operating, investing, and financing activities.\| 2. It provides a detailed explanation for the change in the balance of the Cash account during that period. 3. Two approaches can be used to prepare this statement: Direct and Indirect
We don't have a biography. Please consult wikipedia. "There is a constant in the average American imagination and taste, for which the past must be preserved and celebrated in full-scale authentic copy; a philosophy of immortality as duplication. It dominates the relation with the self, with the past, not infrequently with the present, always with History and, even, with the European tradition." "The postmodern reply to the modern consists of recognizing that the past, since it cannot really be destroyed, because its destruction leads to silence, must be revisited: but with irony, not innocently. I think of the postmodern attitude as that of a man who loves a very cultivated woman and knows he cannot say to her, I love you madly, because he knows that she knows (and that she knows that he knows) that these words have already been written by Barbara Cartland. Still, there is a solution. He can say, As Barbara Cartland would put it, I love you madly." "There is only one thing that arouses animals more than pleasure, and that is pain. Under torture you are as if under the dominion of those grasses that produce visions. Everything you have heard told, everything you have read returns to your mind, as if you were being transported, not toward heaven, but toward hell. Under torture you say not only what the inquisitor wants, but also what you imagine might please him, because a bond (this, truly, diabolical) is established between you and him." Search Quotations Book
WMR KTM/Nihilo Concepts at Mini O'sThursday, November 15, 2012 \| 1:00 PM Nihilo Concepts will have their full line of innovative billet KTM parts for sale along with a few new products for display. WMR Competition Performance will be present for technical help and trackside support along with KTM. Team WMR KTM/Nihilo Concepts 2013 riders Jordan Bailey, Brock Papi, Challen Tennant, Matti Jorgensen, Enzo Lopes, Dylan Greer, Elliott Queen, Logan Boye, Trevor Malley, Michael Blankenship, Caden Braswell, Carter and Jordan Biese will all be in attendance at this prestigious event. WMR will also have KTM's new line of 2013 PowerWear on display and for sale. Make sure to stop by and see what Nihilo Concepts and WMR has to offer! Team WMR /Nihilo Concepts is supported by: KTM, FMF, Orange Brigade, KTM Powerparts, KTM Powerwear, Motion Pro, Spectro Oils, One Industries, HBD Motographix, Dunlop Tires, FLY Racing, 100%, Renthal, Thor, DT1 Air Filters, ODI Grips, Champion Tool Storage, and Dubya Wheels. For further team information, visit our official websites at: About WMR Competition Performance: WMR Competition Performance has become Florida's premier race shop. Since 1994 WMR has been building and racing the fastest dirt bikes in the country. With a true passion and knowledge of the sport, WMR is able to offer everything the serious racer needs under one roof. We carry the complete line of new KTM's as well as Motocross Gear, Parts and Accessories.
Hello babes and (the handful of) boys! A couple weeks ago, we were invited to style pieces from Nicole Miller’s Artelier collection- Wanderlust Fall 2012. You can only imagine our excitement when we got this invite, and we can’t wait to show you all the looks we styled! We even got to meet the lovely Nicole Miller herself! (HASH TAG FAN-GIRLING) Today we present to you our first 2 looks. Mixed prints, bold colors and lace - very much our speed. Check back next week, because we have two more looks in store for you!! Want more of us at Nicole Miller? click here.
Tuesday, March 31, 2009 These women were so kind and accommodating. After my session on Friday evening I was in the elevator with a couple of the ladies from the church. One of them said I looked familiar to her. Turns out, she was my middle school Geography teacher! She even went home and found her yearbook from my 9th grade year. How fun it was to look at pics of my grade-school girlfriends, my school gymnastics team and my cheer squad. What's more - since I didn't have any yearbooks from my middle school years - she gave it to me! That was a real treat. So, thank you, Ann! The glitch came when I realized I'd booked my 8:00 AM flight home on Sunday for 8:00 PM. I realized this on Friday afternoon and called Expedia right away to see about changing my flight time. They told me it would cost $400. GULP. So I prayed and decided to head to the airport at 6:15 Sunday morning and see if I could catch a flight as a stand-by passenger. I got on a 7:30 AM flight and was home in time to go to church with my family - which for me is bliss so thanks for the prayers. Oh, and my scary looking cut healed rather quickly too. I just kept slathering it with antibiotic cream. The name of this post - not that you care - comes from the title of my former state's state song. It was the state song of Virgina until 1997 when it was retired over racial controversy about the lyrics. Yet some say the song, written by an educated African American, is satire. The song was "American Idol material" at one time ... sold a million copies in 1916 ... plus Ray Charles and Jerry Lee Lewis recorded it as well. If you are easily fascinated with trivia facts - or just plain bored - you can jump over here to read about the controversy and see what you think. Meanwhile, for all you song writers out there, there is an on-going contest for a song to replace it as Virgina's state song. So get out your keyboard or guitar. Me? I'm content to sing James Taylor's "Carolina on my Mind." And happy to be home again ~ Rachel Thursday, March 26, 2009 Wednesday, March 25, 2009 "The first thing my soul needs is an inclination to God and his word. Without that, nothing else will happen of any value in my life. I must want to know God and read his word and draw near to him. Where does that “want to” come from? It comes from God. So Psalm 119:36 teaches us to pray, “Incline my heart to Your testimonies and not to gain.” Next I need to have the eyes of my heart opened, so that when my inclination leads me to the word I see what is really there and not just my own ideas. Who opens the eyes of the heart? God does. So Psalm 119:18 teaches us to pray, “Open my eyes, that I may behold wonderful things from Your law.” Then I need for my heart to be enlightened with these “wonders.” I need to perceive glory in them and not just interesting facts. Who enlightens the heart? God does. So Ephesians 1:18 teaches us to pray “That the eyes of your heart may be enlightened.” Then I am concerned that my heart is fragmented and that parts of it might remain in the dark while other parts are enlightened. So I long for my heart to be united for God. Where does that wholeness and unity come from? From God. So Psalm 86:11 teaches us to pray, “O Lord, I will walk in Your truth; unite my heart to fear Your name.” What I really want from all this engagement with the Word of God and the work of his Spirit in answer to my prayers is that my heart will be satisfied with God and not with the world. Where does that satisfaction come from? It comes from God. So Psalm 90:14 teaches us to pray, “O satisfy us in the morning with Your lovingkindness, that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days.” But I don’t just want to be happy in my own little private world with God. I want my happiness to be as full as possible for spreading and expanding for others. I want to be strong in joy. This will make me durable in the face of threats or adversity. Where does that strength and durability come from? It comes from God. So Ephesians 3:16 teaches us to pray, “That God would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man.” Finally, I want my strength in Christ to produce good deeds for others so that the glory of God will be seen in my life. Who produces these good deeds? God does. So Colossians 1:10 teaches us to pray, “That [we] will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord . . . bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.” All this I pray “in Jesus’ name,” because God gives these things to my soul only because Jesus died for me and removed the wrath of God so that the Father might “freely give me all things” (Romans 8:32). To remember some of these prayers, I use an acronym—IOUS—almost every day in praying for those I love, asking God to give us an inclination to his Word and not to money or fame or power (Psalm 119:36), and to open our eyes to see wonderful things when we read his Word (Psalm 119:18), and to have hearts united in the fear of God rather than fragmented over a dozen concerns (Psalm 86:11), and to be satisfied in his steadfast love (Psalm 90:14)." So there it is in one short paragraph directly above - how to pray for yourself and others in accordance with the Bible as explained by John Piper. This could take mere seconds per person, or you could expand on it. I'll be praying John's IOUS prayer for John and everyone else who stops by this post, and I ask that you'd pause and pray the same for me. Blessings ~ Rachel Monday, March 23, 2009 We had to to switch hotels, which meant no spa. However, the new hotel was at a ski resort at Camelback Mountain. My room had this cool bedroom loft atop a spiral staircase that gave me a view of the white-covered slopes out my dormer style window. I called it my birds' nest. And I did get to enjoy the hot sauna, and walking on the treadmill overlooking the pretty lake with swans. No matter that we couldn't get spa treatments, I had fun with the coordinators Charlene and Darlene. Saturday evening we went shopping at the outlet mall and I got a pair jeans for $14 (and no tax either), which is enough to make my entire weekend right there. Then we had dinner at Red Robin, where I saw something I'd never seen before. They had a flat screen TV on the wall in the otherwise typical ladies' bathroom. It was playing HGTV. Things that make you go, hum. We did consider waiting in there for our number to be called. As expected, I really enjoyed this group: Some really terrific women who are embodying what it means to be the body of Christ. And who also understand a gal's need for a little chocolate and laughter. I floated home on flights that were on time (virtually unheard of when flying from Newark) to a family who had cleaned the house spotless for my arrival. And hubby even let me sleep in this morning, and sent me a sweet e-card encouraging me to enjoy the day. Bliss I tell you, sheer bliss. Then the school called and my son was sick with a cough and ear ache and needed to be picked up. I also opened an unexpected bill for $435. And then this evening my daughter had one of her episodes where her heart rate races. Screech. There goes my bliss. But that's OK, I know how to get it back. Yep, that "still time" with God thing we've been talking about. Thanks for sharing your input on that post, yall. Thursday, March 19, 2009 First thing I'd say is figure out what helps you "get your head in the game." Listening to worship music can often help with this. Reading a few passages from the Bible can too. Also, position yourself best you can to avoid distractions. I've mentioned here before that I often sit in front of a window with the rest of the room behind me so I don't see the other things that need doing (dishes, laundry, computer, to-do list). Occasionally I get down on my knees, face-down on the floor to pray, like in "child's pose" (only thing to notice there is if the carpet needs cleaning). But there are times too that I'm totally focused with God, and I'm sitting in the middle of a coffee shop or cafe with my laptop. So don't feel like you can only be still and hear from God while all alone in an empty room. The second thing I'd say is pray with a pen in your hand. Have some paper in front of you. When thoughts about what you need to do today or tomorrow come to your mind - and they will - jot them down to clear your mind and know you've now got a reminder for later. Don't worry that these thoughts are popping in your head - just take your pen, deal with them quickly, and move on. I also encourage you to write down anything you feel God may be impressing on your heart. Write what you think He is saying to You as you pray or read, or what you think the Bible passage you just read means. Record whatever is bouncing around in your mind - thoughts, verses, questions, whatever. You can re-read these the next time you sit down to pray and listen, and that can be helpful too. For me, even just holding the pen to the paper helps me stay focused on what I'm doing now. Maybe someone else will have more to suggest. What helps you "be still" and focused when praying? Before you get all envious about that (admit it, you did!), you should know that sometimes I spend the weekend in rustic retreat centers. You know, the kind where you bring your own linens, or sleep in bunk beds, or see snakes by your cabin door, or get bitten by spiders while you sleep, or have no heat and it's late fall. That can be it's own kind of fun - especially when enduring it all with some girlfreinds in God. But, yes, I'm looking forward to this weekend, in this hotel, with these ladies. :) Tuesday, March 17, 2009 The audio from one of the services is up on the Internet, and they might post video later this week. Here's the link for those of you who had asked to hear it. Just click on the word "Listen" to the right of the entry for 03.15.09 once you get there. Saturday, March 14, 2009 If you weren't the winner but want a copy, go to Shari's site and you can buy it for for $15. She also has it available for $12 in an E-book form you can instantly download. Sheena, I'll ask Shari what she thinks about your shoe dilemma and let you know. I love that Cyndi asked if anyone lived in her area of Oregon so that they could go shopping together - that's terrific. I went shopping with a good friend this week who is starting a new job as a teller in a bank. They have a strict dress code, which they made her sign 3 different times last week! One of the more surprising things it stated was that she must wear underwear and all undergarments at all times. Um, what has the world of banking come to? I felt slightly ADD the past couple weeks keeping two different topics going here: prayer and clothes. (Anne, I plan to answer your how-do-I-stay-still-to-pray question next week.) So this morning it made me feel a little less ADD when I read this passage by Paul in 1 Timothy 2 that talks about both: 1-3, The first thing I want you to do is pray. Pray every way you know how, for everyone you know. Pray especially for rulers and their governments to rule well so we can be quietly about our business of living simply, in humble contemplation. This is the way our Savior God wants us to live. 4-7, He wants not only us but everyone saved, you know, everyone to get to know the truth we've learned: that there's one God and only one, and one Priest-Mediator between God and us—Jesus, who offered himself in exchange for everyone held captive by sin, to set them all free. Eventually the news is going to get out. This and this only has been my appointed work: getting this news to those who have never heard of God, and explaining how it works by simple faith and plain truth. 8-10, Since prayer is at the bottom of all this, what I want mostly is for men to pray—not shaking angry fists at enemies but raising holy hands to God. And I want women to get in there with the men in humility before God, not primping before a mirror or chasing the latest fashions but doing something beautiful for God and becoming beautiful doing it. (The Message) I think humility is the key here. It's not that we should never look in a mirror to brush our hair, or never wear something stylish. And it's not that there is anything wrong with beauty, but rather that God never intended our beauty to be skin deep. I think Paul's point is that humility (and prayer) needs to underlay all that we do, including how we present ourselves. I think that should be added to the bank's dress code. Finally, Jill you asked for a link to my upcoming speaking engagements. Click here or the tab at the top of this page that says "Where I'll be." I think I've got that updated at least through this summer. BTW, this is the weekend I speak at my home church, along with my pastor, on the subject of lust. So you can bet that today I am praying ... and trying to decide what to wear. Any words of advice? Or prayer? Where is Shari when I need her?! Tuesday, March 10, 2009 In case you missed it, or you are looking for the challenge to learn about prayer through 27 instances of Jesus praying, it is 2 posts below. Jump in and do one! Last week I asked professional image consultant Shari Braendel to look over our comments on the clothing posts and address some of our issues. She agreed - and also agreed to give away one of her books here! So without further delay, here is what Shari had to say. 1) One reader comments, “I've always been into fashion, and I still struggle with what is "appropriate" … should I dress to cover up my figure?” Shari, what guidelines can you offer us gals for what is appropriate to wear? And does “what’s appropriate” change depending on things like your age, the time of day, or the people you are with? Dressing age-appropriate means you take your age into consideration when you choose clothes to wear and try not too look younger (or older) than you are. How do you do this? Well, there are many ways to do so, but first you must shop in the correct “department” of the store you are shopping in. After the age of 30, please don’t venture into the Junior dept. again…that is a major no-no. If you are a woman over 30, buy labels that you know and trust, like Liz Claiborne, Jones of New York and Ralph Lauren. Classic pieces will go a long way in your wardrobe and then add trendy accessories to update your look. Find your personal style and be comfortable in what makes you happy…and what makes you look good! I don’t recommend you dress for the people you’re with…dress for you! 2) It was recently Valentine’s Day, and lots of couples went out to eat. Many a woman donned something low-cut, sexy and red for that dinner – which is great for their husbands. But what about all the other men they passed by, or sat across from in that restaurant? When a gal has a hubby that likes for her to “look sexy” for him (or she likes to), how should she handle that? As Christian women, we are held to a higher standard. It is our responsibility to not cause our brothers-in-Christ to sin, whether it be in their thoughts or actions. If you like to dress sexy, I would first examine “why” you do this. Do you want attention? Do you think this is the only way to get noticed? If so, you’re asking for the wrong kind of attention. There is a time and place for sexy, and honestly, it’s for a quiet, romantic evening at home with your husband. If he wants you to dress sexy for a night out, then make sure you have a wrap or dressy coat to wear in and out of the restaurant and ask him to make reservations for you to sit in a romantic spot in the restaurant, which is usually near a corner. When seated, you should take your seat so you’re not facing many people. Be discreet, and remember it’s your husband you’re trying to excite, not someone else’s husband or boyfriend. 3) Sometimes we buy something that seemed appropriate in the store dressing room, but once we got it home, cut the tags and wore it, we realized it looks awful, or it doesn’t stay put, or it’s too short when we reach up, or it emphasizes all the cellulite in our thighs when we sit down. Any tips for what we can do to avoid such fashion flops and find a good fit? We all make fashion flops, even I do. Don’t impulse shop. When you go shopping, take a good friend with you who has some fashion sense and ask her to look at you from all angles. Also, when you try something on, turn your back from the mirror until you get the whole outfit on, then turn around and see yourself at once…first impression! What did you think as soon as you saw yourself? Make sure you look at yourself in a 3 way mirror and go shopping with the proper undergarments you’ll need for the particular items you’ll be purchasing. Finally, when you arrive home, DON’T remove the tags right away. When you wear the outfit for the first time, ask your family first what they think … my husband and teenage son are my best mirrors …they tell me like it is, and they’re usually right! 4) Another reader said, “Having been blessed with a "curvy" body, I have always been self-conscious of walking into a room and people looking right at my chest. For so many years, I wore bigger, looser clothes to cover up myself. But I felt frumpy, and not good about myself.” Any tips for the curvy among us – short of buying a pup tent? A pup tent? Girlfriend, no! Most importantly, get fitted for a proper support bra. If you haven’t been fitted for a new bra this year, it’s time to do that. Every year our body changes so this should be an annual event for us. (BTW, don't rush out and buy a new one just like your old one. Shari taught me this. Go to a store like Dillards and get fitted by the employee for the right type of bra for you in the right size. Most of us wear the wrong size and it affects how we look.) Prints will always make a bust appear smaller. So find prints that are compatible with your frame size. You may have to layer some pieces, too, so you don’t show cleavage. And finally, go up one size in your blouses and sweaters. They will hang better but won’t be so loose. Refrain from wearing too tight clothes, which can also make you look bigger than you are. 5) Shari, one commenter said she dresses for her most fashionable friends. I think the team at P31 dresses for you! ;) We always want Shari’s input, and we jump at a chance to go shopping with her. (I live 4 hours away from her so I rarely get to do that – just letting you know in case you ever see me and I don’t look so fashionable – its not Shari’s fault.) So, what are a couple of ways we can be “fashion-forward” this spring, without breaking the bank or inviting the men around us to leer? You always look great, Rachel! Remember to wear colors that flatter you, I’m obsessive about that for women. Too many women fall into the “wear all black” wardrobe category and it’s boring and aging. Look at your closet and see what you need. I’d recommend adding a few pieces at a time to spruce up your wardrobe. If you have neutral colors, buy a few brights to add some color. Purchase a new handbag in one of the new bold colors for spring and add some fabulous new turquoise accessories! Find a pair of wedge sandals to give your outfits a lift and buy a fabulous pair of jeans in a vibrant hue. These will make you look very hip! For lots more tips on the spring fashion trends, check out Shari's blog. Hum, if my clothes could talk, what would they be saying about me ... Many, many people do. That's partly because we view it as a form of pubic speaking - and public speaking tends to make people verrry nervous. I should know - I teach public speaking to college students. And I force back my own feelings of panic to do it myself around the country through out the year. A survey conducted in 1973 asked more than 2,500 Americans to list their greatest fears. To the surprise of the researchers, the largest number of people listed speaking before a group as their #1 fear. Even above death! In a more recent study, researchers concentrated on social situations and again asked people to list their greatest fears. Here are the top responses: A party with strangers - 74% Giving a speech - 70% Asked personal questions in public - 65% Meeting a date's parents - 59% First day on a new job - 59% Victim of a practical joke - 56% Job interview - 46% What we're worried about in all these situations is feeling embarrassed, feeling incompetent, and being negatively judged. And all that seems tied to the words we're about to say. What if I say the wrong thing? What if I stammer or the words don't come out right? What if I draw a blank when I open my mouth? We're focused on our words and how they'll be received. We think our words = us. For years I watched Georgia sing at her church. She sang in the choir, and also in the praise band, and several times a year she would sing a song solo. She never seemed nervous, and I knew she'd been doing this for a long time. So I was surprised one day when she said to me, "Rachel, I don't know how you can get up there and speak in front of all those people like you do. That would make me so nervous." "But Georgia, you do it all the time when you get up and sing - you even sing solos!" I replied. I'll never forget her response: "Yes, but those aren't my words I'm singing." So one way to handle the praying-out-loud-when-in-a-group nerves, is to pray someone else's words. Pray verses from the Bible. Or at least truths from the Bible. You can do that quite simply. You don't even have to have the verses (or their location in the Bible) memorized. For example ... "Lord, you said when we ask for wisdom, you will give it to us (from James 1:5). Please give so-and-so wisdom in this situation." Or, "God, you said we could come to you when we are overwhelmed and that you would give us rest (from Matthew 11:28). Take so-and-so's troubles and worries today and let her rest." Or, "Lord you promised in the Bible that you would comfort us (from John 14:18). So-and-so is having a hard time right now, please comfort them now in Jesus' Name." Those 3 prayers right there could cover a multitude of situations and prayer requests. I think the best piece of advice I can offer those of us who feel nervous to pray out loud is to remember that this is about the person or situation we are praying for, not about us and how well we pray. So it's necessary that we shift our focus from ourself and how we might be perceived by others, to the object of our prayer or to the One we are praying to. Finally, if you are praying in a group where several others have already spoken, and nothing more comes to your mind to pray, just pray, "God, I agree with these prayers, in Jesus' Name." Remember that we don't have to say a lot or use eloquent speech to be effective in prayer. Jesus told us that. In fact, one of my favorite things to pray - indeed probably the most powerful thing I can pray - is: "God, may Your will not ours be done in this situation. Your plans are best." Wednesday, March 4, 2009 27 instances where Jesus is praying: 1. Praying prior to Bethlehem (Hebrews 10:5-7) 2. Praying at His baptism (Luke 3:21,22) 3. Praying before His first preaching tour of Galilee (Mark 1:35-39) 4. Praying after the healing of a leper (Luke 5:12-16) 5. Praying before choosing the twelve disciples (Luke 6:12,13) 6. Praying after being rejected by certain cities in Galilee (Matthew 11:25) 7. Praying prior to the feeding of 5000 people (John 6:11) 8. Praying after feeding 5000 people (Matthew 14:22,23) 9. Praying as He healed a deaf man (Mark 7:32-37) 10. Praying prior to feeding 4000 people (Mark 8:6) 11. Praying before Peter's great confession (Luke 9:18; Matthew 16:14-17) 12. Praying during His transfiguration (Luke 9:28-35) 13. Praying after hearing the report of the seventy (Luke 10:17-19, 20, 21) 14. Praying before teaching the Lord's Prayer (Luke 11:1; Matthew 6:9-13) 15. Praying at the grave site of Lazarus (John 11:41, 42) 16. Praying over little children (Mark 10:13-16) 17. Praying in the temple on Palm Sunday (John 12:20-28) 18. Praying over Jerusalem (Matthew 23:37-39; Luke 19:41-44) 19. Praying in the upper room prior to His death (Matthew 26:26-28) 20. Praying for Peter (Luke 22:31-34) 21. Praying His great High Priestly Prayer (John 17) 22. Praying in Gethsemane prior to His death (Mark 14:32-42; Matthew 26:39-46) 23. Praying on the cross (Luke 23:34; Matthew 27:46; John 19:30; Luke 23:46) 24. Praying at His resurrection (Hebrews 2:12,13; John 20:17) 25. Praying at Emmaus (Luke 24:13-35) 26. Praying at the Ascension (Luke 24:50-53) 27. Praying today for the believer (Romans 8:34; I John 2:1; Hebrews 7:25; 9:24) Try this, pick one of these instances (you could do one a day for 27 days) and read about them in your Bible. Then - feel free to do it here if you wish - try to answer these 3 questions based on what you read: - What is Jesus praying for here? - From His prayer, what does Jesus know about God the Father? - How could a greater awareness of this characteristic of God affect my life? I did the first one and posted my answers - It'd be cool to see some of you post your answers to the others. We could fill out this list between the group of us! We could learn together.
“Radhadesh” is a spiritual community based in a 19th century chateau in the Belgian Ardennes. There are presently around eighty people living in the community, which was founded about 1980. In the Château, which has been beautifully renovated by the present inhabitants, you can see a gorgeous temple-room which is unique in Belgium and the Netherlands. Yearly we have about 40.000 visitors. Radhadesh is the main center for ISKCON (the International Society for Krishna Consciousness) in the Benelux. Quick Links : Tours \| Guesthouse \| Contact us \| Founder & Spiritual Master \| Daily Darshan As you may have noticed our normal website (www.radhadesh.com) has been offline for some time. Due to technical reasons that website will stay offline as we are working on a new solution. On this temporary blog you can find a list of our projects, upcoming festivals, galleries of Daily Darshan pictures and more!! For more information on how you can contribute to this project, click here. * Foto : met dank aan Urban Lotus
A dramatic turn of events in international diplomacy saw Kofi Annan quit as UN Special Envoy to Syria. Although widely supported, Annan feels that he can’t be successful when it is he who wants peace more than the protagonists and the international community. The position’s vacancy leaves a void rapidly being filled by violence across the war-torn nation. Sage International Director Dr. John Bruni discussed the conflict and its international ramifactions with Bill Walter. Producer – Bill Walter
Contributor Pro-File: Ron Bartlebaugh Meet the professionals who write for Radio magazine. This month: Field Report Ron Bartlebaugh, CBNT Director of Broadcast Engineering Bartlebaugh's broadcasting career began in the mid-60s at a small station in Western Pennsylvania. He has been the director of broadcast engineering for the WKSU network of stations since 1990 and previously served eight years as chief engineer for Moody Broadcasting's WCRF-FM in Cleveland. He is a frequent contributor to Radio magazine and author of the SBE Certification Handbook for Radio Operators. He also specializes in acoustical analysis and design for studios and houses of worship. Acceptable Use Policy blog comments powered by Disqus [an error occurred while processing this directive] Today in Radio History The history of radio broadcasting extends beyond the work of a few famous inventors. EAS Information More on EAS The feed provides feeds for all US states and territories. Need a calendar for your computer desktop? Use one of ours. Information from manufacturers and associations about industry news, products, technology and business announcements. This high-visibility and high-traffic area got the full acoustic treatment. Browse Back Issues[an error occurred while processing this directive] Also in the May Issue - Remote Access and Site Connectivity: Wireless - Standards of FM Allocation and Interference - Side by Side: Mic Processors - Field Report: Deva Broadcast DB4004 - Field Report: APT WorldCast Systems Horizon NextGen - New Products - 20 Years of Radio magazine: May 1994
BE HD Radio Transmitters Reach New Benchmarks Quincy, IL - Apr 10, 2007 - Broadcast Electronics (BE) reports that its line of solid-state FM HD Radio transmitters now exceed the previous benchmarks for output power and spectral performance. The RF equipment manufacturer reports an average 10 percent increase in output power for low-level combined applications and 25 percent increase in output power for HD Radio-only applications. This power increase applies to all of its HD Radio solid-state transmitter product, and BE states that the results are due in part to the company's ESP technology. The BE ESP technology corrects for nonlinearities in the transmission chain, which results in improved efficiency and spectral performance, according to Ted Lantz, BE HD Radio product manager. The findings are based on field and factory measurements comparing transmitter overall operating performance. Acceptable Use Policy blog comments powered by Disqus [an error occurred while processing this directive] Today in Radio History The history of radio broadcasting extends beyond the work of a few famous inventors. EAS Information More on EAS The feed provides feeds for all US states and territories. Need a calendar for your computer desktop? Use one of ours. Information from manufacturers and associations about industry news, products, technology and business announcements. This high-visibility and high-traffic area got the full acoustic treatment. Browse Back Issues[an error occurred while processing this directive] Also in the May Issue - Remote Access and Site Connectivity: Wireless - Standards of FM Allocation and Interference - Side by Side: Mic Processors - Field Report: Deva Broadcast DB4004 - Field Report: APT WorldCast Systems Horizon NextGen - New Products - 20 Years of Radio magazine: May 1994
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UPDATE 3: The script and patches have been updated to also support kernel 2.6.38. For older kernel releases please download the archive from here (temporary fix until I will unify the solutions). UPDATE 2: The script and patches have been updated to also support kernel 2.6.35. UPDATE 1: The script should also work with 2.6.32 kernels from version 1.2. Seeing the success I have encountered with the blog post about installing VMware Server on Ubuntu Karmic Koala and helped by Ramon de Carvalho Valle with a better patch regarding the installation of the virtualization server on the newer kernels found in three of the most popular Linux distributions - Ubuntu, Fedora and openSUSE - I’ve managed to provide a script which should be able to install the server on all of these distros. Furthermore, by placing some trivial checks in a function of the script one may enlarge the applicability to a lot more distributions with common roots (Debian and all Debian-based distributions, Red Hat and all of its derivatives). I have managed to test the script on both the 2.6.31-14 and 2.6.31-17 kernels which can be found in Ubuntu 9.10 and on the 22.214.171.124-174.fc12 kernel found in Fedora 12. Since I didn’t have an openSUSE machine I am not sure of what is the outcome on this distribution (regarding the kernel sources; people who commented previously on my blog had no problems installing VMware Server using the previous script) but the script is made so that it automatically determines on what kind of distribution is run and according to this information it automatically installs the needed packages. Careful though, as this requires Internet access for the specific machines. The good news regarding Ramon’s patch is the fact that now VMware Server seems stable. No more warnings appear when compiling modules, except for vsock, which - miraculously - builds on Fedora. Regarding the installation of VMware Server on Fedora, I have encountered some difficulties after the installation completed successfully. Basically I wasn’t able to log into the web administration interface because of multiple factors. The steps which should be followed will be reminded to the Fedora users after the script completes but I’m gonna mention them here too: /etc/servicesand replace the entry located on TCP/902 port with disable SELinux it by editing the /etc/selinux/configfile (permissive mode isn’t enough - see comments) reboot your system The general instructions are the same as the ones for the previous version of the script. Download my script from here (right click, save as, extract archive). Run the script with super user rights either in the same folder where you have downloaded the server archive, either by providing it the path to that folder. Make sure the folder where you have downloaded the server’s archive doesn’t contain spaces in its path name or the script will exit (giving you this reason as an error message). If the script exists, it will give you a decent warning from which you should be able to tell what’s wrong. On Ubuntu at least, the VSOCK module will not work (will fail to compile), giving you a hint that your kernel sources might not be the ones for your running kernel. This is not true, as the script takes care of this before doing the hard work. Anyway, VMware Server will work without it. Example: chmod +x vmware-server-2.0.x-kernel-2.6.3x-install.sh sudo ./vmware-server-2.0.x-kernel-2.6.3x-install.sh [PATH _TO_VMWARE_ARCHIVE] When you are asked about adding users to the server, if you do not provide your own account, the user used for login in the web console of the server will be root (maybe you should add yourself there). Provide the license key when asked about it. For the ones installing Windows guests in VMware Server, you must pick one of the following two solutions to avoid having problems with the mouse in the console: you run the start-VMware-console.shin the terminal every time you want to launch a VMware Server console, but after you have installed the VMware plug-in for Firefox you export this variable in the environment right after login such that it will be set before starting Firefox: If the solution worked well for you please share this info wherever you can. :D I am looking forward for your feedback because running the script and the server under multiple kernel versions and distributions will provide the real way to see if this latest patch really handles all the flaws in VMware Server or not. And if it does, this means that Ramon and I (but mostly Ramon) can shout a big “In your face, VMware!”. P.S. All my open-source work can also be found on GitHUB. This is useful if you think that you have some other non up to date versions of my scripts. Anyway, the scripts which can be found on my server represent the latest version.
Hey everybody! This is my first “I recommend” article, where I talk about movies to see at the end of the week. Today, I’ll be doing a 4 for 1 special. Yes, sir… 4 movies that I bet you’ll wanna check out, or at least watch the trailers. Either way, I hope you like what you read. These pictures will be premiering in Romanian cinemas today, January 11th 2013. So, let’s begin: Already out in the USA, as of Doomsday, 21st of December, the movie is a much-anticipated piece for me because is a “Knocked Up” follow. Yes, sir! But this time, the story focuses on Pete and Debbie, Debbie being Alison’s sister. You remember sexy Alison, right? The one who got knocked up… Anyway, Pete and Debbie have pretty much solved their problems, at least on the surface, and they are preparing for Debbie’s 40th birthday. After taking Viagra to improve his performance, Pete is turned down by his wife, who is very upset with him! A lot of sexual tension, situation comedy and lots of weird and uncomfortable jokes. I can’t say it’ll be great, seeing as it only has a 6.4 on IMDb, but maybe it will be fun for one viewing. 2) Et si on vivait tous ensemble? – IMDb: 6.6 The second film is a French-German 2011 comedy starring, among others, Jane Fonda and Geraldine Chaplin. This is a movie about an experiment. Several people, each with their own issues, decide to live together in Annie (Chaplin) and Jean’s (Fonda) large home. They are joined by an ethnology student, researching France’s causes for the aging population. Now this is much more interesting movie than “This is 40″! It has more of a subtle humor and some refinement… I think it’s a must see! Finally a movie that airs on the same date as Romania, worldwide! “Gangster Squad” deals with the 1940s and ’50s, a time when gangsters still have most of the power in the old USA. Apparently, the only to protect the law from these individuals, is to break it… at least that’s what a team of six policemen and detectives believes. Will they succeed? I don’t know, but if it’s anything like “Road to Perdition” or some of the other good gangster movies, I say go for it! Last but not least, we have an art film that was also released on Doomsday. The movie talks about a young woman who visits a circus that just rolled into town. After seeing one of the performers fall, she goes to help him, but they enter a dream-like world of Cirque du Soleil. This movie is something, I believe, that could equal the greatest movies in setting and costumes. The best out of the four movies I’ve presented, by my guess and definitely worth seeing! Well, these are the choices for today and the upcoming weekend. Hope you choose at least one of them. I know I’m going to “Cirque du Soleil…” and “Et si on vivait tous ensemble?”. Please remember to like, comment, share and/ or subscribe! Cheers! ***OPENING IMAGE SOURCE <<HERE>>
Spring Mount Load Cell - Use for: Pull Down Tests K & C Testing, and on the - Quantify Results of Setup Changes - Validate Simulation Results - Direct Replacement for NASCAR® Spring Mount - Available with Front or Rear Spring Guides - Internal Microprocessor controlled Amplifier - 0.1 to 4.9v Output - 8 - 36 vdc Supply - Optional User selectable Load Ranges - Manufactured, Serviced and Supported in the USA RAETECH Spring Mount Load Cells accurately, safely, and consistently measure loads up to 9,000 lbs at the top of the spring under all conditions. RAETECH's extensive FEA work and the use of a high strength 7075 T651 aluminum alloy results in a design strong enough for the right front and sensitive enough for the left rear. Spring Mounts are robust enough to accept loads to 12,000 lbs. The RAETECH design is insensitive to spring diameter changes and off-center loading, which can plague other designs. The 3.75" diameter front and 3.375" diameter rear spring guide sections allow the use of normal spring centering sleeves if desired. Spring Mount Load Cells are available in models appropriately scaled for front or rear spring load measurement. All RAETECH load cells are temperature compensated for operation in the racing environment and available wired for direct strain gage bridge connection or with amplified 0-5V outputs (8-16V allowable power). Custom output ranges are available on request. RAETECH Center of Pressure Sensing Spring Mount Load Cell: RAETECH's exclusive Center of Pressure option splits the spring load output into 4 quadrants, effectively measuring jack screw bending and spring center of pressure offset. It is based on the same proven hardware as the normal RAETECH Spring Mount Load Cell, but incorporates additional electronics. This allows spring bucket angle optimization without the complexity of instrumenting the spring bucket. Total force and force eccentricity is calculated with supplied equations using data acquisition math channels. An optional 4 into 1 Signal Conditioner is available to allow the Center of Pressure Spring Mount to function as a single channel Load Cell. This allows the data acquisition system channel count to be reduced during tests where eccentric load data is not required. \|Spring Mount Load Cell\| \|Calibrated Range Front\|\|9,000 lbs\| \|Calibrated Range Rear\|\|4,600 lbs\| \|Static Error Band % F.S.\|\|±0.60%\| \|Non-Linearity % F.S.\|\|±0.25%\| \|Hysteresis % F.S.\|\|±0.50%\| \|Calibrated Range\|\|50 to 260°F (10 to 125°C)\| \|Operating Range\|\|0 to 300°F (-20 to 150°C)\| \|Zero Drift %R.O./°F\|\|±0.002%\| \|Span Shift %/°F\|\|±0.008%\| \|Output Range\|\|0.1 - 4.9 V\| \|Sensitivity Front(lb/v)\|\|2300 typ.\| \|Sensitivity Rear(lb/v)\|\|1200 typ.\| \|No Load Output\|\|1.0 V typ.\| \|Supply Power (unregulated)\|\|8 - 36 Vdc\| \|Safe Overload Capacity\|\|130%\| \|Front Spring Mount\|\|1169-01-04-220\| \|Rear Spring Mount\|\|1169-01-04-230\| \|Programmer - SG Amplifier\|\|1169-01-50-300\| Programmed to Customer Specification or User Configurable with Optional Programmer For Additional Information or to Order Load Sensing Products Please Contact: 4750 Venture Dr. Suite 100, Ann Arbor, MI 48108 Tel: 734-665-2215 Fax: 734-665-2626
Man things with a vintage, handmade, DIY, rustic and freaky edge. Resist acceleration. Live free or die trying. * About me * Why I do this BBQ Part 2 TP from RWSS HH (via REDWING1905) 6:49 pm • 1 August 2012 • 6 notes REDWING1905 Nothing hotter than a guy with neck tattoos. Bonus points for business-men with neck (or hand) tattoos....
The Diamondbacks have decided to make it a race. The Giants are now officially in a funk with a four-game losing streak. The sixth inning inning of the season (Sunday's loss in Cincinnati was game 108) saw the Giants toss away the mo' they had so brilliantly seized in Philadelphia. Inning number seven in San Francisco kept the ugliness alive as Matt Cain surrendered five runs. Giants pitchers allowed twenty runs in three games against the Reds. Cain had some bad luck on ground balls and got squeezed at home plate a few times, but he also made some poor pitches. The one to Ryan Roberts that drove in the second run was particularly frustrating with two strikes. An out there could have kept the wheels on the damn wagon. Arizona got a great start from Ian Kennedy--he allowed only six hits. It all started so well with Cain striking out Justin Upton to end the first and leadoff hitter Cody Ross belting a home run to open the bottom of the inning. I was enjoying a bit of a "Bruce Bochy is a lineup genius" moment and thought maybe Matty could give the team seven strong with at least a shot to win. It was the fifth time in 23 starts that the big fella has given up five or more runs. Rotten timing for the club. Arizona won for only the third time in 10 games against the Giants this season. The 2010 Giants went 13-15 in August after a sizzling 20-8 July and before an historic 18-8 September in which they allowed only 50 runs. The 2011 team has been steady but not spectacular. The innings go 10-8, 10-8, 9-9, 10-8, 11-7, 11-7 (and 0-1). The months, after an 0-1 March, go 13-12, 16-12, 17-11, 15-11. After the loss tonight they are only one game up (61-48) on Arizona (60-49). Let's see what Big Time Timmy Jim has going tomorrow because there's no joy in Mudville tonight.
Women need some safety applications when they go out. There are Applications available compatible with Smartphones. They can be used in times of Emergency Some of them are. “If you are a college student then this App is especially made for you. This App allows you to alert your friends and family and emergency responders like 911, along with that it also alerts campus police. With this App you can send alerts based on time. Say like, if you didn’t get to home in an hour then this OnWatch App inform your friends and others about your GPS location. You can download this App for iPhone and Android. It enables you a free 90 day trial subscription with .edu mail address and for others it offers 30 day free trial. 2.”Using this CircleOf6 App you can add 6 friends or family members so that they will be informed when you need it. This Application enables you to send a text message to your friends or family members with your current GPS location and a message like ‘Come and Get Me’. If you are low on balance then you can also send out a ‘call me’ message. It can be easily programmed to call selected national hotlines or local emergency numbers. And the good news is that it is Free for iPhone and Android Smartphones. 3.FightBack, the women’s safety application, sends SOS alerts from your phone. FightBack uses GPS, SMS, location maps, GPRS ,email and your Facebook account to inform your loved ones in case you are in danger. Join us and help make our streets safer for women. Write to us on email@example.com 4.By using this Redpanicbutton Application, it allows you to push a central button and generate a security alert, by doing this it will activate immediate contact with emergency services, it will also provide quick details of the current location and along with that it will automatically dials various emergency numbers and sending of panic messages via various communication channels like text message, mails and social networks like Facebook and Twitter. But this Android Free version is for only one panic contact so better buy a full version. The general complaint against these applications are the unreliability of 3 G Services in India. People suggest applications not using Internet is needed. One may also use the Speed dial. In some of the Applications the location is not specified to the receiver. Would some one Link it to Google Maps? I also recommend Pepper Spray Gun.
ran returns to school after being sick for a few days “hey guys!!!! are you ready to play soccer???” “what. are you a new student or something?” it is 20 minutes into fifth period. euiko sits at a desk. suddenly she looks up. she is not in this class. she leaves I blogging! I learning how blog. Where you? !!!! welcome Tao!!! I am glad to see you like blogging :))) you will have a good time here i know it!!!! :)
Young Jeezy – Over Here Lyrics on Rap Genius The lyric "She said she like my" from "Over Here" by Young Jeezy has not yet been explained. To explain these lyrics, visit "Over Here" by Young Jeezy Lyrics , highlight the lyrics, and click 'explain'
Rihanna Covers Vogue’s April 2011 Issue The ultra-successful music diva and ‘S&M’ singer, Rihanna is honored with the cover story for Vogue’s 10th Annual Shape Issue. Rihanna first appeared on the cover of U.S. edition of Vogue magazine, with a look “different” and a bright shade of red so that more hair that you could swear it burns.For this photo shoot Rihanna wore a Channel dress of pre-fall 2011 colletion. This colaboration was revealed of Rihanna on Twitter since January “Just wrapped my first American Vogue cover shoot with Annie Leibovitz…Rah! #SEXY” . Inside she speaks about her relationship of Rihanna with her estranged father “It’s really strange. That’s the only word I can think of to describe it, because you grow up with your father, you know him, you are a part of him, for goodness’ sakes! And then he does something so bizarre that I can’t begin to wrap my mind around it.” “You hear the horror stories about people going behind people’s backs and doing strange things, but you always think, Not my family. My father would never do that to me.” Also she said that “That was the first time,my dad went to the press and just told them a bunch of lies. Because he hadn’t talked to me after… that whole thing…. He never called to find out how I was doing, if I was alive, nothing. He just never called. He went straight to the press and got a check. And now he does it again.” About her body she said that “Over the holidays I realized that, I actually like my body, even if it’s not perfect according to the book. I just feel sexy. For the first time, I don’t want to get rid of the curves. I just want to tone it up. My body is comfortable, and it’s not unhealthy, so I’m going to rock with it.”
Spam Fried RiceApril 22nd, 2012Recipes, 30-Minute Recipes, Recipes, Chinese Recipes, Recipes16 Comments Not the spam you get in your email inbox every day, but the “spiced ham” or canned pre-cooked meat that is very popular here in the United States and around the world. Everyone knows that Spam is not healthy food; we feel sorry for our health as we consume it, but let’s just confess that many of us actually do like it. I like it. My late mother used to make spam with fried eggs. I also like it in my instant noodles, sometimes in my sandwiches, but mostly in Spam fried rice. Little cubes of spam, mixed vegetables, rice, and eggs often make a quick lunch for me. Spam fried rice is so easy to make, filling, and actually quite tasty. Don’t feel guilty about eating spam. Many people do. So once in a while, make yourself a serving or two of Spam fried rice and indulge in the guilty pleasure! (Click Page 2 for the Spam Fried Rice Recipe)
Merry Christmas Everyone Holidays D'AAWWWWW, so kawaii, anywho, i dicided to draw something since i dont draw very much anymore, well me kaliyah tristan and ryan all say merry christmas, love you RMD community! and to my own suprise. . . NO REFRENCES USED OMG! lawls so anywho,LuV yOu Created Dec 23, 2010. Unless noted Copyright 2010 jaklover1. Free drawing tools All drawings on our website are created with our free web based drawing tools. Drawing tool demo Top draws this week Check out some of the hottest drawings created by our members this week. View top drawings Draw and chat live DrawChat is a chat room where you can draw and chat live with other members.
The Great Attraction: The Uplifted Christ by REUBEN ARCHER TORREY—1856-1928 And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto myself — John 12:32. IN A RECENT ADVERTISEMENT OF A Sunday evening service in one of our American cities it was stated that there would be three attractions: a high-class movie show, a popular gospel pianist and his wife, rendered by a well-known prima donna. It is somewhat startling when an unusually gifted and popular preacher, or his advertising committee, thinks of the gospel of the Son of God as having so lost its power to draw, that it must be bolstered up by putting on a selection from a very questionable opera, rendered by a professional opera singer, as an additional attraction to help out our once crucified and now glorified Savior and Lord. This advertisement set me to thinking as to what really was the great attraction to men in this day as well as in former days? At once there came to my mind the words of our text containing God's answer to this question: "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto myself." There is nothing else that draws like the uplifted Christ. Movies may get a crowd of empty-headed and empty-hearted young men and maidens, and even middle-aged folks without brains or moral earnestness, for a time, but nothing really draws and holds the men and women who are worthwhile like Jesus Christ lifted up. Nineteen centuries of Christian history prove the drawing power of Jesus when He is properly presented to men. I have seen some wonderful verification of the assertion of our text as to the marvelous drawing power of the uplifted Christ. In London, for two continuous months, six afternoons and evenings each week, I saw the great Royal Albert Hall filled and even jammed, and sometimes as many turned away as got in, though it would seat 10,000 people by actual count and stand 2,000 more in the dome. On the opening night of these meetings a leading reporter of the city of London came to me before the service began and said, "You have taken this building for two consecutive months?" "Yes." "And you expect to fill it every day?" "Yes." "Why," he said, "no one has ever attempted to hold two weeks' consecutive meetings here of any kind. Gladstone himself could not fill it for two weeks. And you really expect to fill it for two months?" I replied, "Come and see." He came and he saw. On the last night, when the place was jammed to its utmost capacity and thousands outside clamored for admission, he came to me again and I said, "Has it been filled?" He smiled and said, "It has." But what filled it? No show on earth could have filled it once a day for many consecutive days. The preacher was no remarkable orator. He had no gift of wit and humor, and would not have exercised it if he had. The newspapers constantly called attention to the fact that he was no orator, but the crowds came and came and came. On both rainy days, and fine days they crowded in or stood outside, oftentimes in a downpour of rain, in the vain hope of getting in. WHAT DREW THEM? The uplifted Christ preached and sung in the power of the Holy Spirit, given in answer to the daily prayers of 40,000 people scattered throughout the earth. In Liverpool, the Tournament Hall, that was said to seat 20,000 people, and that by actual count seated 12,500 comfortably, located in a very out-of-the-way part of the city, several blocks from the nearest street-car line, and perhaps half a, mile from all the regular street-car lines, was filled night after night for three months, and on the last night they crowded 15,000 people into the building at seven o'clock, and then emptied it, and crowded another 15,000 in who had been patiently waiting outside; 30,000 people drawn in a single night! By what? By whom? Not by the preacher, not by the singer, but by Him who had said nearly nineteen hundred years before, "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto myself." The Exact Meaning of the Text Let us now look at the exact meaning of the text. First, notice who is the speaker, and what were the circumstances under which He spoke? The Speaker was our Lord Jesus. Not the Christ of men's imaginings, but the Christ of reality, the Christ of actual historic fact. Not the Christ of Mary Baker Eddy's maudlin fancy, or of Madam Besant's mystical imaginings, but the Christ of actuality, who lived here among men and was seen, heard and handled by men, and who was soon to die a real death to save real sinners from a real hell and a real heaven. The circumstances were these. Certain Greeks among those who went up to worship at the Jewish feast came to one of the apostles, Philip, and said, "We would see Jesus" (John 12:21). And Philip went to Andrew and told Andrew what these Greeks said. Andrew and Philip together came and told Jesus. In the heart-cry of these Greeks, "We would see Jesus," our Lord recognized the yearning of the universal heart, the heart of Greek, as well as Jew, for a satisfying Savior. The Greeks had their philosophers and sages, their would-be satisfiers and saviors, the greatest the world has ever known-Socrates, Aristotle, Plato, Epictetus, Epimenides, and many others-but they did not save, and they did not satisfy, and the Greeks cried, "We would see JESUS." In their eager coming Jesus foresaw the millions of all nations who would flock to Him when He had been crucified as the universal Savior, meeting all the needs of all mankind, and so He cried, "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto myself." In the second place, notice the words, "If I be lifted up." To what does Jesus refer? The next verse answers the question. "But this he said, signifying by what manner of death he should die" (John 12:33). Jesus referred to His lifting up on the cross, to die as an atoning Savior for all mankind. This verse is often quoted as if it meant that, if we lifted up Christ in our preaching, He would draw men. That is true, and it is a crying shame that we do not hold just Him up more in our preaching, and we would draw far more people if we did; but that is not our Lord's meaning. The lifting up clearly referred not to His not being lifted up by His enemies on the cross, to expose Him to awful shame and to an agonizing death. It is Christ crucified who draws; it is Christ crucified who meets the deepest needs of the heart of all mankind. It is an atoning Savior, a Savior who atones for the sins of men by His death, and thus saves from the holy wrath of an infinitely holy God, who meets the needs of men, and thus draws all men, for all men are sinners. Preach any Christ but a crucified Christ, and you will not draw men for long. Preach any gospel but a gospel of atoning blood, and it will not draw for long. Unitarianism does not draw men. Unitarian churches are born only to die. Their corpses strew New England today. Many of their ministers have been intellectually among the most brilliant our country has ever known, but their churches even under scholarly and brilliant ministers die, die, die. Why? Because Unitarianism presents a gospel without atoning blood, and Jesus has said and history has proven it true, "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto myself" "Christian Science," strangely so called, for as has been often truly said, "is neither Christian nor scientific," draws crowds of men and women of a certain type, men and women who have or imagine that they have physical ailments, and who will follow anything no matter how absurd, that promises them a little surcease from their real or imagined pains. It also draws crowds who wish to fancy that they have some religion without paying the price of true religion, genuine love, real self-sacrifice, and costly sympathy. But Christian Science does not draw all men, that is, all kinds and conditions and ranks of men. In fact for the most part it does not draw men at all, but women, and the alleged men it draws are for the most part women in trousers, and men who see any easy way to make a living by preying upon the credulity of luckless females. No, a bloodless gospel, a gospel with a Christ but not a Christ lifted up on a cross, does not meet the universal needs of men, and so does not draw all men. Congregationalism of late years has been sadly tinctured with Unitarianism. In spite of the fact that it has been an eye-witness to Unitarianism's steady decay and death, Congregationalism has largely dropped the atoning blood out of its theology, and consequently it is rapidly going to the wall. Its once great Andover Seminary, still great in the size of its endowment that was given for the teaching of Bible orthodoxy, but which the conscienceless teachers of a bloodless theology have deliberately taken for the exploitation of their "damnable heresies" (2 Peter 2:1), and which is still great in the number of its professors, graduated at their annual graduating exercises last spring just three men, one a Japanese, one a Hindu, and one an American. A theology without a crucified Savior, without the atoning blood, won't draw. It does not meet the need. No, no, the words of our Lord are still true, "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto myself." Note, in the third place, the words, "Draw all men." Does "all men" mean all individuals or men of all races? Did Jesus mean that every man and woman who lived on this earth would be drawn to Him, or did He mean that men of all races would be drawn to Him? The context answers the question. The Greeks, as we have seen, came to one of the apostles, Philip, and said, "We would see Jesus," and Philip had gone and told Andrew, and Andrew and Philip had gone and told Jesus. Our Lord's ministry during His earthly life was to Jews only, and in the coming of these Greeks so soon before His death, our Lord saw the presage of the coming days when by His death on the cross the barrier between Jews and Gentiles would be broken down and all nations would have their opportunity equally with the Jews, when by His atoning death on the cross men of all nations would be drawn to Him. He did not say that He would draw every individual, but that all races of men: Greeks as well as Jews, Romans, Scythians, French, English, Germans, Japanese, Americans, and men of all nations. He is a universal Savior, and true Christianity is a universal religion. Mohammedanism, Buddhism, Confucianism, and all other religions, but Christianity, are religions of a restricted application. Christianity, with a crucified Christ as its center, is a universal religion that meets the needs of all mankind. It meets the needs of the European as well as the needs of the Asiatic, the needs of the Occident as well as the needs of the Orient, the needs of the American Indian and the needs of the African Negro; and so our Lord said, "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto myself." No race has ever been found anywhere on this earth to which the gospel did not appeal and whose deepest need the crucified Christ did not meet. Many years ago, when Charles Darwin, the eminent English scientist, came in contact with the Terre del Fuegans in their gross degradation, he publicly declared that here was a people to whom it was vain to send missionaries, as the gospel could not do anything for them. But brave men of God went there and took the gospel to them in the power of the Holy Spirit, and demonstrated that it met the need of the Terre del Fuegans, with such grave results that Charles Darwin publicly admitted his mistake and became a regular subscriber to the work. The gospel, with a crucified Christ as its center, meets the needs of all conditions and classes of men as well as of all races. It meets the need of the millionaire and the need of the pauper; it meets the need of great men of science like James D. Dana our Lord Kelvin, and the need of the man or woman who cannot read nor write; it meets the need of the king on the throne and the need of the laborer in the ditch. I myself have seen with my own eyes noblemen and servant girls, university deans and men who could scarcely read, prisoners in penitentiaries and leaders in moral uplift, brilliant lawyers and dull plodding workingmen, come under its attraction, and be saved by its power. But it was only because I made "Christ crucified," His atoning work, the center of my preaching. Notice in the fourth place, the words "Unto me." "I will draw all men unto me." The Revised Version reads "Unto myself," and that was just What Jesus said, "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto myself." It is not to a creed or a system of doctrine that Jesus draws men, but to a Person, to Himself. That is what we need, a Person, Jesus Himself. As He Himself once said, "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28). Creeds and confessions of faith are all right in their place, they are of great value; the organized church is of great value, it is indispensable, and it is the most important institution in the world today; society would soon go to rack and ruin without it. We are all under solemn obligation to God and to our fellow-man to support the church and belong to it, but creeds and confessions of faith cannot save. The church cannot save. A Divine Person can save, Jesus Christ, and He alone. So He says, "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto myself." Why Christ Lifted Up on the Cross Draws All Men Unto Himself But why does Christ lifted up on the cross, the crucified Christ, draw all men unto Himself? There are two reasons why Christ lifted up, and Christ crucified draws all men unto Himself. First, Christ crucified draws all men unto Himself because Christ crucified meets the first, the deepest, the greatest and most fundamental need of man. What is man's first, greatest, deepest, most fundamental need? A Savior? A Savior from what? First of all, and underlying all else, a Savior from the guilt of sin. Every man of every race has sinned. As Paul put it in Romans 3:22, 23, "There is no difference, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God." There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, at this point, nor is there any difference between English and German at this point, there is no difference between American and Japanese at this point, no difference between the European and Asiatic, no difference between the American and the African. "There is no difference; for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God." Every man of every race is a sinner, "there is no difference" at this point. And every man shall have to answer for his sin to the infinitely holy God who rules this universe. Therefore, all men need an atoning Savior who can by His atoning death make propitiation for, and so cover up, our sins-thus reconciling us to this holy God, delivering us from His awful wrath, and bringing us out into the glorious sunlight of His favor. And Jesus lifted up is the only atoning Savior in the universe. He who alone was at the same time God and man, He alone can make atonement for sin. He has made it, has made a perfect atonement, and God has accepted His atonement and, testified to His acceptance of His atonement by raising Him from the dead. The Lord Jesus actually meets our need. He actually meets every man's first, greatest, deepest, most fundamental need, and He alone. In all the universe there is no other religion but Christianity that even offers an atoning Savior. Mohammedanism offers Mohammed, "The Prophet," a teacher, but not a Savior. Buddhism offers Buddha, supposedly at least a wonderful teacher, "The Light of Asia," but not an atoning Savior. Confucianism offers Confucius, a marvelous teacher far ahead of his time, but not an atoning Savior. No religion offers an atoning Savior, offers an atonement of any real character, but Christianity. This is the radical point of difference between Christianity and every other religion in the world, yet some fool preachers are trying to eliminate from Christianity this, its very point of radical difference from all other religions. But such an emasculated Christianity will not reach the needs of men and Will not draw men. It never has and it never will. The Bible and history are at one at this point. Jesus Christ offers Himself lifted up on the cross to redeem us from the curse of the law, by "becoming a curse in our behalf." "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us; for it is written, Cursed is, every one that hangeth on a tree" (Galatians 3:13). Men know their need; they may try to forget it, they may try to deny it, they may try to drown their sense of it by drink and dissipation or by wild pleasure-seeking or wild money-getting, or by listening to fake preachers in supposedly orthodox pulpits, like one who in this city declared recently that, "the old sense of sin is fast disappearing," and added, "the change is for the better not for the worse." He spoke also of "imaginary and artificial sins like "the sin of unbelief," and then went on to say, "In this we agree with Christ," apparently not knowing enough about the Bible to know that Jesus Himself was the very one who said in John 16:8, 9, "And he, when he is come, will convict the world in respect of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment; of sin, because they believe not on me." But in spite of all our attempts to drown or stupefy or silence our sense of sin, our consciousness of guilt before a Holy God, we all have it, and like Banquo's Ghost, it will not down. Nothing gives the guilty conscience abiding peace but the atoning blood of Jesus Christ. And so, Christ lifted up draws all men unto Him, and even wicked ministers of Satan, like the preacher I have just referred to, sometimes come to their senses and flee to the real Christ, Christ crucified, as I hope this one may. Yes, Jesus, Jesus only, Jesus lifted up on the cross, Jesus crucified for our sins, making full atonement for our sins, He and He alone meets the deepest need of us all, and so His cross draws us all unto Himself. Happy the man or the woman who yields to that drawing; woe be to the man or woman who resists that drawing; final gloom, despondency, and despair are their lot. Oh, how many men and women who have gotten their eyes opened to see the facts, to see their awful guilt, and who have been plunged into deepest consequent despair, have come to me, and I have pointed them to Jesus on the cross and have shown them by God's Word all their sins laid upon Him and thus settled. They have come to Him and believed God's testimony about Him, that He, had borne all their sins in His own body on the cross, and they have found perfect peace and boundless joy. And that is the only way to find perfect peace and boundless joy. Will you set out to find peace? If you do not, great gloom and utter despair, await you some day, in this world or in the world to come. In my first pastorate I tried to get a man to come to Christ lifted up to meet his need of pardon. Though this was many years ago, he held to the theology that is preached as "new theology" today. He sought to still the voice of conscience and stupefy his sense of sin by denying his guilt and his need of an atoning Savior. He did not wish to listen to me nor to see me. But the, hour came when death drew nigh. A cancer was eating its way through scalp and skull into his brain; then he cried to those about his dying bed, "Send for Mr. Torrey." I hurried to his side. He was in despair. "Oh!" he said, "Dr. Tidhall tells me that I have but a short time to live, that as soon as this cancer gets a little further and eats through the thin film of skull and touches the brain I am a dead man. Tell me how to be saved." I tried to make as plain as I knew how the way of salvation through the uplifted Christ, Christ uplifted on the cross, and I think I know how to make it plain, but he had waited too long, he could not grasp it. I stayed with him. Night came on. I said to his family, "You have been up night after night with him, I will sit with him tonight." They instructed me what to do, how to minister to him. Time after time during the night I had to go to another room to get some nourishment for him, and as I would come back into the room where he lay, from his bed in the corner there would rise the constant cry, "Oh, I wish I were a Christian. Oh, I wish I were a Christian. Oh, I wish I were a Christian." And thus he died. In the second place, Christ lifted up on the cross, Christ crucified draws all men unto Him, because lifted up there to die for us He reveals His wonderful love, and the wondrous love of the Father for us. "Hereby know we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us" (1 John 3:16), and "God commendeth his love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:6, 8). There is nothing that draws men like love. Love draws all men in every clime. But no other love draws like the love of God. John 3:16, "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life," has broken thousands of hard hearts. One night, preaching in my own church in Minneapolis, the whole choir stayed for the after-meeting. The leading soprano was an intelligent young woman, but she was living a worldly life. She remained with the rest. In the after-meeting, her mother arose in the back of the church and said, "I wish you would pray for the conversion of my daughter." I did not look around but knew instinctively that her cheeks were flushing, and her eyes were flashing with anger. As soon as the meeting was dismissed, I hurried down so that I would meet her before she got out of the church. As she came toward me I held out my hand to her. She stamped her foot, and with flashing eyes cried, "Mr. Torrey, my mother knows better than to do that. She knows it will only make me worse." I said, "Sit down, Cora." She sat down, and without any argument I opened my Bible to Isaiah 53:5, and began to read, "But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed." She burst into tears, and the next night accepted Jesus Christ. I had to go to Duluth for a few days, and when I returned I found that she was seriously ill. One morning her brother came hurrying up to my home and said that she was apparently dying, that she was unconscious and white from the loss of blood. I hastened down. As I entered the room, she lay there with her eyes closed, with the whitest face I ever saw on one who was not actually dead. She was apparently unconscious, scarcely breathing. I knelt by her side to pray, more for the sake of the mother who stood beside the bed than for her, for I supposed that she was beyond help or hearing. But no sooner had I finished my prayer, than in a clear, full, richly musical tone she began to pray. These were about her words, "Heavenly Father, if it be Thy will, raise me up that as I have used my voice for myself and only to please myself, I may use my voice for Thy glory, but if in Thy wisdom Thou seest that it is best for me not to live, I shall be glad to go to be with Christ," and she went to be with Christ. Oh, I have seen thousands melted as I have repeated to them and shown them the picture of Christ on the cross, as told in Isaiah 53:5, "But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed." A few days ago I received a missionary magazine containing a testimony from one who was going to Egypt under the Egypt General Mission. This young missionary said, "When I was twelve years old, during the Torrey-Alexander meetings, in 1904, I gave my heart to the Lord Jesus Christ. Dr. Torrey was speaking on the text, Isaiah 53:5, and he asked us to repeat the words with him, but changing the word "our" into the word "my." While repeating the text in this way I suddenly realized, as if for the first time, that Jesus had really suffered all this for me, and there and then I gave my life to Him." Oh! men and women, look now! See Jesus Christ lifted up on the cross, see Him hanging on that awful cross, see Him wounded for your transgressions, bruised for your iniquities, and the chastisement of your peace laid on Him. Oh, men and women living in sin, men and women rejecting Christ for the world, men and women who have looked to the lies of Christian Science, Unitarianism and other systems that deny His atoning blood, Listen! "But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed." Won't you yield to that love, won't you give up your sin, give up your worldly pleasures, give up your willful errors, and accept the Savior who loves you and died for you, who was "Wounded for your transgressions; bruised for your iniquities" and upon whom the chastisement of your peace was laid? Accept Him right now.
Odorizzi with a possible invite Brian over at Pocket Doppler had this bit of news to drop. The agent for Milwaukee Brewers 2008 supplemental first-round draft choice, right-handed pitcher Jake Odorizzi, said he expects his client to receive an invite to spring training in 2011. “We do expect one, and we expect one because a couple reasons,” said Odorizzi’s agent, Jason Wood. “One, because Jake has given a lot to the organization already in terms of willingness to learn. He’s participated in everything they’ve asked him to do, he’s done. Everyplace they’ve asked him to fly, every program they’ve wanted him to participate, he’s done that. And he knows that’s in his best interest.” Now for the, hold on a second moment… Just because Odorizzi may get an invite to spring training, doesn’t mean he has a chance of playing for the Brewers this season, even a slim one. It would be more of an opportunity to just let him get a taste of the major league. “He did get called up for a few spring training games last year but didn’t get to participate,” said Wood. “So my guess is, to help acclimate him to a big league clubhouse and to help get him familiar with that environment, I think he will get an invite. That is still pretty cool.
- The incidence of depression among lawyers is higher than among any other profession. - The reason for this may be that law school and the legal profession attract the kinds of people who are prone to depression. - Lawyers should know the symptoms of depression, to recognize whether they or their colleagues need help. That guest post apparently hit a nerve; it generated nine trackbacks and 25 comments. Prompted by the most recent comment, Evan wrote a follow-up post yesterday that's worth reading. Today, I fear that depression still carries a stigma among lawyers, as if the sufferer should be fitted for a straitjacket. This isn't good. The stigma can discourage a sufferer to acknowledge the problem and get help. A lawyer with untreated depression is going to be impaired, thus prone to committing legal malpractice. Worse, untreated depression creates a greater risk of suicide. Whether or not each of us has this disease, each of us should understand it. It's an illness, not a character defect. We should have the same attitude toward it that we have toward any other illness. We should be aware of its symptoms, and anyone showing the symptoms should be encouraged to get medical help.
To My Favorite Valentine….Baseball It gets me all giddy inside. The anticipation, the excitement, the thrill of knowing one of my greatest loves in this World is only days away. Baseball to me is my first and only true love who has stood the test of time. Others like the NFL, NHL and defunct NASL lost their luster and soon were just memories tuck into darken alcoves within my mind. Someone asked me today why I have such a deep devotion and love for this game. The same one that can have you on the edge of your seat one moment, then crashing down in disbelief in another. Well, to be honest my long time love for this game started a long time ago in a series of batting cages that have long since been replaced by residential blight. My first memory of the game was going to the miniature golf course on S. Pasadena Ave across from my dad’s friend Jim Brook’s gas station going 18 holes then getting into a cages to hit some balls. My first field I ever played baseball on as a 8 year old was a back lot clay and semi-grassed enclave at the Little League Regional Headquarters just between Gulfport and St. Petersburg, Florida. It was here I first had a grounder come up and bite me in the nose (broke it), experienced the joy of hitting a ball as far as I could throw it, and made my first head-first slide. It was a couple years later when I played in the concrete arena (stadium) and against some poor kid I slugged one out of the park and onto the railroad tracks that ran just North of the stadium. My love for the game started young. I did not know the true exploits of Don Zimmer and Stan Musial who used to come to my father gas station and fill up their cars during the Gas Wars era. They would throw the ball with me a bit after I did their windshields and checked their oil and air in their tires, but I shudder now in disbelief I did not venture into my baseball books or research the Sunday paper’s stats sheet to know of their greatness. I still hold that same young kid within me every time I enter Tropicana Field or venture out to Spring Training practices or games. I still carry the glove more for sentimental reasons than to catch a BP or foul ball. Heck for years my glove sitting on that green painted metal pipe that ran down the concrete wall in Section 138 was more of a fixture than me sitting in my Season Ticket seat. I still thrill when a ball comes in hot with sound streaming off it and hear the “pop” of the glove as I grip it or feel a sting from its impact. Usually a kid near me is the final recipient of the ball as I have many now, and want to give other that same thrill and love of this grand game. Maybe that is why this game has never soured for me, even during those awkward first 9 years of the Rays when victories were slim and frustrations mounted within my belly wanting something special to happen like stealing a win on a walk-off or shutting a high power offense via a display of power by striking out the side for the save. The sound of the ball off the bat still sends my heart a-flutter, watching a player run towards a ball at the wall and leaping either to crash on the wall or come down with that white sphere within his grasp still excites me to no end. My favorite baseball movie is still “For the Love of the Game”. Not for the aspect of a pitcher throwing the game of his life on his last outing, but the flooding of baseball memories that will be fodder for conversations and trips down memory lane for the rest of his life. The recent upturn of the Rays fortunes since 2008 have kept me wishing and wanting for more, hopefully seeing a ticker tape parade and being able to kiss or hold that glorious golden trophy myself as so many other greats of this game. I am about to hit the big 5..2, and now am starting to get into a baseball frame of mind and physical state to some day possibly play with the Kids and Cubs down near Vinoy Park. Sure at that stage in my advanced level of baseball skills I will not be the speed demon I was in college, or even hit one 327 feet down the line, but the chance to play baseball with people like myself who’s kinship with this game has not waned or been shackled would be not only a tremendous thrill, but another thing to make off my lifetime Bucket List. Baseball holds a huge part of me firmly within its grasp, and on a day when loves rules the air, ground and seas I consider myself blessed to have discovered this game, cherished its traditions and idiosyncrasies to a T, not blinking an eye in the process. On this constructed day of affection and bliss it is time for me to again profess my undying devotion and honest commitment to always be there for the game, take the good with the bad and cherish the moments as if they were my last. The valentine is usually a heart-shaped reminder of love, commitment. For me that symbol is a diamond that encompasses four 90 foot sections, it is the sounds and actions played out upon that perfect field among those young at heart who remember their first hit, throw and cherish it always just as myself. The elements of my valentine fits in my fist, with 9 inches of circumference covered with white cowhide and red stitching. I swear when I leave this Earth they will open me up and find a pearly white baseball where my heart should be…..Or at least I hope they do. Happy Valentines Day
Intel demonstrated a wireless electric power system that could revolutionize modern life by eliminating chargers, wall outlets and eventually batteries all together by 2050. Intel chief technology officer Justin Rattner demonstrated a Wireless Energy Resonant Link at Intel’s 2008 developer’s forum. During the demo electricity was sent wirelessly to a lamp on stage, lighting a 60 watt bulb that uses more power than a typical laptop computer. Most importantly, the electricity was transmitted without zapping anything or anyone that got between the sending and receiving units. “The trick with wireless power is not can you do it; it’s can you do it safely and efficiently,” according to Intel researcher Josh Smith. “It turns out the human body is not affected by magnetic fields; it is affected by elective fields. So what we are doing is transmitting energy using the magnetic field not the electric field.” Examples of potential applications include airports, offices or other buildings that could be rigged to supply power to laptops, mobile telephones or other devices toted into them. The technology could also be built into plugged in computer components, such as monitors, to enable them to broadcast power to devices left on desks or carried into rooms, according to Mr. Smith. - Duracell, Energizer, Texas Instruments and Motorola Mobility in Attendance at the International Wireless Power Summit (prweb.com) - British Start-Up Working to Bring Wireless Charging to the Racetrack (wheels.blogs.nytimes.com)
Compton Voters Approve District Elections Paving the Way for More Representation for Latino Voters In the wake of the settlement of a voting rights lawsuit handled by Rosen, Bien & Galvan, the Los Angeles Times reported on June 6, 2012 that voters in Compton, California have resoundingly approved district elections for city council, “a development that could mean more representation for the City’s Latino population. . . A lawsuit filed against the city by three Latinas in late-2010 alleged that the system dilutes the voting power of Latino residents — who are a minority of the city’s adult citizens despite being a majority of the total population — and violates the California Voting Rights Act.” RBG’s Gay Grunfeld, who represented the plaintiffs in the dispute, was quoted in a Daily Journal article, “Compton voters approve election changes” on June 7, characterizing election results as “a very significant victory.” Grunfeld went on to say, “It clears the way to finally bring Compton into compliance with the California Voting Rights Act.” Joaquin Avila, Director of the National Voting Rights Advocacy Initiative at Seattle University School of Law, and Rosen, Bien & Galvan represented plaintiffs in the dispute with the City of Compton over the City’s election system. The parties issued a joint press release announcing settlement of the case on February 28, 2012, which is set out below. Compton Voting Rights Lawsuit Resolved COMPTON, February 28, 2012 The City of Compton, California and voters Felicitas González, Flora Ruiz and Enelida Alvarez announced today a resolution to a long-standing dispute over the Citys election system. Plaintiffs González and Ruiz sued the City in December 2010, claiming that the Citys at-large method of elections violates the California Voting Rights Act of 2001 because it prevents Latino voters from electing candidates of their choice in this city of almost 100,000. The City denies the plaintiffs allegation and maintains that its electoral system is equally open to all voters, but can be changed only by the voters. Trial had been set for May 7, 2012 in Los Angeles Superior Court. In the settlement announced today, the City has agreed to provide two opportunities for Compton voters to decide whether to establish district-based election for City Council by placing charter amendments on the June 2012 ballot and, if the measure fails to pass in June, on the November 2012 ballot. The City will also provide voter education on the proposed charter amendments. If the charter amendments pass, the City agrees to draw electoral districts according to the 2010 Census. Plaintiffs will have an opportunity to review proposed electoral districts. The next City Council election is slated for April 2013. City Attorney Craig Cornwell announced the settlement, stating that Comptons voters should have an opportunity to consider changing the Citys electoral system and the benefits that district-based elections offer to all City voters, including possibly increasing voter turnout. City Attorney Cornwell also noted that the current electoral system is specified in the City Charter and can be changed only by the voters. Cornwell stated that the settlement would end protracted litigation and allow the City to refocus resources in a more positive direction. We welcome the opportunity for all neighborhoods in Compton to have a stronger voice in City elections, said Gay Grunfeld, attorney for the plaintiffs. This settlement brings positive democratic change to the elections process. The case is González et al. v. City of Compton, Los Angeles Superior Court Case No. BC 450494. The plaintiffs are represented by Joaquin Avila, Director of the National Voting Rights Advocacy Initiative at Seattle University School of Law, and by Rosen, Bien & Galvan, LLP of San Francisco. The City of Compton is represented by City Attorney Craig Cornwell and his deputy, Jose Paz, and by the Marin County office of Nielsen Merksamer Parrinello Gross & Leoni LLP. Gay C. Grunfeld (415) 260-5683 firstname.lastname@example.org Craig Cornwell (310) 605-5582 email@example.com February 29th, 2012 June 6th, 2012
Comme des Garçons PARFUMS Amazingreen fragrance presents an interactive journey into kaleidoscopic abstraction exclusively on www.POSTmatter.com, the newly launched online extension of the cutting-edge iPad magazine POST, founded by Alexander Dellal. An evocation of the lush exuberance of nature, Amazingreen is a dazzling fusion of the organic and the mineral, of freshness and depth. An astounding blast of green energy with top notes of verdant, natural wild leaves juxtaposed with an elemental heart of coriander and flint and finished with white musk, Amazingreen is the ultimate green fragrance. Within this sensorial framework, Amazingreen is conceptualised on www.POSTmatter.com as a journey through a dazzlingly green rainforest, in which the individual olfactory ingredients of the fragrance appear as 3D animations which transition through a series of kaleidoscopic filters controlled by the audiences cursor. Visit the New RDuJourStore: Store.RDuJour.com Find RDuJour on : Twitter – @RDuJour and Facebook FanPage
Curious about something? Noticed something new lately and wondered why it appeared? Or have you suddenly noticed different people around you? Different life styles? Have you recently started doing something in a different way, and not sure why that is? Or maybe you have noticed some trend, but cannot explain it? If any of the above apply to you, and you just wish you had the resources to dig into it and find out why something has suddenly hit your radar screen, well, maybe a Reach Advisors Reseach Fellowship is for you. So think about your idea and how it is affecting the consumer landscape. It can be about museums, or not. We're looking for perceptive individuals, and since we are all curious folks, we're open to topics from a variety of fields. For more information, go to http://reachadvisors.com/working-with-us/employment.
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There’s a lot to like in Aquaman #1. I think the book delivers a lot of what Aquaman fans want from a first issue. Geoff Johns and company go to great pains to make Aquaman cool. And they largely succeed. Unfortunately, Geoff Johns does this will all the subtly of a sledgehammer to the skull. Things that are awesome: The art. The art in this book is freaking awesome. I have been impressed by the overall look of the relaunch. There have been some beautiful books. I don’t think any book is going to live up to Batwoman #1. But Aquaman #1 is a really gorgeous book. I have long been a fan of Ivan Reis. And he’s doing some of his best work here. But I was equally impressed by the colors which popped off the page. The art team were the stars of this book. Aquaman. Yes, Aquaman is awesome. If you had any doubt, Johns reminds you in every panel. When we first see Aquaman in Aquaman #1 he’s kicking ass on land. But Aquaman sucks on land, you say? No, sir. You are wrong. Aquaman kicks ass by land or sea. If you dropped him out of a plane, he’d kick ass by air too. Aquaman is finally cool. I really liked this sequence. Yes, it is clearly intended to shut up fans who think Aquaman is a joke. But it does so by showing us how cool Aquaman is rather than telling is. In the course of foiling some common criminals, Aquaman displays an impressive array of powers any super hero would be proud to possess. He’s super strong. He’s nearly bullet proof. And he can leap tall buildings in a single bound. The scene ends with a cop thanking Aquaman and asking him if he needs any water. Aquaman scowls in disapproval. It’s a meta moment. Johns himself is scowling at readers who think Aquaman has such silly weaknesses. Aquaman leaps away Hulk style leaving the cops to muse, “Can you believe we just got shown up by Aquaman?” Johns isn’t even attempting to be subtle. You think Aquaman is a joke? You’re as wrong as the cops. Aquaman is awesome dammit! Things that are not awesome: Johns’ overuse of meta commentary. I was completely willing to forgive Johns beating me over the head with a message during this scene. Yeah, it lacked subtlety. But some people need to be convinced. And since the majority of convincing was done by showing, I could forgive a little telling. But Johns was just getting started. He really, really wanted to stick it to those jokesters who have been clowning Aquaman since his Superfriends days. So the entire middle section of the book features Aquaman being interviewed by a dorky blogger while he’s trying to have lunch. By the way, Aquaman orders fish and chips. Why? Because some of you clowns need to know that Aquaman is man enough to eat fish and chips! What’s wrong with you people? You think Aquaman won’t eat a fish? Well, Johns is going to clear that up in issue #1, thank you very much. He even has an on-looker comment, “You can’t order fish and chips. You’re Aquaman!” Just in case you missed the point that Aquaman is so bad ass that he will order seafood. Granted, Aquaman storms out before he actually eats his lunch. So we’ll have to wait till next issue before we get the answer to the burning question: vinegar or tatar sauce. Johns has a long history of making fun of his critics in his books. Superboy Prime is the most obvious (and tiresome example). This blogger is practically the second coming of Superboy Prime. He’s an obnoxious jerk who stands in for all the fan boys Johns can’t stand. The entire scene drags on entirely too long. And it’s the laziest crutch you can imagine for a writer. The greatest crime for me is that Ivan Reis is positively kicking ass on this book. And what does Johns give him to draw? Aquaman arguing with a fan boy in the booth of some seafood joint. I’m running the risk of belaboring the point. So I’ll move on now. This sequence doesn’t sink the book. But it comes pretty close. Given the high price of comics these days, it is unthinkable to spend 1/3 of the first issue of a book on something this pointless. From there, Aquaman visits the lighthouse his dad kept. He’s contemplative and gives new readers a brief recap of his origin. Mera joins him so the flashbacks can continue in the form of a dialogue rather than internal monologue. It’s not the most elegant handling of exposition. But it’s a decent introduction to the character for any new readers out there. The book begins and ends with a tease of the new menace Aquaman will face in the first story arc now that the introductions have been taken care of. The toothy fishmen look interesting enough. I look forward to seeing Aquaman in action against them. But please, from now on just show me how totally bad-ass Aquaman is. No more meta, Geoff. You used that trick up long ago.
United States law enforcement officials have been utilizing data provided by global positioning satellite systems to track down individual suspects, without having to demonstrate probable cause before a judge first - that much is known. Rights groups such as the ACLU have wondered, just how much of that goes on? In trying to obtain Freedom of Information Act data about the practice, the ACLU found itself blocked by the Justice Dept. The reason: DOJ believed that disclosure of the cases where warrantless GPS tracking was used, would violate the privacy of the suspect, especially if that suspect turned out not being guilty in the first place. In other words, giving the ACLU enough data for it to ascertain the circumstances in which GPS tracking was used by law enforcement against innocent civilians, could harm innocent civilians. Yesterday, a three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals issued a ruling that essentially re-opens the question, with a partial remand back to the lower court. The ruling essentially upholds the lower court's finding that the Justice Dept. should turn over data regarding instances of GPS tracking of suspects, in cases where suspects eventually pled guilty or were convicted. The judges' logic: Since convictions and guilty pleas are public knowledge anyway, revealing the bits of data that link those results to the investigative methods used would not cause greater than negligible harm. The judges seemed to side with rights groups, ironically by saying the DOJ's concern about protecting the rights of the accused may be overblown. This time it's the rights groups that want to know the identities of the cases involved, if not the parties' names themselves; and this time it's the DOJ that's on the side of protecting that information. The judges cited prior cases that established a clear distinction between the government exposing a suspect's entire rap sheet, and instead disclosing bits of data that a diligent researcher (if he were interested) could compile to produce a whole rap sheet. It's the bits of data versus the whole data. If this is beginning to sound familiar - like the argument over whether disclosing a user's IP address is the same as disclosing his name - it should. Here's a key excerpt from the Appeals Court's ruling yesterday: "In this case, however, disclosure will reveal only the "bits," not the 'whole.' As already discussed, the most that disclosure is likely to lead to is the fact of a single conviction, not a comprehensive scorecard of a person's entire criminal history across multiple jurisdictions. Nor is there a web of statutory or regulatory policies obscuring that information, nor much expense nor logistical difficulty in gathering it. To the contrary, computerized government services like PACER make it possible to access court filings concerning any federal defendant from the comfort of one's home or office, quite unlike the 'diligent search of courthouse files, county archives, and local police stations throughout the country' that a citizen would have had to undertake to replicate the contents of a rap sheet... In addition, newspapers regularly report on federal prosecutions, and their accounts can easily be found on the Internet. Indeed, by routinely issuing press releases that name the individuals that it has indicted, and then naming them again when they plead guilty or are convicted, the Justice Department has itself made the process infinitely easier. If someone wants to know whether his neighbor or potential employee has been indicted for, convicted of, or pled guilty to a federal offense, he may well find out by simply entering a Google search for that person's name." Here, the Appeals Court makes the argument (leaving it at an argument and not really a declaration) that a person's privacy may only be infringed upon if enough neighbors or others were interested enough in that person to do the investigation themselves. "It is little more than speculation to suggest that friends or associates who did not learn of a conviction at the time it occurred (whether through press accounts, press releases, or other means) will hear of it for the first time merely because the Justice Department releases a list of docket numbers, courts, and case names," the judges write. The key to this part of the argument is the judges' presumption that a privacy violation takes place when people are given access to PID. This may go against the contention of rights groups and others that privacy may be violated when a database is populated with PID, before any human beings have even seen it. If the judges' arguments are given weight, then much of the foundation for current legislation mandating that services such as Google and Facebook explicitly ask their users' permission before PID is disclosed to a Web service, may inadvertently corrode. Nonetheless, the ACLU late yesterday trumpeted the judges' decision as a victory, since it gives the group access to at least the "bits" without handing over the "whole." As the ACLU's Jay Stanley wrote last night, "Everyone acknowledges that the government has a right to keep the details of particular investigations secret, but when the government adopts whole new policies that affect our society's privacy rights in very broad ways - that is something that should be decided democratically, and that can't happen if we don't even know what's happening."
It takes a unique kind of job candidate to work at a startup. Rather than staying on task in a cubicle in corporate America, startup team members must juggle endless responsibilities and pass through multiple company positions each day. And when you’re putting a team together for the first time, job descriptions don’t even exist yet. So how do you decide who to hire? To find out what single quality is most necessary for a startup’s first hires, we asked a panel of eight successful young entrepreneurs from the Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) for their take. Turns out the most important attributes of a startup job candidate are all about personality and working style, not skill sets. 1. Humility Hits the Spot Startups, entrepreneurs and young people aren’t short on ego, so I keep an eye out for humility. New hires have to be smart enough to know what they don’t know, and not have such an ego that they aren’t willing to do what it takes to learn the business. It’s not to say they shouldn’t have confidence or speak up and disagree, but successful businesses don’t have room or time for a battle of egos that takes focus away from the issues or decisions at hand. Additionally, lack of humility often means that employees are afraid to admit when they’re wrong or ask for help. That won’t work in the early days of a startup. Humility is especially important in new hires who need to be willing to pitch in at any level and be able to move forward with decisions that are made, even if they disagree. - Susan Strayer, Exaqueo 2. Connection Is Key I view everything like a film casting session, where oftentimes, the deciding factor on whether or not someone is a good fit for a role is the level of connection they have to the material. An Oscar on a previous film does not mean someone is right for my project, and your potential employees are no different. In order to determine if the connection is there, you must clearly illustrate the vision of your company and the guiding principles that will take you there. If you haven’t outlined that yet, it’s probably not time to hire people. If you have, it will become very clear, through conversation and targeted questions, whether or not you’ve got the right person on your hands. Don’t be fooled by an outstanding CV or cover letter - let the connection be your guide. - Pete Chatmon, Double7 Images 3. Look for Like-Mindedness We have a small, tight-knit team and having a strong personality fit is key for us. Skills can be taught and experience can be built, but having someone who “gets” our company vision and fits into the company culture is the most important factor for us in hiring. Our process for finding those ideal personality fits is having a really unique and slightly over-the-top job description. We know that anyone who responds to us with what we ask for (and makes us laugh in the process), is worth an in-person interview. - Lauren Fairbanks, Stunt & Gimmick’s 4. Persistence Is Most Important I like when people are persistent with me, because that usually means they will be persistent with the task at hand to get it done. Too many employers are chasing down employees and hoping they will work for them, and the employer ends up pushing them rather than the employee wanting to work for that employer. When the employee is the one who is pushing for the job, it is more likely that they will do whatever it takes to be successful on that job. I also like when I don’t even have a job opening and someone is persistent about showing my why I should hire them even when the opportunity does not exist. They make a job for themselves. - Louis Lautman, Young Entrepreneur Society 5. Creativity Carries the Day I always look for someone who questions, redefines assumptions and thinks outside the box. Startups are inherently creative environments, given that they are new entities requiring new teams and infrastructure. In many cases, they’re formed to develop something entirely from scratch. With anything new, you’re bound to hit road blocks. No matter what the role, it’s important that every individual at a startup be a source of innovation to be able to overcome those obstacles. At my company, we run through a variety of simulations. For instance, we’ll ask about your favorite dish from a recent dining experience and then have you recreate it. Though it’s difficult to measure creativity, we look for responses that utilize available resources to find a viable solution. - Michael Tolkin, Merchant Exchange 6. Work History Works I find that you can teach a hardworking, dedicated person almost anything. The first thing I look for is committed work history. I’d like to see that they have stuck with previous employers for extended periods of time. Individuals that jump for job to job usually don’t know what they are looking for and, therefore, they never find it. Don’t waste your time and resources on job jumpers, no matter how good their resume looks. - Roger Bryan, RCBryan & Associates 7. Trustworthiness Is Tried and True When I hire someone, I want to be able to trust them to do what I ask them to do, complete it on time and come to me if they get stuck. If I can’t trust that someone will get both routine work and larger projects done in a prompt, professional manner, then much of the benefit of hiring someone in the first place is lost. - Elizabeth Saunders, Real Life E® 8. Passion Is Pivotal The single quality I look for is passion. Everything else can be taught - skills and knowledge - but having an employee or an intern who is passionate about your brand and what you do is of the utmost benefit and importance. - Steven Le Vine, grapevine pr The Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) is an invite-only nonprofit organization comprised of the world’s most promising young entrepreneurs. The YEC recently published #FixYoungAmerica: How to Rebuild Our Economy and Put Young Americans Back to Work (for Good), a book of 30+ proven solutions to help end youth unemployment.
Future of Broadband Plans in India with Airtel 50 & 30 Mbps Plan.Telecom major Bharti Airtel today said it will offer broadband speed of 50 mbps, which will enable its customers to download full length movies in a few minutes, for Rs 8,999 per month. Initially, the service would be available in select few locations in Delhi and Gurgaon. It will later be rolled out in Mumbai, Chennai and Bangalore in phases. "We are delighted to introduce 50 mbps speed -- the fastest, wired broadband service. This ultra-fast broadband connection will allow customers, the convenience to download songs in seconds and full length feature films in less than three minutes," Bharti Airtel Joint President (Telemedia Services) K Srinivas said in a statement.
"Alice" was 31 years old and 14 weeks pregnant when she chose to undergo a safe and legal abortion in New York City. She had a history of rheumatic heart disease and two previous live births. After saline was injected into her uterus to kill the fetus, Alice developed acute pulmonary edema (excess fluid in the lungs) and died on July 19, 1970. New York had just legalized abortion on demand, effective July 1, 1970. Alice is the first woman known to have died specifically from a saline abortion under the new law. But she was not the first death: "Judy" has that dubious distinction. She had died on July 12 from complications of an abortion performed six days earlier. For more abortion deaths, visit the Cemetery of Choice: To email this post to a friend, use the icon below.
A striking contrast to modern attitude toward abortion deaths is the story of Alice Bowlsby -- the Trunk Murder Victim, whose pitiful corpse was found 139 years ago today. In contrast to most criminal abortion deaths, where I was lucky if I could find a name and an approximate date of death, I found an embarrassment of riches when researching Alice's death, including pictures of Alice, the abortionist, and the discovery of her body. Evidently Alice was the Natalee Holloway of her day -- the pretty, young, white, blonde, blue-eyed crime victim whose story was the relentless lead in every media outlet. Her death roused such outrage that abortion laws were toughened all over the country -- including, ironically, a change in New York law that the abortionist's attorney cleverly used to get his conviction overturned on a technicality, freeing him one year into his seven-year sentence. With our propensity for naming legislation after the victim whose tragic tale prompted their passage, most of the abortion laws that were struck down by Roe vs. Wade could be called "Alice's Law". And by striking them down, the Supreme Court abolished not only Alice's Laws, but any public outrage over abortion butchery. Only prolifers are outraged anymore. The Guardians of Women's Lives no longer jeer at the abortionist who kills his patient. They no longer demand his head on a pike and cry out in solidarity with his victim. They ignore the dead woman and rally to the defense of the man who killed her. How times have changed!
BUSINESS MEMBERSHIP DIRECTORY The RDA Local Resource Directory is divided into states, then into cities. Click on the city to search for the RDA Business Members or Real Diaper Circle Meetings. Are you interested in joining RDA? To begin the membership process, please click Select a city from the list below. no Real Diaper Business Members currently listed for this region. Please return to the Local Resource Directory. Encourage local diaper-related businesses to join. Disclaimer: The Real Diaper Association (RDA) disclaims any and all responsibility for the information listed by the Business Members in the RDA Local Resource Directory. Business descriptions, products sold and any services rendered by the Business Members' companies and organizations listed at the RDA are believed to be accurate at the point of submission. Please use discretion in the use or reliance upon any information contained with the RDA website. Inclusion on this site is not intended as an endorsement or guarantee from RDA.
What is an estimate? “An 'Estimate' is a computer-generated approximation of a property's market value calculated by means of the Automated Value Model (AVM). As such, an Estimate is calculated on the basis of: - Publicly available tax assessment records for the property - Recent sale prices of comparable properties in the same area There are many additional factors that determine a property's actual market value, including its condition, house style, layout, special features, quality of workmanship, and so on. For this reason, an Estimate should not be viewed as an appraisal, but rather as an approximate basis for making comparisons, and as a starting point for further inquiry. A REALTOR® who specializes in the given area will be able to provide a more accurate valuation based upon current market trends, as well as specific property and neighborhood characteristics.” In some parts of the country, Realtor.com does not have access to public records data or the available estimates are not considered accurate. In these instances, the company does not display an estimated value.
Three BR, 1.Zero BA, $126,500 - Three BR 3 BR, 1 BA 3972 Sportsman Dr, Newton, NC View website:do_not_modify_url - this house is so adorable.perfect for retirees or smaller family. This property at 3972 Sportsman Dr in Newton has a 3 bedrooms / 1 bathroom and is available for $126500.00. Immaculate and well-maintained. And there is an outbuilding that the men will absolutely love. It has a 1/two bathrooms (not presently hooked up) that you could use there also. Super nice area and just a few minutes to the new hwy. 16. Really nice house with low power bills. Pretty bay window in the great room area. Really nice area. February 1 on Hotpads.com
$175,000 Get Prequalified Today 3 BR, 2 BA 19 Ridgeway Loop, Warwick, NY A short ride up a country lane brings you to this diamond in the rough. Green Team Client Service is showing 19 Ridgeway Loop in Warwick, NY which has 3 bedrooms / 2 bathroom and is available for $175000.00. Call us at (845) 986-7730 to arrange a viewing.Listing originally posted at http://tours.tourfactory.com/tours/sizetour.asp?t=962334 Three beds 2 bathrooms ranch sits on 2 plus acres with seasonal views of the valley from your living room or just enjoy the roaring fire coming from the beautiful brick fireplace. Spacious kitchen and dining room. Additional adjoining room would make a great guest room or home office. One full bathrooms was completely updated. Brand new boiler installed 1 yr ago. This home is in need of tlc but well worth it! Bring all offers!!!! 1,841 sq. ft. For sale by: Green Team Client Service February 22 on Oodle
Wake Forest, INCREDIBLE OPPORTUNITY FOR OFFICE/ FLEX 1 / 4 $209,800 Get Prequalified Today 5101 Unicon Dr, Wake Forest, NC Incredible opportunity for office/ flex space.front 1000 sq. Listing originally posted at http://www.listingsrocket.com/listing.ashx?P=30&LRID=1RR7J Feet is finished and remaining 1000 sq-ft is unfinished with roll up utility door. Glass front unit with front and rear parking. South forest service center offers private gated area & security camera.private conference rm for office meetings. Plenty additional parking for fleet vehicles or large truck. 2,000 sq. ft. For sale by: October 25 2012 on Oodle
March 11, 2013 Sales of new single-family homes were up 28.9 percent from a year ago in January to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 437,000, according to a recent U.S. Census Bureau report. That’s the best January since 2008 and there is potential for significantly higher increases. A growing number of home builders, but not the majority, are expected to forget that Realtors brought home buyers to the dance. Studies by the National Association of Realtors say that 63 percent of all new More... Mortgage applications increased 14.8 percent for the week ending March 1, 2013 from a week earlier, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) weekly survey. The Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, increased 14.8 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier. On an unadjusted basis, the index increased 15 percent from the previous week and was at its highest level since mid-January. The refinance share of mortgage More... February 18, 2013 Real estate sales in Colorado’s high country reached their highest levels since 2008 in six resort counties. Sales in the last six months of 2012 ranked as one of the strongest since 2007. Sales in Pitkin County, home to the high-priced Aspen resort, totaled $270 million in December, up 116 percent over December 2011. Most deals were done in cash, with some high country brokers believing the surge was fueled by uncertainty over tax changes planned for 2013. February 6, 2013 Baby Boomers, the generation that defined so much of American culture, are beginning to discover that college towns offer some very good, and low cost, places to retire. Who needs Florida and Arizona? College towns have become a viable retirement alternative for many boomers who don’t really need the warm weather in traditional retirement states. Even ski villages are attracting active retirees who love to ski. While most people will retire in the homes they have More... January 30, 2013 Home builders in the U.S. broke ground on more homes than forecast in December, capping the best year for the industry since 2008, which is another good sign that the economy is rebounding. Housing starts climbed 12.1 percent in December to a 954,000 annual rate, exceeding forecasts in a Bloomberg survey of economists and the most since June 2008, according to the Commerce Department. For the whole of 2012, construction started on a total of 780,000 new homes, up from 608,800 in More... Freddie Mac recently released its U.S. Economic and Housing Market outlook for January, showing that despite the fiscal uncertainties facing the country, consumer confidence has remained fairly resilient in recovering from the recession’s lows, buoyed by improving labor and housing market news. Some highlights: December registered 155,000 job gains and November’s payrolls were revised up 24,000, bringing the employment increase for 2012 to 1.86 million, the best since More... January 7, 2013 The housing market is poised for growth in 2013, according to a Wall Street Journal article online. Home-listing prices were up 5.1 percent nationally in December on a year-over-year basis, according to data released by real estate data company Trulia. Out of 100 major metro markets covered by the report, 82 saw year-over-year gains. At the end of 2011, asking prices had fallen 4.3 percent, and only 12 markets had posted positive price changes. “Prices are going into 2013 with More... Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac completed more than 134,000 foreclosure prevention actions in the third quarter of 2012, bringing the total foreclosure prevention actions to more than 2.5 million since the start of conservatorship in 2008 with nearly 1.3 million of those actions being permanent loan modifications. These actions, which have helped more than 2.1 borrowers stay in their homes, are detailed in the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s third quarter 2012 Foreclosure Prevention More... December 17, 2012 The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) recently reported that housing markets showing signs of improvement have surged by 76 to a total of 201 metros in December. The NAHB/First American Improving Markets Index (IMI) shows that the number on the list by at least one metro increased from 38 in November to 44 in December. The index identifies metropolitan areas that have shown improvement from their respective troughs in housing permits, employment and house prices for at More... December 14, 2012 The housing market continues to recover with home prices rising and pending sales and construction on the upswing. The number of inventory homes is dropping as well, but will it last? If the upswing continues, it will most likely be investors rather than consumers who will sustain the momentum, according to a recent web post by CBS News. According to the recent Fiserv Case-Shiller data, the real estate market during the spring and summer this year was the strongest since the More...
Preheat the oven to Gas 4, 180°C, fan160°C. Halve the aubergines lengthways and scoop out the flesh. Chop the flesh into small (1cm) pieces. Gently fry the onions (finely chopped), garlic (crushed) and aubergine pieces in a splash of the oil, until softened but without colour. Heat up a little oil in a separate frying pan, then season and brown the lamb in batches. Combine the lamb with the onion mixture. Add the cinnamon, oregano and red wine and cook for a few minutes. Add the tomatoes and a cup of water or stock. Bring to the boil and turn down to a simmer for 45 minutes to 1 hour. Meanwhile, place the aubergine skins on a baking tray, season, drizzle with oil and roast for 20 minutes, then take out but leave the oven on. When the lamb is cooked, spoon into the aubergine skins. Crumble the feta, mix with the Greek yogurt and spoon on top. Sprinkle with extra oregano and oven cook for 20 minutes. Serve with a green salad. See more Greek recipes I have cooked this
July 06, 2008 01:00 PM by Christine McDow Tonight the second $100,000 prize winner will be announced on a special episode of America’s Funniest Home Videos. We have the scoop on the five finalists! Nominees include a little boy and his hilarious first experience with a water fountain, a man who becomes the main attraction at a water park, two siblings’comical reactionto finding out iftheir mother isexpecting a baby boy or a baby girl, a toddler who can’t bear to tear himself away from his grandpa’s Corvette, and a tough guy who has a close encounter with a praying mantis that doesn’t go quite as he would like. Who do you think will win the big prize? There will also be an online sweepstakes winner that wins a 7-night Disney Cruise Line vacation to the Mexican Riviera. In 18 seasons AFV has given away more than $10 million. Bob Sagat originally hosted the show that is now hosted by Tom Bergeron. Photo Credit: ABC
August 16, 2011 03:01 PM by Kristin Watson The Voice’s Cee Lo Green made a stop in Chicago August 12 with Far East Movement to headline one of four stops on Macy’s Passport Presents Glamorama 2011 tour — and Reality TV Magazine was there to catch all the action. Read on to find out what Cee Lo Green and Far East Movement had to say about the night of fierce fashion and performances for a cause… Cee Lo Green headlined this year’s Chicago stop on Macy’s Passport Presents Glamorama tour with Far East Movement. The night of fierce fashion and performances for one fantastic cause was held at the famed Chicago Theater, minutes from Macy’s on State St. Macy’s has been raising awareness and funds for the fight against childhood illness, cancer, and HIV/AIDS for 13 years and this year’s ARTrageous theme benefited the Ronald McDonald House Charities of Chicagoland and Northwest Indiana — more specifically, 12-year-old Alisha Van Fosson. Reality TV Magazine was on hand to find out first hand how important this night was to the artists and people who make it all happen. So, why the ARTrageous theme for this year’s event? “Over the years we’ve been seeing how art and fashion really are converging and have been becoming one,” Martine Reardon, executive VP of marketing and advertisement for Macy’s explained. One person who knows all about using fashion to make a point is Cee Lo Green. “A fashion statement speaks just as loud. It’s an extension of the artistic vision and endeavor,” Cee Lo Green told us. Cee Lo Green showed up ready to rock out on the Chicago Theater stage dressed in a silk pink shirt, looking tame compared to his normal look. So, is the outrageous garb Cee Lo usually rocks the real Cee Lo Green? “Everything is real, cause I mean, mostly its surreal everything I wear. I’m a liberal,” he said. When asked if he’d ever work with anyone with a better wardrobe than him, he challenged reporters to, “find them first.” Far East Movement was also in the house to give their own take on mixing their craft with fashion. “When it comes to matching up fashion and music, whether it be from our videos or our own photo shoots that we conduct ourselves, it’s like we close our eyes and say, ‘how does the music look,’ and then we just create it.” The LA scene has certainly influenced the way they choose to express themselves. “We all have our own style. Essentially nothing is planned, it’s more whatever we have access to. Luckily we live in downtown LA, in a neighborhood that’s really packed full of some really cool designers and there’s a lot of access, so it’s all at our finger tips,” Far East Movement told us. Just because the group has become known for their put-together stage-style doesn’t mean it’s their official off-stage look. “When it comes to just every day life and what we choose to wear it’s just pure, relaxed style,” the group revealed. Their “pure, relaxed style” certainly takes a beating, courtesy of their waistlines, when they hit the city of Chicago. The band admitted, “Well, we’re here in Chicago, for the record, one thing about here is the food out here is some of the best in the world. We always gain a little weight. From the deep-dish pizza, to the Italian beef sandwiches, to the late night at Maxwells, we go all in when it comes to food out here.” Macy’s Glamorama threw a big party featuring an intense fashion show displaying the hottest styles from favorites like Marc Jacobs. With all the money going to such a good cause like the Ronald McDonald House Charities of Chicagoland and Northwest Indiana and kids like Alisha Van Fosson, it was certainly an emotional night for everyone. In regards to what moves Martine Reardon, she told us, “There are many moments but there’s that one moment when we run the video of the child that we are highlighting at each of the shows, and as much as I like to think I’m a very strong, sturdy, powerful woman, I break down.” For Far East Movement, being a part of a night that puts them in the role model bracket is a concept the humble band is getting used to. “It’s amazing, but it’s incredible to hear. We always think we have so much more groundwork to lie down for anyone to consider us an inspiration, but it’s cool,” they told us. They added, “That’s something that we want to be, that we aim to be. So, we teach workshops called 4 C The Power, where we go in a and teach kids that don’t really have the arts in there school districts or the funding how to write songs and stuff.” For Macy’s, its Glamorama 2011 Chicago stop was a huge success. The mix of fashion, art and performance made us stop and take notice while giving to a great cause. Cee Lo Green and Far East Movement couldn’t have been more gracious. For Alisha Van Fosson (pictured above), who carried her dress around until “I could find something that went with it,” the night was much more. For her, it was a “once in a lifetime chance.” For more exclusive pictures of Macy’s Glamorama 2011 click here. Want more? Follow our tweets on Twitter and “like” us on Facebook! For other great Reality TV News, please feel free to check out SirLinksALot: The Voice Links and then come and discuss the show on our reality TV message boards.For more breaking news about celebrities and entertainment visit our sister site SheKnows! Photos Courtesy of Melissa Singer
It's a Good Time to Buy All-Weather Laggards Even after the strong start to the year, we remain bullish in our stock market outlook for the balance of the 2013. The economy is recovering and corporate earnings continue to be solid. Nevertheless, after the very sharp recent gains, we expect stocks to slow down for a bit. Rather than chase the recent winners, we suggest searching the market for those stocks that have good 2013 prospects but have lagged during the recent rally....604 more words left in this article. To read them, just click below and try Real Money FREE for 14 days. There’s no substitute for a trading floor to get great ideas, so Jim Cramer created a better one at Real Money and blogs there exclusively. We then added legendary hedge fund manager, Doug Kass, with his exclusive Daily Diary and best investing ideas. Staffed with more than 4 dozen investing pros, money managers, journalists and analysts, Real Money Pro gives you a flood of opinions, analysis and actionable trading advice found nowhere else, and allows you to interact directly with each expert. Already a Subscriber? Please login.
Don't Get Lulled by Facebook As for a Facebook (FB) trading plan, I believe that taking half the short off the table either today or shortly after the open would be appropriate. Then I would be looking to take off the rest of the put position by close of business on Tuesday or Wednesday. The stock is actually acting fairly well today, but I wouldn't let that inspire a lot of confidence. Look at the chart of Facebook. I've circled the day before the last major lockup release, which occurred in August. The stock actually looked good the day before the release. It had dropped the prior two days, and I was lulled into a false sense of security that the lockup release had been priced into shares. I even went slightly long into the release. Ten percent lower, it was quite clear I had been taken in by that single day's action. Facebook was at support then, as it is now....432 more words left in this article. To read them, just click below and try Real Money FREE for 14 days. There’s no substitute for a trading floor to get great ideas, so Jim Cramer created a better one at Real Money and blogs there exclusively. We then added legendary hedge fund manager, Doug Kass, with his exclusive Daily Diary and best investing ideas. Staffed with more than 4 dozen investing pros, money managers, journalists and analysts, Real Money Pro gives you a flood of opinions, analysis and actionable trading advice found nowhere else, and allows you to interact directly with each expert. Already a Subscriber? Please login.
Posted on September 13, 2012 9:29 pm by zandocomm This is the SNAFU FUBAR edition of today’s show. As of 8pm EDT PPTV hasn’t released todays video.Don’t know when or if they will so here’s the radio version… On the Thursday, September 13 edition of the Alex Jones Show, Alex talks with former Minnesota governor, Navy Seal, and television show host Jesse Ventura about the political landscape in America following the Republican and Democrat conventions. Jesse is the author of DemoCRIPS and ReBLOODlicans: No More Gangs In Government, a book that exposes the ineptitude and gang-like mentalities of both parties. You can get a copy at the Infowars Store. Alex covers the news and also the latest on the al-Qaeda attack on the U.S. embassy in Libya, a country reduced to failed state status by Obama and NATO. Alex also takes your calls. Start Your Own Business Weight Loss Filed under: news Tagged: \| al qaeda, alex, alex jones, Alex Jones Show: Thursday (9-13-12) Jesse Ventura - AUDIO ONLY, Jesse Ventura, Libya, Minnesota, NATO, United States Navy SEALs
A tour bus passes near the Burj Khalifa in Dubai. (Reuters) \| \| A A DUBAI: ARAB NEWS Last Update 12 May 2013 10:16 pm Economic activity in Dubai remained stable and escalated during the first quarter of 2013, according to the Department of ... Arab News, 5 days ago See all (155) images for "burj al arab" Etihad, Burj al Arab, Emirates, Avis, Europcar, Qatar and Rotana were among the big names to emerge victorious at World Travel Awards 2013 Middle East Ceremony, held at Le Royal Meridien Resort & Spa Dubai on 5 May 2013. The industry's elite, ...Dubai Chronicle, 1 week ago Dubai's Winners of World Travel Awards Revealed Dubai Chronicle, 1 week ago List of all the winners of the World Travel Awards Middle East Awards Mumbai News.Net, 1 week ago Child Early Intervention Medical Center organizes Autism Awareness Gala Dinner under the blue lit Burj Al Arab to commemorate World Autism Day on April 2, 2013 Posted by on Apr 7th, 2013 and filed under Event Management, Healthcare. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site. April 2, marked the World ...Emirates Week, 1 month ago A 3D crystal laser etching of the Burj Al Arab, a thriving business consultancy and a bike shop on Sheikh Zayed Road have a common link. They are all enterprises set up by three German brothers who came to Dubai in search of new careers little more ...Abu Dhabi National, 1 day ago DUBAI //He did not quite fly in through the window of the Burj Al Arab's 27th floor, but he did seem to magically appear from nowhere. Yesterday, in a plush ballroom close to the top of the world's only seven-star hotel, local organisers unveiled a ...Abu Dhabi National, 4 days ago Burj Al Arab for iPad 1.12.4 Addict3d.org, 1 month ago More from: , Mumbai News.Net...and 1 other sources Burj Al Arab, Dubai Holding, Jumeirah Group, Jumeirah Zabeel Saray 10 wins for Jumeirah Hotels in Business Travel Awards and World Travel Awards Dubai, 9 May 2013: As the Arabian Hotel Investment Conference drew to a close and the Arabian Travel ...Zawya.com, 1 week ago Jumeirah Zabeel Saray appoints new EAM of Food and Beverage Zawya.com, 5 days ago Jumeirah Beach Hotel Turns Attention to Meetings International Meetings Review, 1 week ago Jumeirah Group Sees Strong Results in First Four Months of 2013 Zawya.com, 1 week ago The caped superhero swooped onto Sheikh Zayed Road, took a ride on the Dubai Metro, went sightseeing at the Burj Al Arab and greeted ice cream lovers in the Mall of the Emirates. Super7, who hails from the Planet Editoria, is on a mission to help ...Dubai Moon, 6 days ago Etihad Airways, Burj al Arab, Emirates Airways, Avis, Europcar, Qatar Tourism Authority, and Rotana were among the big names to emerge victorious at World Travel Awards 2013 Middle East Gala Ceremony, held at Le Royal Meridien Resort & Spa earlier.BreakingTravelNews, 1 week ago Jumeirah Group, the Dubai luxury hospitality company that manages Burj Al Arab, is close to signing a deal for a resort in Goa, as UAE hotel companies look to expand into India. The management contract would be Jumeirah's second in India, after the ...Abu Dhabi National, 1 month ago Emiratisation is a top priority for Jumeirah Group Zawya.com, 2 weeks ago GCC travellers contribute to increasing occupancy rate of Jumeirah Group's properties worldwide Zawya.com, 1 month ago With soaring temperatures that make the Burj Al Arab seem to swim like a mirage, Dubai summers have acquired a bad reputation. But consider for a moment the city's enviable beaches and a host of high-profile (indoor) events in the coming months, ...Centurion Magazine Online, 3 weeks ago on your WebpageAdd Widget >Get your members hooked!
Kochi, May 11 ((PTI) Music stars Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy will perform at a concert to be held here tomorrow. This concert is part of the 16 City tour of the popular Music property, Idea Rocks India, where the trio of Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy and Mika are out ... Press Trust of India, 6 days ago Keeping the crowd on its feet - Deccan Herald, 1 month ago See all (56) images for "ehsaan" Shankar Mahadevan during a concert in Ludhiana on Saturday night. Express Top Stories The music composer trio of Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy mesmerised the Ludhiana residents with their power-packed performance at Harsheela Resorts late on Saturday night. In ...Indian Express, 2 weeks ago Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy floor audience at ... Siasat Daily, 2 weeks ago The triangle formula New Indian Express, 1 month ago Beyond seven songs The Hindu, 17 hours ago Do you have the singing voice and want to make it big? Fancy sharing the stage with the musical trio of Shankar, Ehsaan, Loy or the funky Punjabi singer Mika Singh? All you need to do is enter the Idea Rocks India live auditions on Facebook and ...Business 2 Community, 1 month ago When Chennai rocked The Hindu, 1 month ago Youth wins Idea Rocks India Talent Hunt New Indian Express, 1 month ago Sing your guts out to impress icons New Indian Express, 1 month ago In a protest petition filed before an Ahmedabad court on Monday, Zakia Jaffri, widow of former Congress MP Ehsaan Jaffri, who was murdered by a mob in Gulberg Society on 28 February 2002, has challenged the clean chit provided by the Special ...Firstpost.com, 1 month ago Gujarat riots: Ahmedabad court to hear Zakiya Jafri's petition against Narendra Modi, others from today NDTV, 3 weeks ago Gujarat riots: Court to hear Zakiya Jafri's petition against Modi, others from today NDTV, 3 weeks ago Gujarat riots Ahmedabad court to hear Zakiya Jafris petition against Narendra Modi others from today Mumbai News.Net, 3 weeks ago More from: , Calcutta Telegraph...and 1 other sources pinkvilla.com: (1 Year ago) Rekha honoring Khayaam sab with Lifetime Achievement Award.JPG Mirchi honours music talent at the Royal Stag Mirchi Music Awards MUMBAI, 22nd March, 2012: Music was definitely in the air as Wednesday ... Read more ...Taaza.com, 1 month ago Some years ago, a conversation with Ehsaan Noorani, celebrated music director in the Indian film industry, veered towards the journey of composing songs.Business Standard, 1 month ago Aditi Rao Hydari lost her father Ehsaan Hydari last Monday...Santabanta, 2 months ago Aditi Rao Hydari bereaved India Glitz, 2 months ago Aditi Rao Hydari's father passes away Times of India, 2 months ago Aditi Rao Hydari`s father Ehsaan Hydari is no more Santabanta, 2 months ago More from: , Glamsham...and 1 other sources Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy and Prasoon Joshi team up to create the grand TUCC anthem. The anthem is an adaptation of Queen's iconic " We Will Rock you" with an Indian twist. Wasim Akram joins TUCC as the ambassador. 8 top university teams geared up for the Toyota ...India PRwire, 2 months ago s magnum opus Vishwaroopam completes 100 days across theaters in Tamil Nadu. After facing a lot of problems over releasing the film, Vishwaroopam hit the screens in Tamil Nadu of Feb 7th, 13 days after its worldwide release on Jan 25th for the fans ...Times of India, 1 day ago 'Vishwaroopam' Completes 100 Days IndiaTimes, 19 hours ago Vishwaroopam completes 50 days Times of India, 1 month ago Durham's performing arts center, also known as the DPAC, has an amazing lineup of musical artists and performances for the summer of 2013. The DPAC has everything from Sister Act to Kevin James to LL Cool J. Upcoming events at the DPAC: Giselle May ...Examiner.com, 2 days ago on your WebpageAdd Widget >Get your members hooked!
When the generation of Americans under the age of 30 gets around to realizing that this handsome young president might not be nearly as cool as they’d hoped, it won’t be hard to affix a date on when the milk began to sour. It was March 26, 2009, when Barack Obama conducted a live town hall press conference featuring questions submitted online. Near the beginning of this hip and mildly groundbreaking interaction, the president said this: “We took votes about which questions were gonna be asked.…Three point five million people voted. I have to say that there was one question that was voted on that ranked fairly high, uh, and that was whether legalizing marijuana would improve, uh, the economy and job creation. And, uh (chuckles), uh, I don’t know what this says about the online audience (laughs), but I just want—I don’t want people to think that—this was a fairly popular question; we want to make sure that it was answered. Uh, the answer is, no, I don’t think that is a good strategy to grow our economy.” The live audience laughed and applauded. The kids online? Not so much. “Way to discredit a lot of the ‘online audience’ who got you elected, Mr. President,” wrote one commenter on the social news-aggregating website Digg, where Obama’s dismissal was heavily criticized. “Enjoy your approval rating now, Mr. President, I think you just lost a bunch of help,” wrote another. A third Diggster treated legalization with a seriousness (if not grammaticalness) that Obama failed to muster: “To me this is justa common sense issue, legalize Marijuana, decriminalize drug use, thereby crippling drug lords, creating a safe and in the open means to distribute cannabis, give the economy a shot in the arm, and propel snack food sales through the roof. I know the man has a lot on his plate, but seriously this is not justa pot head issue. and it ain’t cute that folks are rotting in prisons for cultivating and smoking a ***** plant.” No, it ain’t cute at all. Scratch a young Obama voter and you won’t necessarily find someone who likes bailouts or cares about financial market regulations one way or another. Instead you’re likely to hear about how the awful Republicans wage wars, bait gays and racial minorities, and basically act like a bunch of mean old white men. Party membership and voting are frequently more about group identity than philosophical orientation about the proper role of government. (For a wonderful exploration of the dissonances this can create, see Associate Editor Katherine Mangu-Ward’s “Dangerous Toys, Strange Bedfellows,” page 42.) There’s little doubt about the broad mores of Generation Obama: pro-choice, pro-gay, and pro-legalization. Obama’s got the first one covered, but his youngest supporters are finding out quickly that on the latter two the president is not offering substantive “change” from the last few administrations. Freedom works in chaotic, unpredictable ways. Sometimes you can go for decades without an inch of progress; and then, the next thing you know, the whole architecture of oppression gets swept away within a matter of days. At a recent screening in Washington, D.C., for the new Velvet Revolution documentary The Power of the Powerless, an American activist type asked the former Czech student leader Šimon Pánek how much behind-the-scenes logistical groundwork and drawn-out planning his fellow revolutionaries engaged in before the 10 days in November 1989 that overthrew the Communist Party. Pánek laughed. “Oh, no,” he said. “It all happened so fast, you cannot plan for such a thing.” Marijuana legalization isn’t happening remotely that fast, but there are some preliminary indicators that something new and hopeful is stirring within the populace in 2009. It started in late January, when photos surfaced of record-shattering Olympic gold medal swimmer Michael Phelps smoking a bong at a party. As a nation prepared for the usual round of hypocritical and self-righteous denunciations, something stranger happened: nothing. The country’s sports pages, normally not known for their permissive attitudes about what humans put in their bodies, greeted the news of a 23-year-old acting like a 23-year-old with a collective shrug. Ostensibly conservative corporate America, at least in the form of Phelps’ many sponsors, almost unanimously stood by their man. The one company that did not, cereal-maker Kellogg Co., found itself the target of a boycott, and its spokespeople spent the month of February loudly (and not very convincingly) claiming that the two sides’ parting of the ways was a simple matter of a contract expiring. “Our marijuana laws have been ludicrous for as long as we’ve been alive,” the conservative columnist Kathleen Parker wrote in the Washington Post. “The problem isn’t Phelps, who is, in fact, an adult. The problem is our laws—and our lies.” Aside from the shattered lives of those caught either in the drug war or in the dangerous black market that prohibition produces, it is the lies that make marijuana criminalization so infuriating. For decades we have allowed billions of our tax dollars to be spent on propaganda telling us, falsely, that pot is “dangerous,” that winners don’t do drugs, and that recreational drug users finance terrorism. Barack Obama is the living refutation of all of that: Not only did he inhale, but he freely admitted that “that was the point.” Yet countless federal agencies still require either marijuana-free pasts or (more likely) skilled lying about it. This at a time when more than half of Americans born after World War II have tried pot at least once. Forcing people to lie, even a little bit, is one of the single most appalling and corrosive things a government can do. That’s the bad news. The good news is that this model is ultimately unsustainable, for the simple reason that people would rather tell the truth. At Andrew Sullivan’s blog in March and April, readers sent in dozens of testimonials explaining that they are perfectly upstanding members of society yet have broken the nation’s idiotic marijuana laws multiple times in the past and are now tentatively “coming out of the closet” about it. Though it’s another sign that the architecture of lies is finally showing the first signs of collapse, the act is nonetheless kind of pathetic. What kind of fearful, groveling supplicants have we become after these four decades of abuse? That’s why Obama’s pot answer, and the immediately hostile reaction to it by his core fan base, was so interesting. The president has done some good things in office, most notably giving word to the Drug Enforcement Administration that it is no longer to conduct raids on medical marijuana clubs in states they are legal. Though there still have been a couple of raids during the transition period, the new policy presents a marked change from the past. But considering that that’s about as far as Obama appears willing to go, events and public sentiment may soon overtake him. In moments of liberation, leaders who seemed so progressive during times of stagnation suddenly appear archaic, even obstructionist. Mikhail Gorbachev was far more liberal than the communist leaders of East Germany and several other Soviet satellites, yet the revolutionaries there who rammed through the opening he helped create nonetheless tended to hate his guts. He was, after all, still an authoritarian Communist. By demonstrating that some winners do do drugs, and by allowing cannabis clubs to show the world that pot buyers and sellers are as American as apple pie, Obama is perhaps unwittingly helping to unleash a long-overdue correction in the way America lies to itself. Taking advantage of that window of opportunity might not be a good strategy for growing the economy, but it’s an excellent way to begin regrowing our spines. Matt Welch (firstname.lastname@example.org) is the editor in chief of reason.
Defenders of Arizona's harsh new anti-immigration law are going on the offensive: They are fanning out on TV, radio talk shows, and newspaper columns arguing that there is nothing nefarious about this law because all it does is help Uncle Sam enforce its existing laws. Even if this claim were true, it would be as constitutionally presumptuous as Arizona dispatching state troops to help the federal government fight the Iraq war. Brit Hume, a Fox News commentator, who had previously called the law “somewhat draconian,” came out swinging in its favor—declaring that his initial characterization was completely wrong and the law is actually “totally sensible.” Meanwhile, the National Review crowd, which has yet to encounter an anti-immigration law that it doesn't like, put its full weight behind Arizona right from the get-go. In this it seems to be marching in lock step with the ultra-restrictionist Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) whose founder, Mark Krikorian, is a regular contributor to the magazine. CIS advocates a moratorium on all immigration—illegal and legal, unskilled and skilled. And it pursues its agenda with as much finesse as Detective Clouseau displayed when pursuing criminals in Pink Panther movies. Two years ago, it released a study arguing against relaxing U.S. immigration restrictions on grounds that this would raise global greenhouse gas emissions. (Really! Check out the link.) Even before the ink had dried on the Arizona law, CIS issued talking points insisting that it was nothing more than a mirror image of the federal law—a claim that Byron York, National Review's former White House correspondent, immediately repeated in his column. “Contrary to the talk [of the law's critics],” York declared, “it is a reasonable, limited, carefully crafted measure...that went to great lengths to make sure it is constitutional.” Likewise, National Review editor Rich Lowry maintained: “Arizona seeks only to enforce the nominal immigration policy of the United States.” But such talk failed even to reassure Arizona's own legislators, who moved—less than two weeks after the law was passed—to amend the law's more draconian provisions after civil rights groups threatened to sue on constitutional grounds. However, even with these changes, the law raises equal protection and federalism issues large enough to drive a Mexican truck through. One of the most controversial aspects of the amended law is that it makes it a state crime for immigrants—legal and illegal—to step out of their house without their papers. Defenders claim that there is nothing Gestapo-like about this provision because immigrants are already required by federal law to carry their papers. What's more, they note, this law won't mean that cops will simply be able to stop anyone on the street and demand proof of legality. Interestingly, they made the same claim about the original law even though it required police officers to make little more than eye contact before launching a full-blown inquiry into someone's immigration status. The amended law limits such inquiries to instances when cops make a lawful stop, detention, or arrest in the course of enforcing some other law or local ordinance. But including local ordinances as grounds for an immigration inquiry opens all kinds of tantalizing harassment possibilities for officials like Joe Arpaio—the notorious but popular Arizona sheriff who has made it his personal mission to root out undocumented aliens from the state by launching crime sweeps in Latino communities on the flimsiest of pretexts. Under the new law, Arpaio could troll Hispanic neighborhoods demanding the papers of anyone breaking, say, a local pooper-scooper law while walking their dogs. If they can't comply on the spot, he could haul them to a police station while their immigration status is checked. If it turns out that they are here illegally, they could be arrested, pending deportation. This means that the same pooper-scooper violation that would produce nothing more than a small fine for unaccented white folks—since they would not raise any “reasonable suspicion” that would justify an inquiry into their immigration status—could well result in a lengthy police encounter for Hispanic citizens or Hispanics with valid visas—and deportation for anyone who had overstayed their visa by even a day. “If this doesn't raise equal protection and Fourth Amendment concerns then what does?” asks Cecillia Wang, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union. But the more serious constitutional problem with the Arizona law is that it illegitimately usurps a federal function given that, as with foreign policy matters, Uncle Sam has ultimate jurisdiction in setting national immigration policy. Professor Juliet Stumpf of Portland's Lewis & Clark Law School notes that courts have given states some leeway to set their own laws to deal with immigrant-related crime and other issues so long as their primary purpose is not to regulate immigration flows. But the Arizona law is not exactly subtle about what its true aim is. Its opening sentence reads: “The intent of this act is to make attrition [of the immigrant population] through enforcement the public policy of all state and local government agencies in Arizona.” In short, it is criminalizing immigration-related violations under state law not to deal with immigrant-related crimes—but to give state authorities expanded tools to drive out immigrants. Hence, even if the Arizona law is identical in content with federal law, notes Prof. Stumpf, it might still be overturned by courts on jurisdictional grounds. But that's not the only way this law steps on federal toes. Congress' 1996 immigration reform act expressly forbade local participation in immigration enforcement without federal authorization and supervision. Except for Arizona, notes Muzaffar Chishti, Director of New York University's Migration Policy Center, he can't think of a single state or locality that has taken upon itself to enforce federal immigration law without first entering a memorandum of understanding with Uncle Sam. “Nothing in law is ever black and white,” comments Chishti, “but it is very unlikely that there is a judge out there who would uphold the Arizona law.” The reason is that if states unilaterally start arresting undocumented aliens and dispatching them to the federal government for deportation, they will force the federal government to expend law enforcement resources on immigration when it might have other, more pressing, concerns such as, say, terrorism. Ultra-restrictionists such as the Center for Immigration Studies who care about nothing else except hounding immigrants out of the country might think this is a good idea. But other cheerleaders of the Arizona law who have priorities other than an anti-immigrant jihad ought to rethink their support. They might well be setting Arizona up for an expensive fall in the courts without addressing the root cause of the illegal problem: The lack of avenues for unskilled foreign workers to legally work in this country. That's what they should be focusing on. Shikha Dalmia is a senior analyst at Reason Foundation and a biweekly columnist at Forbes. A version of this column originally appeared at Forbes.
ABC’s new thriller Last Resort casts a rebellious Navy submarine crew as heroes in a world where America’s foreign policy has led to an inexplicable nuclear war. Andrew Braugher, as Capt. Marcus Chaplin, initiates the central conflict by refusing direct orders to fire his sub’s warheads on Pakistan. The crew members find themselves a target of the country they once defended and seek refuge on a remote tropical island, using their nukes to threaten anybody who has a beef with them. Unfortunately Last Resort’s first few episodes can’t maintain a tight ship; the writers’ efforts seem to be devoted to spinning out intrigue across the season rather than exploring hypotheticals about the consequences of bellicose American imperialism. The consequences of the military strike on Pakistan seem oddly muted while the show focuses on side plots and romances, plus the opaque motivations of one annoyingly closed-mouthed Navy SEAL. —Scott Shackford
JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon has an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal that does an impressive tightrope walk of spin and pandering. The language of the article is apologetic, though sometimes unnecessarily so. He writes: Above all, no matter what the regulatory framework is, it means recognizing that our accountability is not only to our shareholders, customers and employees, but also to the broader public. The gulf that grew between Wall Street and Main Street has hurt everyone. Americans must see that the work we are doing is not just about earning a profit, but also about creating value that helps consumers, small businesses, government agencies, nonprofits and the whole economy. I disagree that Wall Street must be held accountable to Main Street, that kind of thinking skews investment decision making processes as much as government regulations, but I do agree that Americans should realize that the profit Wall Street earns is a good thing, a sign that the nation is moving forward, growing, prospering. Profit isn't bad. And a rising tide lifts all ships. On the spin side, as Noam Scheiber also points out, he somehow manages to support tougher regulations for financial products that drive his competitors, while favoring a lighter touch for his bread and butter. On derivatives, a $5 billion cash cow for JPMC in 2008, Dimon writes: We applaud the administration's plans to expand the use of the central clearing house for standardized "over-the-counter" derivatives traded between significant financial institutions. However, let's not forget that businesses large and small still need customized derivative products to hedge risk. These products are not easily traded on an exchange, and there are serious economic, competitive and systemic consequences for doing so. I do agree with Dimon on this point. An open exchange for derivatives would allow for anyone in the market to see what the value of certain insurance contracts was at any given moment. Significantly, it would also standardize the types of contracts (as part of the private sector changes plan to do). While the transparency is helpful for bringing more knowledge into the market, the limitations of standardization destroy much of the value derivatives offer in the first place, decreasing the number of investors. Allowing a financier to craft a unique contract based on the needs of the consumer is an important part of the success of these types of financial products. In the late 1990s, Jersey City created a unique security from pools of collateralized residential tax liens. Investors, buying up millions of this special derivative wound up keeping the city from going into bankruptcy (because the city was struggling under the weight of unpaid liens). Under current proposals for standardizing the trade of derivatives, this type of contract would not have been allowed. The flexibility of financial products, matching financier with consumer, is a key part of the wealth creation process. If derivative regulation moves forward, lawmakers should consider how to best structure standardized derivatives on an exchange while allowing for product innovation, maximizing the creation of wealth. As the private sector changes to processing OTC derivatives suggest, it is possible to standardize some of these financial products while leaving others open to meeting consumer demand with provider services and vehicle structure. Consider the Dimon op-ed another salvo fired into treaturous territory of regulation overhaul. A battle that is being overshadowed by health care and environment debates, but is just as hot and complicated.
by Chef Laura Frankel, LaurasKosherKitchen.com A refreshing cocktail that combines the sparkling Prosecco with cranberry juice, fresh lime juice and the fragrance of rosemary. 3 cups cranberry juice 6 sprigs fresh rosemary 1 bottle Prosecco* 1/2 cup fresh squeezed lime juice Pour the cranberry juice in a pitcher. Coarsely chop the rosemary (stems and all) and add it to the cranberry juice Add the remaining ingredients and chill for 1 hour. Serve the fizz over ice. Yield: 6-8 servings Prosecco is an Italian white wine — generally a Dry or Extra Dry sparkling wine.and is known as the main ingredient of the Bellini cocktail and has more recently become popular as a less expensive substitute for Champagne Drinks: Cocktail, Prosecco, Rosemary, Cranberry, Fizz, Parve, Kosher
Vegan Salad Dressings (1 Recipe) Created by SUSANLUSAN Recipes in this Collection This salad dressing is fantastic on spinach! Try making a salad of spinach leaves, green apples, and white cheddar cheese. Great for fall, and lots of vitamins! Submitted by AMY0526 Carbs: 8.5g \| Fat: 9.3g \| Fiber: 0g \| Protein: 0g \| Calories: 111.6
Healthy Recipes at Your Fingertips! Download the app for your phone or iPad today. Click here SparkRecipes is on Facebook. "Like" us and get more tips from Chef Meg, connect with other healthy cooks, and more! Click here Want more healthy recipes? Sign up for our Recipe of the Day email newsletter. When are you old enough to get to eat dessert first? (13 Recipes) Created by SWAMPBILLIES Submitted by SWAMPBILLIES Prep: 20min. Total: 4 hrs 20 min. Submitted by LIANNE1014 Guilt Free! Made with prunes and Splenda Submitted by FIT_ARTIST
More About XOBELLA527 Recipes I've Shared: Have you ever looked at the nutritional info on the back of a frozen chicken pot pie? You should. Makes four servings Really good way to satisfy your hearty meal craving without being too hearty on the calories and fat. If you are really creative you can make this when you have leftover veggies and chicken! **Add what ever 98% Fat Free Soup you like such as Cream of Mushroom, Cream of Celery, etc. The sodium content on this is not with the low sodium soup I used. I will update it when I get a new can. This tastes just like you are in a mexican restaurant! Honestly. My boyfriend and I both love it. It really is super easy. Mix the sour cream mixture, brown chicken, roll, and bake! Add some hot peppers if you want to kick up the heat. Each enchilada is a serving. I came up with this because I always seem to have both of these items in my fridge. Great way to satisfy your chocolate craving or a milkshake craving. I love cherries, if you don't substitute it for rasberry or strawberry. Great snack or breakfast! It works best if you peel the banana and freeze it or keep it in the fridge. Adding room temperature items to a smoothie is not ideal. These are really good and you can add or subtract what ever you like to make it your own. Do whatever you like, add nuts, hot peppers, or extra vegtables it will taste good. Super healthy. Great if you are over on carbs for the day. This cabbage soup is great. Honestly, I won't eat cabbage or cole slaw but I love, love, love this soup. You may need to add some extra broth the next day. Shredded carrots are also goo to add. If you want to add them put them in with the celery. I stole the recipe from my Aunt :)
More About EMTRAVER Visit My SparkPage Send Me SparkMail Recipes I've Shared: Usually tastes even better the next day. For a little extra kick, I like to put 2 Tbsp of Crushed Red Pepper in the mixture. For lower salt, use low salt Soy Sauce or leave out the Soy Sauce all together. Bulk of this recipe taken from LIVING4HIM2DAY's Baked Egg Rolls and Dipping Sauce. Quick and easy meal to get you out the door and on your way. Also good with cheese and a tortilla as a breakfast burrito. Quick and easy side dish. Not too much now.... Spice it up with a table spoon of crushed red pepper. Something to warm your tummy with on those cold Alaskan nights. Also good with Chicken Breasts.
Everyday I come to office planning dinner on the way home. And most days I end up making dal, chawal, some sabzi and paranthe. Well, parathe cos Hubby Dear comes late from work and roties don’t really hang on to their taste and quality for long. Dal may vary….someday it is rajma, some day it is chhole and so on….but the basic meal combo is the same. So my dear friend M gave me a great idea to tweak the deal. This idea led to more brain-storming and research and led to the creation of 13 stuffed parathas. Here is a list for your next dinner menu. Paratha 1 – Aloo ka paratha - Boil some potatoes. Peel off the jackets and mash them. Mix in salt, red chilli powder, haldi and coriander. Use as filling for the paratha. Paratha 2 – Mooli ka paratha - Grate some radishes. Mix a little salt and leave for half an hour. Squeeze out the water (this can be used to knead the dough) and mix salt, red chilli powder, haldi and coriander. Use as filling for the paratha. Paratha 3 – Gobhi ka paratha 1 - Grate some cabbage. Mix with the flour. Add salt, red chilli powder, haldi and coriander. Knead into dough to make paratha. Paratha 4 – Gobhi ka paratha 2 - Grate some cauliflower. Mix in salt, red chilli powder, haldi and coriander. Use as filling for the paratha. Paratha 5 – Paneer ka paratha - Mash some cottage cheese. Mix in salt, red chilli powder, haldi and coriander. Use as filling for paratha. Paratha 6 – Methi ka paratha - Take a spoonful of kasuri methi. Boil it in water with some salt. Mix with flour along with salt, red chilli powder, haldi and coriander to make dough for paratha. Paratha 7 – Pyaaz ka paratha - Chop onions into fine pieces. Mix salt, red chilli powder, haldi and coriander. This can be used as stuffing for the paratha or can be mixed directly with dough. Paratha 8 – Ajwain ka paratha - Mix some ajwain and salt with the flour while kneading the dough to make paratha. Paratha 9 - Zeera paratha - Mix some zeera and salt with the flour while kneading dough to make paratha. Paratha 10 - Mirchi ka paratha - When rolling the paratha, use salt and red chilli powder as stuffing. Paratha 11 - Dal paratha - If you have leftover dal from the previous meal, you don’t have to serve it again. Here is an attractive way to add spice to the meal. Just knead in the dal with the dough to make paratha. Paratha 12 - Leftover paratha - You can do the same thing as dal paratha if you have any leftover vegetables. Mash the vegetables and add some salt and red chilli powder to enhance the taste. Use it as stuffing for paratha. Paratha 13 - Egg paratha - Roll a paratha and cook it on the tawa. Meanwhile, keep ready an egg mix (beat an egg with salt and chilli). When the paratha is ready, tear open the top cover and pour in the egg mixture. Turn it over and cook properly. The best part about stuffed parathas is that they themselves form a full meal. And if you want to serve some side dish, you can choose curd, raita or pickle. Check out the salad etc. section for more ideas about side dishes. Filed under: Breakfast, Main course, Snack \| Tagged: ajwain ka paratha, aloo ka paratha, egg paratha, gobhi ka paratha, methi ka paratha, mirchi ka paratha, mooli ka paratha, paneer ka paratha, paratha, pyaaz ka paratha, stuffed paratha, zeera ka paratha \| 3 Comments »
Was it too good to check? Reporters from the South Bend Tribune to CBS to Sports Illustrated all repeated the story about the heartbreaking death of a young woman and her alleged romantic links to a Notre Dame football hero. One problem: It appears not to be true. As the sports website Deadspin.com reported Wednesday, the woman — identified in TV, print and Web stories for months as Lennay Kekua — never existed. Her reported death and relationship with University of Notre Dame star linebacker Manti Te'o seem to have been an elaborate hoax. Although it's still not clear who created and perpetrated the apparent deception, the media took Te'o's word for it without inquiring further. In a statement released by Notre Dame after the Deadspin report broke Wednesday, Te'o said that he believed that his "girlfriend" existed, at least online. He said he, like the news media, was duped into believing that Kekua died of leukemia in September. "This is incredibly embarrassing to talk about, but over an extended period of time, I developed an emotional relationship with a woman I met online," he said. "We maintained what I thought to be an authentic relationship by communicating frequently online and on the phone, and I grew to care deeply about her. To realize that I was the victim of what was apparently someone's sick joke and constant lies was, and is, painful and humiliating." Reporters perpetuated and built upon the questionable story of the doomed relationship, taking for granted that previously reported facts were true, said Tom Rosenstiel, executive director of the American Press Institute, an Arlington, Va.-based organization that studies the news business. He likened the Te'o story to widespread media reports of rampant looting and killings in New Orleans in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, including tales of dead bodies stacked in police freezers. Those stories — which were given especially prominent play in foreign news outlets — seemed to confirm a narrative of a violent underclass unleashed on a city in which authority had broken down. Virtually all of the most lurid stories turned out to be false. Reporters, he said, tend to "push forward" on a story, assuming that what has already been reported is established fact. But errors can result from such assumptions. "It comes from journalists not checking things for themselves," Rosenstiel said. "The lesson here is 'look inside the freezer.' Journalists shouldn't be taking [a source's] word if there is some way to verify it for themselves." ESPN reporter Gene Wojciechowski said in an interview with the network Wednesday that certain elements of the Te'o-Kekua story troubled him when he interviewed the player in early October. He said that he could not find any record of an obituary for Kekua and that Te'o had told him her family did not want to be contacted when Wojciechowski asked for photographs of her. "In retrospect, you can see where some of those things weren't adding up to make sense," he said. "It's easy to say now, but at the time it never enters your mind that somebody was involved in that kind of hoax. We wanted to believe it so much." Dozens of news outlets reported, often in great detail, about Kekua and Te'o, particularly the coincidental tragedy of her death occurring on the same day that Te'o's grandmother died of cancer. But Deadspin reported that it could not confirm details of her existence, such as her death notice or her alleged graduation from Stanford University. Te'o's role is unclear. At one point in October, he told ESPN that Kekua was "the most beautiful girl I've ever met," though "met" could have referred to an online-only relationship. Among other news outlets, Sports Illustrated described how Te'o would speak on the phone with Kekua as she lay in her hospital bed and how she would perk up at the sound of his voice. The conversations went on for so long, the magazine reported, that Te'o would often wake up in the morning with Kekua asleep on the other end of the line. The author of the Sports Illustrated piece, Pete Thamel, could not be reached for comment Wednesday. But he said in a tweet: "The big question here is whether Te'o was involved or not. Notre Dame is staking a loud claim that he got duped and had no involvement." On the eve of Notre Dame's national championship football game with Alabama this month, CBS picked up the story and reported that Te'o had endured "unimaginable anguish" during the football season over the deaths of his grandmother and girlfriend. The network declined Wednesday to discuss its reporting, saying in a statement: "Like many other news outlets, we are now aware of the circumstances." The network said it would address the story later. Unwittingly or not, Te'o fed the media narrative of tragedy and heartbreak, too. He repeatedly referred to Kekua's death in interviews before the championship game, saying at one point, "I appreciate all the love and support that everybody's given my family and my girlfriend's family."
TRAVERSE CITY — Barbara Ann Buelow, 74, of Traverse City, passed away Sunday, Jan. 6, 2013. Barbara was born on Oct. 3, 1938, to the late Harold and Mary (Hill) Potter, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. She earned her bachelor's degree at Western Michigan University and began her career as a lower elementary school teacher; her career spanned over 20 years, during which time she touched many students in a meaningful way. Barbara entered into marriage with Bruce O. Buelow on Oct. 11, 1997, in Sturgis. After retirement in 1999 they moved to Traverse City to be closer to family. Barbara was one of Jehovah's Witnesses, associated with the Traverse City, West Congregation. As such, she spent many active years as a volunteer in the ministry, sharing with others the Bible's message of God's Kingdom. Barbara was a talented artist and seamstress, mastering many forms of artistic media. She was also a member of the Guild of Decorative Painters. Barbara is survived by her husband, Bruce; her children, Michelle (Josh) Hubbard, of Traverse City, Michael (Kim) Woods, of Walled Lake, Ward (Penny) Buelow, of San Francisco, Calif., and Mark (Becky) Buelow, of Kalamazoo. She was the beloved grandmother of Timothy, Andrew, Joshua, Madeleine, Courtney, Seth, Dillon, Taylor, Elliott, Jacob, Hannah and Christopher; and great-grandmother "Gigi" to 10 great-grandchildren who adored her. She is also survived by three sisters, Diane (Paul) Eckert, Saundra (Dave) Zimmerman and Suzanne (Jim) Park. Barbara was preceded in death by her son, Stephen Woods; her parents; and her son Michael's first wife, Carrie. An announcement regarding a memorial service will be made at a later date. Memorial contributions may be directed to The Worldwide Work of Jehovah's Witnesses in care of The Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses, 1950 Chase Road, Traverse City, MI 49684. Please share thoughts with the family at www.reynolds-jonkhoff.com. The family is being served by the Reynolds-Jonkhoff Funeral Home and Cremation Services.
As a Delaware background check resource the Criminal Justice Council can be of limited assistance for getting criminal history files. You can only request your own history, or get histories for others if you are an authorized employer. Fingerprint cards are required so this is not a simple process and each request is $45. Similar records may also be found through the court offices, though there may be some restrictions on some types of records. Many family court records are open to the public but can only be accessed by visiting their offices in person. Other Delaware background check resources include the Vital Statistics Office for older birth and death records as well as any marriage records, providing you are a relative of the individual. The state DMV will also release driving records as long as you are an authorized employer or have other legal reason to need the documents.
Tuesday, March 17, 2009 Landis dreaming of Tour ride Floyd Landis is considering returning to the Tour de France four years after his 2006 stripped-victory and two-year ban from cycling. "If I went back to the Tour de France the objective would be to win it again," Landis told Reuters. "I would like to win the race and go home and spend time with everybody that supported me and enjoy it rather than spending the next couple of years defending how I won it." Landis said he will take the coming weeks to think about the next phase of his cycling career and whether he would race the 2010 Tour de France. "If I want the Tour de France, I would focus on spending a year on training on it. It doesn't feel out of reach for me," he said. This year he will be watching another American's return to France. Lance Armstrong will race the Tour de France for the first time in four years as part of his comeback. "Anybody that knows him knows that if he's racing he's going to try and win something big, and he stated his goal is to win the Tour de France. "I was as surprised as anybody that he wanted to put himself back out there. He's trying to get back to the top I think." The two raced together at US Postal for three years, from 2002 to 2004.
The Benjamin Franklin Bridge lit up in red for national March is Red Cross Month 2012 (photo: Paul Loftland) Welcome to the new blog of the Southeastern Pennsylvania (SEPA) Chapter of the American Red Cross. The SEPA Red Cross has a unique role in serving as the safety net for people in our region in their hour of greatest need. As a partner of a network of 186 Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies worldwide, the SEPA Chapter was founded in 1916 as a chartered unit of the American National Red Cross and serves the nearly 4 million people of Montgomery, Philadelphia, Chester, Delaware and Bucks counties. The SEPA Chapter of the American Red Cross is marking more than 95 years of service to Philadelphia, Delaware, Montgomery, Chester, and Bucks Counties. SEPA is one of the largest American Red Cross chapters in the country, and has a long and proud history of providing comfort and relief to those most in need. In addition to providing disaster relief services to thousands of people every year, up until December 2009, SEPA Chapter provided volunteer support to the Penn Jersey Blood Services Region. In April 2003, SEPA Chapter became the only chapter in the country to have a Red Cross House, a temporary housing facility for victims of disaster. SEPA Chapter sent hundreds of volunteers to assist following Hurricane Katrina, played an integral support and fundraising role following the earthquakes in Haiti and Japan, and is consistently honored by local businesses and organizations for its commitment to helping those in need. As reflected in the Red Cross mission, the Southeastern Pennsylvania Chapter seeks to help people prevent, prepare for, and respond to natural and human-caused disasters through the immediate mobilization of people and resources and the provision of community, workplace, and school-based training.
By Roger Fox I doubt the Keystone project is even a real long term goal by TransCanada,. Certainly in the big picture Keystone is only a single chapter in a much larger book. If you read this diary you will risk information overload, you will be offered numerous disparate data points that at first glance may seem unconnected. You will need to digest all the information offered, and then analyze. Crude is is classified by the American Petroleum Institute (API) into light, medium, heavy and extra heavy crudes, by API gravity. If its API gravity is greater than 10, it is lighter and floats on water; if less than 10, it is heavier and sinks. The Albert Tar Sands contain crudes of API 10 or less that is called Extra heavy or Bitumen. Heavy oil is defined as having an API gravity below 22.3, Medium oil is defined as having an API gravity between 22.3 °API and 31.1 °API, Light crude oil is defined as having an API gravity higher than 31.1. At a production rate of 3 million barells a day the tar sands can last for 170 years. This would also mean a hole in the ground visible from orbit. The Keystone pipeline is only one of a couple of handfuls of pipeline proposals over the last decade in the Western US, Canada and Alaska. Alaskan nat gas is largely unexploited, and is used locally on the North Slope. Its estimated that 70 trillion cubic feet of nat gas can be found in Alaska, a lot of it in the North Slope area. There are at least 3 major proposals for nat gas pipelines from the North Slope area and the adjacent Mackenzie River Delta in Canada. 2 of these projects point right at Alberta. TransCanada and Exxon Mobil are partnered in the Alaska gas pipeline proposal that will directly link nat gas production in the North Slope of ALaska thru Alberta to the US mid west. This project may be the same as the Denali proposal, and was reintroduced to theSenate in Feb, of 2011. There also at least 2 variations. Additionally there is the Dempster Lateral. -> Next page: Follow the routes south
\|Budgeting Your Energy In Menopause\| \|Written by Ellen Sarver Dolgen\| \|Tuesday, 13 March 2012 14:41\| It’s not your fault. You’ve been programmed to think that you’re not good enough, pretty enough, skinny enough, or perfect enough. It’s on the cover of photoshopped magazines at the grocery store, reinforced on TV, and referred to in current — and unfortunately catchy — songs that objectify women. So much of what surrounds us today is appearance-driven, and there’s a natural tendency to adapt to our surroundings. This unfortunate marriage between societal pressures and our brains has birthed a critical voice in our heads telling us that we are quite simply not good enough. Picture a sumo wrestler sitting on your brain. He is huge, powerful and controlling (and HEAVY!), but does he wrestle you down or are you tripping over your own shoelaces? It’s never too late to reevaluate the budget of your energy wallet, and make sure that sumo isn’t taking more than he’s owed! Have you ever tried to silence the sumo with a louder voice telling yourself not to think so much? Over-thinking is something many women do and have done their entire lives. That sumo is only reinforcing negative thoughts, impairing problem solving and throwing a wrench into everyday life. When women enter menopause, several of their symptoms can work together to create a menopause monster. Weight gain and insomnia can partner with depression to make a tornado of negative thoughts and feelings that seems impossible to diffuse. Society’s obsession with slowing down the aging process is unhealthy, yet difficult to avoid. It’s easy to slip into an energy-sucking ocean of negative thoughts when you’re in a sinking boat. Stewing over a hot flash can bring you to an archive of bad feelings you’ve had in your journey through menopause, leading to an unproductive, negative self-reflection and confusion, and if there’s one thing you don’t need more of when you’re in menopause, it’s confusion! Your sumo wrestler erodes your ability to solve problems by keeping you fixated on the analysis phase. So how can you think positive, take action, and repurpose your energy to achieve hormone happiness in menopause? Do not suffer in silence. Put yourself on the top of your to-do list. Be mindful of healthy eating. CNN reports that this will help balance out your plummeting metabolism, mood swings and might even help you sleep better. According to MSN Health, metabolism does slow with age. Find a form of exercise that makes you feel good. Call a friend and go for a walk, bike ride or join that gym that you’ve been talking about. Release some endorphins — it feels good and Reuters says modest exercise will also help lower your blood pressure. Be less self-critical and more proactive. Imagine your negative thoughts as bubbles floating by that you can acknowledge as you please and pop when you want. It’s difficult to control your thoughts, especially when they are reinforced by everyday norms. You will find when you shrink your sumo, you’ll spend less energy on feeling terrible, refocusing it on finding solutions and celebrating your happiness and progress. Try to live SUMO FREE! Remember: Reaching out is IN. Suffering in silence is OUT! About the Author: "E" is the pen name of Ellen Sarver Dolgen, author of Shmirshky: the pursuit of hormone happiness -- a cut-to-the-chase book on perimenopause and menopause, filled with crucial information and hilarious and heartfelt stories. It condenses a confusing, daunting medical topic into an easy-to-understand, purse-sized guide which can be used as a reference throughout your PM&M experience. Reading Shmirshky is like getting a big, comforting hug from a dear friend, who happens to know a lot about menopause! Follow Ellen Sarver Dolgen on Twitter: www.twitter.com/@Shmirshky \|Last Updated on Tuesday, 20 March 2012 08:46\|
The holidays are filled with stress, and one of the primary goals heading into the holiday season is to just get through it. With that in mind, here's a collection of tips we're calling the Lazy Man's Guide to the Christmas Office Party. Don't worry, you could be female instead of male, but our guess is that you'll be less likely to need these tips. Call us sexist if you wish. And it's not solely about the office party. These tips apply almost anywhere! Nevertheless, getting through the holidays is not about getting wrapped up in details. Speaking of details, do this and be merry. 1. Buy some wrapping paper with gold stripes. Nothing says classy like gold stripes. It can also double as wrapping paper for birthday presents. These stripes don't lock you into a particular holiday. 2. Picture frames get almost as bad a rap as ties when it comes to gifts. The key, though, is what you put in the frames. If you're stuck giving a gift to a colleague at work, stay late and scan a photo of their dog (or cat) that's taped to the wall of their cubicle. Be warned, there will be hell to pay if you're caught; touching a pet photo is as bad as touching another man's hat or wallet. But turning a 3x5 of Fido into a 5x7 with a simple $5 frame will make you a hero. 3. You have to bring food? Go to the grocery store and stop by the deli. There will be cooked chicken there. Buy it. It's cheaper (albeit not quite as tasty) than KFC, but nobody expects anything you cook to be as good as KFC. Be sure to put the chicken on a plate (or in a bowl) and cover with tin foil and pass it off your own. For $20, you get the chicken and the rights as well. Take advantage of it. 4. You need to bring a salad instead? Go to the grocery store and stop by the deli. There will be salad there. Buy it. 5. Too lazy to pick up wrapping paper, and too busy to get to Walmart for frames? Many grocery stores now sell gift cards (iTunes, Amazon, Best Buy, etc.). Buy one. It's like giving cash, but classier. What tips do you have that make getting through the holidays easier?
The Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday announced the U.S. has entered into two settlements totaling more than $50 million to clean up contamination from the B.F. Goodrich Superfund Site northwest of Rialto Municipal Airport. "Most or all of the Site is located in the Rialto-Colton Groundwater Basin in western San Bernardino County," the EPA's overview for the Goodrich Superfund Site states. "The Basin is an important source of drinking water to residents and businesses in the cities of Rialto, Colton, and Fontana." A 160-acre area that is a focus of the Goodrich Superfund Site is about 15 miles northwest of Loma Linda University Medical Center and 20 miles northwest of downtown Redlands. There are a dozen parties involved in the settlements, including Emhart Industries, Pyro Spectaculars, Inc., the Department of Defense, the cities of Rialto and Colton, and the County of San Bernardino, an EPA news release stated Wednesday. Representatives of those involved in the settlements were not available to comment for this report. The Superfund site has been used to store, test and manufacture fireworks, munitions, rocket motors, and pyrotechnics, and it was added to the EPA's National Priorities List in September 2009, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. "The area's groundwater is contaminated with trichloroethylene and perchlorate, which have resulted in the closure of public drinking water supply wells in the communities of Rialto and Colton," the EPA news release stated. The B.F. Goodrich Site includes a 160-acre area in Rialto, where volatile organic compounds and perchlorate have contaminated soil and groundwater, the EPA's overview for the Goodrich Superfund Site states. The 160 acres are bounded by West Casa Grande Drive on the north, Locust Avenue on the east, Alder Avenue on the west, and an extension of Summit Avenue on the south, according to the EPA. The 160 acres were part of a larger area acquired by the United States Army in 1942, to develop an inspection, consolidation, and storage facility for rail cars transporting ordnance to the Port of Los Angeles, according to the EPA. The United States sold the Rialto property in 1946, and a portion of the property was used by defense contractors, fireworks manufacturers, and other businesses that used perchlorate salts and/or solvents in manufacturing processes or products, according to the EPA. In 1956 and 1957, West Coast Loading Corporation manufactured and tested photoflash flares and ground-burst simulators containing potassium perchlorate, according to the EPA. From about 1957 to 1962, B.F. Goodrich Corporation conducted research, development, testing, and production of solid-fuel rocket propellant containing ammonium perchlorate, and used solvents in the manufacturing process, according to the EPA. Since the 1960s, the 160-acre area has been used by a number of companies that manufactured or sold pyrotechnics, including Pyrotronics, Pyro Spectaculars, and American Promotional Events, according to the EPA. "After decades of harmful groundwater contamination and following protracted and costly litigation, the parties responsible for releases of TCE and perchlorate at the BF Goodrich Superfund Site have agreed to a comprehensive long-term plan to cleanup the contaminated groundwater at the Site," Ignacia S. Moreno, Assistant Attorney General for the Environment and Natural Resources Division, the U.S. Department of Justice, said in a prepared statement. "The commitment made under the consent decrees announced today will provide immeasurable benefits to the environment and the communities who live in Rialto and Colton, California," Moreno said. Under one agreement, Emhart will perform the first portion of the cleanup, which is estimated to cost $43 million over the next 30 years to design, build, and operate groundwater wells, treatment systems, and other equipment needed to clean up the contaminated groundwater at the site, according to the EPA. A significant portion of the funds will come from other settling parties, including the Department of Defense, according to the EPA. The cities of Rialto and Colton will receive $8 million. According to the EPA, the Emhart settlement includes the following entities: Emhart Industries, Inc., Black & Decker Inc., American Promotional Events, Inc., the Department of Defense, the Ensign-Bickford Company, Raytheon, Whittaker Corporation, Broco, Inc., and J. S. Brower & Associates, Inc. and related companies, as well as the cities of Rialto and Colton and the County of San Bernardino. As part of a second agreement, six entities, including PSI and its former subsidiary, will pay a combined $4.3 million to the EPA toward cleanup at the site and $1.3 million to the cities of Rialto and Colton and San Bernardino County, according to the EPA. The entities involved in this settlement are Pyro Spectaculars Inc.; Astro Pyrotechnics; Trojan Fireworks; Thomas O. Peters and related trusts; and Stonehurst Site, LLC. "For decades, the defendants have been polluting this critical source of drinking water with both perchlorate and industrial solvents," Jared Blumenfeld, the EPA's Regional Administrator for the Pacific Southwest, said in prepared remarks. "Today's historic settlement ensures that the impacted communities in Southern California will finally have their drinking water sources restored." Scientists with the EPA used government funds to pay for investigation and cleanup work at the site while investigating potentially responsible parties for their role in the contamination, according to the EPA. The United States, on behalf of the EPA, sued Emhart and PSI, as well as the Goodrich Corporation, the estate of Harry Hescox and its representative, Wong Chung Ming, Ken Thompson, Inc., and Rialto Concrete Products, in 2010 and 2011 to require cleanup and recover federal money spent at the site, according to the EPA. Prior to the EPA's lawsuit, the cities of Rialto and Colton initiated litigation against many of the settling parties, including the Department of Defense, in 2004. For more information on the B.F. Goodrich Site visit www.epa.gov/region09/bfgoodrich.
Windows Azure Cloud and Devices In the Spotlight at Tech-Ed Microsoft's focus on the cloud at Tech-Ed North America conference on Monday opened the door for vendors to showcase devices designed to manage applications and services in a hybrid environment. Robert Wahbe, corporate vice president of the Microsoft Server & Tools Business, pointed to high profile cloud customers such as HSBC, Travelocity and others using the company's Windows Azure platform during the keynote. Travelocity is taking advantage of Microsoft's cloud platform to extend the capacity of a Java-based system without burdening its own data centers. Developers used the Windows Azure compute and Blob storage (with help from Apache Tomcat solution accelerators) to offload analytics of customer interactions with travel Web sites. HSBC is implementing a 100,000 VDI deployment using Windows Server Hyper-V and System Center in a private cloud, according to Wahbe. Jason Zander, corporate vice president of Visual Studio and his team members demonstrated the synergies between Windows Azure and Windows Phone 7 with a fictional Fabrikam Fiber call center application that provided service and scheduling updates to technicians in the field. Drew Robbins, director at Microsoft, demonstrated use of the Windows Azure Toolkit for Windows Phone 7, which is available on CodePlex, to implement user authentication, Microsoft Push Notification Services and location-awareness, among other features in a Windows Phone 7 cloud application. The Windows Azure Toolkit Version 1.2, released in time for Tech-Ed, adds support for Access Control Services 2.0, Windows Azure Queue Storage and a Web UI. Support for Microsoft Push Notifications arrived in v1.1. During the keynote, Microsoft stressed its support of application management across multiple devices in previews of the System Center 2012 management console. Developer tooling is also reaching across device platforms. The Windows Azure Toolkit Version 1.2 adds support for Apple Push Notification Services. The Apple Push Notification Services can also be used in the Windows Phone Toolkit for iOS, released May 6 on Github. The iOS toolkit provides access to Windows Azure storage from native iOS apps (iPhone and iPad). Android Cloud to Device Messaging Service support is on the roadmap for this summer, according to Robbins. Microsoft also released the May Community Technology Preview of its Windows Azure AppFabric Service Bus, which is an existing middleware cloud-based connectivity and messaging service. The May CTP enhances the Service Bus message queuing (100MB storage) and publish/subscribe messaging capabilities. These enhancements improve cross-platform connectivity using the REST/ HTTP API, which can connect to any operating system or platform, according to Microsoft, including Java and PHP. (The company announced plans to release Java and PHP samples next week.) The May CTP also supports Access Control Services 2.0. The load balancing and traffic optimization (Relay) that was available in the PDC10 preview has been dropped, at least temporarily. According to Microsoft, that technology is "postponed." The May CTP functionality can be accessed in the Labs previews environment. The new features slated for commercialization later this year, according to Microsoft. The Windows Azure AppFabric SDK V2.0 May Update is available here. Read more about the new features in the blog introducing the May CTP posted by Clemens Vasters, Microsoft's principal technical lead for the Windows Azure AppFabric Service Bus. During sessions this week, Microsoft is also expected to provide more details on its AppFabric Composite Application Service, which is now called the Windows Azure AppFabric Application Manager and AppFabric Developer Tools. The Windows Azure AppFabric June CTP will introduce the Visual Studio developer tooling and .NET extensions for integrating and managing multi-tier apps as a single logical entity using the AppFabric Composition Model. The CTP will also provide the first look at App Manager, which is the runtime for automated deployment and monitoring of multi-tier apps. Support for Windows Communication Foundation and Windows Workflow Foundation is also coming in the June CTP. Microsoft also announced the SQL Azure May 2011 Service Update. Key improvements include a REST API for programmatically managing SQL Azure servers and adding firewall rules as needed; multi-server support per subscription; Java application support via an updated JDBC database driver; and DAC Framework 1.1, which adds support for in-place upgrades of SQL Azure databases. Enhancements to Windows Azure, SQL Azure and related tooling will be highlighted throughout this week's Tech-Ed conference, May 16-19 in Atlanta. Many of these sessions will be streamed live and available online. Kathleen Richards is the editor of RedDevNews.com and executive editor of Visual Studio Magazine.
Bob Bowlsby had been to Lubbock only once before, under circumstances he can’t recall. His second visit might be more memorable. The new Big 12 Conference commissioner spent the day Wednesday at Texas Tech, getting acquainted with new constituents and bringing an upbeat message — that the league is poised to regain its standing among the best in college sports. During a late-afternoon reception on campus, Bowlsby told Tech supporters the Big 12 has gone from shaky to stable — strong even — in less than a year for several reasons. Chief among them: ■ The Big 12 is close to completing a new television contract that reports have said could be worth $20 million a year to each school through 2025. ■ A partnership with the Southeastern Conference to form the Champions Bowl will give the two leagues an event and an alliance on par with what the Pac-12 and Big Ten have with the Rose Bowl. ■ Equal revenue sharing. ■ Competitive balance among the teams. All of which motivated the former Stanford athletic director to leave the one-school, one-campus leadership jobs he’s had for more than 35 years. “Parts of it have been different,” said Bowlsby, who took the Big 12 commissioner job in early May. “But it’s a new challenge that really has been invigorating. I just turned 60, and this kind of has my blood pumping and the capillaries open, and it feels like the right thing to do.” The Big 12 has been working the last few months to finalize a new TV deal projected to be worth $2.6 billion for 13 years. The Big 12 reached a verbal agreement with ESPN for first-tier rights in May, according to media reports, and has a signed deal with Fox for second-tier rights. Bowlsby said an announcement could come in the next few days, finally ending discussions that he said have “gone on way too long.” “But with 10 athletic directors and 10 presidents and 10 general counsels — all with editorial veto power over certain elements of the contract — it’s a miracle we’ve gotten as close to being finished as we have,” he said. After a four-team playoff is set, the Champions Bowl will pit the best remaining teams from the Big 12 and the SEC in a Jan. 1 prime-time slot right after the Rose Bowl. The new bowl commences at the end of the 2014 season for a 12-year term. Arlington and New Orleans are the favorites to host the game. Bowlsby said Champions Bowl revenue projections are already are being ratcheted up. “We went into that partnership thinking it might be worth as much as $35 million a year from television, and year one it’s going to be almost twice that much,” he said, “and all of that money’s going to flow right back to our schools.” Watching as an outsider the last few years as Stanford AD, Bowlsby saw the Big 12 lose Colorado, Nebraska, Missouri and Texas A&M to three other leagues. So he said it would be an understatement to say he was skeptical when first approached about the commissioner’s job. “I went into the process mostly because a couple of people I respect invited me to participate and because they thought it might be a good fit,” he said. “I came away from a four-hour session enormously enthusiastic about what the Big 12 could be.” Bowlsby took over as Northern Iowa athletic director in 1984 at age 32. He became athletic director at Iowa in 1991 and athletic director at Stanford in 2006. The time frame from when he was first contacted by the Big 12 to the announcement of his hiring was 11 days, Bowlsby said. This year, the league is heavily promoting the fact it has three football teams that won conference championships last year with new members West Virginia and TCU having been the best in the Big East and the Mountain West, respectively. Beyond that, Bowlsby said the Big 12’s competitive balance is a strength. “The distance between the top of our league and the bottom of our league in virtually every sport is the smallest variance I’ve ever been around,” he said. “It’s smaller than the Big Ten. It’s smaller than the Pac-12. It’s much smaller than the SEC. That’s a great thing. “Great competition with great universities is a tremendous thing for our television. It’s a tremendous thing for our gate. It’s a tremendous thing for the development of our student-athletes.” Bowlsby has been making stops at each of the Big 12 schools. He said he has a brother who worked in Lubbock for three years and two nephews who were born here. “I’ve really been smitten by the place,” he said. “It’s a gorgeous campus. The athletics portion of it is absolutely spectacular, every bit competitive with the best in the conference and the best around the nation. Everybody that’s had a hand in it’s to be congratulated.” To comment on this story:
George Clooney On Acting, Fame, And Putting Down Your Cell Phone Camera George Clooney is nominated for two Oscars this year — for his lead role in The Descendants and for co-writing the adapted screenplay for The Ides Of March, which he also directed. He speaks to Robert Siegel on today's All Things Considered about film, but also about the life he lives as one of Hollywood's most famous men. Clooney didn't start out as famous as he is now. He did quite a bit of episodic television — including roles on both The Facts Of Life and a comedy that was, believe it or not, called E/R before, at 33, he was cast as Dr. Doug Ross on the drama ER. His television stardom took him first to film roles in straightforward entertainment like Batman And Robin, One Fine Day (a romantic comedy with Michelle Pfeiffer), and The Peacemaker (an action film with Nicole Kidman), and then to three films in the space of a couple of years whose screenplays were nominated for Oscars: Out Of Sight, Three Kings, and O Brother, Where Art Thou? He was later nominated for both directing and co-writing 2005's Good Night, And Good Luck, and for his performances in Syriana (for which he won in the supporting category), Michael Clayton, and Up In The Air. Clooney says that taking the role he did in The Descendants — one a bit more rumpled and at loose ends than audiences typically see from him — came down to the screenplay and the fact that director Alexander Payne, known for films like Election and Sideways, "really hadn't made a bad film, and I wanted to work with him." In places, including a scene where Clooney's character dashes in distress from his home and runs down the street in flip-flops, there's a chance of looking silly — of "clowning it too much," as Siegel puts it. Again, Clooney says, it's about who you're working with. "It would be hard if you didn't trust the director," he says. "There's a very big difference between doing that for Alexander Payne and doing it for someone that you don't trust. Because the product that you're selling out there is you." And what Clooney is selling is changing somewhat. Asked about comments he's made that he's moving away from certain kinds of roles, he starts with a gentle poke at his superhero past: "I'm not going to do any more films in rubber suits, I've decided." But he isn't joking: "Growing old on screen is not for the faint of heart," he says. "There's a certain cruelty to being on a big screen as your eyelids start to sag and your hair falls out and turns gray that you either have to be able to handle or not. What you can't do is try to force yourself into roles that you could have played or would have played ten years earlier. You have to constantly be looking forward." That means better scripts, he says, and also directing and writing — "something you can do well into your old age." What George Clooney also deals with and will deal with for many years is fame. Asked what his level of recognizability feels like, he points out how constant the attention to his every move has gotten to be. "I'll ride my motorcycle into the Swiss Alps to the top of a mountain to a tiny little bistro that we accidentally find, and by the time I've had coffee and a croissant, there's 40 people outside because of cell cameras." For him, the presence of cameras in the hands of every observer doesn't just mean too much attention and too much recording; it means the loss of the ability to experience things directly. "I've walked with very famous people down red carpets over to the crowd of thousands of people," he says, "and you'll reach out to shake their hand and they've got a camera in their hand. And they don't even get their hand out, because they're recording the whole time. And you can tell people that you recorded Brad Pitt, but it would be very hard for you to say you actually met him, because you were watching it all through your phone. I think that's too bad, because I think people are experiencing less and recording more." And it's a problem everywhere: "The trick is to get them not to do it when you go to the bathroom." Clooney may be very famous, but he's clearly not been without his setbacks — including Batman & Robin -- which, Siegel notes, keeps coming up. "Failures are infinitely more instructive than successes." He explains that it was a new-ish thing to be offered a role as large as Batman at that point in his career. He says he learned that as an actor, he would be held responsible not only for his own acting, but also for the entire film and how good it was — and that's what led him to those films with the Oscar-nominated scripts. And, undoubtedly, helped lead him to start writing Oscar-nominated scripts himself.
Incidentally, this is what a nuclear explosion looks like one millisecond after the bomb's detonation: BNP-Paribas is the classic example: $2.5 trillion of asset footings vs. $80 billion of tangible common equity (TCE) or 31X leverage; it has only $730 billion of deposits or just 29% of its asset footings compared to about 50% at big U.S. banks like JPM; is teetering on $500 billion of mostly unsecured long-term debt that will have to be rolled at higher and higher rates; and all the rest of its funding is from the wholesale money market , which is fast drying up, and from repo where it is obviously running out of collateral. Looked at another way, the three big French banks have combined footings of about $6 trillion compared to France’s GDP of $2.2 trillion. So the Big Three french banks are 3X their dirigisme-ridden GDP. Good luck with that! No wonder Sarkozy is retreating on France’s AAA and was trying so hard to get Euro bonds. He already knows he is going to be the French Nixon, and be forced to nationalize the French banks in order to save his re-election. By contrast, the top three U.S. banks which are no paragon of financial virtue—JPM, BAC, and C—have combined footings of $6 trillion or 40% of GDP. The French equivalent of that number would be $45 trillion. Can you say train wreck! It is only a matter of time before these French and other European banks, which are stuffed with sovereign debt backed by no capital due to the zero risk weighting of the Basel lunacy, topple into the abyss of the shadow banking system where they have funded their elephantine balance sheets. And that includes Germany, too. The German banks are as bad or worse than the French. Did you know that Deutsche Bank is levered 60:1 on a TCE/assets basis, and that its Basel “risk-weighted” assets are only $450 billion, but actual balance sheet assets are $3 trillion? In other words, due to the Basel standards, which count sovereign and other AAA assets as risk free, DB has $2.5 trillion of assets with zero capital backing! This is all a product of the deformation of central banking and monetary policy over the last four decades and the destruction of honest capital markets by the monetary central planners who run the printing presses. Furthermore, this has fostered monumental fiscal profligacy among politicians who have been told for years now that the carry cost of public debt is negligible and that there would always be a central bank bid for government paper. Perhaps we are now hearing the sound of some chickens coming home to roost. Also see Europe - Whistling Past the Graveyard.

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