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A black kite at a recent fire was seen with a quail as prey. Other birds sought would include smaller birds such as larks and pipits, as well as mice. Some of the smaller hawks, such as black-shouldered kites and nankeen kestrels, would take crickets.
Another notable raptor seen in the same area is the spotted harrier, an uncommon visitor to open country in the Ballarat region.
This and the black falcon have been sought by several local bird observers, but neither have been easy to locate. Finding them will probably be more difficult now that paddocks have bare burnt ground.
Back pain is the second most common reason for medical visits in America, with sixty five million Americans suffering from some type of back injury. Almost all of the people that I know that have gone in to a doctor's office or ER for back pain have been prescribed some type of opiate painkiller, which has led to addictions that have ruined some of my friends and family's lives.
I wish more and more people would try cannabis to see if they could get relief for their back pain from a much safer source. However, I know a lot of stubborn people that have been brainwashed into thinking that cannabis is more harmful than prescription drugs. Luckily the taboo surrounding medical marijuana shrinks everyday nationwide. As the scientific evidence mounts, more and more people will get on board.
A recent research project at the University of Colorado's Spine Center looked at 200 patients suffering from degenerative disc problems and other back pains. Of the participants that consumed marijuana, 89% said "it greatly or moderately relieved their pain, and 81% said it worked as well as or better than narcotic painkillers." Participants in the study that consumed marijuana used it "no more than one or two times a day".
Do you suffer from back pain? Have you tried cannabis? If so, did it help? Would you recommend it to other sufferers? Is there a particular way you recommend consuming it? Help others benefit from your experience!
On Harvard's Peabody Museum of Archeology and Ethnology Web site, read a detailed guide to Copán by Professor David Stuart (he of Tour Copán with David Stuart). Also, view a remarkable QTVR of Copán's Altar Q, a copy of which is on exhibit at the museum.
The Science Museum of Minnesota's Maya Web site provides science activities and information related to ancient and modern Maya culture. Participate in a hands-on activity demonstrating how the ancient Maya etched limestone using organic dissolvers. Also, take an interactive tour through the ruins of the ancient Maya world, replete with photographs from the museum's Maya archive.
This networked scholarship Web site offers a wealth of information on Mayan language for anyone interested in linguistics. Even if you're a linguistic layman and don't quite know your phonemes from your morphemes, this site contains plenty of pages that will interest you, including an archive of digitally transcribed Mayan texts.
Collapse: Why do Civilizations Fall?
If you're interested in learning more about ancient fallen civilizations, visit this fun, cleverly presented Web site provided by Annenberg/CPB. The site contains dozens of pages on the Maya as well as the lost cultures of Mesopotamia, Chaco Canyon, Mali, Songhai, and more. The site also offers an interactive game that puts you in the role of a detective charged with the task of finding out why these civilizations crumbled.
To read more about and see photographs of many of the Maya sites described in Map of the Maya World as well as several not covered there, visit this Web site.
Beautifully illustrated with color and black-and-white photographs, site maps, drawings, and other images, this book on the remarkable archeological discoveries made at Copán, was penned by one of the great Maya archeologists, Harvard's Bill Fash, who has spent a quarter century working at this Classic Maya site.
A highly personal account of the deciphering of the Maya script by a Professor Emeritus of Anthropology and Curator Emeritus in the Peabody Museum of Natural History at Yale University. The New York Times deemed it "one of the great stories of 20th-century scientific discovery."
A gorgeous coffee-table-style book that offers in-depth coverage of 18 of the best-known archeological sites of ancient Central America. Includes many Maya sites as well as those of other cultures, from Izapa to Aztec.
Gary Glassman, producer, "Lost King of the Maya"
La Cañada Flintridge will host a community workshop on the city’s film ordinance next week at Descanso Gardens.
The workshop will be held in Van de Kamp Hall at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 21. The city is collecting feedback from residents before making revisions to the city’s existing film ordinance, which was last updated in 1995.
Residents in one neighborhood have said that they would like to see more restrictions on filming, while others have called for fewer restrictions.
The City Council is expected to review the ordinance in coming months.
Forget the latkes. Deep- six the jelly-filled doughnuts (soofganiyot). It’s Hanukkah, and I’m serving cheese.
Jews were celebrating Hanukkah long before the first potato was shipped from the New World to the Old, probably in the first half of the sixteenth century. As it turns out, potatoes weren’t an overnight success. Only when famine threatened in the late eighteenth century were farmers in northern and central Europe motivated to overcome their fears and plant potatoes. And it wasn’t until back-to-back crop failures in 1839 and 1840 made starvation a distinct possibility that farmers in Eastern Europe followed suit.
So what did European Jews eat on Hanukkah pre-potato? Think cheese.
Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Assyria, sent an army led by the general Holofernes to lay siege to a town near Jerusalem. A young Jewish widow named Judith went to Holofernes, and he-taken with her beauty-invited her to his tent. As she had planned, Judith fed him salty cheese washed down with large quantities of wine. When he fell into a drunken stupor, Judith cut off his head with his own sword. The Assyrians, upon learning that their general was dead, panicked and fled.
Judith’s story has nothing to do with Hanukkah. The holiday celebrates the Maccabees’ victory over the army led by the Syrian king Antiochus in 165 B.C. The Temple had been desecrated and the sacred lights extinguished. When the Jews went to rekindle them, they found only enough ritually pure oil to last for a single day. But according to tradition, the oil lasted for eight days and nights, long enough for new supplies to become available.
In remembrance of the miracle, Jews throughout the world eat foods cooked in oil during the eight days of Hanukkah. In Israel, jelly filled doughnuts (soofganiyot) deep-fried in oil are a favorite treat, while Jews whose ancestors lived in areas bordering the Mediterranean are partial to the fried pastries ubiquitous in that part of the world.
While the events recounted in the story of Judith predate the Maccabees’ victory by several centuries, the two events became entwined during the Middle Ages. As a result, dairy products were, for countless generations, eaten during Hanukkah. Cheese pancakes were one of the more popular options, and serving potato latkes with sour cream may well be a continuation of the tradition.
The following recipe honors both Hanukkah traditions.
In a food processor or blender, puree the cheese, eggs, flour or matza meal, butter or sour cream, sugar or honey, vanilla or cinnamon, and salt until smooth. Or beat the eggs with an electric mixer until thick and creamy, then beat in the cheese and the remaining batter ingredients.
Heat a large skillet or griddle over medium heat. Lightly grease with oil or butter.
In batches, drop the batter by heaping tablespoonfuls and fry until bubbles form on the tops and the bottoms are lightly browned, 2 to 3 minutes.
Adapted from a recipe in “The World of Jewish Cooking” (Simon & Schuster, 1996) by Gil Marks.
If it is a Tax, How Much is it Gonna Cost Us?
The Supreme court ruled Obamacare's mandate to buy individual insurance is a tax. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, a.k.a. PPACA, stands, but now Obamacare is classified as a tax.
Read more about If it is a Tax, How Much is it Gonna Cost Us?
On January 18th Internet websites shut down, including this one. The simultaneous black out was in protest of two bills before Congress, SOPA and PIPA. On January 20th, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid shelved the Senate version of the bill, PIPA, for a floor vote and House Judiciary Chair Lamar Smith just suspended SOPA in committee. SOPA and PIPA are D.O.A.
I have heard from the critics and I take seriously their concerns,” said Lamar Smith, House judiciary chairman and the sponsor of the Stop Online Piracy Act, as he announced the suspension of work on the bill.
Mr Smith’s retreat followed a similar move in the Senate, where majority leader Harry Reid postponed a scheduled vote on the related Protect Intellectual Property Act “in light of recent events.
Software startup is targeting banks as its customer base, so this pilot fish is sent to the initial customer to make sure everything is exactly the way the bank wants it to be.
"When not observing their processes or asking and answering questions, I sat at a big mahogany desk right in front of the bank's vault," says fish.
"One evening well after the bank had closed, I was coding away at the desk when a guard confronted me with pistol drawn, demanding to know who I was and why I was sitting in front of the vault -- which it turned out hadn't been locked, as it was supposed to be.
"A phone call later, I got to put my hands down.
"But that wasn't the last excitement in this job. A few years later, I was part of a team doing an installation at a bank in the middle of the country.
"I and a group from the bank were working late to meet the conversion deadline, and the leader of the bank team decided to order food from a restaurant in the shopping center across the road.
"Even though there was a light rain, I volunteered to pick up the order. The friendly guard let me out, and I immediately started running through the rain.
"That's when two crewcuts emerged from a black sedan, drew their guns and hollered to the guard, asking if they should shoot.
"I ducked for cover while waiting for the guard to answer -- and said grace silently later as we sat down to our takeout meal."
OK, now you can put your hands down and send Sharky your true tale of IT life at sharky@computerworld.com. You can also comment on today's tale at Sharky's Google+ community, and read thousands of great old tales in the Sharkives.
After reading The Sun's story on Fred Homan being pushed into retirement after 40 years as a key Baltimore County official (“Top Balto. Co. administrator to go," Nov. 16), my reaction was different than those of some who have clashed with Fred over the years. As a reporter from the Evening Sun and later The Sun who wrote about Baltimore County government over a 21-year period (1977-'98), I always liked Fred.
He is a big guy, often gruff, and very direct, which can be intimidating, but I always found him to be fair and with a good sense of humor. I fondly recall his time as county budget director when I would walk into his domain and spend a while perusing budget requests from the various departments stacked on a table, often coming away with a few good news stories.
If I had questions, Fred was available and provided straight answers, as did others in his office and throughout county government. It was a time when I could get virtually any county employee on the phone or to speak in person — before local government officials began having public relations spokespeople fend off the press.
It was a different time, I guess. I worked from an office across the street from the courthouse, and I was around every day and some evenings. Things aren't like that anymore, which is too bad.
I'm retired now, and I love it. I hope Fred will too. He's certainly earned a rest.
MELBOURNE, (Reuters) – West Indies coach Phil Simmons has lamented a lack of match practice for his embattled team ahead of the second test against Australia.
The Caribbeans, trailing 1-0 in the three-match series after being trounced in the series opener in Hobart, were given only a two-day tour match in the leadup to the traditional Boxing Day test in Melbourne despite having 13 days to fill.
The match against Victoria XI, played in scorching hot conditions in the port city of Geelong against a team of amateurs, also ended early yesterday due to a downpour.
“When I saw the amount of days in between I asked that we have at least a four-day game,” Simmons told local media after the game ended with the hosts 169-3 in reply to West Indies’ first innings declaration at 303-8.
“When the last MOU (memorandum of understanding) came back it ended up a two-day game.
“I would love to have had a four-day game where we could bowl properly and play a proper game, like we did up in Brisbane.
Victoria state’s top cricketers were unavailable due to their commitments in the domestic ‘Big Bash’ Twenty20 tournament, leaving Jason Holder’s team to play against a grab-bag of players cobbled from local clubs.
“I would have loved a first team but the Big Bash has just started so it was always going to be hard,” Simmons said.
“You’d always prefer to get better games.
The Boxing Day test starts on Saturday, with the third and final match of the series in Sydney from Jan. 3.
Ennio Morricone was back in Prague this weekend to conduct the Czech National Symphony Orchestra on the score of The Hateful Eight, a new western film by director Quentin Tarantino.
The director was also in Prague to supervise the work.
The Hateful Eight, which stars Kurt Russell, Tim Roth, Samuel L. Jackson and Bruce Dern, is scheduled for a Christmas 2015 release in 70 mm before going wider in digital format on Jan. 8, 2016.
The original score will be Morricone’s first for Tarantino, who has used archival clips of previous scores by the famed composer before in five films.
Morricone was critical of Tarantino’s use of his archival songs in 2013, complaining about the “incoherent” placement of a song in Django Unchained. He later clarified the remarks, saying that they had been taken out of context and misconstrued. He said he had “great respect” for Tarantino. “I am glad he chooses my music,” he said, according to music magazine Rolling Stone.
This also will be the composer’s first score for a western film in more than 30 years. His last in that genre was for Buddy Goes West in 1981.
The prolific composer and conductor Morricone, now 86 years old, came to international fame for his work on Italian-made spaghetti westerns in the 1960s, with the “dollars trilogy” of films starring Clint Eastwood and directed by Sergio Leone being the most famous.
First reports that Morricone would be working on the new Tarantino film came just last week when Tarantino made the announcement at Comic-Con in San Diego, California. All of the director’s films to date have used previously recorded orchestral music or popular songs. Morricone’s score for The Hateful Eight will be the first original score for one of Tarantino’s films.
Tarantino had asked Morricone to write the score for Inglorious Basterds in 2009, but the composer was already booked to work on Giuseppe Tornatore’s Baaria.
The Hateful Eight, sometimes spelled H8ful Eight or Hateful 8, takes place in Wyoming after the Civil War and involves people seeking refuge in a stagecoach a mountain pass during a blizzard. While the title is a riff on the famous western film The Magnificent Seven, the film itself is inspired by 1960s TV series such as Bonanza, The Virginian and The High Chaparral.
The film was shot in Colorado at the start of 2015, after being pushed back several times.
The CNSO has worked with Morricone previously on the 2013 film The Best Offer, also known as Deception. The Italian-made film starred Geoffrey Rush, Jim Sturgess, Sylvia Hoeks, and Donald Sutherland.
The CSNO also toured Europe with Morricone at the start of 2015 and also have a 60 Years of Music Tour concert scheduled for Jan. 15, 2016 at O2 Arena in Prague.
In a competitive situation, A&E has bought Impact, a drama project from filmmaker Kimberly Peirce (Boys Don’t Cry), journalist-turned-TV writer Jason George (Nashville) and All3Media America. The project, which has received a script order, is being laid off at A+E Studios.
Based on the 2002 British film of the same name written by Matthew Graham and Nigel McCrery, which starred Downton Abbey‘s Hugh Bonneville, Impact is described as a fast-pace thriller that begins immediately following the downing of a major commercial flight near the nation’s capital. When the country’s best airline investigator learns that her son may have been on the flight, everyone she once trusted will become a suspect.
Peirce and George developed the U.S. adaptation with Eli Holzman and Eric Lehrman of All3Media America, whose parent All3Media owns the format through its Company Pictures subsidiary.
George will write the script, with Peirce set to direct the potential pilot. The two executive produce with Holzman, Stephen Lambert and John Yorke. Richard Ruiz and Nigel McCrery serve as producers.
Peirce, whose feature credits also include Stop-Loss and Carrie, is repped by Verve, Writ Large, and lawyers Alan Wertheimer and Andy Galker. All3Media America and George are represented by ICM Partners. George is also repped by attorney Cheryl Snow.
Chief Investigative Reporter Jonathan Dienst on crime, corruption and terrorism.
A retired NYPD detective whose investigative tactics have come under scrutiny as part of a review into old convictions in Brooklyn was confronted in court Wednesday by two men who were jailed in part due to his testimony.
The dramatic clash happened outside a courtroom in downtown Brooklyn, where Lou Scarcella was being questioned as part of a hearing for Rosean Hargrave, a prisoner of more than 20 years who's seeking to be exonerated in a corrections officer's murder in Crown Heights in 1991.
As Scarcella left court, he walked past two men who had been investigated by Scarcella decades ago. The men, Kevin Smith and Derrick Hamilton, each served more than 20 years in prison before they were released on parole. They're currently seeking to have their convictions overturned.
"Scarcella, why did you do it, man?" Smith and Hamilton shouted after the retired detective. "Why you do it? You framed us! You should go to jail for your actions!"
A wrongful murder conviction has prompted Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes to call for a re-examination of dozens of convictions in cases handled by retired detective Louis Scarcella. Brynn Gingras reports.
Scarcella continued to walk, saying nothing.
Hargrave's family, who were also in the hallway, recognized Smith and Hamilton. Hargrave's mother sobbed, and overcome by emotion, was rushed to the hospital.
"He put my son in jail for 23 years for something he didn't do," Hargrave's mother cried to Smith and Hamilton as they embraced her.
Smith, who served 27 years before his release, and Hamilton, who served his 21 years, said they came to see Scarcella and to support Hargrave's family.
"I'm happy his mother is alive," said Smith. "Mine is dead. I came to consult them because I wanted to console them. It hurts to see a mom, sister and family suffer for something the man might not have done."
"I'm just hoping the justice system do what's fit and overturn his conviction," he said.
A judge on Tuesday moved to throw out the decades-old murder convictions of three half brothers who were investigated by a New York City homicide detective whose tactics have come into question. Andrew Siff reports.
When Hargrave's attorney Pierre Sussman questioned Scarcella on the stand, Scarcella, who had two personal attorneys by his side, said he didn't remember ever arresting Hargrave and denied being the lead investigator in the case.
He was polite, often smiled and frequently said he had no recollection of events.
Asked whether he responded to the crime scene in the case, for example, Scarcella said, "I don't remember. It was 22 years ago."
Hargrave's sister told NBC 4 New York of seeing Scarcella on the stand, "To see this man and he don't remember nothing now. This man don't remember nothing. My brother's been sitting in jail for 23 years."
When prosecutors had a chance to cross-examine Scarcella on the stand Tuesday, they declined, saying they had no further questions.

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