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CALIFORNIA: Fish doc cares for watery clientele
Posted: July 30th, 2009 - 6:52pm
Source: UC Davis
Scott Weber, a veterinarian trained in the health needs of fish and other aquatic species, leads the new Aquatic Animal Health team at UC.
More information about the veterinary hospital’s services for fish and other aquatic species is available online at:.
| http://bites.ksu.edu/news/134108/09/07/30/california-fish-doc-cares-watery-clientele | 2013-05-18T10:12:45 | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | 1368696382261 | [
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It’s been a while since I’ve done any single issue Nightly Ramble. A couple months, I believe. This won’t be one of them, but… let’s try it this way, just once and see how the format works. A longer subject at the lead, followed by some shorter ones. I just want to see how this [...]
Continue reading about Nightly Ramble:tax And Spend, More. So moans Jonathan [...]
Continue reading about So, a Tax Cut is Pandering. Government Provided Healthcare Isn’t?
George A. Custer: The original Arrow Shirt Model
Continue reading about Bit’s Bumper Snicker of the Day
Ya can’t make this stuff up: INDIANAPOLIS —(McClatchy NS) [...]
Continue reading about Hillary Clinton Blasts Bush for Not Stopping a George Soros Project That Bill Clinton Approved [...]
Continue reading about So Much for the Democrat Dreams of a Recession: Economy Grows.
Did you see the story about the prisoner in an Arkansas jail suing the county because he’s lost over 100lbs while in jail? Seems to me the Prisoner owes the state a rather large sum of dollars, or at least thanks. Do you know how many people are paying the long buck for mail-order food [...]
Continue reading about Will Sue for Food
Did anyone notice the two goons that were standing behind Reverend Jeremiah Wright as he delivered his speech at the national press club? Did they looked familiar at all to you? They should. They were from the Nation of Islam. Yes, that’s Farrakhan’s group. (Update: Bit… Well, looks like Michelle Malkin noticed. Good for you, [...]
Continue reading about Was Obama Lying Then, Or is He Lying Now?
Karl Rove’s advice to BO, via Jeralyn, Talk Left: When you’re on the defense, as with Rev. Wright, choose one explanation and stick to it. BO circa March 18, via Mark Silva, Swamp: “I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community,” Obama said of Wright. “I can no more disown [...]
Continue reading about BO, His Grandmother And Two Reverends..
One Wright makes two wrongs
Continue reading about Bits Bumper Snicker of the Day [...]
Continue reading about A Misquote, Or an Intentional, Dispicable Conflating of Names?
If Women Ran The World Mankind would still be living in caves, albeit with really, really fancy curtains; Kate McMillan, Small Dead Animals ?
Continue reading about Snark of the Day: Kate McMillan
The North Dakota Department of Mineral Resources has releases a state report on the Bakken shale formation in North Dakota The currentlly recoverable portion of the Bakken formation represents about ten percent of known domestic reserves. That is just over one percent of total reserves. James Macpherson: BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — The Bakken shale formation [...]
Continue reading about North Dakota Releases Own Bakken Report
Word from Scott Fybush, this monring, that Big Ron O’Brien has passed on. Ron was a great one, and held court at some of the great stations of the country. I recall catching his show several times on WCFL, back when that station actually meant something,a nd again at WNBC before Alan Combs decided they [...]
Continue reading about RIP: Big Ron O’Brien
You know, Barack Obama’s involvement with Bill Ayers ought to be enough for every reasonable person to heave them both over the metaphorical side. That’s bad enough. If I were Obama, though, I would be wishing hard for the Revvin’ Jeremiah Wright to fall down a well. That’s Billy Beck, this morning. And of course [...]
Continue reading about Another Wright Moment | http://bitsblog.theconservativereader.com/2008/04/ | 2013-05-18T10:41:16 | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | 1368696382261 | [] |
John "Jack" Allen Johnson was born February 1, 1943 at Parkston to Bernard and Viola (Puetz) Johnson. He was baptized and confirmed at the Salem Lutheran Church. He attended Parkston schools graduating from high school in 1961. He served with the Parkston National Guard for six years. He farmed with his father for several years before moving to Mitchell. On November 12, 1971 he married Sharon Plagmann. Jack was employed with the city sanitation department in Mitchell until retiring. He was a member of First Lutheran Church. He was an avid pool shooter and enjoyed fishing.
He is survived by his two children: BJ Johnson, Mitchell and Kimberly Johnson, Brookings; his mother, Viola Johnson, Parkston; mother-in-law, LaVera Plagmann, Mitchell; brother-in-law, Larry Fritza, Mitchell; sister-in-law, Karen Grave, Mitchell; niece, Sarah (Jason) Wear, Mitchell; nephews: Frank (Kim) Grave, Tea, SD, Tim Grave, Mobile, AL; three great-nephews and one great-niece.
He was preceded in death by his father, Bernard, wife, Sharon and sister, Joann Fritza. | http://bittnerfuneralchapel.net/index.php?pageID=1231_2&personID=677 | 2013-05-18T10:20:22 | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | 1368696382261 | [] |
livelifelove
livelifelove
Hello everyone! I offer psychic and medium readings. I also offer gypsy tarot card readings and use the pendulum for general yes or no questions! Feel lost or confused in your relationship? Need love guidance? I can provide you with clarity on this!
I also do candle magic to help those with health, money, protection, healing and weightloss!
I also offer healings! Feeling unbalanced, lack in energy, tired all the time? I can help clear, cleanse, and recharge your chakras!
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Languages: English
Media: Audio Call, Video Call
Local Time: (GMT-05:00) May 18, 2013, 06:12AM
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Last seen: 26 days ago
1 Review: 1 Excellent 0 Satisfactory 0 Unsatisfactory | http://bitwine.com/users/166561-livelifelove?advisor=true&feedback=true&filter=1 | 2013-05-18T10:12:08 | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | 1368696382261 | [
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Photo credit: (AP)...”
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Hello to every , as I am actually keen of reading this weblog’s post to be updated daily. It includes good stuff.
Pingback: Race Card Project Creates New Type of Conversation | Majic 102.3 | http://blackamericaweb.com/77042/race-card-project-creates-new-type-of-conversation/comment-page-1/ | 2013-05-18T10:31:56 | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | 1368696382261 | [
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Can you tell the difference between a weave and non weave-wearing woman? Maybe not if you’re a guy, but probably so if you’re a living, breathing, female. You can lace it front, back and in between but women have become connoisseurs on the world of weave. At the end of the day, however, not only do women seek to impress each other, but also their male counterparts.
Scientists agree that men have a biological inclination to feminine characteristics. Among fertility and other aesthetic feminine traits is a general love for long, flowing locks. The hair industry has tapped into this lust for locks and has made it into a goldmine.
But what do men really think? I took to Facebook and Twitter recently to poll guys on which they prefer- weave or natural? Most guys responded that they prefer natural if possible, but won’t argue with a weave wearing woman. Some felt strongly that a woman should wear her natural hair at all times, and others were indifferent. Overall it was shockingly split down the middle. Thanks guys! That helps us out a lot.
What I really need to know is- Is it a deal breaker? I’ve heard some men bash weave, lacefronts, wigs etc. but turn around and say how “Bad” Beyonce and Meagan Good are. Hmmm…I guess their hair just grows real fast. Don’t be fooled fellas.
Please note that “bald head scallywags” are not the only people who wear fake hair. Black, white, red, purple, and women of all races, backgrounds, and hair types wear weave. I have friends with mid back length hair that wear wigs, tracks, etc. for fun and to switch things up every now and then.
Take myself for example. I have a good amount of natural hair that can take me 3-4 hours to wash, condition, and flat iron. I love my hair and I wear it every chance I get, but can you imagine? Working out, running through the rain, and even dancing can become treacherous endeavors. I’ll be unbeweaveable every now and then to keep my sanity.
At the end of the day I believe a female should focus on the hairstyle that makes her happy and best expresses her style, personality, and creativity. If a man will change his tune over a piece of hair, he’s more than likely not for you. While cliché’, relationships should be based on love, common interests, and trust….not how many inches of virgin Remy you can or cannot fit on your head. If you were to develop cancer, alopecia, or have a tragic hair disaster, would he still be there for you?
So what is your take as a male? Are weaves unnatural, unnecessary, and unattractive? Or can they be done with taste and tact? Would you date a woman who wore fake hair or is it a deal breaker?
Females how do you feel about being judged and objectified for a hairstyle? It seems that other cultures don’t judge their females as meticulously as we do. Is it a valid debate or are we losing for loving long locks?
Nice article.
I do not think the man’s opinion should count, but obviously if he hates it, you are going to hate it. I wrote about this on my blog just examining boy’s reactions to weaves.
Just asked husband what he prefers and her mmm whatever you like really as long as you don’t do it and moan about it!
I loved this article! Even though I do not wear weave often I think it is an enhancement or to switch up your look.
They all prefer it natural but they aren’t the ones that have to spend 2 hours washing, drying, and flat ironing it so I don’t really care what they want! It’s all about me!
Hi ladies,
I would really appreciate your help; I have moved to Toronto a month ago and am in desperate need of finding a good, reliable place to get my extensions re-sewn. I made the mistake of trusting the word of one hairdresser when I arrived and she completely ruined my extensions (loose braid that is completely falling apart after not even a month, normally my sew-ins have stayed perfectly attached for 3 months, until they are grown out and need to be re-done for that reason). I really need to find a person that is capable of doing a small, unnoticeable braid and attaching the extension to it so that it wont start coming off. Thanks in advance for the expert advice!!
My husband doesn’t really care how my hair is done as long as it looks nice. I think sometimes he prefers something like braids or a natural looking hairstyle. For instance, I had a natural looking curly weave in that he really liked once. Even though it was a weave he liked the look because it looks like my natural hair when I don’t have a relaxer. I think the bottom like for any man is that his woman look nice, whether its a natural or a weave. If its about deal breakers with him then that’s one dude with a problem who will never find a woman if he’s hung up on petty stuff like that.
My husband is only concerned with whether my hair looks nice or not. Since being married 17 years, I have worn my hair natural, relaxed, and weaves and he has liked them all. I find that it is only OTHER BLACK WOMEN who have a problem with me wearing a weave or having permed hair. That only tells me that jealous and envy is involved . . .
They say they want natural but as soon as that remy comes out they start drooling.
OMG, that’s so true
My husband likes both my long weave and my short natural hair. Weave allows me to have the best of both worlds. Most men dnt like to be fooled by it, if asked be honest. If u flaunt it like it’s natural then it should be. | http://blackhairmedia.com/weaveology101/weave-or-natural-which-does-your-man-prefer/ | 2013-05-18T10:13:21 | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | 1368696382261 | [] |
. This week, we look at the System.Tuple class and the handy factory methods for creating a Tuple by inferring the types.
The System.Tuple is a class that tends to inspire a reaction in one of two ways: love or hate. Simply put, a Tuple is a data structure that holds a specific number of items of a specific type in a specific order. That is, a Tuple<int, string, int> is a tuple that contains exactly three items: an int, followed by a string, followed by an int. The sequence is important not only to distinguish between two members of the tuple with the same type, but also for comparisons between tuples.
Some people tend to love tuples because they give you a quick way to combine multiple values into one result. This can be handy for returning more than one value from a method (without using out or ref parameters), or for creating a compound key to a Dictionary, or any other purpose you can think of. They can be especially handy when passing a series of items into a call that only takes one object parameter, such as passing an argument to a thread's startup routine. In these cases, you do not need to define a class, simply create a tuple containing the types you wish to return, and you are ready to go?
On the other hand, there are some people who see tuples as a crutch in object-oriented design. They may view the tuple as a very watered down class with very little inherent semantic meaning. As an example, what if you saw this in a piece of code:
1: var x = new Tuple<int, int>(2, 5);
What are the contents of this tuple? If the tuple isn't named appropriately, and if the contents of each member are not self evident from the type this can be a confusing question. The people who tend to be against tuples would rather you explicitly code a class to contain the values, such as:
1: public sealed class RetrySettings
2: {
3: public int TimeoutSeconds { get; set; }
4: public int MaxRetries { get; set; }
5: }
Here, the meaning of each int in the class is much more clear, but it's a bit more work to create the class and can clutter a solution with extra classes.
So, what's the correct way to go? That's a tough call. You will have people who will argue quite well for one or the other. For me, I consider the Tuple to be a tool to make it easy to collect values together easily. There are times when I just need to combine items for a key or a result, in which case the tuple is short lived and so the meaning isn't easily lost and I feel this is a good compromise. If the scope of the collection of items, though, is more application-wide I tend to favor creating a full class.
Finally, it should be noted that tuples are immutable. That means they are assigned a value at construction, and that value cannot be changed. Now, of course if the tuple contains an item of a reference type, this means that the reference is immutable and not the item referred to.
Tuples come in all sizes, you can have as few as one element in your tuple, or as many as you like. However, since C# generics can't have an infinite generic type parameter list, any items after 7 have to be collapsed into another tuple, as we'll show shortly.
So when you declare your tuple from sizes 1 (a 1-tuple or singleton) to 7 (a 7-tuple or septuple), simply include the appropriate number of type arguments:
1: // a singleton tuple of integer
2: Tuple<int> x;
3:
4: // or more
5: Tuple<int, double> y;
6:
7: // up to seven
8: Tuple<int, double, char, double, int, string, uint> z;
Anything eight and above, and we have to nest tuples inside of tuples. The last element of the 8-tuple is the generic type parameter Rest, this is special in that the Tuple checks to make sure at runtime that the type is a Tuple. This means that a simple 8-tuple must nest a singleton tuple (one of the good uses for a singleton tuple, by the way) for the Rest property.
1: // an 8-tuple
2: Tuple<int, int, int, int, int, double, char, Tuple<string>> t8;
4: // an 9-tuple
5: Tuple<int, int, int, int, double, int, char, Tuple<string, DateTime>> t9;
7: // a 16-tuple
8: Tuple<int, int, int, int, int, int, int, Tuple<int, int, int, int, int, int, int, Tuple<int,int>>> t16;
Notice that on the 16-tuple we had to have a nested tuple in the nested tuple. Since the tuple can only support up to seven items, and then a rest element, that means that if the nested tuple needs more than seven items you must nest in it as well.
Constructing tuples is just as straightforward as declaring them. That said, you have two distinct ways to do it. The first is to construct the tuple explicitly yourself:
1: var t3 = new Tuple<int, string, double>(1, "Hello", 3.1415927);
This creates a triple that has an int, string, and double and assigns the values 1, "Hello", and 3.1415927 respectively. Make sure the order of the arguments supplied matches the order of the types! Also notice that we can't half-assign a tuple or create a default tuple. Tuples are immutable (you can't change the values once constructed), so thus you must provide all values at construction time.
Another way to easily create tuples is to do it implicitly using the System.Tuple static class's Create() factory methods. These methods (much like C++'s std::make_pair method) will infer the types from the method call so you don't have to type them in. This can dramatically reduce the amount of typing required especially for complex tuples!
1: // this 4-tuple is typed Tuple<int, double, string, char>
2: var t4 = Tuple.Create(42, 3.1415927, "Love", 'X');
Notice how much easier it is to use the factory methods and infer the types? This can cut down on typing quite a bit when constructing tuples. The Create() factory method can construct from a 1-tuple (singleton) to an 8-tuple (octuple), which of course will be a octuple where the last item is a singleton as we described before in nested tuples.
Accessing a tuple's members is simplicity itself… mostly. The properties for accessing up to the first seven items are Item1, Item2, …, Item7. If you have an octuple or beyond, the final property is Rest which will give you the nested tuple which you can then access in a similar matter. Once again, keep in mind that these are read-only properties and cannot be changed.
1: // for septuples and below, use the Item properties
2: var t1 = Tuple.Create(42, 3.14);
4: Console.WriteLine("First item is {0} and second is {1}",
5: t1.Item1, t1.Item2);
7: // for octuples and above, use Rest to retrieve nested tuple
8: var t9 = new Tuple<int, int, int, int, int, int, int,
9: Tuple<int, int>>(1,2,3,4,5,6,7,Tuple.Create(8,9));
10:
11: Console.WriteLine("The 8th item is {0}", t9.Rest.Item1);
Most of you know about IComparable and IEquatable, what you may not know is that there are two sister interfaces to these that were added in .NET 4.0 to help support tuples. These IStructuralComparable and IStructuralEquatable make it easy to compare two tuples for equality and ordering. This is invaluable for sorting, and makes it easy to use tuples as a compound-key to a dictionary (one of my favorite uses)!
Why is this so important? Remember when we said that some folks think tuples are too generic and you should define a custom class? This is all well and good, but if you want to design a custom class that can automatically order itself based on its members and build a hash code for itself based on its members, it is no longer a trivial task! Thankfully the tuple does this all for you through the explicit implementations of these interfaces.
For equality, two tuples are equal if all elements are equal between the two tuples, that is if t1.Item1 == t2.Item1 and t1.Item2 == t2.Item2, and so on. For ordering, it's a little more complex in that it compares the two tuples one at a time starting at Item1, and sees which one has a smaller Item1. If one has a smaller Item1, it is the smaller tuple. However if both Item1 are the same, it compares Item2 and so on.
For example:
1: var t1 = Tuple.Create(1, 3.14, "Hi");
2: var t2 = Tuple.Create(1, 3.14, "Hi");
3: var t3 = Tuple.Create(2, 2.72, "Bye");
4:
5: // true, t1 == t2 because all items are ==
6: Console.WriteLine("t1 == t2 : " + t1.Equals(t2));
7:
8: // false, t1 != t2 because at least one item different
9: Console.WriteLine("t2 == t2 : " + t2.Equals(t3));
The actual implementation of IComparable, IEquatable, IStructuralComparable, and IStructuralEquatable is explicit, so if you want to invoke the methods defined there you'll have to manually cast to the appropriate interface:
1: // true because t1.Item1 < t3.Item1, if had been same would check Item2 and so on
2: Console.WriteLine("t1 < t3 : " + (((IComparable)t1).CompareTo(t3) < 0));
So, as I mentioned, the fact that tuples are automatically equatable and comparable (provided the types you use define equality and comparability as needed) means that we can use tuples for compound keys in hashing and ordering containers like Dictionary and SortedList:
1: var tupleDict = new Dictionary<Tuple<int, double, string>, string>();
2:
3: tupleDict.Add(t1, "First tuple");
4: tupleDict.Add(t2, "Second tuple");
5: tupleDict.Add(t3, "Third tuple");
Because IEquatable defines GetHashCode(), and Tuple's IStructuralEquatable implementation creates this hash code by combining the hash codes of the members, this makes using the tuple as a complex key quite easy! For example, let's say you are creating account charts for a financial application, and you want to cache those charts in a Dictionary based on the account number and the number of days of chart data (for example, a 1 day chart, 1 week chart, etc):
1: // the account number (string) and number of days (int) are key to get cached chart
2: var chartCache = new Dictionary<Tuple<string, int>, IChart>();
The System.Tuple, like any tool, is best used where it will achieve a greater benefit. I wouldn't advise overusing them, on objects with a large scope or it can become difficult to maintain. However, when used properly in a well defined scope they can make your code cleaner and easier to maintain by removing the need for extraneous POCOs and custom property hashing and ordering.
They are especially useful in defining compound keys to IDictionary implementations and for returning multiple values from methods, or passing multiple values to a single object parameter.
Print | posted on Thursday, March 10, 2011 6:37 PM |
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] | http://blackrabbitcoder.net/archive/2011/03/10/c.net-little-wonders-tuples-and-tuple-factory-methods.aspx | 2013-05-18T10:21:11 | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | 1368696382261 | [] |
Some grasses, like this miscanthus:
And a couple of lamium, like this patch of 'Purple Dragon':
Inside, the 'Blue Daze' convolvulus in a container of 'Bengal Tiger' bougainvillea decided to throw out another flush of blooms:
And one Thanksgiving cactus has decided not to wait for the holiday to put on a show:
I doubt that I will find any blooms inside in December, so this is probably it for the outside garden this season. To find out what's blooming around the world this month, check out Carol's November Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day post! | http://blackswampgirl.blogspot.com/2012_11_01_archive.html | 2013-05-18T11:03:27 | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | 1368696382261 | [] |
Time: February 15, 2012 from 8pm to 10pm
Location: Black Talk Radio News
Website or Map:…
Phone: 347-826-9112
Event Type: talk radio, politics, news, education
Latest Activity: Feb 15, 2012
Export to Outlook or iCal (.ics)
A new drug law has been signed by President Obama.
The Ultralight Aircraft Smuggling Prevention Act of 2012 closes a loophole that treated the use of ultralight aircraft to help with drug smuggling different from the use of other aircraft. Now, their use can bring a long jail sentence and stiff fines.
Tonight I am joined by Leonard Frieling of Law Enforcement Against Prohibtion. Mr. Frieling says "If the government stopped creating and supporting the artificially high street price of illegal drugs, the drug-associated crime would disappear." 32 years of criminal defense practice, I have never encountered a turf-war involving coffee."
News Briefs:
TBD | http://blacktalkradionetwork.com/events/ending-the-drug-war-w-leonard-frieling-8-00-pm-est | 2013-05-18T10:12:25 | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | 1368696382261 | [] |
In the course of writing these articles on wealth, I have received emails asking how people can distribute their wealth for the good of the community. For this article I am going to divide charitable giving into four categories:
1. Business Assistance
2. Educational Assistance
3. General Community Assistance
4. Family Assistance
The only way that the Black Community can truly create business wealth is to create funds that provide capital to Black businesses. For our purposes we will oversimplify and divided these funds into two type, venture capital funds and business assistance funds.
Venture capital funds are for profit funds. These funds are designed to make money for their investors. They essentially invest in potentially high-risk and high-growth businesses. Venture capital funds have been behind the explosive growth of technology in the United States technology.
I am using the term business assistance funds to describe funds that are not for profit and provide loans (including microloans) and grants to businesses. Loans have to be paid back while grants do not.
2. Educational Assistance
Educational assistance can take the form of scholarships and fellowships. Scholarships are monies given to students to be used to pay for the cost of their education. With the rising cost of private schools, scholarships can be provided to students of all ages, from elementary through college. Fellowships are funds provided to the school, college or university.
3. General Community Assistance
This is the money that we give to churches, civic organizations (NAACP, Urban League, etc.) community based organizations, fraternal organizations and professional organizations (Black MBA's, Doctors, Attorneys, Data Processors, Accountants, etc.). There are so many needs in our community that finding an organization to give money to is not a problem.
4. Family Assistance
The legal definition of a trust is a fiduciary relationship in which one person (the trustee) holds the title to property (the trust estate or trust property) for the benefit of another (the beneficiary). (see - definition 9 under Law).
The basic concept is to ensure that your child or relative uses the money as a down payment on a home, to further their education, to invest, or to start a business, rather than just for buying a new car.
Money can be given to any or all of these categories, depending on your interests and desires. The key is to begin planning to pass your wealth on now.. | http://blackvoicenews.com/more-sections/business.html?start=90 | 2013-05-18T10:41:05 | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | 1368696382261 | [
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Does not specify consoles.
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"I’m thrilled to have Randi on the Air America Washington team…it’s about time we were reunited.” says Air America’s program director Bill Hess.
Rhodes will do PM drive at WZAA, AAR's new progressive talker in Washington DC.
Hess says her “entertaining, aggressive style makes her the perfect fit for the ride home in Washington, where she’s now based.”
It's kissy-lips now, but it was ugly when they split up.
That was in April of last year and Randi Rhodes, (KPTK m-f, 6-9p) one of the original talents at Air America, called Hillary Clinton a "big, fucking whore" in a boozy off-air speech at a station promotion in San Francisco. She was suspended by AAR.
A couple of days later, Randi responded: "You can't fire me, I quit!" She then went to the ill-fated Nova M Network,(another AAR spin-off) until it went bust, then spent a few months wandering in the off-the air desert.
In April, however, the popular Randi Rhodes Show was picked up by the prestigious Premiere Networks the syndicator of Everyone Big, Owned by Clear Channel, it's the company that syndicates Rush, Beck, Hannity, and Casey Kasem for god's sake.
It was a big break for her, and has put her back on the dial in Seattle and in a hundred or so markets nationwide.
(Many doubt the hugely indebted Clear Channel, the nation's largest media conglom will survive past the first quarter of 2010. Terrestrial radio is a dying industry in the grips of a deep recession, and CC isn't the only biggie in the shit.
No one knows what bankruptcy, restructuring, and/or liquidation of the Mothership will look like, but the bitter fruits of duopoly and consolidation, many be finally coming home to roost).
I'm looking forward to seeing her numbers whenever they come out now that she's got a wider presence. She always said she beat Rush head-to-head and only in those areas where he was dually aired or the only thing on the dial does he win.
It will be interesting. He old fans have welcomed you back enthusiastically.
Posted by: joanie | June 23, 2009 at 08:51 PM
Im confused
...I thought she was with Premier
Posted by: sparky | June 23, 2009 at 10:16 PM
sparky why do you always have to be a fuddyduddy... just enjoy the presence of randi.. why can't you be more like joanie..and love more? be more positive sparky!
Posted by: justlove | June 24, 2009 at 04:59 AM
She is syndicted through Premier. But she has been added to the line up on WZAA-AM in DC.
Posted by: LucasFoxx | June 24, 2009 at 08:22 AM
>>It was a big break for her, and has put her back on the dial in Seattle and in a hundred or so markets nationwide.<<
Huh? Her web site (randirhodes.com)lists SEVENTEEN affiliates, not "a hundred or so." Seventeen is ten less than she had when she was syndicated by NovaM.
Posted by: NYLefty | June 24, 2009 at 09:32 AM
Wasn't she already with AirAmerica in the past? I thought that she was one of the talent that helped deliver AAR in to Bankruptsy Court.
Don't those people ever learn? Next thing you know, Ford will reintroduce the Edsel.
Posted by: chucks | June 24, 2009 at 10:37 AM
In the radio business friends become enemies and enemies become friends.
Posted by: mrogi | June 24, 2009 at 10:53 AM
Whatever numbers she pulls in DC ... and remember, she didn't do much last time she was on in that market ... Rhodes will be hampered by the station's lousy 44 watt signal when it gets dark early in the fall. And yes, she will blame Air America for that!
Posted by: casual observer | June 24, 2009 at 11:59 AM
No Puts or Duffman back yet - Is it a lull before the storm (in more ways than one) ?
Posted by: KS | June 24, 2009 at 09:15 PM
44 Watts-now there is a transmitting blowtorch! You go girl. Both fans should be able to hear you over a couple of square blocks. Farther if you turned the transmitter off and just shrieked after getting properly prepared with your special tonic.
Posted by: Queens Hunter | June 24, 2009 at 09:36 PM | http://blatherwatch.blogs.com/talk_radio/2009/06/randi-rhodes-air-america-together-again.html | 2013-05-18T10:52:51 | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | 1368696382261 | [] |
When is Hanukkah 2009?
Even though the Festival of Lights doesn't begin until sundown tomorrow, December 11th, 2009, there's little doubt Ron Coleman will be burning the midnight oil tonight as he prepares Blawg Review #242 for his law blog, Likelihood of Confusion, during the eight nights of Chanukah 2009.
Ron won't be working on the Sabbath, of course, so there's effectively only a couple of days left to submit your favorite law blog posts of the past week or so for consideration in what will undoubtedly be one of the best presentations of Blawg Review this year.
Last year, for Chanukah, Ron Coleman hosted Blawg Review #191, a thoughtful presentation based on the Jewish tradition of Chanukah, the Festival of Lights, which garnered only one vote less than Colin Samuels got for Blawg Review of the Year.
This year's Blawg Review #242 at Likelihood of Confusion is much anticipated, to say the least. | http://blawgreview.blogspot.com/2009/12/when-is-hanukkah-2009.html | 2013-05-18T10:42:06 | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | 1368696382261 | [
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I’m honestly cracking up, and my mum is looking at me like I’m more deranged than usual.
(via ohtheplacesyoullgokid)
Imagine A World Without Hate
That is such a powerful set of photos…
(via eachbreathandeverymoment)
Since coming to university a lot of people may have noticed a distance between them and myself that far exceeds physical locations. I think now I’m ready to talk about why that is and how sorry I am for it affecting my relationship with you. I have depression. It’s eaten away at me but now I’ve accepted help and I’m getting better.
I’ve hated every minute of my time at university. Describing how I’ve felt for the past three years is beyond me. I’ve made some amazing friends through both working and living here but I’ve also made some incredibly stupid mistakes. I’ve allowed myself to be hurt and betrayed and I’ve put my trust in some of the worst people I could have. And while all this has been going on, I have managed to push everybody else who made my life back home so happy so far away.
I miss you all, and I want to be there with you again. This is my apology to everyone I’ve ignored, made minimal effort with and possibly even upset by saying I would do things and then not make good on those promises.
There are so many of you I know will read this and know it’s for you and I know some people who will read it and know it isn’t but I want you to know that I am on my way back soon and I’ll be seeing you!
I’m getting better, day by day, and I refuse to let it come between you and I ever again.
All my love, Liam.
Sweets!
(Source: chocolatetuxedo, via icanbeelusive)
your logic is valid.
This logic truly undeniable.
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DAMIEN! Shall we not?!
(Source: cokainecupcakes, via icanbeelusive)
- Mirror ♥ Frado #hipstarapp
Been a while since I instagrammed a coffee like (at Caffè Nero)
13 Years since Nan died. Setting off a Chinese lantern tonight in her memory
So as everyone on the internet knows by now I’ve really gotten into the gym. I want to lose weight and get fit, and I’m even considering doing the Great Manchester Run next April for charity though I’m not entirely sure I’ll survive that ordeal… but anyway that’s besides the point.
I’m getting really tired all the time now and it’s annoying me because I’m not doing anywhere near what I want to be doing on the treadmill and it’s terribly frustrating for me. I’m on these tablets to help me lose weight and I have done really well. Losing two stone since the middle of August is quite an accomplishment I feel and I’m finally getting some semblance of my former confidence back after some seriously depressing years at UCLan.
If I want to be losing the kind of weight I want to then I do need to work out this fatigue thing… whether that be giving the gym a rest for a week every few weeks or what. I don’t know if any gym bunnies follow me on here but I do need some advice. | http://bleachbypass.tumblr.com/ | 2013-05-18T10:11:33 | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | 1368696382261 | [] |
Jeff Gordon: 5 Reasons for the Former NASCAR Sprint Cup Champ's Struggles
Jeff Gordon went into the 2012 season expecting to build on a great 2011 season.
His career seemed restarted with new crew chief Alan Gustafson joining forces with Gordon to win three races.
But 2012 has not been too kind. Gordon has struggled a lot to start off the season and currently sits 21st in points, a position that I did not expect to see Gordon anywhere near.
Here are five reasons why Jeff Gordon has struggled and what fans should expect for the rest of 2012.
5. Pit Road Mistakes
Jonathan Ferrey/Getty Images
In Fontana, Jeff Gordon was penalized twice for mistakes made by his pit crew.
Gordon was penalized on Lap 107 for leaving the pit stall with the fuel can (and gas man) attached to his car. Gordon then had to take a trip back down pit road for a stop-and-go penalty, which put him a lap down.
Then on a pit stop during a late-race caution, the crew let a tire get away from them, earning another penalty for Gordon. This time he had to start at the back of the pack.
Those penalties ruined any hopes for Gordon to have a good run. He was relegated to finish 26th.
These mistakes can't happen. With how tight points are, these mistakes are killing any hopes Gordon has in a championship run.
4. Missing the Set-Up for a Track
Ezra Shaw/Getty Images
One issue Gordon and Alan Gustafson had at times during the 2011 season was missing the set-up for a track and not being able to recover from it.
Las Vegas showed that Gordon and Gustafson still have some work to do.
Gordon fought an ill-handling race car all race long. He started in the top 15 but the handling in the car just went way. He fell all the way to 26th and had to work his way back up from there.
Gordon was able to bring it back up to a 12th-place finish, but these races where the handling goes away and doesn't come back can't happen.
It burned Gordon for many races last season and it looks like it might burn him again this season unless Gordon and Gustafson can get a better understanding of their set-ups.
3. Mechanical Issues
Jerry Markland/Getty Images
Gordon started out the 2012 season in a rough way at Daytona.
Besides flipping for the first time during the Bud Shootout, Gordon had a strong car for the Daytona 500.
It was a shame when his motor blew before Gordon could make a significant impact on the race. To start off the season with a 40th-place finish puts this team in a hole that will take a while to dig out of.
While it is rare for a motor to go for a Hendrick car, it happens, and Jeff Gordon doesn't need to have it happen to him again.
2. Getting Caught Up in Wrecks
Jeff Zelevansky/Getty Images
This early in the season, every crash and every bad finish hurts.
The Bristol crash was a big blow to Gordon. He was running well and was on pace for a good finish before disaster struck.
While battling teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr., they made contact and Junior's tail pipes cut Gordon's tire, sending the No. 24 car into the wall and resulting in a 35th-place finish.
While that was bad, it had to feel worse when Gordon was taken out in a crash while leading this past Sunday in Martinsville during a green-white-checkered finish.
Gordon dominated Martinsville, leading for over 300 laps and finished 14th after the crash. Having a win taken away so close to the finish is tough for a driver to handle.
1. That's It. Jeff Gordon's Season Will Turn Around
Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images
If we've learned anything from last season, it's that it is a long season and there is time to turn a season around and make a run during the chase. Ask Tony Stewart.
The same goes for Jeff Gordon. Look at his stats from last season. With the exception of the win at Phoenix, Gordon started the 2011 season in a rough way too.
He made it all the way up to the top five in points by the time the chase started.
Gordon is one of the best drivers out there for a reason. He knows how to get the job done when it really counts.
The No. 24 car will turn things around. I would be more worried if he wasn't competitive at all. But after leading over 300 laps in Martinsville in dominating fashion, I'm not worried.
Don't count out Jeff Gordon yet.
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2012 AFC North: Ranking the Division's Top 5 Wide Receivers
Despite their hard-nosed pasts, the AFC North teams have actually had some pretty good receivers in their respective histories.
The Steelers had Hall of Famers John Stallworth and Lynn Swann in the 70s and future Hall of Famer Hines Ward until his retirement this past offseason. Cincinnati boasted Carl Pickens and Cleveland landed Paul Warfield.
But with the passing explosion in the NFL, more receivers are becoming household names, especially in the AFC North.
So who are the division's Top 5 receivers? Let's get to it.
5. Greg Little, Cleveland Browns
This could have easily been the Ravens Torrey Smith, but to me, Smith is a little too one dimensional at this point in his career.
As a rookie last season, Little led the Browns with 61 receptions and 709 yards on a team that really struggled throwing the ball. The former second round pick in 2011 has been reportedly working overtime to get acquainted with 2012 first round pick Brandon Weeden and looks poised to be a major player for the Browns this year.
I'm not sure if Little is a true No. 1 receiver in the NFL, but I do think that he has the potential to be. If Weeden can prove he's worth the pick the Browns spent on him, Little could be in line for a big 2012 season.
4. Anquan Boldin, Baltimore Ravens
In 2010, the Ravens landed their first true "star" receiver in Boldin, but Boldin's underachieved a little since coming to Baltimore.
This has something to do with the fact that the Ravens throw a lot less than the Cardinals did, but still Boldin has never even topped 900 yards in his two years with the Ravens.
With that said, Boldin is still one of the most dangerous receivers in the division.
In 14 games last season, Boldin hauled in 57 catches for 887 yards and three touchdowns. Outside of Ray Rice, Boldin is still the clear No. 1 option for quarterback Joe Flacco.
It's pretty obvious that Boldin's best days are behind him and he could soon be passed on the depth chart by Torrey Smith if Smith can learn to run proper routes. But Boldin is still one of the toughest and grittiest receivers in the league and is one of the best over the middle of the field.
In my mind, the 31-year-old still has a lot of football in front of him.
3. Antonio Brown, Pittsburgh Steelers
In just his second season with the Steelers and after only three starts (according to pro-football-reference.com), Brown, a former sixth round pick, topped the 1000-yard mark.
He finished his 2011 campaign with 69 catches for 1108 yards and two touchdowns and is quickly becoming one of Ben Roethlisberger's favorite targets.
Brown does a lot of things well for the Steelers, but most of all, he embodies that Pittsburgh mentality. He's a great compliment to Mike Wallace and works very well over the middle. Brown has drawn a lot of comparisons Anquan Boldin.
Brown may have recorded only three starts last season, but he was clearly the Steelers No. 2 option, and in some cases, he became the go-to-guy.
With Hines Ward retired, the sky's the limit for Brown and the Steelers passing offense.
2. Mike Wallace, Pittsburgh Steelers
Over the past two seasons, there has been no more consistent wide receiver in the AFC North than the Steelers' Mike Wallace.
Wallace came off a 1,257 yard season in 2010 to post 1,193 yards and eight touchdowns in 2011. The fourth-year receiver also added 12 receptions to his 2010 total, compiling 72 in 2010.
Despite a lingering contract situation, Wallace is still the Steelers main threat in the passing game. Not only does his vertical ability open up plays underneath for Pittsburgh, but it creates some big ones too.
Who will be the AFC North's best receiver in 2012?
I highly doubt the contract situation will work its way onto the field and with starting running back Rashard Mendenhall expected to miss significant time, I fully expect Wallace to be the main weapon on the Steelers offense.
1. A.J. Green, Cincinnati Bengals
With the last two seasons that Mike Wallace put up, it's kind of hard to go against him. But seeing what A.J. Green did last year and what he's capable of doing in the future is downright scary.
In 15 games last season, Green hauled in 65 passes for 1,057 yards and seven touchdowns all while leading the Bengals back to the Playoffs and making the Pro Bowl as a rookie.
Green has elite size, speed and hands and the only real knock on him is that he's a little too thin.
I've been a big fan of Green since his time at Georgia and I think he'll benefit from the addition of rookies Mohamed Sanu and Marvin Jones, as defenses won't be able to key on him as much.
All you really need to know about Green can be seen in this video clip as he goes up and scores a touchdown over Steelers safeties Troy Polamalu and Ryan Clark, neither of which are slouches.
Bengals fans should look for Green to be an elite receiver in this league for the next decade plus and may always keep Cincinnati in contention.
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Parnell to Close for Mets
CHICAGO (AP) New York Mets manager Terry Collins says right-hander Bobby Parnell will serve as the team's closer while Frank Francisco is on the 15-day disabled list with a left oblique strain.
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Tony Stewart: NASCAR Makes the Right Call Not to Fine Him
No. 14 made his way to pit road with helmet in hand and took aim at the nose of Kenseth's No. 17 with that helmet. It was a killer shot, but the helmet got the worst of it.
Kenseth was safe and sound in his car as he came down pit road and Stewart's actions were in no way detrimental to racing nor in violation of NASCAR rules.
NASCAR has told the drivers to "have at it" and police themselves. We need to see drivers show personality and the sport needs rivalries.
Stewart is quick and calculating with his thoughts and actions. Any member of the media who has dealt with him can tell you how fast his mind works with his sharp, sometimes stinging, responses.
Rest assured that Stewart didn't suddenly lose his cool in a mad rage. He planned exactly what he was going to do and did it. He threw his helmet...big deal. It made for great entertainment.
NASCAR absolutely made the right call when it did not penalize Stewart for his actions. Driving a Cup car is intense and emotional reactions from drivers are to be expected.
Fans of the sport don't want to see the antics of the WWE, but sometimes a break from the cookie-cutter, sponsor-friendly reactions in such an adrenaline filled sport is good.
We can thank NASCAR for reacting as they did and not further stifling the personas of some of greatest drivers in the world.
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Kansas City Offense Improved, Defense Weak in 40-24 Loss to Falcons
In a 40-24 loss at home, the short-handed defense of the Kansas City Chiefs couldn’t stop the high-powered offense of the Atlanta Falcons. The two teams combined only forced two punts, but Kansas City couldn’t keep up with Matt Ryan and Julio Jones.
The game turned when a Ryan Succop field goal attempt clanked off the right upright with the Chiefs trailing 20-17 in the third quarter. Ryan would rush for a touchdown on the next drive to put the Chiefs down two scores.
Matt Cassel and the rest of the Kansas City offense was impressive in the first half, but eventually faltered without the aid of the running game. Cassel’s threw two interceptions, but it was the performance of the defense that was disappointing for Kansas City.
The Chiefs were without their best pass rusher in Tamba Hali and Ryan had plenty of time to find Jones, Roddy White and Tony Gonzalez running open in the secondary. Jones victimized backup cornerback Jacques Reeves repeatedly; Reeves was starting for the injured Brandon Flowers.
It was the combination of no pass rush and poor pass coverage that doomed the home team on Sunday and the surprisingly stout run defense by Kansas City wasn’t a factor. The strength of this Chiefs team was supposed to be the defense, but without Hali and Flowers didn’t look like anything resembling a top-five unit.
Kansas City will get Hali back from suspension in Week 2 and Flowers could also be back so the defense will be looking to rebound against a Buffalo Bills team that was blown out by the New York Jets in Week 1.
Should Kansas City be more concerned about the offense or the defense?
If the defense can keep the Chiefs in the game, Cassel demonstrated he can score enough points to win. Cassel passed for 258 yards and was finding his tight ends Tony Moeaki and Kevin Boss with good frequency in the first half. Jamaal Charles, Peyton Hillis, Shaun Draughn and a scrambling Cassel rushed for 152 rushing yards and 4.8 yards per carry and kept the Falcons defense honest until the Chiefs were forced to play from behind.
Dexter McCluster carried over his strong preseason into the regular season with six receptions for 82 yards, but Jon Baldwin had no receptions and was rarely on the field for Kansas City. The Chiefs will need to get Baldwin more involved in future weeks to open up more room for McCluster and the tight ends in the middle of the field.
It was a disappointing opener for head coach Romeo Crennel, but he has to be encouraged that his offense put up 24 points. Crennel will be banking on better defensive performance once he gets all 11 starters on the field together.
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Report: Chiefs Wide Receiver Dwayne Bowe Wants Out of Kansas City 'Very Badly'
The 1-5 Kansas City Chiefs won't be losing any games this weekend due to the bye week, but they could lose a player.
Jason Cole of Yahoo! Sports tweeted that Chiefs wide receiver Dwayne Bowe wants out of Kansas City "very badly."
It's no surprise that Bowe wants to leave Kansas City. He doesn't seem as motivated to be with the team after he received the franchise tag this season.
The Chiefs barely edged the deadline to tag Bowe on March 5, and he didn't sign his franchise tender until August 17, midway through the preseason.
It is understandable why Bowe wants out of Kansas City. But if the Chiefs are left with no choice and have to trade him, they must get as much as they can for him since their passing game will be next to nonexistent without their star wideout.
With the way this season is going in Kansas City, the Chiefs are likely to end up with a very high draft pick next April. If they trade Bowe for maximum value, they can get some high-valued selections when the 2013 draft arrives.
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Breaking Down Danny Amendola's Contract Situation: What Will Free Agency Yield?
St. Louis Rams wide receiver Danny Amendola is set to become a major player in the 2013 NFL free agency period if the two sides cannot reach an agreement on his contract situation.
Now in his fourth season with the Rams, Amendola is once again proving just how important he is to the offense in St. Louis. While he has missed time thanks to a collarbone injury, Amendola has become the favorite target of quarterback Sam Bradford yet again.
So far in 2012, Amendola has caught 51 passes for 576 yards and two scores. He's averaging 11.3 yards per catch and has five or more catches in six games this season. Considering he's only appeared in eight games, he playing great as the No. 1 option in the passing attack.
With free agency looming, Amendola made it 100 percent clear to ProFootballTalk that he wants to be in St. Louis in 2013 and beyond:
.”
Of course, Amendola mentions in the same interview that he wouldn't mind a franchise tag next offseason. Anyone in their right mind wouldn't mind going from a $2 million to $10 million yearly salary in the span of one year, but it's up in the air as to whether the Rams organization feels he is worth that much.
Amendola is an outstanding player in his own right, but he's a serious injury risk. He's battled a variety of injures throughout his career and only appeared in 39 of a potential 64 contests in his four-year career.
If he hits the open market after not agreeing to terms with the Rams, Amendola might not find a substantial amount of money given his checkered injury past. His best bet financially would be remaining in St. Louis.
Amendola doesn't sound like the type of person to concern himself over the financial side of things, but he could have the Rams right where he wants them.
Will Danny Amendola be with the St. Louis Rams in 2013?
The Rams don't exactly have another offensive threat outside of Amendola. He's the team's leading receiver despite missing time, so losing him would be a crucial blow to the future of the franchise. If he doesn't like what the Rams are offering, a franchise tag could be in the cards.
St. Louis seemingly has bigger fish to fry. The Rams are horrid along the offensive line, which is part of the reason Bradford never has time to get Amendola the ball. Still, Amendola is the most important free agent the Rams have hitting the market this season outside of corner Bradley Fletcher.
When all is said and done, it appears Amendola needs and wants the Rams, and St. Louis desperately wants Amendola.
Amendola hitting the the open market during free agency is a non-story. Both sides want to make it work, and they will. Amendola's price tag goes up with every game, but the Rams will more than likely pay any cost to retain him.
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Cleveland Cavaliers vs. Chicago Bulls: Postgame Grades and Analysis for Chicago
The Cleveland Cavaliers brought their 8-22 road record into the United Center Tuesday night to face the Chicago Bulls. Implausibly, the Cavs stunned the Bulls and came away with a 101-98 victory.
Cleveland played without Kyrie Irving due to a hyperextended right knee; he suffered the injury on Sunday against the Miami Heat (per Royce Young of CBS Sports).
Instead, Dion Waiters victimized the Bulls for 25 points on 10-of-16 shooting. The injury-befuddled Shaun Livingston made his first start for Cleveland and poured in 15 points to aid with the victory.
Cleveland began the fourth quarter with a five-point lead thanks to a three-pointer at the buzzer from Wayne Ellington (who had 13 points off the bench) followed by a technical called on Joakim Noah. That was a four-point swing in a game ultimately decided by just three points.
Chicago trailed by as many as nine points in the fourth. They were within two in the final minute but couldn't complete the comeback. Carlos Boozer finished with 27 points and Luol Deng had 26 in a losing effort.
The Bulls needed to wash the horrible taste out of their mouths left by Sunday's 30-point defeat; they got their doors blown off by the Oklahoma City Thunder and shot a minuscule 29.1 percent from the field in the process.
While Chicago shot 50 percent in this game, they just couldn't get the clutch buckets they needed as the entire offense ran through Boozer and Deng.
Chicago came into Tuesday at 32-24, just half a game separating them from the Brooklyn Nets and Atlanta Hawks for fourth place in the East. For some reason, the Bulls struggle at home (15-13) and actually have a better road record (17-11), a trend which continued in this contest.
Cleveland is scuffling at 18-38. The Cavs have had Anderson Varejao and Kyrie Irving in the same lineup for just five games this season due to injury, and the whole team defends about as well as a scarecrow.
As of Tuesday, Cleveland has allowed the most points per game and the second most points per possession in the East. Fortunately for them, the Bulls offense is currently 25th in the league in points scored per possession (per ESPN).
The Cavaliers defense was just that bit better than the Bulls offense down the stretch, which sealed the victory. So let's get our red marker and give out some grades for this narrow loss.
Point Guard
Kirk Hinrich, PG: A-
Hinrich, whose shot had deserted him this season, was locked in from long range. He knocked down three of his five attempts from downtown in the first half.
Hinrich could do no wrong through the first two quarters, grabbing five boards and dishing five dimes.
While Hinrich managed just two points in the second half, he ended up with 11 assists for a tidy double-double. He also contributed a steal and a block, and he was really the sole member of Chicago's backcourt worth mentioning on this night.
His 4-of-9 from the field and 3-of-5 from downtown are both very encouraging signs. Hinrich is actually shooting better from three-point range (39.1 percent) than he is on two-point field goals this season. This was an excellent performance for someone currently shooting just 37.8 percent.
Shooting Guard
Richard Hamilton, SG: C-
Veteran Rip Hamilton was not much of a factor in this one. After being shut out in the first half, he scored six points in the second half to go with his three assists and three turnovers.
Hamilton did not look good in his 18 minutes, and the 35-year-old may be wearing down.
Over his previous 10 games, he's shooting just 37.8 percent from the field, and his scoring average has declined with each month of the season. Rip is down to averaging only 7.3 points a game in February.
Small Forward
Luol Deng, SF: B+
Deng put up 13 very efficient points in the first half, shooting 5-of-7 from the field. And he continued to pour it on in the second half, finishing with 26 points in addition to seven boards, five dimes and a couple of steals.
Deng also bricked a three-pointer with the Bulls down by three and just over two minutes remaining. On the other end, he then allowed Shaun Livingston to best him for an offensive rebound, leading to a Luke Walton jumper (yes, that Luke Walton) that put the Cavs up by five.
While Deng did make a pair of free throws in crunch time, he also missed on the potential game-tying shot with 16 ticks left to seal the Bulls' fate.
Power Forward
Carlos Boozer, PF: A
Boozer threw down a nasty dunk over Shaun Livingston in the first quarter. For some reason, the Cavaliers had Luke Walton guarding Boozer at certain stages. Boozer obliged Cleveland by putting up 13 first-half points.
The Booze Cruise finished with gaudy stats to the tune of 27 points on 13-of-20 shooting, five boards, four assists and a block.
But his turnover on an inbounds pass with the Bulls down by four and just 15 seconds left was a costly miscue. Credit Luke Walton with excellent defense on the play, as well as an assist from Kirk Hinrich's leg for the change of possession.
Walton actually finished with eight points, five rebounds and five assists off the bench.
Center
Joakim Noah, C: B-
In the first half, Noah had just two points on a rim-rattling dunk. But he also swatted three shots.
He finished up with nine points, including a hopeless dunk to close the gap to three points with four seconds remaining. Noah also snatched nine rebounds and dished five assists.
Ultimately, Noah was the only member of the Bulls frontcourt that was held down statistically, finishing slightly under his double-double season averages.
Sixth Man
Marco Belinelli, SG: C+
Belinelli was just 3-of-10 from the field, but that included a pair of threes. He also snagged two rebounds and had a couple of turnovers.
You would hope for more than eight points from your sixth man over the course of 22 minutes. Statistically, the Bulls were at their worst with Belinelli on the court considering his minus-11 point differential.
On a team that prides itself on defense, Belinelli's below-average defense sticks out like a sore thumb.
Rest of Bench
Rest of Bench: C-
Jimmy Butler drained a three-pointer just as the first quarter's buzzer sounded. Butler also had three boards, three assists, a steal and a block to go with his six points. He also brought his typical brand of stifling defense.
Nazr Mohammed played just six minutes but did tally a couple of rebounds.
Nate Robinson scored just five points on six shots in his 15 minutes. He also dished a pair of assists, but the Bulls could have used a hot shooting night from Little Nate. He did not oblige.
Taj Gibson is nursing a sore left knee and did not dress for the game. The rest of the Bulls remained glued to the bench thanks to Tom Thibodeau's nine-man rotation.
Ultimately, Chicago needs Derrick Rose to return if they want any hope of getting past the second round of the playoffs (as I've written previously).
The Bulls will have a chance to get off the schneid on Thursday when the Philadelphia 76ers come to town.
21 Comments
This comment and all replies have been deleted This comment has been deleted Undo delete | http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1545505-cleveland-cavaliers-vs-chicago-bulls-postgame-grades-and-analysis-for-chicago | 2013-05-18T10:44:03 | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | 1368696382261 | [
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Jacksonville Jaguars: Top 10 Memorable Moments of Wayne Weaver Era
On November 29, 2011, the city of Jacksonville let out a collective sigh and immediately gasped for another breath. Wayne Weaver announced that embattled coach Jack Del Rio would be fired, which was a foregone conclusion.
However, his next announcement, put the entire city on the edge of its collective seat. The Jacksonville Jaguars were to be sold to business tycoon Shahid Khan. Every person that has bled teal and black for the last 17 years was nervous about the future of the franchise.
As of today, the NFL approved the sale of the Jaguars to Khan, and he is determined to rebuild in Jacksonville. While the news of a few weeks ago shocked Jaguars fans, the old adage remains "all good things must come to an end."
Wayne Weaver and his wife, Dolores, were great ambassadors for the city of Jacksonville and brought many great moments to the Jacksonville Jaguars. Let's look back at some of the finest moments of the Jaguars franchise under the helm of its departed owner, Wayne Weaver.
Honorable Mention: Josh Scobee's Thorn in the Colts' Side
Recent Jaguars history has been enveloped with dreams of winning the AFC South Division. Since the NFL realigned the divisions in 2002, the Jaguars have had to compete with the Tennessee Titans and Houston Texans.
However, the Jaguars biggest rival in this division has been Peyton Manning and the Indianapolis Colts. Almost every matchup between these two teams have been high-strung, drag-out battles. One of the men smack in the middle of this rivalry is Josh Scobee.
When you need a 50-yard field goal to beat the Colts, you call on Josh Scobee. He has done it twice. The first was in Indianapolis in 2008. Byron Leftwich led the Jaguars on a long drive that started deep in their own territory. With seconds left, Scobee nailed a 51-yard field goal to shock the Colts and get their first win of the season.
Two years later, Jacksonville was the backdrop for another last-second thriller. The Jaguars were leading late when Peyton Manning constructed a quick game-tying drive with under a minute left. The Jaguars were able to get inside Colts' territory and Scobee again came onto the field for more magic. This time, he nailed a 59-yard walk-off field goal to stick it to the Jaguars' vaunted rivals again.
As the Jaguars and Colts continue to lock horns for years to come, be rest assured that Josh Scobee will be involved one way or another.
10. David Garrard Leads Jaguars to Playoff Win in Pittsburgh
Garrard's Scramble Set Up Del Rio's Only Playoff Victory
January 5, 2008.
The Jaguars entered the 2008 playoffs with a bad taste in their mouth with bad loss to end the regular season. The trip to Pittsburgh presented another dogfight between the former AFC Central foes. Jacksonville jumped out to an 18-point lead. Ben Roethlisberger and the Pittsburgh Steelers overcame that with a furious fourth-quarter rally to take a one point lead, 29-28.
On 4th-and-2 with less than two minutes remaining in the game, David Garrard took a delayed quarterback draw 32 yards through the Steelers defense to set up a game-winning field goal to leave the Steel City with a surprising playoff victory.
This would be the only playoff victory under former coach Jack Del Rio. It was a sweet one nonetheless.
9. First Home Playoff Game
Fred Taylor led Jaguars in first home playoff game.
The 1998 season was another first for the Jaguars, winning their first AFC Central title. The endzones were painted black and Alltel was rocking as the franchise hosted its first home playoff game against the New England Patriots.
Drew Bledsoe was injured, replaced by Scott Zolak. Mark Brunell returned from an ankle injury. And Fred Taylor bursted onto the scene. Taylor ran for 162 yards and Mike Hollis kicked five field goals to defeat the Patriots, 25-10. It would definitely set the tone for future Jaguar success.
8. A Season of Firsts
The Franchise's first ever game was against the Houston Oilers
It was indeed a season of firsts at Jacksonville Municipal Stadium on Kickoff Sunday in 1995. The Jacksonville Jaguars competed in their first regular season game against AFC Central opponent, the Houston Oilers.
The Jaguars' only points that day came via a Mike Hollis field goal. The first game would be the first defeat at the hands of the Oilers, 10-3.
It would be the beginning of something greater down the road.
7. Revenge Is Not Only Sweeter, It's Also the Start
The first win in Jaguars franchise history.
A month after the Jaguars' first franchise loss, they received another crack at the Houston Oilers in the Astrodome.
With the Oilers holding a 16-10 lead, backup quarterback Mark Brunell fired a 15-yard touchdown pass to Heisman trophy winner Desmond Howard.
On the ensuing drive, Chris Chandler led the Oilers down the field and set up a 52-yard attempt by Mr. Reliable, Al Del Greco.
His kick flew woefully wide left and the Jaguars celebrated their first ever victory, 17-16.
6. Broncos Become Part of Jaguars Destiny
Mark Brunell eluded Denver's D all afternoon.
The Jaguars were not supposed to go to Mile High Stadium. They were not supposed to beat the Denver Broncos in Mile High. They were not supposed to defeat John Elway and the AFC-leading Broncos. But this was destiny.
Mark Brunell threw late touchdown passes to Keenan McCardell and Jimmy Smith as the Jaguars continued on their shocking debut playoff run, defeating Denver 30-27.
This victory would send the Jaguars to the AFC Championship game for the first time, falling short to the New England Patriots. However, the magical night in Mile High put the rest of the NFL on notice. The Jaguars franchise was destined for success.
5. Dominating 1999 Season Leads to Domination of Marino, Dolphins
Fred Taylor ran away from every Dolphin sight.
It was Dan Marino's last game. The Jacksonville Jaguars sent, perhaps the greatest quarterback of all time, into retirement rather rudely.
Cornerback Aaron Beasley predicted he would intercept Marino twice, which he did. Fred Taylor scampered 90 yards to the endzone for the longest run in NFL postseason history.
The Jaguars dismantled and embarrassed the Miami Dolphins 62-7 on their way to another AFC Championship game, falling to the Tennessee Titans, the only team to defeat the Jaguars during the 1999 season.
4. Natrone MEANS Business in Buffalo
No team had ever gone into Orchard Park, in the cold, in the playoffs, and left with a victory against the Buffalo Bills. Never. So why would anybody believe that the upstart Jaguars would be able to shock the world? However, that's exactly what the Jaguars did.
It was a complete team effort in the franchise's first ever playoff game. The spotlight shed on tackle Tony Boselli, as he kept All-Pro Bruce Smith at bay all day long. Clyde Simmons telegraphed a Jim Kelly screen and returned it for a touchdown. Finally, Natrone Means revived his career and put on a "rumblin', bumblin'" show to defeat the Bills 30-27.
On this day, even Chris Berman would admit that, "NOBODY circles the wagons... like the Jacksonville Jaguars!!"
3. Monday Night Magic
QB Mark Brunell returned to vintage form on Primetime
The 1997 season was supposed to be special. It didn't start that way. In the Jaguars second preseason game, Mark Brunell went down with an apparent serious knee injury. The Jaguars had to rely on their second and third string quarterbacks, Rob Johnson and Steve Matthews, to start the season 2-0. That set the stage Brunell's surprisingly early return for Jacksonville's first prime time spotlight.
Monday Night Football came to the River City for first time. Jacksonville and its home team Jaguars pulled out all the tricks and all the stops. The game included a fake punt pass from Bryan Barker to Dana Hall.
However, while the Jaguars led 23-21 late in the fourth, the Steelers had driven into field goal territory to set up kicker Norm Johnson. In stunning fashion, the field goal was blocked and returned to the end zone by Chris Hudson. The extra point was not even attempted, but added to the score anyway, 30-21.
On this night, the city embraced the spotlight and their prime time players. It would be the first of many magical Monday nights.
2. Touchdown Jacksonville
At 4:12pm, everything changed. After years of campaigning and fighting, the NFL awarded two expansion franchises. One located in Charlotte. The other, in Jacksonville, Florida.
The entire city became plagued with Cat Scratch Fever. Wayne Weaver delivered on his promise of bringing an NFL team to Jacksonville.
The rest is history.
1. Big Cats Sail Wide Left into Playoffs
Angels smiled on Jacksonville on this special Sunday
Many may disagree that this is the most memorable moment.
The Jaguars early in the season still looked like an expansion team. They fought hard but couldn't win games. Then, the Jaguars rattled off four consecutive wins. They knew that a fifth would deliver the franchise's first playoff berth.
The game was in hand until a late surge by the Atlanta Falcons set up Morten Andersen for a potential game-winning, season-ending field goal.
As the entire stadium, and city of Jacksonville, held their collective breath and looked for angels above, Santa delivered an early Christmas gift. Andersen's kick sailed wide left and the franchise rejoiced, reaching the postseason in their second season of existence.
If that kick sailed through the uprights, who knows where the Jaguars would be today.
It will forever be a landmark moment in the foundation of the Jaguars organization.
Thank you, Morten Andersen.
Sincerely,
The Jacksonville Jaguars
This comment and all replies have been deleted This comment has been deleted Undo delete | http://bleacherreport.com/articles/983702-jacksonville-jaguars-top-10-memorable-moments-of-wayne-weaver-era | 2013-05-18T10:54:01 | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | 1368696382261 | [
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April 7, 2009
April 5, 2009
April 2, 2009
August 7, 2008
Full-time Student & Lifelong Sports Fan
Blake Bartholomew can be reached at mail@blakebartholomew.com
does-chase-budinger-have-a-future-in-the-nba
Let me know what you think, and if you're backing the former Wildcat!
Thanks,
Kevin
Blake-
Please check out my slide show on some of the best Knuckleballers of all time.
Blake-
Where you been man? I have found over the past month or so that I write best when I allow my heart to lead my head. Please check out my latest, I would be interested in any feedback you may have, or even anyone who would make your team. Thanks
Bl
Hi Blake! How are you?
I’m finally back, after almost a week off. I returned with all guns blazing; I polished this piece until it shines like silver!
Please stop by and give this piece a look. Let me know what you think afterward! Thanks so much for reading!
Blake-
Time to get back on your writing horse...The more I thought about the Hornets recent historic loss, the more I wanted to find where it fit in the pantheon on historic losses. Here is what I found- check it out when you have a chance.
Hi, Blake, how’s it going?
I returned to my first true love – baseball – with an inspirational story that I hope you will enjoy:
If you get a minute, please take a look and let me know what you think. Thanks!
Blake-
My latest article is a bit personal- seeing Wrigley Field through new eyes. Check it out when you have a chance. Thanks
Blake-
Here's my latest. This is the follow-up piece that analyzes the results of my previous open call for input on the best sports franchise of the past 25 years. | http://bleacherreport.com/users/40694-blake-bartholomew | 2013-05-18T10:42:57 | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | 1368696382261 | [] |
Thoughts on Left Libertarianism
The Freeman has published my review of Gary Chartier and Charles Johnson’s Market Not Capitalism: Individualist Anarchism Against Bosses, Inequality, Corporate Power, and Structural Poverty (buy it or download the free PDF). It’s a short review, but my bottom line is extremely positive:
Libertarianism is a revolutionary creed, and Chartier [...]
What is Left-Libertarianism?
My problem with BHL is that I have been unable to get its supporters to tell me what it is.
Does he really believe that, or is this just a way of being cute? I dunno.
Anyways, if you look at the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, you see [...]
Roderick Long on Race, Gender, Equality and Libertarianism
“We don’t have the right to subordinate other people to our ends or treat them as objects for our uses,” says Roderick Long. “And that is a fundamental kind of equality that I think is at the heart of libertarianism.”
Carson on Masters and Bosses
Over at C4SS, Kevin Carson responds to Danny Shapiro’s and Steve Horwitz’s challenges to the left-libertarian claim that a freed market will be one with significantly less “bossism.”
A taste:
Shapiro seems to assume an economic model in which ownership is expressed through marketable shares, the economy tends [...]
The [...] [...]
Beyond Bossism
Professors [...]
Query For Left-Libertarians [...]
[Editors Note: This essay is part of BHL's Symposium on Left-Libertarianism. Click on the link to see the other essays.]
Jan Narveson: “Liberty is Property … the libertarian thesis is really the thesis that a right to our persons as our property is the sole fundamental right there is” | http://bleedingheartlibertarians.com/category/left-libertarianism/page/2/ | 2013-05-18T11:03:08 | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | 1368696382261 | [] |
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fevaca says:872 days ago
Thanks for this add in my group of flower lovers and for all your adds in the future
vaskita says:872 days ago
(¯`•.•´¯) (¯`•.•´¯) preciosa creacion! *`•.¸(¯`•.•´¯)¸.•´ hola amiga!! ¤ º° ¤`•.¸.•´ ¤ °º ¤buen lunes para ti!! besitos!! TQM!
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Aleah – Water and Wine (Stefan Biniak Private Edit)
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undefinedlust Rawk!!!!!!!
Spinal Tap – The Majesty of Rock| play
undefinedlust Party on dudes!!!!
♫
Circle Jerks – American Heavy Metal Weekend| play
undefinedlust In honor of our economy
undefinedlust I resemble this... or do I? heheheh
♫
Descendents – Pervert| play
undefinedlust For anyone getting kinky tonight ;)
♫
The Circle Jerks – Group Sex| play
undefinedlust Repo Man soundtrack... Best ST ever?
FEAR – Let's Have a War| play
undefinedlust Back to our regular programming
undefinedlust Damn, now I have night Ranger stuck in my head... If I suffer, then damn it so will all of you!
Night Ranger – When You Close Your Eyes| play
undefinedlust @CargoCulte could be worse, it could be a Night Ranger, Styx and Ted Nugent triple bill concert!
♫
Night Ranger – Sister Christian| play
undefinedlust What more is there to say???
undefinedlust Perhaps the most frightening "Supergroup" ever. The unholy child of Styx, Night Ranger and Uncle Ted... still it sticks in your brain heh heh
Damn Yankees – High Enough| play
undefinedlust This a love/hate sort of band... I have never met anyone who was indifferent about them
♫
the pAper chAse – out come the knives| play
undefinedlust Since I have blipped a lot of covers tonight, I might as well continue...
undefinedlust I like the original, but I may like this version better
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Cibo Matto – Black Hole Sun (kkobold.blip.up)| play
undefinedlust Ok...an interesting take on Lou Reed's style from the New York Album heh
undefinedlust @soundmangroupie A followup song for you ;)
♫
Mojo nixon – Virbrator Dependent| play
undefinedlust Its funny. I don't like Elvis or Led Zep, but somehow...
undefinedlust Last of the three pack combo heheh
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Wish You a Happy New Year from Abhinav!
With the commencing of a New Year, a fresh beginning is marking its existence in our lives too. This is the time to overlook all rancors, awful happenings of the preceding year and blotch your foot forward in a constructive direction.
The time calls for a celebration… and celebration comes with new things, new thoughts and new start! May be in a different country! And why not? At this totally bright foundation, why not think about immigration? A new country, along with new people, culture and hopes would surely bring in that much needed refreshment but also work as making you forget the blues of the previous year!
Its moment to make a novel start… be it personally, professionally or socially! Why keep grudges when you have just one life to live?
Here is wishing all our readers a very happy, healthy and prosperous New Year!
Come people, let’s Immigrate! | http://blog.abhinav.com/2010/12/wish-you-a-happy-new-year-from-abhinav | 2013-05-18T10:30:55 | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | 1368696382261 | [] |
Visa and Target are offering $5 off orders of $50 or more when you pay with a Visa card.
Shipping starts around $5 but you can get free shipping with a purchase of $50 of more.
There are some exclusions which you can see here. Offer expires Oct. 31.
Thanks dealnews.com | http://blog.al.com/bargain-mom/2012/06/targetcom_5_off_50_purchase_wi.html | 2013-05-18T10:56:10 | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | 1368696382261 | [
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GUNTERSVILLE - The trial of one of two men charged with capital murder in the 2003 shooting death of Grant Police Chief Verlon Lemaster will be in September.
On Thursday, Marshall County Circuit Judge Tim Jolley set Brian Butler's trial for Sept. 17 in St. Clair County Circuit Court in Pell City. Jolley will preside over the trial.
Butler appeared before Jolley dressed in a faded orange-and-white-striped jail uniform with Marshall County prisoner stamped in bold, black letters on the back. His hands and ankles shackled, Butler sat next to his lawyer, Bruce Gardner of Huntsville; his mother, Lisa Webb sat behind them.
Butler and Jerid Eldridge were 17 when Lemaster was slain Aug. 15, 2003.
According to authorities, the two were hiding in a closet of a Grant home when police arrived to pick up Butler as a runaway.
Butler came out of the closet and allegedly fired a .45-caliber semiautomatic pistol several times, striking Lemaster twice and fatally wounding him, authorities said.
Eldridge's trial has not yet been set. | http://blog.al.com/breaking/2007/06/trial_set_for_september_in_gra.html | 2013-05-18T10:32:03 | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | 1368696382261 | [] |
John Pawlowski was named Auburn's new baseball coach early Friday evening ending a month-long search to replace Tom Slater.
Pawlowski has spent the last nine seasons as the head coach at the College of Charleston, where he was 338-192-1. He led his team to three NCAA regionals, including a Super Regional, three Southern Conference regular-season titles and one conference tournament championship.
``This is a tremendous opportunity and I'm looking forward to helping bring the Auburn baseball program back to national prominence," Pawlowski said in a university PR release. "There is a rich history and tradition here at Auburn and I plan on working tirelessly to make this a national contender."
Slater resigned May 17 after missing the SEC Tournament four straight years. The Tigers haven't played in the conference tourney since 2003 season.
More details to come after a 7 p.m. press conference, but here's his background...
According to the Auburn PR release, in 2006, Pawlowski, 44,.
In 2007, the Cougars won their fourth conference title in as many seasons after winning the Southern Conference regular season title..
He is a native of Johnson City, N.Y., graduated from Seton Catholic Central in Binghamton, N.Y. in 1982.
CAREER COACHING RECORD
Year/ Overall/ Conference
2000 / 28-28-1 / 14-15-1
2001 / 24-28 / 10-16
2002 / 36-22 / 19-11
2003 / 31-27 / 17-13
2004 /47-16 / 25-5 / Southern Conference champs
2005 / 48-15 / 27-3 / Southern Conference champs
2006 / 46-17 / 20-7 / Southern Conference tourney champs
2007 / 39-19 / 20-7 / Southern Conference champs
2008 / 39-20 / 18-9
TOTALS / 338-192-1 / 179-86-1 | http://blog.al.com/goldmine/2008/06/pawlowski_named_new_auburn_bas.html | 2013-05-18T10:55:01 | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | 1368696382261 | [] |
MOBILE, Alabama -- The jury that will decide the fate of Bayou La Batre Mayor Stan Wright and 2 others is racially diverse and split evenly between men and women.
Federal prosecutors and attorneys for the 3 defendants spent today whittling a pool of 76 potential jurors to 14. The panel, which has 6 blacks and 8 whites, includes 2 alternates. All hail from Mobile or Baldwin counties.
“I think we got a great jury,” said lawyer Vince Kilborn, who represents grant manager Janey Galbraith.
Wright stands accused of conspiring with Galbraith to manipulate federal grants meant to help victims of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. The defendants, and the mayor’s daughter, also face charges in connection with a land deal that prosecutors allege used taxpayer funds to unjustly enrich Wright.
The lawyers read long lists of potential witnesses to see if anyone in the jury pool knew them. About half of the jurors acknowledged hearing or reading about the case, and DuBose questioned them one-by-one to determine how much they knew and whether they could be impartial.
DuBose also asked a number of questions designed to probe jurors for potential bias. These included such topics as their past contacts with the court system, their views on using federal grants to help disaster victims and their opinions of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. DuBose’s question about whether jurors had negative feelings in general about the federal government prompted a fit of laughter form the pool.
The list of prominent people who appear on the defense witness lists includes Bayou La Batre City Council members past and present; Baldwin County Administrator David Brewer; state Homeland Security Director Spencer Collier, a former state representative from the area; Thomasville Mayor Sheldon Day; and Bayou La Batre City Attorney Jay Ross.
The trial will begin May 21 and is scheduled to last up to 3 weeks. DuBose gave prosecutors and each of the 3 defendants 30 minutes to make opening statements to the jury. | http://blog.al.com/live/2012/04/attorneys_pick_racially_divers.html | 2013-05-18T10:13:17 | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | 1368696382261 | [
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Ronald Bednarczyk
- In 1986 I worked for Sikorsky Aircraft at their development test center in West Palm Beach, Fla. This facility is not located near the beautiful beaches, but in the middle of the Florida swamp.
Work started at 6:30 a.m.. and Jan. 28, 1986 was a cold and cloudless day. The lack of clouds bode well for a good view of the launch since even though we were located over 100 miles away from Cape Canaveral, once the shuttle got over the horizon we could watch it climb into the sky until the solid rockets separated. The common practice to do this was to watch the liftoff on the cafeteria TV and then go outside and look due north.
A coworker and I needed to go from the engineering building over to the experimental aircraft hangar. We decided to wait and watch the liftoff as usual and then watch the ascent as we walked to the hanger. The liftoff went as expected and we started walking keeping an eye to the north watching the solid rocket exhaust. Suddenly, the exhaust split in two.
We couldn't have imagined what could have happened. When we made it to the hanger we went into the instrumentation lab where they had a radio.
I asked, "What happened to the shuttle?" Someone replied, "It launched." I replied, "I know that, but something else happened." The mood at work the rest of the day was very somber. We would periodically go into the cafeteria throughout the day looking for updates on the news. When I left work at 3 p.m. the forked exhaust trail still hung in the sky. It is an image I will never forget.
James Lominick:
- I remember vividly where I was Jan. 28, 1986, when the Challenger disaster happened. Several of us supporting the launch of the Space Shuttle Challenger were at our respective stations in MSFC's Huntsville Operations Support Center (HOSC). I was monitoring telemetry from four actuators which gimbaled the solid rocket's nozzles.
In a countdown "hold," cameras at the launch facility showed ice everywhere. We had already assumed a launch scrub when suddenly the count was picked up. Before we knew it the vehicle was launched and all seemed well through the "roll maneuver."
Shortly before the space shuttle main engines were throttled back up to full thrust, I looked up at a TV monitor following the shuttle in flight and witnessed the explosion.
Something within told me we had just lost a great crew. Along with everyone in the room, I felt an inexplicable sickening and helpless feeling inside. I'll always remember that day, the loss and that feeling.
Joanne Randolph
- I can remember very vividly where I was when the Challenger accident happened. I was working for NASA/Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) at the time and on the executive staff.
I was sitting in the office of Dr. William (Bill) Lucas, center director, at the time of the accident. He was at the launch, so a few of us who weren't at the Cape were watching the launch on his television.
When the Challenger suddenly exploded, we all sat there stunned in disbelief for several seconds, maybe minutes. It took a while for it to register with us. Did the shuttle just blow up? Did my eyes just deceive me? What's going on?
It is so hard to describe the numbness I felt, the sickness in the pit of my stomach, my quickened heartbeats, as I sat there in front of the TV staring at clouds of white smoke drifting out into the atmosphere, with my hands cupped over my mouth, tears in my eyes, and a sense of great loss. We all hoped and prayed that the capsule holding the astronauts would be found intact floating in the Atlantic Ocean, that it managed to safely eject.
We knew at that very moment that things would never be the same. That day began a mourning period for NASA employees that would last for months. Lives were changed that day, not just for the fallen astronauts and their grief-stricken families, but for the entire NASA family, especially those who had worked diligently on the shuttle program for many, many years.
The months after the accident were challenging times for NASA, as the investigations and the congressional hearings began. Priorities changed. Life as we knew it at NASA changed.
Tony Triolo
- When the Challenger exploded in 1986, I was sitting at my desk in The Huntsville Times newsroom. Back then, the newsroom was located in the southwest corner of the same building the paper occupies today. I was a staff photographer and had been since 1974.
I was sitting at the photo desk, when over my shoulder, I heard our state editor, Guy Hollis, remark quite matter-of-factly, "I think the shuttle just blew up." He said it so calmly, you had to take a second to process the words. That kind of horrific news, if true, one expected to be delivered with a bit more emotion. But, that was Guy. He never seemed to get too flustered at anything. He was always calm and cool. Maybe that's what made him such a first-rate newsman.
Guy was getting this information from his twelve-inch monochrome monitor. The Times had made the switch from typewriters to computers not long before this time, and Guy was closely following the AP state wire bulletins to get confirmation of that initial report.
About that same time, other reporters and editors began to see the same news flashes on their screens, and almost immediately, the newsroom was in chaos. All those who did not work on computers gathered behind those who did.
Someone turned on the TV. The television had not been on up until that point due to the fact that Shuttle launches had become rather routine.Predictably, the major networks broke into there scheduled programming to report the news. CNN was still in its infancy, but I'm sure it was the channel we tuned in. After a little while, they began to broadcast NASA video footage of the accident, from several different camera angles. I remember the NASA technician calmly stating that there had been an "anomaly" on launch.
After the initial shock, the realization was beginning to settle in that this was not a survivable accident. The cause was certainly unknown at this point, but the weather and the icy conditions on the launch pad were being looked at very closely.
It wasn't long before The Times editors began to look for a "local" angle to the story. A reporter and photographer were dispatched to Marshall Space Flight Center, to get an initial reaction from the center's director, and then stand-by for a scheduled press conference later that afternoon.
I don't remember if I was the photographer that went out to Marshall that day, but I do remember, at some point, running over to Parkway City Mall (now Parkway Place) to get photos of shoppers, gathered around the carousel of TVs mounted from the ceiling of the mall, watching events unfold. The interest throughout the Huntsville community was understandably intense.
I had always been very interested in NASA and the space program, and felt fortunate to be able to photograph a couple of Shuttle launches for The Times including STS-2.
In later years, I actually got a job at MSFC directing the photographic documentation group. Unfortunately, one responsibility I had, while there, was coordinating the photographic documentation of the Columbia recover effort in east Texas in 2003.
Walt Hennessee
-
When I noticed the image of the clear blue sky with the smoke trails, I said to myself, "What a pretty image" and wondered what it was. When I got nearer the screen and saw the scrolling message along the bottom which said "Challenger Disaster" my gut tightened and I thought, "Oh, no."
As with the memory of the assassination of JFK, the crystal clear image of the odd-shaped lobby with the large windows and the placement of the TV in that lobby that morning will be with me forever.
Dick Wright
- It was about 10:35 a.m. when Channel 19 broke into regular programming to cover the launch of Challenger on Jan. 28, 1986. WHNT-TV was one of only a handful of TV stations in the country to cover the launch and the only one in Huntsville, as best I remember. The launches had become so "routine" that most stations and the networks didn't cover them anymore.
I was the WHNT-TV control room producing the coverage of the launch. Anchor Amy Witte was in the studio describing the launch. When the explosion happened, I remember asking Amy to not say anything and just listen. The NASA coverage followed with " ...obviously a major malfunction ..." and very shortly after that the networks took over the coverage for the entire country and the world.
Doris Reynolds
- My mother, Gladys Nelson of Gainesville Ga., loved astronauts. She knew every detail about them and their families. From the time of the first flight her heart accompanied them as they charted new paths in the universe. We teased her about her obsession.
In mid-January, 1986, she suffered a ruptured aneurysm and her prognosis was grim. Our family gathered but still she clung to life in the Gainesville Medical Center ICU.
My daughter, Roberta Stender, and I had slipped away to the coffee shop when the loudspeaker blared my name to return to ICU. We ran. As we entered her cubicle we recognized that her struggle was nearly over. I sat on her bed, took her in my arms and sang a "love song" to her.
The little TV flashed the riveting pictures of the Challenger explosion as she joyously danced through heavens gate with her heroes, the Challenger crew.
Liz Byrne
- On the morning of Jan 28, 1986, an excited buzz was in the air! For weeks, even months, we all watched with excitement as the date neared for "one of us" to go into space! A teacher, someone who felt like we did; a wife and mother, who dared to go to past the limits of our mundane daily routines. She was a hero to us, Christa McCauliffe.
In the little rural south Alabama school building, where I was teaching fourth grade, we had planned for weeks on how we could arrange the PTA-purchased televisions on their massive carts, so every student could witness this awesome victory, for not only a teacher, but sharing this event with her students. As we watched the news crew pan across the auditorium where the teacher's real class, with real students, "just like us" anticipated something so unreal, we then watched as they panned over to show her family, "just like ours" at the site. We connected with someone we would never meet. We not only watched it, we experienced it, we felt it, completely, and wholly.
I can remember in the waiting moments before the lift off, standing by my classroom door, other teachers would peek their heads out of their rooms and make comments like, "This is so neat," or "My kids are so excited." Then the countdown began.
We counted; we cheered with the students from the teacher's school via satellite, as the shuttle lifted off.
Then, silence. We had previously studied about the rocket boosters and the stages of the flight. And this wasn't one of them. Or was it? Did something go terribly wrong? Or was this like something we didn't know about?
We stared in silence. Mouths gaped open.
I remember one little boy shouting, "How cool is that? Look at that! It sorta looks like it blew up!"
I ran to the classroom door, peered out into the hall, and other teachers heads were popping out.
We were in shock. Shaking our heads in utter disbelief.
Then the announcement came to confirm our fears. The fate of our beloved teacher, the brave one, the one who represented us all, the wife and mother, the daughter, and the one who brought such motivation to all of her students, and the one who took us and the world with her into a world that we would never experience, disappeared right before our eyes.
Then what? Do I continue to allow the 27 little eager beavers who were excited due to my excitement watch more, listen more, experience more?
Learn that fair is sometimes not fair? Learn that even the best laid plans sometimes don't work? That death is a part of life?
I remember writing out a quick note to the principal, and asking my "runner" for the day to run it down to the office.
In just a matter of moments, the principal came over the old crackley PA system, announcing that it was time for everyone to return to their regular classroom routines, and that he would update us on the Challenger news during the remainder of the day.
Back then, in a small rural school, it was a different time. The class bowed their heads, while I led them in prayer for the astronauts, their families, all the students across the country who, like us, watched how sometimes courage and determination can sometimes hurt, too. We prayed for all the people behind the scenes, from the news crews to the engineers, who witnessed the tragedy and shared our grief.
Robert Phillips
- When the Challenger was launched, I was director of the Marshall Space Flight Center's Management Operations Office with a variety of responsibilities including security services. I was watching the launch telecast with my security chief, Stan Miller, in his office.
When the Challenger exploded, I was shocked and very surprised since I had worked at the center since its inception in 1960 and witnessed and been a part of the agencies and center's emphasis on launch readiness and safety.
Elizabeth Howell
I was sitting in Mayor Joe Davis' office talking with him about the issuance of a proclamation of an event the Daughters of the American Revolution were having.
We were talking when suddenly the ladies in the office yelled out, "The Challenger has exploded!"
Mayor Davis turned the TV on in his office and we watched in stunned silence as the Challenger continued to disintegrate.
Christopher Elles
- I was a U.S. Navy lieutenant commander assigned to the USS Dubuque as the executive officer (or second in command). The ship was under way and proceeding into the port of Singapore for a three-day ship visit.
I was handed a radio message that gave the details as they were known of the Challenge disaster. After conferring with the Dubuque commanding officer (who was involved with the safe navigation of the ship), I used the ship's general announcing system to give the brief details we knew to our crew of over 400 sailors and Marines who were embarked on the Dubuque.
It was the hardest announcement I ever had to make during my 20-plus years in the U.S. Navy, and I remember asking all for a moment of silence if they could.
The emotion of the moment was overwhelming, yet I remained steadfast in my announcement. But five minutes after I was done, I could not tell you what I said. The emotional reflections I still have from the loss of the brave crew on the Challenger that fateful day in January 1986 will be with me forever.Kathy Halsell
- As a native Floridian, I could not remember a morning as cold as the one on Jan. 28, 1986. Working for Lockheed, one of the space shuttle contractors at the Kennedy Space Center, I was in an office complex across the street from the Launch Control Center (LCC). Having the privilege of working on and seeing many prior launches, it just didn't seem like a day that they would launch.
The announcement came. They were resuming the countdown and were "go for launch". I thought, "No way, in this cold?"
At T-3 minutes and counting, I walked outside anticipating the launch of another miraculous shuttle, crew, and payload off to work in space. That day, it was not to be.
After the explosion, seeing the plumes of smoke divide off into two trails, I stood there among others naively hoping. . . waiting. . . for the shuttle to emerge from the white, fluffy smoke as it had many times before from the clouds. In the next few moments my stomach felt sick, I felt flush; I realized they were gone.
A profound level of sadness set over the entire workforce, the Space Coast community, and far beyond. In the months following, the investigation would answer the questions of "What happened and why?" Many changes were implemented, many improvements made, many lessons were learned.
The shuttle program and its dedicated workforce were more resolute than ever to march on and continue the mission, the vision, the dream - just as those who perished would have wanted and expected.
Jonathan Kobler
- I had left my native Huntsville a year and eight months earlier for enlistment in the Navy and was at Mare Island in Vallejo, Calif., finishing my training. As a souvenir of my hometown I carried a green, tip-proof coffee mug from the Space and Rocket Center emblazoned with a space shuttle in my book bag.
We had taken a break from missile system labs that morning in order to watch the shuttle lift off. I can remember how all of us watched it rise, roll, then without warning disintegrate. Everyone in the room was silently, slack-jawed with disbelief at what we had just witness on live television. The school instructors decided we would take the rest of the day off.
I went out to my car, popped in a David Bowie cassette tape and listened to "Space Oddity." Somehow, that seemed fitting at that moment.
Kathleen Maker
I was beginning the second year of Peace Corps service in Mariano Acosta, a settlement some 13,000 feet up in the Ecuadorean Andes. Mr. Puente and I staffed a tiny clinic and we were busy preparing for the assignment of a new rural doctor.
When I walked in the door, the radio was on. Mr. Puente said that an American rocket exploded and its crew was down. I knew war had broken out. A later broadcast clarified the news for me but it was brief, only a few seconds of information.
Weeks later I rode a pickup truck into Ibarra to collect mail and with a Newsweek magazine in my mail bundle, I saw for the very first time that sad, iconic image of the Challenger
Bob Noblitt
- I was at the Challenger launch as a TRW employee. The primary payload for the mission was a Tracking and Data Relay Satellite which was built by TRW for the Goddard Space Flight Center.
I along with Dan Goldin, then vice president and general manager of TRW's Space and Electronics Sector, and a number of company officials rode a company bus to the official viewing site for the launch. It was a cold day.
After a number of delays the launch was scrubbed and rescheduled. There was considerable grumbling at the site because of the scrub.
Since I was the senior Washington representative for TRW, I flew back to Washington that day and later went to meet with the Goddard director, Dr Noel Hinners, for the rescheduled launch.
The two of us sat in his office to watch the launch. We watched silently as Challenger lifted off and rose towards its orbit. When the explosion came we sat there for several minutes silently shaking our heads.Jeanie R. Gildea
- I distinctly remember where I was on Jan. 28,1986. I was at the Baptist Memorial Hospital in Gadsden awaiting the birth of my first grandchild, Nicklas Ryan Bearden. I was in my daughter's hospital room watching the tragedy of the Challenger explosion on TV. He was born just about the same time.
That was a bittersweet day for me, one I will never forget. Today Nick is a history teacher/football coach at Coosa High School in Rome. Ga. That is one day in history he will never forget in more ways than one.
Becky Richardson
I was teaching in Texas on Jan 28, 1986. We were especially proud of this mission because a teacher, Christa McAuliffe, was going up in space.
A student came into my room and said, "Mrs. H said the Challenger blew up." I assumed the student was just confused by all the smoke of liftoff and mistakenly thought the smoke meant it exploded.
My heart broke when I learned the tragedy was real. As I watched the news for days, I agreed with McAuliffe's husband that she and all the members of that crew would want the U.S. to continue space flight. I still feel it's very important. I'm proud to live in Huntsville, Al., and proud of Marshall Space flight Center and its entire staff.
C Barnes
- I was on my way to the campus of Wright State University, located in Ohio. Instead of listening to the radio I was listening to a Spanish tape to prepare for an exam later that day.
I first noticed cars pulling off the road and as I passed I could see that the drivers, men and women, seemed distressed, some looked to be crying. At intersections many drivers had gotten out of their vehicles.
Being so close to Wright Patterson Air Force base most of the folks were in uniform. Thinking something must have happened on base I pulled over and I asked an airman what had happened I was shocked beyond words when he told me about the Challenger explosion. I was stunned.
On campus, students and professors gathered together in the student union and watched the television coverage throughout the day. I remember everyone comforting each other. I think we felt a connection with Judith Resnik, being from Ohio. No one went to class that day.
When I think back on this day always remember the pain in the airman's voice, his eyes filled with tear, as he said, "Challenger exploded. Their families watched it explode, it's horrible, it's horrible"
I will never forget this day
Mary Maiorano
- My father worked in the space industry for years at Cape Canaveral. My sisters and I would run outside our home whenever a missile would launch, to watch it arch over the ocean. We saw many failed attempts those early years. My father used to call them "million-dollar fireworks."
I was in Virginia Beach, working in a Humana Hospital - early morning collecting rounds. I walked into a patient's room to draw blood. She had the television on to watch the Challenger liftoff. I watched with her, excited to see the Challenger leave the launch pad.
Then .. shuttle and rocket pieces everywhere.
I remember saying, "It just blew up!"
The patient replied it was only the second stage engaging. I knew it was not the second stage .
By the time I returned to the laboratory ... well, by then, the whole world knew we had lost seven patriots.
There are several historical events where I will remember exactly where I was .... the Challenger is one of them.Carol Hardage
- Twenty-five years ago, at the time the Challenger crashed, I was at work just about to blow out the candles on my birthday cake. It was my 37th birthday. From that day on, every time someone asked me about my birthday, I remind them that it is Jan 28, the day the Challenger crashed.
Russell Theisen
- I was an electronics engineer working at the Martin Marietta Orlando Aerospace - East Electronics plant in Orlando.
On Jan. 28, 1986, I recall that the temperature in Orlando was just below freezing when I drove from my Winter Park home to work earlier that morning.
I was on the telephone with a vendor in Texas. Orlando is about 45 miles west of Cape Canaveral, Florida. My office cubicle had a window that faced east. While I was on the telephone, I watched the launch of the space shuttle. I commented to the vendor on the telephone that I was watching another space launch. He was amazed that I could see the space launches from Orlando, which was some 45 miles to my east.
While I was telling him that I watched most of the space shuttle launches, I noticed a very unusual smoke trail, and I told the vendor that we did not have a good launch, "something is wrong," since the smoke trail was in three traces and not just one that is normal. I told the vendor that he should turn on the news on his radio, since we had apparently just had a major malfunction. He said that this might set back our space program a few months. I told him that a year or two would be more like it.
Cookie and Kim Keller
- My husband and I were at the Cape for the Challenger launch. My husband was working the launch for his company, Rocketdyne. He was representing the main engines that get the shuttle off the ground. He was in the Launch Control Center at the time of the explosion.
We had gone down a few days before and the launch was put off because of the cold weather. He had explained that the shuttle shouldn't take off in real cold weather and in strong winds, which was the case at that time. It wasn't a great time to be at the beach for a vacation.
I was out on the beach as the shuttle lifted off. I had been before to watch shuttle launches and they were a beautiful sight. I had my camera and started taking pictures as soon as I could see it. It looked fine and then the smoke went into two columns. I thought of what my husband had said and thought, "They have a problem and are coming back" .So I kept taking pictures. A lady came running down the beach yelling to everyone, "It exploded. It exploded." I thought, "No that couldn't happen." I ran back to our hotel room to find out what had happened on TV.
The next day as we rode to the airport to leave, every business had their marquees filled with the sadness of the explosion. So many children were there to celebrate a teacher going off in space. Such a sad time.
Les and Joanne Sanders
- We were aboard our sailboat in an anchorage at Allen's Cove, a tiny uninhabited island in the Exuma chain of the Bahamas. Being tired after a long day's sail from Nassau, we had gone to bed without even turning on the radio.
The next day was Joanne's birthday, so we had docked at Staniel Cay. a larger island where there was a restaurant. While waiting for our lunch, a Canadian couple came to us expressing condolences. They must have thought we had landed from Mars when we did not know what they were talking about! We were undoubtedly among the few people in the world unaware of the tragedy.
David Little
- I was sitting in Mr. Meinert's seventh-grade math class at Huntsville Middle School. He had been called out of the room and when he returned he walked in with a lost look on his face. Ashen. He looked blankly into the class and said, "The space shuttle just exploded."
We all sat in stunned silence. We knew the significance of the launch, with Christa McAuliffe on board.
Eventually a TV was brought into our classroom and we watched the news coverage. Peter Jennings was anchoring the story and showing the replay of the launch. I remember wondering to myself, before I saw it for the first time, what would the explosion be like? I was nervous about it. And then it happened and it wasn't like I thought it would be, and we'd watch the rest of the day over and over again... When I got home I watched with millions of others as President Reagan consoled our nation. I remember it like yesterday.
Sandra Rosenblum
- I was home from work on maternity leave. My 5 year old bounded through the door from kindergarten saying, "Guess what Mommy, the Challenger blew up." She had no concept of what she was saying; she just knew that it was important.
Kathryn McWhorter
- I can remember that Tuesday morning, Jan. 28, 1986, very vividly. It was a very cold day. My husband, Charles, and I, were over in Georgia. Two days before, we had buried my dad, and it was a very sad time for us.
That morning, we were going through some of his things, and we were watching the TV. When the explosion occurred, we could not believe what we were seeing. In fact, it was so surreal to us. My husband, an engineer, was working on the space program, and it was so upsetting to him. It was a tragedy that we will never forget. Our country lost seven fine astronauts.
Don Masterson
- Being on a single-car ferry in January 1986, crossing the Tennessee River, on a day off from work was distracting. I was 25 years old, having grown up in the big city of Huntsville, and was living in Scottsboro. I was teaching elementary school in Stevenson and Higdon.
My childhood friend, a newspaper reporter, had peaked my interest, yet again, for a little adventure. My memory of how we actually found the Bridgeport Ferry on Jan. 28, 1986 is a little uncertain right now. Probably a human interest story he was working on about the ferry and its history in the community. We were on board, the car secure, and lost in discussing and supposing what life use to be for the Bridgeport ferry riders. When the ferry operator talked to us about halfway across the river, he was not sure exactly what kind of breaking news he was giving us.
The operator said something about a rocket accident. We knew immediately that something was wrong with the shuttle early in its flight. I remember thinking that the Challenger would be OK. By the time we were across the river we had little confidence that things were OK. And, of course, being a teacher my heart sank just a bit when I thought about Christa McAuliffe. NASA astronauts are a brave, generous and patriotic group!
Andrew J. Riley
- Where was I that fateful day in 1986? Well, I was just a lad of 30, working for a telecommunications manufacturer in Sanford, Fla. Our crew had taken a break from our busy schedules to witness, like we had always done for a shuttle launch, what we had come to take for granted as a common occurrence. Little did we know that not only the lives of those dear astronaut's families would be forever changed, but ours as well.
I write that tidbit because our contract that paid us handsomely was funded by NASA's shuttle program. Once the Challenger disintegrated in midair, that funding ceased to exist. I had no choice but to return home to Madison to pick up the pieces, where my loving mom and dad lived.
I had given up a relatively good job at Huntsville's Teledyne Brown Engineering to seek my fortune in Florida. However, I survived, as I'm sure all those affected by the events of that day did. | http://blog.al.com/space-news/2011/01/challenger_memories.html | 2013-05-18T10:45:36 | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | 1368696382261 | [
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ST. CLAIR COUNTY, Alabama -- The names of some of the people killed in three seperate fatal traffic accidents in St. Clair County have been released.
Three wrecks proved deadly for four people in the county on Wednesday along U.S. 411. Two of the wrecks occurred in Moody by Bethel Baptist Church along the road. The Third happened at U.S. 231 and U.S. 411 in Ashville, St. Clair County Coroner Dennis Russell said.
In the first accident, 63-year-old Patricia Moon of Odenville was killed, Russell said. Moody police said she was traveling southbound in a car about 8:50 a.m. on U.S. 411, swerved into the northbound lanes and struck another car head-on, according to authorities.
In the second wreck, 63-year-old Robert Wayne Long of Pell City and an unidentified woman were killed, according to county and Moody authorities. Russell said the woman's identity is being investigated. The two were killed when the motorcycle they were riding southbound on 411 collided head-on with a pickup truck, said Moody Police Capt. Thomas Hunt.
Hunt said both accidents are still under investigation. The causes, he said were not related to speed or people trying to pass one another on the two-lane U.S. 411.
"This might not happen in another 50 years," Hunt said. "They just happened to have happened on that same straight of way."
In the third wreck, 16-year-old James Austin Hamer, of Moody, was killed, Russell said. Alabama State Troopers said he was driving a car that collided with a vehicle driven by Zachary Reddell, 19, of Columbiana before 4 p.m. on Wednesday. Reddell and a passenger, Maurice Reddell, 42, of Columbiana, were taken to Shelby Baptist Medical Center for treatment.
For more Moody news, go here. | http://blog.al.com/spotnews/2012/06/some_identities_released_on_mu.html | 2013-05-18T11:05:48 | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | 1368696382261 | [] |
CALERA, Alabama -- A 24-year-old Calera man has been charged with capital murder in the death of his 4-month-old son, Calera police announced today.
The child, Tremain Gates, Jr., died Tuesday at Children's of Alabama.
The boy's father, 24-year-old Tremain Vanteas Gates, is now being held without bail in the Shelby County Jail. Gates had been held on $1 million bond since August 30 on an assault charge stemming from the child's injuries.
Court records state the elder Gates was watching the little boy on the night of Aug. 25. Records stated the child was thrown against the wall and on the floor.
When the mother returned to the Sumner Drive apartment the next morning, the boy "was not acting like his normal self, could only open one eye, had a whimper ... and was lethargic," those records stated.
The child's mother took the boy to Shelby Baptist Medical Center and from there he was flown to Children's of Alabama.
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View Slayings in the Birmingham area, 2012 in a larger map | http://blog.al.com/spotnews/2012/09/calera_man_man_charged_with_ca.html | 2013-05-18T11:03:52 | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | 1368696382261 | [
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Padd. The fact is, every time you go kayaking, you are essentially working out regardless of technique, pace or activity. Just like walking, jogging or running, you are using your heart and muscles, some of which you may not even know you are using.
You already know that paddling a kayak is a physical recreational activity so why not use it to achieve your ultimate fitness goals? Here are a few reasons that should help you reconsider putting on those water shoes instead of running shoes..
Full Body Workout
Despite appearances, you actually use more than just your arms when paddling. With a proper paddling technique and posture, you’ll be using that you can alternate between leg and arm propulsion.
A.
Low-Impact Workout
Kayaking provides the ultimate in a low-impact workout routine. Since you are sitting down, you don’t have to worry about “pounding” your knees or inflicting some of the other injuries typically associated with running or cycling. It doesn’t take much to propel your kayak so.
It’s Good For the Soul Too
Workout your body and revitalize your soul after a long hard day at the office. Unlike a gym, you’ll find that kayaking provides a more enjoyable experience by eliminating loud TV’s and music, the constant humming or clanking of exercise equipment and crowds. Instead, you’ll be greeted with beautiful scenery, wildlife and depending on your location, a sense of tranquility. do provide you each with their own benefits, kayaking is fast becoming a popular choice for fitness!
5 Quick Kayak Fitness Tips:
- Stretch before and after - you should always take the time to do a stretch routine just like you would when exercising on land.
- Drink plenty of water - utilize a CamelBak Hydration Backpack so that you don’t have to worry about finding a place to store or dispose of your water bottles.
- Upgrade to a comfortable seat - make the best of your fitness routine with a seat that gives you plenty of support such as a Comfy Deluxe Big Back Kayak Seat.
- Protect your kayak – it’s always important that you secure your kayak, especially if you decide to do cross-fit training with a kayak cable lock.
- Warm up and warm down – use this time to enjoy the scenery!
Please note: this article is a general guideline and should not be used as a complete guide to using your kayak for fitness. Do your research and consider getting proper kayak fitness training and other classes that will help you understand how to get properly outfitted, the different types of paddling techniques, getting in and out of your kayak and survival/safety training.
If you live in central Texas and plan to be at the Austin Sport Expo this weekend, be sure to drop by our booth. We’ll have a variety of kayaks at the show that are geared for fitness/recreational use and you’ll have a chance to enter a raffle to win a variety of accessories and gift certificates!
Roland
ACK – HQ
Category: Kayaking, Knowledge, Resources | http://blog.austinkayak.com/2010/12/paddling-to-achieve-total-body-health-fitness/ | 2013-05-18T11:03:09 | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | 1368696382261 | [] |
The Public and Educational Lending Right office in Canberra is changing the way it administers the Education Lending rights and Public Lending Rights schemes.
The office will no longer acknowledge receipt of title claims or changes to contact and banking details sent by mail, fax or email. (They will still process them, however). Automatic acknowledgements will be provided if you lodge title claims through Lending Rights Online (LRO).
So authors who look forward to receiving their annual income boost from lending fees through public and educational libraries, you would be wise to make sure your email address in LRO is current, as they are moving towards an online system. | http://blog.awmonline.com.au/category/industry-news/page/2/ | 2013-05-18T10:53:42 | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | 1368696382261 | [] |
Background: Read Ayoudo’s guide on how to use social media in an emergency.
Tornado watches have been issued:
Environment Canada has issued a tornado watch for parts of the province including Saskatoon and area along with several severe thunderstorm warnings and watches for parts of Saskatchewan.
Tornado watch issued for:
Saskatoon
Martensville – Warman – Rosthern – Delisle – Wakaw
Outlook – Watrous – Hanley – Imperial – Dinsmore
Humboldt – Wynyard – Wadena – Lanigan – Foam Lake
Melfort – Tisdale – Nipawin – Carrot River
Moose Jaw – Pense – Central Butte – Craik
Swift Current – Herbert – Cabri – Kyle – Lucky Lake
Prince Albert – Shellbrook – Spiritwood – Duck Lake
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Severe thunderstorm warnings for:
RM of Piapot including Piapot
RM of Carmichael including Carmichael
RM of Arlington including Dollard
RM of Bone Creek including Simmie and Scotsguard
RM of Grassy Creek including Shaunavon
RM of Maple Creek including Cypress Hills Provincial Park
RM of Reno including Consul, Robsart and Willow Creek
RM of White Valley including Eastend and Ravenscrag
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Severe thunderstorm watch for:
Kindersley – Rosetown – Biggar – Wilkie – Macklin
Outlook – Watrous – Hanley – Imperial – Dinsmore
Leader – Gull Lake
Swift Current – Herbert – Cabri – Kyle – Lucky Lake
Shaunavon – Maple Creek – Val Marie – Cypress Hills
via Tornado watch issued for Saskatoon and area.
Need help?
Visit the Ayoudo web app and | http://blog.ayoudo.com/help-actions/tornado-watch-issued-for-saskatoon-and-area/ | 2013-05-18T10:11:59 | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | 1368696382261 | [
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The term of the week was “shovel-ready.”
Obama copped to it and told us that “shovel-ready” doesn’t mean exactly what he — and the rest of us — thought it meant. You see, spending money on roads, bridges and such takes time. Lots of time.
We can’t just get behind the wheel of a backhoe and start digging. His exact words were: “There is no such thing as shovel ready”. This reminds us of those oft told chestnuts: “Read my lips…” and “I did not have sexual relations with that woman…”
We thought the sentiment was especially appropriate to Southeast Texas, where shovels are coming out for some projects and remain stuck in the shed for others.
Take that proposed TransCanada Pipeline, the one that is supposed to shuttle all of that
toxic sludge Canadian Tar Sand stuff across the country, down here to Port Arthur to be refined. Groups in East Texas recently announced their plans to put a stop to this massive economic lifeline. But it’s BP the federal government that is ultimately preventing this massive project from coming to fruition..
See, a “shovel ready’ project looking for a shovel.
That’s not the case over on Bolivar where it’s full steam ahead on a plan to elevate Texas 87 to six feet above sea level.Work began today to bring in workers and materials for the $6.8 million effort. That’s a whole lot of “shovel-ready” goodness coming to Southeast Texas.
But what about the latest newz?
It appears the BISD board will convene Thursday to discuss the building of a hotly debated “events center” to compliment “Butch” field. We assume this new facility will “support education.” This is good news, right? After all, Doc did tell us that through his super powers, he alone has fended off the ravaging effects of recession here in town.
We agree with Obama, there is no such thing as “shovel-ready.” Unfortunately, that’s not stopping the BISD from trying to shovel of load of @%^&% in the faces of Beaumont taxpayers.
SHOVEL THESE
- Man breaks into mobile home to, um, enjoy relations with a pooch.
- Officer, dude, thanks so much for finding my bong.
- Meet the national monkey bar king.
- The NEW Germany, same as the OLD Germany?
- This guy should have his own cooking show. | http://blog.beaumontenterprise.com/bayou/2010/10/19/is-southeast-texas-shovel-ready/?gta=commentlistpos | 2013-05-18T10:42:49 | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | 1368696382261 | [] |
Greedy Lying Bastards is a documentary that takes on two problems — the pernicious impact of industry on the environment and the effect of those changes on communities and the even more pressing problem of the pernicious impact of a small group of corporate executives on politicians and the laws they enact and enforce. As the title makes clear, this is a powerful attack that does not pull any punches or pretend to be objective. It’s no longer an inconvenient truth. It is a question of our survival being put at risk by a few wealthy people who are so determined to get even wealthier that they are either in denial about the consequences or just do not care. The case it makes is dramatic and disturbing.
The late Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan used to say that “everyone is entitled to his own opinion but no one is entitled to his own facts.” In this film, documentarian Craig Rosebraugh shows how a very small group of unfathomably wealthy industrialists create research and lobbying organizations designed to appear objective and broadly supported but in reality with no commitment to scientific data or to public policy. The most telling information in this film concerns the lack of transparency and accountability of organizations that have such a pervasive impact on legislation and policy. Washington insiders are already very familiar with the story of the Bush administration’s suppression of the most significant scientific report on climate change under the direction of an oil industry lobbyist serving a brief time in the government and allowing his former (and future) employers to edit the report’s findings. But seeing the details of the story in the context of a widespread and chillingly effective program by the Koch brothers and others is very compelling.
It would be nice to have some updates about the most recent campaign and Obama administration. . And while Rosebraugh has some good footage (thanks to a sneaky photo-pen) from the no-cameras-allowed Exxon shareholder meeting, he fails to connect the dots between what these executives do with corporate money and the true owners of the company — the shareholders, mostly through intermediaries like pension funds and mutual funds. As the comic strip character Pogo said when he discovered trash in a once-pristine river, “We have met the enemy and he is us.”
The “what you can do” section at the end should include more than just contacting elected officials, who need the corporate money to win elections. Capitalism is as much at risk from this failure of accountability as the environment. Perhaps that point could be made in Part 2.
Parents should know that this film has brief strong language and scenes of environmental devastation.
Family discussion: Who is in the best position to counter the messages sent by corporate-funded organizations to politicians? Where do you get your most trustworthy information about these issues? How do you know?
If you like this, try: “An Inconvenient Truth,” “FLOW: For Love of Water,” and “End of the Line” | http://blog.beliefnet.com/moviemom/2013/03/greedy-lying-bastards.html | 2013-05-18T10:33:37 | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | 1368696382261 | [
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Cookie Anatomy of a PINWHEEL
I have always been fascinated by pinwheels – some refer to this nifty spinning contraption as a whirlygig. I have been seeing pinwheel cookies EVERYWHERE on the web as of late, so I thought it time to put my uber fabulous decorator, Cat, to the test and see what she could create. I posted the finished product of our first attempt on our Facebook page a couple of weeks ago.
We received such a positive response in-store from those cookies that we sold, that it only seemed fitting to provide the tutorial.
To begin with, I hit the computer and Googled “pinwheels” to find an image that could serve as our template. I am pretty selective when it comes to finding the perfect image. I avoid anything 3 dimensional and focus on those images shot straight on the product. Here is the image I selected as our template.
And here is our template
.
The in-house next step would be to place the template on top of the rolled out dough and cut around it. Once the cookies are baked, the outlining process begins. For this purpose however, in an effort to lessen product waste and conserve time, we took the next steps to parchment paper. We began by outlining the template numerous times on a piece of parchment.
I apologize for the faint lines. We outlined the template 8 times and then began decorating as if we were decorating a cookie. Each outline was used to demonstrate the progression of steps in decorating as shown below.
We always, always, always begin by outlining our cookie canvas with the intended design. Here, Cat started with the red portion of the wheel and worked her way clockwise using the colored image of the template as a guide. The outline serves as a border for the icing to stay within once filled. Once the colors are set (dry – no shine to them) Cat then returns to the outlined cookies to fill in.
Here is an image for the finished product
And finally a look at all the photos we took, along with the original photo found via google here.
For a little educational aspect to the post, the definition for pinwheel can be found here on dictionary.com, Regardless of how you use your pinwheel; to entertain your child for hours, as a decoration in the garden or to scare away the birds and bugs when eating, pinwheels are a fun toy for both the young and young at heart. They tend to bring out the kid in me..what about you? | http://blog.bundlesofcookies.com/2011/07/24/cookie-tutorial-pinwheel-how-to/ | 2013-05-18T10:41:08 | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | 1368696382261 | [
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I want to share this thought-provoking post on Frontline’s documentary about the Afghan war from Center for a New American Security‘s Andrew Exum, a veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan and a friend from my freelancing days in Egypt:. Amrullah Saleh’s reaction to the Pakistanis and to U.S. policy toward Pakistan is especially amusing. But watch the video yourself. Really, it is very well done and contains some amazing combat footage. (At the beginning of the documentary, a U.S. Marine dies on camera. This blog appreciates the fact that Marcela Gaviria and Martin Smith sought — and received — the permission of the dead Marine’s family to use the footage they used. This blog also appreciates the fact that the footage captures combat at its rawest, just the way Americans in their living rooms should see it, with all the blood and cursing included.)
You can watch the video here on Exum’s blog, Abu Muqawama, where he has also posted the latest publication on Counterinsurgency Operations from the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Eight years into the Afghan war, a ton of ink is being spilt in the debate over strategy as President Obama prepares to make a decision about troop levels in coming weeks.
For a summary of counterinsurgency vs. traditional warfare in Afghanistan see this recent article co-authored by another friend from my time in Egypt, Dan Murphy of The Christian Science Monitor: Is US strategy in Afghanistan working?
Whatever you think of the US commitment to Afghanistan, one thing is clear: Decision time is nigh.
I don’t know, or have an opinion about, the answer to your question, but I do wish to be apprised of an example in history wherein one nation has won a war in another nation by means of counter-insurgency. Everything I’ve read about military history indicates that victory only takes place after Combatant A conventionally kills a sufficient number of Combatant B such that Combatant B determines to transform his politics (either by allowing himself to be conquered and enslaved, or by putting an end to governmental practices which threaten Combatant A). For example, the Allies killed enough Germans to make them give up Nazism and relinquish their plans to rule Europe. The Americans and British allowed their captured portion of Germany to rebuild, while the Russians enslaved their portion of the defeated Bund.
Again, though: Where/when in history has counter-insurgency yielded decisive victory, and how was it done?
An interesting quote from someone else: Peace is what happens after the good guy wins..
Counterinsurgency in Afghanistan will last for however many centuries the policy elites in DC are willing to devote the lives of others to their theories and conjectures.
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At least twice a week, “The Financial Times” offers up a story about a proposal for a “new approach” to counterinsurgency or “The Economist” will review on-going efforts. Dept of the Army and DoD have several Web sites wherein counterinsurgency is a focal point but probably the most intelligent I’ve seen belongs to the Australian military defense university and with PDF downloads.
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Simply put:
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1. Of what relevance is Afghanistan to the national security goals of the United States?
2. What is the exit strategy for the US military forces from Afghanistan?
3. What is the highest level of monetary cost the citizens of the United States are willing to offer up for Afghanistan?
4. What is the acceptable death toll of US military members US citizens are willing to accept in Afghanistan relative to the exit strategy?
5. How many citizens will encourage their sons and daughters to enlist in the US Army or US Marine Corps in one year, five years, or ten years with the knowledge that they will serve in Afghanistan.
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Afghanistan is not WWII, it is not Korea, but it sure as hell is a lot like Vietnam EXCEPT that there’s no military conscription in effect now and if there was, there would not be any US military presence in Afghanistan.
An answer for J Reynolds – the British defeated a Communist insurgency in Malaysia in the 1950s. This was before the Communists figured out how to do it right – the British forces were able to cut off supplies to the insurgents. Guerilla warfare should be defined as one where neither side can target the logistics of the other. Vietnam remains the school example – the Communists could not hit our production here in the US, we could not interdict supplies until they were unloaded from Russian freighters in Haiphong Harbor. We could hit them on the docks but not on the decks!
In Afghanistan – the Taliban/Al Queda has ammo on the Pakistan side of the border but the Pakistanis are now hitting them hard from the air. We are hitting the leadership and facilities from Predators. If we can cut the supply of arms to the insurgents they will be defeated. They ain’t gonna fight by throwing rocks.
We may then be presented with a shaky government that tends to look like Iran! Goofy figurehead president but the country would be run by the religious hierarchy. That would be better than having al Queda loose there.
So – victory is possible but more work will be done on the Pakistan side of the border.
This is for Charles D Phillips, LtCol, USAF Ret
As long as there are arms dealers who can only see as far as the bottom of the page their bank acct. statement is printed on there will be arms easily procurred. You make a supply argument, but in all honesty, there is no serious attempt to stop the flow of arms. Even when it is legislated to stop the flow of arms there are “rogue elements” willing to do the supplying. There are dozens of countries that are willing to supply them for countries that would be “embarrassed” should they be exposed. The U.S. supplied arms to afghanistan “mujhadeen” by way of neighbor countries in secrecy for quite a while in the seventies.
Conclusion; I think that if we were serious about stopping the state of war across the globe we’d look harder at the roots of the problems….they bring these things up in meetings civilians find out about through FOIA 20 years later usually.
If J. Reynolds would like to read some more about it try this book, “Learning to Eat Soup with a Knife: Counterinsurgency Lessons from Malaya and Vietnam”
The title is from a quote by T.E. Lawrence (better known as Lawrence of Arabia).
The author is John Nagl, a staff officer who was on GEN Schoomaker’s staff. Very informative and very interesting. This has been widely read in the US Army, especially by those of us with multiple tours to Iraq and Afghanistan.
Bottomline: It is winnable, but Mr. Heathen brings out the salient policy points that require discussion among the electorate and the National Command Authority.
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I appreciate you opinion and this not an attack.
However, I find it a continuing cop out to blame every terrorist attack and world conflict on US support for Israel.re: “bying Isreal many times over would solve 99.9% of conflict”
Did Saddam Hussein invade Kuwait because of our policies on Israel?
Do you think that groups such as al-quada would immediately stop planning terrorist attacks on the US or it’s interests abroad if tomorrow we end all support to Isreal?
Even if you answer that question with a naive “yes” than my follow up would be are you comfortable with Iran and the mid-East States then destroying Israel and running ruffshod over the oil rich region and dictating to the world it’s clearly stated policy of a world Muslim Theocracy?
Are you so foolish to believe that there is no socio-economic root causes for unrest in the world and that this is all just for Cheney and the gang to stash away their riches? If we stop stoking the flames of war for profit will it turn into one big fireside folk song session?
I’m not pretending to have the education to rate exactly how a conflict is resolved in the multi-faceted challenge that Afghanistan presents but I do know that there is foul odor coming from a nuclear armed Pakistan and it seems to be to our advantage to be engaging the Taliban and the foreign fighters there rather than allowing them to topple Pakistan.
Sorry John and Yoko but we’ve been “giving peace a chance” since time immemorial and there is most likely always going to be blood sacrificed for peace and prosperity until, if you’re the Praying sort, God’s will is on Earth as it is in Heaven.
I appreciate this blog and all of the contributors to it, it’s a very thought provoking exercise.
I also give thanks every day for “victims of Darwanism” our brave Men and Women of the Armed Forces of the United States.
I wouldn’t be expressing my humble opinion without them.
For Keith – You could read about the way that militaries are supplied to get some answers to your questions. There are many good books out there. But a summary would be: arms dealers are not gonna sell anything to anyone in Afghanistan under “normal” conditions! Yes I meant to say that. Under the current conditions – the Taliban encourages (a guy holding an assault weapon can be very persuasive) farmers to grow poppies for the opium. They trade the opium for weapons. Afghanistan does and did produce a lot of opium – especially for a Moslem country – but the vast supply is mostly due to the fighting there. Without the Taliban and al Queda, it is very expensive to ship any weapons to Afghanistan. Of course we are now greatly improving the road system there so it will be easier! So anyway – you seem to indicate that arms dealers will find a market there and that causes the insurgency. Instead, the insurgency works hard to try to get weapons there. If we can eliminate the leadership of the insurgency, the supply of weapons will stop. Carter’s Country is not gonna set up a store there to sell weapons to insurgents! Under normal conditions, what would they buy them with – rocks? Currently, the Pakistanis are bombing arms depots, training facilities, shipping routes, etc into Afghanistan. Months ago they sent troops into the Swat valley to attack the radicals. So there is a huge effort to stop the flow of arms into Afghanistan. Read the newspaper! We supplied weapons to the Taliban so they could fight the Russians – oops! After that, the supply of weapons slowed down greatly until the Moslem Taliban started forcing more farmers to grow opium. So – if we can eliminate a lot of the leaders of the radicals and stop them from shipping ammo into Afghanistan – the insurgency should fade away. Then we are left with Afghanistan that is just as bad as it was in the 1800s. Now what do we do with it?
Read all about counterinsurgency:
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You will, of course, notice the origin and date of the publication.
That’s our choice? Counter-insurgency vs conventional? That’s not a choice. The choice is continue to kill Pashtun tribesmen who couldn’t ever pose a threat to us if we aren’t in their backyard, or to stop killing them, and every single soldier come home. Afghanistan is not a country. The border on the map was drawn by the British and nothing to do with the reality. The govt in Kabul is just that. It has no control over the other cities. Why are we over there? Al Quaeda is gone and if the Taliban is so bad then we have to explain why we supported them with money and arms until 2001.
It is interesting to see the various automatic reactions to any mention of military operations. We have the people who reflexively answer that any military operation is some way to enrich the arms merchants. The arms merchants must be in league with the people “in charge of” energy, health care, groceries, etc etc etc. There is always some group out there that can be accused of profiteering off on any human activity.
There are the people that accuse the US of dominating any other country that we are involved with. Did we dominate France and Germany and Italy and Japan during the 1940s?? It does not seem to have hurt them that much. In fact, the best thing that many countries can do is go to war with the US so that we will sweep in after it and rebuild – often to a better standard than they had before.
Then there are the self appointed military experts, who have watched TV a lot and have learned that we cannot defeat an insurgency. Those are obviously all run by a plucky group of farmers that resist all foreign attempts to prevent them from having their traditional harvest festivals. Of course they never get around to answering where these solid farmers get sophisticated triggers for their IEDs. Do these folks have RPGs in their barns, ready to use on invading locusts? Of course insurgencies can be and have been defeated, and many of the right things are being done to defeat this one.
Now people say that Afghanistan is not a threat to us – they so quickly forget the 9/11 attacks. We were attacked by a group that was resident in Afghanistan!
Anyway, the original article was: is counterinsurgency the answer? But few people have even addressed that question. They bring their own agendas to the conversation.
The short answer to Moderate Chuck is “yes.” The details mean, however, more troops and a long time in theatre.
Read the book, get some answers. Think of the Taliban as a type of Special Forces operation. They bring in and train locals on exotic weapons, in much the same way our SF detachments work.
After a firefight, the families will come and retrieve the bodies for burial. Except for the one or two foreigners, who get buried by the NATO forces.
That’s one way that we know who is operating and from where they came from….
Moderate chuck forgets that the 9/11 attacks were planned in Spain and Germany, and the pilots were trained…here.
Why do poppy farmers have sophisticated IED triggers? Because a foreign army has invaded their tribal land and they will take assistance from anyone. | http://blog.chron.com/armedsources/2009/10/is-counterinsurgency-the-answer-in-afghanistan/ | 2013-05-18T10:26:49 | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | 1368696382261 | [] |
It’s fight week once again, with UFC 144 coming up on Saturday night from Japan. On Thursday night at 8 p.m. ET, we’ll be joined by lightweight title challenger Benson Henderson for a live reader chat. Henderson faces Frankie Edgar for the UFC title in the main event of the show from Japan.
Let’s get to the news of the day, shall we?
- Jon Jones will serve as an honorary race official for the Daytona 500 on Sunday.
- Speaking of Jones, Greg Jackson has confirmed that he will corner the light heavyweight champion in his fight against former Team Jackson member Rashad Evans.
- UFC on Fuel peaked at 315,000 viewers, shattering viewership records for the cable network. That being said, it’s still one of the least-watched UFC events of all time, but that was to be expected going in.
- Jason “Mayhem” Miller will get another shot in the UFC, after all. He faces C.B. Dolloway at UFC 146. The event takes place in Las Vegas in May and is expected to be headlined by Junior dos Santos vs. Alistair Overeem.
- Edson Barboza vs. Evan Dunham was also added to UFC 146.
- Jason Young vs. Eric Wisely and Yoislandy Izquierdo vs. Reza Madadi completes the UFC on FUEL TV 2 lineup. That’s the card headlined by Alexander Gustafsson vs. Antonio Rogerio Nogueira.
- Dennis Bermudez vs. Pablo Garza will take place at UFC on FOX 3. It’ll be a preliminary bout.
- Nick Denis vs. Johnny Bedford is also targeted for UFC on FOX 3.
- Eddie Alvarez vs. Shinya Aoki is targeted for Bellator 66 on April 20. It’s a rematch from their first fight three and a half years ago, which Aoki won.
- Legacy Fighting Championship has added Robert Drysdale vs. Isaac “Ike” Villanueva and a lightweight title bout between Jorge Patino and Jesus Rivera. Drysdale is a world-renowned BJJ specialist. The event takes place May 11 at the Arena Theater in Houston.
How do you think the difference in time zones and the fact that they’ll be fighting in the morning will affect the fighters?
It’ll definitely affect them. Most of the guys I’ve talked to that are fighting on the card are planning on keeping their American schedule, so they’ll wake up in the middle of the night and then try to go to sleep early.
It’s going to be interesting, for sure.
alot more people tuned in to watch spike s rerun of tuf finale .. what a joke .. and i even had said it before the event that it was happen .. | http://blog.chron.com/fighting/2012/02/jones-hosts-famous-race-mayhem-gets-another-fight-more-news/ | 2013-05-18T10:31:03 | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | 1368696382261 | [] |
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Monthly Archives: September 2010
MSNBC is having way too much fun with the Christine O’Donnell witch story
By moffitt@sfgate.com (mikemoffitt) Green tea party candidate
Your ‘Dancing With the Stars’ questions answered
By kgustafson@timesunion.com (Kristi Gustafson)
Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Leonard Skinner dies
By dwight.silverman@chron.com (Dwight Silverman)
Tyler Colvin hit by shattered bat video: Ban maple bats
By vk@sfgate.com (Vlae Kershner) The news that Chicago Cubs’ outfielder Tyler Colvin was struck by a sliver of a shattered maple bat, penetrating his chest wall and ending his season, should come as no surprise to anyone following baseball. Colvin was on third base and starting to run for home when the bat fragment hit
Derek Jeter: Gamesmanship like Michael Jordan
By vk@sfgate.com (Vlae Kershner) Thus | http://blog.chron.com/hottopics/2010/09/page/4/ | 2013-05-18T11:05:16 | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | 1368696382261 | [] |
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Tag Archives: 2009 Mayoral Race
Term-limited at two
Monday Inauguration
MONDAY, MONDAY, MONDAY! That’s the big inauguration day as far as the office of Mayor-elect Annise Parker is concerned, not Saturday, January 2. On Saturday, Parker’s old friend, Judge Steven Kirkland, will administer the oath of office to the new mayor in a private ceremony at City Hall, with attendance restricted to Parker’s family and
Help Run Houston
Have a hankering to tell the mayor-elect how to run the city? Annise Parker’s willing to listen, says Gilbert Garcia, one of the mayor-elect’s three transition team leaders. Garcia, a managing partner of an asset management firm and chairman of Parker’s campaign, says the new administration is looking for Houstonians interested in eight policy areas:
Coleman Shaping the Transition
State
Harris Back At Work
Adam Harris, the campaign manager who engineered Annise Parker’s win and a key figure on the mayor-elect’s transition team, lost a bout over the Christmas holidays. A food poisoning bug bit him at his in-laws’ home in Minnesota; he spent December 26 in bed. He was back at work today at Parker’s policy transition office . | http://blog.chron.com/houstonpolitics/tag/2009-mayoral-race/ | 2013-05-18T10:55:48 | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | 1368696382261 | [] |
Red Sox Nation might be chanting "Pray for rain or feel the pain," knowing that Tim Wakefield is scheduled to pitch Game 4 of the American League Championship series.
A rainout tonight at Jacobs Field would move Game 4 to Wednesday night and allow Red Sox ace Josh Beckett, who dominated the Indians in Game 1, to pitch instead on four days rest.
The nearly 1,800 respondents to a Boston.com poll question that asked who they would rather see pitch Game 4, Wakefield or Beckett on three days rest, gave the nod to Beckett by about a 6 percent margin.
The forecast calls for a 40 percent chance of scattered thunderstorms by tonight's first pitch at 8:21.
Competent conspiracy theorists no doubt believe that FOX Sports and Major League Baseball are hoping for a rainout to give the Red Sox every possible chance of advancing in the ALCS. Television and baseball executives, so the theory goes, live in mortal fear of an Indians-Colorado Rockies World Series matchup that would draw viewer ratings roughly equivalent of "Mass for the Shut-Ins."
But keep in mind, paranoics, that it's the umpires who ultimately decide whether or not to cancel games because of weather. And why would FOX programmers want to pre-empt its Wednesday night lineup of "Back to You" and "Kitchen Nighmares" to show a lousy postseason baseball game?
This rainout scenario represents a mixed bag for the Indians. It's a matter of facing the Devil You Sorta Know and Can't Hit Well, and the Devil You've Barely Met.
Most of the Indians expected to be in tonight's starting lineup have seen Beckett in at least a couple of starts. Wakefield and his knuckleball are largely an unknown quantity to the Tribe.
Kenny Lofton and Chris Gomez, who has not yet played this postseason, have a combined 120 plate appearances in their careers against Wakefield. The rest of the team has a collective 35 plate appearances against him.
Lofton and Gomez have 20 hits and three walks against Wakefield. The rest of the team has six hits and six walks.
There is only one other knuckleballer who pitched in the majors in 2007, Detroit Tigers reliever Charlie Haeger. The Indians have only three hits and four walks against him in 26 plate appearances.
Those are not inspiring numbers.
The knuckleball is hard to hit for a reason. It dips and drops as it arcs toward the plate and can make major league batters look downright foolish.
John Kruk, a former major leaguer who is now an ESPN analyst, hated hitting against knuckleballers.
"I'd rather have my leg cut off than do that all day," Kruk once said. "You just hope it hits your bat in a good spot."
Former Pittsburgh Pirates star Richie Hebner compared hitting Phil Niekro's knuckleball with "eating soup with a fork."
"Knuckleball" is actually a misnomer in describing the pitcher's grip. It's more accurate to call it a "fingertipball." Nearly all successful knuckleballers have placed their fingertips somewhere against the smooth surface of the basebal with part of the ball resting against the palm of their hand.
(Wakefield grips his knuckler with the first three fingers of his right hand while his pinkie finger floats daintily to the side like a Boston dandy drinking his afternoon cup of tea.)
The trick to throwing the knuckler is to severely minimize the amount of rotation on the ball after its thrown and allow physics to do its work. When the knuckler is thrown correctly, air glides over the slightly raised seams of the baseball and creates unpredictable vortexes behind it, causing the ball to move in a strange, fluttering fashion.
Knuckleball pitchers can only make educated guesses about what their pitches will do, but the best knuckleballs drop abruptly as they reach the plate.
Hitters are nearly as perplexed by the speed of the knuckler as they are by its movement. Major League hitters are geared to hit pitches coming at them at around 90 mph. Wakefield's knuckleball is typically in the mid- to high 60s. Waiting those extra fractions of a second can wreak havoc on a hitter's timing.
(Wakefield occasionally throws a "fastball" in the mid-70s and a slow-breaking curve, but he is at his best when it's all knucklers all the time.)
And the knuckleball doesn't always work. It sometimes fails to flutter, making it vulnerable to being hit long and hard. A knuckleball can move too much in windy conditions, which makes it diifficult to throw for strikes.
The Indians are not a speedy bunch, but stealing bases against a knuckler becomes easier as well because the ball moves slower to the plate and the delivery is more deliberate.
The unpredictability of the knuckleball's flight makes it tough to catch. Josh Beckett threw three wild pitches in 200 2/3 innings this season. Wakefield threw 10 in 189 innings of work.
The Red Sox tried using former Indians Josh Bard as Wakefield's personal catcher in 2006, an experiment that failed so miserably that by May the team reacquired Doug Mirabelli, whom they had traded to the San Diego Padres during the offseason. Mirabelli uses a mitt that looks something like a softball glove when he catches Wakefield.
Facing Wakefield is obviously a mixed bag. And if the game is played tonight as planned, the Indians need to be as concerned with starter Paul Byrd's ability to get the Red Sox out. Boston's roster has a .326 average against Byrd in their careers with a .540 slugging percentage over 180 plate appearances.
As colleague Dennis Manoloff pointed out in today's Plain Dealer, it's Manny Ramirez who has the most trouble against the soft-throwing Byrd, who will look like Joel Zumaya in comparison to Wakefield. Everyone else in the Boston lineup seems to hit him just fine. | http://blog.cleveland.com/sports/2007/10/will_the_weather_knuckle_under.html | 2013-05-18T10:31:42 | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | 1368696382261 | [
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"http://blog.cleveland.com/sports/2007/10/medium_joshbeckett.jpg",
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Some of you might remember an old television show by Bill Cosby called “Kids Say the Darndest Things.” Cosby interviewed kids and they described things in very lively and many times funny ways.
It wasn’t so much to have fun at the child’s expense, but really a celebration of the innocence and beauty of a little child. So, I’m curious about some of the funny things that your children have written to you.
I’ll start off with something my little 6-year-old Sheyla from Peru wrote me:
“I didn’t know you taught math; I have a question: ‘Do you like ice cream?’”
Now it’s your turn.
Mwajuma Aged 6. We went to an animal park. In the park I saw a aeroplane in the sky. It was shiny and noisy. I liked it.
Mwajuma Aged 5. Me: What would you like to be when you grow up? Mwajuma: I want to be a fish. I’ve never seen a fish. Do you eat fish?
Mwajuma: Aged 12. Thank you for the pictures of Japanese food. Udon looks like tapeworms. You shouldn’t eat tapeworms.
Asin: Aged.
Geri
I’ll have to look through my letters when I go back home, but one I can remember off the top of my head was from the boy I sponsored in Burkina Faso (who was taken out of the project). He would always draw me a picture on his letters, and I told him in one letter that they were very nice pictures, and I wasn’t very good at drawing. In his next letter, he said, “Don’t worry, one day you will draw well for I will pray for you”
Another sponsor shared with me that her little girl in Thailand wrote, “Do you know about Mickey Mouse? Is he a real mouse?”
I just got a letter from one of my kids and Ivan wanted to thank me for sending pot and a card. My husband was reading it to me and i started laughing he wanted to know did i send the child a cooking pot? I said no i sent him stickers in a card. I love my letters they brighten my days.
I sent my little boy in Tanzania a picture of my cute little Jack Russel Terrier and he responded that he liked the picture and that the dog looked very vicious!
My dog is many things, but intimidating he is not. I thought it was very cute and funny. Maybe to my child, he looked intimidating. I am sure the dogs there may not be as nice.
In his very first letter to me, little Gabriel from Mexico wrote, “I am sometimes mischievous.” At least he admitted it!
That’s cute, Kees. Can someone who likes/teaches math also like ice cream?
I’ll have to stretch my brain, ’cause offhand, I can’t think of any cute things my girls have said.
I’m sure something must have gotten lost in the translation, but in response to my question “Do you wear a uniform at school?” my 11-year-old Melissa in Peru wrote, “I wore a track suit when I went out to the pool.”
I can’t seem to find anything funny or even that clever in any of my letters. They are all fairly serious with real life issues. For example:
“Sir Michael, I greatly thank God that He hears my prayers and most of all my house will be change in good materials and the burial of my wife will be cemented.”
I would love to write something funny but nothing funny has come up yet.
Although I thought it was sort of funny,
On a sponsor tour my sponsor child’s mother said, “I didn’t think you were coming, until the Compassion office called a few weeks ago.” I thought “I didn’t think I was going either but that is where faith in God steps in and does its dance
On the Philippines Sponsor tour this past June I kept saying good morning or good afternoon and they have a term for noontime and they kept correcting me. It would be like saying “Good morning repeatedly when it is lunchtime. I thought that was kind of funny.
In his very first letter to me, Andre Lucas (age 7) stated that he wishes he could meet me so we could play. Micael, who is 6, wanted to know if I would like to come to Brazil. It was his first letter, too.
Adaglilson, who is 9, and Anderson, who is 8, said I look like President Obama. I think I look better than him. But some people would probably say he looks better than me. You know what? God made both of us beautiful.
Writing to Nandhini (age 11) in India, I described the 4th of July fireworks and explained that the U.S. was once a colony of Great Britain, and each year we celebrate our independence.
Her reply: “I’m preparing for my quarterly examination. I’ve learned in my school lessons that my country and your country are slaves under Britain’s rule.”
Our 10 year old in Mexico said in her 3 letter to us “I’m short, chubby and kind of lazy” Then she said “I like basketball but do not have a ball” We got her a ball and we were sent her picture with it. She did not look chubby to us.
I did think of something funny/and or interesting.
On the Philippines Sponsor Tour (June 2009) after the little fish ate the dead skin off the bottom of our feet at the acquarium and we ventured to the Mall of Asia in Manila. We were walking to the movie theatre and the whole mall was vacant. But as we were walking in, a young man close to my age (26) was sitting at some restaurant/cafe and one of the dad’s of the boys I sponsor kind of locked eyes with each other and from my perspective the young man “wilted” this dad wasn’t super intimidating but did have a dent on the side of his head that the project director told me came from when a neighbor went through the neighborhood in a “rage” and was hacking everybody and everything. What was so funny was the dad for some reason stared this guy down or maybe I was reading the situation wrong but that is what I remember and still laugh about it when I remember. The other thing which I hold very near and dear to my heart which many may not relate but some will is after we ate at Jollibee one of the boys I sponsor decided to go the bathroom on the sidewalk by the bus. The reason this is so near and dear to my heart is because growing up in Virginia Beach…nowhere near as tropical as the Philippines but green with Ocean nonetheless, my friends namely just me and Patrick Murphy would always go the bathroom in the bushes on the side of our houses. When my sponsor child did that I was instantaneously reminded of my own childhood if only for a brief moment
So I do have some funny things…just not in letters…good thing I went on that sponsor tour otherwise I would be out of the conversation for funny/and or interesting things.
I love these. I got a few letters in today. And I liked this picture that Angela sent me. She drew a boat in Lake Titikaka and on the boat there is her and I and my little dog Corgi. This is the picture:
Also, on the photograph above, there is a special thing with it. It was taken by one of my Compassion children Shedenka, while she was sitting on my lap. She took it of the other Compassion child Jhoselin. Now, if you look carefully in Jhoselin’s eyes, you’ll see Shedenka sitting on my lap. You can see a larger version here:
Blessings,
Kees
I love getting letters from Nells, age 11, in Peru. She talked about going to the beach over Christmas break from school. She asked if my country (USA) has a beach, and whether it is hot here.
I just had to laugh about whether it is hot where I live, since we’re just coming out of the hottest part of the year in the Gulf Coast.
But it made for a topic of an entire letter–the similarities in climate (we both live near a coast), and the differences in seasons, since we’re in different hemispheres. And I was able to send photos of beaches, both of the Gulf, near where I live, and a northern Atlantic beach, to show the contrast.
Kids are really smart and it’s really funny how they come up with their answer and reasoning.
@geri –
I love all of those stories Geri! Thanks for sharing!
When I wrote to Fred, our sponsored boy in Uganda, that we were also sponsoring a boy in Kenya, he wrote back with detailed instructions on how to take a bus from Kenya to where he lives in Uganda, just in case we ever visit our sponsored child in Kenya!
My husband’s sponsored boy from Tanzania asked him if he is afraid of the gazelles and wild dogs near our house. (We live in Illinois.) We had told him there are deer and coyotes near our home.
Magdaline from Ghana, in her introductory letter, told me she is “a ten-year-old girl, chocolate in complexion.” I thought that was so sweet.
My little girl in Thailand asked me, “What kind of rice do YOU grow?”
My Gabriela lives in El Salvador and once stated, ” I want to tell you that at the Student Learning Center I have learned what you like to eat you in your country, for example, fast food.” HA! I laughed so hard and kidded saying to myself, “what are they teaching those kids over there!” That could just be the way we are viewed. I hope you smiled too.
That is an amazing picture in a picture, Kees. Thank you so much for sharing it. I love all of these stories!! Keep em coming!
So sweet Kees — and you get the best artwork from your kids!
One of my kids once told me their writing was much nicer than mine — I thought that was funny (and true)
Thank you. Yes, I do get a lot of artwork. Right now, they redesigned the stationary of Compassion Bolivia and they pretty much have to put some artwork on them.
I thought of another funny thing that I heard a sponsor got in a letter one time. The child asked:
“Do you have a goat.”
The sponsor wrote back, “No.”
Then the child responded by writing: “Then I will pray for you every day that God will provide you with a goat.”
Blessings,
Kees
@Juli Jarvis – Hi, Juli,
This is another one, I just got today. It’s a child praying.
Blessings,
Kees
I got a letter today that has a funny thing in it. As you might know I have a dog named Corgi. (He has his own website, see: and as you can see on his website, he is also an advocate for children in need!) Anyways, this is what the letter said:
“I hope you are well, as well as your parents, Corgi and other people.”
Kees
I got a letter from my Mariam in Tanzania a couple days ago, she said: “She asks, do you know how do draw a pineapple?” It was so cute!
@alyson – Cute! Did you draw her a pineapple?
Hi Cailin! Yeah, in her reply letter I drew her a pineapple and told her so. The translators will probably think I’m crazy but Mariam will understand!
I received a letter this week that I just thought was precious. Back in the Spring I had sent a booklet of butterflies from around the world to each of my kids. This week 7 year old Citlali wrote back by herself about her favorites and added:
“I hope to go where the butterflies live someday because I like them, one day a butterfly was on my head, I walked slowly so I do not move her and it was funny.”
I loved the spontaneity of this, and it was only her 2nd letter. I think the place where the butterflies live is a sanctuary in Mexico. I had written her about how Monarchs fly there in the fall from Michigan and then back in the Spring.
OK Kees – I just have to share this with everyone since you brought up funny stories. My wife and I are hopeful that this is a funny translation error rather than truth:
A child worker wrote on behalf of Nathaporn (6) of Thailand: Right here it is the time of the school holiday and there is a noise of cicada. Sometimes we feel be annoyed by a noise. Sometimes when entering near it, it will urinate. As to its urination, it is cool and fresh.
In some forests, the trees literally “rain” the urine of the cicadas, so I don’t think it’s a mistake in translation! There are forests in the US where it “rains” the poop of caterpillars during the night. I’m a biologist so I know these useless bits of information… But I’m sure that the cicada urine IS cooling! haha.
Oh, I hope that is a translation issue!! That is so funny (if it’s an error!)
I recently got a letter from my 11-year-old girl in Thailand who writes, “I wish you would take good care of your health and eat food that has 5 group of vitamin.” She is so precious!
Good to know she’s paying attention to her nutrition lessons!
THESE ARE GREAT! I don’t have any that funny , yet I did just receive a letter from a correspondence child in Indonesia that made me chuckle. Vano’s “brother” wrote: “Vano was so happy receiving the gift, especially looking at your photo, he was laugh and jumping. Do you mind if he calls you with brother?” Now my hair is a tad on the short side yet I am most definitely a young woman. Is “brother” used for either gender there? Is Vano’s “brother” what I would consider a “brother”? Did he actually get MY photo? Hmmm…
Hi, I don’t know Indonesian, but I sponsor a child together with Hunter Gomez in Indonesia. Well, the child, (she is 19 years old now) has seen several of our pictures. Somehow, when referring to me, she refers to me as a female. I have come to the conclusion that the Indonesian language doesn’t probably have a different word for “he” or “she.” That makes me wonder if it is the translator that didn’t know the difference and picked one.
Kees
My child in Indonesia writes about herself in the first person, the translator changes it to I, me, mine, etc. Perhaps they’re not big fans of pronouns…
Iris age 9 – What have you done all this time? I have played!
David age 8 – He says that you are nicer in person
(I recieved this letter after visiting him; hmm:)
I too sponsor a child in Indonesia and have noticed the inconsistency in gender pronouns. I would guess that it is not a part of the Indonesian languages. I even have some letters (written by a project worker) that use both “he” and “she”.
On a separate note I have also been called “Dear Uncle” by one of my Indian children, and I don’t even have short hair!
One thing that I have yet to figure out was from Kevin age 11, from Ecuador. He asks “Do you like to treat with special people?” I know a little Spanish but I was still not able to figure out what he meant. Any ideas?
(En Español, )
En español, ¿a usted le gusta tratar con personas especiales?
Sara,
I asked a friend from Mexico what that might mean. She studied English for years and works as a translator and also teaches English in Mexico now. Her native language is Mexican Spanish. She’s not from Ecuador, so it might be slightly different. But this is what she said. You determine if it makes sense according to what you shared with him.
I think what the child really means is this:
Would you mind/like dealing with disabled people with special abilities?
If somebody had asked me that question, that is what I would have thought or understood… unless he calls himself “special” because of his poor/humble status… but I do believe he meant “disabled with special abilities..
Hope that can help… or make sense
I just heard from another friend in Mexico and this is what she said:
The word here in the sentence doesn´t mean treat…it means ´to deal with´or something along those lines. Like you could say I don´t like dealing with angry people, that type of thing. so the kid was saying do you like to deal with special people? but not special needs…they don´t really use that term….they still call them handicapped. I´m not sure why he would ask that, but my husband (who’s Mexican) confirmed what I am saying.
So combining the two different people offering translation, it could be he was saying, “Do you like to deal with poor people?” Hope this helps further. That would be my take on it.
Thanks for looking into it. I appreciate the perspectives on what it could be.
I found a few more…
Eelix age 11, Peru – Mothers day is about to arrive… I send you a huge kiss for your day. (My only kids are Compassion kids)
Scarleth age 7, Honduras – (Form Letter) The thing I like most about me:– my hair because it is curly
Zacarias age 14, Dominican Republic – I like riding horses and bikes. I move my cows and horses. (I am not sure how you move cows and horses. The Spanish was actually singular –“I move my cow and horse”)
Danstun age 13, Uganda – The part about the clouds turning bright orange in your letter has really amazed me because even this way one day something like that happened too. (I had written to him about the beautiful sunsets)
I think he’s asking if you like to entertain any special people/friends. It’s been awhile since I took Spanish.
Hm… I can only think of one really funny thing my Compassion kids have said to me: I think this was the second letter I received from my sponsored child Jasmin in the Dominican Republic; (who had just turned 6 at the time) it was in response to a letter I had sent introducing myself, and I had told her I was 15, and about my nieces and nephews. In her letter she asked, “do you have any son?”
This one isn’t all that funny, but it was so sweet, in my most recent letter from Jasmin, (who is now 7, it’s the first letter she’s written on her own) she said, “I ask you to pray for our friendship that it will be forever.” so sweet.
I just recently got a letter from 11 year old Liline in Haiti, “If you someday come to see me in Haiti, we will consume corn together.”
She’s very shy about requesting things of me, and that’s the closest she’s ever come to asking me for a visit, which made me smile. If she was trying to bribe me, it might work, I like corn
.
That is so sweet Caitlin!
My child Maria in Colombia said that she is praying that God will give her many presents for her birthday.
I received a letter today from my little friend who asked if I had a live turkey at my house? I told her about thanksgiving in my last letter. So, maybe I need to clarify.
One of the tutors/teachers of a project in the Philippines told me that one of her children wrote to her sponsor: “I am sorry I’m very naughty. I promise to lessen it or my mother would faint”
Blessings,
Kees
My boy, age 10, in Uganda wrote, thank you for the pictures (I sent pictures from a trip to Mammoth) but I don’t understand the concept of snow.
The cutest thing to me was my little boy in Mexico told me “I am very handsome boy”..I had to agree.
I’m Peter Muchiri, aged 20 a sponsored child at Compassion International Kenya and in the LDP. This is so pleasant; it just reminds me of my letters to my sponsor when I was a kid, they qualify to compile a Holywood comic script.
Tammy Marshall is my sponsor, I really love and appreciate her and her family.
My kids are constantly saying the SWEETEST funniest things.
My sweet Mampi has begun every letter for years with “At first you take my heart” – every translator has translated that exact term. My husband and I want to make a Compassion tshirt with that on the front.
My sweet Jobina is so humble and sweet. She always asks me “please pray that i am smart and will do well and advance in school because I am not smart” yet I get the fun letters everytime she moves on to the next level. She is bright and her letters always make me smile.
There are always funny inserts in the middle of letters. Seemingly random thoughts that remind me that my sweet Compassion kids are like my kids – short attention spans! Like a letter I received today where in the middle of telling me about an Independence Day celebration at my child’s school, she inserted “my pets are fine.”
I love these kids! And love Compassion. Thank you for letting us do this.
One of my little girls in Peru asked me if I liked fruit salad, and then she described in great detail how to make it. She was 5 at the time.
My sponsor child, Neema, from Tanzania wrote to me once, “I will pray for the swelling in your stomach.” I don’t know if she was praying that I would get pregnant or what. She might assume that I want to have kids and can’t or something… It seemed to be in response to something I had asked her to pray about but I really don’t know WHAT! Anyway, I think it’s just one of those ‘lost in translation’ kinds of things.
If you go to Bing translator, you can translate what Neema said. Then, you would know if it was lost in translation or not. Just a thought.
I have received 3 letters from Caroline in Uganda (9 yrs old) in the past 6 weeks. This kiddo loves to write! She writes mostly in English but occasionally in her native language. Her letters have shown me that she is super spunky
In one of the letters she talked about her best friend Robinah and how they like to play dodgeball together. Robinah was mentioned about 5 times in this form letter and the final thing was that she asked that I would pray that she gets to play outside with Robinah. Too cute!
Another funny thing is that she always draws me little pictures all over her letters. In a recent letter, you could tell she must have fussed at the translator because squeezed in the translation space is a list of EVERYTHING she drew, including a grandmother with a walking stick.
And finally (laughed until I cried with this one), her dream is to become a nurse and travel to London to see the white people. (this was written in English, so not a translation error!) Too funny!
This kid has some serious flair. I am sure she is a joy!
I thank God for the good work that Compassion has been doing to the needy child. More thankful to compassionate children of God who have taken away shame and burden of the needy child by sponsoring them as their own. Joyce my sister and David my nephew are now at University!! thanks compassion and LDP. May God bless all that have used their resources to brighten the future of the needy child in the Diaspora.
God bless you all.
When I wrote my first letter to our child, Winifrida, in Tanzania, I told her that we have three cats. She wrote back “Why would you want cats?” I’m sure that the cats in her neighborhood are not the cuddly and cute kind. So I sent pictures of us holding our cats, and explained to her that in some parts of the world there are small cats that are tame, and that they are called “house cats”, “barn cats”, or sometimes “alley cats”, and that some people keep them because they kill mice. She wrote back that she is very interested in a cat called a “Tigger”.
Rice seems to be a real treat for her. When I send birthday money she always buys a bag of rice. On Christmas and Easter she always mentions “We ate rice” She asked me what we ate for Christmas dinner, and I was able to truthfully answer that we had eaten rice, too. I went to visit my brother and in their small town the only restaurant that was open on Christman was the oriental restaurant.
When she receives her birthay present I am touched by what she buys. Once she bought a bedsheet, a bottle of orange soda pop, and a bowl for serving rice, and well as a nice dress and a pair of shoes, and of course, a bag of rice.
She always refers to the crops that are grown in her area, and wants to know if we have harvested yet. I try to watch the fields around us and tell her what the farmers are doing. I’m sure she doesn’t understand that our seasons are reversed.
Wini keeps me humble because she always prays for my husband, who is ill. She really touches my heart.
I went back and read some old letters, and I found another quote! What most American parents wouldn’t give to hear their kid say this – from Virginia, my family’s sponsored child in Bolivia, shortly before her 10th birthday:
“I love to go to school because I love to do homework and share with my friends.”
Aww, I laughed so hard while reading all of these comments! So cute! I can’t really think of any funny comments from my kids, but the mother of one of my sponsored girls writes to me and upon learning that I live in NY state, she asked me if I had been affected by the September 11th “bombings”! I thought that was so sweet of her!
I live in NY, too! I am trying to find sponsors in my area. Are you on Compassion International Fancorps Community? If not, please join. I would really like to find out more about sponsors in my area (western NY) and I am 13, so I cannot be on OurCompassion. Oh! on Fancorps I am Lizzzie195.
After conducting a workshop for youth in foster care, one young girl wrote me a note, “I learned today that not all men hit their ladies.” It’s not funny, but meant a lot to me. We need to be serious about teaching children that their future does not have to be based on their past.
I sponsor a 9 y/o boy named James in Uganda. I had sent a family gift and they bought a young cow. In his letter he asked me if I kept cows at my house. I had been sponsoring him for about a year and had told him I lived in a town. Wouldn’t my neighbors be excited if I kept cows at my house?!
Samuel told me that he likes to do “mischief things, like play with my sisters and fight with my friends in joke. do you do any mischief thing?” So I told him about pillow fights =]
Wilnes asked, ‘Is your roof made of tin?’ I tried to explain the difficulty of surviving the winter in Cheyenne, WY with a tin roof, haha
Isn’t it amazing how different their lives are from ours, yet how similar we really are. Most of the differences are based on developing vs developed countries.
Anyway, I felt kind of ashamed when my sponsor child asked me what crops I’d planted. I thought, “Wow, I don’t even grow my own food- what’s wrong with me?” But, I did tell him how making tortillas reminds me of him.
My child also begins all of his letters very formally with the words, “I greet you in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” It struck me as funny because it seemed pretty stiff for a twelve-year-old. Now, it’s just endearing.
Two of my children begin also their letters greeting me in Jesus name. It is dear to get such letters and then I thought, that well, why wouldn´t I do the same, because I mean it anyway from all of my heart. So now I begin letters to my every child ” I greet you in the precious name of Jesus” and I enjoy when writing so.
Milagros (14) lives in a slum outside Lima, Peru. In 2008 her mother died of cancer; her father is living somewhere near but not with them; she lives with her 3 sisters, two of whom are in their late teens. The girls are living with their uncle’s family – possibly in an improvised room. Milagros assured me she was living in a “safe place” with a “roof made of straw.” The next thing she wrote was, “Do you have thunder there?”
Hi, Denise,
I have a 10 year old girl named Milagros in Lima Peru also. The name Milagros means “Miracles.”
Blessings,
Kees
A child my church sponsors wrote to us in a letter:
“It rains a lot in Peru. I think I am in love. Can you give me advice?”
My little girl Clemence in Kenya (7 years old) wrote in her first letter that her favorite subject in school was writing capital letters. I thought that was so cute of her. I wrote back, “I LIKE TO WRITE IN CAPITAL LETTERS TOO!”
One of the boys my son sponsored named Amando who just graduated from college in the Philippines was telling about going to the beach and asked if we get to go to the beach often, we wrote back and told him that no we don’t go to the beach often as we live in Kansas and the beaches are about 1500 miles away from where we live.
I just heard of a funny thing that a 5 year old Compassion child said on an assessment test. The question was: “What do you want to become when you grow up?” Her answer was: “I want to be a teacher because I want to be able to wear heels.” I thought that was funny!
It is so wonderful to read all of your comments. I have been sponsoring a child in India for the past 4 years or so but I have not been good about writing him and his letters to me about every quarter are very formal and basic (but he also draws pictures for me). Reading these has really encouraged me to try to further develop our relationship. Thank you to all.
One of my boys from Africa had purchased a pig with christmas $ we had sent last year and always tells us how precious and fun his pig is and how much he loves it. In a recent letter I opened his letter to read it to our church kids and it said ” Do you eat pork? My pig is getting fat!” all the kids were gasping and going oh no…but then later in the letter it said “my pig is about to have piglets” We were all laughing so hard! It was great!
I sent my boy in India St. Patrick Day stickers and he wrote back, “thank you for the short funny looking men”
=D
(I assume he was talking about the lepercon sticker that was in there)
today, my family and i sponsored a child in Honduras. Her name is Yosselin, and she iS ADORABLE! My sister just finished writing the first letter, and we will send it soon. I’m so excited because we have been wanting to do this for a long time! we can’t wait for Yosselin to send a letter back to us!
I love these, like many others I don’t have a funny comment yet, but I’m sure I will soon. Anyway, thse comments are great, keep them going.
My sweet Habiba from Tanzania wrote “My God bless you very much for your strange generous heart.”
I’ve been her sponsor for nearly 8 years and still she writes in every letter, “thank you so much for continuing to sponsor me.”
I wrote around Memorial Day about the picnic that my family and I had and all the fruit that we h ad to eat which included canteloupe, pineapple, and watermelon. My correspondence child in Tanzania wrote back and told me that they had those fruits in Bagamoyo and that I should come visit and eat those fruits with him and that I would like it.
I thought that was so sweet.
I wrote back and told him that I’d love to come visit but right now, I have to focus on going to school.
I don’t have any “funnies” to add… but I’m LOVING reading all of yours!!! Kids are marvelous.
This is such a great idea! I was entertained for hours!:-) Our children are so precious. I have had my son, Premkumar, since he was 8 years and this month he will be 21! About 3 years ago my husband and I went on an India tour to see both our children. Ever since then, it is amazing how quickly his English progressed. For the past year, at least, he has been writing his own letters. They are so cute and funny and really portray his personality. Prem =love, and kumar=son in Indian. Truly he is a love of a son! He told me in his letter,”As you asked me, I did well in my drawing, but what happened you know! I decided to draw the picture of a Tiger, rather than it become a cat. Anyway it was nice but I did not get any prize.” I commented in a subsequent letter that his story made me laugh. He replied,”My drawing mad you laugh I can’t believe it.” Actually, once he began writing his own letters, his sense of humor always makes me laugh!
Wow! My heart just did a flip-flop! Comment #54 from Peter…that’s our Kenyan son! We love him and are so very, very proud of him!
We rec’d a letter not to long along from Josue, a boy we sponsor in El Salvador. He is so funny. He writes:
“I went to the movies and I ate pizza. When I got home I vomited and I took some pills.”
This is the same boy that told us in his first letter to us: “I want to thank God because you are in my way.”
This is not funny at all, but I think that God has a reason for everything, and I hope that He used my letter to encourage my correspondent LDP student.
My Grandma died, and 3 days later, I wrote a letter to my correspondent student to let her know. I wrote that my grandma died, but that God works for our best, even when we do not understand why things happen. I included some Bible verses in my letter.
Well, just the other day, I received a letter from my correspondent student. She said that her grandma died, and she received my letter 3 days afterwards.
Oh, Tammy, that is so amazing!
Ha!Ha!Ha! Tammy, that is so funny!
i have met my sponsored boys in the dominican republic, so we are not ‘strangers’. we ask each other specific prayer requests, my last one got lost in translation when i asked for prayer for my back. (i had back surgery for 3 broken vertabrae.) my one boy wrote back and asked if my bike was better!
I sent my sponsored child in Uganda,Costance, a picture of my dog. She responded to that by saying “Do you know how to model a dog?”
Any ideas as to what that means?
I sponsor a 9 year old girl from Tanzania, her name is Monica. I sent her some post cards with some of the animals that are found in my area, one with an armadillo on it and one with a black bear on it. I thought she would like them cause she’s always drawing me pictures of animals. I got a letter from her a couple months later about how the photos of the animals were terrifying and that she was worried about me. It probably shouldn’t be that funny but my mom and I thought it was hilarious! Needless to say I wrote her back telling here that I was ok and that she didn’t need to worry
, I love my precious girl!!!
I have been sponsoring Nadine (now 11) for the past 3 years, and her letters are a treasure!
Age 8: she wrote that she “was surprised to learn that you aren’t yet married yet you have such a passion for children.” In the same letter, she also mentioned that her family lives near a lake and catch fish (different types)… or that was the translation, anyway– it was clear that in her version she actually listed out a half dozen or more different fish! I don’t blame the translator for not trying to figure out fish names in English.
In a later letter she shared that “she has been fine, she has 2 goats and 4 chickens, she has been sick.” Love the 9 year old stream-of-consciousness!
The first time she appeared to write her own letter, the poor translator got lost at one point and just inserted “cannot read child’s writing.”
In the last year or so she has been talking more about how she would like to see me in person, and in this past fall invited me to her brother’s wedding (she included the specific date– though by the time I got the letter, that had passed anyway!) What a sweet girl.
I sponsor Anjichi who lives in Kenya. In the first letter I had written him, I told him that I homeschooled my two boys. He wrote back that “in Kenya there is no homeschool and he can’t imagine what it is and how it ends.”
My thought was that he may have believed that homeschooling may never end.
My child in Tanzania sends beautiful artwork, but the most touching thing happened when I fell and broke my hip. She wrote me that she and her whole family were praying for me. It was very touching to think a family on the other side of the world was praying for me.
My favorite precious thing that our little 7 year old guy from Burkina Faso said was simply to ask if we would pray that he would be wise and understand the Lord. It makes me tear up even now. What a precious child. He has so little, and yet that is all he asks for.
my sponsor child isn’t always funny but here are the times when he has been.
“i am very sad that my chicken has sadly just died. we will be attending her funeral on Friday”
“i have been at home all week pestering the goats”
“we learned how water makes electricity, is there such thing in your land?”
“when Christmas comes i help my mother look at the goat (he wrote this so its not translators mistake!)”
he is vv funny when he is.
em xx
In a letter we received last week we learned that our 6 year old, Precious, in Ghana has recently learned not to spit in public. That made us all chuckle.
I am 11 years old, and I told that to my sponsored child, who is also 11, in Ethiopia. In his first letter he asked me if I had any children and that he would pray for “our relationship,” any ideas on what that means? I wrote back “No, I’m only eleven, like you” In his second later he wrote “Are you married? Are you student or did you finish it?” I wrote back, “No, I am not married, I’m eleven like you and I am still in school.”
I just read your comment Susan, I thought that was very touching. The child I sponsor wrote that he prayed for me as well. I started praying double hard for him then, to think that we as very fortunate people are being prayed for by those who have hardly anything.
Madi, it may be that your student in ethiopia doubts that his translation is correct. Imagine how unbelievable it might seem to him that a “child” his own age can afford to put him through school, and help provide for him (something his own parents struggle with). Where he is from, he probably rarely handles more than a few cents at a time, if that, and the idea that someone his age, still in school could pay possibly 4 times more than his parents might make in a month, may take a while for him to comprehend. If your parents help you afford the sponsorship, you might try explaining that to him. As for “your relationship” I don’t think he meant that in a flirtatious manner, but simply as friends. My sponsored kids have said much of the same thing to me about our “relationship”. The word relationship really only carries a flirtatious connotation in the US and maybe Canada and the UK…other places it would be considered a platonic word.
7 year old Jane from Kenya, her first letter, in her own words written in English–
I love eating chapati (pancake). I want to continue being your friend. Do you like eating chapati? Will you continue being my friend? Welcome to Kenya.
Hyrline (Ellen), 11 years old from Haiti writes: “I grow up. I become prettier”
Tamilarasi, 17 years, India writes “Through Compassion only I come to know about Jesus”
Oh my gosh my heart just skipped a beat.
Madi, how long after you sent your first letter did he write the second letter? Sometimes they repeat the question because they haven’t received our answer yet. In any case, hopefully he will now understand that you are not married!
Our child, Dushimimana in Rawanda, told us about her goat she bought with one of our financial gifts – she then asked “what kind of animals do you rear?” – we live in metropolitan Dallas area – the only animals we have are 2 annoying terrier dogs.
I sent a letter as soon as I recieved his, sometime in June. I recieved his next letter in November/December.
It’s difficult for me to choose just 1! My girl is so sweet, her name’s Atupakisye, from Tanzania. In one from ’07, she said, “I shall continue to pray for you with your duties together with your yellow people.” Not sure what that was in response to!
“I pray for you in your construction studies” (I was an interior design major at the time)
In one of her first letters she said, “My mother sends you much greetings and she says welcome to Tanzania!” So generous!
In all seriousness, the darling always asks for prayer over her studies in schools, and ends every letter with something like, “It’s me, Atupakisye, who loves you” or “Goodbye my dear beloved.”
I sponsor a beautiful little girl in Burkina Faso named Yabyoure. In one of her letters she was describing her parents. “my mother and father are very old but they are still strong.” I saw a photo of them and they are at least 25 years younger than I am and her mother quite beautiful! It must be fun for the workers who help the children write their letters and also the translators.
These are all so cute!
My little Lesli does not yet write on her own, and her letters always come in someone else’s voice. I can’t wait until she starts school and learns to write for herself. I look forward to the funny things she will have to tell me!
“Website” What does that mean?
Anyway.
My family and I sponser a 13 year old from Kenya. It’s great to hear her and her family both really love God. They are very involved in their church and she loves school. I don’t think I’ve heard anything else about her in every other letter except she loves God and she has many Goats and chickens. I’m running out of ideas on what to talk to her about! I just talked to her about games we play. I told her about my 3 cats, dog, and turtle and asked her if she’s heard of volleyball or hide-and-go-seek and that we play that a lot here. I told her all about the animals we have here since now we live in a new state, but there isn’t much more you can say about having pretty much only rabbits and coyotes. I sent the letter by email this time so wasn’t able to send her a printout coloring page or bookmark, but when I do I’ll surely send her two or three coloring pages and a baseball card or two.
Love the funny letters (:
“website” is for the URL of your website or blog. I have not used it, but I believe that it is for that.
Check out Michelle’s blog (Blogging from the Boonies) for some great writing ideas!
I sponsor a little girl in Mexico named Claudia. In her last letter, she invited me to come visit 5 times! She said, “I love you. Please come visit. It snowed here. I invite you to come visit. I like my classes. Please come see me. It’s pretty here now. I invite you…”
It was so precious!!! I hope that one day I can go visit her. I love her soooo much!
For many children, their biggest dream in life is that they could meet their sponsor! They love their sponsor so much!
And a dream for many advocates is to meet their children!
One of my first letters from Maria in Ecuador had a funny mistranslation in it “do you predicate in the streets?” A quick look in the Spanish-English dictionary told me that “predicate” should be “preach”, but I found the original translation priceless!
That same day, I got a letter from Sebastiano, who has 4 siblings. He listed two, then wrote “and others”, which I found hilarious (particularly as he had written to me about all of them in his first letter). Do you think he has favourites?
This from 12 year old Kryzl in the Philippines. I asked about her home. This she wrote in English.
“with regards to our home, we don’t have any room at home. The second floor of our house serves as our sleeping area where we all sleep together (there are 4 children at home with her mother). The lower part serves as our kitchen and living room where we accept our visitors. Our home doesn’t have a strong foundation since the walls are made of woods and its just the floor in the lower ground that is made of cement. Some part of our home are not that well-off especially on the second floor. Everytime you step on the floor, you might have the tendency to fall. Whenever it rains our roof leaks. We are living in the house given to us by our uncle, years after my father’ demise and we weren’t able to reconstruct it yet. But then, inspite of our homes situation we never felt hopeless because God is our storng Foundation. We often see to it that we maintain cleanliness and arrange everything. We don’t have any problem with regards to arrangement of our home since we do not have any appliance to arrange.
I had a similar situation with my girl in Brazil. They had a ramshackle mess of tarps and pieces of wood for a “home” and there were 6 girls in an area largely controlled by gangs, and lived in fear for their security. I worked with Compassion to arrange to pay for a cement home of 2 rooms to be built, with a strong, lockable door. It only cost $300.00 which I gave as a “special gift”. From then on, they lived in this secure, clean home. You might consider doing something like that!
We sponsor a beautiful young man in Haiti and a few years ago we sent him a picture of our daughter hold our two pet bunnies. In his next letter to us, Jupiter commented that he was praying for our bunnies to have lots and lots of babies. Funny – I was praying that they didn’t!
Oh these are cute! My eight year old girl in Brazil, Pamela, assured me that “I work hard in school. But I like the parrots at the zoo more.”
Oh, man. These are great stories. I will have to look through letters from my boy Sipitiek in Kenya for something funny. But he always ends his letters by saying that he is praying for me and my family. How humbling is that?
Here’s another one, this was from a boy in Indonesia who was finishing Compassion’s program and writing to his sponsor for the last time. I wasn’t his sponsor but had the privilege of reading his 3-4 page letter. He said “Do you know the movie, “Evan Almighty”? I want to be like Evan Baxter in a movie called, “Evan Almighty”.
9 year old Kanta from Bangladesh writes “I never have celebrated Christmas ago. I will celebrate Christmas for the first time this year. I heard from my teachers that Christmas means the birthday of Jesus Christ. Please pray for me that I may celebrate Christmas well”
“I come to understand from your letter that you love me so much”
Laterly our 2 y.o son has been replying with “Oh O” to almost everything I say. It’s probably not so funny in print but in his presence it crackes me up.
Hopefully this story works a little better.
2 y.o. Son is eating fruit.
5 y.o. Daughter enters room and patting 2 y.o. on the back in motherly way says
“Don’t go eating too much little fella, we don’t way you becoming an O’beast”
(She had seen a TV program on Obesity the day before).
My sponsored child from Peru wrote in response to a picture I sent:
“You are very beautiful and your husband is pretty too.”
Aditya in India age 11 wrote to me and was very excited he said “I went in a motor vehicle today, We went to a park. Have you ever been to a park? there are bars called monkey bars but you can go on them even if you are not a monkey.”
Oh, Kylee, that is just about the cutest thing I’ve heard! what a sweet boy! Thanks for sharing!
Hey Kylee, that is sooo good!! Loved it.
I guess I might as well disqualify myself from this post. I don’t have any kids, and I’m too old to speak like one lol. Man I feel so out of place. Oh well…
Our little girl in Uganda wrote a few months ago, “We have been having famine in Uganda. Do you experience famine in the U.S.?”
My “daughter” in Ghana said one thing that I treasure: “You always make me lovely with smiles on my face.”
And once when I was telling her about my son going on a 50 mile hike with his Boy Scout troop she wrote back and asked, “What is hiking?”
One of my young fellas in Kenya, after telling me about his fathers animals, asked me if I “practise breeding”. What can you say to that?
My 18-year old boy, Jose, from Bolivia ends his letters with “I say goodbye with a strong hug.” A recent letter included the following “I thank you for the present you sent me. I wanted to tell you about the present that you sent me. I’m keeping it in a savings account. Well, you may want to ask me: why in a bank account and why didn’t I buy something. Well, this is because when I grow up older I want to buy a car and a house, this way I won’t have a hard time paying for them.” Wise beyond his years…
I was blessed to be able to meet my 18 year-old girl, Belina, in Kenya. She has such a heart for the Lord and her letters are serious and heartfelt. She made a couple comments while I was there that were so precious. Belina was wearing a broken watch and the watch face was filled with dirt, but I could tell she treasured it. After tapping her watch with her finger and shaking her head, she said, “My watch is refusing to function.” I included mechanical pencils in the school supply bag I brought her, and after showing her how to load the lead and increase/decrease the lead size she exclaimed “Oh! Very smart pen!” I will continue to carry many memories and inspiring and heart wrenching stories from that trip.
A cute, but so rewarding quote from Neema, then a 9 year old girl from Kenya, in her first letter to us – her sponsors. She wrote, that she was so happy to get a sponsor and she decided that first, she would tell her mother, then she would tell God and after that she would go ahead and tell the rest of her friends and family.
My Rashidi from Rwanda, age 12, wrote to me that he hopes to raise a bunch of livestock, including cats. It makes me smile to see the innocence that comes with being a child. And I have 2 cats myself so this is TOO funny!
Carlos from Guatemala wrote: “I am a big boy now” – he just turned 10. I thought that was precious!
My sponsor child in Tanazania asked if we grow maize (corn) in America.
Manuela a ten yr old from Guatemala in the middle of her letter asked me out of nowhere, “Do you believe in mermaids?”
Once my girl told me about what she was did on vacation saying she got to watch a lot of TV and was very happy about that!
My sponsor child in Uganda is beautiful and I have been blessed to be able to travel to meet her.
She is too young to write herself, but the project staff write on her behalf.
I sent her a photo of me holding a friends baby. Her family is one of the poorest in her area and so this made her question and offer even more adorable….
“What does the child eat? If the child eats bananas, she may send you some for the baby.”
Andrea….. Your Uganda child is delightful. I love her generous heart.
My little, girl, Rina from Rangpur, Bangladesh writes, “I love you so much. Do you love me? Can I call you mother? I want to be your little girl.” And in her birthday letter, “Thank you so much for the birthday gift. I was able to buy a goat, clothes and some items for cleaning. That is my job now that I am 8 years old!”
I showed my nephews that last letter! They were a little humbled.
Olenka, my 7 year old sponsor child from Peru, wrote in one of her letters that she had been crowned the princess of her class during a special day at school! She was so excited. =]
14 year old Marisol from Guatemala writes… I tell you that I got good school marks, I only failed a subject…….Carol is fine but she no longer is my friend…….I am not seeking an album yet ( I asked about her photo album) I not longer have it, it escaped from my house.
Luz Maria (10 years old, from Peru) closed one of her recent letters to me with, “see you soon.” It was so precious! I dearly hope I will get to see her someday.
Goodness, where to start. This great blog just goes to show that kids are kids regardless where we call home.
Couple recent messages come to mind…
1. Deborha (teenager from Peru) said, ” When you become married I would like you to name your child Jeson.” This comment was totally out of the blue and not within any context that I had spoken about other than my marriage status I suppose, but in a follow up letter I sure thanked her for her thoughts.
2. James (Tanzania): Being one of those countries where the children can write in response to any letter they receive, James shared his usual greetings, then closed his letter saying, “I don’t have much today.” Made me chuckle and then I imagined him going out to play with his friends.
One boy from Peru I have sponsored for over 5 years. Looking back at his letters, it warms my heart the way he always signs them:
Bye with many kisses and hugs,
I say goodbye with many kisses and hugs,
I say goodbye with a kiss,
I say goodbye with warm hugs and kisses,
I thank you for loving me,
I say goodbye with strong hug and lots of kisses,
I will continue to pray for you, my sponsor,
Until soon, . . .
A very loving boy!
I just got a letter today from 11-year-old Henri in the Philippines. He wrote about his vacation: “When I came back in our house they [his family and relatives] said that why are you fat now? I said because I ate much of vegetables. Do you have plants?”
I completely lost it! He’s so precocious!
One of my correspondent children in India wrote that it was the rainy season and that he likes to eat ice cream in the rain.
Martha is 5 years old and she said when she grows up she wants to study
Gisela (age 13) always closes her letters with “a strong hug”.
After telling her that our family lived on an island, she replied saying, “It is very beautiful to live on one island.” Another time, I mentioned that we live in the mountains (she does as well) and she replied, “I feel curiosity to know what you feel to live in that mountain.”
After telling her about the sports we played, she replied, “It must be very amusing to play basket.” (she meant basketball). It was very apparent from the context that she didn’t really know what it was but was saying that to be polite.
“I tell you that I got very good grades, and thank God I am getting a vacation next week.”
Gisela asked about our health and I mentioned that my dad had broken his knee cap. In her next letter she asked, “Did your father get better from his feet?”
“I am not a very good cook. I know how to make rice, fried egg, French fries, and how to boil the water.”
My correspondent child Luis Miguel (14) in DR, wrote to me that he had a “girlfriend” but not anymore because they broke up, and I should not be worried because he would let me know when he has another one… this was very funny and curious to me
I felt like a real mother.
Nissi, Age 9 from the Dominican Republic says: “I felt sad when my doggie died. One of the funniest moments I have had in my life was when my brother had pee in the bed and I laughed a lot. If I was an animal, I would like to be a butterflly.” She’s a precious little girl who always includes a beautiful drawing with every letter. We are very blessed to be her sponsors!
We sponsor a little girl, Nikita, in India. Every time she writes she asks how our dog Zeus and dog Lengua are. It’s precious beyond words.
There are too many! A few from Ericelda in Guatemala, who I sponsored for 12 years. When she was 10, “I want to tell you that you are a second father to me, and I send loving hugs to your family.” The same year, she told me, “This year I want to be the standard bearer.” In another, “I want you to feel proud of me. If you go anyplace, God will guide you. I send you a kiss and a hug.” At age 13, “My youngest sister will repeat Kinder as she is too young for primary. She is a naughty girl and my other sister is more quiet.” In 2004, when she turned 18, “We had a special dinner for my 18 years and now I have the majority of age and I am an independent person to the society, but i don’t feel old and I continue to be a child and need the care of my parents.” The same year, “I have so many things to tell you, and the sheets (of paper) would not be enough.
I sent my 6 year old boy a photo of me at a friend’s wedding. He told me “You looked very pretty, but the only thing I like about weddings is the food.”
Oh, my that is so funny! LOL!! Just like a boy
Daniela in Ecuador once told me that she dreamed I came to visit her….. on a ship like the Titanic.
I sponsor a little girl in Uganda. Many times when she writes to me she starts the first sentence of the letter by saying “How are you?” Then says, “Okay, back to me.” It is always makes me laugh.
Aww! that is just too cute!
yes, she’s really cute. =) it makes me smile.
too funny!!! awwwww. . . . .;)
That is HALARIOUS!!!!
One of my boys in Uganda does that also. Cracks me up!
HAHAH!!! that’s hilarious. i laughed out loud at that one. how precious.
Our child from Guatemala told us recently that, “My cousin is very sad because her older sister just got married.”
Our little guy wrote to us that he prayed for our health…. so we would live a long time and be able to sponsor him for a long time!!!
Too funny!
My 11 year old sponsored child Wanchai from Thailand wrote, “the next time you’re in Thailand, please come visit me.” (As if I can just fly there any time I want….. !)
Haha! I love this.
I sponsor a child in Guatemala. She sends me many kisses and writes that the student center is very funny because we learn about the bible and songs. “I like to go to Compassion,” she says.
10 year old Aleena from India said a few funny things in her last letter. She told me her mom was pregnant, but there was a problem. Her brother was praying for a brother and she was praying for a sister. She also told me she suffered from lazyness in the morning because it was cold.
After I wrote my little boy in Bangladesh and told him that my Dad was sick, he wrote back and said that he would pray for my Dad’s blood infection even though he was 75 years old. I just wrote him recently to tell him that I will be teaching a Purity Class to teen girls. He wrote back and said he was glad I was teaching the girls about cleanness. They learn about cleanness in their project, too!
thats just too precious
I’ve just recieved my first letter from my child, Phillip, in Kenya. I had to hold back tears because I was so happy. His only prayer requests was for his parents to find good jobs, such a good child. He just turned 8 in July.
“if only a few people in America grow food, where do you get food?” now to explain the concept of a grocery store.
Our young lady is 8 years old and lives in Colombia. She told us she does not like pizza because she does not like ham and pineapple : )
*Giggles* I wonder if my Johan has ever had pizza. Where in Colombia is your young lady? My Johan is in CO 331.
I sent some stickers to my young sponsored boy in Kenya. He said he was so excited that “all the night I did not make a wink!”
I have sponsored an 8-year-old girl from India for barely a year now, and I love to see what she has to say. The Compassion workers write for her because she is just learning to write, but the things that she says through them touches my heart, and occasionally bring a touch of humor and a smile.
One letter informed me that my sponsor child “is keeping a pet lamb at home”, that “she prays that I remain good”, and that she was “sending me kisses”. One was even signed “your daughter”.
My goal in being a sponsor is to bring the love of Jesus and joy into my sponsor-child’s life–I never knew that she would end up doing the same for me.
My little Lorna in Uganda once wrote to me… “My mother just had twin babies. They are very noisy, so I have to plug both of my ears with my fingers so I can sleep. That’s one ear for each baby. My fingers sure are tired! When will it end?”
4 years ago my husband and I got married, and we sent a picture from the wedding to our sponsored 10 year old girl. This was the response:
“Your wedding was beautiful. Matt {my husband} is fat. My grandma sells local drink. I will pray for Matt’s health.”
Since then my hubby has lost 50 pounds
omg, that is soo cute and funny! Good job to your hubby too!
In another letter from Lorna in Uganda… “That is so nice that you have a dog. I have never had a dog before. Are they good to eat?”
Lorna, stay away from my puppies . . . ha,
!!
For almost 4 years now I’ve made a habit of calling Gabriela (now 7 years old from El Slavador) by a different pet name on each and every letter. Examples are: Hello Princess, Butterfly, Sunshine, Kitten, Hummingbird, Tiger, Snowflake, Puppy-breath etc. But one special time early on I called her “My sweet angel face” and that’s the one….that’s the one that stuck with her. Since then she signs off on many of her letters, “With Love, your angel’s face, Gabriela”.
Oh how beautiful!
ditto, Jessi and Glenn! How wonderful…how sweet…hugs!
Glenn, this brought tears to my eyes. You shouldn’t ever call her anything again but your sweet angel face.
Six-year-old Dexi from Mexico recently wrote:
“I would like to be able to visit you, but I know that it is too far. But I still want to tell you that I love you very much, and I always keep you in my prayers. I have some pet rabbits and they are white, and so tiny that they look like little stuffed animals. I would like to give you one of my rabbits, but I know that I cannot.”
So precious!
I got the first letter from my newest child. She is 9 and lives in Bolivia. This is how she closed the letter: “I dismiss with lots of love.”
I just thought it was cute she “dismissed” me and we’d only written once! But at least she did it with love!
Hi, Teresa, It’s quite common in Bolivia for a child to close a letter that way. I’ve seen it a lot. And yes, it is with a lot of love!!!
I sent my child Jonita in Tasmaia a picture of some Morris dancers on the village green. She wrote back please tell Morris I liked his outfit.
In my last letter I wrote to tell my sponsored child that I have a boyfriend. When she replied back, she congratulated me on my engagement. Apparently something didn’t translate right.
In many countries a concept of boy friends don’t exist.
the only ‘boy friend’ you have is the guy you are engaged to.
One of our sponsored children wrote once to tell us her cat had been eaten by a mountain lion. I wasn’t quite sure how to respond to that one.
oh no!!!
I would not know how to either! But that is unique that she wrote you that! Should I say Ha?
We were thrilled to get our recent letter from our girl in Mexico and to hear that she went to a waterpark recently! What an awesome blessing and adventure!
My little boy from Haiti wrote once: “Thanks for the birthday gift. I bought a chicken and ate the rest.”
Our little girl in Tanzania wrote this in response to our question about her family: “I have no brothers or sisters but I have one sibling.”
Margaret said, “Last month we had a census. I was counted.”
My Yesica in Bolivia is a very affectionate child. She closed one letter with, “I send you a bear hug with the tenderness of a monkey.”
One of my girls calls me Uncle in her letters.
Another one said, “I miss you and love you very much.”
Interesting, since I’ve never been to her country ^^
Our little 6-yr old boy in Honduras asked me if I was married, and I said I am engaged to so-and-so and we’re getting married on this date. He said to wait, he had 2 cousins who were in middle school and I could pick whichever I liked best.
He also keeps telling me how he hasn;t scored any goals on his soccer team but it isn’t because he isn’t the best player
My girl, Julieta in Colombia, who will be 11 on September 14, 2010, started a recent letter with, “Greetings, kisses and hugs. I love you and am grateful for your unconditional support,” and ended the letter with “I am so happy to be your princess. Love you, your princess.”
Farida said, “I am so glad you chose me to be your daughter.” lol
11 year old girl in Mexico said, ” Here, the weather is hot and we would like to be in cooler places, but when it is cold we want to be in warmer places. I know God created the weather too and we don’t have to complain. God does everyting perfect.” not so much funny but so true and so cute.
In my first letter, my 9-year old boy, Ronald, from El Salvador asked me how old I am. I guess he doesn’t know that a woman (especially my age) doesn’t like to be asked her age. I know he is not trying to be rude, just curious. I especially got over it when he closed his letter with these words, “I love you very much no matter I don’t know you.”
I am getting to know my newest sponsor child 9-year-old Stefany. I am delighted by the way her personality shows through in her letters, like how she writes every capital letter with a flourish and in red pencil. I was especially tickled when she told me in one of her letters, “I like to talk a lot.”
My little girl in the Phillippines ask me if I had a pet goat! She told me she did!
I raise goats so imagine how thrilled I was when the young lady in Haiti that I sponsor used the first birthday money I sent her to buy goats!
Our dear girl, Brenda, when I wrote and told her that our son and daughter-in-law are expecting a baby soon, replied that I should tell them if they “produce a baby girl to name her Brenda, because it is a a good and well sounding name.”
Shortly after sponsoring my girl in Bolivia, I was told that her family had named their new baby after me. However, I’m pretty sure that baby is a boy, not a girl! Carrie is spelled differently in every letter I’ve received from her since.
Msafiri, our orphaned boy in Tanzania, who lives sometimes with his grandmother and sometimes with his uncle, wrote recently, “I am doing healthy well with my family. My grandmother is doing healthy well, my uncle is doing healthy well.” I like that phrase! Maybe we should begin telling people that we are “healthy well” when they ask how we are!
Our Bolivian teenager recently closed his letter to us with, “I say goodbye with a strong hug of bear.”
Our boy in Bolivia said the same thing! It’s so sweet!
I’d sent my child a picture of my new husband that had some tulips in the background. She wrote back saying, “I have very enjoyed the flowers in the photo of your husband.”
My 5-year-old little boy in Togo sent me, “I have drawn you pictures at the back of the paper and I don’t know if you will like. I like drawing but I am not so good at drawing.” So precious. (I made sure to tell him that I *did* like them very much.) And I asked him if he knew how to play Duck Duck Goose, and he replied, “I don’t know the ‘Duck Duck Goose.’ Could you teach me?”
My 7 year old little boy, Moises, from Nicaragua said to me ”I am so happy because I will have a vacation soon and I will have more time to watch Television and play.” He also signs his letters “Love, kisses and hugs.” He is too adorable =)
“I saw the soccer world cup in South Africa on television. You told me your husband can play soccer very well so I think I saw him play!”
- Fernando from Bolivia
My Diego’s tutor, in Ecuador, wrote, “Here, the weather is hot and it rains. {asked how the weather was in my country} He likes watching cartoons in TV.”
My little girl in Thailand recently wrote to me and said “I have to read textbooks seriously so I will get good grade.”
All these are so cute! We just started sponosring a 9 year old girl, Ruth, from Ghana last month and I can’t wait to hear from her.
My sponsored child in Kenya who is Massai, invited me to come sleep on the green grass in front of her home. She told me I would really like it.
Isaac from Mexico thanked me for being his “godfather.” He said it twice. I laughed hard.
The angel that I sponsor said at her birthday last year that she would have cake for her birthday if the Lord was willing. Of course freeze tag in the park is high on the list also. I did find out later that the Lord was willing about the cake.
Letters from Lindia (Haiti) are written by her tutor. Meanings can sometimes get a little lost in the translation. I cracked up when I read this in the lastest one:
“Lindia is pleased to write you this letter. She says she’s not so bad thanks to God. And she thinks you’re not so bad either….”
I think I had heard somewhere (maybe in some of Mr Wess’ writing) that while in the US we say we are doing “fine”, or “good,” in Haiti a comon response to “how are you” translates to “not bad.” But it is funny how it came across
Love it!!
I got a letter from one of my correspondence children in Brazil, he’s 12, he says, “I like to climb my house’s roof to fly kites but my grandma doesn’t let me do that.”
He also says “Please keep praying for me that I’ll keep prayer for you.”
This really sounds real. I once took children out and one boy was hurt while escaping dogs he was stoning. A night after the third day of our travel i heard a child crying. When i talked to him he told me that he was hit by the train we had travelled in 3 days ago.
Our youngest sponsored child in India must have been interrupted from doing something fun when it came time to write to us. He wrote:
“I prayed for you yesterday. I’m not going to pray for you today, but I’ll pray for you tomorrow.”
It still makes us smile. This is the same child who buys chocolate for his teachers and his school friends when we send him his birthday gift!
Not sure about funny comments in letters, however I have one child, Axel, who starts his letters with “mama misty” I don’t have children and never thought I’d “hear” mama. I nearly cried! And recently in Columbia, I met Jose, and he asked if he could come home with me! I so very much wanted to say yes, but I had to explain that Columbia probably wouldn’t let me.
Oh, that is the sweetest thing. I have honestly at times wished I could take my sponsor children home with me. I know that would not be possible (and they are happily with their parents), but they are so lovable.
I live in a condo with a beautiful pond surrounded by willow trees, in Minnesota. The pond is a great place for wildlife. I enjoy taking pictures of the Canadian Geese that live here from March to October. I sent some of the pictures of them to my little Rina and she asked me, “Do you raise the geese to sell or for food?” God bless them all.
I teach Religious Education to 5th Graders, who are very spoiled! I share with them things that my girls say. The last time they had birthdays they shared with me what they got……..Rina bought a goat ‘so that her family can have fresh milk’ and Mary got something she never never had, but wished and prayed for, “a mattress.”
That silenced them for about 30 seconds. But, then one of the 5th graders asked if they could pray for them. God bless the little ones!!
That’s so sweet Chris. It was obviously a shock that some kids don’t have a mattress to sleep on. Love the response.
My 8 y/o in Thailand has asked me if I liked bamboo shoots & chili paste!
i like Chop Suey Vegetables which has bamboo shoots in them and well the chili paste…. it all depends on how HOT the chilis are, my tastebuds don’t really like HOT foods.
Our little boy wrote us, “I love you as a fish loves water.”
That is the sweetest thing ever. Bless his heart, he is showing what the true meaning of love is.
My 8 y/o from Ghana said..
“please pray for my mother to have more strength and energy so she can sell her stinking fish.”
that’s hysterical
This is hilarious! It cracks me up. Bless his heart.
The winner! How funny!
Our 9 year old Colombian girl said that she doesn’t like pizza because she doesn’t like pineapple and ham.
Our 7 y/o in Bangladesh said he is surprised that we don’t feed our cats olives
You know, I was just reading his letter over again, (I have a hard time reading the hand writing) he really said that he is surpised that we DO feed our cats olives. I had told him that my mother once had a cat that ate them.
But one time he did say that he likes to ride in “Cradle and slipper” which he later told us is a slide and swing
cradle and slipper–so cute, and still pretty accurate descriptions
I just received a letter from my child, Chatchai, from Thailand. He was telling me (through a project worker since he is only 5) that he learns about the story of Jesus and knows that Jesus is Lord. He asked me to pray for him in the new year to be a good boy to his parents – adding that when Jesus was a boy… He wasn’t stubborn. Too cute and so precious all at the same time!
One day my daughter asked me why my grandmother is so old than her grandmother and both are gandmothers. I strrugled to answer.
child i sponsor wrote to me about how they just received a goat from compassion… this is what she wrote (although I reckon the translator had more to do with it) “In my home, my goat gave birth to 2 lamps. One male lamp and one female lamp”
hee hee hee!!! that is cute!!! what a visual image!!
That is hilarious!
My Emmanuel in Ghana recently wrote….
May the Lord bless you abundantly and make you the head but not the tail. My husband and I got a big kick out of that!
I sent my children a packet about dinosaurs, with some flashcards, stickers, and a letter with a paragraph that just briefly explained dinosaurs. Something was obviously lost in translation since my little girl, Mafille, wrote back, “You have very scary pets, in Togo we only have cats and dogs”! Bless her heart, I could just imagine her thinking we have t-rex walking around and pterodactyls flying overhead!
This is one of my favorites ever!!!! Totally love it and that child….
Hahaha…this story made my day!
This is great! You will have to write extra-sweet things so she doesn’t have a picture of you as an ogre who likes to be around vicious animals.
Melissa – that…is…GREAT! What a beautiful child! Best wishes explaining that one in your next letter! (:
My little girl, Arianne from Burkina Faso, asked if I was a man or a woman. She is 5. Oh, the innocence!
Each time I get a letter from my sponsored child in Kenya, it is pretty much the same. He asks how I am and says he is fine and thanks me for sponsoring him. Occasionally he will include pictures he has drawn. I answer his letter and ask him questions and tell him a little about my days (without talking about things he doesn’t have) but the next letter is the same. Should I be worried that something is amiss?
re: Julia Weeks. Compassion will ask that you be patient and try to resubmit your questions but next time with strong emphasize on the questions you’d like answered. Ask them again and underline each one, then use a highlighter, this should solve the problem, if not, simply notify Compassion and they’ll be happy to look into it for you. Please be patient, it can sometimes take multiple weeks or even months for Compassion to resolve it as well. But also remember this, your sponsored letter means so much to your child that they take it home to secure it. It could be your child forget to take your letter with them on Letter Writing day and simply didn’t remember your questions to respond to. Without the letter present the translator has no clue what you had asked and then the lesson for the day might be to structure a letter eg, introduction, body and conclusion. There’s usually an extremely valid reason why your questions weren’t answered at first. Resubmit them to your child with emphasis that it’s important to you to know more about them so you can pray more accurately for their needs, AND ALSO underline and hightlight them so the incoming translator notify’s the project you’ve been waiting for your child to answer them. You can always e-mail me at AllkidsRock@aol.com and we could talk on the phone if you’d like. Have a blessed day in Christ!! Glenn
Don”t be concerned. I have sponsored the same girl for years and this is the first time she is asking about my family. How old is the child? Pray for your child and know God is working in their heart.
Julia, how old is your child? If your child is younger, or even has a tutor writing him, then the letters are generally pretty generic. Younger children have a harder time writing letters than older ones do, just like any child. Also, it’s important to remember that these children are not accustomed to writing letters, and we need to remember to be patient. Also, Kenya is generally non-reciprocal, so you may not be getting answers to all of your questions because he only writes 4-5 times a year. Hope this helps!
It’s hard (very hard) but be patient. Also remember that even here many kids don’t write letters well. My Mom had to practically sit on my brothers and I to write to our grandparents and all we would do is add a line to a card. Fortunately my letter writing has improved since then… I’m not too sure about my brothers lol.
You might also emphasis how much you want to get to know your child. Many of these children are bewildered that an adult would want to know them. Also sometimes it helps to tie your question to your letter. I try to ask questions that are on the topic of my letter sometimes. I explained the 4th of July celebration, and asked if they celebrated their country’s independence and how.
I hope you start getting good letters soon. Remember that your child is still a child, and likely a child with many obstacles in life. Shower them with love, and even if they never become as expressive as you want, they will blossom from it.
Talking about funny things people say. After I told someone that I was from Holland originally, I remember someone asking me if we had 4rth of July in Holland. I told him: “No, sir, we skip it and go right to the 5th!”
That’s really funny
Julia… mine is the same way. I never hear anything different. I often wonder if he gets my letters.
Julia, i also sponser a boy from Kenya and the same thing happens to me, his letters are always the same, I found it odd and it made me wonder if he was evan receiving my letters. The only thing I can think of is maybe that in their class the teacher will give them ideas of things to write about to the sponsers and they end up writing the same thing each time. It does bumm me out a bit, i wish i got more detailed letters from him
I lived in Zambia for a year in an orphanage sponsored by a Canadian organization. The kids I looked after prayed for their sponsors every night and talked endlessly about the few things they knew of them. However, when it came time to write them letters (something the children LOVED doing and looked forward to), the letters were always very dry and un-detailed. But that didn’t mean that they didn’t put 100% of their effort and love into writing them! To those of you who are feeling disappointed with your child’s letters, be encouraged that they do treasure your letters, but even more, they treasure YOU! They just can’t always communicate that very well.
I would not be concerned especially in the first few years with a very young child. Especially when the child relies on a tutor for help in writing. I believe that the child is truly thankful for the sponsorship but can’t imagine what the sponsor might want to know.
I try very hard to develop a relationship as you are doing by writing everyday stuff and asking questions. Often I do not get an answer to the questions probably because my letter has not been reviewed at the time of the child writing. I let the child know in letter after letter how much I love her (him) and how special she (he) is to Jesus and to me. Generally I start getting the heartfelt letters after the child begins to write their own letters.
Sometimes I believe that some children are just better communicators than others. But they all love to get the letters that you write and will respond to your love by feeling better about themselves and becoming confident of their own value. Sometimes I have to read between the lines.
On her 13th letter, Minakshi (India) (11 years old) wrote “Thank you for the very sweet letter. Uncle, I get strength through your letter.”
Hopefully one day you will get that one letter that expresses that. I hope this helps.
I’ve worked with the letters in the country office in Bolivia. You can be sure that the children get the letters and also that the children love to get the letters. These letters are very important to them.
Now, when it comes to writing letters, some of the children aren’t really that excited about it. That doesn’t mean they don’t love you, it’s just a totally foreign concept to them. It’s not part of their culture and they live in situations, where this can even be further from their own culture. So, it can be like homework was to us.
Also, the very younger children sometimes don’t really understand what a sponsor is and how that works. I remember Michelle Tolentino mentioning to me that before she was 7 years old, she didn’t know what a sponsor was, but she was part of the Compassion project.
Blessings,
Kees
When I sent a family gift recently to our Sherin in India, she wrote – in perfect English, I might add – that they bought a plastic table. It is a wonder, she wrote! They never thought they could have such a thing. Once again, I am humbled to be a part of Compassion and to be able to change a life in such a little way.
I just started sponsoring, and about to send my second letter (once monthly is my goal), including some stickers and a math colouring/sticker book, and some photos from our recent vacation. My little girl is in South America, and I’m fluent in Spanish so can connect with her directly language-wise. I have loved reading these comments, especially about the dinosaurs. My little girl is 7, so I know she probably won’t understand or respond in a profound way. I’m quite nervous as to what to expect, but since reading about the table your family bought, Ruth, I know my sponsorship is the key right now, and I’m blessed to be a blessing as we all are.
At the school where I teach we saw a snake outside, so in a letter written around that time I mentioned it to Kintherlord and probably asked if she had ever seen them and/or if she liked them.
Her mom wrote to me, “No, she doesn’t like snake because it’s a very ugly animal.”
Ya only get the geese March to October? We can’t get rid of the silly things here in SE Michigan! It’s almost an infestation.
But very cute question from the little one.
I am in SE Michigan also and I love the fact that we have geese all over. There are about 100 of them living in a lady’s back yard right alongside the Clinton River and we love seeing them every day and I applaud this woman for seeing that they’re taken care of.
Sherry, I’m sure he gets your letters. I think it all depends a lot on which country the child is from. In some countries, they write 3 program letters and that is it. If this is the case, then he might take his letters home with him and then when he has to write the letters, he will just write what he is maybe told with the example on the board. Many children have difficulties writing the letters, so, someone from the project or a tutor will give instructions as to how to write the letters. They might write an example on the board. Some children just copy whatever is there and then they have written their letters. Maybe he might not look at your letters, when he writes these three program letters. Thus your questions might not get answered. It’s a good idea to number and underline questions. It tells the child and the staff at the student center that you would like an answer to these questions. But the greatest care is given to each of the letters.
Julie, my little boy, Mubarek, in Ethiopia does not write, but thru a translator. I have not heard since last December and was concerned about him. I phoned Compassion and they sent me info about a severe draught in the area in which he lives. There could be a reason why you have not heard, but it is dissappointing when you write and heardly ever receive a response or answers to your questions. Don’t stop writing or praying for your little one and neither will I.
I gave my grand-daughter (3 years old) a hug and a little squeeze. she said, “Grandma, do you think I am an orange?”….that made my day.
That’s hilarious!!
When we visited a Child Development Center in Colombia recently, we got some really funny questions from the kids there:
“Do you watch TV in English?”
“Are all Americans blonde?” (I have brown hair, but I guess anything other than black is unusual there!)
When they found out that my husband had traveled to China, they all wanted to know what Chinese people eat:
“Do they eat dogs?” … and from one little boy, “Do they eat cockroaches?”
ha aha aha.. that’s really funny….I consider this very special child. He is a star in our planet. Although for many people seem strange, but I actually consider it a very brilliant.
Actually, he’s right, they do eat many kinds of insects, including cockroaches, in parts of China. There are street vendors who sell scorpions cooked on skewers with about 12-20 scorpions per skewer, and they may eat dogs if they need the meat. In China, protein is extremely difficult to get – in certain areas, so almost every kind of grub or insect is fair game. In Korea, dogs are eaten, and in Los Angeles there has been a bit of an underground black market in dog meat. Every culture is different. In Burma they don’t eat beef because the cow does all the work for them, pulling plows and providing milk, etc. but they will eat other animals that we night not eat. Sounds like these kids know something about the outside world!
Have you ever watched Andrew Zimmern”s TV show? He goes to other countries and tries all of these delicacies. He is really funny. His show is called “Bizarre Foods”.
Fatuma from Uganda was telling me about the Christmas party at her Compassion center. She said, “It was a powerful party and very enjoyable.” My sister & I still use that phrase sometimes – “powerful party!” Fatuma usually does some math or explains some science definitions at the top of her letters. Those were always my worst subjects, so I tell her I’m impressed with how smart she is!
Mauricio, from Peru, ended one of his letters by saying, “I like to talk with you.” That made my day.
Love the “powerful party”! My 11 year old Pavana in India always celebrates her birthday, or any holiday, “very grandly”! So now we also celebrate “very grandly”!
Luis in Peru asked: Do you like to eat fruitcake at Christmas too?
One of our group sponsored kids from Rwanda commented in a letter that she “Likes her cat a lot better now that it has grown.” I always thought kittens were the cute ones…
Nestor from Guatemala opens his latest letter to me with:
In this beautiful opportunity I send you loving and cordial greeting in the name of our Almighty God.
Wow! What a great kid!
I have 2 little girls in Bangladesh. Last winter I received a letter from them and boy were they ever excited! It was written shortly after their Christmas party at their project and all they could talk about was CAKE!!! (not the gifts – but the CAKE!!) My one little granddaughter, Benoti, devoted her entire letter explaining about the Christmas cake they had and how wonderful it was. Then they both asked me, “have you ever eaten this wonderful food? Do you have it in your country?” (I live in SE Michigan) This made me both smile and feel sad at the same time. Before they had tried this new food, they had told me in an earlier letter that their favorite food was RICE!
I still laugh about this – I wrote one of my girls in Ecuador about the three tanks of fish that I have and something must have been lost in translation, because her response was, ‘aren’t you afraid to have an alligator for a pet?’ Looks like I need to improvement my penmanship if I am writing ‘fish’ and the translator is reading ‘alligator!’ LOL
That is hilarious!
lol so super true it happen to me also and my friend made fun of me i know how you feel it happen to me 3 years a go(i was 8)!
B)
Hey everyone!
My Lucie (15, from Haiti) told me in her first letter that she likes, I repeat LIKES, washing dishes! Wow, definately different than what I think about washing dishes!
Hello everyone!! I had a good time reading everyone’s comments. Children has a way of cracking us up with their innocent responses.
I enjoy receiving letters from my sponsored child in India which is pretty regular – about once a quarter. What’s bugging me though is the handwriting. It looks like it has been written by different individuals. I keep a year’s record of all my sponsored children’s letters. I noticed that the one from India has a different handwriting in some of her letters. Now, it makes me wonder if she’s the one writing it or someone else is writing it for her. The translator’s though is kind of consistent. She is 12 now and I believe she can write on her own.
I just hope and pray that everything written on the letters are true and that she’s really doing fine.
This past summer I wrote to Minakshi (12 years old, Delhi, India). I told her of the tornadoes in the Midwest and the Missouri river flood near our home in Council Bluffs, IA. I reassured her that we lived many miles from the tornado and that our home was on a hill and so was in no danger from flood water.
Her answer was heartwarming and the translation was endearing. Here are her words through the translation.
“I saw tornadoes of your country on the T.V. Right that time I prayed for you so you are burning light of the Lord that is on the high hill you staying.”
Thank you for your kind words dear Minakshi
Wow! What a profound prayer! God bless the little Indian princess.
I received my first note from my 7 year old boy in Indonesia and was a little caught off guard when he said his favorite Bible story was “the crucifixion of our Lord, Jesus Christ.” Should I worry or was something lost in translation there, too?
I might be confused, but why would the Easter story worry you? I think that’s a beautiful story and the point of the Gospel.
No way! I convo-ed you on Etsy
Love your shop!!!
Maybe you were concerned because of the wording but to have someone think that Easter and the Resurrection for sins is his favourite story means he gets the meaning of being a Christian. Way to go little boy!
Don’t worry
I agree with Jennifer and Cindy. There is no problem with liking the Easter story. He probably was meaning the ressurection as well. But, you can ask him why he likes it. Lizzie
my sponsored child from indonesia told me in his recent letter he did not yet know the song “the age of stone”. i puzzled over that for a while and finally realized he meant “rock of ages”. probably a translation issue but it still makes me smile
At the end of one of her letters, my little girl Linda asked me to “Please pray for my brother so he will be an intelligent boy.” I don’t know if he was having trouble in school or was just being an irksome little brother! I was encouraged that she asked for prayer for someone other than herself.
My child in Ethiopia, Emembet, 16, Has a little sister who is developmentally delayed. They don”t always tell you these things. She was old enough to express herself in a way that I could understand. This is a possibility with this child. Sometimes you can get that kind of information from Compassion.
A letter I got from my little guy in Brazil started with, “I love you, I love you, I love you, I adore you!
What a kid!! He is the best!.
CLINTON (age 5) was in his bedroom looking worried When his Mom asked
what was troubling him, he replied, ‘I don’t know what’ll happen with
this bed when I get married. How will my wife fit in it?’
Out of the mouth of babes I tell ya! I used to love to watch the show “Kids Say the Darndest things” and indeed they do say the darndest things. Great post!
Its interesting to read all these comments about children. I insisted to my 6 year old that she needed to wash her hands before having her meals. She told me that Jesus wasnt doing the same every other time. she could remember that at one time, Jesus fed so many people and it wasnt recorded that He washed his hands!!
When my granddaughter (now 11) was 7 years old, I told her i love her more than anyone in the whole world. She said to me in an amazed voice “Even more than Jesus?! You CAN’T love anyone more than you love Jesus!” Out of the mouths of babes! It made my day to know how much she loves Jesus and at such a young age. We have a wonderful Christian home, so I know she will love Jesus for the rest of her life.
Some of my friends, who also sponsor children in Gojo, Ethiopia, and I have been comparing the contents of the letters we have received this week from our “Gojo kids”. My letter from 6 year old Elias was humorously different from the other children’s letters in one aspect. Where the other children listed their favorite song, Elias answered, “I cannot sing.” I admire his honesty:)
My 7 year old boy, Niyonsaba from Rwanda wrote me a letter and said: ” Thank you for the birthday gift you sent me, I bought myself a chicken”. Enclosed in the letter was a picture of him holding the chicken. Is that funny or what? It certainly made me laughed and smiled. I am so proud of him. In 2 and half months, I will see him in person. Yeah! So looking forward to seeing him. God bless him!
In an introduction letter from my little guy Ulrich from Burkina Faso he said ” Hello I am Ulrich, I am 8 years old and I like eating beans” Too cute!
I love that! Too cute! I sponsor a little guy who is 4 years old from Burkina Faso as well. I received a similiar introduction letter. I love his letter & cherish it very much.
to the person who wrote that the letters from their sponsored child(ren) seem to be in a different handwriting each time. I receive letters like that some times, most of the time it is different translators translating the letters for you. If you look at the bottom of the letter the translators name or initials will be written there, usually it is a social worker in that particular project.
I’ve only received one letter from my sponsored child so far, but she said that I am in her pray, and I thought that was so nice! She also drew me a picture, but I have no idea what it is! In my next letter I just said, ‘thank you for the beautiful drawing’ but I feel guilty for not knowing what it was. It looks a bit like a Christmas light, or maybe a bowl of rice. Any ideas?
After meeting and spending the day with my sponsor child Adrian from Ecuador and exchanging gifts. I had also gave him a smaller backpack for his little brother Andy to take home for him. I asked Adrian what his most favorite memory of the day was. ” My gifts. I can’t wait to get home to see what Andy got. But my backpack is bigger!”
ok so like 2 years age my dad and i where 4-weeler rideing at my hose and i see him comeing down super fun and like im thinking’oh crap holly crap dont flip on me dont no no no!…..” and i musted of said that out loud and he looked at me funny!
In one letter to Salimata, my sweet little girl in Burkina Faso, I mentioned my fish. In the next letter I recieved from her she said “May God bless your fish.” She’s the sweetest thing.
I visisted my little boy in Rwanda last May 2012. He said something in Kinyarwanda which my translator laughed and then translated for me: “Your little boy said that in your pictures, you appeared tall, in person you are small”. My little boy covered his mouth trying not to laugh as it was translated to me. I laughed too and said “true, pictures can be so deceiving”.
Not only do I remember the Bill Cosby show, but I remember the original “Kids say the darndest things” with Art LInkletter!!! Now that is going back a ways. Anyway, we live in Kansas and one of our kids wrote and asked how far we had to travel to get to the nearest beach!! He loves going to the beach he said. He was amazed that there were no beaches in Kansas and couldn’t believe how far we had to travel to get to one.
I think it was Art Linkletter, with the “kids say the darndest things”
One of my sponsored children recently wrote to me and said, “I am fine. Nothing bad has happened.”
I sent my sponsored child in Kenya a photo of 2 geese at a park and she asked me if I owned those 2 turkeys in the photo. Also she sometimes sends me drawings that I can not interpret
It’s funny that this has become such a popular blog. But I wanted to point something out in that blog. The picture above is of my sponsored girl Jhoselin. (She calls me daddy. I’ve actually shown her this blog during a visit) Well, it’s difficult to see, but that picture was taken by another one of my sponsored children, who was sitting in my lap with my camera. We were on lake Titikaka, a huge lake between Bolivia and Peru. If you look very carefully in Jhoselin’s eyes, you will see that Shedenka is sitting in my lap, taking this picture. The photo here is a bit small, but on this link it is a bit bigger and you can see it better.
That was back in 2009. By the way, if you want to see the other photos of that visit. Just click on the arrows and there are about 240 photos. Many of them of Compassion centers.
I had my 6 year practice his reading by reading a page from the booklet about our sponsored child. It read, “Miguell is responsible for gathering firewood and making beds”. My son stopped and exclaimed that it was horrible to have to do those things. I responded by telling him that he ought to do a bit of bed making himself. He replied with equal horror, “but I don’t even know any carpentry!!!”. Hahaha he took the making beds things literally since it followed the task of getting wood. | http://blog.compassion.com/funny-things-kids-say/quote-comment-14632/ | 2013-05-18T10:53:49 | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | 1368696382261 | [
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Feb 18
Lincoln, Obama, and historic second inaugural addresses
On March 4, 1861, two days before his first inauguration, President Abraham Lincoln and the Republicans passed a proposed 13th Amendment, with two-thirds approval in the House and the Senate.
The proposed constitutional amendment was never ratified by the states. It prohibited Congress from abolishing or interfering with state-allowed slavery. In his first inaugural address, Lincoln referenced the amendment’s specific establishment of slavery by stating, “I have no objection to its being made express and irrevocable.”
In the 1860 campaign, Lincoln and the Republican platform supported slavery where it then existed, but they opposed the extension of slavery in the territories. For most Republicans, it was unfair for white laborers to compete for wages against unpaid slaves and for white businessmen to compete with slaveholder’s free labor.
During his first term, President Lincoln evolved from opposing freeing slaves to issuing an Emancipation Proclamation, and from supporting the constitutional establishment of slavery to supporting a 13th Amendment prohibiting slavery. The Emancipation Proclamation and his second inaugural address helped enshrine Lincoln as the Great Emancipator.
In the 1950s, 49 states criminalized same-sex intimacy. Pursuant to an executive order from President Eisenhower and up to 1975, the federal government would not employ gay or lesbian Americans.
During that era, homosexuality was classified as a mental illness. Gay men were treated for their alleged disorder with electric shock therapy, chemical castration, mental institutionalization, and lobotomies.
Ten years ago, the Supreme Court in Lawrence v. Texas declared that it was unconstitutional to criminalize consenting-adult same-sex intimacy. Prior to the decision, police in nine states could obtain a search warrant enabling them to knock down doors and enter the privacy of a bedroom.
In 2008, presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama supported civil unions, but he stated that marriage was between a man and a woman. During his first presidential term, he referenced that his views on same-sex marriage were “evolving.”
In February 2011, the Obama administration decided not to defend in federal court the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).
DOMA prohibited legally married same-sex couples from receiving federal marital rights and benefits. Pursuant to that evolution, the U.S. Department of Justice took the position that legally married same-sex couples were constitutionally entitled to equal federal marital protections and benefits.
In September 2011, the president signed the law repealing “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” enabling gay and lesbian Americans to openly serve in the military. The repeal removed the last vestige of the Eisenhower-era prohibition of federal employment by non-closeted gays and lesbians.
On May 9, 2012, President Obama announced his support for same-sex marriage. While he opined that it was a decision for states to make, he lent his stature to state same-sex marriage initiatives.
In his second inaugural address on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday, President Obama further evolved.
“We, the people, declare today that the most evident of truths–that all of us are created equal–is the star that guides us still; just as it guided our forb.” It was the first time that an inaugural address referenced gay Americans.
From its mountaintop, the Obama second inaugural address was healing, magisterial, and epochal. It was declarative that the birthright of all citizens is life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Like Lincoln, Obama evolved. Both presidents reminded us in their evolved second inaugural address of the nation’s quintessential promise–equality. For LGBT Americans and those who share that dream, President Obama is and will be remembered as the Great Liberator.
Malcolm Lazin is the founder and executive director of the Equality Forum.
Recent Constitution Daily Stories
Presidents Day isn’t a national holiday (but is a boon to car sales)
How Abraham Lincoln lost his birthday holiday
Can you pass a basic 10-question quiz on the presidents?
Does a Constitution-free zone really exist in America?
Take Action
Voice your opinion in the comments below
Contact your elected official to voice your opinion on Health Care, Supreme Court Find your official
Volunteer to make a difference | http://blog.constitutioncenter.org/2013/02/lincoln-obama-and-historic-second-inaugural-addresses/ | 2013-05-18T11:01:29 | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | 1368696382261 | [] |
Obsession 1: The weather. Glorious for a February day. Sunny skies and light winds.
Obsession 2 (more arguably): Liverpool Vs. Cardiff in a cup final shown on terrestrial TV, kick off 4PM.
I seems that national obsession 1 won through as there were 10 other riders a Brookside for the 13:30 start (two with distinctly Liverpool accents). A warm welcome to you all.
At this time of year, I was never going to plan an epic ride with many of us down on miles over the past weeks, who wants to slog you guts out on one of the first really good Sundays we get in quite a while. Nice villages and fine views were the order of the day.
We set off on the familiar path to Barton. Instead of taking the right hand direct route, we carried on and hung a left to take us to Haslingfield. This is followed by a right onto the Harlton Road. The road here gives a gently undulating ride up to the Everstons through pretty villages and countryside beginning to turn green again. Snowdrops lined the route in a good few places.
We continued straight across the A603, onto Great Eversdon and then Tinkers Lane to take us through to Kingston. Here the group split with 5 deciding an off road jaunt was in order. The other 6 of us happily left them to it on our slick tyres.
Left onto the B1064 then a right saw us soon at the Ford in Bourn. Not a lot of water going through given the time of year. Cycled through quite happily myself without getting my feet wet.
You are soon past the Windmill and onto the Gransden Road for tea at Waresley, which was the usual high standard. Riders were now coming out of the woodwork from Cambridge CTC. I counted 30 at one point.
After tea, 6 riders returned with me via Gamlingay and Longstowe. The light was fading very quickly on the way home, a reminder to bring lights still.
I arrived home at about 18:30 with 48.24 very pleasurable miles on the clock. I hope to see the new and old faces on a ride soon. Ian Driver
View this GPS track on a larger map | http://blog.ctc-cambridge.org.uk/2012/02/26-feb-afternoon-ride-to-waresley.html | 2013-05-18T10:32:15 | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | 1368696382261 | [
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The UConn players can get their hands on a copy of the game film from Saturday’s loss to Notre Dame if they choose. Kelly Faris made sure that she did.
Huskies’ coach Geno Auriemma said he has already twice watched the game. Faris plans to watch it over again as well. And collectively seeing the circumstances that yielded a 73-72 loss on film today in the locker room did not get any easier to absorb on film.
“Yeah, it’s still extremely frustrating,’’ Faris said. “I’m still mad about it. I still sit there and think, `I could’ve done this. I could have done that. Why didn’t we do this?’ I still think that about all the other games we’ve lost since I’ve been here, especially last year in the Final Four and the year before that in the Final Four. Those things don’t go away. And we’ve said it 1,000 times after every game we’ve lost is, `Yeah, I could sit here and pout about it and I could sit here and be ticked off about it and go in my little corner and think of all the things that we didn’t do right.’
“But like with every other loss, you have to learn from it. You can’t just sit there and say, `Yeah, I learned from it. We didn’t do this right. We didn’t do that.’ It’s going to show up (in practice) tomorrow whether or not we really wanted to make a change and whether we really actually did learn from it and we’re going to do something about it.’’
Aside from watching film today, the Huskies lifted weights and got some extra shots up at Gampel Pavilion. Auriemma decided to cancel practice.
“I thought Saturday took a lot out of us at the end of a really tough, tough stretch for us,’’ Auriemma said. “If you think back to the day we left for Texas A&M on that Friday (Nov. 16) and we went right to the Virgin Islands and then we were out in California. We almost never travel both on Christmas and on Thanksgiving. Usually, we’re home one of those two times. This is one of the few times where we’ve been on the road so many days, and including when they left for Christmas, and now we’re on the road all week this week.
“So I just thought that the fact that we’ve got so many guys trying to recover from different things, Caroline (Doty) came out that game (against Notre Dame) all banged up (ankle) Kaleena Lewis came out of that game all banged up (ankle, shin, elbow). I just thought that if you could get a good lift in today and get some shots up I thought that was the best option for us for today.’’
“It was more of a day to get mentally focused again,’’ said UConn sophomore Kiah Stokes, who is expected to play Wednesday at Georgetown after missing the last five games with a stress reaction in her right shin.
Of course, Faris said that she would have liked to have had a practice today.
“I would have liked to have done more,’’ Faris said. .’’
The Huskies are eyeing this week as a new beginning. Where they go from here is up to them now.
“You can’t really look back,’’ Mosqueda-Lewis said. “You’ve got to learn from what happened before, but right now we’ve just to got to really focus on ourselves, focus on getting better, getting back on our feet and making sure that the same thing doesn’t happen again.’’
Here are Auriemma’s thoughts on the Notre Dame game …
“I’ve watched it a couple times,’’ Auriemma said. “I think there’s three areas where if we’re playing well there’s three areas where I think we have to control. One is we have to win the offensive rebounding battle all the time. And I think we lost by one (18-17). And sometimes that’s not even enough. Sometimes just offensive rebounding is not enough. I think it’s how many times you convert those offensive rebounds into points. No. 2, we have to win the free throw battle. We have to get to the free throw line more and we’ve got to make more free throws than the other team. And we didn’t do that (Notre Dame 17-24; UConn 11-14). And lastly, we can’t get outscored from the 3-point line, and we did that (18-15). So if you take those three things and you can control those three things or maybe two out of the three … We lost all three of them and lost the game by one. So I don’t know. Is it annoying? Is it frustrating? It’s a whole bunch of things.’’
Rich | http://blog.ctnews.com/elliott/2013/01/07/auriemma-cancels-practice-today-huskies-eye-new-beginning/ | 2013-05-18T11:02:38 | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | 1368696382261 | [] |
Hung out at Trumbull to watch the Trumbull-Stratford scrimmage on Monday with the hand-held ipod-looking camera the Connecticut Post gave me last January.
While I’m still trying to get the hang of it here is what I hope is a video of Stratford’s scintillating back Torrey Mack, who will be playing for Virginia at this time next year.
Enjoy (I hope):
whats up w/McKoy? Did he move south?
Nope. Ox was nursing a quad injury yesterday. He’ll be fine.
Sean,
It’s actually his hip. But as you hinted at, if the game counted, he’d be playing. | http://blog.ctnews.com/hssports/2007/08/27/trumbull-stratford-torrey-mack/ | 2013-05-18T10:53:09 | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | 1368696382261 | [] |
The Armenian judicial system reached a milestone recently, as the jailing of a Russian spam mastermind marks the first time the country has convicted a computer criminal.
Georgiy Avanesov has been jailed for four years after hijacking the PCs of over 30 million people and using them to send out massive quantities of spam emails, as well as doing work for hire.
In 2009 Avanesov started operating a botnet system that became known as Bredolab. He used a wide variety of techniques, including automated attacks and phishing messages to expand the network and gain control of an increasing number of machines.
When the Bredolab botnet was running at its peak, more than three billion junk email messages were being sent out on a daily basis. Georgiy Avanesov, 27, would reportedly reap in revenues of around £80,000 per month though Bredolab by sending out spam and doing work for hire.
But it all began to unravel for him in October 2010 when Dutch police gained control of the Bredolab botnet and started to take it apart to find out who was behind the operation. Avanesov tried to disrupt the investigation by using a web-based attack on the police but his efforts failed, and he was arrested shortly after at Yerevan airport. | http://blog.dadapp.com/tag/bredolab/ | 2013-05-18T10:31:29 | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | 1368696382261 | [] |
Three years ago, DDB Canada’s Edmonton office worked with a small not-for-profit guide dog organization called Dogs With Wings (DWW), helping the organization rebrand itself to reflect their future goals and expanding scope of services. And in exchange for our donated services, they honoured us with the sponsorship of a puppy that would become a working service dog.
Freedom was the name given to this majestic dog, who yesterday graduated from his exhaustive training program. Freedom has been put through his paces, at a cost of over $40,000 and he was one of 12 dogs that graduated from the program this year. | http://blog.ddbcanada.com/author/martha-jamieson/ | 2013-05-18T10:52:55 | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | 1368696382261 | [] |
Tag: S-Corporation
Harvard Business Services Can Help Your Entity Become an S-Corp
Entities are formed everyday with the intentions of becoming S-Corps, but some never complete the application. If you’re thinking about starting a new S-Corp or forgot to apply for the status for your existing entity, why not let the professionals at Harvard Business Services help your company become an S-Corp? General qualifications for S-Corp status [...]Posted by Paul Sponaugle on Wednesday, April 28th, 2010
Posted in S-Corporation
Tags: S-Corporation
Sole Proprietorship or S-Corporation?
At Harvard Business Services we know that when you start your own business it can be confusing to know what corporate structure is the best decision for you and your business. I just read a great article from Entrepreneur.com that does a fantastic job clarifying some of the confusion regarding a Sole Proprietorship and the [...]Posted by Carleigh Lowe on Tuesday, March 23rd, 2010
Posted in Articles of Interest, S-Corporation
Tags: S-Corporation, Sole Proprietor, Taxes
There’s Still Time to Become a S-Corp in 2010
If you’ve been following this blog or have ever incorporated a business then you probably already know about the S-Corporation or S-Corp, and the tremendous pass-through tax benefits associated with it. If not, check out Background on S-Corporations for a quick crash course. Though the concept is easy grasp, many fail to understand how a [...]Posted by Paul Sponaugle on Friday, February 26th, 2010
Posted in S-Corporation
Tags: S-Corporation, Taxes
S-Corp or C-Corp?
BusinessWeek recently posted an interesting article by Karen E Klein on taxes and the differences of a S-Corp and a C-Corp. The debate on proposed tax rate increases for the country’s wealthiest people has just begun, and the potential increases would not happen until 2011. Still, tax experts say it is not too early for [...]Posted by Carleigh Lowe on Monday, June 1st, 2009
Posted in Articles of Interest
Tags: Articles of Interest, C-Corporation, S-Corporation, Taxes
Making Changes: C-Corp to LLC and LLC to S-Corp
The two questions below are from clients and they illustrate the power of the LLC. One client wants to change his C-corp to an LLC. He must file a conversion with the State of Delaware and then notify the IRS. The other wants to change his LLC to be taxed like an S-corp. He doesn’t [...]Posted by Paul Sponaugle on Friday, April 3rd, 2009
Posted in Close Corporation, Delaware, INC Knowledge, Limited Liability Company, Q&A, S-Corporation
Tags: C-Corporation, Delaware, Limited Liability Company, S-Corporation
Background on S-Corporations
Double taxation is a horrible practice, which many governments around the world embrace thoroughly. It’s the nasty habit of a government to tax your company’s profits, and then when you distribute the after-tax profits to the shareholder’s they TOO have to pay tax on money the company already paid the tax on. In the USA, [...]Posted by Rick Bell on Monday, March 2nd, 2009
Posted in S-Corporation
Tags: S-Corporation, Taxes | http://blog.delawareinc.com/tag/s-corporation/ | 2013-05-18T10:31:28 | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | 1368696382261 | [] |
sweet sips
Friday already. Again. It was a rough week — full of impossible deadlines, last minute changes, sleepless nights, and illness. Many thanks to my dear friend Dr. Fhwy for getting me through these last few days.
I’m taking the afternoon off to go to a Goonie’s themed birthday party (one of our son’s classmates). Then tomorrow it’s back to work (yes, on a Saturday). I’m on antibiotics, so sitting poolside with an adult beverage is out of the question. Instead I’m hoping the fog in my head and the pain in my side/back/body/head will go away so I can focus on catching up on everything I let slide this week: proposals, proofs, and photoshoots.
//ABOVE our new FLUTTER wedding coaster and straw pennant flags shown in marine blue. Available in stores now. //Photo: Delphine | http://blog.delphinepress.com/tag/coaster/ | 2013-05-18T10:31:09 | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | 1368696382261 | [] |
Important Events "Dead Ahead"
The Conference, we’re turning it back on all of you! What’s the 51st way to use streaming, YOUR way? How are you using digital media to improve your classroom activities?
On October 23rd, not only will we have a slew of fantastic presenters, we’ll also be featuring STAR Discovery Educators that attended the Summer Institute and the projects they created there. We couldn’t be more excited. And don’t forget, we had so much fun with the Tech or Treat theme last year that we’ll be doing it again! Feel free to attend live events in costume, or just dress up at home and post an image or two on Twitter or Facebook.
The in-person events are starting to go up on the info page now, so keep an eye out for events in your area! To learn more and register, visit | http://blog.discoveryeducation.com/blog/2010/10/05/important-events-dead-ahead/ | 2013-05-18T10:21:39 | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | 1368696382261 | [
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As I started making a list of all the things I need to outdo from my dorm room last year, I looked through some old pictures of my sophomore year room. It was very small and wasn't the ideal living situation in any way, but looking back at old photos, I remember that I really did make the most of it.
First, I love pops of color, so I made sure to add in anything that would make the room feel a little bit warmer and homey.
The pink rug and colorful lights all gave the space more depth and a fun pop of vivid hues.
I also loved having the two shelves above my bed. Since my room was tiny, it was a great way to store, decorate and save space. I kept jewelry boxes, magazines, and as the year progressed, more and more little pieces of my life at college on those shelves! Get one here.
Since there was practically no place for shoes, I decided to use them for decoration!
I used a lot of boxes and bags to hold all of my toiletries, accessories and make-up. And I used a butterfly scarf holder to accessorize those bland white walls!
Instead of having to take down all of my pictures at the end of the year, I made a photo poster that is now hanging in my bedroom!
You really can't go wrong with Audrey Hepburn... or pink.
A true testament to my love for the color. You don't have to go this crazy, but keep in mind... you should have seen the bathroom before!
No matter what kind of dorm room you walk into on move-in day, having a blank slate to work with, a color palette you like, and a little creativity will get you a long way. Good luck! | http://blog.dormify.com/stylish-spaces/dress-up-your-dorm | 2013-05-18T10:17:12 | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | 1368696382261 | [] |
The Sun Is Not Shrinking
Posted by jlwile on February 20, 2011
Although you can find information on the internet indicating that the sun is shrinking, the most reliable data indicate that it is not
(manipulated NASA image)
A commenter asked a question before I left on vacation. I gave him a brief answer as a reply, but now I want to go into the details of my answer. As the commenter mentioned, he was doing research for a sermon and came upon some information that indicated the sun is shrinking at a rate of about 5 feet per hour. While that’s not a lot for something as big as the sun, it indicates that the sun is rather young. After all, if we extrapolate the sun’s size backward over time using that rate, we would find that the sun would have been touching the earth a “mere” 11 million years ago.
If this were true, it would be a clear indicator that the earth and sun are not billions of years old. After all, the earth would not be a haven for life if it were anywhere near the surface of the sun! So if the sun is (and always has been) shrinking at anywhere near a rate of 5 feet per hour, the earth and sun could not be very old.
The problem is that this argument is based on faulty ideas about where the sun gets its energy and, more importantly, it is based on faulty data.
Since this blog is all about what the data say, let’s start with that. In 1979, two astronomers (J. A. Eddy and A. A. Boornazian) gave a talk at the annual meeting of the American Astronomical Society. In their talk, they looked at data from the Royal Greenwich Observatory that were gathered from 1836 to 1953. Based on those data, they concluded that for the time period in question, the sun was shrinking at a rate equivalent to about 5 feet per hour.1 Those are the data that formed the basis of the “shrinking sun” argument.
However, you have to realize that the data were presented at a scientific meeting, and they were never fully published. This indicates that the data were quite tentative. Annual meetings are held by many scientific societies, and their purpose is for scientists to share what they are currently working on. Part of the reason scientists get together to share their results is so that others working in the same field can help them interpret their data, show them how their data could be improved, or point out flaws in their data. Since these startling data were never published in a peer-reviewed journal, you can bet that someone (either in the meeting or later on) pointed out their flaws.
Obviously, the data did cause quite a bit of stir. Indeed, in less than a year, Sofia and colleagues published a report in Science that examined both the Royal Greenwich Observatory data and other data related to the size of the sun. They concluded that, at most, the sun was shrinking at a rate of just over 1 foot per year.2 About a year after Eddy and Boornazian had given their talk, Irwin Shapiro published a report in Science that measured the size of the sun by looking at how long it took Mercury to transit across it. The data spanned from 1736 to 1973, and within the error of the measurements, there was no shrinkage throughout that entire period.3 The following graph makes this point very clearly. The circles and triangles with error bars are the data, while the dashed line is the shrinking that was supposedly measured by Eddy and Boornazian.
Measured change in sun size. A horizontal line would indicate no change. The dashed line is the supposed shrinkiage measured by Eddy and Boornazian. From reference 3.
Clearly, then, the data from Eddy and Boornazian are simply not correct. The sun is definitely not shrinking.
From a theoretical point of view, the concept of a shrinking sun is pleasing to those who think that the sun is powered, at least in part, by gravitational collapse. While it has been known for some time that nuclear fusion provides most of the sun’s power, details regarding certain particles that come from the sun (solar neutrinos) indicated that nuclear fusion might not explain all the energy coming from the sun. As a result, gravitational collapse, which would cause the sun to shrink, could have been considered as a secondary means by which the sun produced energy. However, recent experiments have explained this apparent problem, so according to the most recent data, all of the sun’s power can be explained by nuclear fusion.4 As a result, there is just no reason to expect that the sun is shrinking.
Given the fact that the data clearly speak against a shrinking sun, and given the fact that there is no reason to think the sun is shrinking in order to produce the energy that comes from it, the idea that the sun is shrinking is not reasonable.
Despite the fact that the shrinking sun is not a reasonable argument for the idea that the sun is young, there is at least one other data set that indicates the sun is not billions of years old.
REFERENCES
1. J. A. Eddy and A. A. Boornazian, “Secular Decrease in the Solar Diameter, 1836-1953,” Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society 11:437, 1979.
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2. S. Sofia, J. O’Keefe, J. B. Lesh, and A. S. Endal, “Solar Constant: Constraints on Possible Variations Derived from Solar Diameter Measurements,” Science 204:1306-1308, 1979.
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3. Irwin Shapiro, “Is the Sun Shrinking?”, Science 208:51-53, 1980.
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4. Arthur B. McDonald, Joshua B. Klein and David L. Wark, “Solving the Solar Neutrino Problem”, Scientific American, 288:40–49, April 2003.
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Dr. Jay,
What do you think about current stellar evolution models that seem to indicate our sun is very old? Based on our current understanding of the life cycles of stars, the sun is a main sequence star that is supposedly around 4.6 billion years old. How reliable do you consider this result to be?
Also, wouldn’t the “metallicity” of the sun indicate its age?
Thanks for the question, Dan. Like biological evolution, I think stellar evolution reads far too much into the data. Certainly, there are different kinds of stars. Some of them could be understood in terms of different stages of development. For example, there is a reasonable physical mechanism proposed by which some main sequence stars (like our sun) would become red giant branch stars if enough time elapsed so that their cores became significantly depleted of hydrogen. However, like biological evolution, we have no direct evidence that this happens.
In addition, there are some problems with the entire picture of stellar evolution. For example, we don’t understand why there are no population III stars. There are also stars that are out of place if stellar evolution is true. There are also certain types of stars that don’t really fit. None of these problems mean that parts of the stellar evolution view are incorrect. However, in the absence of direct evidence, these problems do make one question the overall validity of the concept.
The “metallicity” of a star is only an indication of its age if we know it started out as mostly hydrogen. If we knew that to be the case, then yes, the more heavy elements in the star, the longer it must have been fusing lighter elements. However, remember that the metallicity problem is the reason population III stars were invented. Even the supposedly “youngest” stars we see today have heavy elements in them. However, infant stars should not. To get around this problem, stellar evolutionists had to come up with a type of star that has never been observed – population III stars.
You did say that you’d look at some of the evidence for an old earth, and debunking a few misconceptions about evidence (such as moon dust) would make for some interesting reads as well.
While the sun might be warming up as it goes along such that it couldn’t support life (as we know it) all that time ago, does that necessarily preclude the sun itself from being that old?
Thanks for reminding me of that, Josiah. I have a few other things I want to blog on first, but I will definitely do that.
The temperature variation of the sun over its lifetime does not mean the sun itself is young. However, it does mean the earth/sun/life system cannot be billions of years old, unless there was some perfectly coordinated way in which the earth became less efficient at absorbing the sun’s heat over time. For example, you could imagine that the earth/sun/life system could work for billions of years if the earth started out closer to the sun. Then, as the sun grew hotter over time, the earth marched away from the sun at just the right pace.
However, the most reasonable explanation is that the earth/sun/life system is not billions of years old.
Thanks for your answers, Dr. Jay. If mainstream stellar evolution is questionable, then is there any other way to understand the physics of the sun in a short time-scale? In other words, is there a scientifically viable young-sun model that could explain its life cycle and current state?
I am happy to answer questions, Dan. It is probably one of my favorite things to do. I am not sure what you mean by a young-earth model that explains the sun’s lifecycle and current state. The young-earth view of the sun is that it was created specifically for the earth. There is some evidence to suggest this, as the sun is much less prone to violent eruptions than other stars of roughly the same size, brightness, and composition (Seife, C., “Thank our lucky star,” New Scientist 161:15, 1999). Thus, it was created with roughly its current mix of elements and roughly its current state. If you could be more specific in what you mean, I might be able to help more.
I’m glad you like answering questions, since I like asking them, as you already know!
I’m not asking about a young earth model that explains the sun’s life cycle and current state, but rather a model of the sun itself. In other words, if we look at the sun, is there a way we can understand its mass, chemical composition, etc. in a short time scale framework that is consistent with what we know about physics? Or do we have to postulate that God created the sun “as is”?
I guess a related question concerns the earth itself. Geologists generally assume that the formation of the earth required millions of years of processes (during the “Hadean” Eon) in order for earth to cool from a molten state. How can we explain the formation of the earth within a short time frame? Are we required to postulate a different model of earth formation, such as Humphreys’s model that explains planetary magnetic fields?
Dan, I think you have to postulate the sun being created as is, since it was created to immediately sustain life. In some sort of evolutionary model, the sun needn’t support life right away, so it can start as just a cool cloud of gas that attracts more gas to itself until the gravitational collapse starts fusion. However, such a star would not sustain life on a planet. In the same way, since the earth was created to support life right away, its formation needs to be modeled in a way that requires supernatural intervention.
This is the big issue in science…how much do you have to hold to a naturalistic view? It is important to strive to explain things naturalistically, as that gives you the most explanatory power. However, as Dr. Hunter and Dr. Monton point out, if supernatural intervention DID occur, it is important to account for that in any serious scientific paradigm. Developing a naturalistic model that gives explanatory power is useless if the explanation ends up being wrong. Please note that not all scientists agree with that statement. Some say it is irrelevant whether or not our scientific models are correct. As long as they are consistent with the data, that’s all that matters. I disagree. Science should search for the PROPER explanation for why the universe looks the way it does.
I think the way you develop models that properly take into account supernatural intervention is demonstrated by Dr. Humphreys’s planetary field model. That model incorporates supernatural intervention, but it provides a way to check whether or not it is correct by giving several predictions regarding the data.
Dr. Wile,
I recently came across your blog while looking into Apologia materials for my family homeschooling (which I have decided to use). In any event, I appreciate your candid and open approach to scientific questions. Frankly, too many Christians seem to start with their presuppositions and try to force the evidence to fit their mold, rather than being honest with the data when it conflicts with their views.
I haven’t read a lot of your material but it appears that you lean towards the young-earth position. I wonder if you are familiar with Dr. Hugh Ross and Reasons to Believe? I have followed their ministry for several years and appreciate they way they approach the Bible and science.
Thanks for the good work, and may the Lord guide you in all things!
David, I couldn’t agree with you more when it comes to how many Christians deal with the evidence. In fact, I would add one other thing – they steadfastly ignore both history and theology so as not to have defend their position seriously.
I am very familiar with Dr. Ross and his ministry. I have several of his books. I disagree with him on the age of the earth and certain aspects of his theology, but I have learned a lot from his organization. For example, if I had not read his books and checked his references, I would not have known that the nature of the creation account has been in dispute from the beginning of Christendom. I had, unfortunately, been convinced by a falsehood that some young-earth creationists teach – that the church unanimously believed the days in Genesis were 24-hour days until evolution and “millions of years” came along. That, of course, is 100% false, and it was Dr. Ross’s works that first indicated it to me. I also deeply appreciate Dr. Ross’s emphasis on the design you see in nature.
Thank you for taking the time to respond. I agree that an ignorance of history is a real problem among Christians today. I don’t think we should fit our views to conform to historical understandings, but on the other hand, we need humility to learn from our forefathers’ understanding of various issues.
I’m glad you’re familiar with Reasons to Believe and that you have benefited from some of their information. If you care to share, I would be very interested in hearing specifics of where you think they misread the evidence regarding the age of the earth, as well as the theological differences you mention.
One thing I greatly appreciate about Dr. Ross is his calm and dispassionate approach. I’ve never seen him ruffled, in contrast to many of his young-earth critics who have demonized him and his ministry. In looking at your “Links to Investigate” on the sidebar, you have a rather disparate assortment! Have you considered adding Reasons to Believe to your links? I think theirs is an important voice in this discussion, and many Christians are still unfamiliar with their work. Just a thought….
God bless you!
Hello again David. Your point is very well taken. Somehow, many people think that only today’s Christians are “enlightened.” As a result, they don’t bother to learn the wisdom of those who have come before us.
You can read some of my disagreements with Reasons to Believe on this blog. For example, they consider the idea that radioactive half-lives are constant to be a sure thing, even though the experimental data clearly say otherwise. They also discount what I consider the most relevant data regarding the age of the earth. In addition, I don’t think they properly consider the huge, unwarranted extrapolation that is necessary in order to believe in an ancient earth.
I agree with you that while many young-earthers are decidedly nonChristian in their treatment of Dr. Ross, I have never seen Dr. Ross return such treatment in kind. That speaks volumes for him. I do think I have the old-earth creationist view well represented in my links (remember – most intelligent designers are old-earthers), but I will consider it. | http://blog.drwile.com/?p=4204 | 2013-05-18T11:01:35 | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | 1368696382261 | [
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Who Charted?: Two Charted 51
Ku-Ku & Wie-Wie go down memory lane as they count down their Top 5 Weirdest Jobs on today’s TWO CHARTED! Howard tells us about helping New York tourists in a red jumpsuit, Kulap shares a Randy “Macho Man” Savage story during her time working at Hulk Hogan’s Pastamania, and it looks like Howard is still messing with skewers. Remember to say thanks anyway! | http://blog.earwolf.com/post/41436864174 | 2013-05-18T10:21:47 | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | 1368696382261 | [
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ice hockey. It is IIHF’s hockey that girls will be introduced to basic skills in hockey in a positive, fun and safe environment; learn about opportunities in ice hockey in their community; learn about fair play, sportsmanship, and teamwork; and meet new friends and have a chance to fall in love with a new sport.
National Federations, leagues, clubs, teams and any group who has a passion for sharing hockey with the next generation of female hockey players are eligible to register to host. Programs participating in the events are the Lone Star Wolves and Northeastern Athletics. | http://blog.elevenhockey.com/news-announcements/iihf-pushes-girls-hockey-weekend-october-13-14/ | 2013-05-18T10:12:22 | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | 1368696382261 | [
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Planning to go to RootsTech2013? If so, you can save $100 by following the instructions in this announcement from the RootsTech organizers. Hurry! This offer is only good for a few days::
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So even podgy, civil-liberty trampling, ID card brandishing Home Secretary Jacqui Smith couldn't stop her husband doing what we all like to do... crack the Stellas out and whip our trousers around our ankles while the wee wife's away.
With a recent Sun survey saying 90 per cent of men do exactly that, it's no surprise that the great and the good (and Labour MPs' apologetic spouses) are up to their necks in used Kleenex.
Rather than claim the money off taxpayers' hard-earned to watch "Filthy British Lesbian Sluts Vol 1" you can see a free teaser of "Pippa the Posh Bint" at, and the full length movies Smith's red-faced husband was caned for can be seen with a subscription here: Go on, watch them, then make a shame-faced apology to the assembled media or, failing that, the wife and kids when you've spilt your load.
The Editor. | http://blog.escortmag.com/?tag=/jacqui | 2013-05-18T10:30:35 | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | 1368696382261 | [] |
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It seems to me that one of the most benefit-producing efforts would be to strongly encourage & incentivize! putting locally grown food into supermarkets & schools. Many, many people can’t/don’t get to farmers’ markets, but if locally grown food was available in the grocery store they would be thrilled. If schools primarily bought locally grown food – that’s another big profit source for farmers. I realize that it will take years for the status quo (mega-industry farm suppliers) to be overcome, but with incentivizing funds, that process could be hastened.
I’m going to do my best to make an economic argument. Different parts of the worlds are taking great measures to place price cielings on food prices to fight rapid inflation. This is only going to lead to greater food shortages. What difference does it make if you can afford food, if it isn’t available?
The United States has the ability to feed the world. New legislation needs to be aimed at removing price controls, trade barriers (including Cuba and international seed monopolies), and allowing food prices and production to adjust to meet global demand. This is trully an area where American farmers have a competitive advantage, America needs to increase its exports, and higher priced food means will keep more farmland in production without conservation measures.
We need to protect our SE TN farmland and rural areas. Farmers,ranchers have many detailed intricate activities that they must do to properly care for their animals and livestock correctly. This is best done, most often, in a quiet rural area. We need Federally enforceable , publicly understood, laws,etc., to protect our rural,historic,forested,areas in (SE) TN.,to prevent big business, real estate,metro annexation,etc.,from oppressing our right to live in quiet rural,farming and historic areas.
Also,the farmers that would want to participate, need medical marijiuana to be passed into a law, that would allow those interested to grow it for legally acceptable medical uses. It could be a Number one cash crop all over again, let the farmers participate freely, for their own needed increased incomes.
Protection of farmland, especially “prime” farmland as designated by NRCS, will require honest treatment of induced land development effects in Federally-mandated metropolitan and statewide transportation planning procedures, and in the environmental assessment processes for highway projects in metropolitan fringe areas. Except for Oregon and Ohio, few states or metropolitan areas employ valid integrated land use-transportation models to forecast future conditions on a truly interactive and nonbiased econometric basis that accurately depicts land development inducements from proposed transport system development actions or the subsequent additional impact on transport demands from induced development. This is a basic reason why most proposed new transportation improvements never actually produce the benefits of congestion mitigation over time as were promised at the decision stage.
Although the FPPA (Farmland Protection Policy Act) theoretically mandates the identification of induced land conversion for “prime” and “important” farmlands in project-level EIS documents with the required NRCS form, it is routine for state highway agencies to identify only the direct conversion acreage and deliberately ignore or understate the acreage likely subject to induced conversion, which NRCS generally does not challenge. The statutory restrictions imposed on legal standing preclude litigation to challenge such deliberate oversights except by a State Governor, and persons in those positions are among the greatest beneficiaries of the status quo.
Both aspects are deeply-embedded institutional practices that provide substantial economic and political benefits for those individuals and firms in both the real estate and construction industries which have strong political association with elected officeholders at all levels of government from local to National. In turn, those who reap significant profits over time then utilize those gains to fund electoral campaigns of favored candidates or bond issues and promote favorable political agendas in order to sustain the corrupted system which provides such largesse to a select group in American society.
Not all of the urban sprawl that has occurred throughout the US can be attributed to these flaws, but much of it can simply because the promised outcomes of proposed actions are deliberately biased and not independently verified as result of repeated technical mis-assessment when infrastructure- or development-planning decisions are made. So long as metropolitan areas and state infrastructure agencies are not required by the Federal government to use such cutting-edge tools in their decision-making, sprawling patterns of metropolitan development will continue to gobble up farmland in almost every region of the country.
This survey does not offer the most important choice – federal budget cuts should be structured so as to FAVOR SMALL and SUSTAINABLE farmers and to disadvantage large scale agribusiness. Two ways: (1) anti-trust legislation to dismantle agribusiness and its control of our food system; (2) stop direct payments to commodity producers and instead go back to buying up surplus and keeping a price floor in place. | http://blog.farmland.org/2011/02/how-should-federal-budget-cuts-impact-farms-food-and-farmland/comment-page-1/ | 2013-05-18T10:21:02 | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | 1368696382261 | [] |
There are more than 100 companies are there in India who are work in the field of website development. Companies in website
development field are growing very rapidly…so it is very difficult to select or decide which one is best. But all of them have some different feature which makes them distinguish from each other.
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Reputation of the firm.
Services providing by the firm .
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GMail HTML signature
This time, I won’t ramble about some point of details that only a handful of specialists have thought about. This time, this article has the potential to touch ten thousand of normal people across the world (I only exaggerate a little of course). This time, I will blog about GMail signatures.
Ever wanted to have a nicely crafted signature in your emails? Outlook has the feature. I guess other fat softwares have the feature. Guess what? GMail doesn’t. If you don’t believe it (neither did I at first), just try to create a signature that displays something completely extravagant, like a mailto hyperlink for example. You will find out you can’t since the text area only accepts plain text. HTML you could type won’t be treated as such but encoded to plain text. Strangely enough, the mail itself accepts HTML so I really don’t understand the reason behind this limitation.
Anyway, the first solution is to have somewhere a file where you can type your nicely crafted signature and paste it into every mail. But software is my trade, and it didn’t feel too satisfying…
Since I couldn’t possibly be the first (or the only one) to have this problem, I went on the hunt on the Internet and found Wisestamp. First, let’s say it is available for Firefox and Chrome, so if you don’t use one of them, tough luck.
Wisestamp has the following features:
- HTML signature creation
- two settings to alternate between business and personal signatures
- GMail integration: a button appears in your GMail inteface
- other web-based mails are supported: Yahoo, Hotmail and AOL
- widgets for social networks
- inclusion of a hyperlink for the latest link of a RSS feed
Compared to most similar tools, Wisestamp doesn’t just paste the signature below your mail. If you choose another signature (or even if you update it), it really will replace the previous signature. It won’t add the newer one below the old one.
I only got one complaint: I would like more than two signatures so I can, for example, use different languages for my business signature. Then, the product is free so I consider myself lucky!
I can’t resist the pleasure of showing you my own signature:
PS: notice the Wisestamp integration.
If you have the same needs as me, I can only recommend the product.
Recent Comments | http://blog.frankel.ch/tag/firefox | 2013-05-18T10:11:29 | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | 1368696382261 | [
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The Freshdesk blog
Your daily dose of
peppermints, orange juice and oatmeal cookies...
Freshly squeezed droplets of customer support...
Your daily dose of
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Today we just announced the new Freshdesk Plans & Pricing options to the world, and I was about to make a round up with just that. But then, as with every pricing change (good or bad), there’s always some worries about how that affects existing customers. So I thought I should lay down the “Three Fundamental Laws of Doing the Right Thing“, that we follow here at Freshdesk before I go on:
Rule 1: Do what is right for the customer.
Rule 2: Do what is right for the company, as long as it does not conflict with Rule 1.
Rule 3: Be wacky, tacky, creative whatever, as long as it does not conflict with Rule 1 & 2.
What does that mean for our customers?
For starters, you will always pay exactly what you signed up for. Forever and ever and ever. And that doesn’t just mean we’ll be Grandfathering you through time… That means you will have all the features and capabilities in the plan you select forever, AND any future updates we make to that plan. And I say the word once more for emphasis – FOREVER!
From just one, to Three agents full-on Freemium
At Freshdesk we think it’s really important to make customer support easy, flexible and fun for every business. In that order. That directly implies making it really easy for the best support teams to get even better, the progressive teams to get proactive, and the teams stuck in chaotic support processes to get streamlined. That’s why we made the first agent free forever, across plans last year. The trouble was as we added even more powerful capabilities into Freshdesk, the free agent wasn’t making a lot of sense for the small business on higher plans. That makes sense too – there aren’t a lot of use cases when one guy supporting customers by himself would want to compete (with who?) on Freshdesk Arcade, or even need agent collision detection capabilities.
So we decided to create enterprise level capabilities at the Estate and Garden plans, powerful social support capabilities for medium and growing businesses on the Blossom plan, and make the Sprout simpler, easier and free-er for the small business to get started. And no more first agent free forever.
Shangri-la, for Three Guys with a Mailbox
After talking to a whole bunch of small businesses and startups, we figured their biggest problem was streamlining their support conversations on their email inboxes. It was actually a big deal to wake up and realize that most startups were still stuck with email and sticky notes, and honestly we wanted to do something to make their lives better. So we tinkered with the Sprout plan till we came up with all the capabilities that a small (three guy) support team, stuck with email, would need.
Oh, and we made it free forever. Head over to the plans & pricing section on our website to see how each plan stacks up in features and price, or in case you haven’t yet – signup for free. | http://blog.freshdesk.com/tag/3-agents-free-for-life/ | 2013-05-18T10:12:11 | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | 1368696382261 | [] |
This post tackles Problem 1 in the Project Euler Series.
As you would expect, Problem 1 won't tax our mathematical skills too far, but it does let us get stuck into the new features of C#3.0.
We're asked to find the sum of all multiples of 3 or 5 below one thousand.
I'd be tempted to dive straight in, and code up a for loop. But that's the old way of doing things. We want to be Functional. How about telling the compiler what we want, and letting it figure out how to get it?
I guess we want to start with all the numbers from 1 to 999, drop all those that aren't divisible by 3 or 5, and then add up the rest.
This is where the excitement begins. A lot of the power of the new Language INtegrated Query (LINQ) features in C#3.0 come from tools to work with sequences. We use sequences all the time: whenever we use foreach on an IEnumerable type, we're iterating through a sequence.
LINQ and its associated APIs allow us to process sequences of things, without there being a for, or an i or a j in sight.
Some of the APIs produce sequences for us. Enumerable.Range(int start, int count) for example will produce a sequence of consecutive integers beginning with start.
Other APIs take a sequence as an input, tweak it in some way, and return a new sequence. Such is the Enumerable.Where method. This takes a sequence, drops things that don't meet a certain condition, then returns a sequence containing everything else.
Here's how you might use this:
Enumerable.Range(1, 999).Where(x => x % 5 == 0 || x % 3 == 0)
This is doing the first part of what we need: taking all the integers less than 1000, and giving us a sequence containing only the ones divisible by 3 and 5.
There are two curious things about that piece of code. One is the way we are calling the Where method. Surely the Range method returns an IEnumerable
The other interesting thing is how we're specifying the condition to the Where method. What's up with the "=>" symbol? That tells the compiler that we are creating a Lambda expression. A lambda expresssion is just a little inline block of code that we can pass to another method. This expression just takes one argument x, and returns true or false depending on whether x is divisible by 5 or 3. Isn't the syntax elegant? No need for the return keyword, and no need to tell C# that x is an int or that the expression returns a bool. It works all that out for itself.
Now that it has the lambda expression, the Where method can take every item in its input sequence (the one that it's getting from Enumerable.Range), call the expression to see whether the item meets the condition, and if it does, pass it though to the output sequence.
So it looks like we're almost ready to give Euler his answer. Except that he asked for the sum of all these numbers. That's easy. Enumerable provides another extension method, Sum(), that will get that for us. We just tag it on the end of what we've got already:
static int SumMultiplesOfThreeAndFive() { return Enumerable.Range(1, 999) .Where(x => x % 5 == 0 || x % 3 == 0) .Sum(); }Sum just works its way through a sequence, adding up everything it encounters and returns the result.
And there you have it. A Functional solution, in one line of code (ignoring a few newline characters!) to Project Euler, Problem 1.
[Updated to correct a few typos on 24/3/2008]
[Updated to correct a few typos on 25/3/2008]
[Updated to correct solution in line with change to problem on 5/5/2008]
8 comments:
Sam
I thought this was the best way to give my humble opinion on your blog. I will keep sniffing on it later, but so far I think it's simply great.Being a "published author" was just a matter of luck, I bet that most of my *new team* could be in that category if just had the opportunity.
Nice you came across with the idea of showing the new functional aspects of C# in your blog, many people are still attached to what you called "old way to do things". IMHO, functional languages are a really neat thing since they show the intent of the programmer in a clear, concise way.
So, keep up the good work. It is an honor to come to Paragon, a dream come true.
Hope to be working hard soon
Roman
Just spotted a typo. The && in the Where clause should be replaced by a ||.
Thank's Stu: I just noticed that on Saturday as well. I've got a feeling they've change the problem since I first posted the solution!
Hmm, on my screen, the Where clause lambda expression is missing the logical operator entirely: no AND nor OR.
Lonnie,
I was hedging my bets!!
Thanks for pointing that out. Should be fixed (again!).
Sam
You should say this is not an efficient solution. It is effectively a brute force solution.
Mark
Hello,
Your solution with Linq is O(n). Linq would not do the job if the target number is very big (65000000000 for instance). The best approach would be to use inclusion exclusion principle in order the get O(1) algorithm :
static ulong SumDivisibleBy(ulong target, uint n)
{
ulong p = target / n;
return n * p * (p + 1) / 2;
}
ulong target = 999; // 65000000000
UInt64 s = SumDivisibleBy(target, 3) + SumDivisibleBy(target, 5) - SumDivisibleBy(target, 15);
Kind regards
i like your blogs. thanks for writing | http://blog.functionalfun.net/2008/03/problem-1.html?showComment=1238644800000 | 2013-05-18T11:02:13 | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | 1368696382261 | [] |
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This entry was posted on Thursday, September 2nd, 2010 at 4:00 pm and is filed under Vox Populi. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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Despite my frequent bursts of bile, I have always considered you as a playful adversary and was forced to concede the fact you are the best damn publication on this campus. That you would stoop this low by hiring a perverted attention whore makes me not so much angry, but disappointed.
!!! I cannot tell you how happy this news makes me.
Interesting choice. I guess a Canadian faux-hard rocker with legions of both normal and obsessed fans is less qualified to give advice about relationships than some students with a plant-based handle. Oh well, you can find my relationship advice in much more qualified publications. Just a taste: If you watch the video for “Someday,” you would find out that the way to handle your grief about your lover’s tragic death is to drive wildly into the street, get hit by a semi, and die and join your ghost boyfriend in dissipation. Also, you would find out that if your girlfriend is acting out of sorts and leaves you and you are very confused, you are probably dead. I’m sure that even though this Venus Flytrap lacks my bleach blonde hair and eye-melting abs, she’ll do fine…yeah sure.
-Chad
PS Tiger did NOT follow my relationship advice in case you were wondering and we all know how that ended up. Oh well, go ahead and ask VFT something and I’m sure you’ll end up just like Tiger.
This is an absolute disgrace to Georgetown. Vox, I expected better.
Personally, I’ve always preferred Vox’s more professional tone to Venus’s. But I’m glad Vox isn’t confining itself, and hope everyone, myself included, is open to appreciating forms of speech that don’t fit within the well-defined constraints of Western Business Style.
are you kidding? it’s a different voice and funny if you’re open to it. take it with a grain of salt.
How exactly is it that she was contacted?
This is a poor decision, and an awful representation of your blog. Why would you allow her to spew vitriol all over your website after she so freely degraded fellow Georgetown students on her site?
YES.
That’s right. I’m the VFT
Seriously, why would you ever do this? It’s funny (maybe) if not clearly a desperate girl trying to get attention but for a newspaper that represents our school and that I generally prefer to the Hoya, this is stupid. You’re only quenching her thirst for attention. Ugh.
@ Hm?
I sent VFT an email this summer.
i loveeee vft. she (it?) says what no one else will but well all wish someone would. rock out with you c*ck out vft. ill be sending you pics of disgraceful dressers so look out
My reaction to this news was the exact opposite of that.
I was already extremely disappointed with the voice when its twitter “endorsed” VFT in the pseudo-battle that ensued after her mean spirited and horrible attack of another blogger. This is a terrible mistake by vox, and it will certainly make me reconsider reading what I thought was a legitimate sources of campus news. You’re better than this.
Also, the craigslist column isn’t funny or interesting.
Also, her name is Kate Petersen.
Wait, THIS Kate Petersen!?
[...] “Jacob” doesn’t care for Venus Fly Trap: Vox, [...]
KP is a vile person with vile language and it’s really upsetting to know that the best Georgetown paper would choose to have her write for them. Encouraging someone to demean others and promote self-deprecation and sluttiness is really sad, Vox.
[...] a bit of time spent settling in at Vox, Venus Fly Trap is almost ready for your [...]
[...] Note: After whole weeks of anticipation, it's time for the inaugural edition of Venus Fly Trap's yet-to-be-named sex and [...]
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and Comments (RSS). | http://blog.georgetownvoice.com/2010/09/02/venus-fly-trap-your-newest-vox-contributor/ | 2013-05-18T10:41:00 | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | 1368696382261 | [] |
1 May 2010 05:40
Bug#579816: ITP: mswatch -- watch mailstores for changes and initiate mailbox syncs
Jonas Smedegaard <dr <at> jones.dk>
2010-05-01 03:40:10 GMT
2010-05-01 03:40:10 GMT
Package: wnpp Severity: wishlist Owner: Jonas Smedegaard <dr <at> jones.dk> Owner: Jonas Smedegaard <dr <at> jones.dk> * Package name : mswatch Version : 1.1.1 Upstream Author : Chris Frost <chris <at> frostnet.net> * URL : * License : GPL-2+ Programming Lang: C, C++ Description : watch mailstores for changes and initiate mailbox syncs mswatch is a command line unix program that keeps two mailboxes synchronized /more efficiently/ and with /shorter delays/ than periodically synchronizing the two, currently supports watching Linux (2.4+) hosted Maildirs (including Maildir folders, Maildir++), and is licensed under the GNU GPL. | http://blog.gmane.org/gmane.linux.debian.devel.general/month=20100501 | 2013-05-18T11:02:36 | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | 1368696382261 | [] |
2 Oct 2011 07:26
Dries is visiting India!
Ishan Mahajan <ishanmahajan87@...>
2011-10-02 05:26:23 GMT
2011-10-02 05:26:23 GMT
Hello Drupalers, Dries Buytaert, the creator of Drupal <> and the CTO of Acquia <> is visiting India during the week of 07 Nov. He will be visiting Delhi, Mumbai and Hyderabad, to engage with the developer and business community, to further the adoption of Drupal open source "content management system" (CMS) in our country. He will be in Delhi on 7th and 8th November. There is a proposal that from 11AM to 1PM on 07 November 2011, he deliver a Keynote address to the Indian developer community on the lines of which he delivered at Drupalcon London from 22 - 26 Aug 2011. There can be presentations and coding sprints after that. People who are interested in giving presentations are requested to respond with their presentation topics. We need to make this event a success and who knows a DrupalCon maybe organized in India in the near future :) We need volunteers to help organize this event and spread some Drupal love. The most immediate requirement is the finalization of the venue. It would be ideal if the venue can be booked by mid next week. Two suggested venues are IIT Delhi and JNU campuses. Here are the requirements for the venue: - An auditorium with 300+ seating capacity. - 3-4 rooms for presentations with a seating capacity of 50 people each. - WIFI internet connectivity. Similar event can also be organized in Hyderabad and Mumbai.(Continue reading) | http://blog.gmane.org/gmane.user-groups.linux.delhi/month=20111001 | 2013-05-18T11:02:18 | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | 1368696382261 | [] |
.
Sentence #29
“Don’t? Or won’t?”
Greatest.
R.)
Greatest. Conference name. Ever.
I had to miss this, because I was at an O’Reilly event the same day, but I love the name of this conference and I hope to go next year.
Harp … or oven mitt?
Over the weekend, I had the great pleasure of hearing Lydia sing with a chorus and small orchestra at Sanders Theater. During the intermission, the harpist wrapped up her instrument and wheeled it away. Since Monday is supposed to be cooking day at Jimmy Guterman’s Jewels & Binoculars, I should note that her wrapped harp looked to me like a giant oven mitt.
My.
Greatest. Misheard lyric video. Ever.
And they said we took liberties on The Sandinista Project.
Thanks to R.C. for the pointer. Sorry for taking so long to acknowledge it.
Eight.
Greatest Spongebobs ever
Stick around for The Godfather of Amy Winehouse’s “Rehab” and the shaky, shell-shocked manner in which Winehouse accepted her award for it. Alpha geeks had a moment to celebrate, too, when one of the winners behind Historical Album of the Year (Woody Guthrie’s Live Wire) turned out to be a mathematician.
But, those and few other brief moments notwithstanding, the action in the music industry is elsewhere.; ‘anc.
I’ve written before here about clever ways to sell music nowadays. Like the performers I celebrated in that post, record companies have to adopt new ways of packaging and selling if they want to stay in business. Just as twin geniuses Sam Phillips and Ahmet Ertegun reinvented the record industry in the 1950s, we need a new generation of tech-savvy entrepreneurs who accept that recorded music consumed in $20 increments — except for that created by a small subset of veteran performers with large and reliable fan bases — is a dead notion for now. Music is everywhere, just as software is everywhere. We’ve seen an explosion of new models in recent years for selling software — web-based, software as a service, various levels of open source, and so on — some of which have been quite successful. Software may be useful, but for the most part it doesn’t satisfy the emotional need that music does. It should be easy to sell music, certainly easier than it is to sell software. The music industry has much to learn from the computer software industry about reinvention and staying in touch with the customer. (In future posts, I’ll probe what the music biz can learn from the software biz.) If what remains of the music industry doesn’t look to successful technology industries for ideas, it’ll be as lifeless as the Frank Sinatra half of last night’s Grammy “duet.”
This post was written for O’Reilly Radar
Before?
On Huckabee’s refusal to leave the race
We knew he doesn’t believe in evolution. Turns out he doesn’t believe in mathematics either.
Public embarrassment as a motivator
I’ve written about that before here. Now I learn of a web-based service that helps with that: stickK.com – Put a contract out on yourself!
Deciding where to start…
The.)
Blind…
The?
Greatest song of all time of the week: R.E.M., "The One I Love"
Sometimes you learn more from songs you’ve heard 10,000 times already after you haven’t heard them in years. That old warhorse “Baba O’Riley,” for example, is pretty terrific after you’ve kept away from it for a good long time.
And that’s the way I felt when R.E.M.’s radio breakthrough, “The One I Love,” came over the radio the other day. There’s so much there: the nasty repetition of the lyrics, the combination of yearning and disgust, deep desire and no affect, in Michael Stipe’s voice, the bruising jangle of Peter Buck’s guitar, the otherworldly counterpoints of Mike Mills’s bass and harmonies, and the emphatic closure of Bill Berry’s drums. This is thrilling, impolite, dangerous stuff.
Blogging about someone who blogs about blogging
In my work, I spend a good amount of time blogging and helping other bloggers. Anyone trying to communicate via a blog could benefits from What makes great blogwriting?, a post on the new and very strong Write To Done blog, by Leo Babauta of Zen Habits blogfame.
The Industry Standard is back. Why?
The Industry Standard ably chronicled — and, eventually, mirrored — the tech — not doing much about it (I wonder if pointcast.com still gets lots of visitors), IDG, which was the Standard‘s lead investor and picked up the carcass in bankruptcy court, has relaunched the site this week.
The new site is, to these eyes, an unintentional parody of Web 2.0 features. Rather than mere advertising, it has a more high-end sponsorship model (i.e., one pay-for-it-all advertiser), it seeks to create a community (you have to sign in to enjoy the more interesting features), and it combines aggregation and a sliver of original material with a “wisdom of crowds” prediction market. To give you a sense of how well the prediction market is going so far, as I write this every prediction on the site was submitted by thestandard.com’s no-doubt bare-bone staff (that’s how Web 2.0 works, too). And, of course, to keep costs really low, this time the brand is online-only.
I’m not sure what’s being accomplished here, aside from the modest monetization of a dormant but still semipopular URL. It’s an attempt to revive a once-very-popular name, synonymous with original content, with as little original content as IDG can get away with. Maybe that will change.
Recently someone I hadn’t been in touch with for more than 20 years found me on Facebook and suggested we “reconnect.” But if we really wanted to “reconnect,” whatever that means, we might have done so at least once during the previous two decades. That’s how I feel about The Standard coming back: it’s too late, it’s pointless, its time has passed. The new site should rise or fall on the basis of its own achievement, not on those of an entirely different team a boom and a bust ago.
(later posted to Radar)
Quote of the day
“I’d like a hamburger and an Alka Seltzer.” — Warren Oates, in Two Lane Blacktop (1971)
Food hacking
Why did I take a job with O’Reilly Media? In part, because the company puts on conferences with sessions like Kitchen Hack Lab: Food Hacking for Techies. I’m going to return home a new kind of cook!
Strawberries..
Good for the Jews
So now we know what Bob Dylan and Laura Branigan have in common, sort of. | http://blog.guterman.com/2008/02/ | 2013-05-18T10:31:18 | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | 1368696382261 | [
[
"http://guterman.com/lydiarule.jpg",
"Lydia's rules"
]
] |
Environment/Energy · Science
Tagged: Bruce Alberts
Reasonable People
-
Heartland on YouTube
Somewhat Readable Links
- iPencil | National Review Online
- Eagle Scout Faces Felony for Honest Mistake
- James Bovard: A Brief History of IRS Political Targeting - WSJ.com
- The IRS Scandal: the Future of Big Government Is Now « Commentary Magazine
- Lessons from the IRS scandal | Power Line
- On the AP-Justice Department Story - Ricochet.com
- Emptyage — Generation X Doesn't Want to Hear It
Tag Cloud2012 election al gore Barack-Obama budget California Chicago climate change climategate Congress debt ceiling economics education energy policy environment environmental protection agency EPA FCC federal budget federal spending fracking global warming green energy health care Heartland Institute internet liberty Medicaid Medicare Mitt Romney Obama Obamacare Paul Ryan Peter Ferrara politics Public Unions regulation school-reform scott walker Supreme Court Taxes teachers unions tea party unions Wisconsin Wisconsin protests | http://blog.heartland.org/tag/bruce-alberts/ | 2013-05-18T10:41:19 | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | 1368696382261 | [] |
From?
4 Comments - Leave a Reply
Hey, I’ve been to Henderson !
Great picture, Dan….
Love it! I’d buy aand drive it! By the way I’m a TV Repairman and drive a 65 Chevy Sportsman van daily Three-on-the tree manuaal brakes and a hipswheel size steering wheel ILoVE IT!
Hi there!
I’m the photographer of the van, which can still be seen at the Clark County museum in Henderson. Thanks for sharing it.
last time I had something fixed it was 25 $ to look at it. | http://blog.hemmings.com/index.php/2011/04/12/from-the-hemmings-nation-flickr-pool-phillips-radio-and-tv/ | 2013-05-18T10:31:20 | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | 1368696382261 | [] |
Monkeys are so freeEating bananas all dayas they roam through trees.Pencils are pointyAs they walk, they leave a markYellow as a bee.Pigs are pink and fatThey eat anything they pleaseThey are so funny.My dad is funny.He makes me laugh all the timeHe makes great jokes, too.Puppies are so cuteAs their tails follow alongPuppies are so free. | http://blog.honorsreview.com/blogs/poem/archive/2008/02/26/haiku-written-by-christine.aspx | 2013-05-18T10:12:15 | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | 1368696382261 | [] |
#SXSW 2012 – #Trending is #Trending [<a href="" target="_blank">View the story "HootSuite A Welcome Site at the South-by-South-Nest" on Storify</a>] Note: We’ve got on a bit of a trend bus ourselves at #SXSW. Author: Ben Watson Ben Watson has written 4 posts for the HootSource blog.. Ben Watson is Hootsuite's Vice President of Marketing. View all posts by Ben Watson → Twitter No related posts. | http://blog.hootsuite.com/sxsw-2012-trending-is-trending/ | 2013-05-18T11:01:38 | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | 1368696382261 | [] |
Sharp has not really been popular in the US and Europe but it is in Japan. The company will release Android like phone, the AQUOS PHONE IS14SH.
This phone will be released in the US and Europe and also for Japan citizens.
Some features of this phone:
Further information has yet to be released.
Will you buy this phone if it’s released? | http://blog.htcyou.com/2011/12/27/sharp-shows-the-aquos-phone-is14sh/print/ | 2013-05-18T10:41:17 | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | 1368696382261 | [] |
Can anyone suggest what to focus on when studying for the NASM Fitness Specialist Exam?
Submitted by Linda Tanzillo on Wed, 03/20/2013 - 22:49.
I am currently studying for the NASM Fitness Specialist Exam and I am having trouble with the material. Was looking for some suggestion as to what to focus my studies on. Any tips would be helpful. Thank you. | http://blog.ideafit.com/node/2662420 | 2013-05-18T10:13:01 | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | 1368696382261 | [] |
May 16, 2013
Hyperbolic Voronoi diagrams
May 05, 2013
Power diagram, Laguerre geometry, and statistical Voronoi diagrams
I am programming 2D power diagrams. Power diagrams are Voronoi diagrams with respect to the power distance.
The power distance being the distance between power points.
For each 2D point, we add a weight and compute the power diagram by reducing it to a 3D convex hull.
Here is an example of a power diagram:
The power of sites are indicated by the blue circles. Observe that some cells may be empty, and some cells may contain several sites. Here is the PDF of this file so that you can zoom in this vectorial file. The list of generators in x,y,weight so that you can play with it.
I am implementing the 2D power diagrams because it is a universal method for computing affine diagrams, that is diagrams with hyperplane bisectors. For power diagrams, the bisectors are the radical axis of the spheres (that can have imaginary radii). The applications I am targeting is to compute statistical Voronoi diagrams:
- Statistical diagrams with respect to Rao geodesic distance for univariate normals amount to compute a hyperbolic Voronoi diagram, affine in the Klein ball model.
- Statistical diagrams with respect to the Kullback-Leibler divergence for members of the same exponential family amount to compute Bregman Voronoi diagrams. These are affine diagrams too.
There shall be a follow-up on applications of those statistical Voronoi diagrams.
Apr 26, 2013
Symmetrical Kullback-Leibler centroid and W-Lambert function
The Jeffreys divergence of J-divergence (or symmetrical Kullback-Leibler divergence) is defined by:
The Jeffreys centroid for positive histograms is available in closed-form:
The Jeffreys frequency centroid is restricted to belong to the probability simplex:
Here are the slides related to the Jeffreys centroids: Slides
Apr 23, 2013
Non-Linear Book Manifolds: Learning from Associations the Dynamic Geometry of Digital Libraries
Non-Linear Book Manifolds: Learning from Associations the Dynamic Geometry of Digital Libraries
Richard Nock (CEREGMIA-UAG. France.); Frank Nielsen (Sony CS Labs Tokyo. Japan.); Eric Briys (CEREGMIA-UAG-Cyberlibris. Belgium.) Abstract Mainstream approaches in the design of virtual libraries basically exploit the same ambient spaceas their physical twins. Our paper is an attempt to rather capture automatically the actual space on which the books live, and \textit{learn} the virtual library as a non-linear book manifold.This tackles tantalizing questions, chief among which whether modeling should be static and book focused (\textit{e.g.}using bag of words encoding) or dynamic and user focused (\textit{e.g.} relying on whatwe define as a \textit{bag of readers} encoding). Experiments on a real-world digital librarydisplay that the latter encoding is a serious challenger to the former. Our results also show that the geometric layers of the manifold learned bring sizeable advantages for retrieval and visualization purposes. For example, the topological layer of the manifold allows to craft \textit{Manifold} association rules; experiments display that theybring dramatic improvements over conventional association rules built from the discrete topology of book sets.Improvements embrace \textit{each} of the following major standpoints on association rule mining: computational, support, confidence, lift, and leverage standpoint.
Apr 15, 2013
Hypermask, Furhat,and the manifold of multiple homographies!
At Siggraph 1999, we presented hypermask, and demonstrated its use in a theatrical play where a single actor played several actors. The technology is based on projector camera calibration, 3d pose estimation and lip sync. Here is a video a what the system looked back in 1998-1999:
Here is the paper. Hyper mask: projecting a talking head onto a real object
Recently, I came across a nice project called Furhat
historical page
So what is the link with information geometry. Well, it deals with homography estimation, and the manifold of multiple homographies.
Apr 12, 2013
50 source code snippets for visual computing
In 2005, I released a book on visual computing:
The book has been used for teaching in several universities. For example
- Cardiff U, UK
- Salzburg U, Austria
- Beira Interior U, Portugal
- Electro-Communications U, Japan
- Polytechnic Madrid U, Spain
- MPI, Germany
- Braunschweig University of Technology, Germany
- Ecole Polytechnique, France
- etc...
See the table of contents
It contains a set of 50 source codes in C++: source codes in C++.
Nowadays, I am more Java(TM) and Processing oriented, and I am refreshing many of the demos. Stay tuned...
Apr 08, 2013
Linear SVM, Ball SVM, and minimum enclosing ball
Linear SVM and the kernel trick are certainly one of the corner stones of supervised machine learning.
In fact, it can be generalized to containment machines (geometric machines), and instead of using halfspace containment in SVM, one can choose ball containment and build Ball SVM, and so on.
In Approximating smallest enclosing balls with applications to machine learning, we investigate several algorithms for computing enclosing balls. There is a special emphasis on the nice covering/piercing duality, illustrated by this figure:
See also Approximating smallest enclosing balls
Apr 01, 2013
On the symmetrical Kullback-Leibler Jeffreys centroids, and Lambert W-function
There are many ways to symmetrize the Kullback-Leibler divergence like Jeffreys one-half symmetrized KL or Jensen-Shannon divergence by taking the divergences to the mid-distribution. There is also Chernoff min-max divergence that has a nice geometric interpretation.
One question that arises once we get an appropriate divergence is how to perform hard clustering a la k-means.
This requires to compute a centroid. We address the problem of computing Jeffreys centroid.
We end-up with a closed-form for positive histograms using Lambert W functions:
Furthermore, we prove that renormalizing this centroid gives a bound on the frequency Jeffreys centroid. We also report a simple bisection algorithm for approximating the exact frequency Jeffreys centroid. Note that we can use a variational k-means approach as described in the previous post. Further details are provided here
Mar 29, 2013
Variational k-means, k-MLE and Jensen-Bregman clustering (Burbea-Rao clustering)
Kmeans clustering is one of the oldest hard clustering algorithm with many refinements since its inception.
One of the famous recent results is k-means++ (with interestingly a recent paper showing A Bad Instance for k-Means++)
To prove that k-means converge, we need to
- prove that at the assignment stage, the loss function decreases
- prove that at the relocation stage, the loss function of each cluster (the information like Bregman information) decreases
(Squared) Euclidean k-means does it by assigning points to their closest center and relocation to the center of mass, for each cluster. Now, interestingly, we can have a different loss function for each cluster and k-means still converge. This is done for learning statistical mixtures using the k-MLE algorithm (stands for k-maximum likelihood estimator). See this paper for a proof.
Now, for the first condition, although we would like to have the minimizer of the cluster information for each cluster, it is enough just to decrease it a little bit, hence the name variational k-means. For example, Jensen-Bregman clustering needs to compute Jensen-Bregman centroids (aka. Burbea-Rao centroids) that are not available in closed-form but can be arbitrary approximated. We can decide to approximate those centroids up to machine precision, like this is done in this paper (The Burbea-Rao and Bhattacharyya centroids), or by just doing a single iteration, as recently proned in this paper (Bregman divergences and triangle inequality). The first approach tends to minimize the computational effort.
Mar 15, 2013
Connected at Infinity II is out!
Recently, I have been engrossed in coding and postponed blogging.
However, today I received my complimentary copy of the book entitled Connected at Infinity II.
Here are pictures of the front and back cover pages.
The chapter on Cramer-Rao Lower Bound and Information Geometry is also available here.
@incollection{CRIG-2013, author = {Frank Nielsen}, title = {Cram\'er-Rao Lower Bound and Information Geometry}, page = {18-37}, editor = {Rajendra Bhatia and C. S. Rajan and Ajit Iqbal Singh}, booktitle = {Connected at Infinity {II}: A selection of mathematics by {I}ndians}, publisher = {Hindustan Book Agency (Texts and Readings in Mathematics, TRIM)}, note = {arxiv 1301.3578} year = {2013}, url = {} }
Feb 25, 2013
Kullback-Leibler projection for best mixture simplification
Suppose we are given a mixture of n gaussians (p tilde) and we ask for the best gaussian (single component) approximating that mixture with respect to the Kullback-Leibler divergence:
Then this best Gaussian is found as the KL projection of the gaussian mixture onto the exponential family manifold of gaussians. It is equivalent to compute a Bregman barycenter.
Thus we can also learn a mixture by simplifying a kernel density estimator as explained in this paper and illustrated in this figure:
Feb 20, 2013
Hypothesis testing: Chernoff information, orthogonality and dual geometry
One way to detect target from noise in signals is to do binary hypothesis testing.
You can model this statistical decision problem and assuming prior probability on the noise/target you seek to bound the probability of error. The Chernoff information is the best exponent error you can get from the best maximum a posteriori rule (MAP).
On the dually flat space of exponential families, it is characterized GEOMETRICALLY EXACTLY although you may not have closed-form solutions.
Here is the paper.
We plan to release the code in the next version of jMEF.
Feb 08, 2013
Which side of Kullback-Leibler divergence to optimize?
A common question is which side of Kullback-Leibler (KL) should I consider for optimization. Since KL is the relative entropy: it is the difference of cross-entropy minus the entropy. As such the ideal model should be on right hand side, and the estimated model on left-hand side. Now suppose you want to find the center of two distributions for mixture simplification. You can interpret the results of left-sided and right-sided KL centroids as follows:
- The Kullback-Leibler right-sided centroid is zero-avoiding so that its corresponding density function tries to cover the support of all input normals,
- The Kullback-Leibler left-sided centroid is zero-forcing so that it focuses on the highest mass mode normal.
Here, there is not one model but two ideal models so we need a trade-off (=centroid).
The zero-forcing/avoiding property is depicted in the following figure:
Here are the details (paper).
Jan 31, 2013
An information-geometric characterization of Chernoff information
The Chernoff information was originally introduced for bounding the probability of error of the Bayesian decision rule in binary hypothesis testing. Nowadays, it is often used as a notion of symmetric distance in statistical signal processing or as a way to define a middle distribution in information fusion. Computing the Chernoff information requires to solve an optimization problem that is numerically approximated in practice. We consider the Chernoff distance for distributions belonging to the same exponential family including the Gaussian and multinomial families. By considering the geometry of the underlying statistical manifold, we define exactly the solution of the optimization problem as the unique intersection of a geodesic with a dual hyperplane. Furthermore, we prove analytically that the Chernoff distance amounts to calculate an equivalent but simpler Bregman divergence defined on the distribution parameters. It follows a closed-form formula for the singly-parametric distributions, or an efficient geodesic bisection search for multi-parametric distributions. Finally, based on this informationgeometric characterization, we propose three novel information-theoretic symmetric distances and middle distributions, from which two of them admit always closed-form expressions.
@ARTICLE{ChernoffDistance-2013, author={Nielsen, F.}, journal={Signal Processing Letters, IEEE}, title={An information-geometric characterization of Chernoff information}, year={2013}, volume={PP}, number={99}, pages={1}, keywords={Bregman divergence;Chernoff information;exponential families;information fusion;information geometry;}, doi={10.1109/LSP.2013.2243726}, ISSN={1070-9908},}
Jan 25, 2013
Loosely bounding a Bregman divergence (without the Hessian)
Traditionally, the supremum of the norm of the Hessian of the Bregman generator over a closed domain is used in conjuction with the Lagrange remainder of the Taylor expansion to bound a Bregman divergence since we have:
But we can also bound Bregman divergence easily without the Hessian, by using the gradient, as follows:
I will report how to use this bound when defining and computing the Chernoff distance for exponential families.
Frank.
An update list of publications
Jan 23, 2013
Dictionary of computational information geometry
I updated the dictionary of terms (580+) used in computational information geometry.
Need some serious cleaning soon.
Frank.
Jan 17, 2013
Cramer-Rao Lower Bound and Information Geometry
Happy new year to all of you!
An introductory article: Cramer-Rao Lower Bound and Information Geometry
Nov 26, 2012
Smooth transitions between left-sided and right-sided Bregman centroids (with java code):
One of the questions that often arises when using a Kullback-Leibler divergence is "how do we choose the orientation of KL?".
In information retrieval, another related argument is "how to symmetrize Kullback-Leibler divergence?" (3 solutions: Jeffreys divergence, Jensen-Shannon divergence, Chernoff divergence).
However, sometimes we would like to experiment more precise choices rather than left/right or symmetric orientation.
One way to do so is to use skew Burbea-Rao divergences (also called skew Jensen divergences) that tend in limit cases to Bregman divergences:
Skewness factor may depend on applications although a principle way is yet to be analyzed. This sample program Bregman_BurbeaRao_Jensen_SkewDivergence.java demonstrates the skewness property in limit cases. Note that you do not have to compute gradient for approximating Bregman divergences. Here is a run of the program:
Skew Burbea-Rao-Jensen divergences: Bregman divergences obtained in limit case alpha=0 and Bregman reverse for limit case
More details can be found in 1004.5049v3.pdf and 1009.4004v2.pdf
Frank.
Nov 19, 2012
k-Maximum Likelihood Estimator for mixtures of generalized Gaussians
The slides of the talk of Olivier on learning generalized Gaussian mixtures using an extension of the k-MLE framework are online here now.
Nov 17, 2012
CFP: Geometric Science of Information (GSI'13)
Nov 16, 2012
Videos updated
Nov 06, 2012
Computational information geometry
I updated the tiny dictionary of comp info geo terms.
Frank.
Nov 05, 2012
First encounter with computational geometry (20 years ago!)
Well, time is flying, isn't it !?! and when cleaning my room, I found this old report. It is my first report (in french) on computational geometry, back to 1992. It considers the problem of computing the convex hull of spheres in arbitrary dimension. Later, I worked on output-sensitive algorithms for convex planar objects: An Output-Sensitive Convex Hull Algorithm for Planar Objects
Nov 02, 2012
Presentations at ICPR 2012 (Tsukuba)
In 10 days, ICPR will kick off in Tsukuba. It is time to prepare poster and shotgun poster presentations!
- Closed-Form Information-Theoretic Divergences for Statistical Mixtures:
shotgun presentation and poster
- Jensen Divergence Based SPD Matrix Means and Applications:
shotgun presentation and poster
- k-MLE for mixtures of generalized Gaussians
See you there!
Frank.
Oct 18, 2012
Information-geometric signal processing (Slides)
Oct 15, 2012
A glance at information-geometric signal processing
I will be presenting a talk entitled:
A glance at information-geometric signal processing (see 2012-T-MAHI-JGSSP.pdf) at MAHI: Methodological Aspects of Hyperspectral Imaging
Oct 10, 2012
Perspective click'n'drag: Quick area selection in photos
Sep 06, 2012
Travelling in hyperbolic geometry
Hyperbolic geometry is fascinating, especially in high dims and with complex numbers. Using the many models of hyperbolic geometry, one can choose the best model for a computation purpose. For example, the hyperbolic Voronoi diagram has better be computed in the Klein ball (non-conformal).: Hyperbolic Voronoi diagrams made easy
I did some travelling experiment on travelling myself on the 2D upper plane:
Frank.
Aug 27, 2012
It is some time...
Aug 21, 2012
Information-geometric diffusion kernel for the multinomial geometry
A very neat paper is the Diffusion Kernels on Statistical Manifolds
@article{DiffusionKernelsStatManifolds-2005, author = {Lafferty, John and Lebanon, Guy}, title = {Diffusion Kernels on Statistical Manifolds}, journal = JMLR, issue_date = {12/1/2005}, volume = {6}, month = dec, year = {2005}, issn = {1532-4435}, pages = {129--163}, numpages = {35}, publisher = {JMLR.org}, bibEntryDate = {2012/8/20}, bibEntryAuthor={Frank Nielsen} }
The authors recall that the Fisher-Rao geometry amounts to the spherical geometry,, and design the multinomial diffusion kernel. Application to text classification using tfidf (weighted bag of words) is presented.
@FrnkNlsn
Aug 17, 2012
Human vs Computer Image Segmentation
Segmentation consists in partitioning the image into homogeneous regions intended to represent objects.
Human excels in segmenting but computers have the difficult task to solve this problem is a bottom-top approach.
In fact, each individual may bring its own segmentation result but computers solve some optimization problem.
- Graph (MST, normalized cuts)
- Clustering (k-means, GMMs)
- Region growing (SRM)
Nock R., Nielsen, F., (2004). Statistical region merging. IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, 26(11):1452-1458.
see some ecological applications
- Watershed
- etc
An interesting result by Kleinberg is to define a set of three essential properties one good clustering should have, and then prove that there does not exist an objective function to optimize yielding those properties...
J. Kleinberg. An Impossibility Theorem for Clustering. Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems (NIPS) 15, 2002.
Watershed is a segmentation technique that proceeds by filling/detecting basins by dropping water.
It takes a greyscale image and manipulate it as a heightmap. To see that it is not trivial task, look at the right column and try to guess the corresponding image on the left column... !!!
Segmentation is a never-ending problem, so what are the next big milestones to focus on?
I am programming figures for updating the arxiv report 1210.8234.
It is computing hyperbolic Voronoi diagrams from affine diagrams.
Here is an example with 1000 points in Poincare conformal ball model:
The way it works is by clipping a power diagram with the bounding sphere. Then we can export this affine diagram to other common hyperbolic models.
The Klein diagram:
has been derived from the power diagram:
and then transformed into the Poincare ball model:
Here are some PDFs of figures: | http://blog.informationgeometry.org/ | 2013-05-18T11:03:36 | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | 1368696382261 | [
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Santa doesn’t come to our house .
{Gasp!}
Yes you heard me right. We don’t do Santa.
I know this is a hot topic, and before I go anywhere else, I want to say that I am no way suggesting that Santa is evil, or that families are “in sin” by having Santa come to their home. This is where our family has personally landed, as we strive to point our kids to Jesus during the Christmas season.
We desire to avoid confusion.
There are many reasons for why we chose this route; the bottom line is that we don’t want to muddy the waters when it comes to teaching our children about God. Noel Piper puts into words exactly how we feel about Santa (emphasis mine):
For several reasons, we have chosen not to include Santa Claus in our Christmas stories and decorations. First, fairy tales are fun, but we don’t ask our children to believe them. Second, celebrating with Santa and manger will postpone a child’s clear understanding of what the real truth of God is.:
• He’s omniscient—he sees everything you do.
• He rewards you if you’re good.
• He’s omnipresent—at least, he can be everywhere in one night.
• He gives you good gifts.
• He’s the most famous “old man in the sky” figure.
But at the deeper level that young children can’t comprehend yet,.
—Noel Piper, Treasuring God in our Traditions (You can download this book for free here.)
So what, then, do we do with Santa?
We don’t ignore Santa.
We don’t ignore Santa when we see him in the mall. They get a bit excited to see him, just as they would Mickey Mouse, Sleeping Beauty or Lightning McQueen. But in our kids minds, as much as they can comprehend, he is fictional.
While Chris and I feel completely confident in our decision to not have Santa visit our house (we have made the same decision for the Easter Bunny and Tooth Fairy) there is some good that “Santa” can bring to our celebration of Christ’s coming.
St. Nicholas was a man who loved God and gave all he had, in secret, to those in need. We talk to our kids about St. Nicholas, the true Santa Claus. The Veggie Tales movie Saint Nicholas-A Story of Joyful Giving
is a great resource, as it tells the story of St. Nick and how he gave to others in the name of Christ.
I really love this idea, where “in the spirit of thoughtfulness and generosity practiced by St. Nicholas, family members put little cards, treats or gifts inside.” We put the stocking up at the beginning of December, and fill each other’s stockings with gifts of encouraging words and small treats throughout the month.
We desire to guard other family’s traditions.
My oldest son is in First Grade and I cannot be there every moment to cover up his mouth before he shatters his classmate’s Santa dreams. I try to remind him, whenever Santa comes up, that it is not up to him to tell people about Santa; it is up to the parents to tell their children the truth about Santa, NOT HIM. He seems to get it, and I just hope that my kids NEVER do something like this!
So, what do you do about Santa? Incorporate him in your traditions? Ignore him?
Yes, we also flat out tell our kids that Santa is pretend, but I’ve never thought about what they might say to their friends! How funny!!
Katie, I remember reading some other time on your blog your family’s thoughts on Santa, and then showing it to my husband. You said it so well. We feel VERY similar to you, and do much of the same things (including not wanting our children to shatter other children’s ideas).
Thanks for explaining this so well!
We didn’t do Santa either, and my kids always loved and still love Christmas.
We also told them not to burst the bubble of others who did believe. However, when my Jenna was 3, she told her 5-yr-old Santa-believing cousin that Santa wasn’t real. My niece (now 20) still says that scarred her (but I think/hope she’s kidding!).
Oh no! Funny family joke, now!
I want to be sensitive, as I know so many have fond memories of Santa as a child. Me, I think I was just too practical minded, as I have no memory of believing in Santa. I alway knew it was my parents!
Having fun with Saint Nicholas Day on Dec. 6 is one way to teach truth and learn about history, geography, cultures, and worldview without mixing “Santa Claus” into the celebration of Christmas. We’ve gotten some good ideas from Pam Forster at doorposts.com.
Yes! And, thanks for sharing the link!
What a great post! Thank you! My son is only two and we’re not even there yet (give it another year or so), but it’s been a question as to what we would do. I grew up knowing Santa, but he wasn’t a big deal. He brought one gift. My husband grew up not knowing Santa. We aren’t into getting a picture of our son with Santa (besides, he’d probably cry).
You put things very simply and answered a lot of questions we’ve asked ourselves. Thank you for this comforting post.
That definitely makes the decision easier, I think—that Santa wasn’t a big deal. I know for some who have treasured memories of Santa, the really want to give that bit of childhood to their children. Sweet memories, for sure.
I really haven’t experienced much flack for not doing Santa, from family or friends, and it makes it so much easier to make Christmas more about Jesus.
I remember the day I found out the truth. I was crushed and strangely the only one my age who still ‘believed’. I wondered aimlessly through Christmas as an older kid. I knew Jesus, but how to be excited when there was no “Santa”?
It was for this reason too, that we wanted to build Christmas with the true meaning for our girls. To celebrate Jesus. We have celebrate all month the season of advent and to have a birthday party for Jesus on Christmas Eve. We do give our girls gifts and have stockings on Christmas day.
The tooth fairy is another deal. When we are talking blood and teeth – we pretend she is real.
They are on to her though!
Though it is not the main reason why we don’t do Santa, that is another factor—I don’t want my kids to experience that crushing feeling, and then make Christmas a disappointment. It doesn’t happen to everyone, but it was not a risk I wanted to take.
Thanks for sharing!
We don’t do Santa (or the Easter Bunny, Tooth Fairy) either. Although both my husband and I grew up believing in all of them, I am so glad we chose to teach our children differently.
My children are ages 5 & 2, and this has been such a trial and error experience for us concerning this whole subject! I first started out telling my son that Santa was not real – only to see him in the mall. I’ll never forget him looking at me saying, “Mommy, you said he’s not real. He’s right there!” So, like you mentioned, ignoring him doesn’t really work in a world where he’s all over the place this time of year!:)
My son (who is very outgoing) has never hesitated telling other children that Santa is not real. Now that he’s 5, he is a little better at keeping it to himself! (Thank goodness!)
Despite all of the challenges that go along with it all,I am so glad that we are doing our best to teach our children the real meaning of Christmas!
Thanks for the great post! It was really encouraging for me.
He absolutely cannot be ignored, as He is everywhere. Last year, my son was in Kindergarten, and he kept struggling with me over Santa being real, “But all my teachers say he’s real!”
We had a long talk about why we chose not to tell him to believe in Santa, and how we didn’t want him to think that one day we would tell him God is not real, too. He got it. I think we need to be able to be totally up front about it, and it helps.
Thanks for reading!
We have always explained the truth about Santa to our boys and don’t do the Santa thing. They are just as much excited as any kid would be, and they talk about Jesus a lot during Christmas.
I just wrote on my blog today about why we don’t do Santa either. For the longest time I thought I might be the only one LoL! Unfortunately a lady from my church felt attacked bc I said she was lying to her kids about Santa, but I told her she was bc it wasn’t truth. I also added I don’t think she is bad for doing Santa or less of a Christian, I was just sharing MY personal conviction.
Too often I think Christians do things bc other Christians do them, we don’t seek out the Lord & see what he would have us personally do. Here’s the link to my blog if any are interested in reading it.
FinishingHISrace.blogspot.com
We do the same. We do Ann Voskamp’s Devotional and wreath at
Here is our approach:
We do not “do” Santa either. We choose to teach our children about St. Nicholas and give small gifts in our stockings on Dec. 6th. We are Christians…so Christmas is about Christ’s birth. That is our focus.
Although I grew up believing in Santa, my husband did not. I remember how I used to believe but don’t have any bad memories of finding out the truth. However, we also “do not “do” Santa” at our house. In fact, just this week, one of my dear friends shared with me the exact words she uses with her children and it really resonated with my husband and I. She says, “Santa is a game played at Christmas.” With my son only 3, it’s an easy way to avoid him “bursting the bubble” of another child, but we are not in anyway saying he is real. If we encourage children to believe something we KNOW is a lie, how to we help them sort out truth from lies as they grow up? Just my opinion!
I have recently heard about putting it as the “Santa game” and that has been helpful for us, in keeping our 6 year old quiet. There have been few conversations recently that we have been holding our breath! I truly do not want to cause problems for other families!
My three year old? She is determined to believe in Santa! Whenever she brings it up, we say “You know, Santa’s not real, right?” She adamantly tells us HE IS! *Sigh* At least we’re not worried about her bursting any bubbles!
Thanks for reading!
I was convicted by God before our first child was even born in this area. These past two years I have felt Him nudging me to speak out on it with people who ‘do’ Santa, and have not clearly thought out why they do it, other than it is tradition in their family. Our children know of Santa, know him like any other fairytale, and are told some families pretend he is real, so do not talk to other kids about it. (They are REALLY confused about why anyone would want to lie to their kids.) They have always been just as excited for presents when they come from us and their grandparents! For those who make Santa ‘real’ they ARE deciding to put an idol in their home at Christmastime. Any person or thing that is given god-like attributes is an idol, and therefore is a sin against the commandment “Thall shalt have NO OTHER GODS before me.” For some reason, Santa has become ingrained with many Christian families, and they refuse to believe they could be doing wrong. Our family is not perfect in any area, but we have learned that we must have an answer for why we do or don’t do everything in our home. If we are asked about it, our reasons must be explained. The families I have talked with over the Santa issue are offended that they would be questioned on it–but have no problem putting me through a grilling over why our family homeschools. (And often try to talk us into putting our kids in ‘regular’ school if we admit some parts are difficult!) I do not desire contention in the the Christian community, but I believe the addition of Santa is what brings it–not the exclusion of him.
Wow! Great! Perfectly said! I may steal this
Yes, Christine, Santa can bring potential confusion, but we need to be careful in how we approach it with those who have chosen to allow Santa in their traditions.
I think many of the Christians who do Santa have not thought about it as long and careful as you, and they certainly do not see Santa as an idol (nor do I.) I personally would tread very lightly here, especially in initiating with others around you.
I think many of these parents have fond memories of Santa as a child, just like they might have good memories of going to Disneyland, or camping, or a big birthday party. So, they are just trying to give their kids fun family memories, building on what they experienced themselves.
We have decided it is best for our family to not do Santa, but I think we need to be careful to put the label of “sin” on something that the Bible is not clear on. How we celebrate Christmas is a gray area. We must each decide what is best for our family—what we think gives God the most glory—and walk in obedience to that.
I know of many Christ-following families who include Santa, to differing degrees. They all love God, love their children, and have a God-glorifying Christmas celebration.
Thanks for your comment, and for reading!
My husband and I are right about here on the Santa thing. I didn’t grow up with Santa, and don’t see the point. Christmas was wonderful and magical in spite of “missing” that part of it, and I want my kids to have the same exciting memories that focus on the truth and not some fairytale. My husband grew up with Santa and has such happy family memories of playing along with it– his dad still writes a Santa letter and leaves cookies out, even though their youngest was 30 this year. As we’re expecting our first this summer, we shall see how this plays out…
I’m going to print this out for my dad, who gave me BIG time grief last night after having supper with him & my step mom.
(
Thank you SO much for sharing.
Please remember people the true meaning of christmas is the rebirth of the sun.The early church claimed this holiday because they could not destroy it.Christian have a problem with historical truth.You going to make Jesus be born on the 25 of dec.Youre going to make him the reason for the season.The truth is Santa may have alot more to do with it then you think.The ancient peoples believed that such beings visited the earth doing that time of the year and blessed the homes of the those who did good the past year.You treat Jesus like he a fact and everything else is false.Thats not the case.Imean i love jesus too and i go to church sometimes but i have need to believe in other things aswell.And I STILL BELIEVE IN THE EXISTENCE OF SANTA CLAUS.I will not put him on the level of God or Jesus but based on a childhood experence that i know my mother had nothing to do with i believe that he is real.Even if hes only a spirit or Angel.And im not the only adult who dose.Peace | http://blog.katieorr.me/2011/12/what-to-do-with-santa/ | 2013-05-18T10:53:17 | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | 1368696382261 | [
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Posts tagged 1735
Replacement Dell Studio 1735 Laptop Battery Pack (4400mAh 11.1V)0
Recent Comments | http://blog.laptopbatterylife.com/tag/1735/ | 2013-05-18T10:12:17 | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | 1368696382261 | [
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Brandon Wetherbee of the Huffington Post writes today about the Let Teddy Win movement from the perspective of a Cubs fan, arguing that the Nationals shouldn’t let Teddy win until the season after a World Series victory.
It’s not that Wetherbee isn’t a supporter. He simply argues that a Teddy victory followed by anything short | http://blog.letteddywin.com/2012/09/28/huffington-post/?like=1&source=post_flair&_wpnonce=104f7cb3e5 | 2013-05-18T10:41:53 | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | 1368696382261 | [] |
.
Many of us agree that we should do everything within our power to make sure
that our companion animals enjoy the best possible life. But did you know that
simply by playing a role in your life, your furry kids could actually help you
to be not only happier but healthier?
Of course you did. It’s all part of the privilege and fun of being a pet
parent. What you may not know is that there’s plenty of science to back it up.
As a holistic veterinarian, I’ve read so many reports regarding the health
benefits associated with having companion animals, which has been accumulated
over the last two decades, including numerous research studies in the U.S. and
across the globe.... | http://blog.lifesabundance.com/2010/02/default.aspx?realname=10110089 | 2013-05-18T10:12:47 | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | 1368696382261 | [] |
Defining an Online Marketing Strategy and Roadmap
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Online marketers need to keep the basics of marketing at the forefront of their strategy. In B2B professional services companies, there is a pretty standard buying cycle that online marketers can use to address the strategy, tactics and campaigns to accomplish their business objectives. The buying cycle usually consists of 5 steps and with each step, there are better online marketing tactics than others. | http://blog.limaconsulting.com/category/business-to-business-marketing-funnel/retention/ | 2013-05-18T10:52:30 | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | 1368696382261 | [
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+
Spring Sale! Up to 30% Off
Category:
News
Announcing the Loeffler Randall Spring Sale: Enjoy up to 30% off select Spring and Resort shoes and handbags. With warm weather creeping, now's the perfect time to shop the season.
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Published
5/16/2013
By
Admin
Loeffler Randall NYC Spring Sample Sale
Announcing: The semi-annual Loeffler Randall Spring Sample Sale in NYC!
Please join us May 16th & 17th from 10am to 8pm at the Loeffler Randall showroom: 525 Broadway, 4th floor (corner of Spring).
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Published
5/10/2013
By
Loeffler Randall
Mother's Day Q&A with Jessie and Gail Randall
Category:
LR Loves, News
Jessie Randall and her mother Gail muse over memories and share with us their love for crafts, traditions, and the joy of being a mother. Moms rule.
Jessie, it's evident that you adore crafting and giving unique gifts, was it influenced by mom and if so, how?
Jessie Randall: My mom is a very crafty lady. She always made us gifts with love. It's something I love to do now for my own kids. I remember a Christmas where she sewed matching nightgowns for me and my two favorite dolls, a special desk stool that she quilted with liberty fabric and the Christmas stockings she hand knitted for me. Today we have six that she knitted in all including one for my dog Romeo.
As mother and daughter, how do you feel your personal styles reflect on each other?
Gail Randall: I am always wowed by what Jessie puts together. I wish I had known her when I was a teenager and young woman so I could have benefited from her flair. I learn so much from her and enjoy the insights that she offers through her own wardrobe and style. If my style has improved even a little bit since my early days, I have her to thank.
What style influences have you taken from Jessie?
GR: I have a much better sense of how a shoe can help define a woman's leg and outfit. I know a little more about draping and layering and what is interesting to the eye. When my grandson Liam once exclaimed about an outfit I was wearing, "That's fashion, Baba!" it was proof I had picked up something of value from Jessie.
Do you share any mother daughter seasonal traditions?
GR: When Jessie was a little girl she never seemed to want to become a new age. She liked the age she was in and didn't get as over the top about birthdays as I did. But today she carries on my love of birthday celebrations with imaginative ideas for celebrating her own boys' birthdays. I spent Christmas Eve at her house last year and was happy to find that she is carrying on and adding to the Scandinavian traditions that have been part of my family for generations...with the Swedish meatballs, minus the pickled herring...and with beautiful decorations and holiday treats.
What things make you think of Mom?
JR: Lily of the Valley perfume and Lilly of the Valley flowers, seashells and polished stones, silver jewelry, chicken pot pie, the ocean, the lullaby "my pigeon house," liberty fabrics, a long knit fisherman's jacket she used to wear when I was little, her worn leather keychain she still uses that my brother made her at camp, poems and laughter.
What things make you think of Jessie?
GR: There are things like style and natural beauty that immediately bring her to mind. But beyond that are those deep and essential attributes like loyalty and commitment to family and friends, joy in being a mother, curiosity and creativity.
What advice do you most often go to your mom for?
JR: Pretty much everything. Lots of times it's about the kids, worries about parenting, and the guilt I feel as a working mother. My mom is my rock and one of my best friends. She is so wise and she thinks the world of me. It's a very powerful thing to have someone who loves you that much.
What advice do you most often go to your daughter for?
GR: Jessie has been a rock for me. When I had cancer some years ago she came home immediately and knew just how to take care of me. One afternoon we lay in bed and held hands. It was beautiful and bolstering. I look to her for a young woman's perspective, for what it's like to raise kids today, what books are on her shelf that I should check out. I think there is nothing she couldn't help me form a perspective on, except maybe how to age gracefully since she doesn't need to do that yet!
Published
5/8/2013
By
Loeffler Randall
Mother's Day Q&A with Jane and Judy Aldridge!
back in stock: lr rain booties + 15% off
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*Offer only valid on Rain Slip-On Booties in black and mini lynx. Pre-ordered Rain Slip-On Booties are estimated to ship by May 30th, 2013. Offer ends Sunday, May 12th at 11:59 PM EST.
Published
5/6/2013
By
Loeffler Randall
Announcing: Friends & Family Sale
We are pleased to extend a special discount to our family, friends and fans: Enjoy 20% off* the entire Loeffler Randall collection with the code FRIENDSNFAM. Simply enter the code at checkout to receive your discount, starting now through Monday, April 29th.
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*Cannot be combined with other promotions. Not valid on returns or exchanges. No price adjustments on previous purchases. Offer ends 4/29/13 at 11:59 PM EST.
Published
4/24/2013
By
Admin
Spring Story: The "Dream Concert Line-Up" Part Two
Category:
LR Loves
While you probably won't find any of the LR staffers sweating it out in the desert while getting gnarly tan lines, we'll still be living the dream (literally) here in NYC by thinking up our own " Dream Concert Line-Ups." Who would have thought a little Stevie is the common thread amongst us?!
Jessica Peek, Wholesales:
Dream concert line-up?
Outkast, Notorious BIG, Fleetwood Mac, Jay-Z with guest appearance by Beyonce, Michael Jackson, and Michael McDonald. Followed by Girl Talk at 2:00 in the morning.
Who would the headliner be?
MJ for sure!
Where would it take place?
It could be anywhere, as long as I'm in a VIP area and the drinks are free.
Who would you take with?
My husband, the biggest hip-hop fan I know.
Sarah A. Means, Wholesales:
Johnny Cash, George Strait, Tina Turner.
Who would the headliner be?
Cash.
Where would it take place?
Texas' oldest dancehall, obviously:
Who would you take with?
The LR team, newly introduced to Texas beer and loving it (!), and my Dad.
Stephanie Draves, E-Commerce:
The Replacements, The Zombies, The Supremes.
The Replacements - because they would probably be late.
A Manhattan rooftop / surpise wedding reception.
My man + our party people.
Willa Gross, E-Commerce:
Beach Boys, David Byrne & Brian Eno, Beat Happening.
Beach boys (oh wouldn't it be nice..)
At the NYC Armory and everyone would sit on beach towels.
My cutie boyfriend and we would both dress in all white.
Brian Murphy, CFO:
Heart, Stevie Nicks and Dolly Parton - maybe with Kenny Rogers cameo.
Dolly.
Barclays Brooklyn in a skybox.
Anyone who's worked at LR since '05 who's had to listen to excessive amounts of all of the above off iTunes and XM Radio!
Amanda Thomas Alexander, Production & Operations:
Elvis Costello, The Pixies, Elton John and the Beastie Boys.
Elton.
Where would it take place?
In my living room or my mom's backyard in the summer.
As many family members and friends as I can fit.
Alix Bonnamour, Merchandising:
Grateful Dead (one of my regrets in life is that I never saw them), Fleetwood Mac, Melissa Etheridge, and Johnny Cash.
Johnny Cash and Jerry Garcia together.
The Saratoga Springs Performing Art Center.
I'd take my partner in life, Brian and I'd wear cut-offs, my Pink Floyd concert tee and my Tucker Odile sneakers.
Published
4/18/2013
By
Loeffler Randall
buena vista: the lake wedge
Say hello to our shoe that gives a point of view - the Lake platform wedge. A summer vision with breathable, criss-cross braided bands and an ever so leg-loving lift in either a stack of black & multi-color woven or tan woven with a summery cork wedge.
Published
4/17/2013
By
Loeffler Randall
About /
Customer Service /
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Bondi Tram
List All Users
Fleets
Config
Date:
11 Jan 2008 12:00:04
Title:
December 2007 Thailand Part 1
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We spent December travelling up from Langkawi through the Thai islands to Phuket where we cleared in to Thailand on December 15, which means we must leave on January 13. We spent Christmas in the Similan Islands and New Years Eve at Patong Bay back at Phuket.
Graham and Marianne joined us for 3 days on their way back from France and we made a short tour of Phang Nga Bay. Currently we are in Yacht Haven Marina, changing oil on the generator and engine and provisioning for our trip to the Maldives.
On the beach at Koh Rok
Sea Gypsy carvings, Koh Rok
Monitor lizard scavenging around the kitchen, National Park, Koh Rok
Cliffs at Phi Phi Don
Beach house under the cliffs, Phi Phi Don
Tsunami zone, Phi Phi Don
You couldn't tell now that the waves went through all the low lying land here
Shrine celebrating the King's 80th. birthday
Fish restaurant menu selection, Phi Phi Don
Koh Dam, also known as 'Chicken Island
The sand spit joins 2 islands at Koh Dam and covers/uncovers with the tide. Very popular day tour
spot for tourists who come out from Krabi in long tail boats
Made it across!
Restaurant at Koh Dam. We had a fantastic meal here in the evening...the only 2 customers,
everyone else had gone back to the mainland
Leaving Koh Dam
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Diary Entries
2012
May 2012
Fri 18 May
Last Post.....
Feb 2012
Thu 16 Feb
New Zealand 2 of 2
New Zealand 1 of 2
2011
Nov 2011
Mon 28 Nov
Postion Update 36:37.244S 174:47.467E Gulf Harbour Marina, NZ
Sun 27 Nov
Position Update 36:25.114S 174:49.627E Kawau Island, NZ
Fri 25 Nov
Position Update 35:36.987S 174:32.116E Tutukaka Harbour, NZ
Wed 23 Nov
Position Update 35:15.002S 174:17.867E Whangamumu Harbour, NZ
Tue 22 Nov
Position Update 35:14.412S 174:14.599E Omakiwi Cove,BOI, NZ
Mon 21 Nov
Position Update 35:13.657S 174:12.024E Moturua Is.,BOI, NZ
Oct 2011
Sun 30 Oct
Position Update Opua Marina, Bay of Islands, NZ
Sat 29 Oct
Position Update 32:05.331S 176:12.267E
Thu 27 Oct
Position Update 27:06.341S 179:38.181E
Wed 26 Oct
Position Update 23:23.598S 177:47.633W
Sat 22 Oct
Tonga 2 of 2
Tonga 1 of 2
Mon 03 Oct
Nieu
Rarotonga
Bora Bora 1 of 2
Sep 2011
Sun 25 Sep
Bora Bora 2 of 2
Fri 23 Sep
Position Update 18:39.453S 173:58.983W Neifau, Vavau, Tonga
Thu 22 Sep
Position Update 18:58.858S 171:42.559W
Wed 14 Sep
Position Update 19:03.285S 169:55.456W Alofi, Niue
Tue 13 Sep
Position Update 19:00.090S 169:28.230W
Sun 11 Sep
Position Update 20:25.411S 163:56.895W
Wed 07 Sep
Position Update 21:12.268S 159:47.078W Rarotonga, Cook Islands
Sun 04 Sep
Position Update 18:40.910S 154:08.815W
Fri 02 Sep
Tahaa and Raiatea
Aug 2011
Tue 30 Aug
Position Update 16:31.003S 151:46.380W Bora Bora
Sun 28 Aug
Huahine
Sat 20 Aug
Position Update 16:31.003 151:46.380W Bora Bora
Thu 18 Aug
Position Update 16:43.393S 151:26.840W Apu Bay, Tahaa
Moorea
Position Update 16:54.989S 151:25.773W Motu Nao Nao, Raietea
Tue 16 Aug
Position Update 16:43.393S 151:26.840W Uturoa, Raietea
Mon 15 Aug
Position Update 16:38.671S 151:31.053W Hurepiti Bay, Tahaa
Sat 13 Aug
Tahiti 2 of 2
Tahiti 1 of 2
Wed 10 Aug
Position Update 16:48.684S 150:59.540W Avea Bay, Huahine
Mon 08 Aug
Position Update 16:42.764S 151:02.396W Huahine
Fri 05 Aug
Position Update 17:29.435S 149:51.103W Opunohu Bay, Moorea
Thu 04 Aug
Rangiroa
Tue 02 Aug
Position Update 17:30.259S 149:49.272W Captain Cook's Bay, Moorea
Jul 2011
Sat 30 Jul
Fakarava Atoll 3
Wed 27 Jul
Fakarava Atoll 2
Fakarava Atoll 1
Sat 23 Jul
Position Update 17:34.756S 149:37.188W Papeete, Tahiti
Mon 18 Jul
Tuamotus - Kaeuhi Atoll
Wed 13 Jul
Position Update 14:58.052S 147:38.355W Rangiroa Atoll, Tuamotus
Sun 10 Jul
Position Update 16:02.557S 145:37.3111W Northern end, Fakarava Atoll
Sun 03 Jul
Position Update 16:30.427S 145:27.471W South Pass, Fakarava Atoll
Sat 02 Jul
Position Update 16:03.574S 145:37.212W Fakarava Atoll, Tuamotus
Jun 2011
Mon 27 Jun
Position Update 15:49.512S 145:07.102W Kaehui Atoll, Tuamotus
Sun 26 Jun
Position Update 12:08.317S 142:43.209W
Thu 23 Jun
Northern Marquesas - 3 of 3
Northern Marquesas - 2 of 3
Northern Marquesas - 1 of 3
Sun 19 Jun
Southern Marquesas 2 of 2
Southern Marquesas 1 0f 2
Fri 17 Jun
Position Update 08:54.850S 140:05.952W.Taiohea Bay, Nuku Hiva, Marquesas
Thu 16 Jun
Position Update 08:56.588S 140:09.790W. Anse Hakatea, Nuku Hiva, Marquesas
Tue 14 Jun
Position Update 09:21.509S 140:02.856W. Hakahaka Bay, Ou Puo, Marquesas
Fri 10 Jun
Position Update 09:54.458S 139:06.374W. Hanamoenoa Bay, Tahuata, Marquesas
Tue 07 Jun
Position Update 09:48.225S 139:01.900W. Atuona, Hiva Oa, Marquesas
Sat 04 Jun
Position Update 10:27.872S 138:40.075W. Baie des Verges, Fatu Hiva, Marquesas
Wed 01 Jun
Position Update 10:05.419S 133:38.107W
May 2011
Mon 30 May
Position Update 08:56.290S 129:08.387W
Thu 26 May
Position Update 06:57.350S 119:05.460W
Tue 24 May
Position Update 06:17.920S 114:24.554W
Sun 22 May
Position Update 06:02.132S 109:54.271W
Fri 20 May
Position Update 05:39.330S 104:31.700W
Wed 18 May
Position Update 03:21.116S 100:21.346W
Mon 16 May
Position Update 01:53.235S 95:21.759W
Sat 14 May
Galapagos 2 of 2
Galapagos 1 of 2
Wed 11 May
Las Perlas Islands
Panama City
Thu 05 May
Panama Canal 2 of 2
Panama Canal 1 of 2
Tue 03 May
Position Update 00:44.886S 90:18.495W Academy Bay, Santa Cruz, Galapagos
Position Update 00:00.000S 88:40.072W Crossed the Equator
Sun 01 May
Position Update 01:14.347N 86:47.015W
Apr 2011
Fri 29 Apr
Position Update 03:09.088N 82:26.032W
Wed 27 Apr
Position Update 05:16.050N 80:54.483W
Mon 25 Apr
Position Update 08:18.117N 78:54.146W Rio Cacique, Las Perlas
Sat 23 Apr
Position Update 08:25.556N 78:51.217W Mogo Mogo, Las Perlas
Thu 21 Apr
Position Update 08:35.057N 79:01.162W Mogo Mogo, Las Perlas
Position Update 08:37.383N 79:01.911W Isla Contadora, Las Perlas
Fri 15 Apr
Position Update 08:55.169N 79:31.873W Panama City, Panama
Sun 03 Apr
San Blas to Colon
Mar 2011
Mon 28 Mar
San Blas Islands
Position Update 09:22.082N 79:57.020W Shelter Bay, Panama
Thu 24 Mar
Position Update 09:36.725N 79:35.267W Puerto Linton, Panama
Wed 23 Mar
Curacao
Mon 21 Mar
Position Update 09:32.683N 78:54.083W Lemon Cays, San Blas Islands, Panama
Thu 17 Mar
Position Update 13:00.413N 72:28.108W
Sat 12 Mar
Bonaire
Tue 08 Mar
Position Update, Curacao, 12:04.316N 68:50.606W
Fri 04 Mar
Position Update, Bonaire, 12:09.341N 68:16.807W
Feb 2011
Fri 25 Feb
St. Vincent and Grenadines
Position Update Prickyl Bay, Grenada 11:59.982N 61:45.805W
Thu 24 Feb
Position Update Tyrell Bay, Grenada 12:27.363N 61:29.395W
Mon 21 Feb
Martinique and St Lucia
Position Update Petit St. Vincent 12:32.084N 61:23.297W
Sun 20 Feb
Position Update Tobago Cays 12:37.806N 61:21.521W
Sat 19 Feb
Position Update Saline Bay, Mayreau 13:38.171N 61:23.912W
Thu 17 Feb
Position Update Admiralty Bay, Bequia 13:00.582N 61:14.573W
Wed 16 Feb
Position Update The Pitons, St. Lucia 13:50.579N 61:03.794W
Mon 14 Feb
Domenica
Fri 11 Feb
Position Update Marin, Martinique 14:26.861N 60:52.580W
Thu 10 Feb
Position Update Roseau, Domenica 15:17.211N 61:22.528W
Wed 09 Feb
Guadleoupe
Sun 06 Feb
Position Update Portsmouth, Domenica 15:34.841N 61:27.819W
Wed 02 Feb
Position Update Iles des Saintes 15:52.183N 61:35.056W
Jan 2011
Mon 31 Jan
Position Update Pointe Pitre, Guadaloupe 16:13.704N 61:32.105W
Sun 30 Jan
Position Update Anse de Barque, Guadaloupe 16:05.327N 61:46.140W
Sat 29 Jan
Position Update Deshaies, Guadaloupe 17:18.386N 61:47.923W
Fri 28 Jan
Antigua
Wed 26 Jan
Landfall in the Caribbean
Sun 23 Jan
Position Update Falmouth Harbour, Antigua 17:01.035N 61:46.485W
Sat 22 Jan
Position Update Morris Bay, Antigua 17:04.195N 61:54.305W
Fri 21 Jan
Atlantic Crossing
Sat 08 Jan
Position Update at anchor, Marigot Bay, St Marten 18:04.262N 63:05.662W
Fri 07 Jan
Position Update at anchor, Groot Baai, Sint Maarten 18:01.010N 63:02.884W
Position Update 17:44.137N 60:56.836W
Wed 05 Jan
Position Update 17:39.792N 58:46.052W
Tue 04 Jan
Position Update 17:27.943N 56:22.518W
Mon 03 Jan
Position Update 17:02.028N 51:36.748W
Sun 02 Jan
Position Update 16:27.919N 49:54.582W
2010
Dec 2010
Fri 31 Dec
Position Update 17:31.682N 48:24.729W
Thu 30 Dec
Position Update 17:36.882N 46:43.008W
Wed 29 Dec
Position Update 17:59.306N 43:03.180W
Tue 28 Dec
Position Update 17:05.862N 43:11.794W
Mon 27 Dec
Position Update 16:24.087N 40:42.769W
Sun 26 Dec
Position Update 15:59.225N 38:13.402W
Sat 25 Dec
Position Update 16:47.701N 36:17.100W
Fri 24 Dec
Position Update 16:32.300N 33:51.522W
Thu 23 Dec
Position Update 16:46.400N 31:55.469W
Wed 22 Dec
Position Update 16:39.101N 29:39.957W
Tue 21 Dec
Position Update 16:46.890N 26:49.209W
Departed Mendillo Monday 11/12/10 16:30
Mon 20 Dec
Cape Verde Islands
Las Palmas, Gran Canaria
Sat 18 Dec
Position Update 16:53.180N 24:59.509W Marina Mindelo, Sao Vincente, Cape Verde Is.
Fri 17 Dec
Position Update 18:35.377N 24:00.420W
Thu 16 Dec
Position Update 20:36.180N 22:46.965W
Tue 14 Dec
Position Update 23:56.631N 20:35.253W
Sun 12 Dec
Position Update 26:27.788N 16:56.994W
Sat 11 Dec
Departed Las Palmas, Gran Canaria, 11 December 2010 at 10.15
Mon 06 Dec
More Canaries
Wed 01 Dec
Position Update Las Palmas, Gran Canaria 28:07.491N 15:25.485W
Nov 2010
Wed 24 Nov
Position UpdateSanta Cruz, Tenerife 28:27.956N 16:14.660W
Tue 23 Nov
Canary Islands - Lanzarote
Mon 22 Nov
Canary Islands - Graciosa
Sat 20 Nov
Position Update Las Palmas, Gran Canaria 28:07.799N 15:25.308W
Fri 19 Nov
Position Update Tuertito de la Luz, Fuerteventura 28:04.157N 14:30.025W
Thu 18 Nov
Position Update Gran Tarajal, Fuerteventura 28:12.511N 14:01.028W
Wed 17 Nov
Position Update Lobos Island 28:44.197N 13:49.617W
Sun 14 Nov
Position Update Marina Rubicon 28:51.376N 13:48.911W
Tue 09 Nov
Position Update Lanzarote, Canaries 28:58.274N 13:31.892W
Oct 2010
Fri 29 Oct
Position Update Graciosa Canaries 29:12.993N 13:31.806W
Wed 27 Oct
Position Update 31:32.000N 10:55.000W
Mon 25 Oct
Morocco Part 6 - More of Rabat
Sat 23 Oct
Morocco Part 5 - Sale
Morocco Part 4 - Fez
Morocco Part 3 - Marrakesh
Morocco Part 2 - Casablance
Fri 22 Oct
Morocco Part 1 Rabat
Sep 2010
Thu 16 Sep
Position Update Rabat, Morocco 034.01:777N 06.49:350W
Tue 14 Sep
Spain
Gibraltar
Sat 11 Sep
Balearics - Isla Ibiza and Formentera
Fri 10 Sep
Balearics - Isla Mallorca
Mon 06 Sep
Position Update Gibralter 036.08:9567N 05.21:227W
Thu 02 Sep
Balearics - Isla Menorca
Aug 2010
Tue 31 Aug
Position Update Mar Menor 037.41:657N 0.46:747W
Mon 30 Aug
Position Update Isla Emplayadora 038.46:711N 01.25:579E
Sat 28 Aug
Position Update San Antonio 038.58:236N 01.17:884E
Thu 26 Aug
Position Update Cala Charraca 039.06:151N 01.29:979E
Tue 24 Aug
Position Update Cala Ponsa 039.30:014N 02.28:314E
Sun 22 Aug
West Coast of Corsica
Position Update Soller 039.47:593N 02.41:518E
Fri 20 Aug
Position Update Porto Pollensa 039.54:210N 03.05:625E
Thu 19 Aug
Position Update Cala Santa Galdana 039.56:209N 03.57:448E
Sat 14 Aug
Position Update Port Mahon 039.52:682N 04.18:474E
Sun 08 Aug
Position Update Ajaccio 041.55:926N 08.45:060E
Fri 06 Aug
The French Riviera
Wed 04 Aug
Portofino
The Italian Riviera
Tue 03 Aug
Position Update St-Florents 042.40:341N 09.17:453E
Sun 01 Aug
Position Update Ile Rousse 042.38:282N 08.56:593E
Jul 2010
Sat 31 Jul
Cinque Terre
Position Update Calvi 042.33:550N 08.46:733E
Thu 29 Jul
Position Update Toulon 043.05:012N 05.55:425E
Wed 28 Jul
Position Update Ile Port du Cros 043.00:577N 06.22:057E
Tue 27 Jul
Position Update St Tropez 043.16:025N 06.37:242E
Fri 23 Jul
Position Update Villefranche 044.42:090N 07.18:870E
Thu 22 Jul
Elba
Mon 19 Jul
Position Update Santa Margharita Ligure 044.20:007N 09.13:017E
Corsica Part II
Sun 18 Jul
Position Update Porto Venere 043.04:358N 09.50:551E
Sat 17 Jul
Corsica Part 1
Fri 16 Jul
Position Update La Grazie 044.04:101N 09.50:401E
Wed 14 Jul
Position Update Golfo della Biodola 042.48:173N 10.15:830E
More Sardinia
Tue 13 Jul
Sardinia - Costa Smerelda
Position Update Porto Azzuro 042.45:620N 10.23:535E
Sun 11 Jul
Position Update Marina di Campo 042.44:679N 10.14:451E
Sat 10 Jul
Position Update Porto Taverna 042.20:159N 09.32:645E
Fri 09 Jul
Position Update Anse de Favone 041.46:611N 09.24:123E
Tue 06 Jul
Position Update Porto Vecchio 041.35:382N 09.17:891E
Sun 04 Jul
Position Update Port Rondinaro 041.28:186N 09.16:245E
Sat 03 Jul
Position Update Golfo de Sant'Amanza 041.24:450N 09.13:219E
Fri 02 Jul
Position Update Porto Pollo 041.42:308N 008.47:829E
Thu 01 Jul
Position Update Anse de Roccapina 041.29:803N 008.55:946E
Jun 2010
Wed 30 Jun
Position Update Ile Lavezzi, Corsica 041.20:600N 009.15:563E
Tue 29 Jun
Position Update Porto Palma 041.11:356N 009.27:048E
Mon 28 Jun
Position Update Isola Maddalena 041.13:686N 009.26:806E
Sun 27 Jun
Position Update Golfo di Arzachena 041.06:363N 009.26:849E
Wed 23 Jun
Position Update Porto Cervo 041.08:207N 009.31:970E
Sat 19 Jun
Vatican
Rome and Pontile Islands
Thu 17 Jun
Position Update Isola Ito Porri 040.57:527N 009.35:123E
Bay of Naples and Pompeii
Tue 15 Jun
Position Update Cala Coda Caballo 040.50:528N 09.43:116E
Sat 12 Jun
Position Update Ponza 040.54:315N 012.57:769E
Wed 09 Jun
Position Update Rome 041.44:305N 012.14:582E
Tue 08 Jun
Position Update Anzio 041.26:771N 012.38:228E
Sun 06 Jun
Position Update Gaeta 041.13:128N 013.34:433E
Sat 05 Jun
Position Update Ventotene 040.47:554N 013.26:079E
Fri 04 Jun
Amalfi Coast
Wed 02 Jun
Malta to the Gulf of Salerno
Tue 01 Jun
Position Update Ischia 040.44:0440N 013.57:730E
May 2010
Sat 29 May
Position Update Procida 040.45:540N 014.01:759E
Fri 28 May
Position Update Capri 040.33:506N 014.14:240E
Thu 27 May
Position Update Positano 040.37:5430N 014.29:537E
Wed 26 May
Position Update Amalfi 040.37:8440N 014.35:815E
Tue 25 May
Position Update Agropoli 040.21:300N 014.59:100E
Mon 24 May
Position Update Oligastro 040.13:842N 014.56:326E
Sun 23 May
Position Update Punto Iscolotti 039.59:891N 015.25:604E
Sat 22 May
Position Update Scario 040.03:044N 015.29:553E
Thu 20 May
Position Update Sapri 040.03:700N 015.37:000E
Thu 13 May
Position Update Vibo Valentia Marina 038.43:220N 016.07:790E
Wed 12 May
Position Update Scilla Italy 038.15:275N 015.43:753E
Tue 11 May
Position Update Naxos 037.49:590N 015.16:444E
Thu 06 May
Position Update Siracusa 037.03:534N 015.17:019E
Mon 03 May
Malta 2010
2009
Dec 2009
Sun 27 Dec
Malta Part 2
Nov 2009
Sat 14 Nov
Malta Part 1
Oct 2009
Thu 01 Oct
Sicily
The Aeolian Islands
Sep 2009
Tue 22 Sep
Puglia to Sicily
Mon 21 Sep
Position Update Malta 035.53:141N 014.31:240E
Sun 13 Sep
Position Update Siracusa 037.03:719N 015.16:876E
Thu 10 Sep
Position Update Taormina 037.50:780N 015.17:343E
Tue 08 Sep
Position Update Millazzo 038.13:130N 015.14:538E
Sun 06 Sep
Position Update Vulcanoi Is. 038.25:049N 014.57:687E
Sat 05 Sep
Position Update Stromboli 038.48:035N 015.14:654E
Thu 03 Sep
Position Update Filicudi Is. 038.33:579N 014.35:165E
Aug 2009
Mon 31 Aug
Position Update Palermo 038.07:342N 013.22:342E
Sun 30 Aug
More Croatia
Sat 29 Aug
Venice
Position Update Cefalu 038.02:341N 014.00:952E
Position Update Straits of Messina 030.14:779N 015.38:363E
Fri 28 Aug
Position Update heel of Italy 038.10:029N 016.26:707E
Wed 26 Aug
Position Update Otranto 040.08:995N 018.29:449E
Mon 24 Aug
Position Update Brindisi 040.39:567N 017.57:785E
Thu 20 Aug
Position Update Lastovo 042.45:858N 016.48:637E
Tue 11 Aug
Position Update Rovinj 045.04:323N 013.38:041E
Sun 09 Aug
Position Update Porec 045.13:397N 013.35:532E
Wed 05 Aug
Position Update Venice 045.29:311N 012.25:257E
Sun 02 Aug
Position Update Pula 044.52:816N 013.50:560E
Jul 2009
Fri 31 Jul
Position Update Mali Lozen 044.34:326N 014.24:579E
Tue 28 Jul
Position Update Zut 043.53:133N 015.15:495E
Sun 26 Jul
Croatia...Split to Zadar
Fri 24 Jul
Position Update Sukosan 044.03:083N 015.18:437E
Wed 22 Jul
Position Update Kakan 043.41:859N 015.39:941E
Tue 21 Jul
Position Update Skradin 043.48:826N 015.55:099E
Sat 18 Jul
Croatian islands Part 1
Fri 17 Jul
Dubrovnik
Wed 15 Jul
Position Update Trogir 043.30:985N 016.16:191E
Tue 14 Jul
Position Update Split 043.30:351N 016.26:048E
Sat 11 Jul
Position Update Vis 043.03:713N 016.11:175E
Position Update Korcula 042.57:162N 017.08:455E
Wed 08 Jul
Position Update Mljet 042.47:233N 017.22:730E
Tue 07 Jul
Position Update Sipan 042.44:308N 017.49:717E
Sun 05 Jul
Position Update Lopud 042.41:206N 017.56:277E
Corfu
Fri 03 Jul
Position Update Donje Celo Croatia 042.40:734N 018.00:219E
Wed 01 Jul
Position Update Erikoussa 039.52:599N 019.34:947E
Jun 2009
Sun 28 Jun
Position Update Ayios Yeoryiou 039.43:205N 019.39:888E
Wed 24 Jun
Position Update Ayios Stefanos 039.45:951N 019.57:005E
Sun 21 Jun
Position Update Corfu 039.39:919N 019.51:481E
Patras Gulf and Ionian Islands
Fri 19 Jun
Position Update Mortos 039.24:373N 020.13:919E
Tue 16 Jun
Position Update Nisos Paxoi 039.14:160N 020.08:032E
Mon 15 Jun
Position update Vonitsa 038.55: 516N 020.54:157E
Sat 13 Jun
Kithnos, Corinth Canal and Delphi
Fri 12 Jun
Position update Levkas 038.50: 115N 020.42:702E
Amorgos
Santorini Part 2
Sun 07 Jun
Position update Kefalonia 038.18: 177N 020.35:978E
Fri 05 Jun
Position update Nisos Trizonia 038.22: 030N 022.04:529E
Thu 04 Jun
Position update Itea 038.25: 819N 022.25:208E
Tue 02 Jun
Position update Salamis 037.57: 685N 023.29:308E
May 2009
Sun 31 May
Position update Athens 037.56: 382N 023.39:945E
Fri 29 May
Position update Korfos 037.45:877N 023.07:686E
Mon 25 May
Position update Amorgos 036.49:770N 025.51:854E
Sun 24 May
Santorini Part 1 Dawn arrival
Vathi, Astipalea
Fri 22 May
Position update Vlihada, Santorini 036.20:160N 025.26:097E
Thu 21 May
Position update Nisos Ios 036.39:334N 025.22:046E
Wed 20 May
Position update Vathi, Nisos Astipalea 036.37:135N 026.23:909E
Sun 10 May
May 2009 - start of a new season
2008
Nov 2008
Sun 23 Nov
End of Season - Nov 2008
Cappadocia, October 2008
Sun 02 Nov
The Aegean Sept - Oct 2008 2
The Aegean Sept - Oct 2008 1
Oct 2008
Sun 12 Oct
Position update Marmairis Yacht Marina, Turkey 036.49:189N 028.18:531E
Sat 04 Oct
Position update Emincik Limani, Turkey 036.49:474N 028.33:913E
Sep 2008
Sat 27 Sep
Position update Bozburun, Turkey 036.41:438N 028.02:461E
Tue 23 Sep
Position update Orhaniye, Turkey 036.45:524N 028.07:656E
Sun 21 Sep
Position update Bencik, Turkey 036.46:797N 028.02:674E
Fri 19 Sep
The Aegean Aug - Sep 2008 1
The Aegean Aug - Sep 2008 2
Position update Symi, Greece 036.36:819N 027.51:481E
Tue 16 Sep
Position update Nisiros, Greece 036.36:900N 027.08:500E
Sun 14 Sep
Aegean July - August 2008 Part 2
The Aegean July - August Part 1
Fri 12 Sep
The Aegean June - July 2008
Thu 11 Sep
Position update English Harbour, Turkey 036.55:251N 028.09:421E
Position update Castle Is., Turkey 036.59:574N 028.12:652E
Fri 05 Sep
Position update Cokertme, Turkey 036.59:900N 027.47:600E
Thu 04 Sep
Position update Nisos Kos, Greece 036.53:680N 027.17:347E
Wed 03 Sep
Position update Nisos Leros, Greece 037.06:668N 026.51:757E
Tue 02 Sep
Position update Nisos Patmos, Greece 037.19:370N 026.32:950E
Aug 2008
Sun 24 Aug
Position update Bodrum, Turkey 037.02:061N 027.25:485E
Wed 20 Aug
Position update Nisos Donoussa, Greece 037.07:436N 025.49:256E
Sun 17 Aug
Position update Nisos Paros, Greece 037.08:606N 025.13:616E
Sat 16 Aug
Position update Serifos Greece 037.08:662N 024.31:014E
Wed 13 Aug
Position Update Spetsai, Greece 037.17:000N 023.06:004E
Mon 11 Aug
Position Update Hydra, Greece 037.21:277N 023.29:013E
Sun 10 Aug
Position Update Poros, Greece 037.30:410N 023.26:018E
Fri 08 Aug
Position Update Epidhavros, Greece 037.55:005N 023.10:200E
Tue 05 Aug
Position Update Athens, Greece 037.55:930N 023.39:220E
Jul 2008
Wed 30 Jul
Position Update Poros, Greece 037.31:065N 023.26:018E
Tue 29 Jul
Position Update Nisos Andhros, Greece 037.51:406N 024.46:910E
Sat 26 Jul
Gallipoli
Fri 25 Jul
Position Update Ayvalik, Turkey 039.15:009N 026.41:003E
Mon 21 Jul
Position Update Bademli Limani, Turkey 039.01:000N 026.47:000E
Sat 19 Jul
July 2008 - Istanbul 2
July 2008 - Istanbul 1
Fri 18 Jul
Position Update Sigri, Lesbos, Greece 039.12:539N 025.51:160E
Thu 17 Jul
Position Update Nisos Alonnisos, Greece 039.09:000N 023.54:000E
Mon 14 Jul
Position Update Niisos Alonnisos, Greece 039.07:997N 023.52:000E
Sun 13 Jul
Position Update Nisos Skopelos, Greece 039.04:997N 023.42:544E
Wed 09 Jul
Position Update Nisos Skiathos, Greece 039.09:545N 023.29:349E
Sun 06 Jul
Position Update Nisos Limnos, Greece 039.51:027N 025.14:596E
Thu 03 Jul
Position Update Cannakale, Turkey 040.09:314N 028.08:427E
Jun 2008
Sun 29 Jun
Position Update Instanbul, Turkey 040.58:314N 028.52:622E
Thu 26 Jun
Position Update Poyraz, Turkey 041.12:256N 029.07:755E
Sun 22 Jun
Position Update Instanbul, Turkey 040.58:314N 028.52:622E
Fri 20 Jun
Position Update Princes Islands, Turkey 040.29:000N 027.37:000E
Tue 17 Jun
May-June 2008 The Road to Istanbul 2
May-June 2008 The Road to Istanbul 1
Sat 14 Jun
Position Update Erdek, Turkey 040.23:051N 027.47:062E
Thu 12 Jun
Position Update Gallipoli, Turkey 040.24:346N 026.39:815E
Wed 11 Jun
Position Update Bozcaada, Turkey 039.50:144N 026.04:540E
Mon 09 Jun
Position Update Mithmina, Greece 039.22:000N 026.10:000E
Fri 06 Jun
Position Update Nisos Levsos, Greece 039.02:000N 026.31:000E
Thu 05 Jun
Position Update Nisos Oinoussa, Greece 038.30:000N 026.13:000E
Wed 04 Jun
Position Update Sarpdere, Turkey 038.11:000N 026.30:000E
May 2008
Sat 31 May
Position Update Pythagoras, Greece 037.41:379N 026.56:566E
Thu 29 May
Position Update Gumusluk, Turkey
Mon 26 May
Israel to Turkey
Sun 25 May
Position Update Marmaris, Turkey 036.49:204N 028.18:609E
Sun 18 May
Position Update Fethyia, Turkey 036.37:461N 029.05:654E
Sun 11 May
Position Update Finike, Turkey 036.17:558N 030.09:043E
Jordan
Tue 06 May
Position Update 034.25:606N 032.19:230E
Sun 04 May
Israel Part 4...Galillee and the Golan
Israel Part 3.....the Dead Sea
Israel Part 2.....Jerusalem
April 2008 Israel Part 1
Apr 2008
Thu 24 Apr
April 2008 - Suez Canal to Israel
Thu 10 Apr
Position Update Tel Aviv Marina 032.05:226N 034.46:042E
Tue 08 Apr
Position Update Ismailia Egypt 030.35:108N 032.16:367E
Sun 06 Apr
Position Update Port Suez Egypt 029.56:916N 032.34:441E
Fri 04 Apr
Egypt 3
Egypt 2
Egypt 1
Mar 2008
Wed 19 Mar
Position Update Abu Tig Marina, Egypt 027.24:434N 033.40:514E
Sat 15 Mar
The Maldives to Egypt
Thu 13 Mar
Position Update Port Ghalib Egypt 025.31:799N 034.38:184E
Sun 09 Mar
Position Update 020.31:000N 038.14:000E
Thu 06 Mar
Position Update 015.57:000N 041.48:000E
Tue 04 Mar
Position Update 012.34:000N 043.20:000E Bab El Mandeb (The Gates of Sorrow)
Feb 2008
Thu 28 Feb
Position Update Aden, Yemen 012.47:475N 044.58:707E
Tue 26 Feb
Position Update 013.32:000N 047.42E
Mon 18 Feb
Position Update Port Salalah Oman 016.56:231N 054.00:282E
Fri 15 Feb
Position Update 012.04:075N 061.24:070E
Wed 13 Feb
Position Update 08.44:044N 066.23:540E
Mon 11 Feb
Position Update 06.12:794N 069.47:744E
Fri 08 Feb
January 2008 - Thailand to the Maldives
Jan 2008
Sat 26 Jan
Position Update At anchor at Male in Maldiives 04.13:418N 073.32:195E
Thu 24 Jan
Position Update en route to Maldiives 04.28:200N 076.16:315E 160 miles to go
Mon 21 Jan
Position Update en route to Maldiives 05.56:570N 083.45:684E
Sat 19 Jan
Position Update en route to Maldiives 07.09:040N 086.52:080E - halfway!
Thu 17 Jan
Position Update en route to Maldiives 07.34:352N 092.10:970E
Mon 14 Jan
Position Update Koh Racha Yai, Thailand 07.49:986N 098.33:846E
Fri 11 Jan
December 2007 Thailand Part 2
December 2007 Thailand Part 1
Mon 07 Jan
Position Update Yacht Haven Marina, Phuket, Thailand 08.10:144N 098.20:695E
Tue 01 Jan
Position Update Patong Bay, Phuket, Thailand 07.54:312N 098.17:506E
2007
Dec 2007
Fri 21 Dec
Position Update Surin Islands, Thailand 09.25:608N 097.51:385E
Wed 19 Dec
Position Update Similan Islands, Thailand 08.39:985N 097.38:738E
Mon 17 Dec
Position Update Kata Beach, Phuket, Thailand 07.48:979N 098.17:584E
Thu 13 Dec
Position Update Koh Hong Thailand 08.04:965N 098.40:746E
Mon 10 Dec
Position Update Phi Phi Don Thailand 07.43:791N 098.46:211E
Tue 04 Dec
November 2007 - Northbound up the Malacca Straits
Sat 01 Dec
Position update Langkawi 06.11:636N 099.47:065E
Nov 2007
Sun 25 Nov
Position Update Penang 05.24:872N 100.20:577E
Wed 21 Nov
Position Update 21 November 2007 Pulau Pangkor Laut 04.11:508N 100.33:152E
Sat 17 Nov
Port Dickson 02.28:75N 101.50:40E
Mon 12 Nov
October update
Oct 2007
Fri 05 Oct
Miri to Singapore
Travels in Sarawak Part 2
Travels in Sarawak
Borneo Cup
Tue 02 Oct
Lat: 1:20.00N Lon: 103:38.00E Raffles Marina
Sep 2007
Sat 29 Sep
01:32.932N 105:07.170E Met with Indonesian Navy - gave them tow
Thu 27 Sep
Took Indonesian fishing boat in tow - 5 men, broken motor
Wed 12 Sep
Koh Samui to Labuan
Mon 10 Sep
Position Update Miri, Sarawak
Wed 05 Sep
Position Update 04:19.17N 113:48.02E
Aug 2007
Thu 30 Aug
5:15.12 N 115: 14.32 E Labuan
Sat 25 Aug
07:12.764 N 106:39.571 E Position at 07:00 25/8/2007
Tue 21 Aug
August - missing pictures
August update
Wed 08 Aug
July Update Malaysia
Jul 2007
Tue 31 Jul
09:33.984N 100:01.790E
Sat 21 Jul
05:47.416N 103:01.214E
04:48.447N 103:49.440E
02:51.898N 104:09.043E
Fri 13 Jul
June Update
Jun 2007
Sun 03 Jun
May update
Apr 2007
Thu 26 Apr
April Update
103:38.082E 01:20.584N
Tue 10 Apr
103:57.525E 02:33.685N
Fri 06 Apr
104:09.474E 02:50.259N
Tue 03 Apr
104:09.800E 01:24.070N
Sun 01 Apr
March update 2
March update
Feb 2007
Fri 09 Feb
Phuket to Singapore 22 Dec 2006 to 2 January 2007
Jan 2007
Thu 18 Jan
103:38.000E 01:20.00N
2006
Dec 2006
Sat 09 Dec
Singapore to Phuket
Oct 2006
Thu 26 Oct
More pictures
Sep 2006
Mon 11 Sep
29 September 2006
Wed 06 Sep
The Launch
Aug 2006
Tue 29 Aug
August 29 2006
Thu 24 Aug
August 20 2006
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: | http://blog.mailasail.com/bonditram/50 | 2013-05-18T10:41:28 | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | 1368696382261 | [] |
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Archive for June, 2012
The MakerBar is Now a Giant Robot HangarPosted on June 21, 2012 | 3 CommentsBehold the Steel Battalion Battle Rig, your chance to sit in the driver’s seat of a ten-story battle mech and wreck face on a grand scale. It’s the biggest and...
MakerBar PicturocalypsePosted on June 10, 2012 | No CommentsWe constantly take pics of the space and various goings-on for these blog posts. Not all of them make it to articles, but some are just too silly not to...
Lab Notes: RFID LockPosted on June 7, 2012 | No CommentsI come from a future where locks exist without pins, where access can be granted and revoked from afar, where one can trigger a script to run automatically upon entering!...
Lab Notes: Family Portrait and Hacker HubrisPosted on June 4, 2012 | No CommentsA hardware hacker is always tempted by what’s possible – so many parts to tinker, skills to learn, tools to try, and ideas to chase. It’s easy to fall knee-deep... | http://blog.makerbar.com/?m=201206 | 2013-05-18T11:03:20 | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | 1368696382261 | [] |
I loved the felted stones tutorial from Lil Fish Studios that Haley posted earlier this week, and was glad to see that Lisa followed up with a way to repurpose the project.
.
She shows how you can turn the mishap stones into cute mushrooms and flowers, and gives ideas for other ways you could upcycle them into new projects. | http://blog.makezine.com/craft/how-to_felted_mushrooms_and_fl/?like=1&source=post_flair&_wpnonce=134bd2d71b | 2013-05-18T10:14:47 | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | 1368696382261 | [
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"lilfishstudios_felted_mushrooms_flowers.png"
]
] |
When I was growing up, I didn’t go anywhere without my favorite doll in tow. I absolutely loved setting up house and acting out stories, so I would have adored this suitcase dollhouse from Stacy at Hart & Sew! The dollhouse has three interchangable rooms, but the kitchen, with its teeny tiny SMEG refrigerator, is my favorite! I’m also really digging the bunting hanging over the mini sewing machine in the bedroom.
This tutorial was written with girls in mind, but it would be easy to make one for boys too. After checking out the full how-to, I can’t think of a better toy to bring along for long car trips, waiting rooms, or weekends at grandma’s!
| http://blog.makezine.com/craft/how-to_suitcase_dollhouse/?like=1&_wpnonce=027e8cf74a | 2013-05-18T10:21:44 | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | 1368696382261 | [
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"hartandsew_suitcase_dollhouse2.jpg"
],
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"hartandsew_suitcase_dollhouse.jpg"
]
] |
Archive for the ‘Stored Procedures’ Category″... | http://blog.mclaughlinsoftware.com/category/stored-procedures/ | 2013-05-18T10:41:42 | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | 1368696382261 | [
[
"http://blog.mclaughlinsoftware.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_wink.gif",
";-)"
]
] |
The.
Recent Comments | http://blog.metasd.com/tag/climate/ | 2013-05-18T10:53:31 | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | 1368696382261 | [] |
This week, I have the wonderful pleasure of attending my second eLearning conference in Salt Lake City, Utah: BYOLTM eLearning.
If you recall, in June of this year, I represented MetroStar Systems at Salt Lake City, and liveblogged eLearningDevCon 2009 (you can find those posts here, here, and here). eLearningDevCon was hosted by Rapid Intake, makers of the eLearning development tools ProForm and Unison. Several sessions offered in that conference were labeled “BYOL,” standing for “Bring Your Own Laptop.” These were hands-on sessions where the instructor would guide attendees through a project, whether it was to produce something, or to learn a tool, or both. These sessions were a huge success, and the folks at Rapid Intake Conferences announced the first instance of their new conference, BYOL eLearning.
It is a one-of-a-kind eLearning conference that is 100% hands-on. One can’t help but appreciate a conference that strives to be so tangible and effective, nor can one help but crack a smile upon hearing the conference tagline (and noticing what it’s implying):
BYOL. Actually learn something.
Of course, all joking aside, the very fact that I’m here stands as testament to how much I learned at eLearningDevCon. I’m sure this conference will be no different. As all the sessions are hands-on, I won’t be liveblogging this event, but I will be recapping my experience at this conference in the near future.
So tune in later to catch my post on the conference. But in the meantime, keep up with what’s happening here on Twitter by following the hashtag: #byol. | http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/2009/10/20/metrostar-is-attending-byol-elearning-this-week/ | 2013-05-18T10:52:04 | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | 1368696382261 | [
[
"http://blog.metrostarsystems.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/BYOL.png",
"BYOL BYOL"
]
] |
"The Simpsons Movie" (PG-13) — The best episodes of "The Simpsons" have combined biting social satire with the frantic comic imagination and off-the-wall sight gags you'd find in the best Looney Tunes. Much of that attitude has made it into "The Simpsons Movie," which is a full-speed-ahead laugh riot for its first 45 minutes; it loses some of its gusto in the second half.
Newcomers to the Simpsons hometown of Springfield need not be worried: itors. Grade: B.
"Stardust" (PG-13) — Based on Neil Gaiman's novel, "Stardust" is a delightful, thrilling and entertainingly offbeat yarn in which a lovesick kid named Tristan (Charlie Cox) tries to catch a falling star and put it in his pocket, but ends up getting more than he can handle.
Tristan isn't the only one who's starry-eyed: The ancient, rapidly deteriorating witch Lamia (a positively spellbinding Michelle Pfeiffer) wants the star to use in a ritual to restore her beauty and vitality. The situation is further complicated by the discovery that the star is not a molten mass of rock but a maiden who calls herself Yvaine (Claire Danes) and is in no mood to be pursued by anyone.
While "Stardust" includes all the expected trappings of its genre (including unicorns, transformations and "Babylon candles" that can transport a person from one place to another instantly), it has a few deliriously daft bonus features as well, including a Greek chorus of ghosts and a band of pirates — led by Robert De Niro — who have literally managed to put lightning in a bottle. Grade: A-.
"Once" (R) — If "Once" was a song, it would be a demo, a stripped-down, no-frills rough draft that's overflowing with soul. Honesty is the key ingredient in director John Carney's beguiling, offbeat musical, and it resounds in practically every note played by Irish guitarist Glen Hansard and Czech pianist Marketa Irglova, the story's central characters.
Glen carries around a badly battered guitar, and his heart seems to be in similar shape, thanks to an on-again/off-again relationship. Marketa has come to Dublin to find a better life for herself and for her 2-year-old daughter. She's left behind a husband in the Czech Republic, although it's unclear if the separation is temporary or permanent.
When she meets Glen and begins working on duets with him, their voices and musical styles blend together so seamlessly it seems only natural that they'd be a perfect couple as well. Part of the charm of "Once" is the feeling that we're spying on Glen and Marketa as they try to sort out their personal and professional relationships. It would be interesting to know how much of their conversation was actually in Carney's screenplay and how much was ad-libbed as the camera rolled; there's a wonderful spontaneity in both the dialogue and the musical performances. Grade: A-.
COMING WEDNESDAY
"Eastern Promises"
"The Brothers Solomon"
"Rush Hour 3" | http://blog.mlive.com/james_sanford/2007/12/simpsons_stardust_once_sparkle.html | 2013-05-18T10:15:15 | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | 1368696382261 | [
[
"http://blog.mlive.com/james_sanford/2007/12/large_20071221-simpsonsmovie.jpg",
null
]
] |
Red Wings defenceman Derek Meech chose to bolt a visor onto his helmet after Nicklas Lidstrom took a puck to the face, but Dan Cleary tells the Detroit Free Press's Helene St. James that he can't be convinced to do the same:
October 12, Detroit Free Press: Dan Cleary opted to put on a visor last season after getting hit near the eye, but over the summer, he decided to continue without one, even though his wife much prefers he wear one.
"She just said, 'I wish you would have it on' " Cleary said. "It makes sense to wear one for everyone."
That said, Cleary disliked having to constantly clean his visor while on the bench, and he didn't change his mind even after seeing teammate Nicklas Lidstrom decide to wear a visor after taking a puck near the right eye during the preseason.
"I'm not as gifted as Nick," Cleary said. "He can just put it on and still be great. It's different for each guy. I found it was really distracting more than anything." | http://blog.mlive.com/snapshots/2008/10/not_seeing_cleary.html | 2013-05-18T10:41:53 | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | 1368696382261 | [] |
Ad: Get a Lift with a Camel! (Oct, 1934)
Now I like cigarettes as much as the next smoker, but never have I had a smoke and then said “Ahh that was refreshing! Now let’s go run around a tennis court!”. I’m wondering if Camel didn’t lace their cigarettes with speed in the 30′s. “Camels, now with the extra power of methodent!”
You’ll enjoy this pleasing “Energizing Effect”
When you’ve used up your energy——
!”
There’s a 2001 Nova documentary called “Search for a Safe Cigarette”, which I saw the other day (the words “search” and “cigarette” may perhaps find it on your favourite hive of P2P scum and villainy).
The documentary feels a bit outdated today, as the “safer” cigarette concept (which, it turns out, is not just marketing bulldust) seem to have faded into insignificance. But it contains a rich bounty of old cigarette ads and entertaining insider info. This post strongly reminded me of it.
Ellsworth Vines had an initially brilliant but (in the long term) difficult career as a tennis pro. He was tall, flexible, and strong, but he had little stamina; opponents learned that the way to shut his game down was to tire him out by keeping the ball in play until he began to make mistakes. He gave tennis up in the mid 30s for golf, a less demanding sport.
Gee… perhaps Ellsworth’s lack of stamina was due to his smoking Camels all the time? Just a thought.
Of course, perhaps his opponents smoked as well, which would defeat my argument. | http://blog.modernmechanix.com/ad-get-a-lift-with-a-camel/ | 2013-05-18T11:02:38 | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | 1368696382261 | [] |
Video / ELECTRONIC ENCYCLOPEDIAS (Jul, 1984)
. “Bulletin Boards in Space.” described by John Markoff in the May BYTE West Coast column (page 88), may give way to worldwide electronic conferencing and conventioning by adding television cameras to the growing list of common personal computer user options.
Many videotex, work-alike, and other interactive cable-television-based systems already exist. With the proliferation of coaxial-cable interconnection and its high-speed data-transmission capabilities, more and more homes and businesses could be linked via computer-controlled video instead of the restricted-bandwidth, audio-frequency-based systems now in use.
Shopping via computer is already a reality in some areas. With television- or presentation-level graphics, perhaps complicated and expensive encoding schemes could become unnecessary because you might be able to view the person to whom your message is directed. And as Rich Malloy, our product-review editor, stated in the July 1983 BYTE in his introduction to the Videotex theme, the printing presses might stop and BYTE could be delivered to you electronically.
Though with us for over a generation, until recently hardware costs made computer and video interactivity limited and expensive. In recent years, dramatic advances in digital electronics and large-scale integration (LSI) have made personal computers, videocassette recorders (VCRs), and videodiscs available to anyone with a down-to-earth application or interest in learning. In this issue, we present articles on a wide range of topics related to computers and video.
Peter R. Cook’s article, “Electronic Encyclopedias.” explores something that all of the major encyclopedia publishers have talked about for several years: how to develop an “intelligent encyclopedia” that uses natural means of accessing and using knowledge. Included with this article is contributing editor Mark Dahmke’s look at “An Ideal Video Peripheral,” a glimpse at how personal computers and videodiscs might communicate more efficiently.
In ‘”televisions as Monitors,” Ken Coach describes some of the characteristics common to the new generation of television receivers that can double as microcomputer video monitors.
If you already have an inexpensive VCR with limited or no programming capabilities or are considering purchasing one. Cy Tymony’s “Computer Control of a Video Recorder” should be particulary interesting. This construction project enables you to use your micro as a programmable control center for your VCR.
Stan Jarvis’s “Videodiscs and Computers” takes a look at the videodisc industry, its evolution. and the myriad of companies and equipment facing personal computer owners.
As an example of what you can do with a CAV (frame-addressable) videodisc, Rod Daynes and Steve Holder designed a game around a generic version in “Controlling Videodiscs with Micros.” They used the videodisc support commands available in the Sony SMC-70 computer.
—Gene Smarte. Managing Editor
ELECTRONIC ENCYCLOPEDIAS
by Peter R. Cook
Interactive video technologies help explore “the realm of worthwhile knowledge”.
Peter R. Cook is vice president of creative services for Grolier Electronic Publishing Inc. (95 Madison Ave., New York, NY 10016). He is responsible for coordinating the development of that firm’s Multi-Component Electronic Encyclopedia, which is intended to combine videodisc and videotex technology. Cook spent five years at Arete Publishing Co.. producing the Academic American Encyclopedia.
ENCYCLOPEDIAS EVOKE special memories for most people. When you were a child, you probably did research for essays and class projects, looked for “naughty” words and pictures, struggled through dull facts about dead people, or discovered fascinating facts in articles from “Aardvark” to “Zygote.” Later on, maybe you used an encyclopedia to solve crossword puzzles, to help a child with homework, or to look up the location of a vacation spot or an unfamiliar country mentioned in the news.
Now there is a whole new range of associations that most people wouldn’t normally connect with an encyclopedia: on-line databases, videotex systems, and laser videodiscs—new interactive technologies that, at first glance, might appear to be the very antithesis of the traditional printed encyclopedia. But major electronic publishing companies are beginning to create a new generation of encyclopedias, powerful informational/educational tools that can interact through, and with, all of these new media.
As part of a long-range development plan, Grolier is creating a massive encyclopedic database of text and audiovisual materials that can be accessed and manipulated using interactive technologies. The two major components of this plan, the text database and the audiovisual database, currently are be- ing developed along separate but convergent tracks—one utilizes on-line or videotex technology, the other utilizes videodisc technology.
In this article, 1 will review both development tracks, observing from the publisher’s point of view how information is enhanced by delivery via new interactive technologies. But let’s begin with a look at encyclopedias delivered via a traditional interactive medium—the book. Though new technologies should not slavishly imitate those that preceded them, there is much to be gained by using the book metaphor for building the foundation of an information tool that utilizes the full power of interactive video technologies.
According to an entry in the Academic American Encyclopedia (AAE), a printed general encyclopedia “attempts to present the entire realm of worthwhile knowledge: the humanities and literature: fine, applied, and performing arts: science and technology: history and social sciences: critical issues such as bioethics and civil rights: and select data on significant places and persons.”
Mechanics and economics tend to limit the size of a printed encyclopedia’s “realm of worthwhile knowledge”: of necessity, the information itself is synthesized and summarized. Distillation and outlining of knowledge, along with broad coverage, make a general encyclopedia—whether it be in 1, 20, or 30 volumes—a useful reference tool.
The reference characteristics of encyclopedias are what brought about their rather unnatural, usually alphabetical, information structure. There is no inherent logic in grouping “Aardvark” with “Alvar Aalto” and “Hank Aaron,” although such curious juxtapositions often create wonderfully serendipitous discoveries. Diverse subjects are thrown together for no reason other than the fact that an alphabetical, dictionary-like organization improves access to information. Some encyclopedias still cling to the earlier thematic approach in which related information is grouped together. Thematic groupings make it possible for information to be viewed in a broader context, but highly specific facts are harder to locate.
Alphabetical encyclopedias compensate for the seemingly arbitrary arrangement of their articles by using in- tegrated cross-references that indicate the presence of related articles and draw connections between the various realms of knowledge. In its current (fifteenth) edition, the Encyclopaedia Britannica attempts to overcome the shortcomings of this alphabetic tyranny by breaking the set into three resources: Propaedia. a one-volume overview of knowledge; Macropaedia, a collection of in-depth articles (many of considerable length) on broad areas of knowledge; and Micropaedia. containing very short articles as well as discrete, specific facts. The attempt, however, is thwarted by the awkwardness of three integrated, but separate, resources.
While encyclopedias may have to struggle with the drawbacks of their own unique organizations, they also exhibit the positive characteristics of the printed book. Books are physical entities, portable random-access devices. Their organization is universally recognized: pages, chapters, tables of contents, prefaces, introductions, indexes, bibliographies, etc. They are the framework of written language. Other characteristics inherent in books let you browse through them easily and give you a sense of scale and place. You know how to navigate in a book.
But the book also has its limitations. It is a fixed medium: once printed, it cannot be changed. The only way for a user to update a printed encyclopedia is to buy a new one, write notes in the margin, or purchase the yearbook that most encyclopedia publishers issue annually to maintain the currency of existing sets. The information is also fixed in that it cannot be dynamically rearranged for the user’s convenience. Comparing all the articles on dinosaurs, for example, might require accessing more than a dozen volumes. Information access is also limited by the specificity of the article titles and by the quality of the index—nonindexed information is almost the equivalent of no information. Finally, no matter how descriptive the text or how informative the illustrations, no printed encyclopedia can capture the power of a place, person, or event more vividly than an audiovisual medium. Yet the printed encyclopedia is, and will continue to be, a highly valued information resource for most people.
Now consider an electronic encyclopedia that uses the full power of new interactive media and is designed to meet the needs of a new generation of users.
Electronic Reference Work.
In 1982, Grolier acquired the rights to the Academic American Encyclopedia, a new 20-volume general-reference work designed for use in homes and schools. Containing approximately 30,000 articles and 9 million words, the AAE is characterized by its currency and its short entry format (its articles have an average length of approximately 300 words). For us it had the additional virtue of being typeset entirely with computerized equipment, and thus it could be converted for on-line dissemination.
The electronic edition of the AAE has been in existence for two years and is currently available to over 250,000 online and videotex subscribers through existing information utilities. These include services such as CompuServe, Dow Jones News/Retrieval, BRS. Dialog, and Vu/Ttext. We also distribute through NAPLPS (North American Presenta-tion-Level-Protocol Syntax, or “nap-lips”) graphics-based systems: Viewtron, Keycom, and Times Mirror’s Gateway (which uses Telidon graphics, a forerunner of NAPLPS). Users accessing the encyclopedia remain customers of the information utility, which in turn pays Grolier a royalty.
The encyclopedia’s inherent data structure has to be adapted to the display characteristics and access protocols of individual systems. Because these system requirements have a considerable effect on how the user interacts with the encyclopedia, it is worth reviewing some samples at length, beginning with the less complex, and consequently less powerful, systems.
Viewtron: An ASCII/NAPLPS Hybrid.
Viewtron, operated by Viewdata Corp. of America (a Knight-Ridder subsidiary), is the first commercial videotex service to use NAPLPS color graphics, which can be accessed only by AT&T’s Sceptre terminal. This regional service is now available in just three Florida counties; if successful, however, the service will become available in major cities around the country.
Viewtron is a relatively simple menu-driven system that stores most of its databases on preexisting frames. However, because the AAE is a large database (by videotex standards), it is actually accessed through a communications gateway. The AAE text is housed on computers at Vu/Text (another Knight-Ridder subsidiary) in Philadelphia; the computers are linked by dedicated line to the Viewtron host in Miami. A user accessing the system is connected via the gateway as soon as he selects the AAE from a menu (see photos la through Id). The videotex terminal “paints” the appropriate NAPLPS frame, but it has an active window for displaying the ASCI! (American National Standard Code for Information Interchange) text from the Vu/Text gateway. The user is then prompted to type in a search term, which is matched against the AAE’s 30,000 article titles. If an exact match exists, the system displays the first 15 lines of the article and the user can “page” through the rest at his own pace. If the search term is too broad, a number of articles are selected. For example, if just “Lincoln” is entered for information on Abraham Lincoln, the system locates all articles with the word “Lincoln” in the title, including “Lincoln, Nebraska” and “Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts.” The first article is displayed with the qualifier “1 of n [articles],” and the subscriber can then use the system’s “browse” function to scan the first frame of each article.
ASCII (Non-Graphic) Videotex Services.
Dow [ones News/Retrieval and CompuServe are both consumer-oriented information utilities that primarily use keyword and menu-driven access. A subscriber logging onto Dow Jones News/ Retrieval is guided to the AAE via names and enters a search term or query that is matched against article headings. If the search term is in more than one heading, the system generates a menu, listing all of the articles, and the user selects from this (see figures 1a through 1e). If the selected article is long, an additional menu (or series of menus) is shown, providing a numbered outline of the contents. Thus, the user can select the most appropriate section without having to page through the entire article.
Dow Jones News/Retrieval also lists the number of pages or screens of text in each article and lets the viewer know which page he is viewing (2 of 14, etc.). CompuServe gives each page an individual number, which can be used in conjunction with the GO command to go directly to the page, bypassing the intermediate menu stages. As useful as these features are, menu-driven systems are limited. Access is through the article title only, which doesn’t open up the full potential of an electronic encyclopedia.
Free Text Databases.
Two much more powerful on-line database systems are BRS and Dialog. Considerably more expensive than the consumer databases, BRS and Dialog use free text search procedures in which every word in the database is indexed and therefore can be searched.
When accessing via BRS, a search term or query is entered using the required command language. However, if the search term is not properly qualified, the system may locate far too many occurrences to be helpful. For example, a search for “Einstein” produced several hundred “hits” (occurrences) of the word in 69 articles throughout the encyclopedia (see figures 2a through 2c). But the search can be narrowed down by using Boolean operators such as and, which combines two search terms in the same article: same, which combines two terms in the same paragraph; with. which combines them in the same sentence; and adj. which requires the two terms be directly adjacent. If what I really want to find out about Einstein is when he moved to Princeton, I would phrase the search as: “Einstein same Princeton,” which means I’m looking for the paragraphs in which both of the words appear. This narrows the hits down to just two paragraphs, which can be quickly displayed. These paragraphs tell me that Einstein moved to Princeton in 1933 and that he died there in 1955.
This simple example doesn’t really illustrate the full retrieval capabilities of free text systems. They can be powerful tools in the hands of an experienced researcher or librarian. On the other hand, their complex command syntax and Boolean search logic make them too complex for easy access by most untrained users.
In an effort to broaden the appeal and usage of their services, BRS and Dialog have both introduced easier-to-use and less expensive off-peak services: BRS After Dark and Knowledge Index, respectively. Communications software is also being introduced; Sci-Mate and In-Search simplify command procedures and enable the user to develop a search strategy before going on line. Such efforts are the first steps in what will undoubtedly be a series of software products aimed at making these information utilities (including Dow Jones News/ Retrieval and CompuServe) more powerful and easier to use.
Earlier i used the printed book as an example of a medium with which we are manifestly familiar; the reason for our familiarity is that the structure and conventions of books have been evolving for centuries. On-line databases have been in use for little more than a decade, and it is only in the last two or three years that large numbers of untrained users have started accessing them. Consequently, the learning curve for everyone—system operators, information providers, and end users—is particularly steep. There is still much to be learned about how users interact with electronic information utilities, what kinds of displays are best, what accessing protocols and commands are most effective and easy to learn, and what information is most appropriate.
Enlarging the Database.
The electronic edition of the AAE is already quite different from its printed parent. Updated twice a year instead of annually, it has no physical growth limitations, unlike the printed work. We intend to use this essentially unlimited capacity for growth: to respond directly to users’ needs; to reflect areas of strong current interest; to broaden the database so it is more appropriate to different age and interest levels; and to develop satellite databases designed to interact with the encyclopedia.
Responding to users’ needs: An electronic encyclopedia has a unique advantage over its print counterpart because it is possible to “capture” such key parts of the information transaction as search terms and usage time. Analyzing the captured data can reveal shortcomings, whether in the form of inadequate article headings or missing information. Such data also reveals areas of high and low interest—a useful guide for database growth.
Reflecting areas of strong current interest: Printed encyclopedias contain little information of transitory interest. It will be a long time before the Britannica has an article on Michael Jackson. This isn’t necessarily because encyclopedia editors disdain popular culture. The physical limitations of the printed work make it difficult and costly to insert large numbers of new articles each year. Space has to be found for each new article, usually at the expense of other articles. Further, an article of fleeting interest may create a difficult hole to fill when its importance diminishes.
This is not the case with an electronic edition, in which articles can be added to and deleted from the database with considerable ease. For example, coverage of the Olympic Games and athletes can grow in anticipation of this year’s meeting in Los Angeles. Next year the coverage can be reduced. An electronic encyclopedia can be a truly responsive, dynamic reference work.
Expanding for a broader audience: In its present form, the AAE spans a wide range of age and interest levels. As stated in its preface, the AAE is “for students from junior high school, high school, or college and for the inquisitive adult.” By expanding that base to include young children and advanced scholars, the resulting database will be several times larger than the printed encyclopedia and will be capable of responding appropriately to the user’s age and interests.
Satellite databases: Grolier has recently completed the first of a series of satellite database products designed to interact with, and be enhanced by, the electronic encyclopedia. Whiz-Quiz is a menu-driven educational game that directs the player to the AAE to find out more about a topic. We believe that children in particular will be compelled by this mechanism to explore the encyclopedia.
The User Interface.
Regardless of what shape or direction a database takes, the key to its use and value is the user interface. The user interacts with the electronic encyclopedia on several distinct levels: entry level: logging onto a system and getting to the database search level: entering a search term to locate a specific article (or group of articles) retrieval level: once the relevant article is located, finding and retrieving the required information manipulation level: getting the information in the form of a printout, writing words down directly from the screen, or simply remembering the facts exit level: leaving the database The first and last levels are entirely the province of the system’s operator and, in any event, are not an obstacle to most users. The search and retrieval levels, however, are areas of major concern because that is where the user works most closely with the system. The information-manipulation level will become increasingly important as software is written to take full advantage of encyclopedic databases.
The best way to analyze potential improvements at the search level is to return to the book metaphor. As an access device, a book is very forgiving. When you look something up in an index, you usually don’t need to know the exact spelling to locate it. Likewise, you sometimes use a dictionary because you can’t spell a word but have no problem locating it.
Databases are not so forgiving. A misspelled search term, no matter how close to the correct word, cannot be used to locate the required article. Some systems attempt to overcome this by providing a function called truncation. On Dow Jones News/Retrieval, for example, all you have to enter for an article on Zbigniew Brzezinski is “BRZ—a nice feature, but not the complete solution. The problem isn’t just misspelling; children in particular tend to use plurals for certain common nouns: cats, dogs, trees, dinosaurs, etc. This is not a problem in a printed reference work; however, when entered on a videotex system, the search terms will fail to match the exact article titles, which are singular.
First-time users, especially children, make repeated errors when entering search terms. Analysis of the search terms for one of the videotex services reveals that about one-third of all terms failed to locate an article. In approximately 90 percent of those cases, the information existed but errors (misspellings, use of plurals, incorrect positioning of names) prevented the user from finding it, at least on the first try.
Clearly, the unforgiving nature of search-term entry on videotex systems is a frustrating inadequacy that can be improved by the system operators. At the same time, the information provider has a responsibility. Other aids to access are required. Current videotex systems allow only keyword access to article headings. There is no on-line index, and today’s videotex systems do not have the full text-indexing capabilities of BRS and Dialog. Clearly, the specific entry headings need to be broadened so that the same information is available via several different search terms. An on-line index would broaden access still further, especially when combined with a thesaurus function.
Free text systems are not restricted to keyword access. Rather, the user can focus his search language to a highly specific degree, examining the body of knowledge with precision. The price of that precision is a high degree of practice and skill.
In the long term, both keyword and free text access to large databases probably will give way to search languages with a high degree of artificial intelligence (AI). At present, when you search for information in an encyclopedia, particularly on videotex systems, you have to think about its likely location. You cannot interrogate the database, but this is exactly what you should be able to do, posing such questions as: Who wrote The Grapes of Wrath? How many Nobel Prize winners went to Harvard? Where do icebergs come from?
Answers to all these questions can be found eventually with current systems, but a fully developed database incorporating AI search techniques would take you directly to the sources.
Having located an article, the user begins to read it. The “window” into the encyclopedia’s massive database is a television or monitor. The text display (depending on the service and the end-user’s hardware) varies from 16 lines by 32 characters per line (approximately 85 words) to 2 5 lines by 80 characters per line (approximately 330 words). By contrast, the printed AAE contains 1500 words per page, and pages can be viewed two at a time. Clearly, current video-display technologies are capable of only the most myopic view of a large text database, which is why it is all the more important to be able to rapidly shift the view, to be able to browse and move around in an article quickly and easily.
But there is a need for other orientation tool§, such as sequential numbering of article pages (which Dow Jones News/Retrieval has) as well as individual numbering of pages (which CompuServe has).
A recent study of a group of eighth-graders’ use of the videotex AAE produced some interesting findings. While the students searched for articles and moved around in them with varying degrees of proficiency, they confined their activities to finding information rather than using it. They actually read and manipulated the information later as printouts, which could be studied at leisure, marked up, and incorporated into their research projects. In fact, I suspect that many of our users who have access to a printer do their serious reading in ink-on-paper form.
This doesn’t mean that no one reads text from the screen. Graphics-oriented videotex systems, such as Viewtron, are based on the assumption that subscribers will read from the screen. This is fine for news summaries. But the real utility of an electronic encyclopedia won’t be realized until people can access, manipulate, and reorganize significant amounts of information electronically using such powerful information tools as word processors, database managers, and graphics programs.
Electronic Knowledge Land.
Grolier is working on some of the refinements I have been describing. We believe that, having freed encyclopedia information from the artificial constraints of the alphabet and the physical constraints of the book, we should be able to reshape and reorganize that information. We want to put it to new uses. We want to create a reference tool that can interact with other information tools. Additionally, we’re trying to build a conceptual framework—an outline of knowledge—for intellectual pursuit and stimulation. At present, this new “knowledge land” is largely uncharted, although major landmarks are known. We hope that videotex systems will have the navigational tools to explore it fully, and that software producers will have created the manipulation tools to exploit it fully.
A Videodisc Encyclopedia.
The videodisc is another interactive medium that we believe is applicable to encyclopedia information. The ability to randomly access any frame, combined with the disc’s dense storage capacity (54,000 frames per side on a laser disc) and its inherent audiovisual properties, make it a particularly powerful publishing medium. As part of a joint venture with Long- man, a British publisher, Grolier recently produced a pilot disc. The pilot was developed as a test vehicle to determine how the organization, content, and audiovisual treatment of encyclopedia material might best be accomplished.
Long before the pilot went into production, we had concluded that we would need a lot of discs to encompass all the information contained in a general encyclopedia. This led us to ask ourselves how each disc should be organized so that it could be both a stand-alone information resource and a part of an integrated series. We decided to organize each disc around a specific theme or subject area. The pilot is part of what will eventually be a two-sided disc devoted to the human body (see photos 2a through 2c).
Each thematic videodisc will be a self-contained information resource. The discs will not attempt to be the equivalent of a printed reference work. Rather, each disc will “illuminate” knowledge areas, conveying through audiovisual means only the essence of a subject.
Designed for use with a standard consumer laser videodisc player under normal keypad control, the discs will become considerably more versatile resources under microcomputer control. While the number of combined microcomputer/videodisc applications has increased substantially in the last two years—applications that include training, point of purchase, education, and games—there are few truly “generic” discs for which software can be written.
Grolier is developing two electronic databases, one in text form and one in audiovisual form. These two databases are being developed separately so that each can take advantage of the separately developing markets for on-line / videotex and videodisc products. But both databases will ultimately be brought together (although whether through telecommunications or local mass storage is yet to be determined). The result should be an innovative informational/educational resource: an encyclopedia that is appropriate to the media and appropriate to the times.
An Ideal Video Peripheral by Mark Dahmke
As a software consultant, my major complaint with most of the popular videodisc players is that they communicate with computers very poorly. Typically, the videodisc player is treated as a printer or a plotter; the user has to deal with commands that may or may not be ASCII (American National Standard Code for Information Interchange) format and may or may not be logical and consistent.
The Discovision (now Pioneer) model 7820 had a command set that looked like a selection of random numbers. The codes to send the numerals 0 through 9 were: 3F. 0F, 8F. 4F. 2F. AF. 6F. 1F, 9F, and 5F. in that order. In addition, the 7820 had an IEEE-488 external interface that wasn’t compatible with most microcomputers. In an attempted remedy. Discovision built a serial converter box to change the IEEE-488 protocol to and from RS-232C levels. What they came up with was a protocol converter with a 1-byte buffer that could easily be overrun, erasing the last command before it could get to the player.
Even if the translation and protocol conversion problems are ironed out eventually, a programmer is still faced with a stiff challenge in trying to get the status and frame number back from the player. Some players won’t give out this information at all. Ones that do return strangely encoded bytes that take many instructions to untangle. On some players the frame number comes back as a 2-byte integer. on another it comes back as four ASCII digits in hexadecimal, and on still another it shows up as five-decimal ASCII digits. Any software expected to run on more than one model of videodisc player has to account for all of these differences.
Timing seems to be the worst problem with interfaces. Data sent to the player at serial-port speeds just can’t control a fast videodisc player in the manner required by modern interactive applications. Some new players offer parallel ports, but many computers (e.g.. the IBM Personal Computer) don’t support full bidirectional interfaces. IBM claims that its Centronics port is “parallel input and output.” However, if you check the circuit diagram, you will see that it isn’t. It is wired so that reading the port returns only what was last sent.
Newer videodisc players operate at floppy-disk and, in some cases, hard-disk speeds. Some have worst-case access times of 2 to 3 seconds. Within a year or two, I expect to see write-once, multiple-read videodiscs with interfaces to let them be used as archives. (Some current videodiscs can hold gigabytes of data.) For this to work, however, the interface will have to be smart enough to recover the stored data and fast enough to return it to main memory at magnetic-disk speeds. This technique can work, as shown by the fact that it is already being used in several hard-disk backup systems for videotape recording equipment. In these disk-to-tape systems, the data from the disk is recorded redundantly in the scan lines of a National “television System Committee (NTSC) signal, which is then recorded on videotape. While this prac- tice could easily be transferred to videodisc hardware, much of the videodisc would be wasted and not used to its full potential. The developing direct-digital recording techniques will remedy this problem by maximizing use of the disc recording surface.
Loading software into a personal computer from a videodisc as if it were a floppy disk would greatly enhance educational applications. For example, audiovisual and computer-graphics course material (all orchestrated by an authoring language) could be combined and loaded into a personal computer from the first part of a videodisc while just the audiovisual portion is stored separately on the remainder of the videodisc. A development system would consist of the videodisc player and other end-product hardware, but the graphics and curriculum-specific data, or “courseware.” would be developed on attached floppy-disk or hard-disk systems.
Figure 1 shows one possible hardware configuration for a first-generation intelligent player. The main feature of the design is the videodisc interface adapter, which would plug into an expansion slot on the microcomputer. The interface adapter gives the programmer tight control over the timing of the player and also controls the video overlay circuit.
As digital television and audio reproduction become affordable and popular (I estimate that this will take five to seven years), we’ll be able to define the formats that will let personal computers store and retrieve video images and sound. We’ll be able to create high-resolution computer graphics and synthesized music on personal computers and write it onto a write-once videodisc peripheral. We’ll then be able to play it back through digital television sets. Alternately, digital television images could be recorded from TV sets onto a videodisc and then retrieved. displayed, or processed on personal computers.
Figure 2 shows a second-generation interface built around digital television. As 32-bit processors become faster, and memory bandwidth greater, it will be possible to directly manipulate high-resolution images that come from the videodisc or are created directly by the microcomputer. The video output from the TV camera can be routed to a digital television for viewing, or the output can be held in the graphics frame buffer for further modification and processing.
Mark Dahmke. a contributing editor for BYTE, is a software consultant and heads MCD Consulting Inc. He can be contacted at POB 80266. Lincoln. NE 68501.
I love the opening illustration.
[citation needed]
Well, that explains why Grolier’s was the first CD-ROM encyclopedia… they had been working on it while CD-ROM was being invented.
For those of you who don’t remember, on page 152 (p.4 of the excerpt), the bowler hat and cane in the “IBS” ad were the sort of symbols used as a visual shorthand by third party manufacturers to ride on the coattails of media success for IBM computers, since Charlie Chaplin’s iconic “tramp” character (played by Bill Scudder) was used in early IBM PC ads. | http://blog.modernmechanix.com/video-electronic-encyclopedias/3/ | 2013-05-18T10:53:14 | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | 1368696382261 | [
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"http://blog.modernmechanix.com/mags/qf/c/Byte/7-1984/electronic_encyclopedia/xlg_electronic_encyclopedia_03.jpg",
null
]
] |
This Week in Website Performance is a weekly feature of the Monitis.com blog. It summarizes recent articles about website performance. Why? Because your friends at Monitis.com care.
9 WordPress Plugins To Improve Images Performance
Author: Ashutosh KS.
When there is content to post and no team to make it happen, many of us turn to WordPress to take care of the backend details. Themes, plugins, and other customisation tools abound, and we can lose hours checking them all out. At some point esthetics should take a backseat to performance improvement. And there is a plugin for that. In fact, there are quite a few! Ashutosh covers 9 different WordPress plugins that will help speed your site.
Mobile Request Multiplexer on the Edge
Author: Eugene Zhang.
Akamai is adding an interesting new tool to help speed up mobile access. Acknowledging the impact that latency has on the mobile browsing experience due to TCP having been designed for wired networks, they have deployed multiplexers at the edge of mobile access. This allows concurrent HTTP sessions to run in one TCP stream. Essentially, the mobile requests are bundled up and sent out in one session which the multiplexer unpacks and ships out the wire.
Web Performance 101: An opinionated guide to the 22 links every developer should read
Author: Joshua Bixby.
If you are new to the scene, or in the mood for a comprehensive refresher, or maybe you’d simply like to know if you’ve considered all the angles, Joshua Bixby has assembled a tremendous list of web performance links for you. These 22 pages begin at the idea of web sites, a manifesto, and goes on to explore Essentials, Basics, Mobile, Responsive Web Design, … oh you don’t need the whole list here. Go on over and see what your competition is missing.
Perception is king, when it comes to website performance
Author: Warren Gaebel.
Have you ever thought a site was slow as you saw the text jump around while the page renders and formats? Had that site ordered it’s component loading differently, you may have thought it much faster, even if it actually took the same amount of time to be fully loaded. This phenomenon is explored by Warren in his insightful article about the importance of making a page perceived to be as fast as possible. Ordering of loaded components is just the beginning, he also gets into the mind of the person browsing and gives tips on how to deal with expected delays.
HTTP Archive: adding flush
Author: Steve Souders.
Sometimes you have a fairly complicated page to load, and it just can’t be trimmed. In the limited scope of PHP on Apache, the flush command can be used to show above the fold part of the page much more quickly, while the remainder is loading. Steve Souders details how he used this tool to speed up presentation of HTTP Archives pages. | http://blog.monitis.com/index.php/2013/02/05/this-week-in-website-performance-14/ | 2013-05-18T10:40:40 | CC-MAIN-2013-20 | 1368696382261 | [] |
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