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Artist: Tokyo Rose Song Title: The Promise in Compromise We always get such little time So every minute counts for more like seasons changing while hearts keep aching for warmth I just can't help but feel like it's a crime to want to keep a tight grip on what we're sharing because I know it's tearing you apart Forgive me if I'm wrong, but I never said I wouldn't make you cry Now I'm begging for another try to keep the promise in a compromise The simple things never come easy We'll work it somehow, because it's not worth faking a love that's not worth making this tough It isn't a question of if it's right but if it's right for now With all I'm taking not sure I'm really giving you enough I know (I know it's hard on you) it's hard on you. It's true for me too (I know it's hard on you) But know (Baby you've got to know) I'd give it all for you if you just asked me to

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Lyrics Depot is your source of lyrics to The Earth Dies Screaming by UB40. Please check back for more UB40 lyrics. The Earth Dies Screaming Lyrics Artist: UB40 Album: Signing Off A warm dry wind is all that breaks the silence, The highways quiet scars across the land. People lie, eyes closed, no longer dreaming, The earth dies screaming. Like scattered pebbles, cars lie silent waiting, Oilless engines seized by dirt and sand. Bodies hanging limp, no longer bleeding, The earth dies screaming. The earth dies screaming The earth dies screaming Your country needs you, lets strike up the band. The earth dies screaming The earth dies screaming Despite all odds we must defend our land. Half eaten meals lie rotting on the tables, Money clutched within a boney hand. Shutters down, the banks are not receiving, The earth dies screaming. no comments yet UB40 Lyrics UB40 Signing Off Lyrics More UB40 Music Lyrics: UB40 - Fight Fe Come In Lyrics UB40 - Higher Ground Lyrics UB40 - Never Let You Go Lyrics UB40 - Riddle Me Lyrics UB40 - Signing off Lyrics UB40 - Sing Our Own Song Lyrics UB40 - Sweet Sensation Lyrics

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add artist photo Add Explanation Add Meaning Party Town lyrics New! Read & write lyrics explanations • Highlight lyrics and explain them to earn Karma points. Eurythmics – Party Town lyrics Saxophones were playing in a pool of light Corridors of mirrors in a never ending night Jukebox electric shining in your face Arms like a gorilla playing a stumbling bass You were singing under water when you started to drown I never did like you much so I didn't slick around Matthew was the only one who lasted till the end He was swimming in the kitchen when his mind began to bend In party town, party down I saw you with your dress torn down In party town, party down You were naked and alone Officers and criminals were walking hand in hand The king of executioners he was singing in the band Microscopes and laser beams they all were being used Girls were drinking novocaine to keep themselves amused Senators and ministers were hanging in the sky People paying in advance to watch the scene go by Magazines were quoting all the things that had been said Making fun and money on the fact that she was dead Party girl, party girl, I saw you in your party world Party girl, party girl, you were naked and alone instrumental... Party Party town, party town, where the beat goes down Party town, party town, you can hear them beg for more In party town, party town, the girls don't keep you hanging round In party town, party town, they nail you... To the floor... Ha Haa Instrumental out to fade... Optional screaming Lyrics taken from • Email • Correct Write about your feelings and thoughts Min 50 words Not bad

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How To Longboard Pump Want to learn how to longboard pump? The longboard pump is a common skating move, but learning how to master it takes a little practice and time. The longboard pump is a uncomplicated process of stringing moves together to prolong your ride without the use of your foot as a kicker. Learning to pump a longboard will actually be one of the first things you should learn to master. When you are out on a longboard, pumping will enable you to maintain your stride and keep you riding longer then kicking. This article will look at the process of pumping on a longboard. The process of pumping on a longboard is defined below. Learn the art of pumping on a longboard and enjoy a longer and easier ride. 1. Stretch out and get yourself ready to ride. Longboarding can be a fun recreational activity as well as competitive sport. So, being limber and warmed up is always important. Strap on your gear and get ready to take the longboard for a spin. 2. Push off and pick up a fair amount of speed. Place both feet on the longboard and position yourself somewhere near the middle of the board. Bend your knees slightly, placing your arms where you best like them for balance. 3. Begin rocking your feet back and forth. The motion will cause your entire body to move back and forth. This will make the longboard sway on its trucks. This motion will keep the board moving back and forth, keeping momentum and movement. The faster you move the faster the action. What Others Are Reading Right Now. • Speakeasy • Formal Friday • 21 Hairstyles Women Love Female experts reveal the ’dos that drive them wild.

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Ice Cherbil From the Super Mario Wiki Jump to: navigation, search Super Paper Mario Enemy Ice Cherbil 89 icecherbilcard.PNG Max HP 5 Attack 2 Card Type Common Card Description That's an Ice Cherbil. It's a nasty gasbag that spews a plume of freezy gas... Max HP is 5. Attack is 2. That gas will freeze you, so don't go sniffing it... Some say the gas come from their mouths. Some say it comes from elsewhere...... Oh, dear... List of Catch Cards 88           89           90 An Ice Cherbil is a semi-common enemy from Super Paper Mario, found in various locations such as the Yold Desert, the Overthere Stair or the Flipside Pit of 100 Trials. These blue counterparts of Cherbils blow icy clouds at the four heroes, which can freeze them in a block of solid ice. Shaking the Wiimote repeatedly is the only way to break the icicle. Ice Cherbils are also immune to ice attacks, as their name implies, although they can still be frozen. An Ice Cherbil. Related Enemies[edit] Names in Other Languages[edit] Language Name Meaning Japanese アイスチェリリン Ice Cherbil Spanish Narkela Helada Freeze Narkela French Cryogenik Modified orthograph of the word cryogénique (cryogenic). German Eisbäckchen Diminutive of the German word Backe (cheek) and Eis (Ice). Italian Nuvio Freddo Cold Cherbil

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October 26, 2009 How To Apply Consistent Persistent Generosity The habit of giving only enhances the desire to give. --- Walt Whitman What you're doing right now gets you some results. How do you get more clients? How do you keep the ones you've got? To improve your results, try consistent persistent generosity. This catchy phrase is the title of a very short blog post from Seth Godin. Consistent means continual and predictable. A regular frequency helps build expectations. Persistent means long-lasting and unconditional. Like the Eveready bunny, you keep going after others fade. Generosity means giving something the receiver values. Not regifting stuff you want to ditch. Or handing out Frisbees because you assume everyone likes them as much as you do. The Perfect Gift The perfect gift has immense value but won't put you in the poorhouse. How about giving information? This is easy on the environment, inexpensive to send and has no calories (unless you're sending recipes). Batteries aren't included, but batteries aren't required. Unlike soup, you don't need to add more water to feed more mouths. Information stays full strength. To invoke reciprocity, Dr Robert Cialdini suggests your gift be significant, personalized and unexpected. Information meets those requirements and has greater value when timely. Permission marketing is the privilege (not the right) of delivering anticipated, personal and relevant messages to people who actually want to get them. --- Seth Godin, Permission Marketing Except on Halloween, we're reluctant to give candy to a stranger's child. We want our messages welcomed. Advertising annoys. Most messages are generic and useless. If you've had laser eye surgery, you won't get more because of a sale price. If you don't ski, learning about a new resort doesn't help you. How Social Media Helps This snappy video shows the changing ways we communicate and stay in touch. Why not share the best of what you know for free? You lose nothing if you believe we're surrounded by abundance. Your uncommon unconditional gifts will set you apart and draw people towards you. Generosity begets generosity. No comments: Post a Comment

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History timeline Below explore our rich history for what is evolved from our roots in chocolate to a diverse global privately owned business encompassing petcare, gum and confections, food, drinks and symbioscience, underscored by the guidance of the Mars family and our principles-led approach. Mars Hall Of American Business at the Smithsonian Discover how Mars has influenced the American business landscape in the new American Enterprise exhibit at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History. mars.com:about mars:history

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Math Is Fun Forum You are not logged in. #1 Re: Coder's Corner » Programming notes V 1.49 » 2009-09-26 07:19:42 Interesting read, I learned c++ and didn't know the differences #2 Introductions » Hello everyone! » 2009-09-25 00:26:07 Replies: 4 I stumbled upon your site while studying for a test and I must say it seems nice.  I am a computer engineering student, but math always seemed to be a stumbling point for me; somehow I've powered through my courses and I should be graduating soon (May yay!).  I figured since I spent most of college partying and hardly studying (usually all night before a test), joining a nice forum like this will help me hone my math skills, and hopefully I can help with other students if I know the topic.  I used to be good at math when I was younger, but I didn't like doing it.  I used to say in high school that natural logs (ln) were for burning not calculating, though that same time frame when at an anime con I saw a shirt that said  integral(from 10 to 13) 2x dx?  I guess I've always had a hidden love for math, just not out of the classroom. I snickered to myself and had to buy it.  Got dirty looks from offended women though, but that just makes me happy that more women nowadays are learning math: there are many great female mathematicians and social stereotypes shouldn't hold us down. Anyways, glad to join the forum, I look forward to reading posts and trying to help with topics that I know to the best of my ability (whatever that may be lol) and meeting new people who share similar interests, ta ta for now! Board footer Powered by FluxBB

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Colon cancer stages Illustration showing colon cancer stages At its earliest stage (stage 0), colon cancer is limited to the inner lining of your colon. As colon cancer progresses, it can grow through your colon and extend to nearby structures. The most advanced stage of colon cancer (stage IV) indicates cancer has spread to other areas of the body, such as the liver or lungs. See more Multimedia

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On his newest album, The Beast in Its Tracks, Josh Ritter grapples with his recent divorce, yet none of the songs come off as overly bitter or spiteful. Among the heartbreak and pain, Ritter carves out a new beginning, treating the entire situation with poise and grace through his characteristically excellent lyrics. Musically, nothing here will surprise fans of the singer-songwriter’s previous work, although The Beast in Its Tracks is considerably sparser than Historical Conquests and feels more worn than albums like The Animal Years or So Runs the World Away. This approach gives the album an intimate feel befitting its subject matter, and is especially effective on the tracks that deal most explicitly with heartbreak. Even with its more subdued nature, the album contains enough sonic variety to keep from growing stale. It is paced wonderfully. I’d like to think you can divide the songs on The Beast in Its Tracks into three categories: heartbreak and pain, rejuvenation and new love, and closure and understanding. Joshritter_beastinitstracksThe structure of the record is pretty interesting. It isn’t until track five, “Nightmares,” that Ritter really starts to deal with his darker emotions. In this way, the album’s narrative seems to resemble the reality of a break-up, refusing to suggest that recovery from a painful experience always moves in a straight line from hurt to healing. The road to healing is often a bumpy one, full of setbacks and regressions, and by placing the two darkest songs on the album, “Nightmares” and “The Appleblossom Rag,” in the midst of happier songs, Ritter reflects this truth. A jaunty acoustic guitar and Ritter’s higher-pitched vocals take the edge off of the beautifully depressing imagery that makes up most of “Nightmares”: “I know where the nightmares sleep, on what fodder do they feed? I followed one back down to hell, and I spent some time down there myself.” The lyrics of “The Appleblossom Rag” resound with the same sense of pain, and paired with just a solitary acoustic guitar and Ritter’s tired vocals, it is easily the most emotionally devastating track on the album. Focusing on a kitchen rag that his ex-wife left, Ritter transforms this object into a symbol of their lost love: “Oh, that appleblossom rag! Lord, I’m such a fool, for things that sing so sweet and sad and are so goddamn cruel.” While Ritter’s poetry may be at its best on these tracks, the happier tracks are perhaps more musically engaging and do a good job of balancing the album. Containing equal amounts of hope and world-weariness, “Hopeful” floats along, supported by bluesy electric guitars and languid drumming as Ritter describes his journey of healing. The background vocals that unexpectedly break into the song near the end add another dimension to the musical backdrop and help lend Ritter’s struggles a universality: “Everybody’s gonna hurt like hell, sometimes.” Just a couple of songs later, “New Lover” exudes joy, its brisk pace and steady bass drum giving the album a jolt of energy. Although the subject of the song is his new lover, the lyrics are directed at his ex-wife, and, while they carry a certain vindictiveness, the words also highlight the healing process: “Praise the water under bridges, the time they say will heal. Praise the fonder that still grows on the absent heart and fields. Praise be to this pain, these days it’s all I seem to feel.” In many ways, “New Lover” tells the entire story of the album in one song, but it doesn’t reach the point of closure that the album’s final tracks impart to us. The album’s penultimate track, the hymn-like “Joy to You Baby,” boasts a repeated refrain and cyclical guitar riff that gives the song a sense of completion. Near the end of the song, Ritter sings, “If I never had met you, you couldn’t have gone. But then I couldn’t have met you, we couldn’t have been. I guess it all adds up to joy to the end.” This weary resignation to the indelible and important marks that relationships leave is, by this point in the album, filled with a well-earned honesty. The Beast in Its Tracks concludes with a lullaby of sorts in “Lights,” a tender ballad directed to Ritter’s new paramour. A rebirth of sorts, the song ends the album on a peaceful note, as Ritter muses, “Sometimes I can’t see, that don’t mean I’m blind. It’s just your light in my eyes.” For an album that has spent almost every track referencing Ritter’s past relationship, “Lights” turns the page to a new chapter, which makes it a satisfying conclusion. On The Beast in Its Tracks, Josh Ritter embraces the pain and heartbreak of his recent divorce and comes away from it with a fantastic batch of songs that refuse to sugarcoat reality or bow to depression. The album manages to avoid the maudlin extremes of the break-up album with a superb balance of music and lyrics, and Ritter’s commitment to making a well-crafted album stands out here. While the album ends with light eclipsing dark and joy overtaking heartbreak, Ritter takes care, over the rest of the record, to remind us that this new start cannot come without traversing the path of pain. Starting with a devastating situation, The Beast in Its Tracks beautifully shows that redemption is possible, especially in brokenness.

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* This is the Professional Version. * Juvenile Angiofibromas by Udayan K. Shah, MD Juvenile angiofibromas are rare and benign and can develop in the nasopharynx. Juvenile angiofibromas are most common among adolescent boys. They are vascular and grow slowly. They can spread into the orbits or cranial vault or recur after treatment. Symptoms and Signs Common symptoms include nasal obstruction and epistaxis (sometimes severe, usually unilateral). The tumor may cause facial swelling, eye bulging, or nasal disfigurement or mass. • CT Diagnosis usually requires CT and MRI. Angiography is often done so that the tumor vessels can be embolized before surgery. Because incising the tumor may cause severe bleeding, incisional biopsy is avoided. • Excision and sometimes radiation therapy Treatment is excision. Radiation therapy is sometimes used adjunctively, particularly if complete excision is difficult or impossible or if the tumor recurs. * This is a professional Version *

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Pillars of Prosperity: O.J. Simpson, Michael Jackson, Thomas Kramer What will it take for the Miami Beach City Commission and other local cronies, hangers-on, flunkies, recipients of two-bit contributions, casinoheads, rationalizing lawyers, suddenly converted "mediators," the INS, and unscrupulous big-shot newspaper editors to wake up and smell the coffee about Thomas Kramer ("The Continuing Adventures of Thomas Kramer," November 23). Of course we all know what's going on here A enough money will buy almost anything. But then Michael Jackson and O.J. Simpson could have told you that. Several years ago Tropic ran a mostly laudatory piece about Kramer. New Times ran thorough, critical coverage ("Tycoon Thomas," December 16, 1992). New Times also thoroughly covered Kramer's wine-in-the-face incident ("Blamer vs. Kramer," June 23, 1994); the Herald barely mentioned it. The Herald never mentioned the incident involving alleged repeated anti-Semitic slurs, even though fists flew and the police were called. Earlier this year there was Dave Lawrence's piece on his encounter with the misunderstood mogul. The Herald has never mentioned Kramer's repeated attempts to make sizable political campaign contributions, which are in violation of federal law. These were covered by New Times last fall. Then the Herald resolutely defended Miami Beach's deal with Kramer's Portofino organization. What's really intriguing is why the Miami Herald continues to kowtow to Kramer and absolutely refuses to cover his escapades. Richard H. Rosichan Miami Beach Hear That Suckin' Sound? It's Jacob's Brain, Headin' South How comforting to know that self-righteous serial writer Jacob Dorn is on guard against non-Dorn-approved English, county animal shelter workers who want to provide free and low-cost spaying and neutering instead of killing abandoned animals, persons who have the audacity to think they are entitled to care for their family pet when their financial situations change for the worse (what would Dorn do with his dog should he find himself unemployed?), and assorted other things giving hope that humans are still capable of being humane ("Letters," November 9). But how did he overlook public libraries (which compete with bookstores, movie theaters, and video outlets), public schools and universities (which compete with private institutions), public transportation, public health clinics and hospitals, and so on? Also, how did he overlook those tax laws allowing deductible contributions to "beggar" charities that don't meet Mr. Dorn's standards for self-reliance? Mr. Dorn obviously lives in a vacuum. Which would explain why his logic sucks. Debbie Lewis Sweetheart, Will You Be My Ravioli? In response to Jen Karetnick's review of Cafe Primola ("Know Matter," October 19), the sister restaurant to Cafe Prima Pasta, I would like to make a few important points. Let me begin by saying that my fiancee and I have been going to Cafe Prima Pasta for more than a year. In fact, we became engaged there. We have never had anything but an exceptional meal and excellent, attentive service. As far as the "snubbing" Ms. Karetnick claimed to have been subjected to, I was surprised that this was a new experience for her. As a resident of Miami for many years, I have become all too familiar with the preferential treatment that can occur at various restaurants, clubs, and bars; no one who has ventured to Miami Beach is a stranger to this practice. Often, however, there is a reason behind it, especially in the case of a restaurant on 71st Street with no pedestrian traffic to rely upon. After it became apparent that my fiancee and I were frequenting Cafe Prima Pasta at least once or twice a month, we began to be greeted with enthusiasm and were seated promptly at a cozy table. It is not hard to comprehend that in a seasonal city it is the regular customers who keep a business operating during the slow months. If appreciating steady patronage by showing preferential treatment is a crime, then almost every restaurateur would have been convicted years ago. Besides, shouldn't the real issue be the cuisine, which is always superb? Perhaps Ms. Karetnick should get to know the owner better by becoming a regular. Carlos M. Lastra Sheri L. Turnbow Sponsor Content Sign Up > No Thanks! Remind Me Later >

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Rate this paper • Currently rating • 1 • 2 • 3 • 4 • 5 4.00 / 2 Paper Topic: Sources of Conflict Sources of conflict The conflict that is going to be discussed is the situation that happened in Eastern European country Ukraine and led to well-known events called Orange revolution . The conflict was widely covered by mass media all over the world , since it was the precedent that was supposed to have on-going outcomes not only in Ukraine itself but in the major countries that suffered from corruption and intragovernment speculations It is important to notice that Ukraine is a big European country which has around 50 million population . After the split of the Soviet Union Ukraine gained independence , as well as many problems from the previous regime . The economic ties between the countries of the USSR were broken . Thus , each country , including Ukraine , had to search for its own way of survival and development . After the split , during the turmoil years the strategic economic objects of the country , such as oil /gas , chemical and other energy companies were quickly privatized by those people that were closer to the official authorities . The economic situation in the country was devastating - huge inflation and low GDP didn 't favor any economic development . However , what was even more discouraging is that the power in Ukraine was concentrated in the hand of several people that had the same origin . It is worth mentioning that the first President , the Minister and the Prime-Minister belonged to the same party . They were allies and wanted to save the alliance throughout the years . During the second election another President was elected . It is he , who later became the actual cause of the conflict The second President managed to retain power during two terms . Yet those 10 years he ruled were marked with severe corruption and further robbery of the country by powerful clans . All the biggest plants were sold to the right people ' for virtually nothing . However , the nation didn 't experience any positive changes and the level of live remained low . The turning point of the conflict occurred at the end of 2004 when the Presidential election took place . The candidate from the official power was delegated versus the candidate from the opposition . The latter was supported by the majority of population who still hoped for positive changes . Yet , the elections were falsified and the candidate from the power officially won . It provoked a wave of dissatisfaction and turned into a real national conflict where the one party was the East of the country , which supported Presidential delegate , and the other party was the west of the country , who supported the delegate from opposition This national conflict turned into a Revolution , the winner of which became current President of Ukraine and the delegate from opposition Viktor Yuschenko This kind of national conflict is really very multifaceted and the sources of it are really numerous and very significant . First of all , it is necessary to say that Ukrainian population was tired of poor economic situation in the country and aspired for positive changes that could improve the level of...

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• Announcements Deaf people now have access to 999 Emergency service! 1 post in this topic Deaf people now have access to 999 Emergency service! After many years of no access to the UK's 999 services for Deaf/Hard of Hearing people while 'on the move', good old RNID, BT, Ofcom, and the mobile phone companies has been planning this for many years and are happy to announce this - 999 by SMS! In the old days, each area (i.e. Norfolk, Suffolk, etc) would have their own mobile number that are for "non-Emergency" use and would be much harder to know which one to use if you're not in the area that you usually are. With this single 999 SMS, it make things a lot easier for them to use as it's a national service. One of the people I know, Charlie, has written this article which goes into depth about how it works: You don't have to be deaf to appreciate text messages, but as of this month, if you are deaf, sending a text might do more than just help you socialise - it could save your life. A new system is being trialled that allows people who can't hear, or those who can't speak, to contact the emergency services by texting 999. A national service using those 3 famous digits. Previous schemes were more local, and didn't have just one memorable number. It was unsatisfactory because you would need to know what the relevant nearby text number was or even if they had one in the area you were visiting. More at the article link below. Well done to RNID, BT, Ofcom, and the mobile phone companies for making this possible and making things a lot easier for us including myself. I'll be signing up to this as soon as T-Mobile is on board by 29th Sept. Some of you may think "hey that's open for abuse" - while I agree with that, they do make you to register your number with them first before it can work, so hopefully this system will not be abused. I really hope it will be a successful trial and have it launched as live by 2010, making our lives much easier & accessible. [Via: BBC Ouch] Share this post Link to post Share on other sites

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I was unplugging my 7'' Xenarc monitor for my carputer and the port ripped off the circuit board. I need it repaired and I am willing to pay some money. It would be great if this could be done by today, or even tomorrow. If not, I do understand. Here are pictures of my problem. Please let me know if you are willing to help. this is the port that ripped off you can see the damage on the lines here. the square at the top is where the port goes the port should be like this side angle view

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1. Welcome to the Muppet Central Forum! 2. The Muppets "Hostile Makeover" 3. The Muppets on Dancing with the Stars 4. In Their Own Words: Jim Henson Will an Unedited MFC ever be commercially released on DVD? Discussion in 'Muppet Merchandise' started by muppet boy, Dec 7, 2009. 1. muppet boy muppet boy Member What would be the possibilty that A muppet Family Christmas will arrive on an uneditied DVD in the next few years. I read on Muppet Wiki that the rights to the special is now owned by Disney. Now all we have to worry about is the music rights problems. I really don't see an issue here. Disney has obtain the rights for songs used for seasons 2 and 3 of The Muppet Show, surely they could disolve the music rights for this special. 2. Drtooth Drtooth Well-Known Member Yes... I think it's all up to Disney, and if it's true that they don't have any problems with the Fraggle or Sesame Street characters then we could see it very soon. Just not this year, unfortunately. Firstly, it's too late for them to release a Christmas based DVD. You release those in September so stores can keep them in musty store rooms until November, when they put the holiday DVD's and CD's out. I could easily see them releasing it next year, or maybe even year after... I don't know. So far Disney hasn't really released any Muppet specials that weren't actually pilots, as bonus features on season sets... And as far as Disney goes, so far, past Season 1, they've been good with musical rights. So we could very easily see everything in tact if the greedy corporations that own Christmas musci wanna play ball. 3. LeanneFuller LeanneFuller Active Member you can still get it in the UK try amazon.co.uk and Play.com it is uncut and also comes with the christmas toy. I've got my copy when it first came out over here, it's really good quality. 4. minor muppetz minor muppetz Well-Known Member Those are probably used or unsold copies form before Disney bought the Muppets. 5. beaker beaker Well-Known Member I got ahold of good quality version of the complete 1987 MFC, and edited together a montage of all the deleted clips and scenes...and I was surprised at the fact this totals a good seven minutes plus completely gone from the late 2001 dvd release. Which is totally strange to me. 7 minutes is a large chunk of time if we're talking a standard 45 minute tv special(or in this case, 51.5 minutes total) I have no idea why some of these clips were taken out, there's not even any music; and if there are it's not copyrighted(Rowlf warming up on the piano is not really a "song" per se) Best one can do is just download the uncut version on youtube or a torrent site. 6. dwmckim dwmckim Well-Known Member It's just such an odd history. Sure a lot of stuff got cut for dvd/video releases because of music issues but even if none of that had happened, there was the whole case of when airing of MFC switched to a different network in 1989. Henson Co put together a different edit of the special cutting bits here, adding music there...basically making an "alternate cut" of MFC. The 1989 edit's master had been deemed to be of a higher quality than the 1987 master so they used the 89 cut as the base for all reairings and video releases...so you have an already changed version mutated a little more because of the music rights stuff. So even if Disney can clear up all the issues in regards to music rights and the three families in the special all under different ownerships, a lot may also depend on (a) if Disney has the original master from 87 in their vaults and (b) what condition it's in. In these days of digital remastering, the latter may not be as much an issue but if they do have access to both masters, they may also take an approach HIT did with the special edition Emmett Otter dvd and put the 89 edit as the main attraction with stuff from the 87 cut that got removed for the 89 version as bonus feature material. 7. beaker beaker Well-Known Member Yeah, it'll probably never happened. Just not enough demand from where they're sitting. Also, didnt the Emmett Otter remove Kermit's parts? Very odd. Back in 2003 or 2004 I believe, some tenacious Muppet fans on here seamlessly edited the 2001 dvd release with the missing parts via the UK release; and further added the never aired since 1987 missing tidbits. That may be the movie file I've seen online. But man, I have such good memories of seeing this in late 1988; had no idea it had actually premiered the year prior. 8. Drtooth Drtooth Well-Known Member To me, the problem is that Disney just doesn't seem to want to release any of the older specials. Sure, they released the "pilot" specials as bonus features on DVD sets, and one other special... but those were all half hour specials... If they only can release 2 specials on DVD, I vote this one and Muppets at Walt Disney World. There is no excuse for the latter... unless they feel it's too dated and that half the attractions are gone or have been changed. 9. GonzoLeaper GonzoLeaper Well-Known Member Even if it comes off being more nostalgic than anything (as far as rides and attractions having changed), it's still great marketing for Disney and a chance to further emphasize their ownership of The Muppets. Any publicity is always good for a business- I'm sure Disney will want to capitalize on this ready-made product sooner or later. 10. The Professor The Professor New Member My family taped this special back in 1987. My sister owns the 2001 DVD. I watched both this Christmas and was surprised how much was cut. The song between Fozzie and the Snow Man was especially missed. The puppet Muppet babies sequence made a lot more sense seeing more of the footage. I'm going to try to convert the original tape to DVD. There's a lot of nostalgia there what with the original commercials and everything. I also have some of the Muppet's 30th Anniversary special on that tape. 11. beaker beaker Well-Known Member The full uncut MFC is actually online:) 1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtgYDpvRCMI 2. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IbLaMgCkxg 3. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGzX5eAm1aw 4. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XdiHPlRs3c 5. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1INyTsG85E 12. The Professor The Professor New Member I figured it was there somewhere. Thanks for the link! 13. mbmfrog mbmfrog Active Member If you asked me I blame Micheal Esiner, I mean he made an enemy out o almost anybody when the cameras were off. :sympathy: I mean I seem to recall in the book Street Gang, which told the history of Sesame Street that Eisner tried to buy the SS gang around the time of Jim Henson's fuernal. Still with the new head at the House of Mouse, it has yet to be shown if they're willing to bring back that beloved Holiday classic and work with the other members of the Muppet "family" on this. 14. muppet boy muppet boy Member I just beleive that it is ridiculous that we didn't get at least the whole 1989 edit on dvd. I really don't mind minor background music being missing, but when you take out 5 songs! That's just sad. I beleive that the Jim Henson Company where just cheap and didn't want to pay to use the songs. It really is a shame. Thank God I still have an unedited copy from 88. I put it on dvd :) 15. Drtooth Drtooth Well-Known Member Again, it all depends on if they want to release any specials on DVD's period. I don't even know if they release old Disney specials that aren't movies. Seeing as how Muppets on Puppets is an hour long, theoretically they could put the special on one of the last season sets... but I'd rather see rarer footage, myself. I don't know if they even know if that there's a demand for the stuff. Maybe if we can contact someone and start a letter/e-mail writing campaign, we can get the ball rolling and show there's an interest. 16. frogboy4 frogboy4 Inactive Member It seems that Disney has been branding their own Muppet Christmas products to replace the demand for the John Denver and Family Christmas specials. Not that I agree with that tactic. I'm still very pleased about the Fallon nod to the Denver special. I wonder how much Disney listens to our fan rantings. :crazy: 17. muppet boy muppet boy Member Well, if we do see a special on the last season of the muppet show, I'd say it would have to be The Muppets Celebrate Jim Henson. I do beleive an online petition is order to get the older specials to be released on dvds. It worked for the fraggles, maybe Disney will listen to us. And if remember correctly, didn't Mickey's Christmas Carol come out recently on DVD. If so, maybe there is hope for the muppet specials as well. 18. Drtooth Drtooth Well-Known Member I remember someone stating that Disney doesn't own the John Denver specials, his estate does... and the person in charge of his estate (someone pointed it out somewhere) is very very stingy with these kinds of specials. Even ones without the Muppets in them. Anyway, that poster wrote a long bit of specifics, and I can't remember exactly what they said, but it would take a LOT of haggling to get the John Denver estate's share of the special. Speaking of which... I wonder if THAT was the roadblock that caused Muppet Show season 4 to be delayed... his guest appearance. Oh... a not so quick search lead me to this post 19. The Professor The Professor New Member Well, I went ahead and converted my VHS copy of the 1987 special. It's on my computer and ready for a DVD. I've also got part of the 30th Anniversary Special, so I'm going to turn that around, too. The late eighties were a great time for Muppets. 20. beaker beaker Well-Known Member Yep! I recently started a thread on the 1986-1990 period:) NOTHING more magical in my mind then this period which brought us Muppet Telvision(JHH), Muppet Family Christmas, Muppets @WDW, etc. Share This Page

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H 58° L 55° Partly Cloudy | 6MPH The Critical Thinker Militia Arrives at Bundy Ranch in Nevada, BLM Brings In Special Ops china, harry reid nevada rancher, blackwater, militia, Special Ops Kristan T. Harris | The Rundown Live If reports are true,  armed militia have arrived in support of Cliven Bundy in Bunkerville, Nevada. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) have called in rangers from out-of-state and what is apparently being described as “Blackwater Special Ops”  who are threatening escalation of the situation if local citizens do not back down. Local militia are calling for more citizens and militia to congregate in support of the Bundy family. CellTowersCell towers in the area have been turned off to slow down communication and to prevent uploading of videos. Earlier this week we reported that armed rangers and several federal agencies surrounded a 600,000-acre section of public land and stole over 300 cattle from rancher Cliven Bundy. Cliven Bundy was violated for allowing his cattle to graze illegally on his own property for the past 20 years. Regulations protecting endangered tortoises that inhabit his property prohibit his cattle from grazing in the area. The bizarre twist to this story is the BLM has so many of these tortoises that they are killing them.  Local citizens who share Bundy’s frustration with the BLM’s intrusion have now rallied around him in hopes to maintain freedom and property rights. So why does the BLM really want this land? It has come out Senator Harry Reid is behind the muscle trying to steal Bundy’s property. The BLM has no jurisdiction in the state of Nevada and are illegally taking Bundy’s property.  Evidence supports that the BLM is actually in the business of raking in millions of dollars by leasing Nevada lands to energy companies that engage in fracking operations. 2012 Republican National Convention: Day 2Gov. Brian Sandoval released the following statement on Tuesday in regards to the controversial cattle roundup near Bunkerville, Nevada. “Due to the roundup by the BLM, my office has received numerous complaints of BLM conduct, road closures and other disturbances. I have recently met with state legislators, county officials and concerned citizens to listen to their concerns. I have expressed those concerns directly to the BLM.  Most disturbing to me is the BLM’s establishment of a ‘First Amendment Area’ that tramples upon Nevadans’ fundamental rights under the U.S. Constitution. Page Tools

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North American Network Operators Group Re: key change for TCP-MD5 • From: Iljitsch van Beijnum • Date: Sat Jun 24 06:17:09 2006 On 24-jun-2006, at 1:34, Patrick W. Gilmore wrote: If you care that much, why don't you just add an extra loopback address, give it an RFC 1918 address, have your peer talk BGP towards that address and filter all packets towards the actual interface address of the router? The chance of an attacker sending an RFC 1918 packet that ends up at your router is close to zero and even though the interface address still shows up in traceroutes etc it is bullet proof because of the filters. Why is this better than using the TTL hack? Which is easier to configure, and at least as secure. There are several tradeoffs. GTSM (or "TTL hack") requires that both ends implement it and this check may or may not be inexpensive. (Looking at the CPU stats when running with MD5 and then looking up how fast MD5 is supposed to be processed on much older hardware doesn't give me much confidence in router code efficiency.) If you're truly paranoid, making sure that as few people as possible can enter packets into your router's CPU input queue makes a lot of sense. I prefer having a regular next hop address that shows up in traceroutes and can generate PMTUD packets but if you move the BGP session to some other address there is no need for the interface address to ever receive any packets. That's a lot better than expending resources on AH processing, which I was replying to. RFC 1918 are an obvious choice for the addresses terminating the BGP session because they're mostly unroutable by default, but an address range that's properly filtered by your peer is even better. And if you're on a public peering LAN (internet exchange) obviously you'll want to have static ARP and MAC forwarding table entries.

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Wow-- lots of great info!! Thanks!! Vinegar kills mold/mildew... good to know if it happens again. What would Borax do in your hair? BTW--I don't use ammonia regularly. Twice a year max on mildewed towels & I ventilate well. The way I see it, 2C of ammonia a year into our septic tank has less environment impact than 30 towels going into the landfill or the water/detergent waste that Borax requires from multiple washes (& it doesn't always work to get the mildew smell out) 3a/b mix

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I lost my weight originally doing the southbeach plan - which is very similar to Atkins, but has more emphasis on low fat proteins. I'm not a huge starch eater(bread, pasta,potatoes, rice), so that was never much of an issue - for me - it's more the sweet/fat combo - ie: cookies, ice cream, chocolate bars. I need to get back to having a piece of fruit for my sweet fix. And I did that successfully for more than a year, so I know it's possible. I just gotta DO IT! 2Poodles Southeast PA fine, med porosity, normal elasticity Currently using the following 2 - 3 x/week:

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Hi All, is anyone out there in a relationship with someone older than them? How about much older? I'm 35 and my husband is 50. We've been married for 5 years and together for 8. There can be challenges, lol, if you have any, let me know, k? Little things you hear like, "I was at the concert before you were born!", make me cringe, lol! I get depressed sometimes when I think about what other women my age are doing right now, like having kids or social lives, when we don't do anything for fun and watch a lot of tv. I moved away from my family, and he lost both of his parents before we met. He isn't very close to his sisters so we don't even visit or get visitors. He has a couple of nieces my age and they each have kids and lives so I feel like I don't fit in here. I rarely get on fb anymore because seeing everyone live life makes me wonder about the choices I've made. I told him when we were going out that I didn't want kids but now I think I'm regretting that. I brought up the issue a couple of months ago and he definitely does not want a family. So, that's that. I'm starting to think about how lonely I'm going to be when I'm elderly. I'm lonely already. I do love him, he makes me laugh constantly and I can't picture him with anyone else, so how do you know what you are supposed to do?

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Sunday, September 23, 2012 by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger Editor of (See all articles...) Tags: Monsanto, corporations, ethics eTrust Pro Certified Most Viewed Articles Popular on Facebook Pepsi drops aspartame from diet soda as consumers reject toxic sweetener Here, I unravel the fundamental "violations of virtue" that Monsanto practices on a daily basis. It is these things, I think you'll agree, that make Monsanto a despicable corporate entity and a threat to all humankind. Corporate greed over service to humanity Monsanto's actions are designed to maximize its corporate profits, not to serve the people. Its entire seed-and-herbicide business model is designed to trap farmers in a system of economic dependence... to turn farmers into indentured servants who can never return to traditional farming after their soil has been destroyed with Roundup. Death over life Monsanto's products cause death. They compromise and violate life. Monsanto's GM corn grown a toxic chemical right inside each and every corn kernel. This corn is what is subsequently eaten by humans. Rats fed this corn grew horrifying cancer tumors as shown here: Read more about the link between GMOs and cancer tumors at: Secrecy over transparency Monsanto is spending millions of dollars to try to defeat Proposition 37 in California -- a bill which would simply require GMOs to be indicated on food labels. But Monsanto and other companies such as those that own Larabar, Silk and Kashi do not want consumers to know the truth about GMOs in the foods they buy. (See the GMO boycott infographic here.) They're also spending huge sums of money to try to defeat Proposition 37 so that the food companies can keep GMOs a dirty little secret about the poison in your food. Plainly stated, these companies do not want you to know what you're eating. And why? Because you're eating poison! Domination of technology rather than sharing of wisdom When Monsanto's GMO seeds blow into the fields of farmers who are trying to avoid growing GMOs, Monsanto uses its patent "rights" to sue the farmers and claim they "stole" Monsanto property! This is an example of the kind of pure evil Monsanto engages in on a regular basis. From the top company executives to the bottom of the corporate ladder, people who work for Monsanto are engaged in promoting a sickening, unprecedented evil that's spreading across our planet like a black slimy cancer tumor. That's no coincidence, either, considering that eating GMOs causes massive cancer tumors. Artificial manipulation of nature rather than honoring of nature Instead of honoring the natural ability of seeds to reproduce generation after generation, Monsanto develops "terminator seed" technology that causes seeds to self-terminate after one generation. This, by itself, is a heinous crime against nature, humankind and planet Earth. It is a crime worse than the Nazi holocaust, for terminator seeds threaten ALL human life on our planet... billions of lives are threatened by the behavior of Monsanto. Environmental destruction over environmental stewardship Roundup herbicide devastates soils, rendering them contaminated and unable to produce healthy crops using traditional (or organic) farming methods. Once a farm plot is destroyed with Roundup, that farmer is forever enslaved to a chemical-based farming protocol. It's unhealthy, it's a disaster to the environment, and the actual crop yields are LOWER than with organic farming, over a period of five years or more. By encouraging farmers to spray literally millions of acres of farmland with Roundup, Monsanto is engaged in a conspiracy to destroy our agricultural heritage and turn us all into "food slaves" that must pay tribute to Monsatan. Scientific deception over scientific truth The so-called "science" coming out of Monsanto is some of the most inane, malicious and brutally deceptive junk science ever fabricated by corporate science sellouts. Instead of testing GMOs for long durations on animals, Monsanto-funded scientists test GMOs for a mere 90 days and then adamantly declare the food to be "safe" for a lifetime of consumption by humans. It's no wonder they didn't run long-term tests: The real acceleration in cancer tumors only emerged after the 90-day milestone in rats. Even if Monsanto-funded scientists found GMOs to be safe in a "lifetime" feeding study, you couldn't trust those results anyway: Any scientist, politician or media group with financial ties to Monsanto must now be assumed to be compromised and lacking any credibility whatsoever. Monsanto has bought off countless scientists, experts, media writers and politicians. But paying them off doesn't alter reality. Poison in the corn is still poison in the corn, even if you pay a group of sellout scientists to foolishly declare otherwise. The CHANGE we really need: Corporations with virtue The very design of corporations is missing something: HUMANITY. Sure, corporations are great at generating profits, streamlining logistics, manufacturing, marketing and so on. But where's the humanity in all that? It's nowhere to be found. Corporations don't care WHO they harm, WHAT they destroy, HOW they behavior or even HOW FAR they have to go to make another buck. Here at, we've documented corporations engaging in the most despicable, anti-human behavior imaginable, including using little children as vaccine guinea pigs, secretly testing diseases on prisoners, routinely falsifying evidence, bribing physicians, lying to regulators, engaging in efforts to deny consumers access to more affordable products, inventing fictitious diseases ("disease mongering") to market toxic drugs, and even hiring P.R. firms to spread lies and disinformation online through social networks and websites. A corporation is like a cancer tumor. It wants to tap into more and more resources, growing larger and larger until it kills everything. That's the innate drive of nearly every large corporation you've ever heard of: Get big, destroy the competition and DOMINATE! Even if it means killing our future. When corporations become so powerful that they practically run the government -- as they do now -- the correct descriptive term for that arrangement is Fascism. The revolution we need is a revolution against the corporation As we see our present-day society being utterly destroyed by corporations -- banking, agriculture, pharmaceutical, etc. -- we must get serious about what needs to happen to change the structure of corporations so that they serve humanity rather than destroying humanity. Here are some suggestions worth considering: #1) Strip away corporate personhood protections. #5) Nationalize the Federal Reserve and make it "America's bank" so that Fed money is owned by the People and benefits the People instead of globalist banks. #6) Halt the "revolving door" where government regulators take high-paying jobs at the very corporations they've been regulating. Once a person works in an influential position for a government regulator, they should be forever restricted from working for the industry they once regulated. #7) End "Free Speech rights" for corporations. Corporations are not people. They have no God-given rights. By ending this fabricated "right," we could institute strict advertising limits that would prevent corporations from advertising harmful products to children and adults. Stop supporting evil YOU help shift the world in a more positive direction by shifting your own personal purchasing habits. And that's something you can control right now, today, starting with the very next dollar you spend at the store. BUY ORGANIC, non-GMO products wherever possible. You'll be changing the world one purchase at a time. That's a genuine, practical way to diminish the power of evil corporations starting right now. Follow real-time breaking news headlines on Monsanto at comments powered by Disqus Permalink to this article: Embed article link: (copy HTML code below): Reprinting this article: Non-commercial use OK, cite with clickable link. Colloidal Silver Advertise with NaturalNews... Support NaturalNews Sponsors: Advertise with NaturalNews... Sign up for the FREE Natural News Email Newsletter Your email address * Please enter the code you see above* No Thanks Already have it and love it! Natural News supports and helps fund these organizations:

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Print Article | Email Article | Write To Us Daily News Atheism, Quidditch and the Truth (9137) … And Nothing but the Truth: Atheism and the Audacity of the Catholic Worldview, Part 3 09/14/2011 Comments (28) – Photo by Christopher Capozziello/Getty Images The game of quidditch from the Harry Potter books by J.K. Rowling is depicted as an exciting sport to watch and to play. Played while riding on magic brooms, it is fast-paced, requires speed and coordination, and relies on teamwork and individual creativity. It is depicted as a tough sport, not for the fainthearted. And, as we all know, it is a fictional sport. In the end, quidditch, like Harry Potter, is not real. It is simply the product of an active and creative imagination. We know it is a fantasy because we all intuitively understand the basic principles of our universe. Even for the more imaginative of us, it is obvious brooms cannot defy gravity, no matter what make or model. Rowling’s boy-wizard is fantasy, and quidditch is a fantasy sport, regardless of our personal perceptions. Whether we are an agnostic or an atheist, a deist or a theist, we can all distinguish between the fantasy of quidditch and the reality of actual sports. But when things are not quite as clear as this example, things get a little strange. And, often, attitudes and arguments abound. For example, in matters of morality or politics or religion, people often react passionately and vigorously about what is true and what is good. And, in many ways, such reactions are appropriate. For these are matters of significance and import. These are not life’s trivialities. They are the sum and substance of this life and the future, even eternity. These issues also reach down into the very core of life and living and to the center of all human beings. They have far-reaching effects for our being and for life and how it is to be lived. Being contentious around important issues such as politics, morality and religion is often necessary, provided we contend with others fairly, honestly and lovingly. So, in such areas, separating the imaginable from the real, separating fantasy from reality is crucial. It is crucial to everyone’s search for truth. It is crucial because we need to know what life is really all about and how to live it. And it is crucial so we may act purposefully and with confidence, knowing we are doing the right thing and seeing things as they really are. And it is just here that we situate some of the crucial, irreconcilable differences between atheism and Catholicism. For both beliefs have vast implications stretching out into the reaches of human society, human relations and into the deep recesses of each and every human heart. And these differences make all the difference. When it comes to separating fantasy from reality, these differences are critical to so many aspects of life and living. For instance, these differences are crucial for how we understand human nature and consciousness, crucial to how we understand how we know things, how we reason, and how we know the rules and principles of reason itself.  Let’s take a brief look at human consciousness and reason in closer detail. There are basically two ways of looking at human consciousness. One is called monism. It means human consciousness is comprised of one thing. It means human consciousness is only physical, a product of the material world only. Monism sees all aspects of human consciousness as physical, biochemical events. Our personality, our will, our reason, our thoughts, our emotions, our morality are solely the product of neural activity, a collective concert of biochemical events in our brain that create these many psychological and cognitive experiences.  For monists, every human experience we have is merely the byproduct of brain activity. Our sensations of who we are, our thoughts, our emotional experiences, our sense of beauty, our sense of morality, our sense of proportionality, our deliberations and decisions,  our intuitions, our common sense — everything we experience, everything we hold dear — are utterly and simply illusions generated by collective cellular events.  Nothing more. The other basic way of looking at all that is entailed in human consciousness is “dualism.” The dualistic view recognizes both the tangible dimension of biochemistry, as well as the intangible dimension of the human mind.  Dualism blends the material and the mental realms of human experience and links them interactively as we experience them. Dualism sees the interplay of the physical and the mental as a seamless integration, a harmony of these interrelated states.  For dualists, human consciousness has both a mental dimension as well as a physical one. And all our human experiences are real human experiences, not just a composite of collective neural activity.  Our reason is actually real, as are our thoughts, our emotions, our intuitions. We have an intangible soul that is real, as real as our bodies and our brains. Monists believe everything we experience as human beings is solely and entirely based on physical processes. Our consciousness is an experience that is only real to us and is entirely contingent on biochemical activity. Dualists believe human beings are a combination of the tangible and intangible. We are both physical and mental beings. We have bodies and souls, and both are equally real.  For monists, everything we experience isn’t what it seems, for everything is a neural mirage. For dualists, everything we experience has an actual reality. For monist,s separating fantasy from reality is difficult because our consciousness is a series of neural illusions. In a sense, everything we experience is a fantasy, either a neural fantasy with some degree of correspondence to the outside world or a mental fantasy, akin to imaginative fantasy. For dualists, separating fantasy from reality is much easier because we know human consciousness is real and can recognize not only physical certainty and accuracy, but mental ones, as well.  For monists, all human consciousness is like a dream. For dualists, dreams are just dreams. For monists, death is the end of the body and the absolute destruction of our dream-like consciousness. Existence was an illusion and death is the end of the illusion. For dualists, death is the separation of the mental from the physical. We are no longer bound by our body because we are more than just our bodies. For monists, reason has no real reality other than how it is experienced. For dualists, reason has a reality unto itself and can be understood better with training and use. For monists, it is difficult to explain reasoning and reason itself beyond the mapping of brain activity because these are mere neural sensations. For dualists, reasoning is real and can be evaluated against the laws and principles of reason itself. Now, in fairness to monists, they don’t really live their life as if everything was a mirage. They generally live lives like most of us, within the bounds of common sense, reason and science. But their view of human consciousness does not justify or explain their ordinary, daily living. It is a view of consciousness that is impractical and inaccurate, as even their daily lives attest.  For most monists move easily and practically, blending the physical and the mental planes, living comfortably in the tangible and intangible worlds where emotions and reason are as real as radishes and railroads. It is just that their worldview does not correspond well to their daily lives and practical living. And it is just here that their monism is not something that is actually livable or conceptually viable. It is a theoretical concept that offers an explanation for all reality that is virtually unlivable, unless you “pretend” the intangible aspects are real. Not only is it unlivable, but irrational, as well. For it eliminates reason itself, as well as a host of common, practical human experiences. In the end, monism sees everything as one thing and one thing only. And, therefore, it explains nothing. Or, at least, nothing more than the obvious. Despite these differences between practical living and theory, there are many atheists, including the more prominent heralds, who have either an explicit or implicit monistic view of human consciousness. And, when you speak with such atheists, even if the conversation about God never turns toward the subject of human consciousness, you can hear their implicit monism in their demand for physical proof of God’s existence or their resistance to arguments on moral or aesthetic grounds or in their zealous insistence on physical evidence alone. This is why philosophical arguments carry little weight in discussions with some atheists: because of their implicit monistic bias about the nature of evidence and their assumptions about our ability to actually know anything. This is odd, given their allegiance to science and their inability to properly attribute to reason its crucial place in the scientific method and its pursuit of scientific knowledge.  Given the importance of reason to any argument or even for science itself, for monists, reason does not have quite the credibility or power to make the case, even for familiar intangible realities, let alone God. And with those atheists who actually think in a manner that is consistent with their monistic beliefs, they know human reason has no real reality unless it is legitimized in the physical realm.  Otherwise, reason is regarded with some suspicion and is impotent, unless linked to science. But Catholicism maintains the reality of the tangible, physical universe, as well as the intangible, mental and spiritual plane. Catholics believe all that exists physically is the product of the divine Spirit — God. Catholics believe the spiritual plane precedes the existence of the physical realm and that the supreme Spirit brought the physical plane into existence. Unlike the atheists, Catholics believe the spiritual and mental planes are real. Most atheists don’t. To many of them, it is just biochemistry. Well, when it comes to truth, such distinctions are helpful. These differences are clear and mutually exclusive. Not only that, they also cover the entire range of choices within their beliefs. Many atheists claim the physical realm is the single, sole source of our human consciousness and experiences. Catholics claim the spiritual, emotional and intellectual dimensions are equally as real as the physical ones. When we examine these claims, we know one of these beliefs must be true and the other false. Either the monistic atheist is right or the dualistic Catholic is right. Either human experience is solely a product of biochemical activity, a composite of cellular, neural events, or human experience is more than the biochemistry we can see. And, in the end, only one view, one belief, can be true. The other is a fantasy. No matter how appealing, no matter how much we prefer it, only one can be true; only one can be real. The other must be a fantasy, a fabrication, a phony, fictitious faith. And, the bottom line is: If we Catholics are right, we are left with the fact that our mental, emotional and spiritual experiences are as real as our physical ones — our everyday lives and our eventual immortality is evident even now in the reality of our personality and perceptions, our reasoning and our emotions, our morality and our sense of beauty, our intuitions and our common sense, as well as in the magnificence and order and complexity of the world in which we live.  If we Catholics are right, we can know the difference between fantasy and fact, between mirage and reality. But, if the monistic atheists are right, we only have the singular and solitary fact of biochemistry. All else is fantasy. And, as it turns out, everything is the equivalent of quidditch, a fiction and a fantasy. Even our knowledge of this fantasy is a fantasy, too. Sounds like science fiction, not science, don’t you think? (Part 1 and Part 2 of the series can be found here and here. Next: Atheism and Multiple-Choice Truth.) Frank Cronin, formerly an avowed atheist, writes from eastern Connecticut. He has a master’s degree in theology from Regent University. His post-master’s study includes Harvard, Columbia and Holy Apostles College and Seminary. He was received into the Catholic Church in 2007. Filed under atheism, catholic faith, dualism, harry potter, monism

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When disaster strikes the head of the Emergency Heroes, Captain Walters, is forced to call on young Zach Harper for help. Zach is a former cadet with a natural talent for driving but he never finished the training. Now, guided by the Captain and his assistant Kelly, Zach must save San Alto before it's too late! Emergency Heroes offers players a variety of missions and more than 45 vehicles including police cars, fire engines and rescue vehicles, as well as a navigation map and a spectacular Hero mode. • Drive the next-generation of rescue vehicles. Pilot and command 45 hi-tech rescue vehicles designed specifically for ultra high-risk, high-speed navigation. Choose between police, fire and EMT vehicles. • Explore and protect free-roaming San Alto city. As an emergency hero, your mission is to protect the peaceful island-city of San Alto. Drive trough stunning free-roaming open environments, and keep the city safe at every turn. • Fast-action gameplay: Take advantage of Hero Mode and play like you mean it; the faster you drive, the faster you rise and gain access to invincible powers. • Clear to understand, players never get lost. Arrows on the road provides guidance to the player but always let the player movement's freedom. • Two players Co-Op. Challenge friends or combine forces to form the ultimate rescue hero team to protect your city. Official URL Official Site Buy Now $  Compare Prices 0 want | 1 own 3.3 / 10

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Thread titleFromLast replied Now searching... Neoseeker Forums » » » The World Ends with You » TWEWY Mafia XIII - Reapers Win! Signups for MultiFranchise round Open! » Post Reply hideOriginal Post Jul 24, 09 at 12:06amPheonyx Hello, and welcome the TWEWY Mafia game thread! “What is Mafia?” you may ask. To put it simply, a mafia game pits an uninformed majority – in this case, the Players – against an informed minority – the Reapers – with each side trying to eliminate the others, and the last team standing wins1. Reapers know who their teammates are and may communicate with them outside of the thread; Players only know their own identity and cannot communicate with other members about the game outside of this thread2. Game Progression The game is divided into two alternating phases: The game will end after the seventh Night Phase. Vote: Pheonyx Change Vote: No Vote Night Actions Investigate: Pheonyx Kill: Pheonyx Protect: Pheonyx Neku Sakuraba: Player Aligned Emo Teen Losing The Game There are three ways in which the Players can be declared defeated: 1. At the start of a phase, the amount of Reapers is equal to or greater than the amount of non-Reapers 3. If the remaining number of Reapers exceeds the total remaining non-Reaper kill opportunities; i.e., it becomes impossible to kill all the Reapers within the remaining time. Only the GM will know for sure if this has occurred. Further Questions Thread Recap (last 10 posts from newest to oldest) Aug 09, 09 at 9:23pm Gee, I wonder what role SL would like to pick (heavy sarcasm) HHhmmm...I think now and again a multifranchise game would be good -can easily be explained as a multi-planar event from different UGs (I mean I guess the world of Bleach is a UG itself, no?)/RGs. You see it in mangas/animes all the time, no? Aug 09, 09 at 8:10pm Alright, let me assign characters, PM SLord if he still wants to sign up (It'd be nice if we got 15 participants again) and I'll start this thing. Also, new thread here, because we're getting close to the 30 page limit. Aug 09, 09 at 7:18pm Its hardly multi franchise if everything you suggest is from the same series. Hell, same game even I think. quote Marooned Chic Well, if by perchance we bypass the on-topic rule, I'll pick Nico Robin. :3 Should be ok right? Its only a quick one off gimmick round, as long as a TWEWY character is still in I dont see the problem. Aug 09, 09 at 5:23pm quote ReaperOscuro I like the resurrection and cavalry one, although I think the latter lacks any kind of edge to make it interesting enough. The fomicry I dont like because hes just a -whats that 50/50 Kill/Protector role called again? I hate that one. Nothing personal, I just hates that role I was just using the knowledge I have of Tales of the abyss for the abilities,but I changed cavalry a little bit. Fomicry was for creating replicas in the game,and it sometimes killed the original,or even have bad effects on the original. Aug 09, 09 at 5:17pm Aug 09, 09 at 5:15pm I have more Tales roles . quote role Luke Fon Fabre:Abyss aligned duke's son quote role Guy Cecil:Abyss aligned woman fearing swordsman Your ability is womanproof,due to your fear of women,a woman's ability can't effect you. Cannot be roleblocked. quote role Anise Tatlin:Abyss aligned puppet master You may kill a person of your choice during the night phase,but if that target is Abyss aligned,you lose your ability. quote role Jade Curtiss:Abyss aligned Malkuthian colonel Your ability is fomicry,which allows you to protect a single person during the night phase by making a replica of them,but there's a 50/50 chance of it killing them. quote role Tear grants:Abyss aligned mysterious healer Your ability is resurrection,when used during the night phase,you can revive a person that has been killed (not lynched,killed),but they can't use thier night ability. quote role Natalia L.K. Landvaldear:Abyss aligned Kimlascan princess Your ability is cavalry,preventing you from being roleblocked or silenced. Aug 09, 09 at 4:26pm quote Phoenyx because you are technically alive by the end but the GM never actually wins. I get a special cookie for getting the ying and yang right? quote Phoenyx Yes. (to doing GM auditions) Oscuro aint ever going to be GM at this rate....oh well, I better get assurance from Rabla that I AM going to be the GM after that though, I would respectfully like to say I waited bloody long enough!! @ Hi Ka Ri: that role is not too bad imo, and needs only a little tweaking. What comes to mind is maknig it so that Misa Misa has every name in the game, but NOT their faces -due to her bad memory (in reference to her forgetting L's face). She can however, target at random: targeting the wrong target causes nothing. Hence she is basically a Killer with LOTS of knowledge. HOWEVER to balance this out, each time she targets at random creates an incremental chance that in her clutziness, she will reveal who she is. Like...10-20% per random targeting. Day-phase shouldnt really be of concern, because unless done well, saying that theres this and that and such will clearly say she is Misa Misa -and as such, she should be made either as paired with her Shinigami (as protector etc.) or with Kira, and put as an independent team out to kill everyone. Yea I like @ warrior 9 = the detective imo seems wee bit too unbalanced. Take out the arrest ability: that sounds like gamebreaking. Since hes basically an investigator ++, weaken his core investigative ability, something like he can either get one of the three results, or nothing at all, so a 1/4 chance of something useful. Take out asking about the alignment in the Interrogate ability (because otherwise you only need to say "are you a Reaper?" for a definite PM either telling you yes, or not saying due to a lie ), and its balanced. Ohhh Nico Robin, thats cool!!! Which one though, pre-Luffy Pirates, or with them? HHHmmmmmmm.... You are Nico Robin:Self Aligned Devil of Ohara or I guess... You are Nico Robin:Luffy Pirates Aligned Kick-ass Archeologist Bbuuut you can make the roles, wouldnt want to ruin your plans for you Aug 09, 09 at 1:13pm Marooned Chic @Pheonix - Because we're in the TWEWY forum. Aug 09, 09 at 1:07pm shadow warrior 9 You are Conan Edogawa: Junior Detective Aligned Drugged Child Your ability is Detective. -You can Investigate a member to gain either their role, alignment or ability. -You can Interrogate them during a night phase in which you ask them a question about their character(who they targetted, alignment, role, ability. etc) If they tell the truth you gain the information you asked. If they lie their ability will fail if they target you until you interrogate them again and they tell the truth.(The target cannot refuse the Interrogation and must awnser)You will receive a PM if you are successful. You can Inspect a member who previously targeted you and gain information on their ability. -Finally you can Arrest a member if they targetted you and failed, once Arrested their alignemnt,role, and ability is revealed to you and their ability is locked for two night phases. If you are roleblocked or silenced(or any other similiar ability is used "Bus Drive") you will lose a random part of your ability. It takes the Investigator role and amplifies it to professional levels. I added Conan because he is the best detective ever, Case Closed. (pun intended and serves as a point declared) Also because I absolutely love her and she is more god than Haruhi Yeah that one needs some work. It's basically a reset button for whatever team she is on so they get a second chance. I'm pretty sure that won't get incorporated without a body shop work effort. Aug 09, 09 at 9:24am Since I might as well flesh out the Kira thing I wrote up, here's Misa. quote HiKaRi You are Misa Amane: Kira Aligned Gothic Lolita *insert bio here* Since you have the Shinigami Eyes, you know everyone's real name. To that extent, you will be given a list of all the characters in the game (and maybe their alignments?). You are not told which player corresponds to which character, though. Each night, you may write a character's name in your Death Note. Same principles as Light's note, although it would probably have to be tweaked for balance. If Light were to die, you become a vengeful lover and your goal is to kill everyone on the side that caused Light's death. If Light died due to a night kill, everyone with the alignment of the killer must die for you to win. If Light died due to a lynch where only one team voted, that team must die. If multiple teams voted, all members of those teams must die. Standard stuff. More or less a serial killer on steroids with a twist. Probably unbalanced, but lulzy. Powered by neoforums v2.3.7 (Bolieve) Chat and Lounges Game Platforms Mobile Platforms

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Hough: Creating a culture that values education could be a bargain 7:57 AM, Feb. 26, 2014  |  Comments • Filed Under Funding for public education has been a hotly debated issue since the enterprise was established by Puritans in 1635. Without a doubt, early childhood programs, elementary schools, high schools and higher education systems can provide more programs and services for students as they receive the funds to do so. Putting a price tag on learning is more difficult. In general, the relationship between per pupil expenditures and student achievement is positive. However, the relationship between per-pupil expenditures and just about every student and teacher demographic you choose is also positive. Because local tax bases make up the lion's share of a system's ability to collect revenues to fund its schools, rich geographic areas spend more on public schools than poor ones. The only way to level this field is to reallocate funds. "Reallocation" is a euphemism for taking money from one place and giving it to another. This creates a paradox for those who consider themselves both socially liberal and fiscally conservative. In education circles, mental dilemmas such as this are known to produce "cognitive dissonance." That is, how does one bring competing yet related views to some type of rational conclusion? Let's complicate it further. Teachers and other educators deserve to be paid more. However, if they are already working at 100 percent, more money cannot increase that percentage. Therefore, efforts to raise salaries should not be misconstrued to mean better outcomes will automatically follow. It's just the right thing to do. Why then the positive relationship between per-pupil expenditures and achievement? Case studies of low-income yet high-performing schools may hold the key. In those situations, children have a support system that values education. Creating a culture that views education as a ticket to a better life can trump all of the rest. Maybe we should spend our money on that. sign up for home delivery today Real Deals 2. 911 Calls - What's happening around your house? 3. Restaurant Inspections - How clean is your favorite eatery?

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It's fashionable to bash the Grammy Awards. They make it so easy: Jethro Tull beating Metallica, "Mary Poppins" topping the Beatles, Milli Vanilli winning anything. But this year we thought it would be better to focus on the positive. It wasn't easy. The 3 1/2-hour broadcast from Los Angeles' Staples Center was full of head-slapping moments. It was an oddly paced show with plenty of canned performances and a seemingly random assortment of winners - not to mention the exorbitant amount of camera time given to Chris Brown. But we did find a few moments that made the shindig bearable. Gotye wins record of the year It felt like the Black Keys were the sure bet for this one, considering how many other awards they picked up. But the Grammy voters wisely went for the popular vote, giving it to Australian singer-songwriter's Gotye omnipresent "Somebody That I Used to Know." No matter how you feel about the actual tune, a duet with the singer Kimbra, there's no denying its rise was purely organic and worthy of recognition. Besides, "Call Me Maybe" wasn't even nominated. All-star in-memoriam tribute to Levon Helm The in-memoriam portion of the show tends to be a little too reverential at times. Not this year. A lively all-star band featuring Elton John, Mavis Staples, the Alabama Shakes' Brittany Howard, Mumford & Sons and country star Zac Brown ripped through the Band's barroom classic "The Weight" without making it sound like a bloated mess. The young Howard, whose band was nominated for best new artist, impressed the most, taking the spotlight by the horns during her solo turn. Ed Sheeran and Elton John perform "The A-Team" It seemed like LL Cool J's cliche-ridden opening monologue would never end. Thank goodness for young, red-haired British singer-songwriter Sheeran, who, with John on the piano and backing vocals, provided a moment of low-key clarity early in the evening with his melancholy hit, "The A-Team," which was nominated for song of the year. We can't remember the last time we were more relieved to hear a tune about a drug-addicted teen prostitute. Mumford & Sons win album of the year Frank Ocean was expected to win the prize, and he probably deserved it. But give credit to the Recording Academy of Arts and Sciences for going with a bunch of banjo-playing, vest wearing hobo rockers. Given the lackluster pool of nominees there's a good chance favorites fun. and the Black Keys split the vote (especially with Jack White in the mix) but Mumford and Sons, who have worked their trilby hats off, deserved it as much as anyone. Justin Timberlake Returns The comeback single "Suit and Tie" felt like a dud but the Grammys provided a tuxedoed Timberlake an opportunity make another case for it, this time with the backing of a big-band and a live verse from Jay-Z. We don't know why it was broadcast in sepia-tone but the producers laid off the Instagram filter for his second number, "Pusher Love Girl" a tantalizing tease for his new album, "The 20/20 Experience." Bruno Mars, Sting and Rihanna Pay Tribute to Bob Marley We were dreading the idea of a Bob Marley tribute by Bruno Mars, Sting and Rihanna. Why now? Why them? But Mars set the tone with an electrifying version of his hit "Locked Out of Heaven," that had everyone from Adele to Neil Patrick Harris singing along. Things got better Sting emerged for a run through the Police's "Walking On The Moon" and then Rihanna, Ziggy and Damian Marley joined together for "Could You Be Loved." Katy Perry Presents Best New Artist Katy Perry, wearing a saucy green dress that would make J. Lo's famous green dress blush, was refreshingly surly presenting the Best New Artist award: "I was never nominated in this category and I have my own eyelash line. Take that, Bon Iver." The only downer? Fun., which formed in 2008, won the prize, guaranteeing virtual obscurity (previous winners: Hootie and the Blowfish, Arrested Development, Milli Vanilli). "I got to pee so bad," said singer Nate Ruess. Frank Ocean Wins Best Urban Contemporary Album No, the category didn't make any sense but Frank Ocean made a worthwhile winner. He got a standing ovation from everyone in the room except Chris Brown, with whom he recently tangled in a Los Angeles parking lot. The RandB sensation made a truly humble speech that left his mom in tears. Ocean, who also won Best Rap/Sung Collaboration with Jay-Z and Kanye West for "No Church In The Wild," then performed a visually stunning, if slightly subdued version of his ballad, "Forrest Gump." fun. Sings In The Rain The band could have used the Grammy stage to take its massive hit "We Are Young" on a victory lap but instead used the occasion trot out the underperforming third single "Carry On" from its breakout album, "Some Nights." Risking electrocution, the band performed in a full on simulated rainstorm, with singer Nate Ruess coming across especially brave facing the industry crowd in capri pants and rain boots. The band ended up winning Song of the Year for "We Are Young," beating out Carly Rae Jepsen's inescapable "Call Me Maybe." The Black Keys Do "Lonely Boy" New Orleans Style Never mind that the song came out two years ago, the Black Keys celebrated "Lonely Boy" taking the Best Rock Song prize by performing a souped up version with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band and Dr. John, who marked the occasion by wearing a Great Horn Owl on his face. The group won Best Rock Performance, Best Rock Song and Best Rock Album, but inexplicably lost to Mumford and Sons for Album of the Year.

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Mastered Magicka by Eps01 Skyrim » Magic - Gameplay Added: 31/05/2012 - 10:45PM Updated: 08/11/2012 - 12:06PM 627 Endorsements 1.3 Latest version 18,776 Unique D/Ls 27,091 Total D/Ls 97,800 Total Views Uploaded by Eps01 Last updated at 12:06, 8 Nov 2012 Uploaded at 22:45, 31 May 2012 Adds spell-scaling based on how many stat points you've invested in Magicka and what perks you have in the Spell School skills. For every 10 Magicka (1 point) you have beyond your starting 100 all your spells become 2.5% stronger. For each individual Spell School the maximum gain that you get this way is capped based on what mastery perks you have: Novice - 12.5%, Apprentice - 25%, Adept - 50%, Expert - 100%, Master - 150%. Only your base Magicka is taken into account - Magicka gained through spells and effects does not count. So lets say you spent 30 points on Magicka for a total of 400 base Magicka, and have Expert Destruction and Apprentice Conjuration. The buffs you get are 75% for Destruction spells and 25% for Conjuration spells. Why make another spell-scaling mod, you ask? I've found that all existing ones tie the benefit either to the level of the skill, the level of the player, or what perks you have. All of these approaches neglect the fact that anyone can achieve maximum proficiency at magic by using the Enchantment stacking exploit. So everyone ends up getting maximum damage without any real investment. By tying my implementation to your base Magicka I make it so that you can stack all the exploits you want, you will only be a powerful mage if you earnestly invest into being one. Also I've made my mod as unobtrusive as possible. The buffs are based on a carbon-copy of the corresponding Alchemy effects. So it should work with any other magic mod that doesn't tamper with the way a spell's magnitude is calculated or outright remove the ID's of the mastery perks. Also available on Steam Workshop: link • Small fix that should (in theory) reduce the number of potential problems with load order. • Added a power that toggles the buffs on and off. It's called "Toggle Mastered Magicka". If it doesn't get added to your character, delete the mod completely from your hard-drive, then load the game and save. After that, reinstall the mod and load your game. • Enchantment Fix - I've created an additional mod that removes the issue with enchantments being affected by the buff. This is done by setting the "Magic School" property of the enchantments' effects to NONE. From my testing this also seems to result in the spell schools' perks not affecting enchantments either. The reason for a separate file is that it is VERY likely to not work with other mods that alter the same effects, and I don't know whether there will be any undesired side effects. • Bound Weapons - Makes it so that the damage of Bound Weapons scales based on Magicka and Conjuration perks as well. It's a standalone mod that is unaffected by the main file, and it is not compatible with other bound weapon mods (added weapons won't scale, changes to vanilla are overwritten). The exact scaling is contained within a text file named 'Mastered Magicka Bound Weapon Scaling' in the archive. • When you gain Magicka or a perk, it can take up to 10 seconds of in-game time (outside of menus) to update the buffs. So don't rush for checking the new power of your spells immediately. • The mod has the side-effect of also increasing the power of your enchantments. Use the optinal Enchantment Fix mod if you don't want this. • I've noticed that the buffs remain if you disable the mod without deleting it, which can be problematic if you're trying out different mods. Use the "Toggle Mastered Magicka" power to turn the effect on and off. You should turn the effects off before uninstalling the mod entirely. • Balanced Magic by Mysty - fully compatible. Thanks to JRDH who tested this. • Midas Magic by Xilver - partially compatible. Most spells scale, but some custom spells reportedly do not. Fun mod, by the way :) • Mighty Magick Skyrim by Damar Stiehl - incompatible. Spells do not scale at all. Your should use his Scaling module instead.

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Date: Mon, 24 Sep 2012 16:49:59 -0700 (PDT) From: Supreme Britian Subject: Beck and Robbie 1 Gay Beck and Robbie This is a work of fiction. All rights to charecters to Nickleodeon and Viacom. Chapter 1 The bell ring. The same one every morning. The same class, same 10 o'clock kiss in the hall with Jade. Boring. Even being in the most elite performing arts school in the country can get boresome. I want some adventure. Not that Jade isn't tremendously beautiful, and great in bed, she just is just type. Matter of factly, I'm not sure what my type is. One thing I know is that I bat for the other team. I have always been attracted to guys, even when I didn't realize it. I put my book in my locker as Robbie Shapiro walks solemly by. He is wearing tight jeans. Robbie never ceases to suprise me how a guy that skinny can have a bulge so big. "Hi Rob," I say in a suprisingly nervous tone. "Hi Beck, what's up?" "Um.. Nothing much, where's Rex?" I say, still with butterflies "Sick, It's nice to have a break" he says staring more at my chest than my face. "Um... Do you wanna hang out our something afterschool? Um... for homework I mean" "We both know it's not for homework" Pause- I may have jusg imagined that part... "Sure, Why not" He replies happily and walks on to chat with Tori. -Later that Day- I'm completly nervous. I clean my RV has best I can. No one (Exspecially not my parents) know of my live for Robbie. I don't know if its his subtle swagger or his bundle hair, I crave him. Myfingers through his hair guiding his head on my rock hard cock, his sweet lips taking in my full 9 inches, while simutaneosly fingering my tight virgin hole. Im snapped back to reality when to doorbell rings. I glance out the window. I see him. He's not in his usuall attire, but has changed into a tight fitting shirt and leather pants. I go to open the door. "Hi Robbie, come in" He walks in sets his bookbag down and sits on the chair. "Your more than welcome to sit on the bed" I say extremly nervous and painfully horny. "So where should we start?" He says moving to the mattress "Um maybe Calculus or..." "Or what?" "Robbie we can't deny that there's a connection between us, I've wanted this for so long" I say " You want to..." He says with a smile I answer his question with a kiss. -To be Continued- Comments? Suggestions? email me at

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Rex Ryan doesn't take the bait in response to President Obama Follow on Twitter on August 03, 2012 at 1:46 PM, updated August 08, 2012 at 1:25 PM rex-ryan-new-york-jets-0803.jpg.JPGPresident Obama isn't a fan of the Jets' two-quarterback system. Rex Ryan's tame reply is that he respects Obama's opinion. CORTLAND, N.Y. -- The old Rex Ryan would have taken the bait, telling President Barack Obama he'll see him next year, after the Jets win the Super Bowl. The new Rex Ryan? He bit his tongue -- maybe literally -- and issued a demure response to Obama's skepticism over the Jets' two-quarterback plan. "It shows how popular our game really is," Ryan said. "Every single person has an opinion, and it seems like they have an opinion on our football team. But it’s amazing, this is the president of the greatest country there is, and he’s talking about the New York Jets football team. I’ll say this, I respect President Obama, and I respect the fact that this is his opinion." That's it? "That's it," Ryan said, grinning. A reporter tried again, knowing this is the same man that, in his introductory press conference as Jets head coach, declared his team would be visiting Obama in the White House as Super Bowl champions. "Don’t get going with the president comments," Ryan said. "You know me." Obama told 97.1 The Fan Thursday that he would be "pretty nervous" if he were a Jets fan, wary of a quarterback controversy between Mark Sanchez and Tim Tebow. He praised both quarterbacks but believes the situation will create "a lot of tension." Ryan's response to external skepticism is that the Jets are a team, with a "clear-cut" starting quarterback, Sanchez, and an "athlete and a special talent," Tebow, giving them a dimension to their offense other teams don't have. When the Jets first traded for Tebow in March, Ryan said he could play as many as 20 snaps per game. Yesterday's goal-line work, in which Tebow scored three touchdowns, was a reminder of the situational weapon he can be. Now that the Jets have worked on his package of plays, how often does Ryan think he'll be used? Ryan hopes to keep opponents guessing, saying other teams won't know if they should expect Tebow on two or 20 or 50 snaps. "All I know is they have to prepare for him, and I know what that does to your preparation time," Ryan said. "When you start running the Wildcat and what that does, you can't just slough it off. A lot of coordinators will be like, 'Oh, it's no big deal.' Yes it is. You really can't tell that lie, because I have been there in your shoes." He added: "If you don’t prepare, then Tony (Sparano) is probably going to run it 50 times on you. And that's just the way it is. The great thing about our team is we just want to win, and if that means we have to run it 50 times, that’s what we’ll do. If we don’t have to run it, then maybe we don't."

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Contango In Oil Markets Explained • Playlist • Download • Embed • Transcript The supply glut in the oil market has led to a contango price structure, in which oil futures are priced higher than their spot price. Lynn Cook, an energy reporter with the Houston Chronicle, says the glut in oil supply is related to the economic recession. Today OPEC agreed to cut its oil production by 2.2 million barrels a day in an effort to stem falling prices. The White House called the action short-sighted, but there's a lot more oil in the market right now than is being used. How big is this oil glut? So big that oil companies are running out of places to store their excess crude. So they're keeping it offshore in ships. A couple of dozen supertankers holding millions and millions of barrels of oil are being used for storage instead of transportation. Lynn Cook covers the oil beat for the Houston Chronicle and she joins us now to discuss what's happening with this glut. Welcome, Ms. Cook. Ms. LYNN COOK (Energy Reporter, Houston Chronicle): Hi. NORRIS: I understand that there's a very interesting term to describe this market condition. Ms. COOK: There is. It's called contango, which actually may sound like a lightning round at the end of "Dancing with the Stars," but it's actually this strange economic phenomenon that's going on right now where oil prices today are a lot lower than at any time going forward in the future - in the futures market. NORRIS: Why is this happening? Ms. COOK: Usually, the market goes into contango when there is a supply glut, when there's too much oil on the market. And this is what we've seen happen just in the last few months as the recession fully set in and people realized the days of easy credit and high oil prices are gone. You know, there's just a lot of oil floating around with no demand to take it up. NORRIS: So you note the "Dancing with the Stars" reference. It almost sounds like a high stakes game of cards or something where you have to decide whether to buy, hold, or sell. In this case, they're holding. Ms. COOK: Yeah, that's actually a good way to put it because it is an arbitrage play. I mean, basically, if an oil trader wanted to buy a barrel of oil today for $43, he could do that or she could do that. They lock in that price. They sell a futures contract for that oil down the road. They could get, you know, if they wanted to deliver that oil a year from now, in January 2010, they could lock in $53 per barrel. And that's a 22 percent profit margin. So what's not to like if you're a trader? I mean, you can do a deal today and lock in your profits today, and all you have to do is find a place to store it in the meantime. NORRIS: I'm just curious. Why are they looking to supertankers to store this oil? Why not store it onshore, on ground? Ms. COOK: Well, it's just that storage is really tough to find on land. Every little nook and cranny has been filled up in the last several weeks, and it makes sense to take a supertanker that's sitting there and not transporting oil, fill it up, and just either park it in a port or set it on a slow drift across the high seas and wait until the demand comes back. NORRIS: Sounds very expensive. Ms. COOK: You know, the prices range anywhere from 40 cents a barrel to $2 a barrel to store oil on a tanker. But you know, if you can lock in a $10 per barrel premium, you can easily afford to do that. NORRIS: The price of oil slid to its lowest point in more than four years today. It's an eight percent drop down to 39.99 a barrel. When do you think we'll see higher oil prices? Ms. COOK: You know, I talk to people about this all day, every day. And every person I talk to has a different opinion. Guy Caruso, who's at the Centers for Strategic and International Studies, spoke at an energy conference here in Houston last week, and he said he thinks it's going to be 18 to 24 months before we see any real meaningful, long-term rebound in oil prices. And he predicted that even then, it's going to be a crude oil price of 60 to 70 dollars a barrel, which is half of what we saw this summer. NORRIS: Lynn Cook is a reporter with the Houston Chronicle. Lynn, thanks so much. Ms. COOK: Thank you.

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It is Monday. It's Columbus Day. For many people, it's a holiday. It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Steve Inskeep. Today in Your Health, we'll ask when you can know that it's time for a senior citizen to stop driving. First, we'll ask about senior health care. Open enrollment begins next week for Medicare. Seniors can make changes to their plans. Those just turning 65 face a lot of questions, especially if they're still working. And just one of those questions is whether to keep the employer's health insurance or switch to Medicare. Here's reporter Sarah Varney. SARAH VARNEY, BYLINE: Bruce Osterweil is a lucky man to live just a short walk from where San Francisco's Golden Gate meets the cold, rough waters of the Pacific Ocean. He's also a lucky man to have married his wife, Patricia Furlong, who has long provided the family's health insurance through her job at a small financial consulting firm. But last month, Osterweil's wife turned 65 and decided to retire. And although she may walk away with a crystal bowl or a golden watch for all those years of service, she'll also walk away from her company's generous health insurance benefits. That means Osterweil, who is 59 and a self-employed benefits consultant, is shopping for his own health insurance. BRUCE OSTERWEIL: I am really surprised at how hard it could be for just the average person who isn't an actuary or benefits consultant to figure any of this out. It's astonishing. VARNEY: When a spouse or parent signs up for Medicare, it is often perplexing and unnerving for the rest of the family who've grown used to cushy employer-sponsored coverage. Joe Baker is president of the Medicare Rights Center, the patient education group with a busy hotline for those with Medicare questions. Baker says, for example, young adults up to age 26 who were covered under their parent's insurance are no longer covered when their parent moves to Medicare. JOE BAKER: Medicare doesn't cover dependents. However, if you're a dependent of someone who's losing coverage because they're retiring and going into the Medicare program, you can continue your coverage for three years under COBRA. VARNEY: COBRA is a federal law that allows someone to pay full price to stay on their employer's group plan. They can also shop around for an individual plan. For healthy young adults, Baker says families should look to see if they can find less expensive coverage. That can be even more daunting for older adults who are more likely to have some health problems. BAKER: We do frequently get calls from folks who cannot find individual insurance policies in the state in which they live, either because they have pre-existing conditions or the policies are so expensive that they really can't afford them either. VARNEY: The younger spouses of Medicare beneficiaries who've been denied coverage and have been uninsured for six months can apply for coverage through their state's so-called high risk pools. There will be better options for older adults starting in 2014, says Baker. That's when a key provision of the federal health law will prohibit insurance companies from denying adults coverage because of a pre-existing condition. Another confounding question is what to do when someone turns 65 and decides to keep working. Should they keep their insurance or sign up for Medicare coverage? Baker says the answer hinges on just how big of a company you work for. BAKER: The rules are quite clear. If you're working at an employer with more than 20 employees and you have coverage through that employer or through a spouse that's employed at an employer with more than 20 employees, that coverage - you can continue to keep that coverage. That means that you don't really need to enroll in Medicare. VARNEY: Baker says many people will still enroll in Part A of Medicare, which covers inpatient hospital care, because there's no premium and it may pay some of the costs not covered by your group health plan. But most don't enroll in Part B, which covers doctor's visits, because it costs about $100 a month and is often largely redundant. BAKER: Employers who think they're doing people a favor, like, Oh don't worry, you can stay on our plan. If they're under 20 full time employees, they risk the insurance company of that employer finding out that they are Medicare eligible and basically saying, you're off the plan, and by the way, everything we've paid after you turned 65 and were eligible for Medicare, you need to pay us back. For NPR News, I'm Sarah Varney. INSKEEP: This story was produced in collaboration with our partner Kaiser Health News, which is a nonprofit news service.

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• 877.677.4327 • | • Customer Service How to Repair and Replace a Military Valve The military valve used on inflatable rafts and other watercraft is a very durable and dependable unit that's been used for years. It's especially found on older boats. Replacing the valve itself is pretty simple; just six screws hold the valve in place. However, generally the valve is installed in a recessed boot. Replacing a boot is a pretty major repair job. In this video NRS Repairs goes over all the steps for repairing and replacing military valves, including replacing a boot. Items mentioned in this article:

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l-Lysine, an amino acid, provides nutritional support for the bodys natural defenses. l-Lysine is particularly helpful in restoring normal arginine levels important for the maintenance of healthy gum and lip tissue. l-Lysine nutritionally modulates the production of arginine and thereby boosts the bodys defenses against arginine related assaults. Product: L-Lysine Brand: Bayho, Inc. (More Products) Size: 90 capsules Dosage: Take 2-6 capsules daily Retail: $9.79 Your Name: Your Email: Friend Name: Friend Email: 2 Customer Reviews by missynall I have used other lysine products before for cold sores and find sometimes I have to take up to 4 pills to equal the dose of ONE pill in this brand. It does not prevent the cold sore from happening, but it makes it very small and not irritated at all. The amazing thing is that it lasts such a SHORT amount of time. I take this product until the cold sore is COMPLETELY gone. by Paula This is a great amino-acid. I have used L-Lysine for many years when I get a cold sore. When I have one coming on I start taking 3-4 capsules a day. I still may breakout into a cold sore, but the length of time is shortened by days compared to not taking the supplement. I've also noticed less scarring also when taking L-Lysine.

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"To Europe, she was America. To America, she was the gateway of the earth. But to tell the story of New York would be to write a social history of the world." - H. G. Wells Encyclopedia of NYC by Kenneth T. Jackson Supervised by the New York Historical Society, this is an incredibly well written reference to New York with hundreds of illustrations and over 4,000 alphabetical entries. History and Politics of New York Politics and Public Policy Find out about our systems of government, how to have an effect on local issues, and how to contact the members of the current government of New York. Geography and Origins New York City is located on the Eastern Atlantic coast of the United States, at the mouth of the Hudson River. The city center resides at the exact location of 40 degrees, 42 minutes, 51 seconds N latitude, and 74 degrees, 0 minutes 23 seconds W longitude. New York City is made of five boroughs, each of which is a county. Brooklyn (Kings Co.) and Queens occupy the western portion of Long Island, while Staten Island (Richmond Co.) and Manhattan are compeletely on their own land masses. The Bronx, to the north, is attached to the New York State mainland. "Discovery" and Settlement New York was briefly (1789-90) the U.S. capital and was state capital until 1797. By 1790 it was the largest U.S. city, and the opening (1825) of the ERIE CANAL, linking New York with the GREAT LAKES, led to even greater expansion. In 1898 a new charter was adopted, making the city Greater New York, a metropolis of five boroughs. Neighborhood Histories Central Park | The Upper West Side | Chinatown NYC Trivia Origins of "The Big Apple", Vital Statistics, Strange facts... NYC History Links Follow us on Twitter

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To Name : To Email : From Name : From Email : Comments : Clinical Reviews, Roundtables Vulvar pain syndromes: Making the correct diagnosis Many cases of generalized vulvodynia and localized vulvodynia (vestibulodynia) are mistakenly attributed to yeast infection, pudendal neuralgia, and other entities. Avoid those pitfalls by using a reliable roadmap for evaluation, differentiation, and identification of the various forms of vulvar pain. September 2011 · Vol. 23, No. 9 Although the incidence of vulvar pain has increased over the past decade—thanks to both greater awareness and increasing numbers of affected women—the phenomenon is not a recent development. As early as 1874, T. Galliard Thomas wrote, “[T]his disorder, although fortunately not very frequent, is by no means very rare.”1 He went on to express “surprise” that it had not been “more generally and fully described.” Despite the focus Thomas directed to the issue, vulvar pain did not get much attention until the 21st century, when a number of studies began to gauge its prevalence. For example, in a study in Boston of about 5,000 women, the lifetime prevalence of chronic vulvar pain was 16%.2 And in a study in Texas, the prevalence of vulvar pain in an urban, largely minority population was estimated to be 11%.3 The Boston study also reported that “nearly 40% of women chose not to seek treatment, and, of those who did, 60% saw three or more doctors, many of whom could not provide a diagnosis.”2 Clearly, there is a need for comprehensive information on vulvar pain and its causes, symptoms, diagnosis, and treatment. To address the lack of guidance, OBG Management Contributing Editor Neal M. Lonky, MD, assembled a panel of experts on vulvar pain syndromes and invited them to share their considerable knowledge. The ensuing discussion, presented in three parts, offers a gold mine of information. In this opening article, the panel focuses on causes, symptomatology, and diagnosis of this common complaint. In Part 2, which will appear in the October issue of this journal, the focus is the bounty of treatment options. Part 3 follows in November, when the discussion shifts to vestibulodynia. Common diagnoses—and misdiagnoses Dr. Lonky: What are the most common diagnoses when vulvar pain is the complaint? Dr. Gunter: The most common cause of chronic vulvar pain is vulvodynia, although lichen simplex chronicus, chronic yeast infections, and non-neoplastic epithelial disorders, such as lichen sclerosus and lichen planus, can also produce irritation and pain. In postmenopausal women, atrophic vaginitis can also cause a burning pain, although symptoms are typically more vaginal than vulvar. Yeast and lichen simplex chronicus typically produce itching, although sometimes they can present with irritation and pain, so they must be considered in the differential diagnosis. It is important to remember that many women with vulvodynia have used multiple topical agents and may have developed complex hygiene rituals in an attempt to treat their symptoms, which can result in a secondary lichen simplex chronicus. That said, there is a high frequency of misdiagnosis with yeast. For example, in a study by Nyirjesy and colleagues, two thirds of women who were referred to a tertiary clinic for chronic vulvovaginal candidiasis were found to have a noninfectious entity instead—most commonly lichen simplex chronicus and vulvodynia.4 Dr. Edwards: The most common “diagnosis” for vulvar pain is vulvodynia. However, the definition of vulvodynia is pain—i.e., burning, rawness, irritation, soreness, aching, or stabbing or stinging sensations—in the absence of skin disease, infection, or specific neurologic disease. Therefore, even though the usual cause of vulvar pain is vulvodynia, it is a diagnosis of exclusion, and skin disease, infection, and neurologic disease must be ruled out. In regard to infection, Candida albicans and bacterial vaginosis (BV) are usually the first conditions that are considered when a patient complains of vulvar pain, but they are not common causes of vulvar pain and are never causes of chronic vulvar pain. Very rarely they may cause recurrent pain that clears, at least briefly, with treatment. Candida albicans is usually primarily pruritic, and BV produces discharge and odor, sometimes with minor symptoms. Non-albicans Candida (e.g., Candida glabrata) is nearly always asymptomatic, but it occasionally causes irritation and burning. Group B streptococcus is another infectious entity that very, very occasionally causes irritation and dyspareunia but is usually only a colonizer. Herpes simplex virus is a cause of recurrent but not chronic pain. Chronic pain is more likely to be caused by skin disease than by infection. Lichen simplex chronicus causes itching; any pain is due to erosions from scratching. Dr. Haefner: Several other infectious conditions or their treatments can cause vulvar pain. For example, herpes (particularly primary herpes infection) is classically associated with vulvar pain. The pain is so great that, at times, the patient requires admission for pain control. Surprisingly, despite the known pain of herpes, approximately 80% of patients who have it are unaware of their diagnosis. Although condyloma is generally a painless condition, many patients complain of pain following treatment for it, whether treatment involves topical medications or laser surgery. Chancroid is a painful vulvar ulcer. Trichomonas can sometimes be associated with vulvar pain. Dr. Lonky: What terminology do we use when we discuss vulvar pain? Dr. Haefner: The current terminology used to describe vulvar pain was published in 2004, after years of debate over nomenclature within the International Society for the Study of Vulvovaginal Disease.5 The terminology lists two major categories of vulvar pain: • pain related to a specific disorder. This category encompasses numerous conditions that feature an abnormal appearance of the vulva (Table 1). Terminology and classification of vulvar pain from the International Society for the Study of Vulvovaginal Disease 1. Vulvar pain related to a specific disorder 2. Vulvodynia SOURCE: Moyal-Barracco and Lynch.5 Reproduced with permission from the Journal of Reproductive Medicine. • vulvodynia, in which the vulva appears normal, other than occasional erythema, which is most prominent at the duct openings (vestibular ducts—Bartholin’s and Skene’s). As for vulvar pain, there are two major forms: • hyperalgesia (a low threshold for pain) • allodynia (pain in response to light touch). Some diseases that are associated with vulvar pain do not qualify for the diagnosis of vulvodynia (Table 2) because they are associated with an abnormal appearance of the vulva. Conditions other than vulvodynia that are associated with vulvar pain Acute irritant contact dermatitis (e.g., erosion due to podofilox, imiquimod, cantharidin, fluorouracil, or podophyllin toxin) Aphthous ulcer Bartholin’s abscess Chronic irritant contact dermatitis Herpes (simplex and zoster) Immunobullous diseases (including cicatricial pemphigoid, pemphigus vulgaris, linear immunoglobulin A disease, etc.) Lichen planus Lichen sclerosus Podophyllin overdose (see above) Prolapsed urethra Sjögren’s syndrome Vulvar intraepithelial neoplasia What needs to be ruled out for a diagnosis of vulvodynia? Dr. Lonky: What skin diseases need to be ruled out before vulvodynia can be diagnosed? Dr. Edwards: Skin diseases that affect the vulva are usually pruritic—pain is a later sign. Lichen simplex chronicus (also known as eczema) is pruritus caused by any irritant; any pain that arises is produced by visible excoriations from scratching. Lichen sclerosus manifests as white epithelium that has a crinkling, shiny, or waxy texture. It can produce pain, especially dyspareunia. The pain is caused by erosions that arise from fragility and introital narrowing and inelasticity. Vulvovaginal lichen planus is usually erosive and preferentially affects mucous membranes, especially the vestibule; it sometimes affects the vagina and mouth, as well. Desquamative inflammatory vaginitis is most likely a skin disease that affects only the vagina. It involves introital redness and a clinically and microscopically purulent vaginal discharge that also reveals parabasal cells and absent lactobacilli. Dr. Lonky: You mentioned that neurologic diseases can sometimes cause vulvar pain. Which ones? Dr. Edwards: Pudendal neuralgia, diabetic neuropathy, and post-herpetic neuralgia are the most common specific neurologic causes of vulvar pain. Multiple sclerosis can also produce pain syndromes. Post-herpetic neuralgia follows herpes zoster—not herpes simplex—virus infection. Dr. Lonky: Any other conditions that can cause vulvar pain? Dr. Haefner: Aphthous ulcers are common and are often flared by stress. Non-neoplastic epithelial disorders are also seen frequently in health-care providers’ offices; many patients who experience them report pain on the vulva. It is always important to consider cancer when a patient has an abnormal vulvar appearance and pain that has persisted despite treatment. What are the most common vulvar pain syndromes? Dr. Lonky: If you were to rank vulvar pain syndromes according to their prevalence, what would the most common syndromes be? Dr. Gunter: Given the misdiagnosis of many women, who are told they have chronic yeast infection, as I mentioned, it’s hard to know which vulvar pain syndromes are most prevalent. I suspect that lichen simplex chronicus is most common, followed by vulvodynia, with chronic yeast infection a distant third. My experience reflects what Nyirjesy and colleagues4 found: 65% to 75% of women referred to my clinic with chronic yeast actually have lichen simplex chronicus or vulvodynia. In postmenopausal women, atrophic vaginitis is also a consideration; it’s becoming more common now that the use of systemic hormone replacement therapy is decreasing. Dr. Lonky: What about subsets of vulvodynia? Which ones are most common? Dr. Edwards: There is good evidence of marked overlap among subsets of vulvodynia. The vast majority of women who have vulvodynia experience primarily provoked vestibular pain, regardless of age. However, I find that almost all patients also report pain that extends beyond the vestibule at times, as well as occasional unprovoked pain. The diagnosis requires the exclusion of other causes of vulvar pain, and the subset is identified by the location of pain (that is, is it strictly localized or generalized or even migratory?) and its provoked or unprovoked nature. Localized clitoral pain and vulvar pain localized to one side of the vulva are extremely uncommon, but they do occur. And although I rarely encounter teenagers and prepubertal children who have vulvodynia, I do have patients in both age groups who have vulvodynia. Dr. Lonky: Are there racial differences in the prevalence of vulvodynia? Dr. Edwards: Although several good studies show that women of African descent and white patients are equally likely to experience vulvodynia, the vast majority (99%) of my patients who have vulvodynia are white. My patients of African descent consult me primarily for itching or discharge. My local demographics prevent me from judging the likelihood of Asians having vulvodynia, and our Hispanic population has limited access to health care. In general, I don’t think that demographics are useful in making the diagnosis of vulvodynia. Do women who have vulvar pain tend to have comorbidities? Dr. Lonky: Do your patients who have vulvodynia or another vulvar pain syndrome tend to have comorbidities? If so, is this information helpful in establishing the diagnosis and planning therapy? Dr. Haefner: Women who have vulvodynia often have other medical problems as well. In my practice, when new patients who have vulvodynia complete their intake survey, they often report a history of headache, irritable bowel syndrome, interstitial cystitis, fibromyalgia,6 chronic fatigue syndrome, back pain, and temporomandibular joint (TMJ) disorder. These comorbidities are not particularly helpful in establishing the diagnosis of vulvodynia, but they are an important consideration when choosing therapy for the patient. Often, the medications chosen to treat one condition will also benefit another condition. However, it’s important to check for potential interactions between drugs before prescribing a new treatment. Dr. Gunter: A significant number of women who have vulvodynia also have other chronic pain syndromes. For example, the incidence of bladder pain syndrome–interstitial cystitis is 68% to 82% among women who have vulvodynia, compared with a baseline rate among all women of 6% to 11%.7-10 The rate of irritable bowel syndrome is more than doubled among women who have vulvodynia, compared with the general population (27% versus 12%).8 Another common comorbidity, hypertonic somatic dysfunction of the pelvic floor, is identified in 10% to 90% of women who have chronic vulvar pain.8,11,12 These women also have a higher incidence of nongenital pain syndromes, such as fibromyalgia, migraine, and TMJ dysfunction, than the general population, as Dr. Haefner noted.8,12,13 Many studies have evaluated psychological and emotional contributions to chronic vulvar pain. Pain and depression are intimately related—the incidence of depression among all people who experience chronic pain ranges from 27% to 54%, compared with 5% to 17% among the general population.14-16 The relationship is complex because chronic illness in general is associated with depression. Nevertheless, several studies have noted an increase in anxiety, stress, and depression among women who have vulvodynia.17-19

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Forget the garden cops and put your perennials in pots Last Modified: Friday, November 7, 2003 at 8:11 p.m. Rules are meant to be broken. And nowhere in horticulture is it more appropriate to do just that than planting perennials in pots. `Galaxy Hybrids' Yarrow Until fairly recently, it simply wasn't done, at least not in USDA Zone 5b. The reasoning was both logical and persuasive: Most perennials bloomed for too short a period - just two to three weeks on average - to make effective patio plants. Besides that, their roots wouldn't survive winters in containers, requiring gardeners to replant every spring. In a rather gutsy move, some gardener somewhere decided to ignore conventional wisdom and plant a perennial in a pot. The horticultural police were summoned, but because they could find no ordinance against it no citation could be issued. Thus tested, accepted practices collapsed and gardeners rushed to replace ho-hum geraniums and boring begonias with "exotic" perennials. Meanwhile, perennials themselves were becoming more attractive as container plants. Many new varieties bloomed for a long period of time. And purveyors of perennials were successfully "selling" gardeners on the virtues of beautiful foliage and interesting textures. This fusion of ideas and innovation - pots made of materials that were reliably winter-proof helped, too - created an "anything goes" attitude that invited experimentation. The result is wonderful container gardens that mix perennials, herbs, annuals, vines and groundcovers in combinations as unique as the gardeners who plant them. "Best" perennials for containers are whatever strikes your fancy, but if you want to try overwintering them in their pots, choose those with the hardiest roots. Yarrow (Achillea) is tough, and it comes in a variety of heights and colors. Blanket flower (Gaillardia), sedum, and black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia) all have sturdy roots. It's hard to kill daylilies, and excellent new cultivars of goldenrod (Solidago) and purple coneflower (Echinacea) are certainly used to the rigors of brutal Midwestern winters. To overwinter perennials in containers, cut the foliage back in autumn as you normally would each plant and group the pots together, sides touching, in a protected, but cold, place. An unheated porch or garage is ideal, but a spot next to the house will do, as long as it's out of the wind. Alternately, some gardeners bury their pots in a cold frame or in the ground, or they build an enclosure and stuff it with Styrofoam peanuts or straw. Don't shower perennials with tender loving care and move them into a snug root cellar or cool sunroom. They want to - need to - go dormant for the winter months. Once the pots are in place, cover the soil with two inches of mulch. Double wrap the pots with insulating bubble wrap or foam sheeting (available through greenhouse supply catalogs) and toss a burlap blanket over all. You may lose a few plants this way, but most perennials will make it through the winter in they're "tucked in" as described. If all that sounds like too much trouble - it's really not, especially if you save the wrap from year to year - there are dozens of perennials that will deliver their money's worth if grown just for one season. For a start, select varieties with gorgeous foliage, such as artemisia, giant bugle weed (Ajuga reptans 'Caitlin's Giant'), multi-colored hostas, heuchera and bergenia. Perennials with a long bloom period are especially valuable for their color: Corydalis lutea, coreopsis ('Moonbeam', 'Limerock Beauty' and 'Sweet Dreams' are excellent), Russian sage, Gaura lindheimeri and catmint. Repeat bloomers (cut plants back after the first blush of bloom to encourage an encore) include beebalm, salvia, daisies and false sunflower. Exquisite texture is the most elegant quality of all. Wonderful textures can be found in ornamental grasses such as fountain grass (Pennisetum) and golden variegated Japanese forest grass (Hakonechloa), as well as in feathery plants like fernleaf peony, Amsonia heubrechtii and dwarf baby's breath. And don't forget the allure of perennial herbs, whose fragrance, color, texture, and usefulness make them favorite container specimens all by themselves or mixed with annuals. Chives, thyme, mint, lavender, oregano, sage and tarragon are all perennial herbs. Care for container perennials as you would if they were growing in the landscape: Divide fast-growing varieties often, or they'll become crowded and start to decline. Deadhead regularly to maintain a tidy, well-groomed appearance, and stake taller varieties to keep stems from flopping. On difference you'll notice is that perennials in pots require more water and fertilizer than their in-ground counterparts. Meet these cultural needs and your perennials will share space on your patio for many seasons. Lindsay Bond Totten, a horticulturist, writes about gardening for Scripps Howard News Service. Comments are currently unavailable on this article ▲ Return to Top

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So, Dizzy mentioned a pretty impressive sounding game in his coverage of the first day of SOE Live. I have a thing about dragons in games that can be interacted with. If a game only has one dragon that is an epic raid boss, I'm not to excited. But if a game goes more in-depth than that, I usually jump on the game. An example of this is when I was addicted to Istaria, which allows you to play (and fly ) as a dragon. Anyways, Dragon Prophecy boast over 300 unique dragons that can be tamed and ridden. On top of that, the game features a really in-depth housing system. I have hopes that it will be similar to Star Wars Galaxies decorating system, in that you can drop and then rotate, raise, lower, etc... each and every item in the game. It is also hinted at that playing housing will play a big role in the creation of "player kingdoms". I am thinking that the system may be something similar to what was offered in Star Wars Galaxies, with players being able to claim territory and make their own towns. Since SOE is teaming up with the guys that made Runes of Magic, I have no doubt about the game being free to play. Especially since SOE has been moving all of their games to the free to play model the past year or so. So, any thoughts or speculations? Edit: Fail typo in the title =_=

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Upworthy Co-Founder Eli Pariser Explains What Upworthy's Doing And Why It Annoys Me So Much Thursday, September 19, 2013 - 11:00 AM (Wikimedia Commons) Last week, Upworthy, the website built for viral progressive political content, secured $8 million in funding. I wrote a piece about how annoying I find it. I compared it to San Francisco, which is the deepest epithet in my epithet bullpen. I also complained that while Upworthy co-founder Eli Pariser wrote a book about the danger of people online segregating into bubbles of like-minded viewpoints,  Upworthy itself seems to be one. Pariser got in touch to explain how he sees the role of the site. Our Gchat is below:  ELI: Hi PJ. You there? PJ: Hey! Yes. Thanks for doing this. I was thinking we could just sort of do a gchat about this, and I'll put it up on the blog. The only thing I'd edit is the myriad typos I'll probably have, and I can do the same for you if you don't mind. ELI: OK, sounds great. PJ: Cool, ok. So, what I was hoping to do was run my two complaints about Upworthy by you and see what you think. ELI: Great. PJ: The first one is the idea that Upworthy, to me, feels like a Filter Bubble. I get that it's not invisible, the way a Google search that shows you personalized results without telling you is. But it feels like a place where, if I'm a certain kind of progressive, I'm going to sign on and see ideas that I'm very likely to agree with. Am I wrong? Or missing the point? ELI: Totally fair question. So, to back up a bit: The critique I was trying to make in the book (and TED talk) had a couple of pieces. Part of it was about partisan echo chambers. But the other big piece was about information junk food, and the concern that in a personalized, filtered world, the whole public sphere might slide out of view for a lot of folks. I think they're both problems, but I've always been a bit more concerned about the second problem than the first one. That is: I think it's better to hear more views about X important public topic than just the one I believe. But I think it's better to hear anything about it than nothing, and I think there's a real possibility that for a lot of folks, that's the first challenge to conquer. Upworthy was really designed to try to tackle that piece -- to draw attention to topics that really matter on a mass level, and help it win out against the empty information calories. And of course, we do have a point of view -- we felt like being honest about that was important to be able to connect with a large audience. But I'd like to think that there are a lot of important civic issues that don't fit neatly on a left-right spectrum. Our biggest pieces of content are about bullying and the way the media treats women, which lots of folks all across the political spectrum are concerned about. PJ: Right. And that mission statement makes sense to me. I guess I will say that the Upworthy story that made me start thinking about this was a story linking to a video where an actor posing as an Islamaphobe hung out at convenience store and yelled hateful stuff. Eventually, heroic strangers confronted him. It was sort of Candid Camera: Social Justice edition. A lot of people on my various social networks shared it. In fact, they loved it. And it's not like I disagree with the message of a video like that. But to me, that sort of content feels sort of silly and manipulative. Of course most of us are against Islamaphobia. What's the point of sharing a video reminding us that we're on that page? As content, it seems kind of empty. And even from an activism perspective, I don't quite get what it does. I feel like when I read Upworthy, a good chunk of the headlines are telling me that a piece of content, often a video, is going to enrage me, or break my heart. Maybe it's the journalist in me, but there's something rankling about that. I might also just be a curmudgeon. ELI: Yeah. No question that that video isn't great journalism, in the classical sense of the word. We've been careful to say we're not doing journalism. (We love journalism, though! Many of our best friends are journalists!) Part of the reason we started the site, though, was that we've seen a *LOT* of amazing journalistic coups over the years that never actually go anywhere. Great news institutions put huge amounts of money, time, and resources into getting the scoops and crafting the prose. And then they hit publish and the piece just, like... sat there. Or it got 10,000 hits. So our starting point, which definitely rubs a lot of folks from more traditional editorial culture the wrong way, is -- if a lot of people aren't paying attention, it really doesn't matter if you crafted the perfect story. We also err on the side of emotional story-telling rather than rattling off facts and figures, because we think that's what usually sticks with people. (Great journalism, I think, does that too, but standard journalism often doesn't.) In the best moments, we're able to bring all of those things together. The top thing this month may well be this piece we published yesterday: http://www.upworthy.com/his-first-4-sentences-are-interesting-the-5th-blew-my-mind-and-made-me-a-little-sick-2?c=fea It's 5 minutes of dense healthcare statistics, but it's emotionally compelling and interesting and a couple of million people will probably see it when all's said and done. I'm proud of that. PJ: Yeah. As a sidenote, John Green is a brilliant superhuman who was probably made in a lab somewhere. I guess my worry is that, beyond the John Green exception, it's really hard to make anything complicated go viral. So you end up with more emotional appeals and less like, Pro Publica pieces. Which maybe is fine! Like you said, it's not Upworthy's job to spotlight long thinkpieces. I guess the other thing I'm curious about, and this is a genuine question, not a critique disguised as a question, is how much this translates into action. You guys are doing a series with the AFL-CIO right now. Is there some conversion rate where, 1 million views equals X amount of people who sign up for a mailing list? Or Y amount of people who attend a rally? ELI: Well, that's a little above our pay grade. (Is that how you use that phrase? I'm never sure.) Upworthy's goal is to draw massive amounts of attention to worthy topics -- like, in this case, the American middle class. We're not an advocacy group, so we're not trying to translate that into legislative reforms or whatever. To go back to the conversation about journalism: We're trying to accomplish some Dewey-esque journalistic goals -- helping people pay attention to and understand the big things that are going on in our society -- through non-journalistic means. And the hope is that if that bar is met, that people will get together and do the right thing. But we focus on the first part of that equation. One other thing I'll add here: I'm not convinced that "news" as it's traditionally construed actually does a tremendously good job of this. It's super-focused on stuff that's new, over stuff that's important So you get daily coverage of various court cases, but very little coverage of, say, climate change or poverty or global health, which are clearly more important in the scheme of things. Hopefully if we're really successful we can help shift that balance a little bit. PJ: Yeah. I very much agree as far as a lot of news reporting.  It's weird. Talking to you, I feel completely convinced that what Upworthy is doing makes a lot of sense, and that I am very silly to be agitated by it. And then, I'll quietly tab over to the site itself, hit refresh, and be like, no! It's the tone! The tone still bothers you, Vogt! Do not be seduced by Eli Pariser's soothsaying. I know that's not a question. I guess the last thing I'm curious about -- you said up top that the thinking behind these emotional appeals is that it's the way to get people to focus on and share a story. Uh, is there some other way? Or is this just what works and I need to grow up and get used to the internet / human nature / social network psychology? ELI: Haha. I know it doesn't suit everyone. But I'd just so much rather be on the side of trying to make important stuff seem more fun and interesting -- and maybe be a little over the top tone-wise -- than the kind of Officially Boring headline-writing that mostly convinces people to skip over it entirely. Just think how many fewer people would watch that awesome John Green video if it was titled, like, U.S. Healthcare Costs In Context: A Report. I do think this is one of the blessings and curses of social media. To fit in, you have to sound like a person, not an institution. And people can be so much more annoying than institutions. And also so much more interesting. I think that's the trade-off. PJ: If this were a radio interview, this is where I would say, "Thanks, that's a really great last thought." Really, thank you for doing this. ELI: Sounds great. Thanks for engaging here. I'm a big OTM fan. More in: Comments [13] Another good idea by a young, naive, enterpreneur who thinks he's changing the world, but in reality is supporting tyranical industrialists by degrading family and traditional values in favour of socialist progressive movements that lead to totalitarian laws of anti-hate, anti-speech, anti-freedoms. Pity such a good ideas was in the wrong hands. What it should be used for is supporting freedom of speech, freedom of dissent, freedom of association, family values and anti-UN totalitarian agendas. Everything on Upworthy plays into the hands of the big bankers whose aim is to bankrupt the US, move wealth and industry to sub-sahara and control it all from Europe. Mar. 25 2014 07:46 AM After subscribing for months, I finally unsubscribed, primarily because nearly 90% of the content seemed to be: "Here's a LGBT person being treated badly; isn't that terrible?" Well, yes, of course it is, and casting a light on things like that is generally a good thing. But when the site's content became *only* that, week after week after month after month, it transforms the site into either a treating-LGBT-badly-is-normal kind of message and/or a pity-party. Both of which are ultimately unproductive and unhelpful. Feeling bad about bad things is not the only possible emotional response to the world; it's not even a particularly good one. "Doing good" is better than "feeling bad," and I thought Upworthy would have gotten that. But they don't, which is especially disappointing because that's their (claimed) raison d'etre. Good on paper; poor execution. So, even when the choir doesn't appreciate your singing, because every note is sour, you know you're in trouble. Nov. 13 2013 03:39 PM Ophiuchus from San Francisco Yeah, I still think Upworthy is super-annoying, from the name to the concept to the execution. And to the people who are so hurt that PJ dissed San Francisco: you do realize that reaction PROVES PJ'S POINT about smug self-congratulatory insularity, right? Counter-insulting Brooklyn=the proper tactic. Refusing to read an article because someone said a thing about where you live=really? Nov. 13 2013 11:31 AM Tom from Michigan P.J., a "soothsaying" means foretelling the future. Do you really mean to suggest Eli Pariser does that? Oct. 18 2013 11:43 PM Bob_Jacobson from Tucson, AZ & Malmô, Sweden I am amazed that Upworthy considers itself left or progressive, the two claims that got me to subscribe initially. It's very bourgeois in its approach to lifestyle and culture, and treacly when it comes to politics. I unsubscribed in Week Two. Just couldn't abide the cute-cats-in-print approach to serious issues. PS Funny, "NYC" is the epithet that comes to mind when I want to be despicably degrading. Sep. 23 2013 01:25 AM Javier Ruiz from San Francisco "If you build like-minded people a safe place to agree with each other, they will come. (see also, San Francisco.)" - comment written from a Chipotle-greased MacBook keyboard in Brooklyn. How did you write this and your head not explode in a blinding flash of cognitive dissonance? Save your lazy, hackneyed critique for your own stereotypical bubble, bro. Sep. 20 2013 06:24 PM Dave Newton from Yakima, WA Thanks, PJ, for bending over backward to be fair. It's better treatment than the bubble editors are likely to give those they disagree with. Bending is uncomfortable but necessary if we're ever to break through the mighty barriers between us and our ideological-opposite fellow citizens. Sep. 20 2013 10:07 AM Micah Abrams I agree with everything said here but maintain that all of these reasons to be annoyed by Upworthy are trumped by the larger annoying reason: A company that rewrites headlines is valued at tens of millions of dollars more than the companies that create the content being headlined. Sep. 20 2013 09:24 AM Eric Goebelbecker from Maywood, NJ You've managed to write several words about Upworthy this week without using the word "patronizing." Sep. 19 2013 10:17 PM Buzzfeed link-bait vs. Upworthy link-bait. With Buzzfeed, I'm fully aware that I'm reaching for candy I don't need. With Upworthy, I feel like I'm being tricked into eating a "healthy snack" I don't want. Sep. 19 2013 05:43 PM Ariock Knight from Oakland, CA "I compared it to San Francisco, which is the deepest epithet in my epithet bullpen." This was the point where I just scrolled past the entire rest of whatever this was supposed to be because you're an a-hole. Sep. 19 2013 03:56 PM Stick to your guns, PJ – there’s much not to like about Upworthy. It’s indiscriminately searching out left-leaning content, slapping a flirty “click me” header on it, and hoping it goes viral. The Buzzfeed impulse is trumping the Bill Moyers impulse. As a result the content may be reaching more and more people who already agree with its point of view, but it’s going to convince nary a soul to change his mind on a significant issue. The convenience-store clip is a classic example, and even fast-talking John Green is unlikely to have any real impact. (While liberals are closing their eyes and saying “Wash over me, John, with your waves of facts that support my point of view,” skeptics will give his rapid-fire delivery the same credence they would to a carnival barker’s pitch.) You question Eli about the low-quality content, and he skirts the issue by saying “we’re not journalists.” No, but what they are in effect is publishers (or republishers). They don’t preface their pieces by saying “the views expressed are not necessarily those of Upworthy.” Just the opposite. When they feature a story, that story serves to define their identity, and their credibility. Spoon-feeding liberal media to liberals may seem harmless enough, but by setting a low bar for the quality of its content, Upworthy does a disservice to the causes it believes in. The more it perpetuates its brand identity as Buzzfeed for lefties, the more it turns into a shorthand way for opponents to dismiss liberal ideas. (“You’re not going to believe something you saw on Upworthy, are you?”) It’s similar to the effect that Michael Moore has had by applying his love of clownish, attention-getting gestures to complex and contentious issues. You don’t sway the opposition by insulting its intelligence. The new infusion of financing doesn’t help Upworthy’s credibility. Investors aren’t measuring success in votes cast or minds swayed. What matters is links clicked, and that need for traffic is just going to push the bar for quality lower and lower. Sep. 19 2013 03:24 PM Linda Moskowitz You missed mentioning the two biggest problems with Upworthy. The first is the constant pop-up every time you go to the site. I certainly understand UW is looking to increase saturation, but it actually annoys more than engage. Secondly, the lack of writing along with most of their content. It's lazy to just aggregate content without some sort of introduction or analysis of it. This is particularly annoying when they provide videos. A little bit of information about the content goes a long way. As for opinion reinforcement, you're making the assumption that people who like to read websites that reinforce their beliefs aren't also reading neutral or opposing media as well. I can watch "The Newsroom" and know that the subtler nuances of a political point are missing. Incidentally, I would have used an internet pseudonym, but Bob Garfield shamed me out of it on last week's show. Now I'll forever be googleable for my viewpoints on Upworthy. Thanks, Bob. Sep. 19 2013 12:15 PM Leave a Comment Email addresses are required but never displayed. Supported by Embed the TLDR podcast player Subscribe to Podcast iTunes RSS

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woman getting a makeover Photo: Thinkstock 11. Stroll.  Don't sit down at the first counter you see; walk around the store and decide which brand you're most drawn to. Like a natural approach? You'll probably feel comfortable at Bobbi Brown. Looking to experiment with color? Consider MAC. Even more important than the brand's aesthetic, though, is the makeup artist. Look for someone whose own makeup is beautifully applied. "But ask her who did it!" says makeup artist Rebecca Restrepo, who worked behind Lancôme and MAC counters before becoming a free agent. "If it was one of her colleagues, go to that person." And if you really want to do your research—or are considering a (probably bare-faced) male makeup artist—take a few minutes to observe the candidate working on someone else. 12. Be explicit...  A good makeup artist will pepper you with questions before he or she begins: Do you want a day or evening look? How much time do you spend on your makeup? What is your favorite feature? Are there certain products you want to avoid? If you aren't asked, offer up the information yourself. It seems obvious, but "the more you can articulate what you're looking for, the better the artist will know what to do for you," says makeup artist Pati Prema Dubroff. 13. ...But don't be rigid.  "I've had people sit in my chair and say, 'I don't like concealer, lip gloss is icky, don't do blush, and no eyeliner,'" says makeup artist Ramy Gafni, who worked at a Bobbi Brown counter before launching his own line. This isn't the way to get a flattering new look; offer guidance, but leave some leeway. You might discover that you look gorgeous in rosy lip gloss, or that the right concealer can brighten your whole face. 14. Time it right.  Try to head to the counter midweek—the earlier in the day the better, says Joan Poulton, vice president of education at Lancôme. You'll get more attention than you would on a hectic weekend afternoon. (Another bonus to showing up before lunch: Many counters give their makeup artists a sales goal for the day; they may exert more pressure to buy as the afternoon wears on.) 15. Be honest about your intentions. If you're just window-shopping, say so, says Dubroff. Will you get the same time and attention you would have otherwise? If it's a busy day, probably not. But you won't feel sheepish when you walk away without a purchase. While there's no fee to sit down at a counter, "the unspoken agreement is that if you get a full makeover, you will buy something when it's over," says Gafni. 16. BYO makeup bag. While you have a pro's attention, get input on the products you already use. "Even if it's makeup from other brands, we can show you how to use it more effectively," says Poulton. It can be especially helpful to bring your brushes: "We'll tell you which one is best for eyeliner, for blending, for lips," says Jenny Smith, a makeup artist at Nars. 17. Watch your steps...with a handheld mirror.  You'll give up the thrill of a "ta-da!" moment, but following along with the makeup artist will help you re-create the look. And you'll be able to nip in the bud any heavy-handed application. More interested in a lesson than perfection? Most makeup artists will hand over the brush—she does one eye; you try the other. 18. Keep it clean.  Insist on disposable sponges, Q-tips, and single-use mascara wands. Any nondisposable brush should be cleaned in front of you with an antibacterial spray. And lipstick should be spritzed with an alcohol solution and have the top layer scraped off—even when a one-use applicator is used. Next: Read this advice before you get your next manicure Next Story

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Search the Catalog CGI Programming on the World Wide Web CGI Programming on the World Wide Web By Shishir Gundavaram 1st Edition March 1996 Previous Chapter 11 Advanced and Creative CGI Applications 11.4 Calendar Manager As the final example for this book, we will look at a very complicated program that uses a combination of CGI techniques: database manipulation, recursive program invocation, and virtual imagemaps. What are virtual imagemaps? As we explained in the previous section, most people who provide images for users to click on have to store information about the imagemap in a file. The program I'm about to show you, however, determines the region in which the user clicked, and performs the appropriate action on the fly--without using any auxiliary files or scripts. Let's discuss the implementation of these techniques more thoroughly. If a graphic browser is used to access this Calendar program, an imagemap of the current calendar is displayed listing all appointments. When an area on the image is clicked, the program calculates the date that corresponds to that region, and displays all the appointments for that date. Another important thing to note about the program is the way in which the imagemap is created--the script is actually executed twice (more on this later). Figure 11.4 shows a typical image of the calendar. If the user accesses this program with a text browser, a text version of the calendar is displayed. You have seen this kind of dual use in a lot of programs in this book; you should design programs so that users with both types of browsers can access and use a CGI program. The text output is shown in Figure 11.5. Since the same program handles many types of queries and offers a lot of forms and displays, it can be invoked in several different ways. Most users will start by clicking on a simple link without a query string, which causes an imagemap (or text equivalent, for non-graphics browsers) of the current month to be displayed: If the user then selects the "Full Year Calendar" option, the following query is passed: When the user clicks an area on the image (or selects a link on the text calendar), the following query is sent: The program will then display all the appointments for that date. The month field stores the selected month and year. Calendar Manager allows the user to set up appointments for any month, so it is always necessary to store the month and year information. To be useful, of course, this program has to do more than offer a view of the calendar. It must allow changes and searches as well. Four actions are offered: Each method uses a different query to invoke the program. For instance, a search passes a URL and query information like this: This will display a form where the user can enter a search string. The type field indicates the type of action to perform. The reason we use both action and type fields is that each action involves two steps, and the type field reflects these steps. For instance, suppose the user asks to add an appointment. The program is invoked with type=form, causing it to display a form in which the user can enter all the information about the appointment. When the user submits the form, the program is invoked with the field type=execute. This causes the program to issue an SQL command that inserts the appointment into the database. Both steps invoke the program with the action=add field, but they can be distinguished by the type field. When the user fills out and submits this form, the query information passed to this program is: The string "?action=search&type=execute&month=11/1995" is stored in QUERY_STRING, while the information in the form is sent as a POST stream. We will look at the method of passing information in more detail later on. In this case, the type is equal to execute, which instructs the program to execute the search request. Let's discuss for a minute the way in which the database is interfaced with this program. All appointments are stored in a text-delimited file, so that an administrator/user can add and modify appointment information by using a text editor. The CGI program uses Sprite to manipulate the information in this file. So this program uses two modules that were introduced in earlier chapters: gd, which was covered in Chapter 6, Hypermedia Documents, and Sprite, which appeared in Chapter 9, Gateways, Databases, and Search/Index Utilities. Main Program Enough discussion--let's look at the program: use GD; use Sprite; $cal = "/usr/bin/cal"; The UNIX cal utility displays a text version of the calendar. See the draw_text_calendar subroutine to see what the output of this command looks like. $database = "/home/shishir/calendar.db"; $delimiter = "::"; The database uses the "::" string as a delimiter and contains six fields for each calendar event: ID, Month, Day, Year, Keywords, and Description. The ID field uniquely identifies an appointment based on the time of creation. The Month (numerical), Day, and Year are self-explanatory. One thing to note here is that the Year is stored as a four-digit number (i.e., 1995, not 95). The Keywords field is a short description of the appointment. This is what is displayed on the graphic calendar. And finally, the Description field should contain a more lengthy explanation regarding the appointment. Here is the format for a typical appointment file: 796421318::11::02::1995::See Professor::It is important that I see the professor 806421529::11::03::1995::ABC Enterprises::Meet Drs. Bird and McHale about job!! 805762393::11::03::1995::Luncheon Meeting::Travel associates Now to create and manipulate the data: ($current_month, $current_year) = (localtime(time))[4,5]; $current_month += 1; $current_year += 1900; These three statements determine the current month and year. Remember, the month number, as returned by localtime, is zero-based (0-11, instead of 1-12). And the year is returned as a two-digit number (95, instead of 1995). $action_types = '^(add|delete|modify|search)$'; $delete_password = "CGI Super Source"; The $action_types variable consists of four options that the user can select from the Calendar Manager. The user is asked for a password when the delete option is chosen. Replace this with a password of your choice. &check_database (); &parse_query_and_form_data (*CALENDAR); The check_database subroutine checks for the existence of the calendar database. The database is created if it does not already exist. The parse_query_and_form_data subroutine is called to parse all information from the Calendar Manager, handling both POST and GET queries. As in so many other examples, an associative array proves useful, so that's what CALENDAR is. $action = $CALENDAR{'action'}; $month = $CALENDAR{'month'}; ($temp_month, $temp_year) = split ("/", $month, 2); The action and month fields are stored in variables. The month and year are split from the month field. As you saw near the beginning of this section, the month field has a format like 11/1995. if ( ($temp_month =~ /^\d{1,2}$/) && ($temp_year =~ /^\d{4}$/) ) { if ( ($temp_month >= 1) && ($temp_month <= 12) ) { $current_month = $temp_month; $current_year = $temp_year; If the month and year values as specified in the query string are valid numbers, they are stored in $current_month and $current_year. Otherwise, these variables will reflect the current month and year (as defined above). One feature of this program is that it remembers the month that the user most recently clicked or entered in a search form. The month chosen by the user is stored in $current_month so that it becomes the default for future searches. $weekday_names = "Sun,Mon,Tue,Wed,Thu,Fri,Sat"; $current_month_name = $month_names[$current_month - 1]; $current_month_year = join ("/", $current_month, $current_year); The $current_month_name variable contains the full name of the specified month. $current_month_year is a string containing the month and year (e.g.,"11/1995"). This completes the initialization. Remember that the program is called afresh each time the user submits a form or clicks on a date, so it runs through this initialization again and potentially changes the current month. But now it is time to handle the action that the user passed in the query. if ($action eq "full") { &display_year_calendar (); If the user passed the full field, display_year_calendar is called to display the full year calendar. } elsif ($action eq "view") { $date = $CALENDAR{'date'}; &display_all_appointments ($date); If the user selects to view the appointments for a certain date, the display_all_appointments routine displays all of the appointments for that date. } elsif ($action =~ /$action_types/) { $type = $CALENDAR{'type'}; if ($type eq "form") { $dynamic_sub = "display_${action}_form"; &$dynamic_sub (); } elsif ($type eq "execute") { $dynamic_sub = "${action}_appointment"; &$dynamic_sub (); } else { &return_error (500, "Calendar Manager", "An invalid query was passed!"); If the action field contains one of the four actions defined near the beginning of the program, the appropriate subroutine is executed. This is an example of a dynamic subroutine call. For example, if the action is "add" and the type is "form," the $dynamic_sub variable will call the display_add_form subroutine. This is much more compact than to conditionally compare all possible values. } else { &display_month_calendar (); exit (0); If no query is passed (or the query does not match the ones above), the display_month_calendar subroutine is called to output the current calendar in the appropriate format, either as a graphic imagemap or as plain text. The Database In the rest of this chapter I'm going to explain the various subroutines that set and retrieve data, create a display, and parse input. We'll start with some database functions. You'll also find incidental routines here, which I've written as conveniences because their functions appear so often. The following subroutine checks to see if the calendar database exists. If not, we create one. This job is simple, since we're using a flat file with Sprite as an interface: we just open a file with the desired name and write a one-line header. sub check_database local ($exclusive_lock, $unlock, $header); $exclusive_lock = 2; $unlock = 8; if (! (-e $database) ) { if ( open (DATABASE, ">" . $database) ) { flock (DATABASE, $exclusive_lock); $header = join ($delimiter, "ID", "Month", "Day", "Year", "Keywords", "Description"); print DATABASE $header, "\n"; flock (DATABASE, $unlock); close (DATABASE); } else { &return_error (500, "Calendar Manager", "Cannot create new calendar database."); If the database does not exist, a header line is output: The following subroutine just returns an error; it is defined for convenience and used in open_database. sub Sprite_error &return_error (500, "Calendar Manager", "Sprite Database Error. Check the server log file."); The open_database subroutine passes an SQL statement to the Sprite database. sub open_database local (*INFO, $command, $rdb_query) = @_; local ($rdb, $status, $no_matches); This subroutine accepts three arguments: a reference to an array, the SQL command name, and the actual query to execute. A typical call to the subroutine looks like: &open_database (undef, "insert", <<End_of_Insert); insert into $database (ID, Day, Month, Year, Keywords, Description) ($time, $date, $current_month, $current_year, '$keywords', '$description') The third argument looks strange because it's telling the subroutine to read the query on the following lines. In other words, the SQL query lies between the call to open_database and the text on the closing line, End_of_Insert. The effect is to insert a new appointment containing information passed by the user. Remember, we would also have to escape single and double quotes in the field values. $rdb = new Sprite (); $rdb->set_delimiter ("Read", $delimiter); $rdb->set_delimiter ("Write", $delimiter); This creates a new Sprite database object, and sets the read and write delimiters to the value stored in $delimiter (in this case, "::"). if ($command eq "select") { @INFO = $rdb->sql ($rdb_query); $status = shift (@INFO); $no_matches = scalar (@INFO); $rdb->close (); If the user passed a select command, the query is executed with the sql method (in object-oriented programming, "method" is a glorified term for a subroutine). We treat the select commands separately from other commands because it doesn't change the database, but just returns data. All other commands modify the database. The INFO array contains the status of the request (success or failure) in its first element, followed by other elements containing the records that matched the specified criteria. The status and the number of matches are stored. if (!$status) { &Sprite_error (); } else { return ($no_matches); If the status is zero, the Sprite_error subroutine is called to output an error. Otherwise, the number of matches is returned. } else { $rdb->sql ($rdb_query) || &Sprite_error (); $rdb->close ($database); If the user passes a command other than select (in other words, a command that modifies the database), the program executes it and saves the resulting database. Now, we will look at three very simple subroutines that output the header, the footer, and the "Location:" HTTP header, respectively. sub print_header local ($title, $header) = @_; print "<HTML>", "\n"; print "<HEAD><TITLE>", $title, "</TITLE></HEAD>", "\n"; print "<BODY>", "\n"; $header = $title unless ($header); print "<H1>", $header, "</H1>", "\n"; print "<HR>", "\n"; The print_header subroutine accepts two arguments: the title and the header. If no header is specified, the title of the document is used as the header. The next subroutine outputs a plain footer. It is used at the end of forms and displays. sub print_footer print "<HR>", "\n"; print "<ADDRESS>", $webmaster, "</ADDRESS>", "\n"; Finally, the Location: header, which we described in Chapter 3, is output by the print_location subroutine after an add, delete, or modify request. By passing a URL in the Location: header, we make the server re-execute the program so that the user sees an initial Calendar page again. sub print_location local ($location_URL); $location_URL = join ("", $ENV{'SCRIPT_NAME'}, "?", "browser=", $ENV{'HTTP_USER_AGENT'}, "&", "month=", $current_month_year); print "Location: ", $location_URL, "\n\n"; This is a very important subroutine, though it may look very simple. The subroutine outputs the Location: HTTP header with a query string that contains the browser name and the specified month and year. The reason we need to supply the browser name is that the HTTP_USER_AGENT environment variable does not get set when there is a URL redirection. When the server gets this script and executes it, it does not set the HTTP_USER_AGENT variable. So this program will not know the user's browser type unless we include the information. Forms and Displays In this section you'll find subroutines that figure out what the user has asked for and display the proper output. All searches, additions, and so forth take place here. Usually, a database operation takes place in two steps: one subroutine displays a form, while another accepts input from the form and accesses the database. Let's start out with display_year_calendar, which displays the full year calendar. sub display_year_calendar local (@full_year); @full_year = `$cal $current_year`; If the cal command is specified without a month number, a full year is displayed. The `backtics` execute the command and store the output in the specified variable. Since the variable $current_year can be based on the month field in the query string, it is important to check to see that it does not contain any shell metacharacters. What if some user passed the following query to this program? It can be quite dangerous! You might be wondering where we are checking for shell metacharacters. Look back at the beginning of this program, where we made sure that the month and year are decimal numbers. The output from cal is stored in the @full_year array, one line per element. Now we trim the output. @full_year = @full_year[5..$#full_year-3]; The first four and last three lines from the output are discarded, as they contain extra newline characters. The array will contain information in the following format: Jan Feb Mar 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 29 30 31 26 27 28 26 27 28 29 30 31 Let's move on. grep (s|(\w{3})|<B>$1</B>|g, @full_year); This might look like some deep magic. But it is actually quite a simple construct. The grep iterates through each line of the array, and adds the <B>..</B> tags to strings that are three characters long. In this case, the strings correspond to the month names. This one line statement is equivalent to the following: foreach (@full_year) { Now, here is the rest of this subroutine, which simply outputs the calendar. &print_header ("Calendar for $current_year"); print "<PRE>", @full_year, "</PRE>", "\n"; &print_footer (); The following subroutine displays the search form. It is pretty straightforward. The only dynamic information in this form is the query string. sub display_search_form local ($search_URL); $search_URL = join ("", $ENV{'SCRIPT_NAME'}, "?", "action=search", "&", "type=execute", "&", "month=", $current_month_year); The query string sets the type field to execute, which means that this program will call the search_appointment subroutine to search the database when this form is submitted. The month and year are also set; this information is passed back and forth between all the forms, so that the user can safely view and modify the calendars for months other than the current month. &print_header ("Calendar Search"); print <<End_of_Search_Form; This form allows you to search the calendar database for certain information. The Keywords and Description fields are searched for the string you enter. <FORM ACTION="$search_URL" METHOD="POST"> Enter the string you would like to search for: <P> <INPUT TYPE="text" NAME="search_string" SIZE=40 MAXLENGTH=40> <P> Please enter the <B>numerical</B> month and the year in which to search. Leaving these fields empty will default to the current month and year: <P> Month: <INPUT TYPE="text" NAME="search_month" SIZE=4 MAXLENGTH=4><BR> Year: <INPUT TYPE="text" NAME="search_year" SIZE=4 MAXLENGTH=4> </PRE> <INPUT TYPE="submit" VALUE="Search the Calendar!"> <INPUT TYPE="reset" VALUE="Clear the form"> </FORM> &print_footer (); Here is the subroutine that actually performs the search: sub search_appointment local ($search_string, $search_month, $search_year, @RESULTS, $matches, $loop, $day, $month, $year, $keywords, $description, $search_URL, $month_name); $search_string = $CALENDAR{'search_string'}; $search_month = $CALENDAR{'search_month'}; $search_year = $CALENDAR{'search_year'}; Three variables are declared to hold the form information. We could have used the information from the CALENDAR associative array directly, without declaring these variables. This is done purely for a visual effect; the code looks much neater. if ( ($search_month < 1) || ($search_month > 12) ) { $CALENDAR{'search_month'} = $search_month = $current_month; If no month number was specified, or if the month is not in the valid range, it is set to the value stored in $current_month. This value may or may not be the actual month in which the user is running the program. The user changes $current_month by specifying a search for a different month. if ($search_year !~ /^\d{2,4}$/) { $CALENDAR{'search_year'} = $search_year = $current_year; } elsif (length ($search_year) < 4) { $CALENDAR{'search_year'} = $search_year += 1900; If the year is not specified, or if it does not contain at least two digits, it is set to $current_year. And if the length of the year field is less than 4, 1900 is added. $search_string =~ s/(\W)/\\$1/g; $matches = &open_database (*RESULTS, "select", <<End_of_Select); select Day, Month, Year, Keywords, Description from $database where ( (Keywords =~ /$search_string/i) or (Description =~ /$search_string/i) ) and (Month = $search_month) and (Year = $search_year) The open_database subroutine is called to search the database for any records that match the specified criteria. The RESULTS array will contain the Day, Month, Year, Keywords, and Description fields for the matched records. unless ($matches) { &return_error (500, "Calendar Manager", "No appointments containing $search_string are found."); If there are no records that match the search information specified by the user, an error message is output. &print_header ("Search Results for: $search_string"); for ($loop=0; $loop < $matches; $loop++) { $RESULTS[$loop] =~ s/([^\w\s\0])/sprintf ("&#%d;", ord ($1))/ge; ($day, $month, $year, $keywords, $description) = split (/\0/, $RESULTS[$loop], 5); "action=view", "&", "date=", $day, "&", "month=", $month, "/", $year); $keywords = "No Keywords Specified!" unless ($keywords); $description = "-- No Description --" unless ($description); $description =~ s/&#60;BR&#62;/<BR>/g; $month_name = $month_name[$month - 1]; print <<End_of_Appointment; <A HREF="$search_URL">$current_month_name $day, $year</A><BR> <B>$keywords</B><BR> The for loop iterates through the RESULTS array, and creates a hypertext link with a query string for each appointment. This will allow the user to just click the appointment to get a list of all the appointments for that date. (You may remember that, at the very beginning of this section, we showed how to retrieve appointments for a particular day by passing an action field along with date and month fields). print "<HR>" if ($loop < $matches - 1); &print_footer (); A horizontal rule is output after each record, except after the last one. This is because the print_footer subroutine outputs a horizontal rule as well. Now, let's look at the form that is displayed when the "Add New Appointment!" link is selected. sub display_add_form local ($add_URL, $date, $message); $date = $CALENDAR{'date'}; $message = join ("", "Adding Appointment for ", $current_month_name, " ", $date, ", ", $current_year); $add_URL = join ("", $ENV{'SCRIPT_NAME'}, "?", "action=add", "&", "type=execute", "&", "month=", $current_month_year, "&", "date=", $date); When the add option is selected by the user, the following query is passed to this program (see the display_all_appointments subroutine): Before this subroutine is called, the main program sets the variables $current_month_name and so on. This information is used to build another query string that will be passed to this program when the form is submitted. &print_header ("Add Appointment", $message); print <<End_of_Add_Form; This form allows you to enter an appointment to be stored in the calendar database. To make it easier for you to search for specific appointments later on, please use descriptive words to describe an appointment. <P> <FORM ACTION="$add_URL" METHOD="POST"> Enter a brief message (keywords) describing the appointment: <P> <INPUT TYPE="text" NAME="add_keywords" SIZE=40 MAXLENGTH=40> <P> Enter some comments about the appointment: <TEXTAREA ROWS=4 COLS=60 NAME="add_description"></TEXTAREA><P> <P> <INPUT TYPE="submit" VALUE="Add Appointment!"> <INPUT TYPE="reset" VALUE="Clear Form"> </FORM> The add_appointment subroutine adds a record to the calendar database: sub add_appointment local ($time, $date, $keywords, $description); $time = time; The $time variable contains the current time, as the number of seconds since 1970. This is used as a unique identification for the record. $date = $CALENDAR{'date'}; ($keywords = $CALENDAR{'add_keywords'}) =~ s/(['"])/\\$1/g; ($description = $CALENDAR{'add_description'}) =~ s/\n/<BR>/g; $description =~ s/(['"])/\\$1/g; All newline characters in the description field are converted to <BR>. This is because of the way the Sprite database stores records. Remember, the database is text-delimited, where each field is delimited by a certain string, and each record is terminated by a newline character. insert into $database The open_database subroutine is called to insert the record into the database. Notice the quotes around the variables $keywords and $description. These are absolutely necessary since the two variables contain string information. &print_location (); The display_delete_form subroutine displays a form that asks for a password before an appointment can be deleted. The delete and modify options are available for each appointment. As a result, when you select one of these options, the identification of that appointment is passed to this script, so that the appropriate information can be retrieved quickly and efficiently. sub display_delete_form local ($delete_URL, $id); $id = $CALENDAR{'id'}; $delete_URL = join ("", $ENV{'SCRIPT_NAME'}, "?", "action=delete", "&", "type=execute", "&", "id=", $id, "&", "month=", $current_month_year); When the user selects the delete option in the calendar, the following query is passed to this script: http://some.machine/cgi-bin/ 1995&id=806421529 This query information is used to construct another query that will be passed to this program when the form is submitted. &print_header ("Deleting appointment"); print <<End_of_Delete_Form; In order to delete calendar entries, you need to enter a valid identification code (or password): <INPUT TYPE="password" NAME="code" SIZE=40> <P> <INPUT TYPE="submit" VALUE="Delete Entry!"> &print_footer (); The following subroutine checks the password that is entered by the user. If the password is valid, the appointment is deleted, and a server redirect is performed, so that the calendar is displayed. sub delete_appointment local ($password, $id); $password = $CALENDAR{'code'}; $id = $CALENDAR{'id'}; if ($password ne $delete_password) { &return_error (500, "Calendar Manager", "The password you entered is not valid!"); } else { &open_database (undef, "delete", <<End_of_Delete); delete from $database where (ID = $id) &print_location (); If the password is valid, the record identified by the unique time is deleted from the database. Otherwise, an error message is output. The display_modify_form subroutine outputs a form that contains the information about the record to be modified. This information is retrieved from the database with the help of the query information that is passed to this script: Here is the subroutine: sub display_modify_form local ($id, $matches, @RESULTS, $keywords, $description, $modify_URL); $id = $CALENDAR{'id'}; select Keywords, Description from $database where (ID = $id) unless ($matches) { &return_error (500, "Calendar Manager", "Oops! The appointment that you selected no longer exists!"); The identification number is used to retrieve the Keywords and Description fields from the database. If there are no matches, an error message is output. This will happen only if the Calendar Manager is being used by multiple users, and one of them deletes the record pointed to by the identification number. ($keywords, $description) = split (/\0/, shift (@RESULTS), 2); $keywords = &escape_html ($keywords); $description =~ s/<BR>/\n/g; The appointment keywords and description are obtained from the results. We call the escape_html subroutine to escape certain characters that have a special significance to the browser, and we also convert the <BR> tags in the description back to newlines, so that the user can modify the description. $modify_URL = join ("", $ENV{'SCRIPT_NAME'}, "?", "action=modify", "&", "type=execute", "&", "id=", $id, "&", "month=", $current_month_year); &print_header ("Modify Form"); print <<End_of_Modify_Form; This form allows you to modify the <B>description</B> field for an existing appointment in the calendar database. <P> <FORM ACTION="$modify_URL" METHOD="POST"> Enter a brief message (keywords) describing the appointment: <P> <INPUT TYPE="text" NAME="modify_keywords" SIZE=40 VALUE="$keywords" MAXLENGTH=40> Enter some comments about the appointment: <TEXTAREA ROWS=4 COLS=60 NAME="modify_description"> $description <INPUT TYPE="submit" VALUE="Modify Appointment!"> <INPUT TYPE="reset" VALUE="Clear Form"> </FORM> &print_footer (); The form containing the values of the selected appointment is displayed. Only the keywords and description fields can be modified by the user. The escape_html subroutine escapes characters in a specified string to prevent the browser from interpreting them. sub escape_html local ($string) = @_; local (%html_chars, $html_string); %html_chars = ('&', '&amp;', '>', '&gt;', '<', '&lt;', '"', '&quot;'); $html_string = join ("", keys %html_chars); $string =~ s/([$html_string])/$html_chars{$1}/go; return ($string); The modify_appointment subroutine modifies the information in the database. sub modify_appointment local ($modify_description, $id); ($modify_description = $CALENDAR{'modify_description'}) =~ s/(['"])/\\$1/g; $id = $CALENDAR{'id'}; &open_database (undef, "update", <<End_of_Update); update $database set Description = ('$modify_description') where (ID = $id) &print_location (); The update SQL command modifies the description for the record in the calendar database. Then a server redirect is performed. The imagemap display Now let's change gears and discuss some of the more complicated subroutines, the first one being display_month_calendar. This subroutine either draws a calendar, or interprets the coordinates clicked by the user. Because we're trying to do a lot with this subroutine (and run it in several different situations), don't be surprised to find it rather complicated. There are three things the subroutine can do: • In the simplest case, this subroutine is called when no coordinate information has been passed to the program. It then creates a calendar covering a one-month display. The output_HTML routine is called to do this (assuming that the user has a graphics browser). • If coordinate information is passed, the subroutine figures out which date the user clicked and displays the appointments for that date, using the display_all_appointments subroutine. • Finally, if the user has a non-graphics browser, draw_text_calendar is called to create the one-month display. This display contains hypertext links to simulate the functions that an imagemap performs in the graphics version. But more subtleties lie in the interaction between the subroutines. In order to generate a calendar for a particular month requested by the user, I have the program invoke itself in a somewhat complex way. Let me start with our task here: to create an image dynamically. Most CGI programmers create a GIF image, store it in a file, and then create an imagemap based on that temporary file. This is inefficient and involves storing information in temporary files. What I do instead is shown in Figure 11.6. The program is invoked for the first time, and calls output_HTML. This routine sends the browser some HTML that looks like this: <A HREF="/cgi-bin/"> <IMG SRC="/cgi-bin/" ISMAP></A> Embedding an <IMG> tag in an <A> tag is a very common practice--an image with a hypertext link. But in most <IMG> tags, the SRC attribute points to a .gif file. Here, instead, it points back to our program. So what happens when the browser displays the HTML? It sends a request back to the server for the image, and the server runs this program all over again. (As I said before, the program invokes itself.) This time, an image of a calendar is returned, and the browser happily completes the display. You may feel that I'm playing games with HTML here, but it's all very legitimate and compatible with the way a web client and server work. And there's no need for temporary files with the resulting delays and cleanup. Let me explain one more detail before we launch into the code. The decision about whether to display a calendar is determined by a field in the <IMG> tag you saw, the draw_imagemap field. When this field is passed, the program creates an image of a calendar. When the field is not passed, output_HTML is called. So we have to run the program once without draw_imagemap, let it call output_HTML, and have that subroutine run the program again with draw_imagemap set. Once you understand the basic logic of the program, the display_month_calendar subroutine should be fairly easy to follow. sub display_month_calendar local ($nongraphic_browsers, $client_browser, $clicked_point, $draw_imagemap, $image_date); $nongraphic_browsers = 'Lynx|CERN-LineMode'; $client_browser = $ENV{'HTTP_USER_AGENT'} || $CALENDAR{'browser'}; We need to know whether the client is using a browser that displays graphics. Normally the name of the browser is passed in the HTTP_USER_AGENT environment variable, but it is not set if a program is executed as a result of server redirection. In that case, we can find out the browser through the query information, where we thoughtfully set a browser field earlier in the program. The line setting $client_browser is equivalent to: $client_browser = $ENV{'HTTP_USER_AGENT'}; } else { $client_browser = $CALENDAR{'browser'}; The following code checks to see if a graphic browser is being used, and displays output in the appropriate format. if ($client_browser =~ /$nongraphic_browsers/) { &draw_text_calendar (); For text browsers, the draw_text_calendar subroutine formats the information from the cal command and displays it. } else { $clicked_point = $CALENDAR{'clicked_point'}; $draw_imagemap = $CALENDAR{'draw_imagemap'}; When the program is executed initially, the clicked_point and the draw_imagemap fields are null. As we'll see in a moment, this causes us to execute the output_HTML subroutine. if ($clicked_point) { $image_date = &get_imagemap_date (); &display_all_appointments ($image_date); If the user clicks on the image, this program stores the coordinates in the variable $CALENDAR{`clicked_point'}. The get_imagemap_date subroutine returns the date corresponding to the clicked region. Finally, the display_all_appointments subroutine displays all the appointments for the selected date. } elsif ($draw_imagemap) { &draw_graphic_calendar (); When draw_imagemap is set (because of the complicated sequence of events I explained earlier), the draw_graphic_calendar subroutine is executed and outputs the image of the calendar. } else { &output_HTML (); In this else block, we know that we are running a graphics browser but that neither $clicked_point nor $draw_imagemap were set. That means we are processing the initial request, and have to call output_HTML to create the first image. When displaying the current calendar, this program provides two hypertext links (back to this program) that allow the user to view the calendar for a month ahead or for the past month. The next subroutine returns these links. sub get_next_and_previous local ($next_month, $next_year, $previous_month, $previous_year, $arrow_URL, $next_month_year, $previous_month_year); $next_month = $current_month + 1; $previous_month = $current_month - 1; if ($next_month > 12) { $next_month = 1; $next_year = $current_year + 1; } else { $next_year = $current_year; if ($previous_month < 1) { $previous_month = 12; $previous_year = $current_year - 1; } else { $previous_year = $current_year; If the month number is either at the low or the high limit, the year is incremented or decremented accordingly. $arrow_URL = join ("", $ENV{'SCRIPT_NAME'}, "?", "action=change", "&", $next_month_year = join ("", $arrow_URL, $next_month, "/", $next_year); $previous_month_year = join ("", $arrow_URL, $previous_month, "/", $previous_year); return ($next_month_year, $previous_month_year); The two URLs returned by this subroutine are in the following format (assuming 12/1995 is the selected month): Now, let's look at the subroutine that is executed initially, which displays the title and header for the document as well as an <IMG> tag that refers back to this script to create a graphic calendar. sub output_HTML local ($script, $arrow_URL, $next, $previous, $left, $right); $script = $ENV{'SCRIPT_NAME'}; ($next, $previous) = &get_next_and_previous (); $left = qq|<A HREF="$previous"><IMG SRC="/icons/left.gif"></A>|; $right = qq|<A HREF="$next"><IMG SRC="/icons/right.gif"></A>|; ("Calendar for $current_month_name $current_year", "$left Calendar for $current_month_name $current_year $right"); The two links for the next and previous calendars are embedded in the document's header. print <<End_of_HTML; <A HREF="$script/$current_month_year"> <IMG SRC="$script?month=$current_month_year&draw_imagemap" ISMAP></A> I described this construct earlier; it creates an imagemap with a hypertext link that runs this script. There are interesting subtleties in both the HREF attribute and the SRC attribute. The HREF attribute includes the selected month and year (e.g., "11/1995") as path information. That's because we need some way to get this information back to the program when the user clicks on the calendar. The imagemap uses the GET method (so we cannot use the input stream) and passes only the x and y coordinates of the mouse as query information. So the only other option left open to us is to include the month and year as path information. The SRC attribute, as we said before, causes the whole program to run again. Thanks to the draw_imagemap field, a calendar is drawn. <A HREF="$script?action=full&year=$current_year">Full Year Calendar</A> <BR> <A HREF="$script?action=search&type=form&month=$current_month_year">Search</A> &print_footer (); The main calendar screen contains two links: one to display the full year calendar, and another one to search the database. Let's look at the subroutine that draws a text calendar. I have no chance to indulge in fancy image manipulation here. Instead, I format the days of the month in rows and provide a hypertext link for each day. sub draw_text_calendar local (@calendar, $big_line, $matches, @RESULTS, $header, $first_line, $no_spaces, $spaces, $loop, $date, @status, $script, $date_URL, $next, $previous); @calendar = `$cal $current_month $current_year`; shift (@calendar); $big_line = join ("", @calendar); The calendar for the selected month is stored in an array. Here is what the output of the cal command looks like: November 1995 S M Tu W Th F S 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 The first line of the output is removed, as we do not need it. Then the whole array is joined together to create one large string. This makes it easier to manipulate the information, rather than trying to modify different elements of the array. select Day from $database where (Month = $current_month) and (Year = $current_year) The RESULTS array consists of the Day field for all the appointments in the selected month. This array is used to highlight the appropriate dates on the calendar. &print_header ("Calendar for $current_month_name $current_year"); $big_line =~ s/\b(\w{1,2})\b/$1 /g; $big_line =~ s/\n/\n\n/g; These two statements expand the space between strings that are either one or two characters, and add an extra newline character. The regular expression is illustrated below. [Graphic: Figure from the text] Here is the what the output looks like after these two statements: S M Tu W Th F S 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 Because of the leading spaces before the "1," the alignment is off. This can be corrected by taking the difference in length between the line that contains the day names and the first line (without the leading spaces), and adding that number of spaces to align it properly. We do this in the somewhat inelegant code below. ($header) = $big_line =~ /( S.*)/; $big_line =~ s/ *(1.*)/$1/; ($first_line) = $big_line =~ //; $no_spaces = length ($header) - length ($first_line); $spaces = " " x $no_spaces; $big_line =~ s/\b1\b/${spaces}1/; While the technique I've used here is not a critical part of the program, I'll explain it because it provides an interesting instance of text manipulation. Remember that $big_line contains several lines. Through regular expressions we are extracting two lines: one with names of days of the week in $header, and another with the first line of dates in $first_line. We then compare the lengths of these two lines to make them flush right. The regular expression /( S.*)/ picks out the cal output's header, which is a line containing a space followed by an S for Sun. This whole line is stored in $header. In the next two lines of code, we strip all the spaces from the beginning of the first week of the calendar and store the rest of the week in $first_line. The regular expression contains a space followed by an asterisk in order to remove all spaces. The (1.*) and $1 select the date 1 and all the other dates up to the end of the same line. In the next code statement, the // construct means "whatever was matched last in a regular expression." Since the last match was $1, $first_line contains a line of dates starting with 1. Then, using length commands, we determine how many spaces we need to make the first week flush right with the header. The x command creates the number of spaces we need. Finally we put that number of spaces before the 1 on the first line. $date = $RESULTS[$loop]; unless ($status[$date]) { $big_line =~ s|\b$date\b {0,1}|$date\*|; $status[$date] = 1; This loop iterates through the RESULTS array, which we loaded through an SQL select command earlier in this subroutine. Each element of RESULTS is a date on which an appointment has been scheduled. For each of these dates, we search the cal output and add an asterisk ("*"). The substitute command deserves a little examination: Essentially, we want to replace the space that follows the date with an asterisk (\*). But the date may not be followed by a space. If it's at the end of the line (that is, if it falls on a Saturday) there will be no following space, and we want to just append the asterisk. [Graphic: Figure from the text] The {0,1} construct handles both cases. It means that $date must be followed by zero or one spaces. If there is a space, it's treated as part of the string and stripped off. If there is no space, that's fine too, because $date is still found and the asterisk is appended. Here is what the output will look like (assuming there are appointments on the 5th, 8th, and 10th): S M Tu W Th F S 1 2 3 4 5* 6 7 8* 9 10* 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 And that is what the calendar will look like in a text browser. But we still want to provide the same access that a graphic calendar does. The user must be able to select a date and view, add, or modify appointments. So now we turn each date in the calendar into a hypertext link. $script = $ENV{'SCRIPT_NAME'}; $date_URL = join ("", $script, "?", "action=view", "&", "month=", $current_month_year); $big_line =~ s|\b(\d{1,2})\b|<A HREF="$date_URL&date=$1">$1</A>|g; Below is the regular expression that we're searching for in the last line of the preceding code. It defines a date as one or two digits surrounded by word boundaries. (Spaces are recognized as word boundaries, and so are the beginnings and ends of lines.) We add <A> and </A> tags around the date. The URL in each A tag includes the name of this script, an action=view tag, the current month, and the particular date chosen. [Graphic: Figure from the text] Let's continue with the subroutine: print <<End_of_Output; <LI><A HREF="$previous">Previous Month!</A></LI> <LI><A HREF="$next">Next Month!</A></LI> </UL> &print_footer (); Four final links are displayed: two to allow the user to view the last or next month calendar, one to display the full year calendar, and one to search the database for information contained within appointments. The display_all_appointments subroutine displays all of the appointments for a given date. It is invoked by clicking a region of the graphic calendar or by following a link on the text calendar. sub display_all_appointments local ($date) = @_; local ($script, $matches, @RESULTS, $loop, $id, $keywords, $description, $display_URL); select ID, Keywords, Description from $database where (Month = $current_month) and (Year = $current_year) and (Day = $date) The SQL statement retrieves the ID, Keywords, and Description for each appointment that falls on the specified date. &print_header ("Appointments", "Appointments for $current_month_name $date, $current_year"); $display_URL = join ("", $ENV{'SCRIPT_NAME'}, "?", "type=form", "&", "month=", $current_month_year); if ($matches) { ($id, $keywords, $description) = split (/\0/, $RESULTS[$loop], 3); print <<End_of_Each_Appointment; Keywords: <B>$keywords</B> <A HREF="$display_URL&action=modify&id=$id">Modify!</A> <A HREF="$display_URL&action=delete&id=$id">Delete!</A> print "<HR>", "\n" if ($loop < $matches - 1); If there are appointments scheduled for the given date, they are displayed. Each one has two links: one to modify the appointment description, and the other to delete it from the database. } else { print "There are no appointments scheduled!", "\n"; print <<End_of_Footer; <A HREF="$display_URL&action=add&date=$date">Add New Appointment!</A> &print_footer (); If no appointments are scheduled for the date, a simple error message is displayed. Finally, a link allows the user to add appointments for the specified day. Up to this point, we have not discussed how the graphic calendar is created, or how the coordinates are interpreted on the fly. The next three subroutines are responsible for performing those tasks. The first one we will look at is a valuable subroutine that calculates various aspects of the graphic calendar. sub graphics_calculations local (*GIF) = @_; This subroutine expects a symbolic reference to an associative array as an argument. The purpose of the subroutine is to populate this array with numerous values that aid in implementing a graphic calendar. $GIF{'first_day'} = &get_first_day ($current_month, $current_year); The get_first_day subroutine returns the day number for the first day of the specified month, where Sunday is 0 and Saturday is 6. For example, the routine will return the value 3 for November 1995, which indicates a Wednesday. $GIF{'last_day'} = &get_last_day ($current_month, $current_year); The get_last_day subroutine returns the number of days in a specified month. It takes leap years into effect. $GIF{'no_rows'} = ($GIF{'first_day'} + $GIF{'last_day'}) / 7; if ($GIF{'no_rows'} != int ($GIF{'no_rows'})) { $GIF{'no_rows'} = int ($GIF{'no_rows'} + 1); This calculates the number of rows that the calendar will occupy. We simply divide the number of days in this month by the number of days in a week, and round up if part of a week is left. Now we are going to define some coordinates. $GIF{'box_length'} = $GIF{'box_height'} = 100; $GIF{'x_offset'} = $GIF{'y_offset'} = 10; The box length and height define the rectangular portion for each day in the calendar. You can modify this to a size that suits you. Nearly all calculations are based on this, so a modification in these values will result in a proportionate calendar. The x and y offsets define the offset of the calendar from the left and top edges of the image, respectively. $GIF{'large_font_length'} = 8; $GIF{'large_font_height'} = 16; $GIF{'small_font_length'} = 6; $GIF{'small_font_height'} = 12; These sizes are based on the gdLarge and gdSmall fonts in the gd library. $GIF{'x'} = ($GIF{'box_length'} * 7) + ($GIF{'x_offset'} * 2) + The length of the image is based primarily on the size of each box length multiplied by the number of days in a week. The offset and the length of the large font size are added to this so the calendar fits nicely within the image. $GIF{'y'} = ($GIF{'large_font_height'} * 2) + ($GIF{'no_rows'} * $GIF{'box_height'}) + ($GIF{'no_rows'} + 1) + ($GIF{'y_offset'} * 2) + The height of the image is based on the number of rows multiplied by the box height. Other offsets are added to this because there must be room at the top of the image for the month name and the weekday names. $GIF{'start_calendar'} = $GIF{'y_offset'} + (3 * $GIF{'large_font_height'}); This variable refers to the actual y coordinate where the calendar starts. If you were to subtract this value from the height of the image, the difference would equal the area at the top of the image where the titles (i.e., month name and weekday names) are placed. $GIF{'date_x_offset'} = int ($GIF{'box_length'} * 0.80); $GIF{'date_y_offset'} = int ($GIF{'box_height'} * 0.05); These offsets specify the number of pixels from the upper right corner of a box to the day number. $GIF{'appt_x_offset'} = $GIF{'appt_y_offset'} = 10; The appointment x offset refers to the number of pixels from the left edge of the box to the point where the appointment keywords are displayed. And the y offset is the number of pixels from the day number to a point where the appointment keywords are started. $GIF{'no_chars'} = int (($GIF{'box_length'} - $GIF{'appt_x_offset'}) / $GIF{'small_font_length'}) - 1; This contains the number of 6x12 font characters that will fit horizontally in each box, and is used to truncate appointment keywords. $GIF{'no_appts'} = int (($GIF{'box_height'} - $GIF{'large_font_height'} - $GIF{'date_y_offset'} - $GIF{'appt_y_offset'}) / Finally, this variable specifies the number of appointment keywords that will fit vertically. Then next subroutine, get_imagemap_date, uses some of these constants to determine the exact region (and date) where the user click originated. sub get_imagemap_date local (%DATA, $x_click, $y_click, $error_offset, $error, $start_y, $end_y, $start_x, $end_x, $horizontal, $vertical, $box_number, $clicked_date); &graphics_calculations (*DATA); ($x_click, $y_click) = split(/,/, $CALENDAR{'clicked_point'}, 2); We start by calling the subroutine just discussed, graphics_calculations, to initialize coordinates and other important information about the calendar. The variable $CALENDAR{`clicked_point'} is a string containing the x and y coordinates of the click, as transmitted by the browser. The parse_query_and_form_data subroutine at the end of this chapter sets the value for this variable. $error_offset = 2; $error = $error_offset / 2; $start_y = $DATA{'start_calendar'} + $error_offset; $end_y = $DATA{'y'} - $DATA{'y_offset'} + $error_offset; $start_x = $DATA{'x_offset'} + $error_offset; $end_x = $DATA{'x'} - $DATA{'x_offset'} + $error_offset; The error offset is defined as two pixels. This is introduced to make the clickable area the region just inside the actual calendar. The $DATA{`start_calendar'} and $DATA{`x_offset'} elements of the array define the x and y coordinates where the actual calendar starts, as I discussed when listing the previous subroutine. We draw lines to create boxes starting at that point. Therefore, the y coordinate does not include the titles and headers at the top of the image. if ( ($x_click >= $start_x) && ($x_click <= $end_x) && ($y_click >= $start_y) && ($y_click <= $end_y) ) { This conditional ensures that a click is inside the calendar. If it is not, we send a status of 204 No Response to the browser. If the browser can handle this status code, it will produce no response. Otherwise, an error message is displayed. $horizontal = int (($x_click - $start_x) / ($DATA{'box_length'} + $error)); $vertical = int (($y_click - $start_y) / ($DATA{'box_height'} + $error)); The horizontal box number (starting from the left edge) of the user click is determined by the following algorithm: [Graphic: Figure from the text] The vertical box number (starting from the top) that corresponds to the user click can be calculated by the following algorithm: [Graphic: Figure from the text] To continue with the subroutine: $box_number = ($vertical * 7) + $horizontal; The vertical box number is multiplied by seven--since there are seven boxes (i.e., seven days) per row--and added to the horizontal box number to get the raw box number. For instance, the first box in the second row would be considered raw box number 8. However, this will equal the date only if the first day of the month starts on a Sunday. Since we know this will not be true all the time, we have to take into effect what is really the first day of the month. $clicked_date = ($box_number - $DATA{'first_day'}) + 1; The difference between the raw box number and the first day of the month is incremented by one (since the first day of the month returned by the get_first_date subroutine is zero based) to determine the date. We are still not out of trouble, because the calculated date can still be either less than zero, or greater than the last day of the month. How, you may ask? Say that a month has 31 days and the first day falls on Friday. There will be 7 rows, and a total of 42 boxes. If the user clicks in box number 42 (the last box of the last row), the $clicked_date variable above will equal 37, which is invalid. That is the reason for the conditional below: if (($clicked_date <= 0) || ($clicked_date > $DATA{'last_day'})) { &return_error (204, "No Response", "Browser doesn't support 204"); } else { return ($clicked_date); } else { If the user clicked in a valid region, the date corresponding to that region is returned. Now we can look at perhaps the most significant subroutine in this program. It invokes the gd graphics extension to draw the graphic calendar with the appointment keywords in the boxes. sub draw_graphic_calendar local (%DATA, $image, $black, $cadet_blue, $red, $yellow, $month_title, $month_point, $day_point, $loop, $temp_day, $temp_x, $temp_y, $inner, $counter, $matches, %APPTS, &graphics_calculations (*DATA); $image = new GD::Image ($DATA{'x'}, $DATA{'y'}); A new image object is created, based on the dimensions returned by the graphics_calculations subroutine. $cadet_blue = $image->colorAllocate (95, 158, 160); $yellow = $image->colorAllocate (255, 255, 0); Various colors are defined. The background color is black, and the lines between boxes are yellow. All text is drawn in red, except for the dates, which are cadet blue. $month_title = join (" ", $current_month_name, $current_year); $month_point = ($DATA{'x'} - (length ($month_title) * $DATA{'large_font_length'})) / 2; $image->string (gdLargeFont, $month_point, $DATA{'y_offset'}, $month_title, $red); The month title (e.g., "November 1995") is centered in red, with the $month_point variable giving the right amount of space on the left. $day_point = (($DATA{'box_length'} + 2) - ($DATA{'large_font_length'} * 3)) / 2; The $day_point variable centers the weekday string (e.g., "Sun") with respect to a single box. for ($loop=0; $loop < 7; $loop++) { $temp_day = (split(/,/, $weekday_names))[$loop]; $temp_x = ($loop * $DATA{'box_length'}) + $DATA{'x_offset'} + $day_point + $loop; $image->string ( gdLargeFont, $DATA{'y_offset'} + $DATA{'large_font_height'} + 10, $red ); The for loop draws the seven weekday names (as stored in the $weekday_names global variable) above the first row of boxes. for ($loop=0; $loop <= $DATA{'no_rows'}; $loop++) { $temp_y = $DATA{'start_calendar'} + ($loop * $DATA{'box_height'}) + $loop; $image->line ( $DATA{'x_offset'}, $DATA{'x'} - $DATA{'x_offset'} - 1, $yellow ); This loop draws the horizontal yellow lines, in effect separating each box. for ($loop=0; $loop <= 7; $loop++) { $temp_x = $DATA{'x_offset'} + ($loop * $DATA{'box_length'}) + $loop; $image->line ( $temp_x, $DATA{'y'} - $DATA{'y_offset'} - 1, $yellow ); The for loop draws yellow vertical lines, creating boundaries between the weekdays. We have finished the outline for the calendar; now we have to fill in the blanks with the particular dates and appointments. $inner = $DATA{'first_day'}; $counter = 1; $matches = &appointments_for_graphic (*APPTS); The appointments_for_graphic subroutine returns an associative array of appointment keywords for the selected month (keyed by the date). For example, here is what an array might look like: $APPTS{'02'} = "See Professor"; $APPTS{'03'} = "ABC Enterprises\0Luncheon Meeting"; This example shows one appointment on the 2nd of this month, and two appointments (separated by a \0 character) on the 3rd. In several nested loops--one for the rows, one for the days in each row, and one for the appointments on each day--we draw the date for each box and list the appointment keywords in the appropriate boxes. for ($outer=0; $outer <= $DATA{'no_rows'}; $outer++) { $temp_y = $DATA{'start_calendar'} + $outer + ($outer * $DATA{'box_height'}) + This outermost loop iterates through the rows, based on $DATA{`no_rows'}. The $temp_y variable contains the y coordinate where the date should be drawn for a particular row. while (($inner < 7) && ($counter <= $DATA{'last_day'})) { $temp_x = $DATA{'x_offset'} + ($inner * $DATA{'box_length'}) + $inner + $DATA{'date_x_offset'}; $image->string (gdLargeFont, $temp_x, $temp_y, sprintf ("%2d", $counter), This inner loop draws the dates across a row. A while loop was used instead of a for loop because the number of dates across a row may not be seven (in cases when the month does not start on Sunday or does not end on Saturday). The variable $counter keeps track of the actual date that is being output. if ($APPTS{$counter}) { @appt_list = split (/\0/, $APPTS{$counter}); last if ($loop >= $DATA{'no_appts'}); If appointments exist for the date, a for loop is used to iterate through the list. The number of appointments that can fit in a box is governed by $DATA{`no_appts'}; others are ignored. But the user can click on the individual date to see all of them. $image->string (gdSmallFont, $DATA{'x_offset'} + ($inner * $DATA{'box_length'} + $inner + $temp_y + ($loop * $DATA{'small_font_height'}) + pack ("A$DATA{'no_chars'}", The keywords for an appointment are displayed in the box. The pack operator truncates the string to fit in the box. $inner = 0; $| = 1; print "Pragma: no-cache", "\n\n"; print $image->gif; Finally, the program turns output buffering off and sends the image to the client for display. The following subroutine returns an associative array containing the keywords for all the appointments for the selected month. sub appointments_for_graphic local (*DATES) = @_; local ($matches, @RESULTS, $loop, $day, $keywords); select Day, Keywords from $database where (Month = $current_month) and (Year = $current_year) RESULTS now contains the number of elements indicated by $matches. Each element contains the date for an appointment followed by the keyword list for that appointment, as requested by our select statement. We need to put all the appointments for a given day into one element of our associative array DATES, which we will return to the caller. ($day, $keywords) = split (/\0/, $RESULTS[$loop], 2); if ($DATES{$day}) { $DATES{$day} = join ("\0", $DATES{$day}, $keywords); } else { $DATES{$day} = $keywords; When a day in DATES already lists an appointment, we concatenate the next appointment to it with the null string (\0) as separator. When we find an empty day, we do not need to add the null string. return ($matches); Finally, a count of the total number of appointments for the month are returned. The last major subroutine we will discuss parses the form data. It is very similar to the parse_form_data subroutines used up to this point. sub parse_query_and_form_data local (*FORM_DATA) = @_; local ($request_method, $query_string, $path_info, $request_method = $ENV{'REQUEST_METHOD'}; $path_info = $ENV{'PATH_INFO'}; if ($request_method eq "GET") { $query_string = $ENV{'QUERY_STRING'}; } elsif ($request_method eq "POST") { read (STDIN, $query_string, $ENV{'CONTENT_LENGTH'}); if ($ENV{'QUERY_STRING'}) { $query_string = join ("&", $query_string, $ENV{'QUERY_STRING'}); If the request method is POST, the information from the input stream and the data in QUERY_STRING are appended to $query_string. We have to do this because our program accepts information in an unusually complex way; some user queries pass both query strings and input streams. } else { &return_error ("500", "Server Error", "Server uses unsupported method"); if ($query_string =~ /^\d+,\d+$/) { $FORM_DATA{'clicked_point'} = $query_string; if ($path_info =~ m|^/(\d+/\d+)$|) { $FORM_DATA{'month'} = $1; If the user clicks on the imagemap, the client sends a query string in the form of two integers ("x,y") to the CGI program. Here, we store the string right into $FORM_DATA{`clicked_point'}, where the get_imagemap_date routine can retrieve it. Previously, we set up our hypertext link so that the month name gets passed as extra path information (see the output_HTML subroutine), and here we store it in $FORM_DATA{`month'}. This value is checked for validity at the top of the program, just to make sure that there are no shell metacharacters. } else { if ($query_string =~ /draw_imagemap/) { $FORM_DATA{'draw_imagemap'} = 1; The $FORM_DATA{`draw_imagemap'} variable is set if the query contains the string "draw_imagemap". The rest of the code below is common, and we have seen it many times. @key_value_pairs = split (/&/, $query_string); foreach $key_value (@key_value_pairs) { $value =~ tr/+/ /; } else { $FORM_DATA{$key} = $value; The following subroutine returns the number of days in the specified month. It takes leap years into effect. sub get_last_day local ($month, $year) = @_; local ($last, @no_of_days); if ($month == 2) { if ( !($year % 4) && ( ($year % 100) || !($year % 400) ) ) { $last = 29; } else { $last = 28; } else { $last = $no_of_days[$month - 1]; return ($last); The get_first_day subroutine (algorithm by Malcolm Beattie <>) returns the day number for the first day of the specified month. For example, if Friday is the first day of the month, this subroutine will return 5. (The value is zero-based, starting with Sunday). sub get_first_day local ($month, $year) = @_; local ($day, $first, @day_constants); $day = 1; @day_constants = (0, 3, 2, 5, 0, 3, 5, 1, 4, 6, 2, 4); if ($month < 3) { $first = ($year + int ($year / 4) - int ($year / 100) + int ($year/400) + $day_constants [$month - 1] + $day) % 7; return ($first); Previous Home Next Introduction to Imagemaps Book Index Debugging and Testing CGI Applications International | About O'Reilly | Affiliated Companies | Privacy Policy © 2001, O'Reilly & Associates, Inc.

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Permalink for comment 532246 RE[3]: Appeal Coming Soon by kristoph on Sat 25th Aug 2012 14:57 UTC in reply to "RE[2]: Appeal Coming Soon" Member since: Apple is getting absolutely slaughtered outside North America. The iPhone market can't exist without massive carrier subsidies. Hence the frivolous lawsuits. Are you like trying to convince yourself or someone else here? 1) Apple earns almost 60% of it's IPhone revenue from international sales. 2) International iPhone sales are the growth driver, while NA sales are slowing as the market saturates. 3) Apple's primary lawsuits are all in US. Software patents and trade dress patents are much weaker outside the US and so - other that the circus in Germany - really have no tangible impact on international sales. But feel free to believe whatever helps you sleep at night. Reply Parent Score: 1

dclm-gs1-110070000

Permalink for comment 539517 WinRT and Windows RT by wigry on Mon 22nd Oct 2012 14:42 UTC Member since: Juyst to note another mysterious flop from the Microsoft side. They created library or layer or abstraction called WinRT that was supposed to replace Win32. And then they names a version of their latest OS as Windows RT. So WinRT is inside both Windows 8 and Windows RT BTW WinRT is actually nothing spectacular and deep inside there is still age old Win32 and COM and other old stuff just beefed up a bit and put together is some funny way. A must read for any windows develper or anybody who is curious why Windows 8 turned out to be the way it is. Reply Score: 1

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Mar 282014 The History of Safety Apparel Since there were workers and clothing, there has been some form of work safe apparel. However, once machine-created clothing and equipment really caught on, safety apparel became more modernized and could better protect workers. For instance, according to, fire fighters in the United States first had access to a fire helmet in the 1730’s. Different Types of Safety Workwear There are as many types of safety gear available as there are jobs. Doctors wear masks that protect them from germs, construction workers need protective footwear, those who work outdoors may need high boots and thick pants to protect against snake or insect bites and those who are working on the road need reflective garments that allow oncoming motorist to easily spot them–even after dark. The most important thing is that the gear is specifically chosen for the job at hand. Today, many workers aren’t left to their own devices when it comes to choosing the right safety apparel. There are different codes in place that regulate certain equipment be worn by workers in certain industries. OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) dictates this in certain cases. Additionally, many employers have a commitment to safety, so these firms may have even stricter requirements for those who work there. No matter what industry or what job you have, it is important that you follow safety apparel guidelines. Not only does it protect you from danger–it may be required by law! CornerStone – ANSI 107 Class 2 Safety Vest. Feb 262014 Casual Fridays, or Tuesdays, Wednesdays or Thursdays, are a weekly favorite, but what if as a business you could provide your employees with the option to take part in ‘casual’ workdays every day? Companies and businesses can with the introduction of imprinted apparel as a part of their employee uniform. Casual Employee Uniforms Create a Sense of Professionalism A casual employee uniform is more than just providing a sense of comfort to employees; it is about creating a sense of professionalism. Businesses need to present a uniform, professional image to customers in order to gain trust and a casual uniform achieves that goal. Casual uniforms can be made out of crisp, high quality materials that make them appear almost as if they are as professional as a business suit or dress shirt, but without the stiff, uncomfortable feel. Materials, such as silk fibers or microfiber, provide businesses with the option to choose apparel that looks clean, crisp and professional. Options Available for Casual Employee Uniforms There is a considerable number of shirt styles available for businesses to choose from in an effort to create a casual employee uniform. Short and long sleeved t-shirts, polo shirts, and button down shirts are available. For the colder months, sweaters, zippered jackets, and hoodies can also be incorporated into a business’s casual uniform dress code. In addition to having the ability to choose the style of shirts, businesses can also have control over the color of the clothing. Casual apparel comes in a variety of colors ranging from bright, vibrant shades to subtle, earth tones. Businesses can make their company recognizable to customers by trying to pick a color theme that represents their business. Ability to Imprint Logos, Business Names, and Pictures on Apparel The real key to creating a casual business uniform that looks professional is having some sort of logo or emblem that identifies the employees as representatives of a business. Casual employee uniforms can have this done by imprinting the company name or logo onto the shirt. Businesses can purchase blank, solid colored t-shirts, sweatshirts, or polo shirts and then opt to have a logo, business name, or other picture imprinted on the apparel. The logo can be printed on the shirt sleeve, back, or pocket. Boost employee morale by making every day casual Friday by incorporating a casual employee uniform into the dress code. Be comfortable and casual everyday.L502_K502_Model_GA13 Feb 262014 The term preshrunk actually describes an entire process that the fabric has gone through before being made into the t-shirt that you are wearing. The following is a closer look at what exactly ‘preshrunk’ means and the process the fabric goes through before being used to create a shirt. Fabrics Naturally Want to Shrink All natural and synthetic fabrics have a natural tendency to want to shrink when they are washed. This is because the fibers of the fabric will want to tighten up and bunch together. This tightening action results in entire fabric shrinking, which results in a change in the overall shape and size of the article of clothing. The Preshrinking Process Seeing the term ‘preshrunk’ may automatically bring up images of having the t-shirt washed and dried before it is sold, but it actually implies the use of a process that is known as preshrinking. The preshrinking process involves placing the fabric that is used to create the t-shirt through a processing machine. The processing machine will force the fibers of the fabric to group together and tighten. When the fibers of the fabric are grouped together, it will eliminate the possibility of the shirt shrinking when it is washed. Do the Preshrunk Shirts Never Shrink When Washed? There is a common belief that preshrunk shirts will never shrink in the wash. This, unfortunately, is not true. Preshrunk shirts can, and sometimes will, shrink in the wash. The preshrinking process will eliminate the possibility of a t-shirt shrinking in the wash, but it will not completely prevent any shrinkage. The t-shirt could shrink in the future, but the shrinkage will be very minimal. It is believed that the shrinkage is only about 3-7% of the size of the t-shirt, which would barely impact the fit of the shirt. Why Many T-Shirts are Preshrunk Before Being Sold? T-shirts are often preshrunk because it eliminates any type of guess work out of choosing a t-shirt size. If a t-shirt is a large, it most likely will not shrink in the wash to a medium or small. This makes it easier for people to choose a shirt that will fit them without fear that the clothing will shrink and not be able to be worn in the future. Next time you are looking at a t-shirt label and notice the term ‘preshrunk’, you will be able to understand exactly what it means and how it impacts the t-shirt you are purchasing. Feb 062014 Full-printed garments, especially t-shirts, are made possible with a printing process known as dye sublimation printing. Dye sublimation printing, or dye sublimation for short, allows full photographic images to be printed or transferred to a t-shirt or other garment. Some in the shirt printing industry call this process ‘all around printing.’ The following is a look at the process that is used during dye sublimation printing and why it is becoming a popular choice for t-shirts. What is Dye Sublimation Printing? Dye sublimation printing is a complex printing process that essentially takes a photographic image and transfers it to the entire shirt. The image often takes up the whole shirt, as opposed to a smaller logo or design located above the shirt pocket. The process for dye sublimation printing is fairly time consuming. The desired photo, image, or artwork must first be taken and printed onto specialty paper. This is done using a special printer that will print the image onto large sheets of paper. Once the images or artwork have been transferred to the specialty paper, they will then be transferred to the t-shirts. Transferring the images and artwork to the t-shirt requires the use of a special pressure machine called a heat transfer press. These presses reach the extremely high temperatures that are required to help transfer the images onto the t-shirts. This is typically 375-380 degrees Fahrenheit. This is a heat press: sublimation printing How is an Image Transferred from Paper to the T-Shirt? Images are transferred with a heat press as seen above. The extremely high temperatures these machines reach that will convert the dye on the paper into a gas. Once the dye is converted to a gas, it can be transferred to the t-shirt. The shirt will be placed on the botton with the sublimation printed transfer paper on top. The gas will instantly ‘bond’ with the fibers of the fabric resulting in the transferred image. At this point the design will very likely last as long as the shirt itself. Why is Dye Sublimation Printing Becoming So Popular? Dye sublimation printing has been around for a number of years, but it wasn’t until recently that it started to become popular. There are a number of reasons why it has increased in popularity. Some of the reasons for dye sublimation printing’s popularity include: • No two images are alike, each t-shirt is considered unique as the process is never the same • Garments are soft, as the dye is absorbed by the fabric and does not sit on top of it • Bright, vibrant colors and images can be transferred to t-shirts • Details will not be lost during transfer of the images to the shirts Understanding what dye sublimation printing is and why it is popular can help you determine if it is the right choice for your t-shirt printing needs. Check out our Sublimate Tees for him and her made especially this type of printing. Sep 262013 Sep 192013 Sep 132013 Jun 172013 Brief History The first known evidence of hats appears in drawings from Ancient Greece. Most of the early hats were worn by the higher society individuals or the wealthy. These people would have their very own hat makers known as a “milliner” – named after Milan Italy – where the best hats were made in the 18th century. Most milliners from that era were women. Early hats were an indicator of Military rank or occupation as can still be seen all over the world today. Among the most famous hat makers in the United States is John B. Stetson of the Stetson hat company. They are responsible for creating what most of us recognize as the Cowboy hat. In some cases hats are required attire at many horse races and formal events. These are among the last places where you will find very high end and extravagant hats. Hats have a deep history and have changed a lot over the generations. It used to be in the 30’s, 40’s and 50’s people would never leave the house without a hat. The men would don a dress hat similar to a fedora and the women would wear something more extravagant that was often decorated with lace or flowers or combinations of similar accessories. As we entered into the 1960’s the custom of wearing hats every time you left the house faded. Now a days you will most commonly grab a baseball cap if you are leaving the house with a hat. Have a look at a Stetson hat being made: Baseball cap Features of the hat: What are the differences in Baseball Caps? • Structured vs. unstructured: • Profile – low to high: • Type of Closure: snapback hat • Color combinations: • Panels: Here is a man wearing a Fedora hat. man wearing fedora May 072013 The textile industry is one of the oldest yet fastest-growing industries in the world; after all, clothing is one of the primary commodities that every person on Earth needs to own. Textile manufacturers do a very good job today producing high quality materials from both synthetic and natural fibers that are offered to the general public. Textile producers, however, did not have an easy trail to follow leading to their success. Its history While a lot of struggling people were immigrating to America to start a new life, a small group of these people stood at the forefront and led America through its Industrial Revolution. This group of textile entrepreneurs invented power-driven machinery and developed business enterprises to produce products that had previously been made in low volume in homes and small shops, leading to a factory boom. The industrialization of textile manufacturing began in the late 1700s in Great Britain when Richard Arkwright invented the “spinning frame” that could turn raw cotton into a mass produced yarn. spinning wheel An early Spinning Frame However, it wasn’t until 1790 that the industry began to spread widely to the United States. This movement can largely be credited to an English-born businessman named Samuel Slater. At the age of 21, Slater had worked in a textile factory for six years and had learned the mechanical details of Arkwright’s machine. He carried this knowledge with him as he ventured out of his country and onto the American shores, confident that he could reinvent the spinning frame and make a fortune for himself. When he arrived in Providence, Rhode Island, he formed a partnership with the textile-manufacturing firm of Almy & Brown. Slater built the spinning frame based on the Arkwright model just from the details he had memorized. Its first use was on December 20, 1790 in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, where the waters of the Blackstone River turned the wheels of the mill. The success of Slater’s mill revolutionized the textile industry in America, which up to that point was dependent on cottage workers to produce yarn and thread. slater mill Slater Mill Pawtucket, Rhode Island Because of this innovation, factories in the US began to multiply rapidly, earning Slater the title of “The Father of the American Factory System” as well as “The Father of the American Industrial Revolution.” By 1815, there were already 165 cotton mills operating in New England. These early mills were not large-scale, so New England merchants continued to utilize home workers to weave some of the yarn into cloth for some time after Slater’s innovation. This video shows an early spinning frame in action at the Slater Mill. The spawning of other products The beginning of the 18th century marked the production of textiles made with wool from sheep farms across the midlands in Britain. More than a quarter of the British exports during that time were from the export trade in woolen goods, doubling between 1701 and 1770. Another textile industry that invested in cotton centered in Lancashire showed remarkable growth during that time, although it did not equal the huge value of the woolen trade. Before the start of the 17th century, only individual workers manufactured a somewhat limited number of goods, which were distributed around the country. In the early 18th century, artisans started to find alternative materials to produce products. They were using silk, wool, fustian, and linen, but all were eventually overcome by cotton, which became the most important textile of the time. Cotton was first imported into northern Europe in the late medieval period. At the time people did not have any knowledge of where it came from. They associated the material with wool, noting their similarities, they conceptualized that plant-borne sheep must produce it. It was later called “tree wool.” Even Christopher Columbus in his explorations of the Bahamas and Cuba in the late 1400’s, found natives wearing cotton garments. During the late 16th century, cotton became more and more popular as it was cultivated in the warmer regions of Asia and America. The production of cloth involves not only the growing and harvesting of the fiber or raw material, but the product must then be prepared and spun into thread or yarn, and finally weaving the yarn into cloth. Thereafter, the cloth will be taken to the garment manufacturer. Preparation of fiber will depend on the fiber used, but it can involve retting and dressing. Wool needs to be carded and washed. Spinning and weaving can be similarly done to fibers, as well. Spinning is done by twisting the fibers by hand using a drop spindle or a spinning wheel. The industry’s forerunners Eli Whitney invented the modern mechanical cotton gin, which quickly separates the cotton fibers from their seeds, in 1793. cotton gin Cotton Gin on Display the Eli Whitney Museum Here is a brief video history of Eli Whitney and his impact on the textile world: It was in 1813 that the New England factory systems started to take off when Frances Cabot Lowell, Nathan Appleton, and Patrick Johnson established the Boston Manufacturing Company and opened their first factory, wherein workers operated spinning and weaving machinery. This enabled the home-based workers to shift their jobs from their homes to the factories. Fifteen years later, the company started adding branches throughout Massachusetts and New Hampshire. By 1840, the Boston Manufacturing Company had gained a great deal of popularity, as others tried to copy their corporate model. boston manufacturing Boston Manufacturing Company on the Charles River, Waltham, Massachusetts Lowell and his team hoped to change the ways of the British industry. Building their facilities in Massachusetts, he hired young and unwed women from the farms of New England. Known as the “mill girls”, they were strictly chaperoned by matrons who established curfews and a stringent moral code for the girls to follow. The mill girls worked 12 hours per day, 6 days per week. Although it was a tedious job, most of the girls enjoyed the independence the mill gave them, in contrast to how they had lived on the farm. Moreover, the wages rose to triple the rate for a domestic servant at the time. It was also during this time when leaders such as William Gregg of South Carolina established a home-based textile industry, which was resisted by the northern mills. After the Civil War, the south slowly replaced the use of slaves with regular workers. Edwin Michael Holt and his family in North Carolina built a number of mills all over the south at the end of the 19th century, including Glencoe Cotton Mill and mill village, which are still preserved to this day. Later on, merchants such as the Marshall Fields of Chicago acquired and built mills of their own (Cone Mills and Fieldcrest Mills) so as to better control and regulate the supply. As World War I took place, several new companies emerged to satisfy the war demand. After the war, imported machinery from Germany and Switzerland started to replace domestic supply. During the late 19th century, the Made in the USA began to be replaced by a new world order. Because many textile manufacturers aimed to buy from the producers with the lowest cost, most textile companies considered importing from other countries. Today’s industry As the 20th century approached, major changes came to the textile industry as innovations allowed textile machinery to create synthetic fiber such as rayon and nylon, which is used in products ranging from pantyhose to toothbrushes. Acetate was invented in the 1920s. A decade later, polyester and acrylic were introduced. Polyester became more popular in the Unites States than cotton for some time during that century. By the early 20th century, globalization also led to the outsourcing of textile manufacturing to overseas markets. This created a trend of focusing on white-collar industries for fashion design and retail. An apparel distributor, Outlet Shirts, specializes itself in the screen-printing and embroidery industry as well as blank apparel. It provides well over 1500 products from brands such as Port Authority Apparel, Port and Company, Eddie Bauer, Nike Golf, Sport-Tek and more. Offering a large selection of wholesale t-shirts, polo shirts, woven, outerwear, ladies styles and many more. Its products are available either blank or embellished with your company or group logo. Its low prices and generous discounts, also includes free shipping starting at $125, will make it easy for any customer to save more without sacrificing quality or service. The textile industry has come a long way from just old-fashioned machines and factories. It has developed greatly over time, paving the way for companies who produce quality products for their customers. Today, it has become a very essential industry the world could not live without. May 012013 Now we would now like to take a look at the Button. Not the kind that you push to get to your floor in an elevator nor the kind that you tap to turn off your phone. Here we are talking about the ancient and still every day item used in everything from clothing to home decoration. You can obviously find buttons in shirts, pants, as well as furniture and other home décor like drapery. Buttons come in a wide range of colors, sizes, shapes and materials. They have a rich and surprising history around the world. There are even museum displays dedicated entirely to buttons just as there are for clothing. One such famous place is the button exhibit at the Smithsonian Institution. The button is both a tool and a fashion statement. The button’s various uses, low cost and longevity probably means it will be with us forever. General Description The button is a type of fastener used mainly in clothing and most often in shirts and pants. But as mentioned previously you can also find them in furniture and in that case are mainly fabric buttons used as decoration and do not serve much purpose beyond that. The same can be said for large fabric buttons found on drapery. Most buttons are made of a from of plastic these days but you can still find many variations of this useful item. Buttons have been unearthed by Archeologists that date back to 2,800 BC in both Middle and Eastern Asia. They were primarily used as a decoration first and then later it was found that they could serve as a useful item beyond just for looks. In some cases buttons are used for both aesthetics and function. Early buttons were an item that only high society would own until cheaper versions came along made of wood and bone and eventually were made of plastic as most are today. Some of these early buttons were actually art pieces that became collectibles for the wealthy. These early collectible buttons would have ornate carvings etched or inlaid into them and were not made for any clothing application but as an art piece. These were almost always bone or ivory and some even had precious stones added to them. Buttons that were used to hold clothing or fabric together first appeared in Germany in the 13th Century and were widely used in Europe within about 100 years. These types of buttons are the most common in the world. During World War I and II the military made locket buttons that contained miniature compasses. Buttons have proven to be such an important item that Charles Dickens even wrote about the process to make them in 1852. Buttons have also shown up in political campaigns that date back to George Washington’s first campaign. The more modern style of campaign button is metal usually with a picture or slogan on the front. These are known as badge or pin-back buttons. Before continuing on watch this short video on the manufacturing process of plastic buttons: Button types and materials used Buttons can be made from a variety of things. The earliest buttons were made of seashell or bone and even some were made of ivory. Eventually button making made its way to wood and then plastic and metal. Button that are still made of shell or bone tend to be reserved for collections as they are often one of a kind pieces made by an artist. Metal buttons are most common on jeans while plastic buttons are more common for shirts. The most common type of button is the flat or sew-thru button. These buttons have 2, 3 or 4 holes in them and are sewn onto the clothing item with thread. This type of button, after it is sewn to the clothing item, slides through a cut in the cloth known as a buttonhole or a loop of fabric. Flat buttons mostly come in metal or plastic and among these there are a few types. You have Dyed-to-match, which are colored to match the clothing item they are going on, there are Horn-tone buttons, which are plastic made with a brown and ivory coloring that somewhat resemble the antlers of an animal. Then the plain old metal button which is usually made of aluminum. Another type of button is the Shank button. These are much less common and involve a round button with a loop made of the same material attached to the back of it called a shank. You would sew the thread through the shank to attach it to your clothing item. This type of button would be mostly found in nice dress jackets and dresses. The last of the common buttons is a Stud button. These are metal pieces that are riveted onto the clothing item. These are much more durable which is why they are most commonly found on denim jackets and pants. These are fastened to the clothing in the same way that Flat buttons are. Here some examples of clothing with various button types; Port Authority Silk Touch Shirt with Dyed-to-match buttons, Port Authority Long Sleeve Twill Shirt with Horn-tone buttons and Port Authority Authentic Denim Jacket with metal stud buttons. As you can see buttons have a long and interesting history. They have changed a lot over time in both their uses as well as the materials used and who would own them. They have found there way into most clothing items we use and are very affordable which part of the reason they are so common. Last we leave you with a helpful video. Have you ever lost a button on your shirt or pants? Watch this video tutorial to learn how to sewn a button back onto a shirt. The same process works for pants and well. Sewing 4-hole button onto a shirt

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Jackass 3.5 Review: Dance, Prank Monkey, Dance! Jackass 3.5 Review: Dance, Prank Monkey, Dance! By Brian Prisco | DVD Reviews | June 3, 2011 | Comments () Jackass is a phenomenon, each film less of a concept and more a brand name. As a film critic, I adore these documentaries. And it took me the longest time to reason out why. Jackass is reliable. When I go to see a more conventional film, the trailers promise me one thing, and more often than not, the final product turns out to be well different from the original. But not with Jackass. It's always going to be the same thing: a bunch of juvenile stunt men doing outrageous stunts. Damaging themselves with ramps and bodily functions, taunting and tormenting each other for my devious amusement. Even if I don't find a particular setup entertaining -- like Jackass 3D's fecal volcano -- there's going to be another stunt mere moments away. Deep inside me, in that primal portion of my makeup that will always find farts funny, crouches that demented inner child that twists any phrase into sexual innuendo and forces my eyeline to the neckline of any girl that walks by. So I appreciate that while Jackass may not be everyone's cup of tea, it's very much a cup of tea, and Lipton at that. It's simple, sophomoric, and as dependable as a McDonald's cheeseburger. And basically, if you can stomach Jackass there's no reason you wouldn't adore more of the same in Jackass 3.5, available exclusively through Amazon Instant Video. Built for the short attention span stuttering laughter of the "Beavis and Butt-head" crowd, Jackass features the antics of a group of boorish drug addicts who crave injury. When they set out to film these deviant attempts at a redneck suicide and cull them together in a final film, they inevitably shoot somewhere in the neighborhood of 4 to 5 hours of footage. Since most acts start life in the addled brainpans of these overgrown adolescents and only require the uttering of "wouldn't it be funny if" to coming birthing forth like a cretinous cousin to Athena, they'll shoot for months and weeks, damaging themselves on tape repeatedly to see if they can make something of the mess. But this format does not lend itself readily to a longform, and so most of what doesn't make the cut ends up as bonus footage. And so the Jackass legion have started creating their .5 films. Jackass 2.5 was less than enthralling, and felt really like a missing extra on the Jackass 2 DVD. Whereas, I feel that Jackass 3.5 is actually an improvement on Jackass 3D, a completely separate set of stunts that capitalizes on what they were doing with the third film, but expanding and improving. There's still the same focus on genitals, surfing on non-conventional materials, and kicking the fuck out of each other for shits and giggles, yet, it's toned down and focused. It's like the Jackass dudes took their Ritalin and looked back over what they with frat hangover glee. It's not the "I Can't Believe We Did That" of a remorseful groom, it's the "I Can't Fucking Believe We Did That!" high-fiving of his bachelor buddies. Jackass 3.5 features a ton of new stunts crammed into a surprisingly full 85 minutes, the same kind of acts we'd expect from the fellas like firing a "cockrocket" into "Uranus" -- namely sending a rocket-propelled dildo from a spandex spacesuited Ryan Dunn's crotch into the naked buttocks of a similarly tin-foil clad Bam Margera. And yet, there's this neat kind of behind the scenes conversational bits that contextualizes the stunts. There's a layer to the antics, a sort of limitless spending spree in the hands of shit-flinging monkeys smart enough to use sticks to poke fire anthills and what they'd do with them, and why, and how. Johnny Knoxville is forever purchasing elaborate toys to taunt his co-stars, from a mini-cannon inspired by a Buster Keaton film to a "ghetto defibriliator" which they use to electrocute sleeping cohorts. In one of the stunts, the cast dresses up in t-shirts and underwear with red goggles and red headbands to resemble bowling pins. They stand on a massive blue platform coated in gallons of sex lube. A chunky friend decked out in black stands atop the ramp prepared to carom down the slide and crash into them for "Human Bowling." But this isn't the stunt. The entire thing is an elaborate ruse so that Knoxville can ambush them with his latest toy: a remote controlled helicopter that has twin paintball cannons. And his cohorts can't escape because they're standing in the middle of a massive platform slick with lubricant. It goes off beautifully, and Knoxville stands there, laughing with his gooed-up and shot-to-shit pals, explaining how he went to elaborate lengths to pull off the prank, and what expenses they spent just to nail them. As he's talking, Chris Pontius standing next to him in the foreground, casually pulls out his penis and points it at Knoxville, and starts pissing on him. A hundred thousand dollar prank gets trumped by a long-haired stoner whipping out his dick and pissing. And that's the beauty of Jackass. Despite the often crass actions, these guys seriously are stuntmen. And while they may not be Zoe Belling on the hood of a fast moving car or diving out of an exploding building, they are seriously doing some intensive and inventive acts. Just because they tend to be the type of things that end up as YouTube Eulogies or prizewinners on "America's Funniest Home Videos" shouldn't detract from some of the crazier shit they pull. There's an entire sequence where they explain how for eight months, Knoxville tried to film these elaborate nut-shots with a basketball. Testicles V. Sporting Equipment can practically be considered a genre unto itself. And yet, as the crew and director Jeff Tremaine bitch about the 13 hour days spent trying aimlessly to get one fucking successful shot, the end results are explosive levels of awesome. It's not a matter of simply throwing a basketball at another man's cojones, oh lord no. He bounces it off a bridge a over a watershed, he hurls them from an overpassing bi-plane he's sitting on the wing of, he sends one caroming off a ferris wheel on to a waiting trampoline. It's an artistic achievement in the science of the nut-shot, and it's funny as fucking hell. Jackass 3.5 isn't exactly haute couture film. It's the lowest common denominator of filmmaking, a few steps above "Ow My Balls." It's a group of infantile morons hurting each other for our amusement -- setting each other on fire, crashing through drywall on skateboards, falling down skateramps to skull-rattling thuds, tying things to each others balls and dicks. But there's a certain creativity -- Chris Pontius wears a prosthetic wooden sheath over his penis while a bird pecks it to splinters: a woodpecker attacking a wood pecker. And there's a darkness and paranoia to the set: they live in constant fear of getting busted up just as bad as the elaborate setups on camera. During Jackass 3D Bam Margera was going around doing "The Rocky": sneaking up on unsuspecting victims and hurling a cup of water in their face before blasting them with a boxing glove. In one of the setups, they show a prank between Bam and Danger Ehren devolve into violence, with the two of them seriously bashing each other in the face with the intent of drawing blood. It's a little uncomfortable, but then they quickly get back into their love of the phantom slo-mo camera technology and the dizzing beauty of watching Jason "Wee Man" Acuna's nutsack ripple as a tennis ball strikes him. It's the little things, people. Around the Web Like Our Facebook Page And an Angel Does the Paul Rudd Dance This Week on British TV: "Psychoville," "All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace," "Lead Balloon," & "The Shadow Line" | "Fame Whore" is So Demeaning; Adrianne Curry Prefers the Term "Celebrity Entrepreneur" Comments Are Welcome, Douches Are Not blog comments powered by Disqus

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No matter how knowledgeable we have been of the components in our ride, we just can't carry out the monitoring of its important elements while traveling, and it is among the many explanations why cars or trucks have different sensors and switches, such as the oil pressure switch. It's your Audi S6 oil pressure switch that monitors the oil pressure within your vehicle and notifies you each time it drops or goes up into an unfavorable point so you're able to do what's right quickly. There are oil pressure switches which trigger a warning sign the minute they found out that the pressure or volume of oil goes up or decreases yet there are also items that instantly manages a control device which stops or enables oil flow; this job makes this auto component absolutely beneficial particularly for automotive engines that depend on oil to operate efficiently. In case the indicator notifies you that the amount of oil has decreased, verify it utilizing a dipstick; if the result signifies that the oil is still decent, then the oil pressure switch on your Audi S6 could be the offender. DIY car owners like you can service the Audi S6 oil pressure switch without the help of a pro so long as you have sufficient understanding, a proven method, and lastly a top quality replacement that should come from reliable manufacturers including NTC, OEQ, and Beck Arnley. Fortunately, Parts Train carries the model that absolutely suits your automobile's specifications and sells it at a price range that won't hurt your budget.

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3 Ways to Work Smarter, Not Harder If productivity advice were music, "Work Smarter, Not Harder" would be one of the biggest chart toppers of all time. But like most popular ditties, the tune familiar, but the meaning is somewhat unclear. What does it actually mean? work smarter  (Photo Credit: juditk/Flickr) In part, it's about taking the long view. At Levo League, Kate Matsudaira writes about coping with a shift in working styles when she discovered she was pregnant with her first child. "Working smart can be a hard pill for a 'working hard' type to swallow, since working smart tends to mean letting go of certain projects to free up time," writes Matsudaira. "The key is to take your career on a long horizon. Don't look at what a decision could mean for the next six months or the next year; instead, think about what it will mean over 10 or even 20 years." And how do you do that? 1. Don't do everything yourself. "Working hard" types aren't always the greatest delegaters. If you want something done, do it yourself -- but only if you want to do every single thing that needs doing for the rest of your tenure at your company. Delegating means giving up a bit of control and perfectionism, in order to invest in the future -- one in which you don't have to take care of every detail. 2. Don't let other people's schedules dictate yours. This is one of Matsudaira's big points, and it's a good one. Of course, you'll have cope with last-minute meeting requests from your boss and teammates, but as much as possible, say no to the schedule-changers that aren't necessary or helpful to your career goals. That might mean turning down a few networking coffees or informational meetings. It definitely means getting out of the habit of answering every email seconds after it arrives. 3. Let an app do the work. There's a productivity app to solve just about every work-smarter challenge you're facing. This list is a good place to start. Tell Us What You Think What are your best productivity tips? We want to hear from you! Leave a comment or join the discussion on Twitter. 1. Please prove to us that you're not a robot:

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Definition of:double buffering double buffering A programming technique that uses two buffers to speed up a computer that can overlap I/O with processing. Data in one buffer is being processed while the next set of data is read into the other one. In streaming media applications, the data in one buffer is being sent to the sound card and/or display adapter, while the other buffer is being filled with more data from the source of the material (Internet, local server, etc.). When video is displayed on screen, the data in one buffer is being filled while the data in the other is being displayed. Full-motion video is speeded up when the function of moving the data between buffers is implemented in a hardware circuit rather than being performed by software. See video accelerator and buffering. Double Buffers Two buffers are commonly used to speed up program execution. Data are processed in one buffer while data are written into or read out of the other.

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Top Holiday Gift Picks for iPhone Lovers Click To View Slideshow» iPhone owners already have the product they love most—so what can you buy them? Great gifts that work directly with the iPhone, that's what. According to, the Apple iPhone had its most popular quarter for sales ever between January and March 2014, with 51 million units sold—and that was long before the larger iPhone 6 and 6 Plus made their debut. By June, the number of iPhones sold worldwide had reached 500 million, and it looks like the fourth quarter is on track to be even more amazing. Opening up the market in China will surely push the number of iPhones out there to astronomical numbers. Holiday Gift Guide bugWhich, while great for Apple, means the tech-savvy person for which you're shopping this holiday season probably already has an iPhone. (And let's be honest, if they don't have an iPhone, they probably have some other smartphone.) So, with Christmas/Hannukah/Kwanzaa—also known as Christmahanakwanzika—on fast approach, what is left for shopping? When your beloved already has an iPhone/smartphone that does everything, what else do they need? (We'll assume they have a case, because that person isn't stupid. But you can find cases for the iPhone 5s, 6, and 6 Plus as needed.) It turns out, there are plenty of items out there that go well with smartphones in general, and iPhone in particular. Some are obvious (hello, Bluetooth speakers!) and some, not so much. Take a slow meander through the following pages to get your shopping started—maybe even completed. (Get yourself something nice for your own iPhone while you're at it. We won't tell.) blog comments powered by Disqus 12 issues for $19.99 ONLY $1.67 an issue! 24 issues for $29.99 ONLY $1.25 an issue! Lock in Your Savings! Powered by Zinio Geneva WorldRadio 1 of 13 Geneva WorldRadio Geneva WorldRadio Why settle for a plain old Bluetooth speaker when you can get a device that is all things audio: Bluetooth speaker, FM radio, alarm clock, even shortwave radio. The Geneva WorldRadio is all those things in a form that looks both modern and retro at the same time—naturally, it was engineered in Switzerland. The 3.1 pound device comes with a rechargeable battery capable of five hours of play, and you can get it in black, red, or metallic. How about the audio? Geneva says it "plays mid and high frequencies with absolute accuracy, and produces warm, rich bass below 80Hz." Buy It Now See More Slideshows

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Backing Up an Open File Ming Lai wants to know how backup programs handle files that are currently open and changing. Ming actually asked something much more specific: How does Mozy backup open TrueCrypt vault files. I'll give you a more general answer, applicable to anyone who uses backup software, followed by some specifics about those two programs (both of which I use regularly). Most good, current backup programs, including Mozy, use Windows Volume Shadow Service (VSS). Introduced with Windows XP, VSS takes a snapshot of open files, creating what are basically temporary read-only copies that can be backed up by any VSS-capable program. It's a nifty way around Windows' habit of not letting you mess with an open file. This is a nice convenience--you can backup while you work, something that really wasn't practical before VSS. But it has its downside: Changes you make to the file in the course of the backup won't get safely copied until the next backup. For instance, Mozy is backing up my system as I write this (really). If this file becomes hopelessly corrupted tomorrow morning and I have to restore it from the backup, I won't get this paragraph back. (The next day: Fortunately, that didn't happen.) TrueCrypt vault files have another issue: Since they contain other files, they can be quite large (I've got one that's over 200MB). And for security reasons, you really want to back up the vault rather than the files inside of it. If you're backing up online, a 200MB file can slow things down horribly. To avoid this problem, Mozy seldom backs up large files in their entirety. Instead it usually backs up only the parts that have changed, basically creating patches that can be used to recreate various versions of the file. Of course, it can't keep patching the file forever. Every so often it decides it needs to back up the whole file. That's when I have to leave the PC running all night. Shop ▾ Subscribe to the Daily Downloads Newsletter

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BlackBerry apps: Four types to avoid The flip side to the explosion in BlackBerry software is that many less-than-valuable apps make their way into App World It's never been easier to find quality BlackBerry applications. That's due largely to RIM's own app store, BlackBerry App World--which sees right around 1 million downloads a day, according to the company--as well as third party application marketplaces like Mobihand's BlackBerry store. Both online destinations are one-stop shops for valuable BlackBerry apps. But the flip side to this explosion in BlackBerry software is that many less-than-valuable apps make their way into App World, Mobihand and elsewhere, crowding the virtual "shelf-space" and making it more challenging to find the true, must-have BlackBerry apps. I'm talking about applications that simply don't do what they promise. Apps that cost too much. Or software that's plain ol' useless. I've been recommending BlackBerry apps to my readers for years--just check out my BlackBerry Bible page. Now it's time to call out the apps that don't make the grade. What follows is a list of four application types I've identified that aren't worth the space on my BlackBerry. You'll notice I'm not spotlighting specific applications, but types. Of course, you can make up your own mind; why not try an application if it's free? You can always delete it any time you want, right? The idea here is to save you time, effort, frustration, and in some cases, dollars. Keep moving for my quick list of BlackBerry apps you're better off avoiding. BlackBerry Application Type: "Flashlight" Apps Reason to Avoid: BlackBerry "flashlight" apps typically employ your BlackBerry's camera flash as a tiny flashlight. Some of these applications let you change the color of your "flashlight," but they mostly do the same thing: Keep your flash lit up like Vegas after dusk. Some of these applications are free, and if you're looking for advanced features on top of a simple, "white-colored" flashlight, and you're not low on BlackBerry storage space, they may be worth a look. But whenever I need a flashlight, and all I have on-hand is my BlackBerry, I simply open up my video-camera application and click the space bar. Click the space bar again to disable the flash. Voila. You've got a BlackBerry flashlight, no app required. The only catch is that the video-camera flash disables itself when your screen dims, so you'll need to repeatedly click a key to ensure your screen is lit while you need a light. Also, you should be aware that keeping your BlackBerry flash lit up for extended periods of time, whether you do it yourself or via an application, will likely drain significant battery-life. BlackBerry Application Type: Memory Management Apps Reason to Avoid: A plethora of applications exist to help you monitor and free up memory on your BlackBerry. Dubbed memory "boosters," "managers" and "monitors," most simply offer interfaces for gauging your current BlackBerry memory usage, along with tools that supposedly help to "free" memory. Problem is, in my experience, none these apps really do anything that you can't do on your own. For example, you can get a quick idea of your smartphone's current memory status by simply opening up your BlackBerry Options menu, which looks like some sort of wrench in default BlackBerry themes. Within that menu, scroll down to and click Memory. You'll see a listing for Application Memory. And if you're aware of the total app memory in your devices--either 256MB or 512MB in most new BlackBerry devices--you can easily figure out the percentage of free app memory, no app required...well, maybe the default BlackBerry calculator app. Logging into the "My World" section of BlackBerry App World will give you a quick estimate of your free memory. You can also use a BlackBerry shortcut to invoke the BlackBerry "Help Me!" screen, which displays addition information on memory use. Just simultaneously click your ALT, Left Shift and H keys. (Learn more expert BlackBerry keyboard shortcuts here.) The best way to free up BlackBerry application memory is to delete unused or underused application, and no app's going to help you with that. Depending on your specific device settings, your BlackBerry very likely frees up memory on its own, as well, as part of a security safeguard. To determine or change these settings, again open up the BlackBerry Options menu, scroll down to and open up the Security Options then Advanced Security Options. Next, open up the Memory Cleaning menu. On the following screen, you'll see a number of memory cleaning options, such as Clean When Holstered and Clean When Idle. Each option can be set to your own desired settings, unless you're on a BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES) that locks the appropriate fields. BlackBerry Application Type: Apps that Claim to Measure Cellular Radiation Reason to Avoid: A number of new applications that boast the ability to measure cellular radiation have popped up in BlackBerry App World and elsewhere online in recent days. The point of such apps is to give you an idea of when your device is emitting the most cellular radiation, and the least radiation, so you can determine the "safest" places to make calls, etc. Never mind the fact it's still not scientifically proven that cellular radiation is even potentially harmful& the idea sounds good, right? Sure. Until you employ the apps for a few days and notice that the purported radiation measurements correspond mostly with your cellular signal strength. For instance, if you're in an area with poor 3G coverage--one or two bars--your device is probably emitting more "radiation" because it's constantly communicating with a nearby tower(s). And if you've got full 3G, without much deviation in bars, your device is probably likely producing less radiation. It's that simple. So, the main lesson I learned from the couple of BlackBerry "radiation apps" I tried: You don't need an application to look at your signal-strength meter and determine if your device appears to be putting out more or less radiation. BlackBerry Application Type: Apps That Stream TV Episodes, Video Content Reason to Avoid: I'm a bit hesitant to lump all of the various television- and video-streaming applications for BlackBerry into one pile here. But honestly, my experience with the majority of services I've tried, including the brand new Bitbop app, Sprint TV, AT&amp;T's Mobile Video, PrimeTime2Go, etc. has been much the same in each case: Unsatisfying. Even while streaming content over my own home Wi-Fi network, which I must say, is fast, the quality of the streamed content was never satisfactory. Some services offer consistently better video quality. But here's the biggest problem I experienced with all of these apps and their corresponding services: The audio almost never syncs up correctly with the visual portion of the video. I know network speed has a lot to do with the video-quality on your device. But as stated above, I experimented with all of the services on various networks, with various speeds, and never really got consistently acceptable quality--though I'm admittedly picky and a bit OCD, so the audio/video discrepancy drove me nearly mad. Since most TV streaming services are subscription-based, I simply cancelled my account or just deleted the apps after a few weeks of use. It wouldn't hurt to see for yourself, but I bet you'll come to the same conclusion, assuming you're like me and expect some degree of quality for $10 or more a month. My advice: Stick with your PC and the free TV episodes on Hulu for streaming, at least until 4G wireless is the new standard, and/or simply transfer downloaded TV episodes and movies etc. onto your BlackBerry for mobile viewing. Join the PC World newsletter! Error: Please check your email address. Tags PhonesPhone applications Al Sacco Show Comments Most Popular Reviews Deals on PC World Deals on PC World Latest News Articles GGG Evaluation Team Kathy Cassidy Anthony Grifoni Steph Mundell Andrew Mitsi Simon Harriott Latest Jobs Don’t have an account? Sign up here Don't have an account? Sign up now Forgot password?

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perlquestion david2008 Hi, <p> How do i change a function of perl in runtime?<br> I need it for testing issues.<br> I have a class A with function x.<br> This function x calls function y.<br> I want to check the behavior when y crashes. <br> So i want to change y with the function sub {die "aaa"}, make the test and then change it back.<br> </p> Thanks,

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note dws <p> <i> How much time would you estimate it would take to convert your card system to a computerized database? :-) </i> </p> <p> At work the data ends up in an excel spreadsheet so that we can calculate our velocity (an eXtreme Programming thing, which is basically a measure of how much work a team can do per volume time). We use our velocity when planning forward. We only plan as much work as we've been able to complete in the prior iteration. This keeps us from getting overloaded. </p> 430374 430402

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What they said: Phil Mickelson text size Increase Text Size Decrease Text Size May 13, 2012 PGA TOUR staff MORE INTERVIEWS: THE PLAYERS Championship transcript archive Q. I heard you tell Jimmy you just didn't shoot the scores that you wanted to this week. PHIL MICKELSON: Yeah, it was a fun week starting with the induction on Monday. I always look forward to the challenge of this golf course because from a ball-striking point of view, it's very demanding. I played pretty well this week. I did not score well. I didn't salvage the shots around the greens the way I wanted to. I didn't putt that well. Certainly I didn't putt as well as I had been putting all year and didn't post a number. When it's all said and done, the only thing that matters in this game and in this tournament is the score, and I didn't post a good enough score. But the game doesn't feel far off; just a little click here or there and hopefully I'll get it turned around. Q. So it doesn't surprise you that a couple guys shot 65?? PHIL MICKELSON: No, it was out there. The greens were watered. They were much softer. I hit a couple shots that backed up. I hadn't backed up a shot all week. So they were much more receptive. You could get so some of the pins. Wind was quieter and calmer than what it's been, so there's some low scores out there. It doesn't mean it's easy, but there's some low scores if you play well. Q. Where are you playing between now and Olympic?? PHIL MICKELSON: I'll play the Nelson and I'll play the Memorial. Q. You played reasonably well last time at Olympic, didn't you?? PHIL MICKELSON: Just so-so. We've played the TOUR Championship there a few times, played okay in the '98 Open. I like the golf course. I think that what's great about Olympic, what's challenging about Olympic is a number of things, one of them is how thick the air is. Ball really gets affected by the wind, by the air. You've got the swirling winds in the trees. You've got small greens and you've got a lot of side-hill lies. I think it's a really good shot maker's -- creative shot maker's golf course because you're not going to have driving-range lies, and you're not going to be hitting straight shots into those greens. You've got to carve and work the ball to hold them on those greens as much pitch as they have. Q. I saw Amy here all week, and I know you're pretty gratified to see all the support for breast cancer awareness today. PHIL MICKELSON: It's a cool day, a really cool day, and the 'Pink Out' is really neat. I remember how special it was in '09 with the Colonial and how good it felt to feel that support, and hopefully the 200,000 plus women every year that get diagnosed will feel the support and know that they're being thought of in their fight. Print This Story

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 Lime (Calcium Hydroxide) for use in pH Neutralization Systems pH Neutralization Systems by Digital Analysis Corp.  Neutralization Chemicals  Calcium Hydroxide -Lime- Calcium Hydroxide Ca(OH)2 Calcium Hydroxide [Ca(OH)2]. Also commonly referred to as slaked lime or hydrated lime; calcium hydroxide is formed as a result of hydrating lime (calcium oxide, CaO). Lime is by far the most economically favorable alkaline reagent to use for acid neutralization. Lime is significantly cheaper than caustic (NaOH), but is much more difficult to handle. As with magnesium hydroxide, Lime is not very soluble in water. Although the reaction times of lime are substantially less than magnesium hydroxide, lime is difficult to handle because it is handled as a slurry. Ca(OH)2 is divalent, yielding two moles of (OH)2 for every one mole of Ca(OH)2. When compared to caustic (NaOH), which is monovalent, twice the neutralizing power is available for a given molar volume of lime, thus contributing to the economy of lime. As with magnesium hydroxide, lime is normally delivered in dry crystalline form. This must then be mixed with water to form a slurry to be delivered to the process. The ease with which caustic (sodium hydroxide) can be handled makes it far more favorable than lime, at least for low volume applications.  Lime is a slurry that will rapidly separate from solution. The storage tank must be constantly agitated and chemical delivery lines must be kept in motion. Typically recirculation loops are employed with a metering valve, inline, for chemical delivery. Static lines are not acceptable because the slurry will separate, and lines will plug, over time. Lime offers very significant advantages when the precipitation of metals or fluorides is the goal. Calcium salts are normally quite insoluble, and due to the fact that lime is divalent, sludge densities are normally much higher than those formed with caustic (NaOH). Lime is an excellent choice for acid neutralization. If volumes are relatively low, and precipitation of metal or fluoride ions is not paramount, then caustic (NaOH) may be the better choice because it is easier to handle. Back to Neutralization Chemicals.... ©2012 Copyright Digital Analysis Corporation. All rights reserved.

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Pharmacy Times A Pharmacist’s Exclusion from Federal Health Plans Author: Joseph L. Fink III, BSPharm, JD When a pharmacist pleads guilty to charges related to controlled substances and is then notified by federal authorities that he will be excluded from participating in federal health programs, can he avoid the consequences of his guilty plea? When a pharmacist is charged with a number of serious offenses related to controlled substances and enters into an agreement to plead guilty if the state will not oppose a deferred judgment, and subsequently is notified by federal authorities that he will be excluded from participating in federal health programs, can he avoid the onerous collateral consequences of his guilty plea? A pharmacist who practiced on a part-time basis in a Midwestern state was the subject of a theft warrant. Upon his arrest, the police searched his vehicle and found 57 prescription containers. He initially told the police that he was a pharmacy technician and intended to destroy the medications. His employer had a different story, reporting to the police that the pharmacist did not have permission to remove the medication containers from the pharmacy. All this led to the pharmacist being charged with 3 felony counts of violating the state’s controlled substances statutes. Following negotiations with state prosecutors, the pharmacist entered into a plea agreement: he would plead guilty to 3 felony counts plus 1 misdemeanor if the prosecutors would agree not to oppose his request that the court grant him a deferred judgment. A deferred judgment means that the court will hold off entering a final judgment on the matter if the defendant meets certain stipulated conditions within a specified period of time. Those conditions could include probation, community service, some form of community supervision, or participation in a diversion program or treatment program. The pharmacist was on supervised probation for 2 years and had to undergo random drug testing. Typically, if such conditions are met, the court that originally dealt with the matter may dismiss the case or expunge the record. Following the handling of the case at the trial court level and the court’s approval of the plea agreement, the pharmacist received a letter from the federal government notifying him that he was being excluded “from eligibility to participate in any capacity in the Medicare, Medicaid, and all federal health care programs” as a result of his felony “convictions.” The “practical impact of the letter was that the defendant was virtually unemployable as a pharmacist.” The pharmacist in the instant case did fulfill the conditions of probation and returned to the trial court to ask it to vacate the conviction. The trial court denied this request, and the pharmacist took the matter to the state supreme court. One of the arguments advanced on appeal was that he had ineffective assistance of counsel at the trial court level because he was not alerted to the possible collateral consequences of his guilty pleas (ie, exclusion from federal programs due to this state-level conviction). The state supreme court looked at the relevant state statutes governing post-conviction relief and agreed with the decision of the trial court that the conviction should not be vacated. The state’s highest court presented a protracted and detailed discussion of the law of the state on the matter of post-conviction relief, but of greatest interest to pharmacy audiences is the discussion about collateral consequences. The court noted that “In recent years, there has been a striking growth of what is generally termed ‘collateral consequences’ that flow from a criminal conviction.” Federal law imposes dozens of sanctions on persons with felony drug convictions. Addressing the issue of effective assistance of counsel, the court noted that “Recent developments in the law of the right to effective assistance of counsel have recognized the need for lawyers representing criminal defendants to advise their clients of the direct collateral consequences of a plea bargain.” It pointed to a US Supreme Court case in which an attorney failed to advise his client that entering a guilty plea to controlled substances offenses would result in his deportation, with that failure equating to ineffective assistance of counsel. The bottom line for the state supreme court, after reviewing a long line of earlier case decisions, was that a guilty plea pursuant to a “deferred judgment” is not a conviction under the law of that state. It noted that some other states did indeed treat deferred judgments as convictions for purposes of post-conviction relief statutes, but that was not how the legislature in their state had approached the matter. As a result, the pharmacist had to live with the deal he had struck with the prosecutors. Note: The Office of the Inspector General of the US Department of Health and Human Services reported that as of April, 2013, there were in excess of 51,000 individuals excluded from participation in federal health care programs. Such exclusions are typically for a stated period of time (eg, 5 years). The lesson from this case is that a defendant considering a possible plea agreement should discuss with competent counsel all possible ramifications of that action.

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Deconstructing the Phoenix Mountain Preserve All these years we thought we knew them. The Phoenix Mountain Preserves used to consist of 16,500 acres of South Mountain and 7,000 more acres in the mountains up north--Shaw Butte to Squaw Peak, Shadow and Lookout Mountains. Now we're not so sure. They were cobbled together over more than 50 years from large chunks of federal land, city parks and private lands bought with $70 million worth of bonds issued in the 1960s, '70s and '80s. They are inarguably one of the most remarkable amenities of life in Phoenix--mountains right in the city, a testament to a generation of horsemen and planners who envisioned the urban sprawl that lay ahead and moved to do something about it. Those tracts of open space are so jealously guarded by Phoenicians that in 1985, after a stream of requests to develop portions of them, city voters decided to lock them up for good with an amendment to the City Charter, which functions as a constitution of sorts. According to that document, by law, there could be no alterations to the preserves without a vote of the general electorate. A year later, after a golf course showed up on South Mountain, the outraged voters went back to the polls and amended their amendment to make double damn sure that no one would touch the preserves again without clearing it with the voters. So it's protected, right? Not according to the Phoenix City Manager's Office, the City Attorney's office, or the director of the Parks, Recreation and Library Department. Two debates this year have tested preserve boundaries. The first was a squabble over whether the city police department could extend its training facility on South Mountain. Activists attending Parks Board meetings were astounded when James Colley, director of the city's Parks, Recreation and Library Department informed them that South Mountain was not really preserve land, and therefore not subject to the most stringent regulations. The second fight is going on now over plans by Washington Elementary School District to build two new schools on the north side and extend its athletic fields into a city park, parts of which may be in the preserves. The city says the questionable tracts are on park land, but the Phoenix Mountains Preservation Council (PMPC), a citizen's watchdog group composed of many of the same people who pushed to build the preserve system in the first place, say otherwise. No one opposes a school. But there is a legal technicality that could set a dangerous precedent: If the land in question is preserve land, the deal could not go through without the approval of voters in a general election. And if it is possible to make an exception for school kids here, what situations could arise later? The PMPC found a lawyer to plead its case to the Parks Board; the City of Phoenix hired a fact-finder to listen to the lawyer, and the Parks Department, and the school district, and the residents of the neighborhood near the park and then advise the Parks Board on who's right. Kent Reinhold of the City Attorney's office represented the Parks Department, and he laid out his client's position. Astonishingly, the city holds that: * The definitions of mountain preserves in the City Charter are vague and perhaps unconstitutional. * What most people think of as preserves and what has been labeled as such on commercial maps, official city quarter section maps and city ledger sheets really consists of parcels bought for various purposes such as parks or flood plains, and may not pass muster as preserves lands. * The ubiquitous signs announcing that "You are now Entering the Phoenix Mountains Preserve" were sometimes put up on non-preserve parcels just to inhibit use. * A $950,000 survey of the preserves used to sue private citizens over property encroachments on preserves land didn't really set boundaries. * South Mountain may not be preserves because the City Council declared it so by resolution instead of by ordinance; the city charter does not define the difference. The fact-finder, paid $19,000 by the city, sided with the city, and the Parks Board voted to enter into agreement with the school district. The Phoenix Mountains Preservation Council is threatening to take the city to court over that decision. The outcome would redefine the preserves. If a judge found for the PMPC, then the "generally recognized" boundaries of the preserves would hold. If he found against them, then the city would be free to make that decision without the consent of voters. That there's any debate at all is a surprise to the people who wrote the charter amendment forbidding preserve development, to the mayor who presided over the amendment and subsequent council resolutions to protect the preserves, and to the retired parks and other city employees who administered the preserves through its formative years.   "They're telling us there's no preserves boundary," says Del Seppanen, who worked for the Parks department for 25 years and supervised the preserves. "I know darn well there is, because I worked there all those years." Does this mean someone wants to bulldoze the preserves to put up more red-tile roofs? No. It's about discretion over land. Changes within the preserves have to be decided by the voters. Changes to non-preserve parks are decided by the Parks Board, which is appointed by the mayor to oversee the Parks Department. Land owned by other departments--at issue are water towers and flood control basins, for example--aren't subject to either. At its simplest level, reclassifying preserves land makes it easier to put swing sets and basketball courts in some parks. In a more sinister light, preservationists worry that it could facilitate deals with developers along the preserves periphery and golf courses in the flood plains. There are no such apparent deals in the works. Theoretically, it also allows the city to sidestep the voters. If Mountain View Park were preserve land, the city could still deal with the school district if the voters approve it. But would they? The more expedient approach has already been demonstrated with Sumitomo Sitix and the downtown parking garage, where technicalities were invoked to avoid having to appeal to a stingy voting public. Reclassifying land could also change how decisions are made regarding the telecommunications towers on top of South Mountain, in a period when the City of Phoenix is approving new phone services and otherwise accommodating the burgeoning digital and fiberoptic industries. If the park leading up to the towers is not deemed preserves, it's easier to run new cables up and over the mountain. More than one high-tech corporation is looking at exploring such issues with the city. And that there's debate at all casts doubts on the sanctity of the proposed Desert Preserve that Mayor Skip Rimzsa and certain councilmen and preservationists would like to carve out of the city's northernmost reaches with help from Governor Jane Hull's Growing Smarter initiative. What protections will that land have? And how much will Phoenicians trust the city if the preserves they have already are being scrutinized? The City Manager's office says don't worry; a solution is in place. The Parks Department will analyze every parcel of land to decide if it is preserves. They'll run that past an ad hoc citizens committee and make recommendations to the Parks Board, a group of political appointees, who will make recommendations to the City Council. The City Council will decide what are preserves and what aren't, pass an ordinance declaring final boundaries; and then, after the politicians have redefined the boundaries, only a vote of the people can change them. The battle lines are forming along generational lines. One generation of Phoenicians established the preserves and thought it had locked it up for good. And now the new generation of power brokers wants to unlock the safe, take out the family heirlooms, figure out which they want to keep and which they want to give away. The older generation says that's not legal. Ruth Hamilton, now 86, helped build the preserves and fought in the 1980s charter amendment wars; Governor Hull handpicked her to spearhead the Growing Smarter Initiative. And she's hopping mad over the city's plans to redefine the preserves. "If they break the law, how the hell are we going to deal with the rest of the world?" she says. Jim Colley, the Parks Department director, who has worked on the preserves almost as long, sides with his employer. "This department is not going to do anything--because I've been here 20 years--to hurt the preserve." The first 13,000 acres of South Mountain were acquired by the City of Phoenix from the federal government in a screaming deal during the Depression. Ever since, South Mountain has been touted as the largest municipal park in the world. In 1960, the city managed to annex Squaw Peak and North Mountain parks from Maricopa County, and horsemen's and citizens' groups were already worrying that development was making its move toward the desolate desert mountains north of the city limits. In 1966, the City Council passed a resolution to buy and preserve "open space," but had no money to back up the desire. Four years later, the city hired a planner named Paul Van Cleve to recommend lands for purchase, and his 77-page report identified about 10,000 acres roughly corresponding to the current preserves. But the city still didn't have the money to actually buy any land and, instead, started cobbling together parcels in any way it could--acquiring federal mining claims and using bonds from other sources--and then tried to stack the deck against developers.   The council, in 1971, started imposing moratoriums on building in the areas designated for preserves. Ultimately, the moratorium produced a lawsuit by a young lawyer named Jay Dushoff, who represented landowners near Squaw Peak Park, and the city backed down. But the ante was upped. After enthusiastic public hearings, the council passed a resolution in 1972 to approve the Van Cleve recommendations, then a year later passed $22.5 million in bonds to buy open space. A second bond issue failed in 1975, and the city scaled back the Van Cleve plan, dropping pretty parcels at Lincoln Avenue and 24th Street and north of Thunderbird Road to Lookout Mountain. The city passed three more bonds in 1979, 1984 and 1988 for another $40 million and continued buying. However, the accumulating preserve land was not protected, and the council and the PMPC found themselves frequently fending off the advances of well-meaning developers or bureaucrats who wanted to build rodeo grounds or ramadas or golf courses or restaurants in the preserves. And so in 1985, a citizen committee wrote Chapter 26, the amendment to the city charter that was supposed to end such notions. Chapter 26 defined the mountain preserves, then asked the Parks Board to establish its uses consistent with a number of preservationist criteria. It also let in those city departments that needed to do work there. It forbade sale of the preserves and established those situations in which land could be traded for the betterment of the preserves. Penny Howe has been a Parks Board member since 1985. She also chaired the committee that wrote Chapter 26. And as she recalls, on the eve of bringing the finished language to City Council, her committee was approached by then-mayor Terry Goddard, who had a request. Resort developer Robert Gosnell had been negotiating a golf course on South Mountain next to his Pointe Resort, and the deal had to go through. For expediency, the committee caved in and the charter amendment went through the council with a grandfather clause allowing Gosnell's trade. The ensuing ruckus--the voters had proscribed development and it was going through anyway--went all the way to the state supreme court. Gosnell got to keep his golf course, but the voters pushed through a referendum, led by Ruth Hamilton, that cut off all trades in the preserves. Goddard took a political pounding. "The main item was very profound outrage that any part of the preserves would be used for recreation," he says now. But the improved charter soothed the outrage. Donna Larson, who was assistant to Parks Director Jim Colley at the time says, "It was almost like a peace treaty. The impression of this document was, 'We don't have to worry any more.'" They worried anyway. In 1988, as a master plan was being written for South Mountain, the City Council, again under Goddard, passed a resolution affirming that South Mountain was preserves. "It's unequivocal," Goddard says. "There should be no question about it." Actually, there were minor questions. In the late 1990s, a city councilman discovered that his backyard jutted into the preserves and so the Parks Department put aside other matters to get surveyors out to compare the preserves' boundaries on the city quarter section maps with the preserves' boundaries on the ground. The survey cost $950,000 to complete and identified about 250 encroachments. In a 1992 letter to Jane Beach, who was then president of the PMPC, Parks Director Jim Colley referred to that project as "the official survey of all mountains preserve lands." Then he went on to write, "Project is complete with final maps and boundary points identified." About 50 lawsuits were filed. Homeowners were forced to move walls and shrubbery or buy the property from the city. Then,in 1995, when all the lines were settled, the changes were put before the voters and approved. In 1995, in order to compile an oral history of the mountain preserves to keep in a new parks education center at South Mountain, Jim Colley interviewed two of his former lieutenants, Del Seppanen and Bernie Freese, on folding chairs at North Mountain Park. Freese and Seppanen are both retired, but they had both been key to the building and maintenance of the preserves, and the point of the video was to capture their recollections for future generations. Late in the interview, Jim Colley, who is a big and good-natured Southern gentleman, waxes philosophic. "My concern is that as the population continues to grow and people keep coming here, that they see these mountains and not understand."   Freese and Seppanen seem not to follow him. "What I'm saying," Colley continues, "is that as the population continues to grow, even though we have a charter amendment that says people have to vote on what happens, the population may be willing to make that decision to change it." Clearly, the possibility bothered Colley, who has long run an efficient and creative Parks Department. But the changes he feared didn't seem to come from the new people. Within three years his official comments regarding the preserves' boundaries would reflect a new official city policy whose origins are unclear. There had been no question within the minds of Colley's employees while they were building the preserves. "When the more or less final establishment was done," says retired Parks supervisor Seppanen, "that line was put on quarter section maps, and every one of those parcels inside those lines has a number. And regardless of what monies those lands were bought with, they were based on those numbers." Gus Tomich worked for the City Real Estate Department and claims he bought as much as $75 million in property, much of it for the mountain preserves, between 1973 and 1986. "The mountains preserve boundary was defined when I was buying," he says. "I bought mountain property for 14 years and I worked off the quarter section map as my real authority on the boundary written there. I had to buy to the boundary line." There were often questions of where the money to buy those lands would come from. The city owned some already, annexed some, patented claims, and bought what it could. And indeed Tomich's ledgers from that time reflect the various sources of the monies used to buy preserves land. One document labeled "Source of Funds Through 12-31-83/ Phoenix Mountains & South Mountain Preserves Program" shows park bonds, storm sewer bonds, and federal grants in addition to those bonds issued solely for open space or preserves land. Assistant City Attorney Kent Reinhold now dismisses that practice as bad bookkeeping. "Unfortunately, under the semantics of the time, it all kind of got lumped together as mountain preserve when some of it was being bought for an entirely different purpose," Reinhold says. "But because it was going to be kept vacant or because it was natural desert, everyone thought it would be included in the preserve." Including the drafters of Chapter 26 of the city charter; the amendment passed in 1985 to protect the preserves. "We were trying to cover all the bases so that when we did this we would have some definite boundaries," says Penny Howe, who chaired the drafting committee and who remains on the Parks Board. The first section of Chapter 26 defines the preserves. Item (a) reads, "That real property owned by the City at the time of adoption of this Chapter lying within any generally recognized mountain preserve area." Items (b) and (c) referred to lands bought with the 1979 and 1984 bonds. Item (d) is "That real property designated as 'Mountain Preserves' by the City Council by ordinance upon the recommendation of the Parks and Recreation Board." And until this year, there seemed to be no question of what that meant. This March, the Parks department began to help the Phoenix Police Department extend its academy into the boundaries of the Phoenix Rod and Gun Club. Both have leased land on South Mountain from the Parks Department since 1948, long before anything there was designated off limits. When the board met to discuss the proposal in May, Mike Goodman, an activist who rides herd on South Mountain issues for the Phoenix Mountains Preservation Council, was surprised at what he heard. "The Parks Department came up with this amazing solution saying that the entire mountain park is not part of the preserve system and therefore it didn't have to deal," he says. "Since it wasn't in the preserve system, they could do what they want anyway." The City Council in 1988 had passed a resolution keeping South Mountain as preserves, and Chapter 26 required an ordinance. Since only a resolution had been passed, South Mountain was not a preserve--yet--it was a park. The activists were dumbfounded, and the logic seemed to fly in the face of general understanding. Former mayor Goddard, whose council passed the resolution, expresses his own surprise at that conclusion. "If that was in any way legally insufficient, we were unaware of it," he says. "And in fact the thought was that this was what was needed to enforce the ordinance. I'm not sure why the city attorney would tell us one thing then and another now." It was a turnabout conclusion for Colley as well. "I am somewhat amazed that there still remains the concern whether South Mountain Park is a part of the Phoenix Mountains Preserve system," he had written in a 1992 letter to the PMPC. "Let me reassure the Phoenix Mountains Preservation Council (PMPC) that South Mountain Park is a part of, and included in, the Phoenix Mountains Preserve system. The Phoenix City Council, in its resolution of 1988, made it clear that South Mountain Park is a part of the preserve system. I fully support this resolution, as does the staff of the Parks, Recreation and Library Department."   At the May 1998 Parks Board meeting, Colley had dramatically changed his tune, and told the activists that neither the 1988 Resolution nor Chapter 26 categorically protected South Mountain as preserves. "Chapter 26 isn't worth the paper it's printed on," he reportedly said. "I found that rather offensive particularly since I was the chair of the committee that wrote the chapter," Penny Howe says. Until the City Council passes an ordinance, according to the city, South Mountain is a park not a preserve. "The designation hasn't happened," says Parks Deputy Director Jim Burke. "We're not writers of any of that language," Burke says of the charter amendment and the resolution." Kent Reinhold of the City Attorney's office, says, "The people who may have signed off on that are long gone." In February of this year, the Parks Board agreed to look into forming an IGA or intergovernmental agreement with the Washington Elementary School District. The school district wanted to build two schools near Seventh and Peoria avenues, where the Charles M. Christiansen Trail 100 spills bikers, hikers and horses out of the Mountain preserves and into Mountain View Park. Mountain View Park was purchased by the city in the 1960s, before any talk of preserves, and in 1976, three acres on a south corner were filled with lawns and playing fields and parking lots like any traditional community park. The remaining 41 acres were left as natural desert, and when the preserves came into existence, those desert acres were marked with signs saying they were part of it. Even so, the Parks Board decided to develop it further as recently as 1993, but never found the funds to do so. Enter the Washington Elementary School District. Its schools needed more space for playing fields than they could rustle up on their own and so they came to the Parks Department. Parks had space but no money to develop it; schools had money but not enough space. It could have been a win-win situation except for one legal question: Was the undeveloped portion of Mountain View a free-standing park or had it been absorbed into the mountain preserves? If it were a park, the deal could go through the Parks Board. But if it were preserves, the deal would have be run past the voters. The school district and the Parks Department said it was park, the Phoenix Mountains Preservation Council said otherwise. There could be precedents set, the PMPC reasoned, and they weren't about to let that happen. Maxine Lakin, PMPC's current president, and its octogenarian warhorse Ruth Hamilton went to meet with Parks Director Colley and his deputy Burke. "They said, 'Would you compromise and say this much is preserve and this much is park?'" Lakin recalls. She responded that she didn't have the authority to make that decision--and didn't think they did either. And as the conversation continued, she realized that the Parks staffers were suggesting that adjacent North Mountain Park might not be preserves either. The nice gray-haired ladies were stunned, and the city held fast. In a May letter to Leslie Spencer-Snider, another PMPC member, City Manager Frank Fairbanks wrote, "Del Seppanen, a retired 25-year employee of the Parks, Recreation and Library Department, is a member of your volunteer group. Mr. Seppanen has confirmed with Messrs. Colley, Burke, and Swanson his concurrence that the land was purchased for park purpose and is not a component of the Mountain Preserve land." It was news to Seppanen. "I never said that," he claims. Seppanen knew it had been bought as a park, but felt it had been another of the seeds that the city built preserves from. The Phoenix Mountains Preservation Council brought in attorney Jay Dushoff to represent it against the city and school district. The city hired retired Arizona Supreme Court Judge Robert Corcoran as its fact-finder and mediator; paid him $200 an hour for research and $250 an hour for meetings. The clock started. Dushoff focused on the charter definitions of what was "generally recognized" as mountains preserve to try to prove his case. And to establish those boundaries he asked the city for its maps of the preserves; the city mysteriously told him there was none.   And so Dushoff requested from the city copies of its quarter section maps, gathered reams of commercial maps that had been approved by the city, even Parks Department maps showing hiking trails, all of which seemed to show the same "generally recognized" preserve boundaries that had existed since the 1970s. He also obtained maps of the 1990 survey that the Parks Department had commisioned and that the city used to sue homeowners over preserve encroachments. That map showed a line drawn neatly between the developed and undeveloped sections of Mountain View Park, with one side inside the boundaries and one side out. Furthermore, the contracts to the businesses hired to do the survey clearly specified that they were surveying mountains preserves. Dushoff also called attention to the ubiquitous signs marking those spots where the preserves meet neighborhoods. But according to Kent Reinhold in the City Attorney's office, none of it meant a thing. The term "generally recognized" was vague and likely unconstitutional. He held that since Mountain View had been bought as a park, it was meant to be a park and had never been reclassified as a preserve. Furthermore the 27 acres north of that park weren't part of the preserves either because they had been bought as flood control lands. And North Mountain Park just to the east was park as well, not preserves. To become preserves, they, too, would have to be made preserves by ordinance of the City Council. That alarmed Penny Howe. "The provision of 'generally accepted' was never questioned by anybody during the time we put together that charter amendment. It wasn't questioned by their attorney, the city attorney, and it wasn't questioned by staff. And now Kent is saying that we don't even know if it's constitutional. Well, I'm sorry. If your office helped to write it, why would your office put something on the books that you claim now is not constitutional?" The survey, the city claimed, was not a survey of preserves but of city property in general, and could not be interpreted as a firm map of preserve land. As Deputy City Manager Alton Washington explained to New Times later, "It didn't distinguish between those properties owned by the water department, for example, or the streets department or through bond programs for those particular entities." And the signs? The Parks Department had mistakenly put them in places that were not preserves, but that they wanted to restrict as if they were. It seemed another revision of history. Bernie Freese was a landscape architect in the Parks Department until 1992. He had worked for Paul Van Cleve on the original preserves plans and then had stayed on with the city to see them through. "As far as we were concerned," he told New Times, "as far as staff was concerned, as far as the public was concerned, those mountain preserves signs were put there to indicate mountain preserves. If something was a few feet off the boundary, that was one thing. But parks staff was pretty careful." Judge Corcoran sided with the city and school district and opined that Mountain View was park and not preserves. Neighbors had enthusiastically signed petitions in favor of the schools--they need them--and the judge cited that as evidence that they did not generally recognize the area as preserves. Nor does the Parks Department have draconian plans for the preserve lands. "If as we go around, if the Water Department land can be officially incorporated into the preserves and still make an exception where the Water Department can still maintain those facilities, then I'm going to urge that it be put into the preserve boundaries," says Jim Colley. But Chapter 26 already gives the City Council full access to the preserves to make sure that the water department can already maintain those facilities. So what's the point? Discretion over city properties: The city could rebuild its water towers without even considering the Parks Board or the pesky oldtimers from the PMPC who seem to be hovering over its every move, staking out its meetings and taking notes. One supposes, though, if the water properties are cut loose, down the road, the city would be more free to explore private-public partnerships to manage them without Parks Board interference.   Theoretically, if lands along the edges were written out of the preserves, the city would be more free to deal with developers, who still loom large in the fears of the mountain preserves activists. If the city decides to hold the 27-acre flood control land above Mountain View Park out of the preserves, what's to prevent them in the future from building much-needed facilities such as soccer fields there? And what of the communications towers on top of South Mountain? Their pads sit on South Mountain Park land. The federal patents that gave the land to the city in the first place say that they have to stay there for "public convenience." Some of the 101 tower licensees provide governmental communications, the rest commercial TV, radio, pagers and a whole array of telecommunications that defy distinct boundaries. Jim Burke ponders whether the land beneath the tower pads will be judged to be preserves in spite of its grandfathered use. "And if that happens, what does that mean?" he asks. "Does that mean we can never build another tower there or fix their road or bring up another generator?" SRP and US West both have been allowed to replace their old-fashioned wires with fiberoptic cables. According to Dale Larsen, assistant parks director, those cables are not used for commercial purposes; the phone lines merely provide phone service to the tower facilities and the SRP cable mostly connects that company to its service fleet. Furthermore, the Parks Department worries those cables could be used for other purposes, and indeed, enterprising telecommunications firms have already asked if they could piggyback on them. Cox Communications has looked into running fiberoptics up to the towers and down into Ahwatukee to provide back-up transmission power for local broadcasters in the event of a power failure. So far, the Parks Department has not figured out if that would be legal to install under Chapter 26. Good question. It would be easier to accomplish if South Mountain were deemed to be park and not preserves, though that is not likely to occur. Last week, a Cox affiliate received a license from the City of Phoenix to incorporate telephone service into its array of telecommunications offerings. According to Cox vice president Ivan Johnson, that service does not require a cable over South Mountain, but he admits that the company could find other uses for that cable if it were there. If such uses were deemed beneficial for the city, there is a mechanism to get them done: a vote. But if the towers were separated altogether from parks, as if they were property of some other department, that would make other decisions easier. The Parks Board's official position since 1972 has been that it will remove the towers as technology permits. So far, technology is moving toward towers and not away. And the board and the city are already fighting over the paltry $850,000 a year that the towers bring in. The board wants it to be redirected to South Mountain rather than into the city's general fund, where it now goes. Barring a successful lawsuit by the Phoenix Mountains Preservation Council or any other group, according to the city interpretation of Chapter 26, the Parks Board will make recommendations to the City Council, and then the City Council will decide the preserves' boundaries once and for all--with no voter input. The Parks Board is very much aligned with the Arizona establishment and very politically connected. Eric Gorsegner is an SRP lobbyist; former Department of Environmental Quality director Ed Fox is a high-profile Republican and an employee of APS. Both are quick to excuse themselves when their employers' names come up. Chairperson Ramonia Thomas is a prominent Republican and an executive in the state Department of Economic Security. Board member Kevin DeMenna's connections are a bit more disquieting. In the past he has lobbied on behalf of organizations seeking to put a toll road through or around South Mountain, and for Sumitomo Sitix, whose north Phoenix plant the City Council smoked past the voters in 1995. Although DeMenna claims he no longer represents many of those clients, they are still listed after his name in the database of the Arizona Secretary of State. Which may not suggest ill intentions. DeMenna also lobbies for the City of Phoenix, and to his credit, he is a bright and vocal advocate of smart money management, pushing his fellow board members to try to maximize department revenues and do more market and technological research before making their decisions.   Money talks, we all know, and sometimes talks too much. But it chooses who it will talk to and whose pockets it jumps into. But the boundary decisions, and ultimately the decision of what we want to sock away into preserves and what we want to have control over rests with the City Council. Three council members contacted by New Times claimed not to know too much about the boundary disputes yet. The mayor's office shifted calls to the city manager's office. At last Thursday night's Parks Board meeting, Assistant Parks Director Dale Larsen addressed the board on whether it should hire a consultant to advise it on the telecommunications industry. He related the history of the towers on South Mountain, and then reminded the board and the other staffers that South Mountain was part of the Mountain Preserves by order of a City Council resolution in 1988 and was therefore restricted by Chapter 26. Director Jim Colley waited politely until Larsen had finished. Then he quietly reiterated that the 1988 resolution had no legal bearing and that South Mountain was still not preserves. Penny Howe bristled. "I think it's pretty dangerous to say that South Mountain is not preserve when we're talking about these matters," she sputtered. "That's a legal issue," Colley shot back. Chairperson Ramonia Thomas stepped in and tabled the discussion. Contact Michael Kiefer at his online address: Sponsor Content Sign Up > No Thanks! Remind Me Later >

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Filed under Politicking Rule of thumb If you follow a link to a blog you haven\’t heard of before, and the top post begins with: There\’s an important post from Melanie Phillips it\’s fair to assume that the rest of the blog is crazyarsedloonery and best avoided. Christian Hate? is no exception: it hates the charity Christian Aid because Christian Aid sometimes has a go at Israel without adding \”but the Palestinians kill Israeli babies for fun\” to each criticism it makes. This makes Christian Aid objectively antisemitic, obviously. The linked Mel piece is, admittedly, one of her best – she has a full-on mentalist rant at pretty much all British Christians for sometimes having a go at Israel without adding \”but the Palestinians kill Israeli babies for fun\” to each criticism they make. This makes all British Christians objectively antisemitic, obviously. It must be true, because *I* think it\’s obvious If you were trying to identify a person unlikely to be a cunt, then probably the phrase \”formerly Chief of Staff to David Cameron\” would encourage you to look elsewhere. Reading Alex Deane\’s work would tend to confirm your original prejudices. According to Mr Deane: [the death of Alexander Litvinenko] has also prompted some of the worst, most irritating dinner party chat I\’ve ever been subjected to – and I say that after normally being the lone pro-Bush, pro-Iraq war voice at the table for the last three years. It\’s like the moon landing conspiracy – no matter how stupid, its proponents keep obstinately at it, until you\’re at the dinner table bleeding from the eyeballs, wanting to run out into the streets, screaming the obvious and absolute truth – \”The Russians did it! The Russians did it! The Russians did it!\” Either Mr Deane has access to some top-secret government files confirming what the fuck happened, or he\’s an absolute dickhead. There are any number of plausible non-the-Russians-doing-it explanations that might be true and don\’t include anything outrageously implausible (most obviously, the murder being done by a corrupt oligarch to make the Russians look bad and encourage Britain to not extradite him). If I had to guess at this stage, I\’d say that it seems most probably that the Russians did do it. But it\’s not a case like the moon landings, where the evidence in favour is so overwhelming that only a drooling dope-addled clown could possibly doubt that they happened. Rather, it\’s a case where we\’re conducting a detailed investigation to find out what happened… As it happens, I\’ve managed to find a quote from Alex Deane\’s great-great-great-great-great-grandfather, writing in 1692: No matter how stupid, the trials\’ opponents keep obstinately at it, until you\’re at the dinner table bleeding from the eyeballs, wanting to run out into the streets, screaming the obvious and absolute truth – \”They\’re witches! All of them! And anyone who disagrees is a witch too!\”. On complicated Saudi business If you don\’t read Alex Harrowell, you\’re a fool: The TYR research staff recently did a simulation of Saudi Arabia lynched by a screaming mob. Abolish the Post Office; viva the EU! Why do we tolerate this situation? Apparently, because of our fetish for post offices. Which is weird, because post offices are entirely unnecessary. Benefits can be paid by electronic transfer and stamps purchased from newsagents – the only reason for anyone sane to go to a post office now is because they need to send a parcel that\’s not quite big or valuable enough to send by courier. Now, if you\’re an economic illiterate and a socialist (not necessarily the same thing), you\’ll probably start bleating about the rural poor. Fair enough, it sucks to be poor, especially if you live in the theme park for rich retirees and richer commuters that is the English countryside. But poor ruralites need transport too – and we don\’t deal with that need by running a taxi monopoly that charges the same price for all taxi journeys irrespective of length. In other words, if we\’re worried about the rural poor, we shouldn\’t let that concern stop us from breaking the postal monopoly – rather, we should have a free market in mail and, separately, give subsidies to rural households that need them. This has the added advantage of not providing a pointless subsidy to wealthy ruralites. Update: the EU hasn\’t actually told the government to reduce the pointless subsidy. It\’s an amazing and rare case of Labour doing something good and unpopular without external prompting… Why the fuck have we regressed to the level of six-year-olds? When a child complains excessively about some injustice, a good parent\’s response will generally include the maxim that \”life isn\’t fair\”. Because it isn\’t: through the sheer workings of bad luck, bad things happen to people who don\’t deserve them. And even if the relevant bad thing could have been averted if someone else had acted differently, this doesn\’t move the relevant act from being a horrible accident to the second person being morally responsible for the bad thing. Unfortunately, although anyone with an age and/or IQ over ten is aware of these maxims, The Authorities increasingly aren\’t. One obvious recent example is the utterly appalling decision to impose prison sentences for causing death by careless driving. This does not mean getting blind drunk and then driving at 150mph, or even driving while eating a sandwich. It means driving like most drivers do most of the time, but being unlucky enough to have been caught up in a fatal accident that would not have happened if you\’d driven better than most drivers do most of the time. Another is the sad-but-really-really-fucking-obviously-accidental death of Vietnamese student Vu Quang Hoang Tu. Some teenage boys were messing around on a Tube platform, chasing each other around; one fell over as a train entered the station; the boy fell into Mr Tu (or possibly Mr Vu – sorry, I can\’t remember which way round Vietnamese names go); both went under the train. Mr Tu died; the boy survived with serious injuries. In saner times, this would have been viewed as a tragic accident (and possibly as the basis for a gory Public Information Film). Since we live in a society with no concept of bad luck, the boys are currently out on police bail on suspicion of murder. For fuck\’s sake… The Italians should apologise for enslaving Britain …except the Scots, obviously. Quality piece. You could have a slogan, too: \”give England back to the Welsh\”. In praise of Oliver Kamm I don\’t like Oliver Kamm very much. I think he\’s a smug bore, that he\’s approximately 10% as clever as he believes himself to be, and that he promotes a particularly noxious variety of Decent-ism. However, even allowing for the proposition that Oliver Kamm is a cunt, then Neil Clark is a grotesque Frankenstein-esque creation sewn together from the rotting, diseased organs of dead AIDS-ridden prostitutes. He\’s a fan of the late, lamented Slobodan Milosovic, and indeed of Greater Serbia in general, which would tend to raise alarm bells but doesn\’t make him inherently evil. No, Mr Clark is inherently evil because he tried to sue Oliver Kamm for libel, after Mr Kamm suggested that one of Mr Clark\’s book reviews was so badly written and point-missing that it was debatable whether he\’d even read the book. Rather than, say, calling Mr Kamm a cunt, he started to fire off writs, bringing the first reported UK libel action against a blogger. This would not have been a good precedent for free speech. Luckily, being rich, well-connected and stubborn, Mr Kamm was able to hire and brief sufficiently competent lawyers that Mr Clark was scared enough to drop the case and flee, hopefully deterring others from following suit. I also approve of Mr Kamm\’s conjecture that \”I consider it wrong in principle and self-defeating … to threaten legal action against a blogger\”. In blog-libel-related news, it has now been established in the High Court that NuLab party hack and tedious blogger Phil Dilks did not kick a teenage girl in the arse for mocking him on the campaign trail. The case has also definitively established that Mr Dilks is a litigious scumbag, as with anyone else ever to have brought a libel case rather than merely telling their critics to fuck off – but presumably he feels it\’s better to be a proven litigious scumbag than a wrongly accused girl-kicker. And he\’s certainly not as bad as Neil Clark. This is true-ish, although I think the Russian connection makes the perception a little different – the public \’know\’ that Russia assassinates people helter-skelter, whereas the public \’know\’ that our elected leaders would never do such a thing. Equally, Ajay in the comments mentions a powerful reason why – unlike most conspiracy theories – this one could be quite easy to maintain the cover-up: Fundamentally morally unsane According to James Lewis at the American Thinker, the reason that civilised people don\’t think Saddam should be executed is because we lurve him and think that genocide is way groovy. \”Every mass-murdering ideology in the last two centuries had its origins and supporters in Europe\”, he adds. Top quality insaniac rant.

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At the Vision 2009 conference, in Stuttgart, Sony has shown off a multitouch surface display called the Atractable that's rather like the Microsoft Surface controller,which offers coffee table computing. The system has been developed between Sony ISS and Atracsys, a Swiss optical tracking company. The interface can analyse body movements and act on any gesture or change in position, including your body, arm, hand or finger. More intriguingly, Sony reckons that it's sensitive enough to work out a user's age, sex and "emotion" - recognising happiness, anger, surprise, sadness and neutrality. The device comprises two Sony ISS XCD-V60 cameras that build a 3D image. Those cameras can then be used to control a cursor, avatar or robot. Atracsys' CEO, Gaetan Marti, says that the unit "can be used in virtually any scenario, be it gaming, industrial, medical or retail". Sony ISS' marketing manager, Arnaud Destruels, told Pocket-lint: "Such interfaces were conceived many decades ago, with science fiction films using them to convey a futuristic feeling. The large time gap between conception and implementation highlights just how complex the task has been as well as the coding expertise at Atracsys". And if the video above isn't enough for you, then there's another one, too. When we hear more about the Atractable's retail availability, we'll let you know.

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Offbeat: Addicted to weirdos Non-Smoker with Thin body type North vancouver, British Columbia Caucasian, Virgo Offbeat is looking for a relationship. Some University Student (UBC) Moose hat I am Seeking a Woman For Long Term Needs Test Not Completed Chemistry View his chemistry results Marital Status Single Do you do drugs? No Hair Color Black Eye Color Other Longest Relationship Over 2 years Pets No Pets   About Me I am a stranger in a strange land, to rip off Heinlein. I am constantly elated and/or frustrated by people, and I don't see this changing. I have a career that I am pursuing, a job, and soon a car, but I am still kind of lost. I am not the alpha type with all his ducks in a row, even though my ducks are actually lining up nicely. I think a lot about things, everything, and am sensitive while sometimes still coming off as arrogant. Sometimes I am arrogant. I rewrote this profile because the earlier one was too slick, too polished, too un-me. I talk a lot and run a lot as a result. I am often found to be insufferably funny. I am sometimes unbearably cruel. I am stupidly loyal and good to those few I love, and offhandedly manipulative and charismatic to those I merely like. I don't hate anyone. I love art, music, and literature. The only time I ever cry is for those things, or when a son loses a father. I hate the idea of men crying. I don't hate people but I hate concepts and abstractions. I hate Modern Art, and if I were to hate anyone, it would be Andy Warhol. I often violate my own absolutes. I hate Andy Warhol. I often chairdance to music videos, and I engage total strangers in conversation on the bus. I once gave a meth addict tic tacs because methamphetamines make your breath smell bad - probably from the rotting teeth. His breath smelled like it could eat through a bank vault. The tic tacs didn't help, even when I gave him the whole pack. I am looking for a girl who is kind. Kind, and gentle, and strong and fierce, and lots of other things that can't coexist but do anyways. I don't care what you look like, because my desire is fueled by character, not breasts. I do like breasts though, but not in a crass way. Half crass. Two-thirds, tops. I seem to attract unusual people, which is good. The usual don't interest me much. They don't see through me. I am very evasive and eloquent. I am also very humble. I am probably smarter than you. I hope that isn't the case. My desire is also guided by big brains, because brains are sexy as all get out. I sometimes use archaic words/phrases because I love language and don't want any part of it to die or be forgotten. If I had my way, nothing would die, ever. It wouldn't get too crowded because the Universe is actually increasing in its expansion rate. Edwin Hubble discovered that. I sometimes read Wikipedia for hours when I can't sleep. Sperm whales are the largest of the toothed whales, and can dive to depths of over 2 miles down. When a sperm whale dies, an entire ecosystem forms around its corpse. Hundreds of animals living for years off of the whale's corpse. Is it morbid to think that cool? I think that is pretty ****ing cool. First Date I am a big fan of the unplanned-downtown-wandering-adventure-date. Exploring book stores, spotting celebrity look-a-likes, inventing tales of romance and adventure between unsuspecting tourists, these are a few of my favorite things. However meeting for coffee or a movie is always good too (even though I don't drink coffee). Update: My new idea for an adventure is making sandwiches and giving them to homeless people in exchange for their life's story. I have always wanted to hear their tales, and would love to have someone along for the ride.

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1_Angelbaby: why do guys lie just a bunch of liers !!!!!!!!!!!! Non-Smoker with Thin body type ???????, New Mexico Hispanic, Gemini 1_Angelbaby isn't seeking a relationship or any kind of commitment. Some college Yes I have a job User has private images I am Seeking a Man For Friends Needs Test Not Completed Chemistry View her chemistry results Marital Status Single Do you do drugs? No Hair Color Brown Eye Color Hazel Longest Relationship Over 10 years How ambitious are you? Ambitious Pets Dog Second Language Spanish About Me First of why is it guys lie tell you sweet things but then they change really is it so hard to be nice genuine.First proud Mom baseball basketball dance and other things that they do. Need someone that understands that I need adult time but also time for my kids. Luv different types of music my kids are my life First Date Go to lunch or dinner and if we hit off then we will plan out next date

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Kid Cudi Man on the Moon 2: The Legend of Mr Rager by Dave Heaton 8 November 2010 This sequel at times plays less like continuation than repetition, mainly about carrying on the mood of the first album, keeping listeners in the same state of mind. cover art Kid Cudi Man on the Moon 2: The Legend of Mr Rager US: 9 Nov 2010 UK: 8 Nov 2010 In Roger Ebert’s “Glossary of Movie Terms”, he defines a sequel as “a filmed deal”. Music isn’t film, but the definition still applies. With music, though, the deal is most often between the artist and the audience or the artist and the artist himself. Hip-hop musicians in particular tend to frame albums as sequels to capture some of the cache or success of the original work. That’s why GZA is making Liquid Swords 2 and not Beneath the Surface 2. In Kid Cudi’s case, following up his debut album Man on the Moon: The End of Day with Man on the Moon 2: The Legend of Mr. Rager seems mainly about carrying on the mood of the first album, keeping listeners in the same state of mind. This sequel at times plays less like continuation than repetition. Man on the Mood: The End of Day set a cloudy scene inside our protagonist’s head, full of alcohol and drugs used to dull pain, ignore loneliness, ward off night terrors and get away from the doldrums of everyday life. The hit single “Day ‘N’ Nite” was the perfect encapsulation of all this: a late-night scene of attempted calm within a climate of inner turmoil. So was “Pursuit of Happiness”, where Ratatat’s music helped create the right tone for Kid Cudi’s (slightly) mixed feelings about his life of excess. “Up Up and Away” used bubbly pop to exemplify drugs as a vacation. Man on the Moon 2: The Legend of Mr. Rager, which was prefaced by a series of horror movie-style Internet trailers, begins with a song where the key line is, “This is a journey”. The first album did feel like a journey, though in story it ended up circling around to similar circumstances, just with a different outlook on them. Where this sequel goes is already pretty familiar ground for Kid Cudi. The main subject is drugs as a means to get through life. The angle he looks at that from is fairly repetitious of the first album. Defiance about lifestyle choices and the quest to figure out his own mind were covered at least as well the first time around. Occasionally, the songs, even if not going anywhere new, do have an extra confidence to them, perhaps the result of Kid Cudi achieving some success. “Mojo So Dope” is the best example of that confidence. It’s a relatively empty anthem, but one which wears its swagger well. The first single “Erase Me”, featuring Kanye West, similarly sounds big and confident. Both songs have that combination of presence, hooks and mood that made the best songs off the first album so compelling. Another of the highlights of Man on the Moon 2 achieves something different, tackling a hazy, hectic life by capturing vivid scenes of it. “The Mood” is skeletal and spooky, justifying the scary-movie allusions in the album trailers perhaps. It has a crazy Joker-style laugh repeating in the background, a general ghostly atmosphere, and the snapshot lyric “no one talks / lost in the mood”. Musically the album sometimes goes for murky, sometimes for Technicolor flash. The former sound can sometimes still work well with his vocals and subject matter, like on “Maniac”, featuring Cage and St. Vincent, another potential single. Other times he seems too lackadaisical or almost comatose even, trying hard to capture the zombification of drug use. That difference sometimes recalls the difference between thinking romantically about drugs (a subject of much great art) and actually spending time with drug addicts (boring). The album explores multiple reasons for obsession with drugs – spirituality, fantasy, genetics, compulsion, to avoid suicide. None are delved into as creatively as on the debut album. Even the best songs don’t express the complexity of his state of mind as vividly as “Day ‘n’ Nite” did. Too often he replaces that song’s level of detail with generality, replacing thoughtfulness with generic rebellion against uncertain enemies. Sometimes he seems to be falling into the typical trap of sequels: replicating instead of moving forward. In replicating, you always end up missing something. It’s like what Ebert wrote about another “legend of” sequel, City Slickers 2: The Legend of Curly’s Gold: “Like too many sequels, it has forgotten what the first film was really about.” “Trapped in My Mind”, the title of the last track, seems like a summary of the album, representative of both its highs and its lows. Kid Cudi has demonstrated the ability to take one person’s complicated psychological state and translate it into colorful hip-hop. Yet that can be a trap too – getting so focused on the same thoughts and feelings that you can’t grow as an artist. What keeps that from happening here is the way Kid Cudi and his producers (Emile, Plain Pat, NoID, Dot da Genius, and others) continue to build alluring and sometimes fascinating soundscapes for his songs. If occasionally it seems like most of them are working from the template set by the two Ratatat-produced tracks on the first album, that’s still a great starting place. One inadvertently illuminating moment comes on “The End”, featuring GLC, Chip Tha Ripper and Nicole Wray. On his verse, Chip Tha Rapper dives right into a specific narrative, taking you into his mindset. He does it well enough to crystallize the fact that it’s something Kid Cudi rarely does at all, not to mention doing it well. It’s a moment where the haze hanging over the album clears for an instant, where you have something specific to grab onto. Man on the Moon 2 offers those moments occasionally, but not often enough. Man on the Moon 2: The Legend of Mr Rager //Mixed media // Sound Affects READ the article

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Future Primitive: Kimbo Slice’s Cruelest Cut [19 November 2008] By Tobias Peterson Like Pussy Galore, Ebenezer Scrooge, or Fat Bastard, Kimbo Slice is among those whose name seems to give a particular insight into their personality. One need not be a Bond fan to know what Galore’s game was. Similarly, Scrooge and Bastard were, as advertised, chintzy and overweight (respectively). As his own moniker suggests, Kimbo Slice has been best known for the violence he directs against those foolish enough to oppose him in a fight. Though it’s hard to slice anything with a fist, many combatants have been taken apart by his abilities inside and, notably, outside the mixed martial arts cage. Unlike these other characters, though, Slice is a real person—in some ways, at least. His actual name is Kevin Ferguson. His nom de guerre was given to him during a period in his life when he made ends meet as a backyard brawler. Often, this term is used to indicate an aggressive athlete who gives his or her all. In the case of Kimbo Slice, though, the description quite literally described his profession. Initially a standout high school football player in Miami, Ferguson was left homeless in the destructive wake of Hurricane Andrew. His college football prospects disappeared and he was forced to translate his skills as a linebacker into more immediately marketable commodities. As a result, Slice became a driver and bodyguard for a porn company. After beating down several over-enthusiastic fans, his employer recognized his potential and put him to work as a combatant in illegal street fights. Slice and his handlers would show up at a designated meeting spot (often someone’s house) and Kimbo would proceed to fight whoever had been arranged for him. Nearly always, he won, pummeling opponents until they could not (or would not) get up for further punishment. Money was exchanged. Slice’s prowess was hailed. And, most importantly, video footage was recorded. Kimbo Slice—a large, heavily muscled black man sporting gold teeth, an unruly beard, and a fearsome scowl— embodied the stereotype of black physical menace so completely that there simply was no way that he could be anything but a Bad Man, one who invoked the clear threat (and thrilling promise) of violence at any moment. Thanks to that camera, and the rise of YouTube, Slice became perhaps the first fighter to go viral. His fight videos earned him a devoted, underground following on the Internet, to the point where his ascension to the organized rules of Mixed Marital Arts competition represented the confirmation of his status as an ultimate badass. It wasn’t that he was there to make a name for himself. In fact, when Slice first joined an MMA league (EliteXC), it was his name that was being used to garner notoriety, not the other way around. He arrived fully-formed, with a knock-out record and a back story that attracted fans and media alike. ESPN the Magazine, most notably, devoted a cover to Slice’s menacing visage, well in advance of his televised debut as an MMA fighter. Unfortunately for Slice, and the many who sought to make money from his ascension to organized MMA, his first appearance as an EliteXC fighter on CBS was a far cry from those hand-held online documents of backyard dominance. Against a journeyman fighter named James Thompson, Slice absorbed a great deal of punishment (repeatedly trying to slow Thompson’s elbows down with his forehead), before he managed with an overhead right to stun Thompson long enough for the referee to jump in and stop the fight. In his follow-up to this widely panned debut, Slice lasted 14 seconds before being knocked out by an unknown named Seth Petruzelli. In the fallout from Slice’s MMA incarnation, Petruzelli hinted in a radio interview that he was paid extra by league organizers to fight Slice standing up—trading blows (which presumably would have favored Slice’s strengths) rather than taking the match to the ground for a more manageable, less exciting wrestling match. The EliteXC has roundly denied the implication of a fix (and Petruzelli himself has issued a clarification), but it nonetheless was forced to file bankruptcy as the league’s marquee star was eclipsed by ineptitude and scandal. Clearly, Kimbo Slice was not the human wrecking machine that the league, CBS, and its advertisers had been banking on. As his own future remains uncertain, the rest of us are left to wonder just why he occasioned such lofty expectations in the first place. What inspired a budding promotional company to pin the entirety of its financial hopes on an untested fighter?  How did an unproven slugger come to grace the front cover of a national sports magazine? The answer to questions like these is at once straightforward and complex: race. Kimbo Slice—a large, heavily muscled black man sporting gold teeth, an unruly beard, and a fearsome scowl— embodied the stereotype of black physical menace so completely that there simply was no way that he could be anything but a Bad Man, one who invoked the clear threat (and thrilling promise) of violence at any moment. Slice, whose fortunes were at once torn asunder and radically refigured by a hurricane, constituted a kind of perfect storm of racial stereotypes himself—the combined effects of which ensured that, no matter how skilled a fighter, he was always already understood as someone to fear. Consider, for example, the way that Slice gained his notoriety. Though only a minor weapons charge mars his record, Slice’s backyard brawling—in unsanctioned bouts held without the organizing boundaries of a ring, an official, or commentators—ensured that he would carry with him the criminal aura of “the streets”, regardless of the arena in which he fought. Further, the seemingly spontaneous nature of these fights, as opposed to the contrivance of lights, cameras, and bikini clad ring girls, coded Slice as someone best understood as having a natural, in-born proclivity for violence. Ignoring Slice’s training regimen (and a physique like his is impossible to achieve without one), the YouTube videos instead suggest that Slice was simply born to kick ass. We understand him as someone who shows up, throws down, gets paid, and goes home. Of course, that’s exactly what he and all the other fighters are doing in an organized MMA bout. The only difference, other than the amount of people watching (including the ref), is the amount of money to be made. For his 14 seconds of consciousness against Seth Petruzelli, Slice reportedly earned half a million dollars. A sum like that evokes two conflicting reactions. On the one hand, it’s rewarding to see a formerly destitute, self-described family man earn enough money to put his financial woes behind him. On the other, though, it serves as a sobering measurement of just how persistent and lucrative the presence of black stereotypes in sports remains. As our enthusiasm grows for emerging new technologies that disseminate images and ideas at ever-increasing speeds, it would seem that our critical consideration of this influx continues to lag. As the case of Kimbo Slice points out, modern sports audiences still have a long way to go before they’re free from the dubious legacy of centuries-old thinking. Published at: http://www.popmatters.com/pm/column/65408-future-primitive-kimbo-slices-cruelest-cut/

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Skip Nav You Asked: Should I Move in With Him? Dear Sugar-- I am 33 years old. I was in a dead-end relationship for 9 years and lived with someone who really had no intention of marrying me; he was even afraid to talk about it. I moved out and broke up with him in December, moved in with a friend of mine and began dating a man that I have known for 8 years and things have been WONDERFUL! I now need to move again because my roommate is getting married. Only trouble is I really cannot afford another move, let alone another apartment. I have been dating my new beau since December (again, have been good friends for 8 years) and he wants me to move in with him. He has offered to buy a new house with me; add me to the deed; he isn't asking me to pay anything, he says he just wants me happy and safe and settled with the stability I long for. My father says why wait another 9 years to see if it works, that I should just go for it. I am excited and want to, but I know I will hear a lot of "opinions" that I am doing the wrong thing. Do you have any words of wisdom? --Excited (but unsure) Eliza To hear DEARSUGAR's answer Dear Excited (but unsure) Eliza-- Since you have known this guy for 8 years, and you love him and he loves you, I say why not go for it! It sounds like he's really caring and sincere, and is exciting about sharing a home with you. I am a firm believer in living with someone before making the lifetime commitment of marriage, so if you feel in your heart that this guy "could be the one," take a chance! Since you were with someone in a previous relationship that wasn't into marriage, you want to make sure you know what you're getting into before you pack up and move in. Casually have a chat with your beau and find out what his future plans are, if he wants to get married someday and whether or not he wants kids. Tell him what you want too - lay it all out on the table so this doesn't turn into another dead-end relationship. Don't worry what anyone else thinks. People will always have opinions no matter what you do, so just follow your gut. You'll never know unless you give it a try Eliza. Who knows, this could be your future husband! How exciting! I hope everything works out for you. Latest Love

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Skip Nav The 5 Whys The Question You Need to Ask Yourself More Often "Why?" It's a simple question that we all learned by the age of 2. Yet it may be more useful than you think. Matthew E. May explains the 5 Whys and how you can use it to get to the root of your problem, whether at work or at home. Recently I had a conversation with a friend who was upset about some directional shifts and looming job shuffles swirling around his company. As I listened to the lament, I recognized the fact that he was focusing on the symptoms of the issue. All of his reactions and proposed courses of action in response to the unsettling circumstances didn't address what I could tell was something deeper. My friend had lost the raison d'etre for his work. The connection to a higher purpose, or a deeper cause, simply wasn't there any longer. The solution, according to my friend, was to immediately leave. While in the end, it may play out to be the right thing to do, the problem-solving coach gene in me couldn't resist butting in. "Have you ever done a 5 Whys on your work?" I asked. "What do you mean?" came the reply. I explained how the 5 Whys is a simple but powerful problem-solving technique that allows you to dip below the surface level of a problem to uncover and identify the root cause of the issue. It's something I learned and mastered at Toyota and have been teaching ever since. It's simple enough to employ. You begin with a statement of the problem, then ask a series of childlike whys to get to the bottom of the issue. Let's say your son or daughter comes home with a D in math on their report card. For most parents, that's a clearly defined problem. The 5 Whys goes something like this: "Why did you get a D in math?" After much "I don't know"-ing and shoulder shrugging: "Because I didn't do all my homework assignments." Note that if you stop right there, the solution goes something like, "Get in your room and do your homework — no TV, no computer, no iPhone, no iPad . . . In fact, no dinner until you're done." Incomplete homework is mostly likely not the real issue, though. So you need to press on. "Why didn't you do your homework?" "I hate math." (Ugly face, like they just swallowed Drano.) "Why do you hate math so much?" "Because I suck at it." (Getting perturbed.) "Why do you think you suck at it?" "I don't just don't get it." (Throwing hands in the air. Sometimes accompanied by back talk: "OK? Are you happy now? I said it. I'm stupid.") Aha. Now the solution looks quite different: "Get in your room and understand it." (Just kidding!) Seriously, your child needs extra help with math. Maybe that's you. Maybe it's a special school program. Maybe it's a tutor. The possibilities emerge once the root cause is discovered. Now there are a few things to note about this. First of all, it didn't take five whys, it took four. There is no magic around the number five, contrary to popular belief. It's a heuristic, a guideline, not an algorithm. With a well-framed problem, it may only take a couple why questions. If, however, you go beyond five, it's a good bet you need to rescope your initial problem statement, because it's not specific enough. Also, the 5 Whys is not a horizontal inquiry. In other words, you're not asking, "Why else?" time after time. Rather, you're feeding off the previous answer to a why question. It's a vertical dive. And as such, it's much like drilling for oil: sometimes you get it, sometimes you don't. You may be solving the wrong problem, or your whys don't hang together logically. Sometimes they become circular. If, say, you had asked one more why, à la, "Why didn't you ask for help?" the response may have just taken you back up the chain — your child hated math so much, the thought of spending more time on it was distasteful. (Or perhaps another response to the same fifth why might have opened a whole other can of worms: "I was afraid to ask for help.") So there's a bit of an art and skill (which simply comes from regular practice) to deploying the right set of whys? One trick — a test, really — is to make sure all your answers to the whys make as much logical sense going up as they seem to going down. In other words, in the homework case, starting at the bottom and working your way up: your child doesn't understand math, so they perform poorly at it, which results in them not liking it. And because they don't like it, they avoid doing their homework, which results in a D on their report card. Makes sense down and up. I'm constantly amazed at how few people still aren't aware of the technique, despite its appearance in many domains. The renowned product design firm IDEO used it in interviewing dieting women around the country to understand their attitudes and behaviors around weigh loss. Dozens of books (including one of my own) cover it. Back to my friend. I told him the story of how a colleague of mine at Toyota years ago used the 5 Whys to create his own first job. His manager in Japan told him, after his initial training: "Go dig your own job." So he set off in search of a problem to solve, which he did, discovering that a contentious relationship existed between Toyota and General Motors with respect to the supply of parts to joint Toyota/GM operations in the US (this was back in the early 1990s). Why the bad relationship? Because there was no formal supply contract. Why was there no contract? Because Toyota and GM couldn't agree to terms, so there was no basis for a contract. Why couldn't they agree? Because there were serious misunderstandings regarding Toyota policies, such as the parts' pricing. Why the misunderstanding? Because Toyota had never really explained the rationale behind their policies regarding the supply of parts, and would not negotiate the parts' pricing, much to the consternation of GM. Why no negotiation? By talking to both parties using his bilingual skill, my colleague quickly came to the conclusion that the root of the problem was to be found in the general lack of communication between Toyota and GM. Communication was not occurring because neither party knew how to explain their position — they simply did not speak the other's language. I could see my friend's mental wheels spinning. I suggested he might use the 5 Whys to find his own personal and professional "root cause" in life. I suggested he should find some quiet time for reflection and gave this example of how it could work: Start with your job description, what you get paid to do. Let's say, for hypothetical purposes, that you're a census taker. You collect nationwide household information and compile thorough reports. Then it's a matter of peeling the onion. Why is collecting nationwide household information important? Because it gives the government current information on our nation's population. Why is that important? Because we can then understand our population trends. Why is that important? Because it helps our government make informed decisions. Why is that important? Because it enables the government to improve the social welfare of the nation. And there's the real "cause": improving the welfare of the nation. The beauty of using the 5 Whys to understand your real work — work with a capital W — is that it frees you to accept a wider variety of jobs, because you can remain true to your cause regardless of the form your work takes. Designers call this "form following function." By getting to the bottom of the simple question — why is my work important? — a manager might begin to view their real work as helping people improve their performance, not just running a department. A factory worker in an automotive plant might begin to view their real work as protecting families as they travel, not just operating machinery. A coffee shop counterperson might view their real work as helping busy people get a nice start to a hectic day. A golf course greenkeeper might begin to view his work not as lawn maintenance, but rather a creative challenge: enabling golfers to shoot their best round. I don't know if my friend actually did the 5 Whys, but I hope he did. — Matthew E. May Check out more great stories from Matthew E. May: Image Source: Shutterstock Latest Career & Money

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The Press Newspaper Toledo, Ohio & Lake Erie The Press Newspaper The Press Newspaper It’s not true that experience is the best teacher; someone else’s experience is a better teacher.  So who do you turn to for advice?  After all, there’s no reason to reinvent the wheel.  This seems like a simple concept rooted in common sense. Who are the right people to take advice from?  You want advice from those people who are where you want to be.  People who have attained the same goals you are striving for know what the pitfalls are and how to overcome them.  Their advice can save you a vast amount of time and effort. It’s great if you know someone personally, but you don’t have to in order to benefit from their experience.  Most successful people write books or articles or have books or article written about them.  They give interviews and talks.  Some give training seminars. There are frequent news stories about people who succeed as well as those who fail.  These stories provide invaluable examples you can learn from.  Always look for the common personality and character traits displayed by successful people.  Conversely, what are the elements shared by those who fail? What about situations where no one has yet achieved what you are trying for?  People responsible for breakthroughs and discoveries never start from scratch.  They always begin by intensely studying the work of those who have tried before them.  They pick up where others have left off.  They take something that didn’t work, make adjustments, and try again.  Even a “revolutionary” new concept is often no more than 10% different than something already existing. For example, the people who created the first personal computers did not start by rediscovering electricity.  Nor did they reinvent electronics from scratch.  They modified and adapted existing products in order to realize their vision. Great generals always study successful and unsuccessful battle strategies throughout history.  Business leaders are well versed in the lessons of their predecessors.  Each year, technology advances by modifying and improving successful products. As soon as Thomas Edison invented the light bulb, others began enhancing it.  They used what Edison had already discovered as their starting point.  Once the Wright brothers built a working airplane, aviation companies sprung up to improve on the original design. Learning from those who have gone before you is working intelligently.  Although hard work is the foundation of success, it is a waste of time when it takes you in the wrong direction. Who are the wrong people to take advice from?  Those people who are not where you want to be.  Just about everyone will offer you their opinion if you ask and many will do so without your invitation. Although they may be well meaning, their advice is often faulty.  If they knew what they were doing, they would have succeeded with their own advice.  People listen to wrong advice for a variety of reasons.  They think the person knows what they are talking about.  They fear being shunned if they reject the advice.  They crave approval.  The person offering the advice may be overbearing.  Regardless of the reason, taking bad advice guarantees undesirable results. The advice you want comes from those who are already where you want to be.  When you share your dreams with others, you attract unsolicited, unproven advice.  Just because advice is offered, you are under no obligation to follow it.  Don’t argue with someone offering uninvited advice.  Thank them and change the subject.    Be selective about the advice you follow.  Search out people who have attained the goals you seek.  They know a lot about what works and what doesn’t.  Learn from their experience and you’ll accelerate your success.    No results found.

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Pr Ntr Kmt Pharaoh Khufu Pharaoh Khufu     Khufu was the second Pharaoh of the fourth (4th) Dynasty. The Greeks called him Cheops.     4th dynasty 2589 - 2566 B.C.E., son of Pharaoh Sneferu and Queen Hetepheres, father of Djedefra (his successor), Khafra, other sons, and daughter Queen Hetepheres II See list of Pharaohs. picture courtesy of John Moore’s the Ancient Egyptians were Black hieroglyph cartouche for Khufu     Khufu (pronounced kew-foo), called Cheops (pronounced key-ops) by the Greek, was the second pharaoh of the Fourth Dynasty, ruled for 23 years, and was the builder of the first of the Great Pyramids of Giza (the only Seven Wonders of the Ancient World that is still standing).     The Turin Papyrus states that Khufu came to power in his twenties and was remembered in folk history as cruel and ruthless. Manetho claims Khufu ruled for 65 years, while Herodotus claimed that Khufu ruled for 50 years. The funerary cult for Khufu lasted until the 26th Dynasty, the last native Egyptian royal dynasty (almost, 2,000 years after his death).     Only one miniature statuette of Khufu has survived to modern times (pictured above). next pharaoh alphabetical index PAID AD: love spells by MichaelM private and small group lessons Pr Ntr Kmt offerings and donations alphabetical index previous page next page previous page next page return to home pagelatest newsplease dontate

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ROME—Italy's highest court has denied a defense motion to move Silvio Berlusconi's sex-for-hire trial and tax fraud appeal away from Milan. The ruling Monday allows resumption of both trials, which are nearing verdicts. The defense had sought to have both cases moved to the nearby city of Brescia, arguing that Milan courts are biased against the former premier. The motion was made in March as the courts sent doctors to verify an eye ailment that prevented Berlusconi from attending the trials. Berlusconi was re-elected to Parliament in February elections, but has no ministerial role in the new cross-party government that allies his center-right with the center-left Democratic Party. He is on trial for allegedly paying for sex with a minor, and is appealing a tax fraud conviction.

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Return to the Purplemath home page The Purplemath Forums Helping students gain understanding and self-confidence in algebra powered by FreeFind Find a West Mclean SAT Tutor Subject: ZIP: Dimitri P. ...I hold an MBA in Finance and have a long experience from the business world having worked as an entrepreneur, CEO, a project manager, real estate and financial consultant. My experience comes from working in the US and Europe for over 20 years. I have successfully helped individuals (students and professionals), small and big companies and non-profit organizations. Bethesda, MD Bowie, MD Jennifer C. ...I believe people learn best when they are engaged, when they are lit up and having fun, and when they can see how the subject matter applies to their own lives, and why it matters. I began tutoring as a graduate student, working as a Writing Center tutor at my university, and also for private tu... Laurel, MD 46 Subjects: including SAT math, SAT writing, SAT reading, reading Beltsville, MD Maria L. ...In addition, it reduces the boredom factor since students don't have to spend excessive time on material they already understand. Just as relevant as my professional background, I have three children, two of whom have successfully gone through the college application process. I know that teens and parents can be both excited and anxious about applying. 12 Subjects: including SAT reading, writing, SAT writing, ESL/ESOL Herndon, VA  Feedback   |   Error?

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Howard V. Hendrix, Empty Cities of the Full Moon (Ace, 2001) Empty Cities of the Full Moon blends hard science fiction with a thoughtful and illuminating tale that grapples with the question of what it means to be human. A third of the way into the 21st century, a pandemic rages, wiping out swathes of human civilizations and transforming many of the survivors. The plague manifests as a driving urge to drum and dance, more so during full moons, so initially it is perceived as a widespread fad. But when the drummers fall into comatose states marked by intensive dreaming, stigmata and shape-shifting, the population realizes that it is in deep trouble and that the world as they knew it is gone forever. Three decades later, the planet is sparsely populated with Trufolk, the shape shifting Wer folk and the biologically engineered Merfolk who guard and defend the New Bahamian Polity founded and governed by erstwhile billionaire Cameron Spires. Spires set up this refuge when the world went mad, and now the residents receive longevity treatments. Anyone exhibiting Wersign is automatically exiled in an effort to keep the plague out of the community. A handful of exiles from the Bahamas -- "abjurors" who chose exile as well as some who had it chosen for them -- wend their way up the eastern seaboard, searching for answers about the plague and the truth about the Werfolk and their tendency to be short-lived. This journey is transformational for the characters involved, altering their concepts of life and death. While the physical journey is fairly linear, the interior quest each character makes is a vibrant thread in a complex whole. Hendrix employs past tense in the earlier years and present tense in the later years, which heightens the immediacy of the tale. The characters tie together past and present with their roles in and reactions to the pandemic and the choices they make in the post-pandemic society. In the beginning, Hendrix establishes parallel universes: Universe A and Universe A Prime. One character, John Drinan is born in Universe A, but his parents die in a crash before he can be conceived and born in Universe A Prime. His space ship crosses into Universe A Prime, sending him and his dog Oz on a personal odyssey that not only parallels the journey the other characters make but is enmeshed and rooted in their quest. Furthermore, the reader might assume that Universe A is "our" universe -- but upon reflection that is not necessarily true. This is a dense and complex novel, and much of the scientific jargon slid past my eyes with little or no comprehension. Often, I had the feeling that I was missing some background, but these considerations are minor in the face of Hendrix's consummate storytelling skill. The tale is compelling and thought-provoking, and the characters are alive and vivid. Rarely have I read a book that makes me think so much about its content. Hendrix's writing is rich in philosophical constructs and effective literary device, and while the reader's brain might boggle at comprehending the multiple levels unfolded, it will also rise to the challenge. [ by Donna Scanlon ] Rambles: 5 January 2002 Buy it from

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Write a review So Far the Results Are So Worth It I am 52 and have pretty young skin for my age but... I am day 5 post procedure..I had the eyelids, lower face and neck done and considering I have a pretty high threshold of pain and the doctor told me the higher the intensity the better the outcome, I put up with the discomfort...about 10% of the pulses over bonier areas were like bee stings but the rest were just warm to hot. Today I noticed the tiny crepey lines around my eyes are gone and little sagging on jawline is already much improved. I had dinner with someone tonight who wanted to know where the groove from nose to outer edge of my mouth went. And this is just day 5!!! I'm sorry for those who posted with bad experiences but appreciate their warnings. My doctor was very sensitive to any pain I might have that might reflect some adverse effect from the procedure and was ready to drop the intensity if I needed. As it was I got through it all at a level of 4 and he said most do 2 to 2.5 Frederick Dermatologic Surgeon 5 out of 5 stars Overall rating

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• Bill would require correct ID in debt-collections • email print Democratic Sen. Mark Leno of San Francisco said some unscrupulous debt-buyers don't care who they target. "They are not required to have any documentation that the person they're trying to collect from is actually the right person," Leno said. "The business model is that they just want to get you into court because it's likely you're not going to show up if you know it's not your debt ... They can take control of your life and make things miserable, and these are oftentimes innocent, if not in fact the wrong people altogether." "Simply what it says is, you need to prove that the debt that is owed is actually legitimate debt," said Correa. "If it can happen to Lou Correa, it can happen to you," warned Leno. Senators passed SB233 unanimously, sending it to the Assembly. Harris' office says a high percentage of those debt collection lawsuits result in default judgments because the consumers don't show up to defend themselves. The measure has no listed opposition. Leno said banks and legitimate debt collection companies aren't fighting the bill because they recognize that slip-shod operations are harming their industry. Reader Reaction Events Calendar

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For a Good Laugh Quick...Go to the White Website on Global Warming The White House has established a page on their official website dedicated to climate change.  Naturally, it ignores evidence to the contrary because, after all, there is this alleged scientific consensus that the world is warming, that man is causing it by the creation of increased carbon dioxide emissions, that the Obama administration is the only ones doing anything about it, and that if we do not do more, the world will over-heat and we are all toast.  The first assertion is that 2012 was the most extreme year on record for the Nation.  The key words here are “on record.”  The United States has been keeping records for only a portion of our history plus the nation has expanded over the years since our founding.  For example, because records were not kept on temperatures further back in our history, we just don’t really know that 2012 was the most extreme year.  We do know from the newspapers at the time that Philadelphia did experience a particularly hot, humid summer during the Constitutional convention and we also know that there were no motorized vehicles or coal-fired plants spewing carbon dioxide into the air then.  Furthermore, the US land area has expanded over the years into areas much warmer than the original 13 colonies.  When you add more of this warmer land mass to your “nation,” obviously the average temperature of that nation increases. This is akin to the Soviet Union’s closing of temperature recording stations in the wake of their break up, but in reverse.  When they shut down the stations in outlying areas, like Siberia which happens to be cold, does that mean the old Soviet Union got “warmer?”  Likewise, if we add states that are traditionally hot and have large desert areas, can we truly state the United States got warmer?  We simply moved the goal posts into warmer areas.  All this talk about “record heat” is only as good as the recording itself.  Native Americans, who occupied this land before the colonists, did not keep meticulous temperature records.  Another claim is that one-third of the US population experienced 100 degree temperatures for ten or more days in 2012.  Of course, as the US population pushes south and west into states like Arizona, Texas and Florida-three states, to the best of knowledge, known for their heat way before the global warming apocalypse- the chances are that a greater proportion of the US population will experience hot temperatures.  It is a price you pay at times for living in the extreme south or southwest. The next set of evidence was that the average precipitation in the United States was 2.57 inches below the 20th century average in 2012.  And so what?  What was it in 2011 or 2013?  Judging from the amount of snow and rain New Jersey alone received this past winter (2013-2014) I believe that state alone may have made up for this 2012 deficit.  Rainfall amounts fluctuate annually and are more driven by El Nino and La Nina patterns which, to the best of my knowledge, occurred prior to the invention of the internal combustion engine and large fossil fuel burning power plants.  The website also states that 2012 was the 15th driest year on record.  Again, “on record.”  Regardless, who cares?  What explains the 14 other years ahead of 2012?  And as for the acreage burned by wildfires in 2012 (9.3 million), from 1960 to 1970- a period of alleged global cooling- over 48 million acres were lost to wildfires.  The website leaves out where these wildfires occurred.  I would be more worried if they occurred in areas not prone to wildfires.  Also, their causes are left out.  It is one thing if the fire was caused naturally (by lightning, for example) or by human arson or carelessness.  As the population pushes into and vacations in wildfire prone areas, the chances of wildfires increases.  This is like saying sharks are more aggressive these days because more people are swimming in shark-infested waters. Then there are the costs allegedly associated with climate change.  The website asserts that droughts in 2012 cost the US $30 billion.  How the government responds to droughts now versus in years past is very different and more expensive due to agricultural policy.  Regardless, the drought that created the Dust Bowl during the Depression is estimated to have cost over $56 billion (in 2012 dollars) in 1933 alone.  Again, do carbon dioxide emissions explain that calamity in the 1930s?  And what would any climate change scare story be without mentioning “Superstorm” Sandy?  The only “super” aspect of this storm is that it struck a highly populated area thus increasing its cost.  Hurricanes are judged on their strength by their barometric pressure.  Admittedly, these measurements were not taken prior to the 1900s thus it is very possible that there were stronger hurricanes pre-1900.  Regardless, Sandy does not even rank in the top 20 hurricanes in recorded history in terms of barometric pressure.  The only thing that elevates Hurricane Sandy to “super” status is where it made landfall.  There are likely innumerable Atlantic hurricanes stronger in terms of “cost,” barometric pressure, wind speed, rainfall and storm surge than any in the official NOAA record books in the distant past when there were no cars and no power plants emitting carbon dioxide. The White House’s website is concerned with costs to the United States and this ignores the “global” aspect of global climate change.  For example, one of the predictions of the doomsday prognosticators is that the oceans will rise by a certain number of feet or inches in the next century unless we act.  They leave out the fact that absent carbon dioxide emissions, the oceans have risen and fallen over the centuries.  For example, I live about 8 miles west of the eastern coast of the United States, yet if I dig deep enough in my backyard I find sea shells.  This phenomena- absent carbon dioxide emissions- also explains why the fossils of sea life are found in the interior of the country.  There are reports that the polar ice caps in the Arctic are decreasing in size while ignorant of the fact that those in the Antarctic are increasing.  Apparently these carbon dioxide emissions are not spreading themselves throughout the atmosphere and affecting only the northern ice caps for reasons unexplained, or ignored.  There was a little scare a few years ago about a huge chunk of the Antarctic that had broken off and was drifting towards Australia.  This was conveniently used by the global warming crowd of the calamity about to ensue.  However, they ignored other evidence that (1) this usually happens when the southern ice cap encroaches on the relatively warmer parts of the southern Indian, Atlantic or Pacific oceans and (2) the ice at the center of the Antarctic was actually thickening.  There, the ice cap forms at the center and migrates out until it can not migrate any further and then breaks off.  And guess what?  This has been happening for eons without vehicles or power plants. Nobody on the Right denies the fact that the earth can warm up and cool down and that we may just be in a period of warming up.  Furthermore, nobody on the Right is for air pollution, but it defies explanation how a naturally occurring gas even qualifies as “pollution.”  Even if carbon dioxide can be classified as an air pollutant, there is scientific evidence from ice core samples that atmospheric carbon dioxide levels were considerably higher than the present in our very distant past when humans were not even existent.  It is estimated that the eruption of a good sized volcano can emit more carbon dioxide than all that emitted by humans in the totality of human history.  Are we to plug up volcanoes?  Furthermore, nobody on the Right is against renewable energy sources, just the federal subsidization of such efforts.  Personally, removing government subsidies from the fossil fuel industry- which is more reliable and cheaper than these renewable sources- is something that should be examined, but given the surge in that industry killing the goose that laid then golden egg is a consideration also.  The Obama administration’s “all of the above” energy policy places the more reliable sources low on their list of acceptable options and, frankly, almost totally ignores nuclear energy.  I behooves me to understand how a country like France can produce over 80% of their energy needs from nuclear sources and the United States cannot do the same.  The only thing holding that back are the scare-mongering environmentalists who occupy the Left.  These are the same people with a visceral hatred of capitalism and free market solutions to our energy needs.  And they stop at nothing to scare others along the way.  But, when a White House website adopts these very tactics, the scenario becomes less funny and more scary. Get Alerts

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Changing financial realities for some people Editor of the Reformer: Having just read the quote in the Reformer from Rep. Eric Cantor in a congressional debate regarding food stamp usage, "While (SNAP) is an important part of our safety net, our overriding goal should be to help our citizens with the education and skills they need to get back on their feet so that they can provide for themselves and their families," (May 22), I feel compelled to respond. Rep. Cantor, I think many of those citizens to whom you refer are on their feet. They are waiting on you at McDonald’s, they are greeting and assisting you at Walmart, they are running after your children in daycare, they are cleaning your bathrooms, they are providing assistance to our elders and people with disabilities. They are pounding the pavement looking for jobs that pay living wages. They are jumping through humiliating hoops and dancing carefully through intricate bureaucracies to qualify for meager safety net programs. I, too, would dearly love to see people able to provide for themselves and their families. We agree on that. No working person should have to depend on government for basic needs. Where we diverge is in what needs to be done to achieve that. Truly living wages, tax structures that allow for full basic expenses in the personal exemptions and standard deductions, respecting and valuing all work, monetary policies that do not abuse everyday people, are good places to start. Education and skill development are certainly important, but there is ample evidence that those alone will not change the financial realities of many people. A shift in the business practices of companies who depend on welfare to supplement their employee wages, and of financial institutions that are designed to make money off of low and middle income people would help a lot more. Andrea McAuslan, Marlboro, May 22 Consider being a vegetarian Editor of the Reformer: As a concerned citizen, I think everyone should be a vegetarian. I believe that it is important to consider vegetarianism for many reasons. I want to bring to your attention to why everyone should either stop eating meat or only eat meat that has been ethically raised. According to People for the Ethical Treatment for Animals, "One of the top 10 reasons for being a vegetarian is that it’s the best way to help the environment." This means that it’s very good for the environment because you are killing less animals. When I thought about it, I realized that I wanted to convince other people to be vegetarians like me. What is in a hamburger, and what does it take to make it? Well, that’s a very interesting question. According to National Public Radio, "For a quarter pound of meat you need 6.7 pounds of grain, 52.8 gallons of water, 74.5 square feet for grazing, and 1,036 Btus of fossil fuel energy." You need a lot of resources to make a hamburger to feed one person while the same resources can be used to feed about five people. According to PETA, "Producing one hamburger uses enough fossil fuel to drive a car 20 miles." That means that if we didn’t eat meat, we could move around a lot more because we would have more gas. Also according to PETA, "cows must consume 16 pounds of grain to convert them into one pound of meat." This simply means there would be a lot of grain if we didn’t eat meat. Not only would there be more grain and other natural resources if we chose not to eat meat animals would live better lives as well. The way animals are treated in meat industries is very unfair. According to Michigan By Review, "In today’s factory farms, animals are crammed by the thousands into filthy windowless sheds." This means that there are a lot of animals suffering for us to have meat. This also means there are too many animals in small spaces without a lot of room to move. According to PETA, "In some industries they test products on the animals that don’t really matter." This means animals are being tested, hurt and even killed for things like new nail polish colors. This represents how we treat animals. Also according to PETA, if the animals are sick they kill them in a cruel, and inhumane way instead of making them better. According to PETA, "One of the top 10 reasons to be vegetarian is that it is the best way to save the earth." Another one is: "Slim down and get energized." Another reason to be vegetarian is," To be a healthier, happier you." People who think about their dietary life should take into consideration the advantages of vegetarianism. One of the advantages to being vegetarian is that it makes you stronger. "A winning formula for athletes from Olympic arenas to NFL stadiums, vegetarian athletes are dominating their meat eating competitors." This means that vegetarian athletes are better in sports. I have read a lot about this, so I know that the counter argument would be that if we did not eat meat, the animals will overpopulate the earth. This argument is based on the idea that the delicate balance of the ecosystem ensures the survival of us all, but I disagree because predators help maintain this balance by killing off the sickest and weakest. So, as you can see, everything would be fine if everyone was vegetarian. Now there are some simple solutions to this issue. This includes things like eating less meat or launching a protest to shut down meat industries. Also, eating meat only from farms that raise animals ethically could really help the environment. Animals that are outside and with other animals are healthier and happier. I hope you consider what I said and become a vegetarian.Being vegetarian can help the earth. It can also help you! Ernie Brunton, Academy School, April 21

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Casinos shouldn't shoulder education burden alone Soak the rich? Sure. The idea has fallen out of favor in recent years, at least since Ronald Reagan became president, but progressive taxation is a sound and accepted practice of long standing. The 18th century capitalist icon Adam Smith, probably unfamiliar to the late Gipper, endorsed the practice. Those who have more should pay more. They have more disposable income, so they can afford to pay at a higher rate. Those who have less should pay less. With a lower tax burden, they have greater opportunity to escape the ravages of poverty. This is the fundamental reasoning behind the Nevada State Education Association's ballot initiative to raise the gaming tax to fund education. The casino industry is rich. It can afford to pay more. The school system is poor. It needs money to escape the ravages of poverty. Unfortunately, the teachers union plan is fatally flawed. A central tenet of progressive taxation is that all the rich pay the higher rate, not just some of them. The teachers, by contrast, would single out one industry to pay more. It's a big and successful industry, for sure, representing a large segment of the state's economy, but the plan nonetheless lets other big industries off the hook. Consider some Nevada businesses that obviously bring in a ton of money but have not been targeted: fast-food chains, gourmet coffee shops, road builders, discount department stores, mines, lawyers, doctors and medical facilities, pharmacies, pet supply stores, payday loan centers. Why should these industries get a free pass? What the teachers are suggesting with this initiative is that the casinos are responsible for improving Nevada's educational system, but other industries are not. That doesn't make sense. The teachers' initiative will be politically popular anyway. Polls show a large majority of Nevadans have no qualms about soaking the casinos. They see the casinos investing tens of billions in Las Vegas, across the country and overseas and figure they can afford it. There is the impression, as well, that the casinos owe the state more than they are delivering. There's also the selfish reasoning that if the casinos pay, the rest of us won't have to. History is a factor. Just a few decades ago, gambling was widely considered a sin. Games of chance were a crime in 49 states. Federal agents raided illegal gambling dens in numerous cities, forcing the underground operators to take refuge in Nevada. Nevada was a rogue state, bucking the national culture by allowing a sinful industry to thrive outside the shadows. In those days, the casinos did owe the state a little something extra. Times changed. Today, some form of gambling is legal in 48 states. Tens of millions of people don't see any significant difference between feeding a slot machine and rolling a bowling ball. Yet a gaming tax remains in Nevada and other states. Casinos pay all the usual taxes, and then a gaming tax is imposed on top of them. It's not completely unreasonable. Casinos require extra layers of regulation and scrutiny, and this costs the state millions of dollars. But it seems just a little unfair to expect the casinos to foot the bill for Nevada schools. That said, the education bill damn well needs to be footed. Nevada's education funding per student is 49th in the country. It's disgraceful that a state enjoying rapid growth and tremendous wealth, a state that sees itself as an emerging international player in the new millennium, has so crassly neglected its public schools. The excuses are really getting tired. A tax system that properly funds the schools -- as well as the highways, mental health care, etc. -- should be Nevada lawmakers' obsession. Rather than worrying about arming professors or exploiting loopholes in campaign law, elected officials should concentrate on sound and fair methods to fix the way public services are funded. Frustrated by legislators' cowardly refusal to address this core issue in Carson City, the teachers are trying to come up with an answer. They deserve some credit for that. While one of their primary motivations is self-serving -- making higher wages -- they remain on the right side of the issue. Still, their proposal to soak the casinos for at least $250 million per year while letting everyone else go free is wrongheaded. I don't have any great affection for the gaming industry. I don't work for a casino. I rarely gamble. I don't go to the clubs. I'm irked by having to walk through a smoky casino to see a movie with my kids. I don't have any conflicts of interest to disclose here. What's more, I don't think the teachers' proposal to raise the gaming tax by 3 percentage points would do much, if any damage to large Nevada casinos. MGM Mirage chief Terry Lanni's claim that a 3-point hike would drive investment out of the state seems beneath his usual sensibility. Nevertheless, Nevada's education funding crisis -- and yes, it's a crisis -- ought to be fixed properly, not by exploiting a knee-jerk populist sentiment. Everyone in Nevada needs to share the burden of properly educating children. Comment section guidelines

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Embroiled in a love triangle with George and Patti Boyd Harrison, Clapton took the title for his greatest song from the Persian love story “Layla and Majnoun.” Recorded by the short-lived ensemble Derek and the Dominos, “Layla” storms with aching vocals and crosscutting riffs from Clapton and contributing guitarist Duane Allman, then dissolves into a serene, piano-based coda. “It was the heaviest thing going on at the time,” Clapton told Rolling Stone. “That's what I wanted to write about most of all.”

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Go on cyber dates! There's plenty of things to do online. Like going on watch-movies.net and watching movies together. Or if you have MSN there's games you can play together. There's also looking at funny pictures and sending them to each other and laughing. Or you can make powerpoint presentations for each other, or make presentation using windows movie maker.

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Search billions of records on Lundell, Arthur B: 30 Apr 1902, Tegner Township M: 26 Dec 1924, Dora I. Medicraft, dau of Richard Medicraft and Betty Nelson of Roseau, MN. Richard came to America in 1894 where he practised law in Roseau. Betty Nelson was born in Dalarne, Sweden and came to America at age 8. FN: John A. Lundell MN: Mathilda Danielson Children of Arthur Lundell and Dora Medicraft: LeRoy Lundell B: 03 Oct 1925 M: Pearl Thompson, had 4 children: Thomas, Steven, John and James Lois Ann Lundell B: 20 Dec 1927 M: Harold Bernstrom, had 4 children: Robert, Richard, Michael and Jane James Lundell B: 23 Mar 1931 M: Twyla Liljegren, had 3 children: Debra, Nancy and Susan Ardis Lundell B: 19 Mar 1933 M: Walter Rafteseth, had 4 children: Diann, Karin, Catherine, and David

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Image of A Trip with the Tycoon Image of A Trip with the Tycoon A TRIP WITH THE TYCOON (4.5) by Nicola Marsh: Looking for a fresh start, widowed food critic Tamara Rayne takes the trip to India she'd once planned with her deceased mother. It's supposed to be a solo journey, but restaurateur Ethan Brooks, a friend of Tamara's late husband, decides to go along, allegedly on business. Ethan's wanted Tamara for years, and now that she's free, he's determined to win her. But Tamara's still nursing wounds inflicted by her verbally abusive and unfaithful husband ... wounds that Ethan's unaware of. Sterling characters, an exotic setting and crackling sexual tension make for a great read. The realistically paced romance is also refreshing. Reviewed by:  Catherine Witmer

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The truth about carb loading for runners Emma Barraclough lays out some truths on the often complicated world of carbs... by Emma Barraclough Pasta Getty images  1 of 3  What is carb loading? Emma Barraclough is a Sports Nutritionist at SiS ( She has worked with Great Britain Ice Hockey since 2006 and provided nutritional consultancy support to athletes in a range of sports including running, triathlon and rugby. She regularly represents Great Britain as an age group triathlete and has completed six Ironman. What is carb loading? Carb loading is the process of maximising your glycogen stores in preparation for a long endurance event, usually something longer than 90 minutes in duration. You can only store so much carbohydrate in the body, so it makes sense to maximise those stores to delay fatigue and optimise your performance. During your event, you will be able to maximally uptake 60g of carbohydrate per hour. This only equates to 240kcal, which will not meet the amount of calories you will burn as you run, which is likely to be at least 400kcal per hour. Therefore you will need to be drawing on your muscle glycogen stores to keep you running. Carb loading is more than just having a bowl of pasta the night before. It needs to be something that you focus on for the 48 hours prior to your event starting. It also isn’t eating as much as possible for the two days before your event which will only weigh you down and leave you feeling heavy and bloated. Previous article Recipes for runners Next page carb loading, carbohydrate, carbs, energy, food, nutrition, runner, runners, running, sis, training Discuss this article Smart Coach

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Back Home Button The Rush Limbaugh Show Excellence in Broadcasting RSS Icon Wisconsin Republicans Receive Vicious Death Threats from the Left RUSH: Ladies and gentlemen, Republican senators in Wisconsin have received death threats via e-mail. Bomb threats, death threats. They have been told to put their things in order because they will be killed and their families would also be killed due to their actions over the past couple of months. The language in this e-mail is pretty vicious: "We feel that you and the people that support the dictator have to die. We have tried many other ways of dealing with your corruption but you have taken things too far and we will not stand for it any longer. So, this is how it's going to happen: I as well as many others know where you and your family live, it's a matter of public records. We have all planned to assult you by arriving at your house and putting a nice little bullet in your head. However, we decided that we wouldn't leave it there. We also have decided that this may not be enough to send the message to you since you are so "high" on Koch and have decided that you are now going to single handedly make this a dictatorship instead of a demorcratic process. So we have also built several bombs that we have placed in various locations around the areas in which we know that you frequent. This includes, your house, your car, the state capitol." This is from the Obama wing of the Democrat Party. These are Obamaites threatening death, bombs, and so forth. Now, the people that do this are generally the ones that never do it. I mean the ones that do it don't telegraph it. They just show up and take credit later. But these people are so lunatic, insane, who knows. These guys have to take it seriously, the subjects of this, the targets of this. And it's just a hoot here. These people think that the democratic process has been thwarted? The democratic process has triumphed here. But, folks, this is serious stuff. These Republicans in Wisconsin, you live through something like this and the import of it sometimes doesn't hit you because you're living through it. You have your own life to live. There are things happening to you each and every day while this is also going on. But this is the kind of stuff that ends up in history books years and years from now. These Republicans had the guts to run for office in a deep blue state. They had the guts to stand up to the public sector unions, and that's not a knitting society, not the Trumkas of the world and the John Sweeneys and this. These people play for keeps. This is the way they get their money. This is the way they get their extravagant lifestyles. I'm talking about the leaders of these unions making a half million to a million dollars a year, flying around on their own planes, doing all these things that they have accused these evil private sector fat cats of doing. We do have their public sector and private sector union leader equivalents. Just like the global warming crowd, this is how they get their money, promoting a hoax. That's where the grant money goes. These people, you can call it working for a living but this is just siphoning from the public trough and they've had free access to the teat for decades. Now it's threatened. This is not about the children, and it's not about democracy. This is about money and power. Not just organizational money and donation money, but it's about your own back pocket money. It's about your own lifestyle money. You take away the power of these unions, you take away the power to generate money through wealth transfers, then it becomes a cascade here of people getting less from the public trough. Now, that's as much as what this is about as anything else. What these Republicans are doing, the guts to stand up to these public sector unions, is vital. But as difficult as it truly is to strip collective bargaining from these parasites, these public sector people, this is but a warm-up. I mentioned this earlier in the program today. What Wisconsin, Ohio, New Jersey, Indiana Republicans are doing better be an inspiration because if what they're doing makes other Republicans get weak in the knees, if other Republicans get scared and don't like what they're seeing and alter the way they go then all this is gonna be for naught. If we get caught up and say, "Oh, my God, we're losing the headline war on Twitter." Now is not the time to start hoping the media get it and see our way. There are very difficult decisions ahead. The pressure people make can't be imagined. Forget the union thugs. Up next is the welfare nation that's gonna be storming into every building they can get into. This is the warm-up. Are we all ready for it? I wonder. RUSH: So I checked e-mails during the top of the hour make. I have people thinking I'm up the death threat e-mail. (laughing) They actually think I am making it up. By the way, have you heard...? I don't know if you keep track of this kind of stuff. You heard about the big news a couple weeks ago that the AOL people had purchased or merged or whatever with the Huffing and Puffington Post; and Zsa Zsa walks out of there with... What did she get? I saw... (interruption) How many? She got $108 million out of it. I saw a bunch of different numbers, $20 million to a hundred million that she got. Anyway, the big news is the merger is now official and they have laid off 200 people, 20% of the workforce, 20% of the Huffing and Puffington Post. Well, that's 20%. I forget. I think I saw the number, hundreds of people had been laid off. After... (interruption) Oh, yeah, another few hundred in... (interruption) Right. 20% of the workforce, but 200 people in the country and another hundred or so in India. I didn't know the Huffing and Puffington Post had people in India. (interruption) AOL? Oh, that's right! So AOL lays off... In other words, to handle the purchase, that's what happened, because a lot of Huffing and Puffington contributors are working for nothing. But Zsa Zsa got her hundred million on the backs of the poor yet what do we always here? It's like always people like Zsa Zsa doing what they're doing "for the little people." They're doing it from their hearts because they care. It's always these evil, rich, conservative fat cats whose deals result in people losing their jobs. Hi, folks. Welcome back. Rush Limbaugh. This the EIB Network. Great to have you. Limbaugh Institute for Advanced Conservative Studies also. You know, wherever I am, the institute is with me. As long as I'm here, doesn't matter where here is. Phone number is 800-282-2882, and the e-mail address, [email protected]. This is in the New York Times: "AOL said it would lay off a thousand employees today in the wake of its acquisition of" the Huffing and Puffington Post. Now I've got e-mails from people thinking I made up the death threats. I don't understand that. I really don't, 'cause this is out there. It's all over the place. It's been published now. And I read you the highlights of the thing. I asked, "Okay, who's gonna get blamed for this?" Let's that something happens. I mean, you've got a very public death threat against a lot of people now. Let's say something happens. Who's gonna get blamed? Remember, Gabrielle Giffords, Arizona, shooting. A bunch of us on the right (Sarah Palin, me) were blamed. We weren't there, didn't even know the event was going on. Michael Moore is out there inciting people. He's fit to be tied, spewing his usual blend of absolute idiocy and nothingness. And the same thing can be said of the Reverend Jackson who's calling for "recall and revolt." Rush 24/7 Audio/Video Listen to the Latest Show Watch the Latest Show Listen to the Latest Show Watch the Latest Show Most Popular EIB Features

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[[Vol. 1, Page xvii]] "Gently to hear, kindly to judge." SINCE the appearance of Theosophical literature in England, it has become customary to call its teachings "Esoteric Buddhism." And, having become a habit -- as an old proverb based on daily experience has it -- "Error runs down an inclined plane, while Truth has to laboriously climb its way up hill." "Esoteric Buddhism" was an excellent work with a very unfortunate [[Vol. 1, Page]] xviii INTRODUCTORY. title, though it meant no more than does the title of this work, the "SECRET DOCTRINE." It proved unfortunate, because people are always in the habit of judging things by their appearance, rather than their meaning; and because the error has now become so universal, that even most of the Fellows of the Theosophical Society have fallen victims to the same misconception. From the first, however, protests were raised by Brahmins and others against the title; and, in justice to myself, I must add that "Esoteric Buddhism" was presented to me as a completed volume, and that I was entirely unaware of the manner in which the author intended to spell the word "Budh-ism." This has to be laid directly at the door of those who, having been the first to bring the subject under public notice, neglected to point out the difference between "Buddhism" -- the religious system of ethics preached by the Lord Gautama, and named after his title of Buddha, "the Enlightened" -- and Budha, "Wisdom," or knowledge (Vidya), the faculty of cognizing, from the Sanskrit root "Budh," to know. We theosophists of India are ourselves the real culprits, although, at the time, we did our best to correct the mistake. (See Theosophist, June, 1883.) To avoid this deplorable misnomer was easy; the spelling of the word had only to be altered, and by common consent both pronounced and written "Budhism," instead of "Buddhism." Nor is the latter term correctly spelt and pronounced, as it ought to be called, in English, Buddhaism, and its votaries "Buddhaists." This explanation is absolutely necessary at the beginning of a work like this one. The "Wisdom Religion" is the inheritance of all the nations, the world over, though the statement was made in "Esoteric Buddhism" (Preface to the original Edition) that "two years ago (i.e. 1883), neither I nor any other European living, knew the alphabet of the Science, here for the first time put into a scientific shape," etc. This error must have crept in through inadvertence. For the present writer knew all that which is "divulged" in "Esoteric Buddhism" -- and much more -- many years before it became her duty (in 1880) to impart a small portion of the Secret Doctrine to two European gentlemen, one of whom was the author of "Esoteric Buddhism"; and surely the present writer has the undoubted, though to her, rather equivocal, privilege of being a European, by birth and education. Moreover, a considerable part of the philosophy [[Vol. 1, Page]] xix INTRODUCTORY. In etymology Adi, and Adhi Budha, the one (or the First) and "Supreme Wisdom" is a term used by Aryasanga in his Secret treatises, and now by all the mystic Northern Buddhists. It is a Sanskrit term, and an appellation given by the earliest Aryans to the Unknown deity; the word "Brahma" not being found in the Vedas and the early works. It means the absolute Wisdom, and "Adi-bhuta" is translated "the primeval uncreated cause of all" by Fitzedward Hall. AEons of untold duration must have elapsed, before the epithet of Buddha was so humanized, so to speak, as to allow of the term being applied to mortals and finally appropriated to one whose unparalleled virtues and knowledge caused him to receive the title of the "Buddha of Wisdom unmoved." Bodha means the innate possession of divine intellect or "understanding"; "Buddha," the acquirement of it by personal efforts and merit; while Buddhi is the faculty of cognizing the channel through which divine knowledge reaches the "Ego," the discernment of good and evil, "divine conscience" also; and "Spiritual Soul," which is the vehicle of Atma. "When Buddhi absorbs our EGOtism (destroys it) with all its Vikaras, Avalokiteshvara becomes manifested to us, and Nirvana, or Mukti, is reached," "Mukti" being the same as Nirvana, i.e., freedom from the trammels of "Maya" or illusion. "Bodhi" is likewise the name of a particular state of trance condition, called Samadhi, during which the subject reaches the culmination of spiritual knowledge. Unwise are those who, in their blind and, in our age, untimely hatred of Buddhism, and, by re-action, of "Budhism," deny its esoteric teachings (which are those also of the Brahmins), simply because the name [[Vol. 1, Page]] xx INTRODUCTORY. * Dan, now become in modern Chinese and Tibetan phonetics ch'an, is the general term for the esoteric schools, and their literature. In the old books, the word Janna is defined as "to reform one's self by meditation and knowledge," a second inner birth. Hence Dzan, Djan phonetically, the "Book of Dzyan." [[Vol. 1, Page]] xxi INTRODUCTORY. Thus the reader is asked to bear in mind the very important difference between orthodox Buddhism -- i.e., the public teachings of Gautama the Buddha, and his esoteric Budhism. His Secret Doctrine, however, differed in no wise from that of the initiated Brahmins of his day. The Buddha was a child of the Aryan soil; a born Hindu, a Kshatrya and a disciple of the "twice born" (the initiated Brahmins) or Dwijas. His teachings, therefore, could not be different from their doctrines, for the whole Buddhist reform merely consisted in giving out a portion of that which had been kept secret from every man outside of the "enchanted" circle of Temple-Initiates and ascetics. Unable to teach all that had been imparted to him -- owing to his pledges -- though he taught a philosophy built upon the ground-work of the true esoteric knowledge, the Buddha gave to the world only its outward material body and kept its soul for his Elect. (See also Volume II.) Many Chinese scholars among Orientalists have heard of the "Soul Doctrine." None seem to have understood its real meaning and importance. That doctrine was preserved secretly -- too secretly, perhaps -- within the sanctuary. The mystery that shrouded its chief dogma and aspirations -- Nirvana -- has so tried and irritated the curiosity of those scholars who have studied it, that, unable to solve it logically and satisfactorily by untying the Gordian knot, they cut it through, by declaring that Nirvana meant absolute annihilation. [[Vol. 1, Page]] xxii INTRODUCTORY. This is the true reason, perhaps, why the outline of a few fundamental truths from the Secret Doctrine of the Archaic ages is now permitted to see the light, after long millenniums of the most profound silence and secrecy. I say "a few truths," advisedly, because that which must remain unsaid could not be contained in a hundred such volumes, nor could it be imparted to the present generation of Sadducees. But, even the little that is now given is better than complete silence upon those vital truths. The world of to-day, in its mad career towards the unknown -- which it is too ready to confound with the unknowable, whenever the problem eludes the grasp of the physicist -- is rapidly progressing on the reverse, material plane of spirituality. It has now become a vast arena -- a true valley of discord and of eternal strife -- a necropolis, wherein lie buried the highest and the most holy aspirations of our Spirit-Soul. That soul becomes with every new generation more paralyzed and atrophied. The "amiable infidels and accomplished profligates" of Society, spoken of by Greeley, care little for the revival of the dead sciences of the past; but there is a fair minority of earnest students who are entitled to learn the few truths that may be given to them now; and now much more than ten years ago, when "Isis Unveiled," or even the later attempts to explain the mysteries of esoteric science, were published. One of the greatest, and, withal, the most serious objection to the correctness and reliability of the whole work will be the preliminary STANZAS: "How can the statements contained in them be verified?" True, if a great portion of the Sanskrit, Chinese, and Mongolian works quoted in the present volumes are known to some Orientalists, the chief work -- that one from which the Stanzas are given -- is not in the possession of European Libraries. The Book of Dzyan (or "Dzan") is utterly unknown to our Philologists, or at any rate was never heard of by them under its present name. This is, of course, a great drawback [[Vol. 1, Page]] xxiii INTRODUCTORY. However it may be, and whatsoever is in store for the writer through malevolent criticism, one fact is quite certain. The members of several esoteric schools -- the seat of which is beyond the Himalayas, and whose ramifications may be found in China, Japan, India, Tibet, and even in Syria, besides South America -- claim to have in their possession the sum total of sacred and philosophical works in MSS. and type: all the works, in fact, that have ever been written, in whatever language or characters, since the art of writing began; from the ideographic hieroglyphs down to the alphabet of Cadmus and the Devanagari. * Prof. Max Muller shows that no bribes or threats of Akbar could extort from the Brahmans the original text of the Veda; and boasts that European Orientalists have it (Lecture on the "Science of Religion," p. 23). Whether Europe has the complete text is very doubtful, and the future may have very disagreeable surprises in store for the Orientalists. [[Vol. 1, Page]] xxiv INTRODUCTORY. direct references to the ancient mysteries, after having been carefully copied in cryptographic characters, such as to defy the art of the best and cleverest palaeographer, was also destroyed to the last copy. During Akbar's reign, some fanatical courtiers, displeased at the Emperor's sinful prying into the religions of the infidels, themselves helped the Brahmans to conceal their MSS. Such was Badaoni, who had an undisguised horror for Akbar's mania for idolatrous religions.* * Badaoni wrote in his Muntakhab at Tawarikh: "His Majesty relished inquiries into the sects of these infidels (who cannot be counted, so numerous they are, and who have no end of revealed books) . . . As they (the Sramana and Brahmins) surpass other learned men in their treatises on morals, on physical and religious sciences, and reach a high degree in their knowledge of the future, in spiritual power, and human perfection, they brought proofs based on reason and testimony, and inculcated their doctrines so firmly that no man could now raise a doubt in his Majesty even if mountains were to crumble to dust, or the heavens were to tear asunder." This work "was kept secret, and was not published till the reign of Jahangir." (Ain i Akbari, translated by Dr. Blochmann, p. 104, note.) ** Karakorum mountains, Western Tibet. *** According to the same tradition the now desolate regions of the waterless land of Tarim -- a true wilderness in the heart of Turkestan -- were in the days of old covered with flourishing and wealthy cities. At present, hardly a few verdant oases relieve its dead solitude. One such, sprung on the sepulchre of a vast city swallowed by and buried under the sandy soil of the desert, belongs to no one, but is often visited by Mongolians and Buddhists. The same tradition speaks of immense subterranean abodes, of large corridors filled with tiles and cylinders. It may be an idle rumour, and it may be an actual fact. [[Vol. 1, Page]] xxv INTRODUCTORY. He is said to have written 930 books on Ethics and religions, and seventy on magic, one thousand in all. His great work, however, the heart of his doctrine, the "Tao-te-King," or the sacred scriptures of the Taosse, has in it, as Stanislas Julien shows, only "about 5,000 words" (Tao-te-King, p. xxvii.), hardly a dozen of pages, yet Professor Max Muller finds that "the text is unintelligible without commentaries, so that Mr. Julien had to consult more than sixty commentators for the purpose of his translation," the earliest going back as far as the year 163 B.C., not earlier, as we see. During the four centuries and a half that preceded this earliest of the commentators there was ample time to veil the true Lao-tse doctrine from all but his initiated priests. The Japanese, among whom are now to be found the most learned of the priests and followers of Lao-tse, simply laugh at the blunders and hypotheses of the European Chinese scholars; and tradition affirms that the commentaries to which our Western Sinologues have access are not the real occult records, but intentional veils, and that the true commentaries, as well as almost all the texts, have long since disappeared from the eyes of the profane. * "If we turn to China, we find that the religion of Confucius is founded on the Five King and the Four Shu-books, in themselves of considerable extent and surrounded by voluminous Commentaries, without which even the most learned scholars would not venture to fathom the depth of their sacred canon." (Lectures on the "Science of Religion," p. 185. Max Muller.) But they have not fathomed it -- and this is the complaint of the Confucianists, as a very learned member of that body, in Paris, complained in 1881. [[Vol. 1, Page]] xxvi INTRODUCTORY. These, however, are almost valueless, even as a clue to the character of what has disappeared. For they passed through the hands of his Reverence the Bishop of Caesarea -- that self-constituted censor and editor of the sacred records of other men's religions -- and they doubtless bear to this day the mark of his eminently veracious and trustworthy hand. For what is the history of this treatise on the once grand religion of Babylon? Written in Greek by Berosus, a priest of the temple of Belus, for Alexander the Great, from the astronomical and chronological records preserved by the priests of that temple, and covering a period of 200,000 years, it is now lost. In the first century B.C. Alexander Polyhistor made a series of extracts from it -- also lost. Eusebius used these extracts in writing his Chronicon (270-340 A.D.). The points of resemblance -- almost of identity -- between the Jewish and the Chaldean Scriptures,* made the latter most dangerous to Eusebius, in his role of defender and champion of the new faith which had adopted the Jewish Scriptures, and with them an absurd chronology. It is pretty certain that Eusebius did not spare the Egyptian Synchronistic tables of Manetho -- so much so that Bunsen** charges him with mutilating history most unscrupulously. And Socrates, a historian of the fifth century, and Syncellus, vice-patriarch of Constantinople (eighth century), both denounce him as the most daring and desperate forger. * Found out and proven only now, through the discoveries made by George Smith (vide his "Chaldean account of Genesis"), and which, thanks to this Armenian forger, have misled all the civilized nations for over 1,500 years into accepting Jewish derivations for direct Divine Revelation! ** Bunsen's "Egypt's Place in History," vol. i. p. 200 [[Vol. 1, Page]] xxvii INTRODUCTORY. Turning now to the oldest Aryan literature, the Rig-Veda, the student will find, following strictly in this the data furnished by the said Orientalists themselves, that, although the Rig-Veda contains only "about 10,580 verses, or 1,028 hymns," in spite of the Brahmanas and the mass of glosses and commentaries, it is not understood correctly to this day. Why is this so? Evidently because the Brahmanas, "the scholastic and oldest treatises on the primitive hymns," themselves require a key, which the Orientalists have failed to secure. What do the scholars say of Buddhist literature? Have they got it in its completeness? Assuredly not. Notwithstanding the 325 volumes of the Kanjur and the Tanjur of the Northern Buddhists, each volume we are told, "weighing from four to five pounds," nothing, in truth, is known of Lamaism. Yet, the sacred canon of the Southern Church is said to contain 29,368,000 letters in the Saddharma alankara,* or, exclusive of treatises and commentaries, "five or six times the amount of the matter contained in the Bible," the latter, in the words of Professor Max Muller, rejoicing only in 3,567,180 letters. Notwithstanding, then, these "325 volumes" (in reality there are 333, Kanjur comprising 108, and Tanjur 225 volumes), "the translators, instead of supplying us with correct versions, have interwoven them with their own commentaries, for the purpose of justifying the dogmas of their several schools."** Moreover, "according to a tradition preserved by the Buddhist schools, both of the South and of the North, the sacred Buddhist Canon comprised originally 80,000 or 84,000 tracts, but most of them were lost, so that there remained but 6,000," the professor tells his audiences. "Lost" as usual for Europeans. But who can be quite sure that they are likewise lost for Buddhists and Brahmins? Considering the sacredness for the Buddhists of every line written * Spence Hardy, "The Legends and Theories of the Buddhists," p. 66. ** "Buddhism in Tibet," p. 78. [[Vol. 1, Page]] xxviii INTRODUCTORY. upon Buddha or his "Good Law," the loss of nearly 76,000 tracts does seem miraculous. Had it been vice versa, every one acquainted with the natural course of events would subscribe to the statement that, of these 76,000, five or six thousand treatises might have been destroyed during the persecutions in, and emigrations from, India. But as it is well ascertained that Buddhist Arhats began their religious exodus, for the purpose of propagating the new faith beyond Kashmir and the Himalayas, as early as the year 300 before our era,* and reached China in the year 61 A.D.** when Kashyapa, at the invitation of the Emperor Ming-ti, went there to acquaint the "Son of Heaven" with the tenets of Buddhism, it does seem strange to hear the Orientalists speaking of such a loss as though it were really possible. They do not seem to allow for one moment the possibility that the texts may be lost only for West and for themselves; or, that the Asiatic people should have the unparalleled boldness to keep their most sacred records out of the reach of foreigners, thus refusing to deliver them to the profanation and misuse of races even so "vastly superior" to themselves. * Lassen, ("Ind. Althersumkunde" Vol. II, p. 1,072) shows a Buddhist monastery erected in the Kailas range in 137 B.C.; and General Cunningham, earlier than that. ** Reverend T. Edkins, "Chinese Buddhism." [[Vol. 1, Page]] xxix INTRODUCTORY. covered with hieroglyphic inscriptions, and with the strange pictures of gods and goddesses. . . . . . . . On rolls of papyrus, which seem to defy the ravages of time, we have even fragments of what may be called the sacred books of the Egyptians; yet, though much has been deciphered in the ancient records of that mysterious race, the mainspring of the religion of Egypt and the original intention of its ceremonial worship are far from being fully disclosed to us."* Here again the mysterious hieroglyphic documents remain, but the keys by which alone they become intelligible have disappeared. Nevertheless, having found that "there is a natural connection between language and religion"; and, secondly, that there was a common Aryan religion before the separation of the Aryan race; a common Semitic religion before the separation of the Semitic race; and a common Turanian religion before the separation of the Chinese and the other tribes belonging to the Turanian class; having, in fact, only discovered "three ancient centres of religion" and "three centres of language," and though as entirely ignorant of those primitive religions and languages, as of their origin, the professor does not hesitate to declare "that a truly historical basis for a scientific treatment of those principal religions of the world has been gained!" A "scientific treatment" of a subject is no guarantee for its "historical basis"; and with such scarcity of data on hand, no philologist, even among the most eminent, is justified in giving out his own conclusions for historical facts. No doubt, the eminent Orientalist has proved thoroughly to the world's satisfaction, that according to Grimm's law of phonetic rules, Odin and Buddha are two different personages, quite distinct from each other, and he has shown it scientifically. When, however, he takes the opportunity of saying in the same breath that Odin "was worshipped as the supreme deity during a period long anterior to the age of the Veda and of Homer" (Compar. Theol., p. 318), he has not the slightest "historical basis" for it. He makes history and fact subservient to his [[Vol. 1, Page]] xxx INTRODUCTORY. own conclusions, which may be very "scientific," in the sight of Oriental scholars, but yet very wide of the mark of actual truth. The conflicting views on the subject of chronology, in the case of the Vedas, of the various eminent philologists and Orientalists, from Martin Haug down to Mr. Max Muller himself, are an evident proof that the statement has no historical basis to stand upon, "internal evidence" being very often a jack-o'lantern, instead of a safe beacon to follow. Nor has the Science of modern Comparative Mythology any better proof to show, that those learned writers, who have insisted for the last century or so that there must have been "fragments of a primeval revelation, granted to the ancestors of the whole race of mankind . . . . preserved in the temples of Greece and Italy," were entirely wrong. For this is what all the Eastern Initiates and Pundits have been proclaiming to the world from time to time. While a prominent Cinghalese priest assured the writer that it was well known that the most important Buddhist tracts belonging to the sacred canon were stored away in countries and places inaccessible to the European pundits, the late Swami Dayanand Sarasvati, the greatest Sanskritist of his day in India, assured some members of the Theosophical Society of the same fact with regard to ancient Brahmanical works. When told that Professor Max Muller had declared to the audiences of his "Lectures" that the theory . . . . "that there was a primeval preternatural revelation granted to the fathers of the human race, finds but few supporters at present," -- the holy and learned man laughed. His answer was suggestive. "If Mr. Moksh Mooller, as he pronounced the name, were a Brahmin, and came with me, I might take him to a gupta cave (a secret crypt) near Okhee Math, in the Himalayas, where he would soon find out that what crossed the Kalapani (the black waters of the ocean) from India to Europe were only the bits of rejected copies of some passages from our sacred books. There was a "primeval revelation," and it still exists; nor will it ever be lost to the world, but will reappear; though the Mlechchhas will of course have to wait." [[Vol. 1, Page]] xxxi INTRODUCTORY. [[Vol. 1, Page]] xxxii INTRODUCTORY. the gods of many nations. Thus, though the Mother of Mercury (Budha, Thot-Hermes, etc.), was Maia, the mother of Buddha (Gautama), also Maya, and the mother of Jesus, likewise Maya (illusion, for Mary is Mare, the Sea, the great illusion symbolically) -- yet these three characters have no connection, nor can they have any, since Bopp, has "laid down his code of phonetic laws." [[Vol. 1, Page]] xxxiii INTRODUCTORY. "Not a pool, not a bush, not a house is seen, And the mountain-range forms a rugged screen Round the parch'd flats of the dry, dry desert. . . . ." [[Vol. 1, Page]] xxxiv INTRODUCTORY. The traces of such civilization, and these and like traditions, give us the right to credit other legendary lore warranted by well educated and learned natives of India and Mongolia, when they speak of immense libraries reclaimed from the sand, together with various reliques of ancient MAGIC lore, which have all been safely stowed away. The Occultists assert that all these exist, safe from Western spoliating hands, to re-appear in some more enlightened age, for which in the words of the late Swami Dayanand Sarasvati, "the Mlechchhas (outcasts, savages, those beyond the pale of Aryan civilization) will have to wait." For it is not the fault of the initiates that these documents are now "lost" to the profane; nor was their policy dictated by selfishness, or [[Vol. 1, Page]] xxxv INTRODUCTORY. The documents were concealed, it is true, but the knowledge itself and its actual existence had never been made a secret of by the Hierophants of the Temple, wherein MYSTERIES have ever been made a discipline and stimulus to virtue. This is very old news, and was repeatedly made known by the great adepts, from Pythagoras and Plato down to the Neoplatonists. It was the new religion of the Nazarenes that wrought a change for the worse -- in the policy of centuries. Moreover, there is a well-known fact, a very curious one, corroborated to the writer by a reverend gentleman attached for years to a Russian Embassy -- namely, that there are several documents in the St. Peters- [[Vol. 1, Page]] xxxvi INTRODUCTORY. [[Vol. 1, Page]] xxxvii INTRODUCTORY. legislator in historical chronology, though a very modern Sage in the World's History, shown by Dr. Legge* -- who calls him "emphatically a transmitter, not a maker" -- as saying: "I only hand on: I cannot create new things. I believe in the ancients and therefore I love them."** (Quoted in "Science of Religions" by Max Muller.) * Lun Yu (§ I a) Schott. "Chinesische Literatur," p. 7. ** "Life of Confucius," p. 96. [[Vol. 1, Page]] xxxviii INTRODUCTORY. called "a modern forgery" even so recently as fifty years ago? Was not Sanskrit proclaimed at one time the progeny of, and a dialect derived from, the Greek, according to Lempriere and other scholars? About 1820, Prof. Max Muller tells us, the sacred books of the Brahmans, of the Magians, and of the Buddhists, "were all but unknown, their very existence was doubted, and there was not a single scholar who could have translated a line of the Veda . . . of the Zend Avesta, or . . . of the Buddhist Tripitaka, and now the Vedas are proved to be the work of the highest antiquity whose 'preservation amounts almost to a marvel' (Lecture on the Vedas). The same will be said of the Secret Archaic Doctrine, when proofs are given of its undeniable existence and records. But it will take centuries before much more is given from it. Speaking of the keys to the Zodiacal mysteries as being almost lost to the world, it was remarked by the writer in "Isis Unveiled" some ten years ago that: "The said key must be turned seven times before the whole system is divulged. We will give it but one turn, and thereby allow the profane one glimpse into the mystery. Happy he, who understands the whole!" Such a work as this has to be introduced with no simple Preface, but with a volume rather; one that would give facts, not mere disquisitions, since the SECRET DOCTRINE is not a treatise, or a series of vague theories, but contains all that can be given out to the world in this century. [[Vol. 1, Page]] xxxix INTRODUCTORY. [[Vol. 1, Page]] xl INTRODUCTORY. However great and zealous the fanatical efforts, during those early centuries, to obliterate every trace of the mental and intellectual labour of the Pagans, it was a failure; but the same spirit of the dark demon of bigotry and intolerance has perverted systematically and ever since, every bright page written in the pre-Christian periods. Even in her uncertain records, history has preserved enough of that which has survived to throw an impartial light upon the whole. Let, then, the reader tarry a little while with the writer, on the spot of observation selected. He is asked to give all his attention to that millennium which divided the pre-Christian and the post-Christian periods, by the year ONE of the Nativity. This event -- whether historically correct or not -- has nevertheless been made to serve as a first signal for the erection of manifold bulwarks against any possible return of, or even a glimpse into, the hated religions of the Past; hated and dreaded -- because throwing such a vivid light on the new and intentionally veiled interpretation of what is now known as the "New Dispensation." [[Vol. 1, Page]] xli INTRODUCTORY. "-------------- the sun like blood, the earth a tomb, Both creeds have won their proselytes at the point of the sword; both have built their churches on heaven-kissing hecatombs of human victims. Over the gateway of Century I. of our era, the ominous words "the KARMA OF ISRAEL," fatally glowed. Over the portals of our own, the future seer may discern other words, that will point to the Karma for cunningly made-up HISTORY, for events purposely perverted, and for great characters slandered by posterity, mangled out of recognition, between the two cars of Jagannatha -- Bigotry and Materialism; one accepting too much, the other denying all. Wise is he who holds to the golden mid-point, who believes in the eternal justice of things. Says Faigi Diwan, the "witness to the wonderful speeches of a free-thinker who belongs to a thousand sects": "In the assembly of the day of resurrection, when past things shall be forgiven, the sins of the Ka'bah will be forgiven for the sake of the dust of Christian churches." To this, Professor Max Muller replies: "The sins of Islam are as worthless as the dust of Christianity. On the day of resurrection both Muhammadans and Christians will see the vanity of their religious doctrines. Men fight about religion on earth -- in heaven they shall find out that there is only one true religion -- the worship of God's SPIRIT."* In other words -- "THERE IS NO RELIGION (OR LAW) HIGHER THAN TRUTH" -- "SATYAT NASTI PARO DHARMAH" -- the motto of the Maharajah of Benares, adopted by the Theosophical Society. As already said in the Preface, the Secret Doctrine is not a version of "Isis Unveiled" -- as originally intended. It is a volume explanatory of * "Lectures on the Science of Religion," by F. Max Muller, p. 257. [[Vol. 1, Page]] xlii INTRODUCTORY. Volume I. of "Isis" begins with a reference to "an old book" -- [[Vol. 1, Page]] xliii INTRODUCTORY. * Rabbi Jehoshua Ben Chananea, who died about A.D. 72, openly declared that he had performed "miracles" by means of the Book of Sepher Jezireh, and challenged every sceptic. Franck, quoting from the Babylonian Talmud, names two other thaumaturgists, Rabbis Chanina and Oshoi. (See "Jerusalem Talmud, Sanhedrin," c. 7, etc.; and "Franck," pp. 55, 56.) Many of the Mediaeval Occultists, Alchemists, and Kabalists claimed the same; and even the late modern Magus, Eliphas Levi, publicly asserts it in print in his books on Magic. [[Vol. 1, Page]] xliv INTRODUCTORY. [[Vol. 1, Page]] xlv INTRODUCTORY. To my judges, past and future, therefore -- whether they are serious literary critics, or those howling dervishes in literature who judge a book according to the popularity or unpopularity of the author's name, who, hardly glancing at its contents, fasten like lethal bacilli on the weakest points of the body -- I have nothing to say. Nor shall I condescend to notice those crack-brained slanderers -- fortunately very few in number -- who, hoping to attract public attention by throwing discredit on every writer whose name is better known than their own, foam and bark at their very shadows. These, having first maintained for years that the doctrines taught in the Theosophist, and which culminated in "Esoteric Buddhism," had been all invented by the present writer, have finally turned round, and denounced "Isis Unveiled" and the rest as a plagiarism from Eliphas Levi (!), Paracelsus (!!), and, mirabile [[Vol. 1, Page]] xlvi INTRODUCTORY. dictu, Buddhism and Brahmanism (!!!) As well charge Renan with having stolen his Vie de Jesus from the Gospels, and Max Muller his "Sacred Books of the East" or his "Chips" from the philosophies of the Brahmins and Gautama, the Buddha. But to the public in general and the readers of the "Secret Doctrine" I may repeat what I have stated all along, and which I now clothe in the words of Montaigne: Gentlemen, "I HAVE HERE MADE ONLY A NOSEGAY OF CULLED FLOWERS, AND HAVE BROUGHT NOTHING OF MY OWN BUT THE STRING THAT TIES THEM." Pull the "string" to pieces and cut it up in shreds, if you will. As for the nosegay of FACTS -- you will never be able to make away with these. You can only ignore them, and no more. Thus, the Past shall help to realise the PRESENT, and the latter to better appreciate the PAST. The errors of the day must be explained and swept away, yet it is more than probable -- and in the present case it amounts to certitude -- that once more the testimony of long ages and of history will fail to impress anyone but the very intuitional -- which is equal to saying the very few. But in this as in all like cases, the true and the faithful may console themselves by presenting the sceptical modern Sadducee with the mathematical proof and memorial of his obdurate obstinacy and bigotry. There still exists somewhere in the archives of the French Academy, the famous law of probabilities worked out by an algebraical process for the benefit of sceptics by certain mathematicians. It runs thus: If two persons give their evidence to [[Vol. 1, Page]] xlvii INTRODUCTORY. 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Chavez orders expropriation of Owens-Illinois — Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Monday ordered the expropriation of U.S.-based glass maker Owens-Illinois Inc.'s unit in the South American country. Chavez announced plans to expropriate the company in a televised speech, saying it operates in western Trujillo state. The leftist leader criticized the company's practices in the country, saying it had been "taking away the money of Venezuelans" and exploiting local people. Chavez did not detail his complaints about the company. There was no immediate reaction from the company, based in Perrysburg, Ohio. It was unclear how the government would handle compensation for the company's assets. Chavez has nationalized or expropriated a wide range of companies, including cement makers, retail stores and steel mills, while seeking to lead Venezuela toward a socialist system. He said in his speech that more expropriations are planned. "There's another list around here," Chavez said, but added that he would save additional announcements for later. The Associated Press

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Column: La Russa won't knuckle under National League's R.A. Dickey, left, of the New York Mets, talks to manager Tony La Russa during MLB All-Star baseball batting practice, Monday, July 9, 2012, in Kansas City, Mo. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel) Nice to see retirement hasn't dulled Tony La Russa's competitive edge one bit. Fewer people than ever care who wins the All-Star game, even with home-field advantage in the World Series hanging in the balance, but he still does. And while La Russa knows absolutely no one tunes in to watch the managers manage, he still can't help himself. Remember that when you see the Giants' Matt Cain on the mound starting Tuesday night for the National League instead of overwhelming fan favorite R.A. Dickey of the Mets. Here's hoping that the game is half as competitive as La Russa envisions and there are still enough viewers hanging around by the middle - let alone at the end - to admire his handiwork. Dickey, a journeyman whose late-in-life mastery of the knuckleball has been the best and most unlikely story of the season so far, seemed like the perfect choice to start what is essentially an exhibition. He brought his mom, his wife and their four kids along. "Having gotten here as a 37-year-old man and having my family old enough to `get it' has been a real rich thing," Dickey said. "To play long enough for your kids to get it, that's a real big deal." La Russa knows all the details, but wasn't about to be swayed by sentimentality. He said he decided on Cain, who's no slouch, simply because he's more likely to get through the first couple of innings with the fewest fireworks. That's in no small part because Buster Posey, who happens to be Cain's regular catcher in San Francisco, will start for the NL as well. "I do think there is an extra plus to being the starter to the National League or the American League. I do think that's something special," La Russa said Monday. "But I don't think it detracts at all from R.A.'s accomplishments and being here. Whenever he pitches, it's going to be a great event for him and for baseball." La Russa wouldn't be pinned down on exactly when Dickey would get his chance. But he promised the right-hander wouldn't suffer the same fate that befell Tim Wakefield, another knuckleballer and feel-good story who was selected to the AL squad in 2009 at age 42 yet never made it into the game. Then-manager Joe Maddon held Wakefield back in the bullpen anticipating an extra-inning game that never materialized. La Russa said to keep an eye out for Dickey in the first half of the game, right about the same time Philadelphia's Carlos Ruiz replaces Posey behind the plate. "You really should warm up with R.A., whether it be before the first inning or before his inning," he said. "That's why I don't think I'll bring him in during an inning and it's very likely that when he comes in, it will be just as Buster leaves and Carlos gets to catch. I think that seems to make sense that they would warm up together and get a little familiar." Dickey didn't sound as convinced. He came to Kansas City thinking he had a chance to start, then learned he wouldn't in a text shortly after La Russa's announcement. "I'm not going to break down in tears over it, but at the same time I'm a competitor. I want to pitch. I want to start. I feel like I had a good enough first half that I should be considered. "But I'm not the boss," he added. "I don't necessarily have to agree with (La Russa), but I have to respect it. That's just the way it is." Either way, Dickey didn't think catching his knuckleball was that big a deal. "I hope not. You're talking about the best players in the world, and you're asking about a pitch that's too nasty to handle? I hope that's not it," he said. "If that's the reason that's a poor reason." In fairness, La Russa might be overly cautious when it comes to Dickey, who so far has been much more accurate than most knuckleball pitchers. He not only has more wins, a better ERA and more strikeouts than Cain so far - he's thrown the exact same number of wild pitches (one) in the same number of innings (120, compared to 120 1-3 for Cain). But La Russa is dead right about the importance of the pitcher-catcher relationship. It's the most sensitive in baseball, if not all of sports, even moreso when one half of the combination relies on a singularly zany pitch to put food on the table. Steve Carlton and Tim McCarver spent so much time perfecting theirs that McCarver once mused they were destined to wind up "in the same cemetery, exactly 60 feet, 6 inches apart." Brent Mayne, who spent 15 seasons in the majors and wrote "The Art of Catching" afterward, warned teams lavishing big bucks on pitchers to remember who was on the receiving end. "It's like having a phenomenal race horse," he said, "but no jockey." Thoroughbreds like Greg Maddux were touchy enough about their receivers, and he could hit just about every corner of the plate on command. But with knuckleballers, it's not just a matter of confidence that the catcher will call the right pitch at the right time; it's the ability to consistently get in front of a pitch that both might agree on but neither can be certain where it will end up. If there's any consolation, it's that the batter has less of an idea where that is than either. "I've heard the quote it's like a snowflake - no two are alike," Dickey said in a recent interview with USA Today. "It's really like that. They can't anticipate where it's going and that's the whole key. I know I have something to offer that's unique." And La Russa better get him a turn on the big stage in plenty of time for the rest of us to appreciate it. The Associated Press

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Neil McKeganey: Staying tough on drugs Cannabis use, among other drugs, has fallen significantly. Picture: Getty Have your say National policies need to be about reducing the impact of illegal drugs on Scotland, not initiatives that could result in their wider use, writes Neil McKeganey IN MONDAY’S report from the Westminster’s all-parliamentary group on drug policy reform, we have what has become the latest in a long line of calls for the legalisation of illegal drugs. For the advocates of drugs legalisation, the arguments seem disarmingly familiar and persuasive: our drug laws have failed to stem the flow of illegal drug use; many of those substances that are currently illegal are less harmful than tobacco or alcohol and, therefore, we should pursue an approach that legalises these and other forms of drug use. The trouble with this view is that it is almost entirely based on the premise that drug use under a legalised or regulated regime would not significantly increase. That is a bold assumption and one for which there is little evidence. The supporters of legalisation cite Portugal, where all drugs for personal use were decriminalised in 2001. Troublingly, however, while some positive benefit has flowed from that policy change, drug use among young people in Portugal has increased rather than decreased and there remains a stubborn black market in drug supply within the country. Drugs decriminalisation does not appear to have been quite the rosy road of unbroken success that many might have wished and others have promoted. But even if a plausible case can be made for the benefits of drugs decriminalisation, the timing now for such a bold policy change in the UK seems wrong. Most recent data from the UK is showing a marked reduction in almost all forms of illegal drugs use, with the exception of cocaine, which is rising. We are recording lower levels of cannabis use, heroin use, LSD use than for decades. In the face of such reductions it would seem odd to implement a policy of decriminalisation or legalisation that would hold out the very real prospect over time, even if not immediately, of a marked increase in the levels of drugs consumption. Those who favour drugs legalisation or decriminalisation often argue that a marked increase in drug use would be unlikely because most people who wish to use illegal drugs can do so already with minimum inconvenience. However, this is not to say that if the current legal impediments to such drug use were to be removed that there would be no increase in the number of people interested in at least experimenting with drugs, confident in the knowledge that they would be breaking no law in doing so. Would it matter if there were an increase in the number of people experimenting in this way with various substances? The answer to that question really lies in the fact that many of the controlled substances are proscribed precisely because they are harmful (irrespective of whether they are more or less harmful than the legal drugs) or because we suspect they may be harmful but do not yet have the evidence to assess their precise level of harm, as is the case with many of the “legal high” drugs. Any population level increase in the consumption of such drugs as LSD, heroin, or amphetamines would unquestionably lead to an increase in the number of individuals experiencing problems as a result of drug use. Some of those individuals would become addicted to the substances that have a high potential for addiction or become psychologically traumatised by those drugs that we know can cause major mental health problems. That scenario would be less worrying if we had effective drug treatment services able speedily to lift people out of the depths of their addiction or psychological trauma. The reality is quite the reverse, with drug treatment services struggling to support individuals in their recovery and most people leaving drug treatment services in a continuing state of drug dependency. Recovery from drug dependency is a long, difficult and costly road that involves major heartache for the drug user and his or her family. It is a great shame that so many of our influential leaders seem persuaded of the view that the best we can do in tackling our drug problem is to reduce some of the legal barriers to drug use. If we are to tackle our drug problem, we need effective drugs prevention, effective drugs treatment, but we also need effective drugs enforcement. There is an analogy here that is rather revealing. We have made major inroads in the UK in reducing the overall level of smoking by a combination of public health education, social sanction and the banning of smoking in enclosed public spaces. Nobody should be under the illusion that the contribution of legislation in banning smoking was anything other than key in reducing the prevalence of smoking and reducing the overall level of tobacco-related harm. It is ironic that just as we have come to see the benefit of combining education, treatment and legal sanction to reduce tobacco consumption, some of our leading parliamentarians seem convinced of the benefits of dismantling the legal barriers to wider drug use. No country in the world has boldly discarded drugs enforcement and the UK would be unwise to go down such a road when we are beginning to see the success of our current tripartite approach combining treatment, prevention and drugs enforcement. We can do better in all of those spheres than at present, but that does not mean we should look to the government to become the major supplier or regulator of much wider forms of drugs consumption. The all-parliamentary group has come up with another equally questionable proposal for dealing with the proliferation of so called legal high drugs, namely to make the producers and suppliers of those drugs subject to trading standards legislation within which they become legally responsible for the quality and safety of the drugs they supply. I can see why the producers of those drugs might prefer operating under such a system, but could we possibly accept their assurances in terms of quality and safety, especially where those drugs are being produced in laboratories in distant parts of the world? What would happen in all probability is that issues of safety would come a long way second to issues of profit in the manufacture and sale of those substances and we would see thousands of young people effectively being used as guinea pigs, consuming substances that they believe are relatively harmless and which we have legalised, but which in reality neither we nor they actually know what chemicals were even in the drugs they were consuming. Drug use has taken a tremendous toll on Scotland – and continues to do so. We have communities that have effectively been taken over by the drugs economy. Our aspirations and policies need to be about reducing the extent and the impact of illegal drugs on Scotland and not about pursuing initiatives that could easily result in their wider use. Just as we have led the way in international efforts to reduce the availability and consumption of alcohol and tobacco, we need to be no less bold in our efforts to reduce the use and availability of all of the currently illegal drugs. Only then will Scotland be lifted from the shadow of a drugs problem that is substantially worse than virtually anywhere else in Europe. • Neil McKeganey is director of the Centre for Drug Misuse Research in Glasgow Back to the top of the page

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On the beaches of Mexico starfish are washed and left on the sand by the tide When the tide goes away and the sun keeps on burning the starfish are left there to die On a beach there in Mexico a young girl is walking she's usually walking alone she bends and pick up a starfish she sees there and into the sea it is thrown On a beach there in mexico a young girl is walking one day she's not walking alone an old man who see her throwing the starfish and there something that he wants to know He says" Hey little girl don't you know there are hundreds of beaches in all Mexico and thousands of starfish wash up on each one. Nothing at all can be done.Nothing at all can be done." The young girl continues to pick up the starfish and throw them back into the waves the old man says" Silly girl you're making no difference there too many starfish to save" The young girl just looks the old man in the eye and stares past the waves to the sun. as she trows another starfish back into the sea she says" A difference was made to that one." Commentthis is my favorite song CategorySolemn Songs Song ContributorAshley Bankhead Date Entered05-Aug-2006 How would you rate this item? Click here to report possible copyright violations. Find Songs Contain the word Were entered Editor's Picks only

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These days, everything that's new and cool and compact has a similar brand name -- iPod, iPhone, iTouch -- and that includes the Washington men's basketball team's latest product line. The Huskies, who hold their first practice Friday behind closed doors at Saint Martin's University in Lacey, will pull the wraps off "I.T.," as in Isaiah Thomas, someone counted on to fill up the basket and the seats, if not restore the buzz that's been missing around Lorenzo Romar's team the past two seasons. For entertainment purposes, Thomas is Nate Robinson without biceps. He's a slender, 5-foot-8 freshman guard from Tacoma by way of a Connecticut prep school with a thing for strawberry Pop-Tarts. He has big plans for the Huskies, and even bigger plans for himself. "I can't wait until the season starts to show people who I am," Thomas said. "People know me around here. I want to be a national name." Until inadequate grades sent him on a two-year detour to prep school, Thomas was on track to surpass former O'Dea guard Clint Richardson as the highest-scoring high school player in state history. Thomas averaged 26.2 per game as a Curtis High School sophomore and 31.2 as a junior, and then 40-plus in the 2006 state tournament. Thomas' offensive responsibility at Washington will be more restrained, with Romar envisioning him filling the dual role of imaginative playmaker and instant scorer. "I think he's more of a point guard than people think," Romar said. "(But) I think there will be times when he takes games over. He has that ability and mentality." Either way, the presence of the 5-8 dynamo (unlike Robinson, he doesn't fudge on his height) has created newfound interest in a program that had grown stale the past two seasons, falling out of the Pac-10 upper division and failing to reach the NCAA Tournament. While the attention overwhelmed him at times at Curtis, Thomas embraces the high expectations heaped on him now. He has an unbeatable support system regularly counseling him, headed up by Brandon Roy, the former UW All-American and now an elite pro with the Portland Trail Blazers, and Jamal Crawford, a former Rainier Beach High School star who plays for the New York Knicks. These guys communicate almost daily. Asked if he hasn't been unfairly characterized as a Huskies savior before playing in his first game, Thomas pulled out his cell phone, punched up a screen and shared a recent text message sent to him by Roy that offered the following wisdom: "The only pressure you have in life is the pressure you hold over your own head. Pressure shouldn't be used in your head at any time. There is no pressure." Pressure actually is having your father, James Thomas, christen you at birth after one of the game's greatest point guards, former Indiana and NBA star Isiah Thomas. Dad said he lost a bet while watching the other Thomas and the Detroit Pistons beat the Los Angeles Lakers, his favorite team, in the 1989 NBA Finals, and it influenced the naming of his son. "A friend of mine laid down a little money, my team lost and Isiah was the show," said James Thomas, a Boeing final-assembly inspector. "It was either that or repeat my name, and his mom didn't want that." Tina Baldrip, who is divorced from Thomas' father, suggested that religious rather than basketball reasons were behind her son's name, hence the slightly different spelling. "I named him because of Isaiah in the Bible; I didn't really know about the other Isiah Thomas," said Baldrip, a retirement home employee. "In the Bible, Isaiah waited on God to show him everything. That's why it's Isaiah. Whatever God has for him, it will come." Early on, the kid nicknamed I.T. was a football player, a breakaway running back. He picked up a basketball for the first time as a fourth-grader at Spanaway's Naches Trail Elementary School and discovered he had natural talent. He played both sports through Curtis Junior High before choosing to concentrate on one, and do so in a bold manner. As a ninth-grader, he petitioned the school district to let him play basketball for the Curtis High varsity and was denied, solely because of age restrictions. Once allowed to wear a Curtis uniform, Thomas became an overnight sensation. He scored at will, 57 points in one outing. He was super competitive, fiery on the floor, something that not everyone readily understood or admired, especially after he was ejected from a couple of games. "I feel when I step on the court, no one can stop me," he said. "My swagger, my mentality that I bring to the court, is my strongest asset. "People have got their opinions on that. They say negative things, that I have an attitude. But that's how I play. I've always brought a chip on my shoulder to the court. That's just me." Indiana, figuring it couldn't go wrong with another guard named Thomas, was the first to offer a scholarship. Isaiah Thomas was a junior and wanted to commit right away. His parents said no. It made sense later when Hoosiers coach Mike Davis was fired at the end of the season and resurfaced at Alabama-Birmingham, where he continued to recruit Thomas without success. Thomas committed to Washington, but his grades nosedived. To become college eligible, his only alternative was a lengthy prep school stay. He enrolled at South Kent School in Connecticut, attending for two years, replacing what would have been his senior year at Curtis and freshman season with the Huskies. "It was hard to focus being me, being known as a high school celebrity," he said of his academic woes. South Kent was isolated. The school gave him structure. It was classes and basketball without distractions. He averaged 31.6 points per game last season and earned a qualifying ACT score, his ticket to return to the Northwest. "There were so many people back home who said I couldn't do it and didn't want to do it, that I just wanted to shut them up," he said. "Now I've grown up and it's a good thing. I know I need school." Thomas was a recruiting free agent and tempted by overtures from Connecticut, Louisville and Kentucky but stayed true to the Huskies. "People want to leave, but I've already been gone for two years, so I know how that feels," he said. "Why would I want to go somewhere else when I can do it right at home, and have my family and friends watch?" Said Romar, who in recent months lost homegrown recruits to Arizona, Louisville and Texas: "What you're hearing is someone who is proud of where he's from." Said Thomas' mother: "I don't think he could handle being somewhere really far away from me." Huskies guards have been so one-dimensional in recent seasons that opponents were able to overplay 3-point shooter Ryan Appleby or stack defenders inside against Justin Dentmon and fellow penetrators, greatly disrupting the offense. Thomas, with his offensive versatility, should be the solution to that problem. He is as adept at driving to the basket with a variety of determined moves as he is at pulling up and launching soft left-handed jumpers or throwing a no-look pass. While Oregon fans likely will pull out those Gary Coleman cutouts and insults they waved and shouted at the equally diminutive though more muscular Robinson, Thomas carries himself differently than his predecessor. Thomas is more of a finesse player and even-keeled in temperament, but no less effective in bouncing up and down the floor and dictating a frenzied pace. "People should be excited," Huskies senior forward Jon Brockman said. "He's a special player who can do special things. He's going to be fun for the fans to watch and fun for us to play with. He's going to be good for Washington as long as he's here." "I'm looking to stay four years," Thomas said, though reserving his right to reconsider should he become a potential NBA draft lottery pick. He should stick around long enough for UW fans to learn that the kid with the biblical name prays before every game, eats strawberry Pop-Tarts nonstop and scores at a breakneck pace. If this I.T. is the latest in college basketball technology, only the Huskies have one.

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Pithlachocco: 'Extraordinary Find' By Charles Flowers and Peter B. Gallagher the bow of an aboriginal canoe emergesNEWNAN'S LAKE - The Indian who carved the oldest dugout canoe found here was working on his boat before Noah built the Ark. In fact, the age and span of the largest aboriginal canoe find in history has confirmed that Florida's indigenous peoples - including ancestors of the modern Seminoles - made boats to travel this lake 3,000 years before Christ walked the earth. (continue...) Florida Governor's Council 'What Are We Doing Here?' By Colin Kenny MICCOSUKEE RESORT - To the first-time observer, it is hard to figure out the actual purpose of the Florida Governor's Council on Indian Affairs (FGCIA). But don't feel bad. It seems that on this Columbus Day 2000 holiday here, even the FGCIA Board of Directors were trying to figure out that very thing. (continue...) Pithlachocco's Honor *James E. Billie The discovery of so many ancient canoes in Newnan's Lake is further proof of why the Seminoles called these waters Pith-la-choc-co. The Seminoles who called it that word did so for a reason. For thousands of years "long boats" have been here. I hope they will restore the lake to its rightful name and remove the name Newnan, who gained his fame by disgracing himself in a losing battle to the Indians around here. (continue...) Pithlachocco's Canoes: Nature's Millennium Message? By Dr. Patricia Wickman Indian life on Newnan's lakePerhaps the earth really is trying to tell us something. We all know (well, most of us do) that the entire concept of a "millennium," a thousand-year cycle, is entirely arbitrary. Something that Western Christians created to organize time, and based on their determination to emphasize the importance of the arbitrary date when a person known as Jesus, the son of an elderly carpenter, was born. But years, and sets of one hundred years, or even of one thousand years really are only weak attempts to define the rhythms of the forces that we call "nature." They could never command nature or make nature conform to human expectations. (continue...) In Their Own Words: E-Mails Show Irresponsibility By Charles Flowers A review of e-mail correspondence to and from state officials over five months shows a pattern of irresponsibility for the safety of the archaeological treasures first discovered at Newnan's Lake this May. (continue...) DEP Talks To Tribe, Alters Permit For Ocklawaha Logging By Charles Flowers and Peter B. Gallagher Sierra Takes On Deadheads National and state environmental groups have focused on the deadhead logging issue, following Seminole Tribune articles last month. The following letter was sent, Oct 9, 2000, to Florida Gov. Jeb Bush. (continue...) 'Dem Deadhead Blues'

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Scottsdale, Ariz. -- One of the Giants' best moves of the offseason was to secure a nostalgia piece, an authentic time traveler by the name of Hunter Pence. He walks among us as a 21st century man, but everything about him suggests celluloid film, simpler pleasures and the distinctive ring of a dial-up phone. Even his new contract - for one year - is a throwback. He's not complaining, nor will any fan who appreciates a true original. The Giants offer their fans a veritable circus of ballpark entertainment, and Pence is the zany sideshow, right at home amid the toy giraffes and panda hats, a curiously essential part of the scene. As the White Sox-Giants exhibition unfolded on a glorious Monday afternoon, Pence was a study unto himself. I can't recall a ballplayer who approaches the game quite like him, but every bit of evidence is a link to the past. It started before the game, when I stopped by his locker for a quick chat. There was a time when players cherished the notion of being interviewed, for they had no other way to engage the public. Those days are long gone, thanks to ESPN, the Internet and the swirl of social networking, making it increasingly difficult to have a meaningful conversation. Pence smiled broadly and immediately had a question: "Would you mind if I grabbed a quick cup of coffee?" Then he literally ran off, so I wouldn't wait long, and he apologized when he got back. Afterward, with absolute sincerity, he thanked me for my interest. As a handful of Giants lined up along the right-field line to warm up their throwing arms, Pence - as always - stood out. This was no Dwight Evans, whose textbook motion was the baseball equivalent of poetry. It wasn't the type of breezy, natural style (and for some reason, I'm thinking Tom O'Malley, the long-ago Giants third baseman) that says "ballplayer." Pence, with his herky-jerky sidearm sling, calls to mind those grainy baseball film clips from the 1930s, in which everything looks just a little bit comical. Once the game began, all eight of his fellow starters wore pants down to their shoes - or even lower in some cases, actually tucked underneath the heel. Pence showed plenty of old-school sock, all the way up to the knees. He doesn't much care for all-black bats, or the two-toned maple contraptions that shatter so easily and put lives in danger. He prefers the traditional, sand-colored ash. After a while, you start wondering if Al Kaline or Richie Ashburn could be far behind. Short practice swings Watching Pence's routine in the on-deck circle, one's best reaction would go something like, "Hide the kids." He doesn't take a full swing, rather one abruptly cut short as he whips around his neck and upper body. He looks like he's actually trying to pull a muscle. But this is a routine that has preceded some memorable at-bats, including 25 home runs in each of his three full seasons (2008-10) with the Houston Astros. By the third inning, Pence had an inch-wide hole in the back of his pants, but it wasn't because he stumbled and fell - for no apparent reason - before picking up Jeff Keppinger's single to right. It came from his showy slide into third base in the second inning, when he measured a wicked slider from a left-handed pitcher (Hector Santiago) and tripled over the center fielder's head. For a man who left a decidedly mixed impression - .219 with 60 strikeouts in 59 games - Pence had an epic 2012 season with the Giants, forever etching his name into franchise lore. Fans strolling the perimeter of AT&T Park were thrilled at the sight of the team's right fielder arriving by scooter from his nearby apartment. As he delivered a clutch double in Game 7 of the NLCS against the Cardinals, slow-motion replays revealed that his broken bat struck the ball three times along the way. No one in the press box could recall a precedent, but we agreed that if anyone could be responsible for such a thing, it would be Pence. Stirring speech The real moment of truth had occurred several days earlier, during the Division Series in Cincinnati. Down 2-0 and facing elimination, the Giants were treated to a fiery, impassioned clubhouse speech by Pence, an act of pure improvisation. Word spread quietly throughout the postgame revelry, making it clear that Pence had stirred his teammates' souls, and I'll never forget joining a couple of other writers to ask how and why it happened. Pence denied the whole thing. The story was bound to go public, but in that moment, he was embarrassed to take any personal credit. He wanted to talk only about Ryan Vogelsong, Sergio Romo and the other players who made that victory possible. To quote him directly: "I did nothing." That's my lasting memory of Pence. Perhaps fans will expect more exasperating moments this year - high fastballs missed, low-and-away sliders chased - but they'll be pleasantly surprised. Like the team he plays for, Pence fits perfectly into AT&T Park. He's an able defender, capable of handling right field's many challenges. He's not obsessed with power, preferring to slash line drives to all fields. More than anything, he attacks the game with a brand of raw intensity that can't be taught - and he has sold everyone in that clubhouse on his worth to the team. "Without him and his want and will power, I'm not sure we would have done this," said Buster Posey in the offseason, reflecting on Pence's speech and how it became a pregame ritual, transferred to the dugout. "He really rallied us. He was our rock in that Game 3, and he wouldn't let anybody stop believing." As a new season unfolds and AT&T Park fills to the brim with believers, appreciate the man with the high socks, the crazy practice swing and the polite, gentle nature. Dramatic speeches? Probably not for a while. It's early. In fact, it just might be some other century. Giants beat: Madison Bumgarner shortens his delivery. B4

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There's a revolution going on in television news, but probably not one you'd expect to be reading about now: Contrary to popular belief that broadcast news is a dinosaur stuck in the tar pit as technology evolves around it, total viewership for the three networks' evening news show is on the rise. Big time. "CBS Evening News" anchor Scott Pelley isn't surprised, "The network evening news ... is a big growth area now," he said in an interview last week during a three-day working trip to California. Three years ago, when Pelley took over the anchor post from Katie Couric, the three broadcast news shows averaged a total of about 23 million viewers per night. For the week of Feb. 3, they pulled in a combined viewership just shy of 29 million. "CBS Evening News," in third place in a close ratings race with NBC and ABC, has consistently added viewers since Pelley claimed the anchor's chair, growing by 7 percent in 2012-13 over the previous year. "Now why is that," Pelley asked rhetorically of the growth in network news, sitting down at the City Center Marriott in Oakland between interviews with Tesla's Elon Musk and Gov. Jerry Brown. "I think people are being driven to brand names in journalism that they feel like they can trust," he said. "Because never in human history has so much information been available to so many people, but unfortunately that also means that never in human history has so much bad information been available to so many people." Pelley, 57, prides himself on being an old-fashioned journalist, and that comes across in his style and demeanor, both on camera and off. I couldn't help noticing how he carries himself as he walked into the hotel meeting room, his back ramrod straight, arms immobile as they bracketed his square-shouldered frame. In person, he has a very dry sense of humor, but usually plays it straight on camera, delivering the news in a mellifluous, authoritative baritone, enunciating every word. It's a notable contrast to both NBC's Brian Williams, whose humor is often evident in his "Nightly News" broadcast, and Diane Sawyer, who tends toward dramatic delivery and pregnant pauses on "ABC World News" as a way of demonstrating how much she cares. For the most part, you won't find the CBS anchor standing in front of "magic walls," lolling on couches or wandering around the set like a Bedouin in search of an information oasis. That isn't to say that Pelley is blind to innovations in the 21st century information age. Storytelling the same "We're constantly told that media is completely different now," he said. But "you're talking about distribution. Distribution's completely revolutionized, but what you and I do? The content piece? That hasn't changed in 2,000 years. I tell young people these days it doesn't matter if you're carving on a stone tablet or a glass tablet: The rules of storytelling have not changed." Pelley said following those rules is what distinguishes TV news from Internet chatter. "I read an article in the New York Times with interviews with editors from various news websites, and one of those editors said the metabolism of the news cycle now is such that they don't always have time to check everything before they put it out. "Well, that is the end of journalism (and) is antithetical to everything we stand for," he said. "The other model is called gossip. And journalism was invented to be an antidote to gossip." Pelley, a San Antonio native, first learned the rules of storytelling when he was hired at 15 as a copy boy at the Lubbock Avalanche Journal. In those days, he dreamed of becoming a news photographer, until he was offered a reporter's job. After graduating from Texas Tech University with a journalism major, he worked for several TV stations in Texas before joining CBS in 1989. At CBS, he has covered the Gulf and Iraq Wars, served as the network's White House correspondent, covered the 1993 bombing of and the 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center , and has been a correspondent on "60 Minutes," to which he contributes about 23 stories a year. He often shoots his "60 Minutes" segments on weekends, which may be a bit easier these days since his two children are grown. He and his wife, Jane Boone Pelley, have been married for 30 years and live in Darien, Conn. Last week, he spent the day in San Francisco and then headed to Los Angeles to do additional work on the Musk story for "60 Minutes" and to anchor the "Evening News" from there. West Coast edition One thing that distinguishes "Evening News" from its ABC and NBC competitors is that CBS produces a West Coast edition for every newscast. That involves replacing two or three stories having a heavy East Coast focus with stories originating west of the Rockies. Recently, for example, Pelley reported that Brown has released 1,400 "lifers" from the state's prisons in the last three years. By contrast, he said, former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger OKd the release of 557 prisoners in his six years in office, while his predecessor, Gray Davis, approved two releases in three years. While that story aired only in the West Coast edition of the news, other stories originating from California and the West regularly make the first edition of "Evening News." "A lot of important stories come out of the nation's most populous state," Pelley said. CBS News President "David Rhodes asked us to do the West Coast edition. We used to do it once in a while but we just need to do it all the time." The West Coast edition has added about an hour to Pelley's work day, which usually begins between 8:30 and 9 with a meeting with his executive producer, Patricia Shevlin, and several other players of various ages and ethnic backgrounds who argue about the news all day long. Pelley calls it the "debating society." "We have donnybrooks on almost every story," Pelley said. "Sometimes I throw red meat out on the table if I can't decide about something, but we come to a consensus actually." "I tell people we rewrite stories on '60 Minutes' until they're perfect, and we rewrite stories for 'Evening News' until 6:30," Pelley said. Every news organization has made mistakes, no matter how much it is committed to accuracy. "60 Minutes" took a big hit last fall, for example, for a discredited report on the attack on Benghazi that led to the temporary suspension of correspondent Lara Logan and her producer. Resisting pressure But Pelley said he and his team resist the pressure to be first on a story, emphasizing accuracy over speed. "We may not get it right all the time, but at least (viewers) know serious journalists and serious editors are trying to get the news right," Pelley said. But what is getting it right? That's not always readily apparent these days. Discussion among the debating society members hit fever pitch level during the early days of the Edward Snowden story, for example. Is Snowden a traitor or has he performed a public service? Those questions were key to the story and how it should be covered. "In terms of reporting that story it was very conflicting, because to what extent are we reporting on something that happened, to what extent are we complicit in what Edward Snowden is doing, to what extent are we spreading the nation's secrets in a way that we should not?" The tectonic plates of the media landscape are shifting more than ever before, but the more they change, the more Pelley said he plans to "stick with what works." "The mission of the 'Evening News' is never going to change," he said. "What's today's news - that's what we're going to cover. If my audience at the end of a broadcast says, 'I learned something,' my day is done. That's my job."

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Boiler Room Safety Large industrial and commercial facilities often have dedicated boiler rooms that house boilers, water pumps, heating, ventilating and air conditioning (HVAC) equipment, and other mechanical equipment required to run a facility. The heated water or fluid used in boilers can be used in a variety of processes or heating applications, including central heating and local power generation. As boilers have been modernized to burn natural gas or a combination of fuels that are less expensive and more flexible than coal and oil, there are significant risks of leaks occurring in the gas plumbing and from the burners at the front of a boiler. Such combustible gas leaks create the hazardous condition of a potential explosion. An additional risk is the production and leakage of Carbon Monoxide (CO), an odorless, colorless and toxic gas that results from incomplete combustion, which occurs when there is not enough oxygen mixed with the fuel. All improperly ventilated or malfunctioning boilers have the potential to produce CO in varying concentrations. Consequently, the building facility manager must ensure that the boiler room is instrumented with a comprehensive gas detection, alarm, and mitigation system to protect the facility and its personnel. Gas Detection Hazardous gases found in boiler rooms include: • Combustible Gases such as Methane • Carbon Monoxide Combustible gas leaks rapidly disperse throughout a boiler room, creating a hazard for any worker, who can act as an ignition source, by walking into the room. Fixed point combustible gas sensor modules are used to monitor boiler fronts and associated natural gas supply lines. The gas sensor modules are connected to controllers that provide relays to enable activation of visual and audible alarms for warning conditions and for boiler shutdown at emergency levels. Typical set points are 40% lower explosion limit (LEL) for warning and 60% LEL for emergency. In addition, fixed point toxic gas sensors are used to monitor for CO leaks in boiler rooms. If not detected, the buildup of CO can pose a threat to any worker walking into the room. The sensor modules can be connected to the same controllers used for combustible gas, creating a complete hazard detection system. Personal gas monitors are generally not appropriate for boiler room applications because they cannot detect buildup of combustible and toxic gases in a non-occupied area. Automation and Integration Strategies A gas detection system usually incorporates a controller that can drive various alarming devices such as strobes and horns to indicate hazard. However, as boiler rooms tend to not be accessed frequently, facility managers often need a remote monitoring solution as well. It is common for facility managers to connect the boilers to the central Building Automation System (BAS) so they can monitor the functioning and efficiency of the boilers remotely. But it is also necessary to integrate the gas detection system in the boiler room with the BAS so that the alarms can be displayed within the central facility management console and can be acted upon as part of a facility-wide control strategy.  Codes and Regulations Various national and international codes pertain to the safe manufacturing and placement of boilers. In the United States, manufactured boilers and the rooms in which they reside are designed to comply with one or more of the codes written by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME). Other approval bodies, such as the Underwriters Laboratories (UL), National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), and International Code Council (ICC), could also be a regulating body. Major codes governing boiler rooms include: Products for Boiler Room Safety Boiler rooms require a gas and fire detection system that includes gas and fire detection modules, a method to communicate to a controller, an ability to collect large amounts of data for subsequent analysis and flexible alarm handling with a method for communicating data to higher-level systems.  Gas Detectors Fire Detectors Fire and Gas Detection Controllers Unlike most fire and gas vendors, we also include our leading FieldServer multi-protocol gateways within our controller to connect our Sentry IT system to the facility’s local BAS, and to the cloud for remote monitoring, control, and big data analytics. FieldServer Gateways

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1958 | Reviewer: ANNNONYMOUSE | 6/10/10 "The song "1958" was written about drummer Brandon Roberts who left the band prior to being signed to Indianola Records. The numbers "1958" were the last four digits of his cell phone number." intro to 1958 | Reviewer: diana | 7/21/07 And shepherds we shall be For thee, my Lord, for thee. Power hath descended forth from Thy hand So feet may swiftly carry out Thy commands. We will flow a river forth to Thee And teeming with souls shall it ever be. In Nomeni Patri Et Fili Spiritus Sancti ...youre welcome. intro | Reviewer: CJ | 5/20/07 why doesnt anyone put the intro on any site? its the coolest part, well i like the whole song, but its really cool too.

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Solving Your Skincare Needs with SkinMedica SkinMedica produces a line of high quality skin care products that are specifically formulated to address the needs of different types of skin. Skin Medica knows that there are measures that can be taken to have drastic results in the recovery of youth and beauty, but that every skin type needs to be treated differently. Companies that treat them all the same are not providing the targeted treatments that skin truly needs. Skin Medica has a wide range of products including moisturizers, sun treatments and protectors, and acne treatments, and recommends specific lines of products based on your individual skin type. Skinmedica makes use of natural products including vitamin C and E in their treatments, in addition to a custom designed blend of soluble collagen and antioxidants. This customized blend is called NouriCel-MD and also includes other proteins and growth factors which have been demonstrated to clearly reduce the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles, as well as improving the strength, elasticity, and coloring of the skin, making NouriCel-MD a powerful ingredient in this product line. The SkinMedica product line specializes in targeted products to work with your skin, whatever its natural condition or current health may be. They make a three part skin treatment line for sun damaged skin for example, called the TNS Regeneration System. They also have a large line of moisturizers designed to moisturize while providing protection from the sun but, again, SkinMedica's specialization is in target products, such as the TNS Ceramide Treatment Cream which is designed especially for post-procedure skin. SOLAR CARE

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The Clip-On Tray with Light Abby McVay - Nov 20, 2007 The Clip-On Tray with Light Most people have either a coffee table or an end table near the couch or their favorite chair. Normally if you have the end table there is some kind of lamp on it. However, if you don't have a ton of space, or you just enjoy having a gadget for pretty much everything this gadget is the logical choice. As long as you have an armrest no wider than 9” the Clip-On Tray with Light can latch onto your chair. The tray features a spot to put your favorite snack or a hot beverage. I know it'd make it easier to use my small Asian tea set. It also has an LED light on an adjustable arm. The gadget is being sold for $19.95. Making it a perfect Christmas present for any friends stuck in a studio apartment or a dorm room. Clip-On Tray with Light [via geekalerts] Must Read Bits & Bytes

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Rat poison bombs revisited. Rat poison bombs revisited. Media criticism. July 11 2002 4:34 PM Rat Poison Bombs Revisited The Middle East story that refuses to die. In a "Press Box" item posted earlier this week, "The d-Con Bomb," I questioned the veracity of reports in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post, Newsweek, Time, the AP, and other publications that Palestinian terrorists had been making their suicide bombs more lethal by adding rat poison—an anticoagulant in both rat and man. The Israeli press, specifically Yediot Ahronot and the Jerusalem Post, addressed the rat poison bomb story with more skepticism than did their American colleagues. Soon after the early December bombings in Jerusalem, Yediot Ahronot reported that nearly all the poison in one of the alleged rat poison bombs was consumed by the energy of the explosion. In February, the Jerusalem Post disclosed that one of the bomb sites produced a false positive for rat poison because municipal authorities had spread rodenticide to control vermin and it contaminated the samples. Still, it remains debatable whether or not Palestinian terrorists have added rat poison to their bombs, as Israeli authorities continue to insist. No forensic evidence has been presented, but the story refuses to die. Let's assume for the purposes of argument that the juiced bombs exist. And let's assume that some of the rat poison survives the heat and pulverizing energy of the blast and makes contact with the shredded flesh of one of the victims. How lethal would the poison be? Listen to Hadassah Hospital trauma surgeon Dr. Avi Rivkind describe the device's effect on one patient to Newsweek's Joshua Hammer in the July 1 issue: One suicide bomber sprinkled rat poison among his nuts and bolts, which acts as an often-fatal anticoagulant. "This 14-year-old girl was bleeding uncontrollably from every one of her puncture wounds," Rivkind says. The doctor managed to stop the bleeding by using a coagulant, still unapproved by the American Food and Drug Administration, which he has since used to treat several other bomb-blast victims. Although none of the rat bomb stories names the specific rat poison being used, the most common anticoagulant rodenticides around the world are warfarin, chlorophacinone, diphacinone, and bromadiolone. Warfarin is the most ubiquitous rat killer, marketed in the United States (but not Israel) by Reckitt Benckiser PLC as d-Con. (A Reckitt Benckiser spokesperson phoned Slate in a howling huff earlier this week over the headline "The d-Con Bomb" because she thought it unfairly maligned her company's product. The fact that the piece argued against the existence of such a bomb was lost on her. In this piece we hope to mollify her by noting that the poison allegedly added to the bombs in Israel could be any one of the generic anticoagulant rodenticides named above.) Anticoagulant rodenticides all kill by inhibiting the process in which the liver produces clotting agents in the blood. Over time, Mr. Rat eats too much rodenticide, loses the ability to clot efficiently, and finally dies from uncontrolled bleeding. These anticoagulants are poison for wildlife, but one of them—warfarin—is a spectacularly great medicine for human beings when meted out in the proper dose. Marketed under the Coumadin trade name by Bristol-Myers Squibb and available in generic form, warfarin is routinely prescribed to "thin the blood" of old folks with circulatory maladies. If your grandpop has had a stroke, undergone heart valve therapy, or suffers from deep vein thrombosis (blood clots in the legs), chances are good he's taken lots of warfarin. Humans take warfarin orally, just like rats, but its action on mammals is the same if taken intravenously—or if introduced into the body by sizzling shrapnel, a Washington pharmacist who declines to be named tells me. But, he disputes whether the latter method would have the effect hypothesized by Dr. Rivkin. A "sprinkle" of warfarin won't block clotting immediately. When taken in its daily therapeutic doses, which range from 5 to 10 milligrams, warfarin requires between two and five days to inhibit clotting. Warfarin sensitivity varies widely from person to person, and only in an exceptional case can signs of reduced clotting come in one day. So, logic argues against adding warfarin or one of its chemical cousins to a bomb: The stuff is not quick-acting, and oral doses of vitamin K1 halt its worst effects. In fact, the reason that the anticoagulant rodenticides are so widely used is that they are so safe. (Scroll to the middle of this page for additional treatments.) So the only additional punch warfarin might lend to a suicide bomb would psychological. Once again, I'm not arguing that nobody has ever set off a rat poison bomb or that the suicide bombers aren't capable of building one. But if they have, the evidence arguing for its existence is remarkably thin. And the evidence arguing for its efficacy is even thinner still. So why has the U.S. press repeated the story so uncritically? In my last piece, I guessed that such a horrific story is, in the parlance of journalism, "too good to check." But what explains the story's origin in the first place? My guess is that the battle-hardened Israelis and Palestinians have been at it so long that they've  normalized the real horrors of war and need to imagine something even more ghastly to keep them going. And, as I found in further explorations of the Nexis way-back machine, the Israeli fear that the Palestinians might be rat-poisoning them is a theme with roots, and the bomb story might just be a new iteration. In feature story by veteran Washington Post correspondent Glenn Frankel eight years ago ("Divided They Stand," Oct. 30, 1994), we learn of Israeli worries—"some true, some fear-inspired fantasy." Frankel writes "of Arab employees in food processing plants urinating in vats of Israeli food staples such as hummus and tahini or slipping rat poison into coffee tins."   Slate Plus Political Gabfest

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You can break wheel makers down––heck, you can break life down––into different categories, but the two categories that we'll choose, for wheel purposes, are those who create, and those who imitate. In the case of Hed you've got a company that spans the spectrum. Certainly Hed has been an innovator. The concept of deep-dish wheels was barely considered when Hed came out with its CX. It is still the only company to take rims to the depth of its Hed Deep––a wheel which is still considered by some to be the best non-disc wheel made. (Is Hed really the only company to ever make a rim this deep? An exception to the above statement might be a now-defunct, so far as we know, company that used to put a permanent plastic cover on an already-built wheel sent to them by the customer. That does not qualify as a rim, though, so we're comfortable with our statement). A further testament to Hed's innovative bent is its intellectual property––a patent with only two legal users, Hed and Zipp––which allows for a rim to be an oval shape. (The patent was originally Hed's.) While Hed is certainly an innovator, Hed's 3-spoke wheel is more than just an imitation of the old Specialized wheel. It is the old Specialized wheel. Whenever wind tunnel tests on aero wheels were performed, Hed's wheels were predictably fast. But the Specialized wheel was always right with it, neck and neck. So, when Hed got the opportunity to buy all the Specialized wheel technology and property, it jumped at the chance. This begs the question, which is the best wheel to buy? Let's say you've decided to make a brand decision, and the nod you've made is in Hed's direction. Do you buy a Deep, a disc, a Stinger, a Jet, or a Hed3? Some of these questions are answered in John Cobb's recent article on the subject of which wheel to buy. We suspect that all things being equal, if you want a proven aero wheel and you're just not sure, the Hed3 is the well-reasoned selection. At the same time, one must realize that nothing is as fast as a disc. But, a disc is not legal in every race. So, decisions must be made. The nice thing about the Hed3 is that there is a plethora of wind tunnel data all proving its worth. Half that data was generated before Hed ever owned the technology: tests performed by Chet Kyle, by Steve Hed and John Cobb themselves before the wheel became Hed's property, by a couple of UK-based researchers, and elsewhere. While the reader may not easily find such data, as most of these tests were done from 1991-1995, when it was not common to publish data on the internet, the tests are out there if you are motivated enough to search. At this point, most of Hed's wheels are built around Hugi hubs. This a Swiss company that makes a well-regarded hub that can accept either a Campy or Shimano cassette assembly. This is a nice feature, since one can inexpensively change the hub out from one "platform" to another, should you at some point convert to the other religion. Here is how Hed's lineup of wheels breaks out: These are great wheels. If you like light weight, they're especially great wheels (they're Hed's only all-carbon wheel, braking surface included). Like Hed's Jet, the Stinger comes in different depths. How light can they be made? Let's put it this way. I once held a front Stinger that weighed less than 400 grams. The whole wheel I'm talking about. That's lighter than most bare rims! The problem is that Steve Hed makes these––by himself––with about the same care that Harrison made his marine chronometers. And, it takes him about as long. So, if you're just starting out in triathlon, go ahead and place your order. By the time you qualify for Hawaii––in about 5 years––your Stingers might be finished. Okay, I'm exaggerating. Hed says its now 2 - 4 weeks out on Stinger orders. These wheels are anywhere from $1000 per pair to $1200 per pair depending on depth, and are sew-up only. You'll occasionally find wheel companies that advertise that their wheels are as fast or faster than discs. These are spurious claims. We've never seen a test, never seen a wheel, that equals a disc. You've pretty-much got to repudiate the whole concept of wind tunnel testing in order to say that your wheel is faster than a disc... unless your wheel is a disc. So, you the customer must make a wager. Has the rest of the industry smoked too much weed? Are they all a bunch of granola heads who're believing too much of their own hype? If you choose to say yes, you've also got to say the same of a lot of other folks who've got other aerodynamic specialties and who happen to have a side-interest in bikes. Plenty of aerodynamicists who inhabit different specialties––car racing, aeronautics, or simply those in academia who have a wind tunnel at their disposal––have taken a stab at wheel testing and have come up with the same conclusion. Discs are fastest. So, if you want the very fastest wheel you can buy, there really is no question what sort of wheel you ought to have. The only decision is, which brand? If the aforesaid is true, why do so many people buy wheels other than discs? First, discs make a bit of noise, and that is disconcerting to come. Second, discs are disallowed in a few races, notably Ironman Hawaii, and some people don't want a wheel that they can't use in every race. Third, they've just fallen out of favor. We're pretty sure they'll eventually fall back in. But it's just a function of where the pendulum sits at the moment. Some people don't choose a disc because it is appears a garish choice. They don't feel they deserve a disc. They are afraid of riding a disc in a race while getting passed by those who've chosen a "lesser" wheel. And finally, some people are gullible or naive enough to believe that other wheels are the equal of a disc. Hed Discs will sell for $525 to $600 each depending on the version (one is slightly lighter). The Superlight only comes in tubular, the standard comes in either tubular or clincher). Jets come in a variety of depths. You can get the regular garden-variety Jet, or the shallowest version, on the right above, which is called J2. These are probably a good idea for a featherweight female who is concerned about getting blown around too much in a big wind. Well, not a rear J2. I cant think of any reason to buy that wheel. But perhaps a front. On the other end of the spectrum is the Jet Deep, which is, well, deep. Lots of surface area there, and surface area means both speed and, in the front, steering torque––so you've got to be a decent bike handler to use a Deep on the front on a windy day. The Jet Deep is a good wheel if you want to speed of a deep Stinger but you don't want to pay that money, or if you want it in a clincher. The Jet in all its variations is a lightweight wheel, and you can true it. In order to do so you've got to deflate and dismount the tire (you true it via a hex wrench through the spoke holes in the outside of the rim). The Alps, which we'll cover below, trues the same way. The Stinger, by contrast, trues with a spoke wrench, just like a standard rim. Hed Jets can cost up to $625/pr., if you want the deep variety, and a J2 front-only can be had for about $275. This is a very nice wheel. Let's face it, DuPont spent a zillion dollars making it, and Specialized spent a zillion dollars on rider testing, wind tunnel testing, and in getting DuPont to come out with a 650c version (and, subsequently, clincher versions). So, everybody else's loss is Hed's, and your, gain. You can't true this wheel. On the other hand, you shouldn't need to. It's reasonably light, quite strong, more or less true (as these kinds of wheels go), and is spectacularly (and provably) aerodynamic. It is also reasonably priced at about $850 a pair. If you take a Hed3 and cut out the spokes and drill little holes around the edge of the remaining rim and spoke it up with traditional spokes and hub, you've got an Alps. Hed's reasoning? The technology Hed uses to make its Hed3 wheels is better able to make this sort of reasonably lightweight stiff carbon rims the technology Hed was using to make its CX. So, Hed abandoned its older way of manufacturing such wheels and replaced it with the newer. The resulting wheel is the Alps. If you were a fan of the CX, and many were, the Alps is for you. The Alps is sort of a hybrid between the Jet and the Stinger. It has a stiff carbon section like the Stinger, yet it has an aluminum braking surface like the Jet. Its rim is 50mm deep––whether you choose a 650c or 700c––and the wheel is light. The rim is 420 grams. A pair of these built into wheels will set you back about $850, and that is with titanium spokes. The resulting wheelset is very light, you can true them, and very durable. Out of all this bunch, which are our favorites? We're torn between the Hed3 and the Alps if you want a wheel for the many and varied uses of a triathlete. Both are very, very hard wheelsets to beat, when you look at value, aerodynamics, weight, durability, and the ability to use your wheel regardless of the race. But one also must consider Hed's disc. Not many companies make discs anymore, and Hed's disc remains lightweight, true, and value priced. When you absolutely positively have to get to the finish line as fast as you can––and so long as you're in a race that allows discs (and most do, the notable exception being Ironman Hawaii)––the disc is your logical choice. All these wheels come in both 650c and 700c, and with only two exceptions––the Stinger and the Superlight disc––can be had in both clincher and sew-up. Hed's website can be found here. It's wheels can be ordered directly via the website, or via calling Hed (651-653-0202). Its wheels can also be purchased through selected dealers, the largest of which is Bicycle Sports.

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Keeping you current The Lame Reason NASA Gave Up on Sending Astronauts to Venus in 1973 We had the technology, but not the will Venus, a great place to take a few laps in orbit. Photo: NASA / JPL In the mid-1960s America’s space program was swiftly racing towards the Moon, a exotic land that would be conquered before the decade was out. But in the years leading up to the landing, NASA was already looking toward the future, asking: how could they keep the amazing team that built the Apollo program in place, and where could humans go next, given the technologies on hand? Writing for Ars Technica, Amy Shira Teitel lays out in detail the plans devised to send astronauts to Venus, to Mars, or to both planets on one epic voyage, using only the equipment that put people on the Moon. Following a launch during the November 1973 window, the crew would reach Venus sometime around March 3, 1974, and the planet would become their primary science target. Using the telescope’s broad spectrum to look beyond Venus’ thick clouds, the crew would gather data on Venus’ surface, the chemical composition of the lower atmospheric levels, its gravitational field, and the properties of its various cloud layers. They might even release robotic probes, small vehicles that would send data back to the spacecraft in real time about the atmosphere as they completed their one-way missions to the surface. Swinging around Venus would give the crew enough momentum to return to Earth. Planetary geometry following that November 1973 launch window meant the return trip would take a full 273 days. The whole venture, says Teitel, was predicated on the idea that, after the moon landing, Americans would experience a great surge of enthusiasm for the exploration of the cosmos. That, however, never happened. Given that, even at the time, the majority of Americans weren’t too keen on sending people to the Moon, it was probably never a very realistic dream in the first place. As Alexis Madrigal wrote at the Atlantic last year, the rosy ideal of the Moon landing as this great coming-together moment of human experience is one heavily tinted by time: Back in the Apollo days, people loved the space program! Except, as this Space Policy paper pointed out, they didn’t. A majority of Americans opposed the government funding human trips to the moon both before (July 1967) and after (April 1970) Neil Armstrong took a giant leap for mankind. It was only in the months surrounding Apollo 11 that support for funding the program ever reached above 50 percent. And federal budget makers weren’t any more excited about sending men to Venus or Mars. Funding for the Apollo program petered out by 1973, as NASA’s overall budget shrunk from a peak of $5.9 billion in 1966 to a low of $3.2 billion in 1974. As a percentage of federal spending, NASA’s budget has continued to diminish: in 1966, it made up 4.4 percent of all federal spending. It’s now around 0.5 percent. The government may not have been so keen on space spending, but “it wasn’t only a lack of funding that doomed the Venus and Mars flyby missions,” according to Teitel. The Venus and Mars proposals “were never intended as a recommendation,” she says. Still, they could have been spectacular. If those plans had been executed, people would have been orbiting our two nearest planetary neighbors just a few years after we set foot on the Moon. More from Elon Musk’s Plan for Mars Is Really Vague But Definitely Expensive Preparing for a Mission to Mars Is Dangerously Boring About Colin Schultz Colin Schultz Read more from this author | Comment on this Story comments powered by Disqus

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