"In the beginning, there was darkness... and then, bang... giving birth to an endless expanding existence... of time, space, and matter." "Now, see further than we've ever imagined... beyond the limits of our existence... in a place we call "The Universe."" "There may be other worlds out there..." "Universes budding off other universes." "...where there could be an exact copy... of our solar system, our Earth, and each one of us." "Where everything's pretty much the same or maybe only slightly different." "But where are these other universes?" "Why can't we see them?" "Because we're in different dimensions." "Can this be true?" "If there are extra dimensions of a certain size and shape... this experiment will find them." "The question isn't whether they exist... but whether there's one, two, three, or four different kinds of them." "This sensationally means the universe sits in a sea of parallel universes." "Imagine another world, a whole other universe... with a solar system and a planet exactly like ours." "On this parallel Earth, there lives an exact copy of you." "You could be leading exactly the same life... but in another universe." "Now, imagine an entirely separate universe... where you could be living a slightly different life... at the same time as you live this life." "It may seem fantastic, incredible, and impossible... but there could be many other universes out there." "And now some of the world's leading physicists... believe that they have evidence to prove it." "We are experiencing an existential shock." "Our worldview has been shattered... with the realization that, yes, there could be parallel universes." "I mean, it's just a mind-boggling idea... that there may be, essentially... exact replicas of us out there in the vastness of space." "The idea of a parallel universe is part of our popular culture." "People all around us think of it every day... but usually in terms of fiction." "One of the real exciting things... is that scientists today are trying to see... whether parallel universes are a physical reality." "Amazing new discoveries about the true size of the universe... seem to indicate that all that we see... is not all that there is." "We humans have assumed... like ostriches with our heads in the sand... that just because we can't see something, it ain't there." "When my grandma was a little girl, for instance... they still didn't know that there were other galaxies." "Now we know that there are... billions and billions of other galaxies out there." "Remarkably, there may be four types of parallel universe out there." "One kind could exist in the same exact space we're in... but it is so far away, we cannot see it or reach it." "In another scenario, multiple other universes... could be in giant cosmic soap bubbles... adrift in a cosmic sea of giant bubbles." "Revolutionary developments have changed the entire landscape." "Data from outer space have given us a new look at cosmology... and satellite data indicates there could be parallel universes." "In yet another scenario, many parallel universes... occupy the same space and time as our universe... but because they are in different dimensions... they are invisible." "In yet another, all the laws of physics are different... so everything looks completely different." "New theories called string theories... are giving us worlds of higher dimensions." "Quantum physics at the microscopic scale... is also revealing to us the fact there could be parallel universes." "To keep things simple, physicists have divided parallel universes... into different levels." "Meet the level-one parallel universe." "According to physicists, the level-one parallel universe... is just an extension of our own universe." "Now, that's the kind of universe... which is really sort of part of our space... of our giant space... but it's so far away that we can't see it." "The level-one parallel universe is based on the idea... that the universe is infinite in size." "If true, just by the sheer mathematical odds... there must be out there in endless space... an exact copy of the solar system, the Earth... and all the people on it." "If you're planning a trip... the closest level-one parallel universe... is really incredibly far away." "Crudely speaking, you have to go googolplex yards... where a googol is one with a hundred zeroes after it... and a googolplex is one with a googol zeroes." "So it's an awfully long way, farther than we can see." "Those universes are so far away that light hasn't reached us." "But is our universe really infinite?" "A new theory called cosmic inflation suggests that it is." "We think that it was born in a very, very small state... and then there was a kind of a weird energy... that pushed it apart by a tremendous amount." "It just went whoosh." "Inflation accounts for how our universe... suddenly and massively grew after its inception." "The best theory we have right now for what made space so big- the theory of inflation- says, in fact, that space isn't just big or huge... that it's really infinite." "It goes on forever... which means that there aren't just one, two, three... but infinitely many other regions of space... just as big as our universe." "Even the universe that we know is mind-blowingly big." "When we fly around in intergalactic space like this... every little blob you see here can contain a galaxy... which, in turn, might contain hundreds of billions of stars... with solar systems around them and so on." "So there's just this enormous number of other spaces out there... that we can't see." "And there is more." "We actually think that there's a gigantic number... perhaps even an infinite number of level-one universes." "This radical idea is leading... to a completely new definition of the cosmos." "We used to say universe, "uni" meaning one- a one-world theory." "Everything there is, everything we can see is the universe." "Now, we have a multiverse idea where there are unseen worlds- worlds that we cannot see, worlds that we cannot touch." "If this wild theory is correct, the consequences are sensational." "Within this infinite universe... you might have other copies of the solar system... of planet Earth." "And this is the real shocker." "Then there's a copy of me and you... and everyone else out there somewhere." "And that's not all." "There are an infinite number of other universes and other Earths... and infinite copies of each one of us." "If true, then every possible outcome for every life has to happen." "In some universes, in what some now call the multiverse... one leads exactly the same life... but in others, things can be slightly different." "You didn't get that parking ticket that irked you so much... or you, unfortunately, never met your wife." "Anything that is physically possible actually does occur... in some other parallel universe." "It means that in one universe, Elvis Presley is still alive." "In a different level-one universe..." "George W. Bush is the baseball commissioner." "Or perhaps we don't exist at all in some of these universes." "The implications are staggering." "And if the universe is infinite... and there really are all these level-one universes... in the infinite multiverse... all those other possibilities did somewhere happen." "Technically, there are a couple of ways mathematically... for the universe to be truly infinite... but, essentially, it must be shown to be flat." "The universe seems to be perfectly flat... which means either the universe is flat... or is curved so slightly that we can't see it." "In this case, the universe would eventually curve back in on itself... and form a hypersphere." "It would then be finite in size and volume... and not flat and infinite." "Another way to look at this is that the universe... may have inflated so quickly and so enormously... that it only looks flat." "Think of a bug walking on a gigantic balloon." "The larger the balloon, the flatter things get." "The bug walks in any direction, and the bug says..." ""Well, the universe seems perfectly flat to me."" "But from a distance... we see that the bug is walking on a gigantic balloon." "But now an amazing new tool... the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe or WMAP... is changing everything." "Some say the remarkable images reveal the true shape of the universe." "What we have here are baby pictures of the universe... what it looked like when it was only 400,000 years old." "We're looking so far back in time... that the galaxies hadn't even formed yet." "We just had this dead, diffuse gas which, gradually, overtime... clumped into galaxies, stars, planets." "The WMAP is catching the very earliest signs of creation." "Officially, it is tasked with measuring radiation... left over from the Big Bang." "But now some scientists have devised an experiment... to calculate the overall shape of the universe." "If I send light rays through space... and make a gigantic triangle, going from us here... out to the farthest edges of what we can see and then back... the angles of those- that triangle should add up to exactly 180 degrees." "If the universe is curved like a balloon... the angles of the giant triangle would add up... to more than 180 degrees." "To find out if the universe is flat or curved... they shot laser beams deep into space... and made a giant light triangle." "Now we can tell, and the measurement is in... and the answer is, it works beautifully." "The angles add up to exactly 180 degrees." "The universe is flat." "The WMAP seems to show that the universe is flat." "For some, however, the jury is still out... on the flat universe question." "I tend to think that the universe is, in fact... a soap bubble of some sort, but it is bent so slightly that we can't see it." "Some experts say that there are other... even more mind-boggling kinds of parallel universes out there... a level-two type parallel universe... made up of giant, cosmic soap bubbles that float in hyperspace." "Each independent bubble has within it an entire universe." "The question is, do we all really live in a giant cosmic bubble?" "Could our universe be just one mega bubble... in a cosmic crowd of mega bubbles?" "If the sensational, level-two type parallel universe idea is right... then the true nature of the cosmos... could be even more astonishing than ever imagined." "The amazing concept is that in the instance of creation... our universe rapidly, suddenly, and massively inflated... creating a giant cosmic soap bubble." "Our unique universe floats in a seething sea... of other super-bubbles... where bubbles can clash... and spawn baby brother and sister universes." "It's happening all the time." "Universes are inflating, popping out... and then blowing up to these huge sizes of universes." "The medium these level-two bubbles are floating in... is what some call the bulk and others call hyperspace." "In this new paradigm... soap bubbles can form, re-form, they can split." "It's dynamic: universes being created out of nothing... universes budding off other universes." "Altogether, these bubbles form the level-two type parallel universe." "And within it, there are an infinite number... of level-one type parallel universes." "The level-one and level-two universes... are all in our same one space." "There's only one space." "Then there are these different regions... which we call level-one and level-two parallel universes." "A fly-by through the level-two parallel universe... or what some also call the multiverse... would be a terrifying and spectacular experience." "A multiverse of universes, each one popping into existence... popping out of existence, perhaps colliding with each other." "Out of calamity comes existence." "What we call the level-two multiverse... is really best thought of as a tree or a fractal structure... where you have a region of space expanding like crazy... and spiraling off other regions... which then expand, spiraling off other regions." "And other ones can bud off of that." "So you can get this chaotic, eternally branching set of universes... budding off from their predecessors." "An infinite set of universes in this multiverse." "The big term for this monumental process is bubble nucleation." "Bubble nucleation is the geek-speech phrase... for the process where you have this inflating strange material... and then a little piece of it stops inflating... and causes a bubble-shaped region expanding around it... to also stop inflating... and then you create in this bubble a nice, calm region of space... where you will eventually form galaxies, stars, planets... and even people like us." "So we are the children of the bubble." "For the first time in human history... children of the bubble are peering out... and seeing on the horizon parallel universes." "Determined physicists believe they are now on the brink... of uncovering the ultimate mysteries of the universe." "Why look for these parallel universes that we can't touch?" "Because they hold the secret of secrets." "They hold the secret of the origin of everything there is." "For the first time, we can imagine where our universe itself came from." "Perhaps when our universe popped into existence... colliding with another parallel universe... perhaps budding from another universe... these are the stuff of modern research today:" "pre-Big Bang physics." "Physics before Genesis." "But there is a problem." "For decades, scientists have been searching... for one cohesive theory of everything... one to unite Einstein's theory of general relativity... which explains how gravity works over large scales... with quantum physics, the science of the tiniest matter." "Together, these two great theories explain... everything humanity knows so far about the cosmos." "But like a cartoon cat and mouse..." "They are at war with one another." "These two theories hate each other." "They're completely inconsistent, incompatible." "No way to understand in today's world... a quantum version of general relativity." "How can we get a shotgun marriage... between these two theories that don't like each other?" "Bringing those together would give you... a theory of everything in the sense... that those are the ingredients you would need, I think... to understand the Big Bang... to understand the origin of the universe." "When, in the 1980s, scientists came up with... a lyrical-sounding idea, string theory... it promised to solve all the mysteries of the universe... including whether or not parallel universes are real." "The idea is that all particles are not solid points or dots... as science said they were." "Instead, if you could see up close... particles are, in fact, tiny string-like objects... that individually vibrate in various ways." "String theory starts out... by taking the idea of a string which vibrates... giving rise to different particles, and doing physics with that." "That's rather musical, in a way." "It's like using guitar and bass in a band... to generate different notes from vibrations of strings." "As scientists explored string theory more closely... they made a remarkable discovery." "We found that it wasn't just strings... that were involved in the physics... but also membranes and other extended objects... which could vibrate." "And that's rather like enlarging the band... to have drums and other instruments... which enrich the sound... and really broaden the repertoire of things that could be played." "String theory has now evolved into what is called..." ""M" or membrane theory." "So now we realize that the particles we see in nature, the universe itself... consists of vibrating membranes and vibrating strings." "The crowning achievement of M-theory came... when scientists realized that, to make sense of everything... you need to think of the universe as existing in 11 dimensions." "If you're sitting on a mountaintop... and you look down, you can see all the separate little villages... that are not unified at all." "But from a mountaintop, you look at a coherent, whole, beautiful picture." "And that's M-theory." "M-theory explains how the tiniest... as well as the biggest things in the cosmos work." "It also proposes that we all live on a giant and energetic membrane." "Our universe is tethered to this wall by invisible extra dimensions." "To make matters crazier, M-theory proposes... that six or seven of these dimensions... the extra ones we don't sense every day... are tiny and right in front of your nose." "At every point of any one of these people walking by... you pick a point, at that point... there will be an incredibly tiny, curled-up... either six or seven dimensions that you just don't perceive." "These membranes are also very close to each other." "You could have one of these membranes being a universe." "And then, moving sideways... you have another membrane being a separate universe... and they may be just a millimeter or two away." "The giant walls of energetic matter float side by side... like humongous sheets in the bulk or in hyperspace." "An entire universe may be attached to a brane... or a universe can occupy the whole of another one." "Our own universe sits on the skin of one of these giant branes... that, in turn, is adrift in the cosmic sea of space." "And it's floating around in a bigger structure called the bulk." "Our three-dimensional universe is like a membrane... floating around within this larger structure." "Believing that invisible extra dimensions... that, like an umbilical cord, connect us... to a hyper or bulk space where giant membranes live... demands a huge leap of faith." "Where are these membranes that we're stuck to?" "And why can't we see these extra dimensions that connect us?" "I'm floating around here on this kayak on the surface of the ocean... and you can think of this as a two-dimensional surface." "But below me, there's a whole 'nother dimension." "There's the down dimension where all the fish live." "You can think of that as the bulk." "I'm on a membrane, floating around... and the bulk is the other dimension." "The fish down below the surface of the water... are in a different dimension than I am." "They don't even know that I'm here... unless I happen to splash around and hit one on the head... or something like that." "So they might be completely oblivious to my existence... and I could be oblivious to their existence... because we're in different dimensions." "But can a fleeting thought send you into an extra dimension... and on to a parallel universe?" "According to the latest M-theory, in less than an instant... in the first trillionth of a trillionth of a second... membranes in a pre-universe cosmos, like gigantic cosmic cymbals... smashed together and produced the Big Bang." "Over almost 13.7 billion years... a huge expanding bubble of primordial matter... evolved into the universe we now know and love." "Can crashing membranes create parallel universes, too?" "If it happened once, it can happen again... and again and again." "So it's possible that there's a continuous cycle... of branes smashing together to produce universes... and that it never stops." "If this is true, level-two parallel universes must exist." "Time goes on forever... and there's a continual process of birth of universes... through cosmic catastrophes." "In the level-three type... there is an even more fantastic way parallel universes can form." "Here's how it works." "In both the level-one and level-two kinds... there are replica universes separated from us... in the here and now by time and space... but in the level-three parallel universe... these copies of us are right here, right now... living in the exact same space and time." "They are separated from us... because they're in a different dimension of this same space." "And to bend our minds more, there are an infinite number of them." "If true, this controversial "many worlds" concept... has monumental consequences." "Parallel universes don't exist." " Right." " They're nonsense." "They're something out of a "Twilight Zone" episode... a bad "Star Trek" rerun." "But you forget one thing." "One small quantum difference could separate me... from an entirely different universe... where I have multiple copies of myself... leading multiple different lives." "This is shocking." "This even affects morals." "I mean, why should I obey the law... knowing that in some universe, if I commit a crime..." "I'm going to get away with it?" "The outrageous idea comes from the strange world... of quantum mechanics... the science of the atom." "In the bizarre atomic world... we have electrons that literally disappear... reappear someplace else." "Electrons that could be multiple places at the same time." "This staggering quantum mechanical phenomenon... is enshrined in the Heisenberg uncertainty principle." "As crazy as it sounds, not only does quantum physics... tell you that a little particle can be in two places at once... but the so-called Heisenberg uncertainty principle... tells you that sometime the particle... even must be in two places at once." "With a laser light and a glass apple... it can be seen how light particles, or photons, do this." "This shows that photons... the little particles of light coming out of my laser... can end up in several places at once." "And since we are made of little particles... that means if they can be in several places at once... so can we." "In other words, in the instant that you have a fleeting thought... your whole body makes a quantum leap... into another dimension and into a parallel universe." "And what it means is that if I am walking down the pavement... and just make a snap decision... as to whether I'm going to go left or right... if my decision depends... on what some little particle in my brain was doing... then I will actually end up doing both... and the life of mine" "it effectively splits into two parallel realities." "In a level-three type parallel universe... even a cat has many more than nine lives." "The trouble is, in some of these worlds... the cat could be dead." "And at the same time, in other parallel universes... the same cat can be alive and kicking." "But how?" "How can you have a dead cat and a live cat simultaneously?" "Because the universe splits in half." "In one universe, we have a dead cat." "In the other universe, we have a live cat." "Get used to it." "What is even more shocking... is that in some of these many worlds... a tiny quantum difference in thought can change the whole world." "It's like the butterfly that flaps its wing and makes the hurricane." "Tiny microscopic events would change the course of history." "So every historical event actually happened... in every possible way in some branch... of this ever-splitting, many-worlds universe." "In one, the Nazis won World War II." "In which case, I'm now speaking German... and there's a swastika behind me." "In another world... none of the horror ever happened." "In one universe, there's no World War II... and 50 or so million people didn't have to die." "Like the endless rolls of the dice, all possible numbers... and all possible kinds of universes and outcomes... will eventually turn up and occur in one of these many worlds." "In fact, all our wishes, too, can come true... in a parallel universe." "If the many worlds idea is right... then there's a branch of the universe... in which the Chicago Cubs won the World Series last year." "You can imagine that the USA was still a colony... of the British, for example." "Even the impossible is probable in some parallel universe." "There could even be creatures coming into our world... from these mysterious extra dimensions." "As mind-boggling as it sounds... when it comes to the amazing world of parallel universes... anything that can happen has happened or will happen... in some other universe... in some other dimension, space, and time." "Quantum differences can rewrite history... creating multiple universes... each with wildly different outcomes... where anything and everything is possible." "Some wars never happened." "Others we never imagined did." "A slight change means a comet missed... and even dinosaurs still roam some Earth somewhere." "All and every one of these fantastic parallel universes... occupy the same space... but are in a different dimension, and so invisible to us." "Even as you peacefully watch TV... whole other invisible worlds could be raging all around you." "These parallel universes are in your living room." "This means that in your living room, there are dinosaurs." "You can't hear them." "You can't see the dinosaurs... that are rampaging throughout your living room... but they're there." "The quantum principle that creates many versions of each person... can also create entire universes." "The universe, at one point, was actually smaller than an electron." "If that's true and if electrons are described... by being many places at the same time in parallel states... this means that the universe also exists in parallel states." "You inevitably get parallel universes." "There's no choice." "But that's not all." "Scientists recently have shocked the world again... and claimed that there could be one more kind of parallel universe." "These level-four type are created... either by quantum fluctuations or by branes clashing." "What is created is radically different." "In this type of parallel universe, all the rules are out the window." "It could be, in fact... that the mathematics and physics describing reality... differs from what we're used to in our universe." "If the laws of physics are different in a level-four parallel universe... space could just consist of gas and particles." "Galaxies, stars, and planets would not have formed... and life as we know it would not exist." "To show that any type of parallel universe... level one, two, three or four, truly exists... experts must find the evidence." "Be they big, tiny or invisible... scientists must find physical indications... of the extra dimensions... that supposedly connect us to these other worlds." "To do it, today physicists at Fermilab in Illinois... are conducting extraordinary experiments... hoping to prove that any kind... even the wildest type of parallel universe, is really out there." "For the first time ever, real and remarkable experiments... are taking place at particle colliders like the Tevatron at Fermilab." "Right now, this detector is looking for evidence... of extra dimensions." "If there are extra dimensions of a certain size and shape... this experiment will find them." "Their best chance of exposing extra dimensions... comes from smashing microscopic particles together... at super speeds." "The smoking gun in the hunt is gravity." "It has been found to be a uniquely weak force... so the Fermilab physicists are looking for the particle that carries gravity." "It is called a graviton." "It's the particle that carries gravity... which we think knows about all of the extra dimensions of space." "So we think the gravitons... if you can produce them in high energies... should actually move off into the extra dimensions." "But finding a graviton, or at least a sign of one... is a huge challenge." "It's tricky and complicated because you're looking for nothing." "You're looking for something that has disappeared." "What's the rate now?" "It's very, very rare that you make a really exotic particle." "So we literally have to collide them billions of times... in order to find the very rare event... where you make something like a particle... that disappears into extra dimensions." "The Tevatron collider shoots miniscule protons and antiprotons... at terrific speeds just short of the speed of light... around a four-mile-long, super-enforced, steel-encased ring." "To protect the sensitive experiments from surface noise... and for safety reasons... the collision ring lies deep underground." "We take beams of high-energy protons going one way around a big ring... and a beam of high-energy antiprotons going the other way around the ring... and then, at two places in the ring, we smash them together." "The mighty collision annihilates the particles... and produces an intense ball of pure energy..." "The idea being that perhaps we can make new particles... that disappear into the extra dimensions." "If nothing happens, how will the scientists know... that a graviton has moved off into an extra dimension?" "The way that you tell that is by reconstructing... everything else that happened in this messy collision... and then saying, "Oops, there's some energy..." ""and momentum that's missing here."" "So we call this a missing energy search." "It could take years and billions of collisions... before history happens and higher dimensions are found." "If extra dimensions are there, it means the universe... is a much bigger and much stranger place... than we have ever imagined." "But if it does happen, it would be proof positive... that parallel worlds exist." "The question then will be, how do we get there?" "Faced with extinction in the far-flung future... can humankind open a portal to a parallel universe?" "Parallel universes are not just a crazy idea... dreamed up by physicists to marry science with fiction." "If finally proven to exist... they could have an important practical purpose... in the far-off future." "Finding a tunnel to another world could one day save humanity." "Billions of years from now... our Earth will meet its inevitable demise." "Experts say that it will all end either in a big crunch or big freeze." "If other universes are shown to exist... some say they could serve as a kind of cosmic lifeboat." "For a future generation... a passage or gateway to another world... could be their only hope for survival." "The question is, can we find a way to get there?" "One cool way of theoretically going from our universe to another one... is to go through what's called a wormhole... a bridge connecting two universes... kind of like getting on a train or a subway." "Like a subway system in a city... going through this tunnel to a different place." "Think of two sheets of paper... that are stacked parallel to each other... but then think of a gateway, a shortcut... a portal connecting these two universes." "This extreme idea was first proposed back in 1935... by the inimitable Albert Einstein and his student, Nathan Rosen." "A "throat" with two conjoined black holes, theoretically... allows someone, like a passenger on a subway train... to quickly travel to another space and time." "This could work if the universe is really an infinite multiverse." "Certainly, it's a theoretical possibility... a sort of shortcut, if you like." "And it allows the possibility of traveling... between distant parts of the universe... or perhaps between different universes." "There are all sorts of problems with trying to traverse a wormhole." "But one challenge above all seems insurmountable." "When Einstein introduced the wormhole into his equations... he didn't think that anyone... could ever walk through one of these things... because, after all, you die in the process." "Impossible as it may sound, experts think there may be... a way to travel through a wormhole... and live to tell about it." "In principle, you can go right through... to another parallel universe." "If you go through again... you wind up on yet another parallel universe." "And if you go again and again and again... you wind up on repeated parallel universes." "It's like going into an elevator and hitting the "up" button." "Each floor looks like a universe." "Once again, however, there is a major drawback." "One problem is you don't know where you're going to wind up." "You'll wind up in a middle of a star... wind up in the middle of a planet." "It may ultimately prove impossible for individuals... to pass through a portal to a parallel universe... but there may be another way to save humankind." "If the gateway is very small, like, for example, atomic in size... perhaps what we should do is send a seed, a nanobot... a microscopic robot through the gateway... containing the DNA, containing all the information... necessary to create a new civilization on the other side of the universe." "Where do we see that in nature?" "Think of a tree." "A tree creates a seed." "The seed contains the DNA that it shoots out in all directions... capable of creating a new tree." "The idea is that if an advanced civilization... in the future could assemble enough high-energy laser beams... they could, in theory, burn a hole in the fabric of space-time." "It's very difficult." "But we physicists have calculated that if you concentrate... enormous energy at a single point... to attain something called the Planck energy... the ultimate energy... space and time itself become unstable." "Little bubbles begin to form... little bubbles that are perhaps portals... gateways to another universe." "In this way, a microscopic pod or nanobot... containing humanity's DNA and the cosmic code of our world... can be transported to a parallel universe." "Faced with extinction... this could be humanity's last great hope." "If we can't do it, it means the death of the universe." "But if this incredible feat is achieved... our entire universe would be resurrected... and, like a phoenix, rise from the ashes." "In other words, you are playing God." "This fantastic idea... like the replay button on the universal iPod... could reset the cosmic concerto of human history... back to the beginning." "At least some kinds almost certainly exist." "Maybe the other kinds exist as well." "We just don't know." "Only then, perhaps, will we be certain that there are parallel universes."


Q:

Xlsxwriter in pandas and outside of pandas lockout

I am using xlsxwriter engine to push some dataframes into excel sheet with pandas.to_excel(), but I need a caption above each table.
Here is an example of what result I would like to achieve:

I did not see any way to use ExcelWriter object of pandas to simply manipulate content of each cell and when I try to do it, I get:

Exception: Sheetname 'sample', with case ignored, is already in use.

I guess xlsxwriter locks it for itself. Here is an example:
xlsx_writer = pd.ExcelWriter(
    get_target_filepath(xlsx_name),
    engine='xlsxwriter'
)

workbook = xlsx_writer.book
worksheet = workbook.add_worksheet(sheet_name)

worksheet.write(1, 1, 'ABC')

_, sample_table = dataframe_tuples[0]
sample_table.to_excel(xlsx_writer, startrow=3, startcol=2, sheet_name=sheet_name)

I could save dataframes and go over it again with openpyxl, but I seriously dislike the way they do formatting, which I have to do next, and if I format it in xlsxwriter and then reopen it with openpyxl, it cannot save the formatting back properly, openpyxl ruins it.
I can not put excel itself onto server to use VBA macros for styling.
Is there any way around this or am I just doing something horribly wrong?

A:

You can do it as follows by getting the worksheet reference from pandas and calling standard XlsxWriter methods on it. Like this:
import pandas as pd

# Create some Pandas dataframes from some data.
df1 = pd.DataFrame({'Data': [11, 12, 13, 14]})
df2 = pd.DataFrame({'Data': [21, 22, 23, 24]})

# Create a Pandas Excel writer using XlsxWriter as the engine.
writer = pd.ExcelWriter('pandas_example.xlsx', engine='xlsxwriter')

# Position the dataframes in the worksheet.
df1.to_excel(writer, sheet_name='Sheet1', index=False, startrow=2)
df2.to_excel(writer, sheet_name='Sheet1', index=False, startrow=9)

# Get the worksheet object.
worksheet = writer.sheets['Sheet1']

# Write some titles above the dataframes.
worksheet.write(1, 0, 'Some random title 1')
worksheet.write(8, 0, 'Some random title 2')

# Close the Pandas Excel writer and output the Excel file.
writer.save()

See also Working with Python Pandas and XlsxWriter.
Output:

A:

Try to use multi-level columns:
In [137]: df
Out[137]:
   A  B  C
0  1  2  3
1  4  5  6
2  7  8  9

In [138]: df.columns = pd.MultiIndex.from_product([['Caption'], df.columns])

In [139]: df
Out[139]:
  Caption
        A  B  C
0       1  2  3
1       4  5  6
2       7  8  9

In [140]: df.to_excel('c:/temp/a.xlsx')

Result:


A nutrient combination designed to enhance synapse formation and function improves outcome in experimental spinal cord injury.
Spinal cord injury leads to major neurological impairment for which there is currently no effective treatment. Recent clinical trials have demonstrated the efficacy of Fortasyn® Connect in Alzheimer's disease. Fortasyn® Connect is a specific multi-nutrient combination containing DHA, EPA, choline, uridine monophosphate, phospholipids, and various vitamins. We examined the effect of Fortasyn® Connect in a rat compression model of spinal cord injury. For 4 or 9 weeks following the injury, rats were fed either a control diet or a diet enriched with low, medium, or high doses of Fortasyn® Connect. The medium-dose Fortasyn® Connect-enriched diet showed significant efficacy in locomotor recovery after 9 weeks of supplementation, along with protection of spinal cord tissue (increased neuronal and oligodendrocyte survival, decreased microglial activation, and preserved axonal integrity). Rats fed the high-dose Fortasyn® Connect-enriched diet for 4 weeks showed a much greater enhancement of locomotor recovery, with a faster onset, than rats fed the medium dose. Bladder function recovered quicker in these rats than in rats fed the control diet. Their spinal cord tissues showed a smaller lesion, reduced neuronal and oligodendrocyte loss, decreased neuroinflammatory response, reduced astrocytosis and levels of inhibitory chondroitin sulphate proteoglycans, and better preservation of serotonergic axons than those of rats fed the control diet. These results suggest that this multi-nutrient preparation has a marked therapeutic potential in spinal cord injury, and raise the possibility that this original approach could be used to support spinal cord injured patients.


The Innovative Transportation Index

Rapid technological advances have enabled the creation of new transportation tools that make it possible for more Americans to live full and engaged lives without owning a car. Many of these new tools have been in existence for less than a decade – some for less than five years – but they have spread rapidly to cities across the United States.

This report reviews the availability of 11 technology-enabled transportation services – including online ridesourcing, carsharing, ridesharing, taxi hailing, static and real-time transit information, multi-modal apps, and virtual transit ticketing – in 70 U.S. cities. It finds that residents of 19 cities, with a combined population of nearly 28 million people, have access to eight or more of these services, with other cities catching up rapidly.

These services make it easier to conveniently get around without owning a car. That is increasingly what city dwellers – and Millennials especially – say they want. These services individually help travelers, but more importantly, they work together to become more than the sum of their parts.

Expanding the availability of shared-use transportation modes and other technology-enabled tools can give more Americans the freedom to live “car-free” or “car-light” lifestyles – avoiding the cost of owning, insuring, maintaining and garaging a private vehicle. Even when these services provide access to a car, they still make it easier for Americans to reduce their auto dependence by enabling easy access to a vehicle without the constant use associated with ownership. These tools have been expanding rapidly, yet public agencies have been slow to integrate these new systems into their planning and policy toolbox. Local, state and federal governments should explore ways to expand access to these tools and incorporate them into strategies for reducing the congestion, public health and environmental impacts of urban transportation systems.

Technology-enabled transportation services provide new options for millions of Americans.

Carsharing services offer vehicle access on-demand, lowering the cost of vehicular mobility for many while still preserving on-demand access to a car. Options include fleet-based services such as Zipcar or peer-to-peer networks that provide cars for round-trip and, increasingly, one-way trips. Carsharing is currently available in 69 of the 70 cities surveyed.

Ridesharing services provide a tool for riders and drivers to find one another. Potential riders can find drivers who are already going in the same direction and use these services to coordinate pick-up location, costs and schedules. Ridesharing is currently available in 5 of 70 cities.

Ridesourcing services, such as Lyft, Uber and Sidecar, enable users to solicit a ride from their current location from a pool of drivers using a smartphone. These services differ from taxis in that the drivers are not commercially licensed taxi drivers and, as such, are not permitted to pick up passengers off the street. Ridesourcing services are currently available in 59 of the 70 cities evaluated in this report.

Taxi hailing services provide technology to help users locate and call taxis with their smartphone, and (in some locations) pay through the smartphone as well, eliminating the need for cash on hand. Taxi hailing services are currently available in 34 of 70 cities.

Bikesharing systems increase options for short journeys (for example, trips too long for walking), and can serve as first- and last-mile connections between transit locations and travelers’ final destinations. They also provide a fun and active way to travel without concern for fixed schedules. Bikesharing is currently available in 32 of 70 cities.

Static transit data improves usability of transit services by enabling users to access schedules and route maps online via desktop, smartphone or other Internet-connected devices. When accessible on the go, schedule and routing data helps riders navigate transit systems effectively, even when their plans change. Static transit data is currently available in 66 of 70 cities.

Real-time transit information builds on the benefits of open static data by providing users real-time information on arrival/departure times and delays. This gives riders the ability to avoid unforeseen wait times, or to change routes at the last minute. Real-time transit information is currently available in 56 of 70 cities.

Multi-modal apps knit the transportation landscape together by offering users the opportunity to see side-by-side comparisons of a variety of routes and services for making their trip, including biking, carsharing, public transit, driving and walking. Multi-modal apps are currently available in 47 of 70 cities.

Virtual ticketing gives users the opportunity to avoid lost tickets and long wait times at the ticket counter by buying tickets directly through an Internet-connected device such as a smartphone. Riders can set up an account to look after expenses and track ticket validity. Virtual ticketing is currently available in 6 of 70 cities.

This report finds:

There are at least 19 cities with Abundant Choices, places where at least some residents have access to all or nearly all of these new transportation services. Austin, Texas is the only city in the United States to have access to all 11 kinds of services evaluated here. San Francisco and Washington, D.C., have access to 10 of the services evaluated. (See Table ES-1.)

Another 35 cities have Growing Choices. Residents of these cities have access to many kinds of innovative transportation services, but not as many as cities with Abundant Choices. Orlando, Atlanta, Louisville, St. Louis, Baltimore, Cleveland, Kansas City, Newark, Pittsburgh and Raleigh lead this category, and several are already planning the addition of new technology-enabled services within the next year.

The remaining 16 cities have Emerging Choices – these are cities where residents have access to fewer than half of the types of technology-enabled services evaluated in this report. Many of these are smaller cities in largely rural states with limited transportation options. These tools are beginning to expand to new areas, and further expansion would signal their potential to benefit a wide variety of American cities.

Table ES-1. Top Cities with Abundant Choices

Technology-enabled transportation services have the potential to reduce driving and car ownership, especially among young people.

Studies have shown that tools such as carsharing and ridesharing reduce vehicle ownership and the number of miles driven. Other tools, such as real-time transit information, improve the experience of riding transit and have been shown to give a modest boost to ridership.

Residents in cities that have access to a portfolio of technology-enabled tools are better able to construct “car-free” and “car-light” lifestyles that are less dependent on car ownership.

Cities with more abundant transportation-enabled services are able to complement public transit by providing mobility options from the train or bus station, and by providing alternatives during unusual times when weather or the need to carry bulky packages make walking, biking or transit less practical or desirable.

Studies have shown that tools such as carsharing and ridesharing reduce vehicle ownership and the number of miles driven. Other tools, such as real-time transit information, improve the experience of riding transit and have been shown to give a modest boost to ridership.

Residents in cities that have access to a portfolio of technology-enabled tools are better able to construct “car-free” and “car-light” lifestyles that are less dependent on car ownership.

Cities with more abundant transportation-enabled services are able to complement public transit by providing mobility options from the train or bus station, and by providing alternatives during unusual times when weather or the need to carry bulky packages make walking, biking or transit less practical or desirable.

Policy-makers should explore ways to tap the potential of technology-enabled services to address transportation challenges and increase the number of people with the option to live car-free or car-light lifestyles. Governments should:

Adopt clear regulations for new services such as ridesourcing that fully protect the public while allowing the services to operate.

Require, when negotiating regulatory arrangements for these new transportation tools, that providers share their data with public officials, who can then better integrate these services into their planning.

Adjust municipal policies, including planning and zoning rules, to encourage the use of these services, such as by reducing parking fees for carshare users, reducing or eliminating minimum parking requirements for new developments that incorporate shared-use transportation, or allocating existing parking spaces for carsharing services.

Encourage complementarities between public transit and new technology-enabled mobility options, especially by encouraging bikesharing, ridesharing and carsharing around transit stops.

Support multi-modal transportation options by creating universal payment mechanisms that work for various modes of transportation, and expand the availability of real-time information, especially with public transit.

Conduct studies on the impact of these services and integration of them into transportation models and plans.

Explore the potential of new tools to meet the mobility needs of those currently poorly served by the transportation system, including the young, the old, the disabled and those in low-income households.

Adopt open data and open source software policies in conformity with federal mandates.


Monday, January 11, 2016

Ex-husband attempts to extort alimony payments

US v. White: William White had received a 30-month sentence for making threatening phone calls to a university administrator and sending letters of intimidation to several tenants that filed a fair housing complaint against him in 2010. He had appealed his conviction and sentence, and the Fourth Circuit remanded his case for re-sentencing on May 14, 2012. Out on supervised release, Mr. White failed to appear for re-sentencing, having absconded to Mexico. White’s then-estranged wife, with whom he had at least an informal alimony agreement, stopped making alimony payments when she learned he was “on the lam” because she feared that she’d be charged with aiding a fugitive. White began threatening her to get his cash. The woman he went to Mexico with began cooperating with the FBI; Mr. White’s attempts to extort his ex-wife formed the basis for this case. After an anonymous jury convicted him (he also had a prior history of interfering with witnesses and a juror) for felony transmission of threats through interstate commerce with the intent to extort, as well as the lesser-included offense of transmitting a threat (without the intent to extort), White received a 92-month federal sentence.

On appeal, White challenged the sufficiency of the evidence presented at trial, and disputed the procedural and substantive reasonableness of his sentence. The Fourth Circuit affirmed. The main focus of White’s appeal concerned the legal requirements for his convictions, specifically whether he could have intended to “extort” alimony payments to which he claims he was legally entitled. While the instruction that the district court gave at trial was erroneous in light of the Supreme Court’s 2015 decision in Elonis v. United States (a case which considered true threats and the limits of speech on social media), the Fourth Circuit held that the error here was harmless, the jury having “soundly rejected” White’s defense that he did not send any emails to his ex-wife. After Elonis, a conviction pursuant to § 875(c) requires that the following three elements be met: 1) that the defendant knowingly transmitted a communication in interstate or foreign commerce; 2) that the defendant subjectively intended the communication as a threat; and 3) the content of the communication contained a “true threat” to kidnap or injure.

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Q:

Select alternate points and move labels above/below

I am fairly new to VBA and trying to select alternating points to place datalabels above and below.
Here is my code that is currently placing a datalabel below point 1 which I want, but then I want the 3rd point's label to be placed below as well, and the other ones above. I have tried many different loops and codes but nothing seems to work and I'm not sure why it seems to copy and paste instead of move the label.
     For x = 1 To ActiveChart.SeriesCollection(1).Points.Count

        With ActiveChart.SeriesCollection(1).Points(x).DataLabel
             .Position = xlLabelPositionBelow
             .Orientation = xlHorizontal
        End With
    x = x + 2

    Next x

    For x = 2 To ActiveChart.SeriesCollection(1).Points.Count

        With ActiveChart.SeriesCollection(1).Points(x).DataLabel
            .Position = xlLabelPositionAbove
            .Orientation = xlHorizontal
        End With
    x = x + 2

    Next x

This is what my code currently produces:

Here is what I would like it to do:

I feel like it is something simple that I am missing if this is possible. So any help would be greatly appreciated. Is it possible there is an easier way?
Thank you in advance.

A:

The problem appears to be that you are 'over-iterating' x. Where you want x to go up by two, you're actually saying "x = x + 2" and THEN also saying "+ 1 x" (which is what Next does). You could solve this above by changing your For Loops to say "For x = 1 to 3 Step 2". Then when you loop with "Next x", it will add 2 instead of just 1.
However, I recommend you do it like the following, as it is (in my opinion) a little clearer that you want something for an even x, and something for an odd x:
 For x = 1 To ActiveChart.SeriesCollection(1).Points.Count
    With ActiveChart.SeriesCollection(1).Points(x).DataLabel
    If x Mod 2 = 1 Then 'If x is odd, put label below point

        .Position = xlLabelPositionBelow
        .Orientation = xlHorizontal
    Else 'if x is even, put label above point
        .Position = xlLabelPositionAbove
        .Orientation = xlHorizontal
    End If

    End With

Next x


Memos in NOM suit reveal anti-gay-marriage strategies

The well-funded National Organization for Marriage has resisted disclosing its donors.

A series of explosive documents recently unsealed as part of a federal lawsuit in Maine shed light on a Minnesota controversy involving the organizations campaigning to put a ban on same-sex marriages into the Minnesota Constitution.

The documents, exhibits in a lawsuit filed by the National Organization for Marriage (NOM), outline a broad political strategy to “drive a wedge between gays and blacks,” “expose [Barack] Obama as a social radical” and even to ensure that the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo stays open.

“Gay marriage is the tip of the spear, the weapon that will be and is being used to marginalize and repress Christianity and the church,” one of the internal memos states. “What does the gay marriage idea mean once government adopts it? It means faith communities that promote traditional families should be treated in law and culture like racists.”

“One key advantage we now have is the capacity to protect the identity of our donors,” another states.

Fighting for secrecy

NOM filed the lawsuit in question in an effort to overturn the Maine law compelling it to disclose many of its financial backers, who underwrote a successful 2009 ballot initiative that overturned the legalization of gay marriage in that state.

The group also has refused to disclose its donors in Minnesota, despite a number of orders from the state Board of Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure. The state agency is currently investigating a complaint against NOM and its state-level sister organization, Minnesotans for Marriage, subsequently filed by Common Cause of Minnesota.

The group claims that secrecy is needed because its donors are subject to harassment. Critics counter that it is probably really trying to hide the fact that the vast majority of its funding comes from just a handful of wealthy backers, a contention that is supported by the reports NOM, as a nonprofit, is required to file with the Internal Revenue Service.

“The National Organization for Marriage (NOM) was formed in 2007 and has worked extensively with supporters of traditional marriage from every color, creed and background," President Brian Brown said in a written statement. “Gay marriage advocates have attempted to portray same-sex marriage as a civil right, but the voices of these and many other leaders have provided powerful witness that this claim is patently false."

If the case follows the same trajectory as complaints filed against NOM in other states where it has poured tens of millions of dollars into campaigns to defeat same-sex marriage rights, the Minnesota ballot question will be resolved years before the campaign finance controversy. When other states have ruled that it must comply with disclosure laws, NOM has gone to court.

In the meantime, the documents unsealed in Maine provide the most detailed road map to the organization’s tactics yet made public. NOM’s strategies involve splitting the Democratic voter base by galvanizing opposition in the African-American community, associating gay rights with the persecution of Christians, and developing a voter base to influence judicial elections, among other campaigns.

'Not a Civil Right'

According to the internal memos unsealed by the court — and quickly posted online by the LGBT right group Human Rights Campaign — the group budgeted $1.5 million for a project entitled “Not a Civil Right.”

"The strategic goal of this project is to drive a wedge between gays and blacks — two key Democratic constituencies," one explains. "Find, equip, energize and connect African American spokespeople for marriage, develop a media campaign around their objections to gay marriage as a civil right; provoke the gay marriage base into responding by denouncing these spokesmen and women as bigots."

Locally, the fight over whether NOM and Minnesotans for Marriage will be forced to comply with campaign disclosure laws goes back to the final days of the last legislative session, when GOP lawmakers voted to put a same-sex marriage ban on the ballot this November.

In 2010, in Citizens United v. the Federal Election Commission, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the First Amendment prohibits limits on expenditures made by unions and corporations to influence the outcome of elections. Like many other states, Minnesota responded by rewriting portions of state campaign-finance laws accordingly.

Board affirmed that disclosure is required

The state Campaign Finance Board in turn issued guidance on complying with the revamped law. At the time, no constitutional amendments were before voters, so the agency’s advisory opinions did not address spending intended to influence the outcome of ballot questions. In June, after lawmakers voted to put a same-sex marriage ban on the ballot, the board affirmed that the law requires disclosure of donors to constitutional amendment campaigns.

NOM and Minnesota for Marriage complained to the board with the assistance of James Bopp, the conservative Indiana attorney who sued for Citizens United. Bopp has described himself as on a quest to “dismantle the entire regulatory scheme that is called campaign finance law.”

Throughout the fall, the board and NOM went back and forth on the issue, with NOM claiming that the agency was trying to put “a bullseye squarely on the forehead of every NOM donor, supporter and member if disclosed.”

“This newly concocted disclosure and regulatory scheme is unlawful, is not constitutionally sound, threatens NOM members, donors and supporters with personal injury and harm,” the group charged, echoing claims rejected by courts in other states that disclosure would subject supporters of traditional marriage to violence and harassment by gay-rights supporters.

“NOM does not object to its donations to the Minnesota for Marriage campaign being publicly disclosed,” said Brian Brown, NOM’s president. “What we do object to is the attempt of Campaign Finance Board bureaucrats to illegally force us to report information the law does not require. The CFB does not have the legal authority to impose such requirements. Only the Legislature can enact laws, and they have repeatedly refused to do so.”

Some loopholes created

NOM asked the board a series of hypothetical questions about disclosure such as whether it would make a difference if its funding source were membership dues rather than donations. Although for the most part the board did continue to insist on disclosure, the exercise created some loopholes, according to Common Cause’s Mike Dean.

On Jan. 31, the deadline for organizations working for and against the ballot question to report 2011 fundraising and spending activity, the group working to defeat the marriage ban, Minnesotans United for All Families, filed a report listing 733 donors.

Minnesota for Marriage filed a report listing just seven, with only $2,000 in individual donations. The rest of the $830,000 it took in came from its member organizations: $350,000 from the Minnesota Catholic Conference Marriage Defense Fund; $126,000 from the Minnesota Family Council Marriage Protection Fund; and $250,000 from the National Organization for Marriage.

“My worst fears came true,” said Dean, who filed complaints against the pro-amendment groups with the state board three weeks later.

Disclosure is particularly important when it comes to ballot questions, he said, because the groups seeking to influence the outcomes often have confusing or ambiguous names: “Having these types of laws that require disclosure of political spending helps us to evaluate the messenger.”

A plan to recruit children to speak on video

And the documents unsealed in Maine last week reportedly have given some churches pause about the mission they thought NOM was engaged in. In addition to its plan to “drive a wedge” between gays and blacks, the group said it planned to hire outreach workers to recruit children in same-sex families to talk about their unhappiness on video, create a roster of experts ready to speak to the damage caused by gay marriage and spend $2.1 million on a “Pan-American Strategy.”

"The Latino vote in America is a key swing vote,” it explained, “and will be so even more so in the future, both because of demographic growth and inherent uncertainty: Will the process of assimilation to the dominant Anglo culture lead Hispanics to abandon traditional family values? We must interrupt this process of assimilation by making support for marriage a key badge of Latino identity — a symbol of resistance to inappropriate assimilation."

NOM also said it would spend on efforts to ensure that candidates who agreed with its positions would win elections at all levels. “In North Carolina we will use a marriage amendment to identify our voters throughout the state, not only to push for a marriage amendment but to permit us to turn out our voters for the judicial elections there in 2010,” said one memo.

The need to circumvent “activist judges” who could decide gays and lesbians have a fundamental right to marriage is one of the key arguments raised by supporters of same-sex marriage bans.

Common Cause’s Dean said he expects the board to continue to insist that NOM is subject to disclosure laws, and NOM to file suit challenging the state. That means there is virtually no chance for transparency before the constitutional amendment is decided in the fall.

Three years after their own referendum, Maine’s voters still do not know who funded their state’s pro-amendment campaign, he noted: “They used the lawsuit as a way to delay disclosure. That doesn’t do the voters any benefit at all.”

Comments (13)

It doesn't surprise me at all that NOM contributors prefer to remain anonymous. The shame of supporting an organization that plans to recruit "unhappy" children to disparage their same-sex parents must be very difficult to bear, even in private. As someone who was married by a gay Episcopal priest (who is not permitted to marry his partner in Minnesota) I can only wonder at the speciousness of NOM's claim that gay marriage is an attack on Christianity. In actual fact, banning gay marriage is an attack on Christian churches that accept gay marriage but are legally prohibited from marrying gay couples. One can only conclude that NOM really isn't interested in religious freedom at all.

If you believe in something, come out and say it. Stand behind it. Put yourself out there and be prepared to argue for what you believe. If you feel you need to hide your identity in situations like this (or how much you give to a campaign or a Super PAC, for that matter), you are a coward.

It's hard to manipulate people if they know you're doing it. NOM has a hidden strategy to enact their open agenda because doing otherwise would let people know they're being used. People who secretly push money in NOM's direction know that they'll be judged for it.http://dissectory.blogspot.com/2012/04/you-got-yours.html

"The group claims that secrecy is needed because its donors are subject to harassment. Critics counter that it is probably really trying to hide the fact that the vast majority of its funding comes from just a handful of wealthy backers"

If both sides of the debate were responsible adults this wouldn't be an issue. But since the pro-gay marriage crowd insists on such childish tactics as "glitter bombs," shouting down speakers and picketing outside people's homes and businesses, then the people opposed to their view have a right to be protected by the law.

And what difference does it make who funds these campaigns anyway? The government doesn't have a right to force people to disclose that information, and if the law says it does, it's unconstitutional by the same right the pro-abortion people have claimed affects them, the right to privacy.

"Edina passed a resolution in opposition to the amendment on March 20. The vote was unanimous. Edina joins St. Louis Park, Minneapolis, Duluth and St. Paul who have also passed resolutions against the marriage amendment".

You can shudder and shriek (as you do so well), but you are going to witness the Will of the People when they vote no to this amendment.

"I do not pretend to understand the moral universe; the arc is a long one...and from what I see I am sure it bends towards justice." Theodore Parker.

Mr Tester forgets those protesters who attend people's funerals to yell, "God hates fags" at innocent, grieving families. Of course that isn't as hurtful as a glitter bomb. The opposition isn't attacking Christianity, but attacking a brand of self righteous, we're right and all other churches are wrong and going to hell brand of Christianity, ie the right wing bigotted hypocrits who hate first, justify later.

by the manner in which the anti-abortion crowd violates the privacy rights of Planned Parenthood's clients by confronting them outside of clinics and the web posting of names and addresses of doctors who perform abortions. It is, though, wonderfully ironic that he turns to Roe v. Wade for support of the poor old anti-gay people.

The anti-immigrant stance of the Right and its acceptance of brutality toward undocumented workers by such as the Arizona sheriff famous for bad treatment will probably influence many Latinos to choose Democratic candidates to vote for this fall. And many black voters choose Democrats because of their support for lower income workers and people of color.

This year, though, some religious blacks and Latinos may be swayed by the false allegation that Christianity is Under Attack and decide to vote for "real" Christians like Santorum.

Thank you for this excellent analysis, Beth Hawkins! Let me focus on a couple of paragraphs in it.

'This newly concocted disclosure and regulatory scheme is unlawful, is not constitutionally sound, threatens NOM members, donors and supporters with personal injury and harm,” the group charged, echoing claims rejected by courts in other states that disclosure would subject supporters of traditional marriage to violence and harassment by gay-rights supporters.

“NOM does not object to its donations to the Minnesota for Marriage campaign being publicly disclosed,” said Brian Brown, NOM’s president. “What we do object to is the attempt of Campaign Finance Board bureaucrats to illegally force us to report information the law does not require. The CFB does not have the legal authority to impose such requirements. Only the Legislature can enact laws, and they have repeatedly refused to do so.'

As a long-time supporter of campaign-finance reform, I regard most of this argument as bluster, the rest as whining.

The bluster is about the laws. Of course, our campaign-finance laws have never been weaker, but we can strengthen them. Moreover, not even the appalling Citizens United decision declares that requiring disclosure of donors is unconstitutional.

The whining is about the threats of "personal injury and harm," which are evoked much more by the homophobic imagination than by any actual evidence of gay violence. Glitter bombs? Oh, the humanity!

It also needs to be pointed out that when you reveal your own name as a major donor to a political campaign fund, you accept no more risk than you do when you sign a petition. I think it's entirely appropriate to require the sponsors of the screeching campaign ads that plague us every election season to accept the same public scrutiny as the rest of us must accept when we sign petitions. If the superrich feel vulnerable when they have to make their names public, I say, welcome to our world.

I guess conservatives imagine that a decadent homosexual elite in the big cities is pushing a war on religion and families by advocating for gay marriage. Meanwhile a Muslim President and his atheist wife lead a secret communist revolution that demonizes job creators and hard work and wants to give all working class white people's money to inner city minorities. Meanwhile the Federal Reserve unleashes its sinister plot to devalue the US dollar by printing massive amounts of dollars in the hopes of undermining capitalism and making big banks and Obama's friends rich.

That is what I imagine conservatives think when they talk about "moral slump." Based on what I hear from Fox News and other conservative outlets. Am I far off?

While nodding my head in agreement with quite a few of the points made by other commenters, I keep coming back to Cecil North’s last sentence, which strikes me as a nice summary of what’s going on in the debate, such as it is, over gay marriage.

It seems pretty evident than NOM isn’t at all interested in religious freedom. Rather, it seems evident that NOM is providing us with an example of how theocracy works. The arguments presented by NOM against gay marriage are essentially religious. There’s very little in their arsenal of arguments against gay marriage that doesn’t seek to impose a particular "Christian" vision on the society as a whole. That strikes me as a rather crude attempt to nullify the 1st Amendment’s prohibition against the establishment of religion, and is therefore unconstitutional on its face.

Regarding disclosure, the NOM arguments are, I think, more or less as described by Eric Jacobsen. There’s no history in this society of “personal injury or harm” coming to opponents of gay marriage, so the threats being invoked exist only in the hysterical imagination of NOM and its supporters. Mr. Jacobsen is, I think, quite correct to point out that signing a political petition is an equally public declaration, and exposes the signer to the same kind of public scrutiny.

The appalling Citizens United decision had already corrupted the election process in ways the SCOTUS never anticipated. Allowing those kinds of donations to be anonymous will simply add another layer of corruption, and essentially bring an end to the democratic process. It’s a very curious position for people and organizations that purport to be more patriotic and “real American” than the rest of us.

Just a couple of thoughts, here. First, the paranoid fears that our "conservative" friends have regarding what might happen to them if their names are revealed are based on what they, themselves would do to those who disagree with them if they had sufficient power to do so. Lacking the empathy which would enable them to imagine what it would be like to be anyone but themselves, they automatically assume that they would be punished as "enemies" if their names were revealed in the same way they would punish their enemies if they could get away with it.

Such people should NEVER be trusted with power, but sadly, the economic realities created by "Citizens United" grant them exactly the power they should NEVER have.

Second, I firmly believe that every organization and every individual has the right to inform others of their point of view and try to win others to their side of an issue. What makes me so uncomfortable about the entire approach of N.O.M. and similar organizations is that it goes far beyond information and deeply into manipulation - deeply into the effort to twist facts and increase the level of fears in others so that those others are encouraged to be afraid that disaster will occur if they do NOT come over to their side.

We ALL hate dishonest, manipulative people. We're likely to feel the same way about individuals and organizations which operate in the same way, once the dishonesty and manipulative nature of their underling approaches and agendas is revealed.


FOXBOROUGH — Casino developer Steve Wynn continued his wooing of Foxborough Wednesday night, dispatching a dozen of his executives to meet town residents at a low-key cocktail reception at the Renaissance Boston Hotel & Spa at Patriot Place.

The executives mingled with the crowd, conducted interviews with reporters, and chatted with residents about Wynn’s proposal to build a $1 billion gambling resort across the street from Gillette Stadium, on land owned by New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft.

The Wynn casino plan stirred strident opposition when news of the proposal leaked in December. Since then, Wynn has been mostly quiet, working on designs and renderings for the project, which he is calling Wynn Foxborough.

The developer renewed his push to win local approval last week, making a pitch to voters in Foxborough with a 20-minute DVD, which Wynn mailed to about 7,000 local households.

The video played continuously on a screen at Wednesday night’s reception, flanked by renderings of Wynn’s proposal. The design, reminiscent of a large ski lodge, was inspired by a luxury home Wynn built in Sun Valley, Idaho, he has said.

Greenman has worked for Wynn eight years, advancing in the company after starting as breakfast manager at the resort’s 24-hour café, she said. She does not gamble.

“But I do eat,’’ she said. “And I go to the shows.’’

The local crowd that attended Wednesday night’s reception seemed mostly in favor of Wynn’s plans. At least 100 people attended.

Phyllis and Joseph Watkins, a retired couple who have lived in Foxborough for 40 years, said the town could use the additional tax revenue from the project, which Wynn has estimated would be $10 million to $15 million per year.

“There are a lot of things on the list for Foxborough, financially,’’ said Phyllis, who thinks more money should go to schools and fixing the roads.

The Watkins visit Las Vegas occasionally, Joseph said.

“We always stay in a Wynn property, and they treat you like gold,’’ he said.

Aulus Maloof, 52, owner of a refrigerant recovery business in Foxborough, said he liked what he saw on Wynn’s DVD.

He is “not a huge gambler,’’ but he said he makes one or two trips to Foxwoods casino in Connecticut each year.

Tim Poster, executive vice president of strategy and development for Wynn Resorts, said the Wynn executives have several meetings planned this week with Foxborough residents and business owners.

“Once people have the full facts, they’ll be able to make an informed decision’’ on the proposal, Poster said.

He said he gambles occasionally, mostly on sporting events.

“Once in a while I go have some fun at the casino,’’ he said.

Neither Wynn nor Kraft attended Wednesday’s gathering.

Opponents of the project insist that a casino would irrevocably change the character of the town and would lead to an increase in crime and problem gambling, charges that Wynn disputes.

Wynn outlined his strategy for Foxborough in an interview last week.

He will let the renderings and new details about the proposal sink in with voters, then conduct a scientific poll. By comparing the data with earlier polls, he will be able to determine if his design is winning over the undecided residents.

Wynn is one of the most prolific casino developers in Las Vegas, having built the Mirage, Treasure Island, and the Bellagio on the Las Vegas Strip.

His current flagship, the Wynn Las Vegas hotel and resort, opened in 2005. He added a sister hotel on the property, Encore, in 2008.


Lemierre syndrome: a case report.
Lemierre syndrome, also known as postanginal sepsis, is caused by Fusobacterium necrophorum. This rare disease is usually characterized by thrombophlebitis of the jugular vein and septic embolism after a history of sore throat. Here, we discuss a case of Lemierre syndrome in a 22-year-old man with thrombophlebitis of the facial vein and fusobacteria growth in the blood culture but no obvious focus of inflammation. Case report. Severe facial infection with high fever and a general feeling of malaise after a history of sore throat should raise the diagnostic possibility of facial vein thrombophlebitis due to F. necrophorum infection.