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Student or Learner
Hello everyone.
I would like to apply for a master program, and the programme need an eassy with follow contents.
An essay describing previous studies, motivations and professional project. The report has to be written in English. Relate motivations to your background, education, research experience, career planning and your personal vision.
I need some advices on my eassy, either on contents or on grammar .
Thank you very much for your help.
Dear Mr. .....,
Thank you for your attention. I would like to apply for the ........ Master programme in your university, commencing on September 2009. I am now working at ................as a laboratory technician. I hope to have an interview opportunity so you can evaluate me more concretely.
First, I would to talk about my educational and work background. I got my Bachelors Degree in Northwest Agriculture and Forestry University in July 2005, majored in Landscape Architecture. Then I got my Masters degree at Chinese Academy of Forestry (CAF) in July 2008, majored in Silviculture. During my seven years higher education, I have been studying English, Mathematics, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Forestry Engineering, and Forestry Economics and so on and had good scores. I thinkthe most important thing I learned from university is how to study and think rather than professional knowledge itself. I think those play essential roles not only in scientific research but also in dealing with issues and getting along with people.As you can see from the enclosed curriculum vitae, I have had years of experience in such fields as retailing and scientific research. I spent more than 18 months,in accumulation, in retail business including Fast Consumer Goods retailing and Mobile phone retailing. Through those works, I feel I have become more outgoing and passionate which are necessary qualities and training needed for the ........ programme. Inevitably, part-time job occupies my study time. However, I think it is worthwhile in that I can learn some which can never be learned from documents or blackboard. After graduation, I entered into Chinese Academy of Forestry (CAF) as a laboratory technician and participated inthree scientific research programmes. Carrying out scientific researches with team members have gave me great improvements in many aspects such as time management, cooperation, project budgeting, organizing and communicating. And I think such improvements will help me greatly in my career.
My future occupational plan is engaging in managerial works in fields of Marketing and Logistics in an international enterprise.I think managerial work is more challenging and meaningful to me because technical job does suit my personality.So I often attend lectures about management skills and read relevant books in my spare time. I know I need to systemically study on management science and to put what I learned in to practice if I want my dream fulfilling. With all the uncertainty and changes in the world, political, economic, and technological, I believe that management must have a solid understanding, supported by a strong academic and practical foundation of how to guide corporation spend these challenging times. This is why I decided to give up my current job and commence on a new journey in Europe.
The aim of the ........ programme is to provide students with a primarily scientific or engineering-based educational background with business skills relevant for pursuing managerial careers in internationally orientated manufacturing and service industries. And I know the three Universities involved in this programme are top ranking in Europe and you have advanced educational concept and have cultivated a large number of well-known entrepreneurs. Additionally, this scholarship would allow me to interact with students from all over the globe who may study the same programme and I will benefit from an enlarged circle of friends and contacts.Thus,I was deeply attracted by this programme and I am eager to join in this program . I am steongly convinced that this programme will offer me an excellent opportunity to learn indispensable knowledge and techniques, to broaden my horizon as well asgain valuable experiences. Admittedly, this program really challenges me. However, I also believe high risks bring high benefits. Joining in this programme would be a perfect start of my new career.
I have enclosed my curriculum vitae and other documents for your review. I very much appreciate your time and consideration, and I hope to hear from you in the near future.
Yours sincerely.


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Every year on the first of January I restart the collision counter on the DriveSmartBC website. In order to try and keep it accurate I check ICBC's latest collision statistics, calculate the daily average and tweak the code that produces the display. This year, I can't get data on the number of people injured by impaired drivers. I'm sure that you will agree that it is an important statistic to know.
Hoping for an answer, I contacted ICBC as they are the official keepers of the data. Sorry was the prompt response, since the provincial government removed the requirement to report collisions to the police in 2008 we can no longer provide that data. As ICBC does know how many collisions involve impaired drivers I find this answer somewhat suspect but it should still make us all pause and wonder. Are we losing touch with how often the bad things are happening on our highways?
I suspect that the main reason for the removal of the requirement to report collisions to police is the simple fact that there were just too darned many of them for the police to keep up with. This alone is a bad sign. To me it shows that we don't care about traffic safety because our insurance scheme will smooth things over and no one will really hurt too much. It's just another day on the highway.
At minimum, the police should attend and report on all injury and fatal collisions. The causes of the collision should be determined and the violators held to account, both by the insurance company and the justice system. If there are no consequences for having a collision other than inconvenience there will be less incentive to drive safely.
The author is a retired constable with many years of traffic law enforcement experience. To comment or learn more, please visit www.drivesmartbc.ca.

subset: commoncrawl


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Beach Volleyball World Champs competition timing confirmed
Lausanne, Switzerland, March 27, 2013 – The International Volleyball Federation (FIVB) is pleased to announce the confirmation of the competition structure for the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships 2013 which will be held in Stare Jablonki, Poland from July 1 to 7.
The finals of the women's competition will take place on Saturday, July 6 at 18:00 while the men's gold medal match will take place at the same time the following day. Both finals will be preceded by their respective semifinals at 12:00 and 13:00 and the bronze medal match at 17:00.
Along with the stadium centre court, which seats 9,000 spectators, the competition will use four additional courts over the week. The total capacity of 11,000 is a record for a temporary venue at an FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships.
The women's competition will kick-off at 10:00 on Monday, July 1. The men's competition begins the following day on court five at 09:00 with an average competition day running from 09:00 until the last match starting at 19:00.
Pool play for the women's competition will take place until Wednesday with the Round of 32 taking place on Thursday, while the men's pool play will finish on Thursday before their Round of 32 action starts on Friday.
Staged every two years, the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships feature the brightest stars of the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour, with 48 teams in each gender taking part.
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DALLAS - Dallas police say the number of murders citywide rose almost 13 percent last year, and nearly half of the 152 killings were related to gangs or drugs.
The Dallas Morning News on Wednesday reported gang- and drug-related slayings accounted for 44 percent of the homicide total. Dallas had 26 domestic violence-related killings last year, compared with 10 the previous year.
Chief David Brown says domestic violence killings have been increasing nationwide. Brown has added staff to the department's family violence unit as police also expedited the filing of many misdemeanor family violence cases.
Brown says he also plans a renewed push to target drug houses.
Dallas reached a high of 500 slayings in 1991. The city had a low point of 133 slayings in 2011, the fewest since 1967.


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Poverty, inequality, and spillover in Mexico's education, health, and nutrition program
This report provides an evaluation of the community level effects of PROGRESA using household level data from various rounds of PROGRESA's evaluation sample (the ENCEL surveys). These surveys, along with ENCASEH 1997, provide a valuable source of information on household and community level characteristics before and after the implementation of the program. Other reports in the evaluation series have focused on the direct effects of PROGRESA, using the control and treatment groups in the ENCELS. The objective of this report is slightly different, in that it explores the possible spill-over effects of the program on the wider community. Hence instead of focusing on program effects at the individual level, we focus on aggregate community level indicators of well-being such as poverty, inequality, and school and health care attendance rates, in order to assess the impact of PROGRESA at this level. Using the data sets mentioned above, we develop five indicators with which to measure the potential impact of PROGRESA at the community level. These indicators are: 1) changes in rates of relative poverty, 2) changes in inequality, 3) school continuation rates, 4) changes in nutrition surveillance rates, 5) changes in prices (inflation). Exploiting the longitudinal aspect of the evaluation data, we construct "difference in differences" estimators and use regression techniques to isolate community level program effects.


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The GNU this was going to happen.
You know, I read this headline and immediately thought of GNU Hurd... And then I thought about it, and remembered that it couldn't possibly be about GNU Hurd, because GNU Hurd hasn't been relevant since... ever.
Of course I don't know what peculiarities were in his golden parachute contract as far as how long he couldn't work for the/any competition but I doubt he didn't talk this over with some corporate lawyers at least.
In any case, if they don't like him bringing his ass(ets) over to another company, they should've kept him. Nothing much they can do about it now unless he's still under contract.
That's pretty much it.
Unless there's a signed "non-compete" document from Hurd, HP will just have to live with their mess up.
I'd be surprised if Mr. Hurd signed such a document.
Just my $0.02
Secret 1: Outsource everything.
Secret 2: Employees are interchangeable.
Secret 3: Good enough is probably too expensive.
Secret 4: There is still at least enough good will for the HP name to milk another five years.
I was only with HP for a year, and I'm glad to be rid of them.
IBM isn't perfect, but they are much better than HP at least.
confidentiality means nothing. Really they're citing news articles as their reasoning for the suit.
what HP is trying to due here, is a: trying to make Hurd look bad and b: try to extract money from oracle by forcing them to settle. Why bother with A? I'm quite certain that if he's not found guilty he could actually sue HP for libel on this one, citing the complaint.
They're trying to claim misappropriation of trade secrets, but considering he has been at HP maybe a week? They have nothing to show for
additional note: whether to be able to sue successfully is anyone's guess. But I wonder if he would have a libel case in such an instance.
"confidentiality means nothing"
I'm curious why you believe this.
"I'm quite certain that if he's not found guilty he could actually sue HP for libel on this one, citing the complaint."
First, I suppose it's a bit of a technicallity, but this is a civil filing. He is not accused of a crime. There is no "guilty" or "not guilty".
Second, defamation suits are notoriously hard to win in the U.S. Filing a civil complaint that is later dismissed is not, in and of itself, at all likely to constitute libel. I would
"confidentiality means nothing"
I'm curious why you believe this.
Probably because it's true. Once you're no longer working for the company you are no longer under any obligation to keep anything secret, unless you've agreed not to, either in writing or as a part of a verbal agreement. I used to work for a company that required all kinds of silence about just about everything. The moment I quit though, I stopped being silent about any of it. At that point there wasn't a damned thing they could do about it as I hadn't agreed to remain silent after separating from the compa
Unless there's a signed "non-compete" document from Hurd, HP will just have to live with their mess up.
In California, non-compete agreements [wikipedia.org] have been disallowed by the courts...
In California, non-compete agreements [wikipedia.org] have been disallowed by the courts...
That may allow him to work at Oracle, barring trade secret or proprietary information issues, but it may not allow him to keep all of his severance. I think you may be able to pay a person not to work for a competitor for a reasonable time frame. They still have the right to do so but may be required to return the payment.
I'm sure he got a signing bonus.
I'm sure he got a signing bonus.
And I bet she is good looking.
When I worked for a company in CA they wanted me to sign a non-compete document. I asked what would happen if I didn't want to sign it. They just told me not to sign it. I gave it back blank. It didn't affect my hiring or future employment.
He's not competing. He's moved to a technology company.
- or he could have thought with his big head instead of his little one.
Non-disclosure/non-competes still apply after you leave - more so when you're fired for cause. You *can* challenge them if you were terminated w/o cause, but that's not the case here.
Non-disclosure/non-competes still apply after you leave - more so when you're fired for cause. You *can* challenge them if you were terminated w/o cause, but that's not the case here.
No, they don't apply at all. Any non-compete clauses in a contract are invalidated by California law.
No, they don't apply at all. Any non-compete clauses in a contract are invalidated by California law.
That's true in the general case, but California law still allows a company to sue to prevent use of its trade secrets, which is the angle HP is taking here.
This could have been different in that it may have been required to get his bonus. That sort of thing is almost always legal, since it is regular contract law. You come work for me, we have a normal employment agreement. However I say "You know, there's a lot of stuff you are privy to that I don't want getting out. So if I lay you off, I'll give you a big bonus, but in turn for that you can't go work for my competitors, you can't write an expose book, and so on."
Now of course you don't have to do agree to that, but if you don't, you don't get the bonus.
So while California may well say "You can't have a non-compete on normal employment," a termination bonus is a different thing.
I find that legal reasoning interesting but have never heard it before. Are you a California lawyer? or do you know California employment law particularly well? or can you provide a source for that tidbit? I just find it a little tough to believe and would like to hear more.
It's a contract, and it applies like any other.
The argument HP is making is not that Hurd isn't allowed to work for Oracle because of a previous agreement with HP. That would be a non-compete, and is not valid in California.
The argument HP is making is that it is impossible for Hurd to perform his new duties for Oracle without sharing HP's trade secrets, and Hurd has a contract with HP saying he will not share HP's trade secrets. In other words it's a breach of contract due to conflict of interest, not a
This could have been different in that it may have been required to get his bonus. That sort of thing is almost always legal, since it is regular contract law. You come work for me, we have a normal employment agreement. However I say "You know, there's a lot of stuff you are privy to that I don't want getting out. So if I lay you off, I'll give you a big bonus, but in turn for that you can't go work for my competitors, you can't write an expose book, and so on."
Now of course you don't have to do agree to t
Ellison isn't a stupid man. He is also a multi-billionaire. I'm sure he and Hurd worked out the specifics of the separation package and any signing bonus.
And Hurd will be in a position to bring up all the dirt about the board and it's chairman.
This is just HP acting spitefully, IMHO.
Any non-compete clauses in a contract are invalidated by California law.
So Hurd can never leave California to visit an Oracle office elsewhere without being slapped with a lawsuit in another jurisdiction. Sounds like HP will enjoy that
They're alleging
They cite California Civil Code 3426.2(a) [onecle.com], so no, contracts are not automatically invalidated - it depends on the terms of employment.
California Civil Code Section 3426.2
(a) Actual or threatened misappropriation may be enjoined. Upon application to the court, an injunction shall be terminated when the trade secret has ceased to exist, but the injunction may be continued for an additional period of time in order to eliminate commercial advantage that otherwise would be derived from the misappropriation.
(b) If the court determines that it would be unreasonable to prohibit future use, an injunction may condition future use upon payment of a reasonable royalty for no longer than the period of time the use could have been prohibited.
(c) In appropriate circumstances, affirmative acts to protect a trade secret may be compelled by court order.
It's quite simple - his new job at Oracle puts him in a position where he will be violating HP trade secrets. He simply cannot work as the CEO of any large US IT company without attracting such a lawsuit.
He got over $12 million as a separation payment in which he specifically reaffirmed that he would not work for a competitor for a year. Oracle names HP as a major competitor in the 10k SEC filing. Both he and Oracle are properly being sued already under section 3426 [onecle.com] of the California Civil Code - this would just be additional lawsuits.
You file suit in the defendants home jurisdiction. I realize that corporations love to venue shop, but you're supposed to file suit in the venue most convenient to the defendant in the case. I'm not sure how that came to be, but I suspect it had to do with not wanting to force somebody to settle because they couldn't afford to travel to court.
Absolutely wrong. You file suit in your home jurisdiction, or in a jurisdiction that you think is neutral, but almost never in the defendant's home jurisdiction. Th
Hurd has overall knowledge but non-specific. His job was to direct the goals of the company. It wasn't to design chips, OSes, etc. His knowledge is about the direction the company was going, how to set up their priorities, how to spend and grow. He didn't have specific knowledge about the coding of projects or the design of hardware, just the direction those would take.
Oracle and Ellison are not really competitors to HP in the vast majority of areas where Oracle generates revenue (Oracle is primarily a relational database company selling to big companies). HP's competing OS is a non-starter. Even Oracle's acquisition of products from Sun wouldn't be such a major threat in any market to HP. As far as business models go Oracle's and HP's are probably quite different as they target different markets for the most part, as Oracle doesn't make printers nor desktop PCs and what they do compete with is probably limited to server markets where HP just doesn't have that much moxy.
If they try to limit Hurd's overall knowledge exposure they'll loose, they'll have to overcome years of legal history where one CEO goes to work for another company. And, this is HP's burden. HP must prove what they claim.
what they do compete with is probably limited to server markets where HP just doesn't have that much moxy.
Are you kidding? HP has been #1 in the server market for 8 straight years. A lot of Oracle stuff runs on HP equipment, and Hurd knows enough about HPs marketing and internals to help Oracle squeeze better margins out of HP. [hp.com]
Hurd and Oracle only to find out once again it's talking about this guy. Man, he should really change his name.
From what I can tell, Larry Ellison knows Mr. Hurd personally, and also Hurd's ability to not run HP into the ground during a major worldwide recession (despite his paycheck) are pretty good indicators of how he'll do at Oracle. Think of Hurd as a very well paid sales person. Think Pete Campbell from Mad Men.
(Hint: Look up "Hurd")
cause the guys at the top are the ones making that decision, and would never dream of putting something like that in that may one day limit their ability to make millions.
cause the guys at the top are the ones making that decision, and would never dream of putting something like that in that may one day limit their ability to make millions.
Nice thought, but actually he had a non-compete agreement. They just never hold up in California courts. [techcrunch.com] That's why they use the trade secrets angle.
California has a pretty clear cut law [lawzilla.com] that makes almost all non-compete clauses NULL and VOID. It'll be interesting to see how this one plays out.
From your link:
"Non-compete agreements are enforceable for partnerships and when someone is selling their ownership interest in a company. A related topic is the protection of trade secrets. A company can prevent the use of its trade secrets, but it cannot prevent fair competition"
Looks like they are trying to use the "trade secrets" protection part.
You are correct in that it should be interesting to see how it plays out.
Just my $0.02.
Well, if HP really doesn't want Oracle to use Hurd's knowledge of their products, Oracle could completely distance themselves from HP for a year or two. Heck, they come out and announce they no longer support Oracle running on HP hardware, except for those contracts already in existence, and that Oracle shops should switch to Dell servers. Just to make sure no HP IP inadvertently ends up in Oracle products. I'm sure that would make the HP board very, very happy.
California has a pretty clear cut law [lawzilla.com] that makes almost all non-compete clauses NULL and VOID.
Not quite. My understanding is that the law treats owners and the highest ranked executives differently than ordinary worker. Especially when trade secrets and other proprietary information is involved.
However even for workers the law you cite can get fuzzy. Lets say you agree to accept a payment in return for not working at a competitor for a reasonable amount of time, say a year. If you choose to take such a job you may be free to do so but you may also need to return the payment.
That's right, HP, kick Oracle where it hurds!
Where the sun doesn't shine?
That was a good one! Hurdy hur hur hur!
You are given the parachute in return for the non-compete clause.
Maybe a little bit. But I think it's more for not airing dirty laundry that might have bad impacts on the stock price.
But mostly, you're given the golden parachute so that you will return the favor in kind at the corporations where you sit on the board. Isn't that how the game is played?
This is gonna kinda be like Godzilla vs. Mothra. It doesn't matter who wins the city of Tokyo is TOAST!
Personally I am rooting on Hurd because that will help many of the little people too with these same clauses. I think that if they do not want him working for a set period of time, then then need to pay him for that time based on current salary (same as any other worker whom they do not want to work for the competition). That would make things fair for both sides.
You sign a non-compete agreement, then immediately sign up with one of the companies biggest competitors!
Either Hurd is actually a complete and utter moron or he has nads the size of Jupiter! I'm going with the latter.
California is a Right to Work State, you want to sue to prevent someone from having a job? Then move to Washington or New York.
Here in California we recognize the need for a person to earn a living plying their skill is more important than your need to treat people like property.
But hey, since those lawyers are salaried, better to use them to harass Mr. Sexual Harassment to put those payroll dollars to work am I right?
Trying to sue someone for what they might do is a huge stretch. And the idea that anyone can control a former employee is off the wall in some states. Usually one's obligations end when the pay checks stop. It's called freedom.
Mark Hurd's success is directly tied to the amount of people he can. He's absolutely known as a hatchetman, and will do so at the drop of a hat. The problem is, it works...he doesn't care about the employees, just the board, and doing what he does best makes them very happy.
Hurd used to be the CEO for NCR when I worked for him, and he did the same thing there....from there he moved to HP, and whacked something in the ball park of 7-9k jobs right away. Nothing will make a company look profitable faster than
HP's Board may be pretend to be aggrieved, but there is little they can do. California basically bans non-compete clauses. Some lawyers will get rich, and it will all be settled out of sight.
It would be more convincing if HP weren't such d@mned hypocrits: they complain of corporate secret leakage, yet they hired in Carly Fiorio as CEO from Lucent to get networking going and Mark Furd himself from NCR. Both "closer" in market terms to HP than Oracle is.
I think the HP Bored is just unhappy Mark bounced back quickly and very vexed the market agrees with him (Oracle's stock when up, HP down). Arrogant SOBs. I'd be embarrassed to work for them. Or buy their products.
e-credibility: the non-guaranteeable likelihood that the electronic data you're seeing is genuine rather than somebody's made-up crap. - Karl Lehenbauer


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Dining room hearth was buckled and repaired many times before I bought house, had the floor under jacked up and am now trying to restore the hearth, found wood floor about 4" down under 2 inch layer of cement and 2 inches of sand and rocks, should I use bricks and sand in bottom and then cement to fill before I try to replace with tiles? Thanks any suggestions will be helpful
Views: 3435
If that wood floor is not stable and fast, no flexing, you will continue to have the same problem imho. In our basement our hearth is part of the concrete box structure that includes the ash pit for both the first and second floor fire places. Not sure how they channeled the second floor unit but they did.
planning on sealing up and putting a ventless (fake log) gas heater in.
That fireplace looks like it should have gas Coal grate put in rather than Log. That is what I am hoping to do with my own fireplace.
like this probably
Thank you, I will research, looks like something that would work well:)
I don't have any experience with this, I would suggest putting it out on the forum for help, the people at this website are wonderful, good luck,, Lucky you to have found tiles and a mantle.
Wonderful looking tiles surrounding the fireplace!! Is it as narrow as it looks?? (Looks to be 24"?) I agree that it seems like it originally burned coal... I would use concrete 'wonderboard' as a base for your fore hearth, it makes a great base for tile work. Does the front edge lap over the tongue-and-grove flooring?
The opening of the fireplace is almost almost 19 inches. I have another fireplace in the iving room that is missing 1/2 the tiles from the face and half the tiles from the fore hearth, am thinking I will use the tiles from that for the fore hearth in the dining room, they are close in color but no brown in them. would that be an idea?
Another nice fireplace! (Or, it *WILL* be in the end :)
Are the tiles the same on the floor and the wall?? Often wall tiles are lighter weight than what you would want on the floor... Otherwise, your idea of moving the tiles from one fireplace to the other is a good one. Old mortar and grout can be carefully removed, especially if it's loose now. Clean them well of any chalky mortar or grout.
You may be able to find tiles of this type (or very similar) available. Or look around - the missing tiles may turn up stored in an odd location. That sort of thing has happened time and time again at my 1864 house...
picture of the front edge gap any sugestions?
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Published: 2013/04/24
Glen Campbell Ends Touring Career
Glen Campbell is ending his touring career because his Alzheimer's disease has progressed too far for him to continue. Despite the unfortunate setback, the legendary country music singer has also announced that he will release a new album, entitled See You There, on July 30. The record will feature re-imaginings of some of his iconic songs like "Rhinestone Cowboy," "Witchita Lineman," and "Hey Little One." See You There was recorded in 2011 during the same studio sessions that led to his last release, Ghost on the Canvas.
While Campbell's Alzheimer's has progressed too far for him to continue touring, the musician still remains healthy. He continues to play golf and still hangs out with many of his friends, including songwriter Jimmy Webb. Campbell will spend his 77th birthday this Monday in Washington, DC advocating for Alzheimer's research.


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Greetings everyone!
I am looking for a multi tool to give as a gift to my brother. He is majoring in electrical engineering. I am looking for a multi tool that has multiple screwdrivers of multiple sizes and wire cutters/strippers/pliers. I don't think he would necessarily need a knife but if it has one i'm sure he can find a use for it. He is mainly going to be working with circuit boards and soldering stuff so again, a tool with multiple sizes of Phillips screwdrivers would be ideal. thanks for reading!


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JANESVILLE, Wis. (AP) -- A longtime Milton police officer has been found dead in an apparent suicide.
The body of 43-year-old police Lt. John Conger was found Sunday on a walking path in Janesville.
The Wisconsin Division of Criminal Investigation says an autopsy found Conger died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Conger had been with the Milton Police Department since May 1992.
WISC-TV reports Conger was involved in anti-bullying efforts in the Milton School District.
In a statement, Milton Police Chief Dan Layber called Conger a "dedicated officer who was committed to the Milton community."
Janesville police and the DCI are investigating with help from the Wisconsin State Crime Lab.
Information from: WISC-TV, http://www.channel3000.com


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The Dow Jones Industrial Average is making record highs, knocking the 2007 peak off its pedestal, but investors aren't celebrating.
Since the Dow hit its March 2009 low, many sage market players followed the stimulative monetary and fiscal policies, ignored the noise of pundits predicting doom and gloom, and invested heavily in equities. Only in retrospect can their bold calls be recognized as wise.
I often look to social sciences and psychology to help investors understand the importance of the collective genius. In one of my favorite books, The Wisdom of Crowds, James Surowiecki points to statistics scientist Norman L. Johnson's maze experiment as one of many illustrations of intelligent group decisions.
Johnson sent groups of people one-by-one through a maze, recorded their paths and timed the results. Do participants take a left or a right? How many steps does it take to make it through?
Then, he calculated how many total steps each individual took to reach the end of the maze. The average ended up to be 12.8 steps, but the group collectively did much better, taking only nine steps. More importantly, "there was no way to get through the maze in fewer than nine steps, so the group had discovered the optimal solution," wrote Surowiecki.
Time and time again, Surowiecki found evidence of collective decisions to be superior to individual results, whether researchers asked people how many jelly beans are in a jar or how much an ox weighs. The "collective guess was very accurate, and was better than the vast majority of individual guesses."
This collective wisdom theory was also used to predict the winner of elections. Nate Silver of The New York Times' FiveThirtyEight blog analyzes data on state and national polls along with economic information, including GDP, jobs and inflation. His interests in playing poker and writing about baseball made him adept at studying statistical means, odds and probabilities, and his prediction model results are phenomenal. During the 2008 presidential election, Silver correctly predicted 49 out of 50 states correctly. And in last fall's election, he correctly forecasted the electoral outcome in all 50 states.


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NASHVILLE, Tn. (October 15, 2013) Nashville Sports Council announced a historic deal with the Southeastern Conference to make Nashville and the Bridgestone Arena the site for twelve consecutive SEC Basketball Championships. The SEC Men's Basketball Tournament will be hosted nine times (2015-2017, 2019-2021, 2023-2025) and the SEC Women's Tournament will be hosted three times (2018, 2022, 2026).
"The entire Nashville community is honored to be named as the host city for the SEC Men's Basketball Tournament and have the opportunity to continue to host the SEC Women's Basketball Tournament during the next 12 years," said Scott Ramsey, President & CEO, Nashville Sports Council. "We appreciate the opportunity to work with the SEC and ESPN to create a showcase event for SEC basketball teams, coaches and fans."
In May, SEC Commissioner Mike Slive announced that the league's athletic directors had voted unanimously to explore a primary site for the men's basketball tournament.
"Nashville has long been a valued partner of the Southeastern Conference and we are pleased to establish this long-term agreement that will benefit our men's and women's basketball tournaments," Slive said. "Nashville, as a proven host, provides SEC teams and fans with a wonderful experience."
"We couldn't be more excited to make Nashville and Bridgestone Arena the home of Southeastern Conference basketball for years to come," Nashville Predators/Bridgestone Arena President and COO Sean Henry said. "We have been able to build a tremendous partnership with the SEC through unwavering support from the Nashville Sports Council, Metro and basketball fans throughout the United States, and we look forward to making our partnership even stronger during the 12 tournament run hosted by Bridgestone Arena. We have an ultimate goal to make Bridgestone Arena the No. 1 entertainment venue in the country, and being selected by the SEC to host its tournaments is just another milestone towards achieving that goal."
The Nashville Sports Council has hosted an SEC Basketball Championship at the Bridgestone Arena nine times in its history. The men's tournament was played in Nashville in 2001, 2006, 2010 and 2013, with the women playing in 2002, 2004, 2008, 2011 and 2012.
"Nashville is proud to be selected as the primary site of SEC basketball," Nashville Mayor Karl Dean said. "Whenever the tournament is in town, our entire downtown is energized. Our hotels, restaurants and the honkytonks on Lower Broadway all benefit from the thousands of visitors that the tournament draws, and tournament visitors benefit from the wonderful food, music and hospitality Nashville has to offer. The tournaments are going to be a great experience for the fans and a great win for our tourism industry."
Through the Nashville Sports Council's Scorecard Analysis, the men's tournaments hosted in Nashville have produced $56 million in direct economic impact and drawn nearly 750,000 attendees. The women's tournaments hosted in Nashville have produced $35 million in direct economic impact and attracted over 200,000 attendees. The tournaments will also help bolster Nashville's image. All games of the each tournament will be nationally televised through the SEC Network, ESPN, or ABC.


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President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama dined out in the Big Apple this past weekend. So, where in one of the food capitals of the world did they eat? Blue Hill, naturally. The Obamas are committed to sustainable agriculture as indicated by the new White House kitchen garden, and Dan Barber, chef/co-owner of Blue Hill, is renowned for his role in the field-to-plate movement.
A 2009 James Beard Foundation Award winner, Barber also operates Blue Hill at Stone Barns. Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture is a non-profit, four-season and pastured livestock farm that provides many of the ingredients served at both Blue Hill restaurants.


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19 Nov 2007 20:11:59 PM
Reminder: Forrest Griffin Is Tonight's 'SVU' Villain
Be advised! Forrest Griffin and Ice-T's wife Coco guest star on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit — tonight at 10/9c — as a possibly homicidal "ultimate fighter" and the woman who loves him. Detective Stabler better bring his A-game; you don't just slap cuffs onto the man who tore apart "Shogun" Rua…Read More DIGG THIS


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Regardless if you're into muscle cars, hot rods, or customs, there is one common thread that binds us together: your first encounter with a sleeper. No, we're not talking about sitting in a classroom during a boring lecture or being subjected to more than one bad drive-in movie. We're talking about the surprise you got when you pulled up to the light and literally got your socks blown off by a "mundane" looking competitor in the next lane. You know the one: the ride with a nondescript exterior hiding a badass combination under the hood. It's then you imagine just how many greenbacks have been handed over to the driver of a car that looked like it couldn't beat you to the corner if you gave it a formidable lead.
Brett Stevens of Highland, Maryland, saw more than his share of hopped-up cars running the strip in his hometown during the heyday of the muscle car explosion of the '60s. Everything from blown and injected big-blocks, to high-strung small-blocks made the scene, but the cars that caught his attention most were those that were subtle and unassuming. For Brett, the ultimate killer combination was that of a '69 Camaro wielding an unsuspecting V-8 under its hood looking for action on a Saturday night.
Already owning a mint, numbers-matching '70 Chevelle SS396, he felt it was time to get his son Zak involved with him in a father-and-son team effort. The original plan was to build a neat '69 Camaro that Zak could use as a driver for high school. So, the search was on for a workable '69 that the pair could get cleaned up in a short period of time as a low-buck project. He put the word out to good friend and classic car broker Rob Hudlow. In a snap, he had located a base '69 in Ohio while doing some racing. It wasn't long before the '69 was on its way from Ohio and heading to Brett's garage. While it was an original, numbers-matching car, a thorough evaluation proved that it was in need of far more than he had planned to be a simple driver for Zak. The car still proposed a challenge for the pair, and they began its disassembly with a somewhat uncertain eye on what style they would go with for the build. Brett reached back into his memories and decided the car would be reborn as a 1969 Chevy Camaro Z/28 RS with an edgy attitude and a "little" secret lurking under the hood.
With the car partially disassembled in the garage, Brett enlisted the help of ace fabricators Tom Flash and Javier Torres of Burtonsville, Maryland, to complete the teardown and begin the arduous task of reconstructing the body. After evaluating the panels and seeing that very little was worth saving, a call was placed to Denny's Camaro Parts in Mountville, Pennsylvania, to order up fresh stock, including floors, doors, rear quarters, fenders, trunk, dash, and hood. As Brett told us, "if there was a replacement sheetmetal part available, I bought it. I really didn't want to cut any corners on this build."
With sparks flying and welders working overtime, the '69's body was whipped back into shape as the pair worked tirelessly to kick-start the resurrection. With the body beat going strong, Brett called on Rob Morris of Mount Airy, Maryland, to massage the steel to perfection while ensuring every line was razor sharp. Rob laid down a decadent coating of PPG Red Jewel vibe accented by white Z/28 stripes, which he buried in mile-deep clear coat.
Once the body was gleaming with a fresh flavor, it was time to address the mechanical side of the build. Having worked with Robert Norris of R&C Fabrication of Westminster, Maryland, before on his Chevelle, Brett knew that Robert would share his vision of creating a low-slung razor-sharp '69 with loads of attitude. Robert signed onto the build and laid out a base, which would get the car down low and ready for action. Up front, the original subframe was blasted clean, powdercoated, then treated to Hotchkis tubular upper and lower A-arms combined with SSBC 2-inch dropped spindles complemented by QA1 adjustable coilover shocks. Out back, a Strange 12-bolt rear filled with 3.73:1 cogs is suspended in place by Calvert Racing's split monoleaf springs and CalTracs traction bars combined with QA1 adjustable coilover shocks. To bring it all to a halt, 11-inch SSBC rotors and calipers reside up front while factory drums get the job done out back. A set of Billet Specialties Street Lite wheels shod with Mickey Thompson Sportsman rubber seal the car's aggressive stance and demeanor. Now armed with "the look," and to make sure any stoplight challengers would get their money's worth, Brett contacted Scott Shafiroff to build a pump-gas friendly beast. One that would leave your guts on the floor once the go-pedal was planted. The result: a 582ci stroked Rat packed with all the endless innovation Shafiroff is known for. The ensemble includes an Eagle crank and rods, JE 10.5:1 slugs, COMP Cams stick, and Dart Pro aluminum heads. A 950cfm Holley sucks air and fuel through an Edelbrock Victor Series intake with spent gasses getting dumped through a set of Hooker headers. Pulling 745 hp on the dyno is enough to peel back anyone's eyelids and a make scrap metal out of any transmission that's not quite up to the task. So in went a Coan Extreme 400 Pro trans and B&M Quicksilver shifter to handle the abuse.
At this point, Brett began the final assembly stage working with good friend Carl Davidson to take on the painstaking task of getting the car's vital systems up, including wiring, fuel system, brakes, and cooling. It was time for first fire-up. It shook the earth. It was epic!
The interior was then glammed up with the seats recovered in black and white houndstooth by Todd Meyers while Robert Norris returned to install the balance of the interior.
Classic touches like a rosewood steering wheel and trim melds perfectly with Auto Meter gauges and carbon-fiber dash accents. The completed car exemplifies what a clean yet subtle execution in a build can bring to the table.
Brett and Zak Stevens' modern interpretation of a classic packs more than its share of heat. And once they rip away from a stoplight, it's obvious that this '69 is no sleeper. Far from it …
"If there was a replacement sheetmetal part available, I bought it. I really didn't want to cut any corners on this build."


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Most wine lovers I know eventually wind up using their refrigerators as wine storage. In my own kitchen, where the regular Sub-Zero fridge is usually chock full of my wife's gourmet food purchases, I splurged for a dedicated wine refrigerator. It has a humidity control. Don't store wines long-term in a standard fridge: it's too damp and the corks will eventually go bad. But keeping bottles in the fridge for a period of up to four weeks is fine.
As the weather begins to heat up, I usually start thinking about how to best stock my unit with crisp whites and refreshing rosés for warm-weather quaffing. I even throw in a few bottles of user-friendly red, chilling them down for serving on warm summer evenings. And let's not forget sparklers. If in doubt about how much to chill your wine, err on the side of colder - the wines will warm as they're served.
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With Portal, Valve took the mechanic of shooting--something we're very familiar with--and used it in a whole new fashion. Using a gun that opened portals, Valve created a geometry-based puzzle game, the object of which was to use the openings to navigate increasingly challenging test chambers. With that starting point established, Portal 2 hits the ground running.
Portal 2 tricks you into thinking you'd never leave the unfriendly confines of the Aperture Science labs. Then the game blossoms, blowing down the very walls needed for its portals and opens up into a fantastic adventure. Breaking out of the test chambers feels liberating, answering the question: "what could I do with this portal gun in the world outside a test chamber?"
Peeking behind the curtain at Aperture Science offered an intellectual story that fits the puzzling pace just right. It's fun sci-fi, just campy enough, without becoming so silly it can't be taken seriously.
The crowning achievement of Portal 2 is its co-op mode. Working with a second player more than just doubled the complexity of the game. Solving a puzzle with a friend offered the same surprising, euphoric feel of the original Portal. For that feeling alone, Portal 2 stands as one of the high points of 2011.
BOOM video 5433
The Shacknews 2011 Game of the Year awards are based on a weighted scoring system between all staff writers and editors [here's how it works!]. Last week we revealed our "Honorable Mentions," which include the titles that did not quite make our overall 'Top Five Games of the Year.' This week we reveal that Top Five list, with our Overall Game of the Year award being announced on January 20.


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London: Historic And Dynamic
series: Rick Steves' Europe
air date: 2/06/13 9:30 PM
In many-faceted London, we ponder royal tombs in Westminster Abbey, learn how to triple the calories of an English scone at teatime, discover treasures in the British Library, enjoy the vibrant evening scene in Soho, uncover Churchill's secret WWII headquarters, join the 9-to-5 crowd in the new London, shop where the queen shops, and straddle the Prime Meridian at Greenwich.
WARNING: Email reminders for this program have already been sent out. Your reminder may not reach the intended address in time for this program's airing.
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Last week Refinery29 came by our new studio and took some photos of Eunice and Sabrina for a feature on San Francisco siblings. They were thrilled to be included along side some of the city's coolest siblings. The piece includes a pretty fun q&a with Eunice and Sabrina about each other -- including Eunice's favorite memory of the two of them growing up. You can check out the full Refinery29 feature right here.
Thanks for including us Refinery29!


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Hi everyone
I have 2 festival tickets and accomodation in a teepee for weekend 1 to sell. We were really looking forward to the festival but are due our first baby around the same time so it is impossible! We would like face value for the package or close to it. Please let me know if you are interested. Thanks


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Jeep - basic info and current lineup
Jeep, a division of Chrysler, is oldest SUV marque worldwide, that much that a noun jeep is used for all SUVs and terrain vehicles.
Jeep produces all sizes of SUVs with Compass being the smallest and Commander, which is a sever passenger SUV.
Still, company's flagship model is Grand Cherokee, a large family oriented SUV and, to an extent, it's younger brother - Jeep Liberty (also known as Jeep Cherokee outside US).
As can be seen on new Liberty and it's boxy chasis (first time shown in Geneva, 2008), Jeep has decided to go back to its roots.
Current Jeep Lineup:
It reaches 60mph in 4.9s, top speed is 158mph.
Jeep will release another new model in April - a special edition of Jeep Wrangler called Arctic.
Second generation of Jeep Compass was presented in Detroit in January. Front grille and hood are more Cherokee alike - such is the whole look of new Compass. Basic version has 2.0l 157bhp engine, more powerful one has 2,4l 172bhp engine.


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Let's take a full look at the Hayward Area Athletic League.
Will three-time defending champion San Leandro win another league title?
The Pirates have owned the HAAL since the minute Dennis Dixon first stepped on the field in a varsity game in 2000. He promptly led them to three straight HAAL titles and trips to the NCS 4A East Bay tittle game. Since 2000, San Leandro has won seven league titles, including four of the past five. Since 2005, the Pirates are 35-2 in the HAAL with the only two losses coming in 2006 when Hayward won the title and Mt. Eden took second (those teams handed the Pirates their lone losses).
Will this trend continue? At this point, San Leandro has to be considered the favorite. The Pirates may have lost HAAL Offensive Player of the Year George Roberson, but they return the league's top quarterback in Chris Musni, a guy who threw for over 1,500 yards last year with 23 touchdowns against just eight interceptions. That's pretty solid efficiency. San Leandro has always been good about finding a new back to plug into place, so I wouldn't doubt they'll be able to get some strong RB play from either seniors Kyrian Obidiegwu or Ellis Cummings. The defense only returns four starters, but still with that coaching staff I'm sure they'll find a way to thrive.
After the Pirates you probably have to look to last year's second place team Hayward. The Farmers return John Hughes in the backfield and have seven returning starters on a defense that gave up 17.9 points per game in its eight wins (although they allowed 47 per game in the three losses).
Bishop O'Dowd is certainly a wild card in this race. The Dragons always have talent and it'll be interesting to see how new coach Hardy Nickerson will get this team going. Hardy Nickerson Jr. is beginning to get rave reviews as a linebacker as he enters his junior season and the Dragons have some skill position players back in RBs Trenton Trammell and and Tyrone Ward and WR Terrance King Jr. There's definitely no reason to forget about the Dragons.
San Lorenzo is coming off a strong season despite its playoff snub with a 6-4 record. DT William Fukofuka is a big loss and it'll be intriguing to see if the Rebels can build off last year and make another run at a playoff spot. Arroyo could be a sleeper as well as new coach James Barnes will certainly bring some energy to the sidelines (For those that haven't seen him coach, get ready. It can be a lot of fun to observe). Having defending HAAL Defensive Player of the Year Micah McMurray doesn't hurt either and Barnes will do his best to utilize his team speed.
Mt. Eden is yet another sleeper in this league because of the infusion of experienced coaching in Bill Bishop and of course Paul Perenon. If nothing else, this team will likely give you a fight for four quarters. Castro Valley and Tennyson will both be trying to get back on track in a season where the league seems to be as deep as it has in years.


text: Lucas Pizza 0 Report post Posted June 21, 2013 Hello. I'm brand new to this community; just signed up today. I thought it might be a good idea to join up considering I've officially chosen ceramic as my priority medium for my BFA degree at Florida State University. I'm currently working on this piece that, upon completion, will be large and (hopefully) securely mounted to a wall. A brief description of the project's physical attributes: Think of a mounted sheep's head, horns and neck and all, like one that would come out of a taxidermist's shop. Now imagine the material it's made of being white earthenware, life sized - fired of course - as though it's emerging from the wall itself. The Sheep will be accompanied by two arms, either hand built or slipcasted. Both will also be emerging (attached) to the wall. One arm will be displaying the generic "blessing" gesture Jesus is shown posing with in old sacred art. The other hand will be holding a dagger which will be opening the Sheep's throat. From it's neck, gold and copper ivy leaves and vines made from wire will be escaping and "splashing" onto the floor. I won't bother getting into the concept aspect of the piece to save some of your time. I prefer to not give it all away immediately anyways. I was working on the piece the other day, I only have most of the head completed and I'm currently building up the horns. I began to wonder how I will mount this thing - safely - and I had a miniature freakout. I had to leave my studio I was so stressed. Does anyone have any ideas as to how I should go about this when it's completed? It needs to be attached at the neck. As I said, it will resemble an animal head you might mount to a wall. Neck included. Here are some pictures of where I'm currently at. (Click on "show" to see images) Feedback and advice greatly appreciated. Thank you so much. -L.Pizza Share this post Link to post Share on other sites


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April Mack
Ms. April Mack, a proud alumni of LTU, currently holds a Master of Science degree in Technical and Professional Communication. She has been teaching Technical and Professional Communication (COM2103) at LTU since 2005. She also collaboratively developed and teaches a Digital Fundamentals course at the College for Creative Studies in Detroit. Ms. Mack has been instructing courses in visual, written, and oral communication since 2000.
In addition to teaching, Ms. Mack owns and operates Graphic Write Communication, a graphic design firm which services several local businesses.
Ms. Mack is married and has two beautiful children.


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I have lots of pdfs which are supposed to be printed double sided, but my printer is only single sided.
Easy, just print all odd sides, then turn the wad over and print all the even sides in reverse order.
Except, selecting "odd sides only" causes the Gnome(?) Document Viewer -> CUPS -> Epson printer driver chain to crash with no output. I suspect whatever package parses the pdf file for CUPS, but I'm not sure what that would be.
One way out would be to split each pdf into two, one with all the odd sides and one with all the even. There are too many to do manually, so a script would be needed.
Any ideas, either for a Debian-free tool with functional pdf print options or for said script?


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#1 B,C, FIle Sez Created By MAC Preview?05-02-2011, 12:09 AM
I wonder how the clowns who have been claiming that the FAKRR Birth Certificate are gonna take THIS
CREATOR .Preview...a Macintosh Application that Doesnt DO OPTICAL CHARACTER RECOGNIITION
why is this Important?
beacsue the claims have been made by ALL the so called EXPERTS that this fake mess was created using OCR software.
ANother Interesting TIDBIT isthat as you may have noted...the Modification Date i.e. TIME precedes that of the documents CREATION
that data is EMBEDDED in the PDF ..AS RELEASED.
more to follow VERY LIKELY
that sort of thing doesnt happen unless someone SCREWS AROUND with a files data..
Stop posting this stupid shit in Breaking News.In most sports, cold-cocking an opposing player repeatedly in the face with a series of gigantic Slovakian uppercuts would get you a multi-game suspension without pay.
In hockey, it means you have to sit in the penalty box for five minutes.
|« Previous Thread | Next Thread »


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Some College Station residents had a close encounter this morning after an alleged drunk driver plowed through the front of their home on Leona Drive, off Southwest Parkway.
Eyewitnesses are calling the scene incriminating -- yet a sobering reminder.
"He is too intoxicated to even be walking," said witness Maddi Jopling. "I mean, much less driving a car down the street, it's so crazy to see that."
"I'm so against drunk driving," said witness, Melanie Bass.
Maddi Jopling and Melanie Bass were inside their house when they heard the impact.
"We heard a lot of screeching and then about 5 hits," Bass said.
"I thought it would stop after one but then it kept going and going," said Jopling.
Immediately after …
"We ran to the window and saw that truck in the wall," said Bass. "Never have I ever seen anything like this before; I mean I've seen a car accident, but never a car in a house."
Bass and Jopling joined a crowd of neighbors and concerned residents as Leona Drive quickly transformed into the scene of a crime.
The person trying to walk a straight line for police is 21-year-old Curtis Dee Schroller. He was heading northbound on Leona Drive just before 11 Wednesday night when police say he failed to negotiate a curb.
"He drove through several front lawns, knocked over some mailboxes; came back into the roadway and hit a parked car pushing it into another parked car," explained College Station Police Officer Jimmy Brown. "He then spun out back across the roadway and into this residence across the street."
Thursday morning crews began cleaning up; removing brick and dry wall to replace the damaged property.
Although no one was injured, the residents tell me they were sound asleep as Schroller's pickup came plowing through their home office.
"The fact that someone would get behind the wheel intoxicated is putting other peoples' lives in danger as well as their own, I feel is just foolish," added Bass.
Schroller was transported to the Brazos County jail and charged with DWI.
An alleged drunk driver has been arrested for crashing into a College Station home.
Police arrested 21 year old Curtis Dee Schroller of Bryan late Wednesday night.
Police tell us that Schroller lost control of his 2011 Chevrolet pickup in the 1800 block of Leona Drive around 10:30 Wednesday night.
He hit two mailboxes and a tree before striking a parked car.
Police say the truck then slid across the road and crashed into a home on Leona Drive.
No injuries were reported but police say there was a lot of property damage.
Schroller is being charged with driving while intoxicated.


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WENGEN, Switzerland (AP) - Ted Ligety considers the next two weekends of classic World Cup races key to his challenge for the overall title.
With seven point-scoring events in 10 days at the signature venues of Wengen, Switzerland, and Kitzbuehel, Austria, third-place Ligety aims to move up on leader Marcel Hirscher and Aksel Lund Svindal.
Ligety tells The Associated Press "this is a very important month as far as whether I have a chance at the overall."
Still, the schedule counts against the giant slalom standings leader whose best event is off the World Cup calendar until Feb. 24.
Slalom leader Hirscher and downhill leader Svindal can race those events on both historic Wengen and Kitzbuehel hills.
Ligety says he needs "more meaningful" results in other events, starting with Friday's super-combined.


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A mayor is an elected person who serves as the head of a city's government. He or she has many responsibilities and follows a goal of making that city a great place for its residents to live.
Mayors decide how to spend money on local programs, construction projects, parks, city streets, and other things. At city council meetings, where local officers discuss current and upcoming plans for their areas, the mayor listens to everything and has the power to vote on which plans should be put into practice.
A mayor is also responsible for making sure that city services, such as the fire department and police department, work well and are helping everyone who needs assistance.


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Member? Sign in. Not a member? Register for free.
This app was removed from the App Store.
My Wedding Concierge - Inspiration Engine
iOS iPad Lifestyle
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**Wedding Vendors** For information on advertising in this app, please contact firstname.lastname@example.com for more information!**
My Wedding Concierge Inspiration Engine App allows brides to search through thousands of wedding blogs for wedding inspiration on the go. Simply type in your desired keywords and let our search engine do the work for you. Returned results are highly curated and gorgeous. Click on the photo to be taken directly to the original blog article.
ie: Type in Pink Gray and you'll see everything pink and gray related to weddings (inspiration boards, cakes, bouquets, etc)
Tap on the bookmark on the upper right and you'll see trending feeds, featured feeds of wedding vendors, and your current searches. Add the searches and feeds that you want, and swipe to delete them from your reader.
Find wedding vendors in your local area on our ever growing interactive geolocation section. Zoom all the way in to street level to see exactly where the vendor is located! Tap on a vendor's icon and be taken to their wedding blog and ad on our site. Scroll through their gallery of photos and contact them directly by clicking on their email. If you like their blog, add their blog directly to your reader's feed!
Click on any airplane icon to see articles related to honeymoon and destination weddings for those areas. Access the articles within the map section or add the entire feed to your reader!


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The Republican Party's problems with minority voters might persist or even worsen. But an opening for significant improvements in GOP-minority relations may be at hand.
If Republican lawmakers allow far-reaching immigration changes to become law, then the contentious issue might fade from political headlines, and that might ease anti-Republican feelings among some Hispanics.
And if Republicans nominate a Hispanic such as Florida Sen. Marco Rubio for president in 2016, it's possible that millions of Hispanic voters would back him.
At the same time, black voters might be less excited about the next Democratic presidential nominee than they were about the barrier-breaking Barack Obama.
Some strategists think it's just as likely that Republicans will worsen their standing among minorities. That's especially true if House Republicans block a far-reaching immigration law rewrite.


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Why did it happen? The Daily News has some theories. There's also a poll — where "Adam's look didn't appeal to Middle America" is currently winning, with "Adam's sexuality played a role" coming in second. Isn't "Adam's sexuality played a role" just a blunter way of saying "Adam's look didn't appeal to Middle America."
I think there may have been a sense among many of the hardcore voters — and they're the ones who matter, what with almost 100 million votes on the finale — that the American Idol should be a good role model for kids. In the final comparison between Kris and Adam, Kris Allen was the good boy whom they could picture as their own son or their high school boyfriend. That's the nature of the show.
Some of the voters surely thought that the idol, the role model, shouldn't be (or seem) gay, but I wouldn't get too bent out of shape about it. Adam Lambert did extraordinarily well and was embraced and eagerly loved. I didn't see any nasty homophobia on line that was about trying to make him lose — or win (there was no equivalent of the "vote for the worst" campaigns that in previous years have raged among the show's haters). And Kris was really sweet and natural standing alongside Adam week after week and talking about what good friends they are and so forth. That has been part of his role modeling.


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Questions? Call now toll free! (866)666-9198
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To add to your enjoyment, the in-ear fit creates a seal in the ear that blocks out ambient noise, allowing you to focus on your music. The washable silicone eartips are provided in 3 different sizes, allowing you to find the best fit for comfort and noise isolation. The 3.5mm mini plug lets you connect to MP3 players, CD players, and more. A cleaning tool and crush-proof aluminum case are included.
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More Special Pages From Reflections
- Home
- Heritage Flag & The Family Names
- Friend of Friends
- THE Trip, The Maps
- Disclaim THAT! Beholden to - -
- THE Trip, THE Encore' :: The Maps
- THE Trip, THE Encore' :: The Maps, Part Two
- THE Trip, THE Encore' :: The Maps, Part Three
- 2013 Thankful November
- Families Past :: Pedigree Charts
- Edna May Fenton Stevens Time Line Experiments
- Winter Sojourn 2014/15 :: The Maps
- Reflection's Contibutions to the Worldwide Genealo...
- Reflections Visits Nova Scotia
Sunday, November 13, 2011
The Best Error a Librarian Ever Made
In the years that I have been researching the Lashbrook clan things have really changed for researchers. Some of you may actually remember using film and indexes from the National Archives for census research. And, Soundex. You could go off to a National Archives facility, or you could order copies of the film from the Family History Center near you , or you could order the film from your local library. Our local library did not charge for those orders back in 1992, so as a cost savings research tool, I would order as much film through that local library as they would let me. Of course, I had to wait, sometimes for weeks, for the film to be delivered and then I only had a few weeks to use the film, in that specific library. Hard copies were available though, WAHHHOOO, on 8.5 X 11 inch sheets! Oh, ya, those were the days!
My very first research goal was to figure out what Man's lineage was. Long story, short version, the surname we now use as our legal surname, well, it is not the surname of his heritage. His grandfather changed his name back around 1916. No, not legally, he just changed it. The little thorn sticking out this was the fact that when I started this research journey, we had no idea what our heritage surname was.
Talk about naive, I was so new and green I had no idea what I was attempting to do. Sometimes naivety is a wonderful thing, so, I just plowed ahead, innocently where no woman, err, researcher had gone! (Eyes rolling, Carol now laughing hysterically.)
After about 6 months of research I was pretty sure I was looking for Archibald Lashbrook and his ??? parents. Archibald (who would become my favorite research dude, and is now known as Archie) was reportedly born in late 1879, so, I was instructed to look for him on the 1880 census. OKKKKK, off to my fav local library I go, order up the 1880 census for Fillmore County Minnesota where I had reason to believe Archie had been born.
The librarian ordered the census index film for 1880 for the soundex of L216, not the Fillmore County Minnesota census film. Turns out that was the best error any librarian ever made for me! Seriously! LOL I was a bit upset, but Man and I decided to look at the film, especially since we really did not know what we were looking at anyway!
Man and I were both working film readers, sitting next to each other. He had the 1880 soundex for L 216 and I had something else. He found the index card. Remember, we did not know what soundex was, what an index film was nor did we did know the head of household, we did not know who Archibald's parents were. We were simply looking for a 1 year old baby with the name of Archibald or Archie Lashbrook. Man stopped at this entry, and asked, "is this what we are looking for", or something to that affect. We were shocked, and would have done a happy dance if we had realized what we had just found. Of course, we did not even known what a happy dance was. We were soooooooooooo new to the research game. We were outrageously lucky!
Yep, there is our Archibald Lashbrook, err, Lashbronk, 1 year old, Fillmore County, Minnesota.
We learned 2 lessons that day:
1.) What census index film was, how it worked, and what we would find
2.) Spelling don't count
I will admit it took me several more months of learning, stumbling, and researching to fully accept that this was our Archie.
Yes, indeedy, the librarian who had done the interlibrary loan for me ordered the wrong film, only she ordered the RIGHT film. Yep, the best error a librarian ever made for me.
*Here is the actual 1880 census enumeration of our Lashbrook family, it is easy to see how this has been indexed a number of times as Lashbronk. Handwriting counts???
5 comments:
- a3Genealogy, Kathleen Brandt said...
Yes...those were the days! Many of us don't have a clue of what pre-ancestry.com world really is. But, it is through our naivete as a beginner that we learn a lot (if coupled with a bit of guidance and workshops). I love this story. It reminds us that the digitized versions really are just generations of the original (which may be erroneous exponentially).
- November 13, 2011 at 8:55 AM
- Barbara Poole said...
I love how you tell this story, as though it just happened, and you are still doing the happy dance. What a great pieces of luck, sometimes that's all it is. In many ways, I miss the good ole days of how we researched, so it was a nice walk down memory lane. (Also, some of my census records printed at NARA were 11x14, I loved that size.) Good piece Carol.
- November 13, 2011 at 9:34 AM
- Kathy Reed said...
Did you just change your blog template (or have I been reading your posts in google reader too much)? I love the pictures in your sidebar.
This was a GREAT post. I could SO identify.
- November 13, 2011 at 5:30 PM
- Michelle Goodrum said...
This is one of the best genealogy stories I've read. I felt like I was sitting at that microfilm reader with the two of you greenhorns! Thanks for the trip down memory lane. Things weren't so hard back in the old days were they? LOL
- November 13, 2011 at 6:11 PM
- my Heritage Happens said...
What a wonderful way to start! Great story!
- June 19, 2013 at 12:01 AM


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Most wrestling coaches refer to this time of year as the championship season. It's when grapplers fight to learn just how good they are and where they stand with others in their weight class in the state.
For Morris, that means taking a trip to LaSalle-Peru for the Class 2A regional; for Minooka that means heading to the Class 3A Bourbonnais Regional; for Coal City it is staying home for a Class 1A regional and for Seneca it heads to Class 1A Stillman Valley Regional.
"We have a very tough regional and sectional again this year," Morris coach Jon Lanning said. "When it comes to wrestling, there are so many good teams in 1, 2 and 3A that there really is no place to hide in a regional or sectional anymore. So many talented wrestlers that you have to do something to separate yourself from your opponent."
Lanning's projected lineup looks something like this: Tony Menozi (19-12) at 106 pounds; Andrew Smith (19-9) at 113; Ethan Elleson (2-9) at 120; Dominic Byerly (9-16) at 126; Kenny Baldridge (32-0) at 132; A.J. Vota (20-12) at 138; Merrick Hairapetian (1-3) at 145; Emmet Chouinard (15-15) at 152; Trevor Allbert (25-7) at 160; Ryan Kowalczyk (4-22) at 170; Victor Touisaint (3-10) at 195; Dalton Ness (25-7) at 220 and Andrew Faught (16-12) at 285.
"The boys have been working hard in their two-a-day workouts twice a week plus normal practices over the past month," Lanning said. "We are in our final push. We have to be in better shape than our opponents an just flat outwork them. If we do that, we will have a very successful postseason."
Yegge thinks the Stillman Valley Regional/Byron Sectional is just as loaded.
"We have heard and seen at the state finals what this sectional has produced," Yegge said. "This sectional seems to be very deep in quality wrestlers and it will be a challenge for all of our athletes to advance and qualify for state this year."
Yegge's projected lineup includes: Tyler Draine (16-13) at 160 pounds; Sage Friese (34-2) at 126; Kyle Sigmon (9-14) at 132; Anthony Haase (1-2) at 138; Cole Klicker (14-18) at 145; Bryce Coyle (22-12) at 152; Zach Russell (24-9) at 160; Dayton Coyle (28-11) at 170; Tommy Lovett (28-7) at 182 and Wyatt Rodriguez (13-19) at 195.
"I truly believe we have four or five athletes that can compete at a high enough level to challenge for a state berth," Yegge said. "Hopefully we are ready to compete at a higher level on Saturday."
Coal City coach Mark Masters said his team is looking good at the right time.
"We are starting to peak at the right time," he said. "For the most part we are as healthy as we have been all year. Our guys have been competing every week in practice as well as our competitions."
Master's projected lineup includes: Casey Brown (35-3); Nate Buck (12-12); Taylor Cirrenicone (12-9); Anthony Combes (0-1); Brock Crawford (3-8); Jonah Englert (18-13); Jake Frost (20-13); Dakota Gagnon (3-5); Matt Girot (4-1); Noel Gomes (5-5); Brian Harris (5-2); Corey Jurzak (25-3); Riley Kauzlaric (28-12); Alec Leasure (9-9); Alex Medina (6-14); Cody Minnick (37-1); Joey Rivera (33-9) and Bryan Stopka (2-10).
Minooka's projected lineup includes: John Callahan (7-7) at 160 pounds; KJ Minor (29-11) at 113; Andrew Potts (9-21) at 120; Bret Miller (6-16) at 126; Shane Mart (22-19) at 132; Nate Vaught (15-15) at 138; Kenny Kirkland (11-13) at 145; Carson Oughton (28-4) at 152; Jon Pickett (4-4) at 160; Chris Hiscock (27-11) at 170; Josh Bouie (25-13) at 182; Erik McMillin (6-11) 195; Erik Velazquez (33-7) at 220 and Kyle Williamson (7-16) at 285.


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Anyway, I love your blog. Every morning when I read it, it just re-affirms that I am not crazy, that I am doing the smartest thing financially, environmentally, etc. Because as much as I like cloth diapering, there are times that I do get thinking why did I decide to be "not normal" and use cloth. And then I log on and see that this is the new normal, but even if it wasn''t, I am reassured that I am doing the right thing. Who would have thought diapering my babies bum would cause such deep thinking!?!?
Now I can spot a cloth diapered bum from miles away and I love that I am the "cool kid" in my MOPS group (Mothers of Preschoolers). When people find out I use cloth, I think they first think I must be some kind of neo-hippie (which maybe I am a little) but then they are intrigued.
Just wanted to say keep up the good work! I can't wait for the economy to turn around so I can start buying more diapers. More likely though, I will just work it into the monthly budget.
- Kelly G.


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TORONTO -- The finalists for last year's CFL outstanding player award are up for the honour again in 2012.
Quarterbacks Travis Lulay of the B.C. Lions and Anthony Calvillo of the Montreal Alouettes were named their teams' representatives for the award Wednesday in voting conducted by members of the Football Reporters of Canada and the CFL head coaches.
Lulay captured the award last year with Calvillo named the East pision's top player.
The other West pision nominees, all unanimous selections, include Calgary Stampeders running back Jon Cornish, Edmonton Eskimos linebacker J.C. Sherritt and Saskatchewan Roughriders slotback Weston Dressler.
Calvillo, a three-time award winner who was also a unanimous selection, will be up against Winnipeg Blue Bombers running back Chad Simpson as well as receivers/kick-returners Chad Owens of the Toronto Argonauts and Chris Williams of the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.
Cornish, Sherritt, Owens and Williams were all double nominees.
Cornish was also named Calgary's top Canadian while Sherritt earned Edmonton's top defensive player nomination.
Owens and Williams were also unanimous picks as their respective team's outstanding special-teams player selections.
Other two-time nominees included Saskatchewan centre Dom Picard (lineman, Canadian) and Montreal linebacker Shea Emry (defensive player, Canadian).
The division finalists will be announced next Wednesday. The CFL will honour its top individual performers Nov. 22 in Toronto.


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A joint initiative between the American Immigration Council and AILA seeks to change the playing field for immigrants facing deportation.
Learn more about AILA's official statements on immigration issues.Read Now
AILA Doc. No. 13030660 | Dated March 5, 2013
WASHINGTON, DC - The American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) commends the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration and Border Security for holding today's hearing entitled, "Enhancing American Competitiveness through Skilled Immigration." Witnesses at the hearing addressed many of the critical reforms needed in the area of high-skilled immigration."
Highly skilled immigrants bring innovation, creativity, and job growth to the American economy. Congress must enact an immigration bill that addresses all of our nation's immigration needs of which high-skilled immigration is a critical component.
There are a number of issues faced by businesses that need access to highly-skilled workers and foreign students graduating from U.S. universities in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). New avenues of legal entry into the U.S. must be created for the investors and entrepreneurs whose work spurs our economic growth. Additional employment-based green cards that are essential to an effectively-functioning immigration system must be included in any meaningful reform package. However, this expansion of green card numbers to meet economic demand must be accomplished without taking away green cards from other immigration categories. Furthermore, these much needed changes to both our immigrant and non-immigrant system should be made without creating new red tape and bureaucratic barriers to the businesses that need these workers in a timely manner.
"A properly functioning immigrant and nonimmigrant visa system is vital to the well-being of our nation's economy," said Laura Lichter, president of AILA. She concluded, "AILA is encouraged to see this hearing take place today and looks forward to seeing a bipartisan effort developed to address our broken immigration system."
The American Immigration Lawyers Association is the national association of immigration lawyers established to promote justice, advocate for fair and reasonable immigration law and policy, advance the quality of immigration and nationality law and practice, and enhance the professional development of its members.
Cite as AILA Doc. No. 13030660.
American Immigration Lawyers Association
1331 G Street NW, Suite 300
Washington, DC 20005
Copyright © 1993-2018
American Immigration Lawyers Association.


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COMMERCE – Emmett Sanford Duren, 90, died Thursday, December 6, 2012.
He had 43 years of service with the City of Atlanta.
Survivors include his wife, Sara Kesler Duren, Commerce; children, Jones (Charlotte) Garmon, Jefferson, Beverly (Jerry) Scott, Commerce, and Betty Jean (Ernest) Edwards, Commerce; brothers, Fred Duren, Auburn, and D.C. Duren, Lawrenceville; sisters, Lillian Cannon, Winder, and Peggie Prince, Clermont; 13 grandchildren; 23 great-grandchildren; 11 great-great-grandchildren; a number of nieces and nephews; and special friend, Ricky Cain.
Funeral services will be held Saturday, December 8, at 2 p.m., from the Hudson River Baptist Church with the Rev. Troy Herbert officiating. Burial will be in the church cemetery. The family will receive friends at the funeral home Friday, December 7, from 5 to 9 p.m.
Ivie Funeral Home, Commerce, is in charge of arrangements.
Emmett Duren (12-6-12)
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Cell phone supercomputing, anyone?
Plugcomputing.org dreams big, thinks small
Plugcomputing.org is displaying a 16-node HPC cluster based on the ultra low power Marvell Sheeva processor at SC09 in Portland, Oregon this week. This ARM compliant CPU has seen action in cell phones and digital picture frames. (Press release here:)
The processor draws as little as 5 watts at 1.2 GHz, a small fraction of the power draw that you'd see from general purpose procs. The system is outfitted with 512MB of flash storage in place of local disk and an additional 512MB of DRAM main memory. It's going to be running Fedora Linux with an NFS file system.
According to the press release, the entire cluster will be powered by a single 110w power strip and will draw 90 per cent less power than a single personal computer. The cost of the platform is also low – around $100 per website. The real question is how much work can be accomplished on a box with these modest specs.
Can it do more than simply run the o/s and file system? For low power computing solutions like this to take off, they need to prove that they offer adequate performance for common HPC tasks. Just being low power and Environmentally Correct (EC) isn't enough to crack this market...just as walking between cities and towns hasn't replace flying and driving – even though walking is undeniably more environmentally friendly. ®
Sponsored: Minds Mastering Machines - Call for papers now open


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House Your ViewVIEW EVENT DETAILS
Imminent Domain Designers Workshop Series
Workshop with Dylan Kwok & Maarit Eskola, Designers
"For us, the Asia Society Hong Kong Center building's finest quality is the way it embraces nature within the compound that surrounds it! The forest here seems to be enchanted with an almost spiritual quality – it's as if there were spirits and phantoms dwelling within the bushes and trees!" - Dylan Kwok, Designer
Reflecting on how humans lived in the wild thousands of years ago to modern day urbanites assisted by rapid technological advancement, participants at this workshop will re-think what minimal living is by appreciating their physical and tangible surroundings. During the workshop, they will be asked to imagine themselves micrified, then build a house with one window only and to live in it. Participants will walk around Asia Society Hong Kong Center to find a location with the best scenery for the window in their house. The workshop will encourage participants to pay attention again to neither the Internet nor their smartphones but the environment in which they live in.
Dylan Kwok is co-owner of the ground-breaking PIORA project initially began by Korean furniture designer Hyejin Ahn with waxed paper art lamps in 2006. In 2010, Dylan and Hyejin Ahn came together and refined the project by introducing non-profit workshops, exhibitions and plans for artistic installations across their series. After living abroad for 15 years, he has returned to Hong Kong for good and is now with the Design Institute for Social Innovation of at Hong Kong Polytechnic University's School of Design. Through his exposure to different cultural settings, Dylan has developed a strong interest in the relationship between humanistic design and urban environment. Dylan received his Master's degree in spatial design at the University of Art and Design in Helsinki, Finland.
Maarit Eskola is a Finnish interior architect, who has won numerous design competitions. Her work has received recognition in the Finnish and German media. As a designer, she is particularly interested in environmental aesthetics through the study of the history and values of surrounding landscapes and the relationships between human beings and nature. In the past year Maarit has been working both in the fields of design and paleoecology. She received her education in spatial design at Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture and obtained a Master's degree in physical geography at the University of Helsinki.
This workshop is part of the Imminent Domain Designers Workshop Series. To find out more about about the exhibition, please click here.
|Major Sponsor:
Supporting Organizations:
Hong Kong Design Centre
The Hong Kong Institute of Architects
CreateHK Disclaimer:
"The Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region provides funding support to the project only, and does not otherwise take part in the project. Any opinions, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in these materials/events (or by members of the project team) do not reflect the views of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region."


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When Pope John Paul II promulgated the current Code of Canon Law, he referred to the call of the Second Vatican Council to develop a novus mentis habitus, a "new way of thinking." He was referring specifically to a new way of approaching the law of the Church, but certainly thinking creatively about our lives of ministry transcends such categories.
As we now find ourselves in August and facing the fall "ramp-up" of ministries: fresh faces beginning the RCIA inquiry phase, schools and catechetical programs making last-minute preparations for students, staff people and clergy alike. There is a sense of an imminent new beginning. It is with all of this in mind that I found Pope Francis once again to be modeling for us, not simply a new way of thinking, but a new way of being and acting.
At a recent gathering of young students from Jesuit schools in Italy and Albania, the Pope spoke candidly and spontaneously about many things. Of course his comments were never intended to be read and studied with the great theological precision found in other recent papacies. However, the way Pope Francis is choosing to exercise the Petrine ministry can give the rest of us reason to look at how we choose to exercise our own work in the Lord's vineyard.
I also remember reading shortly after the conclave that certain cardinal–electors had been a bit concerned over the rather serious Cardinal Bergoglio's potential for connecting with youth. The videos of this event should allay any reservations on that score!
As the pope prepares to give his prepared speech, you can see him make the decision to change directions, to adapt to his audience. He refers to his prepared text as "long and a little boring," and says, "Let's do something different." He then takes questions from a number of the students and answers them frankly. He jumps up to greet each questioner with an embrace and a kiss, then returns to his chair for the next question.
As he gives "a little summary" of his prepared text, it is interesting that his first point refers to the balance that educators and parents must find in combining security in education with risk of reaching out into the unknown. Notice how he has found a creative way to do exactly what he is now challenging these students, their teachers and their parents to do. He has left the security of the prepared text and scripted event, taken a risk and made himself personally vulnerable to the impossible-to-predict nature of the questions these young people might ask.
"Don't always be in the place of security," the Holy Father says. He specifically calls on the teachers to find unconventional ways and means of teaching. And when he finishes his summary, he tells the crowd that he is ready for questions, adding (perhaps with a little trepidation), "Please help me with this!"
The reflection for us as clergy might well center around these points: How open are we to make ourselves vulnerable to the unexpected, to speak honestly and frankly about our own doubts and struggles along the way ("The thing about the art of the journey," the pope said, "is not to avoid falling, but not to stay fallen. We must get up quickly and return to the journey.") Is our own faith strong enough to "throw away the script" and simply be with the people we serve and be vulnerable to them and their questions?
It has been interesting, in these early months of Francis's papacy, to see the reactions of the aides assisting him and their own attempts at following his lead and adjusting their roles to accommodate his more spontaneous style of ministry. Perhaps now is a good time for us to think, act and be in "new ways" of service, to balance the place of security in our lives with a willingness to risk for others. TP
DEACON DITEWIG, Ph.D., former executive director of the Secretariat for the Diaconate at the USCCB, now teaches and ministers in the Diocese of Monterey, Calif. He writes and consults extensively on the subject of the diaconate and contemporary ministry.
Copyright © 1996-2018 Our Sunday Visitor, Inc.


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Fido & Me — Fido the Bomb
Fido buried his nose under the couch. He would have scrunched all the way under, but biscuits have taken their toll. Even if he were slender, he wouldn't fit.
"THERE'S ANOTHER ONE!" he yelped, and dug his nose deeper under the couch. I noticed he was shaking, too.
"Fido, just what in the world are you doing?"
"Are you deaf, man?" Fido wanted to know.
"I didn't hear anything unusual, Old Boy, except for the sweet sound of avalanche control on The Mountain. Right on time. Must be 6:30 a.m.."
"You call that sweet? Have you been watching the news?"
"Why, yes, Fido. We both are newshounds."
"So you know by now that the Vegetarians are on a rampage?!?!?"
"Fido, I have utterly no idea where you are going with this."
"I heard it in the news. Hummus eaters are lobbing bombs, and somebody is lobbing bombs back at them."
"Wow, you big red lug, you are some kind of mixed up this morning."
"I'm a dog, it's Monday, and I'm always mixed up!"
"OK, first, those bombs you heard this morning were Avalanche Control. Ski Patrollers criss-cross the ski hill after snowfalls, and they knock down dangerous-looking snow so that we don't have to worry so much about snowslides."
"We have great ski patrollers in Mammoth," I said to Fido. "Down here in town, they sound like cash registers in their own kind of way, given that we live in a ski town and all."
"But we didn't hear them last year," Fido said. He lifted his eyebrows like he does when he has Serious Questions.
"There wasn't a lot of snow around this time last year, Old Boy. We were all kind of miserable, waiting, day after day, for the cash registers to go off, if you know what I mean, but it didn't happen until it was too late in the season."
"Can I have a belly rub?"
When things get weird, a good belly rub does the trick for Fido. He rolled over on his broad back, extended his legs and arms and waited. He didn't have to wait long. I gave him a nice, long belly rub.
"But I still have a question for you, Fido," I whispered. "What did you mean by the Hummus Eaters?"
"I heard it on the news."
"I think what you're talking about is Hamas, and those fellows are a long way away from us."
"Are they vegetarians?"
"I know when our vegetarian friends stop over, you always have a nice Hamas spread for them."
"First of all, Fido, it's hummus, not Hamas, and you don't have to be a vegetarian to enjoy it. It's a concoction-spread thing made from chickpeas."
Just then, another round of "thump-thump-thump" bombs went off at the Mountain. Fido scrambled back up from his belly-rub position. He actually had a smile on his face.
"What gives, Old Boy?"
"I feel safer, now that I know it's Ski Patrol making it safe for people on the ski hill! And that we're not being attacked! And that hummus is made out of chickpeas!"
"See how 15 minutes can turn things around?" I said.
"Let's go to work!" he said. "There's news out there!"