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Representative Gregg Harper (1956 - )In Congress 2009 - Present |
MemberHide Overview
Congressional Pictorial Directory
|In Congress
|House: 111th-115th (2009-Present)
2227 Rayburn House Office Building
(202) 225-5031
Legislation Sponsored or Cosponsored by Gregg Harper
1-2 of 2
- BILL1. H.R.1679 — 111th Congress (2009-2010) House Reservists Pay Adjustment Act of 2009 Sponsor: Rep. Brady, Robert A. [D-PA-1] (Introduced 03/24/2009) Cosponsors: (4) Committees: House - House Administration, Standards of Official Conduct | Senate - Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Reports: H. Rept. 111-85 Latest Action: Senate - 04/23/2009 Received in the Senate and Read twice and referred to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. (All Actions) Tracker:
This bill has the status Passed House
Here are the steps for Status of Legislation:
- Introduced
- Passed House
- RESOLUTION2. H.Res.440 — 111th Congress (2009-2010) Amending the Rules of the House of Representatives to strengthen the public disclosure of all earmark requests. Sponsor: Rep. Cassidy, Bill [R-LA-6] (Introduced 05/14/2009) Cosponsors: (25) Committees: House - Rules, Standards of Official Conduct Latest Action: House - 05/14/2009 Referred to House Standards of Official Conduct (All Actions) Tracker:
This bill has the status Introduced
Here are the steps for Status of Legislation:
- Introduced


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MDUSD Board to approve new general counsel, Local 1 contract tonight
By Theresa Harrington
Wednesday, December 11th, 2013 at 6:48 pm in Education, Mt. Diablo school district.
Tonight, the Mt. Diablo school board expects to appoint a new general counsel and to approve a bargaining agreement with the Local 1 Maintenance and Operations workers that appears to mirror the agreement with the Clerical, Secretarial and Technical unit.
Here is the agenda for tonight's meeting, which is at 7:30 p.m. in the district office at 1936 Carlotta Drive in Concord:
"1.0 Call to Order
1.1 President will call the meeting to order. Info
2.0 Announcements
2.1 In closed session, the Board will consider the items listed on the closed session agenda. Info
3.0 Public Comment
3.1 The public may address the Board concerning items that are scheduled for discussion during closed session only. These presentations are limited to three minutes each, or a total of thirty minutes for all speakers or the three minute limit may be shortened. Speakers are not allowed to yield their time. Info
4.0 Adjourn to Closed Session at 6:00 p.m.
4.1 Negotiations – The Board may discuss negotiations or provide direction to its representatives regarding represented employees, pursuant to EERA (Govt. Code Section 3549.1) Agency negotiators: Julie Braun Martin and Deborah Cooksey. Agencies: MDEA, CSEA, Local One M&O, Local One CST, MDSPA, and Supervisory. Action
4.2 The board may discuss or provide direction to its negotiators regarding unrepresented employee, pursuant to Government Code section 54957.6. Agency negotiator: Dr. Nellie Meyer. Unrepresented employee: General Counsel. Public Employment. Title: General Counsel. Action
4.3 Expulsion of student #02-14 from all regular schools of Mt. Diablo Unified School District. Action
4.4 Pending Litigation – Conference with Legal Counsel pursuant to Gov't Code Section 54956.9(1) in the matter of OAH Case #2013100126. Action
5.0 Reconvene Open Session
5.1 Reconvene Open Session at 7:30 p.m. Info
6.0 Preliminary Business
6.1 Pledge of Allegiance and Roll Call Info
7.0 Report Out Action Taken in Closed Session
7.1 Report out of Closed Session Info
8.0 Organizational Meeting
8.1 Annual Board of Education Organizational Meeting Info
8.2 Elect Board President Action
8.3 Elect Vice President Action
8.4 Appoint Secretary Action
8.5 Establish Regular Meeting Dates, Time and Location Action
8.6 Adopt Certificate of Signatures Action
9.0 Student Representatives
9.1 Student representatives will report on activities at their schools. Info
10.0 Board Member Reports
10.1 Board Reports Info
11.0 Superintendent's Report
11.1 Superintendent's Report Info
12.0 Consent Agenda Action
12.1 (Item #1) Items listed under Consent Agenda are considered routine and will be approved/adopted by a single motion. There will be no separate discussion of these items; however, any item may be removed from the consent agenda upon the request of any member of the Board and acted upon separately. Action
12.2 (Item #2) Recommended Action for Certificated Personnel Action
12.3 (Item #3) Request to Increase and Decrease Full Time Equivalent (FTE) for the 2013-2014 School Year Action
12.4 (Item #4) Community Engagement Memo of Understanding between Saint Mary's College of California and Mt. Diablo Unified School District Action
12.5 (Item #5) Recommended Action for Classified Personnel Action
12.6 (Item #6) Classified Personnel: Request to Increase and Decrease Positions Action
12.7 (Item #7) Independent Services Contract for Events to the "T" Inc. Action
12.8 (Item #8) Approve submission of the 21st Century Community Learning Center (21stCCLC) and ASSETs grant for two high schools, one middle and five elementary schools. Action
12.9 (Item #9) Fiscal Transactions for the month of November 2013. Action
12.10 (Item #10) Budget Transfer and/or Budget Increases/Decreases for the month of October 2013 Action
12.11 (Item #11) Contract for Maintenance of District's Phone Systems and Voice Mail Action
12.12 (Item #12) Request for Purchase Order for A to Z Bus Sales Action
12.13 (Item #13) Request to issue Purchase Order to Sabah International Action
12.14 (Item #14) Board Bylaw 9200 – Limits of Board Member Authority Action
12.15 (Item #15) Approval of increase to Exploring New Horizons Outdoor Ed Contract for Mt. Diablo Elementary School Action
12.16 (Item #16) Award of Bid #1652: South West Parking Lot Overlay Expansion Project at Clayton Valley Charter High School Action
12.17 (Item #17) Award of Lease/Lease-back Agreement with Taber Construction, Inc. to support RFQ/RFP 1664 – Middle School General Science Classroom Buildings 2014 Project Action
12.18 (Item #18) Design Service Contract Amendment Salas O'Brian – security system replacement Action
12.19 (Item #19) Design Service Contract amendments for Smith, Fause & McDonald(SFMI) – technology improvements de-scope of work Action
12.20 (Item #20) Award of Inspector of Record (Project Inspector) Contract for Aquatic Center Project at Northgate High School Action
12.21 (Item #21) Amendment to Cal-Air (Johnson Control) Phase 2 Energy Conservation Project Action
12.22 (Item #22) Notice of Completion for L/LB#1616: Construction and Finishes for 2013 Chemistry/Science Buildings at Concord High School and College Park High School Action
12.23 (Item #23) Notice of Completion for LLB #1626: Elementary and Pleasant Hill Middle School Technology Improvements Action
12.24 (Item #24) Notice of Completion for LLB 1640: Modernization of S Wing, Shop Building at YVHS Action
12.25 (Item #25) Notice of Completion for LLB #1641: Science Center Remodel, Building 100 at YVHS Action
12.26 (Item #26) Resolution#13-14/25 Authorization for submittal of Bus Retrofit Grant to Bay Area Air Quality Management District Action
13.0 Consent Items Pulled for Discussion
14.0 Recognitions
14.1 Announcements/Awards Info
15.0 Public Comment
15.1 The public may address the Board regarding any item within the jurisdiction of the Board of Education of the Mt. Diablo Unified School District that is not on this agenda. These presentation are limited to three minutes each, or a total of thirty minutes for all speakers, or the three minute limit may be shortened. If there are multiple speakers on any one subject, the public comment period may be moved to the end of the meeting. Speakers are not allowed to yield their time. Info
16.0 Communications
16.1 District Organizations – At regular Board meetings, a single spokesperson of each recognized district organization may make a brief presentation following the Consent Agenda. Items are limited to those which are informational. Info
17.0 Reports/Information
17.1 Information Provided to Board and Community Info
18.0 Business/Action Item
18.1 Appointment of General Counsel and Resolution to designate specified position as senior management of the classified service, appoint an employee and set a salary Action
18.2 Appointment of Program Specialist, Special Education Action
18.3 Appointment of Social Work Specialist Action
18.4 Classified Personnel: Appointment of Educational Consultation and Behavior Management Specialist Action
18.5 Appointment of Vice Principal, High School – Concord High School Action
18.6 Appointment of Coordinator, Student Services 6-8 – Sequoia Middle School Action
18.7 Approval of Independent Service Contract with Center for Human Development for $50,000. Action
18.8 First Interim Report 2013-2014 Action
18.9 Budget Development Calendar 2014-2015 Action
18.10 Request to Approve Tentative Agreement between Public Employees Union Local 1 (M&O) and the Mt. Diablo Unified School District (MDUSD) Action
18.11 Approval of Textbook Adoption for AP Physics, Physics for Scientists and Engineers with Modern Physics, Pearson, 4th edition by Douglas C. Giancoli Action
18.12 Independent Services Contract with Pivot Learning Partners Action
18.13 Sole Source Authorization and Consent Form– APPLE, INC. Action
18.14 New and Revised Technology Policies – BP 3513, BP/AR 4040, BP 6162.7 Action
18.15 Award of Contract with DecoTech Systems for the Middle School Laptop Order, through the 2010 Measure C Facility Improvement Program, as part of the Classroom Technology Enhancements Project. Action
18.16 Award of Inspector of Record (Project Inspector) Contract for MDUSD Project 1663 Portable Replacements & MDUSD Project 1664 MS General Science Buildings. Action
18.17 Award of Lease/Lease-back Agreement with Taber Construction, Inc. to support RFQ/RFP 1663 – Portable Classroom Replacement 2014. Action
18.18 Award of Lease-Leaseback Agreement to Kenridge Builders, Inc. Construction of New Aquatics Center at Northgate High School Action
18.19 Final Change Order for LLB #1616 – Taber Construction Inc. for Chemistry Classrooms 2013 at Concord/Nueva Vista and College Park High School. Action
18.20 Contract Amendment: Salas O'Brien Engineers, Inc. Ygnacio Valley High School Stadium Lighting Project Action
18.21 Final Change Order for LLB #1641 – Landmark Construction, Inc. for Modernization of Science Center, building 100, at Ygnacio Valley High School Action
18.22 Final Change Order for LLB #1640 – Landmark Construction, Inc. for Modernization of S-Wing, Shop Building 1300, at Ygnacio Valley High School Action
18.23 Meeting Extension Action
19.0 Future Agenda Items
20.0 Closed Session
20.1 Items not completed during the first Closed Session will be carried over to this closed session. Action
21.0 Adjournment
21.1 Adjourn Meeting Info"
Due to a greater emphasis on regional stories at Bay Area News Group, I will not be attending tonight's meeting. However, I will try to watch portions of it online and will report on the general counsel appointment, Local 1 agreement and reorganization.
Do you agree with the recommendation that the general counsel be designated as senior management of the classified service?
[You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.]

subset: commoncrawl


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Jorge finally has his day
Jorge De La Rosa.
I can't remember how many times this season I've watched this kid blow a baseball game. Jorge had a serious bad start this season and his ERA by the All Star Break was 7.26.
I like Jorge. Hunter and I got his autograph early on this season and I mentioned back then how laid back and polite he was.
I was just checking out his stats. He is now 12-10 for the season and his ERA is 4.92. He's bringing it on strong and doing exactly what every other Rockies player is.
Trying to get noticed. Only three games left.
Jorge struck out seven allowing only three hits in seven innings. He also singled in the fourth and drove in a run.
Matt Holliday (Rockies please keep him), hit a single in the first inning to score Tulowitzki.
Matt this season has hit .321 with 25 home runs and 88 RBI. He has played 139 games, had 539 at bats and managed 173 hits.
Matt will only continue to get better as a player. There was a dramatic improvment in his outfielding this season.
He is physically healthy and lives a clean lifestyle.
Matt has a lot of good years left in him
Fact: In June 2006 Clint broke his collarbone carrying a large slab of meat given to him by Todd Helton upstairs to his apartment.
It was probably deer or elk meat.
Clint hit a solo homer in the seventh inning to give him eleven home runs for the season. That is a personal record for him topping his previous best of 10 in 2005. Contrats Clint..See you next season.
Rockies square up against the D-Backs in a couple of hours. On the mound for the Rockies is Jason Hirsh.
Have you seen the size of this guy?
He is 6'8 250, bats right, throws right.
He's been a relief pitcher only three times this season. Here's a quote from Jason.
"I'm going to have fun, at this point of the season, that's pretty much my mind-set. Have fun and enjoy the rest of the year. This season has been trying, the most trying of my career. At this point, what have I got left to lose?"
He's right, who knows..lets see how it goes..
No winner on the Baseball Card Trivia #2.
Did I make it too tough?


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0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.
I think it would be easier not to give gifts to anyone - with the possible exceptions of the children. It's quite possible some of your guests will bring gifts for you, but as you are the hosts, it isn't necessary for you to reciprocate. Think of them as 'hostess gifts via Santa', or something.If you have in-house gifts, it might be prudent to either open them before the guests arrive, or hide them away until after they've gone.
Can you invite the people you would exchange gifts with a little earlier so you can do a gift exchange first?
And with the timing I don't think there's any way to have my immediate family come earlier than the non-immediate family guests.
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FC Girondins de Bordeaux's players were left to highlight SL Benfica's quality after suffering a 3-2 second-leg loss that confirmed the Portuguese club's progress to the UEFA Europa League quarter-finals. Although forward Nicolas Maurice-Belay emphasised that the hosts "couldn't convert our chances", he was quick to praise the "experience" of Benfica's two-goal substitute Óscar Cardozo, while Cheick Diabaté added: "We were playing a very good team." Meanwhile, the visitors' other scorer on the night Jardel warned that his side are "aiming to win every competition we're involved in".
Nicolas Maurice-Belay, Bordeaux forward
We were already a goal down from the first leg and we knew that if we conceded another one we'd have to score three. That's why we wanted to put pressure on them from the start, but unfortunately we couldn't convert our chances. After that, we let in a goal which took the wind out of our sails a bit, but we carried on trying to score and make the difference. We managed that, but each time they scored immediately afterwards.
Cardozo is an experienced player, like all the Benfica players. That's what made the difference over the two games. We had more chances than them over both legs, but they put more of them away because of their experience.
We leave the competition with a lot of positives, though. People told us they didn't believe in us and we proved them wrong by going further than any other French team. What's bizarre is that we haven't played like this in the league, but maybe now we're out of the Europa League we'll have enough energy to put in the same kind of performance at home.
Cheick Diabaté, Bordeaux forward
The problem was that we lost the first leg and unfortunately that made it more difficult for us to do something. If we'd got a result in the first leg, it would have been easier for us in this game.
I think Bordeaux played very well. We tried to keep our shape and you have to remember that we were playing a very good team. They created chances and scored, and it was a difficult match, but we tried to give everything we had. It went badly for us tonight but we need to try to win our next game against Toulouse.
Jaroslav Plašil, Bordeaux midfielder
We played a solid game with a lot of desire and attacking intent, but we conceded the first goal too quickly and that killed us a little bit. We managed to equalise and started to believe again, but then we conceded the second. After that, it was basically mission impossible as we would have had to score four of five.
The performance was reassuring, given the high level of the competition, and it would be good to be able to repeat it over the rest of the season. You could see that everyone was hungry and everyone was fighting for each other; that's what's important, even if we were a bit wasteful. It's a good sign for the future.
Jardel, Benfica defender
We had a goal in mind, which was to qualify. We managed to win a match that we knew in advance would be very difficult. Bordeaux are a very strong team, but I was fortunate enough to score the first goal and things were a little bit easier for us after that. We were calmer after the goal and completely deserved the victory.
The coach has been very good in how he's rotated the team. He gives minutes to all the players and all my colleagues are up to the task. We have a great team and we are aiming to win every competition we're involved in.
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Time travel is the weakest of all SciFi plot devices, reserved for authors who are completely out of ideas.
Please, Mr. Abrams, don't do that again.
Actually Mr Anonymous, many of the best episodes of classic sci-fi series like Star Trek and Stargate were all based on time-travel. Yesterday's Enterprise, Anyone?
In other words, you are wrong and it is actually the complete opposite. Time Travel scares away novice sci-fi writers because they cannot wrap their heads around the paradoxical nature of such concepts, while the great writers are able to mold the concept into compelling, memorable science fiction.
He obviously hasn't seen Primer.
I find it's rare for time travel to be done right. As a big fan of Stargate... I don't think they ever did it right on that series. They certainly didn't do it egregiously wrong, but they never did it right. Haven't watched any Star Trek except the recent JJ Abrams movie, so can't comment much on that.
What did time travel right? Well, Babylon 5. And... I feel like there's probably something else, but that's about it off the top of my head.
Except for the causal loop.
Personally, I liked 12 Monkeys.
"A world out of time" by Larry Niven. None of the usual "kill your grandfather" paradoxes, but a well-thought-out and entertaining story about a man catapulted a L O N G way into the future.
"A world out of time" by Larry Niven. None of the usual "kill your grandfather" paradoxes, but a well-thought-out and entertaining story about a man catapulted a L O N G way into the future.
Except that Niven didn't use a 'time machine' to do it, he merely had the ship park just barely inside the event horizon of a black hole on a trajectory that would take it a couple million years to come out.
Luke, Leia and Han are supercool heroes from a galaxy far, far away. And boy are they full of angst.
Starring Eugene Levy as Darth Vader, the dad still trying to be cool.
"We'll just tell your mother we used the force"
That's no sun! That's a lens flare!
Scrolling upwards and out into space away from the bottom of the screen:
In A.D. 2101
War was beginning.
Captain: What happen ?
Mechanic: Somebody set up us the bomb.
Operator: We get lens flare.
Captain: What !
Operator: We get lens flare.
Operator: Main screen turn on.
Captain: It's You !!
Cats: How are you gentlemen !!
Cats: All your base are belong to us.
Cats: You are on the way to destruction.
Operator: We get lens flare.
Captain: What you say !!
Operator: We get lens flare.
Captain: No. I say to Cats. What you say !!
Cats: You have no chance to survive make your time.
Cats: HA HA HA HA
Captain: Take off every 'zig' !!
Captain: You know what you doing.
Captain: Move 'zig'.
Captain: For great justice.
Operator: We get lens flare.
(and this text goes in here because slashdot hates 1 word answers, even when they're totally awesome.)
Sorry... that word should be:
7 8 and 9 were already books. And they were awesome!
Yeah, I'd pick Timothy Zahn's Thrawn books if Episode VII was to be an adaptation of existing Expanded Universe material.
Star Trek was an abomination. Being able to beam into warp destroys the Star-Trek universe worse than midichlorians ever did.
Not at all. All Scotty had to do was reverse the polarity of the beam, and boom! Problem solved!
Seriously, if you are worried about the coherency of the Star Trek universe... well, lets just say that ship sailed around, oh, the second episode of the original series? Being generous. Transporters alone "destroyed" the Star Trek universe. Hell, they weren't even supposed to exist (they are vastly more advanced than the Federation should have had, given the rest of their technology), but the show didn't have the budget for a shuttle.
Meanwhile, those of us that like both Star Wars & Star Trek are thinking, "hrrm, Episode 7 has a chance now of not sucking."
Assuming you actually liked Star Trek XI, which I didn't. At all. Not even a bit. In fact, I rated it my second worst Star Trek movie (saved from the bottom only by The Final Frontier). Want some reasons? I've got plenty, but here's just a few (spoilers incoming!):
First, I see a lot of people talking about transwarp beaming, with some even defending it going "Oh, well you know beaming was just to save on money in the first place", which was was, which is irrelevant. Beaming was fine because beaming had rules. You can only beam over certain distances, you can't beam through certain atmospheric conditions, you can't beam at warp unless it's between two ships and they're both going at exactly the same speed and you have an extremely skilled operator. These rules keep it from being too powerful a plot device. So what does Abrams do? Transwarp beaming! Beam to a ship ridiculous distances away that's travelling at warp from a (relatively) stationary planet!
That's bullshit because it's just lazy. Abrams wrote himself into a corner. Kirk needs to be on the planet to meet future Spock but Kirk and Scotty need to be on the Enterprise to fulfil their destinies, but oh shit the Enterprise warped off fucking hours ago. I know! Deus ex machina, and they're in the engineering section. It's just bad writing.
It also brings me too... oh fucking hell, give me a second. It brings me too... the worst set. In all of Star Trek history. Even the Original Series. That engineering section. Just... what? Seriously, what? What is it? What are all these pipes? What do they do? How do they fit on the Enterprise? What was the designer smoking? I really, really don't get this set. Even in a narrative sense, what's it for? One stupid scene where Scotty gets stuck in the pipes? You could've cut that whole scene from the movie and nothing else would have to change. So why? Why not at least make it match the bridge and shuttlebay in style and design rather than feeling like a totally difference franchise in there?
Oh, but then we come to style and design. It's just rule of cool, even when it makes no sense. The Romulan mining ship? A 'simple mining ship' that looks like some fever-dreamed eldrich abomination? I mean, I know it has to look imposing but that's not just some lowly mining ship so why does it look like that? Because it's cool of course! Explanations are for losers! Also 'red matter', surely the midicholorians of Star Trek. An incredibly powerful substance out of nowhere that can make black holes out of nothing and destroy whole stars because that's not overpowered. Also, 'red matter'? Even Spock calls it red matter, is that really what it's called? That's the scentific name? Red matter? They couldn't even care enough to give it a vaguely 'sciency' name like 'trilithium' from Generations? It may be small, but the small things are what make you know they care, and they didn't with this movie.
If this is what Star Wars VII is going to be like then we're going to see something very special. We're going to see the franchise find an even lower place than the prequel trilogy.
If your first critique of a movie is "I see a lot of people talking about transwarp beaming, with some even defending it" you have no business attempting to review science fiction. By Grabthar's Hammer, you've managed to write a half-dozen paragraphs and have not addressed one character in the entire fucking movie. This is the series that gave us "The Inner Light", and "The City on the Edge of Forever", and you're going on about the tech like it's anything more than frilly window dressing.
Conceptual dead we
Or perhaps we'll finally see an answer to that question: "Who would win? Enterprise vs. Star Destroyer"
If they also announce that J.J. Abrams is going to direct a new Ghostbusters movie and a new Back To The Future movie, the geek universe will implode.
This is not going to help explaining the differences to the Girlfriend when she says "Star Wars, Star Trek same thing..."
"The Star Wars franchise had a series of movies starting a bit over 30 years ago. They are about to make some new ones. The guy who did Lost is going to direct them. . Where as Star Trek had a series of movies starting circa 30 years ago. They are now making new ones. The guy who did Lost directs them...""
This is not going to help explaining the differences to the Girlfriend when she says "Star Wars, Star Trek same thing..."
"The Star Wars franchise had a series of movies starting a bit over 30 years ago. They are about to make some new ones. The guy who did Lost is going to direct them. . Where as Star Trek had a series of movies starting circa 30 years ago. They are now making new ones. The guy who did Lost directs them...""
The simplest way to deal with a girlfriend, assuming you have one, is to simply say have you seen the new episode of "Keeping up with the Kardashians". That should keep her busy talking for a half hour while you play Halo in your head. When there's a lull in her talking just say, "I know can you believe what happened". That should keep her going for another half hour while you finish another imaginary Halo level. If she doesn't watch that show there's always the Twilight punt. Just tell her you started reading the Twilight novels. That will buy you an hour of in head gaming before she asks your thoughts on something from the novel. I recommend your response to whatever she asked to be "Isn't it an amazing romance?" That'll buy you two hours if not the rest of the night and you might even get laid.
You forgot about Starman (which I think qualifies as a "franchise" since it had one movie, and then a spinoff TV series).
For the love of all that is good and right in the world, please just shut your mouth... do NOT give him ideas!
I don't really care who directs it. I'm more interested in finding out if Ford, Hamill and Fisher are going to be in it. I know they're old fogies now, but frankly after the horrors that were the prequels, I'd like nothing more than Han Solo with a blaster.
I don't really care who directs it. I'm more interested in finding out if Ford, Hamill and Fisher are going to be in it. I know they're old fogies now, but frankly after the horrors that were the prequels, I'd like nothing more than Han Solo with a blaster.
They have all expressed interest, and the story idea that's been floated so far has Luke being the head of a new academy. It's possible.
Not sure if Carrie would still fit into the bikini, though.
Star wars 7: There is a knock at Luke's front door. A bunch of people invite themselves in and eat all his food.
Star wars 7: There is a knock at Luke's front door. A bunch of people invite themselves in and eat all his food.
Far over the Endor forest green
To Yavin IV and Tattooine
We must arrive by hyperdrive
And stick a fork in Palpatine...
Disney is risk averse to directors who can successfully sue the movie studio and win monetary settlements for uncompensated royalties. Otherwise, I'd have to agree.
i have to say that something has been 'lost' in the new age.
the best original trek were about the human condition... I'm sure you can name some of your favorite episodes that leap to mind... but for me it is TOS like the Menagerie, or TNG like "The Inner Light" (where he plays the flute on) or the one about Enkidu and Gilgamesh.
When Spock dies in Wrath of Khan, tell me you didn't cry
The new stuff is fine.. but its
Please. All of that TNG crap. I wanted them to die. I wanted the scene to go like this:
Picard> Yes, but the question is *should* we kill them?
Data> Killing is not ethical
Enterprise blown from the stars
Enemy captain> If you're going to shoot, shoot, don't talk
The talking hapens a lot.
[very weak ship starts shooting]
Enterprise: hey, we've got the most powerful ship in the federation. This weak ship is shooting us. Hmmm. What shall we do?
[ship continues to shoot]
Enterprise: Perhaps we should shoot back.
[ship coninues to shoot]
[Enterprise begins to sustain damage]
Enterprise: Yeah shooting's a good idea. Let's ignore all the photon torpedos and most of the other weapons and shoot one phaser on the weakest setting (the ship phasers don't seem to do stun on TNG).
[ship gets shot, but sustains only moderate damage and keeps shooting]
Enterprise: huh. That didn't do much and dang they're still shooting.
[console on enterprise randomly expoldes]
Enterprise: shall we shoot again? Perhaps shooting would be a good idea. Maybe we should up the phaser power from one to two percent and try again. But let's think about it for a while.
[other ship KEEPS shooting and enterprise really starts to take the hits]
[enterprise fires one more very weak phaser blast which does about as much as expected]
Enterprise: huh. They're still going. OMG SHIELDS ARE FAILING EVERYBODY PANIC AND WHILE YOU'RE AT IT DON'T BOTHER TO SHOOT BACK WITH EVERYTHING YOU'VE GOT!!
and so on.
The problem is, Trek comes with a lot of baggage. Some of the very best original episodes literally are also some of the worst to draw from. Take 'City on the Edge of Forever' - It's brilliantly written, and has a far more mature conclusion than most TV of its time (and just about all the critics rank it highly), but it's a time travel story, and there are four other time travel stories in the original trek, with four other methods of time travel, so by the end of third season, the burning question every ep
Lost was a piece of shit. Fuck everyone who liked it. I'm going drinking.
... it couldn't get any fucking worse than Jar Jar Binks.
As an actor (and so distantly connected to the entertainment industry), what makes me cranky about this is Hollywood's affinity for known quantities. I like Abrams' work; I'm sure it'll be a fine movie.
But there are hundreds of lesser-known directors who might have done something. What would Kevin Smith have done? Or Alfonso Cuaron, who made the third Harry Potter movie so much more interesting than any of the others? Or somebody I've never heard of?
They're going with a known quantity, and maybe it's the right business decision. It means it probably won't be terrible, and will probably be pretty good. But no matter how good it is, it's still going to be more of Abrams, who we've already got plenty of.
They're going with a known quantity to eliminate the risks. And all you get from safe choices is safe movies. And "safe" is exactly what Star Wars wasn't, at least not the first time, the thing that made it great.
Alfonso Cuaron really did a great job... another possibility would have been Guillermo del Toro. Both would be much more interesting.
I always though that Star Wars did not have enough lens flares...
Why cant they have Michael Bay do it? We would have Ewoks exploding all over the place, and everyone's wish comes true... Exploding Jar Jar...
I'm basically the Trekkie the Onion lampoons: "Trekkies Bash New Star Trek Film as 'Fun, Watchable.'" [theonion.com]
It was a really fun film to watch, with action and adventure and cute one-liners. A fun, summer action movie. But it was not Star Trek.
Star Trek is not about good versus evil. Star Trek is about Better versus Base. There is no 'evil' in the Star Trek universe, there's just other intelligent life who are different or frightened or struggling and the easy response is "blow 'em up!" but Star Trek asks its characters to be better than that and find another option. Yes, defend yourself, but always look for the other, peaceful solution to a problem. And the best part about Star Trek is that the heroes are...us. Us as we could be through science and reason and strength of character.
The 2009 JJ Abrams movie threw all that out the window and gave us a spectacle about a genocidal bad guy with a scary looking ship who must be stopped by punching. Fun movie, but it's not Star Trek, as it doesn't ask its characters or the audience to rise above being a base reactionary.
Star Wars, which I also very much enjoy, is a mystical fantasy of good "Chosen One" characters versus Evil so evil they call themselves "The Dark Side." And the moral choice presented is about the stupidest philosophy imaginable, that if you care about people, you will come to hate the people who want to hurt the people you care about, which will make you "fall" and then join up with the people you hate to kill the people you cared about. I get the idea that blind hatred can make you "no better than" your enemies, but it doesn't turn you into your enemies. Just to godwin's law this, yes, it's possible to hate Hitler SO MUCH for killing all those Jews that you start a genocidal campaign against Germans, putting them in concentration camps and gas chambers, and wind up no better than Hitler. You become what you hated. But in the Star Wars universe, if you love the Jews and hate Hitler, you wind up joining Hitler to kill more Jews, thereby become THE SAME AS Hitler. This is stupid and makes no sense.
So, JJ Abrams abandoned the fundamental premise of Star Trek (that we can rise above our base instincts to find peaceful solutions to our problems) and ruined Star Trek in a bad way. Maybe, in charge of the next Star Wars movie, he'll abandon the fundamental premise of Star Wars (that you have to be a dispassionate mystical robot to avoid killing your friends) and make the franchise much better and more interesting.
Next you'll be telling us you're tired of hot grits and Soviet Russia jokes.
Is it true that J.J. Abrams real name is Jar Jar?
Air is water with holes in it.


text:
Even though I'm a little bit skeptical about the bloated aspect, hopefully SRWare Iron [srware.net] will be updated to support them soon too. Iron is Chrome but with all the things that violate your privacy removed.
Hopefully Chrome's extension system is done better than in Firefox though. It becomes incredibly clumsy, and the interface itself is already too. Been the main reason I've stayed with Opera, as it has everything build-in and works fast. But maybe Chrome becomes more useful now.
Hey, I think Chrome's great, too, but I don't see how you can call Firefox's extension system "incredibly clumsy" -- you install extensions, you can remove them from an addons panel, and they're upgraded automatically (which is more than you can say for Chrome, I think). That's it -- there's nothing more to it.
He was clearly talking about the architecture, not the UI.
Personally, I'm skeptical that Chrome will offer significant performance improvements over Firefox once its extension system is up to scratch. Even if Chrome's architecture is better, I would expect the extensions themselves to be of similar quality to those in Firefox.
I don't see how you can say that he was "clearly talking about the architecture, not the UI," when he didn't mention either one of those in his post.
sopssa: Bananas are gross.
mdm-adph: I don't see how you can call bananas gross -- they are yellow and smooth and curved. How is that gross?
FlyingBishop: He was clearly talking about the taste of bananas.
My point: If I make a vague statement about something that could mean either A or B and A is obviously wrong, then it's pretty safe to assume I'm talking about B. So don't bash me because you assume I'm talking about A. (replace "I" with "sopssa")
Hey, extensions are great - but for one detail: Security! The current extensions model is as insecure as hell. All extensions have full access to the browser process - there is NOTHING that stops a rogue extension that was helpfully installed when you tried to punch the monkey and clicked "Yes" to the annoying question from watching everything you do in the browser and send any input you type into a form back to a mother ship you didn't even know existed.
I appreciate that the idea of adding a decent security model into extensions and plugins is a hard, thorny problem to solve. But that is exactly why we really, desperately need it! The browser is, for many computing environments, the "Operating System". Although I write this on a Linux laptop, the computing platform I use for development isn't Windows or Linux or MacOS, it's Firefox/Chrome! I don't personally much care what O/S the end user uses.
Because of this importance, because the browser is fast becoming the only O/S that actually matters, it's vitally important that we develop SOME kind of framework for application level security. The utter lack of a current extensions security model is just begging for disaster!
At least mozilla disables the "OK" button for ~5 seconds so that you actually read the warning (and by default doesn't allow installation of extensions from anywhere other than addons.mozilla.org (but you can (easily) change that if you want to so it's not evil)).
All mozilla extensions on addons.mozilla.org go through a review process. Stuff might slip through, but its unlikely that unwanted behaviour in popular addons isn't noticed. The addons are distributed over SSL.
All mozilla extensions on addons.mozilla.org go through a review process. Stuff might slip through, but its unlikely that unwanted behaviour in popular addons isn't noticed. The addons are distributed over SSL.
And are the updates properly secured with digital signatures? Otherwise dns poisoning or open wireless MITM is all that is needed..
Firefox extensions would be next to useless if there was sandboxing or anything like that. The entire base browser is more-or-less a large extension, at least from an architectural point of view. The idea is that extensions can and and replace arbitrary bits of the browser, because they're peers.
"Fixing" that problem would destroy Firefox.
Enough people use Firefox that, if your dire predictions were accurate, we'd see hundreds of exploits. But Firefox makes it really hard to install extensions from anywhere outside the SSL-secured addons.mozilla.org site.
IOW, it's not a problem
There is a firefox extension I use called Property Bee. What it does is that every time I visit certain popular British and Irish real estate listing sites, such as Rightmove, it sends details of everything I look at on the site to a central server. In return, it tells me what all the other plug-in users saw when they looked at that particular property, so I can see a full history of all the changes the estate agent (realtor) has made to the listing, including price and description.
A plug in like that, which is totally up-front about what it does is fine, but the same technology that is used in that plug-in could be used for purposes that are definitely not OK.
Unfortunately I can't stand webkit's middle click behaviour [webkit.org] years of middle clicking on everything are not easily forgotten, so i'm sticking with firefox.
I've never been too happy with Firefox's middle-click behavior, though. It seems to be mapped to a bunch of one-click operations that have apparently nothing to do with each other...
Middle click in window: paste clipboard buffer to URL bar and go
Middle click on link: open link in new tab (this one is actually useful)
Middle click on tab: close the tab
So if you mistakenly middle-click while you're not over a link you get sent to some random place - quite possibly the badly-behaved DNS server's ad page... It
I don't know about you, but I trust more Google than some random guys on the Internet.
Does the availability of extensions put Chrome at risk of becoming bloated, like many complain about with Firefox?
No. For a lot of us, that's like asking, "Does the ability to run JavaScript put Chrome at risk of becoming bloated?" or even, "Does the ability to render HTML put Chrome at risk of becoming bloated?"
Extensions are among the core featureset that a browser should support. With extensions, you simply make sure that everything is possible to accomplish with the extension API instead of implementing new features. That way, the user decides how bloated the browser becomes and doesn't have to put up with the bloat of unwanted features.
Your analogy is more apt than you know, since Chrome extensions are entirely written in Javascript and HTML. They don't pose the same problems as Firefox extensions.
Actually virtually all Firefox extensions are js and DOM interacting with foo.xul. You can create C++ extensions as well though.
Um... what exactly do you think Firefox extensions are written in?
Hint: one's an interpreted web scripting language, and the other is a markup language...
Yeah, we're all totally pissed that our extensions take up an added 5% of our memory usage and
Why is it that the people here, on a computing and technology based site, have the shittiest, low end, antiquated computer equipment around? The actual users of the extensions don't care AT ALL that it takes that tiny fraction more to view their sites without ads or whatever else it is that help
Try again. Firefox+Windows XP run fine on an 800Mhz PIII with 256MB RAM.
They run better on a faster machine, but it's not the bloated POS you seem to think it is.
No. For a lot of us, that's like asking, "Does the ability to run JavaScript put Chrome at risk of becoming bloated?"
I don't know, judging from some NoScript fans, they certainly think so.
What sort of masochist would browse without AdBlock?
I would sooner go whoring without condoms.
I've been using chrome for all my personal browsing with a host file. works pretty well for me.
True, though I prefer an HTML aware solution. Sometimes you need to collapse seizure_inducing_flash_advert.swf AND its associated div
ClickToFlash for Safari is *invaluable* for that sort of nonsense. I use that in combination with a custom stylesheet and have an ad-free life on the net.
I have a fundamental disagreement with the concept of telling your computer a domain points to a non-existent server simply in order to block advertisements originating from it.
The only entry in my hosts file is a server that was taking ages to respond, and as all it was providing was some stylesheets and javascript, I just mirrored the files on localhost and temporarily linked that server to 127.0.0.1. The hosts entry will be removed as soon as it's no longer needed.
It's an ugly hack. That's all. I put it on a similar playing field with the DNS domain search pages. You're breaking the internet, or a part of it.
Much more elegant is telling your browser "hey, this object/element... don't load it."
You're breaking the internet, or a part of it.
Really, wow. I didn't know that my client had any effect on the internet, especially in a negative way. It might be a hack but it is a useful hack for when you just want a site to load but it keeps hanging on a few of the ad / image server. Sometimes the problem is bigger than a few object/elements. Use the right tool for the right job and all of that.
I browse without AdBlock and I'm perfectly happy. I do use Ad Muncher however, as it works system-wide with all browsers (incl Chrome).
+1 for AdMuncher. Adblock is superior within Firefox, but AdMuncher is a solution for ALL of your web browsing. I used it for years before switching to FF.
It took about an afternoon. There are a few downsides, however:
First, it's not actually adblock. It uses jQuery queries. This means it doesn't work at all with your existing filtersets. That's fine with me, since I don't want to block all ads, only the annoying ones -- animations, flash, etc.
Second, it's really cumbersome to use. SQL storage didn't work at the time, so I used CouchDB, which means you need to run a CouchDB server on localhost. I've also been entirely too lazy to add any sort of GUI.
The link (to the AB+-like extension) in TFS is questionable... this is arguably a better target [google.com]. OTOH, reviews are mixed (see for yourself).
I was about to post the same thing. Firefox isn't bloated as a result of addons it is bloated and addons are the reason people still want to use it given that fact. Opera is less bloated but yet isn't popular, why?: No addons.
Exactly. And the fact Firefox users try to push it down everyones throats who don't even want to use it (thank god it's not as bad anymore than it was a few years ago).
However Opera pretty much has all the features built-in I need, expect for ad blocking I use Ad Muncher. And since they're built-in, you can be pretty sure they're fast, done with the same quality and are consistent to rest of the browser.
Firefox has slowly become more and more like what really bothered me about IE. Nothing specific -- but it's getting slower and buggier. Just like IE. It's not quick and light like it used to be.
I think the problem is all the extra javascript that is being added to the average web site. I've noticed sites getting slower and slower even on the same version of Firefox. Then 3.5 came out and sped things up a bit. I suspect that this will encourage developers to use more excessive javascript when it's not necessary and slow down their sites even more.
i seriously can't wait till FF gets a new JS engine - sorry but the erata for it is horrid in how you can deal with the dom - it's almost to the point where you have to make exceptions for it as often as you do for IE
oh and the forcing you to update on start - no question just "i'm doing shit come back later" is god damn annoying
How about the Skip button? There's only three buttons, you know. That's not too many
Maybe we'll have MHz requirements for websites at some point.
I'm in the process of trying out Chrome, and was looking for adblockers. Right now, I'm using adthwart (http://qux.us/adthwart/). It uses EasyList, just like AdBlockPlus on firefox. So far, it seems to work nearly as well as AdBlockPlus, but is not as configurable.
You can find Adblock right here [chromeextensions.org].
Works with SRWare Iron 4.x.
Now, quit complaining that Chrome doesn't have Adblock.
I've been using this Adblock+ extension in Chromium for a while and it works well and even supports (Firefox) Adblock Plus subscriptions. However, Chromium doesn't yet support content filtering so all this extension does is *hide* ads, it does not stop them from loading...
I've been using this Adblock+ extension in Chromium for a while and it works well and even supports (Firefox) Adblock Plus subscriptions. However, Chromium doesn't yet support content filtering so all this extension does is *hide* ads, it does not stop them from loading...
So it's not really blocking webbugs then. Hmm.
From the article:
"Does the availability of extensions put Chrome at risk of becoming bloated, like many complain about with Firefox?"
The availability of extensions has nothing to do with potential bloat. It's how many extensions you add. Adding extensions for adding's sake will certainly cause bloat, but smart, targeted extension selection can keep things very lean. My Firefox install is efficient (for me) and lean.
on the first count: yes, if you type it into the chrome url bar.
no if you are talking about anything else.
on the second count: yes, it does.
Not sure if there is a way to turn it off, you would have to fiddle around with it.
I actually don't care if a site displays ads at me, so long as they're well-behaved.
But I don't want a site to do ANYTHING that moves unless I give it permission. NoScript handles that pretty well.
Well, I've just dealt with Adblock in another post -- there are several adblocking extensions, and I wrote one myself in an afternoon. Trust me, adblock will happen, whether Google wants it or not.
So now let's talk about bloat...
First, I won't lie. It's a very real possibility. Take something like an adblocker -- in Chrome, that would be implemented as at least a "content script", a script which runs on every page. Every content script is adding some finite but real cost to the pages it effects. And of course, poor extension design would lead to a bloated browser.
On the other hand, no one's forcing you to install extensions, and a bare Chrome is much lighter than a bare Firefox.
Also, consider a properly designed extension -- you're going to have some of it running in the page as a content script, you might have some buttons in the toolbar, but chances are, you're also going to have a bunch of logic in a "background page", doing things like making HTTP requests, talking to your local sqlite database, messing with your bookmarks and tabs, and so on. A background page is essentially an HTML page that gets loaded in the background, and is completely invisible, except that scripts on it can talk to other parts of your extension. Add to that the fact that every popup, even configuration, is a separate HTML page, and communication between all of these happens through a message-passing API.
What does all of that mean?
It means that a fair chunk of every extension, including the glue that ties it together, is happening in a Background Page, which could very well be a separate process. I'm also fairly sure you can have more than one background page per extension. This means that almost by default, you have a certain amount of concurrency built in. So it might bloat, maybe, but it's certainly going to mean less chance for extensions to directly lag you, if they're all in a separate process -- possibly using a separate core.
Plus, v8 just screams.
Some of my own real observations:
You are limited to one background page per extension. There is no need for more than one. If you want concurrent code you will probably be able to use an HTML5 web worker or something like that, or at least fake it by using setTimeout.
Separate process implies separate threads, which can run on any core that the OS decides to assign them to. So yeah the more cores you have the more efficient Chrome will be, extensions or not.
AdBlock+ has not noticeably affected my browser
As someone who makes his living selling content through the Internet, I want people to think several times before building a tool like AdBlock. If the content industry can't make money from ads, we'll either go out of business or put our information behind a paywall. That may happen whether or not you create the ad block extension because ads don't generate enough money to pay for the kind of reporting that newspapers used to do, but it will definitely happen if a tool for blocking ads gets adopted by any non-trivial subset of society.
I understand that advertisements can be annoying and often temperamental, but tools like this are rarely as precise as they should be. They usually end up blocking far more unless the user spends more time monkeying with the config files than it would take to actually glance at the ads or wait for them to finish their flash animation.
Also I want to remind people that some open source projects like Firefox depend on advertisements for their support. Google itself depends almost entirely upon ads for their revenue. While I recognize that many of their ads were historically unobtrusive, they are selling more and more display ads.
An ad blocker for Google chrome will not only hurt Google but slice into Google's revenues and undercut their ability to pay for more development. Okay, you say, let's be selfish and ensure that the ad blocker won't block Google ads. That's clever, but it still hurts Google because it hurts the free information ecosystem which is what drives Google. If there's no free information, there's fewer and fewer things for Google to index and thus fewer and fewer reasons to look at Google ads.
Please consider the long term consequences for building such a tool. The information ecology is much more fragile than you can imagine.
You can't force people not to develop and deploy solutions to filter out ads any more than you can force them to look at them.
You have to accept this, and if your business model can't work because of it then it simply means that it's not viable.
Really? It's hard enough to force people in my town not to steal or murder, some do it every day. But that doesn't mean that the police give up.
Okay, perhaps the business model can tolerate a small amount of free riding, but the long term consequence of your point of view seems to be that all ad supported content will either disappear entirely or run to hide behind a paywall.
Is that what you want? If so, go write an ad blocker. I just want to point out that it's a very political act that has consequences fo
the long term consequence of your point of view seems to be that all ad supported content will either disappear entirely or run to hide behind a paywall.
Right, and it will be replaced with content that doesn't require advertising to support it.
Really? It's hard enough to force people in my town not to steal or murder, some do it every day. But that doesn't mean that the police give up.
So refusing to spend bandwidth on advertising is analogous to murder? I'd call this a false analogy [wikipedia.org] and give you an F in Logic.
I'm grateful for this kind of attitude. Believe me. The competent websites watch for this kind of loss and they work hard to ensure that the ads don't damage their long term viability.
If that were true, most "competent websites" would not accept Flash ads which are very distracting and demanding of CPU; nor would they put large amounts of ads on pages with minimal content.
The reality is that they try and push as much advertising as they can get away with, which turns out to be quite a lot because people will tolerate a lot of crap to read free content. But let's not pretend they are happy about it.
So, in summary, if we block the ads, we'll have the internet of 1992, which I rather enjoyed?
To each his own. I like glancing at my home town newspaper without committing to a big subscription. If the ads don't work, though I won't have that option.
If you really want to live in the past, here's the Wayback Machine's take on Slashdot:
http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.slashdot.org [archive.org]
Note, it didn't exist before ads and it won't exist without them.
To each his own. I like glancing at my home town newspaper without committing to a big subscription. If the ads don't work, though I won't have that option.
If you really want to live in the past, here's the Wayback Machine's take on Slashdot:
http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.slashdot.org [archive.org]
Note, it didn't exist before ads and it won't exist without them.
Don't complain to us, complain to all the websites that implement ginormous banners that slide right over the article I'm reading and ask me DO YOU WANT TO TAKE A QUICK SURVEY!!!??? FREE PS3 IF YOU DO!!!
I don't mind google ads or picture ads, but the second they start implementing flash and slowing my browsing experience down, it all goes out the window.
Yeah, but using AdBlock is like using a nuclear weapon to go deer hunting.
So you went to ONE site that had ONE ad that slowed your browsing experience down. You install AdBlock, and suddenly it's blocking everything ever! Sure there's a whitelist, but there's no way to turn AdBlock off for all sites *except* for the one you had problems with.
I'd love to use AdBlock for the 3 or 4 sites I regularly visit that have bad ads, but there's no way to do that without blocking thousands of perfectly innocent sites.
If the content industry can't make money from ads, we'll either go out of business or put our information behind a paywall.
Have you considered why people block ads in the first place? Historically ads have been both obtrusive and have degraded the user experience in terms of performance. Advertisers do not have a good record of restraining themselves, if they can get a neon ad to appear in the middle of your screen and shake around until you respond to it, that's what they're going to do. Now that the public has the ability to restrain ads it's up to the advertisers to figure out how to structure their ads so that they are not a problem for users. It would be pretty easy to gauge how well they're doing by the number of people who choose to block ads. It's not up to the public to support an obnoxious business model, if advertisers want money they need to figure out how to not be obnoxious. Unfortunately for them, advertising is inherently obnoxious.
Please consider the long term consequences for building such a tool.
If the long-term consequences involve removing ads from the internet, that's not a bad thing. Even if a lot of content goes with it, in time the content will come back and there will always be people willing to post content without expecting a paycheck from it. The internet doesn't exist to put money in your account.
The information ecology is much more fragile than you can imagine.
No it's not, it's far more robust then you give it credit for. Information will always be available online, as long as there are people willing to spread their message without being paid for it. That's the backbone of the internet, advertisers and people selling content are just along for the ride. If you don't believe me, look at Wikipedia, or take a poll here and figure out how many posters got paid to comment.
If you don't believe me, look at Wikipedia, or take a poll here and figure out how many posters got paid to comment.
I see. Just because there are 50-500 people who are willing to comment without reading TFA, we don't have to worry about the destruction of the business model that produces TFA.
While I'm always amazed by many of the free sources of information on the Internet, I also like professional content. There's no reason why both can't exist and I don't see why some anarchists should be able to dict
I see. Just because there are 50-500 people who are willing to comment without reading TFA, we don't have to worry about the destruction of the business model that produces TFA.
I can only speak for myself, but I am in no way worried about the destruction of that particular business model. That is not something that keeps me awake at night.
There's no reason why both can't exist
That's true, and that's not to say that the only way professional content can exist is by pushing ads that users don't want to see.
I don't see why some anarchists should be able to dictate the terms for all of us
It sounds like you're trying to dictate a non-ad-blocking future. Most anarchists seem to be in favor of personal choice. If the majority of users online chose to block ads they wouldn't be anarchists, they would b
The problem is that AdBlock's only mode is "always on, except on whitelisted sites." If it had a mode of "always off, except for blacklisted sites" then I think a lot more people would get behind it-- content creators and web surfers.
I know for me, there are only about 3 domains I regularly see that have ads I want to block, everything else I visit I want to see the ads. But there's no way to tell AdBlock this, and so my choices are either to block all ads, or keep AdBlock constantly turned-off until I'm on one of those sites. Neither is a good choice.
I'm perfectly happy to look at ads, particularly relevant unobtrusive ads. To that end, I go out of my way to allow Google's ads - text on a howto doesn't bother me.
But without adblock, I feel like I can't even use the damn internet any more. Even Slashdot has a huge ad just below the story. I have the "disable ads" checkbox now, so that's not a problem, but all sorts of other sites have this bullshit spewed over the page. It's particularly bad when accidentally hovering over some jiggling flash ad takes up
That may happen whether or not you create the ad block extension because ads don't generate enough money to pay for the kind of reporting that newspapers used to do
Of course ads generate enough money to pay for reporting. How do you think google pays for all those data centers, "free" gmail, groups, dns, blog, 'drives' services they have?
There is plenty of online advertisement money, the problem is that google gets pretty much all of it instead of more going to the people creating the content. Google is the SONY + EMI + Universal of the online advertisement industry... they keep all the money and the actual creative talent gets shafted.
Google has well paid employees
Does anybody have any experience with Xmarks in Chrome? I want to try it out ASAP, as it's the only thing preventing me from using Chrome full-time, but I get scared away with very beta software like this-- I'm afraid it'll delete all my bookmarks.
Any opinions?
The Google Chrome Extensions site is now open for Windows and Linux users
From my browser:
Google Chrome is up to date. (184.108.40.206)
From Google Chrome Extension site:
Extensions are not yet supported in this version of Google Chrome. Please download the Beta Channel of Google Chrome to install extensions.
I realize that this was posted by kdawson, but having "beta test" in the title or, at the very least, somewhere in the summary would have been great.
I make very little use of extensions, so I've always assumed that the bloaty behaviour I'd seen from Firefox was largely due to something other than extensions. Mostly, I think the thing which slows my system to a crawl is Flash having a tantrum on a frequent basis, which doesn't change much across browsers. Chrome is good because it makes it easier to kill off Flash. But earlier today the browser to eat my memory sufficiently rapidly that it took about an hour to get access again and kill it properly. I'm blaming Flash for that. *sigh*
Did you hear that two rabbits escaped from the zoo and so far they have only recaptured 116 of them?


text:
FOXBOROUGH — Leading the Bills by 3 points and with less than eight minutes to play, the Patriots' offense took the field on Sunday with a sense of "We've been here before" hanging over Gillette Stadium.
Trying to protect late leads with clock-busting drives hasn't worked well this season, the team's failure to do exactly that notably evident in last-minute losses at Baltimore and Seattle, both of whom capitalized on the Patriots' inability to close out games.
Given yet another chance, the Patriots earned partial credit. They took nearly six minutes off the clock, but came away with just a field goal, doubling their lead to 6. That gave Buffalo an opportunity to steal the game with a touchdown. Devin McCourty's end-zone interception guaranteed that wouldn't happen, letting the offense take solace in doing a decent job when the game needed to be won. Not a great job. But on this day, good enough.
"Yeah, it was great until the very end. We have to make sure we're finishing on those plays and getting into the end zone," receiver Wes Welker said. "We made it a lot tougher situation than it needed to be."
Holding a 34-31 lead and 7:40 remaining, Welker and Co. took over at their 32-yard line after a solid kickoff return by Julian Edelman. At the time, Buffalo's offense was humming: an 84-yard touchdown drive, a 93-yard drive that ended with a fumble at the Patriots' 1, then a 45-yard touchdown drive to draw within 3. The last thing the Patriots wanted to do was give the Bills the ball right back.
They didn't, putting together their longest drive of the game, both in number of plays (14) and time of possession (5:41).
As with any lengthy drive, a handful of positive plays stood out, and this one included three. The first was on the first of two third-down conversions, the Patriots needing 5 yards from their 37. With both punt teams ready to take the field, quarterback Tom Brady found Brandon Lloyd for 12 yards, extending the drive and sending the clock toward six minutes left.
Two of Lloyd's five catches came on the drive, none bigger than the 12-yarder.
"I'm very much aware of the importance of the situation," Lloyd said. "They're all important, when we get our number called we want to make the plays."
Welker's number was called four plays later. On second and 10 from Buffalo's 40, Brady hit Welker in the right flat, a receiver screen starting to be set up in front of him.
But Welker reversed course and came back toward the left side of the field, getting some key blocks and taking it 23 yards before going out of bounds, down to the Bills' 17 as the time remaining read 4:39.
A great read — and a bit of a gamble — by Welker, who finished with six catches for 74 yards.
"It wasn't designed that way, trust me," Welker said. "As soon as I started I was thinking, 'Man, this better work, or else I'll be in a bunch of trouble,' because that's pretty much the last thing you want to do on that play. Luckily it worked out and we were able to get a good play off it."
The second third-down conversion came with 3:14 left and the Patriots at Buffalo's 12. Needing 5 yards, running back Stevan Ridley got the surprise call, running 10 yards up the middle for a first down to the Bills' 2.
That's when things stalled. Ridley lost 2 yards on first down, then was whistled for a false start, moving the Patriots back 5 more yards. Two incomplete passes brought on Stephen Gostkowski, who kicked his third field goal and doubled his team's lead.
The field goal ended the Patriots' most important drive, almost six minutes after it started. A game-clinching touchdown wasn't the result, but keeping a surging Bills offense off the field might have been just as important. It brought mixed reaction in the postgame locker room.
"You just want the clock to go to zero in the four-minute offense. You're supposed to end the game," Lloyd said. "There's nothing gratifying about what we did. We have a lot to work on. We won the game, [but] it wasn't pretty."
Said Ridley: "We moved the ball when we had to. There were some times that we stalled out, but there were times that we came through and did what we had to do, and that was to finish this game the right way."Michael Whitmer can be reached at email@example.com. Follow him on Twitter @GlobeWhitmer.


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Im sorry, tiesto and PVD do not equal sahara headliners! where are fatboy slim and aphex twin?????? Glad i will see Justice (finally) and Dj shadow, but please, i seriously hope these arent the final sahara headliners!
Im sorry, tiesto and PVD do not equal sahara headliners! where are fatboy slim and aphex twin?????? Glad i will see Justice (finally) and Dj shadow, but please, i seriously hope these arent the final sahara headliners!
Expect a Sahara headliner to still be announced - I agree with you. I think Tiesto has one sewn up.
The Glitter Freeze
Coachella 99-10 Vet, the run has ended in 2011
felix isn't to that level yet?
DJ Arnold Schwarzenegger
Seriously GV has already had the majority of the epic electronic acts that can properly rock out out the Sahara [daft punk, kraftwerk, underworld]. They need to bring in APHEX TWIN or should consider Rabbit In The Moon.. if you've ever seen their live show you know what i'm talking about!!
Doesn't Faithless count as a headliner?
Faithless/FTHC might be one on Friday, LCD soundsytem/Tiesto on Saturday, Soulwax/PVD on Sunday
but yeah, i agree sahara headliners need upgrade.
And we need a upgrade in hip hop too. Public Enemy, A Tribe Called Quest, Madlib, MF Doom, or Afrika Bambaataa anyone?
Who cares when you've got talent like Justice, Digitalism, Erol Alkan, Evil Nine and Soulwax!...but I do agree, Tiesto and PVD are tired.
now that im thinking about it, maybe willie nelson will do a DJ set
I guess Faithless could headline, but they don't draw here like they do in the UK
The Glitter Freeze
Coachella 99-10 Vet, the run has ended in 2011
Why is Tiesto billed so much higher than Van Dyk? I predict he gets knocked down unles he's doing one of his live sets.
Tiesto doesn't DJ anymore. I read he only uses Live now. Thus any set of his is a live set, even though for trance that's pretty meaningless. All it really means is there's no chance of train wrecks. You're paying tons of money to watch him either play his pre-wired set.
I'm so sick of this vinyl-only elitist bullshit.
there are so many people who play electronic/dance/techno music who don't use vinyl yet still come up with much much much more interesting shit than either tiesto or pvd
I think for Friday night the headliners are intended to be Faithless and DJ Shadow (in which order, I'm not sure). That's fine with me, but Saturday needs another big name to go with Tiesto, and likewise for Sunday with PvD. I expect Underworld added to close it down Sunday night and something like Sasha/Digweed added to Saturday. I've got my fingers crossed for Aphex Twin and Squarepusher to be thrown in there somewhere as well!
who cares... rage is playin
Those of us who like to dance care.
Sasha and Digweed would be excellent, but they were just in LA for NYE.
If Faithless can be a Sahara headliner, I'm worried someone might decide to throw Happy Mondays in there...
Jamiroquai-St. Vincent-The War on Drugs-Soulwax-JMJ-The Neighbourhood-Dreams-Perfume Genius-Greta Van Fleet-Carpenter Brut-Slow Magic
Beyoncé-David Byrne-Nile Rodgers & CHIC-BØRNS-Angel Olsen-Jungle-MØ-Tash Sultana-Alvvays-X Japan-Yaeji-Sir Sly-Hundred Waters
Eminem-ODESZA-Portugal. the Man-A Perfect Circle-Petit Biscuit-AURORA-Nothing But Thieves-Kölsch-Japanese Breakfast
DAT Politics is a really fun band btw... not a headliner but great group of frenchies.
I think the sahara has quite the lineup this year. It could use maybe one more big add, but its pretty stacked maybe not at the top, but mstrkrft, soulwax, justice, vnv nation, faithless, infected mushroom, hawtin.
dancing is fun i agree... i love to dance, but i also like good music like ratm
im sure that there are most likely millions of people who do not consider rage to be good music, but i also do not expect those people to be at coachella.... its rage against the machine---but i guess there not a big deal or anything!!!!!!!!!!
I feel like I'm one of the only 3 people that find RATM juvenile and annoying. thousands of priveleged white kids chanting "FUCK YOU I WON'T DO WHAT YOU TELL ME" doesn't really do it for me.
S.O.S. Save Our Sahara


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Department of Fish & Game
? Dec. 5, 4 p.m., Richard Ricky Bloyd, 47, of Navarro, was arrested in Navarro for possession of methamphetamine.
? Dec. 7, 4:25 p.m., Cody Tyler Johnson, 22, of Fort Bragg, was cited for public dumping of trash in Jackson State Forest, (Caspar).
? Dec. 7, 4:25 p.m., Scott Andrew Salo, 26, of Fort Bragg, was cited for public dumping of trash in Jackson State Forest (Caspar).
California Highway Patrol
The following reports are from the California Highway Patrol media log. They reflect arrests and do not represent convictions. All DUIs and felony arrests will be reported no exceptions will be made.
? Dec. 6, 2:13 a.m., Timothy D. Gitchel, 28, of Albion, was arrested in Humboldt at East Valley for misdemeanor DUI.
Various agencies submit logs each week. To view them all, pick up a print or E-edition of the Fort Bragg Advocate-News.


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You rely on your physicians to recommend the best therapy, but how much do they know about vitamins and nutrition?
About two hours worth is what they probably learned during medical school.
"Next to nothing," is how much Elson Haas, MD, learned about nutrition in his formal training. Haas is a physician in San Rafael, California, and the author of Staying Healthy with Nutrition, but he had to discover this field on his own.
Chances are that, like Haas, most doctors keep up on the latest studies regarding vitamin and mineral supplementation, but the background in preventive medicine through proper nutrition might not be there.
Jeffrey Blumberg, PhD, a professor of nutrition at Tufts University, is an antioxidant expert. "Physicians still are largely untrained in nutrition. It's often considered alternative medicine today, but if you go back to the 1920s, all physicians were trained in nutritional medicine, especially diabetologists. There wasn't a clinician around who didn't know how to work with their diabetic patients in dealing with diets. But, as oral hypoglycemics and insulin came around, they abandoned the dietary approaches. Now, I think we're coming around full circle to realize that the drugs are good, but we need to also look at diet in its many factors, everything from calories and obesity to the power of these vitamins and minerals in dealing with the condition."
Keith Campbell, RPh, CDE, professor of pharmacy at Washington State University, says, "We had about one or two hours of nutrition lectures during our training." A type 1 for 49 years, Campbell is considered a vitamin expert in the diabetes community, having studied them extensively for years.
Antioxidants, chromium, vanadium, beta carotene and many others are popping up in the news as good things that people with diabetes should be loading up on. But, how much is too much? Will they really help? Those who have studied vitamin supplementation say yes.
Vitamin supplementation can help you fight free radicals that cause complications, help your insulin function and help lower your blood sugar levels, but supplementation must be done safely.
Diabetes: A "Free Radical Disease"
Antioxidant is now a household word. Every person needs them to fight the free radicals that cause destruction throughout the body, including clogging the blood vessels and leading to complications. The major antioxidant vitamins are A (also known as beta carotene), C and E.
Many studies in recent years have proven that antioxidants help prevent diabetic complications, especially neuropathy and retinopathy. Most people know what they do and why we need them, but questions remain, like how much and which ones.
Blumberg is an antioxidant expert who has been studying nutrition for 20 years. He calls diabetes a "free radical disease." People with diabetes use up their antioxidant stores more quickly, so their requirements are actually higher.
"It's not so much that your levels are depleted and you're going to get scurvy; it's that your requirements are higher than other people in order to maintain usual health. Because your disease is creating more free radicals, and free radicals use up the vitamins, therefore you need more."
How does diabetes create more free radicals? Says Blumberg, "We don't know entirely. The process of glycating, or adding glucose molecules onto proteins and lipids, makes them more susceptible to oxidation. The oxidation process itself generates free radicals. It sets off a chain reaction of oxidation. But then we have what we call chain-breaking antioxidants, like vitamin E, which gets into this chain and stops it."
For people with diabetes, Blumberg suggests 250 to 1000 milligrams of C and 100 to 400 IU of E daily. Campbell is a "big believer" in vitamin E supplementation, and takes 800 IU per day.
• Niacin
Niacin has many health benefits in the general population, but people with diabetes need to be more careful.
"Some of the free radical damage to DNA and mitochondria also deprives cells of niacin, so increasing niacin intakes might be worthwhile," says Blumberg.
Campbell says niacin in high doses has been proven to reduce cholesterol levels, but it can also increase glucose levels. To avoid elevated BGs, Campbell recommends sticking pretty close to the RDA of 20 milligrams.
• Selenium
Haas recommends selenium supplements for diabetes. A study performed in France, published in the April 1998 Lipids, gave selenium and vitamin E supplements to diabetic rats. The study concludes that both substances "could play a role in controlling oxidative status and altered lipid metabolism in the liver."
The recommended daily Selenium dose for people with diabetes given by K. P. Khalsa, a natural healing specialist from Seattle, is 400 micrograms.
Other Antioxidants
What about other antioxidants, like grapeseed extract, milk thistle or Pycnogenol? Is it better to take another antioxidant than vitamins A, C and E?
"If you said, 'I'm a diabetic and I'm taking Pycnogenol,' I wouldn't say, 'That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard,'" answers Blumberg. "There's a plausible reason for doing that. I just don't know of any evidence. I am not aware of any studies that have been done with those compounds in people with diabetes. I don't think it would hurt; there's just not the clinical data."
Pycnogenol may not have been tested in people with diabetes, but studies have proven its success as an antioxidant. One study, from a 1996 Ophthalmic Research, proves that it fights lipid peroxidation in cow and pig retinas. The study states, "Lipid peroxidation is considered a prominent feature of diabetic retinopathy."
• Chromium
The ability of the element chromium, usually taken as chromium picolinate to improve blood sugars, is a hotly debated diabetes topic. Experts disagree on whether or not chromium decreases HbA1c levels, and both have studies to back them up.
A review of the evidence for chromium supplementation for diabetes in the January 1998 Journal of Family Practice says, "There is some evidence, including results from human studies, that it has a role in glucose homeostasis [equilibrium]." The authors then call for more studies, because of chromium's "unproven benefits and unknown risks."
Nutrition experts say the typical supplement's levels of chromium can't hurt. Campbell takes chromium picolinate supplements at a dose of 400 micrograms per day. "I have mixed feelings about chromium but I take it every day, because it's not going to do any harm."
• Alpha-lipoic acid
Recent studies give convincing evidence of alpha-lipoic acid's aid in glucose control. Haas sees alpha-lipoic acid as a very strong antioxidant in the fight against diabetes.
In a recent test on humans, alpha-lipoic acid alone "significantly" reduced fasting glucose levels in type 2s. In a study published in the February Diabetes Care, German doctors gave lean and obese type 2s 600 milligrams of alpha-lipoic acid twice per day. Although more drastic changes were noted in lean people, both groups had lower fasting glucose concentrations. The researchers believe that alpha-lipoic acid works through lowering the levels of lactate and pyruvate that are increased after people ingest carbohydrates. Lactate and pyruvate are products of the digestive process that can lead to damage like lactic acidosis.
Many other studies have led to similar conclusions of alpha-lipoic acid's beneficial effects on BGs. ABC news did a television story on its power as an antioxidant, and an entire book has been written about it.
"Lipoic Acid in Health and Disease" is edited by Jurgen Fuchs, MD, PhD, and Guido Zimmer, MD, PhD, of Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt, Germany, and Lester Packer, PhD, of the University of California, Berkeley. The book contains numerous studies with evidence that alpha-lipoic acid fights insulin resistance and neuropathy.
Natural Health magazine, in its "Consumer Guide to Vitamins & Minerals," in the July-August 1998 issue, sees 100 to 600 milligrams as a helpful amount of alpha-lipoic acid for people with diabetes.
• Gamma-linolenic acid (Evening Primrose Oil)
Gamma-linolenic acid has been shown to improve nerves that have been damaged from diabetes. Its natural sources are evening primrose oil and borage oil. Recent years have seen the testing of both alpha-lipoic acid and gamma-linolenic acid in combination for diabetes treatment.
Researchers from the University of Aberdeen found promise for future studies of gamma-linolenic acid and alpha-lipoic acid in humans. In the April 1998 Diabetologia, researchers tested the effects of alpha-lipoic acid, gamma-linolenic acid and other essential fatty acid ingestion on the nerve function of diabetic rats. The conclusion was that the combination improved the rats' nerve function and is "worthy of consideration for clinical trials."
A few months later, another study confirmed this evidence. The July Diabetologia told of a British study, also of alpha-lipoic acid and gamma-linolenic acid on diabetic rats. The final word was the combination "is effective in improving both electrophysiological and neurochemical" aspects of experimental neuropathy.
Natural Health recommends 200 to 500 milligrams per day of gamma-linolenic acid for people with diabetes.
Insulin Action Supplements
• Vanadium
Vanadium, usually taken in the form vanadyl sulfate, is another contested substance. Some lofty claims have been made about its effects of lowering insulin requirements and even preserving beta cell function, but others say side effects are harmful.
Vanadium has been studied throughout the 1990s. In 1996 the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx, published in the May 1996 Diabetes, reported that vanadyl sulfate improved type 2s' insulin sensitivity.
As time went on, studies either verified or disputed this conclusion. One said it has no effect in type 1s (December 1998 Diabetes Care). Another demonstrated that in diabetic rats it "restored elevated blood glucose to normal."
John Walsh, PA, CDE, coauthor of "Stop the Rollercoaster," wants more long-term, human studies done, because vanadyl sulfate in high doses has also shown toxic side effects in animals, including kidney damage and oxidation of fats, leading to cardiovascular disease.
Walsh concludes, "Vanadium or one of its derivatives may someday help improve blood sugar…" but "too many unknowns surround this mineral today."
Scientists are working on different formulations of vanadium besides vanadyl sulfate for dietary supplementation. Natural Health magazine says 5 to 25 milligrams per day is a safe amount.
Other Supplements Linked to Diabetes Care
• Folic Acid
Brought to the limelight by its ability to reduce birth defects, folic acid also has been attributed to helping with vascular disease in people with diabetes.
Folic acid is said to act upon homocysteine levels in the body. Homocysteine is a substance normally metabolized into amino acids by the body but in high levels it can cause vascular problems and heart disease. Two groups are known to have problems metabolizing homocysteine: people with a rare genetic problem that causes early heart attacks and people with diabetes.
B vitamins, including folic acid, are known to counter the bad effects of high homocysteine levels, and folic acid has also been named as a homocysteine fighter. A Scandinavian journal, in 1997, reported that homocysteine concentrations in type 1 people "may at least partly be explained by a marginal deficiency of blood folate concentrations."
High homocysteine levels have been established as indicative of risk for cardiovascular disease in the general population but doctors need studies to see how homocysteine is relevant in diabetes.
In the June 1998 Diabetologia, a group of doctors in Barcelona explains its study of homocysteine and diabetes. "A high plasma homocysteine concentration is an independent risk factor for cardiovascular disease but information on its association with diabetes is limited," they begin. They also note that people with nephropathy, or kidney disease, have a particular tendency to cardiovascular disease.
To see if high homocysteine levels are a cardiovascular danger in people with diabetes as they are in the general population, the study looked at fasting homocysteine concentrations in type 1s, type 2s and people without diabetes. They found that 80 percent of the diabetic people with nephropathy had high homocysteine levels. The authors conclude that, particularly in type 2 diabetes, there is "a new link between microalbuminuria, diabetic nephropathy and kidney disease."
The November 1998 Diabetes Care found little evidence of homocysteine causing vascular disease in type 1s, so right now the evidence says lowering homocysteine is more crucial in people with type 2 diabetes.
Campbell takes 800 micrograms of folic acid per day, and believes that even 1600 micrograms is a safe level. He does caution that extreme doses of folic acid can mask symptoms of anemia, although this happens very rarely.
• Omega-3 Fatty Acids
Found in fish, flaxseed and canola oil, omega-3 fatty acids have been found to lower triglyceride levels, but the final word on their effect on glucose control still eludes researchers.
The latest word from Diabetes Care is that omega-3 fatty acids do help with triglycerides and don't alter glucose levels in the process. A study in the May 1998 issue reports that 6 grams of fish oil per day lowered triglycerides in type 2 men and had no effect on fasting glucose or HbA1c levels.
Three to five grams per day, in fish or flaxseed oil supplements, aid in diabetes management, according to Natural Health's consumer guide.
• Magnesium
"The diet of many people with diabetes does not have a lot of magnesium," says Campbell. Nuts and shrimp have large magnesium amounts. Magnesium deficiency is a problem in diabetes, Campbell adds, contributing to complications, hypertension and heart disease.
Many people are unaware of a magnesium deficiency, according to Campbell. Often it is missed at the doctor's office.
"The magnesium amount looks okay in the cells, but it is the body stores of magnesium that are deficient," which doctors don't check.
This problem, says Campbell, "is a problem that has been well documented in the scientific literature and one that can result in potentially serious consequences for the individual with diabetes.'
He recommends 800 milligrams twice per day. One side effect is runny stools, says Campbell, but he points out that people with diabetes do often suffer constipation, so this can help.
Pill Versus Food
"Diabetics are no different from other Americans in that their diet isn't as good as it ought to be," says Blumberg.
"Although I find that diabetics happen to be a little smarter about their diets-they're a little more educated than the average American-we're still faced with issues of diets that are not following the dietary guidelines of more fruits and vegetables, less fats, more fiber," says Blumberg. "This is more important for a diabetic than for others."
Some health care professionals say that if you eat a proper diet you should not need extra vitamins or minerals. Campbell disagrees, saying that even people who eat enough fruits and veggies still need supplements.
Take an apple, for example, says Campbell. "People might be eating that apple a year after it's been picked, and by then so much of the nutrients are gone."
Water can be an enemy to nutrients. Boiling vegetables leaves some of the nutrients in the water and, says Campbell, "water softeners take the magnesium out of food."
Produce in America has suffered from chemicals in farming, says Haas. In his book, The Staying Healthy Shopper's Guide, he recommends produce grow
organically. He cites a 1993 study in the Journal of Applied Nutrition that concludes that organic produce has 90 percent more, almost double, the amount of nutrients than commercially grown produce.
Andrew Weil, MD, alternative health author, emphasizes the importance of eating properly. "Although I don't think you can take too many antioxidants, I do think you can take too many pills…I much prefer that people look to food rather than pills for additional antioxidant benefits."
Vitamin Overload
Over-antioxidizing may not be a big deal, but people can overdose on certain vitamins and actually damage the body. How much is too much? It depends on the substance.
Folic acid has been shown to help prevent cancer, but not if the daily dose is too high. Excess vitamin D has caused loss of bone mineral density and calcium deposits in the arteries. Scientists also warn that if you have high blood pressure or take blood clotting medicine, be careful with vitamin E. More is not necessarily better.
If you're considering taking supplements, check with your doctor, or a professional who knows about vitamins, to see if any harm from excess have been reported. In addition, there are agencies to consult.
The RDA, or Recommended Dietary Allowance, you see on food labels does not apply to supplementation. The RDA is only the amount needed to avoid deficiency. The RDAs were dictated before scientists discovered that taking large amounts of some substances can prevent disease. Thus, the government now must test how much is too much.
The National Academy of Sciences' Food and Nutrition department proposed new guidelines, the Dietary Reference Intakes (DRIs) in 1997, to turn vitamin experimenters into informed consumers of preventive medicine. The DRIs, currently being developed, will tell us not only the RDA, but also the "Tolerable Upper Intake Level." This is the maximum daily level for which no study has shown any harmful effects.
The National Academy of Sciences predicts the DRIs will be published by the year 2000.
Another source for avoiding excessive intake is a book, Vitamin and Mineral Safety, published by the Council for Responsible Nutrition, which is associated with the supplement industry. This book gives the "no observed adverse effect level," for certain vitamins and minerals; it is the highest daily level at which studies have shown no damage to be reported in humans.
George Blackburn, MD, associate editor of Health News, reports in a story on vitamins that "only healthy adults should take nutrient supplements without a doctor's guidance…anyone with a disease or chronic medical condition should take supplements only under medical supervision."
But, if doctors only study two hours of nutrition in medical school, and they haven't kept up on new developments, how can we know who to trust? Nutrition experts recommend getting the old, familiar second opinion, but make sure it is from a professional who has really studied nutritional medicine.
Vitamin Shopping
You can buy vitamins anywhere, from national chain stores to small health specialty stores. You don't need to pay a lot to get your daily dose, says Nutrition Action Health Letter, published by the Center for Science in the Public Interest. Store brands will do the trick.
And don't pay attention to the word "natural" on the label, either, say most experts. Your body does not know if a vitamin is natural or synthetic, with the exception of vitamin E.
"There is no difference between natural and synthetic vitamin C. Not true for vitamin E," says Blumberg.
"It comes in two different stereoisomers, which are sort of the equivalent of right and left hands. Your right and left hand are the same, five fingers, a thumb, but one cannot replace the other. The end result is that the natural source is more potent."
You can see this on the label. "It will say 'd-alpha-tocopherol,' which is natural, or 'dl-alpha-tocopherol,' which is synthetic."
"The natural source is more expensive, because it's more expensive to make," Blumberg continues. "They haven't been tested head to head. We do know that the natural form is more potent, but you can always just take more of the cheaper synthetic."
Blumberg offers some other shopping hints. "Go with a brand you trust. If you don't know any, talk to your pharmacist. Also, look for products that have expiration dates, or the sign of USP, the United States Pharmacopeia."
Campbell recommends looking at double-blind, controlled studies that have been conducted in humans with diabetes, not rats. "Also, I look for vitamins that have shown to be deficient in people with diabetes or one that has shown a benefit with supplementation."
"In general, I'm a believer in daily supplementation," he summarizes, "as long as no harm has been proven."


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EAST LANSING (WILX) -The NHL League and Players have reached a tentative agreement that will end the lockout according to the league commissioner. The deal was made Sunday morning. The lockout was only a few months long this time, but it may have been enough to impact local youth hockey.
Moms are worried about their kids overlooking the winter sport without the professional excitement in their homes. Now that it's back it seems everyone is looking forward to watching their teams again.
"My husband and I can come out of withdrawal, we really missed it," said Greater Lansing Amateur Hockey Association Treasurer Shirley Decker.
"I just love the game it's fun to watch," said youth hockey player Jared Thomas.
For these families, nothing can replace the traditions of watching their teams together.
"We miss it, we miss hanging out together and watching it on the TV," said hockey dad Mitch Holmes.
"I'm really excited my dad and I, we would always watch that," said youth hockey player JC Daigneault.
The lockout effects youth hockey almost like putting it in a penalty box says Decker.
Each year more than a hundred children try hockey as a new sport in Ingham County, but there is a possibility of a fewer kids trying out next year because they are not being stimulated by the thrill of watching the professionals.
"We are halfway through the season and it's going to take a while to get that excitement back again," said Decker.
Fewer kids trying out means a ripple effect for the sport.
"If youth hockey isn't growing that feeds into high school, and that feeds into juniors, and that feeds into college, and ultimately it feeds into the NHL," explained Decker.
If you would like to get your child involved in hockey Suburban Ice in East Lansing started their fundamental program for ages 6 and up Sunday. Parents can still sign up their child by calling the arena.
(517) 336-4272


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Get ready for another night of motor mayhem as the Lee Civic Center hosts the first Thunderslam Demolition Derby and Mud Madness of 2014 on Friday, March 15, at 7 p.m. Gates open at 5.
The event will feature mud drag racing, lots of food and drink, numerous vendors and, of course, cars getting wrecked.
Organizers gave people at the Lee County Fair a little taste of what to expect by holding two one-hour shows this past Saturday, and according to Lyndsay Bialecki, marketing director of Thunderslam, things appear to be going smoothly, though maybe a little more basic than the last time they performed.
"We're not going to have the monster trucks because many of them had other shows. We'll have some of the smaller monster trucks," Bialecki said.
Everyone is welcome to run, as there will be stock, modified and pro classes. R Sport Custom Shop, one of the sponsors, has built the mud trucks used at the Redneck Yacht Club and other locales.
The big event, of course, will be the demolition derby, with the proceeds going to the Guardian Angels of Special Populations in Cape Coral, although they won't have a car donated for them like last time, according to show coordinator Rev Prochnow, a longtime supporter of the group.
"We have people who have clunkers and instead of junking them, give them one last hurrah and smash them up," Bialecki said.
There will also be clothing vendors, one of which will be selling camouflage, and a climbing wall.
Last year Thunderslam brought the demolition derby to Lee County for the first time ever, drawing huge crowds for the three-day event. The only problem was minor - wind caused some of the stunt bike demos to be cancelled for safety reasons.
Bialecki said last time, people had many reasons to go to the show, as it had something for everybody. This time, she said with the help of Budweiser, its sponsor, the word is getting out through posters at the stores.
Prochnow said sales are OK, but it's general admission, so he expects things to pick up as the day draws near.
"It doesn't cost much more if you buy them the day of the show as opposed to days before," Prochnow said. "About 75 to 80 percent of all tickets are bought within a few days of the event."
She has also revamped the company Website and added a Facebook page that has received more than 300 likes.
"We're going to make sure everyone has a good time. We're going to keep on trucking," Bialecki said.
Thunderslam was such a draw it has planned four demolition derby events for this year, with the other three on June 21, Sept. 20 and November 22-23.
Tickets are $13 for adults and $7 for children and are available at the civic center box office and numerous outlets in Fort Myers and Cape Coral, including Roger Dean Chevrolet, Anthony's on the Blvd. and City of Palms Movers, or online by going to www.leeciviccenter.com and www.thunderslamseries.com.


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Raise 'Em Up to The U.S.A. this Friday on Q-106.5! [VIDEO]
Everyone knows that country music is 'America's Music' and there's no better holiday to prove that than on the 4th of July! Join Keith Urban, Jerrod Niemann and Brett Eldredge as they host 'Raise 'Em Up to The U.S.A.' a 4 hour 4th of July Bash!


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Homecoming is back and better than ever. The Barry University community is invited to take part in Homecoming 2013 from Monday, Feb. 18 through Sunday, Feb. 24.
Come one, come all and experience the extravaganza of Masquerade Homecoming 2013. Reveal what is behind the mask as we enter the week of events consisting of performances by Sons of Mystro, Fire Dancers, Suenalo, and Code Red.
Want to release the competitor within you? Then sign up for competitions such as window decorating, office decorating, boat races, and photo competitions. You will also enjoy a bonfire, the crowning of a Homecoming King and Queen during the basketball games, laser tag, a fashion show that combines art, music and dance, and traditional events such as the Festival of Nations and the Festival of Nations After Dark. Did we mention there will be a Homecoming Masquerade Ball to attend as well?
Whatever is behind the mask, there is definitely something for everyone!
Visit the Homecoming website for more information on how you can get involved and to see a full list of events.