text:
Mati Klarwein
Grain of Sand
Oil on composition board
Brother David Steindl-Rast on the Essential Shifts
(transcript from Shift in Action)
Shift in Action: So I want to welcome everyone to the Shift in Action program! We are delighted to be interviewing Brother David Steindl-Rast today. He is a Benedictine monk and he has also been involved in a lot of inter-religious dialogue, from Buddhist-Christian dialogue to working with Zen teachers, and is steeped in the Orthodox tradition but also has bridged into new paradigm circles through places like Esalen, and recently he has launched a worldwide Network for Grateful Living which you can find at Gratefulness.org. So, Brother David, I have always felt so touched when I have heard you speak and I really feel honored that you are sharing this interview with us today.
Brother David Steindl-Rast: I am very thankful to speak with you, Stephen. It's a joy.
SIA: Great! So the first question that we have been asking everyone, just to start with, is a big picture context to help us understand how we can best participate in creating positive shifts in the world right now. And so, starting with the big picture, how do you see our current global situation right now?
BDSR: I suppose that most of your respondents will say the same: it is a time of tremendous transitions, with all of its problems, with all of its challenges, and with all of its opportunities. I think we are facing terrible difficulties, and I have a feeling that it might well get worse before it gets better. But we also have the opportunity—and that is a great gift!—to be able work to for the transition to new and positive approach to what we are needed for in the world, what our whole role is in the world.
SIA: In particular you have done a lot of work in the Christian contemplative tradition and bridging that to other traditions, and so perhaps share a bit about how you see religion right now in this critical time?
BDSR: Well, the great problems that we are facing are not, in a narrow sense, religious problems. I think the biggest problem is our relationship to the Earth and to our environment and all the other aspects are related to that. But the religions, all the different religions, have failed very seriously in even recognizing this as a major problem, let alone raising the consciousness of their various adherents to the problem. This is true of my own Christian tradition, and this is true of others. This is a much deeper problem, is more deep seated, then the difficulties between traditions, the fundamentalism that is rampant in many different religious traditions, and therefore the religious difficulties with the divisions between different religions, difficulties in getting along, and so forth. But our deepest problem, as I see it…and I hope that you have interviewed Thomas Berry, he would be very eloquent on it, or Brian Swimme, or Matthew Fox…is our relationship to the environment, and our wrong stance towards it, our exploiting of it, and our loss of connection. This loss of connection with the environment pervades then everything else: it's our loss of our roots, it's our uprootedness from our deepest values, from the Divine Ground, and from one another. That is connected, in a very direct way, with our uprootedness from the environment. At least, that stands in the foreground for me right now in my thinking.
SIA: It is interesting that you said that is hasn't been perceived traditionally as a religious issue, but I think that a lot of what we are hearing from people like Thomas Berry or Brian Swimme that it is primarily a spiritual relationship that is having to shift, so that we are viewing the planet with a different kind of eyes. I have been hearing about certain Christian Evangelical traditions now talking about "creation care" as a new tenet of religion. I wonder if you can comment on that?
BDSR: That is very promising, and I am thrilled by it. I find this a very promising aspect.
SIA: How do you think that some of the new perspectives on religion and spirituality really can help us heal that and renew that connection with the Earth that is foundational?
BDSR: Well, the problem is uprootedness, as I have said—the problem is our separation from our roots. One way of understanding the term "religion", etymologically, is as a reestablishing of ties, retying bonds that have been broken. The bonds to the environment is the most obvious, and, in a sense, the most promising area of concern, because sooner or later it must become clear to everyone—regardless of their political conviction, of their economic status, of their religious associations, or many other aspects—it must become clear to all of the people in the world that what is at stake is our home, is the Earth. And therefore we have here not only a problem area, but also an area that could connect us with one another, a concern that is our shared concern. It is something objective, not just an ideal like pacifism—it is a common area of concrete activity and concern. To put the emphasis on that would seem very important to me. And, as you rightly say, this is a religious concern for many people today who are quite disenchanted with organized religion in all of its different forms. Concern for the environment is their religion. I would think most people—at any rate there is a very high percentage of people—have their deepest religious experiences, by their own testimony, in contact with nature, rather then in religious services. There is a significant number, and to cultivate that religious aspect is cultivating an aspect that, again, unites us, while the established religions, divide us...and must divide us. This is also something that we should be quite alert to: They are institutions, and institutions by definition are self-perpetuating, and if one institution is self-perpetuating, it must separate itself and act against other institutions as an institution. What we need is something that unites us rather than sets us apart.
SIA: And so if we tie this to the second question, which is, what are some of the most essential shifts required for us evolve to the next level? It seems like you are pointing to some shifts that need to happen in how we approach religious life as a whole.
BDSR: You are right. And that, from my particular perspective and from the perspective of the Western traditions—Judaism, Christianity, and Islam—will have to do with our notion of God, and with our worldview, and that is our God view. And that is what impacts me at the present moment, particularly, and that is that we have traditionally emphasized a notion of God, a theistic notion of God, which conceives of God as ultimately separate from us. We are over here; God is over there. The very word "holy" means originally, in Hebrew, "separated", separated from us. And what we need to survive as a human race is the notion of ultimate reality—call it God if you want—that includes us, and in which we are completely embedded. So the switch, in technical terms, that we have to accomplish is from deism to panentheism. Not pantheism, which simply means that everything is God (and I don't want to go into this unless you ask me more specifically about it, but that is not particularly religiously viable), but panentheism in the sense that all is in God and and God is in all, and that is a concept of a living reality which includes all of the positive aspects of pantheism, but goes beyond. And put in simple terms, this is something that every human being can experience. And this is again my emphasis, that a great shift is taking place from beliefs to experience in the realm of religion. The beliefs are, for most people nowadays, only valid insofar as we can experience their content. I think this is a step forward from even what's the norm in my youth. People want religious experience, not religious teachings.
SIA: So the beliefs are a natural product of theism, because someone has to interpret how we relate to this God that is in some other realm that we don't have contact with?
BDSR: Right, in theism the emphasis is very strongly on the doctrine, while in panentheisms, or in the religiosity that is emerging today, the emphasis is on the experience. And when we experience the ultimate…this is something that if you have the time and the right setting you can discuss with any human beings, and find very positive response. We experience this ultimate reality, on the one hand, as the great mystery from which we come and to which to we go and in which we are totally imbedded, the mystery, the no-thing beyond all forms and things is the formless, the no-thing that is a greater reality to us then all things. Meaning could be a word for it, the formless, the void, the great mystery that surrounds us. This is a basic human experience. But we also experience the ultimate as closer to each one of us then we are to ourselves. As Augustine says, "God is closer to me then I am to myself." The innermost reality of my own being is unfathomable to me, a Divine within me, and that is an aspect of the Divine that is coming forward very strongly in the experience of many people today, and I see this as a very positive aspect. And we also see a third aspect of this ultimate or divine or the more. "More and evermore" is another good way of thinking about it, to avoid the word "God." "More and evermore", not just ever more of the same, but in every dimension—more and evermore, not only the mystery that surrounds us and into which we are imbedded, not only the innermost reality of our own self, but life and the dynamic aspects of life, love, knowing, experience, all the dynamic aspects of aliveness—that is also in itself more and evermore, and this in itself is divine. You mentioned, in the beginning, our website: the emphasis there is on grateful living, Network for Grateful Living. And now, if I use a terminology that again is very easily accessible to all human beings for this ultimate reality, you can say: We experience the ultimate as the Source, that formless source from which all forms pour forth, the Source, the Giver, the great motherly womb out of which every form is born. We experience it also as the Gift, and we ourselves are part of this gift, and all that surrounds us, all the world of form, the whole Universe is Gift. It obviously is a given, it's a given reality, so it's gift, we are a gift to ourselves, received from that source of giving. And then we experience this dynamic up welling of thanksgiving, of gratitude that expresses itself not only, and not even primarily, in saying, "Thank you," or in worship (although one does that too), but in living, loving, knowing, exploring, and all the great activities of the human mind. And through our life of thanksgiving, our life of gratitude, the Gift flows back to the Source, and so we have this tremendous dance of the Divine in which we are totally embedded and of which we are a concrete part, and all that we see around us is an aspect of it, is a manifestation of it, and this is understanding of the Divine reality. I am quite convinced it's the emerging one, and one that is accessible to all different religions also, because it does not contradict any of the religions. Every religion will say, "Gratefulness?, yes!, that's at the heart of our very teaching, that is at the heart of our life." Of course it is, because, as I have described, this is the ultimate relationship of every human being to the Ultimate.
SIA: As you are speaking I am making connections that I hadn't made before. Really, when you talk about gratefulness, you are turning the focus on personal experience, and a sort of reverential relationship. So it is a very nice, easy way for people to experience panentheism. It sort of sounds like an academic term that most people might not understand, but that worldview where we really live in a very reverential way with our environment and other people and there isn't a need to be separative around doctrine. It is a pretty radical shift that you are proposing in a way that seems really small and benign, like, "Oh, living gratefully," but also it is a pretty radical theological shift, too.
BDSR: Correct, you are right, you picked it up very correctly and expressed it very well. Only I am not thinking of myself as proposing it, I think of myself only as diagnosing something that is happening in the world all around us, and this is also the reason why thousands and ten-thousands of people discovered that in and through our website, and respond to it on the website. We never expected, with a title like Gratefulness.org, to have such a success—we absolutely didn't expect it, we were just opening a website—and we were swept off our feet by the response of people. Some of them see what I expressed quite clearly, other just sensed it, but this is the direction in which we are going with the emerging Godview (as I would call it, in parallel to our worldview). There is a new Godview emerging in our world today, and fortunately it is one that will carry us through, because it is a peaceful one—it is a basis for peace, it is the basis for cooperation, and you could also say that it is what our historic situation suggests to us. Tom Berry again presents that so beautifully: how, from the very beginning, from the big bang on, everything has been guided—not in the sense of an outside guidance, but it has evolved and unfolded in a sense that in retrospect you can understand. So why shouldn't we, at this present moment, not also have this guidance? And if we open ourselves, open our hearts and our minds to this cosmic intelligence, it will guide us forward, and the direction in which it is guiding us forward is to a new understanding of the Divine, or the Ultimate, in this aspect of the Giver, Gift, and thanksgiving—accessible to all, and very life giving to each individual.
SIA: Truly wonderful, because it really brings people into their hearts and that is so much of where people can actually connect with each other.
BDSR: Yes, it has very tremendous possibilities, and that is why also on the website people connect with one another, and find it so exciting that someone from Australia will write to someone in Brazil, and someone from Germany will answer, and it's not just a chat room, but it is rather a praise and celebration of our deepest realities of this grateful living.
SIA: Beautiful. I am wondering if you have extrapolated from some of the principles in this emerging panentheism. How would you apply that to situations like now, where we have a real polarity between the West and the Islamic world, for instance, and that is sourced a lot in this differing theistic kind of stance. How would you approach a situation like that, from your prospective?
BDSR: Through experience. I have been fortunate recently to meet Islamic students who came to the United States to experience this, and through experience these barriers are overcome. The students said before they came and they had serious prejudices against the American people, and now they see it more clearly that their view of our government and of our media was justified, but they have a totally different attitude toward the American people—they are just brothers and sisters that are in the same boat that they are. And that seemed very significant to me: by experience, by exchange, by meeting people, as human beings, that seems to me the most promising way of overcoming our prejudices. Because even if you meet people with whom you do not agree with intellectually and in your convictions, you can still experience them as human beings and have compassion for them and so forth.
SIA: Are there particular practices that, in bringing together two cultures that might be polarized, that helps them find that common unity and different things in terms of gratefulness that you have developed?
BDSR: On a large scale right now, the only thing that we can do is through the Internet, and use the resources of the Internet to connect people as people, and that is important but it is still very small. On a larger scale it would mean something like student exchange on a large scale, and just mixing people, but I have no access to that. However, the one most important ingredient for that precondition is to be fearless, because all the divisions come about through fear—and, unfortunately, if you look around yourself and you are alert to the fact, you see that those who foster the divisions and also take advantage of the divisions, be they religious or economic or any other way, are fostering fear. The fear-mongering that's going in our society and all over the world is extremely dangerous, and so we can overcome that only by being fearless, and that means quite concretely something that we can actually do, each one of us can do. We can not repeat things that cause fear. If I am told something that is frightening to me, I will not repeat it to others. When we hear someone who is fearful, try to help them overcome their fear. Anything that we can do to eliminate fear in our world will contribute a great deal to a more peaceful world. And there again is where gratefulness comes in, because if you are grateful, for instance, for the variety of cultures, then you will not fear another culture—it will just be a delightful addition to your culture. But when you are fearful, everything that is foreign is frightening to you. That is one pretty clear example.
SIA: Beautiful. I was wondering, as we come to the close of the time here, if you can just give some other specific recommendations about things that people can personally do to create positive change, whether that is through gratefulness or other kinds of practices that help foster the kind of understanding that you are conveying?
BDSR: Well not to fear and to overcome fear seems to me to be definitely the most important thing, and if we practice that we will, through daily experience, come to see ways in which this can be applied. But it all depends on our own circumstances of life, and on the people with whom we associate, and so forth, how this will practically express itself. Gratefulness will typically be and always be an example for that. To live in the present moment: that is another is a very, very important aspect, because much of what divides us comes from this fear of the past, and fear of the future, and desires for the future, and hatred that is built up in the past—and, if we live in the present moment, all this past and future will fall away. Eckhart Tolle is a very great teacher, a really great prophet for our times in my mind, and his emphasis on the Now, and living in the present moment, that seems also to me to be a most important aspect of what we can do. And, again, gratefulness is the simplest and most direct way to be in the present moment, because if you are grateful you are here! You are grateful for the given moment, for that which is given in this present moment, so you are no longer in the past and not yet in the future, so you are just here. So, gratefulness is one of the mechanisms, one of the practices. It is a real practice, just like yoga and Zen and other spiritual practices—gratefulness is a real practice. If you practice that, we are in the present moment—and to be in the present moment, for both of us individually, is really a saving grace in the fullest sense. It makes us permeable for that cosmic intelligence, which is only blocked by all of our thinking, and all our thoughts that are concerned with the past and the future. If we get rid of all these blocking thoughts, then the cosmic intelligence, that knows where it wants to guide us, will flow through us. That would be, in my mind, the really great hope for the future.
SIA: That is a beautiful vision. I am just wondering: What do you tell people if they are in a situation where they are not feeling gratitude, they are feeling angry, distressed, upset—what is the quickest way to turn it around?
BDSR: This is very important! There are situations and things for which, as such, you cannot be grateful. But that is not the moment to start. You start practicing gratefulness in everyday living, and you will discover that 99.9% of the day's moments give you the opportunity to enjoy, which is an opportunity we often miss, and therefore we are so miserable. That is why gratefulness practice is so enjoyable! We discover that every moment gives up the opportunity to enjoy something, and then when we get into practice we notice that the gift within every gift is opportunity—that is the decisive gift. And it's mostly, as I say, opportunity to enjoy. Then we come across something for we cannot, as such, be grateful. But when you are in practice, immediately your mind jumps to the question, "What is this opportunity for?" And then—this is why gratefulness is so creative—you will find what this is the opportunity for. Often it is the opportunity to initiate change, in one way or another, for things that need to be changed. Say you have a fatal sickness, or something like that. You cannot be grateful for that, but you can ask yourself, "This given fact, this gift, what does it give me the opportunity for?" Thousands of people in this situation have discovered that it suddenly gave them an opportunity for growth in a completely new way, because it confronted them for the first time with something that they couldn't deny or reject. It was just a given. And when we face the given in the given moment we find what it offers us as an opportunity, because life always offers us opportunity. So the answer to your question is, do not look at the surface of the gift, look at the gift within the gift, which is always opportunity.
SIA: That is just a beautiful way to close. I just so honor you for walking your talk, and it has really been helping me to reformulate my own relationship with the world. When we had you speak on campus several weeks back I was so moved and touched, and talking to you today I feel again like how much that spirit of gratefulness really shifts things in the moment. Thank you.
BDSR: Thank you. It is always a great joy and privilege to be in touch with IONS, and I greatly admire your work there, all of you. So please give my love to everybody there.
SIA: Wonderful and for folks who want to connect more with Brother Davidt's work, it is Gratefulness.org.
BDSR: Thank you and good bye.


text:
An elderly man was found dead in a pool on Friday morning, East Hampton Town Police Chief Michael Sarlo said.
The East Hampton Village Volunteer Ambulance Association was called to a house on Green Hollow Road in East Hampton for a possible drowning at 6 a.m. The man was reportedly dead when they arrived. His name was not immediately released by officials.
Detectives are investigating what led to his death, Chief Sarlo said. The Suffolk County medical examiner's office is responding.
Check back for more information as it becomes available.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Archive for Friday, March 18, 2011
One-person play coming to Leavenworth
March 18, 2011
"Deep Listening," an engaging, one-person play that uses stories, gentle humor and simple songs to explore the reality of "looking death in the face" will be staged from 1:30-3:30 p.m. Saturday, April 16 at the Marillac Center, 4200 S. Fourth St., Leavenworth.
Lisa Wagner-Carollo, founder and director of Still Point Theatre Collective, a company that combines her interests in ministry and theater, will give the performance. "Deep Listening" is a new play developed by Still Point around themes of death, dying and end-of-life care. Wagner-Carollo commissioned Teresa Weed, playwright, to create the play. The result of this collaboration developed into a play with music.
For more than 15 years, Wagner-Carollo has toured the country and overseas with "Haunted by God: The Life of Dorothy Day." She founded Still Point in 1993 and has produced and performed in several other productions.
A free will offering will be accepted at the performance. The Marillac Center, which is on the campus of the Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth, requests that people planning to attend either call or email (913) 758-6552 or email@example.com. For more information, visit marillaccenter.org.
More like this story
Use the comment form below to begin a discussion about this content.
Commenting has been disabled for this item.


text:
good post, sounds like a great plan! Guess we will know more over the weekend.
I'm trying to make sense out this whole Tuesday business. I think Tuesday we'll be introducing Tom Gamble as our New GM.
1 - Korn/Ferry must have been working on this for a while. I'm sure they reached out to candidates to gauge interest (not sure if this constitutes Tampering), but as soon as the Jets were given permission, there must have been heavy conversations. Search firms normally due extensive interviews with candidates before trying to place anyone. There must be significant interest before sending a candidate on an interview. I really believe that Gamble wants the job and if he hits the interview, the job is his. Why else would Woody pay them $200K?
2 - Having the new GM on the podium TOTALLY changes the nature of the presser. In essence, Woody and Rex would be off the hook. The whole presser is about going forward, not looking back. Sure they would still have to answer some questions, but the Focus will not be on them.
3 - This whole silence from the organization is too un-Jet like. Something is up.
4 - Rex in the Bahamas? Gotta be a reason he staying as far away as possible. Woody doesn't want him around to spoil anything.
5 - Gamble has been leaked as the likely candidate.
6 - Bill Polian pushing Gamble for the job - isn't it convenient that that leaked out??
I know trying to make sense out of anything Jet related is probably a waste of brain matter, but I'm calling it. Tom Gamble new JET GM - introduced on Tuesday!!
Last edited by norm428; 01-04-2013 at 03:26 PM. Reason: added content
good post, sounds like a great plan! Guess we will know more over the weekend.
If Gamble is the Jets guy, then they can not allow him to leave Florham Park without signing the deal. Do what the Chiefs did with Andy Reid.
question: do the Jets have to wait until SF's season is officially over before they can hire Gamble?
or does that only apply to coaches?
I believe Gamble is being Interviewed today not tomorrow and said Sat. just to throw the press off & if that': the case it will probably be leaked out, by a anonymous source sometime this Afternoon.
In that case it sounds like Woody told Rex to go take a vacation while they work out the details of getting Gamble here and to come back for the presser Tuesday to appear with his new boss.
And the media bites on the tattoo and creates the necessary diversion.
Dude seriously?


text:
Bugs — the good, the bad and the ugly
January 3, 2014
It had to happen. After successful harvesting of the crops we are raising at Trafalgar Middle School garden, you wonder when the bugs will settle in and take over....
No comments posted for this article.
Post a Comment
You must first login before you can comment.


text:
Fringe Filmmaker Mike Hoolboom Shines a Light on HIV
Summer 2013
Over the past three decades, Toronto's Mike Hoolboom has quietly become one of the most unique and respected experimental filmmakers in Canada, having created more than 50 films and videos that have garnered 30 awards at festivals around the world. A true artist, Hoolboom pushes creative boundaries by refusing to create films that tell us what to think and feel -- instead, he wants viewers to have their own unique experiences.
Hoolboom's film Positiv (1998), the first of his six-part Panic Bodies, explores the dramatic and unsettling impact of HIV on his identity, his body and his relationships with friends and family. In the top quarter of a four-way split screen, Hoolboom's handsome face delivers a personal, unsentimental and often witty monologue about HIV, while a montage of intriguing and disorienting images in the remaining three screens symbolically and seamlessly reinforce his perspective. He begins by explaining how he no longer feels at home in his own body: "The yeast in my mouth is so bad it turns all my favourite foods, even chocolate-chocolate-chip ice cream, into a dull metallic taste, like licking a crowbar," he says, staring directly at the camera. "I know then that my body -- my real body -- is somewhere else, bungee jumping into mine shafts stuffed with chocolate wafers and whipped cream and blueberry pie and just having a good time, you know?"
I had the opportunity to talk to Mike about the making of this short film.
Jennifer McPhee: In Positiv, you let the audience in on what it's like to have HIV. What did you want to accomplish with this film?
Mike Hoolboom: Positiv was made a couple of years after the combination of anti-HIV drugs we called the cocktail arrived. It was part of the "afterlife" -- the time I was never supposed to have. I had set every watch, reoriented every compass, staked every bet on the endgame -- and watched with my doctors the steady decline of my T4 cells. The march toward the end was measurable, quantifiable, almost reliable. I had a year left, maybe less, when the new [anti-HIV] drugs arrived. With them came a strange new set of disappointments: How could I forgive myself for outliving the contracted moment, particularly when so many others were dying simply because they were born in the wrong country? I had prepared so thoroughly and for so long for my death that I didn't know how to receive the unwanted gift of more and more time. I think the movie is a kind of grieving for the death I didn't have -- though others might not read it that way.
Jennifer McPhee: With Buffalo Death Mask, what did you want people to understand about those years before ART?
Mike Hoolboom: I had chanced across a roll of film exposed many years ago, showing a meeting of three friends in a small Buffalo apartment. When I slowed down the footage, I saw that light came from within their bodies, instead of falling onto them. This was something I had learned to see in the pre-cocktail years of being positive. Of course, I wasn't alone in this -- many others opened their eyes in exactly the same way, at exactly the same time, like genius Canadian painter Stephen Andrews. He might have shot these figures himself, because that way of seeing glowing, luminescent bodies resides in his paintings, too. I can imagine that Stephen would put it differently, but that's the cover story I'm offering today. There is a light the body gives off when it's dying, and perhaps you can only see it when you're dying, or at least when you're dying you feel it in a very particular way. Everything is fading and aging and moving toward death, and this is carried in a particular kind of light. I wanted to show people what this looks like.
Jennifer McPhee: In this latest film of yours, Stephen Andrews describes what was a common experience for HIV-positive people back then -- watching a beloved partner die -- yet your interview with Andrews is often humorous.
Mike Hoolboom: Stephen is very funny! He could make a brick wall convulse with laughter. We touch upon some difficult moments, including the death of his partner Alex Wilson, who he had been with for 15 years. We talk about getting shingles, and nearly dying, and resenting others who are dying but not as fast as you are, and the whole while we are laughing our faces off. The laughing makes it possible to hold these stories, don't you find? Despair and depression are also popular options, but there was so much death at that time that we needed to blend up emotional cocktails along with the pharmaceutical ones, and these often included healthy doses of denial, deferral and gut-shaking laughter.
Jennifer McPhee: You started filmmaking at the age of 20. What did you love about making movies back then?
Mike Hoolboom: Movies offered a single irresistible promise: taking the place of the life I was too afraid to have.
Jennifer McPhee: Have your reasons for making films changed?
Mike Hoolboom: I've made movies for more than three decades now, though it is a medium for which I am particularly ill-suited. I am technically inept in a medium that still values some degree of machine esperanto. And my method is fundamentally unsound: I start at the edges, slowly filling in the frame from the corners until at last the outline of a figure is revealed at the heart of the matter. This requires a lot of time, and getting lost, and taking strange turns and tangents. So much is thrown away. It's very inefficient, and often what is revealed is so congested and mysterious that it is unreadable to anyone but my most cherished familiars. Or is it all right to make pictures for two or three friends? It makes me wonder, how many faces does it take to create an audience?
To view Positiv and other Hoolboom movies, go to vimeo.com. For more on Hoolbooms's films and writings, visit www.mikehoolboom.com.
Jennifer McPhee is a freelance writer who contributes regularly to The Positive Side.
This article was provided by Canadian AIDS Treatment Information Exchange. It is a part of the publication The Positive Side. Visit CATIE's Web site to find out more about their activities, publications and services.
Add Your Comment:
(Please note: Your name and comment will be public, and may even show up in
Internet search results. Be careful when providing personal information! Before
adding your comment, please read TheBody.com's Comment Policy.)


text:
Jay-Z Says He's A "Problem" For Agents (Video)
Jay Z has a new studio album, but his buzz in the sports world, has already made him a daily topic among media outlets, sports radio, and bloggers alike.
Roc Nation Sports Agency is making a lot of agents in the NBA, NFL, and MLB extremely nervous, and as expected, those nervous agents have filed complaints, accused Jay of being a runner, in over his head, and dishonest in the service he can provide.
Jay Z appeared on Power 105.1's The Breakfast Club Morning Show to talk, Beyonce, Magna Carta Holy Grail, and his leap in the Sports Agency business.
He didn't hide the fact that his presence "is a problem" for the good old boy club of sports agents.
"Those guys have been sitting around just doing the typical things."
"Knock on the same doors. They go to Nike, they do the contract and then they sit back. They don't do anything else. So they've been sitting around for 20-30 years just not doing anything.
"So me coming, that's a problem for them. Cause now they have to go to work, now they have to wake up, now they have to do things. So they don't want me around because now they have to do something for these athletes. The bigger goal is for all artists to get their just due. Not to get half-ass agents or people who rob them or people who don't care about their finances. They're just taking whatever is going to get them a check."


text:
Lyrics Depot is your source of lyrics to Carry on My Way by Yngwie Malmsteen. Please check back for more Yngwie Malmsteen lyrics.
Carry on My Way Lyrics
Artist: Yngwie Malmsteen
Album: Inspiration
Carry on my wayward son
There'll be peace when you are done
Lay your weary head to rest
Don't you cry no more
Once I rose above the noise and confusion
Just to get a glimpse beyond this illusion
I was soaring ever higher
But I flew too high
Though my eyes could see I still was a blind man
Though my mind could think I still was a mad man
I hear the voices when I'm dreaming
I can hear them say
Masquerading as a man with a reason
My charade is the event of the season
And if I claim to be a wise man, well
It surely means that I don't know
On a stormy sea of moving emotion
Tossed about I'm like a ship on the ocean
I set a course for winds of fortune
But I hear the voices say
Carry on, you will always remember
Carry on, nothing equals the splendor
Now your life's no longer empty
Surely heaven waits for you
Yngwie Malmsteen Lyrics
Yngwie Malmsteen Inspiration Lyrics
More Yngwie Malmsteen Music Lyrics:
Yngwie Malmsteen - Anthem Lyrics
Yngwie Malmsteen - Asylum I: Asylum Lyrics
Yngwie Malmsteen - Dragonfly Lyrics
Yngwie Malmsteen - Golden Dawn Lyrics
Yngwie Malmsteen - How Many Miles To Babylon Lyrics
Yngwie Malmsteen - Locked & Loaded Lyrics
Yngwie Malmsteen - The Hunt Lyrics
Yngwie Malmsteen - You Don't Remember, I'll Never Forget Lyrics


text:
This Fall all eyes are upon Soldier's Field as our Chicago Bears are off to the best start since the Super Bowl season. Soldier's Field is in the shadows of McCormick Place, our center of the convention industry in Chicago.
Football and McCormick Place came together on the date of this dedication of the George Halas Mall back in 1983 when Eli and then McCormick Place Chairman Jim Sheerin celebreated the dedication with Virginia McCaskey,
daughter of Papa Bear and wife of Eli's dear friend, Ed McCaskey.


text:
Those who are not fans of French cinema can still appreciate the genius of the actor G'rard Depardieu. To avoid the threat of a 75 percent "millionaire's tax" in la belle France, he has taken Russian citizenship.
Who needs Paris when one has seen the glories of (a) Saransk in the Republic of Mordovia and (b) the flat tax?
Depardieu, 64, heretofore a revered figure in French film and a glutton for attention, received his new passport from Russian President Vladimir Putin, who rarely misses a chance to twit the West.
One of Russia's bigger problems is its middle class fleeing the country over Putin's increasingly authoritarian rule and taking its money with them. The Russian Central Bank says $80 billion left the country in 2011.
Now the middle class can be replaced by French millionaires – Brigitte Bardot, the onetime sex kitten turned animal rights activist, is threatening to follow Depardieu if the Lyons zoo euthanizes two elephants said to be suffering from tuberculosis.
Putin has sent dissidents and troublesome celebrities to gulag-like penal camps, but so far, no protest from Bardot.
Depardieu's protest over the "millionaire's tax" planned by France's socialist government first led him to Belgium, which has a thriving colony of tax-dodging French chats grosses. Then he became enraptured with Russia's flat income tax rate of 13 percent.
Irony abounds. The flat tax, where the wealthy pay at the same rate as the people who shine their shoes, is a dream of conservatives in the United States. But it's most popular in the old Iron Curtain nations.
Russia supplements the income tax with an equally regressive 18 percent Value Added Tax, essentially a national sales tax. So much for the worker's paradise.
But there also are 41 percent levies on oil and gas profits, which pay for the social services that Russians have become accustomed to.
Depardieu, a big favorite of movie fans in Russia, has been offered a free apartment in Saransk, an industrial city of about 234,000 southeast of Moscow. He visited Monday, but the Saransk weather forecast for today is 17 degrees and freezing fog.
Maybe France will let him visit. He may run into some visa trouble.
The St. Louis, Mo., Post-Dispatch


text:
- West Country
- 6 updates
1-2-1 series
Ian Axton presents a weekly in-depth studio interview with a guest who has a life-changing experience to tell.
Live updates
West Country explorer planning solo trek to North Pole
Over the past few weeks we've brought you the stories of ordinary people across our region who've lived through extraordinary experiences.
Tonight Ian Axton talks to West Country woman Ann Daniels, a former bank clerk who now holds three world records for her polar explorations, in the last of our series of 1-2-1:
Jane Nicklinson: fighting for my husband's right to die
The latest in our series where Ian talks one to one to people who've been in the news about the stories behind the headlines.
The case of Tony Nicklinson from Wiltshire became known across Britain as he fought for assisted suicide. It was a long and painful battle that ended in defeat, and Tony died last August. At his side throughout, was his wife Jane.
Michael Collings: life after Britain's Got Talent
As ITV prepares for another series of Britain's Got Talent, we've spoken to Michael Collings from Plymouth. He was tipped to win the talent show and on the night, he came fifth. We asked him what life has been like since.
Somerset man's life changed forever after tsunami
Here's the second part of our new 1-2-1 series. Ian Axton has been speaking to ordinary people about something extraordinary that's happened to them - something that changed the course of the rest of their lives.
Today we hear from Luke Simon from Somerset, who was caught up in the tsunami in Thailand. He survived but his brother was killed. This is his story:
One man's crusade to beat meningitis
Watch our new series featuring ordinary people across the region, whose lives have been altered completely by a life-changing experience.
Our first piece is the story of how a family tragedy 30 years ago started one man's crusade to eradicate the deadly disease of meningitis.
- ITV Report
What you should know about meningitis
Latest ITV News reports
What you should know about meningitis
Here is a guide to the main warning signs and symptoms of meningitis


text:
Tales of HP Lovecraft
The Library of America has released a hardback selection of Lovecraft's finest stories. As a result I have been revisiting this important pulp author's fiction, and I find myself returning to a question I have often asked myself about Lovecraft. What is the reader meant to feel? Terror? Edification? Relief at not being confronted with unnamable horror in the Real World?
The world Lovecraft depicts — where reason is frail and evil lurks beneath the surface of matter itself — is far removed from that described by, say, Homer, in which there is good and bad, and the bad can be defeated if you show courage and passion. In Homer, the self is the centre of a storm of emotions, and the ability to triumph through the will is a properly heroic trait. In Lovecraft's universe it is not the heart that is at the centre of the human experience, but the mind. Given the regularity with which his narrators end up insane, it seems the mind is not adapted to deal with the terror of things. Lovecraft presents the individual as a lone wanderer in a desert that will ultimately consume him; nothing here of the sense of fraternity on which Homer's heroes rely. For Lovecraft, better not to join the dots: reality, that terrifying totality, is too intense to apprehend. No wonder his protagonists are so severely punished for their curiosity.
What, then, am I meant to feel when reading a Lovecraft story? On the one hand, there is something truly disturbing in the Lovecraftian realm; beneath the hyperbolic prose and the hysteria, a core of absolute fear remains that can't be explained away. This is the fear not only of the unknown out there, but of the unknown in here; that is, the fear of apprehending, for the first time, that "our" world is not ours, that this world in in fact that world where indifference is the oldest god. On the other hand, despite what one suspects is a serious effort on Lovecraft's part to instill horror in the reader — he seems to take his own pessimism completely seriously — too often this horror is compromised by the structure of the story itself: once one figures out the "Lovecraftian formula" according to which a chaste, scientific-minded man opens the door to a chaos that can barely be contained, the magic is lost.
Difficult not to detect in this formula a refusal to carry to its conclusion a dialogue between the self and the abyssal Other, between me and the impossible You of an unlistening universe. For Lovecraft it is sufficient to catch the merest glimpse of the unnamable; anything after that is overkill. This is fair enough. The problem is that he is content merely to hint at this unnamable, and then to make his narrator proclaim insanity; in other words, there is no true psychological depth to the Lovecraftian protagonist. He — invariably a "he" — is a vehicle for the scientific spirit of mankind, not a convincing "humanlike" construction. The result is a slideshow of monstrous footprints, exhumed skeletons of exceptional proportions, a flash of chaos through a window… and then the return of routine, albeit a routine forever undermined by trauma. We are not often given access to the inner world of the Lovecraftian protagonist when he is anything other than in a state of heightened awareness. Thus while the dormant horrors of our cosmos evoke a shudder, the stories themselves are not really stories — they are elaborate stagings of rational man's encounter with the irrational infinite, but in an almost purely cerebral context. The dialectic that slips into all of Lovecraft's work — a progression from skepticism to fear to horrible discovery to insanity — allows no space for the human factor. Many of his stories feel like little vignettes expounding on the same basic message — the message that there is no message for us. The emotional factor is almost entirely absent; a placid intellectual curiosity gives way to fear and trembling, and then the narrative is over. It is a kind of continual rehearsal for the day nuclear warfare destroys us all, but it isn't compelling fiction.
The pleasure afforded by Lovecraft's tales is undeniable, but it is an intellectual pleasure. His style can certainly be unsubtle, and yet there's something earnest, even honest, about it. The despair in Lovecraft's underlying philosophy is tragic, and the standard structural criticisms leveled at his work — "too many adjectives", "too little dialogue" — are of little consequence when we consider his achievement as a whole. Lovecraft proved that thoughts can feel fear, too. The heart is put aside in favour of the brain, but in fact even human reason is fallible in the face of the incomprehensible. This instability of the rational mind makes Lovecraft's work interesting in a way that most "horror fiction" is not. No matter how clumsy the execution, there's an important lesson in humility in Lovecraft. Cheap thrills are replaced by the shock of incomprehension. It may not make for satisfying fiction on a story-by-story basis, but the overall effect has an undeniable resonance.


text:
Bethesda games have, simply put, not performed well on PS3. From Fallout 3 to Skyrim, PlayStation gamers have commonly experienced sluggish performance, especially as file sizes balloon up.
Fallout: New Vegas project coordinator Joshua E. Sawyer recently talked about the memory limitations on PS3, which may provide some insight to Skyrim's performance issues. The PS3 suffers when dealing with large file saves, an "engine-level issue" caused by PS3's restrictive memory.
"That can easily be a big problem, especially if you're on the PS3," Sawyer said on Formspring (via CVG). "The longer you play a character, the more bit differences on objects (characters, pencils on tables, containers, etc.) get saved off and carried around in memory. I think we've seen save games that are pushing 19 megs, which can be really crippling in some areas."
He went onto explain that "individual bits of data are tiny," but the thousands of them cover various data fields. "Over time, it adds up," he said.
Sawyer also says that the PS3's internal structure makes the problems more pronounced, due to the divided memory pool. He later explained that the Xbox 360 has 512 megs of RAM usable, while the PS3 has 256 for system, 256 for graphics. "It's the same total amount of memory, but not as flexible for a developer to make use of."
It's important to note that Sawyer works at Obsidian, and wasn't involved with The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, which uses a newer engine developed by Bethesda. The PS3 save file size was supposedly addressed in the latest patch, but is continuing to prove problematic. More fixes for the game are promised, as Bethesda continues to polish the game one month after release.


text:
Want to remind yourself or a friend about this program? Fill out this simple form and klru will email you a reminder on the day that it will air.
No Knowing Gnocchi / Here Comes The Tide
series: Curious George
air date: 6/20/13 2:30 PM
No Knowing Gnocchi - Chef Pisghetti has done everything he can think of to please Gnocchi. He replaced the door she's always scratching, removed the old carpet that got her dirty, and even cleaned out all the debris from the alley. So why is his beloved cat spending so much time away from home? George decides to follow Gnocchi on her adventures to figure out what causes his cat friend to leave home and roam. Here Comes the Tide - When a treasure hunt at the beach leaves George and Marco staring into a big, empty hole, they decide to bury their own treasure chest. But after a swim with a friendly dolphin, they return and discover the tide moved their treasure chest down shore, and it's completely empty! Will the boys recover their missing treasure, or has the tide washed it away forever?
WARNING: Email reminders for this program have already been sent out. Your reminder may not reach the intended address in time for this program's airing.
Back to TV Schedule


text:
[Spuds Hilton, the author of the article] said in an interview that while he has no clue as to the identity of the alleged nude judge, "the whole idea of sailing the seven seas naked makes the mind race. When you hear that a member of the highest court in a country the size of Canada may be lounging by the pool buck-naked, daiquiri in hand, you know that people will be interested.Here in the U.S., the justices are always blabbing about "judicial modesty," but who know what kinds of vacations they take?
"The owner of the travel company said that nudity is the great equalizer," Mr. Hilton added. "I guess that makes sense -- no power suits, no uniforms, no $600 pumps and, apparently, no judge's robes."
Anyway, a naked cruise? It's just so perfectly awful, combining the horrors described in two of my favorite essays, "Naked," by David Sedaris and "A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again," by David Foster Wallace. And then add Supreme Court Justices for a truly dreadful, nightmare vacation.


text:
Hape North America, a leading worldwide toy manufacturer, has announced a contest giving one ASTRA retailer a chance to win a trip for two to China. Hape will select a winner who will travel to Shanghai and Ningbo. During the trip, the winner will stop by Hape's manufacturing campus, which produced more than 8.6 million toys in 2011.
For a chance to win the trip, ASTRA retailers must submit a photo of their best four-foot section of Hape merchandised product to firstname.lastname@example.com by May 15. One retailer will be announced at Hape's booth (No. 216) during the Cocktail Reception on Monday, June 11 at ASTRA Marketplace in Baltimore, Md.
This post was originally written by Leah Rocketto and published by ToyBook.com. For more news, visit www.toybook.com, follow The Toy Book on Twitter, and like The Toy Book on Facebook. The Toy Book is a bimonthly trade magazine covering the toy industry, published by Adventure Publishing Group.


text:
MILLERSVILLE, Pa. – The #15 York College wrestling squad picked up a 28-13 triumph over Millersville on Tuesday evening in Millersville, Pa. The Spartans improve their season mark to 20-5-1 as they are now just one win shy of their program record of 21 victories.
The Green and White started off Tuesday's match with four straight triumphs. Rookie Sergo Grigorian was the benefactor of a Marauder forfeit at 125 pounds before senior Jerrid Hartman snagged an 11-3 major decision at 133 pounds. With the win, Hartman, York's usual 125-pounder, records his 17th win of the 2010-11 campaign.
The Spartan run continued at 141 pounds as Victor Signorelli, another Spartan newcomer, registered a major decision of his own. Signorelli bested Mark Massimini 8-0 to add four more points to the York ledger.
At 149 pounds, Chris Gugliotti came away with a 6-1 decision over Steve Hess. Gugliotti's triumph pushes his sophomore year record to 19-9, just one season after going 9-12 as a rookie, and gave the Spartans a commanding 17-0 lead.
Millersville came back over the next three bouts, as the Marauders captured victories in three straight to put the score at 17-13 Spartans with three matches to wrestle.
Just as they have done all season long, York's final three weight classes secured the team win for the Green and White. At 184 pounds, #9 Alex Martocello put together a 15-6 major decision as the junior captain improves to an impressive 24-4 for the season.
George Saliba, Division III's 10th-ranked wrestler at 197 pounds, reached the 20-win plateau with a 13-4 major decision over Daniel Cox.
Senior heavyweight James Laughlin brought home the final bout for the Spartans on Tuesday with his 9-6 decision at 285. Laughlin's triumph improves his record to 10-1 on the year.
The Spartans return to action on Friday, February 18, when they travel to McDaniel for a 7:00 pm non-conference tilt. York's bout against the Green Terror marks the final regular-season match on the Spartan schedule.
Chris Gugliotti photo courtesy of Zach Clabaugh - www.sharpedgefoto.com


text:
GM Names and Fires Engineers Involved In Faulty Ignition Switch 307
"There's no evidence anyone else knew the switch was out-of-spec at the time, the report says; neither did DeGiorgio tell anyone when issues with the part were brought to his attention multiple times. When one engineer specifically asked DeGiorgio in 2004 whether the switch met torque specifications, DeGiorgio didn't respond. Evidence the investigators gathered showed that he started two e-mails but never sent them. ... Instead, DeGiorgio was consumed by a problem in which cars with the switch were failing to start in cold weather, something the report says was "a personal embarrassment to DeGiorgio.'"'


text:
OK, Bruins fans and rooters of all of Boston's teams.
Here's your chance to win some cash toward tickets for your favorite clubs this season, and all you have to do is show off where you use TiqIQ and how much you love Boston sports.
Click here to enter a location in Boston where you use your TiqIQ (anywhere, be creative). Include a PHOTO for extra credit. Example: "I use my TiqIQ at the Boston Beer Works in Back Bay!" Show your Boston-Pride!
Rules: The top 3 entries from participating cities will be chosen by TiqIQ.com and announceed Monday, October 7th. Deadline: Sunday, October 6th, 11:59PM.
1st Place: $250 in tickets to any event on TiqIQ.com
2nd Place: $150 in tickets to any event on TiqIQ.com
3rd Place: $100 in tickets to any event on TiqIQ.com
You can also visit the new mobile Bruins page for Bruins tickets.


text:
Mario wants to be king of the living room.
Video game giant Nintendo Co. on Thursday will launch a software update for its new Wii U console -- the first step in the company's attempt to become the hub for all video watching whether it's airing live, recorded on a DVR or streaming online.
After years of marketing the original Wii as a simple-to-use video game device whose only video option was Netflix streaming, Nintendo is using the Wii U, which launched in November, to challenge giants including Microsoft, Sony, Apple and most cable companies that are seeking to dominate the same turf.
Called TVii, the new features make the Wii U gamepad, a tablet-like controller for the console, into a universal remote of sorts that lets users search and view favorite programs and movies whether on TV or streaming from providers like Netflix, Hulu and Amazon. It also has a set of social features to let viewers interact while watching popular programs or sporting events.


text:
The Novi Board of Education has another spot to fill after secretary Shari Lebo announced her resignation earlier this month.
Lebo's term ends Dec. 31, and must be filled by Aug. 7. The Board of Education is accepting applications until July 11.
This comes a month after Trustee Jason Manar announced his resignation.
People interested in the open position must be registered voters living in the Novi School District, and must submit:
• A resume and background information
• A statement on qualifications
• Past/Present community civic service
• An answer to the question: Why do you want to serve on the Novi School Board?
The application can be found on the district website. Applications can be mailed or dropped off to Novi's Educational Services Building, 25345 Taft Road, Novi, MI 48374.
The school board will review applications from July 12-16, will hold public interviews during a regular board meeting July 17, then vote on Lebo's replacement at its next meeting on Aug. 7.
If the appointee wants to keep the seat the following term, Novi schools administrators say he or she must file to run for election to a full term — a trustee's term lasts six years — by July 22 to be placed on the November ballot.
In order to run:
• Pick up forms at the Novi City Clerk's Office
• Pay $100 or submit 40 signatures from school district voters
• The petition must be filed at the Oakland County Clerk's Office, 1200 N. Telegraph, Pontiac, MI 48341. Call 248-858-0563 for more information.
— Staff writer John Turk


text:
Booking flights to Poland is quick and easy with SAS. Simply visit our website to find departures, book tickets and check in online. You can also research travel information about Poland and other destinations where SAS flies. Once aboard, you'll experience world-class service to Poland.
At SAS, we want to help you have the best in-flight experience possible. In addition to world-class service, you'll enjoy multiple entertainment options, ergonomic seats and a variety of menu choices. If you're flying SAS Business or SAS Plus, which one can upgrade to from SAS Go, take advantage of Fast Track security access where available. We also offer a 24-hour return policy in case you want to make changes to your intinerary. Passengers can only refund/change restricted tickets within 24 hours of purchase.Families traveling with children can take advantage of a number of family-friendly options. All of our seats have built-in entertainment systems with a variety of movie channels, music, stories and video games to entertain everyone. You can reserve infant and kids meals up to 24 hours in advance on transatlantic SAS flights. Baby bassinets for infants up to nine months and children's sleeping bags can also be reserved in advance. Your family can also earn EuroBonus frequent flyer points to use towards future trips, hotel stays and car rentals.
Start your adventure to Poland today on the SAS website, where you can easily find flights to Poland, book tickets and check in online. For your convenience, SAS offers flight connections to Poland from more than 100 cities in the US.
Poland is a compelling blend of natural beauty, dynamic cities and historical attractions. Reminders of Poland's long history of conquest and oppression are visible throughout the country. Historical sites such as the gothic castle at Malbork and the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum in Auschwitz are main draws for visitors to the country. Poland's many cities showcase both 21st century attributes as well as historical attractions. Warsaw, the capital is a modern metropolis with a pristine, restored Old Town. Other cities like Kraków blend Gothic and Renaissance architecture with a vibrant café culture and nightlife.
Visit Poland today and book your Poland flights online with SAS.
Located in central Europe between Germany and Russia, Poland has endured a long history of struggle against invaders and oppressors before becoming the independent country that it is today. Poland is coming into its own as a travel destination with incredible medieval architecture, moving historical sites and beautiful, natural landscapes. Poland's cities are a compelling blend of old and new - making cities like Krakow extremely popular with European and international visitors alike.Find out about flights to Poland on SAS today.
Reminders of Poland's long history of conquest and oppression are prevalent throughout the country. Poland's many historical sites are a main draw for visitors. The magnificent gothic castle at Malbork was built by the Order of the Teutonic Knights in the 13th century and served as the capital of the Order for 150 years. The Monastery of Jasna Góra houses one of the most revered icons of the Virgin Mary—the Black Madonna of Częstochowa, which is credited with numerous miracles. Outside of Krakow, reminders of Poland's tragic history during Nazi occupation can be seen at the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum in Auschwitz.
Poland's many cities highlight the modern attributes of the 21st century while embracing the country's past. Warsaw, the capital, was rebuilt after World War II, which destroyed the majority of the city. Warsaw is now a dynamic & modern metropolis, but still maintains a pristine Old Town—meticulously restored after the war. Poland's most popular destination, Kraków, blends Gothic and Renaissance architecture with a vibrant café culture and nightlife. Not to be missed are Kraków's Old Town, Wawel Castle and the Jewish Quarter. Other cities such as Gdańsk, Wrocław and Toruń also showcase numerous architectural, historical and culture attractions.
Poland is not just about cities and history. The country is also host to beautiful landscapes such as the Masurian Lake district, filled with lakes, rivers and rolling hills. Białowiński National Park runs along the coast and features unique scenery of lakes, meadows, bogs and sand dunes. The Białowieża National Park is host to hundreds of European bison and one of the largest remaining sections of primeval forest in Europe.
Scandinavian Airlines © 2017


text:
Kenny Dalglish's signings since his second coming as Liverpool manager have not met with universal approval but the performance here of his cheapest summer recruit will have gone some way to convincing sceptics that the manager has secured at least one bargain. Craig Bellamy marked his first start since his own return to Anfield – on a free transfer from Manchester City – with an excellent display that did much to help Liverpool overcome a stylish Brighton & Hove Albion team and reach the fourth round of the Carling Cup.
The Welshman scored one goal, played a key role in his team's second, which was scored by Dirk Kuyt, and added a cut and thrust that Andy Carroll, for instance, has yet to provide. His rapid and incisive interaction with Kuyt, Maxi Rodríguez and Luis Suárez gave Liverpool a dangerous dimension that differs to the relatively static play that has tended to accompany the deployment of Carroll. Dalglish welcomed the extra option.
"Craig was fantastic," Dalglish said. "When he came in we said he would make a contribution and it's not taken him long. He just loves playing football. He's really enthusiastic and fit. They all linked up well – Craig, Maxi, Dirk and Suárez – because he's a good, intelligent footballer, as they all are."
The linkage between that quartet initially beguiled Brighton. The home side seemed paralysed for most of the first half, no doubt partially by nerves but also by the zip and zest of the visitors. "We just weren't there for the first half an hour for some reason," the Brighton manager Gus Poyet said. "But you have to pay tribute to Liverpool, especially their four offensive players. They were moving around at their best. Sometimes it doesn't matter how good you are or what system you play, when you come up against quality like that you're going to suffer."
The suffering began immediately. By the time Bellamy shot Liverpool in front in the seventh minute a goal seemed due. It arrived with deadly simplicity. After neat interplay down the left, Suárez rewarded a clever Bellamy run with a deft through-ball and the Welshman swept the ball into the net with his left foot from six yards.
Liverpool hogged the ball. The home side's centre-forward, Craig Mackail-Smith, cleared a Kuyt effort off his line in the 20th minute. Suárez shot badly wide moments later after a through-ball from Bellamy.
Three times before the break Liverpool struck the frame of the goal. First Suárez skimmed the post with a header from a Bellamy free-kick. From another free-kick, 35 yards out, Bellamy struck a thunderous shot that clipped the crossbar. Two minutes before the interval Jay Spearing struck the base of the post from outside the area.
That, though, signalled the end of Liverpool's dominance as Brighton suddenly rallied. It seemed barely credible that the hosts would make it to the break with only a one-goal deficit, yet they almost went in on level terms as at the end of the first half, following their best move of the game, Craig Noone forced an awkward save from Pepé Reina.
"I won't tell you what I said but I was at my best," Poyet said of his half-time team-talk. It worked. His team were helped by Sebastián Coates, whose sloppy pass in the 47th minute presented the ball to Noone. The midfielder, who in a previous incarnation was a roofer working on Steven Gerrard's house, showcased his proficiency in his latest profession by firing a superb shot from 25 yards against the crossbar.
Liverpool had to withstand fierce pressure, all applied with the methodical elegance that Poyet has cultivated in a side that are challenging for promotion to the Premier League having just graduated from League One. In the 81st minute, however, Liverpool scored on the counterattack. Bellamy was again influential, picking out Rodríguez with a pass from the left. The Argentinian drew the last defender before nudging the ball to Kuyt, who steered it into the bottom corner. On the pitch to join in the celebrations was Gerrard, who had arrived as a substitute to make his first appearance after six months out with a groin injury.
He was upstaged on the night, however, by a Brighton substitute. Vicente, the former Spain international whom Poyet has lured to the south coast, came on after an hour and showed his class in the last minute when he skipped into the box and drew a wild tackle from Jamie Carragher. Ashley Barnes converted the penalty with aplomb. "If we can get him fit for the pace and craziness of the English game, he will be an unbelievable player for us," said Poyet of the 30-year-old Spaniard. Suddenly it does not seem absurd for Liverpool fans to have similar thoughts about Bellamy.


text:
It's that time of year again — there's a chill in the air, leaves in a blaze of colors can be seen falling from trees and pumpkins lie in farmers' fields waiting to be turned into spooky, glowing masterpieces.
Joan Allsup and her husband, Max, of Mitchellville look forward to autumn each year because it means their farm once again can be turned into a Halloween haven, complete with two corn mazes, a straw jump, hayrack rides, a pumpkin patch and more.
Pumpkinville and Corn Maze, located at 618 Center Ave. S. in Mitchellville, has been a family-run farm for four generations. However, it was renovated into a fall tourist attraction in 1999, and has only gotten bigger since.
"It started slow. People kind of started asking us if we'd done field trips out here, and I'd considered it but we hadn't yet," Allsup said of the early beginnings of Pumpkinville, noting that she and her husband soon began allowing school children to tour their gardens full of strawberries and other produce. "Then, it just kind of evolved. The more we did, the more people wanted us to add different things."
Now, the Allsups open their land to visitors looking for traditional fall decorations, such as pumpkins, squash and gourds. A hayrack ride is available throughout the weekends to take folks into the pumpkin patch, or tables with row upon row of already picked pumpkins are set up near the front of the facility for the less adventurous.
A plethora of additional family-friendly activities awaits visitors as well, including a herd of amicable goats and other farm animals, a straw jump for kids and kids at heart and campfires available for $10 per hour by reservation only.
But Joan thinks the real draw to Pumpkinville is the two corn mazes.
"I'd say it really started getting bigger when we started the mazes," Joan said of the farm. "It gave people more to do when they came."
The roughly one acre mini-maze is designed as a fun activity for children and elderly visitors. Joan said it takes perhaps 20 minutes from start to finish and has six hole-punch stations within for guests to find scavenger hunt-style and fill their ticket.
The big maze, however, is about 20 acres of labyrinthine entertainment.
"It's one of the bigger ones in Iowa; a lot are 10 acres," Allsup said. "We open that in July and it's really dense and really full. The ticket has 20 different designs on it and they have to find the punch station. If you don't get them all on your first try you can come back as long as you've got your ticket. If you complete it, you drop your name in our little treasure chest and we draw for (cash) prizes."
Each year, the mazes are thoughtfully engineered into different shapes. Although some farmers use high-tech GPS equipment for harvesting and other farming purposes, Allsup keeps it old school.
"I know how big my field is and then I get out my graph paper and I start drawing. Then, I'll go in with flags and flag it all and then start mowing," she said of designing the mazes. "This year, it's a train. Last year it was a castle, the year before was a brachiosaurus dinosaur and the year before that was a Viking ship."
Pumpkinville typically is open through the end of October, but because of when Halloween events fall this year the pumpkin patch will stay open through the first weekend in November. There is no general admission. For more information, visit www.pumpkinvillecornmaze.com.
Amy Martens can be contacted at (641) 792-3121 ext. 426 or via email at email@example.com.


text:
The Spice Club earns its place as a public fave
Go ahead and make your reservations now. And get used to it.
Yes, typically, dining-out minutiae such as whether one should make reservations is relegated to the bullet-point go-box that accompanies a review.
In this case, though, I'm talking about The Spice Club, which opened in August in Niantic. The pan-Asian has proven to be exceedingly popular - and deservedly so.
Just so's you know, Spice Club is located between the Black Sheep and Family Pizza, but set back a bit in part of a space that used to be the old Colonial Grocery Store.
It's a lovely and comfortable restaurant, with a long, narrow dining room that spaciously mixes booths and tables. The room parallels a wonderful bar and is separated by a low wall and designer glass partitions. The restaurant's color scheme is a triumph of autumnal tones, with contrasting walls of pumpkin, butter and brown as well as plenty of views of Niantic Bay.
Spice Club has familial ownership and culinary roots with the very fine Sawatdee Thai restaurant in Groton, but the menu includes Japanese choices and an expansive and creative sushi menu.
I am a big but admittedly conservative fan of sushi - by which I mean I stay away from eel, octopus or bear creations. But even the more Boring White Dude choices are spectacularly fresh and beautifully prepared, and there are sushi and sashimi possibilities to please the most wild palates.
On my first visit, I wallowed happily in excess, ordering The Spice Club Roll ($11.95) and a Mauro Ginger Roll ($7.95). The former was eight pieces of wonder: each anchored in a flavor-splash of tempura flakes and dashes of tobiko (tiny, smokey spangles of fish eggs). They were wrapped lovingly in briskly-fresh, thick, velveteen slices of spicy salmon.
The latter's tangy tuna provided a smooth counterpart to crisp cucumber - and were again blessed with tobiko.
Also, from a list of daily specials, I couldn't resist the Tropical Roll ($10.95). The mainstay here was sweet crabmeat mixed with dollops of mango and avocado - all of which huddled together under nurturing hunks of giant shrimp.
As mentioned, sushi is only one aspect of a very creative and wide-reaching menu that includes appetizers, soups and salads, curries, noodle dishes, fried rice and wok creations, and Japanese and house special entrees.
To get rolling, my wife and I split an order of vegetable pot stickers ($5.95) and were more than happy with the crimped dumplings. The mixture of diced veggies therein were piquant and flavorful, and the crisped exterior provided a playful contrast.
We also tried a piece of Tamgo ($2.45), which is an egg sushi that's a bit like a slice of omelet atop sushi rice and fastened together with a little band of seaweed. Really interesting - but probably not for those who don't like room temp eggs.
We tried three entrees.
Crispy Garlic with Tofu ($10.95; there are several various-pirced meat options as well) sported neat squares of deliciously flavored tofu at play with ground garlic, pea pods, broccoli, carrots and cabbage. Each item was cooked to emphasize individual properties, and as such, the whole was a treasure chest of flavor and texture.
From the Japanese menus came Vegetable Teriyaki ($13.95) featuring baby corn, snow peas, broccoli, carrots, green beans, onion, cabbage and red and green bell peppers. The hint of char on the veggies mixed marvelously with the sweet savoriness of the teriyaki sauce.
Off the house special entree list, the Catch of the Day with Ginger Sauce ($14.95) looked pretty damned irresistible. I ordered red snapper, though tilapia and salmon were also available. A gorgeous filet, with crispy skin on the bottom for crunch, was at the heart of this heady invention. Shredded strings of mango provided color and a smooth flavor, while sliced cashews and lightly fried celery slices and chili sauce provided the other pyrotechnic components. The chili sauce was just slightly too salty - but that was only a small bump in the celestial highway of this dish.
A note: most entrees come with a servicable miso soup and a side salad. The salad looked unexciting - iceberg lettuce, tomato, cucumber, carrot - but the dressing was a mystery potion of gingery goodness.
The Spice Club
239 Main Street, Niantic
(860) 451-8121
Cuisine: Thai, Japanese, sushi and Asian
Atmosphere: Relaxed but very lovely. This works for Big Occasions or even the solo guy who wants some sushi while watching football on a big screen over the bar.
Service: Incredibly polite. On one occasion, an entree came very quickly on the heels of a soup course, but no serious harm.
Handicap access: Level passage from parking lot, and plenty of room between entry doors and between tables.
Credit cards: All majors accepted.
Reservations: Definitely on Thursdays and weekends.
Fitch senior eyes computer science to help others with physical disabilities
Three decades later, Desiree Michaud's friends and family still seek closure
Vice President Mike Pence's 2018 Commencement Address to the United States Coast Guard Academy
Bystanders killed a gunman who fired into a restaurant. The NRA praised 'good guys with guns'
Former Connecticut Gov. Rowland released from federal custody


text:
A Greenpeace inflatable supports the team of 6 Greenpeace activists including Executive Director of Greenpeace International, Kumi Naidoo as they board energy giant Gazproms Arctic oil platform Prirazlomnaya off the North-eastern coast of Russia in the Pechora Sea.
© Denis Sinyakov / Greenpeace
1 - 12 of 901 results.
Greenpeace New Zealand


text:
Submission + - The real story behind Hecker's North Korean (wordpress.com)
Martin Hellman writes: Former Los Alamos Director Siegfried Hecker recently returned from his seventh trip in as many years to North Korea. The purpose of his visits has been to assess that nation's nuclear program and to seek ways to defuse the nuclear threat on the Korean peninsula. It is unfortunate that the extensive press coverage of his trip has focused on the parts that feed American fears. This is dangerous because, in a guest lecture to my seminar last February, Prof. Hecker suggested a program to improve American national security with respect to North Korea, but noted that it was impossible to implement because of domestic political considerations. Media coverage that reinforces American fears and myths therefore harms our national security. When I emailed Prof. Hecker about some inaccurate reporting on his most recent trip, he told me to "check the CISAC website for the real story." My current blog post summarizes that "real story" and its implications for national security.