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Friday night lights at Burgess Field
Geneva and St. Charles East will meet in a rare time slot for a high school soccer match – a Friday night.
The Saints are due to visit Burgess Field in Geneva at 6:30 p.m. Friday. East coach Paul Jennison said the rivals tried to pick a marquee time for the match and are hoping for a strong turnout.
The match will determine whether East (4-0-1 Upstate Eight Conference River) ties St. Charles North (5-0-1 UEC River) for the conference championship. The North Stars are already through with their conference schedule.
East and North tied, 1-1, on April 22. The Saints fell to the Vikings, 1-0, earlier in the season but that was at the Rose Augsburg-Drach Invitational, not a conference matchup.
While playing on a Friday night lends the matchup some extra pizzazz, Jennison said his goal is for the four Tri-Cities girls teams to move toward playing a doubleheader together, as has been the case on the boys side.
Jennison hopes that can become a reality in the next year or two.
Postseason pairings released
The IHSA unveiled postseason pairings Friday, with Batavia and St. Charles North both ticketed for the IHSA Class 3A Addison Trail Regional.
The North Stars are the top seed in the 18-team Conant Sectional while Batavia is seeded eighth. North ripped Batavia, 4-0, when the teams met in UEC River play in early April.
Elsewhere among the Tri-Cities teams, third-seeded Geneva faces Elk Grove Village in a Geneva Regional semifinal on May 20 while fourth-seeded St. Charles East faces a regional semifinal against 13th seeded West Chicago, also to be played May 20, in a regional hosted by the Wildcats.
In Class 2A, top-seeded Kaneland and second-seeded Rosary are again on a collision course, with both teams slotted in a regional to be contested on the Royals' home field. Kaneland opens with Rochelle in a regional semifinal May 20, while Rosary will match up with Illinois Math and Science Academy on May 21.
Until we meet again?
Geneva and St. Charles North have plenty of regular season and postseason history in recent years, with most of those matches being tightly contested.
That wasn't the last last week when North handled Geneva decisively, 4-1, but Vikings coach Megan Owens still thinks the game could prove beneficial.
"It's good to play North in the regular season," Owens said after the game. "We learn a lot from playing them. I think it can only help us improve in the long-run.
"It's a little tough to swallow tonight but hopefully we can learn from it. You've got to learn from your mistakes. Nobody's perfect. As long as we learn from it, we're fine, but that's they key – making sure we learn from it."
North and Geneva wouldn't meet in the postseason until a potential sectional championship match at Conant. North could face St. Charles East in a sectional semifinal.
– Jay Schwab, email@example.com
Michaela Loebel, Geneva, Sr., F
What she did: Loebel, a Nebraska recruit, scored three goals in Tuesday's Vikings victory against Upstate Eight Conference River foe Elgin.
Holly Collingbourne, Kaneland, Fr., M/F
What she did: Collingbourne also notched a Tuesday night hat trick as the freshman accounted for more than half of Kaneland's goal-scoring in a 5-0, Northern Illinois Big 12 East win against Rochelle.
St. Charles North and Batavia still like it out in Iowa.
Batavia won a title in its bracket at the Tournament of Champions, while North beat a pair of out-of-state foes to advance to the championship game before losing to an elite foe from Missouri, 2-1. It was North's sixth straight berth in the tournament final.
Which teams can get hot leading into the postseason.
The waning stages of the regular season are at hand for area teams, with Aurora Central Catholic nearest to the finish line; the Class 1A postseason begins next week.
Three of the four top seeds in the Conant Sectional are from the Tri-Cities. What else is new?
Whether it's on natural grass or turf, this area is fertile ground when it comes to soccer talent.
Boys, girls, last year, this year, next year … doesn't matter. Some of the best soccer in the Chicago area is played right here, and for that, there's a lot of credit to spread around. But let's start with the kids themselves and all the work they put into honing their craft.
Proof's in the pudding. And the seeds.


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We are thinking seriously about adding some non-history courses to the concentration. Students would receive a menu of courses offered outside the history department and be required to take one or two (or more?) of them. This menu might include courses in:
- Web design
- Museum studies
- Digital history or humanities
- Event planning
- Photography
- Documentary film-making
- Digital media
- Computer programming
- Graphic design

subset: commoncrawl


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Packers coach photographs beach proposal
MILWAUKEE (AP) – A Milwaukee couple will never forget who shot the photos during a surprise marriage proposal and a chance encounter on a Florida beach. Tim Schlosser was planning to propose to his longtime girlfriend, Abigail Kobriger, during their vacation on Marco Island. He planned to look for a random person on the beach to take some photos. As the couple walked along the beach, Schlosser spotted a man with a familiar stature. As a Green Bay Packers fan, Schlosser says he knew it was Coach Mike McCarthy. The couple asked McCarthy if he would pose for a picture. Then Schlosser asked the coach to take a photo of them. McCarthy obliged, Schlosser got down on one knee and pulled out a ring. A tearful Abigail said yes. McCarthy remarked how "cool" it was to shoot their special moment.
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Let kitchen wall decor brighten up your food prep area. Browse fetching kitchen wall art, kitchen wall plaques, decorative plates and kitchen wall accents, when you need interest in this vital room.
Whether cooking or dining, you will spend much of your time in the kitchen – so make sure the walls have plenty of decorative interest. We offer many types of kitchen wall decor to brighten your space. Kitchen Wall Art like tapestries, wall sculptures and canvases bring artistic flair to your kitchen area. Kitchen Wall Plaques and wall signs keep walls from looking bland. You can also find a kitchen chalkboard perfect for displaying what's on the menu. Decorative Plates and Plate Racks can be used together to create an interesting wall decor display. You'll be able to organize your time and space with Kitchen Wall Organizers like wall clocks, wall hooks and cabinets. Give a polished look to your kitchen with Decorative Wall Accents. This section includes a variety of kitchen wall decor, from sconces and switchplates to wallpaper borders and kitchen artwork. So let us take a look at top wall decor for dining room with 23 photos below.
1. Dining Room Walls On Pinterest Dining Room Wall Decor Dining Rooms
To satisfy your craving for a little atmosphere, start by amassing a few kitchen wall art pieces. After all, why limit your creativity to the cutting board or the stovetop? Unleash your artistic side up above using canvases, tapestries and wall sculptures. Decorative pictures for kitchen walls include anything from juicy grape clusters to roosters strutting through lush barnyards. Shop our kitchen art for metal wall sculptures, artwork sets and framed art. Then, dress up tables and chairs with table linens and chair cushions.
2. Roomdining Room Wall Decor Ideas Gold Dining Room Wall Decor Ideas
3. Dining Room Decorating Idea And Model Home Tour Elegant Dining
4. There Are Many Furniture For Dining Room That You Can
5. Bremmermancdt4thumb Dining Room Wall 448decor Part Iii
After beautifying your kitchen and dining area with artwork, curb clutter with kitchen wall organizers like wall hooks and cabinets. Kitchen wall clocks will help you keep track of the time. Encounter a wide variety of kitchen clocks, from coffee-themed to grapes-themed. Finally, provide the finishing touches to your kitchen with decorative kitchen wall accents. Shop a wide array of dining room wall decor. We also offer wall decor for kitchen areas. Mouthwatering meals matched with dining room wall art will season your household in luxury. Dining room art includes gorgeous pieces, such as two piece canvas sets. Fill those walls and heap those dinner plates; your kitchen and dining room are about to become culinary hotspots!
6. Wall Art Idea For Dining Room Material Covered Canvas Some Covered
A hearty dash of kitchen wall plaques and signs will also spice up your dining and cooking areas. Plump fruits and vegetables, dapper roosters and Tuscan feasts can all be found on our plaques. Wall signs sing the praises of Romance languages, dinner etiquette and delicious food. Lastly, kitchen decor sets feature collections of two or more plaques or signs with which you can garnish your walls. Use kitchen signs to add more decorative interest. You can also enhance a space by hanging valances over windows.
Decorative plates depict scenes and phrases that will entrance you and your dinner guests. Earthy tones combined with burgundies, golds and other warm colors evoke the bounty of the earth. Plate racks provide decorative holders for plates, displaying scenes of butterfly gardens or vibrant songbirds.


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While its football team continues the rebuilding process, Illinois athletic officials are also working on major improvements to Memorial Stadium next fall.
Illini officials announced Wednesday that Daktronics has been hired to design, manufacture and install new video display and sound systems at University of Illinois' Memorial Stadium. The project includes a HD video display measuring 36 feet tall by 96 feet wide.
"We are excited to be working with Daktronics to enhance the video display and sound system at Memorial Stadium," UI Director of Athletics Mike Thomas said in a statement. "The new boards will bring HD quality video to our fans and will greatly enhance the game-day atmosphere. In addition, our video displays and added ribbon boards will now be visible by almost every seat in the stadium and will allow us to provide more statistics, out-of-town scores and event information to everyone in attendance."
The huge video board will be to provide live video and instant replays. It can also be divided into separate windows to show a variety of graphics, animations, statistics, scoring information and advertisements.
Directly below the main video display, a new custom football scoreboard will be installed to show the score, time outs left, down and distance, game time remaining, and quarter information. An identical scoreboard (without video display) will be installed above the north end zone seats.
A supplemental ribbon display also will be installed below the custom football scoreboard that will measure over 50 feet wide, allowing the university to showcase sponsors throughout events and provide stats and information to fans.
Aside from the end zone display configuration, two LED ribbon displays will be installed on the fascia between the seating decks, one on each side of the field. These displays will each measure more 420 feet in length.
Due to the uniqueness of Memorial Stadium, two additional displays will be installed -- one in the southeast corner and one in southwest corner. Each auxiliary video display will measure approximately 10 feet tall by nearly 17 feet wide. These displays will be wall-mounted to the building elements of the stadium that obstruct the viewing of the main video display. They will display the same type of video and information as the main video display to ensure that every seat in the house receives the same game-day experience.


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There was a time when you could expect the greatest gear in every product category to roll out at CES. The best laptops. The best TVs. The best mobile phones. But that time has passed us by. Production cycles are faster. Companies do their own things. CES is not the same show it once was.
The lion's share of new laptop releases came out shortly after Windows 8 shipped in October. Most of the new phones we'll see for the year will be announced next month at Mobile World Congress. Apple and Microsoft and Google and Amazon make their own news, at their own events, in their own time.
Some have argued this means CES 2013 was a disappointment, or that the show has lost its way. Maybe so. But the fact is there was still a heck of a lot of wondrous new gadgetry to see at CES. Some of it is stuff that isn't even shipping yet. In fact, some of our favorite things were the wildest and the least likely to actually see production this year.
If you want to know what this year's CES was about, it was about the end, and the beginning. It's the end of the era of Microsoft and Sony. It's the beginning of the rise of Chinese companies like Hisense, Huawei, Haier, and TCL. It's the year that some of the best products came out of startups, and even Kickstarter. This is the CES of the future, and we love it. And here are a few of our favorite things.
The Coolest Thing We've Ever Put on Our Face: Oculus Rift
If you're of a certain age, you remember the first time you sat down at a computer terminal, opened a browser, and tried the World Wide Web. It was a before and after moment. Although Usenet and other internet communications technologies had been around for years, the web was instantly recognizable as something new and powerful and different that built on all that had come before.
And so is it with the Oculus Rift. Put these VR goggles on your face, and you feel as if you are within another world in a way that's never been possible before -- at least not in a consumer product. Video tracks so smoothly, quickly and seamlessly that you soon forget you are looking at a world of bits. Tilting your head from side to side moves the display in a natural manner -- which is to say up is still up, but your perception changes. Move quickly and your view changes in real time. And because they are light and natural feeling on the face, you soon forget everything other than the world you have stepped into. For now, we only have a prototype -- a teasing glimpse of the future. But it's a future so powerful and so revolutionary that even this gaffer-taped box, with a headband plucked from a pair of ski goggles, was more impressive than the ultra-refined polish of any tablet or smartphone or even 4K TV we saw on display at CES. -- Mat Honan
The Shooter We Want to Stick in Our Messenger Bag: Fujifilm X100S
The retro-styled Fujifilm X100S compact camera doesn't have Wi-Fi, Android or even an interchangeable lens. Instead of piling on the "extra" features, Fuji kept things on the simple side, and concentrated on making a super-badass piece of machinery.
For photographers seeking a balance between the quality of a bulky DSLR and the convenience of a smartphone, the X100S is a slow pitch down the middle of the strike zone. The compact case is light and pocket-friendly, and it oozes more retro cool than a '72 Mustang. Its APSC 16-megapixel CMOS X-TRANS II sensor captures absolutely gorgeous images, and its EXR Processor II is insanely quick. Fuji claims the camera's phase-detection Auto Focus is the fastest in the world (0.08 seconds). Throw in RAW six-frame-per-second shutter blasts and the camera becomes the go-to compact rangefinder for capturing moments you would miss with a smartphone. And, to be honest, almost every other camera on the market.
Throw in a 22mm f/2 fixed focal lens, HD movie recording, and a digital and range-optical viewfinder (perfect for the purists) with digital spit image, and the X100S is a slam dunk. Just don't let your beloved Leica see it. It might get jealous. -- Roberto Baldwin
The Body Monitor That Does the Most: Withings Smart Activity Tracker
Keeping up with the all the activity trackers at CES was an activity unto itself. Do you want a band on your wrist? A device you shove in your pocket? Something from a startup or an established company? This year, the health-minded monitoring device with the most promise was the eight-gram Withings Smart Activity Tracker.
Withings' tiny, chip-like widget is crammed with features. In addition to the requisite step counter, calorie tracker and Bluetooth-connected smartphone app (iOS and Android), the Smart Activity Tracker measures your resting heart rate -- an important metric in judging your fitness. All of your activity information is gathered by the app, and if you happen to be taking it easy when you should be moving, the Smart Activity Tracker alerts you of your lazy ways.
While we're excited about the Basis watch, also an activity tracker, first generation devices like these are prone to usability issues (i.e. Jawbone Up). Withings has been tracking you for years with its smart scales. Now, it'll know what you're up to outside the restroom. -- Roberto Baldwin
The Wickedest Tablet of Them All: Razer Edge
While there were dozens of Android and Windows tablets on display at CES, it was the Razer Edge that grabbed our attention. Though exuberantly priced with a base cost of $1,000 (and up to $1,300), this gaming-centric tablet is still the one to beat.
True to the Razer pedigree, the Edge has almost too much power packed inside -- though there's hardly such a thing as "too much" when it comes to the hardcore gaming set.
Choose between Intel's Core i5 or Core i7 CPU, and pair it with Nvidia's GeForce GT 640M graphics processor and 8GB of RAM. That's some serious beef. The 10.1-inch 1,366 x 768-pixel display looks fantastic, and HDMI ports allow you to hook the Edge up to a TV, bringing all your PC games to the big screen. There's a Game Pad Controller case, which adds full controller-style buttons, triggers and joysticks to the left and right of the tablet -- another gamer perk. And, if you need to do a bit of work, Razer has also built a keyboard case that props the Edge up like a laptop display -- or a Surface tablet.
In a show that's filled with more-of-the-same, there was truly nothing quite like the powerful and sleek Razer Edge. -- Nathan Olivarez-Giles
The Thing We Most Want to Rub: Tactus Technology Tactile Touchscreen
Tactus Technology has created a haptic touchscreen panel that "rises" to create a three-dimensional keyboard. Writing an e-mail on your tablet? Individual letter keys form small bumps for easier typing. When you're done, the keyboard reverts back to a standard, flat touchscreen.
While Tactus Technology isn't making any devices of its own, it's easy to see the appeal of having such a panel on mainstream gadgets like smartphones, tablets, and gaming devices. The company is taking a now commonplace experience -- typing on a flat screen -- and making it a more natural, physical interaction. And it does so without sacrificing the rest of the touchscreen experience.
Even cooler is the fact that the Tactus Technology panels can be configured to do more than just rise up into a physical keyboard. Companies can customize the panel for different types of buttons, say for example, the buttons on a TV remote or buttons for specific tablet games. The possibilities for the panel are varied. Plus, seeing the buttons lift up, seemingly out of nowhere, is downright magical. -- Alexandra Chang
On Our Shopping List: Samsung T9000 Four-Door Refrigerator
Samsung's T9000 smart fridge didn't necessarily wow anybody when it was announced in the company's press event. But when we saw it up close, we were definitely impressed. The built-in 10-inch tablet, the brain of the appliance, is fun to play with and comes packed with apps. If you're a neat freak, the on-board software can definitely help you keep your fridge organized.
More unique and appealing is the fact that the fridge has a dual-purpose compartment that can change from fridge to freezer and vice versa, making for one flexible food preserver. The Samsung T9000 also features a triple cooling system -- with two compressors, three evaporators and a set of sensors -- so that produce kept in the fresh food compartments stays fresher, longer.
We'd love to have one of these in our homes even though we'd have to pay out the nose for one. The T9000 will cost around $4,000 when it's available in late spring. --Alexandra Chang
The Only Truly Exciting New Idea in TV: Samsung Curved OLED Panel
One of the most eye-catching electronics on display at this year's CES, standing out even among a sea of HDTVs, was Samsung's OLED TV with a curved panel. The semi-circular shape is designed to provide a more immersive, panoramic experience than a traditional flat panel set, and also provide a wider viewing angle. Indeed, the picture quality was impressive and had a lot of depth. The curved aesthetic is subtle, and the design of the case is mysterious and drool-worthy.
Pricing and release information are still TBD on this 55-inch beauty, a "world's first," according to Samsung. (Of course, LG said that same thing about its curved OLED, too, which was also on display. But the Samsung? It was prettier.) -- Christina Bonnington
The Best Thing to Happen to Android Gaming: Nvidia Project Shield
Nvidia's Project Shield is the best gaming gadget we saw at CES 2013. It's a device perfectly suited for the transition currently taking place in mobile gaming, which is growing from a casual sideshow to an experience that's nearly as compelling and immersive as what's offered on home consoles. Our pick for 2012's game of the year, Telltale Games' The Walking Dead, is a testament to this evolution. It was essentially the same game on a tablet as it was on an Xbox -- except for the controls. Shield, which made it's debut at CES 2013, is a device built for a new paradigm, with its powerful Tegra 4 processor, a 5-inch, 720p touchscreen, and console-quality controls. To top it all off, Shield can also stream video games from your PC, as long as your PC has one of Nvidia's newer GTX graphics cards installed. If you have an extra HDMI cable lying around, you can hook Shield to you HDTV too -- bringing Windows and Steam games from your PC to your TV.
I spent some time with a prototype of Project Shield at CES in Las Vegas, playing both Android games and PC games, and the experience was outstanding. The potential is clear. Nvidia has delivered hardware that's bringing some of the best of console and mobile gaming to one device. But to deliver on this promise, developers will need to do their part by making games that utilize Shield's gamepad. Nvidia will also need to launch Shield at the right price -- somewhere in line with the $200 Kindle Fire HD and Nexus 7 tablets. Despite these lingering questions, Shield wowed us mostly because it's one of the first hybrid devices of this type that doesn't suck. In fact, I couldn't put it down. -- Nathan Olivarez-Giles
We've Got Our Eyes on This: Tobii Gaze
Capacitive touch-based input revolutionized computing in the 2000s, but the next generation of desktop and mobile products will rely on a new form of interaction: eye tracking.
Tobii, a pioneer in this field, demonstrated a prototype of its eye-tracking technology at CES 2012, and then polished it to perfection for this year's show.
The system, available for developers now and in consumer products in the fall, lets you use your eyes as the mouse pointer. Your eye movements are matched to keyboard taps to do things like select or scroll through onscreen items. The result is a super-fast, seamless way to navigate computer interfaces. The Tobii Gaze demo we saw was powering a Windows 8 computer. It wowed us, not only with the polish and precision of the technology, but also by displaying its potential for enabling digital experiences for those with limited mobility. -- Christina Bonnington
Photo: Christina Bonnington/Wired


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Tornado-Ravaged Texas Town to Start Recovery
Residents whose homes were torn apart or blown away by a North Texas deadly tornado will soon be allowed to return to retrieve what belongings may be left and start cleaning up.
The Hood County Sheriff says residents of Rancho Brazos Estates in Granbury will be able to go back in to survey things starting Saturday morning.
The neighborhood was the hardest hit by Wednesday night's EF-4 tornado, with winds between 166 and 200 mph. Workers are trying to restore water service, raise electrical lines and clear debris piles.
Gov. Rick Perry toured Granbury, which bore the brunt of the damage during an outbreak of 16 tornadoes across North Texas. Perry said the devastation is almost incomprehensible.
Earlier Friday, the Hood County Sheriff's Office said the death toll is unlikely to change, as those who were reported missing were with relatives or friends and are safe. Six people were killed.
(Copyright 2013 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)


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By Scott DiSavino
(Reuters) - The New York State-owned Long Island Power Authority said Monday it expects to restore power to most of those able to receive service by the end of Tuesday.
Some 56,000 homes and businesses remained without service Monday afternoon, two weeks after Hurricane Sandy battered the region.
Of the 56,000 still out, LIPA said about 13,000 were in Nassau and Suffolk Counties on New York's Long Island, outside the area flooded by Sandy.
In the flood zone, however, LIPA said up to 17,500 customers in Nassau and Suffolk and 29,000 in the Rockaways in New York City were unable to receive power safely. That is because severe flooding may have damaged electrical panels, wires, outlets and appliances, making it unsafe to restore service.
LIPA said it would restore power to the flood zone homes and businesses after the customers hire licensed electricians to repair the water damage and produce an electrical inspection certificate.
Other hard-hit utilities in the area -- Consolidated Edison Inc in New York and units of Public Service Enterprise Group Inc and FirstEnergy Corp in New Jersey -- restored service to almost all customers over the weekend.
But Sandy hit LIPA harder than any other power company, knocking out more than 1 million of its 1.1 million customers, while a nor'easter storm last week knocked out 123,000 more customers - thousands of whom had had power restored after Sandy.
Combined, Sandy and the nor'easter knocked out more homes and businesses on Long Island than LIPA has customers.
Despite the hard hit, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has attacked all of the affected New York power companies -- especially LIPA -- for the slow pace of restoration.
Once restoration is complete, LIPA said customers would continue to see a large number of line and tree crews over the coming weeks making permanent and temporary repairs.
Sandy left about 8.5 million electric customers without service in 21 states after hitting the New Jersey coast on October 29.
(Reporting by Scott DiSavino; editing by Sofina Mirza-Reid and Dan Grebler)


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Brewers can show their stuff as well as winemakers, writes Don Kavanagh.
I've been lucky enough to get to two beer festivals on consecutive weekends, a situation as close to heaven as I can imagine.
They were very different festivals. One was an entirely craft event and the other contained a little bit of everything.
The Marchfest event was held in Nelson's Founder's Heritage Park, as cool a venue as you could imagine. Set among a mini-village of old-time shops, houses and stables, 14 local (and local-ish) breweries served brews made specially for the event, all with their own special flavour.
From Peckham's quince-laced Aphrodite Cider to the marmalade and toast of the Mussel Inn's Paddington Bear breakfast beer, there was innovation, cleverness, skill and, above all, flavour in every glass.
The weather was hideous, which was a surprise given Nelson's cherished claim to being one of the sunniest places in the country, but 4000 people decided that rain wasn't going to hurt them and set out to have a great time.
And it was a great time and the food excellent. The music was a bit much at times, but at least it wasn't drab barbecue reggae. The behaviour of the crowd was exemplary. Not a voice raised in anger, despite the presence of some biggish beers and an almost invisible security force. I think the organisers deserve a pat on the back for such a great festival.
The Auckland Beer Festival was a different beast entirely. Around 25 breweries were represented so it wasn't a solely craft event and attracted big names such as Mac's, Monteith's and Carlsberg.
There were some very good beers on show, including craft favourites such as Epic and Yeastie Boys as well as less-well known brews such as the 1010 beers from the Sale Street bar and Invercargill Brewery's mighty Boysenbeery.
It was a much better day weatherwise, but the unrelenting crowds that packed into the Cloud meant a 40-minute wait for a beer at some stands, which tends to take the edge off the day.
It was oddly disjointed, too, the frenetic crowd jostling inside contrasting with a laid-back outside area.
Despite those quibbles, it's great to see decent festivals in New Zealand and doubly encouraging to see that beer can put on a show just as well, if not better, than wine can.
Keep up the good work.


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A New Lie
Twilight/HP crossover This is the sequel to A New Start but you don't have to read that to understand this. Hello! Have you ever had you boyfriend cheat on you, find out your parents are dead then find out that you aren't who you thought you were for your entire life? All on the same day? Chances are you answer is no. Mine is yes. And adding Draco Malfoy into the mix doesn't make a good time for me. My name is Hermione Granger.
I do NOT own any twilight or harry potter characters or anything that is similar to either of those two books. Alice is my AWESOME beta for this story too and i need your opinion as to if i should continue the Alice Funnies from A New Start or not.
1. It isn't a surprise
Rating 5/5 Word Count 609 Review this Chapter
A New Lie
Sequel to A New Start
Chapter 1
I reread the letter not believing what I was reading but knowing it was true.
I was Head Girl.
After I had my fill of jumping and screaming I wrote to my three best friends, Harry, Ginny and Ginny's brother/my boyfriend Ron, and told them the good news. Then I was off to Diagon Alley to buy new robes, an owl (my parent's gift to me for becoming head girl along with a specialized bottle of perfume), and my new books.
I had just walked out of the shop with my new robes when I bumped into someone.
"Granger," the blonde boy smirked.
"Ferret," I repeated to my sworn enemy. He frowned, obviously remembering the embarrassing events that led to the nickname, then walked away.
I finished my shopping and Flooed back home to find a second letter from Hogwarts.
Dear Ms. Hermione Granger,
I have contemplated your idea to start a gymnastics team here at Hogwarts. The other teachers and I think that that is a brilliant idea to unite the houses in another friendly sport. Tryouts are on the second day of school. I hope that you will try out and be a good example to the other students.
Albus Dumbledore
Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Wizardry
I smiled because I had been learning gymnastics, along with driving when I was old enough and muggle classes, during the summer and I enjoyed in greatly. I wanted to be able to do it at school without having to sneak around after curfew to go to the Room of Requirement to practice so I talked to Dumbledore about it. I started to pack my new school robes, a simple purple dress for school occasions, my quills and parchment, all of my books, my gymnastics things: practice uniform, competition uniform, chalk…, and other necessities the raced down for dinner without my parent. They were still in Australia, we still owled each other, where I had sent them to escape the war that had happened last year.
I got to sleep after an hour of thinking about the new school year.
Platform 9 ¾
"Hermione!' yelled Ginny as she ran up to me with Harry and Ron tailing her.
"Hi guys," I calmly said from within the group hug.
"I can't believe…wait actually I can believe that you are Head Girl. I love your outfit by the way." I laughed at Ginny's dramatic change in subject as she looked over my dark form fitting jeans, v-neck elbow length purple shirt with a light pink camisole underneath and a pair of high heel black boots. My style had definitely changed for the better over the summer.
"It really isn't a surprise," Harry commented bringing me back into the present, "I just can't figure out who Head Boy is." He was right. There were so many smart and capable guys that I couldn't even narrow it down to 10.
"I missed you 'Mione," said Ron. Everybody laughed at him. "What?" he countered.
"We better get going. Don't forget to visit us on the train," Harry said breaking the awkward silence. We all boarded the train and headed our separate ways. I walked into the empty Heads cabin and started to read a Muggle book, my parents had sent me for my birthday last year, when I heard the door close. I looked up and gasped as I saw who Head Boy was.
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- Danceinggirl109
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Can we really trust them not to "be evil" here? I'm personally suspicious of any company trying to stockpile patents...
If I've learned anything about mobile hardware, it's that it's a mine field of litigation and patents. Often the biggest complaint I hear about Android and Google is that they don't have enough patents to fight off the big guys of the mobile world - likely this is to resolve that situation.
Compared to the alternatives I still would trust them more then the others. I guess I'm from the generation that still remembers Google as the ones that, in a way, saved the Internet from itself. Without a good reliable search engine the Internet is pretty useless - Google fixed that by not allowing better rankings by paying more $$$. They proved you don't have to pull crap like that to make money. With that said Google is a company - no company should be 100% trusted, but so far I haven't been burned by them.
The biggest complaint I've heard is that Google sells my information. Well, let's see.. I use Google.com, and I use an Android phone. So far nobodys broken my legs. I haven't received excessive spam (Well, maybe, but GMail does a good job of blocking them if I have), nobody calls my phone asking to sell me stuff. So far all I've seen are... local ad's when searching. I am ok with that.
Depends. One of the things with these patents is that Microsoft cross licensed them. The rest is just what I have heard so take it with a grain of salt. They did a cross licenses deal in perpetuity. with Nortel. If that is true and it transfers to Google then Microsofts attacks on Android based on patents could come to a screeching halt.
So is that good? Well for a lot of Android users it is and for companies that are using android it is. For Microsoft and it's share holders it is evil. For Google shareholde
I don't think MS are suing Google, they are suing Android handset manufacturers.
Over Android. They say it infringes. After this purchase that may not be the case any longer.
Isn't it a sign of a broken system when a company can sue the customers for buying a product that infringes without suing the company that makes the product?
Do the handset manufacturers buy Android? Isn't it free to use, other than the trademark which has some requirements to qualify for?
$900M is less than what the last 3 CEO's of Nortel walked out the door with in salaries and benefits. We really really need a corporate revolution where executives are not rewarded in ridiculous amounts.
John Roth pocketed $100M in 2000.
If CEO's get options they should be at only a slight discount on the current stock price and not execisable for 20 years. Long term value is what is needed. Not short term decisions which strip assets and long term strength in trade for short term magic accounting numbers.
I think the system is working here. Companies that make smart decisions survive. Companies like Nortel that pay zillions of dollars to people running the company into the ground do not survive.
Corollary - investors who put faith in good companies are rewarded. investors who do not are not.
Corollary - investors who put faith in good companies are rewarded. investors who do not are not.
The problem is that many of these investors did not have much choice, they were simply working for Nortel and their pension was in company stock. If I work for a company and get a company pension I have very little choice how that is invested on my behalf. Some of these people losing out have probably worked 20 or 30 years thinking their retirement was covered and have just discovered they are redundant and also looking forward to a pennyless old age.
Actually not quite pennyless, but capped at £28,000
The problem is that many of these investors did not have much choice, they were simply working for Nortel and their pension was in company stock.
Does anybody else think this is a very bad idea? Investments should always be diverse, and if you are going to invest everything in one company the company you work for seems a particularly bad choice.
What were the trustees thinking? (There were trustees, I hope? The US isn't daft enough to let companies manage their employee's pension schemes themselves?)
Perhaps the company should structure the contract that way?
Meh. All money is funny money anyway. If you believe otherwise, you need to read up on fractional reserve banking.
Stocks, dollar bills, government bonds... none of these hold any intrinsic value, and thus all of them can become worthless with a stroke of the pen.
I think the system is working here. Companies that make smart decisions survive. Companies like Nortel that pay zillions of dollars to people running the company into the ground do not survive.
Is that sarcasm? You surely have not missed that those running the company to the ground and those that decided their pay were the same people? It is the common worker at such a company that suffers the consequences of the bad decisions taken by the good folks with the golden parachutes. The system is not working at all!
The system is working exactly as it should. You are mistaken in what way the system is designed to work.
The people profiting are the ones in control of the system and implementing it. If you think this was not their intention you are very naive.
It's too bad the employee get screwed along the way. I don't feel as bad for shareholders, but I do have some sympathy for them. The investors akin to speculators. I know some of those investors are people in a mutual fund who don't know a stock from a bond, but they're there because some other knownothing told them to buy a mutual fund share. Plus, they can't read the minds of the megalomaniacs who are the execs that are running the company into the ground and still walking away rich as if they had BUILT a
Dang. Meant to say:
They DON'T get a dime for their efforts.
Even better for the employee is that they are going to be working for the same CEOs again at another company.
The employees OTOH have put a lot more equity into the company than an investor.
Well that was a pretty dumb thing to do.
This is why that every CEO that deliberately drives a company into the ground should be tied up and shot by the workers. Because he deserves it. Golden parachutes are worthless if you can't spend it. Maybe that will put some incentive into running a company correctly. Because as it is, there is no incentive.
I'm gonna go long pitchfork futures.
What does the "common" worker bring, outside of common skills that millions of others can bring?
If the best you can do is press a button over and over, you shouldn't feel too down about not really getting the big bucks. I know, I know... on populist Slashdot, we're all for the workers revolution. It's never worked before, but hope springs eternal in the mind of the middle class.
yes, dumb companies do not survive, but on the way out, they destroy the economic lives of many fine upstanding workers. In this sense, the system is not working at all for them.
If CEO's get options they should be at only a slight discount on the current stock price and not execisable for 20 years. Long term value is what is needed. Not short term decisions which strip assets and long term strength in trade for short term magic accounting numbers.
The very idea of giving stock options to high level executives is antithetical to the purpose of retaining quality executives who will make good decisions for the benefit of the company.
Options given in addition to other forms of compensation are basically bribes, and as such necessarily pointless. The person who will provide an honest day's work for an honest day's pay will not be persuaded to be any more 'honest' as a consequence. The person who insists on extra benefit above salary will always want mor
The very idea of giving stock options to high level executives is antithetical to the purpose of retaining quality executives who will make good decisions for the benefit of the company.
Huh? If you're an exec with 100K options in Company X it's in your interest to make good decisions which in turn drive up the share value. If an exec makes bad decisions that drive down share value, it hurts *them* in the wallet. This is exactly what you want to see...
Huh? If you're an exec with 100K options in Company X it's in your interest to make good decisions which in turn drive up the share value.
If, by "good decisions," you mean illegally cooking the books to show greater profits than actually exist. That's exactly what happened at Nortel, and it was driven by executive compensation incentives. Of course, the ultimate result of those "good decisions" was the failure of the company.
Is it your contention that you've described the norm, or do you realize that was an exceptional case?
Don't get me started on Nortel... oh, too late...
Not when the CEO/CFO inflate the numbers to drive up the price, so that they can exercise their options before the truth came out and the price sinks. The last jackass^H^H^H^H^H^H^H CEO that Nortel had, "negotiated" a pension that if he worked there for 5 years would guarantee him a retirement salary of $500,000, and if he should die first, his wife would get $350,000. This was on top of the $27 million they had to pay him, so that he could pay his Motorola
Your mistaken, it is only in the person's interest to drive up the stock in the short term as high as possible to cash in, if it screws the company, oh well, he got his money.
The cult of the stock option is a cargo cult. The lavish compensation package doesn't create a good CEO any more than building a runway will create planes.
Oooh, an aviation analogy instead of automotive. Very nice.
Lavish compensation will not create a good CEO. Very true. It will, however, reward (when that compensation is in options) one that works to keep the stock prices high. Just as you don't create planes by building a runway. If you build a very large and expensive runway, however, you will attract large and expensive airplanes, the owners of which are more likely to spend a lot of money at your airport.
A 1700 foot grass strip is good for Cessna 150-
A good option (for the employees and regular investors) would allow the CEO to buy that $1/share option only if the share price is over $2/share, and only if it has been over $2/share for the last twelve successive quarters (or over $3/share for the last ten, or over $4/share for the last eight).
Any CEO in the job for the good of the company should readily agree to that.
How about if the CEO can exercise it whenever he wants but he can't sell the stock for 10 years after he buys it.
I think that makes them, as "options", worthless. The CEO has to invest his own money to buy the stock (rather than have the money fronted by his broker as is done in a single-day sale), and then hold it for what could be the length of typical employment. It would make more sense for him to execute immediately if he wanted to stick with the company for ten years, which is no different than him simply buying the same number of shares on the open market (assuming he wasn't getting some sort of look-back dea
I understand how stock options work.
And no, I don't believe just building a runway, no matter how long, will attract jumbo jets, unless there is some other attraction in the area and the jet and runway are just means to that end.
Perhaps a better analogy are the recent studies in paying students for performance.
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1978589,00.html [time.com]
The result of paying students for good grades? Basically, it doesn't work. Why? Because if you don't know what you need to do to get go
Long term value is what is needed. Not short term decisions which strip assets and long term strength in trade for short term magic accounting numbers.
Yea, I have considered stock price based compensation fundamentally flawed for a while now.
Remuneration for Company Officers
I can hear the squeals from here...
Right now corporate executives of large companies are paid very large salaries with even larger bonuses, bonuses that they seem to get even as they waddle up to the trough for a government bailout.
There is no incentive to think beyond the next quarter, or at most, next bonus period. I watched an interview on one of the news documentary shows where an official admitted he knew the bubble would burst, but was going to make money as long as he
Why? Seriously, why? The shareholders vote the board, the board votes the salary. Who's hurt here? We're not even talking banks here, but every corporation down to little mom-pop run ones where the shareholders are family. Who cares what the CEO makes? You wanna pay less, buy stock, and vote to pay less.
But, you say, rich shareholders put in rich friends, and everyone votes everyone else up. Well... yeah. Cause they OWN the company. If I own a company, I'll pay myself whatever I please, tyvm.
The rich shareholders don't "own" the company. They control the company. There are many other investors whose interests are ignored.
It does not exist to provide you with a steady flow of warm fresh milk poured into your mouth. It is thousands of other men and women looking to take money out of your pocket and put it into their own.
- Alexander Elder.
If you don't like those terms, then don't play the mother-fucking stock market. Get a life and go put your money elsewhere. If you're a Nortel pensioner, or some stupid ass pension fund who bought Nortel stock, then you ought to be smart enough to know that bondholders get paid out from [w
And beyond that, the majority shareholders of Nortel allowed the executives to take out loans from creditors, presumably because they thought it might save the company. The board could have just as easily prevented the company from going into debt, and instead liquidated it while it was still in the black so the shareholders would get something. But they didn't, and it is only fair now that the creditors get paid before them.
Pensions on the other hand
Great. This comes out on election day... when the once bright star of Canadian high-tech companies is sold in pieces to various non-Canadian interests.
(trying to be as non-political about it...)
Yeah well nortel tanked pretty hard on their own stupidity. Much like how BCE is doing.
Unfortunately, that's why we call it "bankruptcy."
By lumping them together in discussions where the details don't matter, you avoid worrying about details that don't matter. I know the holy book of RMS says you have to fight this wherever you found it, but that war is lost. The world isn't getting rid of intellectual property anytime soon, no matter how amazingly utopian you're sure it will be.
A frequent comment here on Slashdot is that patents should not be transferable or that a company should not be allowed to own a patent covering technology that it did not invent or that a company shouldn't be able to own a patent covering technology that it doesn't intend to use. Here, Google is doing all of these things, since no doubt at least some of the patents cover technologies that Google will never put into practice.
Many licensing-focused non-practicing entities got their patents from bankruptcy sa
company should not be allowed to own a patent covering technology that it did not invent
Companies do not invent anything. Employees at companies invent things. The employees assign the patent to the companies. If you remove the ability to assign a patent, invention stops. OK, not all invention, but the invention that people are paid to do, which is probably not much more than 99% of all invention.
Companies do not invent anything. Employees at companies invent things. The employees assign the patent to the companies.
I'm aware of this, but the distinction was not particularly important in this case. Furthermore, most of the world outside the US does not take that approach. In Europe, for example, the company is the applicant, not the inventing employee.
Do you think paid legislators wouldn't enact a law to unlock the value of patents from escaping wealthy interests?
Recent investments will yield a slight profit.


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The Softer Side of Ultrarunning (anything beyond 26 miles) ...philosophy...politics...other stuff
Friday, November 5, 2010
Grave Still Empty...and Ultrarunning
Couple Fridays ago, while I was running thru the tail of Halley's Comet (see my post here), I looped thru the cemetery to pause at her grave.
It is still empty, as evidenced by the weeds and grass growing on the bare earth uncovered from the disinterment this summer. I've been placing flowers there whenever I pass by. Last Friday's flowers were Chicory, a tough roadside flower with a lovely blue color.
As when I previously posted, I'm not sure of the point here; the whole situation at once seems necessary and sad and bittersweet. But I keep being drawn back, as though writing about Janet--whom I did not know, neither do I know her family--seems like something I should be doing. So I do.
Thoughts of immortality frequently are on my mind as I run. And that sheer time to ponder is one of the totally underrated aspects of Ultrarunning. Most people in their lives simply do not have hours-long blocks of time in which to think about as much--or as little--as you wish. During my time on roads or trails, I can examine an issue, toss it about, leave it to focus on the now of the trail (footing, animals, water, whatever), later come back to it....
I think that aspect, more than any other, may be the real reason I run long.
2 comments:
Thank you for caring about Janet and leaving flowers. She has been re-interred, though; the court order only allowed a limited time before the casket was to be returned to the ground.ReplyDelete
You are right. I just called the local newspaper reporter who covered this story, and he said the judge had stipulated a 48 hour turnaround.ReplyDelete
I had assumed the process would take some weeks. With the drought we had in Jul-Aug this summer, when I first saw her grave, it was still bare as no grass had regrown (unbeknownst to me, Janet's body had been exhumed and already reinterred).
Assuming the forensic process was still underway, I just figured I'd see a new disturbance of the ground once the forensic folks were done. Well, the grave never was re-disturbed this fall so I posted as though things were really dragging out. My mistake, and thanks for pointing that out.
By the way, I Googled Janet's name last week to try to establish a date for her reburial. I was astonished to learn that this story had been covered on national TV (ABC News, I think). All I was responding to initially was a short, tragic, local (I thought) story in my hometown paper since the grave was quite close to my home. That explains, I think, why I got several comments to my posts on my tiny blog.
All that said, I will continue to leave wildflowers whenever I run by.


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GAFFNEY, S.C. – The Cobras forced 18 turnovers leading to 28 points as Coker rolled past Limestone College 76-53 on Monday night in Conference Carolinas men's basketball action. The win is Coker's third in a row moving them into a tie for fifth in the conference standings, while the loss is just the second in the conference for the Saints dropping them to second in the conference standings.
Holding a narrow 27-25 lead with 4:19 remaining in the first half, Coker put together a massive 41-18 run that stretched deep into the second half as they took a 68-43 lead with 7:47 to play. The Saints would get to within 68-49 with 4:47 to go but would get no closer as the Cobras ran out the clock to come away with the 76-53 victory.
Coker controlled much of the first half of play as they raced out to a lead of 19-13 with 8:57 remaining before a 5-2 rally by the Saints narrowed the gap to 21-18. They would keep the game close over the next several minutes as the Cobras managed only a 27-22 lead at the 4:35 mark. A Saints three-pointer pulled Limestone to within two points but that would be as close as they would get for the rest of the game.
Junior guard Delonte Doles (Roswell, Ga.) finished with a game-high 22 points and added five assists to lead the Cobras while senior guard Tom Wright (Sydney, Australia) had a solid all-around game with 14 points, five boards, four steals and a pair of assists. Senior forward Liam Kyle (Cleveland, Ohio) added 10 points and a game-high seven rebounds and senior guard Joselle Bracy (Ruby, S.C.) finished with eight points and a game-high five steals.
Danny Friend led the Saints attack with 11 points, seven boards and three blocks and forward Jarrell Douglass finished with 14 points, five boards and three assists. Ashton Ford added nine points on three three-pointers while guard Stewart Clark chipped in with three assists.
Coker will return to the floor on Friday, February 11 when they travel to Charlotte, N.C. to play at the Charlotte Bobcats


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Nearly a dozen years after terrorists guided commercial jets into the Pentagon and the World Trade Center, the prosecution of the alleged masterminds of the 9/11 attacks continues to be plagued by bizarre incidents that have threatened to derail the proceedings at Guantanamo Bay.
Now, some observers are beginning to question whether a series of seemingly embarrassing gaffes might instead be part of a strategic plan by the Obama administration to shutter the military prison at Gitmo.
"Perhaps I'm wrong, but there are too many fiascos in too short an order to be the result of random chance," said Air Force Col. Morris Davis, who for two years served as chief prosecutor of the military commissions at Guantanamo.
First there was the revelation in late January that an"invisible hand" was secretly monitoring and censoring the pre-trial hearings of five men accused of conspiring in the 9/11 attacks.
Then there was the discovery soon after that a listening device, disguised to look like a smoke detector, was placed inside meeting rooms at Guantanamo, where lawyers conferred with the prisoners.
The strange turn of events have taken place against the backdrop of a three-month old hunger strike at the prison that turned violent Saturday when guards staged a predawn raid at the communal camp and isolated prisoners into single cells in an attempt to bring an end to the protest.
Just when it seemed the chaotic sideshow surrounding the military tribunals had come to an end, half a million privileged e-mails fell into unauthorized hands, and at least seven gigabytes of defense documents in government computers have vanished, days before the war crimes hearings were scheduled to resume.
Air Force Col. Karen Mayberry, the chief defense counsel in the Office of Military Commissions, issued an order late Wednesday instructing all military and civilian defense attorneys in her office to immediately cease using their government-issued computers to conduct legal work on their cases.
"This measure was taken as the [chief defense counsel] has determined that the integrity of these systems is not sufficient to ensure that we safeguard confidential and privileged materials, as it is our ethical duty to do," Navy Cmdr. Walter Ruiz, lawyer for Mustafa Ahmed al-Hawsawi, one of the five 9/11 suspects on trial, said in an e-mail sent to reporters."This follows on the heels of the seizure of over 500,000 emails containing attorney-client privileged communications, as well as the loss of a significant amount of defense work-product contained in shared folders. The effect is that this essentially cripples our ability to operate."
The incident has resulted in a two-month delay in hearings that were set to begin today [April 15] for Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, the alleged mastermind behind the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole.
It is likely Army Col. James Pohl, who granted a defense motion to pause the hearings in al-Nashiri's case, will do the same in the case of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other accused 9/11 plotters, whose attorneys filed a handwritten emergency motion on Friday seeking a temporary halt to the proceedings, scheduled to begin April 22.
Colonel Davis believes the embarrassing turn of events is no coincidence. In addition to the growing list of gaffes at Gitmo, he said:
- Gen. John Kelly, commander of the US Southern Command, told a financially-strapped Congress he needs a quarter-billion dollars for Gitmo renovations on top of the hundred-plus millions in yearly operating expenses.
- Osama bin Laden's son-in-law, Abu Ghaith, was taken to New York for detention and trial in federal court, instead of being sent to Guantanamo.
"I believe it is all part of a plan to tamp down outrage when President Obama announces that he's closing Gitmo, sending the majority of the detainees already cleared for transfer home, bringing the rest to the US and prosecuting them in federal courts," said Davis, who helped write parts of the 2006 Military Commissions Act passed by Congress, and has since become a vocal critic of the use of the system to prosecute terrorism suspects.
"I suspect they are painting the picture to show it's taken too long, and there's no end in sight; it's too fatally flawed to save; it creates too much damage to our standing in the eyes of our allies and enemies alike; and it costs too much money at a time when money is tight to continue trying to spit-shine the Gitmo cow-pile in hopes that someday it will shine up nice and look pretty," he said.
The White House declined to offer up a response to Davis' theory and instead pointed Truthout to comments White House press secretary Jay Carney made during a press briefing on Thursday in which he told reporters,"The President remains committed to closing Gitmo for national security reasons."
Monitoring, a War Crimes Appeal and an E-mail Breach
Whatever the politics, attorneys defending terrorism suspects facing war crimes charges aren't playing along.
"The theme is incredible," said James Connell, an attorney for Ammar al Baluchi, one of the 9/11 accused, referring to recurring efforts to undermine defendants' cases, in an interview with Truthout. "The breach of "e-mails were the only place left."
The defense lawyers said the breach of their confidential e-mails is part of a larger problem: the "blanket" monitoring of their electronic communications that dates back many years. In October 2011, Al-Nashiri's defense team filed a motion requesting that the military commissions judge order the Department of Defense to cease its ongoing monitoring of defense counsel's confidential use of information technology and communications."
According to an Oct. 27, 2011 court document: "Due to a voluntary disclosure by the DOD to defense counsel a year ago, counsel became aware that the DOD conducts blanket monitoring of defense counsel's communications and information technology when conducted or routed through the government's network."
This blanket monitoring provided various government agents "unfettered access" to al-Nashiri's confidential electronic information" with little to no known oversight," the document said.
Richard Kammen, al-Nashiri's civilian defense attorney, told Truthout what came out of that hearing was a decision by the government that defense attorneys should use encryption to "protect confidences."
"The government called a witness who said our fears were vastly overstated," Kammen said."But it's been demonstrated over the last few weeks that our fears weren't overstated. It is really clear to us that the government has no conception of the need for confidentiality within the attorney-client relationship."
Connell, attorney for al-Baluchi, said defense lawyers received a"series of assurances over the years" from the government"that all of our information is secure and encrypted e-mails can't be read."
But,"system administrators get authority to read encrypted e-mails because the Department of Defense owns the encryption and public and private keys," he said. "The whole idea that [the 2011 hearing in] Nashiri resolved this issue is not true."
Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Todd Breasseale vehemently denied that prosecutors had read any of the defense attorneys' e-mails recently turned over to the government by information technology specialists under contract to the Department of Defense. He said prosecutors only saw"to" and"from" and"cc" lines.
"Our corps of military and civilian attorneys - both defense counsel and prosecution - follow the same protocols for ethics as every other ethical, reputable attorney," Breasseale told Truthout. "Purposely reading privileged mail is always unethical, and I cannot imagine a time when doing so wouldn't lead to disbarment." (When microphones were discovered in the meeting rooms at Guantanamo where lawyers meet with prisoners, military officials said they were never turned on.)
A review of court documents revealed that military prosecutors gained access to the defense attorneys' confidential e-mails last month while battling with Ibrahim al-Qosi's defense attorneys, who have laid the groundwork for an appeal of his war crimes conviction.
Al-Qosi was Osama bin Laden's cook. In 2010, he struck a deal with the government and pleaded guilty before a military commission to material support for terrorism and conspiracy charges, in exchange for a lighter sentence and a promise that he would become a cooperating witness. Al-Qosi was repatriated to Sudan last July after fulfilling the terms of his pre-trial agreement.
The government is trying to thwart al-Qosi's attempts to appeal his case, claiming he signed a waiver prior to his sentencing giving up his rights to challenge his conviction.
In February, military appeals court judges ordered Army Brig. Gen. Mark Martins, the chief prosecutor, and Navy Capt. Edward S. White, a government appellate attorney, to "produce copies of any communications, or records thereof, between the Government, and the Petitioner or any member of the Petitioner's trial defense team or Appellate Defense Counsel regarding waiver or withdrawal of appellate review, not otherwise included in the authenticated Record of Trial."
On March 29, al-Qosi's defense team asked the court to order the government to "immediately cease its searches" due to the fact that more than half-a-million defense attorneys' e-mails were turned over to prosecutors in the course of a search of files for responsive records about the waiver of appeal.
Highly critical news coverage of the email breach led Breasseale to disseminate a lengthy statement to reporters last week downplaying the gravity of what occurred and disparaging some journalists for relying upon "factually uninformed, third-party opinion."
But Ruiz, the defense attorney for al-Hawsawi, told Truthout no matter how the government spins it, the"blunders" are"colossal."
"They were conducting searches using attorneys' names as keywords," Ruiz said."I think it's just incredibly bad judgment. I don't' know what they were thinking. They obviously thought what they did was appropriate."
Breasseale said "no one has reviewed these e-mails, so we do not know if they include confidential material."
He said three separate searches in the al-Qosi case took place, and it was the third search that scooped up 540,000 defense attorneys' e-mails, which were turned over to a"privilege review team composed of attorneys" from the Defense Department's Office of General Counsel" who had no involvement in the Qosi case before the United States Court of Military Commission Review or the Cole and 9/11 trials."
Davis said the email breach is serious. Although he dealt with"lots of issues" during his tenure as chief prosecutor, none were "as fundamentally troubling as the government apparently having access to everything the defense compiles, writes or says."
"This isn't one of those gray areas where reasonable minds can debate whether something is right or wrong," Davis said. "Attorney-client privilege and the confidentiality of an accused's communications with his attorneys are core principles in countries that purport to adhere to the rule of law. From the start there's been the question of how much government information the defense is entitled to see, but now it's turned into a game where the government says 'you can't see our cards but we have the right to see yours.' That's a rigged game in cards and it's a rigged game in court."
Missing Files Too
Kammen, al-Nashiri's attorney, said he's willing to accept the government's explanation about how e-mails were scooped up, but the bigger mystery to him involves the disappearance of attorneys' legal files, which the government"is glossing over."
It started in mid-February, not long after the revelation at a tribunal hearing that the hidden microphone had been in place in meeting rooms at Guantanamo. Kammen said files just disappeared from the attorneys' computers and, in one case,"reappeared under a different file name."
"I have heard that at least one team has lost a file that represents 18 months of investigative effort," he said.
Ruiz said defense attorneys"have lost legal motion-type documents, drafts, outlines and correspondence."
"We have a network drive that we share," he said."Everyone on the team has access to the folder and we also have a personal folder. What we have seen is that when we go to our personal folder, half of it is missing."
Breasseale said it isn't just defense attorneys who suffered a massive loss of data. A "catastrophic server crash" wiped out nearly 400 gigabytes of data in the Office of Military Commissions that impacted prosecutors as well as the defense attorneys, he said.
The crash "affected not only the main server, but both of its back-up servers," Breasseale said.
Ruiz said defense attorney will face a difficult challenge trying to duplicate their work, and it will bring the military commissions to a crawl.
"I've been practicing law for 17 years, and I've never seen this type of indictment of the process," Ruiz said.
Kammen chalked up the fiasco to just"another example in which issues we are dealing with in military commissions are issues that would never arise in federal court."
"In the 35 death penalty cases I have been involved in, nothing improper like this has ever occurred," Kammen said. "This problem has to be fixed or the lawyers are going to be placed in an impossible position."
In the absence of shutting down the detention facility and abandoning "the legal charade called military commissions," Davis said, "at an absolute minimum, all of those outside of the respective defense teams who've had access to defense information should be barred from further participation in any capacity.


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Welcome to Your Backyard, the Estherville Daily News' newest feature.
This section of the paper will be a place to discuss what is happening in the outdoors in our community.
It is a place for local outdoorsmen and women to share stories and pictures of their proudest accomplishments in the great outdoors.
Did you take a camping trip recently? Let's hear about it!
Shoot the buck of a lifetime? Show it off!
Have an amazing wild game recipe? Share it!
This section is about you, for you and by you - the outdoors enthusiast.
We will have the weekly fishing report from the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, a Trophy Room section dedicated to displaying your pictures, a Catch of the Week section, as well as a weekly column from outdoors columnist Matt Heinrichs.
Matt grew up hunting and fishing all over northwest Iowa and has a wide range of interests from waterfowling and ice fishing to backpacking and wildflowers.
Your Backyard will be 100 percent locally generated content.
So be sure to submit your stories, photos and recipes and we'll see you in the great outdoors.


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Tuesday, September 11, 2012
Short Rib Chili
3 pounds meaty short ribs, with bone
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
One 2-ounce package dried New Mexico chiles (about 8), stemmed, seeded and cut or torn into pieces
2 large dried ancho chiles, stemmed, seeded and cut or torn into pieces
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
6 large cloves garlic, chopped
1 large red onion, chopped
1 tablespoon freshly ground cumin
1 tablespoon dried Mexican oregano
1 cup beef broth (preferably organic)
2 tablespoons dark agave
1 teaspoon instant espresso coffee
One 15 to 16-ounce can black beans, rinsed and drained
Adobo sauce, from can of chipotle chiles, optional
Chopped green onions
Creamy Corn Polenta, recipe follows
Coarsely grated bittersweet chocolate, such as Lindt
Garnishes, such as lime wedges, sour cream, chopped cooked bacon, chopped red and/or green jalapenos
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.
Arrange the short ribs on a large sheet of foil. Sprinkle all over with 1 teaspoon salt and 1 teaspoon pepper.
Bring the New Mexico chiles, ancho chiles and 1 1/2 cups water to a simmer in a medium saucepan over high heat. Cover, reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer until the chiles are just tender, 5 to 6 minutes. Transfer the mixture to a blender. Holding the top on firmly, blend until the chile puree is smooth.
Heat the oil in a large pot over medium-high heat. Add the short ribs in batches and brown on all sides, 5 to 6 minutes per batch, transferring the short ribs to a bowl each time.
Add the garlic and red onions to the drippings in the pot. Saute until the onions soften, about 5 minutes. Mix in the cumin and oregano. Add the chile puree from the blender, the broth, agave, and espresso; stir to blend. Return the short ribs and any juices from the bowl to the pot; stir to coat. Bring to a simmer. Cover and place the pot in the oven. Braise until the ribs are very tender, about 2 hours 30 minutes.
Tilt the pot. Spoon off and discard any fat that rises to the surface and pools at the lower end. Using tongs, transfer the ribs and any loose bones to a rimmed baking sheet. Carefully cut the membrane off each piece of meat (try to cut away only the membrane and not any meat). Discard the membranes and all bones. Cut the meat into small (scant 1/2-inch) cubes. Return the meat to the sauce in the pot. Mix in the black beans. Season the chili with about 1/4 teaspoon each of salt and pepper. If desired, add the adobo sauce by teaspoonfuls to increase the spiciness. Transfer the chili to a large bowl. Sprinkle with the green onions.
Spoon the Creamy Corn Polenta into deep bowls. Ladle chili over. Sprinkle generously with chocolate. Serve with the garnishes.
Espresso coffee and bittersweet chocolate are surprises here but they contribute the nuanced flavors of a Mexican mole. Warm corn tortillas are wonderful to serve alongside. And leftovers make great soft tacos.
Creamy Corn Polenta
2 1/2 cups low-salt chicken broth (preferably organic)
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
Kosher salt
1 cup polenta (Italian cornmeal) or regular cornmeal
1 cup frozen corn kernels, thawed
Bring the broth, 2 1/2 cups water, butter and 1 teaspoon salt to a boil in a heavy, large saucepan over high heat. Gradually whisk in the polenta. Continue to whisk until the polenta begins to thicken, 2 to 3 minutes. Reduce the heat to low. Cover and cook until the polenta is very thick and tender, stirring often with a flat-bottom spoon or heatproof rubber spatula to prevent sticking or burning, about 20 minutes. Blend the corn in a mini processor until a coarse puree forms. Stir the corn puree into the polenta. Season with more salt if desired.
Source: Giada De Laurentiis
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text:
The American soldier accused of massacring 16 Afghan civilians -- mostly women and children -- is on his way back to the United States where he will be held before trial, the soldier's lawyer and defense officials said today.
The shooting suspect, who has not been publicly identified, is expected to arrive at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas later today, attorney John Henry Browne told CNN, echoing the timeline defense officials provided to ABC News. The soldier had been held in Kuwait after he was spirited out of Afghanistan days after the alleged murders.
Browne, a high profile Seattle-based attorney who has represented the northwest's infamous Barefoot Bandit Colton Harris-Moore as well as convicted serial killer Ted Bundy, disputed a New York Times report that his client had "snapped" before the shooting, saying that while his client was certainly stressed from living in a war zone, he did not snap.
Browne also called reports that the alleged shooter was suffering marital problems before his last deployment "totally bogus" and said there was "no issue" with the marriage.
READ: Lawyer for 'Barefoot Bandit' Will Represent Afghan Massacre Suspect
However, the attorney noted the soldier was distressed over returning to combat -- he had already been deployed three times to Iraq before going to Afghanistan. The day before the alleged murders, Browne said, a fellow soldier lost a leg in an attack "right in front of my client" -- a horrific injury that had upset several soldiers.
The suspect, described by defense officials as a 38-year-old staff sergeant hailing from Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington state, had been injured twice in previous deployments, including a suffering a traumatic brain injury in Iraq in 2010, defense officials told ABC News.
PHOTO STORY: Afghan Killings and the Troubled History of an American Base
The staff sergeant is accused of going out in the middle of the night Sunday from his base in Kandahar and walking to a nearby village where he systematically entered several homes and opened fire on the occupants. Of the 16 victims, three were children and nine were women.
The soldier then allegedly returned to the base where he turned himself in.
Speaking of the alleged killing spree, President Obama said Tuesday, "The United States takes this as seriously as if it were our own citizens and our own children who were murdered."
"The killing of innocent civilians is outrageous and it's unacceptable. It's not who we are as a country and it does not represent our military," he said.
ABC News' Lee Ferran contributed to this report.


text:
Limbaugh Falsely Claims Entire Stimulus Law Was Spent On Infrastructure
Limbaugh: "We Spent $787 Billion In 2009 For Roads, Bridges" And "Schools. And Now We Need Another $60 Billion?" From the November 7 edition of Premiere Radio Networks' The Rush Limbaugh Show:
CALLER: I am just sick of the irrelevance of Washington, the obstruction going on of the jobs bill. Everybody needs jobs. We need our roads and our schools fixed. They're falling apart. And the Republicans only care about protecting their millionaire campaign donors from a half-percentage-point tax increase instead of helping their own constituents. It doesn't make any sense at all. Why can't they just put politics down and do what's right for once?LIMBAUGH: Well, because that's not how jobs are created. If it were, we wouldn't have unemployment. We spent $787 billion in 2009 for roads, bridges, whatever else you said there, schools. And now we need another 60 billion for it? You gotta wake up. [Premiere Radio Networks, The Rush Limbaugh Show, 11/7/11]
In Fact, Only About One-Eighth Of The Original Stimulus Was Devoted To Infrastructure Spending. According to ProPublica, which broke down stimulus spending by category and agency shortly after the bill was signed into law, just over $98 billion was devoted to "Transportation and Infrastructure." [ProPublica.org, 2/13/09]
Limbaugh Says Federal Spending "Is Not How Jobs Are Created"
Limbaugh Says It's "Impossible" For Federal Spending To Create Jobs: "That's Not How Jobs Are Created." From the show:
LIMBAUGH: Well, because that's not how jobs are created. If it were, we wouldn't have unemployment. We spent $787 billion in 2009 for roads, bridges, whatever else you said there, schools. And now we need another 60 billion? You gotta wake up. This is not how jobs are created. The Republicans are not standing in the way of the creation of jobs. Republicans are standing in the way of bloated government. They're standing in the way of more government growing, which takes away money from the private sector, which is where jobs are created.CALLER: Rush, if there were any bills that were in Congress -- say George Bush wrote a jobs bill, and it happened to increase taxes on millionaires a half-percentage point to create 450,000 jobs, would you support that bill?LIMBAUGH: No. Because there's no -- it's impossible. There's no federal spending that can create private-sector jobs. The only thing that can happen is public-sector union workers to be hired, DMV types and all that. People that work at the FDA. There is no way that government spending is going to increase hiring at any private-sector firms. It isn't possible. You cannot take money out of the private sector -- you just can't do -- and have people hired. It just doesn't work that way. [Premiere Radio Networks, The Rush Limbaugh Show, 11/7/11]
Economists Say Jobs Act Would Be A "Significant Boost" To Employment
Bloomberg: Economists Conclude Jobs Act Would "Help Avoid A Return To Recession."Economists surveyed by Bloomberg News concluded that the jobs plan "would help avoid a return to recession by maintaining growth and pushing down the unemployment rate next year." From Bloomberg:
President Barack Obama's $447 billion jobs plan would help avoid a return to recession by maintaining growth and pushing down the unemployment rate next year, according to economists surveyed by Bloomberg News.The legislation, submitted to Congress this month, would increase gross domestic product by 0.6 percent next year and add or keep 275,000 workers on payrolls, the median estimates in the survey of 34 economists showed. The program would also lower the jobless rate by 0.2 percentage point in 2012, economists said. [Bloomberg, 9/28/10]
Zandi: American Jobs Act Would Add Nearly 2 Million Jobs. UPI reported:
President Barack Obama's $447 billion job-creation plan would likely add 1.9 million payroll jobs and grow the U.S. economy 2 percent, a leading economist said.The plan, which Obama outlined before a joint session of Congress Thursday, would likely cut the unemployment rate by a percentage point, Moody's Analytics Chief Economist Mark Zandi said as Obama prepared to tout the plan at Virginia's University of Richmond. [United Press International, 9/9/11]
Macroeconomic Advisers: American Jobs Act Would Be "A Significant Boost To GDP And Employment." From the blog of Macroeconomic Advisers LLC:
We estimate that the American Jobs Act (AJA), if enacted, would give a significant boost to GDP and employment over the near-term.
- The various tax cuts aimed at raising workers' after-tax income and encouraging hiring and investing, combined with the spending increases aimed at maintaining state & local employment and funding infrastructure modernization, would:
- Boost the level of GDP by 1.3% by the end of 2012, and by 0.2% by the end of 2013.
- Raise nonfarm establishment employment by 1.3 million by the end of 2012 and 0.8 million by the end of 2013, relative to the baseline.
- The program works directly to raise employment through tax incentives and support to state & local governments for increasing hiring; it works indirectly through the positive boost to aggregate demand (and hence hiring) stimulated by the direct spending and the increase in household income resulting from lower employee payroll taxes and increased employment. [Macroeconomic Advisers LLC, 9/8/11]
EPI: American Jobs Act Would "Increase Employment By About 4.3 Million Jobs." Economic Policy Institute research and policy director John Irons provided a "preliminary breakdown of the package and a first pass look at the job impact" of Obama's jobs plan:
Overall the package would increase employment by about 4.3 million jobs over the next couple of years. The new initiatives would boost employment by about 2.6 million jobs, while the continuation of the two temporary provisions (EUI and the payroll tax holiday) would prevent a backslide of over 1.6 million jobs.There's still a big hole left to fill, but every step matters.
Irons included the following graphic in his post:
[Economic Policy Institute, 9/8/11]
IHS Global Insight: American Jobs Act Could Grow GDP By 1.4 Percentage Points, Create 900,000 Jobs. From IHS Global Insight chief U.S. economist Nigel Gault's estimate of the American Jobs Act's impact:
Adding the different elements of the programme would generate a 2012 (calendar-year) impact on GDP growth--compared to our baseline--of about 0.8 percentage point. Passing none of the programme would cut about 0.6 percentage point off our projected growth rate. Thus, the overall swing in growth between not passing any of it and passing the whole thing would be about 1.4 percentage points. The corresponding swing for employment (also calendar-year average) would be around 900,000 (from down 400,000 to up 500,000). We will watch the debate over the proposals carefully, to see what parts of it the Republicans might go along with. Our expectation at this point is that not much beyond the extension of the existing payroll tax cut and the extension of emergency unemployment insurance benefits will be passed. For now, we have no plans to adjust our 2012 forecast based on the president's proposal. [IHS Global Insight, 9/12/11]
Ameriprise Financial Services Senior Economist: Obama Jobs Plan Could Add Up To 1.2 Million Jobs. CNNMoney reported:
Economists gave generally positive reviews to President Obama's jobs plan Friday, with some estimating that at least 1 million jobs could be added in the next year if Congress passes the package.The payroll tax holiday for workers and small businesses was cited specifically for having a relatively good "bang for the buck." And that part of the plan may have the most bipartisan support."This additional spending capacity in the hands of consumers should continue to foster improvements in aggregate domestic demand. And ultimately, it is demand and demand alone that will lead to more business hiring," said Russell Price, senior economist for Ameriprise Financial Services.Price estimates the increased payroll tax holiday for workers by itself is likely to add between 750,000 to 1 million jobs, and that the new break on payroll taxes for employers could add an additional 100,000 to 200,000 jobs.He added that gross domestic product, the broadest measure of the nation's economic activity, could get a 1.5 percentage point boost as well. [CNNMoney.com, 9/9/11]
Nuveen Asset Management Chief Economist: American Jobs Act Could Add A Million Jobs.CNNMoney further reported:
Economists say one big problem with assessing the program is figuring out its chance of passage in the face of Republican criticism.Keith Hembre, chief economist for Nuveen Asset Management, said he thinks the package could lift GDP by 1.5 percentage points and add 1 million jobs, but doubts Congress will approve Obama's proposal."It seems much more like a wish list than anything that is likely become law," he said. [CNNMoney.com, 9/9/11]
Limbaugh Tells Caller He Should Be "Embarrassed" After Accurately Describing Public- And Private-Sector Job Growth
Since July 2009, When Stimulus Began To Take Effect, Private-Sector Jobs Have Grown By Over 1.5 Million While Public Sector Jobs Have Fallen By Over 500,000. From PoliticalCorrection.org, a project of Media Matters Action Network:
[Click to enlarge]
[PoliticalCorrection.org, Media Matters Action Network, 11/4/11]
Presented With This Fact, Limbaugh Tells Caller "You're Just Flat-Out Wrong." From the show:
CALLER: Well, actually, the last few jobs reports, Rush, the private sector has created jobs in line with what's expected in an economic recovery. The real jobs losses have been in the public sector because of crushing budget cuts.LIMBAUGH: You know --CALLER: And all this bill is trying to do is to relieve some of that.LIMBAUGH: If I were you, I would be embarrassed. You are such a tool. You are a mind-numbed robot programmed to spew a bunch of absolute garbage. Illogical garbage. You're just flat-out wrong -- embarrassingly so. Reading from a script. Incapable of critical thinking on your own. You're a sponge. And you're soaking up stuff from the wrong side. [Premiere Radio Networks, The Rush Limbaugh Show, 11/7/11]


text: One of the funniest, bizarre, and truly original west coast (U$) acts, Bobby Joe Ebola and the Children MacNuggits have finally taken it upon themselves to satiate the masses. It's been about a decade, but Corbett and Dan are back at it, along with vocal appearances from Jon Mink (Fleshies, Triclops!), Jesse from Blatz, The Criminals,The Frisk, and many more, belting out 13 alternately disturbing, hilarious, and avant garde classics. Song topics include polyamory, religion, day laborers, apocalypse, and the decimation of the audience at the hands of the band themselves! You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll vomit for joy!


text:
Release Notes: The Robot is now able to discover and inform UPnP routers about its presence and the need to have a NAT port available for its Web server. In most SOHO environments with UPnP enabled routers, manual configuration is not needed. The operator just installs, registers the Robot and the Web site is online effortlessly.
Release Notes: This release adds HTML and CSS validation. There are other minor formatting changes. The license has changed to Freeware.
Release Notes: This version included an easy to use blog tool that makes it possible to just type and publish with just one click. It then shows the Web site address to locate the blog. Older blogs can be edited or deleted, and older blogs are automatically archived. An unlimited number of blogs and blog groups are supported along with offline blogs that are automatically published when you are connected. Readers can choose templates as they can with the rest of the Web site.
Release Notes: More templates have been added. The template of a Web site is unchanged for a browser session, but it changes randomly from one session to the next. Chances are, a visitor may see a different look (template) for each visit. A visitor can also click on a preferred template and keep it for a week before it starts changing randomly.
Release Notes: The Robot no longer assumes that the user has read the manual, or knows how to configure its system. Instead, it guides the user by telling them the address of the Web site and instructs them to copy files into the MyWebSite folder when there is nothing to publish. A step-by-step guide is now provided on the user's Web page, showing how to configure the router to bring the Web site online.
Release Notes: New E-commerce capabilities.
Release Notes:


text:
MYTHS about fostering are to be dispelled in a month-long campaign.
Fostering February is raising awareness and highlighting the fact people who are single, divorced, or homosexual can all still foster.
People don't need to own their own home, either, the campaign points out.
The Foster Care Agency, at Riverside Business Centre, Brighton Road, Shoreham, is supporting the campaign.
Carer recruitment officer Rebecca Elsip said: "Fostering February is a campaign to create awareness around fostering, what it's about and to dispel any myths that surround it.
"In order to help raise awareness, we are holding two open afternoons in our Shoreham office, where we would welcome anyone interested in fostering to pop in and meet us in order to understand more about becoming a foster carer."
She said new foster carers are needed across Sussex and it was important people were properly informed on how to become one.
The agency will be able to explain what is involved and how long it could take and people will have the opportunity to ask as many questions as they like.
The campaign slogan reads: "By taking the time to ask and find out, you can honestly and truly make an amazing difference to a young person's passage towards childhood."
Visit the Brighton Road agency on February 12 and 19, from midday to 3pm. Visit www.thefostercareagency.org.uk or call 0808 1788 909, free from a landline, for more details.


text:
When Ron Terranova started delivering hydrochloric acid to fracking sites in upstate Pennsylvania four years ago it was a pretty scary business.
�The first time I went up there I had no idea what I was getting myself into,� said the 63-year-old truck driver from Norwood.
He was making field deliveries to new drilling sites based on directions �that weren�t very good.�
He found himself on two-lane highways going up into the hills. �Lease roads� back to the site could be anywhere from a few hundred yards to three miles. And all that water dripping out of the water trucks made it especially hairy.
Water is the essential ingredient in fracking. Combined with other chemicals, it is fired into subterranean shale formations to crack the rock and release the natural gas in its crevices.
But water was is no friend to a hazardous materials hauler.
�Driving on water on a dirt road is like driving on ice,� Terranova said. �On an incline, going up or down the side of a mountain, I was not crazy about it. Believe me, I was scared to death.�
Thanks to his years of experience, Terranova never lost a load or had an accident. But he doesn�t doubt that a couple sand or water truck drivers rolled their vehicles a time or two.
Since that time, however, he says, the fracking operations have gotten a whole lot better, which is to say safer for guys like him.
Today, the roads are much better, most of them paved right to the drilling site.
�In the very beginning it was crushed stone and mud. There would be 30 to 40 pieces of heavy machinery and equipment leaking oil.�
Now, the state and the companies require entire 5-acre sites to be covered with heavy plastic so that any spills are completely contained.
�Safety,� said Terranova, �has gotten 200 percent better� for both the workers and the environment.
And the operations have gotten much more efficient and organized. There were times Terranova would have to spend 36 hours on site because of the drillers not being ready for delivery. Now his usual turnaround time is about two hours.
The new industry, Terranova says, has been a boon to the towns near the fracking sites.
When the gas rush started, it was all experienced oil and gas workers from states like Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana who worked the fields. Today, homegrown Pennsylvanians have been trained and are getting work.
The hours are long and the work grueling. Turnover is high. But the pay is excellent. These are blue-collar jobs that pay up to $100K a year.
�The locals are making big money if they can hang in there,� said Terranova.
His son started working for one of the drillers last January. He lasted six months. And still came home with a pretty big chunk of money. When all you�re doing is working and sleeping, there�s not much to blow your paycheck on.
Terranova dropped me a line after reading last week�s column about Matt Damon�s new movie �Promised Land� that paints hydraulic fracturing in a pretty harsh light.
He recommended I drive up and check one out.
�(It�s) very interesting to see,� he wrote. �The noise level is deafening, hearing protection is must. Nomex coveralls (are) a requirement (as are) all other safety equipment. Huge trailers filled with very fine sand and conveyor belts pumping sand down the well with water and chemicals � quite an operation.�
He isn�t the first person to suggest I see this for myself. And as it happens, I�ve got a trip planned for when the weather gets a little warmer.
For a guy who has dealt with the real risks and dangers associated with this industry, Terranova is pretty contemptuous of those who make up stuff about it just to scare people.
A recent and critically acclaimed documentary �Gasland� purported to show the environmental dangers of fracking and the threat it poses to drinking water. One scene shows a homeowner in Colorado lighting the water from his kitchen sink on fire. The implication is that fracking caused methane to get into the man�s well water. It didn�t. State investigators found that the man�s well digger had drilled into a naturally occurring methane pocket.
Terranova said he personally knows a guy upstate who has never been able to drink his well water because of the naturally occurring methane on his property.
But that hasn�t stopped eco-propagandists from trying to scare local property owners and the rest of the nation.
�Fracking is good for everyone,� says Terranova, workers, communities and the environment. �The tree huggers forget they have to heat their houses as well.�
Terranova, whose name literally means �new land,� knows a good thing when he sees it. What he has seen in the last four years is the maturation of an industry that even former Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell has recognized as the salvation for the Keystone state.
�The only people pissed off up there (in Pennsylvania�s gaslands),� says Terranova, �are the people who don�t have a lease.�
And, of course, the eco-scammers and the Hollywood useful idiots they get to spread their silly falsehoods and see-through lies.
Gil Spencer is a columnist for our sister newspaper, The Delaware County Daily Times in Primos. Email him at email@example.com out his spencerblog every day at delcotimes.com


text:
Canadian smartphone maker Research In Motion has been saying all along that tight integration with its BlackBerry family of smartphones will be one of the key strengths of its BlackBerry PlayBook tablet.
On Tuesday, they held to that promise by showing off some of the business-centric features of the forthcoming tablet in a demo video, included at the article bottom.
One such treat is a secure wireless connection between the tablet and your BlackBerry phone that lets you access your corporate network and data without fiddling through a special VPN connection. When in this mode, you can also view Microsoft Office files and even access Flash-enabled dashboards like SAP BusinessObjects Explorer on your tablet, RIM stressed.
Called BlackBerry Bridge, this connection mode pairs your PlayBook with your BlackBerry phone using a secure Bluetooth connection. Any changes you make to your inbox, contacts and calendars on the PlayBook tablet will seamlessly synchronize with your corporate network and trickle down to your phone. The main idea here is to allow for a temporary access to your corporate data without having to purchase a separate cellular data plan for the tablet.
The wireless connection between the two gadgets is protected using industry-standard encryption, so businesses can rest assured their corporate data is safe when travelling over short distances between nearby devices. In addition, when you end a BlackBerry Bridge connection, all copies of temporarily synced corporate data will be automatically deleted from your PlayBook tablet.
RIM hopes the BlackBerry Bridge feature will help set its PlayBook tablet apart from the iPad 2 and the crop of Android slates. And by playing on its undisputed credibility with businessman, RIM also hopes to keep rivals at bay and protect the corporate space it owns.
Source: The Inside BlackBerry for Business blog


text:
Dear all please help a FACS noob,
I need to choose isotype control for my surface marker staining. Should i choose isotype control depending on the species i'm labeling, so if i have Ab against human CD44-PE conjugated my control should also be anti human IgG. Also does the choice of type of Ab depend on the specific stained one. For example if my Cd44-PE was IgGk then isotype control should also be IgGk and what is the difference between normal IgG, does it really make a big difference.
Submit your paper to J Biol Methods today!
Which isotype control should i choose
Started by leyshmanioz, Jan 14 2013 11:04 PM
1 reply to this topic
Posted 14 January 2013 - 11:04 PM
Posted 15 January 2013 - 04:30 AM
No, you choose the isotype control according to the species the antibody was raised in. For example, is your anti-human CD44 antibody made in rabbit ? If so, you need rabbit IgG (and your isotype control is not "anti" anything). Since your antibody is primarily conjugated to PE; you need a conjugated rabbit IgG-PE as isotype control. Ideally it should also be the same subtype (IgGk, in your example).
Il dort. Quoique le sort fût pour lui bien étrange,
Il vivait. Il mourut quand il n'eut plus son ange;
La chose simplement d'elle-même arriva,
Comme la nuit se fait lorsque le jour s'en va.


text:
CHICAGO — Opening statements are scheduled in federal court in Chicago for the tax-evasion trial of a powerful Cook County Commissioner.
Each side will have about 30 minutes to address jurors Thursday about the allegations against William Beavers.
The 78-year-old Chicago Democrat has pleaded not guilty to diverting around $225,000 from his campaign coffers for personal use and not reporting it.
A jury was selected late Wednesday after a judge questioned would-be panelists for two days. The 12-person jury is comprised of 10 whites, a Hispanic and one African-American. There are seven women on the jury and five men.
The former police officer and onetime alderman is charged with four federal tax counts. Each count carries a maximum three-year prison sentence.