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Blog posts from the perhaps-inscrutably-named but nonetheless hilarious NCBI ROFL have been a mainstay of DISCOVER's site for years now. What's not to love about the authors' explication of why a smile conceals more than a poker face, whether Gollum suffers from multiple personality disorder, or how one girl apparently got pregnant via oral sex?
That's why we've decided to give them their own space.
Discoblog will be retiring, and NCBI ROFL will be taking on a new identity: "Seriously, Science?" Because it's not just ROFL science in their sights, but interesting, crazy and weird science that gets you thinking, blushing, or scratching your head. The new-and-improved version is already up and running with a post about how the sound of vomiting affects your moral judgements—so click over and check it out now! And while you're at it, update your bookmark and your RSS feed so you can stay on top of their daily posts.
Because—seriously—you don't want to miss this science.
Identification of the characteristics that drive consumer liking of butter.
"This study identified and explored the sensory characteristics that drive consumer liking of butter. A trained descriptive panel evaluated 27 commercial butters using a defined sensory language. Read More
If you want to do a scientific study of sexual function (in this case, how orgasm changes genital sensitivity), it's usually necessary to perform it under carefully controlled conditions. So how do you do that in the context of studying female orgasms? Check out the [probably NSFW] description below.
The effect of sexual arousal and orgasm on genital sensitivity has received little research attention, and no study has assessed sensation pleasurableness as well as painfulness.
To clarify the relationship between sexual arousal, orgasm, and sensitivity in a healthy female sample. Read More
What happens to a body buried in cement? How long does it take to decompose? In this study, the (Italian) scientists set out to answer these questions using (what else? ) piglet corpses. Don't worry, the authors assure us that they died of "natural causes"…
Burial of piglet carcasses in cement: a study of macroscopic and microscopic alterations on an animal model.
"Scarce experimental data exist describing postmortem effects of burial in cement. The scanty literature presents several case reports, but no experimental study. To perform a pilot study, the following experimental system was designed: 4 piglet corpses, who died of natural causes, were encased in concrete. After 1, 2, 3, and 6 months, a block was opened, and autopsy and microscopic analyses were performed. Read More
Researcher: "C'mon elephant, the peanuts are right there. I'm pointing right at them!"
Elephant: *blank stare*
Researcher: "The dogs, goats, and horses can find them."
Elephant: *blank stare*
Researcher: *sigh* "Fine. Just use your trunk then."
"Recent research suggests that domesticated species – due to artificial selection by humans for specific, preferred behavioral traits – are better than wild animals at responding to visual cues given by humans about the location of hidden food. Although this seems to be supported by studies on a range of domesticated (including dogs, goats and horses) and wild (including wolves and chimpanzees) animals, there is also evidence that exposure to humans positively influences the ability of both wild and domesticated animals to follow these same cues. Here, we test the performance of Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) on an object choice task that provides them with visual-only cues given by humans about the location of hidden food. Read More
OK, we admit it, we just picked this one because of the title. But the method for removing objects from the rectum using a cluster of balloons is actually pretty inventive.
"Removal of a rectal foreign body (FB) has become increasingly common in the recent times. Nature of rectal FB is limited only by the imagination of the patient concerned. Many techniques have been described for removal and various theories have been put forward to explain the mechanics of the procedure. We report a case where a new technique had been employed."
Bonus excerpt and figure from the main text:
"Techniques for the safe extraction of a rectal foreign body require ingenuity, but few authors have considered the mechanics of this surprisingly common procedure Read More
Do you have tasks that need doing but can't afford to buy a robot? Look no further! Remote-controlled turtles can do your bidding, from… um … swimming in shallow waters? to … uh … walking really slowly on the land? Look, the point is that these scientists figured out how to make turtles do what they want simply by attaching a movable blinder to the turtle's shell. This apparatus allows the scientists to control the turtles' movements by activating their instinct to avoid obstacles (see it in action in the movie clip below). Turtle army!
Remote Guidance of Untrained Turtles by Controlling Voluntary Instinct Behavior
"Recently, several studies have been carried out on the direct control of behavior in insects and other lower animals in order to apply these behaviors to the performance of specialized tasks in an attempt to find more efficient means of carrying out these tasks than artificial intelligence agents. While most of the current methods cause involuntary behavior in animals by electronically stimulating the corresponding brain area or muscle, we show that, in turtles, it is also possible to control certain types of behavior, such as movement trajectory, by evoking an appropriate voluntary instinctive behavior. Read More
This isn't the first time we've highlighted a report of a bat species that engages in oral sex. However, this time it's the females that get the extra attention. First fellatio, and now cunnilingus: who knew bat sex would be so hot? Be sure to the check out the perhaps-NSFW video from the paper's supplementary information:
Cunnilingus Apparently Increases Duration of Copulation in the Indian Flying Fox, Pteropus giganteus.
"We observed a total of 57 incidences of copulation in a colony of the Indian flying fox, Pteropus giganteus, over 13 months under natural conditions. The colony consisted of about 420 individuals, roosting in a Ficus religiosa tree. Copulations occurred between 07.00 h and 09.30 h from July to January, with more occurring in October and November. Initially males groomed their penis before approaching a nearby female. Females typically moved away and males followed. When the female stopped moving, the male started licking her vagina (cunnilingus). Read More
You love to hate them: people in power who talk the talk but don't walk the walk. I'm sure most of us have suffered a boss who tells you to do things that he or she doesn't. But do these people become hypocrites because they are in positions of power, or were they just born a**holes? These scientists decided to find out! Turns out that power doesn't just corrupt, it makes you a bigger hypocrite. Good thing I didn't get that promotion after all.
Power increases hypocrisy: moralizing in reasoning, immorality in behavior.
"In five studies, we explored whether power increases moral hypocrisy (i.e., imposing strict moral standards on other people but practicing less strict moral behavior oneself). In Experiment 1, compared with the powerless, the powerful condemned other people's cheating more, but also cheated more themselves. In Experiments 2 through 4, the powerful were more strict in judging other people's moral transgressions than in judging their own transgressions. Read More
Your head throbs. You feel like you've been run over by a truck. Ugh. It's no fun to go to work with a hangover. You want to call in and take one of your personal days, but is it really worth it? Are you actually going to be bad at your job, or should you just suck it up and go to work? Well, these scientists got 13 volunteers to go home, get wasted, and come back the next day to see if they performed as terribly as they felt. The results weren't pretty.
The effects of self-administered alcohol-induced 'hangover' in a naturalistic setting on psychomotor and cognitive performance and subjective state.
"AIMS: To examine in as naturalistic a setting as possible whether having an alcohol-induced 'hangover' impairs psychomotor and cognitive performance. PARTICIPANTS AND DESIGN: The sample consisted of 71 male and female social drinkers who were tested twice, once at baseline and once after exposure to the study condition. They were randomized into a control group who returned for testing on a prearranged date (n = 33), and a group who were instructed to make arrangements to return the day after a self-determined heavy drinking session (n = 38). Read More


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Khalid Jabareen's tone was frantic as he discussed the future of his village and family, even though he thought the moment he dreaded – when they would be expelled from their homes – was months away.
"What should we do when they come to kick us out? They will come with bulldozers when our children are asleep. Then we don't know where to go," Mr. Jabareen said, speaking last week in the West Bank town of Yatta. "I think we have three or four months until we are expelled."
Two days later, the Israeli military sent the first unmistakable sign to his village Jinba of residents' impending expulsion, as scores of armed soldiers entered their village, checked IDs, and photographed the residents' cave dwellings and tents.
"We were all sleeping when we heard the noise of the helicopters," Jabareen recounts a day after the raid. "They told us to leave our homes for an hour, set up an army tent close by, and took photos."
His village of Jinba is one of eight in the South Hebron Hills, home to about 1,500 Palestinians altogether, that will soon be uprooted to make way for Firing Zone 918, a military training ground. The Israeli Ministry of Defense asked the High Court of Justice to green-light the necessary evictions and demolitions last month, setting in motion the eviction of Palestinian residents who say their roots there go back generations.
Military necessity?
The Israeli plan to transform the hilly landscape at the southern tip of the West Bank into a firing zone goes back to the 1970s, when the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) declared some 30,000 dunams (7,500 acres) in the area a closed military zone. Under Israeli military law, only permanent residents are allowed to remain in closed military zones, and most of the residents do not meet the requirements to be considered permanent residents by the Israeli authorities. Some of them live in traditional tents and caves, by choice, while others have been unable to obtain the permits necessary to legally build.
Palestinians continued to live in the area relatively unperturbed until 1999, when eviction orders forced the evacuation of about 700 residents.
What followed were petitions by the residents and Israeli NGOs to the Israeli Supreme Court and an unsuccessful mediation effort. In the meantime, Palestinians continued to live and work on the land they say they have lived on for generations. The legal proceedings continued for 12 years, until the Israeli defense ministry finally pushed for the Supreme Court's approval for the evacuation of the area.
In its statement, the ministry contested residence claims by some of the 49 residents petitioning the court, stating that an investigation revealed that 38 of them actually had permanent residents in or near the nearby town of Yatta.
While humanitarian organizations and the European Union heavily criticized the planned evictions, Israel says it needs that particular area for training because of its unique topography and because of its security status.
"The vital importance of this firing zone to the IDF stems from the unique topographical character of the area, which allows for training methods specific to both small and large frameworks, from a squad to a battalion," the Israeli defense ministry wrote last month.
"The area in question is characterized by numerous security threats, including the presence of illegal residents and criminal and terror elements. In response to these threats, ongoing and routine IDF exercises are carried out to deal with these security concerns. Part of the IDF's response to terror and criminal threats is a high level of familiarity with the area in question and those who inhabit it and thus a degree of surveillance is necessary," the IDF wrote in an e-mail to the Monitor this week.
Government policy?
Firing zones make up about 18 percent of the West Bank, and about 45 percent of all demolitions of Palestinian structures in the Israeli controlled sections of the West Bank since 2010 took place in such firing zones, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
The West Bank is split into three zones – Area A, under full Palestinian control; Area B, under joint Israeli-Palestinian control; and Area C, under full Israeli control. For the estimated 150,000 Palestinians (a small fraction of the Palestinian population in the West Bank) living among the 300,000 Israeli settlers in Area C, building permits are extremely diffcult to get – but without them, Palestinians in Area C cannot legally build and establish permanent residency. Area C makes up about 60 percent of the West Bank.
The European Union has been pressuring Israel to change its policies in Area C and to issue more building permits for humanitarian projects and has also been critical of the demolition and evacuation plans for the South Hebron Hills.
"The intention by the Israeli Ministry of Defense to prohibit permanent residence in the firing zone and thus to evacuate 8 communities (…) entail the forced transfer of up to 1,800 people, contrary to Israel's obligations as the Occupying Power," the EU said in a statement released after a visit of EU diplomats in the firing zone the day after the IDF entered Jinba.
Hafez Houraini, who coordinates the Palestinian Popular Committee in South Hebron, says the demolitions and evacuations are an attempt to drive them out of Israeli-controlled Area C and into population centers in Palestinian-administered Areas A and B.
"Palestinians in this area are struggling peasants," Mr. Huraini says. "Israel wants to push them out of the area."
When queried, the Israeli foreign ministry denied that the government has any such policy goal.
'Here for generations'
The Israeli Civil Administration in the West Bank says that the Supreme Court will most likely support the evacuation of firing zone 918 because it too considers Palestinians there illegal residents.
"The court told us to wait with the demolitions. Although the court has not ruled yet, we think that it will agree that these structures are illegal and continue to spread illegally," Guy Inbar, spokesman of the Civil Administration, says.
But NGOs and residents point out that the villages existed prior to the beginning of the Israeli military occupation of the West Bank in 1967 and that the area's "cave-dwellers" have practiced their traditional way of life for decades.
"These communities are there for generations and they have the right to a basic standard of living," says Israeli attorney Tamar Feldman, director of the Association for Civil Rights in Israel's (ACRI) human rights program for the Palestinian territories, which handled the resident's legal cases. "But instead, the Israeli army uses this territory as a firing zone, although it is occupied territory."
The Israeli Defense Ministry has said it would allow the communities to continue to graze their sheep and cultivate their land in the firing zone on Jewish holidays and weekends, when the military does not train.
But the Palestinian residents say that nearby Yatta, the poor and crowded town of 50,000 that is the most logical place to relocate, does not have what they need to make a living.
"We have 3,500 sheep in Jinba. What should I do with these animals in a city?" Jabareen says. "There is no space in Yatta."
In addition to the eight villages slated for evacuation, there are four inside the firing zone which are not set for complete evacuation yet. However, they also face demolition orders for structures built without permits, which is many of the buildings in their villages, and say that their traditional way of life is threatened.
"This land here is our place, this is where we have freedom," says Rasmiyye Hamamne, a woman from Mufaqara, one of the villages in the firing zone not slated for evacuation. Her husband, Na'man, says that this family has lived in a cave for generations. "My grandfather lived here, and his grandfather lived here. We will stay here as well."

subset: commoncrawl


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Recent News
July 05, 2013
Somersault Snack Co. Recalls 1 Oz. Packages of Somersault Pacific Sea Salt
The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services received information regarding a recall of 1 ounce Somersault Pacific Sea Salt products which were distributed to Target Stores in 6-Count Multi-Packs. The products were inadvertently mispackaged-limited quantities of Somersault Santa Fe Salsa flavored product were inadvertently commingled with Somersault Pacific Sea Salt flavored product in packages labeled as Somersault Pacific Sea Salt 1oz.
The inadvertent commingling of these two products introduced milk to the Somersault Pacific Sea Salt 1oz. packages, milk is not listed on the packaging as either an ingredient or an allergen. The affected product was distributed to Target Stores through their distribution centers in California, Ohio, Georgia, Kansas and South Carolina.
Somersault Pacific Sea Salt 1oz. 6-Count Multi-Pack
Box UPC: 0 898403 00221 5 (located on the bottom of the box)
Package UPC: 0 898403 00220 8 (located on the rear panel of each package)
Sell By Dates: FEB061483 and FEB061481
The full recall can be found at www.fda.gov/Safety/Recalls/ucm359602.htm.


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A military campaign at a key Philippine port against Muslim gunmen opposed to peace talks ended yesterday with close to 500 rebels killed or captured and nearly 200 hostages freed, the Philippine army said.
"The threat to Zamboanga is over. The enemy has no organized resistance left," Philippine military spokesperon Lieutenant Colonel Ramon Zagala said.
After nearly three weeks of fighting between troops and the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), police will take over to clear the city of MNLF stragglers and find a key guerrilla leader who remains unaccounted for, he added.
The military said Nur Misuari, who founded the guerrilla group in the early 1970s, had sent his top lieutenant Habier Malik and hundreds of his armed followers to Zamboanga three weeks ago in a bid to derail peace talks with a rival Muslim rebel group.
The fighting claimed the lives of 23 soldiers and policemen as well as 12 civilians. There were injuries to 180 members of the security forces and 72 civilians.
Militants seized scores of hostages as they holed up in several coastal districts of the city of 1 million people, holding off 4,500 troops sent to root the rebels out.
More than 10,000 homes were razed in the ensuing street battles, forcing more than 100,000 people — about a 10th of the city's population — to flee.
Philippine officials said yesterday they believed that all 195 hostages held by the gunmen had either escaped, or been rescued or released by the gunmen.
"The indications are that they are no longer holding any hostages," Philippine military spokesperson Brigadier General Domingo Tutaan told reporters in Manila.
Abigail Valte, a spokesperson for Philippine President Benigno Aquino III, confirmed that all of those known to have been taken hostage were now accounted for.
"Remember that our task from day one is to ensure the safety of the hostages that were taken, to ensure their safe recovery as well as to get civilians out of harm's way. And that's already been accomplished," she said on government radio.
Philippine Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin and Philippine Interior Secretary Mar Roxas visited Zamboanga's Martha Street, the scene of some of the heaviest fighting, to raise the Philippine flag at a warehouse that they believed was used by the gunmen as a command post.
"Siege in Zamboanga City is over. We honour the fallen, the brave and the soldiers & policemen who died for their countrymen," the city government quoted Roxas as saying on its official Twitter page.
Zagala said by telephone from Zamboanga that 183 guerrillas were killed and 292 others either surrendered or were captured. The authorities are checking the identities of some of the slain gunmen to determine whether guerrilla leader Malik was among them, he added.
Zagala said it would take the police forces between 10 and 14 days to clear the conflict areas of possible MNLF stragglers, unexploded bombs and booby traps.
"Clearing is critical," he said, and the military forces involved in the fighting would remain in the city to support the police should the need arise.
The fighting encompassed between 30 and 40 hectares of densely packed communities and nearby mangrove swamps and fish pens, he added.
Muslim rebels have been fighting since the 1970s for an independent or autonomous homeland in the south of the mainly Catholic Philippines. An estimated 150,000 people have died in the conflict.


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|<< Back
|Amazon.com to Acquire Diapers.com and Soap.com
SEATTLE, Nov 08, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE) --
Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) today announced that it has reached an agreement to acquire Quidsi, Inc., which operates Diapers.com, an online baby care specialty site, and Soap.com, an online site for everyday essentials.
"I'm not sure which is more unpleasant--changing diapers, paying too much for them, or running out of them," said Jeff Bezos, Founder and CEO of Amazon.com. "This acquisition brings together two companies who are committed to providing great prices and fast delivery to parents, making one of the chores of being a parent a little easier and less expensive."
"Amazon shares our commitment to the customer," said Marc Lore, Co-Founder, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of Quidsi. "We are excited to be part of a company that will help us to serve an even larger audience, and we will continue delivering unexpectedly great service that makes life a little easier - that is our mission."
"Amazon is a pioneer," said Vinit Bharara, Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer of Quidsi. "Amazon is built on a culture of innovation and long-term vision. Quidsi is driven by these same core values, and we look forward to joining forces."
Following the acquisition, Quidsi will continue to operate independently under its current leadership team.
In addition to Diapers.com and Soap.com, Quidsi recently launched BeautyBar.com, a prestige beauty boutique.
Under the terms of the agreement, which has been approved by Quidsi's stockholders, Amazon will acquire all of the outstanding shares of Quidsi for approximately $500 million in cash, as adjusted for the assumption of options and warrants, and also assume approximately $45 million in debt and similar obligations. Subject to various closing conditions, the acquisition is expected to close in December 2010.
About Amazon.com
Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN), a Fortune 500 company based in Seattle, opened on the World Wide Web in July 1995 and today offers Earth's Biggest Selection. Amazon.com, Inc. seeks to be Earth's most customer-centric company, where customers can find and discover anything they might want to buy online, and endeavors to offer its customers the lowest possible prices. Amazon.com and other sellers offer millions of unique new, refurbished and used items in categories such as Books; Movies, Music & Games; Digital Downloads; Electronics & Computers; Home & Garden; Toys, Kids & Baby; Grocery; Apparel, Shoes & Jewelry; Health & Beauty; Sports & Outdoors; and Tools, Auto & Industrial. Amazon Web Services provides Amazon's developer customers with access to in-the-cloud infrastructure services based on Amazon's own back-end technology platform, which developers can use to enable virtually any type of business. Kindle, Kindle 3G and Kindle DX are the revolutionary portable readers that wirelessly download books, magazines, newspapers, blogs and personal documents to a crisp, high-resolution electronic ink display that looks and reads like real paper. Kindle 3G and Kindle DX utilize the same 3G wireless technology as advanced cell phones, so users never need to hunt for a Wi-Fi hotspot. Kindle is the #1 bestselling product across the millions of items sold on Amazon.
Amazon and its affiliates operate websites, including www.amazon.com, www.amazon.co.uk, www.amazon.de, www.amazon.co.jp, www.amazon.fr, www.amazon.ca, and www.amazon.cn. As used herein, "Amazon.com," "we," "our" and similar terms include Amazon.com, Inc., and its subsidiaries, unless the context indicates otherwise.
Forward-Looking Statements
This announcement contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Actual results may differ significantly from management's expectations. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that include, among others, risks related to competition, management of growth, new products, services and technologies, potential fluctuations in operating results, international expansion, outcomes of legal proceedings and claims, fulfillment center optimization, seasonality, commercial agreements, acquisitions and strategic transactions, foreign exchange rates, system interruption, inventory, government regulation and taxation, payments and fraud. More information about factors that potentially could affect Amazon.com's financial results is included in Amazon.com's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and subsequent filings.
About Quidsi
Quidsi operates Diapers.com (baby care), Soap.com (health, beauty, and household essentials), and BeautyBar.com (prestige beauty boutique). Quidsi's mission is to make life easier by creating a better e-commerce experience, delivering within two days, and providing extraordinary customer service. Quidsi is redefining e-commerce by combining the customer focus and attention of a specialty store with the scale, efficiency, choice, value and reliability of a national retailer. Investors in Quidsi include Accel Partners, Bessemer Venture Partners, BEV Capital, MentorTech Ventures and NEA. For more information, please visit http://www.diapers.com/.
SOURCE: Amazon.com, Inc.
Amazon.com Public Relations Media Line, 206-266-7180


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Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: Using Healthy ThinkingSkip to the navigation
Living with myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) can be hard. It can keep you from living life the way you want. It may strain your relationships with loved ones too, making it hard to be the kind of friend, parent, or partner you want to be. You may feel stressed or get depressed or anxious.
Some doctors may recommend cognitive-behavioral therapy , or healthy thinking, as part of your treatment plan. This type of therapy doesn't work for everyone with ME/CFS. More research is needed to better understand how well this treatment works for ME/CFS.
- Cognitive-behavioral therapy is a way to help you stay well and cope with chronic fatigue by changing how you think. And how you think affects how you feel. Negative thoughts can make you feel worse. Healthy thinking can help.
- Healthy thinking can take away barriers to being physically active, such as discouraging thoughts. This helps because light aerobic exercise, such as walking, helps some people who have ME/CFS feel more energetic and less tired.
- Changing your thinking will take some time. Be patient with yourself as you learn healthy thinking. It may not feel right at first, because you are trying out something new. But with daily practice, it will get easier and feel more natural. And it's something you can start doing today.
How can you use healthy thinking to cope with chronic fatigue?
Many people work with a therapist or a counselor to learn healthy thinking techniques. Therapy can be expensive and may not be covered by insurance. But the fact that it is usually short-term helps keep the cost down. And after you learn the techniques, this is something you can do on your own.
Working on your own or with a counselor, you can practice these three steps:
- Stop. Notice your thoughts. When you notice a negative thought, stop it in its tracks and write it down.
- Ask. Look at that thought and ask yourself whether it is helpful or unhelpful.
- Choose. Choose a new, helpful thought to replace a negative one. Ask yourself: What effect does believing this thought have on me? What might happen if I tried to believe the more healthy thought?
The goal is to have encouraging thoughts come naturally. It may take some time to change the way you think. You will need to practice healthy thinking every day.
Notice and stop your thoughts
The first step is to notice and stop your negative thoughts or "self-talk." Self-talk is what you think and believe about yourself and your experiences. It's like a running commentary in your head. Your self-talk may be rational and helpful. Or it may be negative and not helpful.
Ask about your thoughts
The next step is to ask yourself whether your thoughts are helpful or unhelpful. Does the evidence support your negative thought? Some of your self-talk may be true. Or it may be partly true but exaggerated. Here are a few types of unhelpful thoughts to look for:
- Focusing on the negative: This is sometimes called filtering. You filter out the good and focus only on the bad. Example: "I've had some good days, but having one good day doesn't mean that I will have more." Reality: Just like life, not all days are good. But that doesn't mean every day will be bad. Having good days means that you are capable of having them, and more lie ahead.
- Should: People sometimes have set ideas about how they "should" act. If you hear yourself saying that you or other people "should," "ought to," or "have to" do something, then you might be setting yourself up to feel bad. Example: "If I've been following my graded-exercise plan, then I should have more energy." "If I take all my medicines as prescribed, then I should have no pain." Reality: There's nothing wrong with expecting that your exercise plan should work. But graded-exercise is a slow process that takes patience to get the best results.
- Overgeneralizing: This is taking one example and saying it's true for everything. Look for words such as "never" and "always." Example: "There's nothing I can do to have more energy." Reality: On some days, having chronic fatigue can seem overwhelming. But dwelling on your fatigue can make it worse. Instead, try to focus on ways you can manage your fatigue. What was different in previous times when you had more energy? How did you cope then? Can some of those strategies help?
- All-or-nothing thinking: This is also called black-or-white thinking. Example: "I have no energy during the day, so I can't go back to work." Reality: With some creative thinking, you may be able to work out a flexible work schedule.
Choose your thoughts
The next step is to choose a more helpful thought to replace the unhelpful one.
Keeping a journal of your thoughts is one of the best ways to practice stopping, asking, and choosing your thoughts. It makes you aware of your self-talk. Write down any negative or unhelpful thoughts you had during the day. If you think you might not remember at the end of your day, keep a notepad with you so you can write down any unhelpful thoughts as they happen. Then write down a helpful message to correct the unhelpful thought.
With daily practice, more accurate and helpful thoughts will soon come naturally to you.
But there may be some truth in some of your negative thoughts. You may have some things you want to work on. If you didn't perform as well as you would like on something, write that down. You can work on a plan to correct or improve that area.
If you want, you also could write down what kind of unhelpful thought you had. Journal entries might look something like this:
Stop your negative thought
Ask what type of negative thought you had
Choose an accurate, helpful thought
"I have had more energy today, but I know that won't last for long."
Focusing on negative
"Sure, all days will be different. But I've had some days where I surprisingly felt less tired. So I know that not every day will be hard."
"I should be able to handle this by now. I'm not trying hard enough."
"Sometimes the standards that I set for myself are very high and hard to reach. But I'm learning new and more helpful ways to cope with my fatigue."
"There's really nothing I can do to feel less tired."
"On days when I haven't slept well, managed my stress well, or done my scheduled activities, it's easy to think that there's nothing I can do. But on days when I do these things, I feel better. There are things in my control that I can do to manage my chronic fatigue."
"Working for more than 2 hours is very hard, so there's no way I can ever go back to my job."
All or nothing
"I may not be able to return to my exact job, but I can be open to other arrangements that will allow me to continue to work in a similar way."
Current as of: November 29, 2017


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Bend, Ore.: How I miss your sweet singletrack, wonderful whitewater
Not only does Bend, Ore., get a longer whitewater rafting season than we do here, but they also have some unbelievable mountain biking — more than 400 miles of trails, with a mind-boggling mix of super-smooth, tough technical, wavy-gravy and playground terrain, most of which takes you through spectacular forests, that will have serious singletrack fans just grinning with glee.
One of the best rides was a five-minute drive — if you were feeling particularly zesty, you could just bike it — from the heart of downtown: Phil's Trailhead is the gateway to about 40 miles' worth of some of the most even, flat, unimpeded (am I conveying how ridiculously smooth this thing was?) trail I think I've ever experienced. Ever. It was just plain fun. And the best part came from a laugh-a-minute section called "Lower Whoops," which requires a two-mile minor slog to the top followed by a payoff of hills, bumps, jumps (with mini-bailouts along the sides if you don't want air) and other groovy features. Bet you can't do it just once.
Another trail standout was a half-hour drive away in Sisters, Peterson Ridge, with its 25 miles of easy-moderate riding, with some rocky sections, roots and tight trees here and there, but mostly just stunning alpine and meadow singletrack. The views of Mount Jefferson at one high point can't be beat.
After a few days of sweaty biking, a dip in the river is most definitely in order, and there are plenty to choose from within easy driving distance of Bend. In September and October, the water is getting cold but the air temps go up and down, so wetsuits are a good thing to have on hand. You can throw your own boat in if you drive over (we split up — one driving, one flying, mostly so we could take our own bikes), or catch a ride with High Country Expeditions, which has some of the nicest guides around and does a great job of oar-assisted paddling down the McKenzie, the Upper Klamath (Class I-IV+, depending on the section) and the North Umpqua (Class III-IV).
If you've never been on anything but desert rivers, the tree-lined banks of Oregon are a nice change-up — to put it mildly. Log features (read: things that have randomly fallen in and can rip your raft to shreds) occasionally add a little extra interest to the rapids you're trying to run, and particularly on the McKenzie, the designated Wild and Scenic portion, which means no development, the scenery of old-growth forest, with waterfalls and mountains in the background, is enough to make you want to do it two days in a row. So we did.
If you don't take your own bike over, be sure to stop in at Pine Mountain Sports, which rents 'em, fixes 'em and just loves everything about 'em. Truly one of the most service-oriented bike shops I've ever encountered. We liked it so much, we walked in with a derailleur problem and walked out with a new derailleur — attached to a brand-new, full-suspension bike. I wish owner Dan McGarigle could teach classes on customer service.
All of this activity will make you hungry, and Bend has no shortage of really good restaurants. A couple of favorites: the Pine Tavern Restaurant, worthy for its lounge that offers things like prime ribs bites in Yukon potato cups during happy hour and in general a delicious, well-executed menu of appealing items, and the casual, family-friendly Soba, where you order at the counter and then they deliver your healthy, generously portioned bowl of noodles and yummy meats in delectable sauces.
For about five minutes, we thought, "Hey, we could live here." Then we looked at the prices of real estate. So now we'll just have to content ourselves with periodic visits — because there are still a few hundred miles of singletrack left to try…
For more Travel news and features, visit The Denver Post Travel site.


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Zhang Xi to help young athletes serve up the best of themselves at Youth Olympic Games
Lausanne, Switzerland, March 17, 2014 – As young beach volleyball players get set to take part in this summer's Youth Olympic Games to be held in Nanjing from August 17 to 27, they can count on the support and experience of current beach volleyball world champion, Zhang Xi to help them through the rigours of international competition.
China's Zhang Xi is one of the 37 Athlete Role Models (ARMs) who have been chosen by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for the second edition of the Youth Olympic Games.
Zhang Xi together with former partner Chen Xue took the gold medal at the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Championships Mazury 2013 following a win at the Fuzhou Open in China at the beginning of the year.
In their first season together, they won the 2006 Shanghai Open ending the
year with another gold medal and two silvers. After playing with different
partners in 2009 they were reunited in 2010, finishing the year with gold
medals from Moscow, Aland and Sanya. They began 2011 slowly, but after winning
bronze at the World Championships in Rome they finished the season with gold
medals in Aland, Phuket and the Asian Beach Volleyball Championships. In 2012
they finished fourth at the Olympic Games in London as well as at the Asian Championships
but were second overall in FIVB World Tour with three gold medals, a silver and
FIVB President Dr. Ary S. Graça F° said, "I am very pleased to see such a talented athlete like Zhang Xi be a role model for our young beach volleyball athletes. I know that these young people will be able to learn a great deal from her and I urge them all to make full use of the opportunities available to ask questions, exchange ideas and learn from her experiences."
Selected by
the 28 International Federations whose sports will feature at Nanjing 2014, the
list comprises many legendary names from the world of sport, including Olympic
and world champions.
The main goal behind making the Athlete Role Models as accessible as possible is so they can share their experiences and inspire the young athletes to be the best they can be both on and off the field of play.Athletes will be able to interact with their Athlete Role Models in the Youth Olympic Village and through a series of educational activities and workshops that will focus on skills development, healthy living, the environment and social responsibility and Olympic values.
Athletes at the Youth Olympic Games will get a chance to converse with their role models behind the scenes during competition time and also through informal chats in the Athlete's Role Model's lounge that will be open to all participants. The athletes will also have the opportunity to learn valuable lessons from their heroes during the "Chat with Champions" sessions, which will also be accessible to people around the world through the IOC's digital platforms. Fans of the Youth Olympic Games, meanwhile, will be able to direct their questions to the Role Models during informal chat sessions on the IOC's social media channels.
Also in attendance will be the IOC Athletes' Commission, which will play a key role in the educational activities and workshops for athletes off the field of play during the Youth Olympic Games.
Click here for the full list of Athlete Role Models


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duct tape
The Canadian in me loves this clever use of duct tape (a magical invention that works on everything).
Via the Sartorialist
I'm in Palm Desert at the moment and am so far delighted by wind farms and picking lemons for my tea in the morning. Yay.
(looking forward to: barbequing, buttered popcorn, and a good burger)
ten again
I'm slightly obsessed with ballet and horses lately, which means I'm ten years old again.
Top two lovely misty horse photos by Rachelle Simoneau
My first chance to see this movie will probably be in LA over the next couple of weeks, which is too perfect. In the meantime, I'll keep loving the website.
the perfect winter cottage
The Ten Broeck Cottage in New York state by architect Messana O'Rorke, love love love.
via Kitka Design Toronto and Arch Daily
As promised, here are my Amsterdam photos, via iPhone as I'm not allowed to touch the real camera...
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Blossom of Dwimordene
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: The realm of forgotten words
Posts: 8,044
I am not going to argue about ASOIAF because what's the point, we won't convince each other either way, so I'm willing to agree to disagree. But I'll defend Turin and my thoughts on him if even if it means taking it into a whole different argument.
"I have no great fondness for the universe, but I do live there." - Eliezer Yudkowsky
Shade of Carn Dûm
Join Date: Dec 2012
Posts: 276
Turin is one of my favourite characters as well. We see him striving to do the right thing. Yes he does some very bad things, but he usually repents and tries to put them right. In my opinion when we look at the circumstances Turin did more good and accomplished more than most people and that is what makes him a hero.
Morgoth's hatred and desire to crush Turin allows Tuor to reach Gondolin. In the end he defeats "the power too great for you (Mablung and of course Turin too), too great indeed for all now that dwell in Middle-Earth."
However, in the end unlike Morwen he dies a broken man in despair.
Ghost Prince of Cardolan
Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: In Eldamar beside the walls of Elven Tirion
Posts: 551
'you have to constantly suspend your sense of belief'. I didn't, actually, though I found the last two books somewhat contrived and thinly spread.
'then there is a problem'. Is it necessarily so, though?
"Hey! Come derry dol! Can you hear me singing?" Tom Bombadil
Shade of Carn Dûm
Join Date: Dec 2012
Posts: 276
As for their ability, this is what I mean by super children. Dany is 14, Jon is 15 and they are already leading armies, conquering cities etc. It's just not very plausible. Usually children's stories have younger characters to appeal to children. Even then they usually create some kind of excuse like a magical climate increasing the maturity of kids. Arya, Bran, Dany, Robb, Jon and others just are not believable as children.
Things like the speed characters travel great distances, the climate in the North supporting farming are small things you can ignore. It's the big plot points I struggle with. For instance why does Tyrion not kill Littlefinger? Often in the books intelligent characters have to make stupid and decisions against their established character for the plot to advance.
Ghost Prince of Cardolan
Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: In Eldamar beside the walls of Elven Tirion
Posts: 551
"Hey! Come derry dol! Can you hear me singing?" Tom Bombadil
Blossom of Dwimordene
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: The realm of forgotten words
Posts: 8,044
What bothers me is not how young the children are, but how old they are in the TV series. There is a trend among fantasy novels to make young children do things that are not meant to be done by such young children, and many novels/series are worse than GOT in that respect. At least in GOT its mostly some charisma or character of the children, and that's partially explainable by the fact that you get married at puberty and have to know how to act as a head (or any other notable position) of the household. Noble boys are also taught how to lead people, so by puberty they would have some idea, even if not that much experience. Compare that to children of 9-15 years old who do physically impossible things. My siblings have recently been reading the City of Bones series and Percy Jackson series, both of which I have read, which reminds me once again about how these little children get to rule their world at least in part due to physical feats that are simply not performed by children. And in the Percy Jackson movie, the 12-year-olds look 17. Just like in GOT. 'Nough said.
(If I ranted away without being clear on what I'm saying, it doesn't bother me as much, but I agree that the children are a bit too grown up, but that's not as big of a deal in GOT as it is in some other books. What really bothers me is the movie adaptations.)
"I have no great fondness for the universe, but I do live there." - Eliezer Yudkowsky
Shade of Carn Dûm
Join Date: Dec 2012
Posts: 276
Boys rarely got married at puberty and back then puberty would often start later for girls due to the poor diet. Marriage at 13 was very rare. Girls tended to marry at 16.
I have never read Percy Jackson, but I assume it's designed for children. Children want to read books about people their age so authors have to give a bit of leeway. ASOIAF does not have this problem, though Arya is as super as any of those characters I would imagine.
The very best military minds in history led maybe a battle or two before they were 16. None of them were military genii like Robb or political genii like Dany.
I commend the show for doing a lot better with the ages. Only Joffrey needs to be aged back down to make things fit.
Shade of Carn Dûm
Join Date: Mar 2014
Posts: 265
Is there any?? I haven't read much (no fantasy except HP books), but I can't think of any other book giving the same feeling. After finishing the LotR (& before finishing it) I couldn't sleep at night thinking how the story is going to end. While reading the books, I wanted all of it to end very soon; but was sure there're going to be tears too. Shockingly, I didn't cry at all. But, later when I grasped the facts, I felt very bad. I was like, "Why Frodo, Gandalf, Bilbo had to leave?" I read few other books, but none of them affected my head so much.
A short saying oft contains much wisdom.
Ghost Prince of Cardolan
Join Date: Aug 2012
Posts: 750
We could define "feel" a number of ways I suppose but if you want "Fantasy" with similarly-styled language I can recommend the prose romances of William Morris, especially The House of the Wolfings which was an inspiration for Professor Tolkien (by his own admission: see Letter 226) in addition to its sequel The Roots of the Mountains and various others. Morris' The Glittering Plain is about the unsuitability of changeless immortality for mortal people. Unlike the spiritual or moral conflict of Professor Tolkien's narratives, Morris' work often uses a quasi-early-Germanic setting to to explore socialistic themes about ideal communities and social systems.
The adventure novels of H. Rider Haggard, which also incorporate a fair bit of the fantastic, are comparable in some respects in terms of their style. Certainly She has a level of comparability and supposedly was also something Professor Tolkien read in his youth.
While I don't think any other book could give me quite the same "feel" as Professor Tolkien's work, I do think that those seeking out comparable material would be better served looking at this sort of proto-Fantasy of the 19th century as opposed to the 20th and 21st century Fantasy "novel." I think the modern Fantasy novel is actually quite a different beast to, say, The Lord of the Rings, which definitely gave rise to the modern genre but perhaps as a consequence of that is actually, in my opinion, more a part of the tradition that came before.
"Since the evening of that day we have journeyed from the shadow of Tol Brandir."
"On foot?" cried Éomer.
Shade of Carn Dûm
Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: Toronto
Posts: 479
A difficulty is that I can think of fantasy tales that remind me of Tolkien and fantasy tales that I like, at least at times, as much, but these books are seldom the same.
So I will give two books that are not very like Tolkien but which I feel are magnificent.
The first is Jurgen, A Comedy of Justice, by James Branch Cabell, published in 1919. The name Cabell rhymes with rable. This book I discovered when I found a volume detailing all Arthurian fiction in English and decided I would read it all. Most, of course, proved mediocre. But Jurgen took me by storm.
Cabell, at the time, mostly wrote tales set in medieval Europe or the southern U.S. and the occasional fantasy work. But this work took the world by storm and set Cabell up as the foremost fantasy author of his time. He faked it as a genuine medieval tale and faked it as an obscene tale by removing innocuous paragraphs and replacing them with rows of asterisks.
The book was duly banned by the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice but won free after two years when the judge found very little that he felt would even be found by those who were looking for it and was duped into believing that Jurgen was a genuine medieval tale.
The story can be read with illustrations at http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/CABELL/title.htm and elsewhere on the web. It is a wondrous tale in which an aging pawnbroker regains his youth and travels through wondrous lands and wins the love of even more wondrous women. The tale is extraordinarily witty and clever and erudite. Jurgen wins again the first woman he ever loved, the young princess Guenevere, a ghost, the Lady of the Lake, fails to win Helen of Troy, wins a dryad, and a vampire in hell. Then he ascendeth unto heaven.
Notes are available at http://home.earthlink.net/~davidrolfe/jurgen.htm .
Cabell later jested that reviewers claimed that his later works were just Jurgen all over again, and apparently in contradiction that they were not Jurgen again. But to my way of thinking both criticisms were equally true. Cabell indeed wrote novel after novel that seemed to be attempts to redo Jurgen but none of them reached its heights. In 1930 he published all his previous eighteen volumes in revised and expanded versions as the Storisende edition of the biography of Dom Manuel. But the tales were often different enough that ones liked by some were disliked by others and Cabell's career went into decline. In the following 28 years he wrote only eight further books, all fantasies.
But Cabell remains highly esteemed and honored by the likes of Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett.
The other work I love is The House on the Borderland by William Hope Hodgson (1877-1918). Hodgson's work most closely resembles that of his younger contemporary H. P. Lovecraft. For The House on the Borderland see the Wikipedia entry at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hou...the_Borderland . Two tourists in Ireland discover a partially destroyed journal written by a recluse telling of his battles with the mysterious swine-creatures, journeys through time and space, and hints of an old love affair. No explanations are given, which does not matter.
The book is available on the web at http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10002 .
Last edited by jallanite; 07-06-2014 at 03:51 PM.
Haunting Spirit
Join Date: Aug 2014
Posts: 92
There is nothing that has the 'feel' of Tolkien, thats why I often feel disappointed by books that on the face of it have similar fantasy ingredients. But if I want Faerie, if I want to 'feel' part of a magical world, I have found no one better than Alan Garner. His Elidor, Weirdstone of Brisingamen and Moon of Gomrath have great charm and are thrilling.
I also love Susan Cooper, The Dark is Rising series.
and the Bartimaeus trilogy by Jonathan Stroud
Ghost Prince of Cardolan
Join Date: Aug 2012
Posts: 750
Hello all,
I wanted to point out something I noticed today while it was fresh in my mind, before I forget. I didn't think it was worth starting a whole new topic for, so I thought I would post it here. I know this thread is notionally about "fantasy" texts but personally I think that if you want to find literature with a similar "feel" to Professor Tolkien's work it can be found, but not in the modern fantasy genre.
As I believe I have mentioned before, I'm a scholar of utopian literature (I'm hopefully submitting a PhD on the topic in about ten days, in fact). As a result I've read a number of significant works by H.G. Wells, and today I was finishing off The Sleeper Awakes, which I began some time ago and was distracted from. This item from the climax of the novel came to my attention.
In the finale the protagonist Graham, the titular Sleeper, now owner of all the world's wealth, is using an aeroplane to hold off airborne attackers who have come to reinstate plutocratic-oligarchial rule after Graham has vowed to bring the working classes out of drudgery. At one point during the fighting, one of the "flying stages" use for launching the aeroplanes is destroyed to stop the enemies using it and it is described as follows:
The eastward stage, the one on Shooter's Hill, appeared to lift; a flash changing to a tall grey shape, a cowled figure of smoke and dust, jerked into the air. For a moment this cowled figure stood motionless, dropping huge masses of metal from its shoulders, and then it began to uncoil a dense head of smoke. The people had blown it up, aeroplane and all!" (Wells, 1910)As you can probably imagine, this reminded me very much of a comparable passage from The Lord of the Rings:
"'The realm of Sauron is ended!' said Gandalf. 'The Ring-bearer has fulfilled his Quest.' And as the Captains gazed south to the Land of Mordor, it seemed to them that, black against the pall of cloud, there rose a huge shape of shadow, impenetrable, lightning-crowned, filling all the sky. Enormous it reared above the world, and stretched out towards them a vast threatening hand, terrible but impotent: for even as it leaned over them, a great wind took it, and it was all blown away, and passed; and then a hush fell." (Tolkien, 1955)I don't know how much Wells Professor Tolkien read, beyond the fact that he presumably read The Time Machine given his occasional references in lectures and correspondence to Eloi and Morlocks, but I thought this similarity was extremely interesting.
In both cases the image represents a notionally threatening, authoritative figure. The flying stages of The Sleeper Awakes are the heart of air power, the means by which the elite of the year 2100 maintain much of their military and economic control of the world. Sauron is, of course, Sauron. Yet both are also fundamentally very impotent things, brought down by the actions of the humble.
Despite the fact that Wells and Tolkien, I believe, had rather different philosophies - Wells supported a form of socialism and was opposed to a lot of organised religion, for instance - I often find that they often deal in similar ideas and similar imagery.
"Since the evening of that day we have journeyed from the shadow of Tol Brandir."
"On foot?" cried Éomer.
Last edited by Zigûr; 08-27-2015 at 08:25 AM.
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Court reinstates lawsuit over Marine's suicide
The family of a Marine who killed himself after a tour of duty in Iraq has won a bid to reinstate a lawsuit against the federal government over his treatment by two Veterans Affairs facilities in Kentucky.
The U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday concluded that the suit brought by the family of 21-year-old Cameron Anestis of Georgetown shouldn't have been dismissed. Anestis' widow sued the federal government in 2011, seeking $22.5 million in damages after her husband developed mental and emotional problems.
Anestis' family claimed the VA was negligent when it turned away the Marine at two VA hospitals in Lexington when he sought a mental health evaluation and treatment.
The government argued that the federal courts had no jurisdiction over their decision to turn away Anestis.


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Budget agreement reached
Rep. Paul Ryan and Sen. Patty Murray unveiled a two-year budget agreement late Tuesday night that they say will end years of bitter budget wars on Capitol Hill.
The framework amounts to a modest deal that averts another government shutdown, replaces the sequester and provides a level of certainty on spending that hasn't been seen in Washington for several years. But it doesn't raise the debt ceiling, which Congress must address sometime next spring. And it's far from a grand bargain that overhauls entitlement programs or the tax code — an approach the negotiators refused to entertain for fear of getting bogged down.
Story Continued Below
The bipartisan package includes $63 billion of "sequester relief," $85 billion of total savings, and $23 billion in net deficit reduction. The agreement would set the discretionary spending level for fiscal year 2014 at $1.012 trillion, and $1.014 trillion in FY 2015.
( Also on POLITICO: Why timing is right for budget deal)
President Barack Obama backed the deal and Ryan and Murray predicted that it would pass both the House and Senate. Still, both lawmakers acknowledged that conservatives and progressives will find items they don't like in the package.
For instance, a number of top House Democrats are unhappy the agreement does not include an extension in federal unemployment benefits expiring on Dec. 28. Meanwhile, federal workers hired after Dec. 31, 2013, will have to pay more toward their retirement.
Conservatives will be equally displeased that the plan will require businesses to pay higher premiums to the federal government to guarantee their pension benefits.
Those under age 62 who retired from the military will see a slightly smaller annual cost-of-living increase. Tickets prices will rise for airline passengers. And Medicare providers will face $22 billion in across-the-board cuts in 2022-23, beyond the time period covered by the current Budget Control Act.
( Also on POLITICO: Conservatives balk at budget deal)
Murray and Ryan, however, stood side-by-side to hail the deal as progress, not perfection. They both repeatedly said it was just a "first step." And both lawmakers said far more work needs to be done to revamp the U.S. government's fiscal outlook, while still urging their colleagues to back this agreement.
"This bill reduces the deficit by $23 billion, it does not raise taxes, and it cuts spending in a smarter way," Ryan said at Tuesday night press conference. "I see this agreement as a step in the right direction."
"I'm proud of this agreement," Ryan added. "It reduces the deficit—without raising taxes. And it cuts spending in a smarter way. It's a firm step in the right direction, and I ask all my colleagues in the House to support it."
"This agreement breaks through the recent dysfunction to prevent another government shutdown and roll back sequestration's cuts to defense and domestic investments in a balanced way," said Murray. "It's a good step in the right direction that can hopefully rebuild some trust and serve as a foundation for continued bipartisan work."
In a statement issued by the White House, Obama also praised the Ryan-Murray package.
"This agreement doesn't include everything I'd like – and I know many Republicans feel the same way. That's the nature of compromise," Obama said. "But it's a good sign that Democrats and Republicans in Congress were able to come together and break the cycle of short-sighted, crisis-driven decision-making to get this done."
Party leaders on both sides of the Capitol, including House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) also issued statements backing the deal.
Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), ranking member on the House Budget Committee, offered more tepid support.
"This agreement isn't perfect, but it is certainly better than no agreement at all," said Van Hollen, a key player in the House Democratic Caucus. "This difficult negotiation has gone through many phases. The final product replaces part of the job-killing sequester without disproportionally hitting working families, including hundreds of thousands of public servants. It's a small, but good step forward for our country."
Both Murray and Ryan said the agreement, coming after weeks of tightly controlled talks between the two Budget Committee chairmen, will provide certainty for business leaders and financial markets that has been missing since the GOP takeover of Congress in 2010.


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A door that fell off a small plane has been found on a Monterey motel roof.
The Salinas Californian reports the door fell from a Beechcraft King Air twin-turboprop plane that took off from Monterey Regional Airport Thursday afternoon. The pilot heard a pop and turned around the land. He realized the door was missing when he was back on the ground.
But the door wasn't discovered until Friday morning when a contractor working outside the motel noticed it.
The front desk manager at the El Castell Motel says no one heard the 75-pound door crash into the tile roof because the room below was unoccupied.
The National Transportation Safety Board will examine the door and the plane to determine why it came loose and fell.


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Many moons ago, I cooked up my first batch of apple butter. It was surprisingly simple and tasted better than anything I had growing up; and from what I remember, the jars my mom would bring home tasted pretty darn amazing! This no-fail low-maintenance method is my constant go-to when making apple butter. It is so easy you'll wonder why anyone would choose a different route!
If you want to make apple butter, the first thing you need to do is make applesauce: read – a perfect recipe for putting up during the off-season! The directions for unsweetened applesauce are in the beginning of the linked recipe; although, I highly encourage anyone who loves vanilla and maple to make the "awesome sauce". Trust me, you will not be disappointed! When apples come into season this year, I'm making a batch of vanilla-maple apple butter!
Apple Butter – yields approximately 9 pints
9 qts unsweetened applesauce
2 tbsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp ground allspice
4 cups sugar
Place 6 qts of applesauce in your slow-cooker (or however much fills it to within 1-inch of the rim), add the spices and 2 cups of sugar; mix well. Set heat to high and cook for an hour with the lid vented; resting the lid on a long wooden spoon works well. Reduce the heat to low and allow to continue cooking for an additional 8-10 hours.
Once the mixture has been reduced by half, add the remaining applesauce and sugar. Stir and cook several more hours allowing the flavors to mix. When the apple butter has reached your desired thickness, using an immersion blender, purée mixture into a creamy consistency. Ladle into hot, sterilized, half-pint jars and remove air bubbles; wipe rims, add two-piece lids and process in a boiling-water bath for 10 minutes, or for as long as your altitude requires.
Images and content copyright © 2013 Danielle R Limoge. Recipe courtesy of PickYourOwn.org.


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Wellness Services
Our wellness services focus on all aspects of your well-being—mind and body. Maybe you want to live healthier, but don't know where to begin. Whether you're looking to quit smoking, eat healthier, exercise more, or cope with recovery from a life-altering disease, we've got the resources to help. Many of the classes and services we offer are free, and most are available to all residents in the community.
Some of our Wellness Services include:
- Classes and events (paid and free)
- Support Groups for patients, family and caregivers
- Guidance connecting to other services throughout John Muir Health
- Assistance finding community health resources and organizations
View and sign up for a class, event or support group.
For questions about the Wellness Services we offer, please call (925) 941-7900.


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Gastronomy Festival in RigaCreated: 15.08.2012. Views: 2 / 415
From 1–9 September, Riga's most outstanding restaurants, pubs, cafes, patisseries and pizzerias will join in the Gastronomy Festival to show the high levels of professionalism in catering and hospitality and a unique range of gastronomic senses each of participating caterers offer to the residents and guests of Riga.
For participation in the Gastronomy Festival have applied 33 restaurants, cafes and bars – restaurants "Ambiente", "Avalon", "Bibliotēka N°1 restorāns", "Burkāns", "Dstyle Lounge", "KID*", "Kitchen", "Gutenbergs", "Merlin", "Panda9", "Ribs&Rock", "Steiku Haoss", "SUITE Restorāns", "Teātra Bāra restorāns", beer restaurant "Merlin", Jewish restaurant "Menora", 3 chefs' restaurant "Tam labam būs augt", raw foods restaurant "Raw Garden", fish restaurant "Le Dome", self-service frozen yoghurt store-café "Yo Yo Frozen Yoghurt", wine bar "Garage", pub "Lāsīte", Spanish tapas bar "Madride", cocktail bars "Betty Page", "D'vine bar", cafe "Mierā" and the culture bar "Sapņi un kokteiļi".
'Gastronomy Festival is held within the framework of the International Food Fair "Riga Food 2012" and is aimed to promote eating out culture in Latvia breaking the stereotype that eating out at restaurant, café or bar costs a fortune. Therefore Riga's most outstanding restaurants, cafes and bars await everyone to enjoy unique menus, special offers at very special prices. Let's transform Riga into the metropolis of gastronomy!' the festival coordinator Oskars Šļakota told.
'Even though Latvians prefer eating at home, prices at restaurants have become friendlier and caterers' professionalism has reached new levels. This festival is a wonderful opportunity to show cookery skills using local products and unveil unique menu to attract new clients,' the executive director of the Association of Hotels and Restaurants of Latvia Santa Graikste explained.
Read more about special offers in the festival website www.gastrofest.lv or the website of "Riga Food 2012". Follow festival news in social networks (draugiem.lv/gastrofest.lv, twitter.com/gastrofest_lv, facebook.com/Gastrofest.lv), join competitions and win prizes!
Gastronomy Festival takes place within the framework of the International Food Fair "Riga Food 2012" held by International Exhibition Company BT 1 and the producers' group Piraija Event in conjoint with the Association of Hotels and Restaurants of Latvia, Chefs 'Club, Latvian Bartenders Federation and every festival participant. Information support: Draugiem.lv, LiveRiga, "Četras sezonas", "BarRadar", BonAppetit.lv, "Izglītība un kultūra", ISIC, Spoki.lv, KasNotiek.lv, EasyGet.lv, Vietas.lv, "Latvia Travel", CeloArStilu.lv, "Baltic Taste" and "TAS Baltics".


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Things to Do in Key West
5th Annual Florida Keys Ocean Festival & Waterfront Craft Show
There will be so much going on at this free festival and craft show on March 29th. Sponsored by the Mote Marine Laboratory, there will be activities for the whole family. Come enjoy live music by Howard Livingston and the Mile Marker 24 Band, educational seminars, great food, art vendors, 5k fun run and so much more. The festival will be from 11 to 6 at the Eco Discovery Center along the Truman Waterfront. For more information visit www.keysoceanfest.org.
|Mar 29, 2014;
|Event Type:
|Things to do in Key West


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February 12, 2013
As it's reported that suspected cop killer Christopher Dorner may be cornered in a cabin in the Big Bear mountain resort in California, CNN has announced that they will not broadcast a live feed of the event.
Alex breaks down CNN's cutting of the feed:
The following feeds come from local news stations in the area:
CNN host Wolf Blitzer called the request to cut the live feed "unprecedented."
Checkpoints Paralyze Big Bear
Chris Dorner Torched Waco Style?
Chris Dorner Causes Police State Crackdown


text: A few high-quality purchases are a better investment. By Anne Kates Smith, Executive Editor August 31, 2012 Elizabeth Cline is the author of Overdressed: The Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion. What's the problem with the way we buy clothes? Elizabeth Cline: We've broken away from the seasonal cycle of clothing. You no longer see new clothing lines two to four times a year; you're seeing them every week. The problem is that consumers are hooked on a cycle of buying and tossing clothes—or keeping them but not getting a lot of use out of them.SEE OUR SLIDE SHOW: 5 Budget-Friendly Essentials for Your Work Wardrobe Advertisement What does that mean for our finances? EC: We're spending the smallest percentage of our income on clothing that we've ever spent. But we're essentially throwing that money away—$20 here, $20 there. It's not a lot, but if you're only going to wear an item once or twice, whatever you're spending on clothes goes down the drain. That's the psychology of cheap: We don't value things we pay little for. With clothing, that means we're less likely to sew a button back on or try to get a stain out. Are men caught up in this "fast fashion" cycle, too? EC: The men's market is less fashion-sensitive. It's easier to find a mid-market garment that is reasonably well-made and reasonably priced. But the fashion chains, such as H&M, are going after men, and they're becoming more frequent consumers of clothing. Advertisement How can people get better value from their clothing? EC: The key is being mindful. Set a budget, and think about how you want to spend it. Americans buy eight pairs of shoes and 68 garments every year, spending about $1,100. If you bought two to three pairs of shoes and ten garments per year, you'd be investing in clothes that aren't going to fall apart. Look for things that have a unique design or are classics, so they don't look dated as quickly. Follow the care instructions for proper laundering. Take them to a tailor to be mended or fit properly. Where can you find (and how do you recognize) high-quality clothing? EC: If you have a local or higher-end department store, start there. Dillard's, Neiman Marcus and Nordstrom carry domestically produced lines. Find handmade and vintage clothing on Etsy.com. Flip the garment inside out and look at the seams; see if the buttons are sewn on securely. To learn about quality, I went to thrift stores to look at clothes made before 1980, when things were still pretty well put together. This article first appeared in Kiplinger's Personal Finance magazine. For more help with your personal finances and investments, please subscribe to the magazine. It might be the best investment you ever make.


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Moscow police 'neutralize' school gunman
Russian state media reported Monday that a student was detained after he held around two dozen teenagers hostage in a biology classroom at a school in Moscow before being "neutralized" by police.
The gunman was said initially to be a father of a student at the school but was later confirmed as a pupil.
The unnamed student burst into the school and shot and killed a school guard and a teacher. A police officer was wounded in the incident.
The student's motives were not immediately clear, but the situation was said to be diffused in part by help from the gunman's father. The student has been handed over to investigators, the Interfax news agency reported.
Russia's interior ministry said that children in school No. 263 have been released and that none of the children were wounded.
The incident comes at a time when authorities in Russia are on high alert in the run up to the Winter Olympics that begin later this month, but early suggestions indicate that Monday's shooting is an isolated one and not related to terror-related threats that have been overshadowing the start of the Games in Sochi.


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Reflections: essays, aphorisms, autobiographical writing
Schocken Books, 1986 - 348 Seiten
A companion volume to Illuminations, the first collection of Walter Benjamin's writings, Reflections presents a further sampling of his wide-ranging work. Here Benjamin evolves a theory of language as the medium of all creation, discusses theater and surrealism, reminisces about Berlin in the 1920s, recalls conversations with Bertolt Brecht, and provides travelogues of various cities, including Moscow under Stalin. He moves seamlessly from literary criticism to autobiography to philosophical-theological speculations, cementing his reputation as one of the greatest and most versatile writers of the twentieth century. Also included is a new preface by Leon Wieseltier that explores Benjamin's continued relevance for our times.
Im Buch
19 Seiten stimmen mit dem Suchbegriff "Marxist" in diesem Buch überein.
Wo ist der Rest dieses Buches?
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We can remark in passing that there is no better starting point for thought than laughter. In particular, thought usually has a better chance when one is shaken by laughter than when one's mind is ... Vollständige Rezension lesen
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Reflections: Essays, Aphorisms, Autobiographical Writings
Walter Benjamin
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Adalbert Stifter appears art nouveau Baudelaire become Benjamin Berlin Bertolt Brecht Bolshevik bourgeois bourgeoisie Brecht Cafe called close communication concept creation creative criticism demon destructive character dialectical divine dream ends epic theater essay existence experience expression fascism fate feeling function German give guilt hand Hannah Arendt hashish human idea intellectual Kafka Karl Kraus Kraus language later lawmaking less linguistic literary living magic Marxist means memory ment mental entity mimetic moral Moscow nature never night novel origin Paris perhaps person petit bourgeois picture poem poetry political production profane proletarian question relation relationship revolutionary Russian Saint-Simonists seemed signs social sphere stands street strike struggle Surrealism Surrealists theater things thought Threepenny Opera tion true turn violence walls Walter Benjamin window word writing


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On Tuesday, nearly 2,400 students from 28 schools across the state gathered for the HMF FitKids in School "Final Mile" event at Rentschler Field. Over 80 students from McAlister Intermediate School participated in the event.
The Hartford Marathon Foundation's HMF FitKids in School program is designed to encourage a healthy, active lifestyle in middle school students. Students ran before, during or after school over the past five weeks to accumulate 12 or 25 miles. The "Final Mile" celebrated the completion of their marathon (26.2 miles) or half-marathon (13.1 miles).
Each student received a medal as they crossed the finish line to celebrate their accomplishment. Following the run, students participated in the World of Fitness Expo, which included interactive fitness activities and demonstrations.
Transportation, snacks and t-shirts were provided free to participating schools through the support of HMF FitKids in School sponsors, including the Aetna Foundation and United Bank Foundation Connecticut.
This year's events kicks off race week activities for the Eversource Hartford Marathon and Half Marathon on October 10. For more information on HMF FitKids or to participate as a volunteer or run the marathon, half marathon, 5K, team relay or FitKids events on race day, visit www.hartfordmarathon.com.
This item was posted by a community contributor. To read more about community contributors, click here.


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Ok, I'm going to be the first to admit that out of the box (never have actually witnessed one of these things in action) I had a 3 minute window of time that went like "Wow, so where does the cheese go?". It isn't that the Savora Rotary Grater is complicated, it isn't. In fact, they don't ship with directions. The picture on the box should show a shot with the hopper opened, once you figure out that the handle part actually opens and you place the cheese inside it's all smooth sailing 🙂
I decided to put it to the test. What better way to do that then to fire up the grill, heat up some fully cooked Brooklyn Cure's Brat's, and take out the Murray's Select Vermont Cheddar. We had the opportunity to "test" out the Murray's Griller Pack from Murrays Cheese in New York City (in the Village). I put a nice hunk of the Murray's Select Vermont Cheddar in the Savora Rotary Grater and cranked away over the brat that was sitting in the crusty bun. This is easily my best cheese grating experience.
It was also a very good brat experience 🙂 The Savora Rotary Grater runs about $30 bucks (US) online. I would suggest not purchasing it at Sears because they are charging $70 for it. I have no idea why. I'd give the Savora Rotary Grater 5 out of 5 stars. Its' a great cheese grater, and a great gift idea for our 2013 Father's Day Gift List.


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text: Pastor's Doug's winsome and educational series will revive your faith and strengthen your walk with the Lord as you explore the lives of Bible heroes who point you to the ultimate hero–Jesus Christ. Ten timely and faith-transforming presentations! Comes with Heroes of Faith: Inspirational Stories of Salvation companion book! (3 DVDs)


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2018-10-25 - "When you start a family, getting the stroller that's right for you will have a genuine impact on your life for those first years." says Max Barenbrug, co-founder of Bugaboo. For more than 15 years, Bugaboo has inspired hundreds of thousands of parents to go out and explore the world by creating strollers to suit every lifestyle.
Why parents all over the world trust Bugaboo
Choosing the right stroller is clearly a big decision, and one that you want to get right. So, why do so many people decide to buy Bugaboo? Our customers are always telling us it's down to three factors: value for money, quality and performance.
An investment that lasts
Value for money is one of the key reasons that people choose Bugaboo. We may not be the cheapest on the market, but a Bugaboo stroller is an investment that lasts. Instead of having different strollers for your child's different ages, with Bugaboo you only need one. The Bugaboo Cameleon³, for example, can be configured in different ways, so the same stroller works from baby through to toddler. And with three different wheel positions, you can go all-terrain, exploring the city, off-road, even the beach or through snow.
Our customers also love the way that our strollers keep their retail value - you only have to type Bugaboo into a second hand site such as e-Bay to see that Bugaboo strollers enjoy a second life, sometimes a third life and even beyond. There are Bugaboo strollers out there, with mud on their wheels and stories to tell, that were sold over 15 years ago!
Another thing that makes us really proud is that almost all of our strollers end up being used by more than one child. We're always hearing how they are shared with family members or between friends, which just goes to show they are truly built to last.
Enjoy those first years together
Quality is another reason that so many people chose Bugaboo. Parents are looking for a durable stroller that's intelligently designed, solidly made, and above all safe to use.
We want our products to be used every day, yet last for generations - so we invest in high quality materials and exhaustive product testing. We are also constantly improving our designs; in the past four years, we've introduced more than 1,400 product and process improvements. We're constantly working at making the best even better.
Test, test and test again
To ensure quality we make sure we're in charge of the entire development and production process - from the first sketch to the final stroller. Our testing facilities go far beyond global standards, which is one of the reasons that so many parents trust their Bugaboo strollers to literally go the extra mile.
Just for starters, we pick strollers at random from our production line and submit them to the Irregular Surface Test, in which they have to pass over a track with 480,000 bumps. Another example is the Curb Mount Test, where we simulate going up a street curb 10,000 times – with a full load in the stroller.
Additionally our fabrics go through endless machine-wash cycles and have to pass abrasion tests to ensure that they still look the same after heavy use. As long as you wash at 30℃, your stroller fabrics will always look brand new.
It's all about performance
We always hear how parents are delighted by extra functionalities and details that they never noticed until they actually needed them. And, crucially, all of our strollers drive like a dream. You can really tell the difference when you take one out for a spin! With excellent shock absorption, one-hand steering, and a seamless 360° turn in even the tightest of spaces, you can do anything and go anywhere.
Of course, with such a smooth ride, children sleep easily and comfortably in their Bugaboo strollers, which – ask any parent - is a very good thing indeed…
"Hi - I wanted to let you know how much I LOVE my Bugaboo. We spent ages choosing which stroller we would like to buy, and my husband (an engineer) was very keen on the bugaboo for its design qualities and engineering. I'm constantly being impressed as I use it - it really has been designed with ease of use in mind. I borrowed a friend's non-Bugaboo stroller for a few days and was very glad to get back to my Bugaboo Cameleon 3 - it's so much easier and nicer to use - I would not be without it!"
Katie Gilchrist, UK


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By Ardit Sulce | in Online Courses
InstructorArdit Sulce received his Master's degree in Geospatial Technologies from the Institute of Geoinformatics at University of Muenster, Germany. He also holds a Bachelor's degree in Geodetic Engineering.
Important Details
By Arkadiusz Wiodarczyk | in Online Courses
InstructorArkadiusz Wlodarczyk has had experience developing websites for over 14 years, and has programmed for over 10 years. Based in Poland, he is the author of 27 popular video courses about programming, web development, and math. He has also created 7 video courses in English, and has taught tens of thousands of students enrolled across all his courses.
Important Details
By Loonycorn | in Online Courses
InstructorLoonycorn is comprised of two individuals—Janani Ravi and Vitthal Srinivasan—who have honed their respective tech expertise at Google and Flipkart. The duo graduated from Stanford University and believes it has distilled the instruction of complicated tech concepts into funny, practical, engaging courses, and is excited to be sharing its content with eager students.
Important Details
By Mashrur Hossain | in Online Courses
InstructorMashrur Hossain has been a technology professional for over a decade and holds degrees in both Computer Science and Economics. He has worked with Enterprise Software Systems throughout his career with roles in analysis, development, and management. He is very passionate about web application development and believes Ruby on Rails has proven to be a very strong force in this field. Join him for his comprehensive Ruby on Rails Developer courses as he guides you through the world of web application development using Rails.
Important Details
By Nick Walter Apps | in Online Courses
InstructorNick Walter is an iOS developer that has been focused on mobile app design and creation for over 3 years. His involvement in the iOS community started off with a bang, and in 2013 was one of 25 students worldwide to be invited to Apple's "Cocoa Camp." Since the announcement of the new Swift programming language by Apple, he has buried himself in the Apple documentation and any online resources available. He currently has 8 iOS apps in the App Store, which total over 300,000+ downloads.
Details & Requirements
By Jose Salvatierra | in Online Courses
InstructorJose Salvatierra has been teaching computer science and playing and teaching music (grades 1 to 8) for over four years, to students of all ages and all skill levels. He started programming at the age of 10, just a couple years after he started studying music, when his dad, excited that he had showed interest in similar things to himself, taught him the basics of Marin Saric's METAL. Shortly thereafter they moved on to RealBASIC, and from there Jose started learning Java and C.
Details & Requirements


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Two family lawyers tell HollywoodLife.com that if Jesse James is really vindictive, he DOES have the right to keep Sandra Bullock away from his children!
We have some horrible news for Sandra Bullock. In addition to dealing with an imminent divorce from cheating husband Jesse James, experts tell us that Jesse CAN ban Sandra from seeing his children!
"She doesn't have a right to see those kids. They are not her kids, and there is no such thing as custodial right for a stepparent," LA-based family lawyer Kelly Chang-Rickert tells HollywoodLife.com. "The law is California prefers biological parents. Jesse has the whole say."
So unfair! Jesse, 41, is the loser here, after cheating on his Oscar-winning wife with a reported 15 mistresses. But it will be Sandra, 45, who will lose out on seeing his kids, Sunny, 6, Chandler, 15, and Jesse Jr., 12.
A second family lawyer, Michael G. Dave of Marcus, Watanabe, Snyder & Dave, LLP, agrees with Chang. "Sandra doesn't have much access to rights. She didn't adopt the children. She's Jesse's wife who wants to divorce him. She's got a long uphill battle to assert any rights to see the children."
Dave adds, "I don't think Sandra has much rights to assert if Jesse doesn't want her with the children. He is the custodial parent. He has full rights. I think she has a zero percent chance of [getting custody] in a family law setting. Once Jesse slams the hammer down in turns of allowing the children from seeing Sandra, she doesn't have much of a case."
But Sandra, who was married to Jesse for five years, was practically like a second mother to his kids. Shouldn't she have SOME rights?
"Legally she might not be allowed, but Sandy SHOULD be allowed to see the kids," Dave tells us, adding, "If he really wants to be a good parent and if he truly has the best interest of his children, then he'd want to encourage it."
But then, we all know what a dirtbag Jesse James is (one who was caught not wearing his wedding ring April 26, by the way). Who can predict what he'll find the best interest of his children to be?
– Laura Schreffler


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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, the first Latina to head a major federal agency, announced plans to resign on Wednesday, just as President Barack Obama faces questions about a lack of women in his second-term leadership team.
Solis said in a statement she had submitted her resignation to Obama - not an unexpected development given that many Cabinet members grow fatigued by the long days in office and are eager to look at opportunities in the private sector after four years.
She grappled with trying to bolster the U.S. workforce at a time of fiscal crisis and recovery from recession. "There is still much to do, but we are well on the road to recovery, and middle-class Americans know the president is on their side," she said.
Obama, in a statement, called her a "tireless champion for working families."
So far, Obama has picked white males for the three biggest Cabinet positions - Senator John Kerry to replace Hillary Clinton as secretary of state and former Senator Chuck Hagel as defense secretary. He was due to announce Jack Lew as treasury secretary on Thursday, a source said.
Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and a close confidante of Obama, withdrew her name last month from consideration for the secretary of state post in the face of what promised to be a contentious Senate confirmation battle.
Rice had drawn heavy fire from Republicans for remarks she made in the aftermath of a September 11 attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya, in which four Americans were killed, including Ambassador Christopher Stevens.
The appointments of men only are leading to some questions as to whether Obama is losing diversity from his senior leadership team.
White House spokesman Jay Carney urged critics to render a judgment after Obama has filled out his team.
"Women are well represented in the president's senior staff here," he said, noting that two of the president's deputy chiefs of staff are women, as is the White House counsel.
At the same time as the Solis announcement, the White House said that Attorney General Eric Holder would be among first-term Cabinet members who will stay as Obama begins his second term. Holder, the first black U.S. attorney general, has been a lightning rod for criticism from conservatives.
Republicans tried to oust him after a botched department operation called "Fast and Furious" that targeted gun trafficking along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Two others Cabinet members plan to remain as well: Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Veteran Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki, a White House official said. There appeared to be no plans for Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to leave.
Additional reporting by Roberta Rampton and Jeff Mason, Editing by Alistair Bell and Will Dunham


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The entry level freestyle Heretic is full of pro level features. Clean designed frame and fork, featuring Tektro U-brakes front and rear including an SST Oryg detangler. The 3-piece cranks and 38x14T gearing gives you the go, and a full package of Felt components to keep you riding in style.
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Itching to know more about Naughty Dog's upcoming post-apocalyptic action title The Last of Us? Well you've come to the right place, as the developer has just released a handful of brand-new screenshots alongside a detailed description of the demo that was shown to Game Informer a few weeks back.
The full rundown on the entire demonstration can be found on the PS Blog, but I'll highlight some of the major points (note: there are a few SPOILERS ahead, so proceed with caution). The demo itself is about fifteen minutes in length and starts off with main characters Joel and Ellie running into a bit of trouble on the road as other survivors side swipe them, sending their truck barreling off of the road.
The gameplay then picks up as the two get their footing in a convenience store that becomes quickly overrun with other survivors ready to attack. Joel and Ellie then work together as a team to take out the waves of adversaries demonstrating:
A very tense, deliberate overview of the unique AI for The Last of Us, how the balance of power between weapons creates an atmosphere of extreme tension in combat, exploring the environment and scavenging, and the relationship between Joel and Ellie.
The demo concludes with several minutes of exploration that take them outside to the vibrantly green overgrown world as well as an abandoned warehouse. Check out the screenshots below, all of which were taken from in-game footage of the demo.
Be sure to sound off in the comments below to share with us your opinions on how you feel The Last of Us is shaping up.


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Membership Support
We appreciate your consistent support of our spiritual home, the Zen Center of Syracuse Hoen-ji, through regular monthly Membership Support. As you may already know, this forms a major part of our yearly budget, helping us care for our teacher, sustain all aspects of our practice, and maintain our temple and grounds.
Your personal Sangha Membership Information form, already on file, outlines the support guideline as at least $10 per month for every $10,000 of annual income or as your current situation allows. Using this form, you may adjust your amount at any time in accordance with your circumstances.
In response to the diverse needs of our members, we are providing various methods of payment. Each method upholds the consistency that is vital to our budget as we meet our operating expenses.
Please consider each method below, and choose one that works best for you. So, whether continuing your previous level of support or making a new one, please fill out the form below.
We are grateful for your careful consideration as we all support the profound practice at the Zen Center of Syracuse Hoen-ji!


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Re: "Coy Mathis' family celebrates civil rights win for transgender child," June 25 news story.
Letter-writer Ross S. Pacini expresses his "shock and disappointment" at the ruling allowing 6-year-old transgender girl Coy Mathis to use the girls' restroom at her school. He worries about other students being "robbed of [their] innocence," but I have no idea what he is talking about, because in the five years that I regularly used elementary school bathrooms, I saw other students' privates exactly zero times. Heck, all my classmates could have been transgender and I never would have known.
Pacini says, "Is it too much to ask that 6-year-olds simply be learning to read and write and not struggling with issues of sexual identity?" Yes, it is — and it's insultingly condescending to say that young children have no concept of gender identity. At age 6, I knew I was a girl. Coy Mathis knows she is, too.
Kelsey Crocker, Centennial
This letter was published in the June 26 edition.
Coy Mathis' parents said she would not have anything to do with "boy" stuff by the time she was 18 months old. That seems ridiculous; at 18 months, children are not making those kinds of distinctions unless activist parents are prompting them. Shame on the parents; they have found new careers advocating for a "cause."
Schools and businesses cannot/should not have to accommodate any variation of behavior our warped society can devise. We have fallen over backward to satisfy political correctness.
James L. Sullivan, Denver
This letter was published online only.
Some people are not thinking clearly. Will allowing Coy Mathis to use girls' restrooms continue all the way up to puberty? By then, a body of decisions would be available to argue that Coy should be allowed access to girls' showers after gym or sports.
Permissiveness in this case does a grave injustice to Coy and society in general, which has nothing to do with personal freedoms and everything to do with what was once known as "the common good."
Rosetta Rogers, Aurora
This letter was published in the June 26 edition.
For information on how to send a letter to the editor, click here. Follow eLetters on Twitter to receive updates about new letters to the editor when they're posted.


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Conductive immunity EMC testing within SCHURTER Input Systems
Danielson now has an in house test facility to do pre-compliance conductive immunity tests. While testing during the development phase, possible EMC issues can be recovered. That gives more confidence in succeeding at the final (expensive) EMC tests first time and is of course cost-effective.
With dedicated equipment our engineers perform conductive immunity tests on your touch-application. With an RF-source, disturbances are simulated and coupled directly into your product. Interference occurs if the received energy causes a device (the receptor) to function in an unwanted manner, like false touches or suddenly shutting down. The level of unwanted behaviour depends on the coupling path as well as the source and the victim. Reduction of interference can be done by making the coupling path worse and/or (even better) suppress the source. Our engineers will give you a detailed report of the tests performed and where possible make some suggestions for EMC-improvement of your product.
Important facts that you should consider when designing a product with a capacitive touchscreen are for example:
• Sensor lines (behind cover glass) are small antennas that receive and emit electromagnetic energy
• Larger touchscreens are more sensitive for EMI/EMC issues
• When touching the screen, EMC properties can degrade slightly
• Capacitive touchscreens need a good electrical ground level. A touchscreen controller must use a proper (low-impedance) connection to the equipment ground
• The mechanical construction of the product affect EMC properties. Engineers at Danielson can assist with extensive knowledge
How can SCHURTER help you?
The experts at Danielson have extensive knowledge of Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC) and they can assist you with a conducted immunity test at Danielson. They can also give advice and suggestions to improve your product, both mechanical and electrical, and help you when a test plan is needed for the final EMC tests. We prefer to be involved in your design phase as early as possible.
If you would like more information about what SCHURTER can do for you regarding to EMC, please contact us. Our experts are at your service to assist in solving your EMC issues.