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Today is SewMamaSew Giveaway Day! It's always a lot of fun participating and finding new blogs. If you are a new visitor, I love all kinds of textile crafts and I recently opened up my own shop where I sell quilts, bags, handspun yarn, and other goodies. I also design knit and crochet patterns. Last week, I stitched up a bunch of circle scarves in voile and velveteen. There are 2 different sizes and they make great holiday gifts.
Would you like to win this scarf? It's 8" W x 52" long made from soft cotton voile and is just long enough to wrap twice around the neck. There are 3 chances to win and I will ship worldwide. Make sure I have a way to contact you should you win.
- Leave a comment on this post. What is your favorite handmade gift to make or to receive? You could also visit the shop and let me know what your favorite item is.
- Like my page on Facebook and leave a comment letting me know you did.
- Sign up for my newsletter and leave me a comment letting me know you did.
The contest will close on Friday evening, December 7 and I will choose a random winner Monday morning, December 10. Good luck and thanks for entering!


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Movies, TV shows, boy bands — you never know what's going to inspire the hottest new baby names. We predict these unusual monikers will move up the baby name charts because of their pop culture ties.
We think this Persian name will experience a huge jump in popularity thanks to Game of Thrones. On the show, the character Arya is a daughter of a ruler and was raised as a boy (and sword fighter!) when she was separated from her family. Arya means "friend" and "faithful." (Pretty, huh?)
Beyoncé and Jay-Z caused quite a stir when they chose this name for their baby girl, but the color trend has been going strong with celebs for a while. Kelly Preston and John Travolta have a daughter Ella Bleu and Alicia Silverstone and Christopher Jarecki named their son Bear Blu.
Pronounced like Nile, this Irish name (it means "cloud") is experiencing an increase in searches due to blond heartthrob and singer Niall Horan of boy band One Direction.
We think surname of the main character of F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel is sure to rise in popularity when the film debuts at Christmas. It definitely will help that Jay Gatsby will be played by everyone's favorite leading man, Leonardo DiCaprio.
Crazy, Stupid, Love actress Beth Littleford adopted a baby girl in March and named her Halcyon. The name is derived from Halcyone, a mythical kingfisher bird that calmed the seas.
This is the title character of Quentin Tarantino's next movie about Django Reinhardt, a Belgian jazz guitarist who adopted the Gypsy nickname meaning "I awake."
People are starting to forget all about the '70s movie Sybil, where the title character (played by Sally Field) has multiple personality disorder and instead are getting inspired by kindhearted nurse Sybil Crawley of Downton Abbey, bringing back this ancient Greek name.
The Hunger Games are everywhere, especially when it comes to baby names. Rue used her survival skills to befriend Katniss in the Games. Name your daughter after this clever tribute, and she'll be the talk of the playground.
This English name means "son of the grey-haired one." The Grayson family on ABC's Revenge is the inspiration for this unique boy's name. But there are plenty of other Graysons in pop culture, such as the bachelor-turned-family man Josh Hopkins plays on Cougartown.
Forget Lily or Rose. Instead, try this (yes, another) nod to The Hunger Games. Primrose was chosen as a tribute, but older sister Katniss volunteered to save her sweet-natured sister.

subset: commoncrawl


text: ALBANY - Children were running around and laughing as they toyed with the hands-on exhibits showcasing the flora and fauna of the Pine Bush at the preserve's Discovery Center Sunday afternoon, all the while supervised by their parents. The energy and noise are commonplace in the center, but this group of babies, toddlers, and young adults was unlike many others. Nearly all of the children had been born with a congenital heart defect, and nearly all of them had been operated on at Albany Medical Center by Dr. Neil Devejian, chief of pediatric cardiothoracic surgery. "Some had critical heart defects that required surgery in the first moments of life, first days of life and others that required surgery months of years of age -- all of them fixed and going forward quite well with there lives," said Devejian, who was present reconnecting with patient families whom he had not seen, in some cases, for several years. Only nine out of every 100 births results in a child with a congenital heart defect, according to the American Heart Association (AHA). These can range from a hole between the upper and lower heart chambers, which requires a "simple "procedure, said Devejian, to much more significant types of heart disease where half the heart has not developed. Depending on the defect, some children required one surgery, while others may need upwards of three or more, in some cases. At 10 days old, Austin Maiello had congestive heart failure due to a tissue blockage in one of his heart valve's, a circumstance that prompted Devejian to operate. Now 13, Maiello is two years past his most recent surgery, his third, and hopefully his last. He hopes to enjoy many more years walking through the woods near his Clifton Park home. Other children could not be caught or quieted for an interview -- too busy playing with the tantalizing displays -- as was the case with 4-year-old Jack James. His mother, Shannon James, explained that he required Devejian's intervention soon after the birth. "He was 12 hours old when he turned blue," said Shannon. "When he was 5 days old he had heart surgery." Despite the complexities that can accompany some heart defects, there is a more than 98 percent survival rate for children that undergo surgery, said Devejian. The bar is set very high in the area, explained Devejian, and fortunately the region has a strong pediatric cardiology program at Albany Med. The children whom that program has granted a chance to live celebrated that life with their parents Sunday afternoon. Devejian, who has been director of pediatric heart surgery at Albany Med for more than 13 years, tries to stay in touch with his former patients and events like the Cardiac Kids gathering ease his ability to connect with them and their parents. "It's great (...) watching them get together with other kids who have had heart surgery and their families get together and chat with each other," said Devejian. "There's all sorts of support that comes out of this community." "Honestly, I think we've only missed one event," said Austin Maiello's mother, Cory. The event was part of the American Heart Association's promotion of February as American Heart Month. The families will be back together Saturday, March 2 in the Hall of Springs in Saratoga Springs Annual Capital Region Heart Ball. At the event, sponsored by the AHA, Devejian will receive the Donald Led Duke Heart Hero award for his achievements and continuing efforts in in saving children's lives.


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Death Becomes Her is the best thing that happened to the world in 1992. Seriously, the fact that this movie is now available to stream on HBOGo is BIG NEWS. Because it's not on Netflix. Weirdly.
Basically, Goldie Hawn and Meryl Streep play two women aging gracefully and about this aging they are not thrilled. Meryl Streep's character stole Goldie Hawn's plastic surgeon husband (Bruce FUCKING Willis), and in a bid to woo him back, Hawn's character tracks down and takes a magic potion meant to restore her youthful beauty. Then Meryl Streep's character sips some as well. Then things go to shit. Limbs fall off. Holes emerge in torsos. Why do these things never work quite as well as we hope them to?
If you haven't seen this movie you're living an incomplete life. [HBOGo]


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We've been through so many ups and downs with Pleo. We saw him crumble in the face of a battlebot. We cried over his extinction. We rejoiced when he survived! And now, we choose his colour.
It's an obvious campaign to remind people of the clever little tyke, but when it comes to the Pleo we don't mind playing into the hands of the marketing bods. Especially when you get to decide on what new colour Pleo comes in!
I'm voting purple. Everyone knows dinosaurs are either green or purple. [Pleo World via CrunchGear]


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Quality CareFind out why Mayo Clinic is the right place for your health care. Make an appointment.
Meet the StaffFind a directory of doctors and departments at all Mayo Clinic campuses. Visit now.
Research and Clinical TrialsSee how Mayo Clinic research and clinical trials advance the science of medicine and improve patient care. Explore now.
Visit Our SchoolsEducators at Mayo Clinic train tomorrow's leaders to deliver compassionate, high-value, safe patient care. Choose a degree.
Professional ServicesExplore Mayo Clinic's many resources and see jobs available for medical professionals. Get updates.
Philanthropy at Mayo ClinicYour support accelerates powerful innovations in patient care, research and education. Give today.
Mayo Clinic offers appointments in Arizona, Florida and Minnesota and at Mayo Clinic Health System locations.
Skilled specialists in facial reconstructive surgery at Mayo Clinic in Minnesota provide a wide range of treatment options for people with severe facial deformities. Using the tools of microsurgery and flap surgery, these specialized facial reconstructive surgeons have expertise in:
Our facial reconstruction surgeons have the training and skills to repair and reconstruct facial features that are absent or deformed due to:
Plastic surgeon Samir Mardini, M.D., of Mayo Clinic describes treatment options for people with severe facial deformities.
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Appeal brought on 25 January 2019 by World Duty Free Group, S.A., formerly Autogrill España, S.A., against the judgment of the General Court (Ninth Chamber, Extended Composition) delivered on 15 November 2018 in Case T-219/10 RENV, World Duty Free Group v Commission
(Case C-51/19 P)
Language of the case: Spanish
Appellant: World Duty Free Group, S.A., formerly Autogrill España S.A. (represented by: J. Buendía Sierra, E. Abad Valdenebro, R. Calvo Salinero and A. Lamadrid de Pablo, abogados)
Interveners in support of the applicant at first instance: Kingdom of Spain, Federal Republic of Germany, and Ireland
Other party to the proceedings: European Commission
Form of order sought
The appellant submits that the Court should:
Set aside the judgment of the General Court of 15 November 2018;
Uphold the application for annulment and definitively annul the contested decision; and
Order the European Commission to pay the costs.
Grounds of appeal and main arguments
On 15 November 2018, the General Court gave judgment in Case T-219/10 RENV, World Duty free Group, S.A. v European Commission, 1 against which this appeal is brought. The judgment dismissed the appellant's action against the European Commission's decision of 28 October 2009, 2 on 'financial goodwill' regulated by Article 12.5 of the Spanish Ley de Impuesto sobre Sociedades (Law on Corporation Tax).
In support of its appeal, the appellant relies on a single ground of appeal, alleging that, in the judgment under appeal, the General Court erred in law in its interpretation of Article 107(1) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), in relation to the concept of 'selectivity'.
In particular, it is submitted that the General Court erred:
In determining the reference system at the first stage of the selectivity analysis;
In determining the objective forming the basis for comparing the separate legal and factual situations at the second stage of the selectivity analysis;
Consequently, the General Court also erred in the attribution of the burden of proof and the application of the principle of proportionality;
In the alternative, in its examination relating to the supposed lack of proof of a causal link between the companies' inability to merge abroad and the acquisition of holdings abroad; and
In the alternative, in ruling out the severability of the measure according to the control percentage;
In addition to maintaining a legally incorrect line of reasoning, the General Court substituted its own reasoning for that of the Commission's decision in relation to a number of the abovementioned points, thus giving rise to further errors of law.


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Joe Hockey has found a friend who agrees the budget is in crisis.
And the backing comes from a unlikely source – economist John Edwards, a former adviser to Paul Keating and now a Reserve Bank board member appointed by the previous Labor government.
Dr Edwards told an Australian Financial Review roundtable he had no doubt there is a budget crisis.
"We're accumulating debt as a higher share of GDP and of course in absolute terms, (it's) absolutely astronomical compared to far more serious episodes in Australian history, including recoveries from serious recessions," he said, according to the newspaper's report.
The treasurer gleefully relayed the news during question time in parliament on Wednesday.
If something is not done about Labor's debt and deficit legacy, Australia will face a crisis, Mr Hockey said.
"Labor, get out of the way and let us fix the budget," he told parliament.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott also had a go.
"Even John Edwards, a long-term Labor staffer, a long-term friend of the Labor Party, a decent human being, it has to be said, but someone who Labor appointed to the Reserve Bank board has come right out and said honestly there is a budget crisis," Mr Abbott said.
What Mr Hockey didn't say was that Dr Edwards reportedly said that the real crisis was actually one of revenue, something that successive governments have failed to address.
This contradicts the coalition's mantra that it was Labor's excessive spending that has caused current deficits.
Dr Edwards said government spending as a proportion of GDP would suggest it's not an expenditure issue, yet Australia continues to run large budget deficits – which points more to a revenue issue.


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U.S. Treasurys Still Defy Bearish Calls
Bond-market bears are taking their lumps—again.
A run of uneven economic data this spring has wrong-footed scores of investors—including some of the bond world's boldface names—who entered the year betting that an accelerating U.S. expansion would send Treasury prices tumbling, ending a three-decade-long fixed-income bull market.
Among those...


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Revision as of 21:19, 9 June 2010
The U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), issues and enforces rules and regulations for the manufacture, operation, and maintenance of aircraft. The agency performs flight inspections in the United States and abroad, also researches and develops procedures and devices for a safe system of air navigation.
Passenger bumping, lost baggage, smoking, customer service, refunds of fares, rates, ariffs, and unfair or deceptive practices of airlines do not fall under the jurisdiction of the FAA.
Northern California FAA:
Flight Standards District Office
1420 Harbor Bay Parkway, Suite 280
Alameda, CA 94502-7083
(510) 748-0122
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2250 E Imperial Highway, Suite 140
El Segundo, CA 90245
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FAA Consumer Hotline
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Written or telephone complaints are accepted at the following address:
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(202) 366-2220
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See also: Transportation (U.S. Department of)
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Is Katie Couric Returning to Today?
May 5, 2014 3:41 PM EDT
Katie Couric is in talks to return to Today temporarily to replace co-hostSavanah Guthrie when she goes on maternity leave, according to The New York Post. NBC News is said to also be in talks with others, including&nbs… Read more


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This Web site is the official online publication of the Ontario Dental Association.
The Ontario Dental Association (Web site) is the voluntary, not-for-profit professional association that represents the dentists of Ontario, supports members in the provision of exemplary oral health services, and promotes the attainment of optimal health for the people of Ontario. It must collect and retain certain personal information in order to provide services to you. Protecting your privacy is important to us. Accordingly, we have established a Privacy Policy, as well as Confidentiality Standards for our employees, to ensure that your personal information is protected by appropriate security safeguards.
Why We Require Personal Information
We also collect personal information that you choose to share with us in the registration and interactive portions of this Web site. This information may include personal information, e-mail addresses and your answers to questions. This information is only collected with your permission. We collect this information, should you decide to provide it to us, to provide you with the services and information being offered in accordance with ODA's main Privacy Policy.
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Protecting Your Personal Information
We will provide specific notice before collecting any of your personal information (details that can identify you as an individual, such as your name and address). We will explain what information is being collected and how it will be used. You have the right to decline to have this information collected or transferred for marketing purposes. We collect no personal information about you unless you choose to provide that information to us. We do not use techniques that collect personal information about you without your knowledge. Any personally identifiable data about our customers or Web site visitors is stored securely.
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ODA's Web site operating system may automatically record some general information about your visit, such as:
Some areas of our site may allow you to conduct e-commerce transactions. In connection with these transactions, we securely collect data necessary to complete the transaction and that is furnished by you.
We may disclose this non-personal information to a third party in order to facilitate the transaction or to other third parties such as sponsors, clients or advertisers and/or use it for auditing purposes under contractual privacy obligations to Web site. This tracking system does not record personal information about individuals or link this information to any personal data collected.
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The ODA will be pleased to inform you of the existence, any use, and disclosure of personally identifying information, and provide you with access to that Personal Information, within 30 (thirty) days of a receipt of a written request directed by fax or mail to Web site, Chief Privacy Officer. To request a change or delete information that has previously been provided by you to us, write to Web site, Chief Privacy Officer with the details of your request. Contact information is at the end of this statement.
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Cliff Thorburn became the first non-British player to win the World Championship in 1980.
Three years later he meticulously compiled the Crucible's first 147 break, providing the slow build up of tension that made it so compelling that all those calling for shot clocks in the championship would do well to consider.
Snooker's pulling power has always been the slow burning drama it creates and the characters that create it. Few have burned the midnight oil with as much regularity as Thorburn.
He emerged from the tough, uncompromising North American snooker and pool scene and headed for the UK at a time where there was little money to be made but a sense that snooker was about to become something big.
Thorburn – the original 'Grinder' – was among the pioneers from that golden period when the game rocketed from sub culture to the most popular sport on television, making household names of a generation of waistcoated men who filled the late night schedules potting balls through a sea of cigarette smoke.
John Spencer beat Thorburn in the first world final staged at Sheffield's Crucible Theatre in 1977 as the snooker boom began to take hold.
At that time there was a holy trinity of Canadian players, each larger than life. There was the young, good looking pin-up Kirk Stevens, the gargantuan heavy drinking Bill Werbeniuk and Thorburn, moustachioed like Tom Selleck in Magnum and about as hard a matchplayer as the game has ever seen.
BBC coverage of his World Championship victory in 1980 was interrupted by news reports from the besieged Iranian embassy in London, which was being stormed by the SAS. Angry viewers rang in demanding to be returned to Thorburn's epic battle with Alex Higgins, which he won 18-16.
This victory helped propel him to the world no.1 spot but while both these fine achievements are well remembered in Canada, British audiences instead seem to hold his 147 in higher esteem.
Perhaps this was because of the drama and novelty of the moment, easier to recall than a whole match or position on a ranking list.
Thorburn famously began his maximum with a fluke, proving it's not getting the luck that matters but what you do with it.
Those closing moments are deeply embedded in the DNA of professional snooker...Werbeniuk peering round the partition between tables, Jack Karnehm's 'good luck, mate,' Thorburn potting the black and sinking to his knees, then being hugged by Werbeniuk and his opponent, Terry Griffiths, before collecting his fag packet and giving a final double fisted salute.
Shatteringly, this all time high was punctured almost immediately backstage when he phoned home to tell his wife, Barbara, only to be informed she had suffered a miscarriage.
Thorburn would go on to be one of the 1980s very best players. He won the Wembley Masters three times and provided TV audiences with many a late night: that battle with Griffiths didn't end until 3.51am, Thorburn winning 13-12.
As with all the greats, decline took hold, not helped by a sighting problem. His last appearance at the Crucible came in 1994 when he led Nigel Bond 9-2 in the first round and lost 10-9.
He may well still have won had the match not been pulled off at 9-7. The intervening hours gave him perhaps too much time to fret about snatching defeat from the jaws of victory and this is what duly happened.
Still a big name in Canada, Cliff is about as classy a guy as you could meet. He is still immaculately turned out and it's not hard to see why he was for so many years the housewives favourite, even if his style of play does not exactly place him alongside the flair players.
And he wasn't squeaky clean. He was once banned for testing positive for cocaine, although this was a rare slip from a career marked by professionalism.
Thorburn is responsible for one of my favourite anecdotes from the qualifiers – which I'll clean up here. It was right at the end of his career when he was losing all the time. After one such defeat an eager fan rushed up to him and proceeded to painstakingly detail just exactly where he was going wrong. Thorburn listened for a minute or so and then turned to the guy and said, deadpan, 'excuse me, but I think you're confusing me with someone who gives a damn.'
He is a regular visitor to the Crucible for each World Championship where the fans still flock to one of the game's most recognisable figures.
I remember being in the official tournament hotel a few years ago where some – let's be honest – drunk blokes were playing pool. The chalk had gone missing so one of them approached Cliff to see if he had any, as if he carries some round in case of emergencies.
He will be an asset to the World Seniors Championship, which will be staged at the Cedar Court Hotel, Bradford, from November 5 to 7. His game isn't anywhere near what it was but you can bet he will be trying hard and will be good value off table.
Cliff Thorburn was one of snooker's flag bearers from an age where the sun always seemed to shine on a sport awash with money, beating off sponsors and broadcasters and pulling in viewers by the many millions.
Dark clouds of mismanagement soon dimmed the honeymoon as the game lost its essential innocence but our affection for the cast of characters from that time remains and the World Seniors will be a chance to see some of them tackle players who took up snooker in their wake.
For more details about the World Seniors Championship, click here.
13 comments:
- Sonny said...
As good a time as any to plug my interview with Cliff :-)
He is a top man.
- 10:34 am
- IQ Electrical said...
Enjoyed reading that!
Quite amazing that we haven't had a decent, regular seniors event with the legends and characters readily available in snooker.
I hope it works out, for all involved and the viewing public!
- 11:37 am
dave, i am sure you will agree, he is actually a funny guy too.
doesnt take himself too seriously.
good impersonation of 'pet detective' ACE V
i wish him all the best. provided me with many happy memories.........
- 1:04 pm
Many years ago when Cliff first came to Manchester he went to the club where Alex Higgins was practising and had a few frames with him.After a while Alex suggested they play for £5 a frame (a lot of money then)with Cliff having a 28 start!! Alex never won another frame for the rest of the day. That Alex was a boy eh? Cliff was responsible for the first 147 at the Crucible - one of the greatest snooker moments ever.He also invented the dump shot,strange to think no one thought of it before. Also his book "Snooker Skills" is one of the best coaching books around. He is a self-effacing gentleman and a total credit to snooker.
- 2:59 pm
The notion that Cliff Thorburn pioneered the Dump Shot is a complete non-starter.
Fellow Canadian Mario Morra invented this shot as well as other shots which have now entered our game.
Thorburn is a great guy and a former great player but Morra was a snookering genius who was ahead of his time.
- 6:15 pm
- 8:40 pm
- Greg P said...
The 147 was absolutely fantastic. Look out for when he underhit the final black - as a result the cue ball was nowhere near ideal position for the yellow, but he hit a stunning shot to keep the break going. Pure brilliance under unbelievable pressure.
It does indeed show that slow players can generate great excitement too, just as Steve Davis reminded us earlier this year.
Also it's great to hear Cliff doing the voiceovers for the BBC's player profiles. A vast improvement on that comic strip rubbish they had.
- 8:49 pm
Reading this brought a lot of great memories. Thanks Dave... ;-)
- 10:46 pm
Have you noticed how the foreign snooker players are usually better looking than ours? There was Cliff, Kirk and Quinten in the top drawer. Neil Robertson isn't bad either, but for some reason he always makes me think of Bananaman. We've only produced Tony Knowles and Paul Hunter who can be suitably described as handsome from a much larger pool. I wonder why that is?
- 11:30 am
Betsy, the reason for that is so that you could comment a load of rubbish about it on Daves great blog. *sigh
- 12:14 pm
I'm looking forward to being at the senior event in Bradford. Bit of a hike up the M1 but reckon it will be well worth it!
When are they gonna post the tickets out, Dave? I booked months ago!
- 2:23 pm
- Dave H said...
If you haven't had them yet I'd contact World Snooker about it
- 2:52 pm
- Nacho Vidal said...
have you every played Mario Snooker. Its superb!
- 2:33 am


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The United Methodists of The Rio Texas Conference are focused on reaching out to the people of South Texas. Some of our churches are located in some of the fastest-growing areas of the country. Others are located in areas where people are struggling with issues of poverty, lack of affordable housing, and a loss of hope. We are committed to providing vital missions, vital congregations, and strong leaders to connect our churches to the people.
Our mission field spans South Texas. Our churches are in large cities and small towns from Austin to McAllen, from San Angelo to Victoria in vibrant cities, historic small towns and struggling communities.


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DEMO Conference Unveils Latest Web Apps
The three-day DEMO 2007 conference - a showcase for new and emerging technologies -- kicked off in San Diego Monday night. The show will feature over 70 new applications intended to protect you online, organize your Internet musings, help you stalk your neighbors or predict whether you're headed for a nervous breakdown.
On the heels of Google's Street View comes Berkeley, California-based earthmine. The subscription mapping service captures street-level photos with the assistance of camera-equipped trucks and claims it will feature "every street, alley and freeway in a municipality with 3D accuracy." The service will launch in beta by year's end and be available to the general public in early 2008. Screen shots of earthmine appear to show greater detail than Google Street View, though earthmine says that identifying information like people's faces and license plate numbers, which has prompted privacy concerns for Google, will be blurred when users actually zoom in closer.
Video quality is the focus for MotionDSP's, Flash-based fixmymovie.com, which will clean up the grainy videos uploaded from users' cell phones and digital cameras. Enhanced videos can then be downloaded, embedded on blogs and Web sites or uploaded to an iPod or AppleTV.
On the security front, the ZoneAlarm ForceField from Checkpoint promises to erase a user's personal information after they browse a certain Web site or make an online purchase so that they will not fall victim to identity thieves. ZoneAlarm's public beta launched Monday and will be generally available during the first quarter of 2008. Similarly, the EncryptaKey is a USB device that overrides a computer's built-in operating system, connects the VPN to EncryptaKey's server and claims to provide a safe Web surfing environment. The device can also be used for personal transactions and data storage.
A majority of the DEMO offerings are looking to facilitiate the Internet experience. CoComment keeps track of a user's online comments and message board posts and notifies them when another user has responded, while Generate's g2 application keeps tabs on business professionals to provide more indepth information on an individual or business than might be available via a traditional Google search.
InstaColl - which claims to produce "what Microsoft Office Live will look like when it grows up" -- converts Microsoft Office applications to peer-to-peer platforms for document sharing purposes. Meanwhile, SpaceTime's Visual Stacks converts Internet search returns into the flying windows seen on Apple desktops and Vista PCs so users can scroll through and see what a page looks like before clicking on it.
Those not satisfied with the current state of innovation can head to Advanta's ideablob.com, which solicits business plans from its users and awards $10,000 every month to the most promising submission.
If all of these Internet options have you frazzled, Vyro Games has produced a personal input pod (PIP) that measures stress levels. Users hold the small device between their fingertips and it sends the results wirelessly via Bluetooth to software running on your cell phone, PC or game console.


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I was listening to the Dave Glover Show on KSTK 97.1 talk FM earlier this evening. They had this "gentleman" (sorry, I tuned in too late to catch his name) on their show. The topic was C. A. Tripp's book The Intimate World of Abraham Lincoln, which continues an argument originally set forth by Carl Sandburg in 1924 of Lincoln being gay. Trying to learn more about the segment that I missed part of, I examined a review of the book from The Weekly Standard, which was noted in the segment and can be viewed here. I have several problems with the "Lincoln was gay" theory.First, the author (Tripp) is not a historian, but a "well-known sex researcher" who worked under the controversial Alfred Kinsey. This hurts his credibility with this budding historian.
Second, is how Tripp comes to his conclusion. He notes Lincoln sharing a bed with his friend Joshua Speed as well as his bodyguard while in the White House. Now there are MAJOR problems with Tripp's assertion. First, Tripp, especially considering his lack of training in history, does not understand how 19th century American society worked. It was quite common for people of the same sex to share a bed in that time. Unlike today's society, families were larger, which resulted in siblings sharing a bed during childhood. In addition, the Army at the time had men sharing bunks for sleeping. Does this mean that the men in question were gay? No. It was quite common when staying at an inn to rent only a sleeping space, not a whole room, or even bed. It was not uncommon for a person to awaken the next morning with two or three other people in the same bed. That was how society was back then.
Now, another problem with Tripp's book is of a more serious nature with respect to the historical community. The author of the article in The Weekly Standard was also originally the coauthor of the book with Tripp. Philip Nobile claims that Tripp plagiarized much of the work, citing the original collaboration where both men would submit competing chapters to a Lincoln expert, who would act as "referee" to the book to make sure it was accurate. According to Nobile, Tripp stole much of his [Nobile's] own written material from the chapters that he [Nobile] wrote and incorporated it into the final book. Plagiarism is a very serious allegation and has very serious consequences for those caught.
The "gentleman" in the Dave Glover segment today also noted supposed love letters written by Lincoln to a close friend in addition to to mentioning the examples noted above. The man mentioned how these letters had the air of love letters. This just proves then that Lincoln was gay. This is yet another example of an individual unfamiliar with 19th century society. Having read many letters written by men to both women and other men at the time, I can testify to the fact that many were eloquent, rich in passionate, flowery language, and have the air of love letters to our modern eyes. This was the style of the 19th century, which is even more amazing considering the overall lack of education amongst persons at that time. People conveyed deep personal thoughts, which possessed an almost romantic quality to them because of two possible reasons. First, the cost of postage was very high at the time, with it costing the equivalent of several dollars to mail one page (front and back) over 25 miles. Second, the distance that separated some people and the higher mortality rate of the time mean that people may go years without seeing the person and may never see them again in certain instances. This could create a deep sense of caring and concern for that person bordering on a romantic feeling for that person. This does not mean that the person is sexually attracted or infatuated with the person, but that they care deeply about them.
Overall, both Tripp and the gentleman who appeared on the Dave Glover Show are placing their biases on 19th century society. In fact, Philip Nobile notes how Tripp "would never give up his homosexual bias." Their placing 21st century views onto the 19th century is a bad practice that must be avoided. Furthermore, both men show a clear lack of understanding of the society of the time, taking common practices of that society way out of context. Was Lincoln gay? Probably not, as the physical evidence does not exist for sexual relations between Lincoln and men, as well as most written evidence does not support the gay Lincoln theory. One thing is certain, this is a clear example of one man attempting to rewrite history from the grave (Tripp died in 2003) to suit an agenda. It is interesting to note that more than half of the 36 customer review on Amazon.com rate the book at one or two stars and are very critical of the book. I invite you to read the reviews and the article cited above and come to your own conclusion about whether or not you want to buy this book and consider this theory, but for my money, I will not buy the book and wait for something more conclusive before I even consider the remote possibility of a homosexual Lincoln.


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Afghan insurgents learn to destroy key U.S. armored vehicle
WASHINGTON — Taliban-led insurgents in Afghanistan have devised ways to cripple and even destroy the expensive armored vehicles that offer U.S. forces the best protection against roadside bombs by using increasingly large explosive charges and rocket-propelled grenades, according to U.S. soldiers and defense officials.
At least eight American troops have been killed this year in attacks on so-called Mine-Resistant Ambush-Protected vehicles, or MRAPs, and 40 more have been wounded, said a senior U.S. military official who, like others interviewed on the issue, declined to be further identified because of the issue's sensitivity.
The insurgents' success in attacking the hulking machines, which can cost as much as $1 million each, underscores their ability to counter the advanced hardware that the U.S. military and its allies are deploying in their struggle to gain the upper hand in the war, which entered its ninth year last month.
The attacks also raise questions about how vulnerable a new, lighter MRAP, the M-ATV, which is now being shipped to Afghanistan, are to the massive explosive charges that Taliban-led insurgents have been using against its bigger cousin.
The insurgents are also hitting MRAPs with rocket-propelled grenades that can penetrate their steel armor, according to U.S troops in Afghanistan, several of whom showed McClatchy a photograph of a hole that one of the projectiles had punched in the hull of an MRAP.
The Pentagon has spent more than $26.8 billion to develop and build three versions of the largest MRAPs, totaling some 16,000 vehicles, mostly for the Army and Marine Corps, according to an August report by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service.
Another $5.4 billion is being spent to produce 5,244 M-ATVs, the smaller version that U.S. defense officials contend offers as much protection as the large models do, but is more maneuverable and better suited to Afghanistan's dirt tracks and narrow mountain roads.
"The traditional MRAP was having real problems . . . off road in Afghanistan," said Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell. "And clearly we have to do a lot of work off-road. And these new vehicles will provide our forces the ability to travel more safely off road — certainly off paved roads — than they would have been able to do with other vehicles."
Defense officials acknowledged the growing problem of successful attacks on MRAPs, and said the U.S. military is constantly developing improvements for the vehicle that include better sensors and tactics.
"It's not all about the armor. We can't build something that is impervious to everything," said Navy Capt. Jack Henzlik, a spokesman for the U.S. Central Command, which oversees operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. "We are using a comprehensive strategy to try to provide for the protection of our forces."
The issue was the subject of a high-level meeting convened on Wednesday by Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who made the production of MRAPs his highest priority in 2007 as U.S. troops in Iraq were suffering massive casualties from roadside bomb attacks.
The use of powerful explosive charges against MRAPs "is a problem that he (Gates) is keenly aware of, very concerned about, and is determined to make sure this building is doing everything it can to combat," Morrell said. "We have never advertised MRAPs or M-ATVs as a silver bullet for the IED (improvised explosive device) problem. This is but one element of a vast array of capabilities that we need to bring to bear to protect our forces."
However, retired Army Col. Douglas A. MacGregor, a former armored cavalry commander and combat veteran and an expert on armor warfare, said that vehicles such as the MRAP have "very limited utility" in a war against a guerrilla group such as the Taliban.
"The notion of a wheeled armored constabulary force as a prescription for a close combat situation is nonsense," he said.
U.S. troops rely on the MRAP's V-shaped hull, which is designed to deflect explosive blasts, and heavy armored plating to protect them against the landmines and IEDs that are causing most American combat deaths in Afghanistan.
October was the deadliest month for U.S. troops since the 2001 U.S. invasion. At least 59 were killed, bringing the total for the year to at least 272 dead, according to the Internet site iCasualties. At least 139 of those troops died in IED blasts, according to the Pentagon.
"Pentagon officials note that insurgents are building larger IEDs and are finding better ways to conceal them," the Congressional Research Service report said.
"The biggest question is what took them so long," said a senior Pentagon official with extensive experience with the MRAP program and familiarity with the weapons and techniques that the militants in Afghanistan have developed to "compromise" the vehicle.
The fact that the large MRAPs — which range from 7 tons to 24 tons depending on the model — often are confined to narrow mountain roads and valleys in Afghanistan has made it easier for insurgents to prepare ambushes using anti-tank mines, IEDs or rocket-propelled grenades capable of penetrating armor, the official said.
U.S. defense officials insisted that many more U.S. troops would be killed and injured in Afghanistan and in Iraq if they'd been equipped with vehicles other than MRAPs.
"KIA (killed in action) rates in particular are noticeably reduced in MRAPs," said Irene Smith, a spokeswoman for the Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization, the Pentagon agency created to develop defenses against roadside bombs.
U.S. defense officials in Washington and Kabul declined to reveal the number of MRAPs that have been crippled or destroyed since the first vehicles were deployed in Afghanistan in 2003, saying they didn't want to provide the Taliban with information on the effectiveness of their tactics.
McClatchy is voluntarily withholding some U.S. soldiers' descriptions of insurgent tactics out of concern that they may not be known by all of those fighting U.S.-led forces.
The soldiers spoke out of what they said was a heightened concern about the vehicles' vulnerability to ambushes, especially on mountain roads where there's no room for the vehicles to turn around.
U.N. to scale back in Kabul as it considers better security
U.S. officials fear Karzai can't keep
Exclusive: U.S. drafts Afghan "Compact" it hopes will bolster new Karzai government
U.S. mission in Afghanistan depends on supply chain


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City of Lincoln
Mayor's Office
2004 Media Releases
Lincoln Mayor Coleen J. Seng and the City Parks and Recreation Department will award Self-Help grants to 22 neighborhood associations and community organizations Thursday, March 11 during the Mayor's Neighborhood Roundtable meeting beginning at 4:30 p.m. in Room 113 at the County-City Building, 555 South 10th.
"The Self-Help Program has had a major positive impact on our community's parks," said Mayor Seng. "Thanks to the donated labor volunteers provide for these projects, the City funds stretch further to do more. The program also gives builds neighborhood involvement and pride."
"We are pleased with the ongoing interest and support in improving Lincoln's parks," said Parks and Recreation Director Lynn Johnson. "Over $84,000 in project requests were submitted for the $45,000 available through the Self-Help Program."
The Self-Help Program is funded through City general tax revenues and is approved by the City Council each year as part of the City budget process. The program typically provides for equipment and materials. Projects must be constructed on publicly owned property or involve programs available to the general public. The criteria for choosing which projects are funded include location, neighborhood support for the project and consistency with park plans.
The following groups will receive Self-Help Program funding for 2004:


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It's a fact of the grocery store that the most healthy food often has the least marketing muscle behind it. The best source of fiber and vitamins are fresh vegetables and fruit, and yet it's the processed, packaged junk food fortified with vitamin and fiber powder that screams for attention. The Center for Science in the Public Interest recently published a comprehensive report on the subject, a persuasive indictment delicately called "Food Labeling Chaos."
"Consumers need honest labeling so they can spend their food dollars wisely and avoid diet-related disease," said CSPI senior staff attorney Ilene Ringel Heller, co-author of the report. "Companies should market their foods without resorting to the deceit and dishonesty that's so common today. And, if they don't, the FDA should make them."
Like listening skeptically to a politician speak, however, you can often decipher the truth amid the lies and misdirection by carefully reading food labels. Here we take a look at nine of the most common ways food labels lie, so you can prepare before your next trip to the grocery store.
Made With Whole Grains
You're standing in the grocery aisle, faced with a choice. On the one hand, there are the Thomas' English Muffins of your youth: white and filled with nooks and crannies practically screaming to be filled with pools of melted butter. On the other: Thomas' Hearty Grains English Muffins, which is "made with the goodness of whole grains." You reach, somewhat grudgingly, for the healthy option, since experts tell you that 50% of your grains should be whole grains.
What you don't realize is that unbleached wheat flour is the main ingredient; whole wheat flour is the third on the list, "indicating that the product contains relatively little," according to the Center for Science in the Public Interest. Once again, one truth – the presence of whole grains, masks another, that whole grains make up an insignificant portion of the food. Some products that trumpet their whole grain credentials (like Keebler's Zesta saltine crackers) use caramel to mimic the brown color that results from the use of whole grains; in fact, according to CSPI, the crackers have almost as much salt as whole grains. Other purportedly healthy crackers have more sugar than whole wheat. So much for healthy whole grains (or truth in advertising).
What could be more straight-forward than ingredient lists? So you might think, but there's a lot of room for deception and misdirection in the average ingredient list. Exhibit A, according to the Center for Science in the Public Interest: the Tasty Living Mocha Cherry Double Chocolate Layer Cake. The first ingredient is enriched bleach flour, and everyone knows that ingredients are listed in order from most to least. This cake must be sort-of nutritious, since it's mostly made out of nutritious wheat flour, right? After all, as Bill Cosby reminded us so many years ago, "Eggs. Eggs are in chocolate cake! And milk! Oh goody! And wheat! That's nutrition!"
Sorry, Bill. The biggest ingredient in this cake is sugar, as the Center for Science in the Public Interest Points out. How is it possible? Just add up all the sugars that go by different names: sugar, corn syrup, high-fructose corn syrup and white grape juice concentrate. Boom! This cake is nearly one-third sugar.
The Center for Science in the Public Interest argues that U.S. nutrition labels and ingredient lists should be a more consumer-friendly. By grouping major ingredients and separating minor ingredients, we'd all be better able to make smarter purchases. Which can of diced tomatoes is 60% tomato and 40% water, and which is 70% tomato? How much fruit is actually in that fruity-looking "health" bar? Right now, there's no way to know ... without a chemistry kit.
Serving Size
A 20 oz. soda fits easily in your hand, fits easily in your car's cup holder and might even come free with a sandwich at the local deli. But even if a reasonable person might perceive that bottle as a single-serving delivery system, there are 2.5 official servings in there, meaning 100 calories per "serving" ... but 240 calories per bottle.
While major soda bottlers have begun spelling out this single-serving conundrum to the junk food-consuming public, most serving size calculations are based on standards developed when Die Hard, Beetle Juice and Rain Man debuted on the big screen. Some are based on standards as old as Star Wars and Saturday Night Fever! Just try to remember the size of the sodas and popcorn customarily dolled out in 1977 at the drive-in, compared to today at the megaplex, and you get a sense for how much our sense of portion proportion has gone out of whack (er, changed) in the last generation.
And yet, the serving size data on our foods reflect a slimmer more restrained era, when an 8 oz soda was a weekly treat, not a single glug between fistfuls of Cool Ranch Doritos (serving size: 11 chips). How many people do you know restrain themselves to 11 chips? Or to a 1/2 cup of ice cream? Or a single cup of cooked pasta?
Omega 3
Everyone knows Omega-3 fatty acids are healthy, but that doesn't mean every product emblazoned with the word is a healthy source of it. The FDA allows certain foods that are rich in two of the Omega-3 fatty acids to advertise that they can reduce the risk of coronary heart disease, but only if they're also low in saturated fats or other risk factors.
Which is why many eggs and some walnuts use this bit of marketing misdirection: the packaging has the word "Omega-3," but nothing specifically about heart health, according to the Center for Science in the Public Interest. The FDA specifically prohibited eggs from carrying the "qualified health claim" linking Omega-3 fatty acids to heart health because eggs are high in cholesterol; it ruled out walnuts because the Omega-3 fatty acid found in the nuts isn't one of the two that has been linked to heart health. These products, and others, dance around the truth and the law by simply stating that they contain Omega-3s, which bathes the food in a healthy light they don't necessarily deserve.
Hey! That's not what I expected from reading the food labels!
Made With Real Fruit
Hey wow! That candy has real fruit in it. It must be good for my kid.
The marketing around "real fruit" is so egregious that, for many shoppers, it doesn't pass the sniff test. But we all get weak-kneed when faced with something potentially yummy, so let's take a look at some of those misleading marketing techniques.
Case-in-point: Gerber Fruit Juice Treats for Preschoolers. Its package blooming with pictures of ripe oranges, raspberries, cherries, peaches, grapes and pineapple, its only fruit-like ingredient is fruit juice concentrate, which the Dietary Guidelines for Americans considers just another form of sugar. Not surprisingly, the primary ingredients are also sugar and ... well, sugar (corn syrup). It's candy. Similarly, Betty Crocker "Strawberry Splash Fruit Gushers" say they're made with real fruit, but the only thing approximating fruit is pear concentrate (sugar) with Red No. 40 for "strawberry" color. Overall, the gushers are half sugar (a.k.a., candy).
Bottom line: If you want real fruit, buy real fruit. If you want candy, buy candy.
(And watch out for the same tricky marketing used on supposedly vegetable-rich products like Knorr "Pasta Sides" Chicken Broccoli fettuccini. As the CSPI points out, there's more salt than broccoli in this pasta dish. Of course, it isn't called Chicken Salt fettuccini ... because presumably no one would buy it.)
0 Trans Fat
Like some kind of Frankenstein's monster, we stagger down the grocery aisles, arms outstretched, growling, "Trans Fat Bad!" And yes, they are bad. After numerous studies showed that these fats boost "bad" LDL-cholesterol levels and lower "good" HDL-cholesterol counts (they've been called "the most potent type of fatty acid in terms of increasing the risk of coronary heart disease") the U.S. required companies to disclose trans fat content in their foods.
But it's marketers who made our modern Frankenstein mutter: While some companies reformulated their products to reduce the use of risky fats, many just replaced trans fats with saturated fats. These reformulated foods are basically just as bad, but they scream one truth: "0 trans fats!" to obscure another: "still bad for your heart!"
Free Range Eggs
Ah, the idyllic red barn. The rays of sunshine streaming over the hillside. You feel good buying those "free range" eggs knowing that the chickens tasked with producing those little protein-filled shells lived happy cage-free lives. The sunny label says so. But those few extra cents you plunk down for the "free range" eggs might be paying a savvy marketer, rather than an ethical farmer, because the government doesn't regulate the use of the phrase "free range" or "cage free" on eggs. Legally speaking, it's meaningless, according to Consumer Reports' Eco Label Decoder.
The Department of Agriculture does have rules for use of the term on poultry. It means chickens must be granted the luxury of exactly five minutes of "access" to the outdoors everyday, a token prize for a short dirty life that can also include an unceremonious severing of the beak, wing-to-wing crowding in a shed that's more hangar than coop, and more chicken poop than you ever want to contemplate while planning a meal.
Those eggs you buy may have been raised ethically, with room enough for hens to roam the yard and peck contentedly at the dirt. But there's no guarantee in the "free range" label.
Fiber is fiber is fiber. Right? Who would have any reason to think otherwise? You might if you knew the fibers advertised in many foods are mainly "purified powders" called inulin, polydextrose and maltodextrin, according to the Center for Science in the Public Interest. These "isolated" unnatural fibers are unlikely to lower blood cholesterol or blood sugar, as other fibers can, and two of the three won't even "help with regularity," according to the CSPI. "Currently, fiber is being added to foods such as ice creams, yogurts, juices and drinks so that manufacturers can brag about their fiber content," the group contends. "But these products do not contain the traditional sources of fiber associated with a variety of health benefits."
There may be nothing harmful about maltodextrin, (made from corn, wheat, rice or potato starch), polydextrose (made from glucose and sorbitol) or inulin (a carbohydrate derived mostly from chicory roots and other plant roots). But these ingredients act more as low-calorie filling agents (and high-value marketing agents) than proven health agents. Put another way, as SNL did at the start of the health fiber craze, "there's fiber, and then there's high fiber." For the real thing, look for foods like whole grains, vegetables, fruits and beans.
Tastes Like Medicine!
Food isn't medicine ... or is it? Certain micronutrients, after all, can prevent diabetes, cure cancer, make you smarter, improve your sex life, polish your furniture, and, if you eat enough, make your fall in love again for the first time*...
In truth, the FDA allows food manufacturers to make certain pre-approved "qualified health claims" about the health benefits of nutrients in food, but only if those foods meet a range of healthy criteria, like low fat, cholesterol and sodium content. But, according to the Center for Science in the Public Interest, marketers have stretched this inch into a long mile. For instance, food makers can't say that their product "helps reduce the risk of heart disease" without FDA approval, so they say that it "helps maintain a healthy heart." That's why several public health groups, including the American Heart Association and the American Cancer Society, have voiced concern about this trend.
In the most famous recent example, the FDA stopped General Mills from labeling Cheerios with cholesterol reducing claims it wouldn't allow on some prescription drugs. Another, which the California attorney general helped stamp out, was the Kellogg's claim that its children cereals "support your child's immunity" because, even though some are 40% sugar, they are fortified with vitamins. "While a severe deficiency in those vitamins could interfere with the proper functioning of the body's immune system (and any other system), there is no evidence that Cocoa Krispies actually improves a children's immune status or wards off disease," CSPI argues. But Kellogg's is far from alone. Even as Kellogg's stopped that line of marketing, Ocean Spray cranberry juice and Juicy Juice berry beverage, Nestlé's Carnation Instant Breakfast and Kraft's Crystal Light all make similar claims.
Other foods make claims about boosting your kid's intelligence (Juicy Juice), or protecting healthy joints (orange juice), or improving heart health (Quaker cinnamon and spice instant oatmeal, which is almost one-third sugar).
Bottom line: Food is food, not medicine.
*If you experience good health for more than four hours after eating this food, call your doctor.


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Getting Around Apple's App Store Vetting Process
The recent outrage over Apple's questionable vetting process, which censored one app over the word "boobs" and let in another revolving around the murder of crying infants, is likely to make the company take a closer look over which programs make it through the doors of its App Store. In the meantime, however, a company called Alkali Media has seen fit to further test the limits of what skirts the company's guidelines.
The company submitted an app called Crudebox, a sounding board for dirty sounds like "fart," "vomit," "cough," and, of course, "wet fart." Aesthetically the app looked like snot on a black background. Apple rejected the app.
The company tried again, this time with sunflowers and sounds with names like "piddle," "toot," and "big toot." This time out they named the app Prudebox. Apple happily accepted it for inclusion in the App Store.
So, there you go. If you want to make it into the App Store--more flowers!


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Paz Rodriguez
Offering vintage-inspired babies' and children's clothing and accessories, Spanish label Paz Rodriguez has been offering a traditional approach to design for over 45 years, with beautiful bonnets, knitted jumpers and cardigans, dresses and dainty lined coats and matching sets sold in stores across the globe. Combining handcrafting techniques with the safest natural materials, such as cotton and merino wool, each piece reduces the risk of allergies on new fragile skin so little ones experience the utmost of comfort while looking adorable. The brand's philosophy of "Know-how and love" has been a trademark of the brand since the 1970s, with collections exuding heritage style by way of ruffles, lace trims, satin ribbons, decorative buttons and embroidered accents.more
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Give your eyes dazzling definition, have your eyes looking perfect for every occasion.
Mii is a cosmetics range which has taken feedback from thousands of women who use beauty salons in order to develop a totally new range of make up, one which enables you to feel beautiful whoever you are. This make up range will give you the confidence to create a look which is uniquely, completely and unmistakably you. So when you look in the mirror, you can say.. That's Mii.
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Coin Dealers
The most important choice you make as a coin collector is deciding on which dealers to do business with. Certainly there are more good dealers than just the ones in the following list, but these offer a few good places to start:
Heritage Auction Galleries (phone: 800-872-6467): Home of numismatists James Halperin and Steve Ivy, Heritage sells as many coins to collectors as anyone.
Swiss America Trading Corp. (phone: 800-289-2646): Swiss America invites U.S. investors and collectors to rediscover gold coin and rare coin collecting for financial safety, privacy, and profit. It offers knowledge, timing, and quality products from its famous, world-class coin buyer.
Tangible Investments, LLC (phone: 888-655-9255): Silvano DiGenova, one of the world's best coin traders, sells coin rarities primarily to serious collectors.
Neil S. Berman, Inc. (phone: 914-763-0678): Neil purchases rare coins, primarily representing serious investors, both private and institutional.


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You can judge this book by its cover. Back cover, that is. It reads: "WARNING: This Town does not contain an index. Those players wishing to know how they came out will need to read the book."
In other words, Beltway types will eat this up. So, too, will anyone who spent recent campaign seasons monitoring Nate Silver's election forecasts, wondering whether David Gregory is worthy of "Meet the Press," or marveling at the staying power of Newt Gingrich.
Mark Leibovich, the chief national correspondent of The New York Times Magazine, stands both above and among the fray in Washington. (, the knowing nickname used by the chattering classes in the nation's capital, explores the shameless vanities of that same population of electeds, formers, media and PR types, lobbyists, and even POTUS himself.
Those blessed enough to be ignorant of D.C.-speak should think of electeds as members of Congress, formers as the retired and ousted Senate and House members now trading on their so-called public service for taxpayer-fueled private-sector riches, and POTUS, of course, is the president of the United States. Not to be confused with FLOTUS (Michelle Obama, at present), VPOTUS (Joe Biden) and SCOTUS (the Supreme Court).
Leibovich acknowledges his own role in the spin-happy Beltway Twitterverse throughout the book. Such "full disclosure" moments serve a need for faux self-loathing as he documents the bottomless striving and lunacy of government life, not to mention hypocrisy beyond anything conjured by the likes of Christopher Buckley.
"This Town" covers a full four-year cycle in Washington, starting with the funeral of NBC "Meet the Press" host Tim Russert and ending with the second inauguration of Barack Obama. In between, Leibovich serves up hyper-caffeinated gulps of Politico, the web site driven by arcane and often vapid government gossip (Exhibit A: Mike Allen's Playbook chronicling obscure bureaucrats' birthdays); MSNBC talking-head fest Morning Joe; and all of the intertwined personal and professional relationships among members of Congress, the White House, major corporations, lobbyists, consultants, and reporters and editors.
"Tim Russert is dead," Leibovich writes. "But the room was alive."
With that, the panoply of Washington royalty, up-and-comers, and self-referential types fall under Leibovich's bemused gaze. When Bill and Hillary Clinton enter the Kennedy Center memorial service, he writes, "that exotic D.C. tingle falls over the room."
The hot hands of the moment, Obama advisers David Axelrod and Robert Gibbs, find themselves engulfed in embraces and handshakes, signs of their candidate's surging momentum as the Democratic nominee and the networking inherent in a major political funeral. Reflecting on the Clintons' attendance at the Russert funeral, Leibovich writes, "Hillary has a memorial service to attend: the memorial service of a man she and her husband plainly despised and who they believed (rightly) despised them back.... But the Clintons are pros at death and sickness. They show up. They play their assigned roles."
Russert worked his way into becoming what the author calls the mayor of This Town by first working for the late New York Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, a Washington veteran who tormented fellow Democrats Bill and Hillary during the Clinton administration. Thus, Russert retains a grudge for the Clintons and they for him. This entanglement is tidy and straightforward, standing in contrast to many others navigated by Leibovich in the course of 400 pages of Washington resentment.
At times, the blizzard of majority and minority leaders and press aides and consultants can become as exhausting as the introduction to an omnibus budget bill. But, more often, Leibovich skewers his subjects (admittedly, no tough task, but still entertaining) and then dashes off to another ridiculous rite of D.C. (the White House Correspondents' Dinner! Republican primary debates! Book parties at the Newseum!) before too long.
Conflicts of interest consume plenty of space in "This Town," book and city alike. Alan Greenspan, the former Fed chairman, is married to Andrea Mitchell, the NBC News foreign affairs reporter, who finds herself restricted from covering the financial crisis because her husband was one of its main architects. Such matters pass by Beltway types with nary a pause. Far more troubling, the likes of BP double their government contracts even as the administration deriding the oil giant for its recklessness in the Gulf promises to bring its full power to bear. And, as Leibovich makes clear, the Obama team's professed loathing of lobbyists and Beltway status wars, as well as private-sector cash-ins, proved to be more of a slogan than actual ethos.
Best (or worst) of all, Leibovich never lapses into outrage or self-righteousness. Instead, he caps especially ridiculous bouts of self-congratulatory excess such as lobster- and crab-heavy receptions by noting how often such feasts go uninterrupted even as unemployment surges toward 10 percent or a terrorist attempts to blow up Times Square. Why let such matters spoil a chance to hobnob?
"This Town" is, in the author's view, "the most powerful, prosperous, and disappointing city" in all the land. He backs that opinion up with more than enough evidence.
It's hardly new or news that powerful people and their supplicants tend to possess huge egos and equally sizable insecurities. But that doesn't make it any less titillating, or horrifying, to glimpse Colin Powell griping about his preference (insistence) to be called General rather Secretary (as in George W. Bush's former secretary of state), Hardball host Chris Matthews complaining for years about a single newspaper profile, or former McCain campaign strategist Steve Schmidt profiting from his disastrous decision to put former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin on the 2008 ticket. Schmidt shaped the "narrative" – a favorite D.C. term – of what went wrong and, along the way, extricated himself from blame while managing to turn his blunder into a lucrative gig as a political analyst on MSNBC.
Let us not lapse into cliché and say that such things happen only in Washington. After all, who remembers or cares about Robert Downey Jr.'s former transgressions now that he is an Avenger? Or, for that matter, the travails of Kobe Bryant? What was it he did, or didn't do, in Colorado lo those many years ago? Again and again, Leibovich demonstrates the short-term scandal memory inside the Beltway. It's enough to make one think former Senator and presidential candidate John Edwards, last seen cheating on his dying wife, might have a comeback in his future. (Let's hope not.)
The tics and mannerisms of Beltway life provide plenty of fodder, too: Pols and others describing scandals and other peccadilloes as "saddening" and "troubling," journalists who slip free of poor judgment by asserting instead that they are "just asking the question," and the epidemic of humble-brags polluting the Potomac. Of the latter, many examples can be found, starting with the late "Meet the Press" host being eulogized at the start of the book.
"Russert – Tim – reached the top of the pecking order while shrouding a cutthroat ambition in his slovenly nonchalance," Leibovich writes. He goes on to list many of the affectations indulged in by Russert to further burnish his reputation: the branding of his own father as "Big Russ," the endless mentions of his Buffalo hometown, his blue-collar love of the NFL Bills, his frequent paeans to millionaire populist Bruce Springsteen, and the Russert machine's paid speeches, "where he would tell the same jokes and stories over and over, like a politician does."
In similar fashion, Arianna Huffington, she of the improbable online media empire, hosts a book-release party for a tome called "Third World America" that includes, yes, valet parking. What, people are supposed to park themselves because others are less fortunate? Don't be silly.
If all of this makes the federal government's leaders and its attendant parasites sound like ambitious, entitled children playing a game, a winking, nodding affair where everyone in the know gets richer (Washington became the most prosperous city while income plummeted across the rest of the nation), why, that's because they are. They bond in the same cable TV green rooms before going on-air for a few minutes of partisan shtick, but, as the nexus lawyer-agent Bob Barnett illustrates, everything here is post-partisan. What began with James Carville and Mary Matalin merging their political "brands" in marriage and multi-million-dollar endorsements and speeches has become a way of life for all concerned in The Club.
Even the federal debt makes has-beens richer. To wit: Just after one of many rounds of fiscal cliff stalemates, former Republican Senator Alan Simpson and former Clinton chief of staff Erskine Bowles took their failed budget-reform recommendations on the road, charging $40,000 a pop to enlighten the masses. Tim Russert must have been, yes, smiling up in heaven, as does every D.C. Luminary who passes into the afterworld.
Erik Spanberg is a regular contributor to Monitor Books.


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Research in Motion: Strange Brew…
If Research In Motion's annual BlackBerry World developers conference was to be the company's attempt at a comeback, well, better luck next year. The company's pre-announcement of a May quarter miss coupled with its exuberant guidance–some would say irrationally exuberant–for full-year profits of $7.50 per share had many observers and analysts expecting a slick new smartphone lineup and some decent insight into the evolution of its much-anticipated QNX "superphones."
Instead, they were given the unveiling of the BlackBerry Bold 9900 and 9930, largely incremental upgrades to RIM's dusty handset lineup, an update to the PlayBook OS that added features that really should have shipped with the device when it launched a few weeks ago, and QNX transition guidance that was at best hazy.
That was hardly what financial analysts were looking for.
"There were no clear indications of when QNX would finally arrive, and we believe the new moniker signals a longer-than-expected commitment to OS 7 before transitioning to a QNX-based platform," said Jeffries analyst Peter Misek.
Over at UBS, Phillip Huang said he saw little to ease concerns about the company's ability to regain the traction it's lost in the smartphone market.
"Nothing we saw…gives us incremental conviction that anything changes fundamentally in the balance of power against Android and iOS," Huang said. "In general, we believe, RIM's fundamental challenge over the next few quarters will be executing flawlessly on the hardware, platform, and ecosystem shifts occurring."
A daunting challenge, considering RIM's execution has been so lacking recently. Apologizing for being late to the tablet market and acknowledging that the strategy that finally brought the company there could be improved doesn't exactly bolster confidence in RIM's ability to execute at all, let alone flawlessly.
At this point RIM management has very little credibility left. If it misses that $7.50 per-share full-year profit forecast–or is forced to step back from it before it does–it will have none at all.


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Infectious Salmon Anaemia - Fact Sheet
Infectious salmon anaemia (ISA) is a finfish disease caused by a virus that belongs to a family of viruses called Orthomyxoviridae. ISA is a reportable disease in Canada. This means that anyone who suspects ISA in finfish that they own or work with is required by law to notify the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA).
What species of finfish can be infected with ISA?
Species known to be susceptible to ISA include:
- Oncorhynchus mykiss (rainbow trout)
- Salmo salar (Atlantic salmon)
- Salmo trutta (brown trout)
Species that may be susceptible include:
- Salvelinus alpinus (Arctic char)
- Clupea harengus (Atlantic herring)
Is ISA a risk to human health?
No. There is no evidence that ISA can be transmitted to humans.
Has ISA been found in Canada?
Yes. ISA was first detected in the Atlantic area in 1996. It has been reported in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland.
ISA has not been found in the Pacific Ocean watershed or the Pacific Ocean off British Columbia.
For more information of confirmed cases of ISA in Canada, visit Federally Reportable Aquatic Animal Diseases in Canada.
What are the signs of ISA?
ISA outbreaks are most common in susceptible farmed finfish reared in seawater. The disease has not been seen at the embryo stage, but can affect the fish at any life stage after hatching. It tends to be a slow moving disease so the death rate may initially be low and increase over time (weeks to months). Depending on the strain of virus, outbreaks of ISA can cause death rates of up to 90 per cent in affected populations of finfish. On average, mortality on any given farm is 30 per cent.
Infected finfish may exhibit any of the following signs:
- loss of appetite;
- abnormal swimming patterns (slow swimming, swimming slowly at the surface);
- fish gasping at the surface;
- grey gills;
- swollen abdomen;
- areas of bleeding that may be present along the belly and sides of the fish;
- dark and swollen kidney, liver and spleen;
- areas of pinpoint bleeding in the fatty tissue surrounding organs;
- areas of bleeding in the pyloric cecae, intestines and liver;
- pale heart; and
- bloody fluid in the abdominal cavity and around the heart.
What is required to confirm a diagnosis of ISA?
When ISA is suspected, the CFIA launches an investigation to collect all relevant information, such as signs of illness in the fish and previous disease outbreaks in the area. At the same time, samples are collected and sent for laboratory testing using validated protocols at one of Canada's three National Aquatic Animal Health Laboratories.
How is ISA treated?
There are no treatment options currently available for ISA. There is a vaccine available in Canada to prevent the disease.
How is ISA spread?
ISA may be spread between finfish by contact with:
- excretions and/or secretions from infected finfish; or
- water contaminated with the virus.
People can spread ISA by moving:
- infected live or dead finfish;
- contaminated equipment; or
- contaminated water.
What measures can be taken to prevent the spread of ISA?
Anyone who frequently handles or works with farmed or wild finfish should:
- be aware of ISA occurrences in the local geographic area;
- be aware of the signs of ISA;
- not use finfish bought in a grocery store as bait for catching finfish or other aquatic animals; and
- dispose of all waste from cleaning and gutting finfish in municipal garbage.
Owners of aquaculture facilities are encouraged to implement biosecurity practices that will minimize the introduction and spread of ISA between production facilities. Finfish handlers must apply and comply with all federal, provincial and/or territorial permits or licences that may be required for the purpose of disease control prior to import into or relocation of finfish within Canada.
How does the CFIA respond if ISA was suspected in an aquaculture facility?
If ISA is suspected, the CFIA places movement controls on the facility to control movement of fish, vessels and/or vehicles, and equipment on and off the site. In these circumstances, finfish, vessels, vehicles and equipment could only be moved into or out of the facility with CFIA approval.
If ISA is confirmed, the CFIA controls its spread by carrying out disease response activities. These activities vary depending on the situation and could include:
- controlling the movements of infected animals;
- overseeing the humane destruction of infected animals;
- verification of cleaning and disinfection activities; and
- requiring the facility to be left empty for a period of time (fallow period) prior to restocking.
Additional information
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text: The creation of my paintings is a long and unpredictable process. Sometimes the ideas come after years of developing and experimenting, sometimes it takes only a few days. Once the idea is clear in my mind and I can see it, I put it on a small format - digital or pencil drawings, do different color variations and work on the details. When I am satisfied with the results I start painting on the appropriate size of the canvas or board. The composition, the color pallet in general, the illusion of the color combinations are very important as my message, the amount of texture is crucial as part of the detail. What I am looking for in my paintings is to transform different emotions and feelings into visual abstracts, tones and forms. I analyze them deeply and try to create a new visual experience - rich in color and tone, strong and challenging as a composition and texture. My main inspiration is the beauty of every days life, but I am also very interested in the world beyond us. The world that we don't see but we just feel. There are so many questions about our world history, our planet, the universe, our future.


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"Due Date" is a mostly successful retooling of "Planes, Trains and Automobiles," the 1987 John Hughes road classic starring Steve Martin and John Candy. The template requires a remarkable set of circumstances: a lost wallet, at least one eye-popping car crash, a family man with a temper, a loser with a sad backstory and, of course, a redemptive moment.
Director Todd Phillips dutifully fills each bucket, in this meaner (in a good way), less heartfelt, nearly-as-funny version of the classic tale.
Robert Downey Jr. and Zach Galifianakis each give the kind of performances we've come to expect from such talented guys. Downey's honed his comic timing to razor-sharp perfection, and Phillips lets him run with it. Downey's rage issues are forever percolating, and when they boil over, it typically results in a glorious mess of vitriolic humor.
Galifianakis is a very different sort of funnyman, one with a gift of crafting characters with quiet touches like his jockstrap in "The Hangover," or his Lillith Fair T-shirt in "Due Date." He also shows again, as he did in "It's Kind of a Funny Story," that he can go dramatic, grieving more than once for his dead father.
Like any decent comedy these days, most every corner of the film is packed with a great cameo. RZA kills as a airport luggage inspector. Matt Walsh is a pain TSA agent. Danny McBride is a paraplegic Iraq War vet (played for laughs, but with respect, we promise) and Juliette Lewis a spaced-out pot dealer.
Jamie Foxx as Downey's old college buddy is the film's biggest disappointment. His timing is off, his whole performance reeks of unpreparedness. The jokes are there, but he's just not hitting his beats.
Michelle Monaghan feels wasted as Downey's very pregnant wife. She showed such promise opposite Downey in the 2005 cult classic "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang," but here she's relegated to the stock role of expectant mother waiting for hubby to come home.
The film sags a bit in the second act as Phillips tries in vain to establish some emotional gravitas, as the film periodically feels as though Phillips -- or one of his co-writers -- is struggling with some dad issues. But the action picks up soon enough; in fact, it goes a little too over-the-top for a spell.
It was gutsy of Phillips and Galifianakis to team up again right after the monster success of "The Hangover," knowing that "Due Date" would be greeted with impossible expectations. And sure enough, they fall short of their original collaboration, but this new film is at least half as funny, which is still pretty funny.
Check out our reviews for some of this week's other new films:
"Client-9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer"


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The Oil, Spill Prevention, Control, and Countermeasure program was put in place by the United States Environmental Protection Agency to prevent oil spills into waters of the United States.
This program recently expanded regulations to include some farms. As a result of these regulations, certain facilities are required to develop SPCC plans that describe oil storage containers, emergency contacts and response personnel, procedures, and training to prevent, control, and provide adequate countermeasures to a discharge of oil.
What farm facilities are covered by the SPCC program? Well, your farm facility is covered by this program if you store more than 1,320 gallons of oil in above-ground bulk containers, including containers (drums, totes, aboveground storage tanks, nurse tanks, well pumps, hydraulic lifts, etc.) with a storage capacity of 55 gallons and above, and your facilities have a �reasonable expectation of an oil discharge� to water.
Common types of oil covered under the SPCC program found at farms include diesel fuel, gasoline, lube oil, hydraulic oil and mineral oil.
In order to define what is meant by �reasonable expectation of an oil discharge� to water, consider the geography and location of your farm facility relative to nearby waters. Determine if drainage near your fuel storage facility or precipitation runoff could transport an oil spill to a nearby water body.
Exclude any man-made features like dikes or other structures when determining potential oil spill movement to waterways. If oil can reasonably flow to a body of water, and your fuel storage facility meets the 1,320 gallon threshold, then your facility is covered by SPCC.
If your farm fuel storage facility is covered by the SPCC, your facility must take steps to prevent oil spills, and you need an SPCC plan.
If you have an above-ground oil storage capacity greater than 10,000 gallons, you will need to have your plan certified by a professional engineer.
If you have 10,000 gallons or less and a clean spill history, you may self-certify your plan.
Your plan should describe the oil handling operations, spill prevention practices, spill clean-up procedures, discharge or drainage controls, and the personnel, equipment, and resources at the facility that are used to prevent oil spills from reaching water.
Make a list of your oil containers at your facility and describe the procedures you will use to prevent oil spills. Moreover, you should describe measures you installed to prevent oil from reaching water, what you will do to contain and clean up an oil spill, and make a list of emergency contacts and first responders.
The plan should be amended and updated as changes are made at your facility and should be reviewed at a minimum every five years to assure it is up-to-date. Keep your plan at your site.
Tip: If you are eligible to self-certify your plan, and no above-ground container at your farm is greater than 5,000 gallons, then you may use the plan template available to download from the the EPA Web site at http://www.epa.gov/oem/content/spcc/tier1temp.htm.
Oil spills can be prevented by installing dikes or berms around bulk storage containers or by using sorbent materials, drip pans, or curbing in oil transfer areas.
One should periodically inspect and test pipes and containers and develop measures to prevent container overfills.
In the event you have an oil spill, activate your SPCC plan to prevent oil from reaching the water body, and implement spill clean-up procedures. If oil gets into the water, notify the NRC at (800) 424-8802 immediately, as well as local and state officials.
Notify EPA Region 6 in writing if oil spilled to water is greater than 1,000 gallons in a single event or greater than 42 gallons on two different occasions within a 12-month period.
All farms and other agricultural facilities must prepare and use an SPCC Plan that meets suggested guidelines by November 10, 2011.
More information is available at the SPCC Web site for agriculture at http://www.epa.gov/emergencies/content/spcc/spcc_ag.htm.
Jeffrey Stapper is the Agricultural and Natural Resources Agent for Nueces?County. Readers may contact him at (361) 767-5217.


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5 Francis Ford Coppola films collected in new boxed set
Francis Ford Coppola is one of the most influential filmmakers of our time, not only because of his masterpieces The Godfather and The Godfather Part II, but also innovations in filmmaking and independent spirit. He won his first Academy Award in 1970 as a screenwriter on Patton, two years before he gained fame as a director. Since then he's created a diverse body of work with everything from war films to romantic comedies to coming-of-age tales.
The new Francis Ford Coppola 5-Film Collection (1974-2009, Lionsgate, PG and R; Blu-ray, $40) offers a diverse sampling of the five-time Oscar winner's career. Some of his best (two best picture Oscar nominees) and possibly his worst, work is represented. Each film comes with its own set of special features that include interviews, behind-the-scenes features, deleted scenes, documentaries and other extras. The set includes:
• The Conversation (1974) — Gene Hackman stars as Harry Caul, a paranoid surveillance expert, who as a rule remains detached from his assignments, but becomes tormented by a conversation overhears. He finds himself caught up in a deadly conspiracy that could put him in harm's way or leave him with inescapable guilt. This taut psychological thriller also starred John Cazale, Allen Garfield, Cindy Williams, Frederic Forest, Harrison Ford and Robert Duvall. It was nominated for three Academy Awards, including best picture, but lost to Coppola's other nominee that year, The Godfather, Part II.
• Apocalypse Now (1979) — Marlon Brando, Martin Sheen and Robert Duvall star in this film, which many consider the finest ever made about the Vietnam war. The twisted tale inspired by Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness follows Captain Benjamin Willard (Sheen) on a mission up the Nung River deep into the jungle in Cambodia to kill the rogue and presumably insane Army Special Forces Col. Walter Kurtz (Brando). What he finds is more horrifying than he could have imagined. The film won Academy Awards for cinematography and sound, and was nominated for six others, including best picture, director and supporting actor (Duvall). In 2001, Coppola released Apocalypse Now Redux in theaters and on DVD, with 49 minutes of additional footage. It includes beefed-up river and French plantation scenes, one in which Playboy Playmates entertain the troops and additional dialogue by Kurtz.
• One From the Heart (1982) — A Las Vegas couple (Frederic Forest, Teri Garr) break up on the fourth of July and hit the Strip separately in search of romance in this musical film. They both find fantasy-fulfilling mates (Nastassja Kinski, Raul Julia), but have to decide if that is what they really want, or if there is more to their relationship than they thought. The music earned Tom Waits an Oscar nomination, but the film was a monumental flop, making back only a small fraction of its production costs at the box office and sending Coppola into bankruptcy.
• Tetro (2009) — Coppola's first original screenplay since The Conversation tells the story of an artistic Italian family rife with secrets, betrayals and sibling rivalries. Tetro (Vincent Gallo) is a writer who left home years earlier to live in Buenos Aires and get away from his domineering symphony conductor father (Klaus Maria Brandauer). He is visited by his much-younger brother Bennie (Alden Ehrenreich), who completes an unfinished manuscript of Tetro's and stages it in a local production. It reopens old family wounds.