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Arkansas Exporters Determined to SucceedApril 12, 2011
Patricia M. Gonzalez is the Director of the U.S. Export Assistance Center Arkansas
Arkansas exporters are determined to succeed. In spite of the fact that the State lacks a well developed international services network that many of our larger exporting neighbors enjoy, we have about 1,500 very committed companies that sell at least into one market. Our team in CS Little Rock – Eric Johnson, senior international trade specialist; Mary Hayward, export assistance specialist, and I spend a good deal of time combing articles and websites for tidbits of information and sources of assistance to share with our clients. Often, our companies travel to another state to participate in programs.
I almost couldn't contain my excitement when Susie Marks, Senior VP for Programs, Arkansas State Chamber of Commerce asked me to suggest programs targeted to Arkansas exporters, particularly pertaining to documentation shortcuts and information that hasn't been presented here before. I immediately called Amanda Barlow, USCIB, whom I met at the National DEC Conference in Detroit in October. She liked the idea and suggested that we include Reed Exhibitions. It was a great success and we look forward to our continued cooperation. While the associate editor of the state-wide Arkansas Business Journal was interested in the workshop, he couldn't attend. He asked me to write an article about the program that was published on April 11. We're generating a lot of interest in our programs and couldn't be more pleased that through the CS Strategic Partner Initiative that we were able to stage a new workshop in the State.


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Ever take WAAAY to many photos and then feel overwhelmed when you sit down to scrap? I know I'm not alone here, but I found an easy solution to this. Print your photos out as a collage then paste the collage strait on to your patterned paper, add a few embellies and you are done!
I used my Cricut and SCAL software to make the die cuts on the layouts. I designed the chick in inkscape and you can cut it with your cricut if you have SCAL software.
Download the chick SVG cutting file here.
The bingo cards are a freebie also, I offered them before but in case you missed them you can download them here.
I have been trying to make crocheted flowers, I used my first attempts on this page, all of the paper is by Basic Grey. Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!
Filed under: SCAL software + Cricut, Scrapbooking | Tagged: base camp, basic grey, bingo card freebie, chick die cut, cricut projects, easter, free bingo cards, free cutting file, free SVG file, freebie, Inque Boutique, opposites attract, scal freebie, SCAL software + Cricut, scrapbook, sure cuts a lot, SVG Freebie | 6 Comments »

subset: commoncrawl


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These questions can help you start a conversation with your doctor about getting screened for prostate cancer.
Review Date: Wednesday, December 17, 2014
National Health Information Center - NHICU.S. Department of Health and Human Services
If you have been diagnosed with prostate cancer, call 800-641-PCRI or 310-743-2110 to speak with a Prostate Cancer Research Institute specialist who can you understand your diagnosis and treatment options.
Review Date: Monday, June 01, 2015
Prostate Cancer Research Institute
Treatment for prostate cancer often begins a few weeks to months after diagnosis. Use this booklet to help you talk over treatment choices with your doctor before deciding which treatment is best for you.
Review Date: Wednesday, April 01, 2015
NIH National Cancer Institute
Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men. Ask your doctor about the potential benefits and harms of prostate cancer screening tests.
Review Date: Friday, April 03, 2015
Division of Cancer Prevention and Control, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Learn about the risk factors, symptoms, diagnosis and treatment of prostate cancer. This document contains a simple diagram of the prostate, which is part of the male reproductive system.
Review Date: Wednesday, September 19, 2012
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention - CDCU.S. Department of Health and Human Services
The exact cause of prostate cancer is not known, so at this time it is not possible to prevent most cases of the disease. Many risk factors such as age, race, and family history cannot be controlled. But based on what we do know, some cases might be prevented.
Review Date: Monday, April 06, 2015
American Cancer Society
Make an informed decision about your cancer treatment. Use this tool for a detailed analysis of your specific condition, statistical breakdown of treatment types, and pinpoint the exact topics you should discuss with your doctor.
Review Date: Monday, February 11, 2013
Did you know prostate cancer is the second leading cause of cancer deaths among men in the United States, after lung cancer? Find out if you should be screened.
Review Date: Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Us Too has over 320 support group chapters worldwide. Chapters are listed alphabetically by state and city.
Review Date: Thursday, January 26, 2017
Us Too International, Inc.
These monthly newsletters highlight the latest in treatment strategies as well as emerging treatments for prostate cancer.
Here is a list of resources for patients and their families to help with the cost of treatments, medical supplies and legal issues.
Review Date: Thursday, December 20, 2012
Prostate Cancer Foundation
This document offers general information about prostate cancer, risk factors, and what you can do to help prevent prostate cancer.
Review Date: Wednesday, January 13, 2016
Find out about the tests that are commonly used to screen for prostate cancer as well as the potential benefits of prostate cancer screening.
Review Date: Tuesday, January 31, 2012
What is screening? Screening is looking for cancer before a person has any symptoms. This can help find cancer at an early stage. When abnormal tissue or cancer is found early, it may be easier to treat. By the time symptoms appear, cancer may have begun to spread.
Review Date: Wednesday, December 02, 2015
The Us Too Prostate Cancer Support Community connects patients, families, friends and caregivers to enhance the quality of life for all those affected by prostate cancer.
A fact sheet that defines the PSA and screening tests for prostate cancer, and describes the benefits and limitations of the test.
Review Date: Wednesday, November 25, 2015
Changes in your lifestyle, especially diet and exercise, can make a difference when it comes to prostate cancer prevention. Learn how you can be proactive in preventing the disease.
ZERO - The End of Prostate Cancer
Caring for men with prostate cancer is a challenging experience, especially for significant others, who may have to adjust to new lifestyles with their partners.
Review Date: Friday, March 22, 2013
This guide on prostate cancer discusses possible causes, screening, symptoms, diagnosis, and treatment. Get tips for nutrition and how to cope with the disease.
To estimate your risk of prostate cancer and learn about ways to lower that risk, take a few minutes to answer some questions about your health, background, and lifestyle.
Review Date: Friday, October 31, 2014
Educational Institution — Click the resource link above to learn more
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Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Rowling's sixth book opens in the British Prime Minister's office after "a very long, tiring, and difficult week," words that cast an eerie light on actual events in London this summer. Yet from the first, the author has used the wizard world to offer insight into the goings-on in the real world, perhaps now more than ever. After the new Minister of Magic introduces himself to the Prime Minister, the scene shifts to Professor Snape's home, where Draco Malfoy's mother and aunt pay him a call, referring to a cryptic mission on which He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named is sending Draco. Next, Dumbledore himself fetches Harry from the Dursleys, as the two begin a book-long quest to get to the heart of the dark wizardry impacting both the Muggle and magical worlds. Although You-Know-Who makes no appearances here, his henchmen gain momentum, and his past comes to light through multiple trips via the Pensieve; perhaps Rowling's most brilliant invention yet, the Horcrux, comes chillingly to the fore. Meanwhile, after winding up with a used copy of Advanced Potion-Making with notes from a mysterious Half-Blood Prince, Harry aces his Potions class, taught by the new Professor Slughorn; Snape is now teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts—what can that mean? Readers will have to madly flip the pages to find out. Rowling spends a fair amount of time in the set-up but she accomplishes a great deal in this book, pulling together threads from all the previous titles and expertly poising readers for the planned finale. Old friends such as Lupin and Dobbin make reappearances, love interests and subsequent tensions unfold. Harry, now restored to popularity, nonetheless finds Ron and Hermione wary of his new obsession with Draco Malfoy's activities. The situation at Hogwarts mirrors world events: even Dumbledore finds it difficult to distinguish the good from those who would unleash terror at the school and society at large. If Harry grew up in the last book, here he becomes a man, learning the true impact of the last book's prophecy, and the importance of love as the antidote to fear. All ages.(July)
Release date: 07/01/2005
Genre: Children's


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785 Woollamia Road, HUSKISSON NSW 2540
Jervis Bay Holiday Park
6 RatingsInstant book
First we start with the basics, toilets and showers ... then we move on to some more fancy things like cafe's and BBQ areas and finally, if you're lucky, some of the below campsites might even have WIFI. Excited? Here are 1 campgrounds perfect for millenials near Booderee National Park and Botanic Gardens.


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Quaker State returns as title sponsor of Sprint Cup race at Kentucky Speedway
Kentucky Speedway's annual NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS) race will remain the Quaker State® 400 through 2018 under the terms of a new event sponsorship agreement.
The 2014 Quaker State 400 presented by Advance Auto Parts will take to Kentucky Speedway's challenging 1.5-mile tri-oval track the night of Saturday, June 28 to provide the finale for the venue's tripleheader NASCAR weekend that opens Thursday, June 26.
"The Quaker State 400 presented by Advance Auto Parts has continued to deliver incredible experiences to our customers and race fans as well as tremendous visibility for our brand over the first three years of the relationship with Kentucky Speedway," said Rusty Barron, Vice President of Marketing, Quaker State. "The event has featured on-track excitement as well as at-track success for Quaker State through a vast array of assets the entitlement brings. We are proud to be part of this great race for years to come."
Quaker State has grown the promotion of the 3-year-old NSCS 400-mile event to include branding on the speedway's retaining walls and start/finish line in the brand's signature green and gold colors.
"Kentucky Speedway has witnessed many historical moments, but few more important than this. Teaming long term with one of the best brands in sports positions us to continue to grow our speedway and the Quaker State 400. We treasure our association with Quaker State and are thrilled it has chosen to work and innovate with us," Kentucky Speedway General Manager Mark Simendinger said.
When Quaker State announced in early 2011 it would become the title sponsor of the event, anticipation built among the NASCAR community as Kentucky Speedway was ushered in as the first new venue on the NSCS circuit in 10 years. The Quaker State 400 has lived up to its billing. NASCAR's most talented drivers and champions have conquered the unique 1.5-mile tri-oval to claim the first three Quaker State 400 titles: Kyle Busch (2011), Brad Keselowski ('12) and Matt Kenseth ('13).
Kentucky Speedway ticket packages that include the 2014 Quaker State 400 presented by Advance Auto Parts are on sale at (859) 578-2300 and the speedway's ticket office at 1 Speedway Drive in Sparta, Ky., just off Interstate 71 Exit 57 and Ky. Hwy. 35 North.
About Quaker State®: Quaker State® motor oil has a 70-year history as a leader in consumer automotive products and vehicle care. Quaker State is among the industry's most innovative motor oil brands and offers a full line of products to meet every type of vehicle engine need. Quaker State is one of the first brands to develop high mileage engine motor oil. For more information about the full line of Quaker State products, visit www.quakerstate.com.
About Kentucky Speedway: Kentucky Speedway became the eighth member of the Speedway Motorsports, Inc. (SMI) family in December 2008. The 107,000-capacity Sparta, Ky., venue was founded in 2000, quickly established a reputation for generating dramatic race finishes and it's 1.5-mile tri-oval is widely known for presenting one of the toughest challenges in motorsports. A short day trip from Cincinnati, Louisville, Ky., and Lexington, Ky., the speedway also is easily accessible from major markets such as Dayton, Ohio, Indianapolis, Pittsburgh, Nashville, Tenn., and Knoxville, Tenn. The speedway offers fans excellent race views from all rows in addition to unique infield and reserved camping options


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I have a geotiff file in UTM and units in meters. I used gdal_translate with this command :
gdal_translate -of GTiff -a_nodata 0 -a_srs EPSG:4326 old.tif new.tif
gdalinfo on new.tif shows that the file units are in degrees while the data (corners,origin ...etc) are given in meters which is wrong. Is it possible to reverse/correct this action (on the new file) so I can get the file with either UTM in meters or go on and make the file in "real" degrees because I deleted the original file?


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Product Description
This is a genuine Sinnis OEM part and is a direct replacement for your original part. This part is an OEM replacement for the following Sinnis Motorcycle:
Please double check the picture to make sure it matches your original part before ordering, if you're unsure if this will fit your bike drop us a message with your make, model and year and we will get back to you within 24 hours.
Tags: Fairing, Cover, Panel
Additional Information
Additional Information
|Manufacturers Part Number
|12 months
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We offer FREE Delivery to the UK on orders over £50, with any orders placed before 2:00pm being dispatched the same day via either Royal Mail or DPD. Larger items being dispatched by courier to Northern Ireland and the Scottish Highlands may incur a surcharge based on additional charges from DPD.
Delivery times vary depending on shipping method used, with Royal mail normally taking between 1-3 working days and DPD usually next working day.
We offer very competitive rate for most European and non European countries, please refer to the shipping calculator at checkout for prices to your area and for more information on shipping options available please go to the Shipping Information Page.
We offer a 30 day Return & Exchange Policy on our products, simply put if you have a change of heart, need a different size or we made a mistake and you received the wrong product, as long as the product is unused and in its original packaging with labels and tags it can be returned for a full refund or exchange.
If you change your mind after the 30 days don't worry we won't leave you in the lurch, we will still happily exchange an item for you but a small restocking fee may apply.
Some products however, are excluded from our returns policy if ordered incorrectly or are no longer needed and cannot be returned such as oils, aerosols and undergarments due to health and safety reasons.
For more information on returning an item please take a look at the Returns FAQ Page.
Most of our top branded items come with a warranty from 1 month to lifetime including our own MPW range of products, details of the warranty period for the product you are looking at can be found on the item Additional Information tab and for more information about warranties and how to claim can be found on the Returns FAQ Page.
Thank you for reading and enjoy your new purchase and if you have any questions or just want to say HI please don't hesitate to get in touch
- The Motorcycle Parts Warehouse Team


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by Len Lear
Dovetail Artisans at 105 E. Glenside Ave in Glenside, which frequently has special fundraising events to benefit local community organizations, will stay open from 5:30 to 8 p.m. on Wednesday, May 4, to host a fundraiser for Nancy's House, comprehensive respite for family caregivers. 10-15% of the proceeds from the evening will be donated to Nancy's House, respite for caregivers. Light refreshments will be available.
Nancy's House, with offices in Wyncote, is a model of comprehensive respite for family caregivers. Caregivers, whose own health and well-being is imperiled by caring for a loved one, come to Nancy's House for two nights of undisturbed sleep, classes to better manage stress and to become part of an on-going community of support with other family caregivers. Because caregivers are financially stressed as well, Nancy's House subsidizes the cost of a respite session through private and corporate donations, grants and fundraising.
Elayne Aion, owner of Dovetail Artisans in Glenside, appreciates the need for Nancy's House for caregivers and supports their mission. Ten percent of credit card purchases and 15% of cash or check purchases made during this evening event will be donated to Nancy's House. (Dovetail Artisans is a gift shop featuring American handcrafted items — personal gifts like jewelry and scarves, household items like clocks and inlaid boxes, office items like letter openers and magnetic boards, Judaica, puzzle boxes, mobiles, etc.)
Other community organizations which have benefited from fundraising events held at The Dovetail Artisans are Free the Hikers, Breastfeeding Resounce Center, Friends of High School Park, Abington High School Band, Living Beyond Breast Cancer, Congregation Kol Ami in Elkins Park and Rubye's Kids, which provides Christmas patrties, school books and other necessities to impoverished kids in North Philly.)
Owner Elayne Aion, 57, is a pioneer in her own way. In 1974 the Cheltenham High School graduate became the first female bartender that Zeno's, the Penn State University college bar, had ever hired. Not exactly like being the first person to walk on the moon, but it was symptomatic of Elayne's iconoclastic spirit.
A social work major, Aion (the word is the pronunciation of the letter "I" in the Hebrew alphabet) could not wait to graduate so she could travel the world. (Elayne knows that Rome wasn't build in a day, even though the general contractor promised it would be.)
Like poet Walt Whitman, Elayne found out she was "strong and content when I travel the open road." She first went to Europe, where she stayed for eight months until she ran out of money. Since she was determined to keep traveling but was broke, Aion figured her only alternative was to join the Peace Corps.
After joining the Peace Corps, Elayne was sent to the Philippines, where she taught proper nutrition to a mountain tribe of headhunters in the province of Kalinga-Apayo for two years. "I learned Ilicano, which was the common language of the mountain provinces," she said. "In one case, they told me this meat I was eating was from a deer. As it turned out, it was really from a dog … Later, I ate no meat for 15 years."
After her time in the Peace Corps, Elayne continued traveling throughout Asia — India, Nepal, Burma, Thailand and Singapore — until her money ran out again. "I wasn't shocked by the poverty I saw in Calcutta," she recalls, "because I had seen similar poverty in Manila.
"The biggest cultural shock was actually coming home and seeing how much chauvinism, arrogance and waste there was right here at home. I realized that's what we are suffering from. Many Americans feel the entire world has to live the way we do. It's a very narrow way to think. There are many other ways to live that are just as valid for other cultures as ours."
Not only has Elayne traveled extensively in the world at large, but you might say her inner travels have been both extensive and intensive, as well. After 16 years of marriage and raising two sons — Justin, 29, a math teacher in Western Pennsylvania, and Myles, 23, an intern at the Kripalu yoga center in Massachusetts — Elayne realized she was gay. She split up with her husband, who now lives in California and with whom she still has a cordial relationship. "He is a fine man," said Elayne, "but we just couldn't continue the way we were."
For the past 14 years Elayne has had a committed relationship with her life partner, Joan Liehe, 68, at their home near Glenside.
After her extensive travels in Asia, Elayne worked for eight years as a "headhunter," recruiting engineers and computer scientists for the corporate world. "I was recruiting for the 'Evil Empire,'" said Aion. "I don't like to think about it."
Elayne then worked for 11 years for her father, who owned the Berben Insignia Company in center city, selling police equipment like badges and handcuffs to police and fire departments and security firms. She then worked in hospice care for 10 years running a volunteer program for the Visiting Nurse Association.
Two days after leaving that job, she learned that the owner of The Dovetail Artisans, a gift shop at 105 E. Glenside Ave, in Glenside, was looking for a buyer. "I went in the next day, and we made a deal in no time," said Elayne, who reopened the shop on May 10, 2007.
It helps that Elayne's business ideas are as organized as a Mozart piano sonata. Her stunning variety of handmade crafts includes: hand-painted tiles with Native American themes, created by a Cherokee artist; hand-dyed silk scarves; Judaica items such as Hanukkah candle holders; colorful handmade cotton and wool socks; puzzles and mobiles; bubbling water fountains, and much more. Almost everything is under $50, and countless items are under $25. Almost everything was handcrafted in the U.S. or Canada, and the only exceptions are Fair Trade items. Many local craftspeople are also represented.
Aion, who was a long-time member of the Anna Crusis Choir, the nation's oldest feminist choir, said about her gift shop, "I can't believe how happy I am. Working for yourself is so much better than working for someone else. I am working longer, harder and more intensely than ever, but I'm very happy about it. There is definitely a learning curve, but I've always gone to craft shows and always loved American crafts anyway, so it's a perfect fit."
For more information about The Dovetail Artisans, call 215-887-2220 or visit www.thedovetailartisans.com


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Review: I Am Love
Alternately elliptical and baroque, Luca Guadagnino's I Am Love might unnecessarily fracture and aestheticize its story of female identity and emancipation in search of an overwrought auteurist signature, but that central story and its tributaries are rich enough to overcome much of the director's odd and arguably unmotivated catalogue of visual and aural trickery. Which is not to say that all of Guadagnino's conspicuous directorial touches prove ineffective (occasional brushstrokes of impressionistic detail serve to heighten our understanding of the character's emotional orientation), but too often they distract from, rather than augment, the inner lives of the film's central figures.
In short, Guadagnino is most effective when he plays things relatively straight. In a skillful opening sequence, a series of tone-setting monochromatic glimpses of austere Milan snowscapes gives way to a dinner party for an extended upper-crust family. Introducing the members of this traditionally patriarchal clan, the director avoids much in the way of baroque touches (excepting a few wide-angle shots isolating the aging paterfamilias at the end of the deeply recessed table), instead focusing his attention on establishing the web of relations between the characters and the ripples that pass through the room when that head-of-household announces his intention to leave the family factory not only, as expected, to his son Tancredi (Pippo Delbono), but to his grandson Edo (Flavio Parenti) as well.
Having set down the family dynamic, the film then switches its attention to Tancredi's wife, Emma (Tilda Swinton), a Russian woman who has completely abandoned her former identity ("When I moved to Milan, I stopped being Russian," she says). Having even taken on a new name, her Eastern past resurfaces only in a memory montage in which images of the motherland shot on brownish film stock race by in rapid succession. Stopping off in San Remo en route to France to visit her daughter, Emma runs into Antonio (Edoardo Gabbriellini), the handsome, much younger friend of her son and, predictably enough, the two soon begin an affair.
Although this relatively straightforward storyline becomes the film's central thread, it takes on additional heft through a series of counterpointing storylines involving the other members of the family, as well as Guadagnino's sensitive handling of the budding romance. As Emma embarks on new, more rewarding personal pursuits, she's doubled by her newly out lesbian daughter (the two both crop their hair short), while her son's qualms about the ethical operation of the factory and his involvement in an international sales deal ground the film in a wider moral context.
Less successful are some of the director's attempts to enhance our understanding of the central romance through visual and aural foolery. As Emma and Antonio spend an idyllic afternoon in the country, their joy in each other's company is nicely mirrored by the lush green of their surroundings. But then Guadagnino takes it too far, representing the ensuing intercourse through an ill-advised montage alternating close-ups of flowers and insects with abstracting views of the couple's body parts, bluntly and ungracefully signaling their "oneness" with nature. By contrast, an earlier sequence in which Emma's attraction to Antonio becomes cemented when she tastes his cooking proves at least moderately successful in using visual means—looming brightly lit close-ups of the artfully arranged shrimp plate, a spotlight isolating Emma in a three shot—to effectively convey the synesthenic pleasures of an alternate sense. Still, by the time of the film's hyper-dramatic ending, in which a loud brass crescendo complements alternating views of each of the film's characters while drowning out their speech, one wonders if Guadagnino might have been better off ditching this baroque impressionism altogether and letting the not negligible pleasures of his story speak for themselves.
Cast: Tilda Swinton, Flavio Parenti, Edoardo Gabbriellini, Alba Rohrwacher, Pippo Delbono, Maria Paiato, Diane Fleri, Waris Ahluwalia, Gabriele Ferzetti, Marisa Berenson Director: Luca Guadagnino Screenwriter: Barbara Alberti, Ivan Cotroneo, Walter Fasano, Luca Guadagnino Distributor: Magnolia Pictures Running Time: 120 min Rating: - Year: 2009 Buy: Video
Review: The Last Full Measure Trades Institutional Critique for Hero Worship
The film largely evades any perspectives that might question the institutions that put our soldiers in harm's way.1.5
Speaking about the time when Air Force pararescue medic William "Pits" Pitsenbarger descended from a helicopter to aid wounded soldiers trapped in an ambush during the Battle of Xa Cam My, a former soldier, Kepper (John Savage), says, "I thought I saw an angel. There he was right in front of me, all clean and pressed." Pits's courageous actions during one of the Vietnam War's bloodiest battles, where he saved nearly 60 lives and perished after refusing to board the last chopper out of the area so he could continue helping out on the ground, are certainly deserving of the Medal of Honor that he was denied for over 30 years. But writer-director Todd Robinson's hagiographic The Last Full Measure is frustratingly limited in its scope, stubbornly fixating on the heroism of one man and the grateful yet tortured men he saved while largely evading any perspectives that might question the institutions that needlessly put those soldiers in harm's way in the first place.
Following Scott Huffman (Sebastian Stan), an up-and-coming Pentagon staffer assigned to investigate a Congressional Medal of Honor request for Pits three decades after his death, The Last Full Measure takes on the point of view of an indifferent outsider who doesn't understand the value of awarding a posthumous medal. Unsurprisingly, as Scott travels the country to meet with several of the soldiers whose lives Pits saved, he slowly comes to revere the man and the lasting impact of his actions. In the roles of these wounded survivors, Ed Harris, William Hurt, Samuel L. Jackson, and Peter Fonda each offer glimpses at the feelings of guilt and mental anguish that continue to haunt the men. Yet before we can get a hold of just what eats away at the former soldiers, and what living with their pain is really like, Robinson repeatedly whisks us via flashback to a dreadfully familiar-looking scene of combat, attempting to uplift the spirits with scene after scene of Pits (Jeremy Irvine) saving various men, all with the cool-headedness and unflappable bravery one expects from an action movie hero.
Throughout numerous walk-and-talk scenes set inside the Pentagon, The Last Full Measure manages to convey some of the countless bureaucratic hoops that must be jumped through to get a Medal of Honor request approved. But the murky subplot involving Scott's boss, Carlton Stanton (Bradley Whitford), and a supposed cover-up of Operation Abilene, the mission that led to the ambush in the village of Cam My, does nothing but pin the blame for all wrongdoing on a mid-level Pentagon director. And even in that, the film's only qualms are with a cover-up that prevented Pits from being properly recognized, with no thought whatsoever given to the disastrous wartime decisions that were also being hidden from the public.
In the end, Robinson's portrayal of a scheming Washington insider suppressing the actions of an infallible, almost angelic fallen soldier lends the film a naively simplistic morality. By fixating on the good that came out of a horrifying situation, and painting institutional corruption as a case of one bad apple, The Last Full Measure practically lets the state off the hook, all the while mindlessly promoting nationalistic ideals of unquestioned duty and honor.
Cast: Sebastian Stan, Christopher Plummer, Samuel L. Jackson, Bradley Whitford, Ed Harris, Diane Ladd, Jeremy Irvine, Michael Imperioli, Alison Sudal, Peter Fonda, William Hurt Director: Todd Robinson Screenwriter: Todd Robinson Distributor: Roadside Attractions Running Time: 115 min Rating: R Year: 2019
Oscar 2020 Winner Predictions: Sound Editing
It's not difficult to rationalize picking the same film to win both sound editing and sound mixing.
The movement to merge the two Oscar categories for sound into just one is finally picking up some steam after an academy subcommittee favored consolidation in December, but we regret to inform you that the exceptionally rational decision hasn't yet been ratified, and thus won't spare us one more year of double-feature kvetching. While the nominating members of the sound branch might know the exact difference between sound mixing and sound editing, and while compulsory Oscar blogging has forced us to know the exact difference as well, numerous academy members clearly don't.
Case in point: Last year they awarded Bohemian Rhapsody its expected award in sound mixing, where musicals always have an advantage, but also an upset win in sound editing. Unless voters metabolized Singer's violent blitzkrieg of a film and simply misremembered hearing explosions throughout, that's not the vote of an informed electorate.
From our perspective as prognosticators, though, it's not difficult to rationalize picking the same film to win both awards, especially in the absence of a musical. While there have been plenty of years we've carbon-copied our predicted winner in both categories only to see them split (even three ways, as in 2012, when Les Misérables took sound mixing, and Skyfall and Zero Dark Thirty tied for sound editing), getting one prediction right is better than getting none at all, especially in a year like this where, to judge from both slates, sound equals fury.
One thing's fairly certain: You can probably go ahead and count out Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. Not only has the new trilogy failed to add any more Oscar wins to the franchise, never once has a Star Wars film won an award for its sound effects, not even the first one (that year, a special award was given to Close Encounters of the Third Kind). Episodes seven and eight lost to, respectively, a chase movie and a war movie, and this year's top two contenders here are arguably the exact same pairing. While 1917 is still considered by many to be a frontrunner for best picture, we're pretty sure the onslaught of vintage motors roaring for the climactic quarter-hour of Ford v. Ferrari will get voters right in the dad spot.
Will Win: Ford v. Ferrari
Could Win: 1917
Should Win: Ford v. Ferrari
Review: Guns of the Trees Wears Its Looseness as a Badge of Honor
The film is but one deliberately imperfect piece of a vast slipstream.2.5
Jonas Mekas establishes the tone of 1961's Guns of the Trees with a director's statement, declaring that the "mad heart of the insane world" has prevented him from finishing the film. What follows, Mekas asserts, is "a sketchbook," a "madhouse sutra," "a cry." And such a description aptly articulates the film's melodramatic, self-pitying sense of yearning, which is driven by Mekas's career-spanning need to contexualize the divide of artifice that separates artist from audience. To Mekas, sketch-like scenes represent a refutation of staid, insidious craftsmanship that can smooth out rougher and more resonant contours.
In the case of the quasi-fictional Guns of the Trees, Mekas follows a handful of young people in New York City as they hang out and grapple with the state of modern existence, decrying America's involvement in Cuba, the development of the atom bomb, and various other atrocities that underscore the awfulness of the imperial machine. Occasionally, Allen Ginsberg reads his poetry over the soundtrack, his scalding free-associational verse conjuring an anger that the film's characters can't quite articulate, while providing Guns of the Trees with another element of the literary. A little of Ginsberg's poetry goes a long way. What is the "hunger of the cannibal abstract" and why can't man endure it for long?
Ginsberg's bebop phrasing complements Mekas's fragmentary images, which are alternately ludicrous and lovely. In keeping with the sketchbook concept, the film wears its unevenness and looseness as aesthetic badges of honor. A framing device in which two businessmen in white mime makeup wander a cabbage patch in near hysteria, in all likelihood embodying the ageless corruption of man, is self-consciously oblique and edgy, feeling like an earnest film student's pastiche of 1920s-era avant-garde tropes. Other scenes, however, poignantly detail life in the early '60s, such as when a woman sits her husband down in a chair in their loft and cuts his hair, or when a man tries to talk his drinking buddy down from an intoxicated rant. These scenes have the humor and behavioral specificity of John Cassasvetes's films, evoking the comforting rhythm of the little moments that come to define us.
Guns of the Trees belongs to an easily mocked beatnik era, when people discussed whether to conform or be free while listening to folk music and reading Ginsberg and smoking grass. At times, even Mekas seems to be on the verge of ribbing his subjects' sincerity. For all their thrashing about, these people seem prosperous and more interested in speaking of revolution than in truly sparking it. Ben (Ben Carruthers) sells life insurance, prompting the film's funniest line, when a potential client asks, "Don't you still believe in death?" A young woman named Barbara (Frances Stillman) is gripped by authentic depression though, and her suicide haunts Ben, Gregory (Adolphus Mekas), and Ben's wife, Argus (Argus Spear Julliard).
If the beatnik navel-gazing dates Guns of the Trees, Mekas's docudramatic eye memorably revels in poetic details throughout. His protagonists wander through fields, which suggest the rice fields of Vietnam, and junkyards that testify both to the beauty and the waste of mainstream society. The play of light off the twisted metal of the trashed cars suggests found sculpture, while indirectly conjuring the wreckage wrought by the wars the characters protest. Such images, which include profoundly intimate close-ups of the characters' faces, also anticipate the rapture offered by future Mekas "sketchbook" films such as Walden.
Mekas would go on to pare away the preachiness of Guns of the Trees from his subsequent work, as he increasingly honed a personal style that would make ecstasy out of the commonplace, utilizing multimedia and a restless syntax to suggest how memory intricately shapes life. Guns of the Trees is but one deliberately imperfect piece of a vast slipstream.
Cast: Adolfas Mekas, Frances Stillman, Ben Carruthers, Argus Spear Juillard, Frank Kuenstler, Louis Brigante Director: Jonas Mekas Screenwriter: Jonas Mekas Running Time: 86 min Rating: NR Year: 1961
Oscar 2020 Winner Predictions: Animated Feature
Forky rules.
Completist-prone Oscar prognosticators were dealt a merciful hand last week when the Oscar nominations were announced and Frozen II didn't show up in this category. But the winning hand belongs to Toy Story 4, which likely lost the Golden Globe to Missing Link as a result of a vote split between the two Disney properties. Sentiment to reward the American-based production studio Laika is brewing, and the fitfully droll Missing Link will, like Kubo and the Two Strings before it, probably find favor at the BAFTAs, but Laika's latest and most expensive production to date dramatically bombed at the box office. And while no one will be weighing between the film and I Lost My Body, a singularly and actively morose and creepy film that won't appeal to the academy at large, this category's short history tells us that the Mouse House is only vulnerable to the biggest money makers. Also, Forky rules.
Will Win: Toy Story 4
Could Win: Missing Link
Should Win: I Lost My Body
Oscar 2020 Winner Predictions: Supporting Actor
Pitt winning here will seem like the stars are lining up given what went down when he was first nominated in 1995.
We didn't predict Anthony Hopkins to get nominated here, thinking that the Golden Globes's enthusiasm for The Two Popes was a fluke. We were wrong, and he ended up becoming the elder statesman in an acting lineup that contains, on average, by far the oldest nominees. The person we predicted to get in instead, Marriage Story's Alan Alda, is a year older than Hopkins, so we certainly weren't betting the farm on any male ingénues.
On the other hand, it sure feels like spry 56-year-old Brad Pitt, who opened his acceptance speech at last night's SAG Awards with a joke about having a Tinder profile, had this award in the bag the moment his Marlboro Man-ish handyman hopped atop his buddy's roof to fix the antenna in Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood, whipping off his shirt to reveal a tawny, fully-abbed torso that scarcely seems to have aged in the nearly 30 years since he seduced the country in Thelma & Louise. He, as Leonardo DiCaprio's co-lead, has a lot more to do throughout than just doff tees, but the "I'm still here" virility of that moment embodies the entire film's love letter to old-guard masculinity in Tinseltown.
Not that anyone's reading too deeply into it, not when there's good old-fashioned awards numerology to fall back on. Within minutes of the nominations being announced, Oscar Twitter jumped on the fact that the best supporting actor slate this year is composed of acting winners from 1990 (Joe Pesci), 1991 (Anthony Hopkins), 1992 (Al Pacino), and 1993 and 1994 (Tom Hanks). Fewer pointed out that Pitt was also a nominee in 1995 for 12 Monkeys, losing out to the now-canceled Kevin Spacey. Which makes it seem all the more poetically like the stars are lining up when Pitt wins for a film whose finale proposes a rousing bit of alternate, corrective history in which the "good" guys obliterate the "bad" ones.
Will Win: Brad Pitt, Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood
Could Win: Joe Pesci, The Irishman
Should Win: Tom Hanks, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood
Oscar 2020 Winner Predictions: Documentary Feature
Every film nominated in this category grapples with the nature of freedom in a world gripped by war and shaped by technology.
Few Oscar categories are bigger snub magnets than this one. And while the failure of Apollo 11 to secure a nomination this year was indeed surprising, it was not as telling as the omission of The Biggest Little Farm, a handsomely, if conspicuously, sculpted "pop" documentary that's very much in the academy's wheelhouse. It was almost as if the committee responsible for selecting the nominees here was sending a message by embracing, at a time of increased global instability, five documentaries that looked only outward: not at mankind's possibilities, but at the ways in which we've become our own worst enemy.
When discussing the potential winner in this category, Eric and I were pulled in two different directions. "Doc will go American Factory and, by extension, the Obamas, right?" Eric asked. "Honeyland notched an Oscar record by being the first documentary to also be nominated for international feature. That has to mean something?" I asked. Which is to say that he and I, no strangers to this Oscar-predicting process, were sacrificing ourselves to rigamarole, forgetting that, at the end of the day, academy members vote with their hearts above all else.
Every film nominated in this category grapples with the nature of freedom in a world gripped by war and shaped by technology. American Factory specifically takes the closing of a Chinese-owned factory in Ohio as a jumping-off point for a study of the wiles of global capitalism, and it's every bit as smart as you might expect from a film produced by the Obamas. A more sobering reminder of how the global order of the world has been cataclysmically disrupted in the last four years is another Netflix documentary, The Edge of Democracy, about Brazil's own national(ist) sickness. It's a harrowing lament, but it offers the viewer no sense of escape.
Which isn't to say that the The Cave and especially For Sama, both filmed in Syria and in the midst of war there, are escapist. The two most viscerally powerful documentaries in the category confront us with the chaos of imperial domination. Both films center the female experience of war, but For Sama does so more shrewdly, positing itself not just as a chronicle of war, but an act of remembrance. In a film that doesn't lack for gut-wrenching images of the dead, one particularly stands out: of a child, after being pulled from its wounded mother's womb via C section in the wake of a bombing, being brought back to life. Combined with the scenes depicting the citizens of war-torn Aleppo finding humor in the midst of conflict, the film attests not only to the perseverance of the Syrian people, but to the possibility that the country might still be brought back from the edge of oblivion.
Will Win: For Sama
Could Win: The Cave
Should Win: For Sama
Oscar 2020 Winner Predictions: Makeup and Hairstyling
There doesn't seem to be much standing in the way of the triumph of the red, white, and blue neo-Juggalo.
We couldn't really say it any better than Odie Henderson, who recently scoffed: "Who wins the Costume Design Oscar for Joker? The Goodwill? Who wins the Makeup Oscar for Joker? A blind Mary Kay consultant?" While we think the Academy will stop short of awarding the motley threads of Todd Phillips's risible throwback machine in the costume category, the fact that they were nominated at all over, say, the imaginatively garish '70s finery that Ruth Carter created for Dolemite Is My Name indicates a level of affection for Joker that no one who doesn't use the word "snowflake" on a daily basis seems prepared for.
While, to us, Joaquin Phoenix's Joker looks like nothing so much as Marge after sitting still for a makeup gun, as Homer put it best, "Women will like what I tell them to like." From his lips to the Academy's ears (and face). And given this category's expansion didn't add more multicolored prosthetic creations along the lines of Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, but instead more invisible character augmentation along the lines of Judy and Bombshell, there doesn't seem to be much standing in the way of the triumph of the red, white, and blue neo-Juggalo.
Will Win: Joker
Could Win: Judy
Should Win: Maleficent: Mistress of Evil
Oscar 2020 Winner Predictions: International Feature Film
Parasite is a pervasive presence in the news cycle, and at just the right time.
Bong Joon-ho's Parasite is a pervasive presence in the news cycle, and at just the right time. As I write this latest prediction for Slant's rolling Oscar coverage, the top article on the front page of Rotten Tomatoes is a ranking, by Tomatometer, of the nine films nominated for best picture this year. Number one? Parasite. Immediately next to that article is a callout to readers to vote for their favorite film of 2019 that uses Song Kang-ho's face from Parasite's poster as the featured image. Regarding that poster, in simply placing black bars over the actors' faces, it succinctly, eerily, perfectly underlines the film's obsession with social strata. And you don't need to look far beyond the aggregate site to land on some article praising the perfectly lit and designed architectural purgatory that is the film's main setting.
Perfect. That's a funny word. There are no objectively measurable criteria for perfection, but given how many times I've heard Bong's film described as being "perfect" since it premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Palme d'Or, you'd think that there were. Still, the impulse to use it to describe this particular film, so balanced and attuned to the ties that both bind and separate us, evident in everything from the dimensions of Bong's aesthetic, to his actors' faces, to their words, makes a certain kind of sense. Quick, can you name the other four films nominated in this category? How apt if you can't, as this is a film profoundly obsessed with the subterfuge that can be weaponized during class warfare. Or awards campaigns.
Will Win: Parasite
Could Win: Pain and Glory
Should Win: Parasite
Oscar 2020 Winner Predictions: Original Score
John Williams is in no danger of winning, but a case could be made for any of the other four.
That one of the five films nominated for original score this year is not a best picture nominee nor had any shot at being one almost makes this category an outlier among this year's Oscar races, which seem otherwise fixated on frontrunners. John Williams already had the record-setting strength of 51 previous nominations leading into this week's announcement, so his nod for the third Star Wars installment, or sixth, or ninth, or…does The Mandalorian count? Anyway, suffice it to say that the only thing that could've been more knee-jerk than to select nominations solely from among this year's best picture probables would be to rubber stamp Williams uploading yet more variations on intellectual property.
Williams is in no danger of winning, but a case could be made for any of the other four. Alexandre Desplat already has two wins here, both in the last six years, but Little Women is finally picking up momentum at just the right time. His richly romantic cues, which are practically wall to wall throughout the film, come on like a crushed-velvet dust jacket, binding Greta Gerwig's shifting timeline together in a way that makes just about everyone who isn't Sasha Stone want to clutch the entire thing to their bosoms.
Arguably, another film that's still reaching its crest stage is 1917, and unlike Desplat, composer Thomas Newman is still waiting for his first win, and now holding the category's longest losing streak. It can't be said that Newman doesn't pull out all the stops, piecing together a work that feels inspired by both Hans Zimmer's pulsating Dunkirk score and Samuel Barber's "Adagio for Strings," most memorably used in Oliver Stone's Platoon. And yet, we're kind of with Bilge Ebiri, who after the nominations were announced, tweeted, "You didn't give it to DUNKIRK, you're not allowed to give it to 1917. Sorry, we're very strict on this matter."
Not to say that we expect 1917 to roll snake eyes on its 10 nominations. Only that any nominations for the film related to things that Dunkirk already did better two years ago are a tough sell, despite the draw of Newman's increasingly amplified Oscar backstory. That's presuming that the narrative doesn't wind up over-shadowed by the sidebar-friendly cousin's duel between Thomas and his cousin, Randy Newman, whose jaunty, Terms of Endearment-esque Marriage Story score appears to have as many detractors as it has fans.
Until the nominations were announced, we admit to assuming that Hildur Guðnadóttir's Golden Globe win for Todd Phillips's Joker was going to go down the same way as Justin Hurwitz's did a year ago: with an Oscar snub. We reasoned that Guðnadóttir, who also perked ears up and won an Emmy last year for her work on HBO's Chernobyl, was still too fresh a talent for the more cliquey AMPAS musicians' branch. But now that she's there, Globe in hand and attached to the film that, by the numbers, the academy loved best this year, she offers even conscience-wracked voters the chance to hand a feature-length 4chan fantasy a guilt-free win by also awarding one of the film's few female nominees.
Will Win: Hildur Guðnadóttir, Joker
Could Win: Thomas Newman, 1917
Should Win: Alexandre Desplat, Little Women
Review: Dolittle, Like Its Animals, Is Flashy but Dead Behind the Eyes
Dolittle's inability to completely develop any of its characters reduces the film to all pomp and no circumstance.1
Stephen Gaghan's Dolittle begins with a just-shy-of-saccharine animated sequence that spins the tale of the eponymous character's (Robert Downey Jr.) adventures with his wife, who one day dies at sea during a solo voyage. It's something of a more condensed, less moving version of the prologue to Pixar's Up, underscoring our protagonist's upcoming fantastical journey on behalf of Queen Victoria (Jessie Buckley) with a tinge of melancholy.
As soon as the film shifts to live action, we immediately sense the loss felt by Dolittle in the overgrown vines and shrubbery that surround the famed doctor and veterinarian's estate, as well as in his unkempt appearance. But any hopes that the film might follow through on its promise to explore Dolittle's emotional turmoil are quickly dashed once he begins interacting with the animal friends who keep him company. Their banter is ceaseless and mostly ranges from corny and tiresome to downright baffling, as evidenced by a pun referencing Chris Tucker in Rush Hour that may leave you wondering who the target is for half of the film's jokes.
The tenderness of Dolittle's prologue does resurface sporadically across the film, most memorably in a late scene where the good doctor shares the pain of losing a spouse with a fierce dragon that's also enduring a similar grief. But just as the film seems primed to say something profound about the nature of loss, Dolittle shoves his hand into the dragon's backside—with her permission of course—in order to extract a bagpipe and an array of armor, leading the fiery beast to unleash a long, loud fart right into the doctor's face.
That moment is crass, juvenile, and, above all, cheap in its cynical undercutting of one of Dolittle's rare moments of vulnerability. But it serves as a ripe metaphor for the filmmakers' incessant need to respond to a show of earnestness with a dollop of inanity, as if believing that their young audience can't handle anything remotely sincere without a chaser of flatulence.
But worse than the film's failure to truly probe Dolittle's emotional landscape is how it surrounds him with a series of uncompelling character types. While the film seems to mostly unfold through the eyes of young Tommy Stubbins (Harry Collett), who becomes Dolittle's apprentice after witnessing the doctor communicate with animals, he serves little purpose aside from drawing the man out of his shell. And Dolittle's arch-enemy, Dr. Blair Müdfly (Michael Sheen, chomping on every bit of scenery within reach), has little motivation to justify his ceaseless quest to stop his rival from attaining an elixir that will save Queen Victoria's life.
Despite repeatedly paying lip service to notions of grief and opening oneself up to the world, Dolittle ultimately plays like little more than an extended showpiece for its special effects. But even the CGI on display here is patchy at best, with the countless animals that parade through the film's frames taking on a creepy quality as their photorealistic appearance often awkwardly clashes with their cartoonish behavior. The film's notoriously troubled production, which went so off the rails that Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles director Jonathan Liebesman was brought on board for reshoots, is evident in its clumsy staging and lifeless interplay between humans and animals, but it's the film's inability to completely develop any of its characters that reduces it to all pomp and no circumstance. Like the CGI animals that inhabit much of the film, Dolittle is flashy and colorful on the outside but dead behind the eyes.
Cast: Robert Downey Jr., Antonio Banderas, Michael Sheen, Jim Broadbent, Jessie Buckley, Harry Collett, Emma Thompson, Rami Malek, John Cena, Kumail Nanjiani, Octavia Spencer, Tom Holland Director: Stephen Gaghan Screenwriter: Stephen Gaghan, Dan Gregor, Doug Mand Distributor: Universal Pictures Running Time: 106 min Rating: PG Year: 2020 Buy: Soundtrack


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The tradition of neatly mown green front yard isn't as old as you would think. The concept began 1868
in the first American suburb in Illinois, and its roots come from the Tudor era in England.
For most American homeowners (gardeners or not), the upcoming summer months signal a time of mowing and watering lawns, followed by the perennial chore of raking. It's as American as apple pie, right? Actually, the American obsession with velvety lawns isn't much older than the happy days of the 1950s. The story of how Americans became the land of freshly cut lawns, reaching from shore to shore, could fill books, complete with twisted and complicated plots that always end with the "green, green grass of home," but here is it in a shortened version.
Frederick Law Olmsted, the landscape designer who co-designed Central Park with his partner Calvert Vaux, is said to have defined the American lawn, but he doesn't get credit for inventing them. Gardeners in England had incorporated lawns into their estates since the time of the Tudors, but in the English tradition, lawns were a part of the landscape — not the landscape. Used for bowling greens and long vistas, the swaths of green in Europe belonged primarily to the wealthy and were unattainable by the poor.
Olmsted created the unified lawn, or a more democratic approach to lawns — one that provided every homeowner a quarter-acre patch of green. Commissioned to design one of the first planned suburbs in 1868, Riverside in Illinois, he stipulated that each house be set back 30 feet from the road. Also, fences or "walls" were prohibited, giving the whole development a park-like setting. Lawns continued over property lines and mowing your grass became a matter of pride, the homeowner's contribution to keeping the neighborhood spiffy, a sentiment that's still prevalent today.
Prior to the expansion of the suburbs, lawns were minimal in most places and practically nonexistent in the South. The typical Southern front yard was hard dirt that was swept daily. Grass was thought to harbor mosquitos, insects, rodents and snakes and was also considered a fire hazard.
But then, the suburban explosion and the 40-hour workweek changed the daily routine of homeowners and allowed more time for ornamental gardening. Three organizations are directly responsible for instilling the desire and creating the necessary resources to ensure a summer of freshly cut lawns.
There are plenty of ways to incorporate flowerbeds and a nice lawn into your landscape, including planting a barrier of trees and shrubs between the road and your house.
▲ ▼ Some opt for no grass at all, using mulch and plantings instead. In some cases, it is much easier to plant shade-loving hostas under a tree canopy than to struggle with grass.
• The amount of pollution emitted by a lawnmower operating for one hour is equivalent to the amount of pollution emitted by a car driven for approximately 20 miles.
• Up to 60 percent of urban fresh water is used for watering lawns.
• Americans spend more than $5 billion on fossil fuel-derived fertilizers for their lawns and $700 billion on pesticides, totaling 67 billion pounds of synthetic pesticides.
• 20 million acres of American land is planted with residential lawns.
In 1915, almost a half century after Olmsted designed Riverside, the US Department of Agriculture collaborated with the US Golf Association to find the right grass — or rather, combination of grasses — that would produce a lawn suitable for the American climate and fit the definition of "good grass." Bermudagrass from Africa, bluegrass from Europe and a mix of fescues and bentgrass were included in the research, all of which are non-native to the United States. Within 15 years, the USDA had produced several grass combinations that would work in American climates, but not without a host of fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides, irrigation and, of course, the right lawnmower.
The American Garden Club was the most effective in getting the American public on board. Through contests and other forms of publicity, they convinced homeowners that it was their civic duty to maintain beautiful and healthy lawns. They defined a good lawn as "mown to a height of an inch and a half, uniformly green, neatly edged and without weeds." By the 1950s, the American public was convinced, and the quest for the perfect lawn became a weekend pastime. Weed-free, freshly mown lawns were as much a labor of love as a civic duty.
Today, Americans are still writing the history of lawns. As we have become more aware of the environmental hazards of lawn care, the enthusiasm for the lawn is dwindling. Modern homeowners are incorporating ground covers, flowerbeds, mulch and shrubbery in place of grass. Swaths of green are getting smaller, and some traditional front yards of grass are removed completely in favor of other plants.
Grass is still the largest part of the American garden, but whether or not it keeps its favored focal point… Only time will tell.
A version of this article appeared in a June 2013 edition of the State-by-State Gardening eNewsletter.
Photography courtesy of Cinthia Milner.


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Deputy mayor
Deputy mayor is an elective or appointive office of the second-ranking official in many local governments.
Duties and functions
A lot of elected vice mayors are members of the city council who are given the title and serve as acting mayor in the mayor's absence. Appointive deputy mayors serve at the pleasure of the mayor and may function as chief operating officers; in some large communities such as New York City, there are multiple deputy mayors who handle coordination of specific policy areas. There may be within the same municipal government a deputy mayor or mayors appointed by the mayor to policy areas and a popularly-elected vice mayor who serves as the mayor's successor in the event the office is vacated by death, resignation, disability, or impeachment.
In other cities the vice mayor presides over the city council, and may not vote except to break ties. Like the deputy mayor in other systems, the popularly-elected vice mayor becomes acting mayor in the mayor's absence. As previously noted, in some few cities, this office is elected separately and does not entail the elevation by the council of one of its members to be speaker. In some U.S. cities, the mayor and deputy or vice mayor run together as a ticket similar to how president and vice president run at the national level.
The French term député-maire does not mean "deputy mayor", but refers to a mayor who is also a deputy of the National Assembly of France.
|This government job-related article is a stub. You can help Infogalactic by expanding it.


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Incorporating the Going Business
by CARROLL L. WEBB, JR. Partner, Dallas Office
Presented before the Eighteenth Annual Meeting of the Tennessee
Institute on Federal Taxation, Memphis—December 1967
ACCORDING to recent figures released by the Treasury Department, as
reported by one of the well-known tax periodicals, more and more unincorporated businesses are changing to corporate form. During the years 1961 to 1964, the number of sole proprietorships decreased by about 49 thousand and the number of partnerships decreased by about 17 thousand, while the number of corporations increased by about 184 thousand.
Now, what might be some of the reasons for this shift in the form of doing business? Well, of course, we are all aware of the limited liability to individual stockholders afforded through the use of incorporation.
Another reason might be additional fringe benefits available, such as deferred compensation through qualified pension and profit-sharing plans, medical payment plans, exempt sick pay, tax-free group life insurance, and health and accident coverage. Of course, limited tax-deductible retirement plans for the self-employed are now available to the businessman whose business is unincorporated but, generally speaking,
they will be less beneficial than the corporation plans. In this regard, Revenue Ruling 66-218 makes it clear that a pension or profit-sharing plan for a Subchapter S corporation will not be denied approval just because shareholder-employees are eligible to participate in the plans. This means that shareholder-employees of Subchapter S corporations,
in effect, get a current deduction from taxable income for contributions to such plans. A word of caution is in order at this point with respect to medical-payment plans covering only officer-stockholders of closely held corporations. A recent Tax Court case, Larkin,1 indicates possible trouble in this area and should be checked before employing such a plan. Sometimes the difference between income tax rates of individuals and those of corporations alone makes incorporation desirable,
and usually enough business reasons can be shown to substantiate the incorporation. If Treasury figures are a true indication, the enactment
in 1958 of Subchapter S of the Internal Revenue Code is the greatest single factor contributing to the increase in the number of cor-
1 Larkin, 48 TC No. 59.


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Professional Mariner was founded over 35 years ago with one premise; to make boating more enjoyable! We pioneered a robust line of fully automatic, on-board marine battery chargers that provided the marine industry with a mainstream method of charging batteries in a short time without the need for storing or carrying portable battery chargers on-board. We haven't looked back since.
Today, this line leads as the industry standard. The result? More time spent boating, sailing or fishing versus boat maintenance and waiting at home or at the dock for individual batteries to charge.


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Celebrating January 1st as New Year's Day...
...but not always
In 46 B.C. Julius Caesar introduced a new, solar-based calendar that was an improvement on the ancient Roman calendar, which was lunar-based and had become inaccurate over the years. A lunar-based calendar is founded on the cycles of the moon - the synodic period. However, there is variation in the precise time for a specific lunation - the time between successive new moons - from 29 days, 6 hours, 35 minutes to 29 days, 19 hours, 55 minutes. Therefore, cumulatively, any lunar-based calendar will be "adding" time over any prolonged period. The Julian calendar, named for Julius Caesar, decreed that the new year would occur on January 1st. Julius wanted the year to begin in January since it celebrated the beginning of the civil year and the festival of the god of gates and, eventually, the god of all beginnings, Janus, after whom it was named. Combining these two celebrations joined the civil and the religious/pagan fetis, the genesis of the word festival.
Romans traditionally exchanged gifts - strenae - of good omen on January 1, the Kalends (root of the word calendar) of January. These gifts included sweet dates, honey and coins. In addition, it was the beginning of the one year term for the consuls, who had a procession on January 1 and, also, wanted a good omen for their tenure.
With Constantine (274-337 A.D.), the first Christian Roman emperor, New Year's
evolved into a day of fasting rather than feasting, as had become the custom to celebrate Janus.
In medieval Europe, however, the celebrations accompanying the new year were considered to have become pagan and unChristian. In 567, the Roman Catholic church, at the Second Council of Tours in France, abolished January 1 as the beginning of the year. Thereafter, at different times and in various places throughout medieval Christian Europe, the new year was celebrated on Dec. 25, the birth of Jesus; March 1; March 25, the Feast of the Annunciation; and Easter, which continues to be based on the lunar calendar.
In 1582, Pope Gregory XIII re-established January 1 as new year's day with calendar reform. Today the Gregorian calendar has become the international standard for civil use. Although most Catholic countries adopted the Gregorian calendar, it was only gradually adopted among Protestant countries, who didn't recognize the Pope as their ecclesiastical leader. The British, for example, did not adopt the reformed calendar until 1752. Until then, the British Empire, and its' colonies, continued to celebrate the new year in March. In the beginning years of British America, Puritans disavowed any new year observances at all. Still associating any celebrations with pagan traditions, Puritans wouldn't speak the word "January," calling it "The First Month" because of the association with the pagan god, Janus.
Given the various measures of time and the influence of power and the persistence of belief, the history of new year has been determined by shifts in liturgical, civic, religious, lunar, solar and seasonal variations. However, by all accounts, celebrating New Year's has been, and continues to be, a time of rejuvenation and renewal, whether reflected upon quietly, with piousness or with days of feasting and frivolity. (source}
I've been listening to "What About Me" since 1970. It's one of my favorites and like it as a New Year's song. The scenario described never changes.
Happy New Year ...


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Hosta and hemerocallis grower Paul Harris BSc hons (Horticultural Botany) is proof that success happens when you decide to "go for it" and follow your dreams. Like many people who work in horticulture, his love of plants started when he worked with his grandfather on his allotment. These happy memories stayed with him and so, in 2008, Paul decided … Read More
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Freedom in the World
You are here
2012 Scores
Freedom Rating (1 = best, 7 = worst)
Civil Liberties (1 = best, 7 = worst)
Political Rights (1 = best, 7 = worst)
A public sector strike of almost 100,000 workers in April and May 2011 resulted in the temporary closure of public schools and many health facilities, government firing of striking "essential" workers and a low negotiated wage increase. Meanwhile, former minister of defense Ramadeluka Sereste was acquitted of corruption charges and immediately reinstated to his post by the president in October.
Elected governments, all led by the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP), have ruled the country since it gained independence from Britain in 1966. Vice President Festus Mogae rose to the presidency when longtime president Ketumile Masire retired in 1998, and he was confirmed as the country's leader after the BDP easily won legislative elections in 1999. The BDP took 44 of the 57 contested seats in the 2004 elections, securing a second presidential term for Mogae.
In 2008, Mogae—like Masire before him—retired before the end of his term, leaving Vice President Seretse Khama Ian Khama to assume the presidency. Khama, the son of independence leader and first president Seretse Khama, had been appointed vice president by Mogae in 1998 and was elected chairman of the BDP in 2003. He quickly shuffled the cabinet and appointed former foreign minister Mompati Merafhe as vice president. Critics have accused the BDP of subverting democratic institutions through this "automatic succession" process.
Significant rifts within the ruling party emerged before legislative elections in October 2009. Most notably, Khama suspended his rival, BDP secretary general Gomolemo Motswaledi, preventing him from competing in parliamentary elections. In September, the High Court rejected Motswaledi's related lawsuit against Khama, citing the head of state's constitutional immunity from civil suits.
The BDP won 45 of the 57 National Assembly seats in the 2009 elections with 53.3 percent of the vote. The Botswana National Front (BNF) won 6 seats, while the Botswana Congress Party (BCP) took 4. Two other parties each captured one seat. Parliament confirmed Khama for a full presidential term later that month, and observer reports declared the elections free and fair.
In March 2010, leaders of the so-called Barata-Pathi faction of the BDP—including Motswaledi and fellow suspended BDP parliamentarian Botsalo Ntuane—officially withdrew from the BDP and declared their intention to form a new opposition party, the Botswana Movement for Democracy (BMD). Accusing Khama of violating the party's constitution by concentrating power in the presidency and among his so called "A-Team" faction, the BMD party was officially registered in June, led by Ntuane and including some 20 former BDP MPs. However, the continued shuffling of MPs between the BMD and BDP left the former with only 7 seats in parliament by year's end.
Beginning in April 2011, almost 100,000 public sector workers—including "essential" workers in the health sector—staged an eight-week strike. In mid-May, the minister of education closed all public schools following violent clashes between police and students protesting the absence of teachers. After health workers ignored a court order barring them from striking, many clinics and hospitals were forced to close or partially shutdown. Unions demanded a 16 percent wage increase but eventually settled for only 3 percent in late May. The government fired nearly 2,600 striking health workers and demanded they re-apply for their jobs following the settlement. In September, a group of unions appealed to a Gaborone court to force the government to reinstate the workers, alleging that they had been fired illegally.
Botswana is an electoral democracy. The 63-seat National Assembly, elected for five years, chooses the president to serve a five-year term. Of the Assembly's 63 members, 57 are directly elected, 4 are nominated by the president and approved by the Assembly, and 2—the president and the attorney general—are ex-officio members. Despite being elected indirectly, the president holds significant power. While the president can prolong or dismiss the legislature, the legislature is not empowered to impeach the president. Democracy advocates have alleged that power has become increasingly centralized around President Seretse Khama Ian Khama, with many top jobs going to military officers and family members.
A House of Chiefs, which serves primarily as an advisory body, represents the country's eight major Setswana-speaking tribes and some smaller ones. Groups other than the eight major tribes tend to be left out of the political process; under the Territories Act, land in ethnic territory is distributed under the jurisdiction of majority groups. Due in part to their lack of representation in the House of Chiefs, minority groups are subject to patriarchal Tswana customary law despite having their own traditional rules for inheritance, marriage, and succession.
Botswana's anticorruption body has special powers of investigation, arrest, and search and seizure, and the body generally boasts a high conviction rate. Nevertheless, there are almost no restrictions on the private business activities of public servants, and there have been a number of high-profile corruption scandals in recent years. Most notably, in 2010, Minister of Justice, Defense and Security (and cousin of President Khama) Ramadeluka Sereste was charged with corruption and relinquished his post in August for failing to disclose his position as a shareholder in a company—owned by his wife—which won a massive defense contract in 2009. Seretse was acquitted of all charges in October 2011 and was reinstated in his post the next day by President Khama. The Directorate of Public Prosecution intended to file an immediate appeal at years end. The Minister of Finance and Development Planning Kenneth Matambo was also cleared of corruption charges in November for allegedly having indirect interests in contracting the Botswana Development Corporation
Botswana has a free and vigorous press, with several independent newspapers and magazines. The private Gaborone Broadcasting Corporation television system and two private radio stations have limited reach, though Botswana easily receives broadcasts from neighboring South Africa. State-owned outlets dominate the local broadcast media, which reach far more residents than the print media, yet provide inadequate access to the opposition and government critics. In addition, the government sometimes censors or otherwise restricts news sources or stories that it finds undesirable. A lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the 2008 Media Practitioners Act—which established a media regulatory body and mandated the registration of all media workers and outlets—was brought by 32 representatives of media, trade and civil society groups in August 2010. In April 2011, BDP parliamentarian Phillip Makgalemele sued the private Yarona FM radio station over a 2008 broadcast that alleged he was willing to take bribes to orchestrate losses by the national soccer team while head of the Botswana Football Association. Botswana does not have a freedom of information law, and critics accuse the government of excessive secrecy. President Khama had yet to hold a domestic press conference by the end of 2011. The government does not restrict internet access, though such access is rare outside cities.
Freedom of religion is guaranteed, but all religious organizations must register with the government. There are over 1,000 church groups in Botswana. Academic freedom is generally respected.
The government generally respects the constitutional rights of assembly and association. Nongovernmental organizations, including human rights groups, operate openly without harassment. However, the government has barred organizations supporting the rights of the San (an indigenous tribal population) from entering the Central Kgalagadi Game Reserve (CKGR), the subject of a long-running land dispute, and demonstrations at the reserve have been forcibly dispersed. While independent labor unions are permitted, workers' rights to strike and bargain collectively are restricted, as evidenced by the 2011 mass public sector strikes.
The courts are generally considered to be fair and free of direct political interference, although the legal system is affected by staffing shortages and a large backlog of cases. Trials are usually public, and those accused of the most serious violent crimes are provided with attorneys. Civil cases, however, are sometimes tried in customary courts, where defendants have no legal counsel. The 2007 Intelligence and Security Services Act created a Directorate of Intelligence and Security in the office of the president. Critics charged that it vested too much power in the agency's director—including allowing him to authorize arrests without warrants—and lacked parliamentary oversight mechanisms.
Occasional police abuse to obtain evidence or confessions has been reported, and Botswana has been criticized by rights groups for continuing to use corporal and capital punishment. Prisons are overcrowded and suffer from poor health conditions, though the government has responded by building new facilities and providing HIV testing to inmates.
Since 1985, authorities have relocated about 5,000 San, who tend to be marginalized in education and employment opportunities, to settlements outside the CKGR. Almost all of the remaining San fled in 2002 when the government cut off water, food, health, and social services in the area. In 2006, a three-judge panel of the Lobatse High Court ordered the government to allow the San to return to the CKGR. Several hundred San have since gone back, though disagreement remains as to how many will be allowed to live in the reserve. By court order, the issue is being mediated by the Botswana Centre for Human Rights. In July 2010, those San who had returned to CKGR lost a court battle with the government to reopen a water hole on the reserve. In April 2011, an appeals court overturned the decision, ruling that the San have rights to subsurface water, which led to the reopening of the Mothomelo borehole in September and the return of many San to the area. The government insists that the San have been relocated to give them access to modern education and health facilities and have been adequately compensated, and it rejects claims that it simply wanted unrestricted access to diamond reserves in the region.
Undocumented immigrants from Zimbabwe face increasing xenophobia and are subject to exploitation in the labor market. Botswana has built a fence along its border with Zimbabwe, ostensibly to control foot-and-mouth disease among livestock, but the barrier is popularly supported as a means of halting illegal immigration; thousands of Zimbabweans have are deported from Botswana every month. In 2010, the government announced a set of new immigration policies to halt the flow of undocumented immigrants into the country, mostly from Zimbabwe. The new policies introduced an online passport system, mandated electronic permits for visitors and immigrants, and increased the number of official workplace inspections.
Women enjoy the same rights as men under the constitution, though customary laws limit their property rights, and women married under traditional laws have the same legal status as minors. The 2004 Abolition of Marital Powers Act established equal control of marriage estates and equal custody of children, removed restrictive domicile rules, and set the minimum marriage age at 18. However, enforcement of the Act is not uniform and generally requires the cooperation of traditional authorities, which is not always forthcoming. Women are underrepresented in the government, comprising less than 8 percent of the National Assembly seats following the 2009 elections. Domestic violence and trafficking for the purposes of prostitution and labor remain significant problems. Same-sex sexual relations are illegal and can carry a prison sentence of up to seven years. A 2010 amendment to the Employment Act outlaws workplace dismissal based on an individual's sexual orientation or HIV status, and in October 2011, former president Festus Mogae called for Botswana to legalize homosexuality and prostitution in order to better combat HIV/AIDS.


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- Misc/random bugs with certain navigation features for users with IE 9 browsers. Issue was caused by an updated 3rd party software package (jquery 1.8.0) which introduced new bugs. We have since downgraded to the previous known good version.
Thanks, Xing! I use IE9 at work, so I should notice the improvements when I peek at my favorite stories during lunch. 🙂
You're still not deleting the trollficsand the rule-breaker stories I report. Must I be a part of the Literate Union or another similar group for you to delete the stories that break the rules?
They must get hundreds, or thousands, of reports daily – even critic groups have to wait days or weeks for stories to get removed. Of course, the more reports, the more the story gets pushed into view (which is quite logical, if you ask me). The tips I can give you is (a) keep track of the stories you report; report them daily (and if the story has more than one violating chapter, report all), (b) send a mail to the admins with all the stories as soon as you get a reasonable amount (sending a mail for every story would be too tedious, after all), or (c) look around the critic forums and see if any of them accept outside tips. I know that Critics United has the Tip Line, but I don't really know about the others.
The admins are – probably – objective enough not to have favorites; considering that members of a critics group don't end their reports with "member of [name]", I'm fairly sure they don't even know if the one reporting belongs to one or not.
@UltronMaximus, I have found that it is way easier to just send an email to support with all of the rule breaking fics. It is also easier for the staff to know about all of those rule breaking fanfiction.
@Pierce and KageNoNeko
Thanks, I'll try those strategies instead of normal reporting.
(Sigh.) I am quite frankly getting sick of all these complaints about this. I make a point of reading the entire comment thread before I post anything, and I've witnessed so many stupid arguments about this it's becoming ridiculous. If the fic you're reporting is actually breaking the rules, it will be dealt with. If YOU think it's breaking the rules, but Zing knows it isn't, then get over your sweet self already. I, for one, won't be going around finding stories that violate rules, because I'm too busy looking for stories I LIKE TO READ. I encourage the good writers and flat ignore the bad ones, personally. Try doing that some time instead of making others feel like crap. There are many far better ways to make a difference in this world.
I think you should write Xing's name correctly. And I can't be to blame if the categories I visit are full of songfics and trollfics and interactive stuff. Ever heard of Hetalia and Vocaloid?
I did not know I was mispelling Xing's name. I am blind, and was spelling it the way my screen-reader said it. Thank you for pointing that out.
I am not familiar with the fandoms you mentioned, so I will probably never read or write for them. What I said earlier does not refer only to you, but to everyone who has complained about this sort of thing since the blog was established. I don't condone rule-breakers; far from it. I just wish people would listen to regular posters like Yemi Hikari who point out that some reports the admins receive are sent by people who don't like the author because they gave them bad reviews or something rather than the story actualy breaking the rules. I'm not saying that's you, either; I'm just making a point. And then there's the fact that some of the guidelines are not as clear as we would like them to be. So fics we might think are breaking the rules (not talking about songfics here–that one is abundantly clear) might not be doing so, while others we might think are just fine might actually be violating one of the rules.
And here I am being a hypocrit. I've gotten myself involved in one of these debates now.
Or maybe once you've reported a severely rulebreaking fic, you could just ignore them, *and let others decide for themselves*. How does that sound?
IMHO, it's indeed our job to *alert* admin to severely rulebreaking fics when we come across them, because on a website this big they simply cannot possibly keep an eye on every fandom. But it's not our job to be policing the site – that's *their* responsibility!
And explicitly encouraging others *not* to read certain stories simply isn't fair. Let each and everyone of us make up their own mind!
@ Imaginatrix: believe me, the definition of "songfic" isn't all that clear cut either. Considering the lengthy discussion of just that a few threads back…
And just for clarity, my previous message was in response to Izraill's "ignore them and encourage others to ignore them" – not to your post that is right above mine! That's what happens if we can't reply to each message here separately…
At Konarciq: I've simply accepted the fact that I'm not allowed to have copyrighted song lyrics in my stories and moved on. On another fanfiction site specifically for one fandom I'm interested in, there was a story that contained–and I kid you not–the lyrics to every song in one album by the Backstreet Boys! Not only was that violating loads of laws, but it was about the most tedious thing I ever had to scroll through, and it added no colour to the story at all! I admit, I used to do similar stuff, but I know I'm not allowed on here, so I won't do it. Just sayin'.
@ Izraill: now you're talking sense again 🙂
I am not sure where to leave this comment/request type thing, but I suppose here might work. I also hope this doesn't post as a reply to someone else's post here. Hate to give them false hope that someone was replying with relevance to whatever they last said. Heh.
Anyway! I noticed recently that FFnet went completely sans-serif. I was wondering why this decision was made.
I have nothing against sans-serif, people who like sans-serif, or the like. I imagine it's useful and quick for smart phones and the like. Personally, however, I prefer serif fonts for my reading on a desktop. I can easily tell the difference between a capital i, 'I,' and a lower-case L, 'l.' In a sans-serif font like Arial or Verdana, they look the same.
Granted, I know context can sort this stuff out. If you read "I'll," you know it's not "L'ii" with capslock on or something. However, serif fonts are simply more legible for me. I like seeing those little feet on a characters; I've always been a fan of the tried-and-true Times New Roman, with a favoring of Book Antiqua otherwise…
And yes, that's just my personal opinion on the matter, but I would love to know why serif fonts were removed. And, if it's at all possible, could we get that back? You already have a shrink-and-expand menu for font-choosing (they're just all sans-serif, now). What would one more option hurt?
I know, I know, sometimes websites can be finicky and adding one simple line of code screws with a whole slew of things. If that's the reason, by all means, I'm not asking you to slave through that just to give me serif fonts… but I would like a reply of some sort, if/when you're not too busy.
Oh, and in advance: if you do reinstate the serif fonts, thank you so much!
Regardless of the reply to this or action taken–or lack thereof–thanks for your time!
Lynx Klaw, I looked to see if there was a different between the upper case "I" and the lower case "l" in a sans-serif font. It is very slight and can be notice if the two are together like this: Ill. However, it looks like the font that is being used on this blog does not have the same difference as another sans-serif font. However, I think the sans-serif font that needs to be used is one where the capital I has a thicker stroke than the lowercase l. That is how the website of my alma mater has the difference between the capital I and the lowercase l.
From my webdesign class that I took in college, it was impressed on me that serif fonts should be only used for headlines, headings, and titles, not in paragraph text.
I can agree with most of that–I have no problem with sans-serif fonts… if they have a noticeable difference between them. I can see on this blog's font that slight curvature at the bottom of the "l." That's fine for me. It provides a distinction.
I recently took a look over Verdana again and I apparently have that one wrong. Verdana makes clear distinction in the uppercase "i" (gives it serifs, actually)… but Arial, I think, is the worst offender for making me look at a word closely (such words like 'Illegitimate'). It's not so much that I don't know what I'm reading, but that checking the spelling of multiple vertical lines placed so close together can sometimes throw the eye off.
I tend to both read and proofread fics; it's habit.
I was speaking more from a novel/printed word point of view than webdesign (I'll agree with you on the webdesign font usage). Most of the books I read use a serif font on their printed pages; when reading–even reading online–some story, I like that familiarity. I do realize that reading things online can't, won't, and honestly shouldn't be the same as it is in books. It just seems that–if you're writing a story, like one would write a fiction novel, novella, or short story–one should use the same visual medium.
Then again, I could be coming off as a strict stickler–which I hope isn't the case.
It could be the mere fact of my resolution that prevents me from seeing the thickness mentioned of the uppercase "i," but I haven't noticed. I set my resolution at 1440*900. For now, however, I believe I will just stick with Verdana; at least I can more easily differentiate things with it than I can with Arial.
Anyway, this ramble on fonts has gone long. Thanks for pointing some of those things out–I'll pay more attention to see if I'm just missing something on other sans-serif fonts.
it would seem that mozilla and google chrome are experiencing the same problems. I couldn't navigate my account properly
YAY! YOU GUYS FIXED IT! (Wild happy dance.)
Thank you Zing. I very much appreciate being able to click on external links again.
@The Imaginatrix
Amen to that. I completely agree with you. If someone is going to sit there for hours on end searching for stories to report…they seriously need a life. I admit there are a bunch of stories on FFN that shouldn't be there, but I'm beginning to see a lot of this reporting crap as a person's way to kiss FFN's butt and become popular. I've been on FFN for five years, and posting stories for over a year now, but all of this crap with CU and whatnot is really getting old.
Personally, I think groups like that should be dedicated to helping authors write better, using constructive criticism, not bullying authors or threatening them to take their stories down. If an author comes across a story that is breaking the rules, then yes, by all means report it. Just don't make it your career…because that's just sad.
Maybe a strike system could work. If someone reports a story then the author could get a strike/warning to either take it down or fix it up so it doesn't violate the rules. They could be given a three-day period (in case the person is busy and doesn't always get to check their messages) to do what is asked of them. If they still don't, then they could receive another warning and a threat of suspension/deletion. Again, another three-day period. Third strike, then the story could be taken down and deleted and other then automatic deletion of the account.
However, I understand that would take a lot time to monitor all stories that come in. And as I've noticed in previous threads, FFN does not have the time or money to put into something like that. So the best bet is to continue on reading and writing and only report a story that violates the rules when you come across it…instead of searching for them.
I have a question for the site admins. There are a bunch of older crossovers that are not correctly categorized because the memebers are no longer active on the site. Would it be possible for us to send reports for these fanfics in and know that they won't be deleted? I'm actually leary about reporting them via the normal means simply because I don't want them removed and they just need to be recategorized.
I second this suggestion.
I fourth it.
Please don't report them. There are some goodies buried in the miscellaneous TV crossovers and I fear they might get deleted, if only by accident.
It would be great if those stories could be properly categorized, but I imagine that to be a nightmarish task. Not every author stated in the summary which shows they were writing for. Having to determine which fandoms the story covered would be a pain in the rear, especially if the people tasked with the job aren't familiar with all of them.
As I understand Yemi's request, we're not supposed to report them as being wrong, rulebreaking and needing to removed. But alert admin when we come across them, including the info in which crossover categories they *should* go, so that admin can put them in the crossover section where they belong.
Of course they don't need to be deleted. At the time when they were published, I guess, they didn't violate any rules! It's just an update for the reader's sake.
@ Guest – It isn't that hard to tell that a Lord of the Rings/Harry Potter crossover written in 2003 is a Lord of the Rings/Harry Potter crossover. I've looked through the crossover categories and a lot of the fanfics I read a long time ago are missing. Nobody looks for them either and they go untouched.
@ konarciq – That's why I want a verification that the site admins will simply move the fanfics and not delete them if someone sends in a report. I'd like to be able to send in a list of crossovers that need to be moved and I am sure I'm not the only person. And actually, some of them did break site rules as they weren't filed under the crossover category but one of the two fandoms. Goodness knows some of these writers would have jumped on the dual categorizing we havenow though.
@konarciq: I didn't mean to infer yemi hikari or anyone else was reporting these older crossovers with the intention of getting them deleted. My concern is that all reports apparently go to the same place. We're all human, mistakes happen and I'd hate to see a good story get accidently deleted. Sorry if I gave the wrong impression.
@yemi hikari: I've always considered the miscellaneous crossovers to be a wasteland. Yet buried in the rubbish are a few gems. 🙂 I've love if they were cleaned up!
While many of the stories make their respective categories obvious, there are several I can't make heads or tails of. They don't even mention a character's full name which might make it click for me.
Regarding rule breaking, many of the stories I like predate the crossover section. If a story is 80 percent Fandom A and 20 percent Fandom B, I don't mind that the author posted under Fandom A. I believe the author chose that path not to get lost in the wasteland. Yes, they broke the rules, but in the grand scheme of things, I'm willing to cut them some slack under the circumstances. 🙂
@ Guest – The fact my crossovers got more reviews once I moved them to the new crossover categories goes to show how much of a wasteland the categories are for the older fanfics.
I hope I'm not bothering anyone with this. I've been frustrated with the links not changing color whenever I click on a link. Not the actual story link, links like to a person's profile or the link that leads to the very last chapter of a fic. Especially that last one, since I use it as a way to know if I've read a story or not. If the color is different, I know I've read it. And lately, sometimes I click on a fic only to discover I've read it earlier.
Can all visited link colors please be changed back? I guess this isn't a big issue, but it's very frustrating for me since that's how I've used the site up til the link color got changed and now, keeping track of read fanfics has become more frustrating.
Thank you!


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This Valentine's Day is a special one for Kaye. It's her first time experiencing Valentine's Day at school with her friends. She'll find out what it's like to exchange cute Valentines with her classmates. So I wanted to make a special one for her to hand out next Tuesday. I had extra bubbles from Elle's birthday party so I created a Valentine's Day card using the bubbles. I found these bubbles at Target, a pack of 12 for $2. But you can find these also in the wedding sections at craft stores.
You know me… totally simple but cute. So print it out and use it for your child's Valentine's. It is best if printed on thick (100 pound) card stock paper. And white card stock is the best since the font is really thin and the colors are light.
If you make something inspired by Simply Modern Mom, please upload pictures of it to our Flickr group to show it off to everyone. You may be featured on Simply Modern Mom.
To make this card just like mine, I made a little tutorial for you…
- The Bubbly Valentine's Day Card (click on link to download the PDF)
- baker's twine or other type of string
- double-sided small adhesive squares
- small hole punch
- tags (optional)
1. Once you download the card, cut on the lines to create 4 cards from one sheet.
2. Place the bubble on the card's white space (left side) to get a feel for where you need to punch holes. Punch two holes for the strings to go through.
3. Place the double-sided adhesive squares in the middle of the holes punched in step 2. And stick the bubble to it.
4. Tie the tag to the bubble (optional) using baker's twine.
5. String baker's twine through the holes and tie a bow to keep the bubble in place. And done!
» Tell me… What is your favorite Valentine's Day candy to receive?