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Construct Unstuck
February 04, 2009
I've touched on some problems of social construct theory before, more than once, and noted that its implications could appeal to unsavoury motives:
If a person's tastes and disposition are primarily socially constructed, that person can also, presumably, be remade to suit society and its representatives. Such high-minded Agents of Society might even become "engineers of the human soul," to borrow Stalin's phrase.
With the above in mind, let's turn our attention to the feminist commentator Amanda Marcotte, whose book cover mishap entertained us so. In a recent outpouring, Ms Marcotte offered this:
The theory that women have a natural urge to have babies is one that's got a long and ignoble sexist history, [...] None of that is to say that the urge to have children that some (but far from all) women experience isn't real, and that's my other giant problem with the ongoing preoccupation with [evolutionary psychology] theories to explain things that are cultural constructs…
Note that Ms Marcotte is quite insistent on this point. The inclination to reproduce simply is a cultural construct, and a dubious one at that. Why humans should apparently be unique in this regard, untouched by biology, isn't entirely clear. Presumably, human beings - specifically human men - have constructed elaborate patterns of behaviour to mimic almost exactly biological inclinations that are felt as real, by men and women, but which don't in fact exist.
That something is a cultural construct doesn't make it less real, it just means that it's more changeable. This seems like a small distinction, but it's an important one. I am routinely accused by evo psych fans of denying that men and women are different. I do think there are major culturally constructed differences, and I think most of them exist to demean and oppress women and should be changed in the culture. That's not to say that they aren't real, but just that they're changeable.
To which, Protein Wisdom's Darleen Click not unreasonably replies:
Interestingly, nowhere would [Marcotte] state something so positively about homosexuality or transgenderism… no, those aren't subject to change at all, no social construct there.
As a PW reader points out,
So, the urge/feeling/inclination/whatever to bear offspring - ultimately the fundamental biological goal of any species - is a social construct, while "gender identity", sexual orientation, and other politicized issues are as unchanging and fixed as the heavens.
Another reader notes,
So a woman acting like a woman is a cultural construct, but a woman acting like a man is biologically preordained.
Jeff Goldstein adds the following:
Social construct theorists like Amanda are often trapped by inconsistencies in their own arguments, which… are often selectively applied, and based, conveniently, on the specific ethical frame of those who would deny biology or essentialism in favor of an explanation for human action that is always necessarily about power relations and the construction of perceptions that act as if they were biological imperatives.
Deconstructing - and so reconceptualizing - the "social construct" that Amanda suggests was built up by patriarchal forces to trick women into thinking the desire to procreate and "mother" is a biological imperative is, to her way of thinking, good. Reconceptualizing the "social construct" that tricks homosexuals or the transgendered into thinking that their behavior is biologically driven, on the other hand, is, conversely, reductive, evil, and Christianist. In short, she wants to have it both ways - and she wants this precisely because it puts her in charge of deciding for everyone else what is right and what is wrong, socially speaking.
Update, via the comments:
Undaunted by the concerns above, Ms Marcotte rumbles on:
The myth of the biological clock is, for instance, an attempt to preserve a cultural construct that makes motherhood an obligation instead of a choice, for no other reason than the fear that if some women choose not to have children, we'd have to redefine women away from their roles and closer to how we define men, which is as complete individuals.
Note the pile of assumptions in just that one sentence. An unspecified "cultural construct" somehow makes motherhood "an obligation instead of a choice." Apparently this diabolical construct is "preserved" (by unspecified villains) solely to ensure that women without children aren't recognised as "complete individuals." The thought of women being recognised as "complete individuals" apparently makes some (unspecified) people very, very frightened.
I can of course think of some individuals and institutions, chiefly in non-Western cultures, which do seem threatened by the prospect of women as autonomous beings. Indeed I've written about some of them, unkindly and at length. But Marcotte's repeated use of abstract generalities steers readers to the assumption that this is pretty much the position of menfolk everywhere. Now I know quite a few women and my estimation of their individuality and/or "completeness" isn't based on whether or not they happen to have children or are capable of gestation. And I don't think I'm particularly unusual in this regard. In fact, I don't know anyone personally who does evaluate women on that basis. So who, exactly, is Ms Marcotte talking about? Given her adamance and slightly paranoid tendencies, she really ought to be clear about this.
And if the species' inclination to reproduce (or become pregnant, or to parent or whatever) is real only as a malleable social construct, what, then, did we do earlier in our history before this construct was sufficiently widespread and developed? And how did such a thing arise at all, if not at least in part from actual, biological differences between men and women?
I'm reminded of another feminist pundit, Freethinker, who claims,
Gender as a male/female dichotomy is a social construct more than anything else… The only reason gender dichotomy seems like a fact is because of the way the society is organised.
Again, one notes how "social constructs" and "the way society is organised" are deemed to determine how people behave above and beyond all else, but are much less often entertained as the possible consequences of biological facts. There doesn't seem to be much willingness to ask whether "the way society is organised" has at least a little to do with evolutionary biology, evolutionary psychology and (gasp) human nature.
Freethinker goes on to say,
Men in our country also love to point to 'strength,' mental and physical, as a point of difference. And they need to be told that if women were not conditioned into gender-appropriate behaviour that renders their bones and muscles weak from disuse and their minds unassertive and submissive, they would have all the strength.
A bold claim, and again quite insistent. Though I suspect one or two weight lifters, male and female, would take a different view. One based on first hand experience, rather than bare ideology.


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Newt Gingrich on Homeland SecurityFormer Republican Representative (GA-6) and Speaker of the House |
A: The key distinction for the American people to recognize is the difference between national security requirements and criminal law requirements. I think it's desperately important that we preserve your right to be innocent until proven guilty, if it's a matter of criminal law. But if you're trying to find somebody who may have a nuclear weapon that they are trying to bring into an American city, I think you want to use every tool that you can possibly use to gather the intelligence. The Patriot Act has clearly been a key part of that.
Q: So you wouldn't change the Patriot Act?
A: No, I would not change it. I'm not aware of any specific change it needs. And I'd look at strengthening it, because I think the dangers are literally that great. You start thinking about one nuclear weapon in one American city and the scale of loss of life and you ask yourself, what should the president be capable of doing to stop that?
SANTORUM: We should be establishing relationships in Pakistan with allies of ours, folks like Pres. Musharraf, so we could work to make sure that that coup could be overturned and make sure those nuclear weapon do not fall in those hands. But working with allies at that point is the last thing we want to do. We want to work in that country to make sure the problem is defused.
GINGRICH: I think people need to understand how real this is. This world is in danger of becoming dramatically more dangerous in the not-too-distant future. People talk about an Iranian weapon? There may be well over 100 nuclear weapons in Pakistan. And the example you used is not too far-fetched to worry about.
SANTORUM: We created DHS because there was a complete mess in the internal [workings] in protecting our country. We had all sorts of agencies that had conflicting authority; we put together a plan to try to make sure that there was better coordination.
GINGRICH: I helped develop the model for homeland security. It hasn't been executed well. The fact is, we have enemies who want to use weapons against us that will lead to disasters on an enormous scale. And the original goal was to that DHS could help us withstand up to three nuclear events in one morning. There are people out there who want to kill us. And if they have an ability to sneak in weapons of mass destruction, they're going to use them. We need to overhaul and reform the department, but we need some capacity to respond to massive events.
Gingrich: The exploding debt crisis is because of exploding politician spending in Washington, not because of national security.
Santorum: The first priority of the federal government is to keep America safe. I would not cut defense--freeze it; cut waste; and then plow savings back into Defense.
Johnson: The debt is the greatest threat to national security we face today. Besides, we do not need 60,000 to 100,000 troops in Afghanistan and Iraq to protect ourselves. Nor do we need nation-building.
Gingrich: We spend less on defense today as percentage of GDP than at any time since Pearl Harbor.
Santorum: The first priority of the federal government is to keep America safe. I would not cut defense--freeze it; cut waste; and then plow savings back into Defense.
Gingrich: Controlling the border and defending America are job #1 under the Constitution.
All these lawyers would undoubtedly deny having sympathy for al Qaeda, but the actions of some of them went far beyond simply challenging a detention policy they thought was unjust. In Aug. 2009, they provided photographs of CIA officers to their clients in an attempt to identify those officers who had interrogated them when they were captured overseas. The lawyers were apparently unconcerned by the potential threat to our CIA officers from being identified by name to al Qaeda and Taliban terrorists.
The secular socialists, however, want to give out enemies the same constitutional protections we afford our own citizens, effectively placing the right of terrorists ahead of the lives of Americans. With the Left in charge, when a foreign terrorist tried to blow up an airplane over Detroit, he was read his Miranda rights (which, as a foreign enemy combatant, he was not actually entitled to have). Taxpayers were forces to pay for the terrorist's lawyer, who most likely advised his client not to answer questions except as leverage to get a plea bargain.
We live in a world where there are weapons capable of ending civilization as we know it. And we need to be prepared in a very militant and aggressive way to defend America from having a catastrophic disaster of the first order.
And the greatest danger for us in meeting this threat is the weakness of our intelligence services. We do not have any significant intelligence on the enemy�s plans, networks, & troop strength.
Second, we must contain powers that could threaten us, including China, Russia, North Korea, Iran, & Pakistan--all of which have weapons of mass destruction.
The greatest threat of rogue dictatorships, like Iran or North Korea, is that they will sell weapons of mass destruction. While North Korea--with nuclear, chemical, & biological weapons--is a big threat to South Korea & Japan, it is a very distant threat to the US. But an Iran or a North Korea willing to sell nuclear and biological weapons to terrorists is very dangerous to America.
But I didn't think it was good government to keep signing up for these ridiculous expenditures. Most ridiculous of all, I came to think, was the development of the B-2 stealth bomber. At anywhere from $1 billion to $2 billion per plane, it seemed a colossal misuse of taxpayer monies.
And we weren't talking about just one B-2. Initially, there was to be a squadron of 132 of these bombers, a number that was whittled down to 75 and eventually to 20, although that figure remained open for discussion.
At one point, Dick Cheney made a deal with me to freeze the number of planes o order at 20, in exchange for my agreeing to back down in my fight, which Newt Gingrich and company could then take as my grudging support. We even shook hands on it, and yet a year or so later Cheney was out there thumping for 40.
A: 1) You would empower General Petraeus. You�d pass the supplemental immediately. You�d give him the money. 2) You would encourage the Iraqis to triple the size of their regular army. 3) You would encourage the development of a military tribunal system to lock people up the way Abraham Lincoln would�ve done it. 4) You would establish a nationwide ID card with biometrics so you can actually track everybody in the country. 5) You would make sure that the State Department actually staffed the embassy with people in favor of winning the war and you actually had your fully equipped intelligence and economic development teams. 6) Bring enormous pressure to bear on Iran to cut off everything [assisting with the Iraqi insurgency]. So, we ought to do what it takes to win, not tolerate legislating defeat.
Biological threats for which we have no rapid diagnostic tests & no drug treatments are so great that we should consider the preparation of a biological defensive system the highest priority in the American national security system and the most important job facing the new DHS.
Over the years, I've heard Newt Gingrich say many times that he wishes he had volunteered. Whatever his feelings were in the middle of the 1960s--and if he was like most young men in his age group they changed more than once--Gingrich never was at risk of being inducted. The accusations of draft-dodging by his political foes ring hollow. And comparisons with Bill Clinton, who was consumed by finding the least politically damaging way to avoid service, are an exercise in apples and oranges.
Amid the coverage of the comments, it was next to impossible to find a news story on the effects of extended field duty on female combatants. And it was impossible not to hear Rep. Pat Schroeder lampooning him by suggesting that no men she knew had a desire to hunt giraffes.
"Occasionally you get taken grotesquely out of context, but that's fine," Gingrich said. "It is part of the process of getting the message out."
Gingrich developed the "cheap hawk solution": the nuclear age required a quick-response, mobile military; and such a force could be as effective as the Navy, with its expensive aircraft carriers, and the Army, with its huge, heavily armed divisions.
Gingrich allied himself with the analysts who were developing the fast-attack tenets of maneuver warfare called the AirLand Battle Doctrine. The "cheap hawk solution" became an arrow in the Republican quiver, as it staved off Democratic attempts to cut the Pentagon budget. "Don't try to reform the current system," he said of Pentagon procurement in early 1995. "It is hopeless. It is impossible." The Speaker views many current Pentagon policies as part of the antiquated industrial age.
[As part of the Contract with America, within 100 days we pledge to bring to the House Floor the following bill]:
The National Security Restoration Act:
No US troops under UN command, and restoration of the essential parts of our national security funding to strengthen our national defense and maintain our credibility around the world.

subset: commoncrawl


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Sign-up for Atlantic County Emergency Alerts for wildfires, flooding, hazardous spills, severe weather, evacuation alerts/orders and more.
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During times of severe emergencies or disasters the office activates the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) which is located in a hurricane proof wing of the Anthony "Tony" Canale Training Center.
Training Courses - OEP On-line Campus
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The Office of Emergency Preparedness continually develops and revises Atlantic County's Emergency Operations Plan to address the potential threats to the County. We use what is called an "all hazards" approach to emergency planning. This allows us to inventory and maintain the necessary resources to best meet the needs of any challenge we are faced with. Atlantic County initiated the process for development of its initial Hazard Mitigation Plan in 2008. The County and 19 of its 23 jurisdictions opted to participate. Go to the Multi-Jurisdictional Natural Hazard Mitigation Plan for more details and a copy of the plan.


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Quentin Jammer, who joined the Chargers as the fifth overall pick in the 2002 NFL draft, has been with the team longer than any of his teammates -- and longer than all but three players in franchise history. But Jammer expects to suit up for the Chargers for the last time on Sunday.
"Last year, I guess," Jammer told Kevin Acee of U-T San Diego. "I think about it all the time. Everything I've been through – the ups and downs, being a part of this organization for such a long time. Not to know my future is weird, different."
Chargers General Manager A.J. Smith and coach Norv Turner are both expected to be fired next week, and it's impossible to say until we know who's taking over the front office whether the Chargers will want Jammer back. But the 34-year-old Jammer sees the writing on the wall: More likely than not a new staff will want to rebuild with younger players, and the Chargers already have three talented younger cornerbacks on the depth chart in Marcus Gilchrist, Antoine Cason and Shareece Wright.
Sunday's game will be Jammer's 172nd with the Chargers. Only Hall of Fame quarterback Dan Fouts, future Hall of Fame linebacker Junior Seau and longtime long snapper David Binn played in more games in franchise history. Jammer said he has been thinking about how hard it will be to say goodbye to the only NFL team he has known.
"I really think about it on days like this after practice," he said. "And when I get home after and it's just me in the house. It's tough. . . . I was sitting in meetings this morning kind of like, 'Wow! This could be my last Friday practice.'"
After the season Jammer becomes a free agent and will likely, for the first time, wind up on a team other than the Chargers.


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With the stock markets gyrating and traditionally "safe haven" investments like U.S. Treasuries offering historically low yields, dividend stocks offer the lure of a reliable income stream.
"Dividends provide you with an income far better than you can get in bonds and with considerable protection against a down market," said Martin Hutchinson, Money Morning's Global Investing Strategist.
Yet dividend stock ETFs also provide some measure of protection from a financial crisis at an individual company.
"Dividend ETFs mitigate the risk a company might commit the ultimate sin: suspend or cut a dividend," Matt Krantz writes for USA Today. "By owning one ETF, which owns shares of hundreds of dividend-paying stocks, if just one company halts its dividend, the impact to the investor will be relatively small."
ETFs own stocks like mutual funds, but are traded on the markets in "units" just like stocks. The units can be created (requiring the fund to buy more shares of the underlying stocks) or destroyed (requiring the fund to sell shares) to accommodate investor demand.
The Power of Dividends
Many investors underestimate the power of dividends. Hutchinson pointed to a study by Yale economist Robert Shiller that showed that dividends accounted for 67% of the average real return on common stocks from 1889 to 1998."While stock prices have been plunging, dividend payments are rising," Hutchinson said. "Through Aug. 31, 243 companies in the Standard and Poor's 500 Index increased or initiated a dividend payment. In fact, dividend payments are expected to end 2011 up 18% from 2010."
Companies that manage ETF funds have created an increasing number of dividend stock ETFs to serve investors hungry for ways to add more dividend income to their portfolios.
The Four Best Dividend Stock ETFs
Standard & Poor's Capital IQ Equity Research recently analyzed 1,100 ETFs to see which of the funds that focused on dividends had the best yields and excelled in several other criteria, including performance, risk, credit rating and volatility (based on its standard deviation).That narrowed the list to 13 funds, of which most were general funds. Four of those ETFs, however, are specifically focused on dividend stocks.
They are:


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We are a tastefully designed budget hostel offering attractive and clean rooms. Every room has at least one window and strong WiFi signals are guaranteed throughout day and night in rooms or common areas.
Strategically located between Tapae gate and Chiang Mai gate in a backpacker area. Close to all the important cultural sites and between Saturday and Sunday walking streets. We provide the perfect base for you to discover all adventures and beauty that the north of Thailand has to offer
The spring mattresses are new and all the rooms include a western toilet with hot shower inside. Linen, blankets, pillows and towels are provided in every room or dorm. Rooms are Fan-cooled or air-cooled. Family/group room is air-cooled
6-bed dorm (3 x bunk beds) with 105x200cm mattresses, fan-cooled.
Group/family room:
Colorful, bright and comfy room with queen size bed (150x200cm) and 2 single beds (105x200cm). Air-cooled
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Single/double/twin/triple rooms:
Attractive and colorful rooms, queen-size (150x200cm)) bed or 2 x twins (105x200cm). An extra bed can be added to double rooms sleeping three people. Fan or air-cooled.
Opening hours: 0800am till 2030pm
If arriving after 2030pm, please drop off at Diva G.h, walk 30m to the little lane next to Mickey Cafe and then 60m into lane to Julie G.h. Please ask night guard for check-in at Diva and he will walk you back and guide you to the room. Next morning please come to see us at reception for further info.
Min rate:
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14986 Hostels in Chiang Mai (Thailand)
starting from €
Our team is your service to help you with your booking issues or answer any related questions


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It was one for the record books, darlings. Seriously. If you were lucky enough to be with us last Thursday evening for the one-and-only I Do! Wedding Soiree at The Astorian, we want to a) THANK YOU for attending our signature wedding fantasyscape (aka the hottest bride-and-groom cocktail bash in town), and b) take you right back to the magic, with this amazing video and gorgeous gallery of photos from our outstanding show photographer Aisha Khan of Ama Photography & Cinema!! BIG THANKS to ALL of our amazing show exhibitors, and a special shout-out to our Soiree partners, without whom none of this would be possible: The Astorian, Cordua Catering, EB Inc. Event Rentals & Design, LG Entertainment and pianist Scott Graham. We invite you to join us at our Spring I Do! Wedding Soiree on 2.8.18 at Corinthian-Houston. Tickets and info are here.
All Photos: Ama Photography & Cinema


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Note: This article originally appeared on charismamag.com in December 2006.
Have you ever had a prophetic word from God that was beyond what you could ask, think or imagine? God loves to blow up our little boxes. What price did you pay before the word came to pass?
The reason I ask is because many Christians eagerly desire the prophetic without having a clue what it will cost them. We want to receive a prophetic word. We don't realize the price.
How much will it cost to follow Jesus? Everything.
Just ask Mary.
Luke 1:26 tells us, "In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin's name was Mary.
"And the angel went to her and said, 'Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you'" (NIV).
What would you do if an angel showed up on your doorstep, proclaiming, "Greetings, you are highly favored"? Would you jump up and down saying: "Hooray! God is here"?
I don't think so. Perhaps you would fall on your face. You would tremble before the Lord. You would be wrecked, completely undone, ruined forever. With one look of His eyes, there is no turning back.
That was Mary's response. When the angel appeared, she wasn't overjoyed. She was terrified.
Luke 1:29-30 says, "Mary was greatly troubled at [the angel's] words and wondered what kind of a greeting this might be. But the angel said to her, 'Do not be afraid, Mary, you've found favor with God.'"
I can identify with Mary. You see, when I was 16 years old, I had a radical visitation from God.
The Cost of an Encounter
I had been a Christian only five months when God spoke audibly to me. He told me that I would be a missionary and minister. He told me to go to Africa, Asia and England.
I was forever transformed. I alternated between sobbing and laughing. Then I began running after that prophetic vision with all my heart. Thirty years later, I'm still chasing after my God dreams.
I love running into the darkest of the darkness to see His glorious light shine forth. I have never looked to the right or to the left, or glanced back. I could not imagine doing anything but laying down my life for love's sake.
Why? Because He ruined me with His love. I promised Jesus, "I will do whatever you ask no matter the cost."
After that experience, I followed the word and began to preach the gospel. As a 16-year-old girl, I first preached to Alzheimer's patients, drug addicts—anyone who would listen. Eventually I preached in Asia and England and all over the world. Today I live and minister in Mozambique, Africa.
When God visited me and promised me something so much beyond myself, I had a choice. At the time, I had never even heard of women preachers. But I chose not to doubt and look to the natural. I believed His word. He told me to preach, so I preached. That word has cost me everything. But it is my greatest joy and privilege. There is nothing He could ever ask of me that I would not gladly give.
Over the years I have watched God do countless miracles. As I have laid my little life down, I am now watching a nation run to Him.
I have been shot at, thrown in jail, slandered, stabbed, diagnosed then healed of many terminal illnesses and experienced trials too great to tell.
My family has been without food, water or support. We have been beaten, threatened and had all manner of evil spoken against us. But this is nothing compared to the all-surpassing joy of knowing Him.
Jesus is my model and hero. He spared nothing and gave up the riches of heaven as the ultimate missionary. He came down to Earth just for us. Jesus was love incarnate. Every day, He poured forth limitless, unceasing love to each and every person in front of Him no matter the pain of it all.
Now our job on Earth is to follow His example, and love no matter the cost. No matter how impossible a prophetic word seems, we must follow the Lamb who was slain, to give Him the just reward for His sufferings. God challenges me every day to remain in love no matter the trials and tribulations.


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This page has been archived and is being provided for reference purposes only. The page is no longer being updated, and therefore, links on the page may be invalid.
Read the magazine story to find out more. |
Company or a Snack? Letting Pregnant Sows Choose
By Don ComisMarch 15, 2005
Pressing the bar enough times brings a little snack one day, socializing with neighbors the next day. So far, pregnant sows are choosing the snacks.
Scientists have often compared pregnant sows in different housing situations. But now scientists from the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) and Purdue University are asking the moms-to-be for their preferences.
Purdue University animal behavioralist Ed Pajor, at West Lafayette, Ind., decided to do just that in a search for what little extras might enrich life for sows. Pajor is part of a team of Purdue and ARS animal welfare researchers at West Lafayette that includes ARS animal behavioralists Donald Lay, Jeremy Marchant-Forde and Ruth Marchant-Forde. The ARS part of the team also includes immunologist Susan Eicher and neuroscientist Heng-wei Cheng.
Pajor set up a study with 16 pregnant sows, studying four at a time. He put each animal in a conventional gestation stall designed to confine pregnant sows--but then added a control bar. On one day the bar allows a snack. The next day it opens a door to allow a visit with other sows. This goes on for several days, with the number of required bar presses increasing each day.
The sows' limits on how many times they would press the bar with their snouts for a reward were about the same whether the treat was food or socializing, indicating that socializing wasn't anything special to them.
But the next round of experiments will show if sows refine their choices in a more "homey" environment--one where there's more to do, a soft floor and plenty of straw to satisfy instincts for nesting or rooting.
The conventional stalls used in the first study are barren environments with slatted, cement floors. Pregnant sows are isolated, one to a stall, to make sure that each gets her proper diet.
Read more about the research in the March 2005 issue of Agricultural Research magazine.
ARS is the U.S. Department of Agriculture's chief scientific research agency.


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At home, I possess an ADF-enabled printer (ADF stands for "automated document feeder"), the HP OfficeJet J6480 which lets me scan documents without resorting to manually feeding all pages of the document by hand. Using HP's software, scanning multipage documents is painless. However, if you still own a printer without this ADF-feature like a certain HP PSC 750 printer, I feel slightly sorry for you (unless you have a dedicated workhorse scanner). This ancient puppy has a flatbed which means I can't leave the computer until I have manually scanned all the pages into the computer. The purpose of this post is to note what I have done to help ease the frustration of keeping multipage documents in 1 scanned (.pdf) file and walk you through the steps & possible pitfalls.
Previously, I would simply scan each page of my document via the built-in Windows 7 "Fax and Scan" utility. Sidenote: Access Windows fax and scan by hitting the "Windows" button and typing "scan". You should see this image:
This method saves scanned items as .jpg files. If I scanned 10 pages, I would end up with 10 .jpg files. My next step towards consolidating all 10 jpg files would be to combine them into 1 .pdf document using Adobe Acrobat Pro version 8 (I refuse to "upgrade"). The entire scanning and converting process used to take over 5 minutes, but I figured out an easier way to streamline the process. Here's my new method:
Scanning Multipage Documents with Adobe Acrobat Pro 8 (on Windows 7)
- Step One: Fire Up Adobe Acrobat Pro (version 8): Click on the "Create PDF" button as shown in the image below. The option you want is "from Scanner" so click on that.
- Step Two: Select Your Scanning Device Depending on your printer, all you may need to do is: "Select your scanning device" as shown in this image below. If you haven't installed your printer yet, follow the instructions on your users' manual to get that important step squared away.
- Step Three: Changing Scanning Settings: With Adobe Acrobat 8's document creation via scanner feature, you have the option of (depending on your printer's capabilities):
- Choosing how the documents get scanned i.e. 1-side or both sides.
- Color mode i.e. black/white, grayscale or in color.
- Scanning resolution. A common DPI for print documents is 300DPI. Any higher makes the scanning process longer and in my case, makes the printer more likely to wig out and fail halfway. 600DPI is as high as I've dared to go.
In truth, there are WAY more options than you need to concern yourself with if you want a simple foolproof method of scanning a paper document to a portable document format (PDF, get it? :P).
- Choosing how the documents get scanned i.e. 1-side or both sides.
- Step Four: Start Scanning: Once you have completed Step Three, press the "Scan" button and you will be prompted to write in a name for the .pdf file you are about to create.
Possible Problems.
- There's something about HP printers …: HP printers are 'well' supported on Windows 7 … if you agree with HP's need for you to install their suite of products on your computer just to get the printing and scanning functions working properly. Not to be misleading, my (discontinued) HP OfficeJet J6480 will work even when treated as a plug-and-play device; The operating system (Windows 7) found drivers for it when I connected via USB, etc, but I since found that accessing the more advanced features of my printer required fiddling so I caved in and downloaded the 115.77 megabyte basic printer driver installation program from HP's website. The full featured driver for my printer weighs in at 246.43 megabytes.
All of this to say: you might need to download either the basic printer driver from HP's website or if you don't care about installing yet another piece of bloatware, go ahead and download the full featured driver. In fact, if you're using HP products, please be intimately familiar with this website: http://hp.com/go/support and if possible, have a fridge sticker with your HP product's serial or product number. On this website, you will find software/firmware updates that even the HP Update or HP Support Assistant won't pick up on.
- Printer Blues:With the HP PSC 750, I ran into a problem where the printer/scanner would get hung up and flash a message about a "scanner failure". What happened was either the printer or Adobe Acrobat 8 would get stuck after I completed Step Four even so using the built-in Windows Fax and Scan option worked so I knew the printer/scanner *was* working. I was able to resolve the issue by altering the scanner options up at Step One.
By default, Adobe Acrobat *hides* the native scanning interface that you get with Windows Fax and Scan tool. By changing the setting in the image to "Show Scanner's Native Interface", I was able to get my printer/scanner and Adobe working for the greater good again. 😛
If you found this too long to read, here's your takeaway: Invest in a printer that had an automated document feeder with double-sided printing capability. With the right software, and yes, this might mean downloading your manufacturer's bloatware, you may never need to manually change pages for scanning again.


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Parents always worry about whether their children will do well in school, but their kids probably were born with much of what they will need to succeed. A new study published in npj Science of Learning by researchers from The University of Texas at Austin and King's College London explains the substantial influence genes have on academic success, from the start of elementary school to the last day of high school.
For many years, research has linked educational achievement to life trajectories, such as occupational status, health or happiness. But if performing well in school predicts better life outcomes, what predicts how well someone will do throughout school?
"Around two-thirds of individual differences in school achievement are explained by differences in children's DNA," said Margherita Malanchini, a psychology postdoctoral fellow at the Population Research Center at UT Austin. "But less is known about how these factors contribute to an individual's academic success overtime."
Malanchini and Kaili Rimfeld, a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience at King's College London, analyzed test scores from primary through the end of compulsory education of more than 6,000 pairs of twins.
Researchers found educational achievement to be highly stable throughout schooling, meaning that most students who started off well in primary school continued to do well until graduation. Genetic factors explained about 70 percent of this stability, while the twins shared environment contributed to about 25 percent, and their nonshared environment, such as different friends or teachers, contributed to the remaining 5 percent.
That's not to say that an individual was simply born smart, researchers explained. Even after accounting for intelligence, genes still explained about 60 percent of the continuity of academic achievement.
"Academic achievement is driven by a range of cognitive and noncognitive traits," Malanchini said. "Previously, studies have linked it to personality, behavioral problems, motivation, health and many other factors that are partly heritable."
However, at times grades did change, such as a drop in grades between primary and secondary school. Those changes, researchers said, can be explained largely by nonshared environmental factors.
"Our findings should provide additional motivation to identify children in need of interventions as early as possible, as the problems are likely to remain throughout the school years," said Rimfeld.
Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2018-09-genes-key-academic-success.html#jCp
Little is known about the etiology of developmental change and continuity in educational achievement. Here, we study achievement from primary school to the end of compulsory education for 6000 twin pairs in the UK-representative Twins Early Development Study sample. Results showed that educational achievement is highly heritable across school years and across subjects studied at school (twin heritability ~60%; SNP heritability ~30%); achievement is highly stable (phenotypic correlations ~0.70 from ages 7 to 16). Twin analyses, applying simplex and common pathway models, showed that genetic factors accounted for most of this stability (70%), even after controlling for intelligence (60%). Shared environmental factors also contributed to the stability, while change was mostly accounted for by individual-specific environmental factors. Polygenic scores, derived from a genome-wide association analysis of adult years of education, also showed stable effects on school achievement. We conclude that the remarkable stability of achievement is largely driven genetically even after accounting for intelligence.


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Intel on Thursday announced the Iris family of graphics processor units for its forthcoming Haswell line of processors.
The Iris family offers up to double the 3D performance of the chip giant's fastest mobile HD graphics solutions on its processors for laptops and Ultrabooks. It also triples the 3D performance for its R-series processors for desktops.
The GPUs also provide faster, more advanced photo and video editing and better display capabilities through features that include Intel Quick Sync Video technology, MJPEG acceleration, and 4K UltraHD display resolution.
They will be available with select 4th-generation Intel Core processors.
"Intel's gunning for the high-end gamer market," Jim McGregor, principal analyst at Tirias Research, told TechNewsWorld. "It's trying to enhance its processors to include 3D and other enhancements supported by discrete solutions from Nvidia, AMD and other players."
The chip giant "wants to be able to provide a solution that's going to meet some of the higher-end or midrange type of graphics demands that are out there," said Craig Stice, a senior analyst at IHS iSuppli.
"We absolutely see a lot of excitement for this in the PC Market, Intel spokesperson Dan Snyder told TechNewsWorld. "Gamers and video guys will be thrilled."
More on Iris
Iris comes in two types — Iris and Iris Pro. The Iris family will be integrated into the high-end GT3 and GT3e Haswell configurations. Lower-end GT3 configurations, and the Haswell GT1 and GT2 configurations, will continue to use the existing Intel HD Graphics processor line.
"These are scaled versions of the Iris GPU for different processors aimed at different segments," Tirias' McGregor said.
Devices with processors incorporating 4th generation Intel Core processors and Iris GPUs will be thinner, lighter and offer better performance. For example, a new Ultrabook with a 4th generation Intel Core i5 4200 processor and Iris graphics will be almost half as thin as a four-year-old notebook with an Intel Core 2 Duo processor, and weigh half as much, Intel said. The Ultrabook will also offer 17x faster video conversion and 25x faster graphics performance.
The Iris GPUs will be available in Ultrabooks, premium notebooks and desktop all-in-ones.
Intel previously gave the Iris family the "Gen" code name, Tirias's McGregor said.
Reactions to Iris
Given the steep drop in worldwide PC shipments — they were down almost 14 percent year over year in Q1, according to IDC — it's not clear whether Iris will be much of a help to Intel.
"Graphics solutions may not be the driver to a mainstream consumer trying to decide whether or not to buy a new PC," IHS's Stice told TechNewsWorld. Still, Iris "opens up new doors for someone who may want to accomplish something they can't on the PC they've had for the past four years."
Intel "continues to increase graphics performance because it's critical to the user experience," McGregor said. "They want to eventually push out discrete graphics from all but the ultra high-end systems, and they need to compete with AMD's integrated graphics technology, which is based on bleeding-edge discrete graphics."
About the Haswell Processor
Haswell processors use the 22 nm process and have low power consumption. Intel demonstrated a Haswell processor in September at the Intel Developer Forum (IDF) in San Francisco.Outgoing Intel CEO Paul Otellini first announced the Haswell processor at IDF 2011, and the company put up a video of the processor on YouTube.
"The biggest push on Haswell has been reducing power consumption," McGregor said. However, "I never buy the battery claims. Let's just see if the average user can get a single day's work on one charge out of it first."


text: MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) - Louis Farrakhan and others are planning a caravan across Alabama on June 14 to encourage the U.S. Supreme Court to save a major portion of the Voting Rights Act. Southern Christian Leadership Conference CEO Charles Steele said the National Coalition of Leaders to Save Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act is also calling on Justice Antonin Scalia to step aside from the court case because of public comments he made. The leaders, including state Sen. Hank Sanders and Alabama Democratic Conference Chairman Joe Reed, said the caravan will start at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham on June 14 and then visit Shelby County, which brought the challenge to the Voting Rights Act. That will be followed by stops in Selma and at the Capitol in Montgomery.


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Crimson Tide
You know, in the transitions from VHS to DVD, now to high definition disc media, aside from having to rebuy everything, the purveying feeling of revisiting these films now after not having seen them in awhile is slightly weird. First off, the fact that it's been over a dozen years since Crimson Tide first came out makes me feel just a little bit old. Secondly, what got the film's leads into that submarine in the first place anyway? It was the actions of a charismatic Russian nationalist who was looking to overthrow the government, played by the guy who didn't want to name George Constanza "T-Bone" on an episode of Seinfeld. Oh yeah, there's a lot of now familiar faces in this film too.
But never mind my pedestrian thoughts on the film itself, the fact is that Crimson Tide was written by Michael Schiffer (The Peacemaker) and directed by Ridley Scott's brother Tony (Man on Fire). Lieutenant Commander Hunter (Denzel Washington, American Gangster) is an up and coming Naval officer who is assigned to a nuclear submarine as second in command to Captain Ramsey (Gene Hackman, Hoosiers), an old-school leader of men who was one of the few Naval officers had seen combat. Hunter is brought into an efficient team on Ramsey's sub, the USS Alabama. The Alabama is sent towards Russia to possibly execute a pre-emptive strike in the event that the Russian manages to compromise some of the government's nuclear codes and launch missiles. The Alabama is thrown into great uncertainty as tensions arise and communications from Central Command are cut off, and Hunter and Ramsey find themselves at opposite ends of a heated debate.
There's no doubt that, on the surface, Crimson Tide proves to have a very effective exposition. The fears of starting a nuclear war and the ramifications that come from a pre-emptive attack are done very well, in a way that older Cold War-minded films like Fail-Safe or War Games have done in the past. If you show only one side, without seeing how the others are going to react, it helps to add some tensions to the characters' motivations. And when your two biggest characters are Oscar winners like Washington and Hackman, you can pretty much guarantee that they're going to be a little more than just topically convincing. It's a slow burn that develops as the two gradually bump heads more often and with more ferocity as the film unfolds.
However, the film's tension seems to be diffused by small and slightly handy coup d'etats that occur every twenty-five minutes or so, and it devalues the intentions of the story. "I'm relieving you!" "No You're Not!" "This is a mutiny!" it's almost as if I'm watching West Side Story or something, with a bunch of punk kids who seem to have no real idea of the consequences of their actions, and they simply need to learn to grow up or take a lap. I really had an urge to stop the film after the first hour so I could preserve how much I liked it before it fell off the tracks.
And in seeing this again, it is almost like The Outsiders of big-budget Hollywood films. Past Washington and Hackman, you've got an Oscar nominee (Viggo Mortensen, Eastern Promises), an Emmy winner (James Gandolfini, The Sopranos) and a Golden Globe winner (Rick Schroder, The Champ), all of whom serve as staff officers under Ramsey's command. There's the well-noted and anonymous contributions to the screenplay by Quentin Tarantino (Pulp Fiction), with his Silver Surfer dialogue and other references. In smaller supporting roles are other familiar faces like George Dzundza (No Way Out) as the Chief of the Boat and Ryan Phillippe (Flags of Our Fathers) and Steve Zahn (Rescue Dawn) as enlisted men on the boat. All in all, the cast helps uplift the material to some degree, but it still doesn't take away from the fact that the third act comes off as a little bit on the implausible side.
The Blu-ray Disc:Video:
Compared to films from the same period that have been released on Blu-ray and released with the AVC MPEG-4 codec, Crimson Tide looks very good. Quite a bit of detail can be made out in skin and hair on the close-ups, and the film employs a lot of reds, blues and greens that I don't remember seeing that much of before, but they all have been reproduced very well. There's a presence of film grain in periods of Crimson Tide, but nothing to distract from the enjoyment of the picture. There's some background depth that's a bit lacking and looks muddled and the blacks waver a little and aren't deep enough in some scenes, but this appears to be a solid upgrade from the standard definition disc.
Sound:An uncompressed PCM 5.1 surround sound option graces Crimson Tide, and it has to be a worthwhile one, considering some of the best sounding discs (Das Boot, Master and Commander) take place on and under the seas. This is far more bass heavy than I remembered, but its power is evident from the opening sequences on the aircraft carrier, to the sub showdowns in the second act. Dialogue remains pretty well focused and doesn't fade throughout the film, but Kenneth Brown makes a valid observation that it's not a wholly immersive experience. Consider Master and Commander; you can hear the creaking of the floor/ceiling in scenes, even if it's subtle, and you don't get that same type of experience here; everything seems a little bit canned. But if you want a floor rumbler or a filling shaker, this is it.
Extras:For as DVD friendly a director as his brother Ridley is, Tony needs a bit more work in this new fangled medium. All the extras are from the standard definition version and are in full frame, and they're pretty bland. The making of featurette (19:57) contains interviews with Hackman, Washington, Scott and producers Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer as they discuss the film, and Schiffer discusses the story as well. There's a little bit of on-set footage included that I wasn't expecting, along with some rehearsal footage, and the cast discuss the characters they play, while the production gets some time to discuss the visual effects and the set. "All Access" (10:18) features Dzundza on set and some general goofiness with the cast and crew, including a tender and albeit staged moment with Dzundza and Mortensen, to name one. It doesn't really cover anything and is more lighthearted than anything else. Seven deleted scenes (6:14) follow, which give Dzundza's character a little more development that wasn't needed at the end of the day, and the Disney/Buena Vista Movie Showcase with the best and brightest scenes in the film that highlighted the best of Blu-ray completes the disc.
Final Thoughts:Crimson Tide still has some shelf life for the consumer who wants some entertainment in his military-set thriller, even after everything that's occurred over the last decade and change. The performances from the cast are capable, even if the last forty-five minutes take a downturn in storytelling, but technically this is another above average effort from the folks at Disney. If you're a fan of the film, and since there's the likelihood that there won't be a double-dip on supplements anytime soon, this is worth the upgrade. If you're new to the film overall, I'd rent it before making a valued judgment with thirty dollars.
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Artwork • May 8th, 2012 • ssc2012-07c
NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope was able to detect a super Earth's direct light for the first time using its sensitive heat-seeking infrared vision. Super Earths are more massive than Earth but lighter than gas giants like Neptune. As this artist's concept shows, in visible light, a planet is lost in the glare of its star (top view). When viewed in infrared, the planet becomes brighter relative to its star. This is largely due to the fact that the planet's scorching heat blazes with infrared light. Even on our own bodies emanate more infrared light than visible due to our heat.
Spitzer cannot distinguish between the planet and star -- it just sees the total light of the system. However, its infrared eyes can see the dip in total light that occurs as a planet passes behind its star (the dip is minuscule when viewed in visible light). The resulting drop then reveals how much direct light comes from the planet itself. This information can be used to determine a planet's temperature, and in some cases, composition. For 55 Cancri e, the Spitzer observations indicated that the planet is very dark and that its sun-facing side is scorching hot, about 2,000 kelvins (3,140 degrees Fahrenheit).
About the Object


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Listening to One Song on Repeat
Steve Delahoyde of Coudal Partners has posted 238 Miles, a short film about his weekly journey from Iowa City to Chicago. As an experiment, Steve decided to listen to a single song, on repeat, during the whole trip. The rules: he had to continue listening to the song at all times, he was only allowed to stop for gas or restroom facilities, and he had to document the experience. So what song did he pick? "Dancing Queen" by ABBA. Oh, let the fun begin.
Starting the drive, things seemed fine. Steve nodded his head along with the tune for an hour and a half, then things started going bad. By three hours into the drive, Steve had already broken a rule: he stopped to get lunch, and turned off the song. But sure enough, he started it back up and kept driving. About four hours into the drive comes my favorite part, where the song stops and Steve says: "I find myself really longing for this section when the song ends and when it starts again -- there's about, like, a ten-second gap where there's no sound, and then there's that piano part that comes in and ruins everything again. [Song starts.] Right there."
I highly recommend you watch Steve's short film, 238 Miles. It's a quick journey through his day-long ordeal. Somehow, it makes me really want to try the same thing -- though probably not with ABBA.
So here's my question: what's the longest you've ever listened to a single song on repeat? For me, it's probably the time I listened to Maria Taylor's Song Beneath the Song for an entire four-hour plane flight -- iTunes tells me I've listened to it 313 times. (I'll admit, I slept through most of the flight.)


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By Labor Day, at least 27 hospitals in New York City will have implemented the main components of the Latch On NYC initiative, which aims to reduce the influence of baby formula promotion and encourage breastfeeding for new mothers.
As part of the initiative, formula will be kept in locked storage rooms, cabinets, or automated medication systems, to which only certain staff members will have access. Staff members will record each time formula is used and the reason it was used, and that information will be shared with the city's health department monthly.
The voluntary initiative was launched in May by the city's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, and it includes three other primary components:
- Enforcing existing state hospital regulations that say that breastfeeding infants should not receive supplemental formula feedings unless medically indicated, a regulation that is widely ignored
- Discontinuing the distribution of promotional or free infant formula
- Prohibiting the display and distribution of infant formula promotional materials, including bags and other items branded by formula companies, in any hospital location
"The purpose of this initiative is to support new mothers who choose to breastfeed," according to the health department. "If a mother chooses to breastfeed, we want to support her decision and eliminate practices that can interfere with her ability to successfully breastfeed."
Richard Schanler, MD, chair of the American Academy of Pediatricsââ¬â¢ section on breastfeeding threw his support behind the initiative.ââ¬ÅThis is a terrific idea because of the benefits of breastfeeding and the profound effect that the hospital sets the tone for breastfeeding success,ââ¬Â he wrote in an email to MedPage Today. "This is not a lifestyle choice, but rather a mandate to ensure the health of the infant (and even the mother)."
But public reaction is not so positive -- rather, the initiative is being seen as another move by the city to control personal choice, coming hard on New York mayor Michael Bloomberg's ban on sales of soft drinks in containers larger than 16 oz.
The initiative will not eliminate formula from the participating hospitals and mothers will still be allowed to choose to formula feed their babies, according to the health department.
"If a mother comes into a participating hospital with the intent to formula feed her baby, Latch On NYC does not require her to be counseled on the benefits of breastfeeding," a health department spokesperson said. "However, the mother may receive education on breastfeeding at any time during the hospital stay upon her request."
The initiative also includes a public awareness campaign using posters in hospitals and the subway system to tout the benefits of breastfeeding, including lower risks of breast and ovarian cancers for mothers and lower risks of ear, respiratory, and gastrointestinal infections and asthma for babies.
The program has been endorsed by the New York State Department of Health, the Greater New York Hospital Association, the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation, and the New York state chapters of the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Academy of Family Physicians, and the Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine.
The NYC Health and Hospitals Corporation, which runs 11 of the hospitals that have signed on to Latch On NYC, previously banned formula from gift bags and promotional materials distributed in labor and delivery units. That measure was recently adopted by Massachusetts, the second state to do so after Rhode Island ended the practice last November.
A study published last year in Pediatrics, however, showed that most hospitals surveyed in 19 states and the District of Columbia continue to include formula in bags given to new mothers at discharge.


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Its been more than four years since financial markets took their unprecedented nose dive, and yet some investors still cringe at the mere mention of the year that most wish they could forget. The crash of 2008 shook markets around globe, hammering down prices in nearly every corner of the investable universe. On March 9th 2009, investors were finally able to see the light at the end of the tunnel as rock-bottom markets prepared to make their turnaround. The pickup spurred investors' appetites for riskier asset classes, luring many to the lucrative world of commodity investing. For the most part, commodities can find a place in almost everyone's portfolio; the asset class can provide uncorrelated returns and diversification benefits, as well as serve as a potential hedge against inflationary pressures [see also 12 High-Yielding Commodities For 2012].
Thanks to the tremendous growth of the ETF industry, the average investor can now easily tap into an asset class that had previously been virtually unreachable. There are currently over a 100 commodity ETPs for investors to choose from, some of which have posted spectacular gains since their inception. In particular, single commodity ETPs have proven to be a bright spot in the commodities space, outshining some of the more popular broad-based products. Below we highlight 5 of the best performing commodity ETPs over the last three years [see also Three Reasons Why Gold Is Overvalued]:
United States Gasoline Fund LP (UGA): Up 149.11%
UGA invests in one of the most widely-known and used commodities worldwide: gasoline. As gasoline prices have skyrocketed over the last three years, investors in UGA perhaps aren't so irritated every time they are at the pump since this fund has gained more than 149% over the last three years. UGA's portfolio primarily consists of RBOB gasoline futures traded on the NYMEX. RBOB stands for "Reformulated Blendstock for Oxygenate Blending", the raw ingredient used to make different blends of gas, and as such prices on RBOB futures roughly line up with what drivers see at their local gas stations [see also Brent Crude vs. WTI: The Best Performing Commodity].
E-TRACS UBS Bloomberg CMCI Silver ETN (USV): Up 140.69%
Although most people would consider gold the king of the precious metals category, silver has been getting a lot of attention from investors as it has outperformed gold by a huge margin over the last few years. As the markets continue to experience volatility, investors have rushed to this shiny metal to help protect their portfolios from weakness in both bonds and equities. Unlike gold, silver is used in a wide array of industrial applications, meaning the demand for the product will remain relatively high. The futures based USV along with DBS and SLV have all had strong performances, with USV at the top of the list with its gain of more than 140% over the last three years [see also 25 Ways To Invest In Silver].
Dow Jones-UBS Tin Total Return Sub-Index ETN (JJT): Up 118.15%
This ETN offers pure play exposure to tin, another highly versatile metal that is used in a number of industrial applications. Nearly half of the tin produced in the world is used in soldering, while the remainder is divided among tinplates, chemicals, brass/bronze, among other products. As many emerging market countries continue to grow and expand their infrastructure, the demand for this industrial metal has skyrocketed. Over the last three years, Barclays iPath's JJT has had a stellar performance, gaining more than 118%.
Dow Jones-UBS Cotton Total Return Sub-Index ETN (BAL): Up 117.57%
BAL is one of only two products in the ETP industry that offers investors a pure play approach to cotton, a crucial commodity for textiles around the world. Cotton prices have hit record-breaking highs throughout the last couple years as strong demand from China, India, and other emerging markets have pushed the soft commodity skyward. Since inception, BAL has accumulated more than $40 million in assets and currently maintains a three-year return of over 117% [see also 50 Ways To Invest In Agriculture].
Dow Jones-UBS Copper Total Return Sub-Index ETN (JJC): Up 110.88%
JJC invests in one of the most abundant metals in the world: copper, a commodity that is estimated to have millions of years worth of supplies trapped inside the earth's crust. Copper is widely used in a number of applications, from wiring systems and circuit boards, in roofing and plumbing products, and in high tech industrial machinery. Generally, copper futures prices reflect the residential and commercial housing industry as well as the overall condition of the economy. The continuing recovery of the housing market combined with China's skyrocketing demand for raw materials has pushed JJC's 3-year return to just under 111% [see also 13 Ways To Invest In Copper].
Disclosure: No positions at time of writing.


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Counting Jewishly
Just as Jews are different in their way of life, they are also different in the way they count their days, months and years.
In the additional Torah chapter read this week, known as Parshat Hachodesh, we are reminded of the uniqueness of our method of measuring time.
Hachodesh hazeh lachem. "This month shall be for you" (Shmot 12:2) is the way this chapter begins. While other nations calculate their months and years based on the sun, the Creator commanded His chosen people to maintain a lunar calendar with the Month of Nissan as the first month because it was the month of the Exodus. This was intended to serve as a constant reminder of the great miracles which accompanied our liberation from Egyptian bondage.
But this is not the only element in the Hebrew calendar that serves as an important reminder that G-d created and runs the world. The names of the months we now use are of Babylonian origin and remind us of the redemption from Babylonian exile. And finally the days of the week have no names at all in the Jewish calendar. They are identified only by the number of days between them and Shabbat, enabling us to daily fulfill the Torah command to "Remember Shabbat and keep it holy".
Counting Jewishly preserves our identity as a people above time, a nation of Israel forever.


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Breyer 1:18 CollectA Model Horse: Chestnut Thoroughbred Foal (Walking)
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Breyer presents the Breyer by CollectA, a new line of horses, dogs, cats and farm animals for play and collecting. These adorable, authentic miniatures have been sculpted by experts to achieve the most realistic look possible, and are individually hand crafted in vinyl and hand-painted. Safe, virtually unbreakable and so real they almost walk, trot and canter off the page! The Breyer by CollectA Horse Collection is sculpted by noted equine sculptor Deborah McDermott. Breyer CollectA model horses are 1:18 scale, measuring approximately 5.7"L x 4.7"H. Foals measure approximately 2.8''L x 3''H.
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Review Elvis Presley FTD CD
In the album's 12 tracks, you'll find leftover selections from the Sun era, R&B hits of the day that Presley had been doing in his live show, a pop standard by Rodgers & Hart, a ditty ('I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and Cry (Over You)') he apparently heard in a Martin & Lewis comedy and a couple of tunes the label apparently found for him.
Sam Phillips, the visionary producer who discovered Presley and helped shape his dynamic style at Sun, told a story that illustrates RCA executive Steve Sholes' buyer's remorse after going into the studio with Presley in January 1956. Unlike Phillips, Steve Sholes wasn't sure just how to blend the singer's various country, blues, gospel and pop interests into a dynamic whole. To compound things, Sholes' choice for a first Presley single, 'Heartbreak Hotel', was met with indifference by radio programmers, while Sun's latest record, Carl Perkins' rockabilly exercise 'Blue Suede Shoes', was racing up the pop, country and R&B charts. Torn by doubt, Sholes phoned Phillips late one night and asked nervously, 'Be honest with me, Sam. Did we sign the wrong man?'
Phillips assured the RCA executive that Presley indeed was the one he should have signed, and with label promotion and some heavy television exposure, 'Heartbreak Hotel' eventually caught fire, rewarding Sholes' faith in the young singer. The single not only went to No. 1 but set off such a demand for anything Elvis that the sideburned singer's debut album, despite its shortcomings, was also a smash.
'Now go, cat, go'
'Elvis Presley' opens with a reworking of 'Blue Suede Shoes', the rockabilly anthem that was so influential that it alone was largely responsible for Perkins being voted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Like so much early rock, its lyrics were relatively plain, but the aggression in the vocal and instrumentation turned it into an anthem for teenagers in the '50s who were rebelling against adult authority.
Well, it's one for the money
Two for the show, three to get ready
Now go, cat, go, but don't you
Step on my blue suede shoes.
Presley's version is an improvement over Perkins' in almost every way - especially in the sensual command of Presley's singing. The musical energy, including an especially seductive guitar break by Scotty Moore and drumming by D.J. Fontana, complements perfectly the sexy authority of Presley's voice. In the early weeks of 1956, this opening knockout punch carried such thrilling promise of everything this 21-year-old singer could be that it helped fans look past some of the otherwise puzzling sidesteps on the rest of the album.
'I'm Counting on You', which came next, is one of two tunes believed to have been brought to the session by Sholes, apparently hoping to strengthen Presley's presence in country music. This country emphasis made sense because RCA's backup plan for Presley, in case the rock revolution was short-lived, was to make him a country music star. The label bought his contract only after his fifth Sun single, the country-accented ballad 'I Forgot to Remember to Forget', went to No. 1 on the country charts in the summer of 1955.
Presley's relatively straightforward treatment of Don Robertson's tune is interesting only for the mix of country twang in Presley's vocal and R&B echo in Floyd Cramer's piano lines.
Elvis is clearly engaged by Bill Campbell's 'One-Sided Love Affair', the other song suggested by Sholes.
Against a good-natured honky-tonk piano backdrop, Presley is so playful that he sounds downright mischievous, mocking the romantic tension in the lyrics with dramatic shifts in tempo and vocal inflection.
It's hard to tell what Sholes or country music DJs must have thought about the sense of the absurd that Presley brings to the tune, but hearing it today is delicious fun.
The album has three other country songs, including an upbeat novelty, 'Just Because', which has a joyous hillbilly tinge, and ballads - 'I Love You Because' and 'I'll Never Let You Go (Little Darlin')' - that do little other than showcase the purity and caress of Presley's voice.
Another ballad, the pop standard 'Blue Moon', is heavily reworked as Presley drops the final verse (with its happy-ever-after asides) and slows the tempo. The result is an eerie, lonesome exercise, not unlike the pop melodrama Roy Orbison would reach for in '60s hits such as 'Only the Lonely'.
To round out the album, Presley did versions of three songs that had long been part of his live act: Ray Charles' 'I Got a Woman', Little Richard's 'Tutti Fruitti' and the Drifters' 'Money Honey'.
In some ways, these songs were the most revealing of all.
Unlike many white artists, such as Pat Boone and the Crew Cuts, who watered down the gritty edges of the original R&B versions of songs in the '50s, Presley reshaped them.
He not only injected the tunes with his own vocal character but also made guitar, not piano, the lead instrument in all three cases. It was one of his biggest contributions to the defining of modern rock 'n' roll.
Despite the different styles, the one thing Sholes and the engineers did was keep Presley's voice way out in front in the musical mix. They may not have known Presley's exact musical direction, but they knew the value of that voice. Sholes was lucky to have inherited one other song from Phillips: 'Trying to Get to You', perhaps the album's most electrifying moment. Written by Charles Singleton and Rose Marie McCoy, the R&B song is a tale of romantic obsession that Phillips liked so much that he recorded it twice with Presley at Sun.
The first session was in February 1955, the same day Presley recorded the landmark 'Baby, Let's Play House', and maybe Phillips was so focused on the excitement of that track that he gave up on 'Get to You' after the early stab at it didn't seem to work. On that track, he had used only guitar and bass.
Five months later, Phillips tried the song again, this time adding a drum, and Presley sang the tune with such chilling intensity that Phillips had planned to release 'Get to You' as the follow-up to 'I Forgot to Remember to Forget', which spent 10 months on the country charts. But RCA bought the rights to all of Presley's Sun recordings before he got the chance. So teens heard it for the first time on 'Elvis Presley', and it is a moment of genuine triumph. The lesson in all of this is that Sholes may have been nervous about Presley's experimentation, but he had the good sense to allow him to proceed, even as he tested pop extremes while defining his own sound. That record-executive approach is another reason to call this a 'lost' album.
There isn't much evidence of that risk-taking any more at major labels. The tendency is too often to head for the safe, middle ground. Almost 50 years later, you still marvel at Presley's bold approach - and the youthful assurance of that stirring voice, which mixes pop crooning with renegade country and R&B spirit. Despite all of the records that have been made since 1956, this young singer still sounds blessedly unique.
Buy Elvis Presley FTD Special Edition 2 CD
Review: Elvis Presley Special Edition FTD 2 CD Set
Elvis Presley Special Edition FTD CD - Tracklisting
Disc 1 The Album:
Blue Suede Shoes
I'm Counting On You
I Got A Woman
One Sided Love Affair
I Love You Because
Just Because
Tutti Frutti
Trying To Get To You
I'm Gonna Sit Right Down And Cry (Over You)
I'll Never Let You Go (Little Darlin')
Blue Moon
Money Honey
Bonus Singles:
Heartbreak Hotel
I Was The One
Lawdy Miss Clawdy
Shake Rattle And Roll
My Baby Left Me
I Want You, I Need You, I Love You
First RCA Sessions:
I Got A Woman - incomplete unk tk no.
I Got A Woman - unk tk no.
Heartbreak Hotel - incomplete tk 4
Heartbreak Hotel - tk 5
Heartbreak Hotel - tk 6
Money Honey - fragments
Money Honey - incomplete tk 10
I'm Counting On You - tk 1
I'm Counting On You - incomplete unk tk no.
I'm Counting On You - tk 13
I'm Counting On You - incomplete tk 14
I Was The One - tk 1
I Was The One - tk 2 (false start)
I Was The One - tk 2
I Was The One - tk 3 (false start)
I Was The One - tk 7A (not master)
I Was The One - incomplete unk tk
Disc 2 The Dry Reverb Tape:
I'm Counting On You - tk 1
I'm Counting On You - incomplete tk 2
Session Outtakes:
Lawdy Miss Clawdy - tk 1
Lawdy Miss Clawdy - tk 2
Lawdy Miss Clawdy - tk 3
Lawdy Miss Clawdy - tk 4
Lawdy Miss Clawdy - tk 5
Lawdy Miss Clawdy - tk 6
Lawdy Miss Clawdy - tk 7
Lawdy Miss Clawdy - tk 8
Lawdy Miss Clawdy - tk 9
Lawdy Miss Clawdy - tk 10
Lawdy Miss Clawdy - tk 11
Lawdy Miss Clawdy - tk 12
Shake, Rattle And Roll - tk 1
Shake, Rattle And Roll - tk 2
Shake, Rattle And Roll - tk 3
Shake, Rattle And Roll - tk 5
Shake, Rattle And Roll - tk 6
Shake, Rattle And Roll - tk 7
Shake, Rattle And Roll - tk 8
Shake, Rattle And Roll - tk 9
Shake, Rattle And Roll - tk 10
Shake, Rattle And Roll - tk 11
Shake, Rattle And Roll - tk 12
Shake, Rattle And Roll - tk 12 (undubbed master)
I Want You, I Need You, I Love You - tk 1 (slate only)
I Want You, I Need You, I Love You - tk 3
I Want You, I Need You, I Love You - tk 4
I Want You, I Need You, I Love You - tk 5 (fragment)
I Want You, I Need You, I Love You - tk 13
I Want You, I Need You, I Love You - tk 14 (incomplete)
I Want You, I Need You, I Love You - tk 15
I Want You, I Need You, I Love You - tk 16
I Want You, I Need You, I Love You - tk 17
Don Davis Interviews Elvis Presley
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Tupelo's Own Elvis Presley DVD
Never before have we seen an Elvis Presley concert from the 1950's with sound. Until Now! The DVD Contains recently discovered unreleased film of Elvis performing 6 songs, including Heartbreak Hotel and Don't Be Cruel, live in Tupelo Mississippi 1956. Included we see a live performance of the elusive Long Tall Sally seen here for the first time ever. + Plus Bonus DVD Audio.
This is an excellent release no fan should be without it.
The 'parade' footage is good to see as it puts you in the right context with color and b&w footage. The interviews of Elvis' Parents are well worth hearing too. The afternoon show footage is wonderful and electrifying : Here is Elvis in his prime rocking and rolling in front of 11.000 people. Highly recommended.
Tupelo's Own Elvis Presley DVD Video with Sound.


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A severe storm system pummeled parts of the Midwest overnight with tornadoes, huge hailstones and powerful winds, damaging nearly 500 buildings and injuring a dozen people in one Missouri city.
The Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Oklahoma, received reports of more than 30 tornadoes in Kansas, Missouri, Iowa and Illinois late Monday and early Tuesday. Powerful winds extended as far south as the Ozark Mountains in Arkansas, where a post office and church were damaged, and as far north as Wisconsin, where trees were downed.
In Oak Grove, Missouri, 483 homes sustained some type of damage, along with 10 to 12 commercial buildings, said Sni Valley Fire Protection District Chief Carl Scarborough. Twelve people were treated for injuries by emergency responders on Monday, and three were taken to hospitals with injuries that weren't life-threatening, he said.
Oak Grove Mayor Jeremy Martin praised the work of emergency crews and said it was remarkable there were no deaths.
"It looks like the injuries are minimal so, based on some of the damage I've seen, it's rather amazing," Martin said in a Tuesday morning press conference.
The Kansas City area sustained widespread damage, and crews planned to survey and assess the damage early Tuesday.
Dan Hawblitzel, a National Weather Service meteorologist based in Pleasant Hill, Missouri, said there were corridors of significant damage in Oak Grove, Smithville north of Kansas City and the Kansas suburbs of Leawood and Olathe. Hawblitzel said there were no immediate reports of fatalities from the storms.
"It played out as we expected – several tornadoes and a lot of wind damage," Hawblitzel said. "It's certainly sad to see and hear about the homes destroyed."
The late-winter storms spawned warnings from the Southern Plains to the Upper Midwest. Baseball-sized hail was reported in parts of Missouri, while hurricane-force winds were reported in parts of Iowa. The storm system was weakening as it moved to the east but the Storm Prediction Center said parts of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama could see severe thunderstorms Tuesday.
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This article describes several casting and type related operations in VB.NET and C#.
By default in VB, casting is automatically done for you when you assign objects to variables. The objects are then automatically casted to the variables' type.
This behaviour can be influenced by an option line on top of your code file:
Option Strict On Option Strict Off
When on, casting is strict and not automatic.
Explicit casting can be done with the cast operator CType() or DirectCast():
textbox = CType(obj, TextBox) textbox = DirectCast(obj, TextBox)
The difference between the two keywords is that CType succeeds as long as there is a valid conversion defined between the expression and the type, whereas DirectCast requires the run-time type of an object variable to be the same as the specified type. If the specified type and the run-time type of the expression are the same, however, the run-time performance of DirectCast is better than that of CType. DirectCast throws an InvalidCastException error if the argument types do not match.
Testing if an object is of a particular type, can be done with the TypeOf...Is operator:
If TypeOf obj Is TextBox Then...
Obtaining a System.Type object for a given type can be done with the GetType operator:
Dim t As System.Type t = GetType(String) MessageBox.Show(t.FullName)
Obtaining a System.Type object for a given object can be done with the GetType method:
Dim t as System.Type t = obj.GetType() MessageBox.Show(t.FullName)
C# is a strictly typed language. Whenever types don't match, casting is necessary.
Regular casting in C# follows the C(++) and Java syntax:
string s = (string)obj;
The casting operator applies to the complete chain on the right of it, so in the following example, not a, but a.b is casted to a Form:
Form f = (Form)a.b;
To cast parts of the chain, use brackets. In the following example, obj is casted to a Form:
string s = ((Form)obj).Text;
C# knows an additional casting operator: as.
The as operator is like a cast except that it yields null on conversion failure instead of raising an exception. In the following situation, btn gets the value null:
Object obj = new TextBox(); Button btn = obj as Button;
Testing if an object is of a particular type, can be done with the is operator:
if (obj is TextBox) {...}
Obtaining a System.Type object for a given type can be done with the typeof operator:
System.Type t; t = typeof(String); MessageBox.Show(t.FullName);
System.Type t; t = obj.GetType(); MessageBox.Show(t.FullName);
This article, along with any associated source code and files, is licensed under A Public Domain dedication
Public Sub SortMyArray(aValues() as Object) if typeof aValues is String() then SortStrings(directcast(aValues,string()) elseif typeof aValues is SomeOtherObject() then SortOtherObjects(directcast(aValues,SomeOtherObject()) end if End Sub Private Sub SortStrings(asValues() as String) 'Do the sort End Sub Private Sub SortOtherObjects(aValues() as SomeOtherObject) 'Do the sort End Sub

 public static BaseDAO newInstance (DAOAssembly cAssembly, string strProviderID)
 {
 // lookup instance
 BaseDAO cDAO = m_cManager.lookup(cAssembly, strProviderID);

 if (cDAO != null)
 {
 Console.WriteLine("Created DAO Instance");
 }
 else
 {
 Console.WriteLine("Failed to create specified DAO handler");
 }

 // initialise instance
 // TODO:

 return cDAO;
 }

 DAOAssembly x = new DAOAssembly("DAOTest.dll", "d:", "ds.xml", "d:", "TEST");
 Object o = CustomerRowSet.newInstance(x, "SELECT_CUSTOMERS");
 if (o is DAOTest.CustomerRowSet)
 {
 Console.WriteLine("Object is of correct type");
 }
 else
 {
 System.Type t;
 t = o.GetType();
 Console.WriteLine(t.FullName);
 }

 Created DAO Instance
 DAOTest.CustomerRowSet

 CustomerRowSet rs = (CustomerRowSet)CustomerRowSet.newInstance(x, "SELECT_CUSTOMERS");
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Use Ctrl+Left/Right to switch messages, Ctrl+Up/Down to switch threads, Ctrl+Shift+Left/Right to switch pages.


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In an anti-Bush world, key backers
By most accounts President Bush is almost universally disliked, even reviled, around the world. Seven out of 10 French citizens would vote against him if they could. So would 68 percent of South Koreans and two-thirds of Australians.
On this election eve, Mr. Bush may be the least-liked American leader in history. Yet closer inspection reveals intriguing pockets of support for the US president.
Consider that Germany's biggest newspaper endorsed Bush last week, saying he's less "wobbly" than his Democratic challenger, Sen. John Kerry. Or that in Iran - part of Bush's "axis of evil" - a top cleric supports Bush, partly because Republicans are slower to slap sanctions on Iran for its nuclear ambitions or rights abuses.
Or that Japan's prime minister broke decades of protocol and effectively endorsed Bush, whose strategic worldview envisions Japan as the key Asian power broker. Or that Colombia's president backs Bush and has adopted his with-us-or-with-the-terrorists paradigm in an increasingly successful war against narco-rebels.
Support for Bush has become lens through which countries and their leaders now see the world, on everything from terrorism to free trade to human rights. "We're talking about islands of support for Bush," says Clifford Kupchan, vice president of the Nixon Center, a Washington think tank. And they're usually leaders or nations that have benefited from Bush's worldview. He cites Russia and its president, Vladimir Putin, as a prime example.
Mr. Putin has criticized Bush over the Iraq war but said recently that attacks on US forces in Iraq by international terrorists are personally aimed at Bush. Their goal "is to inflict maximum damage on Bush, to prevent him from getting a second term," Putin said, adding, "If they succeed ... that would give an additional impulse to international terrorism and could lead to the spread of terrorism to other parts of the world."
The Russian public is split 52-48 for Bush in the US contest, according to a Moscow News poll. But Putin has robustly backed Bush's terror war, partly out of a desire to do fierce battle with Chechen insurgents - without outside criticism. Bush has largely obliged. And when Putin recently introduced reforms that some considered an authoritarian power-grab, the White House didn't balk.
However, "If Democrats come to power, they are more likely to intervene in Russia's internal affairs," highlighting democratic lapses or human-rights abuses, says Sergei Rogov, director of the official Institute of USA-Canada Studies in Moscow.
At least one top Iranian mullah has a similar view. "We haven't seen anything good from Democrats, so we won't be happy if the Democrats win," said Hasan Rowhani recently. He heads Iran's Supreme National Security Council and referred to sanctions imposed by President Clinton and poor relations with the US under Presidents Kennedy and Carter.
Republican Ronald Reagan's White House, meanwhile, set up the Iran-contra deal, by which Iran received weapons in exchange for lobbying for the release of American hostages in Lebanon. More recently, Bush removed two traditional Iranian enemies - Afghanistan's Taliban and Iraq's Saddam Hussein. But a President Kerry might be more effective in leading an international effort for tougher sanctions because of Iran's apparent quest for nuclear weapons.
Despite Bush's "axis of evil" talk, Iranian leaders see Republicans as "people we can do business with, but Democrats keep bugging us about democracy" and nuclear proliferation, says Mr. Kupchan.
There's a similar sentiment in Colombia, where terrorism and trade dominate. Popular President Alvaro Uribe has invoked the war on terror to mount a successful offensive against the country's leftist rebels. He's relied heavily on US help via the antidrug and antiterror "Plan Colombia," which has been beefed up under Bush. The US Congress last month doubled the number of US troops allowed in Colombia to 800, no small feat with American forces overstretched around the world.
Recently, there's been a sharp decline in kidnappings and killings of civilians in Colombia, leaving many citizens thankful for US help. Now the guerrillas are "considered terrorists," says Rosario Rodriguez, a beauty-salon owner in Bogotá, adding, "We are not alone in the struggle. We are supported by the United States."
Here, and elsewhere in Latin America, there's concern that free-trade talks would be derailed under a President Kerry.
The idea of Bush and the Republicans as tough-minded pragmatists resonates in China, too, where two issues dominate: Taiwan and trade. Bush's team has been consistent about Taiwan, which China considers a renegade province that must be reunited with the mainland. Secretary of State Colin Powell earned big points in China recently when he said Taiwan is not a "sovereign" country, hinting it would be reunited with China.
"In the Chinese mind, Taiwan is No. 1," says Sun Zhe, head of American Studies at Shanghai's Fudan University.
And perhaps the issue of trade and economic growth is No. 2. Alex Zhou, a Shanghai financial analyst backs Bush, saying a President Kerry might be "more prickly about human rights issues." About Bush, he says: "I hate the war, but from the business point of view, especially longterm, Bush is better."
Bush as good for business echoes in India, too. The country's intelligentsia adamantly opposes Bush over the Iraq war. But many in the middle class focus on bread-and-butter issues of jobs and trade. Anything that hinders India's rising stature in the cyberworld of computer-software engineering and telecommunications is a bigger long-term threat than an amorphous notion like global terrorism. Thus Kerry's positions on "outsourcing" - and keeping American jobs at home - make him unattractive. "Many Indians are beginning to see IT as a way out ... a panacea to all the ills India faces," says Dipankar Gupta, an anthropologist at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi. Thus Bush, who's more of a free-trader than Kerry, appeals.
In Japan, however, support for Bush is based not so much on business but on regional and global power politics. Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi is a Bush supporter, sending 500 noncombat troops to Iraq. In October he broke tradition, saying, "I am very close to President Bush, so I want him to do his best." This despite a poll showing just 30 percent of Japanese backing Bush and 51 percent favoring Kerry.
"The Japanese government has vested interests" in supporting Bush, explains Sheila Smith, at the East West Center, a think tank in Hawaii. Japan is seeking a bigger role in Asia. While Bush sees Japan as a strategic anchor in the region, Kerry's plans for one-on-one talks with North Korea, for instance, would sideline Japan. It also wants a larger presence on the world stage, including a permanent seat on the UN Security Council, a bid that would be helped by US support.
Meanwhile, Australian Prime Minister John Howard, recently elected to a fourth term, has been one of Bush's staunchest allies in the war in Iraq and the war on terror. Australia currently has 920 troops in Iraq and the region, and Mr. Howard has resisted all calls to bring them home. "I express my strong support for the leadership that the president has continued to display," Howard told Bush earlier this year.
Leaders in South Africa may quietly support Bush, experts say, in part because he sees sub-Saharan Africa's wealthiest nation as the regional power broker and peacemaker.
The African continent in general is one region Bush where seems to have gained kudos simply because of his strong involvement. He's promised $15 billion for fighting AIDS. He has revamped foreign aid, demanding accountability on good governance and other standards - an effort that dovetails with growing African efforts to address the continent's problems. And he has invested far more political capital than many expected to halt genocide in Sudan. "None of us forecast Bush would be as favorable to Africa as he's been," says international relations professor John Stremlau at Witswatersrand University.
But it's what the Bush team refers to as "Old Europe" - especially Germany and France - where much of the antipathy toward Bush is rooted. So when the tabloid Bild, Germany's biggest paper, endorsed Bush last week, it set off groans of controversy. "There has already been an American president the Germans haven't thought very highly of," the article said. "His name: Ronald Reagan.... We have him to thank for the end of the cold war and reunification. There's a good chance that we'll also be thankful one day for George W. Bush."
The comment bordered on blasphemy in a nation where polls show up to 80 percent of Germans would vote for Kerry. Yet many aren't excited by the Bush alternative. "If you look at the rhetoric, you ask yourself how much different Kerry really is, aside from the fact that he's a bit more diplomatic," says freelance journalist Martin Schrader of Berlin.
Meanwhile, in Britain, where public support for Bush is weak, Prime Minister Tony Blair has taken hits for backing Bush. "If Bush is defeated, there will be a strong assumption it's because of Iraq, and Blair might well be concerned that he'd be next in line," says Dana Allin at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London.
Even in perhaps the most anti-Bush region of all - the Middle East - there are those who support the incumbent, if for unconventional reasons. Many in the region figure that lobbyists for Israel have big influence on US policy and that a second-term Bush might be able to brush off their pressure. "Bush won't have to answer to the Jewish lobby and that could help," says Mohammed Essam, a Cairo cab driver.
Osama El-Ghazali Harb, an Egyptian analyst, is another who argues for Bush. "Being a second-term president, Bush will have the benefit of experience, which will make him wiser," he says. But, as befitting his region's sentiment, Mr. Harb was one of only 12 people in a 110-person straw poll done by a local paper who said they'd vote for Bush.