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Health News
Gender Differences for Chantix
If you're a man taking Chantix and aren't seeing immediate results, don't get discouraged just yet. New evidence suggests that the popular anti-smoking aid may help women more than men — but only at first.
Quitting Smoking? Take Care with This Rx
Some people turn to medications like varenicline (brand name Chantix) to help quitting smoking. Chantix can be helpful, but it comes with a few warnings.
This Rx Helped Smokers Ease into Quitting
Quitting cold turkey works for some smokers, but others struggle with stopping all at once. It's not easy for most smokers, but there's a medication that might help some ease into quitting.
Smoking: How to Kick the Habit in the New Year
Ready to quit smoking for the new year? It may not be easy, but it's doable.
New Treatment Helped More Patients Ditch Nicotine
If you can fight fire with fire, why not fight addiction to nicotine with another chemical?
Rx Combo for Quitting Smoking Was Better than One Rx Alone
Even though there are a variety of aids to help people quit smoking, it's still a tough habit to kick. But if one of those aids isn't doing the job, a combination of smoking cessation therapies may do the trick.
Testing Rx Combo to Help Smokers Be Smoke Free
Smoking causes one in five deaths in the US. Varenicline and bupropion are approved to help smokers quit, but are only partly effective. Using both medications together might work better.
Soothing Cigarette Habit Hard to Break
Many smokers will say that their habit soothes them, even if they are trying to quit. Depression is one problem from which some smokers are seeking relief.
The Gains and Losses of Quitting Smoking
Weight gain can be a frustrating but common side effect of quitting smoking. How much weight a person gains may depend on how attached they were to smoking in the first place.
Quit Smoking Rx Helped Heavy Drinkers
A prescription used to help people quit smoking may also help people with alcohol dependence. The medication had side effects, but the benefits may outweigh the negatives.


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Bryan Smith of Fangraphs is at the Arizona Fall League, and shared these impressions of Dodger minor league player of the year Jerry Sands:
… I try not to be results-based in my batting practice "scouting" analysis, but it's a lot more art than science, and I'm no expert.
Which brings me to an interesting scouting conundrum that popped up today, seeing the Phoenix Desert Dogs take batting practice for the second consecutive day. If you used just those two days, and those 40 swings, to make completely definitive judgments about players, there's no question you would arrive at the fact that Austin Romine has more power (be it raw or present power) than Jerry Sands. The person who saw just 40 swings would, trust me, be shocked to learn that Romine hit just ten home runs this year where Sands hit 35.
You would be shocked because they have taken totally different approaches to the batting cage over the two days. For Sands, the focus has been hitting the ball the other way. At first, I thought maybe Sands was primarily an opposite field hitter, but given the sheer number of balls he's hit towards right field in two days, I'm convinced it's the orders he was given by the Dodgers. This is a guy not out there to show that he can hit the ball 400 feet, but working on improving his game by spraying balls around the park.
If you read the whole post, you'll see Smith was less impressed with Dodger minor-leaguer Matt Wallach.
In game action, Sands has a .484 on-base percentage and .417 slugging percentage (no homers) over 31 plate appearances, with only four strikeouts. From what I can tell, reports of Sands getting a lot of time at third base have been overblown.
Ivan De Jesus, Jr. has a 1.076 OPS, while Trayvon Robinson is at .971. On the mound, Javy Guerra and Scott Elbert have each allowed a run in four innings. Elbert, whom it appears might be converted to relief for good, has had better control his past two outings.
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On the anniversary of a divorce, Josh Fisher writes: "Jamie McCourt filed for divorce a year ago today, and we cannot say it's been a banner year for the organization in any way. Not on the field. Not in the newspapers. Not on the farm. The Dodgers will be back, of course. You just can't keep a club with its built-in advantages down forever. But we will spend the next months (but hopefully not years) determining whether the club moves forward under McCourt direction or otherwise. Still, if nothing else, the McCourt divorce stands out as another unfortunate example of what happens when everything that can go wrong…well…does."

subset: commoncrawl


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Too Good To Be True Diet Trends And What You Should Try Instead
"I'm on a diet;" common words heard spoken from another's mouth, especially at the start of a new year. While dieting to lose weight will never fade, diet trends come and go. These days, between Atkins, Jenny, and the Cave Man, there are more and more weight loss programs to choose from, and sometimes the truth behind each one can get lost in the shuffle.
Read More: Too Good to Be True Diet Trends (Literally) and What You Should Try Instead
Human beings' bodies all work in different and mysterious ways, but there is one thing that we thrive on when it comes to leading a healthy lifestyle: food. Along with exercise and dietary supplements, most popular diet trends revolve around developing a strategy for eating the right foods that will help you lose weight, but the truth is that some of them don't work, and that's where The Daily Meal's Cook editors come in. To help you decide what food diets are right for you, we asked some of the country's leading nutritionists to weigh in on popular diet trends and inform us when some are, quite literally, too good to be true.
Bacon lovers: did your eyes light up and taste buds sing when you heard about the Atkins diet? We're sorry to have to tell you that the meat-heavy diet is only effective in the short-term. Think you're doing yourself a favor when you skip the pasta at dinner? You may be avoiding some heavy carbs, but you're also missing out on important and essential nutrients, too. From longstanding diets that you know well (and very well could have tried) to under the radar ones that are just arriving on the scene, our experts shared their thoughts on each one and told us which were in, and which were out. If you're starting out 2013 on an optimistic note and are looking to shed some pounds this year, make sure you know which diets you should be avoiding.
Anne Dolce is the Cook Editor at The Daily Meal. Follow her on Twitter @anniecdolce


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Friendly and Knowledgeable Staff and Faculty
The faculty at our California massage colleges are often consulted by leaders in the massage therapy field across the country. Our Massage Therapy Classes are well respected, comprehensive, and proven to give you the skills you need to pursue your dreams. The faculty and staff at our massage therapist schools are 100% dedicated to your success in the field of massage. Along those lines, our facilities were designed exclusively for Massage Therapy as well which creates a warm and welcoming environment. We offer a lot of financial support and have many different options to make our California massage schools affordable for you.


text: North Korea is no laggard when it comes to bluster and vituperation. For decades, the regime has issued threats of turning South Korea into a "sea of fire" or used choice words such as "human scum" or "political idiot" when denouncing South Korean and U.S. leaders. But even measured against such standards, North Korea's barrage over the past month, from threatening to launch an "all-out war" to "diversified precision nuclear strike" against Washington, "wipe out" a South Korean island, or hurling a sexist insult against Park Geun-hye, South Korea's first female elected leader, to, most recently, warning of an imminent "moment of explosion," is quite unusual. And now, after saying that plans for merciless operation has been "finally examined and ratified," Pyongyang is hinting at another long-range missile launch. What's going on? First, we must assume the North Korean leadership is not crazy or suicidal in spite of bizarre things it says and does. Cruel, totalitarian and solipsistic the Kim dynasty surely is. But the fact that it has managed to preserve itself for more 60 years and, in the post-Cold War era, in spite of the everyday existential threat of facing an immeasurably more successful Korean state across the border, the impoverished North has shown itself to be, if nothing else, calculating and resilient. Opinion: Kim Jong Un is not crazy What is Pyongyang calculating? The same it has since the end of the Korean War 60 years ago. The two constants in North Korea's foreign policy are its continual calls for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from South Korea and blaming "U.S. hostile policy" for the tension enveloping the Korean Peninsula. Pyongyang sees the U.S. commitment to the defense of South Korea, as powerfully symbolized by the presence of American troops in the South, as the greatest impediment to its highest state task. As North Korea states in the charter to its communist party, that task is to "(en)sure the complete victory of socialism in the northern half of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and the accomplishment of the revolutionary goals of national liberation and the people's democracy on the entire area of the country." In plain language, that means dissolving the South Korean government and communizing the entire Korean Peninsula by force. North Korea's frequent threats are a means to a long-term end. The first step is to impregnate the South Korean public with war hysteria and the illusion that the withdrawal of U.S. troops would lead to peace and reconciliation between the two Koreas. The second is to instill fear in the American public by one day demonstrating its capability to marry a nuclear warhead with an intercontinental ballistic missile with the range to hit the U.S. West Coast. When that day comes, Washington may have second thoughts about its treaty commitment to the defense of South Korea, Pyongyang calculates. So far, timing seems to be in Pyongyang's favor. Over the past year, all the major powers in North Korea's neck of the woods have undergone a leadership transition. Moreover, in Seoul, Beijing and Tokyo, leadership transitions have occurred only in recent months. That creates a particularly appeasement-prone environment, as no newly elected leader wishes to spend political capital on a foreign policy crisis created by North Korea when many other pressing domestic issues beckon. So Pyongyang reckons that after ratcheting up tension as high as it can and then simply take a little step back, it can lure its richer interlocutors into returning to talks and the kind of concessionary aid worth billions of dollars we have seen in the past. This means the risk of North Korea starting an all-out war is quite small, although there is always the possibility of miscalculation. It also means that Pyongyang will most likely not just go quietly into the night after having thumped its chest for so long. We should expect some kind of deadly, although limited, attack to come soon. How should Seoul and Washington respond? For starters, they could clamp down on the North's multifaceted criminal activities and put psychological pressure on the elites. Second, they could raise awareness on North Korea's systematic and widespread human rights violations so that democratic countries come to view the regime as a threat to humanity instead of some abstract amalgamation of the dreadful and the bizarre. This approach may not yield immediate changes in regime behavior. But at the very least it will finally put the "stick" in the proverbial carrot-and-stick metaphor for taming Pyongyang. Follow @CNNOpinion on Twitter. Join us at Facebook/CNNOpinion.


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Softness on Brown, female Bishops, science and certainty
I'm travelling at the moment, so have to be brief. I'll try to answer one or two questions raised by readers. Andrew Gower complains that I am 'soft' on Gordon Brown. Can he give me any instance of this alleged softness? Unlike those who now rip and tear in safety at Mr Brown's defenceless corpse, I attacked him when he was universally praised by many of the people who now attack him. Specifics? (If Mr Gower really desires, I can go through more than ten years of cuttings books to produce the proof) I attacked him for his unhinged and disastrous sale of gold reserves. I attacked him for his stupid assault on Oxford and Cambridge based on his misunderstanding of the Laura Spence case. I attacked him for this theft of pension funds and for his general unreconstructed, wooden-headed belief in high taxation, public spending and state intervention. I did all this so long ago that many of those now criticising me for being 'soft' on him may perhaps have been watching the Tellytubbies at the time, or maybe grappling with their GCSEs. But I can't help that. What I now do is condemn the sheep-like, unreasoning mob attacks on him, because this is not serious grown-up politics and because the purpose of loading Mr Brown with negative charisma is to let David Cameron sidle into office all unexamined. I remain as critical as I always have been of Mr Brown's politics. I have this silly belief that long-term consistency, and attacking people in their pomp when others are fawning on them, are superior to fashionable switches of opinion, and kicking people when they are down.
Jeff Pollitt asks how I square my refusal to care about Zimbabwe with a Christian conscience. Let me cite William Blake's profound and disturbing words ( disturbing, at least, to those who believe in the false religions of politics) :"He who would do good to another must do it in minute particulars. General good is the plea of the scoundrel, hypocrite and flatterer".
My point is simple. 'Caring' about the woes of foreign countries is usually done in public, so as to look concerned and compassionate, and to make the 'carer' feel good about himself or herself, and allow the 'carer' to let as many people as possible know how 'caring' he or she is. It is generally entirely ineffective, and results in precisely nothing. It is, to a large extent, the modern substitute for real acts of conscience and kindness, private and unnoticed. It is these unselfish acts which, if we all tried to do more of them, would heal many of the wounds of our society.."Insomuch as ye have done it to the least of one of these, ye have done it unto me...." No doubt, we all fail in this. But we'd fail less if we tried harder.
He also asks what I think about the consecration of women as bishops in the Church of England. I have never been much moved by this dispute. But I accept that this may be because I don't know enough about it. What I do know is that many very serious, kind and intelligent Anglican priests and lay-people, who are by no means women-haters, are deeply upset by the ordination of women and even more distressed by the plan to consecrate female bishops.It is a flat lie to portray such people as the equivalents of racial bigots. They are truly afraid that this decision grieves Christ himself. I may not share their fear. But I would be a lout and a boor if I didn't recognise it as genuine.
Under those circumstances, it seems to me that human kindness could find a compromise, just as it did over the ordination of women priests. Vicars who didn't agree with this were put under the authority of like-minded bishops. Woolly, perhaps, but a happy outcome for most. But when a similar compromise was suggested, to allow dissenters in this matter to come under the authority of male Bishops, it was rejected by the reformers. I won't go into the details of why the substitute 'code of practice' didn't do the trick. But I promise you that it didn't.
There's also the fact that I have yet to meet a theologically conservative woman priest, and have only met two who support the use of the 1662 prayer book which I regard as the essential mainstay of Anglican belief. Modern vicars always accuse people like me of making an idol out of the Prayer Book's poetic, sonorous language. There's no doubt that it is a majestic work of literature and that its suppression is an act of cultural vandalism. But the real argument is about the book's serious, uncompromising version of Christianity, which is what underlies the soaring poetry in which it is expressed. Modern religion, filleted of all the hard, dark bits, produces banal prayers and feeble music. Those who support women priests (like the priests themselves) tend to be politically correct radicals , believers in the social gospel and in the Church as a mainly political body, with more or less social democratic opinions. So, i don't oppose them because they are women. But I do oppose them for watering down the faith.
So, while I'm prepared on principle to accept that female bishops should be consecrated, I don't think this is the real issue. The real issue is that radical reformers are joining, or staying within, a church whose principles they don't support, in order to change it into something else. I suspect some of them are so uncharitable and intolerant of opposition that they actively hope to drive others out of a church they love. And, cause by cause and controversy by controversy, they succeed. Those who fight against them are ( as usual) made to look like narrow-minded bigots because they are permanently on the defensive, and are forced to fight over issues that can easily be misrepresented to outsiders.
But when critics say "Why aren't they worried about knife-crime? Why do they fuss about homosexuality and women bishops?" they are missing the point. Church conservatives are worried about knife-crime, and they have the answer to it, which lies in tough, penitential religion and the keeping of promises - to each other and to their children - by adults. They insist on our own absolute responsibility for own actions, and scorn the excuse-making that feeds so much selfish and destructive behaviour. Their opponents espouse a much weaker and less effective version of the faith.
Conservatives in the church have never sought these quarrels, which are always started by the reformers. There are, anyway, plenty of religious bodies that have long been unworried by homosexuality and have ordained women to the ministry. But the radicals chose not to join them, but instead to become politically active in a church they disagreed with. It might be reasonable to wonder why.
I'm a reasonably observant member of the C of E, and I can't recall ever having been asked to vote for a member of the 'General Synod'. Ordinary church members don't have votes in these mainly indirect elections, and if any member of the Synod represents tolerant Broad Church Prayer Book Anglicanism, of the sort many churchgoers support, I haven't seen any sign of it. . But, just as Communist and Trotskyist infiltrators mastered the rules of the Labour Party, and transformed it into something else in the 1980s, radicals seem to have worked their way into the machinery (and especially the theological colleges) of the Church of England, and are now turning it into a different body. If it weren't for its special legal status, and the unalterable nature of the Prayer Book and the 39 articles, the C of E would long ago have gone the way of the Episcopal Church in the USA, which is almost entirely in the hands of theological radicals and political liberals and has vindictively stamped out almost all trace of its own past.
I am most grateful to Gareth Haines for pointing out David Aaronovitch's thoughts on the Tories and Blair, which I had missed. There is a small parallel to this, which plan to reproduce in my forthcoming book, in which Steve Richards of the Independent refers to the belief of Blairites that the 2001 election was a referendum on the continued existence of a 'right-wing' Tory Party.
On the issue of science, and whether it conflicts with theism, I'd just like to ask for reminiscences here. What were you taught in school about evolution by natural selection? I do mean school. Specialist scientists will obviously have had a different experience once they specialised, but something tells me most readers here are not specialist scientists. My memory is that it was taken as a given fact, and so not particularly examined or discussed. I've certainly found the huge complexity of the subject far more interesting than I had thought it was, when I have examined it in adult life. From the way in which some people trumpet evolution as a settled fact, and become livid with rage if it is questioned, while often demonstrating major misunderstandings of it , I suspect that most of us are in the same state. We know it's so, but don't really know why.


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RIYADH, Saudi Arabia, Oct. 4 (UPI) -- Women may soon be allowed to appear in court in Saudi Arabia representing other women, a women's rights activist says.
The country has about 2,000 female lawyers but they cannot represent their clients in court, which limits their professional advancement, Gulf News reported.
Local media reports said about 300 women would be licensed to make court appearances if the government decides to open the courts to them.
Hatoun al-Fassi, a university teacher and women's rights activist, said the move to allow women in courts is overdue.
"Every day, I see it closer than the day earlier," she told Gulf News. "At every stage, the ceiling of expectations becomes higher."
Saudi Arabia has ended some restrictions against women recently. This year, for the first time, there were women representing the country in the Summer Olympics, and women are expected to vote in upcoming municipal elections.
Women still face restrictions on travel, cannot get drivers' licenses and are barred from appearing in public with men under most circumstances.


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Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA)
The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) is a Federal law that protects the privacy of student education records. The law applies to all schools that receive funds under an applicable program of the U.S. Department of Education. FERPA gives parents certain rights with respect to their children's education records. These rights transfer to the eligible student when he or she reaches the age of 18.
Generally, schools must have written permission from the eligible student in order to release any information—including grade and financial aid information—from a student's education record. The ideal scenario is for students to share their educational record(s) openly with parents, but sometimes there are situations that make this inconvenient or non-practical. In order to allow parents (or any other third party) access to their eligible child's educational record(s), the eligible child must fill out the FERPA Educational Records Release Form and return it to Student Financial Services, (Woodburn 115). FERPA Educational Records Release Form
Disclosure of Directory Information:
The regulations implementing FERPA permit the disclosure of directory information. BHSU may disclose, without consent, directory information such as name, dates of enrollment (start date and end date), academic level (undergraduate, graduate, professional), major field of study, date of graduation, degree awarded and home town. Generally, this directory information is releasable to any requesting person or entity (such as newspapers to announce awards, etc.) unless the student has followed the procedure to withhold disclosure of directory information. To prevent the disclosure of a student's directory information, the eligible student must fill out the Directory Information Opt-Out Form and return it to the Registrar's Office, (Woodburn 103) by the 10th day of classes of the first semester during which the student is enrolled. Download the Directory Information Opt-Out Form
View FERPA Annual Notification of BHSU Student Records and Student Directory Information Policy


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Hopefully a quick question!
I am writing a large-ish number of quads to the screen (say 10000) from a pool of about 15 different textures. As the code loops across the screen it binds and then displays the appropriate texture, each in turn. My question is -> Would there be any performance benefit to writing all of one type of texture first before writing a second? The cost would be in the numerous (*15) passes of the display loop and if statements, but the benefit (?) would be in binding a maximum of 15 times instead of 10,000?
Regardless of the textures displayed, they are varied with glColor3f().
Many thanks for reading.


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Ever since a British doctor published a study in 1998 suggesting that some vaccines may contribute to autism, the number of parents refusing vaccines for their children, or demanding an "alternative'' immunization schedule, has steadily grown.
And even though that paper has since been discredited, and scores of peer-reviewed studies have failed to find any link between vaccines and autism, the suspicion that vaccines are dangerous has stuck.
"I never really liked how many vaccinations a baby was getting," said Anna Popp, an Easthampton librarian who allowed her 5-year-old daughter to get some of the recommended vaccines, but not all, and delayed other vaccinations beyond the age that doctors say is safe. "I just felt, if I could put some of those off until later, I would rather not overburden my child's system with a bunch of toxic organisms."
Popp knows that following her own rules on immunization puts her — and many other vaccine skeptics — at odds with the medical establishment. Popp lives in Western Massachusetts, where the percentage of parents choosing not to vaccinate their children is well above the state average.
The American Academy of Pediatrics and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, among others, have vouched for the safety of today's vaccine regimen, and insist vaccines are neither toxic at the doses given nor taxing to normal immune systems.
While there are rare side effects, medical researchers say the risk of not vaccinating is much greater. Other than smallpox, which has been eradicated, most diseases unseen for decades in the United States — from measles and mumps to Hepatitis B and rubella — still exist somewhere in the world. In October, the United Nations identified an outbreak of polio in Syria, where UNICEF reports that 95 percent of children had been vaccinated before the civil war started in 2011. In the past two years, hundreds of thousands of children have gone without immunizations.
"They're only a plane ride away. And every year the number of kids getting exempted (from vaccines) grows," said Dr. Lawrence Madoff, director of Epidemiology and Immunization for Massachusetts. "When immunization rates fall, it doesn't take long, even in a developed country, for diseases to resurge."
A 2010 pertussis outbreak in California, which caused 9,120 illnesses and 10 deaths, was recently traced to voluntary undervaccination. Earlier this year, Massachusetts public officials raised the alarm when two cases of measles emerged in Boston hospitals. Last year, there were no measles cases in Massachusetts, but in 2011, there were 24 cases.
Madoff said the risk of disease is not just borne by intentionally under-immunized children, but also by those unprotected for other reasons, such as infants too young or medically unfit for certain vaccines, people with compromised immune systems, and the small percentage of people for whom the vaccines just don't work.
Traditionally, those vulnerable groups have relied on a concept called "herd immunity," in which enough people have been vaccinated that the spread of disease is unlikely. But health officials say that, in some regions, herd immunity could be dangerously weakened by the anti-vaccine trend.
"I think a lot of people hide in the herd," said Amherst pediatrician and national vaccine advocate Dr. John Snyder. "That isn't very fair. Because if your neighbor [refuses vaccinations] and then their neighbor says the same thing, now . . . we've reached that herd immunity threshold and disease will seep into that community."
On average, Massachusetts (where the state pays for all vaccines) still has a relatively high rate of immunization — from 95 percent to 98 percent, depending on the vaccine. Last year, only 1.5 percent of Massachusetts kindergartners were granted medical or religious exemptions from school vaccine requirements, as allowed by law. But that's almost 10 times higher than the exemption rate in 1984.
What's more alarming, Maddoff said, are the concentrated pockets of under-vaccination. In Western Massachusetts, Hampshire County has a 4.2 percent rate of vaccine refusal, Berkshire County's is 3.2, and Franklin County's vaccine refusal rate is 6 percent.
"It's a paradox because it's happening in communities that are well-educated and well-off," Madoff said. "This is counter to most public health phenomena."
Snyder has worked in low-income communities in New York City and Springfield, where children often missed their scheduled vaccinations because of poor access to health care. But since getting a job in the Pioneer Valley, Snyder has been shocked at the number of middle-to-high income parents who refuse all vaccines for their children or want a more spread-out schedule than what the CDC recommends.
"A lot of it has to do with the sense of being empowered to question authority, which is a good thing in general, but it can go way too far when people question experts who know about things you don't," said Snyder. "It's a common theme that we see parents questioning scientific facts in the same way they would debate a political topic."
Popp considers that "healthy skepticism." She suspects there are financial interests behind universal immunization policies, and she does not put much stock in assurances by the medical establishment on vaccine safety.
"They are humans, and humans are prone to human error," said Popp.
Popp had no trouble finding information about the purported dangers of vaccines — on the Internet, in books, through Facebook groups, in medical databases. A 2007 bestseller by pediatrician Bob Sears, "The Vaccine Book," popularized a delayed vaccine schedule, even though immunologists say that creates risky time-gaps in disease protection.
Those are the sources of information that Jenny Giering — a mother and composer — aims to debunk. A child of two chemists and mother to a fully vaccinated 7-year-old son, Giering keeps a stack of medical studies on hand to educate her friends and peers who mistrust vaccines.
"It's a topic you don't bring up unless you're prepared to go toe to toe with someone, especially where we live," said Giering, who's from the hill town of Worthington, known for locavore, organic lifestyles. "If I can take down one little piece of misinformation on Facebook, or make someone even reconsider the source of that information, that's a win."
But Giering says she often feels drowned out by a vocal online community of vaccine resisters — one that shares tips on which pediatricians and practices are most tolerant of alternative vaccine views. That puts many doctors in a quandary as they try to respect their patients' wishes while also protecting the broader community.
"It's extremely controversial," said Dr. Sara Rourke of Greenfield Pediatrics, where up to 9 percent of its 10,000 patients have refused or delayed vaccines. "We have hard conversations with families, and we're always weighing pros and cons."
Last year, Rourke said, the practice learned that anti-vaccine parents were seeking out one of its providers — someone considered flexible on vaccines. That led them to revamp the practice's policies. Now, any parent who refuses a vaccine for their child must sign a form acknowledging that they are going against medical advice. "But we would never want a patient to feel they couldn't get excellent pediatric care in our office on the sticking point of vaccinations," said Rourke.
Snyder wishes more pediatricians would lobby the vaccine skeptics, or at least help them distinguish between sound and pseudo science. "While it does take a lot of effort and a lot of time, which a lot of pediatricians don't have, I can actually explain the rationale behind why [not vaccinating] is not a good idea," he said, "and often I'm able to change their mind."
The ultimate decision on vaccinations remains in the hands of parents. In Massachusetts, as in most states, parents can claim a religious exemption to public school requirements by writing a note to their school district. (A medical exemption requires a doctor's signature.) Snyder and Giering would like to see the state policy made stricter, but Madoff said there are no efforts to do so.
"We don't think it's fruitful to try to convince people who are adamantly opposed [to vaccines]," Madoff said. "You would be setting yourself up to be perceived as the vaccine police. It would feed into anti-government sentiment and a perception of being coerced into doing things you weren't comfortable with."
Instead, Madoff said the Massachusetts Department of Public Health is focusing on parents who are still on the fence about vaccinations. The state is rolling out a detailed immunization registry that will pinpoint particular towns and neighborhoods with the highest rates of vaccine refusal. Health officials can then offer pediatricians in those areas extra support and educational materials.
Popp says she's open to new information, but is not willing to give extra weight to doctors who insist she follow their vaccination advice.
"I simply have to weigh the decisions based on where my conscience goes and what logically makes sense to me."
Karen Brown can be reached at email@example.com. An audio version of this story is available at nepr.net.


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Los Angeles 2012: Fiat (Finally) Unveils 500C Abarth and 500L
You might be forgiven for thinking that both of Fiat's Los Angeles Auto Show cars were already official: the 500L was all but confirmed for the U.S. market after its Geneva 2012 debut in March, and we've been reporting about the existence of a 500C Abarth for almost as long. Still, the droptop Abarth and stretched 500 are on display for the first time on American soil.
The 500C Abarth could basically write its own story: it's a Fiat 500 Abarth from the beltline down, and a Fiat 500C from the beltline up. The Abarth's performance modifications all make it to the 500C, including the turbocharged MultiAir engine making 160 hp and 170 lb-ft of torque (in sport mode), an upgraded five-speed manual transmission, and all manner of tweaks and upgrades to the car's wheels, suspension, and steering.
While the Abarth's exhaust note is already quite vocal, 500C Abarth drivers and passengers will be able to hear it all the better without a roof. The 500C Abarth's convertible top (an oversized fabric sunroof, if you will) can retract to a halfway point behind the cabin at speeds of up to 60 mph, and into the fully retracted position (tucked behind the rear head restraints) at up to 50 mph.
If the thought of a 160-hp Fiat 500 sounds enticing but you'd also like to carry five passengers with more space, Fiat has something else on the LA stand: the 500L, which made its U.S.-market debut today (it's long been confirmed to come here).
The 500L is built on something called the "small-wide" architecture, code for "stretched Fiat 500." The 500L stretches 26 inches longer, six inches taller, and six inches wider than the standard hatchback, and reportedly offers 42 percent more interior space.
More space and an increased footprint means that the stock 500's 100-hp I-4 likely wouldn't cut the mustard in U.S. markets (although E.U.-spec models offer both that and the TwinAir turbocharged I-2), so Fiat engineers dropped in the running gear from the current Dodge Dart. That includes Fiat's 1.4-liter turbocharged I-4 making 160 hp and 184 lb-ft, which is mated to either a six-speed manual or six-speed dual dry-clutch transmission (DDCT). Power is still sent to the front wheels.
On the inside, the 500L boasts a number of new-to-Fiat features like uConnect infotainment (available with either a 5.0-inch or 6.5-inch touchscreen), a dual-pane panoramic sunroof (which Fiat says is the largest in its class), and in-dash navigation (a dealer-activated option). Just how many of those options end up on your 500L depends on which trim level you choose: the U.S.-market 500L will be offered in Pop, Easy, and Lounge models, and the LA Auto Show marks the world debut of the new Trekking model, which adds a two-tone interior and special front and rear fascias, as well as special 17-inch aluminum wheels in hopes of making the chic 500L look a bit more butch.
The 500L will go on sale in the middle of next year as a 2014 model.
Source: Fiat


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The rule given about not seeking ones own gain is established, first by the examples of Christ, next by the meaning of the word, and lastly by the very form and uses of our limbs. Wherefore the writer shows what a crime it is to deprive another of what is useful, since the law of nature as well as the divine law is broken by such wickedness. Further, by its means we also lose that gift which makes us superior to other living creatures; and lastly, through it civil laws are abused and treated with the greatest contempt.
15. If, then, any one wishes to please all, he must strive in everything to do, not what is useful for himself, but what is useful for many, as also Paul strove to do. For this is "to be conformed to the image of Christ," 614 namely, when one does not strive for what is anothers, and does not deprive another of something so as to gain it for p. 70 oneself. For Christ our Lord, 615 though He was in the form of God, emptied Himself so as to take on Himself the form of man, which He wished to enrich with the virtue of His works. Wilt thou, then, spoil him whom Christ has put on? Wilt thou strip him whom Christ has clothed? For this is what thou art doing when thou dost attempt to increase thine own advantage at anothers loss.
16. Think, O man, from whence thou hast received thy name—even from the earth, 616 which takes nothing from any one, but gives freely to all, and supplies varied produce for the use of all living things. Hence humanity is called a particular and innate virtue in man, for it assists its partner.
17. The very form of thy body and the uses of thy limbs teach thee this. Can one limb claim the duties of another? Can the eye claim for itself the duties of the ear; or the mouth the duties of the eye; or the hand the service of the feet; or the feet that of the hands? Nay, the hands themselves, both left and right, have different duties to do, so that if one were to change the use of either, one would act contrary to nature. We should have to lay aside the whole man before we could change the service of the various members: as if, for instance, we were to try to take food with the left hand, or to perform the duties of the left hand with the right, so as to remove the remains of food—unless, of course, need demanded it.
18. Imagine for a moment, and give to the eye the power to withdraw the understanding from the head, the sense of hearing from the ears, the power of thought from the mind, the sense of smell from the nose, the sense of taste from the mouth, and then to assume them itself, would it not at once destroy the whole order of nature? Wherefore the Apostle says well: "If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling?" 617 So, then, we are all one body, though with many members, all necessary to the body. For no one member can say of another: "I have no need of thee." For those members which seem to be more feeble are much more necessary and require greater care and attention. And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it. 618
19. So we see how grave a matter it is to deprive another, with whom we ought rather to suffer, of anything, or to act unfairly or injuriously towards one to whom we ought to give a share in our services. This is a true law of nature, which binds us to show all kindly feeling, so that we should all of us in turn help one another, as parts of one body, and should never think of depriving another of anything, seeing it is against the law of nature even to abstain from giving help. We are born in such a way that limb combines with limb, and one works with another, and all assist each other in mutual service. But if one fails in its duty, the rest are hindered. If, for instance, the hand tears out the eye, has it not hindered the use of its work? If it were to wound the foot, how many actions would it not prevent? But how much worse is it for the whole man to be drawn aside from his duty than for one of the members only! If the whole body is injured in one member, so also is the whole community of the human race disturbed in one man. The nature of mankind is injured, as also is the society of the holy Church, which rises into one united body, bound together in oneness of faith and love. Christ the Lord, also, Who died for all, will grieve that the price of His blood was paid in vain.
20. Why, the very law of the Lord teaches us that this rule must be observed, so that we may never deprive another of anything for the sake of our own advantage. For it says: "Remove not the bounds which thy fathers have set." 619 It bids a neighbours ox to be brought back if found wandering. 620 It orders a thief to be put to death. 621 It forbids the labourer to be deprived of his hire, 622 and orders money to be returned without usury. 623 It is a mark of kindly feeling to help him who has nothing, but it is a sign of a hard nature to extort more than one has given. If a man has need of thy assistance because he has not enough of his own wherewith to repay a debt, is it not a wicked thing to demand under the guise of kindly feeling a larger sum from him who has not the means to pay off a less amount? Thou dost but free him from debt to another, to bring him under thy own hand; and thou callest that human kindliness which is but a further wickedness.
21. It is in this very matter that we stand before all other living creatures, for they do not understand how to do good. Wild beasts snatch away, men share with others. Wherefore the Psalmist says: "The righteous showp. 71 eth mercy and giveth." 624 There are some, however, to whom the wild beasts do good. They feed their young with what they get, and the birds satisfy their brood with food; but to men alone has it been given to feed all as though they were their own. That is so in accordance with the claims of nature. And if it is not lawful to refuse to give, how is it lawful to deprive another? And do not our very laws teach us the same? They order those things which have been taken from others with injury to their persons or property to be restored with additional recompense; so as to check the thief from stealing by the penalty, and by the fine to recall him from his ways.
22. Suppose, however, that some one did not fear the penalty, or laughed at the fine, would that make it a worthy thing to deprive another of his own? That would be a mean vice and suited only to the lowest of the low. So contrary to nature is it, that while want might seem to drive one to it, yet nature could never urge it. And yet we find secret theft among slaves, open robbery among the rich.
23. But what so contrary to nature as to injure another for our own benefit? The natural feelings of our own hearts urge us to keep on the watch for all, to undergo trouble, to do work for all. It is considered also a glorious thing for each one at risk to himself to seek the quiet of all, and to think it far more thankworthy to have saved his country from destruction than to have kept danger from himself. We must think it a far more noble thing to labour for our country than to pass a quiet life at ease in the full enjoyment of leisure.
The text here runs as follows: "Considera, O homo, unde nomen sumseris; ab humo utique."
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The Houston Texans thought last week's blowout loss in San Francisco was rock bottom. They had no clue.
Matt Schaub hurt his ankle Sunday during an ugly 38-13 loss to the St. Louis Rams. The ugliest, most memorable moment came courtesy of the home crowd.
After booing Schaub during the game, Texans fans cheered when he went down with an injury. Backup quarterback T.J. Yates also got a rousing ovation when he entered the game.
"No class," Texans wide receiver Andre Johnson said of his home crowd after the game, via NFL Media's Jeff Darlington. "It's bad when members of the other team are saying that's messed up. No class."
Speaking of which ...
It has not been a proud week for the Texans fan base. From the apparent harassment of Schaub at his home to this booing, this could stick with the fanbase as a black mark for a while.
"It wasn't all of the fans, but those are the same people when you're out somewhere with your family and you tell them that they can't have an autograph right now," Johnson said. "Those are the same people who tell you that you are rude. No class. It just shows what they are all about.
"You don't cheer about nobody being injured. I don't care who it is. Guys lay their bodies on the line out there on that field, and some guys get injuries and it affects them their whole lives."
Johnson is right. It's not all of the fans, but it's enough to get upset about. It's hard to blame him for his anger.
The "Around The League Podcast" is now available on iTunes! Click here to listen and subscribe.


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- Fonds
- [ca. 1918 - ca. 1940]
The fonds consists of photographic negatives corresponding with Father Pratt's schooling and work for the period 1918 to about 1940. The identified locations of the photographs include Edmonton, AB, Saddle Lake, AB, Cold Lake, AB, Onion Lake, SK, Frog Lake, AB, North Battleford, SK, and Fort Resolution, NWT. Some of the photographs have not been identified. The files are arranged according to the location in which Father Pratt worked. The photographs capture aboriginal and non-aboriginal families, children at residential schools, and events in the communities. The photographs also pertain to events of priests and brothers such as visits and seminary life as well as photographs of the missions.
Pratt, Edmond


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"Where's the synagogue?" I ask a young solider in a beret. A member of the large security detail guarding the Lebanese prime minister's residence, he is leaning against a jeep and cradling an automatic weapon in one hand. He pulls on a cigarette and regards me warily. I am a foreigner asking directions to a place of Jewish worship from a soldier too young to know Jews as anything but warlike neighbors to the south. He jabs his thumb to the left of Prime Minister Saad Hariri's new mansion, Beit al-Wasat, which was built on land worth tens of millions of dollars, right beside the Maghen Abraham synagogue, the center of a Jewish community that no longer exists.
It's strange seeing the synagogue's Hebrew letters in the middle of Beirut. Hezbollah billboards near the Southern border sometimes bear propaganda translated into Hebrew, and there are Hebrew letters on the tombstones of Beirut's Jewish cemetery. But Maghen Abraham is a different story, a Jewish house of worship being rebuilt in an exclusive Beirut neighborhood with the blessing of the Lebanese government. It would be a symbol of rebirth, if not for the fact that no one is likely to worship there, certainly none of Lebanon's five and a half million Jewish neighbors in Israel, with which the Beirut government is officially at war.
"It's a vanished community in what was a vanished neighborhood," says Nada Abdelsamad, author of an Arabic-language novel, Wadi Abu Jamil: Stories of the Jews of Lebanon, named after this onetime Jewish district. The book's first printing sold out quickly. "People were interested to know something about the subject," Abdelsamad explains. "Some people didn't know we used to have an active Jewish community."
Aside from Israel, Lebanon was the only Middle Eastern country in which the number of Jews increased after 1948. It wasn't until the civil war that started in 1975 that Jews began to leave the country in large numbers. The chief rabbi of Lebanon left in 1978. "The Jews left in silence," Abdelsamad says. "They didn't try to contact their old friends. So the Lebanese still don't know what happened."
A more pertinent question might be, what's happened to make the Lebanese, and other Arabs, so interested in Jewish cultural remains like Maghen Abraham? In Cairo, the Egyptians are restoring a synagogue in a neighborhood called the Alley of the Jews. In Baghdad, officials are demanding the return of the books, manuscripts, and records of the Iraqi Jewish Archive, which American forces retrieved in the early days of the invasion from a building belonging to the Iraqi intelligence agency, the Mukhabarat.
"Iraqis must know that we are a diverse people, with different traditions, different religions, and we need to accept this diversity," the director of the Iraq National Library and Archive, Saad Eskander, told the Associated Press. "To show it to our people that Baghdad was always multiethnic." Or, as Zahi Hawass, general secretary of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, said in a New York Times interview, "What we are doing now is not for the Jews. It is for us, for our heritage."
These restoration projects, as Arab officials like Eskander and Hawass have attested, are not meant to revive the Jewish communities of the Middle East. They are meant to convince the world of Arab tolerance. The Cairo synagogue renovation coincided with Egyptian Culture Minister Farouk Hosny's bid to head UNESCO, a post he failed to win in part because of his apparent sympathy with Holocaust deniers and his anti-Israeli remarks. Tolerance of Jewish cultural remains can be exchanged for Western goodwill and aid without necessitating any messy engagement with actual Israelis. The mufti of Syria explained to a visiting delegation of American academics that the conflict with Israel was a war not against Jews but against Zionists.
And yet if you listen closely there is a deeper and more important subtext to the Arabs' strange and sudden fascination with the remains of the vanished Jewish communities of the Middle East. These restorations of Hebraic antiquity are not simply a safe way of acknowledging the longevity, and thus legitimacy, of the Middle East's oldest surviving religious community. They are also the means by which Arab governments have begun to recognize that community's influence and power over their fates. For it is Jewish warplanes, not Jewish remains, that have Arab princes and presidents captivated. Nowhere has this been made more explicit than in the recent valentine to Mossad chief Meir Dagan published in Egypt's semi-official daily newspaper Al-Ahram, calling him "the Superman of the Jewish state." Dagan is worthy of Cairo's love insofar as he "has dealt painful blows to the Iranian nuclear program." Thus the only question Egyptians ask a visitor from Washington: When will the Israelis finally bomb the Iranian nuclear program?
Egypt and its Arab allies believe that Obama's engagement with the Iranians will fail, that the Russians and Chinese will not join a sanctions regime, and that the Americans will eventually move to a policy of cold war-style containment and nuclear deterrence. The American president and his Middle East adviser, Dennis Ross, intimated that the Israelis might take dramatic action against Iran's nuclear program, confirmation for many Arab observers that the United States has taken its own military options off the table. This is not the case, these same observers believe, for the Israelis, who have acted against Iran's eastern Mediterranean allies—Hezbollah and Hamas—and will, with luck, take action against Iran itself.
Israeli strength and Arab weakness are therefore seen as part of a common pattern that will yet bring about the defeat of a common enemy: Iran. Here in Beirut there's talk that Prime Minister Hariri's recent trip to Syria, where he was coerced into humbling himself before the regime that allegedly assassinated his father, was merely a maneuver in a holding pattern until the Israelis strike. Sources close to Hariri explained to me that Saudi Arabia, the young prime minister's patron, believes an attack is imminent and that there is still time to wrest Syria away from the Iranians. Hariri's visit was seen as a down payment on an expected Syrian realignment.
The Arab fascination with Israeli might is nothing new, explains Lokman Slim, a Lebanese Shiite and founder of a Beirut-based, pro-democracy NGO called Hayyabina. "It's partly in the realm of fantasy," says Slim. "It's a sexual dream about the military libido—it's a dream the Arabs and Israelis share, but that the Israelis also enjoy in reality."
We're sitting in a bar in a Sunni quarter of Beirut. Everyone at the table is Shiite but anti-Hezbollah—which means that they are more worried than even the Sunnis that Iran might acquire the bomb. An Iranian nuclear capability would represent a victory for the ideology and culture of resistance, and would condemn Lebanon's Shiite community to another generation of wandering in a wilderness of ignorance, violence, and oppression.
When I explain to Lebanese Shiites that the big foreign policy debate in Washington right now is not about Iran but about Afghanistan, they are speechless. "What vital interest does Washington have in Afghanistan?" they ask. "Rocks? Where is the oil? You are afraid of looking weak because Osama Bin Laden says you are?"
The Sunni Arab states are no longer capable of shaping the region or even their own destiny, and so they wait to be rescued by Israeli Jews. The vast, opulent halls of Arab authority are vacant shells, while the crumbled synagogues of Beirut and Cairo are reminders of a power that once dwelled among the Arabs but has since migrated elsewhere.
Regional power has shifted away from Washington's familiar Arab partners and toward non-Arab states. The fate of the Middle East no longer depends on the desires of Cairo and Riyadh. The choices that shape the lives of Arabs are now made in Tehran, Tel Aviv, and perhaps a newly ascendant Ankara.
An Israeli strike on Iran may or may not be a mirage, but it is the only possible salvation for Arab states too weak to control their own destiny. Though Washington is still the pre-eminent power in the region, its confused and changing priorities appear to have blinded it to the Middle East's new configuration, and it is unlikely that America's continuing political and financial crises will make our vision any clearer.
One reason that the White House's Middle East peace process has, in Obama's words, "not moved forward," is that old Clinton hands like Dennis Ross, George Mitchell, and Rahm Emmanuel believed the Egyptians and the Saudis still had great influence. When events proved them wrong, they appeared simply to throw up their hands and blame the stubbornness of the locals. But something much more profound has changed.
When we wake up to that change we will find that one distinguishing characteristic of the shift in regional power to Iran, Turkey, and Israel is that all three countries are less dependent on the United States than they were five or ten years ago. Iran has troubles at home but is also a rising nuclear power that has been freed from the threat of an American military strike. Turkey was jilted by the European Union and no longer looks to America and the West. Israel has little interest in continuing to spend political capital to help Barack Obama.
The days when Prince Bandar, the longtime Saudi ambassador to Washington, smoked cigars on the Truman balcony have begun to look good when compared to an era in which the significant regional powers are neither Arab nor American, and do not feel the same urgency about returning Washington's calls. What such a region will look like is anyone's guess. It may not be very pleasant to live in. But it will surely be interesting to watch.
Lee Smith is the author of The Consequences of Syria.
Lee Smith is the author of The Permanent Coup: How Enemies Foreign and Domestic Targeted the American President (2020).


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I'm looking for a distortion pedal to be used with various instruments that produce frequencies anywhere in the spectrum of 20 hz - 12,000+ hz.
I have guitar fuzz pedals that produce strong high end and high-mid distortions, but are lacking outside of that. What are some distortion pedals that produce a very audible effect on the low and low-mid frequency ranges (e.g. below 5000 hz)? True bypass in the switch is also desirable, but not required.


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Pretty sure we're spitting at each other we are fighting so hard over this one.
You're all like what the f-ck, right?
But go back to the beginning for the word on boring. Boring is much worse than ugly. And besides, is it ugly? Really? I think it's actually rather pretty. Like the prints at Liberty. I especially love that the shoes match.
Again. I beg you to revisit what the Met Gala is. And why someone like SJP, especially SJP (in Valentino), can't just show up in Michael Kors and blend in. She once showed up here on the arm of Lee McQueen wearing a plaid cape. I mean, this is where we are, you know? This is an event for show and imagination. It's an event where you can magnify a trend, warp if it you want to into a caricature and not have to apologise so long as the wearer understands the message. They say it's all about the print this season.
Well, she certainly gave you print.


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SRD:Mithral Shirt
From D&D Wiki
This material is published under the OGL 1.0a. |
Mithral Shirt: This extremely light chain shirt is made of very fine mithral links. Speed while wearing a mithral shirt is 30 feet for Medium creatures, or 20 feet for Small. The armor has an arcane spell failure chance of 10%, a maximum Dexterity bonus of +6, and no armor check penalty. It is considered light armor and weighs 10 pounds.
No aura (nonmagical); Price 1,100 gp.
Back to Main Page → 3.5e Open Game Content → System Reference Document → Armor


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One for Pets - Siesta Spanish Indoor / Outdoor Bed - Purple Stripe - 34" x 45" x 5" - L
Fun and Vibrant Indoor/Outdoor Beds Will Bring Your Living-room Comfort to the Great Outdoors
Water Repellent, UV-resistant & Machine Washable
This series of beautiful Indoor/Outdoor Pillow Beds are made from Spanish made imported fabric for extra durability, long-term performance and comfort.
Acrylic fabrics can wick moisture and dry quickly. The yarns have the lowest static of all manufactured fibers and a medium luster. One of the most important properties of Acrylic yarns is its strength. It keeps its strength in wet or dry conditions and is very resilient. Depending on the treatments applied to the fabric, Acrylic fabrics can be abrasion, stain, sunlight, and chemical resistant.
Available Sizes:
Small : 21″ x 27″ x 5″ tall
Medium : 27″ x 36″ x 5″ tall
Large : 34″ x 45″ x 5″ tall
Note: For hygiene reasons, the supplier has requested that this product can not be returned once dispatched. Please note! |


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Atmospheric Scientist Recognized for Outstanding Contributions to Aerosol Science
Precision measurement and analysis techniques for assessing impacts of atmospheric particles on clouds and climate
October 28, 2013
UPTON, NY—Jian Wang, an atmospheric scientist at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory, has been awarded the Kenneth T. Whitby Award in recognition of his outstanding technical contributions to aerosol science and technology. The award honors Wang for developing and implementing new techniques for measuring concentrations and size distributions of tiny particles in Earth's atmosphere and assessing their impact on the formation of clouds and Earth's climate.
Wang received the award at the annual conference of the American Association for Aerosol Research earlier this month. It is given each year to a young scientist recognized by his or her peers in honor of Kenneth T. Whitby, who was known for his contributions to aerosol measurement, the study of aerosol properties and behavior, and the nature of atmospheric aerosols.
"It is a great honor to receive the Whitby award," said Wang. "I feel extremely lucky to have the opportunity to work with many gifted and supportive colleagues, both in the Environmental Sciences Department at Brookhaven Lab and in our Instrumentation Division. I am also very grateful for the continuous support from DOE's Atmospheric System Research program and Brookhaven National Laboratory."
Though tiny, aerosols emitted by industrial processes, wildfires, and other sources can have a big influence on climate—both directly through the absorption and reflection of sunlight, but also indirectly (and less understood) by influencing the formation and lifetimes of clouds. To get a better understanding of these key variables, Wang developed a new instrument for making rapid measurements of aerosol particles, and theoretical methods for incorporating that information into models of cloud formation and assessing climate impacts.
"I feel extremely lucky to have the opportunity to work with many gifted and supportive colleagues, both in the Environmental Sciences Department at Brookhaven Lab and in our Instrumentation Division."
— Jian Wang
The instrument—a Fast Integrated Mobility Spectrometer (FIMS)—allows rapid, simultaneous sub-micrometer measurements of aerosol size and distribution patterns. It is being commercialized and promises to become the new standard for aircraft based aerosol measurements, which are critical in understanding the properties of atmospheric aerosols and their impacts on climate. The FIMS has been deployed in several field studies sponsored by DOE's Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Climate Research Facility, and will be heading to the Amazon basin to characterize aerosols formed in pollutant outflow from a tropical megacity (Manaus, Brazil) over otherwise pristine background.
The precision measurement of particles' mass concentrations, compositions, and size distributions, along with their optical and cloud-forming properties, are helping scientists better quantify the influence of aerosols generated by human activities such as burning fossil fuels or agricultural fires, and separating these influences from those of naturally occurring atmospheric aerosols such as those formed from sea spray and biogenic hydrocarbons. Wang's work in this area has shown that organics promote the formation of new particles in the atmosphere and strongly influence the ability of particles to take up water, both of which are critical to predict the influences of aerosols on cloud properties.
In addition to his research accomplishments, Wang is becoming a nationally recognized leader at the interface of aerosol science and atmospheric science. Since 2009, he has been a member of the steering committee of DOE's Atmospheric System Research Program (ASR), and co-chair of the Aerosol Lifecycle Working Group within ASR. He has served as an editor of the journal Aerosol Science and Technology, and on review panels for NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the Department of Energy.
"Wang's contributions to aerosol science, already at this early stage of his career, demonstrate an exceptionally high level of innovation and a keen ability to cut to the important issues," said Robert McGraw, head of the Atmospheric Sciences Division of Brookhaven Lab.
Wang earned his Bachelor of Science degree in physical chemistry from the University of Science and Technology of China in 1996, and Masters and Ph.D. degrees in chemical engineering from the California Institute of Technology in 1998 and 2003, respectively. He was a Goldhaber Distinguished Fellow at Brookhaven Lab from 2002-2005, formally joined the staff as an Associate Scientist in 2005, and received tenure in 2010. Since 2005, Wang has also been an affiliate faculty member at the School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, Stony Brook University. He is the author of numerous scientific publications, holds two patents with two more pending, and has served as a mentor to undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral researchers.
Those who nominated him for the current award emphasized his creative advances and their expectation of further significant impacts "over what promises to be an extraordinarily distinguished scientific career."
Wang's research at Brookhaven Lab is sponsored by the DOE Office of Science.
DOE's Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States, and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit science.energy.gov
2013-11585 | INT/EXT | Newsroom


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[Mahmut] calls this project SmartBox. It's a BeagleBone controlled LED marquee which can pull down information off of the Internet.
The project started with the display itself. [Mahmut] used six 5×7 LED modules to populate a circuit board he produced himself. The low side of the modules is controlled by some MBI5026 constant current drivers, with PNP transistors on the high side. The display connects to the BeagleBone ARM board using a couple of IDC ribbon cable connectors. With that up and running he started working on the enclosure. The display board was modeled in Google SketchUp to ensure that the case design would fit it properly. The laser cut acrylic case is in two parts, the base holds the driver electronics, with a hinged section for adjusting the angle of the marquee.
So far there are a few different connectivity features which are shown off in the clip after the break. The BeagleBone has the ability to pull down Twitter feeds, notify about incoming email, and scroll messages.


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Game Instructions
Arrow Keys or WASD to move... for the time being.
Do you like jumping? Do like spikes? There are both in this game, and a handful of different ways to try to beat the only level in the game. Confront each new stage challenge with a sort of heart and dignity that we can only befall on our most noble of creatures. Also you can unlock a velociraptor, how cool how is that?
Developed by Armor Games
Programmed by jmtb02
Level design and testing by Tasselfoot Arrow Keys or WASD to move… for the time being.
Arrow Keys or WASD to move... for the time being.


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New DND. Washed Distressed T – Blank Ts THE PERFECT SHIRT
On our new Washed & Distressed DND. Tees
Our handmade truly "Vintage Crew Tee" features a relaxed fit, ribbing at the neck, vertical stitching at the sleeve, a standard hem and is finished in a vintage wash for improved hand-feel and color. T-Shirt will feature light distressing on the collar and edges.
100% cotton fabric
Hand-Designed & Made
Truly experience the creation of Ferris, find out why your favorite celebrities & athletes can't stop wearing his creations.
Dry clean only.


text: The Lower Eastern Shore Retired & Senior Volunteer Program (RSVP) has made a generous donation to Peninsula Regional Medical Center's Mother/Baby Unit and the Robert T. Adkins, M.D. Emergency/Trauma Center. RSVP recently presented Peninsula Regional with 255 knitted caps for distribution to newborns and 350 hand puppets which will be used to help ease the anxiety children may experience while visiting the Emergency/Trauma Center. Both the caps and the puppets are hand-made by RSVP members, who are pictured above with their donations.


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Mexican Carlos Vela was chosen as La Liga's best player in December, defeating the likes of Real Madrid's Cristiano Ronaldo and Atletico Madrid's Diego Costa to the award.
Vela was inspirational in Real Sociedad's 5-1 win against Real Betis and the 3-1 victory over Granada in La Liga, in which the former Chivas player scored two goals.
The 24-year-old also netted in Real's 4-0 win over Algeciras in the Copa del Rey, notching up a total of three assists in December over both the league and cup.
Vela currently has eight goals in 19 appearances in La Liga this season, playing mainly on the right wing, and is on course to break his record of 14 goals in a season.
But while Vela's career in Europe soars, there has been no indication that he is ready to rejoin the Mexico national team after an absence of almost three years.
El Tri coach Miguel Herrera will be traveling to Europe in February to meet up with Vela and discuss his national team situation, but he stated the former Arsenal player must be 100 percent committed to El Tri if he is to be considered.
Real Sociedad currently lies in sixth place in La Liga, four points behind Giovani Dos Santos' Villarreal in the final Champions League spot.


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JJ Cale Dies at 74
JJ Cale, the laid-back singer-songwriter who penned two of Eric Clapton's biggest hits, 'After Midnight' and 'Cocaione,' passed away on Friday night (July 26) at the age of 74. The news was made public on his website.
Cale's music was a mixture of blues, country, folk and jazz, all wrapped up in a boggie shuffle and performed as if there was all the time in the world. The style became known as the "Tulsa Sound," after Cale's hometown.
The statement on his website read as follows:
JJ Cale passed away at 8:00 pm on Friday July 26 at Scripps Hospital in La Jolla, CA. The legendary singer / songwriter had suffered a heart attack. There are no immediate plans for services.
His history is well documented at JJCale.com, rosebudus.com/cale, and in the documentary, 'To Tulsa and Back.'
Donations are not needed but he was a great lover of animals so, if you like, donations can be made to your favorite local animal shelter.
Born John Weldon Cale in 1938, the Oklahoma native moved to Los Angeles in the early-'60s, working as a studio engineer. He released a few singles, none of which met with much success, which caused him to quit the music business and return to Tulsa. But his 1966 single on Liberty, 'After Midnight,' found its way to Clapton during his time with Delany & Bonnie, and he recorded it on his 1970 solo debut, taking it to No. 18.
The hit spawned interest in Cale, who signed with Shelter Records, run by his fellow Oklahoman and old friend Leon Russell. His debut, 1971's 'Naturally,' gave him a No. 22 hit with 'Crazy Mama,' and a re-recorded version of 'After Midnight' just missed the Top 40. Two other songs from 'Naturally,' 'Call Me the Breeze' and 'Clyde,' were recorded by, respectively, Lynyrd Skynyrd and Waylon Jennings. Skynyrd also covered 'I Got the Same Old Blues Again' on 1976's 'Gimme Back My Bullets.'
Cale continued to write record throughout the rest of his life, with his last album, 'Roll On,' coming in 2009. Although his subsequent albums didn't chart, his songs continued to be covered by a wide variety of artists, including Kansas, Widespread Panic, Captain Beefheart, Carlos Santana and jazz singer Randy Crawford. He also played guitar and sang his own composition, 'Angel,' on Clapton's 'Old Sock,' which was released earlier this year.


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Five months of frustration about to vanish with NFL lockout coming to an end
If you were one of the many NFL fans that said you were done watching football because of all the greed that has taken place over the last five months between the players and owners, you can officially stop lying to yourself right now. Because once the new Collective Bargaining Agreement has been signed, you know damn well that the first thing you're going to do is check the rumor mill to see what your favorite team has in store in terms of free agency.
And hey, I'm not judging you. There have been many times over the last couple of months that I wanted to say that I too was done with football. That I wasn't going to dump a couple of hundred dollars on NFL Sunday Ticket and only further line the pockets of the super-rich. But I would have been lying to myself as well.
According to NFL Network's Albert Breer, the "economics" of the labor agreement are done and there have been several reports over the last couple of days that state the CBA will be signed anytime between now and Tuesday. Once that happens and the free agent winds start blowing, what happened over these last five months will quickly fade until nobody even remembers how nasty this entire process has been for everyone involved. People may say differently. They may say that they will never forget what has transpired and won't return. But the truth of the matter is that the NFL is still king. As long as gambling and fantasy football (which might as well be gambling) never ceases to exist, people will continue to watch. It's the most popular sport in America.
For those few and far between that really won't come back, I commend you. Instead of spending countless hours this fall watching players and a game that you have zero impact on, you'll turn a blind eye and do something else. Don't line anyone's pockets but your own. I wish I could do the same thing but I'm not as strong as you are. I love the NFL and no matter how much frustration it has caused fans over these last couple of months, I'm going to welcome it back with open arms once the games count in September.
Sure, like a scorned lover I won't dive back in with two feet. I'll proceed with caution as if the water is infested with piranha. But over time, I'll be fully invested again. It's football after all.
Friday Quick-Hitters:
– Brandon Marshall told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel that his wife did not stab him and that he truly did slip on a vase. This is also the same Brandon Marshall who once said he slipped on a McDonald's wrapper and wound up putting his forearm through a television set. So this is either the unluckiest, goofiest human being on the face of the planet or my man is doing some lying.
– The new salary cap in the NFL will reportedly be $120 million and will also come with a salary floor. Thus, some teams will be forced to spend money on free agents just to qualify for the salary floor. That means you, Malcolm Glazer…
– James Harrison has released a lengthy statement apologizing for his harsh comments on commissioner Roger Goodell and teammates Ben Roethlisberger and Rashard Mendenhall. Of course, the only thing he apologized for in reference to Goodell was his "careless use of a slang word." Nothing like apologizing without really apologizing, eh James?
– Tom Watson hit a hole-in-one in the second round of the British Open today to give him his 15th ace of his career. I think I speak for all weekend golfers who have never hit one hole-in-one in their lifetime (not to mention 15) when I say: Congrats, Tom…you douche bag.
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Pretend You're Actually Alive by Leigh Ledare
In order to celebrate Mother's Day appropriately here is a mental picture I would like to pass along; you are 22 years old and you are standing at the foot of your mother's bed with a camera-- she lays in front of you in black see-through underwear with opaque black hearts stitched across the front that barely concealed her breasts -- she is looking directly into your eyes while her thumb has hooked the crotch of her panties and she pulls them aside revealing her shaved genitalia. And just as she gives you a come-hither look -- you snap a photograph.
Is anyone still reading? Okay I promise I won't paint any more mental pictures but I do want to draw attention to the tension you now feel in your shoulders and the large sensation of unease with your thoughts because if you choose to look through Leigh Ledare's book Pretend You're Actually Alive just published by PPP Editions that is what you will have in store.
Pretend You're Actually Alive is a disturbingly honest account of the relationship between mother and son as the typical family structure breaks down and a new one emerges that challenges all convention. Ledare's mother Tina Peterson is a former ballerina who now works professionally as a stripper and the man she is described as 'dating' is 22 years old -- the same age as her son Leigh.
Through photographs, type written and hand corrected pages of text, ephemera and video stills, Leigh paints a portrait of his mother as a fading beauty who desperately tries to renew a youthful image by way of adopting a hyper sexualized persona. Leigh in some text early on in the book reveals his curiosity toward his mother's sexuality began when he was around 11 when he would watch her and her friends exercising in tights. A few pages later a handwritten note is reproduced entitled "Girls I Wanted To Do" in which he adds "my mom" as the third person on the list (the bronze medal?) after Christie Brinkley but before Shelley Duvall. Instead of incestuously revisiting from where he once entered the world, he photographs her engaged in sex with her boyfriend and playing a pornstar in front of his camera. It would all get so overwhelmingly boring if it only struck the note of 'here is my mother as an open sexual being,' but it is woven into the larger picture of Leigh's own relationship with his wife and his brother's dysfunctional relationship with drugs.
This work was shot over a period of time (7 or 8 years?) and what is remarkable is Leigh's mother transforms her look from photo to photo and there is a slight sense of being unsure that you are looking at the same woman throughout the course of the book. In one she looks like a young bored woman listening to her boyfriend fumble through some guitar chords and in another she dons a jet black wig and looks like a severe headmistress. In others she looks waxen and dead and wears the milage of her life in her eyes ('like she's in a Goya painting being attacked by demons') and in others surprisingly youthful and exuberant. On the last page, she and Leigh appear in photobooth strips and they hug and peck with innocent mother and son affection until a last frame within which they look to be in a full open mouth kiss of young lovers. Out of all of the 16 photographs on that page, the open mouth kiss photo is the only one that does not seem to be played for the photobooth lens. It is, for the viewer, a moment of "proof" that has been hinted at but denied throughout most of the book.
Pretend You're Actually Alive is not solely an Oedipal tale (it gets better the faster you get over that fact) but an impressive family album of sorts where each page affirms that all of the skeletons are out of the closet. In fact, I take exception with the title of the book as for me it seems to be alluding to Tina's down-sliding life when actually just about everything in this book gives the impression that everyone involved is teaming with life and sensations no matter how severe or ill affecting. So why is it called Pretend You're Actually Alive? Anyone can see that this book vibrates with beating hearts and exposed nerve endings.
Ledare's photography is in a personal journalistic style of Larry Clark or Nan Goldin and has the sense of an immediate reaction with casual framing and a lesser concern towards the technical with flash used directly on the camera. This is one aspect that bothers me slightly as it seems many projects of this sort seem to contain mediocre photography that is stitched together to form an interesting narative, whereas I would love to see great photography stitched together to form that same story. What "great" photography is from me goes well beyond the subject alone. That being said, Ledare has accomplished something with Pretend You're Actually Alive that Larry Clark has not since Teenage Lust.
My only real serious problem with this softcover book is with its cost. Granted it is 240 pages but with a retail price of $80 it is far too expensive for what it is. I like the design -- the printing is decent (done in
This is a book that will disturb many as it is common for son and daughters to avoid addressing their parent's sexuality, but remember that there is always therapy to get over any trauma should this book unlock any repressed feelings. That is, until the therapist asks with that knowing look, "Now...tell me about your mother."


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Christmas is a highly celebrated festivity in Malta and Gozo, both for its religious significance a well as in its more social aspect. The season is celebrated to its fullest on the Maltese Islands, with the active participation of many; Nativity scenes, displays of cribs, carol services and other events are organised in each locality.
For a very special, spiritual evening, join the congregation at St. John's Co-Cathedral in Valletta for candlelit carol singing. Other Baroque parish churches across the Islands are just as awe-inspiring during advent. Their interiors are decked out in papal crimson and altars are adorned with flowers. All churches have a calendar of events, ranging from the procession of Mary and Joseph, to streets with groups of children carol singing.
Cribs are positively everywhere, from private houses to small chapels. Visiting cribs is a popular activity at Christmastime and many locals spend time going round touring the various 'presepju' displays. Some are very artistic and elaborate, with figures moving around mechanically and a degree of detail that comes from hours of meticulous work by dedicated craftsmen.
A Christmas highlight, which is popular for children and adults alike, is the annual pantomime held at the Manoel Theatre and other venues. It's a happy mix of good slapstick humour for children and satire for adults.
Restaurants, hotels, bars and clubs all have their own entertainment, making for an abundant choice of what to do and see.
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This article is more than 1 year old
NSA beats warrantless wiretap rap
Because it took in a nation of millions
A Federal judge has dismissed a complaint against the National Security Agency's (NSA) Bush-era warrantless wiretapping programme, prompting suggestions the US government is now able to mount mass surveillance operations unhindered by the courts or constitution.
Five AT&T customers sued the NSA after it emerged it had persuaded the telco to provide a wiretap in a major internet traffic exchange in San Francisco. The five claimed the programme, revealed by an AT&T whistleblower, had violated privacy laws.
Late on Thursday, Judge Vaughn Walker ruled that because the internet traffic of millions of Americans had been caught up in the dragnet, the harm alleged in the complaint was not specific to the plaintiffs, so the case should not proceed.
"The court has determined that neither group of plaintiffs/purported class representatives has alleged an injury that is sufficiently particular to those plaintiffs or to a distinct group to which those plaintiffs belong; rather, the harm alleged is a generalized grievance shared in substantially equal measure by all or a large class of citizens," wrote the Judge.
The government had also argued that the case should be dismissed because it would use its state secrets privilege to withold the necessary evidence, but the court did not rule on whether that was allowed. Barack Obama was criticised by civil liberties groups early in his presidency for authorising his attorney general to use the secrecy privilege, a tactic planned by Bush administration lawyers.
The Elecronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), whose lawyers brought the case in 2008, expressed deep disappointment.
"This ruling robs innocent telecom customers of their privacy rights without due process of law. Setting limits on Executive power is one of the most important elements of America's system of government, and judicial oversight is a critical part of that," said EFF legal director Cindy Cohn.
The group said it would appeal against the dismissal. The full ruling is here (pdf).
Under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), the NSA must get a warrant from a special secret court to carry out domestic wiretapping. In the wake of 9/11, however, Dick Cheney authorised it to harvest, analyse and store vast quantities of domestic communications without a FISA warrant.
Mark Klein, an AT&T engineer at the time, revealed that the San Francisco switching hub he worked at had a secret room where NSA staff operated. In 2008, FISA was altered to grant AT&T and other participating telcos immunity from court action. ®


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This article is more than 1 year old
ARM chippies cooperate on Linux
Big Blue backs Linaro
Does the Linux operating system need yet another distro? No. But a bunch of people interested in the ARM RISC processors used in mobile computers and netbooks — and hopefully someday soon inside of servers just to scare the hell out of Intel — are ganging up to create a unified foundation for ARM-based distros called Linaro.
At the Computex trade show in Tapei, Taiwan today, Freescale Semiconductor, IBM, Samsung, ST-Ericsson, and Texas Instruments announced a non-profit software company called Linaro, which they are funding to create a single foundation for ARM-specific Linux variants. This is not a distro tuned for the complex x64 architecture and the devices it serves, but for the simpler (and many would argue more elegant) ARM processors that are taking over the IT business from a new bottom, as Intel's x86 and then x64 chips (with a little help from Advanced Micro Devices) had been doing for the past several decades.
(Just a question: Why not call it Linarmux? Or Linarmour?)
As operating systems go, Linux has probably been ported to more platforms than any other, and there are already a number of Linuxes that run on ARM chips, as the British chip designer explains here. These include Ubuntu (also British, coming from Canonical), with the generic Debian from which Ubuntu is derived also supporting ARM.
Red Hat's Fedora has an ARM version, but it is not commercialized (yet) as Enterprise Linux, and Maemo, Movial Thundersoft do ARM-based Linuxes too. And there are already a plethora of Linuxes for sundry "liliputers," as someone has cleverly called them, including Android, LiMo, MeeGo, and webOS. And lest we forget, Windows is also trying to muscle its way into here and Apple has iPhone OS, a derivative of its Mac OS (itself a variant of Unix).
Why not just knight one of these as the Linux of choice for ARM? Because ARM is not a chip so much as an architecture that allows chip and device vendors to heavily customize it to suit their needs. It is a very hippie culture, and hence El Reg's reference to ARM enthusiasts as "chippies."
Just as ARM (the company) is the focal point of all the different — and increasing — numbers of ARM processor designs, Linaro hopes to be the focal point for Linux kernel and stack development for ARM, with bits and pieces being adopted by various Linux distros as they see fit. The idea is to have Linaro work on the low-level stuff that makes the best use of ARM processor features to squeeze performance out of the Linux kernel and let Linux distros and vendors who make their own distros for their own devices do the higher level stuff where they can differentiate.
Why IBM gives a care about embedded Linux devices is a bit unclear, but perhaps Big Blue is hoping to be a bigger foundry for ARM devices as they eat into its embedded Power processor business, should this come to pass. (IBM already makes some ARM chips on behalf of customers, and probably is trying to figure out an angle for its Rational development tools to help companies code applications for ARM-Linux devices).
Freescale, Samsung, ST-Micro, and TI create ARM-derived system-on-chip designed for a number of handheld and embedded devices, and along with IBM, they're kicking in several tens of millions of dollars to pay the 80 employees at Linaro to knock an underlying, common Linux for ARM into shape. (ST-Ericsson is a partnership between chip maker ST-Micro and telecom equipment maker Ericsson).
Linaro is slated to get a variant of its Linux guts for the Cortex-A ARM chips — plus development tools to help Linux distros and device makers tweak the platform — out the door by this November.
Correction: This story originally gave the impression that Linaro was its own distribution, which it is not. Rather, is the the foundation of an ARM-based Linux that Linux distributors can adopt. ®


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Today also happened to be a dreadfully dreary day. We're caught in some wicked weather system that is dumping rain, rain, rain on us. It was a homemade chicken noodle soup kind of day, but with my necessity to be at school, I didn't have the time to put it together. So it became spaghetti night, or so I thought.
Once school was over, I had NO DESIRE to make spaghetti. But what could I do with the ground beef that I had laid out? Meatloaf? My boys would LOVE that...me, not so much. What to do, what to do. I thought about my Dad's "Hash" recipe (which essentially is a whole bunch of stuff hashed together...with a ground beef base and add in all the leftovers from the fridge) - but we are all out of leftovers. So then I thought about Hamburger Helper. I've seen it on TV many times, never tried making it on my own. A quick little google search, read through some recipes, and found one to base dinner on. The recipe I used was found at Food.com, and modified to include more vegetables. Here is the recipe:
Homemade Hamburger Helper
1/2 lb ground beef
1 lb macaroni
1/2 cup onion, diced
1/4 cup green pepper, diced
1 cup frozen peas
1 1/2 cups cheddar cheese, shredded
1/2 cup cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup flour
2 cups milk
2 cups tomato sauce
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon parsley flakes
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
Cook the pasta according to the box directions. Drain and set aside.
While the pasta is cooking, cook the ground beef over medium in a large skillet. Cook until the meat is browned. Add in all the dry seasonings (including the flour) and stir until combined.
Add in the milk, tomato sauce and peas. Bring to a boil, stirring frequently.
Reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer for 2 minutes.
Add in the cream cheese, cheddar cheese, stir until melted. Add in the macaroni, stir to combine. Serve immediately.
This was an absolute HIT. Our five year old had THREE helpings. And my husband loved it too. he didn't want to share the leftovers for tomorrow's lunch, he wanted them all to himself. This could easily be a new go-to recpe for us in place of spaghetti! Yay!!
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The Game of Thrones Podcast: The Complete Fourth Season
Spoiling everything in one convenient place.
Thanks for listening. In case you missed it, here's every episode of the Slate Plus Game of Thrones podcast.
You can also read a Season 4 wrap-up from Dan and Willa here. To access each episode's show page, go here.
Feedback about the podcast? Ideas for future podcasting projects? Let us know! firstname.lastname@example.com.
For info on how to subscribe to the Slate Plus podcast feed, go here.


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Shells and Fishermen
Milton Avery ( 1941 )
Often Avery's ideas for paintings came from one of the countless sketches he made on summer travels. His numerous sketchbooks, not to mention quick notations on scraps of paper or the back of an envelope, record his response to pleasures large and small, near and far, from a simple still life to an expanse of sea or hills. Avery would typically choose to focus on a telling detail like the seashells acquired on his trip to California as revealed in Shells and Fishermen. Objects such as seashells as well as his sketchbooks allowed Avery to bring nature back with him to the city. They also focused his distillation of the experience into a few chosen mementoes.
The 1940s saw Avery crystallizing his visual experience into increasingly commanding works that began to secure his position as a major American modernist. Duncan Phillips was especially attracted to Avery's works of this period, for his flattened shapes had become brighter in color and more varied in texture. In Shells and Fishermen, matte areas in harmonious tones of blue and gray are detailed with gestural brushstrokes. While the background includes broad areas of blue sky and water, the immediate foreground becomes the focus of the composition with enlarged and highly detailed shells on cool gray sand. Two figures—fishermen, as the title suggests—stand in the distance on the edge between water and land. Avery seems to have placed these figures on either side of the composition in order to frame and to give precedence to the centralized shells in the foreground. For all the glory of his color and the eloquence of his line, Avery never gives in to decoration. His spare and rigorous approach to painting produces works that are both expansive and defined, qualities exemplified in Shells and Fishermen.