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Whether in a laptop or a smartphone, there's a good chance that you're using several lithium-ion batteries every day. Since they hit the market in the 1990s, these rechargeable batteries have helped make our computers and devices portable and, increasingly, our vehicles too.
But lithium-ion batteries are not without shortcomings. The world's supply of lithium is limited, and companies and consumers are constantly demanding batteries that are safer, last longer and pack more energy. Meanwhile, new uses for batteries are rapidly emerging, including electric vehicles and grid storage, adding to the demand for better batteries.
To meet these needs, the race is on to develop the next generation of batteries, although what they will look like, and how they will improve upon current ones, is still unknown.
Energy on the go
In its simplest terms, a battery is made up of a cathode, anode and an electrolyte. The lithium ions flows through the electrolyte from the negatively-charged anode to the positively-charged cathode.
Cathodes are usually made out of a lithium metal oxide, so batteries with this type of cathode are called lithium-ion batteries. These are the most popular kind because they most efficiently pack lots of energy into a small space like your mobile phone. When it comes to charging and discharging, lithium can provide three times the energy density of conventional rechargeable batteries.
Most lithium-ion batteries are made up of a graphite anode and liquid organic electrolyte. Inside the battery, the main barrier against short-circuiting is a thin and porous slip of polypropylene (a type of plastic) that stops the cathode and the anode from touching each other. If the separator breaks or erodes then the electrodes can come in contact and the battery will heat up extremely quickly. Batteries are filled with a flammable electrolyte, which can combust when it heats up – something that can easily be triggered by a short circuit. And to cap it off, liquid electrolytes can also leak.
Better electrolytes
To overcome these problems researchers are investigating solid-state alternatives.
"Current limitations are associated with the liquid electrolyte," says John B Goodenough, professor of mechanical engineering and materials science at the University of Texas at Austin.
The electrolyte limits how many times the battery can be charged and discharged, he says, along with how quickly the battery can be recharged and how much energy it can store.
The new generation of batteries will be lithium-ion but will use different electrolytes. For example, they may have a solid-state electrolyte instead of liquid.
The requirements placed on an electrolyte are high. It must conduct electricity, withstand high voltages, and remain electrochemically and thermally stable over a long period of time. This is why developing a solid-state alternative is so challenging.
Last year, researchers at the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology developed a solid-state electrolyte that competes with the usual liquid electrolytes in terms of efficiency. It has a conductivity comparable to a liquid electrolyte at room temperature, and is stable at temperatures of up to 150 degrees Celsius. In contrast, liquid electrolytes pose a safety risk at such high temperatures.
In 2016, researchers at Toyota published a paper looking into a solid-state lithium ion battery that can fully charge in just seven minutes.
Lithium sulphur batteries, which are based on a completely different chemistry, are another promising future battery. Theoretically, they can store a large charge and use sulphur, which is abundant.
Cheaper and longer-lasting
Battery costs have fallen significantly in recent years as demand has increased and more uses have emerged, such as in electric vehicles and grid storage. But to make electric vehicles affordable and practical for driving long distances, batteries need to become even cheaper to produce, and their life cycle extended.
In 2014, Johnson Matthey, a British company specialising in sustainable technologies, acquired a battery research facility in Changzhou, southern China, to improve battery efficiency in cars. It says the lifespan of batteries for used in autonomous cars will need to match that of the vehicle, possibly up to 10 to 15 years. This means customers will not be put-off from buying an electric car because of the limited lifetime of the battery. At the moment, most manufacturers offer guarantees that batteries will last around eight years, or 100,000 miles.
One of the biggest drawbacks of lithium-ion batteries is that their capacity fades over time, says Lei Cheng, a scientist at the Joint Center for Energy Storage Research and Materials Science Division at Argonne National Laboratory in the US. "This is caused by undesired chemical reactions that happen during charge/discharge, as well as while the battery is resting." The problem is even worse when the temperature is high.
In addition, the lithium-ion battery is still quite expensive because it uses metals such as cobalt and lithium, and there is a lack of economic recycling methods. This is another driver for finding alternative chemistries.
The best option for a large-scale battery is to replace a liquid electrolyte with a solid-state electrolyte with no ordered crystal structure. "This electrolyte is available, but battery development with it awaits licensing agreements" says Mr Goodenough.
Grid storage
Alongside electric cars, grid storage is another area where large-scale batteries will play an increasingly important role. The amount of renewable power from solar and wind at any given time depends on the weather, which makes it intermittent. Batteries can help stabilise grids by storing energy efficiently.
"Sodium-ion batteries could be an inexpensive alternative to lithium-ion in the grid storage market," says Ms Cheng. Sodium-ion batteries work in a similar way to lithium-ion but use sodium instead, which is more readily available.
Dr Emma Kendrick, a materials chemist at the University of Warwick, is looking into the sodium-ion battery. "This is a low-cost alternative to lithium-ion batteries," she says. "It is still in its infancy but there are opportunities to perform research into the manufacturability and durability of the technology."
Flow batteries are another alternative.
"Flow batteries are also attractive options since they can be easily scaled up to provide high capacity," says Ms Cheng, adding: "They contain two chemical compounds that are separated by a membrane. The compounds can flow through the membrane, creating chemical energy, but they can also move back to where they started, which recharges the battery."
There are many other options. In February this year, scientists at the University of California Irvine created gold nanowire batteries that can withstand more recharging than ever before, hundreds of times within their lifetime. The team hopes this will one day lead to batteries that can last indefinitely.
Graphene may also be a component of the battery of the future. A Spanish company called Grabat says their graphene batteries can provide power for an electric vehicle to travel 500 miles on a single charge. For comparison, Tesla's Model 3 can travel 215 miles on one charge.
While nobody can predict exactly what the next generation of batteries is going to look like, there is a huge amount of work going into solving the problem.
The various options for new batteries – from flow batteries to sodium-ion – are in development stages, but lithium-ion will be around for a while yet. "In the next five years, lithium-ion batteries [will] still dominate," says Dr Tao Liu, a research associate at the University of Cambridge.
In the meantime, scientists are trying to develop better ways to recycle lithium-ion batteries. This will reduce the environmental impact of extracting more lithium – another costly process.


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With only one sleep to go before the big day, DiS asked blogger and record shop lover Gareth James to share his views regarding Record Store Day, and to help explain why you might want to camp over night to grab that rare 12"...
In between doing what some might call my 'proper job', I run a small music website called Just Played and traverse the nation, dropping into independent record shops whenever I can. Even though we seem to have come through the drastic times of incessant closures, I remain concerned about the humble, small town indie and hope that Record Store Day can continue to raise their profile and keep these vital institutions in business.
Each year, all kinds of exclusive releases are announced, and 2011's list is the biggest by far. This time, the Radiohead 12" is the headline release, although a rare Nirvana EP and a vinyl pressing of 'The Fall' by Gorillaz have drawn a few headlines also. With a pressing of 2000, the Radiohead 12" shouldn't be too hard to get hold of if you're willing to be there early, but my understanding is that there are only 500 copies of the Gorillaz pressing, the same for the special Suede demos 7" and half that for the Wild Beasts single. With 182 shops taking part, and the big guns having a big slice of the stock, it's not difficult to see how you end up with some shops receiving one copy of something they could gladly sell ten or twenty times over. I've been in touch with record shops across Britain to ask about their experiences of these exclusives, and there's plenty to tell. In return for their honesty, I intend to keep all contributors to this article entirely anonymous.
I asked all I spoke to about their experience of stock allocation last year and one response, from a fairly small shop, was particularly interesting: "The more Ivor Bobbins Trio limited square vinyl you order, the more Beatles/Blur/Springsteen you get. The trouble is that stores like us can't afford to stock the 7" singles from unheard bands. None of the RSD stock is sale or return, you're stuck with it. If we run a tight ship and try not to lose money then we're running the risk of not having the choice for the customers on the day. If we don't order big then we don't get the big releases. From your point of view, you can't get what you want and from our point of view, to try and get what you want we need to order stuff that WE don't want." It seems a bizarre situation to have small shops spending money on stuff they don't want whilst simultaneously not being able to buy in the things they'd be able to sell. I should say that opinions varied on how fair the allocation of stock is and most accepted that there is no ideal way to do it. One thing is for certain: if you're not at your local record shop on Saturday, you won't even be in with a chance.
With the list of exclusives for this year's event now at over 200 items, it gives the impression that the big labels are falling over themselves to help out the indie stores of the UK. However, prices seem to be rocketing and several retailers suggested that major labels were "pushing their luck" and conceding that they thought there "might be too many releases this year." While there is clear enthusiasm for some of the niche material appearing, "there are so many great indie labels doing great things: Bella Union, Domino, Sub Pop, 4AD," there remain some concerns about exactly how many things customers will be expecting to get hold of on the day. The massive reduction in the amount of sale or return stock, meaning that shops either pay for things upfront or don't get any copies, increases the risk factor in buying big or even buying at all in the case of some of the deluxe items. For Record Store Day, nothing is sale or return. With a Saint Etienne box set containing only six 7" singles clocking it at around £45, it's a costly gamble to take in a time when the economy is supposed to be on its knees. Some shops have reduced their dealings with the big labels, with one owner telling me, "when shops can consistently order from Amazon cheaper, and receive the stock quicker, it makes ordering from the majors a luxury they can't afford." Another store took up the story: "The majors look like they're helping, by whacking out these releases, but come the Monday we're still meant to try and sell the latest Universal releases for £13.90 (standard mark up) when you know Tesco will have it for a tenner or less. " While I continue to believe that it is crucially important for music fans to support their local record shops on April 16th, it seems pretty clear that the big labels are only bothered when they have high-priced, attention-grabbing stock to shift. Take the special edition of Primal Scream's 'Screamadelica', which adds a 12" repress of the 'Dixie-Narco EP' to the standard two disc red vinyl pressing. The standard pressing is selling for a little under £20, but add in this four track EP and it suddenly costs £40, with one retailer describing the cost price as "extortionate." There's no denying that these labels have provided a range of exclusive items for this Saturday, but the prices they're selling at would suggest they're doing well enough out of the agreement.
Most of the shops I spoke to agonise about how to ensure that their regular customers are kept on side despite the very limited nature of some releases. If you're a big, thrusting enormo-dome with a bit of clout then you'll have a fair old stash of the good stuff, but a number of the shops I spoke to felt pretty much short-changed by the Blur 'Fool's Day' escapade, with one receiving a sole copy of the highly sought after 7" to sell on the day. If you consider that all of the media coverage in the week leading up to the event focussed on several key single releases, of which this was the biggest, to then provide some smaller shops with only one copy seems ridiculous. As Record Store Day is designed to encourage people who don't currently patronise their local record shop to get themselves along, with the incentive of picking up something special, what is the point of then guaranteeing that almost everybody who turns up can't actually get the very thing that's driven them there in the first place? One store owner pointed out that the distribution of the stock is bizarre, with specialist shops which wouldn't sell Blur or The Beatles in a million years being allocated copies for the day, luring in customers for music that the shop doesn't even normally sell; hardly likely to encourage return visits. I've heard talk of some shops discreetly stashing the odd item for die-hards, but nobody's yet found a way of ensuring that those of us who visit regularly get our prized titles ahead of the resale chancers in for a quick buck.
The chuntering about special releases aside, it's pleasing to hear that, admittedly to varying degrees, footfall does increase after Record Store Day. A number of record shop staff suggested that some of the new customers from last year's event had popped back, although the following comment seems to capture the effect pretty clearly: "It cements the relationship we have with the regulars who are in day in day out, but it's hard to say about new customers. I'd say perhaps semi regulars have become more loyal following RSD, but I also know a few people came in last year and haven't bought since!" Everyone I've spoken to is excited about what the day will bring and it's clear that the main concerns are the same concerns which have been blighting independent record stores for some time now: cost, supply and footfall. I write this as somebody with a deep-rooted love of record shops, who travels all over the country visiting these fine institutions and spends ludicrous amounts on delightful vinyl pressings. Expect the wave of predictable TV features to commence any day now, with news reporters holding up vinyl like it's a photograph of Jesus and Gyles Brandreth dicking about in an indie shop for The One Show. Don't expect them to talk about how these wonderful, influential and passionate shops are being fucked over by VAT loopholes and supermarket bulk buys. They may spend a minute or two mulling over the decline of the record shop, but wouldn't it be nice if they just turned round and said how bloody important each and every independent record shop in the UK is?
The workings of Record Store Day are far from perfect and there will be some disappointed people on Saturday; eBay scalpers will be dancing around their PayPal accounts faster than you can say "I'm sure you could have sold 5000 copies, Thom." But the record shops will still be doing what they always do: offering fantastic service to people who care about music and it is a day to be celebrated, written about and shared. I am hugely grateful to the stores who took the time to speak to me for this article and I hope that I've done justice to their opinions. The Record Store Day website will give you some idea of the many and varied events to mark the day which will be going on across the country but contact your local indie of choice (or necessity) to find out more. Most importantly, go and buy a record from them. Or two. Or twenty-two. Having been in this situation more than once in the recent past, you really, really would miss them if they weren't there.
Gareth runs http://justplayed.wordpress.com.

subset: commoncrawl


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In this episode, I play a XMas song by American Heartbreak; I discuss the death of my beloved Marantz PMD 670; I discuss some of my public facing efforts at the new job role; I discuss the AV Club's Podmass list of "best of the 2015"; I talk about hipster view of podcasts; I discuss ardent fans, eager puppies and the Church of the Subgenius; I talk about being opinionated through the lens of being a young or old engineer; I talk about driving through the country with dodgy GPS and being comfortable around farmers.
Here is the direct MP3 download for the Evil Genius Chronicles podcast, December 17 2015
Links mentioned in this episode:
- Support this show on Patreon
- American Heartbreak
- Mad at Dad podcast
- A used Marantz PMD 670 on Amazon
- Ask the Expert: Application Development in Geneva video
- AV Club Podmass list
- Huff and Stapes on the Toadhop network
- The Church of the Subgenius
- X-Day 18, the most recent end of the world
- Subproto – the Myrtle Beach hackerspace
- Auphonic podcast production tool is so good!
- Dog Days of Podcasting
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As the Beijing-based Asia environment correspondent for the Guardian, Jonathan Watts has reported on environmental issues in China for several years. His new book, When a Billion Chinese Jump, is a travelogue that tells the story of China's breakneck development and its consequences, from melting glaciers in Xinjiang and cancer villages in Henan, to dam projects in Sichuan and skyscrapers in Shanghai.
Sam Geall: The urgency of China's environmental situation has struck many people in the past year or so, especially since the Copenhagen climate conference, but you have been writing this book for four years. How did you become convinced of the importance of this topic?
Jonathan Watts: The book grew and it changed. Because the country is so big and changing so fast, I found that this kind of road-trip reporting was a good way to capture that dynamism. And I found myself writing more and more environmental stories – whether it was a protest against a proposed factory development; a pollution spill into a river; Beijing's air quality ahead of the Olympics; or the loss of another species. The subject almost chose itself.
But if I had to choose one moment when it really hit me in the face – that the environment situation in China is a matter of global, species-wide concern – it would be the story of the [now-extinct] baiji dolphin. When I went out to report it, I didn't think it would be an epic story. It was only when I sat down and did the research and tried to put it in context, that I realised how incredibly significant the loss of something is after 20 million years – something that has been on the earth more than twice as long as humanity. That really hit me.
The situation is still changing. When I started the book four years ago, everyone was talking about pollution – also perhaps about climate change, political systems and how they influence governance. But I found myself shooting at a moving target: as I looked more into the story my priorities changed, and the story changed. It's about pollution, climate change and one-party governance, but it's even more about consumption and biodiversity and the long-term trend of human development. This is not just about China. In a sense, China is extraordinarily unfortunate to be hitting this stage of development at this time in human history.
SG: The book points to some of the deeper dynamics at play in China's response to the environmental situation. One is the tension between the Daoist tradition, with its desire to find harmony, and Confucian philosophy, with its tendency to impose order on the natural world. How did you find this shaped China's response to this stage of development?
JW: Looking for a solution to the predicament we are in, of living unsustainably, the importance of values comes up again and again. The focus in China is mainly on science and technology, on hardware – on things that if you drop them will hurt your toe. The importance of values hasn't really kicked in, but it's absolutely essential. Where do you get these values? Clearly western values haven't stopped the west from screwing up the environment. So, it's worth looking to China's philosophical and cultural roots.
One of the sub-themes of the book is an exploration of China's Daoist side. There have always been competing philosophies in China. It intrigued me that you can't really have a Daoist civilisation – it's almost an embrace and acceptance of the wild, of anarchy and chaos. Most of the time Confucianism has been the predominant philosophy, though there have been times that China is more Legalist. However, in Chinese history, you hear that some Mandarins were Confucians while working in their official positions, but when they went home they tended their gardens, or wrote poetry, and gave space to their Daoist sides. Maybe that's one of the secrets of Chinese civilisation and why it has lasted so long: that balance of the two sides.
I spoke to the popular philosopher Yu Dan, who has made her name writing about Confucian ideas – which is very much in line with Party orthodoxy at the moment. She told me that she is more of a Daoist, but that she doesn't think "China is ready for Daoism yet". Certainly in the last 60 years, that Daoist side has faded. The trend has been to order things.
SG: One ecological example you give is the contrast between the traditional irrigation system at Dujiangyan and the large-scale hydro-engineering project at the Zipingpu Dam, both in Sichuan province.
JW: I was first in Dujiangyan around the time of the Sichuan earthquake in 2008, but it was only afterwards when I interviewed the environmental philosopher Tang Xiyang that I realised its significance. Tang is the one who says: "If China is going to solve its problems, it needs more Daoism." He told me that if I wanted to see how that would work in practice, then I should look at Dujiangyan. It's an example of how things can be: they can last, they can endure – you can work with nature, rather than against it.
This is the long-term view. The other type of development is brittle. The hydrological engineering solutions are very impressive – when I saw the Three Gorges Dam I was amazed and knocked out by what humans can do – but they create new instabilities, which build up. And China has learned this painfully in its history: the events of 1958 come up in the book – that height of human hubris, the sense that you can overcome nature and impose your will on nature.
The Maoist view of nature hasn't gone completely. There are lots of questions being asked about it, but the mega-projects have a certain momentum. Even some of the projects I have seen completed in the last seven years are the fulfillment of Mao's dreams. The railway to Tibet, the south-to-north water diversion scheme, the Zipingpu Dam – these were all Maoist ideas. It's almost like Mao Zedong was the big dreamer, and now there is a government of implementers.
But I don't think that old vision of conquering nature is as strong as it once was. At the exhibition centre at the Three Gorges Dam, there are no pictures of the current leaders, premier Wen Jiabao and president Hu Jintao. The top leaders of the country did not attend the topping-off ceremony for the dam. This suggests to me that there are reservations about the wisdom of that project and concerns about where it is going.
SG: Do you think a new set of values is starting to take root?
JW: I see a search for new values – a real yearning for new values – and a sense that solving environmental problems needs to be part of any new set of values. I don't see a clearly defined new ethos, or even the reinvention of an old ethos, that completely gets to the heart of this. There are causes for optimism – the growth of green NGOs, the increased coverage of environmental issues in the media – but these do not represent the prevailing ideology.
However, China's history of the last 100 years is one of dramatic change, with some ideas catching on so quickly that it's almost terrifying. Whether it's the fervour of political revolution, or the fervour to make lots of money, the country has been able to make 180-degree turns. I have to hope that this might be the case with the environment.
SG: So, could China become the world's first green superpower?
I wanted to ask that question in this book. We are heading into a difficult 30 or 40 years for our species. We are over the limit already by just about every ecological measure. And yet our population is probably going to rise by another two billion in the next 40 years. We need to get through this rough period and over that 40-year hump: after that, populations should start to fall and there should be better technology and economic models too. But now, the country that is in the best position – and the worst position – is China.
China is in the best position because its economy is growing so quickly that it does have a lot of resources. It's in the worst position because it's reached this supercharged phase of growth at a very unfortunate time in terms of the history of global development. China can't outsource its problems like other countries have been able to do. This is a country that has to reinvent itself.
The big contrast between China and the United States, particularly in renewable energy for instance, is that China is trapped by momentum, it has to keep moving forward. By contrast, the US is trapped by inertia – it's trying to protect what it already has. This is also why China is in a better position to become a green superpower.
SG: One intention of your book seems to be to introduce a note of scepticism amid much western optimism about China's ability to save the world economy.
JW: There is still a widespread assumption that one model has proven itself again and again over the past 200 years: the get-rich-first, clean-up-later model. But what worked for Britain in the nineteenth century, for the US in the twentieth century and for Japan and South Korea in the late twentieth century, may not work for China, because of scale and because of timing.
In a sense, Britain and China may prove to be bookends on this phase of development that will be seen as abnormal in the long-term scale of human development. Britain was one small country producing an awful lot of pollution and extracting and using resources unsustainably. At that point it didn't really have a great planetary impact, but then this moved to Europe, and to the US, and the number of countries that were unsustainable and producing too much got bigger and bigger. Meanwhile, the number of countries left to absorb the impacts gets smaller and smaller. Where does China dump its waste? How does China extract enough from the rest of the world to provide for its people? I believe this is where economic development hits an ecological wall.
The environment and the economy, which used to run pretty much in parallel, have become so detached from one another. The economists, the governments and the corporations all think the solution to the world's problems is more consumption in China, whereas the environmentalists are all saying: be careful what you wish for. If there is to be any solution, it is in the reattachment of economy and environment. China is moving in the right direction with its recently discussed ecological compensation scheme: this would require that economically rich parts of China, like Beijing, Shanghai or Guangzhou, pay the ecologically rich parts of China, like Yunnan, Heilongjiang and Guangxi, for "environmental services". This means directly giving a value to forests because they absorb carbon, or wetlands because they absorb pollution.
This would mean that a laptop would become more expensive, but the price would be at a much more realistic level in terms of reflecting ecological limits and what things are really worth – which brings us back to the importance of values.
Sam Geall is deputy editor of chinadialogue.
Jonathan Watts is Asia environment correspondent for the Guardian. His book, When a Billion Chinese Jump, is published by Faber and Faber.
Homepage image by Shreyans Bhansali


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< Posters
Abstract 01
50x70 cm
A mix of the MADO elements are put together in an abstract setting to create different feelings in all of us, no matter if you are a child or a grown up all elements have a different impact on us.
+ Materials
Offset printed on 200g uncoated Munken Lynx paper (archival quality, FSC certified). Produced in Denmark under the Swan certification system.


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While mass immunization against infectious disease is one of western medicine's great triumphs, it has always given rise to considerable anxiety and opposition. In Britain, for example, opponents of vaccination against smallpox managed for 70 years to sustain a vigorous and popular political movement, as well as a journal with a wide circulation. Supporting them were such ignorant luminaries as George Bernard Shaw and a number of doctors who claimed, among other things, that vaccination caused leprosy, quite apart from outbreaks of the very disease it supposedly prevented.
Immunization fears have swept through the western world ever since. The dangers of immunization have sometimes appeared more real to the parents of young children than the dangers of traditional killers such as diphtheria, measles, and whooping cough. Even the best scientific evidence never seems completely to refute the scare stories in the public mind: it is as if something had programmed most people to believe that there could be no smoke without fire.
In his enthralling The Cutter Incident: How America's First Polio Vaccine Led to the Growing Vaccine Crisis (Yale University Press), Paul Offit, professor of pediatrics at the University of Pennsylvania, tells the story of a genuine disaster caused by mass immunization—a disaster that was, however, embedded in an overall medical and scientific triumph: the elimination of polio from much of the world.
The incident was historically important not only because of the children damaged, but because it led to a legal ruling that subsequently inhibited pharmaceutical companies from developing and manufacturing vaccines. If America now routinely has a shortage of vaccines, it is in part the long-term consequence of the Cutter Incident.
The basic research to produce a polio vaccine took place under the auspices of a voluntary association, the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, which organized the famous March of Dimes. The foundation oversaw and funded more research on polio than did the rest of the world put together.
It was the foundation that carried out the first field trial of Jonas Salk's vaccine and established that the vaccine (which contained polio virus killed by formaldehyde) was safe and effective. It was the largest medical trial ever conducted, involving more than 400,000 participants. It seemed that polio, which at the time terrorized parents (my best friend was one of the last children in Britain to contract it, and my parents spent several weeks in dire fear that I had suffered infection also) was about to go down to defeat.
At this point, the foundation withdrew and handed over its project to the government. Five companies received licenses to produce the vaccine, including the Cutter Company of California. The licensing authority, the Laboratory of Biologics Control, also issued instructions about how to produce the vaccine, but unfortunately those instructions proved in two respects less stringent than those that the foundation had issued prior to the first trial of the vaccine. The foundation had stipulated that the manufacturers should report any difficulties in eliminating live virus from their vaccine, and also that they should be able to produce 11 successive lots of vaccine without live virus in it. The Laboratory of Biologics Control made no such stipulation.
The Cutter Company, the smallest of the five producers, followed the instructions to the letter, which proved insufficient to guarantee the vaccine's safety. The company also made a couple of unfortunate technical mistakes, for which in the then current state of knowledge one could not blame it, with the result that live virus survived in some of its vaccine. Seventy thousand of the immunized experienced the transient flu-like symptoms of mild polio, 200 wound up paralyzed by polio, and 10 died because of it.
In the modern world, when tragedy strikes, can tort be far behind? The plaintiffs' lawyer was Melvin Belli, then the most famous and flamboyant tort lawyer in America. The trial outcome was in a sense a draw, rather than an outright victory for the plaintiffs, but it established a principle that would be nearly fatal to the production of vaccines.
The trial established beyond reasonable doubt that Cutter had not been negligent. But the judge stated—as a matter of law, so that the jury was powerless to disagree—that the company was liable for damages, even if it had done nothing wrong, simply because its product had harmed its recipients. This principle of absolute liability soon found itself defended in legal journals on the grounds that a large company was best able, via its insurance, to distribute the costs of risks among all the relevant parties, and society as a whole would benefit from the arrangement.
Quite apart from its repugnance to natural justice, this principle has been disastrous to the manufacture of vaccines. It opened the way for huge claims against the manufacturers. Since the courts are often cavalier in their complete disregard of scientific evidence, awarding huge damages against companies not only innocent of any negligence but whose products have done no objectively demonstrable harm, it is not surprising that pharmaceutical companies have largely withdrawn from the vaccine market. For them, the potential profits are small, and the risks great. SmithKlineGlaxo, for example, one of the world's largest vaccine producers, withdrew its safe and effective vaccine against Lyme disease because of the expense of defending it against speculative tort actions of no merit. One almost wishes that an epidemic of Lyme disease would strike the whole tribe of tort lawyers.
Offit suggests a sensible remedy: an extension of the powers of the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program, to the exclusion of all tort litigation surrounding vaccines. Unless a remedy of this sort applies, he says, the sectional interest of a small group of people, the tort lawyers, will continue to inflict damage upon public health.
The Cutter Incident is an absolute model of its genre. It is so tautly written that it reads like a good thriller, such that one is eager to find out what happened next. Offit conveys the science with admirable clarity, and he presents the philosophical and legal issues simply but without simplification. It is the best kind of medical history.


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Jerry Sandusky's one chance for even the slightest glimmer of redemption is to announce that he intends to plead guilty and spare his victims the ordeal of a trial.
He took one step in the right direction on Tuesday, when he waived the right to a preliminary hearing, though he most likely did so to spare himself from being confronted by his accusers. Had he been thinking of the victims, he would not have left them still facing the prospect of testifying at the trial.
Unless the 10 complainants are all lying, and Sandusky really is as innocent as he insists in defiance of all sense and logic, his determination to subject his victims to more shame is just another form of abuse. The very fact that the victims have asked not to be publicly identified suggests how they likely feel about the prospect of appearing in a courtroom packed with 100 reporters.
In a hint of what will likely be his strategy at trial Sandusky's lawyer, Joe Amendola, has suggested that the 10 young men who say Sandusky molested them are motivated by money. That is known as smearing the victims, in this instance 10, all of whom were underage at the time they allege Sandusky molested them. The majority of the victims had already suffered considerable hardships in life and had trusted Sandusky as a mentor and protector.
And Sandusky is clearly ready to let his lawyer smear them even though he himself seems to believe he will be convicted. He said as much in his interview with The New York Times, when he spoke of how much he will miss his dog. The only way he would be separated from his pooch would be if he were sent to prison.
If convicted of all 52 counts, Sandusky faces a maximum sentence of some 500 years. He is 67 years old, which suggests that even if the prosecution were to offer him a reduced term in exchange for a guilty plea he still would face what constituted a life sentence.
All Sandusky could expect to get out of entering a guilty plea is the knowledge that he is doing something right after what seems to have been so many years of doing so much wrong. Any accusers who seek some kind of catharsis by confronting him could ask to make a Victim Impact Statement at the sentencing.
Pennsylvania state law guarantees victims the right to describe either in writing or in courtroom testimony the impact of the defendant's actions on their lives. And, at a sentencing hearing, the victims would not be subjected to cross-examination by an attorney who in this case seems bent on giving truth to an old cop's joke about the difference between a pig and a lawyer. The punchline is that there are some things a pig just won't do.
In his autobiography—creepily titled Touched—Sandusky recounts breaking a headlight on the family car while swinging a real Louisville slugger for an imaginary home run in one of his regular, solitary, make-believe baseball games.
"I thought of sweeping away the evidence with the broom from the garage," Sandusky recalls. "After all there weren't any witnesses. That idea wouldn't work because, glass or no glass, a broken headlight stays a broken headlight … As much as I labored and agonized over the situation, I realized there was no easy way out. There was no alternative but to tell my parents."
He went to the ice cream stand his mother and father ran. He felt his burden ease as he blurted out a confession. His father praised him for telling the truth and said that what was important was that they were always honest with each other.
"He followed his words with a hug, and my mom joined in," Sandusky remembers in the book. "For a few precious moments, the world was all right again … I learned that day it took far more courage to tell the truth sometimes than to make up a lie. And by telling the truth I could gain a far greater amount of respect."
In this case not of a broken headlight, but of shattered trust, maybe shattered lives, a confession is not likely to get Sandusky hugs, and the world is not likely to feel all right, even for a moment. He cannot expect respect from anybody.
But Sandusky should remember what his father told him about the all-importance of the truth. Investigators who work such cases say pedophiles often know that what they are doing is illegal even as they somehow convince themselves that it was not actually wrong.
Sandusky knows that a broken headlight still stays a broken headlight even if he imagines he was only engaging in a little "horseplay." And he could have no doubt what his father would want him to do, particularly if he had a last chance for any redemption at all.


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I'm actually fiddling with the latest Slackware 12.0, featuring XFCE 4.4.1.
One problem I have is that some apps like Firefox, Thunderbird or SeaMonkey use huge fonts compared to my XFCE fonts. Here's a screenshot so you get an idea:
Any idea how I can make these fonts harmonize with XFCE? (E. g. make them smaller so they look like those in the XFCE menus).
So far I found one hint: I opened Firefox, 'about:config' and changed 'layout.css.dpi' from the default -1 to 0.
Problem 1: that only applies to my user, not system-wide.
Problem 2: it only applies to Firefox.
Any suggestions?
Sorry about your font-size issue in Xfce, and specifically only with Firefox. Here's what I font (ugh!..) you to do:
1. reference this article: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=422350
2. validate that you have consistent dpi (=96) in all display items (Xorg, DMs, etc.)
Hopefully, this will provide some correction...
Mageia 4.1 / Xfce 4.10
"Which is better- Artificial intelligence or REAL stupidity...?"
Pages: 1


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MSU center tests new rice varieties
By Dr. Rebekah Ray
MSU Delta Research and Extension Center
STONEVILLE – The rice breeding program at Mississippi State University's 4,800-acre Delta Research and Extension Center is part of a regional program that tests the viability of experimental rice varieties.
MSU's facility in Stoneville participates in the Uniform Regional Rice Nursery program, which tests new genetic material, called germplasm, in various environmental and growing conditions. Researchers at the Stoneville center test rice germplasm developed in-house or at the University of Arkansas, Louisiana State University or Texas A&M University.
"The URRN allows breeders at cooperating institutions to test experimental germplasm in multiple and diverse environments and gives an idea of germplasm stability in various environments," said Tim Walker, a Delta Research and Extension Center agronomist, rice breeder and Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station researcher.
Each year the URRN includes a total of 200 entries from Arkansas, Louisiana, Texas and Mississippi. Because of the size of its rice breeding program, the Delta Research and Extension Center can submit up to 26 entries.
If a germplasm looks good near the end of its development at the Delta station, it may be submitted to the URRN for further evaluation. Scientists compare new entries to standard, commercially available varieties.
The URRN provides breeders with a wealth of information, such as germplasm performance, disease tolerance, resilience, environmental response and weed tolerance.
For example, this year, the URRN site in Crowley, La., suffered an outbreak of blast, a disease that affects rice production worldwide. The disease usually affects only leaves but in severe cases can prevent grain production.
URRN rice researchers visited Crowley to see how their varieties fared.
"Visiting Crowley during the outbreak helped us determine which germplasm was best at resisting blast," Walker said. "Though this occurrence is unfortunate for producers because of yield loss, it provided valuable information for rice researchers and breeders."
Host institutions evaluate germplasm by grain type, seedling vigor, plant vigor and heading, lodging, yield and ratoon yield, or second harvest in warmer regions with a longer growing season.
Plant pathologists and weed scientists at host institutions screen URRN entries for disease and herbicide resistance.
"Materials submitted to the URRN are tested for their disease reactions. Plant pathologists then rate the germplasm for disease tolerance," said Tom Allen, Extension plant pathologist in Stoneville.
Allen introduces the sheath blight fungus into the URRN plants and evaluates the response of each of the germplasm entries. He observes how much of the disease is present in each plot and how severe it is.
Other MAFES researchers who have been involved with the URRN include weed scientist Jason Bond, plant pathologist Gabe Sciumbato, retired rice project leader Ted Miller and retired rice breeder Dwight Kanter.
Although MSU has been part of the URRN since the 1970s, when Donald Bowman led the station's rice research program, it is one of the cooperative's younger members. Additional URRN participants include the University of California-Davis, University of Missouri and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.


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During the last years the autodidact, war painter and finally established artist Oskar Laske was honoured in numerous retrospectives as one of the greatest narrators and annalists amongst the Austrian painters of the last century. On the following web pages you will find information on his life and oeuvre.
Widder Fine Arts possesses several watercolors and graphics by Oskar Laske. If you are interested in purchasing one of Laske's works, we gladly welcome you to a visit our gallery in Vienna. Of course you can also contact us by phone (0043 - 1 - 512 45 69 or 0043 - 676 - 629 81 21) or e-mail (email@example.com).
If you possess a work of Oskar Laske and want to sell it to us, we are looking forward to your phone call or your e-mail including a photo and a description.


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Despite an Ontario judge's dismissal of the case, Trillium Power is forging ahead with its C$2.25 billion lawsuit against the Ontario government, as the Toronto-based developer says the October 2012 decision contained errors in points of law and evidence.
'The reason that there are appeals courts is that sometimes, judges get it wrong,' John Kourtoff, Trillium's CEO, tells NAW, adding that he does not anticipate a ruling before June.
The lawsuit centers around the government's confiscation and cancellation of Trillium's proposed 600 MW TPW 1 offshore wind project as a result of the provincial government's February 2011 decision to place a moratorium on offshore wind. The developer says it was planning to install 120 wind turbines on a site 17 km to 28 km offshore in Lake Ontario. (Siting the project further from the shoreline alleviates much of the avian impact, because 93% to 95% of such incidents happen within 1 km of the shore, Kourtoff says.)
According to Trillium, the offshore wind moratorium was issued just one hour before the company was to complete a C$22 million financing deal for the project. Furthermore, Kourtoff says, Trillium's out-of-pocket expenses for the project total C$5.3 million.
Kourtoff maintains that government's position to halt offshore wind power was politically motivated. He cites a May 2011 memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the Ontario government and Siemens Canada. The MOU sets forth a framework wherein Siemens and Ontario would work together on economic development initiatives related to both onshore and offshore wind.
The problem, Kourtoff contends, is that the MOU was executed three months after the government declared the moratorium. Such a discrepancy demonstrates that Ontario's action against offshore wind was not part of the province's core policy action as the government's lawyers now claim, he explains.
'This is another smoking gun that demonstrates that the government's actions were in bad faith," Kourtoff says. 'The actions were undertaken within a political calculus of the 2011 Ontario election.'
Trillium's lawsuit comes at an interesting time in Ontario, as several issues – ranging from electricity prices to changes in the province's landmark feed-in tariff – have come under tremendous scrutiny.
Further complicating matters is that the ruling Liberal Party is about to choose a successor to Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty, who unexpectedly announced his resignation last October.
The good news is that Sandra Pupatello and Kathleen Wynne – two of the front-runners vying to lead Ontario's Liberal Party – both have expressed support for offshore wind.
'It won't take long for this to get fixed,' Kourtoff says. 'If it does, it would send a strong signal for offshore wind.'


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Lewis-Clark Valley Metropolitan Planning Organization like all MPO's are required to develop a Unified Planning Work Program (UPWP) annually that details all work the MPO will do in the fiscal year.
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The Transportation Improvement Program (TIP) is one of the major tools used to implement the LRTP.
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Find helpful links for additional community information including links for the states of Idaho and Washington, associated organizations, and additional information.
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I have been sad to see some of the top bloggers find blogging too much and press the pause button. One of the first hints of trouble in blogland was when I read about Erin's plan to embrace the Slow Blogging Movement on Design for Mankind a few years ago. Erin had been blogging for years and found she wanted less - less keeping up with the internet and more story-telling from the heart. Then there were lots of rumbles about how other social media was taking over and spelling the death of blogging. And most recently, I was sad to read about the blogging break that John and Sherry from Young House Love (one of my faves) needed to take. They were finding it difficult to produce as many posts following the birth of their second child in April. I read YHL daily so they have been sorely missed. Even more disturbing, however, were the negative comments left on their blog bashing them for everything from their taste in decorating, to their attitude, to the supposed decline in quality of posts. I have yet to understand why someone would read a blog they didn't like and appreciate and take the time to write a comment stating their opinions.
When I started blogging four years ago things seemed a little different. Blogging was more relaxed, the relationships seemed more like you were chatting over the fence with a neighbour. Over the years I've seen things change around blogland. I've noticed things are more competitive, more perfect, and busier these days. Now a blogger is expected to not only create quality original posts on their blog, but also keep up with all the social media platforms as well. When the expectations are so high it can only lead to burnout and frustration.
At the same time I see lots of bloggers wanting to change things - make it simpler and more personal. I don't know where blogging will be in 10 or 20 years, but I do know that there is lots to love about blogging.
I've recently embraced Pinterest and love it as a place to collect ideas and inspiration. I love to follow some of my favourite bloggers on Instagram and get little glimpses into the day-to-day business of their lives (okay I'll admit it, I'm nosey). I don't really know much about Twitter and I avoid Facebook as it is so confusing and there is so much negative stuff on it. Like blogging though, all these social media platforms to a greater or lesser extent allow you to tell a short story, post a photo or two, document projects/life/inspiration, and engage in some interaction with followers.
So what does blogging do well? Why do I keep blogging? Where is the joy in blogging?
Blogging allows for a place to write about what I'm creating and to find inspiration at the same time. Blogging (unlike with other social media) allows you to expand on your ideas, to tell a story, to teach something, to put a personal spin on the inspiration.
This past winter was a difficult one for me. I blogged like it was my second job right up until my father passed away just before Christmas and then I stalled. I had ideas, but no energy to focus them into a post. The weather was terrible and our dog was sick (and then passed away) and I just seemed to need to cocoon. My husband and I spent our time (when we weren't at work) engrossed in watching Korean dramas together. We shored each other up together in our mutual obsession with a nation on the other side of the world and with actors and actresses we didn't know. When summer came and life settled down, I was ready to blog again. I realized I had missed it, I wanted to take pictures with a purpose. I wanted to go through the creative process, and do fun projects around the house, and make things pretty on purpose.
Blogging for me is just a hobby so I'm not under the pressure that John and Sherry from Young House Love are, but in order to remain motivated for over four years I had to ponder what engages me and makes me want to blog. Here's what I came up with:
What's my take-away from all this pondering. First, I do like blogging for all the reasons I listed above. Secondly, I should try shorter posts - one picture and a few sentences - since that seems to be the modern modus operandi. Blog like it is Instagram. And finally, I need to take the time to leave comments on blogs that I visit. You never know when that blogger friend just might need to know that they were doing a great job and are appreciated.
What are your thoughts on the state of blogging? Why do you blog?


text: CALL FOR PAPERS =============== Third International Workshop on Parallel Programming Models and Systems Software for High-end Computing (P2S2) Sept. 13th, 2010 To be held in conjunction with ICPP-2010: The 39th International Conference on Parallel Processing, Sept. 13-16, 2010, San Diego, CA, USA Website: http://www.mcs.anl.gov/events/workshops/p2s2 SCOPE ----- The goal of this workshop is to bring together researchers and practitioners in parallel programming models and systems software for high-end computing systems. Please join us in a discussion of new ideas, experiences, and the latest trends in these areas at the workshop. TOPICS OF INTEREST ------------------ The focus areas for this workshop include, but are not limited to: * Systems software for high-end scientific and enterprise computing architectures o Communication sub-subsystems for high-end computing o High-performance file and storage systems o Fault-tolerance techniques and implementations o Efficient and high-performance virtualization and other management mechanisms for high-end computing * Programming models and their high-performance implementations o MPI, Sockets, OpenMP, Global Arrays, X10, UPC, Chapel, Fortress and others o Hybrid Programming Models * Tools for Management, Maintenance, Coordination and Synchronization o Software for Enterprise Data-centers using Modern Architectures o Job scheduling libraries o Management libraries for large-scale system o Toolkits for process and task coordination on modern platforms * Performance evaluation, analysis and modeling of emerging computing platforms PROCEEDINGS ----------- Proceedings of this workshop will be published in CD format and will be available at the conference (together with the ICPP conference proceedings) . SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS ----------------------- Submissions should be in PDF format in U.S. Letter size paper. They should not exceed 8 pages (all inclusive). Submissions will be judged based on relevance, significance, originality, correctness and clarity. Please visit workshop website at: http://www.mcs.anl.gov/events/workshops/p2s2/ for the submission link. JOURNAL SPECIAL ISSUE --------------------- The best papers of P2S2'10 will be included in a special issue of the International Journal of High Performance Computing Applications (IJHPCA) on Programming Models, Software and Tools for High-End Computing. IMPORTANT DATES --------------- Paper Submission: March 3rd, 2010 Author Notification: May 3rd, 2010 Camera Ready: June 14th, 2010 PROGRAM CHAIRS -------------- * Pavan Balaji, Argonne National Laboratory * Abhinav Vishnu, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory PUBLICITY CHAIR --------------- * Yong Chen, Illinois Institute of Technology STEERING COMMITTEE ------------------ * William D. Gropp, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign * Dhabaleswar K. Panda, Ohio State University * Vijay Saraswat, IBM Research PROGRAM COMMITTEE ----------------- * Ahmad Afsahi, Queen's University * George Almasi, IBM Research * Taisuke Boku, Tsukuba University * Ron Brightwell, Sandia National Laboratory * Franck Cappello, INRIA, France * Yong Chen, Illinois Institute of Technology * Ada Gavrilovska, Georgia Tech * Torsten Hoefler, Indiana University * Zhiyi Huang, University of Otago, New Zealand * Hyun-Wook Jin, Konkuk University, Korea * Zhiling Lan, Illinois Institute of Technology * Doug Lea, State University of New York at Oswego * Jiuxing Liu, IBM Research * Guillaume Mercier, INRIA, France * Scott Pakin, Los Alamos National Laboratory * Fabrizio Petrini, IBM Research * Bronis de Supinksi, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory * Sayantan Sur, IBM Research * Rajeev Thakur, Argonne National Laboratory * Vinod Tipparaju, Oak Ridge National Laboratory * Jesper Traff, NEC, Europe * Weikuan Yu, Auburn University If you have any questions, please contact us at p2s2-chairs at mcs.anl.gov ======================================================================== If you do not want to receive any more announcements regarding the P2S2 workshop, please unsubscribe here: https://lists.mcs.anl.gov/mailman/listinfo/hpc-announce ========================================================================


text: As a business, we take a holistic approach to working with our clients, and bring into each engagement a large volume of experience across sectors and marketing/promotion activities. We understand the Chinese luxury consumer and align the activities of the brand based on this understanding. This approach means we can work with a client from end-to-end or any portion in between, read on to see examples of how we deliver demonstrable value to those we work with.


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Powers Boothe, the character actor known for his villain roles in TV's "Deadwood," and in the movies "Tombstone," "Sin City" and "The Avengers," has died. He was 68.
Boothe's publicist said he died of natural causes at his home in Los Angeles on Sunday.
Fellow actor Beau Bridges tweeted the news and called him "a dear friend, great actor, devoted father and husband."
Boothe won an Emmy in 1980 for playing cult leader Jim Jones in the TV movie "Guyana Tragedy: The Story of Jim Jones." The ceremony was held amid an actors strike, and Boothe was the only acting winner to show up for his award.
"This is either the most courageous moment of my career or the stupidest," he quipped after accepting the prize.
He went on to play other memorable antagonists, including ruthless saloon owner Cy Tolliver in "Deadwood," the gunman Curly Bill Brocius in "Tombstone" and a corrupt senator in "Sin City." More recently he appeared as Gideon Malick in 2012's "The Avengers" and ABC's "Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D."
Peter MacNicol, who acted alongside Boothe on Fox's "24," tweeted Monday that Boothe was a great, old school actor whose every word on camera "sounded like a first time utterance."
Born to a farming family in the west Texas town of Snyder, Boothe eventually left for New York to pursue an acting career. He told The Associated Press in 1981 that he made ends meet at first by working in a Broadway restaurant and eventually found theater roles, but his family was always ready to welcome him back.
"They kept telling me, 'Come home and we'll have a place for you on the farm,'" he said.
A private service will be held in his native Texas.


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Gun control after school shootings: Lessons from around the globe
| Dunblane, Scotland
If there's anywhere that understands the pain of Newtown, it's Dunblane, the town whose grief became a catalyst for changes to Britain's gun laws.
In March 1996, a 43-year-old man named Thomas Hamilton walked into a primary school in this central Scotland town of 8,000 people and shot to death 16 kindergarten-age children and their teacher with four legally held handguns. In the weeks that followed, people in the town formed the Snowdrop campaign — named for the first flower of spring — to press for a ban on handguns. Within weeks, it had collected 750,000 signatures. By the next year, the ban had become law.
It is a familiar pattern around the world — from Britain to Australia, grief at mass shootings has been followed by swift political action to tighten gun laws.
Many in the United States are calling for that to happen there, too, after the shooting of 20 children as young as six at a school in Newtown, Connecticut. Many other Americans are adamant the laws should not change.
In Dunblane, residents have been gathering at the town's massacre memorial to sign a book of condolence — but are loath to advise grieving Americans what to do.
"It is not for us to tell the U.S. about gun control. That is for the people there," said Terence O'Brien, a member of the Dunblane community council. "What happened here was similar in many respects, but the wider culture is different."
When it comes to guns, the United States is exceptional. The U.S. has the highest civilian gun ownership rate in the world, with 89 guns per 100 people, according to the Geneva-based Small Arms Survey.
Gun advocates, including the powerful lobby group the National Rifle Association, have blocked attempts to toughen American gun laws in the wake of previous mass shootings. Gun supporters say that the right to bear arms, enshrined in the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, makes firearms ownership a civil rights issue, rather than simply an issue of public safety.
Supporters of gun control often cite Australia's dramatic response to a 1996 shooting spree in the southern state of Tasmania that killed 35 people.
The slaughter sparked outrage across the country and within 12 days federal and state governments had agreed to impose strict new gun laws, including a ban on semi-automatic rifles like the Colt AR-15 used by the Tasmania killer. The Connecticut killer used a similar, rapid-firing weapon.
Gun ownership was restricted to people with genuine need or sporting shooters with gun club membership. Some 700,000 guns were bought back and destroyed by the federal government from owners who no longer qualified to possess them.
The changes were unpopular with politicians from rural areas with high numbers of hunters and farmers. But, as in Britain after Dunblane, the strength of public opinion swayed politicians from both government and opposition parties.
Gun laws also were strengthened in Canada after the 1989 slaying of 14 female engineering students in Montreal by a woman-hating gunman, and in Germany after a 19-year-old expelled student killed 16 people, including 12 teachers, in Erfurt in 2002.
Even gun-loving Finland — with 45 firearms for every 100 people — tightened its laws after two school shootings in 2007 and 2008, raising the minimum age for firearms ownership and giving police greater powers to make background checks on individuals applying for a gun license.
Did it work? In Australia's case, the change appears dramatic. There were a dozen mass shootings with at least five deaths in the country between 1981 and the Tasmania massacre; there have been none in the 16 years since.
Studies have tracked a reduction in gun deaths in Australia since the 1996 reforms, particularly in suicides. The journal Injury Prevention reported in 2006 that the risk of dying by gunshot had halved in Australia in a decade.
In 2010 in Australia, there were 0.1 gun murders per 100,000 people, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, less than half the rate of a decade earlier. In the United States the murder rate was more than 30 times higher, at 3.2 per 100,000.
The connection looks simple — countries with tighter gun laws and fewer guns have lower levels of gun crime.
But experts say it is not quite so straightforward.
"The irony in the U.K. is that in the four years from 1998 when handguns were fully banned, gun crime continued to rise," said Peter Squires, a professor of criminology at the University of Brighton. "We were in a phase in the 1990s when street gangs were becoming the new urban disorder ... and we were hit by a whole new problem of converted and replica and reactivated guns."
In the long run Squire thinks the change in law did make a difference. Gun crime in Britain has been falling since its peak in 2002 — a decline also seen in other Western countries — and there are now only a few dozen firearms homicides each year.
But, he said, "for the first four years it played into the classic NRA script that gun control has failed."
The U.S. gun lobby sometimes cites peaceful, alpine Switzerland as an example of a country that has many privately owned guns and little violent crime.
Like the United States, it has a strong gun culture and with plentiful shooting clubs — but also a mass citizen militia. Members of the part-time militia, in which most men serve, are allowed to keep their weapons at home, and the country of less than 8 million people owns at least 2.3 million weapons, many stashed under beds and in cupboards.
But while Swiss homes contain guns, but little ammunition, which is largely kept under lock and key at local military depots. Most adult gun users have military training.
And Switzerland went through its own soul-searching after a man named Friedrich Leibacher went on the rampage in the regional parliament in the wealthy northern Swiss city of Zug in September 2001. He killed 14 people and himself, apparently over a grudge against a local official.
The massacre, along with a campaign to reduce Switzerland's high level of gun suicide, led to a referendum last year. It proposed that military-issued firearms must be locked in secure army depots and would have banned the sale of fully automatic weapons and pump-action rifles.
Voters decisively rejected it.
Those who believe tighter gun laws are necessary acknowledge they are no panacea. Norway has strict gun controls, but Anders Behring Breivik shot 69 people dead in July 2011 with a pistol and a rifle he acquired legally by joining a shooting club and taking a hunting course.
But gun control advocates say the alternative is worse.
"There is no act of Parliament, no act of Congress, that can guarantee there'll never be a massacre," former British Cabinet minister Jack Straw, who as home secretary brought in the country's handgun ban in 1997, said Sunday. "However, the more you tighten the law, the more you reduce the risk."
Lawless reported from London. Associated Press Writers Rod McGuirk in Canberra, Australia, John Heilprin in Geneva, Karl Ritter in Stockholm and Matti Huuhtanen in Helsinki contributed to this report.
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.


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First Christmas: The Story of the First Christmas Snow, The
"The First Christmas", originally aired in 1975, is the latest of the Rankin/Bass animated specials to make it to DVD. This one has not been repeated as much as the others; I saw it one time in the 1970s and never again until now. The main character is Lucas, an orphaned shepherd boy. While out tending to his sheep, he gets struck by lightning. He gets taken in by a convent of nuns, led by Sister Theresa (voiced by Angela Lansbury) and nursed back to health, but they are unable to help his blindness caused by the lightning. He does learn to herd his sheep without sight however. Sister Theresa tells Lucas about past Christmases she remembered with snow. Since it never snows in the area they are in now, Lucas wishes for it to snow there as his Christmas wish.
The main thing I remembered about this special was the way the characters' eyes are designed. The pupils are snowflake-like, and when Lucas is blinded his pupils appear white instead of black. I think I first learned about blindness through watching this also.
"The First Christmas" is animated in Rankin/Bass's famous "Animagic" stop-motion process (many recent audiences have been erroneously calling this "Claymation", which is a different stop-motion technique using clay figures) and includes music and songs by Maury Laws and Jules Bass.
Although Warner claims this to be "remastered", this doesn't appear as pristine as the other Rankin/Bass specials that have appeared on DVD. While it most likely looks better than its initial TV airing, the film source still appears rather worn. It doesn't look awful, just not as good as the others.
Sound:Sound is in Dolby Digital 1-channel mono, and also does not sound as clean as the prior specials released on DVD. Overall it sounds muddy like a 16mm film's optical track, with "S" sounds especially distorted ("Chrisshsshtmassh"). There is also a Spanish dubbed track (with the songs still in English) in about the same condition.
Extras:Warner advertises this as a "Deluxe Edition DVD", but extras fall very short here. The only extra related to the show is an 8-minute segment showing kids how to make Christmas cards with glue, glitter and other common household objects (since that's a hobby of Sister Theresa in the special), shot recently in 16x9 for this DVD (and much louder than the main feature). If you decide to try your hand at this, be sure you have a grown-up to help you! Other than this, the only material is previews for the "Santa's Magical Stories" set of other specials, the "Peanuts Holiday Collection" and "How the Grinch Stole Christmas".
Final Thoughts:While it's good to finally be able to see this special again, the DVD comes up rather short especially considering its $19.97 list price. The entire disc only consists of 1.37 GB, so including a few more unreleased specials would have been nice, at least in the interest of saving shelf space. I recommend this title regardless for those who love the Rankin/Bass specials, but I expect that it will be purchased mainly by completists, and many will probably want to search out the lowest price on it. (I must throw in a comment about the flimsy Eco-Case this comes in too- I dislike these many times more than anyone ever disliked Warner's much-maligned 'snapper' cases.)
Jesse Skeen is a life-long obsessive media collector (with an unhealthy preoccupation with obsolete and failed formats) and former theater film projectionist. He enjoys watching movies and strives for presenting them perfectly, but lacks the talent to make his own.
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Middlebury Police Log: DUI, narcotics stops keep police busy
MIDDLEBURY — Middlebury police cited Samuel M. Francoeur, 19, of Leicester for driving under the influence and possession or narcotics, following a stop for a traffic violation on Weybridge Street on Nov. 20.
In other action last week, Middlebury police:
• Responded to a report of some dogs running free on East Main Street on Nov. 19.
• Responded to a loud family dispute at the Blue Spruce Motel on Route 7 South on Nov. 19.
• Cited Lindsay M. Davignon, 19, of Leicester for driving under the influence on Nov. 20 following an investigation in the parking area of Freeman Way. Police on patrol allege they walked up to Davignon's vehicle and could smell "intoxicants" emanating from her breath. Authorities said they measured Davignon's blood-alcohol level at 0.152 percent; the legal limit for driving is 0.08 percent.
• Served a no-trespass order on a local man on Nov. 20 who was not wanted at Two Brothers Tavern on Main Street.
• Assisted an emotionally distraught woman at a Twin Circles residence on Nov. 20.
• Took an emotionally distraught man to Porter Hospital to receive counseling help on Nov. 22.
• Investigated a report of a drunken man walking in North Pleasant Street and waving at cars on Nov. 23.
• Served a no-trespass order on a man who was allegedly sexually harassing women at the Subway Restaurant on Court Street on Nov. 23.
• Got medical and counseling help for a woman who had taken numerous pills and had cut herself with a knife on Nov. 24.
• Cited Carol Jane Stephenson, 59, of Bethel for driving under the influence, following an investigation in the Short Shannon Street neighborhood on Nov. 24. Police did not provide a blood-alcohol level.
• Cited Christopher R. Morgan, 52, of Ripton for driving under the influence, following a stop for speeding on Court Street on Nov. 25. Police said they measured Morgan's blood-alcohol level at 0.235 percent.
• Responded to a report of someone possibly secreting contraband on a sign on School House Hill Road on Nov. 25. Police found a container affixed to the sign, which contained a "geocaching" note. Geocaching is a scavenger hunt-type game using GPS.
• Assisted a local woman who believed she was being followed by a strange man while in the Hannaford Supermarket on Court Street on Nov. 25.
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Friday, October 30, 2009
Cindy Lou -- I Love YOU!
After finally getting ahold of the pattern, I dug into my CW stash and this is my Cindy Lou Who..........
I love how she turned out and I was up til the wee hours last night doing the quilting. I had to post this today because Cindy Lou is going to have to take a rest while I have other pressing projects to complete.
And have you ever visited Kelly at I Have a Notion? She's such a sweet and funny gal and has such great prices on all of her notions and supplies. Well about a week ago I found out that she had drawn my name for a signed copy of a yet to be released Edyta Sitar book called "Friendship Triangles".
This book is so beautiful and has some gorgeous quilts. Here is a sneek peek!
Okay peeps, now it's time to visit the other Cindy Lou Who's Schnibbles parade. Check out the side bar of Sherri or Sinta's blog. I am also linking with Sew and Tell this week, being that I have something that I sewed and can tell about ;-)
Have a happy Quilting weekend! What will you be up to?
41 comments:
- tara said...
I love the yellow abric. It really brings the pattern into focus.
- October 30, 2009 at 7:47 AM
- Darlene said...
Applause, applause, it's fabulous and worth all your effort and stress!!!
Lucky you winning that signed book - looks like a must have. - October 30, 2009 at 8:10 AM
- Rene' said...
Your Schnibbles quilt turned out great!! Lovely fabrics. Thanks for the sneak peek at Friendship Triangles. What a fun book to win!! Enjoy your weekend.
- October 30, 2009 at 8:15 AM
- Debbie J said...
I love Cindy Lou Who! Great fabric choices.
This weekend I hope to finish "Sweet Savannah" for a friend's "step-great-granddaughter". Wow, she's only 54, but her dh is older. - October 30, 2009 at 8:54 AM
- Heather said...
Beautiful! Love your color choices for Cindy Lou. And congrats on your win, too! Looks like a great book. :o)
- October 30, 2009 at 10:40 AM
- Micki said...
The quilts are just stunning, and I will have to check out those books!
Micki - October 30, 2009 at 11:14 AM
- Crispy said...
Ooooo love the Cindy Lou, such an eye catching quilt!! Well Done!!
Crispy - October 30, 2009 at 11:17 AM
- Barb said...
So you were the lucky winner!! congrats
Love your schnibbles... - October 30, 2009 at 12:16 PM
- Gina said...
Love the quilt
Love and hugs Gina xxx - October 30, 2009 at 12:21 PM
Oh yes a big round of applause coming from the hollow to yours...fantastic finish!!
- October 30, 2009 at 12:34 PM
- Rae Ann said...
What a fun gift to win! Love th Cindy Lou quilt!
I will be spending the weekend with my Grand-goblins!
HaPpY HalLoWEen!!! - October 30, 2009 at 12:56 PM
- QuiltyBee said...
Great job! Those blocks work so well together--nice pattern.
- October 30, 2009 at 3:31 PM
- Mary said...
Cindy Lou is a beautiful gal! I mean quilt! You did a great job...she looks soft and cuddly...the pattern is great, and the colors complement the design beautifully!
Have a great week-end...hope your arms and hands get some rest!
Mary - October 30, 2009 at 6:09 PM
- amylouwhosews said...
Awwww, I love the cindy lou who!! It's so cute! And you may have figured out already that she's my nick-namesake! Perfect addition to our group today! Thanks!
- October 30, 2009 at 6:27 PM
- Sandie @ crazy'boutquilts said...
Very cute fabric choices! Your CindyLou is great! And congrat's on your win~ looks like a must have book. :-)
- October 30, 2009 at 6:33 PM
- Rita said...
Great Schnibble! I told you that you would love it when you finished! Just like you, I wasn't even going to do this one. I did mine in Jo Morton fabrics and just love it.
- October 30, 2009 at 6:37 PM
- Leslie said...
this is great!!! beautiful job
- October 30, 2009 at 6:40 PM
- Val said...
I have a lot to learn. I still don't understand what schnibbles are but I do know one thing.....that quilt is beautiful
- October 30, 2009 at 6:56 PM
- A Spoonful Of Sugar said...
What a lovely win - the quilt on the front cover looks amazing!
- October 30, 2009 at 9:57 PM
- Béa said...
Very beautiful fabric choice, love your quilt !
- October 30, 2009 at 11:46 PM
- Kim D. said...
Fabulous Quilt, love it.
- October 31, 2009 at 12:58 AM
- Amy Friend said...
Nice job! I am glad that inspiration struck and that you found the pattern and fabrics you liked!
- October 31, 2009 at 4:39 AM
- Lesly said...
Nice work - I have enjoyed seeing all the different Cindy Lou Whos that are showing up on various blogs - I really like the yellows in yours!
- October 31, 2009 at 7:40 AM
- Nina... said...
Such beautiful detail. Good job!
- October 31, 2009 at 10:51 AM
- Suzanne said...
Just a comment to thank you for the comment you left on my blog today about your BFF's daughter. It was such a beautiful tribute. Thank you for sharing it with us.
justanotherhangup.blogspot.com - October 31, 2009 at 5:44 PM
- fabricartist21 said...
Say there Cindy Lou is too cute for words.
I am having a monthly giveaway on my blog go check it out and sign up for some fun. - October 31, 2009 at 6:37 PM
- ranette said...
Love your Cindy Lou Who quilt...great colors!
- October 31, 2009 at 6:56 PM
What a great finish!!! That book has some really nice patterns too.
What I will be up to this weekend... working on my "leafy" quilt. :) I am a bit under the weather, but will still be working.
Have a blessed weekend. - October 31, 2009 at 8:42 PM
- Allie said...
That's beautiful!!!!!!!
- October 31, 2009 at 9:22 PM
- Sandra Schwab said...
Your Cindy Lou turned out beautiful indeed!
- November 1, 2009 at 6:34 AM
- Marianne said...
Your Cindy Lou Who turned out just great! I love the gold fabric in the 9-patches.
- November 1, 2009 at 6:38 AM
- Lanette said...
Love your Cindy Lou Who!!!
- November 1, 2009 at 9:09 AM
- Kimberly Tripp said...
great quilt! I love that pattern, glad you had fun with it!
- November 1, 2009 at 3:06 PM
- Carrie said...
I love your quilt ~ it's gorgeous! And I agree with everyone who wrote that the yellow is a perfect touch! Of course, can you ever go wrong with yellow, black and red? :)
(While I've never been to the shop, I love the ladies from Olde Green Cupboard. They're terrific!) - November 1, 2009 at 4:59 PM
- an encourager said...
Your quilt is darling. I'm glad you had so much fun making it. I liked seeing the close-up shots of your fabrics.
- November 1, 2009 at 6:52 PM
- fabricartist21 said...
Looks like you keep very busy with your quilting. I adore the pics of the pumpkins and the darling pic of her kissing the pumpkin. The pumpkin is bigger than she is.
I am a follower of yours and I am having a monthly giveaway on my blog go in and sign up for some fun. - November 1, 2009 at 8:12 PM
- Dawn said...
I love your fabrics!! I didn't get to do the Cindy Lou Who, but am going to try to jump in for Picnic this month.
- November 2, 2009 at 3:46 AM
- Ariane said...
I love your Cindy Lou Who Quilt. It looks amazing in the fabrics you chose. Thanks for sharing it with us.
- November 2, 2009 at 7:34 PM
- Jana said...
Love the Cindy Lou Who and the book looks fabulous!
- November 3, 2009 at 11:04 AM
- Annette said...
I really like your Schnibble. Great combination of fabrics!
- November 3, 2009 at 5:00 PM
- MARCIE said...
So many fun things to look at on your blog! Your Cindy Lou is darling. I love The Olde Green Cupboard! Never been there, but met them at Quilt Fest at their booth. Nice peek into that book too!
- November 8, 2009 at 12:14 PM


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Babcock has served as athletic director at the University of Cincinnati since 2011.
"We are very pleased to welcome Whit back to Virginia," said Steger. "He has substantial experience managing large business enterprises and shown the ability to identify and attract talented coaches and staff. We are also impressed with his ability to engage and energize the fan base. We are extremely pleased to garner someone with his well-rounded experiences and talent."
"I am honored to follow in the footsteps of Jim Weaver and am grateful to Dr. Steger, Dr. Sands, and the search committee for this appointment," said Babcock. "I would like to also thank the University of Cincinnati community which has been so wonderful to me and my family. I certainly owe a debt of gratitude to the students, staff, coaches, and administration there. However, working for Virginia Tech is a unique and special opportunity . . . an opportunity to come home to Virginia and become part of the Hokie family is truly a dream come true. I am anxious to get started in Blacksburg and help build on Virginia Tech's success and upward trajectory."
A native Virginian, Babcock was born in Lynchburg and grew up in Harrisonsburg. He played baseball at James Madison University and graduated in 1992. He also received a master's degree in sports management from West Virginia University in 1996.
Raymond Smoot, former chief executive officer of the Virginia Tech Foundation chaired the search committee.
"We were pleased and impressed with the exceptionally able pool of candidates who expressed strong interest in this position," said Smoot. "We believe that is due, in part, to the respected program our university and athletic leadership have constructed over the last few decades. I am delighted that Whit will be joining Virginia Tech."
Babcock has worked at several major universities over his 20 year career. Prior to his appointment at Cincinnati, Babcock served as executive associate athletic director at University of Missouri where he oversaw all external relations and development operations for the department in addition to serving as sport administrator for the men's basketball program.
He also served previously in various athletic fundraising and marketing leadership roles at West Virginia University, Auburn University, and James Madison University.
Smoot said that while at Cincinnati, Babcock positioned the university for future success and embarked on a facilities expansion program and emphasizing student-athlete academic achievement while teams demonstrated strong success on the fields and courts of competition. His experiences straddle both athletics administration and fundraising.
His five year appointment is effective March 1. Babcock is married to the former Kelly Watts of Enterprise, Ala. They have three children: Andrew, age 13; Brett, age 10; and Eli, age 9.
The university will introduce Babcock to the university community at a news conference during the week of January 27, time and location to be determined.
Dedicated to its motto, Ut Prosim (That I May Serve), Virginia Tech (http://www.vt.edu) takes a hands-on, engaging approach to education, preparing scholars to be leaders in their fields and communities. As the commonwealth's most comprehensive university and its leading research institution, Virginia Tech offers 215 undergraduate and graduate degree programs to more than 30,000 students and manages a research portfolio of $450 million. The university fulfills its land-grant mission of transforming knowledge to practice through technological leadership and by fueling economic growth and job creation locally, regionally, and across Virginia.


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AKW Enclosures and Trays
What could make a bathroom more complete than an enclosure for your shower? We have a selection of enclosures – as well as walk-in trays – of varying styles and shapes (including square quadrant, pentagon) to suit any contemporary bathroom space. Certain models are supplied with lifetime manufacturer guarantees as standard, too.
Please contact us for help should you need any advice.


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Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden has introduced a bill that sets the stage for sweeping changes in the management of 2.1 million acres of federal forest in Western Oregon.
The bill attempts to resolve decades of lawsuits over the Bureau of Land Management's so-called O&C timberlands in Western Oregon by designating some areas for conservation and others for timber harvest. It would limit the environmental review process for logging in some designated harvest areas, while guaranteeing protection for stands of trees over 120 years old.
The O&C lands - named for the Oregon & California Railroad that once owned them - comprise a checkerboard of parcels in Western Oregon. The forests are home to significant populations of federally protected spotted owls and marbled murrelets. And the water that flows through these forests makes for healthier salmon habitat.
Logging these forests historically provided a key source of revenue for county governments through profit-sharing from federal timber sales.
"This new foundation will more than double our timber harvest across 18 timber counties and ensure that harvest continues for years to come. It uses the best available science to mimic natural processes and create healthier, more diverse forests," Wyden said in a press release prior to his public appearance Tuesday in Salem with Gov. John Kitzhaber to unveil the plan.
the Democratic senator said his management plan for the forests would allow for the logging of at least 300 million board feet of timber a year, according to an analysis that was jointly produced by the BLM and Oregon State University forestry professor Norm Johnson.
Wyden chairs the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. That places him in a strategic position to move the bill forward. Wyden introduced the legislation in response to a proposal introduced by three Oregon represenatives: Republican Greg Walden and Democrats Peter DeFazio and Kurt Schrader. Their proposal, which passed the House in September, transfers into a state-owned trust roughly 1 million acres of O&C forests. That House bill faces a veto threat from President Obama.
Here's how Wyden's Senate bill addresses some key issues:
Diving The Land: The bill places roughly half of the O&C lands in "forestry emphasis areas," focused on producing timber harvests. The remaining forests would be managed for conservation. But in contrast to the House bill, Wyden would not give any federal land to the state to manage.
Ecological Logging: The secretary of the Interior Department would be required to calculate a sustained yield for the forestry emphasis areas and to aim to meet that target every year. Wyden estimates the yield would be about 300 million board feet.
This logging would follow a blueprint created by forestry professors Norm Johnson and Jerry Franklin and informed by research into how forests recovered after the Mount St. Helens eruption. Trees would be planted and cut on rotations of about 80 to 100 years. About a third of the trees in harvested areas would be left standing. Foresters would encourage a diversity of tree species to grow, as opposed to single-species fir plantations. Loggers would be required to leave buffers of at least 300 feet around lakes and wetlands, at least 150 feet around fish streams, and 75 feet around other streams.
A Legal Fast Track: The bill would limit the ability of citizens and environmental groups to challenge individual timber sales. Instead of analyzing each timber sale individually, the BLM would prepare two environmental impact statements to cover all logging and management activities on the O&C lands during a 10-year period. In the designated harvest areas, the bill also eliminates the requirement that the BLM survey for rare species before logging.
Old Trees: Wyden's bill would ban cutting stands of trees more than 120 years old and individual trees more than 150 years old on the O&C lands. The bill also expands the Cascade Siskiyou National Monument and creates new national recreation areas on the Rogue and Molalla rivers.
Water: It designates 165 miles of wild and scenic river, including sections of Wasson Creek, the Nestucca and Molalla rivers and 35 tributaries of the Rogue. It also creates special management units to protect drinking water supplies in Springfield and in Lane, Clackamas and Washington counties.
Tribal Land Transfers: The bill would return about 30,000 acres of forest in Western Oregon to two tribes. Some of the forest land near Roseburg would go back to the Cow Creek Band of the Umpqua Tribe of Indians and forest near Coos Bay would be returned to the Coos, Lower Umpqua, and Siuslaw Indians.
Early reaction from environmentalists and the timber industry expressed support for Wyden's efforts -- along with calls for changes to make the legislation more to their liking.
"At first glance, it appears that Senator Wyden's proposal falls short of providing our communities the level of legal certainty, jobs, and county revenues they deserve and have been promised," said Tom Partin, president of the in a statement released jointly by a coalition that also included the and
put out its own statement from executive director Joseph Vaile, who said his group commends Wyden "for his interest in protecting special places in Southern Oregon," while also expressing hope "that Senator Wyden considers positive changes in his bill" to protect forests, rivers and recreation areas.
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