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MADISON, Wis. -- The Green Bay Packers have an MVP candidate in quarterback Aaron Rodgers, a Super Bowl championship won just 10 months ago and an undefeated team making a run toward another title for Titletown.
The Packers now have hundreds of new owners, too.
The team kicked off a rare stock sale Tuesday to help pay for another round of renovations at Lambeau Field, giving pretty much anyone a shot at becoming an NFL owner for $250 per share, plus a $25 handling charge.
Sarah Johnson, 34, of Portage said it took her nearly 20 minutes to complete what should have been a 30-second process, but it was worth to wait.
"I could have just as well thrown my money out the window for what I get for it, other than a feel-good," she said. "I just feel like the Packer organization has sort of a nostalgia and an excitement around it other franchises don't have. Just to say you're part of that on some level is neat to me."
The team received 1,600 orders in the first 11 minutes of the sale, said Packers President Mark Murphy, who had to reassure fans the Packers website was still working. Team spokesman Aaron Popkey said he did not have any sales data as of early Tuesday afternoon.
"It's just a question of volume," Murphy said. "Fans are excited about this opportunity. We just encourage fans to be patient."
It is the fifth stock sale in the Packers' 92-year history and the first in 14 years.
The NFL's only publicly-owned team offered 250,000 shares through Feb. 29, subject to an extension. The stock isn't an investment in the traditional sense: Its value doesn't increase, there are no dividends, it has virtually no re-sale value and it won't give buyers a leg up on the 93,000 people on the waiting list for season tickets.
The fine print on the Packers' stock sale website says NFL rules prohibit shareholders from betting on any NFL game; violators could face up to $5,000 in fines.
Popkey and NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said in emails to The Associated Press that shareholder betting has never been a problem in the past.
What buyers do get is a piece of paper declaring them a team owner, voting rights and the right to attend the annual stockholder meeting at Lambeau each summer before training camp. Oh, and they get access to a special line of shareholder apparel, too.
The economy is still lurching along, but that probably won't make much difference to the cheesehead nation, among the league's most dedicated fans. The Packers' timing is perfect, too. Christmas is only a few weeks off and the Packers are hot, hot, hot: The defending champions clinched the NFC North title this past weekend and look like a favorite again with a 12-0 record with four games left to play in the regular season.
Plus, the cause is nothing less than spiffing up the team's hallowed frozen tundra.
The team hopes to generate at least $22 million through the stock sale to help defray the cost of a $143 million renovation project at Lambeau. Plans call for adding 6,700 additional seats, new high-definition video screens and a new entrance by 2013.
Before the sale, there were 112,205 Packers stockholders who own a total of 4.75 million shares. The latest sale did have restrictions: Stock can only be purchased by individuals, not businesses, and there's a 200-share cap, a figure that includes any stock purchased during the last sale in 1997.
The offering is limited to people with addresses in the U.S., Guam, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Soldiers and U.S. residents who are currently overseas have to use their U.S. addresses.
The Packers have been a publicly owned nonprofit corporation since 1923. The team held its first stock sale that year, followed by sales in 1935 and 1950 that helped keep the franchise afloat even as other small-markets teams were sinking.
Back in 1997, the last time the Packers offered stock, then-team president Bob Harlan was looking for ways to cover stadium renovation costs. He recalled that other owners balked, worried that the Packers would use the money to compensate their coaches or improve their roster in a way other teams couldn't. It was only after commissioner Paul Tagliabue and Pittsburgh Steelers owner Dan Rooney argued in favor of the idea that the proposal passed. Rooney said the Packers deserved unanimous support because they were a vital part of NFL history.
Some 400,000 shares went on sale that year for $200 apiece. About 120,000 were sold, raising $24 million.
Ryan Vaubel, 35, a lifelong Packer fan from Sun Prairie, Wis., said he can't justify spending $275 on a piece of paper. But he understands the Packers need money; he still remembers when the team sold chunks of Lambeau sod following the team's 1997 Super Bowl victory.
"I'm not personally disappointed. All you can say is you have a piece of paper," Vaubel said. "It's more or less just a way to donate money to the team so they can raise more revenue and remain competitive on the field."
Nicole Kappus Solheid, 37, of Apple Valley, Minn., grew up in Chippewa Falls, Wis. She said she was strongly considering buying a share. For her, it's a matter of pride; her husband is a Viking fan.
"I'm still from Wisconsin and I'm still very proud of where I come from," she said. "I'd be very proud to put that stock option up on my wall and show my neighbors. It's just to be a part of (the Packers) legacy."


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Create a Website Account - Manage notification subscriptions, save form progress and more.
No. In accordance with the law, ballots are marked "Do Not Forward – Return Services Requested."
If you would like your ballot mailed to a temporary address, you will need to file a request with the Maricopa County Recorder's Office.
Show All Answers
You can check your voter registration status on the Maricopa County Recorder's website.
Will need your name, birthdate, house number, and ONE of the following:
Please visit Service Arizona to register to vote or to update your registration information.
You may also pick up an Arizona Voter Registration Form at City Hall and mail it to:
Maricopa County Elections111 South 3rd AvenuePhoenix, Arizona 85003
The City of Litchfield Park cannot provide replacement ballots.
If you do not receive your ballot in the mail or if you need a replacement ballot, please call the Maricopa County Recorder's Office at 602-506-1511. If you do not have enough time to wait for a new ballot in the mail, visit any Ballot Center Location across the County to vote in-person. Ballot Centers are open 27 days prior to an Election and on Election Day.
Ballots must be RECEIVED, not postmarked, by 7:00 p.m. on Election Day. The Maricopa County Recorder's Office recommends mailing ballots at least 6 days before Election Day.
If you are concerned your ballot will not be received by the Maricopa County Elections Department by the deadline, you can drop your ballot off at any of the Countywide Ballot Center Locations. You can find a list of Ballot Center Locations, along with their hours of operation on the County's website.
You can check the status of your ballot online on the County's Early Voting Status web page. You can also sign up for text alerts.
The Church at Litchfield Park will be a Polling Location on Election Day only. It will be open from 6:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.
The Church at Litchfield Park300 N. Old Litchfield RoadLitchfield Park, AZ 85340

subset: commoncrawl


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Creative Hall of Fame
David Ogilvy
Inducted: 1963
David Mackenzie Ogilvy was born in West Horsley, England, on June 23, 1911. He was educated at Fettes College in Edinburgh and at Christ Church, Oxford .
After Oxford, Ogilvy went to Paris, where he worked in the kitchen of the Hotel Majestic. He learned discipline, management - and when to move on: "If I stayed at the Majestic I would have faced years of slave wages, fiendish pressure, and perpetual exhaustion." He returned to England to sell cooking stoves, door-to-door. Ogilvy's career with Aga Cookers was astonishing. He sold stoves to nuns, drunkards, and everyone in between. In 1935 he wrote a guide for Aga salesmen (Fortune magazine called it "probably the best sales manual ever written"). Among its suggestions, "The more prospects you talk to, the more sales you expose yourself to, the more orders you will get. But never mistake quantity of calls for quality of salesmanship."
In 1938, Ogilvy emigrated to the United States, where he went to work for George Gallup's Audience Research Institute in New Jersey. Ogilvy cites Gallup as one of the major influences on his thinking, emphasizing meticulous research methods and adherence to reality. During World War II, Ogilvy worked with the Intelligence Service at the British Embassy in Washington. There he wrote enormously, analyzing and making recommendations on matters of diplomacy and security. He extrapolated his knowledge of human behavior from consumerism to nationalism in a report, which suggested, "applying the Gallup technique to fields of secret intelligence." Eisenhower's Psychological Warfare Board picked up the report and successfully put Ogilvy's suggestions to work in Europe during the last year of the war. After the war, Ogilvy bought a farm in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, and lived among the Amish. The atmosphere of "serenity, abundance, and contentment" kept Ogilvy and his wife in Pennsylvania for several years, but eventually he admitted his limitations as a farmer and moved to New York.
In 1948, he founded the New York-based ad agency Hewitt, Ogilvy, Benson & Mather (which eventually became Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide), with the financial backing of London agency Mather & Crowther. He had never written an advertisement in his life. Thirty-three years later, he sent the following memo to one of his partners: Will Any Agency Hire This Man? He is 38, and unemployed. He dropped out of college. He has been a cook, a salesman, a diplomatist and a farmer. He knows nothing about marketing and had never written any copy. He professes to be interested in advertising as a career (at the age of 38!) and is ready to go to work for $5,000 a year. I doubt if any American agency will hire him. However, a London agency did hire him. Three years later he became the most famous copywriter in the world, and in due course built the tenth biggest agency in the world. The moral: it sometimes pays an agency to be imaginative and unorthodox in hiring.
In his agency's first twenty years, Ogilvy won assignments from Lever Brothers, General Foods and American Express. Shell gave him their entire account in North America. Sears hired him for their first national advertising campaign. "I doubt whether any copywriter has ever had so many winners in such a short period of time," he wrote in his autobiography. "They made Ogilvy & Mather so hot that getting clients was like shooting fish in a barrel." In 1965, Ogilvy merged the agency with Mather & Crowther, his London backers, to form a new international company. One year later the company went public - one of the first advertising firms to do so. Soon Ogilvy & Mather had expanded around the world and was firmly in place as one of the top agencies in all regions.
In 1973 Ogilvy retired as Chairman of Ogilvy & Mather and moved to Touffou, his estate in France. While no longer involved in day-to-day operations of the agency, he stayed in touch with the company. Indeed, his correspondence so dramatically increased the volume of mail handled in the nearby town of Bonnes that the post office was reclassified at a higher status and the postmaster's salary raised. Ogilvy came out of retirement in the 1980s to serve as chairman of Ogilvy & Mather in India. He also spent a year acting as temporary chairman of the agency's German office, commuting daily between Touffou and Frankfurt. He visited branches of the company around the world, and continued to represent Ogilvy & Mather at gatherings of clients and business audiences.
When, in 1989, the Ogilvy Group was bought by WPP, two events occurred simultaneously: WPP became the largest marketing communications firm in the world, and David Ogilvy was named the company's non-executive chairman (a position he held for three years).
At age 75, Ogilvy was asked if anything he'd always wanted had somehow eluded him. His reply, "Knighthood. And a big family - ten children." (His only child, David Fairfield Ogilvy, was born during his first marriage, to Melinda Street. That marriage ended in divorce (1955) as did a second marriage to Anne Cabot. Ogilvy married Herta Lans in France in 1973.) He didn't achieve knighthood, but he was made a commander of the British Empire in 1967. He was elected to the US Advertising Hall of Fame in 1977 and to France's "Order of Arts and Letters" in 1990. He chaired the Public Participation Committee for Lincoln Center. He was appointed Chairman of the United Negro College Fund in 1968, and trustee on the Executive Council of the World Wildlife Fund in 1975. David Ogilvy died on July 21, 1999 at his home in Touffou, France.


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An example of massive destruction. On 9 September 2012 (left) Aleppo's Karm al-Jabal district is completely intact. By 15 December 2012, however, large areas of the district (outlined in red) have suffered extensive damage, one large multistory tower (red arrows) has been destroyed, and another (yellow arrows) has partially collapsed. Roadblocks and debris in the street suggest heavy fighting. [Imagery copyright 2013 DigitalGlobe]
In Syria's largest city, Aleppo, damage to buildings and infrastructure steadily increased over a ten-month period ending in May 2013, according to a new analysis by AAAS of high-resolution satellite images. Virtually all of the destruction appears to be in rebel-controlled or contested areas, and a substantial amount is in Aleppo's Ancient City, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Aleppo has been the site of ongoing conflict since July 2012. Since then, the city has experienced a nearly constant rate of damage to its physical structures, at about three incidents per day on average, AAAS reported. The researchers also documented other signs of intensifying military activity, such as an increased deployment of military equipment and a proliferation of improvised roadblocks.
The findings appear in a 7 August report by the Geospatial Technologies and Human Rights Project at AAAS. The analysis, completed independently by AAAS at the request of Amnesty International, USA (AIUSA), compares nine satellite images collected at regular intervals between August 2012 and May 2013.
"We are documenting a war zone," said Susan Wolfinbarger, Director of the Geospatial Technologies and Human Rights Project. "It's a really dangerous situation in Aleppo. There are people on the ground reporting out, but they're in specific, localized places and not able to move around freely. What we're able to do is provide a comprehensive look at the situation over time, examining the entire city and assessing what is going on throughout the area."
In addition to the battered buildings and other structures that appear in the satellite images, debris fields and craters also indicate damage.
The destruction has not been uniform, the AAAS team reported. Some areas have been heavily affected by the conflict, while others remain largely or totally unaffected. Of the 713 incidents of destruction observed during the study period, only six took place in districts reported to be under the control of forces loyal to the Syrian government. The rest were in areas under rebel control, under Kurdish control — whose authority was actively being contested — or for which control was unknown.
Located at the crossroads of trade routes that date back to the second millennium B.C., Aleppo contains many ancient structures of historical and cultural significance. The report documents damage to at least ten multi-story buildings as well as to mosques and cemeteries in the Ancient City. It also corroborates previous reports of damage to two important historical sites, the Umayyad Mosque and the Souq al-Madina.
The results also show an increase in military equipment, including artillery, tanks and aircraft in the affected areas. A number of military helicopters, for example, were observed on the tarmac at the Aleppo International Airport. Their numbers and positions changed frequently, suggesting regular use.
"Though other interpretations may be possible, this striking dichotomy in damage, in conjunction with direct observations of military activity, is consistent with reports that government forces have been using aircraft, missiles, and long-range artillery to bombard rebel-held areas," the report stated.
The creation of roadblocks to control movement within the city has also ramped up in the past year, as documented in the report. These appear to be mostly trucks or buses placed across strategic intersections, but others take the form of earthen barricades or deep trenches.
"It's interesting to see that the roadblocks are all across the city. One might think these would be more prevalent in rebel-held areas — perhaps as defensive positions — but in fact, it appears that the highest concentrations occur where regime forces are reported to be in control," said Jonathan Drake, an imagery analyst for the Project.
The AAAS analysis covered 182 square kilometers of Aleppo and surrounding regions. It was based on nine satellite images captured over a 10-month period by DigitalGlobe Inc.'s Quickbird-2, Ikonos-2, and Geoeye-1 satellites, as well as by Astrium's Pleiades satellite. A previous AAAS report of the same area, based on two images captured in August 2012, appeared to reveal the deployment of heavy armored vehicles in civilian neighborhoods as well as 117 instances of damage to buildings and infrastructure.
AAAS emphasized that its image analysis was occasionally limited by the density of buildings in Aleppo and the shadows they cast, as well as the viewing angle of the satellites at certain times. "Despite these challenges, it was possible to observe many signs of the conflict throughout the study area," the report stated.
The AAAS Geospatial Technologies and Human Rights Project, part of the association's Scientific Responsibility, Human Rights and Law Program, has previously provided objective image analysis to help explain events in Afghanistan, Nigeria, South Ossetia, Turkmenistan, Zimbabwe and many other regions. Geospatial technologies include remote sensing, geographic information systems and Global Positioning Systems that allow for mapping and analysis of multiple layers of geo-referenced data.
The spatial distribution of destruction in Aleppo is severely lopsided with respect to political control. Of the 713 instances that were observed during the study period, only six occurred in areas reported to be occupied by regime forces. [Neighborhood control data courtesy U.S. Government; Imagery copyright 2013 DigitalGlobe]
The Project was recently awarded a $119,474 grant from the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) that will enable AAAS to analyze cross-border conflicts using satellite imagery and to identify trends for the future use of this technology as a means of conflict early-warning prediction and prevention.
On 25 July, the United Nations announced that the civil war in Syria had taken more than 100,000 lives since it began in 2011. The United States is providing nearly $510 million in humanitarian aid in response to the Syrian crisis and Congress has recently approved a proposal by President Obama to begin providing military support to the Syrian rebels. The United Nations plans to send inspectors to Syria to investigate three reports of chemical weapons use.
An example of damage to cultural artifacts. Between 4 November 2012 (A) and 15 December 2012 (B) a large hole appears in the wall of a mosque just outside the Ancient City of Aleppo, and the cemetery fence has been damaged (red arrows). A ten-meter-wide shell crater has also appeared in the cemetery itself. [Images copyright 2013 Astrium (left), DigitalGlobe (right)]
Read the AAAS report, "Conflict in Aleppo, Syria: A Retrospective Analysis."


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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: While Israel and the West are focused on the Iranian threat, another dangerous entity is emerging in the Middle East. Attempts by al-Qaeda and other radical Sunni Islamist groups to challenge the Shia Crescent (Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon) must be viewed as a serious security threat.
There is a notion that a hegemonic Iran is attempting to dominate the crescent-shaped part of the Middle East where the majority population is Shiite or contains a strong Shiite minority, through an array of Shiite proxies: Iraq, Alawite-dominated Syria, and the powerful Shiite militia Hizballah in Lebanon.
Yet, the growing involvement of Sunni Salafi jihadis in Iraq (since 2003), among the rebels in Syria (since 2011), and in Lebanon has created a "Salafi Crescent." This reflects a Sunni ambition to establish a caliphate controlling much of the Middle East and form the Islamic State "from Diyala [in eastern Iraq] to Beirut." Al-Qaeda's hatred of the Shiites was expressed by its founder Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who called them "the insurmountable obstacle, the prowling serpent…the enemy lying in wait" and ordered his followers to "fight them."
Al-Qaeda in Iraq
Al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI), a jihadist group of predominantly Sunni fighters, rose to prominence after the US-led invasion of Iraq. The ensuing insurgency provided the group with fertile ground to wage a guerrilla war against coalition forces and their domestic supporters. In the face of successful US counterterrorism efforts and the Sunni tribal awakening, AQI's violent campaign has diminished since the peak years of 2006-2007, though the group remains a threat to stability in Iraq and the broader Levant. Since the withdrawal of US forces in late 2011, AQI has accelerated the pace of attacks on predominantly Shiite targets in an attempt to reignite conflict between Iraq's Sunni minority and the Shiite-led government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.
Meanwhile, AQI has expanded its reach into neighboring Syria. In April 2013, AQI announced that it was changing its name to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), and that the Syrian group Jabhat Nusra would join it. Jabhat Nusra's leaders objected, however, and the two groups have remained independent.
Much of the violence in Iraq is blamed on ISIS, which has launched a vicious bombing campaign in Iraq as part of an anti-Shiite insurgency that claimed more than 8,000 lives in 2013. On January 3, ISIS asserted control over the western Iraqi city of Fallujah, declaring it an Islamic state. The capture of Fallujah came amid a campaign of violence across the western desert province of Anbar, in which local tribes, Iraqi security forces, and al-Qaeda-affiliated militants have been locked in fighting. The ISIS fighters have steadily asserted their control over Anbar's desert regions for months, and resisted assaults by both Iraqi government forces and local tribal leaders to maintain control of all of Fallujah, and perhaps as much as half of Ramadi, Anbar's capital.
The sectarian tensions between Iraq's Sunnis and the Shiite-led government have been further inflamed by the war in Syria. Al-Qaeda's growing influence in Syria has given terrorists control over the desert territories spanning both sides of the Iraqi-Syrian border, enabling them to readily transfer weapons and fighters between the two arenas.
Al-Qaeda in Syria
Syria has become a magnet for al-Qaeda and other jihadi recruits, as the Assad regime has been an ally of Iran since the 1980s. Al-Qaeda's direct involvement in Syria includes ISIS, Abdullah Azzam Brigades, al-Qaeda-affiliated Fatah al-Islam, and Jordanian Salafi jihadists. Highlighting the widening regional Sunni-Shiite schism, influential Sunni Sheikh Youssef al-Qaradawi called on all those who can perform jihad to head to Syria to fight the Alawites and Shi'ites, who are "worse than Christians and Jews."
Ayman al-Zawahiri, al-Qaeda's leader, called upon Syrians to "rise against the criminal Alawite regime" of Bashar Assad. In June 2013, between 30 and 60 Shiite civilians were killed by rebel forces in Hatla, a village near Iraq that was invaded by thousands of foreign-backed jihadists this week. Rebel fighters denounced the "pug-nosed" Shiite "dogs" and burned dozens of homes.
ISIS has been active in Syria since 2012, fighting to control major outposts and the provincial capital of al-Raqqa in northern Syria. The group is fighting both Assad's forces and the secular Syrian rebels who once had viewed the group as an ally in the fight to topple the embattled leader. Fierce fighting between ISIS and Syrian rebel groups was reported in December 2013 in a dozen locations, with ISIS taking control of the strategic Idlib province town of Saraqeb, which sits on the Aleppo-Damascus highway.
Jabhat Nusra, Syria's homegrown Salafi-jihadist group, has important links to al-Qaeda affiliates and demonstrates a higher level of effectiveness than many other rebel groups. The group has shown sensitivity to popular perception and is gaining support within Syria. The emergence of indigenous Salafi jihadist groups such as Jabhat Nusra is far more dangerous to the long-term stability of the Syrian state than foreign jihadist groups, as they represent a metamorphosis of a Salafi-jihadist ideology into a domestic platform that can achieve popular resonance.
Al-Qaeda in Lebanon
Lebanon has been roiled by tensions and clashes over both Hizballah's strong military support for Assad and a number of rebel-supporting Sunni communities. Car bombings, rocket attacks, and kidnappings have targeted both parties, and armed clashes have been frequent. Hizballah leader Hassan Nasrallah has publicly justified Hizballah's involvement in Syria to stop al-Qaeda-style Sunni radicals, or takfiri, in their tracks. He sees Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq as part of the same battlefield.
On January 4, ISIS claimed credit for a suicide car bombing that took at least four lives and wounded dozens in a Hizballah-controlled suburb of Beirut, marking the first attack by the group in Lebanon. The group warned that the bombing was the start of a campaign against the "wicked criminals" of Hizballah for its role in helping the Syrian regime."
Another al-Qaeda affiliate, the Abdullah Azzam Brigades, claimed responsibility for November's suicide bombing of the Iranian Embassy in Beirut. Group leader Majid al-Majid blasted Nasrallah's characterization of killed Syrian regime members as martyrs as "an insult to millions of Muslims." He didn't hesitate to threaten all of Lebanon should Hizballah continue to support the Assad regime, and hinted that his organization would plan an attack on Lebanese tourists, should the state continue to strengthen Hizballah and its leaders. Al-Majid was captured by the Lebanese security service, and on January 4 died in custody.
In the last decades an Iran-dominated Shia Crescent was considered the main threat to Israeli and regional security. The growing involvement of Salafi jihad in the region has produced a new threat. The latest operations of al-Qaeda and its affiliates in the three countries of the Shia Crescent – Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon – highlight the group's growing regional influence and ambitions.
The Sunni jihadist groups might destabilize the whole area and transform it into an unstable, ungovernable conflict zone. Such an uncontrolled region would become a safe haven for Islamic terror groups and training center for militants from the Sinai, Arabian Peninsula, and elsewhere, and a platform to launch jihad against Israel and moderate Arab countries in the region. A positive outcome of this scenario, however, will be the decline in Iranian influence in the region.
Col. (res.) Dr. Shaul Shay, a research associate at the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies, is a former Deputy Head of the Israel National Security Council. He lectures at Bar-Ilan University and the Herzliya Interdisciplinary Center.


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The IRS is holding special Saturday hours tomorrow, offering free tax help and advice at approximately 250 IRS Taxpayer Assistance Centers and other free community tax sites nationwide. That means free help for lowering your income taxes.
Photo by ANATOLI AXELROD.
We've done all we can to show you how to squeeze every last dollar out of your income tax return, but sometimes it really helps to talk to an actual human about what's happening with your tax situation. Hit up the IRS site to find the assistance center nearest you, grab a valid ID, Social Security cards, and the appropriate documents, and get some free help first thing tomorrow.
As an added bonus, if you make $42,000 or less, the IRS volunteers can prepare your whole tax return for you free of charge.
Super Saturday - Get Free Tax Help March 21! [IRS via Consumer Reports]


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"Accordingly, and to the author's personal experience, navel lint seems to be a phenomenon that affects primarily male adults."Now you can say you've already learned something today...
Steinhauser found that hairs around the belly button have a scaly structure that pulls fibers from clothing and then directs those fibers—along with dead skin, fat, sweat and dust—into the belly button.
He wrote that scales on the hair act like "barbed hooks," catching a "melange of foreign materials" and coalescing them into easily removed clumps of lint. Thus, Steinhauser posits, men with abdomen hair likely have "cleaner and more hygienic belly buttons than those who do not"—provided, of course, they go to the trouble of actually removing the lint clumps.


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From HPSDRwiki
PENNNYLANE - Two Stage Companion Exciter to Mercury
The Pennylane two stage digital up converter (DUC) is a 1/2-watt transmitter/exciter board. It makes a good companion to the Mercury HF direct sampling receiver board. When connected to the Atlas (bus) it will process the I and Q signal from the personal computer.
The project leaders for the board was Phil VK6APH and KK7P.
Pennylane is available from iQuadLabs


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Maj. Gen. Raymond Mason ('78)
NewsIn 1974, Ray came to JMU ready to continue his family's military tradition — his father was a 30-year Army veteran who served in World War II and the Vietnam War — but at the time, the university did not have a Reserve Officer Training Corps program. Ray was instrumental in the creation of JMU's first ROTC chapter in 1976; and in 1978, he graduated as a second lieutenant. "Since my commissioning, hundreds of great Americans have received their military commission through James Madison University and are serving our nation on freedom's frontier around the world," he says. Today, the man who helped begin ROTC at JMU is a major general and leads a force of more than 55,000 military, government civilians and contract workers to provide fuel, food and other support services to more than 200,000 deployed forces. This consummate soldier is, by his admission, first and foremost a devoted family man. He lauds his father for setting an example of discipline and patriotism, and praises his mother, a German refugee, for instilling in him a sense of determination and humor in the face of adversity. And, Ray says, "My wife, Patti [K. Harris ('78)], and children, Nick and Sarah, have continued to be the rock and light of my life keeping me focused on serving a purpose much greater than myself … family and country!"
"I feel extremely fortunate that I had the privilege of attending JMU. The academically challenging and socially active campus atmosphere allowed for creative and innovative open thought, which gave me the opportunity to quickly learn the critical leadership skills that would prepare me for the high stakes, rapid-paced, ever-changing mission requirements of a U.S. Army career."


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Jesus Walks
Kanye West
Yo, we at war
We at war with terrorism, racism, and most of all we at war with ourselves
(Jesus walks)
God show me the way because the Devil trying to break me down
(Jesus walks with me) with me, with me, with me
You know what the Midwest is?
Young & Restless
Where restless niggas might snatch your necklace
And next these niggas might Jack your Lexus
Somebody tell these niggas who Kanye West is
I walk through the valley of the shadow of death is
Top floor the view alone will leave you breathless, uh
Try to catch it, uh! It's kinda hard
Getting choked by the detectives yeah yeah now check the method
They be asking us questions, harass and arrest us
Saying: we eat pieces of shit like you for breakfast
Huh? Yall eat pieces of shit? What's the basis?
We ain't going nowhere but got suits and cases
A trunk full of coke rental car from Avis
My momma used to say only Jesus can save us
Well momma I know I act a fool
But I'll be gone till November I got packs to move I Hope
(Jesus Walks)
God show me the way because the Devil trying to break me down
(Jesus Walks with me)
The only thing that that I pray is that me feet don't fail me now
(Jesus Walks)
And I don't think there is nothing I can do now to right my wrongs
(Jesus Walks with me)
I want to talk to God but I'm afraid because we ain't spoke in so long
To the hustlas, killers, murderers, drug dealers even the strippers
(Jesus walks with them)
To the victims of Welfare for we living in hell here hell yeah
(Jesus walks with them)
Now hear ye hear ye want to see Thee more clearly
I know he hear me when my feet get weary
'Cause we're the almost nearly extinct
We rappers are role models we rap we don't think
I ain't here to argue about his facial features
Or here to convert atheists into believers
I'm just trying to say the way school need teachers
The way Kathie Lee needed Regis that's the way yall need Jesus
So here go my single dog radio needs this
They say you can rap about anything except for Jesus
That means guns, sex, lies, video tapes
But if I talk about God my record won't get played Huh?
Well let this take away from my spins
Which will probably take away from my ends
Then I hope this take away from my sins
And bring the day that I'm dreaming about
Next time I'm in the club everybody screaming out
(Jesus Walks)
God show me the way because the devil trying to break me down
(Jesus Walks)
The only thing that that I pray is that me feet don't fail me now
El significado de esta letra fue generado automáticamente.


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Editor's Note: Here is the fourth post in a series from Scott Walter, ex-ACRLog blog team member, in which he shares his learning experiences as a candidate for ACRL office.
There are two basic questions that one addresses on the campaign trail: what are we doing wrong, and its companion, what can we do better? Over at Free Range Librarian, Karen Schneider showed us recently how these questions can be asked, answered, and, most importantly, engaged. One of the topics she raised about ALA writ large – our publishing model – is one that I also heard about this Spring.
For many people, at least part of this discussion revolved around information literacy, EDUCAUSE, and the ways in which our sibling association seemed to be enhancing its leadership on this issue across the higher education landscape. While ACRL spent time this year planning to review the Information Literacy Standards for Higher Education and identifying a process by which sections could create subject specific information literacy standards, EDUCAUSE was bringing a robust discussion of this issue to campus leaders and to the higher education press (subscription needed), through research projects, white papers, and presentations – all supported by a publishing model very different than ours.
EDUCAUSE has become an effective voice for campus IT organizations, educational technologists, and, yes, academic libraries because it has embraced a publishing model designed to get persuasive, high-quality information in front of both information professionals and academic administrators in forms they can use.
For example, while ALA/ACRL continues to privilege print publishing (with some important exceptions, and some real promise in the recent hires of people like Jenny Levine, David Free, and Kathryn Deiss), EDUCAUSE focuses on open access for a huge amount of the material available in its library. Also, while ALA/ACRL publications tend to focus on enhancing discussions within the library community, EDUCAUSE focuses on publishing in media designed specifically to bring the discussion of information issues to a wider audience.
This is not to suggest that ACRL publications aren't good. C&RL is the leading LIS journal, and many ACRL monographs are seminal works in our field, but where is the ACRL version of EDUCAUSE Review (with its contributions from non-technologists who understand the critical nature of IT in higher education) or the 7 Things You Should About series (with its cogent synopses of emergent issues in a fashion timely enough to be useful across the academy)? What can we learn from the EDUCAUSE model in terms of bringing issues of significance to libraries (and their users) to the broader academic audience, both on campus, and in widely read venues like Inside Higher Education and the Chronicle? Our publications are of high quality, but what can we do better?
First (and you can all say it with me), we can improve our Web presence. We have to make our site more friendly to our members, but, as importantly, we have to find ways to better highlight our contribution to broader discussions that may be of interest to non-members. We have to make it easy for an academic administrator who knows nothing about ACRL to see what our members can contribute to local discussions of student learning, support for teaching and research, assessment of learning outcomes, scholarly communications, etc.
Second, we have to find a balance between the traditional ACRL publishing model, and the greater degree of open access found at EDUCAUSE. We need academic administrators, once pointed to our content, to be able to access it without hindrance. We may not be able to go "all open,†but we need to keep looking for ways to increase the amount of content available to all – especially those non-library faculty, staff, and administrators who we really want to see how we can contribute to critical campus concerns.
Finally, we need to think about how best to engage that critical audience of non-librarians on campus. Is there an ACRL counterpart to EDUCAUSE Review to be developed – a publication allowing non-librarians to contribute to the discussion of the importance of academic libraries and librarians to campus issues including: first-year experience, student engagement, co-curricular education, accreditation, copyright education, preparing future faculty, alumni relations, etc.? Could we create a tiny part of ACRL publishing nimble enough to bring out something like "7 Things†on a regular basis?
As with the example I gave in an earlier post about the 5 Weeks to a Social Library experiment, there are many examples of grass-roots efforts by academic librarians interesting in thinking differently about publishing about how social networking tools allow us to share amongst ourselves very practical advice about how to better "market†the role of the library in the academic enterprise to the campus colleagues who are our most important supporters and partners in the 21st century.
And finding ways to bring those grass-roots efforts to the Divisional level is something we can do better, and that will be the subject of my final observation from the campaign trail.


text:
LAWRENCE, Mass., April 11, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- NxStage Medical, Inc. (Nasdaq: NXTM), a leading medical technology company focused on advancing renal care, today announced plans to release its financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2016, on Wednesday, May 4, 2016, before the opening of the financial markets.
NxStage will also host a conference call at 9:00 a.m. Eastern Time on Wednesday, May 4, 2016 to discuss its first quarter financial results. To listen to the conference call, please dial 877-392-9886 (domestic) or 707-287-9329 (international). The call will also be webcast LIVE and can be accessed via the investor relations section of the Company's website at http://ir.nxstage.com.
A replay of the conference call will be available two hours after the completion of the call through May 11, 2016. To access the replay, dial 855-859-2056 (domestic) or 404-537-3406 (international) and reference conference ID 87420544. An online archive of the conference call can be accessed via the investor relations section of the Company's website at http://ir.nxstage.com.
About NxStage Medical
NxStage Medical, Inc. (Nasdaq: NXTM) is a leading medical technology company, headquartered in Lawrence, Massachusetts, USA, that develops, manufactures and markets innovative products for the treatment of end-stage renal disease (ESRD) and acute kidney failure. NxStage also has established a small number of dialysis clinics committed to the development of innovative care delivery models for patients with ESRD. For more information on NxStage and its products and services, please visit the Company's websites at www.nxstage.com and www.nxstagekidneycare.com.
Forward-Looking Statements
This release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements contained in this release that are not clearly historical in nature are forward-looking, and the words "anticipate," "believe," "expect," "estimate," "plan," and similar expressions are generally intended to identify forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements in this Release include NxStage's plan to release its financial results on May 4, 2016. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by these forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors including those that are discussed in NxStage's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2015. NxStage is under no obligation to (and expressly disclaims any such obligation to) update or alter its forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
Contact: Kristen K. Sheppard, Esq.
VP, Investor Relations
Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20110503/MM94799LOGO
SOURCE NxStage Medical, Inc.


text:
Herbertson Glacier is my favorite place we have visited here. Up until the trip to Herbertson, I kept myself busy in the lab, weighing and measuring carbonate minerals for my experiments, so I did not fully realize I was in a historically important setting. That all changed as we traveled to Herbertson.
On the way to Herbertson I saw the Royal Society Mountain Range and the massive Ferrar Glacier in the distance. These mountains and the glacier immediately cemented that, yes, I am in Antarctica! Admiral Robert Scott, and then Sir Ernest Shakleton and his team, crossed the Ferrar almost 100 years ago in tightly woven jackets and leather shoes filled with a special type of Norwegian grass. They walked across the glacier pulling their gear in sledges, and here I was in several layers of polar fleece, a doughy red parka and bunny boots, riding on an ATV. I would have liked to have teared-up at the thought of these intrepid explorers, but my eyes would have frozen shut from wind-chill! I did not want to miss the polygonal cracks on the sides of the mountains, nor the amazing artsy-looking basaltic intrusions cross-cutting the mountains along the way, sites that I am sure astounded these early explorers too.
Our Herbertson research site is located near the Wilson Piedmont Glacier, and was chosen because the way that sediment moves and is deposited here may be different here than at New Harbor. Herbertson has undulating pressure ridges that crush and crumple the sea ice into ice hills that look like ice sculptures (in the foreground of the top picture). Among the pressure ridges, I must have spent hours collecting scallops and investigating the sediments. The lower picture shows some scallops I collected. I stopped only when the temperature dropped suddenly as the Sun dropped behind the mountains, and I realized it was almost 11 pm at night!
We then took a bumpy and noisy helicopter ride to the Bay of Sails. We flew over the extensive Canadian Glacier glinting bright white in the sunlight (Dry Valley glaciers are not dirty!), and then over sea ice gorged with iceberg chunks. At the Bay of Sails I tended the ice divers, helped deploy the experiments from the ice surface, and had a brief moment to look for fossil scallops along the shoreline. I saw a South Polar Skua at the Bay of Sails, the first flying creature I'd seen in Antarctica. This sea gull-like bird is known as the raptor of the south. With its appearance, I knew that the summer heat was on its way, the sea ice was going to melt rapidly, and that our field season would be quickly coming to a close.
Herbertson Glacier information from Sam Bowser's Lab
Ferrar Glacier images and information from NASA Earth Observatory
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text:
I just stumbled on a rather nice feature of defrecord
that I've missed in the past; perhaps you have as well?
I've been using Stuart Sierra's component library to manage startup of the server I'm building.
A big part of component is the use of records. You define a record that stores your own data and have the record extend component/Lifecycle
; this is provided to the component library and it will assoc
in any dependencies before invoking the start
Now, in practice, the values of the record's fields, execution-mode
, active-connection
, etc., don't change (at least, the component library doesn't change them). So the easiest thing is to just reference those symbols in the body of the start
or stop
But what about other cases, where the field values may change? Do you need to to access the values via keyword? That is, if the field values are changed and you use the symbols, do you get the current value, or the value as passed to the record's constructor?
That will, of course, work ... but it's actually not necessary. From the defrecord
Note that method bodies are not closures, the local environment includes only the named fields, and those fields can be accessed directly.
Our answer is right there in this typically too-terse description. The method bodies look like closures over the initial values of the fields ... but they are not; they are translated into references to the actual fields.
Here's a simpler version of StateImpl
, with a simple experiment to prove its behavior:
I haven't looked at the bytecode generated, but it appears that referencing a field in a method body is very similar to accessing a field in a normal Java object; the value retrieved is based on the this
-like first parameter. In other words, it's designed to be very natural for Java developers. Even so, this behavior comes as a welcome surprise ... though I'm pretty sure any of the current books on Clojure have this information.


text:
Source: Link
WILHELM, ALOISIA, named Maria Pulcheria of the Good Shepherd, Sister of St Elizabeth; b. 17 Feb. 1853 in Ehrwald (Austria), daughter of Thomas Wilhelm, a railway official, and Creszens Westreicher; d. 5 Feb. 1916 in Humboldt, Sask.
Not much is known of Aloisia Wilhelm's childhood and family. She worked as a waitress for some years before applying, at age 25, for admission to the convent of the Sisters of St Elizabeth in Klagenfurt (Austria). Invested with the habit on 29 Sept. 1879, she made her solemn vows on 15 Nov. 1880. She was to serve the community in various capacities, as laundress, sacristan, treasurer, and superior general (1906–12).
It was during her second term as superior general, in 1910, that the foundation at Klagenfurt observed its 200th anniversary. In appreciation of God's provident care, Mother Maria Pulcheria proposed that the congregation establish a foreign mission. Several clergymen of the area were familiar with the community of German Benedictines at Muenster, in St Peter's Colony, Sask., and of their wish to have a community of sisters establish a hospital in their pioneer territory. They urged Mother Pulcheria to write to the Benedictine prior, George Doerfler, named Dom Bruno, and some months of correspondence ensued.
Before the sisters could undertake the new venture they needed the approval of church authorities in Austria, Rome, and Saskatchewan. Mother Pulcheria quickly secured the necessary documents. With great foresight she obtained permission to establish canonically erected institutions with independent status and also to open a noviciate in the new foundation. Doubt was thrown on the sisters' ability to proceed when the financial institution in which they had invested suffered a partial bankruptcy; however, with the encouragement of Doerfler they decided to trust in Providence and the good will of the people of the new mission.
Thus three sisters, Maria Augustina Platzer, Maria Philomena Jug (Yuch), and Maria Gabriela Lex, were chosen to leave for Muenster, where they arrived on 14 May 1911. The people of the colony had already agreed that the hospital would be constructed at Humboldt, and no time was lost in deciding on the location and purchasing the necessary land. On 3 Oct. 1912 the first St Elizabeth Hospital, with 18 beds, was officially opened and blessed. In that year Mother Pulcheria sent another group of sisters to Saskatchewan.
After the expiration of her second term as superior general, Mother Pulcheria, then directress of novices, was urged by the sisters in Humboldt to join them as the founder of the new mission. Accompanied by Doerfler and two Austrian sisters, she arrived in Muenster on 14 July 1913. On 30 August the congregation unanimously chose her as its first canonically elected superior general. The foundation was declared erected under canon law and independent of the Klagenfurt mother house. The first Canadian novice would be accepted later that year.
It was difficult for Mother Pulcheria at the age of 60 to leave the secure and beloved convent at Klagenfurt to come to a foreign land whose language and customs were very different. She experienced many surprises and disillusionments. The hospital was modern, but it lacked the comforts available in Austria-Hungary; moreover, it served as well as a residence for the sisters. Although Mother Pulcheria embraced the challenge, she was unable to adapt fully to her new circumstances. Sincere and pious, with a keen knowledge of human nature, she endeavoured to instil in her sisters a truly religious spirit. Prayer was always her mainstay in daily life.
In February 1916 Mother Pulcheria underwent an operation for cancer of the stomach which at first seemed successful. Her condition worsened, however, and she died on the 5th. Her body was laid to rest in the sisters' private cemetery beside that of Augustina Platzer, who had died of tuberculosis the previous month. Mother Pulcheria is accepted as the Canadian founder of the Sisters of St Elizabeth of the Third Order Regular of St Francis of Assisi, whose mother house is in Humboldt and whose general administration is in Saskatoon.
Arch. of the Sisters of St Elizabeth (Humboldt, Sask.), Docs., nos.2134/11, 8 May 1911 (from the Holy See, Rome); 2110, 27 April 1911; 2552, 26 May 1911; 5786, 16 Nov. 1911; 3384, 1 July 1912; 3072, 24 May 1913 (from the diocese of Gurk, Klagenfurt, Austria); "Eine Seltsame Chronik, [1908–43]," comp. Sister Maria Elizabeth Premru (transcript); Letter from Sister Maria Michaela Zehrer, Convent der Elisabethinen, Klagenfurt, 22 Sept. 1993; Minutes of the election of Mother Maria Pulcheria as superior general, 30 Aug. 1913; Mother Maria Pulcheria, corr. with Father Bruno Doerfler, 1910–13; Sister Maria Pulcheria, profession of solemn vows, 15 Nov. 1880; Taufschein [baptismal record for Aloisia Wilhelm], 17 Feb. 1853 (transcript from birth and baptismal records of Ehrwald, Austria). Prince Albert Roman Catholic Diocesan Arch. (Prince Albert, Sask.), Albert Pascal, corn, 4 juill. 1910; 5 août 1912; 25 août, 2 sept. 1913 (transcripts in English or German at the Arch. of the Sisters of St Elizabeth). Sisters of St Elizabeth, Commemorating the golden anniversary of the foundation in Canada ([Humboldt], 1961); Memories of the golden jubilee year. 1961–1962 ([Humboldt, 1962]); Memories of yester-year, 1911 to 1971 (Humboldt, 1971; copy in Arch. of the Sisters of St Elizabeth).
© 1998–2024 University of Toronto/Université Laval
Image Gallery
Cite This Article
Angela M. Stang, "WILHELM, ALOISIA, Maria Pulcheria of the Good Shepherd," in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 14, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–, accessed March 4, 2024, http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/wilhelm_aloisia_14E.html.
The citation above shows the format for footnotes and endnotes according to the Chicago manual of style (16th edition). Information to be used in other citation formats:
Permalink: | http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/wilhelm_aloisia_14E.html |
Author of Article: | Angela M. Stang |
Title of Article: | WILHELM, ALOISIA, Maria Pulcheria of the Good Shepherd |
Publication Name: | Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 14 |
Publisher: | University of Toronto/Université Laval |
Year of publication: | 1998 |
Year of revision: | 1998 |
Access Date: | March 4, 2024 |


text:
Dachshund Monogram Metal Art
Dachshund Monogram Metal Art
Custom-crafted especially for you! Insert your own names, dates or special messages on all our personalizable artwork :)
Each single Monogram piece is handcrafted with unparalleled design just for you and finished to perfection. Every piece is powder coated to give you the flexibility to hang it indoors or outdoors without worrying about the weather conditions or rusting. We help turn what matters most such as family names, children's names, loved one's names, and more into stunning home decor pieces that can transform any space. This breathtaking piece of decor is NOT found in any store and is sure to leave your friends & loved ones in awe!
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Our metal art signs are made to order. Please allow a full 10 business days after the day you order to allow for us to produce your sign. Returns are not available unless product has printing errors
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*Selected size is based on the maximum height or width of the sign depending on physical orientation
Care Instructions
Care Instructions
Gently wash with soap and water.


text:
Taiyeb Ali, T.B. and Razak, I.A. and Raja Latifah, R.J. and Zain, R.B. (1995) An epidemiological survey of oral mucosal lesions among elderly Malaysians. Gerodontology, 12 (1). pp. 37-40. ISSN 0734-0664, DOI https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1741-2358.1995.tb00128.x.
An_epidemiological_survey_of_oral_mucosal_lesions_among_elderly_Malaysians.pdf Download (28kB) |
A house to house random survey on elderly subjects was undertaken in the District of Klang in Malaysia. The objective of this study was to investigate the prevalence of oral mucosal lesions (OML) among the elderly in this area. The primary units in the sampling frame were the Enumeration Blocks (EBs) as defined under the population census. All households of the selected EBs were considered as sampling units and members aged 60 and above were considered as respondents. There was a slight preponderance of females, with the Malays comprising the majority of the subjects. Of the 486 respondents, mean aged 69.1 +/- 7.3 yr, 111 had at least one oral mucosal lesion, a prevalence of 22.8. A total of 145 lesions were detected. The prevalence of OML was highest among Indians and least among the Chinese. The most common finding was tongue lesions, recording a prevalence of 10.7, followed by oral pigmentation (4.9) and white lesions (4.3). Denture related lesions were comparatively low at 2.5. Two cases of oral cancer if representative would give a relatively high prevalence of 0.4
Item Type: | Article |
Funders: | UNSPECIFIED |
Additional Information: | Cited By (since 1996): 12 Export Date: 12 January 2012 Source: Scopus |
Uncontrolled Keywords: | Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma, Oscc, Lichenoid Lesions, Lichen Planus, Oral Cancer, Oral Tumours, Pemphigus, Traumatic Eosinophilic Granuloma, Aphthous Ulcers, Oral Mucosal Lesions, Betel Chewers Mucosa, Betel Quid Related Lesions, Betel Quid, Areca Quid, Tobacco Quid, Oral Cancer Screening, Training And Calibration, Early Detection, Oral Cancer Awareness, Biobanking, Tissue Bank, Databank, Oral Cancer, Tissue Bank, Research Credibility, Research Ethics |
Subjects: | R Medicine > RK Dentistry > Oral surger |
Divisions: | Faculty of Dentistry > Dept of Oral Pathology & Oral Medicine & Periodontology |
Depositing User: | Prof. Dr. Rosnah Mohd Zain |
Date Deposited: | 08 Feb 2012 02:49 |
Last Modified: | 07 Aug 2019 08:45 |
URI: | http://eprints.um.edu.my/id/eprint/2557 |
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text:
School Search
The Maryland English Institute (MEI) is part of the prestigious University of Maryland and is just minutes from the nation's capital, Washington, DC, with its famous cultural attractions and museums.
Your experience at MEI will include:
- Small class sizes for individual attention and plenty of practice time
- Lively, creative lessons to keep you motivated
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- Access to all University facilities, including libraries, free shuttle-buses, computer labs, recreation center and health center
- Friendly, patient teachers who will take the time to learn your unique needs and help you meet your goals. MEI teachers are all native speakers with advanced degrees in teaching English to speakers of other languages
Proven success
MEI's Intensive English Program has helped hundreds of students achieve their goals of academic success at the university level, or professional success in their chosen careers. Over the last five years, students from 65 countries, speaking almost 30 different languages, have come to MEI to improve their English!
What students say about the Maryland English Institute
We had a wonderful teacher, who was not just a highly qualified professor but whose classes were never boring, who gave us really valuable advice (which I still use every day), who did his best to support our English language studies, who showed us that to study a new language is a great pleasure. And our professor was not the exception at MEI. He was the rule.
—Regina Revazova, Russia
I have gone to four language schools so far, and MEI is the best of them.
—Ryoji Maruyama, Japan
What I like best about MEI is all the international friends I've made here.
—Supamarn Mitsomrwang, Thailand
My English language level wasn't beginner when I first came to MEI so I thought it would be challenging to make much improvement, but after having studied at MEI, many native English speaker friends have told me how strong and fluent my English has become.
—Mohammad Alkuwari, Qatar
About the Maryland English Institute
MEI was founded 30 years ago as part of the University of Maryland. MEI is a member of the University and College Intensive English Programs (UCIEP) and accredited by the Commission on English Language Program Accreditation (CEA).
Why Maryland English Institute?
We understand that learning English is more than just learning a language. Other language schools may help you learn to speak English. At MEI you will not only learn to speak English; you will also prepare for success in the English-speaking world.
For a brighter future today, visit MEI.


text:
Thirteen years ago, singer-guitarist Zack Lopez had it made: Along with his childhood friend Sean Stockham, he formed the hotshot band Leisure, snagged a big-ticket record deal from Dreamworks and moved into a cozy Hollywood Hills pad. Life was good and would only get better.
Only it didn't. A revolving door of unworkable band members and creative differences with their label resulted in two albums recorded and two albums shelved. By 2003, Leisure was kaput; Lopez and Stockman went their separate ways and found day jobs.
"It was difficult," says Lopez, who went to work for his brother's contracting business. "Things came to us so fast the first time around. We were young, so we didn't even register what we were was in the context of something special. I knew that Sean and I would eventually do music again; the only question was 'when?'"
By 2006, Lopez and Stockman were back at it as Middle Class Rut, only instead of dealing with all of those pesky additional bandmates, they formed a powerhouse rock duo based around the same instrumental paradigm crafted by Local H, the White Stripes and the Black Keys. "We did it out of necessity," says Lopez. "If we would've had a rad bass player, we probably would've gone the traditional route. But this has worked out pretty well."
Middle Class Rut issued a psychologically thorny, hyper-aggressive debut, No Name No Color, in 2010, and last month they followed it up with a quirkier, more polished but no less imposing affair, Pick Up Your Head. To replicate the experimental nature of the new album live, Lopez and Stockman are back to their old tricks and are playing as a five-piece. "If that keeps people guessing, then I'm happy," Lopez says with a laugh. "The last thing we want to be is predictable."
Is the band still a duo? You have three other members on stage now.
"Yeah, I think so - it feels that way, anyway. We recorded the new record as a duo, so these guys are a by-product of us making an album that was impossible to play live as a duo. We had to get some guys to fill this thing out.
"Plus, we wanted to shake things up. I think we were getting to that point, so it feels good to have a new dynamic. And to be able to play these new songs and have them sound like the record - oh, man, that's been awesome. If we had five guys and it was a mess, we'd probably go back to two, but right now, it's working out."
In taking on the new members, did that give you pause for thought, like, "Oh, we're now a traditional band"?
"I think I was more bothered by how many two-piece bands I've been seeing over the last year of our first record cycle. It always seemed like cliché. And promoters would jump on it and be like, 'Oh, you're a two-piece - let's pair you with a bunch of other two-piece bands!' It became this whole stale batch of two pieces, and it lost anything that was special about it. When we started doing it, I feel as though we were special, like we were doing it in a way that hadn't been done. Now it's like the two-piece band is the traditional band, so we were like, 'Fuck, let's have a five-piece and be different!'"
"Since we got started, the two bands that have been in our ears have been Local H and the White Stripes. Now it seems as if every other fucking band is a duo. Seriously, every other band is a two-piece nowadays. It's a cliché. Local H were a rad band; they were one of the rock duo pioneers from way back. They were doing it in the grunge era. Actually, it took me a while to even realize that Local H were a duo - their sound was so big and full."
With the five-piece band, have you altered the guitar-amp setup you were using before?
"I've changed it drastically. For whatever two-piece you're in at the time, you have to customize your own rig to your band. I had a pretty deep rig - it was the same amount of gear that we have for all the guys now. I kept my basic sound because I didn't want to come off as if we were a different band - that was never the idea. More or less, I've scaled things down.
"We tried to play with other people before when I was using my old rig, and it was just a mess. I was running two guitar amps and one bass amp, but I'd also have a bass player and another guitar player. At some point, if you all try to play the same chord, it's just a disaster. It was too, too much.
"Now, instead of trying to overpower everybody, I took it way down. I have a basic guitar rig, and I let the other guys fill out the sound; they're doing all the stuff that I used to do. Essentially, we're splitting the same sound with more people."
Are you still using your Les Paul Junior?
"Absolutely. That's not going away, I don't think. I'm still crankin' on that one. I got it back in 2001, so it's got some miles on it."
When they were two: Lopez and Sean Stockman on stage in Atlanta, GA, 2010. © Robb D. Cohen./Retna Ltd./Corbis
Did you modify it in any way to play as a two-piece?
"It came with the stock P-90s. I took out the bridge right away and put one of those Badass bridges on it - that was a big help. The neck is the only other thing that isn't standard. It's got an extra-fat profile neck on it; the thing's like a tree trunk."
Dave Sardy mixed the new album. What was it like to work with him?
"Man, that was a mixing relationship that can only happen in 2013. It was all done with us in different places - we never even met the guy. [Laughs] We've always been a big fan of his, and we wanted a guy who wasn't afraid to make the record sound a little fucked-up. When we heard his first mixes, we were like, 'Whoa! This is the direction we want the record to go.'"
Speaking of "fucked-up," on the song Born Too Late, you have quite an insane racket going on.
"That's a mess, man. I was trying to do mixes of it for the demo, and eventually I got to the point where I couldn't keep turning things up. It started out with no live drums on it, just this weird percussion beat. It was me hitting the side of a wooden desk with the edge of a computer printer; it created this industrial kind of Nine Inch Nails beat. Then Sean put another beat over it, and it turned into this wall of fucking… I don't even know what it is, but it's cool." [Laughs]
The song Leech has more of a bass-driven sound. Was it built from the bass up?
"It's funny: If you're a really awesome bassist, you can just skate around the neck and not worry about the tone too much - because you're so good [laughs]. I like a really mid-rangey, buzzy tone, sort of like Duff McKagan's sound. He has a cranky, chorus-like, gritty thing. Sardy mixed the song like that. It started out more guitar driven, but once he EQ'd the bass and slammed it up the middle really heavy, that's how it came out. But it was a bass being played through my old guitar rig."
What kind of bass do you use in the studio?
"I use a Lakland. They're these super-expensive basses that a few guys use - the guy in 311, the guy in Papa Roach, a few others. We did the second half of the record in the studio that Papa Roach owns, and that guy endorses Lakland. He had about 50 basses in there, so I found one that I really liked. It made about 50 percent of the record."
How much of the album is the two of you playing live? I get the feeling it's not a lot.
"It's probably 50/50. A lot of the record was based around these percussive beats that were happening, and then it was 'All right, now we'll put the live element on top of that.' We still played together and jammed on guitars and drums, but it was within the confines of those weird percussion tracks."
In working with the full band, because you don't have to make all the sound yourself, are you now able to be a more nuanced guitar player?
"Yeah, yeah. Doing the duo thing, there was only so much I could do since I had to be the bass player and guitar player. My real guitar playing kind of took a backseat. Going from a duo to five guys on stage really lets me be a guitar player again. I can even not play sometimes, which is huge for me. I'm using my effects smarter and playing lead lines - it's all opening up."


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Washington, DC–(ENEWSPF)–April 5, 2013.
by Erik Altieri, NORML Communications Director
Many traditionally write off the Southern United States as an area dead to cannabis law reform, but one Representative is behind a new effort that can change all of that.
This week, Rep. Patricia Todd (D-Birmingham) has introduced House Bill 550, the Alabama Cannabis and Hemp Reform Act of 2013. This measure would legalize the possession of up to one ounce of marijuana and the cultivation of up to 12 mature marijuana plants by those over the age of 21. It would also authorize the Department of Revenue to establish marijuana retail outlets. You can read the full text of the measure here.
As many of you have seen, yesterday, Pew Research released new polling data that revealed, for the first time in data from a US based polling firm, that Americans support legalizing marijuana by over 50%. The survey found that 52% support legalization and only 45% were opposed. This is no longer just an issue relegated to states such as those on the West Coast and Colorado, traditionally considered bastions of marijuana law reform, this support is now nationwide.
As it very well should be, marijuana prohibition is a failed policy that squanders hundreds of millions of tax dollars a year, inversely affects society's underprivileged, violates civil liberties, and fuels a violent, criminal black market responsible for countless deaths on our border as well as our local communities.
If states such as the traditionally conservative Alabama are beginning the discussion around alternatives to our failed prohibition of marijuana, the collapse of the drug war machine and its war on a green plant cannot be too far behind.
ALABAMA: If you live in Alabama click here to easily write your Representative and urge him or her to support this legislation!
Source: norml.org


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Shorefront YM-YWHA
Shorefront YM-YWHA @ P.S. 225
Under the supervision of a licensed Social Worker, KCC students majoring in Education, Mental Health, Communications and Performing Arts assist the teachers at P.S. 225 with their after-school classes. Various Service-learning activities include homework help, music, dance, literacy, costume design, arts & crafts, sports. Service-learners will have the opportunity to develop rapport with children and gain perspective on how an after school program is managed and maintained.
If you are interested in completing your S-L placement here, or are seeking part-time employment through this program, please contact Shirley Pineiro using the information provided below: Shirley Pineiro 1075 Oceanview Ave. Brooklyn, NY 11235 (At Brighton 13th and Oceanview Avenue—on the way to the Brighton Beach Subway Station) School: (718) 258-3400 Hours: 3-6:00 pm.


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At 83, Carl Smith found himself facing quadruple-bypass surgery and the real possibility that he might not survive.
Within hours on this spring morning, Dr. Mark Pool would temporarily bring Smith's heart to a stop in an attempt to circumvent its blocked passages.
And to help his patient confront the uncertainty, Pool did something unusual in his profession: He prayed with him.
The power of healing: Medicine and religion have both had their day, and they haven't always been able to coexist. But as today's medical treatment becomes more holistic, doctors are increasingly taking spirituality into account.
Studies show a majority of patients want their spirituality recognized, and most med schools now have classes related to the topic. In general, the new thinking asks doctors to note their patients' spiritual leanings and open doors to expression, especially when life is at risk.
Pool, a highly regarded heart and lung surgeon at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas, is fervent about his Baptist faith. For about a year, he's routinely asked patients if they'd like him to pray with them pre-surgery — a gesture he says is always appreciated but one that exceeds advocates' suggested bounds.
"A physician should be open to a patient's spirituality but shouldn't push religion on patients," says Nathan Carlin, assistant professor at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. "That's confusing personal and professional roles."
An inherent power differential divides doctors and patients, says Christina Puchalski, director of George Washington University's Institute for Spirituality and Health and co-editor of the recently published Oxford Textbook of Spirituality in Healthcare.
"They're coming to us for something other than prayer," Puchalski says. "If I, as a patient, perceive [a surgeon] as having my life in his hands, and he asks me to pray and I say no, he may not treat me well. And that's putting undue pressure on the patient."
As the saying goes, there are no atheists in foxholes: The idea that your fate is out of your hands offers fertile ground for re-examination.
"The moment somebody tells you that you have cancer," says Methodist Dallas Medical Center's Rohan Jeyarajah, a gastrointestinal surgeon who prays with patients, "you're going to believe in something."
But the situation, he says, requires caution: "We have to be careful about being in a position of perceived authority and not overstepping that bound. This is like a teacher-student relationship. There's a chance you could be inappropriate."
Pool pushes forward, eager to share the belief that drives him without making people feel awkward or flouting that power imbalance.
"I don't want to exploit their situation," he says. "At the same time, I want to give them the opportunity to explore the faith that I know."
Path of faith
You could say Pool comes from a religious background. His father, his grandfather, his father-in-law, his brother-in-law: all ministers. The family joke was that he started going to church nine months before he was born.
By age 6, he was well versed in Bible basics, but then something odd happened. One day at a prayer meeting, Pool says, he was touched by — well, not quite a vision, but an awareness.
"I had already understood that Jesus came to save the world," he says. "That was nice. But then I understood: Jesus came to save me. And that changed everything."
He's pursued a path of faith ever since. Medicine seemed like a good way to help people. Even so, as a med student, Pool pondered ditching the whole thing to go to seminary instead.
As a member of First Baptist Dallas, he and wife Jessica lead relationship classes on Sundays for dozens of young married couples. Even in his crisp, black-patterned suit, Pool is impossibly youthful — lean and rosy-cheeked, posture straight as a fence post.
And as a cardiothoracic surgeon, another realization has set in: "I have a ministry. I don't need to be standing in a pulpit. I have found a ministry I did not expect. I am able to minister to people in times of need."
Since Texas Health is a faith-based hospital system, he felt at ease taking that step.
"The vast majority of people believe in God," he says, "and yet when people come to the hospital, that's completely ignored by doctors. If anything, they call the chaplain. It's unfortunate that more doctors don't try to engage that part of a patient's life."
That's starting to change. Two decades ago, barely a few med schools offered classes on spirituality. Now, three-fourths of them do.
"Medicine has figured out that we ignore the more human sides of health care at our own peril," says Craig Borchardt, interim chair of humanities and medicine at Texas A&M University.
Studies show 60 to 80 percent of patients want their beliefs noted, he says — not as affirmation but as a sign that the doctor actually cares. But fewer than 20 percent of doctors bring it up.
The push has met with some backlash — from busy doctors reluctant to take time away from other concerns or others who don't like talking about it.
"Some staff are more comfortable with it than others," says Mark Grace, vice president of mission and ministry for Baylor Health Care System.
He doesn't reject the idea of doctors offering to pray, but "if you don't listen to the answer, that's where you get into problems. … The doctor needs to be prepared if the patient says no."
George Washington University's Puchalski says the bottom line is doing what's best for the patient.
"Physicians are generally not trained to lead prayer," she says.
To illustrate the power differential she says exists, she recalls a patient who was also a fellow parishioner. One day, she noticed the woman hadn't been to church for a while, then realized the woman hadn't come into her office either.
When the patient finally resurfaced, Puchalski pressed the matter: "She told me, 'I thought you'd be upset that I switched churches.' That gives you an idea of the power we have over patients. So I would really caution against [taking advantage of] that."
Pool gleans his patients' spiritual beliefs at their initial meeting. Then, on the morning of surgery, he says: "This is a time when a lot of people turn to faith. Would you mind if I prayed with you?"
No one, he says, has ever declined, not even those who believe differently or not at all.
It's 6 a.m., and Pool, shiny black boots poking from beneath blue scrubs, briefs Smith on his surgery. At 83, Smith is fit, mowing the yard occasionally, an active driver.
But coronary artery disease caught up with the retired Farmers Branch pharmacist, slowing his blood flow and causing chest pain. Over time, it could lead to a heart attack.
Madge Smith, his wife of 63 years, and Leah Wilson, his youngest daughter, are near. Scott Smith, his son, would join later.
Pool explains his plan: He'll make an incision down Smith's breastbone, then take arteries from his left and right side, and a vein from his leg, to form new channels for blood to flow through his heart.
"So," he tells Smith, "you told me you're a Sunday school leader. … Would you mind if I said a prayer for you?"
Smith is touched. Pool places his hand on Smith's shoulder and begins:
"God, thank you for Mr. Smith. We ask that you would guard his life, keep him safe and bring him through this operation. Replace any anxiety that he may have. Give him a great assurance of your love and your power.
"I ask you to watch over our team, that you give us all clarity of thought, that you guide my hands as they move. We pray these things in Christ's name. Amen."
"Amen," Smith says.
Later, as Smith's family awaits the outcome, his wife says: "I have never had a doctor do that. It just meant so much to us. We just thought it was sent from God."
At 6:45 a.m., Pool starts in, using a tiny electric saw to patiently work through Smith's chest and breastbone.
The arteries he wants dangle inside like strings of soaked cooking twine above Smith's quivering lungs. He snips one end of each, then applies small plastic clamps to stop the thin spurt of blood.
"See that?" he says. "That's the blood flow that will be going into the heart."
A shot of potassium literally stops Smith's heart cold, temporarily abdicating its work to a heart and lung machine. To the heart, Pool will divert the snipped arteries, and repurpose a vein taken from Smith's leg, to offset the blockages within.
But first he has to open the heart's protective sac, unveiling the still-beating organ as it heaves inside. Pool eases it to one side, to reach a portion underneath — and in that moment, Smith's heart, the force pumping blood and oxygen throughout his body, rests in Pool's cradling grip.
Out in the family waiting area, Smith's son Scott says: "God has his hand on everything. He's in control. We're not. It's in God's hands."
Pool initially wondered if his praying might give patients pause, whether they'd worry he wasn't confident enough in his own skills to get through the surgery.
"It's been the opposite," he says. "They value the humility."
Last year, Shea Bowen of Kaufman had just delivered a son at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Rockwall four weeks early. Suddenly, she became short of breath. Tests revealed a tumor in her heart.
She was rushed to the network's Dallas hospital, where Pool met with her and her husband. She was shaking then, a complete wreck.
"It was terrifying for me," Bowen says. "I had to leave my few-hours-old baby. We knew there was a chance that … Not everyone comes out of surgery.
"Dr. Pool could tell. His words were 'I don't know if you guys believe in God, but I do,' and as soon as he said that, we both burst into tears. He said, 'I can cut and I can sew, but God is going to heal you, and I'm going to do everything in my power to make sure that happens.'
"There's a lot that's a blur, but I remember the comfort of knowing the person who was literally going to stop my heart and cut me open was going to do that for me under God."
Not long ago, Pool contacted a local evangelistic organization. "So I could up my game," he says. He wants to learn how to share his faith without being a "turn or burn" proselytizer.
"I wouldn't want for somebody to make a decision in a moment of crisis that they wouldn't make otherwise," he says. "I don't want to say, 'It's your last chance: Smarten up or else.'
"It doesn't mean I can't share my faith just because it might upset somebody in the world. This nation was founded on Christian ideals."
Pool pauses when asked if he'd pray with followers of Islam, a faith he considers antagonistic and unforgiving.
"I don't think they would get the same meaning" from it, he says. "Not that they would feel offended, but … not comforted."
He tries to avoid a holier-than-thou air and — with patients, anyway — doesn't claim only certain believers get into heaven.
"It's not my job to get somebody to make certain decisions," Pool says. "All I can do is live a life that makes it appealing to somebody and then share it with them. If I share and they say, 'I'm not interested,' I say no problem and move on. But seeds can be sown that you never see the fruit of."
A success story
Smith's operation was a success. Six weeks later, Pool meets with him one last time.
"You're doing extremely well," Pool says. "I'm going to fade away now. You don't have to come back and see me."
"I'd be 6 feet under if it wasn't for you," Smith says.
Pool dismisses the thought. "I'd like to say a prayer with you," he says.
Smith bows his head and closes his eyes.
"Lord," Pool begins, "thank you for getting Mr. Smith out of the hospital and getting him home. We ask that you continue that process of healing and give him a spring in his step once again. In Jesus' name we pray."
Smith is upbeat. He believes the gesture will help him get better. And in the end, that might be the most important thing of all.


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Hi everyone,
Makeup remover doesn't have to be expensive or come with a label. In fact, I actually prefer this gentle version that you can make at home on the cheap. It's non-irritating, easy to make, inexpensive and highly effective. I recently uploaded a video on how to make this perfect makeup remover, but here is a step-by-step guide to have on hand when you try it out for yourself :)
All you need to create your very own makeup remover is:
- Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- Aloe Vera Water (most drugstores, heath or grocery stores will carry aloe vera water. If you can't find it, though, filtered water will work just fine!)
- A re-sealable bottle (you'll need to shake up your mixture in this)
- A few gentle cotton pads (for application)
A few Beauty School notes before we begin:
- Aloe Vera water comes from the Aloe Vera plant, which is used in herbal medicine for its soothing abilities. It is a cooling agent that helps calm the skin and it contains a plethora of amino acids and vitamins. Since it's made up of 95% water, you can be sure that it is extraordinarily hydrating and refreshing for your face.
- Do not be afraid of the olive oil! If the idea of putting olive oil on your face has you uneasy, relax; extra virgin olive oil actually closely resembles your skin's natural oil production, which means that it won't clog your pores or dry your skin out, but rather will keep it extra soft and clear it of any impurities.
* * *
A Step-by-Step Guide to DIY Makeup Remover
STEP 1: Pour less than ½ cup of EVOO into a bottle of aloe vera water (make sure the container has a sealable cap for Step 2 to work). A little goes a long way with EVOO because it's highly potent, so you'll only need a small amount.
STEP 2: You'll notice that the oil will float above the water. This is because oil is hydrophobic, which literally means "water-fearing." So before applying, you'll need to really shake the mixture up and use it right away before the oil and water separate again.
STEP 3: After thoroughly shaking the mixture, soak one of your cotton pads with it and gently press it over one of your eyes.
Keep it here for a few seconds while it works to break down all the makeup, and then gently sweep it away from your eye towards your ear.
You should notice your makeup is dissolving and coming off with ease.
STEP 4: Repeat Step 3 until your eyes are completely clean, and then continue the same process all over your face.
This mixture should not even feel super greasy to begin with, so remember; don't be afraid of putting the oil on your skin. The aloe vera water will refresh and cool your skin while the oil breaks down the pigments in your makeup – a perfect combination!
All clean!
This makeup remover is incredibly light and clean, yet powerful enough to remove any stubborn waterproof makeup. This would also be a great formula to try if you have any allergies or sensitivities to chemicals, or just sensitive skin in general. Good luck and I hope you find success with this perfect makeup remover!
What DIYs would you like to see next? Let me know in the comments below.
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Welcome to our new website!
Welcome to our new website! This site has been professionally designed to be responsive and mobile friendly, so it looks great and is accessible no matter what type or size of device you are using. Our new website also has an integrated Client Portal, meaning you are able access your case documents, correspondence and calendars [..]


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German Potato Salad
Total Time: 45 min
Prep: 10 min
Cook: 35 min
Yield:4 servings
- 2 pounds white new potatoes, cut in half
- Kosher salt
- Extra-virgin olive oil
- 8 bacon slices, cut into lardons
- 1 onion, cut into 1/4-inch dice
- 1/2 cup chicken stock
- 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
- 1 bunch fresh chives, finely chopped
- Toss the potatoes in a medium saucepan, cover generously with water and season generously with salt. Bring the pot to a boil and reduce to a simmer until the potatoes are fork tender, about 20 minutes. Drain and reserve.
- Coat a large straight-sided saute pan lightly with olive oil. Toss in the bacon and bring the pan to a medium heat. When the bacon is brown and crispy, toss in the onions and cook them until they are very soft and aromatic, 7 to 8 minutes. Add the stock and vinegar. Toss in the potatoes when they are still warm and cook until the liquid has absorbed into the potatoes. Taste and season with salt if needed. Toss in the chives and serve warm or at room temperature.


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Following last month's announcement of Pokémon Conquest, Nintendo has revealed even more details about the new features available in the game, which launches on June 18. Players can look forward to exploring the Ransei region and interacting with Pokémon in an entirely new way as they take on the role of a young Warlord who is linked with a Pokémon. Together they must set out to recruit Warrior allies to strengthen their growing kingdom. The game is also being developed by TECMO KOEI GAMES Co.
New information includes the following:
Story: To save the Ransei region from Nobunaga, a powerful Warlord who is trying to take over Ransei, players must conquer different kingdoms to strengthen and grow their own kingdom. There are 17 kingdoms in total to conquer. Conquering all 17 kingdoms and ultimately uniting the kingdom will awaken the Legendary Pokémon and save the land from destruction. Story mode is organized by episodes. Players unlock episodes as they progress and each episode features a different playable Warlord and victory conditions.
Army Mechanics: Players can grow their army by recruiting defeated Warlords and their Pokémon. After a kingdom is conquered, players will also have access to the kingdom facilities such as training grounds, shops to buy items and mines for money. Players can also strengthen their army by linking with Pokémon. Warlords can have various linked Pokémon and switch between them before battle to strategically prepare for the type of battle they are about to engage in.
Battle Mechanics: Players will encounter a wide range of battlefields as they progress through the game. Each of the 17 kingdoms has a different type-themed battlefield. For example, in the fire-themed kingdom of Ignis, players can battle around lava flows, lava beds and fire spouts. Strategically using water-type Pokémon to navigate through this battlefield will help players conquer this kingdom. Additionally, players can use the kingdom training grounds to train their army or find wild Pokémon and link with them. After battling with a Warlord, the game automatically registers them. Using the built-in local wireless features of Nintendo DS, players can use their registered armies to battle with friends who also own the game.
Warlords and Pokémon: Each Warlord has a special ability that can change the tide of battle. For example, Warlord Oichi has the ability to heal all the Pokémon in a player's army. Also, like Pokémon, Warlords have types that will determine how well they link to particular Pokémon. Some Warlords will have the ability to choose from and link with several different kinds of Pokémon.
Source: Nintendo


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Twelve Years A Slave (Kobo eBook)
#1 Bestseller
Now a major motion picture directed by Steve McQueen and starring Brad Pitt, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Michael Fassbender, Benedict Cumberbatch, and Paul Giamatti
12 Years a Slave is a riveting true account of a free man captured and sold into slavery in the pre–Civil War South. Solomon Northup's narrative explores one of the darkest times in American history and captures in vivid detail the unimaginable realities of slavery.
In 1841, the educated musician Solomon Northup, a free man living in New York who is cruelly deceived by the promise of a job in Washington, is drugged, kidnapped, and sold into slavery. Once Solomon arrives in New Orleans, he is given a slave name and soon realizes that any mention of his rights as a free man is sure to bring cruel punishment or death. Denied his freedom and ripped away from his family, he spends twelve emotionally and physically gruelling years on a Louisiana cotton plantation enduring the hardships and brutalities of life as a slave. When Solomon eventually finds a sympathizing friend, a daring rescue is attempted that could either end in Solomon's death or restore his freedom and reunite him with his family.
When Solomon Northup published this harrowing account of slavery in 1853, it immediately stirred up controversy in the national debate over slavery, helping to sway public opinion in favour of abolition. His book 12 Years a Slave remains one of the most insightful, detailed, and eloquent depictions of slavery in America. It demonstrates the extraordinary resilience of one man's spirit in the face of extreme suffering and his incredible will to survive.


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Street patterns influence the microclimate around buildings and affect access to light, sun and wind.
The layout of streets in a dense urban core, their width and orientation, greatly determines building solar and ventilation utilization potential, as well as pedestrian comfort at street level.
Guidelines for various climates:
- Cold – orient elongated streets +/-20 degrees E/W; space streets for solar access.
- Temperate-humid – orient elongated streets +/-25 degrees E/W; orient streets oblique to summer winds +/-25 degrees.
- Temperate-dry – orient elongated streets +/-25 degrees E/W; narrow N/S streets.
- Hot-dry – orient elongated streets N/S; narrow streets for shade.
- Hot-humid – wide streets +/-25 degrees oblique to prevailing winds.
In hot climates or hot summers, shade streets and pedestrian pathways with colonnades, canopies and trees. In wet climates, protect pedestrian pathways with colonnades, canopies and building elements.


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Looking In: Robert Frank's The Americans by Sarah Greenough
Just when I thought I had the corner on the market for "books on books" I am upstaged by by the National Gallery and their new incredible 506 page tome on Robert Frank's The Americans. This is "books on books" on steroids. Of course there are only a few greats that should be the subject of such an exhaustive look and certainly there will be no argument that The Americans is worthy of such treatment. Looking In: Robert Frank's The Americans is a must for Frankophiles and scholars alike.
The curator Sarah Greenough has been working on this book since Frank's Moving Out show in 1994, making this a fourteen year endeavour. What does fourteen years of passionate study into one book produce you might ask? Prepare yourself to be overwhelmed...
12 full essays from various contributors (Sarah Greenough, Stuart Alexander, Jeff Rosenheim, Philip Brookman, Luc Sante, Michel Frizot to name a few) exploring all facets of the work including; Frank's progress as an artist, his relationships with various curators and photographers including an interview with Delpire, manuscript material, maps and chronology, reproductions of handwritten letters by Frank while he was on the road, every photo from The Americans, a comparative chart of the various published editions including notations on the various croppings from each edition, Frank's original edit (including many unseen photos), six pages of photos of an "editing wall" showing his work prints (70% of which are photos I had never seen before and I am one that goes to extra lengths to search out Frank's variant photos and alternates), a wealth of photos of Frank himself, including a color one of him sitting behind the wheel of Walker Evans's Buick Roadmaster shot by Evans, and if all that isn't worth the price of admission, pages 378 through 458 reproduce 83 actual size contact sheets, each of which features a frame from the final edit. It is this last section which has had me spending hours going over each exposure with a loupe.
I am at a loss for what more to say other than this hasn't left my bedside for the two weeks that I have owned it. The printing was done by Steidl and it is good although not as good as their reprint of The Americans. (I don't know if that is because alternate prints of different quality were used to make the scans or if it is truly just difference in printing). My only real complaint is that it is such a thick and heavy book that it is hard to handle. That shouldn't be mistaken for a complaint about having too much information at arms length, I am just weak. That is why I have a sturdy side table.
Oddly this book has been released in a softcover "regular" and hardcover "expanded" editions. The regular edition leaves out what I think are the real treats: the contact sheets, comparative sequencing of the different editions, the map of Frank's route, a chronology and copies of various letters and papers. $75.00 for the expanded versus $45.00 for the regular is a large difference but the loss of those 150 pages is bigger. I advise to take the plunge and break out the loupe. If you can resist the temptation to look deeper into this masterpiece then you're a stronger person than I will ever be.


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Bedroom tax adds to victims' plight, says West Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner
Mark Burns-Williamson said people who had been moved to safe houses were being unfairly caught by the tax because panic rooms were not properly differentiated from spare bedrooms.
He said: "Those who have fled their homes to be placed in a safe house with a panic room should not be penalised and put at risk by having to move again because an essential room is classed as too much space.
Hide AdAdvertisement
Hide Ad"Domestic violence can happen to anyone and can have far-reaching effects, so we need to do all we can to help victims rebuild their lives without fear of becoming homeless."
Mr Burns-Williamson signed a petition by the trade union GMB to the Department for Work and Pensions urging it to exempt domestic violence victims from the tax, as is the case with foster families or households with adult children in the armed forces.
The spare room subsidy was removed by the government in April 2013 in a change commonly referred to as the bedroom tax.
It reduced the payment given to council tenants or people who receive housing benefit for households considered to have more space in their home than necessary.
Mr Burns-Williamson said this change unfairly included panic rooms in safe houses for victims of domestic abuse.