text:
"I don't back down," Anthony Weiner said defiantly earlier this week… after going completely berserk on a solitary heckler.
"Quit isn't the way we roll in New York City," he insisted in an ad… as his name dropped sharply in the polls and his campaign began to crumble.
Not backing down and refusing to quit, when indicative of assertive righteousness, are all well and good — but "graceful exits" are clearly an unknown quantity to the one-man circus. Otherwise, he would have slipped obliquely out of sight a good long while ago — and apparently, he still might not intend to do so, even after the bloodbath the Democratic primary for NYC mayor next week is going to be for him. Via The Hill:
Bill Brandt, a close friend of Weiner's wife, Huma Abedin, said Weiner's campaign will clear the way for a future run for office.
"The truth of the matter is he's been beaten up now for two months nonstop. When he does something for the future, it will be fair of him to say 'asked and answered'" when reporters ask him about his personal life, said Brandt, who is also a long-time supporter of Bill and Hillary Clinton.
"I'm pretty certain he'll find his equilibrium and move forward from there. He is a quintessential New Yorker. When you talk about the politics of the city and the state, there are a lot of offices where he can offer phenomenal service," he added. …
"I do believe he'll stay in public service," said Jim Sideris, a retired cop from Flushing, Queens, and one of Weiner's most loyal volunteers. "I don't believe he'll ever back down. …
Weiner remains coy on whether he'll run for office again, refusing to acknowledge his race for mayor has become a lost cause.
"I don't imagine I'll serve more than two terms so eventually I'll have to return to something else," he said. "Once you've been mayor, there's no other job in politics that really adds up."
Honestly, as absurd as it sounds, I almost wouldn't even be surprised if he pressed on, maybe in some smaller race in the near-ish future. From whence he'd summon any amount of money and support after the degree to which he's been so humiliatingly diminished, beats me — but given the level of egotistical delusion it's currently taking for him to continue to convince himself that he's fit for public office clearly knows no bounds.


text:
Get up early in the morning, going to the store.
Post, Kellogs, General Mills?
It's the cereal war.
Fucking store never has the monsters and they never get more.
Post, Kellogs, General Mills?
It's the cereal war.
I hope sexual chocolate is in stock, it's got a condom in the box.
I'll try some cocoa puffs
Today who the fuck is Sonny anyway?
Some say Dino's are the best, they've got more marshmallows than the rest.
There's not a lot of cocoa in Cocoa Krispies, and always stay away from
Now it's dinner time and I'm going back to the store.
I had some Erkles, liked 'em a lot. It's
The cereal war.
I wish I were Calvin or Hobbes, and then I could try Sugar Bombs.
The soggies will never get
Cap'n Crunch, I guess I'll have Crunch Berries for lunch.
Breakfast cereals need to be sweet, that's the only kind I'll eat.
Give me sugar, not nuts and twigs!
Do I look like a fuckin' squirrel to you?

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Old School RuneScape
- App Store Info
Explore the world of RuneScape in the iconic MMORPG now on Mobile!"Still one of the best and biggest sandbox MMOs around, and it's only gotten better with age. There's simply nothing else like it." – PC Gamer
Old School RuneScape is RuneScape how you used to know. It was first released in 2013 and is based on RuneScape as it was way back in 2007. It's the only MMORPG in the world that is shaped by its players, with developers releasing new, regular content that has been voted for by the fans!
The world's largest and most popular MMORPG, Old School RuneScape has been played by over 300 million players since the 2001 release of RuneScape. Old School RuneScape unites the intricate mechanics of modern MMOs with the nostalgic point-and-click gameplay of early role-playing games.
Battle through three extraordinary raiding encounters: the Chambers of Xeric, the Theatre of Blood, and the Tombs of Amascut. Undead dragons, volcanic monstrosities, and tyrannous vampyres await all challengers seeking great treasures.
Adventure anywhere with an innovative cross-platform approach to mobile gaming, which is truly revolutionary among MMORPGs. Whether you play with mobile or desktop, you'll be playing on the same account on the same game worlds.
In Old School RuneScape players decide what new content to vote on. If a proposal is voted for by 70% or more of players, then the developers will add it to the game!
Over 2,800 questions have been polled since Old School RuneScape was released in 2013. That's over 2,800 decisions players have made to help shape the game.
Play as the lone adventurer seeking glory through individual challenges, or band together with other heroes to leave your mark on the game. With 23 skills to master, hundreds of lore-filled quests, and dozens of unique raids and bosses to defeat, Old School RuneScape has a challenge for everyone.
Be the first to traverse Fossil Island and uncover its lost history. Map the heated tropics of the Karamjan jungle, and brave the barren wastes of the Kharidian desert.
Old School RuneScape's many lore-rich quests combines epic puzzles and enchanting narrative with the nostalgic humour of point-and-click adventures. Rediscover the secret to rune magic, uncover the mystery behind the devastating plague in West Ardougne, or help Yanni Sallika with just one small favour...
Old School RuneScape is free-to-play but there are lots of advantages to becoming a subscriber! Subscribers get access to:
• A world map that's 3x larger
• Epic combat encounters
• 8 additional skills
• Loads more quests
• 400 extra bank account slots
• And lots, lots more, all for one monthly cost!
We are working hard to deliver a great experience for all of our players but if you are experiencing login or account recovery issues please check the Support Centre page, dedicated to issues Mobile players may have: https://jgx.game/WelcomeBack
Old School Mobile FAQ
Your subscription will be charged to your iTunes account, or at the end of your trial period if eligible. Subscriptions will automatically renew unless cancelled within 24-hours before the end to the current period. You can cancel anytime with your iTunes account settings. Any unused portion of a free trial will be forfeited if you purchase a subscription.
Privacy policy: https://www.jagex.com/terms/privacy
Terms and conditions: https://www.jagex.com/terms
* Internet connection required.
* Minimum supported iOS version: 10.0.
* Compatible with iPhone 5S, iPad Air and above.
What's New in Version 219.2
Greetings adventurers! In this update we've focused on:• Fixes and engine optimizations
As always please leave us feedback and we hope you enjoy your time in Gielinor!


text:
From spectacular fireworks in Hong Kong and Australia to a huge LED lightshow at the world's tallest building in Dubai, a look at how revelers around the world are ringing in 2018:
The Golden State went green when the calendar turned to 2018.
Starting at midnight, California joined the growing list of states to legalize recreational marijuana. The moment is significant but will not be met with a non-stop pot party.
California has allowed medical marijuana for two decades, and the state is generally tolerant of the drug, so major changes are not expected as the laws are further eased. At least not on New Year's Day.
More than 90 outlets received licenses to sell in time for Jan. 1. None of those outlets is holding a midnight opening, but some in San Diego and the San Francisco Bay Area will be open for business starting at 6 a.m. Monday.
Some cities, including Los Angeles and San Francisco, will have to wait at least until later in the week before licensed outlets start selling there.
Still, some Californians ushered in the new year with marijuana.
U.S. & World
Johnny Hernandez was celebrating legalization — which he described as "something we've all been waiting for" — by smoking "Happy New Year blunts" with his cousins in Modesto.
With a burst of confetti and fireworks, throngs of revelers ushered in 2018 in a frigid Times Square as the glittering crystal ball dropped.
It was the second-coldest on record, with the temperature only 10 degrees (minus 12 degrees Celsius) in New York at midnight.
Partygoers bundled up in extra layers, wearing warm hats and face masks, dancing and jogging in place to ward off the cold.
There was also tighter security than ever after two terrorist attacks and a rampaging SUV driver who plowed into a crowd on the very spot where the party takes place. The party went off with no major problems.
"Auld Lang Syne" and "New York, New York" played as the crowds cheered.
The coldest ball drop celebration was in 1917, when it was only 1 degree (minus 17 Celsius).
Rio de Janeiro's main party was celebrated with fireworks erupting on Copacabana beach after the clock struck midnight to usher in the new year.
After 17 minutes of a multicolored show in the skies, singer Anitta led the party on stage with her single "Vai Malandra," a song that scored 84 million views on YouTube in two weeks. Some of the city's most traditional Carnival samba schools performed later.
New Mayor Marcelo Crivella said he believed the celebrations would bring 3 million people to the iconic beach, which would mean nearly half of Rio's population. But locals said Brazil's economic crisis is still impacting one of the city's biggest parties. In 2017, 2 million people showed up at Copacabana beach, a number that hasn't changed much over the years.
Almost 2,000 policemen patrolled the Copacabana region after yet another violent year on the streets. Rio's hotel association said occupation is nearly total, but mostly by Brazilian tourists.
Germans rang in 2018 under tight security from police mindful of widespread sexual abuse of women in Cologne two years ago and of a terrorist attack on a Christmas market about a year ago.
Police in Berlin added 1,600 officers on duty and said that large bags and knapsacks would not be allowed on the Party Mile leading from Brandenburg Gate, where thousands of people celebrated at midnight. Police in Frankfurt imposed similar restrictions in the celebration area along the Main River in the country's financial capital.
Two people died from fireworks injuries, but the country avoided a repeat of the mass groping in Cologne from 2016.
Two years ago, New Year's in Cologne was marred by groping and theft committed against hundreds of women, in most cases by migrants. On Dec. 19, 2016, Tunisian asylum seeker Anis Amri drove a stolen truck into a Christmas market in Berlin, killing 12 people.
Dubai's Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest building, has again served as the focal point of New Year's Eve celebrations — though this year authorities decided against fireworks and chose a massive LED lightshow on the structure.
That was in part due to safety in the city-state in the United Arab Emirates, which saw a massive skyscraper fire on New Year's Eve in 2015.
The display, running down the east side of the 828-meter (2,716-foot) tower, showed Arabic calligraphy, geometric designs and a portrait of the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, the UAE's first president.
But a display of neighboring nations' flags didn't show Qatar's flag. The UAE joined Bahrain, Egypt and Saudi Arabia in boycotting the tiny energy-rich nation in June over allegations Doha supports extremists and has too close ties to Iran. Qatar, which will host the 2022 FIFA World Cup, denies supporting extremists and shares a massive offshore natural gas field with Tehran.
Tens of thousands of Parisians and tourists were heading to the Champs-Elysees to attend a firework show at Napoleon's Arc de Triomphe monument, at the end of the famous avenue with its lines of trees sparkling with lights.
Officials have warned the display might be cancelled at the last minute due to a storm expected to hit France overnight.
New Year's Eve celebrations were placed under high security in France, which has been hit by a series of attacks by Islamic extremists in recent years.
French Interior ministry said 100,000 police officers and soldiers and 40,000 rescuers have been deployed across the country — including 2,500 on the Champs-Elysees.
Bidding 2017 farewell, Pope Francis has decried wars, injustices and environmental decay which he says have "ruined" the year.
Francis on Sunday presided at a New Year's Eve prayer service in St. Peter's Basilica, a traditional occasion to say thanks in each year's last hours.
He says God gave to us a 2017 "whole and sound," but that "we humans in many ways ruined and hurt it with works of death, lies and injustices."
But, he added, "gratitude prevails" thanks to those "cooperating silently for the common good."
In keeping with past practice, the pope on New Year's Day will celebrate Mass dedicated to the theme of world peace.
Fireworks lit up the sky above Sydney Harbour, highlighting the city's New Year's celebrations.
The massive fireworks display included a rainbow waterfall cascade of lights and color flowing off the harbor's bridge to celebrate recently passed legislation legalizing gay marriage in Australia.
Over a million people were expected to gather to watch the festivities. Security was tight, but officials said there was no particular alert.
Sydney officials said the event would generate some $170 million for the city and "priceless publicity." Nearly half the revelers were tourists.
Tens of thousands of New Zealanders took to streets and beaches, becoming among the first in the world to usher in 2018.
As the new year dawned in this southern hemisphere nation, fireworks boomed and crackled above city centers and harbors, and party-goers sang, hugged, danced and kissed.
In Auckland, New Zealand's biggest city, tens of thousands gathered around Sky Tower as five minutes of nonstop pyrotechnics exploded from the top of the structure.
But on nearby Waiheke Island, 30 kilometers (20 miles) away, authorities canceled the planned fireworks display because of drought conditions and low water supplies for firefighters.
Thousands of Ugandans were gathering at churches across the country to mark the end of 2017.
The raucous events, during which some preachers are known to make dubious predictions, have become such a staple of New Year's Eve festivities that the country's longtime president, Yoweri Museveni, sometimes makes time to make an appearance at a church.
Still, many in this East African country prefer to celebrate at crowded beaches on the shores of Lake Victoria or in darkened halls listening to the music of pop stars who take turns offering crowd pleasers until midnight.
Police warned revelers not to burn car tires in celebration, citing safety reasons, to discourage a favorite activity of those, especially in the countryside, who cannot afford real fireworks.
As Russians count down the last moments before 2018 ticks over into each of the country's 11 time zones, President Vladimir Putin is calling on them to be considerate and conciliatory with each other in the new year.
"Say the most cherished words to each other, forgive mistakes and resentment, admit love, warm up with care and attention," Putin says in a televised message broadcast on Sunday just before midnight. "Let the trust and mutual understanding always accompany us," he was quoted as saying by Russian news agencies after his statement aired in Kamchatka, the easternmost time zone.
Moscow is preparing for fireworks and outdoor gatherings, despite weather that's less than festive. Usually festooned with snow at New Year's Eve, the Russian capital this year is slogging through a long spell of intermittent rain and constant gray skies.
A major windstorm was causing problems in Scotland, but organizers expected Edinburgh's famed Hogmany New Year's Eve celebration to be unaffected.
Storm Dylan is battering parts of Scotland with gusts of up to 80 miles per hour, with forecasters saying injuries are possible because of flying debris.
Forecasters have not, however, put wind warnings in place for Sunday night, when the Hogmany celebrations are planned. Event organizers say the forecast for Edinburgh indicates that the celebrations will not have to be curtailed.
The Edinburgh celebration is one of the most popular in Britain and regularly draws visitors from many parts of the world.
Those willing to brave the cold in Beijing were joining a countdown at the tower at Yongdingmen Gate, a rebuilt version of the Ming dynasty-era landmark gate at the southern end of the city's north-south axis.
Bells will be rung and prayers offered at temples in Beijing, but the Gregorian calendar's New Year's celebrations are typically muted in China compared to the Lunar New Year, or Spring Festival, a time of fireworks, feasts and family reunions.
Authorities throughout China were also on high alert for stampedes or terror attacks at large public gatherings. Police in the central city of Zhengzhou put 3,500 officers on duty across the city while residents gathered to watch a light show and cultural performance in a public square.
The official Xinhua News Agency reported that President Xi Jinping sent a New Year's greeting to his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, saying Beijing is ready to boost cooperation with Russia in 2018.
Many Japanese celebrated the arrival of the Year of the Dog in the traditional way of praying for peace and good fortune at neighborhood Shinto shrines, and eating New Year's food such as noodles, shrimp and sweet black beans.
Barbecued beef and octopus dumpling stalls were out at Tokyo's Zojoji Temple, where people take turns striking the giant bell 108 times at midnight, an annual practice repeated at other Buddhist temples throughout Japan.
North Korea's nuclear and missile programs cast a shadow over Japan's hopes for peace, said 33-year-old cab driver Masaru Eguchi, who was ready to be busy all night shuttling shrine visitors.
"The world situation has grown so complex," Eguchi said, adding that he also worried about possible terrorism targeting Japan. "I feel this very abstracted sense of uncertainty, although I really have no idea what might happen."
After spending an exhausting year that saw a presidency toppled by a corruption scandal and nuclear-armed North Korea firing missile after missile, South Koreans enter 2018 in need of a happy distraction. The upcoming winter Olympics just might do it.
Thousands of people filled the streets near Seoul's City Hall for a traditional bell-tolling ceremony to usher in the new year. The group of dignitaries picked to ring the old Bosingak bell at midnight included Soohorang and Bandabi — the tiger and bear mascots for the Pyeongchang Winter Games and Paralympics in February and March.
Tens of thousands of people were expected to flock to eastern coastal areas, including Gangneung, the seaside city that will host the Olympic skating and hockey events, to watch the sun rise on 2018.
[NATL-NY]Wildlife Conservation Society Reveals Its 20 Top Wildlife Photos of 2017
Security was tight in the southern Indian city of Bangalore to prevent a repeat of incidents of alleged groping and molestation of several women during last year's New Year's Eve celebrations.
Sunil Kumar, the city's police commissioner, said at least 15,000 police officers were on duty and were being aided by drones and additional closed-circuit television cameras.
Last year, police first denied that any sexual harassment had taken place during the celebrations in Bangalore, India's information technology hub. But later, police detained at least six men after several video clips of women being attacked by groups of men spread on social media.
Hours before midnight, authorities had already reported that scores of people had been injured by celebratory firecrackers in the Philippines, which has some of the most raucous New Year's celebrations in Asia.
Although the number of injuries has tapered off in recent years, largely due to hard economic times and government scare campaigns, the figures remain alarming. President Rodrigo Duterte signed an order in June confining the use of firecrackers to community-designated areas, such as near shopping malls and parks.
Many Filipinos, largely influenced by Chinese tradition, believe that noisy New Year's celebrations drive away evil and misfortune. But they have carried that superstition to extremes, exploding dangerously large firecrackers and firing guns to welcome the new year despite threats of arrest.
Security measures were ramped up across Turkey, which was hit by a New Year's attack a year ago that killed dozens.
In Istanbul alone, 37,000 officers were on duty, with multiple streets closed to traffic and large vehicles barred from entering certain districts. Several New Year's Eve street parties were canceled for security reasons.
Early on Jan. 1, 2017, an assailant shot his way into Istanbul's Reina nightclub, where hundreds were celebrating New Year's. Thirty-nine people were killed — mostly foreigners — and 79 wounded. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility.
On Sunday, some 100 people gathered outside the nightclub to remember the victims of the attack.
Romanians prepared to usher in a new year in which the focus is expected to be an anti-corruption fight as the government seeks to push through legislation that critics say will make it harder to punish high-level graft.
Television stations broadcast live from supermarkets full of last-minute shoppers, while beauty salons reported full bookings as revelers geared up for traditional celebrations of copious meals that can run to hundreds of euros (dollars).
Others meditated and prayed at Orthodox churches and monasteries. In rural eastern Romania, villagers danced traditional pantomime-like jigs to welcome the new year, wrapping themselves in bear furs or dressing as horses.
In his New Year message, President Klaus Iohannis praised Romanians who staged the largest protests since the end of communism.


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10-All Natural Ways To Get a Better Night's Sleep
10 All-Natural Ways to Get a Better Night's Sleep
from Woman's Day Magazine
By Sarah Jio
Do you have trouble falling asleep at night but dread the idea of taking sleeping pills and dealing with potential side effects? If you're looking for alternate ways to induce the zzz's, here are some natural remedies that can help lull you into dreamland.
Mela…what? This natural hormone, which is made by the body's pineal gland, is available over the counter, and many health experts say it can safely help you get drowsy before bed (it may even have immune-stimulating and antioxidant benefits, too). But, as with all herbal and natural remedies, it's best to get your doctor's OK first. "High levels of melatonin may raise the level of another hormone, prolactin, aggravating the risk of depression or infertility," says Jacob Teitelbaum, MD, an internist and the author of From Fatigued to Fantastic! "Although I don't know of any danger yet from using melatonin in higher doses, I would only use a dose higher than a half-milligram under close supervision of your doctor."
Awareness Breathing
Does your mind race with thoughts and worries in bed? Your play-by-play of the day's activities may increase anxiety and fuel insomnia. Instead, try simmering your mind down, focusing on each breath and how it travels through your body. As it turns out, this type of conscious or awareness breathing may help you get to sleep faster, say experts. "Breathing techniques help turn off the mental chatter," says Dr. Teitelbaum. "Focusing on breathing is relaxing and a good way to disconnect from the stresses of life." How does it work? By following the air as it moves in and out of your lungs, your mind, which generally can only focus on one thing at a time, will be occupied with your breath—not your anxieties. And it's not as intimidating as it sounds. Simply take slow and steady—deep—breaths, focusing your thought on the natural inhale-exhale rhythm, and watch as your body and mind calm down.
What can a few downward-facing dogs do for your sleep quality? A lot, say researchers. Past studies have found a correlation between yoga practice and decreased symptoms of insomnia, including one study from Harvard Medical School researchers, who found that daily 30- to 45-minute yoga sessions significantly improved symptoms for those suffering from chronic insomnia. In another recent University of Rochester study looking at cancer survivors, a demographic that frequently reports sleep disturbances, researchers found that the movement, breathing and mindfulness of yoga significantly improved the quality of the study participants' sleep.
Discover which yoga practice is right for you.
This exotic-sounding herbal supplement is commonly used throughout South America for help with sleep and relaxation—it's even found in some sodas. "A number of studies support its calming effect," says Dr. Teitelbaum, who also points to evidence that the herb may have pain-relieving qualities, helping to control muscle spasms, and even menstrual pains. Passionflower (also known as passiflora) is available over the counter at most health food and drug stores that carry herbal supplements. Dr. Teitelbaum recommends taking 90 to 360 mg of the extract at bedtime to help with insomnia.
Total Darkness
Of course you turn off the lights before dozing off (you do, right?). But if there's still a flicker of light in your bedroom, from streetlights outside, your husband's book light, the dim hue of the television, and so on, it may be time to make some changes. Researchers have long known that too much light can affect your sleep cycles, disrupting restful sleep. But now a new study from researchers at Ohio State University reports that too much light can disrupt your body's natural clock so much that even the dimmest light in the bedroom may lead to weight gain. Banish excessive light in your bedroom by turning off the TV; try to avoid falling asleep with lamps or even bright nightlights on; and consider investing in blackout shades (purchased inexpensively at any department store), which can eliminate outside lights better than blinds or curtains.
When counting sheep won't work, maybe meditation will. Meditation—defined as simply focusing on a calming, peaceful image or thought—may help you get sleepy fast. Here's why, says Dr. Teitelbaum: It stimulates "alpha brainwave activity followed by theta brainwave activity. In effect, this is slowing down the frequency of your brainwaves, the same process that occurs when one moves from waking to light and then to deep sleep." New to meditation? It's a cinch! Just get comfortable, take deep breaths through your nose, and let your mind go quiet for a while. After a few moments, your mind may start becoming distracted (thinking of things that happened during the day) and when it does, focus on each breath to draw you back to a place of peace and calm.
You've heard of Valium, a powerful sedative, but how about the herbal supplement known as valerian? "Valerian's effectiveness has been compared to a Valium family medication (oxazepam), without the 'hung-over' feeling present with most Valium medications," says Dr. Teitelbaum. "It is commonly used as a remedy for insomnia, and a number of studies show numerous benefits, including an improvement in deep sleep, speed of falling asleep and quality of sleep without next-day sedation." In these studies, the benefits were most pronounced when people used valerian for extended periods of time, as opposed to simply taking it for one night. Dr. Teitelbaum also adds that in about 10 percent of people, valerian may have an energizing effect. How much is safe? Dr. Teitelbaum suggests taking 200 to 800 mg of the extract before bedtime. "Most studies suggest that it is more effective when used continuously rather than as an acute sleep aid. It has a calming effect and can be used during the day for anxiety as well." As with any alternative medication, be sure to talk to your doctor before using.
Could the secret to great sleep be in what you…smell? "Many essentials oils not only help you fall asleep quickly, they also induce a higher quality of sleep," says Cher Kore, a Boston-based professional aromatherapist and instructor. "If you wake during the night due to noise or a full bladder, many scents may lull you back to sleep." Her top picks? Roman chamomile, which has a bright, apple-like scent; clary sage, with its rich, sweet scent; and the floral notes of geranium and lavender (all available inexpensively at most health food stores). "The best method is to put two to three drops of essential oils on your pillow, under the pillowcase," she says. Refresh the drops on your pillow every few days to once a week—about as often as you wash your sheets.
Warm Bath
Don't forget about the power of a simple pre-bedtime bath to get you in a groggy state. "A bath causes your muscles to relax," says Dr. Teitelbaum. But it's what a bath does for your nervous system that may really help. "There are two main parts of our nervous system," he explains, "the sympathetic nervous system, which is the adrenaline part described as the 'fight or flight reaction,' and the parasympathetic nervous system, described as 'the old man after dinner.' Shifting from the adrenaline to the relaxed part of the nervous system is critical for entering into sleep, and a hot bath shifts your brain into sleep mode." It's best to take a bath before bedtime but give yourself about a half-hour before hitting the hay for your body's natural thermostat to cool. "Your body has to then cool down to go into deep sleep," notes Dr. Teitelbaum. Setting the thermostat in your bedroom no higher than 65 degrees can also help.
Progressive Muscle Relaxation
You're lying in bed wide awake, staring at the digits changing on your alarm clock…now what? Try something called progressive muscle relaxation, suggests Dr. Teitelbaum, a practice that involves using the mind and body simultaneously to induce sleep. Here's how to do it: "Starting with the muscles in your feet and slowly moving up to your calves, thighs, pelvis, abdomen, chest, neck, head and face muscles, relax the muscles in each area, one group at a time," he says. "People find that they can induce a very deep state of relaxation using this approach, and often fall asleep in the middle of the process." You can practice this technique in any sleep position; the key is to pick one you are most comfortable in, then relax your muscle groups from there.
Sarah Jio is the health and fitness blogger for Glamour.com. Visit her blog, Vitamin G.


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August 8, 2011 Recession Warning, and the Proper Policy Response As of Friday, the S&P 500 was below its level of early November 2010, when the Federal Reserve initiated its second round of quantitative easing. Aside from a brief bump in demand that kicked the recession can down the road a bit, the U.S. economy is not measurably better off. Meanwhile, countless individuals in developing countries have been injured by predictable commodity hoarding and global price instability. The Federal Reserve has leveraged its balance sheet by over 55-to-1. As policy makers look to address the abrupt deterioration in U.S. and global economic prospects, we should ask ourselves: Do we really long for more of the Fed's recklessness? I began drafting this update in a fairly measured way, but on further reflection, I think it is time to be blunt. The economic evidence now suggests that the U.S. and the global economy are again entering recession. Technically, this is not a "double dip." The National Bureau of Economic Research, which officially dates the beginning and end of U.S. recessions, was very clear about this last year - noting that it would view any future economic downturn as a new recession, not as a continuation of the one that ended in June 2009. Aside from that technicality, a renewed economic downturn would reflect the very same fundamental imbalances, and resulting economic weakness, that our policy makers failed to address in the first place. For most Americans, the recession never ended. If there is one crucial point that should not be missed, it is this: the fundamental source of our economic challenges, from joblessness, to unresolved housing strains, to sovereign debt crises, is that our policy makers have repeatedly opted for fiscal band-aids and monetary distortions instead of addressing the core problem head-on. That core problem is simple: the careless encouragement of asset bubbles, and the refusal to restructure bad debt. Encouraged by inappropriately easy monetary policy and lax regulatory oversight, the U.S. went on a debt-financed binge of consumption and unproductive investment that lasted nearly a decade. When that binge collapsed, policy makers ignored the fundamental need to restructure bad debt, and instead fought tooth and nail to defend bondholders and lenders who had extended credit carelessly. We are now left with a global financial system where the debtors are incapable of making good on those debts, and governments around the world are frantically trying to prop up bad debt with public funds and monetary policies aimed at distorting the financial markets even further. The economy is an equilibrium - consumer spending is stagnant not only because unemployment is high but also because debt burdens remain daunting. Businesses are reluctant to hire because they don't see the likelihood of sustained demand. This isn't a problem of tax uncertainty, regulations, or budget worries - it's a low-level equilibrium produced by consumers trying to deleverage and businesses reluctant to hire without the promise of demand. Many workers can't even move elsewhere to accept job openings because they are locked into their current homes. Very simply, barring the emergence of some new economic sector that produces a tremendous supply of desirable new goods and simultaneously produces enough employment to generate the income to buy those goods, we're unlikely to get around the employment problem until we address the debt issue directly. Restructuring debt does not necessarily mean debt "forgiveness" and it does not always mean "default." It means that the payment structure is changed in a way that makes it possible for the debt to be serviced over time. In the housing market, we don't need government bailouts nearly as much as we need government to act as a coordinating mechanism. Since the housing crisis began, I've proposed the creation of "property appreciation rights" to restructure mortgage debt (see the second portion of Handicapping QE3 for detailed mechanics). These would essentially break mortgages into two pieces, one representing the prevailing market value of the home, with the remaining amount of the mortgage being a marketable claim that the lender would have on future home price appreciation, which could be pooled and administered by the Treasury without the need for subsidies. While lenders would likely earn less on the mortgages than if those mortgages were actually good, and borrowers would pay more on those mortgages than if they walked away from their homes, the credit strains and uncertainty in the housing market could be addressed, foreclosures could be averted, the markets could clear, and the economy could move forward. Of course, part of the reason that policy makers have protected bondholders at every turn is the constant fear-mongering that the financial system will implode if bondholders suffer any loss. Look - the stock market has just lost about $1.5 trillion in market capitalization, and we might just be getting warmed up. The idea that bondholders are sacred is ludicrous - it's just that the financial companies are very powerful, vested interests. As Sheila Bair, the outgoing head of the FDIC recently noted about the 2008-2009 crisis (see Sheila Bair's Exit Interview ): "'We were rarely consulted. They would bring me in after they'd made their decision on what needed to be done, and without giving me any information they would say, 'You have to do this or the system will go down.' If I heard that once, I heard it a thousand times. 'Citi is systemic, you have to do this.' No analysis, no meaningful discussion. It was very frustrating.' ... As she thinks back on it, Bair views her disagreements with her fellow regulators as a kind of high-stakes philosophical debate about the role of bondholders. Her perspective is that bondholders should take losses when an institution fails. When the F.D.I.C. shuts down a failing bank, the unsecured bondholders always absorb some of the losses. That is the essence of market discipline: if shareholders and bondholders know they are on the hook, they are far more likely to keep a close watch on management's risk-taking." As for sovereign debt, Greek spreads presently reflect a 100% expectation of default within the next two years, with Ireland and Portugal not far behind. Italy (whose debt/GDP ratio is well over 100%) has less extreme credit spreads, but is actually the most troubling because of its relative size. So long as the crisis is contained largely to Greece, European leaders are likely to continue what they perceive as heroic attempts to stem the crisis. The real problem is that each new attempt to impose austerity on the fiscal side, in order to protect bondholders, imposes real economic costs on ordinary people in these countries. Normally, overly indebted countries have the ability to print money and devalue their currencies in order to reduce the real burden of excessive debt. But countries in the European monetary union do not have the ability to issue their own currencies, so in order to make the debt whole, ordinary citizens are being forced to endure austerity that in some countries is increasingly looking like depression. For Europe, the struggle of citizens in peripheral nations, and the burden on Germany and France in particular, will continue until the debt is restructured. There is no graceful way to do this, but one option is what might be called "redenomination by fiat." Essentially, these governments would break the existing covenant to pay their debts in Euros, and would instead redenominate the obligations in their own national currencies, which they would then predictably devalue to the point where they were capable of servicing the debt. This is what peripheral economies do, and have always done, in response to excessive debt burdens. Moreover, remember that the value of the Euro itself is not determined by Greece per se, but by price levels and interest rates among countries who are members to that currency. A departure of Greece and possibly other peripheral European nations would not necessarily make the Euro weaker, but might instead help to ensure its status as a durable currency. So to the extent that the key member countries of the Euro pursue fiscal and monetary stability, exit of peripheral countries from the Euro area does not imply a "collapse" of the Euro itself. Meanwhile, restructuring would be far kinder to the citizens who continue to suffer economic austerity in order to make bondholders - who knowingly took risk and lent at a spread - whole. The way that our policy makers address the recent weakness in the markets will tell a great deal about the prospects for a durable recovery. If the policy initiatives focus on subsidizing bad debt on the fiscal side, and distorting the financial markets on the monetary side, it would be best to use whatever short-term enthusiasm those proposals provoke as an opportunity to further reduce risk. The best policy responses are those that relieve some constraint on the economy that is binding. Another round of policies geared to creating an even larger sea of zero-interest liquidity, re-igniting asset bubbles, or further lowering already depressed Treasury yields, would be a signal of panic and incompetence from the Fed. If policy makers instead push to facilitate debt restructuring, coupled with pro-growth fiscal responses (e.g. R&D investment incentives, full funding of the National Institutes of Health, productive infrastructure investment, etc), yet another drawn-out cycle of distortion and crash might be avoided. Recession Warning In order to build some context around the abrupt plunge in the stock market last week, I want to start this week's comment with a paragraph from our comment Simple Arithmetic two weeks ago: "The markets are an equilibrium where every share sold has to be matched with a share purchased. From an equilibrium standpoint, the worst market outcomes are always those associated with rich valuations, a deterioration in valuations from a fundamental standpoint (economic concerns, earnings disappointments, or weak guidance), and a break below widely-followed technical thresholds. The difficulty at those points is that you can get supply from both value-conscious and technically-driven investors, which is an incompatible combination because somebody has to be induced to buy. The only way to establish equilibrium in that case is for stocks to decline by enough to turn the value-conscious sellers into buyers, which essentially requires a free-fall. Importantly, that's not meant as a forecast. Rather, the point is to be alert for events that have the simultaneous effect of disappointing expectations from fundamental investors and also triggering breaks of technical 'support.'" A large number of those "support" levels converged around the 1280 level of the S&P 500 - those included the 200-day moving average, "neckline" support of a putative head-and-shoulders pattern (we aren't much for charting, but the pattern was obvious enough to be widely noted by technicians), as well as other convenient ways of defining trends, such as "trendline" and "fanline" support. Last week, I reviewed the rapidly deteriorating condition of our Recession Warning Composite . While year-over-year GDP growth has dropped to just 1.6% - a rate that has been followed by a new recession in 10 of the 12 times it has occurred since 1950 - I preferred evidence from a wider set of market and economic measures. I noted "we would require only modest deterioration in stock prices and the ISM index to produce serious recession concerns." With the pixels barely dry on that weekly comment, the ISM reported Monday that its Purchasing Managers Index dropped unexpectedly to 50.9, the slowest pace in two years. That report, coupled with an early slide in the S&P 500, completed the remaining holdouts (conditions 2 and 3) of the Composite. Coupled with the slowdown in year-over-year GDP growth, the composite of economic and financial evidence we presently observe has always and only been associated with ongoing or immediately impending recessions. This is not an opinion or a viewpoint, but a fact of the data. "Always and only" is the Bayesian equivalent of "certainty" (a Bayesian is someone who, vaguely expecting a horse, and glimpsing the tail of a donkey, concludes he has probably seen a mule). I emphasize the word "composite," because there is simply no single, infallible indicator of oncoming recession. In order to infer information from noisy data, you have to combine multiple lines of evidence to amplify the "signal" and suppress the "noise." This is what we do in our ensemble modeling (where I can be justly criticized for the time it took to acceptably solve our "two data sets" problem). It's what we do in our stock selection. It's even what we've applied in our research on autism genetics . Any single indicator, whether it is GDP growth, the Shiller P/E, the forward operating earnings yield, the ISM index, the position of the S&P 500 versus its 200-day moving average, the jobs number, or anything else, is invariably subject to random factors that reduce its information content. The only way to get at the "truth" is to look for a convergence of signals that share common information components but whose "noise" components aren't terribly correlated with each other. The problem at present is that multiple lines of evidence suggest more than just a "healthy correction" in the stock market, or a "soft patch" in the economy. Investment strategies and market equilibrium Returning to the idea of market equilibrium, one way to conceptualize the activity of the stock market here is to think about the interaction of various players that is needed to continuously match purchases with sales. At this point, it may be useful to break fundamentally- and technically-oriented investors into further divisions based on their long-term or short-term inclination. We can think of four groups of investors: long-term and short-term fundamentally oriented investors, and long-term and short-term technically oriented investors. We'll review market conditions from the perspective of each, and what events might cause them to change their positions. On the valuation front, we view stocks in terms of the normalized discounted stream of long-term cash flows that investors can expect to receive for the price they pay, and that calculation requires the use of normalized earnings and other fundamentals. As a result of last week's decline, the S&P 500 ended Friday priced, by our estimates, to achieve an average annual 10-year total return of about 4.9%, which is an improvement from the 3.4% level we observed a few months ago, but is nowhere near what would reasonably be viewed as undervalued. Jeremy Grantham at GMO puts a "fair value" figure for the S&P 500 at about 920. We prefer to think in terms of expected returns, and a 920 level would equate to 10-year prospective (nominal) returns in the range of 8-9% annually. That would not be a disappointingly low expected return, but would certainly not rival the valuations we've typically observed at bear market troughs historically. It's useful to keep in mind that while prospective 10-year returns, by our own methodology, surpassed 10% annually at the 2009 trough, that level has historically been no material barrier to even lower valuations and higher prospective returns - though hindsight is not kind to us in the 2009 instance. Also, in view of other periods of major credit crisis, we know that prospective returns also reached 10% annually in 1931 (after reaching slightly negative projected returns at the 1929 peak). In that instance, of course, the S&P 500 continued to lose about two-thirds of its value before it reached its ultimate low in 1932. Suffice it to say that while these 10-year projections have a significant historical record of accuracy, they don't provide much guidance for horizons shorter than 3-4 years - except that low levels are associated with inevitable difficulty, and high levels are associated with eventual relief. The repeated erasure of meaningful market returns over the past decade basically reflects the market's failure to durably establish reasonable valuations during this period. The upshot, at present, is that long-term, value-conscious investors are not likely to be significant sources of demand at present valuations, though they are nearly certain to scale bids in at lower levels, particularly if valuations begin to suggest historically normal prospective long-term returns. We're not even close just yet. So on the fundamental side, the main source of demand is likely to be value-conscious investors who have what we would call an "erroneous and myopic" view of valuation - largely the cadre of investors who take their cues from the ratio of price to forward operating earnings. As I noted in Chutes and Ladders , despite the fact that forward operating earnings aren't defined under GAAP and have a history only since the early 1980's, it is easy to show that the multiple typically runs about 60% of the Shiller multiple. Given that Shiller multiples above 20 have historically represented significant overvaluation, the corresponding "overvalued" figure for forward operating earnings works out to only about 12, while the deep value points such as 1950, 1974 and 1982 map to price-to-forward operating multiples of only 5 or 6. Moreover, investors who use this metric seem almost intentionally oblivious to the fact that current estimates of forward operating earnings have the assumption of sustained record profit margins embedded within them. Nevertheless, there are undoubtedly investors who are quite willing to assume the highest profit margins in U.S. history, and are equally willing to ignore the need to use different norms for price to forward operating earnings than have historically applied for price to trailing net earnings. Those investors see the market as quite cheap here, and until the early indications of oncoming economic weakness actually make their way into analyst estimates of future operating earnings, those fundamental investors are likely to be one source of demand here. On the technical side, we can also distinguish (at least conceptually) between investors having short-term and longer-term technical outlooks. One of the sources of short-term demand, particularly around various prior support levels, are short-term technical investors who respond to short-term dips and measures of significant "oversold" conditions. Last week, we saw repeated bounces at various levels of prior "support" as traders bought into what appeared to be deeply oversold trading conditions. This was particularly true (and finally successful) on Friday, where we observed a 60 point swing in the S&P 500 from trough to peak as traders piled into a perceived "oversold" trade. In contrast, investors who use technical information on a long- and intermediate-term basis are undoubtedly very concerned over the recent breakdown of market internals and violation of major support. The bulk of last week's decline probably reflected the rapid attempt to sell stocks as the markets clearly broke widely followed measures of support such as the 200-day moving average. To match this supply with demand, prices quickly dropped to the point where the combination of demand from myopic fundamental traders and bottom-fishing technical traders was sufficient to match sales with purchases. Still, without a firm grasp on historical data, it is easy to forget that overvalued markets can decline profoundly even after the market appears unimaginably oversold. The worst periods for the market have always been the product of extremely thin risk premiums coupled with a sudden increase in risk aversion. Thinking in terms of equilibrium is helpful in contemplating the "roadmap" of potential outcomes for the market here. First, technical traders are not a very persistent source of demand. A rally that eases the short-term oversold condition of the market and approaches prior levels of technical support would likely be met by profit-taking from short-term technicians and also selling from longer-term technical investors that missed the first opportunity to sell the break of major support. As for fundamental investors, those with a long-term view based on normalized cash flows are unlikely to be very interested here in the first place, and the economic evidence suggests that forward expectations are likely to deteriorate in the weeks ahead. So while stocks may look cheap to investors with an affection for forward operating earnings, those investors have to hope that earnings estimates remain static or improve, which appears unlikely. For all of these reasons, there is good reason to expect an imbalance of selling pressure to develop quickly in response to rallies that clear the oversold short-term condition of the market. Less likely, but not impossible, would be an advance that couples significant improvement in market internals with better economic news. A particularly encouraging event would be a move above prior support levels that "holds" for more than a few sessions. While that whole set of developments would go against the evidence that we're seeing on the economic front, and would require a reversal of the deterioration we've seen in market internals, it would contribute to a short-term imbalance of buying pressure that would have to be offset by selling by fundamental investors and "contrarian" technicians selling into overbought conditions. That scenario wouldn't change the unfavorable long-term prospects for total returns, but can't be completely ruled out as a short-term event. At present, the ensemble of evidence continues to suggest a negative expected return/risk profile for stocks. While the prevailing data is very troubling, we'll remain flexible as the data changes, and will respond to new evidence as it emerges. Market Climate As of last week, the Market Climate for stocks remained hostile, coupling overvaluation with stark weakness in market internals. We continue to see evidence of significant complacency, with bullish sentiment still well ahead of bearish advisors. From a Bayesian standpoint, the likelihood is that stocks have entered a bear market, and that last week was an opening salvo, not a parting shot. On the economic side, I am very hopeful that the composite of evidence for an oncoming recession is utterly wrong. Still, that hope is pitted against data that has always and only been observed during or just prior to economic downturns. Again though, we'll respond to the evidence as it emerges. Significant repair of market internals isn't impossible, but that hope runs contrary to the gathering economic evidence we're seeing. A market reversal on high volume, disproportionately positive breadth, and coupled with deeply bearish sentiment, might also create some opportunity to accept a modest to moderate exposure to market fluctuations. That said, given the historical tendency of those rallies to come off of much more significant declines than we've observed thus far, I suspect that our next opportunity to accept exposure to market fluctuations will come at lower levels. I have little doubt that the best approach is simply to remain open to the data as conditions evolve, adhere to our discipline, and respond in proportion to the expected return/risk profile we observe at each point in time. Strategic Growth Fund remains well hedged here, while Strategic International Equity is about 20% unhedged, owing to the greater dispersion in conditions and valuations in foreign markets. In Strategic Total Return, we clipped our portfolio duration back to just 1.5 years in response to the plunge in Treasury yields. While the downgrade of Treasury debt from AAA by Standard & Poor's is reflective of broader disdain for the political process on budget matters, my impression is that U.S. Treasury debt continues to have the lowest risk of default of any security in the world. Though there's some risk of very brief liquidity pressures in the Treasury market, I doubt that the broad community of bond investors would miss the opportunity to capture a higher Treasury yield in an increasingly uncertain environment. Meanwhile, it is certainly a negative for savers, but a positive on the inflation front that Treasury bill yields collapsed back to zero last week after climbing to 0.10% just before the debt ceiling deadline. As I've noted before, given the present size of the monetary base, even short-term interest rates of more than a few basis points would create significant inflation pressure (see Charles Plosser and the 50% Contraction in the Fed's Balance Sheet ). Barring exogenous upward pressure on short-term interest rates, I continue to believe that the primary window of inflation risk is probably in the back half of this decade. Finally, from the standpoint of indicators correlated with the return/risk profile in precious metals shares, we continue to observe a very constructive ensemble of conditions. After clipping back our exposure in precious metals shares to about 15% in Strategic Total Return at the beginning of last week based on near-term risk factors, my expectation is to increase that position back toward 20% in the event that price weakness continues much further.--- The foregoing comments represent the general investment analysis and economic views of the Advisor, and are provided solely for the purpose of information, instruction and discourse. Prospectuses for the Hussman Strategic Growth Fund, the Hussman Strategic Total Return Fund, the Hussman Strategic International Fund, and the Hussman Strategic Dividend Value Fund, as well as Fund reports and other information, are available by clicking "The Funds" menu button from any page of this website. |
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HotOS "Unconference" report:
Verifying Systems
Ariel Rabkin has some code he'd like to verify, and at this year's HotOS he appealed to participants of one "unconference" (informal breakout sessions to discuss various topics) to help him figure out what was really going on as far as formal verification went.
He had three questions: "What can we verify? What is impossible to verify? How can we tell that the verification is correct?" They seemed like impossibly large questions, so we drilled in a little bit, and found that Ariel had the very understandable question, "Say I have some C++ code implementing a subtle network protocol, and I'd like to prove that the protocol doesn't deadlock; how do I do that?"
I wish the formal verification community had a good answer to a question like this, but unfortunately we don't. The largest verification projects include things like verified kernels, which are written in fully specified subsets of C; which assume the translation performed by the compiler is correct, formalize C in a theorem prover, and then verify there. This is the "principled approach". It's just not feasible to take C or C++ in its entirety and try to formalize it; it's too complicated and too ill-specified. The easiest thing to do is formalize a small fragment of your algorithm and then make a hand-wavy argument that your implementation is adequate.
Martin Abadi remarked that before you embark on a verification project, you have to figure out where you'll get the most bang for your buck. Most of the time, a formalization won't get you "full correctness"; the "electrons may be faulty", as the case may be. But even a flawed verification forces you to state your assumptions explicitly, which is a good thing.
We then circled around to the subject of, well, what can be verified. Until the 90s, the formal verification community limited itself to only complete and sound analyses—and failed. The relaxation of this restriction lead to a renaissance of formal verification work. We talked about who was using formal verification, and the usual suspects showed up: safety critical software, cache coherence protocols (but one participant remarked that this was only a flash in the pan, as far as applications goes—he asserted that these companies are likely not going to use these methods any longer in the future), etc. Safety critical software is also likely to use coprocessors (since hardware failure is a very real issue), but Gernot Heiser noted that these folks are trying to get away from physical separation: it is expensive in terms of expense, weight and energy. Luckily, the costs of verification, as he recounted, are within a factor of two of normal industrial assurance, and half the cost of military assurance (though, he cautioned that this was for a specific project, and for a specific size of code.) He also remarked that as far as changes to code requiring changes to the proofs, the changes in the proofs seemed to be linear in the complexity (conceptual or implementation-wise) of the change, which is a good sign!
Well, supposing that you decide that you actually want to verify your software, how do you go about doing it? Unfortunately, it takes a completely different set of skills to build verified software versus normal software. Everyone agreed, "Yes, you need to hire a formal methods guy" if you're going to make any progress. But that's just not enough. The formal methods guy has to talk to the systems guy. Heiser recounted a very good experience hiring a formal methods person who was able to communicate with the other systems researchers working on the project; without this line of communication, he said, the project likely would have failed. And he mentioned another project, which had three times as much funding, but didn't accomplish nearly as much their team had. (Names not mentioned to protect the guilty.)
In the end, it seemed that we didn't manage to give Ari a quite satisfactory answer. As one participant said, "You'll probably learn the most by just sitting down and trying to formalize the thing you are interested in." This is probably true, though I fear most will be scared off by the realization of how much work it actually takes to formalize software.
Hey guys, I'm liveblogging HotOS at my research Tumblr. The posts there are likely to be more fragmented than this, but if people are interested in any particular topics I can inflate them into full posts.


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Santiago, Chile (CNN) -- Three strong earthquakes rocked Chile on Thursday, causing significant damage in at least one city, the country's newly inaugurated president said Thursday.
A 6.9-magnitude earthquake hit at 11:39 a.m. local time (9:39 a.m. ET), followed by a 6.7-magnitude quake 16 minutes later, the U.S. Geological Survey reported. A third, measured at magnitude 6.0, came 27 minutes later.
They were the strongest aftershocks to rattle Chile since a February 27 earthquake on the country's west coast that toppled buildings and spawned a tsunami, killing several hundred people.
Thursday's quakes shook the ground near Libertador General Bernardo O'Higgins near the coast just as Chile prepared to inaugurate a new president, Sebastian Pinera.
The central Chilean city of Rancagua was affected, Pinera said.
"There is significant damage in Rancagua," the new president said. "We're going to send the necessary armed forces to guarantee citizens' safety."
Rancagua Mayor Eduardo Soto said that no fatalities were immediately reported and that the biggest worry was damage to homes, CNN Chile reported.
After his inauguration Thursday, Pinera visited Rancagua, where he confirmed there were no initial reports of fatalities.
He said that no curfew would be imposed for now and reiterated his call for calm. A priority is for the school year to start as scheduled next week, he said.
He also said Thursday afternoon that he would declare the area a catastrophe zone.
The country's national emergency authorities also put in place a tsunami alert for the coastal area near where the earthquakes hit, and authorities ordered evacuations of some coastal areas.
"I don't want to alarm anyone, [the alert] is solely precautionary, but we have to take precautions when there are human lives at risk," Pinera said.
The epicenter of Thursday's first quake was about 95 miles (152 km) south-southwest of the capital, Santiago, and about 90 miles (145 km) away from Valparaiso, where Pinera was to be inaugurated. Television footage showed the inauguration proceeding without a hitch.
A second earthquake -- with an initial magnitude of 6.9 -- struck moments later. It was about 89 miles (143 km) southwest of Santiago, the USGS said. The third was about 86 miles (138 km) southwest of Santiago.
Rolando Santos, senior vice president and general manager of CNN Chile, said he and his colleagues felt one of the quakes.
"I can tell you within our newsroom in Santiago, which is state of the art in terms of seismic construction, it shook for more than 45 seconds," he said.
He said that he told staffers to get under desks and that three people burst into tears. In the last two days, people had kind of gotten used to aftershocks, but "there was no question this one got everyone's attention," he said.
Pinera, a conservative billionaire businessman, became the Chilean president about 12:15 p.m. local time, roughly 20 minutes after the second quake.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said in a statement that "a destructive Pacific-wide tsunami is not expected" as a result of the quakes, and that there is no tsunami threat to Hawaii.
However, the center also said that "earthquakes of this size sometimes generate local tsunamis that can be destructive along coasts located within" about 62 miles (100 km) of the epicenter.
Hundreds of people were killed when the magnitude-8.8 earthquake struck Chile's west coast February 27. That quake also triggered a tsunami that toppled buildings, especially in the coastal Maule region.
How to help: Impact Your World
Authorities this week released the names of 279 people whose bodies had been identified in the quake, but officials said the new tally does not include hundreds of unidentified victims.
The February 27 earthquake was violent enough to move the Chilean city of Concepcion at least 10 feet to the west and Santiago about 11 inches to the west-southwest, researchers said.


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Social Sciences
Out of Africa, an Exciting Find
Chap Kusimba is a firm believer in climbing down from the ivory tower for the challenges and excitement of discoveries in the field. He isn't afraid to get his hands dirty, literally.
Kusimba joins the College of Arts and Sciences after 19 years as curator of African archaeology and ethnology at Chicago's Field Museum of Natural History and as professor of anthropology at the University of Illinois–Chicago to become chair of the Department of Anthropology. A former research scientist at the National Museums of Kenya, where his mentor was famed anthropologist Richard Leakey, Kusimba directs an active archaeological and ethnological research program in Kenya and Madagascar, as well as collaborative research programs in Nigeria, India, the Czech Republic, and China.
Unearthing the Secret to Making, Keeping Money
As an archaeologist, Kusimba seeks to understand Africa's ancient and contemporary role in global history by studying the complexities of trade and its effects on urbanism, migration, and integration.
"I'm convinced it is merchants who break down traditional barriers, because they are the ones who risk going to foreign countries, risk being killed, learn ways of making profit by engaging with people where they are a distinct minority," says Kusimba.
"If you ask merchants, they say making money is in our blood. But I think the secret of making money, and keeping it, is the ability to make friends with people. So those communities that have been successful in making friends survive and flourish."
That, for Kusimba, is the attraction of studying trading communities, whose artifacts can yield an understanding of everything from migration to the establishment of diaspora communities.
His interdisciplinary projects include a study of ancient and modern DNA among East African coastal people, a study of slavery and its effects in East Africa, a land-use and agriculture study in Madagascar, an analysis of Chinese trade ceramics to discover maritime trade networks in China and the Western Indian Ocean, and a study of ceramics to explore ethnogeography and ethnoarchaeology in Nigeria.
The Discovery That Grabbed Headlines
In Kenya's Tsavo National Park, an area the size of Massachusetts, he has conducted surveys that have resulted in the recovery of 250 sites, where artifacts have revealed a rich history of regional trade going back 2,000 years.
Recently, excavations in Kenya yielded perhaps the most significant find of his career. On Manda, an island off Kenya's northern coast, Kusimba and his fellow scientists made a discovery that grabbed headlines around the world: a 600-year-old Chinese coin.
The coin was minted between 1403 and 1423, during the Ming Dynasty, says Kusimba. "This was the time of a Chinese emperor called Yongle. This emperor is the one who was credited with having begun building the Forbidden City in Beijing, and he sent the first Chinese expedition to explore the Western Indian Ocean, which the Chinese used to call Xiyang, or the western ocean."
The copper and silver coin, which bears the name of the emperor, has a square hole in the center that allows it to be worn on a belt. The emperor wanted China to trade in the region. To explore that possibility, he sent Admiral Zheng He, whom Kusimba calls "the Christopher Columbus of China." The admiral's mission occurred against a backdrop of a declining Roman Empire. But China never exploited the trade opening. Soon after Admiral Zheng's mission, Chinese rulers would ban such foreign expeditions.
From Africa to the Arctic
As for his own journey from Kenya to earn his doctorate at Bryn Mawr, Kusimba admits his path was out of the ordinary.
"Well, it's unusual to think about going to a women's college, but believe it or not, I wanted to come to the U.S. to become an Arctic anthropologist," Kusimba recalls.
"I wanted to study the Inuit, or the Eskimo. A young man coming from Kenya to study the Eskimo—this was very unusual, but that's what I wanted, and Bryn Mawr had one of the best [Arctic anthropology] programs in the country."
Kusimba had learned from a Bryn Mawr student at a summer field school in Kenya that her school had a strong program in Arctic anthropology. "That piqued my interest and I said I have to apply."
But his interest in the Inuit goes back further still. In fifth grade, as part of a film series on world cultures that students in Kenya viewed, Kusimba saw Nanook of the North, the classic documentary on the Inuit. "That stuck to my brain. Even as a kid, I thought there was absolutely no chance that I'll ever go to the Arctic."
But it happened. He spent a summer doing research in the Arctic before Bryn Mawr unexpectedly announced it was phasing out its graduate program in anthropology. With key faculty leaving because of the change, Kusimba was left looking for a plan B to complete research for his degree. And so he returned to East Africa.
Field School in Kenya
He still maintains a close relationship with the National Museums of Kenya, where he worked as a research scientist before coming to the United States to study.
And now American University students will benefit from that relationship. Kusimba plans to establish a field school in Kenya—with the help of colleagues at the National Museums and from Uppsala University in Sweden—that AU anthropology students will be able to experience six weeks a year.
"Anthropology at AU, because of its focus on public anthropology, makes it particularly relevant to the current understanding of human diversity," Kusimba says. "I think they're doing it just the right way."


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Anthony Weiner Says Sexting Continued After Resignation, Now 'Entirely Behind Me'
Weiner polling ahead of field in mayoral race two years after leaving Congress.
July 23, 2013— -- With his wife Huma Abedin by his side, New York City mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner acknowledged today that he sent previously undisclosed explicit messages and inappropriate photos to a woman during summer of 2012, during the year after he publicly resigned from Congress amid a scandal for similar behavior.
Abedin, who has been on the campaign trail with her husband, also spoke emotionally about the scandal today for the first time since Weiner resigned two years ago.
"Our marriage like many others has had its ups and its downs. It took a lot of work a whole lot of therapy to get to a place where I could forgive Anthony," Abedin said. "It was not an easy choice in any way, but I made the decision that it was worth staying in this marriage.
"That was a decision I made for me, for our son and for our family," she added. "So really what I want to say is, I love him, I forgive him, I believe in him and as we have said from the beginning we are moving forward."
The acknowledgment comes after new allegations Monday on gossip website "The Dirty" that Weiner sent sexually charged messages to women after he left Congress in disgrace.
Weiner today said said that the behavior was "entirely behind" him when he got into the mayoral race. He said "can't say exactly" when he sent his last message to a woman who was not his wife, but it might have been "sometime last summer."
Weiner first acknowledged in a statement today that some of the allegations in the "The Dirty" report were true and he confirmed in a press conference that the messages continued after he resigned from Congress.
The anonymous woman said she was 22 when her relationship with Weiner began July 12, 2012, after he found her on the social messaging site Formspring, according to a new post on "The Dirty" today. She also claims that her relationship with Weiner began to fizzle out in November 2012.
"I said that other texts and photos were likely to come out, and today they have," Weiner at the press conference today. "As I have said in the past, these things that I did were wrong and hurtful to my wife and caused us to go through challenges in our marriage that extended past my resignation from Congress.
"With 49 days left until primary day, perhaps I'm surprised more things didn't come out sooner," he said.
According to "The Dirty," racy messages were allegedly posted under the pseudonym Dangr33 on social media site Formspring in 2012. "The Dirty" also alleges that Weiner communicated with the woman through Facebook.
Weiner, 48, resigned from Congress in 2011 after he admitted to sending sexual photos of himself to women on Twitter.
In one post, Weiner appears to be communicating with a woman through his Facebook page, which includes a photo of his wife and their young son Jordan as his avatar.
The authenticity of all the allegations in "The Dirty" account could not be independently verified by ABC News. And Weiner said in his statement that while some of the allegations are true, others are not.
Two of Weiner's opponents, New York City Public Advocate Bill de Blasio and Democratic candidate Sal Albanese called for the former congressman to withdraw from the race Tuesday.
Weiner offhandedly dismissed the comments.
"I'm sure many of my opponents would like me to drop out of the race," he said.
Nik Richie, the author of the "The Dirty" story, wrote in an email to ABC News through another employee who goes by the name "Scooby Sunday," "I'm just doing my job."
The Weiner campaign has not yet responded to requests for clarification.
The allegations published in "The Dirty" were reported by BuzzFeed this morning, but the Weiner campaign declined to comment until releasing the statement hours later.
Last week, a Quinnipiac University poll showed Weiner to be a front-runner in the mayoral race, supported by 25 percent of registered Democrats and followed closely by City Council Speaker Christine Quinn with 22 percent.


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As we push through the garden gate of the old homestead, we are surprised at how much smaller things are than we remembered them, and how much work needs to be done. -The Hummer-
Friday, August 7, 2009
The Gentile Giant and The Firey Fairy
Once upon a time not really so long ago, there was a soft spoken, quiet giant who fell in love with a small beautiful fairy. She was as feisty as he was quiet. No one would have expected them to be attracted let alone marry, but marry they did. He went about he work for a rail road and making a doll house for his small love (she was 4ft10, he was 6'2). I know this because as I grew I felt like a giant in a fairy's house when I visited. He adapted the whole house to her needs. The kitchen could have been used by a average 10 year old with no challenges. I loved it. She loved it. They spent all their spare time together working, playing and having two lovely girls.
I don't think I ever heard him raise his voice, maybe say "now there Dora". This was my dad's older sister. Dora Langley who married the gentle giant Edward Grote. They had a small house a block from the court house in Pawnee. I say small, it was two bedroom with a summer room on the back. During the time before air conditioning when people would sleep out in a screened in room to keep cool during the summer.
They had a cellar (it was Oklahoma, you HAD to have a cellar). It was in the middle of the backyard within easy running distance from the house if the tornado warning came. Aunt Dora had canning shelves in the cellar. As kids, we would place King of the Mountain on the top of the cellar, and all of us knew how to retrieve food when sent.
We had many fun times at their house. When I was in first grade and my mother was away at college, Aunt Dora would take care of me while my dad worked. Uncle Ed, the gentle giant, would pick me up and take me home after school.
When they grew old, she developed colon cancer. She survived it, but the chemo made her cardiovascular system weak, and she died of a heart attack 6 years later. The gentle giant was lost. His fairy was no longer there to perk him up and make him laugh. 12 years later he took his life. No one knows why, but there was a sadness in him after his loss, that never went away.
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Reviewed By: Fred Schuler on 9/16/22
Fantastic. Super helpful, couldn't have done our trip without them
**Note: Map sets are separate inventory and can only be sold and returned as map sets. We are unable to return individual maps if purchased as a set.**
Explore the Mississippi on a route that would make Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn proud. Along the way visit the jumping-off spot of the Mormons' long trek west, and enjoy some great cycling in the Ozarks, and along the Natchez Trace.
For more information on this route or to print out the most up to date addenda for these maps please click here.
Map Resources
Reviewed By: Fred Schuler on 9/16/22
Fantastic. Super helpful, couldn't have done our trip without them
Reviewed By: John Wright on 12/20/19
I have studied and reviewed maps, but I have not used them. Hopefully in the future when it's warmer, well maybe even hot.
Reviewed By: Bruce Talley on 1/2/18
I used the Southern Tier maps in 2015 going from East to West. Detail in most cases was great. I did create other routes along the way, to better my trip using state highway maps, when I wanted to deviate from the norm or use an improved route. Some highway surface had deteriorated or minimal shoulders were available in some areas of the Tier maps. I found Google maps to be helpful in locating smoother/ wider shoulders. Moving off and onto Adventure Cycling maps was very easy. I recently ordered Great River maps and look forward to near future use.
Reviewed By: A customer from on 3/7/12
Excellent map which I will use as a reference tool for my trip down the Mississippi River. I trust ACA to use routes that are safest for bicycles without having to consult another source. I appreciate the attention to detail.
Reviewed By: A customer from milwaukee on 5/23/11
these maps look golden. everything i need to get me down the road in style.


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Calories 240kcl Protein 8g Carbs 29g Fat 11g
Hummus with Carrots
Hummus with Carrots
Serving instructions
Serving instructions
Microwave (recommended)
Peel open a corner from each compartment.
Heat in microwave for 3-4 minutes, let rest for 1 minute.
Add 30 seconds increments if needed.
Stove top
Remove food from tray and heat in a medium-high heat skillet for 4-6 minutes. Serve on a plate.
Remove food from tray and place in oven safe dish. Heat on high (200°C) for 5-6 minutes.
Remove food from tray and place in oven safe dish. Heat on high (200°C) for 8-12 minutes
Heating times will vary depending heating method and applicances, adjust times as necessary and ensure food is fully heated before consuming.
Calories 240kcl
Protein 8g
Carbs 29g
Fat 11g
Nutrition information including side dishes B and C.
Made in a kitchen that processes eggs, fish, milk, peanuts, sesame, shellfish, soy, tree nuts, and wheat.
Net weight: 180g
Storage instructions
Storage instructions
We deliver our meals fresh, since they taste best that way. Store meals in cool fridge at 2-4°C
A best before date is printed on the label of each meals.
If you need to freeze it to eat later, no worries, that works too. Meals suitable for freezing are marked ❄ Freezable on the label. To freeze, place meals in freezer for up to 2 months. To reheat from frozen heat on high for 6 minutes.
Commons Questions
What are the benefits of Mealthy?
Mealthy makes it easy to eat better and to reach your goals. Get fresh ready to heat meals and save hours each week on thinking about what to eat, grocery shopping, save cost compared to eating out. Experience the benefits of eating healthy meals without all the trouble of meal planning and cooking by yourself.
How long do the meals last?
Our meals will stay fresh stored chilled for 3-5 days. Each meal has a best before date printed on the label.
When will I get my meals?
The meals are delivered once a week.
Place your meal plan order before the Thursday 11:59pm deadline to get your delivery the following week.
You can cancel, pause or skip at anytime.


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On the National Register of Historical Places | ||
Welcome To Spring Valley! | ||
We invite you to visit the church built in 1876 when the James Wilder family were members.
Church records reveal that pastors or presiding elders baptized and performed marriage rites for Eliza Jane and Laura Ann Wilder.
Records also indicate that Almanzo and Laura (Ingalls) Wilder attended here in 1890 and 1891.
When contruction of the Methodist Church at 221 West Courtland began in 1876, James M. Wilder was among the early contributors.
His pledge of $50 was one of the largest amounts. As early as 1858 the Methodists raised $2,000 toward a building
while they continued to meet regularly in the upstairs hall at Parson's Stone Block. It wasn't until 1876 that the lot on
West Courtland Street was purchased, and steps taken to build the church.
The church's beautiful Victorian-Gothic architecture with 21 stained glass
windows as well as the museum's two floor display of exhibits are just a few of the things that await you here in Spring Valley.


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The media coverage of the BP oil disaster to date has focused largely on the threats to wildlife, but the latest evaluation of air monitoring data shows a serious threat to human health from airborne chemicals emitted by the ongoing deepwater gusher.
Today the Louisiana Environmental Action Network released its analysis of air monitoring test results by the Environmental Protection Agency. The EPA's air testing data comes from Venice, a coastal community 75 miles south of New Orleans in Louisiana's Plaquemines Parish.
The findings show that levels of airborne chemicals have far exceeded state standards and what's considered safe for human exposure.
For instance, hydrogen sulfide has been detected at concentrations more than 100 times greater than the level known to cause physical reactions in people. Among the health effects of hydrogen sulfide exposure are eye and respiratory irritation as well as nausea, dizziness, confusion and headache.
The concentration threshold for people to experience physical symptoms from hydrogen sulfide is about 5 to 10 parts per billion. But as recently as last Thursday, the EPA measured levels at 1,000 ppb. The highest levels of airborne hydrogen sulfide measured so far were on May 3, at 1,192 ppb.
Testing data also shows levels of volatile organic chemicals that far exceed Louisiana's own ambient air standards. VOCs cause acute physical health symptoms including eye, skin and respiratory irritation as well as headaches, dizziness, weakness, nausea and confusion.
Louisiana's ambient air standard for the VOC benzene, for example, is 3.76 ppb, while its standard for methylene chloride is 61.25 ppb. Long-term exposure to airborne benzene has been linked to cancer, while the EPA considers methylene chloride a probable carcinogen.
Air testing results show VOC concentrations far above these state standards. On May 6, for example, the EPA measured VOCs at levels of 483 ppb. The highest levels detected to date were on April 30, at 3,084 ppb, following by May 2, at 3,416 ppb.
Here's a chart based on the data from LEAN's analysis, which was done by award-winning analytical chemist Wilma Subra:


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New York Times perfume critic Chandler Burr's debut novel is a poignant, semiautobiographical treatise on Hollywood and the hypocrisies of Judaism.
June 24 2009 12:00 AM EST
November 17 2015 5:28 AM EST
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New York Times perfume critic Chandler Burr's debut novel is a poignant, semiautobiographical treatise on Hollywood and the hypocrisies of Judaism.
Chandler Burr is pissed off. And if you give him a minute -- or three hours -- of your time, he'll explain why in a manner so erudite, so insistent, and so maddeningly scattered that the force of his words will leave you feeling like you've been hit in the face by a very heavy two-by-four. Words mean something to Burr -- labels, identity, and literature are obsessions for the 45-year-old New Yorker. But his first novel, You or Someone Like You , as Burr will tell you, is more than just a sensuously written piece of fiction. It's catharsis on paper, the last word (for now) on an incident that happened to the author when he was 23, a life-changing moment that upended everything he thought he knew about himself.
"Part of the reason that I write is that I'm really angry at people who say unbelievably stupid shit," Burr says. He's seated in the mezzanine of the New York Times cafeteria, his voice effortlessly rising above the corporate clip-clop of high heels that threatens to break his concentration. While the Times is housed in this midtown skyscraper, the majority of his work as the Times ' official scent critic is done from his home in Murray Hill. (Two of his previous books centered on the perfume industry: 2003's The Emperor of Scent and 2007's The Perfect Scent , which partially follows the creation of Sarah Jessica Parker's first fragrance, and wherein we learn that the erstwhile Carrie Bradshaw likes body odor.) Burr doesn't want to talk much about his job, a strange-sounding position that drew snorts of derision when it was created in 2006. And when he starts to explain the enormity of the encounter that prompted him to write You or Someone Like You , a discussion of base notes and aroma compounds seems utterly irrelevant anyway.
In the late 1980s, just before beginning graduate school, Burr set off on a worldwide backpacking adventure. The trip took him through the southern rim of Asia and eventually to Israel, where he attended a yeshiva for the first time in his life. Burr's father, Ralph, is a Russian Jew by birth; his mother, Nancy, was reared as a Christian Scientist. By the time Burr was born, both his parents had turned to Christian Science. Neither of them ever sat down to explain to their son that, according to halakic rules (Jewish religious law), he is not considered Jewish because his mother never was. "There was always this tension with my Jewish family [about my not being a Jew]." Burr says. "You learn it through osmosis. You learn that there is this problem and you learn not to talk about it in the same way that you don't talk about homosexuality. You hide it."
At the yeshiva, however, Burr was sitting at a table with a young man who started to ask about his upbringing. "I let drop that my mother was a Protestant," Burr says, adding that that's when all hell broke loose. "The blood literally drained from his face. He gets up and turns me in. Immediately. And two big Israeli guys come in within 30 seconds, take me to the rabbi's office, and he says to me, 'You are racially impure. You have polluted my yeshiva. You have caused us to sin by teaching Torah to a non-Jew. And your father is engaging in the ongoing Holocaust of Jewish people.'" Burr spits out his words with eloquent force, as if willing the brazenness of those comments to sink a little deeper. "That's extremely sick."
Burr has spoken of his encounter for two decades, but he has now also written about it. You or Someone Like You tells the story of Anne Rosenbaum, the British-born wife of high-powered Hollywood executive Howard, who inadvertently becomes the grand pooh-bah of a book club that quickly develops into the hottest kaffeeklatsch in town.
The novel is peppered with references that will delight devotees of Variety and IMDb.com -- everyone from J.J. Abrams to L Word creator Ilene Chaiken pops by the group to share their views on literature and life with Anne. The strange, looming subplot -- the decision of Howard and Anne's son, Sam, to explore his Jewish lineage via a trip to Israel -- becomes the novel's fulcrum. Burr reimagines his own long-ago incident in the yeshiva through Sam Rosenbaum's eyes, and when the 17-year-old returns to Los Angeles, bewildered and emotionally wounded, Howard -- a lapsed Jew -- undergoes a spiritual crisis that leaves his marriage in tatters. Sam also comes out of the closet at this point (but Burr views this revelation as tangential).
Though previously tolerant of her husband's Judaism, Anne begins to adopt a sharp, take-no-prisoners view of religion, and it's no accident that her take mirrors Burr's. "I am an equal-opportunity opponent of all religions," says Burr, an atheist. "All religions, I believe, are fundamentally flawed. I don't believe in any of them."
He's also no fan of gray areas, and that goes double for people who espouse one tenet or another of a religion without acknowledging the whole. "Religions mean something," he insists. "These identifications are not infinitely elastic. As a matter of fact, they are incredibly inelastic. If you are a Jew, you had better believe that everybody who is not a Jew is not as important to God. If you're Catholic, you'd better believe that everybody who is not a Christian is going to hell. And you can't just say that you are a Muslim and leave it at that. No. All your [non-Muslim] friends are in the House of War and must be converted to Islam and submit to Allah. That's what it's about! You don't get to pick and choose."
"I wanted Anne to be in a very Jewish world," says Burr, "a world that could become a cult. I can't imagine [this novel taking place] anywhere else. It's so perfect. Los Angeles is so utterly otherworldly."
Burr has spent a considerable amount of time in the offices of Hollywood talent agents, producers, and studio muckamucks. He's written seven screenplays, taken scores of meetings, and even collaborated with uberproducer Brian Graden on a three-month project that -- like 99% of all showbiz endeavors -- ultimately fell apart. Choosing Los Angeles as the setting for a novel that so trenchantly examines literature and Judaism was therefore a no-brainer. "I can't tell you how many times I've actually had an industry person say to me in total seriousness, 'I read the coverage and/or review of the book. It's a masterful work.' But they haven't even read the book! And they are completely unembarrassed by it!"
Many of the most powerful passages in You or Someone Like You have nothing to do with religion or identity. They're the vignettes -- often painfully uncomfortable, sometimes totally charming -- that portray the Rosenbaums' existence as a married couple. They're written with a keen and thoughtful eye for the nuances of a longtime relationship, so it's a little surprising to hear Burr say that he's never even had a serious boyfriend. "I've been in love numerous times, but it's always -- I'm terrible at dating. I meet a lot of psychos, a lot of damaged people...I think I would be a terrific husband."
Burr says the Rosenbaums are broadly based on his married friends, especially his agent, Eric Simonoff, and his wife, whose name is also Anne. "It's weird because I don't have the direct experience of having a wonderful marriage. But I do in my mind. I have always wanted to be married and have children. And I just keep hoping that someday it will actually happen to me."
For all his righteous anger, Burr is brimming with optimism. Listen carefully to his harsh, sometimes shocking opinions about religion, and it's clear that they're merely a cover for his unwavering hope that someday, we can create a world where no young man would be kicked out of a yeshiva for being impure. "My people," he says, "are those who believe, as I do, that we need to be good to each other and we need to be good to the planet. We must be free to think and feel." And, of course, to be pissed off.
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1995: Germany establish upper hand
Sunday, March 26, 1995
Article summary
The beginning of Germany's dominance of Sweden came in the final of the 1995 tournament.
Article top media content
Article body
Although a record 29 nations entered the 1995 UEFA European Women's Championship, the contenders again looked like being the usual suspects - holders Norway, 1993 runners-up Italy, two-time winners Germany, inaugural champions Sweden, and England, whose new Premier League had improved standards.
Matches were increased to 90 minutes from 40 minutes each way, which coupled with the presence of so many entrants meant some lop-sided scorelines in the qualifying round. Germany managed 55 goals without reply in their six games, while Slovenia twice lost 10-0 to England and fell to a tournament record 17-0 defeat by Spain, eliminated by the English despite not losing a match.
Norway, Russia, Denmark, Sweden, England and Germany all progressed unbeaten, but two other sections were closer. Italy topped Group 6 throughout but were surprisingly beaten 2-1 at home by Portugal in their final game. That meant France could pip the Azzurre with a nine-goal win in Scotland three months later; as they could only manage a 3-0 success, Italy advanced. The final pool, Group 8, was won by Iceland on the back of a 1-0 victory in the Netherlands.
However, the Icelanders found life tougher in the quarter-finals, losing both legs against England 2-1. In a rematch of the 1993 final, Norway prevailed 3-1 in Italy and 4-2 in Oslo, while Germany followed a 1-0 victory in Russia with a 4-0 home triumph. The remaining tie saw Denmark and Sweden meet in their third quarter-final, having previously won one each. The Danes, successful in 1992, took the first leg 2-0 in Hjorring, but three first-half goals for Sweden in Malmo turned the tie and the aggregate ended at 3-2.
With the second FIFA Women's World Cup scheduled for the summer in Sweden, the semi-finals reverted to a two-legged format in the winter, with the final being a one-off game in March. Germany comfortably saw off England 4-1 in Watford and 2-1 in Bochum, but Sweden were involved in a thriller against old foes Norway.
Norway had overcome Sweden in the 1987 final and in the last four in 1989, and were striving to maintain a proud record of having reached at least the final in every edition. Despite falling behind three times in the first leg in Kristiansand, Anita Waage's last-minute goal gave them a 4-3 advantage. And when Linda Medalen put Norway ahead 28 minutes into the return, played a week later indoors in Jonkoping, it seemed things were going their way again.
However, the half-time introduction of attacker Lena Videkull signalled a change in fortune for the Swedes, who drew level through Ulrika Kalte eight minutes after the restart. The hosts sensed that Norway were vulnerable and strikes one minute either side of the hour from Videkull left Sweden in control. The substitute completed her hat-trick, and Sweden's victory, 14 minutes from the end.
A crowd of 8,500 gathered in Kaiserslautern for the final, and six minutes in Malin Andersson shot the Swedes in front. The home fans need not have worried, though, as Maren Meinert equalised just after the half-hour, and on 65 minutes a fresh-faced 17-year-old named Birgit Prinz gave Germany a lead they never relinquished.
Seven minutes from time Bettina Wiegmann made it 3-1, and although Anneli Andelen-Andersson pulled one back, Germany rebuffed Sweden's forward forays to claim a third European title. Meanwhile, there was some consolation for deposed champion Norway as they defeated Germany in Stockholm in June to become Europe's first Women's World Cup winners.