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What's stood out so far in the Copa?
Michael Bradley was bad but maybe that isnt his fault
BRIAN SCIARETTA - Thursday, September 10, 2009
If you ask most fans of the USA national team, chances are they will say that they are not enjoying this version of the final round of World Cup qualifying, commonly referred to as the Hex. When compared with the tournament in 2005, it is easy to understand why.
This Hex is far more competitive and challenging than the one four years ago. In that tournament, the USA qualified for the World cup with three games to spare and were never in danger of not qualifying.
This year is a far different story. The United States has faced stronger competition and has played several games in which they were forced to get a result or else face the humiliation of missing its first World Cup since 1986. At a time when the sport of soccer is trying to emerge as a major sport in the United States, having the national team fail to qualify for the World Cup could have devastating consequences.
The truth of the matter, however, is that playing such a competitive Hex could prove to be far more beneficial than the easy 2005 version. There is a skill and mentality that is acquired by playing in so many must-win games that it could pay benefits next year at the World Cup. To qualify out of this year's Hex, teams will have to play smart soccer but also with a sense of urgency.
Granted, the USA has gone through times this campaign where they have not played their best. Wednesday night's victory over Trinidad and Tobago, like most road World Cup qualifying victories, was a very unconvincing contest. The USA will have to play much better if they want to advance out of group play in next year's World Cup. Despite not playing their best, the USA was able to get a much needed 3 points and move into first place of the Hex and four points clear of fourth place Costa Rica.
The last time the USA had such a difficult qualification was in 2001 when after the 8th round of the Hex they found themselves in 4th place. At one point they had lost three games in a row. If not for Trinidad and Tobago's stunning upset of Honduras on the road, there is a good chance that the USA's run to the quarterfinals in the 2002 World Cup never happens.
The increased competition that year proved to be very valuable to USA coach Bruce Arena and the USA team. That Hex allowed the USA to come together and introduce young players like Landon Donovan, Clint Mathis, and John O'Brien into an environment where a lot was always at stake.
Arena was also able to properly evaluate his team in a competitive environment and then after qualifying, introduce players like Demarcus Beasley and Pablo Mastroeni who played little or no role in qualifying. The challenging Hex, combined with a strong set of friendlies leading up to the World Cup, allowed the USA team to take the field in South Korea with confidence and swagger.
Four years later in Germany, the USA took the field at the World Cup and played terrified and with a total lack of confidence. A lot of this can be traced back to the Hex in 2005 where the teams were weaker and the USA was able to qualify without intensity and with questionable tactics. The eight months between World Cup qualifying and the World Cup saw Arena not make any significant changes to the team. There was no accurate barometer to measure the team's ability.
This year's Hex is shaping up to be more like the 2001 version where there are four strong teams who rarely drop points at home while the bottom teams also remain competitive. When combining the ten games of the Hex along with the five Confederations Cup matches, USA coach Bob Bradley will at least have the opportunity to learn about how his team is able to compete in serious matches that friendlies cannot replicate.
Whether or not Bob Bradley makes the necessary adjustments remains to be seen, but the opportunity for solid evaluation has been there in 2009. Bradley has shown that he is far less automatic with his roster selections than Arena was in 2005 and is more flexible than some of his critics say.
During qualifying, regulars such as Heath Pearce, Demarcus Beasley, Eddie Johnson, Pablo Mastroeni, Sacha Kljestan, Brian Ching, Steve Cherundolo, and Danny Califf are no longer as likely to see playing time as they once were. Also during this qualifying, players like Jozy Altidore, Charlie Davies, Stuart Holden, and Jonnathan Spector have emerged as key players. An easier World Cup qualifying campaign may not have lead to the necessity of making these player changes.
While this very competitive Hex has exposed the weaknesses of some of the American players and has allowed Bob Bradley to introduce different players, many other questions and areas of concern have emerged. It remains to be seen how or even if Bob Bradley can solve these problems.
If the USA wraps up qualification next month, as expected, the benefits of playing a competitive Hex could be significant. The team will have gained experience in playing in the pressure of must-win games, and Bob Bradley will have a clear list of where the team needs to improve during the eight months before the World Cup.
The easy Hex of 2005 did not give Bruce Arena the indication of what areas of the team needed to be improved. Whether or not Bradley will make the necessary changes remains to be seen and the success of his coaching tenure will largely depend on what he does the next nine months. Nothing can change the fact that 2009 has been a great year for learning and that is an important prerequisite for the supreme challenges that lie ahead.
Trinidad & Tobago 0-1 USA
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Saturday September 12, 2009 1:15 am
Question Bob all you want, but he is not going anywhere for a year. I am not a big fan, but I am not hurt about his son getting to play either.
Possession the Ball!
Saturday September 12, 2009 1:10 am
If the best Bradley can do is praise his come from behind wins at home, and against weak teams, then they need to dump him. Anyone who thinks Ching is world class is a soccer idiot! Even against the weakest opponents, he's always the slowest and least skilled player on the pitch. Heck, there are coaches better and quicker than Ching. The fact that the US lost 2-1 against Mexico, in Mexico, with Ching starting shows what potential the US has -- not to mention LD having the swine flu.
Bradley sucks. Bradley has zero national team experience as a player, and zero professional experience as a player. And it shows in his tactics, his stupid long ball giveaway strategy, and his inability to sub timely and intellegently...
We need to get Feilhaber and Holden in there to control the ball with LD. Adu has no position to play, DMB is a consistent dud, and Dempsey is consistently lazy and coughs it up on the wing. However, Dempsey is a great choice as 2nd half sub up top. Torres deserves a chance, too.
Did I mention that Bob Bradley sucks?
And what about that dominant defensive mid from the Bundesliga that's now allowed to play for the US Nats with the recent FIFA rule change? The problem is that Bradley won't EVER bench his son, no matter how his son plays.
Saturday September 12, 2009 12:05 am
We need at least one more central defender. I do not see anyone good, but we have to find one. Cooper and Adu are questionable. And I prefer Keller over Perkins. Also, I still believe in DMB resurrection.
Kaiser Soze
Friday September 11, 2009 1:55 pm
I never stated that MB should not be in the pool, and he should even play to some degree. You stated that he is in the top 18 and I do not disagree. I guess I get ruffled when the line-up always must include him, unless he subs himself by collecting yet another red card resulting from an ill-advised late challenge. We play four in the back and then sprinkle on two more defensive mids, and of the choices at that position one must be MB, without question? He may end up being third or fourth in the depth chart with everyone healthy (Jones, Edu, etc.) then we will see if I have any grounds to what I am saying. Why don't you read about the current situation at Gladback where the manager benched him because he did not respond well to criticism and direction. Of course no problem with the Nats.
We could not hold and distribute the ball at T&T because BB left our two creative mids on the bench (Feilhaber, Torres) but do not question BB lest you be a traitor. How about a manager with no ties, simply to evaluate talent, unlike now and with Arena (UVA, DC, etc.). Similarly look at BB's ties (MB, Sacha, Bornstein, etc.).
I understand that BB's job is the safest of almost any nation in the world, maybe that is part of the problem.
Thanks to Ben & Ed C. for their well written input.
The Union Jack
Friday September 11, 2009 1:08 pm
phil - I like the line up. I would only switch out Adu for Ching. Not that Ching should see significant playing time but you need another true forward since Duece mainly plays mid and has some recent success up top for us.
Brian you stated in the article "To qualify out of this year's Hex, teams will have to play smart soccer but also with a sense of urgency". The sense of urgency is still lacking. The team has not qualified yet. And there are realistic senarios in the last two games in which they will fail to get the third spot. We needed these last six points. Not getting all six would have put us in harms way. But how the team went about it was reminiscent of the Italy and Brazil Confed Cup games. No soul at USSF should be breathing easy right now.
We could learn something from the Mexicans. Two months ago their backs were on the floor. Now (and I hate to say it) they are playing the best out of all the team in the Hex.
Friday September 11, 2009 7:41 am
Kaiser Soze,
While it is uncommon for such a father/son pairing to occur, it is not unheard of. There are several examples in baseball and at Man Utd, Sir Alex gave his son Darren his first team debut in 1992. Granted, the following season Darren was sold to Wolverhampton. A father/ son combo will always bring questions until one or the other does something to prove that it is simply a player/coach relationship on the field, i.e. selling him to another team or benching an underperforming player.
Phil - I have to give you props. Thats a great looking line up and one I am sure that many U.S. fans would love to see. My only question is what other young players would you have in mind should Freddy's loan move not work out?
Ed C.
Friday September 11, 2009 3:36 am
I agree with having little Bradley on the team, because he is one of our best 23 that should go to the WC but again, here I go again, harping on about getting rid of his father. Its like a dictatorship really - nobody voted the guy in, nor did we, the fans, vote in an US Soccer people, and this is what we're stuck with!
phil has my vote too!!!
Friday September 11, 2009 3:28 am
I agree completely with the idea this article presents. You do not get better playing easy games. You get better when you are challenged. Bruce Arena made the arrogant (go figure) mistake of thinking that it was because of his fine coaching and perfect line-up selections that the US was so easily the best team in the Northwestern Hemisphere.
Phil, I love the line-up. I'm so sick of watching garbage like the 1st half in Trinidad where there's 3 passes (or less) and a long ball played to the opposing keeper (or even the sideline ball boy). I watched the Mexico-Honduras game after the US game and the ball control that the Mexicans displayed was really enjoyable to watch (and it creates many more opportunities than the hopeful long ball).
Friday September 11, 2009 1:10 am
I am so sick about all of the father/son carping going on among supporters. The reality is that Bob is your coach (at least until this time next year) and Michael is easily one of the 18 best players we have. Get over it already.
Kaiser Soze
Thursday September 10, 2009 10:50 pm
Phil for USSF president, and soon. Read Phil's post. You are not alone out there my friend, well done.
Phil since we seem to be on the same page, can you comment on how in the Wide World of Sports the dynamic of a father and son can even occur at this level? Even if both were deemed the absolute top choice (not even close) it has to raise questions/criticism.
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Champions Leauge
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With Jesse Marsch and David Wagner at the helms of teams in the top flight, YA will cover their exploits this season.
YA Transfer Tracker
Yanks Face Relegation in England
Tale of Two Young Yanks in Europe
Wagner Nears Premier League Goal
Jupiler Pro League (Belgium)
Weston McKennie
Bundesliga (Germany)
Schalke 04
Wigan Athletic
Ethan Horvath
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Terrence Boyd


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I first attempted making Sichuan dry-fried green beans 5 years ago while living in Beijing. Night after night I would have these delicious crispy green beans at Sichuan restaurants alongside dishes like mapo tofu and kung pao chicken, and finally decided I needed to try making them on my own. The results of my first experiments were less than impressive, to put it mildly. Then help came from a fellow blogger back home in NY.
Years later, I still make dry-fried green beans with the same time-tested method, varying the ingredients ever so slightly. Here is a revised all-vegetarian recipe featured in my new cookbook.
Dried-fried green beans is one of my favorite side dishes to order in Sichuan restaurants. In contrast to crisp haricot verts or mushy microwaved diner-style beans, Sichuan-style green beans are blistered and well-cooked without being bland. With Sichuan peppercorns and dried chillis adding spice and smokiness to the flavor profile, this dish becomes positively addictive.Read More

subset: commoncrawl


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The future is uncertain
The future is uncertain.
At this time two months ago, I was walking out of the jungle after a mountain hiking trip in Gunung Yong Yap, Cameron Highland. I still remembered my legs were tired and my problematic right knee was swelling up inside as we made our way out of Pos Brooke orang asli settlement. The pain was not new, I have a history of "running patella" (running kneecap) or patella femoral syndrome which I always felt disappointed since it causes me pain most of the time when I am hiking or running.
Today, I no longer have the running patella on my right knee. I say again, the future is uncertain.
Reality is, …that the night that I was eager to get home and get a good rest… I ended up in Ipoh General Hospital emergency room with bruises and lacerations all over my body and face, burst blood vessels in my right eye, fractured my tailbone, broken right arm , broken right leg, and worst of all shattered my right knee.
Looking at the bright side of things, I still have my life, a fully functional brain and eye, and no memory lost (though I could not remember the car crash). But the future is uncertain.
I can now no longer enjoy being the outdoor girl that I am so in love with…because the orthopedic surgeon could only save five "Lego" pieces out of the eight from my patella. Steel plates, screws and pins are inserted into my arm and leg which will help me function again but the wires looping my patella will not help me regain a 100% function of the knee.
Accepting this fact is not easy. How am I going to do it? What choice do I have?
Patella replacement? Patella removal? Total knee replacement? The more I research do about getting my knee back leads me to more disappointment. Any "spare part" replacement can only last for approximately 15 years until I need to go through the whole operation and rehabilitation process again. Plus a total knee replacement can only give a certain bending range, up to 120 degree if I am right.
"Your knee now is not fit for a patella replacement and you are too young for a total knee replacement. You have to avoid all your hiking and climbing and running if you want to make your knee last. Hopefully it will not be me who will be doing your knee replacement because even with minimal activity your knee will need to be replaced sooner or later due to the current broken patella pieces" I remember those words like it was told to me yesterday.
Hiking, climbing, running on trail, completing marathons and ultra marathons, adventure races, yoga, DANCING! How can I just drop all this?
"Well you can still hike and run, go ahead. But I will tell you that the pain will stop you. And even if you can bare the pain, remember that the more you use your knee, the sooner you need them replaced"
The future is uncertain. I just hope there will be medical miracle which will help fell a little happier.
I physical and mentally feel pain, miserable and depressed. Indulging in self pity is just bad for me but at this moment and many moments to come, the melancholy will stay with me.
Email me at eatfirstthinklater[at]gmail[dot]com or drop me a message here.


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exoram needed a new logo design and created a contest on 99designs.
A winner was selected from 113 designs submitted by 31 freelance designers.
Name: Known Access Inc.
Slogan: Secure Network Solutions
We are a software design company. Looking for a web 2.0 logo.
Known Access Inc.
Secure Network Solutions
Desired Style:
web 2.0
Accepted File Formats:
Vector Formats (.eps, .pdf or .ai); Layered Formats (.psd or .tiff)
We are a computer software company specializing in secure network solutions.
Our top selling products are our small business solutions and our network security products.
Dont worry about the colors, as long as it looks good we can always modify that.
If you want some more inspiration, please go to http://www.knownaccess.com to get a better idea of what we do. THIS IS A TEMP WEBSITE. So please dont think you have to use this color scheme.
Find out how a design contest works or learn more about our logo design services.


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We are a family business that works closely with the artists to ensure that our customers receive wonderful pictures at affordable prices.
Original paintings and framed prints are usually only available for collection from the Gallery, although we can deliver in person within a 15 mile radius of the gallery by arrangement.
On this site we have tried to provide as much choice as possible, but we are happy to quote on and supply pictures in bespoke sizes where feasible.
Contact us for a quote with your requirements
How long before we dispatch your print?
Some of the most popular prints are usually available for despatch within 48 hours.
If we do not hold the specific print you're after in stock it will be despatched as soon as we have been able to order one from the various craft printers used by our artists, or from the artists themselves.This seldom takes longer than a week.
How will the picture be delivered?
Within the UK, to keep things as simple and cost-effective as possible, we offer delivery by first class post which is organised by Post and Packing.
The prices quoted on the site include postage and packing at a discounted rate.
For international deliveries, please send us a message
How will your picture be packed?
Mounted prints
All mounted prints are wrapped in cellophane bags and packaged using stout card and bubble wrap.
Framed prints and poster prints
Sadly due to the increasing instances of breakages in transit, we are no longer offering framed prints or originals by post. Please contact the gallery to discuss alternatives.
Poster prints
Poster prints will be rolled in acid-free tissue paper and inserted in a large diameter, stout cardboard tube with plastic end-pieces.


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Pfeil Carving Tool, Dragon Gouge, Bevel Straight
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Discover product in our flip catalogue:
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This service costs €2.50 for each product.
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Although globalizers play a critical role in the digital age, a number of them feel invisible in global organizations. Elevating globalization from being a cost driver to a profit driver takes a lot of effort and time.
Each year, EContent magazine compiles a list of the 100 companies that matter most in the digital content industry.
Voting is now closed. We'll announce the results of the first-ever EContent 100 list chosen by the people!
Marji McClure
May 01, 2013
Naming the top digital media influencers today is no easy task. There are so many great people responsible for developing digital media into the powerhouse it is now and will continue to be in the future. The list of thought-leaders grows every day, but we asked some digital media experts who they felt are the most influential people in the industry and why. We received a wide range of responses from our experts. Most of the nominees are responsible for innovations in digital media that have forever changed our world. There is certainly no lack of big-name innovative companies and their concepts, but they aren't the only ones influencing digital media today.
The list is rounded out by those who analyze and teach about the digital industry, making this a broad-based look at those who contribute to all aspects of digital media and those working to ensure a continued bright-and equally innovative-future.
Here, we present the top 15 digital media influencers of 2013 and why they belong on the list:
Mark Zuckerberg, Founder and CEO, Facebook
There's no question that Zuckerberg belongs on the list. "Where would we be without Facebook?" asks Barbara Brynko, editor-in-chief of Information Today. Where indeed? The creator of Facebook has undoubtedly shaped-and possibly changed forever-how we communicate. "He created a social network that is changing how brands think about advertising," says Tim McLaughlin, president of Siteworx, LLC.
Jeff Bezos, Founder and CEO, Amazon
Through his powerful ecommerce company, Bezos continues to steer a ship that drives technology and innovation in the digital media space. Amazon continues to help power digital content consumption through its popular Kindle devices, helping to push ebooks into the mainstream. Barry Graubart, founder of Content Matters, LLC, notes that 14 years after starting the company, Bezos "continues to drive innovation" there. McLaughlin agrees, nominating Bezos "for his role in the growth of ecommerce and his relentless efforts in making Amazon what it is today."
"Just as we hear rumblings of the death of the single-purpose e-reader, the Kindle Fire proves itself to be the most effective competitor to the iPad to date, accounting for more than 7% of tablet web traffic," says Graubart. "At the same time, Amazon's AWS (Amazon Web Services) cloud platform has enabled digital media businesses to achieve scale at ridiculously low costs."
Matt Mullenweg, Founding Developer, WordPress.com
Mullenweg is at the helm of an open source blogging platform that runs millions of websites. Graubart notes that Wordpress runs blogs for a variety of entities, "not just no-name blogs." Graubart has personal experience with Wordpress. It's what he uses to run his ContentMattersLLC.com site. "Wordpress is adding more functionality, moving closer to a full-fledged content management platform," says Graubart.
Nick Denton, Founder, Gawker Media
Denton has created an interesting mix of media sites that have garnered quite a following for the news they provide. "Love him or hate him, Nick Denton has built a mini-empire of blogs including Gawker, Gizmodo, Lifehacker, Deadspin, and others," says Graubart. "Deadspin's breaking of the Manti Te'o story [about the Notre Dame football player's girlfriend hoax] shows that blogs can do the investigative journalism that traditional news sites seem to have given up."
Marissa Mayer, CEO, Yahoo!
Mayer is the one person this list named for her potential, not necessarily what she has already accomplished in her role as the leader of Yahoo!. "Although many expect her presence will provide the company the boost it needs to become competitive again, she has yet to achieve anything," notes McLaughlin. "It will be interesting to see what she is able to accomplish in the coming year."
She is already making much progress. "Marissa Mayer did something that few expected-she made Yahoo! relevant again. This fall, when Instagram stumbled over its new terms of use it was Yahoo! who jumped into the void with a dramatic update to its long-dormant Flickr app," says Graubart. "At the same time, Yahoo! continues to be a leader in original web video through its Yahoo! Studios division. There's a long way to go before we can assess the results, but at least the company is again part of the conversation. Marissa Mayer has put the ! back in Yahoo!."


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While the White House and Congress lurch combatively from one budget crisis to the next, another Washington institution has been bolstering the economy steadily and with little fanfare since the 2008 financial crisis began.
And the Federal Reserve seems likely to keep its stimulus pumps running at least awhile longer -- although minutes from a recent meeting show growing nervousness among U.S. central bankers over possible long-range harmful consequences, including steep inflation and instability in financial markets.
The Fed, under Chairman Ben Bernanke, has been keeping a key short-term interest rate near zero for over four years and is buying tens of billions of dollars in Treasury and mortgage bonds a month to keep downward pressure on longer-term interest rates and to provide liquidity to financial institutions.
Oh, and it's buying those bonds with money created out of thin air with the electronic equivalent of a printing press.
Minutes from the Fed's Jan. 29-30 policy meeting showed increasing debate over whether to end the huge stimulus sooner rather than later.
Still, the Fed voted 11-1 to continue its $85-billion monthly bond buying program for now.
However, the concerns were enough to drive European stocks sharply lower Thursday and contributed to a second day of declines for U.S. stocks -- even though there's scant evidence of rising inflation.
U.S. consumer prices were flat last month, a new government report shows, another sign inflation remains in check.
The latest crisis for President Barack Obama and Congress is the approach of deep, mandatory "sequester" spending cuts due to hit March 1 absent a bipartisan deficit-reduction deal. So far Republicans who lead the House have rejected Obama's insistence that any agreement be "balanced" with both spending cuts and increased tax revenues.
U.S. policymakers barely averted a "fiscal cliff" at the end of last year.
"Managing from crisis to crisis every 60 to 90 days is absurd," House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said Thursday on MSNBC.


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Sometimes the best way to protect your home's exterior is to cover it with a protective layer. Due to the fact that this protective layer is not loadbearing, you don't have to engage in...read more
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The Avs pulled off a shocker with the 17th overall pick, selecting 5-10 center Joey Hishon from Stratford, Ontario.
With Emerson Etem and Austin Watson on the board, many Avalanche fans likely were thanking the heavens that two of the top prospects were still available, but Greg Sherman apparently didn't agree.
Considering the amount of small centers already in the system, the pick doesn't seem to make much sense. Add that to the fact that Hishon had - according to the TSN crew - a "disastrous season" with a broken foot and knee injury, and it seems like one of the most injury-proned teams in the league just added another headache.
Hishon was ranked 46th by TSN and it seemed like Bob McKenzie and Pierre McGuire had no clue who they were talking about when they heard his name.
Check out this article from NHL.com posted about Hishon a few months ago.
"He's a very skilled player," teammate Steven Shipley said. "He's got a great set of hands on him, he's always competing. He may be a little guy but he goes to the big areas of the ice and he comes out with pucks more often than not."Still, on a team with Paul Stastny, Matt Duchene, and Ryan O'Reilly, where the heck does this kid fit? Can he play wing? Is he even big enough to matter on a top two line?
As of 9:40 ET, Austin Watson has gone #18 to the Predators and I'm sure Etem will soon find a home with one of the next few teams.
Very peculiar start to the draft. The Avs do make a good amount of picks tomorrow so there is room to make up for this head-scratcher.
Of course, I am but a lowly blogger. Who am I to go up against the Avs scouting team?
Oh yeah - I have common sense. Small. Injured. Center. Not good.
I hope I eat my words in five years when Hishon is tearing it up in an Avalanche uniform. It's tough to envision, though.


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Sure, the days are getting shorter and cooler, but they're also getting sweeter. Halloween is just around the corner, a sweet kickoff to what promises to be a fall and winter full of pies, puddings and wonderful holiday treats.
And in celebration of all of this sweetness, this month's Cake Poll focuses on fall treats! The lucky winner will receive an original Cakespy watercolor depicting L'il Cuppie being chased by ghosts (pictured top)--looks like they didn't want to share their candy!
How do you enter? Just answer the below questions to be entered in the running! Responses may be entered in the comments section or emailed to email@example.com.
- Which do you prefer: candy corn or mellowcreme pumpkins?
- Fun-size candy bars: do they make you happy or leave you hungry?
- Trick-or-treaters without costumes: give 'em candy anyway, or turn 'em away?
- Halloween candy-eating method: eat it as fast as you can, or ration it out to last?
- Favorite cold-weather beverage: hot apple cider or hot chocolate?
- Fall pie faceoff: apple or pumpkin?
The fine print: The poll will be closed at 12 p.m PST on Friday, October 17. As usual, the winner will be chosen at random. Entries from the US and beyond are welcome. Your info will never be shared and these questions are solely motivated by our nosy spy tendencies.
....and we have a winner! Our winner was JEAN from New Jersey! Jean entered in our comments section and most definitely prefers Candy Corn! While Mellowcreme Pumpkin may not approve, we were more than happy to see the piece of artwork go to such a sweet home!


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Whether you are at the beginning, middle or mature stage of your HR transformation, the HR Operations Council will provide a forum for senior leaders to share "what's next" and discuss innovations and challenges in taking their organizations to the next level of performance. Discussions will encompass the best and emerging practices in:
- HR Service Delivery:
- Strategy (Design, Development and Implementation)
- Shared Services
- Outsourcing
- HR Operations and Processes:
- Functional Assessment (Compensation & Benefits Admin., Talent, Performance Management, etc.)
- Process Improvement
- Benchmarking and Cost Improvement
- Data Excellence
- HR Systems:
- ERP Solutions
- Point Solutions
- HR and Employees Portal
- Employee and Manager Self Service
The power of peer learning
Enduring relationships with trusted peers are the core of the council experience. Enhanced by our global, enterprise-wide reach, these relationships span the world and extend the value of council membership. Confidential peer dialogue provides you with a broader perspective and shared experiences, as well as access to specific knowledge and best practices.
Council membership benefits
Collective problem solving that puts your issue on the agenda
Benchmarking through regular surveys of council members about relevant company practices
Multifunctional insights generated by the wealth of perspectives gathered from over 100 councils (covering more than 50 functions) that work together across geographies
Virtual communities that extend learning opportunities through a variety of online forums and other resources
Who should join?
Senior HR executives responsible for the HR Operations function, HR Shared Services functions, the management of the outside third party supplier (if outsourced) or are responsible for managing across a hybrid of the aforementioned
Program Director
Gerard Kells
Program Director, HR Operations Council I and II


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BOWIE, Md., Feb. 28, 2013 /PRNewswire/ --Inovalon, Inc., a leading provider of data-driven healthcare solutions, announced its participation as Co-Chair at The Risk Adjustment Initiative and Society for Education (RISE) and Healthcare Education Assoc
BOWIE, Md., Feb. 28, 2013 /PRNewswire/ --Inovalon, Inc., a leading provider of data-driven healthcare solutions, announced its participation as Co-Chair at The Risk Adjustment Initiative and Society for Education (RISE) and Healthcare Education Associates (HEA) 7(th) Annual Summit on March 10-12, 2013 in Nashville, Tennessee.
(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20120605/MM17779LOGO )
The Annual RISE Summit features the latest strategies for integrating commercial health insurance exchange marketplace quality, risk score and revenue management, a multitude of educational sessions, and opportunities to learn from and network with hundreds of health insurance professionals. At the conference, Inovalon executives will provide their insights on the essential steps health plans must take to succeed within a quality-driven and value-based healthcare exchange.
"The health insurance exchange marketplaces represent opportunities the industry faces in the years ahead," said Dan Rizzo, Chief Innovations Officer at Inovalon. "We are proud to partner with RISE in this forum to highlight the impact that data-driven solutions have in improving healthcare outcomes and economics."
"This will be our best-attended RISE Summit yet," said Lori Medlen, Executive Director of RISE. "The industry's shown great interest in this event and given the new health insurance exchange marketplace and the continual push to integrate Medicare quality ratings and revenue management, we will be seeing hundreds attend this year."
Jason Z. Rose, Senior Vice President of Business Development at Inovalon, will chair the three-day conference, which includes topics on the similarities and differences between Medicare and Commercial Risk Adjustment. He will also chair the conference's Risk Adjustment track. This is Mr. Rose's third year speaking at the summit and second year as Chair.
Troy Dinkel, M.D., Chief Product Officer at Inovalon, will speak on the theme of "Practical Strategies for Risk Adjustment in the Exchanges." His presentation will focus on strategies to meet the challenges that health plans face as they participate in health insurance exchange marketplaces, including the need to ensure risk score accuracy as a critical factor for plans' financial viability and regulatory compliance. Dr. Dinkel's session will be held on Monday, March 11 at 2:40 p.m. (ET).
About Inovalon, Inc.
Inovalon, Inc. is a leading technology-enabled healthcare solutions provider focused on the importance of healthcare data and its ability to drive dramatic, objective improvement in clinical and quality outcomes, care management and financial performance throughout the healthcare community. Proprietary healthcare datasets, aggregation and analysis capabilities, combined with a national infrastructure of leading-edge technology, clinical prowess and deep human resources, empower Inovalon's advanced generation of healthcare assessment and improvement through highly informed solutions. Driven by data, Inovalon uniquely identifies gaps in care, quality, data integrity, and financial performance -- while also bringing to bear the resources to resolve them. This differentiating combination provides a powerful capability suite, touching more than 540,000 physicians, 220,000 clinical facilities, and more than 120 million Americans, driving high?value impact, improving the quality and economics for health plans, hospitals, physicians, patients, and researchers. Please visit www.inovalon.com for more information.
Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20120605/MM17779LOGOPRN Photo Desk, email@example.com
Inovalon, Inc.


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Friday, October 19, 2007
Really Expensive Tea
What's the most expensive tea you've encountered? Did you buy some? How was it?
These questions came to mind the other day when I ran across a Darjeeling variety called Royal Himalayan Snowflake. It's offered by MITEA and it goes for $80 per ounce, though you can get a better deal if you spring for a larger quantity.
I can't help but wonder if any tea is really worth $80 per ounce, but at that price I'm not likely to find out anytime soon. If any of you try it, be sure to come back and give us a report.
From Commodity Online, here's an article about a black tea made by India's Glendale Tea estate. The owners of the estate would like Guinness to recognize it as the world's costliest tea ($600 per kilogram), but apparently it's not that simple. More details in the article.
Four dollars for a teabag may not be a record, but I'd say it's something to grumble about. Which is just what one of the USA Today bloggers did recently. More here.
Last up is a video about some rare tea from China's Wuyi Mountain region (I had a little trouble getting this one to play, but maybe you'll have better luck.
shop for tea books.
tea, green tea, food, food and drink
3 comments:
- Garrett said...
Goodness, and I thought a good Silver Needle was pricey.
- Steph said...
$80/ounce is pricey! I would love to hear from anyone who has tried it.
- ankitlochan said...
i would really be intrested to know more about this tea. do you know the source? like the garden, the season and more info... it is indeed an intresting tea to read off..
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Why do people purchase a home, of their own, and does it correspond with, why they should? Before you commit, to investing, in what, for most, is their single, biggest, financial asset, it's important to focus on what you actually seek, need, and hope to achieve, by buying a house! Open - your eyes, and consider, what you might need, to make this, one of the best personal decisions, and serves the best interests of you, and your family! With that in mind, this article will attempt to briefly consider, examine, review, and discuss, what this means, and represents, and why it should make a difference, for you.
1. Price and costs: While most want to live, in the nicest house, they can. and proudly, show - it - off, to their friends and family, what good is buying a home, if it makes your life, more stressful, etc? Objectively, and introspectively, consider, the impact of reducing your other assets, because of the amount of your down - payment. Will this create stress? How much are the monthly carrying charges, and can you, not only afford it, but do so, within your personal comfort zone? Do you have the necessary reserves, for contingencies, including; short - term employment gaps; necessary repairs; desirable renovations and/ or alterations, etc? Don't become, house - rich, but hurt yourself, in terms of stress, etc!
2. Size and features: How many rooms do you need, and how does compare with what you want? What are your present needs, in terms of size and number of bedrooms, bathrooms, etc, and what do you anticipate in the short - term, and longer - term future? Are you ready, willing and able to maintain, and care for, whatever house, you purchase? Will you personally do the work, or will you hire someone else to do so, and if you will, how will that impact your overall budgeting, etc? Don't overlook what most homeowners state, are the most important areas of a house, including the kitchen area, bedrooms (size and number), and bathrooms (number, location, etc)!
3. Intentions: Are you planning to stay, at the specific location, short - term, or the longer - run? Know what you seek, and plan accordingly. If you are buying, for now, and willing to move, when your needs, change, consider resale value, and emphasize present needs. Otherwise, look at the bigger picture!
4. Comfort zone: Know what makes you comfortable and happy, and do what's best for you. People differ, and so, don't try to Keep up with the Jones', but, rather, do, what makes you happy, comfortable, and meets your personal needs, goals, and priorities!
A wise, aware home buyer, is, generally, the individual, happiest, with their decisions! Be prepared, and proceed accordingly, and smartly!
Richard has owned businesses, been a COO, CEO, Director of Development, consultant, professionally run events, consulted to thousands, conducted personal development seminars, for 4 decades, and a RE Licensed Salesperson, for a decade+. Rich has written three books and thousands of articles. Website: http://PortWashingtonLongIslandHouses.com and LIKE the Facebook page for real estate: http://facebook.com/PortWashRE
Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Richard_Brody/492539
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/10017464
What Most Home Buyers Seek?
- By Sanam Asif


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Knitters of every size and shape will gain wisdom from Marly, who shows you how to change stitch counts to address any shaping issue.
Are you a plus-size knitter? Tired of spending hours of work and mega yarn bucks to make sweaters that don't look good on you? Knitwear designer Marly Bird created Curvy Knits: Plus-Size Knitting just for you. You'll learn how to adjust your patterns to make custom-fit garments, and find the best styles, design features, yarns and stitch patterns to fit and flatter the plus-size woman. Marly's humor and warmth make it fun!
If you're not delighted with your Bluprint experience, we'll make it right or give you a full refund.


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UAC Air Duct Cleaning California believes in a high standard of quality service. Our customer satisfaction is very important to us as well as your health, happiness, and savings. We ensure this by providing highly skilled technicians to perform the best service to our customers' individual needs to guarantee 100% satisfaction.
With our air duct cleaning services we provide clean, healthy, and pure air for you and your family. Our goal and commitment is to offer our service in a punctual, reliable, and professional manner assuring our customers the greatest quality service.
We use the newest and the most powerful equipment along with top of the range cleaning agents to attain the best results. If you are an individual simply looking for the best service for your home or office, we hope that you make UAC Air Duct Cleaning 90038 your company of choice.
Los Angeles, CA 90038
(323) 410-7746


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Undergraduate Degrees, Majors and Concentrations
ENGR2510 - Biomedical Engineering Princ
Summer 2019
This course provides an overview of the BME discipline and major subdivisions, such as biomechanics, cellular engineering, tissue engineering, bioelectricity, and imaging. Also introduced are quantitative tools utilized throughout the BME curriculum. The class will be involved in the formulation and execution of a design project.
Prerequisite: BIOL1210, BIOL1215, ENGR1610 or Concurrent
3 Credits
Schedule Book for All Active and Available Future Terms, Course starting with ENGR2510
No Courses Found


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Watching Fox's new Sci-Fi series, "Fringe," by Writer/Producer JJ Abrams, I was struck by the "Conspiracy That Never Was," and the total inability of current TV, as well as Comic Book writers and producers, to make decent Science Fiction. Science Fiction that addresses the central facts of our time. It's as if certain things never existed, at all. Almost every comic book, science fiction television program, and science fiction movies have the same problem. Pushing ideas that are not true, villains and heroes that have no basis in reality, and ignoring very real trends that threaten the West.
The dominant facts of our Post Cold-War era are decentralization, globalization, and the ability of even poor nations, even loosely organized groups, to kill masses of wealthy Westerners in their own countries through the spread of technology. Assault rifles such as the AK-47 are widely manufactured, in some places in Africa they can be purchased for around $100. Nuclear weapons are not (yet) such a commodity, but failed nations like North Korea, where citizens often starve and eat grass, have produced their own. Along with ICBMs capable of reaching Alaska and Hawaii. Neither the nukes nor the ICBMs may be of good quality, but even a badly made spear can kill. Even more troubling, the squabbling tribes with a flag known as Pakistan have more than 100 nuclear weapons, under questionable control and security.
Yet science fiction television show after show, comic book after comic book, presents the same tired old themes that have no resemblance to actual reality: massive, super-organized American government conspiracies, evil plots by gigantic American corporations, massive and secret scientific efforts, often for bad ends, by centralized powers (either the US government or Corporations or both). With brave, "rebel" type misfits who seek to expose the "lies" and so bring about a new order of truth and justice. In other words, recycled Watergate plots mixed with X-Files conspiracy mongering. Missing: any mention of the words "Islam," "Jihad," or "Muslims." It's always evil White men (and sometimes women) behind the plot, and the corporate evil-doers are always American, never say, Chinese or Russian or Middle Eastern corporations. It's as if Chinese companies never sold poisoned baby food or pet food. As if Russia were not the major arms supplier to dangerous rogue regimes. As if oil-fueled Princes and Sultans, often dissolute, Jihadist, and polygamous tyrants, were not buying up many US firms and properties, including say, the media.
As Comic book writer Frank Miller says, characters like Superman and Batman are supposed to be used to punch out men like Osama bin Laden, but even Miller, with the success of "300" and "Sin City," cannot get his Batman vs. Osama comic book published. Partly out of fear, of Muslims killing writers, artists, publishers, and anyone else associated with the project (as happened with Salman Rushdie's Italian translator and publisher, and Dutch Film Maker Theo Van Gogh, descendant of Vincent Van Gogh). But mostly out of Political Correctness.
Orwell was mostly right, in his novel "1984." The only thing he got wrong, was that the Ministry of Truth was not a centralized, Stalinist organization, but rather the noxious, decentralized thought control of the wealthy Baby Boomers who took over America's cultural institutions in the late 1980's. This is why current comic books, television, and movies are so bad with respect to Science Fiction. Political Correctness (and Multiculturalism and "Diversity") require writers to ignore what they see with their own eyes and toe the party line. Or face career ruin.
"Fringe," the new Science Fiction series from "Lost," creator JJ Abrams, is a good example of this requirement to deny the obvious. Just as the Roman Catholic Church required Galileo to deny that the Earth revolves around the Sun (instead of the other way around), so too does Political Correctness require Abrams to deny the obvious. Deny that governments and corporations, are filled with careerist, take-no-risks bureaucrats, who fear PC-driven lawsuits more than say, a terrorist attack. After all, no one lost their job or had their career impacted by doing nothing to prevent 9/11. Deny that science and technology advances contribute to decentralized threats, instead of massive conspiracies by governments and corporations. Deny that cheap encryption, public data networks, globalization, and the large scale movements of people and goods provides even loosely organized and poorly funded organizations such as Al Qaeda the proven ability to kill mass numbers of Americans and Westerners in their own countries. Deny that Islam, Jihad, and Muslims are at the heart of the real, decentralized, and ongoing threats to Americans.
Just as in the "X-Files," or "Lost," or "Serenity," or "Nowhere Man," or "Battlestar Galactica," or nearly any Science Fiction television show of note, "Fringe" posits all the threats emanating from the "evil" US Government and corporate nexus. In the most recent episode, research by the evil US Government during the Vietnam War to create a group of "supersoldiers" in just a few weeks, through accelerated growth and aging created a ruthless serial killer. Along with that theme (science is inherently evil, and controlled by "big" organizations, namely the US government and Corporations), was the fascinating sub-theme of pregnancy being a lethal threat to attractive women (that literally kills them). A more telling window, into the consumerist consumption of sex, and anti-natalism, could not be imagined. That science and technology is presented as "creepy" and threatening, ultimately evil, is also quite illustrative. Themes that the "X-Files," presented constantly, but also present in "Lost," and "Nowhere Man," and "Serenity," and Battlestar Galactica," the remake (by Ron Moore).
The world view of course is that women should remain single, attractive, and never "ruin" themselves with pregnancy. That science and technology is "evil" because it furthers centralized control of the massive Government-Corporate conspiracies, and that Western society's greatest threat comes from the evil insiders (White males and females). "Fringe," tellingly, has the noble US Government head played by … a Black man. So that everyone knows he is the good guy, and the Hillary Clinton resembling older White female Corporate head, the obvious villain. All kin to the central Corporate conspiracy of "Lost," or the Government conspiracy of "Serenity" (the "terrorist" Reavers are "created" by the Government's thought control "signals" of peace and cooperation). Even the remake of "Battlestar Galactica," has the Cylons as being "created" by humans as slaves, and suggests that humanity has it coming to be wiped out by "better," and more perfect creations. That are immortal, never age, and don't get pregnant, much less form families.
How did America's creative community get to such a state? What are the reasons for this iron-clad PC inquisition, that prevents writers from writing about what they see before their eyes and reciting the dull, aging dogma of 1968? Why must they deny that it moves?
It is important, to look back, and see what came before. Before "the X Files," or "La Femme Nikita" (the Canadian co-production starring Peta Wilson), before "Serenity," the remake of "Battlestar Galactica," or "Lost," or "Cloverfield," or any of those types of PC-bound shadows of Science Fiction. Back to the 1970's, and 1980's.
Back when shows like "Buck Rodgers in the 25th Century," or "Six Million Dollar Man," or "Greatest American Hero," or even "the Flash," defined Science Fiction on American Television.
What these shows had in common were: humor, a sense of people working together, not to uncover massive and all-consuming Government/Corporate conspiracies, but to achieve worthwhile goals, a sense that society could be saved from threats, big or small, and optimism about the future. A future broadly defined as well, "American," in the classic sense. Science and technology were not "evil" and threatening to the status quo, but a critical tool that enabled the good guys to beat the bad guys. Even in such films as 1991's "the Rocketeer," (written by Danny Bilson), which came relatively late in the 1980's cycle, a more optimistic view of America, government, patriotism, corporations, technology, and who and what the villains were contrasts starkly with "the X Files" which came only two years later, in 1993.
The table below shows what huge changes took place, demographically. The old guard, who came of age no later than the early 1970's, and mostly in the late 1950's, still believed in the promise of America, and the American Dream. Their version of Science Fiction had their friends, neighbors, and people they knew as heroes enabled by technology — and cooperation among themselves, though with often humorous bickering that merely served to emphasize how different people could come together to save the day, as long as they shared the same fundamental values.
By contrast, the later generation came of age in ground zero of Political Correctness, in the 1980's. The 1980's were the era when the wealthy, connected cohort who had been immersed in the 1960's protest culture came to power. Naturally, the tools they used for power were quite different from the older cohort they displaced. Instead of cooperation, seeking "deviancy" from the accepted dogma of Political Correctness was the tool for advancement. A way to use an updated version of the Inquisition to inquire after thought crime, and remove rivals who might pose threats to one's career, or those who one could replace or supplant.
.nobrtable br { display: none }
|1990's to 2000's Writer/Producers
|Year at Age 20
|JJ Abrams
|Joss Whedon
|Josh Scwartz
|Ron Moore
|Chris Carter*
|Joel Surnow*
|1970's to 1980's Writer/Producers
|Year at Age 20
|Stephen J. Cannell
|Harve Bennett
|Glen A Larson
|Danny Bilson
Thus the conspiracy themes of evil US Government and Corporate powers, merely echoes the only PC-laden denunciations of those insufficiently enlightened. As does the theme of "exposure," where writers and producers "expose" their peers who not Politically Correct enough, and so "destroy" anyone who might offer a "threat" to return to the old certainties of cooperation, optimism, and the American Dream (laced with can-do technology).
Note that in the case of Chris Carter and Joel Surnow, I used the year their signature series debuted, and then added three more years to make them an influential producer rather than merely a first year success. So for Carter, I used his age at 1993 plus three years, or 1996. For Surnow, it was 1997 (La Femme Nikita, not 24's debut) and then added three years to get his age at 2000. For the older producers from the 1970's and 1980's, I used the same methodology. One might quibble with one or two producers and the year selected, but the overall result I think is sound. Looking at producers who make well known or influential Science Fiction television series, at the three year mark. [All data taken from IMDB.com.] It's men in their thirties and forties who write and produce most of the influential Science Fiction television. Men with enough youth to work the punishing hours, and still maintain creative control or influence, and enough maturity to avoid pitfalls in production, writing, staffing, and creative directions. Yes, it is a very male field. Women, for what ever reason, do not seem attracted to writing and producing Science Fiction.
Regardless, if you compare the attitudes towards technology, cooperation, patriotism, America, and the threats, from a show like "Greatest American Hero" versus, say, "Fringe," the change is striking. What stands out is faith and fear. The older generation had faith in the essential goodness of the American Hero, enabled by technology. Ralph Hinckley is a High School teacher, who is presented as much of a hero for believing he can make a difference in the lives of his at-risk students as he is with the super-suit given to him by Aliens. His comic foil and partner, Bill Maxwell, might be the comic relief as the Reagan-loving FBI agent, but his beliefs are often proved correct and his toughness and patriotism are celebrated. This is largely because the man who wrote their lines, Stephen J. Cannell, came of age when people still believed those things. Whereas JJ Abrams, writer of "Lost," came of age in 1986, when PC started to assert it's iron rule upon our culture.
The other thing notable from it's complete absence on screen, is of course Jihad. By the late 1970's, Islamic Terrorism was inescapable. Our diplomats and Embassy personnel had been held hostage and tortured for more than a year in Tehran, by the Ayatollah. Throughout the 1980's, Islamic Terrorism grew, with airliners bombed out of the sky (Lockerbie/Pan Am 103) or the Marine Barracks in Beirut and our embassy there, or hostage taking, too numerous to recount. The 1990's were even worse, with terrorist attacks on our Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania killing hundreds, the first World Trade Center plot that killed six and hoped to kill 50,000 (by toppling one tower onto another). And yet, there was nothing resembling Jihad ever depicted on "La Femme Nikita" (where the terrorists were all ex-Marxist Europeans or Serbians) or "the X Files," or "Nowhere Man," or "Lost," or even "Battlestar Galactica," where the "terrorists" were all played by sexy, lithe starlets who bore no resemblance, physically, emotionally, or culturally to Mohamed Atta or Osama bin Laden.
As "Wretchard" of the Belmont Club points out, the main issue is fear that PC is breaking down along with Multiculturalism and Diversity, as a means for social control and advancement, with the threat of terrorism, abetted by nuclear proliferation, global trade and the movement of people, and the equal distribution of technology. Even Al Qaeda has websites:
In the years leading up to the Civil War there was the theory among those who advocated compromise that slavery would gradually fade away and that a direct confrontation was ultimately unnecessary. In a kind of inversion the Left has probably hoped since the 1960s that people would be 'enlightened' into voluntarily accepting their intellectual chains.
But the Culture Wars and especially the Rise of Islam have shaken that belief to the core. The Culture Wars meant the program wasn't working. People were pushing back. And with the decline of the MSM and the growing obsolescence of the traditional university it became less obvious that a certain world view could 'inevitably' be imposed by cultural indoctrination alone. But I think the advent of radical Islam really told them the clock ticking. If they couldn't make their vision happen soon, it wouldn't happen at all. September 11 had the effect of energizing conservatism and usurping the Left self-appointed revolutionary role. The Left was caught between two fires: the conservative hold-outs and the more militant Muslims. But there was a third, largely unrecognized factor which weakened the Left. Globalization. Globalization has made not just Islam but a whole host of non-Marxist authoritarianisms competitive with their monopoly. The Confucian Chinese and the Russian crime-syndicate types of authoritarianism mean their dream of a multilateral EU-style world is far from inevitable. In fact, it means their politically correct world is unlikely to survive in the fact of such brutal competitors. Not only are the demographics and trends are against them, their silly little Fabianism simply won't work against thugs. You can't argue "reproductive rights" with radical Islam who will simply decapitate the staff of their abortion clinics. Nor can you blater on about human rights in Moscow, where a bullet in the head answers all arguments. About the only thing the Left is confident of beating is the relatively civilized, Bible-clinging, law-abiding soccer mom. So that's who they're going to beat up on. Not any Shi'ite militias or Janjaweeds. None of those. What they'll take on is Sarah Palin or an old geezer who can't comb his hair.
Our culture has been stuck in 1968 for a long time. Key creative people, in Television, in Movies, in Publishing, even in Comic Books have accepted Political Correctness, as the sort of Inquisition, because it worked. Wretchard is correct, already the ability of the Inquisition to ruin careers and end discussion are ending. NBC's "Chuck," written and created by Josh Schwartz, has run episodes with Jihadi gangsters as the obvious villains. Even if the main villain seems to be a faction in the CIA, the "good guys" are still a beautiful CIA agent and grumpy, "Bill Maxwell" like NSA agent (brilliantly played by Adam Baldwin). Schwartz, of course, is only 32, and came of age in 1996.
Our Science Fiction in Television, in movies, even in Comic Books ignores Jihad, Muslim threats, Islam (alien and threatening in it's certainty and especially it's polygamy), the decentralized nature of life, and the spread of technology to even dirt poor people, countries, and places. Because to do so would be to acknowledge the bankruptcy of Political Correctness when faced by determined thugs. Who are both more numerous and more brutally determined. Laughable "conspiracies" abound in fantasy governments because that's how PC operates — by "exposing" thought crimes.
All this can hold on for only so long. It's likely to die when really tough times come, not just in the nuclear blast of an American city dying by nuclear technology now available to any determined bidder, but the long ugly aftermath requiring discarding of the wealth and peace-driven Political Correctness, for pure survival.
In that regard, shows like "Battlestar Galactica," where people fight to "save" Political Correctness rather than do anything to survive, deserve to be called what they are: fantasy. Not Science Fiction.
Let's hope newer writers and publishers revive Science Fiction out of it's current, PC-fantasy doldrums.


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SCOTUS nixes aggregate giving limits
The Supreme Court on Wednesday delivered another blow to already rickety limits on campaign contributions, ruling that caps on the total amount of money an individual can give to political campaigns, PACs and parties are unconstitutional.
In the 5-4 ruling, the court's Republican-appointed justices joined in overturning the so-called aggregate limits on the grounds that they violated the First Amendment, while the Democratic appointees dissented — insisting that the caps were constitutional as a means to guard against corruption and circumvention of the still-valid limits on donations to individual campaigns and political committees.
Story Continued Below
The sweeping ruling has the potential to once again reshape the campaign finance landscape — bringing more campaign money back under the control of political parties after four years of record spending by outside groups.
( Read the Supreme Court opinion)
It's the latest in a series of federal court rulings — most notably the 2010 Citizens United decision — that are loosening up the rules on campaign contributions. Wednesday's ruling does not, however, strike down the court's landmark holding in 1976 Buckley v. Valeo that upheld most contribution limits to individual candidates and committees.
No opinion in the closely watched McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission case won a majority, but five justices voted to strike down the aggregate limits.
Chief Justice John Roberts won the backing of Justices Antonin Scalia, Anthony Kennedy and Samuel Alito for an opinion finding that the aggregate limits did not help prevent corruption — the sole rationale the high court has blessed for limits on political donations.
"This Court has identified only one legitimate governmental interest for restricting campaign finances: preventing corruption or the appearance of corruption," Roberts wrote. "We have consistently rejected attempts to suppress campaign speech based on other legislative objectives. No matter how desirable it may seem, it is not an acceptable governmental objective to 'level the playing field,' or to 'level electoral opportunities,' or to 'equalize the financial resources of candidates …' The First Amendment prohibits such legislative attempts to 'fine-tune' the electoral process, no matter how well intentioned."
( Also on POLITICO: Boehner hails SCOTUS ruling)
While the Obama administration argued that eliminating the aggregate caps could allow donors to circumvent the caps on donations to individual candidates and committees, which have considerable latitude to transfer funds, Roberts and his three colleagues were not convinced.
"The problem is that [the aggregate caps] do not serve that function in any meaningful way," Roberts wrote, dismissing that scenario as "far too speculative."
Roberts discussed various ways in which a donor might try to funnel money through a slew of different PACs or campaigns. He declared all of them impractical because they would require illegally earmarking donations, because the ultimate donation would be massively diluted or because it would be so disconnected from the original donor as to raise little concern about corruption.
( Also on POLITICO: Hobby Lobby case: 9 justices to watch)
"It is hard to believe that a rational actor would engage in such machinations," Roberts said.
More likely, Roberts said, is that a donor seeking to back a candidate would make an independent expenditure or give to a so-called Super PAC.
"At least from the donor's point of view, it strikes us as far more likely that he will want to see his full $500,000 spent on behalf of his favored candidate — even if it must be spent independently — rather than see it diluted to a small fraction so that it can be contributed directly by someone else," the chief justice wrote. [emphasis original]
Justice Stephen Breyer wrote for the dissenters, arguing that removing the aggregate caps would allow donors to bundle huge sums and recreate the so-called soft-money era, when it was lawful to make donations of any size to political parties.
The majority decision "creates a loophole that will allow a single individual to contribute millions of dollars to a political party or to a candidate's campaign," Breyer wrote. "Taken together with Citizens United … today's decision eviscerates our Nation's campaign finance laws, leaving a remnant incapable of dealing with the grave problems of democratic legitimacy that those laws were intended to resolve."
Sharply disagreeing with Roberts's assertion that few if any people would use the lifting of aggregate limits to try to push large sums to candidates, Breyer wrote at considerable length about the various ways donors and political operatives could use the court's ruling to route millions of dollars to lawmakers and their challengers.
Breyer also said Roberts went too far in declaring that only a fear of quid pro quo corruption was a legitimate basis for limiting campaign donations.
"The anti-corruption interest that drives Congress to regulate campaign contributions is a far broader, more important interest than the plurality acknowledges. It is an interest in maintaining the integrity of our public governmental institutions. And it is an interest rooted in the Constitution and in the First Amendment itself," Breyer wrote.
Breyer argued that the interest animating the court's 2003 decision upholding a ban on soft-money donations to political parties was not rooting out quid pro quo corruption, but limiting "privileged access to and pernicious influence upon elected representatives."


text: Nnekay needs a theme song for her soon to be half hour sit-com, and James has got one for her! James has finally watched the American Crime Story: The People vs. OJ, and there is much to talk about. Especially since this podcast didn't' exist then. Nnekay and James unpack the trial itself, the performances, and the importance of this trial as it was set in a time right after the Rodney King riots, exposing racism, police brutality, and the so called justice system. In our first Korner, Nnekay, is gonna learn you about the massacre of 1000's of Mexican-Americans, and will reveal the origins of all this "Wall" talk, and the history of the Texas Rangers and their overall awfulness. Finishing out this week's 1-2 punch of things we should've learned in school, in honor of Black History Month, we talk about Brother Outsider himself: Bayard Rustin. The organizer behind the Million Man March. You thought that was Martin Luther King Jr? It's time to learn about the true heart and soul of the Civil Rights Movement Bayard Rustin, the Black, gay, pacifist, Quaker, activist who time seems to have forgotten. But we haven't! It's another action packed episode!


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Michael Sheen Previews the 'Masters of Sex' Finale
BEVERLY HILLS --Even though Michael Sheen is playing real-life fertility expert Dr. William H. Masters on Showtime's "Masters of Sex," the 44-year-old British born actor doesn't consider the series -- or his character -- a historical portrayal.
"I don't look like him, I don't sound like him, he's just another character," Sheen told the Journal. Sheen, who has also played the likes of Tony Blair (in 2006's "The Queen")and David Frost (in Ron Howard's 2008 "Frost/Nixon") said he approached the character of Masters from series creator Michelle Ashford's script first, than from the book on which the show was based.
"Yes, he was a real person, but this show isn't a biopic," he added.
The program is a dramatized take on Masters and his collaborator and, for a time, spouse, Virginia E. Johnson (played by Lizzie Caplan). Beginning in the 1950s and over the course of several decades, Masters and Johnson pioneered scientific studies on love and intimacy.
"Masters of Sex" is reaching about 5.4 million viewers with a full week of airings including repeats on the network as well as delayed DVR viewing and video on demand, Showtime reported. The season one finale airs tonight and Speakeasy talked with Sheen.
The Wall Street Journal: Bill Masters loses control of something he always had a lot of control in. How do you allow that to happen?
Michael Sheen: He doesn't even perceive things in that way. The man he is in episode one and and then the man he ends up being, literally the last shot of the season, the man he is now, that's a huge difference. He goes from nobody is going to get in here, people are shut out and he is totally in control, to a man who is literally on his knees. Well not literally but emotionally, psychologically on his knees. He realizes there's something greater than me.
In the penultimate episode of this season, Masters played fast and loose with science for the first time.
He plays fast and loose with everything. That's more of his true nature I think. The man of rigid structure is not the younger guy we see with the crazy hair. He's more of the maverick and he's not going to be tied down by things. He plays fast and loose with relationships but that's the danger. If you start to become disconnected from your real authentic self, the way you deal with people is very dangerous. If you have no sense of center in yourself, the idea of hurting someone, blackmailing the closest thing to father figure becomes a grey area.
Do you have an idea of where your character is headed in season two?
We've been talking about where I think the sweet spot is. I've got a general sense. The arc of the entire thing is a kind of shedding of Bill's skins. He is sort of a very elaborate baroque maze or series of locks and gears that are all around him and recalibrating and changing the whole thing. This is a man who has buried his authentic sense of who he is and under these layers he is beginning to see them come away and see who he is. He's always going to be the alpha male of his environment. We will see him trying to hold that up elsewhere outside of the hospital too, which is interesting.
And where are Masters and Johnson headed with the science?
There are controversial areas, they thought they could cure homosexuality and all that stuff. How much people are prepared to empathize and all that, that's a big part about why we explore the relationship between Bill and the Provost. The idea of someone that as we've seen having really a hard time sexuality. That puts a seed in Bill early on, an association between Beau's character being homosexual and tortured by being homosexual. One of the most interesting things was the idea of sexual surrogacy, which we will start exploring in the next season. It was hugely controversial.
You've had a lot of experience on the stage. Do you find any parallels between that work and the work you are doing in "Masters'?
I wouldn't compare it to the stage, but where they are similar is the cumulative experience. The risk that I took I suppose was the idea of alienating an audience so much in the first few episodes that they didn't necessarily go on the journey with me. They didn't like me. And I think that was the challenge. Maybe this is to do with theater, the investment in the power of storytelling where you make certain choices. It's not episode where the lead character has got no pants on and I'm driving a meth lab through the desert. You've got to hang in there, and an audience is not necessarily used to the slow burn because it is period, but it's got sex in it.
For more on "Masters of Sex," go here.
For more entertainment and television coverage, follow @alexandracheney.


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- Famous Chinese director starts new film project in Zaoyang
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- Wuhan to launch nonxstop trains lixnking Zhuhai and Changchun
- UK Wuhan great cities week launched today
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text: Advertisement Advertisement Quint Kessenich: Previewing the NCAA semifinals May 21, 2014 | 7:07 PM The seeds of doubt have been planted. Maryland, Notre Dame, Duke and Denver are left in the running for the men's lacrosse crown, and it looks like a tossup as to who's going to emerge on Memorial Day. For the first time in five years, four seeded teams reached championship weekend. For a while, it appeared that a Cinderella or two might get through to the semifinals at M&T Bank Stadium, but one by one their hopes withered. The best teams in the country are here, and there's room for only one to bloom. --By Quint Kessenich, For The Baltimore Sun (By Quint Kessenich, For The Baltimore Sun) Advertisement


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Actor Edward Furlong has pleaded not guilty to an alleged domestic violence charge stemming from his weekend arrest.
The "Terminator 2: Judgment Day" star was taken into custody after allegedly shoving an unnamed woman at a residence in Los Angeles and was held on $50,000 bail.
He also had an outstanding warrant for his arrest, stemming from a previous domestic violence incident.
Furlong appeared in court on Tuesday and denied the domestic violence charge but was denied bail.
A new hearing date has been set for January 25.


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VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Benedict XVI named a married former Episcopal bishop Sunday to head the first U.S. organizational structure for disaffected Anglicans and Episcopalians who want to join the Roman Catholic Church.
The Rev. Jeffrey Neil Steenson, a father of three and Catholic convert, will lead the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter, the equivalent of a diocese, that will be based in Houston, Texas, but will operate nationally.
The Vatican created the first such ordinariate in Britain last year. Other ordinariates are being considered in Australia and Canada.
Steenson stepped down in 2007 as the Episcopal Bishop of Rio Grande, in Albuquerque, New Mexico, after the Episcopal Church elected the first openly gay bishop, V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire. Steenson had said he was "deeply troubled" about the direction of the U.S. denomination and he described the Catholic Church as the "true home of Anglicanism."
The Episcopal Church is the U.S. Anglican body in the United States.
Benedict in 2009 issued an unprecedented invitation for Anglicans to become Catholic in groups or as parishes, at a time when traditional Anglicans in several countries were increasingly upset by the ordination of women and gay bishops. Formerly, Anglican converts to Catholicism were accepted on a case-by-case basis.
The pope's decision created tensions with Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, the spiritual leader of the world Anglican Communion, who like his predecessors had been in talks with Vatican officials to bring Anglicans and Catholics closer together.
The 77-million-member Anglican fellowship has its roots in the Church of England, which split from the Holy See in 1534 when English King Henry VIII was refused a marriage annulment.
At the time of the pope's announcement, Anglicans were already fracturing over Robinson's election and other issues. Williams had little advance notice of the Vatican announcement. Still, after meeting privately with the pope soon after, the archbishop of Canterbury said he was convinced that there was no "dawn raid" on his church by the Holy See.
Under the pope's plan, Anglicans who become Catholic will be allowed to keep some of their heritage in liturgy and other areas. Married Anglican priests who convert can stay married and be ordained in the Catholic Church, an exception to the Vatican's celibacy rule. Married Anglican bishops, however, cannot retain that position, and will serve the Catholic Church as priests.
More than 100 Anglican clergy have applied to become Catholic priests in the U.S. ordinariate. Church officials said more than 1,400 individuals are seeking to join. The U.S. Episcopal Church has just under 2 million members. Many Anglo-Catholics in the United States had never been part of the Episcopal Church.
Steenson, 59, who has a doctorate from the University of Oxford, has been married since 1974 and has three adult children. His wife also converted to Catholicism. He was ordained as a Catholic priest in 2009 in the Archdiocese of Santa Fe, New Mexico, and helped create the education and training program for Anglican priests seeking to join the Catholic Church.
AP Religion Writer Rachel Zoll contributed from New York.
U.S. ordinariate: http://www.usordinariate.org/


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Luckily, there's a wonderful piece of software available, known as Calibre, which is capable of converting the vast majority of the myriad ebook formats into the digitally signed .mobi format that the Kindle loves so much.
In addition to the conversion capability, Calibre is essentially an ebook library management tool similar to what is available for music files, such as iTunes, winamp, etc., with support for metadata, covers and so forth. It also has syncing support for a variety of e-readers, including the Kindle, the iPad, Sony's E-Reader and more, though some require additional software support.
As far as I know, Calibre is the only software of its kind and it is, thankfully, free, open-source and multiplatform. You can download it here, or from Ubuntu's official repositories. If you get it from the repositories, though, be aware that it does not come it's own copy of libunrar.so, which will cause it to choke on compressed archives, such as .cbr comic book archives and any otherwise compatible ebook files contained within .rar archives, usually with an error something like this:
OSError: libunrar.so: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directoryThis error will occur even if you the unrar and unrar-nonfree packages installed, and I am not aware of any packages that will provide libunrar.so. However, you can download a precompiled (32-bit) version here.
To install it, decompress the .tar.gz archive by right-clicking on it and selecting 'Extract Here.' This will decompress the archive into a directory that is misleadingly named libunrar.so (the real library binary is inside *that* directory). So, open a terminal, navigate to the newly decompressed directory and type:
sudo cp libunrar.so /usr/lib/After that, you should be ready to run by either choosing it from the 'Office' section of the Ubuntu menu or by typing calibre into a terminal.
Once you get it up and running, the preferences are extensive. You can choose how it interprets metadata from filenames (I still can't get this configured properly for some reason; it always either pulls the names in wrong or swaps the names and the titles), how converted books are formatted and an array of other options.
You can set up an email address (or use an existing email server) to send books wirelessly to supported ereaders, but be careful if you own a Kindle because Amazon charges for anything that gets emailed to your device (15 cents per MB at the time of this writing). This in mind, I'll be sticking with USB transfers.
My personal favorite feature of Calibre is the Web interface, which makes your library available to you anywhere in the world via Web browser. To set it up, you just turn on the included Web server via Preferences > Content Server and set up a username and password to use for login. If you have a dynamic IP address (as is the case with most cable internet), you'll also need to get a static IP address from one of the many providers, such as dyndns.com, and port-forward port 8080 through your router. This server feature works well with the minimize-to-the-notification-area feature, which makes it less obtrusive while running in the background.
Furthermore, for people with an iPad, the free ereader app Stanza can connect to your Calibre Web library to sync, which is very cool.
What with the conversion, organization and available-anywhere-there's-internet server, Calibre is a pretty awesome piece of software. However, I do have some complaints:
No native .doc support. It would have been really nice if Calibre could at least convert .doc files to other formats, presumably via an external library (similar to the rar support) or an API. Maybe the author could work out something like this. As it is, it just coughs up errors if you try to convert them and opens OpenOffice.Org if you try to view them.
Crashy as hell. Any time I try to do anything with a batch job, Calibre freezes and crashes. This is a serious annoyance, but I think it'll be fine once I get everything set up. I expect that, once I get everything tagged and converted to .mobi, I won't have to use any of the really destabilizing features--specifically, the batch stuff--with any regularity.


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Nick Theilgaard says he now believes in miracles after a nurse practitioner in pediatric cardiology came to his aid as he had a heart attack -- his third -- over the weekend.
The 16-year-old was eating at a neighborhood restaurant when the latest attack hit him. By sheer coincidence, nurse Sarah Kane and her doctor fiancé were dining there, too.
"He said, 'Oh, that's weird.' And then he, like, all of a sudden dropped his head back and his eyes rolled into the back of his head, and we hollered, '911!'" the teen's mother, Diane Theilgaard, recalled Wednesday. "He turned like a purpleish-blue color, so that is when I feel like I lost my son."
Kane sprang to action and performed roughly 10 minutes of CPR. It was the first time the pair had met.
"Actually Nick came back for less than a minute. [He was] spontaneously breathing [and] had a pulse. I flipped him on his side, in case he was to throw up because he just ate. And then within probably 30 seconds or so he actually turned blue again and lost his pulse."
Even as the ambulance was pulling away to take Theilgaard to Advocate Children's Hospital in Oak Lawn, it wasn't clear he would make it. The boy's cardiologist, Dr. Ira Shetty, said he may not have had it not been for Kane's efforts.
Theilgaard, a former athlete-turned-aspiring-rapper, hopes to soon have a defibrillator surgically implanted to manage his heart rhythms.


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Benn (6 points), Seguin (4 goals) lead Stars by Flamesby Aaron Vickers
CALGARY -- Jamie Benn made his case for a berth on the Canadian Olympic Team at the home of Hockey Canada on Thursday night. The Dallas Stars' captain had six points, four of them assists on goals by linemate Tyler Seguin, in a 7-3 rout of the Calgary Flames.
Benn didn't receive an invite to come to Calgary for Canada's Olympic orientation camp in August. But with Steven Stamkos of the Tampa Bay Lightning potentially sidelined due to a broken right leg suffered this week, Benn made his case for a spot on the Olympic team.
"There's obviously so many great players in this League that can get picked," Benn said. "There was obviously some pretty high talent at that camp in the summer so it is what it is. I just came into camp this year with a focus of being the best player I can be. I'm just trying to get better each and every day.
"It's going to be an honor if you do get picked for this team, but for me and Tyler right now, our focus is on the Dallas Stars and trying to make this team win hockey games. So far so good, lately."
Seguin, acquired from the Boston Bruins during the summer, might have opened some eyes as well; he also had an assist for a five-point night. But he pointed to Benn as the star of the night.
"Obviously you've got to look at Benny's night," said Seguin, the second player chosen in the 2010 NHL Draft. "He was making some incredible passes out there. Some of the plays I was just fortunate enough to finish them off."
Stephane Robidas and Ryan Garbutt also scored for the Stars (10-7-2), who have won five of six and are 2-0-0 on a three-game trip through Western Canada.
Matt Stajan had two goals and David Jones also scored for the Flames (6-10-3), who have dropped five straight, including three in a row at Scotiabank Saddledome.
"We just got outworked," Flames forward Lee Stempniak said. "The same story. We had a bad first period, didn't play smart, didn't play hard. That's a talented team. They took advantage of the odd-man rushes. Then same story, too little, too late in the third. We've got to find that desperation at the start of the game."
Though the Stars were playing the second half of a back-to-back after beating the Edmonton Oilers 3-0 on Wednesday, it was Calgary that struggled from the drop of the puck for a second straight game. Two nights after managing six shots through two periods against the San Jose Sharks, the Flames needed nearly five minutes to record their first shot on Kari Lehtonen.
"You've got to look at it as being mental," Stempniak said. "We shouldn't be tired. We shouldn't have excuses. We need to go out there and have that mentality right from the start."
Dallas opened the scoring at 6:27 after a pair of Flames lapses.
Benn picked up a Sean Monahan turnover just inside the Stars' blue line, raced up the ice and fired a shot that was turned away by Reto Berra. But Dennis Wideman cleared the rebound right onto the stick of Brenden Dillon on the boards, and he quickly fed Robidas for a one-time blast that beat a screened Berra and gave Dallas a 1-0 lead.
The goal marked the fourth straight game and 11th in their past 14 that the Flames have given up the first goal. In fact, it took the Flames until 11:48 to record their second shot of the period, a deflection by Jones that Lehtonen easily handled. Defenseman Shane O'Brien tested Lehtonen twice late in the first period before the Stars blew the game open in the second.
Seguin got his first of the night at 1:19 when he lifted his own rebound over Berra after picking up Benn's original shot in traffic. That extended his goal-scoring streak to three games.
The duo connected again at 4:25. Alex Goligoski intercepted a TJ Galiardi pass in the neutral zone and fed Seguin, who sprung Benn in alone on Berra. Benn beat the Flames goalie with a backhand deke for his seventh of the season at a 3-0 lead.
At 8:32, Benn found Seguin with a cross-ice pass in the high slot for a wrister that found the back of the net to give Dallas a 4-0 lead and send Berra to the bench.
"To be honest, we were happy we won in Edmonton," Seguin said. "But for Benn and I, sitting here together, we didn't like the way we completely played last game and I thought the first we were OK and talked about it and the second, we just came out rolling."
Karri Ramo didn't fare much better in relief. Garbutt took a pass from Antoine Roussel, went in alone and beat Ramo for his second of the season at 11:56.
Stajan ended Lehtonen's bid for back-to-back shutouts at 15:01, blasting a slap shot from the top of the faceoff circle past his glove. That snapped Lehtonen's shutout streak at 96:42.
Seguin struck early in the third, too, burying Valeri Nichushkin's rebound from a sharp angle just 30 seconds in to complete his hat trick.
After Jones and Stajan scored to make it 6-3, Seguin and Benn completed their big night when Seguin snapped a pass from Benn past Ramo with 3:39 remaining for a power-play goal and a new career-high.
"It's definitely not that easy," Seguin said. "It's hard to score in this League, but sometimes you get your good bounces."


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'Whatt' is new on the social media front
Whatt, a new social media platform, looks to make connecting and sharing with friends simpler.
Darien native Tripp Schoff, 29, has teamed with technology veteran Simon Berger-Perrin to launch Whatt.
Schoff spent five years in the financial services industry, now serves as the community manager and is in charge of getting Whatt out to the general public.
Avoiding the clutter of ads on Facebook and Twitter is the aim of Whatt, which was launched July 3 in the iTunes App Store.
Schoff, who graduated from Darien High School in 2003, said he's "overwhelmed" by the content "coming at me" on Facebook and Twitter.
Whatt is a simple way to communicate with close friends, Schoff said. Through the app, users are able to text updates about where they are, find out who is around or seek recommendations through posts that can be seen only by those with whom they choose to connect.
And unlike a group text that ropes a person in without permission, users can opt to join a conversation with close friends on Whatt.
Schoff's sister recently used the app while at a bachelorette party in Nantucket, R.I., with 12 other women. He said she told him that the app helped to keep everyone connected if they became separated during the weekend.
For now, Schoff is marketing the app in targeted areas -- primarily colleges in the Northeast -- but he sees potential at places like major music festivals. Event coordinators, Schoff said, could use the app to let festival-goers know when and where an artist will be playing next.
In the fall, Schoff intends to market the app to colleges like New York University, Penn State and his alma mater, Hobart College, from which he graduated in 2008.
Berger-Perrin spent 12 years running the mobile strategy and business for Meetic, which is now Match.com, and OLX, an "eBay for Europe," Schoff said. Whatt is Berger-Perrin's company.
Whatt has five employees, two of whom are overseas in Romania and Croatia. The company is based in New York City, Schoff said, though moving to Silicon Valley, the hub of the technology world in California, has not crossed anyone's mind.
"We like New York," Schoff said. "I don't know if the move would be beneficial. The spread of the app is not directly correlated to us being in California."
Work, Schoff said, is a "very relaxed environment."
"But anything can happen on any day."