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But again, we are talking about Major League Baseball officials.
But again, we are talking about Major League Baseball officials.
RT @jjgoldy5: surprised Rolen didn't get disciplined? Carp must really have said something nasty.//As nasty as it gets in 2 words.
Just throwing this out there, but XM radio interviewed umpire Hunter Wendelstedt about his opinion on what happened in the fight. He said that he thought that Molina handled everything properly...
Meh. think of it this way. Bring up Wood and Bailey, send Leake down for a rest, sit Johnny a game, and *he* comes back rested, and with something to prove. Carpenter has to work.
Last edited by foxfire123; 08-12-2010 at 01:14 PM. Reason: spellcheck....
UNC Tar Heels 2017 National Champions 6 time NCAA Champs!!!
57, 82, 93, 05, 09, 17
Go Heels!!!!!
I'm not saying that Cueto should not be suspended, but I think to be only player is not right?
If the argument comes back to Phillips should suspended because of what he said, which has been suggested, then others (Molina, Carpenter and anybody else) should receive something other than a small fine that will likely go to charity.
Board Moderators may, at their discretion and judgment, delete and/or edit any messages that violate any of the following guidelines: 1. Explicit references to alleged illegal or unlawful acts. 2. Graphic sexual descriptions. 3. Racial or ethnic slurs. 4. Use of edgy language (including masked profanity). 5. Direct personal attacks, flames, fights, trolling, baiting, name-calling, general nuisance, excessive player criticism or anything along those lines. 6. Posting spam. 7. Each person may have only one user account. It is fine to be critical here - that's what this board is for. But let's not beat a subject or a player to death, please.


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Oklahoma Football
Offensive Lineman Gabe Ikard
Sept. 3, 2013
On Nutritionist Tiffany Byrd:
"Coach has done a great job with food, shakes, all kind of supplements and snacks we haven't had here in the past. I think it will really help us this year as we get deeper into the season being able to recover from long games, long days at practice and from the lifting we still do during the season. She has done a great job already making a big impact for us, and I really appreciate having her on the staff."
On not cramping during the game:
"Definitely the change in our diet this year has been really good for us, and it definitely played a factor in being able to play a whole game where it was 100 degree weather almost the whole time. To have zero guys cramp or not even guys who felt like they were going to cramp, we are really pleased with that. It speaks to our level of conditioning with Coach [Jerry] Schmidt's program over the summer, but it also speaks well of Coach Byrd's nutrition plan she has got us on."
On bulking up:
"[Coach Tiffany Byrd] really just brought all the resources we didn't have. There are constantly snacks and shakes in the locker room available to us. So we are not going long periods of time without putting fuel into our system and that has helped with maintaining weight and maintaining strength. She has done a great job being able to supply us with things we can eat between meals that help us maintain our body weight and conditioning level. It has been very good for us and I think it will only continue to benefit us through the season."
On his favorite game day tradition:
"I always, even as a fan, during game day, and especially opening day, was the intro video. I always love that when I came to games. Also, when the drum major rolls across the field, that's one of those things that's pretty special if you have never seen it. "
On Trevor Knight:
"I think he was locked in last week, he probably just had a few jitters; it was his first game out there. We fully expect him to perform even better than he did last week and use his arm, throw all the throws we have seen him make in practice and continue to use his legs as a weapon."
On West Virginia as a threat:
"They are a little different. Personnel-wise, they have a bunch of guys who are back but also some new faces. We expect them to do about the same thing and switch it up between three-man front and four-man front and show us a few different things with similar personnel. We know that they didn't give their best performance last week and were expecting them to play up to their talent level with all the great players they have. We have to prepare well this week, watch a lot of tape, practice, or else they will come give us some trouble at home."
On playing a conference game so early in the season:
"It is different but all the conference realignment that happened a couple years ago and this is how the chips fell. We have to be ready to go no matter who's coming into week two, no matter if it was a non-conference game, you still have to prepare the same way."
On West Virginia making Trevor Knight throw:
"I am sure they have some stuff in there, like putting more people in the box. That's one of the things we will have to wait to see until Saturday and make our adjustments. Trevor is a very capable thrower of the ball. People are doubting him because he had an off night with some jitters, but he can really throw. We have seen it in practice. We are fully anticipating him to have a better night."
On being called "Road Raiders":
"We realized that some things were not happening the way were expecting them to and we went to the ground, used our run game, used Trevor [Knight]'s athleticism and came out of the backfield to get things rolling a little bit. When things aren't working, you just have to switch it up sometimes."

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Did Petraeus mistress reveal secret CIA prison? Paula Broadwell may have divulged new information on Benghazi scandal
Aaron Klein | WND
November 11, 2012
TEL AVIV — Did Paula Broadwell, the alleged mistress of ex-CIA Director David Petraeus, reveal a secret CIA detention center in Benghazi during a public speech she gave last month?
Broadwell, a former counterterror operative, co-authored a bestselling biography of Petraeus. She discussed the book during a keynote speech on Oct. 26 at a University of Denver alumni symposium. The speech is available in full on YouTube.
During a question and answer session, Broadwell was asked about the September 11 attacks against the U.S. mission in Benghazi.
She stated: "Now I don't know if a lot of you heard this, but the CIA annex had actually had taken a couple of Libya militia members prisoner. And they think that the attack on the consulate was an effort to try to get these prisoners back. So that's still being vetted."
The existence of a U.S. prison or CIA detention center in Benghazi would be a new development in the debate surrounding the attacks there. The information does not appear to be publicly known.
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text:
A popular dining establishment at 340 Old San Carlos Blvd. has been allowed to expand its outdoor seating with alcohol rights into a Town of Fort Myers Beach right-of-way area.
Smokin' Oyster Brewery was unanimously approved a special exception by the FMB Town Council in the Beach's downtown zoning district with consumption on premises privileges on Old San Carlos Boulevard and Third Street. Eight conditions of approval were instituted.
The action allows the restaurant with a full service bar and liquor license to add 24 seats under a yet-to-be constructed covered porch area/ deck extension blanketing 364 square feet on the side of its building as well as an additional 20 seats encompassing 768 square feet on the entire paver sidewalk area that fronts the building.
Article Photos
SOB has been approved to serve on outdoor tables along San Carlos Boulevard and Third Street.
SOB, which currently has 89 seats within its boundaries, will now need to apply for a lease of Town ROW before adding tables or construction. Owner Bill Freeman was happy with the result.
"I think it was very fair and it was discussed fully," he said. "To me, everything that we asked for is in the benefit of the downtown area. We look forward to going ahead and moving forward with this."
In her presentation, Town Planning Coordinator Leslee Chapman stated the exception requests were consistent with the Town's comprehensive plan and met the performance and locational standards set forth in the specific Town documents.
The seven approved conditions involve limited usage to the areas discussed only, a restriction of hours of alcohol consumption for the Old San Carlos Boulevard sidewalk area (10 a.m. to midnight), a lease agreement with the Town to be renewed annually, conditional uses on the Town ROW, permitting requirements for construction and a minimum clear pathway (5 feet in width) for pedestrian traffic. No entertainment will be allowed in the "outdoor" area.
"The subject property goes almost immediately to the full property line on all four sides, so the lot is almost completely consumed by the building on the subject property," said Chapman. "That is part of the reason for the request to extend into the Town right-of-way."
A request for a waiver for no parking requirements with the additional table spaces was approved as well. Chapman stated there have been changing conditions for the diowntown area.
"The changing conditions that exist are quite positive. They are continuing to grow and expand, and we have businesses that are willing to take advantage of that," she said. "The applicant's request is consistent with the policy that we have in the comprehensive plan that encourages a vibrant core area."
Beach resident Ed Scott pointed out a potential "bottleneck" situation on the turn from Old San Carlos Boulevard to Third Street may lie when the deck is extended onto the gravel area that is adjacent to Third Street.
Town staff believes a seating area will be less obtrusive than cars parked at the site due to back-up parking situations.
"Back-up parking causes the turning radius of those vehicles to be a little bit wider than it really should be," said Town Community Development Director Walter Fluegel. "By eliminating those first few back-up parking spaces, it may actually improve that condition."
"I think it will also ease the line of site issue," added Town Manager Terry Stewart.
SOB officials may wait until after tourism season to begin construction of the covered porch area/ deck extension, but may begin table placement on the Old San Carlos Boulevard ROW once Town issues a lease for such usage.


text:
Vilanova undergoes successful surgery
Barcelona have announced that Tito Vilanova's operation was completed without complications on Thursday morning.
Vilanova underwent a two-and-a-half-hour procedure to remove a tumour on his parotid gland following the discovery that the Barca coach had suffered a relapse.
A club statement read: "Tito Vilanova's surgical procedure has gone as expected. His clinical progress will determine how long he remains in hospital. The expected timeframe has been maintained. Following the wishes of the patient, it is asked that the privacy and confidentiality of the process are respected."
Barcelona captain Carles Puyol said the mood in the dressing room at the Camp Nou had lifted with the news of the successful surgery.
"Today the dressing-room is more cheerful," he said. "We spoke with him yesterday and that lifted us. The first message we received (this morning) was that all had gone very well, and we are happy with that."
The defender said that news that Vilanova had suffered a relapse had been hard to take, and the team knew it must follow the path the coach had set.
"These are tough blows - as [sporting director Andoni Zubizarreta] said yesterday it was a straight one right on the jaw," he said. "But you must lift yourself up and keep playing. This team has always done that and will do it again.
"We know what we have to do, but Tito is very important for us. He is the one who pulls the wagon. We have the path marked out and we must follow it."
The club captain welcomed the decision to hand the first-team reins to assistant coach Jordi Roura while Vilanova recovers.
"He has been working with us for years," Puyol said. "He knows us perfectly. Things will continue the same, our approach will not change. We are in very good hands. It is a message of calm, the right decision."
Eric Abidal, now back alongside his team-mates after nine months out while recovering from a liver transplant, could soon return to first-team action.
Puyol said: "The example of Abi gives strength to the team. He has been training for a few days. Now he needs to go on bit by bit. He has so much strength. He will be ready to play soon."
Puyol said that, although he was happy to accept the club's offer to extend his contract to 2016, he would only go on playing as long as he was enjoying his football.
"It was the club who suggested three more years to me," he said. "I will keep playing as long as I feel good. The idea is to complete (the contract), but it is very long."
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DETROIT – The Detroit Red Wings are looking to avoid something that hasn't occurred since the 1945 Stanley Cup finals – be shut out three games in a row.
"We're doing a lot of good things, unfortunately we haven't been able to find a way to get some pucks in," Henrik Zetterberg said. "I don't think you ever should panic. I think we can play better. We've got to improve in some spots, but we've still got lots of games here."
During that 1945 series, the Wings were blanked by the Toronto Maple Leafs, 1-0, 2-0 and 1-0.
The Wings have been shut out in their last two games, both on the road, by identical 1-0 scores.
"That's not what we want to do for sure," Gustav Nyquist said. "Both even strength and power play, we haven't scored for a while. That's something we have to change tonight for sure against L.A. They have a great goalie in net, so it's going to be a challenge. Just get a lot of pucks on net and get some of those rebound goals. It's going to take a dirty one to get it going."
Detroit's last win came against the Kings, a 3-1 decision last Saturday.
The Wings also find themselves sitting outside of the playoffs heading into play tonight. They sit sixth in the Wild Card race, with the top two reaching the postseason.
Tonight opens a five-game homestand for the Wings, who are just 6-10-7 at home this season.
"I feel like we haven't played our best at home," Brendan Smith said. "We want to come out here and play much better to bump up in the standings. We want to play a lot better for our fans. There's a little bit of urgency for sure for us to start playing better, start winning some games at home."
The last time Detroit, which is 14-7-3 on the road this year, finished under .500 at home during the regular season was 1985-86, finishing 10-26-4.
"I think we've just got to play a little bit like we do on the road," Zetterberg said. "Keep it real simple. After the Winter Classic we realized that we have to play a lot simpler and I think after that we've been playing a good style. Maybe it's not fancy, but I think we have to realize that we have to keep it simple to win games."
This is the Wings' longest homestand of the season. Their two previous four-game homestands they went 0-0-4 and 1-3-0.
Wings coach Mike Babcock feels that getting things turned around at home starts with the play of their goaltender, Jimmy Howard.
"We've just got to get Howie to do what he's doing, that's the key," Babcock said. "You look at Howie's numbers and look at how many times he's played at home in the first half, Howie's the key for us.
"When you've got a shortened bench or a depleted lineup, if you get goaltending, like we did the other night in LA, you can hang around, hang around, you're going to get chances, so that's what we got to do," Babcock continued. "We need outstanding goaltending and we need goaltending early and then we'll settle in and give ourselves a chance. We're going to compete hard tonight, I guarantee that."
Detroit is also giving up an abnormal amount of shots on goal of late, 45 or more in three of its last five games.
"We're definitely flirting with fire here giving up so many shots but at the same time we're doing a great job of limiting their second opportunities," said Howard, who will start tonight in goal. "The D are going a great job of clearing out front and tying up guys' sticks. At the end of the day if we continue to keep doing that and boxing guys out, and allowing whoever's in net to see the puck we'll be all right."
Send comments to email@example.com and visit his blog at redwingsfront.wordpress.com


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2010 Track and Field
Johnson and Fisher named HCAC Athletes of Week
Rob Johnson and Jason Fisher honored by Heartland Conference
April 12, 2010
BLUFFTON, Ohio - Bluffton University track and field standouts Rob Johnson (Columbus/Marion Franklin) and Jason Fisher (Rockford/Parkway) were named Heartland Conference Athletes of the Week for their efforts at the Marv Frye Invitational on Saturday, April 10, 2010. The Marv Frye Invite was held on the campus of Ohio Wesleyan University and it consisted of 15 teams.
Senior Rob Johnson took first place in the 100-meter dash and he earned the Heartland Conference Men's Track Athlete of the Week award. He finished with a time of 11.29 seconds and helped lead the Beavers to an 11th place finish. His season-best time of 10.86 seconds currently is tops in the HCAC for 100 meters.
Bluffton's Jason Fisher was named the Heartland Conference Field Athlete of the Week after high placements in three events at the competitive Marv Frye Invitational. The senior took second place in both the shot put (49-5.75 feet) and the hammer throw (177-05 feet). He has provisionally qualified for the NCAA Division III Outdoor National Championships in both events this spring. In addition to his two second place finishes, Fisher also placed sixth in the discus (141-00).
The Beavers return to Ohio Wesleyan for the All-Ohio Championships next Saturday, April 17, at 10 a.m.


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(Okay, now back to responsible mature posting)
Others have pointed out that this is useful for tasks where the interconnect speed doesn't matter. I'll point out that the first "node" only costs $765, and the next seven are $564 each (then you need a bigger switch). Of course, the 8-way version won't fit in an airplane's overhead luggage compartment anymore. You might want to add a UPS.
I seem to recall a post earlier this year about some other university building something similar using two quad-core CPUs on each motherboard. Their version, too, wou
They just linked 4 motherboards together. My cat could do that.
Sure. But then your cat would have to moonlight as a mouser, run errands for the neighborhood dogs, and -- worst of all -- give up catnip; all in order to pay for the project.
I would not want to live in the same house as a sleep deprived cat going through catnip withdrawl.
they require special clusterish programming
So ? On an SMP machine you need special SMP-ish programming. Great fun if your memory bandwidth runs out...
Some problems run naturally on distributed systems, some on shared-memory systems. It's a matter of choosing the right machine for the task at hand. Programming in MPI isn't that hard, and unless you are network bound (either bandwith or latency) it scales well. That is the equivalent of an SMP-machine not being memory bound (bandwidth, latency, coherency,...)
Sure and Fluffy could probably mount a jet engine on a bicycle too. But could she make either the motherboard farm or the jetsicle actually do anything non-lethal? For more than 15 seconds?
I think it's an impressive accomplishment and worth noting. Doesn't look like it would fit in any of my suitcases though. Not without dissassembly at any rate.
Only prior to Service Pack 1.
And I guarantee that four "nodes", aka Linux PCs, are cheaper than $2500.
Indeed. After I saw the component prices I was left dumbfounded. I mean, AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ processors at 165 dollars a pop? A kingston 1GB DDR-667 stick of RAM at 124 dollars? Are they on drugs? I mean, I've just bought an Athlon 64 X2 4000+ EE for 68euros (the 3800+ was selling for 59 euros) and each kingston 1GB DDR-800 stick for 46 euros. Where did all the rest of the money went?
Eh, it's got about double the GFlops of Deep Blue...
The more computing power is available in the world, the less it will be used to its potential. If everyone had an Earth Simulator in their basement, how much of that power would be wasted?
Not saying that proliferation of computers is bad, just food for thought.
P.S. SETI@home, Folding@home, etc. are cheating.
One of the problems with supercomputers is that there aren't really very many of them, because of the size and cost. It means that the tools you use to run your supercomputing applications are similarly unusual. The skills to use and develop on parallel systems are then equally scarce. Access to a supercomputer isn't exactly common.
but in the end, it's just four ordinary motherboards and ethernet.
Sure, and I've built similar (bigger & faster) custom systems. But I'm expensive and the knowledge I have is uncommon. Your average Windows admin wouldn't have a clue. This could be a cheap drop in commodity supercomputer.
Hell, the IBM SP was a commodity pre-built supercomputer. This is much cheaper.
but the concept isn't revolutionary
No, the concept hasn't been revolutionary for decades, the effect might be though.
Look at this design: http://www.mini-itx.com/projects/cluster/ [mini-itx.com]. It uses DC-DC converters on each motherboards (mini-itx, so low power), a single 12V PSU and a UPS for regulation:
The DC-DC converters require a clean, well-regulated 12VDC source. I chose to use a heavy duty 60 ampere 12VDC switching power supply capable of delivering 60 amperes peak current which I ordered from an online electronics test equipment supplier. Since badly conditioned AC power is potentially damaging to expensive computing equipment, I use a 1 KVA UPS purchased at an office supply store to make sure the cluster can't be "bumped off" by power line glitches and droputs.
For a more hands-on approach, maybe these 200W+ DC-DC converters will do: http://www.mpegcar.com/acatalog/200w_and_above_PS
The speed of a supercomputer is generally measured in "FLOPS" (FLoating Point Operations Per Second), commonly used with an SI prefix such as tera-, combined into the shorthand "TFLOPS" (1012 FLOPS, pronounced teraflops), or peta-,combined into the shorthand "PFLOPS" (1015 FLOPS, pronounced petaflops.)
It's not exactly a good quote, but looks to me like we're bumping the lower edge of the petaflop scale these days. Thats six decimal places people.
Also in 2003, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign's National Center for Supercomputing Applications built the PS 2 Cluster for about $50,000.
A committee takes root and grows, it flowers, wilts and dies, scattering the seed from which other committees will bloom. -- Parkinson


text: Buzzwords like "platform" get tossed out a lot these days with major franchises. In business terms, it refers to the notion that a game can keep doling out content well after its release. Halo 4 wants to be more than a game, it wants to be a content hub that will be relevant for months and maybe even years to come. The main tentpole in 343's attempt to transform the game into a "platform" is the new Spartan Ops mode--a replacement for Halo Reach's Firefights, featuring a series of discrete missions organized into 10-week seasons. Each mission is like an episode in a television series, only if that show released five episodes a week instead of one. That adds up to 50 episodes a season, and it's all free. Can 343 keep up the quality of Spartan Ops without it seeming forced? Spartan Ops definitely has a lot of potential. These aren't cheap one-offs--each mission features fully-voiced dialogue housed in elaborate cutscenes. For 343, they offer an opportunity to tell stories in the Halo universe that go beyond the bounds of a typical story campaign. For fans, it's a chance to get together with friends and blow new things up on a weekly basis. Everyone's a winner. That being said though, the early growing pains are apparent. Overall, the missions are pretty solid, but the quality can be kind of uneven. They can be played alone, but 343 Studios has come right out and said that they are balanced for multiplayer, and it shows in the level design and the enemy distribution. It feels a little limited at times, but by the fifth mission, the levels are definitely trending upward. Here's what jumped out at me about three of the missions. Land Grab: Land Grab and Sniper Alley both feel like score attacks. Land Grab in particular isn't the most complicated of missions. Basically, 343 Industries saw fit to throw a bunch of vehicles into an open valley and let players go crazy. If you're playing with a friend or two, both can be really fun. But neither is what you would call "rich" in terms of either design or storytelling. The Challenge: I'm not a fan of this mission. Playing it with friends, it was pretty nondescript. Basically, you walk around a large complex and shut down jammers while being hounded by Promethean forces. It's not terrible with friends. I'm not sure it's possible to beat alone using the default loadout though. It's absolutely loaded with two of the most annoying enemies in the game--flying shield generators and robo dogs. They swarm, they're hard to take out, and there are hardly any worthwhile weapons to be found. This mission needs a turret or a Fuel Rod Gun in the worst way. Core: The fifth mission in the initial set. This is where the Spartan Ops missions start to get interesting. Set around a volcano, it features both Covenant and Prometheans, as well as a wide variety of weapons. There are turrets to pick up, and a Fuel Rod gun too. The level design is interesting, and there's a sense that the narrative is picking up as you find and defend an artifact. Core is easily the best of the initial five. BOOM video 14131 In some ways, it feels as if 343 Industries has bitten off more than it can chew. Five missions per week for 10 weeks, after all, is a lot of content. In addition to the actual design, there's balancing, story development, and voice recording to worry about. For that reason, I worry that Spartan Ops missions will continue to be uneven in terms of balance and overall quality. When you're just cranking out missions like that, it's tough to keep to Halo's generally high standards. Is it a good replacement for the Firefight Mode featured in previous Halo games? Depends on who you ask. There is a certain appeal to sitting around and gunning down waves and waves of approaching foes with your friends, and it's a little sad to see the mode cut from Halo 4. On the other hand, Halo has never really been about glorified tower defense fights, has it? Halo has always thrived on its story as much as its multiplayer. In that, Spartan Ops succeeds by mixing the franchise's time-tested narrative elements with the co-op challenges that made the other games fun. With that in mind, there's a lot to like about Spartan Ops at this early date. Just the opportunity to use my multiplayer Spartan in a story mission is pretty fun. On top of the scoreboard, there are a variety of in-mission challenges to complete, most of them of the "Kill 40 Elites" variety. If there are no friends around, Spartan Ops offers random matchmaking. After going on a few runs with the Spartan Ops missions, I've come to the conclusion that they are a well-paced, sometimes challenging addition to Halo 4's core content. That they are completely free is just icing on the cake. It's still early--and 343 definitely has some mission balance issues to work out--but indications are that Halo 4 is set to make good on its promise of being a robust platform for new content. Be sure to check out Kat's review of Halo 4, and a look at how accessible the game is for new players.


text:
Is this worth working on?
Posted 06 February 2013 - 10:36 AM
Posted 29 April 2013 - 11:27 PM
I'm not sure why nobody has replied to this yet but I can see a huge amount of potential in this photo. My fingers itch just thinking about the possibilities. I'm not a marine photographer (yet) but I do know my way around a camera, and PS and I will tell you that this photo has wall potential.
Posted 30 April 2013 - 04:34 PM
Edited by the_dragon_no1, 30 April 2013 - 04:36 PM.
- fforbes likes this
Posted 08 May 2013 - 09:47 AM
Hard to say without seeing the raw file. Want to send it to me and I can take a stab at it? I'm happy to give it a try.
Posted 10 May 2013 - 07:07 AM
Sure is!
The white on white high key pattern is always a rewarding theme to work on especially when you have striking red/orangy colors available to enhance the high key. Every important feature looks sharp enough, there are no obvious 255 textureless areas, the composition looks rather interesting with a very good angle, unusual to get the belly of a candy crab (should even be better applying a vertical symetry, so that it looks the right).
Give it a little curve contrast for a color oomph and that should be fine.
Galleries in Pbase : Ambon & Maluku, Bangka & Bali, Komodo & Maumere, Moalboal, Mabul & Sipadan.
Vanuatu incl.SS Pres.Coolidge wreck.
Posted 10 May 2013 - 07:00 PM
I would also try a high pass filter, which is a way to get more contrast and sharpening without image destruction. Mask it and only apply the high pass to the crab. That can make the image really pop. Also in the raw converter, boost the highlights a tad to make the whites a tad whiter. This is all layer based so you can simply turn them off and/or adjust the fill or opacity to more pleasing levels.
Author, Catalina Island - All you Need to Know
Posted 01 June 2013 - 08:43 AM
I spent a couple of minutes making rough adjustments: sharpening (unsharp masking), contrast (a sigmoid curve adjustment) and increased vibrance and saturation in Photoshop.
The composition cuts off some legs, there's only one eye visible and the right to left diagonal (red/white/red) bands don't work as well for me as a red border would have, but that's underwater photography: you always want a few more frames!
Edited by tdpriest, 01 June 2013 - 08:49 AM.
Flickr galleries
Photobox; images on sale!
The Fin Foundation
Nikon D800 in Nauticam housing...
Posted 25 July 2013 - 09:07 PM
The shot is essentially the raw file converted to JPG. It was taken with a D-300, AF-105-VR plus a +5 subsee so the magnification is unusual. I like Td Priests enhancement of the colors.


text:
Economic and Energy Assistance Resource Expo
- Cost:
- Free
Additional Information
United Way's Project Warm Heart and the Atlantic County Sheriff's R.E.AL Help program have teamed up to present a free Economic & Energy Assistance Resource Expo on Thursday, November 8, aimed at connecting those in need with assistance programs and services that are available in the community. The expo will take place at the Shore Mall in Egg Harbor Township from 1:00 pm to 7:00 pm.
"The goal of this expo is to create awareness of the resources that are available in our community," said John Emge, United Way Executive Director for Atlantic County and Cape May Counties. "Our local electric and gas companies along with a number of other local agencies have initiated this event as a way to put the information in the hands of those that need it." Through a partnership with local energy companies including Atlantic City Electric and South Jersey Gas Company, Atlantic Human Resources, South Jersey Legal Services and United Way of Greater Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey, a number of representatives will be on hand to provide information and answer questions on local programs and process assistance applications.
The Expo will take place inside the Shore Mall in the space in front of the Division of Motor Vehicles. The Mall is located at 6725 Black Horse Pike in Egg Harbor Township. The expo is open to the public and free of charge. For additional information, contact Fran Wise at United Way at (609) 404-4483 or Sheriff Frank Balles at 609-909-7211.


text:
A recent toast to James Watson highlights a tolerance for bigotry many want excised from the scientific community.
Speaking of Science: 2016
December 19, 2016|
Selected quotes from an eventful year
December 19, 2016|
Selected quotes from an eventful year
December 6, 2016|
As Inauguration Day nears, scientists and science advocates are voicing their unease with the Trump Administration's potential effects on research.
December 2, 2016|
Andrzej Tarkowski's research laid the groundwork for future advances in cloning, stem cell research, and in vitro fertilization.
December 1, 2016|
In Chapter 8, author John Parrington explores the intersection of precision genome editing and stem cell technologies.
December 1, 2016|
Sequencing and gene-editing advances make tracing a cell's journey throughout development easier than ever.
December 1, 2016|
The importance of science innovation, publishing and gender, and more
December 1, 2016|
These runners up to the Top 10 Innovations of 2016 caught our judges' attention.
November 18, 2016|
A combination of the traditional metric and the newer h5 index potentiates the scientific community toward more-balanced evaluation.
November 1, 2016|
Most researchers feel stimulated by their work but are dissatisfied with their compensation, according to this year's results.
November 1, 2016|
How to make the most of this rapidly developing technique and a look at what's on the horizon


text:
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Submission to the Senate Inquiry into National Registration and Accreditation Scheme for Doctors and Other Health Workers
The Secretary
Senate Community Affairs Committee
PO Box 6100, Parliament House
Canberra ACT 2600
I am writing to the Inquiry as a midwife. I have been a midwife since 1973, and working independently since 1993. Aged in my late 50s, I am nearing the end of a satisfying and productive professional career which includes practice, teaching, and other professional consulting and writing.
It is with great sadness that I prepare this submission, as I recognise the likelihood that the new laws governing registration and accreditation of my profession will also signal the termination of my right to practice, due to the fact that professional indemnity insurance is not available for midwives.
I am not opposed to national registration, or to the mandating of indemnity insurance as a condition for registration, but I am deeply concerned about the Government's inequitable support for the medical profession over the midwifery profession in this instance.
In our submissions to the federal government's recent Maternity Services Review I and many other midwives, consumers, and maternity organisations informed the Review of the urgent need midwives have for indemnity that will cover our private practices. The Report (Section 6.2) acknowledged the Government's support for the medical profession, including the Premium Support Scheme, "which provided financial relief to specialists such as obstetricians so that their premium costs relative to other specialties became more affordable", but failed to recommend that any similar support be available for midwives, or to offer any other lifeline to midwives.
My question to the Senate Inquiry is, "how can one professional group (midwives) be excluded from practice on the grounds of no insurance being available, when the group competing for the same work (obstetricians and proceduralist GPs) receive substantial government support to purchase their indemnity insurance?"
This anomaly appears to be in breach the intent of competition policy and monopolies supported by government funding. Yet it appears that under the Trade Practices Act, a case would need to be made under Section 45DD, that a Secondary Boycott situation existed (eg: "We found Obstetrician A colluding with Obstetrician B to prevent Midwife C from working.") This scenario is most unlikely, as the Government's financial support through Medicare provides the medical practitioners with an effective monopoly of prenatal (out of hospital) care, and the inability of midwives to obtain professional indemnity insurance excludes midwives from most opportunities to provide care privately in hospitals for women during the birth and post natally. Hence there is no case of 'Secondary Boycott' or collusion to exclude midwives from practice at a community level, as there is a systematic exclusion of midwives through Medicare and the funding of hospitals. I believe that the Government needs to remedy this situation in the public interest.
A paper 'The Trade Practices Act and the Health Sector' was presented by Professor Allan Fels, the then chair of the ACCC, in 1998. Prof Fels stated that the role of the ACCC includes "looking at health professionals' conduct to determine whether it promotes or hinders patients' interests in being able to choose among a variety of services and price options according to their needs", and "competition policy is based on the premise that consumer choice, rather than the collective judgment of the sellers, should determine the range and prices of goods and services that are available. Or in other words that the competitive suppliers should not pre-empt the working of the market by deciding themselves what their customers need, rather than allowing the market to respond to what consumers demand."
These principles have not been applied to Government funding for basic maternity care, which is the practice domain for which midwives are registered. Consumers who choose to employ a midwife as their primary carer do so, in most cases, without any government support. The medical profession's monopoly of maternity funding and maternity care provision is not in the public interest. There is no evidence that excluding midwives from practice improves outcomes for mothers and babies.
The current restriction of the scope of practice of Australian midwives is regressive when compared with contemporary standards in developed nations. The Australian consumer ought to be free to choose the primary maternity care provider, either a midwife or a doctor, with consideration of the ability to each one to provide the service required by the individual woman and her child.
I therefore request that, in the implementation of the Government's national registration and accreditation scheme for midwives, the Senate Community Affairs Committee ensure that midwives have equitable access to Government support for their purchasing of indemnity insurance, and for the provision of services. This is in the public interest and in the interest of free trade.
Joy Johnston
2 comments:
- Stitch Sista said...
I really do hope someone will receive this with an open ear.
It seems to me akin to a bad dream - the thought that the choice of independent midwifery care be taken from a woman when she wants to birth a child at home.
I'm sure I've said before that I'm glad I am done with having babies - but I feel so sad for those women and families who will lose this homebirth option.
- 7:55 pm
- Joy Johnston said...
Hi SS. I also hope that sense will prevail in all this.
There are costs and benefits linked to everything we do. Professional indemnity insurance is something that costs a lot, and benefits only a few. The trade off is micromanagement of those who are potential winners. So when the public health system provides the homebirth option, the regulations are fairly tight, as a matter of risk management. The consumer loses some of the freedom to choose that you currently have with midwives being self managing (independent).
- 9:15 am


text:
Instructor: Lecturer William H. Lane
Department: English
Course Description:
Climate instability? Peak oil? Overpopulation? Malnutrition? Glaciers shrinking? Great rivers drying up before they reach the sea? Siberian forests on fire all summer and Pakistan flooded for months on end? Is this the end of the world or the beginning of a new one? Is this a crisis with no real remedy in sight or an opportunity to build a more balanced, more just, more resilient human presence in the world? This course examines the human-earth relationship in terms of fundamental human needs for food, water, and shelter and explores the systems that shape our choices with regard to these essentials of human life. Secondly, it seeks to build a bridge between science-based information and citizen action in search of strategies for staying human—and humane—on a planet in transition.


text:
Warren Nelson | click the image to enlarge…
PoetryDispatch No. 328 | July 27, 2010
An Old Story, an Old Song, a New Poem
Warren is an old friend, one of those people possessed of such love of life, people, place, imaginative fervor and voice that ordinary everyday plain old conversation seems unknown to him. and 'talk' instead erupts into a kind of poetry that is pure Warren Nelsonese.
I've been fortunate to know a handful of these people in my life. You're never sure just what Warren's thinking, what all is building inside him, taking shape, destination—hallelujah, harmonies of voices (all his) released to the heavens. Singer, songwriter, storyteller, he can't help it. He has neither time or interest in small talk…concerned instead that his message take air, be writ large, 'literary' in pulsing words, images, sounds …ideas…memories, laughter—a song sung just for you. A personal performance leaving one hungry, hanging on his every next word (And then what happened? What next?) as he pauses to catch a breath, another line, another image…lifting you up there into the song, turning his solo into a duet, though the narrative, the rhythm (decidedly Midwestern), the chorus, the finale is all his. Bravo! Encore!
I've told about him before in articles, interviews, ordinary conversation.
Warren Nelson Note File:
He's a young man sometimes dressed in old man's clothing. `Geezer fashions' he calls his fondness for a down-home attire, be it suit-vests, gray workpants, galluses, or even a derby he may don, performing under the Big Top Chautauqua tent in Bayfield, on a summer night…
Warren Nelson: young, geezer-man of his time, but of another time as well. A past (local/Midwestern Americana) that he continually pays homage to in story, song, original musical productions–"Big, dang deals," as he calls them. He and his multi-talented right-hand lady, Betty Ferris; his Executive Director, Carolyn Sneed; his extraordinary crew of musicians, the Ballyhoo Blue Canvas Orchestra–Bruce Bowers, Bruce Burnside, Jack Gunderson, Don Pavel, Tom Mitchell; singers Marcie Gephart, Mary Bondeson, Gwen Baxter and the lively Sally Kessler.
But that was then. The past. This is now–not the same by a long shot. No more Bayfield. No more tent. No more Big Top Chautauqua. No more WPR "Tent Show Radio" hosted by Warren Nelson. The loss(es) do and do not add up. Though they are nevertheless real. Final. Fini.
News from the front:
June 7, 2010
From WARREN NELSON PRESENTS
Dear Friends of Warren Nelson,
This is a special message to those of you who have let us know that you would like to hear news of Warren Nelson.
We are happy to report that Warren has been working really hard during these last nine months, fortunately being on the Huber Work Release program, is doing very, very well .. rejoicing in his sobriety and productivity. He was able to go home during the day six days a week, so he could write and continue his work. He has written a poem nearly every day (well over 100 .. ) and eleven new songs. He has recorded the songs with Andy Dee, Ed Willett, Randy Sabien, and Rowan Nelson-Ferris; and we plan to release the new CD, SONG IN YOUR HAT sometime in the next month. His sentence will be completed on June 20; and after that he will still have to report for probation once a week.
You may watch his website (www.warrennelson.com) for messages from Warren and news and details of record release and other performances. And .. if you have messages to or about Warren that you'd like to post on his website, please send them to: firstname.lastname@example.com.
Thank you for keeping the faith!
A singer without a place to render his songs. A showman (in recovery)…slave for-too-many-years to that old devil, alcohol (which can lead a man or woman to even darker paths, dead ends on unknown dimensions, locked in, locked out)…small-time 'outlaw,' (who has now done in his time, his debt to society) finding himself repentant, determined, alone and deep in the Washburn, Wisconsin woods…trying to re-string his old guitar…looking, hoping, praying for the memory of song to come back to him, new music to be written. Pling, plang, pluck…once upon a time…lyric…a word rhyming with 'sad'…
Hard times. Brother Warren's come upon hard times. A work-in-progress, momentarily. Trying to lift himself out from under it all. Wanting to believe that F. Scott Fitzgerald's "There are no second acts in American lives" was bar talk. That second acts do indeed exist in this land of the free, home of the brave, Middle western rock-a-bye lullaby cradle of creativity. Sing it loud and clear, Brother. Higher. Chorus! Chorus!
From my Warren Nelson Note File:
We talked about a lot of things Up North–from his history with Big Top Chautauqua, to regionalism, songwriting, fame, the new creative period he seems to be entering, and that new fishing lure he's invented: The Lure of The Northwoods. We talked about `big dang deals,' such as "Riding the Wind".
"It's a musical," he says, "it's a sit-down-read-the-story musical, combining original songs and storytelling with maybe 13 or 1400 historic photographs projected as slides. It's the third show of this type. The first one was produced way back in 1976 for my hometown of Fairmont, Minnesota. At that time I was given the gift of time by my partner, then mate, Betty Ferris, who took me out of the bars and off the road and gave me time to `thunk stuff up.' So I thunk up this idea. I wrote in my journal…`A thing: Combine songs, stories, photographs, history into a concert program'. So this is the third one.
Which, in essence, was the genesis of the whole Chautauqua idea.
"Up here it certainly was…Bayfield had to get one of these Big Dang Deals, so they commissioned it and Betty and I do what we do. We start researching these things, which is just–get in your History Suit, jump off the dock and start swimmin' around in all this lake of stories. Which is probably the most enjoyable thing, you're very familiar with, Norb, talking to the elders. Just sitting back and listening at how one thing leads to another. When you look at a photograph, there are songs in there. Things start to happen. And that's why I think that people really catch on to them, you know. You're not only hearing a song, but they're illustrated…It's time travelling. And the script is a combination of a few poems I throw in, and quotes and stories…
"As soon as you start to dig, one thing, like I said, leads to another and you find out some astounding, amazing things, which I guess are not so surprising here on the shores of Lake Superior–you know, Big Lake, Big Ideas, human ideas in the past. Once you start a program like this it sorta has a life of its own. It just leads you around. And all the crew members and all the people that you talk to, you know, leads you to another and another and their stories. You do this and then you end up meeting the most fantastically interesting people. There's just a different way of talking. I'm writing in, I mean obviously the English language moves…but reading the journals of the lighthouse keepers is just magnificent language. It's almost like old English. I mean it's not, but it goes back. And so I certainly borrowed heavily from them…let's see, there's a verse in the song "Keeper of the Light"…mmm, let's see
I'm the Keeper of the Light on Michigan Island,
the candle in the night for the steamboat trade
with an eye on the wick and a whistle to the ships
that are bound for the bay or runnin' for a lee.
We lit the lamp at sunset, afraid the clocks would break
then anew it blew a hurricane, the tower began to shake.
It was damp in the lamp and freezing, the oil all congealed.
We were scrubbin' with brine on the lantern glass to
remove the angry sea; our dock was driven to the boulders;
to talk, we had to shout. So splendid was Superior's fury
twenty-five miles out.
"Now that was…those were mostly words I picked out of journals. And I put `em in order to make it work.. they're probably from five pages, but I just…you know… Who talks about oil being `congealed' anymore? I love those words you can bite into, that never get used."
And though his name will probably never appear in any literary history of the state, consider any of his lyrics, and one is astonished by the poetry in the man. Long after the work of many of our Wisconsin writers has faded, I'm convinced there will remain this vibrant body of "Big Dang Deals" set in Wisconsin by a unique artist from Washburn. A treasure trove of stage presentations–words and music by Warren Nelson–which generations to come will easily and eagerly tap into. Works steeped in local history, humor, talk and song, perfectly capturing a Wisconsin culture, a time and place, reaching far beyond the Midwest as well.
But that was then.
This is now.
And by all indications, the master's voice has returned. The music is coming back. The guitar had been re-strung, fine tuned, polished. And the woods around Warren's Washburn, Wisconsin are singing from daylight to twilight time. Old friends may be lost, never to return. The tent may still stand, staked in Bayfield, but flaccid without the music and voice of Warren Nelson to billow the canvas high into to the heavens . Aye, this may be his greatest loss…the tent he worshipped and honored, a metaphor for man, the music he wrote, the musician he was/is…Made in the Midwest. The historical 'chautauqua' he re-created in our time to give us all a fresh breath, a new life.
But onward to recovery. The new man—wounds visible and public: this was me; but here I am born to sing again. Listen, folks. Please. On to the Second Act. New songs. New ventures. New productions. Can you hear me now?
Check his website: http://www.warrennelson.com/ or click the image below…
A bio update in his own hand, July 2010:
Warren Nelson has been a professional entertainer/songwriter/impresario for 43 years, born in Minnesota and living n Wisconsin since 1976. He has written 500 songs in his writing life. He is perhaps best known as the founder of Lake Superior Big Top Chautauqua in Bayfield, former host of Tent Show Radio, and as composer/writer of a dozen historically based music shows which have toured extensively around the Midwest for the past 20 years. "Big Dang Deals" he calls them. He has recorded 11 albums of original songs and has had two DVD's released. He is currently working on his autobiography entitled: "Song And Chance Man- The Memory-wars of Me."
Says Warren- "Like my great friend Norbert Blei I was born with the push to write. The sound of words has always been music to me. I love this outlaw poetry that Norb is floating over this crazy world. I've been plowing my song farm lately writing poems. My latest reading joys are the works of Stanley Kunitz, William Stafford, the Testaments of Francois Villon, and Native American writings. Have you read "Neither Wolf Nor Dog" by Kent Nerburn?
I pick up a different poet every morning from the bookshelves that rule my house.
I'm starting a churchless church call The Assembly Of Sod. My heaven is in the ground."
For whatever reason, the American literary powers-that-be have always given short shrift to our songwriters, relegating them to a notch or two below 'poets.' But poets in truth they are.
I will end then with this POEM by Warren Nelson. A new true poem (appropriately enough, "The Band") by a recovering songwriter who still knows and honors where the heart lies…just how healing it can be when the right chord is struck.
Take it to the open stage in those Washburn woods, Warren. SO GOOD to hear your earthy voice again. Bless you, Brother. –Norbert Blei
News Item, June 2 2010:
"Iran has barred private schools from teaching music, saying it clashes with the establishment's Islamic values. "The use of musical instruments is against the principles of our value system," said Ali Bagherzadeh, head of the private schools office in the Education Ministry. Teaching music in state schools is already prohibited, Bagherzadeh said. Iran's 16,000 private schools have about 1.1 million students."
Warren Nelson | The Band | click the image to enlarge…
The Band
by Warren Nelson
God plays the bones and needs a band
To keep the beat of human endeavors,
To mark time in the breath of every lung
In the living day.
Up and down the ecstasies,
Whole step whole step half step major scale
And the chromatic changes in the jazz of improvising
An afternoon.
Song is God-
In the beginning was the word-
And then the tune to carry
And the ring in to dance.
Song is God-
As wind through the clarinet's pipe-
As the string vibrates eternity-
As the harp calls Angels to
Welcome the infants.
As we are instruments
Of God
Cooing the lullabies,
Crescendoing to life's end-
The great symphony of the world.
And the longing to hear through brass and reed-
As we are the instruments
Holding the instruments in joy
And in the contrabass of sorrow.
Arrest the birds.
Put them to death.
And the purr of cats-
And the barking of dogs-
And the roar of King Lion-
And the whale's long clarion sounding
In the bowls of the oceans
Muzzel the language of instrumental music
That is universal
Heard across the borders of
How about a whistler?
The music of humming?
The inner melody of the orchestra
Of the body.
The stirring marches of nations.
Get up off your knees Islam
And stop the chanting by law.
And stop the screaming whine of guns
And the torpedoes cymballing death.
And listen to the music
Of the spheres here and now.
Allah Allah
Sing Hallelujah!
The Hallelujah Chorus.
Let the sax take a solo.


text:
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text:
on one hand, gamers have been known to be gracious and kind enough to donate and keep CHild's play running.
On the other hand, gamers are dicks.
I hope this ends well.
Usually it's not an issue with crowdsourcing. You rely on maybe 100 or more people classifying the same thing correctly, the key point is collective classification. See Citizen Sky for more examples.
Once the troll population reaches sufficent levels:
"I have a sore throat and a slight fever."
*You have AIDS, leprosy, and lupus.*
From the referenced PDF:
we also developed an automated machine learning algorithm to detect the presence of malaria parasites,
Signed up, website still works but game is stuck at "Retrieving Authentication" on Firefox 12 and IE8 (my machine with IE9 is getting an overhaul), so guess I'll just have to wait a while to find those buggy blood cells.
Way to go,
Would it not be simpler to have the pathologist train a machine learning algorithm and then use that instead of the game?
I wonder if these sort of games could be implemented as a sort of Captcha challenge for niche situations. A simple yes/no diagnosis has insufficient complexity to serve as Captcha of course; you'd have to increase the difficulty by presenting a panel of several samples, multiple diseases, or require more detailed responses ("click on the abnormal Red Blood Cells").
This wouldn't be suitable for use as general purpose Captchas of course; any user seeing it for the first time won't have a clue what they're looking at. Rather, it could be used in settings where you have a body of dedicated users who repeatedly use a service over a long period of time, yet require anonymity without permanent user profiles. Forcing the users to go through initial training could be seen as a bonus, creating an additional obstacle for Mechanical-Turk workers. As an example of such a situation that pairs a persistent user pool with anonymity, consider something like 4chan.
On the downside, because it's 4chan, half your diagnosis results will be "You have AIDS (Pool's Closed)".
Who goeth a-borrowing goeth a-sorrowing. -- Thomas Tusser


text:
"A Yawning Gap Has Been Filled"
Professor Bade, it has surely not escaped your notice that particularly the conservatives have loudly greeted the Council of Experts. From the Union parties, which while they were in the opposition didn't rest until the Immigration Council of the former Red-green government had been abolished, one now hears expressions of relief at the filling of this gap. And there has also been much praise for the selection of the members – for you too, although in the past you were often a red flag for them. Does that give you satisfaction?
Klaus J. Bade: At the end of 2004 there was a campaign to abolish the Immigration Council, whose annual report was apparently too critical for some, although it was highly esteemed among experts.
More important, however, was that in June 2004 the Chancellery sacrificed the point system for the criteria-based admittance of immigrants in its search for a way to reach a consensus on the controversial immigration law. That was also the end for the Immigration Council which was anchored in the law and whose mandate was increasingly narrowed from the general consultation in matters of immigration and integration policy to consultation on the point system.
To this extent, the new Council of Experts in fact fills a yawning gap. It has been greeted not only by one side, but by all sides. Because meanwhile everyone has understood it is time that civil society concern itself with integration as a decisive question of the future – a point, by the way, that I already addressed in the 1980s. People laughed then, but nobody does today. That does give one a degree of satisfaction; one has learned to be modest.
Isn't it nevertheless a damning indictment that the ruling grand coalition of CDU/CSU and SPD, in spite of understanding the need, didn't put together its own consulting team on immigration policy much earlier?
Bade: And what would they have gained by it? A reissue of the Immigration Council of 2003 to 2005, only now with the blessing of the grand coalition. The Immigration Council was abolished because, among other reasons, one of our major proposals, the diagnosis of shortages in the labour market, "didn't fit into the political landscape", as Minister of the Interior Otto Schily said to me in a personal conversation shortly before we were retired.
You could say: The devil takes the foremost. Because the grand coalition, as part of the Alliance for Securing Qualified Employees, has now introduced exactly what was demonised in the Immigration Council of 2005: the diagnosis of a labour shortage, which is now discreetly called a "shortage analysis". Time will tell.
How would you distinguish the Council of Experts from the former Immigration Council, apart from the more modest funding? What do we have to expect of it?
Bade: It was not initiated by the state or its administrative bodies, but originated in civil society in the form of major foundations with their own funding experience in the field. Within its area of activity it is basically at liberty to choose its fields of observation, questions and focal points. It is also no longer a mix of science, politics and interest groups. We do critical policy monitoring of the public. That was definitely not desired of the Immigration Council.
Our annual report is concerned with the observation of processes and evaluative impact assessment with a view to the development of integration and immigration. And finally we are establishing an integration barometer. That is an index which provides a continuous image of the climate of integration. It is there to measure not only the adaptive behaviour of immigrants, but also the integration performance of the majority society. Because integration in a society of immigration is always a matter of reciprocity.
In spring 2010 we'll present the annual report and integration barometer for 2009. Until then the word is mum, apart from comments and reports on current affairs.
What is the interest of private foundations in a Council of Experts for, of all things, questions of immigration and integration? And how will its dependence on private sponsors influence its work?
Bade: The foundations have experience in this field and are competing for 'best practice' in the promotion of integration with their national and international projects. For the first time, they have together undertaken a major task because this advocacy of the active promotion of integration and the structuring of immigration for a broad public is a common concern.
The private sponsors exercise no influence over what we say in our work. There are strict rules that ensure our independence – for example, in the legal form of a limited company that employs our staff and administers our funds.
How do you judge the present immigration situation in Germany, particularly in respect to the economic and financial crisis? Historically, times of crisis are notorious for germinating chauvinistic and xenophobic tendencies.
Bade: That can't be excluded; the first signs of this are already visible and have to be carefully observed. At least equally dangerous is the increasing aggression in everyday life by those who feel themselves to be social losers and now, in addition, victims of the crisis. It is therefore all the more important to find a solidary "we" that also includes those who have primarily been hit by these circumstances – and they are, as a rule, immigrants. They are in the same position as Germans abroad.
The interview was conducted by Roland Detsch.
© Goethe Institute 2009
Klaus Jürgen Bade, born 1944, was Professor of Contemporary History at the University of Osnabrück until 1997, where he founded the Institute for Immigration Research and Intercultural Studies. The internationally known social scientist and book author, who has been the recipient of many awards, created Federal Council for Immigration and in 2003/4 was Vice Chairman of the Council of Experts on Immigration and Integration of the German government.
Wolfgang Schäuble, Germany's Federal Minister of the Interior
"Muslims Should Feel at Home in Germany"
A dialogue between the religions is absolutely essential for the German State, writes Federal Minister of the Interior Wolfgang Schäuble. It strengthens the foundations of the community, beyond questions of religious claims to truth
Navid Kermani on Islam in Germany
A Plea for Cultural Pluralism
The writer and Islamic scholar Navid Kermani has written a refreshingly calm affirmation of the notion of a multicultural society. Ulrich von Schwerin has read the book
Immigrants in the Distorting Mirror of the Media
Stirring Things Up for Immigrants
Media reporting on immigrants has taken on a harsher tone since the terrorist attacks of September 11. Some old prejudices are back in fashion and being joined by some that are completely new. Christoph Butterwegge has been assessing the mood in Germany


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Against a backdrop of charming paintings and the Yarmouth, Nova Scotia landscape they reflect, Maud Lewis: A World Without Shadows celebrates the life and work of one of Canada's foremost primitive painters. Emerging from her youth crippled with arthritis, Maud Lewis escaped into her painting at the age of 30. She had never seen a work of art and had never attended an art class but her paintings captured the simple strength, beauty and happiness of the world she saw - a world without shadows.


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Fern Darlene Chrzan, age 83, formerly of Greenville, Gladwin, Tecumseh and Adrian, Mich., passed away at her residence at Sunset Village in Sylvania, Ohio, on Dec. 7, 2013.
She was born on Dec. 30, 1929, the daughter of Byron and Opal Agnew. Darlene graduated from Adrian High School then worked as a beautician before raising her four sons.
Mom will be remembered by those who knew her by how much she loved to laugh and joke. She was a wonderfully loving mother and wife who will be deeply missed.
She is survived by her sons, Joseph Hagar, Scott Sharp, Bradley Sharp, Brian Sharp; her sister Betty Hagar; and her many grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Darlene was preceded in death by her husband of 35 years, Philip Chrzan.
No funeral services will be held. Cremation services provided by Dowling Funeral Home, Sylvania, Ohio. Memorial contributions may be made in her name to Juvenile Diabetes, Habitat for Humanity or the American Legion.


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Monday, May 21, 2012
Took a couple of tries . . .
p.s. Duty calls tomorrow and I'll miss Matty's start.
1 comment:
- nomisnala said...
I am not upset with that call by Bochy. I figure he would not want someone else to blow the game for Bumgarner. Make it his responsibility, and the kid blew it himself, after an error by slick fielding, but error prone Crawford. It was a mistake by Bumgarner, and a nice low pitch to the outside corner would have served him much better. Lincecum has been doing this every game some I am ready to cut the 22 year old some slack, and if Romo was in, I would have worried about the same thing, "The Hanging slider" to the Hebrew hammer. Maybe Braun took such a hard swing that he will be out for the rest of the series. If you looked at the ERA's from the Brewers pitchers, you wonder how they held the giants to 4 runs in just 14 innings. It seems like the giants may be the penicillin for the high ERAs on the Milwaukee staff.
- Mon May 21, 10:49:00 PM PDT


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The head of Britain's biggest business body has told Sky News the "time has come" for foreign firms to pay their fair share of UK tax.
Confederation of Business Industry (CBI) director general John Cridland was speaking as the issue of corporate offshore tax arrangements moved into the political domain.
Mr Cridland told Sky News: "It's an issue whose time has come. The challenge is to be more transparent. I'd be surprised if the landscape isn't different in five years' time."
He also rejected the idea that HM Revenue and Customs is a "soft touch" and called for international tax rules and co-operation to tackle loopholes that allow large firms to minimise liabilities in certain jurisdictions.
The comments from the head of the CBI, which represents many of Britain's biggest firms, follow those of the boss of Dixons Retail (Other OTC: DSITF.PK - news) .
Sebastian James backed John Lewis chief Andy Street, who earlier told Sky News multinationals such as Amazon, Google (NasdaqGS: GOOG - news) and Starbucks (NasdaqGS: SBUX - news) would be able to use their tax advantages to invest more than their UK rivals.
In a statement on Twitter Mr James said: "I agree with Andy Street - retailers making profits in the UK should pay tax in the UK."
Mr Street told Jeff Randall Live the Treasury needed to do more to prevent the likes of online retailer Amazon "destroying the UK tax base" and potentially putting British companies out of business.
On Thursday Business Secretary Vince Cable told Sky there was "systematic abuse" of the tax system by some multinational corporations (MNCs).
He said MNCs were "playing governments off against each other" when it comes to tax structures with offshore accounting.
Mr Cable said he expected Chancellor George Osborne to address the issue of MNCs allegedly underpaying their tax in his Autumn Statement next month.
Dixons Retail has 1,200 stores, including PC World and Currys, and Amazon is a major rival.
These latest comments from British retail bosses come after UK heads of Amazon, Google and Starbucks appeared in front of MPs (BSE: MPSLTD.BO - news) in the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) earlier this week to defend their tax positions.
When grilled by PAC chair Margaret Hodge, Starbucks global chief financial officer Troy Alstead said his firm had only made a profit once in the 15 years it has been doing business in the UK.
"I assure you we are not making money," he told the committee.
"It's very unfortunate. We're not at all pleased about our financial performance here. It's fundamentally true everything we are saying and everything we have said historically."
Labour's Ms Hodge replied: "You have run the business for 15 years and are losing money and you are carrying on investing here. It just doesn't ring true."
Starbucks has reportedly paid just £8.6m in corporation tax in 14 years of trading in Britain. It was also revealed it has paid no corporation tax for the past three years, despite sales of £1.2bn in the UK.
Ms Hodge questioned how that could happen when a former chief financial operator said in 2007 that the division had an operating profit rate of 15%.
Mr Alstead denied knowledge of the statement and insisted the first profit Starbucks made was £6m in 2006.
Matt Brittin, the chief executive of Google UK, and Andrew Cecil, Amazon's director of public policy, also gave evidence to the committee.
Mr Cecil was forced to explain why a CD or a book bought in pounds on Amazon.co.uk delivered from a UK warehouse by the Royal Mail is registered in Luxembourg.
"We have our European headquarters in Luxembourg... the books could be in the UK, they could be in France. If you are purchasing English books it is very likely they will be in our fulfilment centres (warehouses)."
Earlier in the year, The Guardian reported Amazon - Britain's largest online retailer - generated UK sales over the past three years of between £7.6bn and £10.3bn, but paid virtually no corporation tax.
Google's UK unit paid just £6m to the Treasury in 2011 on revenue of £395m, according to The Daily Telegraph.
More From Sky News


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Juniper grows secure branch boxes
Changing the risk model for remote offices
Juniper Networks says its latest secure services gateway (SSG) boxes may look like grown-up home routers, but are actually secure hubs for small branch offices.
They resemble home routers in that they have several wired Ethernet ports each, Wi-Fi options and WAN connectivity. But the big difference is that they also include enterprise-class security features, said Anton Grashion, Juniper's EMEA security strategist.
That means a proper NetScreen-derived firewall with VPN and intrusion prevention system capabilities, he said, plus software from SurfControl for web filtering, Kaspersky Labs for anti-virus and anti-spyware, and Symantec for spam blocking. WAN options include ISDN, T1/E1, and ADSL2+.
Grashion claimed that while most of his competitors focus either on the security or the routing, Juniper does both in one box.
"All the indications we see are that branch networking is increasing, but branches are changing in shape - we are seeing huge amounts of data centre consolidation," he said.
Security in the gateway means you no longer need to backhaul your internet traffic via HQ. "That means your attitude to risk is dramatically different."
The new models fit in underneath the SSG 500 series, which is aimed at larger sites. They include the SSG 5 and SSG 20, the latter with slots to take a range of WAN modules, and the mid-sized SSG 140. Grashion said they can be differentiated by their firewall bandwidths - the 5 and 20 can secure 160Mbit/s while the 140 can handle more than 350Mbit/s.
The SSG family lacks features offered in some other vendors' unified gateway devices, such as a webserver or VoIP call manager, but Grashion said that, as a branch office tool, its focus was on mitigating local threats and routing traffic to and from HQ.
Also, of course, they hook into the network management tools. The thesis is proper secure connectivity both to HQ and the internet for small branches.
SSG 5 and 20 pricing starts at around £375 and £480 respectively, while the 140, which adds support for stateful failover, costs from £1500. WAN modules, where needed, are £200 to £500 each, and Grashion said there's annual licencing fees for the third-party software. ®
Sponsored: Minds Mastering Machines - Call for papers now open


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FITCHBURG -- As he approached the Harrison Avenue property to investigate a complaint Thursday, Board of Health Code Enforcement Officer Jeff Stephens scanned the yard, the outside of the building and its entryways, to make sure it was safe for him and his observer to go into the home.
"Is there anything dangerous for me to walk on? Is there trash? Are there any dogs that might come get me? Are there wires hanging?" Jeff Stephens told Pamela Rivers, Fitchburg Public Schools district nurse leader. "Those are the things I'm concerned about before I even set foot in or on the property."
The trash and debris blocking a doorway was just a hint of what they would find inside.
Rivers accompanied Stephens as part of a new program that allows city employees an opportunity to shadow employees of other departments for a few hours to get a taste of what their jobs are like.
Human Resources Director Bernie Stephens said the idea initially came from Mayor Lisa Wong, and from that he crafted the program, which ran all of last week.
"A lot of people think somebody else may be having it better than them, and once they get involved and see what they're doing, they see that they're working harder than they thought," he said.
Bernie Stephens said the job shadowing also gave employees a chance to communicate with people they might not normally deal with every day, and to perhaps get a bit of experience in a field they might be interested in pursuing one day.
Rivers, who holds a master's degree in public health, said she has done home visits before, following up on students and their families, but nothing quite like Thursday's inspection. She said shadowing Jeff Stephens was a good opportunity to try out another aspect of public health.
"It's great to have the resources, connections and collaboration that we have," Rivers said.
Jeff Stephens also enjoyed a chance to show what he does each day.
"As a code enforcement officer, it's always good to let people know what we do and how we do and how we're protecting the public health of the community, by checking on their living conditions, their environmental conditions, making sure they are safe, warm and dry and that they have safe places to be," he said.
At the unit he brought Rivers to, Jeff Stephens was looking into a residential complaint with conditions deemed to impair health and safety.
Once inside the property, Stephens was concerned that the chimneys from the stove were not well connected to the wall, possibly leaving off a great deal of carbon monoxide. Smoke and carbon monoxide detectors were present but not in working order. Many areas were cluttered with boxes and piled up junk.
"It's a dangerous unit," Stephens said. "There's no usable heat, there's no running water, there's no bathroom facilities. So now, I need to take immediate action in potentially relocating that tenant or finding a place for him to go, and putting that responsibility onto the owner to get it done."
If the owner does not fix the problems at the property in a reasonable amount of time, the city will take legal action, he said.
The job shadowing experience may have been a bit more than Rivers bargained for. She described it as "eye opening."
"I have a feeling she's learned she doesn't want to be a code enforcement officer," Jeff Stephens said following inspection.
"That is very true," Rivers admitted.
Bernie Stephens said only a handful of brave souls stepped forward to try out the program the first time around, but he believes more will be open to the idea if he's able to do it again. He said the feedback has been positive from those who have tried it.
Other pairings during the program included Marcia Ladd and Jean Murawski from the Fitchburg Public Library shadowing in the city clerk's office, and Brenda Fitzgerald from the Fire Department shadowing in the Housing Division.
Follow Alana Melanson at facebook.com/alanasentinel or on Twitter @alanamelanson.


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We've announced OSS v4.0rc2-build 172 for FreeBSD (x86 and amd64) and there are a number of bugs fixed with this version. Kindly try it out and report issues to email@example.com.
Specifically problems with AD198x HD codecs is fixed
Issues with ATI HDaudio controller fixed
Issues with STAC92xx codecs fixed
Playback and recording works pretty well. SPDIF hasn't been fully tested.
best regards
Dev mazumdar
Updated OSS drivers for HDaudio
OSS specific BSD discussion (FreeBSD/NetBSD/OpenBSD)
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President Obama is going to deliver the annual State of the Union address tonight, and if I were to make a wild guess, I'd say he'll declare the union strong. The economy may be troubled, perhaps the United States is facing challenges, but if history's any guide, the President will say the union is special, blessed by God, and strong, and there will be applause - no matter that it couldn't be less true.
Politically, the nation is split as dramatically as it was before the Civil War. The Republican/Democrat divide reflects almost exactly the borders of the old confederacy, and there's no sign of it shifting any time soon. And economically, we're as divided as can be.
Take our supposedly representative Congress. In a middle- and working-class nation, Congress is a gathering of millionaires, multimillionaires and billionaires. While working-class people are a majority of our labor force and 90 million people strong, they can't afford to run for office, and fewer and fewer rich people have ever held a working-class job. Duke University Professor Nicholas Carnes has found that since 1998, the average member of Congress has spent just 1.5 percent of his or her adult life doing any sort of service or manual labor.
Domestically, we're divided; go global and it's worse. In sharp contrast to the situation at his first State of the Union address four years ago, Pew Research reports that global approval of President Barack Obama's international policies has declined significantly since he first took office, along with overall confidence in him and attitudes toward the United States. "In nearly all countries surveyed," writes Pew, "there is considerable opposition to a major component of the Obama administration's anti-terrorism policy: drone strikes."
Yup, killing people via robot-in-the-sky, without trial or warning, is not only, as a New York Times headline put it recently, "hazardous" for US policy goals and America's global effectiveness, but also, as it turns out, for human life. Drones kill people and make others hate us. They're bad for our union with the world, and it's not just the drones, the entire war on terror has done a job on our world relations.
What might be good for our union? On Tuesday, if he really wanted to strengthen our union with the world, President Obama could ask Kathy Kelly to deliver his address for him.
Coordinator of Voices for Creative Nonviolence, Kelly is fresh back from her 12th trip to Afghanistan. As she trudged up the stairs where I live recently, I heard her breathing heavily. She's just getting over pneumonia, but my three-flight walk-up turns out to be nothing compared to Kelly's daily routine in working-class Kabul.
In our conversation, she described going to visit poor women who live high in the mountains outside the city, far from warmth and water, because the rent on a one-room hut on the cliffside is all they can afford.
"It's the culture," Kathy explained. "If somebody knocks at your door and asks for food or beverage, you give it to them. If that person's a Taliban who's appearing on a screen to somebody in Creech Air Force Base, Hancock Field or Whiteman Air Force Base, then you may very well be a subject of a night raid or worse - a weaponized drone could target your house."
Kelly has a friend who is still trying to explain to her 5-year-old son that a computer killed his father.
Kathy Kelly's union with the Afghan people is strong. How's ours? You don't get much of a sense that anyone cares in Congress. As Kelly reports, four hundred new refugees are displaced by the war in Afghanistan every day. One out of five children does not live beyond the age of 5; one out of every 11 women dies in childbirth. All of this is happening while the United States has spent $2 billion - two billion dollars per week - on the US military presence there.
Yet when Chuck Hagel was interviewed for confirmation to the post of secretary of defense, Afghanistan barely came up. In eight hours of hearings, there was no question from any Republican on the topic of Afghanistan, and the three from Democrats were all about the schedule for troop withdrawal and the future for America and Americans in the region.
To reach back into history again, contemporaneous with the Civil War, internationalism was being born. The first meeting of the International Workingmen's Association was held in London in 1864. Packed into a church hall, English, Italian, French, Irish, Polish and Germans pledged allegiance to one another and not to imperial wars. The First International meeting was followed by a Second in 1886, at which some socialists by then had the idea that an international organization of workers was the only thing that would help the working class of the world balance the growing power of global capitalism and finance.
How's the state of our union in those terms? I don't just mean our Pentagon's and the CIA's, I mean ours - yours and mine. What's the state of our union? What if every drone attack in Kabul provoked a response in Denver, and Delhi and DC? How would our union be then?


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Olson, Denver hold on to top Utah St. in OT 63-60
LOGAN, Utah (AP) -- Brett Olson scored 17 points, including three 3-pointers, and Denver defeated Utah State in overtime 63-60 on Thursday night.
Denver (16-8, 12-2 Western Athletic) had three other players score in double figures. Royce O'Neale had 14 points, Chase Hallam had 13 and Chris Udofia had 10. Hallam had two 3-pointers.
Denver won despite being outmuscled on the boards 36-19.
Utah State (17-6, 8-5) was led by Jarred Shaw, who scored 18 points and grabbed nine rebounds.
Spencer Butterfield scored 16 points and Ben Clifford scored 14.
Utah State shot seven 3-pointers, making only one. And the Aggies only converted 13 of 21 free throws.


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Submission + - The Psychology of Horror in Video Games and Movies
Hugh Pickens writes writes: Jamie Madigan writes in GamePro that psychologists and experts on fear are trying to understand why so many of gamers enjoy being terrified by horror-themed video games and movies. Researchers say some people are sensation-seekers attracted to any emotional high, be it from sky diving, shark-punching, or horror films while other personalities are drawn to situations showing the disruption of social norms in ways that will probably never happen in real life. But a more encompassing explanation of horror's inherent appeal is how it helps us master our fears. "Watching a horror film gives us back some control," says Dr. Andrew Weaver. "We can experience an adverse event through film, and we know that it will end. We'll survive it. We'll go on with our lives." Interestingly, horror only seems to work if the player or viewer knows that what they see is fake. In one famous experiment, researchers had subjects watch a movie featuring authentic scenes of live monkeys having their brains scooped out and of children-I kid you not-having their facial skin peeled away in preparation for surgery. "The vast majority of the study's participants refused to finish watching the films despite that more grotesque movies playing at the theater down the street could outdo those scenes," writes Madigan. "We seem to need to know it's fake."


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It may not be cooler yet, but dry season is here
October 26, 2012
The days may not seem all that cool just yet but the dry season is definitely here. I have already noticed potted plants becoming dry and needing to have more watering from m....
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text: The time shown on the top panel in my Sabayon 3.5 is almost always 4 hours ahead of the time that I have set (US Eastern time zone). I can reset it via System -> Adminstration -> Time and Date, but after the next boot it is wrong again. The configuration always goes to "manual" after I have changed it to "Keep synchronized with Internet servers". Does anybody know to solve this issue?


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I wish to see the federal government concentrate discretionary spending in three vital areas besides defense: education, infrastructure and research and development.
They are all job creators. On the other hand, we are stuck with entitlements. We have paid for them our entire working lives, and Americans are not about to give them up.
Nevertheless, there is fear in the medical community that additional cuts in Medicare will make it impossible for some medical practices to keep the doors open. There are also predictions that by the end of this decade, we will be short more than 90,000 physicians as a result of the Affordable Care Act.
In another development designed to more accurately reflect the growth of Social Security, a modification by the Bureau of Labor Statistics to apply math called chain-weighting will slow the climb in the Consumer Price Index. CPI is the most common measure of inflation and is used by the government to determine annual cost of living increases.
Those year-over-year changes are applicable to other government payouts, as well. Republicans are pushing this. It's not sleight of hand; gross domestic product has been measured that way for several years.
I wish kids were learning more in college. They need practical skills useful to employers, including the ability to write a literate sentence. Fewer Ph.D.s need to be teaching economics and business subjects. I think there is too much theory in these subjects at the introductory level, particularly economics.
There should be more faculty with practical experience, who know what students need in the real world.
In recent years, commentators have tended to denigrate the humanities. That is a mistake.
There is something essential and eminently attractive about a well-rounded student possessing a classic education.
Success in the classroom will open doors, and on-the-job training will provide the specific education a student needs to prosper in many career fields.
One place the federal and state governments can directly help create private-sector jobs is infrastructure spending.
Even our founders recognized the need for 'internal improvements' as a mechanism to facilitate growth.
Much more than make-work, adequate infrastructure is critical to economic development, whether it is spending on roads and bridges, airports, seaports or broadband.
Neglect in this critical area will lead to lagging productivity, missed opportunities and shrinking tax revenues.
According to R&D Magazine, research and development grants are 2.85 percent of GDP, but some economists would like to see that at 3 percent. That sounds insignificantly fractional, but in nominal dollar terms, that .015 percent difference is $650 million.
Do we want to hasten the day when cancer is conquered, when new technology and alternative energy rule and global warming is a thing of the past? Thousands of jobs and significant contributions to GDP can be positively affected by increased R&D spending. Only the U.S. government has the financial muscle to deliver the means corporate America cannot always provide in a market economy.
Tax reform is long overdue for action, and it must close loopholes and raise revenues at the federal, state and local levels without further increases in rates.
Consider that the five major expenditures of all governments are: health care, pensions, defense, education and welfare. Add in interest on debt, and that is 80 percent of spending.
Those interest payments are a potential Achilles heel at all government levels. They could double over time as interest rates move up.
In response to the bestial events of Sandy Hook, I wish to see carefully constructed, sound legislation on gun control that leaves law-abiding citizens the right to own sporting arms.
I would hope for a significant tax on firearms to provide more support for mental health issues.
I wish for a ban on assault weapons and their large-capacity clips.
I see these deadly rifles only as Rambo-style phallic symbols, designed for one purpose - to kill human beings.
I wish to see my Republican party rescued from the fringe, one which owns up to the necessity to embrace a moderate domestic agenda, a vigorous foreign policy and 21st-century reality while staying true to core values of holding down the growth of government and celebrating work ethic and individual initiative.
Russ Wigh is a professor of business. Email him at firstname.lastname@example.com.