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GARDNER — Grundy Community Volunteer Hospice will host its annual Drawdown fundraiser from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 3, 2012 at the Gardner American Legion Hall, according to Joan Sereno, executive director of Grundy Community Volunteer Hospice.
Tickets are $50 each and allows two people a casual dinner catered by Griller-N-The Gourmet, beverages, a live auction, a silent auction, drawdown prizes and games.
Proceeds will be used to continue hospice care in Grundy County.
The heart of Hospice is a concept of care that provides physical, social, emotional and spiritual support for terminally ill patients and their families. Hospice neither hastens nor postpones death; it affirms life and regards dying as a normal process.
The Grundy Community Volunteer Hospice started in 1985 and is one of three hospices left in the state of Illinois that is still run and operated solely by the passion and hard work of specially trained volunteers.
Grundy Community Volunteer Hospice is a non-profit organization that is funded solely by a United Way grant and donations.
The goal of Grundy Community Volunteer Hospice is to give its patients and families the best possible experience as they progress through their difficult time and to teach and assist the family and/or friends to care for the patient at home.
Grundy Community Volunteer Hospice is dedicated to providing services with a profound sense of love, compassion and understanding in which to experience the end of one's life.
GCVH recognizes that an individual with a terminal illness is a vital member of a family unit and cannot be cared for in isolation, apart from family and friends.
While the focus of concern is on the patient, supportive care is given to all members of the family who are an integral part of the hospice team.
Grundy Community Volunteer Hospice is located at 518 W. Illinois Ave., Morris. For more information, call (815) 942-8525, visit the website www.grundyhospice.org or send an email to email@example.com.


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Mesa, AZ: Lobby 101 Event - January 29, 2013
Dobson Ranch Library
Interested in sharpening your skills to help pass animal protection legislation? You don't have to be a professional lobbyist to be an important part of the legislative process.
The Humane Society of the United States invites our members, supporters, and other animal advocates to a special Lobby 101 seminar. Our presentation will cover all of the information you need to be an influential citizen advocate for animals. We'll show you basic, but effective, lobby techniques. You'll learn how a bill becomes a law, what influences a legislator, which animal-related bills and issues are being considered by the Arizona legislature, and what you can do to help.
Plus, you can put your skills to use and join humane advocates from all over the state for the Arizona State Humane Lobby Day in Phoenix, AZ on Wed, Feb 6, 2012.
RSVP today to become a successful citizen lobbyist and begin making a difference for animals in Arizona! Contact Kari Nienstedt at email@example.com if you have additional questions.
Tuesday, January 29, 2013
Time: 6:30 PM - 7:30 PM
Dobson Ranch Library (Main Meeting Room)
2425 S. Dobson Rd
Mesa, AZ 85202
We're sorry, the deadline for registering for this event has passed.
The Humane Society of the United States: Celebrating Animals, Confronting Cruelty

subset: commoncrawl


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It's probably impossible to pair two teams playing worse entering a first-round Stanley Cup Playoffs series than the Bruins and the Toronto Maple Leafs right now. Those two slumping teams will start their series Wednesday night at TD Garden.
The Bruins won just twice in their last nine games, and they failed to score more than two goals in any of those goals (minus an empty-net score in a win against Florida). Boston's penalty kill allowed nine goals over the last eight games of the season, and the power play has gone 4-for-30 in April.
Toronto won just twice in its last six games, a span that saw the Leafs outshot, 213-135. They were just 6-5-1 in their last 12. The Leafs haven't beaten the Bruins in Boston since March 31, 2011, and one of their best players, Phil Kessel, didn't record a point in four games against Boston this season.
Is it possible for both teams to lose?
Of course not, but this series is going to be like a boxing match between two guys strapped together with a bungee cord. The Bruins have owned the Leafs the last couple seasons, but we know how successful the Bruins have been the last two seasons at making life difficult for themselves and underestimating opponents.
What the Bruins have in experience, they lack in offensive firepower. What the Leafs lack in postseason experience, they make up for with grit.
You can't underestimate James Reimer in the Leafs' net any more than you had a right to overlook Braden Holtby in Washington's crease last spring. Both these teams know they'll get at least a little offense from their bigger stars, including Tyler Seguin, James van Riemsdyk, David Krejci and Kessel. This series might come down to secondary scoring if either club can get some. That could mean a clutch goal from someone like Chris Kelly or Mikhail Grabovski.
We've seen how solid defensive pairs – P.K. Subban & Josh Gorges in '11 and Karl Alzner and John Carlson in '12 – have shut down the Krejci, Milan Lucic, Nathan Horton line in the past. It'll be interesting to see if Carl Gunnarsson and Dion Phaneuf will do the same. Although the scoring stats don't show it, the Bruins have more depth this year and could juggle that line if the Leafs are gaining an edge. Remember, the Bruins could easily shift Jaromir Jagr, Seguin or Brad Marchand up the lineup if need be.
The same doubts about reliability fall on Johnny Boychuk and Andrew Ference. While Zdeno Chara and Dennis Seidenberg should be able to contain Kessel and his linemates, the Boychuk-Ference pair has looked less than 2011-caliber down the stretch of this season. It's not like Ference and Boychuk were unbeatable even in the '11 Cup run. Whatever combination of Nazem Kadri, Joffrey Lupul, Nikolai Kulemin and others make up the Leafs' second line could exploit the poor decision-making and lack of mobility on Boston's second pair.
In the special teams department, the Bruins' power play has continued on its historically horrid pace. There's no reason to believe that will change against the Leafs' second-ranked penalty kill. However, I don't expect Boston's late-season penalty-killing struggles to continue against the Leafs' 14th-ranked power play. Boston's penalty killers thrive when there's a lot on the line.
So I expect a long series, and we know there will be bodies piling up along the way. Injuries could play a role in this series, as could potential Game 1 healthy scratches Dougie Hamilton and Rich Peverley for Boston, and whoever sits out among Toronto's many candidates for its third pair on defense.
Typically a four seed vs. a fifth seed is a "pick 'em" series. The Bruins' pedigree has many decorating them as favorites. I would tend to agree.
So I begrudgingly pick the home team:
Bruins over Toronto in 7.


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Unless you're bedazzling it they're basically all the same.
No offense, but you're relly good at rationlization.
Sponsor note. I get a lot of emails from lawyers and guys with three letter acronym jobs, because it's the internet, where lawyers and blankEOs are everywhere. I assume some of you are big ballers. This Is Michigan, after all, the kind of school that spits out big ballers left and right, often from Ross. If you're one of those people who instantly zips to the end of any paragraph about ticket prices because it's just not relevant, I may have a watch for you.
I got lunch with Shashi Mara to talk about an advertising relationship and was impressed with the risk he was taking. He dumped a nice job for a pair of crampons he wandered around Switzerland in, finding wizened old men with amazing dexterity and inch-thick glasses to create an exclusive line of officially-licensed watches. He did this with absolutely no idea how it would work out, and still doesn't, but he was clearly thrilled just to have the things he'd set out to make. His attention to detail resonated with me, as did his desire to create something of his own.
If you're a big baller who has gravitated here, you may appreciate the similarities between what this place offers and the ethos behind MaraWatch. If you're at the point where you've rarely got opportunities to turn a number in a bank account into something you love, something you might get excited about handing down to the next generation in your family, a mutual accord to transfer numbers and goods awaits you at MaraWatch. Visit the site, email, or call (617-833-3819) to lock down one of just 50 pieces in this year's collection. You'll have to beat everyone to #16.
Bring it back man. MVictors scored some pictures from the old locker rooms painted by local artist Jil Gordon:
You can feel the Bo emanating from the walls.This one is from the hockey locker room:
Also, hello, I am six years old in a library.
Patrick Omameh a nice guy. He was one of 11 players on this year's Good Works team:
"I was in the room, and it was my first time meeting the kid," Kovacs said. "And then Patrick walks in. It's this kid's 13th birthday. And as soon as Pat walks in, this kid's face just lights up.
"It's just unreal, the spark in the room. It was a special moment."
Click through for awwww picture.
MSU injury checkup. Dion Sims is still not on the MSU depth chart, which generally means he won't play. I don't think we'll know until MSU's first offensive snap what his real status is; it seems doubtful he can return from what seems like a high ankle sprain in two weeks. In lieu of Sims MSU went with a lot of three-wide I-form against Iowa, FWIW.
Also, MSU starting safety Jarius Jones didn't dress against the Hawkeyes; guard Blake Treadwell only saw a snap when Chris McDonald's helmet popped off. Either could be available this week. Jones is listed as Lewis's backup; Treadwell is behind Jack Allen at LG.
Michigan is fully healthy save Countess and a couple backup DL, knock on wood.
Nebraskethockey. Corn Nation discusses the possibility of a Cornpack hockey team after an AP writer suggested it was going to happen:
After hearing Eichorst give nod to Mark Johnson, I predict#Huskers will play B1G hockey within next 6-8 years
Opinions are split down the middle. The situation at Nebraska is fairly attractive, though. Lincoln already has the USHL's Stars, who lead that league in attendance with a respectable 3,900 fans a game. They'd have a natural in-state rival in UNO, would get to join the Big Ten, are in the heart of USHL country, and could use the Stars' rink. A major gift has already been made for a couple of rinks near campus, and while those are not D-I ready a push from the athletic department could alter the course of that development. A new downtown arena has put in piping for ice facilities, as well.
If the Huskers became competitive—and if UNO can do it there's no reason UNL can't—they'd be an attendance success, I'm betting. We'll see what Eichorst wants to do—if he can find the money (and everyone has ALL THE MONEY these days) I bet he goes for it.
Lewan rising. Plz no leave think of the Jake Long?
Taylor Lewan*/T/Michigan: Lewan is the first of three offensive linemen rising up draft boards and an underclassman who continues to impress scouts. He looked outstanding in all areas against the athletic Illinois defense. His skills in pass protection were outstanding as Lewan had no problem controlling defensive ends or oncoming blitzers. Watching the big left tackle easily move down the field blocking in motion was especially impressive. There's a very good chance Lewan will be the first offensive tackle selected if he enters the 2013 NFL Draft.
Ah yup.
Levert right now? Rothstein on Caris Levert:
4. Expect at least one surprise
With this much talent on the roster, there is bound to be a surprise one way or another. So in that vein, pay attention in exhibition games to freshman Caris LeVert. His teammates raved about him during media day, and it did not sound like empty hype. Instead, it has been a consistent theme throughout the summer -- Michigan's final piece to its five-man recruiting class has a chance to be really, really good. He has already put weight on his thin frame since arriving at Michigan and while he might not make an immediate impact, he could be a surprise for the Wolverines sooner than later.
Zack Novak followed that up with a tweet: "I'll go ahead and ruin the surprise on 4. The kid can play." Michigan did essentially dump a ready-to-commit Amadeo Della Valle for Levert, and ADV ended up at OSU so they weren't tossing a scrub aside. Levert also won an Ohio player of the year award with a pretty nice track record:
JJHuddle Players of the Year
2012: Caris Levert, Pickerington Central (Ohio)
2011: Trey Burke, Northland (Michigan)
2010: Jared Sullinger, Northland (Ohio State)
2009: Jared Sullinger, Northland (Ohio State)
2008: William Buford, Toledo Libbey (Ohio State) & B.J. Mullens, Canal Winchester (Ohio State/Charlotte Bobcats)
2007: Jon Diebler, Upper Sandusky (Ohio State)
I'll take two, thanks.
Dumb punt of the week. BONUS: I reminded the Mathlete of the Dumb Punt of the Week, which I missed dearly, and he promised to revive it. Last week's—as in games on the sixth:
Midway through the first quarter Akron faced a daunting 4th and 3 from the Bowling Green 32 and elected to punt the ball away.
Special note goes to Randy Edsall who punted from the 48 on 4th and 2 trailing by 1 in the 4th quarter. They later went on to score and go up 5 with about 5 minutes left and then kicked the extra point, to protect against two Wake Forest field goals in the final 5 minutes. Of course Maryland missed the PAT.
These make me feel wonderful about Brady Hoke.
inigomontoya.jpg. Fuggin' Walverines:
In Ann Arbor now, f'ing hate these &$¥+&&. Such arrogant snobs
A-maize-ing. Every idiot is wearing their colors today and the nurses and docs that know I'm a huge MSU alum/fan are all consoling me over the weekends games.... They're all like. ... Well this weeks game will be close.... Blah blah blah... We're not that good.... Maxwell is the next Cousins...... Illinois is horrible.... Blah blah blah
The nerve.
[After the JUMP: Josh Furman's gonna kill that poor woman, Walter.]
Via Ace:
Etc.: Offensive checkup at the halfway point. Michigan's big round number wins. The stadium late at night. No one is sexing on the 50. 2001 outrage recapped. We Are ND vs OU Anthem: fight. Slippery Rock explained.
Unless you're bedazzling it they're basically all the same.
No offense, but you're relly good at rationlization.
I would never pay that much for something just to appreciate its artistic value. I agree that it's mainly about ego. It's like a subtler version of jewelry rappers buy.They buy it to show how rich they are.
People get all up about nice watches, but compared to what so many people spend money on, it's really not a bad investment.
People will spend 30k on a car, when a 20k car will do just fine. That's 10k (plus financing) on an item that you'll have for around 5 years. So for whatever luxury that 30k car has that the 20k car doesn't have, you're paying 2000 bucks per year. And that's not if you're buying a real luxury car, that's like a decked out Camry or Passat.
How much do you spend for your vacation every year? How about tickets to sporting events, Michigan or otherwise? Pretty easy to rack up a grand or two in a year that way.
Compare that to spending $1,500 on a watch. It's a very nice addition to your wardrobe that will last you almost forever. Many men keep nice watches for much of their lives. And you know it's not just about telling time, just like a car isn't just about transportation, a house isn't just about shelter and suit isn't just about covering your body. People like nice things, and watches are a very common one for men.
Yup. I've watched enough Suze Orman to know that if someone has 10 bucks in their pocket, they're going to spend all of it, and then go into debt another 90 bucks in order to buy some random useless thing that they're temporarily infatuated with.
I think Robert Kiyosaki says it best when describing the different classes. The poor basically work in order to cover their expenses. The middle class work in order to buy liabilities. The rich buy assets and let the assets work for them.
His argument is that assets produce net income; whereas liabilities produce net expenses. Therefore, even though you think of your fancy car or huge house as an asset, it really should be seen as a liability since it increases your expenses. On the other hand, an asset is something like a rental property, stocks, bonds or CD's that actually produce income.
It's a simple concept, but it really makes you think differently about someone who is so proud of a new car that they can't possibly afford or a house that's too big for their family.
Man, I hate to raise a minor quibble with this, it's just that your car analogy is a bit off. You're ignoring residual values and thus true cost to own. Luxury (BMW/Audi/Benz/Lexus) tend to have higher 5 year residuals (~50%) vs Ford/GM/Chrysler (~30%)
Source: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703735004574570194202741528.html
To make a comparison, a 2013 Ford Fusion SE 1.6L Turbo, FWD, Manual Trans is $25,290 on the Ford website, before any rebates, etc.
A 2013 BMW 328i 2.0L Turbo, RWD, Manual Trans is $36,200 on the BWM website, before any rebates, etc.
I didn't add any options to either vehicle. These are manual base models.
Going with the residuals above, and presuming no rebates on either (not entirely realistic, so let's pretend these are both cash purchases at MSRP, and scenario 2 where we knock $3k off the Ford for a typical rebate/incentive)
Fusion 1: [$25,290 * (1-.30)] / 5 = $17,700 / 5 = $3,540 / year
Fusion 2: [$22,290 * (1-.30)] / 5 = $15,600 / 5 = $3,120 / year
BMW: [$36,200 * (1-.50)] / 5 = $18,100 / 5 = $3,620 / year
Both cars claim 34mpg highway, so negating gas costs,(also ignoring insurance, though it's likely the BMW has a slightly higher premium) the BMW would only be $80 / year more to own over 5 years than the Fusion at MSRP, and $500 / year more than the Fusion with a 10% discount and 0% discount on the BMW. BMW also is 3yr/50k miles of free service (oil, windshield wipers, everything except tires). There's more variables we could discuss, etc, but the point is that I could make a case that a luxury care with a $11k higher price tag is actually both better (subjective) and cheaper (objective).
TL;DR - My post is wholly unnecessary but it's important to note that while cars are not assets, just because one has a higher sticker doesn't mean it's necessarily more expensive to own. Also, I like watches.
for whom dropping a few hundred bucks on dinner or a watch is about the same as the average joe giving buying a pack of gum.
Same with cars; the difference in price is meaningless and residual value is an afterthought. Not to take away from your point, which is well taken, just sayin...
People with 'f*** you money' yeah, they can do that. My point was more directed at WolvINLA asking why people buy a $30k car when a $20k car is 'sufficient'. I think it's important to note that appearances are a bit deceiving sometimes just on the sticker.
TL;DR - If your kid ever asks "Why do I have to learn math, when am I going to use this again?" The answer is "Every damn day."
The BMW will cost more to maintain once the free service is out. Pretty sure most BMW models require premium fuel and synthetic oil, too.
BMW and other high end vehicle brands started offering free oil changes for the firs few years because people were leasing them for 2 years and not doing any maintenance on them; i.e., they really couldn't afford to own the car and couldn't afford the oil changes, either.
What you're saying is true, but it's merely a result of the timing of the depreciation.
Say for example that I use your same numbers for Fusion1 and BMW.
Instead of buying it new, let's say I'm in the market for a 5-year old used car that I plan on using for another 5 years (and I will junk it after the car is ten years old with no remaining value).
5-yr old Fusion 1 = $7,587 (which is equal to 30% of the original MSRP of $25,290) / $1,517 per year.
5-yr old BMW = $18,100 (which is equal to 50% of the original MSRP of $36,200) / $3,620 per year.
As you can see, buying the used BMW will cost more than twice the cost of buying the used Fusion 1. $3,620 vs. $1,517 per year respectively.
Except that 10 year old BMW, in this case a 2002-2003 325i/330i still has a $7k-$12k value, so why are you junking it? Not sure why you're zeroing out the car's value after 10 years.
http://tinyurl.com/9u3tm3l (link to autotrader)
Obviously, I'm not trying to make a case that luxury cars are always cheaper or anything. My point was that, in response to saying "why buy a $30k car when a $20k car is the same" (provided you agree with the premise, I don't), that with minimal effort I found you could drive a BMW sedan for roughly the same as a Ford sedan under some circumstances, if you do math and consider the purchase. That was the point I was trying to make.
TL;DR - Distorting numbers isn't really fair duder.
Ford has accelerated depreciation as compared to BMW. Point taken. I was just pointing out the flip side that the accelerated depreciation allows for increased price divergence on the tail end of the vehicle's life.
When getting a car I could have gotten all the extras but then why not just get a better car that's not tricked out?
Maybe guys who spend $1,500 on a watch plan on keeping it their whole lives. I'm guessing those that are spending $10k aren't, because they'll be "out of style", and can't be caught wearing them. Just like a guy isn't going to buy a Lamborghini and plan on keeping it for 20 years, because a 20 year old sports car isn't cool, unless it's a collection of classics. Likewise they may kep that watch, but it'll be one of many.
And in the end, it's just a watch. What watch has ever been as much fun as a vacation or Michigan games? There's blogs talking about our Michigan Football experiences. Watch blog chat? Not so much. "Hey, like my watch? Yeah, nice. Sooooo...."
who buy both expensive cars and expensive watches. They aren't trying to impress. They like those things and it brings them joy.
People would say I'm crazy for spending so much money on Michigan sports. They don't think there is much value when I can watch it for free on TV. And maybe they're right that there isn't a great deal of "value". But I value things differently and monetary splurges aren't always practical, rational or logical.
Saying "see, look, box seats!" Seats at a Stadium are never called "bling." And while there are watch collectors, they don't make up a significant percentage of really expensive watch sales.
No doubt about it. Others buy for other reasons. I don't know the demographics of the buyers or watches/timepieces in general to say which is the greater proportion. All I do know is that I had the same opinion as you in the past and then I met people who actively buy these kind of watches. They do not buy them for bling or ego. When they talk about watches, their eyes light up like when I talk about football or cars. And for things you care about "value" is relative.
Maybe you're right and most people getting these are impractical show-offs or egomaniacs. However, I know enough people with them to not assume that in general.
"Bespoke" just means custom-made. Yes, custom-made requires more labor and it would be more expensive in America (since labor is expensive here), but it's not the case everywhere.
For example, for the same price of an off-the-rack suit in an American department store, you can get a bespoke suit in Hong Kong, which is tailored to match your exact size. You pick the wool, color, cut, etc. and they throw in an extra pair of suit pants (since that usually wears out faster).
In general, the real reason why a small retailer would choose to sell bespoke products is because they don't want to get stuck carrying inventory of products that they have no clue will sell.
Agree. But I wouldn't imply that Bahrain is equivalent to HK. HK is full of rich expats.
is if I get my pants cuff wound up in my bicycle.
It's funny because you're saying your bicycle would be doing the tailor work (i.e. ripping the hell out of your pants) AND the fact that bicycles have beSPOKES!
Anyway..That sh*t is funny!!! At this juncture in my life, I'm in the same boat.
for my sliver of the population
does that watch remind anyone else of the kind they used to advertise in airline magazines, place "your corporate logo" on the face? Not taken with it, myself.
I worked with him at [consulting firm name redacted]. Fantastic, upstanding guy that knows more than his shit. He's so smart, he knows YOUR shit, too.
after all the noise this blog made about the eye gouge, why is there silence over the cheapshot punch by #35 in the purdue game?
Not sure what you're referring to.
I'm just thinking with the limited editions (50 for the Game Changer, 12 for the Rain Maker, and 8 for the Risk Taker) the prices are going to get incredibly inflated. Market forces at work- good ol' supply and demand.
BTW- Rain Maker? They couldn't come up with something better than that? Sounds like it's the watch for the graduate who is a regular high tipping customer at his local Gentlemen's night club. Maybe more appropriate for a MSU wide reciever who has made it to the NFL.
So 50 total in any given year. As for "rain maker" that refers to the guy in the firn that brings in the heavy money. That watch is for some law firm or other company to reward their top earner who they know is a Michigan fan/alum.
Yeah - the term Rain Maker has long been used to describe someone in a company who brings in a lot of business, not about "makin' in rain" as you're suggesting.
I read the title as "Unverified Voracity Brings Back Dumb Pants." I was halfway through the thing before I realized there were no Michigan Zubaz pants. And, yes, I owned a pair in junior high.
with stainless steel and leather incorporated somehow and knocked a couple of zeroes off the price, he'd probably sell buckets of them. They wouldn't be bespoke, though.
my theory is that he saw 15 stepping up and thought "if i hit 15 into the returner, its not really hitting the returner, maybe this will cause some chaos." then 15 totally matadors Furman, who flies into the returner. you can kind of see furman brace for the earlier hit and never get it. i can't believe he was trying to do what he did.
I clicked the link to the MSU board and immediately regretted it.....
That could be a Swatch if the band was plastic. Not worth 10k, 1k....maybe...if you were drunk and just won 6 hands of blackjack in a row.
The watches are Swag for opening a $ 10,000,000 Swiss Bank Account.
Bunch of one percenters up in this place.
/ not politics
// just wanted to feel cool.
/// will see myself out
has like 7 of those timepieces.
"If you're one of those people who instantly zips to the end of any paragraph about ticket prices because it's just not relevant, I may have a watch for you"


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There has been a major change in a murder trial that was supposed to have begun in Bay County Circuit Court Monday.
Calvin Grubbs will still stand trial - but not for premeditated first degree murder.
Grubbs and two other men were charged in the September 2012 murder of Marc Logan.
Police say Logan was shot in the head when the men robbed him during a dice game at a home in Panama City.
Over the past weekend, prosecutors learned tests show Grubbs did not fire the shot that killed Logan. Now they now say it was Jabarus Pittman. That dramatic discovery also changed the terms of a plea deal Pittman had worked out with prosecutors,.
Now, Pittman entered a straight-up plea Monday to manslaughter with a firearm after ballistics tests in a murder trial scheduled for this week identified him as the actual killer.
Pittman, 17, of 1406 Joe Louis Lane, Apt. G, Calvin Grubbs and Raphael Morris on Sept. 17 attempted to rob Marc Logan and Anotonio Edwards at gunpoint. But the robbery attempt resulted in massive gunfire as Grubbs opened up with an AK-47 assault rifle, spraying bullets throughout the residential neighborhood.
Pittman attempted to run from the area and saw Edwards make a move toward him. Pittman fired a warning shot from his 380 semi-automatic handgun in Edward's direction as he was running. The bullet missed Edwards but hit Logan, 41, in the head and killed him.
Grubbs is scheduled for trial this week on charges of first-degree murder, robbery with a firearm and two counts of being a felon in possession of a firearm. It was originally thought that Logan was killed by a bullet from Grubbs' assault rifle, but ballistics tests performed recently in preparation for trial found that Logan was killed by Pittman's handgun.
Before the ballistics tests were done, Pittman entered a plea in November to robbery and agreed to testify truthfully if called to either of his co-defendant's trials. The plea put him in prison for seven years. But once the test results were discovered, Pittman was facing a new charge of manslaughter with a firearm.
He decided Monday to plead to the new charge, and an attempted robbery with a firearm, and agreed again to testify in Grubbs' trial this week.
Grubbs' charges were revised to reflect the new evidence. Instead of facing a charge of premeditated first-degree murder, Grubbs is charged with felony first-degree murder – meaning he was engaged in a robbery when someone involved was killed. The state doesn't have to prove that Grubbs intended to kill Logan, only that Logan died while Grubbs was attempting to rob him.
The penalty is the same, life in prison, if Grubbs is convicted of the charge. Pittman faces up to 35 years in prison and his penalty will be left to Circuit Judge Elijah Smiley to decide on April 15.
Testimony in Grubbs' trial is expected to begin Tuesday morning and go into Wednesday.


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Don Staley, who led the effort to bring football's Super 6 Championships to Tuscaloosa, submitted a letter of resignation to the Tuscaloosa Tourism and Sports Commission on Tuesday.
Don Staley, who led the effort to bring football's Super 6 Championships to Tuscaloosa, submitted a letter of resignation to the Tuscaloosa Tourism and Sports Commission on Tuesday.
Staley, the commission's executive director of sports, gave no reason in the letter for resigning but told The Tuscaloosa News in a phone interview that he has a job opportunity elsewhere. He declined to identify the job, saying the contract has not been signed. He said he would stay in the Southeast and that the new job would give him something that "I feel I can sell."
In the past few years, Staley was a leading advocate of a proposal to add more football, soccer and baseball fields and other amenities at Munny Sokol and Bowers parks in an effort to attract more sporting tournaments and their tourism dollars to the Tuscaloosa area. The parks improvement proposal at one time exceeded $20 million in improvements.
The parks are jointly funded by the city of Tuscaloosa and Tuscaloosa County. City officials generally favored adding new sports fields, but county officials generally wanted recreation funds spent throughout the county. Late last year, the city and county finally agreed to spend $7.5 million to upgrade existing facilities at the two parks but not build additional fields or facilities.
Asked Tuesday if the decision not to add more sporting facilities was a factor in his resignation, Staley said that was a difficult question to answer but then said there was a possibility that he would not have considered the job opportunity if the sporting fields expansion had been approved.
"Not getting the sporting complex is a disappointment ...," he said. "But I am a believer that when one door closes, another opens."
Staley, 55, has lived in Tuscaloosa for 21 years, coming here to start the women's soccer program at the University of Alabama, serving as the team's coach. He previously had coached soccer at Radford University in Virginia.
In 2007, he left coaching to become executive director of the newly formed Tuscaloosa Sports Foundation. The foundation's initial goal was to make a bid for the Super 6 Championships for high school football.
The championship games were being played at Birmingham's Legion Field, but a joint proposal from Tuscaloosa and Auburn brought the championships to those two cities' university stadiums in alternating years, with the campus not hosting the Iron Bowl getting the Super 6.
Four years ago, the sports foundation merged with the Tuscaloosa Convention and Visitors Bureau to form the Tuscaloosa Tourism and Sports Commission.
Susan West, the commission's CEO, said Staley would be missed.
"It will be huge shoes to fill in our organization," she said. "No one had more to do with bringing sports tourism to Tuscaloosa than Don Staley."
She said sports tourism unrelated to UA athletics has a $20 million yearly economic impact in Tuscaloosa with the city hosting more than 100 non-UA sporting events.
She said Staley "set the bar for us as we move to the next level."
She said the commission will now evaluate the executive director of sports position and then do a job search.
Mayor Walt Maddox said: "Working with Don has been an honor and a privilege. He has been a tireless public servant who has delivered big-time results for Tuscaloosa. Clearly, his work has made our community a much better place."
In his resignation letter, which was sent to West and the commission's board, Staley asked to meet with the commission's executive committee to discuss his exit plans.
In the letter, he thanked the founding members of the sports foundation, Walt Maddox, the City Council and Gina Simpson, the commission president during the time Staley served as the commission's interim president.
"This was not a rash decision on my part, but something that I have been pondering for some time," he wrote. "However, in sports as in life, things change and it's time for a new chapter in my life."


text:
California Native Plant & Wildflower Hike - Laguna Coast Wilderness Park
Laguna Canyon Foundation
Saturday, January 12, 2013 from 9:00 AM to 12:00 PM (PST)
Laguna Beach, CA
Contact the Host
When & Where
James Dilley Greenbelt Preserve
on HWY 133 .25 miles north of Toll Road (73)
Laguna Beach,
Saturday, January 12, 2013 from 9:00 AM to 12:00 PM (PST)
Add to my calendar
Laguna Canyon Foundation
Laguna Canyon Foundation is a nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving, protecting, enhancing, and promoting the South Coast Wilderness area.
This 22,000-acre area of includes Laguna Coast and Aliso and Wood Canyons Wilderness Parks, Crystal Cove State Park, and the City of Irvine Open Space Preserve. We work to Keep It Wild!


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picky cook is not vegetarian food - it's real food that is vegetarian
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crispy chocolate toffee oatmeal cookies
i love the idea of using rice krispies in a cookie. i have adapted the recipe a bit by adding toffee and cinnamon but i think the rice krispies are what make them special. the cookie itself is crisp but the middle is still chewy. the toffee melts the perfect amount to be chewy but still hold that toffee texture i love. ever since i made
crispy salted oatmeal white chocolate cookies
i have been adding a sprinkling of fleur de sel to the tops of most cookies i make. i love the slightly salty bit it gives.
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the baked brownie with cream cheese swirl
i get why people love these brownies and i am sure they are equally fabulous on their own but i am telling you they are a little slice of heaven when marbled with a cream cheese swirl. i upped the amount of espresso powder and decreased the sugar by a bit because i do that in most recipes. both adaptations worked really well and i think they enhanced the deep chocolate flavor in these brownies.
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carrot cake sandwich cookies with cream cheese frosting filling
these carrot cake cookies almost converted me from a pumpkin lover to a carrot cake lover. yes, they are that good. the cookie itself is soft and moist - yet strong enough to hold up as a sandwich cookie. i added more spice to the mix because that is how i roll. i think it is a major improvement over the original recipe. i usually could leave the frosting out of the equation but in this case - the frosting makes these cookies. the cookie itself is not very sweet and the creamy sweetness of the cream cheese frosting balances out the cookie with the perfect amount of sweetness to compliment the spices in the cookie. these carrot cake cookies would be the perfect picnic or backyard barbecue dessert.
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soft polenta with grilled vegetables
these grilled vegetables are flavored by a few simple ingredients - grill seasoning, lemon juice and olive oil. i also grill some lemon wedges to squeeze over the top of the dish. if you have never grilled a lemon - do so right now. the juices develop & the smoky flavor from the grill is amazing. the polenta is soft & creamy and flavored with garlic and shallots. i add a bit of cream and butter to the end to give it an extra bit of creaminess.
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sweet & salty cake
this cake met every expectation i had and then some. i used a different recipe for the cake because i have one i love and the baked recipe makes a three layer cake which i thought was overkill. i made everything else from the baked recipe. this was not an easy cake for me to make as i seem to be cursed when it comes to caramel but it was worth all the effort. the balance of the sweet & salty flavors is perfection. the cake itself is pure decadence but with fleur de sel and caramel it puts it into a whole other world.
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parmesan crash potatoes
these potatoes are my new favorite way to make potatoes. by boiling them on the stove and then "crashing" and baking them with olive oil creates an incredibly crispy crust on the outside. the parmesan adds that buttery & nutty flavor that puts this preparation of potatoes at the top of my list.
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malted guinness milk chocolate ice cream with whoppers
i am sure this recipe is fantastic without my additions but if you are a fan of malts, guinness, chocolate & whoppers you must try it with these additions. the espresso flavor isn't in the forefront rather it enhances the chocolate. the whoppers add the crunch and texture that makes this recipe reminiscent of ben & jerry's ice cream concoctions. it is simply wonderful.
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parmesan roasted asparagus
i am a bit surprised that i haven't posted this recipe before today. this is my go - to vegetable side dish. i love asparagus and when i start seeing the good asparagus at the market in the spring i get giddy. these parmesan roasted asparagus take minutes to prepare and the oven does the rest of the work for you. all you need is some olive oil, salt & pepper to go to work with the asparagus in the oven. you could stop there and they would be incredible but add some parmesan and lemon - look out. it really is a combination of flavors you will go back to time and time again.
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carrot cake pancakes with cinnamon honey butter
these carrot cake pancakes - oh dear god - they will blow your mind! when i first saw the recipe i knew i had to try it because of alex's great love of carrot cake but i honestly wasn't expecting much. i was blown away. all the spices, orange zest and carrots provide the sweet & spicy flavors that make these pancakes of another world. toasted walnuts and the grated carrots provide wonderful texture to the light and fluffy pancakes. the cinnamon honey butter to slather on top was equally incredible. these would be perfect for breakfast for dinner or a lazy weekend breakfast.
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Reviewed By Matej A (LOS ANGELES, CA) Reviewed for a 2008 Lexus IS 250 —2/21/2016 3:54 PM
The pads were easy to install, and delivered on time. The brake dust is minimal, very minimal indeed. The feel of braking is not hard and aggressive. It's pretty soft, meaning gentle grab that stops my car. It does maybe take a little longer distance to actually stop, but maybe also because they had been in use for about a week only.


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More companies are hiring scribes to ramp up 'content plays'
Target audience: Journalists, brand managers, SEO specialists, PR and marketing pros, business executives, entrepreneurs, nonprofits, educators, Web publishers.
Afunny thing is happening to a lot of journalists I know: They're bailing on Big-J journalism.
But while many are leaving the profession of journalism, they're taking their craft with them. Faced with the Incredible Shrinking Business Models of the old media economy, journalists have begun taking their storytelling skills to the business world, particularly tech.
Companies are snapping up journalists left and right. Today every company is a media company — and who better to tell these companies' stories than journalists trained in the art of storytelling? Continue reading


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Since 2009, Central Methodist University has partnered with North Central Missouri College to offer fully accredited degree completion programs at the NCMC campus in Trenton.
CMU's College of Graduate and Extended Studies emphasizes convenience, quality evening and online classes, and affordable tuition. Financial aid is available for degree-seeking students who qualify. Staff are anxious to help students enroll in our transfer-friendly programs.
Classes are kept small with individual attention from professors. CMU offers many different majors, including several available entirely online. Non-degree students can choose classes for professional enrichment or personal growth.
Contact Information
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660-248-6378 or 573-447-3311
Responsibilities: create course schedules and calendars, hiring, evaluations, budgeting, assisting faculty, advising students, answering questions about CMU programs, general oversight
Aimee Sage
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Responsibilities: general Admissions, application and registration information, and student advising.


text:
Concrete is actually a pretty good insulator. It's the Heat of Fusion that's screwing you over. Imagine dumping your entire tank of liquid propane across the sidewalk and lighting it on fire. It'd burn for a couple of minutes and make the ice slick, but certainly not melt it all.
Salt is really the quickest means of disposing of frozen water. And it's pretty energy-efficient. It just doesn't do the environment much good.
We must have ruskies working for the MBTA then.
Snowzilla [boston.com] has been in use for years.
Heard about a guy who used primacord to shovel his sidewalks.
1) Run a length down the middle of the sidewalk.
2) Set it off. WHACK!
3) Result: Clean walk and two piles of snow beside it.
4) Profit?
5) Try to explain this to the BATF(E) and DHS.
6) Collect a free Club Gitmo T-shirt.
Haven't tried this myself yet, so can't tell you whether/how well it actually works.
Probably won't,either, since the Supreme Court seems unlikely to extend District of Columbia v. Helle
Penn State also was pretty good about having the steam pipes follow walking pathways/sidewalks. Every once in a while, there'd be a grate in the sidewalk pouring out heat. Pretty cool when you're too broke to buy proper winter clothes...
When I lived in NJ, I install a solar water heating system on the roof of the home, I had it build during the summer when I was rebuilding my home, slight a bit OVER-SIZED and it worked well. One trick that I added to the system was simple, I had an engineer figure out how to plumb the stairs, sidewalk, driveway and used the solar heated water to warm things a bit.
Well it worked rather well, all I had to do was to flick a switch in the morning, the sidewalk would get a slightly warmer, when the snow fell i
Didn't you have any problems dealing with the melt water? I would think that the water would just re-freeze when it runs off the heated part.
Didn't you have any problems dealing with the melt water? I would think that the water would just re-freeze when it runs off the heated part.
Since we just had a major snowfall in the Chicago area, I'd just point out that I have piles of snow next to my driveway that are at their highest almost 6ft tall from clearing the driveway and sidewalks. It's not possible to clear the driveway of snow and ice completely, due it not being perfectly flat.
I cleared the driveway down to about 1/2 an inch of snow, and spread salt on it.
My driveway is now dry - not covered in either ice or salt water - there is a dry salt residue on it.
The water didn't run off,
When the snow melts, the contaminants are going to go into the river anyway, so why does it make sense to ban dumping the snow in the river?
Anyway, in my thermodynamics class back in college, one problem we were given was to calculate how much energy it would take to melt all the snow across the campus. The thermodynamics does not work to the advantage of economically getting rid of the snow using flamethrowers.
In most cities, when the snow on streets/sidewalks melts, the water and contaminants don't go into the river, but go into sewage where it's filtered and otherwise treated before reaching the river.
Actually, in most cities the storm drains aren't connected to the sewage system, they're separate pipes that usually drain unfiltered to a nearby body of water like a river.
While the desire to keep pollutants out of the waterways is a noble one, storm drains in Boston empty directly into the harbor, or Charles River (which empties into the harbor). The drains are even labeled with warnings about this.
The whole "we don't want to pollute the harbor" line people hear from the city every winter makes sense until you realize that the pollutant-filled runoff is going to end up in the harbor anyway.
When the snow melts, the contaminants are going to go into the river anyway, so why does it make sense to ban dumping the snow in the river?
Imagine you're a fish in that river, then ask yourself whether you'd rather want a few weeks of melt-water filtered through the ground seeping into the river, or tonnes of snow dumped on top of you.
From a more human point of view, there's also the possibility of snow causing blockage. If the river is cold, the snow won't melt immediately, and can cause ice floes.
In my thermodynamics class back in college, one problem we were given was to calculate how much energy it would take to melt all the snow across the campus.
One of the things that always boggles me about winter is that there is no addition of cold in any meaningful way, negative thermal energy not really existing; the world (well, hemisphere) gets substantially colder because it continues losing heat at the same rate it does in summer, but now it's not being replaced by the sun. All of those huge waves of warm and cold air that we live or die by are inefficiencies in heat getting from the ground (or anywhere else it's absorbed) to space.
Makes the world, and hu
I'm not sure what we will do if another 12" falls.
Although gasoline and flamethrowers would just lead to fires, I've wondered what a 100K BTU industrial propane heater would do. (Picture below.) Has anyone tried this?
http://www.globalindustrial.com/p/hvac/heaters/kerosene-propane/propane-heater-forced-air-50000-btu?utm_source=nextag&utm_medium=shp&utm_campaign=Propane-Kerosene-nextag&utm_term=245995&infoParam.campaignId=WI [globalindustrial.com]
Unless you get out there and start pointing this thing all over the place, it'll melt a nice straight line somewhere.
And, you said 100k, but this is 50k. Was there a 100k model somewhere?
Now if there was an oscillating version!
Simple... The snow melts, the water flows a few feet out of the path of the heater, and freezes solid, exposing you to potential liability if someone slips and breaks their hip.
"...if someone slips and breaks their hip."
Use the flame thrower on them before they sue. With a broken hip, it's not like they can run away.
CT Homes have 4-5ft deep piles.
I'm not sure what we will do if another 12" falls.
As someone who grew up in an area that managed not to call 2 feet of snow a national emergency (which is about all it takes to create 5' piles), you take the new snow and throw it on top of the pile. Or, if necessary, you make the base of the pile bigger. If really and absolutely necessary, you pile the new snow into a sled and pull the sled into the middle of the lawn and dump it there. Sometimes the answer to a difficult problem really is just to work a bit harder. Sad but true.
How do we deal with snow that is regularly more than the "snowpocalypse" currently in rest of the country? We have "snow plows" and "snow blowers". You may have heard of them. They push the snow out of the way and pile it up out of the way. It all mel
OT: I've noticed a lot of people using this word "whinging" lately. Is it an intentional misspelling of "whining"? Why is it so popular?
I picked this up from my Brit friends and like it better than "whining"
100k BTU/Hour = 105400000 Joule/hour
105400000 Joule/hour / 333550 Joule/kg = 316 kg/hour
316 kg/hour * 1.04 liter/kg = 0.33 m^3/hour
assume a uniform thickness of 0.25 cm for the ice and a width of 3 m for the sidewalk; that's 0.0075 m^3 of ice per meter of length.
0.33 m^3/hour / 0.0075 m^3/m = 43.8 m/hour.
That heater would take an hour to clear a tenth of an inch of ice from in front of one building.
New snow has a density typically about 10% that of water, so a tenth of an inch of ice would be about one inch
I've wondered what a 100K BTU industrial propane heater would do.
The water equivalent of the recent snow in Chicago was reported to be 1.5"+/-, that's about 7.8 lbs / sq ft.
It takes about 144 btus to melt a pound of snow, if you assume 32F ice and 32F water.(the current temprature is about 20F and you need more than 32F water to keep it melted, but I'll ignore that.)
So, if I did my math correctly, you would clear only about 90 sq ft per hour with a 100,000 buth heater. (It's btu/hr, not btu. Sorry for the pedantry, but it bugs me when people drop the "h")
That's not v
But you aren't adding any more heat to the system as the sun is already hitting the snow; you are just making it warmer on one place and colder in other places. You also risk having the melted snow refreezing as ice once you move the deathray to another location. I wonder if there are inexpensive ways to change the albedo of snow, like sprinkling soot on the snow that would help in addition to salting it to lower the melting point.
I wonder if there are inexpensive ways to change the albedo of snow, like sprinkling soot on the snow that would help in addition to salting it to lower the melting point.
On a small scale, yes. My parents (living in Maine) use a woodstove to heat the house. They use the ashes to melt the ice at the base of the front steps.
You would need a lot of ash to make a dent on a snowbank though. And that much ash is a huge mess in the springtime.
You're modded funny, but sometimes reality is unrealistic:
"The Engineers teamed up with more than 1,000 District of Columbia employees to clear the inaugural parade route. Luckily much equipment and some men had been pre-positioned and were ready to go. In the end the task force employed hundreds of dump trucks, front-end loaders, sanders, plows, rotaries, and flamethrowers to clear the way."
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/capitalweathergang/2009/01/inauguration_weather_the_case.html [washingtonpost.com]
I remember reading about that, but I don't remember which president it was for...
That's right..you don't.
The Secret Service
136 tonnes (metric, likely) of snow times 333.55 joules/kg to melt it is 45.3 GJ/hr
a gallon of gasoline gives about 125k BTU per gallon, which at 1054 j/BTU is 132 MJ/gal.
45.4 GJ/hr / 132 MJ/gal = 344 gallons per hour of gasoline.
How big is 136 tonnes?
Well, if one lane of a road is 10 feet wide, and the snow is 1/10th the density of water (which is typical for new snow on the ground), a foot of snow is 0.28 m^3 per linear foot and that weighs about 28 kg. 136 tonnes would then cover 136000/28 = 4850 linear
Hauling the snow away also burns fuel. I imagine in some places the snow melters might actually be more efficient.
Correct. Melting can be more efficient than hauling the snow somewhere in a truck. Also, snow removed from parking lots and roads isn't exactly clean. It is full of trash and pollutants. The snow-melting rigs will filter the water before discharging it.
What does it take to melt one kilogram of snow vs shovel it up and truck it away? The latent heat of fusion of ice is 335 kJ/kg. So what does it take to truck it away? This would depend in part on the packing density of the snow.
And don't forget the teamsters wages for plow/truck drivers vs the Flame Thrower Local contract terms.
Most snow melters work at very high thermal efficiencies (90 - 98%). Typically, one ton of snow requires 1.5 US gallon of diesel to melt. Remember, snow is not ice -- it's far less dense.
http://www.snowmelter.com/en/snowmelters_faq.php [snowmelter.com]
Snow melters can melt anything from 20 to 5000 tons of snow/hour, depending on their design capacity. Airports already use this technology extensively -- it's nothing new.
http://www.snowmelter.com/en/clients.php [snowmelter.com]
Oops I meant 500 tons/hr, not 5000.
Check this supersonic fantasy machine: http://www.paleofuture.com/blog/2010/12/16/the-sno-melter-1960.html [paleofuture.com]
Not really melting the snow, though it does do that a bit. It's mostly used like a humongous leafblower to simply move the snow.
Most major northern airports have snow melters that do exactly that, melt snow. They work pretty well. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNERNVAlAMo [youtube.com]
Of course, we can't have our railways held hostage by snow either, in that case, they just strap a jet engine onto a rail care and melt snow that way. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5OrCCGV6hg&feature=related [youtube.com]
Where there is a problem, we'll find a solution!
So, they can't dump it into the river because of contaminants, but instead they'll wait for it to melt and wash into the river?
Am I missing something here?
the russians don't mess around when it comes to snow removal. they take a klimov vk-1 jet engine from a mig-15 and strap it on a truck, amongst other eyebrow raising configurations:
http://www.darkroastedblend.com/2009/08/jet-engines-on-trucks-for-fun-and.html [darkroastedblend.com]
i think i would step a little livelier if i saw a snow plow like that coming at me down the street
Something about letters from that era that are just so simply elegant. I love reading letters from that time.
The night before John F. Kennedy's inauguration in 1961, a snowstorm dumped 8 inches of snow on Washington DC. The Army Corps of Engineers worked franticly, using flamethrowers to clear the streets. Click here [washingtonpost.com] for the full story.
So, federal law prevents them from dumping the "contaminated" snow in the Charles river, or the harbor. What I would like to know is this: where do they think all that snow is going to go if it melts on its own?
He needs to make sure these "Engineers" are properly licensed.
Or else he would have had to write another letter.
While it sounds funny, when I actually read it my thought was "he seems like a reasonable man."
He saw something happening, used his past observations to predict a likely outcome if no action was taken, realized this outcome would be dangerous to the people he was sworn to protect, and then asked people who are smarter than he is what he should do to prevent or reduce the bad outcome.
He gave them some ideas that he had come up with and asked if they were worth investigating. While they may have been silly ideas, at least he had the common sense to ask smarter people for help figuring out what to do instead of just pursuing whatever boneheaded idea he came up with. Does anyone remember the recent "possums released into NYC to deal with rats" story?
I think we could use more public officials like this guy.
This a new low, even for slashdot. I know stories are late here, but 1948???
Next on slashdot, an article about how scientists are developing this interesting electronic device called a "computer" and how it will revolutionize the world.
A consultant is a person who borrows your watch, tells you what time it is, pockets the watch, and sends you a bill for it.


text:
SCARSDALE, N.Y. – There will be an extended lane closure on the northbound Bronx River Parkway this week, as work continues on the Crane Road Bridge Project on Thursday and Friday.
From 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on each day, the right lane of the parkway will be closed between Harney Road (Exit 10) and Crane Road (Exit 12) while workers survey the location.
Motorists are advised to find alternative routes to avoid delays during the work. For more information, contact the county Department of Public Works and Transportation at 914-995-2555.
Click here to sign up for Daily Voice's free daily emails and news alerts.


text:
Enhancing the Efficacy of Lecturers in Educating Student Cohorts Consisting of Culturally Diverse Groups in a Medical University
Lecturers exert a potent influence over the achievement of all students, low-income culturally diverse students in particular. Although recent research has confirmed that lecturer involvement is critical for promoting academic engagement of low-income and ethnically diverse students in America and other countries, other literature suggests that lecturers have lower expectations for and fewer interactions with these students. These findings have prompted calls for promoting lecturers self-efficacy for working with students from diverse backgrounds, especially in a country like Malaysia, where there is a coexistence of students of various ethnic diverse groups, such as Chinese, Malays and Indians. The purposes of this article are (a) to summarize briefly the literature that examines the effect of lecturers efficacy on academic and behavioral outcomes of students, especially culturally diverse students; (b) to disseminate the findings of a lecturer-training program designed to promote lecturer efficacy in relation to culturally diverse students; and (c) to provide lecturers, administrators, and lecturer trainers with methods to increase lecturer efficacy when working with culturally diverse learners.
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.5539/ies.v3n2p161
Copyright (c) 2010 Srikumar Chakravarthi, Nagaraja Haleagrahara, John Paul Judson
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by Nicole Duciaume, Regional Sponsorship Coordinator, Americas Regional Office, and Ron Wolfe, Business Development Specialist
Turmalina, an agricultural area in the northeastern part of Minas Gerais, Brazil, is the site of ChildFund's second pilot project using netbooks.
We are preparing our local partner staff and volunteers to hold small community events where youth, children and infants with their caregivers will be invited to participate in educational activities. We'll also be attending to various child sponsorship activities such as enrolling children in programs, helping them write letters to sponsors and updating child photos. The goal is to join our educational programming and child sponsorship efforts so that they are more efficient and engaging. To plan these events, we have used netbooks to train staff and young volunteers.
Thais, 16, Roberta, 16, and Nathany, 15, gather nervously to discuss the upcoming community activities. They are all members of the local youth group but have not held leadership positions. Soon they will stand before 25 of their peers for one hour and lead group discussions, activities and workgroups. They are evolving from participants into leaders.
We chatted briefly with the trio, who preferred to give their collective feedback on the training and their expectations for the days ahead.
Did you enjoy training on the netbooks?
Yes! They are so cool. They are so small and we loved learning on them. We have done trainings before, but never like this. We love it. We have a small computer lab, but they are all old and some are broken. There aren't enough for us to use so we mostly don't know much about the computers at all. But these were so fun. We moved things all around, followed the training and learned a lot. We can use these in so many different ways.
What opportunities will you gain from this experience (past training and future activity leadership)?
Courage. We will conquer our fears of public speaking and be leaders. We will know how to interact with our peers, prepare presentations and have a better understanding of our friends' feelings about our community.
There are so few opportunities for youth in our community to meet, discuss important things and even lead these discussions. This is a great opportunity for us individually and as a group. We will speak up and be heard.
What are your concerns?
We are nervous about standing up in front of our friends and other youth. We often discuss things with our friends in small groups, but never in front of 20 or more people. What if we say the wrong things? What if our friends laugh at us? What if no one shows up to the activity? What if they do not like we do? We are nervous. But we are also excited. We think it will get easier the more we do.
The lesson plans you selected are about how education is important in making healthy life decisions and about setting future goals. What other topics do you think would be important or interesting to discuss among the youth?
There are lots of topics that we don't usually have the opportunity to talk about among ourselves in an informed way. Important topics would be drugs, environment, healthy bodies, violence and so many others.
Sometimes we have adults who will talk to us about these things, but sometimes it is hard to be honest with them because we are not comfortable telling them our personal thoughts or experiences. Sometimes we just get too nervous and never say anything at all.
And then sometimes we talk about these things among ourselves, but we don't always have the right information we need or don't know how to say things.
So it would be good to have the right information that we can talk about in these activities like we are doing next week. In the future, we can lead discussions and activities on these different kinds of topics. Or other youth can lead and we can participate. It will be good either way.


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GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. (KKCO)-- Yet again, the Montrose Indians aren't a 'look-over' team in the SWL for any opponent.
Todd Casebier's Indians are second in Class 4A in rushing and Angelo Youngren leads the SWL with more than 1,000 yards on the ground this season.
It hasn't been the easiest of non-league play for the Indians, though. The red and white are 3-3 as they head into league play against Fruita Monument on Friday night.
"Our guys are excited to play in Stocker [Stadium," Casebier said during a phone conversation with KKCO 11 Sports on Wednesday.
"I like our chances ... we know we're going to have to play well and hopefully we can do that," he added.
Fruita is on a two game win streak to start league play. The Wildcats are 3-4 overall this year.


text:
But if you are not the sharpest video editor in the drawer, then how do you work it? Here's how I learned to use Animoto and Audacity. Super simple. With Screenshots.
This appears super-easy! Follow these steps to create a 30 second video using free resources in an hour, says the author.
What could you make a video about? Here are a few ideas:
- Welcome video
- One of your stories whittled down to a 30 second visual story
- A customer testimonial
- A product story
Looks like I found what I'll be doing this weekend! Let me know how these worked for you.


text:
DeKALB – The makeup of the next DeKalb City Council is starting to emerge as leaders discuss their plans for the April election.
At least three people have declared their intent to run for the three alderman positions available on the council. The city clerk and mayor positions, plus three of the seven aldermen seats, are up for election in April. Candidates can submit their petitions from Monday until 5 p.m. Dec. 26.
Bill Finucane, the manager of transportation services at Northern Illinois University, said he is running in the 2nd Ward, while incumbent Dave Baker said he will seek re-election in the 6th Ward. Robert Snow, who owns Parkside Bed & Breakfast at 203 E. Roosevelt St. and is a former assistant to the dean of NIU College of Law, is running for the 4th Ward seat.
Meanwhile, several current officials have said they are not seeking re-election, including Mayor Kris Povlsen, 2nd Ward Alderman Tom Teresinski, 4th Ward Alderman Brendon Gallagher and City Clerk Diane Wright.
Baker expects to feel their absences.
"I guess the best thing about a City Council is the diversity of experiences everyone can bring to that council when it comes to making new laws and setting policies," Baker said. "I think with the specialized experiences of the people [who are leaving], it could lead to a gap of background."
Public safety is one of Baker's key issues, which he described as being "paramount to the future of our community." In addition to having spent 12 years on the City Council, Baker has served with the DeKalb County Sheriff's Auxiliary for 10 years.
The environment and mass transit were key issues for Finucane. He said with the city growing as it is, there needs to some kind of coordination between NIU's Huskie Bus System and the Voluntary Action Center's TransVAC system. He added that public transportation can help the lower-income residents get from their homes to their jobs.
"With my background in transportation and environmental, we can make the city a little more sustainable," Finucane said. "With the gap between the university and the city, we can repair some of that and bring that back together."
Snow declined to comment on his key issues, but he said his motivation to run came out of his love for the city where he was born and raised.
"I have an interest in seeing the city run efficiently and I have a background to see it through," Snow said.
Povlsen said serving in a local government can be a rewarding experience, but would-be candidates need to be aware of the criticism that comes with it.
"They need to be sure they can make decisions based on what's best for whatever they're serving and not be concerned about losing friends, making people upset or being criticized," Povlsen said.


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March 26, 2012
By Diana Guevara
It is an ongoing debate: should birth control pills be covered by insurance or not?
Some women are resorting to desperate measures just to get birth control despite the health risks, according to a recent study.
With the current state of healthcare, a new study by the American Journal of Public Health says more Latinas are crossing the border for birth control.
In Mexico, birth control is cheaper and more easily accessible since it is sold over the counter.
The study also says that undocumented immigrants are also following the trend and buying birth control on the black market.
Dr. Jorge Galdamez with the San Ysidro Health Center says though he can understand the desperation, these women are taking a huge health risk.
He says using the wrong form of birth control can lead to an increased risk of heart disease and if used inappropriately, even a stroke.
"These medications are not necessarily safe. They need to be discussed with a primary care doctor or a physician because they come with their own side effects and they come with their own interactions and they might not be the right medication for the patient," Said Dr. Galdamez.
But there are some agencies that can help you find the right form of birth control.
Planned Parenthood offers affordable alternatives to all women regardless of your personal situation and even if you don't have insurance.
Source: NBC San Diego


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HARRISBURG - A fuller picture of what it means to tackle state transportation issues in a comprehensive manner is emerging with the ink scarcely dry on the new $2.3 billion transportation funding law.
Plans are under way to slate work on projects to replace structurally deficient bridges, make driving conditions safer and improve the flow of traffic, state Transportation Secretary Barry Schoch said in an interview with reporters last week.
"You can expect to see a significant increase in bridge work, paving work and intersection work starting this spring," he said.
This will be the most visible sign of a $320 million infusion of new state transportation revenue in 2014, an increase that will build up to $2.3 billion in additional spending by the fifth year, according to the transportation department.
The money will be spent on state roads and bridges, local roads and bridges, public transit, low-volume rural roads, some turnpike projects and rail lines, airports and ports.
The revenue will come by gradually lifting the cap on a state wholesale tax on gasoline over five years, thereby leading to higher prices for gasoline, and increases in some motorist fees and fines.
The initial spending will focus on shoring up a crumbling transportation network that shows the effects of a "decade of under-investment," said Schoch.
For example, road work will focus on making pavement less bumpy and more skid-resistant.
The weight limit signs posted on hundreds of structurally deficient bridges won't come down anytime soon. In many cases, these bridges have been posted to extend their lifespan and slow further deterioration from the rumble of heavy vehicles.
That means the earliest weight restrictions would be lifted on a specific bridge is at the two-year mark ahead of the start of a repair or rebuilding project, said Schoch.
Replacement work could be accelerated for some bridges that come under the aegis of a new public-private partnership program for transportation projects. A state board was created earlier this year to consider proposals from private firms to replace selected bridges and then maintain them. The companies would get an up-front payment from the state and then use their own methods to shorten the construction timetable.
The full scope of the new program becomes more apparent when one considers the $40 million in state grant money that will be available by fiscal 2016-17 to upgrade traffic signals maintained by local municipalities. Some $10 million will be available next year.
Congestion will be eased with signals that respond better to the flow of traffic at an intersection, said Schoch.
The program provides a dedicated annual revenue stream for the first time for the improvement of rail lines, airports and ports.
This will be of benefit when a business considers locating or expanding in Pennsylvania and the deal hinges on improving a rail line for access to markets, said Schoch.
Robert Swift is Harrisburg bureau chief for Times-Shamrock Communications newspapers. Email him at firstname.lastname@example.com.


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FAMILY- Sayonara, sandlot: Pick-up games nowhere to be found
In recent years, the virtual disappearance of sandlot baseball– the informal, localized version of our national pastime– has come to symbolize the challenges facing the current generation of American youth.
In charting the causes behind this trend, two schools of thought have emerged. According to some critics, the sandlot has no place in the life of today's hyper-organized, overcommitted, precociously ambitious child. Instead of the pick-up game, kids now compete on elite traveling teams, vying for a handful of college scholarships, and ultimately, a shot at the big leagues.
On the other hand, there are those who blame the kids themselves. Seduced by computers, video games, and television, today's youth are allegedly inseparable from the air-conditioned, technological paradise that is the modern home.
There is, however, a much simpler explanation for the decline of sandlot baseball: the sandlots themselves have disappeared.
Armed with a dozen balls, a pair of worn gloves, and an aluminum bat, three of my friends and I– all graduate students at the University of Virginia– recently set out to play a weekend game of home-run derby in Charlottesville. Yet what began as a simple outing soon turned into a seemingly never-ending and near-futile search for a place to play America's game.
Driving first to two of the area's largest parks– McIntire and Darden Towe– we found the fields monopolized by squads of adult soft-ballers. It appeared that the sandlot players of yesteryear, too, had given into the organizational impulse driving modern sport, dispensing with informal play in favor of league competition. Discouraged but heartened by the knowledge that we remained true to a purer form of the game, we continued on our journey.
We found a groundskeeper busily at work on Charlottesville High School's baseball diamond, and we would have quickly driven our limited cache of balls into the woods behind the softball field, where only 240 feet separate home plate and the outfield fence.
Growing increasingly cranky on a scorching hot, viciously humid Saturday afternoon, we drove towards the University of Virginia, reasoning that use of the athletic facilities might be one of the few perks that come with being a graduate student. Much to our chagrin, we found those perfectly manicured parks overrun by legions of adolescent soccer players participating in the University's four-day-long "Soccer Camp of Champions." According to the program's website, the camp offers an "intensive, accelerated program" that comes "highly recommended to players considering a college soccer career." As evidenced by the age range at the camp, such considerations now apparently become relevant as early as age 10.
Here, then, were the makings of a climactic showdown, a battle that would feature the great dilemmas of youth and sport in microcosm: a quartet of wannabe Hank Aarons– the sandlot gang of the last generation– versus today's over-scheduled, hyper-competitive youth; the quintessentially American sport versus that foreign interloper, soccer; the studied amateurism of the pick-up game versus the pre-professionalism of the summer development camp.
In the end, it was not much of a fight. Finding an open diamond, we had not yet reached home plate before camp officials dispatched one of their minions in a motorized utility cart to shoo us away. The soccer players, it seemed, would soon require the use of that field as well. Faced with the prospect of defying several hundred cleat-clad boys and their adult coaches, we skulked back to the car.
Our spirits ebbing, we drove back to our apartment, but then Scott—the original instigator of our ill-fated outing, and perhaps the greatest power hitter to ever inhabit our apartment—insisted that we drive to the nearby county high school. Miraculously, the lush varsity field was unoccupied, albeit surrounded by a high chain-link fence. At that point, however, crawling through the dust under a locked gate seemed like a trivial obstacle. We had found our sandlot.
Still, this is hardly a story of triumph. It had taken us over an hour to find our field of dreams. Our quest had required patience, fortitude, and a willingness to grovel in the dirt– not to mention a car. No wonder kids these days join traveling teams, or else stay at home. For children without a formal league, team, or camp, the sandlot is now off limits. At least the "organization kids," as one journalist has labeled the current generation of young people, are guaranteed a place to play.
Christopher Loomis is a Ph.D. candidate in history at the University of Virginia.#


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|Almost-Raw Almond Snowballs
By osmosis, I inherited that frugal mindset. Case in point, last week, when I made almond milk and was left with a mass of strained almond pulp. I could have tossed it, but I decided to use it to make Almost-Raw Snowballs – not that we need more snow. But there's something defiantly empowering about eating a snowball. It's like giving this brutal winter the finger.
Two-for-the-price-of-one! I hope you enjoy these easy vegan recipes.
|Homemade Almond Milk – so easy!
Almond Milk
- 3 cups filtered water
- 1 cup raw almonds, soaked for at least 3 hours or overnight
- 1 tsp vanilla
- Sweetener of your choice, to taste [eg, agave nectar, maple syrup, stevia] Optional
Whiz everything in a blender, preferably a high-speed blender like a Vitamix. Strain. Use reserved pulp in snowball recipe, or set out to dry and use as almond meal in baking.
|I used a muffin tin to keep my Almost Raw Almond Snowballs neat.
Almost-Raw Almond Snowballs
- About 1 cup soaked almond meal, leftover from almond milk recipe
- 2 T of Raw Cacao Powder or cocoa powder
- 1/4 tsp cinnamon
- 1 T coconut oil
- 3 T Organic Raw Agave Nectar or or maple syrup
- Pinch sea salt
- 2 T brown rice flour
- About 1/2 cup unsweetened flaked coconut
Using your hands, mix everything except coconut flakes in a large bowl. Spread coconut flakes on a dish.
Roll mixture into balls – about 3/4-1 inch in diameter. Mixture should be somewhat firm – so you may need to add extra brown rice flour .Roll in coconut and place on a cookie sheet. If you want to get fancy, place them in mini muffin liners. [I'm a sucker for cute liners – not frugal!] Refrigerate for a few hours until firm,


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Interviews: ESR Answers Your Questions 117
Last week you had the chance to ask ESR about books, guns, and open source software. Below you'll find his answers to those questions.What about protocols?
by Anonymous Coward
What are your feelings about protocols and file formats and keeping them open? Where do the efforts to keep protocols and file formats open and accessible to others fall on your list of priorities?
ESR: I don't think my answer will surprise you. When the function of software is defined by a requirement to be compatible with a protocol or file format, openness of the protocol or formats is even more important than the licensing status of any of the implementations around it.
The reason should be obvious. If the protocol is well documented and open, you can build open-source code to process it. On the other hand, if crucial parts are undocumented or (worse) require techniques that are under a non-royalty-free patent, *any* code touching it can have a serious problem.
There's a productive analogy with DNA and ribosomes here which I leave for the reader to fill in.
by Canek
As a long time "Unix philosophy" advocate, and in the light of the announced switch to it by Debian, Ubuntu, and basically every other major Linux distribution, what do you think of systemd, and the tight vertical integration it intends to bring as a standard plumbing for (most of) all Linux distributions?
ESR: I apologize; I haven't studied systemd in the detail that would be required for me to give a firm answer to this - it's been on my to-do list for a while, but I'm buried in other projects.
I want to study it carefully because I'm a bit troubled by what I hear about the feature set and the goals. From that, I fear it may be one of those projects that is teetering right at the edge of manageable complexity - OK as long as an architect with a strong sense of design discipline is running things, but very prone to mission creep and bloat and likely to turn into a nasty hairball over the longer term.
But this may be me being too pessimistic. I don't actually think I know yet.
here's an obvious one..
by Connie_Lingus
it's been almost 20 years since your write tCatB...i gave it a quick read and thought, "well, it *is* dated now, isn't it?" altho i am old enough to remember when its' ideas were pretty cutting edge. Given the current state of software development (ie the ease of use of PHP and the fact that, without a doubt, the cathedral model has won), what would you either like to change or add to your original thesis?
ESR: Um. What color is the sky on your planet? The one where the cathedral model has won, I mean.
What's happening on Earth is just the opposite - even where bazaar-mode development hasn't taken over, many organizations that would previously have run their projects in a cathedral style are trying really hard to flatten out hierarchies, lighten up, and co-opt the many-eyeballs effect in any way they can. This is pretty clear just from what shows up in my mailbox - and see my later response to a question about Apple, too.
I think there have been some significant shifts in methodology that would affect the book if I were writing it today. A big one is that systematic use of version control is now pervasive in a way it was not then (when CaTB was written, Subversion wasn't out of early alpha stage yet; git and hg weren't even imagined). Development workflow is now correspondingly much more centered around shared public repositories.
The effects of always being able to revert to known codebase states rapidly are subtle but very large. One obvious one is that the risk factor of exploration drops significantly. That includes the risk in taking patches from strangers.
Less obvious but just as important is how sharp version-control tools raise the effectiveness and reduce the friction cost of testing techniques. In 2001 we couldn't routinely run bisections to pinpoint bad code changes; our tools were too slow and clumsy. Now we can, and the effect is to make building good unit and regression-test suites both easier and more rewarding in defects squashed per hours invested.
The reason I'm going on about this is that, like any technique that increases our visibility into the code's behavioral space, better test suites tremendously amplify the positive effects of code review. Of course that feeds through into a differential competitive advantage for open source, because our process naturally recruits more code reviewers than closed-source shops can usually afford to hire.
Here's an example of the effect. There's a project I've led since about 2005 called GPSD, a service daemon that handles GPSes and other geodetic sensors. It's *everywhere* in mobile embedded systems, including your Android phone - we must have well over over a billion deployments by now. Yet our defect rate is so low that months go by at a time between single bug reports.
Why? Because I wrote a test suite with good coverage - and use a test strategy that relies on fast rollback capabilities I plain didn't have before modern version control. Changes in tools change the rules. It's much easier to get to the this-never-breaks level of reliability than it was when I wrote CatB, if you know what you're doing.
(For much more on this case study see my paper on the architecture of GPSD; there's a major section on engineering for high reliability.)
Open-source development has quite a few advantages over closed in exploiting this possibility - better tools, healthier culture, and just plain more developers. I think a major theme of the next decade is going to be learning to systematically capture these gains.
How to ask questions
by houstonbofh
When you wrote "How to ask questions" did you have any idea how big it would be? Or how long it would be relevant? And how do you feel that your most referenced piece of work is a howto for the clueless? :)
ESR: I'm not sure it is my most referenced piece of work. Either "How To Become A Hacker" or the Jargon File could easily be getting more hits; I haven't bothered to track this.
But supposing it is, that's OK. I expect it to be relevant for a very long time, because the newbies and the clueless are always with us.
Halloween Documents
by frdmfghtr
I recall reading (and re-reading on occasion) the Halloween Documents. Have you written anything regarding any other opponents to OSS, or perhaps a look back on them and see what the end effect of Microsoft's attempts did long term?
ESR: I haven't written a retrospective, or anything else really similar.
I think those documents had a pretty significant effect in legitimizing not buying the Microsoft lock-in. The trade press certainly thought so at the time, and the intervening decade and a half hasn't given me any reason to suppose they were wrong.
How essential is software redistribution rights?
by unixisc
One of the issues w/ Open Source has been the freedom to redistribute software downstream - be it just binaries, just source or any combination of the 2. Do you think there are any good ways for software companies who make their software open source to prevent their customers from effectively becoming their competitors - by giving away or selling cheaper what they were sold? Or is the only alternative going for a shared-source approach, as opposed to open source, where redistribution can be explicitly prohibited?
ESR: If your customers are selling your open-source software for a lower price than you are, then you're doing it wrong! You need to face the question of why you've attached a sales price to the software itself at all. I think that's a doomed approach.
You need to be thinking about monetizing that investment in a different way. The most obvious is service and consulting contracts around the code. You have the advantage there; as the originators, you are in a better position to add value to the bundle than your competitors are.
There are a couple other potential business models here, but none I can recommend without knowing more details about your situation. My advice in The Magic Cauldron is still quite relevant.
What about the new wave of proprietary programs
by necro351
So it seems these days the most effective method of DRM is a network interface, like that used by Facebook, Google, Pinterest, etc... You cannot run your own instance of Gmail or Facebook, and you certainly cannot see or modify the code. At the same time all these companies are pressuring us to push our data into their servers by not supporting or coming up with solutions that let us continue to control/manage our data on our own machines and private networks. What can open source do to stem that tide? What about open source licensing? Could webkit or Mozilla have slowed down the encroachment of Chrom/ium and its pro-Google agenda if it had more defensive licensing terms like something similar to the GPL? How do we convince hackers to hack on open-source 'website programs', like an open Gmail or an open Facebook (e.g., Diaspora)?
ESR: You're pointing at a real problem. I don't know of any near-term solutions beyond being very careful what services you allow to draw you into their web. I run my own mailserver, rather than using GMail, for exactly this reason. I don't use Facebook or Pinterest. I use G+ for nonessential things only.
I don't think defensive or reciprocal licensing can solve the problem, because it is not one created by code secrecy. The service providers are trading on real advantages of scale that they would still collect if every line of source code in their app stack were public; the value they're offering actually comes from ubiquity and synergy.
In fact I'm a little surprised they even bother maintaining code secrecy, it has nothing whatsoever to do with their value proposition. I think we're seeing a result of instinctive territoriality rather than rational thought.
I'd love to believe that projects like Diaspora are a long-term solution to the problem, but I don't - basically because no matter how attractive and ingenious your software is, it tales gobs of capital expenditure on server farms to scale up to where you're any kind of functional competition to Facebook/Google/Pinterest etc.
In the long term I think the way we'll win is if the giants have to compete with each other for business by giving their customers exit and recovery options. Google's Data Liberation Front is a positive early sign.
Linus's Law (Many Eyes) Problems
by carp3_noct3m
Hi, there is currently some debate about the many eyes theory over on HNews about why it's a fallacious argument, but in my view they have it all wrong, in that a core component of Linus's Law is that the amount of code is directly inverse to the amount of eyes that can hit all of that code (or a significant percentage). Therefore, in my eyes it is the problem of code bloat that is undermining the open source movement more than anything. For example, the Linux kernel is now at, what, 10mil+ lines of code? That's insane. Minix 3, on the other hand, is at ~15k?
What are your thoughts on this problem?
ESR: I think you raise a valid point about code bloat being a problem. On the other hand, the code-coverage effectiveness of individual developers is also rising for reasons I wrote about in response to a previous question - better tools and better testing strategies feeding back on each other in virtuous ways.
A lot of criticisms of Linus's Law (including the Hacker News thread, as far down as I read it) miss the point that "many eyeballs" isn't just about sheer volume of people reviewing code, it's about diversity of assumptions. You want people reviewing the code that don't all work for the same company and report to the same boss - people who speak different languages, different toolkits, different expertise areas.
A handful of people who think very differently may be more effective auditors than an army with identical blind-spots. By recruiting more people you're maximizing the odds of good diversity in the subgroup that actually reviews any given section of code.
I actually chuckled when I read the Hacker News thread, because I've seen this movie before after every serious security flap in an open-source tool. The script, which includes a bunch of people indignantly exclaiming that many-eyeballs is useless because bug X lurked in a dusty corner for Y months, is so predictable that I can anticipate a lot of the lines.
The mistake being made here is a classic example of Frederic Bastiat's things seen versus things unseen. Critics of Linus's Law overweight the bug they can *see* and underweight the high probability that equivalently positioned closed-source security flaws they *can't* see are actually far worse, just so far undiscovered.
That's how it seems to go whenever we get a hint of the defect rate inside closed-source blobs, anyway. As a very pertinent example, in the last couple months I've learned some things about the security-defect density in proprietary firmware on residential and small business Internet routers that would absolutely curl your hair. It's far, far worse than most people understand out there.
Friends don't let friends run factory firmware. You really do *not* want to be relying on anything less audited than OpenWRT or one of its kindred (DDWRT, or CeroWRT for the bleeding edge). And yet the next time any security flaw turns up in one of those open-source projects, we'll see a replay of the movie with yet another round of squawking about open source not working.
Ironically enough this will happen precisely because the open-source process *is* working ... while, elsewhere, bugs that are *far* worse lurk in closed-source router firmware. Things seen vs. things unseen...
Apple today
by wordtech
Your comments in The Art of Unix Programming about Apple/Mac developers being diametrically opposed to Unix developers in development style and emphases (designing simple, user-friendly interfaces from the outside in) were quite interesting. I am wondering about your perspective on Apple now. My interest is specifically in Apple's contributions to open-source (WebKit and LLVM, chiefly) and your take on those. It seems to me that Apple has done quite a bit to foster an alternative ecosystem to the GNU environment, for instance in FreeBSD's adoption of clang as their default compiler; and also it seems to to me that WebKit has supplanted Gecko as the most widely used browser framework. Curious about your viewpoint here.
ESR: In answering an earlier question I spoke of organizations that would previously have developed in a secretive cathedral mode adopting the bazaar model and open-source practices. Projects like LLVM and Webkit exemplify this trend.
The interesting thing about these projects is that they're not just facades. They really seem to welcome, not just as outside contributors but sometimes as full-time employees, people who are from the Unix-descended open-source culture (with its inside-to-out priorities) rather than interface-centric Mac guys.
That - and of course, OS X - tells us Apple's technical culture in't what it used to be. It's more Unix-influenced now, more open, has more hacker in it. Obviously that doesn't fix every problem with Apple - I'm with RMS in judging the locked-down, walled-garden design of their phones and tablets to be a very bad thing for users in the longer term - but it's movement in a good direction.
AK or AR
by gmhowell
Which is the better battle rifle, an AK-47/74 type or an AR-15/M-16/M-4 type? Please give your criteria as well as your answer. Bonus: favorite handgun platform/caliber that isn't a .45 1911.
ESR: "Better battle rifle" depends on who you're equipping, and for what. I lean towards the AR-15 because I'm from a culture that readily produces people with good marksmanship, fire discipline, and steadiness onder combat pressure. The AR-15 is the better weapon to match those traits - it rewards skill in the shooter and you can actually use it at distance.
On the other hand, if your troops are savages or bandits who can barely clean a weapon and for whom the natural mode is short-range spray'n'pray, the AK-47 is probably a better choice. It hardly rewards shooter skill at all, but handles egregious abuse under field conditions better.
As for what I like when I don't have .45ACP handy, my answer is easy and boring: .40S&W. Medium-caliber semis suit me very well. I don't mind shooting my wife's Glock .40 at all, and it's likely what I'd carry if not for John Moses Browning (peace be unto him)


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Joan Shireman and Marjorie Terdal received Outstanding Retired Faculty Awards and Larry Sawyer was honored with a Special Recognition Award at the annual President's Luncheon on April 18. The awards, presented by the Retirement Association of Portland State (RAPS), acknowledge service to the community, the University, professional and career achievements, and service to the Retirement Association.
Marjorie Terdal, professor emerita of Applied Linguistics, was recognized for her post-retirement teaching, international service to underdeveloped communities, generous community volunteerism, and leadership in RAPS. A past president of RAPS, Terdal currently serves as membership chair.
Joan Shireman, professor emerita of Social Work, received her award in recognition of "continuing exceptional academic contributions to the profession of social work and to the University, professional service to many community organizations, and leadership in major roles with RAPS." Shireman served as RAPS president in 2011-12
A surprised Larry Sawyer, retired Audio-Visual staff member, received a Special Recognition Award for the many ways he has supported RAPS over the years, including audio recording program speakers, photographing people and events for the RAPS Sheet, and creating and helping manage the membership database. He was also recognized for influencing RAPS to join the Association of Retirement Organizations in Higher Education and teaming with Robert Vogelsang to create the RAPS student scholarship.
-From The RAPS Sheet, May 2013