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The gala performance that opened San Francisco Ballet's 80th season presented excerpts from an assortment of historically and stylistically diverse works that demonstrated the company's breadth of virtuosity, artistic conquests and mobility, as its members take on new challenges with confidence and perseverance.
Opening with the gaily-costumed Tarantella by George Balanchine, the witty, stylish certainty and polish that Pascal Molat brings to the stage added a special patina to this folksy if flirtatious duet. Molat's partner Sasha DeSola was promoted to Soloist last season, and is one of a shank of new and veteran soloist women who shine like newly minted gold pieces. DeSola is still coltish, but there is an uptake of buoyancy in her dancing that gives Molat something to work off of. Her dispatch of spitfire frappés is complemented by light and lively footwork that ensures that the tambourine she shakes is the focal element. The piece gives us lots to enjoy—Molat's precise manège, DeSola's elastic forced arch pliés and lively jumps, for example. He burns rubber, she's saucy, and that's what Balanchine was going for.
Pierre François Vilanoba, who is in the twilight of his career, danced the final solo from Roland Petit's L'Arlesienne. The piece in its entirety relies on the slow buildup of a group-borne intensity, and without the corps de ballet to frame the solo, it can seem to careen from slight to self-flagellating when suddenly Vilanoba is wrapping his arms around his spine in a succession of en dedans turns, and back to slight again when he travels in circles in a small manège low to the floor. In spite of the limitations imposed by plucking it out of its context, Vilanoba dances the madness of his character with great intensity. Among the more interesting choreographic choices is showcasing the same step in a variety of tempos.
August Bournonville's classic The Flower Festival at Genzano Pas de Deux is a very difficult piece to perform in such a way that the technical feats and theatrical charm blend into a light sauce that never breaks. Gennadi Nedvigin is astute as the squire who partners the delicate, strong, yet feminine Clara Blanco. His batterie is faultless. As he capers about, she delights in faking him out with a sudden dare to "catch me if you can." Because she's winsome, the eye goes to her in the pas de deux, and because she matches his masculine technical virtuosity in a girly-girl way, when the music requires it, sparkle notwithstanding, she stops on a dime.
Kudos to Myles Thatcher for sharing another committed step to stretch his choreographic reach with In The Passerine's Clutch. A couple makes a dramatic entrance. He is swift and elegant as he lifts, turns and then places her, letting us see that it is Dana Genshaft. Genshaft and Jaime Castilla are joined by Dores Andre and Joan Boada. Susan Roemer's filmy beige, purple and red costumes complement Kevin Connaughton's chiaroscuro lighting, lending the piece a mystical quality. The four dancers test weight shifts in pendulum-like lifts held in single-breath moments. They fly into shapes that circle into rounds on the ground or in the air. Tempered lighting offers a contrast that underscores the movement dynamics. Genshaft carries the piece with a dramatic leading edge, and the Boada/Castilla duo is an eyeful. Genshaft and Andre reaffirm that there is a vein of richness to be mined from the soloist streambed of this company.
In her Act III Raymonda solo, company veteran Lorena Feijóo draws us back into the company's classical circuitry with a commanding presence borne of certainty and the seasoning of two decades of brilliant dancing.
Helgi Tomasson's Trio offers a collection of pas de deux and a pas de trois shared by principal dancers Tiit Helimets, Sarah Van Patten and Vito Mazzeo, to tell the elaborate psycho-erotic story of the shifting polarities and ensuing conflicts that proceed from a love triangle. In the partnership between Helimets and Van Patten we see confidence and continuity with no breaks in the fleet quality they achieve. Like a heat exchanger, Van Patten has brought her technique into line with that of Helimets, and Helimets has interpolated into his dancing the stunning dramatic quality that Van Patten possesses. They truly dance as one in every desirable sense of the word. Lifts are swift and seamless. This makes Mazzeo's intervention all the more powerful, as if his very touch comes from some other dimension far afield of their insular world, lighting a fire in Van Patten that she hasn't felt before. The hypnotic blaze she doesn't recognize leads her astray. As Mazzeo inhales her, she tips toward Helimets, who works hard to keep his membership current with her. Trio is a finely chiseled rendering of the injustice that finds quarter in the heart.
Frances Chung and Taras Domitro dance the Grand Pas de Deux and Variations, Act III from Don Quixote energetically, with a dispatch that impresses, at the same time that it borders on the relentless. We'd like to see Chung reach for a quality that is a little more Latin, using the head and eyes to flirt with her partner and engage the audience. Domitro, as Basilio, gallops through his variation in an equine kind of way with modest sécondes. In hers, Chung finds her Kitri, so that we see not only her technical strength, but a glimpse of who the fan-wielding maja can be dramatically.
Maria Kochetkova and Vitor Luiz capture the thrill in the dream pas de deux from John Cranko's Onegin. The duet carries into the ballet the titillating but terrifying complications and implications of a love that arrives post-maturely, offering both too much and too little. Luiz appears in the magical mirror that suddenly opens a window of opportunity, and Kochetkova comes to him like a lost kitten. Their fluidity in the three arabesque lift-turns float her deeper into her joyful illusion. To me, this is one of the most beautiful pas de deux in ballet, offering an equality of expression to both partners to which each must contribute fully and blissfully in order for it to succeed.
Even if George Balanchine's Stars and Stripes remains a somewhat naïve, box office-opportunist tribute to a flag that represents death and destruction to most of the world's inhabitants, Vanessa Zahorian and Davit Karapetyan deserve to be saluted for doing it justice. Karapetyan brings to it a brio that sends his assemblés flying out from under him, banner-like, and Zahorian adds spit and polish to her fouettés by throwing in a triple now and then.
Yuan Yuan Tan and Damian Smith dance the heartrending pas de deux from Christopher Wheeldon's After the Rain. Their integrity as partners is an echo of the earnestness of the work . The simplicity of a slow backbend and a cloche-tocking leg capture the right-as-rain sensibility that has them surrender in harmony with what the sky releases. The plaintive stringed instrumentation in the Arvo Pärt score evokes the warm rain and slowed ionic transformation of the surrounding air, as arpeggios wiggle in contradistinction to the languor in Tan's line. It is reminiscent of Gerald Arpino's groundbreaking piece, Sea Shadow. This is another egalitarian pas de deux in which neither partner is subordinate to the other. Smith puts Tan at ease—so much so that she unselfconsciously gives herself entirely to the work.
Serge Lifar's Suite en Blanc, staged by Maina Gielgud, has been at the center of a tempest-in-a-teapot debate in critical circles of late, and so receives more scrutiny this season than it might otherwise merit. As it name indicates, it is a tutu ballet in which the women, who file in formally, wear white. A little squirrelly in the first moments, the dancers find their spots (and their depth) and acquit themselves with care and reverence to the classical style and purity of line. Sofiane Sylve partners with Tiit Helimets, and Vanessa Zahorian with Davit Karapetyan, and with their arrival new shapes appear in a frosty kaleidoscope of movement. Men in white tops and black tights rush in and seat themselves at the feet of women who strike classical port de bras poses, so that the piece takes a turn toward a visual Ode to a Grecian Urn. In spite of the classical choreography, a neo-classical note is introduced with the set's minimalist and modernist staircase and the women ranged on a stratum above, and the men below, a trompe d'oeil Art Deco aspect with a snowy edge.


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This is a detailed historical lesson about comets, distant icy worlds often visible to observers on Earth. Learners will consider the essential question, "What are comets?" They will practice observation skills as they enact a story of comets... (View More) traveling through the solar system and examine images of comets and the current space missions exploring them. This is lesson 10 of 12 in the unit, Exploring Ice in the Solar System. (View Less)
Materials Cost: $1 - $5
This is a brief activity about the mathematics of Mars. By playing this matching card game, learners will gain knowledge of Mars mathematical facts and vocabulary. Note: Find the latest information and updates on Mars missions at the NASA Mars... (View More) Exploration website (see Related & Supplemental Resources to the right). (View Less)
Materials Cost: $1 - $5 per group of students

subset: commoncrawl


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Radisson Hotels Trumbull properties are listed below. Search for cheap and discount Radisson Hotels hotel prices in Trumbull, CT for your personal or business trip. We list the best Radisson Hotels Trumbull lodging properties so you can review the Trumbull Radisson Hotels hotel list below to find the perfect place.
We will list below Trumbull, CT hotels/motels that are comparable to the quality of Radisson Hotels.
Need a group/meeting discount? Request a group rate for Trumbull CT
How should we direct your call?


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NEW YORK (AP) - Jay-Z's got 99 problems and the Billboard chart is one.
NEW YORK (AP) � Jay-Z's got 99 problems and the Billboard chart is one.
Billboard said Friday it will not include the 1 million album downloads Jay-Z is giving to Galaxy mobile phone users through a deal with Samsung. Jay-Z announced the partnership this week. His new album, "Magna Carta Holy Grail," will be released July 7, but it will go out to 1 million Samsung users on July 4.
In a letter posted on Billboard's website, editorial director Bill Werde says it won't count the downloads because Samsung ultimately isn't selling the album on its phones. He adds that it wasn't easy turning down Jay-Z's request to include the downloads on the Billboard chart.
"The passionate and articulate argument by Jay's team that something was for sale and Samsung bought it ... doesn't mesh with precedent," Werde writes.
A representative for Jay-Z didn't immediately respond to an email seeking comment.


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1 lb cubed eggplant
1 lb cubed Russet potatoes
1 onion, halved and sliced
2 tablespoons minced oregano
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/4 cup lemon juice, divided use
1 teaspoon dill weed
1 teaspoon red wine vinegar
Preheat oven to 375. Place the potatoes and eggplant in a single layer on a lined baking sheet. Top with a layer of the sliced onions. In a small bowl, whisk together the oregano, oil, 2 tablespoons of lemon juice, dill weed and vinegar.
Drizzle the dressing over the vegetables. Roast for 40 minutes or until the potatoes are fork tender. Stir and sprinkle with the remaining lemon juice. Serve hot.


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Wilbrecht out as Town Manager
Cites health issues; Marysheva-Martinez new boss
The axe fell on Town Manager Dave Wilbrecht Wednesday evening in circumstances cloaked in mystery.
Following a closed Town Council meeting that followed its regularly scheduled Feb. 6 meeting, the town announced that Wilbrecht resigned his position, but offered no explanation as to the reasons why the former Mono County Administrative Officer and Mammoth Parks director quit.
Citing laws protecting personnel matters from public view, the new permanent Town Manager, Marianna Marysheva-Martinez, also declined to discuss the specifics of Wilbrecht's departure.
However, off-the-record interviews with council members and town staff indicated that Wilbrecht himself might have brought the axe down, arguing health concerns usually associated with job burnout.
It was not so simple, though.
In leaving, Wilbrecht sought a severance package of up to $150,000, town officials said, leaving the members of the council not only surprised by the resignation, but also confused as to how to proceed in the situation.
Ultimately, the council voted 4-1 to accept Wilbrecht's resignation and to give him the severance package.
The councilman who voted against the deal was attorney Rick Wood, who argued that severance compensation is due for employees who are laid off for non-disciplinary reasons (budget, for example), or other extraordinary factors.
Even among those who voted for the resignation/compensation package, however, every council member expressed surprise that it happened at all.
Wilbrecht did not attend either the closed session meeting or the regular council meeting.
He recently signed a new contract with the Town of Mammoth Lakes, so when his email announcing his intention to look for another job reached the eyes of the town council members the week of Jan. 23, they said they were a little surprised.
After giving the council a heads-up on imminent departures such as town planner Ellen Clark, Wilbrecht wrote that he, too, was looking for a new job.
"Yeah, I'd say I was surprised by that," said Mayor Matthew Lehman shortly after the meeting broke up. "I really can't tell you why this happened. I wish I could. We'd just signed a big contract with him.
"But the bottom line is that he resigned. He just wanted to move on. He sent us a letter expressing some concerns. It was initiated by Dave."
Wood also declined to be specific, saying only, "I was very surprised."
"Really, the only thing I can say about that is that public employees tend to value job security more than most people," said one cryptic council member, who asked for anonymity out of concern for breaking the laws covering closed sessions.
Other council members said there was another factor in the mix, and that was what to do with two senior managers (Wilbrecht and Marysheva-Martinez) who were running a town with severe budget constraints and dwindling numbers of staff.
The final move by the council was to appoint Marysheva-Martinez as Town Manager, but offer her no raise above what she drew as assistant town manager.
Even that did not sail through.
With councilman John Eastman voting "no" on the appointment, the council made the deal 4-1.
As in the Wilbrecht case, the council offered no explanation for its action.


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MPNS FAQs
- What can I search for?
- Which plants are included? What is a medicinal plant?
- Why is the plant I am looking for not in the results?
- Why can't I find a medicinal moss, lichen or fungus?
- What languages or alphabets are represented in the MPNS Portal?
- What is the difference between 'Scientific names as used in medicinal plant references' and 'Accepted scientific names'?
- How is the 'Accepted name' chosen?
- What are the 'Taxonomic sources' used in the portal?
- Why does the MPNS taxonomy differ from other databases such as The Plant List?
- How should I cite the MPNS portal?
- How can I get involved in the work of MPNS?
- My question is not answered here – how can I contact MPNS?
What can I search for?
You can search for any name that you might find in a medicinal plant reference. It could be:
- a scientific name – either a species, a genus or even just a specific epithet (the species name without the genus)
- pharmaceutical or drug name - including Chinese (pinyin) and Ayurvedic names
- common name
The search term must be at least three characters long.
Wildcard searches allow for variation in spelling: simply use an asterisk '*' or question mark '?' in place of letters:
- * matches zero or more letters
- ? matches only one letter
Which plants are included? What is a medicinal plant?
The MPNS resource includes names from references about medicinal plants. If a plant appears in these references then it is classed as medicinal for the purposes of the portal. It is possible that a plant that is seen as medicinal has not been included in the resource because it does not appear in the references covered to date. We are continually adding to these references.
MPNS make no judgement as whether a plant actually has medicinal properties, and inclusion of a plant name in the MPNS resource should not be taken as an endorsement of any medicinal use or efficacy.
At present we are only collecting names of vascular plants.
Why is the plant I am looking for not in the results?
Names that match your search term will be displayed on the search results page. If you do not see what you are looking for it may be because:
- Results are displayed in a tabbed layout and the exact match you are looking for may appear on one of the other tabs. For example, if you searched 'chamomile', several close matches will appear on the 'Non-scientific names' tab. Each new search defaults to the 'Accepted scientific names' tab which shows you accepted scientific names relating to the term you have searched, e.g. 'Matricaria chamomilla L.' is the accepted scientific name for one of the plants that is known as chamomile.
- The name does not occur in the resource because it has not been included in the references covered to date. You can try searching The Plant List (see below), a working list of scientific names for all known plant species.
- You have spelt it differently to the way that it is spelt in the resource. This possibility is usually minimised by the use of fuzzy matching.
- It is there but you can't see it because there are so many results. Try narrowing your search by typing in a more precise term or by using the filters under the 'All records' tab.
- You searched for a scientific name that is now considered to be a synonym. Look for the name under the 'Scientific names as used in medicinal plant references' tab. If it isn't there select each Accepted scientific name in turn and look under the 'Scientific synonyms' tab, or select the 'All records' tab in search results.
- You have limited your search to either scientific or non-scientific names using the drop-down menu to the right of the search box. Try your search again with 'All Names' selected.
Why can't I find a medicinal moss, lichen or fungus?
Currently the MPNS portal only displays the names of flowering plants and ferns (vascular plants) and does not record names of mosses (bryophytes), algae, fungi, or lichen. We may include some of these other groups in the future.
What languages or alphabets are represented in the MPNS Portal?
All names in Roman script are recorded from publications covered to date regardless of what language the name is in. However, the language or the country where the name is used is not indicated. We are working on recording some names in other characters/scripts, but only a small number of these are currently displayed in the portal.
What is the difference between 'Scientific names as used in medicinal plant references' and 'Accepted scientific names'?
'Scientific names as used in medicinal plant references' are scientific names that have been entered into the resource from a medicinal plant reference, following the exact spelling as published. 'Accepted scientific names' are scientific names from Kew's names databases, either the World Checklist of Selected Plant Families (published and unpublished) or The Plant List.
All scientific names as used in medicinal plant references have been linked to corresponding accepted scientific names where possible. Occasionally it hasn't been possible to make this link and the 'Accepted scientific name' in these instances reads 'Awaiting MPNS review'.
How is the 'Accepted name' chosen?
A number of taxonomic databases for scientific plant names already exist and are actively maintained by scientific institutions, including Kew. MPNS matches scientific names from medicinal plant references to names from the following three taxonomic sources:
- World Checklist of Selected Plant Families (WCS)
- The unpublished World Checklist of Selected Plant Families (WCS - unpublished)
- The Plant List (TPL)
Each of the databases above connects a given scientific name with what is considered the taxonomically correct or 'accepted' scientific name at that time. However, they each have advantages and disadvantages, which are discussed below.
When matching names, MPNS aims to match to the published WCS where possible since names in this database have been peer reviewed and there should be strong international agreement regarding the accepted names provided.
Where a WCS match is not available, the unpublished version of the checklist is used instead. These names are still under review and require further research. MPNS actively contributes to resolving names in this database so that they can be moved to the published WCS.
Finally, if no match is available in the unpublished WCS either, The Plant List is used. The Plant List takes names from a number of different taxonomic resources and has the most comprehensive coverage, however some caution is advised when using TPL-accepted scientific names since this resource is considered a 'best effort' attempt at a complete list of plant names and is not perfect. MPNS aims to limit TPL matches where possible by actively reviewing and adding new names to the WCS published and unpublished databases.
What are the 'Taxonomic sources' used in the portal?
World Checklist of Selected Plant Families
The WCS has been developed over the last 16 years at Kew with guidance and advice from more than 150 botanical specialists worldwide. It contains world species lists for an increasing number of plant families. For all species in any of the included families, one can discover geographical distribution and full scientific synonymy, ie cross references to all of the scientific names ever used for each plant (except misapplied and invalid names). Peer-reviewed accounts are available online for c. 50% of plant families, which include c. 33% of plant species. MPNS is also using the unpublished version of this resource which is not directly available online. These are names which have been resolved, but which still need to be reviewed by the taxonomic community before they can be published.
The Plant List
The Plant List was built in collaboration with the Missouri Botanical Garden and others worldwide. It is a working list of all known plant species and aims to be comprehensive for all species of vascular plants and bryophytes (mosses and liverworts). The Plant List is not perfect and represents work in progress. Data records from numerous existing global checklist databases, including WCS, were brought together and combined with regional and national checklist data and other records from Tropicos, managed by the Missouri Botanical Garden. These resources were then complemented by the inclusion of additional names found in the International Plant Names Index (IPNI) (for Angiosperms, Gymnosperms, and Ferns & Fern Allies). The Plant List may omit some names and may include some duplicate names. Furthermore some names derived from nomenclators may not include any indication of whether they are accepted or synonyms. The Plant List includes 1 million scientific names of species rank, of which c. 350,000 are accepted species names, c. 470,000 are synonyms and c. 242,000 are unresolved names, the latter arising when it wasn't possible to establish from contributing sources whether the name should be accepted or not. The aim was to produce a 'best effort' list by 2010 to demonstrate progress and stimulate further work. Version 1 was released in December 2010 and was then updated to Version 1.1 in September 2013.
Why does the MPNS taxonomy differ from other databases such as The Plant List?
By taxonomy we mean which scientific name is the accepted name for a particular plant and which are considered to be synonyms.
The taxonomies presented in reference databases managed by various institutions differ for a variety of reasons. MPNS seeks to provide the most up-to-date and authoritative taxonomy available for the medicinal plants included, based upon the most reliable and, where possible, actively-curated databases. This means that in some cases the taxonomy presented in MPNS will differ from one or more of the better-known taxonomic resources that are available online (such as The Plant List) for the following reasons:
- MPNS will use the taxonomic view presented by the World Checklist of Selected Plant Families (WCS), as this has undergone international peer review. For families not yet covered by the WCS, MPNS aims to reach the same standard for the names of all medicinal plants. While the taxonomy for these plants is being checked, however, some names may not be included in the synonymy presented.
- The Plant List is a static (not actively curated) synthetic list built by bringing together datasets from various sources. It includes data supplied by these different sources in August 2012. Taxonomic opinions will have changed since then and the original sources edited and updated. MPNS choose to use the more up-to-date views.
- Other databases are similarly static and also go out-of-date.
- Each version of MPNS used to support the names portal is static (while we are working on the next version) and may become out of step with resources such as the WCS, which are actively curated online.
- Finally, where MPNS accepts a narrower view of a species, fewer synonyms will be listed and, where the excluded names are not recorded as having medicinal activity, they will not be included in the MPNS resource.
How should I cite the MPNS portal?
Please cite the portal as:
'Medicinal Plant Names Services Portal, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, accessed on dd/mm/yyyy'
How can I get involved in the work of MPNS?
Become a Partner
MPNS does not intend to duplicate work that others are already doing in gathering and disseminating more detailed information, for example, on plant chemistry, toxicity or trade data. Instead we propose that MPNS becomes part of the medicinal plant information landscape, serving as an intelligent gateway to these multiple resources, and helping them to become accessible, regardless of the plant name used by the resource or by those looking for information.
Since the MPNS project began we have been working closely with Professor Uwe Schippmann who built and curates the Medicinal Plant Resources of the World (MAPROW) database. MAPROW contains drug, pharmaceutical and common names alongside plant part information from medicinal plant references including pharmacopoeias. It is used by the IUCN International Standard for Sustainable Wild Collection of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants (ISSC-MAP).
We are currently talking to potential partners, but are interested in hearing from other data managers.
Please contact us at firstname.lastname@example.com to find out more.
Become a member of our User Group
The MPNS user group has been fundamental in establishing effective information services and has a wide representation both geographically and across research sectors and industries.
We held two workshops in November and December 2014 to seek feedback on the services we offer with representatives from medicines regulatory agencies, the pharmaceutical sector, and herbal medicine practitioners and suppliers.
The needs of clients have driven development of our services by helping to prioritise the addition of new content, shaping the design and scope of the services, and ensuring that we consider their practical constraints and business environments.
We are actively seeking further individuals and organisations that are willing to offer their time and advice. Please contact us at email@example.com to find out more.
My question is not answered here – how can I contact MPNS?
If you have further questions about the portal, or MPNS in general, please get in touch.
Email: email@example.com
Medicinal Plant Names Services (MPNS)
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew


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For your convenience we have created a secure online booking mechanism that allows
an individual to make instant reservations 24 hours a day, seven days a week. This can be done
by selecting number of persons, number of rooms, arrival and departure date and clicking on
the "check availability" button.
If you have any trouble making your reservations online, please send an e-mail to firstname.lastname@example.com.


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pbk / telepherique
noise-ambient connection.
monochrome vision. mv22
noise music exists for many years, but there are still some individuals who are assiduously following their own approach, avoiding any external influence, creating something new and inspiring to get rid of any standards, giving us the idea of unique sounding. phillip b. klingler (pbk) is the one such musician. in his 20 years of activity, he walked against the number of noisescapes, painting them over with some secret traces of beauty and beyond. he released some solo works but also collaborations with dirk serries (vidnaobmana), slavek kwi (artificial memory trace), asmus tietchens, jeph jerman (hands to) and even artemy artemiev (the son of famous russian ans-synth explorer). pbk proposes premium quality music with manifold edges: some hypnotic ambient pieces, some crazy noise collages, but mostly just unclassifiable abstract sound sculptures. his early works were released on tapes by his own pbk recordings label and sold out for many years, in the early 90s n d records published his first couple of cds: endless labyrinths of dissonances, amorphous soundscapes unfolding from the complex schemes of machine improvisation and stochastic processes. telepherique is the seminal german project existing since the late 80s and exploring the grey area of the electronic underground. the main person behind it is klaus jochim who also was responsible for now defunct tape label drahtfunk productions. besides his own production under various monikers like technostria and das konzentrat, he released some great collaboration tape albums with artists like brume, kapotte muziek, s.core, tesendalo, de fabriek etc. telepherique uses a lot of synthetic sound sources and sequences, creating unsettling atmosphere from the structured electronic patterns ranging from intense rhythmic work to creepy ambient out-of-body soundscapes. they got initial support from labels like ant-zen and noise museum, later released some albums through old europa cafe, s.s.s.m., afe records and waystyx. the name telepherique means "funicular railway" in french, but indirectly also the intention gaining a view from a higher level. this particular album is the first ever collaboration between pbk and telepherique, it represents yet another breakthrough in the search for a music that is comprehensively exploring 21st century ambient music.
|twilight cue
|radical pair
|ecosystem interrupt
|sun continue to shine
|the very end of mine & taper
|my rare dreams (of the future)
|fictional plague
|you only fade
|seen through cloud cover


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mrtopher needed a new logo design and created a contest on 99designs.
A winner was selected from 182 designs submitted by 45 freelance designers.
Sign-Up-Sheet.com has been online for over 4 years available free of charge. Was initially developed over a weekend and blossomed into a full application shortly there after. With this redo we are looking to start offering paid subscription options for additional features/functionality. We are basically taking a good idea and redoing it to improve the overall user experience.
People using Sign-Up-Sheet.com could be anyone looking for a web based sign-up/registration solution. More than likely they will be affiliated with an organization like a scout troop, church, school or business. But they could just as well be planning something personal like a wedding, party or some other personal get together that they want to plan ahead for. They may or may not be tech savvy.
The one thing that all users have in common is they are all planning some sort of event/get-together and they are looking to Sign-Up-Sheet.com to help them keep track of whose coming.
This is phase 1 of a 2 phase rebranding of Sign-Up-Sheet.com. We are in the process of redeveloping the entire application and will be relaunching with a completely new look and feel. The new logo will help drive the design of the new website in phase 2 when the time comes.
The requirements are pretty slim. Basically we're looking for a new logo to replace the current logo (or lack thereof) on http://www.sign-up-sheet.com. There really aren't any color or style restrictions. We would like something fun and cool to help energize our users. Web 2.0 isn't a bad thing if you can make it work.
We typically lean more towards icon type logos (where there is an icon and then the name of the product like the ones used by http://37signals.com) but since this a rather long name I'm not sure that's the best approach. But we're open to any and all ideas. You have a unique opportunity to help us drive the rest of the rebranding process by setting the mood/feeling with a new logo.
Find out how a design contest works or learn more about our logo design services.


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Dave Owen needed a new logo design and created a contest on 99designs.
A winner was selected from 38 designs submitted by 8 freelance designers.
Voice Overs by Dave
My ultimate dream job would be to make voice overs a full time career. I am just starting out in this industry, and attempting to transition out of my old job into voice overs. I have what is described as a "classic announcer" voice and I love to have fun behind the microphone.
I need to catch the eye of ad agencies, talent scouts and others seeking to hire professional voice over talent for TV, Radio, and Online work. As I am just starting out, I am trying to appeal to as wide an audience as possible ~ I am not sure where my voice will find its niche.
I am looking for a logo to put on business cards, company stationary and take a prominent position on my website.
1. This is going to sound strange but NO microphones. Every voice over talent in the industry seems to use a microphone, so help me to stand out by NOT using a microphone.
2. No cartoons please- I want to be fun yet professional
3. Please no stock images or clip art in the logo
I have attached a copy of my demo tape so you can get an idea of my "sound".
Find out how a design contest works or learn more about our logo design services.


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To navigate and find information that highlights the State Budget, see the Budget Publications link, which begins with the current fiscal year.
With direction from the Governor, the annual budget for the State of New Jersey is the responsibility of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). The OMB Director works closely with his/her staff as well as the fiscal staff in the various State agencies and departments to ensure that the State of New Jersey manages taxpayer resources wisely and efficiently.
The planning, development, and implementation of the Budget is an on-going cycle. See the State Budget Process for further details.
The funds into which all State revenues, not otherwise restricted by statute, are deposited and from which appropriations are made. The largest part of the total financial operations of the State is accounted for in the General Fund. Revenues received from taxes, except the Gross Income Tax, which is deposited in the Property Tax Relief Fund, most Federal revenue, and certain miscellaneous revenue items are recorded in the General Fund. The Appropriation Acts enacted by the Legislature provide the basic framework for the operation of the General Fund.
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text:
Getting out of Debt
The Truth About Car Payments
3 Minute Read
I'll always have a car payment.
You've probably heard that comment before, right? You might have even said it yourself—with a defeated, woe-is-me tone of voice. So what's the deal? Are car payments really just a way of life?
Well, that's the normal way of thinking. But, as Dave always says: When it comes to money, normal is broke. You want to be weird, and weird people don't have car payments.
So how, exactly, do you live without a car payment?
Here's the deal. Recent statistics show that one-third of car buyers sign up for a six-year loan at an average interest rate of 9.6%. Among these buyers, the average price of the car is just over $26,000. This means that one-third of the cars you see on the road are dragging a $475 payment behind them.
The car dealer won't tell you that your awesome new car loses about 25% of its value the instant you drive it off the lot. After four years, your car has lost about 70% of its value!
What does that mean? After six years, you've paid almost $33,000 for a $26,000 car, which is now worth maybe $6,000. Not a good deal.
Here's a new plan. What if you bought a cheap $2,000 car just to get around for 10 months? Then you take that $475—the average car payment—save it every month, and pay for a new car (with cash!), instead of giving it to the bank.
The money course that will change your life!
After 10 months of doing that, you'll have $4,750 to use for that new ride. Add that to the $1,500–2,000 you can get for your old beater, and you have well over $6,000. That's a major upgrade in car in just 10 months—without owing the bank a dime!
But the fun doesn't end there. If you keep consistently putting the same amount of money away, 10 months later you would have another $4,750 to put toward a car. You could probably sell that $6,000 vehicle for about the same price you paid 10 months before—meaning you now have $11,000 to pay for a car, just 20 months after this whole process started.
The bottom line with this exercise is simply this—what could you do with that $475 if you weren't paying for the car every month? Anything you wanted!
Think about it this way: If you were to invest that $475 (remember, this is the average car payment in the U.S.) into a good mutual fund with a 12% rate of return, you would have over $100,000 in 10 years! At 20 years, you would have made $470,000. And at 30 years? That mutual fund would be worth $1.6 million!
The numbers will make your head spin, but it really just comes down to simple math. The less money you are spending on your car every month, the more money you have to put into other more important things: your kids' college fund, your retirement, and paying off any other debt you might have.
If you'll just follow this simple plan, your life could be dramatically different 10 years from now. You can live without a car payment!
Related Articles
Interested? Watch the video to learn how to drive free and retire rich!


text:
As precision guidance continues to help growers lower input costs, save fuel and reduce passes in a field, John Deere continues to build greater accuracy into its software to bring more value into its equipment.
A free upgrade on the John Deere StarFire iTC receiver gives growers two benefits: a sub-inch repeatable Long Range RTK signal 12 miles from the base station (expanded from 6 miles), plus Shading Optimization so AutoTrac won't drop a signal if some trees or other obstructions cause momentary line-of-sight loss between vehicle and base station antenna.
"Precision guidance technology continues to improve with better software to allow greater accuracy in variable field conditions," says Kayla Reynolds, product marketing manager, John Deere AMS. Real-time kinematic (RTK) GPS positioning, with the help of a base station, delivers repeatable accuracy pass after pass within 1 in. or less of the previous pass last fall or two years ago.
"One good example," Reynolds says, "is growers who strip-till in the fall while applying fertilizer, then they come back in the spring and plant exactly on top the fertilizer band — all without steering when they use AutoTrac and RTK guidance. Growers don't need a visual reference anymore; they simply pull in the field and push a button to get back in those same strips."
As more dealers, growers and networking groups set up base stations on towers, a greater coverage area for the necessary line-of-sight signal between vehicle and base station is achieved. "If a grower operates on a Long Range RTK signal beyond 12 miles, he still may get a signal, but we can't guarantee 1-in. accuracy that is repeatable year after year," Reynolds says.
"We've also developed Shading Optimization software for our AutoTrac SF1 and SF2 systems," Reynolds says. "Barriers such as trees, buildings or other structures are a problem for all guidance systems because they disrupt the satellite signal to the vehicle, especially during headland turns. Shading Optimization allows AutoTrac to stay enabled when moving through areas with trees and windbreaks."
Before this upgrade, if the receiver did not have a stable signal from both L1 and L2 bands, the grower needed to steer manually. With Shading Optimization, the vehicle will continue to AutoTrac on only an L1 band signal, adding more consistency and accuracy.
Contact your John Deere dealer today for more information.


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text:
The difference between FDR's America and GWB's America.
From Andrew Sullivan.
28 February 2008
I can't say it better than this
The difference between FDR's America and GWB's America.
Posted by shadowfax at 11:34 AM
29 comments:
Putting someone in handcuffs is torture now too? Sheesh.ReplyDelete
It is when you suspend them from the ceiling by the wrists:ReplyDelete
Strappado is a form of torture in which a victim is suspended in the air by means of a rope attached to his hands which are tied behind his back, in which the arms are most likely dislocated. Weights may be added to the body. Other names for strappado include reverse hanging and Palestinian hanging. It is best known for its use in the Medieval Inquisition and has since been used by the governments of Turkey, Nazi Germany and the United States of America.
America needs to be better than that.
Ouch. Minutes after posting the below, I inadvertently performed a hemi-strappado on my three-year old while trying to help him off the potty. I feel so bad.ReplyDelete
If you read the real Wikipedia entry, it says this:ReplyDelete
Strappado is a form of torture in which a victim is suspended in the air by means of a rope attached to his hands which are tied behind his back, in which the arms are most likely dislocated. Weights may be added to the body. Other names for strappado include "reverse hanging" and "Palestinian hanging". It is best known for its use in the Medieval Inquisition and has since been used by the governments of Turkey[1] and Nazi Germany[2].
It then goes on to mention that this was "allegedly" used on a single prisoner in Abu Gharaib. I'm not sure how George Bush has anything to do with this. Come on now.
Denial ain't just a river in Egypt.ReplyDelete
I don't pretend to know how many times strappado was used, but the Church report documented at least two. It doesn't matter -- I'm not quibbling over one or two isolated events or techniques. I am interested in the larger stain on America. When George Bush gets up and insists "America does not torture," the world knows that he is lying, that for six years America has routinely engaged in practices that the rest of the civilized world, and most American citizens, considers torture.
Bush is responsible. Respondeat Superior. Even if were only passive neglect, Bush would still be responsible, but it has been more. His deputies, John Yoo, Rumsfeld, Cheney, Gonzalesm, Mukasey and the rest, actively promoted these policies, and when they came to light, Bush first denied the accusations, then later defended the practices.
"Torture-but-we-don't-call-it-Torture" is official US policy under George Bush.
And that brings shame on America.
Sorry, I'm getting pissed now.ReplyDelete
You see, I'm a big fan of proportional outrage.
Maybe I'm crayzee, but I'm outraged when woman after woman comes through the ER after being tortured by their boyfriends and husbands. I had one the other day whose face/nose was fractured in multiple places. She told me eventually that her husband took her to the concrete garage and smashed her head into the floor multiple times and left her out there in the cold.
Another had choke-hold marks around her neck and gooseggs on her head from him simultaneously choking and beating her skull into a wall.
"I wasn't sure if I was going to live or die, but then he dropped me and left."
Your average American female is tortured far more frequently and more brutally than a terrorist prisoner. Is George Bush to blame for this too?
How about the girl who was taken to a park by a group of guys and gang-raped as a gang initiation and left there like a piece of meat?
There are the countless children raped and molested each year, causing real and true psychological harm on them for their entire lives which far outweighs the "torture" felt by a couple of mass-murdering psychopaths subjected to waterboarding.
If someone suspended a prisoner from the ceiling and the prisoner died because of it, that's a crime and should be punished as such, but let's make our reaction proportional to the real and daily torture of Americans inflicted on them by other Americans.
You are making a false comparison.
If it were US policy to gang-rape women, or abuse spouses, or molest children, that would be a shame on America, too. But that conduct is not endorsed and promoted by our government, and in fact our government aggressively punishes such behavior. The guilt that lies in such acts is upon the heads of the criminals responsible.
But when it is policy to torture the people in our custody, and when no accountability or punishment is meted out to the executors of torture, the guilt in that lies on those in the government who are responsible.
You are right -- outrage should be proportionate. And I am outraged that America's standing as the moral exemplar for the rest of the world has been trashed by the reckless, irresponsible and amoral crew running the executive branch.
If you're not outraged by that, if you acquiesce to it, then that saddens me.
I get more outraged when Americans try to compare America to Nazi Germany and Palestine...like now for instance.ReplyDelete
George Bush is not all-knowing. If an individual in government committed a crime such as murder, he should be punished for it. End of story.
It makes about as much sense to blame Bush for "alleged" torture at Abu Gharaib as it does to blame him for the poor girl who stumbled to the neighbor's house for help after getting her face smashed on the garage floor.
Blame Bush is just an ignorant way to view the world. If you think a war can be fought with no rogue idiots doing crayzee stuff to prisoners, you're going to be disappointed. When you have 250,000 troops involved, there are bound to be a couple of bad eggs in the bunch. Oddly, there are more soldiers that abuse their wives than prisoners.
I am always amazed by the fluidity with which Bush apologists will shift between various rationalizations.ReplyDelete
First, it's "No torture ever took place," then, "well, maybe there was torture, but it wasn't as bad as some other stuff," and now it's "there was torture, but it was a few bad eggs and not Bush who authorized it."
That's a load. If Bush really disapproved of this practice, he would have moved to stop it, he would have help high-up officials responsible for the behavior of their subordinates like the military traditionally does, and he would have denounced the actions he found so reprehensible.
Instead, he hired a counsel (and promoted to AG) a man who found the provisions of the Geneva conventions "quaint" and "obsolete." He refuses to deny that we torture (other than his repeated blanket denials which finesse his definition of torture).
Face it: our president knowingly and willfully has authorized our government to torture.
- Anonymous2/28/2008 4:28 PM
"I'm not sure how George Bush has anything to do with this."ReplyDelete
This is in his job description: he is the Commander in Chief,he is supposed to know and anything that happens during his watch makes him responsible.
If he can't take the responsibility, then maybe he should not have applied for the job.
Same type of reasoning and responsibility dodging happened with the Enron executives...
- james2/28/2008 5:06 PM
Sheesh yourself.ReplyDelete
Nurse K, I am put in the mind of Andy Dufresne asking the warden, "how can you be so obtuse?... is it deliberate?" --
1) The man in the poster is not merely handcuffed, he's been beaten/whipped, leaving deep, long welts across his back (follow the link to the larger image in which this is easier to see). It should take you not more than a few minutes to find examples of language from Bush administration officials and offices which would make this sort of coersion acceptable if performed by US interrogators under various circumstances. Also, it has been well documented that actions of at least this severity have been carried out by US personnel in Iraq, Afghanistan, and (I believe, though I may misremember) Gitmo.
2) The poster is, as noted, not a modern depiction of current American action, but a contemporary US propoganda poster against what America's enemies were practicing during WWII. The poster evokes in my mind, though I can not say if this was intended, the image of beaten slaves or flogged sailors -- a corporal punishment that has long since been deemed beneath any civilized nation. This poster was a statement of principle by a nation under the direst threat imaginable, in a time when it was entirely possible that the entire world might fall under the control of, quite literally, evil men.
3) So, you seem to have fundamentally missed the premise of the argument -- in one period of immense peril and fear, the United States made it a particular point to hold itself to an absolute standard of principle on the subject of torture. In the current period of peril and fear we have aquiesced to accept a relative standard, perhaps best stated as "hey, it's not as bad as the evil doers."
In WWII, Nurse K, would you have been an apologist for the internment of Japanese and German Americans under the standard that, "hey, it's not like we put em in gas chambers"?
In WWII, Nurse K, would you have been an apologist for the internment of Japanese and German Americans ...ReplyDelete
Er … james … that internment was carried out and kept from the American people pursuant to the orders the self same FDR to whom Shadowfax compares Bush in this silly and historically illiterate post.
If you and Shadowfax are absolutely bent on being a sanctimonious poseurs, at least take the time to do the reading.
james' point is dead on. It can be expedient to violate a core principle -- be it torture or internment -- but it's still wrong, and not justified because our enemy is worse than we are.
Which is the whole point of the poster: we should not let the heinousness of our enemy distract us to the point that we lower ourselves to our level. We are, and need to continue to be better than they are.
Two points:ReplyDelete
1) The typos in my previous comment remind me of why I try not to write anything when I'm pissed off. Emotionalism muddles the intellect.
2) Which is precisely what is wrong with your argument. You and James allow your emotional response to (alleged) American torture to overwhelm your good sense. Thus, you produce an argument that is tantamount to saying we should come to a gunfight armed only with a knife.
What we're really talking about here is waterboarding, right? Right.ReplyDelete
Based on everything I've read about waterboarding, I would specifically choose it to be done to me if the alternative was "what would typically happened after my ex-husband came home from the bar drunk and angry on a Saturday night." I'd also choose it over a 2-minute fist fight vs. an 8th-grade girl (I've seen that Khalid Shiek-Mohammed was waterboarded for less than 5 minutes but I'm not digging around for a source).
Water on my face for a couple of minutes? Yawn. If that's what all this is about, spare me. I've been REALLY choked before and this "psychological" "sensation" of choking business is totally worth it to get information to stop the enemy.
You, a terrorist extremist who has beheaded, raped, and unambiguously tortured, get water in your face for 14 seconds or a couple minutes, and we find out secrets. I'm not an "apologist", I really don't think it sounds that bad as long as reasonable steps are taken to protect the airways.
- james2/29/2008 3:38 PM
Nurse K -- No, I'm not specifically talking about waterboarding, though it is an element of the topic. I, at least, am specifically talking about denying the applicability of the Geneva Conventions, or (for example) this (quoted from a washington post article quoting administration papers on interrogation): "Distributed under the signature of Assistant Attorney General Jay S. Bybee, the opinion also narrowed the definition of "torture" to mean only suffering "equivalent in intensity" to the pain of "organ failure ..... or even death." This is a standard which would easily allow for the type of beating shown in the WWII poster, and which has probably contributed to mistreatments and deaths of prisoners in US custody.ReplyDelete
You have been very articulate and clear, and I do not dispute that there are plenty of other evils that equally, if not more, heinous, and you are perfectly justified in placing your priorities on redressing those wrongs. However, to my knowledge, none of the disturbing events that you cite have been performed in my name. The argument you are having is simply and completely off the topic of the concern that shadowfax initially presented.
You, a terrorist extremist who has beheaded, raped, and unambiguously tortured
This comment, unfortunately, brings up a whole new barrel of worry for me. Who can guess why?...
- james2/29/2008 6:48 PM
catron - shadowfax may or may not feel that FDR's america was a categorically better one than GWB's, but I have not made that statement at all. I am merely comparing the professed policy of the nation at two points in history on the specific subject of torture.ReplyDelete
I think my comment makes it clear that I would have found the internment of American citizens another irreconcilable perversion of our nation's purported values had I been around at the time, just as I find it so now. As for its being carried out and kept from the American people, I am baffled by what that means. No specific grounds for an individual's imprisonment were given, no trial required, etc. (which echoes much we face today), but I would hardly classify any of it as a "secret."
I am baffled by what that means.ReplyDelete
It's clear from your comments that, despite your evident self-complacency, you are baffled by many things connected with the real world. There is a cure for this: Devote less time to moral posturing and more time to learning about actual history.
If you can bestir yourself to do the reading, a good place to start learning about the internments would be By Order of the President: FDR and the Internment of Japanese Americans.
It is accepted in all circles except Bush-haters with other agendas that the Geneva Conventions do not apply to terrorist groups because they don't fight in uniform and are, thus, not easily identified as an enemy in the war by the soldiers.ReplyDelete
Since we're talking about FDR, when German saboteurs were caught trying to do naughty stuff for the enemy on US soil during WWII (a parallel could be drawn for al-Quaida on US soil), FDR had them tried in a single trial without appeal and executed because, essentially, they were working for the enemy out of uniform and could be tried as war criminals.
In fact, Bush supposedly followed FDR's example with this tribunal system which get liberals' undies in a bunch.
By the Geneva Conventions, you may be killed by firing squad if you are captured out of uniform. If you're in a mosque firing at American troops and we capture you in your street clothes, then we may kill you by firing squad per Geneva Conventions. Sorry.
It's a dicey situation when you try to figure out who in a village in Afghanistan is just there because that's where they live and who is fighting for the enemy out of uniform since terrorists/insurgents don't have uniforms nor any way to readily identify them.
Hi, Dr Shadowfax. I'm an avid reader of your blog, and I may have a little to contribute to this discussion. I tried submitting a comment earlier, but I think I screwed it up. If this is a (sort of) a duplicate, I apologize.ReplyDelete
I'm a former member of the US military. Uncle Sam thought I was one of those folks with a "high risk of capture" so he sent me to a very uncomfortable school in Maine called SERE (Level C, as a matter of fact). As such, I have a passing familiarity with the Geneva Conventions and the Laws of War.
Please note - this is not a statement of morals or values, just a quick clarification of terms for those of you who are citing the Geneva Conventions.
Here it is, folks - the GCs do not apply to most of the people we capture.
The The 3rd GC Article 4 details who can be a prisoner of war. The 4th GC details the treatment of civilians. Go ahead and look it up - I won't bore you by re-typing them here.
The biggest reason is that the folks we capture DO NOT FOLLOW the Laws of Armed conflict (LOAC). The LOAC is applicable to every person in the Theater of Operations, whether civilian or military. I highly encourage you to look up the LOAC from an objective source and do some reading.
At the end of almost every Article in the GCs, it states something to the effect of these people are protected, provided their conduct has been according to the LOAC. I assure you - many insurgents that are captured were not abiding by these strictures.
Also, it is important to remember that these people have been CAPTURED, not arrested. The two concepts are very different. Combat operations are not the same thing as police cruising the block. In many ways, criminals in the US have many more rights and priviledges than someone captured on a battlefield. I think this is counter-intuitive to people who are used to authority telling them, "You have the right to remain silent." In fact, even legally recognized POW/EPWs do not have the right to remain silent.
The Geneva Conventions are badly in need of revision. They are not modern enough to deal with the 4th Generation Warfare environment. While they are noble in principle, there are things that occur in 4GW that the authors could not have predicted. In my humble opinion, the GCs are not very good tools to use in an argument about people who fight in ways they don't cover.
I hope my original comment shows up out of the blue, as it was much more detailed.
Savage Henry,ReplyDelete
Isn't torture prohibited by any contracting state in any circumstances? I thought torture was one of the very few things that applies all of the time.
jimii -ReplyDelete
The way it was explained to me in SERE was that I had to abide by all of the ROE and Geneva Conventions to expect the protections set forth in them. If I did not, I could expect to be treated like a criminal under the laws of whatever nation caught me, which basically means having my head cut off and the video posted on You Tube.
"Look mom! No head!"
When you use the term "illegal", what set of laws are you referring to? If something is not prohibited under the GC but is against the law of a country it can still be considered illegal, no?
My point was that there seem to be better laws to argue the relative illegality of torture than the Geneva Conventions. The GC needs to be updated, badly.
I'm not an attorney. I'm just a beat up old grunt who traded in his rifle for an X-Ray machine.
Savage henry,ReplyDelete
Thanks for a thoughtful response. Just to be clear, I never claimed that the GC was controlling legal authority, just that an administration which derided the GC as "quaint" (an addition to other actions) created an atmosphere in which torture was somewhere between tacitly permitted to actively promoted (we may never know which).
For that matter, it seems as if much of the objectionable techniques were carried out by "OGAs" which presumably refer to the CIA and the like. I have no clue whatsoever what the legal authority is for those operations, and what legal restraints there are on their behavior.
There was an effort recently to make the US Army Field Manual the standard for US personnel performing interrogations. I believe it was obstructed by the republicans, with McCain absent (correct me if I misremember). Pity, if true.
- james3/01/2008 10:16 AM
Durn! I skimmed the relevant conventions this morning and I was beaten to the punch, as I was just about to cite GC III, Article IV, myself, and with much the same commentary regarding the LOAC. Thanks Savage Henry for the insights, and especially for the measured tone.ReplyDelete
I was going to add that it is the inapplicability of the definition of "belligerents" in the GCs to the majority of enemy combatants in Iraq and Afghanistan that probably leads Gonzales to call the GCs "quaint."
SH, I think I understand your point that they are a poor standard to apply to modern conditions. But, I'm hard pressed to imagine any updating of the conventions or an equivalent international moral standard that would repudiate the strictures against abuse/torture of prisoners (whether to elicit information or otherwise), even those members of a combatant force that did not observe those standards themselves. I think the GCs are relevant in their expressions of established and hallowed moral limits to the actions of "civilized" nations, and I think that one of those hard limits is torture.
Savage Henry, if you don't mind, a couple questions? --
these people have been CAPTURED, not arrested
How do you relate these terms to those prisoners taken, for example, based on testimony provided for a bounty? Or those taken when patroling/raiding a residence or other location, not necessarily in response to an actual attack or firefight. How does/should policy regarding prisoners differentiate between "suspected" and "known" enemies?
the GCs do not apply to most of the people we capture
Perhaps you are merely being circumspect, but how many would you say are "most"? My reading of Art. IV makes it seem plausible that members of various militias, the Taliban, and other "official" enemy forces when targeting coalition forces as opposed to bombing markets, might be recognized combatants.
even legally recognized POW/EPWs do not have the right to remain silent
I certainly wouldn't compare the arrest of a civilian domestic suspect in a normal crime to a POW. Miranda rights and the like are clearly a different subject. Does _not_ having the "right to remain silent" equate to the right of the interrogators to elicit information by any means desired? I mean, doesn't a legally recognized POW supposedly have the "right" to only provide the ole "name rank and serial number"?
nurse, catron, anyone else - without diverging into tangential threads, to what standard should the United States hold itself with regards to physical abuse/torture/treatment of prisoners? I believe that the administration has made it clear in principle that extremes of physical and psychological abuse are acceptable and that these statements have led directly and indirectly to occassions of such abuses being put into practice. I make no claims as to how common this is, how greater or lesser it is than other evils, how it does or does not impugn the character of good men and women of conscience who have not participated in such abuses. That, I believe, was the instigating concern of this thread, and the one that I am curious to resolve.
Dr. Shadowfax -ReplyDelete
Perhaps "quaint" is a word that has too many negative connotations for you to accept it. I don't think anyone can deny that the GCs are woefully out of date, though. Most of the laws don't take into account many of the gray areas that appeared when armed conflict evolved from 3GW to 4GW. They work fairly well for most types of asymmetric warfare, but not what's going on these days. It is in our interest to define and codify these gray areas, at the very least to deny our enemies whatever advantage they gain from appearing to be victims of the Great Satan.
Regarding another point you made - I won't talk about current intelligence gathering techniques in an open internet forum.
Also, I'm sure you will recognize there are many reasons organizations resist Standard Operating Procedures thrust upon them by outside organizations, and not all of them are political. JHACO, anyone?
James and Nurse K:
You are both correct in citing Article IV, but it's also the fact that none of the groups we operated against after March of 2004 abided by the LOAC. IEDs in a marketplace make you a criminal, not a belligerent. Minimizing civilian casualties is a fundamental tenet of the LOAC.
You are correct with the name, rank, and sevice number comment. It's a small difference, but the easiest one I could think of to differentiate between civilian and military prisoners.
As far as "known" vs. "suspected" informants HUMINT and SIGINT and probably some other things I don't know about work hand in hand to verify and provide context for information. Once again, I'm not going to say more. I wasn't some kind of Special Forces Operator - I don't want to make anyone think that, but I do have buddies still over there and I don't want to make their jobs any harder.
When you say "I'm hard pressed to imagine any updating of the conventions or an equivalent international moral standard ...etc" you are touching on the issue that makes the current conflict so difficult. No one has had to prosecute a campaign like the one we are pursuing. 4GW is so new, so dynamic, that we are being forced to figure it out as we go along. The military, National Intelligence Services, NGOs, US AID, and so many other agencies are having to work in very close coordination these days.
Warfare and the projection of power is more complex today than it ever has been, and no one has all the answers. By the time we do figure it out, it will be obsolete.
I wish we would institute an Apollo scale project to develop alternate energy sources, get off oil, and leave the Middle East to rot. If we did that, the Middle East would soon have the strategic signifigance of West Africa, i.e. none.
Fighting in the desert sucks.
To what standard should the United States hold itself with regards to physical abuse/torture/treatment of prisoners?ReplyDelete
All "standards" would be arbitrary and open to interpretation.
The level of interrogation should be proportional to the value of the person as an intelligence source.
Any form of assault that would be considered a felony in the US should be avoided. Assaults that result in fracture of bones, burns to the skin, poisonings, cigarette burns, amputations, dislocated shoulders are felonies, for example, but a slap across the face wouldn't be. Other injuries that have the potential to cause serious harm, such as kneeing someone in the gut or smashing someone's head into a wall as hard as they can, should be avoided.
Things like humiliation might be very valuable when used against chauvenistic terrorists, and should be permitted. I'm not saying they should have to run naked through the prison, but maybe put on a ladies' dress every day until they talk. Psychological "abuse" should be reviewed prior to be administered and should be considered effective at gaining intelligence, not just used to humiliate for its own sake.
Anyone who is captured should receive basic health care.
People should not be denied food/water for long periods of time. The food does not have to be halal nor tasty.
- Anonymous3/01/2008 4:18 PM
So what you're saying Nurse K is that its ok for the military acting on behalf of the government to inflict pain and suffering (and humiliation, i could list more effects)on people SUSPECTED of a crime, but its not ok for individuals to perform the same acts on each other as private citizens?ReplyDelete
I'm also under the impression that torture is not an effective means of gathering information - after all if you are in that much pain, fear and distress you will say anything to make it stop.
As for waterboading, its far far from just having a little water put on your face....
Anonymous from 4:18,ReplyDelete
The purpose of the military is to project political power overseas.
That means gaining actionable intelligence, hurting people, and breaking things.
"Suspected of a crime" as you put it has absolutely nothing to do with projecting political power. Your point about individual vs. organizational violence is meaningless. I have done things as a servicemember that would get me the death penalty as a private citizen.
So what?
You need to change how you think about the military before you can fully understand these issues. Nothing the military does to the enemy has anything to do with fairness, sunshine and light. The military wants to inflict as pain, death, and discontent on the enemy as possible.
"Suspected of a crime" has no place in the arguement.
I realize you asked Nurse K, not me, but I couldn't keep my piehole shut about that. Nurse K - I'm not trying to speak for you - I read your blog too and I know you don't need any help speaking your mind!
Great thread--I'm learning a lot about both sides of the argument.ReplyDelete
A couple of points from the "anti-coercion" argument that haven't really been addressed yet:
1) Torture, coercion, etc--either physical or psychological--are ethically distateful. While there _may_ be situations in which such actions are unavoidable (but that's a different argument) any civilized entity _will_ be ashamed to stoop to such levels, and will endeavor to avoid doing so. If you can't agree with this point, I don't see any possibility of rational discussion.
2) Torture (or whatever you want to call it) is a notoriously unreliable way to get information. Yes, a skilled interrogator will eventually learn everything a subject has to reveal, but that intelligence will be couched in a web of lies, tales, and anything that the subject thinks will make the pain stop, from which the truth will be difficult to separate. Torture (or whatever you want to call it) is therefore an ineffective method of intelligence gathering.
The combination of these two factors is the basis of the anti-torture (or whatever you want to call it) argument. This sort of interrogation stains our national conscience without providing reliable returns, and should therefore be avoided. The current administration does not appear to be either anti-torture (or whatever you want to call it) or appropriately disconcerted by the need for it; that makes many Americans uneasy.


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Welcome to Lily House, formerly "On The Prairie", but now "In The Big Woods"
Please note that I am no longer able to accomodate garden visits; however, daylilies are still available for purchase under Plants For Sale. Thank you for your understanding.
A daylily garden specializing in:
**Some of the Most Beautiful and Best Performing Daylilies Available
Oscie Whatley's Legacy Seedlings and Final Introductions
Lily House Introductions


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home page > publishing
home page)
about the...)
on display)
by name)
Design in the Czech Lands 1900–2000. Institutions of Modern Design)
The publication is the very first systematic evaluation of this sphere in the history of Czech modern art. The book traces design in the Czech lands in a broad perspective, encompassing interior design, functional wares, industrial and graphic design, fashion and textile design, jewellery, industrial photography and the new materials of the 20th century. The twenty thematic chapters clearly demonstrate how the forms of utilitarian objects and luxury designer products were designed, and the ways life-style and living space transformed over the years. The chapters are accompanied by some 930 photographs of objects from more than one hundred Czech and foreign collections and archives. This rich pictorial material is arranged for "double reading": both as a logical accompaniment of the texts and as an autonomous commentary. The publication gives a comprehensive overview of "the century of design" in the Czech lands, of the manifold structure and network of people, associations, production entities and other institutions engaged in design in the past and present, as well as a glimpse into their lives through objects that constitute the cultural memory and identity of our society. The last chapter of the publication provides the profiles of more than three hundred design institutions and maps their frequently dramatic fates in the 20th century. Among the list of institutions, discussed by the individual authors, particular mention should be made of the art cooperative Artěl, the unique Cubist-style output produced by the Prague Art Workshops and the initiatives of the Czechoslovak Art Association between the two wars. During the country's four decades under a Communist regime, the development of design was concentrated into research institutes and centres, such as the Institute of Housing and Fashion Design (ÚBOK) and the theory-oriented Institute of Industrial Design (IPD). The publication also treats alternative initiatives that emerged on the margin of interest of the official institutions and Communist-governed industry. The book also devotes attention to the impact of the social transformation after 1989.
Fashion Behind the Iron Curtain)
Society, Clothing and People in Czechoslovakia 1948–1989 The lavishly illustrated volume traces the development of fashion in Czechoslovakia from 1948 to 1989 against a political and social background. Some three hundred reproductions, comprising period photographs from magazines, clothing exhibits in the holdings of the Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague and images by distinguished Czech photographers document the country's forty-year period marked by the totalitarian Communist regime that had a huge impact on all walks of life, including fashion. The way people dressed became a part of the ideological struggle and a tool for shaping the individual's new, subordinate position in society. Restricting individuality was manifested with equal insistence in fashion as in everyday life, and this pressure was felt with various intensity throughout the Communist Party's forty years of rule. It developed from the harsh stance of the official authorities in the early fifties, followed by the adoption of external forms of life and clothing styles of the Western democratic society from the mid-sixties, all the way to the fall of the totalitarian regime in Czechoslovakia in 1989.
Alfons Mucha. The Pavilion of Bosnia and Herzegovina at the Exposition Universelle Paris 1900)
Paviljon Bosne i Hercegovine na Svjetskoj izložbi u Parizu 1900. Rodine In its first section, the book traces the phenomenon of world expositions in the second half of the 19th century, with a focus on the largest and for a long time the most important world's fair held in 1900 in Paris. All the other texts are devoted chiefly to the exposition's Pavilion of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which – to a large degree – was also a political manifestation of sorts, as the Austrian Monarchy wished to demonstrate the progress that the previously underdeveloped region of the Balkans had achieved under Vienna's administration. The pavilion was constructed after the plans of the Czech architect Karel Pánek and most of the interior decoration was the work of Alphonse Mucha, another Czech artist living in Paris. His large canvases, which hung on all four walls of the upper storey, depicted the history of these lands, reflecting their strong influence of various religions and cultures: Paganism, Classical and Christian traditions, and Islam. Contrary to the pavilion as such (as was also the case of the pavilions representing other countries, including their interiors), Mucha's paintings have survived and are now in the possession of the Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague. Following their partial restoration, the paintings – whether as a whole, or only some of them, have been shown to the public on various occasions since 1998 at exhibitions held in Prague, Vienna, Montpelier and Munich. The book was published by UPM in partnership with The Luka Praha Association, under the auspices of the Embassy of Bosnia and Herzegovina in the Czech Republic.
New Edition Series of the Museum of Decorative Arts in Prague and the Arbor Vitae publishing house There has been a lack of scholarly and popularizing publications devoted to Czech design and decorative art that would discuss contemporary and historical events, and explore traditional and experimental endeavours in the field. Such books are badly needed both by the Czech public and foreign readers interested in Czech design and decorative art. This is perhaps why Czech design has been at the margin of world interest, rather than at its centre. The Design – Profiles – Key Figures edition series responds to this need, examining key figures in various fields of design, applied photography and fashion of the 20th and 21st centuries. We are convinced that the edition will become a fundamental source for the deeper understanding of the developments and trends in Czech decorative art and design within an international context. The texts are published in Czech and English language editions.


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Thursday, 25 December 2014
Audio: Naat: Hafiz Mohammad Ilyas Abbasi Naats
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About Muhammad Shoaib Khan
we are certified themeforest Developers, Google blogspot developer and UI designers. We are popular at JavaScript engineers. We are team of professinal programmers, developers work together and make unique blogger templates.
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Please click the link below to be directed to this recipe on my new site. Sorry for the inconvenience!
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Thanks, what a great treat!
Hope you enjoy them as much as we did! :)
Oh yum! I am a huge fan of anything that involves both chocolate and peanut butter!
Jenn: Me too! Have you ever had a Take 5 bar? They pretty much taste just like that!
We made these for Christmas-they were a huge hit & passed the "Daddy-test." :)
I just pinned this - OMG!!!!!
My daughter and I made these for Christmas treats. We dipped them some in chocolate bark and some in almond bark...mmmmmmmmmm!!!
Sounds like a yummy combination! Thanks for visiting!
Do you use regular full size pretzels or the mini ones?
I used the smaller of the two sizes. You could use any size though.
Going to make


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Tuesday, June 03, 2008
Shed Skin 0.0.28
- basic 'socket' support (Michael Elkins)
- support for os.{popen3, popen4} under UNIX (Jaroslaw Tworek)
- support for time.strptime under Windows (David Marek)
- options for changing output dir, disabling annotation (Dave Tweed)
- support for 'cmp' and 'reverse' arguments of 'sorted' and 'list.sort'
- fixes for cross-module default arguments
- important fixes for type inference and inheritance
- restore compatibility with Python 2.3
- many minor bugfixes
I would really like to receive more bug reports. Please try out the new version, and let me know about any problems.
With the socket support, 15 common modules are now largely supported. For a 0.1 release, I'd really like to have support for one more module: datetime. Thanks to the GHOP, there is a type model already (lib/datetime.py), so we only still need a C++ implementation..
3 comments:
- rick_777 said...
Dude, you're my hero. Altho I'm afraid I won't be testing this compiler (I don't know python), I really hope that you succeed in completing your compiler. This way we won't require installing a gazillion python modules to run a program.
Don't give up, the Open Source community needs you!
- Eric said...
there is a nice date-time library in the boost.org libraries. good luck.
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In today's business, a great credit manager that keeps cash flow moving by chasing down debtors is gold. This hasn't changed, but they need to be protected.
As a regional manager for a debt collection company, I talk to many credit managers and some are good at maintaining the pressure on their debtors and some just rely on them to pay when they can. The guys that create an urgency for the debt to be finalised are the ones that are not being protected. Securing the debt is critical to these high achievers because the Corporations Act says that if they do get paid, by instalments, or payment arrangements then by their actions they are indicating that they understand the debtor is in trouble.
The flow on effect of being successful at getting paid can be a major problem if the debtor has an administrator appointed. The first thing a receiver does is to check if there is enough cash to pay his fee, then he checks to see who are the secured creditors. Once these are eliminated he then checks to see who has been paid in the last six months. This is where the good credit mangers are at risk. If they have done their job and ensured payment, then they will often be required to return the funds paid to them in the last six months.
This is where the PPSR comes in. This simple and very inexpensive registration ensures that you as a credit manager never have to concern yourself with having been paid in preference to the secured creditors, as you are one. Having a perfected secured position registered on the PPSR means that you cannot be paid unfairly.
A client of mine that I have been trying to convince that they should be registering their security interest in their customers for the last twelve months has just received a letter requesting they return $32k. The email asked "is this what you have been warning us about"? Yes this is exactly what I have been warning them may happen and it now has.
The moral is that all of you really good credit managers out there that keep the doors open by ensuring the money keeps rolling in, get your EC Credit Manager to commence your PPS registrations urgently or you may have to return all of that cash that you fought hard to get in!


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Tony Butler is a wanted man after he unleashed a pitbull on police to give himself time to escape.
At 8:45 p.m. Tactical Unit 2 detectives Jason Astbury, Wilfredo Delgado and Aaron Bernstein were patrolling near the 300 block of Hanover Street looking to confiscate weapons. Butler noticed the officers and put his hand near his waist as if he was going for a gun while walking onto the porch of a vacant home. Astbury ordered Butler to show his hands, but Butler ran inside the home. Astbury chased the suspect inside the home where he saw Butler holding the gun in one hand and the leash to a pit bull in the other. Butler dropped both and fled the scene. The dog chased Astbury out the front door before Astbury fired a single shot to the animal's head.
"Unfortunately he had to put the dog down, but it was that or get bit," Sgt. Tony Manzo said.
Police recovered a .32 revolver with five rounds loaded. Butler is wanted on charges two counts of possession of a weapon for the gun and dog, aggravated assault on a police officer and charges for fleeing police.
Later that night, at 11:30 p.m. Detectives Brian Susche and Fredrick Bender arrested Justin Hill, 25, of Trenton after he was found with a loaded 9mm Ruger with 15 rounds and 18 grams of crack cocaine following a traffic stop on Walnut and Chestnut Streets. He was charged with possession of a weapon, certain persons not to have a weapon, possession of a high-capacity magazine, possession of a weapon during a narcotics operation, possession of controlled substance with 500 feet of a park, possession of CDS near a school, possession of a CDS and possession with intent to distribute.
In light of Friday's crime wave, Manzo said police tactical units will keep pursuing violent offenders and guns.
"Guns we take off the street can't injure or kill people," Manzo said. "We'll keep fighting and we'll keep


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Central District Health Department (CDHD) has been notified about several lab-confirmed cases of pertussis (whooping cough) in the Boise School District. The spread of whooping cough appears to be happening community-wide since Ada County has had more than double the normal number of cases, which have affected children of all ages. Please watch for a harsh, lingering cough in your child(ren) and yourself. If your health care provider suspects whooping cough, ask about a test.
Why worry about pertussis if you or your children have been vaccinated?
Even though you or your child may have been vaccinated, protection from the vaccine weakens or disappears over a period of time. Very few pre-teens, adolescents or adults have any protection. Pertussis can be deadly to infants. The best way to protect yourself and others is by getting vaccinated.
What should you do?
Where can people get their Tdap vaccine?
For more information about pertussis or the vaccine, visit https://www.cdc.gov/pertussis/index.html or contact a medical provider such as your doctor, nurse, or Central District Health Department's (CDHD) Communicable Disease Program (208-327-8625).
Further Information for Parents/Guardians:
Whooping Cough and the Vaccine (Shot) to Prevent It
Boise School District does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, disability, or age in its programs and activities and provides equal access to all individuals. Learn more...


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Wordpress Theme available in this page: First Impression
CreditsAwesome portrait photos by:
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- Social icons are provided by http://www.wpzoom.com
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167. The Shadow Heart
Released November 2012
Behind the Scenes
Dan Tostevin chats to new spin-off star Chase Masterson about her first appearance as glamorous bounty hunter Vienna Salvatori in this month's The Shadow Heart
Hello Chase. How did you come to be working with Big Finish? The casting announcement on the website said you got the job through Frazer Hines, which is kind of a weird connection.
It is! I met Frazer – along with a very well-loved Doctor Who author, David Howe, and Sam Stone, author of The Vampire Gene – at a convention [GalaxyFest 2012] in Colorado. It was great. We became fast friends, and they all mentioned collectively, 'Gosh, you should do a Big Finish'. I was aware of it, but I hadn't heard any episodes.
Were you aware of Doctor Who?
Oh, very much so. Oh yeah. Of course! I had seen quite a bit of it! I really loved the range of stories in Doctor Who. There's such a whimsicality, and a lot of richness in the stories. And fifty years of that… everyone in science fiction knows about it and respects it greatly!
I first became aware of Doctor Who a couple of years ago when I was doing a British convention – unfortunately, I did not grow up on the series like a lot of Americans actually did. I grew up mostly in El Paso, and we didn't really have science fiction there. It's not a very culturally-orientated city. But I've had a wonderful introduction to science fiction, and Doctor Who, even Star Trek, through being around it.
So how did you go from friends saying 'You should do a Big Finish!' to actually doing it? Did you just knock on the studio door and say 'Hi, I act!'?
[laughs] Yeah. 'I act!' No, Frazer called [line producer] David Richardson, and David emailed me and said, 'We'd love for you to do this, are you coming over any time soon?' and as it happened I was doing a convention in Peterborough, and so David picked out a role that was recording around that time. I did Night of the Stormcrow first, with Tom Baker and Louise Jameson, and they are just wonderful. The chemistry!
What did you make of Tom? I think he takes great joy in fulfilling people's expectations of him as this whimsical eccentric, blurring the line between him and his characters, but presumably you came to him without those expectations…
Right, I do come without those preconceptions. I think he is definitely a national treasure! As is Sylvester McCoy. In such different ways, I think.
Tom is, from what I could see in one day of working with each of them, a little more difficult to pin down. He's definitely more mysterious. It would be very difficult for him to have a role for that long and to be expected to fill certain shoes and not show that right off the bat. That is what I think a lot of Star Trek captains do, for instance; I mean, they are in that realm for a reason, and they fill those shoes beautifully.
What about Louise?
She was so delightful. I had read quite a bit on her, actually – on both of them – but I had read about her work with different charities and her standing up for causes, and she carries that with her into a room. She has that wonderful warm, almost maternal, awareness about things. She wears that in who she is.
You don't have to work at a bond with her, do you – it's so easy and instant.
No, no. Naturally warm and naturally open, which is actually, I think, fairly rare to find that in that level on someone who started as a sex symbol. I mean, my God, she was, and still is, absolutely stunning!
I like that you did so much research!
Oh yeah. No, no, I didn't have to, I know of these things!
The research that I did do before Big Finish is that I downloaded every single Doctor Who Big Finish that Tom Baker and Louise did. Every single one of them. And I was really enthused to hear the production value. They really make a rich, full world with these audios. The sound effects and the pace and the music, it all really adds up to create a very attention-grabbing, compelling piece of work.
How much experience did you have of audio drama, either as an actor performing in one or as a listener? My understanding is that the medium's died out a bit more in the US than it has here…
I hadn't had a lot of experience of it before, I'll be honest. I'd done some voiceover – I did Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles, playing the role of Janice, which was another really wonderful foray into a well-loved property – but in terms of audio plays, I really hadn't.
I love that this is catching on to the extent that it is, that audio plays are coming back. We all spend so much time commuting that I can see why people would want to download this and take it with them, and escape into the wonderful worlds of Doctor Who while they spend an hour on the train.
What was the experience of recording them like, just from a practical perspective? If you're doing a voiceover for a game it's usually just you on your own, whereas at Big Finish you had a whole cast of other actors to bounce off.
Honestly, it was so easy. It was wonderful chemistry. It was like falling off a log. We finished early. We sometimes didn't even have to do a second take, because these are fine actors. I can see how Nick [Briggs, director and executive producer] is a perfectionist – we always did it until we got it right – but sometimes it was just pure chemistry, really easy. That comes with David and Nick casting a bunch of talented actors – it was a great cast.
Nick has got a really sharp ear too, because there are some things that I wouldn't have caught and he said, 'Nope, we need to do that again'. I really respected that. A lot of directors I find have an eye and an ear for technicality – how to line up the shot, or how to make the explosions happen, or what angle to take on the camera – but they're not necessarily able to hit the emotional highs and lows, and walk with an actor through those things to get the inner light as rich as it can be. And I found that Big Finish are certainly really strong, and Nick – and Ken Bentley, who directed The Shadow Heart – were really able to refine our performances whenever necessary. I really appreciated that as an actor.
Let's talk about Sylvester. Did he share any of his showbiz stories?
Oh jeez! There were fun things he was sharing about The Hobbit – confidentially, mind you. He is so fun. He's really an actor that doesn't bring any ego to the table. He's truly humble. He's truly a human being first.
He's very sweet. The first time I met him at Big Finish I accidentally kicked him quite hard in the leg and he didn't mind at all.
He's just lovely. You don't always find that, quite frankly. Some of the actors I've been around…
…Protest when you kick them in the leg?
Protest when I kick them in the leg, yes. How dare they! I think that's the litmus test. I should bring you with me so that you can kick each of them in the leg and see. Can I use you in that way?
Thank you. I will ask for that to be in my contract next time. You can be the guinea pig. Anyway, I find too often that actors who have played certain roles of status cannot really remember that humility is one of the most important parts of life, and Sylvester has that in the most beautiful way. I just adored that man. Also, I was watching some Patrick Troughton episodes this weekend…
Wow, you weren't lying about the research thing.
Oh yeah. The research is fun! He's got such a wonderful face anyway, and sensibility. And the acting was so natural for way back then, and the camera is also really good, and the direction. The show doesn't comment on itself, it really has a lot of respect for its audience. I really enjoyed watching those older episodes – I hope they find more of them.
Sylvester and Chase
Doctor Who - The Collected 7th Doctor Previous Release
Doctor Who - The Collected 7th Doctor


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Bravery comes in many forms, but "people who made unpopular choices for the right reasons" is apparently not a common Google search term.
So says my daughter, who – for a family project about dealing with peer pressure – put together a research paper on people who have made such decisions.
Her choices are both historic and very modern.
AND she built it in PowerPoint, which is all the more awesome.
Here it is – with a blog title optimized for the next kid who's asked to write such a paper.