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FY 2012 Budget
Teachers and Leaders
Labor-Management Conference
Financial Education Toolkit
Odds and Ends
Quote to Note
Upcoming Events
FY 2012 Budget
In a clear sign of his commitment to education, President Obama released his Fiscal Year 2012 Budget at Parkville Middle School and Center for Technology in Baltimore. "Education is an investment that we need to win the future," he told students, parents, and teachers at the school. "And to make sure that we can afford these investments, we're going to have to get serious about cutting back on those things that would be nice to have but we can do without. That's what families across the country do every daythey live within their means, and they invest in their family's futures. And, it's time we did the same thing as a country. That's how we're going to get our fiscal house in good order."
Under the proposed budget, cuts and efficiencies in several key education programs will help fund new investments to keep American students competitive in the global economy. "We are cutting where we can to invest where we must," Secretary Duncan, who joined the President at the school, noted. "These are challenging times, but we cannot delay investments that will secure our future. We must educate our way to a better economy, by investing responsibly, advancing reform, and demanding results."
Areas for new investment run the spectrum, from early learning to college completion, and include funding for formula and competitive K-12 programs, such as a new district-level Race to the Top program with a rural set-aside and another round of Investing in Innovation grants. The budget also includes new and expanded programs that support teacher and leader effectiveness. Not including Pell Grants, the Administration's budget request for the U.S. Department of Education is $48.8 billion, an increase of $2 billion, or 4.3%, over the FY 2011 continuing resolution (CR) level.
The Department expects demand for Pell Grants to reach 9.6 million students next year, up from 6 million in 2008. The budget protects recent increases in the maximum grant (up to $5,550) while ensuring that all eligible students continue to be served. In order to sustain the program in a responsible way, the Administration proposes saving billions, by eliminating a provision that enables certain students to receive two Pell Grants in a single year and eliminating subsidies for graduate students with loans.
The budget also consolidates 38 K-12 programs into 11 funding streams and eliminates 13 programs that either duplicate state or local programs or have simply not had a significant measurable impact.
Highlights of the budget include:
- $350 million for a new Early Learning Challenge Fund;
- $300 million for a new Title I Rewards program and $250 million more for special education state formula grants;
- $54 million more to turn around low-performing schools (for a total of $600 million);
- $900 million for a new round of Race to the Top grants;
- $300 million for a new round of Investing in Innovation grants;
- $150 million for the Promise Neighborhoods program, which integrates educational and social services in targeted communities;
- $100 million more for 21st Century Community Learning Centers (for a total of $1.27 billion);
- $175 million in competitive grants to boost college completion;
- $4.3 billion for teacher and leader preparation programs (see more below); and
- $90 million for a new research and development program (see more below) and $60 million more for research and evaluation programs at the Institute of Education Sciences (IES).
Want to dig deeper? Among the resources available online are a press release; the budget summary; state-by-state tables showing how funds would be distributed under formula-based and selected student aid programs; and fact sheets on cross-cutting issues, such as accelerating the use of educational technology, improving science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education, and supporting rural education. Furthermore, you can read the transcript, view the PowerPoint presentation, and watch the video from the Department's stakeholders forum and listen to the Department's conference call with the national media.
Meanwhile, on The Hill's Congress Blog, the Secretary directly addressed the issue of formula versus competitive funding. "The President's proposal to fix the No Child Left Behind Act focuses on schools and students at-risk and on meaningful reforms that will help these students succeed.... He does not want those programs dedicated to at-risk students to become competitive. And, he does not want to reduce the funds distributed by formula."
Teachers and Leaders
Increasing the number of effective teachers and leaders, especially in disadvantaged schools, will require new efforts to recruit talented individuals; better prepare and support individuals in the classroom; and recognize and reward excellence in the classroom. Aside from a $2.5 billion investment in an overhauled teacher quality formula grant, the budget invests $500 million in the Teacher and Leader Innovation Fund, a competitive program for states and districts with smart approaches to strengthening the impact of professionals, and $250 million for Teacher and Leader Pathways, a competitive program to invest in effective teacher preparation programs. Also, as a revision and expansion of the TEACH Grants program, the budget provides $185 million for a grant program (Presidential Teaching Fellows) for states that agree to measure the performance of their teaching institutions, supply scholarship aid to talented individuals attending successful programs, hold ineffective programs accountable for results, upgrade licensure and certification standards, and provide recognition and portable certification to effective classroom teachers. And, the budget includes $40 million for a grant program (Hawkins Centers of Excellence) to improve and expand preparation programs at minority-serving schools. In addition, there is $835 million to support educators in delivering a well-rounded education (e.g., literacy, STEM, and the humanities).
President Obama recognizes that educational technology can lead to transformational progress. Therefore, his budget proposes the creation of an Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA)-Education, modeled on the success of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), which played a critical role in the development of the Internet, robotics, and stealth aircraft. ARPA-ED will catalyze the development and deployment of new tools and technologies to significantly improve student learning. Specifically, ARPA-ED will push the education research, development, and demonstration fields forward by: sponsoring the synthesis and vetting of public and private research and development initiatives; identifying breakthrough development opportunities; shaping the next wave of research and development; investing in the development of promising new educational technologies, learning systems, and digital learning materials; and identifying and transitioning the best and most relevant research and development from other federal agencies.
Labor-Management Conference
This week, the superintendent, school board chair, and teachers union leader of 150 school districts across 40 states met in Denver to discuss transforming the relationship between labor and management into a strong partnership for improving student instruction and achievement. The Advancing Student Achievement Through Labor-Management Collaboration conference opened with Secretary Duncan framing the event's goals and articulating 10 critical areas of challenge and opportunity in implementing student-centered principles. "President Obama and I are convinced that labor and management can collaborate to solve many of our nation's enduring educational challenges," he said. "And, we believe that progress more often follows tough-minded collaboration than tough-minded confrontation. Ours is not a hope unseen but a hope harbored in the reality of the hard work, success, and courage demonstrated by our presenting districts." The remainder of the two days were spent in breakout sessions (hosted by 12 presenting districts) and panel discussions (hosted by leading experts in the field). All of the materials provided to the attendees, as well as short videos on the proceedings, are available online. (Note: Videos of the proceedings are posted here and here.)
Before joining the conference, the Secretary held a community forum at Denver's Manual High School to highlight a federal pilot project that aims to increase the number of high school students who complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). Research shows that 90% of students who complete the FAFSA enroll in college. Denver is one of 20 cities selected for the FAFSA completion project. Successful completion of the FAFSA is necessary to receive any type of federal aid for college, including grants, loans, and work study opportunities. It is also a required step for many private scholarships.
Financial Education Toolkit
On February 16, the Administration released a new educator toolkit with lesson plans that teachers can use to help students prepare for the 2011 National Financial Capability Challenge. The toolkit addresses five core competencies of financial education: earning, spending, saving, borrowing, and protecting against risk. It covers, among other topics, developing a personal spending plan, balancing checking and savings accounts, understanding the costs and benefits of buying insurance, using credit wisely, minimizing exposure to identify theft, and making investments in the future through education. In addition, this year's toolkit includes interactive online lessons and Spanish language materials. The Challenge, which opens March 7, will include a voluntary online exam for high school students. The top-scoring students will be recognized at a national awards ceremony, and other high scorers will receive official certificates. The toolkit, of course, can be used not only to help prepare students for the Challenge's exam but also for year-round classroom instruction.
Odds and Ends
Secretary Duncan announced the appointment of 28 education advocates, civil rights leaders, lawyers, scholars, and corporate leaders to the Department's Equity and Excellence Commission, which will examine the impact of school finance on educational opportunity and recommend ways finance can be improved to increase equity and achievement.
The Department's Office of Innovation and Improvement (OII) has revamped its web site and is ceasing publication of its monthly e-newsletter.
According to the College Board's seventh annual "Advanced Placement Report to the Nation," 16.9% of the Class of 2010 achieved mastery (at least a 3 on a 5-point scale) on one or more AP examsup from 10.8% in 2001 and 13.9% in 2006. Yet, while nine states have over 20% of their students graduate from high school having earned an AP exam grade of at least 3, 13 states and the District of Columbia have less than 10%. Moreover, though 14 states have closed the equity and excellence gap for Hispanic students, only two states have closed the gap for African-American students.
According to the latest annual report released by the Data Quality Campaign, states have made unprecedented progress collecting longitudinal information but have not taken action to ensure data are used to improve student achievement.
The Department's Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools (OSDFS) recently announced the launch of the American Clearinghouse on Educational Facilities web site, which provides information, training, and assistance regarding all phases of educational facility building and operation.
Quote to Note
"The nation has 15,000 school districts. Too many of them are trapped in a dynamic that pits labor and management against each other. That doesn't work for the adults involved or for the children we are committed to serve. Districts and states need a new framework in which student learning drives how districts and other stakeholders recruit, train, and support teachers, implement policies, pass budgets, and align the work of reform. This needs to go well beyond our budgets and bargaining agreements, because the work of improving student learning is too nuanced and complex to be captured in the dry language of a budget document or a labor contract negotiated every few years and then set aside until the next battle."
|Secretary of Education Arne Duncan (2/15/11), in remarks at the labor-management conference
Upcoming Events
On February 24, the Department's National Center for Education Statistics, part of the IES, will release results from the 2009 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) Trial Urban District Assessment (TUDA) in science.
The Department's Office of English Language Acquisition (OELA) is hosting a series of regional meetings to engage stakeholders on what makes for quality education for English Learners. A diverse assembly of stakeholders, including teachers, administrators, policymakers, researchers, students, and parents, will have the opportunity to identify areas of concern, share promising practices for classrooms and schools, and define new directions for reform and transformation in English Learner instruction. The series consists of three common dialogues, on different dates, each with a satellite site. The next meeting is March 7 and 8, in Los Angeles (main) and Seattle (satellite). There is no registration fee, and participants may draw from state and local Title I and/or Title III funds (if available) to pay for their travel and lodging.
Also, building off the first White House Summit on Community Colleges, the Department's Office of Vocational and Adult Education (OVAE) is sponsoring one-day community college regional summits in Philadelphia (February 28), Houston (March 9), Indianapolis (March 23), and San Diego (April 15) and a virtual community college symposium the week of April 25, to bring together community college leaders, students, faculty, business leaders, philanthropic organizations, and other workforce development experts to discuss the role that community colleges play in efforts to increase the number of college graduates and prepare graduates to lead today's workforce.
OSDFS will host its National Conference (theme: "Making the Connection: Creating and Maintaining Conditions for Learning") August 8-10 at the Gaylord National Resort in suburban Washington, D.C.
Over the next two weeks, the Department will exhibit at the Future Educators Association's Conference in Atlanta (February 18-20), the National Association of Independent Schools' Conference near Washington, D.C. (February 23-25), the Beyond School Hours Conference in Atlanta (February 23-26), and the National Association of Secondary School Principals' Conference in San Francisco (February 24-27). If you are attending any of these events, please stop by the Department's booth.
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To be added or removed from distribution, or submit comments (we welcome your feedback!), please contact Adam Honeysett. Or, visit http://www2.ed.gov/news/newsletters/edreview/index.html.
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text: Written by weimiaow13May, 2019 Since women have "internalized the thin ideal" from soci ial media, they develop a negative relationship with their bodies. This often leads th em to engage in "fat talk"-resulting in much lower self-esteem, Shen added. Ye, from Hangzhou, who works as an accountant for Silergy Corp, said more than 90 percent of her colleagues in the finance department are women, ranging in age from the early 20s to late 40s. Some have families, while others are singl e or just "jump into" romantic relations. But all of them have varying degrees of dissatisfaction with their body shape. "Every woman in our office is unhappy with at least one part of her b ody. One of them might say her face is too round, while others are unhappy with their arms when we sit together and gossip," said Ye, who weighs 48 kg but frowns as she looks at the shape of her thighs. "I have often thought I would be more attractive if my thighs were thinner," she said, a dding that one of her colleagues had not eaten dinner for at least two years in order to stay slim. www.qianpadcl.com

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Travers Stakes at Saratoga
Field & Odds are set for the 150th running of the $1,250,000 Travers Stakes which will be held on Saturday, August 24 at Saratoga Race Course.
Instant access for Aqueduct Race Results, Entries, Post Positions, Payouts, Jockeys, Scratches, Conditions & Purses for February 04, 2016
Aqueduct Racetrack, known as the Big A, is a thoroughbred horse-racing facility located in the neighborhood of Ozone Park in the New York City borough of Queens. It is typically active for racing from November through April.
Aqueduct Track Info Thoroughbred Racing
110-00 Rockaway Blvd, Ozone Park, NY US


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Customized TV Listings are available here: www.latimes.com/tvtimes
Click here to download TV listings for the week of Nov. 3 - 9, 2013 in PDF format
NCIS A family emergency forces Gibbs (Mark Harmon) to leave in the middle of a case in this new episode. 8 p.m. CBS
The Biggest Loser The contestants participate in a challenge in a pumpkin patch full of candy, cash and a huge prize in this new episode. 8 p.m. NBC
The Originals Klaus (Joseph Morgan) takes drastic steps to protect Hayley (Phoebe Tonkin) and their unborn baby in this new episode. 8 p.m. KTLA
Ravenswood Luke (Brett Dier) refuses to believe Ravenswood is being plagued by supernatural forces, so Caleb and Remy (Tyler Blackburn, Britne Oldford) try to contact the spirit world to convince him in this new episode. 8 p.m. ABC Family
NCIS: Los Angeles As Callen (Chris O'Donnell) and his colleagues investigate the murder of a security guard in a train yard, they uncover a terrorist plot and must get Homeland Security involved in this new episode. 9 p.m. CBS
Supernatural In this new episode, the only witness to two bizarre murders is a German shepherd. Sam and Dean (Jared Padalecki, Jensen Ackles) find a spell that will allow Dean to communicate with the animal, but the spell has some unexpected side effects. 9 p.m. KTLA
New Girl Former roommate Coach (Damon Wayans Jr.) returns, wanting to pick up where he left off in this new episode. 9 p.m. Fox
American Masters This new episode looks back on the life and career of legendary guitarist Jimi Hendrix, from his early years to his death at age 27. 9 p.m. KOCE
Face Off In the season finale, the artists must create a sorcerer and swan for a special performance. 9 p.m. Syfy
Trophy Wife Jackie (Michaela Watkins) crashes Pete and Kate's (Bradley Whitford, Malin Akerman) party and hits it off with one of Pete's co-workers (Nat Faxon) in this new episode. 9:30 p.m. ABC
The Mindy Project Mindy (Mindy Kaling) dates a wild skateboarder (Timothy Olyphant) in this new episode. 9:30 p.m. Fox
CBS This Morning Julius Erving; Simon Baker. (N) 7 a.m. KCBS
Today Giada De Laurentiis; Hill Harper. (N) 7 a.m. KNBC
Good Morning America Chris Hemsworth; Avril Lavigne performs. (N) 7 a.m. KABC
Good Day L.A. Jason Derulo; Gavin MacLeod ("This Is Your Captain Speaking"); Caroline Bowman ("Evita") performs (N) 7 a.m. KTTV
Live With Kelly and Michael Chris Hemsworth ("Thor: The Dark World"); the Wanted performs. (N) 9 a.m. KABC
The View Brad Garrett; Kathy Griffin. (N) 10 a.m. KABC
The Talk "The Love Boat" reunion; Jack Jones performs; chef Curtis Stone. (N) 1 p.m. KCBS
The Queen Latifah Show Ellen Pompeo; Kat Dennings. (N) 2 p.m. KCBS; 7 p.m. KCAL
The Dr. Oz Show Pesticides; genetically modified crops; organic foods; antibiotics. (N) 2 p.m. KABC
Dr. Phil Ariel Castro abduction survivor Michelle Knight. (Part 1 of 2) (N) 3 p.m. KCBS
Katie Lindsey Vonn; Evan Lysacek and Julie Chu; Katey Sagal. (N) 3 p.m. KABC
The Ellen DeGeneres Show Matthew McConaughey; Taye Diggs; Robyn Lawley; James Blunt performs; Adam Lambert. (N) 4 p.m. KNBC
The Doctors Dr. Phil McGraw; Chaz Bono; skin cancer. (N) 5 p.m. KCAL
The Arsenio Hall Show Ted Danson; Shemar Moore ("Criminal Minds"); Atlas Genius performs. (N) 11 p.m. KTLA
Tavis Smiley Al Jarreau. (N) 11 p.m. KOCE
Charlie Rose (N) 11 p.m. KVCR; 11:30 p.m. KOCE
The Daily Show John Goodman. (N) 11 p.m. Comedy Central
Chelsea Lately Dov Davidoff; Jessimae Peluso; Ross Mathews; Tom Hiddleston. (N) 11 p.m. E!
Conan Jonny Gomes and Shane Victorino; Artie Lange; Johnny Marr. (N) 11 p.m. TBS
The Colbert Report Author Julius Erving. (N) 11:31 p.m. Comedy Central
The Tonight Show Liam Hemsworth; Jayma Mays; the Rides perform. (N) 11:34 p.m. KNBC
Late Show Kathy Griffin; author Bruce McCall; J. Cole performs. (N) 11:35 p.m. KCBS
Jimmy Kimmel Live Vince Vaughn; Mark Consuelos; St. Lucia performs. (N) 11:35 p.m. KABC
Late Night Lucy Liu; Zachary Quinto; Giada De Laurentiis. (N) 12:36 a.m. KNBC
The Late Late Show Kevin Kline; Jenna Dewan-Tatum. (N) 12:37 a.m. KCBS
Last Call Kira Soltanovich; the Naked and Famous perform. (N) 1:36 a.m. KNBC
amous perform. (N) 1:36 a.m. KNBC


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Each day, it takes HOPE (Helping Other People Effectively) in Lancaster 15 volunteers to make the agency flow and keep the doors open.
A faith-based, nonprofit volunteer-driven organization, HOPE provides short-term emergency assistance for those in crisis.
While they assist with utilities, mortgages, rent and food, they also provide a shoulder for hurting families to lean on.
That means its 75 unified volunteers stay plenty busy behind the scenes, especially this time of year.
But they recently received their due for their behind-the-scenes labor.
These volunteers were honored at HOPE in Lancaster's annual volunteer banquet.
Held Nov. 13 at the University of South Carolina Lancaster's Bradley Arts and Sciences Building, the banquet was a chance to celebrate and say thank you to HOPE's unsung heros like Macy Mullis and sisters Autumn and Jordan Hill.
Mullis is currently the longest-serving HOPE volunteer with almost 30 years of service.
At the other age extreme, Autumn, Hill, 13, and Jordan Hill, 9, have spent part of their summer vacation for the last three summers alongside their grandmother, Doris Hush. The girls worked in the HOPE pantry stocking shelves and preparing basic supply orders.
Ken Hudson, HOPE board chairman, welcomed the volunteers, guests, and fellow board members to the banquet.
Hudson said the recent grassroots unity of the "We are Lancaster" campaign had spilled over to HOPE through the overwhelming support the agency experienced in 2012.
"You are HOPE," Hudson said. "You are the ears that listen to the needs of others, the voice to provide words of encouragement, the hands to help in areas like the food pantry and the eyes to see the great needs of the people of our community."
Elaine Adkins, HOPE executive director, agreed, saying 2012 has been a challenging year for HOPE.
HOPE was rocked this past summer when a former bookkeeper was charged and convicted of taking more than $60,000 from the agency.
Adkins said it made HOPE's volunteers more determined not to give up.
"We survived the losses we experienced earlier this year by tightening our belts and stretching our money as much as we could," she said.
"Our volunteers and members of our community, including businesses, churches, and Scouts also came to our aid."
For example, Garris Jewelers is selling pearl earrings for only $5, with all proceeds going to HOPE.
Adkins said the new Publix supermarket donates bread, desserts and meat weekly.
Through a partnership with Bi-Lo, donations can be directed to HOPE through the Bi-Lo Bonus Card program.
Adkins said the Widows Sons Masonic Riders, as well as volunteers from Sun City Carolina Lakes, have rallied around HOPE, too. Volunteers also compiled a book with more than 600 tried-and-true recipes. In the last three months HOPE has sold about 800 cookbooks and still has some available for $15 each.
Eddie Adams, who rode in the HOPE Charity Ride on Oct. 8, left HOPE with a cookbook in one of his motorcycle saddlebags.
"I can't help it. I'm a sucker for these things (cookbooks)," Adams said that day.
While food drives are held throughout the year to help stock the HOPE pantry, its volunteers go the extra mile, evident at the banquet. That night, they held their own mini-food drive, dropping off mounds of non-perishable foods as they arrived.
Angels are all around, said Rhonda Hare, HOPE client service manager.
In the 11 months she's worked at HOPE, Hare said she's learned what giving, loving and helping really means.
"Each one of you is an angel to me," Hare told the volunteers.
Did you know?
In 2010, HOPE assisted 4,669 families and distributed food to 1,646 families. In 2011, the number had increased to assisting for 4,861 families and food for 2,137 families. Between January and October 2012, HOPE has assisted 3,914 families and distributed food to 2,007 families.
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Old school ac
Moderators: bohica2xo, Tim, Dougflas, HECAT
3 posts • Page 1 of 1
Old school ac
I saw this walking through a parking lot today and thought I would share it. This is personally the first time I have ever seen one, and it is even in use!!!! Feel free to geek out like I did.
I bought a can of freon at supermart. It had dye, oil, and stop leak in it. It also came with a hose and a gauge. Now I'm an ac professional!!!
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Re: Old school ac
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Re: Old school ac
Wonderful. Thanks for sharing.
3 posts • Page 1 of 1


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Etihad Airways and Garuda Indonesia have announced a number of new codeshare destinations in Indonesia, Europe, the Middle East, Singapore and Australia.
The Abu Dhabi-based airline's EY code is now on Garuda Indonesia flights between Jakarta and Singapore, Denpasar Bali, Manado, Surabaya, Balikpapan and Makassar and between Abu Dhabi and Amsterdam.
Garuda Indonesia has also placed its GA code on Etihad Airways' flights to five new cities – Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Munich, Bahrain and Brussels – bringing the total number of codeshare destinations to 10.
Etihad Airways and Garuda Indonesia customers will benefit further from June 21 this year when Garuda Indonesia increases frequency between Jakarta and Abu Dhabi and onwards to Amsterdam from four to six flights weekly. This will bring to 13 the total number of weekly flights between the capital cities of Indonesia and the UAE.
In another significant move, from 21 June 2013, Etihad Airways will re-time its flights between Jakarta and Abu Dhabi to offer seamless connectivity to and from even more destinations in the airline's global network. This will include Amman, Basra, Erbil, and Kuwait in the Middle East; Athens, Istanbul and Larnaca in southern Europe; Astana, Almaty, Moscow and Minsk in eastern Europe; Nairobi and Johannesburg in Africa; and Sao Paulo, Washington, New York JFK, Chicago and Toronto in the Americas.
Also in June, Garuda Indonesia will commence services between Jakarta and Perth, which will be operated with the EY code. These flights will be timed to connect with services to and from Abu Dhabi, giving customers of both airlines in the Middle East, Europe and beyond new access to Western Australia.
James Hogan, Etihad Airways' President and Chief Executive Officer, said: "The partnership between Etihad Airways and Garuda Indonesia continues to develop in a mutually beneficial way, adding new destinations, improving connectivity, and offering new customer benefits.
"Connection times to many popular destinations have been reduced to under three hours. We also offer the fastest route from Jakarta to popular destinations like Manchester, Geneva and Brussels.
Mr Hogan highlighted the strategic importance of the four new codeshare destinations in Indonesia. "The new points on the domestic network give us unprecedented access to more than six million potential Indonesian travelers and provide opportunities for deeper commercial ties to the oil, gas and mining industries in the region.
"The codeshare with Garuda Indonesia to Perth continues our expansion in Australia. It will further strengthen the Etihad Airways brand presence in Western Australia and pave the way for the airline to enter the market in its own right within the next two to three years," Mr Hogan added.
Garuda Indonesia President and CEO Emirsyah Satar, welcomed the extended network of the codeshare agreement between Etihad and Garuda Indonesia to new destinations in Indonesia, Europe, the Middle East, Singapore and Australia. "This codeshare, which was signed in October last year, has been contributing significantly to the needs and satisfaction of our passengers, and gives them the benefit of the seamless and the very easy connectivity from Jakarta to the world," said Mr. Satar
"The codeshare with Etihad is part of our effort to continuously improve our service to our customers by giving them the easy connectivity from Indonesia to more than 80 cities in 50 countries that are served by Etihad. In line with our "Quantum Leap 2011 – 2015" program especially our "network expansion program", as well as opening some destinations with its own resources, Garuda Indonesia will also add some destinations to its network through the codeshare agreement and alliance," added Mr Satar.
Members of Etihad Airways' loyalty program, Etihad Guest, and Garuda Indonesia's Garuda Frequent Flyer earn miles on all the codeshare services operated by their respective airline. The two programs are working together to introduce reciprocal earn and burn across both entire networks whereby Etihad Guest members can earn and redeem their miles on the entire Garuda Indonesia network (including, but not limited to, the codeshare routes) and vice versa for the Garuda Frequent Flyer members. Details of the reciprocal agreements between the two programs will be released shortly.
Guests flying Garuda Indonesia's Executive Class may use the Etihad Airways' Business Class lounge at Abu Dhabi International Airport, while Garuda Frequent Flyer Platinum members travelling economy from Abu Dhabi on either airline may also use the Al Dhabi lounge while in transit in Abu Dhabi.
Etihad Airways And Garuda Indonesia Offer More Codeshare Flights And New Destinations
Source = Etihad Airways


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Dick Clark was the perpetually youthful-looking television host whose long-running daytime song-and-dance fest, "American Bandstand," did as much as anyone or anything to advance the influence of teenagers and rock 'n' roll on American culture.
Mr. Clark died on April 18, 2012 in Santa Monica, Calif., at the age of 82.
Mr. Clark had a well-publicized stroke in December 2004, shortly before he was to appear on the annual televised New Year's Eve party he had produced and hosted every year since 1973. He returned a year later, and although he spoke haltingly, he continued to make brief appearances on the show, including the one just months before his death.
With the boyish good looks of a bound-for-success junior executive and a ubiquitous on-camera presence, Mr. Clark was among the most recognizable faces in the world, even if what he was most famous for — spinning records and jabbering with teenagers — was on the insubstantial side. In addition to "American Bandstand" and "New Year's Rockin' Eve," he hosted innumerable awards shows, comedy specials, series based on TV outtakes and the game show $10,000 Pyramid" (which lasted long enough to see the stakes ratcheted up to $100,000). He also made guest appearances on dramatic and comedy series, usually playing himself.
Starting in the 1960s, Mr. Clark built an entertainment empire on the shoulders of "Bandstand," producing other music shows like "Where the Action Is" and "It's Happening" and eventually expanding into game shows, awards shows, comedy specials and series, talk shows, children's programming, reality programming, and movies. His umbrella company, Dick Clark Productions, has produced thousands of hours of television; it also has a licensing arm and has owned or operated restaurants and theaters like the Dick Clark American Bandstand Theater in Branson, Mo.
But none of it would have been possible without "American Bandstand," a show that earned immediate popularity and had astonishing longevity. It was broadcast nationally (and for several years daily) from 1957 to 1989, and the list of well-known performers who were seen on it (many of them lip-synching their recently recorded hits) spanned generations: from Ritchie Valens to Luther Vandross; from the Monkees to Madonna; from Little Anthony and the Imperials to Los Lobos; from Dusty Springfield to Buffalo Springfield to Rick Springfield. Mr. Clark was around for it all.
Richard Wagstaff Clark was born on Nov. 30, 1929, in Bronxville, N.Y., and grew up in nearby Mount Vernon. His father, Richard Augustus Clark, was a salesman who commuted to New York City until he was hired to manage a radio station in Utica, N.Y. Young Richard's older brother, Bradley, was killed in World War II.
As a boy he listened often to the radio, and at 13 he went to see a live radio broadcast starring Jimmy Durante and Garry Moore. From then on, he wanted to be in broadcasting. His first job, at 17, was in the mailroom of his father's station.
Mr. Clark studied business administration at Syracuse University, where he was a disc jockey on the student radio station, and after graduating worked briefly as an announcer for his father's station before getting his first job in television, at WKTV in Utica, as a news announcer.
Mr. Clark won five Emmy Awards, including a Daytime Emmy lifetime achievement award in 1994, and in 1993 was inducted into both the Television Hall of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Read the full obituary.


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What's happening in Historic Perryville?
Bookmark us to keep up with what's going on in Perryville, Kentucky.
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The Battle of Perryville
October 8, 1862
Confederate Gen. Braxton Bragg's autumn 1862 invasion of Kentucky had reached the outskirts of Louisville and Cincinnati, but he was forced to retreat and regroup.
On October 7, the Federal army of Maj. Gen. Don Carlos Buell, numbering nearly 55,000, converged on the small crossroads town of Perryville, Kentucky, in three columns. Union forces first skirmished with Rebel cavalry on the Springfield Pike before the fighting became more general, on Peters Hill, as the grayclad infantry arrived. The next day, at dawn, fighting began again around Peters Hill as a Union division advanced up the pike, halting just before the Confederate line. The fighting then stopped for a time. After noon, a Confederate division struck the Union left flank and forced it to fall back. When more Confederate divisions joined the fray, the Union line made a stubborn stand, counterattacked, but finally fell back with some troops routed.
Buell did not know of the happenings on the field, or he would have sent forward some reserves. Even so, the Union troops on the left flank, reinforced by two brigades, stabilized their line, and the Rebel attack sputtered to a halt. Later, a Rebel brigade assaulted the Union division on the Springfield Pike but was repulsed and fell back into Perryville. The Yankees pursued, and skirmishing occurred in the streets in the evening before dark.
Union reinforcements were threatening the Rebel left flank by now. Bragg, short of men and supplies, withdrew during the night, and, after pausing at Harrodsburg, continued the Confederate retrograde by way of Cumberland Gap into East Tennessee. The Confederate offensive was over, and the Union controlled Kentucky.
I think you'll find this fascinating
Ghost tours start this weekend in historic Perryville
By DAVID BROCK
PERRYVILLE — A town with Perryville's history is bound to have its share of things that go bump in the night. Starting Friday, people can try to get in touch with the spooky side of the little city on the Chaplin River.
Terry Goode is starting Haunted Perryville, a tour that combines history with ghost stories about a town that has plenty of both.
"I have had this in mind for a great while and have really been thinking hard about it for the last two years," Goode said. "It didn't seem possible until I just decided to go ahead and do it. I want to give people a lot of Read more…
The Civil War Preservation Trust, a nonprofit battlefield preservation organization, has donated 54 acres associated with the October 1862 battle of Perryville to the state of Kentucky for the Perryville Battlefield State Historic Site.
"The gift of this land will provide an enriched experience for Read more…
Final design plans from UK Architectural Dept coming in. Now, this is getting exciting. We'll know something soon – stay tuned!
Click here for more info – http://www.preservationkentucky.org/
Celebrate Ky.'s valuable role in the Civil War
By David Trimble
Published: Thursday, March 18, 2010 6:13 AM EDTI have received the great honor, to me at least, of being appointed, along with Georgetown College professor Dr. James Klotter, as a Commissioner to serve on the Commonwealth of Kentucky Civil War Sesquicentennial Commission. The twenty-four members of the Commission are tasked to Read more…


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FYI Monday: Breathtaking Vintage Illustrations by Justin Mezzell
This post is part of the For Your Inspiration Monday series showcasing the most inspiring designs out there. Each week a new artist or design style will be presented in order to get your creative juices flowing for the upcoming week. I hope you enjoy the series.
Justin Mezzell is an illustrator and designer currently based in Orlando, Florida. When I first came across Justin's gorgeous vintage illustrations on Dribbble I knew I had to feature him sooner rather than later. His style is right up my street and I'm sure many of you will connect with the retro-inspired illustrations. The movie posters are particularly amazing! For more inspiration visit justinmezzell.com.


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NARROWS –– Galax used a big second quarter to jump out to a 27-0 halftime lead and locked up the No. 3 seed in the Region C Division 1 playoffs Friday with a 41-0 defeat of Narrows at Ragsdale Field.
The Maroon Tide improved to 7-3 overall, 3-1 in the Mountain Empire District and earned a share of the MED championship thanks to Grayson County's upset win over Fort Chiswell.
Terrance Mazon slung three touchdown passes on the night, all three coming in a 20-point second-quarter explosion.
The Maroon Tide led 7-0 on Jacob Fisher's 4-yard scoring run when Mazon went to work in the second. Juan Ruiz grabbed a 5-yard scoring toss and Jerad Brown hauled in a pair of TD passes, including a 71-yarder that put the Maroon Tide ahead 20-0.
Quarterback Austin Pack took over in the second half and hooked up with Deion George on a 51-yard scoring throw, and Brown capped the scoring in the fourth quarter with a 51-yard run, his third TD of the evening.
Galax racked up 426 yards of total offense, led by Mazon's 6-for-9, 127-yard night.
Fisher led a stout rushing attack with 91 yards on seven carries. Jordan Vaughan got back into the action after several weeks off healing a broken foot and carried nine times for 52 yards. Brown added 51 yards on the one scoring run.
Defensively, the Maroon Tide all but shut the Green Wave down. Led by Donte Peoples, who had two interceptions and a fumble recovery, Galax limited Narrows to 81 total yards, including 48 rushing yards on 36 attempts.
The Maroon Tide will host Rural Retreat in the opening round of the Region C Division 1 playoffs Friday, with the winner taking on No. 2 Bath County.
Galax...........7 20 7 7––41
Narrows......0 0 0 0–– 0
First quarter
Gx–Fisher 4 run (Brady kick)
Second quarter
Gx–Ruiz 5 pass from Mazon (kick failed)
Gx–J.Brown 71 pass from Mazon (Brady kick)
Gx–Brown 11 pass from Mazon (Brady kick)
Third quarter
Gx–George 51 pass from Pack (Brady kick)
Fourth quarter
Gx–Brown 51 run (Brady kick)
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I have purchased so many books lately (I blame all of you for this recent addiction) and there are some languishing on my shelves that I am very anxious to read. So...I headed over to A Novel Challenge and discovered some new-to-me challenges that I can join which will push me take that next step and actually read them.
TBR Lite challenge hosted by MizB. I will strive for Option B which states that I will read 6 books in 12 months, and I am allowed to change my book list if I so desire. For now my list of books will include:
- In the Woods and/or The Likeness by Tana French
- What the Dead Know by Laura Lipman
- Murder at the Vicarage by Agatha Christie
- Saving CeeCee Honeycutt by Beth Hoffman
- Fingersmith by Sarah Waters
- The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon
Once Upon a Time Challenge. I had so much with the RIP Challenge last fall and I know so many of you look forward to this annual spring challenge as well. I have not been much of a fan of fantasy fiction in the past, but I am trying to expand my literary horizons and learn to appreciate this genre. I will start out slow and only sign up for the Journey level of this challenge, which states that I will read just one fantasy novel between now and June 20. The one book that I hope to read is:
- The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly
All Things Alcott Challenge. I have wanted to re-read Little Women for quite some time (the last time I read this classic was when I was about 10 years old and I don't think I was quite old enough to truly enjoy it). I also hope to find a copy available of The Lost Summer of Louisa May Alcott at my local library sometime this summer.
By reading Little Women I will also be helping my progress in two other challenges in which I signed up at the beginning of the year: the Flashback Challenge and C. B. James's Read the Book, See the Movie Challenge. I used to watch the Winona Rider version of Little Women when my girls were younger, but I would love to review the movie again after reading the book.
Of course, I am sure that I will also be inspired to read some newly released books as well, and if that happens, then I might also participate in Julie's 2010 EW Summer Book Challenge. I will only need to read one book to be considered a Polliwog - and that sounds like a no-brainer to me.
The summer will also be spent trying to get the house in order, developing lesson plans for two new courses, and continuing with my writing endeavors....but those are the subjects for another post. Today I will count down the days until the end of school (3 days of classes - 2 days of finals - and graduation on May 14) and then I will begin to relish in this new found freedom!


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Early Childhood Partnerships (ECP) is a University-Community service and research collaborative dedicated to improving the lives of vulnerable children and families especially those at developmental risk and/or with disabilities (birth to 8 years) and to enhancing the practices of the professionals who support them. ECP is affiliated with both the Schools of Education (Psychology-in-Education, Applied Developmental Psychology) and Medicine (Pediatrics; Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC) at the University of Pittsburgh. ECP is a core division of the Office of Child Development (OCD), a nationally/internationally renowned research, service, and policy institute at the University of Pittsburgh. ECP promotes innovative and effective prevention, intervention, resources, advocacy, policy, and applied research delivered on-site in natural community settings for early childhood professionals and young children. ECP uses mentoring and "participatory action research" methods to promote the use of "best practices" by interdisciplinary professionals.
Simply, ECP forges collaborative relationships with community partners to enable them to practice and prove "how good they are at what they do".
SPECS Publishes the Official Researc... Read more
ECP Awarded 3-Year Federal Funding t... Read more
Dr. Bagnato and his team have publis... Read more


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Story highlights
- David Gergen: The Democrats have just completed a very good convention
- Gergen: Obama's speech had flashes of inspiration, but he was tempered and cautious
- He says Friday morning's job numbers brought harsh realities to the Democrats
- Gergen: Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan have a serious chance to win
As Democrats awoke in Charlotte on Thursday morning, there was a euphoric sense that they could be on the verge of breaking open the presidential race. But as they said goodbyes at the airport Friday morning, the mood had changed.
They were still -- and rightly -- congratulating themselves on running a first-rate convention. Every night brought rousing speeches -- from Michelle Obama and Deval Patrick on the first night to Jennifer Granholm, John Kerry and Joe Biden on the third. Of course, the most energizing of all was masterfully delivered by the best orator of his generation, Bill Clinton.
In a mark of their professionalism, planners ensured a consistency of themes that would appeal to the Democratic base. And Charlotte was not only a fine host city; it also provided an arena that was much better configured to generate excitement than the GOP convention site in Tampa.
All of this perfectly teed up what was to be the high point of the convention: the acceptance address by Barack Obama. What delegates longed for was the soaring lyricism of candidate Obama in conventions past; what they got was Obama the President, seemingly weighed down by the burdens of office.
There were flashes of inspiration but overall, he was tempered and more cautious. Make no mistake: It was a strong, well-delivered speech --"presidential," as they say. It just didn't sweep people off their feet the way Obama once did. Indeed, he was probably lucky that the speech was moved indoors: it worked much better in a compact arena than it would have in a cavernous stadium.
The president offered up a series of goals for his second term but even they seemed small and lacking ambition. His biggest jobs promise was to create 1 million manufacturing jobs over the next four years. Why is that impressive? The economy has already cranked out 500,000 new manufacturing jobs over the past 2½ years, so we wouldn't be picking up the pace much. And even with an extra million, the country will still be 500,000 short of the 2 million lost in the recession. That hardly makes the heart pound.
Republicans will surely pounce on how little he offered by way of plans for lifting the economy out of its mess, creating millions upon millions of jobs, and bringing trillion-dollar deficits under control. The Ryan budget is obviously controversial, they will argue, but at least it presents some concrete ideas for overhauling Medicare.
Moreover, Republicans believe they have a theory of economic growth -- lower taxes, spending cuts, fewer regulations -- that may not have worked so well under George W. Bush but unleashed the economy under Ronald Reagan, who inherited a recession and then saw the creation of some 20 million jobs over seven years.
By late Thursday night, over nightcaps, the realization was setting in among Democrats that their hopes for breaking open the election had probably fallen short. When they woke up Friday morning and heard the new jobs report, they knew for sure.
Not only were the numbers a sharp disappointment, but they also showed how tough life has become for so many Americans. In the past month, for every person who found a job, almost four people gave up hope and left the work force. The percentage of people in the work force today is the lowest in more than three decades -- and that is three years after the recovery supposedly began.
What all of this boils down to is this: The Democrats have just completed a very good convention. They may not have brought over many undecideds, but they probably raised the enthusiasm level among key constituencies, especially women. Moreover, Obama still remains a favorite in this election. The auto bailout, for example, could deliver Ohio to his column and no Republican has won without the Buckeye State.
Still, Thursday night and Friday morning brought some harsh realities to Charlotte. Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan have a serious chance to win this. Underlying economic conditions are working in their favor and with the new jobs report, it is easier to make the election a referendum on the past few years. And they have tons of cash to pour into the fall.
Both sides are thus settling in for a long, tough fight -- and waiting to see each other at the October debates.
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During the 2008 credit crisis, asset prices fell and the prospect of a general deflation was the biggest worry. Today, deflationary fears are still present but so is the threat of out-of-control inflation. Will inflation become public enemy number one? How bad will it get? Let's evaluate these questions.
Measuring Inflation
The Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U) is a closely followed indicator that benchmarks the average change in retail prices for a basket of over 200 categories of assorted goods and services. Changes in the CPI affect Social Security payments of more than 50 million Americans along with recipients of food stamps. While it isn't the only inflation yardstick, the CPI is arguably the broadest and most influential measure of nationwide inflation.
"There were numerous changes made to how CPI is determined in the 1980s and 1990s," states Daryl Montgomery, author of Inflation Investing: A Guide for the 2010s. "All of these changes lowered the reported inflation rate. If the CPI number is calculated the same way over time, a very different recent history of inflation emerges. Inflation was actually around 13 percent at the commodity peak in 2008."
The May CPI figures showed a gain of 3.6 percent over the past 12 months, before seasonal adjustments. Other subcategories like the energy index increased 21.5 percent and the food index has risen 3.5 percent. All of these figures have been rising in recent months.
Broadly diversified commodities are confirming the trend of higher prices too.
The GreenHaven Continuous Commodity Index Fund (GCC) is ahead by 34.75 percent over the past year. GCC follows an equal-weighted index of 17 commodities that are averaged across the futures curve six months out. The fund has significant exposure to grains, livestock, energy and soft commodities. In addition, GCC is rebalanced each day in order to maintain each commodity's weight as close to 1/17th of the total as possible.
Even with a recent pullback in gasoline and food prices, commodities are higher compared to early 2010.
"Many people tell me they are buying cereal and Triscuits, paying the same price per unit — but noticing the box sizes have shrunk. And the free prize in the cereal box? Certainly, that is just a childhood memory," notes Joseph G. Witthohn, CFA with the Investment Strategy Group at Janney Montgomery Scott.
It's the Dollar
With the dollar slumping, more people are finally making the connection to this particular trend and more expensive goods. Since nearly all major commodities are priced in U.S. dollars, declines in the dollar will automatically make commodities more expensive. And the increasing number of new dollars printed continues to dog the dollar's recovery.
"Inflation in the 2000s will be much worse than in the 1970s because the current amount of money printing is way beyond anything that happened back then," argues Montgomery. He projects there will be up to a 10-year lag from when the maximum amount of monetary stimulus takes place and the peak inflation rate. He thinks a 100 percent price rise in three years or less is a real possibility.
While it's difficult to foresee whether inflation will surge that much, it's a far cry from what the Federal Reserve expects. The Fed projects inflation of less than 2 percent for each of the next three years. At the same time, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke acknowledged the danger of inflationary pressures. In his testimony to Congress earlier in the year he admitted, "Sustained rises in the prices of oil or other commodities would represent a threat both to economic growth and to overall price stability."
Portfolio Strategies
What's the best way to build an investment portfolio for the threat of higher inflation? "Ultimately, hedging inflation's risk over time requires using a mix of assets, since any one asset class has its own set of pros and cons as a defense against inflation," says Jim Picerno, editor of CapitalSpectator.com and author of Dynamic Asset Allocation.
Let's analyze a few ETF strategies that hedge against inflation.
Dividend Paying Stocks
If equity returns aren't going to be as high as before, that means dividends will play a larger role in the total return that investors receive. In this regard, investing in stocks with rising dividends is the way to capitalize. "A good way to invest this way is by purchasing ETFs that only own stocks with a long history of rising dividends, says Witthohn.
Two ETFs that fit this description are the Vanguard Dividend Appreciation Fund (VIG) and SPDRs S&P Dividend ETF (SDY). VIG is based on the Mergent Dividend Achievers Index, which buys U.S.-based stocks that have raised dividends for at least 10 consecutive years. SDY follows the S&P High Yield Dividend Aristocrat Index, which focuses on stocks that have raised dividends for at least 25 consecutive years. VIG charges annual expenses of 0.23 percent while SDY charges 0.35 percent.
Another way to hedge against higher inflation is by investing in a basket of commodities using diversified commodity ETPs like the previously mentioned GreenHaven Continuous Commodity Index Fund (GCC). Advisors wanting to focus on a specific segment of the commodities market such as precious metals can use the ETFS Physical Precious Metals Basket (GLTR). By holding gold, silver, platinum and palladium, GLTR takes the guesswork out of trying to figure out which particular metal to purchase.
"Commodities in general are the traditional inflation hedge, gold and oil/energy in particular, but you have to be careful since when you buy commodities can make a big difference," says Picerno. He cites buying gold in the early 1980s, for instance, when it was near $800 and nosedived shortly thereafter. It's a sober reminder that conventional inflation hedges don't always live up to their reputation.
Witthohn adds: "I find it difficult to determine how much of the recent run-up in the price of gold has already factored future inflation into it and, while holding precious metals makes sense as a diversifier, it should only be a moderate portion of a portfolio."
Commodity Sectors
Equity sectors closely linked to commodities offer a good alternative for advisors not comfortable with buying physical or futures based commodity ETPs. The Materials Sector SPDR (XLB), Energy Sector SPDR (XLE) and Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF (GDX) are all excellent choices.
For a broader equity play on commodities, see the Market Vectors-RVE Hard Assets Producers ETF (HAP). It contains a global universe of stocks engaged in agriculture, energy alternatives, base and industrial metals, energy, forest products, and precious metals.
Inflation-Linked Securities
Government securities that adjust upwardly according to inflation are another way to hedge. Many advisors have traditionally used U.S. Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities, or TIPS (TIP), but concerns over the U.S. government's rising credit risk means advisors should look at international or global TIPS.
"Inflation-linked bonds from foreign countries operate much like U.S. TIPS," says Matt Tucker iShares head of fixed income investment strategy at BlackRock."While the calculation for adjusting principal and interest varies between countries, the concept is the same: the bonds are indexed to local consumer price indexes in order to help protect investors from the negative effects of inflation."
BlackRock recently launched the iShares Global Inflation Linked ETF (GTIP) and the iShares International Inflation-Linked ETF (ITIP). GTIP follows the BofA Merrill Lynch Global Diversified Inflation-Linked Index and provides exposure to global inflation-linked bonds in France, Italy, Brazil, the U.K. and U.S. ITIP is benchmarked to the BofA Merrill Lynch Global ex-US Diversified Inflation-Linked Index and carries exposure to France, Italy, Australia and Brazil, among other countries. It can be paired with iShares Barclays TIPS Bond Fund (TIP) as part of a global inflation-linked bond strategy.
"Just as investors use U.S.TIPS to help protect domestic portfolios against inflation, they should consider using global inflation-linked bonds to help protect their global portfolios," adds Tucker.
Helping Clients Prepare
"Don't overlook cash and cash equivalents, such as T-bills," says Picerno. At first glance, there's nothing that looks like an inflation hedge here. But imagine you have an allocation to cash and inflation soars over the next three years. Yes, you've suffered an opportunity cost. But once higher inflation has arrived, current yields on bonds are likely to be substantially higher. "That's good news if you're sitting on cash, since you can move the money into high-yielding fixed-income investments, perhaps locking in hefty real yields for years to come."
While there may never be a perfect hedge against inflation, the time to prepare you clients' portfolios for the destructive forces of inflation is before it becomes a major problem, not after. Given the backdrop of hints, call your clients to do a portfolio checkup to make sure they're full hedged. As with anything, there will be those who are victimized by inflation and those who can profit from it. •


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In 1998, I was one of the judges of the Prix Novembre, in Paris: a prize given, as its name implies, late in the literary season. After the Goncourt had got it wrong, and after stumblebum efforts by other prizes to correct the Goncourt's errors, the Prix Novembre would issue a final, authoritative verdict on the year. It was unusual for a French prize in having a (slowly) rotating jury, foreign judges—Mario Vargas Llosa was also there—and serious money attached: about thirty thousand dollars for the winner.
That year, the major prizes had all failed to honor Michel Houellebecq's "Les Particules Élémentaires," and for months le cas Houellebecq had been simmering. Schoolteachers had protested the book's explicit sexuality; the author had been expelled from his own literary-philosophical group for intellectual heresy. Nor was it just the book that provoked. One female member of our jury declared that she had admired the novel until she watched its author on television. The Maecenas of the prize, a businessman whose interventions the previous year had been very low-key, made a lengthy and impassioned attack on Houellebecq. He seemed, at the least, to be indicating where he didn't want his money to go.
In the course of a rather tense discussion, it was Vargas Llosa who came up with the best description of "Les Particules Élémentaires": "insolent." He meant it, naturally, as a term of praise. There are certain books—sardonic and acutely pessimistic—that systematically affront all our current habits of living, and treat our presumptions of mind as the delusions of the cretinous. Voltaire's "Candide" might be taken as the perfect example of literary insolence. In a different way, La Rochefoucauld is deeply insolent; so is Beckett, bleakly, and Roth, exuberantly. The book of insolence finds its targets in such concepts as a purposeful God, a benevolent and orderly universe, human altruism, the existence of free will.
Houellebecq's novel—his second—was very French in its mixture of intellectuality and eroticism; it was reminiscent of Tournier in the evident pride it took in its own theoretical bone structure. It also had its faults: a certain heavy-handedness, and a tendency for the characters to make speeches rather than utter dialogue. But, in its high ambition and its intransigence, it was clearly superior to the other immediate contender for the prize, a novel that was very French in a different way: elegant, controlled, and old-fashioned—or, rather, classique, as I learned to say in judges' jargon.
Houellebecq squeaked it by a single vote. Afterward, I was talking to the president of the jury, the writer and journalist Daniel Schneidermann, about the fuss our winner had kicked up in the press and on television. Perhaps, I suggested, it was just that he wasn't médiatique—mediagenic. "On the contrary," Schneidermann (who had voted for Houellebecq) replied. "He's médiatique by being anti-médiatique. It's very clever." An hour or so later, in a gilded salon of the Hotel Bristol, before literary Paris's smartest, a shabby figure in a baggy sweater and rumpled scarlet jeans took his check and—in the spirit of his novel—declined to wallow in bourgeois expressions of pleasure or gratitude. Not all were charmed. "It's an insult to the members of the jury," one French publisher whispered to me, "for him to accept the prize without having washed or gone to the dry cleaner's."
Our Maecenas also got huffy, and announced the following year that the Prix Novembre would be suspended for twelve months, so that we could discuss its future direction. Most jury members thought this unnecessary, not to say a touch insolent; so we decamped to a new sponsor and renamed ourselves the Prix Décembre. Meanwhile, the novel was translated into English, and Anglophones became aware of what Schneidermann had told me: its author was médiatique by being anti-médiatique. The literary world is one of the easiest in which to acquire a bad-boy reputation, and Houellebecq duly obliged. When the (female) profiler from the Times visited him, he got catatonically drunk, collapsed face down into his dinner, and told her he'd answer further questions only if she slept with him. Houellebecq's wife was also enlisted, posing for the photographer in her underwear and offering a loyal quote of treasurable quality. "Michel's not depressed," she told the interviewer. "It's the world that's depressing."
If Houellebecq is, on the evidence of "The Elementary Particles," the most potentially weighty French novelist to emerge since Tournier—and the wait has been long, and therefore overpraise understandable—his third novel, "Platform" (translated by Frank Wynne; Knopf; $25), opens with a nod in an earlier direction. No French writer could begin a novel "Father died last year" without specifically invoking Camus's "The Stranger." Houellebecq's narrator is called Renault, perhaps hinting that such a man has become a mere cog in a mechanized society; but the name also chimes with Meursault, Camus's narrator. And for a clincher: Renault's father has been sleeping with his North African cleaner, Aïcha, whose brother beats the old man to death. When the son is brought face to face with his father's murderer, he reflects, "If I had had a gun, I would have shot him without a second thought. Killing that little shit . . . seemed to me a morally neutral act." Cut to Meursault's gunning down of the Arab on the beach in Algiers, and his similar moral indifference to the act.
But, in the sixty years that lie between "The Stranger" and "Platform," alienation and anomie have moved on. So have expressions of disrespect for the parent. As a schoolboy in the sixties, I found Meursault's transgressive opening words—"Mother died today. Or perhaps yesterday, I don't know"—registering like a slap (and I wasn't a pious son, either). Nowadays, you have to slap harder:
As I stood before the old man's coffin, unpleasant thoughts came to me. He had made the most of life, the old bastard; he was a clever cunt. "You had kids, you fucker," I said spiritedly, "you shoved your fat cock in my mother's cunt." I was a bit tense, I have to admit. It's not every day you have a death in the family.
Houellebecq ups the ante; but it's also his trademark to follow the coffinside vituperation with the wry "I was a bit tense." "The Elementary Particles" was hard to summarize (well, it's about the third "metaphysical mutation" of the last two thousand years, that of molecular biology, which will see cloning put an end to the fear of death and the miseries of genetic individualism . . .) without making it sound heavy; on the page, there was a satirical glee to its denunciations, drollery in the dystopia.
"Platform" begins very much in the mode of "The Elementary Particles," with a radically detached male narrator, a child of the information age, excoriating the falseness of the world. He boasts the "disinterested attitude appropriate to an accounts manager" toward almost everything. He is emotionally mute, and socially, too, and thus barely able to converse with Aïcha. When she begins criticizing Islam, he more or less agrees, though he isn't entirely hard-line about it: "On an intellectual level, I was suddenly capable of acknowledging the attractions of the Muslim vagina."
Anyone not yet offended? But Houellebecq, or, rather, "Michel," as his narrator is elidingly called, has barely started. Snorting contempt is coming the way of the following: Frederick Forsyth and John Grisham; Jacques Chirac; the Guide du Routard (a French equivalent of the Rough Guides); package tourists; France ("a sinister country, utterly sinister and bureaucratic"—copy that to Bush and Blair); the Chinese; the "bunch of morons [who] died for the sake of democracy" on Omaha Beach; most men; most women; children; the unattractive; the old; the West; Muslims; the French channel TV5; Muslims again; most artists; Muslims yet again; and finally, frequently, the narrator himself.
What does Michel approve of? Peepshows, massage parlors, pornography, Thai prostitutes, alcohol, Viagra (which helps you overcome the effects of alcohol), cigarettes, non-white women, masturbation, lesbianism, troilism, Agatha Christie, double penetration, fellatio, sex tourism, and women's underwear. You may have spotted an odd one out there. Frederick Forsyth may be a "halfwit," while John Grisham's books are good only for wanking into: "I ejaculated between two pages with a groan of satisfaction. They were going to stick together; didn't matter, it wasn't the kind of book you read twice." But Agatha Christie receives two pages of adulation, mainly for her novel "The Hollow," in which she makes clear that she understands "the sin of despair." This is "the sin of cutting oneself off from all warm and living human contacts"—which is, of course, the sin of Michel. "It is in our relations with other people," he remarks, "that we gain a sense of ourselves; it's that, pretty much, that makes relations with other people unbearable." Further: "Giving up on life . . . is the easiest thing a person can do"; and "Anything can happen in life, especially nothing."
The sin of despair is compounded when the sufferer is a hedonist. "Platform" is concerned with tourism, sex, and the combination of the two. Tourism is considered the biggest single industry on the planet, a pure locus of supply and deliberately massaged demand. One key appeal for the novelist is tourism's psychology: not least the central, Flaubertian irony whereby anticipation and remembrance (the brochure's false promise of happiness, the holiday snap's grinning lie) often prove more vivid and reliable than the moment itself. One key danger for the novelist—not always avoided here—is that of easy satire: tourists make soft targets not just for terrorists.
Houellebecq sends Michel off on a sun-and-sex vacation; his largely crass companions include the acceptable, indeed positively attractive Valérie, who works for a travel agency. Much of the immediate plot turns on her attempts and those of her colleague Jean-Yves to revive an ailing branch of the corporation they work for. This is all adequately done, though Houellebecq's strengths and interests as a writer are not particularly those of traditional narrative. His approach to a scene, and a theme, often reminds me of a joke current in Euro circles. A British delegate to some E.U. committee outlines his country's proposals, which, being British, are typically pragmatic, sensible, and detailed. The French delegate reflects noddingly on them for a considerable period of time, before delivering judgment: "Well, I can see that the plan will work in practice, but will it work in theory?"
Thus the primary, obvious link between sex and tourism is the carnal, interpersonal (and impersonal) one. But just as important for Houellebecq is to find the theoretical connection. Which he does: both sex and tourism exemplify the free market at its most free. Sex has always appeared capitalistic to Houellebecq. Here is his formulation from his first novel, "Whatever":
In an economic system where unfair dismissal is prohibited, every person more or less manages to find their place. In a sexual system where adultery is prohibited, every person more or less manages to find their bed mate. In a totally liberal economic system certain people accumulate considerable fortunes; others stagnate in unemployment and misery. In a totally liberal sexual system certain people have a varied and exciting erotic life; others are reduced to masturbation and solitude.
This kind of swift, audacious linkage is Houellebecq at his best; he loves nothing more than working over what in "The Elementary Particles" he called "the libidinal, hedonistic American option." But his actual writing about sex in "Platform" is curiously both pornographic and sentimental. Pornographic in the sense of taking all its moves and images from pornography (who put what where and moved it whither, until a convulsive spurt-'n'-groan); also, written like pornography of a decent, middle-ranking kind (the translation, throughout, is exemplary). Sentimental in that the novel's really nice, straightforward characters are Oriental masseuses and prostitutes, who are presented as being without flaws, diseases, pimps, addictions, or hangups. Pornographic and sentimental in that nothing ever goes wrong with the sexual act: pneumatic bliss is always obtained, no one ever says "No" or "Stop" or even "Wait," and you just have to beckon to a non-white-skinned maid on the hotel terrace for her to pop into the room, quickly reveal that she is braless, and slide seamlessly into a threesome. Houellebecq sees through everything in the world except commercial sex, which he describes—perhaps appropriately—like one who believes every word and picture of a holiday brochure.
And then there is love. "I really love women," Michel tells us on the opening page. Later, he elaborates: "My enthusiasm for pussy" is one of "my few remaining recognizable, fully human qualities." Despite "loving women," Michel pointedly never refers to his mother. And when this depressed, old-at-forty sex tourist gradually finds himself becoming involved with Valérie, you wonder how Houellebecq will handle it. After all, it is a piece of literary insolence to make such a character fall in love in the first place. So how is love different for Michel from commercial sex? Happily, not very. Valérie, though at first she appears rather dowdy and browbeaten, turns out to have wonderful breasts; she is as good in bed as a Thai prostitute, and she doesn't just go along with threesomes—she instigates them. She is by nature docile, yet she holds down a good job and is very well paid; like Michel, she scorns designer clothes. And that's about it, really. They don't do any of that old stuff like talking about feelings, or thinking about them; they don't go out much together, though he does take her to a wife-swap bar and an S & M club. He does a spot of cooking; she is often so tired from work that it isn't until the next morning that she can give him a blow job. This is less insolent than fictionally disappointing. Oh, and Valérie has to die, of course, just when she has found happiness and the couple have decided to live on a paradise island. The setup, and execution, of this would have been improved upon by Grisham or Forsyth.
Why, to go back to the start, does Michel hate his father so? This is one question a normally inquisitive reader might ask after that coffinside denunciation. What do we learn of this "old bastard," this "clever cunt," this "moron in shorts," this "hideously representative element" of the twentieth century? That he was over seventy when he died, that Aïcha was "very fond" of him, that he exercised a lot and owned a Toyota Land Cruiser. Hardly grounds enough, you might think. But we also learn, further on, that this monster was once struck down by a sudden, inexplicable depression. "His mountaineering friends had stood around awkwardly, powerless in the face of the disease. The reason he immersed himself in sports, he once told me, was to stupefy himself, to stop himself from thinking." This is all new (we hadn't been told before that the father was a mountaineer); and you might think, since Michel is himself depressed, that it might have been reason for sympathy. But this is all we get, and the father swiftly disappears from the narrative, as he does from Michel's thoughts.
Within the novel, the filial hatred is just an inexplicable given. But in an interview Houellebecq gave a few years ago in the magazine Lire he says that his parents abandoned him when he was five, leaving him in the care of a grandmother. "My father developed early on a sense of excessive guilt," Houellebecq says. "He once told me the strangest thing: that he devoted himself to intense physical activity so much because it stopped him thinking. He was a mountain guide."
No reason why this strange confession shouldn't be used by a novelist; but if it is to work it needs to be supported fictionally. In "Platform," the slippage between Michel R. and Michel H. is more serious than this bit of autobiographical leaching might suggest. There are problems with the narrative, officially a first-person account by Michel R., but one that (insolently?—well, anyway, unjustifiedly) dodges into the third person if it needs to tell us what only Michel H. can know. (There is even an incompetent moment when Michel R. gives us his judgment on a character he hasn't yet met.) Within Michel himself, there is also some curious slippage. Thus he sets off on holiday with "two American best-sellers that I'd bought pretty much at random at the airport" (this despite feeling de haut en bas about Forsyth and Grisham); he also has the Guide du Routard. Fair enough for a sex tourist, you may think. Later, a little surprisingly, he panics at the thought of having nothing to read. Later still, back home, he turns out to be an assiduous reader of Auguste Comte and Milan Kundera; he also quotes confidently from Kant, Schopenhauer, and social theoreticians. Is this credibly the same character, or is it someone shifting to meet the needs of the moment?
The sense of Houellebecq's being a clever man who is a less than clever novelist obtrudes most in the novel's dealings with Islam. Structurally, the function of what Michel calls the "absurd religion" appears to be to deliver, at the end, an extreme and murderous disapproval of the happy sex tourists. Its running presence, however, consists in a trio of outbursts. The first is from Aïcha, who launches unasked into a denunciation of her Mecca-stupefied father and her useless brothers ("They get blind drunk on pastis and all the while they strut around pretending to be the guardians of the one true faith, and they treat me like a slut because I prefer to go out and work rather than marry some stupid bastard like them"). Next, there is an Egyptian once encountered by Michel in the Valley of the Kings, an immensely cultivated and intelligent genetic engineer, for whom Muslims are "the losers of the Sahara" and Islam a religion born among "filthy Bedouin" who did nothing but "bugger their camels." Then, there is a Jordanian banker met in Bangkok, who in the course of a general denunciation points out that the sexual paradise promised to Islamic martyrs is much more cheaply obtainable in any hotel massage parlor. Extraordinary that three casual meetings on three different continents should turn up three vociferous Arab Islam-despisers who disappear from the narrative immediately their work is done. This isn't so much an author with his thumb on the scales as one clambering into the weighing pan and doing a tap dance. (Book-chat parenthesis: Houellebecq told Lire that his mother had become a Muslim, adding, "I can't bear Islam.")
Before I started reading this novel, a friend gave me an unexpected warning: "There's a scene where the narrator and his girlfriend and another woman have a threesome in the hammam at the thalassotherapy center in Dinard." His tone hardening, he went on, "Well, I've been there, and it's just not possible." He is not a pedantic man, and his attitude surprised me. But now I quite understand it. Fictional insolence is a high-risk venture; it must, as "The Elementary Particles" did, take you by the ear and brain and frogmarch you, convince you with the force of its rhetoric and the rigor of its despair. It should allow no time for reactions like Hang on, that's not true; or Surely, people aren't that bad; or even Actually, I'd like to think this one over. "Platform," fuelled more by opinions and riffs and moments of provocation than by thorough narrative, allows such questionings to enter the reader's head far too often. Is sex like this? Is love like this? Are Muslims like this? Is humanity like this? Is Michel depressed, or is the world depressing? Camus, who began by creating in Meursault one of the most disaffected characters in postwar fiction, ended by writing "The First Man," in which ordinary lives are depicted with the richest observation and sympathy. The trajectory of Houellebecq's world view will be worth following. ♦


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Latest News
ISIS joins other rebels to thwart Syria regime push near Lebanon
Despite the reported falling out between radical rebels who belong to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria and other, more moderate rebel factions, the two sides are cooperating to resist a Syrian government effort to retake a strategic region along the Lebanese border known as the Qalamoun.
The Syrian government and its Lebanese allies from the Hezbollah militant group announced last November that they'd launched an operation to clear the mountainous Qalamoun – including the key rebel-held city of Yabroud – in order to take control of the country's main highway and break a key rebel supply route that links rebel strongholds in central Syria with the pro-rebel Lebanese city of Arsal.
But progress has been slow, as hundreds of ISIS fighters, as well as a unit of radical fighters from Saudi Arabia, have bolstered the rebel forces, according to Syrian activists who maintain close contact with radical groups that are fighting to topple the regime of President Bashar Assad.
"Hezbollah has not been able to take Yabroud for many reasons," said Abu Omar al Homsi, a Syrian activist who used a nom de guerre for his safety. He discussed what was taking place in Qalamoun before Lebanese authorities arrested him last week and charged him with being a member of al Qaida's Syrian affiliate, the Nusra Front. "The first reason is that in Qalamoun, there is no (unrest) between rebel groups. There is a command center operated by (the Nusra Front), where all rebel units have a representative so we have good coordination for fighting."
He said rebels had been digging in for months in the mountains of Qalamoun and were well prepared. He compared it to Tora Bora in Afghanistan, the cave complex from which Osama bin Laden escaped when U.S. forces thought they had him cornered in 2001.
"There are strong caves and bunkers all over the mountains," he said.
The description of cooperation between ISIS and other rebel factions, including Nusra, is in stark contrast with the remainder of Syria, where ISIS has been battling other rebel groups that revolted against its harsh brand of Islam and its seizure of towns and villages that had been under the control of other rebel groups. Last week, Nusra gave ISIS a five-day deadline to submit to an Islamic court's mediation after suspected ISIS suicide bombers killed a key rebel figure who was close to al Qaida leader Ayman Zawahiri. After that threat, ISIS pulled out of a key town in Aleppo province to consolidate its forces further east, and the deadline passed Saturday with no Nusra attacks.
Homsi said the ISIS fighters in Qalamoun "wanted to fight the regime," in contrast to a key complaint about ISIS from other rebel groups: that it's more interested in pursuing its agenda of establishing an Islamist state than in toppling Assad.
"This unit," he said, referring to the ISIS fighters, "operates very well with other units and works closely with the 'Green Battalion.' "
The Green Battalion was a group that formed last year around Saudi veterans of fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq and operated in the Damascus suburbs before responding to an open call for defenders of the strategic Qalamoun corridor in November, according to activists and an analyst of jihadis.
"They have the same ideology as Nusra or ISIS," said Aymenn al Tamimi, an expert on Syrian and Iraqi rebel groups. "They formed their own thing because they had personal problems with ISIS and Nusra and they didn't want to take sides in the dispute."
That independence also has allowed them to play a key role in mediating between those groups, which are engaged in open warfare in the rest of the country.
"The rebels here have no infighting, unlike what's happening in the north," said Tamimi.
"ISIS and the Saudis are not the largest group fighting," said Homsi. "The top organization is Nusra, which runs the command center, and local fighters . . . as well as Lebanese fighters from Arsal and the north. But ISIS and the Green Battalion have fought very well and have made the defense of the area much easier."
As a result, the operation to clear the area has dragged on throughout the winter amid unconfirmed reports of heavy Hezbollah casualties. A Hezbollah military commander with men fighting in the area refused to discuss specifics of the group's losses but acknowledged that the rebel forces it's facing are determined.
"The area is very mountainous and difficult to move around" in, he said, speaking only on the condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to talk to reporters. "The fight has been tough because many foreign jihadis from (ISIS) have entered the area. These men fight to the death and are savages; they behead prisoners and don't care if they die. So it takes time to kill them all."
The Hezbollah official cited the presence of ISIS forces in Yabroud as partially responsible for the wave of car bombs that have targeted Lebanon's Shiite Muslim community this winter.
"We know the car bombs are made in Yabroud and transported to Arsal before they are sent to Beirut," he said. "This fight is to protect the Lebanese from these terrorists."


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Rolling Bomber (Hubro Music; 2012)
It's a little hard to believe that Rolling Bomber is Erland Dahlen's first solo album. You can hear his work across a number of releases; most notably the recent Nils Petter Molvaer album and in Eivind Aarset Sonic Codex Orchestra. Dahlen has a rich and vivid quality to his playing and his compositions on his Rolling Bomber are just as diverse and spirited.
"Flower Power" comes on like a scene out of Forbidden Planet. Dahlen's drum work and electronics feels someone using a theremin to buzz through your skull. It's groovy and freighting all at once. Dahlen's creative use of electronic and percussion instruments play a significant roll in the sound and structure of the album. The sounds are almost other-worldly in parts. And in others almost tribal. But let's not describe this album as a collection of avant garde noise experiments; Rolling Bomber has a lot of structure to each of its pieces. "Piratman" is an example of the combination of ethnic rhythms and spaced out thoughts. At times it was reminiscent of the solo work from Stewart Copland or even the multi-cultural work of Jon Hassell.
"Pyramid" has the experimental effects you would expect from a bustling record like this. There are ambient effects that are enhanced by Dahlen's dense rolling drum tones. It's a heavy piece filled with crunching, crackles and brushes that are beautiful and entrancing. "Germany" has an interesting opening that after my third glass of (well, that's a different story...) felt like I was listening to a track from the Cure's Pornography album (that's not a bad thing, people). This is probably the most upbeat tempo track on the album yet the perfect way to close these high-tech experiments in sound.
I've been addicted to this album for a couple of weeks now and combining a listen of Nils Petter Molvaer's Baboon Moon and Rolling Bomber, you have a deep lesson in one of the more undiscovered drummer/composer of the next generation.


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What is Open Real Estate?
Open Real Estate is a free software for building websites of real estate agencies and realtors. It is based on Yii CMF - one of the fast working modern frameworks. Open Real Estate is a ready-to-use business solution. It can increase the profits of the real estate agency and the real estate agents as well.


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Risk management seeks to identify, assess, and manage the impacts of credit risk, operational risk, and market risk on the business of city government. Risks are mitigated by having policies in place to protect:
Risk management gives comfort to stakeholders (shareholders, customers, employees and so on) that the business is being effectively managed and helps the organization confirm its compliance with corporate governance requirements.
Risk Management is relevant to all organizations whether they are in the public or private sector, or whether they are large or small. It should form part of the culture of the organization, with an effective policy and program led by top management with clear responsibilities laid down for every manager and employee to be involved in the management of risk. It supports accountability, performance measurement and reward thus promoting efficiency at all levels.
3900 Main St.
Riverside, CA 92522
Phone: (951) 826-5454


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Growth Groups
An Important Part of Spiritual Life
"We loved you so much that we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well, because you had become so dear to us."
– 1 Thessalonians 2:8
Growth Groups at Grace College are an important part of the spiritual life of each student. These are small groups of students from your residence hall who meet weekly for encouragement, Bible study and prayer. Each group is led by a Growth Group Leader (GGL), an upperclass student volunteer. GGLs are part of a floor leadership team that are chosen to help provide spiritual development for the students entrusted to them.
Growth Groups provide an atmosphere of Relationship, Encouragement, Accountability and Love both corporately and individually.
- A place where relationships are explored
- Strengthening and deepening relationship with God and/or friends
- A place where encouragement can be experienced
- Opportunities to practice "one another" principles in Scripture
- A place where accountability can be expected
- Opportunities to show support through community standards
- Opportunities for intentional areas of growth
- Love is exemplified
- Opportunities for grace, mercy and understanding will be extended
- Opportunities for outward acts of service
Every student at Grace is encouraged to participate in a growth group.
First-year students are required to attend growth groups.


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NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks jumped on Monday after a deal emerged from negotiations in Washington to avert the "fiscal cliff," sources familiar with the talks said.
Equities surged in a thinly traded session, on track to break a five-day streak of losses, as the sources said a majority of Senate Republicans were expected to support the legislation.
If adopted by Congress and President Barack Obama, the plan would sidestep a combination of tax hikes and spending cuts that many feared could push the economy into recession.
The deal, which would still need to be approved by both the Senate and House of Representatives, would raise tax rates for individuals with annual income over $400,000 a year but permanently extend middle class tax cuts.
"The market just wants this resolved and especially resolved in a way where the impact is pushed as far down the road as possible," said Paul Mendelsohn, chief investment strategist at Windham Financial Services in Charlotte, Vermont. "That is exactly what the market wants and I'm hoping that is what they deliver."
President Barack Obama is scheduled to speak on the fiscal cliff at 1:30 p.m.
"Right now the market is up 70 points, an hour from now we could be down 70 points, it all depends on what these people say," Mendelsohn said.
The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> was up 50.38 points, or 0.39 percent, at 12,988.49 after trimming some of its gains. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.spx> was up 9.73 points, or 0.69 percent, at 1,412.16. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.ixic> was up 31.37 points, or 1.06 percent, at 2,991.68.
The S&P 500 is now up 12.4 percent for the year, compared with a flat performance in 2011. The Dow is about 6.4 percent higher and the Nasdaq is up 15 percent.
Gains in Apple Inc , the most valuable U.S. company, helped lift the Nasdaq. The stock rose 3.2 percent to $525.71, lifting the S&P information technology sector <.gspt> up 1 percent. For the year so far, Apple is up 29.1 percent.
The Dow was lifted by Caterpillar Inc
While a deal on the cliff is not yet official, investors may be ready to take on more risk next year in hopes of a greater reward.
Bank stocks rose after a New York Times report that U.S. regulators are nearing a $10 billion settlement with several banks that would end the government's efforts to hold lenders responsible for faulty foreclosure practices.
Bank of America Corp
Financial stocks were among the strongest of the year, with the S&P financial index surging 24.5 percent for 2012 so far. Bank of America is the top-performing Dow component, with its stock price more than doubling over the past 12 months.
(Editing by Kenneth Barry)


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Okay. It's been a while since I've done Randy's Saturday Night Genealogy Fun [SNGF] [Yes. Genealogists are fun. You didn't know that?], but I knew it'd be pretty easy because I knew I could
Now here's Randy's SNGF Challenge tonight [if we choose to accept it]:
1. Write an elevator speech for your blog based on Tonia Kendrick's Blog series, 31 Weeks to a Better Genealogy Blog, #31 WGBG: "Write an Elevator Pitch for Your Blog."
2. Post it on your blog, in the comments on Randy's blog, on Google+, etc.
3. Leave a comment on Tonia's Elevetaor Pitch blog post. [Lots of blog traffic link love here, folks.]
Now. Tonia recommends that your pitch should be between 100-150 words. And I thank God for that because I read a few other people's pitches before reading her suggestions, and they were a lot shorter, which kind of put a crimp on my idea to
So. Here's my pitch:
Dead people like to talk. And I like to listen and write their stories down. Sometimes their stories are sad. Sometimes they're happy. And sometimes they're downright naughty [if I'm lucky].
So. Family Stories is where I write it all down. Their bad decisions. And their good decisions. The times they got it right. And the times they couldn't have been more wrong. It's where I tell you about them in hopes that they won't be forgotten. Everything they've willingly told me. And what I've had to pull from them. They're imperfect. Just like you. And just like me. But they're mine, and I wouldn't have it any other way.
So take a look around. Read a few stories. Laugh. Cry. Shake your head in disbelief. [*snort* I do it all the time.]
For these are my family's stories.


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Giving to Nemours
Volunteers at Nemours Children's Hospital are a valued part of the care team. We encourage individuals who meet the requirements to apply for volunteer positions at our hospital. Many of our volunteers work directly with patients and their families. Others choose to work behind the scenes.
Our hospital is fortunate to be located in a community filled with caring people eager to help the children and families who visit Nemours. Contact Volunteer Services to submit an inquiry.


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If you use autofill for your passwords in your browser of choice then you know it's easy to forget what your password is. As it turns out, tech blog Digital Inspiration shows off how to easily reveal these passwords using the developer tools.
Whether you us a password manager like LastPass, or you just let your browser store your passwords, your browser will always block the password box from passersby seeing it by using asterisks. To remove the mask and reveal your password, you just need to do a few things.
Right-click the password box and select "Inspect Element." This brings up the developer console. On the line that starts with "input type=password" change the word "password" to "text." This will reveal your password. While you can always pop into your browsers menu screen to look up saved passwords (or into your LastPass profile), this is a far quicker way to see your hidden passwords.
A Simple Way to See your Passwords Hidden Under Asterisks | Digital Inspiration