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THE SQL Server Blog Spot on the Web
I'm currently implementing a Service Broker solution at a client site, and it's been an interesting challenge, because there's not a lot of information out there to help guide you through the process. Here I'd like to walk you through the basics.
Message Types. Service Broker sends messages asynchronously from one database to another. You can set it up to send messages between databases on a single server, or between SQL Server instances on a Windows server, or between different physical servers, whether or not they're in the same domain. Essentially Service Broker works at the database level, the rest is handled through routing, which I'll address in another post.
The important thing to remember is that Service Broker sends and receives messages, and then your applications (or stored procedures) handle those messages in some way. It handles them asynchronously, so the sending side doesn't have to wait for the receiving side to acknowledge the message, and it handles them sequentially, so the messages will always arrive in the order in which they've been sent.
Many of the examples you'll see use message types like "REQUESTMESSAGE" and "REPLYMESSAGE". To me this is a disservice, because it doesn't help you see the different ways you can use Service Broker to solve your business problems. At my client site the message types indicate the content of the message, so the receiving side can use the type to determine the action to take when the message is received. Service Broker has a built-in acknowledgement process, so you don't need to specifically acknowledge a message, unless the application needs it. As long as the communication channels are open, the message will be delivered.
CREATE MESSAGE TYPE [//AWSync/Sync/HumanResourcesEmployee]AUTHORIZATION dboVALIDATION = WELL_FORMED_XMLGO
Contracts. Once you've defined the types of messages that can be sent, you need to define how they'll be delivered. Contracts define what message types are allowed to be sent, and in which direction. This means that Service Broker is secure in that it won't process any messages types not defined in a contract, so rogue processes that attempt to try a type of SQL Injection attack against Service Broker will fail.
CREATE CONTRACT [//AWSync/Sync/IntContract] AUTHORIZATION dbo ( [//AWSync/Sync/HumanResourcesEmployee] SENT BY ANY, [//AWSync/Sync/PersonContact] SENT BY ANY, [//AWSync/Sync/PurchasingVendor] SENT BY ANY )GO
Queues. Once the contract is defined, you can define the queue on which the messages are sent and received. The queue also defines (if you want) an automated process that will handle the messages it receives. In your Transact-SQL code you retrieve messages from the queue in the same way you read data from a table - in fact, the queue behaves just like a table in your database.
CREATE QUEUE IntQueue WITH STATUS = ON, RETENTION = OFFGO
Services. The service is the glue which assigns the contract to the queue. It performs the work of actually sending the messages on the queue to their destination and receiving the messages coming from other senders.
CREATE SERVICE [//IntSite/Sync/IntService]AUTHORIZATION IntUserON QUEUE IntQueue([//AWSync/Sync/IntContract])GO
Conversations. In its simplest form, the last thing we need is to send the message. We do that via a conversation, which is referred to in Service Broker as a DIALOG CONVERSATION or simply a DIALOG. You specify the source and destination service name, and a conversation handle (a GUID) is returned, then you SEND ON CONVERSATION using that conversation handle. The message body is usually in an XML form, and for security purposes should be encrypted.
BEGIN DIALOG @InitDlgHandle FROM SERVICE [//IntSite/Sync/IntService] TO SERVICE N'//ExtSite/Sync/IntService' ON CONTRACT [//AWSync/Sync/IntContract] WITH ENCRYPTION = ON;SEND ON CONVERSATION @InitDlgHandle MESSAGE TYPE [//AWSync/Sync/HumanResourcesEmployee] (@ChangeMsg);
Finally, you need to be able to receive the messages. Like I mentioned earlier, reading from a queue is like reading from a table, but there are some additional features in Transact-SQL to facilitate message handling. Specifically, there's a special form of the WAITFOR command which will wait for either the arrival of a message, or timeout after a specified number of milliseconds.
WAITFOR ( RECEIVE TOP(1) @ch = conversation_handle, @service_name = service_name, @service_contract_name = service_contract_name, @messagetypename = message_type_name, @messagebody = CAST(message_body AS XML) FROM ExtQueue), TIMEOUT 60000
With these components you can set up messaging within a single instance of SQL Server. In my next post I'll discuss the additional plumbing required to communicate between separate instances.
Last week I introduced the Service Broker Basics . Today I'd like to cover some of the "plumbing" - the
Great information, But just a quick question: Do I run these scripts on both servers (including remote?) And would 'IntUser' be my server log-in name?
Lastly if you have time, how do I alter these files after I created them? They do not appear in SQL server express 2005.
Thank you for taking the time to respond to my questions.
Very nice article indeed..! It's much helpful.
I have a one query :
In my SB design, I need to make an asynchronous calls and needed some work to be done in background (Inside SQL Server only, like updating tables). My requirement doesn't suits for creating 2 different SB services as only one service would suffice. Note that there is no acknowledgement required (Only one-way data push). I designed the scenario with having only one SB Service, and while creating a conversation dialog, I assigned same service name to the 'From' & 'To' clauses. Program pushes data to the SB queue and activator will activate associated Store Proc.. All with a single service. It works just fine.
Your inputs would be appreciated if you see any issues/suggestions on performance or anything else with this design.
- Himanshu


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WACO, TX — The fitness levels of participants and their intensity of exercise determine the number of calories burned in a Curves workout, according to a Baylor University study.
The fittest study participants burned up to 522 calories during the 30-minute workout. The least fit women in the study burned between 164 and 238 calories in 30 minutes. The women worked at 80 percent of their maximal heart rate and 64 percent of their maximal oxygen uptake, which is below their anaerobic threshold, so they couldn't have burned any more calories in 30 minutes with Curves or any other workout, said Dr. Richard Kreider, professor and director of Baylor's Exercise and Sports Nutrition Lab, which has studied Curves since 2002.

subset: commoncrawl


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Courtesy of Brian Switek
Dinosaur enthusiast Brian Switek surveys Utah's landscape during a road trip — and surveys the state of dinosaur lore in "My Beloved Brontosaurus."
When it comes to dinosaurs and other prehistoric monsters, even the experts can get things wrong — as dino-fanatic Brian Switek explains in his tour guide to the paleontological frontier.
The righting of wrongness begins with the title of Switek's book: "My Beloved Brontosaurus: On the Road With Old Bones, New Science and Our Favorite Dinosaurs." As most 9-year-olds could probably tell you, there's officially no such thing as a Brontosaurus. That name for the quintessential long-tailed, long-necked sauropod went out of fashion when scientists figured out that the Jurassic giant had already been dubbed Apatosaurus.
Nevertheless, the brontosaur serves as a totem for Switek, a prolific science writer whose work has appeared in Wired, Smithsonian, Slate, Scientific American and now most frequently on National Geographic's Phenomena blog network (as Laelaps). His earlier book, "Written in Stone," laid out the broad sweep of stories told by the fossil record — and in "My Beloved Brontosaurus," he focuses in on the what, where and when of the dinosaurs' heyday in the Mesozoic Era.
As you page through the book, you'll learn that not all dinosaurs have gone extinct. (Birds are dinosaurs.) You'll find out that the dinosaurs didn't start out as the rulers of the reptiles. (Crocodilians came first.) You'll delve into the back-and-forth debates that have occupied paleontologists for decades. (Was T. rex a hunter or a scavenger? Almost certainly both.) And you'll also get some great tips for future road trips in the American West.
Listen to an excerpt from the audiobook edition of "My Beloved Brontosaurus: On the Road with Old Bones, New Science, and Our Favorite Dinosaurs" by author Brian Switek, read by the author.
Misconceptions and marvels
Switek talked about dinosaurs and tour directions during an interview last week. Here's an edited version of the Q&A that will whet your appetite for "My Beloved Brontosaurus":
Q: So many myths about dinosaurs are exploded in your book, but is there one big misconception that you want to set people straight about?
A: There's one misconception that has a flip side to it, and that's that dinosaurs are totally extinct. Birds are living dinosaurs. We figured that out about 20 years ago. So whenever we talk about the age of dinosaurs millions of years ago, and how all the dinosaurs are gone, that's demonstrably not true. At least one lineage is still with us today.
The flip side of that is that dinosaurs became dominant as soon as they appeared — that the dawn of the dinosaurs sparked an immediate rise to ascendancy. The fact is that dinosaurs started out relatively small. They were relatively marginal. They really weren't all that important until the extinction at the end of the Triassic period, about 200 million years ago, wiped away all the weird crocodile relatives that were the dominant land animals at the time. So the dinosaurian reign was made possible by, and then winnowed back by, extinction. It's these wonderful extinction bookends that explain not only their origin, but their ultimate destination, bringing us to the birds that live today.
Q: Another issue is the appeal of dinosaurs: For some kids, dino-mania is almost a rite of passage. I love the idea that the book jacket for "My Beloved Brontosaurus" is also a fold-out dinosaur poster — what dinosaur fan wouldn't love that? What is it about dinosaurs that makes them so appealing, particularly to kids?
A: I think they're appealing because they demand answers of us. People have been wondering about dinosaurs, pondering what they were and what they were like, even before there was a name for them. I don't just mean European naturalists. I mean Native Americans, people in ancient Greece and Rome, people in ancient China and India. People in all those cultures found dinosaur bones. They knew that these were the remains of once-living animals, and they created stories of monsters and heroes, myths and legends about creatures from distant times. So we were wondering about the dinosaurs before we even knew what they were.
That continues now, because there's nothing quite like the dinosaurs. Yes, birds are living dinosaurs – but there's so much more. There's nothing like Apatosaurus, or Triceratops, or Tyrannosaurus rex around right now. When you look at their bones, questions immediately come to mind: What did they look like? What did they sound like? How quickly did they move? What did their environment look like? To me, it's impossible to hear the dinosaur story without wondering about these questions.
Answering these questions puts our own existence in context. You can say all this happened 66 million years ago – but wait a second: What was America like back then? How did it all change? That brings up some very powerful truths about extinction, evolution and survival. It's these clues from our own distant past and our planet's distant past that act as milestones by which we can understand our own existence.
J. Brougham / AMNH file
Experts say Tyrannosaurus rex may have had a downy layer of feathers, and probably had a coloration that was more varied than the stereotypical green.
Q: Another way that the book could be read is as a travelogue. It's almost structured as a series of road trips that you've taken to explore all these fantastic fossils. And in fact, that's what you're doing along with your book tour. If there's one dream trip that dinosaur fanatics should take, where would you tell them to go?
A: This is sort of a plug for my home state of Utah: There's a byway system called the Dinosaur Diamond that runs through a good part of the state and includes the Dinosaur National Monument, where 150 million-year-old fossils are preserved in place; and the Cleveland-Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry, a place where over 46 individual allosaurs and other dinosaurs have been found. You can head up to Salt Lake City, where the Natural History Museum of Utah opened this last year. As you drive along those highways, there are various dinosaur trackways, lots of attractions, lots of dinosaur celebrities. So if anyone's looking for a weeklong trip in the American West, that's the best pre-planned tour there is for a dino fan.
Q: in terms of the frontiers for dinosaur research, there's been talk about Jack Horner's "Chickenosaurus" project, and there are always new perspectives on how dinosaurs lived and died. What do you see as the next big thing for dinosaur research?
A: Researchers are finding ways to draw out clues about how dinosaurs actually lived, through new technologies that can be applied to a variety of animals. So we're looking at the development of better CT scanning technology. Improved CT technology is helping paleontologists get down to a degree of resolution they've never had before — and they're finding clues about bone structure to a degree that was just not possible before.
What's really exciting to me is the study of dinosaur color. It's a field that's moving forward by comparing fossil feathers to modern ones. Paleontologists are starting to reconstruct what colors the dinosaurs actually were. They might be able to identify the evolutionary advantages of colors, degrees of coloration, and maybe some aspects of sexual dimorphism. Everything we're learning about dinosaur biology is filling in the picture of how they lived in a much more meaningful way.
Q: You mentioned that dinosaurs are appealing to us in part because they tell us how extinction works, and how our own distant past might have unfolded. That suggests that the study of dinosaurs can hold lessons for the 21st century. How can the dinosaur experience best be applied to our own human experience?
A: Dinosaurs shaped our evolution. People often say that the rise of mammals was made possible by the disappearance of all those non-avian dinosaurs. That's true, but it's not just that. Mammals lived alongside the dinosaurs — things like Stegosaurus and Allosaurus and Tyrannosaurus. By keeping our furry little ancestors in the shadows, the dinosaurs set the stage for the later evolution of primates.
Yes, those dinosaurs disappeared. But beyond that, we know that we're changing the global climate in drastic ways. We know we're distributing invasive species around the world. By looking back at the fossil record, and seeing how dinosaurs reacted to drastic changes, we can begin to outline how organisms today and in the future are going to react to the same sorts of changes. Dinosaurs might hold clues about our future. The past isn't just a static monument to what once was. The fossil record also carries lessons about what will be.
For much, much more about dinosaur wrongness and rightness, check out the latest 'Virtually Speaking Science' podcast with Switek and University of Maryland paleontologist Tom Holtz. You can download a variety of VSS podcasts from BlogTalkRadio or iTunes.
More 'Virtually Speaking Science' podcasts:
- George Djorgovski on the Internet and education
- Doug Griffith and Taber MacCallum on moon and Mars trips
- Sean Carroll and Matt Strassler on physics' X Files
- Ig Nobel's Marc Abrahams on weird science in 2012
- Paul Doherty on Curiosity and the year in science
- Shawn Lawrence Otto on climate change and the 2012 election
- Sean Carroll on what lies beyond the Higgs boson
- Alan Stern on the Uwingu mystery space venture
- George Djorgovski on the future of immersive virtual reality
- JPL's Dave Beaty previews Curiosity's mission on Mars
- SETI Institute's Seth Shostak about aliens and UFOs
- Paul Doherty on solar eclipses and the transit of Venus
- Veronica Ann Zabala-Aliberto on spaceflight and Yuri's Night
- JPL's Dave Beaty on the search for life on Mars
- Shawn Lawrence Otto on science and politics
- Ig Nobel impresario Marc Abrahams on silly science in 2011
- Rocket scientist Robert Zubrin on Mars exploration
- Propulsion expert Marc Millis on interstellar spaceflight
- Sean Carroll on the puzzles facing physicists
- Rand Simberg on the private-enterprise vision for spaceflight
- Martin Hoffert on the future of energy policy
- George Djorgovski on science in virtual worlds
- Alan Stern on suborbital research and NASA's mission to Pluto
- Col. 'Coyote' Smith on the outlook for space solar power
- Tim Pickens on rocket ventures and the Google Lunar X Prize
Alan Boyle is NBCNews.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter and adding the Cosmic Log page to your Google+ presence. To keep up with Cosmic Log as well as NBCNews.com's other stories about science and space, sign up for the Tech & Science newsletter, delivered to your email in-box every weekday. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds.
This story was originally published on Wed May 1, 2013 4:50 PM EDT


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WASHINGTON - President Bush's transportation secretary, Mary Peters, with White House approval, personally directed a lobbying campaign to urge governors and two dozen House members to block California's first-in-the-nation limits on greenhouse gases from cars and trucks, according to e-mails obtained by Congress.
The e-mails show Peters worked closely with the top opponents in Congress of California's emissions law and sought out governors from auto-producing states, who were seen as likely to oppose the state's request that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency allow the new rules to go into effect.
"The administration is trying to stack the deck against California's efforts to regulate greenhouse gas emissions," House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Los Angeles, wrote Monday to the White House. "It suggests that political considerations - not the merits of the issue - will determine how EPA acts."
Waxman released the e-mails, which are available on the committee's Web site, along with his letter to the White House. The documents show that the idea to launch the lobbying effort started with Peters.
The secretary "asked that we develop some ideas asap about facilitating a pushback from governors (esp. D's)" - Democrats - "and others opposed to piecemeal regulation of emissions, as per CA's waiver petition," Jeff Shane, the Transportation Department's undersecretary for policy, wrote to top staffers on May 22.
It was not an unbiased outreach effort: Peters targeted officials who agreed with her agency's opposition to California's landmark effort to regulate auto emissions.
"Are we making any headway in identifying sympathetic governors?" Shane wrote on May 23. "(Peters) asked me about them again this morning."
The release of the e-mails comes at an awkward time for the White House. President Bush was scheduled to meet Monday night with global leaders in New York to convince them he is serious about the United States' efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. He has convened a meeting in Washington this week to talk about climate change with the world's 15 biggest emitters of greenhouse gases.
The Department of Transportation and the White House responded to Waxman's letter Monday with statements arguing that they did nothing wrong by urging lawmakers and governors to oppose California's efforts to curb emissions.
"Our efforts to inform elected officials about the petition before EPA were legal, appropriate and consistent with our long-held position on this issue," the Transportation Department said. "For over 30 years, the Department has supported a single, national fuel economy standard as part of our effort to save fuel, ensure safety, preserve the environment and protect the economy."
"With respect to California's request to be allowed to set its own standards, there are a wide variety of strongly held views across the country," said Kristen Hellmer, a spokeswoman for the White House Council on Environmental Quality. "Outreach by federal officials to state government counterparts and members of Congress on issues of major national policy is an appropriate and routine component of policy development."
But California officials, including one of Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's top environmental aides, said the e-mails suggest the Bush administration is working behind the scenes to deny California's waiver. The EPA is expected to make its decision by December.
"We're deeply disappointed to hear of confirmed reports of back-room maneuvering to deny our request," said Mary Nichols, who chairs the state's Air Resources Board. "We will move ahead with our lawsuit if the EPA fails to act in the next few weeks."
California has taken the initial steps to sue the federal government if it turns down the state's request for a waiver under the federal Clean Air Act that would approve California's plan to regulate greenhouse gas emissions.
The e-mails paint a picture of the administration working closely with Michigan's powerful congressional delegation, which strongly opposes California's new rules. U.S. automakers fear a huge drop in sales if California and 12 other states implement the new rules - which would cut emissions by 30 percent by 2016.
In one e-mail, Peters asks if she needs to call Rep. Joe Knollenberg, R-Mich., who was rallying opposition in Congress to California's proposal.
"Do I need to touch base with Knollenberg to coordinate our efforts?" she wrote in a June 7 e-mail to her deputy chief of staff, Simon Gros.
"His staff is also going to ping other members of the automotive caucus for us," Gros replied. "My staff this morning called just about every auto-friendly member of this issue."
Gros, in an interview with House investigators, said Peters personally called two to four governors to urge them to lobby the EPA. The Transportation Department would not identify the governors, but one cited in the e-mails was Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm, a Democrat.
The documents also reveal that Peters sought - and received - approval for her effort from the White House. Her executive assistant, Sandy Snyder, reported in a May 25 e-mail that the White House Council on Environmental Quality's chief of staff, Marty Hall, approved the idea.
Hall was "OK with (Peters) making calls," Snyder wrote.
Snyder added that Hall had spoken the day before with EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson - suggesting he may have known of the effort to lobby his agency. Johnson, at a Senate hearing in July, said he'd talked with Peters only about extending the comment period for the waiver request.
Waxman has suggested the actions could violate the Anti-Lobbying Act, which restricts the ability of federal employees or agencies to lobby. The law prohibits "grassroots lobbying" - efforts to get members of the public to lobby Congress.
The Transportation Department has said it did not engage in grassroots lobbying. But Thomas Susman, an attorney at Ropes & Gray in Washington and co-author of "The Lobbying Manual," said contacting governors - who are called "grasstops," in lobbying parlance - is usually considered grassroots lobbying.
"In my experience, there is no distinction in the statute or any interpretations between governors and the public," he said.
But Peters could have a legal out: The president, vice president and Cabinet members can't be barred from speaking out or instigating grassroots actions on issues of public concern, Susman said.
The law is enforced if a "substantial" amount of money - $50,000 - is spent on lobbying, and it's unlikely the Justice Department would go after members of the administration, he said.
Waxman said the debate over the legality of the actions misses the point. Peters could have submitted comments to the EPA, stating her views, he said.
"Instead ... she apparently sought and received White House approval to use taxpayer funds to mount a lobbying campaign designed to inject political considerations into the decision," Waxman said.
Online resources
Find the e-mails released by Rep. Henry Waxman
Status of law
What California wants: A waiver from federal law that would allow the state to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from cars and trucks.
Who decides: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
When: A decision is expected by December.
To comment: If you want to weigh in on the lobbying effort against California's greenhouse gas emissions law, call the U.S. Department of Transportation at (202) 366-4000 or e-mail email@example.com. Or call the White House's comment line at (202) 456-1111 or e-mail email@example.com.
Efforts to block California's climate rules
E-mails from top Transportation Department officials show that Secretary Mary Peters directed an effort to block California's first-in-the-nation regulations limiting greenhouse gas emissions from cars and trucks. Here are excerpts. Note: Secretary Peters is often referred to as "S1" in the e-mails:
"S1 asked that we develop some ideas asap about facilitating a pushback from governors (esp. D's) and others opposed to piecemeal regulation of emissions, as per CA's waiver petition. She has heard that such objections could have an important effect on the way Congress looks at the issue."
- e-mail from Jeff Shane, undersecretary of transportation for policy, to top staffers on May 22
"Marty Hall ... OK with S1 making calls, spoke with (EPA Administrator) Steve Johnson yesterday."
- e-mail from Sandy Snyder, executive assistant to Peters after getting approval from Marty Hall, chief of staff at the White House Council on Environmental Quality, May 25
"Tyler/Jenny mentioned yesterday that they thought the WH had approved calls to the Gov's on the issue I had discussed with Administrator Johnson. If so, I should get those worked in today or tomorrow."
- e-mail from Peters to her chief of staff, Robert Johnson, May 31
"Mary - I spoke with Tyler and Husein after your call with Gov. Granholm today. They said that you'd like to call some members of the MI delegation on the waiver issue."
- e-mail to Peters from Simon Gros, her deputy chief of staff, referencing a conversation with Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm and potential calls to Michigan lawmakers, June 4
"S1 wanted me to touch base with you asap regarding the California Clean Air Act Waiver request. She would like us to contact Members (of Congress)."
- e-mail from Katherine Stusrud, policy assistant to Peters, to Gros, June 7
"Do I need to touch base with Knollenberg to coordinate our efforts?"
- e-mail from Peters to Gros, June 7, 2007, referring to Rep. Joe Knollenberg, R-Mich., who was rallying House members to oppose California's rules
"If you'd like but he is very much on point. His staff is also going to ping other members of the automotive caucus for us. My staff this morning called just about every auto-friendly member of this issue."
- e-mail reply from Gros to Peters, June 7
"Simon - we are a bit concerned about the conversation on this task ... appears to sound more like lobbying. So we want to be careful on what exactly we say. ... I have already made a bunch of calls ... looking back, I may have said more that I should have."
- e-mail from Heidah Shahmoradi, special assistant for governmental affairs at the DOT, to Gros, June 7
Source: House Oversight and Government Reform Committee
© 2007 San Francisco Chronicle


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Notice is hereby given that the City of Baxley proposes to amend its Charter by reapportioning the Voting Districts within the City to comply with state and federal requirements based on population changes as determined by the 2010 decennial census, including the one-person one-vote mandates of the U.S. Constitution. The proposed action is taken by the City of Baxley pursuant to O.C.G.A. Sections 36-35-3 and 36-35-4.1.
The proposed ordinance amending the Charter as aforesaid will be read at the August 9 and August 30, 2011 regular consecutive meetings of the Mayor and Council of the City of Baxley, each held at 8:30 am in the Council chambers at Baxley City Hall. The ordinance may be adopted at the August 30, 2011 meeting.
A copy of the proposed ordinance amending the Voting Districts and City Charter is on file in the office of the Baxley City Clerk, Von Spell, and in the office of the Clerk of the Superior Court of Appling County, Georgia, Floyd Hunter, and available for examination and inspection by the public.
8-10, 8-17 & 8-24ch
gpn13 NOTICE OF PROPOSED AMENDMENT TO CITY OF BAXELY CHARTER
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A self-described "English-speaking, itinerant European sculptor," Barry Flanagan is best known for his irreverent yet elegant bronze sculptures of long limbed hares in all states of motion and rest. Moving away from his earlier Post-Minimalist style, in which he combined and arranged common materials in unusual ways, Flanagan started sculpting hares in the late 1970s.
He was keenly attuned to the history of his own medium and often made tongue-in-cheek references to sculptural masters and masterworks. For example, inLarger Thinker on Computer (2003), he pays humorous homage to Auguste Rodin's The Thinker (1902) by casting a hare in the famous pose but placing him on top of a computer.
View this artist's work in our loan collection here.


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The search found 1024 results in 0.012 seconds.
A methodological paradox characterizes macro-comparative research: it routinely violates the assumptions underlying its dominant method, multiple regression analysis. Comparative researchers have substantive interest in cases, but cases are largely rendered invisible in regression analysis. Researchers seldom recognize the mismatch between the goals of macro-comparative research and the demands of regression methods, and sometimes they end up engaging in strenuous disputes over particular variable effects.


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The Calder Trophy voting for the NHL's top rookie will have a Tampa Bay Lightning flavour to it.
Lightning forwards Tyler Johnson and Ondrej Palat were named as finalists for the trophy along with Nathan MacKinnon of the Colorado Avalanche. Tampa Bay is the first club to have multiple nominees for the award since Chicago's Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews finished first and third, respectively, in 2008.
The award winner will be named June 24 at the NHL awards banquet.
Johnson had a team-record 24 goals and finished tied with MacKinnon for the NHL lead among rookies. Johnson, who signed with the Lightning as a free agent, also finished tied for the league lead in short-handed goals (five) and led all first-year players in total ice time and face-offs.
Palat finished second among rookie scorers with 59 points (23 goals, 36 points), finishing three shy of Brad Richards' team rookie scoring mark set in 2000-'01. Palat had an eight-game points streak from Dec. 23-Jan. 9 and led all first-year players in plus-minus (plus-32).
MacKinnon, selected first overall in last year's draft by Colorado, led all NHL rookies in scoring with 63 points, assists (39), power-play goals (eight) and shots (241). He had a 13-game points streak from Jan. 25 to March 6, breaking Wayne Gretzky's NHL record for the longest single-season point streak by a player age 18 or younger (12 games).


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A silky-smooth panna cotta with the tang of buttermilk, this dessert is wonderfully easy to pull off. Any leftover sauce would be great spooned over ice cream.
- Yield
- Makes 6 servings
- Active Time
- 20 minutes
- Total Time
- 4 1/2 hours (includes chilling time)
- 1 1/2 teaspoons (scant) unflavored gelatin
- 1 cup heavy whipping cream, divided
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 1 1/2 cups low-fat buttermilk
- 2 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract, divided
- 1/2 cup (packed) golden brown sugar
- 1/8 teaspoon (generous) ground cinnamon
- Pour 1 1/2 tablespoons water into small bowl; sprinkle gelatin over. Let stand until gelatin softens, about 10 minutes.
- Combine 3/4 cup cream and 1/3 cup sugar in heavy small saucepan. Stir over medium-high heat until sugar dissolves and mixture just begins to simmer. Remove from heat. Add gelatin; stir until gelatin dissolves. Cool until warm, stirring occasionally. Stir in buttermilk and 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla. Divide among six 1/2-cup ramekins. Cover and refrigerate until set, at least 4 hours.
- Combine brown sugar and remaining 1/4 cup cream in small saucepan. Stir over medium heat until sugar dissolves and caramel sauce is smooth. Remove from heat; stir in cinnamon and remaining 1 teaspoon vanilla.
- Spoon slightly warm caramel sauce over each panna cotta and serve.
Per serving (1 panna cotta with sauce): 282.9 kcal calories, 48.8 % calories from fat, 15.3 g fat, 9.5 g saturated fat, 57.2 mg cholesterol, 33.6 g carbohydrates, 0.0 g dietary Fiber, 32.2 g total sugars, 33.5 g net carbohydrates, 3.4 g protein


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The medical industry is telling us that within the next five to 10 years, depression will become the No. 2 killer in the world. Depression comes from loneliness, low self-esteem, stress, worry, a general feeling of hopelessness and unhappiness, and dealing with physical limitations.
We can't solve all the world's problems, but the fitness industry can do a great deal to combat this epidemic by sending a louder, clearer, more dedicated message to the market that is most at risk — people 55 and older. Club owners must create an environment that delivers the entire package of fitness, emphasizing healthy minds and spirits as well as bodies.
Just look at the most successful and profitable facilities today, and you will probably see that the 55-and-older market is at least 20 percent of the total membership. They visit the club three or more times a week and consider it part of their life, not just their lifestyle. Half of the membership of some clubs, such as Lifestyle Family Fitness in Sarasota, FL, and Venice, FL, are Baby Boomers and older.
What makes some clubs more successful than others? Why are some clubs busier and more fun to visit than others? How can we get more clubs to attract more seniors?
First of all, owners of successful clubs have done their homework. They know that younger people are more interested in appearance while older people are more interested in quality of life. That means they want attention from you and focus on them. They need to be recognized and talked to when they enter your facility. Your staff must make them feel special from the minute they walk in. They are the "me" generation, and professional customer service will dictate if, when and how often they will exercise in your facility. They want expertise, but they expect service to go with it, and they are willing to pay for it. Their emotional, psychological and sociological experience will determine the value of their visit.
Second, successful club owners have learned to loosen up. In active, successful clubs that have attracted the 55-and-older market, you will see the members greeting each other and carrying on lively conversations while they work out. The Annals of Behavioral Medicine recently reported that older adults like to exercise with others like themselves. Most seniors in busy, successful clubs will be quick to say how nice it is to have people their age working out with them. Smart club owners train a staff to help their members create that kind of environment. Learn how to give a laugh, get a laugh and share a laugh. A social atmosphere creates a friendly environment and a healthy outlook on life. That is sure to result in a more effective workout.
Third, focus on the whole package of health and all aspects of exercising. Offer programs that focus on cardiovascular exercises, strength training, flexibility and balance. Successful clubs know how to offer 20- to 30-minute sessions that focus on each type of exercise. You will find that older members will stay, on average, two hours at your club without feeling as though they have overdone any one type of exercise, yet they feel they have enjoyed a full workout. Most successful clubs that court the senior market will also offer a social opportunity, such as a place to enjoy a cup of coffee or a juice with their fellow members.
As of 2005, Baby Boomers numbered 78.2 million in the United States, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The sheer number of Boomers means they dictate trends, and if they embrace your facility, they can turn it into a success story. If you focus on seniors well, your club, your programs and your expertise can help reduce the signs and symptoms of many chronic health conditions, including depression.
Sandy Coffman is president of Programming For Profit in Bradenton, FL, and author of "Successful Programs for Fitness and Health Clubs: 101 Profitable Ideas." She can be reached at 941-756-6921 or at [email protected].


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Style Sheets 'Made' Easy
One of the biggest problems many people have in setting up a Web site is creating the cascading style sheets (CSS). The proper method for designing a good site is to use HTML for structuring the pages and CSS for styling the content on the pages, but what if you don't know how to create a style sheet, or don't do it that often?
I'll admit, they can be a pain. In fact, they can be downright excruciating, but there are ways to get around that. There are many places to find instructions on how to create layouts. And while we have some resources on WebReference.com, sometimes it's easier to grab something and go.
If you're not looking to do anything out of the ordinary, here's an alternative. Often, Web sites are created for the main purpose of posting information. (In fact, that's how the whole Internet got started.) You might want to post a paper you have written on a specific subject, or create a basic site with some information. The bottom line is that you want it to look good. You might also build an entire Web site later, and then you can use what you already have set up. You are, of course, free to add navigation and anything else that's needed.
The Secret to Quick and Easy Style Sheets
The standards (actually "recommendations") for style sheets are set by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). The latest version of the specifications can be found at on the W3C Web site.
If you're not ready to sit down and learn CSS, you can still use a style sheet for your documents. The W3C has set up "core styles" for use on a generic site. Simply put, all you need to do is choose a style you like and then put a link to the style sheet (that's located on the W3C server) on your Web page.
How It Works
First, go to the W3C Core Style Sampler and choose one of the eight offerings: Chocolate, Midnight, Modernist, Oldstyle, Steely, Swiss, Traditional or Ultramarine. There you can select a style and have a page display, showing a sample of what it will look like.
Next, you need to add a link from the style sheet to your Web page. Be sure to add the correct
DOCTYPE to the page. For instance, if you are using HTML 4.01, you can use the strict type. Place the
DOCTYPE below at the very top of your Web page, before anything else on the page.
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/strict.dtd">
Then place a link to the style sheet you have chosen. It should be place within the
<head> section of your page, all on one line.
<link rel="stylesheet" href="http://www.w3.org/StyleSheets/Core/Modernist" type="text/css">
You will need to change the portion
Modernist to match your selection, if you have chosen another style sheet.
That's it! Instant style sheet! You can even download the style sheet from the W3C Web site and make changes, if you wish. You can download it by entering the link to it in the Web browser's address bar. The style sheet should either display in the browser (use "Save As ..."), or it will ask you where you want to download it to. If you download it and place it on your Web site, remember, you will need to change the link to it on the Web page.
For many, this may not be the best solution but for those who need a headstart or a quick solution, it's a good place to begin. As I stated before, style sheets can be difficult. However, if you don't need something too specific, give it a try.This article first appeared on WebReference.com.


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Medicaid Legislation to Debut in Mo. House Panel
JEFFERSON CITY (AP) - A Republican plan to revamp and expand Missouri's Medicaid program is getting its first hearing in the state House.
The legislation would expand adult Medicaid eligibility to levels necessary to reap additional federal money.
It proposes to use that money to buy private health insurance policies for some people. It also proposes to implement work requirements for some people to receive the coverage.
The House Government Oversight and Accountability Committee was scheduled to begin hearing public testimony on the legislation Monday.
The bill is sponsored by Rep. Noel Torpey, of Independence, and co-sponsored by six other House Republicans.
Many Republican lawmakers remain hesitant to expand Medicaid eligibility, even if paired with other changes to the program. If Torpey's bill were to pass, it would require federal approval to implement.


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FRISCO, Texas – Try as they might, there just wasn't a goal to be had on Saturday night at FC Dallas Stadium.
Defense was the name of the game on as FC Dallas and Chivas USA played to a scoreless draw defined by a lack of chances and a few crucial saves. The deadlock set a new FC Dallas franchise record winless streak at 11 games, while Chivas USA earned yet another respectable road result.
With both Chivas USA and FCD even with just five first-half goals allowed this season, it wasn't a surprise that the teams went into the locker room scoreless. The best chance of the half fell to Chivas USA, which nearly took the lead in the 12th minute. Kevin Hartman could only parry Juan Agudelo's shot and the rebound fell to Alejandro Moreno, whose follow-up chance was deflected onto the bar and out for a corner kick.
Jackson had a chance for the home team in the first half from well outside the area, but Dan Kennedy scrambled back in time to tip the Brazilian's shot wide of goal. Otherwise, both teams kept the other from finding chinks in either defense.
FC Dallas began to ratchet up the pressure as the game moved into the last 30 minutes, with Brek Shea nearly giving Dallas the lead twice in quick succession. A Daniel Hernandez corner found Shea at the far post, but his header was cleared off the line. A few minutes later, Shea's blast from an Andrew Jacobson cross was saved well by Kennedy.
OPTA Chalkboard: FC Dallas, Chivas USA find chances hard to come by
The effect of Shea's re-insertion into the FC Dallas lineup was certainly felt, as the Texan led all players with six shots. Meanwhile, Chivas USA struggled to gain much of a foothold in attack without Juan Pablo Angel available and Agudelo blanketed by FC Dallas right back Zach Loyd.
With the draw, Chivas USA (5-7-4) moves to a tie for the fifth playoff spot in the Western Conference, and FC Dallas(3-9-4) climbed out of the Western Conference cellar for at least a night. Dallas returns to action when they host Toronto FC on July 4. Chivas USA heads home for a crucial Lamar Hunt US Open Cup quarterfinal matchup with the Charlotte Eagles on Tuesday at The Home Depot Center.


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Read 8♀1♂ Manga Online
Kiss Scans:
Shinichirou would rather spend his life playing games on the internet, but sadly he's a heir to a company. His grandfather deems his current life-style unfit for a heir, so he throws him into a house with eight young and beautiful girls. What's more, within one year he'll have to choose one of them as his bride. What will happen to him now?
Alternative name(s)Hachi Ichi


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Web Only / Features » January 16, 2014
How Walmart Organizers Turned the Internet Into a Shop Floor
Walmart workers and organizers prove 'clicktivism' can evolve into offline activism.
The basic tools of labor organizing haven't changed in hundreds of years. There's no substitute for face-to-face conversations about working conditions and what can be done to change them. Organizers still make home visits, and workers still talk to one another in the break room or the parking lot.
But in the new wave of low-wage worker organizing that has swept the country in the past two years, some labor groups have begun to use the Internet to facilitate the kinds of personal conversations that lead to workplace action. As unions, community organizations, workers centers and even "netroots" groups like MoveOn.org pour resources into organizing a massive, diffuse fast-food and retail workforce that had often been written off as unorganizable, the web has provided a cheap, effective tool to reach low-wage workers in ways that are both personal and lasting. In particular, the United Food and Commercial Workers-backed groups OUR Walmart and Making Change at Walmart have enthusiastically experimented with web tools in their recent efforts to make a difference at the nation's biggest retailer.
As Jamie Way, an online organizer with Making Change at Walmart, puts it, "We're never going to match [Walmart] in terms of resources, we're never going to have an organizer or a community supporter on the ground in every one of their [more than] 4,000 Walmarts." To combat this, the campaign has created online spaces for organizers to reach workers and for communities to support local efforts. And those online connections can, in turn, drive offline actions.
Of the estimated 1,500 Walmart protests that occurred across the country on Black Friday last year, many were planned online, organized either directly by OUR Walmart or using its templates and tools. Much of that turnout came from the kind of efforts that have become commonplace in recent years—creating Facebook event pages, for example, or posting links to event websites on Twitter.
But some of the campaign's efforts are decidedly more innovative.
During the lead-up to this past year's Black Friday actions, OUR Walmart unveiled AssociateVoices, a website where Walmart workers could post their stories about their experiences on the job and request a protest at their particular store, even if they themselves were not ready to go on strike. "The idea was to illustrate this silent majority that exists at these stores," Way says.
"Walmart's constant refrain has been that it's a very small number of disgruntled associates and community- and labor-backed groups that are [speaking out]. AssociateVoices was intentionally designed to show that these complaints are not just made up, these are very real things that happen at Walmart," says Raymond Suelzer, the web developer for Making Change at Walmart and the architect of AssociateVoices.
"For those of us who last worked retail 20-plus years ago (or more—or never!), reading the discussion boards is an eye-opener," writes Kati Sipp, a longtime union organizer and creator of the future-of-labor blog HackTheUnion.org, in an email to In These Times.
Worker complaints on AssociateVoices do often get very specific. One worker in Billings, Montana suggested that management should "Quit listening to a computer to tell you how to run a store," and "Fix the razor sharp door handles around the store"; in Virginia, a worker identifying herself as Tori writes that when she was pregnant, her manager refused to grant schedule changes that would allow her to care for her children. But there are also common threads that run throughout—the standard refrains of not enough hours and insufficient pay, and everywhere calls for respect.
AssociateVoices is just OUR Walmart's latest effort to connect Walmart workers with each other online, however. According to Suelzer, the group has been using social media to that end for the last three years or so. Facebook's targeted advertising allows OUR Walmart to run ads directed at the thousands of users who list Walmart as their employer. Those ads send workers to OUR Walmart's page, where they are then able to connect with other Walmart associates. And then, Suelzer says, these conversations around workplace issues go offline.
"We've seen that when workers talk to one another it doesn't just stay on the Facebook page," Suelzer says. "Those relationships become real, in that they're talking offsite. Most of our online work is worker-to-worker. We have a couple of organizers who oversee and provide feedback to workers, but so much of it really is a substantial number of online leaders who are really taking initiative and reaching out to other workers."
That's exactly how Lucas Handy discovered OUR Walmart. An overnight customer service manager at the Walmart in Fort Dodge, Iowa, he was complaining about his job on Facebook when he saw an ad for the organization pop up on his sidebar. Intrigued, he clicked and found himself talking with Angela Wilson, an organizer from Florida, who invited him to an OUR Walmart summit for workers in her state. Walmart had warned the workers to avoid OUR Walmart—that they'd risk being fired if they got involved with the organization—but Handy took the risk and went to the meeting.
When he returned, he remained a silent member, participating online but not taking action in his store, for a while, until another manager's homophobic slur became the last straw. "That was the icing on the cake, that made me step up and speak out," he says. He went through the steps that his store had laid out to report the abusive behavior, but instead of that manager facing consequences, he says, Handy himself was demoted to a position as a pharmacy technician. "I lost my pay, I lost hours, I lost healthcare, I lost everything," he says. "The day I was supposed to start [at the] pharmacy was the day I went on strike, on a two-week strike.".
Shortly after he went on strike and then took a trip to Netroots Nation to speak about his part in the Walmart campaign, Handy was fired—the reason Walmart gave, he says, was that he'd misled management about the time he took off to attend the conference. But he still volunteers as the LGBT liaison for OUR Walmart, maintaining a closed Facebook group for LGBT Walmart workers to discuss their issues in a safe space and reaching out to other Walmart workers in other Facebook groups to which he belongs. "People are more comfortable online than they are person-to-person because of the technology we have nowadays, and so I find it more comfortable talking to somebody down in Texas or Florida that's having issues," he says. "Management is probably not around them and other associates are probably not around them either, so the confidentiality between me and somebody else is there."
Facebook isn't the only place to reach workers, Suelzer notes—because the social media giant is becoming less popular with people younger than 25, the campaign has had to do some "experimenting" on sites like Twitter and Instagram, which don't necessarily lend themselves to personal conversation in the same way Facebook has. And Handy sees lots of potential in getting on other sites—even MySpace, which, he notes, is making a bit of a comeback.
Workers who have seen OUR Walmart organizing, particularly around Black Friday, on Facebook and Twitter, have been motivated to join the strikes, some without even talking to organizers first. In 2012, OUR Walmart put out a "strike kit" before Black Friday, and this past fall, building on those efforts, made an effort to have more organizers available to workers who might want to take action.
Part of the reason online organizing has been slow to take off in the broader labor movement is because of the "digital divide"—the division between those who have convenient access to the Internet and those who don't. But Jamie Way points out that this gap isn't as big as is often thought by people who don't work in her field. "The real difference tends to be how [different people] access [the Web] and where they access it. A ton of the OUR Walmart activity online is from mobile devices." A Pew Research Center [PDF] study from 2012 backs her up, noting that 88 percent of adults have a cell phone and 62 percent of adults in households that make $30,000 a year or less report using the Internet.
"It's a mistake to think workers aren't there," says Way. "You just have to think a little bit more about where certain conversations are had and what devices are used to have them."
Often organizing done via text message has been one-sided—a campaign can send a text blast but the ability of recipients to respond has been limited. Way seeks as many ways as possible to allow workers to provide feedback. To that end, the AssociateVoices site allows workers to text in responses to the site as well.
Getting activists out of armchairs
On the other side of the campaign, the community mobilization and solidarity effort by non-Walmart workers organized by Making Change at Walmart, the online strategy is different. Twitter, a medium that lends itself more to broadcasting than to personal connections, has been more useful in this respect. It works especially well when a relevant topic "trends" on the site, or to drive supporters to offline actions.
"Initially a lot of the stuff we were doing online was fairly traditional," says Way of these community mobilization efforts.
Indeed, online petitions and mobilizing supporters to share things on social media have become standards of "netroots" work, and labor has jumped on the bandwagon. But this type of action has run into criticism for encouraging "clicktivism" and discouraging real-world participation—the ultimate goal of labor organizing.
So when Black Friday 2012 rolled around, the campaign sought new ways to take the online energy out into the streets.
Here, the ubiquity of Walmart worked against the company. People who wanted to be supportive by protesting the retailer often had a target right in their neighborhood. Just as OUR Walmart had a strike kit for workers, Making Change partnered with online organizing group Corporate Action Network to put out a "protest in a box," with basic guidelines and signs people could print out. They tried to draw on movements like Occupy and the fight against the Keystone XL pipeline, allowing participants to design their own action while maintaining common elements.
"There's always, in my mind, this tension between how much support you provide and how much space for co-creativity you allow so that you're not stifling groups," Way says. "I wanted to leave things very organic initially—I didn't want to give very much guidance to the people who would come and volunteer to do these actions."
But after the first Black Friday, the organization found that many people actually wanted more support and direction. "For some people it wasn't the exciting experience it could've been if they had a little more preparation," Way says.
One problem was that when protesters hit a store where OUR Walmart did not have active members, the response from the workers was not always positive. Though Making Change at Walmart tries to make it clear that they are a solidarity campaign, not an attack on Walmart, she points out that there is definitely potential for people to hold actions that are alienating to workers rather than motivating. Actions in the store, for example, where people load shopping carts and leave them around or try to pay with small change, wind up making the workers' day harder rather than leaving them feeling supported. (Though, she notes, she's been impressed overall by the restraint and concern for workers that community activists have shown.)
This year, to prevent problems like that, the campaign made a team of organizers available online and via a toll-free phone number to provide trainings for people interested in holding an action. These kinds of "online to offline" tactics help bridge the gap without requiring organizers in every town.
On this Black Friday, the organizers also used the Twitter tool Thunderclap, which coordinates a large number of people to tweet the same thing at the same time, to help drive traffic to BlackFridayProtests.org site—a site created by the campaign where, in turn, users would be directed to a protest nearby."Walmart organized their own Thunderclap, [to promote themselves] ours had like 3 million reach and theirs had like 300,000 so we were pretty proud of that," Suelzer notes.
Walmart takes notice
As the OUR Walmart/Making Change at Walmart campaign has heated up online, Way notes, Walmart has taken its countermeasures online as well. In addition to trying to legally shut down OUR Walmart websites by claiming copyright infringement, the company launched a site, OurWalmartFactCheck.com, to refute the organization's claims.
She also points out that the company has gotten "more aggressive" on Twitter—a recent argument between the company's WalmartNewsroom Twitter account and celebrity Ashton Kutcher illustrates the way Walmart has stepped in to be more proactive about its image.
"They're smart, they're adapting. They see that online organizing is important for how people are able to challenge them, and so they're responding to that, trying to do their own version of grassroots organizing." However, she says, "I don't think it's been super effective for them yet," Way says. "It's a sign that the workers are really being effective and that they have the company's attention, no matter how much the company tries to deny it and act like this is some insignificant thing."
It's important to Suelzer and the organization not just to dispel Walmart's claims, though, but to be more effective at creating lasting change. To achieve that, he says, organizers must have two-way conversations with workers, ultimately letting workers shape the campaign. Though Way jokes that both Making Change at Walmart and Our Walmart have run into plenty of failure, the flexibility of the Internet allows them to quickly learn from their mistakes and try something new.
"Five or six years ago, the ability to reach that many workers wouldn't have been possible," Suelzer says. "I think that combined with the shift in thinking around inequality and economic justice, the social media and the technology has definitely put us in a unique moment that is allowing us to do things that many people would not have thought would be possible."
Help In These Times Continue Publishing
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Sarah Jaffe
Sarah Jaffe is a former staff writer at In These Times and author of Necessary Trouble: Americans in Revolt , which Robin D.G. Kelley called "The most compelling social and political portrait of our age." You can follow her on Twitter @sarahljaffe.
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- The Future of Homeless Organizing Lives on the Prettiest Street in Philadelphia
- The Coddling of the Elites
- A Mexican Labor Lawyer Denounced U.S. Pressure to Reopen Maquiladoras. Then She Was Jailed.
- These Workers Don't Get Aid and Are Going Hungry. A Tax on New York Billionaires Could Help Them.


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Photo Credit: Bob Hope's picture is courtesy of Wikipedia. Photographic illustrations of Bob Hope are copyright © by their respective holders. The images are published with permission or as allowed by the copyright law's fair use or quotation provisions. If any copyright holder objects to an image being included, please notify us and it will be removed immediately.
Disclaimer: This information about Bob Hope is derived from astrological interpretation of Bob Hope's date, time, and place of birth.


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By Culturekiosque Staff
NEW YORK, 14 APRIL 2010 A highlight of Dutch minimalist composer Louis Andriessens current Carnegie Hall residency will be tomorrow night's performance and New York premiere of his 2008 opera La Commedia presented in a concert version in Stern Auditorium. Commissioned for Netherlands Opera and premiered at the Holland Festival in June 2008, the opera is based principally on Dantes La Divina Commedia (The Divine Comedy) and inspired by paintings of Hieronymus Bosch. The composer describes it as a film opera in five parts. For its European premiere in Amsterdam, the full-evening work of music-theatre was a collaboration between Andriessen and film director Hal Hartley.
Summing up his admiration for the Italian poet's work, Andriessen said: "I see Dantes Divina Commedia as one of the highest points ever reached in literature and philosophy. It combines complexity, intellectualism, horror, beauty, multi-layering, allusions, historical and mythological references, and, above all, irony. I selected sequences of material in the same order as in Dantes book. So the first two scenes take us from the City of Dis down through Inferno to the deepest regions of hell where we meet Lucifer in the third part. This is where Adams Fall is described. We then pass upward through the lighter-hearted Garden of Earthly Delights until we reach Paradise in the final section, Eternal Light."
From a background of jazz and avant-garde composition, Louis Andriessen (b. 1939, Utrecht) has evolved a style employing elemental harmonic, melodic and rhythmic materials. The range of Andriessen's inspiration is wide, from the music of Charles Ives in Anachronie I, the art of Mondriaan in De Stijl, and medieval poetic visions in Hadewijch, to writings on shipbuilding and atomic theory in De Materie Part I. He has tackled complex creative issues, exploring the relation between music and politics in De Staat, the nature of time and velocity in De Tijd and De Snelheid, and questions of mortality in Trilogy of the Last Day.
Mr. Andriessen will also curate a late-night improvisatory concert in Weill Hall sharing a program with British saxophonist Evan Parker and Dutch singer Greetje Bijma, who performs with Andriessen on piano (16 April).
Louis Andriessen: La Commedia (concert version,
New York Première)
Asko | Schoenberg
Carnegie Hall at 8:00
Headline image: Louis Andriessen
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Henze's Phaedra: Radical Composer Offers Few Surprises Unter den Linden
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Kids volunteer in return for baseball equipment from Reds
More than 1,000 children participated
More than 1,000 children prepared for baseball season by helping clean up some community fields.
The Reds Community Fund hosted its annual Field Day Saturday.
The event, in its seventh year, allowed youth baseball teams across the Tri-state to partner with the Reds Community Fund for community service projects. In return, the fund provides new uniforms and playing equipment throughout the season.
"(We are) creating that positive message to make sure they understand that not only do the Reds help them play the sport that they love, but the Reds also help them clean up the community that they love and that both things are equally important," Reds Diversity Relations Coordinator Kylee Barnett said.
Coaches said their players appreciate giving back to the community.
"They feel like the Reds are a part of them, and they're a part of the community and that makes us all feel better. It makes these kids work harder, and strive to be better people," coach Will Patton said.
The Reds Community Fund plans to donate more than $7,000 to the teams that completed community service projects.


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This special lecture will present an overview of how Chinese family history has been recorded over the centuries and what people living today need to know if they want to find information about their ancestors in China and elsewhere in the world. Please note that this lecture will bein Chinese with English explanations as needed.
The instructor will be Grace Chan, and it will be held at North York Memorial Community Hall, 5110 Yonge Street, Toronto.
For further details, visit our website at http://torontofamilyhistory.org/learn/courses.
Their Facebook page is https://www.facebook.com/TOFamilyHistory
Chinese-Canadian Genealogy http://www.vpl.ca/ccg/Migration_ON.html


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Sunday School – 10:00 am
Worship Service – 11:00 am
Bible Study – 12:15 pm
Wednesday Bible Study - 6:30 pm
12859 Martin Road Spur
Northport, AL 35473
"But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall." (Mat 7:26-27)
Nothing is more important in the construction of a house than its foundation. All other things can be built well. But, if the foundation is faulty, the house will not stand. The same is true for a church. We, as a body of Christ, must have the proper foundation. I fear we live in a time when many are at least giving the impression that they have the wrong foundation.
Let me preface the main thought of this article by saying it is possible to have that which is good in itself misused as a foundation. For instance, solid trusses are important in the construction of a home. The roof will not hold up if the trusses are not solid. However, they cannot be used as a foundation for the home. They are in and of themselves good and useful. But, they are not beneficial when used in any other way than their proper purpose. The same is true with Biblical doctrine. For example, it is important to use unleavened bread in the Lord's Supper. However, this is not the foundational principle of the Lord's church.
The Bible seems plain enough regarding what the only foundation for the Lord's church is. "For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ" (I Cor. 3:11). The Apostle Paul was inspired to tell the saints at Corinth the importance of having the proper foundation. Just a few verses earlier, he wrote, "…you are God's field, you are God's building." (I Cor. 3:9). He is stressing the importance of building up our faith. Nonetheless, we cannot build up on the wrong foundation and expect to be faithful or fruitful.
Jesus Christ is the sole foundation of His church. We need to make sure that our primary message is "Christ crucified" (I Cor. 1:23). It seems that oftentimes our people are "gung ho" to make sure that folks know we believe in predestination. But, how often do we share the Gospel of Jesus Christ? We are so quick to tell people that our church believes in the doctrine of election. But, do we ever explain that we preach that salvation is through Christ alone? The main thrust of many is that God doesn't love everybody. But, how many times do we share that Jesus is the friend of sinners? I oftentimes wonder if we have lost the proper foundation.
When Paul first came to the people of Corinth on his missionary journey, what message did he bring to them? He said, "And I, brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified" (I Cor. 2:1, 2). Paul's number one objective in missionary work was to share the Gospel of Christ. He reiterates this later in this same epistle. "Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you--unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures" (I Cor. 15:1-4). The first message that Paul preached when he met a new person was the Gospel. Surely, this is a great example for us.
I'll be the first to say that pastors need to be preaching the whole counsel of God. It's important that a pastor feeds his flock by speaking on a variety of subjects. He needs to supply a healthy diet to the souls that he's been called to oversee. However, the foundation for all good preaching is the Gospel of Christ. Paul said, "…woe is me if I do not preach the gospel!" (I Cor. 9:16). If we are going to leave a doctrine out, it cannot be the Gospel. If we are going to go to seed on anything, it must ever be Christ. The message of the cross must always be the center of all we say and do.
The church in Ephesus had a lot going for her. She had worked. She had labored. She had tried those that claimed to be apostles and had determined that they were impostors. It sounds like she had everything going in the right direction until the Lord says these dreadful words, "Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place--unless you repent" (Rev. 2:4,5). This church was a working church. They had not fainted out of weariness. But, they had forgotten Christ!! How in the world does this happen in one of the Lord's churches? Yet, it happened a few decades after the Lord Himself established the first church at Jerusalem. Is there any doubt, there are churches that have replaced the preaching of the Gospel with something else today?
Every doctrine is founded on Christ. All things were made "through Him" (Jhn 1:2). We were chosen "in Him" (Eph. 1:4). We were redeemed by Him (Col 1:14). We were effectually drawn to Him (John 6:37). We are preserved in Him (Jud. 1:1). We are looking for His return (Tit. 2:13). The list goes on and on. The Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, is about Him. The subject of the Holy Scriptures is Jesus Christ. May we ever look for that message in all that we say and do.
It seems to be more and more common that our preachers speak on nothing more than TULIP. Oh, many may start at a different text each week. However, the end result is the same. Is it really a surprise that many of our churches are losing any understanding of church truth and other vital doctrines? But even more importantly, are we leaving the message of Christ out? Are we falling into the same trap as the church in Ephesus?
Have we forgotten the Great Commission? Jesus said, "…Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature" (Mrk. 16:15). The order of the Commission is plain. We are to preach the Gospel, baptize the converts and then teach them proper doctrine (Mat. 28:18-20). When we rearrange this order, we do not follow God's instruction. When we change God's ordained way, we get off track. We cannot improve on God's design of missionary work.
Let's look at two examples of New Testament missionaries. When the Lord instructed Philip to go into Gaza, what message did he take? When he found the Eunuch reading the 53rd chapter of the prophet Isaiah, what did he say? When asked by the Eunuch, "…of whom does the prophet say this, of himself or of some other man?" (Acts 8:34), how does Philip respond? God's Word tells us, "Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning at this Scripture, preached Jesus to him" (Acts 8:35). Surely Philip understood many of the truths of God's Word that we all cherish. Yet, he also understood the need of preaching the Gospel to the lost. When Paul and Silas were asked by the Philippian jailor, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" (Acts 16:30), how did they respond? Did they begin an hour and a half treatise on the doctrines of grace? Did they explain to the man how he couldn't be saved? Did they, as some have supposed to have said, tell them man, "Nothing at all!"? They certainly did not. In harmony with other examples in God's Word, "…they said, 'Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household.'" (Acts 16:31). These men understood that our foundational message must ever be the message of Christ crucified.
Is our confidence in election or in Christ? Now, let me make this plain, I believe the doctrine of election as much as anybody. I treasure it. I preach it! But, my confidence is in Christ. Paul said, "…I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day." (I Tim. 1:12). Paul's confidence was in Christ alone. Our faith is only as good as its object. The only Biblical object of faith is Jesus Christ. We are never bidden to trust in election to be saved. Our trust must ever be in the Christ of the Gospel (Eph. 1:12-13).
If you are asked what you believe, what is your first answer? If you are asked what your church stands for, what is your first answer? In years past, I would have quickly spouted off, "why, we believe in the doctrine of election." And, that is true. We do believe and preach the doctrines of grace. We love the doctrines of grace. However, this is not the foundational principle of the Lord's church. These blessed truths magnify that One that is surely the foundation. Perhaps our response to that question should be, "We believe that the only way into fellowship with God is through the finished work of Jesus Christ and that alone."
Is it possible to have a true message and emphasize it so much that it replaces the Gospel as the proper foundation? I fear it is not only possible, but also probable. If this is correct, what is the problem with that? Perhaps our greatest fear should be that many are trusting in election for salvation but are not trusting in Christ. If this is so, are these saved? Perhaps this question is harsh. But, it's important. Again, our faith is only as good as its object. Election is not to be the object of our faith. If we are pointing people to election for salvation, we are pointing them to the wrong place. You will search far and wide to find a Biblical missionary that pointed the lost to election.
A church that has replaced the preaching of the Gospel with election will produce several problems. As we have said, the greatest of these may be members that have been deceived into thinking election is the proper object of faith. But, the problems don't stop there. In churches where TULIP is the only message ever preached, the members have no knowledge of other important subjects such as church truth, discipline, the Lord's Supper, baptism, practical Christianity and many others. The list is endless. Also, Spirit convicted seekers are confused. They know they trust Christ but live in fear that they were not chosen. To these, Jesus said, "Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" (Mat. 11:28). There are no strings attached here. If a person is burdened over their sins by the convicting power of the Spirit, they are bidden to come to Christ. Again, He is the only proper Biblical foundation.
Let us ever examine ourselves. Let us ever examine our churches. Let us make sure that we have not laid any foundation other than Jesus Christ. All Biblical truths have their place. But, all are founded on the doctrine of Christ. He alone is "altogether lovely" (SOS 5:16).
"…to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen." (Eph. 3:21).


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Managed Extensions: Using the .NET ODBC Classes to Read Text Data
Welcome to this week's installment of .NET Tips & Techniques! Each week, award-winning Architect and Lead Programmer Tom Archer demonstrates how to perform a practical .NET programming task using either C# or Managed C++ Extensions.
While data for professional-caliber applications is most typically stored in traditional database systems, sometimes the data your application must use is in text format. This includes situations where you are accessing a small amount of test data, as well as scenarios where another system is providing a text file for you to use and you have no control over its format. While most people naturally think of using streams to read and write text files, ODBC has for years provided a driver specifically for this purpose.
Why would you use the driver and incur the overhead of ODBC when you can easily stream the data? Well, for starters, ODBC provides a generic SQL-like interface to the data. Secondly, due to ODBC's generic interface, using it instead of directly accessing a file via a stream allows you to more easily use the same code to access data in other formats.
For example, let's say that the data your code will ultimately work with is stored in a traditional RDBMS (relational database management system), such as SQL Server or Oracle. However, you might want to test your application logic against a small amount of data that you can quickly enter into a text file via any editor (such as Notepad). Using ODBC, you would simply specify different DSNs or ODBC drivers (for a DSN-less connection) based on which file format you're using. That way, you wouldn't have to maintain two completely different code bases for accessing your data (one for streaming text files and one for reading from the RDMBS).
This article illustrates how easy it is to read text data using the .NET ODBC classes.
Reading Data from a DSN-less Text FileThe ODBC Desktop Drivers include a driver for reading text called the Microsoft Text Driver. The easiest way to access text data is to simply use the ODBC Admin application (odbcad32.exe) and—specifying the text driver—create a DSN against the desired text file. However, I'll show you the basic steps for using the .NET ODBC classes to access a text file, such that you don't have to perform the extra step of creating a DSN. (The complete code—including basic error handling and clean-up—can be found in the dialog class of this article's demo application.)
- Create the Connection—Using the OdbcConnection class you can pass a connection string that allows you to specify the ODBC driver (the Microsoft Text Driver, in this case) and the path of the files. Note that I said files—plural. When you use the Microsoft Text Driver, you don't specify in the connection string the file the application will be accessing. Instead, you specify the path to the file and, optionally, the valid file extensions for any files in that path that can be opened. The reason for this is that the text driver logically treats the specified directory as a relational database and then the specific files that your application works with as tables within that database. This was a great idea by the folks at Redmond, as it more closely mimics how your code will access data from a true RDBMS. The following example creates a connection to the folder that contains the specified file:
StringBuilder* connString = new StringBuilder(); connString->Append(S"Driver={Microsoft Text Driver (*.txt; *.csv)};"); connString->AppendFormat(S"DBQ={0};", Path::GetDirectoryName(strFileName)); OdbcConnection* connection = new OdbcConnection(connString->ToString()); connection->Open();
Note that when the Text Driver is used to make a connection to a given path (specified with the DBQ parameter), only files in that specific directory can be accessed—not files in any subdirectories.
- Create the Command—Once a connection is made, you can then create the desired command via the OdbcCommand class. This is where you would specify the file name. The following code snippet selects all rows from the specified file name, keeping in mind that the file must exist in the folder specified in the DBQ parameter of the connection string:
CString strSelect; strSelect.Format(_T("SELECT * FROM [%s]"), Path::GetFileName(strFileName)); OdbcCommand* command = new OdbcCommand(strSelect, connection);
- Attach a Reader—Now that the command has been created, you can call the OdbcCommand::ExecuteReader method to execute the command and return a OdbcDataReader object that can be used to enumerate the returned data:
OdbcDataReader* reader = command->ExecuteReader(); while (reader->Read()) { for (int iCurrCol = 0; iCurrCol < reader->FieldCount; iCurrCol++) { // retrieve values via the various ODBCReader methods—such // as GetValue AfxMessageBox((CString)(reader->GetValue(iCurrCol)->ToString())); } }
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This article was originally published on September 14, 2004
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Nanoscale Engineering Major Credits UAlbany for Prestigious Summer Research Internship in D.C.
Brian Janiszewski works in the NIST cleanroom.
ALBANY, N.Y. (July 1, 2012) — Brian Janiszewski is convinced he has made it to the "big leagues" of scientific research.
A nanoscale engineering major at the University at Albany's College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering (CNSE), Janiszewski is participating in a globally-recognized summer internship at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in Washington D.C. He was awarded an 11-week internship through the summer undergraduate research fellowship (SURF) program to study chemical surface patterning among world-renowned nanoscale researchers.
The UAlbany senior was recommended for the program after serving two summers as an undergraduate nanoscale researcher at CNSE. Though he had multiple internship offers on the table, Janiszewski said NIST was the obvious choice.
"I decided to branch out this summer to gain a broader prospective," Janiszewski said. "NIST is as good as it gets when it comes to scientific research. I knew it would provide me an opportunity to learn from some of the best science minds in the world."
Founded in 1901 and now part of the U.S. Department of Commerce, NIST is one of the nation's oldest physical science laboratories. Today, NIST measurements support the smallest of technologies—nanoscale devices.
Janiszewki's summer research involves a "class 100" cleanroom; cleanrooms are controlled environments classified according to the number of particles allowed per cubic foot of air. Janizewski is training to scan electronic microscopes which can pick up materials smaller than a dust particle. He must wear a specialized mask, suit, gloves and booties to prevent shedding of skin and hair.
"In the cleanroom environment, you are dealing with materials at the nano size," Janiszewski said. "Anything can affect your work—even the smallest skin cell."
Though Janiszewski is away from UAlbany this summer, he credits the University for preparing him for an internship of this magnitude. A member of the CNSE honors program, Janiszewski described his classes as packed with information and his professors very valuable.
"I'm constantly building my resume through my work with UAlbany professors. It definitely helped me land this position," Janiszewski explains. He said he is not sure of what the future holds, however he hopes with NIST on his resume, he can transition into the science world upon graduation in spring 2013.
For more details on the CNSE undergraduate honors program, visit the CNSE Honors Program website.
For more news, subscribe to UAlbany's RSS headline feeds
Educationally and culturally, the University at Albany-SUNY puts "The World Within Reach" for its 17,500 students. An internationally recognized research university with 50 undergraduate majors and 125 graduate degree programs, UAlbany is a leader among all New York State colleges and universities in such diverse fields as public policy, nanotechnology and criminal justice. With a curriculum enhanced by 300 study-abroad opportunities, UAlbany launches great careers. For more information about this globally ranked University, visit https://www.albany.edu/. For UAlbany's extensive roster of faculty experts, visit www.albany.edu/news/experts.shtml.


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One of the best ways to improve your peripheral sales is to hire service providers who already have a knack for selling. Although it may sound too good to be true, those people are out there, and they want to work for you. The challenge to all of us as club managers is to recognize them when we see them, and then to select the right ones for our club. It all starts with your interviewing process.
First comes a warning: Directors of personal training, spa services and group programming often tend to interview for education and experience first and foremost. Relational skills are a close second. Clearly, service providers who cannot relate to their prospective clients cannot sell to them. Education, experience and relational skills are important to service providers' success, and they should still be a part of the interview. However, having a skill in sales, or at least having the core components of being successful in sales, is every bit as important as education, experience and relational skills to the success of your department.
First-hand experience in sales is great, but you should also identify those characteristics that make a good salesperson in your organization. I look for people who are entrepreneurial—self-starters who are not afraid of some risk in the pursuit of success. I also look for people who are in charge of their own destiny. If something is not working, they can identify it, tweak it as necessary and keep going. They are resourceful and persistent.
Finally, I want people who can create value for the client. Value is tricky because it is a moving target, so these service providers will need to be creative, observant of their clients' wants and needs and are able to deliver. Once you determine the traits you want, work with your club's sales director to re-create your interview process. He or she may help you craft questions and/or act as a second interviewer for your candidates.
Here are some sample interview questions to get to the three qualities I mentioned above:
• Tell me about a time when you saw an opportunity and took the initiative to seize it. This question will help identify entrepreneurship, which is an all-important part of sales, but a trait that many service-oriented candidates will not even recognize that they have. Candidates must seek and identify opportunities to make a sale, and then act on that opportunity. If they have no track record of doing that—even back to childhood—you do not want them.
• How have you increased your income over the last several years? In this question, you are looking for the candidate's track record of taking charge of their future—being directly responsible for increasing their income. "I got bumped up every year due to performance" is not as exciting as "I constantly grasped opportunities to improve or expand our services and was promoted." Even better would be: "I introduced small group training" or "I started bundling spa services so I could earn more money in the same amount of time."
• Why would a client choose to work with you over another personal trainer here who has a similar amount of education and experience and who also truly cares about clients? This is a question of value. You are not looking for any out of- the-box tricks. You want to know how this individual will create more value for your members, thereby both acquiring and retaining clients over time. You want to hear about follow-up emails, thank you notes and birthday cards. What will this service provider do to stand out? Generalized answers about specialties, intelligence and creative programming are completely missing the point.
Interviewing and hiring new team members always is a gamble. How can you really know after just a few hours with someone whether he or she will be successful? Collaborating with your club's sales director in the interview process can take out a lot of the mystery. Education, experience and relational skills are still important in your hiring process, but sales skills are equally so. An early emphasis on sales can save you much headache and heartache in coaching your team to sales success.
Amanda Harris is vice president of fitness and wellness at ACAC Fitness Centers in Charlottesville, VA. She also is a management development specialist with more than 15 years of industry experience, including 13 years as a personal trainer and can be reached at [email protected].


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amfAR, The Foundation for AIDS Research
October 2008—At Bangkok's Ramathibodi Hospital, a TREAT Asia site since 2003, the benefits of expanded access to antiretroviral therapy (ART) are evident—more patients are surviving and follow-up rates are high. But physicians there are also confronting the new realities of the epidemic, including a shortage of doctors to treat increasingly long-lived HIV patients and the threat of resistance to common first-line anti-HIV medications.
According to Dr. Somnuek Sungkanuparph, an attending physician in Ramathibodi Hospital's division of infectious diseases and the principal investigator for TREAT Asia research projects at the hospital, his country's successful expansion of access to treatment has given his patients the opportunity to live longer and better lives. However, the reality of extended lives means that treatment needs to be extended, too, which requires more staff at major hospital centers like Ramathibodi Hospital. Like other large teaching hospitals inThailand, Ramathibodi Hospital attracts patients from around the country seeking treatment from its HIV specialists; indeed, the hospital's HIV/AIDS caseload currently numbers more than 2,000 people.
"We have to see them all," said Dr. Somnuek, explaining that some patients choose to travel to Bangkok and pay for treatment there rather than use their local hospitals.
In addition to ART, Ramathibodi Hospital provides prophylaxis and treatment for opportunistic infections, HIV testing and counseling, HIV education for patients and healthcare providers, and advanced laboratory testing. Despite the demands of managing a large caseload, Dr. Somnuek noted that the hospital is able to treat so many people successfully because of the increased availability of generic ART.
"Seven or eight years ago, we had almost all the medicine that was available in the U.S., but 90 percent of our patients could not pay for it," he said. "We had about 10 or 20 patients each day who were hospitalized with HIV and opportunistic infections." Now, he explained, 90-95 percent of his patients who need ART can receive treatment with generic drugs, which are largely subsidized by the national AIDS program. "Our patients can go back to work and be with their families; they can get a job and can function in society," he continued. "I think that's a really big change here in Bangkok and in Thailand, and it's also something that inspires doctors, nurses, and other medical personnel to help us, because they can see how much they can change the patients' quality of life."
One complication doctors in Thailand and around the world are encountering is resistance to first-line ART regimens—a factor that is threatening the long-term success of treatment scale-up efforts. To address this issue, Ramathibodi Hospital participates in numerous research studies, including the TREAT Asia Studies to Evaluate Resistance (TASER). This research project was established to create a system for monitoring the emergence and spread of drug resistance throughout Asia, which is crucial to identifying effective secondline treatments.
Ramathibodi Hospital, which has been participating in TASER since 2006, has enrolled more than 120 patients in the study so far and plans to enroll up to 200, approximately 10 percent of its patients. By studying this sample, doctors are gaining insight into how many patients are resistant. "We've never seen that picture before," said Dr. Somnuek. In addition, participation in TASER means that the hospital's lab is now part of the TREAT Asia Quality Assurance Scheme, which is helping to standardize the performance of labs across the region.
About five percent of the clinic's patients show signs of drug resistance 24 months after the initiation of treatment, according to Dr. Somnuek. Most treatment failure, he said, results from imperfect adherence to the most commonly used ART in Thailand—an NNRTI-based regimen—which is inexpensive, easy to take, and causes few adverse effects but must be taken correctly at least 95 percent of the time in order to work effectively. Other patients who have been referred to Ramathibodi Hospital experience treatment failure after taking a suboptimal first-line regimen prescribed by physicians who lack experience and knowledge of ART.
In addition to contributing data to TASER, Ramathibodi Hospital is part of the TREAT Asia HIV Observational Database (TAHOD), and has contributed data to TAHOD's published research. The hospital's participation in the database not only helps TREAT Asia develop a more accurate picture of epidemic trends in the region, but also allows doctors to share experiences with other TREAT Asia sites. Learning from other physicians in the region, said Dr. Somnuek, "inspires us to do better and to develop goals that we may be able to achieve in the future."
© 2020 amfAR All Rights Reserved || amfAR's mission is to end the global AIDS epidemic through innovative research


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In the Spring of 2017, a proposal will be debated on the possibility of offering 'personal associate EU citizenship' to individuals from former member states. The idea is that if Britain, or any other nation, exits the EU, individual citizens of that country who wished to retain a personal right to live and work across the EU should be able to do so - maybe or maybe not paying a fee for this status.
This proposal will be debated when the European Parliament (EP), whose role is to represent the voice of European citizens, is given an opportunity to discuss and adopt a resolution on the Brexit agreement. The proposal will be supported by Charles Goerens, Member of the EP (Luxembourg) and Guy Verhofstadt (Belgium), the European Parliament's lead negotiator in Brexit talks, both members of the Group of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe.
The Pan-European is a new association that supports this proposal - not just in the name of the 16 million Britons who voted to remain EU citizens and the 1.3 million Britons already living and working in the EU ( many of whom were denied the right to vote under the UK electoral law), but in the name of all people who want to express their support for and belief in the European project at a time when it is threatened by the rise of nationalist parties in many member countries.
The Pan-European's objective is to represent, inform and connect individual European citizens irrespective of their nationality or the political position of their country's government, starting with the fight to create the separate legal status of individual EU citizen for all who wish it.
By signing this petition, you will be signaling your opinion to Mr Goerens and Mr Verhofstadt, both advocates in the European Parliament of the associate EU citizen status.
https://www.change.org/p/do-you-want-pe ... reason_msg


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CM Punk and AJ Lee are now dating, according to Mexican wrestling legend and former WCW Superstar Konnan.
Last month, CM Punk and AJ Lee were shown seated together at Wrigley Field during WGN's broadcast of a Chicago Cubs versus Pittsburgh Pirates game. This naturally jump-started rumors online, especially on Twitter have stated that they were blocked by Punk for mentioning Lee to him in messages.
Konnan learned of this tidbit from his source within WWE. While addressing WWE happenings on the MLW Radio podcast, he stated, "I would also to say that I found that AJ Lee is dating CM Punk, I don't know if that's public knowledge."
Punk had been romantically linked to former WWE talent Amy "Lita" Dumas as recently as last spring. Co-host Court Bauer asked Konnan, "He's done with Lita?" He responded, "Yep."
Konnan continued to dish on Punk, stating that some people in the company feel he has a "huge head." Furthermore, the former Max Moon reveals that Punk once "hated" fellow top star John Cena for similar behavior.
"To me, it's like, alright, you waited all this time to become a big star, and all those guys that had a big head, that you hated, like Cena," said Konnan. "And now you have a big head. You need to bring your s**t down back to ground."
He reiterated further, "I was told by my source in WWE that CM Punk has a big head and he's conceited."


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